A peaceful review on “Angry young man” documentary series

“Angry  young man” a three  episode  documentary  series  on Salim Javed  writers  has  been released in  Amazon Prime on 21^st  Aug 24.

I watched with keen interest the three episodes docuseries on Salim- Javed the writing duo whose credits used to come on the silver screen before the hero’s or director’s name. They used to command such importance during their times. 

22   out of 24 movies were hits which will remain un paralled in the history of Hindi cinema.

The series captures their initial days in Mumbai (than Bombay) and how they charted a success story which looks like a fairy tale.  Javed Saab explains that he had only one trouser and that it had got torn, he had not touched a morsel of food for three days because he had no money.  He explains that if a man suffers from lack of sleep or hunger, it will live an indelible mark on the conscious of that person, which will have a deep impact on his later life. The initial life experiences has got reflected in their scripts.

Javed Saab explain that they had no notion of creating an angry young man, when they wrote the script of Deewar.  What they wrote came from what they experienced in their real life.   Deewar is supposed to be the best script in the Hindi cinema because every piece in the story is well connected. It is mentioned that Deewar is used in the film institute to teach how to write a good script.

The docuseries, interviews a variety of people from directors, heroes, heroines, writers and ad makers about their impressions on the famous duo.  All of them reiterate the importance of a very good script for the success of a movie. 

At one place Javed Saab mentions that during his initial struggling days when he was sometimes in the lowest ebb of his life, he never for a moment felt that he will not succeed   in what he wanted to do in film industry.  That speaks about the confidence in his talent. The hope, burning desire to succeed which arises out of the baptism by fire will eventually come to fruition. He mentions many writers would have succeeded, if they persisted a little more by eschewing the ego and stoically facing the humiliations of failure.

During the  seventies  when people  had  to wait for everything, like  getting a gas connection  after six years, getting a telephone  connection after 10 years, unemployment, waiting in the long queue for ration items and  those were   the times of short supply of many things.   The middle class in particular were becoming restless  and expected a change to happen in the society. They felt helpless and anger had become embedded in their psyche.  This pent up anger of the common man was used by the duo in their scripts and it heralded the birth of Angry young man.  They had never tried to create it intentionally.  What they showed on the screen resonated with the life of the common man to the hilt.  It was a major reason for the success of their movies. 

One of the thing that is mentioned is Salim and Javed complemented each other, one was good at story creation and the other was good at screen play by fleshing the characters with life.

One of the thing Salim Saab mentions that to become a good writer, one has to voraciously read lot of books.

Javed Saab mentions in one of his poetry that if you live one day less it does not matter, but for the days you lived, the light must burn bright, meaning you live life fully and put your best efforts at whatever you want to succeed.

It is a good document series to watch for all the film lovers of the era between   1970’s to 2000 and particularly for those who have been bred on Amitabh Bacchan’s movies.

I felt a sense of happiness and connect and calm after watching Angry young man. If you don’t agree, you can get angry with me.  Nevertheless I  am happy with you, since you have read my full blog.😍

Happy Sunday morning on Commercial Street (Bengaluru) 25th Feb 24

 

Happy street concept which became popular in the last year was held in various locations in Bengaluru like Koramangala, Kalyan Nagar, Jayanagar, Whitefield and Malleswaram with great success.

People from all age groups hit the road and enjoy health and fitness activities.

You can wake up saying hello to Sunday morning with outdoor fun on your favorite street with no traffic.

The selected road will  have  traffic barred  from entry  between 6 to 9 AM, to turn the road available  for such activities like  walking, jogging, cycling, strolling around playing new and traditional  games.

Since I had heard about it, I decided to experience firsthand, the  Happy  street concept  on commercial  street ( city’s central  business hub)   on 25^th  Feb  24.  

On 25^th Feb 24 Sunday morning, I very reluctantly got up early.  The deficit of the week days sleep, I normally catch up on Sunday morning.  It required lot of inner energy to wake up.  Once I hit the road with my car, seeing the empty streets, cool surroundings   and the fresh air filling the lung space, I felt it was worthwhile and soothing to the body and soul.

My niece also accompanied me. We reached the commercial street somewhere around 7.00AM.

Some of the activities planned there was Zumba, yoga, meditation, Hula-hoop, Science experiments cycling, skateboarding, badminton, archery traditional games, pet shows, planting, pottery and live music.

We walked from one end of Commercial Street to the other end, soaking in all the surrounding early morning activities. We saw people from all age groups enjoying the Sunday morning. 

The experience was good and it was a small change from the routine life.  The more we are in open surroundings and nature, the more the body and mind relaxes. 

