Dharavi

Dharavi - its not a new name for an Indian. It represents the largest slum area in the world. Yes, the recently academy award winner movie- "Slum dog Millionaire" was also shot around the place.

Dharavi - the movie is an example of Hard Hitting cinema- revolves around life of Rajkiran ( Played by Om Puri) who had migrated to city of Dreams - Mumbai. Aftter 17 years of struggle he has managed to own a cab and a Kholi ( a room) in Dharavi. Her wife- Kumud (played by Shabana azmi) is also breadwinner. They had a small happy family and Kumud was all happy with what they had.

Trouble starts when overambitious Rajkiran plans to buy dye factory in partnership and switching over to business from being taxi driver. The cascade of events take place in life of Rajkiran making his life more miserable as he is trying to acquire the factory. The story covered various aspects of life at Dharavi.

Betrayal by friend, tensed marriage, helpless mother, gang wars, friction between social workers and bhailog( underworld mafias), woman searching for her place between two husbands and many more moods and situations of life has been very well crafted by talented director Sudhir Mishra

The film was produced by NFDC and Doordarshan. Constraint of budget did not allow to shoot the film some of the sequences elaborately or at grand level. Still Sudhir Mishra delivered with full conviction.Some of the sequences are unforgettable. For example : death scene of Social worker, Dream sequences of Rajkiran with famous bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit,The scene where Rajkiran force the customer to get off the cab as his morale was shattering seeing the bag full of money with the passenger.

The characters of the movie have been well written and well developed. It is a story about power and struggle and it clearly reflects from first frame of the movie till the end. Minutest qualities of human nature like jealousy, greed, ego have been well captured and portrayed.

you can watch movie online for free by accessing the following link. The movie has English subtitles.
http://www.jaman.com/now-playing/?videoID=0yMH3PNKHRHs

Madhumati

A musical Blockbuster. This movie is indeed Bimal Roy's biggest commercial success but much of the credit goes to lead pair - Superstar Dilipkumar and Vyajanthimala and music director Salil Chowdhury for supplementing all the means of entertainment that compel the movie lovers to make a bee line at ticket windows.

The album, undoubtedly, can be included in the top ten block buster musical hits of all the time in Hindi cinema. Every single song made the entire country to go frenzied and crazy. Salil Chowdhury's each and every chord strikes perfect, harmonizing and appealing to people from every corner of the country.

The movie follows what now all Hindi movie fans can predict - death and rebirth of Protagonist formula. The movie is not recommended for peoaple who are looking for substantial content and interesting plot as it is too predictable. However, i recommend it just to watch the performance of Dilip kumar and his own unique styles. Movies like MADHUMATI, GANGA - JAMUNA, DEVDAS proves him true superstar influencing many genrations to come as even Mr. Amitabh bacchan has openly admitted to be heavily influenced by him. Shahrukh Khan (considerd as King of Bollywood today) had also admitted publicly of Dilipkumar is his idol.

Overall, this is a typical bollywood masala film with all the necessary ingredients of romance, revenge, rebirth formula. Dont' forget to get the songs. They will blow your mind.

Boot Polish - 1954

This film is the finest example of the impeccable performances by child artists with such sincerity that made even jury of Cannes film festival to make a special mention of child actress - Baby Naaz.

Raj Kapoor's earlier movies has always been addressed to some or the other social issue; placing him in the panel of such other contemporary legendary movie makers like Bimal Roy, V.Shantaram, Satyajit Ray and Guru Dutt.
Personally I found best work of Raj Kapoor in the movies - Boot Polish, Jaagte Raho, Ab Dilli Door Nahin much more impressive than his rest of movies where he had been featuring in the lead role.

Boot Polish is a tale of siblings- a brother and his younger sister who lives with their nagging aunt, pursuing them to beg. John Chacha(Played by David) - a Bootlegger comes out as a silver line in the dark life of the children, teaching them the morals to be self independent, not to beg in any condition and help them to embrace to the profession of Boot polish.

But situation turns out to be inimical for the children when cascade of events take place in their lives. Arrestment of John Chacha, Refusal of their aunt to provide shelter when she comes to know about the boot polish profession, severe hit to their bottleneck income when people become reluctant to polish shoes in Monsoon leading to the condition of starvation.
Destiny punches final blow when duo are separated, younger Belu (Played by Baby Naaz) is adopted by rich family and informed that her brother is dead. Is Bhola (Played by Rattan kumar) dead?If not what is his fate?
The movie has some astonishingly beautiful, sensitive scenes written very well. Academy award winning performance are delivered by child artistes. While it was the first movie of Baby Naaz, Rattan kumar elevates his bar from his previous performance in " Do Bigha Zamin".

Music Maestro -Shanker-Jaikishan cast his spell with magical scores like Nanhe munhe bacche teri mutthi mein kya hai, Tumhare hai tumse dua mangte hai, Classical number by Manna day- Lapak zapak badra and Chali kaunse des gujariya..


Following is the download link for the songs.

http://www.esnips.com/web/humhaina4u-BootPolish1954

This movie deserves standing ovation. Hats off to Raj Kapoor for taking initiative to make such kind of movie. All the words of praises fell short when it comes to performance of child prodigies.
A MUST MUST MUST watch movie. :)

Do Bigha Zamin - A Bimal Roy Classic (1953)

One must have to be a die hard movie fan or just have enough patience to be able to put oneself in the seat of 50's audience in order to enjoy this path breaking - black and white classic as it unfolds the story of a farmer family to save the piece of land - "Do Bigha Zamin" (Two acres of Land) from Land lord of the village who wants to built upon a factory on large piece of land including the farmer's property.

