THE CINEMA OF THE EYES

Hi there fellow cinema geeks, I've been researching a lot over the past few weeks therefore the short sabbatical. And let us get straight to business.

Welcome to yet another week of The Cinema of The Eyes...where movies are our staple and scripts our Bible.

The Cinema Reel is fast becoming a trade mark for this space.

"Paap se dharti phati, adharm se aasman.
Inspector Karan Saxena is a honest and diligent police inspector with the Bombay Police Force. He lives a middle-class life with his father, a Judge, and has a sweetheart in Divya Mathur, the daughter of Police Commissioner Mathur, who he hopes to marry soon. Things do not go well for Karan as he uses excessive force and is disciplined for trying to make a false arrest, and ultimately gets transferred to distant Madhopur; his engagement to Divya is annulled by Mathur; and his dad purportedly commits suicide. 
2. The Villains : Dilip Tahil, Jackie Shroff and others come to kill Sunny Deol. They pour petrol everywhere in his house except him. Wait a minute......The idea was to kill Sunny Deol right?
3. While the above scene is happening, Sunny Deol's hands and feet are tied with a rope and the best gaali he came up with was 'Saale Kutte......Haraamzaade'
4. Jay (Naseeruddin Shah)  and Inspector Karan (Sunny Deol) meet for the first time and become friends for life. Ready to die for each other. So much so that Jay is ready to jump in the fire that is supposedly killing Karan.







6. Bhujang is a man of simple of tastes. Even in the midst of danger he does not leave his knack for sharaab and shabaab.
7. Suprisingly, like Vishwatma, The Viillain kidnaps almost every girl in the movie but nobody touches them for some whimsical reason.
8. Every heroin in the film has her own item song except the lovely and wonderful Madhuri Dixit. She had to share her song with two other leading ladies. 
Sangeeta Bijlani : Gali Gali Me Phirta Hai & Raat Bhar Jaam Se.
Sonam : Tirchi Topi Waale.
Madhuri Dixit : Main Teri Mohabbat Me.

Despite all of this both Tridev and Vishwatma continue to entertain and inspire me to a great degree.
As I conclude, I wish to thank and give credit to a lot of people who have been helping me with research since the day I was born
Ms. Neha Arora : For all those evenings of these fun films.
and lastly....
Mr. Abhinav Alexander and Mr. Vijay James : For their unconditional support and access to their DVD collection.

As i mentioned above that I was engaged in research. Well the research is now over and we have results.

In the 1980's and the early 1990's there were a string of films which had the same plot, same villain , same locations and sometimes same cast too......

Irrespective of their box office collections, these films have now attained cult status.

Here are a couple of their posters :

Note : This is not a critique. I love these movies from the bottom of my heart. This is just a way of appreciation.

1. Vishwatma

PLOT : (You may skip this part if you've seen the film )

Vishwatma is the story of a man named Prabhat Singh (Sunny Deol) who is an honest and dedicated police officer. He usually has no time for his family and his father is constantly at loggerheads with him. Prabhat is currently on a mission to apprehend the most dreaded crime lord Ajgar Jurrat (Amrish Puri) who lives in Kenya but operates in India. Things take a turn for the worse when Prabat kills Ajgar's brother in an encounter. 

An angered Ajgar abducts and kills Prabhat's school-going brother. Prabhat's father disowns him from the family. 

Meanwhile, one of Ajgar's men turns against him and threatens to turn him in to the police. Fearing his arrest, Ajgar has the man, Madan Bhardwaj (Mangal Dhillon) killed on the night of his wedding. Thus, Madan's brother Akash Bhardwaj (Chunky Pandey) swears revenge on Ajgar. 

Prabhat, on the other hand,  moves to a remote corner of a distant village in India after his dad disowns him. Prabat's dad also changes his mind and decides to go to persuade Prabat to take on the mission to bring Ajgar back to India.Prabat agrees to take on the mission but insists that Akash also join him. Akash agrees as well. And they fly all the way to Kenya on a mission to bring the dreaded criminal to justice in India. There, Prabat and Akash find Madan's sister-in-law Renuka (Sonam) who's also on the same mission. She helps them get to Ajgar. But this task is not as easy as they may have thought as Ajgar is a respected citizen in Kenya. 

