Totally Filmi

zut, alors!

I am a HUGE fan of French cinema -- always have been, and it was further fueled during the time I lived in France.  I own a vast collection of French DVDs.  And one of the directors I particularly love is Francis Veber.

Veber makes comedies.  Meticulously written and scripted comedies.  Nothing is left to chance in a Veber film, and he is as meticulous a director as he is a writer.  And it shows in his films.  Everything has a place and a purpose in a Veber film.  A Veber film is sharp, smart, funny, and tight.

In 2006, Veber released "La doublure" (it was called "The Valet" in English).  "La doublure" is the story of a rich businessman (played by Daniel Auteiul) who has a wife (Kristen Scott-Thomas) and a top model girlfriend (Alice Taglioni).  One day the rich businessman is photographed with the top model by a papparazzo.   But an anonymous guy happens to wander into the shot just as it's taken -- this is pathetic parking valet François Pignon (played by Gad Elmeleh -- and there's a hapless Pignon in most every Veber film, it's his "thing", much like David Dhawan's penchant for twins and doubles -- more on that in a minute).

The businessman's lawyer (played deliciously by Richard Berry) convinces him that they must find the hapless guy, get everyone to believe *he's* really the top model's boyfriend, so that the businessman can avoid a messy and expensive divorce.

Here, watch the trailer (it has English subtitles):

So.  I'm going through Google News this morning, and I stumble across this article on the Planet Bollywood website.  And I'm reading, and I'm thinking, "Oh, cool, they're going to release that teaser trailer along with showings of 'Love Aaj Kal' this weekend, will be cool to see it on the big screen, " and I'm reading and scrolling and reading and then I get to this paragraph right near the bottom:

"'Do Knot Disturb...Fun Lies Behind Closed Doors!' is a zany comedy of errors about a rich businessman who tries to hide his extramarital affair with a supermodel. To save his skin, he bribes a waiter into pretending to be the supermodel's boyfriend.  What follows is a series of mistaken identities and misunderstandings, culminating in one mammoth laugh riot."

Hello?  Hello?  And then I go and watch the teaser trailer (no subtitles, but I think you'll get the drift if you've watched the trailer for "La doublure"):

And I'm thinking, "How amazing is it that my two cinematic worlds collide like this?"

Very amazing.  Indeed, very amazing.

(Just an additional FYI:  I'm guessing Riteish Deshmukh in the Gad Elmeleh role, Lara Dutta as the model/girlfriend, Sushmita Sen as the wife, and Govinda in the Daniel Auteiul role.  Which, on some levels, is not a stretch.  One day I'll have to compare their careers/acting, it's not as far-fetched as you might think...)

i may not know much about art, but i know what i like

In fact, it's not art so much, but Hindi film music that tends to be my weak spot.

(Aside:  someone who *does* know a thing or two about it is Filmi Girl.  Her podcast is terrific.  Go listen. I'll wait, go listen to her, then come back here.)

One day I'll think it through a little better, but I do think there's some connection between how I feel about a movie's soundtrack and how I feel about the movie, but so far, it's just a vague feeling, not something I've tried to document in any way.

Two recent soundtracks that have had steady play around here (and everywhere else, it seems) are those of upcoming films "Kaminey" and "Love Aaj Kal".  And both of them have something in common:  the first time I listened, I thought, "Oh. Well.  Okay."

And then I listened again.  And again.  And again.  And then the picturisations started coming out (little by little), and I was completely hooked.  The two soundtracks are playing constantly. 

Of course, "Kaminey" features two songs with Sukhwinder Singh, and you know, I would listen to Sukhwinder Singh sing the phonebook and adore it, so there we are.  But in the case of "Kaminey", I love the edgy feel to the music, it seems to suit the vibe of the film so much.

Here's a taste -- the song that's been playing *everywhere*, "Dhan Te Nan", sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani and Robert Bob Omulo (Music Director:  Vishal Bhardwaj, Lyrics:  Gulzar):

You can listen to all the songs on the soundtrack here.

