Of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Shakespeare

As I caught up with a few movies over the new year weekend, it got me thinking over a tool many filmmakers seem to have been using recently - that of retelling a standard classic. Since there is no longer anything of value to be added, they tweak a little something: either set it to a different time, or provide additional layers to the characters or the plot. While most of the time it is an interesting exercise in that it tries to provide an answer to some of the 'what if..' situations we think of, other times the filmmakers take the idea so far out we have a tough time convincing ourselves we are watching the same movie the title seems to suggest!

I must admit I had my apprehensions when Guy Ritchie's 'Sherlock Holmes' came out a couple of years back, but the movie was a pleasant surprise. Ritchies' achievement lay in getting away from the stereotypes that Holmes, and especially Dr. Watson, had becomes in the earlier versions and not retelling any of Conan Doyle's original plots. That, combined with the typically edgy way Ritchie filmed the action sequences with the London thugs, gave us a Holmes with a spunk never seen before.

Where the sequel to the movie fails though, and spectacularly at that, is when it starts taking itself too seriously. While I merely squirmed in the seat when we had Holmes predicting the impact of wireless communication in the first installment, here he goes as far as to saving the world from a 'world war' - in circa 1880! I am not even sure when the particular term was coined! In an instant, Holmes thus gets promoted from a master detective to a political analyst of the highest order - as if Holmes and Watson dodging 'machine guns' was not bad enough. Another example was Ridley Scott's 'Robin Hood' which suggested that our beloved thief in fact contributed to the scripting of the Magna Carta!

Some of the little touches, like the shots of the Tower Bridge under construction in the first Holmes movie and those of the underground in the second one, are crafty and useful since they map the events into a historical timeframe but attributing undeserving, and must I add unnecessary, achievements to the subject just makes it more complex than it really is, as if to tell the viewer 'look, this is important stuff, we aren't making a trivial action movie here!'

The very next day though, I happened to catch BBC's 'Sherlock', which is basically Holmes in a contemporary setting. It is definitely more watchable since other than changing the setting of the stories, and adding the necessary technology aids to Holmes, it retains the characters from the original to the T.

One of the movies which managed pull the trick off must be 'Shakespeare in Love', one of the finest romantic movies in recent years. Being a fictional account of the Bard's own romance, it followed many of the themes from his plays making it fun spotting the various Shakespeare references throughout the movie. The banter between Romeo and Juliet being mouthed by Ralph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow as they make love gives a whole new meaning to those immortal lines and takes it to an altogether different level.

Back home, Vishal Bhardwaj's Shakespeare adaptations must rank as one of the finest in the world. As is the case with the best adaptations, he takes the basic premise and transports it to a drastically different setting. His understanding of the rural Indian landscape combined with the sheer dramatic nature of the Bard's works results in a heady cocktail. I only wish he signs of a trilogy by adapting 'Hamlet'.

Then of course there are those who stick to a retelling of the stories without deviating from the written word. The challenge here is recreating the time period and getting the casting right. The LOTR trilogy had the toughest challenge in this regard and it is only due to Peter Jackson's love and admiration for the source material that he was able to recreate middle earth so convincingly, pleasing even the most ardent LOTR fans.

Now only if Jackson would read the Mahabharata and come up with a trilogy!

Catch ups and meet ups

Ah, we are in that cycle again. Every once in a while, during the festive/wedding season or when the migratory birds (read: Desis settled abroad) come visiting or when technology or social networking enables us to connect to people settled all over the world, there is always the inevitable talk of a getting together of old mates.

Having lived in the same locality all the bloody time, and owing to my good habit of walking to most places, I do keep bumping into old friends and acquaintances many a time. Rather depressingly, I am starting to feel these meetings end up on a rather disappointing note.

Perhaps some explanation is needed. You see, we tend to have these wonderful memories of everyone we knew as a kid, and every time we refer to the person, the memories and stories we evoke conform to that image. Of course, no one is going to stay the same all the time. Hell, I can hardly recognize myself sometimes. If I were to hear myself blabbering on 'official' calls I would probably ask myself to get a life, but that is besides the point.

It is akin to the generally accepted principle of never personally meeting your hero - the moment you find out he is just another human being as you are, the bubble bursts.

Now when we meet up with childhood friends after they would have been through 'the grind', they would have assumed a 'mask', just as you have - the mask which one acquires as one enters into adult/professional life, which enables us to maintain a stoic exterior calm when dealing with the outside world and prevents us from betraying our emotions, in other words, helps us be 'professional' at all times, or they just might have been bogged down by their responsibilities, and you begin to wonder what happened to the dork you knew back then.

Of course, as you begin to peel away, you find some of their habits you remember are still there, they remember all the stories you remember, and the person you adored as a kid is lurking somewhere behind all the facade.

Whether they succeed in peeling your layers off is another matter, but then again, that is how you know who your friends are I guess...

I am Happy....

I am happy.

I am happy for the school kid who cannot resist a peek at the TV to check the score as he prepares for his exams, cursing the ICC for the inconvenient scheduling.

I am happy for the proud Bengali who first instilled confidence and taught the team what it was to stand tall in the face of calamity, and who must be proudly looking at the team today as it carries his legacy forward.

I am happy for the street kid who spends his hard earned money to buy a ticket costing way more than his income every time there is a match in the town, with the
sole intention of seeing his heroes in action, and forgoes a few meals along the way.

I am happy for the lion hearted fast bowler who came back into the team the long hard way and for half a decade since has carried the Indian attack on his shoulders despite having a different new ball partner almost every second match; who must have been haunted by the memories of how he, then a young tearaway fast bowler, had gifted the momentum to Australia the last time India came this far, but came back and redeemed himself on the biggest stage eight years down the line.

I am happy for the Indian away from India who on most occasions can only follow the match on cricinfo, but still stays up all night and cheers for every run scored and wicket taken as if his life depended on it.

I am happy for the lion hearted batsman who repaid the captain's faith with a string of match winning performances on the biggest stage, when just an year before, not many would have given him the chance of even making the world cup squad.

I am happy for the millions of people who had watched in horror as Sachin got stumped and the team collapsed in a heap at the Eden Gardens, resulting in the most shameful exit from the biggest tournament in the sport, and who now rejoice as their dream comes true.

I am happy for the man with the midas touch, who took a team which was capable of being a world beater and made them realise their potential, who has always done things his way, and who had the courage to stand up on the big day, and show the rest how it is done.

I am happy for the kids watching the game right now, some of whom might get a chance of their own to create history in the years down the line, and who would proudly exclaim that the moment which inspired them was one when MSD sent the ball flying into the Mumbai night sky.

But most of all, and all Indians would agree, I am happy for one person, whom I am not even going to try to list the achievements of, for the boy who never grew up, the peter pan of Cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar..