agent vinod: chor machaaye shor

A new teaser is out for Agent Vinod and this one is handled by the Bollywood machine. T-Series stamps its logo in the most innocuous top right corner on every single frame so that when you blink after the teaser, you will see the logo in the darkness. Good job, morons. We get a rehash of items we have already seen and relished in the first trailer and then a wave of déjà vu rises as the club song hits us. A set that looks nice and is lit well cannot elevate the spirits already dampened by the customary scantily-clad lass covering her knockers with a low-cut pair of disco ball shoulder-boulder holsters, sashaying away and tossing lusty looks at the camera (or our hero, or both). The annoying voice of Neeraj Shridhar (as trademarked by Pritam, who, unfortunately, is the music director for the film) stomps the rusty skewer even deeper. And then your jaw drops. You recognise the melody that all the male posturing, the female wailing, the loud electronic beats have been trying to hide. It's Boney M's Rasputin. Pritam's back to his old tricks. No wonder the song's called Steal the Night. A little Googling tells you that this time Pritam's got the official stamp of approval. It's called "buying the rights":

"We have taken the rights of Boney M's Rasputin. However, our song is based more on the Serbian folk song Ruse Kose Curo Imas. Even Rasputin draws inspiration from this song. A Turkish folk song Uskudar'a Gider Iken also has the same melody. Famous Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's song Shukno Paatar Noopur Paaye is also based on this folk tune."

The short version: hey, look I've been inspired by so many things and have created a wholesome earful by blending my influences so well. The other short version: Remember how Anu Malik played five songs based on Raag Shivaranjani to counter the accusation that he was a copycat? This is my version.

If this is a sign of times to come, I am worried. I just hope that video was just a piece of promotional fluff and won't feature in the final film in whole. I don't mind a diegetic appearance (because Agent Vinod seems to be busy with other things during the song).

it's vinod now, not johnny

(notes on the first trailer for Sriram Raghavan's next film Agent Vinod)

Trust Sriram Raghavan to modestly refer to his own work in another trailer loaded with references to old Bollywood. The trailer starts off with the same question that kicked off the teaser for his last film, Johnny Gaddaar. A series of quick cuts introduce you to some promising action sequences and Raghavan keeps returning to the central joke of the trailer: the name of Saif Ali Khan's character.

The first name he throws is Freddie Khambatta (spelling?). Does anyone know if this is just an ingenious invention, a tribute to some character in some obscure cult film of yore, a portmanteau to Freddie Mercury and Persis Khambatta (Bambai Raat ki Baahon Mein, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), a reference to Farrokh Khambata the chef or a nod to a real person?

The second name he reveals with another smirk is Mahendar Sandhu. Of course we fans know that he's referring to the actor who played the original Agent Vinod.

Then it's time for a tribute to Manmohan Desai (and obviously not to that shamefully bad rip-off from 2006).

The last name is the closest we get to the truth (or is it the truth?). Vinod Khanna. Priceless.

They could have done without the sound of the fireball from Doom when we see the logo and title, but that's a minor quibble for the first of (hopefully) many enticing breadcrumbs to a film that had its genesis in 2007!

I wonder if the next trailer is going to have that R. D. Burman classic from Kati Patang playing the background? Unfortunately, it might just grind the joke about names a bit too deep for comfort.

The worrying bits? It has Prem Chopra (yeah!), but it also has Kareena Kapoor (ugh!). The official website is not as much fun as it was for Johnny Gaddaar. It also credits Pritam as the music director -- I wish he had picked Daniel B. George (who did a fabulous job with the score of Johnny Gaddaar), Amit Trivedi or Ram Sampath. But who knows? If Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy could manage a winner with the title track of Johnny Gaddaar, Pritam might get a lucky stroke of the creative kind too.

RIP rasika

Rasika Joshi passed away on Thursday, July 07, 2011 after a long battle against cancer, robbing us of a great actress. She was 39. I was unfortunate never to have caught any of her work on the stage and only had her stellar turns in the films that got made when RGV's Factory was at its most fecund: the daring role of the prison bully in Ek Hasina Thi, Vishnu Prasad's annoying mother in Gayab!. The maid in Vaastu Shastra seemed like a weak echo of characters she had already played, but, if the film was an indication, the Factory had begun to sport some warts. By the time she showed up as Mrs. Dave in Go, the Factory was sputtering and when she appeared as Shiva's mother in Johnny Gaddaar, Sriram Raghavan had moved out of the Factory. As she seemed to become a frequent fixture in Priyadarshan's films, RGV continued to try and get her, even if it was a blink-and-you-might-miss-her role, for his films (Darling, Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag) and even for his forthcoming Not a Love Story. From an acquaintance and a fan, Rasika, you will be missed.

hitchgopal varma?

