Must Watch Movies 2012

What makes a movie work? I have been a movie buff since long and I like to watch movies that are different from the routine movies. I watch a lot of movies, but, I am always glued to some specific ones. After so many movies that I have watched in 2012 so far, I found something common in the following movies that released in 2012. Dirty Picture, Kahani, Paan Singh Tomar,Vicky Donor and the latest Gangs of Wasseypur. I still have to watch the movie Shanghai(I have heard about Shanghai also to be a movie that is different). In Marathi Cinema I would like to name Shala and Kaksparsh so far this year. So whats common in all these films. Even in your wildest of dreams you wont be able to find anything similar in each of these movies. Correct ! the common thing in these movies is that they are different. They all have a content which is far far away from normal film making. None of these films have the big starcast or the big budget. So there is lots of things that are found common in these movies high on content.

Dirty Picture: Excellent performance by Vidya Balan depicting the biography of the legendary south actress Silk Smitha. The makers and off course Vidya Balan have left no stone unturned in showing us the real Silk Smitha. The real Hero in this movie was the heroine i.e Vidhya Balan. Vidhya Balan had earlier given stellar performances in nearly all her previous movies barring a couple of them. Talk about Munnabhai, No one killed Jessica, Ishqiya, Parineeta  or Kahani Vidhya Balan's performance was always appreciated and she does not at all dissappoint us with this movie. Dirty Picture was out and out a Vidhya Balan film. No wonder she got various awards for the movie.

Kahani: And when you thought you have had enough of Vidhya Balan she surprises us again with totally over the top performance in yet another different movie called Kahani. Once again the hero of the movie was Vidhya Balan. Two back to back thunderstorm performances by Vidhya. True to its name, Kahani, indeed had a brilliant kahani that would keep you glued to it from start to end. With this film Vidhya Balan has started giving tough competetions to the male heros. She seems to be the female Aamir Khan nicknamed as the perfectionist. I wonder now whether any established male actor would even agree to take the challenge of working with Vidhya Balan. Kahani was just awesome and the way it unfolds in the end, it really shocks you. Hats of to the makers of Kahani and Vidya Balan. It is easily the best film by Vidhya Balan so far.

Paan Singh Tomar: The story of an army athelte turning into a rebel was played extremely well by Irfaan Khan. Unarguably the best work by Irfaan Khan in his entire career. Another must watch movie of 2012.


Vicky Donor: Now this one is so so differnt that its unique and new concept has even shocked the hollywood filmmakers. There has been no film made ever so far on this taboo concept. A very unique and humourous way to present the life of a sperm donor in India. Stupendous performances by Ayushyaman the hero of the film and also Anu Kapoor in the role of a Gynac. This is one movie that should not missed.

Shala: I saw the promos of this Marathi movie Shala when someone uploaded it on Facebook. Just the promos take you to the childhood so there was so much more to look forward to in the movie. This movie is another feather in the cap to the Marathi film industry. I have heard the great movie maker Anuraag Kashyap say once, that there are great things happening in the marathi film industry. Indeed after watching movies like Natrang, Mee ShivajiRaaje Bhosle Boltoy, Balgandharva and now Shala the Marathi film makers have completely erased the memories of the Ashok Sharaf and Laxmikant Berde genre of movies. Shala takes you to back to school and takes you the journey where each one of us might have had their first crush. Brilliant performances by the child artists.

Kaksparsha: Another gem by Mahesh Manjrekar of the Me Shivaji Raje bhosle boltoy fame. The story takes you back to the times of the Marathi era that was when the India was ruled by the British. It really makes you realize how much things have changed over the years. Terrific performance by Sachin Khedekar and Priya Bapat. Sachin Khedekar has a very strong screen presence in this movie. To me this was his career best performance.

Gangs of Wasseypur: This was the Indian entry to the Cannes Film festival this year (2012). After watching the movie one thing that I am wondering is that how people who dont understand the language have watched this film just by the english subtitles. Because the primary reason that I liked the film was its language (read abusive language). This movie is a path breaker in Indian Cinema. There is no doubt awesome performance by the star cast but to me the people who have worked behind the scenes have done a far greater job. Be it the writer, dialog writer, editor, screenplay, music,director. The whole team has put together a masterpiece. There might be people having different opinions about the film, but for me this movie has broken the jinx and for years to come this movie is going to be a turning point in the Indian Film Industry. Movie is very long but it still keeps you glued. One cant imagine that a revenge story can be presented in such an awesome manner. Hats off to Anuraag Kashyap and his team. I can write a complete blog about the finer points of this movie but I am waiting for the second part. Oh Yes, even after being such a long film there is a part 2 of Gangs of Wasseypur. The only low point of the film was the end when we realize that the story will continue in the next part. Cant wait to see the second part. In fact Gangs of Wasseypur actually inspired me to write this blog.

