Ray the Rockstar! (Part III) concluded. (only for now...)

Shatranj Ke Khiladi!

what a script! the man does it again...hilarious...
a political satire on the waning Mughal Empire (of course it still holds true of the Indian government)...indulgent emperors who were there only to serve as titular heads...and a whole class of courtiers...who were nothing but rent seekers (reminiscent of the indian bureaucracy)...but the movie i guess has proved to be timeless so far...

Amjad Khan was brilliant with his expressions...the pained look right thru the film...and the spontaneous breaking into a song everytime there comes up a serious issue of concern...my personal favourite was when he is holding a private court with his select ministers and is actually wondering where he went wrong as a king..."my subjects still sing my songs...ask the british if they have known of any other king who is as popular among his subjects?"

General Outram who compares Wajid Ali Shah's harem to a military regiment...haha..

and of course sanjeev kumar and sayeed jaffrey as the ministers who have time for nothing else but chess..so much so that there is almost a willing ignorance of the fall of the empire...and the last of the dialogues is too poignant..when jaffrey bemoans the fall of Awadh.." Let's play another round of chess...this time a rapid one...just like the British do..", says Sanjeev kumar..." and when it's dark, we'll go back home... we need the darkness to hide our faces."

the landscapes are brilliant...camera work as usual commendable...my favourite moment...when jafferey cheats by moving kumar's chess piece in his absence and the camera sneaks in from a gap in thw wall to let go of the secret...

but one thing that left me most impressed was the witty script!! brilliant i hope is a word that can complement Ray's genius!