always do the right thing...

Do the right thing. Isn't that what we all are supposed to and must do in life? How many times have we actually given thought to our actions and their consequences. Well that's what a supporting character tells the one of the principal characters - "always do the right thing" in the film of the same name. And was it the right thing to do is left to us - the audience.



Do the right thing (1989), set in an multi ethnic community in Brooklyn (one of the five boroughs of NYC) is an ensemble feature by Spike Lee(Malcom X, Inside Man - considered to be one of the truest, unbiased voices in American film). This is as entertaining as it is thought provoking if not more. Witty, humorous, sardonic, ironic, touching, superb dialogues (many tongue-in-cheek stuff) and one liners. The characters are so vivid and distinct that each one of them brings his own flavour to the conversations and eventually to the amazing climax.

The story happens on the hottest day of the summer as reported by the newspaper. The mercury soars and the weather is just right for the tempers to flare anytime soon. Mookie(played by Spike Lee himself), a lovable good for nothing grown up, survives on his sister Jane's earnings while paying visits when likes to his own Latina wife Tina and their 2-3 year old son who live with Tina's mother. Jane, Tina and her mother curse and hate Mookie for this. Mookie though looks to have calm head on his shoulders. He is not a racist, atleast on the face of it. He now works as a door-to-door delivery man in the neighborhood for pizzas of the Sal's Famous pizzeria. This pizza store, in the heart of the inter racial locality is owned by the elderly Italian Sal and Sal says "I built this place with my own hands. I have watched the people here grow on my food, my pizza, Sal's pizza and I'm very proud of that". Sal has two sons Pino and Vito who also work with him at the store and make pizzas. Vito is a friend of Mookie's. Pino detests Mookie because of his colour and race and doesn't like Vito hanging around with him. There is a confrontation scene where Mookie rips Pino and exposes his double standards. Pino keeps asking Sal why are they are not in their own Italian neighboorhood selling pizzas instead of suffering miserably in a place where people hate them. To this Sal says he has been here for 25 years and all he knows in life is to make pizzas and there is no place to go. He says Sal's is here to stay here forvever. Tempers flare and Sal calms Pino, Vito and Mookie and makes sure the business is great.

Everybody loves Sal's pizza though everyone doesn't love Sal. Sal's clientele includes almost everyone in the neighborhood. As the day gets hotter, Mookie delivers them to Senor Love Daddy the self confessed RJ, the African American teenage gang and even his wife Tina who orders purposefully so that she can make her irresponsible husband see her son at her home atleast once. Now come the troublemakers - Radio Rahim, the giant African American man, roams around blasting music from his monstrous radio box about black exploitation and hates Sal for demanding to turn off his jungle music whenever he enters his store , Buggin' Out - who wants Sal to have what he calls "some brothers on the wall of fame". Sal has adorned the walls of his store with Italian American icons. Buggin Out' demands he put African American icons on the wall as the store is in such a neighborhood and they were the ones who spend on his pizza. Sal refuses, Buggin' Out leaves threatening to stage a boycott against Sal and his store.

As Buggin Out' gathers support in the locality for the boycott, many subplots take the film to an altogether new level like - Mookie's sister Jane coming to eat at Sal's turning Sal's entire attention on her infuriating Mookie who asks her never to come at the store again. The very old wise man Da Mayor, always drunk, always humilated by the young, but having a heart of gold makes up to the very old Mother-Sister, the witness to the happenings of the area who detests Da Mayor at first but eventually realises she misunderstood him. The 4 African American teenagers ganging upon anyone they can lay their hands on. The 3 African American men under the tent some distance from Sal's all day talking on and on and on about their miserable state and fuming over the Korean Sonny's blooming store in their neighbothood right infront of their eyes. Most importantly Smiley, a total retard who goes around selling the photo of Malcom X and Martin Luther King shaking hands and telling them who they are. Smiley is insulted badly by Pino at one point though Sal loves him. That iconic photograph symbolizes what this whole film means. What a beauty? The most insane character has the most relevant message.

