Laga Chunari Mein Daag or “My dress got stained” is not about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton and that white stained dress which almost brought down the American presidency. No indeed it is not. So what is it then? Well I would characterize Pradeep Sarkar’s latest offering as nothing but the cinematic equivalent of taking that brown-with-age banana that has been sitting on the top of the fridge for ages, cutting it up, putting some fancy ice cream on top and serving it to your mother-in-law while saying with a glittering smile “Look ma, this is a special dish I made just for you.”
There used to be a popular,or should I say done-to-death formula in Bengali movies and also “jatras” (rural open-air theatre) through the 50s to the 90s which would, with minor variations, go something like this. Ailing retired honest father.
Evil uncles out to get every last penny. A crumbling palatial house in the village. An always-crying mother doing some kind of repetitive menial work to make ends meet. And supporting the whole family like a weepy Hercules would be a god-like “elder brother” (best played by that high tension wire of emotions Sukhen Das [picture to left]) who, in the course of the movie, would sacrifice everything to get his younger brother educated or younger sister married (this sacrifice usually entailed making money by pushing brick-laden carts while running a 104 degree fever or some other similar act of heart and body-breaking endurance). Ultimately, due to misunderstandings causes by evil uncle/tartar wife of younger brother/some other agency, he would get denounced by all those whom he had helped by his blood and toil till one day he makes the ultimate sacrifice (usually donation of certain vital organ or death through untreated malady) at which the whole family ultimately realizes his value and amends are made at the deathbed, but not before gallons of tears have flown through the flood-drains.
In “Laga Chunari Mein Daag” we have a similar serially heart-attacking, wallowing in self-pity father played by Anupam Kher (where is Alok Nath when you need him?) while greedy brother’s family tries to dispossess him of his crumbling ancestral house. True to formula, there is the poor mother (Jaya Bachchan) who specializes in sewing petticoats and most of all, in being highly melodramatic. There is the younger bright sister played by Konkona Sen Sharma all “chulbuli and “bulbuli” and towering above them all, is the all-sacrificing Rani Mukherjee playing a female version of the Sukhen Das character. Telling her father “beta chahte the na aap to beta banoongi” (You wanted a son so I will become a son) she comes to the big bad city and no she does not have a sex change operation and become Bobby Darling. Very soon,(actually after just one week of struggle), she realizes that the only way a girl can survive in Mumbai is to sell her…emm…. purity, something poor Sukhen Das could never peddle no matter how much he tried, having to pawn instead a kidney, a liver and a testicle to just get by.
The rest of the story of “Laga Chunari Mein Daag” may be slightly different from the Sukhen Das formula as detailed above but it never ever comes close to a point where you would say “I did not see that coming”. Instead it choses to follow a predictably overwrought path of elevated emotion and beatific saintliness. Hoary (not whorey) cliches abound—- the innocence of the village girl (Banaras being a village is a slight stretch) who, even after becoming a city-dweller, still recites the Hanuman Chalisa with great zeal, the evil of the big city where people are heartless (and horny), the golden-hearted working woman whose body may have become a receptacle of the sins of the moneyed classes but whose 
mind is still ethereal .
Of course, in keeping with the tastes of the multiplexes, the cliches are wrapped in a Gen Next wrapper: the “Aaao babuji Banaras ki teekhi paan pesh karti hoon aap ke liye” proposal of the kothewali madam as she hands over the reluctant belle to the client with a garland wrapped round his hand being replaced by a more contemporary aesthetic of Harsh Chaya, a call center boss, saying to the innocent heroine: “I am a lonely man and why don’t you stay the night with me?”