Ensure that on Sunday morning, you were your track suits and shoes and go out and meet the nature.  This can happen only when you sleep early on Saturdays, sacrificing the serials and rom-coms on Netflix and Amazon prime.

Some of the photos clicked are shown below.

An explosion of review after my fusion of thoughts on watching Oppenheimer movie

 

I went on a Friday evening to Oppenheimer movie after the end of a busy day. Initially I thought it might be tough for me to sit through a biopic for 3 hrs., which is the duration of the movie.    I had been fed on a diet of Hindi and south Indian movies right from my childhood, which required less use of my brain.  My family also believed that I will go on a sleep mode during an intellectually challenging movie.  So it was a challenge for me to prove that I am not   challenged intellectually.  I spent some time gathering information about the movie.   Every minute of it turned out to be worthwhile.  I was glued to watching the movie for the entire duration.

The experience of watching the movie was very touching and   unfathomable.  Can a documentary on a biopic of a scientist touch a chord in someone’s heart?   This movie has been able to achieve it.

The movie  is during world war II,  the  Lt Gen  Leslie  Groves has appointed  the  renowned Physicist Robert Oppenheimer  to work on a  secret Manhattan Project .  Oppenheimer assembles a team of scientists having expertise in the different related areas in developing and designing the atomic bomb.   The result of the project comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, with the world’s first nuclear explosion which was the defining moment in the world and impacted the future course of the history.

The trials  and tribulations  faced  by Dr Oppenheimer  has  been captured  beautifully and there  are many poignant  moments. His sparks of brilliance has been shown during his initial research days.

He learnt Dutch language in a short time and gave quantum physics lecture in the Dutch language.

It was known to the world that he was a great physicist but the movie depicts his humanness to the core.  The initial  purpose  of developing an atomic  bomb  as per him, was  to act as a deterrent so that another country which may develop it earlier  may  not  misuse it.    Later on after developing the bomb he realizes it that the decision to where to use it or not rests with the government.  President Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war.  It is told that the Japanese army was retreating but Truman wanted to test the bomb. The bombing effect was loss of thousands of lives.   His decision is still debated whether there was another peaceful way to end the war.  

Initially Dr.Oppenheimer was the hero of the entire country.  Since he did not approve with the government views, he was systematically defamed.  His agony can be felt very strongly by the viewers.

A scientist bent of mind is to explore things through theorizing and experimenting. The quest for exploring and discovering new things cannot be stopped. It is inbuilt in a scientist’s DNA.  But certain  discoveries  can be misused to  harm the human kind.   In the movie it is shown well that creating an atomic bomb was putting the genie out of the bottle.  As per the  interaction  between  Einstein  and oppenheimer, they both  realize  that through  their  discoveries, they have done something  which  will impact the man kind for a long   time to come. But can the march of scientific discovery be stopped or must it be regulated? The jury is still out.

Dr. Oppenheimer was influenced by communism to some extent.  He had read the three books of Das capital in the original German language. He had understood  the  concept  in its true meaning  and not how the  government’s around the  world  view  communism  and capitalism and use  it for their own  selfish motives.

Dr.Oppenheimer though he was a famous scientist, was foremost an humanist at the core and his core belief, shaped his entire thinking.  The  film  brings across  strongly  that  all  isms  whether communism  or capitalisms   are  useless  unless  humanism  is practiced  by the world. If not the world is hurtling towards the total destruction of humanity. Oppenheimer till his last breath could not get rid of the feeling that he was a merchant of death by his creation, though he knew that he had no control on its usage.

Walking down the memory lanes of Sandalwood in Gandhinagar

 

My early childhood days was spent in Gandhinagar, one of the localities in Bengaluru. This area was and is the nerve center   for Sandalwood.  The Kannada language film industry is given the name as sandalwood much like Bollywood. This area has the offices of most of the film distribution centers.

The area never sleeps, it eats, drinks and breathes about movies. Some twenty years back it had almost 25 single screen theatres in the vicinity of two km radius.  The onset of clinically alike multiplexes and malls, have made many single screen theatres here, to roll down their shutters.

The purpose of my writing this blog is to recall all my experiences regarding the different theatres. The air I breathed during those times had a heady mixture about  movies and those were the heady days for single screen theatres.  The period of my recall is between  1968  and 1985  approximately, when I finished my engineering course.

All new movies used to get released on a Friday and the giant poster hoardings used to be put up on Thursday evening in the theatres.  The fans used to accompany the giant poster hoardings to the theatre with lot of fanfare and shouting slogans.  The giant poster hoardings were being erected and seeing their favorite heroes assuming giant size made the fans go berserk.  It used to be a festive mood for the fans. Every year a maximum of one or two movies of their favorite heroes used to get released and they waited with great enthusiasm for the release of the movies.

