I haven’t written a blog in almost an year and I was looking for a chance to do that. What is the easiest way to force a blog out of me? Of course, to write about movies. First, about the bad movie.
When you live in Halifax, you don’t get a lot of choice when it comes to Hindi movies. So Tom (my friend) and I make it a point to see the Hindi movies that get releases in theatres here. In that line of movies, we saw Guru, Om Shanti Om, Jodha Akbar etc and the going was good…well, until this week. This week’s new release was Drona. Need I say more? Even after repeated warning from other friends and well wishers (who took the time to read the reviews), Tom and I dashed off to see the night show. It kind of happened as an accident, because our annual Onam get together finished, just before 8 and the movie was on at 8. So, coming directly from an Onam get together, we were dressed in the traditional mundus . October in Nova Scotia is not the right time to be wearing a mundu. But anyway, we didnt care and off we went. I am not going to attempt a review of the movie itself. I will just say that it was one of the worst movies I have seen and I have seen a lot of bad movies 
. It lacked in all departments – Story, screenplay, editing, acting, music, graphics, art direction…I could go on and on. I was pushed back about 10 years in my life when I had stopped watching Hindi films.
And then, last night kids went to bed early and Vani and I didn’t want to do more work around the house. I looked at the movies I had with me that I haven’t seen yet and picked A Wednesday . The next 100 plus minutes I was rivetted to the TV. I was glad that I didn’t give up on Hindi films based on Drona experience. Wednesday was refreshing and challenging at the same time. Of course, the director cannot escape the preaching scene towards the climax. That needed to be there for the sake of completion. But the movie was full of power performances, Naseerudin Shah and Anupam Kher led the roles to perfection and all the supporting cast helped carry the tension forward. A very tight script was a major plus point. Even within the short time frame, the director did try to give each character some depth (the informer scene for Arif Khan, the wife and child on the phone for Jai etc). And it is a pity that these films don’t get the deserved credits at the box office. Wonder why !!
And perhaps tonight, I might be able to catch Aamir, another hindi films. I do have a dozen mallu films waiting, but the kinds of Madambi and Parunthu will never get their turn I suppose
If you happen to read this blog and have seen the movies mentioned in the blog, you get the prize of sending me a comment !
Venkatesh
