Dear Sanjay Leela Bhansali,

From the trailers and the songs and perhaps from the moment I read about Ram-Leela a year ago, along with of course the SLB tag, it was up there on the list. Ram Leela was a movie to be looked forward to. Something that would almost save this year, which has been at least relatively less bombarded with good movies as compared to last year. We’ve had few gems, Yes. And we were hoping to wrap the year up with some cinematic brilliance in Ram Leela. Error on our part to expect, you say? Perhaps. 

But we came in to be awed. For your movies, an audience like us comes in ready to absorb anything, even over-the-top sequences which we will disregard as unacceptable otherwise. We know we will see rich red and brown silks, incessant warm  candle-lit hues and the two hours will be a sure-shot visual treat. We came in wanting to be overwhelmed, but left being grossly underwhelmed. 

From the moment the sand artist made the elegant necked swan to create the SLB logo, I settled in hoping for similar elegance in the movie. In the first fifteen minutes, after about a 100 gun shots, a scene with a kid un-imaginatively named Goli in this gun-extravangaza, pissing off a roof, Ranveer Singh appearing out of nowhere and breaking into a male item song in absolute garish clothes which he peeled off systematically to all the female hysteria, I started losing hope. It further didn’t help that there was a plethora of filthy ‘Dhoti-geeli kar li’ and likening the heroine’s bust size to 136 (Yes, 136 – this is not a typo) strewn generously throughout the movie. At a point I wondered, if I was watching a Grand Masti sequel by mistake. SLB, you are hallmark to beautiful cinema, please leave the rolling-in-the-mud kind of sleaze-fest to the insignificant others. 

Indeed, you made it clear it would be Goliyon ki Ras-leela, but I wish there was more of Ram-Leela. The pair is together for bits and pieces in the first half and out of each others’ sight in the second half. You talk about love despite distances maybe? But, nowhere in the first half, for me at least, were you able to establish this love. The two couldn’t keep their hands off each other for a scene, did they even find the time to fall in love? To think about each others’ souls and hearts and not vital stats and ‘size’? *facepalm*

Something I was craving to see till the very end was this love story. Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight, yes. But, wasn’t that followed up by pure romance? Physical intimacy was a small part of their love, not the only thing they seemed to do when alone! For a man who made Khamoshi, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas which were dripping romance and love, it is unbelievable why you would want to overlook something you are naturally and obviously good at – Capturing emotions of love and making people dream about this kind of consummate love for days afterward. 

Normal lovers exchange everything, I agree. Dirty messages, make sleazy advances at each other behind closed doors. But they also do so much more. They talk about their lives together; they look into each others’ eyes lovingly, without their hands simultaneously having to undress the other all the time. I’ll agree I love how Ram Leela are so real, but I feel there could have been so much more to them than we saw! I wish there was. 

Let us look at some high points of the movie. The music of Ram Leela is so haunting, it stays with you for days afterward. Mor Bani Thanghat sets the tone for the musical extravaganza from the opening credits and every few minutes, a new ride comes up and is an absolute pleasure to the ears. Laal Ishq reminds you of a peaceful yet inexistent state of love. Lahu Munh Lag gaya has the naughty, fun touch of love at first sight.

It is not as if there were no moments of brilliance in the movie. The scene where Dhankorba cuts Leela’s finger and Ram comes to her window at night and leaves that bloody mark from a broken finger on her door. It still gives me goosebumps. Couple of dialogues here and there – Beauty! “Ye toh aisa ho gaya na Ba, ki jaan nikaal bhi di aur zindaa chhod bhi diya”. Beautiful music, combined with absolutely beautifully shot sequences –A fantastic chasing sequences toward the end with the metal pot falling and rolling aimlessly, while Kesar Bhabhi runs for her honor and life alike; Deepika’s introduction scene, where she shoots in the sky, while there is an explosion of color and life with everyone playing Holi around. These little gems are there, individually shining, albeit shadowed and hidden away in the badly meshed chaos of the plot.

