London Paris NewYork: A Review

Theme: Romance

Treatment: Fresh, for Bollywood

Verdict: Like

Admittedly the movie in question isn't one of the latest releases of this week or even this month but I finally came around to watching the movie at leisure and with a lot of excitement. The movie in question had appealed as a cute-meet romance with a cute lead pair and hummable music.

The music gets my thumbs up. Ali Zafar did a good job with all his songs, except one insane punjabi dance track in a London pub. This movie is the first in a long long time where I did not want to forward the songs while watching the movie in a format that allows me to.

Coming to the movie, the format is greatly inspired by the two lovely movies called 'Before Sunrise' and 'Before Sunset'. I'm not even sure inspired is a word for it...it is exactly the same! You see no one else except our lead pair throughout the movie(one guest appearance not withstanding) and they talk, make faces, sing, dance, take you around pretty cities and make love.

So where does it falter exactly? I'd say it suffers from major cliches, though underplayed. The biggest drawback is that it isn't a mainstream Bollywood flick but wanted to be one. Suffering from a bad positioning and a wannabe attitude, took this film down.

Watch it not as a usual Bollywood, not as the serious art types but a sweet romance that is cliched yet true.

Make some more movies like this Anu Menon!

Breaking conventions

I was happily stumbling away this afternoon when I came across this post on the uber feminine Disney princesses which had transformed the childhood darlings into these goth punks. It made me wonder if breaking convention was a possibility at all.

The original author of that post claims to be a fierce feminist and proclaims that our perception of beauty and all related paraphernalia was distorted by convention and hence she decided to redo the Disney handiwork to create individualistic princesses. Oh really? How come they all have unnecessary piercings and similar tattoos then? One convention into another.

Isn't it true then that everything, or at least almost everything is a convention? The sophisticated socialite will always have a perfect manicure and a forced delicate demeanour. The corporate swash buckler will always have a fancy phone/car/gadget and a wardrobe full of monotones. The geeky teenager will always have big glasses and know everything about some obscure topic. God! They may be stereotypes, but look inside, look outside, somewhere some part of us, is always so typical!

Breaking away then it seems is a hard job. One risks being an outcast besides being ridiculed. No wonder they say humans are social beings. We lay too much importance on society and what it might think of us.

But one has to agree that breaking away from convention gives a sense of delight and freedom that nothing else can replace. To have not read Harry Potter just because people were breathing, sleeping and eating it. To not obey illogical diktats and do as one pleases. Just a few little rebellions that many of us have done.