36 Ghante (36 Hours, 1974)

by with No Comment 36 Ghante

This movie is a remake of an English movie, that of The Desperate Hours (1955, the one starring Humprey Bogart), and it seems to be a desperate attempt to use a classic Hollywood movie to make some money. The debate of western movies being “adapted” into an Indian milieu has been done to death, and I am not going to speak about that here. What I’ll speak about is the movie as a standalone.

Plot: Three dangerous convicts escape from prison and take refuge in the house of a newspaper editor. They have to hold out there until they are contacted by a female friend who has their loot. The editor’s family is unwillingly sucked into the ordeal.

Director: Raj Tilak

Language: Hindi

Cast: Raj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Mala Sinha, Ranjeet, Danny Denzongpa, Parveen Babi, Vijay Arora

#10Things I Liked and Disliked about 36 Ghante

What I Liked

  1. The concept. While it was quite riveting, the credit goes to Desperate Hours.
  2. The editing. The movie fit nicely into the groove of a thriller. There was always something happening which kept up the tempo. It was also under 2 hours, which is a good thing.
  3. Made sense. There were no major plot holes or logic leaps (except one, see below). Though copying without acknowledgement is criminal, I must say that the adaptation of the movie (Indianization) was done nicely.
  4. Parveen Babi. For whatever few scenes she was in, she lit up the screen. Not because of her acting, but just because, well, Parveen Babi is Parveen Babi!

What I Disliked

  1. The stereotyping. Why does every happy family in those times had to be introduced with a religious song sung by the man in pristine white clothes and the woman in a traditional saree? Why are clothes used to establish character for women — bikini for the bad woman and the longest saree for the good woman?
  2. The hackneyed laugh given to Danny Denzongpa’s character. Singularly, this was his worst ever role, but I haven’t seen them all. It becomes grating ten minutes into the movie.
  3. The most precocious child ever. The kind who is almost as tall as his father but will bring the house down because his toy is broken.
  4. The songs. Had to fast-forward through all of them after sampling them for the first ten seconds.
  5. The biggest logic leap ever. If a gang of criminals are using your home as a hideout and holding you captive, why would they allow you to roam scot-free all over town, especially when one of you is a newspaper editor who has good relations with the police?
  6. The dialogs. Since we have Raj Kumar and Sunil Dutt, brace yourself for the most chest-thumping lines ever, many of them cringe-worthy.

In conclusion: Yet, it was good as a one-time watch. No classic, that’s for sure.

Gehrayee (The Depth – 1980)

by with No Comment Gehrayee

Gehrayee, a little-known movie of Indian cinema, is probably also the best horror movie ever made within the country. This movie was made when the 70s turned into the 80s, but even today it can scare the living daylights out of people. The movie is basically about possession, and there are no special effects at all, no monsters, zombies, vampires, but it is only by the strength of acting of the possessed actor that the movie transcends all borders of horror cinema.

Plot: A man sells his land in his native village, inciting the ire of the local villagers living on it. When he is back home in the city, his daughter starts behaving in a bizarre manner.

Language: Hindi

Directors: Vikas Desai and Aruna Raje (as Arunavikas)

