Ashish Warang: A Shocking Untimely Loss!

It's really heartbreaking that a powerful character actor should pass away at the age of just 55 while in prime as far the career goes or the huge promise of a lot more to come. Ashish Warang, an actor of Bollywood and the Marathi film industry, had suddenly passed away on Friday, the 5th of September, 2025. There was a total lack of clarity about his demise initially; only today his friends have come out with a statement that he had not been well for some time. First he had jaundice and although he'd recovered from the disease more complications followed in the next few months, finally leading to a cardiac arrest that proved fatal for the sturdy actor. 

Ashish Warang acted with most of the leading Bollywood stars in supporting roles--almost always as a cop. I immensely liked his performances; however, those were very brief roles which didn't linger on in my mind enough to enable me to associate his name with the roles. His face has been very familiar to me, but unfortunately, not his name. While I must take the blame for not doing enough research about him the media must also share the same for not highlighting performances of so many brilliant character artistes doing mostly cameos that still leave a palpable impact in the films concerned and always hyping only the superstars. 

He also did a few hilarious ads for a PhonePe campaign with the megastars Aamir Khan and Alia Bhatt about five years back, again as a cop. In fact, I loved those ads even more than the cameos Ashish played in quite a few Bollywood hits with Ajay Devgn Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukherjee, Ranveer Singh and more. I used to remember those ads often, and yet not the name of the face I so loved. This increases my pain for the sudden void at this moment. We mourn his demise and pray to God to rest his soul in eternal bliss. We share the grief with his family, friends and kin. Om Shanti! 

Fifty Years of 'Sholay': Celebration by India Post in Mumbai!

The Golden Jubilee of the iconic Hindi movie 'Sholay' was celebrated by the Maharashtra Postal Circle of India Post at an event organized in Mumbai today. On this auspicious occasion the Maharashtra Postal Circle released two specially designed picture postcards and a presentation pack, featuring an exclusive golden cancellation. The event marked 50 years of the cult classic 'Sholay' since its original release on August 15, 1975. 

Amitabh Singh, Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, officially unveiled the commemorative items and presented the first album to Ramesh Sippy, the acclaimed director of 'Sholay'.

The ceremony was attended by noted personalities including Shehzad Sippy, Rohan Sippy, Kiran Joneja Sippy and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. Senior postal officers, Kaiya Arora, Director of Postal Services (Mumbai Region), Simran Kaur, Director of Postal Services (Headquarters), Maharashtra Circle and Rekha Rizvi, Director, Mumbai GPO were also present.

The launch attracted a large gathering of philatelists and film enthusiasts of Bollywood, reflecting the film’s enduring popularity. Half a century after its release, the epic action saga 'Sholay' continues to hold a special place in the cultural and cinematic heritage of India. 

(Courtesy: ADPSR, Maharashtra Postal Circle, Mumbai.)

Web Series IPF: Disappointing and Just A Simplified Time Pass!

Rohit Shetty’s directorial abilities are at stake, as far as the supposed OTT version of his famed police franchise is concerned. The first and the best movie of the franchise continues to remain to be Singham (2011); even though the Singham sequels and other movies like Simmba (2018) and Suryavanshi (2021) are fairly gripping and absorbing. But Indian Police Force-Season 1 (IPF)  that release on Amazon Prime Video recently is not. Obviously, the ebullient director has not properly concentrated on developing the plot and the script. His favorite scenes of cars crashing and blasting in air, punchy fights and elaborate gun-fights and chases are all there; but he should’ve understood that such scenes, though very well shot, do not create the desired effect on the small screen as these do on the big screens of PVRs, INOXs, Cinepolis’s and so on. Even if we overlook this particular aspect, we’re in for further disappointment as the action drama unfolds.

There’s just no suspense in the cop saga as it goes on with the most predictable turns and twists. The main characters of the IPF—all cops—looked promising with Sidharth Malhotra, Vivek Oberoi and Shilpa Shetty carrying the story with élan and a likeable and endearing rapport between them as well as with the Chief cop played by Mukesh Rishi. But in a perplexing development of the script the character of Vivek Oberoi was knocked off, barely into the third episode, which knocked us off too as we were getting excited at having the trio with the tough cop Sharad Kelkar joining later (in fact, he came in the last episode) in the Seasons to follow, and the act also put paid to our hopes of watching Vivek’s wife Shweta Tiwari’s future exploits. One more similar casualty unfolded too—the dead wife of the hero cop Siddharth played by Isha Talwar putting up lovely flashback scenes with Sidharth, leaving us perplexed as to why she should be dead, because Kabir, the character played by Sidharth, doesn’t at all look like a frustrated, depressed and consequently a trigger-happy cop. I think the knocking off of Vivek and presenting a dead Isha Talwar are the two cardinal mistakes of Rohit, pushing a building-up lively drama to the dead wall. More resultant woe is still in store.

