Mahabharat finds a place among the best of classics and the most respected mythological epics of India. Hardly anyone can remain out of the charismatic sphere it builds- be it the Bhagvad Gita, the larger than life characters, the situations, the principles, the ethics, the morals and the politics. Mahabharat has inspired a few Bollywood directors- who could base a modern day story on it. Apart from the recent Rajneeti, Kalyug is a rather forgotten classic that inherits from Mahabharat. This 1981 classic directed by Shyam Benegal is a modern day adaptation of Mahabharat. Although a different script entirely, the characters and situations pose a striking similarity with it.
A race to grab government contracts emerges an age old feud between two rival business families- owned by first cousins Dhanraj and BharatRaj. Karan Singh (Shashi Kapoor) plays the protagonist, his role being parallel to that of Karna- the most chivalrous and respected, yet fate deprived character of Mahabharat.
Bhishmachand (Bhishma pitamah) is a life-long bachelor and rears the sons of Ramchand- Khubchand (a physically disabled “Dhritrashtra”) and Puranchand (the impotent “Pandu”). Khubchand begets two sons- Dhanraj (“Duryodhan” played by Victor Banerjee) and SandeepRaj (“Dushasan” played by Akash Khurana).
Dharamraj (“Yudhishtir” played by Raj Babbar), Balraj (a Pandav played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda ) and BharatRaj (“Arjun” played by Anant Nag) are sons of Puranchand (although later discovered to be biologically fathered by “Swamiji”). Karan is an orphan raised by Bhishmachand. Kishan uncle (“Krishna” played by Amrish Puri) is BharatRaj’s proposed father in law and business advisor.
Story begins with Dhanraj (with the help of his trusted and business smart lieutenant Karan) gaining a lucrative government contract defeating his cousins. BharatRaj, unlike his brothers, takes the matter very seriously and smartly grabs the contract through a legal way out. Situation unfurls for worse and this triggers a series of events. Bhishmachand’s futile attempts to mediate make the matters out of control and lead to a tragic turn.
Karan Singh out smarts BharatRaj almost all the time, getting him on BharatRaj’s hit list. Dhanraj, despite Karan Singh’s opposition on moral terms, plots to kill BharatRaj, but his men accidently kill the young son of Balraj. BharatRaj’s hate and prejudice makes him believe it as an act of Karan Singh, and finally BharatRaj’s men kill Karan when he is busy fixing his car tyre (again- Karna was killed by Arjun when the wheel of his chariot got stuck in the mud). Meanwhile a tensed Dhanraj ends himself, and BharatRaj breaks emotionally when he discovers that he had killed his own kin, Karan being the child bore by BharatRaj’s mother out of wedlock. Story finally ends with the destruction of the two families, posing a question over the brittleness of our moral fabric.
Haven't seen a better adaptation of an age old epic in "Kalyug".
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Maa Kasam, Filmi hai… :)
Each one of us loves Bollywood for various reasons, be it the movies, songs, dances or the sheer glamour attached to it. Some people are absolute Bollywood maniacs. Remembering situational filmi dialogues gets into their reflexes and living the movie characters and enacting dialogues sometimes becomes an unconscious and effortless action.
One such maniac named Amit and I would often get into situations where our regular conversation would unconsciously become a collage of filmi dialogues from different movies. We had mastered the art of comfortably chipping in these dialogues in apt situations :). Such was the influence that even Farooq (who was our room mate and hitherto wasn’t “filmi” enough) got inspired and one day delivered a situational dialogue that had us ROTFLOL. It was the fabricated version of "क्रोध को पालना सीख, बेटा काशी" from the movie- “Ghatak” (the actual words Farooq said and the situation is censored :)).
Bollywood mania runs to the bone in some extraordinary human beings- they can form a filmi stance even in serious practical situations. I’ve heard out raged people saying “अगर तुमने माँ का दूध पिया है तो...”, or an overly romantic one saying – “We share a very good Chemistry among us…”. Some arrogant ones say- “अपना इस्तीफा मैं जेब में लिए घूमता हूँ”, while some overly hurt ones use- “मैं तुम्हे मरते दम तक माफ़ नहीं करूँगा / करुँगी” :D. That is simply hillarious.
A normal Software engineer comes across various situations in his professional day when he can comfortably chip in some really cool movie dialogues.
Imagine Mr. X is a software engineer with Cabbage Software Pvt. Ltd, Pest Avenue- Nathaninagar. A slightly arrogant (and absolutely “Filmi”) Mr. X’s typical day would begin by checking his corporate email. He finds a list of bugs from the tester along with a filmi comment: “तुम एक fix दोगे, तो हम 4 bugs देंगे..” (source: Sholay).
Slightly annoyed over the comment, X rushes to the conference room to attend the SCRUM stand up meeting. When the tester starts boasting of and highlighting the high bug count, the filmy Mr. X reacts- "तू सिर्फ अपनी गिनती (bug count) बढ़ा रहा है". (Source: Ab Tak Chhappan). Out of excitement, he accepts the challenge to fix all bugs in a day, and makes a filmi statement- “एक बार जो मैंने commitment कर दी, फिर तो मैं खुद की भी नहीं सुनता...” (source: Wanted).
X dons his thinking cap and starts working. A colleague approaches Mr. X for a smoke, and compels him to join- “सुट्टा मारा करो मियां, coding तो चलता रहता है...” (source: Maqbool).
