Silver Screen

Its a Page-3 lesson !

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It was the set of movie Babul. This incident is a real one . Rani Mukherjee was learning bike driving lessons from Salman. He gave Rani the clutch and accelerator lessons well and she paid half attention to those.Rani Mukherjee

She started the bike. With her half learnt lessons, the bike accelerated full and jumped into the air few meters high ! To everyone on the set, this was an unbelievable real action. As the bike crashed on land, every one on the set was looking towards the British guy present there instead of the bruised Rani. The 10 years old bike was owned and well maintained by the British guy. His bike !! To surprise, British guy without any worry was laughing. On being asked he replied “Mr. Salman, why only 1 bike, I can sacrifice 10 such bikes to see such an action”.

Maintaining a bike for 10 years was easier but not the calm composure and emphasizing the action happened there. I adore you, man!

Kamalahasan Speaks – and I like that

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In a column, Kamalahasan spoke of himself in the Telegraph- ETC, 31st Dec, 2004 issue. I would like to share it with you .

On self: I am first a fan of Kamalahasan. You must appreciate what you are doing. Tell me, when do you become a respectable person in society? When you start respecting yourself .That is when you take care of yourself. That is when you comb your hair, groom yourself and cleanse your body. You do all this because you respect yourself. You may not wear a dress because you may not look good in that. My being a fan of Kamalahasan is also like that.

On criticism: I might even agree with the person if it is sensible criticism. There are some people who criticize because they have to do to. Icon-bashing is the greatest of all sport. I can spot that at once.

On Performance: Very easy. If you kept criticizing yourself, the zenith of it is suicide , You hate yourself so much that you are you are ready to kill it . Yes, I said ‘it’ and not him or me. So criticism is easy. Some people suffer from it because they don’t know when to stop criticising. It is like eating sweets. You must stop when to stop.

On filmmaking: No profession is as versatile as this one. If you ask me how many days I work in a week, I would reply I don’t work. It has been nearly 20 years since I worked. Acting ceases to be work because I enjoy it. But it feels like working when I do bad work, especially when I know it is bad …. I am a fan of cinema. I am so fortunate that it also happens to be my chosen profession. That happens very rarely.

Life is like “Darpan – Chhaya”

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Today I have something to share with you and its about a Nepali film. Few years back I had watched a Nepali movie –Darpan Chhaya during my Siliguri stay after hearing it’s fame. By that time I had became well conversant in Nepali. After watching the movie I realized that one can grasp the essence of the movie as well as the excellent music even if one knows just Hindi. The whole movie is finely weaved around the delicate human relationships. As the name of the movie Darpan Chhaya suggests that the life is like that mirror and shadow. The end makes the viewer emotionally delicate. If one does not get emotional after seeing the movie, I am sure he have an unusual EQ (Emotional Quotient).
The story of the movie is about a love triangle. It’s about two boys both good students in a collage, and one beautiful girl in the same college. If one have started guessing the story and he may be guessing correct.
Although I have not seen many contemporary movies but I am sure that it is off track movie. The girl got both of them but none could get her! Should I tell why they could not get her? Like me, many people may not like to hear the story of movie before seeing it. Therefore assuming that you are like me I am not telling the whole story here unless asked to do so. But the movie rises some question in our daily life also? Does being attentive to any one is a mistake? Is hearing pains or laughing together needs to be ‘blamed’ as a love symptom? Is getting served from someone or serving someone is seen as a weakness? Attributing all these to flowery love, the selfish love, is justifiable? Why the expectations from human rises on existence of these basic and natural human traits.
And when this becomes the case between two complementary gender the expectations must be balanced. Did any one have seen the Diary of Brahma who is believed to write the three events of life? Then why should we be bothered about the middle event of marriage so much?
I remember the quote of Bajaj, the industrialist, which means “Believe that today is your last day, tomorrow you will be remembered by your today”. Then why should we dream too much when we know that this day may be the last day of our life. Can’t human live such a short life after hearing the voices one likes and tell his voices to the persons who will hear him giving attention? Why is it given a wrapper of selfish love? I don’t have answers. The central character has left an indelible impression on me.

Our` whole short life is just like the mirror and shadow. We need not expect much from it but we can certainly live it fully with a selfless love. And this is lesson the movie gives to the viewers. Assuming I am a movie critique then so I give it 4.9 out of 5 points and remaining 0.1 point is cut off because of the emotional sufferings it gives. Any one who has access to Nepali movies should see it.

Lok-Nayak – A Prakash Jha Film

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Last night I started my TV set, which never had a cable connection. Usually I don't have patience to sit before the box for any movie or soap.
Surprise to me the movie Lok-Nayak was going to start. This is a bio-epic on the life of Jai Prakash Narayan, the great contemporary thinker from Bihar, made by Prakash Jha. Again Prakash Jha have succeeded to bring forth the widely talked issues of Jaiprakash Narayan’s (JP) life quite efficiently. There is a good balance between the documentary and a real life drama in the movie. Prakash succeeded to touch the delicate issues related to JP's life like his role in emergency, the couple's decision to lead a "brahmacharya" life ,the surrendering of dacoits of MP.

For me, I have been interested in Prakash Jha and his movies since 1990, because our Principal Dr.S.N.Jha taught him at Sainik School, Tilaiya. Quoting him Dr. S. N. Jha inspired us to take part in the dramas and he made us an instant stage setter for the cultural activity within the notice of 12 hours. Any one here from the first batch of JNVP ? Moreover Prakash Jha is the creator of some of the well-known movies like Gangaajal, Damul and Hip-Hip Hurray.
In this film too his craftsmanship included the interviews of some of his near associates. Although most interviews seemed to be the dumb statement of his life history and very few voices seemed to stick the principles of JP. The film seemed to be short and running fast. The photography and the music is appreciable. The scene in which JP's wife was dying on bed after taking the hands of JP and telling him to chant “RAM SHREE RAM” will leave an impact on some atheists. These are the moments, when the great weakness of human comes out, when he have no laws, no ethics, and when humanity overtakes everything. The film is a reflection of Prakash's in depth study of the contemporary politics. May Prakash Jha is confirming his decision to join the politics of Bihar. His independent thinking may not lead to any particular party. But let's see what the future have in store. Will this Prakash will follow the footsteps of predecessor Prakash for implementation of his principles in the society