#Talaash, #Aamir

Let me clarify from the word go, though this article talks about the movie Talaash, it is not a review. Simply because to review a movie one needs to be fair unbiased and being an Aamir Khan fan I am definitely biased towards most of what he does.

I watched Talaash this friday, at the unearthly show timing of 8:10 AM (First Day, First Show :)).I found Talaash everything that I expected it to be or more precisely everything that I expect from Aamir.

I became an Aamir fan when I saw Sarfarosh and have never been disappointed since. He keeps on surprising me with this consistently outlandish choices and equally consistent great quality work he does with everything he takes up.

The thing that I like with him, is that he can see beyond bollywood formulas, sample these one line summaries of his previous body of work:

Sarfarosh: Young IPS officer working to curb cross-border terrorism

Dil Chahta Hai: Stories of 3 friends discovering themselves

Lagaan: Village plays a cricket match with English rulers to get a tax (lagaan) waiver

Mangal Pandey: Story of the first indian freedom fighter

Taare Zameen Par: Story of a dyslexic chid

Rang De Basanti: 5 people fighting against corrupt politicians

Ghazni: Revenge story

3 Idiots: Life and times of 3 engineering students in India

I guess you would realize that except Ghazni, none of Aamir's movie would fit a prevalent bollywood formula. He did it because someone wrote a beautiful script and he liked it. With the onslaught of inane movies that I see so often, I guess a movie where a script has been written before going on floor, is promising from the word go.Talaash is no different, it is nothing like what would supposedly work at box office, but it is definitely well written. Apart from that you can clearly see that this movie is a labour of love, where people have taken great pains to deliver what they believed in. The sheer visual appeal of mumbai's dark underbelly, the finely etched characters, the brilliant acting, it's all there.I don't expect Aamir to do what I think would entertain me, I expect Aamir to do what he believes in. It is for the simple reason that there are many "entertainers", but there is only one Aamir.

His singleminded focus means that every time we go to see his movie, we are assured of one thing: Quality. You can safely assume that everything that could have been done to make a movie better would be done. You would know that Aamir would do the best job he could do.He doesn't care that much about "typical" audience, which every director/producer claim to know so much about (case in point: the Golmaal franchise, Son of Sardaar, Ra.One, Don2 and last but not the least Jab Tak Hain Jaan). These people know that lots of cars should be blown up and it should be painted in gaudy colours, item numbers are a must, the angle of SRK head tilt which is just enough to make ladies swoon, the dance step which will just click and the funny gags which will make people laugh. Whether you admit it or not, you would agree that in the above list of movies,except Golmaal part 1, it needed someone to write a script before starting to film them.

I agree that movies are for entertainment and hence these movies have their takers, they may not be discerning viewers but are enough in numbers to make the cash registers ringing. However, movies are also about telling a tale, a tale you would not listen to otherwise, of people who you will never come across, of locations you will never go to and of emotions you may never feel on your own. In this mayhem of entertainment focused movies, Talaash is a movie with a story to tell. Is this story particularly entertaining ? No. Is this story makes financial sense for mainstream cinema ? No. However, it is an interesting tale which have been told competently by the Director. It is about grief and mourning, it is about regret and remorse, it is about people without identity hoping for dignity, it is about two people in love who are too burdened by their own pain to help the other, it is about their catharsis and eventually coming back together.

Talaash is brilliantly written and despite of its somewhat outlandish ending, works for me. More importantly, it brings the real star of a movie into focus, the script. Remaining true to its core, it spends plenty of time in building up the characters so that you understand them and hence feel their emotions.

There is no other mainstream star who would dare to star as a cop in a movie who cries more than he fights. Surjan Sekhawat is another addition to Aamir already impressive repertoire of memorable characters.

In an interview Aamir had said that for him to do a Taare Zameen Pe, he has to do a Ghazni once in a while. I guess now we know why he is doing a Dhoom 3 :).