Okay, next up: "Love Aaj Kal".   Oh, I cannot tell you how the marketing and publicity have worked their magic on me.  Little by little, I have fallen in love with the promos, the stills -- in fact, the wallpaper on my computer is currently this:

 

Is that not so adorable?  For the non-Hindi among us, the title means "Love Today and Yesterday".  "Pyaar" means love.  So you have one love story set in 1965, symbolized by the glass of chai, and you have the other love story, set in 1995, symbolized by Yer Fancypants Cuppa Cawfee.  I love it.  So simple, and so effective.

The music, too, has that "yesterday/today" kind of feel, and I love it all, but probably no cut more than "Twist" (sung by Neeraj Shridhar, Music Director: Pritam, Lyrics: Irshad Kamil):

(That's just the trailer featuring "Twist", no full videos are available that I could find, but it gives you a taste.  More of the soundtrack here.)

And yes, the soundtrack of "Life Partner" is growing on me, too.   Also Pritam as Music Director.  Probably not as good as "Love Aaj Kal", but I've only heard it the once.  So far.

Totally Filmi Episode 009 - No Shortcuts

Episode 009 - No Shortcuts (audio file format: 192 Kbps mp3 - duration: 28:30 [mm:ss] - size: 39.2 MB)

Shownotes:

WARNING:  This episode contains spoilers and a couple of bits of language that are NSFW/NSFK.  No, I won't make a habit of it, but I think it was warranted, in this case.

And a couple of funny things happened in the ten days since I recorded this episode:  first, I did manage to rent a copy of the Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy starrer "Bowfinger" -- and it is a good film.  So good, in fact, that I'll be buying my own copy for our collection.  As for what it inspired in either of today's films, well, not a lot -- oh, well, I can imagine Sreenivasan wondering how to finish up his own movie, and watching "Bowfinger", and thinking, "My climax!  I've got my climax!" much as his character Udayan does, but beyond that?  Not much.

Nor does "ShortKut: the Con is On" share much with "Bowfinger", either, beyond that tag line.

Now, the second thing:  I flipped on the television last Sunday to find the film "Phir Hera Pheri" on OMNI2's Bollywood Freetime Cinema.  The thing that struck me?  It was directed by Neeraj Vora, who also directed "ShortKut".

And had I seen that film before going to the cinema to see ShortKut, I would have realized two things:  Neeraj Vora makes noisy films full of caricatures, and I am probably not in the target market for a Neeraj Vora directed film.

Okay, so time for a little bit of "compare and contrast".  Two videos.  The first, "Penne en Penne" is from the Malayalam film "Udayananu Thaaram", and features Sreenivasan and Meena.  The premise is that they're filming a picturisation from that fateful first film they're working on together, and captures a lot of what's going on in the film, from Rajappan's inability to dance, his awful costumes, and his sessions with his acting guru, all while poor Udayan is working hard, not realizing his film has already been stolen out from under him:

And the equivalent moment in "ShortKut", the song "Kyun Hota Hai Dil Deewana":

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Attributions:

Adnan Sami Khan
"Lift Kara De" (mp3)
from "Kabhi To Nazar Milao/Bheegi Bheegi raton Mein"
(OSA)

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More On This Album

Hadiqa
"Dupatta" (mp3)
from "Roshni"
(OSA)

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More On This Album

"Tablas-Very Sharp" recorded by hammerklavier and uploaded to The Freesound Project

"Cartoony sound from stretched steel wire" recorded by bahgheera and uploaded to The Freesound Project

"Cartoon style whoosh sound" recorded by man and uploaded to The Freesound Project

"Cartoon headshake" recorded by Cartoonguy11 and uploaded to The Freesound Project

"Sad trombone sound" recorded by Benboncan and uploaded to The Freesound Project

Theme music and intro voiceover by John Meadows, host of the podcast "On The Log"

really, i'll be moving on from Govinda any moment now. really.

No, I didn't plan on this, but the latest episode of the podcast is taking me a little longer to put together -- okay, I did manage to record it today, but there was a problem, and I'll have to redo it.

