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LAST POST: I HAVE A NEW BLOG

2010-08-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well to all the readers of "THE SOAHAM BLOG" ....I have spent the whole of my 12th grade writing here. Mom believes that was the reason for my low percentage! I dont care! I would keep blogging, but I am afraid not on this address anymore.

I have started a collaboration blog(something I am much more excited about) with a great friend and ardent follower of cinema, Ameya Bokil.

My new blog with Ameya is called CUE FOR CHANGE. Click here to visit.

I am hoping that those who followed my "Reviews" on THE SOAHAM BLOG, would follow much more than that on my new blog.

CUE FOR CHANGE is much more than reviews. In our first ten posts, we have hardly reviewed 1 film. We write relevant articles, commentaries, analysis, humorous satires, etc... but all revolving around cinema!

So CUE FOR CHANGE is the new home, Visit me there in a entirely different avatar, I feel nostalgic leaving this space, even though hard to utter out....

These are the last words I post on THE SOAHAM BLOG.

REVIEW 2009; TOP 10 MOVIES THIS YEAR

2009-12-27T01:43:00.000-08:00

#10. LUCK BY CHANCE

ZoyaAkhtar's directorial debut, Luck By Chance, was a fine take on the dynamics of the Indian Film Industry and the life of a struggling actress played nicely by Konkona Sen Sharma. More importantly, it captures the growth of another struggling actor and how the touch of luck at every step in his growth soon removes the struggling tag from this actor. Farhan plays this effortlessly. With nice humor, good acting but a dullish screenplay and a lot of star guest appearances including those by Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan, Luck By Chance manages to be a very decent eye opener about a lot of issues revolving around life. Surprisingly, even though the movie had so many entertaining moments and also shared a brilliant critical reception, it was poorly recieved at the box office across the world and especially in India. So if you are one of those responsible for it being a flop, then please buy the DVD and watch it. Highly Recomended.

#9. PAA

Dealing with a very rare disease, progeria, where a person's body exhibits accelerated growth. This means that at the age of ten, a body looks like that of a fifty year old. Amitabh Bachchan plays this special child, Auro. Vidya Balan plays his mother. Abhishek Bachchan plays the role of a young and dynamic politician who has his own methods to bring change to the country. These "methods" were grossly unrealistic at times and can be regarded as the weak part of this movie. Paa is beautifully coupled by the amazing music by Illayaraja and R. Balki's soft direction resonates with the viewer's mind. The dialogues were very witty and humorous and more importantly relevant and fresh. Amitabh Bachchan's strong performance forms the major strength of the film. Paa did very well on the box office and the portrayal of the father-son relationship by son-father in real life has definitely been one of the key elements of curiosity amongst viewers.

#8. WAKE UP SID!

Ranbir Kapoor is certainly the essence of this film and his perfect portrayal of a lazy youngster with a rich dad and a mom who pampers a lot makes this film a winner. Konkona Sen plays a complete opposite of Ranbir's character. She is an independent and hardworking girl who has big dreams in her kitty and has set out to achieve them. Sid(Ranbir) on the other hand has dreams but enjoys watching them while asleep. The story is pretty cliche, the screenplay predictable and the cinematic elements would put you in a never ending sense of deja-vu. But still, débutante Ayan Mukherji proves that a story told before can be refreshing if told in a different way. Shankar Ehsaan Loy have done a great job with the music, but Amit Trivedi's Iktara stands out as the best track in the album. Also his unreleased tracks which were used as the background score are pretty nice. Wake Up Sid! topped box office collections in its first two weeks and had a pretty decent run thereafter. This is definately Ranbir Kapoor's first movie that proves his mettle as an actor. Performances by Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak are also pretty commendable in shaping up the story line. Released on Gandhi Jayanti, this movie tries to signal to the youngsters to wake up! and does it pretty decently...

#7. QUICK GUN MURUGUN

One of the most off beat films ever made in Bollywood, Rajesh Devraj's brainchild, Quick Gun Murugun is an out and out entertainer. Certainly inspired by the heroics of a great south superstar which inspired a MTV promo character in the nineties, this film encompasses a hilariously unrealistic and an unrealistically hilarious story line which gets the better of you in terms of laughter. The villain Rice Plate Reddy wants to convert all vegetarian udipis to non vegetarian joints. Hero Quick Gun Murugun has to protect the world from this carnage and the adventures of his form the story of this fantastic screenplay. Dialogues will blow your mind and you think twice for whatever you see and keep wondering whether it is really happening! One may say that the plot got a little lost towards the ending parts but the short length of this flick saved it any major criticism on plot development. From names of characters ranging from Mango Dolly to Rowdy MBA and coconut tree climbing institutions which are recognised and with a Yumraj sitting in a busy office, QMR is the way to go when you want to completely forget what's happening in the real world and take a break into the world of humorous melodrama and crazy action. Shashanka Ghosh has brilliantly directed this flick which had a good enough reception at the box office. Amidst the crowd of seriousness and realities all around, this makes its own space and really owns such that the others would definately Mind It!

#6. 3 IDIOTS

This certainly is a very forward movie with views very much necessary to be discussed especially in the context of the Indian education system. Raju Hirani's effortless direction with alternating humor and seriousness makes it one of the most entertaining movies this year. It follows a non linear narration which unfortunately brings in some minor errors in the continuity of the film. Also the demarcation of junior and senior students is not clear throughout the film and the age of the protagonists is not predictable at any point, may be its an intentional trick as the lead protagonist is double the average age of an engineering student. Also one may argue that many jokes were pretty old and predictable. But that did not stop it from being a laughter riot of sorts. Coming to performances, the lead protagonists(Aamir, Sharman and Madhavan) have done a great job but the winner is surely Boman Irani in his portrayal of the traditional disciplined teacher, Viru Sahasrabuddhe, aka. Virus. He is very well crafted as the symbol of the modern education system and how his methods and philosophies annihilate with his very own motto of creating good engineers. 3 Idiots makes a major mark on an important aspect that one should strive for excellence and not success, once we reach excellence, success will indeed run behind us. Though I am not entirely satisfied with the way Hirani has developed some scenes to express something, he has done a great job like the Munnabhai films to strike a chord with the audience.Aamir Khan has his way of promoting films and like his last few releases this too has had an amazing opening at the box office, registering 100% booking at most multiplexes across the country. So I dont really need to recommend this film to you, Aamir will take care of his film!

ONLY IDIOTS WONT WATCH THESE IDIOTS

2009-12-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: 3 Idiots

DIRECTOR:Raju Hirani

CAST: Aamir Khan, Boman Irani, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, R Madhavan

Five Point Someone is certainly one of those rare books which flared both across the masses and classes of India. The masses loved it, the classes didn’t. The reason why the masses loved it was the intense drama, funny lines, simple expression and comic relief. The classes didn’t as the story got lost towards the end and you certainly feel that the story had a scope of developing in a better way. Hirani’s latest retains the masses loving element and the story developed is so well crafted that it hits exactly where intended; the viewers heart and the Indian education system.

We are at ICE, Imperial College of Engineering, which is under the traditional hands of Viru Sahasrabuddhe who believes that the very admission of the students at the institute is a process of eliminating competitors and setting your own foothold. Boman Irani plays him fantastically. And at this college have landed our three protagonists, Farhan(Madhavan), Raju(Sharman) and Rancho(Aamir). The campus at ICE can be a reference to any college really as most of the courses in the country have deviated from being “developers” to “trainers”! The usual college elements of an uncool geek (Chatur Ramalingam) and a chhotu type helper boy(Millimeter) and professors lost in themselves are all present here. The movie carries all its characters with complete ease and Hirani in his usual style of alternating humor and seriousness drives sensitive topics into people’s hearts without making them heavy with doses of advice but rather light and free.

With his third in a row Christmas release, Aamir Khan is probably looking at another blockbuster. With all cinematic elements in the correct place and in the correct proportion, All is certainly well with 3 Idiots and it should certainly take you to the new year with a positive feeling about Bollywood, which though happens, happens rarely.

A LOVELY AAJ & KAL COCKTAIL

2009-07-31T02:15:00.001-07:00

As most people might have figured out this is a story of two generations. Most of the movie keeps telling us how different love was in both generations but in the end it tells us its "love" afterall and how can it be different in any generation in any time. People meet the same fate and consequences in love on any position in the timeline. This is the basic philosophy of the movie. The philosophy is beautiful. The movie....even more beautiful...

Even though he is closing on his forties, Saif is more youthful than any other so called young actors and I really believe even in his eighties he will be a teenager. This youthfulness adds a different colour to the already colourful cinematography of Love Aaj Kal. So the story basically goes like, Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif) is dating Meera Pandit (Deepika) from two years and believes that love forever is a ****matic nonsense. At a juncture when Meera has to leave for India and Jai has to work in London and has an aspiration to work for the Golden Gate in San Fransisco, the madly happy couple break up and actually throw a break up party.

Veer Singh(Rishi Kapoor) then enters the scene later and brings with him an astonishingly sweet story of his young days where Saif plays the young Veer, a Sikh who loves a girl in the neighbourhood called Harleen. His heart breaks when he knows that Harleen has left Delhi and gone to Calcutta as her family had shifted. Right from this point the two stories start appearing similar and most appealing is the climax where both the climaxes converge.

Its hard to find a flaw leaving a few in this movie. Imtiaz Ali has grown ten folds as a director and has certainly improved from his last(Jab We Met) which was also a good enough movie. The screenplay is amazing and presents a fresh narration pattern, not much dared in Bollywood. This movie lacks the pompous expenditure like a Bhansali or Johar flick but the fact that the production was prudent and perfect made it have an amazing look. So thumbs up to Saif the producer too. Illuminati films certainly has a long way to go. Performances by the actors are amazing too. Saif the crazy '09 guy is excellent and so is the Saif the Sikh in the sixties and manages his Punjabi very well. Deepika brings a fantastic craziness yet maturity into her role and the unknown and under the wraps girl who plays the role of Harleen Kaur is the height of cuteness and beauty..

With lots of catchy phrases and dialogues, Love Aaj Kal is definately a fun ride but it would teach you a nice lesson on love with some mature thoughts too. The music is amazing and fresh and the track Dooriyan stands out and Mohit Chauhan's voice has a certain pain which makes this the theme of the film. So as I said its really hard to find a fault in this movie. Hats off to every member of the film and all I got to say is Aaj Kal you wont find such films too often....that certainly makes you Love this one!

WHERES THE SCISSOR??

2009-07-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Transformers- Revenge of the Fallen

DIRECTOR: Michael Bay

CAST: Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox

Lets be clear about something before you read further; This movie is just a display of how good the special effects in Hollywood is and how good Megan Fox looks. If you are looking for something logical or something with some substance, then this is not the movie to watch. Its a sequel to the first part as most might know.

The first part saw the death of the Megatron; but in this part Megatron is revived by Skorpinox's spark after the latter steals his dead body from the safest US Military naval base. But before this and after this is a mad race of unreal machines fighting, firing, cracking jokes, some with toilet humor and along with their story runs the story of a special guy, Sam(LeBeouf) and his girlfriend Mikaela(Fox) who run around purposelessly(dare I say this to the screenplay writer)

The worst part of the movie is its editing(even with four editors, probably because of that). Zero stars to the editor. Its too long. Then further zero stars to the screenplay as the person has strived very hard to keep the viewers engaged. So in the end, rather being engaged, you just realise that someones making efforts to keep you engaged.

The only appreciable thing in the movie is the SFX, undoubtedly. Bringing such an unreal world into reality is the credit of the SFX team. Also some of the funny scenes in the first half were good, but you feel bad later on as they have little relevance then.

The movie surely costs a lot. Hats off to the producer who in the demand of this third grade script was ready to fund for the most impossible locations, from creating artificial US Military Bases to roaming around in Egypt to breaking several cars and also a pyramid, lot of million USDs have gone into this no brainer , pseudo-entertainer.... If people have so much money to throw(including those who are watching this movie, including me!), then why doesnt the condition of people in Sudan improve!

UNBELIEVABLY STRIKING!

2009-06-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Bolt

DIRECTORS: Byron Howard & Chris Williams

VOICES: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus

Now this one has got elements from various previously acclaimed animation flicks. Its got a 102 Dalmations in some part and its got Stuart Little in some, but in the end it comes out being a totally new and fresh roller coaster ride. And like most animation movies it comes with a message. And the one here is pretty beautiful too.

Basically, BOLT is a super dog with some serious super powers and takes on some seriously con enemies in a world of high gadgets and cybots all around. But all this is a part of a popular TV show and unfortunately BOLT feels its all real. The unit of the show makes sure that the dog doesnt realise that all this is unreal and hence they keep him aloof from the real world.

The movie is a 3D movie and the experience is just awesome as the grade of animation is above excellence and the voice overs of Travolta, Cyrus and others are nothing but excellent. My favourite voice over though was of the Hampster, Rhino done by Mark Walton.

The movie then deals with the event that BOLT goes missing and faces the "real" world and with the company of a Cat (Mittens) and a Hampster (Rhino) realises his true powers. The story line and direction and the dialogues are so strong that it actually goes on to convincingly explain that even though super powers exist only in comic books, the determination we have to solve problems with our capabilities and presence of mind is the real super power. This forms the high point of the movie.

So Bolt is a fun ride really with lots of special effects and special thoughts. A must watch for children, but I guess parents accompany them so that they are made to understand the crucial noble messages of the movie. Watch this, it will make your day for sure...

SALVATION!

2009-06-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Terminator Salvation

DIRECTOR: McG

CAST: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington

From a long time you might not have seen a review on this blog. I was actually keeping myself inactive during the time movies were not releasing and even though I caught up with some disasters like Kal Kissne Dekha and X Men Origins: Wolverine , I did not write their reviews because I had vowed that the comeback review I would write would be of a really dashing movie. Well that says it all, Terminator Salvation is a thumbs up!

Coming straight to the plot, Its 2003 when Dr. Serena Kogan convinces Marcus Wright(Worthington) to donate his body for a "noble cause" of medical research. Trust me, you do not want me to reveal what that cause exactly is. The plot moves on to 2018 where John Connor(Bale) is the leader of the Resistance attack and fights the Machines. He gets off an island assuming he is the lone survivor but the remains reveal that Marcus has released himself from the Skynet base. What follows is his adventure when he meets two more humans in the form of Kyle and Star.

The strongest point in Terminator Salvation is surely the impeccable special effects and the humane touch to the Sci Fi script. The experience of Bale and the amazing promise of Worthington heightens the level of cinema completely. Though Christian Bale is the hero of the movie on paper it is Worthington's role which has maximum meat and it leaves an ever lasting impression on the memory of the viewer.

As in the Terminator 3: Rise of Machines, this too follows, infact elevates the unthinkable level of special effects in the form of cool robots and their fight scenes. So, the movie is basically about the clash between Machines and the Resistance(handful humans post the Judgement Day). One of the most catchy dialogues is when Connor motivates the remnant humans via radio as he says, "If you are listening to this, You are the Resistance." Similarly I can assume , If you are reading this, you are going to watch TS this Sunday....Go ahead, its worth it..

A TEN FOLD CHAOS!