Prabhat and Akash seek the help of another honest cop, Surya Pratap (Naseeruddin Shah) to apprehend Ajgar. However, Surya Pratap thinks Ajgar is an honorable man. Akash falls in love with Ajgar's daughter, Sonia (Jyotsna Singh) and Prabat falls for Kusum (Divya Bharti). Renuka falls in love with Surya, despite knowing he has a daughter. Surya's wife committed suicide while Ajgar's son tried to molest her. When Surya learns that Ajgar's son was the reason behind his wife's death, he sets out to take revenge against Ajgar as well.

Some Trivia and Observations : (Trust me you wanna read this part )

1. Why does a cop always realize his true potential after being suspended from duty?

2. How is it that an honest cop, a rogue and another honest cop just run into each other and swear revenge against a common enemy?

3. A mastermind like Ajgar Jurrat could not recognize Inspector Prabhat in such a bad disguise.

4. Ajgar plans to take over the world by killing just two honest cops. Nice. Meticulous planning.

5. The Master Mind Ajgar Jurrat's son has a knack for talking in Hindi. Understood.

But the fact that he sings Saat Samundar Paar to his father's nemesis is just plain jane trippy.

6. Lastly, Ajgar kidnaps almost all the heroines once at least. How come none of the villains even touch the females?

Verdict : 

Vishwatma may be one of the films with the same plot line and script yet it is unique in it's own fashion.

The music is wonderful and Saat Samundar Paar is and will continue to be one of my top ten favourite

tracks in the world.

Most importantly, Vishwatma has Sunny Deol. Need I say more?

2. Tridev 

  

PLOT : (You may skip this part if you've seen the film )

Atyachar se kaapi insaniyat , raj kar rahe haivan.

Jinki taakat apurna, jinka nishana abhed.

Jo karenge inka sarvnash, vo kehlayenge Tridev"

Karan re-locates to Madhopur, has a violent encounter with a bandit named Jay Singh, but both become friends after they realize that they have something in common - honesty, and to avenge their woes against Bhujang and his gang. When they do reach Bhujang, they find out that he has a new lieutenant - Ravi Mathur - who is none other than Divya's brother. Karan, Ravi and Jay plot and plan to to stip Bhujang's evil forces from taking over the world and succeed therefore the trio is referred to as Tridev (Three Dev's : Three Gods)

Some Trivia and Observations : (Trust me you wanna read this part ) :

1. Can someone please tell me where can I find the background music that plays whenever 

Amrish Puri is on screen?

5. Disguise. Jay and Karan were best of friends yet Jay is unable to recognize his best friend because he just grew a moustache. I thought you guys were best of friends.

These are one of my favourite films of all time. And primarily because these had one of the finest actors this country has produced be it Naseerudin Shah, Amrish Puri, Jackie Shroff  or Madhuri Dixit.

Ms. Shweta James : For dancing to these songs while in school.

Ms. Ekta Alexander : For getting audio cassettes and VHS of the above movies.

Mr. Varun Razdan : For making me familiar with the character of Bhujang and his unique background music.

The Cinema of The Eyes:

As the title suggests, this blog will be all about cinema. It's flaws, advantages and intricacies. Sometimes an analysis of how a movie could have been made. And sometimes just a plain appreciation of cinema irrespective of it's time and age.

A CINEMA REEL. A VESTIGE IN TODAY'S TIME.

Since this would be first attempt at blogging, I'd rather talk about something and someone who is a personal favourite.

Quentin Tarantino : The Man, The Movies and The Big Kahuna Burger.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American director, producer, screen writer and actor. Born on 27th of March 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino's cinema has always been classified as non linear and by some in slang as 'Trippy'. His unconventional style of story telling and compelling narratives exponentially changed the way Hollywood perceived cinema. 

