Watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela, I felt that Ranveer Singh should have played the protagonist of Besharam. He wears disreputability like a second skin, and he doesn’t play cute and ask us to love him back. He’s… shameless. In an early scene, when he begins to scale up a tree outside the home of the rival-clan girl he’s just fallen in love with (she’s Leela, and she’s played by a spirited Deepika Padukone), his friends warn him that he could end up in the wrong room. “Galat kamra ho to kya ho sakta hai?” And he grins (it’s a leer, really) and says, “Sahi kamra ho to kya kya ho sakta hai.” He’s a womaniser and he hints at what he could end up doing if it’s the right room. In a touch that’s completely in line with his character, he runs a porn-video store, and women letch openly after the impressively muscled body he flaunts at them.
As good as Ranveer is at playing this character as a physical presence, he’s even better at playing this character as per the purplish requirements of a Bhansali movie. He’s terrific while executing the hyper-expressive choreography in the Tattad tattad song sequence, which fetishises him as much as the towel song fetishised Ranbir Kapoor in Saawariya, and in the emotional scenes, his face seems to be pulling apart in some five different directions, as if he were constantly holding back something on the verge of spilling out. As we know well by now, what an actor does in a Bhansali movie is as much performance as performance art – Ram’s dance-like depiction of his might, say, by flexing his arms with a hint of pride on his face – and it fits right into a movie that opens with a group of women walking into a pointed gateway that resembles a proscenium arch.
From there, it’s just a small leap to the unshed tears that always fill the eyes of Ram and Leela, the fevered couplets through which Leela replies to her sister-in-law’s (Richa Chadda) questions, and the unkempt, matted hair on the dancers in the Nagada sang dhol song sequence. The music videos are usually where Bhansali is at his most Bhansaliesque, and some of the picturisations here are exquisite – the choreography in Lahu munh lag gaya, for instance, where the blood alluded to in the lines is represented through gulaal powder, which Leela steals from Ram’s lips. But this song is also reminiscent of Aankhon ki gustakhiyan from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, and we come to the major problem with Ram-Leela. Apart from a few stretches, it feels like derivative Bhansali, the work of a disciple who knows the method but lacks the madness that afflicted every frame of Devdas and Saawariya.
The memorably hermetic worlds of those films are opened out here, a little, and this milieu feels generic. We’ve seen these rich colours before in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (which was also set in Gujarat), and we’ve heard these bhavai-styled intonations there. The difference is that this is a world filled with guns – they are amusingly displayed in stores, like plastic toys or handbags – and this reminds us of the films of Vishal Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap. Even the story feels second-hand. The film begins with an entirely unnecessary title card that says it is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, and while there are nods to the play – the invocation of the “rose by any other name” speech; the meet-cute at the girl’s home (during Holi festivities, as in Issaq, that other recent Romeo and Juliet adaptation); a near-rape that harks back to West Side Story (which, similarly, made a dance drama out of Romeo and Juliet) – the happenings are commonplace enough that they could have come from any Bollywood movie of the past fifty years.
Still, there’s enough to keep us mildly diverted for a while – some beautifully crafted lines (one of which includes one of Bhansali’s favourite words, gharoor, arrogance), some amiable comedy (involving an NRI suitor for Leela), the sensual imagery in Ang laga de re (the film’s best song, where Leela entices Ram with incense billowing from her palm), and a lot of rowdy energy, notably in a scene where rival parties take shots at the bottles of beer in each other’s hands. But a little before the halfway mark, the film begins to diverge from the Romeo and Juliet template, and the characters undergo such drastic transformations that I, for one, found it very difficult to wrap my head (or heart) around the remainder of the narrative. (The shock of seeing the badly placed songs, Ishqyaun dhishqyaun and, later, the item number with Priyanka Chopra, doesn’t help. The lovely Laal ishq, on the other hand, is chopped up into bits.)
Leela, at first, is as aggressive (one might say tempestuous; also, drop-dead gorgeous) as Paro in Devdas. (And her passionate scribbles of Ram’s name on her mirrors – in a Bhansali movie, there’s never just a mirror; it’s always mirrors – remind us of the torch Paro carried for Devdas in the form of an always-lit lamp.) During the Holi meet-cute, Ram comes with a water pistol, but Leela has a real gun in her hands. After they fall in love, he asks her what she’ll do if he leaves her. She pauses, turns to him and says she’ll blow his brains out. How does she go from here to the woman who, after being burned, touches Ram’s feet? Is it because she’s some sort of Sita archetype? (Other references to the epic come from Ram’s admission of vanvaas, the heroine’s “kidnapping,” and the Raavan-effigy burning during Dussehra.) But then, why does she raise her voice and rebuke him, subsequently, for what he did to her? He changes too – from a bona fide Bhansali lover who slits his wrist to a steely leader (or, like Lord Ram, a “king”) who’s apparently forgotten he has a personal life.
The latter portions are devoted to political drama – and this is a mistake. There’s not enough time, at this late stage, to make these contrivances convincing. Worse, they detract from the love story we’ve been promised and we’ve come to see. (And we’ve come to see Romeo and Juliet, not the Ramayana.) Maybe Bhansali wanted to show, for a change, how love can affect not just the man and woman at the centre but also those in the community around them – but neither aspect registers, and the Bhansali fans among us have to make do with scraps, like the bit where Ram goes to Leela’s home and acknowledges the loss of her blood with a sacrifice of his own, or the one where Leela, in front of her terrifying mother (Supriya Pathak), asks a hapless astrologer how many marriages are in store for her. What happens immediately after is shocking, and of course there’s rain outside. The clouds have to cry.
These are the moments where we get hints of the masochism that drives Bhansali’s best work. We need to see Ram and Leela suffering from self-created torments, and Bhansali, instead, gives us endless gun battles until we stop caring about who gets shot. The film goes on and on, with padded-out (and slo-mo infused) scenes like the one where a woman from Ram’s clan is chased by men from Leela’s, and at some point I began to wish for a rerun of Ishaqzaade, which did a far better job of traversing these terrains. The question remains: Just what has happened to Bhansali after the mauling he received for Saawariya? Guzaarish was limp and bloodless, but at least it felt like the work of a singular creator. Ram-Leela is so generic, it could have been made by anyone with the sense to hire a good cinematographer and art director. After a while, there’s nothing to see except the calligraphy on the curtains and the murals on the walls. Bhansali, earlier, had vision; now he just has visuals.
Copyright ©2013 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
rajesh
November 16, 2013
Ram-Leela is so generic, it could have been made by anyone with the sense to hire a good cinematographer and art director. After a while, there’s nothing to see except the calligraphy on the curtains and the murals on the walls. Bhansali, earlier, had vision; now he just has visuals.
-This sums up the Advertisements torture we are subject to.
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Dracarys
November 16, 2013
Your last line sums up the whole movie.
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MANK
November 16, 2013
BR:Just what has happened to Bhansali after the mauling he received for Saawariya?
I think in every (Great/Auteur)director’s career there comes a tipping point when his most passionate work gets mauled and derided and it transforms him for the worse as proven many times before. In hollywood this can apply to Coppola(One from the Heart), Friedkin(Sorcerer), Cimino(Heaven’s Gate), Scorsese(Gangs of newyork) etc. Similar egs in our country could be Raj Kapoor(Mera naam Joker), Mani Ratnam(Iruvar) and to a lesser extend the likes of Subhash Ghai (Trimurti,even though he did not direct it). The moment these film gets rejected and lampooned (many a times unfairly), they decide that whatever they stood for till then have become obsolete and start to adapt or change to what they think is the new market realities. But many a times they are wrong and what they need to do is just stick to their convictions when making the next pic. But i guess the cinematic medium is such a damn expensive medium as well as an artistically and emotionally draining medium as well that it is hard for the makers to stick to their heart and are forced to bow to the market diktats.
The case with SLB which i had figured from reading his interviews as well as his TV appearances is that he is a very over sensitive person and he cannot accept criticism of any sort. So when saawariya was not just rejected, it became a running joke for a long time and it was lampooned by many of his colleagues and his actors as well and so was Guzaarish (may be not to the extend of sawariya), he became really despondent and a little cynical perhaps and decided to go all out with his next pic. In his own words he did not want to hold anything back this time. (the success of his home prod. Rowdy Rathore may also have been an inspiration). Violence was never part of his oeuvre and he is very uncomfortable with it. The violence in this film really feels like the violence of a pacifist who has suddenly becomes violent and goes on a killing spree which i guess is SLB’s case here. But if this film has turned him from an individualist to a generic filmmaker, then i fear we may have lost the very few remaining auteurs of bloodless yet full blooded Hindi cinema.
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shruti
November 16, 2013
U r definitely not the right guy to be reviewing a film like ramleela. Bitching bout ramleela is like bitching bout moulin rouge and the great Gatsby. Also just giving credit to a good cinematographer and art director n saying that anyone wid a good cinematographer cud make a film like ramleela is not a mature critic. Shows how important u think u r and just goes to say how u gloat bout being a good critic just bcos a few south Indians read your reviews. Me being one of them. Be a little bit more rresponsible in ure writing Mr.Rangan. not fair at all.
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Abhirup.
November 16, 2013
“…at some point I began to wish for a rerun of Ishaqzaade, which did a far better job of traversing these terrains.”
Thank you. I felt exactly the same way; indeed, as the film ended, the only thing I was left with was a renewed appreciation for ‘Ishaqzaade’.
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Bunny
November 16, 2013
@MANK: Great analysis, though I feel Subhash Ghai is an absolute misfit in the list. Every film of his has been generic (perhaps with the exception of Karz). I’d be tempted to put Anurag Kashyap in the list too after No Smoking.
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Katyayani
November 16, 2013
“Bhansali, earlier, had vision; now he just has visuals.”
What a punch dialogue, BR! 🙂 That once line says it all.
Haven’t you written scripts for movies yet?
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Anuja
November 16, 2013
Still can’t get over the fact that BR is a Bhansali fan… I have seen only Hum dil de chuke sanam and Devadas and found that his overwrought and self indulgent style of filmmaking gives me dyspepsia. Have sworn off bhansali films since then and wild horses couldn’t drag me to see one.
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MANK
November 16, 2013
@Bunnu: Thanks, The reason i included Subhash ghai is that even though his films were generic, at least they had an auteur touch to them .He used to make them with conviction and totally believed in the kind of cinema he was making.. He was regarded as the greatest showman of the country.But after the debacle of Trimurti , he started aiming for the NRI market and started making ridiculous stuff like Yaadein, Taal, Yuvraaj etc which were not the kind of cinema he believed in..His career went totally haywire after that.and he became a national joke.
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venkatesh
November 16, 2013
@MANK : Subhash Ghai i can understand but Cimino in that list – really ?
Re: SLB – he is not an auteur , Anuja has it right , self-indulgent, overwrought and completely devoid of any other sensibility. I don’t know why BR likes him but Devdas had everyone screeching at the top of their voices, terrible terrible movie. He and Hritik are made for each other , Opera artistes in the time of cinema.
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Pallavi Bhat (@palvib)
November 16, 2013
I didn’t even get why they fell for each other. Was he attracted to her due to her low cut blouse? Or because of the powerful romantic idea that forms because she is a centrepiece on the enemy side? And why was she so amused ? I didn’t understand why was she so so effervescent on the balcony with a stranger? Hormones? Then, when did real love start ? Or when did they realise that they were not just playing around? And just what was the silly dance in his video store about ?
I was off right from the scene where suddenly he’s holding a pistol at her out of nowhere. And the movie never did quite redeem itself.
You have so rightly asked, just whats with SLB ? I loved “Hum dil de chuke sanam”. And “Black”. It seemed like Bhansali watched Ishaqzaade and decided he can do a more “beautiful” job. One gets the sense that he’s attempting an epic (like Devdas), but the script plays out in such incoherent manner. He seems lost in his indulgence for the colors, poetic dialogues, her curves, his antics, guns and grandeur.
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Pallavi Bhat (@palvib)
November 16, 2013
One is reminded of “Qayamat se qayamat tak”, which was the one of the earlier renditions by Bollywood of “Romeo and Juliet”. And I think that it was the best one in terms of developing the romance between the protagonists. That part forms a significant portion of any love story, apart from the ‘conflict’ and ‘resolution/climax’. This is sort of basic no?
The whole ‘getting lost in the forest’, even after the lad gets smitten by the lady at first sight, builds credibility and one subsequently feels for their latter misfortunes.
Did anyone feel the anguish of Leela being dragged across streets while she calls out for her lover ? I didn’t.
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MANK
November 16, 2013
@Venkatesh: Yeah may be i overshot the mark with Cimino. But the maker of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The deer Hunter deserved a better deal after heaven’s gate.Even Heaven’s Gate which for all its indulgences, self importance and bloatedness, did contain some memorable moments and was way better than the dumb blockbusters that hollywood churns out regularly.
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Jitaditya
November 16, 2013
I get that SLB has a visual style but the problem I’ve always had is that he always picks done to death love stories without significantly adding anything to them (Devdas, Rome Juliet, White Nights and even HDDCS remind me of Woh Saat Din) or suspiciously “inspired ones”…
He has always had a good musical sense but even on that count I got a jolt today with that video parlor song…
But I have to admit that he knows how to capture women gracefully (even that is a rarity nowadays)…
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Bunny
November 17, 2013
@MANK: Yeah, that’s true in a way. Somehow I find it hard to believe when the downright ‘commercial’ filmmakers like Ghai, Sajid Khan, Arbaaz Khan etc. claim to be passionate about the movies they make. It’s all about raking moolah for them. If the contemporary Bhojpuri cinema became the ‘flavour of the season’, they’d shamelessly call it a collection of masterpieces while laughing their way to the bank. I grew up in the ’90s. Sajid Khan used to scorn at Jeetendra and the cinema of that time and the ’80s. And now he claims to be a die-hard fan of ‘Himmatwala’ and the type. Most of the people in the ’90s used to laugh at Mithun’s or Akshay Kumar’s movies and now those films are considered gems by the so-called auteurs.
