Sharmeelee

Sharmeelee, 1971
Directed by: Samir Ganguli (Ganguly)

This contains spoilers... are you shocked? You shouldn't be. The plot is everywhere... and I'm terrible at secrets.

When you as a DVDwallah hand me Sharmeelee and say "Oh, you will like this one, if 'Shashi Kapoor is your man'" you are assuming a lot of things about me based on 10 minutes or so of conversation and the fact that I'm already holding a stack of old Masala films.

I think my DVDwallah is my soulmate.

He knows.

Everything and anything there is about my personality he has pegged, because this film has it all: Raakhee, Shashi, twins, goons, scars, moments of hatred and love for the characters, explosions, The Voice, cute sequences with animals, Kishore Kumar on playback, songs by Burman...*blissful sigh*

BUT, forget all of that, this film also did something miraculous. It converted my mother to the ways of the Masala Film Gold Mine! We were snuggled up watching this film while our Thanksgiving dinner cooked and for nothing could I tear my momma away from the movie!

Magic!

She is, after all, the same woman who sat through Pyar Kiye Jaa and was unmoved, even hostile.  (As if that were even possible!)

Sharmeelee is so interesting, it's Masala but there is something tangibly different about it that I cannot put my finger on. Trying to explain my feelings on this is like giving a speech and forgetting a very obvious word that you just cannot remember.

On the whole the film is very interesting and the pace is kept fresh by twists in the plot whenever there is a  threat of listlessness coming on, either on screen or in the audience. There is also an interesting "need to know" feel established wherein, for example, after pulling off a heist (that goes largely unseen) the Bad Guy says "now we're rich". You aren't informed why they might be rich or what they had to do to become so, they just are. It is an amusing, if unhelpful path to take. The ploy is used several times, mainly to establish backstory or to introduce characters, but it should have been reworked when one of the main characters turns pure evil for apparently no reason what-so-ever. More on that later.

On paper Sharmeelee could easily have been read as a bit campy. Two twins (Raakhee), a shy, "traditional" one (Kanchan) and the rambunctious, "Westernized" Kamini fall in love with the same man, Captain Ajit Kapoor (Shashi Kapoor). Arranged to marry Kanchan Ajit instead chooses Kamini after discovering that she is the girl he met and fell in love with on a night in Kashmir. When Kamini comes into some trouble and "dies" (disappears, more or less) Ajit is tricked into marrying Kanchan and runs away from her after learning the truth.

The saving grace to this film (besides its outright awesomeness) is the abilities and the strengths of the lead actors. Shashi Kapoor and Raakhee give their characters such earnestness and complexity that it is easy enough to slip along with them into their experiences.

In playing both twins Raakhee gives a superb performance, not only does each twin have their implied characteristics but they are also given different temperaments, expressions, voices and attitudes. Even when she is Kamini pretending to be Kanchan you can still tell that it is Kamini; this is more easily identifiable when Kanchan is forced to play the outgoing Kamini, there is still a sense of ill ease and shyness  that pervades her person.

Raakhee's skill is further displayed when she becomes the "evil" Kamini, the effect is chilling and a total abandonment from the care free Kamini seen earlier in the film.

What I wonder about concerning evil Kamini is why she became that way. Sure there is some slight suggestion that she is mixed up with the wrong people, and she has a few terrible encounters* with the Baddies; but it is never shown or described why she became (or if she always was) as ruthless and terrible as she is at the end of the film. Of course she has her moment of redemption as she draws her last breath and uses it to save her sister but I feel as if it was the one moment where the "need to know" curtain should have been lifted and more insight into the making of evil Kamini would have been greatly appreciated.

Another thing that outrageously miffed me the first time but only slightly gnawed at me in subsequent watchings was the self-sacrifice of Kanchan's personality to appease and enable Ajit. Sure he had lost the will to live, and had been tricked into a marriage to someone he didn't like (and I can understand all of these reasons) but... ugh... why force Kanchan to be Kamini anyway? Who cares if the wedding doesn't happen? Who cares if Ajit is depressed for a while? Who cares about telling the truth? It was so painful. Kanchan didn't want to be Kamini as much as she did want to be Ajit's wife, so why not make the story about how Ajit falls for Kanchan as Kanchan, not as Kanchan pretending to be Kamini so that her parents' reputation is upheld and so that Ajit doesn't suffer disappointment and heartbreak. Oh wait... he still suffers through all of that anyway, so why not just out the truth and be done without the added heartache of having been lied to?

