Tubelight: The Tedious Tale Of A Total Dunderhead

For most method actors, the usual approach is either 'a method in their madness' or a 'madness in their method'. 

Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis believed in the former approach, going berserk with the physical and mental preparation needed for their legendary roles, going to the point of either eating like a monster or sweating it out to extreme levels. Marlon Brando, now, was of the second type, throwing around tantrums and making absurd demands, like asking Bernardo Bertolucci to stick up placards of his dialogues on the rear end of co-star Maria Schneider in the infamous 'The Last Tango In Paris'. All fascinating actors, all memorable performances. 

What about Salman Khan? He does not understand much of method. The last time when he trained hard to play a fighter of the ring, he chose to equate, in particularly bad taste, his effort with 'being raped'. Yeah, you heard that right. But even without that consideration, our Salman was never much of an actor really. Those who understood that were being simply smart. 

Director Kabir Khan is not one of them. Okay, so he did make us aware that if the screen behemoth can tone himself down and play himself without any pretensions, the results can be intriguing enough. But for 'Tubelight', Khan's latest film, the brief for Salman could have been to apply not method but just pile on the madness. 

Bollywood has quite a shoddy legacy of portraying lead protagonists with mental deficiencies and Salman's Laxman Singh Bisht falls into the same category as any of those ham-fisted performances that even our most seasoned performers could not make real. The 51-year old performer has stretched our imagination time and again in many a nonsensical yarn that requires him to chomp the frames but then they were not at all about a mentally disabled man and his ernest desire to earn moral credit, exaggerated stupidity not withstanding. From those ridiculously wide-eyed, incredulous expressions to the way he lets his lower lip hang down in a perennial frown to the overdone childish dialogue delivery, Salman's performance is embarrassing in its utter lack of subtlety or charm. And things don't help with the fact that he does not even appear adorably innocent to make us fall for him even superficially. 

But then, it would be an uphill task to come off as even slightly likeable or even charming in a film which itself feels fake. 

'Tubelight' is a cinematically revolting mess, the kind of blatantly self-indulgent and shallow film that masquerades as a smarter, more important or relevant film but does not have simply the brain, spine or heart to be it. Like its hero, Khan's film tries too hard to win our attention and sympathy but in the process, they both become downright annoying because there is nothing inherently striking in them to warrant the same. 

It begins sweetly, if artificially, enough, in a tinsel town up in the hills where brothers Laxman (an utter simpleton who seldom understands things) and Bharat (an average Sohail Khan) frolic around with the townsfolk and everything feels hunky dory when suddenly the war breaks out. Commanders and generals show up and announce that they need men to volunteer since many are being mowed down by the hell-bent Chinese troops hiding in the hills. Bharat volunteers as well and gets selected but, in the process, leaves his equally beefy and buff sibling to shed entire streams of tears and wonder when will his dear, dear brother be back with the other boys. 

It is at this point that the film begins to stumble down with Khan and co-writer Parveez Sheikh cramming in everything desperately to thicken the stew and the result is an overcooked, confused mess. Laxman is seemingly inspired by the idea of solid, unshakeable faith and conviction, one that Mahatma Gandhi taught to him when the great man came to town years ago. 'Tubelight' has everyone around Laxman, from a grand illusionist to a warm and grizzled uncle, keep on hammering this idea till the very end. The ruse here is that the plot cites the Gandhian thought of resilience and strength of conviction as prime virtues to be adopted. But in a misguided stroke of storytelling, it foregoes entirely the leader's steely determination and capacity for initiative, two things that Laxman never adopts, and robs the entire narrative of much needed flesh and blood. 

And that is the primary problem here in 'Tubelight'. Its noble, if extremely naive, intentions are diminished by the glaring absence of direction or even coherence. Saddened and unable to do anything whilst waiting for the war to end and his brother to return, Laxman is handed a list of the things that the Mahatma wished to teach the world and off he goes, literally doing those things in the most stupidly predictable way ever. So, when he decides to say the truth, his idea is to go and tell all the things that he hid from his teachers and the other townsfolk since childhood. It might sound fun but does it add up to anything? 