Overrated Reality : A writer's take

I am a writer at heart, I may not be great at it, but as someone has put it, "hearts knows reasons what reason knows nothing of". So that being settled, here is an excerpt from the movie " Atonement" (based on the book of the same name by Ian McEwan). To cut a long story rather short, this movie is about an little girl whose action damages the lives of many people and she harbors a strong guilt in her heart for her action till the day she dies. She becomes a famous author and her last novel (which is she reckons as her first) is autobiographical in nature where she actually attempts to tell the truth.

What I like about this particular dialogue is how deftly the biggest of a writer's dilemma is captured. To decide between telling the whole truth or add embellishments to the reality. It is a temptation / problem we all face (even those of us who don't write). Even when we are narrating a story / event / incident  we unknowingly add or modify the truth to suit ourselves. That temptation is a great one and I guess one of the reasons, writers become what they are, is to have a world which they can control.

Briony (the little girl who is a big time author now) is talking to a tv show anchor. Here is the beautiful piece of writing:

BRIONY : "I had, for a very long time, decided to tell the absolute truth.
No rhymes, no embellishments.
And I think, You've read the book, you'll understand why.

I got first-hand accounts of all the events. I didn't personally witness, the conditions in prison, the evacuation to Dunkirk, everything. But the effect of all this honesty was rather pitiless.

You see, I couIdn't any Ionger imagine what purpose would be served by it."

TV Show Anchor : "By what? Sorry. Served by honesty?"

BRIONY: "By honesty. Or reaIity."

I know this one is a peculiar post (and rather indulgent), but watch the movie atonement and you will come to understand this post much better.

-Stay Beautiful
Amitabh

No Title

Roughly Four Years. It was and not it is or it will be. Period.

Prologue

With unspeakable mirth for the world around, something short of a book and more than a rant came out through his guts, via his stomach and eventually through his hands. One would want the heart and the mind to have something to do with it, but it wasn't. The sick feeling which one gets at the pit of their stomach where something is not right, was the only source responsible for what was to come. Words don't take up any space, but at times they make you so full of them that you have to spit them out otherwise you will have to retch. He always wanted to write a book, he knew that since he stared reading, even before he wrote his proper first sentence. But, he never knew that it would come like this. But it did and he didn't had a choice.

He was not so pleased to write it as he should have been, he was writing it because that was the only way for him to move any further. It was like a holy cross he has been cursed to carry for eternity, which he had been carrying since the time he knew guilt, since he began to make sense of ways of the world. He wasn't born a believer, not that he can remember, but he always wanted to believe in what is good, right, pure and true. The ideas of Love, Freedom, Honour and Kindness appealed to him. Nonetheless, he knew quickly that such ideas are called and dismissed as lofty by the ones who have been marred by disappointment and reality of life. At the end of it all what really mattered was the utility and convenience.He was quick to know of it and smart enough to remember it. But as overrated intelligence is, this awareness didn't make him feel any better or any calmer.

It is rather hard to fight with your upbringing. He was taught and reminded more often than anything else to be a good guy, a gentleman. And what else being a gentleman means if not believing in the lofty ideals and persisting even when failure is certain. The way people around him made decisions because of utility and convenience and provided convoluted justifications perturbed him. He was smart enough to relate to these people. Heck, he was one of them, he nonetheless believed that humans owe it to themselves to protect atleast a part of their lives where heart takes the decisions, however small that part is is irrelevalent. What matters is that you should know what is it and then stick to it. This part of your life is governed by high values, the very best thing men should aspire for and there is no scope of corruption or compromise. He felt rather odd knowing that even that is too much to ask from people around him. He could not hold someone from taking their decisions, but atleast he can pour out what he felt, hence he started writing ....hopefully for long...

To you from me

Do you want my words or my silence ?
Do you want my love or my assurance ?
Do you want my honesty or my niceties ?
Do you want my dreams or my realities ?
Do you want my tears or my laughter ?
Do you want my past or my future ?
Do you want my anger or my tolerance ?
Do you want my heart or my mind ?

I wish I knew the answers,
I wish you knew the answers,
I wish you believe it to be,
I wish you just let me be,
I wish you yourself be,
I wish together we could be

I know we will not never know for sure
I know that we deserve a little more

But we would be, what we could be
And that is all, it is meant to be.