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Sharan (@sharanidli)
November 17, 2013
Agree with most of what you say, BR. Especially that Deepika was “drop-dead gorgeous”! Merely that would have sufficed a few years ago, perhaps!
At many points in the film, I wondered what it was that this wonderful cast saw in the script. Take, for instance, the context-free first meeting at her place, where you were unsure as to whether they’d met before. Such earnest performances, but what was going on there? Was there a flicker of recognition in their eyes, some past-life connect, perhaps? If not, why were they emoting so strangely?
Supriya Pathak was excellent, but what accounted for her hardening and softening and re-hardening and re-softening? What were her motives? Was she simply demented?
Some of the dialogues (“give me more” or the variant of “you are my lover, I am your killer”) just looked wrong. Surely, they read wrong on paper too! And in parts the music was so bad — the hero-intro song and the song in the video parlour — that it really gave me a head-ache.
I came away thinking that the editor and the director had played a cruel joke on the cast, silently switching screenplays in the post-production stage.
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MANK
November 17, 2013
@Bunny
The problem is that the quality of film appreciation is going down along with the quality of films. Which is why the sudden appreciation for not only jeetendra movies , But Helen’s dances, Mehmood’s comedy and even some people referring to the old films like ‘Don, Agneepath, Himmatwala etc as a classics. But please don’t compare Ghai with the likes of Sajid Khan. I mean forget the movies, Ghai atleast gave Maduri,Manisha and Jackie to hindi films as well as establishing the careers of Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher etc.
@Venkatesh
What is your problem with Opera bro.Don’t you know that our greatest movies are operas. Awaara, Mughal-e-azam,Mother india , i can go on. What the hell were they if not operas..Slb is no auteur, my foot: you mean you didn’t realize the director straightaway when you saw those blinding colors and over the top dialogues in the first few frames itself. If that is not the hallmark of an auteur, then what the hell is and What is this complaint about ‘everyone screeching at the top of their voices’,That is how we differentiate indian films from the western ones..That is what the westerners expect from our films. Don’t you know devdas getting selected in the top ten films of the decade by Variety.Watching too many English films have spoilt your taste. You she be ashamed of yourself defiling our rich cinematic legacy(Ha Ha!)
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simantini dey
November 17, 2013
I always love reading your reviews sir. And it’s true that Ram-Leela only has the shadows of the visionary Bhansali once used to be. I guess, he never could take the failure of Saawariya with the right spirits and it’s sad really because in so many ways, it was his best work (despite being never ending and having sonam Kapoor as the lead).. I thought the whole opera style narrative was brilliant .. if only it was shorter n a little tighter… 😦 and Ram-Leela has moments but I kept feeling somethng was missing but couldn’t put a finger at it. However, after reading your review I can. 🙂 Thank you.
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Sev
November 17, 2013
I agree with a previous poster about Ghai in his prime being a reasonably entertaining filmmaker; moreover, he sure had an eye for spotting talent. Jackie Shroff in his heyday was a truly charismatic actor especially in Parinda (not a Ghai movie), as well as Ram Lakhan. In fact, when I re-watched Ram Lakhan as an adult, I was surprised by how entertained I still was by about 60% of it. Usually rewatching my childhood favourites as an adult is a sad experience for me as quite a few of the movies I loved as a child seem plodding and pointless to me as an adult. I also agree that newer filmmakers like Sajid Khan, Arbaaz Khan etc don’t have any talent, interest in learning the craft, or any such. In fact they’re such hacks that they make an uber-hack (in my opinion) like KJo appear talented. I hope Rangan is as attached to Ram Gopal Varma’s work and style as he’s to Bhansali’s. Looking at Varma’s recent work being reviled is a bit painful for me because I can never dislike the director who made Satya. Everything about that tragic, haunting tale have stayed with me all these years, and the more I re-watch it, the more I find reasons to love it, which is why I was elated when Abhishek Chaubey, the director of Ishqiya, cited Satya as a modern classic and personal favourite.
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venkatesh
November 18, 2013
@Sev : The downfall of RGV is a painful painful thing, this is especially poignant.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/coming-soon-satya-7
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brangan
November 18, 2013
MANK: That was a great comment, thanks. I think “Heaven’s Gate” is a pretty good movie. As is “Reds.” These are works of passion and vision, and even if they don’t work in totality, there’s a number of good moments.
As I’ve said before, I wish we had a movie-watching culture where the “overall-ness” of the movie is considered less important that the brilliance of individual parts. Sometimes the parts are so good that the fact that the movie doesn’t work as a whole becomes secondary.
Sharan (@sharanidli): Take, for instance, the context-free first meeting at her place
But that’s pretty much how it happens in “Romeo and Juliet” as well. It’s the old love-at-first-sight, and it didn’t bother me.
I loved the hero-intro song, but yes, that video parlour song was godawful, and the item number was surprisingly blandly choreographed for a Bhansali movie. For contrast, we just have to see the astounding choreography of the songs in “Saawariya.”
MANK: Also, people don’t seem to be able to (or want to) differentiate between lazy melodrama and loudness versus deliberately constructed melodrama. There’s a world of difference, and goes beyond the volume/decibel levels.
Sev: I agree about Ghai’s films in the 80s. “Meri Jung” is good fun. And even something as bombastic as “Karma” has a lot of good moments, though it goes on far too long. There’s a sense of “crafting” that we don’t see in today’s masala movies. The crafting of larger-than-life characters. The crafting of quirks for the characters, so they become memorable. The crafting of funny lines and dramatic lines. The crafting of the big-boom moments, which are led up to in a way that we experience maximum levels of explosion. Of course, all this was meant for the big screen, so when we see all this on TV or on the laptop now, a lot of it is diminished.
And yes, I do retain some amount of affection for Varma’s work. I thought “Not a Love Story” was a very good film: reviewed it here.
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MANK
November 18, 2013
BR: I wish we had a movie-watching culture where the “overall-ness” of the movie is considered less important that the brilliance of individual parts
You said it man. I mean if somebody asked me what is my favourite subhash ghai or SLB movie, i would be stumped because there is no one film of any of them that gave me overall satisfaction. But i like parts of Ram Lakhan, Karma,Meri jung etc. The parts i like are absolutely brilliant, at the same time the climax and other scenes of these movies are so cliched and ridiculous that i cant say i totally liked the film. Climax of subhash ghai films are particularly problematic and silly. Imagine after giving one of the extraordinary performances of his career in much of saudagar, Ghai makes dilip kumar do a motorbike jump in the climax. Good god. As for SLB well everybody was complaining about the loudness,his indulgence. but just look at that yun shbnami song from sawariya,the composition,the choreography the camera moves man its divine. So are some of the scenes and song sequences in HDDCS, Devdas, Guzarish and the first hour of Ramleela is terrific. He then throws in that ridiculous ISHQYAN song. That reminded me of the derided sarkhaylo khtiya song from rajababu. SLB chanelling david dhawan, heavens.
Also, people don’t seem to be able to (or want to) differentiate between lazy melodrama and loudness versus deliberately constructed melodrama.
Absolutely and that was what i a struggling to explain earlier. Don’t compare Ghai with the likes of lazy,pompous hacks like Sajid Khan. Whatever that appears in his films are carefully worked out all to create an effect and they were also reflective of the times in which they were made. Take the O Ramji song from Ram Lakhan. Its a full blooded classical song smack in the middle of a big time masala flick. Which other director would do that. Through that song he not only expresses the state of mind and the situation of the characters in that scene but also invokes epic connotations as well with its link to ramayana. Add to that madhuri’s performance, the choreography, there is nothing like it.That is a master director. I do really miss that subhash Ghai
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Abhirup.
November 18, 2013
“It’s the old love-at-first-sight, and it didn’t bother me.”
I understand love at first sight, but there has to something special about the first sight to make you fall for a person, isn’t it? Here, what we learn of Ram and Leela make it unlikely that these two would go for each other. Ram, we are told, is the only Rajadi who speaks “pyaar ki bhasha”; he frolics around with women when his clansmen are busy fighting the Saneras; and we see in the kachhadi scene that he believes in reaching a truce with the Sanera clan and believes that his father’s “gharoor” that prevents the Rajadis from doing so shall be disastrous. In other words, he is, for all his rowdiness, peace-loving, and would much rather make love than war. What, then, turns him on so much when Leela aims a gun at him? Unlike Parma in ‘Ishaqzaade’, he isn’t a gun-toting sort himself, so isn’t it likely that he would much rather be turned on by a girl who shares his belief that the Rajadis and Saneras should stop fighting? Even if we justify this with the “opposites attract” logic, that the very fact that Leela is different from him–fiery and with a violent streak–makes Ram fall for her, the next question to arise is this: is Leela really the first fiery woman he has seen? Surely there are many such in his own clan as well, given what we see of the milieu? Or is it simply the thrill of romancing a girl from the enemy camp? Then again, why this particular girl? Aren’t there other spunky ones around?
As for Leela, she seems to be cut from the same cloth as her mother (Supriya Pathak). So why does she take to a Rajadi boy so readily? From the very scene, she is all over him, and in that balcony scene, she behaves as though she is meeting an old lover, someone she has been seeing for a long time, as opposed to a stranger who is from the enemy clan? Does she never stop to think of the implications of falling in love with Ram? In ‘Ishaqzaade’, we get a scene where Zoya is actually worried, even scared, that she is romancing a boy from the rival family. She eventually chooses to go ahead with it, but that scene tells us that the decision hasn’t been easy for her. Here, we get no such moment, and this makes it a weaker, less convincing romance.
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Abhirup.
November 18, 2013
*very first scene
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venkatesh
November 18, 2013
@BR: “Also, people don’t seem to be able to (or want to) differentiate between lazy melodrama and loudness versus deliberately constructed melodrama. There’s a world of difference, and goes beyond the volume/decibel levels.”
– Great point, unfortunately SLB is not it.
And this from someone who watches Korean Melodramas, you haven;t lived till you have watched a bonafide Korean melodrama with all possible plot contrivances and deployment of every single heart-string pulling trope. SLB is not it.
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venkatesh
November 18, 2013
@MANK : “SLB chanelling david dhawan, heavens.”
– Hey , Dhawan and Govinda + KaderKhan in their prime had some good, unclean funny movies . I have great respect for directors who aim low , tell you that they are aiming low and then manage to achieve it. Its the dis-reputable, cheerfulness and the sheer low-brow nature of it that i love. Like going to a restaurant and asking for Kushbu Idli , its just funny. (this used to be a thing in one of Chennai’s fine establishments).
Re an earlier comment on auteurs – you want to know a signature director , Kanti Shah; Every single frame of his film screams his name. If SLB is an auteur so is Mr. Shah.
For whatever reason SLB’s characters just don’t feel authentic to me, the quirks come out as forced, they are always “Acting”, it never feels organic within that carefully constructed world and that puts me off. It just doesn’t gell. Mind you, this is different from older films like Mother India – they are acting at a higher-pitch, louder or as some books call it Meta-Acting but it is still true in that world. Willing suspension of belief – SLBs film never achieves it.
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MANK
November 18, 2013
@Venkatesh:Re an earlier comment on auteurs – you want to know a signature director , Kanti Shah; Every single frame of his film screams his name. If SLB is an auteur so is Mr. Shah.
Mind you, this is different from older films like Mother India
Dear Venky where is your humor sense man. I was just having some fun.Too bad you didn’t get it.Maybe watching Krrish3 and aarambham back to back ha made you numb. put your funny bone back ,quick
Ok forget the frame game. The thing about auteurs that i have understood is they have a unique as well as trademark continuous style with respect to both the visual technique of their movies as well as the underlying themes ,characters,their characterization,their behavior etc. which pretty much remain constant in every film that they make . Even though the stories they chose may be different from pic to pic, the themes and technique pretty much remain constant with respect to the style they have. One can feel the same about the directors that are generally considered auteurs say scorsese,Tarantino,Altman ,Woody Allen etc .closer home it would be K.balachander,Bharatiraja,maniratnam,Gowtham menon(please don’t get started on him),RGV etc and i definitely feel that SLB fits the bill. his trademark visual style ,we have already discussed.I think the same goes for his themes and characters as well.Now you may have issues with them as you pointed out the quirks of the characters are inorganic(the point of whether all quirks aren’t inorganic is something to be debated), and i myself do not like it,but you do see that the quirky behavior is pretty consistent in all his films. This consistency can also be seen in the manner in which 2 people fall in love as well . They seem to fall in love rather abruptly and without convincing reasons as Abhrup pointed out in his post. i believe that the main point in SLB movie is not as much about how and why 2 people fall in love but what happens to them once they fall in love .Their emotional turmoil, their destruction\self destruction ,their subsequent rejection of love\life etc are the common underlying themes in his films.so having seen all the films that SLB has made , i was not that much concerned about the unconvincing nature of their falling in love. But what really concerned me was the horrible second half of it with things leading to bloody physical violence. Now i know that the subject matter of RL does call for a certain amount of violence, but here the violence is Totally unnecessary in many cases.now this is definitely inconsistent of SLB because the emotional violence and torment of the characters are violent enough in his pics.The violence turning to this bloody physical makes it really intolerable. This leads to the comment about channeling David Dhawan. Now you may have your views about DD comedies,personally i found them to be more stupid than funny. If you like them fine but it is that ishqayon song and the violence i mentioned that is totally uncharacteristic of SLB. He got so desperate after the failure of his previous films that he dropped his convictions and went after channeling other directors only to score a box office hit.
