Dostana

Well, the exams got over yesterday. I had a lot of movies stocked in my lappy and so in this one week, my sole aim will be to finish them and some of the serials. Watched 4 episodes of Deathnote in the evening, realized at 8:30 that the Mess was off. So had to be content with Maggi. Finally sat down to watch Dostana- the Gay movie from Bollywood. But is it truly a gay movie? I don't think so. Apart from the fact that the plot was based on the two guys acting gay there was nothing to term it a gay movie. There have been movies that have broached this subject more sensibly and Madhur Bhandarkar definitely scores high here. Probably it was a fully planned advertising strategy of Karan Johar that curiosity itself might attract people to the theatres.

Here's what I think Karan should not have done in the movie. There was no need to portray gays like girls. I mean why the hell do they have to show gays as girls. I was kinda shocked when Abhishek acted in a feminine manner while narrating his fake love story, or when John acted in a similar manner in front of the immigration officer. Its high time bollywood stopped such portrayals. Thats far from the truth. He could have made the movie a lot more sensible by not acting on such prejudices.

But then the movie handled the coming out issue well. Even while being funny, the scenes of coming out really showed how difficult it is for the family members (specially parents) to accept the reality. Then giving gay shades( or should I say bi-) to Abhishek's character could be considered a step towards undoing the other malice.

In the end, this is how I would have liked the movie end. After rejoining Priyanka with Bobby, they showed 2 months later. Here, they should have shown that Abhi and John had realized that they shared more than friendship and had exchanged vows. Probably, then it could have been classified as a gay movie of Bollywood.

P.S- Strange to note that the RSS which had raised a ruckus over the lesbian scenes in Fire and Girlfriend didn't have any objection to the kiss scene near the end of the movie or even the subject of the movie. What should this be construed as on their part? An acceptance of the situation or what? Also, there have been other bolly movie which had a scene or two...No objections there too...

Legend Of the Seeker

Though I have a practical exam tomorrow, I just couldn’t resist laying my hands on my lappy and typing down my thoughts after watching the new series- LEGEND OF THE SEEKER. I saw its first episode yesterday (it was a 1:50 hr episode) and have since been unable to clear my mind of its thoughts. Why? I have always been a very very big fan of LOTR and the resemblance of this new serial to the greatest movie of all times has left me mesmerized. No, I don’t mean any resemblance in terms of storyline. It is based on yet another book on Fantasy World called “The Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind. I am so excited to see the same shooting locales again. Revisiting the breath-taking beauty of New Zealand after LOTR has sort of casted a spell on me. Moreover, I have always liked these Fantasy World stories, where you are transferred to a completely different magical world.

The serial doesn’t disappoint at all in any terms when compared to LOTR. The animation is good enough and so is the photography and costumes. Though, like the locales, the costumes also look like borrowed from the epic movie, but then, I have always wanted to relive those moments of LOTR. I had watched Stardust too and liked it. However, the movie lacked a strong background score like LOTR, and so its thoughts did not linger too long after watching. But, no such complaints with this one. It has an equally strong background score like LOTR and I haven’t been able to think beyond it and am waiting in eagerness for the next episode to be aired on 8th Nov.

And yeah, If LOTR had some great dialogues, it also has some wonderful lines. Here are some that I liked-

"In life you cannot go back, the only way is forward".

The various lessons of the Seeker -

Lesson No. 1 –“ Sometimes to gain ground , you need to slow down”.
Lesson No. 2- “Clear your mind of what was and will be, it is only the test that is.”
Lesson No. 3 - “Though the seeker may battle alone, he fights with the strength of many.”

Since I couldn’t get too many pictures of the episode from Net, I took snapshots myself in VLC.Here they are. I have also pointed out some similarities with LOTR-




This same scene was also there in LOTR

Bucolic view of New Zealand


Craig Horner- Seeker


Confessor


Wizard(Anyone remembers Gandalf?)


Villain of the story


Richard(Craig Horner) being named Seeker


The Star that was given to Frodo( seen here in the hands of Sam), to guide him.

A similar Star in the hands of Confessor to help her


The Sword of Seeker

Councillor- brother of Seeker

The Trio- Confessor, Wizard and Seeker

The two main characters