In some nooks and corners of Gandhinagar, the giant poster hoardings were literally painted by artists seeing a small photo.   This painting work used to start well in advance of one month.  I remember standing for hours together as a small kid and watching them paint and bring out the emotions of the film heroes on the posters.  All those artists have lost their jobs because of the onset of digital prints. Technology may have made life easy but took away lot of creative, artistic and labor intensive jobs from people, who depended on it for their livelihood.  The march of technology cannot be stopped. Technology is a boon or bane, the jury is still out.

All single screen theatres had their own architectural style   and their unique stamp in those days.

My first brush with a theatre was Sangam theatre completed in 1967, which was hardly 400 meters from our house.  I saw it being built and each letter of the word SANGAM, being lowered from the top and it used to be lighted in the evening. 

Padosan was the first Hindi movie, I remember seeing in Sangam theatre in 1968.  I was in primary school.  I used to keep on croaking Padosan songs in the house, all day in my bad voice until someone used to admonish me to stop the madness.    Sangam theatre used to screen mostly New Hindi movies like Aradhana and old Hindi movies during the morning shows. The morning shows were having reduced fare and it was a favorite show, among the budget tight school and college students.   I remember seeing lot of old Hindi movies during the morning shows. Sangam theatre had a long ramp taking a serpentine turn leading to the balcony class. Each theatre had its unique design in those days. The owners who build those theatres had lot of feelings for them and made them look unique.  In these days of modular and minimalism, all  Multiplexes  and Malls look  alike with the nachos, samosas  and cold drinks tasting almost alike everywhere.

The next theatre I remember is Kapali theatre, it was  also very near to my house.

This theatre started somewhere in 1969 and it was the first theatre in India with a Cinerama screen.  The curvature and the width of the screen is greatly exaggerated in Cinerama whereas in Cinemascope, the screens are rectangular and only 86 percent wider than the standard ratio.  This theatre was totally air cooled and was a huge theatre having more than 1100 seats.   When watching movies, we could feel the chill and in those days, Bengaluru was also having a salubrious and cool weather because of lot of greenery and the absence of concrete jungles.

Dr Raj Kumar's 'Mannina Maga' was first released in this theatre and went on to complete 100 days here.  This was the first kannada movie to complete 100 days.

I watched Mannina Maga, a movie, making a scathing remark on the decadence set in society in terms of values and morals.  Some of the songs are still making sense in the present society.

It used to screen Tamil movies during morning shows.  Sholay was first released in Kapali theatre in 35mm and later on shifted to Santosh theatre having 70 mm screen and Dolby music system.   In later stages, it started screening only Kannada movies.  Few years back, Kapali theatre after nearly fifty years of providing entertainment, brought down its curtains. In its place a mall and six multiplex screens is likely to be made, but the old world charm of seeing a movie in a big hall, with air-cool atmosphere is gone forever.

From Kapali walking down 500 meters towards Anand Rao circle, we get Movieland  theatre.  

Long back this was called Shivananda theatre, when family members used to come in Tonga with food packets to watch movies. Movie watching was a picnic during those times.

Movie land  used to screen  mostly  Telugu movies, I remember  watching many Telugu movies  of  NTR, Krishna and  A Nageswara rao.    I faintly  remember  the movies I watched like, mosagaluku mosagadu, alibaba 40 dongalu, Annadamulu Anubhandam , Seeta kalyanam ( where two eyes were not enough to watch Jayapradha as Seetha, a  quintessential and a classic beauty )  and many more.  The old theatre was renovated and they started screening movies in other languages also.  This theatre had a compound wall surrounding it.  When you were walking down the road, you can hear some of the dialogues and dishum dishum sounds dished out. Those times the traffic was not so much.

 

Movieland  before renovation

 

Movieland  after renovation.

Then walking back from Movieland towards Kempegowda road  for  five minutes,  we get Triveni theatre.  This theatre used to screen Hindi movies and Kannada movies.  I remember  watching  some Hindi movies  like  Seetha aur Geetha, Paraya dhan  and Kannada movie  Babruvahana,  a blockbuster mythological  movie  of  the thespian Dr. Rajkumar.  This movie kept the cash bells ringing for the theatre for almost one year.

Facing Triveni theatre, there was Himalaya theatre screening mostly English movies.

One of my friend called Manish, new someone there and many times after 10 minutes of movie starting, we used to sneak in there, with the help of my friend’s friend.  I could not understand any dialogues of the English movies, but fascinated by the sheer cinematic effect. I was sold out to the cinema media then only for the huge canvas it provides to the director to imagine and bring out on the screen all his vivid imaginations.

