Movie Reviews: Taxi No. 9211, Brokeback Mountain and The Producers

WARNING: RELATIVE SPOILERS

(At this point I should probably explain what I mean by Relative Spoilers. I guess it means that I won't give out the entire plot - such as what happens in the end or the climax scene, but I will give you a basic gist of the plot - nothing you won't find in movie reviews anyway. My attempts at keeping the movie somewhat mysterious do hamper my analysis, but I'm not really aiming for the career of a film critic anyway. So if you like to go to a film not knowing ANYTHING about it at all, then don't read, but if you want to make a relatively informed judgement before blowing up at least a hundred bucks - and you trust my opinion mildly, then go ahead and read!)

So on to the reviews.

First of all, wow wow wowie!!!! Three movies in a week! Every alternate day! What a fun life!!!

Taxi No. 9211 was seen on Wednesday evening. It was damn funky! Went with mom and dad and was praying that we would like it (had heard good things about it, though it’s supposed to be a copy of Changing Lanes), because I had conned (sorta – more like dhaaped though) my dad into coming by saying that every 50 year old man I knew who had seen it had liked it and laughed (one).

It wasn’t really a lie (sigh of relief). The movie was entertaining for sure. It starts off with the song Mumbai Nagariya, and the camera zipping through between Mumbai’s streets in the way many commuters wish they could, and stylized clubs, crowded with women wearing the clothes my parents get a heart-attack looking at. Sanjay Dutt does his snappy and classic Munnabhai Mumbaiya style narration throughout the movie, and introduces the two protagonists and his situation to the audience – Raghav Shastri – grumpy taxi driver played by Nana Patekar, and the riches-to-ration in the making, Jai Mittal, scion of Mittal industries, played by John Abraham.

Their paths collide far too often in this day of serendipity, frustration, anger, and various wild goose chases. First: when Mittal needs to get to court from Juhu in only a few minutes, and offers the desperately-in-need-of-money Shastri a few thousand rupees to do so. However, his taxi gets into an accident and Shastri is arrested while Mittal sneaks away. However, he is forced to return in search of the taxi and Shastri when he discovers that the key to the locker in which the disputed will is kept is missing. Others get embroiled in the chase and the day becomes worse and worse as Mittal accidentally reveals Shastri’s true identity to his gentle wife, played by Sonali Kulkarni, and Mittal’s girlfriend, played by Sameera, gets the scare of her life from Shastri. Their pursuit of each other, induced more and more by anger and vengeance, leads them through a couple of really touching scenes, where Shastri is humiliated in front of his 8 year old son (I cried), and a birthday scene.

What’s interesting is that both these characters could be distorted mirror images of each other. Despite their diagonally different situations, both have become used to their situation to the extent that they have stagnated and project blame and displace their impotency in various ways on others. Thankfully, they are redeemed and their priorities reset in different ways through the people they love – which is how it should be, and they are given a new lease of life.

The pace of the movie is very racy and slick, and plot twists and turns but revolves around the same point – it’s intended to - making it not only tragicomic but also harrowing, though frustratingly enjoyable for the viewer (enjoyably frustrating?). I for one, wanted to bang everyone’s heads together, but then the movie wouldn’t have really happened, would it?! Plus, the filmy sidey overdone 60’s end is very apt offers a change of pace, inducing a giggle after 2 hours of tensed shoulders. Not to mention the Bluffmaster they did at the end!

As for the performances, Nana Patekar has predictably delivered an impeccable performance. John Abraham, is beginning to show hints of traces of promise, though he needs to improve his Hindi diction (my standards are shuddh Urdu though I can’t speak it ok!) Hinglish should be delivered with slippery ease and Hindi/Urdu with precision and finesse and Abraham has a while to go before he can do either. Mom thinks he looks cute. Sameera Reddy, well, is a Barbie. She looks MUCH better with curls. Her accent is worse than Abraham’s, and though she is voluptuous, her presence may have been more justified for the ladies if she had had more outfit changes. Plus her club outfit in “Ek Nazar” is too trashy. When I saw the trailors I was wondering if he falls for some pick-up girl. Of course, I’ll stop trashing her because though she was supportive mercenary girlfriend, she had no role. Sonali on the other hand, is not only blessed with a mature and graceful beauty, but she is also the most underrated actress in Bollywood. She needs to stop being given wife/mother/third lead roles.

Conclusion: Paisa Vasool. Two hours of solid, edge-of-seat entertainment, even if it’s not over-cerebrally-stimulating. Mummy-daddy enjoyed. Called it ‘different’ and even had a moral to offer “Money is everything” (which they only do for movies they secretly like).

Oh God. For this one, the less said the better, but I have a feeling that won't happen ;)

I wasn’t expecting much, honestly. I just went out of curiosity and because I like to side underdogs, and usually for good reason. This time though, unfortunately, the reason wasn’t good. I should have known that I’d get stuck watching the one movie usually nominated for the Oscars that tends to be long, boring, sequential and SLOW. And that bane of the average movie-goers existence – SUBTLE. Case in point – As Good As It Gets.

I’m stupid I suppose. I knew what a poster like the above – with pensive cowboys not facing each other, against a pristine mountain backdrop boded – long silences and unbearable serenity. Anyway on to an objective (!!!) review of the film.

It’s based on a book of the same name by Annie Proulx. (AHA! Her name alone should have alerted me). It starts off with my not understanding anything for about 15 minutes, and intermittently throughout the film, due to the heavy accents. I spent another few minutes trying to decide whether the Welsh-looking Gyllenhaal, or the blondie Heath Ledger (I wasn’t even sure which was which but then assumed correctly) was cuter, and concluded that NEITHER was.

