LUCK BY CHANCE: Beginner's Luck?

As a filmmaker (or perhaps a filmmaker-to-be), I often find myself thinking more about the process of filmmaking itself as opposed to what that process should be used to present. Such is the case with Zoya Akhtar's debut film, Luck By Chance. "Write what you know" they say and it feels that she's tried to do exactly that.

Hot on the heels of the last Excel Productions film, Rock On!!, Luck By Chance marks the entry of Farhan Akhtar's sister into the world of films and it's the world of films that she decides to deal with. And rather than offering us a soup or salad to whet or appetites, she gets right into things with a thali-full of delights.

The set-up of the film is efficient and the title sequence is one of the most poignant tributes to Indian cinema that I've seen in some time. We instantly know that we will be covering a lot of ground. The plot-lines are many and varied: There's Sona Mishra's (Konkona Sen Sharma) struggle to become an established first tier heroine; there's Romy Rolly's (Rishi Kapoor) struggle to make a blockbuster film while balancing the airs of uppity celebrities; there's Zaffar Khan's (Hrithik Roshan) struggle to maintain some semblance of a normal life amidst extreme adulation and fame; there's Neena Wallia's (Dimple Kapadia) struggle to make sure her daughter follows in her footsteps and becomes a big star; and at the forefront is Vikram Jaisingh's (Farhan Akhtar) struggle to tie all of these plotlines together while he treats every other character as a rung on the ladder to the top.

Most of the peformances are top-notch. Rishi Kapoor is completely over-the-top, Dimple Kapadia is super scary and Hrithik Roshan stands out as the straight man amidst all the hijinks. Zoya Akhtar peppers the narrative with minor characters, many a celebrity character and observations on the nature of the industry. While these references are whizzing past with every scene, one minor complaint is that instead of being the perceptive views of an insider they pander to the cliches that one associates with Bollywood. But that's a relatively unimportant issue when we see how much is dealt with.

It's a wonder that the script is able to handle all of these threads (and many more) to weave a rich tapestry of the "Hindi Film Industry". In spite of moments of confusion, we are treated to everything from the corporate side of Bollywood to the dedication of theatre actors to their muse. And while it's commendable that all of this manages to stay coherent, it does make us lose track of who or what we should be following.

While Vikram's story seems to be the one we should be following, a second act turn makes us wonder what we are really invested in. And while this is an interesting approach, it isn't helped by the fact that the story begins to meander and almost reduces itself to a series of gags and oh-look-it's-so-and-so-celebrity situations. Rather than building to a resounding climax, it limps it's way across the finish line to an ending that is quite brave and down-to-earth but at the same time unexpected and a tad undeserved.

In fact it's not very dissimilar to the trailer for the film. It starts as a light-hearted satire on today's Bollywood and descends into sentimentality and heavy-handedness. By trying to have the ostentatious song-and-dance sequence along with a certain cynicism, it balances along an uneven tone and one feels that Zoya Akhtar wants to have her cake and eat it too.

Having said that, I do think it's a great first effort and there is just too much in this film to leave disappointed. It's great to see an intelligent voice shine through and hopefully once Ms. Akhtar achieves the catharsis she seems to desire, she moves beyond the realm of what she knows to what she wants to know.

*** stars out of *****

Roadside Romeo

I saw the film a few days ago. I was going in with low expectations: I didn’t like the designs (quadripeds standing on two legs is kinda awkward), but I was still curious. Unlike many Indian “animated” features, which are sometimes more like animatics, the trailers for Roadside Romeo showed full animation and some real acting, for a change. Also I was interested in how local this film would really be.

I can’t believe I’m saying this: I actually enjoyed myself. It’s easy to make fun of this film, but when you realize it’s not trying to be more than it really is, you can’t help HAVING fun instead. The story is very cliched - a rich bratty dog named Romeo gets left on the streets of Mumbai when his family leaves for London. He befriends the street dogs, falls in love and hoodwinks the local bull dog villain (Charlie Anna, he literally steals the show).

What it lacks in terms of plot, the film makes up for with some great voice acting and insightful humour. The gags here are not translated from Hollywood, but rather from live-action Bollywood. The characters talk like stereotypes definitley, but INDIAN stereotypes, and that is (in a small way) a step forward.