I went away, deeply wanting more from the movie. I went away feeling sad, because I felt this could have been so much better. It was in my head at least before I saw it. To-die-for outfits, extremely gorgeous looking actors and fabulous music definitely can enhance a plot. But here, there was such minimal flesh to actually dress-up, it almost seems like a hollowed mannequin beautifully dolled up in a window. It may have been liberating for you to make something so easy-going and loose flowing, but I wish it had something to keep me more engrossed and tied down. I wish I felt Ram and Leela’s pain and less my own at having witnessed this utter mess. 

Lootera.. And how the story of a thief stole my heart..

I know a movie has touched my heart, when long gone after I've seen it, I find myself re-living those scenes in my head - It almost is as if I've brought home a piece of it back with me. It isn't too often that happens and it happened yesterday with Lootera. I stayed away from reading full reviews till I saw it for myself, since I wanted to be unbiased and form my own opinion. And what beauty it turned out to be - such poetry in motion. The first thing I did when I got home, was search for 'The Last Leaf'. I wanted to see what O'Henry wrote of in 1904 and how much inspiration Lootera drew from the story. When I discovered that the only part was the bit about the masterpiece being the leaf (a key part of the movie, not denying), it took me by surprise, that the rest of it was fairly original screenplay. Such subtlety in story-telling, such beautiful cinematography and such beautifully etched out characters as Varun and Pakhi are so rare in cinema nowadays, not to forget a movie that holds its ground without any garish item songs, crass love-making scenes, loud music, cuss words or over the top product placement - the things producers do to milk a movie. 

When I think of penning down my thoughts, I find so many of them running loose and fighting for attention, it almost frightens me if I'll ever get them all in words. 

The storyline for the first half is pretty plain. Boy meets girl, love at first sight. Boy thugs girl's father, he dies. She retreats into a set of lonely sorrowful days. The second half however is what lifts the movie and takes it a whole new level. We know of Bollywood having done some miserable last moments scenes, some woefully funny revenge scenes, but the beauty here is in how each character is treated as a real person with real emotions and not someone twisted and made to look awkward in the end to suit commercial audiences and stereotypical storylines. Pakhi's characteristics and nature till the end of the movie remain consistent with how she is in the first half. You see bits of the first half and picture her acting a certain way if she were real - and she does just that. Harbour a fugitive who she helped the police nab in the first place, yet try her best to keep him away from her when he tries to talk to her - so contradicting, but yet so in line with the person you imagine her to be - the person a broken-hearted, angry, yet in love Pakhi would be. 

There are some scenes in the movie, which completely steal your heart - some as the compelling pre-interval sequence, where you see fleeting scenes of the Kolkata bar with Varun and his mates, Pakhi dressing herself in royal finery, for her engagement with the love of her life, a lost and broken father with the sudden wrinkles of disbelief on his face. Ah, beauty. It almost shows you in an instant, how the very same moment is for three different people with inter-twined lives but has distinctly different emotions for each of them - Guilt, Heartbreak and Mistrust. 

When Varun first sets sight on Pakhi (after their little accident), there is no fancy music playing in the background, to suggest love at first sight, though from just the pace of the scene and the expressions on their faces, you know there was a spark. For cinema to bring that out, without a deliberate attempt to drive home that chemistry is absolutely wonderful. Their interactions, completely normal, slow, but fondness growing with each hour they spend teaching each other painting - is the kind I haven't seen before. They don't sing songs around trees, don't even touch each other till before the interval maybe and yet you feel for the two lovers. You feel their warm emotion in each scene, you feel their longingness to soak in that extra moment. Pakhhi's mischievous satisfaction of wearing his jacket and smoking his cigarette, just to grab that extra whiff of his scent, to almost feel him wrapped around her - what a beautiful kind of romance. 

