Vimarsh

'Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.' is a 2003 film directed, written and edited by Raj Kumar Hirani. This was his first film. After the success of this movie, Hirani made three more films, each of them more successful than the previous one. On a closer scrutiny, we can identify a common design or narrative technique in all his films. I would like to talk about that narrative technique taking one film at a time. This time, we will talk about the movie 'Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.' The movie was commercially and critically success. Film also wins the 2004 National Film Award for Best Popular Film. It tells a story of a local goon Munna Bhai who wants to become a doctor to avenge the insult of his father. His father also stopped talking to him because he lied about the fact that he was not a doctor but a goon. So, to elevate himself in the eyes of his father and to avenge his father's insult by marrying the Daughter of Dr. Asthana, he decides to join MBBS. He used his hooliganism t...

'Throne of Blood' is yet another adaptation of Shakespeare's ‘Macbeth’. And like, 'Maqbool', here also, we can see nativized adaptation of the play. It is a 1957 film directed by none other than maestro of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has also transposed the plot from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan. Apart from this, he has also made use of stylistic elements of Noh Drama. Noh is a major form of classical Japanese Musical drama and it is the oldest major theater art still regularly performed today. As with setting, director has taken few liberties with the original play, yet the movie is considered to be one of the best film adaptations of Shakespearean play. The film's Japanese name is  Kumonosu-jō , meaning "Spider Web Castle". Like the play, in this movie too, the wife Washizu Asaji (Lady Macbeth) appears to be more ambitious than the protagonist, Washizu Taketoki (Macbeth).  The movie begins with the battle in which Samurai...

Many films have been made from the plays of William Shakespeare. When a literary work or a part of a literary work is used as a base for a film or TV Series, it is called adaptation. It is a form of Translation, known as Transmutation: A change from one semiotic system to another semiotic system. Here written text is turned into visual text, Linguistic signs are replaced by the Visual signs. Few of Shakespearean works have been adopted in Indian films, too. 2003 film  Maqbool  by Vishal Bhardwaj is an adaptation of Shakespeare's one of the best tragedies, Macbeth. Maqbool was Vishal Bhardwaj's second film as a director. The film had its North American premiere at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. And it was also screened in the Marché du Film section of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The film has a great star-cast: Pankaj Kapoor (he wins two awards for this role), Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, and Piyush Mishra. The...

‘Rashomon’ is one of the earliest films coming from an ingenious and one of the most brilliant directors in the history of cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is considered to be the supreme and one of the most innovative milestones in the practice of film-making; he is not only an inspiration to Japanese cinema but also a guide to film-makers all over the world. ‘Rashomon’ was his twelfth film, and it was released in 1950. It is a Period Drama, known as Jidaigeki in Japanese. The film has two influences from the short-stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The setting and the title of the film are based on the short-story ‘Rashomon’ and another short-story ‘In a Groove’ provides characters and the plot to the movie. The movie ‘Rashomon’ marks the entrance of Japanese Cinema on the platform of world cinema. The movie won several international awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (1951), and an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Acade...

“Mahendra Singh: Honor is an important thing to me, even if we lose life. Sharma ji: Good Mahendra Babu. Honor is yours and life is of daughter!” Above two lines is a rough translation of the dialogue in Bihari accented Hindi from the 2010, National Award Winning movie Antardwand (meaning ‘Inner conflict’) by Sushil Rajpal. The film presents, first time in the history of Hindi Cinema, the issue of Groom-kidnapping in the state of Bihar. Mahendra Singh wants his daughter to get married to Madhukar Sahi’s only son Raghuveer. The daughter studies in college. Raghuveer also studies in Delhi, and he aspires to be an IAS/IPS officer for which he is giving exams. His girlfriend from Delhi, Siya, is pregnant. Madhukar Sahi wants Raghuveer to get married to the only daughter of his rich friend. Mahendra Singh approaches Madhukar Sahi for the marriage; he offers up to 10 lakh rupees for the marriage. But Madhukar Sahi insults him and asks him to leave his house. For Mahendra Sing...

“‘Smiling’ (Wittgenstein writes) is our name for an expression in a normal play of expressions’ (Zettel§527). Thus I would not be able to react to a fixed smile imprinted on a paralysed face as I do to the smile of someone who smiles at me in the ordinary course of affairs. A stranger in a bus drops his ticket. I pick it up and give it to him. He smiles as he thanks me. I smile back. ‘No wonder,’ says Wittgenstein, ‘we have this concept [of a smile] in these circumstances’ (ibid.). The significance of the smile, indeed its identity as a smile, is bound up with this background. Remove the background or alter it radically, freeze the smile so that it no longer varies with the circumstances, and you no longer have a smile . ”   (Dilham, 1999: 126) What if, the smile freezes? It doesn’t vary with the circumstances. Do we still call it a smile? Look at the character of Joker, from the Batman comics. He has a smile, a permanent smile. Scars through his lips, that made h...

“The protagonist in “Being John Malkovich” finds a secret door in his office that leads to John Malkovich’s head. He can see everything from Malkovich’s perspective, and given that the main character is also an expert puppeteer, he’s able to control poor John’s body after a few rounds of practice. This raises some questions: where does Malkovich’s conscience go when he’s being controlled by the puppeteer? How is this man able to see through the eyes of Malkovich without him noticing? Where does our conscience come from, and why are we able to control our bodies? ” Just see the questions in a different context, namely Politics. Where does Public’s conscience go when they’re being controlled by the puppeteer (political leaders)? How is this Political Leader able to see through the eyes of Public without them noticing? Where does our conscience come from? Why are we able to control our bodies? Do we have free will?   Yes, but our body could be invaded by other h...