So overall so far I would say that this year has been tremendous for a movie buff like me who had a gala time watching such fantastic movies. Movies with content. Movies that do not have a big star cast but they still keep you totally glued for the entire duration.

Musical Madness

Awesome talent. Never seen or heard that something like this exists. When you think that you have already seen enough in life and there is nothing more left to be seen, something surprises you so much that you are literally blown away by it. I have been always criticized by friends that I go a little over the top when it comes to appreciate someone or something. But, to me this is something I have never seen, heard or experienced and when the end result is so pleasing to the ears, one has to appreciate it.

Enough of the mystery, I know that if I will take more time to reveal it,  readers of this blog would simply click the close button. To me Sneha Khanwalkar is one of the most underrated music composer in India. She has her own unique way to look at each of the unique sound that is produced around us in normal day to day life. When I first heard the title song of Oye Lucky , Lucky Oye I was glued to it for a long time. I liked the way the various sounds were played in the song. Little did I know then that, tremendous effort is being put in to first record those sounds and finally make a songs out of all those wierd sounds. I am really kicking myself, now for why I never tried to go into more detail about the music and the music composer of the Oye lucky lucky oye. I am generally so particular in finding out everything about the music director whenever I love the music of a particular song or movie.

A few days ago I read in the Times of India about the music review of the film Gangs of Wasseypur. The writer went a little overboard in appreciating the songs of the movie. Now, I am not someone who would generally listen to the songs of a movie before its release and now a days I dont even listen to radio so there was hardly any chance for me to listen to those songs. Another day I read the interview of Manoj Bajpayee in the Pune times about the same movie and that created some interest inside me about this movie. It just happened that I was a bit free in the afternoon and I came across the first look of Gangs of Wasseypur movie on youtube. The promo was awesome and I was really looking forward to see the movie. After all it was a movie by Anurag Kashyap (Director of the movie Dev D). Suddenly, I realized that, off all the things this movie has different music as well. Immediately I found out the website gaana.com and started listening to the songs of the movie Gangs of Wasseypur. And boy, It would be an understatement to say that I loved the songs. The hunter song which is in the voice of a singer named Vedesh Sookoo from Trinidad and Tobbago (West indies) just bowled me over. I listened to all the songs and every song was different. Found out the name of the music director. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Sneha Khanwalkar written as the name of music director. Well my surprise has obvious reasons as she is only the 4th music composer in the male dominated Indian Film industry.

I wanted to hear more about Sneha Khanwalkar. Wanted to know whether she sings as well. Found out that she is a singer herself, but her voice is not her USP :). When I heard a few people like Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap talk about Sneha on youtube, I realized that there is something unique about this girl. Then I came across these MTV Sound Trippin videos. Sound trippin is actually a program on MTV in which Sneha Khanwelkar is the host and a music composer. She travels to some place in India and records various sounds specific to that place, composes some lyrics, gets some locals to sing and records those songs with all the various sounds that she had recorded earlier. If anyone has seen the efforts that had been taken to compose and produce those songs, one will realize the stuff that Sneha Khanwelkar is made of. You are hit by the first blow when you expect a femine, shy, introvert girl and, what you see is an extrovert, macho girl. Its absolutely clear after seeing her that she loves what she is doing. So even after putting in such great efforts she seems to be happy always. Someone has very rightly said that exellence comes when you love what you do  and life is really fun when you love your job. (No, I am not talking about Aamir Khan :))

Here is the link to the first episode of Sound Trippin in which Sneha went to Punjab and recorded the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21kvYl0Mds
Awesome song indeed.Watch the video and you will realize the talent this girl has got and she makes no bones about it. I have discovered some new kinda music and a music composer to follow. I would really be looking forward to more from Sneha. Normal is boring and we keep searching for something new always. The musical madness of Sneha Khanwalkar is one such step in that direction.