Omkara, a f***ing good movie, O KaThor!

Reviewing or even presenting a set of thoughts on a film that currently everyone will have an opinion about is overkill. I have been saturated by written opinion on this that I am unable to string together a meaningfully coherent set of sentences on this topic. So, I will merely list down a set of stray thoughts that occurred to me.

* Omkara begins auspiciously by presenting a shot of desolate landscape which we were repeatedly treated to by Tassaduq Hussain, and came to enjoy. Particularly, the looming shots from above, raking in the mountains and waterbodies and the colour. Now, the hills and colour are from Maharashtra, the story from a writer of controversial origin, but the hard work is by Vishal Bharadwaj.

* Personal verdict? Almost fully satisfying, though I'm yet to figure out the missing bits. Maqbool remains Vishal's best. The impact was more significant, as were the performances in that film. However, overall, Vishal has yet to make a bad film.

* The actors with the harder job of playing against type stole the show. Devgan fits the frames, Kareena Kapoor is decent though not much more as the delicate belle, Viveik A. O. is more important from a physical Omkara-can-be-jealous-of-such-a-person, which he does fine. Bipasha Basu does nothing more than dance, which again, I appreciate.

* Those who are surprised by Saif Ali Khan's stellar performance have perhaps not seen "Ek Hasina Thi". His interviews indicating the level of reluctance to become Langda Tyagi was, to me, indicative of the bad sense that pervades the thinking of Bollywood stars. They find it very hard to even occasionally let whatever minimal talent some of them possess enjoy a free run. In contrast, a man of such limited gifts such as Ajay Devgan, IMO, has learnt that it is a good idea to let skilled directors to show put him in places that best embellish his modest talents. He makes bad movies too, but we'll remember him over time for being associated with some good projects. Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan, have a think. I guess SAK learnt a lot about what he can do and it's caught him off guard.

* Konkana Sen Sharma is an amazing actress. It has taken me a lot of time to figure that out.

* Deepak Dobriyal isn't someone too many people are talking about. A pity. As the vacillating, now-off-now-on Rajjo, he has done really well.

* I saw a comment on a TV show saying the expletives could have been avoided. Really? IMO, this is one of the few films I've seen where both the filmmakers and the Censor Board have kept their hats on. When you have a bunch of ruffians hellbent of wiping each other out, you expect them to greet each other with nursery rhymes? The profanity is not gratuitous (unlike the title of this post - see, profanity has its uses in irony), especially when set in a place where almost everyone (and I bet your average viewer will be surprised about the one instance I'm alluding to passes by on screen) curses. (Which reminds me: Harish and I saw a bunch of kids to the screening of this clearly adults-only film accompanied by parents. And then people complain about s & v in films)

* Slightly disappointed by the treatment of songs. Laakad and O Saathi Re (why the mindless extended chase around the haveli?) in particular. That said, nice placement of Naina and Omkara. Overall, as befits the maker, the songs were not expendable and had a role to play in propelling the movie ahead

* Great art direction. If you looked at the walls in the areas shown, fragments of old political posters with recognisable and relevant faces can be seen.

* Some memorable scenes - the temple anointing, the train-in-the-rain, the Rajjo-Langda dialogue by the bridge. Some nice BGM pieces like the one that opens the movie. Nice old-style touches introducing the name of the film and director late. Was the dialect entirely appropriate? The tending-to-Haryanvi pronouncements kept me wondering. The wide angle shots - delectable.

* Vishal - I remain amazed. We look forward to the next and this time, original story-film.

* Go watch.

The adaas of Don, Guru and Umrao Jaan...

...courtesy Rahul and Himanshu Nanda.

Film publicity has been one of the areas in which the Indian film industry has done itself very proud in recent years. The trailers, posters and teasers have usually managed to create great anticipation for many of the topnotch films. The men behind the wonderful publicity content for "Omkara" are also behind future hype-contenders for the films of Mani Ratnam, Farhan Akhtar, J.P.Dutta and Karan Johar.

