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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Annie,Yamdoot and Arundhati Roy..

the new job and money have come with a lot of options.I now have a 160gb WD hard disk and a fast internet connection. which means i can download movies at will.And copy many more from my friends' comp too. I came across this 110min gem last day.

A lot of people may not really know what im talking about. This post is on the campus film-
'In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones ' made by Arundhati Roy and her second husband Pradip Kishen. It ws aired on DoorDarshan in early 1989 i think.written by Roy, its supposed to be based on her life in Delhi school of planning and Architecture.This is the pic that you get if u do an image search in google.All because a very young Shah Rukh Khan plays a blink and miss role.
the story covers the life of fifth year students Anand grover (or Annie, played by Arjun raina) , Radha(Arundhati Roy),Arjun( the guy's name escapes me) and many other ppl around them.
Annie is victimised for having made fun of the HOD,Yamdoot(Roshan Seth).He is repeating his fifth year for the fourth time.

the goodness of this movie lies in its frankness and raw feel.we get to see a campus of the late 70's, running crazy on the hip culture.Almost all actors perform really well.Roshan Seth is amazing as the hard-nosed professor.
The highlight anyday will be radha, played by Arundhati Roy herself. I never knew she could look this cute and sensuous at the same time. This was perhaps her debut as a writer too.

I always had this thought that booker prize holders always write about the poverty in 3rd world countries.Reading some 10-20 pages of Naipaul proved it right to me. That is perhaps one reason i never took time to read her God of Small Things, though i have the copy with me.
After the movie, like a true Nitcian, i did a shameless google search on Annie and Arundhati Roy, which brought me to this masterpiece. I mean i had watched Bandit queen last year, thought its a good movie, though very gross. her review is quite out of the world. I wonder what the fate of the movie would have been, had she been famous while penning the critique.


Radha proves her intelligence and attitude all over again.
But at points i thought her character was a cut above the rest, which is bad because the film is supposed to be on Annie and his attempts at passing the final Jury.Nevertheless, this is one film that shouldnt be missed. will remind you of college, anyday,anytime.It has that appeal even after 20 years.

im gonna do two things, rite after this..
download DAM/AGE, also by Arundhati Roy
finish God of small things.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Dostana-all fun

One movie which made news right from the beginning. And thankfully, one movie which kept all promises it made. the trailers said a lot ws gonna come. and it has really come.

The premise being no different from a regular bollywood potboiler, the gay angle is what makes it interesting, right from the beginning.the two men being the show stealers, priyanka chopra has very less space(the clothes we not in abundance too). And rightly so. But i thought they were over doing it at times. Half sure that the knicker John wears in the opening scene(the one after the item song) is the same one bipasha wore in the lift scene(fantasy!!adolescent fantasy!!) in bachna Ae haseeno. man , sexy bodies!! both of them..

more than anything, Dostana should be appreciated for the comedy, thats both genuine and situational. glad that nobody wanted to mimic Welcome,Singh is King(or is it KKing?) or any other silly akshay kumar 'super'hits.I mean there are a lot of gags which make u laugh rather than 'cringe in embarassment', like Rajiv Masand says it.


The director has shown a lot of intelligence by covering up the poor acting skills of John abraham(Garam Masala!!! im trying to forget that i watched the movie) and giving those difficult scenes to abhishek bachan.He really comes out good in those submissive-gay scenes. cant imagine how John would have done those. We saw a glimpse of that in the party at priyanka copra's house, and surprisingly, it wasnt quite bad too. But abhishek really looked like an indian gay and John like a french designer gay.


Enough of gay talk!! What i really like about the movie is that neither of the guys(gays?) get the girl in the end. these three ppl continue to be friends, sipping beer on the beach, even after she finds a different man, in an almost bald Bobby Deol. now how many hindi movies have had that boldness to move away from the regular, safer climax? this is where dostana beats probably every other movie that has come out this year. This is one little gag that lasted for two hours. and will probably last for years to come.


meanwhile, just checkout this poster of the previous dostana.I remember watching the movie in my school days.