Two Kinds of Endorsements

I have sometimes been accused of having more tolerance for movies than for people. I think my justification, at least to myself, has been that a trashy movie can be shelved and forgotten but the impact of a trashy person can last a lifetime.

However, I sincerely believe that viewers like me, who will watch almost anything that comes out of Hollywood in the name of entertainment, and everything that comes out from Bollywood to curb their homesickness, should take the blame when products such as God Tussi Great Ho are released to the wider world. In the recent past, I have even sat through the entire screening of wonders such as Loha, Disco Dancer, Saudagar, Red, etc. to name a few. And it was with similar expectation or maybe a trifle more that I started my personal experience with God Tussi...

It is beyond my comprehension to understand why Salman Khan needed to not talk, nor scream, nor cry during the movie but screech instead. Or why Priyanka Chopra kept switching her nose ring from the left to the right nostril. As someone with a pierced nose, I can safely declare that getting one nostril pierced does not sort of guarantee the piercing of its twin, no, neither by osmosis, nor by auto suggestion. The supporting cast comprised, most memorably of, Anupam Kher and Sohail Khan. The former played an angry, bitter father, who apparently has a heart of gold buried somewhere really deep inside. So Kher mouths supposedly laugh-out-loud dialogues like, “Arrey jis din meri kali kalooti beti ki shaadi ho jayegi, us din...” Ah! Emancipated times! Particularly true in a country like ours where Bollywood actors are deified, their words are treated like those from gods, and where being fair-complexioned is one of the most coveted virtues. Sohail Khan is, well, never mind. I never did judge a movie by his inclusion in it. But the biggest surprise is Amitabh Bachchan who plays God in the movie. Why at this ripe old age he had to play a half-baked, nit-witted character defies all logic. This is a god, who unlike Morgan Freeman’s in Bruce Almighty, is super zzz inducing boring. He sounds like those pedantic and monotonous teachers from school who went on and on, and as students you could almost imagine the words “NOT FUN” to be engraved on their foreheads.

But a movie that as a viewer I should be proud of and also endorse is the Meryl Streep starrer Mamma Mia! (The exclamation is part of the title.) If not for anything else, watch the movie for its frame after frame of cinematographic generosity. Seriously, this is one of the prettiest movies of all time. It’s as if the creative team sat down and said, “You know it doesn’t matter if they like our movie or not. Let’s just make sure that for the duration for which they are in front of the screen, they should not be able to peel their eyes off it.” Another good reason to watch this movie? The evergreen music, mind you, not the lyrics, of ABBA. Okay, so are you saying you need one more reason? How about the fact that the central theme of the movie as I understood it is, “There is no ‘right’ age for fun. If you think you can handle it, go for it.”

Which is also my ten paisa worth of gyan to you today: If you think you can handle it (life), go for it.