Chaar Diwas Premaache: Marathi Play Review

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Cast: Prashant Damle, Savita Prabhune, Arun Nalavade, Vina Jamkar
Director: Vaman Kendre
Writer: Ratnakar Matkari
Runtime: 120 min (approx.)
Rating: 9/10

Well, I don’t watch too many plays; forget about any visual art that’s presented in Marathi. But there I was, watching probably only the 4th Marathi play in my life, with a (false) hope that it will ignite in me (false) pride about my Marathi roots and trying to prove myself (and probably others too) that I am Maharashtrian enough. The only thing I knew was Prashant Damle was the leading actor and I needed nothing else to convince me to go for it. After all Prashant Damle is a very well known actor with natural born talent for acting and lots of records in his name. He didn’t disappoint me. Well the play’s name is “Chaar Diwas Premaache” which when literally translated into English sounds “Four Days of Love”, but in essence means “Love is short lived” or rather “Days of true love are numbered”. The theme of the play is based on love marriages and why or how they fail. It tries to say that in today’s fast paced world and superficial relationships, it takes few moments to fall in love and a life time to adjust to it. Hmmm… quite serious topic eh?!! Indeed, but it has been presented in a very innovative way with a humorous theme. It portrays events between lovers, and eventual husband-wife, in day-to-day situations that we can easily relate to. Though the theme is love and the genre is comedy, it tries to distance itself from vulgarity that is so common place in media today. The play itself has no story as such and is divided into random acts depicting events from “falling in love” to “taking care of each other in the last days of life”.

Synopsis: The play opens with the theme song “Chaar Diwas Premaache” followed by different acts with different characters in different situations. (The name for each act is given by me and no such naming exists in the actual play.)

Act 1: Soneri SandhyakaL (The golden evening):
Situation: Guy 1 loves his childhood friend Girl 1, who loves another Guy 2, who in turn loves her friend Girl 2. Fortunately Girl 2 also loves Guy 2.
Best performance: Arun Nalavade entering the stage on a bicycle in a manner as if he is riding a horse.

Act 2: Beach warchi bhet (Intimate moments on a beach)Situation: Both lovers in a dilemma if they are too fast in proposing for a marriage.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle and Savita Prabhune as conscience/second mind of the lovers.

Act 3: Me navin vicharanchi adhunik mulgi ahe (I’m a modern girl of new age culture)Situation: Girl going against her parent’s wishes and marrying an illiterate, unemployed, good-for-nothing man. After marriage she realizes that it takes more than just love to make it work.
Best Performance: Savita Prabhune as a grieving mother. Her wailing act is hilarious.

Act 4: Bayko geli maheri (Wife goes back to her parents’ after a fight)
Situation: A couple have a fight over something. One thing leads to another, and in the heat of the moment husband says he does not love his wife anymore. So wife leaves him and returns to her parents’. The rest of the act shows how the guy apologizes and requests his wife to come back.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as the husband trying to win back his wife’s heart.

Act 5: Professor aNi tyanchi bayko (Professor and his wife)Situation: How a couple loves each other and yet don’t show their feelings. Why a romantic guy before marriage seems uninterested in his wife later?
Best Performance: Arun Nalavade’s analysis of a fictional play. “Pahilach anka dusryanda kela asta tari challa asta”.

Act 6: Saasuche guNgaan (The incredible Mother-in-law)
Situation: A guy comes home and hears from his wife that “Mom is coming”. He immediately gets frustrated and starts squabbling about his Mother-in-law and how his life becomes hell when she comes. The funniest part comes in the end where husband realizes that “The Mom” is his own mom.
Best Performance: Savita Prabhune as the Mom and various nicknames that she uses to call her son.

Act 7: Bhandaychi yogya veL (Appropriate Time to fight)Situation: Husband coming home tired and having to sleep early since there is an important meeting in his office the next day. But wife finds exactly the same moment to pick up a fight over some trivial issue.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as a poor husband deprived of sleep due to ever complaining wife.

Act 8: Game Show (Game Show)Situation: A couple enters a TV game show to show how much they know and love each other.
Best Performance: The ending where husband tells wife that they don’t need a game show to prove their love’s worth.