During one of Mookie's afternoon deliveries, Da mayor stops him and says those prophetic words to him - "remember... always do the right thing" in a very matter-of-fact and down-to-earth manner. Its almost closing time at Sal's. Sal reveals to Vito, Pini and Mookie they had a great day of business and even says he would rename the place as Sal's and sons Famous pizzeria to include Mookie as well. Just at that moment Buggin' Out with Radio Rahim, Smiley barge into the store and along with the 4 African American teenagers already present in the store for the last pizza of the day, demand Sal to put the photos of African American icons on the so called Wall of Fame. Sal doesn't budge. Mookie tries to calm them but all hell breaks loose and a nasty fight ensues. Sal's store is stormed and everything is brought down. Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Jane, 3 African American men come to the scene of the crime. The Cops are called in. Radio Rahim and Sal strangle each other to death. The racist cops arrest the African Americans but Radio Rahim doesn't crumble. They bring him down by strangling by the police cane at his throat. Little do they realise that he is dead by then. Everyone is stunned. The cops take the body and leave in a haste. Sal and family are seen as the villains of the death. The entire community stands in front of him and his damaged store waiting for the slightest trigger to chew them up alive. Mookie, the only bridge now between Sal and the community and very upset at his friend Radio Rahim's death, thinks long and hard about what to do next.

Does he do the right thing? What happens next needs to seen to be believed. That scene epitomises what all the characters and the movie stand for. I can't single out anyone for their acting as everyone from Mookie, Sal to Eddie, the kid act so well that what unfolds before us seems like our own locality. The camera work is terrific in such limited location like the use of red to heighten the blazing heat, the close ups showing the sweaty thirst hungry faces. The main reason why I think the movie works is because of its screenplay also written by Spike Lee. This is an original work. The writing seamlessly interweaves the many plots, subplots, subtexts of the many interracial characters using the American, Afro American, latina, hispanic, korean colloquialism. The dialogues don't seem like dialogues. They are exactly like everyday talk and even in the most intense of situations they don't sound forced.

This movie deserves to be seen just for its entertainment quotient. I experienced a whole gamut of emotions when I saw this. What else one needs from a movie. Once seen it will automatically force us to take a stand on what is the right thing. It won't leave you. A truly amazing work.

Till next time - movies, movies and movies...

the saddest thing in life is wasted talent...

Those words are universal in A Bronx Tale(1992), the debut feature by Robert De Niro (one of the greatest actors of his and of all times - Raging Bull,Taxi Driver) written by Chazz Palimentri based on his own play of the same name.



A gangster movie? Yes. But not the usual mafia, mobs, police, undercover cops stuff. This one is very personal and very different and very intimate and above all a prayer without ever pretending to be one.

The year is 1961. The place is Bronx(one of the five boroughs of NYC). The time in the neighborhood is turbulent with the cold war, racial discrimination, brotherhood. Lorenzo (Robert De Niro), a middle aged Italian-American working class public bus driver has a young impressionable eight-nine year old boy Calegero. He lives with his Italian-American wife in a Bronx apartment. Lorenzo is the everyday common man. He slugs it day in and day out on the job for a better future for his family and his boy, and does with a smile. He is responsible, honest, sincere and is a very proud father. Calegero looks up to him and Lorenzo makes sure he does by choice and not by force. Lorenzo takes him to the ball games, talks about them, talks about dreams, ambition, talent, gives him a ride in his bus around the neighborhood whenever possible.

So it's all one small happy family. Not quite, not quite. Lorenzo fears all that he is doing for his young son might be undone if Calegero is sucked into the world of Sonny(Chazz Palimentri) - the local don, whose den - a bar is by the turn of Lorenzo's apartment. Lorenzo and his wife try to make sure their son doesn't stray onto the other side. Too small to be aware of Sonny's background, Calegero and his young turks play before the basement of his apartment and they see Sonny and his henchmen all the time. As Lorenzo feared, Calegero is mightily impressed with Sonny, how he doesn't have to wait in the queue like everyone to get things done. He tries to watch him, imitate him, attract his attention all the time. He says "people use five fingers... Sonny uses three". But Sonny doesn't notice him.

Then the moment arrives. Right before Calegero eyes, Sonny's profession unravels. Sonny shoots a guy dead on the street in broad daylight over a parking tiff. The cops come and ask Calegero to identify the men they have caught of which Sonny is one. The young one along with his father see each man. But Calegero doesn't identify Sonny.

Calegero feels bad he saved a guilty man. Lorenzo tells him sometimes things like that has to be done to save oneself. He doesn't know his son did what he did because he likes Sonny and Sonny knows this. From that moment, Sonny befriends Calegero, calls him Si(ironically the Italian word for yes), gives him money, uses him as goodluck in his gambling inside the bar, becomes a pseudo father to him and he is different to Si compared to others. He knows he owes Si his life. He always tells Si never to leave school, makes sure he never spills the filth of his business before him. Si loves his new found life, loves Sonny, loves the things his friendship of Sonny has got him.

