nar narman . the making of ‘aap ka suroor’. kalakaar

at the vikalp screening yesterday, for me two out of the three films were duds, while the third more than made up for the long drive into town.

‘nar narman’ about a pakistani gay poet in the usa was just that much. so, he exists and seems like a queen. beyond that much there was nothing really much to talk or think about.

the last film was this ordinary faithfully recreated silent film about the invention of an eraser called ‘kalakaar’, complete with fake scratches on the screen. at around 10 minutes in length it was about 7 minutes too long.

‘the making of ‘aap ka suroor’ on the other hand was total feel good cross cultural bonhomie. to watch a bollywood film being shot from the fringes, and that too a himesh film, foregrounded the bizarre things that we take for granted when it comes to hindi films. as paro said in the introduction, it could have been easy to parody this silliness- after all whats with that ‘assalam aleikum’ song in the church?; but the film managed in an affectionate sweet way to love the madness- and revel in it.