GURINDER CHADDHA'S NEW FILM

Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife revolves around a wedding. Interestingly, several of Chadha’s films, whether it’s Monsoon Wedding, Bride And Prejudice or even Bend It Like Beckham, revolves around one. Quiz her on this and the filmmaker points out that marriage is uppermost on the minds of almost every Indian.

“From the time a girl is born, she is being moulded into a perfect bride who is supposed to be fair, beautiful, submissive, definitely not more intelligent than her husband and able to serve a ‘desi’ meal in minutes,” points out Chadha, admitting that her mother got her bridal suit stitched when she was visiting her parents in India. Gurinder was only six at the time. “The suit was pink with classic embroidery and I got matching gold sets made too. I wore it when I married Paul (Mayeda_Berges) when I was in my 30s. It was still beautiful,” she reminisces with a smile.

Getting real
The climax of her soon-to-release film has an elaborate wedding sequence for which the writer-director wanted to replicate a big fat Punjabi wedding. And to make it as ‘real’ as possible, she sent out invitations to her extended family in London who came together to join in the on-screen revelry. “We even got a priest from a ‘gurdwara’ in Southhall to conduct the rites,” she informs. What’s more, Chadha gave one of her bridal outfits to actress Goldy Notay to wear and made sure that everyone who was part of the scene was in their Sunday best.

The film is the story of a widow from Southall, Mrs Sethi, played by Shabana Azmi, who is obesssed with getting her daughter Roopi (Goldy Notay) settled. A number of suitors come calling but are put off by the overweight, not-exactly-beautiful, opinated bride-to-be with a broken engagement behind her. But every time Roopi is turned down, the groom-in-waiting disappears.

Using a killer curry, Mrs Sethi turns into a serial murderer who evades the police but not the spirits of her victims. Since they cannot be reincarnated until she dies and the murdering mother refuses to leave this world till her darling has found her Mr Right, the ghosts join hands to make the dream wedding come true.

Letter from suitors
Chadha recalls that when her husband Paul (Mayeda Berges) came to ask for her hand in marriage, her father showed him all the letters of those before him who had wanted to marry his daughter. “I hadn’t even know that he had horded them, it was really sweet,” she smiles.

The idea for It’s A Wonderful AfterLife came to her when she was watching The 100 Greatest Family Films’ on Channel 4 and narrator Bob Hoskins introduced the wedding scene from her movie, Bend It Like Beckham at No. 71. “I immediately remembered how much fun we’d had shooting that scene and wanted to replicate the experience without repeating myself. I thought maybe I could do it with a horror spin, where everything goes awry,” she informs.

It took two-and-a-half years for this My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun Of The Dead script, on which she was working with her long-time collaborator and screenwriter husband Mayeda Berges, to shape up to her satisfaction. They went to the floors with it with the working title My Bloody Wedding.

PAATHSHAALA-REVIEW BY TUSHAR JOSHI OF MID-DAY

Paathshaala - Movie Review
By: Tushar Joshi Date: 2010-04-17 Place: Mumbai


Paathshaala
U; Drama
Dir: Milind Ukey
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Ayesha Takia, Nana Patekar, Sushmita Mukherjee, Sushant Singh, Anjaan Srivastav, Swini Khara
*

What's it about: Shahid Kapur singing a song with a bunch of chirpy kids overdosed on sugar in the backdrop, Nana Patekar's two-and-a-half expression (the raised eyebrow in the climax!), and Ayesha Takia as the chubby dietician who serves chips and sodas make up for some interesting moments in Paathshaala.

A hapless story of the modern-day education system trying to commercialise the medium by introducing reality shows to make stars out of students falls flat right from the first frame.



Using the concept of child labour prevalent in television, the film highlights the sorry situation of a school whose students seem to have no mind of their own! Dated and morose in style, the film just goes around in circles, instead of making a point.

What's hot: Saurabh Shukla as the conniving school manager Mr Sharma, who loves taking jabs at students and sniggers at every opportunity of passing a rude remarks is colourful.

What's not: Paathshaala crumbles under its own weight. Like a house of cards it starts crashing down even before you settle down in your seat.

Everything from the sets, to the costumes and dialogues look outdated. As opposed to today's kids who use iPods and tweet from their Blackberrys, this Saraswati Vidya Mandir has students who are unreal and corny.

Showing an outcast as a kid with some black paint and badly stuck make-up on his face is just hilarious!

Scenes depicting the effect of reality shows on today's children are so hammed up that they serve no purpose.

Among the cast, Shahid looks sedated and the colour and length of his hair keeps shifting in a mysterious manner. Ayesha Takia has nothing new to do than fit in those clothes and down a few bottles of glycerin.

Nana Patekar's unending speech in the climax will make you start liking your own school principal no matter how strict he was!

The rest of the cast doesn't have much to do other than give uneasy close-ups in very bad lighting. Neither entertaining nor socially relevant the film struggles to keep you interested.

What to do: Skip this Paathshaala, instead arrange a reunion with your school mates, it would be more fun than sitting through this shoddy affair.


