Seemingly aimed at a key demographic, the film negotiates a fine tuning between direction, a first-class amateur work and the clichés and banalities of Hindi movies. Amateur is not the best compliment but I can be politically correct with a simple word ‘first-class’. The film rolls out within the confines of specific events in the country’s history merging time on precision points. But this individualistic inspiration tapers down to quite a disappointingly hurried second half and an even much hastier end. It’s like a well written book which is just too thin. It could have done with something more…something more incoherent maybe!
There were a few aspects of the movie that bothered me but not to the extent that would make me lose my sleep.
- Like, the movie was a walking trumpet for NDTV, a news channel that covers stories like the frostbite cold Delhi and the complimentary benefits of a warm cup of tea. This is when the winter toll rises to 36 odd.
- Like, the firang was there in the movie to tone down the anti-British trend.
- Like, when the RAF during the protest and the Commandos in the end behave like no-mercy-Russian-cum-Chinese-ruthless-anti-terrorist-squads.
- Like, there were times when you wondered, the MIGs are not the only source of redundant deaths in the military?
I kept pondering...
As you may have noticed, all these questions are inconsequential. You HAVE to look at this movie as a different product. When the trend of the Bhagat Singh movie series make you speculate that whether he died for the country or was it for pure commercial appeal, a twist of lime in Rang De Basanti called Retro Patriotism stirs the senses. It is a movie in the end, something that has to be digested with a bucket of popcorn and cola. Watch the movie, go home, forget it, and go to work the next day. Movies don’t work in India.
1 comment:
I do read such reviews in Tabliod journals like JAM and JLT, which doesn’t make any difference from them. If you are really interested in writing the movie review please read Khalid Mahmood article, he is one of the best reviewer in India. I don’t know on what basis do you review or give your opinion on any movie. I will tell you that there are four kind of viewers exist in this world. Which can be defined on articulation. Please go through the following level of articulation and then review any movie or give your ideas which is full of jargon but nothing else.
Levels of Articulation
Simple Choice: unarticulated and incoherent
Articulated Choice: Specific reasons cited but incoherent
Articulated Coherent Choice: Specific reasons cited with internal coherence
Consistent Choice: Specific reasons cited with consistent internal and external coherence
Levels of Filmmaking
Working intuitively: early filmmakers
Cinematically aware: Mahesh Bhatt, Rahul Rawail, Mukul Anand
Theoretically aware: Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani
Theoreticians-filmmakers: Eisenstein
When you criticize any film, how do you that. Please go through it, it will help you to understand the level of reviewing and criticism.
Reviewing-Criticism
Reviewing: more reportage than analysis
The presumption is that the viewer has not seen the film and so the writing is slanted towards the description of the film with a final recommendation as to whether the film is worth seeing or not.
Criticism: extensively analytical
The presumption is that the viewer has seen the film and hence the description is often dispensed with. It goes into various aspects of the film in greater detail.
Theory: externally coherent analysis
Much of film theory has nothing to do with the practice of cinema. It is primarily an intellectual activity with roots in philosophy, psychology or the fine arts.
And at last, I will tell you Just like a filmmaker chooses his frame a critic must choose his point of view and his set of criteria against which he will examine a film. This is known as the critic’s position. In the early stages this may even vary from film to film but eventually it will fructify into a set of chosen criteria.
A critic must also choose how he wants to look at the film:
as a film on its own (micro analysis)
the effect it has on the audience (macro analysis)
as a prototype of a particular movement/genre/milieu/history (macro analysis)
Post a Comment