The killing of Vikram, played by Vivek Oberoi, has somehow deadlocked the story itself, because it led to the transfer of Kabir to an insignificant department thanks to some politics in the highest circles we are led to believe, and this has created a most unnecessary time-interval in the drama that was actually building up through the first three episodes. The sleeper-cell leader terrorist played by Mayyank Taandon has become triumphant and taken his time to reappear in a different city for another round of serial blasts as our hero Kabir keeps on struggling to join the investigations, even clandestinely.

Apart from the goings-on in the police circles the simplification antics are all there to watch: the kids with the time bomb and another kid helping to draw a sketch of the dreaded terrorist; one ominous-looking drug lord of Goa wanting to kill both Kabir and Tara Shetty (Shilpa Shetty) in his den, but not going for the guns at all, and finally escaping from his own den after the exhaustive fist-fighting utterly exhausts his army of goons; the dreadful-looking elderly woman who turns up with the main terrorist wherever be it and whatever be the situation; the main aide of terrorist captured alive is kept in an unguarded police van from where he simply runs away while the cops didn’t even bother to find out if the aide had any information about another bomb; almost all of the operations against the terrorist hideouts, ostensibly in collaboration of police and ATS, look simplified too by being devoid of any strong strategy and the terrorists keep on winning. Notwithstanding the patriotic fervor that never ceases to singe the proceedings throughout.

While we cannot escape from the rather obvious fact that the IPF is basically aimed at boosting the sagging image of Delhi Police, we also smell an elitist bias in the Series as all the hero-cops shown are from IPF (read Indian Police Service) with the possible exception of the tough bulky cop Nikitin Dheer whose affiliation was never clear, and all other non-IPF junior cops shown only manage to get the bullets from the terrorists. Maybe this bias is to be taken care of in the coming Seasons.

However, I don’t quite agree to the general criticism that the terrorist doesn’t look inhibiting and deadly. I think the character is very much in sync with the modern-day terrorists who are always highly educated, civilized, suave and just like the next-door boy. And Zarar alias Haidar does look ominous and chilling as he nonchalantly handles the time bombs and equally impassively places them at the crowded junctions. But again, what harms the script hard is his romantic angle built-up in unnecessary elaboration with his love, the innocent Nafisa played by Vaidehi Parshurami.

Rohit Shetty would do well to come up with much more gripping and mature Seasons in the future. With a stellar cast, though rather diminished, at his full command and with an explosive subject like this anything is possible for the better. 

The Silence of the Lions!

 

There should absolutely be no doubt that our intention here is not to discuss or re-review the all-time epic movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991). However, we still hope to derive some brownie points from the movie title about our proposed speculation on the phenomena of the silences of any kind—wholly related to the animal world. Now, this ‘silence’ of the ‘lambs’ is very clear in its obvious manifestation of a paralyzing terrifyingly petrifying fear of the profoundest kind, because the lambs are basically defenseless animals having no effective systems to ward off the free-flowing predators. They have no other option but to remain silent which is not so often of the discreet or non-discreet variety, because, again, they have no other practical choice. Unless, of course, should some marauding defenders appear in great numbers to fight for the rights of the lambs.  

As our fully intended title suggests, it’s about the silence of any other species of animals except for those similar to the lambs, that is to say, differentiating the herbivorous from the predatory carnivorous ones. While it’s very natural, as we’ve already discussed, for the herbivores to maintain a dazed silence very often in their daily existence it’s intriguing as to why the carnivores should consider observing silence at all. And that too, of the mighty lions—the uncrowned king of the animals. Since we’d already committed ourselves to having our speculation on this there’s no escape route immediately available for us.

So then, let’s consider as to why the mighty lions could suddenly fall silent, if ever at all. Some basic reasons do come to our speculative mind or should we say intellect: that the species of the lions might have perceived some weird notion of losing their majority in the jungles; that they’ve become increasingly aware of the tremendous growth and development of an unknown species; that, more or less as a consequence of the previous two, their hard-earned title as ‘The King of the Animals’ has been coming under a palpable threat; and that, despite their constant vigil, the canny species of the jackals, the wolves and also the somewhat nonchalant hyenas have been able to accommodate themselves with more and more meat bones and thus looking ominously empowered to corner them.

But we can easily give a counter to each of the possible reasons: even if they lose majority which is as impossible as a day collapsing into a night at noontime they’d still be able to command the animal world thanks to their time-tested might. Yes of course, new species do come up while old species wane; however, the mighty lions have not, of late, shown any decline in their claw-punch power and as their illustrious existential history amply demonstrates they’re immensely capable of getting any perceptible or real threat nipped in the bud. Combined with these two strengths the title threat can be easily overlooked. And, of course, the lions should hardly be bothered about what the lesser ones do all the time; at best, the mischievous jackals or wolves or hyenas would only to able to give a bad name to the jungle kingdom, maybe one more time.

How is it even possible to imagine the lions would growl no more? The reverberating rich baritone, the majestic and the supremely beautiful arrogant growls that constantly mystify the jungle and that echo through the days and nights, unceasingly! About to go into oblivion? No, absolutely not! Our speculation is baseless and is utterly bereft of any semblance of a reason! And just for the record: the prowling predators of any kind or species do always observe the customary moments of a strategic silence before they launch themselves overpoweringly on their prey!