Sure, at the end Ajit realizes he is in love with Kanchan as Kanchan, maybe? It just seems too contrived to me that after being told the person he thinks is Kamini is actually her sister that he could just SNAP! say "Oh yes, I've loved her the entire time!"

I would have much preferred and honest relationship established on the premise that Ajit know what girl he was wooing. I can't even imagine the pain and anguish that Kanchan had to endure in the name of saving face. Gross.

And just one more tiny thing that vexes me about this film: you can see a TON of production helps. Characters in glasses have spots obviously pointing at them face-on and every time someone is in a car you can see the outline of the umbrella shielding the glare from the glass. In a film that is pretty spot on otherwise in terms of production quality and craftsmanship, these and other oversights are unfortunate.

I do not mean to take this film to task, for I really do love it and it has sandwiched itself up on my "Favorites" list but when there are minor annoyances with such perfect (and I use that loosely) work, than generally we focus on the annoyances.

On to things I did like, shall we?

The music... is to die for. There is something about Burman's work that just sparkles and haunts at the same time. Combine his ear for melody and Kishore, Lata and Asha's talents and hold me close and let me weep. I can't get enough of this soundtrack. I wish, now more than ever, that films still had songs like these.

Locations, costumes, props, design... everything was so laid back! Alongside the effortless portrayal of our complex characters was the stunning "real life" feeling houses and hotels and clothing. I am all for the gliz and the glamor but it is also nice to see a restrained set that suggests "Yes, people might actually live here, and they might actually wear these very common looking clothes". Oh, and before I forget, I need ever sari featured in this film ASAP.

Thanks.

I want that salmon one on the hanger especially!

And this white one is a must have!

 It looks fairly similar to one I wore to a wedding in Dharavi, 

but more sparkly... and lacking in bubble-gum pink color. 

And just a little something to look for when you're watching Sharmeelee: The twins wear different rings on their "wedding ring" fingers. In an odd twist Kachan's is large and flashy and Kamini's is small and understated. It bothered me from the beginning that Ajit simply couldn't tell them apart from just this small detail, but I guess it's frivolous to expect men to ever notice jewelry.

*I am choosing to omit reference to the EPIC battle between Kamini and her attacker. That, simply must be seen, and not described.

Oh, and just because I must...

Well, it ain't no TARDIS

Action Replayy, 2010
Directed by: Vipul Shah

When you Wikipedia Action Replayy it says "Formerly 'Action Replay'". I wish I hadn't seen that. Why on earth was the extra y added?

WHY?

I cannot mentally handle the implications or motivations to screw up words so I'll just carry onwards.

Action Replayy is neither awful or monumentally profound, it just is.

I also have to preface by saying that I totally adored this film, even for all of its flaws. (Don't I always, though?)

The premise of the plot is simple, Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapoor) goes back in time to fix his parents'-Kishen (Akshay Kumar) and Mala (Aishwarya Rai)-marriage. Bunty manages this because his girlfriend Tanya (Sudeepa Singh) just happens to have a mad scientist for a grandfather who spends his free time building time machines. Yup.

The first 20-25 minutes of this film are, and there is no other word for it, excruciating. It's awkwardly shot, acted and presented. I cringed and cringed and sank lower in my chair so disheartened that I was going to hate the film and then, we crash land in 1975 and flutter goes my dil and happiness pours forth with abundance.*

Unlike Dabangg where the Masala style was intentionally alluded to I didn't get the same vibe from Action Replayy. It was set in 1975 but that was it. Frankly, that was a failing on the film's part. Think of the source material they could have gleaned! The film was an exercise in not going the distance; the costumes were fantatabulous but the interior decorations of our hero and heroine's homes were too subdued.

I realize you can't have everything you want in life, but there is also no shame in going big.

