Lakshya - Mission Accomplished

His Dil Chahta Hain had created ripples in the Indian film industry, with an unusual script and an even more unusual plot. Some will question that what did the movie have? Others will say everything! Dil Chahta Hain contained in itself all the aspects of a typical hindi film, but it was so differently told that you were not bothered to make any connections. You just enjoyed it in its wholeness.

Farhan Akhtar, the golden boy of the Indian film industry disappeared after that. He was said to be looking for something completely different from his earlier offering, perhaps to show the audiences that he could handle different genres in the same medium. He was so hell bent on producing a stark variation that his father, Javed Akhtar came out of his screen-writing retirement to pen a war story for him, a story of war that had been shown many times before on Indian celluloid, but perhaps seldom potrayed to realistic perfection.

The story of Lakshya, the movie that was finally made is indeed very simple. The Kargil war of 1999 that it dealt with was incidental. It was never a war movie; it was a humanistic movie of an aimless individual who finally finds his 'lakshya' or aim in life. Progressing through a partial flashback from the present, Lakshya unfolds before us the life of Karan Shergill (Hrithik Roshan), aimless and confused. He wants to do everything, yet is too lazy to even put on his hot water apparatus to have a bath. Then comes a friend who has hopes of joining a 'dashing' Indian army. Karan immediately applies and is even asked to appear for the test. An irrate father (Boman Irani) is furious. Ego clashes appear and Karan bounces into the Army!

Now, everyone knows that the army is not a adventure zone and you can make that out when Karan escapes from the IMA. Romila (Priety Zinta) is absolutely crestfallen on hearing that and leaves him for good. What then changes him, as the screenplay tells us, is not consciousness, but again, his ego. It hurts him when she leaves him, he is humiliated. An interesting thing to be noted in this regard, is the dual perception of the word ego. Earlier, it was an ego which forced him to sit for the IMA exam because his father was furious. Now his ego deciphers the difference between his past and his future, his general incapability to take oncourse to a path his has chosen and a mission to go the full journey.

Karan is back and is now more disciplined and hard working. A collage of his training routine and his zeal is sufficient enough to tell us that, with Shankar Mahadevan crooning in the background. So, what happens next? He passes his course and is appointed lieutanant of the Indian Army. He earns his vacation after a posting under the command of Colonel Damle (Amitabh Bachchan). He returns home to see Romila engaged to someone else. Even as he gets over it, Pakistani infantry cause a breach of trust and cross the border to secure empty Indian checkposts. All army officials are called back and Karan Shergill, the boy who said "Main Aisa Kyun Hoon" (Why am I so incapable) return as a man to the firing line. Due to the advantagious position of the Pakistani infiltrators, thousands of Indian lives are lost. Col. Damle is forced to initiate an impossible mission to capture his designated peak and Karan Shergill completes the journey, he single handedly unfurls the tri-colour after taking possession of the outpost.

Brilliantly told and shown, Lakshya tells the story of a boy into a man, a man who knows what he is to do and how to do it and in a nutshell, do it. Farhan Akhtar consolidates his position as the Indian film industy's new powerhouse by perhaps (and this is only my view) surpassing his earlier Dil Chahta Hain. That movie was just a sequence of events, this is a message. Javed Akhtar cannot be talked of as a subsidiary in this article. His screenplay and dialogues leaves you spellbound. Take for instance the scene where Karan is taken to the border for the first time. He sees the Pakistani checkpost and exclaims that he always knew that he was an Indian, but this was the first time that he actually felt it. Absolutely stunning, it replaces with realism the utopian principle of a globe without borders. He brings out moments and characters that we can connect with, including the protagnist, Karan Shergill.

Speaking of whom, Hrithik Roshan absolutely delivers to the T. He too replaces his dancing image with an image who can portay anything. In Lakshya he plays a character, rather than the usual Hindi film conception of 'being yourself'. Karan is everything that Hrithik is not and that is what makes the character real and believable. You laugh at his earlier antics and you stand up and applaud, perhaps even cry, with Karan hoisting the indian flag on the peak. That speaks of Hrithik Roshan, actor and superstar.

Priety Zinta too matches up to Hrithik in perhaps the only half-baked character in the film. Her hairstlyles change, but she remains Romila Dutt right to the very end. She complements Hrithik throughout the movie, even in scenes that she is missing from, thereby playing the role of the significant other. Amitabh Bachchan looks like the about-to-retire CO, but his performance cannot be faulted. His eyes contain the misery that he must have seen over the years, in different wars and yet they flash genuine moments of bravado in his outfit's capabilities and his stigma. Hardly could anyone else do justice to Colonel Sunil Damle.