In chapter three of his book Spellbound by Beauty, Donald Spoto writes:

Hitch could certainly take credit for his visual inventiveness, and for his brilliance in adding to a script precisely the right images, the proper tone and atmosphere. But screenwriters from [Charles] Bennett in the 1930s to Ben Hecht in the 1940s, Samuel Taylor and Ernest Lehman in the 1950s and Evan Hunter in the 1960s all quickly realised that this director's gift was not for writing dialogue but for minimising it and allowing action and reaction, gaze and glance, to tell stories. Perhaps because he wanted to write the script entirely on his own but could not, he often resented his writers, who quickly knew not to expect gratifying compliments.

As I read this passage, I found myself thinking about a similar problem with Ram Gopal Varma, whose Factory promised to offer cinephiles different stories interpreted without the trappings of mainstream convention, with interesting technique and in different creative voices. Unfortunately, if one looked at just his jaunt in Bollywood, one noticed that his writers (who even turned director under his wing) were soon fleeing the coop and trying to make hay elsewhere. The reasons may have been myriad and most of them have always acknowledged the value of their formative time with RGV. But the steady departure of competence has left RGV and his Factory hollow. Without decent writers, the quality of his recent output has been on the decline. Long gone are the likes of Saurabh Shukla, Anurag Kashyap, Sriram Raghavan, Shimit Amin, Prawaal Raman and Manish Gupta.

Spellbound by Beauty is Donald Spoto's third book on the life and work of Alfred Hitchcock. It is also likely his most controversial, because it describes the often "difficult and even painful circumstances" under which the leading ladies in his films had to work. I own a copy of (and highly recommend) The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, the second book in the series.

obits: the victorious, the saint and the financier

The world lost Vijay Tendulkar on Monday, May 19, 2008. There are notes of tribute from Santosh Ayachit (director of the documentary Aankahi Tendulkar), Amol Palekar and Ramu Ramanathan over at PFC.

Sydney Pollack succumbed to cancer on Monday, May 27, 2008. David Hudson's page at GreenCine Daily collects the notes and tributes.

Producer/financier Jhamu Sughand passed away on Monday, May 27, 2008. The name that accompanied movies as diverse as Rangeela, Lagaan, 1947/Earth, Kalpurush and Black Friday was also associated with Johnny Gaddaar (which was eventually taken up by Adlabs), Tanvir Ahmed's forthcoming Ada, Abbas Tyrewala's forthcoming directorial début Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na (now taken up under Aamir Khan's producing umbrella) and Anurag Kashyap's soon-to-be-finished Gulaal. Anurag Kashyap pays eloquent tribute as do Abbas Tyrewala, the Big B, Sriram Raghavan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

julia, O, and a new blog for vishal bhardwaj

One of the closing flourishes of the last year came fromJR in the form of a blog dedicated to all things Vishal Bhardwaj. He graciously asked me on board as well. This means that straight news on the happenings in the cinemagic world of Vishal will go over to that blog, including notes on the mysterious state of Julia, the possibility of a prequel to Omkara (he could dispatch the script to RGV's Factory and the next Vishram Sawant could churn out O (Meerut Maharaja)) and his travelling to Pune (passing by Das Auto Works^[1], no doubt) to work on a script. Both Sudarshan and LL pounced on that news bit when it showed up online.

[1]: an element from the detailed texture of Sriram Raghavan's delicious pulpy Johnny Gaddar

johnny gaddaar: the retro vibe continues

A special trailer's been cut for the title track on Sriram Raghavan's crime caper Johnny Gaddaar and you can catch it over at PFC. The teaser opened with a snarl from the Vijay Anand classic Johnny Mera Naam; the trailer opens with a John Wayne voice bit from McClintok!. It uses Mumbai Mirror headlines to great effect -- they serve as narrative hints as well as marketing blitz. The name of the James Hadley Chase novel's also clear now -- The Whiff Of Money -- and it's quite appropriate. Oz has a post loaded with a pointer to the ultra-cool poster as well as a video of the launch of the mini-disc bearing the sole single (that's Walk Don't Run by The Ventures you hear in the opening of the segment). A speech bit indicates that Sriram Raghavan shares Hitchcock's idea of suspense.

The Big Music CD cover uses red instead of yellow and red dominates the theme in the sleeve and inlay. Releasing singles is a great innovation for soundtracks; the last one-song soundtrack album I remember was Tathastu (discounting the remix of the sole qawwaalii composed by Vishal-Shekhar), but the T-Series CD release padded the disc with other tracks in its kitty from the same genre.

Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy have also notched another record by snagging a stake in the royalties for the soundtrack. Ehsaan notes that there are 4 tracks in all (not counting remixes) including a track featuring Hard Kaur.

The title track has an adventurous melody founded on an extremely catchy riff and some nice delicate flourishes on the cymbals and a strong aggressive beat along with chords punched out on the trusty electric guitar. Akriti Kakkar's been a Himesh regular. Suraj Jagan's the more interesting one. Those lucky enough to own or to have heard the unsung Ranjit Barot soundtrack for Brides Wanted will remember the voice on the song zi.ndagii. Reportedly, he used to be the lead vocalist in the Indian rock band Krysis and later (in a second coming) was part of Chakraview; I remember Chakraview for their Marathi rocker aalaa sherapaa zhapaaTalelaa. The band was led by guitarist Dhruv Ghanekar, who's better known for his soundtrack collaborations with Ashutosh Pathak (Bombay Boys, White Noise, Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar aka MP3). The drummer on the track, Darshan Doshi, who has also featured on the soundtracks of Black and Sarkar, is Ranjit Barot's student and a Limca Book record holder. Small world.