2009-04-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Dasavathaaram
CAST: Kamal Hasan, Asin, Mallika Sherawat
DIRECTOR: K.S Ravikumar

The script of the movie is based on the popular mathematical idea of the west; the Chaos Theory. The Chaos theory believes that even though a particular event is deterministic, its fate is described by its initial state, it occurs through a random and unpredictable series of events. And as a further corollary to this theory, it goes on to say, that all events in this world is a part of the chaos theory. The initial state of the earth has determined its fate and whatever happens in between is a random, unpredictable juggle of events.

On the other hand, our Hindu mythology speaks of a multitude of Gods looking at earth and living with terrestrial beings in form of incarnations. The Hindu mythology supports the idea that even the biggest of disasters happen to overcome a bigger disaster and that everything is being controlled by the Gods.

The genius of the script writer of Dasavathaaram lies in the fact that he has collaborated both these distant ideas into one and has actually brought out the essence of these ideas in an entertainment packed manner. As a thought, this movie is a sheer winner, but it does not really translate as an equal wonder on screen.

The movie travels many generations ranging from the Cholas in the 12th century to George Bush, from Biotechnological Weapons to the Tsunami of 2004. Hasan plays 10 roles in the movie and like most of his movies, there is only he all around. I dont think theres a single shot without him on the screen. I saw the movies dubbed version, so many comedy scenes might have lost their wit. Asin overacted throughout but looked great. Sherawat's brief stint was good enough. All the 10 avatars of Kamal Hasan are brilliantly carried by him. No doubt, the make up job was brilliant.

Himesh Reshammiya surprised me with two tracks in this movie. While Mukunda Mukunda was a sweet portrayal of Vishnu's incarnations, Kallai Mattum was deep and very beautifully sung by Hariharan. The other tracks were very average. The movie towards the end had some stupid scenes. We were made to believe that a bullet hitting a cancer patients throat can do a miracle of taking the cancer away with itself......Also Asin's overacting was taking a toll on the viewers patience and more so because of the dubbing, until another version of Hasan, Khalifullah came to the rescue.

The beautiful correlation of the ten forms of Hasan and appropriate pattern of narration make Dasavathaaram an out and out entertainer. Though the style of filmmaking could be a little more mature than the typical Tamil action flicks, this movie is an intellectual treat if you put efforts to think about it. Though the movie is a few hours of entertainment, its idea, endless.

AATH AANA!

2009-04-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

FILM: Barah Aana (2009)
CAST: Naseruddin Shah, Vijay Raaz, Arjun Mathur
DIRECTOR: Raja Menon

After coming to know that everyone else in my class had gone to the movies to celebrate the end of exams, I had become desperate to do so too.This quest led me to the doors of this movie.Sitting all alone with a friend in a neraly complete empty theater( this was not a reflection on the movie...actually it was 11 in the morning on a Monday) with my legs propped up on the seat in front, I watched the movie screen come to life.

The story goes something like this. Shukla(Naseerudin Shah) discovers that he has officialy been declared dead due to a series of misfortunes(This part may have no significance now but holds the key to the end). He moves to Mumbai to work as a driver and lives in the slums of Dharavi. Yadav(Vijay Raaz) is a watchman who is trodden over and abused to the limit and then beyond it. And he has no choice but to bear it for the sake of his family who are solely dependent on him for their existence. Aman( Arjun Mathur)- Yadav's room-mate is a waiter at a swanky restaurant. He crushes in a on Italian girl who unkown to him lives her life by selling drugs.The plot shows it face when Yadav receives a phone call informing him that back home money's needed for treatment of his child.

Unable to procure the money properly he turns to trickery due to a completely unseen turn of events. Enticed by the power, he coerces Aman and threatens Shukla to continue the "business". The conclusion of this whacky adventure is the best part of the movie. Add along a side track of romance between Aman and the beautiful Italian (Violante Placido) onlyn for him to be finally betrayed, you have a classic paani puri to be eaten. But sadly, I found the movie all paani and not much puri.

Now, the movie is not all that bad . In fact I had really liked the start and the end. But unforunately, that was it. Sure, certain moments provided amusement but nothing that kept you going along with the story.Over the years oppression of the poor/ helpless has been quite a hot topic with film makers. Sensationalisation along with some fantasy has led to this giving us several hits.

The biggest surprise for me was Vijay Raaz . He played his role with such sincerity...I truly say that this is his best performance till date. Arjun Mathur has done very good for a debut film although I felt he was trying too hard. Naseeruddin Shah is the cherry on the top! I've now come to expect nothing but the best from this man.
If I liked the acting so much, then what problem did I have with the movie you may ask. Frankly, for me, it was the implementation of the script.It truly left much to be desired.
But none the less, this film is truly timepass material- say for an afternoon weekend while lying in bed at home with hot samosas and a botlle of Pepsi. The originality of the script makes me give another half star...Its not the best, but its a start.

- Karthik Krishna

(For the first time on The Soaham Blog, we have a guest writer. Just wait and watch readers, there will be many new surprises coming for you. Karthik Krishna is an year junior to me, but has a tremendous writing flare and good insight on movies. He would be co-writing on this blog from today, Barah Aana is his debut! Lets all give him the warmest welcome to The Soaham Blog.)

You too want to write for The Soaham Blog????

Mail any of your article to soaham43@gmail.com

A TRUE BUT INCOMPLETE PICTURE

2009-03-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Firaaq(2009)
DIRECTOR: Nandita Das
CAST: Naseruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Suhanna Goswami,Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra and Deepti Naval

Now straight away let me tell you that talking about this movie here is controversial. I wont go deep into the political roots of this movie because I do not desire to hurt any section or inspire any section to do something radical. Whatever has happened in the Gujarat riots is unfortunate and inhuman. This movie deals with this issue and is set in the time during the riots. The strength of the movie is undoubtedly the technically sound direction of Nandita Das and the powerful performances by Naseruddin Shah, Deepti Naval, Paresh Rawal and others. Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra too were very impressive. The title Firaaq is exceptionally apt. It is an Urdu word which means both hope and separation. And both these emotions form the roots of this movie. The hope that things would get better and the separation from communal harmony and humanity too form the theme of this story.

The educated Hindu intelligentsia in our country today speaks pro-Muslim things rather than facts to prove their secularism. They have somewhere in them that if they praise Ustad Bismillah Khan(RIP) instead of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, they could be striking a more secular note. It is a usual human tendency, and it is somewhere reflected in Nandita Das' Firaaq. It is no doubt that this movie is a collection of some true incidents, but the sequencing of these events and the character built up has made it look very much anti-Hindu more than pro-Muslim. I mean the story writer may argue that he has not projected Hindus in general but only one character of Paresh Rawal and that in his story such a thing has happened. He may bring out an incident from the newsreel to support his storyline, but many newsreels and story lines regarding the Hindu sufferings may be omitted. All this because of that "prove to be secular" tendency.

Firaaq deals with the lives of different people in different societies and facing different conditions, the common thread between them being the riots. Naseruddin Shah brilliantly plays the retired musician who is cut off from the happenings of the world outside and immersed in the seven notes. Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra play a Muslim-Hindu couple who are migrating Delhi seeing the conditions here. Paresh Rawal and Deepti Naval play a Hindu couple where Rawal is a con fellow and Naval is a fishy woman with a good heart. No real reason for ther fishiness and hallucinations of riot victims was substantiated. Suhana Goswami plays a brilliant role of a woman whose house is burnt in the riots. Like most of the Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta kind of meaningless "meaningful cinema", this movie though superior to a Nair or Mehta flick, is inconclusive even with efforts of conclusion, is controversial unnecessarily and is a true, but an incomplete picture, which can be really dangerous.

NOT REVOLUTIONARY, BUT AMAZING ANYWAY

2009-03-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Revolutionary Road (2008)
CAST: Leonardo Di Caprio, Kate Winslet
DIRECTION: Sam Mendes

The institution of marriage is the strangest of all. While it is the purest form of union, its side effects can never be ignored. The amount of bliss a happy marriage can bring into life and the amount of positive energy it can give you is unbelievable. Similarly abundant is the amount of stress, retardation and suffocation an unhappy marriage can give you. Mr and Mrs. Wheeler have an unhappy marriage(Di caprio and Winslet) in Revolutionary Road. Mrs. April Wheeler aspired to be an actress. Her aspiration remained unfulfilled and her ambition got dug somewhere and her only consolation was a husband who supported her pretty decently. Her husband, Mr. Frank Wheeler, is on the other hand, unhappy with his job and believes the pressure of earning the basics has cut his wings and changed his freestyle mentality and forced him to work at a place where he does not belong.

This seed of unhappiness in this couple grows slowly into a monstrous forest and the after effects of this spoilt love marriage are better if not mentioned. They have two children and April deep inside considers their elder one as a "mistake" rather than a boon. Under all this unhappiness of their life, April one fine day decides that they should move to Paris to start of a fresh life. The decision is apparently childish as Frank does not have any guarantee of finding a job there. The dynamics of these human complexities, the human expressions of love, lust, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, infidelity, ambition, faith, courage and fear make this lovely treat called Revolutionary Road.

The Winslet- DiCaprio pairing is without a doubt one of the most complementing pairs in the world. Kate Winslet yet again features in a complex marriage flick, an earlier better flick she worked in was Little Children. Kate might have been nominated with a BAFTA for the best actress here, but I feel DiCaprio's portrayal of Frank was much superior and deserved more attention. The movie is nothing "revolutionary" in that sense, but just another sensitive tale and consequence of an unhappy marriage. This movie would be remembered for its elegant direction and brilliant performances. Michael Shannon's portrayal of the retard neighbour, forms a pivotal role in the film and is a brilliant performance too(nominated for an Oscar). As I have always said, "If marriages are made in heaven, heaven consists of a bunch of incompetent and wicked devils"

THE DARK COLOURS OF DEMOCRACY

2009-03-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

FILM: Gulaal (2009)
DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap
CAST: Raj Singh Chaudhary, Kay Kay Menon, Ayesha Mohan

Probably the most important character in this movie is that of Piyush Mishra who happens to be the music director and lyricist of this movie. The movie opens with the fact that it is a tribute to the various poets who have deeply inspired the freedom movement of India. There could not have been a better person than Mishra to give this tribute. His songs will be remembered for the feat of carrying the theme of this movie amazingly. The depth of the words he has used make you a victim of several emotions. You may cry, you may smile, your blood may boil and you may just stay silent admiring the talent of this genius. Gulaal deals with a very delicate issue that revolution today is misunderstood and malpractices are occuring in the name of revolution. No one wants to bring a true change, revolution is a heavy word which serves the purpose of bringing momentum and energy to overthrow a power and to gain....power!

It is the lust of power which is driving the world now. Kashyap brings his world in Rajasthan. Kay Kay Menon plays a mass leader of an association which wants "revolution" and is as usual a brilliant performer. Abhimanyu Singh plays a brief but a powerful role of Ranasa who is the legitimate son of His Highness. He is contesting for the General Secratary post in a university. Fighting for the same post is a young and beautiful girl, Kiran. She too is the daughter of His Highness, but she is the illegitimate one. A ragged student of the college is our protagonist Dileep Singh, fantastically portrayed by Raj Singh Chaudhary.

Gulaal has its strength in the poetry and the dialogues and the brilliant Kashyap direction has made it a masterpiece eye opener. I often feel bad using the word eye opener. The irony with our society has always been that our eyes have been opened, yet we are blind when we actually have to do something to change it. This movie targets almost everything bad in the society and pretty decently carries it too. Depth is the word which is inseparable from Gulaal. The filthy dynamics of politics, the inhumanism of humans, the thirst for power and the power to get power, the paradox that power begets power and only power gets power have been strongly portrayed.

The happenings of the movie might be thoroughly depressing and saddening and maddening to a major section but what comes as a gift is the amazing cinematic treatment of Kashyap. He seems to have the fancy for red, blue, green lighting and unicolour filters and we see its extensive use in his movies. There was too much of yellow in No Smoking, too much of blue in Dev.D and here we see too much of red in Gulaal. These colours are not just for funk, they again as I said, are deep. The red here stands as a symbol to Love, Betrayal, Power and its misuse, Murder and Revolution. Even if you miss out on this movie, dont miss out on the music. The serio comic fast paced number called Ranaji and the meaningful Aarambh are two brilliant tracks from the album. But surely the best and concluding one is the defining one, Duniya. If you can withstand depression and appreciate hindi heartland slangs then that would be a great additional qualities to watch Gulaal . The question this movie deeply leaves on your mind and the answer for which may not exist iss, "What the hell is this circus called democracy?"

A SWEET LITTLE EXPERIENCE

2009-03-21T10:16:00.001-07:00

FILM: Little Zizou
DIRECTOR: Sooni Taraporewala
CAST: Jahan Bativala, Imaad Shah, Boman Irani

I cannot forget my days in the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School. Apart from the great school that it was, the beauty of its locality, the Five Gardens is something beyond expression. Five gardens are not the world's most beautiful garden, nor are they peaceful with the plenty traffic, pollution and kissing couples all around. Obviously the chaat walas, the horse carts and the toy wala, everyone coexist in harmony and not so harmony at Five Gardens; a place which bears testimony to the history of one of the great communities in India; the Parsees. The Five Gardens is one of the few places in Mumbai where you will find a dominant Zorastrain population. The Parsees are few in number and mostly the other communities often fail to relate themselves with the Parsees. A major reason to that also is a closed policy of the Parsees. They do not endorse mixed marriages and the rights to the entry to their worship place(Agyari) is chopped down even if you are a Parsee and have married a non parsee. All this makes the community shrink in size and conditions have reached such a horrible extent that in some cases just for the sake of protecting the community to community relation, often closely related cousins marry each other which has led to many biological problems amongst the community.

Coming to the movie, we are talking about Xerxes, played with outstanding maturity by Jahan Bativala, the new child artiste on the block. His elder bro Artaxerxes(Imaad Shah) is into his own weird world of making sketches and is working on a "Flight Simulator" along with two more engineers. Apart from that he runs a very interesting blog. They do not have a mother. Their father is a religious fanatic ;who in the name of "blessing does boob pressing" amongst the many other inhuman things he does. Artaxerxes compares him to Idi Amin(the cannibal Uganda president) and Atilla the Hun (leader of the barbaric Hun tribe). Boman Irani is a neighbour who knows this person's shady ways and wants to expose him through a modest newspaper he runs. With few more characters and a lot of depth to each of them, Little Zizou pulls out a very sensitive tale which makes you laugh, cry and most importantly learn.

More publicised as an All-Parsee film, Little Zizou surely does deal with the life of only this community but the way it has captured the slightest of dynamics of all age groups and lifestyles of the community makes it so human that any other community can relate to it and think of society and its problems in general. Bickram Ghosh, one of my favourite musicians, did not really work hard on the background score. He just pulled of few scores from his superhit Rythym Scape and used them here. More interesting were the ethnic oldies sung in normal voice by Boman Irani with his impeccable dancing. Few know that Boman is a brilliant dancer and has been training Imaad post Little Zizou.

Little Zizou mostly deals with the shady ways of the people in power exploiting religious sentiments. Power and religion often form the perfect cocktail for the con dividers and hence have been heavily mixed from centuries. This small little movie, with a very fresh approach tells you a lot about this cocktail. Go for this one, this could well make your dull day shining!