I underline once again that i considered SLB to be an individualist auteur but after Ramleela i have begun to doubt it.
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Kutty
November 19, 2013
After reading all those wonderful comments on Onaayum Aatukutiyum, I could not resist but think of this as SLB’s commentary on Indian cinema with an autobiographical touch. The ‘Vaanar Sena’ being the crop of commercial directors who just cannot help but repeat the same things again and again, mindlessly, just because that is the way, the tradition, there is nothing else that they know. And Ram is of course, SLB who is after the more pleasurable, passionate joys of life and cannot for god’s sake understand why violence needs to be glorified.
And the scene at the dock – the two arms of cinema, (class and mass, those terms frequently used on this website), taking pot shots at each other. And then, when Ram sees one of his ilk (not necessarily style) getting killed (terrible reviews) when it was supposed to be all fun, he gets enraged and decides to get them at their own game and that is where Ram Leela fits i on his filmography. And that neatly splits the movie into a first ‘half’ which is a fairy tale into a more gritty second half.
So, am I being pretentious or is he? 🙂
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Utkal Mohanty
November 19, 2013
Normally I come back from a film, make myself a cup of tea without milk or sugar, and write about it furiously while the adrenalin is still high. I like to write like a lover than a critic. But It has been more than 24 hours since I saw Ram-Leela and I still haven’t got the nerve to write about it. There was so much happening in the film, visually, aurally, in terms of narrative, in terms of character, with allusions to so many myths, so many traditions, with such wild experimentations in choreography, with spoken words; throwing up so many ideas, about love, about war, about gender-politics, about power; that it was impossible to take it all in one viewing, let alone write about it. But I have wrapped up all pending work, made myself large cup of Kashmiri tea, and I am going to give it a try.
Let me put it this way, it is not only the best Bhansali ever, by miles, I haven’t seen another film since Gangs of Wasseypur that has left me so totally overwhelmed. Let me also start out by saying that the only film of Bhansali I have liked in the past is Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Khamoshi was overwrought, Devdas had moments, but failed totally to capture the soul of the novel or the protagonist, Black was good while it was restaging ’ The Miracle Worker’, but went overboard with the introduction of the a Alzheimer-stricken Amitabh, Saawariya was an unwatchable mess, and Guzaarish was neither here nor there. But with Ram-Leela, everything needs to be forgiven, since Bhansali has managed to pull off what he has been trying to do all these years…create a stylistic masterpiece that captures some essential human truth and therefore connects with the audience…tell a real story in a language of heightened melodrama.
The film gets off to a frenetic start with the policeman in a gun market, the chase of the little boy taking a pee from the terrace, and all hell breaking loose. We know we are in the machismo land and this is reinstated by the most audacious hero-entry in Indian cinema ever. I knew Ranveer was a kickass star right from Band Baaja Baaraat days, but he was born to play Ram. As I said, you won’t see a more unabashed celebration of beefcake in a Hindi film any time soon, but where Bhansali shows his true mettle in painting the background with full-blown details. The reactions of the ladies watching this icon of male desirability, some of them literally fainting, is akin to what gopis felt listening to Krishan play on the flute, I guess.
What follows is even more breathtakingly beautiful – the first meeting of Ram and Leela. The urgency, the intensity and the surging passion of young love has been captured rarely if ever as tellingly as here .. and here I am talking not just of Hindi or Indian cinema. Bhansali’s stylistic excesses are very much in order here. ‘ Mohabbat aisi traz hai jo har saaz par chheda nahin jaata’ some shayar said long ago. Let’s face it, not all of us are tuned to play out passionate love. Those who do are strung in a higher key.. and when they find the right person…the right wavelength on their antenna…call it pheromones call it meeting of souls…call it whatever… the pyar ki ghanti rings. The world goes topsy-turvy… man , and woman.. does wild things unmindful of the consequences. ‘ What if it is the wrong room? Can you imagine what can happen?” Ram’s friend warns as Ran climbs up Leela’s mansion without knowing which is Leela’s room. ‘ Imagine instead what can happen if IT IS THE RIGHT ROOM’, Ram retorts. That is the bravado of lovers. After all, “ Mohabbat mein nahin hota hai jeene aur marne ki farak, Usi ko dekh kar jeete hain jis kafir pe dum nikle’.
But then begins the ‘ leela’, the playful banter, the mating dance, the ritual of checking each other out. Bhansali surprises us with the lack of inhibition with which he captures the lover’s sexual ardour and wild playfulness. ‘Angur hara, kela peela. Leela ka hai ram, Ram ki Leela’, Leela does her own version of “ Roses are red, violets are blue’. It must be the Anurag Kashyap effect..but it is a relief to see Bhansali throw any attempt at classicism out of the window and embrace gritty street lingo, double entendres and mixed language metaphors. The ‘Ishqiyan, Dishqiyan’ song is a fine achievement of this ambition. The phrase captures the dangerous nature of their love more colorfully that any phrase of Gulzar or Javed Akhtar could do.
“This thing (this thing)
Called love (called love)
It cries (like a baby)
In a cradle all night
It swings (woo woo)
It jives (woo woo)
It shakes all over like a jelly fish
I kinda like it
Crazy little thing called love”
( Queen)
So coming back to this crazy little thing called love, and the way Bhansali paints it, we must realize passionate love is about blurring of the world, and you seeing only your love. Radha seeing Krishna in everything, everything appearing Krishna-blue to her. In one of the dance-like sequences after Ram and Leela’s first meeting, the figures in the background blur into hazes of purple and blue as the lovers gaze deep into each other’s eyes.
ishq main aur kuch nahin hota
aadmi baawra sa rehta hai
( Gulzar- Ghulam Ali)
And this craziness is never expressed better as in the scene where Ram is lured out from Leela after they have eloped, into a drunken session with friends , and one of them asks what he finds special in Leela. ‘ Leela mein jo hai who kisi mein nahin’. The way Ranveer acts out that scene is unparalleled in any Indian love story.. maybe something by Dilp Kumar, or Kamal Hassan, or yes, Dhanush. Love hurts, and it shows on his face. He follows it up with another scene where he talks of how things have changed so much in the matter of a night. We were told about the wizardry of Shakespeare and the line ’ Never, never, never, never, never, never, never’ in King Lear being an actor’s delight, giving him an opportunity to suffuse each of the seven ‘ nevers’ with a different emotional nuance. Ranveer does something similar with all the sentences he utters using the word ‘badla’or change. ( Not to forget’ badla’ also means revenge, which some of his clan members say he has achieved by kidnapping and dishonouring Leela.)
What makes Ram-Leela different from other Bhansali films is that he does not forget the real world and its reality as he celebrates the expressionistic images of lovers in throes of passion. The plotting here is on much more surer footing than in any Bhanasli film earlier. In the beginning of the portion after the second half, one is disconcerted for a few minutes when Bhansali drops his lovey-dovey concerns, entering the world of clan rivalry and power play in real earnest. But then slowly one realizes what a bloody powerful work Ram-Leela is slowly turning out to be in the process. How love is a threat to the existing power structures, and how women are used as pawns in a war, and how when a child si killed, a mother dies a little too…is brought out in this portion quite insightfully. ‘ A don does not cry’ Ram says at one point, ‘ Welcome to Janta Bazar, Make love not war’ at another. “ Main tumhe hathyar neeche dalne ko kaha, Mardangi nahin’, he says at another point. There is Mahabharat here, and Ramayan, and Gandhian non-violence. And unlike the cozy worlds of Karan Johar and Ayan Mukherjee where matters of the heart must be sorted out in the hearts without the society intruding, here love is a aprt of the social equation, love is a political act. Now we are in the territory of Mughal-e-Azam, of Antigone… where love is an expression of autonomy of the self, of individuality, of creativity as opposed to sterile social order. Ai Mohabbat Zindabad, says Salim in Mughl-e-Azam. This dichotomy is played out very well when both Leela and Ram play the game of power instead of the game of love and we see them half-relishing their stint and we are not sure if they are going to be seduced.
Much earlier we are shown what a man and a woman must give up when they fall in love.. a woman – her security, her sheltered world of home and parents, , and a man – his zone of comfort, his beer buddies and bachelor jokes. But as John Lennon, the butt of many jokes because of his being totally besotted with Yoko Ono, would say, ‘ A man can’t spend his entire life drinking beer with buddies’. Of course many men can, and in many cultures are encouraged to do so, and all love stories are an attack on those values. . ‘ Meri mardangi ke bare mein gaon ke ladkiyon se puchna. Report achchhi milegi’, Ram boasts at one time. But he is trying to redefine ‘ mardangi’, by falling in love for one, by asking people to drop their guns for another.
“And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword! “ ( By The ReadingGaol, Oscar Wilde)
The ending though already seen in its plot level essence in Ishaqzaade, is staged here masterly with the burning of the Raavan effigy in the background. As they are getting ready to shoot each other, we hear the crackling sound from the burning effigy, and we expect to hear that line from Casablanca, “ Is that your gun already fired, or is it just the cracker in the Raavan effigy going off!”
As I said earlier the film mines so many sources: Mahabharata, Ramayana, Godfather…not to mention Romeo and Juliet.. and it does it so seamlessly, adding Bhansali’s own aesthetic dimensions to it, that it emerges as a truly magnificent piece of original art ( much in the way ‘ Gangs of Wasseypur’ did.)
The film has so many pluses that it is tough to decide what to focus on. Well one could start with the performances. The entire cast is superlative. The influence of Anurag Kashypa is evident in the choice of actors like Richa Chaddha, Zameel Khan and Gulshan Devaiah who give wonderful accounts of themselves. Deepika is luminescently luscious. But it si Ranveer who is the stand out performer here. Of course his is the most complex and ambitiously written role..there is even the hint of a dark back story and 12 years of prison perhaps. And he surely redefines ‘ mardangi’ in Hindi films here. The other performance I would single out for applause is that by Supriya Pathak. She is to Leela what Akbar was to Salim in Mughal-e-Azam, and in every scene – from when she snips Leela’s ladies finger to get the ring out to her banter with the NRI suitor of Leeela to the scene where she dances during Navaratri to her scene with the little child- she is terrific.
Then there are the songs and the choreography. After the inventive use of these in HDDCS, Bhansali like Mani Rtanam had degenerated into using songs as item numbers without adding, accentuating or illuminating the narrative ( What did a song like Dola re Dola had to do with the theme of Devdas?) . And for someone who puts so much store on songs in his films the pedestrian lyrics in films like Saawariya ( Masha allah, Doli mein baitha ke.bla bla bla) were downright embarrassing. Here the lapse has been set right. It maybe the Anurag Kshayp effect again, but lines like ‘Dil Ki Ye Goli Chali Naino Ki Bandook Se, Bomb Bhi Girenge Ab Pyaar Ke Sandook Se’ or ‘Lahu Munh Lag Gayaa, Soyaa Thaa Nas-Nas MeinAb Ye Jag Gayaa’ are constantly engaging. They are all imaginatively and energetically choreographed. And exquisitely cinematographed. And unlike many item songs of today, the Priyanka Chpra number is used in the way such songs were used in classic Hindi films or the Jatra of Odia / Bengali folk theater..as the voice of a chorus or a commentator. ‘Ram Chahe Leela , Leela Chahe Ram, Inn Dono Ke Love Mein, Duniya Ka Kyaa Kaam? “ she asks, as she bumps and grinds to a middle-eastern rhytm and swirls like a dervish in one portion of the song.
Then there is the use of language. I would gain thank People like Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj for setting Bhansali free. Bhansali is having a lot of fun here and I like that. The characters speak a mix of English and Hindi. And the purists as well as those who seek realism can go bury themselves along with all the dead languages. Did Caesar speak English? Did Cleopatra? The language spoken is more determined the audience one is speaking to than the character. Sample this in Ram-Leela. There is a scene where the Supriya Pathak character sends a slain pet peacock of Leela as an invite for the Navratri celebration at her place. Then she phones Ram to say ‘ Hum dono ke beech mein yeh mor har baar aa jaata tha. Ab yeh dushmnai no more!’ There are double entendres galore, but these are sewn into the texture of he locale and characters seamlessly and therefore don’t really stick out. “ Holi khelne ke liye zaroorat hota hai pichkari ki, aur mein ummeed karta hoon woh aap sabke paas hai!’exhorts Ram to his fellow clansmen.
Then there is the plotting and writing. One of my all-time favourites among Hindi film scripts is Deewar, for the way it plays out like Bach a fugue, a note finding a counter note somewhere else. ( The phenka hua paisa with young Vijay reappearing again with the older Vijay.) Here too many lines and elements find an echo in some other point in the narrative. The Ishqiya Dishqiya song proves to be prophetic when you consider the end. The playful rhymes that Ram and Leela exchange are echoed again in the exchanges between Leela and her bhavi during the lovers’ separation. (Namkeen Nani, Naughty Nana;Kab tak maike baith raahoon, ab Ram ke ghar jaana) ( Chutney, chaat samose, Main to bas ab mera
Ram bharose).
