To kill the sickness blues I went DVD shopping. And I was in a total retro mood thanks to my current read – Bollywood by Mihir Bose.

Mother India – Seen this & thought it should be in the collection.

Pyaasa - Not seen but very keen to see Guru Dutt’s work and Waheeda Rehman perform the role of a prostitute.

Shree 420 and Awaara - The Raj Kapoor classics. Have seen them in bits and pieces on cable TV. But this time going to watch it end to end.

Hopefully should be catching up with the movies soon and will share my thoughts here. Meanwhile do tell me what’s been your favourite classic movie from Bollywood or the Hollywood collections.

So I gave up. Which lead me to dig out the DVD of Harishchandrachi Factory [Theatrical Trailer] – A Marathi film depicting the struggle of Dadasaheb Phalke in making Raja Harishchandra in 1913, India’s first feature film, thus the birth of Indian cinema. The film was selected as the official entry from India at the Oscars. I was particularly interested in watching this film because I am currently reading Bollywood: A History by Mihir Bose which traces the birth of Indian Cinema.

A 90 minute entertaining film made with a lot of character from those days. It traces the path which Dadasaheb Phalke had to walk to fulfill his dream to make India’s first “moving picture”. Some learning from the film -

At a time when a government job was the most secured profession or to do something tried and tested like setting up a printing press for him was so much easier. But he instead thought against the wave and decided to make India’s first motion film.

Your dream needs to be fueled by your own passion, first. Dadasaheb Phalke almost sold out his house to pursue his dream and even left his pregnant wife and went away for 2 months to London.

Dadasaheb fought against all odds – an almost lost eyesight, limited financial resources, friends and neighbours declaring him mental and almost taking him to the Thane Mental hospital. And then they were all proved wrong.

Ideas don’t come when you sit with a pen and paper and wait for them. Ideas come when you least expect them.

And lastly, a man set out to achieve something can’t do much without the support of his loved ones and a few kind hearted souls around him.

I strongly suggest you go pick up the DVD of this movie and watch it. Has English sub-titles for people like me who are not completely at ease with Marathi.

If you don’t have the time to read on, here is the quick movie review – Hilarious shit, you bloody well take your buddies and watch it.

Ah! you are still around, so here is a bit more on the movie. No spoilers, of course. The Hangover is about four friends who drive to Vegas to spend the bachelor’s night before one of the friends get hooked. After a couple of drinks, the movie fast forwards to the next morning and we see the friends wake up in a messed up condition with no memory of what happened last night. And of course the groom is missing. The rest of the movie explores how the friends trace their night crawl and also search for the lost groom who is getting married the next day. A pretty good performance by most of the characters. Allan – the groom’s brother-in-law is superbly funny and is seen most of the time without his pants.

This is one movie you gotta take your buddies along because you’ve either had those moments, missed a chance to experience them or can look forward to having them. And if you are not yet married, you can decide if you want a bachelor’s night like this one.

And yes, most movies say don’t miss the beginning. But for this one – you should not miss the credits rolling.

Gay designers, the need to sleep around for work, drug abuse, alcoholism & a bit more – a very predictable story line which leaves very little to imagine and nothing really to look forward post interval. Unlike a Page 3 it gives you nothing to be aghast about and no twist in the storyline will make you twitch in the seat.

If there is something superb about the movie it’s the casting and performance. Every role has been etched out very well and each one of them has done a fantastic performance. Kangana looks the very realistic drug addict they made her out to be. Priyanka does a good mix of attitude and emotion to play her role perfect. Of course the little surprise package is Chitrashi Rawat.  [She was a rough 'n' tough missy Komal Chautala in Shah Rukh Khan's Chak De India.] Just 4 little scenes but impressive stuff.

There was a an over-dose of gay fashion designers and makes you believe that if you are a male fashion designer – you gotta be GAY. People from the industry may beg to differ that the world isn’t that bad after all – and it maybe tough, but then Madhur has very beautifully shown us that the corporate world isn’t easy either.

Final verdict: Watch this movie for it’s performances and for a storyline which is different from the Bollywood masala. I won’t label it as realistic cinema and or even put in the same league as Page 3. Also I hope Madhur’s next is not another “behind the scenes” of some industry yet again.

A day later I got a response from a production supervisor at Excel saying that the letter had been forwarded to Mr.Akhtar.

And later this afternoon I get an email from the man himself. Farhan actually read the letter on my blog and put in a little note to me. (email addresses have been deleted here to protect them from any spam).