Of course a normal director would have left it here. But Pradeep Sarkar, being a top-class proponent of the celluloid art makes things more symbolic: as the lusty Harsh Chayya makes the sexual proposition he is shown playing with a Newton’s cradle (picture above) where the balls oscillating in simple harmonic fashion is not without deeper significance in the context of the scene. Similarly pregnant in meaning is when Harsh Chayya and Rani Mukherjee’s act of coupling is intercut with scenes of Jaya Bachchan sewing hard. Mention must also be made of the sequence in which Harsh Chaya, topless and in full cry, is seen looming in front of the camera saying “You are so beautiful”. As his lips descend to kiss the lens, even the most heartless of us are forced to turn our eyes away from the screen, stung by the anguish of the poor dear caught in the headlights of Harsh Chaya’s exposed nipples.
However my favorite moment of “Laga Chunari Mein Daag” is when in a passage of searing melodrama, Konkona Sen Sharma tells her mother “Jee bharke ro” (Cry to your heart’s content).
It was then, that as a member of the audience I totally connected with the movie, coming this close to shouting out in Anupam Kherian anguish “Yes yes crying to my heart’s content is exactly what I have been doing ever since the goddamned movie started”
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
Wow! I was about to go for this movie…or a pathetic excuse for it. I’ve seen the done-to-death plot u so well describe many times over. Thanks u saved 2 1/2 hrs of my life :p
Although I liked the movie I have to admit the comparison with Sukhen Das is apt. Masterstroke.
Hmm… even your review lacked the usual flavor this time. May be the movie rubbed on to you!
However, agree with all what you said except that, I think there were some scenes when Jaya was superb, melodramatic-yes, but superb. She is probably the only plus the movie has.
Take care.
You saved me and my friends from wasting 2 1/2 hrs plus 1/2 hr travelling time to one of Singapore’s pervert infested Indian theatres. I also looked like a big stud: a Sri Lankan knowing so much about Hindi movies.
Thank you Bong-ji. May Saurav G prosper!
I thought Jaya was acting as if in a comedy (a black one).
Still, it’s a good-looking movie although it was disappointing to have yet another Swiss scene in it. The sub-plot with the sister and the advertising guy seemed more interesting.
thanks a ton for saving me from this one…i wud hve kicked myself in the nuts if i had to pay to watch a man kiss me on screen…
Konkona “Dev” Sharma or “Sen” Sharma..?
Waiting for a review of “No Smoking”. Especially after watching it yesterday.
hehehe… love the comparison!!
so thanks for saving me the anguish of watching this rubbish
I haven’t watched the film yet but just watching the promos made me wonder why on earth Rani Mukherjee couldn’t even get herself a call centre job. I mean she definitely knows enough English to stylishly (and huskily) announce ‘Hi, I’m Natasha’. Oh, maybe they rejected her because of her voice huh?
OMG…cannot stop laughing, specially since memories of Sukhen Das start flooding my head…and I burst into another round of hysteric laughter. It has been a while since I’ve heard THAT name.
(where is Alok Nath when you need him?) — for this alone I will skip the movie!!! WTF – a role tailormade for our babuji and he’s’ not in there!!!
Fall is love after the Hanuman Chalissa on the plane… was the hight of the movie!!! FuuusssssH!!!!
“The big city where people are heartless (and horny)” – Pradeep Sarkar would have used the script – “I am a horny man and why don’t you stay the night with me?” instead!
LOL!
Telling her father “beta chahte … having to pawn instead a kidney, a liver and a testicle to just get by – Hahahahaha. Too good boss. I haven’t heard of this maal – Sukhen Das, but he seems (and looks) like one of those Dadas from some Ranjit Mullick flick in the 80’s.
Though I haven’t watched the movie, I feel the whole madam showcasing her catalog scene has deteriorated in Indian cinema over the years. I mean this sounds bad and I remember Umrao Jaan being horrible, though it did provide excellent, albeit unintentional, comical moments. Saw Amar Prem recently, and loved the entire setting with Dina Pathak and the Nepal Chacha actor. There was a certain elegance about the whole thing in lacking today’s movies. What Rajesh Khanna tells Sharmila is pretty apt for this discussion – “Aapne toh kothe ko mandir bana diya hai.” However, nowadays, the directors fail to make this conversion. Oh well, maybe I am just a classicist! You can read more about it here: http://arseniksden.blogspot.com/2007/10/scandalous-notes-on-amar-prem.html
Fata-faati review as usual.!!! Good that I dodged this one. Bad, that I went for ‘No Smoking’. The Worst movie ever made. A panorama of cinematic holocaust it is. I even managed to write review. If u ever have time…. kindly cmmnt.