Populated Movies Revisited!

Many years back I wrote a piece titled 'Populated Movies' that was later included in my first book 'Laugh and Let Laugh' in 2017. In that piece I argued that since India is an overpopulated country with high unemployment rates the creative art forms do adjust to that reality by trying to generate maximum employment opportunities in their projects. For example the goons in a mainstream Hindi movie: whereas just one bullet through the head by one villain is enough to kill the hero or the protagonist, the chief antagonist or the main villain sends an army of goons armed with an assortment of weapons for the job. I argued that this is done with a view to generate more employment. But I was mistaken, and so I just want to admit this here. 

My argument got almost fatally shot after I watched all the three movies of the 'John Wick Franchise' (2014 onward). I failed to keep count, but hundreds of hapless goons got killed in each of the movies at the hands of the 'legendary' assassin cum killing machine John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves). The goons keep on appearing out of what the moviemakers imply as the underworld of citizen assassins and which in fact threatens to take over the whole world. Of course there are some other movies too: 'Red' (2010) in particular where a secret agency launches veritable armies to kill a few retired agents. But John Wick Franchise should still qualify for the world record in this, barring the war movies, of course. With the upcoming John Wick-Chapter 4 in early 2023 this should not be a problem at all.

Now, America or for that matter the whole of the developed West doesn't have population issues, although does have unemployment niggles from time to time, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. Therefore, my argument of 'employment generation optimization' falls flat here. And so, we'll have to focus our attention on the other usual factors like wholesome booming entertainment that applies worldwide, and with special reference to America, factors like spreading the gun ideology and its consequent aspirations. Just another argument only, mind you! 

Web Series ‘Hush Hush’: A Promising Plot Peters Out to a Morbid Melodrama!

The Web Series Hush Hush Season 1 started streaming on Prime Video from the 22^nd of September 2022. It has at least three very important reasons for being watched eagerly by a lot of viewers. First, filmmaker Tanuja Chandra whose intense flick Dushman (1998) is still remembered by movie fans features as one of the directors and producers in a clearly women-oriented story with mostly women in the crew too. Second, the cast is tremendously interesting and exciting with two of the most beloved babes of Bollywood since the eighties Juhi Chawla and Ayesha Jhulka coming back/appearing on the OTT Platform for the first time, and joined by the immensely talented Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra and Karishma Tanna. Third, the story begins on a very taut and promising note, seemingly doing justice for a mature series in the Suspense genre. But unfortunately, that lasts only till the third episode, and then, rather inexplicably, the storytelling breaks up and meanders to a morbid melodrama with all the focus on domestic affairs while we ardently expected it to roar to a shattering climax.

The story basically consists of four close friends—Juhi as Ishi, Soha as Saiba, Shahana as Zaira and Kritika as Dolly. While Saiba has an established family with husband and two kids Dolly is into a three-year-old unhappy marriage and the other two are supposed spinsters with Shahana having suffered a breakup previously. The story opens in Kolkata in 1978 establishing Ishi as an orphan having a close sister-like ties with the younger Meera (played by Ayesha in the older role) who is among others in the same orphanage. Then, the story cuts to 2019 in extremely posh environs in Gurgaon or Gurugram in Haryana showing Ishi as a high-end mover & shaker, the role almost inspired by the controversial real-life Niira Radia, and a huge scandal just breaking out in the media involving Ishi. Meera reappears much later in the plot. As per the time-period Ishi should be in her late forties, Saiba and Shahana possibly in early forties with only Dolly most probably in the late twenties.

 

The overwhelmingly female-cast is joined by Karishma as the tough cop Geeta who starts her investigation in a very promising note too as the four friends land up in a shady mess with Ishi dying a violent death the same night when the anniversary party of Dolly’s parents-in-law was going on. The plot moves intriguingly till the third episode and then, as we mentioned earlier, it falls flat. Instead of going into the detailed storyline that could possibly lead to spoilers we’ll just point out the main disappointments that mar the suspense elements that could have been built up in a telling manner.

 

·       The biggest disappointment is with Juhi Chawla’s comeback to the OTT. She dies in the very first episode and then appears only momentarily in various flashbacks or revelations. She apparently has no solid stuff to prove her towering performance-related abilities, because the makers do not allow her or us to know how she moved up in her career as the most upmarket influencer Ishi and what had been the pros and cons in her success ride. The only point of reference as regards flashback is the consistent ‘five years ago’ which does not help anyone—performing or viewing.

·       The ‘five years ago’ reference also applies to Ishi’s extremely close three friends and we hardly know anything about how their friendship started and grew and bloomed over time. Matters are not helped at all by the age-differences that we pointed out going by the time-period revealed in the story between the four fast friends.