This interview provides us with some sneak glimpses of posters for "Don" (fingers crossed, Farhan), "Umrao Jaan" (lukewarm, Mr. Dutta) and "Guru" (awaiting, Mani saar). All look very enticing (as did the three riveting posters of Omkara earlier). "Don" ("The Chase Begins Again") has SRK in a Matrix-inspired ecology, "Umrao Jaan" has some smart calligraphics on a carefully constructed profile of Ms. Rai, while "Guru" ("Villager/Visionary/Winner") sees Li'l B gazing down on a crowd of umbrellas (with people below :-)) in a patent-pending Mani Ratnam overhead shot that reminds one of "Nayakan" and "Iruvar". ("Guru", as the grapevine has it, is apparently inspired from the rags-to-riches stories of Indian businessmen, most notably Dhirubhai Ambani). This link from the IE epaper will have images and text (hopefully, their links stay alive).

Not demonic nymphs

A Demonym, I learnt¹, is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. Like Indian, the French, Quebecois and so on.

This gives me a name for a problem I have been grappling with for many years. The problem is: what are demonyms for Indian states? How do I describe myself as a member of an Indian state without bringing linguistic identity into it?

Since many of our states have their political origins on a linguistic basis (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra etc.), most people in a state are likely to speak the dominant language of the region. But (especially in urban India), you will find people whose mother tongue is both pink and different from the local flavour, but still feel attached to the local state. But how do you describe yourself thus without being concurrently thought to be of the local tongue? I could say (and I do at times) I'm a "Maharastrian", but I would find it hard to do so in many other states for I do not know the appropriate demonym to do so. The son-of-soil type politicians might find it hard to intuitively believe, but some of us occasionally feel a need for this too.

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1. Thanks to the Language Log article on Bush and the "Hezbollians".

QWERTY and the octaves

And what about the accusations that he was more of a technician than a musician?
He (A.R.Rahman) laughs out loud. "It's like saying that a writer can write bestsellers b'coz he has mastered the keyboard."

A pretty neat answer from an increasingly media-savvy A.R.Rahman. The above was an excerpt from his interview to the Hindustan Times, which can be read here (courtesy the e-group).

The Worldspace ad has seen in its wake, quite a few media appearances for the man. Another interesting interview from a few days ago was in the Indian Express (link), where he mentions how "Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge) wanted me to compose the soundtrack for his next film, but they checked a website and found 30 projects lined up next to my name. I think that worked against me.". Well, that's the price he's paying for not having an official website that accurately describes his current commitments. "ARRahman.com" is a Sony site aimed at promoting the music he's done for them (and so the last notice is about Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003)). IMDB's (the one likely to have been seen by Lurhmann's men) is usually no more than a fount of zealous fan speculation when it comes to Indian films and people.

E!

I think, right now, CNN-IBN has the best programming that covers Indian entertainment. It's down to two shows really: Rajeev Masand's "Now Showing" and Anuradha SenGupta's interviews on "Being XX" (XX: that week's guest)

SenGupta is (was?) more familiar for her CNBC-TV18 shows, and the loaning of TV18 personnel to their new collaboration with CNN and Sardesai is working out well. "Being...", though not meant to be exclusively a means to interview ent-types (I think), features them primarily. Interviews in the recent past have included the missing body part from Cleopatra the Sphinx (i.e. the striking feature of Cleopatra :-)), Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Ajay Devgan (this week). Thanks to IBN's web-savviness (one aspect where they have successfully differentiated themselves from the pack), these interviews are on their site in full detail. SenGupta is a pretty good interviewer (except for the nasal twang at times).

Rajeev Masand's show is the weekly movie round-up with reviews, the odd star-chat-up and even a DVD recommendation. Now, probably the reason I like this show is that Masand's reviews seem balanced and not of the Taran-Adarsh-Subhash-Jha schmooze-slash variety. Or perhaps the views just happen to match with mine :-)

Theres, unfortunately, a serious lack of good movie talk overall. Movie reviewing and discussion rapidly degenerates into implacable personal biases because of star-contacts and the like. What's more, we do not have a single critical analysis of music in mass media at the moment.