I don't know why time travel to the past was entirely needful to fix this marriage, BUT since it involved men wearing white bellbottoms I'm so willing to overlook my nagging there and enjoy the visuals.

While the film was shot beautifully and there were several moments of gasp-worth set designs (I'm look at you, millions of paper lanterns!), I felt that the colors were all off. The Cotton Candy color scheme seemed to scream at you "THIS IS FANTASY! HAHAHAHA!" when we, the audience, are already quite aware that fantastical things are going on. Time travel, for one. Yes it is very pleasing to see such a vivd display of yellow and pink and blue but when I think 70s I see more avocado and oatmeal and husky red and brown.

The movie spends 90% of its duration in 1975, which I would have never guessed having listened to and fallen in love with the music before seeing the film. In case you're unaware, the sound track has not a shred of 70s flavor to it. Oh, that would have been good, to me at least, to have some throw backs to the golden age; but alas, I was left wanting. It is hard enough to reconcile the Cotton Candy 70s without having to wrap your head around the introduction of early 2000's-esque Hip Hop 30 years too early. That being said, I adore this soundtrack and thought it actually worked really well on screen.

Where I was not disappointed was in the incidental music. The sound designers so perfectly captured the essence of 70s films with the background music that it left me in giggles every time a sharp "DUN DUN!" accompanied bad news, a fast turn or the approach of a bad guy.

I cannot deny my absolute head-over-tops pyaar for the song pictureizations. Well, that is how I felt AFTER I had to sit through the awful first song. I like Zor Ka Jhatka song, but on screen we were treated to the visual delights of seeing Aish pop-n-lockin' it. If we learned nothing else from Endhiran, we should have learned this: Do not make Aishwarya Rai dance modern dance. IT. IS. PAINFUL. Our pain is rewarded later on with the other songs, which to my everlasting praise, contained a Holi song, and we all know how much I love Holi.

Now on to the things I didn't love so much...

This film was set in the 70s, ergo chest hair should be flying about free and akimbo.
Guess what there was NONE of?  It was so frustrating not having any glorious chest hair peeking out through open-buttoned shirts.

Oh, and the girls were too...flat. Yes, that is how I'm going to phrase that.

And that is all I didn't like.

Well, that is a lie. There were a variety of other things that didn't please me... but I was willing to ignore them in the face of being swept off my feet like Akshay Kumar and being so confused I didn't know what to do with myself. He always does this to me. I think "Oh boy, what unfortunate teeth he has" and then he goes growling around in that voice and with that nose and those legs and I turn into a complete idiot. And I start off all of his films disliking him, and then he grows on me by the last 20 minutes and I just die with disgust and self-loathing.

While I have a love/hate realationship with Aishwarya I've never been one to say "Oh, home girl can't act" because I think, honestly, that she can. However, I do think she does better when she is given the opportunity to be organic. The main reason the first 20 minutes of this film were so impossible to endure was because it felt like the director had set our Mrs. Bachchan down and said "Just pretend you're an Ice Queen and Victoria Beckham and yourself and you'll be great!" Don't give our Aish instructions, directors! It backfires. Just let her act as she will. It is apparent when she is just enjoying her roles and when she is trying to make them into something and I much, much prefer the former.

This film suffers from a very common oversight: the inclusion of too many unimportant characters. Sure, Om Puri is there and Mama Kirron is flying about in overdramatic displays but did they NEED to be there? No. Neither did the "goon" that never turned into a goon. There were about 5-odd characters that were loose strings and entirely unimportant to the plot. They could have been removed, replaced as cameos (In Om Puri and Kirron Kher's instance) and things could have continued on just as well. With these extra characters it just felt like there were too many finer plot details were left on the editing room floor and they didn't get the development or attention they required to make them important enough to justify their inclusion.

Since I am a complete sap I was totally charmed by this film. Like I said, it isn't groundbreaking or extraordinary in anyway, but it is good enough to give you some cheer.

Oh, and can I just add that this film blows. Badly.
But, I have such a weakness for brightly colored things and bellbottoms.

I'm going to go watch Om Shanti Om and detox.

*'Sup? I write scripture?