During  1990’s  next to  Triveni  theatre  came up  Aparna  theatre mostly  screening  kannada and Telugu movies.

 

Just   about  600  meters  away  from  Triveni  theatre  was one of the oldest theatre Geetha which was  screening  Tamil, Telugu  and Kannada movies.  I faintly remember seeing one Kannada movie there.

A little away from Geetha theatre walking towards Chick pet, there was Majestic theatre

Nartaki theatre, Sapna theatre and Santosh theatre all adjacent  to each other were  almost built at the same time  during 1970’s.

 

Nartaki used to screen Kannada movies and sometimes English movies, I remember watching some of Raj Kumar movies there.  Sapna was a mini theatre complementing Narthaki theatre and had a small seating capacity.  I remember watching some Hindi movies like Kora Kagaz, Mausam and Aandhi. 

Santhosh was a huge theatre, having 70 mm screen, Air conditioned with Dolby system. 

Watched some Kannada movies there.  Sholay ran there for almost a year.

Next  to  Narthaki  theatre  was  Alankar  theatre, screening  Hindi and  kannada movies. It had screened movies like  Kati patang.

 

Next  to  Alankar  theatre  was  Kalpana  theatre and  I remember  seeing  Chupke Chupke   and Shankara bharanam there besides a  host of other movies.

Next walking down a little down on KG road from Kalpana theatre, we  get  Sagar  theatre which use to screen lot of kannada movies.  I remember watching Kannada movies like Mayura and Jaga mechida Maga there.  This iconic theatre was brought down and a big concrete mall has come up in its place.

 

In the opposite building facing  Sagar  theatre was  Kempegowda  theatre  on the first floor and below  it was the famous  Vishnu  bhavan hotel, famous for its  bread sandwich, banana  jam  and filter coffee.  

As a young lad, I along with my friends, used to see morning shows in Kempegowda theatre which was normally screening English movies.  What they used to show in poster outside was different.  They used to mix two English movies of half an hour duration and it used to end up in about an hour and after coming out, we felt cheated and could not complain, since the fares were rock bottom in Gandhi class.  See I was a follower of Father of the nation Gandhi from my school days.

A little distance away from Kempegowda theatre was Abhinaya theatre which came later on in 1990’s.  It had an escalator and it was first of its kind experience in movie theatres.  I remember watching movies here and also remember watching, Khoobsurat, Jhoothi and Lagaan of Amir Khan here. 

 

After  walking  few  meters   from Sagar theatre,  there  was  States  theatre which has now been  renovated  and called  Bhumika.

 

Only Kannada movies used to be screened here.  I remember the incidence of Dr Raj Kumar Gandhada gudi being released in 1973. On the first day, I and my friend went there. It was Houseful.  We pooled together the entire money from our pockets and wanted to buy black market tickets. We could buy only one ticket with the money available. Since my contribution to the pool was less, my friend went inside to watch the movie. I returned back feeling as if I have failed in some exams.  Anyhow managed to see the movie on the second day.

 Opposite to States theatre was Prabhat theatre supposed to be built by a Parsi family way back in 1941.    I remember watching here, Santhoshi mata and Maya bazaar a Telugu mythological movie.

Behind   Prabhat theatre was Menaka theatre also screening kannada and Hindi movies

 

I   have watched some movies in Menaka theatre and I could not recollect them.

There was Tribhuvan and Kailash mini theatre next to Janata Bazaar.  Watched lot of movies here, I remember watching Heer Ranjha and Chalte chalte in Kailash theatre.

Both the theatres were brought down few years back and made way for a huge complex. 

I   cannot finish this blog without mentioning Vijayalakshmi theatre in Chickpet area. Lot of English movies used to get released here.  Remember watching, It is a mad mad world,  Mackenna’s gold, Hatari  and sound of Music.   Every year sound of music used to get re-released during summer holidays and all parents used to take their children to watch the movie.  Watching Sound of music was a thrill, the songs, the free spirited nature of Julie Andrews and the pranks of the children were lot of oxygen  for the children during their summer breaks.

Hope you  all  enjoyed  walking down all  the theatres in the Gandhinagar area, particularly the old Bangaloreans will  feel  nostalgic about watching movies in those theatres.   Standing in the long queue for hours together, watching the movie  and  eating Masala dosa  and  Jamoon  in a restaurant on the way back home was  a day long affair but at the same time satisfying and left you tired but still  asking for more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An ode to Shahenshah of Bollywood

Today Amitji turned 77 years.  As I was driving back home, I heard songs of Amitabh Bachan being played and interspersed with tidbits about his film life. I was suddenly being transported in my mind to different movies of his and recollection of different scenes of his movies and in no particular order.