"House"

Last week, I caught an episode of "House" on AXN, a medical drama series which treats the process of diagnosis and treatment as if solving a mystery (which it is, in a sense). Though American, the plot and acting caught the eye. First, there was Hugh Laurie in it playing the eponymous Dr. Gregory House. Laurie is one of my favourite actors (he's famous for his roles in "Blackadder" and as Bertie in "Jeeves and Wooster"), and like many British actors, he is equally adept at drama as he is at comedy. The series is directed by Bryan Singer.

The episode I saw had a multi-threaded plot centering around diagnoses of the leg, and involved Gregory House's own leg ailment. Was quite interesting, and so is on the "will-watch list". Of interest is also the many scattered references to Sherlock Holmes.

Faux News - 9

Faux News bulletin

(You know it's time if it's faux pas nine!)

Heem to sing for actresses too!
By Shoebox Que? Jaw

Heem or "Heem: Ace M.D", as he likes to be known, is not content with singing playback for all the male leads in his film albums. He is now going to sing for the female voices in his songs too, especially in his popular duets.

When contacted, the young music director refuted all accusations of this being a gimmick. "This is just another phase in my evolution as a music composer and singer. I still have a lot to learn in this ocean of music." Though gossip in the industry is that Heem, having enjoyed success singing in his unique voice in the last year for all the male voices in his films, wondered why female playback singers in his duets were taking all acclaim. News of the latest release of the music software Noizz-Trillzz from the Ol' Factory de Musique with their new module for further pitch and tonal modifications reached him, and experiments revealed that this unprecedented effort could be possible. "All this is part of my continued experimentation in this field", shrugs the composer with a wave of his newly acquired cape.

Reactions have been mixed. Female playback singers were understandably miffed with these developments considering that they were already being sidelined in the promotion of Heem's music. Actress Yoodishree who appeared in Heem's debut album "Race Me, Yeah!" and is also appearing in its remash "Race Me, Yaar!" was understandably more cautious. "It is, like, a new thing, na?" she cooed. Close friend and fashion stylist Pachy C. dismissed all these criticisms as jealousy adding: "His voice has a divine mix of Shiv and Shakti, which we will bring out in the videos".

The man himself says that this is a unique effort at creating a new genre of Androgynous Sufi Pop Rock Blues. Will it mean he will now have a good chance at winning three Filmfare Awards all at once? "I am not really thinking about all that. Right now, all I want to do is to focus on my work and riyaaz."

We know that Heem is laughing, oops, singing his way to his music banks!

Click here for a free look at the earlier editions.

Loading...

This is getting curiouser and curiouser. I didn't know whether to dismiss reports that there has been official word to block access to ".blogspot" and other sites from within India, given that I have been able to access them from my desk in IIT-B (but it takes a while to load, but the blogspot blogs do eventually load; wordpress even faster). Surely, if a government ban went through, IIT would be among the first to clamp down? Some people report that a message that the site is blocked is shown for some blogs - I haven't seen anything so far. One thing that is blocked in ITI sadly is youtube and apparently even google vidoe. Pity - I'm not if the reasons were bandwidth-hogging or other stuff.

Either someone's doing a really bad and slow job of monitoring and filtering content before it loads or there's a genuine technical problem or there's some unofficial "authoritarian" diktat floating around. Many bloggers have decided for themselves that there is something sinister about all of this and have launched a wiki to collect information about it.

It would be laughable, of course, for some babu to decide that blogs can be used to spread anti-national sentiment (you'd have to pull your network cable out to prevent the means to do that in the ultimate analysis). There are so many ways to get around it that it's hilarious.

Still, anything's possible. I'm not sure how terrorists use blogs to communicate. Have I been sending out subliminal messages in HTML, I wonder?

carpss about scraps as c*apss in parcss

I have finally gone and created an Orkut Community called "I hate Orkut Scraps"¹. I'm a mere drop of acid in the ocean, a protest banner on a hanky in a gale, a grain of sand on an inferno - but still.

It's as if Peter Finch² told me to open the windows and yell "I'm mad as hell". The orkut scrap doesn't make a lot of sense when used by people in this staggering volume: it's a piece of personal communication scribbled on a public whiteboard, you get a mail telling you you've got a scrap and you have to *go* to orkut to read what ultimately turns out to be as inane as "can I turn off the ceiling fan?". What happened to direct and personal email? This fad-ding is unbelievable.

