RAIMA

I have this very disgusting habit of dividing the people of this world into those who have read and liked J.D.Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and those who haven’t. Obviously I hold the former group in sky- high esteem (I could have kissed them on both cheeks!) and pity the latter. (I could have written here that I have complete disdain and unmitigated hatred for them but stopped short of such extremes because all is not lost - the book is still in print, they can read it and redeem themselves!) So, I was relieved, and pleasantly reassured, when I read in a recent interview of Raima Sen that ‘Catcher’ is her favourite book. Yeah! That made my day, because Raima Sen happens to be one of the few people from the world of entertainment I genuinely like. For her sultry good looks, sure, but mainly for what she can do on screen. The 3 individuals (barring Rabindranath Thakur) Bengalis unabashedly adulate has to be Subhas Chandra Bose, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. A freedom-fighter and 2 matinee idols! Sourabh Ganguly is fast closing in on them but as of now Bengalis are not wholly convinced of his greatness (besides he is stinking rich and we Bongs simply hate the stinking rich. It’s got nothing to do with the stink though!) But since I am into Raima Sen today I’ll stick to Suchitra Sen. Ask any Bengali to name the most beautiful woman of all time, and 7 out of 10 will still vote for Suchitra Sen. In the 60s innumerable impressionable Bengali girls got stiff necks trying to clone her famous head-turned-to-one-side-and eyes- to- the- other look. It was a class act. Coyness, standoffishness, Presidency or Lady Brabourne educated Bengaliness personified. Then one fine day she just turned away from the cameras reducing Bengalis to heart-broken rudalis whose only refrain was After Suchitra the deluge! Until….Raima came along. When her photos were splashed across the pages of glossies many a Bong heart skipped a few beats. Raima was Suchitra Sen re- incarnated! Well not quite. She gave Tollygunge what it deserved - a short shrift. (Take out Rituporno Ghosh and Aparna Sen from Tolly and you’re left with a huge yawn! Anjan Dutta and Sandip Ray do have their fans but I am not one of them, sorry.)

Moonmoon Sen, her mother, in spite of her many talents, couldn’t make much headway in Bengali films because she couldn’t act! She should have tried her hand at making films, instead. She is an accomplished photographer, a trained painter and for many years was one of the moving forces behind Chitrabani, Father Gaston Roberge’s film school. I’ve heard innumerable Bengalis refer to her as ‘makal phal’ (loosely translated it would mean beauty without brains/talent). How wrong they could be! But then can you blame them really? She was famous only for being her mother’s daughter then and now all indications are that she’ll be known only for being her daughters’ mother! Aishwarya Rai underestimated Raima, in Chokher Bali,( why wouldn’t she? Afterall she was the reigning queen then, and Raima, a greenhorn.) and paid a heavy price for it. Raima stole scene after scene from right under Asihwarya’s snub nose! It was an early indication of the kind of stuff she was capable of delivering given the right script and the right director. It’s a long road ahead, but keep walking Raima…………….’cause you have places to go.
uday
Ps: the beautiful photograph I've uploaded is by Ronny Sequierra. Ronny, please don't sue me for copyright infringement. Nobody reads my blog anyway!

'Sir'cus and Black Magic!

