Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Night of the Kapoors

Posted by Sari

It is no accident that Om in Om Shanti Om is reborn as Om Kapoor. Not only are the Kapoors royalty of Indian cinema, there are a number of actors and actresses with the same name not related to The Clan. This was brought home to us on Sunday when we were watching two movies with rising stars starring Ranbir, Sonam, Shahid and Kareena Kapoor.  Now, Ranbir is son of Rishi Kapoor, 1970s hearthrob, Kareena is Ranbir's first cousin, daughter of Rishi’s big brother Randhir. Sonam Kapoor on the other hand is not related to Ranbir or Kareena, but is the daughter of another famous actor, Anil Kapoor. And Shahid (whose name is sometimes translitterated as Kapur) is again wholly unrelated to all the other Kapoors. It is almost as bad as all the Khans!

First film we watched was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest which lost the Diwali box office battle to Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om. Bhansali’s movies are always sumptious affairs, but Saawariya really goes above and beyond his previous films in its color-coded, artificialness. Its like moghuls meet Disney’s idea of Venice in Switzerland. Everything happens at night so the palette is blues and greens with some dark red. The story seems somehow like an afterthought. Ranbir is a poor musician playing in a night-club. Sonam is a girl waiting on a bridge for his lover. They meet, Ranbir falls in love but will Sonam love him back? It is awful pretty but that is about it. Neither of the Kapoors can really carry the movie,  and though there was a general feeling of a fairy tale about the movie, the relentless visual artificiality does make one yearn for a glimpse of bright natural colours. So despite the equal opportunity objecifying and Rani’s excellent performance as the hooker with the heart of gold, I still have to say it was not a keeper.

The Second movie of the evening Jab We Met starred Shahid and Kareena Kapoor which, again had not that much plot. Shahid’s dad died and his ex married someone else, so just walks out of his life and on to a train where he meets a madcap Sikh girl Kareena who is on her way home to Punjab and is plannig to elope with his boyfriend. It is basically a modern indian take on1930s screwball comedies. And I think it works beautifully despite the mountain of cliches. I have always liked Kareena and Shahid was truly excellent in his Gary Grantish role. The music has been a hit for a good reason, and I just have a soft spot for filmi punjabis always having a party. 

Amar Akbar Anthony

Posted by Sari

Today is time for another Bollywood evening with Tarja, so I thought I better empty some of my back-log in this respect also. Last time we watched ummm… something? Obviously something that the total awesomeness of Amar Akbar Anthony has totally wiped from my memory. Maybe Tarja remembers.

But Amar Akbar Anthony, maybe the best movie evah! See, the poor chauffeur of a rich slime ball takes a blame for a traffic accident when he is promised that the slime ball will look after his family when he is in gaol. After release, he finds his wife ill with tuberculosis and his three small sons starving. Full of rage he goes after the slime ball tries to shoot him (unfortunately, like all smart rich people, the slime ball is wearing chain mail under his shirt.) The father takes his children along in the getaway car, but they all become separated in the hassle.

At the same time his tuberculous wife does not want to be a burden and wanders of to kill herself, is hit over the head with a tree branch in a thunderstorm, becomes blind, and takes the accident and a timely arrival of saviour as a sign against suicide. With great tragic Irony, that saviour is a Muslim tailor with a tiny crying tyke on tow: one of her now missing sons and she does not realize it. The tailor adopts the boy, raises him as Muslim and calls him Akbar. The oldest, Amar, is found by a Hindu policeman who adopts him, and the Middle son was left at the gardens of Catholic Church, so the priests there raises him up as a Christian: Anthony. All others think that our poor chauffeurs progeny perished when his getaway car went off a cliff. In reality, the chauffeur survives the crash with a box full of gold, and when he is unable to find his kids, he retires to plan a revenge.

Amar follows his stepfathers footsteps in the police, Akbar becomes a popular qawwali singer and Anthony ends up as bit of a crook, making deals not that legit. But he does it with twinkle in his eye and a song in his heart, so he is not bad, really more like mischievous. They all meet accidentally at a hospital and end up giving blood to a blind woman who has been in accident. And then the movies starts. All this was in the teaser before opening titles!

