Another Diwali passed with no home nearby. Sometimes you get so used to not being around your family that it almost begins to feel normal not to be with them at Diwali. Now that is a scary thought. Hence, we, the enthusiastic Diwali celebrators who didn’t really have too many options of celebrating with, did the best thing we could:
Watch movies.
So over the weekend, we watched two movies – The Prestige and Don. Here’s a quick review of both.
DON
The last time I proclaimed Farhan Akthar as a one time wonder and mediocre filmmaker after watching Lakshya, I was labeled biased and Bollywood hater. I am glad that my opinion about Farhan Akthar has not changed much. He still remains a uber-cool stylist director who doesn’t put enough meat into his films (save for DCH). Saying that DON did not turn out to be as bad as many reviews suggested, but it was well short of err… another not-so-spectacular movie called DON itself. I still cannot figure out why would someone make a remake of an average film in the first place – The original DON itself was a very average masala flick; nothing “classic” about it, so anyone who expected this new DON to outdo the older DON would have been asking too much. (Though, one can argue that since sequels to pathetic tortures like Golmaal were announced a few days ago, remaking DON is not after all a big deal).
Coming to the story, its as old as our galaxy – so no point re-iterating here. If you so wish to know the story, see the movie itself :). I thought Shah Rukh carried off the role pretty well; of course he did have his fair share of over the top scenes with blood and gore, but still, I couldn’t think of anyone else other than SRK who could have carried off the role, look and the style. As usual, Priyanka Chopra looked hot – that’s all that matters. I love this girl – she is simply gorgeous and worth a post by itself. That she also thinks she can act is simply incidental; she shouldn’t bother trying too hard either. Most people will not notice it.
Though the most interesting part of the movie was not happening in the movie itself. It was happening in the audience. Specifically before and after interval.
Now just before the movie started, an uber-cool looking guy occupied the seats behind us with his girlfriend. Both Indians. Both understood Hindi very well. The girlfriend maybe better.
No sooner had the opening credits rolled, our hero-impressing-his-heroine quipped boldly –
“This is a sequel to DON”.
A sequel after 25 years was quite a surprise to us, but we somehow controlled our smirks.
Few minutes into this movie, now this hero who had obviously seen the older DON ten times began to piece the story together. Things would’ve been fine if he’d kept his Sherlockgiri to himself, but no, he had to explain every single scene to his girlfriend. Every single freaking scene! Now here was the best part – his girlfriend understood Hindi. Heck, let her watch the damn movie.
This continued for a while, and it was absolutely annoying to hear our hero telling the next scene before it played out (And yeah, he still thought it was sequel).
After about 15 minutes or so into the movie, a tubelight stuck this wannabe hero that the movie seemed to copying a lot of scenes from the older DON. There was actually voice of disapproval when he quipped suddenly to his girlfriend:
“This is a scene by scene copy! Even the dialogues are the same!”
Of course dumb head – its a remake, not a sequel. Nonetheless, this did not dampen his spirits much – he kept yapping and yapping about the story till the interval point, when there was a twist in tale. Now, this seemed shocking to the hero – once he had accepted that it was indeed a remake, he was not prepared to be hit with a deviation of the story line.
Which was a boon for us. The moment interval lights came on, we joked as loudly as possible that our wannabe hero in the back will definitely be confused. We actually made fun of him and his girlfriend while he and his lasso were staring at us. The trick worked. The couple shut up for the next half of the movie.
…Only to let a pesky 6 year old take the center stage.
Now this hyper energetic kid was armed with those light shoes; those that show lights when you walk; the kiddy annoying shoes? remember them? Yes, them – and they can be really annoying in a movie theater. At some point, this kid decided to go for a run in the theater. Off he went to the front of the hall, then back, then to the other side, then again to front and back. Once he was satisfied that nobody was minding him much, he became bolder. He went to the front (the very first row – there is no balcony system here) near the screen and stood there.
And just as our poor DON was about to disclose he was not the real DON to Priyanka, he yelled – “Dad. Come here. I want to play!”
His dad didn’t oblige, at which point the kid began running front and back howling to his dad or mom to come play with him in the front.
And just as Priyanka Chopra was about to discuss an important scene of the lost disk with DON, someone yelled.
“Whose bloddy kid is this yaar?!”
In one instant, what should have been a serious scene requiring the attention span of entire audience, was reduced to a comic fare. The dad then hurriedly dragged his son back with him, and I think the family just quit the movie all together. Thank god. I hope they don’t take that kid again to the movies.
So there it was – as I said, DON was passable, largely I guess thanks to these wierdos. The same desis behave well when watching American movies, but they lose even their basic civic sense in a desi gathering. Its a shame really, that as Indians living in US for so many years, they cannot even pick up even some level of basic civic sense. It is quite appalling.
The Prestige
I love Christophar Nolan’s movies; Memento has been my all time favorite movie, and his other ventures too as a director have impressed me quite a bit. But since Memento, The Prestige should definitely rank as Nolan’s second best work.
To put in a few words, The Prestige is an absolutely BRILLIANT film.
That said, The Prestige requires its audience to follow it closely. “Are you watching closely” asks the main character in the opening credits of the movie – and he really means it. The Prestige requires its audience to devote their complete unflinching attention to the happenings on the screen, to fully absorb the brilliance of it all. Nolan uses similar techniques like Memento to tell his story – the non-linear story telling, flashbacks, quick edits and all. Its amazing that he has carried it off yet again, and even though the technique may seem similar, it is entirely different in context.
The Prestige tells the story of two magicians who by an act of unfortunate accident becomes enemies for life, with each trying to out do one another to prove himself a better magician. Before they both know it, they are so well into beating each other, that they don’t seem to realize how their lives have changed dramatically to usurp one another.
To narrate how the story is told, The Prestige begins with the death of one of the magicians, for whose murder the other is charged. The charged magician begins to read his enemy’s diary to understand him. The diary tells the story of the other magician as he sees his enemy, and his quest for the secret which lay in his enemy’s diary. The story forks into two time lines from there, and one of them story again breaks into non-linear timeline. No, its not as confusing as I make it to be, because at Christophar Nolan’s hands, the story is never out of control. And in spite of its confusing narrative, you will never be confused; the stamp of Nolan’s direction makes sure that you as a viewer will be at your mind’s edge.
And the surprises and twists make the story only richer and darker. M. Night Shyamalan could use a trick or two from his book (it would be amazing if those two collaborated). The Prestige is also supported by superlative performances from Hugh Jackman, and more impressively Christian Bale. Scarlett Johansann impresses as well. But what really stands out from the movie is the story itself.
After the movie, the expression on people’s face said it all. Those who didnt get it, hated it. Those who did, were just smiling and explaining it to others. When I thought about the movie myself, it was funny that I couldnt find a flaw in the movie itself. Everything was just right – everything just made sense.
The Prestige, without a doubt is the best movie I’ve seen this year so far. Don’t miss it for anything in the world.
There it is – two reviews, one post :). Enjoy, and Happy Diwali.