The film has been written and directed by former (failed) Bollywood actor, Jugal Hansraj, and he actually does a good job of balancing comedy with interesting characters. The animation was done by Tata Elxsi - http://www.tataelxsi.com/ - and while character design and art direction do take a back seat, the animation itself is pretty good, without a hint of motion capture.

I’m pretty sure that by having Disney involved in this, the standards have definitely been raised. Made over a two-and-a-half year period, it seems to have come along pretty quickly.
My only hope is that this film, while bordering on mediocre, opens up avenues for better big-budget animated features here in India.

I know this has kind of turned into a mini-review I’ll just finish by saying, if you’re a Bollywood fan - go see it. Otherwise a lot of the in-jokes will fly past.

BLACK HOLE by Charles Burns

I haven't posted in quite a while. So I thought I'd get the blogging juices flowing again with a brief book review.

As you've probably come to expect from me, the book in question is a graphic novel (can't go beyond picture books these days - I've spoiled myself!) called BLACK HOLE by Charles Burns. I read this quite some time back and I really, really enjoyed it.

The book is about a group of teenagers in a small town in America who start spreading a strange STD which has different symptoms for different people. The approach that Burns takes is a heady combination of teenage angst, suspense, sex and horror. That's one formula that can never go wrong.

I especially related to one of the main characters, Chris (a girl in this case) on whom the effect of the disease is that she sheds her skin just as a snake does, at regular intervals.

There's an in-depth analysis of the book here. I totally recommend this book for it's wonderfully stark black-and-white art and the story which is top-notch. I recently heard a rumor that the book might be adapted into a film by none other than David Fincher himself. Frankly, I think this is a bad idea and I hope nothing transpires. The art of the book is integral to the story and the medium is perfectly suited for this tale.

Speaking of the art, I was surprised to notice similar looking artwork in one of the films from the Fear[s] of the Dark trailer. And surprise, surprise... that particular short has been directed by Charles Burns. It's very interesting to see his style applied in an animated format.

Call me a pervert...

I spent yesterday illustrating Kamasutra positions, reading about three incestuous sisters and then a book called Girls.

Well, the illustrations were actually cartoons for a project.

The Three Incestuous Sisters is the strangest illustrated book I've read in a long time.



And Girls by the Luna Brothers is the strangest comic book I've read in some time.



Yes, yes... I went on another one of my regular trips to Landmark, the book store and was able to read almost two books before the store closed.

The Three Incestuous Sisters is a book unlike any other. Beautifully illustrated and through a sparse use of words to support the illustrations, it reads at one and the same time like a fairy-tale, a script, a storyboard, a book. I heartily recommend it just for it's strangeness disturbing visuals and the fairly tedious process used to illustrate them (aquatint) makes one appreciate it even more.



Girls is a comic book that at first glance seems like any other comic book. But the weird and wacky story of a small American town being attacked by a horde of naked beautiful women who were hatched in a bathroom stops looking run-of-the-mill once you flip the cover.

The Luna brothers take you on this wild ride but what really holds it all together is the central character, Ethan, a guy who has trouble understanding women and probably starts the whole mess. The great thing about the story is that it shifts quickly and easily between being funny, quirky, sexy, intriguing to downright scary. The best part is how well the story's been edited between issues - it just takes these twists and turns which will keep you on the edge of your seat. It looks and reads almost like a movie.

You can read the first issue here for free!

http://www.imagecomics.com/iconline.php?title=girls_001&page=cover

I could only find the first volume (Issues 1-6) compiled in a trade paperback, but I wasn't able to finish the last issue before the store closed!

This just means I'll have to go back.

And no I'm not a perv.

MAUS

Shreyas (previously) is being quite generous when it comes to lending me books. She happens to own a brand new copy of MAUS, both part I and II. The first time I heard about MAUS was when I first read From Aargh! to Zap! by Harvey Kurtzman.

It gave me great joy to finally read the entire story almost like fulfilling something left incomplete in my childhood.

MAUS is a must read for anyone and everyone. It put into a scary context every day things that I take for granted, like ragging or "social interaction" in my college to the food I eat so comfortably.

But more than that I was able to relate most with Artie (Art Spiegelman, the author) and his difficulties in trying to tell a tale which he himself has not witnessed.

Beg, borrow (I did), or steal a copy today!

From Aargh! to Zap!

