Lara is back

THIS SEQUEL to the 2001 hit video-game adaptation, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” finds Jan de Bont stepping in for director Simon West, helming his first feature since “The Haunting” (1999).

From a script by first-time scribe Dean Georgaris, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” finds Angelina Jolie once again portraying the titular curvaceous adventurer. But where the first film saw Croft in a race against the Illuminati to acquire an elusive relic that offers control over life and death, this entry in the series follows the heroine as she ventures into an underwater temple in search of the mythological Pandora’s Box.

Unfortunately, once she secures the legendary artefact, it is promptly stolen by the villainous leader of a Chinese crime syndicate.

It is then up to Lara to get the box back before an evil mastermind gets hold of it and uses it to construct a weapon of catastrophic capabilities. Gerard Butler, Djimon Hounsou, and Noah Taylor head up the supporting cast. Produced by Lloyd Levin, the film will hit the city’s cinema halls on September 5.

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“Bad Boys II”

A SLICKLY produced film — no question about that! But long winded car chases, slow motion bullets that go through objects, bad guys’ heads and excruciatingly loud conversation peppered with foul language, doesn’t exactly make a good film.

That too when a pathetically weak story line is the only excuse for all that action. What is worse is that the entire exercise makes cops, black ones at that, look a bit kooky. Even if they do manage to trap the horrible, whacko, unkempt looking drug lord in the end.

But one does not even want to start picking apart the plot — or this film would fall into pieces in seconds. Lots of things don’t make sense here, but then, that is the way the cookie crumbles. Car chases that last almost 10 minutes, that too with about 22 of them, and there is a boat as well thrown in for good effect; a sexy undercover agent with long lashes and a different bikini for every assignment; a bad guy who lives in Florida and Cuba all at the same time— inconsistencies abound. And into this mindless scheme of things there is humour – of the worst kind! And then there is gore that is rather revolting. One unfortunate Russian drug dealer Alexei (Peter Stormare), who refuses to toe the line, finds one of his men cut and stuffed into a leaky tortilla box. Later, the two protagonists (the cops) of the film are shown waving the lone cut finger around! And when they are pulled up by the chief for strewing bodies all over the roads they say, “Hey, but they were dead before we ran over them!”

There is this Cuban fellow Johnny Tapias (Jordi Molla) who hides shipments of ecstasy in cadavers and fills caskets with drug money. He finds it tough to get all this out of the U.S. to Cuba where he has bought the military to guard his palatial house and gardens. And then, there is Syd (Gabrielle Union), an under cover agent posing as a money launderer trying to get close to Tapias with the promise of more things if he obliges to share secrets with her. And a hardened criminal like Tapias of course, won’t know about her identity till the end! Assigned on this drug case are two cops — Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) — they are part of a high tech task force to stem the flood of ecstasy into Miami. And they uncover a conspiracy with Tapias heading the nefarious activities. Obviously he will kill anyone who stands in his way. Making matters worse is Syd, Marcus’s sister who is caught between finishing her assignment and her brother and her boyfriend, Mike. And when Syd’s cover is jeopardised, it is up to the duo to rescue her.

While Will Smith and Martin are supposed to bring in the humour element with their constant bickering and squabbling — it does not turn out that way. In fact, they are downright irritating – and one supposes that when they get out of hand, explosions drown their dialogue. With the camera jiggling, zooming swinging and spinning and with some slow motion shots— director Michael Bay keeps the pace up so that audiences can’t really figure out who is shooting whom and which building is being destroyed with the most noise.

Back to the story! Once Tapias figures out that Syd is an agent, he whisks her away to Cuba and threatens brother Marcus and boyfriend Mike to let go of him or else… . Well then half the department is taken on a secret mission to Cuba to rescue Syd and to completely destroy Tapias and his stronghold — all told very graphically and with several more of chases, shootouts, fire and crashing buildings.

CHITRA MAHESH

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Unusual beats

Compilation albums are flooding the market, and music companies are looking for offbeat themes to impress listeners.

WITH THE onslaught of film music and Indi-pop albums, the market for international music in India has been stagnant of late. Music companies these days are only happy to invest in compilation albums. And customers are happy to get music from a handful of artistes in one album, which would cost much more to buy as individual products of each artiste.

This trend can be seen in the number of Max, Now, This is Trance, DJ Files, and other compilation series, which are released almost every six months. With increasing competition, music companies come up with unique, imaginative ideas to attract buyers. This week’s column features two such albums, which have off-beat themes.

The first album is a collection of 18 hand-picked songs, which are meant to make you “feel happy”. Surprised? Don’t be. Instant happinessis what The Feel Good Album (Sony Music, Cassette, Rs. 135) guarantees you. It is a collection of songs which have an easy, light flavour running through them. But then, they are not slow at all. “I’ll be There For You” by The Rembrandts (From the Friends TV Series), “Turn Off The Light” by Nelly Furtado, “Getting’ Jiggy With It” by rap guru Will Smith, and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child are the major songs on side A.

