nitpicking lakshya [trail: notes on the film]

An IM conversation with JR uncovered some trivia-friendly bits that I neglected to pursue with the expected fervour and hunger for the inconsequential. I'll deal with the second one first, because it's less trivial (aka more mundane). There's a point in the film when Karan asks his brother Udesh (working in the US of A) to check if the Jurassic Park DVD is out. We know that Farhan Akhtar's film takes place during Kargil 1999. Spielberg's film was released in 1993. That's a long time to wait for a DVD. Would this be an anachronism? IMDB's DVD details page clears things up for us. The first DVD release happened in 2000. Which would actually be a good thumbs-up for the goings-on in the film -- Karan is anxiously waiting for the DVD of the movie (and by the time it's out, he probably doesn't need it anymore).

Our first trivia morsel stems from the Aradhana book camp. A classic trivia nugget came from the moments during mere sapano.n kii raanii when Sharmila pretended to be reading a book on the train. Which book was it? Alistair Maclean's When Eight Bells Toll (although there have been furious debates on numerous fora -- including QuizNet -- about this). In this case, the question is: what book is Romila reading during the scene where Karan asks her what she likes about him... Yours truly is waiting for a response.

On a related alley, the technical aspects of the film continue to impress me. Having cranked out (no pun intended) the highest crane shot ever done for a feature film, DoP Christopher Popp had more information in a technically rich interview featured in the April 2004 edition of ARRI News [PDF link]. Therein are a few tantalizing photographs (and hopefully the DVD -- which has received good reviews for its mastering and transfer -- has more information) of the on-site shooting and the set constructed for the scenes where Karan and the rest of his team scale the peak. If only the film had done more resounding business back home. While the J C Pixies (J == Johar, C == Chopra) continue to be able to churn out mind-numbing Kelvin-IQ flicks , movies like this that can manage to sail along the waves of mainstream convention while telling a story well and using filmmaking resources to the fullest continue to have a hard time ...

On a non sequitur: two more posts see the light of day -- being thoughts on Sisters and Secretary.