Indian - a big film deserves a big review.

I suppose it's not totally impossible for a person who primarily taps into the Hindi side of Indian films to understand what the term, "a film by Shankar" truly means. After all, he has done Nayak: The Hero with Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukherji, and there are Hindi-dubbed versions of both Anniyan (relabeled Aparichit) and Indian (which translated to Hindustani) out there. But at least to my non-Indian sensibilities, his style is full-on Southie, and his broad-appeal films need to be digested in Tamil, as most of them were intended to.

I've talked about Anniyan before, and reviewed Sivaji: The Boss. Besides those, I've seen Nayak and Boys, and now I've also seen Indian, which is nothing short of essential Shankar, coupled with the acting legend Kamal Hassan and an A. R. Rahman soundtrack.


The plot of Indian is fairly simple in the beginning, but blows up to extremely epic proportions by the end of the film. Chandru (Kamal Hassan) does servant-type favors to a rich family in order to get a promotion in his public servant career. The daughter of the family Sapna (Urmila Matondkar) bosses him around haughtily, which doesn't sit well with his animal-loving girlfriend Aishwarya (Manisha Koirala). Meanwhile, a police detective Krishnaswamy (Nedumudi Venu) is tracking down a series of murders, where all victims are government employees and the killer appears to be an old man (also Kamal Hassan) who simply goes by the name Indian...


So, what is Shankar all about, then? First and foremost, at the core of most of his films are the societal ills that affect India as a country. I've often thought about these social message Southie masalas, that tackle pretty serious topics, like corruption, black money, etc. The films typically offer up one hero to preach at the crowds and scare the evil-doers into acting responsibly and morally. The message is; if we all stopped doing this, we wouldn't have this problem. Everybody needs to correct their own behavior, and if we all do so, the problem will cease to exist.

Simplistic but true. In both Indian and Anniyan, it takes more than a few bodies to get the message through, something that may not sit well with everybody. But I think I read somewhere that these messages of social change coupled with rather extreme violence are a sort of cathartic release for the audiences, who in their ordinary lives grow frustrated at the corruption or such issues. In real life there is no Vikram, Rajnikanth or Kamal Hassan hero figure to kill all the baddies, but to see the scenario takes away the anger built up in everyday life.

Pure speculation on my part, of course. I've always lived in one of the least corrupt countries in the world. Even if the corruption is exaggerated in this movie, corruption is a big problem and I can't even imagine what the realities must be like..


While the social message, coupled with home-state pride and tons of patriotism (Jai hind! Vande maatram! and so on), is at the core of the film, it is cushioned by masala elements. There are plenty of incredibly imaginative song picturizations (with all the picture manipulation you can imagine they had in 1996), comedy bits here and there, and the romance between Kamal and Manisha is pretty cute.

Even if Indian isn't as solid as some other Shankar films I've seen (Anniyan remains a heavily rewatched favourite), it brings on entertainment in staggering amounts. And the song picturizations are virtually undescribable, so much so I think most of my screencaps are taken from the songs because oh god, they're so fantastically Shankar. Visual, explosive, crazy, full of special effects.. Let's examine the first song, wherein Urmila and Kamal shake a leg together (Kamal may be just a man with a pudgy face to some of you but he's actually a classically trained dancer and is quite entertaining to watch).

We begin with painted faces and bodies. You know, as you would.

Moving onto futuristic black clothes. His cape! It sparkles!

Hawaii-inspired holiday clothes. I can't see the logic that connects this to sparkly cape but I concede because Shankar's cinematic logic is superior to my measly human one.

So then there are some costume changes and Kamal breathes fire. Have I mentioned how much I adore Shankar? This is one of those reasons why.

And of course, the denim costume changes and Urmila's shirt that has fluffy bits over her breasts. I couldn't come up with this stuff. Even on drugs.

Can you make sense of this? It's a total brainmeltdown. I think Shankar just burst through all existing dimensions with his use of CGI. Hot damn.

I love it, love it, love it. But I can't take any more and therefore moving onto another song!

Little penguins and Manisha! Cutest!

Koala kisses!

Non-koala koala kisses! There is something so ridiculously cute about the way this Australia-filmed picturization begins.

But eventually it gets a little strange. They're on an old-timey ship and...

Kamal is a cowboy and...

They're in Australia so naturally they dance in front of the Sydney Opera House.

I think that's enough song picturization screencaps, but I have to post one more. At one point the movie launches into a flashback sequence of the colonial period, which is shot in black&white. Until the point of independence, when we finally get colours and this song, with a glorious cavalcade of Indian costumes from different regions and time periods.

I don't really have that many complaints. It's a good film, maybe just a tad too declaring and harsh, with the hero just a little too full of patriotic zeal. I accept all of that as traits of a Shankar movie, but that doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy. The old make-up on Kamal Hassan and Sukanuya who portrays the wife of "Indian" (at least I think the actress is Sukanuya - if it's not, feel free to correct me) was fairly good but lacked wrinkles and was layed on so thick it made them look very stony-faced. Kamal Hassan's acting can be very expressive but in this character he could only really act with his body and eyes, and I felt the lack of facial expression really hurt the character's believablity and sympathy one should have towards him.

Overall, Indian is the quintessential Shankar films but one that I wouldn't recommend as anybody's first Shankar film. It's a little dated but doesn't fail to entertain.

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Another movie ticked off my Southie to-watch-list. Yay!

IFAC #9: Ek Hasina Thi. Oh my.