I use orkut merely as a means to access useful information about friends and acquaintances (contact details, birthdays, current state of affairs), if I can't find their email, and occasionally interests (which are anyway hijacked by some anarchic sub-group). Having a Y instead of an additional X in my chromosomes, I'm mercifully spared the "Can we be friends?" scrap (to which the answer should be a composition of "only if you send me your thumb and a cheque by VPP", "I hope you're ok with my W.G. Grace beard" and "I never thought I'd meet someone also interested in cannibalism and ritual torture"). I really don't have a problem with others using a social networking service to do whatever they want, but kindly leave me out of it. Your scrap is welcome to ping me if you do not know my email IDs, but in any case, please do not feel slighted if I dump it, suitably, in a scrap-heap. What's more, you can expect the same from me.

Thanks to 'kutting-mania, organisations have started to block this (thanks - there goes the utility to people like me who had limited use for it thanks to the roobish), especially since, in a nod to popularity, we now have phishing attacks using it. This on a service which is usually denying doughnuts to its servers half the time.

Thus did Rantobaa uvaacha.

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1. The orkut folk seem wonderfully liberal about this, for this community is still standing. But more likely, it's possibly because right now, there's only member.
2. In the Sidney Lumet film Network.

A bird, a plane, Superman? No, it's Nirupa Roy

Naseeruddin Shah in this interview with Rajeev Masand on CNN-IBN:

Naseeruddin Shah: Yes. First super hero who could fly (talking about Chamatkaar). Though before that there was a movie called Superman with Nirupa Roy. Would you believe it?
Rajeev Masand: I have heard of it.
Naseeruddin Shah: A film called Superman with Nirupa Roy playing Superman.
Rajeev Masand: Playing Superman?
Naseeruddin Shah: Yes. Playing Superman. Not Superwoman.
Rajeev Masand: This I have to see.

Me too. I hope the veteran hasn't got muddled up in his filmic history. If he hasn't, then this I really have to see this. IMDB does have an entry for this 1960 film starring Nirupa Roy, but does not mention the role played by the one-whose-eyesight-was-miraculously-restored. This recent post conjectures she must have been Lois Lane, but in light of Naseer's qualified response, perhaps not. Even Hollywood couldn't match this sort of women's lib.

Apart from this startling revelation, nice interview with the man whose directorial debut is about to hit screens soon. "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro", "Chamatkaar", the boredom of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and more make an appearance.

"Omkara" kaa Da.nkaaraa

It's been a struggle getting to the music of Omkara. The music was to release on the 3rd of July which, it may be recalled, was one of the rain-direct-from-Hades days in Mumbai, which ultimately rained off the official music launch. It seems this, for no clear reason, also stalled the distribution of the music to stores. I made at least 3 trips (braving the rain) to stores in Pune; the 1st two were those nearby places where the lack of such CDs could be explained away by them not having heard of the track in the first place (judging from my bad experiences looking for the music of Maqbool and later Bose). But once "Thakkar's Music Bank" confirmed no such music release having reached them, it meant a snafu that posed the first of several entry barriers to the enjoyment of the album had occured.

The music, however, was released without fanfare outside India. I do not know if the official music release has since happened, but judging by the slow trickle of local reviews appearing (I haven't been able to go to a shop in Bombay yet), it may have made it to the stores. The guys in charge of the distribution need to understand that tracks like "Omkara" will unfortunately not sell in numbers merely due to the good offices of fans of Vishal and Gulzar who have looked forward to this for many days. Nor will a slew of trailers featuring the top stars translate into sales if there is nothing to sell in the first place. Worse, what use is a website that has absolutely no mention, especially of the rescheduling, of the music launch? Vishal, as was seen with "Maqbool", always starts off on the backfoot with such films, and here you have him going so far back as to trod on his stumps before the bat can hit the ball.

But the tracks have now been heard. Normally, I would have merely pointed to the venerable senior's rapturous music review, but since I have some differing and additional points to make, here're some of my opinions on Vishal Bhardwaj's music for "Omkara".

