a good wake up call

A great script writer once quoted "there are only four stories, that need to be twisted each time, to give birth to another story"... i am a firm believer of this, and keeping this in mind, im gonna account my comments on the film Wake up sid, which i watched a couple of days back.

sid wakes up, the alarm then rings, he looks up and down, left and right for his book, the one which might save him from the temporary madness of Exams. he finds it, starts scribbling, singing, humming, digging sweet body parts and then the book is captured by the camera and we see him drawing untidy sketches of Simpson. the music begins and there goes the starting of Wake up sid with a very upbeat, yet meaningful introduction song also called Wake up sid .. predictable? I dont think so!

Very few films, create a fizz, that jazz, the curiosity to watch them further down, even though you know from frame one, their story, their ups and downs, the start, mid and ending. Wake up sid, is one such movie. From the time the promos of the movie hit the tv and cinema screens, it was easy enough to guess what the movie would be about. But, when a movie has a very upbeat and clever start such as this, u know it, that this is gonna be slightly different in its treatment. how? well read further.

im not going to waste time in unwrapping the plot and give you my analysis of the story. no thats not what i want to do. but wat i wanna do is, is tell you that this movie is just not your "same old" jaane tu ya jaane na type of college romance. Infact its not at all about romance. the movie never tries to thrust the romance into your already romance filled mind, thx to jaane, ddlg, kkhh and ofcoz ur flight of girlfriends. this movie is about that section of extremely laid back, complacent, rich and spoilt, yet very good hearted brats (thank god he's not shown as the evil rich boy like mohnish behl in all his movies) who never seem to wake up even if your dad asks you to apologise to your mother for having spoken like a total jerk, ass and wat not. the scene where ranbir screams at his mother, even though he's the one at fault, i think has been handled so brilliantly that i have hardly seen any movie dealing with similar emotions do. i literally felt like getting up from my seat, stretching my arms and slapping the shit out of ranbir kapoors face. it was thankfully not spoilt with melodrama, nor was it extremely real with unspoken words. it had its perfect blend. and thats what characterization is about.

i think i must have heard this from so many ppl who watched the movie. "Oh its like jaane tu ya jaane na". its not. im sorry if u think im mad, but it really is not. "Jaane... na" was about college romance, dwelling into something else and then finally plopping as something as serious as marriage. "Jaane tu... na" was about our first crush, our best friends loving us secretly, our cool parents accepting us as couples, friends slowly growing apart, insane traditionalism and a million literary ironies, such as godot. whereas "wake up sid is about growing up, its about dwindling between no where, roomies, internships, first interviews, the battle between hindi music and jazz, obesity, college obsession, and lots of dad's moolah spent on video games (i hate them personally,so..). i have clearly given so many differences. yes, there are a few similarities. but tat exists in every film u see these days. name one recent hindi film which u thought was unbelievably original and cannot in the name of dilip kapoor be compared to someother movie. its not possible. like i said, every movie has its similarities and its differences. wake up sid scores well on its background too. a few sequences with brilliant background score by amit heri are top notch. the scene where ranbir is about to leave konkana's house (she locks herself in the bathroom), and he keeps hesitating, the background score there, and ranbirs handling of the scene is supremely heartwarming.

but hey, im not all that good too. there were a few things in the movie which i thought could have been bettered. the most important being, Konkana sen. she is seriously getting stereotyped and i honestly feel that she needs to break out of this "dusky, beautiful, upper middle class babe in a sexy job and i will make u realise wat u are" type of role. be it Metro, Page 3, Dil Kabadi or someother movie, she has played very similar characters. ofcoz i loved her in all these movies, including wake up sid, but tats becoz she just gives her craziest performance each time. But its time she gives us something different.

Ranbir kapoor. i think this is the only movie in which he has acted. i recently read a blog, that ranbir acted like ranbir in the movie. i personally wanna meet that person and tell him, that acting is not always about going crazy about a character. sometimes it requires you to give the character your touch. how do we know ranbir s like tat or not in real life? how do we know that he blew every rupee rishi kapoor earned? we dont. so please stop saying "oh he was so himself" he acted quite well, to the extent tat you empathise with him, u get angry with his behaviour, u love him sometimes and u just disregard him sometimes. according to me if so much is interacted with the audience, then the actor has indeed done a good job (theatre speaking).

i loved Ayan mukherjee's direction. It simply shows that it has been directed by a 25 or 26 yr old chap. i can vouch and say that this film was not ghost directed by Karan Johar. because i honestly feel Kjo lacks that chutzpah, the young blood, or the energy to do such a film. Even his KKHH was so mature i thought, considering it was predominantly gonna be a college romcom. Ayan has shown, what 19yr olds do these days, and i just hate to see ppl wasting time on playstations (i simply feel it is the most important reason y couples are divorcing these days). its really nice to see him, make ranbir cry like he's really crying or make anupam kher scream at him, not in the amrish puri way, the way he dealt with obesity, and finally showing how irritating it is to clear up house old mess and converting it into a beautiful house. all this with nice background songs by shankar ehsaan loy. my favourite sone being iktara, with a close second "Life is crazy".

watch Wake up sid it for its simplicity, normal comedy, daily life situations, growing up, and waking up most importantly. and stop comparing any movie to any movie. if u dint like it, just say u dint. don ridicule it by comparing it with someone else's work. its quite pissing off i tell you.