Everyone has clearly been going slack on the film watching front because there haven't been any mentions of GRABs for the last few weeks. Perhaps everyone assumed that between Gandhi, My Father and Chak De! India the chances of GRABs was so low they could all take a break. Well, they were wrong there because last week saw not one, but two excellent GRABs (excellent in the sense of GRABs, not films, evidently) with Marigold and Budha Mar Gaya. Since I spared myself seeing either I'll just give Sarita Tanwar of Mid-Day's reviews in which both are mentioned. The Marigold one is really a strong GRAB. Here's the extract from her review: ---------------------------- What's not: It's hard to believe that a Hollywood production chose a script that's straight out of the 1980s. The plot goes awry; the screenplay and dialogues get so nerve-wrecking that it even makes K C Bokadia seem like Copolla.
Here's an example: Half a dozen people from Prem's family are seated at a table for dinner. Barry walks in and seats himself. Prem's father Mahendra (Vijendra Ghatge) says to him, "You are welcome at my table but who are you." Prem says, "Boyfriend." The father asks his son, who is caught between two women, "Yours?" Choreography by Bhairavi Merchant and music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is sub-standard. ---------------------------- Back to me. The Budha Mar Gaya GRAB comes in the form of Om Puri (his first queer role?) who plays a bisexual sadhu. This unexpected bit of realism (Sadhus, not Om Puri) apart, the film seems to have been so dreadful that most reviewers couldn't even shred it, they were just watching appalled as some of our best actors churned it out. One early GRAB sighting query: was there a gay wedding planner in Partner? How was the character presented? Badly, I'm assuming, but how did it seem on screen and what, if any, was audience reaction? And what about this week's GRABs? Heyy Baby, with three stripping stars must have some gay moments? All the first-day-first-show fans, please post your GRAb views soon, Vikram PS: If you're wondering what all this GRAB stuff is, here's the mail I wrote which started it: About Gay Reference Audit for Bollywood (GRAB) Did anyone see Good Boy, Bad Boy? I know Tussshar Kapoor was a draw, but the reviews of this film were so horrenduous - even the actors seemed to be pissed off at it - that I wouldn't be surprised if not a single gay boy went to see it. Which might be a pity only because of this visual: http://www.indiafm.com/movies/mstills/12733/still18052.html I just saw this still reproduced in a paper and couldn't believe it. Is Emraan Hashmi really standing at the head of a students' rally with a big sign below him saying "Being Gay Is No..." Actually I don't know what the sign says because its been cropped in the visual and I haven't seen the film, but it does sound like its going to be something positive like "No Crime". Can anyone who has seen the film - or anyone brave enough to go and see it now - fill us in on what the sign says? OK, I know that even if it is positive, it doesn't mean that Emraan really believed in this big time (I can't remember even a single comment he's ever made on gays) and the chances are the producers just threw it in because they think it sounded cool and radical and eye catching and at this point in the film they were probably desperate to try anything. All the other signs around are about different things, so its hardly a gay rights rally. Still, its the first gay rights sign I can ever remember seeing in a Bollywood film and if nothing else its proof of how (a) its now almost obligatory to have a gay reference in every new film and (b) the references aren't always positive, but there is a general sense that homosexuality is part of Indian society. We could argue about this - do you think its showing homosexuality as cool? Do you think its showing it as sensationalist and slightly depraved? But one way or the other gay references are getting out there and if such a fluff film like Good Boy Bad Boy can have a visual like this then perhaps its going to be a good thing. But the only problem is keeping track of all the references. Just to speak about recent releases: - Honeymoon Travels - two excellent gay subplots - El Chalis Ka Last Local - a gay don - Metro - gay subplot on Page3 lines - Raqueeb - Mayank Shekhar's review mentions one homophobic reference where the lead actor indignantly denies being gay And there's more in the pipeline, like a film called, I think, Kabhi Socha Nahi Tha which has a lesbian subplot. But as I said the problem is keeping track of it which is why I'm suggesting launching the Gay Reference Audit for Bollywood - GRAB, for short. Which simply means that anyone who goes and sees a new release will please note any gay references, no matter how silly, stereotyped or trivial, and post it on this list. Since there must be people here who see most new releases it shouldn't be hard. If the reference is particularly good, like in Honeymoon Travels, we could even organise a GB Goes to See the film (and perhaps the filmmakers might hear of that and start putting in good references.... OK, I'm dreaming here now). What do people think? Is it worth doing? Is it possible? And do we have any volunteers to be GRABbers? Vikram --------------------------------- For ideas on reducing your carbon footprint visit Yahoo! For Good this month.
