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sitanshi talati-parikh

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Tag Archives: Saawariya

Ranbir Kapoor: Fatal Attraction

01 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Interviews (All), Interviews: Cinema, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Bollywood, Interviews: Cinema, Ranbir Kapoor, Rockstar, Saawariya

Published Verve Magazine, Verve Man supplement, cover story, October 2014
Photographs by Dabboo Ratnani

Ranbir Kapoor for TAG Heuer and Verve, shot by Dabboo Ratnani Ranbir-Kapoor-5-960x900_c

In 2007, with Saawariya, a fresh-faced actor emerged, with the promise of cinematic style. He was eminently watchable and easy on the eyes. The very fact that he could drop his towel without any inhibitions in his first film showed that he had no awkward reservations and could go the distance. Through the films after, he proved himself to be a commercially viable Bollywood star, dancing like a pro and displayed clever histrionics that can only come from a place that has nothing to do with training, observation, knowledge or practice. It’s inherent, it’s intrinsic and it’s something that makes him the poster child for royal DNA.

Suave and personable, there is a boyish charm that makes it easy for people to get drawn to him. I met him socially, just before the release of Saawariya, and when he discovered that I was involved in the film in a small way, he immediately asked my opinion of the film with tremulous anticipation. It was the launch pad to his dream career, after all. Even then, his soft-spoken voice and sincere doe-eyes made you want to believe.

Rockstar director, Imtiaz Ali, is all praise for the Kapoor: “As an actor, Ranbir keeps his craft craftless. He manages not to impose his personality on the character. That is almost impossible to achieve. He is truly deeply madly passionate about cinema. Anyone would be lucky to work with him.” And his repertoire of varied roles underlines this fact. Rocket Singh (2009) proved that Ranbir Kapoor could take a staid role devoid of glamour and turn it into one of his most memorable performances. Rockstar (2011) displayed the zeal, the aesthetic heights that he could be driven to for a role. Barfi! (2012) established that Ranbir could be given any role, with any disability and he could rip the screen with the sheer power of his performance. It’s that easy for him. It’s that exciting for us as viewers. It is without a shred of doubt that the elusive superstar that people await for decades, even generations, has been delivered in the form of Raj Kapoor’s grandson.

But somewhere along the lines, cracks began to appear on the chiselled persona. He’s the rock star of our dreams and the Hyde of our nightmares. He’s the debonair rakish Willoughby that every ‘good’ girl gets her knickers in a twist for, in a futile attempt to tame. He’s young, at the prime of his game and he must sow his wild oats. Do his personal choices make a difference to his onscreen abilities? Only when he chooses to play the field onscreen, you want to save the haseenas from his grasp.

Fortunately for him, the chinks that appear in the amour are only personal ones, never professional. And after a tumultuous break-up he can continue to woo his ex-girlfriend on screen with as much finesse as he would his latest lady love, as is evident by the massive success of last year’s rom-com entirely lacking in nuances,Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

But, his ability to sustain lasting relationships with the same ease he brings to the screen is the question. Is it possible, or fair to expect him to have it all? He promised us a screen hero and never fails to deliver. Must he also give us a persona that we can look up to and admire in real life? It is so rare to find a combination of a brilliant actor and a movie star – one that the masses and critics applaud with equal spirit. May that be enough for us, and may we only hope that the women in his life find peace in being a part of something greater than a person – being witness to Talent.

Ranbir Speak

“My own search for who I am and to make my parents proud, is what drives me. I am very passionate about Indian cinema, acting, directing and producing films. I get to do what I love…it becomes the biggest driving force in life.”

“I don’t think I have ever felt pressure. I felt a responsibility – my family has been contributing to Indian cinema for 80 years and now I have to take that legacy forward, in my own individual way with my own notions, thoughts and choices. Pressure is always used in a negative way; it has positive attributes. So for me it was a responsibility and I had to prove myself within my family.”