Amar Akbar Anthony has everything: twists and turns, missing persons and mistaken identities, chases, fights, romance x 3, miracles, revenge, tragedy, friendship, humour, prevention of a marriage at the nick of time, great music, and an absolutely surreal easter celebration with Anthony bursting out of a giant easter egg and singing something about “hemoglobin in the atmosphere”. I think that this and Main Hoon Na are now my favourite gateway drugs to Bollywood

Bollyposting

Tarja who is almost worringly head-over-heels with East-Asian TV has not wholly abandoned the subcontinent, so during the year we have managed to fit in few Bollywood evenings. So here is some of my backlog: 

First is Bunty aur Babli, a buddy-movie with Abhishek and Rani, where the former is dreaming of get-rich-quick schemes at home and latter wants to be Miss India. Instead they end up as grifters dreaming up stings to fool undeserving rich. All goes well until a police inspector played by Amitabh starts closing in. B&B was fun. The music was catchy, the plot could have been tighter and the ending less blah. Amitabh was campier than a row of tents with his shades and leather jacket, and Kajira Re, the number father and son performed with Aish (doing an item number) is one of my favourites ever. Both Abhishek and Amitabh are hilariously goofy and adorable. 

Fanaa of which I have been waiting mainly because Kajol, was a bit of a disapointment. The story is that of a blind girl falling in love with a tourist guide in New Delhi. The guide, Aamir, is really a terrorist preparing to do a job. Kajol melts Aamir’s heart, they marry and he pays for an operation to restore her sight. Before Kajol gets to see him, Aamir goes off to blow Rashtrapati Bhavan and is assumed dead. Years later on another job he stumbles wounded to a log cabin in Kashmir (Poland...) where Kajol and his son are now living. It takes awhile for Kajol to realize this is her husband, the army is closing in, and the movie ends with Kajol calling the cops and Aamir getting shot. Blood on snow. Kajol was as beautiful as ever, here is the tongue-twister song to prove it, but otherwise the film could have been better. Now it is not a “serious” take on conflicting loyalties, but neiter is it a true masala entertaiment, it falls somewhere in between and does not really work. 

Omkara, a remake of Othello with Ajay Devgan and Kareena Kapoor was better than I expected. I liked Kareena, thought Shaif Ali Khan was excellent as Langda (Iago) and even with his Bollywood moustache, Ajay was menacingly sexy Omkara (Othello). The problem of the production for me is the transfer. In this version, Omkara is enforcer for a political party in notoriously corrupt Uttar Pradesh, basically a goonda. Thus, at least in these western eyes, he is a bad guy from the beginning. The tension between a noble general and a madly jealous husband is missing. Omkara is just a sad tale of a violent man acting violently towards his love, not the grand drama of Shakespeare’s play. Also, only in Bollywood you would make a musical scene out of this.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, the long a waited new film from Karan was very karan-like, as Tumhi Dekho Naa sort of proves. Expensive melodrama with lots of violins and the exotic New York. The plot is a story of two couples, Sharhrukh and Preity, and Abishek and Rani, and what happens when Rani and Shahrukh fall in love and have an affair. This is heavy stuff for a blockbuster film in India, and Rani and Sharukh have to suffer a lot to get to the inevitable happy ending. I was sort of meh about it all.

Next up: Don, Jaaneman and Krrish

Andaaz (2003)

Posted by Sari

Andaaz on ihan puhdasta melodraamaa alusta loppuun – tietysti laululla, tanssilla ja aina ah niin hauskan Johnny Leverin komiikalla höystettynä. Sukslaasilmäinen Akshay Kumar on rakastunut lapsuudenystäväänsä Lara Duttaan (Miss Universumi 2000). Akshaylla on aikataulu: hän kosii kun on valmistunut ilmavoimien lentokoulusta. Valitettavasti vaan kukaan ei kertonut tätä Laralle ja tämä suostuu helikopteria lentävän liikemies Aman Verman kosintaan. Kyyneleet silmissään Akshay laulaa ja tanssii häissä, ja lähtee ahdistumaan Etelä-Afrikkaan. Siellä hän tapaa länsimaistuneen Priyanka Chopran (Miss Maailma 2000), joka alkaa jahdata komeaa pilottia.

Priyanka seuraa Akshayta kotiin, puhuu Akshayn ympäri kihlaukseen ja osoittautuu Laran miehen sisareksi. Mikä sattuma! Ja mikä tragedia! Sillä Laran helikopteripilottipisnesmies on tällä välin kuollut kauheassa onnettomuudessa ja leski on surusta sekaisin koettanut itsemurhaa useampaan otteeseen. Akshay saa Laran houkuteltua takaisin elävien ja henkisesti vähän tasapainoisempien kirjoihin ja Priyanka hääpäivänään jalosti luovuttaa paikkansa Laralle jotta alun rakastavaiset saisivat lopulta toisensa.