Lorenzo watches helpelssly as his son he believes is pulled away from him. In a terrific scene he reasons with his young son about Sonny. Si says Sonny is more cool than any other ball player and that the people love him as a hero. Lorenzo, in tears, says that's not love, that's fear and Sonny is not to be trusted and his money is venemous. He says the working man like himself are the real heroes. They are the ones that are really loved and respected. He asks Calegero if Sonny could gain such love by working like him. Both of stand their ground but Lorenzo keeps trying to hold onto his son, still calling him Calegero though everyone calls him Si. He says to his son he would understand all this when he grows up.

Time passes by and the year is 1969. Si, going to his twenties, has grown up in the shadow of Sonny who has become more powerful in the neighborhood. Lorenzo, still with his family in the same apartment, still the bus driver, still calling his son Calegero, can't take the fact that his son is destroying his life with his own hands by hanging out with his friends and Sonny.

Meanwhile Sonny who has watched Si grow up before his own eyes tells him to stay away from his young friends for his own good. Si doesn't quite understand it. Si falls for a African American girl, Jane, in his racially tense locality. He tells his father about it but doesn't get much of a response from him. He tells Sonny about it. Sonny encourages him to take her out on a date in his amazing convertible. He tells him how to judge a woman by her talk and walk. Si is overwhelmed. But his friends beat up the Afro-American boys and Jane's brother is one of them. His date goes awry. He returns the car to Sonny and walks away hurt. Sonny finds something strange in the car and pulls him Si. Sonny, paranoid, thinks Si screwed him up and beats him to know the truth. Si tells him the truth is he did nothing.

That moment opens Si's eyes to the difference between Lorenzo, his own father and Sonny, his pseudo father. The former would never give him up even if Si didn't do a thing for him and the latter would never trust him even if Si did all for him. His fanstasy world of himself and Sonny is broken. Sonny himself tells Si scenes later, he still loves him, cares for him but the only one he can trust is himself in his business. Si breaks away from Sonny.

In the climatic portions, Si's friends are out to do some real damage to their Afro-American cousins. They take him in. At that moment, Sonny like always pulls him out and tells him to stay away. His friends die in a car blast. Si thanks his lucky stars and goes to thank Sonny for his saving his life being flushed down the toilet, when Sonny's profession gets the better of him. Si now realises how Sonny's profession can pay one and also can make one pay.

Si's makes a tearful farewell to Sonny. Even Lorenzo comes to pay respect. He confesses he never hated Sonny but he was angry at him because he made his son grow up so fast. The movie ends with Calegero reciting the lines of the article title and what he has learnt from the two most important people in his life to accept people for what they are and to love unconditionally.

Being himself a part of so many gangster pics, I expected Robert De Niro's movie to be bloody violent. The movie has blood but its not violent. It really is something to have someone look after you so dearly as Lorenzo and Sonny do. Lorenzo's lines to console his son were the most touching. Though simple yet mighty powerful. "Its ok son... come on son... no problem son... we can do this son... don worry son... don't lose it son... i am with you son... i love u son...". Wish people can use such simple words to comfort others rather than giving long speeches which happens very often in the reel world and not so often in the real world.The film brings alive the era of the 60's. Robert De Niro underplays so much that we can literally see our fathers in Lorenzo. Chazz plays Sonny with style but shows his ruthless side when pushed. The boy and the man who play Calegero/Si are perfect displaying the right amount of innocence, vullnerability and the right heart.

The movie shows how the youth can be so impressionable, how they can be easy targets and is like a prayer to all the young turks not to throw away their precious lives.

Till next time - movies, movies and movies...

baanwra mann dekhne chala ek sapna...

Those lines meant for Vikram (Shiney Ahuja) in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005) could be said about almost every Indian who lived between the very late 60's and the late 70's in which this film is set.



This film by Sudhir Mishra is possibly and probably his tribute to all the Indians who amidst those troubled times in Indian history marred by naxalism, emergency, dictatorship, dared to think, dared to dream big, dared to question, dared to revolt against the oppressed, dared to live - each of them in their own way. With this as a backdrop, we see the India of the 60's and 70's through the eyes of three principal characters resembling the times and are involved in an intricate and fascinating love triangle if one may call it say so. But bear in mind this love story could probably be unlike anything you have seen before - at least it was for me until I saw it. It breaks free of all cliches and customs probably just like those times.