And more than anything else there is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s vision and ambition. It is good to see both alive and kicking in Hindi films.
(And long as this piece may be, this will certainly not be that last words will be writing on the film. I intend to write a more comprehensive piece after the second viewing.)
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Srini
November 19, 2013
Mr Mohanty, Please start your own blog or if you already have one , please share the link , instead of doing this frankly unfair thing of using the comments space to write your reviews. It is plainly selfish IMO and kiddish. Please stop. Please
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venkatesh
November 19, 2013
@MANK : Sense of humor missing , ! You clearly don;t know who Kanti Shah is and must look him up this very second.
On a serious note SLB is very much “one of a kind” just not my kind.
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Anurag
November 19, 2013
+1 to Srini. Mr Mohanty, seriously i do not disrespect ur views but like srini said why are u eating upspace here? I really like your reviews only that i dont like them as a comment in others’ blog. Why o why dont u start ur own being so gifted? I guaranty u if u open i wil read everyarticle and pass an appreciation. But please stop this here. Mr Brangan care to share ur views about this ? I am sure this is not the first time mohanty is getting this complain here.
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MANK
November 19, 2013
@Venkatesh
Oh i got the Kanti Shah part don’t worry. It is the comparison with mother india, Aawara etc that you did not get. Please i wouldn’t be foolish enough to equate SLB movies with those master pieces. Its just that his aesthetic is much more closer to those movies except he blows it up even further to a kind of surrealistic space and i certainly understand the difference that you were making between meta acting and overacting. I mean even in a totally operatic world in Mughal-e-azam, Dilip kumar was as natural and subtle you could get. I just think that sort of overblown high pitched ,operatic acting in his films suits the overblown operatic nature of his movies. And do we really need to differentiate the characters and their acting from the world they are inhabiting. Can’t we look at the world he is creating in totality with the characters and their behavior as well
On a serious note SLB is very much “one of a kind” just not my kind.
Dude that’s what i have been saying. He is not completely my type either , as i pointed out earlier , but i do certainly appreciate his ambition,passion and one of a kind vision ,even if i find aberrations in that vision.
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venkatesh
November 19, 2013
@MANK : Fair enough.
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Jitaditya
November 19, 2013
For the record… I love reading Mohanty’s comments… they are like regular bonus features on BR’s blogs…
Wonder why everybody keeps complaining… just use your mouse to skip if you don’t want to read…
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Nirja
November 20, 2013
I loved Ram Leela, I loved every frame, every speck of paint, every gun shot of it. And I loved the cinema of it, that it created. And yet I know it isn’t a good movie with its dragging second halves and unnecessary subplots. I loved the ambition of it I suppose and to see two star crossed lovers was so refreshing. And what a find this guy Ranveer is, Oh my…! I am appalled at the comparisons with Ishaqzaade, that regressive bore of a film pumped only by its feisty and unseen coupling and characters. RL is nothing quite like that, here the women make the decisions and make no apologies for it. Also, where I watched it, the cutting of Leela’s finger was shown in all its grisliness and only to later know Ram had done the same….did they cut a scene or was that the same everywhere? Another question that irks me is, why did they need to put that ghastly PC song? It adds no narrative, neither is pretty or hummable. Could it be that SLB has finally given in to commercial pressures of an item song ? What a sad thought that is…..
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JPhilip
November 20, 2013
Dude dude Mohanty….pls dude pls…
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Aman
November 20, 2013
I’m starting to really like Ranveer Singh. His career has been really interesting and except for that sad Ricky Bahl, he’s never faltered. And actually even in Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl, he wasn’t bad; it was the script that was worthless.
It’s hard to remember that he’s only 4 films old, and he’s given three absolutely wonderful performances. For him to portray the charming Bittoo Sharma to a spirited Anushka’s Shruti Kakkar and still leave a mark, then to do a Lootera only in his third outing was a revelation. Now with Ram-Leela (I refuse to call it by that absurdity in front) he’s shown that he can be believable as the drenched in love Bhansali hero too. Honestly, I’m more excited about him than the Ranbir Kapoors and the Imran Khans all put together.
But… with Ram-Leela, I really missed Salman in some key moments. I wish Ram-Leela had been made ten years ago with Bhansali at his peak and Salman as his hero of choice. There were some rascally moments that only a Salman could have carried out – like when Ranveer faces his father after he makes the agreement as the Rajadi Don with Leela. The banter there needed a Salman. Likewise, other lighthearted moments also made me miss the Salman-Bhansali combination. Ranveer played Ram with an earnestness and breath-taking audacity, sure, and he was perfect in the emotional scenes. But where he missed is playing the ‘boy’ in loverboy that Bhansali’s movies are about. Ranveer is too much a man.
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brangan
November 20, 2013
MANK: i believe that the main point in SLB movie is not as much about how and why 2 people fall in love but what happens to them once they fall in love .Their emotional turmoil, their destruction\self destruction ,their subsequent rejection of love\life etc…
Bingo. His films aren’t love stories but masochistic love stories — “Saawariya” being the pinnacle of this ethos, with the boy pursuing a girl he cannot have, and the girl pursuing a man who disappeared from her life a year ago with no address. So all that “how did they fall in love” or “where was the chemistry” talk is completely redundant. It’s a construct that we have to take for granted in his films and then see how he builds on it.
Also, the songs of “Saawariya” are the best-choreographed ones in the SLB oeuvre. I just love “Yun shabnami” — I mean, the song is just fantastic. But the start, with all the dancers looking one way (for the chand in the sky) and Ranbir looking the other way (for his chand in the balcony, long before the balcony in “Ram-Leela”)… brilliant, brilliant stuff.
I truly believe that it’s not just the choreographers but his inputs as well.
Kutty: Hah! Lovely! 🙂 But tell me what you thought about the film, no?
MANK/venkatesh: Okay, with SLB the reference point isn’t just older melodrama but a specific kind of older melodrama. As I said in my review of “Saawariya, he is the descendant of Shantaram.
Jitaditya: I agree. Anyone who doesn’t want to read what Utkal writes can just scroll down.
Nirja: the cutting of Leela’s finger was shown in all its grisliness and only to later know Ram had done the same….did they cut a scene or was that the same everywhere?
Same here. I’d have liked more drama around that moment. Imagine… of all places, SLB chooses to go subtle here 🙂
About the “ghastly PC song,” my problem wasn’t the song itself but the completely generic way in which it was shot and choreographed. It was just an hip-shaking item number — not a Bhansali song sequence. It was a nice song though. I liked the fact that this so-called “sutradhar”-style song was done in a rock style. That’s really unexpected and nice.
Aman: I’m sorry but I part ways with you on Salman. I like him when he plays the fool in films like “Dabangg” but he ruined both “Khamoshi” and “HDDCS” for me. Not that they’re great films to begin with. They’re very much the work of a man still trying to find a way to get his voice across to screen. (You could see what he was trying to, but he wasn’t able to put it across fully.) And Salman’s antics just ruined the films further for me. All that talking-to-God stuff – that’s classic Bhansali, but Salman makes it looks like a joke when it’s more than just a joke — it’s pain and passion and a yearning for the unattainable and a making peace with this solution. I don’t know which actor could have pulled this off, but Salman certainly didn’t. IMO, Salman’s best performance in a Bhansali film came in “Saawariya.” He displayed a gravity there, a film-star stillness, that he’s never done before or after. He’s *exactly* what the character needed to be.
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Harish Ram
November 20, 2013
though i agree to most of your points about Ram-Leela, I am surprised you didn’t find the film interesting. Isn’t this film, similar to Kadal, in discarding every bit of detail for the audience on why and how things are happening and jumping straight into the emotional reactions by the leads? I somehow felt the new cinematic grammar that SLB has taken to in this film, the raw unchamfered edgy tonality, to be similar to the one of the new Mani – especially the epic fall in the end.
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venkatesh
November 20, 2013
BR: Taking a cue from your earlier review : ” (Non-fans, in other words, should — and most likely will — stay far, far away.)” – thats me. I don;t get what the fuss is about and will most likely not.
Out of curiosity – where do you place his Khamoshi, Black, Guzaarish and Devdas , (the films of his i have seen) within his oeuvre , Khamoshi we can excuse , but the rest ?
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Kutty
November 21, 2013
It was like a right movie at the right time. Now that Bollywood has gotten all serious and realistic (Kai Po Che, Bombay Dreams, Lunch Box and Shahid in a single year!), there was always going to be a yearning for the good old ‘song and dance’ Bollywood. That is the need that Ram Leela fulfills (as did YJHD earlier in the year). It is at a completely different pitch to the films mentioned above and SLB sets the expectations right, right at the start. It is old wine in old bottle, for why bother changing bottles if the wine is going to taste just the same. It happens in a land far far away and he succeeds in transporting you there. And the only scene where they inhabit a commonplace environment, when the goons retrieve Leela from the motel and keep shooting into the skies, it becomes even more apparent how out of place the characters are in a normal setting. Thankfully, unlike most of the group with whom I watched the movie with, I was more than happy to suspend all my disbelief and enjoy the ride! The one thing I found a little scratchy were the dialogues in some sequences. I disagree with some of the earlier comments that the dialogues laced with double entendre are a mark of his evolution as a film maker. It was definitely unwarranted and seemed regressive.
(Thanks for asking!)
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Kutty
November 21, 2013
* It should be Bombay Talkies.
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Sam
November 21, 2013
I think I was more satisfied than most because this was my first Bhansali movie on the big screen and it was a joy to see his work like that, but like many I felt this is a mixed bag after a strong first half. Overall, about as good as I expected though not as good as I hoped, but I was happy that it didn’t have the lifelessness that I felt from Guzaarish. I wish Bhansali would hook up with a really strong team of writers. But that’s alright. I remember a quote from Ebert saying that Tarantino is capable of making a bad movie but incapable of making a boring one, and I think that applies to Bhansali as well (though he is certainly capable of boring moments). There’s just so much great work in here, especially in the songs. Tattad Tattad is the most entertaining thing I’ve seen all year. For me that launched Ranveer from being really talented and promising to being a superstar. Am I alone and crazy in thinking that it’s an all timer in the pantheon of great hero introduction songs? I too was disappointed at how Ram Chahe Leela and Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun were put on screen, and I wish that all of the songs were used visually rather than the few that were used as background music, but the rest of them are incredible. Bhansali really is in a class of his own when it comes to musical numbers (and he does make actual musical numbers as opposed to music video interludes). One thing I’m surprised more people aren’t discussing is how strong of a composer SLB has turned into. This is one of the best soundtracks of the year. For me this was much stronger than Guzaarish, though I’m also more of a pop guy. Hugely impressed at the range and quality of the music here. The fact that I don’t feel strongly about the film aside from the visuals and the music is very telling, however at the end of the day I am excited for whatever he does next and I’m sure I’ll be there day one. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you who dislike the film would say the same. How many filmmakers can you say that about?
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brangan
November 21, 2013
Harish Ram: Who said I didn’t find the film interesting? I saw it a second time yesterday 🙂 The difference between this and “Kadal” for me was that I was invested in the characters there. I wanted to know what would happen to Sam, and how Thomas would be redeemed. Here, I didn’t care one way or the other. (And the preordained nature of the “Romeo and Juliet” template didn’t help either.) BTW, why do you feel this is new “cinematic grammar” for Bhansali? Just curious. Maybe the language is coarser and the energy is more, but this is a step back for Bhansali IMO.
venkatesh: I think “Devdas” is where he really found his voice, that exact connect between what was in his head and the ability top put all that on screen. The cross-cut music sequence between Kirron Kher dancing like a dervish (and being humiliated) while Paro-Devdas are having an S&M moment of idyll (he refuses to instantly remove the thorn on her foot, letting the pain linger) is one of the greatest instance of chorographic imagination I have seen in Hindi cinema. “Black” I like for certain flourishes, though it has not held up as well as “Devdas” for me. “Guzaarish” is a bloodless film, he seemed to be constantly holding back. And IMO “Saawariya” is his best film. Everything comes together stunningly (even with the somewhat awkward lead performances). The first time I saw it, I was a little undecided how much I liked it, but with subsequent viewings, it’s really grown on me. Rani Mukerji’s performance in that film is easily her best ever.
Sam: this was my first Bhansali movie on the big screen
Oh, this brings me to a pet peeve of mine, when people will read a review and then say the film didn’t work for them – and they’d have seen it on TV or on a laptop. Some films really are very different creatures on the big screen, and they just wilt and die when the scope and size and volume is downsized.
at the end of the day I am excited for whatever he does next and I’m sure I’ll be there day one
Ditto. I went back a second time to see this, because the first time I didn’t get an “in”, and I felt that maybe a re-viewing would give me that “in.” Not all films let you enter them at once, and I felt that this was one such – but I walked away with pretty much the same reaction. Not so much dislike but disappointment.
The characters never went beyond the archetypal level. I didn’t understand why Ram, after eloping with Leela, seems to be having second thoughts, while she seems to have already accepted him as her husband. There was a lot weighing on his mind, sure, especially after what he’d done, what they’d fled from, but his treatment of her seemed odd, out of place.
