Gully Boy review: What a TIME to be at the cinemas!

On the way back home, after watching Zoya Akhtar's latest masterpiece, 'Gully Boy,' I realized that films set in Bombay have always held a very special place in the centre of my heart. I am talking 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron,' 'Salaam Bombay,' 'Bombay,' 'Satya,' 'Rangeela,' 'Black Friday,' 'Waisa Bhi Hota Hai (Part 2),' Luck By Chance...

You get the drift? No? Okay -

I LOVE BOMBAY.

BOMBAY LOVES ME.

WE ARE A HAPPY FAMILY.



I am a sucker for Bombay, and love stories, so I was already sold the moment the trailer of 'Gully Boy' landed on YouTube. Disclaimer: I am more of a ghazal / Sufi music lover, hence stayed miles away from hip-hop / rap till this 'Gully Boy' song dropped -



'Apna time aayega' has been playing on my head since then. What an uplifting song, it can even uplift the uplifted - it should be the morning wake up call for everyone with a dream to chase. Before going any further, I have three words for those who didn't like 'Gully Boy' -

Go. Fuck. Yourself.

A little background - I have watched a short film, 'Bombay 70' - and have watched it 70 times or more since then. I knew there was enough material for a feature film in the short film. Cut to about two years later I got to know that Zoya is making a film which is apparently inspired by the same. To be fair, 'Bombay 70' & 'Gully Boy' are two legit legends in their own spaces respectively.



Getting to the point, 'Gully Boy' will be remembered as one of Indian cinema's best - Zoya's best ever - and till this afternoon I thought she couldn't top 'Luck By Chance' in this lifetime. There is a moment in 'Gully Boy' when Murad (Ranveer) goes to Safeena (Alia) to tell her about the best day in his life - it's a very unique setting - my eyes went semi moist, confused if I am happy or sad. This stayed till a little before the interval, when I had started crying profusely.

Post interval, there was a moment in between Murad & his mother, when my confused eyes got semi moist & stayed till I burst into tears towards the last half hour of the film. My wife Rani, and my mom-in-law get really embarrassed when I cry in cinemas, but I just can't help when tears start flowing. 'Gully Boy' is full of magical moments - in between all the primary and secondary characters - the reason the semi moist eyes remain moist, or a few tears drop, involuntarily.

Every Murad (artist) needs a Safeena (the mental-lover-leveler) - I thank God, I found my Safeena in Rani. Each time I missed a beat, she got my rhythm back on track. My reasons for connecting with 'Gully Boy' lie in the moments, the sweet kisses, the shy Murad who meets his mentor MC Sher (Siddhant Chaturvedi) or his best friend, Moeen (Vijay Verma), Murad's angry father (Vijay Raaz) and his heartbroken mother (Amruta Subhash). Not to forget the moments shared between Murad and Sky (Kalki). So tempted to watch 'Gully Boy' one more time.

A juvenile boy I know on Facebook via my wife credited the awesomeness of 'Gully Boy' to Javed Akhtar Saab; I replied, "With due respect to Javed Saab, his only BEST contribution to this film is that he is Zoya's father." I think the sole best contributor to this film over and above the cast and crew can only be this crazy lovely city, I equate with my mother - my Bombay - here destinies are re-written, slumdogs turn millionaires, millionaires flee to Kenya and maximum dreams come true. Basically, the golden nest for nurturing underdog stories.

P.S. 1: The casting directors (Karan Mally & Nandini Shrikent), cinematographer (Jay Oza) & editor (Nitin Baid) deserve more credit than they would ever get. 

P.S. 2: Safeena and MC Sher deserve films of their own.

P.S. 3: I will kiss Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar's shoelaces whenever I see them in person.

A short review in the Gully Boy language -

TOD-PHOD. CHEER-PHAAD. BUM-PHAAD. BHOT HARD. EK NUMBER, BANTAAI.

 

Kapoor And Sons: Miss the moments, miss the pictures.

I just turned 35.

The same day that Shakun Batra's Kapoor And Sons released.

Date: 18th March, 2016.

I still feel all of 15.

Some dispute here, as some friends and relatives think that I have only turned 5, but that's besides the point.


I just came back home after watching 'Kapoor and Sons,' light hearted and teary eyed.

Haven't written in a long time, hence sorry for the gap. Have been working too hard trying to make a living by all means legal. Basically writing things that I will never get credit for in this lifetime. No, I am not complaining, I love my job and everything about it - even the portions that I can't take credit for. I love my life the way it is. I might have been happier with a grandpa a-la Chintuji in K.A.S.



Coming back to Dharma Productions' Kapoor And Sons, I was sold out the day I watched the trailer. To be fair, till about 6 years ago I was the guy who watched 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham,' and cried each time the 'brothers on the bench' scene played out - I would cry my eyes out. I have this thing about family bonding, though I have been way too detached to my immediate family most of my life.

Films like Swarg and Baghbaan have consistently made my cry like a baby waiting to be fed. I cry a lot while watching films, especially when Jai dies in Sholay, or Tina in Mr. India. I am an emotional fool, but I am a shrewd fool, I don't cry very easily. That's the thing about 'Kapoor And Sons,' I held on till perhaps the last hour, and then I cried my eyes out... slowly but copiously.

I am still an amateur when it comes to family dynamics, though I have been blessed with a perfectly imperfect family. I had convinced myself that my kid brother was an adopted one, years ago. I still don't know how my parents managed to live together all these years. Arranged marriages, I tell you. All this, till I got married to the love of my life, Rani. I suddenly became the elder son.

I love my kid brother, and I am proud of all his accomplishments - but it always hurt that he was the perfect son that I could never be. I revisited that hurt in Kapoor And Sons. Actually so many scars that I had buried deep down within, years ago, just came tumbling out while watching Rahul and Arjun in Kapoor And Sons. Sometimes I wish all parents had only one child. HAHAHA

Silly me.


And then there is this whole thing about being your own person. I am glad we are perhaps the last generation where our career choices will not be governed by those of our parents or relatives' kids. There were very few relatives or friends who had anything to do with me when I had joined the BPO. Even less, when I chose to write for a living. It didn't help that writing pays so less.

While my cousins had bought apartments and cars, and subsequently had babies, all I had by then were a few boxes of books and DVDs as my material possessions. I had my baggages, just like all those men and women I saw in Kapoor And Sons. We all need to lose our baggages, once in a while - it makes us lose weight, and times can give us wings to fly. We need to fly away from our nests too.

That is mandatory. Fly away, if only for a bit.

Let's talk about the moments - only a few of the priceless moments make their way into pictures. This was perhaps the biggest learning from Kapoor And Sons. There are moments that we want to capture and preserve forever, and there are some we are ashamed of, or choose to ignore. I was home last Diwali, and I miss taking a few more pictures with my family. Who knows how long we are here?

Let me just say that watching Kapoor And Sons was an experience where I spoke to myself more than what the film or the filmmaker spoke to me - or may be that was the genius of Shakun Batra. A story so universal, of all our lives put together in less than three hours. There are some films that need to be preserved for posterity, this one was one such. So many moments, one beautiful picture.

One family, Kapoor And Sons, since 1921.