I made this blog years ago (I don't even remember when) and then totally forgot about it. The funny thing is, when I did come back to my blogger profile right now, I realised that this was the perfect name for my blog. I have, as of right now, earned myself the name it carries, having successfully flunked several times since the creation of this blog. Also, the title of this particular entry has absolutely nothing to do with what is written in here, it happens to be the one random term I remember from Constitutional Law class, and is a terrible terrible way to convey the idea that this is indeed my first post here. So it stays.
Anyhow, since I am very unsure as to what a blog is supposed to be about, I am going to make it a collection of whatever it is that is on my mind at the moment that I begin to write a post. Right now that would have to be the diabolical craving for a cigarette, with the inevitable curses to yesterday's me for having smoked and distributed my meagre stocks indiscriminately, leaving me for the umpteenth time in this state of nicotine deprivation, while at the same time trying to debate the chances of success of another attempt to quit the habit altogether.
However, I shall try to raise myself above such base sentiment and will try to write about something else that is on my mind and is actually worth writing about. Right now, that happens to be CID. Not the never ending series starring the holy trinity of ACP Pradyuman-Daya-Abhijeet (and which has episode titles like Kissa Gumnam Qatil Ka, no kidding) but the 1956 movie starring Dev Anand, Shakila, and Waheeda Rehman. It's not a great film overall, but is certainly worth a watch not just for the entertainment it provides, but for the various things that come to mind while watching it, some believeable, some bemusing, and some just plain jaw dropping:
- Waheeda Rehman was really beautiful- not really a great one to begin with, I know, but still, it had to be said. CID was her debut hindi movie, handed to her by Guru Dutt as a sort of 'warm up role' to prepare her for Pyaasa, and she does a pretty good job. see here.
- Shakila is not just the Mallu porn star that every guy in his right mind is terrified of, but was the name of a pretty successful actress during the 1950s and early 60s who moved to the UK (and I hope for her sake missed the assault on her fragile legacy by the South Indian siren) see here.
- Bombay in the 50s had so much space!! This is the most amazing of all things was evidnet while watching the movie. Bombay seems to have an endless supply of empty stretches of land, and fewer people than what an average chawl holds in 2012(see here and here); despite this, the movie also features the melodious 'Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan' warning about the perils of big city life (so it can't be as utopian as it appears to be in the movie. Or was it?). Either way, the nature of the big city might not have changed with the passage of time, but the film certainly preserves a scarcely believable version of the behemoth that exists today.
Moving on from the factual observations, what struck me the most about the movie, and with other movies from the same era that I have watched, is that there is a certain inherent optimism that existed in filmmaking in those days. India was fresh out of colonial rule, and the general feeling of optimism and self belief that existed in the aftermath of 1947 seems to find a way to permeate into the aura of the cinema and what it tries to portray. While being nowehere close to cinema in the west in terms of technique, script, screenplay, scale or budget (along the same time, Hollywood was engaging itself in leviathan projects like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments), movies like CID retain that simple ability of telling a simple story simply- one with simple characterisations in black and white, one with a clear cut hero and villain, and one where its not so much about the answer to the question 'Whodunnit?' (this one's not for fans of edge-of-your-seat thrillers, the answer to the aforementioned question goes out of the window in the first quarter of an hour, acoompanied by a couple of really nice songs) but is more about the hero trying to do what's right, and succeeding at the end. Simple enough objective, fulfilled without great brouhaha.
I'm going to take one final step and give this movie a rating and make myself feel satisfied about writing my first blog post ever.
CID (1956)- Dev Anand, Shakila, Waheeda Rehman
A very satisfying 3/5. Pretty much what I'd give myself for this post.
