Two movies and a headache

I had the misfortune of watching two movies back to back which almost belonged to two different hemispheres of creativity, intelligence and sheer ‘masterpiece moviemaking’ (a word that can be rarely uttered when you walk out of after a Bollywood movie).

The first one brought my faith back in cinema that thrills and entertains you simultaneously... the other brought me closer to the ‘mindless IQ less’ audience that we have been reduced to by the Bollywood flick-makers!

Kahani is a tribute to all facets of moviemaking ! Be its camera shots that completely absorbed the beauty of Kolkota and then dissipated the spirit of that city across the big multiplex screen! Its story is sheer thrill and suspense rolled into a neat bundle and drags the audience through the entire journey from start to finish! And as for the actors, each one nudges each other till the finishing line with their performances and no jury can make a decision in unison....but in all fairness Vidya Balan’s performance is muted and yet brilliant...no histrionics..no dramatic sobs...just plain humane reactions that strike a chord with the audience...she looks weathered, tired,  pregnant  and beautiful all in one go! The cast almost look like they have been sculpted and tailored to fit each role and they lend that rock solid support for the movie! All in all, as the credits rolled by, I sat at the edge of my seat riveted by the brilliance of the movie maker and content in spending a weekend witnessing a worthwhile performance.
And now I move on to an experience called 'Housefull 2'! My maiden Akshaya Kumar Ritesh kinds movie...I can start off in their defence that the movie met and exceeded my expectations..Forced into the movie hall, I walked in ready for a few hours of mindless slapstick ‘comedy’ (for lack of a better word that I can use in its place) and the creator granted me exactly that! The movie from the word ‘action’ to ‘pack up’ is a slew of scenes packed with senseless witless actions which have no relevance to each other and wipes out any sense of ‘logic’ that the audience can be credited with! The actors (too strong a word for the puppets that dotted the screen) seemed more like amateur school kids doing their ‘action song’ at an anniversary celebration... I was awed at the audacity of the movie maker in imagining that scenes like people falling over each other and pet crocodiles (yes can you believe) chasing people around can tickle laughter reactions??? The plot is astounding in its height of imagination I must confess....characters that are transported from a ship to an island to a waterfall and finally to a resort cannot be imagined by  a ‘less fertile’ mind...some more startling ideas that the movie threw in at intervals were mind boggling (not the Inception kinds trust me)...a  ‘dhakkoo’ (think Gabbar Singh) converts himself into  a ‘Forbes’ industrialist of the year at London...The industrialist converts himself to a ‘dhakkoo’ at his son’s wedding and Prince Charles tries to intervene (‘in the name of Majesty’)..and I can go on but I wouldn’t want to take away the ‘suspense’ for the less fortunate who haven’t had a chance to catch the movie! And as if to add some ‘finishing’ touches to the masterpiece, there are sudden outbursts of ‘morality’ and scenes dedicated to friendship, family and relationships..Overall, I laughed my way out of the hall...gaping at the stupidity of spending crores in making a movie like this and the wastage of talent bundled in legendary actors who were ‘misused’ in the charade..am not sure about the ‘houseful’ but I had my ‘mouthful’ and would have spat them out if I did confront the man behind this performance!