You also cannot ignore how the sets, the clothes, the environment, the British cutlery, brass vessels, the jewellery, just the entire era has been re-created to lend that extra feel to each dialogue. The fireplace lit wooden floors of Dalhousie - a stark contrast against the hard snow outside - adds just that tinge of vintage romance. The music, apt - vintage string instruments and classical Indian music when talking of angst and pain and louder wind instruments when playing scenes showing the crime and escape of Varun. The music of Lootera has a journey of its own. You can listen to the album and the movie will replay in your head. 

The scene towards the end, where Pakhi tells Varun how his life is in danger and yet at the end has only one question - only one single question, which kept her alive all this while, irrespective of the fact that this is the man who cost her a loving father's embrace. This is the man, who drove her to this state of loneliness and illness, leaving her literally counting her days. She innocently just wants to know if he ever loved her. At that moment, nothing else mattered, but knowing if he ever felt the same. You can't help but shed a tear for the woman, who hated this man for years, yet kept that piece of her heart soft and loving for him - because What if? What if she wasn't a fool, what if she was as loved as she did love. It would be some balm for her bruised soul, a ray of hope for her otherwise graying horizon.

I love movies that treat you as an intelligent audience, that do not spoon feed and tell you in as many words - This is how it ends. Lootera does just that. In the climax, when Pakhi walks out and sees the painted leaf tied to the branch and lets out that laughter - no words, no dialogues, just happiness and release. Memories of how she told Varun she can't  ever paint leaves and how he promised he'd paint a masterpiece someday. Here she was, looking at it - a symbol of hope and of his love for her. A symbol of the  masterpiece she would never forget. I do not know if she lived or died afterward, but what is important is that the leaf brought back a smile which you don't see since half-time of the movie and hope to wake up another day - leaf or not. Varun meets his end and accepts it wide arms - his purpose in life seems to be fulfilled with Pakhi less miserable. 

A lot of people who saw the movie found it slow and boring. I for my part, found it fine paced. It reminded me of reading of such romance in books. There is beauty in each line, in each page. The movie makes you believe in the kind of love you forget in a world like the one we live in. Fast-paced, gadget-ridden, mortgages, office chores, household chores. Where does anyone have the time for romance nowadays? People fire-fight, more than they bring a warm smile to someone's eyes. In an era like this, movies such as Lootera offer an escape - to a more beautiful world, of a more beautiful love, of a better yesterday in a certain sense. 

I can't stop thinking about her

I don't know who she was, how she looked or how she spoke,
Where she studied, or where she lived,
Who her friends were, or who were her folk
I know nothing, except that, she hadn't survived.

But I can't stop thinking about her.

She must have been a regular girl,
With a Facebook page and friends galore,
Innocently made plans for a Sunday evening,
Not knowing, she'd only survive only one Sunday more.

How did she feel when she left that mall,
Did she think of the tiger after she saw The Life of Pi,
She would soon be left to lead a broken climax of her own,
In minutes she would be left stranded, exploited, left to die.

I can't stop thinking about her.

The million thoughts in her head when she entered that bus,
College tomorrow? Let me ask him where to take the next auto from?
Innocent and unassuming, clutching her bag close maybe,
Till the air would smell foul and her heart knew something was wrong.

She survived that nightmare, to find herself in a hospital bed,
Held together by machines and pipes, breathing slowly but not dead.
She spoke at times, at times wrote messages on paper,
How did she find the courage, as her body and soul quietly bled.

I can't stop thinking about her.

They held marches, protested with all their might,
Urging people to join in, they felt so betrayed,
I didn't know if I could change much,
But I did what I could, I silently prayed.

She's gone now, with so many different names they remember her,
The girl, who showed them how their system needed repair,
The girl, who warned us of the daggers lurking at every corner,
The girl, who fought beyond thought, in distraught despair.

I can't stop thinking about her.

She will heal no patient, nor know another touch,
She won't ever watch another movie, or see an ice-cream melt,
She won't tell apart a bus from a medical airlifting chopper,
She's gone and she'll never tell anyone how she really felt.

Or how those 13 days were spent,
Not knowing sunrise from sunset, night from day,
I can't stop thinking about her,
Or how she still said she wanted to live, in this society in decay.