it is of utmost importance to realize that the warrior's approach should be simple-minded sometimes, very simple and straightforward. that makes it very beautiful: you having nothing up your sleeve; therefore a sense of genuineness comes through. that is decency.
~~~chogyam trungpa~~~
there was something obscene and real about rocky, the character and also his actor. a thoughtless brutality in him. the idea of flinging chilli powder into his eyes was not a bad one i thought, though the scene felt a bit flat.
what i did enjoy though, was manorama's anger. her need to come flying back to give him a few thwacks with a ladle or whatever. how dare he touch her arnav bitwa. i have been thinking these past few days that the other really good actor in ipk was utkarsha naik... she got her character and knew instinctively how to give mami ji dimension without messing with the exaggerated caricature sketch... something really thrilling about good acting, for me at least. can even make me completely forget bad or mediocre writing. that sense of connection, it brings me in front of the screen...
manorama comes, unlike the raizadas, from a tougher world, survival is key here, you must learn the art... she is a feisty nasty survivor... very difficult to take down really. and just as asr has a funny soft corner for this strange crass woman, so does she for her formidable nephew in law, never mind that he is more successful than her akash bitwa... in fact that success itself she perhaps is even more attracted to and awed by. lovely relationship there between manorama and arnav bitwa.
khushi clings to mami ji after mami saves her, "shukriya, mami ji," she knows rocky was quite capable of pulling that trigger. manorama has just saved her life. a bond is being established between the two bahus of the raizadas... and when i saw it the first time since i had no idea of what was to come, i thoroughly enjoyed this growth of a new friendship between two unlikely candidates. felt real and yes, very ipk. remember that little dhak dhak between bedi ji and bua ji? i even enjoyed manorama struggling to remain crusty and calling her phattee sari... she likes being her weird self and does not want to seem
kidnapper said, "dammit"?!!!
what, he watches ipk, is it?
next thing i know there is shyam in silhouette... he looked so familiar, but as i have mentioned elsewhere, i kept thinking he is the stooge, the real baddie was another one... perhaps a sheesh mahal man.
having decoded more than what mr holmes would have from a restaurant bill, the detectives arrive at yet another warehouse sort of place.
and then suddenly, bits of filthy vest and a man with hands tied behind his back, black pants...
blindfold.
asr is in a godown like space, teetering, lost...trying to feel the room, read it despite that blindfold.
he falls against a high stool, he kicks it... there's still plenty fight in him.
what have they done to him...asr... i am horrified really, it was so painful to watch these scenes... i wanted to laugh it off and say, "yaar, this is a silly serial, relax..." i could not. not even on my nth view.
the raw, screaming shots, the harsh heartless air, a lean man, wiry and determined with a cruel blindfold and hands flicked behind him, bound.seemed the director had suddenly found focus and joy again.
he is trying to assess the space. he is trying to kick open a door... "yaaa!" he yells as he summons all his strength to tell his foe he is not down. not yet. never.
suddenly... "boss agaye", the boss is here, off screen.
shyam arrives, shots in silhouette all through. he sits on a rocking chair. why this added drama? there is talk of the two women and how the girl just wouldn't let go.
asr hears this on the other side of the door. he feels things, and in that state barun emotes asr's need, his desperate fear that khushi might be in danger...
a quiet voice in him, a voice that so wants to see khushi safe, so wants to never let any harm come to her... this is the man who dragged her up the temple steps, this is the man who threw himself in the way of danger for her... everything really for her...
"nahin khushi, tumhe yahan nahin ana chahiye, i really i really hope tum yahan nahin pahunchi ho..." no khushi you should not come here... i really really hope you haven't reached here... lovely take... the mind is still asr... cool, edge of anger... just love.
"main nahin chahta tum wapas kissi musibat mein phas jaao... no khushi no," i don't want you to get into trouble again.
he is fearful for her... he can't stop worrying.
and as the thoughts come, a sensation... that gust of wind...
she feels it too sitting somewhere outside...
the sensing... corny yes, but he convinces me, so does she...