Regards.
You have to admit though however cliched the movie is, Bollywood movies are nowadays taking a few bold steps to come of age. Particularly for this movie, just when you expect the last half an hour to be highly melodramatic drag with Sushant & Tinu Anand in a villainous act in the “Shadi ke Mandap” delivering the ultimate news of Rani’s secret of success in the big bad city followed by a long speech of reconciliation from Anupam Kher ( not to mention more tears from Jaya) – I quite liked the way the two protagonist guys handle it in the perfect “Just chill ” gen next way. That saved us another half an hour by the way.
PS: Sukhen Das is a great analogy!! The only other close could be Chiranjit.
This is such an awful movie that even Taran Adarsh gave a negative review on it. I really don’t know who would pay such a large sums of money to Rani Mukherjee taking into consideration her awful body and lack of beauty. And when somebody is having sex with Rani Mukherjee and she starts screaming, people in the next room will think that two males are having sex.
Man Oh Man GB,
That was amazing. I’d say your review of LCMD is about 100 times as entertaining as the movie itself. The “…caught in the headlight of Chaya’s nipples…” – priceless.
The story is pretty much old wine in an old bottle. I mean, there’re versions of it with n no. of Tamil actors as well, mostly Bhagyaraj (on the movies that come on Sun TV at 2.00 pm weekdays). These people should have at least passed it off as a remake.
“As his lips descend to kiss the lens, even the most heartless of us are forced to turn our eyes away from the screen” ..Ultimate.
Very good post. i had a hearty laugh.
@Shilpa- My ex gf used to say that my cum was helpful for her to appreciate new kinds of wine which were different from “usual flavours”. 🙂 Take care.
Sukhen Das’s sacrifices pale when compared against your cheerful willingness to sit through straight-to-gitmo films.
Did you catch the rediff interview with Mr. P.(C.) Sarkar?
[link]
Never realized that with right “projection”, any film can be converted into a documentary or a work of art. He also quite humbly included Parineeta in his list of best Indian films.
Hypothetically if you commit any crime and I were the judge to handout a punishment further you plea for mercy I would in bargain ask you to write reviews of atleast two bollywood movies a week, they should before Sunday of the release !
I am always confused why bollywood directors/writers make movies which are not convincing ( in reality), do they deliberately do this act or showing unconvincing – unconventional thing on a big screen is movies business all about !
“…the headlights of Harsh Chaya’s exposed nipples”,
Your wordplay is brilliant. Accept praise from a humble fan!
“something poor Sukhen Das could never peddle no matter how much he tried, having to pawn instead a kidney, a liver and a testicle to just get by” — Priceles !!! 😉
GB, you got another media mention…check out today’s telegraphindia.
You almost decide to quit watching bollywood and then something like Raghu Romeo or Khosla comes along and then another series of disappointments begin.
Ah, the Golden Days of Shukhen-da…..there’s one thing missing though…his involuntary nasal and effeminate snarl at the 10.5 th hour of the movie, immediately before pulling out a cap pistol out of the hip pocket of his chonga pant – “tomaaar kintu danger hoye jaabe !” 🙂
@Arnab: Read how Sambit Bal is portraying Dravid as the Sukhen Das of Indian cricket now? 🙂
Hee Hee….
Another Gr8 Review of a Moving Movie……….
ArnabDa .. havent ever seen Sukhen Das’ films … thanks for the warning 🙂
Amazing review .. But the Sukhen Das pic was PRICELESS !!!
Vintage GB
GB, if the movie is melodramatic (and I do agree), isn’t the above review so too?
Anyway, Sukhen Das was a tribute well paid here.
Hi Boss,
The already expected low viewership of LCMD, has been further deprived of 5 more viewers following your blog.
