A STRANGE BUT IDEAL COMPARISON

One, my favourite English author and the other, one of my favourite Indian directors. Mixing them together in the same blog was never my idea until now! It sometimes happens that a weird idea strikes your mind and you feel great about it! So did I, when I decided I was gonna write about ARTHUR HAILEY and MADHUR BHANDARKAR!!

First, the Wiki versions-

And now my version-

Arthur Hailey is easily my favourite author of all times. I seldom read books other than mystery, suspense and stuff and I keep looking for some real good ones in this genre. I must say, in this regard, that I am real lucky to have discovered Hailey. The first book I read of his was ‘AIRPORT’ and that was it! I’ve been a huge fan ever since! One amazing book I must say. Not everybody will agree with me coz they felt it was kinda boring and slow. But let me give you my explanation.

Hailey brings out “facts” in his books like nobody else does. Once he chooses a topic for his book, as far as I know, he spends a year or so just for collecting information about it. He then takes another year or so to make up a story with it. And then he writes his book in his own unique style. The first half of his book is usually very slow and languid, he takes his own time to introduce all the characters and give us the complete picture of the theme of the book. Like in ‘Airport’, he describes each and every aspect about an airport and tells us things about it which we could never even know by ourselves. Some weird things keep happening in the airport and there seems to be absolutely no connection between those incidents. It’s only towards the end that he makes us privy to the actual plot of the book and then in the end, he puts all the pieces together and comes up with a climax which is, well, mind-blowing to say the least! Oh and by the way, ‘Airport’ is one of the very few books which are “1-day-stories” and I find that highly exciting! Anyway, so that was about Airport. I’ll come back to it later.

The next book I read of his was ‘HOTEL’. Well, no prizes for guessing what it was about, but I have to tell you, he tells us things about the functioning of a hotel beyond the boundaries of our knowledge about it- right from the restaurant, to the kitchen, the rooms, the reception, the staff, just everything. And it amazes me to see how he can actually come up with a story to link all these specifics.

Anyway, this was the time I decided to read all his books and then they followed one by one. ‘MONEYCHANGERS’ was about a bank and the problems it faced during times of crisis. And then I happened to read a book of his which I felt was even better than Airport and which is still among my all-time favourites. It’s called ‘THE FINAL DIAGNOSIS’ and is about a hospital, and in particular, about its pathology unit. I didn’t find the theme all that interesting in the beginning but the way he takes it forward just left me spellbound! It kept me glued to it till the last page. After that, I read two more- ‘OVERLOAD’ was about an electric power distribution company and ‘STRONG MEDICINE’ was about a pharmaceutical company. I still have to read a few of his books and I’ll talk about them later. Right now to sum it up, he’s one genius whose style of writing has impressed me more than anybody else (probably except James Hadley Chase)!

It’s now time to introduce the second one- Mr.Madhur Bhandarkar! I’m sure all of you have heard about him and watched his movies but might not have liked them as much as I did. But that doesn’t stop me from talking about him, it never does right? Anyway, it’s also the time to tell you why exactly I decided to club these two in the same blog. Madhur is a director who again, like Hailey, chooses a theme and then makes such a conscientious research in it to bring out a movie, which tells us things we never would have learnt of. For me, Madhur did with ‘PAGE 3’ what Hailey did with Airport; made me a fan first-up! It’s an excellent movie bringing out the deeper side of the urban life and the experiences of a ‘page-3’ reporter. Konkana Sen was splendid and so were all the other actors. I agree it did have a few scenes which were quite disturbing and uncanny but I feel they were very much necessary to give us the absolute picture and I don’t think he’s shown anything that cannot happen in the present world. If you can’t take the truth, then you can’t watch meaningful cinema.

‘CORPORATE’ was the next movie I watched and again, just no words. Loved the movie and loved the way he introduces us to the darker side of the corporate world in India. Madhur also reminds me of Sydney Sheldon at times because all his movies are centered on the heroine, and there’s usually no real hero in his movies. Anyway, after Corporate, I missed watching Traffic Signal because of reasons unknown and I will watch it sometime for sure in spite of its not-so-good reviews.