THE UNDERRATED JOHNNY

2009-03-18T12:38:00.001-07:00

FILM: Johnny Gaddar (2007)
CAST: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Dharmendra, Rimi Sen
DIRECTOR: Sriram Raghavan

Rene Brabazon Raymond wrote many outstanding thriller novels and his writing life which ranges from the 1930s to the mid 1980s has captured the changing thrills of the American society. His books were bestsellers in Asia, Africa, France and Italy and many of his books were made into movies. Few have heard of Raymond, but many have read his works under the pseudonym he chose: James Hadley Chase! Johnny Gaddar is a tribute to this legendary writer. Raghavan also pays tribute to the Vijay Anand thrillers. My favourite has to be Guide. but Raghavan chose Johnny Mera Naam. Johnny Gaddar has to be one of the most underrated movies of 2007. Initially damned by critics coupled by blank theatres, this classic did not get its due.

The story is intelligent and complex and carved out of simple locations and characters. The movie deals with a caper gang which involves itself in making gray deals with an honest and old criminal Sheshadri (Dharmendra) heading the gang. Shardul (Zakir Hussain) and Prakash(Vinay Pathak) are the two other members of the gang apart from Shiva(Daya Shetty) and Vikram(Neil Nitin Mukesh). A commisioner Kalyan (Govind Namdeo, brilliant) offers Sheshadri a deal with which the caper gang can make a big killing. But Vikram the trusted one has other plans and he goes on to eliminate his fellow members to try and eat up all the food himself.

With brilliant performances by almost everyone, Johnny Gaddar is an intelligent, fast paced, interesting and an edge of the seat experience. Probably the best performance of Dharmendra and a perfect debut start for Mukesh, makes this flick unforgettable. The movie has a closed end, yet I heard that a sequel is being made with the name Johnny Tokyo. The successful creation of brand Johnny is completely credited to Raghavan's intelligent direction. No doubt, we want more of this Johnny!!

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE OSCAR NOMINATION

2009-03-18T03:08:00.000-07:00

FILM: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(2008)
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
CAST: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett

Time is a confusing thing yet it is so simple. It is probably the simplest thing when we perceive it as the ticking of the clock. The ticking of the clock is monotonous with a repeating tick sound but what events occur during this ticking are so random, so confusing, so interlinked and so many. This concept was beautifully dealt with in one of the scenes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where Daisy(Blanchett) meets with a road accident. The concept of change is the central theme though. The thought that Nothing is constant except change is the essence of this curious story. Our protagonist Benjamin Button is a peculiar case. He is born as an old man and is ageing reversely. The events that have followed as the after effects of this reverse ageing are very nice and deep but the flaw of this movie is that it never substantiated a reason for the reverse aging. When Clarke Kent can lift cars with his thumb, we have been shown that it is so because of the gravity adjustments of that of Krypton and Earth are dissimilar in Superman. It is so because the gravity at Krypton is stronger and to lift objects there one has to put more effort than that on earth. As the earths gravity is weaker, Kent can easily lift even heavy objects here and so he is Superman. No such explanation of reverse aging was provided, though several attempts were made, but nothing was dealt with conviction.

Performances are unquestionable. Brad Pitt has added yet another brilliant performance in his lustrous filmography. Cate Blanchett too does full justice to her role. Though The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has its moments, it fails due to certain flaws. Firstly, as I said earlier, no explanation of the reverse aging was given. Secondly, the editing was extrememly poor and it becomes an extremely long screen watch which becomes boring at some in between parts also because of a not so brilliant background score. Thirdly, there were some technincal flaws regarding the camera work. Whenever the camera focuses on a light source, some sort of dispersion takes place and one often sees a rainbow on the screen. That should not happen. The director should make sure that one is seeing the movie from his eyes and the cameraman's eyes. Surprisingly, it occurs six to seven times in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Even though the story line is pretty curious the slow screenplay often takes off the curiosity and intrigue at certain points, much unlike any other Fincher flick. Apart from these things, the movie is a pretty decent watch and may put you into some sort of thinking. The fact that even though Benjamin had a boon of growing backwards and it made him so different from others yet he was so similar to them and had to face the same consequences as others do, but in a different way, was well captured. But still if one speaks honestly then this flick does not deserve an Academy award Best Film nomination. It deserved that make up oscar, but certainly not a nomination in the Best Film category. Especially, when all time greats like The Dark Knight, were left out. When Heath Ledger would come to know that Nolan's great has not been even nominated for the Best Film, he would simply open his eyes and with his joker grin would ask, "Why so Curious?"

Rest In Peace, Ledger.

MILK FLOWS "STRAIGHT" INTO YOUR HEART

2009-03-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Milk (2008)
CAST: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch,
DIRECTOR: Gus Van Sant

Homosexuality has got different interpretations and is viewed with different eyes in different parts of the globe. While its a human right to chose who you want to be with, homosexuality is also perceived as a threat to the family lifestyle and the natural phenomenon of having kids. Some sections say that all that homosexuals have given to the world is AIDS. Well its true that AIDS was spread from a gay couple in the United States in the year 1981, but that's not all that the homosexuals have given us. They have set examples of true freedom and have displayed courage to do what their heart wanted. Many call homosexuals sick and that homosexuality is rather a disease than a conscious choice. It was and it still is a highly controversial and debatable topic this, but one thing is for sure which no one can deny, homosexuals are humans and ought to be treated as humans!

Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) believes in his homosexuality and wants gay men to unite and be a force so that they are treated as equals and they get their rights as much as any other citizen. Based in the span of 1970-1978, Milk deals with how Harvey rises in popularity and from owning a camera shop which was more of a gay hangout spot, goes on to become the voice of homosexuals for USA and set a global example. Milk beautifully captures the moments of evolution of Harvey with amazing cinematography and real video clips from the 70s. This year's Academy for the best film may have been unfortunately Slumdog Millionaire, but no force could deny Sean Penn his best actor award. One of the best performances ever in the history of cinema, It was as if Penn lived in the character and not for a moment would you feel that you saw Sean Penn, it was Harvey Milk all along. Another brilliant aspect of this movie was its casting plus the make up, which you would realise in the last scene when you get to see the real life characters as well.

Homosexuality has been the hottest topic of controversy even during US Presidential election campaigns. Evolution of the homosexuals as a united force has changed the script of a lot of presidential speeches and has altered the content of interviews and TV shows all over the world. If someone says that homosexuality is a threat to the institution of straight marriages then I say that the nuns and virgins and the big respected saints too are a threat to marriage and the notion of having kids! If you say that gays are the reason for the biological menace called AIDS, I say its the immorality and irresponsibility of the so called straights which is fuelling it and today its spreading faster than forest fire. Films like Dostana make fun of such sentiments, whereas films like Milk, are a food for thought, deep thought and with the stream of your thoughts they flow right into the hearts of not only all homosexuals, but all humans!

BAD RGV FILMS ARE MUCH BETTER

2009-03-10T01:10:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Street Kings(2009)
CAST: Keanu Reeves. Forest Whittacker
DIRECTOR: David Ayer

I had a great impression of Forest Whittacker after watching his Academy Award Winning performance in The Last King of Scotland where he played the eccentric Uganda dictator. Here for no reason he makes those similar eccentric expressions and does not deliver anything special. Reeves plays a cop, Detective Tom Ludlow whose job is to get angry, push people when angry and drink lots of vodka while driving. Street Kings has that same old story of a cop falling in trouble and getting caught in charges of murdering another cop and all evidences are against him. It is his pursuit of coming out clean which forms the story.

The movie has nothing new to it and looks very silly most of the time. Martha Higareda's looks might be of some solace to the viewer but the remaining minutes of repititiveness brings no good to a viewer. Like I have mentioned in the headline, Ram Gopal Verma's films like Satya. Company, Sarkar and also the bad ones like Shiva, James, D and Contract are much more entertaining action movies than this.

With predictable and repitive screenplay, okay cinematography, nothing great direction and nothing great performances, Street Kings is far from striking any impression.

CANNOT DEPART FROM OUR HEARTS

2009-03-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: The Departed (2006)
CAST: Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese

Leonardo Di Caprio became the household heartthrob with his cute looks and romanticism in Titanic (1997). Since then he hasn't looked back and has delivered master stroke performances in brilliant movies like Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, Blood Diamond, The Departed and the most recent The Revolutionary Road. This article is dedicated to his brilliant portrayal of Billy Costigan in The Departed which is surely one of the all time best movies, no wonder IMDB has kept it at #50 in its prestigious top 250 list.

The Departed is the story of two undercover agents, commonly called "rats". One poses to be a mafia serving a cop and the other is a cop and serves the same mafia. The mafia, Costello is amazingly played by Jack Nicholson. The Massachusetts State Police has launched a special investigation to gather evidence against Costello for which they have planted a rat, Billy in Costello's den. Mark Wahlberg plays an over abusive cop, Dignam who plays a pivotal role in the movie, beautifully blossoms the character he played. Martin Sheen plays another cop called Queenan. Queenan and Dignam had recruited Billy to keep an eye on Costello's whereabouts. Whereas Costello had a rat in Colin(Matt Damon) inside the cops. With twists and turns and thoughtful screenplay, the fate of Colin and Billy collide more than once.

The Departed beautifully captures the idea of good souls residing in bad lanes. And bad dogs ruling with a mask of good. The dynamics of relationships amongst people which has so much to do with the work they do is also an aspect in the story. Scorsese's power direction and the amazing performances as a whole takes The Departed to a very high level altogether. One memorable dialogue which I can recollect is, ": Marriage is an important part of getting ahead: lets people know you're not a homo; married guy seems more stable; people see the ring, they think at least somebody can stand the son of a bitch; ladies see the ring, they know immediately you must have some cash or your cock must work."

CRAZY! CRAZY! CRAZY!!

2009-03-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Fight Club(1999)
CAST: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt
DIRECTOR: David Fincher

Remember the opening scene of Bollywood's Ghajini? The rushing through the cells, nerves and tissues inside the brain alongside the opening credits won the technicians some acolades. Those who have seen Fight Club know that its lifted from here. The movie is based on Chuck Pahlaniuk's novel with the same name. The script of the movie though was finalised after lots and lots of drafting. The debate was over the style of narration to be adopted in the script. What they finally pulled out remains to be one of the most outrageous and brilliant styles cinema has ever seen.

Jack enjoys a white collar job and due to the stress in life suffers from insomnia. He fights insomnia in a very unusual way by visiting patient rehabs posing to be one of them. In a sequence of events he meets a girl called Marla Singer and a guy called Tayler Durden(Pitt). His association with Durden has to be one of the best crafted aspects of the movie. He and Durden set up a basement midnight organisation called the "fight club" where people just hit each other, they just fight, for no reason, but just fight. The visual effects, the cinematography, the narration pattern, screenplay, the awesome energy in Dust Brothers' music makes this a crazy crazy crazy experience. One starts feeling mad and helpless watching it, thats exactly what the director has intended, they have put you in the characters shoes!

A person when encaptured by his schedule, by his work, by his commitments, by everything what he does starts adjusting to his shackles and slowly and slowly his desire to set free fizzes out. One becomes slave to furnished houses and spic and span clothing but even though he wants to run naked on the street at midnight he cannot as he is not completely free. In this process slowly and slowly our brain creates another personality within itself. A personality which one is not, but what he desires to be. A person with shackles creates the most free and " i dont care" type person parallel to himself. This parallel personality often resurrects a person and more often, destroys him. This is the message of Fight Club, find out how and why....

SPOOFING AROUND

2009-03-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge
CAST: Paresh Rawal, Sonu Sood, Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan
DIRECTOR: Umesh Shukla

The movie begins with a brief introduction of Paresh Rawal's character, Raj Chopra, a once upon a time big producer and now a continuous ten flops owner. One of his movies is named Goli Goli Pe Likha Hai Dushman Ka Naam while the other is Barsaat Mein Tak Dhina Dhin. Then Kunal Khemu enters with a thought sequence with some Just Kiss Me item number. The number suggests that he aspires to be a hero or something. But later on no such aspiration was established by the writer. Instead they showed that he wants to be honest and wants to earn his do roti from being honest. Aryan played nicely by Sonu Sood is a star. Soha is a Bengali girl who makes her entry with a purposeful Bengali accent. Later on the director forgets that her Hindi is not good and she speaks the usual Hindi. The first half tries too hard to come up to a point and start a story.

The second half is relatively more comic as it takes you through the making of a movie called Solay se L'gaan Tak and those moments of making of this movie which involves a major role of Johnny Lever, make the best moments of the movie. Sonu Sood plays numerous number of characters and the movie proceeds spoofing Sholay, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Gadar and Lagaan. There is a laughter quotient in the end approaching parts with a relatively dumb end. The story though is a pretty fresh thought and more improvisations could have crafted a more decent movie. This is surely not a must watch, but it would not bore you this sunday. Soha Ali Khan got tagged as an actress doing meaningful cinema with Rang De Basanti, Mumbai Meri Jaan and a Bengali masterpiece Antarmahal. After flops and relatively less meaningful movies like Dil Kabaddi and this one, if she has to give an excuse to the media she would pull out the standard dialogue from the purse of heroine excuses, "I do not want to get typecast!" One major thing which I thought was why is this movie called Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge. Actually the very early promos focused on the different looks of Sonu Sood and then this title would be apt. The script seems to have changed since but the title remains the same and without a reason. Probably the reason for the title is aap iska reason Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge!

I NOW WALK, INTO THE WILD....

2009-03-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Into The Wild (2007)
CAST: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt
DIRECTOR: Sean Penn

Sean Penn won the best actor Academy Award this year for his role in Milk. Into the Wild is his directional venture and is clearly an all time classic. This movie is based on a biography of Cristopher McCandles written by Jon Krakauer, Cristopher's is a curious case. He is a brilliant student and a flamboyant athlete. But along with that he is also sick of the life he lives. A life where he sees his parents fight like animals and where he has no one but his sister. After his graduation from Emory University, he choses a different path. He disowns all his possessions and gives away his $24000 savings in charity. After doing that he ventures out to discover his dream, his deep sitted passion, Alaska!

The story of his journey ahead running parallel to the consequences of his elope form the story of Into the Wild. He meets new people in his journey, various kinds of people. All of them find him strange, little mad yet amazingly lovable. All these unnamed relations with strangers have been fantastically portrayed by Penn. Coupled with that, Eric Gautier, the Director of Photography and Cinematographer, carves out the beauty of Cristopher's journey and makes the viewer travel along. The dialogues give his journey the human touch and a brilliant and dedicated performance by Emile Hirsch makes Into the Wild a sure winner. Out of all the people Cristopher meets, the most touching phase was the one in which he lives with the old man and shares valuable experience with him. Do look out for this movie, it will make a place for itself in your heart somewhere...

I SAW, I SANK, I AM REDEEMED!

2009-03-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
CAST: Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins
DIRECTOR: Frank Darabont

There has been extensive debate amongst IMDB regulars as to which is the best movie ever. Many suggest that the first two positions must be pre occupied by the first two parts of The Godfather whereas a large section believes that The Dark Knight is the best. Not so long ago a section started believing that The Shawshank Redemption is the best ever. They could justify it and they won. It is currently atop the prestigious IMDB top 250 list. And tell you what, it truly deserves to be there.