·       Karishma Tanna as the tough cop Geeta hardly does anything that proves her ‘toughness’ and never tries to go deeper into the shady affairs of a violent death, a missing person and the three clearly nervous friends. No doubt, she must’ve been hampered in her investigations by her obstinately unreasonable, unnecessarily foul-mouthed and apparently ignoramus lady boss ACP Madhu played by Vibha Chhibber. While we kept on expecting Geeta to excel as an honest and bold cop she gets more and more into a frame of mind to let go of the three ‘implicated’ friends, perhaps a tad more ardently than the writers-directors who’d really want to protect them for future use, and in the supposedly climaxing seventh episode we get treated only with Geeta’s lesbian leanings.

·       Of course, being an out and out women-oriented story, the male characters have to be sketchy at best. However, it does create more roadblocks for the storytelling, because the seemingly important husbands of Saiba and Dolly and the photographer-friend of Shahana have been rendered clueless about what to do and how effectively to contribute toward the story.

·       The reappearance of Meera in later episodes only adds to the melodrama rather than building up the tension. Anyhow, Ayesha Jhulka is able to do some justice to the insufficient role give to her.

·       Finally, the makers of the web series Hush Hush should essentially have done much more to present a mature suspense series than indulging in endless hugging cum teary-emotional outbursts cum domestic-affair scenes of the most upmarket kind between the three friends in the glaringly disappointing last four episodes of the Series.

 

Hush Hush fails to live up to the suspense genre primarily because of not being able to give enough meat to the star performers and of trying to cover the whole matrix of the degenerating system of powerplay, corruption, criminality and human trafficking clearly prevailing in the society, as per the story of course. Perhaps, this is being done to have more Seasons in the coming months. This suspicion gets more emboldened by the ominous dialogues between the main villain (gets revealed much before the supposed climax) and the main associate in the last minutes leading to two more murders which are promptly taken up by the CBI as indicated earlier by Geeta’s abusive cop boss instead of the investigating police team. Well, we definitely expect more maturity and magic touches from Tanuja Chandra in the coming seasons, if indeed.

Movie Jugjugg Jeeyo: Divorcepanti Could Have Been a More Apt Title!

If you had ever got the idea of perceiving ‘divorce’ as one of the funniest and craziest words or concepts in human conjugal life and then had dismissed the idea as a wild one…well, you were not entirely wrong. For your solace or rather vindication we have here a movie titled Jugjugg Jeeyo(correct Hindi form is ‘Jug Jug Jeeyo’ meaning ‘live long and prosperous,) that reduces ‘divorce’ to the kind you’d perceived, doesn’t matter if you’d done so with experience leaking or not as the movie itself doesn’t bother about that either. Your conviction is further heightened by the fact that the movie is not of the ordinary type, having the iconic Karan Johar as one of the producers and his famous banner ‘Dharma Productions’ to boot. And then, the star-cast is really mouthwatering with the ever popular veterans Anil Kapoor and Neetu Singh along with the immensely talented actors of the younger generation—Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani in the lead roles—supported well by the ebullient television anchor with a good comic timing, Manish Paul. Perhaps it’s thanks to all such ‘helpful’ factors that the movie has proved to be a hit. However, the ‘divorce’ obsession remains throughout its length of 150 minutes and the storyline has reduced ‘divorce’ to such a funny-crazy-lopsided caricature that, in the glorious traditions of movies like ‘Pagalpanti’ or ‘Heropanti-2’, we’ve declared at the title level that ‘Divorcepanti’ (divorce-ism or divorce antics) could’ve been a more appropriately funny title.

 

The movie did try, however, a refreshing beginning with the indication of a budding school romance between Varun and Kiara who were attached to each other since their school days. But, as in the case of numerous other Bollywood (read Hindi) films, a boringly longish background song took full charge of the proceedings thence, watching them grow up and getting married as anticipated by us, more than the characters involved in the act. To make matters worse, the movie had undergone a further transition of 5 years by which time both Varun and Kiara were in a foreign country, with Varun struggling to earn a living by working in a hotel while Kiara is the topnotch VP material in a top corporation.

 

And things were not at all alright. For reasons unknown to us or the characters, apart from the job-difference between them, the staggering theme of the movie ‘divorce’ has already taken deep roots in their relationship. Again to make matters worse, before we could get a fair idea of the whys, another background song with heavily-loaded uncontrollably emotive sadness took us totally unawares, forcing us to get used to the ‘divorce’ phenomenon. A miserable Varun pleads with his childhood lover-wife to wait till the wedding of his sister get over in India, and then he promises her a divorce.

 

The movie comes back to Johar’s wonderful India; but the divorce syndrome does not leave any of them alone, and to the horrors of the hapless spectators that word or concept even seamlessly penetrates the 35-year-old relationship of Varun’s parents, played by Anil Kapoor and Neetu Singh. We don’t want to say that ‘divorce’ is an unrealistic concept, but as we’ve already made it amply clear we don’t buy the ludicrous proceedings centered on that word or concept. Again, the older couple decides to wait till the wedding of their daughter is over and done with. But not quite!