The farmer named Shambhu Mehto played by none other than one of the most revered actor of Hindi cinema - Balraj Sahni has mortgaged his land to Landlord to run his house in the time of drought for two consecutive years.

Movie opens up with the scene where everyone is celebrating the arrival of monsoon after two years. Shambu Mehto has been dreaming of the moment, hoping to get rid of all debt but his all hopes get a jolt when Land Lord sued him in a court to claim Shambu Mehto's land in return of his failure to pay the debt.

The court grants period of three months to Shambhu to pay his debt. The rest of the movie is the struggle depicting the importance of land to the family and their efforts to save it ; in a way that one can easily be the part of each moment of Shambhu and its entire family's journey.

Balraj Sahni proved himself in one of the most challanging role of his career. Master Rattankumar delivered unarguably the most convincing performance by the child artist in a role of Shabhu's son - Kanaiyo Mehto. Nirupa roy didn't bargain in her performance as Paro Mehto - wife of Shambu mehto. Other than that Nana Palsikar, Murad ( father of actor Raza Murad) portraying Gangu Mehto (father of Shambu), Land lord respectively are equally realistic in their performances.

Earlier, I referred the movie as path breaking because when you observe the minute details of direction, camera work, editing and screenplay - the movie stood out as exemplary work for the following movie makers for decades.

Bimal Roy grabbed the Best Director award in first ever Filmfare award* in 1954 for his incontrovertibly commendable work on celluloid. Definitely among his three best movies.

The movie also grabbed the filmfare award for Best Film and national certificate for the best film in the year 1954.

Music score by Salil Choudhury is enjoyable in particular lullaby by Lata Mangeshkar - Aaja ri aa Nindiya aa is still considered as one of the most beautifully composed lullaby. Download songs from the following link.

http://www.salilda.com/filmsongs/hindi/dobigha.asp

Hrishikesh Mukerjee who later on became well known movie director contributed as Editor and Screenplay writer in the movie.

A simple, poetic emotions very well captured,executed and translated to the medium of celluloid. Indeed we are indebted to Bimal Da for the classic. :)

* Fimfare Award is the oldest award granted since 1954 in the hindi film industry aka Bollywood and considered as equivalent to Academy awards (Oscar).

Barsaat - Raj Kapoor meets SJ

No better way to start my first post in the music section with this Immortal classic where first time combo of legends- Raj Kapoor ( Director and actor) and Shankar -Jaikishan (Music Director) left whole country drenched with unprecedented music score. This movie played the crucial role to establish SJ as permanent choice of Raj Kapoor for every RK films for years till he switch over to another legend - Laxmikant Pyarelal (LP) in Bobby, Satyam Shiavm aur Sundaram and other music directors like Ravindra Jain in his late work.

Raj Kapoor borrowed the famous logo of RK films where Man is Holding a Woman in his arms from this blockbuster movie. The album includes songs sung by Mukesh (also known as Voice of Raj Kapoor), Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi. Though movie was released in 1949, the music is still popular after 60 years with tracks like Jiya beqarar hai..aayi bahar hai, Barsaat mein humse mile tum sajan, Hawan mein udta jaaye mora lal dupatta malmal ka. Not to forget sad songs- Chhod gaye balam by Lata and Zindagi mein hardam rota hi raha hoon by Rafi saab.

There is a famous story about how SJ get into the attention of Raj Kapoor whose penchant for music was very well known. Raj Kapoor was shooting for his film Aag and Shankar - Jaikishan were assistants to then music director of Aag - Ram Ganguly. SJ persuade Raj to listen to some of their tunes,they clicked to ear's of Raj Kapoor and later on splashing the entire country. The music was evident enough to declare advent of maestro in the industry.

An ageless album. :)

You can download the songs with the following link.

http://www.esnips.com/web/humhaina4u-Barsaat1949/

Karma and Other Short Stories by Rishi Reddy

This book is a collection of short stories that revolves around first and second generation of Indians in America. Though all short stories are independent, you will find the characteres  interconnected within different stories which is real beauty of the book. 

The debut book of Rishi Reddy includes stories about family feud between two brothers  when younger one (Prakash) find the elder (Shankar) jobless, struggle of Retired Judge to adjust with new life after moving to America, development of Platonic relationship between Lakhmi and an american librarian, Rescue of young hindu girl who is visiting Hyderabad to learn Bhartnatyam by her Muslim driver at the time of riots induced after Babri Mosque incident, a father find himself in confrontation with his son's teacher after later refers Hindu deity - Lord Krishna as Satan and many more intriguing situations. 

Rishi Reddy successfully depicts dilemma and struggle of each character, making the book - a must read. She also finds one of her stories- "Justice Shiva Ram Murthy" to be selected for Best American Short Stories 2005 list. Her stories have sense of loneliness, confliction,spirituality and affection.

Two thumbs Up for this poignant work.

50 First Dates

I am not a great fan of Adam Sindler but I love him in this movie.He absolutely steals the show with his performance. Ofcourse, Drew Barrymore is no way behind while performing really cute, sweet girl who has lost her memory after an accident. She is able to remember every incident before the day of her accident and hence starts each day with memory of day before she met an accident. The most interesting part is when Adam Sindler come to know about her after having love at first sight. The way He managed to pull up his love life with her is absolute treat to watch. In nut -shell,a beautiful and innocent love story that should not be missed.