This is a small movie which apparently has nothing extravagant happening. A man Andy Dufresne (Robbins) is sentenced life imprisonment on charges of murdering his wife and her lover. His time in the prison forms the theme of the movie. On the other hand, Ellis Boyd(Freeman), better known as Red, has spent a long time in Shawshank prison and is a well known figure in there as h the convicts depend on him for smuggling in cigarretes, beer and other daily requirements.

The Shawshank Redemption starts off pretty nicely and as you go ahead watching it you cannot really figure out where the story is heading. But with brilliant performances, excellent screenplay and the best ever dialogues in any cinema and Darabont's careful direction, this movie keeps you pretty gripped.

As you keep approaching the end of this movie you slowly start realising whatever you felt was unnecessary or unimportant in the initial narration turns out to be marvellous machinery for the tale to entirely twist or rather jump to an unimaginable high. The beautifully crafted end portions makes The Shawshank Redemption possess one of the best ever climax in the history of cinema. Redemption means Salvation. The story mystically revolves around this word. BBC has got a list of 100 movies you should watch before you die. If I had made such a list, The Shawshank Redemption would be topping it. "Fear can hold you prisoner," reads on of the promotional taglines of this movie and it beautifully captures the essence of the movie. It would be incomplete if I do not mention the other part in that tagline. It says, "Hope can set you free!"

CRUISED ON PRETTY NICELY!

2009-03-02T05:22:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Valkyrie(2009)
CAST: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson
DIRECTOR: Bryan Singer

Cinema is a strange thing. We at times feel it should portray reality and at times fantasy. When cinemas based on real stories are made they have to be "cinematically" treated to make something intriguing and special. Even reality must be portrayed with a touch of fantasy(Slumdog Millionaire) and at times fantasy has to be treated with reality(The Dark Knight) so as to make it an interesting screen watch. Many have complained that Valkyrie fails cinematic expression. I disagree.

Apart from cinematic expression, one must also consider the maker's intention. Cristopher McQuirie in Valkyrie has a tale to tell which may not be as interesting as the World War II, but is based in close association to it. Tom Cruise plays Col. Stauffenberg who physically damages himself during his posting in the Tenth Panzer Division in Africa. He loses one of his eye, his right palm and also two fingers from the left hand.

Valkyrie is based on a true story of an attempt to assassinate the Feuher of Germany, Adolf Hitler. The screenplay and cinematography gets stronger as the story unfolds and reaches its best in the last stages. Stauffenberg associates himself with an organisation within the German Military which finds numerous ways to assassinate Hitler. Their motto is to initiate a revolutionary movement called Operation Valkyrie after the assasination of Hitler.

Hitler is a word which is today synonymous to treachery and oppression. But many historians believe he was nothing more than an eccentric disciplinarian. He was eccentric as he maddened himself with an idea of ruling the world and proving the Germans to be a superior race. He was a disciplinarian as he single handedly could resonate his idea onto a whole efficient department called Germany. His discipline could win him the world, what ruined him was his madness!

The story is not at all anticlimactic as many sections are believing and writing. The maker tells you a story and supports it with one of the best screenplays I have seen from quite sometime. The problem with Tom Cruise has been his star image. Tom Cruise the star has become much bigger than Tom Cruise the actor. People are more interested in knowing what is his status with Holmes or whether he still believes in Scientology rather than appreciating his cinematic performances. Without a doubt, Tom Cruise is one of the very bests in the world who can balance stardom and performances.

I would conclude with one of the best dialogues in the movie when Tom Cruise looks at a picture of Hitler and says, "Its time for this picture to unhung, and the man to be hung."

TASTE THIS THUNDER!

2009-03-02T03:52:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Tropic Thunder(2008)
CAST: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Tom Cruise
DIRECTOR: Ben Stiller

The lead is played by Ben Stiller who plays a falling superstar Tugg Speedman. He is also credited for the direction and screenplay of this movie. Tropic Thunder is about a movie being filmed called Tropic Thunder and is a thunder of comedy. This movie which happens to be a spoof of numerous Hollywood movies is much more than just a spoof. It very beautifully captures the comedy of the serious hollywood war movies. Robert Downey Jr, plays superstar Kirk Lazarus.Downey was nominated in the supporting actor category in the Academy awards for this role. Jack Black is Jeff Portnoy. Along with them two more upcomming stars are shooting for a war movie called Tropic Thunder. I would not like to reveal much about the movie as the beauty lies in watching it and not narrating it. I assure you if you are a hollywood regular, you are going to laugh it out.

Tom Cruise plays a studio head and plays a fascinating cameo gripping the audience with his never before seen look and fascinating usage of the F word. So these actors are working on this high budget movie based on a book written by a brave fighter of the Vietnam war. In this pursuit, they go through hardship, anxiety, disgust, fear and we, the audience go through storms of humor.

The movie also showcases the importance of the Oscar awards in the life of the Hollywood stars. How struggling actors "scorching" in the heat of failure regain their importance in the industry by "simply jacking" an Oscar is beautifully expressed. Tropic Thunder seems to be a comedy but infact it speaks the truth of the Hollywood industry to a great extent. It ends with a rare solo hip shaking number where you can see Tom Cruise do some highly entertaining things. The make up in this movie was brilliant too. You wont recognise Robert Downey Jr, if the director wouldnt have shown his two looks. The performance by both Downey and Ben Stiller deserve acolades. For me Stiller leaves a more promising mark, may be thats because he is the director of this comic thunder!

DELI-BERATELY SPOILED

2009-02-20T03:40:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Delhi 6

DIRECTOR: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

CAST: Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and others

The Raam Leela is one of the grandest celebrations in India, especially in the Hindi heartland. The deep purpose behind enacting the Raam Leela is that the Tulsidas version of the Ramayana has great social messages and is good for the constructing of an ideal society. Sadly, in most parts of the Hindi heartland, the Raam Leela is just an event of social gathering and of highlighting social Tashan rather than actually learning something from the epic drama. This point has been captured in Delhi 6, and the story tries to run parallel to the Raam Leela comparing the evils then and evils now, the incidents then and the incidents now, but fails to continue it after a point.

The movie lacked conviction of thoughts. Anyone who watches the movie can understand the makers intention but cannot see it happening on screen. That is where Delhi 6 fails miserably. Abhishek Bachchan is a half hindu-half muslim who returns from America to Delhi along with his grandmom. The depiction of his character’s whereabouts is vague like most of the other characters in the movie. He has just come to drop his grandmom home and would go back to USA until he finds his roots here.

Sonam Kapoor is the typical Delhi girl. High dreams, high thinking, but supressed under old thoughts of elders. She does not have much to do in the movie other than falling in love with the protagonist and then attempting an elope to Mumbai. And the love story is another aspect which is mysteriously unexplained.

Mehra moves from topic to topic, character to character, trying too hard to prove something and sadly he ended up proving nothing. In this long pursuit to prove something he picks up issues like corrupt police, caste system, Hindu Muslim Rivalry, fighting brothers, superstition, lack of knowledge of common people, media menace and the list goes on…..but he deals with neither of them with conviction. And all these events become a discrete and random arrangement of scenes rather than a movie.

The first half is more like a music video compilation of Rehman’s good enough songs which do not contribute much to the basic plot. In the second half you realise there is no basic plot. As I told earlier, Mehra has tried too hard to prove a point and in that pursuit he has used many characters and none of them got their due respect(screen time) in this movie. Waheeda Rehman plays Abhishek's grandmom, Rishi Kapoor plays an uncle, Prem Chopra a moneylender jeweller, Divya Dutta plays a lower caste kachrewaali, Atul Kulkarni just roams around doing nothing, Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra play the fighting brothers, Supriya Pathak plays Om Puri’s wife, Vijay Raaz plays a corrupt cop, Cyrus Sahukar plays an immoral photographer, and so on…..

After the Raam Leela analogy got exhausted, Mehra shifts his tale to the Monkeyman menace which you might have heard of on TV. The common people call it a Kaala Bandar and end up thinking that Abhishek is the Kaala Bandar. The movie tries to be many things, but ends up being trash and a completely haphazard arrangement of sensitive tales.

I had gone to a relatively cheap single screen theatre, Plaza. The crowd there was not very great either. After the movie got over, a bunch of desi dudes started teasing each other saying, “Aila, kaala bandar, tu kaala bandar…” Sad it is, but truly speaking, this is what Mehra and his Delhi 6 deserve…

HERE'S A MAN

2009-02-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Iron Man (2008)
CAST: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Faran Tahir
DIRECTOR: John Favreu
RATING:

Downey plays a genius of robotic engineering who also is a genius at coming up with pick up lines which tickle any female onto his bed. He is Tony Stark, the genius who with his amazing engineering skills has revolutionized weapon making and his incorporation, Stark Industries does it for the good of mankind and the good of America. Amidst all the girls who have one night stands with him, stands firmly his secretary, Pepper Pots(Paltrow), who shares a rather special relationship with Stark. The dynamics of the portrayal of this relationship is the high point of the movie.

Downey goes to Afghanistan to demonstrate a new missile he has invented to the US troops out there. As always, the writer has been too pro-American in the writing and the story has been politically very correct with respect to America, which often means that it is a deviation from the realities. It is something like the Golden Globe sensation, Slumdog Millionaire; no Indian can isprove that such things don't happen, but no American can prove that such things happen either!!

That apart, Stark is abducted by an Afghan terrorist group where he is asked to make the same missile for them. The movie goes on to reveal that the second incommand to Stark, Obadiah Stane is a traitor and supplies Stark Industries weapons to these terrorists. It is unclear as to why the terrorists chose to abduct Stark instead of using Stane to supply them the missile they wanted.

Stark in the pretext of making them the missile, makes a computer operated iron suite which he uses to fight out the terrorists and makes an escape. Later on he develops this suite to become , Iron Man.

The special effects in this movie are superior to The Dark Knight and are without a doubt one of the all time bests. Apart from the screenplay and the direction, its more of Downey's cheesy acting which keeps an audience gripped. The background score is appropriately good and keeps up the momentum of the movie.

I always have believed that the scope in making a superhero movie is tremendous. It just requires a good imaginative writer and a rich producer who has faith in the writer's imagination. Iron Man seems to have both. This movie was more of the Birth of Iron Man, and the sequel has been announced for 2010. All I can say is, Robert Downey, we are waiting for the Iron packed experience.....

BILLU WAS BHAYANKAR

2009-02-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

FILM: Billu
DIRECTOR: Priyadarshan
CAST: Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Shahrukh Khan
RATING:

Self obsession has been a term much associated with SRK and this movie is a true example of this associated trait. I am pretty sure that the person who will enjoy this movie the most in the world is SRK himself. And that is because he has so far, in his numerous roles, played what the public loves him to transform into. But here in Billu he plays what he likes himself to be; a super-superstar with loads of attention, power and fan following along with modesty, humility and morality. His self obsession, as I said, is clearly reflected in this movie and the fact that he is the producer himself, he has left no stone unturned to promote and celebrate himself. Sadly, the whole movie is more like a self celebration rather than a movie itself. The song Ae Aa O, though a treat for SRK lovers as it takes you through a journey of his lustrous career, is a proof of this self celebration.

The story is based in a fictional village called Budbuda. Billu is a barber(should I use the word?) in this village and is not a very successful one at that. Lot of controversy was created about the fact that the word "barber" must be removed from the movie and stuff, but the true fact is that his being a barber had nothing much to do with the plot at all. It had no real relevance if he was not a barber but a doodhwaala. SRK plays Saahir Khan who choses Budbuda to shoot the climax of his latest movie. It is not clear why. Anyways, with the entry of Saahir in the village, the village lightens up and its like a festival all over Budbuda. These moments of the public excitement have been well captured by the director and can be considered as the high point of the movie.

Now a village rumour spreads like fire that Billu and Saahir are long time friends. This rumour and its spreading has a huge effect on Billu's life and causes him lots of problems. A frugal money lender wants Billu to arrange a lunch with him and Saahir. A flop kavi wants him to bring Saahir to read his poems. Billu's children want him to take them to Saahir and the school principal wants Saahir to come to their school for their Annual Day.

Most of the shooting which was shown in the village were things which could have been much more easily shot in a city studio or a set. And if you want little trees and open land and a village scene you can always shoot in Karjat rather than travel all the way to the Hindi heartland. These basic flaws question the plot of the movie heavily. The non stop appearance of music videos makes the movie loud and noisy and that too unnecessarily.

Also amidst the self celebration of SRK, Irrfan's strong portrayal of Billu gets faded. With a weak second half, there is no beauty left in the climax also. If you follow Priyan's work you would find that all his movies have a strong initial plot and along with that he has an end in his mind. To bring that initial plot to the climax, he twists the tale to all possible means and spoils the show in the end. Flicks like Chupke Chupke and Malaamal Weekly are great examples of this. Unfortunately, Billu will also be known as such a movie. SRK's shoulder has to get operated on the 16th and the success of Billu would have been the best pain killer for him. While I cannot assure that it would be the case, I also pray that he gets well soon and starts making litte more meaningful cinema.

A ROCKING EMOSANAL ATYACHAAR!!!

2009-02-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

FILM: Dev.D
DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap
CAST: Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin
RATING:

"A characterless loser" describes the character of Devdas best in Sarat Chandra's 1917 novel. Yet he has been played by the best Indian actors numerous times in big budget films. Most of the films did not really tamper the essence of the ethnic backdrop in the original story, but yes, they did change a little of the story to accomodate it as a commercial cinema. The best example of this being Paro and Chandramukhi dancing together for Dola Re in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's version...

This movie is not based in 1917. This is a new age sexed up version of the Devdas. The story is very similar to the original though but the elements have been inspired by flicks like Requiem Of A Dream and Trainspotting. Anurag Kashyap's No Smoking was a pain in the head for most because at the end of two hours, no one knew what was going on. But No Smoking is a brilliant movie and so is Kashyap's latest, Dev.D

Mahie plays Paro. She likes Dev(Abhay Deol) from childhood. Dev is now in London and is in touch with Paro through internet chats. One day Dev asks Paro to upload a naked picture of hers. She does it. Dev reacts to this sight by instantly hitting out a vodka shot and tells her on phone, "Paro, I am coming!!"

Kalki plays Leni. Leni is a school girl whose MMS scandal ruins her life and in pursuit of little space in life, she comes down to A-grade prostitution in Delhi. During the sequencing of these two stories of Paro and Leni (who becomes Chandramukhi in her trade), the story line touches many realities which exist in today's world. It seems little unreal when the people on the screen have only sex on their mind. But the truth is, for some people, it is true...

Kashyap's screenplay and direction comes as a charm and makes the movie intriguing. What makes it further intriguing is Rajeev Ravi's cinematography filled with expressive and appropriate shades making each still a photographic wonder. And finally, what makes it the most intriguing is Amit Trivedi's music and background score. There are 18 songs in this movie and all belong to a genre, not ventured much by any Indian music director.