Rather, the film keeps on making him do one thing after another, befriending a mother-and-son duo who are Indians with Chinese ancestry and who become the target of the local folks who are clearly worried about losing their sons at the hands of the Chinese troops marching across the mountains.  The film focuses on their relationship but fails to develop them to the level that it makes us root for whatever fate is decided for them.'Tubelight' digresses into many directions, from the constantly growing menace of a losing war to the plight of the Chinese Indians stranded in a land that has now grown hostile to them to even Laxman's own possible coming of age against the backdrop but fails to develop any of these arcs successfully because it never explores the complexities that these proceedings require. It would be better and more rewarding if you listen to John Lennon sing 'Imagine' for that matter.

Khan has always been an awkward, safe-playing storyteller who has painted his strokes broadly without much of nuance but all his previous films, especially 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', did have some striking bits of nuance or interesting nugget of truth that grounded them into reality. There is not much of that adroit political posturing in 'Tubelight' largely because everything is implied and never ever probed and the stakes never feel real. At one point, the said mother Lil Leing (a strictly serviceable Zhu Zhu) narrates her own woes, of how her family had been incarcerated in internment camps following the backlash after the Indo-China War broke out, but we never really empathise with her troubles. The war sequences, while staged with a fair level of competence, feel quite half-baked and even as there is a lot of talk about Indian soldiers suffering from shortages on the front in the hills, we never get to see the uglier, seamier truths of the conflict mentioned so implicitly in the film, except for one small intriguing bit about a soldier's shoes almost torn off during the battle. 

Still, there are a few stray bits and pieces that are well done, including a precious little moment when the little boy Guo (a plucky Matin Rey Tangu) insists that he can declare his Indian identity to all as and when he chooses to. It is a hint of all the potential that is wasted by Khan, who is too besotted with his titular dim-witted hero, who is made even more of a fool as the film proceeds. Okay, it is fine to make a mentally disabled protagonist a bit foolhardy in his actions but 'Tubelight' does not even do justice enough to make him either childishly smart and intelligent or even mischievous enough to be fun.

The rest of the cast is mostly fine. It is a delight to see lesser-seen but solid character actors like Brijendra Kala and Yashpal Sharma get a fair amount of leg space alongside the bulking Salman and the late and great Om Puri is as warm and wise as he had always been. The Shah Rukh Khan cameo works decently enough, with the star making a grand, theatrical entrance not unlike David Bowie in any of his seminal 1980s MTV hits and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is stellar and spontaneous as always, here playing the relentless bully Narayan who also becomes, unexpectedly, the most naturally likeable character in the film, for all his numerous failings. 

And yet, in a stroke of the worst kind of indulgence, 'Tubelight' is nothing about these worthy people. Rather, Khan has his focus reserved only for the disappointingly hammy Salman and the result is just pure tedium. 

One of the many questions that you will be asking at the end of this weary, tiresome film will be as follows: what is 'Tubelight' all about? Is it, living up to its name, about the said protagonist himself, an exceptionally slow-witted slacker who flickers to insight and intelligence only in fits and starts? Is it, like the now-superior looking 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', an emotional drama centring on an unusual bond that transcends barriers of all kinds? Is it full of lovely insights on the nature of war, border conflict and does it demand for peace and harmony in its own heavy-handed yet effective way as that film did? No, it is none of these films, actually. 

To be honest, it is only about how much Salman Khan loves Sohail Khan in real life. 

My Rating: 1.5 Stars Out Of 5. 

