Just another Gunda Reminder

Movie - Gunda

Synonyms - Movie of the millennium, Movie of the century, Mother of all bollywood movies, Greatest movie ever made! etc etc

Actors - Best of the talents available then, including Mithunda.

Director - Kanti Shah

I feel its my utmost responsibility to remind all my contacts, time and again, about the legendary movie Gunda. I have posted about it quite a few times in the past so I will avoid myself going into its details. The movie was/is highly underestimated and definitely deserves its share of attention every now and then. People need to must know about it. And I am just a small volunteer like million others who will keep on promoting it. For me its a selfless act but it gives me immense satisfaction.

Gunda fan club Orkut community - http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=533182

Great Bong's Blog on Mithunda and Gunda - http://greatbong.net/2005/09/09/mithunism-the-religion/

Gunda torrent on BWtorrents - bwtorrents.com/showthread.php?t=48109 (add http://www. before the link)

Gunda torrent on Desitorrents - desitorrents.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111585 (add http://www. before the link)

But I recommend buying an original VCD which costs just around Rs 70.

IMDB is considered to be the biggest movie database in this universe. Gunda has a phenomenal rating with 9.5/10 points on IMBD as on today(nobody is perfect). And its reflects average of  400+ votes!

Just for stats, other bollywood movie ratings on imdb:-

Black 8.6, KANK 4.5, RDB 8.5, Swades 8.4, DCH 7.9, Omkara 8.1, KKKG 7.4, DDLJ 7.7

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Water

Deepa Mehta's Water is the third and final movie in her elemental trilogy after Fire and Earth.

The shooting caused much of a stir amongst the Hindu fundamentalists in India so it was banned in Varanasi. The movie was shot in Sri Lanka under the false name Full Moon to avoid attention.

Well, the movie has released in US and has done a decent enough business surpassing the collections of Fanaa. It is also acclaimed by the critics. Now most of the times its the tendency of the critics to appreciate a movie based on India only if its based on ancient India and is harsh on its culture. Interestingly, the so called NRIs tend to direct such movies. Worse is, such movies gives an impression to the world that India is still very ancient.

Script remains the strongest part of the movie. It is based on lives of Hindu Widows in the pre-independance era. And it conveys a message(to the world) that even today, quite a significant number of hindu widows in India do suffer.

The movie lacks the pace. There is this weird tinge to all Deepa Mehta's movies. Most of them are based in pre-independence era but the actors behave and speak as if they have just landed from US/UK. It reflects in their body language and the accent. Lisa Ray is no different. But she has worked hard on improving her accent(I think her voice was dubbed when she acted in Kasoor). The chemistry between Lisa Ray and the small girl, Chuhiya(Sarala) is something to watch for. They have a weird accent but still, both remain the best part of the movie. John Abraham is ok. Seema Biswas is good.

According to me, Earth still remains Deepa Mehta's best movie in the elemental trilogy, mostly because of Amir.

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Black Friday

Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday is probably the most provocative movie ever made in bollywood. Its more of a documentary than a movie.

Its based on the series of bomb blasts in Bombay(now Mumbai) in 1993. Its so effective that while watching it, you yourself feel to be a part of the conspiracy! The minute details studied and presented by the director are quite commendable. You can very well judge that the recent local train blasts in Mumbai couldn't have been much different.

Its hard to comment whether banning it is justifiable or not. All it has is the story of how the blasts were planned which most of us are already aware of in some way or the other. But if released now or in a near future, it could create quite a stir considering the recent train blasts in Mumbai. But still, its a must see for the mature audience. And I stress on the word mature again.

Though the movie is banned in India, its copy has been leaked and its all over the torrents for anybody to download. There are rumors that its going to be released in UK this year. And also in India after the final hearing of the blasts later this year but I really doubt that.

Direction is superb. Mumbai has changed a lot since the first blasts. Still the director has created 1993 in a very effective way and it reflects in the costumes, language and the surroundings.

Its more of a team work than individual performances. Still, Kay Kay Menon stands out of the talented lot. This actor has an immense potential and we have already seen it in Bhopal Express, Deewar(new), Sarkar, Chhal, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Corporate and now(then) Black Friday. Its heartening to see natural performers like him amongst the overacting bunch of (ahem..)Shahrukh and company(sorry King Khan's fans, I got a bit carried away).

Hope we will see more movies of Kay Kay.

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