Kanti Shah-- The true Baadshah of B-grade Bollywood

Now I have been a big fan of Kanti Shah's cinema. He knows his target audience very well even more than people like Bhansali, Anurag Kashyap, Raj Kumar Santoshi. Of course I wouldn't like to consider myself to be part of his TA but I can't disown this master film-maker whose cinema has just entertained me profusely on lonely Sunday afternoons.

I think his Gunda is probably the best and ultimate B-film of all time. Just too amazing for words. If you can watch it plz do so or else check out the following link for some youtube fun... http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=qZcURBogNlA Dont you just love a hamming Ishrat Ali. "Kundaaaaannnnn... Marne ka Nai Marne Ka Naaaaaaiiiii..." Do check him out in Aatank Hi Aatank (DVD available on Moser Baer Home Video for Rs. 34) as well.

The villains intro in the film is hilarious.
Mukesh Rishi- "Mera naam hai Bulla, karta hoon main sabka khulla." Now I might be wrong but after hearing that rather than sounding like a bad ass I feel he gives blowjobs to his posse.

Shakti Kapoor's name is Chutiya. (The word is uncensored. You have to love the double standards of our dumb Censor Board)

Harish Patel is Ibu Hatela. (I think Harish pulls off an Ibu. Don't know what it means but the name suits him.)

For the mere mortals reading this piece, Gunda still has a huge dedicated fan following and it's DVD is sub-titled in English, French, Dutch and German (No jokes).

Apart from that I have seen Kanti Shah's Loha a million times on television. Dharmendra is in his hamming and whamming best. There is a scene in the film where the bad guy Rami Reddy shoots his gun at him. Dharmendra just catches the bullet and says "Teri goli shareer ko phaad sakti hai magar LOHE ko nahi." Wah Wah!! Excellent!! Now we know that Sunny's super-human strength is genetic.

There is an item song by Govinda and Manisha Koirala which cleanses your heart and touches your soul- "Teri Behna Se Dosti, Tere Bapu Se Jagde..." is an instant classic.

Another movie of Kanti bhai which I liked is Duplicate Sholay. I gifted the VCD of the film to my friend Krushant on his birthday. Don't know if he ever saw it. If he didn't then it's his loss. Duplicates of Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sunny, Mithun, etc. do a good job in hamming. One scene which really gets me rolling on the floor is when duplicate Sunny screams 'Main Indian Hoon Indian' and goes to whack the Rs. 100 per day extra but surprise surprise he ends up over-powered as the villain creams him and says 'Main Bhi Indian Hoon.' Clearly this one didnt have his dhai kilo ka haath.

And then there is Kabhi Kranti Kabhi Jung. Cable zindabad. Again full of duplicates (including one of Parvez Musharraf) and they also play a cricket match. Was interesting in bits but definitely not on the level of other Kanti Shah classics.

Now I havent seen his Munnibai but I recall it being a super hit in the interiors. Still remember reading a trade article in Stardust magazine a decade ago which said... "Munnibai has struck gold in the B and C centres. Trade Pundits still haven't been able to figure this one out." Believe it or not, this film actually outdid Madhur Bhandarkar's Trishakti which released around the same time.

Love him, hate him, ignore him but he will strike back again and again. Kant stop Kanti!!

Also check out Moses Navgire's article on one of Kanti's other film Marna Zaroori Hai... http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2006/06/23/1312/index.html

You Only Live Once (1937)

Believe it or not, I saw two Henry Fonda films back to back, the other was 12 Angry Men (check the previous post). I had never seen a Henry Fonda movie in my life but I do recall seeing his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Would want to watch some more of his movies.

Immediately after hearing the name Fonda, I remember Jane Fonda (who incidentally is Henry's daughter) and immediately recall my childhood days and my mother doing her aerobics work-out while watching Jane's work-out video on VHS.

A mug (Henry Fonda) is released from prison and marries his sweet-heart (Sylvia Sidney). However, he is wrongly accused of an armoured truck robbery which leads to the death of six people. He is caught but escapes from jail killing a Priest in the process. Turns out his innocence was proved but then this murder just gets him back to square one. He and his wife are now on the run from the law.

I think this movie kind of partly gave inspiration to Bonnie and Clyde (which in turn inspired Bunty Aur Babli).

Personally, I think YOLO is over-rated. However, considering the year it was made it I might say it was pretty decent. Great performances- Henry is good, Sylvia is really beautiful and does really well, decent direction and decent screenplay.

Watch it if you have nothing much to do on a day where you are lazy enough not to crib for your lost time in case you don't like it.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Finally saw the 1957 classic and now I can clearly see why it is called one.

12 jury members are asked by the court of law to decide the fate of a young boy who is accused of murdering his father. Now, the jury members have to reach a unanimous decision which will either release the boy or get him the chair. Seems like its going to be a unanimous decision of guilty as all the evidence is against the bboy until one of the jurors casts his vote as not guilty. The leading man Henry Fonda (terrific) is the one who does it much to the annoyance of others who want to leave. Now its up to the rest to either change his mind or up to him to change the others minds.

It's pretty cool one by one each juror changes his vote and not without reason. Awesome!!

What is even more amazing are the characters in the film. Each juror has a distinct personality and all of them end up with amazing performances.

Really wonderful story telling by the director Sidney Lumet. He’s the same guy who made Al Pacino’s Dog Day Afternoon almost two decades later. Don’t know much about him but read that he is one big gun in Hollywood. Not surprising considering he made 12 and Dog.

This movie was made in India by Basu Chatterjee in the form of Ek Rukah Hua Faisla. Haven’t seen it but have heard that it was really good. Thank God it was made by Basuda. Recently it was in the news that Vivek Agnihotri plans to remake 12 Angry Men. I sincerely hope he doesn’t. Having seen his last two movies, I’m sure this one too will be a disaster as well as a slap to the original.

My first blog

Just decided to visit my first blog ever...

Didnt know if it existed or not... and actually took me some time to find it. Turned out it was still active... Think I've evolved as a blogger...

Here's the link...
http://praveenlancefernandes.spaces.live.com/blog/

What is wrong with Yash Raj?

In my IndiaFM and Indiatimes days, I thought Yash Raj was just arrogant- in speaking to the media, in their publicity campaigns, etc. Now I think they are simply dumb.

Their promotional campaign for Roadside Romeo was the pits despite it being the only good movie to come out of their banner in a very very long time...

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a big film... Aditya Chopra and SRK coming together after almost 9 years is a big thing for a lot of people... liked DDLJ, thought Mohabbatein was all right but here I'm not talking of my movie opinion... I'm talking from a business point of view of getting in the audience...

DDLJ is still running forcefully at Maratha Mandir after so many years but gone are the days of Silver, Golden, Platinum jubilees. Today, release your movie and in the second month release it's DVD and in the third month air it on television. It's sad but true... one misses those silver jubilee signs... I guess you still might see them in small towns but becuase of the multiplex culture it's maximum profit in the first week end.

But I don't know why but Yash Raj just seems full of itself. Lousy and repetitive promotions of RNBDJ dont really excite... yes SRK has a fan following but recall that Chak De India had a bad opening and it worked only because of word of mouth publicity eventually.

People are confused... what is this movie all about? Why is SRK looking like a retard? Also just read yesterday that the advance booking will only begin two days before the release date appparently because of the terrorist attacks. I'm trying to think of the strategy there but sense eludes me. Deshdrohi had more recall value man... Sheesh!!

Bandook Saints

Phew... long time since my last post and a lot has happened in Mumbai...

Saw a few movies... The Forbidden Kingdom (Predictable), Dostana (Spoilt masala) and The Boondock Saints (really cool).

Boondock Saints is my kind of movie... more on action with minimal doses of drama, a story which moves at the right pace and really good characterization.

Now, I don't know if it's a co-incidence if I saw this movie just prior to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai but I just want to tell you about my confused state of mind.

What's the movie about? Two Irish Brothers accidentally kill a couple of underworld hotshots and turn themselves in. They are released and the public welcomes them as heroes who have wiped some of the scum of the earth. Taking this to be the call of God, the brothers start wiping out all that is evil- Russian, Italian mafia, local goons, etc.

Firstly, I want to tell you that I loved this movie. I loved it for the way the the film was shot, the action and the way the director told the story.

Now, I know killing is not right. As far as I know no religion tells us to kill including Christianity. But then why did it seem so right to me?

Now let me compare this with the recent terrorist attacks... The terrorists came and killed the same way like in Boondock Saints. The only difference was that here the victims were innocent people. But did the terrorists feel the same way? If they didn't then they aren't really different from the Boondock Saints.

So I guess it all boils down to not killing people... So Boondock Saints spread a wrong message... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I know incomplete boring post... but I dont know what to say... I still like the movie... I guess I should just take this as entertainment and not go really deep into it. (still thinks)