Re-view.One

so Ra.One is a movie i like.. for reasons i'd like to believe i know... and yea, this is despite its silliness, crassness, typecasting, the neither-here-nor-there-ness of it, and the many more reasons that reviews cite explaining why its a bad film...

one of the things that has been stated unequivocally about the film is that its stereotyping of the south indian is not only over-the-top as is usually the case in bollywood films, but that its been-there-done-that...

now, to my mind, the film was only too aware of the fact that such typecasting has not only run its course, but that its come under much fire... so i'm wondering, why go ahead with it then? i mean, it certainly was not mocking the 'generations of typecasting that is the history of bollywood', as was done in movies like Om Shanti Om...

and frankly speaking, i thoroughly enjoyed the typecasting, and this was not despite knowing fully well the problematic that it poses, but because of it... the noodles and curd??? it hit so close to home, i was giggling away in my seat watching that scene... is mixing curd with everything a very tamil thing? maybe not, but for me, it so is. and, the lungi-tying scene? i thought it was ridiculously cute....

did i at all have any scruples about any of it then? i did... and this is what i'm going to try and explain to myself.. it was the entry of satish shah's character that had me squirming in my seat... till then, the typecasting had not so much to do with sexual-stereotyping as it did with other everyday-routine stuff... but enter satish shah, and the jokes became lewd, the southern-male-sexuality was all over the place with the pelvic thrusting and innuendos... and this is perhaps where i thought the film took it too far...

logically, it is the everyday-routine stereotyping that is as, if not more, dangerous in terms of its implications and after-effects... and yet, i could ignore all of that precisely because the film, it seemed to me, was speaking at a time when those routines, precisely because they are so over-done in bollywood, no longer felt insulting, but rather, just downright silly... and i laughed at the silliness of it all...

but sexuality and stereotyping is once again not new in bollywood... the virile punjabi men, or the macho jat men... or for that matter the pelvic-thrusting-south-indian-men... in fact, i'm amazed that when shahrukh khan was doing the pelvic-thrusting, i found it hilarious, but when satish shah did it, it just felt gross and wrong... so what was it about an individual doing it that made it ok, but when it came to stand for a community that didn't? did i see shahrukh khan as not actually part of that community when he was blubbering away in tamil and eating noodles and curd, or is it only when the over-statedness of the community nature of the pelvic-thrusting, literally passing from one man to another, that it irked???

i'm not stupid enough to imagine that there would be a stereotype-free film at all... but stereotyping needs to be closely shadowed by an acute sensitivity... and it is in grasping fully the sensitivity of typecasting at every given moment, that we might make inroads into humor...

the comparison dilemma

i recently saw two trailers of the 'hollywood adaptation' of Steig Larsson's brilliant millennium trilogy... there's much hype about the soon-to-be-released movie and i guess its more than justified.

the books are superb... the storyline is so unbelievably twisted... its tough to sum up the books in fact... at most you'll be left with mere descriptions - umm, lets see... its about... corporate capitalism, women haters, serial murder, investigative journalism... yada, yada, yada... and the world it creates - the people, the relationships, the emotions... (know what i mean?)... it's detailed to the blink of an eyelash and fast-paced in a manner that won't allow you to let out a breath until you're done reading the last page of last book, only because you know its the last.

the swedish movies were stunners with grade-a acting... noomi rapace was as solid as a rock... lisbeth salander is such a tough character to portray.... she rarely emotes... and she's ruthless, forceful and shockingly brilliant in her thoughts... and for rapace to convey the depth and sense of lisbeth through her acting was simply brilliant... she was understated, sure. but she wasn't a goth-zombie staring pupils-dilated into space either... .she packed so much attitude!!! absolutely kicked-ass!! i won't say the rest of the cast packed an equal punch, but the leads were stunning....

now, the 'hollywood' adaptation... first off, its a 'hollywood adaptation' and not the other way round, which is what hollywood's used to, i guess... so that's reason enough to get curious... i mean, why go pick a novel, a swedish one at that, which many might simply dismiss as 'airplane novel' or worse still, 'pop fiction', which has already been adapted as a movie in swedish with rave reviews... so what's the big deal...

next up... the big names... so yea, its david fincher of seven, zodiac and the much recent the social network fame... if that isn't enough, you have daniel craig (very hot!!!).. and rooney mara playing lisbeth... hmm...

so its inevitable i guess that when the hollywood adaptation is out, it at one level will be compared to the book.. but that comparison with the book will occur by means of a detour through the swedish movie.... people aren't going to watch it and simply say, 'hey this scene from the book was not there'... they'll be saying.. 'this scene which was there in the swedish movie was not there in this'.. and vice-versa....

articles online have already started taking notes on what all the swedish film missed out on which the hollywood one will capture.. and what changes from the novel this one will make.. oh and all the e-battles have already begun about 'watch the movie and then make your comparisons'... or 'don't go flaunting your world cinema knowledge here, buddy'... 'you judge a movie based on the music you hear in the one minute trailer?' etc. etc. etc..

so... yea... i guess i look forward to it... but i'm waiting and watching for rooney mara.... i have a premonition she's not going to pull through lisbeth's role... from whatever the trailers indicated, its the direction, cinematography.. and check out the camera angles on  her... she looks like she's from outer-space!! seriously! dot pupils.. blank face....

so guess i'll be making those comparisons as well... at least as far as lisbeth is concerned...