This one is a quick entry on two movies that I have seen recently and liked very much - the first is Wake Up Sid! (Ayan Mukerji, 2009) and the second, Love Sex Aur Dhokha (Dibakar Banerjee, 2010).
Wake Up Sid! is a movie that I have grown to like - the more I see it the more I like it. Ayan Mukherjee shows considerable depth and subtlety in his direction (something that was completely absent from his producer's indulgent and melodramatic first venture...sorry I'm not a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai fan. I really thought it was an appalling film except for one sparkling sequence, when Anjali and Rahul meet after years at the camp). Anyway, this blog is not about KKHH; it is about Sid.
There are many reasons to appreciate this film - the unconventianal love story, the acting, the way in which the director handles the emotional moments without going over the top. But I am going to appreciate the film for its characterisation. There is nothing very original or out-of-the-box about the characters in this film. We've seen them all before, in other films - the father, who has made his name only after a life of struggle, the doting mother, the boy who refuses to grow up - they are not unknown to us. But what is new about them - and all the characters in this film - is that none of them are caricatures or parodies. Mukerji draws his people from stereotypes, but refuses to let them dwell in that stereotype. Not even the minor characters like the studious Debbie, or the overweight Laxmi, or the wild Sonia. Mukerji makes sure they all have dignity, and a heart. This is what has made the film endearing to me.
And now over to a diametrically different film Love Sex Aur Dhoka. This film is dynamite viewing experience. Again, the three stories that make up the film are not unfamiliar. Maybe we haven't seen them before on film, but we have read enough newspaper reports and "breaking news" bytes to know what will eventually happen. The first two stories are especially predictable. But the treatmeant is extremely refreshing. Without being verbose or didactic, Banerjee makes his point about the invasion of the camera in our lives and the thrill of voyeurism. Not to mention making voyeurs of his audience as well. Of course, we want to see the gory details of when the first couple is hacked to death. Of course we want to know if the "store scandal" tape makes it to the internet or not.
Both these films are examples of all that is exciting and new in Hindi cinema right now. The so called "Bollywood" viewing experience is (mercifully) no more three hours of "masala timepass".
