Are we still gonna say 'Its a male dominated industry'??

Do we still need superstars to sell our films? What happened to the reigning queen Kareena Kapoor's latest flick 'Ek main aur ek tu'? Or for instance, Shahrukh Khan's 'Ra - One'? Well..sometimes we do need stars to sell some shitty films (Ready, Bodyguard!) but for those,all credit goes to the masses, because you can't fool around with the multiplex junta! So, gone are the 80's and 90's where actresses were used just as mere props to dance around with their leading co stars or to get raped by the villains! (?), its time to celebrate womanhood! time for women oriented flicks to set the cash registers ringing at the box office! its time to say goodbye to those 40 plus actors banging and bashing up aliens/goons or dancing around with 20 something heroines onscreen (that too, shamelessly)!!

Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani is a gripping,fast paced screenplay altogether right from its commencement to conclusion. Vidya is wonderful,no doubt...but the film shines all throughout primarily because of 3 aspects :

a) a well crafted story line (Ghosh along with novelist Advaita Kala),

b) volley of first rate supporting characters who makes the film come alive (entire Bong Gang here!) Parambrata Chatterjee (impressive), Dhritiman Chatterjee, Kharaj Mukherjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui (brilliant,ruthlessness at its best!),Saswata Chatterjee (excellent cameo),Abir Chatterjee, and Indraneil Sengupta (and..i go gasping for breath every time he shows up!) and the 2 child artists...

c) the star of the film..the city..kolkata! with its lanes,by lanes, metros,trams,streets,kumortuli,idols,old buildings,tea stalls..the colour,vibrancy,and the liveliness of durga puja..all comes alive beautifully! We have witnessed the same city before in recent times (Parineeta, Yuva, The Namesake), but never before the city has unfolded in such charming delight!

Vidya has undoubtedly played her cards very well in bollywood,placing herself as one of the brilliant performers in recent time,someone who's always been tailor made for women centric flicks ( Parineeta, Paa, No one killed Jessica, The dirty Picture and Kahaani) ,at times, reminding me of another 90's actress Tabu....Tabu, like Vidya, had also initiated her career with commercial potboilers, but in due course of time has proved her mettle with author backed roles in Maachis, Chandni Bar, Astitva, Virasat, The Namesake.....

I craved for 'The Marilyn' i love...

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (Dir : Simon Curtis)

Its a very interesting flick with a sensitive subject dealing with the fear and insecurities of a showgirl,an actress..We all know about the latter days of Marilyn Monroe..her addiction to drugs, alcohol, erratic relationships,indifferences with her directors, taking a toll on her professional as well as personal life, ending with a suicide at an early age with overdose of barbiturates,and the film captures her fears with utmost vulnerability,no doubt with that..but somewhere, for me,it was sooooo depressing to visually witness this sight of a matinee idol that i ve been mesmerized with since my childhood! I wish they could have shown more of the chirpy,sexy,vulnerable,dumb blonde diva that we have been in love with,all these years! The enigma of Marilyn was somewhere missing..!! ;'(

An uneven story buoyed by a captivating performance by Michelle Williams, a well deserved Golden Globe...

Arthur Jacobs: "Marilyn, is it true you wear nothing in bed but Perfume?"

Marilyn Monroe: "Darling, as I'm in England let's say I sleep in nothing but Yardley's lavender" ;))

A FRIENDSHIP DAY TREAT..!!

One's impeccably cute and the other one's saucy and charming and that's theirs as well as the film's sole USP..They share a great camaraderie on screen..but...they ain't a lovey dovey couple and thankfully,that works in its favour..Its more of an urbane buddy flick than a romance! The film has been wrongly hyped as a Valentine's day treat for the couples, maybe it would have worked more as a Friendship day treat for the teens! The film doesn't redefine the genre of mills and boons' flicks,but neither it goes too high on the emotional quotient, but.. there are portions where the film dips terribly post interval but somehow saves it up with a notable climax!! Giants like Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah have been wasted in insignificant roles! One time watch!

P.S. : Don't go by the critics,as always Karan Johar has paid them ransom amount,because the film doesn't deserve a 4/5 rating,as most of the critics have rated it by now...at the max. 2.5 to 3 !!