From Aargh! to Zap!: Harvey Kurtzman's Visual History of the Comics is one of the many books that I happened to chance by because of the wonderful Scarborough Public Library (now the Toronto Public Library, it seems), back when I was around 8 or 9.

In those days, the library used to clear out all their old books and they would sell them to the public for peanuts. And since both of my parents were (at the time) unbiased and voracious readers, they bought almost anything and everything.

That's when I first saw From Aargh! to Zap! - a gigantisized tattered old book about the history of comics.

I suppose I didn't realize it then, bu when I look back now, I realize that it was probably one of the biggest influences early on in my life. Later every time I heard someone talking about any of the comics/comix mentioned in the book, I was able to relate and sometimes show off with a bit of trivia about it (even if I had never read the book myself).

Now, when I'm finally able to read the books I read about then, things come full circle and it all feels predestined in a weird sort of way.

Thank you, Harvey Kurtzman!

Just Like Clockwork...

I just finished reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick on an overcast Thursday afternoon. This book actually belongs to Shreyas Krishnan, who unlike me, prefers to BUY books and treasure them rather than devour them sneakily in the store itself

The Invention... is a thoroughly mesmerising read as it brings together the best things about pictures and words and neither of the two are given the short end. I just love it when an author is able to blend together fact, fiction, images, words, history, cinema, characters, mystery, story, print with a dash of poignancy and make all these gears work like...

...well, clockwork!

Then again, this is probably the first time I've experienced it.

The Fountain

A brand new Landmark Bookstore has just opened in the outskirts of Ahmedabad in ISCON mall. My favorite thing about Landmark is the graphic novel section. My usual mission is to get in; read a book; finish before anyone wants to leave. It's very satisfying to get to read great work without having to pay for it!

Speaking of great work, yesterday I read the graphic novel version of The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky and Kent Williams. As most of you might now, I've been looking forward to the film version for a long time. But sadly, I haven't been able to see it. I did absolutely love the trailer though.



The book is great, if simply for the fact that visually it doesn't try to ape the movie. That is of course probably because they were both made parallel to each other. This is a pleasant change from the cheap comic book adaptations of movies that you usually see (most often they are comic book adaptations of movie adaptations of comics!).

The story here is being marketed as the Ultimate Director's Cut. Well, I don't know about that. But it's definitely worth a read!

Ratatouille

Possibly the most interesting character in Ratatouille, for me, is Anton Ego. The film begins and ends with him. He is also a representative of us - the audience.

How long have we craved for something to enjoy; something to love? Although we are quick to point out faults in the work that we see, it is truly a repercussion of the need to find something greater in life - something tastier.

Ratatouille is by no means perfect. I have to admit, if one gets technical, there are quite a few things that I did not like about it. But the important thing is that it strives for greatness; just like its protagonist. Remy knows that he might fail, but ultimately that doesn't mean he shouldn't express himself.

I'd like to applaud Brad Bird for making a film that is not just for "audiences", but also for critics. He has made a film that shows us, by example, that we should expect greater things from our art and our lives.

Bravo!

Garage Band

Remember my not so enthusiastic review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?

What?

You don't remember?

Well scroll down and have a look. I'll wait for you.

Honestly, I'll wait.

Back? Good.

Well, now that you know that how thoroughly boring that outing was, I can continue. After the movie, I went to Landmark (the book store). The Landmark in Andheri, Mumbai has an amazing collection of Trade Paperback comic books, Manga, Comix and graphic novels. The best part is that you can sit and read whole books, right there in the store.

Since I had some time to kill that Sunday evening, I picked up a couple of books to read. One of them was Gipi's Garage Band and I have to say that it was quite a good read.

Garage band is a small and intimate story about four young band members who practice their music in a garage. The book touches on the differences in each of their lives and how their music brings them together and helps them express themselves.

But the most astounding thing about the book, for me, was the artwork. Gipi's line-work has the honesty of a sketchbook and at times he refuses to clean up extra lines, trials and mistakes.

The water-color palette is subdued and controlled very well throughout the book and the most poignant moments in the story come from the use of space. Gipi devotes whole pages to just depicting the sky and uses these splashes as transitions in a truly cinematic manner.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys great artwork and storytelling - the kind that tells the smaller stories with heart.

