JISM 2 - Well Fleshed Out :)

My suggestion would be that this article is not featured as a film review, but rather an opinion column by someone who wants to do a bit of male bashing with her pen or take the time tested cynic’s route of showing that Indian men are hypocrites, backward and sexually frustrated souls. No harm in having any opinion. India is tolerant even to a Tasleema Nasrin. So definitely Ms. Nanda has a right to say what she wants.
Coming to the film, since I have not seen it yet (& nor do I intend to) and since Ms. Nanda has not given out anything either in her review, I really can’t say much about the film per se, because her summary in this article is as good as what I(or anyone) would have written after seeing the promos on TV.
But yeah, as it has evolved as a recent trend in Bollywood, we see directors hail fellow directors’ work to give their films a push. Yesterday Imtiaz Ali was also heard praising GOW2 as Anurag Kashyap’s “best work ever”. There’s no harm in genuine appreciation and a camaraderie between fellow professionals, till the time it is from the heart and not a promotional ploy (after all, these days the average movie goer has become smart and doesn’t want to blow his thousand bucks just on reading a favorable review by a Taran Adarsh or hearing it from an Omar Quereshi. He / She wants an “authentic “ report card. And who else can comment on a director’s work – but another director ! )
To Ms Nanda’s contention that every man was waiting impatiently to rush to see Pooja Bhatt’s “pornstar” movie, I think she gets it wrong, or she is not exposed to the larger Indian society maybe. Also her assessment of the Indian man is dated, lopsided and extremely & unnecessarily feministic. She could have kept this simple – as a film review, instead of making so many wrong judgments.
Finally, coming to the Bhatt family – I think we all know the kind of films they make. Mahesh Bhatt was that(once) talented youngster who had those three good stories to narrate from his diary :
1. That of a troubled illegitimate child born out of a cross religious live-in relationship;
2. A marriage that falls open and the varying approaches to infidelity taken by the man and the woman;
3. His autobiographical “Parveen”story, that of a maverick filmmaker in love with a schizophrenic woman – done to death, again and again.
He has told these, retold these, mixed these and milked these till India got fed up and bid farewell to him and his “Zakhm”s with a parting National award many years ago. He has, since then, assumed the the role of a mentor-cum-Godfather to India’s B-rung movie wagon with a smart business plan. Take any successful H’wood movie(Or Chinese, Korean..doesn’t matter), rip it off to the extent permissable, fit it into Indian context, throw in lots of sexually suggestive dialogues/ promos, rope in some popular music (if Pritam refuses to deliver cheap, you could always peep Pakistan-wards, where you can pick up a talented rock band’s work , and pay them peanuts) and these films - riding low on budget and high on cheap publicity gimmicks (they actually had a Page 3 article that the producers of Jism 2 had auctioned off Sunny Leone’s lingerie without her knowledge etc.. Imagine the levels they can stoop to, to grab eyeballs & get people to the theatres !) always manage to recover their costs and get declared a hit in the week 1 itself (unlike an expensive movie which takes about 3 -4 weeks to ascertain if it would recover costs).
Ms. Nanda bashes pseudo intellectualism somewhere. If I was asked, I would say that Mr. Mahesh Bhatt used to be the custodian for that title in Bollywood.
In the early 90s, when we did not have the talented breed of directors that we have today ,and when India had just opened it’s doors and windows to the rest of the world as an economy, he garnered a lot of fans who walked around mouthing his abstract philosophies (he had cleverly retained some Osho-isms from his Pune days and used them as a successful bait to quench the New India’s thirst for intellectual satiation without bothering to actually exert their minds too much).
(The only good thing that the Bhatts gave us in recent years is a guy called Emraan Hashmi. I love that dark horse who goes about his business quietly and confidently, giving hit after hit and yet keeps his low profile on. He reminds me of M.S.Dhoni in some ways.)
Yes, we Indians ARE reserved, when it comes to talking about sex in the open. That’s a part of our culture. I am uncomfortable when a love making scene comes up on TV and I am watching it with my mother or daughter. That does not make me regressive. That’s my upbringing and I do not apologize for it at all. I do not subscribe to the fact that shouting about sex from the rooftops makes us a very forward thinking nation. Sex is an act meant for the private confines of bedrooms, & not to be performed on the streets and take people’s opinions of how it looks. And I don’t know why we find it very fashionable and progressive when a woman filmmaker makes films which are derogatory to womankind itself, just to ensure that it earns money ( For Eg. - Ekta Kapoor’s KSKHM – and we think that THAT is what India’s yardstick for a modern woman’s thinking should be ?) or what is so praiseworthy about a film like “Dirty Picture” except Vidya Balan’s acting.
If we need to celebrate the march of the Indian woman on celluloid – why can’t we celebrate a Kalpana Chawla or a Sunita Williams or a Mary Kom instead ? Someone once argued with me that such a film would never work. Why won’t it ? Who would have thought that the story about a women’s hockey team would go ahead and feature among the top 10 Bollyood movies of last 100 years ?
My apologies to Ms Nanda if my words sound harsh. But since you expressed an opinion, and I since had some free time at hand , I thought of expressing mine too. Nothing personal.
Otherwise, I am a big admirer of your work .
Regards,
AB

Vinta you write very well but for the wrong film... If any of the Sunny Leone porn flicks she has starred in the past were to be screened, it would probably run to the same packed house you are referring to, with no thanks to any value addition by Pooja Bhatt's so called 'art' or 'craft' supply!! While I have no intention to advocate the wrongs men have committed or the perpetual stereotypical roles women are cast in, it seriously escapes my sensibilities as to how Ms Bhatt has in any way stemmed this so called flow of venom you refer to, by dishing out a film like Jism 2!!If you say it was a hard hitting film then we are either not on the same page or I have failed to understand Ms Bhatt's target area...but finesse and panache...?? all I can ask of you a film maker, Ms Nanda, is have you seen the movie for yourself??