Siddarth(Kay Kay Menon), a firebrand educated elite class youth and his young gang want to improve the country as he sick of watching people like his retired-judge father sit and pontificate about the problems crippling it. He wants to bring about a revolution ala Castro, he is ready to go to the villages, he believes in an ideology and is willing to go and wait for any length. Vikram is son of a middle class Gandhian father who according to Vikram thinks about the society than about his family. Vikram is desperate to just get out of his so called shit-hole and quickly get as much rich, fame, fortune as possible. He is an eternal oppurtunist and is ready to use anything and anyone and do the dirty things if need be. Geeta(Chitrangada Singh), daughter of an articulate South Indian family oscillates between Delhi and London. All three study in the same university. Geeta loves Siddarth and stands by him, his movement though she doesn't quite understand it. Vikram detests Siddarth and pines for Geeta, like one of his lifelong ambitions. Siddarth loves Geeta but takes her support for him granted which doesn't please Geeta and she doesn't like Vikram hovering around her.

The three of them are fiercely individualistic and opinionated when forced into a corner. They are like every man for himself. This trait of theirs makes them go their own ways after graduation and they don't repent one bit. After all one has got to do what one has has got to do.Siddarth finds the villages unimaginably harsh and hard than he had ever conceived and is sucked into the lawlessness and violence of Bihar. Vikram has become a fixer and strikes big deals quite often and is also married. Geeta is married to a well off but alcholic guy. Three of them remain in touch through letters (no cell phones and possibly very limited STD back then!!!!... imagine how people might have poured their innermost feelings on paper). Times have changed. Indira Gandhi's iron fist rules over India.

Geeta leaves her husband and takes the help of Vikram. He thinks this is his chance to finally make her his woman. She still feels itchy about him. Her beastly thirst for Siddarth makes her go to a village to meet him and they both have a remorseless rendezvous. Vikram bumps into them by choice. Old animosity reignites. Vikram moves on reluctantly and starts to do really corrupt deals recklessly. Geeta marries Siddarth and lives along with him in the villages. She slowly understands how, what, why on ground zero and undergoes a gradual change and sees the bigger picture.

The final nail is driven into the coffin. Emergency in India. Shoot at sight orders for anyone against the establishment. Siddarth, a wanted naxal is nabbed by corrupt,immoral police along with Geeta and their gang. They are tortured, sexually abused, even killed by the police. Geeta's first husband, now remmarried, rescues her and takes her back to Delhi in the hope of an affair. Siddarth escapes and is on death run. With his own father arrested, Vikram uses all his connections to get him out, Geeta again asks him to use all his power and wealth to find Siddarth fearing his death. Vikram sets out just for the sake of Geeta.

What follows after that till the end of the move is truly remarkable. I won't reveal it. You have to watch the movie for it. It isn't meant to be a suspense. But the profound impact about people and human nature shown in that part of the movie had on me, I hope everyone has and I don't want to spoil it. All three of them still remain individualistic but become a complete opposite at the end giving the movie an open-ended feel making it all the more poignant. We can feel, know and relate to each of their reasons for doing so. Still their love and loyalties exist but in a different way and for different things.

The narrative is as smooth as a river. English dialogues are used quite a lot but are correct as the characters are highly educated (intellectually than in posh colleges) and converse in English (another reflection of those times). The film stirs one up without being preachy or talky. Acting is astounding. Chitrangada Singh in her debut role - my eyes were glued to her. She looks amazing and portrays the bold and beautiful Geeta with great depth. Shiney Ahuja brings out the animal in Vikram and still manages to show he has a pure heart. Kay Kay makes Siddarth all fire and brimstone until the very end where he becomes vulnerable. Everything, the sets, music, cinematography takes us back to those times.

The film is perfect like a masterpiece. Disturb one note and everything would crumble. It is rare to find truly soul stirring cinema that shakes you to the core. This is one of them. It is once in a lifetime film. All those associated with the film (making it or watching it) would/could/must know this sooner or later. Pity it didn't get the support it deserved when it was released. I don't wish that I should have been there in those times but I damn grateful to see this movie showing me those times.

Till next time - movies, movies and movies...