Later, I got that he accepted his fate as “don.” As he tells Kesar, what can he do if his own family is his enemy? How can he fight them? Yet, why not make an attempt to meet Leela, especially when he can find it in himself to go to her house and leave his blood as a counter-sacrifice? Earlier, he was in her home or she was in his video parlour at the drop of a hat, and now it’s so damn difficult? It felt odd that she’s see him again only during Navratri, and then touch his feet and continue with her dancing. She’s supposed to be some sort of “classical heroine” (see all the murals of Sita and Damayanti, etc.), yet she gets an ultra-modern feminist makeover. Something in all this didn’t gel for me at all.
There needed to be a depiction of what Ram calls “khanjar leke ghoom rahe hain [in their hearts]” – I heard him say it, I didn’t feel it because I didn’t see why they never chose to meet again after being separated.
I didn’t buy Baa’s change of heart. Yes, she was felled by a bullet and she became vulnerable – but that whole “hug the child and make peace” moment didn’t convince me at all. There’s a bigger point here. Bhansali’s women are usually the best part of his films – not just the leads but the supporting roles. Note the wonderfully eccentric Lillipop and Gulabji in “Saawariya,” or the Shernaz Patel character in “Guzaarish.” Here, they all came out of templates. There was nothing unique or individual about them. Baa is out of the Godmother template, essentially a “male” character. And the earlier Bhansali would have made memorable characters out of Kesar and Raseela, while here they are reduced to wan supporting bits. (This is especially galling in the case of Raseela, because she gets a great intro, way more lusty in those brief moments with Kanjibhai than anything Ram and Leela have between them.)
And most importantly, the songs didn’t have the impact they should have. I agree with you that “Tattad tattad” blew the mind – the choreography was fantastic – but the rest of the songs were so generic it hurt. The earlier Bhansali would have made an event out of “Laal ishq.” Even here, at the beginning, we sense it’s going to be a great Bhansali moment. Ram cuts himself at the temple. We see him walk away and the camera stays on the blood – so this is what the “laal ishq” is, we realise. And then, what? He just cuts away to the next scene. And the song plays in bits and pieces. It’s impact is totally lost – even at the end, where the “laal ishq” comes in the form of the red shrouds over their bodies.
But yes, flaws and all, this is way better than most films we get. But my reaction (in the review) was, I guess, that of a disappointed fan. And I remain a big fan.
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MANK
November 21, 2013
@BR:I truly believe that it’s not just the choreographers but his inputs as well.
True ,SLB was a choreographer before he became a director,He choreographed the songs for 1942 a love story and the choreographer in him is very much omnipotent as a director. As not just the songs ,but everything else as well comes across as a perfectly choreographed ritual in his movies.:-)
he is the descendant of Shantaram
That’s the man. That’s the name i was struggling to find. SLB movies’ inorganic acting and quirks actually is a more updated version of the Priye,prannath banter that was inherent in Shantaram movies.Yeah come to think of it HDDCS sort of resembles jhanak jhanak payal baje and saawariya & Guzaarish reminds one of Navrang(This one is more colorful than the other 2 :-)).
I’d have liked more drama around that moment. Imagine… of all places, SLB chooses to go subtle here
I don’t think SLB went subtle as his philosophy has always been ‘better be dead than subtled’ :-). I believe that SLB shot a 5 hour movie and he had to cut it down to 21\2 hrs. This why many people are complaining that scenes lack continuity and ‘editor and SLB switched the script in the post’ as one poster was saying before.This can be evident in the characterization as well as characters changes shades in a very random manner(Cannot be sure about this as this is an SLB movie :-)), But we could get a better idea if we could get a look at the footage that was left on the editing table.Guss a director’s cut might solve the issue. About the PC song , i guess on its own its an OK number , but in the middle of this film(and an SLB film) , it sort of feels out of place. Yeah i agree with you on the contrast between salman in HDDCS and saawariya, the worst and the best. He really ruined HDDCS for me that ,talking to god stuff on par with uday chopra’s ‘Kya Mummy’ act in Dhoom films :-).
@Sam
I dont know whether you are aware of all of SLB’s musical oeuvre , But for an SLB film this is a very average score. True its one of the better tracks of the year, but compared with HDDCS,Devdas , Saawariya , this is not upto the mark . Ismail darabar was the perfect composer for him. Sad that they fell out.. I think his guzaarish score was far more effective than this one and that was not a musical subject, this one being an epic love story , it needed to be better than that.As for tatad tad song , its a great number and well choreographed, But i had a feeling that SLB was ripping this off from ‘My name is Lakhan’ introduction scene in Ramlakhan.But yes i agree that SLB really shoot musical numbers and item songs are beyond him (the PC song would testify to that) and his films begged to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
@Kutty
Yeah particularly in SLB’S case,dialogues laced with double entendre are never a mark of evolution, Its only a sign of devaluation 🙂 .
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MANK
November 21, 2013
And IMO “Saawariya” is his best film. Everything comes together stunningly
True, When if first saw i didn’t like it or i just didn’t get it at all. But watching them again, i have really come to like it. He was trying for something what coppola tried with One from the Heart or Martin scorsese tried with New york New york, a dark surrealistic musical .I think he succeeded much better than those master auteurs.Yeah the performances of the lead pair were a tad embarrassing, (Ranbir just couldn’t pull of that getting in the boxing ring sequence and too much raj kapporian mannerisms while sonam was pretty off color), But supporting cast was great and rani & salman were at their best.
One thing about supriya pathak, Apart from the fact that its been a longtime i have seen her on the big screen , (or small screen, i don’t know whether she is on any of the megaserials running on any of those channels, I steer clear of them). This seems to be a total role reversal for her. As far as i have seen her , She’s always played submissive,subdued characters or otherwise relegated as the pathetic hero’s sister as in Arjun,Shahenshah etc. I thought she was quite effective in this role. I was surprised that neither you nor anybody else mentioned this aspect of her and the film in any of the reviews.
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MANK
November 21, 2013
Typo: When i first saw the movie i didn’t like it or i just didn’t get it at all. But watching it again
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Abhirup.
November 21, 2013
““Black” I like for certain flourishes, though it has not held up as well as “Devdas” for me.”
I shall just chip in to add that for me, on the contrary, it’s ‘Black’ that remains his best film. The relationship between Devraj Sahai and Michelle McNally in that film is so touchingly, beautifully rendered that it makes all other relationships in his film look pale in comparison. As for his take on ‘devdas’, I have no intention of sitting through it anytime soon. I have given it multiple tries, but at no point have I discovered much substance beneath the splendour. It certainly doesn’t have any moment half as memorable as the kiss between Devraj and Michelle, or Michelle’s silent speech (enunciated by Devraj) that it’s not the eyes that see, but the mind.
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Abhirup.
November 21, 2013
*his other films
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venkatesh
November 21, 2013
BR: ” I think “Devdas” is where he really found his voice, that exact connect between what was in his head and the ability top put all that on screen.”
Well that’s it. I hated that movie it bored me stiff. Not a fan is the right word i think 🙂
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venkatesh
November 21, 2013
BR : This is O.T but since its been mentioned on this post , i guess this is as good a place as any.
To an earlier commenter you said :
“Anyone who doesn’t want to read what Utkal writes can just scroll down.”
Fair enough. Its your blog and you have absolute right on the contents of what you want to write. However, is the comment space entirely yours ? I would argue that the comment space is shared space , with you as the owner and the commenters as tenants , sure you have ownership right but there are some rights that commenters have as well. Its the commenters who after all make up the community and make no mistake its a community.
We know each other by pseudonyms or real names and faces or however , but its still a community.
A lot of us come here to not just read the article but also read the comments , partake in the discussion and generally use it as a virtual water cooler. The discussions might be free, frank, coarse, profane , subtle, funny, enlightening and might take off on various tangents but they start off from a part or a discussion or a comment stemming from the main article.
The problem with Mr. Mohanty’s input is he is off-topic. It has no relationship either with the main article or with the subsequent discussions. Sure , it is about the same film but it is completely independent and exists in a vacuum. This causes an abrupt and perceptible gap in the flow. As a crude and poor analogy imagine a heaving dance floor playing house music and people dancing, attempting to chat, drink etc. and suddenly someone comes in and starts doing the Bharatnatyam with no context , not only is Utkal doing Bharatnatyam to house music he is also taking up a lot of valuable space while he is doing it.
There is well-known method for publishing an independent comment unrelated to the main article its by the mode of linking , let him use that by all means. If he wants to increase traffic to his site and wants discussions and to that end links it up from here then thats between you and him but what he does now is detrimental to the people using the comment space, its commonly considered bad practice.
Blog discussions and comments are hard as it is , please do not increase the difficulty.
p.s : I speak only for myself and if you think this should be taken offline please feel free to mail me.
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MANK
November 21, 2013
@Venkatesh
Buddy ,your assault on BR for permitting Mr Mohanty to run riot was timely. Yes we are a community and our views exist in relation to one another and bonded together by mr Rangan’s review. and agree with you that Mr. Mohanty should not be allowed to do Bharatnatyam to house music .If he was keeping it tight & brief , i could have atleast tolerated this , but he just go on and on like there’s no tomorrow, If he genuinely want to take part in this discussion he can like all of us but no one man show please. I was really scared to see Mr mohanty’s last statement in Parenthesis. It sounded like a genuine threat.
Yes BR , We are here for the real McCoy(That’s you) and the only one man show we want on this blog is yours.
PS:Venkatesh , please be kind enough to post the details of BR’s secret correspondence on this blog itself :-).
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rahul
November 22, 2013
Venkatesh, IMHO we are supposed to be a liberal and tolerant community. These words are cliched but indulge me. Being tolerant is coexisting with someone even if they do not fit in to our comfort zone , world view , aesthetic sense , whatever. I dont think it matters whether UM is off key, off note , off topic etc. Brangan has, in my opinion, a good yardstick- let go of everything unless it is downright abusive \personal .I, for one, support that stand.
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V
November 22, 2013
@Venkatesh..totally with you on this…
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Shikhar Bharadwaj
November 22, 2013
I agree with everything you’ve said here. Devdas is his masterwork and Black today doesn’t really work that well as it did when it released.I love Saawariya and thought Guzaarish was limp. I went to see Ram-leela a 2nd time (planning a 3rd visit soon :)) for the same reasons that it might work better;yet i feel this is nothing extraordinary coming from a director like him.I remember when DEVDAS released every other critic was lambasting it. Your review very correctly put that it was notches higher than his previous works.His style is uniquely Indian yet world class.
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Nidhi
November 22, 2013
This was the first SLB film I saw on the big screen. There is some magic there alright, this makes me want to revisit Saawariya at the very least. He is definitely a ‘big-screen’ director – not in terms of scale or size of sets but that extra ineffable something that not too many directors have. IMO the two ‘big-screen’ directors working today are SLB and Motwane (who happens to be SLB’s protege!). Who else would you add to this list BR? There aren’t many no? This is surprising considering Bollywood’s reliance on spectacle.
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venkatesh
November 22, 2013
@MANK : Its not an assault on BR , at least not intentional, its a counter view-point based on the experience of moderating very large, highly opinionated internet only communities.
I believe BR is making a mistake and not being fair to the others by letting Mr. Mohanty free-reign of this sort.
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Harish Ram
November 22, 2013
@BR this certainly is a step backward for SLB (though Guzaarish was even backward IMO). But in terms of his screenplay this film is puzzling for me. I couldn’t find a consistent rhythm in it & set myself within it to enjoy the content. Sure Sawaariya broke free from all moulds of logic & went to the surreal logic form, but there he let us bask in the glory of the emotional play happening in the film with all of its allegory & motifs. That film was pure poetry in terms of visuals, emotions, music – i sometimes feel it is the best musical we have in India. While Sawaariya gave me enough time to appreciate the magic in the writing and filming, Ram-Leela leaps forward erratically. when I felt some emotions could be slowed down and emphasised upon, it zooms past those areas which ideally should have been the lifeline thread of the film. Meanwhile some areas were brought to stand still, which didn’t warrant that much attention – because it only gives out aesthetic appeal. This exactly is the screenplay grammar i found in Kadal. I do understand that a film by itself is only half the content and it becomes a complete experience only when we pour our mind and connect with it. And I am also not saying that Ram-Leela or Kadal didn’t fall short in conveying everything it wanted to say – it does clearly say that ‘X+Y=Z’. but as I deduce that X+Y due to so and so reasons becomes Z, I am never assured by the film that the reasons I chose to believe was the cause for X, Y to become Z are the same reasons the director thought of. With me stranded without knowing the driving force behind the happenings in the film, and thus not emotionally connected, only platonically binded, the movie looked like a news item.
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venkatesh
November 22, 2013
@rahul : “Being tolerant is coexisting with someone even if they do not fit in to our comfort zone , world view , aesthetic sense , whatever.”
I have no problems with UM’s views or his language or anything else at all. He is more than welcome to it. I have problems with the forum he uses for it , this is not the place for it and my reasons for that clear.
