New Sense

I recently had the pleasure of watching a Indian adaptation of the classic Moliere play titled “The Imaginary Invalid”. Staged at the KH Kala Soudha in South Bangalore and performed by energetic cast of a budding theater group, the play combined a hilarious plot and brilliant characterization to make it a memorable evening.

The Imaginary Invalid is the story of a hypochondriac father who wants to get his daughter married to a doctor, so that his medical bills will be taken care of. Adding to the mix is a second wife who would rather have her step-daughter converted to a nun so that she can grab all of the man’s property.

One of the biggest winners of the play has to be its Indianisation. For far too long we have had Indians playing western plays trying hard to fake western accents and ending up with abysmal performances. The Imaginary Invalid makes it a point to bring across the diversity of India by making the characters from different Indian backgrounds, which worked wonders to the comedy and the relevance of the play.

The cast’s energy and enthusiasm is what immediately catches our attention, Praveen who plays the protagonist combined with the actor playing the maid servant were excellent with their comic timing. The character of the young suitor who was coached to impress the protagonist was one of the most memorable of characters in the ensemble. The stage design also stood its own as one of the important characters of the play. It provided the perfect canvas for the actors to work on.

The three act play had its good and bad moments. Personally I throughly enjoyed the second act but was a bit more skeptical as the third act seemed to drag a little longer than expected. The laugh lines were well handled and it seemed like the audience was enjoying the play right thru.

All in all the Imaginary Invalid was a well executed adaptation of the French play(Le Malade imaginaire). It provided for a excellent evening of entertainment.

Ps: The Imaginary Invalid is being performed again later this week at the Alliance Francaise.

  

This months Top 5 movie recommendations are movies featuring from 1940 classic based in Budapest to a 2009 Telugu movie sequel that simply blew my mind away… Also my movie of the month is about con-men trying to con a rich Rachel Weisz.

Three Amigos

A Steve Martin comedy again is a part of this list after Bowfinger made it to last months list. Personally I find Steve Martin’s movies very out of the box and for the same reason have some unique comedy written in them. Three Amigos is the story of three out of work actors who are invited to Mexican village to help rid the village of its bandits. Written in a spoofy version of the Seven Samurais genre western, Three Amigos has its moments of absolute hilarity. While there are moments(esp the songs) where one feels tempted to skip forward but the movie is still worth a watch.

The Shop Around the corner

This 1940 movie about pen pals was the inspiration for the Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan starrer “Yo

u’ve got Mail“. In the original the story revolves around a shop in Budapest and the lives of its employees. James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan play the roles of a manager and newly

hired employee that cant stand each other. Their constant bickering at each other happens unknown to the reality that they are corresponding via letters as anonymous pen pals. Will they realize that the person they hate the most is also the person they secretly are in love with?

The beauty of this movie is in its antiquity and type of film making. The dialog writing and delivery has been long lost and its wonderful to once again experience it. The acting is exquisite not just of the lead but also of the rest of the cast. A must watch for all romantics.

Karthik Calling Karthik

Karthik calling Karthik is one of the new age style thrillers that is clearly aimed at entertaining the audience right thru the narration. The story is of a transformation of Karthik, a (for the lack of a better word) ‘Loser’ who is treated like a door mat by everyone to a confident man for whom nothing is out of reach. The clincher is that the transformation is triggered by late night phone calls by someone with the same name as the protagonist and who knows everything about him. The caller gets him to fix his life and even attract the affections of a colleague for whom he has had feeling for what seemed like forever.

The movie takes a twist when he is instructed to not tell anyone about the late night calls but he breaks the agreement by telling his lover about the life changing calls. Fearing the worst they try to discover the identity of the caller, this infuriates the caller making him to take revenge on Karthik and attempting to ruin his life… Who is this mysterious caller? Will he destroy Karthik’s life? Can he be stopped?

In a nutshell, the movie works… Its very easy to think of a concept like this and mess up the execution but the movie does justice not only to the characters but also to the intelligence of the audience.

