Friday, July 24, 2015

"Bangalore Days" - Its that kind of a movie! ;)

Ok..after hours of work in office and few more hours of work at home, I finally decided to watch "Bangalore days", a star studded mallu flick yesterday after few of my friends harassed me to watch it. You know, just to relax before I hit the bed.. 

It is a good movie - I'll give that.. but not a great one like what I was told! I am no one to judge the commendable effort by a National Award winner - Anjali Menon. But to me the movie is nothing more than a rehash of Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and few good bits from Mani Ratnam; add some Mallu spice and coconut oil to it - you have a neat package called "Bangalore Days". Before you judge me, I can explain it to you..


First lets get to the plot:

Bangalore Days begins with an intro from Kuttan (Nivin Pauly) introducing himself and his cousins namely Divya (Nazriya) and Aju (Dulquer) who share a very friendly relationship right from the childhood.They get separated after their schooling but are reunited at Bangalore after the marriage of Divya to Das. The story revolves around how their life turns at Bangalore.


[Major Spoilers ahead.. DO NOT PROCEED if you haven't seen the movie, or you are OK with spoilers!]


Akshay Khanna x Saif = Dulquer Salman x Nivin Pauly -- this one is wonderful awesomatic aromale mixture I say!


Take the free spirit of Akshay Khanna mix it with Saif's extroversion, add some mallu spice - you get Dulquer! Both Akshay and Dulquer fall in love with 'not-so-usual' heroines of Indian cinema.


                      


Take the hopeless romantic in Saif and mix it introversion of Akshay, add some mallu spice and coconut oil on the head - you get Nivin Pauly! Both Navin and Saif were once betrayed and in love later. Both fall for a foreign girl! 




Vidya Balan from Guru = Parvathy Menon - obvious!




Revathy and Mohan in Mouna Ragam with some mallu spice and a side of banana chips :: Fahadh and Nazriya (note that the genders are reversed). 


Fahadh was a coazh (cool with a mallu nasal enunciation) bike racer with a sad love story - Nithya menon dies. So was Revathy - she was a fun loving girl and Karthik dies. Both those characters are sad in the movie. Nazriya and Mohan misunderstands at first; then make things work.


The Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara connection


First things first, I dont like ZNMD as much as everybody else. I thought it was boring. I don't believe that you need to go road-tripping around Europe or Sky/Scuba diving or have tomatoes thrown at you or have bulls chase you to realize how important life is. A rainy day and an amazing cup of coffee can make you realize that! 


But how is "Bangalore Days" similar to ZNMD? Having gotten the character arc and major story lines from the aforementioned movies, they need sequences to take them through it.. Those sequences are "inspired" from ZNMD. All the characters in this movie including Nivin Pauly's mom come out of their comfort zone. Like how Hrithik overcomes his aquaphobia.. like how Farhan overcomes his fear to meet his dad.. like how his dad apologizes for leaving him while he was a child.. like how Abey Deol realizes he is not in love with his fiance.. Here too there are lot of scenes where characters realize their mistakes, forgive, forget and start letting it go..


I know what you are feeling right now :) .. you must be pitying me for not being able to watch a movie just for the fun of it without being cynical about it.. I know, right? Its just sad!


All these thoughts were going through me while I was watching the movie. Even then, I liked the performances and the cinematography in the movie. 


There is a blatant rip-off of Bryan Adam's "Summer of 69" in this movie - how did that not bother anyone? The music director won the Film Fare that year?! That is incredible! See the youtube video and listen for yourself! 




There is one more song "Ente Kannil Ninaikkai"... which again is a rip off of Carls Bruni's "Someone told me.."

 

Additional thoughts

Why does the movie have to be so slow? I am not against slow movies.. but does this movie have to be this slow? AND LONG? Except for the scene involving Fahadh, Prathap Pothan and a dog; no other scene warrants the slow pace. Were they trying to make everything poetic? Like adults playing with toy bikes? Like sun shining through a glass painting? Like the main trio going to movies? Eating out? Watching girls cross road? Well, for me it was just boring. 


Also - I dont remember Bangalore being that cool like how it is showcased in the movie. If it is now, well and good! I am happy. And how many of us are actually 'dreaming' to go to Bangalore?.. Bombay - I get it.. Bangalore? Not sure. 


Being a 'Tamil'ian, reading this - "You are my kunju!" in the subtitles is downright hilarious! (No offence Mallu friends.. I know this is how you must have felt on seeing Bhagyaraj's "Thooral Ninnupochu" back in the days!)


Having said ALL that, I liked the movie. It is a well executed film. Not engaging or entertaining... but a decent watch. Making a feel good movie with so many stars and under 10 crore budget (year 2014.. ZNMD was made in 55 crore in 2011 and it was not as good as this one), is an achievement. I agree.


You can have it on TV whenever your friends are visiting.. and do your thing not bothering too much about missing the movie. 


Its that kind of a movie!



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