The Most Iconic Action Films Of All Time

10- Star Wars (1977)

Dir- George Lucas

George Lucas might have anticipated somewhere in his relentless businessman mind that his space-scorching adventure would spawn a whole alternate of religion. But what he would not have expected that it was his modest little first film that would be remembered the most for being a most splendid spectacle for all ages. 'Star Wars' might be ticking off every single well-worn Hollywood cliche; all of it merely about a golden-haired boy who rescues a princess and defeats an evil ruler. But Lucas, then a fresh-faced visionary and armed with a thrilling, almost breakneck narrative that none of the latter films can match for pacing, made sure that we celebrated every single moment ripe for predictability in all its vivid, wide-eyed wonder. The endlessly iconoclast cast of characters (Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford's Han Solo, Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia and Darth Vader, himself) enlivens everything superbly but there is also enough of a kick to get from those blazing blaster shootouts and dogfights. 

9- Goldfinger (1964)

Dir- Guy Hamilton

What would a James Bond film be without the action? Sure, glamour, gadgets and girls are necessary but you cannot imagine even one of them without a grand explosion or a nifty car chase. And while 'From Russia With Love' had already laid down the groundwork, especially with that uncomfortably close-quarters squabble inside the Orient Express, there is something truly special about the film which brought in the best goddamn car from Q's garage. The Aston Martin DB5, a sexy, svelte vehicle, features superbly in the film's memorable chase, laying on a delicious layer of oomph that even all the beautiful dames of the series put together cannot beat. But this is just one of the many highlights in this glossy, superbly streamlined outing that ranks among the finest in the series. From Shirley Bassey's voice to Ken Adam's grandly perfect replica of Fort Knox to the scene with the laser right down to Oddjob's lethal bowler hat, everything in 'Goldfinger' is, well, pure gold. 

8- The Great Escape (1963)

Dir- John Sturges

No matter how many films you might call as your personal favourites, John Sturges' rattling WW2 POW escape yarn beats them all in terms of endlessly ecstatic repeat viewings. Pick a weekend or a vacation and you can spend an entire afternoon watching the brave and determined English and American airmen plot to escape from the brand new camp Stalag Luft III to freedom and life. The meticulous planning and preparations, doused superbly with camaraderie and humour, are almost a buzz. But it is when the best-laid plans get really rolling, with pursuits, some foolhardy and some successful, on foot, airplane and a rusty German motorcycle, that the film reaches the level of an evergreen entertainer that never ever lets one up. A stellar cast delivers heroism and heroics in equal measure, including Richard Attenborough's almost suicidal Big X and James Garner's crafty yet big-hearted Hendley. But it is Steve McQueen's baseball pitching 'Cooler King' Hilts who rides the epic finale with heart-pounding and ultimately poignant glory. 

7- The French Connection (1971)

Dir- William Friedkin

Prior to 'The French Connection', cop thrillers were only about bang, bang, shoot, shoot. Then, William Friedkin, one of the most under-appreciated action filmmakers of all time, decided to adapt Robin Moore's real-life account of how disgruntled, unglamorous New York narcotics detectives busted a French drug shipment with a blend of intelligence and smart plotting. The story itself was hot stuff in those years but what 'The French Connection' does is to turn into a sensational, riveting cops and criminals potboiler that pulsates with raw urban flavour and sophisticated thrills and spills. The documentary-style shooting is absorbing, the performances are legendary (Gene Hackman's viciously funny cop Popeye Doyle pitted against Alain Charnier's charismatic suave smuggler) and the scenes of stealth, street pursuits and, yes, that breakneck car and elevated train chase are still capable of plunging the viewers to the edge of their seats. Add to those things a brisk, no-nonsense and tightly edited plot and you get a rare action thriller worthy of Oscar gold. 

6- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Dir- James Cameron

It is enough for all of us fans of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harley Davidson that we will always have the quintessential cinematic moment of the handsome, rugged hunk riding a classic chopper through the streets of Los Angeles, all poised to rock and roll. If James Cameron's first film sent chills down our spines by the mere sight of the titular android T-101, the superlative sequel makes him an extraordinary hero, one who knows how to land both punches and punch-lines and who also has a heart beneath all that metal. 'Judgement Day' is not just an extraordinary sequel that broadens the plot and blends in more humanity and emotion into an otherwise lean and mean science fiction yarn. It is also a bigger, busier and ballsier action spectacle to behold. The relentless chases, gunfire and explosions, including a breathless truck pursuit and that drop-dead gorgeous finale in a steel mill, are meshed superbly by Cameron with the state-of-the-art effects that still stun the mind. 

5- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Dir- George Miller

Do not be surprised if you found 'Mad Max: Fury Road' to be so refreshingly unlike the usual stuff served in the name of action cinema. After all, its creator George Miller had been there and done that more than 35 years ago. While I am not denying the recent film's scorching pace and freaked-out imagination, there is something particularly intriguing, gritty and seminal about watching 'The Road Warrior' even today. Rarely has there been an action film so dedicated utterly to the onslaught of crazy gears and berserk engines so that even the minimalistic plot feels profoundly, if nihilistically, poetic. On the surface, this is pure and simple; burned-out survivor Max (a simmering Mel Gibson) offers to help a community under constant siege by a bunch of devilish scavengers to find a way out. But Miller, armed with master lensman Dean Semler and the toughest vehicles in cinematic history, makes that getaway into one, full-throttle chase down the post-apocalyptic highways that roars like a demented, charging beast.

4- North By Northwest (1959)

Dir- Alfred Hitchcock

Not so long before James Bond brought down an attacking helicopter to a fiery crash, Cary Grant had already done that to a crop-duster plane hell-bent on killing him (after all, there were no crops, as we all know) and he did it without a fancy attache cache or even a beautiful babe in tow. Hitchcock's whip-smart and wisecracking chase caper is not only unforgettably iconic for inspiring almost every single action scene after that which featured the hero being pursued by something or someone with murderous intent that could not be explained. It was also the film that gave the action film genre one of its most everlasting tropes: the endearing innocence of the hero. The 'wrong man' concept was not new for the director but Grant's suavely dressed, smart-mouthed advertising executive Roger Thornhill is believably befuddled as he flies the coop after getting mistaken as a Federal agent. Eva Marie Saint's intriguing damsel, Robert Burkes' glittering visuals, Bernard Hermann's score and Ernest Lehmann's fast and funny script are further unforgettable attractions in this ride. 

3- The Dark Knight (2008)

Dir- Christopher Nolan

With every big superhero movie that comes along and promises to deliver a fantastic blend of enthralling action, intelligent plotting and stunning emotion, there is only one benchmark to consider and that would be Christopher Nolan's sensational, incendiary second part of his accomplished Batman trilogy. The plot is one that is worthy of a stunning comic book itself; we find Batman ( a fine, understated Christian Bale) bothered by personal demons as he confronts the Joker who is wrecking chaos by taking down the very people supposed to guard Gotham City, including prudent Gordon (Gary Oldman) and the enigmatic D.A Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). And Nolan injected rippling energy and ricocheting pace to it by directing it with a fast, no-holds barred and sizzling approach that blended the dramatic weight of Michael Mann with the visual virtuosity of Stanley Kubrick. Gone was the celebratory mood of a typical superhero outing. Instead, what we got was a spectacular action film with brains bigger than its brawn. And in Heath Ledger's The Joker, a villain who remains the final word on pure, unadulterated evil.

2- The Wild Bunch (1969)

Dir- Sam Peckinpah

By the time 'The Wild Bunch' was released to stunned audiences at the wee end of the sixties, the Wild West genre had already arrived at an end. Gone were the days when we were lauding the exploits of the virtuous heroes of John Ford and the cocky gunslingers of Sergio Leone's 'Dollars' trilogy. And yet while most of the new-found Western yarns were busy with brooding, Peckinpah's film fired ricocheting bullets on our minds and left bloody trails on the screen; in short, it delivered a final tombstone for the genre and buried all the typical tropes of those gun-toting films for once and for all. 