Act 9: Ayushyachi sandhyakaL (Life’s last act)Situation: A couple trying to console and support each other, with son and daughter-in-law settled in America and no one to look after them in old age.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as the old husband, who sings a classical song to entertain his wife. Savita Prabhune as his wife who has lost eye-sight due to old age.
My favourite act.

Though when looked at them individually, these acts seem like different episodes, but essentially constitute one single story in itself, when the bigger picture is taken into consideration. Only four actors portrayed all the characters in the play. Quite an impressive performance by each of them. And I must appreciate Prashant Damle’s energy levels. He puts in so much passion in everything he performs, it is quite remarkable. He seemed like a guy in his twenties. The flow of the acts was smooth and except for the last act, I was laughing till I dropped off my chair. Full credit to director and story writer. Some of the dialogs were really striking. Like “Romeo and Juliet premaat padunach war gelet mhaNun amar zalet. nahitar tyanchahi lagna zala asta tar kaay zala asta ha vichar karun paN hasu yete” (Romeo and Juliet fell in love with each other and died and that’s why their love has become eternal. Just imagine how it would have been had they got married!) But the play carries a strong undertone and it is presented very systematically throughout until it becomes obvious in the last act. The writer is trying to tell that “With love comes compromise, and if you are ready to do that, your union is bound to survive for ages. Before marriage lovers are trying to know each other, after marriage they try to understand each other. For doing that patience and tolerance plays a vital role. That’s the secret of surviving a marriage till old age.” A serious message packaged in a light hearted way – Takes a real artistic mind to do that.


Ratings Break-up:Acting: 2.25/2.5
Direction: 2.25/2.5
Plot/Story: 2.0/2.5
Theme Factor (Comedy) : 2.5/2.5

An outstanding play. Kudos to entire team!!!
I still find myself murmuring the theme song:

“Chaar diwas premaache, Chaar diwas priteeche,
Baki saari saunsaaraachya riwaaj riteeche…….”

Shoot 'Em Up: The Review

Genre: Action
Cast: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci
Director: Michael Davis
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Runtime: 80 min
Rating: 3.5/10

Till now I have written reviews on movies that were either decently good or excellent. As a result people were convinced (wrongly) that I loved all Hollywood flicks that came into being. This review is for all those freaks.

The name is Shoot ‘Em Up and the movie lives up to its name, so much so that it shoots all the logic and brains out of the ceiling. Clive Owen is Mr. Smith, a carrot-eating trigger happy man with unknown past, in the wrong place at the wrong time (for the villains of the movie, and unfortunately for us too). He gets involved in a shoot-out with some bad guys trying to murder a pregnant woman in labour. Smith helps the woman deliver the baby while picking out his targets at ease in the entire process, but fails to save the woman. After smoking up all the bad guys, he proceeds to abandon the baby at a park but soon realizes that the thugs are after the baby too. So he rescues the baby, and takes him to his prostitute friend Donna played by Monica Bellucci. But Mr. Hertz, formerly an FBI psycho analyst and now the “smart” boss of bad guys, played by Paul Giamatti, traces him there. And so begins a chase action (con)sequence that ends (finally…!!!) with the climax. In the process bad guys die in heaps and bunch, our hero manages to dodge bullets which otherwise would have created a 9 inch gauze in a zillion meter square iron sheet, and we get a new on screen body count record that surpasses Kill Bill and the likes. On the way our Olympian finds his way into record books for single bullet kills also. Ah and yes, this basically overshadows a very mediocre sub plot of a conspiracy theory, where we learn that Hertz is working for a gun manufacturer who is trying to stop a bone marrow transplant of a Presidential candidate who is an active gun control supporter, and that the cells for the transplant are to come from the baby. What happens to the baby? Is the conspiracy squashed? How many carrots does our bunny eat on screen (they should ban on screen carrot eating, it should to be limited to bugs bunny only)? Nopes… you are not getting it all here. I am not going to waste this perfect chance of having my revenge. Go watch it yourself for all these unanswered questions and for answers to un-asked questions.