If you're still unconvinced, then you can read a preview of Garage Band here.

http://www.firstsecondbooks.net/garageBand.html

And also one for Gipi's Notes for a War Story here.

http://www.firstsecondbooks.net/warStory.html

Lucky for us, Gipi's got a blog online here.

http://giannigipi.blogspot.com/

It's in Italian, but I'm sure you won't go there just to read.

Far-Too-Lame Foursome: Rise of the Sucky Sequels

Well I'm not going to be in Mumbai when Ratatouille comes out (that's by far the only movie I'm sincerely "looking forward" to), so I didn't want to miss the chance to watch a movie before heading back to good 'ol "we-show-only-hindi-movies" Raipur.

Firstly, the Fantastic Four was never really a favorite. I remember picking up with one of my first Spider-Man books at a book fair when I was in elementary school (Other books in bought during that time were Punisher and Batman). Fantastic Four, to me, has always been riddled with camp and too many "inter-galactic" adventures for my simple tastes.

That said, I have to say that I absolutely loved The Incredibles, which while borrowing a LOT from Marvel's famous family of foe-fighting superheroes, was able to translate the concept on to screen with a BANG!

The story of FF2 is quite simple really: The herald of Galactus (the planet eating cosmic being),Norrin Radd (or Silver Surfer - I prefer his real name) has come to earth to prepare it for his master. The Fanatastic Four have to stop this from happening, and surprise-surprise they do. All this happens in the midst of Reed Richards and Sue Storms wedding plans.

There's nothing really wrong with Fantastic Four - it's just too simple to be interested in; a paint-by-numbers (Finally! I get to use that phrase!) picture that is very easy to forget.

The good:

• Chris Evans as Johnny Storm - he can get pretty annoying, but I think his character kinda grew on me. The payoff of him using all the four powers to fight doom was quite cool.
• The Silver Surfer - they pretty much got his character right. I really like the way he silently disposes of any obstacle in his path. And Doug Jones is always awesome.
• Ioan Gruffud as Mr. Fantastic is also okay. But that's the whole point. I can't come up with anymore positives because everything is just "okay".

The bad:

• Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom - totally not needed.
• Galactus - I like the cloud, but it ain't Galactus.
• Silver Surfer without his sheen is very hard to watch and not too believeable.
• Lawrence Fishburne as Silver Surfer - it doesn't work.
• Some of Mr. Fantastic's stretchy effects
• The Surfer having weird powers and sometimes being too reminiscent of T-1ooo.

The ugly:

• Jessica Alba's hair and eyes. UGLY, UGlY, UGLY.

Well, there you have it. A mediocre movie. If they make a sequel, it should be straight-to-video.

Actually - this one should've been too.

Ocean's Thirteen

One word - "Smooth".

Bring on Fourteen!

J'aime "Paris Je T'aime"

The Science of Sleep...

...is like a really long short film.

300 - What a waste...

...that it takes an extravagant visual treat of a politically-basic, big-budget, mega-hollywood event of a film to get people to appreciate a brilliant book that they haven't actually read and probably never will.

It's opera and I loved it. But what a waste.

UPDATE: Hmmm... could I be wrong?

The End

The guy taking our course is a final year student from the Royal College of Art, named Martin Ruyant. He's French and he did his graduation at Supinfocom school in France. There he made a film with a couple of other people called, The End.

Although the visuals and animation are really good, I was much more impressed with the simple story and strong concept. Have a look below!

Go watch Being Cyrus!

Happy Sunday!

If you haven't seen Being Cyrus yet, then what have you been doing? You had the weekend, and you should have watched it!

Smit, Sundar, Siddharth and I went to see it yesterday, and personally I think it's a terrific first film from Homi Adajania.

The pros:

Great direction and camera work. Great editing - by Jon Harris, the same guy who edited Snatch. Each character is well played out and is more of a caricature of himself or herself. It's not exactly what you expect it to be. I love surprises! Oh, and excellent score. What else? Lots of humour, well-written dialogue... It's thoroughly enjoyable.

The cons:

Not for those who like predictable plots. Quite a few loopholes in this unpredictable plot though. Gets a bit slow in the middle -- though out of necessity. A few too many Parsi dialogues, but that's it.

There's no reason why shouldn't watch it. And there's also no reason why you should agree with me.

So go watch the movie (it isn't very long -- just an hour and a half) and post your views here.

See you soon.

Rohit out.

PS - You can visit the official website at - http://beingcyrus.indiatimes.com/