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: farhan@
To: “EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT”
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:53:55 +0530
Subject: Re: Fw: From my Blog: Letter to Farhan
Hi Kapil. Thanks for sharing your appreciation. Will pass on the warmth to the rest of the crew.
best wishes
farhan

It’s been a lovely feeling to have my movie review read by the team and getting an acknowledgement for the same. Once again, thanks Farhan for writing back.

Note: I DO NOT HAVE Farhan’s email address. The best way to get in touch with him is via the website at Excel Entertainment.

Dear Farhan,

I couldn’t ask for a better treat. I watched Rock On with my wife and I think it was time well spent on my birthday.

“Multi-talented” is the word which my wife used to describe you. A fabulous director who makes a debut with Dil Chata Hai, a solid performance in Rock On and then you even sing the songs yourself. Kudos.

The incident where you decide to leave the band and walk away to Delhi reminded me of a similar incident many years ago when I too walked away from a project I started with my friends. We were young, restless with very little maturity and understanding in our heads. If it wasn’t our way it wasn’t the right way.

Arjun does a real good job in portraying that typical guitar player from the Bandra area. I am sure a lot of aspiring performers may have identified with his struggle. As always Purab is fun to watch and his image transformation from his band days to the shop owner has been done well, but I thought showing him in a full sleeve with a designer pen on a Sunday afternoon at Army Cafe was taking it a bit too seriously.

Little Prachi couldn’t have made a better choice than Rock On to be her launch pad into Bollywood. I really hope she lives up to her performance (whatever little there was for her) and does not get into the type-cast bollywood masala numbers. But when it comes to brilliance I think Joe’s wife (Shahana) does a real god job showing the young bubbly college girl turn into this frustrated house-wife. I bet she’s already got some directors on her door step.

Farhan, I don’t know if it’s your sense of fashion & design or is it the hard work of a fantastic team which makes the styling of your movie so-so desirable. Whether it’s Aamir’s room in DCH, SRK’s clothing in DON or your very own home in Rock On. Fantabulous.

Man, what were you guys thinking when you’ll wrote those lyrics. “Meri laundry ka ek bill, sinbad the sailor”. How did you convince  your Dad (Javed sahaab) to write those things? But they are so sticky I was actually humming them on my way back home from the cinema hall.

Of course I am not going to let you walk away with all the credit because Abhishek does deserve the credit for having directed this wonderful movie whose DVD I can’t way to buy.

Regards,
A fan who truly loved your movie

P.S The little (but strong) message at the end made an impact and I actually went to 3 shops before I could get myself the original audio CD of the movie. It’s freaking SOLD out almost everywhere.

The brand team for Halo 3 at Microsoft, India should be commended for a wonderful branding activity they managed to get themselves with the film. The film’s director and dialogue writer have done a good job in making it not feel like a deliberate branding effort. And of course the producer has surely walked home with some good money to help finance those huge production costs.

A particular scene where Ranbir rattles of names of some Microsoft XBox games is so well stitched into the script I am sure not many would have got hit hard unless you have that little marketing/advertising “keeda” in you.

However if there is something I hope the movie does not drive home is the point that all Microsoft Gaming professionals are “killer Casanova’s” like the super-sexy Raj.

And this is how my current have-to-watch movie list looks like:

1. Orange County
2. Almost Famous
3. Shattered Glass
4. 2 Days in Paris
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Kill Bill
7. The Last King of Scotland
8. The Kingdom

I am on a constant search and recommendations to pick the best titles to watch over a period of time. Do let me know if you have any recommendations.

Poison is one of the posh discotheques in Bandra supposedly run by DJ Aqeel. Big enough to park a mini-plane inside this is one of the most spacious night spots I have been to in our cramped up Mumbai city. The music was pretty ok with Tuesday being a Bollyfunk night special. All in all a good evening but certain aspects of the place disappointed me.

• No double entry, which means if you walk in once they don’t let you get out and re-enter the place again. Sounded strange for a social night spot.
• They don’t serve plain drinking water. Should it not be mandatory for any eat/drink establishment to serve free potable drinking water.
• No photography – and this really matter a lot to me.  I respect the fact that they like to protect the identity of their guests from mischievous souls who may take the “wrong shots”, but that results in a loss to capture some lovely moments you spend their with your loved ones.

Maybe it was these standards which made the club a “have to be seen location” for some souls but for me I thought the rules made the place absolutely unfriendly.

Quoted in rediff – Khuda Ke Liye is a serious film and worth a watch, especially if you are interested in what Islam has to say on various issues. If not, stay away.