Mitä tästä nyt sitten sanoisi, kovin keskinkertainen ison budjetin masalamelodraamaksi. Musiikki ei kolahtanut lainkaan, lesken ylenmääräinen ahdistus oli melodraamagenreen ja intialaiseen kulttuurin yhdistetynä ymmärrettävää mutta länsimaiselle katsojalle kovin luotaantyöntävää. Lisäksi minusta nyt triangeli meni ihan väärin, Priyanka olisi ollut paljon parempi vaimo Akshaylle.

Salaam-e-Ishq

Posted by Sari

Tarja oli saanut käsiinsä  "Love Actually" elokuvasta inspiraationsa saaneen, yli 200 minuuttisen bollyelokuvan Salaam-e-Ishq ja kiikutti sen ystävällisesti tänne Casa Taliin katsottavaksi. Elokuvan särpimenä nautimme kukkakaali/parsakaali bhajia, kahdenlaisia jugurttikastikkeessa kypsytettyjä perunoita ja intialaisittain maustettuja porkkanoita ja vihreitä papuja. Eteläaasialainen ruoka on kuulkaa aivan sairaan hyvää vaikka itse näin kokkina sen sanonkin.

Elokuvakin oli aivan mainio. Sitä on kai pidetty liian pitkänä ja sirpaleisena, mutta minusta se oli aivan mahtava masalasekoitus intertekstuaalista komediaa ja draamaa. Tähdillä kansoitetussa elokuvassa viisi rakkaustarinaa kietoutuu eri tavalla toisiinsa: Priyanka ja Salman lavastavat romanssin edistääkseen Priyankan uraa. Hindu/Muslimi parissa Vidya saa muistinmenetyksen eikä muista miestään John Abrahamia lainkaan. Anil Kapoor saa keski-iän kriisin ja on jättää vaimonsa Juhi Chawlan nuoremman takia. Akshaye Khannalle tulee pupu housuun juuri ennen häitä ja taksikuski Govinda ajaa intialaista poikaystäväänsä etsivää kanadalaista Shannon Esrechovitzia ympäri Intiaa.

Salman tuntuu nykyään joka toisessa elokuvassa kommentoivan ironisesti omaa imagoaan, tässäkin elokuvassa riittää merkitseviä katseita, kovin matalalta kähistyjä vuorosanoja, paidattomuuta ja farkut tuskin voisivat olla enää alempana lanteilla. Anil Kapoorin kriisin olisi kyllä voinut käsikirjoittaa rehellisesti viidenkympin kriisiksi neljänkympin kriisin sijaan, mutta muuten häntäkin oli hauska nähdä. Naisispääosan esittäjistä parhaiten onnistuvat ihan hauska Priyanka ja aina mainio Juhi Chawla. Elokuvan varastaa kuitenkin yllättäen Govinda jonka kielipuoli romanssi kanadalaistytön kanssa on niin söpö että sokerimyrkytys uhkaa. Awwww.

Espoo Cine: Sancharram - The Journey

R&A –festareille olin kyllä Parineetaa menossa katsomaan, mutta mörrimöykkypäivä ja kipeä jalka saivat jäämään kotiin. Eli tämän vuoden festari-intialaiselokuvaksi jäi Espoo Cinen ohjelmistossa ollut malayalaminkielinen Sancharram, kertomus kahden nuoren tytön rakkaudeksi kasvavasta ystävyydestä. Lesboutta ei intialaisessa elokuvassa ole vakavasti pahemmin käsitelty. Silloin kuin teemaa käsitellään tai siihen viitataan, lesbot joko koodataan voyaristisesti roistoiksi tai kyseessä on Intiassakin hyvin voivan naisvankilagenren edustaja. Ainut aikaisempi teemaa vakavasti käsittelevä leffa jonka olen nähnyt on The Fire vuodelta 1996.

Siinä missä Fire –elokuvan päähenkilöt löytävät toisensa petyttyään heteroseksuaalisiin suhteisiin, Sancharram on herkkä Romeo/Julia tyyppinen kasvutarina ja heräämisen kuvaus. Sen juoni on äärimmäisen ennalta-arvattava ja tempo vähän liian hidas. Kiran ja Delilah kasvavat rakastamaan toisiaan, mutta kun Delilahin äiti saa selville tyttöjen suhteen todellisen luonteen, pyrkii hän naittamaan tyttärensä nopeasti Amerikkaan. Vaikka Kiran järjestää tytöille mahdollisuuden karata kaupunkiin ja yrittää elää omilla ehdoillaan, ei Delilah uskalla astua yhteiskunnan sääntöjen ulkopuolelle ja suostuu avioliittoon. Elokuvan tuntuu kiertyvän kohti väistämätöntä tragediaa, mutta loppu onkin yllättäen avoin ja toivoa antava.