The best and defiining track still remains Emosanal Atyachaar and the movie is really an emotional opression the way it has been crafted. I have always said that a movie is successful if it can make you feel you are a part of it. Nolan's Memento is one great example of this feat. And yes, Dev.D is another. The screenplay, direction, cinematography and the background score and not to forget the brilliant acting by mostly new faces and artistes from stage, takes you to the world of Dev. After a long time, may be as long since I saw Godfather, I have been left with no scope to cut a mark. This flick, if taken in the correct "spirit" is one of the best Indian cinema ever. No wonder Nikhat gave it a 5/5!

What I am prompted to do after this movie, is make a documentary titled The Evolution of Deol Little. From Manorama Six Feet Under to Oye Lucky Lucky Oye to Dev.D, Abhay has proved that he is the best Deol and smartest as well. He knew he would fail if he followed his father's or his brothers' footsteps. He has made his own way, his own fan following and yes, I am his fan too!! And I am a bigger fan after knowing that he is the man behind this weird concept of the film.

In one of the scenes Dev asks Leni, "How old are you?" She replies,"Old enough to be in bed with you." Sex surely is a cocktail; very attractive and very intoxicating as well. This film wins because, though sexed up, it has got heart in it. It has got lust, but somewhere you can find love and truth in here. One best example of heart is when Paro after married to someone else tells Dev, " You are incapable of loving someone else. You are so much into you that you love only yourself. I suggest you marry this mirror over here. Even the bathroom's mirror would do!"

OYE!! ITS GREAT!!

2009-01-31T04:12:00.001-08:00

MOVIE: Luck By Chance (2009)
DIRECTOR: Zoya Akhtar
CAST: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Isha Sharvani
RATING:

Theres nothing like a January blockbuster. Mostly in Bollywood it is seen that after a star studded Diwali followed by a even more star studded and packed theatres December, January is termed by producers as thanda and a time when people chose to get back to work rather than chew popcorns in front of Bolly dramas. This trend seems to have changed since last year. Jodha Akbar was a great film and a super hit having run over 100 days and had released on 15 January in a period when the superhit Taare Zameen Par was about to get Tax Free. This year people were expecting Akshay Kumar's Chandni Chowk to China to continue the dream run after his senseless tales like Welcome and Singh is Kinng accumulated lot of wealth for his distributors.
But we all know what has happened to CC2C (no one wants to C).

Luck By Chance released on 30th and has had a poor opening according to my sources in Cinemax Sion and Imax Wadala. But after great reviews in the morning newspapers, including a rare four star from Mayank Shekhar, the bookings have picked up. Still to conclude if its a hit, the distributors need time. I dont know if LBC would give solace to the distributors but to movie lovers it will. After no brainer entertainers have grossed 235 crores internationally, this seems to be the first this year which has got some brain element in it.

Coming to the film now, LBC is a creative delight, an artistic wonder and paradise for the viewers. The movie fades in beautifully with a light track Yeh Zindagi Bhi and the video deals with the sidelines of the glamour world. And then as the story proceeds you feel its Sona Mishra's (Konkana Sen Sharma) story. But as soon as the husky voiced, quick humoured, smart and dashing Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan Akhtar) makes an appearance the story shifts into being his. Both Sona and Vikram are struggling actors and its "by chance" that they get to meet. They fall in love but nothing great happens to their carrer.

Rishi Kapoor plays(excellently) Romi Rolly an eccentric producer and Juhi Chawla plays his wife. Juhi did not have a big role but she did well. Rolly is making a film Dil Ki Aag which is directed by his brother played by Sanjay Kapoor. Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) is the lead along with heroine Niki Walia(Isha Sharvani, sweet and sexy) who is the daughter of yesteryear superstar Neena Walia played marvellously by one of my favourites; Dimple Kapadia. I often say to myself looking at the mirror, "I have got two dimples!"

LBC takes you through a journey of struggle, success, selfishness, ungratefulness, compulsions, friendship and enemity which exists in every layer of Bollywood; be it strugglers like Vikram or be it the producers like Rolly. It tells us that every piece of cake is made of the same cream, its just that the higher you are, the more known you and your layer is. I wouldn't divulge much of the story nor would I tell you about the guest appearances in the story, these are things which you should yourself find out and enjoy.

With amazing performances, especially by Farhan and Konkona, this movie is surely the best one I have seen from a long time. It is slow paced but not long, it has got the necessary entertainment and it has got energy and comedy, but all that is just the cherry over the beautiful cake of performances. It does resemble Fashion or may be Om Shanti Om to some extent, but Zoya Akhtar's matured direction gives LBC a place, quite high, in the shelf of Bollywood classics! Go for this one!

A SURE WINNER, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

2009-01-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Slumdog Millionaire
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
CAST: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Khedekar
RATING:

Irrfan Khan gave a statement some days back, "This film will surely win the Oscars. There is a formula required to win the Oscars and this one has it." I promptly wondered what this formula is. Movies like Titanic and Lord of The Rings which were real sensations at the Oscars in the past got there because of a strong and innovative story line, backed by brilliant performances and excellent cinematography. But when it comes to India, though India has produced some gems in the past five years, Oscar has been a rare arena. Rang De Basanti a true winner on any front, failed to even qualify for the award . May be it was because no one wants to see the affluent, young and dynamic India create revolution or a historical backdrop which does not praise Gandhi. Many say that the west wants to see an India of poverty, a third world India and human emotions attached with their struggle to rise up from the third world conditions. That is I suppose the reason why Gowariker's Lagaan and not Swades was a winner. They thought that a Bollywood superstar wearing torn clothes and struggling for his pre-independence village playing cricket was more of an Oscar material rather than a dynamic Indian working in "their" NASA chosing to live in and for India was. I have many foreigner friends and whenever I ask them about what they know about India, they promptly talk about the Taj Mahal and then about the Indian slums. No wonder, having both these elements plus a white director, Slumdog Millionaire is a winner! Thats the formula Irrfan was talking about.

But saying all this does not take the credit away from this amazing cinema. The story line is unique and is guided by amazing performances and beautiful direction. But I am unsure of who did the majority of the direction. The locations of the movie are such that only an Indian, i.e, Loveleen Tandon (Asst Director) could manage the momentum of the movie efficiently. A westerner would have "boiled" in the summer heat of Mumbai. Let the controversies go their way, but I appreciate Tandon for her amazing casting.

So our protagonist, Jamal Malik, is one question away from winning 20 million rupees in Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Anil Kapoor is the host of the show and is a grey character and his grey shades are unexplained. But he gives an amazing performance, especially with his expressions in the Jack Hobbs question. So how does Jamal Malik, a slumdog, a chaiwallah at a call centre get to participate in a show of this magnitude. And then after participating, how does he go on to win millions. Apart from these two questions, the movie has dealt with an amazing third question and that is, why does he come to the show? Thats something related to his love interest, Latika best portrayed by Freida Pinto. The character of Jamal, though excellently played by Dev Patel, Ayush Khedekar who plays the youngest Jamal leaves a permanent mark in the viewer's heart with a strong performance at such a young age.

If Jai Ho would have been a track from Ghajini or Yuvraj, it would be a two week temptation in the Indian radio. For a composer who has given greats like Roja, Dil Se, Taal, Lagaan, Jodha Akbar and numerous other albums, Jai Ho is a nothing track. If Jai Ho gets a Golden Globe even Shano Shano or Chhaiyan Chhaiyan should get one!! But the background score is really appropriate and peppy. Tracks like Paper Planes and Liquid Dance are really innovative and serve as an excellent background score. Ringa Ringa sounds more like Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai, but it is appropriate given the "Aye Saab" backdrop.

The movie claims to deal with the reality of the Indian dark lanes. It successfully does so. But what does not get digested in an Indian stomach is the fact that slum dwellers speak fluent British English and still work as prostitutes, call centre chaiwallahs, etc. The reason that this movie is made in English spoils the reality in a major section. This I accept was a compulsion to Boyle but it does damage the premise to a good extent. What keeps you at the edge of your seats is the screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and beautiful camera work and cinematography.

As Shah Rukh Khan said in his speech at the Golden Globes, "It is much more than a rags to riches tale." Its true. Slumdog Millionaire is much beyond the arguments of showing India in poor light or a guy chasing his love and ending up as a millionaire. The whole drama could have been based somewhere else, but the lustre of emotions and drama, that was successfully built, could be achieved only in the slums of Mumbai. This is because the slums of Mumbai are not only slums but a portrayal of a compact life, a symbol of cooperation and happiness amidst poverty, unhappiness and a corrupt system. Slumdog, though deals with a different topic, beautifully touches these delicate aspects, without hurting the Indian sentiments, as many are saying, may be because a Gowariker or Karan Johar did not make a Slumdog Millionaire.....

ENTER THE THEATRE IN HALF TIME

2009-01-17T20:31:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Chandni Chowk to China (2009)
DIRECTOR: Nikhil Advani
CAST: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shourie, Mithun Chakraborty
RATING:

A channel which was in the morning showing the making of CC2C and talking of the superpower of Akshay Kumar, ran its evening edition bashing the movie's no brainer script and toilet humor. Well that sums up the condition of today's world of marketing. Chandni Chowk to China is not all that unbearable and bad a movie but it certainly is not good either.

The first half is full of impossible events, randomly colliding with each other and making you realise that the writers haven't done a job here. The events are not really funny and are kind of maddening. Whenever the dialogue writer realised that little more humour was to be induced in a certain situation, he made Akshay Kumar get hit and scream hard that he got hit on his lemons. Well a movie with a U rating should seriously not have such humour. But as soon as the first half gets over, you first rush out of the theatre to take a break and then come back(Well many did not come back).

Akshay Kumar plays Sidhu, a guy who lives in the Parathe Waali Gali in Chandni Chowk, Delhi 6. He is a "apshaguni" to people around him and spoils their luck by being around. He is an orphan who had been taken care of by his bhojpuri Dada played with relative excellence by Mithun. Ranvir Shourie plays a Guruji. Meanwhile in China, there is menance created by a villain called Hojo.

Prophecy says that to destroy Hojo would reborn Liu Shang, a mighty hero who fought for his motherland on the Great Wall of China. Liu would reborn in India, the land where Buddha was born. Circumstances make them believe that Sidhu was the reincarnation of the warrior. From there starts the journey of Sidhu to go on a mission against Hojo.

The second half proceeds with a rather good pace and you feel yes there is a story here. Deepika Padukone plays a double role here, the same old lost sisters in different countries. The movie is not all that bad I tell you. It certainly isn't a classic and it certainly isn't a must watch but its not that you disrespect the makers by leaving in half time.

The high point about the movie I believe was the title track sequence. I am smitten by the music video of the song as it covers the three generations of Chinese culture with relatively good coreography and great music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy.

I also add that the scope of the project was tremendous. This could have gone on to be a classic as the concept of bringing in a union or clash of two great civilizations was unique. Indian cinema hardly gets a unique script and the irony is that even after we have something unique and also we have producers like Warner Bros and Ramesh Sippy, we still couldn't create meaningful cinema. Keep Trying Nikhil, dont think Kal Ho Na Ho, kal zaroor hoga!!

GRUDGE NAHI,BUT MEMORABLE BHI NAHI

2008-12-29T07:57:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Ghajini
CAST: Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan
DIRECTOR: AR Murugadoss

Shah Rukh Khan recently told in a press conference that he felt special every time someone used him as a brand to get publicity. He also added that it was unfortunate that he could not use anyone else for this as there was no brand bigger than him. Well we all know that someone is Aamir Khan. In one of the scenes in Ghajini he makes fun of Shah Rukh by making fun of the Ruk Ruk Khan of Kya Aap Panchvi Fail Champu Hain fame. Truly, Aamir knows to use the biggest brand in India greatly to his favour. The business his adaptation of Memento has made in few days is much more overwhelming than what Aditya Chopra's return has!

After the Oscar nomination of Lagaan. Aamir Khan has neglected mainstream Bollywood cinema. He has rather brought good, art film type scripts into mainstream cinema and has been away from the typical dance hero villain drama. The pathetic YRF Fanaa was an exception though. Ghajini is more than three hours of pure masala. Aamir Khan returns to the mainstream with this flick.

The title Singhania is somehow synonymous to very rich and powerful as far as Bollywood is concerned. Countless flicks name the rich guy as some Singhania. Ghajini carries this trend and names Aamir as a Sanjay Singhania. He has lost his wife Kalpana, played by Asin. Asin is no doubt awesome. Her screen presence was of unmatched charm and she has overplayed the others pretty easily in this movie. No wonder why Murugaddos cut short Jiah Khan's only song Lattoo.

Circumstances lead to a condition when Sanjay is hit by an iron rod when he comes to save Kalpana from a goon called Ghajini played by the Ashwatthama of the Mahabharata(Pradeep Rawat). He goes into a mental state when he cannot make new memories. Forgets things in say fifteen minutes. This movie is not Memento though. It has got a much wider canvas and story line. Only the mechanism of remembering things is like Memento(infact better). Aamir Khan has done a moderate job as an actor while depicting the patient. He has overacted at times(reminded me of Himesh in Aapka Suroor) and at times has been very comic with his serious look. His lip sync was not correct most of the times too, so important to get it right in Bollywood musicals.

The unwanted close ups, the fast forward action and the very poor background score made the action scenes of this action based movie truly pathetic. It was highly highly tamilised . I am an ardent fan of Tamil movies but I do not aproove to the Rajnikanth ways of action. This movie was not like Rajni's style, it was relatively real, but not really believable and not really nouvelle.

Jiah Khan is not a good actress. She was the low point of the movie. Though she did not have a great role but she did not give a great performance either. So thumbs down to her. Asin on the other hand as I mentioned had a great charming quotient. She was fabulous with her acting too. Truly speaking I enjoyed only those parts in which she was there, that is to say the love story part. Neither did I like the action sequences nor did I enjoy Aamir Khan's eight pack and his animalistic behaviour supported by his moderate acting. The love story was very sweet. That is something for which Ghajini is watchable to be frank.

The movie can be best described as a good Tamil movie made in Hindi. The directional approach is very much south Indian. That is difficult to digest for a Bollywood buff like me. Though I enjoy watching Tamil and Telegu movies, but I would not like my Bolly masala movies to lose their style of narration. Unwanted song sequences, over dramatic acting and direction and not really catchy dialogues(unlike Memento where the dialogues are the reason of its greatness). The movie has a runtime of more than three hours and for the look of Asin you can skip some evening agenda and have a taste of this masala and shout aloud in the theatre, "What a scene, Asin!"

CAN YOU CHANGE DESTINY?

2008-12-26T07:01:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: If Only
DIRECTOR:Gil Junger
CAST: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Paul Nicholls

In Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, better known as a Bollywood disaster, half of the movie is spent out showing what the lead actors were bluffing about. Talking about scenarios and people who never existed and talking about such things which did not have anything much to do with what followed. In Junger's If Only half of the movie is spent in a dream sequence. But this is the very basis and foundation of the movie. Ian Wyndham, played by Nicholls, wakes up in the morning with his girlfriend Samantha Andrews played by Hewitt. He goes through a day where he is not an ideal lover. He does not know what his girlfriend likes. May be he is caring and really loves her but does not actually know her.

He does not know whether she has a red sweater, he does not know the importance of the graduation concert she has this evening(infact he doesnt know if she has a concert). He does not realise the love that a small student of her has for her. But he loves her and cannot lose her. But he does. And with that he realises it was a dream.