If you go on reviewing films & all your readers go on thanking you for saving them from the ordeal of watching them, one of two things is bound to happen:
1. Association of Movie Makers of Bollywood will put a price on your head
2. You will replace Oprah Winfrey as the person most frequently influencing people’s opinion
Care
great review. in fact the movie is so cliched it actually looks like a tarantinoesque tribute to the sukhen genre of movies … God save us … Rahul Bose once said ‘many people in bollywood would committ suicide if they werent self delusional’… Recalled in context of the ‘projection for Oscar’ claim
Arnab,
As usual great post.
A request: Post your opinions on Bobby Jindal. Curious to know your take on his ideologies.
Being a Banarsi I want to use the top banarasi expletives for the director and producer.
@#!@#! Banaras ko samajh kya rakha hai #@$@$
Great post GB!!
@Kishor
“And when somebody is having sex with Rani Mukherjee and she starts screaming, people in the next room will think that two males are having sex.”
Ditto man ditto.
On the contrary I think that Mr. Pradip Sarkar should be praised for choosing this bold subject and displaying the plight of a poor-woman in a male dominated society….to take a step to change the social situation of woman esp. in villages where film is the only exposure to the outer world………
I believe that movie is not only about sacrifice……..(if I’m not wrong)………..Indian society should be more considerate than it’s so-called attitude towards woman…….(Just a thought)
Pradip Sarkar ain’t got nothing on jatra – if this was a jatra –
1. The movie would be called – “Ancholey keno laaglo daag, keno purlo Raani-r bhaag”
2. Amitabh Bachchan would play the role of Abhishek-er bibek and make a sotto voce appearance every 5 minutes
3. Rani would need 10 additional layers of make-up on top of the 5 she has on already.
Jatra is super fun – because it’s melodrama at it’s screechiest, you get to doze off in the middle and when you wake up the lead actress is still only 1/10th through her glycerin quota. And you get to make fun of all the village mashimas bawling their eyes out at “aha meye-tar ki koshto!”
It’s these ostensibly maadaarn, hip, “Hi, I’m Natasha” kind of films that make me want to throw things at the screen.
I thought donating vital organs was a Taposh Pal speciality.
@ thalassa – awesome title! reminded me of a few others from my childhood – ‘shirir tolaye birir dokan’, ‘himalay ke bagal mein pyar ke gudgudi’ and ‘amar rokte tomar shohag’ – oh wait…that might have been a real one.
Chhute eshe bhukhe lathi.
Bangladesh version of Jurassic Park – Khaise Dino Aise
Bangladeshi version of Lost World – Dino Aise Aar Jaitese Na
Can’t really write the others ones I know for fear of the the censor’s scissors!
Gira Yasraj Pictures pe parda. With Indian (Including Expatriates) rejecting sensless movies really shows maturity in Indian Audiences. (Of course until Dhoom 3,4,…. Infinity)
‘Harsh Chaya, topless and in full cry, is seen looming in front of the camera saying “You are so beautiful”. As his lips descend to kiss the lens,…’
i wanted to puke at that scene.
the content quality of Yash raj films has really gone down. they’er just churning out movies with directors, and with Aditya Chopra supervising all the marketing and media related issues.. all the movies have the same look and feel. big stars in glossy surroudings, colourful clothes, mediocre music, pathetic storylines.
all the movies are tightly packaged for the consumers using the exact same format for each film. from the promos, even Aaja Nachle also seems to look like that.
Aditya C. needs to realize that big names and glossy look is not the only things audiences look for. pathetic.
Sukhen Das, his photo was enuf to make me laugh out loud. Thanks for pointing out this. (all of a sudden my mind is filled with his cries of “Ore bhaaai tui jaasnaa,…” etc.
Wonder what Pradeep Sarkar was thinking/smoking/drinking/breathing/burping/farting, when he wrote this story.Which era does this film belong to?
Even the title sequence montage of Benaras was more like a coffee table photos in motion.
