February 23, 2010

Salim Langde pe mat ro



Don't cry for Salim,this English translated title sounds even more amusing than the original title.Besides that the cast is not far from being fascinating either.Salim,the protagonist is played by Pawan Malhotra(fame Nukkad,Black Friday)a uneducated small time petty thief.His partners in crime are Abdul(Ashutosh Gowarikar) and Peera(Makrand Deshpande).

This movie starts off amazingly with a well directed scene where Salim is walking aimlessly in the middle of the road with a certain swagger.At the same time he narrates in a typical slang Bombay accent that he's one of the many Salims around here,but he's different because of his unusual walking style,hence the nickname Langda.Promises the viewers to tell his real life story and jokingly states it will have its fair share of lies.After that every thing goes downhill.The movie gets way too predictable,as in Salim's misfortune of being a part of a backward minority ghetto,his morals playing hide and seek,'I can't do nothing to come out of this situation' syndrome.And also tends to get very preachy,but a few might feel different.It has nothing new to offer except for Ashutosh Gowariker's bad acting and even dancing(imagine him dancing in a movie in today's time,would be even more priceless.Good that he ventured into direction).Pawan Malhotra's acting is good but far less better than Black Friday.It's a pity that an actor of such caliber is so underrated and overlooked in Bollywood.All he now gets to do is forgettable roles with a meager 10-12 minutes of screen time.This movie came out in 1989 it was that period where parallel cinema was dying a slow death.All of a sudden Switzerland was the new desired location for commercial cinema in the early nineties.It won a National Award for cinematography.It's amazing how your city looked for good or for bad some 20 years ago.Perhaps I'll be biased,in denial or be true/false in saying that Bombay of the 70s and 80s looks much better than today's Mumbai in movies.That's the beauty of cinema,not only it inspires but also makes you wonder.

February 18, 2010

The Good,the Bad and the Ugly


The standoff scene from this movie is simply awe-inspiring.Clint Eastwood is STYLE personified,so is the entire movie.The build up to this finale induces thrill,heightens tension and what not.Ennio Morricone's captivating background score accentuates the beauty of this standoff even further.Everlasting!