And yet, even as it waves an elegiac and vital farewell to both the seemingly law-abiding enforcers and the disgruntled outlaws forever on the run, 'The Wild Bunch' made sure that our sympathies lay more with the latter rather than the former, who come across in Peckinpah's savage yet exquisitely beautiful canvas as selfish and despicable. The titular gang of thieves, led by William Holden's rugged yet charismatic Pike Bishop, try to escape their pursuers and seek some refuge and also redemption after a lifetime of violence. The director charts their journey with the alternately soft and harsh beats of poignant characterisation and nihilistic brutality. The shadow of death is lingering over these damned souls forever and 'The Wild Bunch' revels in the sickening, thrilling and unhinged grit and glory of those forever iconic blast-them-up shootouts that burst with blood, bullets and bodies and set the stage on fire with unbridled fury. 

1- Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

Dir- Steven Spielberg

And so, after a list of films which comprise of both splendid escapist entertainers and thought-provoking, genre-altering films, I choose the one action adventure yarn that refuses to age for even a bit even as more than 3 decades have come and gone since it first hurled its audiences into a seemingly unending roller coaster ride. Is it any surprise that 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark', the first of the four more or less enjoyable adventures about the bull-whip wielding and fedora sporting hero Indiana Jones, came from Steven Spielberg himself? The master filmmaker has always claimed to be enchanted with the idea of never really growing up. This film, while genuinely smart and even intelligent in its own right, can be called as a boy's most vivid fantasies come true. 

And yet, then that is the beauty of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark'. Even as it recycles every single trick in the book, from the quintessential beautiful dame and exotic locations from James Bond films to the other-world ghouls and creepy crawlies from Ray Harryhausen's yarns right down to the Nazi villains of those enjoyable 1960s World War 2 action films, it refreshes them all to fascinating extent with a blend of ingenious special effects, a fast yet lively pace, an endless barrage of visual humour and such miracles of designing sequences that are still unmatched today. It is hard to count off all those iconic moments and name only one true favourite. My guess is that opening prelude in South American jungles. No, it is that gunfight in that tavern in Tibet. No, no, it has to be that hilarious fight in the streets of Cairo. No, maybe that truck chase towards the end?

John Williams gave one of his most everlasting, and most bastardised, scores of all time and cinematographer Douglas Slocombe and editor Michael Kahn delivered enough marvels to enliven the film. But let's not forget equally indispensable contributions from idea man George Lucas, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and Spielberg himself firing on all cylinders with tireless energy and invention that even his other worthy films find it impossible to rival. And lest I forget it, Harrison Ford's muscular, meltingly masculine yet endearingly vulnerable Indiana Jones will always be an evergreen screen icon for ages. Tough chance, newbies. 

Wonder Woman: Magical Lady, Middling Film

One of the quintessential things that make the entrance of a hero or heroine appropriately epic is the choice of music. 

This is why we still think of Superman as indispensable without John William's rousing, operatic swells and we still remember the thudding, thundering notes of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's score for Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. It is also fitting, then, that Wonder Woman, who has made a rather belated entrance in the modern superhero cinematic universe, already has her own theme from the beginning; yes, it is that roaring guitar riff that we have been hearing in snatches right from her intriguing little cameo in 'Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice' to the trailers for her own highly anticipated stand-alone venture. In the film, directed by newbie Patty Jenkins, that riff is what defines that truly stunning moment in the middle of the film when, after a few glimpses of the blue girdle and those golden bracelets, we finally get to see a sight for our sore eyes; Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman decked out in all her glory and ready to kick ass, as she goes on to do whistle-worthy feats that leave you no time at all to stop and stare at her beauty. It is a moment for ages.

Alas, it takes quite a while to hear that guitar riff though. 