And the title song was copy of the old hindi nursery rhyme/song “Remma Remma re.. Hum to gaye bazaar lene ko aloo”.
Tough would be offcourse to select the worst acting in this film. Anupam Kher and Jaya Bacchan gave all the lessons of ham ever possible. (Would somebody pass on some Isabgol and Kolkata famous Omlogin Churna to Jaya Aunty?) And what about Kunal Kapoor? (in his recent interview he commented more on the look of the film and not it’s content).
Why did the ever helpful actress (played by that ex VJ) never taught Rani English, poise, pilates when she was thorwn out from the dept. store for confusing lingerie from laundry?
I take back all the laughs and sniggers I had at the expense of the fans of ‘Beder Meye Josnaa’ and other B’desh cellu-jaatra remake, Anjan Chowdhury et all, Ranjit Mullick,this one is an all time bakery category.
and konkona chick as chulbuli and bulbuli ..the promos are enough to send you screaming for cover…great post!
If we look at Bengali literature, circa 1890-ish till say around 1930, Benaras was usually portrayed as not only a religious centre but also a place to get a delectable girl or two.
It was the dream of every monied bengali to recline on an ornate boat on the Ganga at Benaras and watch a recital by a beauiful baiji.
And now, according to Pradeep Sarkar, one has to go all the way to Mumbai to loose one’s ‘virtue’.
I hope the Benarasi-wallahs are protesting heartily.
@random inclusions:Wow! You too are advocating isabgol? Yaaaay! Isabgol rulez etc!
BTW, Omlogin Churna is a new one for me. Must get a sample and try out on unsuspecting colleagues. All for the good of Science (with a capital S)!
gr8 review but why was it so late… i’d been waiting for you to come up with something on L C M D…
the one line, i mean the projected one line was “journey of a woman” , they should have actually sold it as “one night at call center will change your life forever”… they would have got the right audience then….
Cannot forget the Sukhen Das flick in which he doesnt have have a child because he considers his siblings his children…..And in the end, its his faithful servant Tapas Pal who “rescues” him,getting his sister Satabdi as the Prize……
Great Post…… Me in fits of laughter.
Hi GB, the new template is very good.
But don’t you think the font of comments is very small ? It is very difficult to read comments now.
Hilarious review!
@ Kishor :
This is such an awful movie that even Taran Adarsh gave a negative review on it. – Can’t agree more. Something which that dude Taran doesn’t rave abouth rave about has to be utter crap.
I really don’t know who would pay such a large sums of money to Rani Mukherjee taking into consideration her awful body and lack of beauty. – I beg to differ slightly. Rani may not be drop dead gorgeous but she has a unique charm of her own. She is at least a million times more beautiful than most of the girls hailing from the same part of the country that you so often take pride of being yourself from (of course with a few exceptions like Sridevi, Jaya Prada etc).
And when somebody is having sex with Rani Mukherjee and she starts screaming, people in the next room will think that two males are having sex. – I beg to difer slightly here also because I feel this is the husky voice which separates Rani from many adding somewhat a new dimension to her personality.
However, it’s every individual’s right to like or dislike something/someone. So nothing personal.
@Arnab :
I remember a movie (I watched it on DD-7) in which Sukhen Das had played the hero and Tollywood’s self-proclaimed ‘Gen-X Uttam Kumar’ Prosenjit played his younger brother. I remember that it was produced and directed by Sukhen-da himself. He even had written the screenplay.
I didn’t remember the name of the movie so I found it out from IMDB. Here it is : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158860 .
It would be great if you can lay your hands upon such gems and write reviews. I mean, if you can write such a long review about ‘Jaani Dushman’, you can write a review about anything, even ‘Baba Keno Chakor’.
Heh heh. 😀
Nice new template, btw. Looks a bit more professional (?) I guess.
@Debolin, I agree I think Rani Mukherjee is very good. I of course didn’t think the movie was that bad, I really liked Rani. As you say personal opinion.