There are 2 film-makers in Bollywood who are constantly referred to as 'Sir' by the wannabes. Sanjay Bhansali(can’t for the life of me call a guy Leela!) and Mani Ratnam. Why? Do they insist on being addressed as Sir? ‘Mani Saar’ and ‘Sanjay Saar’!.
Sanjay Bhansali did everything to make his ‘Black’ look and feel like a phoren film. He cleverly left out the song and dance routine conning the educated ( are they really?) middle-class into believing that Sanjay Saar has made a serious movie! That film was one big opera. That is his forte, borne out by the fact that ‘Padmavati’ the opera he has directed is doing quite well. All his films are operatic extravaganzas. That is why he is constantly referred to, by the polite set, as the director with a ‘different’ vision. It is the difference between cinema and opera. Shekhar Kapoor had once ( when he was booted out of Bollywood, I guess) famously described Hindi movies as ‘nautankis’ and Mr. Bachhan as the greatest nautank. He hit the nail bang on the head! Mr. Bhansali’s nautankis are misinterpreted by most as touching and moving cinema. Anil Grover, who used to write for Sunday magazine and The Telegraph, went so far as to claim that Black was good enough to compete in the main section and not just as a Foreign Language Film at the Oscars! Really, we Indians get so carried away by our little achievements!
To continue about that much-awarded film( the charade just went on and on and on, with Mr.Bhansali, chewing gum firmly in cheek, picking up every award imaginable and thanking his mother and sister, but no one from the film fraternity, for his great success.) , Dhritiman Chatterjee did all he could to look like a big actor. But he forgot that he was in a movie and not on stage. The explanation for his bizarre histrionics can be found in the fact that he has been making his mark on the English drama stage in Chennai for quite sometime now. He is an accomplished stage actor – and it showed. Ayesha, the little girl was quite good but a bit over the top. The script was written for Rani Mukherjee (did someone say, or is it my imagination, that she is God’s gift to Hindi cinema? Well, I think that person is right) and she did justice to it. Poor Mr.Bachhan had to play second fiddle throughout, but finally he had his revenge when his wig stole the show! I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Could you? If you close your eyes, I am sure, the vision will come back to haunt you even today. The general consensus was that he over-acted. But you see, he was in a Sanjay Bhansali film and when you are in a Sanjay Bhansali film you don’t just act but you over-act. Period. In all this din everyone missed the fact that the two really outstanding performances came from Shernaz Patel and Nandana Sen. They deserved to be talked about and handed over atleast 10% of the awards that Mr.Bhansali cornered.
Bye for now,
Uday

Mani- Mithun- Mallika

Mani Ratnam is one film maker I used to think highly of…..till I watched ‘Guru’. Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayakan’ finds a place in Time magazine’s list of All Time Great Movies ( a sort of 100 movies to see before you die!). But I believe that has something to do with ‘their’ quota system! “Throw in some Asian movies or they’ll crib.” The 21st century belongs to Asia after all. ( Who ever said that doesn’t care much for the 21st. century! This vast continent works on bribes!).

But….but, Mani Ratnam is good. His ‘Yuva’, although it bombed at the box-office (the dumb brigade strikes!), and heavily borrowed from Innarittu’s brilliant Amores Peros, is good cinema. By our desi standards, mind you. Excellent performances, taut script, top-notch direction, competent cinematography and memorable music. But Guru? Atrocious story line, amateurish art direction (horrid sets), lousy make-up, and acting. Abhishek goes back to where he belongs – between the bottom and the lower middle rung! Aishwrya does precious little with her histrionic skills, as if she had any. Mithunda stands out. But then he always stands out. Vidya Balan and Madhavan gel well. (a fact that the Airtel TV spots are exploiting to the hilt. They should give royalty to Mani Ratnam).

Mithun Chakraborty is the greatest tragic figure in the history of Indian cinema. He has the abilities to give a run for their money to anyone in the industry, starting from the Big B down to the small Z (whoever that may be...Zayed Khan, perhaps?). He had everything going for him, acting skill wise, and he threw it all away because he was anonymous and poor and desperately wanted fame and fortune. He succeeded, as he should have being highly intelligent and hard working, but in the process Indian cinema lost a great actor. No one will put him in the same bracket as Balraj Sahani, Sanjeev Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri or Anupam Kher. But believe you me that is where he belongs. Among the very best. He’s on over-drive now, trying to make up for lost opportunities. But I think he has missed the bus, although directors keep saying that his best is yet to come. If they mean it they should do something about it.

Talking about ‘Guru’ it’s difficult to give Mallika Sherawat a miss. Her ‘Maiya Maiya’ item number is, to put it very very mildly, simply mind-blowing. Now, that girl has what it takes! Oodles of oomph! Sounds horrible, but this alliterative expression does complete justice to her. A touch of semi-rustic, small town Indian sensuality (vulgarity?) that is the main-stay of our popular erotic literature and art is best epitomised in this lanky and lithe woman! No two ways about it. No one comes even a distant second. Preity Zinta, Aishwarya….? Com’n, give me a break! Baby dolls all! They are too plasticky, too un-real, soul-less and anorexic. Priyanka Chopra is doing good and has the correct balance of vulnerability and sang-froid, classic Indian good looks, sexy smile, thick lips, but then she is less feminine than Mallika. So Mallika rules! I think we should all be thankful to Mallika for working so hard to satiate our lust, our drooling and leching. She has dedicated herself to the lecherous ogling Indian male and with telling effect. Thank you kind girl!
Bye for now,
Uday