The other side begins with the track “Dreams” by Gabrielle, followed by “Crush” by Jenifer Paige, but picks-up tempo with “You’ll Be Mine”. It then takes you on a wild ride with “Rapture” by IIO and “Shiny Disco Balls” by Who Da Funk, finally ending with “Heaven” by DJ Sammy — all current dance-floor favourites.

Another album with a similar theme is Around The World – A Musical Trip (Sony Music, Cassette, Rs. 135). It features 16 tracks, which contain musical influences from around the world. In other words, each song features musical styles of one particular country. Most of the songs featured have been commercially successful.The very popular “Sweet Lullaby” by Deep Forest representing France, Safri Duo’s “Played-A-Live” representing Denmark, and “Gurus of Peace” by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and A.R. Rahman (from Rahman’s Vande Mataram) representing Pakistan and India, are among the tracks featured in this unique album.

A. VISHNU

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A creative outlet

The Cul-week, organised by the students of the Mount Carmel College, put to test the participants’ creativity, sense of humour, and wit.

Painting an unusual canvas. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

THOUGH IT was a cloudy day the Mount Carmel campus was bright in spirit and colourful in its ambience. And it was interesting to see that the college, which is contemporary in its outlook, adorned a retro look on that particular day. There were young girls dressed in wrap around skirts, straw hats on their heads, large chunky jewellery, figure-hugging salwars, and, so on trying to recreate that 70s look, which was also the theme of the festival. They were walking around in groups, witnessing an on-the-spot competition, and cheering their peers. It was the concluding day of the college’s first intra-college fest for the academic year.

Called the Cul-week, the five-day fest was completely organised by the students and was held between August 18 and 22. The aim, said Christine D’Souza, President, Student Union, was to recognise talents in different fields and to encourage them to participate in inter-collegiate events.

So there were various contests such as debates, writing picture captions, painting, jewellery designing, and so on.

Some of the contests were interesting as they put to test the participant’s sense of humour and wit. For instance the Tall Tales was where students had to literally build tall tales on topics such as “When cool macha met Pamela Anderson”, and “The shop ran out of Dabur Lal Dant Manjan”. What one observed was that there was no such thing as a generation gap between the faculty, who judged the events and the students. The girls boldly expressed their views, while the teachers graciously smiled and enjoyed the naughty remarks.

The personality test was a big hit with the students. It had six rounds in which the students were expected to come up with a creative self-introduction. Talent round and prop round were the other features of the personality contest. “It was great to be on stage and fun to be challenged with these rounds,” said the participants.

To make the event more special the students decided to dress according to a particular theme each day. Day one was called the Municipality Day, and the girls came dressed as sweepers, bus conductors, painters, and politicians. Next it was bridal-wear. The third day was dedicated to checks and stripes, and the fourth was Bollywood Unlimited — a day when girls came dressed as their favourite stars.

The 70s look. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

With all this fun and frolic, the students also had a few contests that were dedicated to the classical arts. Decibles tested the various styles of singing in Western music. This will help us identify talents for the college choir and also bring together singers of various styles on to a common platform, said Priya Mohanty, Vice-President, Western Music Association. “Our aim is to make music a shared experience,” she added with a smile.

Classical dance (solo and group), mock press where the student dons the role of a popular personality and answers the question thrown at her, surface ornamentation, etc. were the other contests that kept them busy.

So who decides the style and the topic for the contests? The college has over 30 associations such as Western classical association, literature association, and journalism association, to name a few. And each association decides the topic or the theme for a particular competition, explained Ms. D’Souza.

SHILPA SEBASTIAN R

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It is absolute passion for cinema

“When all is said and done and the curtain comes down, I hope I would have made at least one film in every genre,” Nagesh Kukunoor tells CHITRA MAHESH in a t‪te-†-t‪te.

KING OF THE WORLD: Nagesh Kukunoor has made films on his own terms.

HE HAD been plagued by scribes and he didn’t have much choice considering that there were several, including some fans, wanting to have a word with him, especially after his latest venture, 3 Deewarein, which had received rave reviews. And when it was time for this correspondent to meet him after an excruciatingly long wait, he emerged slightly tired, a little dehydrated but not unwilling to talk about the film.

Dressed casually in a black shirt and carrying a backpack, he is unnoticed by the huge crowds. Not that he is bothered.

During the 20-minute conversation, he talks movies, movies and more movies.

3 Deewarein — it was very good. But why did you have to tie up all those characters like that?

In this film, I have attempted to marry two styles, drama and mystery. People don’t like it when rules are changed… So I’ve gotten this reaction from people who I think are just irritated when rules are changed.

I don’t think that is the reaction. It is just that one wants to know why?