“where Alok Nath is absent when you need him
where the balls oscillating in simple harmonic fashion is not without deeper significance in the context of the scene
where the act of coupling is intercut with scenes of Jaya Bachchan sewing hard
into that daag of chunari, mr sarkar
let my entertainment awake”
note the Tagore connection
Sighs…this is so disappointing. The earlier “Lau Lau Lau” pic is gone. That was such a psychedelic picture. Like a 7 D Hologram. Looked different on different visits. In comes the MBA type, in-his 30’s executive type pic. Sukhen Das would have been disappointed too.
@All: Thank you.It was great to share all the Sukhen Das memories with so many of you. As far as I remember,Ranjeet Mullick and Chiranjeet also did a few of these “elder brother” characters but they could never come close to Sukhen Das’s bleaty griping.For a blowhard like Pradip Sarkar, who considers his own Parineeta to be one of the greatest Indian movies ever made, I am sure LCMD will be explained away as something too ahead of its time or improperly marketed and he is entitled to live in his intelligent man’s paradise. A shout out to our old friend Kishor—-good to see that Rani Mukherjee’s masculine groaning has brought you out from your self-imposed exile. And yes maybe a future post on “Swami Keno Asami” and its sequel “Baba keno chakor” will be welcome.
For those seeing small-font comments, temporary perturbations in the space-time continuum as I pass from 2 column to 3 have now been,hopefully, brought under control.
@ Kishore
“I really don’t know who would pay such a large sums of money to Rani Mukherjee taking into consideration her awful body and lack of beauty.”
I think it takes imagination and fantasizing-prowess to appreciate ms. mukherjee’s deadly combination of dusky complexion with husky voice .
@ GB
very entertaining post. Great pic too.
“I really don’t know who would pay such a large sums of money to Rani Mukherjee taking into consideration her awful body and lack of beauty.”
– The movie watching audience. And they don’t even get to sleep with her.
Dear dEbOLiN:
I agree personal preferences vary, but frankly speaking watching Rani on screen never gave me a hard on. Regarding South Indian Actresses, they stopped migrating to Bollywood long back as Telugu and Tamil film industries are much bigger than Bollywood. Bollywood is the loser here as it is left with only awful North Indian females.
Good post. But I’m hurt that there is not a single mention of ‘One God’ Mithunda in either the post or the comments! Who is the innocent villager corrupted by the big, bad city… always? Mithunda! Who is always the good child who does the ultimate sacrifice? Mithunda! Who is the one for whom the opposite gender is always lusting after? Mithunda! Whose movies have dialogues that have become literary classics and yet each time you listen to them, you find a new meaning? Mithunda! I haven’t seen any Sukhen Das movies, but I absolutely refuse to agree that they can even hold a candle to the emperor of world cinema!
BTW, I think we need to set up a fund to collect all the money people save by reading your reviews. I’m sure that by the end of this year, we’ll have enough money to relaunch Mithunda to claim what is rightfully his empire!
Awesome awesome awesome… So damn funny. I am planning to search youtube for any Sukhen Das clips to see what the magic is all about.. Thanks for making my office day a lot better 🙂
A small correction. While the template of this trainwreck LCMD may be based on old Bengali jatras and tearjerkers, the movie itself is a remake of Aaina, which in turn is a remake of the Tamizh classic of 1971, Arangetram, by the innovator K. Balachandar. Arangetram – means debut (literally stage-ascent) and for long in its bowdlerised form has meant the first public performance of a classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer. In earlier days it meant something quite different. In the now degenerate devadasi tradition it was the occasion when the latest initiate made her debut. KB’s title was a loaded multiple pun on the term, referring at once to the contrast between the protagonist’s claimed profession and her actual one, the indifference and utter depravity of society that sought to deny its exploitation of one of its own by terming the protagonist’s descent into undignified wage labour, an ascent, and the current bowdlerisation of an oppressive custom. KB’s idea offended some in TN but since he is a Brahman (among the lowest forms of life in TN) and his character (and her family too) are Brahmans it did not matter. In Arangetram the protagonist meets a very noble soldier, himself the son of a veteran, who bulldozes society’s objections and marries her in the end. Only now the protagonist after having found acceptance from a progressive person, still cannot come to terms with the way society has treated her.