It's been a long journey since the first notes in 2005 about the film, the change of guard from UTV to Adlabs along with the hint that the "only two songs" in the film, which were "remixed numbers" might be recorded by Vishal Bhardwaj, the possibility of having a soundtrack from Vishal-Shekhar or from Sandesh Shandilya (who was an early choice).

Time to return to the SEL groove with Jaideep Sahni's loopy lyrics: chhoTii-sii zi.ndagii gaharii-sii jeb hai / baaqii to jaan-e-man baato.n ke seb hai.n [nit: as AJ notes, Suraj Jagan incorrectly ends the first line with a hai.n instead of a hai].

[september 08, 2007]: The vibe continues on the wonderful portal for the film -- that zipper reminds me of the cover of Sticky Fingers.

it's not the age, it's the mileage

It's good to know they still write lines like that. Step over to PFC the unveiling of the exclusive trailer for Sriram "Ek Hasina Thi" Raghavan's finally-set-for-release flick Johnny Gaddar. Lovely pulpy titles, a host of great names on the roster (Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain, Dharmendra), a new face (Neil Nitin Mukesh, son of Nitin Mukesh and hence grandson of the late Mukesh) and a lovely theme on the background (I'm not sure if credit is due to background music man Daniel George -- is this the Daniel B George responsible for the wonderful soundtrack for Sehar? -- or music directors Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy?). Fans of heist flicks, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn will feel right at home. The vibes are good and hopes are high.

If someone can figure out the name of that James Hadley Chase novel seen briefly in the clip, drop a comment on this post or drop me a line.

kashyap interview on naachgaana [last post in thread]

Rohit Karn Batra's Kashyap interview on Naachgaana.com (thanks a ton to LL for the heads-up that preceded my RSS feed refresh) is a great read. Some of the things covered: Kashyap's early life, Satya, Shool, RGV, Deepa Mehta's Water, Mixed Doubles [early plug], Sriram Raghavan [Ek Hasina Thi], Vishal Bhardwaj, his large DVD collection, Mani Ratnam, Harry Baweja, Sanjay Gupta, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali ... just go read it.

ek hasina thi

another stupendous offering from RGV's Factory. The nominal implications of an assembly line are ominous. But Bollywood has filmmaking families that generate lovey-dovey mush in a similar fashion. And given that those products are decidedly inferior wallpaper packaged in exquisite wrapping paper, why should I complain about the assembly line in RGV's case when I am assured good content in addition to good packaging? The storyline is simple and straightforward. Yet it is tight. And aided agrave; la Soderbergh by technical flourishes that afford brevity, pace, and symbolic allusions:

• The TV and radio channel surfing gives us diegetic counterpoints to the on-screen action. This is a device that has devolved to being a cliché, yet Sriram Raghavan manages to make it work, just by resisting any temptation to zoom the camera in to change a tolerable metaphor to an unbearable simile.
• When Sarika agrees to confess, a left-to-right pan aided by the invisible cut takes us and her from the meeting room to the courtroom
• A havaldar's side of a phone conversation tells us about Sarika's father's death, and the only thing needed to complete the moment is the expression on Sarika's face as she takes the phone. No drama. No tamaashaa.
• Just after this, we see flames. Just before we can moan "oh no. not the funeral pyre again", the camera moves back and we are at the chuulhaa in prison. Sarika is heating roTiis. And brevity wins again. The symbolism, although blatant, makes up for valuable footage.

Pratima Kazmi (see also: Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II) joins a strong cast of regulars (Urmila, Saif, Aditya Shrivastav). And would someone give backgroundsman and RGV camp regular Amar Mohile more due? He's no Chowta or Salim-Suleiman, but he delivers the goods. The opening visual (what is it?? a diagrammatic mirage?) is accompanied a rare (triviamonger alert) foray by Pandit Jasraj into Hindi film singing. The other vocal track is the title song that serves as a background for a chase later on. It doesn't score high, but gets the job done. And will someone tell me why the cuss words (delivered by Aditya Shrivastav and Pratima Kazmi) were muted? With a A certificate already slapped on (although there's enough gore and bloodletting to merit that), the fickle censor board should have just things be. I wonder if the process of film certification has been automated with neural networks and decision nets.

Gaffe note: You can see the fake slap when Karan roughs Sarika up in the second half.

Inspiration note: While Double Jeopardy, Bangkok Hilton(remember Mahesh Bhatt's Gumrah?), Return To Eden (remember Rakesh Roshan's Khoon Bhari Maang?), Brokedown Palace are close echoes, a more appropriate source would be the only Sidney Sheldon book I might read again, If Tomorrow Comes. While Tracy Whitney becomes a con artist and gets back at the people who wronged her, Sarika's revenge is more domestic. There end the similarities. Thanks to Harish for the memory jog.