* Bii.Dii: Normally, I'm not a fan of Sunidhi Chauhan's full-throated and stereotypical "thrill" numbers, but here I have to make an exception. First, this song is a lot more believable given the rural orchestra setting and establishes wonderfully the "Billo"¹ character. The richly coarse (intentional oxymoron this) lyrics by Gulzar (whose guN-gaan we shall sing throughout this post) are brilliant. Thanks to Deepa Mehta's "Fire", I knew what "lihaaf"² meant. So entry barrier #2: the Urdu and the dialect Hindi is perfectly placed, but will the spoon-fed-on-kindergarten-Hinglish ears of the public respond to the challenges of decoding both the obvious meaning along with the innuendo implied? Sukhwinder Singh's roguish rolling of the "r"'s as in "sasurrii" is elevated by the failure of his male co-singers to emulate him :-)

To paraphrase a review I read, this is a high-class low-class song³.

* Jag Jaa: The immediate points of interest was the chance to hear Suresh Wadkar after a long while. This gem of a song took a long while to sink in, which is entry barrier #3. This album needs a lot of time and contemplation and patience from your listener, especially those who are not immediately inclined towards the Vishal-Gulzar combo. Please provide it to this album, for these guys deserve it.

This song is a great example of the situational aptness that this combo has provided in the past. If you have read your Othello, you can make a pretty good guess based on the lyrics as to where this song will appear (I will be shocked to not find it there - go on Vishal, surprise me!). Superbly counterpointed. One of the best slow songs I've heard. The arrangements leave Wadkar to quietly take centre-stage.

* O Saathi Re: This is a slow romantic duet sung by Shreya Ghoshal and what turned out to be the surprise of the album, Vishal himself making his full debut as a singer⁴. Sweet to hear with Vishal being competent (no immediate stunning impact, but let's hear more and we can be more judgemental) and Shreya doing a restrained rendition.

* Laaka.D: The voice of Rekha Bharadwaj. I remain very ambivalent about this, especially her uncanny modulations of pitch and voice texture. More on this later. This is another slow number that eventually grows on you, especially when Rekha gets fervent about the lament later. There's a lot more to this song than I'm able to immediately comprehend with my limited musical knowledge, and like the riparian setting, perhaps I will be able to dive deeper. The accompanying strings in the song are very beautiful - I am smitten with them even though I lack the devices to describe them.

* Nainaa: This song features some very creative lyrics by the man in the stiff-starch-cast kurtaa on the theme of deception. I did not like the rendition very much. This was probably because of the opening bars of the song. It improves a lot in the middle with the changes in tempo. I'm afraid I still prefer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan in "man ki lagan" from "Paap". However, the composition conveys the right sense of restlessness.

* Namak: This is a medley of folk, qawwali and mujra styles. Rekha Bharadwaj switches voice texture (admirable for technique), but some of her modulations later in the song were a little harsh for me. But this song again smells richly of the region (from whatever limited music I have heard from there)⁵, with the accompanying chorus and harmoniums. Entry barrier #4 is the fact that most of Vishal's efforts are wonderfully situational and works very well with the screenplay. A standalone sampling of his songs just for pleasure is usually unable to compete on just user-friendliness with the songs from other films. A decent song, overall.

* Omkaaraa: This is a ballad-style song that introduces, in detail, the character of Omkara. Much as in the original play where the legendary exploits of Othello are a key factor in the romancing of Desdemona. The rhymes of Gulzar work very well, and interestingly, Omkara is not completely glorified. However, the beginning of the 2nd half of the song suddenly seems dissonant⁶, which I didn't think much of. Sukhwinder is the voice behind this song. Perhaps we will see a montage accompanying this song.

* The Tragedie of Omkara: This is an instrumental theme piece evoking the necessary drama befitting such a tale. The progression seemed vaguely familiar for some reason.

In conclusion, let me offer the last entry barrier: the key to perhaps enjoying this film more than your average viewer could be in whether you "revise" your Othello before watching the film or hearing this album. In a sense, Shakespearan plays are like a bunch of raagaas - a plot framework is available and well-known, so a rendition of it acquires a lot of interest not only if the creators stick to the structure, but also work their way around it from time to time. We saw this with "Maqbool". Hopefully, we'll see it with "Omkara" too.

