There's no dearth of arm chair critics, is there? How many other Manis can one find?
On Tue, Nov 6, 2007 at 00:59, V S Rawat <[email protected]> wrote: > On 6/19/2010 8:42 AM India Time, _Gopal Srinivasan_ wrote: > > > Surprisingly, AR Rahman delivers his most uninspired score in years, > > which probably explains why Ratnam wasn't inspired enough to shoot his > > songs as innovatively as he usually does. > > Another example of a critic putting the blame on wrong head. > > ARR's music is good, but if songs get used poorly, that is not ARR's, > but the director's fault. > > SPOILERS ALERTS > > ARR's music appears misfit in the film, if that is what the reviewer > meant, I agree with him. But the blame is on poor script of the film > leading to a lack of confusion from the side of director that he > didn't portray the characters with a certainty. In a wish to show > changes of hearts, Mani has made a khichdi of characters and their > personality traits, and that made the great purpose lyrics of Gulzar, > thereby the music, become misfit. > > the characterisation of Beera is not shown such that he is not showing > any class consciousness, not doing anything good for people or masses > as such. All those long exchanges trying to prove that beera has 10 > heads like ravan, meaning 10 personalities, fail to convince the > viewers because we don't see beera doing things in tune with those 10 > heads. His avenging his sister by torturing and be-arm-ing the > runaway-groom is personal vandetta. surprising, when the to be groom > gatecrashes the to be bride's house while marriage is going on, didn't > you all notice all that exchange about cutting the hand that has > touched beera's sister? then, what great new thing beera does by > chopping the hand later on, when he could have cut the hand right > there, so was his il-reputation? > > Does anyone remember Dayawan by FirozKhan, based on that smuggler's > life? remember the scenes when Vinod KHanna was shown literally > helping people in any many ways, and people crowding him, swarming > him, singing praises for him. I think that was the proper display of a > man of the "mass". Mani, in ravan, failed to depict that. > > And that's why Beera as well as thok de killi, along with their > depictions of 10 faces of beera, and along with "door hai dilli" "not > getting what we deserve, getting only crumbs", "chheen ke le le apna > hissa", all seems falsehoods and lies just because the visuals don't > leave any such impression on the viewers. > > Thok de Killi is one of the rare songs so superbly penned by Gulzar > saab, because you all know that gulzar is a man of emotional feelings > of heart, and is not a person for thinking brain, Gulzar has never > written "social issue" lyrics earlier, the way Sahir used to write, > and here, when gulzar does debut as social issue lyricist and ARR > gives appropriate music for that, it is mani that failed to make that > greatness of lyrics and music get reflected in the film on account of > poor script. > > khili rey, was a personal song, that was shot ok with nice steps shown > by Aish, the song in the film didn't touch the heart of viewers the > way Humse Hai Muqabla's small singing pieces had done. Firstly, this > song had been shown in the running, whereas the song clearly hints a > reaction, response of blossoming of a lady on her first encounter with > a male, but the film shows all the long vocal bed scenes of Aish and > Dev before that. The scene had so unimaginative boring dialoge that > that was more of a comedy effect instead of the melting of the lady - > the way it was superbly shown in Roza when the anger of the lady leads > to ess oh aar aar wye sorry. so, again, nobody remembers after a few > seconds of the end of this sweet lovely song, that such a song has > been there. Utter wastage by Mani. > > And Raanjha. What a superb film version. An entirely new thing, new > concept, new style. What an effect that song created on listening and > seeing in the visuals. great picturisation. > > but, again, the song is talking about a girl and guy falling in love > with each other, whereas the film never shows Aish feeling love > towards Beera, it was one sided sexual desire in the body of Beera > towards aish. So, neither Beera was in love as such towards Aish (he > just desired her physically) so he was not at par with platonic love > of Raanjha, and Aish was no way in love with Beera or felt anything > but hatred towards him, so Aish was outright not Heer. And that's why > this song failed to convince viewers. An absolutely misfit song. > > the same goes with Behne de, such a lovely song, people are talking > about its great picturization, but it is unconvincing to me. Remember > Dil Se, the way Manisha keeps on manipulating Shahrukh, and Sharukh > getting dragged towards her, well, i think something like that > scenario was fit for behne de. but here there was no background, no > build up, neither this 11th head of beera that loves a lady was ever > shown, and no private exchanges happened between Beera and aish that > would have broken through beera's rustic shell and would have gone > into his heart. All that fearlessness of Aish I am not convinced of, > as while she sees eyes to eyes with beera and talks openly, she still > keeps on murmering "i don't want to die". that dialoge is a misfit for > the personality of Aish and that again leaves viewers convinced. She > doesn't want to die, then why does she jump all the way down the fall > that would have killed her? why didn't make any attempt on Beera's > life before ending her own? So, when beera appreciates the false > fearlessness of aish, it sounded false, and thus beera falling in love > towards aish "on this pretest" became a falsehood, and the song Behne > de went dud. Killing this song is the deadliest sin of Mani that he > can't be ever forgiven. > > and now my fav, Kata Kata. Actually, I couldn't place the chronology > (timing) of the song in the turn of events in the film. It was > probably the first incident in the chronology script, the film > originated and proceeded from this scene. in his desire to draw > inspiration from ramayan, Mani went ahead drawing parallel between > Surpnakha's mockery and disfigurement leading to Surpnakha's bro ravan > kidnaping seeta, Mani failed to understand and adapt the basic ethics > of Ramayan, that it was a clash of rakshas culture in which any male > or female can meet, talk, date, have sex with anyone he/she wishes, > versus the rama's culture of chastity virginity and monogamy. > > In ramayan, it was surpnakha trying to seduce lakshan first and then > ram, and she was dumb enough not to take their soft hints that they > don't want to do it, so she gets angree, tries to hurt seeta, that > leads bros disfiguring her. > > But the movie's Surpnakha suffered from being portrayed good. She was > ideal sister of hindi films, and movie's ram, dev, unprovked shatters > her life by spoiling her marriage, its background was never shown why > and how Dev would go to such extreme, when he himself is a loving > happily married husband, that she breaks in to the marriage ritual in > such an ugly manner, shooting among the vast crowd of children and > females, and further arranges that this surpnakha was the only one > taken to police thana or somewhere where policemen rape her overnight. > > ye to hajmola lene ke baad bhi hajam nahi hua. If this was Dev, he was > never ram to begin with. It became one of the dozens of person > vandetta films that senior bachchan had played so well, and it went > poles apart from ramayan. > > And while the viewer was confused realizing all these cause and > effect, consequences, chronology of events and re-judging whom to put > blame on, kata kata song happens. We were not ready for it. There were > massive script transformation was taking place that we need to > understand to appreciate the film, and we were shocked as our Mani's > Ram being actually a ravan to begin with, and song came and went and > we wished that it gets over soon so that the film can go on. the > things described above happened after the song, but those were such a > drastic about turn in the film that we quickly forgot the song and > continued understanding the climax. > -- > > It is the foolishness of Mani that is reflected everywhere in the > film, and thus, Mani so systematically lets down a lovely work by ARR > and Gulzar. > > -- > Rawat > > > ------------------------------------ > > Are you searching for a reason, to be kind? > <b> > Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. > Only at arrahmanfans.com - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. > > Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com > Admin: [email protected] > To Subscribe: [email protected] > To Unsubscribe: [email protected]! 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