On the technical front, Christopher Popp's cinematography, his choice of angles and stock usage takes you into the world of the characters and potrays the various stages that they go through. This is perhaps one of the few moments in Indian cinema where you are transported into the world of the characters. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy score songs that stand out even in seclusion from the screen and the background score haunts like that of perhaps Vangelis or Theodarkis. The simple and monotonous scores keep coming back to make you feel the rush of blood through your veins.

In all the movie is a remarkable effort at signifying its message. And like the message it contains, it goes all out to reach its destination. Mission Accomplished.

Night at the Opera - A night to remember

Who can perhaps not know the famous Marx brothers - no, not as in Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, but Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, the famous brothers who had us in splits with their absolutely mad antics in the movies they acted in? The Night at the Opera was perhaps their greatest offering to world cinema, with a crazy plot and even crazier actors. Begining from the begining, they don't end at the end - anyone who has seen the 1935 movie will agree with me that they must have seen the eerie face of Groucho Marx in their dreams for days and nights to come. The impact of the movie is such that you are left breathless (yes, the gasping for air kind), just by severe stints at a hapless, stupid and utterly slapstick comedy.

The setting of the story is really simple (atleast that's how I'm sure the writers must have written it). Mr Otis B Driftwood (Groucho Marx) has been emplyed by typical rich American widow, Mrs Claypool (Margaret Dumont) to put her into high society. After years and years of only drawing a handsome salary ("that's nothing eh? How many men do you thing draw a handsome salary?" - Driftwood to Claypool), he practically hasn't done a thing he was hired for. Finally, he had got a brainwave - he wanted her to use her money and become a patron of the theatre - the New York Opera and thereby easily present herself into the higher strata of society. So they bring on the Director of the New York opera, Mr Herbert Gottlieb (Sig Ruman) and arrange the plans to get the greatest tenor in the country to sing for them. And who indeed is sent to hunt for this world famous tenor? Why, Mr Otis B Driftwood!

Meanwhile, at some other opera company, Tomasso (Harpo Marx) is having trouble with his owner, the 'greatest' tenor, Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King) who is typically an arrogant and dominating bourgeouisie (that's the only link with Karl Marx in this article). Tomasso seeks revenge. Meanwhile Fierello (Chico Marx), fresh out a job (a con man basically) decides to himself appoint himself as a manager to a new tenor Ricardo (Allan Jones) and then he meets the perpetual fool Driftwood. He convinces him that Ricardo is the world's greatest tenor that he was looking for and they strike a deal for the world's best tenor at $ 10.

However, the goof up is soon spotted and the tenor replaced. But Driftwood has to put in Ricardo in the opera. What follows from there onwards cannot be described in this article, or for that matter any article, because words are the weakest symbols to desctibe it. A treat for the eyes (which blead in time), the Marx brothers leave no stone unturned in ruining the Opera. Like the famous saying goes, "its the Marx brothers against the rest of the world."

A laugh a minute saga ensues. And the point to be noted here, is that its just not a fiasco that errupts on the screen. The performances themselves speak volumes. Grucho, Chico and Harpo appear to be this way in their personal lives. They just "come, see and conquer" the stage. This movie is the powerhouse of slapstick.

I recommend this to anyone who can cry laughing. It's a must, must, must see movie. You haven't lived if you haven't been to the Night at the Opera.

Rang De Basanti - Attainable Utopia

Utopia, the ideal, ever since recognized by Plato in the 5th century BC, almost remains an ellusive term - always thought of, but seldom seen. It is for the attainment of this utopia, that the dabblers of art have long pitted their brains in the creation of. This has consequently led to the creation of timeless classics, be they in the form of books, paintings and even cinema - which is also one of the reasons leading to the creations of the superhero, a Batman or a Superman, someone whom we hoped would have lived.

Then in the early 19th century, came the sudden outburst of realism, of depicting things as they were, without corrupting the end users thoughts with imaginative nonsense. After all, why write about Superman, when no such person or planet actually exists? This feature, specially developed in communist countries, like the earstwhile USSR, soon became the dominant literary ideology of the times. Human beings now wanted to test their rationality, instead of getting wayled into an imaginary world. Aristotle's characters of magnitude, got replaced by the common man - new stories began to unravel themselves through people we saw around us. However the search for the ideal still continued through these stories, though their grandeur was far simpler now and constricted to mundane affairs, not the creation of an ideal republic like Plato.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's second directorial venture keeps with the module of the new quest of the ideal and by Jove does it succeed! Telling the story of a group of friends, Mehra connects the nations past and the future and miraculously succeeds in converging the two tangents. And that is where the Utopia lies - just like our freedom fighters believed in the utopia we are abusing today, these boys and girls believe in an utopia which they believe they need to create. What is more significant in the storyline is the convergence of nationality along with the convergence of time, overriding all petty idiosyncrasies that the youth hold today.

