F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Forever!

I have been thinking about doing a post on one of my most favorite TV shows ever, but never really got to it. Finally the time has come to pay homage to one of the best sitcoms...F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

I was introduced to this legendary show a long time after its cessation. Although I am not one of those who followed the show from start to finish while it was on air, I have probably watched all the episodes more number of times. It is almost impossible to get bored of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The more you watch it, the more insight you get into the characters, and the more you love them. You can never get tired of Chandler's sarcastic one-liners or Phoebe's eccentric behavior. Joey will always charm you with his "How you doing?" and his silliness. Monica’s discipline, Ross’s nerdiness, and Rachel’s fashion never get old.  Could I BE more right about this?

The six main characters are brilliant, and so is the supporting cast. The show would not be the same without Janice, Gunther, Frank Jr., Ross and Monica’s parents, Chandler’s parents, Mike,  to name a few. I’m trying really hard to pick my favorite character but that just seems like an impossible task. All of them are so different, and yet so essential to the recipe of fun…it wouldn’t have the same flavor if any of them was missing. That said, I can personally identify a lot with Monica’s character, being an over-organized (read: crazily disciplined) person myself, though I wish I could be as pure hearted as Phoebe.  

Some may find this silly, but I have learnt a lot of things about America and Americans from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I started watching the show when I was new to the US, and I got a great glimpse into the American way of living, in terms of traditions, culture, cult classics, jokes, and even to some extent slang. I was exposed to a lot of different things which I could possibly have never encountered in personal life. It may not have been a perfect picture, but it did give me a head start on fitting in better.

The bottom line is that F.R.I.E.N.D.S. rocks! The show's essence can be summarized from its name. Here’s my two cents worth on what the name symbolizes

Freaky Phoebe

Riotously funny Chandler

Idiotic Joey

Elegant Rachel

Nerdy Ross

Disciplined Monica

Superb Supporting Cast

90% Talent, 10% Luck

I must admit that like so many other girls, I was swooning over Farhan Akhtar after watching “Rock On”. I was waiting to see more of him in Bollywood. That’s the reason I jumped on the first opportunity I got to watch “Luck by Chance”.  

It is a good movie, rocking debut for director Zoya Akhtar, and another feather in Farhan’s cap. The film has all the ingredients of a masala movie, and yet it is not spicy enough to cause heartburn. Everything is just right.  The story progresses at a steady pace and is well executed by the cast. Farhan has done a tremendous job as the not-so-perfect struggling actor. Konkona has done a swell job as usual. Among the others, especially worth a mention are Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, and Arjun Mathur. Although Juhi Chawla was great, her immense talent was totally wasted in that role.  I wonder if Isha Sharvani was acting or being herself…in either case there is not much to talk about her abysmal acting skills! Among the cameos,  Anurag Kashyap, Shahrukh Khan, Hritik Roshan, and Karan Johar got the meatiest ones.

Although this is a great effort on Zoya’s part, this film reminded me of Madhur Bhandarkar’s style throughout. It is usually he who wants to show people “the other side of things” and is one of the best  at it.…be it Fashion (the other side of the fashion industry), Chandani Bar(the other side of bar girls’ life), Page 3 (the other side of the glamour world), Satta (the other side of politics), Corporate(the other side of the big industrialists), and so on. 

Every once in a while I was comparing the progress of the storyline of Luck by Chance to that of Fashion and I found lot of similarities. For example, the transition of Farhan’s character from a simple Delhi boy to a selfish and uncaring star was parallel to the transition of Priyanka Chopra’s character in Fashion.  Also Konkona’s character was a female counterpart of Arjan Bajwa’s character.  

Also, every time I saw Arjun Mathur’s character (Abhimanyu) on screen, I felt that there was something more about him coming, and that he would add a possible twist to the story, but it never happened! He was giving out mixed signals throughout the movie, as if something important involving him was in store.  However, that’s just a minor glitch, and so is the not-so-great music of the film. Other than that, I loved the movie.

Lots of people have been complaining about how they didn’t like the end of the movie. I felt that it was totally justified. In the movies of this genre, it is not about a “..and they lived happily ever after” kinda ending,  but rather, it is about practicality and realism. The end really tied it all together.

All in all, Zoya has done full justice to the story. Not once did I feel that someone else could have done it better.  Farhan is as charming and cute as ever.  Konkona is an amazing actress and simply reiterates that fact. Most of the supporting cast is also “all star”. Apart from Farhan, Arjun Mathur seems like the one to watch out for in the future. He has a lot of potential.  

Overall, this venture is not a lucky success – it is a big scoop of talent sprinkled with a pinch of luck. 

Slumdog Millionaire for the Oscars...Really???

So many people were raving about the greatness of the new movie "Slumdog Millionaire" that I was desperate to see what's so good about it! When I finally got a chance to watch it, I was disappointed! I was trying very hard to understand what was so outstanding but failed to do so.

I'm not saying that it was a bad film, but, there was nothing extraordinary either. To me, it looked like a tweaked, tad glamorized version of Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay". Personally I think that "Salaam Bombay" was very powerful and portrayed the life in slums of Mumbai as realistically as possible. The authenticity of the film lay in the fact that many of the child "actors" were actual street kids, and of course some stellar performances by actors like Nana Patekar and Raghuvir Yadav. "Slumdog Millionaire" failed to make the same impact on me.

First of all, a westerner making a film on life in the underbelly of Mumbai sounds like a strange phenomenon in itself. Some might argue that Mira Nair is also a westerner, but being of Indian origin can make a huge difference. An Indian can identify with certain aspects of Indian culture and society that might seem alien to a westerner. However, that's not the primary reason for me to dislike the film. I felt that the lead actor Dev Patel was too “polished" to be a "slumdog". Although he played the part well, the hint of a British accent in his dialogue delivery bothered me quite a bit all through the film. A thought crossed my mind one too many times that if Jamal (Dev Patel) was so sharp, intelligent, well-versed, with a good command over the English language, why the heck was he still working as a chaiwala? And since when did the questions on "Kaun Banega Crorepati" become so simple? If that was the case, India would be overflowing with millionaires! I also felt that the arrogance and sarcasm of Anil Kapoor's character was a bit overdone and a total contrast to the behavior of actual hosts of KBC like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan.

On the bright side, the overall plot was pretty decent, and most of the actors did proper justice to their parts. A.R.Rehman's music score was good. The film-makers managed to successfully capture various facets of street-life in Mumbai.

All that said, does the film really, really deserve to be nominated in so many categories? Or is it getting all this extra attention simply because it is made by a westerner? As an overall experience, I felt that from the past few years, "Taare Zameen Par", "No Smoking", "Manorama Six Feet Under", or for that matter even "Dor" would have been better candidates for nominations.

All said and done, to end my thrashing of this film, I would say that in my honest opinion, all the hype and hoopla about "Slumdog Millionaire" is a plain case of "much ado about nothing!"