"mami ji, humara dil kah raha ki arnav ji yahin kahin hain..." mami ji, my heart says arnav ji is somewhere here. and rabba vey fills the air. was it a ridiculous rabba vey? i don't know. i liked it... i think they can sense each other... people who care deeply can. and there was something poignant and beautiful really in the connection they felt, in a man with his eyes closed but his heart all seeing, a girl with fear choking her but her heart strong and in love.
why is shyam pointing at people and getting all melodramatic? suddenly he is hyped up and like a villain from amasala movie, the "boss"... what he would be the next shakal, mugambo, or what gabbar... abhaas actually mentioned joker once i think. shyam wishes.
in the mean time, the man is going nuts kicking the door. he wants to get these guys riled... i love this reading of asr. he is not one to sit quietly, fearing detection, death... he rages, he defies, he demands acknowledgement, he plans, he fights back.
"bilkul teda hai yeh," absolutely not straight is he, complains rocky. yes. teda... that's what he is.
she wears a teda choti showing her tedaness... and he is teda incarnate... so rocky, try as you might that "dammit" won't make you him. you are too straight and predictable.
four vicious large men walk in to take on the thin, fearless one. they draw him into a fight... the egregious uncouthness of the whole thing. his hands are tied, he can't see. and they surround him, baiting.
asr moves beautifully, sensing, slicing the air with his hands and legs, scoring... a ballet like feel to the sequence. a harsh ballet though.. again i think of jason bourne and his memories of fighting blindfolded... che sah, the words that whisper in him... a blurred memory, like an echo around these scenes...
we have seen many sides of asr... the tycoon, the arrogant ruthless businessman, the loving brother, the hurting son, the rebel, the heartless one, the man in command, the irate husband, the atheist, the intelligent manipulator, the mate, the lover... it was now another side coming into focus... the warrior.
physically and in the mind, he is a warrior. and among the most magnificent of them.
i found the treatment almost like big screen movies and that vest was so so filthy and the man absolutely into the role... magnificent, i couldn't help but think... and i really felt terrible watching him suffer, then elated when he scored... the asr music played of course and i did sort of smile.
but finally it was time to get down to business, the quarry had been played with enough. it was time for chloroform and knockout...
then three men carried the beautiful warrior out and a rabba ve had to raise its wail as he is taken away. and like the payal... the blindfold fell..
watching him being taken away, his wife almost lost her mind... a terrible moment. it was also a beautiful one... she loved him, keeping sane in that state was not possible, they were taking her arnav ji away, so even though her mind noted the warnings from mami ji, her instincts would not be curbed, she rushed after the disappearing van yelling at the top of her voice, "arnav ji! arnav ji..." her life was in that can, nothing else mattered.
move swift as the wind and closely-formed as the wood. attack like the fire and be still as the mountain.
~~~ sun tzu, the art of war~~~
when he came to, he was sprawled on a sofa. again instinct, he balled his fist, ready to fight... he was in danger he seemed to know... nice direction, that fist. he woke up, looked around, mind ticking, he stood up and searched, a crack in the door showed him a posse of men outside... what eh couldn't see was shyam in black in an elaborate set up designed to hide him giving instructions with his hands... not speaking. so he does fear saaley saab... he knows asr is quite capable of figuring out who he is... you know shyam, you are right to fear his mind... it's the writers that decided otherwise... and so despite coming that close to you, he did not recognise you.
the first time i saw 271 i loved the dramatic fight... not the one at the end, the blindfolded one... but later when i realised kidnap had no meaning, somehow all this violence seemed meaningless and self indulgent. and no, it did not bring in trp.
i
like it when it goes all dark in ipk, darkness is a repeated motif
here... often the most important truths come to light in the dark or
soon after the it is dispelled. a sense of dhoop chaon, chiaroscuro with
marked contrast between light and shade in it.
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