To cut across to the main story now, it begins with a young english filmmaker, Sue (Alice Patten), all set to eulogize the extremist freedom fighters of India through a documentary. However things don't begin on a positive note for her, as the financers now realize that only Gandhi sells. Abusing them in Hindi, she arrives in India to start rolling, remaining optimistic to the very end.

Here comes in Sonia (Soha Ali Khan), who is her contact in India. They begin with their auditions, only to be thoroughly disappointed (and the viewers thoroughly amused). Sonia decides that Sue needs a break from this comic montage and sets out to meet her friends and introduce Sue to some fun. Now enter poet, philosopher Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Karan (Siddharth), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) and of course, the very best DJ (Aamir Khan). They are soon joined by the fanatical student union leader Lakshman (Atul Kulkarni) and a distaste between the latter and the group is quickly established.

Sue then decides that this band would be ideal to fill in the shoes of the characters in her movie. However, the potential actors do not think so ..... they belive that the world she wants to create is a farce, something absolutely untrue. They spit on this freedom and pronounce doomsday for the nation. Some coaxing leads them to the stage before the camera, but the spirit is still ellusive. Heroic references and statements are made fun of and the finger on the lips indicate "Maut ki ungli" (the finger of death).

The comedy progresses rapidly, till the news channels report the death of their friend, Flight Captain Ajay Rathode (R. Madhavan), flying a rickety MIG - 21. An under-current flows through them. They wake up. The Defense Minister aggrevates the issue by proclaiming Ajay to be a bad pilot. This adds fuel to the fire. They stage a dharna in front of India Gate, the country's insignia to honour the unknown soldier. The Defense Minister sends in the cops and brutally breaks up the peaceful protest.

Lakshman sees his former mentor ordering and overseeing the police proceedings. After a few seconds, the latter rolls up his window and exits from the scene. Another realisation draws on him personally - the ideals of his party, which he had believed in all this while, suddenly die out before him. His belief that Muslims belong to another nation and other pseudo-nationalistic views are shattered. He looks around to see mass-destruction on innocent protestors demanding justice. He sees Aslam being whacked by a policeman - he forgets the previous interactions between the two and charges at the policeman, snatches his stick and uses it on him itself. Such scenes are seldom seen in world cinema, comparable poorly to Eisenstein's famous "Oddessa Steps" in Battleship Potemkin.

It is at this point, lost for peaceful alternatives, that the group, now with a commitant Lakshman, decide to gun down the minister - Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Rajguru live on. They complete the impossible, only to have posthomous awards and recognitions thrusted upon the crook. Their objective is now thwarted. Therefore they once again return to the past - like Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, they surrender themselves, letting the world decide on their actions.

With the last scene, inspired from the Western classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Mehra leaves a great impact on the minds of a certain faction of the youth - now just a fraction of the total youth population; the other refer to the last few scenes as comic relief - because they are still a part of the youth as potrayed in the first half of the movie. I wonder if they will ever progress to the second stage, but that is the omnipresent, ellusive Utopia. However, there is the other faction who stirred at the climax and that is why I say that the movie proclaims attainable utopia, something very difficult to contain in any work of art.

Now returning to the movie, I need not add anything about the filmmaker itself - I think my earlier paragraphs are proof enough of his prowess. On the technical front, Binod Pradhan's camer is lyrical and so is the editing. A R Rahman creates tunes that blend in with the story line. The songs are brilliant and the background score is simply stunning - this belongs in the hall of fame.

Speaking of performances, everybody has delivered to the T. Kunal Kapoor looks simply stunning with his locks and stuble, Siddharth gels as the cool introvert, Sharman Joshi is a revelation and Soha just falls short of her performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Antarmahal. Nothing needs to be said about Atul Kulkarni, who has proved his mettle over the years and Alice Patten is the best import from the overseas so far in the Indian film industry.

However, the movie simply belongs to Aamir Khan. Playing a character fifteen years younger than himself, Aamir excells and breathes life into the movie. Anything said about his performance would be an understatement.

