The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bollywood or Hollywood, neither quite jolly good…

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Bollywood or Hollywood, neither quite jolly good…

ZIYA US SALAM

MIX AND MATCH: Scenes from “Ugly aur Pagli”, “The Mummy” and “Crossed Tracks”, now showing at cinema halls.

MIX AND MATCH: Scenes from “Ugly aur Pagli”, “The Mummy” and “Crossed Tracks”, now showing at cinema halls.

UGLY AUR PAGLI

(At Delite Diamond and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

The much talked about liberalisation of the Indian economy resulted in liberalisation of mores too. At least in Bollywood. Till liberalisation, our Hindi film heroines did not smoke or drink. That was the job of vamps. You could not be a good girl if you downed a few pegs. Now the times have changed. Our good old Sati Savitri heroine has changed too. Today’s heroine can take a couple of tequilas and a Patiala peg, and even sing, “Main talli, main talli ho gayi& #8230;..” And still remains a heroine! She can show a leg – why, both the legs – and still remain a prim and proper girl, suitable to be married into a middle class household where the old man spends time reading the newspaper and the old lady using her rolling pin!

A bit of an anomaly there, yes, but then Bollywood has never been known for consistency. So it is with Sachin Khot’s new film here now, a film that has evoked some expectations of another “Pyar Ke Side Effects” kind of saga. Unreasonable. And undeserving. This film here is noteworthy only for Mallika Sherawat’s fondness for high spirits and a greater ability to slip and slide after a few drinks! And a still greater ability to slip into blissful sleep. So much so, even when she is carried across the city on his shoulder by poor Ranvir Shorey, the lady does not lose a wink!

Yawn. Every time she drinks and collapses, the guy picks her and heads for a hotel. She sleeps, no, snores. He sleeps too. No, nothing to do with any “bhool” here. See, I told you, she is a nice Indian girl! So, he sleeps on the floor, she on the bed.

And when she gets up, she gets angry. Very angry. So, she slaps him. He protests. She slaps him again. He is evasive. So, she slaps him once more. Yuck. It goes on and on…. She slaps, he squirms. In between, they patch up, and sing on the dance floor. Go to Goa. She slaps him again. New locale. Same treatment. All this before she realises he is actually the guy for her!

The hero does not have a choice. So he kisses her, and they make up. You have a choice. You can leave Mallika to her vampish ways in the garb of a heroine. And leave poor Shorey to his fate too. He is good in what is an easily avoidable film. Wafer-thin storyline, bad music, listless dialogues, and Zeenat Aman in a cameo so late, so fleeting, don’t make “Ugly aur Pagli” any less despicable.

THE MUMMY

(At Delite and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

The much-hailed Hollywood continues to revel in stereotypes. If the world – read America – is not in danger, and the imperial dream merchants do decide to train their eyes on Asia, then it has to be on China. And a mythical past. Lots of martial arts interspersed with kings and queens living in huge palaces, whose only reason for existence seems to be to perpetuate some myth about the region. They all look alike, dress alike, even speak alike in these films! Di rector Rob Cohen’s “The Mummy: Tombs of the Dragon Emperor” lives up to every conceivable stereotype.

We have here a Chinese king who wants eternal youth, no, eternal life. See, how gullible is mortal flesh seeking the immortal ways of the Almighty, the One who begets not, nor was begotten! The Emperor strikes upon a sorceress who has a potion – they don’t run out of such potions in films – but there is a catch: the benign woman puts him into a state of suspended animation for many centuries. And only a touch at the right place can revive him, just as a sword pierced across his heart can get rid of him for ever. All along, the Emperor presents an ugly, unedifying sight: lots of dirty clay, terracotta and what have you. No wonder, the man wants to move on!

But, hey, the movie has to move too, and more stereotypes have to be flashed around: so, again come the white men to China. This time the melon is not divided between eager invaders. Rather it is an army of two, Brendan Fraser and his wife, who come out of retirement to travel to Shanghai – and accidentally end up waking the Emperor! The awakened giant, though, still seeks immortality! And heads for Shangri-La, a little dip, and lo, the emperor will live on and on….

We all know who can stop the Emperor and how. It does not take a genius to find out the climax. But what does take, if not a genius, at least a super smart soul, are the wonderful special effects and computer-generated images of the vast army, the impressive regalia, and some astounding panoramic shots of the mountains.

“The Mummy” in the latest avatar presents a time-tested story with one interesting change of locale from the original. In this third instalment of the series the focus is on China and its timeless emperors, the high Himalayas rather than the vast expanse of Egypt. Of course, China is still regarded with a queer mixture of disdain and awe. And used largely for the martial arts. Things have not changed since we saw “Crouching Tiger….”.

As for the performances, well, predictably, there is Jet Li, as the Emperor, who gets into his own in the second half. And justifies his billing with a superb fight at the finish. And Fraser goes about his ways in a studied manner, never threatening to win an Oscar with his performance.

Watch “The Mummy” if you will for its special effects, some martial arts. Looking for a needle of credibility or even a hint of novelty in the story? Better stay home.

CROSSED TRACKS

(At Select City Walk, Saket)

“Persepolis”, “Good Bye Bafana”.…now comes “Crossed Tracks.” It is all so faintly reminiscent of the 1970s and early ’80s art-house Hindi cinema when the likes of Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Goutam Ghose and others found select halls with limited shows for their dedicated niche viewer-ship. Now, it turns out, sub-titled foreign films, not necessarily English ones, are making a quiet entry on Delhi’s celluloid circuit. The strategy remains the same: just a print or two in a show or two daily for a week. The commercial stakes are almost negligible, and the films not necessarily the latest. But they all have select takers, people whose idea of foreign cinema goes beyond Hollywood, and that of Asian cinema beyond Jet Li and Jackie Chan.

Celebrated director Claude Lelouch’s French film with English sub-titles, “Crossed Tracks,” is a throwback to the times when the director, not the computer-generated image, was the king. It is a gentle thriller with a number of concealed and possible identities.

Starring Audrey Dana with Dominique Pinon, it is about an award-winning author (?) and a serial killer on the loose.

It is basically a road movie Lelouch had himself made under the name of a friend before revealing the identity when the film was shown at Cannes. Suffice it to say, it has all the trademark deft touches you would expect from a director known for a propensity to choose quality ahead of quantity.

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