Of Borat and Don

Welcome back! So, I watched Borat, Don and Match point recently. Borat is making waves all over the world. It was made on shoe string budget and it has taken box office by storm , breaking all previous records. It has lot of vulgar, crude, racist and toilet humor which has both amused and offended many a sensibilities. Already billion dollar suits are in progress by kazakhistan government, romanian villagers on whom first few sequences were shown ( they are suing because sasha paid them mere 4 dollars per person for those scenes), some jewish organizations and so on. Borat actually doesnt spare anybody, not even jews, and mind you Sasha cohen ( writer , actor and the man who made Ali G famous) is himself a british jew.
Iam really amused by it’s stupendous success..I guess it once again brings to the fore the fact that Hollywood has reached it’s saturation in terms of it’s creativity ( Havent we heard that before). No, seriously just analyze the kind of movies which have done well at box office in last decade or so..isnt it all primarily superman, spiderman , aliens entering earth kind of stuff . Where are Casablanca’s or sweet old Apartment kind of movies.
One word of caution though..dont watch Borat with your gf/bf..
Don..ofcourse I had to watch it..It was made by Farhan Akhtar. This guy gave us iconic DCH and less successful, but equally good, Lakshay. From the time he announced Don, I knew this time he is following more of his emotional instincts rather than creative ones. Emotional, I say because he made Don as a tribute to his father’s exceptional script writing abilities.
He tried different genre…different from the realistic and entertaining DCH and Lakshay. Has he succeeded? I think yes, he has to a large extent. The movie was stylish, fast paced, cool and with extraordinary twists. If you wanted to see a realistic gangster movie, you will be disappointed . Common, he didnt set out to make a realistic movie. Also, with that script and larger than life characters, can anyone make a realistic movie?
Now, coming to comparisons.. I think this movie is far more sensible and logical than earlier don. Are you shocked? Iam not. Consider this..in the earlier don, vijay took the role of don and, within few days, started bheaving like him exactly .. something which is not possible. I mean how can a street bumpkin become so sophisticated with some minimal training and observations. So, the point is new Don makes far more sense because a superbly clever Don can impersonate unsophisticated vijay but not the other way around. Also, remember that extremely preposterous scene in the earlier one where one legged Pran walks over the thin lane with two children hanging over him? I mean that was one of the absurdest and hilarious scenes I have seen in hindi movies..atleast this Don doesnt contain that kind of nonsense in the name of cinematic liberties.
Coming to actors, ofcourse , Mr Bachhan had more control in that role..but then he is a better actor than shahrukh. Although, SRK hasnt disappointed either. He looks pretty good in certain sequences, and ofcourse, is ordinary and hams in few ones.
Priyanka looks cool..but I liked Isha kopikkar more. Yes, I love maharshtrian girls..oh God they are so beautiful and real. Ya, I know she is konkani not a pure marathi ( My former maharashtrian flatmate rajas , who was from pune, told me about the difference)..Nevertheless, maharashtrian women are sooooooo cool.
This was the first hindi movie which me and elizabeth watched together. She had seen few before..not many. After watching the movie,only comment she made was ” isnt it too long and complicated”. But I guess she liked the movie more than I hoped she would like. She thought SRK was good looking.
In the end,I asked her which of the actors reminded her of me. Common, I wanted to hear something good ( Didnt I tell you, I always fish for compliments from girls ). She paused and said, ” I think one of the dancing ladies”. I hate girls.
Take it easy guys.