Teknisesti pienellä budjetilla tehty Sancharram on välillä horjuva, mutta onnistuu muutamissa hiljaisissa kohtauksissa vangitsemaan lähes hypnoottisesti hetken valkokankaalle. Pääosin sen kiinnostavuus on kuitenkin sen eksotiikassa: Keralan vehreät maisemat ja etelä-intialainen kulttuuri viehättävät vieraudessaan ja värikylläisyydessään. Intialaisen elokuvankaan kliseitä ei ole vältetty: rakastavaiset eivät tällä kertaa laula jyrkänteen reunalla, mutta seisovat siellä salwar-kameez hulmuten, ja ukkosmyrsky saa jälleen kerran symboloida seksuaalisuutta. Kivaa.

Aur Pyar Ho Gaya

Posted by Sari

Jukka, being just unbelievably busy with Finncon and editing the short-story collection, called dibs on Gordo (the new computer is called Gordo in "honor" of both El Gordito And Buffy's soft-toy) for Saturday. Unsurprsingly I ended up with a nice cup of hard tea and a Bolly-movie. This time I went with Aur Pyar Ho Gaya. It is a pretty typical 1990s romance-drama-comedy: Aashi's dad wants her to marry Rohit who owns a clothing business in - you guessed it - Switzerland. Aashi wants to check out the potential groom before committing to anything and flies to Switzerland to meet him. On the airport he meets with Bobby Oberoi who falls for her and pretends to be Rohit in order to spend time with her. By the intermission Bobby and Aashi are in love, Bobby has confessed his deception, has been forgiven for it and are flying back to India to ask the blessing of their parents.

Aashi's dad makes everything very difficult however, mainly because first Bobby makes fun of his hair and later because Bobbys mom who by a strange coincidence just happens to be Aashi's dad's banker, does not cover for him in a shady stock deal. Aashi and dad are just flying off to meet the real Rohit when Bobby manages to stop the aeroplane just before takeoff and manages to convince Aashi's dad of his undying love. The end.

Um. The interesting thing about the movie is that it is Aishwaraya Rai's hindi movie debute. Thus lots of Aish from every angle and endless dance numbers to prove that the Miss World can can-can. And she undoubtably can. This is of course helped by the fact that she is teamed up with Bobby Deol who as undoubtably can't. Watching him dance is actually painful. The other interesting thing is that the movie has Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's music, he even performs one of the songs in Aashi's and Bobby's engagement party. And the other other interesting thing is Shammi Kapoor as Aashi's grandfather who is excellent especially towards the end.

The rest is really meh. DVD-transfer is from an inferior copy, the plot, dialogue and pacing is off, and the exotic Switzerland was getting on my nerves for a bit. As was Bobby Deol, big time. And the ending: you really can't take the "rushes to the airport to stop the love of his/her life from going" -cliche any further than this. Bobby chases Aashi's jumbo with the staircase-car and Aashi in her turn slides down the emergency slide to the waiting arms of her love. Only in India, I tell ya.

Back to normal...

Posted by Sari

So, Bronze. Not really that bad, definitely better than I dared to hope before the tournament. Germany has a bunch of  young players (Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Mertesacker, Odonkor, Lahm...)  who will hopefully be around for quite a while, so future is looking interesting too. As for the trophy, rather Italy than France, if for nothing else than Fabio Cannavaro who is and was phenomenal.

In other news, the traditional Science Fiction pick-nick at Suomenlinna was a great success. The Day was sunny and there were lots of people around, both old and new faces. Tarja and I even met another poor soul who has caught the bolly-fever.

Speaking of which, boy do I want to se Fanaa. I mean: Aamir! Kajol! Jatin-Lalit Score! The Prettiness! Poland doubling for Kashmir! Also, a love story between a blind girl and a terrorist. It just can't be bad. More seriously, even though Fanaa has been a huge hit all over the world, there has been a political controversy surrounding the film in Gujarat.

And then there is Krrish (a flash intro) which sounds just... I mean.... It's... The mind just boggles.