“I don’t take tags like ‘desirable’, ‘good-looking’ or ‘bad looking’ too seriously. I always believe that handsome is what handsome really does. If your work is good, everything seems good. I hope to continue doing good work, work with interesting people and constantly surprise myself.”

“You go to work, you come back home, and you switch off and spend time with family, your wife, your girlfriend and your siblings. Family and close friends are really important, that’s what grounds you. The film industry transports you to a place that is not real, so it is really important to get back to your bearings.”

Verve’s Bollywood Style Awards 2008

19 Tuesday Feb 2008

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Fashion & Style, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Bollywood, Bollywood Style Awards, Fashion, indiancinema, jabwemet, Saawariya, vervemagazine

Published: Verve Magazine, Features, February 2008
Photographs by Manmeet Bhatti

After a long era of homegrown costumiers dressing movie stars of yore, fashion designers styling glam queens has become de rigueur in today’s Bollywood. From unique kitsch to contemporary chic, Verve awards three veteran couturiers for their distinctive Indo-retro costumes that set the screen ablaze in 2007 and recreates these trendsetting looks with model Amrit Maghera

Bollywood01

Fantasy Mode – Saawariya
Anuradha Vakil for Sonam Kapoor
In the romantic, lyrical tale described over four fateful nights, the screen comes alive with intricate attention to detail in the ambience of Saawariya. Fantasy woven into the fabric of traditional designs enhances Sakina’s (Sonam Kapoor) mystical quality, as she flits in between the surrealistic frames. Designing with the outlook of ‘poetry in motion,’ Anuradha Vakil, known for her work in fashion design that is deeply rooted in Indian crafts, completes director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s vision. Understated designs, which shadow the intricate background sets, are actually realistic and wearable. Empire waistlines and floating anarkalis in classic colours (primarily black and white) have become the rage. Drawing from kathak and the Islamic arts and culture, there is a predominance of antique fabrics, appliqué and ikat weaves and kalabottan embroidery. Vakil shed her initial skepticism at designing for a commercial film, when she discovered the artistic vision of the film.

 

Bollywood02

Authentic Recreation – Khoya Khoya Chand
Niharika Khan for Soha Ali Khan
In a film that takes the audience back to the 1950s, to the era of black and white cinema, Khoya Khoya Chand, a story of on-set romance, subtly plays with the mood of the time. Niharika Khan (along with Ashima Belapurkar) tracked back to film magazines, old movies, footage, and survivors from that decade, meticulously developing the evolution of the 50s’ silks and baggy pants to the chiffons and drainpipes of the 60s; indemnifying the teased hairdos, and svelte sari-draped divas. Khan tapped into real life sources, like those of her mother-in-law, Begum Para, her mother’s friend, Waheeda Rehman, and ’60s glamour doll, Saira Banu, making diligent use of valuable resources like old pictures (especially those of Madhubala) and her mother’s saris. It is not surprising then, that the styling is reminiscent of divas from that era – Nadira, Nargis and Meena Kumari. The movement in time is also symbolised by the colour palette: the earlier half of the film restricts itself to muted hues and black and white, while the latter half erupts with a burst of colour, as the cinema transitions to Technicolour.

Ethnic Fusion – Jab We Met
Manish Malhotra for Kareena Kapoor
As the small-town girl, with spirit and a refreshingly optimistic outlook on life, completely unaware of street corner whispers and conventional norms, Kareena Kapoor carried off this eccentric look with aplomb in Jab We Met. Manish Malhotra, exercising the artistic freedom given to him by the director, Imitiaz Ali, boldly dressed Kareena in patiala pants in a fusion concept with a mismatched T-shirt and traditional hoop earrings, which have gone on to become a cult statement. As he describes it, “The blue singlet was peeking through her shirt, and her character, Geet, is someone who would shed the shirt and jeans for a patiala and ganjee – the transition is easy, not requiring any deviation.” The outfit was designed keeping Kareena in mind – her slim figure, height and darkened hair complemented the ensemble. In the latter half of the film, when the character is in Shimla, though Kareena would have preferred dresses, both the director and designer were in agreement that a simple salwar-kameez would work best, staying true to her small-town roots.
And work well it did….