The day which we were talking about has actually begun now. He spots an uncanny similarity between the two days and observes that things which happened in the dream are recurring in his actual day. The sequence and the style and the outcomes are slightly different but they do happen. He is now afraid as he knows the outcome of the day. He is going to lose her. With that fear that its his last day with her, Junger shows a massive change in the man. He loved her more than what he ever did on that day.

This movie may be a sweet one time watch but it raises a question deep inside us. A question regarding destiny. Can we really know what will happen? Can we really change what is to happen? Can we exactly know what is going to happen or can we just reach upto certain possibilities which are probable to happen. These are not only questions of philosophy but also nowadays of Metaphysics. Though an action masala movie like Krrish is just considered a time pass watch, it too raises such a question about time. Will tell that in detail some other time.

This though is not exactly what the story stresses upon. The story stresses about the change which was brought about in the life of the guy. Ian knows he will lose Samantha if he behaved the same way he did in his dream. So he behaves in a much more caring and nice way than his dream to undo what happens in his dream. He not only remembers her concert but makes it special for her. That is undoubtedly the best scene of the movie. Also the bracelet scene is something very romantic and something to die for.

Ian wanted to change the outcome of the day. So he changed himself. By changing his behaviour, he changes everything, everything indeed.

This one is dedicated to my best friend Malay. He loves this movie. I love it too.

DONT FORGET THIS ONE

2008-12-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

FILM: Memento
CAST: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
WRITER: Jonathan Nolan

While the whole of India right now is more than geared up for the Christmas release of the Aamir Khan's Ghajini, I would like to introduce you to Memento, the original version of Ghajini. I went through the newspapers today that the film may not release on Christmas due to problems of copyright with reference to its Tamil predecessor. My reaction to it was, what the hell! Both are bloody lifted stuff from Nolan's masterpiece(I mention both Christopher and Jonathan here). What are they fighting over? May be they are fighting over who is a more original duplicate!!

Cristopher Nolan has got a very different narrative style in any of his movies barring the The Dark Knight and Batman Begins which followed linear narration. Otherwise he follows a very non linear pattern of narration. For example he puts a scene from the end in the beginning and jumbles it up by narrating past and present together. This was I think best done in The Prestige.
Here in Memento he follows a pattern not ventured much into; Reverse Chronology. It means that the movie starts from the end of the story and ends at the beginning!

Leonard played by Pearce is the male lead here. His wife was raped and murdered by some John G. And during that incident he hit his head badly and damaged his brain to step into a very strange mental disease. He did not forget everything. He just could not make new memories. A similar case was shown in the Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler starrer 50 First Dates.

Leonard, also called Lenny had vengeance in him. He wanted to find whosoever John G was. He being previously an investigator started investigating himself again with this condition. For this he created a very disciplined and bizzare mechanism. He tattooed vital information about the killer on his body (He does not have an eight pack, thats more realistic). He always had a Polaroid camera with him which would instantly give him the picture of the person he just met. He would write down vital information about the person then and there and refer to it again when he lost his memory again.

Natalie played by Moss, is a bartender who gets involved in this case too, somehow. She has an interesting dialogue to Leonard. Is that what your little note says? It must be hard living your life off a couple of scraps of paper. You mix your laundry list with your grocery list you'll end up eating your underwear for breakfast.

Also a vital character in the movie is played by Pantoliano. I think he has done the finest job in the movie. He plays the killer. He is John G, disguising himself as Teddy, the cop. He tries to deviate Lenny from his investigation. Lenny having realised that long back had scribbled in his notes: Dont Believe his Lies.

Considered as one of the best movies of all time(ranked 27 currently in IMDB's top 250), Memento surely is a great one to watch. But there are some vital flaws in the movie. For example if he remembers only till he was hit on his head, how can he know that he doesnt remember anything and that he has a condition which is not amnesia. Simply speaking, how can he know that he doesnt know anything. On similar lines, how does he remember his photograph mechanism. Everytime he cannot remember, how does he know that he has to look for the photographs? I believe these are big enough flaws as it questions the basis of the whole drama.

Performances cannot be questioned though. Nolan chooses the best in the business. The dialogues are something which are the best aspect of the movie: keeps you intriguing and blends, rather enhances the whole drama beautifully. The best dialogue for me was when Lenny tells Natalie that wounds heal when you have time with you, how could his wounds heal when he doesnt feel time at all!

Many might say that the Reverse Chronology pattern was made to create something interesting in a rather predictable plot. True. But there is more to it I believe. The normal human brain is trained to see things from A to Z. But when you are moving from Z to A, you still would anticipate a Q after P. But if you are shown an O after P, you are confused and you actually forget something which happened around. This master idea of psychology was exploited by Nolan to give the audience an experience of memory loss as well while watching the movie based on short term memory! This fact makes this movie one of the bests in the world.

The last dialogue of the movie is when Lenny comes to a tattoo shop for the first time(remember the movie is going reverse), he says, "I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different."

HE'S QUITE ENGAGING, SHE'S OTHERWISE ENGAGED!!!

2008-12-23T20:12:00.001-08:00

MOVIE: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

CAST: Hugh Grant, Andie McDowell

DIRECTOR: Mike Newell

WRITER: Richard Kutis

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is the movie which comes in my mind whenever I talk of this British classic. Though the story line and characters are entirely different, there are uncanny similarities in the two classics. DDLJ is India's longest running and top grossing movie and Four Weddings.... is the UK top grosser of all time(recently replaced by some other). Both these classics released around the same time(DDLJ released in 1995). With DDLJ, Shah Rukh Khan became a house hold commodity and eternal lover boy. Same was the case with Hugh Grant after Four Weddings......Also, Dulhaniya in hindi means the bride and it has got something to do with "weddings"!

The thing I love about British movies, be it Notting Hill or be it Love Actually, is that they reflect the Britain blood through the movies. Even though highly romantic, these movies are somewhere patriotic as well. Well patriotism for the British seems to be passing some sarcastic remarks on the development of Americans. The shades of that can be seen here too. Our female protagonist, Carrie, played by Andie McDowell is an American. And as I told you, America has been shown in poor light as her character is somewhat like a "playgirl".

In the first wedding ofcourse where our male lead, Charles played by Grant, meets Carrie and it is something like a love at first sight situation. Carrie gives him positive vibes and they end up sleeping with each other the first night they met.

What is to be loved about this movie is the cinematography. The portrayal of England is so delightful. The four wedding scenes and the funeral scene are shot with utmost sincerity and the intelligent and apt dialogues make things very very realistic.

In the second wedding, Charles is overwhelmed to see Carrie. But all his excitement fizzes out when she introduces him to her fiance. She was engaged! The movie henceforth takes brilliant turns and is pretty entertaining to watch. Four Weddings and a Funeral apart from being a top grosser, has two oscar nominations along with 23 other wins and 14 nominations in its kitty. Its a nice little film which because of its simplicity of grandeur made its way into the people's hearts.

Talking about performances, Hugh Grant is one of my favourites. He has given classics like Notting Hill, Love Actually and ofcourse the recent blockbuster Music and Lyrics. He is the binding factor of this movie and his presence on the screen is nothing but pure charm. To be honest I did not like the casting of the female lead, Andie McDowell. I do not thing she was apt for the role of a seductress or a charmer rather. I think someone who possesed a more feminine face should have been chosen for the role.

Kristin Scott Thomas, who played Charles' best friend, Fiona was the one who impressed me by both acting and looks. Everybody else gave fine performances to make the movie really intriguing. The climax obviously is that Charles gets Carrie. But I believe that the direction failed to create a public sentiment for Carrie(may be it did for the British public). She was always portrayed as a "slut" and you never feel that Charles should go for her. Sentiments rather create a desire that he should go for Fiona. That I beleive is a major shortcoming of the movie.

In good Bollywood movies(like DDLJ), this anticipation is marvellously crafted. The drama which is built up gets unbelievable at times but nevertheless keeps a person at the edge of the seat and a great public desire is created so that Raj gets Simran! Four Weddings..... missed out on that. Otherwise if you are free on a saturday evening looking for a classic to watch this one should be a good enough choice.

OYE LUCKY CHAMAK GAYA TU!!!

2008-12-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

FILM: Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
DIRECTOR: Dibakar Banerjee
CAST: Paresh Rawal, Abhay Deol, Neetu Chandra

In the world of stage acting it is a very common trend that one actor plays more than one unrelated or related characters. Its a common thing in cinema that father and son being played by the same actor, like Amitabh Bachchan did best in Aakhri Raasta. But in Bollywood its rarely seen that one actor plays two or more characters who are not at all related. Paresh Rawal plays three unrelated characters here. Some might term this as a producer's style of reducing budgets but considering the producer is as liberal as Ronnie Screwala from UTV it can be given more of an artistic explanation. By playing three different characters, Rawal not only brings in additional comedy but also proves his versatality. But thats not it. There is something more to it as I will explain later.

Our male protagonist is Lucky, played brilliantly in his career best performance by Abhay Deol. I always thought that he is better than his father and brothers when it comes to performances. Lucky is a street smart(actually much more than that) guy with an unimaginably high amount of optimism. Along with that optimism he has got an intelligent mind to achieve what his high optimism has made him dream of. The movie shows a young lucky of 15 years to start with. Paresh Rawal is the agressive and "beat the child" kind of Punjabi father. The 15 year old Lucky is impressively played by Manjot Singh. Situations around young Lucky force him to take wild steps to achieve the smallest of wishes he has. So from then starts his bizzare and weird journey to achieve everything he wants.

Goga Bhai is a typical north Indian don: moneyed, powerful and soaked in the cheap human desires or money and lust. He is engaged in all sorts of illegal activities and is fearless as his connections range from the havaldar to the commissioner. Goga Bhai is again played by Paresh Rawal. Lucky gets to work for him and he steals for him. Under the banner of Import-Export Lucky intelligently, very intelligently, keeps making robberies one after the other and Goga Bhai is very happy with him, not until.....

Dr.Handa on the other hand is a spectacle clad veteranarian. He wants to open a restaurant. Again played by Rawal, Handa befriends Lucky and convinces him to fund his wish. His wife is played by Archana Puran Singh. They are very good to Lucky, like family, not until....

Sonal played by Neetu Chandra is Lucky's love interest. She makes a fine appearance and is of interest to Lucky as she is the only person who loves Lucky and not his money (which is all stolen). She is the only one who discourages Lucky from stealing, others encourage him, for their own good!

Amidst all these few good and most con characters, Lucky faces many victories, few defeats, betrayals and show of hatred from his family as he becomes a renowned thief. Lucky's ordeal is captured brillantly in this two hour flick by Dibakar Banerjee. Khosla Ka Ghosla his first venture was a great experience. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is a more matured direction though. His serio-comic story telling pattern is what is most impressive. Along with entertainment he supplies basic messages of life.

Coming to the fact that why has Paresh Rawal played a triple role. Its no cost cutting scheme but the reason why I love this movie even more. Rawal portrays Con and Bad. In the first part of the movie he plays a baddish father who has an extramarital affair and who harrases his children. Goga Bhai and Dr. Handa are other two forms of villains. So by making one actor do the three roles, Dibakar Banerjee has tried to show the various colours of bad. They all are bad by doing different things at different levels, but after all they are all bad. Parallely, they are Goga, Handa and Lucky's father (all villains of different degrees) but in the end they are all bad(Paresh Rawal). Thats one of the strongest messages of the movie.

Without a doubt, this has to be Paresh Rawal's life time best performance. Abhay Deol plays a masterstroke too. Everyone had a lovely role to play and everyone played it well. And it wont be an exaggeration if I rate this one as the top three movies this year along with Jodha Akbar and Its A Wednesday!

Lucky is finally caught by the officers of the Special Branch. They carry him to the local station, not until.....

A HEART WARMING DELIGHT

2008-12-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

FILM: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
DIRECTOR: Aditya Chopra
CAST: Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak

In the classic comedy Chachi 420 Kamal Hasan played a double role. One in which he looked like his normal self and the other in which he had to look like an old chachi. No one in this world could actually say that the old woman was actually Kamal Hasan. The make up was just brilliant.
Here, the two looks of SRK are pretty different from each other, but not that one cannot recognise that these are the same people. Unfortunately though in this movie, we were made to believe that the heroine did not know in whole of the movie that the two are the same! The whole movie is built up on this really weak plot and this is the biggest minus of the movie.

If somehow we ignore this mistake and rather term it as an "artistic liberty", then this movie is one of the bests this year. Our female protagonist, Taani, played by debutant Anushka Sharma and Surinder Sahni(Khan) get married under bizarre circumstances! And there begins the story as Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!

The character of Surinder is supposed to be the USP of the movie. The reflection of the common man in the gallis of Amritsar. Full shirt, grey pants, best buy sasta sport shoe , champu hairstyle, fat glasses and the moustache! Honestly though Shahrukh has sported much much costlier and trendier things, he has not looked so sexy before. This has honestly made the common man a more sexier item than ever before.

So now the chemistry between the couple is increasing. Suri is sweet and disciplined and unexpressive but very very romantic at heart. Taani was bubbly, but is trying to kill her old self and is compelling her soul for a compromise with life. Suri senses that. He doesnt want compromise. He wants love (which he in the movie pronounces as lau!!)

Now Taani loves dancing and wants to take part in a dance competition. Suri, to see her dance becomes Raj(again, Raj) with the help of his hair stylist friend Vinay Pathak who plays Bobby and as always plays it brilliantly!! He transforms the champu hairstyle into a spiky one, the loose full shirt into a tight T shirt, the grey pant to sexy faded jeans and the fat glasses to matching goggles. The rather quiet Suri is suddenly transformed into a blabber mouth Jat, Raj.

The later part of the movie is based on the beautiful lines of self vs self which I may not like to reveal. But it is pure magic what follows. Though my initial comment about the minus point in the movie might make me sound that the attention to detail was poor, but no, Adi has done a good job with it. He has canvased Amritsar very beautifully throughout and has made the movie simple and charming.

Coming to performances now. This has to be one of the best performances by Khan. He has portrayed two characters with complete ease. His expressions and mannerisms while playing Suri were the biggest plus in this performance. I dont know whether Khan gets to meet common people at length and actually observe their mannerisms but the way he has done it is really hats off to him. Anushka has shown complete ease considering its her debut. Its obviously a better debut performance than what Deepika Padukone or Sonam Kapoor might have produced. Vinay Pathak is always a charm and plays Bobby very nicely.

One observation I made was that there was a lot of borrowed maal in this movie. Dialogues from OSO and KANK were lifted and at times extended. Like the "Phir Milenge" in KANK was converted to Hum Hai Raahi Pyaar Ke, Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte. Then the song Phir Milenge reminded everyone of Om Shanti Om (lets find out whether Yash Raj cut costs by taking udhar ka used costume from Red Chillies). All this was though to induce comedy in the movie and it was successful in doing so. And if you observe SRK from top to toe, you would observe that he wears the same Tag Heuer watch he wore in Don in one of the scenes.

Though I expect a mixed response for this movie, it still will create its own space in the hearts of the poeple and the box office. It will teach and melt your heart and make you believe that there is something extraordinary in every ordinary jodi!! The moral of the story is that you can get something by being someone else, but if you want everything, you have to be yourself, howsoever you are.

