Quick Gun Murugun

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Quick Gun Murugun

This has to be a first. From a character in the two minutes promos of MTV during the nascent days of satellite television in India to a larger than life hero in a ninety minute feature film Quick Gun Murugun shoots his way across the silver screen with aplomb and inimitable style. It’s a Mexican beans meets paysam Western. Instead of a whiskey swilling and a drawling Clint Eastwood please meet the dosa munching vegetarian cowboy Quick Gun Murugan. He sets out to put a stop to the evil designs of the non vegetarian expansionist dreams of the villain, Rice Plate Reddy (Oh, how I love this name).
The movie is set in the classic genre of the Westerns made immortal by the greats like Sergio Leone, John Sturges and Sam Peckinpah. Like all great Westerns this one too has a wide canvas, a predictable story narrated with consummate slickness and a supernatural touch but which has Indian written all over it. Way to go Mr Shashank Ghosh. His directorial skill is only matched with the outrageous, cheeky and gross scenarios manufactured with a whacky sense of humour. Music fans like me who have been following Channel [V] and MTV through the years will comprehend what I am talking about. The classy one liners used in the promos of both these channels are the inspiration for the zany dialogues of this film. I was specially amazed by the fact that considering Ghosh was using pot bellied Southern actors in a classic south Indian backdrop to narrate a revenge story has managed to pull off the presentation in orthodox Western mode albeit with a little too much violence for a comic Western. As a matter of fact movies of this genre should now be called a Southern.
The story takes off in a remote southern village in 1982 with the killing of the hero by Rice Plate Reddy played by Nasser. It’s a powerful portrayal of a ruthless killer who blows away every opposition to his business plans. It was touching to see the hero as a brave but vulnerable guy who gets outnumbered and killed. But wait a minute, this is not a cut and dried Sergio Leone saga where the dead stay dead. On reaching heaven (Ministry of Death, oh man) Quick Gun makes an application to the CEO, one Mr. C Gupta (yeah you guessed it) for repatriation to earth on the grounds of his unfinished business of protecting cows and promoting vegetarianism. Lord Chitragupta makes a statement on the changing gastronomic preferences in the modern world by observing that “Vegetarianism is the need of the hour” and bingo, Murugun is beamed back to earth, a la The Terminator, sans clothes but with a full chaddi. But hey, this is Mumbai 25 years later. And with a good reason too. Rice Plate Reddy has climbed up the corporate criminal ladder and instead of an angvastram he now sports designer super white suits along with an arm candy appropriately called Mango Dolly played by the luscious Rambha. In keeping with the metro standards he plans to launch the biggest non vegetarian dosa outlet chain called, what else but McDosa. He has one small problem though. His chief chef can’t find the right combination of ingredients which adds that extra zing to the proposed dosa. In comes Rowdy MBA (Who thought of all these names? I want to shake his hand.), the consultant played by Raju Sundaram whom you would remember in that fantastic dance number “Rukmani” from Roja. Of course no institute promotes the management techniques employed by him to get the perfect dosa.
The action sequences are as mindless as they are enjoyable. In fact anywhere else they would look ridiculous but since one expects them from Quick Gun they are hilarious. Fantastic music more appropriate to the classical Mexican stand offs and slick camera work makes the action gripping. Never mind the impossibility of what you see. It needs to be done. It’s Quick Gun Murugun. Mind it? I certainly didn’t!

Movie Review - Kaminey

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Kaminey

Thanks to the boycott of the cinema industry by the multiplexes I was badly deprived of my regular fix of movies. However since their reconciliation I barely got time to see any. The long hiatus was broken by Vishal Bhardwaj’s latest offering. Both his earlier movies were based on Shakespeare’s plays. While Maqbool was good, Onkara was a brilliant take on Othello. How does one live up to that kind legacy? Well he changed the rules of the game and smacks it in your face.
So you have a hero, rather two of them with speech disorders. One lisps and the other stutters. Shahid Kapoor with his cute smile and chiseled body has delivered on both counts. The story is about these two twins who are leading completely different lives. The stuttering bro, Guddu, is a simple guy working for an NGO spreading the message of safe sex and trying to make an honest living. Priyanka is his love interest who declares she is pregnant in her very first scene. They decide to get married immediately but there is one little problem. The lady’s brother is a psyco gangster and a wannabe politician and he doesn’t quite like the idea of some dude knocking up his sister.
The other twin, Charlie, is a small time hoodlum who fixes horse races and dreams of becoming a legitimate bookie one day. One day he puts all his cookies in one jar and loses his life’s earning when the manipulated jockey double crosses him. In his quest for revenge he gets involved in a fight with the rival gangsters and while escaping he unknowingly steals the vehicle of Anti Narcotic cops who are also moonlighting as drug dealers. There is a stash hidden in the jeep which becomes a mean of redeeming his recent losses.
The lives of the twins who have not been involved in each other’s lives for years, presumably because of ideological differences undergo an unexpected change when Charlie is picked up by the psyco gangster and Guddu is arrested by the Narco cops. The Bollywood switch, yes, but the events then unfold leading to an awesome surreal climax. The entire narrative of the movie is so taut that if you blink you might miss the sequence of events. This is no Shakespearean drama but VB has managed to make a masala action flick look like a classic. But for the fact that at times it was difficult to understand the Bengali and Marathi dialogues I could barely detect a weakness in the movie. However I would dedicate my Oscar to the editor for making a relentless entertainer.
Priyanka Chopra looks like a million bucks without her makeup and within her Sarojani Nagar rehri market oh so ordinary attire. Why can’t all women look like the Miss Simplicity herself? Dream on Bawa boy, it’s not taxable. Shahid’s carved body adds menace to the high voltage action. The finale of the movie and the composition of the action sequences is easily one of the best that Bollywood has offered so far. Dhan te naan and go watch.