I though why not write a poem in Hindi piecing together his dialogues and his movies names. I realized, I am no good in writing Hindi poems and only good in appreciating Kader khan and Salim Javed dialogues.

What to do ?  I had a strong urge to write something about the shahenshah.  Why not write in Hinglish where I can express both in Hindi and English. ( Pardon me Bhaiyon or  Bahono)

My earlier recollection of his movie was Sholay in 1975. I was in High school at that time only Gabbar role  was discussed in the entire country for years together. Amitabh role was a silent one. Years later when I have seen it many times, I realized his role was a stoic look at the entire world and he always had his way through the tossing  coin having two heads on both sides. He simply brought humor with a silent face and always remained cool as a cucumber.

Deewar was the path breaking movie of his and he single handedly brought the entire country’s pent up anger at the prevailing system in the society and exploded as an angry young man.  His dialogue of  “  phenke huye paisa ko , may nahin utathahu”  . Mer pass gaadi hai, bungalow hai , bank balance hai  which was vanquished  by  Mere pass Maa hai dialogue by Shashi Kapoor was the dialogue to be remembered for eternity.  This dialogue reveals us that crime does not pay in the long run.

I remember watching Muqaddar ka Sikander on the day I finished my 1^st PUC exams in 1979.  It was in Santhosh  theatre.  I still remember the entry scene .  They show him stepping out of car. They first show his boots and pant all white and then slowly the entire Amitabh bachan is shown filling up the entire screen and then onwards it is only Amitabh Bachan all the way and no one else mattered. The majaa of watching in single screen big theaters after standing in long queues was a different experience.  We cannot book such experiences now by booking tickets in book my show. All multiplexes  look clinically the same with the same taste of Pop corn and Nachos.

Kader khan dialogue in Muqaddar Ka Sikander  to Amitabh  in khabarasthan when his mother dies “ Dukh ko gale lagavo, duniya  tere kadmo me hongi”  Tu ek din Sikander banegaa.”  Struck a chord in all our hearts.  Amitabh singing on the bike “  Zindagi tho bewafaa hai, ek din tukrayegi , mar ke jine ki ada tho duniya ko siklana hai” was  a philosophical statement on life that life is a zero  sum game.

 In another scene, Amitabh is shooting Vinod Khanna and suddenly he realizes it is a dream  and he is standing in front of a glass door.  To convince himself, he touches the glass door.  This is a paisa vassul scene.  The intensity, the feelings of his losing his love to another one comes out very poignantly.  In every movie of his, there will be one or two paisa vassul scenes.  We do not mind seeing the movie repeatedly for such scenes.

Chupke chupke movie  really  brought out the comedian in Amitabh Bacchan . He being a simple English literature lecturer masquerading as a botany professor was a laugh riot.

Amar  Akbar  Anthony was a movie  that put lot of efforts on projecting a secular India.  It had its usual fare  of  brothers separated in childhood and they all meeting up on a common thread of a song or an old building or some talisman or some torn letters preserved for more than thirty years. I am going out of syllabus, coming back to Amitabh” role in Amar Akbar Anthony where he sells daaru, does comedy scenes and also  packs lot of punch in his fights. In the entire movie, he keeps telling one liner comedy  dialogues which is very hilarios.  Sample this-  one thief running and stumbling in front of him “  Yeh police ka case hai yah Olympic ka race hai”

There were many more movies of his, showing him as an angry young man like Trishul, Don, Agneepath, etc.

My alltime favorite is Agneepath where Amitabh is  Vijay  Deenanath Chouhan.  In this movie the young Amitabh is pulling on a cart his father’s death body and no one in the village helps him and  we can see anger germinating in the eyes of this young lad  and  this  seething anger is  carried forward in the entire movie.  We can see embers of fire burning slowly inside Vijay’s heart.  An underlying current of anger can be felt in Vijay ‘s every frame in the movie. Many people did not like his voice change in this movie. But I felt the change in voice  added to express the anger forcefully.

This was the movie for which Amitabh got National Filmfare award.

There are many heroes and stars in Bollywood but there is one and only one Shahenshah of Bollywood.

Amitabh tells that whenever he faces a camera, he is tensed and want’s to do justice to the role. Every time he faces the camera, he thinks, he is facing it for the first time.  That may be one of the reasons for his success. There may be an underlying lesson for all of us to face every situation with a white belt so that we can give out our best.

I can keep  going on and on but I have to end now and post it today only since it is Amitabh’s birthday.

Amitably yours

Padmanabh