Arya 2

Arya 2 is the sequel to the super-hit Telugu movie Arya. The sequel starts afresh (without much relation to the original other than the lead actor’s name) and talks about the friendship between Arya and Ajay, both orphans. Their friendship begins at the orphanage despite Ajay’s disinterest in being a pal to Arya. Arya has blind faith in Ajay who can hardly stand him and after Arya steps aside to let Ajay be adopted, he believes their friendship is cemented for life. In adulthood Arya convinces Ajay to get him a job at his software company where Geetha joins as an employee. Arya and Ajay both fall in love with her but its Arya who consistently tries to get her attention. Frustrated by his attempts and knowing how much Ajay is dear to him, she tells Arya that she loves Ajay. Arya decides that he shall not let anything come in the way of the love birds and goes overboard trying to get them together.

The movie sounds very typical but what is the clincher is the amazing understanding of game-play right thru the movie. The only other time I was this impressed with the conceptual game play in a movie it was done by the Joker in the The Dark Knight. There are situations where Arya makes decisions that seem a bit crazy but they make absolute sense in a few minutes as it appears he has taken into account both moving probability and motive of others involved indirectly in the situation.

Dialogs are fast paced and the brilliance of the writer is evident as. Arya’s character is one of the best ones I have seen written for screen in South Indian cinema. The comic sequences are original and sometimes the absurdity of the choices leaves you laughing your guts out.

This was the first Telugu movie I have seen in a long time and I absolutely loved it. Its a pity that the movie did only averagely in the box office, I would have loved to see more movies written this way.

Movie of the month:

The Brothers Bloom:

Con men don’t come better than the team of the Brothers Bloom. Starting right from their childhood, Stephen(Mark Ruffalo) is the genius behind the cons and Bloom(Adrien Brody) the protagonist in his intricate stories. Stephen believes that the best con in the world is the one in which both the con men and the conned get what they wanted. As Bloom hits his mid thirties he decides to quit the business as he fears that he is losing his identity to the ones borrowed for the cons. Stephen lures Bloom with the promise of one last con. The mark is the beautiful and lonely heiress Penelope Stamp(Rachel Weisz) who spends her time learning hobbies on her own. Complications in the con arise after Diamond Dog, the nemesis of the brothers returns and it seems like Penelope may be very different than other previous marks… To add to the confusion Bloom looks like he is falling in love with Penelope and thats what Stephen had warned him about all along…

The crispiness and unpredictability of The Brothers Bloom is the best part of the movie. The acting is top notch and the writing is brilliant. All the while you are not clear as to what is the con and who all are involved. As con movies come The Brothers Bloom is easily one of the best. A must watch.

  

The attraction of movies with smart cons is two fold, one the charisma of the con men(and women) and the other the brilliance of the con itself. Sadly Badmaash Company shows only a spark of the attraction and then falls flat.

The trailer of the movie promised a smart movie involving beautiful people who wear disguises to outsmart others and then go about their evenings blowing away their winnings in fancy casinos… In the movie we realize thats only half quarter a part of the story. The audience is then inflicted with cons involving defective pairs of shoes and gloves! Just as we sit and wait for that smart con, we are greeted with a spectacular bank loan con…
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There is something truly enigmatic about black and white movies. I had the pleasure of watching a couple of movies a few days back and the experience has made me a fanboy of the black and white movie era.

Sherlock Jr. was the first movie I stumbled upon, the silent movie from 1924 is a fun story about a movie projectionist who wishes to become a detective one day. His ambitions are put to a test when he finds himself wrongly accused of a crime he didnt commit.
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My Name is Karan Johar and I dont make bad movies.

Maybe its high time Karan Johar went out on National Television and said that.

There is a moment in the movie where Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) is narrating about the moment when he was first told that he suffered from Asperger Syndrome. He casually says:

I didnt know that my entire life could have been summed up in two words “Asperger Syndrome”

That moment is so quick and the narration is so subtly simple that the pain of Rizwan echoed thru the mind. There is another moment in the movie where young Rizwan(immaculately portrayed by Tanay Chheda) looks at his brother crying in the arms of his mother and says “At-least he can cry”.

Its moments like those that are the heart and soul of My Name is Khan.
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