By lunch time, X has fixed all the bugs. This is his time to serve against the tester, and he makes sure he scores an ace through- “यह लो- तुम्हारा एक एक bug, मेरे दो दो fix, bug 1, fix 2” (source: Andaz Apna Apna).
Since X has taken the matter personally, tester runs a smoke test and rejects the build. DM calls Mr. X in his cabin and demands an explanation, X replies- “मुझे जो सही लगता है मैं करता हूँ, फिर वो चाहे test case के खिलाफ हो, project plan के खिलाफ हो, या फिर original requirements के ही खिलाफ हो...” (source: Sarkar). DM is in no mood of entertaining this “नौटंकी”, and Mr. X gets the music. Frustrated he comes out saying- “कभी tester तो कभी manager, हम कोई मंदिर का घंटा हैं के कोई भी आता है और बजा जाता है...” (source: Hungama)
He starts working again and gets irritated when the watch strikes 9. It’s again a longer day for him, he gets irritated and complains- “Deadline पे deadline, deadline पे deadline मिलती है, बस appraisal कभी नहीं मिलता...” (source: Damini). Finally he starts to wind up the day.
After a tough day it’s his last time to face the music- this time from his wife. She gets him black and blue (verbal only), but that too compels him to end his day in a filmi way- “हे भगवान…यह पत्नी है के पनौती है ? ” (source: Hungama).
After all this do I realize- how much Bollywood has penetrated in our life. Bollywood truly has a say, or should I say- a “literal say” in our everyday life, don’t you feel so? :).
One such maniac named Amit and I would often get into situations where our regular conversation would unconsciously become a collage of filmi dialogues from different movies. We had mastered the art of comfortably chipping in these dialogues in apt situations :). Such was the influence that even Farooq (who was our room mate and hitherto wasn’t “filmi” enough) got inspired and one day delivered a situational dialogue that had us ROTFLOL. It was the fabricated version of "क्रोध को पालना सीख, बेटा काशी" from the movie- “Ghatak” (the actual words Farooq said and the situation is censored :)).
Bollywood mania runs to the bone in some extraordinary human beings- they can form a filmi stance even in serious practical situations. I’ve heard out raged people saying “अगर तुमने माँ का दूध पिया है तो...”, or an overly romantic one saying – “We share a very good Chemistry among us…”. Some arrogant ones say- “अपना इस्तीफा मैं जेब में लिए घूमता हूँ”, while some overly hurt ones use- “मैं तुम्हे मरते दम तक माफ़ नहीं करूँगा / करुँगी” :D. That is simply hillarious.
A normal Software engineer comes across various situations in his professional day when he can comfortably chip in some really cool movie dialogues.
Imagine Mr. X is a software engineer with Cabbage Software Pvt. Ltd, Pest Avenue- Nathaninagar. A slightly arrogant (and absolutely “Filmi”) Mr. X’s typical day would begin by checking his corporate email. He finds a list of bugs from the tester along with a filmi comment: “तुम एक fix दोगे, तो हम 4 bugs देंगे..” (source: Sholay).
Slightly annoyed over the comment, X rushes to the conference room to attend the SCRUM stand up meeting. When the tester starts boasting of and highlighting the high bug count, the filmy Mr. X reacts- "तू सिर्फ अपनी गिनती (bug count) बढ़ा रहा है". (Source: Ab Tak Chhappan). Out of excitement, he accepts the challenge to fix all bugs in a day, and makes a filmi statement- “एक बार जो मैंने commitment कर दी, फिर तो मैं खुद की भी नहीं सुनता...” (source: Wanted).
X dons his thinking cap and starts working. A colleague approaches Mr. X for a smoke, and compels him to join- “सुट्टा मारा करो मियां, coding तो चलता रहता है...” (source: Maqbool).
By lunch time, X has fixed all the bugs. This is his time to serve against the tester, and he makes sure he scores an ace through- “यह लो- तुम्हारा एक एक bug, मेरे दो दो fix, bug 1, fix 2” (source: Andaz Apna Apna).
Since X has taken the matter personally, tester runs a smoke test and rejects the build. DM calls Mr. X in his cabin and demands an explanation, X replies- “मुझे जो सही लगता है मैं करता हूँ, फिर वो चाहे test case के खिलाफ हो, project plan के खिलाफ हो, या फिर original requirements के ही खिलाफ हो...” (source: Sarkar). DM is in no mood of entertaining this “नौटंकी”, and Mr. X gets the music. Frustrated he comes out saying- “कभी tester तो कभी manager, हम कोई मंदिर का घंटा हैं के कोई भी आता है और बजा जाता है...” (source: Hungama)
He starts working again and gets irritated when the watch strikes 9. It’s again a longer day for him, he gets irritated and complains- “Deadline पे deadline, deadline पे deadline मिलती है, बस appraisal कभी नहीं मिलता...” (source: Damini). Finally he starts to wind up the day.
After a tough day it’s his last time to face the music- this time from his wife. She gets him black and blue (verbal only), but that too compels him to end his day in a filmi way- “हे भगवान…यह पत्नी है के पनौती है ? ” (source: Hungama).
After all this do I realize- how much Bollywood has penetrated in our life. Bollywood truly has a say, or should I say- a “literal say” in our everyday life, don’t you feel so? :).
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