Udaan-

UDAAN Film review

Udaan a film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and produced by Sanjay Singh, Anurag Kashyap and Ronnie Screwvala is a revolutionary masterpiece in the era of harsh corporatisation. With splendid light and cinematography it provides a visual treat to it’s spectators. The jovial mood depicted in the first phase of the film intimidates anyone to recall their high school days.

The protagonist Rohan presented a part of his sheer genius potential although rightly complemented by his fellows Benoy, Muninder and Vikram. Apart from all techinal aspects of the film all that really attracts the attention is it’s smart content and a decent presentation of the fact. Its a spirited protest against so called careeristic approach towards life. It right;y reminds me of Christopher Mc Andles to whom career is the greatest invention of 21st century. It’s useless to elucidate upon the underbellies of so called corporate perspective and tampering of human mindset in lieu of it rather the film relevantly depicts the significance of art and culture to prosper and nourish human civilization.


The symbolisms used by the maker legitimately emphasize on the enormity faced by people having subversive opinions towards this so called career obsessed society. Verses used by Rohan addressed to his dad says..” Zeed ka tumhare jo parda sadakta... khidkiyon se age bhi tum dekh paate....ankhon se adaton ki jo palkein hatate....To tum jaan lete main kya sochta hoon....” Its the anthem of youth of India appealing to their over concerned parents. Its not a protest against them neither a warning rather its a benign request mingled with enigmatic culture and traditions of India. Rebukes and occasional teachings of Bhairav Singh exposes outworn principles of a frustrated father inclined to lead his children to his obsequiousness, this also elucidates on his dilemma between career and humanity which is an obvious conclusion drawn by ideological emptiness resulting in deterioration of human resource (read as mind which allocates other form of resources).

Udaan is such a film that would surely make an itchy feelings in your mind while watching it cause it is a nude portrayal of harsh reality unlike other films. It feels great to see that the viewers of Indian cinema have underwent a drastic change which was literally unexpected a decade ago. Udaan can be tagged as a masterpiece creation as it has been created to showcase hardcore reality and has dared to say “films are not mere means of entertainment anymore”, definitely it provides entertainment but the contents of films have started dominating viewer minds which we get to see in films by Ghatak and Bimal Roy. While it is not a visual extravaganza with scenic landscapes and item numbers rather visuals of Jamshedpur with steel plants and noises from those plants significantly shows the emptiness in human psychology. The small but significant poem named “Chandu ki cycle” depicts the exceptional and minute perception of Rohan as he establishes that things which hardly matters to this grown up world ,has the potential to make a child smile. Even their dream of having a lingerie shop depicts the obsession of children for opposite sex which is quite common in an era ,marked by phenomenal changes in the name of modernisation resulting in decisive degradation of human morale and psychology. There is a scene where Rohan narrates a story to his sibling Arjun while the latter was lying on hospital bed facilitates to have a glimpse of a greater vision. In this very scene Rohan unfolds how he with his friends ends up being robots in the name of education. Recently I came across a hoarding of a school with state-of-art facilities and urging parents to enroll their children while alluring to turn their kids to Bill Gates – its really unfortunate as well as funny on its part when our future Bill Gates are not being evaluated rather they are forced to share those dreams which their parents had in store for them ignorant of their own dreambusiness. The symbolic story by Rohan regarding the castle and its evil minister is an intelligent satire of modern education system where a child is not nurtured to create something rather they are forced to draw lines perpendicular to the planes of paper from various angles of the object giving an image on the paper. It surely reminds me of the wit presented by Kalidas in Abhigyan Shakuntalam as he used to write in an era when anyone couldn’t dare to voice against The King hence he had to rely upon smart mechanisms to convey his message and in the fifth act of Abhigyan Shakuntalam when the ashram boys entered the court with Shakuntala, one amongst them named Sharadvata remarked on the impureness of the court. Hence it is through Sharadvata, Kalidasa conveyed his message amongst the mass and that is also right in front of the majesty. Thus I can’t resist myself from regarding Rohan as Sharadvata as his verses regarding the castle and its evil minister is a deliberate as well as a graceful mockery of modern education system which is being sold as a commodity, which ensure sand are inclined to create business tycoons worth millions of dollars rather than creating visionaries of future who can lead mankind from servility to freedom.
At the end as an ardent film lover I would like to congratulate Vikramaditya Motwane for his wonderful creation and I would also like to thank Mr. Sanjay Singh, Mr. Anurag Kashyap and Mr. Ronnie Screwvala for presenting us with such a great film and hope to see more films like this till we get to quench our entire thirst for “good” filums.


