Comments on: Review: Cheeni Kum / Shootout at Lokhandwala

By: Jahan Bakshi

Jahan Bakshi — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:27:35 +0000

Have spent all day reading your older reviews with simultaneous delight and awe- Baradwaj Bhai- you are truly matchless. I may not always agree with you- Apna Asmaan being a glaring case in point- but reading your reviews makes me appreciate movies and the art of critiquing so much more. Thanks, and hope to acquire atleast some percentage of your verbal flourish and minute observation some day.

By: Ari

Ari — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:39:18 +0000

better late than never…. but i recently watched “shootout…”. Within the first 20 minutes i knew that lakhia & guptawere trying to do a jerry bruckhiemer with this movie. they failed miserably. terrible terrible movie. I’m going to kick gupta on his behind if i meet him.

By: Poorvi

Poorvi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:25:02 +0000

Oops… I seem to have missed reading your music review of Cheeni Kam.

By: Poorvi

Poorvi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:10:14 +0000

Hi Bharadwaj,

With all the detailed talk about music in some of your reviews, I thought its worth a mention that he recycled some of his old tunes.

The title track Cheeni Kam is the old Ilayaraja tune ‘Mandram vandha’ from Mouna Ragam … and Baatein Hawa is ‘Kuzhal oodhum kannan’ from Mella Therandadhu Kadavu.

I love the older Tamil versions so am unable to like them in Hindi

By: iVue

iVue — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:15:42 +0000

Hi BRangan. I recently saw Cheeni Kum, tried to write my own view of it, wouldnt call it a Movie Review really though. Do check it out if you have time.
http://ivue.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/cheeni-kum/

By: g

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:12:01 +0000

> Buddha feels guilty about his ardently wished for desires

To wit: His wish to marry Tabu when he could have wished that Sexy was saved.

By: g

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:08:34 +0000

In the office on a Sunday and instead of finishing work, what do I do?

See, I am sure Balki put in some kind of symbolism in there. You have to look at it from Buddha’s point of view. HE is convinced that the gods have smiled on him. Balki the director is very clear that no supernatural mumbo-jumbo has or COULD have taken place in an alternate what-if scenario. It is BUDDHA who believes in the “cosmic goodwill” of encircling the iron pillar. So his guilt on realizing it is too late to do anything more for Sexy is personal. (If rationally unjustified) But it is precisely the irrational which resonates with us. Buddha feels guilty about his ardently wished for desires.

Heck my wife saw even more in the scene: She felt sure that Balki meant Sexy to be a methaphor for the spiritual side and that all that melodrama and Amit acting as a kid was because he realizes he needs that platonic relation more. See, “Buddha” for a hot-tempered guy and “Sexy” for a platonic relationship? See, see, see?

She asks, (and I have no answer to that), if that is not what Balki meant, why did he make Tabu mouth the lines, “I wish I was Sexy”? eh?

By: brangan

brangan — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 10:10:15 +0000

g: Oh, that’s a fine accusation from someone who read “cosmic goodwill” as being part of the climax of Cheeni Kum

By: g

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:49:03 +0000

Shuchi Says:
>efore I went to see the movie, and waited eagerly for AB’s throat-clearing “aham�?. I might have missed that moment had you not pointed it out

Hey Shuchi, brangan sometimes sees things that are not really there in the movie but he writes so well, we think it must be there.

By: g

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:04:04 +0000

Saw Cheeni Kum with the wife yesterday.

> it’s jarring to have to empathise with – among other things – a child-with-cancer subplot.

I disagree. Like I was telling my wife, the whole moment when Buddha Amit gets Tabu at the Qutub and then gets the bombshell phonecall(minus the overblown melodrama) – was wonderfully real. Here is Buddha pursueing his very personal internal desires with his heart and soul, he achieves it and then he realizes that there was time enough for only one goal of his to be achieved and he spent it in getting Tabu. And by the time he realizes he might have spent that cosmic goodwill on saving “Sexy”, it is too late.