FilmQUICK GUN MURUGUN |
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11:20pm Director: Shashank Ghosh In the badlands of South India, a lonesome vegetarian cowboy, Quick Gun Murugun, attempts to save the world from the beef-soaked machinations of Rice Plate Reddy, a scheming capitalist who plans to take over the world with his McDosa franchise. But Murugun is no sous-chef! After an untimely death at the hands of Reddy's henchman, Rowdy MBA, he thwarts space and time and returns to the future (i.e., the present) in order to stop the pillage of the masala dosa! Shashank Ghosh lets his imagination, and his color palette, run wild in this 'sambar western' (a la Blazing Saddles) that quotes equally from Clint Eastwood films as it does from South Indian cinema. Think visual panache of Tamil cinema superstar Rajnikanth with the emotionality of Tamil cinema thespian Sivaji Ganesan (Ghosh brilliantly reprises a classic tune from Ganesan's Neela Vaanam - “Oh little flower, see your lover”, it goes). Rounding out the colorful cast of characters are Mango Dolly (a vixen with a heart of gold), Locket Lover (the ghost of Murugun's ex-flame, who resides in his locket) and the Mologapodi Boys (a bunch of troublemakers). Quick Gun Murugun first made his appearance on TV promos for the music channel [V] in the 1990s and has since then achieved cult status in India, offering up the catch-phrase 'Mind it, I say!'. Even the 'king of Bollywood' Shah Rukh Khan took a shot at interpreting the character in the 2007 blockbuster Om Shanti Om. The film has been an amazing success at festivals around the world including Athens, Durban, London, Florence, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. “We’ve had to schedule an extra screening for ‘Quick Gun…’ at all the festivals because it has always been a sell-out", says Ghosh, who plans a sequel for the film tentatively titled The Good, The Bad and The Idli.
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