Angry Young Men - A Review.

 

"Main aaj bhi feke hue paise nahi uthata"- Deewar

 "Jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaaye sharafat se khade raho. Yeh police station hai tumhare baap ka ghar nahi."-Zanjeer

 "Don ka intezar toh gyarah mulkon ki police kar rahi hai.Lekin….. ek baat samajh lo Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai"- Don

 "Aaj mere paas paisa hai, bangla hai, gaadi hai, naukar hai, bank balance hai, aur tumhare paas kya hai?"-Deewar

These iconic dialogues with new storylines reinvented the Bollywood formula, which was romance-centric with a new kind of anti-hero, introducing the "Angry Young Man" in 70's Bollywood, revolutionizing Indian Cinema.

The legendary duo writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar single-handedly created this creative shift of popularizing the action-drama genre when they kickstarted the dawn of the "Angry Young Man" with Zanjeer.

Hence, appropriately, a documentary about these two writers and creators, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, is called "Angry Young Men." I guess Amitabh Bachchan, who was the face of the "Angry Young Man" and immortalized it, will have to title his life series differently one day ;)

This three-part documentary series produced by the duo's kids, Bollywood actors Salman Khan, Farhan Akhtar, director Zoya Akhtar and others, is on Amazon Prime. Directed by Namrata Rao, it walks through the personal and professional journeys of screenplay writer Salim Khan and dialog writer Javed Akhtar while exploring their partnership as "Salim-Javed," who wrote 24 films together, 22 of which were blockbusters!

The series captures nostalgic memories of their early lives, their coming together as a team, their movies, and their iconic dialogues, which were engraved in the minds of Indian audiences and became common parlance. We hear them talking about their philosophies, vulnerabilities, and personal lives reflected in some of their characters; their angry angst mirrored in the "Angry Young Man" and such. Special mention is the amazing story of their confidence in themselves and the need to get screenplay writers deserving recognition and credits on movie posters with cast and crew; they graffitied their names on film posters of Zanjeer across town. Despite sharing some movie trivia and details, the series keeps the curious cine fan skeptical about what caused their split and why the duo stopped working together.

But in retrospect, while seeing the series, when we think of the "Angry Young Man" in Bollywood cinema, we see the rise in the pattern of male-centric movies with no turning back!  In a conversation snippet, Jaya Bhaduri mentions she was initially uncomfortable and unsure of acting in a male-centric movie like Zanjeer but did it for Amitabh's sake.

But unknowingly, did the writers change Bollywood cinema, the audiences, and the culture towards male chauvinism and a patriarchal society? Though the conversation in the series talks about their screenplays having created strong female characters and not namby-pamby women, as Javed says, the persona-building process of the "Angry Young Man" left no space for women to have an equal share of space.

When you see the present-day ripple of the "Angry Young Man" characters in today's Indian film industry, they have left behind Salim- Javed's "little good and little bad anti-hero" to full-blown immoral misogynist heroes!   By creating the "Angry Young Man" action genre, they may be uncomfortable for being partially responsible Frankenstein creators of today's monster heroes in Arjun Reddy/Kabir Singh and Animal!

Check out the series on Amazon Prime.

 

 

Legally Blonde -Zilker Summer Musical 2024 -A Review

Every summer, for so many years living in Austin, we have enjoyed watching high-quality Broadway-grade productions on the open-air Zilker Hillside Theatre for free! The Shakespeare in the Park or the Zilker Theatre Productions (ZTP).

This summer, we had a fantastic Saturday evening at the Zilker Hillside Theatre with the ZTP show Legally Blonde. Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Motion Picture "Legally Blonde" starring Reese Witherspoon.

Legally Blonde is the empowering story about how Elle Woods, a fashion major sorority girl, enrolls in Harvard Law School to win over her ex-boyfriend. She tackles stereotypes and faces skepticism from her peers and professors, but with unwavering optimism and the support of her new friends Emmet Forrest and her hairdresser friend Paulette, she discovers her true potential, passion, and power of the law degree. 

If you liked the movie Legally Blonde, you would love this theatre production with its lightweight and fun comedy, tongue-in-cheek dialogues and lyrics, high-energy songs and dance choreography, high-tempo music by Laurance O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, fabulous, eye-catching costumes and pink ambiance lighting. 

Each of the actors has excellent performances, especially the lead actors Megan Hudson as Elle Woods and Will Mallick as Emmet Forrest, and Ashtyn Kahn as Paulette. Besides being pretty in pink, Megan brought out the ethos and spirit of Elle and Reese perfectly.

Elles's empowering journey of self-discovery, perseverance, staying true to oneself, optimism, and shattering stereotypes are excellent themes that need to be echoed and embraced by all for true success.

Dressed in pink, with picnic blankets, picnic baskets with tuna bagel sandwiches, chips and dips, pretzels, snacks, banana bread, drinks, water, precautionary dabs of lavender oils, and mosquito repellant, and a pack of uno for pre-show entertainment, our family was ready for the fun evening. 

It was a hot evening, but the help desk gave out paper fans along with and the musical programs. I was also lucky to go backstage to meet a friend who supervises the costumes and wardrobe of the musical. At intermission, I even got an answer to my curious query of how Elle changed her costume on stage so fast when she was dress-shopping and prepping for her possible proposal. The astonishing answer is that magnets sewn on the dress snap together fast!

Zilker Theatre Productions Legally Blonde the Musical has been showing July 12 through August 18, 2024, Thursday to Sunday at 8.15 p.m. Blankets can be laid out starting at 6:00 p.m. to secure prime spots for the show. Arriving at 6:50 p.m., we found a slightly diagonal spot with a decent view.

Since it was a Saturday, it drew large crowds, and more than 1000 people were watching this entertaining musical. We saw some familiar faces but because of the large crowd we couldn't spot some of our friends who were there as well.

Zilker summer musicals have been an Austin Tradition since 1959, when Austin's Parks and Recreation Department created it as an annual project. Sustaining the legacy of serving the Austin community through the magic of performing, these theatre productions make the arts accessible, with Broadway-grade productions inspiring artists and audiences and celebrating the spirit of community.   They welcome donations and during intermission, the cast comes out to the Hillside with buckets for donations, too. The program also has QR codes to donate electronically. 

FYI, if you are a dog lover, with the help of the Austin Animal Center, you can adopt one of the animal stars of ZTP's Legally Blonde- The Musical.

 So, get your friends and family together, pack a picnic and head to the Zilker Hillside Theatre- its and experience you won't want to miss. Last day of the show is August 17, 2024.