 

We don’t want to waste your or our time in trying to explain the caricaturing storytelling. The ‘divorce’ gets worsening more and more, even compelling the to-be-married daughter, played by debutante Prajakta Koli, to have re-think on her decision to choose a ‘reliable’ partner on parental advisory than the boyfriend she really loves. The girlfriend of Anil Kapoor, Tisca Chopra really wasted in a senseless role, heartily joins the caricaturing with ominous absurdity while the ‘wronged’ wife Neetu frets and fumes in one scene and breaks out laughing in another to perhaps help the director push the ‘comedy’ forward. There could be a near thousand background songs that never cease to litter the narrative, and heinously well supported by the grotesquely ‘comedy’ background music.

 

All the crazy happenings stop in the end when the males succeed in wooing back their female partners (legit). Therefore, you cannot expect even an iota of feminism in this worthless movie, and it’s all about the domineeringly chauvinistic husbands convincing their partners to not go ahead. Well, for the males ‘woo’ is the buzzword, they need to woo the girls in their prime youth, keep on wooing the wives later while having additional ‘wooing’ too and then when things go wrong for them they ‘woo’ back their life-partners. I write about such horrible waste of public money in these absurd and regressive movies, ‘hits’ or ‘flops’, just because of the reasons listed throughout this piece. And, when I get to watch these free on Prime Video.

Movie Watching: A Few Bovine Observations!

Based on my lifelong experience as a rather discerning and somewhat fastidious movie buff I beg to offer here a few of my rather bovine (no necessarily offending anyone) observations about movie watching. You may or may not agree with these which is quite natural, movie watching being kinda of subjective entertainment. You can also choose the near-absent option of putting your views too here in a way to enrich or annihilate my observations. My observations here dwell on characteristics that adversely affect the viewing pleasure which are more important, because the absence of those acts on the positive side.

Ø  In quite a few movies I fervently expect something to happen at some point of the narration, and if that takes too long a time or doesn’t happen at all I get impatient and immediately try confirming again the genre of the film. Most often, I find Suspense as the one. Well, heady kind of suspense that! This phenomenon mostly happens in Hollywood productions where the filmmaker can easily indulge in such experiments, having the world market at his/her command. However, in Bollywood movies this is almost unheard of, because such indulgences normally lead to a poor show in the crucial box office. In any case, such experiments obstruct my viewing pleasure.

 

Ø  The beginning of any movie is always very crucial, and therefore, all movies try to begin with a very evocatively or violently created scene that may structure my expectations. However, just after the beginning things like ‘Two weeks later’ or ‘Two years later’ or even ’20 years later’ appear on screen disappointing me thoroughly. More saddening part is when the super declare ‘Two weeks earlier’ or like that which kinda wearies me out without the would-be wear and tear, if any. In any case, such interventions obstruct my viewing pleasure.

 

Ø  As a corollary to the above I must mention here that the custom of ‘flashback’ is as ancient as the art of filmmaking. To make a time transition the creators need, compulsorily at times, to bring in a flashback, particularly when adapting very voluminous novels for the screen. As long as the flashback is done smoothly, like in most Hollywood productions where these are done with the help of a montage or recurring terrible moments of the past, my viewing pleasure is kept intact. But unfortunately, in Bollywood films flashbacks always start with a song or a huge song-dance sequence which normally kills all the expectations built up so far. In any case, such experiments obstruct my viewing pleasure.

 

Ø  In Bollywood a serious no-nonsense movie means the absence of songs or dance sequences; however, in such movies too, the background songs suddenly intrude at many crucial points of the story, adversely affecting the latter’s flow as well as my viewing pleasure. This is a common factor in some intense Hollywood or other foreign-language movies also, particularly in movies where I have to rely, to a varying extent of dependence, on the subtitles. Now, in such a delicate scenario, the somewhat crusading subtitle writers don’t even spare the intruding background song lyrics and there follows such a maze of subtitles, of the song and of the dialogues of the characters, that I get lost completely in a flood of words, whereas I’m watching a creation of the visual media. To make it worse, the writers take pains to create subtitles like ‘phone chimes’, ‘music strings’, ‘wind blows’, ‘footsteps sound’ or of the sort that I can hear and watch all the time. In any case, such intrusions obstruct my viewing pleasure.

 

Ø  There is also the rather universal problem of modern cinema where the rampant use of technology always, deliberately or as a kickoff, suppresses the dialogue track and blows the background effects/music track out of proportion. This makes me crane my ears all the time to catch the nuances of the dialogues and to jerk back violently when my vulnerable ears get nearly blasted away with the sudden thundering of the background sound track. Unfortunately, the Bollywood movies nowadays also try to imitate this unfriendly techno surge. This is more important in light of the pandemic-induced non-theater movie watching; because, amid the unavoidable play of the hush and the thunder, I just cannot avoid getting the warnings from the streaming platform about the used audio volume threatening to damage my eardrums. In any case, such experiments always obstruct my viewing pleasure.

Movie Runway 34: Ajay Devgn Gives a New Bollywood Treat in a Fairly Gripping Drama!