Well, that was just a synopsis. Here comes the review.
Since the name is Shoot ‘Em Up, there are shooting sequences in all possible environments in all (im)possible ways. The action is way over the top. Mr. Smith defies all the laws of physics and ballistics in such a grand manner that Mithun and Rajani look like rookies. Some action scenes worth mentioning:

• Killing a guy by stabbing him in throat using a carrot.
• Turning a carousel by shooting at it.
• Booby trapping gun storage cage using wooden planks and ropes.
• Shooting by pulling the trigger using carrot.
• Jumping from an over bridge into a car through sun roof.
• Shooting a hiding goon by shooting another one lying on the floor so that after shooting his hand, which holds a gun, turns to point at the hiding man and fires it to injure the poor soul. Such a fast thinking. Man I am impressed.

And wait for this….. wait for this…. Shooting by keeping bullets between fingers and placing the hand in front of a fireplace. Where the hell did this idea come from man?!!!!! The only fight worth mentioning is the one that takes place mid air when Smith and the thugs jump from an airplane and a gun fight ensues.

The soundtrack is good in some action sequences, but becomes boring and repetitive in most places. Direction obviously is very poor. Davis should try making movies with Van Damme and Jet Li as his cast. 100 marks to the editor for his job since all scenes look the same. How did he manage to make a story out of scenes which are basically nothing more than a meaningless gun-fight? Beats me!!! Clive Owen who has done better movies like King Arthur is a complete waste in the movie. He seems to have carried his role from Sin City to this movie without realizing that Sin City is altogether in a different genre. Monica Bellucci’s role could have been done by any other hot looking babe. Paul Giamatti shines (?!!) as compared to other cast.

There are lot of references and allegories to other classic Hollywood movies and books. Smith is referenced to in one scene being a trigger happy man with no name, an obvious reference to Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dollar Trilogy. Smith eats lot of carrots in the movie and even has a dialogue – “Whazzup doc?”, similar to Bugs Bunny. Then in one scene is the dialog “They had you at hello” – almost similar to the now famous line from Jerry Maguire. Also the name Smith is one of the most common names in England, and as Clive Owen’s character has English accent it is safe to assume he has English roots. This fact is consolidated further by a passing fact that his character’s grandfather emigrated to US and became a gunsmith. That could be another possible reason for his name being Smith. Also in one of the action scenes, Smith falls down a staircase shaft in a manner similar to Bourne Identity. Baby’s name is Oliver after the famous fictional orphan – Oliver Twist.

If you want to commit a suicide, I have better idea for you. Go watch this movie. And if you want to kill your boss, get him a couple of tickets.

Rating Break up:
Acting: 0.5/2
Direction: 0.5/2
Plot: 1/2
Editing and Soundtrack: 1/2
Theme Factor (Action): 0.5/2

Such a waste of time and money, especially when you are watching it alone on a drowsy Saturday afternoon.

The underdogs, the Never-Say-Give-Up Cop and Autobots Vs. Decepticons

The detailed review is in the making and will post them soon.
Just ratings for now:

1. Chak De India: 8/10
2. Die Hard 4.0 : 7/10
3. Transformers: 6/10

Blood Diamond - The Review

TIA. No this is not the usual "Thanks in Advance" that we are so used to sign-off our mails with. This is something more stark and straight in the face - 'This Is Africa'. Yes Africa. The war torn land that has been ravaged by tyrants, rebels, and not surprisingly businessmen alike. A land that is so full of nature's rarest of rare gifts that channels like Discovery and Nat Geo literally thrive on it. But these gifts include Ivory, Gold, Oil and that every woman's best friend - Diamond. Africa, the land that has been gifted and yet cursed. Its precious gifts have drawn upon it an undivided attention of all the greed and power in the world. And with that has come enduring struggle and elusive peace. For so long this continent has witnessed so many bloody civil wars that the people believe that the soil is red because of all the blood that it has soaked for so many years. This is the land that even Gods have forgotten about. And Blood Diamond is a story of this continent and its people.