Why? Because I wanted to take the rules that we unconsciously accept as drama, as mystery and try and marry the two… sometimes life is stranger than fiction. And within the framework of a fictional piece, it is absolutely possible. Sometimes each action of ours affects a hundred people downstream. And besides it makes for a great story. There are a hundred different ways to interpret a script. But a movie, like anything else is a point of view.

What is the inspiration behind this story?

A documentary on the prisoners at the Yerawada prison in Pune. When the screening was over and the lights came on one of the guys who was in there for murdering his wife, was actually sitting among us. He had been released and I had a long chat with him. And he was just a normal person — like you or me, but had killed his wife.

A person could have one bad day and lives of several persons could change forever. That was the premise for the film. But it took me still three years to actually start writing the script. Have you had problems finding funds for your films?

I have had difficulty, yes. If I stick to what people label me for, which in this case, if you go by the track record, are light hearted films for the most part, then finding money would not be an issue. But if I want to keep changing the rules, after Hyderabad Blues make a film about kids and so on, it will always be difficult.

Have you been comfortable with all the films that you have made?

Absolutely.

What really keeps you going?

Just the sheer love of cinema and cinema of every kind. When all is said and done and the curtain falls some day, I hope I would have made at least one film in every genre.

That’s my target. That’s my challenge. My theory is this. We are generically predisposed to something, something that absolutely makes you feel alive, fires every fibre of your body, makes you want to come back. For some people, its cocaine, for some people its films.

Did you grow up watching films?

MAKING A POINT: Comfortable with his kind of film.

Yes. All the time. My dad was an avid moviegoer. So we got to see Hindi cinema and Hollywood, whatever films that trickled down.

When did you decide that you wanted to make movies?

That took time. Wanting and doing are two different things. It took me forever to pluck up courage to actually give up something that I’d spent all my life working for. So that didn’t come until, I was 26 and from that point I started taking courses, workshops, doing whatever I could. In the U.S., a lot of places offer weeklong film production workshops and stuff like that. So I’d use my vacation for that. And whatever classes Atlanta could offer, especially acting classes.

What is it that really excites you about a story?

For me at the core of every story, I think, are very good characters. I spend an enormous amount of time on understanding and doing character development because enjoyment for a viewer comes predominantly in the form of empathy with a character. Even in the heart of every great action film are great characters. So that really excites me when I start writing. But I never stop and say okay; I have a great character now let me write a story. It’s the story that always comes to me first.

Like in this movie?

Absolutely.

And how did you choose these people? Especially Juhi?

I have always thought Juhi Chawla is an underutilised actress. Incidentally, way back I had a crush on her. If I had my way in every film, I would cast against the type. There are some roles that are written for, like Naseer, like Ishaan was, but otherwise I would cast against the type every time.

And was it easy to convince them?

I depend on my script to do it for me. I don’t try and tell a person how great he/she would be in a role. Let them read the script, see what roles I am asking them to do and if they like it, they say yes, if they don’t like it, no.

And how do you go about directing them? Do you tell them the situation or do you let them react?

It depends on the artiste. I learnt a lot while doing Bollywood Calling. I had three actors who came from three different backgrounds. Pat had every line of the script memorised before he came to India to shoot, Om Puri who comes from the drama background who also had his lines memorised but came with very specific ideas on how to do the character.

And then there was Navin Nischol from the Bollywood world who didn’t learn a single line till ten minutes before the scene. Pat wanted elaborate rehearsals, Navin didn’t want a single rehearsal. Om would go for a rehearsal but then in the middle of the scene, would change things up, which annoyed Pat. In 3 Deewarein, Jackie preferred specific instructions from me while Naseer came with very specific ideas. Juhi made many intuitive choices, which turned out right. As you can see she’s nothing short of magnificent. Would you call yourself a successful filmmaker?

Judging by my bank balance I’m not so sure. But judging by my credibility, I think it’s pretty decent.

How do people react to you?

For the most part, I would say favourably. The best thing I like about any movie is if it generates discussion, if the audience is apathetic to it, I think that is failure? I have no problem with people disliking my films. Many people disagree with some of the stuff I’ve done. And there are very valid reasons why they didn’t like it. That’s part of the game. But none of my films has been brushed aside.

In certain parts of this movie you have used shades of grey and blue. Is that a deliberate thing?

Absolutely. In prisons, the only source available to them in the nights is the moonlight. One or two lone bulbs burn here and there.

Any interesting projects that you are looking at, other than Hyderabad Blues 2?

One is a movie called Tandoor in Hindi that I am doing with Mr. Bachchan. It’s a movie about a cook and a white American lawyer in New York. Mr. Bachchan plays the cook.

What would you say to aspiring filmmakers?

Just follow your heart. Don’t listen to people. If there is any proof that anything can work its Hyderabad Blues.

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