The Movie Binge

Three Days. Three movies (two in a day). Three experiences. Each one a different one. And each with a moral. So here is the account of those.

It started off with "Eklavya - The Royal Guard". A friend of mine called up and asked if I'd join. I was too busy in work to think and answer, so confirmed it. Only to realise a few hours a later what big mistake I had committed.

The gruelling hours started at 11. And within next ten minutes the enormity of a blunder (and not just mistake) was sinking in. What started as a beautiful scenic location soon degenerated into a mindless journey with no intentions to present a cinema worth watching. I wonder if Vidhu Vinod Chopra realised that much later and to recover the money went into publicity gimmicks like presenting Big B with a Rolls.

There is nothing much to write about the movie. Just write it off. No story. No music. No acting (why did all of them waste themselves in such a stupid affair!). No direction. All and all a BIG NO. And to add to our woes we being we (i.e me and my friend), much to the embarassment of the ladies with us, ended up giggling and commenting on the movie. So much so that an adjacent audience got pissed with us. So for next (I don't know how many minutes) we were straining our cords to whisper and holding our stomachs, having been denied to laugh :(.

Moral of the story : Do learn from independent reviews and if at all you still have to commit a mistake, do it in front stall where you can vent out all you want to without being told not to.

Next one on a bright Sunday afternoon was Black Friday. We decided to go for a back to back affair and this one was the first of the two. I had seen the movie earlier (the black market version) on a CD where the video and audio were completely out of sync. And anyways as anticipated it turned out to be an affair worth watching at any cost. The fact that it had been prevented from hitting the screen for so long added to its value perhaps but it was a very well made movie.

Both as a cinematic creation as well as the intention behind it, the movie scores in almost all the accounts. Though I feel the editing could have been a little better. Specially a little before the interval the movie slackens a bit, but suitably recovers after that.

The acting is great as expected from the people with theatre background. KK and Pawan Malhotra stand out. I believe for Pawan, its his one of the best performances since the times of "Nukkad" and "Salim langde pe mat ro". KK looks amazingly restrained and yet so emotive in his role. The others too have done justice to all the roles they played. The eye for details is also visible and the sequence of events is presented in a matter of fact way without any intention of being judgmental. It hits you hard where it should in your face and yet at others it displays a poignant array of emotions. Finally it ends leaving you disturbed/numb/agitated etc depending on your line of thought. But whatever be it, the impact is there. All due credit to Anurag Kashyap. Take a bow.

Moral of the story : Good cinema can't be chained and will make the impact whatever the gags on it may wish to do. To learn from the history is simplest and yet most forgotten lesson.


After the heavy impact of Black Friday the obvious choice for the next one had to be a light one. So we decided on Honeymoon Travel's Private Ltd.

If I were to sum it up, it wasn't a great affair but a "TP" (Time Pass) movie. It has its moments of fun where you'll end up having a hearty laugh and it has moments where you would just be yawning. At the onset, I don't think the movie was made with a story in mind. So the screenplay also turns out to be week. But it starts off on a funny note and carries it a little ahead. It brings out some cliched views and also deals with a few not so highlighted ones with subtlety. As they say that debutante's movie is sure to deal with sex and liberty, so does this one.

However nothing radical to write home about. From the angle of acting everyone's done a commendable job except for Amisha Patel. It might be a prejudice against her but I just can't stand her screeching hyperdramatic skill set. Minisha Lamba and Abhay deol seem a sort of misfit as a story and the imagination is being stretched a bit too far. See the movie to know it. So all said and done if you are looking at 2 hrs of TP, its ok. Otherwise you may just pass it.

Moral of the Story: A few laughs don't need a very good script. "Next" time you decide to go on a honeymoon with so many other people. Think twice. Pun intended :).