A word of thanks to Vinay Jain, whose excellent efforts in transcribing the lyrics provided me with the opportunity to decipher the rich strands of poetry (for that's what it really is, in several places). As a next step, hopefully, I'd like to attempt a shallow translation.

Pointers to Lyrics: Bii.Dii, O Saathi Re, Jag Jaa, Namak, Nainaa, Laaka.D (n/a) and Omkaaraa (n/a).

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1. "Billo Chaman Bahaar" will surely go down in Hindi film history's hall of fame of names!
2. "Lihaaf" means "Quilt" and is the name of the Ismat Chugtai short story that "Fire" is based on. My Urdu learning is restricted to such inputs, I'm afraid.
3. Keeping political correctness aside for the moment.
4. I have a feeling that the uncredited voice in the interlude singing "O maajhi re..." in "Satya"'s "Baadalo.n se kaat\-kaat ke" "tu mere paas bhi hai" could be Vishal. If it is, well, nothing much seems to have changed lyrically for him!
5. No expertise claimed - I could be wrong about provincial provenance.
6. Adjective borrowed from George's review.

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Update: 22 July
Manish Chauhan writes about the references in some of the Omkara songs; he does so appreciatively, being from the same region as the setting of the film.

The Production of 'Omkara'

The build-up to the 28th July release of "Omkara" has kicked into full swing. Read some juicy production tidbits from this excellent Rediff publicity feature. One hopes (with high optimism) Vishal's latest effort will translate into commercial success (assuming the hype will not kill the likely critical acclaim).

Thoughts on the music to come soon...

Ramoji Rao e-mailing¹

One of the advantages of having a slightly uncommon first name is that you're more likely to get a [first name]@[the email provider] than your average Amit or Kiran or Lakshmi. As a result of my own slightly uncommon 1st name (=> the name is not taken) and coupled with the suspicion that just like the venerable Bhavani Shankar, most people with this name "to paidaa hote hi buDDhe ho gaye" (=> I'm the rare one rampant in cyberspace with this handle), I have successfully claimed the first name at google's, the institute's and the department's mail servers without needing to qualify it further.

This can be a double-edged sword as I was soon to find out.

The problem is when people get more qualified email ids in these mail servers, especially the popular ones, where you have the [firstname].[digit/letter] and so on. One small misprint, and the emails for the world caucus of Ramanands starts to pour in my mailbox. Which leads me to my present predicament: there is a gentleman who seems to have put my email id on his correspondence material, and so I get a lot of mail per week inviting me to conferences, asking my advice and seeking my recommendation (clearly this man is a big name in his social sphere). I end up politely telling his correspondents they're barking up the wrong tree, but soon I need to do some barking up the right tree myself to save all of us the trouble.

Especially before I get a kidnap ransom request a la Baburao Ganpatrao Apte.

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1.: Ramoji Rao Speaking was the original Malayalam film from which came other hits such as "Arangetra Velai" and "Hera Pheri".

Eleven bad days

It has been eleven days of misery for the city, with rains, mini-rioting and now these attacks, but what is left to do but to get back to work?

Since I'm not at home, I've missed much of the nauseating moments of television coverage on our channels. However, I did see live the by now infamous and inopportune Rajdeep Sardesai CNN-IBN plug, and later chaotic commentary from Aaj Tak. The online world has been comparatively much more sober and factual.

Thanks are also in order, again, to the internet-meisters: Kahn--Cerf--Tomlinson--Berners-Lee--Page & Brin--the men behind blogs and IMs: this medium was at its most useful yesterday.

Lots more info on Mumbai Help.

7idane?

The (by now) historically dramatic Zinedine Zidane head-butt reminds me of the ending in the film Se7en, where Det. David Mills' (Brad Pitt) actions are unfortunate, perhaps even understandable under extreme provocation (?). Materazzi as John Doe - who knows? But we certainly are a lot like Det. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) watching from the outside as a sullen and ultimately silent Mills sits in the car (and if we knew what was really said - what a mystery!) while the line "Ernest Hemingway once wrote,'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." is spoken in the background.

(At the risk of romanticising...)

And elsewhere, Harish stands by the man and realises something about the others he supported.