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MANK
November 22, 2013
@Venkatesh
Sorry about the term ‘Assault’ , I was in a bit of a hurry. I only realized later that it was such a sensitive term keeping the current situation of the country 🙂 . Counter viewpoint would be fine
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SN
November 23, 2013
First thing I have never ever liked SLB brand of movie making – I have seen Devdas and Black and had enough of over the top movies, loud and shrill overacting and inordinate lengthwhich. So I was very reluctant to go to this one even though Deepika looked really enticing and was dragged to the movie. Sadly the movie to me seemed like SLB needed a “hit” to be able to continue to indulge himself further (I.e. Get finding for future movies) after the duds (at least commercially) that were his previous two movies so he rehashed some of his old movies (the feel of the songs seemed like HDDCS which movie I haven’t seen though) The music was mediocre, the characters despite the length were inconsistent and the acting was as shrill as ever. This movie reminded me somewhat of the old Raaj Kumar (now he would have been perfect for SLB) Heer Ranjha. Ranveer seems like a great talent but he came across as you put him as a besharam or a rascal, which is fine but his character went through too many inexplicable changes. He probably did exactly what the director wanted but is the final product what the director wanted in the first place – he looked so inconsistent as a character. Maybe that is how people are but you have put it across far more elegantly than I can ever and I agree with you. All your observations about all the characters really articulated exactly what I was thinking but cd not put my finger on so I really have nothing more to add on that. The saddest part was the gratuitous use of violence in the movie and it was amateurish in my view – SLB seems like the gentlest soul on earth and I think he felt compelled to put all those guns in as a response to all those godawful movies like Rowdy Rathore, etc that are raking it in nowadays. Which brings me to my point – this seems like a “paapi pet ka sawaal hai” (figuratively of course) kind of movie. Think about it if there were so many guns around and people kept using them so gratuitously then wouldn’t the whole village / town be wiped off the face off the earth (e.g. These guys so loved to fire guns in the air but why then would ppl be standing on balconies to be in the line of fire?!). There are just so many guns and so much shooting but not enough ppl die is my point – of course maybe they are all just awful shots like that guy who cd not shoot a child after taking 4 shots at him (and he was some sort of commander or something). Maybe he should have used swords instead as the common weapon of choice? Just felt forced to me. And why has he started composing music himself? Surely there is some music director who can create better music than this and who he can work with? Must say was totally what I expected the movie to be.
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ramitbajaj01
November 23, 2013
@venkatesh- You yourself agree that comments is a shared space. So by that standard, UM has every right to post his content. Give him time. If we stop responding to his posts, I am sure he would one day feel embarrased and stop posting his conetent or may open a separate blog. Or if some people, here itself, like his posts and engage in discussions with him then also it should be acceptable. After all his posts are not entirely off-topic. He sure talks about the current movie only. “He doesn’t participate in discussions or his posts are long”- you have no right to object to it. This way, you are trying to make this shared space entirely personal (or of only those people who participate in major discussion of the thread or of those who post, even though off-topic, short and skippable content). One can’t decide by oneself what’s skippable for all. I, for example, find it very convinient to skip all the long posts of UM (even though contemptibly but acceptantly, matter-of-factly, tolerably). I know, being a regual visitor here, that his posts would be isolated ones. So I choose not to read that. So it doesn’t really break my flow of discussion (even though non-participatory but atleast as a reader).
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punit
November 24, 2013
i laugh out loud and then cry when people call SLB auteur or a visionary director. An auteur who makes paro and chandramukhi dance together to lure first benchers. A visionary who shamelessly plagiarizes to make BLACK and makes it so loud and over the top that any sensible lover of cinema will puke in disgust. SLB the Auteur !!!!!!
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Lidia
November 24, 2013
The matriarchal theme was purely a token. The women were holograms. A lot like some Yash Raj creations in this respect – placard waving without substance.
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Russell
November 24, 2013
I thought the movie was really good….the acting, the picturisation, the dialogues. The storyline in the second half was the only weak point…but for a movie that was a visual treat to watch, i am willing to forgive the weakness in the story. I thought Ranveer Singh was fantastic in his role….he seems to be becoming India’s answer to Johnny Depp. Deepika’s acting was effortless….better than in Chennai Express.
Yes, agree with the clamor about Utkal…he really needs to get his own blog rather than try to hijack BR’s audience. What a tedious review and such terribly long sentences! I gave up after the first paragraph as ever
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brangan
November 25, 2013
Harish Ram: I guess the “not having chemistry” or “not feeling anything” responses didn’t kick in with me for “Kadal” because I didn’t see that film as a love story at all. It was a completely allegorical tale, and the “love” — if any — was a more conceptual kind of thing, certainly not “passionate love.” So the parts that Mani Ratnam slowed down and emphasised — that is, the Sam-Thomas parts — were enough for me. To me that was what the film was about. Also, that film had three relationships. Thomas-Sam. Sam-Bea. Sam-Bergmans. So the lack of depth in any one wasn’t all that much a deal-breaker. “Ram-Leela” is a full-blown love story. Unlike “Kadal” ( a cool or even cold film) this one’s in a warm-emotion zone. This needed a certain emotion/character detailing, and that was not something I could let go.
Nidhi: I would add Mani Ratnam to this list. He consistently works with great cinematographers whose work in other films doesn’t come close to their work with him (though I found “Raavan” a tad too “pretty picture-y” for my taste).
venkatesh and others: I accept your point of view. But I also believe that moderating comments from a content POV is a slippery slope. If there’s something that’s of a personal/vindictive nature (not the usual back-and-forth, but something severe), then I see reason in stopping or modifying that comment. Otherwise it’s one of the prices we pay for being a democracy. We have to take the good with the bad.
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MANK
November 25, 2013
@BR:He consistently works with great cinematographers whose work in other films doesn’t come close to their work with him
I beg to differ on that. I think Santhosh sivan does consistently good work irrespective of the director.His work for Priyadarshan in Kaala Pani in particular is perhaps even better than his work for Mani. So does P.C. Sriram who has given equally good photography for other filmmakers\Himself(Thevar magan,kurudhipunal etc). Also i think that Rajeev menon’s photography for Bombay and Guru were not really upto the standards of a manirathnam film.
Kadal because I didn’t see that film as a love story at all
True ,it was sort of adaptation of Lucifer,Michael,Adam , Eve tale rooted in christian mythology. I think the film would have been better if it was completely about Lucifer and Michael and their conflict.
Otherwise it’s one of the prices we pay for being a democracy. We have to take the good with the bad.
Man you really wash your hands of this one ,Huh
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venkatesh
November 25, 2013
@Russell: “he seems to be becoming India’s answer to Johnny Depp. “.
Woah steady on. Lets give the fellow some more time.
@BR: “I accept your point of view. But I also believe that moderating comments from a content POV is a slippery slope.”
Fair enough, however this ain’t a democracy – its an autocracy with a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) but thats fine. Its the nature of these things. Soldier on i say,
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MANK
November 26, 2013
@Venkatesh: BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life)
LOL Hope this isn’t the last of such honorary titles for BR:-) .
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MovieMan
November 26, 2013
Rangan Sir .. dont u think the scene in hospital where Leela Signs the farman , and Baa stops her.. present a different character of her(baa..) than the one in next scene where she is celebrating the killings.. or the change of heart began in hospital only… just came in front via the hug….
Plus whats the real significance of peacock (dead ?) as present .. does she know of 1st scene in leela bedroom where ram is compared with peacock…
Btw use of ramayan painting /songs/analogies was a good concept…
P.S. Dear fellow commentors .. kindly keep ur comments short and simple.. one has to scroll down a lot to see any meaning ful outcome .. thanks … 🙂
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Utkal Mohanty
November 27, 2013
brangan: “About the “ghastly PC song,” my problem wasn’t the song itself but the completely generic way in which it was shot and choreographed. It was just an hip-shaking item number — not a Bhansali song sequence. It was a nice song though. I liked the fact that this so-called “sutradhar”-style song was done in a rock style. That’s really unexpected and nice.”
I think it was anything but ‘ ghastly’. In fact it was so refreshing to see a song like that. When people get all straight jacketed and expect Bhansali to do only a Bhansali style song, they do great harm to the director. Similar expectations from Mani Ratnam have almost finished him, forcing him to stage those MTV-style pretty music videos whether it does anything for the film or not. Mani’s degeneration in this direction started with Dil Se and Chhaiyan Chhaiyan, which had nothing to do with the mood of the protagonists at that point in the film, and the words as well as the staging had nothing to do with the theme of the film. Bhansali’s descent into camp started with Dola Re Dola Re from Devdas, which had nothing to do with the psychological inner landscape of Paro or Chandramukhi at that point in the film when the song was staged. It does nothing to illuminate or accentuate the inner voice of the characters or commentate on the theme of the film like the classic songs of masters like Raj Kapoor, Gurudutt or V Shantaram had done in the past. The words are trite, the choreography is pretty, and the song is just an item number.
Dola Re Dola Re Dola Re Dola
Haye Dola Dil Dola Mann Dola Re Dola
Lag Jaane Do Najariya, Gir Jaane Do Bijuriya
Baandhke Maein Ghunghroo
Pehenke Maein Paayal
Ho Jhoomke Naachoongi Ghoomke Naachoongi
Dola Re Dola Re Dola Re Dola
I mean how much more mundane you can get!
Compare this with every song of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. How is song is dovetailed into the emotional ambience of the moment when the song is introduced! Is there anything in Devdas that can match the poignancy of a song like Tadap Tadap? Nadini’s intro song, the title song, Doli Taro, Nimbuda Nimbuda…each one has a distinct character and is correct for the context. Bhansali lost most of it in Devdas and totally in Saawariya, where the words became more mundane and generic, the choreography more decorative and the songs soulless and totally divorced from the emotional content of the sequence in which the song appears. Of course, the songs themselves were very ordinary and totally forgettable.
Thankfully, Bhansali has pulled himself back from the brink and with elan. The songs in Ram-Leela are still not as god as the ones composed by Ishmail Durbar, but they are eloquent and they define characters, they accentuate feelings and reverberate with emotions welling up within the hearts of the protagonists. And the choreography is expressive not pretty or decorative.
The Priyanka Chopra song is of course as far away from an item number like Chikni Chamaeli, Shelia Ki Jawani, Fevicol, Munni Badnaam or for that matter Dola Re Dola as you can get. ‘ Ram chahe Leela, Leela chahe Ram. In dono ke love mein duniya ka kaam’, PC is singing. “ Rakho pocket mein ghoda, do ghode ko lagaam’. she adds. In fact she is enunciating the theme of the film in true tradition of an Indian sutradhar or a Greek chorus. . And her hip shaking here is not the typical ones for demonstrating feminine allure. It is in the tradition of the cabaret artistes in a Bob Fosse film, where women use their sexuality, yes, but to empower their expression. The forward thrusts from 1.14 – 1.20 segment in the Youtube clip are reminiscent of a rodeo bull riding movement and the clip from 2.13 -2.17 are very sufi dervish like .
The experience of watching this song is so totally different from watching a typical item song, that one can miss that only if one sees it with a closed mind, expecting only the expected.
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brangan
November 27, 2013
MovieMan: I saw the peacock as a romantic conception — of their love, really. So Baa killing the peacock is really Baa telling him she’ll never let them be together. That’s how I saw it.
Utkal Mohanty: I see nothing here that reminds me of Bob Fosse, whose movements are so angular and geometrical. I get that you like this song, but it’s just a collection of steps.
To see what SLB can really do in terms of choreography (i.e. translating words and ideas into “movements”), I refer you to what I wrote in my review of “Saawariya”:
“On the other hand, there’s Pari, which Raj sings in front of a colony of prostitutes. The song takes off on a chance remark — to the extent that such a thing is possible in Bhansali’s fetishistically detailed universe, where very little is left to anything as capricious as chance — by Gulabji (Rani Mukerji, who’s very good as Raj’s conscience-cum-cheerleader) that their miseries, over the years, were alleviated by listening to fairy tales, pariyon ki kahaniyan. And as the number unfolds, we see why these women — these battered, aged, shapeless streetwalkers — needed these fantasies. When Raj fantasises that this angel he’s invoking with his song, this pari, will melt in shyness before his gaze (“‘dekhoonga jab main use, mujhse karegi sharm woh“?), we see a woman cover her face with a veil, as if she’s taken a cue from his lyric and is blushing. But when he brushes aside the garment, you see what she was really trying to hide — an ugly bruise from a client.”
To use your words, this is something “that one can miss that only if one sees it with a closed mind, expecting only the expected.”
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Utkal
November 27, 2013
brangan: I watched the Yoon Shabnami song agin last night on Youtube and it left me totally cold. The choreography is so contrived and feel so cardboardy like the rest of the film. No life, no soul. I have not met anyone discussing any scene from the film, any lines.I don’t even remember what the characters were called, or what they were like. Creating a never-never land is fine. But if you people them with never-never characters and forget to breathe any kind of life into the locale and the people that populate it, you get something lifeless like Saaawariya, that touches no one. That is my feeling about the film. Ram-Leela manages to strike the balance somewhat. But given a choice I prefer auteurs who keep their art hidden and don’t shout look I am creating ART! I would take Ishaqzadde over Ram-Leela if it dis not have such a terrible second half. Habib Faisal had it all in place. All he needed was Girish Karnad as script consultant. Then he could explore how this fraudulent sexual encounter changed both Parma and Zoya….and the tragedy that love could not prevent. But as I said there is enough of life in spite of all that art, forcing us to care. that is why we are talking about scenes like ram’s reaction to Leela’s finger being chopped and so on. and I can take ‘style’ , even predominance of ‘style’ as long as there is some ‘ substance’ lurking somewhere.
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Abhirup.
November 27, 2013
I saw a few songs from Bhansali’s films on youtube and I got to agree with Mr. Rangan: Bhansali used to be a better choreographer. The priyanka Chopra song here is decidedly unimpressive in terms of the steps and movements. And frankly, even the lyrics didn’t do much for me. “Inka toh funda hain simple sa yaar/ Goli maro toh panga, aankh maro toh pyaar” has got to be the among the worst lyrics ever penned.
