Saturday, May 01, 2010

geet gaya patharon ne

bewildering this madness of pistachio and strawberry colours. the house that jeetendra the sculptor crafts for the aging father to reunite with his daughter is a temple to a veiled bride that turns into a mother with the addition of a child in her arms. the gigantic sculpture stands at the center of the center in new delhi where the doorways in multicoloured iconography lead from the north, south, east and west. bharat mata is her. indian nari as around her women in all traditional costumes dance. inexplicably rajashree wears south east asian costumes as she sings the kishori amonkar title track. from the outside this building is a heavy handed neoclassical high plinthed monstrosity with an assortment of spires representing all indian religions. this message of unity in diversity is difficult to miss even as it is hammered in insidious as well as heavy handed ways. rajashree represents the indian woman's purity and jeetendra the obsession of men idealise her and then reject her at the very hint of impurity. the songs are all uniformly awful. even kishori amonkar cant save the title track from becoming incredible annoying. a few (too few) sequences still have the flourishes of over the top madness you expect from a shantaram film- the title sequence being one of them.

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