In the initial stages of his career, Tarantino was led by his godfather Robert Rodriguez who in-a-way inspired Tarantino's thirst for unconventional cinema. Rodriguez even gave him a small part to play in the 1995 action revenge saga Desperado despite the fact Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction had already established Tarantino's reputation as a director.

Tarantino as the wimp cool guy in Desperado.

    

Reservoir Dogs:

In the year 1992, Tarantino finally began his career as an independent film maker with Reservoir Dogs

which went on to become a cult classic as far as heist-gone-wrong cinema was concerned. The plot revolves around a group of professional con and heist artists  and how a diamond heist went wrong and all hell broke loose.

The cast boasts of Harvey Kietel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi among others.

Reservoir Dogs - The famous poster.

Of course, we Indians had our own version of this movie which was a classic film in it's own realm and of course it's infamous song which changed way we smoked our cigarettes.....

'Collar ko thoda sa upar chada ke.......'

Pulp Fiction :

The year 1994 was going to be the most important year of Tarantino's life as his second directorial project Pulp Fiction released and received critical acclaim in the form of The Palme D'or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and also the Best Screenplay Award at the Oscars as well as BAFTA.

The plot consists of two gangsters, a mob boss, a boxer struggling to make ends meet and a super sexy wife of the mob boss. How their lives and stories intertwine forms the storyline of the movie.

This cult classic stars big names such as John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis with Harvey Kietel playing a small yet significant role as Mr.Wolf.

The movie despite being released alongside Forrest Gump was able to carve a niche for itself and also give way to an alternate line of cinema.

Inglorious Basterds :

This WW2 saga does not tell heroic tales of martyrs and soldiers, does not pay obeisance to all those who laid their lives down for the country. This WW2 saga can be described as Tarantino-ish at best.

Despite it's controversial title, the film became a massive success (perhaps because of Brad Pitt) and also received critical acclaim at the Oscars, BAFTA and of course Cannes.

The story is about a group of guerilla warriors living deep behind enemy lines known as The Basterds. As ruthless as it gets, the Basterds are led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) on a bloody conquest which demands 100 Nazi scalps.

However, the real deal in this film is actor Christoph Waltz who plays the suave and sophisticated Col. Hans Landa also known as The Jew Hunter. The first five minutes into the film and you know who not to mess with.

The scene where he lights up his pipe in response to Monsieur LaPedite's permission to smoke and the example of a rat and a squirrel sends shivers down the spine. Along with Samuel L Jackson's narration style makes this flick a delight to watch.

And then finally comes the surprise package Lt.Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) a British soldier who plays the suave sophisticated rogue Gestapo officer. 

'There's a special rung in hell for people who waste good scotch. And since I may be rapping on the door momentarily.....I must say......Damn good stuff sir"   

Django Unchained :

Tarantino has recently developed a taste for Westerns and this particular taste resonates all throughout Django Unchained....

In my personal opinion, when I saw the movie it had a typicla Hindi film twist and turn to it. Villain kidnaps Heroin. Hero searches for Villain. Hero finds Villain. Hero defeats Villain and takes the Heroin.

Set in the late 1850's with the American civil war as the backdrop, Django Unchained is the story of a bounty hunter Dr.King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who is looking for the Brittle brothers and needs Django's (Jamie Foxx) help to find the sick basterds. In their search they develop a relationship of friendship and camaraderie and then finally The Good Doctor helps Django in finding and releasing his wife Broomhilda from the claws of the evil and menacing  Calvin Candie (Leonardo Dicaprio) in the garb of businessmen.  

All hell breaks loose when Stephen (Samuel L Jackson of course, who else were you thinking?)

tells Calvin about the true intentions of The Good Doctor and his free nigger.

That is all I have to say this time.....

Next Time most likely I would discuss the complex cinema of Mr. Christopher Nolan.

"You had my curiosity......Now you have my attention'