Also Rans

 Not exactly that, but those who were not acknowledged as THE star, or God, or whatever the no. 1 is called by masses. For example, the Big B was widely acknowledged as no. 1. What about many other actors? Here are a few that deserve accolades too-

A for Asrani

D for Dharmendra

H for Hrithik Roshan, 

N for Naseeruddin Shah

P for Parveen Babi

R for Raj Kapoor

S for Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjeev Kumar

V for Vidya Balan, Vinod Khanan

Z for Zeenat Aman

and in cricket, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Abid Ali, Kirmani, Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Prasanna, Vishwanath, Ajit Wadekar, Saurav Ganguly, 

Meaningless Cinema

As an antidote to meaningful and mindful everything, I propose meaningless cinema, with mindless stories, characters, situations, songs, and so on. You get the 'picture' I guess..

The conditions-

There must be no plot, story, that is discernible..the audience must be kept in the dark- this dark is different from the lighting in the auditorium that screens the meaningless film.

The characters must behave strangely- like some zombie moving from one scene to another..Deepak Parasher once had the look required..looked as if he was modelling, when he was supposed to be acting.

Songs if any must have lyrics that make no sense, and music that is out of tune, preferably a worse  remix of a bad remix..

Singers must sound like the combo of that Dhinchak lady plus Himesh Reshamiya..or Taher Shah.

You may argue that we are already there, with Race 3 and its ilk, but films in that class would be a very small minority..methinks we ought to do more!

These are a few of my Favourite Things

Exquisite PJs..my first love.

Newspaper. From the days when writer quality was excellent.

Mirchi bajji..all Andhravadus like this.

Sabudana khichdi/vada..all ghatis are fond of this.

Single Malts- an acquired taste.

Tea- Fits me to a 't'- Irani chai is the best.

Biryani- inevitable Hyderabadi addiction

Humour- Love it. Ultimate test of people. Wodehouse and Asterix, ah!

Books- mystery, non-fiction.

Pics- They tell a story.

Chats. FB is fine. Real ones are even better.

Cinema- Bollywood -with all its warts- comes first. Next is world cinema, Bergman, Irani films, Japanese films, Hollywood,..

Gaane- especially Kishore Kumar.

Newton- Film Review

A full house for a film with no Khans or Roshans is in itself a great thing. Not to take away from star charisma, but there are other films which deserve a viewing. This is one of them. Please avoid it if you want masala entertainment.

But if you want an honest look at what may be happening in relation to social issues in a place such as Chhattisgarh (could be anywhere, actually), then you may want a look-in. It reminded me of two films that I have seen earlier- Govind Nihalani's Aakrosh, and the more recent Peepli Live.

It is produced by Aanand Rai. The director's name was new to me (he is a kar-Masurkar!), but he has handled a difficult subject very well. The casting is perfect- Rajkumar Rao is brilliant, and so is his counterfoil-the army officer. The tribal girl's character has some meaningful dialogues too. The editing (my favourite punching bag) is spot-on.

Good, meaningful cinema, which cautions you that social problems are solvable, but solutions are not easy. In a democracy, the process is also slow. And that education may help.

Masaan-Film Review

Watched this gem of a film yesterday after I read reviews of it in the Mumbai press. For once, the reviews were bang-on! This is a great little film. It is about life and death. A bit tragic for my liking, but ends on an upbeat note. It has a very realistic storyline, and is convincingly authentic.

The actors and the director I don't really know, except that they did their parts well. A story that has unexpected twists, good acting, beautiful cinematography, good music, and a leisurely but engrossing pace. Can't give away the story here, as it'll spoil the fun for those who might want to watch it.

Reminded me of my two other recent favourites- The Lunchbox and Finding Fanny. Do watch if you like serious (and good) cinema. I am loving it!

Farewell My Concubine

This is the title of a classic Chinese film made in 1993. I had heard about it somewhere long ago, and got a chance to view it today. It is stupendous, and unlike many of today's films that can't keep you interested for even an hour and a half, it leaves you wanting more after 170 minutes! That's real art, in my view.

Like Dr. Zhivago does for Russia, it also takes in a lot of the history of China from the Japan-China war to the Chiang Kai Shek era, to the communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. But all this is in the backdrop. The story is of two boys who become stage partners in an opera company and perform the role of the King and his concubine who remains loyal to him through thick and thin, finally laying down her life for him when his kingdom is about to be lost to a rival. The name of the opera they perform successfully is Farewell, My Concubine. This itself is mesmerising, and holds one spellbound when it is on, a few times in the movie.

As they turn successful, there enters a woman, a prostitute, whom one of them marries, and this drives a schism in the relationship of the 'stage brothers'. How they all get through the years of political turmoil and persecution, sometimes lucky and other times not, is the rest of the plot.

A must see, for any movie buff interested in good cinema One of the classics, reminds you of the Kurosawa films from Japan.

A Journey Down Melody Lane

Raju Bharatan is the author of this one. Cricket and movie journalist of repute, he seems to have the handle on a lot of things. Indian ragas for example. He seems to know a 100 ragas and the songs based on them at least.

And hundreds of stories, anecdotes about the ego clashes, insecurities of even greats like Lata Mangeshkar, Sahir Ludhianvi (lyricist), Mohd. Rafi, Naushad, OP Nayyar etc. Even stars like Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Rajesh Khanna and so on.

But he is in his elements while talking about the music of the 50s and 60s. C. Ramchandra, Madan Mohan, Naushad, Ravi, OP Nayyar, SD Burman, Salil Chowdhary,and many others are the subject of long chapters. An interesting story is how in the year of 'Mughal-e-Azam', someone else got the Filmfare prize for the best music. And the same thing happened in the year that 'Guide' was released. Presumably, there was manipulation done by the winners, according to Raju.

Lata's fallouts with OP Nayyar, and with Rafi on the royalty issue, are touched on. The rivalry between Lata and upcoming singers is also covered in detail. The grudging acknowledgement of Kishore Kumar as a powerhouse singer is quoted from many peers, including Manna Dey.

An add on is that he also mentions who each song was filmed on. A great melodious ride down memory lane.