Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Hard Hitting Movies...

God Bless Internet. For a movie lover like me, not watching a movie for almost 3 years on the Big Screen is almost suicidal. During my pregnancy, I went on to watch Gravity in 3D and my mother was mad about it… ‘how can you go and watch a 3D movie with all that loud noise? It might affect the baby’… The only affect that my baby has is that she is a full time drama queen, nothing else. Post-delivery, the only movie that I have watched in a theatre is Dil Dhadakne Do. Apart from other factors adding to my frustration level, this too played a major role. So, what did I do?

Vowed to myself that I will take out some time for myself. I will groom myself, write for my blog, play with my daughter, sleep on time whenever I can, come back home on time whenever I can AND watch the good movies online… Yes. No, not the pirated versions or anything. Watch available good movies on authorized online channels. Of course, I am going to miss the whole fun of a multiplex visit but the end result is achieved – watch the movie.

Fortunately or unfortunately for me, the first two movies which I watched online made me cry and cringe at the same time – PINK and Neerja.

PINK – have written it umpteen number of times but every time I think about a rape or molestation and the helplessness of a woman or rather the victim, I cry. This movie too made me cry. So many hard hitting dialogues and sequences. You are a Woman – we can touch you, feel you, own you anytime we want and you should not retort. That fellow who was not even there on the crime scene was excited about taking the revenge just for fun – mazaa aayega. Mazaa aayega?? To rob a woman of her modesty, to make a woman stand alone in this world, to make her cry for what she did in her self-defense, to lose her job… Just for his fun. And the reason I could so believe in this movie and this lame character is that I have seen such perverts in my life. And it is always going to be so difficult to fight these people. That kind of mentality is deep rooted. My mother and sister does not drink – they belong to the esteemed family. Though, all the men drink. She drinks alcohol that means she does not belong to a good family. When I got married, it was a mild cultural shock to see the ladies of my new family enjoying hard drinks since in my family, drinking alcohol is only for male members but they all are lovely people, doing pretty well with their lives, successful in their own ways, have given strong character and values to their kids and are loved by all. But they drink alcohol. So what? But guess what. I had a mild cultural shock since I had already seen girls drinking and smoking in my college but it was so difficult for my mother to digest that. So, somewhere, even some of my family members still has that mental block. And so does many other families.

Not supporting or debating on alcohol is good or bad but only that same thing consumed by different genders give different impressions to people. Which is unbelievable. Hats off to the entire cast of the movie. Perfectly portrayed what the girls go through, how the pervert minds think, the anger boiling in within us, the helplessness and pain of the victims… Made me think for so long after watching the movie. Such crimes are committed around us every day, just that we don’t know about them. When we come to know about them, we are too quick to pass our own judgement. The girls must be characterless to have gone through this. Why should girls go out for drinks? What is the need of girls to come back home so late at night? Girls should be married off quickly, what’s the point of having a job which needs them to stay so late in office… But guess, it’s difficult to change the mindset of 1.2 Billion strong population… Unless, government makes it mandatory for EVERYONE to watch this and all other sensible movies made on the subject.

NEERJA – Probably one of the very few movies which did not show the hard-outside-and-soft-inside terrorists. Harsh and heartless – that’s what terrorists are about and that’s what they showed and by far the only movie where I loved Sonam Kapoor’s acting. Though I won’t say that she was the perfect choice for the role and no one else could have pulled it off but glad that she got this movie her way and she accepted to do it. Everyone, again like PINK, played their role so perfectly. You never know what can be going on the minds of those terrorists. When will they open fire? When will they stab someone? When will they listen to anyone? Tricky situation. The people trapped inside trying to escape the situation cautiously with no injuries without knowing what is going outside and the people outside making strategies and bargaining for more time without knowing what is going inside. I could not sleep for at least two nights after watching NEERJA. The final scene of the aircraft when the terrorists opened fire and started killing any and every one coming their way – men, women, kids… painful to even think about what those people might have gone through. Shabana Azmi was effortless in her character. She is an institute of acting in herself. Nobody could have portrayed the role of Neerja’s mother. The man who played the role of Khalil was scary. Neerja's father was so strong, all throughout. That’s how fathers are. Glad that the film did not have lot of unnecessary drama or songs but got straight to the point pretty soon.

I can watch both these movies all over again for all the great performances, screenplay and dialogues but dare I watch them again. Hats off to the people who still believes in good cinema, rather than making a movie with songs from the likes of Yo Yo Honey Singh or Badshah…