#10Things I Liked and Disliked about Gehrayee

What I Liked

  1. The acting of all characters. When you have names like Dr. Sreeram Lagoo, Anant Nag, Amrish Puri, Sudhir Dalvi, and Padmini Kolhapure, very little can go wrong. A notable mention must be made here of Padmini Kolhapure. She plays the possessed girl, and she was presumably only 12 when she acted this role. But what a performance it is! You need to watch it to believe it. Mention should also be made of Rita Bhaduri in the final scene.
  2. The story. Everything is connected and moves in a believable manner. You cannot predict the next scene as you can do in most other horror movies.
  3. The avoidance of all clichés. There are no lone women (or men) walking in a big house in the dark. There are no evil monsters with bad makeup. There is no cleavage or dirty-dancing as was quite common in the Ramsay horror movies of that time. There is also no comedy buffoonery as was typified by Mehmood, Jagdeep, Rajendra Nath, etc. in that era. Thank the Lord for small mercies!
  4. The cameo by Amrish Puri. Amrish Puri was just starting out when he made the movie. He is quite young, but you can see the same intensity in his eyes and the tenor in his voice that made him so popular in later years as Mogambo and Balwant Rai and General Dong. Watching him is a treat; you cannot help getting mesmerized by those eyes.
  5. The setting. The whole movie plays out in Karnataka, majorly in Bengaluru. The family is a middleclass family, and their depiction is spot-on. This itself adds a different aura to the film. The rich sarees worn by the mother and the costumes of the people, the traditional marks on their bodies, the accented Hindi, the subtle references to foods like medu-vada, every small detail adds to the aura of this excellent movie. Even the village in the start and end of the movie makes you feel you are actually there.
  6. The use of Indian beliefs and superstitions. There’s a blessed lemon, a voodoo-type doll, a cobra. All these things make the story so Indian, and the best thing is that they are done in a very authentic manner. The actors really seem to believe in whatever they are doing with these things.
  7. The music. The background score (Enoch Daniels) sets the exact mood for each scene.
  8. The climax. Wow, what a climax! What a twist! No one would see that coming. Even after the core plot of the movie is taken care of—that of the possession—the movie goes on ahead. For a moment, you don’t know why, and then you get sucked into one of the spookiest scenes in Hindi cinema. Don’t watch this alone at night.

What I Disliked

  1. The similarities to Exorcist. This movie is definitely not a copy of it, but you can see a few references here and there. But I may be too harsh in saying that; every movie about possession is compared to Exorcist anyway, the grand-daddy of them all. Personally, I felt the movie to be superlative.
  2. The length. The movie could have been sharper by about 10 minutes. Everything is explained in languorous detail. Though this is one of the strengths of the movie, it also becomes an impediment when you are waiting for things to happen. Also, the lone song sung by Kishore Kumar does not serve any purpose.

In conclusion: All fans of true-blue horror must get their hands on this movie right away and watch it. It’s one of Indian cinema’s gems that needs to be preserved.

NaNoWriMo-2014-Winner-Certificate

Accolades

by with No Comment AccoladesMaya's New Husband

The first draft of Maya’s New Husband was written during the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) of November 2014, where it was a winner.

NaNoWriMo-2014-Winner-Certificate

Shortly after the launch of its first edition, Maya’s New Husband was declared the winner of The Literary Awards 2015 in The Entertainer category.

Winner Lit Awards The EntertainerIn addition, it was the first book to be requested to be read at The India Readathon.

MNH India Readathon Request

 

 

 

quill-175980

How to Create an Epic or High Fantasy Fiction

by with No Comment From Guest WritersHow to Create an Epic or High Fantasy Fiction

quill-175980By Varun Prabhu (author of The Mahabharata Simplified)

When you think of fantasy fiction, you might think of novels like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc. Have you, as a writer, ever thought how the writers developed these worlds? Have you been inspired by these authors to create a world of your own making? I’m sure many of you have been intrigued and influenced by fantasy authors to create your own universe. Many of them just find it difficult and back away, daunted by the challenging task, but there are some of them who take it head on and manage to create a world that is as intriguing as the books they have read.

Got an Awesome Book Idea? Hold on a Minute!

by with No Comment Got an Awesome Book Idea? Hold on a Minute!

We writers are bombarded with ideas and story concepts quite routinely. Something triggers off those brain cells and we go, “Aha! This is what I would like to write next.” Happens all the time, doesn’t it? But it is when (and if) we actually start writing it that the problems begin to rear their heads. You might think writer’s block, but there are many more perils in store. The fear whether the book will be sold or not is another idea for those who don’t write just for hobby.