THE PAIN OF MAX PAYNE

2008-11-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

FILM: Max Payne
DIRECTOR: John Moore
CAST: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis

His wife and new born baby were murdered, inside his own apartment. He couldn't save them as he arrived home ten minutes late. He wants vengeance and is soaked in pain. He is Max Payne. The movie is an adaptation of the 2001 video game which is one of the most popular games of all time. I remember, the USP of the Max Payne games used to be the story telling in between the chapters of the game. The movie follows a similar story telling pattern to narrate the story. The screenplay holds the hands of the video game style narration.

Max Payne, a DEA agent, is in search for the killers of his wife. But in this pursuit he is held guilty of two new murder cases, Natasha and his best friend Alex Balder. Mona Sax, an assasin is the sister of Natasha and wants to kill Max Payne. But soon she comes to know of his innocence and vengeance and consequently joins forces with him to look for the actual killer.

Natasha's character is played by Olga of Quantum of Solace fame who makes a guest appearance here.

Max's deceased wife, Michelle Payne, worked for a pharmaceutical company called AESIR. The scientists of this firm had invented a drug called VALKYR. This drug was meant to be a booster to provide unprecedented energy to soldiers. But it was soon realised that an overdose of this drug led to deadly hallucinations.

Slowly and slowly, Mona and Max unfold the mystery and realise that the three murders are very much interdependent. In this pursuit for vengeance Max goes through deception, unrest, struggle and pain.

Coming to performances I think Wahlberg looked stiff at times and was overdoing the character a bit. Kunis was a good choice for Mona Sax. Beau Bridges amazingly portrayed BB in the movie. One of the best performances in this movie was by Amaury Nolasco who portrayed the villain here(Lupino). Olga had a short role to play which she did well. And the surprise factor in the movie was the guest appearance of ace rapper Ludacris.

Truly speaking though the movie does not live up to the greatness of the pc video game, it still strikes a chord and makes a statement with its excellent narration and good picturisation. Max Payne, I hear has done really well in the Box office in the US and to be honest has not released in India yet. But all thanks to the piracy network which has sucessfully circulated the motion picture into the Indian soil before it hits the big screen. So all and all this would be fun to watch when it comes in the theatres. It has got good action and drama and is backed up by a good story(Sam Lake) and a good director. To sum up, No pain in watching this one, go ahead!

LOVE REDEFINED

2008-11-19T02:19:00.000-08:00

MOVIE: Notting Hill
DIRECTOR: Roger Michell
CAST: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts

Thousands of movies release every year. Most flop or do average, some make a lot of money and the craze for such movies fizzes out in few months. But there also exist such movies which truly deserve shelf space and are of life time importance. Notting Hill is without a doubt one such movie. The Hugh Grant starrer Four Weddings and a Funeral is the DDLJ of Britain and I also extend the analogy by claiming that Grant is the Shah Rukh Khan of Britain. Though many fans would suggest me to make the analogy the other way, but I am happy with the way I put it.

Julia Roberts for a long time was the heighest paid actress of Hollywood and was undoubtedly the woman which men across the globe longed for. She plays the role of a superstar(Anna Scott) in this movie. Without a doubt she would have been the most obvious choice in 1999 for this role as she was almost bereft competition at that point of time.

Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, a divorcee, an ordinary man living in Notting Hill with a cracky roommate (Rhys Ifans). He runs a bookshop of travel books which has never got him profit in life. But thats the place where Anna turns up someday, probably to kill time or get a break from life. Her visit proves to be the most profitable thing for him. With beautifully crafted cinematic events, which are worth remembering forever, the movie moves on to show a very beautiful relationship between Thacker and Scott. This union though sees it ups and downs through beautifully crafted events. Very beautiful screenplay indeed.

Now with such an union of an ordinary man and a superstar, things obviously wont be easy to live with. Nor can your ordinary friends accept the fact easily, nor can the ever busy and jobless press. These compulsions and situations are beautifully shown in this movie and also along with that a lot of human emotion, practilality and the reality of the world of glamour weaved with subtle humour and Hugh Grant's british accent and cute mannerisms to die for, make this movie a true classic.

Whenever you get a chance to catch this classic do not miss it. It is not worth missing, its worth dying for.

SORRY DOST!!

2008-11-14T09:45:00.001-08:00

FILM: Dostana
DIRECTOR: Tarun Mansukhani
CAST: Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham.

The movie has started. The camera speeds through a water body and then we see an American city with tall buildings. No guys you are not watching Kal Ho Na Ho, this is the new flick from the same banner, Dostana!

The promos of Dostana revealing Priyanka in a very very hot swimsuit, John with his irresistible packs and cuts, Abhishek with his cute regular face, made many of the young people excited about this movie. The good music by Vishal and Shekhar only added to the excitement. But this Tarun Mansukhani directed movie is in one word a "disaster".

This was meant to be a Bollywood comedy hence I have no authority to scrutinize it or find faults in the direction or something, but all this should do is make me really laugh aloud. Unfortunately this movie fails in doing so. Though few jokes are really funny, like the joke in which Abhishek refers Gabbar Singh as gay.

Two almost strangers, John and Abhi, act gay to get a room in an apartment which would cost them 2000 $. Well I dont know why they had to go through all this mess. They could have rather found some other place with the same money. Now situations force them too get themselves registered as gays. Priyanka owns the apartment and hence stays with them and this develops the three into a dostana. After this point the movie seems to keep losing sense. I mean initially they showed John to be lusty and desperate, but there were very few instances highlighting this fact later. Or may be it was unclear that how could Priyanka not have any straight guys roaming around her even though she was so beautiful and successful. Anyways.

Finally there comes a guy in Bobby Deol who is someone of professional rivalry to Priyanka. This rivalry soon develops into love. Though attempts were made to show this transition but the screenplay couldnt support this emotional transition. So its all confusion when John , Abhishek and Bobby like Priyanka. Priyanka likes the three too, but cant get to the two as she thinks they are gay. Amidst all this the plot starts loosening. From men stripping and then dancing in a prestigious auction to John and Abhishek actually locking lips(dont you think I should have kept this under wraps??), this movie ventures into unwanted zones as far as the story was concerned.

The movie, as I mentioned before, keeps giving you glimpses of Kal Ho Naa Ho and its major product, Kantaben. Kirron Kher and Boman Irani appear and disappear. So all and all the comedy part was not that funny, the sad part was not at all touching and the climax felt like what the...

Bobby Deol has been made a fool in this movie. They havent kept him in the promos and purposely made him arrive late at places where dance numbers would take place, and called his act in the movie a guest appearance, but hes very much a full fledged character in the movie! He would be disappointed.

As I said such movies should not be judged on basis of practicality or reality but only by the "how much you laughed" factor. And I didnt laugh much to be honest. Some time ago I read that Priyadarshan is remaking the Iranian classic Children of Heaven with Darsheel Safary as Bum Bum Bole. While I suggest he should not be making that movie (rather ruin the classic), I also suggest he should have made Dostana with the same Dharma Productions' meaninglessly expensive production. So not really thumbs up to this Dostana, you could do without watching it.

BOND IS BACK, DID IT BANG???

2008-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

FILM: Quantum of Solace
DIRECTOR: Marc Froster CAST: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric

Marc Froster's Quantum of Solace, which is necessarily the continuation of the story he told two years back, Casino Royale. Ian Fleming, I consider should be amongst the top 100 thinkers of the 20th century. The imagination that has gone into the making of the Bond is just impeccable. During the days when the sun started setting in the British empire and real life special agents of Russia and the United States did high level espionage in various corners of the world, thinkers like Fleming gave the so called Solace to the British mass by describing great imaginations of cool weapons and accessories. This movie though not written by Ian Fleming but by Paul and Neal Haggis is an equally lovely story. In Quantum of Solace the basic plot is the point where we left in Casino Royale. After being betrayed by the girl he loved,Vesper, Bond was in search of the person who was the reason for this betrayal. This was his personal task along with the actual job he had in hand. On interrogation of Mr White, Bond discovers that there is existence of a secret unheard organisation. White mentions that this organisation has its plants everywhere and anywhere. And as soon as he says it, one of the men around the investigation area opened fire and killed a few around and proved it that truly this organisation was present everywhere. But this fact gets super faded in due course and you dont really get scared by this organisation and dont see its men everywhere!! This organisation was responsible to blackmail Vesper to steal Bond's casino earnings(in Casino Royale). Now in Haiti, Italy, Bond meets Camille due to a mistake of identity and this introduces him further to a person called Dominic Greene(Amalric), who is a heartless businessman who talks of environmental issues, but actually is a major force in a criminal organisation called Quantum.

Now here starts the adventure of Bond through places like Austria, Italy, Bolivia and South America where he realises the depth of the nexus Greene is involved into and what big intentions he has and how are they ecologically and politically dangerous for the world. Within this journey, the movie provides non stop action(becomes a headache at a point) and Bond goes closer to completing both his personal and professional goals. The script is really intrguing but I am afraid the direction was not up to the mark. Froster erred quiet a few times and that upsets this flick to be called a classic, otherwise the plot has good enough elements to make it a great classic. Also one thing which irritated me was the photography. Too much of close up in action sequences is a trick used by cameramen to make the effect of shaking movement. Here it was more necessary to show a proper chasing scene rather than create illusions of a chase. In most action scenes, the close up was too much which spoils up the broth. Coming to the performances, I guess after Sean its Daniel. He has performed very nicely. Olga suits her character very well and gives a good enough performance. Amalric for me was the high point in the acting as far as Quantum of Solace is concerned. Going through public responses, Bond lovers are not really happy with Quantum of Solace, nor am I. Probably next time they will need something more than a quantum to give solace to the lovers of Bond, James Bond!

BHANDARKAR BHANDA PHODKAR

2008-10-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Fashion
CAST: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut , Mugdha Godse
DIRECTOR: Madhur Bhandarkar

Everybody knows that Bhandarkar has always taken up the job to expose out realities of various societies. Be it the corporate world in Corporate or the glamorous world from the eyes of journalists in Page 3 or the life on a Traffic Signal. Here in Fashion he views the glamorous world from various eyes within and outside the glamorous world. Its the beeds of Bhandarkar's observation and research that have been weaved into a three hour movie. Even though it is nothing but a collage of known things it is dramatically well built to keep the audience guessing and teach them many things on the way both about the world of Fashion and also about the world itself.

Meghna Mathur(Priyanka Chopra) is a Chandigarh girl who comes to Mumbai to become not a model, but a supermodel . The story is about her journey of ups and downs in the industry. Kangana Ranaut plays an established model who is overthrown by Chopra. Mugdha Godse is an experienced and struggling model who knows everything about the industry but is not able to taste success.

It is a complete inner and over view of the industry and Bhandarkar's excellence lies in beautifully weaving both into a beautiful cinematic experience. He exposes a lot of things which are already known to most but he shows us the humanity attached with those inhuman deeds. We often say so many things about models and actresses and how they sell themselves for success. We are sometimes right, but often wrong. Fashion not only tells us that there is sex to rise up here, there is drug consumption to manage stress, there are gay fashion designers, there is gossip about models, there are drink and drive cases, but it also explains how much humanity is existing here.

We often say that relationships are nothing in the world of glamour. But Bhandarkar shows how relationships are everything in this world. He has touched some really matured relationships and few have made me cry. The scene where the successful but gay designer Rahul Arora, played exceptionally well by Samir Soni, proposes Mugdha for a no sex marriage is a very cute scene and a lot of humanity is involved in it. Gays have been a joke, as big a joke as eunuchs in our society. Kal Ho Naa Ho and now Dostana have made fun of gays. Being gay is not wrong. Gays are as male as males. But their mental set up is a bit different and they do not have sexual desires for women. Thats it. Bhandarkar explains this point very well too.

In the second half the friendly relationship that develops between one time rivals Kangana-Priyanka is another beautiful aspect of this cinema.The reunion of Priyanka with her parents show another aspect of relationships.

Also the scene when Priyanka tells Arbaaz Khan who plays Sarin, the owner of a fashion magazine Panache that she is pregnant with her child and Arbaaz says, "Bas Itni Si Baat. It can be handled" strike a statement about this world.

Fashion though continuosly involves a lot of skin show, bikini clad models, even a wardrobe malfunctioning scene, is not really a cheap material for cheap people to whistle in a dark theatre and say, "Abey kya item hai". Though the girls are really hot items, amongst all these glam sham, Bhandarkar gives us a great message of rise and fall not only in the fashion world, but in any field.

Coming to performances, Kangana plays the eccentric girl very well, like she did in Gangster and Woh Lamhe. Her performances in these two movies made her the clear choice for this role to Bhandarkar as well. Priyanka plays various moods in the movie. One of a struggling model, that of a rising superstar, that of a superstar with loads of attitude, that of a falling superstar with attitude but no work, that of a defeated person abandoned by all, and that of a person whos come back....and she excells in all these colours. Mugdha has given the best debut performance surpassing the good acting of Imran Khan in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na . Arjun Bajwa is a new face to Bollywood as well and after being a successful Telegu actor, I am sure he is going to make it big here.

Samir Soni, Kitu Gidwani, Harsh Chhaya, Raj Babbar play their respective roles very, very well. Coming to Arbaaz Khan who is the second male lead in the movie has given his career best performance. Everyone else who was a part of this movie has done fantastic.

Few things were a bit unclear like the way Mugdha and Priyanka got introduced also the fact that why was a cocaine obsessed person like Kangana Ranaut was given something which also excites the nerve, caffeine in coffee. These are minor points but unexplained.

Salim Sulaiman give a good background score and a beautiful songs were composed by them. The producers have done full justice. The cameos were good, but one expected much more. If Karan Johar would have been given charge of this he would have roped in more exciting faces in the movie. So to sum up, Fashion is definately the best Bhandarkar movie and is a must watch!!!

LOT OF ICING, BUT WHERE'S THE CAKE??

2008-10-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Golmaal Returns
DIRECTOR: Rohit Shetty
CAST: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tushar Kapoor, Amrita Arora, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Celina Jaitley

MTV Fully Faltoo has spoofed a few recent classics into complete disasters. But they have off late become the biggest source of comic entertainment amongst the MTV watchers. One big reason these non sense spoofs have become popular is because they have spoofed the popular. All three spoofed movies: Chak De, Jodha Akbar and Taare Zameen Par are both critically and publicly acclaimed. Golmaal spoofs throughout the movie, more in the second half, and finally becomes a collection of spoof of flops like Saawariya and Tashan. They continued to spoof Black and Munnabhai MBBS here also like in the first part.

The comic element was there. The dialogue writing was very nice and some were as fresh as a daisy and really really funny. Apt lines like, "Horny ko kaun taal sakta hai" and "Shaq What the.." made the crowd laugh aloud. Also some not so innovative and long heard jokes were repeated like the one on the secretary and personal secretary. Amongst all the comedy and entertainment, you slowly start realising that theres no story actually...

Basically, Devgan is a sex obsessed male(tharki) and Kareena is a K-serial freak, doubtful wife(as she should be). Amrita Arora is Devgan's sister and Tushar is Kareena's brother. They all live in the same house. Amrita Aroras love interest is a cop played by Arshad Warsi. Shreyas Talpade comes for a job to Devgan and Celina Jaitley is Talpades love interest.

