Movies over the Eid weekend

Two major movies have been released over the Eid weekend. “Wanted” is a Hindi conversion of a Telegu & Tamil hit from the Boney Kapoor camp directed by our desi MJ Prabhu Deva which stars Salman Khan. The other film is “Dil Bole Hadappa” from Yashraj films where a 45 kilos and 5 ft 2” tall Rani Mukherjee dresses as a Sikh boy, plays cricket like Sachin Tendulkar and manages to camouflage her identity from 22 strapping Jat men to play in the team.

I opened the two national dailies to decide on the course of action. The first critic who wrote rather well rated “Wanted” at one and half star and DBH at one star. The second daily’s critic rated the same movies at 4 stars and 3 and half star. I was very confused. Last week I had listened to the same critics and watched the movie “9”. I am a great fan of animated films and have watched Shrek and Lion King so often that I can sing and dance to all its tracks. I always cry when I watch Finding Nemo. But while watching “9” I had to focus very hard on those funny hypnotic eyes of the central characters to stay awake. The dark setting of the film had just made it a convenient venue for most of the couples in the hall who were not watching the film, if you know what I mean.

I tossed the reviews at the family. Ma said these critics always rate Hindi movies badly and dole out stars to Hollywood films! She informed me that she had already bought tickets for DBH and was dragging the daughter for the afternoon show. After all how can we Bengalis not watch our dear Rani - she is so wonderful, so talented. Look at how much weight she has lost. She must have not eaten any mach bhaat for a year! I agree that we must show solidarity. We know how difficult it is for 5 ft 2” types with stocky frames to compete with these ex-models who have taken over our lives. Gone are the years where Bengali women dominated the Mumbai movie kingdom. Now we only have a Bipasha and Rani at the top.

And the movie Wanted I ask her? Well Gajini was a great hit as this may also be, but it was too violent for her disposition. But one can never say during Durga Puja – the enthusiasm runs high!