Koyla

Posted by Sari

Itsepäisyyspäivänaaton kunniaksi arvoin tusinan vielä näkemättömän bolly-DVD:n joukosta todellisen helmen, Rakesh Roshanin Koylan (Madhuri, Shahrukh, Amrish Puri). Oli kuulkaa kokonaisvaltainen elokuvakokemus.

Katsokaas, Shahrukhin isä oli aikanaan löytänyt timantteja hiilikaivoksesta mutta ennen kuin hän pääsi hyödyntämään löytöään kaksi revolvereilla varustautunutta ilkeästi nauravaa viiksivellua ampui hänet ja Shahrukhin äidin. Kolmas salaperäinen mies tunkee tässä vaiheessa noin kymmenvuotiaan Shahrukhin suuhun palavia hiiliä niin että tämä menettää puhekykynsä eikä pysty todistamaan. Shahrukhin ottaa hoiviinsa Rajasahib (Amrish Puri) joka kasvattaa pojasta tottelevaisen palvelijan joka juoksee kovempaa kuin Amrishin metsästyssaksanpaimenkoirat.

Amrish myös huijaa nuoren Madhurin naimisiin kanssaan lähettämällä tälle Shahrukhin kuvan oman kuvansa sijaan. Shahrukh ja Madhuri tietysti rakastuvat ja pakenevat julman Amrishin ja tämän hullun veljen luota läpi vuorten ja veisputousten ja viidakon kunnes Amrish saa heidät helikopterilla kiinni, viiltää Shahrukhilta kurkun auki ja heittää tämän alas vuorelta. Madhurin hän toimittaa paikalliseen ilotaloon.

Köyhä vanha mies löytää Shahrukin, kursii hänet kokoon ja korjaa siinä sivussa myös Sharukhin äänijänteet. (Otaksuttavasti vanha mies on siis sapattivuotta viettävä huippukirurgi Delhistä...) Shahrukh pelastaa Madhurin, tappaa hullun veljen, saa selville että juuri Amrish oli aikanaan tunkenut hiiliä hänen kurkustaan alas, juoksee jalan kiinni junan jolla Amrish yrittää pakoon, tuikkaa Amrishin ja hänen hiilikaivoksensa tuleen ja astelee hidastetusti liekkimerestä Madhurin syliin. Kokonaisuuden kruunaa Rajesh Roshanin nimiin merkitty musiikki joka oikeasti on orkestraatiota myöten Vangeliksen "1492 Conquest of Paradise". On siis kertakaikkiaan inhaa klu-klu kamaa.

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Ja käykää jättämässä kommentti Jukan kirjallisuuskyselyyn! Uteliaat haluavat tietää.

Paheli and Veer-Zaara

Posted by Sari

At last I got to see Veer Zaara. I mean, Tarja saw it ages ago and even Peter Elk got to see it long before me. And it was a classic Yash Chopra melodrama. Zaara (Preity)  is a pakistani girl who travels to India to take her nurse's ashes back to her native land. He meets Veer (Shahrukh) and falls in love with him. Unfortunately Zaara is of course already engaged to a nice (not) pakistani boy and when Veer comes to stop the wedding he is arrested and put to gaol for twenty years before brave lawyer (Rani) takes his case. Lots and lots of songs, great role by Amitabh as Shahrukhs father and Lata should really stop playbacking young actresses.

It would be interesting to know how Chopra himself sees the way he has depicted Pakistan in the movie. On the one hand, there is a vibe that he is really trying not to enforce the hindustani good pakistani bad dichotomy, but on the other the love-letter to India in "Aisa des hai mera" and the fact that Rani really is the only positive pakistani character sort of weaken the impression. Still, compared to Hero, this is a positively balanced view of the two countries. Here, by the way is an interesting article about indian nationalism and the hindu/muslim divide in Mission Kashmir, Fiza and Sarfarosh.

Paheli is Indian entry to this years Academy Award competition, a very traditional and beautiful picturisation of a novel by Vijayadan Detha based on a folk-tale. It is a story of Lachchi who marries Kishen. Kisna leaves immediately for five years to do business, and a ghost who has fallen in love with Lachchi takes his place. The film has some great locations, Rani looking gorgeous, lots of culturally specific hand-gestures, and probably the first time I have actually found the comedy in hindi movie funny. (I think I should be verry worried.) Also, aren't there any other older indian actors than Amitabh Bachan and Anupam Kher? I mean they are great but they seem to be in every film I see... All in all, the kind of india west finds exotic, but not really my cup of tea. I liked the puppets.