Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Dil Se

Yesterday being a holiday, one sat around revisiting Bollywood favourites, namely Dil Chahta Hai and Dil Se. As a few friends know, the next best thing to the Chinese Water Torture is to hear one talk (endlessly) about DCH. Hence, in all magnanimity, one has decided to spare you that ordeal.
Dil Se is a totally different matter. What a screwed-up movie. One wishes one was in close proximity to Mani Rathnam when he was shooting the script; one would have promptly kicked his rear end every time he messed up the screenplay.
But then one likes it for a few reasons -- Ladakh in Santhosh Sivan's eyes, Manisha Koirala (yes, yes, one can be irrational) and one scene that loiters in the mind, long after SRK and MK (sound like a pair of monkeys, don't they?) blow themselves up (Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! One always wanted to say that).
This scene is the one where Meghna (MK) comes to meet Amar (SRK) at his office, asking him to get her a job at the All India Radio station in New Delhi. This is right after, as the world knows, Meghna walks into Amar's house in the middle of his engagement with Preeti (Preity Zinta) and he decides to accommodate Meghna and her crony in his house without any questions.
Moving on, there they are, standing in a dimly lit corridor, with people going to and fro. Amar, after having postponed his conflicting feelings, confronts her and asks her why she's there, what she expects from him.
That's when this door at the end of the corridor opens and shuts as people pass through. The camera focusses on Meghna, an eerie light from outside the corridor illuminating her face one second and the door swinging shut, eclipsing her in its shadow the next. This keeps happening, the door opens and shuts. Amar feverishly asks Meghna if she ever had any feelings for him; Meghna's face goes alternately from light to dark as she evades Amar's questions, refusing to answer.
And in that precariously balanced moment, when you feel like thwacking Amar on his head and drilling some sense into his skull, when you want to shriek out and remind him of Preeti and her endearing dimples back home, in that eternally oscillating moment, as Amar's voice pleads, cajoles and threatens Meghna, you understand; you understand the pain of a doomed love, of how the mind questions because it can't do anything else in its desperation when the heart has already lost; you understand how Amar will not learn the truth about Meghna until it's too late; you understand how it feels to be trapped in the temptations of twilight.
Finally, when Amar gives in to Meghna's evasion and accedes to getting her a job, one can only curse and shake one's head in disbelief.
What a screwed-up movie.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey ,
u being such a great poet :),i wonder y cant u appreciate the fact tat SRK is madly in love with MK.u can thwack or drill any amount of sense into his skull,but amar will go by what his heart tells.

samuktha

musafir said...

err ... didn't I just do that? {scratches his head}

~SuCh~ said...

A post that shows how much the realist and the poet clash with you.. Which makes your wrirting all the more poetic and all the more real :)

musafir said...

~such~

Was that for me? {looks around in bewilderment}

:)

Anonymous said...

I guess no one understood what you are trying to say...I don't :(

Also, I don't seem to like Mani's movies (all of his movies) anymore!!

Neways, after the initial "wow factor "...I am not feeling good about DCH now...curious to know what u think.

PS: Now, captcha text is not shown at all and it is asking me this - "enter the letters as shown"!!

musafir said...

Much as I'd like to write something which would make me sound intellectual and can't be understood by the population, I'm afraid a lot of people got what the post intended. As for you, try reading it again. It might make some sense.

Look, if you want me to reply to your comments, state something and back it up. I don't believe in engaging in empty conversations with people (people I don't "know")who don't contribute anything to the discussion. If you don't like DCH or Mani Rathnam's movies, state why. We can take it from there.

~SuCh~ said...

"If you don't like DCH or Mani Rathnam's movies, state why. "

Takes me back to my 10th class history exam... Our batch had many of these reasoning questions.. I had a field day !! :)

Anonymous said...

Well, no one asked u to validate or discuss why I don't like those. I was curious to know what you thought about it and asked the same (since your post mentioned those in one way or the other). For which, I don't think I am needed to state why I like/not like..If I wanted to ask your opinion on what I feel about the movie, I'd have asked so.

Since you seem to be thinking that I am asking your esteemed inputs on what I think about those, I'll write a few things on what I feel about DCH (I'll leave Mani alone for now).

1. I don't like the way it portrayed the development of bonding between the Saif and his girl and AkshayK and his girl (the one who's behind Aamir in the past or may be even till then - the movie very conveniently swallows 1 or 2 years if I remember it right). My comparison point here is - the way it depicted the development of relationship between aamir-preeti and akshay-dimple. I am not saying it isn't understandable - I'm just saying the movie didn't help me understand in any way.

2. The climax - with 3 guys, 2 wives and the other possible wife - was shoddy in the way it was constructed (Akhanna seeing the girl and feeling whatever he feels for her). This did not gel well enough to theme that movie chose to adopt (I am using the 'theme' as I don't know how else to put it).

3. The way the screen play portayed that girl's (saif's eventual wife) fiance to make her come closer to Saif - again, is shoddy. The same approach is taken for Preeti/Aamir - but in a much more subtler way.

Pretty please, with sugar on top, understand that I am not asking you to discuss my thoughts on this movie.

musafir said...

~a

err ... my thoughts are my thoughts. Your thoughts are your thoughts. I don't indulge in discussions where the other person doesn't bring anything to the table. Simple, no? Who said anything about validating anybody's thoughts?

"I was curious to know what you thought about it and asked the same (since your post mentioned those in one way or the other). For which, I don't think I am needed to state why I like/not like" -- unfortunately, you are expected to on this blog.

"Pretty please, with sugar on top, understand that I am not asking you to discuss my thoughts on this movie." -- I'm afraid I neither have the time or the inclination to do that. And yes, this being my blog, and much as I am for free speech, I also believe in private property rights and hence you are expected to state what you think if you want a reply from me. You can state whatever you want, including your misguided opinions about Dravid. Or pour out your existential angst. I don't mind. I'm just not going to bother to reply.

unpredictable said...

:) I love the second last para ... indeed it is only a mind that knows doom is impending that can question/ push/ prod relentlessly coz there's really nothing else to be done .. and more importantly there's finally nothing to be lost .. u write really well :)

musafir said...

unpredictable

Thank you!

Yeah, I guess the mind derives some sort of sadistic pleasure by losing itself in its questions.

Thanks for dropping by and commenting :)