There are a lot of things that 'Wonder Woman' gets right as a superhero, sorry, superheroine film. To begin with, this is the kind of cinematic origins story that we needed the most from DC Comics, which seems to have already ruined the fundamentals of our favourite characters. Instead of overarching ambitions or weighty subtext, Jenkins' film plays smooth and safe, predictably but effortlessly sticking on a World War 1 setting to add some historical gravitas to the tale and letting her heroine play out her exploits in the midst of those infamous battlefields. It is also a reasonably entertaining, even lively ride, even as it cannot quite resist this new-found yet inexplicable tendency to blow the climax completely out of proportion, and it has a fair amount of witty repartee between the frenetic action to make it all comfortable and cool for the audiences. Its biggest triumph, however, might just be in the casting. 

Remember the first time you saw Christopher Reeve dressed up as both Superman and Clark Kent? Those winsome blue eyes, that perfectly square jaw, that smile that oozed with good, old-fashioned sincerity and that charm that could win even the most hardened cynics. Boy, what Jenkins does is something of that irresistible screen magic. Gal Gadot was already being lauded as a perfect fit for the sword-wielding, ass-kicking Amazon princess (she was the best thing in the last film she was in) but this, her own stand-alone outing, is on a different league already. Instead of just her own deftness at both action and naturally alluring sizzle, the truly special thing about Jenkins' portrayal of her heroine is how she allows the same to stumble and yet rise again to earn her moment in the sun. 

And Gadot delivers it all, from the doe-eyed naïveté that brightens up her exquisite eyes when she pauses in silence to try and make some sense to the loveably goofy way she banters, befuddled over what is marriage or why should she shut up when serious matters are being discussed by men. Make no mistake though; even as this Diana Prince is charmingly wet behind the ears, she still has enough of brains and beauty to make you go weak at the knees. That is if you still have not felt the edge of her slashing sword. 

'Wonder Woman' is more than a fittingly soaring ode to the power and charisma of a glorious screen heroine and Jenkins' film celebrates all that with unbridled enthusiasm. Gadot is not a particularly exceptional actress but here, she shines throughout in these moments of heroic confidence, either when flipping casually between languages or when dismissing the necessity of men for reproductive biology; and as for the truly larger-than-life moments, she knocks them out of the park. The actress is a natural when it comes to the fights and it is refreshing to see a female superhero so full of sass and spunk. The way she mows down an entire bell-tower might be worth the price of the ticket itself. 

Alas, while the film does a splendid job of cheering and applauding the lady, the rest of it feels fairly middling or even uninspired. For all the talk of the film exploring the tribal origins of Wonder Woman with real style, all we get is some hoary backstory located in what could have been the backlot for '300' and all of its is plainly passable. (why should we get to see only those poorly animated freeze-frames of backstory?) There are a few striking ladies here, indeed, especially Robin Wright as the tough-limbed teacher Antiope, but one does wish that Jenkins, being a woman herself, could have fleshed out the truly subversive feminist politics at the core of the original comic books itself. 

The problem here is that Allan Heinberg's script packs in a lot of male characters for Prince to depend upon for advice and counsel. That itself feels a bit of a sore point: for all the buzz of it being a resounding argument in favour of letting women doing all the talking, 'Wonder Woman' conforms, regretfully, to the same big stereotype of most other superhero films: that, behind every smart and fearless woman, there must be a dashing hero after all. 

It is a bit of a relief, however, that the said hero in this film is Steve Trevor, a mostly out-of-his depth golden-haired archetype who initially brags about himself being 'above-average' but cannot help but give way to the lady, when the time comes to deliver the biggest sucker punch. Chris Pine is an absolute treat as Trevor, delightfully finding himself at a loss to keep up with Prince, who becomes his endlessly smart-talking companion. But the film makes the mistake of transforming him, in a climax, from a merely efficient sidekick to the heroine to almost a martyr worthy of more hero worship than her (was it necessary for Jenkins to make him more of a Steve Rogers than Steve Trevor?)

