Woodstock VIla...and Few Resolutions

Just back from a show of Woodstock Villa. Good ideas do not always translate into great movies and this is a classic example of that. High on the shock value like several of the recent bollywood thrillers…there have been so many of them lately…Race, Naqaab, Raqeeb, Yakeen…One more addition to the thriller bandwagon. Mr. Director, shocking us with high octane music resembling a horror movie is no marks to you…if anything, you agree to the fact that you have to resort to such gimmicks. Yakeen was good, Raqeeb was good too, Naqaab’s end spoiled it for me…Race, less we talk, better it is…and they’re hauling it as the biggest blockbuster of the year already!!! But WV…it is worse than all these.

It is the latest in the list of high on style, low on substance flicks…What’s with the continuously moving camera? As if the Parkinson’s afflicted DOP was let loose on a rampage holding the cam in hands…And the eardrum piercing and headache inducing high-pitched background music? And what the hell is this fascination with Sepia hues throughout? To make matters worse, Mr. Sanjay Gupta it’s so, so obvious that you are not out of your Kaante hang up (BTW, all those Kaante admirers, it was a remake of Reservoir Dogs if you haven’t guessed already…Quentin Tarantino commented he liked this Indianized version…and grudgingly, I’ve to agree to that - grudgingly coz however Indianized and well-made it might be, it was still a blatant act of plagiariasm).

Wanna learn style Mr. Gupta and Mr. Mehta? Check 24. Shoddy, substandard and fake stylized techniques are so not done dammit, especially when we have the best of the world a fingertip away.

Lessons learnt:

1. Don’t ever let anyone emotionally blackmail you to accompanying them to movies. You waste money…more importantly, you waste time.

2. Learn to get out of the theatre halfway through or even earlier if you dislike the movie. A movie which can’t sustain your interests in first 15 minutes is just not worth it. There can be exceptions like the amazingly stupid and not-needed beginning of Agni Sakshi, but the chances that you’ll let go of an interesting movie coz of a dull beginning are one in million.

3. Try to convince your friends that there can be more active and intimate ways of spending time together. Watching a movie for entertainment is great…for spending time together, no…coz it’s one of the most passive activities I’ve known. They may take you for a nerd, but that’s where your ability to convince people comes into play.

Exceptions to all the above mentioned points are acceptable once in 3 months, when you just can’t say no to someone close. Ok, make it once in 4 months. That anyway takes the count to 3 rubbish movies a year.