"Manasarovar" and "Everybody Says I´m Fine"

Its been high time that my excursion into the off-mainstream side of indian cinema continued.














Let me start with a special thanks section (like any indian movie worth its name). For discovering "Manasarovar" I have to thank Michael of bollywoodblog.de. For "Everybody Says I´m Fine" my heartfelt thank-yous go out to Birgit who managed to get me a copy of this movie I´ve been searching for it seems forever.
Both are english-language films, but thats where the similarities end.

In Manasarovar we meet Malathy (Neha Dupey) a VP for a publishing house in Pune. Her position puts her together with George (Zafar Karachiwala) a management consultant. Through flashbacks we also get to know Georges brother, Ravi (Atul Kulkarni), whom Malathy also met some years ago after she had pen-pal relationship with him and who is now missing for two years. Its not always easy to follow the jumps in time but of course all characters stories are interwoven and lead to a philosophical open end.














Atul is great and its wonderful to see him playing a fun, slightly mad, heartwarming charakter. Neha had me go through that "I know I have seen her before, and I´m going crazy if I don´t find out this second" motion. She played the disco girl in Munnabhai who poses as "Chinku". But it was hard to find out, since her character and acting style is completely different to hers in Munnabhai.
Manasarovar is a movie to be rewatched time and again. Its calming way of storytelling and a beautiful cinematography and wonderful Atul make you want to revisit it.
Go and get your own copy. If you order it at http://manasarovar.info/ you´ll get yours directly from the director. But before watching it make yourself familiar with the significance of Manasarovar lake in Indian mythology.

Let´s move to Mister Bose. Rahul Bose and I have a lot in common. We both blog. We love Rugby. We´re very goodlooking. Well at least he is. But I´m taller. Much taller. Whatever.
I really liked him in Mr.&Mrs Iyer, Chameli and Jhankar Beats. So imagine how desperate I was to get my hands on a film where he not only acted but - even better - one he directed and wrote too. And now I´ve got it. Yaahhoooo.
The thing is though "Everbody says I´m Fine" is not an indian movie. I´m mean it is of course - in the sense that the cast and crew is indian, it is set in Mumbai but the story and the movie´s execution and the look is international.










The basic storyline is intriguing. And very Arthouse:
Hairdresser is able to read the thoughts of his customers while he is cutting their hair. So we get snapshots of the lives of various customers in Xen´s salon. With each of their visits we are drawn more and more into various characters lives, guarded secrets and interactions. We meet a young happy go lucky student, an abandoned wife, a nosey socialite, a desperate hyperactive aspiring actor, a business mogul with a disgusting secret and one girl who´s thought are hidden even to Xen.










The movie has a feel like an intimate theatre piece. It has its small flaws directionwise and it takes some time for the story to pick up. But like Xen you get drawn into it. So if you happen to find a copy, get it.

UPDATE 2/21/2007: Finally! "Everybody Says I´m Fine" got released on DVD. You can get it at amazon canada