@ Kishor :
“frankly speaking watching Rani on screen never gave me a hard on”
— Unlike Bipasha, Celina, Mallika etc Rani never was/is/would be portrayed as a sex-bomb whose primary objective is to give each of the male viewers a ‘hard on’. You might say she isn’t quite suited for the role of a whore and you won’t be wrong if you say that. But, not resembling a sultry slutty sex-bomb doesn’t make a woman ugly. She is beautiful in her own ways.
“Regarding South Indian Actresses, they stopped migrating to Bollywood long back “
— Did they? That’s kinda news to me. Post Sridevi I don’t remember any actress from South getting too much of an attention in Bollywood except Aishwarya. In fact, from my own experience of staying in South for quite along time in recent years, what I observed was it’s them who have to import actresses from Bollywood (mostly ‘could-have-been’s like Arti Agarwal, Arti Chhabria, Bhoomika Chawla, Preeti Jhangiani, Kiran Rathod etc) to cast against their old, heavily mustached, ugly heroes (apart from a few exceptions like Mahesh Babu, R.Madhavan, Abbas and Upendra). Make no mistake, I’m not trying to imply that ugly heroes are bad actors but at the same time, to me,50-something big fat guy romancing and dancing with 20-something hot chick inside a college campus does make things a little gross and at times ghastly.
Of course, our very own Amitji tried to do the same in a few of his movies (Lal Badshah for example) but the movies flopped so badly that nobody (except Dev Anand) even dared to try that again. But down south people love watching that and all these movies become big big hits. Although I must say many of the south movies have great stories and excellent performances, the too frequent old hero-young heroine thing just doesn’t make sense. Why do the old men always have to dress up as college kids and walk hand-in-hand with young beautiful girls?
Debolin – the “old, ugly, mustachioed” – OK we know this is a Northie displaying the usual prejudice – are in a minority. In he South too, these days, there are a quite a few well built hunks, such as Vikram, Surya, Cheran, etc
@ kaangeya :
I’m not sure why you call my comment “Northie displaying the usual prejudice “….I guess you haven’t read the entire comment.
Even I have agreed that there are some really really good looking actors down south.
The only thing I criticized was the “50-something big fat guy romancing and dancing with 20-something hot chick inside a college campus “. And, that I have even mentioned Amitabh Bachchan and ‘Lal Badshah’ only adds to the evidence that it’s not an example of “Northie displaying the usual prejudice “.
CHEERS !!!
I watched LCMD last weekend coz I had nothing better to do. And I knew the story as soon as I read the title, before it was released. Like you said: it was like rotten bananas served with ice cream on top. Or as Shakespeare would say: What spice can hide the taste of tainted flesh? Abhishek Bachchan had a blink-and-you miss appearance and an unrealistic inclination for call girls who chant Hanuman Chalisa when the plane is in turbulence. They did it in Pretty Woman, a rich lonely millionaire falling for an escort but it was so much more believable!
Thankfully, it was not as gross as Julie with Neha Dhupia with only convincing looks and zero acting skills. (A face with as much expression as a blank blackboard). A small town girls fall into trap of a beckoning metropolitan, gets exploited, turns wayward to feed her perpetually sewing mother; heart attack prone, lottery ticket addict father and a plainer but wiser younger sister- so what’s new?
Why can’t they make movies about an uneducated girl meeting the world and realizing that she needs to gather more skills than what she can exhibit in the bedroom? Is there no formula in Bollywood where the female protagonist can run a family without trading her flesh? It looks like an exaggerated version of a Fair N’ Lovely ad where the only worth of a woman is coz of her skin.