In all my Bollywood, read Hindi movies, viewing experience this should be the first movie with a serious attempt to deal with an air disaster or a possible air disaster, a genre that the commercial Hindi films never really tried to explore barring a few on plane hijack, most prominently the intense drama of Neerja (2016) based on a real-life brave air hostess. The movie Runway 34, also loosely based on true incidents and released on the occasion of Eid in April-end this year, tells the story of a flight from Dubai to Cochin that entered the vortex of a raging cyclone nearly crash-landing in the Trivandrum airport with 150 passengers on board, and then followed by the grueling investigation into the near-crash. The first half of the film dwells entirely on the flight starting at the wee hours from Dubai and is a gripping saga of what happened on its course from the takeoff onward, told with the required details and intensity that are always missing in most commercial Bollywood movies. However, as per some traditionally cherished ingredients of a typical Hindi movie we get treated with a background song during the climax of the flight landing, instead of making it a memorable one with the main pilot Captain Vikrant Khanna (Ajay Devgn) steering the plane to a landing on his chosen Runway-34, blindfolded and with an unlit cigarette on his lips. There are bound to be more of the kind as we move on; but the first half indeed makes this movie immensely watchable.

 

Ajay Devgn, one of the most intense and powerhouse actors of Bollywood, also makes his first successful film as a director after two pathetic attempts in the past. His firm, Ajay Devgn FFilms, is also the producer of this film. With an admired and adored superstar hero at the helm of all possible affairs of this movie, particularly as the Captain in the cockpit too, we’re bound to confront more and more of the cherished values rampant in a big Bollywood production. However, despite this overpowering fact in fiction, the likes of the superstar of the millennium, Amitabh Bachchan, were strictly kept under wraps, perhaps as a surprise package for the viewers, as he appears out of nowhere and takes full charge of the second half. Before we go to him let’s take note of the ‘cherished values’ we’ve talked about.

 

Rated as one of the best pilots of the country who is admired as respected as a hero by all in the airline industry, Vikrant Khanna seems to be doing all the wrongs things, right from the beginning. In the night before his flight he goes to a party to join a friend, does all kinds of mischief and hardly sleeps during the night; he lies to his doting wife Sumaira (played by Akanksha Singh) in Cochin with their daughter’s birthday coming up the next day; he behaves rather arrogantly with his co-pilot Tanya Albuquerque (played by Rakul Preet Singh) and shows off disdainfully during the pre-flight briefing; he tries to smoke everywhere possible, but scoffs with a refrain ‘Haven’t lighted it yet, right?’ to the reminders in the no-smoking zones; during the flight, when alerted of inclement weather in Cochin, Vikrant ignores Tanya’s suggestion of diverting to Bangalore and makes the near-fatal mistake of trying to land in the mouth of the cyclone in Trivandrum. Nonetheless, Vikrant is played by none other than Ajay Devgn, and therefore, despite all the shortcomings he must emerge as a hero at the end. This brings us to the second half and to Amitabh Bachchan.  

 

In the role of a dedicated air-accident investigator Narayan Vedant, Amitabh Bachchan was expected to put in more intensity and drama into the story; but unfortunately, despite being the superstar of the millennium and a craze for character roles since 2000 he fails to uplift the movie. This has several reasons: firstly, he’s grilling Vikrant, played by none other than the superhero Ajay Devgn, and naturally Vikrant has to emerge as the ultimate hero here too, for the obvious need of having the empathy of the viewers; secondly, thanks to the first reason, the most crucial details like the advice of the co-pilot are brushed under the carpet, with the supposedly honest-dedicated investigator not caring a damn for those links; thirdly, his techniques seem to be more like a cunning lawyer in a normal courtroom, instead of being a technically-proficient air-accident professional; and the owner of Vikrant’s airliner, Nishant Suri (played by Boman Irani) is shown to be only indulging in clichés. As a result, the second half of an otherwise gripping drama falls flat and disappoints the audience sorely.

 

I don’t want to give spoilers’ alert here and so cannot disclose the intricate details involved in the final emergence of Vikrant as the ultimate hero. Unfortunately, all these have cost the movie dearly as it’s flopped at the box-office, failing to recover even half of its budget. Such ambitious, sincere and new-genre movies should never fail like this. It’s said that the movie is inspired by, naturally enough for a new Bollywood genre experiment, by several Hollywood movies on air disasters. However, if it’s inspired it should be inspired enough to not indulge in the traditional Hindish ingredients and do a real inspired job. Rakul Preet Singh and Boman Irani have done very well in the limited roles assigned to them. Amitabh Bachchan too seems to have suffered from the limitations of the role assigned. And of course, not to forget at all, Ajay Devgn delivers a powerhouse performance yet again to make the movie watchable, even if it amounts to only because of him.

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece. It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.

 

However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away as a one-off thing or as an aberration. Of course, this coming from a Bangla artiste is a bit surprising, because Bengal has a thriving film and music industry that gives ample opportunities to the local singers or playback singers and, from the early ages in Bollywood numerous talented Bangla directors, producers, actors and singers migrated and made it big there, and it’s still in continuation. Our rather unfortunate observation that ‘his comments cannot be wished away…’ is valid in many other states of the country where the respective film and music industries are sluggish and not paying enough to anyone wanting to make a career, barring exceptions, of course.