I got the laptop I'm typing on in summer 2006, after graduating from senior high school. I was pretty psyched. Finally my own computer, where I could save whatever I liked without fear of anybody going through it! I could play my DVD's in the comfort of my room, in peace. And most importantly, I could screencap the heck out of any DVD I owned.

The first film I screencapped? Ek Hasina Thi, Sriram Raghavan's debut thriller from 2004, starring Urmila Matondkar and Saif Ali Khan.

I don't really discuss this movie much, because I feel like most have seen it and appreciate without me kicking up a fuss and announcing how madly I love it. But I do, love it that is. Madly, too. And why wouldn't I? It's an intense film, well-directed and scripted and the performances are extremely memorable. It only has one song, the titular "Ek hasina thi" (There was once a beautiful girl). And purely from a superficial perspective, it's well-shot and Urmila and Saif both look amazing.

Another reason I don't often talk about it is because talking about it would mean giving much of the plot away. If I'd have my way, the only thing anybody would ever know of this movie, prior to seeing it would be the DVD cover with blood running down side, pictures of the two leads and the tag line: "It started like just another love story..."

Because that's really all you need to know. The story is nowhere near as complex and inventive as Raghavan's later Johnny Gaddaar but it's still worth not spoiling much, just for the sake of the new viewer who has the benefit of seeing how it folds out in front of their eyes. It's really no surprise, considering this is a thriller, that even if the beginning could on paper be a start of a love story, the mood makes it clear this is far, far from it.

As you can imagine, there is deceit, there is crime, and there is blood but no romance to speak of. When I first saw EHT, just that blew me away - it was one of the first, if not THE first starkly non-masala films I'd seen at that point. Nowadays, I admit I might not be so impressed with it. But I'm glad I saw it when I saw it, I'm glad for the numerous rewatches I've given it, and I'm glad to have the DVD on my shelf.

Whether you'll love it as much as I do -- I sincerely doubt it, but I do recommend it a lot all the same. It's a must watch, if not for the masala lover, then at least for fans of the leads, or those who enjoy a darker Hindi fare.

Or for any superficial reason you can think of. Any excuse to post more screencaps of this will do.

Top five Hindi film heroines (to me).

I set out to do a Top Ten but didn't get far with it, hence a top five instead. Maybe it's because the standard for my favourite Hindi film heroines (as in, characters, not actresses) is quite high. It needs to be a good performance, a memorable character and above all, I feel like the heroine needs to shine brighter than the hero, which is a very difficult thing to achieve in movies that have been male-focused for the past three or four decades. If I brought down my standards, I might have a Top Ten. (Also, quite often the most interesting female roles aren't starring roles at all.)

Screencap from MariaKaefer.
Basanti from Sholay

A huge part of why I love Hema Malini today is her portrayal of Basanti, the chatterbox tongawalli and her mare Dhanno. It was really love at first sight, I had just finished marvelling at the combination of comedy (jailer!) and action (on a train!) of the movie, and then in walks this girl, and Veeru makes a move on her, and Jai acts indifferent, and she just keeps talking. I just loved her. She's just a burst of energy on-screen and always a pleasure to watch. While she has her share of typical damsel-in-distress moments, her spunk in general makes her stand out as one of the best things about the legendary film.

Geet from Jab We Met

The character of Geet owes to Hindi film's previous spunky heroines but the reason she's so great is because, well, she's one of those spunky heroines! They aren't too many, let me remind you. Film scripts sometimes tend to not give heroines any personality but this is not the case with Jab We Met, where the romance and characters are above all well-written, and Geet is absolute brimming with personality and character. She's lively and fun and talkative, with a strong sense of who she is, which is exactly why Shahid's Aditya falls in love with her, and most of the viewers do, too.

Sarika from Ek Hasina Thi

Yeah, I realize it's not a very typical masala feature, this one, so of course it will have a meatier, more interesting heroine role. But there are plenty of movies like that, and the reason I pick Sarika out of all of them is simple: a lot of such movies are good for a watch or two, but not many of such heroines have stayed with me the way Sarika and Urmila Matondkar in the role have. Sarika is many things; she starts out a slightly scared urban woman living alone, but develops into a dangerous lady who is afraid of little, extremely cunning and a little unbalanced, too. I love watching her journey, as awful as it is, over and over again, because she comes out on top, and that's what really counts.

Rhea from Hum Tum

The great thing about Kunal Kohli's two recent films - to be honest, my memories of Mujhe Dosti Karoge are vague - is that he always seems to give his heroines a choice. Rhea is a good example of a heroine whose choices dictate the entire story. She doesn't give the hero a time of the day until he grows up and learns some respect. She has a career, and she marries a guy out of love. She refuses to re-marry despite people pressuring her to do so. Overall, Rhea is a true individual, who thinks and decides for herself, and that's what really makes her awesome.

Geeta from Seeta Aur Geeta

Our second Geeta, who the first one owes a fair amount to. Geeta is the heroine who will raise hell when she sees injustice, and it's really very satisfying to see her do it - verbally, physically, she has the guts and the attitude to deliver in both ways. If Basanti was who made me curious about Hema Malini, the roles of Seeta and Geeta are what sealed the deal of her as a favourite. As most Hema roles are more Seeta than Geeta, I really cherish Geeta and Basanti as performances, not just because they were the first times I saw her in films, but also because they're really special, even considering the whole of her career. And as awesome, spunky heroines go, well worth the hype.

I leave you with an awesome Geeta fanvid to "These Boots Are Made For Walking" that I found on youtube just tonight.



So ..who are yours?