The rest of the men, including Ewen Bremmer, Danny Huston and David Thewlis, are mostly fine, including the big villain of the piece who turns out to be a really worthy reveal in the end and it is also interesting to see how well does 'Wonder Woman' capture the steampunk feel like any solid science fiction yarn set in the World War milieu should do. The way the plot shuttles from misty London to sandy Ottoman camps to the sordid trenches on the Western Front lends a certain enthrallingly globe-trotting vibe to the action and there is some satisfying hokum about a conspiracy to release a dangerous gas that lends a lot of real, even believable stakes to the tale. 

And yet, even as it looks and feels frequently sensational, 'Wonder Woman' could have been a lot, lot more. There could have been more leg space given to Gadot to prove that there is a lot more to this lady than just the way she throws her punches and kicks or plays around with her lasso. Maybe, it is because she is so lovely to look that we cannot have enough of her. It is also hoped that the later films will dig out this effortless, almost ever-present charisma to shut up the other big boys in masks in the team. Though I wish that she could have taught Trevor just how did they all dance back in Themyscira.

For all the little but crucially important things ignored, this is still a solid superhero outing, without the confusing self-indulgence of Zack Snyder or even 'Suicide Squad'. Like any of the lesser songs from John Lennon's output during the Beatles years, this one has enough deliciously preposterous fun to enjoy. But I also wish that it had sung 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' instead of just 'All You Need Is Love'.

My Rating- 3 stars out of 5. 

Revisiting Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- 50 Years Of Madness And Magic

Let me clarify again: 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is not my favourite album from The Beatles.

Sure, it is a great album and there is no doubt of that. It is a revolutionary moment in music, the kind of watershed work that changed the way we think of pop and rock, from being just good old fun to something that could be artistic, intellectual and even philosophical without being boring. Everyone sounds great on it (particularly Lennon and Harrison, even as McCartney's melody and Starr's sweetness sound infectious too) and a clutch of songs from the album are crowned among their finest moments. But in my book, it comes after after the dazzling, almost eclectic variety of 'The White Album', the astoundingly electric rapport of 'Abbey Road' and the throbbing musical edge of 'Revolver'.

But then, this is not about them. It is about 'Sgt. Pepper's' and we are here to celebrate its 50th birthday which is an event unlike any other.

Yesterday was an entire day spent on rediscovery. Thanks to those who thought it most fitting to release the whole album in a stunning, new remixed and restored format, we now get the chance to savour the many delights of this undeniably iconoclast musical experience. And this is even better and bigger than listening to whatever editions you must have tried out before. The 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is just the kind of treat that we needed, lest we forget just how much of a special occasion this was for us all. 

To begin with, the songs sound just freaking awesome. In the original version, the songs were charming in their own way, imbued with a slightly rough flavour that gave off the scent of the Summer of Love in it. But the Deluxe Edition has been remastered as if gushing with love at the very sound that the 'Band' and their fellow musicians created. Each little lick of the guitars, each little hum of the bass and each note in the lead and harmony vocals is made crystal clear with meticulously painstaking effort. There is not even an effort required to decipher that exquisite wordplay amidst the plethora of classical music and art rock. Everything sounds exactly as the album's numerous lovers would opine, the Beatles at their most harmonious. 

As someone who was of the opinion that the album is pretty much McCartney's one-man show, I was genuinely surprised to discover just how much everyone chips in an indispensable contribution even when the show is being run largely by only one of the Beatles. This is the first time I noticed, with my eyes widening in wonder, the fascinating chorus that Lennon sings in McCartney's haunting 'She's Leaving Home' or just how well McCartney sings the title track with a tough rocker vocal in the vein of his songwriting partner. Harrison's beautiful, beautiful 'Within You Without You', a searing and sublime ode to the timeless beauty of Indian raga, sounds even more poignant on the Deluxe Edition, with his message sounding clearer and more soul-stirring than ever. There is similarly little doubt of George Martin's organ in Lennon's aural carnival 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite' or his operatic swells in the unforgettable and emotionally devastating 'A Day In The Life'. Starr, of course, was always a spectacular drummer and you can feel your senses moving and shaking, especially in the thumps that accompany the biting wordplay of 'Good Morning, Good Morning'. 

