Oct 31, 2011

Manorama, six thumbs up - the sequel

Update (31 Oct 2011): WOGMA, the film review site is running "The Reel-Life Bloggers contest" on occasion of the site's 5th anniversary. Since the prizes are tempting and it gets me to pseudo-update my long-forgotten blog, I'm entering some of my reviews there. WOGMA is organising this with Reviewgang. Go visit them, and if you are the reviewing type, send in an entry.

This is about the time I went to see the desi noir Manorama 6 Feet Under the evening India was playing Pakistan in the inaugural World Twenty20 Cup. That meant a near-empty hall, an eerie suspense drama, and listening to an old couple discussing the movie. Read on.

14 comments:

daemon said...

Written with relish, it seems! Good post - Story feel. I was there (in the story). There I play the critic again ;-)

Unknown said...

I too wanna see it. Guess, will have to do it before the weekend before it is a goner from the theaters all over India.

What was the suspense in Ek Hasina Thi ? Saif's betrayal or Urmila's revenge? Either was a big rip off from If Tomorrow Comes's first half.

J Ramanand said...

D: thanks!
M: I know EHT wasn't really that much of a suspense, but
1. I couldn't find a previous Hindi film in the genre (perhaps Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Khamosh, which sadly, I haven't watched completely is another)
2. ETH: The betrayal is obvious, but the usual suspense points of what-will-happen-next and what-if-s/he-gets-caught was handled well.

I haven't seen If..., but even with Manorama, you will find it is a remake. It didn't matter to me much, as the Indian re-planting was done well.

Will be interested to see if you gentlemen also share my views for this film in case you see it.

George said...

Do you mean suspense in the Hitchcockian sense? EHT would qualify as you noted, Khamosh wouldn't simply, because it's fundamentally a whodunit. With Hitchcock, it was more about turning the screw fully aware that you knew who (did it, was going to die) than about the big reveal (Pyscho doesn't qualify, of course).

Unknown said...

Khamosh, is brilliant.

I was talking about the If Tomorrow Comes - the book. It was adapted to a serial which I too haven't seen.

Unknown said...

Saw the lastest show of the movie yesterday, because I knew today it won't be there anywhere, spent 2 x150 = 300 and enjoyed it all along. Fundoo written, directed and acted.

I might have watched anyway, but you post removed the intertia out of me.

I think Charas, was also good thrill to watch on similar lines.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed your musings on your Manorama experience, wish I had been there to hear the comments from the elderly couple...and a big thank you for writing a blog entry that must have inspired atleast a couple of people to watch the film.
So sorry you didn't enjoy the last one minute...but sometimes open endings are better than definite solutions? Hopefully next film around, you'll enjoy even the last minute...but thank you so so very much :)

J Ramanand said...

Devika: thanks for dropping by. I don't have to return the compliment by saying that I really enjoyed your (and your colleagues') work here - it's quite obvious :-)

The last minute: well, the open ending is fine. It's just that I've had it up to here with skies opening up in the last frames of movies. I'd have loved to see SV just being happy to see his family back again, despite the parched climate. I suppose it wasn't too bad, but the standards of the previous couple of hours were scorching :-)

I can tell you that some of my friends did get out and go watch the film last week at odd hours, before the unfortunate but expected withdrawal of the film from screens in Pune - just one show left this week, sadly. Still, you'll be happy to know that each one of them loved the movie.

Thanks again - the film was an absolute pleasure. Looking forward to the next one.

Harish Kumar said...

Very well-written post - one of your best, I'd say. An apt post for the movie?
So this is the third DVD on my wishlist - Johnny Gaddaar and No Smoking being the other two.
BTW, did you notice the way everyone on PFC is working on a film with Johnny in the title?

J Ramanand said...

thanks. the post came "ek dum, dil se".

Ashwin Raghu said...

"For such a small crowd, there is a lot of litter around. Shocking."

LOL! Great post!

J Ramanand said...

Ashwin Raghu: thanks for dropping by (same can't be said about the litter; we are such a litter-happy public. Sigh).

Thanks to you, I re-read some of the comments and shit! I have seen Khamosh - it's Sazaa-e-Maut that I haven't seen fully. That's why the allusion to 'suspense'.

Kalyan said...

Great post, Mentor!

Why didn't I read it earlier? Whenever this movie played on any channel back home, I'd skip the channel. From the bits-and-pieces I had managed to watch earlier, my understanding was that this movie was about a system se hara hua ek imandar police officer (the kind of movies I hate), may be Abhay Deol's moustache, his ray-ban, his bike and uska sujaa/maar khaya hua chehra gave me this impression. And I was dead wrong. Glad I read your post a few days back and watched it. I loved it and agree they should have cut out the final minute at the railway station, which was a bummer.

Thanks!

J Ramanand said...

Thanks for the kind words, Kalyan. Glad you liked the film and the post.