DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

I convinced my friend to watch “Manorama - Six Feet Under” (M-SFU) but not without a warning that it would be different. I even tried explaining what Film-noir mean reading everything about it wikipedia as I do not understand the concept myself too. He in turn convinced his wife to join him. They rush from Thane to join me at the 8:00 PM show in Malad.

They make it 20 minutes into the film.

M-SFU is not a normal bollywood film. With all the reviews in Rediff and PFC, I had a vague idea about how it would go. I was looking forward to it and hoped I enjoy it the same way I enjoyed “Ek Challis ki Last local”

Continue reading ‘Movie Review Manorama - Six Feet Under (2007)‘

Indian Television has a very long tradition of detective and crime serials. I must (honourably) mention Marathi serials like “Ek Shoonya Shoonya” (meaning 100, titled for obvious reasons), the serial which started ACP Pradyuman’s career; “Hello Inspector” (had an extremely catchy tune) and “Dhananjay” (don’t remember the actor’s name, though he is a good and famous one), which we used to watch in the days when the prime-time “regional” programmes were limited to 7.15 pm to 8 pm (after regional news to before hindi news) time slot. Perhaps, my fascination with detectives started with these, but my memories of them extend no further than the names (“A long time ago, on a TV far away” and all that you know…)

So, I will get to better recognized names. Byomkesh Bakshi showed us how a great actor backed by great story (and a nice casting) makes for a serial worth watching. There is another detective which confirms this:

Continue reading ‘Television Detectives of India’

I was watching the second run of Karamchand on Sony a few weeks back, and started wondering about the other detective serials that we see. There is the strange CID, but my memories went back to that serial from long ago, Byomkesh Bakshi. It brought back a lot of nostalgia. The year was 1993, and satellite channels were just picking up. Doordarshan was still watched by a number of people, and here comes this non-flashy detective serial, starring Rajit Kapur. The director was Basu Chaterjee, which was another plus point about the serial.

The series was based on a detective created in 1932, by the Bengali author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The detective was picturized in a film (Chiriyakhana or The Zoo) by Satyajit Ray, starring Uttam Kumar in 1967, and the movie is typically known as one of Satyajit Ray’s not so better movies. And then came this series, and the series was what made the character of Byomkesh Bakshi famous.

Continue reading ‘Doordarshan Nostalgia: Byomkesh Bakshi‘

There are movies over the ages that deal with corruption, and society’s wish for a hero who will make people follow rules and punish the evil. So, for example, the angry cop as exemplified by Amitabh was portrayed in a number of movies. And then you had ultra angry movies such as Ardh Satya. And part comic ones such as Shahenshah.

The last few years portray such kind of evil punishers from people outside the police stream, such as Nayak, Hindustani, etc. In such movies, it is typically the hero who will take on the role of prosecutor, judge and executioner; something that is fairly dangerous for society. When we start idealizing such roles, the role in Nayak is somewhat of a positive role, while the other movies have roles who are pre-decided executioners, not somebody who constructs something positive. Sort of like the contrast between the preserver, Vishnu, and the destroyer, Shiva.

Continue reading ‘Aparachit : A different anti-corruption movie’

Indian Television and Movie Industry has a long and glorious tradition of “horror flicks”. If Ramsay brothers frightened the populace with the horrible ghosts like “Jaani Dushman”, “Jaadu Tona”, the television audience thrived on shows like “Kile ka Rahasya“, “Zee Horror Show”, “Aahat” and “Sshhh… Koi Hai” to name a few.

There are quite a few things which are common amongst all these media. But after watching myriad movies and TV serials, I have come to a conclusion that there are 10 things which every single horror serial episode has to have (as opposed to movies which might have all or none of them):

Continue reading ‘Top 10 in Horror Episodes’