Turkish Serial

 I happened to watch completely a serial with 164 episodes! Originally Turkish, with subtitles, though a few words seemed familiar as we have derivatives in Urdu/Hindi.

The actors were very good, so was the characterisation. That helped me when I thought of giving up. The plot was OK, but got a bit repetitive. The major themes were love and betrayal, with an Al Capone type villain who controls almost everything, killing people at will and corrupting everyone who is willing.

Love triumphs, of course, like in Indian movies, but after several tribulations, and ups and downs-even though the hero is a police officer in Istanbul.

Some good acting, and scenic views of the Bosphorus- the heroine is rich- also helped. Black Money Love is the serial, on Netflix, if you are wondering..

One-time Experiences in Life

 Some experiences are once-in-a-lifetime ones, like a visit to a particular place, out of your normal circuit. Here are a few of my experiences.

Scuba-diving. That too, in an exotic place, the Bahamas. Went there with friends in 1987 or so. We got trained by the company's instructor, and then were taken out into the Ocean, where we could do the real thing. Thailand, near Pattaya offers the same, as do a few other destinations. It's worth doing, at least once. Bungee jumping, I don't think I have the stomach for. 

Acting in a play. I had never done it before, but for some reason, my friend Harish, who was directing, called me for an audition, and gave me one of the two lead (male) roles. That remains a cherished experience, back in 1983/84, at IIM Bangalore during my MBA. Since then, I have been a spectator. Watched a couple of excellent plays at IIM Indore staged by another good friend, Shweta Kushal. 

The only other time I have come close to acting was in a video I did on Personal Branding recently. And it was not all acting. At IIMB, I also did Radio Jockeying or RJing (in today's terminology) for a show that my friends had put on the Bangalore Youth channel of All India Radio.

Some destinations that I only visited once have been Brussels, Northwest France (Brittany), Greece, Cambodia, Vietnam and Ladakh and Kashmir in India.

Waiting for Lefty: The Inside Story of a Play

These are reminiscences of how a play called Waiting for Lefty (by Clifford Odets) was staged by a band of wannabe stage actors at IIMB, circa 1983. I was one of them. Directed by Harish Chaudhary.

1. You should have seen the first day’s audition. It was hilarious, with voices reading the dialogues out in a flat monotone. I’m sure not a single one of us understood what was going on-if anyone did, he "done himself" full credit. Now that it’s all culminated fairly successfully, I think it’s only in the fitness of things that the inside story, the SCOOP, must come out. About what happened while we worked at it- it was all WORK, and for a PLAY.
2. There was this old disease-malignant, tumescent (sorry, Doc Barnes- a character from the play)- of non-attendance. We never really found an anti-toxin for it till the end. One does understand if you bunk classes, but a play rehearsal? What’s the world coming to? Of course, those of us who came gulped down chai and paushtik bondas at Uncle’s.
3.  The fight for the good voice: There were a few voices in the script- a voice, another voice, and a good voice. Now, everyone wanted to be the GOOD voice. We never reached a consensus on the issue (HR guys please note). Finally, the diro (Harish Chaudhary) pulled a fast one by mouthing it himself. The really good voice, Banny, withdrew due to commitments (academic? Not sure).
4. If one man could play two roles, Nandu Jr. would have been the Gunman- “Sit down, punk!” was written by Odets with him in mind. But Banny had to be replaced by someone equally good, and Jr. filled the breach admirably. Luckily for us, Chakki was lurking in the shadows, and could be hauled up for this role fast.
5. The comedy: I haven’t laughed as heartily ever before or since-

1.       Dash saying “But Fatt is right, our officers is right” with a nasal twang-the first time he did it, we all rolled over in our chairs.

2.       Dilip Gadkari jumping all over the place trying to sound convincing with “Boys, they just found Lefty.” Instead of looking shocked, we hit the ceiling laughing.

            The relatively smaller travails we endured were-

-          Getting Ali and Navneeta to step on the floor instead of stepping on each other’s toes during the dance sequence.

-          Getting Yours Truly to emote- my inexperience in the area showed, and with Rose (my heroine) looking as if she meant every word of what she said, the only emotion I registered was FEAR.

-          Getting Sunil (Kandlikar) to look less like a gangster and more like a brother (here we succeeded).

-          Getting Robin to stop laughing. He just sat there and laughed. Finally, we had to stuff his mouth with accurately aimed chalk pieces.

-          Getting Corporate Man (Manglik) to bend (in lieu of a fall) when Sarat punched him. I’m sure I noticed a 5 degree deviation from the vertical once in rehearsals.

-          Getting Sivaram to look less less frightened of old Doc Barnes (ROI).

Just one more point. The censorship. The original script contained a couple of kisses. But we decided that you dirty old guys didn’t deserve the vicarious pleasure. Feel cheated? Well, bad luck.

(this first appeared on our wall mag. I had preserved the original)

The Salesman- Film Review

This is an Iranian movie that just won the Best Foreign Film Oscar. In a word, it's brilliant!

This is the fifth or sixth film by an Iranian director that I have watched. It makes me think why we can't make films like they do..maybe some of our directors do make them occasionally. But usually it is an over-the-top formula film we get to see.

There is a lot to learn from this film- How to act, for one. Both the lead characters (shown above) are so understated in their performance, it reminded me of Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri in their heydey. Just too good.

How to direct a film, too. The way he has used the iconic play called Death of a Salesman in the background is great! The way the mystery unravels, and the climax keeps you guessing, is what cinema should be about. A wow experience, if you ask me.

Bad Acting Awards

The way we praise/reward good acting, so we should bad acting. So here goes-

My nominations for Hamming Birds-Male.

1. Dino Morea- Dinosaurial skills in acting. In fact, Tyranno would have acted better.

2. Deb Mukherjee- Not sure what he was doing in films.

3. Bhushan (or was it Kishen?) Kumar- Gulshan jee was his brother, or something. Forgettable.

4. The guy who the wonderful song Chalte chalte mere yeh geet was shot on..whatwashisname.

5. Dabboo Kapoor- the wonderful RD Burman tunes did nothing for his acting. People laughed when he tried enacting a cancer patient's role in Harjaee. and laughed again when he discoed in the same film...to Tujhsa haseen dekha na kaheen, tu hogi meherbaan kabhi na kabhi..

6. Sunil Shetty. Comparable with the all time greats, such as Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, and a few others.

7. John Abraham- his abs were better than his talent- abs-olutely!