Pawchaa

Madly Bangali

Last day while editing an episode i came across a conversation between dadul da(owner of priya cinema and Bioscope, rajarhat), biswanatha da and saswata da. They were conversating about the lip service provided by bengalis regarding our extincting culture and its losing glory. We often keep on complaining about the films that are being made these days and the lost glories of films by Ray and Ghatak. HOwever there only I gotta know that the prints of "Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen" was refreshed from a renamed studio in Hamburg and was rereleased only to bring back the quality and also as an attempt to provide us with such a beautiful film in this era of "challenge nibi na sala".
Even Multiplexes also nodded to make screening of that landmark film of Bengal industry. To make it more accessible to the mass the prices were lowered to around 20 bucks. Howeva the response from the theatres were really disheartening. There were hardly few people to see the films while other commercials films of nowadays are doing brisk business with their trash.
So wat are the messages bing conveyed thru dis? We often keep on imitating other cultures infact v hv mastered the art of copying others while we hav our own heritage that attracts millions of people from other sections of society. India has often been invaded by French, Portuguese and British. But however inspite of their convincing attempts they were incapable of dichotomizing us from our culture.


Whenever I think of these grandeur, extravagant invasions by other nations then i relate them to large tidal waves coming towards the shore with elegance but with fatal intentions. But the shore must hav the courage to bear the waves and to break it down to pieces and dats wat v did in our past. We had torne down the fatal intentions of those invaders alongwith that a large part of those invaders got attracted to our culture and still now we get to see their descendants right around us.


But the situation has changed drastically. Nowadys without any invasion or attack by alien forces our thousands years old civilisation, our culture are at stake. Our economy is just a mere puppet of US, a single wrong decision of them claims thosands of lives of Indian peasants and workers. The business that are being made by the potters of Kumartuli during Durga Puja is not half of what Archies or Domino's make during Valentine's Day or in the eve of New Year.


Theres lot more things to say bout it .. but the first words that come to my mind wenever I think of it is ...:Hai Re Amar Madly Bangali...."

Film

We all are driven by some kinda thots or politics (dnt tk it in terms of "zindabad" politics) . to me politics is the most inseparable part of our life....a newly born baby to animals we all are engrossed wid dat...

To me films are such a medium to showcase or send our message to millions. To propagate our philosophies amongst the mass. We can do so only when we ourselves r confident of the same. It really feels strange to c ppl getting mere pleasures frm some cheap trash. Though I dont have ne ryt to discuss dis way bt really it dishearten me wen i get to c sum renowned ppl tampering wid the meaning n purpose of films n howeva dis is the trend dat de have infused in our culture.. Lets talk bout films in bengal...audience of bengal had alwaz been very sensitive n reactionary to films since silent era till the era of visual extravaganza using VFX....though time has changed the presentation bt the significance of films had remained unchanged.
Apart frm sum overseas production hardly do v come across ne such indian films dat succeeds in creating the desired the trance in our mind.Is dis all dats xpected frm our film makers??
I blv I shud be the change that i wanna c in the world...hence dats da begining of ma lyf as a short film enthusiast.
Presently im searching for like minded people who are daring enuff to propagate their thots thru films n themselves are confident bout their thots.