The Plot: Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a solder of fortune trying to sell some high end sophisticated military hardware to warring factions in civil war ravaged Sierra Leone, a small West African Nation, in return for crude diamonds. It does not matter if he is helping people on both sides of "The Law", as far as he is getting his cut. These diamonds mined from Sierra Leone's slave camps are then smuggled into the neighboring country Liberia for exporting them to the nations of the West. Needless to say, the whole movie revolves around this particular aspect of the origin of majority of African Diamonds - known notoriously as the Conflict Diamonds, thanks to the Kimberly Process that came into effect in 2003. During one of his misadventures, he gets caught and is put into prison. There he gets to know a local fisherman by name Soloman Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) with a misplaced family during a raid by rebels on his village. Soloman is taken as a slave by the Commander of the rebels to work at a diamond mine. Now it so happens that during his labour at the slave camp, Soloman comes across a particularly large size of the hardened Carbon, pink diamond, which he obviously tries to keep for himself. But the rebel commander finds out about it and just as he is trying to kill Soloman for the stone, the camp gets attacked by Government troops and everybody is taken into custody. But not before Soloman hides the stone in the ground. In the prison Danny is witness to a spat between the Rebel Commander and Soloman, and comes to know about the stone. He immediately decides to buy his way out of Africa forever using the stone, and through his influential connections gets himself and Soloman out of the prison.

While Danny is particularly interested in getting his hands on the diamond, Soloman is desperate to find out what happened to his wife and kids. While pursuing Soloman to join him, Danny comes across a disillusioned American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) who is in search for the inside story on conflict diamonds, her last resort to somehow get the attention of the whole world on the plight of the people in Sierra Leone. Her close ties with UN personnel enabling her to trace Solomon's family makes her a perfect yet reluctant accomplice in Danny's plans. And thus is forged the most unlikeliest of alliance. The already paced movie then goes into top gear, taking us onto an emotional yet action packed journey through the confines of Africa, ending into the three accomplishing their individual missions, albeit with a difference.

But the USP of the film is its gory, realistic and no frills attached depiction of how the terrorist and warlords are hiring young guns to wage their own war. Remember that particularly touching yet shocking scene from Black Hawk Down where a US Marine has to shoot down a young boy brandishing an AK47 in his hands? Ever wondered if it could be real? Well, wonder no more. You will get your answers here, explained in the most brilliant manner possible, through Solomon's son Dia. He is abducted from a refugee camp by the same Rebel Commander who knows about the pink diamond, after coming out of the prison. And he trains him to be a guerilla in his army. The scene where Solomon tries to turn his son's heart and make him remember where he truly belongs is particularly heart wrenching.

Rating: 2.25/2.5

Direction: The director, Edward Zwick, has an impressive resume in Courage under fire, The Siege, I am Sam and The Last Samurai. He knows how to play with audience's emotions very well. There are many heart warming incidents in the film and all the action and reality has been packed really well with the stories of optimism and hope. Though he is trying to put forth a strong message, he never gets carried away. Everything is measured.

Rating: 2/2.5

Acting: There are three protagonists in the movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer has given yet another superb and sustained performance. He plays a ruthless soldier of fortune who has sold his soul to The Devil himself, hardened by personal life experiences, and who will resort to any means in order to get his hands on the stone. Yet, somewhere in an unexplored part of his heart resides a soul that is righteous. The character is not as complex and demanding as the one from The Departed, but he surely delivers a power packed performance. He truly departed from the chocolate boy, good guy image with his character in Gangs of New York and then he has taken it to the next level in the latest two movies. And his consistency in dishing out brilliant performances in a row - The Gangs of New York, Catch Me if You Can, The Aviator, The Departed and Blood Diamond - is worth mentioning. His Oscar nomination is well deserved.

Djimon Hounsou (remember seeing him in Gladiator?) as Solomon Vandy earned a well deserved Oscar for his supporting role, that of a simple fisherman motivated to go to ends of world in order to get his family back. Jennifer Connelly as the journalist has an important role too, but does not get enough footage. Yet job well done.

Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy Franchise) and Jimi Mistry (The Guru) make the rest of the cast.

Rating: 2/2.5

Screenplay/Music/Cinematography/Editing: The story is well written and is successful in conveying the message that it aims to. It explains the plight of the continent, coming on the lines of The Constant Gardener, though in a different way. The story makes a strong statement with the trade of conflict diamonds, and has made me convinced that I need to ensure that my marriage proposal is not funding any arms to claim innocent lives.
The background score is good but not over the top.
Cinematography is the captivating factor of the movie where at one point we are watching a city with bullet hole riddled walls, and suddenly we find ourselves into a country side with green pastures. Some of the action scenes are also very well picturised. Equally complementing is the editing, and we never lose track of the story.

Rating: 2.25/2.5

So all in all a truly touching and impressive movie.

My Rating: 8.5/10
Pity it did not win an Oscar Nomination for the Best Motin Picture.