'3 idiots' make a lot of noise!

There has been a major confusion in splitting up the ‘credits pie’ between the movie makers and the novelist and the ‘3 idiots’ copyright controversy that has been causing quite a row in the media these days. I happened to read Chetan Bhagat’s blog today.

I have read the book ‘Five point someone’ and now watched the movie ‘3 idiots’ and it was indeed pretty sad and shocking to see the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ credit line ‘Based on the novel Five Point Someone By Chetan Bhagat’ written in a teeny tiny font move up the screen at the end of the movie.
I have not keenly followed the promos of this movie but I remember it was publicized to be an adaptation of the book ‘Five Point Someone’ long before it was made. Although, I can’t resist saying that the name of the movie- ‘3 idiots’ is absolutely ridiculous. I still wonder what the director was thinking when he thought of this name for the movie. The 3 guys obviously are the center of the story but they’re definitely not idiots!


Bhagat, in his blog, claims to have been ‘grappling with it for two years, but kept silent about it.’ Why did he have to ‘grapple’ with this issue for two long years!! What was he waiting for?
The movie to be released and become a big hit and not see his name in it in the beginning and then complain??? He says he was not shown the final script or the movie before it was released because he was tricked into believing that the movie was ‘original’.

I’d say that if they had bought the rights of his work from him with the intentions of making a movie out of it, he should realize that the movie would have ‘something’ to do with the book!
This movie was publicized as being an ‘adaptation’ of the novel long before it was made and that should have given him some curiosity to check what it was about and in case he was not given any insight into the developments of the movie as he says, he could’ve made some noise or gone to court or whatever at that point in time.
Even though the story framework, the characters and the theme of the movie are completely taken from the book, the movie script is absolutely beautiful and some of the dialogues are totally marvelous. Incredible work of Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani. Great work you guys!

The movie producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra definitely overreacted at the press conference on being questioned whether his movie was an adaptation of the novel. And the unbelievably stubborn man was not even ready to apologize immediately to the reporter whom he shouted at and he needed a day to think it over and apologize. I liked his apology though. He agreed that he was being ‘silly’, was ‘behaving like an animal’ and that his behavior was ‘nonsensical’. You are spot on on that one Chopra!

Interestingly he also said that he never wanted to meet Chetan Bhagat again ever again! I think he just busted his chances of making some good movies out of his books.

It was indeed scandalous to say that the movie was just ‘very loosely 2-5%’ inspired by the book. A lot more than that was definitely taken from the book. The characters, the basic story line and theme. We have to give that to Bhagat. The blog shows the writer’s disappointed state of mind and I’m sure a lot of his fans will sympathize with him. Personally, I don’t think he was looking for fame but probably a bit of recognition.


Anyway, the way I see it, this controversy might just spark up the sale of your book again now, Chetan!

Your book was excellent. So was the movie.

I think all this controversy just does a lot of comparison and spoils the fun!

Or maybe Bhagat was totally uninspired after ‘2 states’ that he wanted some entertainment in his life which could eventually come out as a book! Where better to search for inspiration than in Bollywood!

Go write your next one Chetan! Now would be a great time to start!

The Vettaikaran Experience

Went for the Vijay starrer Vettaikaran with a huge gang of friends.
What do you know, I totally enjoyed the experience! And mind you watching a commercial Tamil movie is indeed an ‘experience’.

Around 20 of us managed to get seats only in the front row of the theatre but decided to watch Vijay and his absolutely unrealistic stunts at close range and drive the movie to success. The guys sat in close range solely to watch the heroine, Anushka shetty and her ‘stunts’ of course.

One of the interesting scenes in the movie were I'd say, when our hero Vijay jumped off a waterfall and escaped unhurt. Now, we have seen that in a couple of Hollywood movies as well. So I couldn’t appreciate that so much.

One time, he breaks a massive cement pillar into dust and yep the slow mo effect of the cement breaking into small pieces and turning into dust was great.

There’s this scene where Vijay does some 2-3 somersaults in the air and lands on a horse that was nowhere around when he started somersaulting. Awesome!

Our movie hero’s can do almost anything. Our hero shoots the driver of the van he’s chasing and miraculously the van flips in the air and overturns. I wish I could do stuff like that!

Then there was this scene where the heroine was captured by the villain and kept captive and our hero negotiates with the villain to get her back. It goes like this. The villain and Vijay sit face to face with a table in between them which has a bottle of pure spirit and 2 glasses. The villain keeps talking and our hero, untainted by the words of the villain, coolly keeps drinking pure spirit, glass after glass. In situations like these you should always anticipate something big from the hero. Vijay then took a cigarette and lit the lighter and when we least expected it; he just blew over the fire and thus started a fiery tornado that gulped the villain! I was like ‘wow’ when I saw that. :D I was totally not expecting that one! Impressive!

The day before Vettaikaran was released; most roads here in Chennai were blocked because of the Pooja and related ceremonies that were being performed for the movie to become a success. Somehow these kinda things promote the movie better than banners or advertisements, I feel. And obviously there will be huge cut outs of Vijay in different poses all around the city such that you turn anywhere and there he is reminding you to watch his movie.

I even read reviews that said that the movie ‘Avatar’ was no where close to ‘Vettaikaran’. I’m sure James Cameron would stop making movies if he read that one!

Another thing is you go for movies like these keeping your brains at home and just for the sheer pleasure of being in a group- whistling, howling and throwing pop corn up in the air when the hero/heroine makes his first entry etc

After this movie, a lot of people in my group were complaining of a headache though. The fight scenes just blast your ears and it did have some unnecessary songs in it here and there but what use would Anushka be of in the movie if she dint get to wiggle to the tune of a couple of numbers.

Overall I think it was a fun movie. Now, I’m waiting for the next Rajni movie to be released! That should be even more fun.:)

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As the year 2009 comes to an end, I have not made any New Year resolutions this time. Because, out of experience, resolutions just remain resolutions unless I probably make a resolution to fulfill these resolutions!

Right now, let me just wish you all a Happy New Year!

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I watched 'Wake up Sid'

Phew that was a big blog break……
Hibernate season over Par………
Time to get up and start writing again......
This is for a start….. or rather a continuation..

Watched the movie ‘Wake up Sid’ today. It was great. Was pretty impressed by the men in the movie I must say.
Ranbir Kapoor.. I never really liked that guy that much before but hes amazing in this one. Rahul Khanna….. What a hunk!!
Oh ya and for the guys, Konkana is not glamourous but shes charming in the movie.

The theatre was filled with youngsters squealing and howling when the heroes did something ‘heroic’ (You know how it is in the Hindi movies).

But honestly speaking, this movie wasn’t all that superficial unlike a lot of hindi movies I’ve seen, although yes you can predict the second half of the movie when you see the first and obviously everyone is super rich in the movie- the dad owns a great company and expects the son to take over and all that. But the movie is an entertainer with a bit of stuff you could actually take home.
Go and watch it people!