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MANK
November 27, 2013
@Abhirup:Inka toh funda hain simple sa yaar/ Goli maro toh panga, aankh maro toh pyaar” has got to be the among the worst lyrics ever penned.
Not just that How about ishqyan,dishqyan, never thought one would here such songs in an SLB movie.They choreography, less one write about it the better. Worse the most beautiful song of the pic Lal Ishq is not even used properly, It should have been the anthem of the pic. I was so angry to see it mutilated.Also Did he really had to go back and dig up the Dol baje lines and steps . couldn’t He have come up with something original here?.
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Abhirup.
November 27, 2013
MANK: Agreed entirely. Though the ‘Dhol baaje’ song had, on the whole, more likeable choreography and lyrics. Much better than ‘Ram chahe Leela’ and ‘Ishqiyaun Dhishqiyaun’ at least. Those two are simply unbearable.
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Utkal Mohanty
November 28, 2013
“Inka toh funda hain simple sa yaar/ Goli maro toh panga, aankh maro toh pyaar” If it wasn’t for lines like these, the film would have been as unbearable as Saawariya or Devdas for me. I mean, I have been sick to death listening to the same stale metaphors involving the moon, the gajra, the kajal, the paayal and so on. “ Baandh ke me ghungroo, pehenke mein paayal…” for godsake, give me a break! “Oh doli mein bhitake, sitrao se sajaa ke, Zaamane se churake le jaye ga” I believe! How original! At least if it is Gulzar, you get’ Parde ka khyal rakhti hai, personal si sawal karti hai’. “Phone Karta Raha Phone Bhi Na Liya, Mene Khat Bhi Likhe Saal Bhar Khat Likhe, Meri Aawaz Poohuchi Nahi”, he writes in ‘ Jaan-e-Mann’. And if it is Javed , even if he is using the chanda imagery , he is smart enough to say, “ Chanda re Chnada, kabhi to zameen par aa, baithenge, do baate karenge.” But it is Amitabh Bhattacharya who really freed the Hindi film lyrics from all that outdated garbage. When he wrote, “ Tauba tera jalwa, tauba tera pyaar, tera emotional atyachar” or “ Bol bol why did you ditch me, Zindagi bhi lele yaar kill me, Bol bol why did you ditch me whore” , it struck me with the power of a whiplash. Just like TS Eliot did, when he wrote , “ Let us go, you and I, where the event is spread out against the sky, like a patient on an etherized table’. Or when L:ennon and McCartney did when they wrote, ‘ It’s been a hard day’s night and I have been sleeping like log, It’s been a hard day’s night and I have been working like a dog’. That is when poetry and lyrics were liberated. Words began to come out from the depth of truth. And metaphors did not lose their way in the dreary desert sand of dead habit. If Dev D had shown a glimpse of what could be done with the new idiom, ‘ Gangs of Wasseypur’ created the New Testament for the new age lyrics. Listening to ‘ Oh Womaniya’ and ‘ Hum hain shikari, paaketmein lambi gun’ or ‘ Jiya ho Bihar ke lala’ was so liberating! God, I will never have to suffer triteness to the power of infinity like ‘Jab Se Tere Naina, Mere Naino Se Lage Re,
Tab Se Deewana Hua Aah Haaa, Sab Se Begaana Hua’ ever again.
But truth to tell, the path was already shown by another earthy genius way back in ‘ Rangeela’, the best musical romcom ever for me. ‘To Aisa Bolega (Saala) Waisa Bolega, Khullam Khulla Us Pe Dil Ka Raaz Hum Kholega,Woh Saamne Chamakti Hai, Saans Hi Atakti Hai,Aur Yeh Zabaan Jaati Hai Fisal..’ Mehboob wrote in the film. Not surprisingly, he is the onr who wrote the best lyrics for a Bhansali film in HDDCS. He is the one who could put out the most meaningful philosophy of life in the street lingo of a tapori: “Maathe yahan thope, Chaand ya taaron mein, Kismat ko dhoondhein par khud mein kya hai ye na jaane, Khud pe hi humko yakeen ho, Mushkilein raah ki aasaan ho, Donon haathon mein ye jahaan ho. ” Finding the right words, the right tone and the right melody for a character is so important in a Hindi film song that I get riled when someone like Mani Ratnam uses a song like Chhaiyan Chhaiyan, whose choreography or Urdu and Kalma Kalma imagery has nothing to do with the locale or the protagonists. Contrast this with the Bicchua song that Bimal Roy uses in Madhumati in a similar kind of situation!
Of course even Mehboob had a precursor. Not that Shailendra could not write high-flown Urdu. But when he had to write for the bullock cart driver, Hiraman, he wrote, “ Sajan re jhut mat bol, khuda ke paas jaana hai. Wahan na haathi hai n aghida hai, wahan paidal hi jaana hai.”
Coming back to Ram-Leela, even Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun had such refreshing imagery and thoughts. As I said it was meant to be a kind of sexual test drive or checking each other for the young lovers. While the title phrase spelt out the violent and destructive nature of theitr love the subsequent lines lays out the terrain they have to traverse. “Dil Ki Ye Goli Chali Naino Ki Bandook Se, Bomb Bhi Girenge Ab Pyaar Ke Sandook Se’ , they sing. I bet none here have encounterd a bandook –sindook rhyme before. “Ladakoo Viman Hai, Par Too Meri Jaan Hai.Bistar Ye Teraa Meraa Are Jung Kaa Maidan Hai”. The bed is going to be our battlefield! In which Hindi film song have you heard thoughts like this before?
I am so glad, instead of sitting on his hunches and growing senile, Bhansali has become an eager student, learning from younger innovators like Kashyap and Bharadwaj, and keeping his work young, robust and relevant.
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MANK
November 28, 2013
Come on , are using lyrics like these the sign of an eager student. Kashyap and Bharadwaj has their own styles and aesthetic and that’s what made them unique,just like SLB ho has his own aesthetic . If he starts copying them what individuality has he left. Where can one get to hear songs like aankhon ki gustakiyan,Yun shabnami,yeh tera zikr hai, hamesha tumko chaha etc except in SLB films . And the terrific choreography of the same as well , the manmohini song in HDDCS is nothing short of genius. Can we get to hear or see anything like that in AK or VB films.That is SLB’S world and the criticism of using pure hindi words in his songs are unfounded. It is only in his films that one gets to hear them when the rest of the movies and songs have been so anglicized\bastardized .One can definitely accept bidi jalayle or i am a hunter from the worlds that they create and the tone and lingo of those songs remain constant throughout their films. Not like here where they are singing ang laga de re and Lahoo muhlag gaya and then goes ishqyan dishqyan and inka to funda.I am not against innovations , but it got to be something organic and heartfelt from the filmmaker and not something he has to do forcibly to meet market demands as its most evident in this film.
By the yardsticks of innovative lyrics mentioned here the most path breaking innovative lyricist would be Nitin raikwar who rote kya bolti tun or apun bhola and what not… 🙂
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Utkal
November 28, 2013
MANK: ‘One can definitely accept bidi jalayle or i am a hunter from the worlds that they create and the tone and lingo of those songs remain constant throughout their films. ‘
Agreed 100%. But there is still range withing which one can move. For example in Rangeela , a song like Yaron Sun Lo Zaraa and Hai Rama or Tanha Tanha don’t use exactly the same language tonality. But broadly they conform to a unform bnad. Same with Lahu Munh Lag Gya and Ishqiyan Dishqyun. Both use patois of colloquila Hindi rather than high-flown Sanskritized Hindi or chaste Urdu.
In that sense Ankho ki gustakiyan and Tadop Tadap are not exactly same in tone, but are not drastically different either. And I admire both the lyrics and choreography of songs like ankho Ki gustakiyan, Tadap Tadap and Manmohini. The originality of thought, sincerity and cogency of these is missing in songs of Devdas and Saawariyan. The lyricality of a phrase like ‘ aankhonki gustakhiyan’ itself is hard to be found in Devdas or Saawariyan, which are full of stale metaphors and oft used rhyming patterns.
And talking of bastardised language, Urdu itself is a bastard child of Persian and Hindi / Khadiboli. That is why my fascination with the lyrics Amitabha Bhattacharya and his ilk. They are creating a new language of expression. It is early days yet, but I have no doubt that it si happening…right before our eyes.
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Lidia
November 28, 2013
Whether it ‘speaks’ to you or not the choreography in Priyanka’s number is inventive. This song even links to Tattad… Ram does the ‘peacock movement’ (shimmy/strut) – Priyanka the bird-like balance on one leg. There are shades of mujra… the progressive knee lunges but stylized to appear super-raunchy. The effect for me of th many of the movements is borderline vulgar – ie.the chest contractions exaggerated – the hip – thrusts erotic (especially at one point. I do not know what the words mean because I am subtitle dependent but the choreography is certainly different. It does fit with the earthiness of the love- theme.
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brangan
November 28, 2013
Utkal/MANK/Abhirup: While I agree that the lyrics in this film are the most inventive and playful and story-specific in the SLB oeuvre, I also feel that there was a lot left to be desired in the way these lyrics made it to the screen. If it were just a case of listening to the song (on a radio or iPod), then, yes, lyrics are paramount and therefore this film scores. But when you SEE a film where there’s so much razzle-dazzle and energy in the songs (as opposed to something like ‘Jalte hain jiske liye,’ where the images are borderline static and we’re “forced” to listen to the song, the words), then the lyrics recede somewhat into the background. It’s now more about the eyes than the ears, and I felt that the choreography of “Ishquian” — for instance — was completely out of place within the mood this film had set up so far.
Lidia: Yes, the fan-tail that Priyanka does is the best moment of the song, and it explicitly invokes the peacock motif. I also loved the beginning of the song, where there’s such a casual eroticism — she;s towelling her head as if she just emerged from a swim or a bath, and then she goes on to make a production out of buttoning her blouse. But the rest of the song was too generic for me — these hip thrusts and so on have been seen many times.
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MANK
November 28, 2013
The peacock movement was a trademark motif of shantaram films. Especially the movements relating to birds and animals were regular in his films. Well the songs of janak janak payal baje or the song Pankh Hote Tu Ud Aati Re from sehra are classical eg of this.Even though shantaram’s influence is very much visible in the worlds that SLB creates, its for the first time that shantaram’s dance movements find a direct link. Rather ironic that SLB decides to go overtly shantaramesque in the most unshantaram of songs and film.
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Lidia
November 29, 2013
I have never seen the hip thrusts used in quite the same way…ie. the move that is almost like putting a gun back in a holster but outlines – with complete candor – a not often highlighted part of the female anatomy – the placement of the kerchief, the ‘mounted-thrusts’ (for want of another description) are taking generic moves to a level of amplification that I have never observed. Lusty with a capital L. (I would be curious to know where there is something similar.) I
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venkatesh
November 29, 2013
Lidia: “mounted thrusts” – now i have to see what you are talking about.
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Noor
November 30, 2013
Bharadwaj, great review, as always. I saw “Ram Leela” because it was a Bhansali film. I will give him my $12 any day in repayment for “Khamoshi,” “HDDCS,” “Black,” and “Saawariya.”
My disappointment with “Ram Leela” wasn’t with “Ram,” or rather “Krishna” the God whose characteristics he really played, a character Ranvir delivered beautifully right from the way his body slouches after Leela leaves his store, to that look as he smears gulaal on his lips, to that joy as he leaps and climbs to get to Leela, to those emotions as he tells his friends ke Leela jaisi koi nahin and the way he brushes off tears in the group meeting as he asks his aide to note down the give-and-takes. And hats off to him, he keeps the Gujju/Hindi accent all through.
My disappointment was with “Leela.” Bhansali has given us some terrific female characters, from Manisha’s Annie, to Rani’s Michelle, to Aishwarya’s Nandini, to Sonam’s Sakina. Bhansali has shown us their hearts and minds, in all their fierceness, purity, mischief, love and desire. You know them, you know what makes them choose love over family, what makes them beg for a kiss, what makes them wait for another even though a dancing, smiling charmer promises them the moon, and what makes them pick steady husband over devoted lover.
With Leela, Bhansali didn’t give me the development arc. I am not for a lack of complexity in motives, I think that makes a Hindi movie different and interesting, that mix of gray. It’s a Hindi movie, so I can believe she falls in love in an instant, but you don’t get that window into the why. You know who was Ram before he fell in love with Leela, but who was Leela before she fell in love with Ram? Love transforms. But from what? How do you get a Hindi movie lead who casually kisses a stranger in a gathering in her home, but then has to be convinced to run away?
A far stronger character, for the most part (the redemption was too quick, too unbelievable), was Dhankor. I loved Supriya Pathak; she made the movie for me (what a distance from “Bazaar’s” Shabnam). Her story wasn’t developed as well, understandably so, given she is neither Ram nor Leela. But you understand where Dhankor may have come from, she seems to have been born with guns in her eyes. She could keep a jamaai-to-be prisoner, she could plot her own shooting, and she could (as no female actor in my memory has ever done) call her child her pride and joy, and then cut off her finger. There is a consistency there that hints at her back story, and you don’t get that with Leela.
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Abhirup.
November 30, 2013
“It’s a Hindi movie, so I can believe she falls in love in an instant, but you don’t get that window into the why. You know who was Ram before he fell in love with Leela, but who was Leela before she fell in love with Ram? Love transforms. But from what?”
My points exactly. Thanks for stating it so clearly; these are some of the main reasons why the love story didn’t work for me.
