Before you read this i want you to think about the most impressive trilogies say around five in cinema that you have witnessed....
Lord of the rings would be be the best for many i suppose,there is nothing wrong with it , i presume the list would have bourne, Godfather, scream , star wars original etc.......
THE thing i love about holidays is watching movies and during this time i decided to check out some satyajit ray movies...prior to this i had seen pather panchali only......i got to see the rest of the apu triogy, nayak, days & nights in the forest and last but not least Charulatha during last week .........
What do i infer from these -i was ignorant, i searched for perfectly crafted movies all around the world mainly in Kurosawa (japan), fellini& Bergman(Europe) Hitchcock,Kubrick(hollywood) ..but such potential masterpieces were available very nearer , lying ignored & devoid of respect
A little reminder about the trilogy stuff if you haven't listed "apu trilogy "then i say that you are missing a substantial amount of great cinema....
The apu trilogy doesn't have a complex plot nor crafty imagery the beauty lies in its simpleness, the characters are so real&authentic , its so well filmed that you almost live with the characters ..i wont go detail in to the plot because i may spoil it.....the apu trilogy is about the plight a bengali village boy called apu......
whats so striking is that ray pulled of such an artistic cinema(particularly the first one pather panchali) with almost zero movie exposure, he never knew how to write a screenplay, the cameraman was an ordinary stills photographer(but he pulled of a magical trainspotting scene which amazes you instantly), almost everything is a rookie's attempt but yet they have very little flaws........in aparajito ray does some excellent screen writing ,he replaces many melodramatic dialogues with alternate visuals which produce the similar effect .....Apur sanasr the third part has one of the best romantic moments ever captured on cinema with nil physical contact.......
About Nayak it has some terrific writings and is comparable to any of billy wilder's works....set in cinema industry it has excellent performances from sharmila tagore & uttam kumar....whats so striking is that its got a deep sexual under-tone but never feels awkward..also it gives very honest views about our indain film industry ,,,a bold film indeed..
i think days&night in the forest & Charlutha(best of ray IMO) need a seprate post.....i am planning to write a review on each detaily....
the sad fact about ray movies is that, many lie unattended & unpopular primarily because of Ignorance , so try your best to give Ray some Hope.......
Here i am overcoming months of laziness to finally post supposedly a valid article.Cricket and cinema are probably two things in India that everyone is capable of criticizing , in other terms everyone is allowed to criticize...so here i am following that safe path(if anyone by chance reads this please bear those typos)
i am a die-hard mumbai fan and was a strict rajasthan hater at first....but somehow the team suddenly earned my admiration.....this was probably a result of myself pondering about them after my sleep was robbed away by munaf patel (still amazes me how did he just gave one run in the ultimate over, he wouldn't even do that in a test match)...they are such an interesting side that i have deiced to post about them first in spite of being a mumbai supporter, these are some inferences i made out of their victories
Films like laggan, rocky and all those baseball , basketball flicks that Hollywood churns out always amazed me....because what they advocate is years of experience that a champion has can easily be knocked off by a hard working rookie ,plus some motivational bla-bla stuff(achieved in Hollywood by means of a lengthy speech, songs hither)....they look nice on screen but really are impossible practically ..............
And it has been proved that experience rocks many times...some compare India's victory (@june25 1983)to something like lagaan but tats really not a credible comparison cos the windies were having many players on the verge of retirement ,plus India also defeated them in the group stage..........
But i think rajasthan's achievements in both seasons of indicate more substantially that such philosophy is plausible ... IMO its more evident this year(2009 season) than their championship last time.....it may sound crazy(considered the fact that they made the lowest score in IPL) but look at the troubles they had, to start they were robbed off Watson(400 runs 10+wickets last time) &almost every "match- winner" is stripped the next game (kamran khan, amit singh)...but still they just mange against all-odds ..which clearly indicates that you can win with almost any side just out of pure will power& hard work ....
also in cinema that underdog always triumphs with a miracle i.e. a six of the last ball, a three pointer with zero seconds, a knock-out in the last round..this is where really cinema & sport tend to diverge...but yet rajasthan strangely have scripted success in such dramatic fashion mostly (6 runs to win with dada still at the crease and yet they pull out a tie, score 17 of the last over, bowl out mumbai with 4 runs to win)...and also they comeback quite cinematic (58 against rcb vs 200+ against kings) ....IMO this really makes their triumph sort of " life imitating art" stuff..
by the time i post this they would have lost to Delhi, but yet they will still be probably the side with best team spirit in IPL ....cheers to Warne for running a team that reminds us this