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LAKME FASHION WEEK-A CURTAIN RAISER

Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort 2010 kick-starts today. And the Gen Next segment on Tuesday will see a host of debutant designers take to the ramp for the first time in their careers. We caught up with debutants from last season’s (six months back) Gen Next designers and almost all of the six participants seem to have gotten off to a flying start.

Actor Neena Gupta’s daughter Masaba launched her own label and line Kattran by Masaba. Her designs had created sufficient buzz even before her official debut. A thundering applause and tonnes of praise later, Masaba now retails her line in eight stores across the country. “Aza and Zoya in Mumbai and Delhi, Fuel in Mumbai and Nautanki in Ahmedabad are a few of the stores where my designs retail,” says Masaba.

Bollywood fan followingShe has her fair share of fan following among B-towners too. “Ila and Ishita Arun among others have taken a liking to my designs. My mom wears them all the time too,” says the young designer, adding that she hasn’t approached any celebrity to flaunt her creations at events. “All of them have picked my designs from stores on their own,” she beams admitting that when Bollywood celebrities are seen wearing a particular design, it becomes a trend that is widely followed by the youth.

Lokhandwala girl Sabbah Sharma recently opened her flagship store in Juhu and boasts of umpteen celebrities wearing her creations. “Dia Mirza, Soha Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen, Sameera Reddy and Genelia D’Souza are some of the celebs who have worn my creations,” says Sharma. “My designs are labour-oriented, which is why I cannot afford to be in a rush and promise 10 stores that I will deliver,” says the budding designer who for the moment, is concentrating on the content in her flagship boutique, apart from supplying to stores like Attic, Zoya and Ogaan.

Shreya Sharma and Nirali Vora of the brand Shrea also made their debut in LFW ’09 and are now retailing to “Kimaya, Zoya, Ora in Nagpur, Studio Saks in Chennai and Areliya in Pune. In the Middle-East Shrea is available boutiques in Dubai, Ginger and Lace in Kuwait and Soho in Egypt,” says Nirali.

Rahul Anand and Amalraj Sengupta are taking it slow and have a couple of high-end boutiques on their resume while Mehak Jain, after a successful show at the LFW, is in the process of studying the intricacies of fashion designing abroad. “I will come back and then promote my label in a big way,” says Jain.

All the designers, however, assert that after the adulation fades and the accolades die out, it is tough for them to sustain. “Though my designs were critically acclaimed, most stores want me to replicate them on Indian silhouettes. But I am in no mood to succumb,” says Anand who, fingers crossed, will soon inaugurate his own fashion studio in Delhi.
--WRITTEN BY SUJATA REDDY(of Hindustan Times)

ATITHI TUM KAB JAOGE- THE REVIEW

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen, Paresh Rawal Direction: Aswini Dhir
Synopsis
Puneet a script writer and Munmun an interior designer are a young married couple with a 6 year old son Ayush leading a normal middle class life in the city of Mumbai. Untill one day Lambodhar chacha claiming to be Puneet's distant relative comes over as a guest disrupting their otherwise peaceful routine. In the beginning he seems to be pleasant change. But not long before they start perceiving him as an unwanted bacteria spreading around their home. Changes which were earlier named small adjustments start seeming like gigantic problems. And with no sign of uncle leaving stirs the happiness of Munmun and Puneet. They start finding ways of getting rid of chacha. They try everything from faking uncle's wife's death to approaching a don but fate has something else planned and they fail each time. But then the chacha who was the source of all trouble now somehow miraculously becomes a channel of problem solving in Puneet and Munmun's life. And as life seems to be getting back on track for Munmun and Puneet one day chacha suddenly disappear. Munmun and Puneet is a reflection of all of us who cannot bear the presence of guest in our house for more than a few days and are not willing to change the way we live for them. Even though we might believe in the ancient Indian proverb - 'Athithi Devo Bhava' - A guest is an incarnation of God but eventually we start seeing them as a virus afflicting our bedroom, living room, sofas, refrigerator, TV set, the remote, towel, soap, deodorants, toothpaste and inadvertently the toothbrush too and no matter what we are forced to say 'Athithi Tum Kab Jaoge'

ROAD MOVIE-REVIEW

Director: Dev Benegal
Cast: Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee
Rating:


Is it a roller-coaster road movie? Is it a novel tale about touring cinema? Sadly, despite immense potential, it’s neither of the two. This one is mediocre middle-of-the-road movie. Dev Benegal’s Road, Movie is designed as one of those typical festival films that pretend to be a transformative journey of a character who en route discovers the true meaning of life, love and blah blah blah.

To escape his father’s hair oil business, Vishnu (Abhay Deol) grabs the opportunity of driving an antique truck across the desert to be stationed in a local museum. Do not expect any rollicking road adventure since the narrative never picks up pace like the tiresome truck. Through his deserted journey, Vishnu gives lift to a young boy (Mohammed Faizal Usmani), a migrating mechanic (Satish Kaushik) and a gypsy woman (Tannishtha Chatterjee). Soon he realizes that his tattered truck also houses a touring cinema. Do not expect any innovative story emerging from the functioning of the transportable theatre. The portable projector hardly plays for a couple of times in the film, of which one is a part of an extended dream sequence.