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Utkal Mohanty
November 30, 2013
Noor: Very nice observations, very well put..
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MANK
November 30, 2013
Noor:but who was Leela before she fell in love with Ram? Love transforms. But from what?”
I guess the love story was treated from Ram’s POV. We see leela for the first time as ram sees her and she develops from then on.Also some of the problems of leela’s character lies in the ineffectiveness of deepika’s performance as well. sure this is perhaps her best performance to date, but i cannot imagine what a younger madhuri or even a vidya balan could have accomplished with the character. They could have certainly added layers to the character alluding to the past of the character as supriya pathak does with her role.Yes the major problem of this film is the characterization of female characters which otherwise is a strong point in all SLB movies.
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Utkal
November 30, 2013
“It’s a Hindi movie, so I can believe she falls in love in an instant, but you don’t get that window into the why.”
Why pick on poor Hindi films? In love at first sight there is no why. why did Romeo and Juliet fall in love? What a ridiculous question! Why did Laila fall in love with Majnu? Heer with Ranjha?
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Abhirup.
November 30, 2013
I am sorry, but “in love at first sight there is no why” can be used as a justification for any wishy-washy love story that doesn’t bother with characterization. Everything can be justified by citing Romeo-Juliet, Heer-Ranjha and suchlike. Those are stories on paper, and when we are reading something on paper, it’s easy to imagine things in your head–with the aid of the poetry on paper, of course–but when we are watching a film, when things that existed on an abstract level in words need to be ‘literalized’ through images and sounds, there has to be a sense of concreteness. There has to be a clear sense of why the characters are behaving the way they are. Without that, as I said, any degree of implausibility can be justified. And that’s not good filmmaking.
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MANK
November 30, 2013
@Abhirup:There has to be a clear sense of why the characters are behaving the way they are
I am not sure you can generalize about that and it may vary from film to film because sometimes the implausibility in a behavior can lead to interesting cinema.Like say why ralph fiennes behave like the way he does in english patient , is he mad, is he jealous or he too much cynical and his behavior is really the crux of the love story and makes it interesting.Why he loves this women so much and yet he torments her no end. This could be said about johnny depp in pirates films where there are conflicting versions thrown up about his behavior, is he gay, did he had too much heat wave or too much to drink or is he just pretending?.In the context of Ram leela , i agree totally with that observation.If you can use that ‘Implausible Construct’ to creating gripping cinema, then we will not even be aware of it or be discussing about it.Ram leela fails to be one and that’s why the implausibility comes across as so jarring and so are the comparisons with Romeo&Juliet etc as well.
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Abhirup.
November 30, 2013
MANK: Okay, let me rephrase what I had said. Implausibility and ambiguity are not the same thing, and what you are talking about falls into the latter category. Yeah, of course, a film can keep us thinking and guessing about the motivations of a character, and that can make for a rewarding experience, but even as we wonder about the character’s motivations, we have to be convinced by the filmmakers that the character can indeed behave in that manner. Take, for example, the character of Mark Zuckerberg in ‘The Social Network’. We never really understand why he betrayed his friend Eduardo Saverin, nor if he did “steal” the concept of Facebook from the Winklevoss twins. We are constantly kept at an arm’s length from the person, so that we see what he is doing, but never are we allowed inside his head, so his motivations remain a mystery. In other words, there’s ambiguity. But there’s no implausibility. Since Zuckerberg is shown as a withdrawn, somewhat enigmatic youth right from beginning, the ambiguity surrounding him doesn’t come across as forced and we are convinced of all that we see him do even as we wonder why he did it. It’s a brilliant example of how to create a well-rounded character without telling us much about him. Had ‘Ram-Leela’ done something similar with its characters, and especially with Leela (as Noor has pointed out), it would have been commendable. But that’s not the case.
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Utkal Mohanty
November 30, 2013
Abhirup: I am not talking only abput the written versions of Romeo and Juliet or Heer-Ranjha. Take the film versions by Franco Zeffeeli or Chetan Anand. Nowhere in the films do they try to showe WHY the young lovers fall in love. Of course they have to be definite characters, which Ram and Leela are. What is also needed is a chemistry between the lovers which sould make their love comvincing. And there is plenty of chemistry in Ram-Leela. No love story can work if this chemistry is missing.
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MANK
November 30, 2013
@Abhirup
Fair enough
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palvib
December 1, 2013
I completely agree with Noor. She has hit the nail on head. For all the attention SLB bestows on his female leads, there was absolutely no time spent on introducing his ‘Leela’. At least then we could have bought the love part of the ‘love story’ (it is a love story despite of any qualifier put in front).
My take is, one could have cut short the far-too-long ‘Tattad song’, and given some introductory screen time to understand our Juliet, who will shortly fall in love with the Romeo.
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Utkal
December 2, 2013
Interesting read on the production design
“It was Dhankor’s first scene in the movie, and a debate was raging about the curtains.
Should they be ornate like the apparel and jewellery in which the fearsome matriarch of the Saneda clan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela is swathed, or should they provide a dash of simplicity?
There were close to 200 samples from which to choose. Production designer Wasiq Khan asked an assistant to put up a roughly textured jute curtain on the wall. Bhansali loved it. The curtain stayed in the scene.
Bhansali’s superbly choreographed treatment of William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet is also his lightest work till date. Here, as in his previous productions, are the epic sets that create a cosmos of impossible beauty, the decorative touches for ordinary objects, the perfectly coiffured men and women. But here is also a grungy underside to the flourishes, playful backdrops, and the co-existence of grandeur and rusticity. Bhansali’s choice of Khan, who has for years created the illusion of reality in modestly budgeted productions, has resulted in a gypsy opera that is more tethered to verisimilitude than previous ventures like Devdas, Black, Saawariya and Guzaarish.
Ram-Leela might be a mild departure for Bhansali but it has set Khan firmly on the road to bigger things. An acolyte of renowned production designer Samir Chanda, Khan has worked closely with film-maker Anurag Kashyap as well as designed such films as Dabangg, Rowdy Rathore and Besharam. He is among the people who create Hindi cinema’s newfound love for lived-in texture, and the go-to man for a level of detailing that seems utterly natural despite being utterly manufactured.”
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/b6hpncdZXF8ugPazubXF6O/Wasiq-Khan–How-to-blend-in-and-stand-out.html
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MANK
December 2, 2013
@Utkal
Thanks, that was a good read. Was very amused by his statement that filmmakers come to him only when there is little money. Ram leela must have been a good change for him.But there wasn’t much about how a self confessed realist like him adjusted to the over the top sensibilities of SLB .Also appreciate the fact that technicians like him are finally getting the due in an industry that begins and ends with the stars.
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Abhirup.
December 2, 2013
“Of course they have to be definite characters, which Ram and Leela are.”
I am afraid I shall have to disagree with regards to Leela. Ram is more or less well-defined; there are some niggles I have about his character, but those can be overlooked. But Leela is sketchily written. Unlike Ram, she has no scenes prior to the one where they meet, and hence, we don’t know anything about her that would justify her falling in love with a boy from the enemy clan. We enough about Ram to understand why he would do something this reckless and romantic, but the absence of similar scenes for Leela makes the romance unconvincing to me. She comes before him, they point guns at each other for no rhyme or reason, and thereafter, they are all lovey-dovey on the balcony of Leela’s room. This trajectory doesn’t work for me. Sorry.
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Abhirup.
December 2, 2013
*know enough about
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Noor
December 4, 2013
@Utkal, wasn’t picking on Hindi movies, as in I wasn’t being critical of love at first sight. But as @Abhirup wrote much is left unexplored when the viewer is expected to just work with that. When a director/writer sets up a love story as the core of a movie, you want characterization. And if SLB could do it with Ram/Ranvir, he could have done it with Leela/Deepika. Specially since I have come to expect that from SLB.
And @MANK, sometimes even when motives are explicitly spelled out (Naseeruddin Shah’s in “A Wednesday”), one can go down the Alice tunnel thinking there were other reasons. But that’s the beauty of a well-sketched character.
And Baradwaj, apologies for the spelling error of your name.
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MANK
December 4, 2013
@Noor
Oh i was just giving an alternate theory about the benefits of having ambiguous characters. it goes without saying that a well sketched character is better than a poorly etched one or an ambiguous one
As i said in my earlier comment , starting with saawariya i think SLB has been developing the romantic angle from hero’s POV. You see the girl when the hero sees her for the first time and their love story develops from then on.His first films Khamoshi,HDDCS, Devdas were pretty much developed from the women’s perspective.True in saawariya the heroine has a flashback so we get to know more about her and in guzaarish we get to know more about ash’s character through the appearance of her husband later on as well.I guess this time he was burdened by so much material and so much dimensions he wanted to give his film that he just couldn’t or didn’t develop the heroine’s character or perhaps he had to leave much of it at the editing table .
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Usha
December 4, 2013
‘…now he just has visuals’ 🙂
Right, but visuals attractive enough to keep you engrossed through the movie.
Heh, in fact this is what we discussed at home after the movie, that all his movies feel the same..the beautiful (photoshopped) frames put together like art work..
I loved the dances and music though.
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karaoke
May 30, 2014
I want the audio that was played when they first met in the movie.. holi time
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Jahangir Hussain
October 11, 2015
So glad to read those wonderful reviews in here. These reviews really inspire me to review the movie on my own.
Bhansali’s last two outings Saawariya and Guzaarish were anything but boring, however, Hrithik Roshan was the only silver lining of Guzaarish. What I don’t get is that Ram-Leela also falls in the same line as Saawariya and Guzaarish, still it’s rated as Bhansali’s best! I’ll never understand why!
Bhansali has time and again showed us his efficiency as a colourful artist. He always does a brilliant job with the sets and lighting. Had Ram-Leela only been a painting canvas it would have been a different matter. But for the horror of our lives, it is a motion picture.
Ranveer and Deepika might have a great chemistry as they say, however, for some reason I was not able to feel it. They looked really hot in some romantic scenes but looking hot is not about all in trying to create a classic romance, is it? The plot seems really contrived, equally contrived are some romantic scenes between the lead pair. The storytelling is so convoluted in the second half that the proceedings seem too boring. At one point, you start wondering what has Bhansali done to his creativity after being marred by two consecutive flops? Was it really necessary for him to throw a totally out of context item number featuring a brilliant actress like Priyanka Chopra out of nowhere just to ruin the movie’s flow? Priyanka is a talented actress, no doubt! Wouldn’t it be more credible to cast her in a meaningful special appearance in Ram-Leela rather than wasting her talent in a meaningless item number?
Bhansali’s creative skills have definitely flown out the window and all you see are frenzied, all-over-the-place characters. I don’t know how a merciless character like Baa suddenly develops a change of heart. She seemed untouched by her daughter’s miseries and she even chops off her finger in a bid to take a ring off her finger. Her change is unlikely to come abruptly. Bhansali fails to utilize an actress like Richa Chadda who showed her spunk in the Gangs of Wasseypur series. He has always shown interesting female characters in his films then why didn’t he do the same in Ram-Leela?
I highly doubt Bhansali’s credibility as a director after watching Ram-Leela. He should better retire as a director and take over as a cinematographer, a music director, an editor or a cameraman as these are the departments he seems to have excel in.
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Jahangir Hussain
October 11, 2015
@ Noor
I understand that Bhansali should have given us a back story about Leela. But as you can see in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare didn’t give us a back story about Juliet either. We knew who Romeo was before he fell in love with Juliet but we didn’t know who Juliet was before she fell in love with Romeo. We just know that Juliet is a pretty teenager who knew Romeo is her ideal man from the enemy clan. that’s about it.
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Jahangir Hussain
October 12, 2015
Bhansali should have never attempted a remake of Romeo & Juliet. Given the fact that Bollywood has seen countless remakes of the Bard’s classic star-crossed lovers’ tale, Ram-Leela is just too much.
Ram-Leela suffers from a badly written story and under-developed characters. The worst scenario is the poorly resolved character of Baa (played by the brilliant Supriya Pathak). She was shown as too headstrong, determined and ruthless. However, her change of heart at the end seems too abrupt and unbelievable. Talking about Ranveer and Deepika’s performances, I know, they can never come close to Salman and Aishwarya’s performances in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Barring a scene or two, their romance seems contrived and you never get to feel for them. If Bhansali tried to at least develop their romance like he did in HDDCS, things would have turned out differently. Ram and Leela’s love seems more like lust unlike the pure and heartfelt romance that Sameer and Nandini had in HDDCS. I mean, what was the need to remake a tragic love story if you do not want to bother about developing the romance between the boy and girl? And which girl in the world kisses a stranger on the very first meeting? Especially, a boy from the enemy clan? Why was Leela not even insecure about her relationship with Ram? How and when did she learn to trust Ram? She does not even know him properly.
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Jahangir Hussain
April 9, 2016
It seems like Bhansali didn’t even follow a script in the first place. Random scenes come one after the other. For instance, the scene where we see Ram standing in front of Leela with a water gun. This scene looks like it popped out of nowhere. And in the very next scene, before we know it, Leela places a kiss on Ram’s lips and they were acting like they have known each other for a long time. When did they even meet before that? In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet’s nurse used to keep her updated about the guy from the enemy clan and she has known for a long time that she was born to be in love with Romeo. But in Ram-Leela, Leela just falls for a random guy from the enemy clan and she didn’t even bother to get to know him. What in the world was Bhansali thinking? was he on coke when he made this film because it feels like he didn’t make this movie with a sane mind.
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