 

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Retro Rendering – Om Shanti Om
Manish Malhotra for Deepika Padukone
Celebrating the ’70s in multicoloured tones, bling and outlandish evocations, Manish Malhotra had fun going vintage with bright colours, skintight churidar-kurtas and bouffant or long straight hair to boot. Being brought up on an intense dose of ’70s films, Malhotra got the opportunity to recreate this vision in Om Shanti Om. Farah Khan, who shares his passion for the era, didn’t think twice before selecting him as the costume designer. Khan wanted to be exact, and even modelled the looks on actresses like Hema Malini, Rekha, Mumtaz, Leena Chandavarkar and Helen, before opting for the final designs. Malhotra loved dressing up Deepika Padukone, whom he describes as, “a beautiful young actress, with a great figure. We could mould her into the look we wanted.” He is thrilled to have recreated history, particularly in the multi-starrer song, which was an exciting challenge in itself. The retro style is now so popular that a commercial line celebrating this look is soon to be launched!

Saawariya: Review

19 Wednesday Dec 2007

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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comment, Ranbir Kapoor, Reviews, Saawariya, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sonam Kapoor, vervemagazine, White Nights

Published: Verve Magazine, Screen, December 2007

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s fantastical and surreal Saawariya is a lyrical odyssey that could have been explosive as a theatrical performance or a stage musical, opines Sitanshi Talati-Parikh

Evolving the vibrant medium of cinema a notch further has been considered the auteur of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. In his latest offering, Saawariya, he draws from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story, White Nights, where a vibrant youth enters a snowy, mystical hillside town only to be carried away in a fantastical love affair over four surreal nights. Despite the gaps being filled by a good soundtrack, the lyrical odyssey stretches and the story is not a perfect flow through the frames and between the songs. It would have worked better, had the songs been half the number, the scenes more tightly wound and the characters allowed to develop fully. Alternatively, this could have been explosive as a theatrical performance or stage musical.

With Saawariya, the film-maker brings a superb theatrical effect to light. Drawing from the paintings of Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Fred R Wagner and William Louis Sonntag, visualiser Ravi Chandran has made Omung Kumar’s stylised sets come alive, with the use of space lights (a first for India). Add that to excellent costumes by Reza Shariffi (Ranbir Kapoor) and Anuradha Vakil (Rani Mukerji, Sonam Kapoor), the look of Saawariya is larger than life. The movie, however, doesn’t work evocatively, even if it does enchant. His multi-hued extravaganza just misses the exacting moment, when a painting comes to life.

The beautiful canvas may just be too well crafted. As the actors appear on this canvas to enact a sequence of events, the space appears too perfectly composed, too posturised, leaving the characters distant from the audience. As Sakina (Sonam) drifts past on the waters with her arm extended, it is dramatic and unreal at the same time. Suddenly that feeling changes, when accosted with Lillianji (Zohra Sehgal) and Gulabji (Mukerji). They spring to life and the film abruptly loses its dream-like detached quality. Raj (Ranbir) splits between the gaps and opens up on screen, as an identifiable character, but one is unable to get a lasting feel of his emotions as they scatter across the canvas.

The fresh, lively faces of the newcomers light up the screen. Ranbir exceeds expectations, while Sonam Kapoor shows potential. The lack of chemistry between them, if intentional, works at a subterranean level, to hint that it is a doomed love story, but the missing chemistry – between Imaan (Salman Khan) and Sakina – has no explanation. It is easier to be moved by Lillianji’s grief, as she is left alone, than it is to sympathise with the protagonists.

Bhansali’s experimental cinema is always a welcome change from the mundane histrionics of mass cinema. Whether the audience is able to accept the shortcomings of Saawariya in light of its positive movement towards evolutionary cinema that breaks with convention, is left to be seen.

|  Filling the gaps between words.  |

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