Mamma Mia, Here I Go Again, My My, How Much I Missed You…

 When we talk about Golden Oldies and specifically the actors, then how many of them actually come to our mind? There aren’t that many to choose but there enough to confuse and boggle our mind trying to sit and sort through the actors, movies and innumerous genres. I mean, how would you actually sit and select whether it’s Jerry Lewis or Billy Crystal for comedian or if it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tom Cruise for action? That’s such a huge list to choose from. Whether it’s Sophia Loren or it’s Meryl Streep who’s good. When it comes to actresses, I would definitely vouch for Meryl Streep. I mean, look at how versatile the actress is. We have a Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada who is so dead serious, manipulative and a cold-blooded woman and then there’s an equally light-hearted, free-spirited and flirtatious Donna from Mamma Mia and then snap your fingers and she gets into the skin of a character like that of Janine Roth, a hard-hitting political-journo in Lions for Lambs. I saw these movies and it was mind-blowing. Three total different characters and three mind-blowing performances. 

 

First of all let’s talk about Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. The woman’s unbelievably self-centered and incredibly cold and calculative and she knows the right things about Fashion. And anyone who crosses her path, be it an up and coming designer or a lowly assistant, they’ve had it. The term “Cutting a person to pieces” could just be made for her. Man, you just need to watch that one scene where she asks her assistant to get her transportation to her kid’s school do when there’s a raging storm out and the assistant’s just flummoxed and has no clue what to do. Then there’s another scene with the Harry Potter book. Man, that’s hilarious. You gotta watch that one too.

 

 

Now, once you think that ok, she makes the best vamp available around, she does a total U-Turn and does a movie like Mamma Mia, a musical and Rom-Com (Rom-Com is not a geekology term for some kind of a computer thing. It’s just Romantic Comedy. J) She’s funny, she’s witty and she’s beautiful. I mean, people who’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada would think that they’re seeing her diametrically opposite twin. Amazing. The movie may not be great shakes, but then Meryl Streep is. I mean, this is a movie version of the musical play but a nice watch nonetheless. And I love those Abba songs. Especially the title song, Mamma Mia. A small trivia about this musical play is that this particular play was rejected by most of the producers, and the writers were penniless and once the play was a hit, the two writers turned out to be two of the richest ladies in England. What’s more, the Swedish group Abba refused to have anything to do with this play even though their music was supposed to be the base for this play. Well, we now know who had the last laugh. Two of the richest ladies of England.

 

And in between I almost forgot about Lions for Lambs. Now this one is what we would call serious cinema, a serious performance and a critique’s delight. Not exactly Oscar-worthy role but one of her finest performances one might say. Many have panned this movie but then when we look at just Meryl Streep, she just stands out even among performers like Robert Redford and a star like Tom Cruise. How many of the leading ladies can actually do that? Stealing the thunder right under those two biggies’ nose? This one woman has.

 

Right now, I’m off to watch Mamma Mia. Again.

Mamma Mia, here I go again

My, my how can I resist you

Mamma Mia, does it show again
My, my, just how much I’ve missed you…

 

P.S: I vaguely remember a Bollywood song which was lifted from Abba, for a movie called Hum Kisi se Kum Naheen which had a song called Mil Gaya, Hum ko Saathi Mil Gaya…