Let’s all stroke together
Like the Princeton crew
When you’re strokin’ Mama
Mama’s strokin’ you
And now, that I have got your attention, Ladies and Gentlemen and those in between, let me present to you the most outrageous movie I have ever seen. Where sin is a virtue; attaining fame at any cost is not frowned upon and most importantly, where the lead charecters are all grey. The goody-two shoes is the joker, much less a hero.
Married to a loser out of sheer compulsion, Ms. Roxy (Renee Zelwegger) is the epitome of opportunism. She two times him to sleep with a lover who promises her a life on stage.
Sometime’s I’m right
Sometime’s I’m wrong
But he doesn’t care
He’ll String along
He loves me so
That funny honey of mine
So, when she comes to know that the sole purpose of his love is getting her laid, she shoots him in a fit of anger to land behind bars. This prison, like the rest of the movie is wickedly evil. You have the prison warden Mamma (Queen Latifah), whose motto in life forms the starting few lines of this write-up.
In the confines of the dark cubicles, Roxie encounters interesting colleagues, most of them unrepentant about being there. Most important among them is a small time stage actress Velma, (Catherine Zeta Jones), two-timed by her own sister.
He had it coming
He had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you’d have been there
If you’d have seen it
I betcha you would
Have dome the same!
Enter the messiah who delivers these innocent damsels from such travails. Billy (Richard Gere), the lawyer, who will not smell anything less than 5000 dollars. Manipulating the system, to him, is puppet’s play. Starting from the fourth-estate, everyone eats out of his hands. Overnight, he makes roxie a star. From a manipulating bitch, she is the ever-sacrificing image of a woman driven to defend herself from an evil person.From being neglected by Velma, Roxie soon finds herself in a position dictating terms to her. Their rivalry forms the crux of the movie.
But when Roxie is finally out, thanks to Billy, her own cunning and her innocent husband:
I tell ya
Cellophane
Mister cellophane
Should have been my name
Mister cellophane
’cause you can look right through me
walk right by me
And never know I’m there. . .
she has to deal with a greater bitch called fame. Velma and Roxie realise that they need each other, whatever be the mutual hate involved.
In the end, the two scheming protagonists come on stage together in orgasmic glory, liberated from the confines of their closed world; to a world of ephimeral fame.
You can like the life you’re livin’
You can live the life you like
You can even marry Harry
But mess around with Ike
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With these kind of morals, it is a wonder that this movie ever won an Oscar. But believe me, I would have written down every lyric I have by-hearted if it was not for space constraints.
All the performances are first rate. The music and choreography is out-of-this world, giving a feel of the 1920s perfectly. The screenplay is brilliant but most importantly, I would give a hand and a tooth to get this kind of editing done, if I ever made a movie. There is nothing about ’Chicago’ I could find fault with. It is one among the 2 VCDs I own.
This musical shoots from the hip. After watching the movie for the nth time I am still humming...
’’Isn’t that great, Isn’t that swell, Isn’t that wonderful....!’’