Ang Lee, presents lovely shots of the hazy Brokeback mountain in Wyoming, which is reassuringly characteristic of an Asian influence – whether in script or making. They go about tersely doing campy things, till they make out in an edited, I believe sequence in soft light. They eventually part and go on to leas very different lives, each’s life typical of his personality. In this case as with all couples, hetero or otherwise, opposites attracted, and then they went on to marry someone similar in situation and mindset. This leads to one living in a rundown house loaded with babies and a burdened wife, and the other in a glamourous situation in Texas with a randy tarty Anne Hathaway and an obnoxious son. They meet every few years, and soon one’s wife finds out and divorces him, and the other is surreptitiously killed. The widowed lover goes to meet his parents and it’s a difficult scene to watch, because of the denial that both conscious and unconscious on the parents’ level, the situation so removed from his later life. Of course, his own daughters grow up and his situation changes. I don’t even remember how it ended because I was so bloody bored and half-surprised at the fact that I spent most of the movie fascinated by the weird taste of the kachumber-like hot-n-sweet-n-sour excuse for salsa that was served with the tortilla chips at Inox.

Sorry about that. There’s no surprise in the movie except for the fact that it was even nominated for an Oscar! Just loads of silence, a bit of needy emotions, many depressed inert looks, retarded faces, and some forays into Mexico and some token coloured people in the form of shepherds and prostitutes. On such a background, Anne Hathaway’s red and white cowboy shirt stands out stunningly. So cute! This was a totally politically correct situation. In theory, the movie could have been semi-epic – about gays – hot topic, about cowboys – classic topic, about Wyoming – tourist topic (actually no. More like history/horror). Chinese American director – model minority pull. No way they’d ever let a gay film win. Not from a censor board that only allowd three visual humps and requires the man to be on top. So they gave Best Director to Ang Lee as consolation prize.

Conclusion: YAWN. Watch it if you’re love waxing about understatedness and negative space. I don’t. My friend kinda liked it though – but I think that’s because she too went with lowered expectations.

P.S. I know I sound stupid and ignorant and flighty as hell in this review. I read books for reality and watch films for entertainment. Plus I was hungry during the film and impatient for it to end so I could eat dinner. I assure you that didn’t help!

For opinions on Brokeback vs Crash and Oscar politics, see this Intentblog post.

OH MY GOD what a cute movie!!! I haven’t seen the Producers but I had heard about what a superhit it was on Broadway, and jumped to the opportunity when my favourite cousins Hetu (CA and auditor par excellence) and Namu (good-natured-fightercock-lawyer-to-be) suggested it to me.

I picked them up (yay yay yay) and even parallel parked at the theatre (yay yay yay* umpteen – SQUEAL!) and to celebrate, interrupted my seconds-ago-announced diet to buy some cookies from Cookie Man at Inox (do not make this mistake they are quite bad and not at all soft and chewy. Not even crisp. A lame alternative. You would do better with the yummy, albeit slightly watery cold coffee, and the nacho popcorn). But on to the movie.

Now I don’t like musicals in general but this one just changed my opinion completely. It was just too nice. Though it was a film, it did have a stage-set feel in parts, and a lovely vintage look. What gowns on opening night! What jewels (FAKE!) Perfect coiffes and lipstick. SO over-the-top that one does not even want to analyse the political incorrectness of the American interpretation of Nazi Germany, complete with chorus girls, pretzels and a fruity Adolf!

Anyway, a broke Broadway producer Max Bialystock, played inimitably by Nathan Lane, who services old women for their fat cheques, is inspired by an offhand suggestion by his mousy nervous accountant with the endearing blue blanket reminiscent of that character in Peanuts, played to histrionic exaggerated perfection by Matthew Broderick. They thus search for a terrible play, a terrible director, and terrible actors and come across hilarious characters in the cross-eyed ex-nazi retard (don’t analyse the stereotypes, and try to resist saying “So much for the Master Race!”) and a supergay director and his troupe, who belives in GAY LIGHT frivolous musicals. The only ray of light in their lives is the very blond, very Swedish, very alluring Ula something or other played by Uma Thurman, who paints their entire office white (and of course, the horny oldies). The play becomes a hit, they are jailed, and then released. Of course, on the side is a senti courtroom scene, one in Rio, and a superb accounting office one.

Classic lines abound such as “Do I smell the revolting stench of self-esteem?” and “There, there.” “Vhere, vhere?” (hyok hyok!!!) and other ones that are cheesy, stereotypical, and delightful only in context.

What coordination! Even the accountants tapping away that their typewriters, leaning this way of that, picking up pencils… Bollywood should learn a thing or two about paying attention to extras! And the music – typical showhouse grand band.

Bollywood would also do well learning a thing or two about variations in roles for females. Uma Thurman, in her filmography, has a vast range of roles to her credit, even though she was a seductress in most to some extent. They required her to undergo training for new skills - be it martial arts or chorus girl dancing. All the average Bollywood actresses can normally aspire to be are the good girl love interests, or the direct opposite - a prostitute. Of course, in the inbetween movies are flops. I guess that says more about the audience and directors than the actresses themselves!

That aside, finally, a movie that doesn’t take itself seriously, tailormade for people who take entertainment seriously!

Conclusion: Perfect for a relaxing Sunday evening, or after an annoying day at work. Be ready to giggle along!