Well, now comes the ‘show-stopper’ movie !! Going by the comparison again, if Hailey : The Final Diagnosis, then Madhur : ‘FASHION’ !! In other words, easily one of my favourites! Again, I know that a lot of people didn’t like the movie as much and I seriously don’t understand the reason. I had nearly missed this movie, and much later after it was released, fortunately got a chance to watch it on CD. It was not just about the inner side of the fashion industry and the various aspects involved in it, it was about the intense emotions behind everything, even a small fashion show. Priyanka Chopra’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen by any actress in recent times and she fittingly deserved the Best Actress awards she got for it. I’ve developed a very special respect for her ever since, and it’ll remain like that for a long time to come. The last scene where she walks the ramp was par excellence. It was one of the most touching scenes I’ve ever seen. Kudos to Priyanka and Madhur!

For me, apart from their 'modus operandi', there’s another big similarity between the two - I haven’t yet seen the best of them. One of Hailey’s books is called ‘DETECTIVE’ and its supposed to be his best! I somehow never find it in any of the book shops. And with Madhur, it’s Chandni Bar. It’s the film which got him the national award and supposed to be really good and his best. Unfortunately I haven’t got the chance to see that either.

But you know what’s the biggest thing that connects these two according to me? Every time after reading a Hailey book or after watching a Madhur movie, it stays with me for a long time. Even now whenever I see something about a plane or an airport, it’s the book that immediately comes to my mind. And whenever I see a fashion show or something of that sort, its ‘Fashion’. That’s the kind of impact these two leave on me. I keep saying this very often in my blogs and I’m saying it again- I’m not sure if you people share the same opinion. You might find these books and movies highly boring. But I just don’t care. I’ve never considered public opinion and I never will. Just hope you liked the way I’ve written it and hope I didn’t ‘bend your ears’. And as always, comments are very much welcome.

PS- It seems Madhur Bhandarkar’s next movie is called ‘JAIL’. Without a doubt, I'm eagerly looking forward to it! But too sad Arthur Hailey can’t come up with anymore books.

SWADES

People have their own individual taste be it in terms of movies, songs, books, clothes or anything else for that matter, and we have no right to forcibly alter their likings according to ours. But SOMETIMES, it so happens that we like something SO very much and then realize that people haven’t actually got the real taste of it. That’s when it becomes necessary to tell them how much we liked it!

We all watch a lot of movies and we watch them for the sole reason that we need entertainment. But there are some movies that are made and are supposed to be watched, for reasons other than mere entertainment. Munnabhai MBBS, Rang de Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Swades are a few of those very special movies that ought to be watched for the simple reason that they’re OUGHT to be watched. (People who haven’t watched EVEN ONE of these, please ignore this blog).

These movies carry along with them, a so-called MESSAGE that needs to be understood by one and all. I don’t want to talk about the first 3 films mentioned above ‘coz there’s hardly anybody who didn’t like them, and that was mainly because these movies had all those extra ingredients necessary to make them a hit. (But still, if you’ve missed out on any one of these by any chance, please do watch it).

But SWADES - well, this movie was never made to make money. In my opinion it’s one of the most meaningful movies made and when I learnt that it was declared a FLOP, trust me it hurt me a lot, not because it wasn't a box-office hit but because of the fact that enough number of people didn’t watch it, and those who did, didn’t like it. It’s a simple movie about an NRI who visits his country after a long time and slowly realizes the grievances of his fellow countrymen and finally decides to do something for his nation. A movie with the same story could have been easily made a hit by just adding a few item songs, a little bit of stupid comedy and a few dances by the leading actors in some foreign locations. But in that case, SWADES would have never turned out to be something as special as it is now and I would’ve never cared to write about it.

I know I'm being quite tardy writing about it now but it so happened that I watched this movie for the second time a few days back and I loved it even more and my urge to write about it became stronger. A few scenes like the one in which the hero visits a poor man and learns about his critically poor condition in life and the scene in which he buys drinking water from a poor lad in the railway station and drinks it – are really touching. If not for anything else, we’ve got to watch this film just to know the darker side of India. Issues like poverty, illiteracy, caste division, etc. are all so effectively brought up in the movie that we actually realize that we have a looooooong way to go. And hats off to ShahRukh Khan for his remarkable performance!

SO, I just wanna say, if you haven’t watched SWADES, please watch it. If you’ve watched it once and didn’t like it, then watch it again. But after reading this, if you happen to watch it again and still don’t like the movie, then please forgive me for the inconvenience caused!