 

In such a state there’ve always been dissatisfaction, lamentations and rage over the Bollywood artistes coming there and performing to packed auditoriums or stadiums while they just look on helplessly, abandoned as locals without the ‘glamour’ value. Many of us have seen from the sixties at least when local filmmakers go out of the states for music recordings, always preferring Bollywood playback singers to sing for their films even if it involved compromise with the local language. Even now, with high-tech studios coming up almost everywhere the filmmakers do the recordings there, but still prefer famous Hindi playback singers. 

Similarly, local event organizers are always ready to go to any extent to bring in Bollywood singers so that their events become grand successes. Local artists are not considered, because when they’re featured it just becomes a local event, mostly even without ticketing or ways to make money. Only the southern states are the glorious exceptions to this grumpy ‘artistic’ phenomenon because they create their own phenomenal superstars locally and generate the moolahs not just locally, but worldwide.  

 

Well, it’s an established fact that there are thousands of very talented singers all around the country; more now, thanks to the social media and many other digital platforms where they can sing like stars. But everyone cannot make it to the playback singing in Bollywood; forget about making it big there, due to various reasons like lack of enough finances or sponsorship or command over Hindi or lack of connections and kinda godfathers or many others. 

On the other hand, Bollywood thrives on its countrywide or even worldwide acceptance with everything enacted in the national language Hindi that is welcome everywhere except, obviously, in the southern states of India. Thanks to its huge reach Hindi films or songs or actors or singers become immensely popular instantly. And, the local organizers, filmmakers and other professionals vie to get hold of at least a handful of them to make their projects in regional languages look bigger, attractive and more glamorous.

 

The two-year hiatus created by the pandemic has hit the regional artists much more than those in Bollywood, making them frustrated, despondent and angry. Many of them have become like the millions of others who have lost their jobs, sources of income and thus the means of their preferred livelihoods. Therefore, this unfortunate chasm between Bollywood/Hindi vs. Regionals is likely to widen further in a future that is laden with uncertainty, inflation and declining growth of markets. And unfortunately again, we cannot offer any solution to this, because it’s been an issue of creative ventures, preferences and choices. Any kinds of strong regionalism or parochialism can only further the stress within the country.

Movie Heropanti-2: The Pinnacle of Insanity!

I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor. But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff, son of my beloved Jackie Shroff, and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film. Of course, the movie flopped.

 

Coming back to this sequel, not clear why it was necessary at all, Heropanti-2 has absolutely no method in the sheer madness unfolding before your unbelieving eyes. All the characters are raving maniacs except perhaps for the goons who always know what exactly to do, thanks to their exhaustive exposure to the Bollywood tamasha. The immensely talented actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, named Laila God doesn’t know why, did his best as a grotesquely comic monster that the script demanded and what he has been doing on the screen from the beginning he would’ve fitted a mental asylum much better. His sister, supposedly the heroine of the movie, is even madder than her brother, always jumping and pouncing on Bablu (Tiger) anytime and anywhere, irrespective of the situation they are in.

 

Rather sadder than madder is the fact that the movie doesn’t even try to utilize Tiger’s intense action skills. His character is also reduced to ridiculous mockery, all the time flying, prancing and jumping like a cat in a bid to escape from the attacking goon, again God doesn’t know why; till the last few scenes where some real fighting was required as suddenly Bablu got infected with a rare kind of ‘patriotism’, inculcated in him by a mysteriously comic-serious figure called Khan Saheb, purportedly the chief of an intelligence agency. At times, I couldn’t help thinking: is this meant to be a satirical take on something, nowadays popularly known as the ‘caged parrot’. Maybe the ‘insanity virus’ is affecting my brain too.

 

I really feel sorry for Tiger Shroff who has so far been used only as a stunt-hero, not giving him any chance to prove his acting talent except perhaps for the Baaghiaction franchise (three movies so far) where we can see his intensity as an actor to some extent. Well, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham are also called action heroes, but they’ve been getting ample opportunities to act in serious roles and also in good comedies. I think Tiger should start selecting his films very carefully from now onward and Jackie Dada should also give more attention to the kinds of movies his son’s being asked to ‘act’.

 

I wonder the sheer wastage of money, to the tune of 70 crore in this mad scrap, which could’ve been used for more humanitarian purpose like for the Pandemic-hit poor in the way Sonu Sood has been doing. This is, of course, very unfortunate that the virus has damaged Bollywood very heavily, snatching away many great artistes forever from us, reducing many others to depression due to lack of work and earnings, and perhaps driving a lot others just nuts, not knowing what to do for a recompense, thus landing up with such absurd projects. The best course of action at this juncture should be to go for low-budget serious movies or sensible comedies without keeping the focus constantly on the big stars only.