So then where does this road lead to? Like Dev Benegal’s decade-old release Split Wide Open , even Road Movie attempts to expose a water mafia – this time in the deserts of Rajasthan. An infamous water lord (Yashpal Sharma) illegally operates in the drought-struck desert leaving the poor with no water. Is this another calculated attempt to showcase India as a land of poverty-stricken, hungry and (in this case even) ‘thirsty’ mortals to the world audience? Further, believe-it-or-faint but the director attempts to pull off a parody in the climax where the hero trades off water for homemade hair oil with the dreaded desert-don. The sudden spoof doesn’t go in sync with the mood of the film and, rather, looks ludicrous in the scheme of things.

The pacing is sluggish for a road flick and Dev Benegal’s screenplay is bland, lacking basic level drama. The characters lack depth and the gypsy woman and the young boy are undefined to the extent that they remain nameless till the end credits. The direction is not abstract but a lot is left to your imagination. Especially the romance track between Abhay and Tannishtha is almost intangible and a shoved smooch scene doesn’t incite any chemistry between the two.

A fun-fair amidst deep desert brings hope of lightening the dull and dry proceedings, as the touring cinema truck is put to use. But soon the Cinema Paradiso promise is cut short with the entire setup turning out to be a dream sequence... or rather a nightmare. Expectedly the end is abrupt and open though you lose direction on this road much before reaching the destination. The only redeeming factor is some funny lines and scenes that click to an extent, thanks to the good comic timing of the actors.

The cinematography by Michel Amathieu is striking as he captures the virgin barren lands of Kutch and Jaisalmer with élan in his camera. But repetitive external shots of the desert façade add monotony to the film. Michael Brook has a Western Curry influence in his background score. The art and costume design is decent. The remixed version of the classic song ‘ Tel Malish ’ is passable.

Abhay Deol has had an impressive lineage of films to his credit so far. Road, Movie happens to be his first incoherent choice. Satish Kaushik is commendable in his character. Tannishtha Chatterjee is notable in the scene where she sings an impromptu number in the desert. Mohammed Faizal Usmani doesn’t get much scope. Yashpal Sharma does his regular act.

As the film comes to an end, Abhay Deol indulges in a tel malish (head massage) act onscreen. One would need an equally stimulating tel malish on watching this garbled movie. This road leads to nowhere. It simply takes you for a ride.

Movie Review: Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa

Film: Vinnaithaandi VaruvaayaaCast: Silambarasan, Trisha Krishna and Ganesh
Direction: Gautham Vasudev Menon
Rating: ** The single most depressing bane of Indian cinema is its inability to pursue excellence, and this cuts across language and region. Scripts are shoddily produced. Often, situations are lifted and used with modifications. Gautham Vasudev Menon's Tamil work, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, is guilty of these.
Ideas from Dustin Hoffman-starrer The Graduate, Mani Ratnam Alaipaayuthe and some other screen romances find echo in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. Obviously, the feel seems so cliched.
What is even more unfortunate is the movie's reaffirmation of prejudices: the man has got to be older than the girl if they are to marry, they must belong to the same religion and family verdict is supreme however hard and illogical it may be. Menon, who wrote the script, may have been influenced by pockets of such bigotry, but modern India, especially its young working class generation, is not really bonded to these kinds of narrow views.
Menon's love story begins with a Hindu boy chasing a seemingly reluctant Christian girl, whose trepidation primarily arises from the fact they belong to different faiths, and her father's no-no to their union. Despite the deep feeling she begins to nurse for him, she refuses to cross societal barricades.
Neither A.R. Rahman's music nor the performances contribute significantly to the movie. Lyrics are no longer written by poets as they once were, and the tendency to allow instruments to dominate voice, drowning it in the process, turns melody into noise. Add to this, the bizarre song picturisations with the characters flitting from one exotic location to another or emerging out of groups of sheer alien looking men and women. Sometimes, they are pale skinned, sometimes black! I fail to understand how these help carry forward the narrative; rather they cut the flow and roughen the motion and movement.
Finally, Silambarasan as Karthik wooing Jessie (Trisha Krishnan) appears in a new form, the romantic hero. But he is awfully wooden and seems terribly ill at ease, failing to evoke the passionate chemistry with Jessie that the movie sets out to capture in the first place. Krishnan is average, and does sparkle a few times, but Ganesh (as cameraman Ganesh) is delightful as the friend of the lovers, reflecting the pain and pathos of Karthik and Jessie. Some peppy one-liners cheer us up, but these alone cannot engage us through the entire run.
For all the hype a Gautham Vasudev Menon's work generates, his latest effort fails to cross the skies.

REVIEW WRITTEN BY GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN(of Hindustan Times)