Daag gone to the Dogs? Not really

This is on the film "Laaga Chunari Main Daag" - my first ever attempt

The movie is predictable. Yes the movie is an overdrive of being an emotional saga. The movie is formatted and is as typically “ghisa pita” as they make it.

It’s the same glamorous star cast, the routine locales and sets, the small town-big town tussle – it’s all what a regular Yash Raj banner would make, rather what any Bollywood masala movie worth its salt would be made of.

For the critiques, maybe even a 2 star would actually be a little too generous and for the cynics, the movie would be a write off the minute it starts with a song, and a mundane one at that, depicting the naive Banaras girls.

But maybe there’s still something in it for us regular folks to watch and walk out of the theatre with mixed feelings because some where, something in the film has touched a chord.

Somewhere between the emotions and the mega drama, the struggle of a mother seems recognizable. Somewhere, the innocent yet deep relationship of two sisters, where the elder is so protective of the younger that the younger almost always oblivious of the goings-on, touches the heart. The depiction of Mumbai is to the T and the music of course is strong and fairly enjoyable.

As the description of the film goes, it is the journey of a woman from innocence to acceptance (of the harshness of life), but what is noteworthy is the way Sarkar has interspersed this journey of the protagonist (Rani) with that of the other women in the film as well (Jaya and Konkana).

As Rani is confronting reality in Mumbai, Jaya’s helplessness is beautifully depicted – helplessness of a mother who knows her daughter is subjecting herself to the unethical and yet cannot stop her because money is after all the fulcrum of everybody’s existence. Jaya has acted as any mother would react.

Similarly, the adolescent Konkana is shown to suddenly grow up when she confronts her sister’s reality and this is done in a prolific manner. That moment is one of the strongest in the film where two women on different platforms suddenly get tied to one thread of understanding – an understanding that is not blended with any sort of disgust or sympathy. It is a moment of plain truth which is why it is probably one of the few pristine moments in the film.

Thrown in the middle of this entire struggle are nuances of human nature, its vulnerability, sometimes juvenile, sometimes completely in control. Rani and Konkana have done an outstanding job. I know many will cringe at this statement, but if there is one actor who could have carried this role out well, it’s Rani. For all her “always crying Indian woman” image, she has managed to transform from the innocent to the worldly wise, from a simpleton to a sexbomb, from an impulsive ‘I want to prove a point’ to a mature ‘there is no point to prove after all’.

So while it’s a 10 on 10 for the women, Sarkar failed to do much with the men, or maybe that was the plan. Anupam Kher is spineless and Abhishek Bacchan is non-existent. Kunal Kapoor is the only saving grace here – quick, charming and oh so good looking, even the men folk need to thank him for his dimpled smile.

Anyway to cut a long story short, the film is worth a watch. I mean why do we even come to watch a Bollywood flick? If we expect revolutionary eye openers, then it’s us setting false expectations. Laaga Chunri Main Daag is a regular film that has its strong and weak moments.

It has beautiful sets (Sarkar even goes International so as not to miss out on this), pretty clothes, good music, attractive faces on screen and a strong interplay of emotions. The only unreal part of the film is its Happy Ending. Like there are no free lunches in the world, there are no Happy Endings in real life. Really, who are we kidding here?

Race - A track full of surprises

Expect the unexpected has to be the mantra of this film. At the risk of sounding too generous, I would say Race was awesome. What with the racy music, the fast pace of the film and the constant twists and turns – the film was thrilling with mercury levels shooting up every minute.

Race had surprises stored up its sleeves (…err should we say, up it’s cleave…) all the way!

The only thing that was expected and was therefore not a surprise was the luster and glamour with which the film has been made! The film is a complete eye candy, but just for the ladies mind you! Chhote Nawab was simply delicious (I don’t know how else to describe him in the film; I’m at complete loss for words).

But like I said, this was a film that constantly kept me surprised. And I don’t mean just with the plot.

Surprise number 1 – the ladies looked really bad. Who would imagine that a film with hotties like Bipasha, Katrina and Sameera Reddy, would have to bank on a man to sell (now I don’t know what the men would say to this but when it comes to women, its we women that are more credible with opinions – we’re not biased solely by the show of skin).

Bipasha looked close to ugly, Katrina almost dumb and Sameera – I don’t even know what to say (she didn’t even fit the role of a dumb secy well enough). I guess even Anaita Shroff couldn’t give a damn to the sultry hotties when there was the royal Khan to look after. Bipasha, for example, had some red nail paint throughout the film even though there was only one sequence (the title song sequence) where she actually wore a matching outfit. Maybe it had something to do with the nail polish budgets or maybe Anaita just couldn’t care about her fingers when she wasn’t even concentrating enough on her face?

Unlike Dhoom 2, where pretty much everyone looked like a million dollars (we’ll ‘chop’ the few who just cannot, come what may), Race only had Saif Ali Khan doing all the hard work of looking good on screen.

Surprise number 2 for me was that Chhote Nawab actually didn’t dance too well. I mean I remember Ole Ole and I guess at that time we were all so caught up with wondering what’s a parrot face doing in films, that we forgot to notice his dance. The parrot face of course has today transformed into the face (and the body) that can cast a thousand ships (might be safer to say space ships in today’s day and age) and has shown dancing potential in Salaam Namaste, Hum Tum and Ta ra rum pum, but I wonder what happened to him in Race? He was rather stiff – what IS Kareena doing to him?

Surprise number 3 was Anil Kapoor. Now the man has potential and it shows. The film started with narration that sounded so close to Mr. India talking that there was no mistaking the effort put in by Mr. Kapoor. But who was writing his dialogues in the second half of the film? What with really sub par jokes on fruits, his abominable attempts to seduce the already terribly dumb Sameera and out of context supposed-to-be-smart comments – I almost felt bad for him.

Surprise number 4 was the music. When at one hand, 3 songs have been of immeasurable quality, how did Sameer and Pritam go so wrong with the remaining? Race saason ki, Pehli Nazar and Touch me have been causing waves all over the country and rightfully so. But I had to shut my ears when the other songs came on. If casting-couch is a reality with directors, then maybe potting-pouch is a reality with musicians. They should just stop with 3 if that is what they have they could manage instead of trying a little too hard and putting us through the repercussions of the remaining.

Many many more surprises is what, to my mind, makes Race a must watch. Abbas-Mustan just seem to be getting better with their thrillers, from Bazigar to Humraz to 36 China Town and now Race. There seems to be nothing stopping the duo and we’re quite glad about it of course. Even gladder if they would keep bringing back the Greek God clone Chhote Nawab again and again to keep our heart beats racing!