Truly, after decades, theatres around the counrty are running responsible reels, reminding us of why we go to the movies in the first place.

Meenaxi - Running poetry

Ever considered seeing poetry unfold itself, verse by verse, on the celluloid? In case you have, but have never seen it in 'reality', watch Meenaxi - A tale of three cities. The second feature by the noctogenerian artist of the country, M F Hussain, Meenaxi is a far-removed and far more engrossing movie than his first attempt, Gaja Gamini. Though the visual spectacle of the two is accutely mesmerising, Meenaxi deals with a far larger dilemma that it did in Gaja Gamini. And then, the question that everyone who has watched this movie asks, is what does it mean, where does it end .... Precisely, the movie neither begins and neither does it end and through this abstract and unsatisfying closing, it draws in us a greater catharsis than that could be ever drawn by any other movie with a prominent ending.

Keeping with what I earlier said - where does Meenaxi begin? It shows itslef to us through the eyes of an author, Nawab (Raghubir Yadav), using his opera glasses to see things which are right next to him and yet missing out on what could be the subject of his new novel. He is at the moment faced with a terrible case of a writer's block and ponders over myriad possibilities that could absolve him of his drawback. The publisher, his friend, is hounding away for further drafts and all he can do is sit through a cycle rickshaw and peep into the world of Hyderabad.

It's his sister's engagement and preparations are on in full spate. He, as usual, moves around through the crowd, there but not there, till he comes across a woman. Things spark of in him and he tries to move towards her, but she keeps eluding him. He still tries to search her, but fails. And when he fails, she suddenly surrenders herself to him. She is Meenaxi (Tabu), a perfume seller in the city of Hyderabad. She declares herself to be a great fan of his and demands that he write a story about her.

Nawab tries to break free from his block and brings pen to paper. He sets his story around the beautiful sand dunes of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and narrates the journey of Kameshwar Mathur (Kunal Kapoor), who also happens to be his car mechanic in 'reality', and his affections for a girl, Meenaxi. The story continues towards a love story between the two and time seems to stand still. Then how does the story progress? It doesn't .... An existential theme mocks at us when we try to decipher how this Jaisalmer story will end. And with the muse's 'real' presence the author also looses control of his own thoughts. He can't bring about a conclusion in his own imagination, because his 'reality' is made directionless by an inconstant inspiration.

The papers are burnt and Nawab now picks up his pen again to cast a new setting before us - this time in Prague and his character now is a lonely girl called Maria. Kameshwar Mathur arrives there also and another story unfolds itself to us. This time, Maria is more commitent in the relationship and the viewer tries to forsee the future between themselves and the 'real' imaginary characters. But then even a new setting and a new affair seems to wind its way into obscurity. This story also ends without an ending.

What Meenaxi deals with, are the binary opposites of reality and imagination,or perhaps their contrast that we have created in our minds. The story actually speaks of the thin line between the two abstract terms in the mind of a creative artist. Nawab loses himself in his characters and also in Meenaxi, the simple girl who sells perfumes in Hyderabad. Then the question remains that what is real and what is imagination? If both quarters of the author's mind release him into the same obscurity, then where is the difference? Is Meenaxi more real, or Maria? Is Kameshwar more real or the car mechanic? Or is Nawab the person more real than Nawab the writer?

And when we realise this aspect, we are once again taken back to Nawab's sister's wedding and we see Nawab following a girl dressed in white, a contrast to Meenaxi in a black saree a few minutes back. This time he comes up to her and has the opportunity to see her face. His eyes light up as he asks her for her name. She looks at him quizically and replies - Meenaxi.

Magnificently told and shown, Meenaxi, could well be the magnum-opus of the director. The essence of colour to wash away the difference between real and unreal is a delight to watch. The camera movements and angles are simply breath-taking. The opening shot of the Nawab on a cycle-rickshaw will perhaps never be seen in the history of Indian cinema. Santosh Sivan has amazingly given life to the three cities and the five principle characters in the movie. The characters are so well constituted that they feel absolutely real and not just shadows on celluloid.

I feel special mention should be made about the music in the movie. Composed by A R Rahman, they too blend in with the chief objective of the movie. Every city is percieved differently by the changes in the music pattern alone. The songs are mesmerising and absolute. The background score is stunning.

Meenaxi - tale of three cities is a must watch for people who love art as a whole, not just cinema. Not just because each aspect of film-making is beautifully arranged in it, but because the dilemma of art is finally resolved in one of the greatest movies of the Indian film industry.