 

The story? Well, I don’t actually know if there was a story. Laila is supposed to be a magician who wants to loot all the money from all the banks of India on 31^st March with his ingenious App, God doesn’t know why once again. Bablu was supposed to be a government undercover agent, also a rouge at some stage and again a something between a villain and an agent. Once, perhaps two years back, Bablu helped the authorities to nab all of Laila’s gang; however, later the same team appears in New York to rob India from there. Maddening, you see! Don’t get into it even if it’s free, my advice. Get away from for sure, stay safe…and sane.

Tributes: Legendary Santoor Maestro Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma And Cricketer Andrew Symonds!

I did indeed have some regrets though as I couldn’t pay my homage to the legendary Santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on time, and as an aftereffect failed to write about the Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds. Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma passed away in a Mumbai hospital on 10^th May 2022 after a prolonged period of kidney ailments and dialysis, at the age of 84. The glowing and flowing tributes paid to him from the music world, particularly the field of Indian Classical Music, and from all other fields which are still continuing show what a music stalwart he had been since the fifties. Panditji had introduced a folk string instrument called Santoor that used to be played in Kashmir and had Persian origins to Indian Classical Music and popularized it immensely with his learning, concerts and fusion all over the globe and through an invaluable collection of albums. At his very initiation to this instrument by his vocalist father Uma Dutt Sharma young Shiv Kumar observed the playing styles of the instrument that integrated Sufi notes with traditional Kashmiri folk music.

 

Born on 13^thJanuary 1938 in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, then a princely state, Shiv Kumar was taught vocals and tabla from the early age of just five by his father. Later his father introduced him to Santoor and a legend was born.

 

Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma released his first solo Santoor album in 1960 and started performing all over the country. In the process he collaborated with the legendary flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and legendary tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain in many of his fusion concerts or jugalbandis and in various instrumental music albums. Before getting deeper and deeper into classical music he was open to composing film music too, and as early as in 1955 he scored a piece of background music for V Shantaram’s classic film Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje. Settled in Mumbai he actively collaborated with Hariprasad Chaurasia that created the famous music director duo known as Shiv-Hari. They composed music for several of Yash Chopra’s superhit movies: Silsila (1981); Faasle (1985); Chandni(1989); Lamhe (1991); and Darr (1993). However, as we indicated earlier, he started delving into the depths of classical music, and famously said later, “Classical music is not for entertainment. It is to take you on a meditative journey”, which resulted into his moving away from composing Bollywood movie music. Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma has been showered with numerous national and international awards including the Sangeet Natak Akademy Award in 1986 and Padma Vibhushan in 2001.  

 

Personally speaking, I knew Panditji as a music director of the Shiv-Hari duo since the early eighties and saw Zakir Hussain as an young boy with long hair playing tabla like a magician on various Doordarshan clips. I didn’t know much about classical music those days. Only after my marriage to Ragini, a Hindustani Classical Vocalist herself, in the late eighties I began my guided initiation into classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic, and started enjoying immensely. Thus began our musical journey in the musically enriched Mumbai environs, attending and listening to various recitations in various popular auditoriums in various localities of the city of dreams. We watched the classical legends perform live. The concerts of Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharm with Zakir Hussain were unforgettable and we never missed an event when the duo was to perform. In the meantime, Ragini too started her vocal recitations on various famous Mumbai stages and I got immersed into the depths of classical music, now understanding why Panditji referred to classical music as a meditative experience; although primarily for the performers it’s for the sincere listeners too.

 

A globally famous musician, but a very humble and modest human being, and with striking good looks and a tall astute figure. Being a disciple of Padma Vibhushan Dr. Prabha Atre, Ragini had several opportunities to meet and interact with the legend during music conferences and concerts, and she says till today what a great musician he has been; what a modest soft-spoken gentleman he has been; an imposingly handsome person, but with striking simplicity. Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma leaves behind his wife and his two sons, the first son Rahul is already an established Santoor performer. We salute the Santoor legend.

 

Cricket Australia has been hit again with the third tragedy in the last few weeks as one of its most lively cricketers Andrew Symonds died in a single car crash on 14^thMay 2022, at the young age of 46. This comes after Rodney Marsh and Shane Warne passed away within twenty-four hours of each other. We remember Andrew Symonds as a feared Aussie cricketer as India fans, thanks to his ferocious hitting with the bat and effective attack with the ball—both pace and spin—and of course, and a fielder of extraordinary abilities and reflexes; former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting described him as the best fielder he had ever seen. During his active cricket career from 1998 to 2008 for Australia he played in all three formats, however, made his impact mostly in the one-day internationals, at a time when the Aussies were invincible. He had been a part of Australia’s ICC World Cup triumphs of 2003 and 2007. Symonds, unfortunately, had had his share of controversies mainly due to his alcoholic habits and the infamous ‘monkey gate scandal’ involving India spinner Harbhajan Singh during India’s tour of Australia in 2008. It is really tragic that still in the prime of his cricket career Andrew Symonds had to finally retire in 2012 and his life ended now by another fatal tragedy. We mourn his demise and pay our tributes to a great cricketer.

(With some inputs and photos from Wikipedia)