Mar 14, 2003 01:35 PM
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(Updated Mar 15, 2003 07:52 AM)
Anita and Me - After a long time , went for a movie with an empty mind i.e. with no pre-concieved opinions due to reviews or advices for the simple reason that there were none. None of the papers I had read had carried a review on this one.
Upon the urging of my friend Atul , decided to go for it with 10 of my friends on the spur of the moment. Boy did I regret my decision and will do so for a long time to come. The only consolation was that I didn't spend too much money on this as I went to Shakuntalam theatre for this one which is currently the cheapest theatre in Delhi.
Anyways getting down to the movie - the posters I saw outside looked impressive coz they were very much like the settings of a brilliant movie I saw way back starring Om Puri by the name of '' EAST IS EAST''. The setings were red brick houses in the 1970s Britain in some small countryside village , the name of which I am unable to recall. But the movie itself was very dissappointing.
The whole movie has been shot from the viewpoint of a 12 or 14 yr old girl. And before you ask me yes it is yet again about an Indian Family settled in this UK village (groan when will these film-makers learn to break away from the flow). The girl in question is named Meena which I was able to figure out only after a lot of straining. Straining because the accent used by the characters is completely incomprehensible. If it was an American setting then it wud be understandable coz the Americans do tend to roll their language a lot. But I didn't expect this from a film set in Britain. The first half of the movie is completely non-understandable due to this. The only way I was able to make out what was happening in the movie only by the videos...my ears were literally blocking all the audio.
The film did have its moments like the entry of Zohra Sehgal, and the interaction between Meena and her mother. Now the mother is one very fine actress. I can't recall her name but this is her second movie only. She is a north indian girl whose first movie was a tamil movie called ''Malli'', a brilliant movie in which she played a terrorist who is about to become a human bomb. It was so brilliant that she won an award for it. Now ''Anita and Me'' is her second movie and she is good in this one too as a mother.
Before you ask me, No she does not play Anita and the movie is not a mother and child movie. In the movie Meena is really besotted with becoming a blonde and white so that she wud be accepted by the British people. Hence she goes and finds a friend Anita who is a perfect blonde and the whole movie is bout how Meena is behind Anita to make Anita her friend. Nice theme maybe but badly carried out. As I said the movie has its few moments but badly sewn together. The soundtrack is not much impressive too. at least as far as I can remember I cudn't make out that there was much of a soundtrack. I can say coz due to the absence of understanding of the dialogues I was able to concentrate on the other parts of the movie.
one thing going for the movie is the settings chosen for the movie. nice picturesque settings but I guess these were utilised much better in ''east is east'' and as my friend told me , in the movie ''billy elliot''.
one more part where I liked the movie is the interaction and friendship between a granny (zohra sehgal) and her grand-daughter (meena) even though they cudn't understand each other verbally....as the granny cud understand only punjabi and the grand-daughter knowing only english.
on the overall, I would say its avoidable material. Not worth even watching even once unless u r ready for a 1 and a half hour torture. Go on your own risk. Instead go watch Satta, Freaky Chakra or Catch Me If You Can.