So, I've been looking at the first videos that have come out about the upcoming film "Life Partner" -- and I was delighted to find that it's going to actually turn up at the Hindi cinema (though the same day as "Kaminey".  Boy, do I wish I still lived in Toronto.)

But.  Seriously.  I like Pritam as a Music Director, and I think this could be a lot of fun.  Oh, well, or a complete disaster, but how bad can things get after "Kambakkht Ishq" and "ShortKut"?

Don't answer that:

BTW:  There's supposed to be some secret around the actress who'll be opposite Govinda in this.  I'm thinking -- it was filmed in South Africa, his character's name is Raju**, wouldn't it be cool if it were Shannon Esra?  You know, Shannon Esra:

**Edited to add:  at least, that's what the Wikipedia entry for the film said his character's name was.  But now that new info is coming out finally about the film, it would seem the character's name is, in fact, Jeet.  So there goes that theory....though you have to admit, "Jeet" (="conquered") is perhaps a fitting name for this character.

however will I wait 'til October?

Okay, so you *know* that when this went up on the YouTubes yesterday, I'd be obliged to post it:

You know, it's going to be hard to wait 'til October for this.  Darned strike -- the original release date was July, IIRC.

Oh, and David Dhawan?  You want to invite an obscure Canadian podcaster from the middle of nowhere to come see a premiere of the film?  No, really?  (Yeah, yeah, I know, next lifetime...)

Totally Filmi Episode 008 - East Coast/West Coast

Episode 008 - East Coast/West Coast (audio file format: 192 Kbps mp3 - duration: 11:40 [mm:ss] - size: 16.0 MB)

Shownotes:

The Hindi film producer/distributor strike is finally over, and the films begin to stream into the cinemas.  The first two films released here were "New York" and "Kambakkht Ishq", and we went to see both to celebrate.

Both films have their good points; both have flaws.  Today's episode just skims the surface of both -- time will tell if my opinion of either will change, for better, or (more likely, I suspect) for worse.  It's probably damning "Kambakkht Ishq" with faint praise by saying it was better than CC2C -- not hard to do, alas, but probably the best I could offer in a film where the best bits (and there are some very choice best bits) were marred by cringe-worthy moments of true vulgarity and misogyny.  Okay, it has to be argued that some level of vulgarity and misogyny was necessary to establish Akshay Kumar's character -- who is, when we first meet him, well, vulgar and misogynistic.  But it might also be argued that the film went a little too far.

I doubt either of these films will end up breaking into my top ten films of 2009, but so much will depend on the rest of this year's releases.  The trailers promise much, but the films may fail to deliver.  Time, and cinema-going, will tell.

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Attributions:

Panoramic Utopia - DJ Drez & Zaire Black
"Sah Jahta" (mp3)
from "DJ Drez & Zaire Black Are - Panoramic Utopia"
(Say It Loud Music)

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More On This Album

"Hallelujah chorus - Messiah" performed by: Oratorio Chorus; Composed by: G.F. Handel - public domain recording from the Internet Archive

"Tablas-Very Sharp" recorded by hammerklavier and uploaded to The Freesound Project

Theme music and intro voiceover by John Meadows, host of the podcast "On The Log"

Totally Filmi Episode 007 - The Heart Is Canadian

Episode 007 - The Heart Is Canadian (audio file format: 192 Kbps mp3 - duration: 16:65 [mm:ss] - size: 22.8 MB)

Shownotes:

Today, a Canada Day episode, inspired by the Six String Nation project, via the film "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani".

Links:

Six String Nation

"Letter from British Columbia:  The Golden Bough" by John Vaillant (author of "The Golden Spruce")

Baba's Beach podcast

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Attributions:

"Someday Soon" by Great Big Sea from Podsafe Music Network a.k.a. Music Alley from Mevio

Jay Moonah of the Media Driving podcast "noodling" on Voyageur, the Six String Nation guitar, recorded at Podcasters Across Borders 2009 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and generously shared with me by Daniele Rossi of the Stuttering Is Cool podcast.

Theme music and intro voiceover by John Meadows, host of the podcast "On The Log"