A sincere apology: I couldn’t keep my fortnightly date with all of you last time as I had to take a forced break – a recurring and painful lower back issue had me laid up for more than a week.
Lovely piece as usual. Tugging at the nostalgic heartstrings. Movies based on mass tragedies don’t seem to resonate with Indian audiences as much as personal travesties do. The “rotten system” message lacks specificity and people feel the need to blame individuals. Unlike Gabbar who was formidable enough to require multiple protagonists to team up, Dhanraj didn’t seem “big” enough. For me, the movie just didn’t converge well towards the end even though the characters were etched well.
Thanks, Gopal. That's an interesting take you have there - of Dhanraj not seeming 'big' enough as a foe. Possibly the thing was that Bachchan had become so big that even though it was a multi-starrer, all the events were made to revolve around his redemption first and foremost.
Good read. One of the old films whose story I can still recall. You write the the writers capture the angst of the people against the establishment. I was wondering how they figured this out. Would they use a process to determine the mood and thinking or was it figured out from news papers, TV, etc?
To your question, I guess it must have been a case of their personal struggles and their overall awareness of the political situation. Javed especially is known to be a socialist with a leaning towards communism.
Great that you are back Shantanu . Indeed Kaala Patthar remains one of the most underrated films and you have helped rediscover this hidden GeM. I also felt that good music too sinks with an unsuccessful film and despite songs like ' Ek Raasta Hain Zindagi ' , the overall music too remained unnoticed.
Thanks, Swapneel. The music ... how could I forget to mention that in my post!?! Yes, even the music was quite under appreciated. Besides 'ek rasta hain zindagi', there are a couple of other songs like 'jaggaya jaggaya' and 'bahon mein teri masti ke ghere' which are right up there in terms of having the potential to be huge hits.
Lovely piece as usual. Tugging at the nostalgic heartstrings. Movies based on mass tragedies don’t seem to resonate with Indian audiences as much as personal travesties do. The “rotten system” message lacks specificity and people feel the need to blame individuals. Unlike Gabbar who was formidable enough to require multiple protagonists to team up, Dhanraj didn’t seem “big” enough. For me, the movie just didn’t converge well towards the end even though the characters were etched well.
Thanks, Gopal. That's an interesting take you have there - of Dhanraj not seeming 'big' enough as a foe. Possibly the thing was that Bachchan had become so big that even though it was a multi-starrer, all the events were made to revolve around his redemption first and foremost.
That is true too. The tug between Shatrughan and Amitabh needing their egos as actors massaged by the script perhaps.
Good read. One of the old films whose story I can still recall. You write the the writers capture the angst of the people against the establishment. I was wondering how they figured this out. Would they use a process to determine the mood and thinking or was it figured out from news papers, TV, etc?
Thanks, Sanjay.
To your question, I guess it must have been a case of their personal struggles and their overall awareness of the political situation. Javed especially is known to be a socialist with a leaning towards communism.
Great that you are back Shantanu . Indeed Kaala Patthar remains one of the most underrated films and you have helped rediscover this hidden GeM. I also felt that good music too sinks with an unsuccessful film and despite songs like ' Ek Raasta Hain Zindagi ' , the overall music too remained unnoticed.
Thanks, Swapneel. The music ... how could I forget to mention that in my post!?! Yes, even the music was quite under appreciated. Besides 'ek rasta hain zindagi', there are a couple of other songs like 'jaggaya jaggaya' and 'bahon mein teri masti ke ghere' which are right up there in terms of having the potential to be huge hits.
True that Shantanu