Santa Singh
One
Have a look at this lady [photo top: right]. She has acted in renowned and mostly-art-house filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s ‘Well Done Abba’. You would say that she is in the movie because she is pretty, graceful or beautiful. But then you learn that she has had a nose surgery done to rectify the nose that Mr. God gave her. While there may be something or nothing wrong in that (I find her pretty), it means that she…
Santa Singh
(On Amitabh Bachchan being hounded by a political party
Read: One, Two)
Hello ____ (insert your name here). How are you. Come, we will now embrace. Say (I wink), the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world eh?
(You look blank)…uh of course… Earth laughs in flowers. Heh heh heh…
Which flower?
Um… sorry?
Which flower does the earth laugh in.
Oh it’s a quote by Emerson.
(I shout) No WHICH flower does the earth laugh in.
Ummm……
Santa Singh
Cinema should inspire new thoughts and discourage blind adherence to custom. Right?
If you accept the compliments of somebody, then you must also accept their abuses. Fair.
When a critic tells you that you are a non-understandable movie-maker, you take offence and abuse and rant about the critic, in this case a well-known film-critic. But then he tells you that your latest film is amazing and you thank him!
Something is amiss. Aren’t you, then, directly telling the film-critic that he must praise your films or else you will abuse his thoughts?
Santa Singh
Yes, Dev D is a very good movie. I wonder why it is being appreciated by many people; seems odd when other light-weight feather-type films make so much money in India. But as the popular saying goes in Hindi.
“time time ki baat hai pyaare”
(it’s all a play of time)
In time, we will know more about good films that were ignored by movie lovers.
Dev. D fans are talking about the movie breaking taboos and bringing a ‘new wave’ in Hindi cinema. Well, there have been movies that have done that before with respect to women liberation. I guess most fans have not been tuned to films of Amol Palekar. Of course, he is a low budget, art film-walla. So many people won’t go to theatres to see his movies. But they will recognise the liberated woman when they see her on screen, embellished with music and songs. Women liberation is not to be searched. It is to be waited for and then when given, it is to be applauded. Till the next time.
Santa Singh
It is difficult to make friends who are free of any associations. All of us feel strongly for some institution or the other; religion, political party, language and even food.
Let me give you a recent example. A Muslim talked to me about problems faced by ‘his people’.
Santa Singh
[Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing *** people and injuring *** more.] Source
God bless terrorists! Without them, the country is plunged into darkness. Maharashtra is fighting Bihar and Karnataka is fighting Tamil Nadu. Or somewhere in north-east India, separatists are killing tribals. In Orissa, Christians and Hindus are blaming each other for communal tension. When terrorists strike, all these factions become united for a short time. So God bless terrorists.
Santa Singh
Outside a cinema hall, when the audience had finished braving another terrible Hindi movie, I walked towards a water cooler and found a young man, clad in a plain white shirt and faded jeans, reading some lines aloud.
These were not ordinary lines. They sounded like typical Hindi film dialogues. I wondered if this man would go on to become an actor and subject us to more atrocities. I felt like smashing his head then and there.
Santa Singh
Diwali is time for shy men to become brave hearts. My two friends decided to be generous and give a box of sweets to a girl.
About these two boys: They seldom talk to anybody. One of them is bespectacled and doesn’t tuck his shirt inside his trousers unless there is a formal function. He walks timidly, miles away from girls. The other one is a devotee of his friend. He is tall and lanky and very supportive of all forms of cowardice.
Santa Singh
Some female acquaintances remarked that women have no reason to walk late at night and behave like **u** (the word) and attract attention.
I told them, “That’s because you want to get married and stay at home. You are working right now only to attract the highest earning man and make his home. All you are interested is in money and wealth.”
They didn’t respond and I continued casually.
“You can say that women can stay at home because you won’t mind doing so.
Of course, the home has to be wealthy and your friend circle influential.”
“You are a dog”
“You can’t get a girl yourself so you are…”
“You don’t know how to talk to girls”
Santa Singh
“Just because modern physics doesn’t say so, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
–Vikram Bhatt (director of 1920) with his deep insight on ghosts
The following story is probably better than all those films you’ll watch in plush multiplexes.
With this confidence, I present some films that you think would try to aim high and achieve some milestone. But I have a feeling that you’ll still have to rely on the popcorn for that ultimate movie experience.