However, while the first half of the album is filled with near-perfection, it is the pleasantly surprising second half that reveals what the Beatles were really about. Instead of just standard issue extras, the Deluxe Edition comes with an entire Side 2 dedicated to alternate takes, jam sessions, instrumental melodies and speech fragments that capture the busy, frivolous and sprawling flavour of those famous recording sessions at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road. 

Of course, in terms of craft, they are not even remotely perfect. Many a time, you will find the music going wildly out of rhythm and sounding even misguided. Compare the final product that plays in the first segment with this improvisation. However, some of the takes featured here sound as intriguing as their final versions. For instance, there is 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', whose first take is without that chorus but Lennon still sounds like he is having a whale of a time. The fifth take of the breathless title track sounds pretty much as perfect as the finished version but the instrumental first take of 'Getting Better' demonstrates just how beautiful is that thumping, swinging piano but while Lennon sounds cheeky enough in the fourth take of 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite', this version is still far from capturing the essence of the Victorian vaudeville that his ballad actually got so right. 

But that is hardly a concern; everyone knows that the Beatles, while themselves far from being talented musically in the conventional sense, could go to any end to produce the sound that satisfied them all. Paul Wane, a celebrated collector of all memorabilia related to the Fab Four, has also authored of a compiled ensemble of rare photographs of the Beatles arriving for these monumental sessions. All these photographs were sent by thunder-struck fans, exactly the kind of crowd that could be heard shouting and screaming in those frenetic, fervent live concerts. 

Wane's book, a copy of which my father found at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool, is filled with these star-struck moments when the four Liverpudlians are caught in their most vulnerable but more crucially, it contains a ton of detail about what exactly went on inside those recording rooms. Many of the snippets reveal a wealth of activity, Lennon or McCartney rehearsing their voices before 'She's Leaving Home', Ringo adding smacks of his drum for 'Lucy' and Martin arranging the symphonic swells but a lot of it is also raw and throbbing with experimentation and loose creativity. Accounts from actual onlookers, including their trusted aide Mal Evans and the other bystanders, describe how the four could take up to hours and even interludes of random snacking and doodling with ideas in the night to perfect a particular tune or rhythm. 

Sure, it could get messed up; at one point, Martin laments that they were still hours away from getting a song perfect. But this lesser known side of their group effort is delightful, precisely because it reveals what made the Beatles so great and unique as a band. Unlike other bands who came mostly prepared for the act, the process for the Fab Four was beautifully organic and based on pure intuition and moments of great insight. The fact that they all chose to deliberate over a melody or rhythm for nearly hours before getting it all right indicates that they could be devilishly inventive and dedicated even when in their prime. 

The fascinating book also evidences that the fervour of Beatlemania was far from over. The sessions saw a large number of fans thronging the entrances to the studios, all expecting either a picture or an autograph with his or her favourite Beatle. Not surprisingly, a large number of these fanatics were girls, entranced by these four lads coming of age as dashing men who could produce great music. Taking actual accounts and descriptions, Wane details those days of agony and ecstasy when schoolgirls made scones that were nearly burnt in ovens, bustled into recordings and were led out and even sent out the badges, brooches and ties that the Beatles wore eventually to enhance their new fictional disguises as a part of the concept of the album. Everything was not hunky dory, though. George Harrison is described as a bit of a snob when it comes to autographs and Nigel Hartnup, one of the men who worked on the shoot for that iconic, much-imitated album cover, also laments the difficulties and disappointments in getting it all perfect. 

The Beatles were indeed a band like no other and 'Sgt. Pepper's' is just another resounding testament to this fact. Listen to this Deluxe Edition which can be called as the final word on an album that might not be their finest in my opinion (yes, that is how high they have raised the bar) but is undeniably important, immaculate and influential for ages. As they themselves would sing, a splendid time is guaranteed for all. Hope you will enjoy the show.