Look at Oprah Winfrey. She was born poor, was colored (my apologies for using that term), sexually abused in her childhood – but she reached somewhere; made a niche in a world of talk shows which was nominated by only white males. And now she’s bigger than just a TV celebrity. I don’t care if she had to sleep her way through it or if she has turned peevish lately. Money and post menstrual syndrome does that to everyone. Why can’t Indian cinema make movies like that? We have enough women achievers to mourn the death of in a spaceship crash but not one to pay tribute to while alive! The thing is- the movie would be esoteric and would not cater to the tastes of multitude even if the Indian movie goers have come of age lately and the Nishiganda Dasguptas of Corporate are getting National Awards for the character portrayal instead of playing a role in a skin flick.
There were better moments though: Konkona’s performance when she got to know about her sister’s real profession was worth all the minutes I wasted watching the movie. Vibhabari didn’t have to be ashamed. That was a moment of enlightenment from a stronger woman than Vibha was.
I liked the romance between Kunal Kapoor and Konkona which was much more realistic. The presentation on Lux Woman of the year and the tagline: Jiisey muthhi mein nahi, rishtey mein bandhne ka mann kare” gathered a round of applause. ONLY if it didn’t sound like the success of a woman depends on the approval of men.
I had a heated post on the same subject, and though I know that you usually don’t comment on other blogs (celebrity blogger and all that) I would appreciate your views on this subject here
I watched LCMD last weekend coz I had nothing better to do. And I knew the story as soon as I read the title, before it was released. Like you said: it was like rotten bananas served with ice cream on top. Or as Shakespeare would say: What spice can hide the taste of tainted flesh? Abhishek Bachchan had a blink-and-you miss appearance and an unrealistic inclination for call girls who chant Hanuman Chalisa when the plane is in turbulence. They did it in Pretty Woman, a rich lonely millionaire falling for an escort but it was so much more believable!
Thankfully, it was not as gross as Julie with Neha Dhupia with only convincing looks and zero acting skills. (A face with as much expression as a blank blackboard). A small town girls fall into trap of a beckoning metropolitan, gets exploited, turns wayward to feed her perpetually sewing mother; heart attack prone, lottery ticket addict father and a plainer but wiser younger sister- so what’s new?
Why can’t they make movies about an uneducated girl meeting the world and realizing that she needs to gather more skills than what she can exhibit in the bedroom? Is there no formula in Bollywood where the female protagonist can run a family without trading her flesh? It looks like an exaggerated version of a Fair N’ Lovely ad where the only worth of a woman is coz of her skin.
Look at Oprah Winfrey. She was born poor, was colored (my apologies for using that term), sexually abused in her childhood – but she reached somewhere; made a niche in a world of talk shows which was nominated by only white males. And now she’s bigger than just a TV celebrity. I don’t care if she had to sleep her way through it or if she has turned peevish lately. Money and post menstrual syndrome does that to everyone. Why can’t Indian cinema make movies like that? We have enough women achievers to mourn the death of in a spaceship crash but not one to pay tribute to while alive! The thing is- the movie would be esoteric and would not cater to the tastes of multitude even if the Indian movie goers have come of age lately and the Nishiganda Dasguptas of Corporate are getting National Awards for the character portrayal instead of playing a role in a skin flick.
There were better moments though: Konkona’s performance when she got to know about her sister’s real profession was worth all the minutes I wasted watching the movie. Vibhabari didn’t have to be ashamed. That was a moment of enlightenment from a stronger woman than Vibha was.
I liked the romance between Kunal Kapoor and Konkona which was much more realistic. The presentation on Lux Woman of the year and the tagline: Jiisey muthhi mein nahi, rishtey mein bandhne ka mann kare” gathered a round of applause. ONLY if it didn’t sound like the success of a woman depends on the approval of men.
I had a heated post on the same subject, and though I know that you usually don’t comment on other blogs (celebrity blogger and all that) I would appreciate your views on this subject here
amazing review!!! & thnk Gawd…. i dint go for this crap!!!
One of those posts of urs jegulo barbar porleo purono hoyna, sukhen da analogy-ta just out of the world. fatafati guru
cool one..and to think my nipples get a mention.. 😉