The Other Boleyn Girl …

The Circadian Rhythm gone for a toss …

It went like this, … gaming got the better of me, so after dinner sat to watch this film with our mr. Hati (for dummys, it’s Samit, our batchmate) at about 8:30 in evening, felt too sleepy when it ended a bit after 10, so dozed off, and woke up at 4:30 in dawn, brushed and came down here in comp room, played a FIFA 09 match in LAN with barca, won it 1-0 in extra time, wrote a testi in Orkut for our Tommy, and here i am

Well, about the film, it’s a historical movie on the Anne Boleyn episode in the British history, the ‘other’ Boleyn being Anne (Natalie Portman)’s dear sis Mary (Scarlett Johansson). I think you can read the story easily (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Boleyn_Girl), so it’s no use repeating. About the characters … Henry Tudor VIII (Eric Bana) was a pure jerk, no integrity or character whatsoever, easily influenced by women, … really, who makes these people kings … i can understand what the people of England faced during his reign. It’s crazy how desperate these archaic people can get for a son, a ‘proper’ heir. And of course, the whole thing happened because of the twisted ambitions of the influential Duke uncle of Anne and Mary.

Indeed, the course of events things unfold are very sad …

Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye !

From the get-up it seemed at first a comedy, with none other than Paresh Rawal in a triple role. But it turned out quite opposite. There was humor, but it’s dark humor. Guess it’s not ‘award material’, but its heart is certainly at the right place.  To me it looked like symbolism. Lucky is the protagonist who sees the world his own way. From childhood he faces petty commonplace people like whom we come across everyday, … some hostile, some as friend, some patronizing … but the common and repelling thing about everyone of them is all are driven by their own selfish motives and try to exploit Lucky’s curcumstances. They do not have heart, and Lucky faces them with quiet desperation. And this very desperation keeps him afloat throughout.

Acting’s okay. There couldn’t have been a better Lucky than Abhay Deol. As an actor he is far better than his histrionic father or  his two brash elder brothers. Needless to say, Paresh Rawal excels as usual. Other actors have been well cast, and none disappointed.

Slumdog … now what does that mean??

Well, i don’t think this film has its heart at the right place.

Mixed reactions, to be precise. A film well put together, i must say, … story, actor choices, direction, music, editing, … all above average, outside the 3-sigma level ( can’t resist ), especially the fourth one outside the 6-sigma lim (here i’m at it again !), as is typical of dear A.R.R.

But … um, there always remains a but. I don’t want to watch this film again, unlike my gut feelings after i saw TZP or Dasvidaniya, or, to talk of Hollywood, say Memento or Dark Knight. This one’ll go down as many other films isaw and forgot, maybe with an added Oscar zing … “Slumdog what ? oh, the film which got A.R. two Oscars ?” (  Surely, he’ll get at least one.) Bas, that’s the only reason my brain’d distinguish it from the umpteen other movies seen. Sorry Mr. Danny Boyle. You did show us a part of ‘the real america’, but you didn’t fully show them a part of the real India.

You may argue, it got FOUR golden globes, after all. Well, one’s due to A.R., and , hm, … i don’t know how much credibility a f**kin’ award like this holds, which gives this movie a ‘best drama film’ award, handing a trash like Vicky Cristina Barcelona the one for best comedy (maybe just coz Woody Allen directed it) ! I mean, c’mon, at least you should swap their categories !!

P.S. Maybe by now you’re concluding i don’t know a hang ’bout films. Well, i can’t help it.