One night under strange circumstances, a murder occurs and the same night Devgan had to spend a night with Celina under forceful circumstances. So the whole movie is about how he produces the whereabouts of his not being there that night and also how he proves to the police that he is not the murderer. The movie gets over dramatic at times and is a "comedy-jerker" Slowly towards the end they lose grip over the story and the movie heads to a poor finish.

Like is the trend in all comedy movies these days, the climax brings together all the characters. Its very important to make this collection believable. I think this movie does well here to bring all the characters together for the climax. I guess amongst recent flicks the best climax was that in the 2003 Hungama by Priyadarshan. But unfortunately the climax is sheer nonsense. Over dramatic and not really funny. Also there was a song prior to the climax with lots of special effects which was completely unnecessary.

Clearly, this is a collection of relatively good jokes punched into a two and a half hour movie with a ten minute story. This reflects the dangerous tendency in comedy movie makers of Bollywood. They go ahead with a script without perfecting it and just punch good jokes and promote it well to make it a hit. Comedy movies should have a very strong script which should have a strong message and should have excellent dialogues and jokes. The dialogues and jokes are the icing though which are meaningless without the strong base of the script. Golmaal Returns makes a lot of icing here, but no cake...no story....no message. So like many other names like Sunday, Phir Hera Pheri, Bhagam Bhaag and also for that matter the Golmaal 1, this flick too gets thrown into the nonsense bin....Phew! Golmaal!!

HIGH MESS RESHAMMIYA

2008-10-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

MOVIE: Karzzz
CAST: Himesh Reshammiya, Shweta Kumar, Urmila Matondkar
DIRECTOR: Satish Kaushik

After writing a nine hour examination all I wanted to do was sit back, relax and watch a movie in strong air condition and watch a relatively zero intellect movie so that my mind doesnt get further stressed. I dont think greats like Satyajit Ray, Cristopher Nolan, Ashutosh Gowariker and not so greats like even Karan Johar and Sanjay Gadhvi or for that matter Abbas Mastan could have given me such a movie where I use nothing of my brain. Thankfully though the cinema theatre I went to had a 630 show for a Satish Kaushik directed flick called Karzzzz!

This movie is as you all might know, the remake of the version which was few Zs short and was made by Subhash Ghai decades ago. The story is of rebirth. How a wicked kamini called Kaamini (Urmila Matondkar)kills her fiance (Dino Morea) for huge property he owned in South Africa. South Africa seems to be too lucky for Bollywood. The few hits this year like Race and Jannat were shot mostly in South Africa. Karzzz too is a hit I hear!

Dino Morea dies in a relatively less stupid plane crash and dies only to come back with a vengeance, 25 years later, in a less good looking avatar of Monty(Himesh Reshammiya).... After this scene the whole movie is like a music video compilation and not so hillarious comedy events and not so romantic romantic scenes. There is this girl Tina (Shweta Kumar) who is Himesh's love interest. The story is that he slowly starts remembering his past life and then finally with the help of Tina plans to kill Princess Kaamini(the prefix added after she got hold of all that property)

Let me be really frank: the acting wasnt all that bad, Himesh has really improved from the disastrous last Suroor of his. Shweta Kumar gives a very charming appearance and a pretty confident debut. Urmila, except for her slightly over expressive face at times, was a charm to watch and suited the character nicely. All this came as a nice surprise to me as I did not expect nice performances from Himesh and Shweta atleast. But stop....the movie is still a dud! and it is so because of Satish Kaushik....who has literally spoiled the movie. I think this is the worst possible direction I have come across from a long time.

In one of the scenes, Monty rides a helicopter and is in air close to the ground where the heroine is standing. I have been close to choppers on numerous occasions and I know the ear tearing sound of the chopper fans and the gusty wind that it produces.....but here we see Himesh nicely singing(without a microphone) and the heroine is smiling at him.

Another disaster was a scene where Monty was chasing Kaamini in a car. Suddenly Kaamini's car vanishes only to suddenly return in a private jet! As if the private jet was parked out somewhere in the middle of the road....!! Also Satish Kaushik did not take care of the fact that the scene which was running parallel to this was shot at night and this scene was a broad noon scene!

This movie has also shown white women go mad mad mad and faint whenever they see this Gujju bhai Himess' and his hair in mess!!

If I start mentioning these mistakes, I would end up writing a "N Mistakes of Karzzz"....! There are many gliches like these in the movie. But overall when you want to rate it for fun and timepass, its a full nonsense and entertaining movie.....

When I went through the reviews in newspapers and the net recently I found the well celebrated Taran Adarsh of India FM has sung praises for this trash...I mean clearly one could see how purchased out was the writing. No wonder this is a must watch...I mean such movies are not normally made...where the actors and director make real shit out of tonnes of money at attractive locations. Talking about the comparisons with the old movie and stuff let me tell you Karzzzz cannot be compared to Karz or for that matter to Om Shanti Om. The latter are creatively miles ahead. If Karzzz can be compared to any other movie it is only Aapka Suroor and Himesh Bhai will be happy to listen that his effort in this one was better than his debut disaster!

Whenever I rate a movie and its below 5, you can take it from me that its not worth a watch. But heres an exception. This movie is worth what I gave it but is still a must watch. Not only I know this, Its many of us who know this. This X factor makes Himesh so successful. So at the end of the day you gotta say..."Maan Gaye Himesh bhai"

STIFFLERS FOR LIFE

2008-10-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

Movie: American Pie : BETA HOUSE(2007)

Most things in life happen without you expecting them to happen. I never knew that I would be sitting(rather lying) on a relatively small single bed along with two more boys, and three more who were around in front of a personal computer, with reduced volumes so that "aunty doesnt hear", and watching a not so recommended for teens, teenage movie called the American Pie Beta House....

The movie is about the legacy of the Stiflers and the college keedas they do. It really took me time to adjust to what was going on in front of my eyes...I never saw things going so much out of control, rather out of censor on screen. But whatever be the case, being a man, it was fun! So talking about the story, Dwight Stiffler leads a house called the BETAs and their rivals are the GEEKS.... Both have got the greek letters as their symbols. The major part of the movie deals with how Dwight trains up new BETAs by making them complete 50 unbelievably mischeavous and maddening tasks! I remember one of those tasks was to have sex with a college proffesor!

Now these 50 tasks and the love life of a BETA in the making, Erik Stiffler forms the major part of the story. This includes super funny sequences like father encouraging child to have sex, girls stripping around in dance areas, common bathrooms for girls and guys, phew phew phew!!. For the climax we have this maddening event called the Greek Olympiad. In this we see the tussle between the Geeks and the Betas for supremacy and existence.

During these events many things happen which are not really describable(like the horse semen gun), but let me tell you, they are sheer fun.

One reason why I appreciate this movie is that though it has got maximum exposure and freedom in both dialogues and scenes, it still isnt an adult movie as such. It is an ever teen movie. It tickles your inner youth spirit and encourages you for many things, its your choice where you want to get tickled and where do you want your encouragement.

Most of the people would be encouraged to go around and try to create this "pseudo-sex anytime anyone " world and get into trouble in their real lives. But the real beauty of the movie is its encouragement for team spirit and the power of unity. How the BETAs defeat the GEEKs just by their superior team unity. Thats a thing which should be learnt.

Off late, this 2007 blockbuster has tickled my class friends all over. They also formed this BETA group in our Government run high school, got their group uniform and stuff and have united big time. I dont know what they achieved by trying to be Stifflers but I can tell you they are much stronger friends and are much more united than before because of this adhesive called BETA......Such is the effect of movies like these....

These considerations inspire me to become a BETA too....Malay are you listening?

NOT SO GOOD DEAR

2008-09-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

FILM: The Last Lear
CAST: Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Priety Zinta
DIRECTOR: Rituparno Ghosh

There is a very popular saying that great people with great ideas make great things. Though it is true that great things can be made only with great ideas but it is not necessary that great ideas always create great things. William Shakespeare, the single writer who is a household name all over the world, is the first kind, great man, great ideas, great works. The director of this movie is unfortunately of the second kind. I have been following Rituda's movies from a long time. He shows flashes of brilliance in every work of his and every work of his comes with a flashy topic. Though technically he is the best director in India, logically he becomes really stupid at times. I have seen his works like Antarmahal, Khela, Choker Bali, Raincoat and many others. He is a gifted person but as I said, great man, great ideas but a messed up cake when we talk about work.

If you ask me what is the much hyped The Last Lear about, I will think for a minute and then say that it is mostly about an eccentric Shakespeare lover, a master stage artist, who left stage only because someone said something bad about his live in girlfriend(Shefali Shah). This man is compelled to do a movie now, his first, by an equally eccentric and almost another Shakespeare freak Arjun Rampal. Partly this movie also becomes a feminist andolan.. and has shown women in completely pure light.

The movie is based on the conversation of three women, Shefali Shah, Priety Zinta(Amitabh's costar in the movie) and Divya Dutta(Amitabh's nurse). They discuss things and the movie goes on.

I rated this movie so less only because of its fake promises and incompletenesses. It touches many sensitive issues very slightly and then moves on. And what it calls a climax is pure nonsense. In one of the scenes which build up the climax, Rampal asks Bachchan to walk without spectacles. He is doing a movie on a joker Maqbool . Now I dont know why a joker cant wear spectacles. And if it is too necessary why cant a contact lens be used?? Using such a weak point the climax was built. And we are made to believe that Rampal for the love of art and belief in perfectness makes Bachchan(75 in the movie) redo a dangerous stunt without any protection which injures him and fractures his spine and he loses every memory of his.

Now the initially fired feminist plot is long lost, the story of Maqbool is lost too somewhere and the weakest point of the story is chosen for the climax. The name of the movie could have been anything, The Last Lear, Maqbool, Three Women, The Conversation, Shake the sphere(haha). I think this point proves it all how waivered the plot was. Though everyone has given their career best performances(not Bachchan,he has done much better) because of Ritu da's greatness one says after the movie that all the good acting was for a complete NOTHING. This movie could have been included in the all time classics if a little more maturity and little less greatness would be associated with the director.

ITS ROCKING!!

2008-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Film: ROCK ON
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kelley, Prachi Desai, Koel Puri.

I actually dont know from where to start this and where to end it. Its because I do not want this review to be a spoiler, I want everyone of you in this world to watch this movie. There are some movies which become youth inspirations on a very very large scale in India. Consider the 1989 Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak which increased the number of youth couple suicides and increased the daring of people to run away from homes to marry and stuff. Consider Dilwale Dulhaniyan Le Jaayenge of 1994 , it changed the concept of romance completely. Then I can quote the 1998 movie, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai which made every bloody one buy, black goggles and that blue green Polo Sports T Shirt, which Rahul aka SRK wore in that movie. Of late Rang De Basanti in 2006 was the best ever youth driver and if there is a movie after this which can instill some youth feeling into us it is this 2008 Rock On!!

The movie is about the journey of a band Magik. Farhan Akhtar who is Aditya Shroff is married to Shakshi, Prachi Desai. He is a very non magical , lifeless, successful man. His wife in a sequence of beautifully crafted events realises that he once was a part of a Rock Band. Also she actually gets to meet one of his band members, KD (Killer Drummer) through which she makes attempts to reunite the band.

The band was broken ten years ago due to some reason which you should find out. The band consisted of KD (Purab Kohli) on the drums, Joe Mascerhenas(Arjun Rampal) on the lead guitar, Rob(Luke Kenny) as the keyboard guy and Aditya as the lead singer and base guitarist. This movie encompasses the lives of the band members in a lovely style by running two time spans parallel to each other.

Now I have revealed enough about the story. Whether they actually reunite and what actually happens is for you to find out, dont dare think that the story is really obvious and stuff. Its not what you actually think, its damn beautiful, damn well narrated.

The director has won my heart. Abhishek Kapoor, has beautifully narrated a lovely story. The screenplay and cinematography was excellent. The backbone and soul of the movie, the music was the best. So hats off to Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Farhan Akhtar... There was a little, slight problems with the dialogues at some points, but most of you woudnt be able to notice that. And yes it is negligible...Also the song Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein could have been out of the movie, though it doesnt eat up reel time, but it is used at a wrong point. So I would cut little marks for that too....

Now the acting part. First, Prachi Desai. I hated her when she was a part of Kasamh Se. That old Ekta Kapoor stuff, but in this movie, she has suited the role perfectly and has done a mind blower. The best performance of his life, Arjun Rampal has suited his role and executed it with the utmost briliiance. Luke Kelley has been another wonder as Rob and Purab Kohli has been the PJ cracker and phaadu drummer. And with a great start to his career, Farhan has lived up to the hype of Rock On, and has sung and acted just excellently. His facial expressions were under the great scrutiny of my eyes, as I believe debutants are nervous and not good at expressions. I can now beat my chest and say that Farhan has given a better debut performance than many greats like Dilipsahab, Amitji, SRK and Aamir Khan..and the rest of the lot!!

This movie had some moments which reminded me of my own band which has broken, Atma Encore. I actually am now inspired to write and compose again, and restart my band after my twelfth is over. As I mentioned initially, youth inspiration and all, Rock On has seriously changed my life in two and a half hours, and so will it change yours....go for it, dont dare miss this one!!

DARNA IMPOSSIBLE HAI

2008-08-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

Film: PHOONK
Director: RAM GOPAL VERMA

Normally, horror movies seem more horror when one sees them at midnight, before he goes to sleep. The darkness and the silence of the night makes the horror movie further scary. Considering this classical statement I decided to watch Phoonk at 12 midnight.....

After the failure of all his flicks, except Sarkar Raj which did average, Ram Gopal Verma couldnt really make a comeback. But if he did even a little with Sarkar Raj, he spoilt it with Contract and Phoonk.

I wouldnt have rated Phoonk so less if he wouldnt have made claims that this movie is the most horrifying and scary and if someone watches it alone, I give him 5 lakhs!! I was actually laughing at the script and screenplay....not scary at all..

If we do not consider the story of the movie, then I should say that the direction is pretty good and the camera work is excellent. And so is the cinematography. But the story and the plot really SUCKS!!

Its about black magic and superstition. A man who doesnt believe in God and superstition goes through a fight with a couple who used to work for him as he realised that the couple was eating up his construction company's money... The wife amongst the couple was odd and mad and actually knew Black Magic. To build up the desired scariness, RGV overdid the odness of this lady, so much that it was funny the way she laughed and dressed up.

She takes the revenge of her being thrown out by applying Black Magic on this man's daughter. This daughter of his starts living in multiple personalities thereafter. She starts talking like a robotic man at times and behaves like a mad person(what they call Bhoot Attack)

Now the whole story is this. They try to make us afraid by showing this odness of the girl. None of the scary scenes were new and was very predictable and guess what....funny..! It was getting evident that RGV is short of ideas and the plot really, really weak...

The movie ends thereafter with a poor climax, where this man a believer of science loses faith and for the sake of his daughter accepts the superstition of bringing a baba to remove the bhoot from his daughter....So what you realise is that RGV has now established that "It is superstition unless it happens to you"

Such movies actually carry a modern youth backward. With great difficulty has some part of India been able to come out of such nuisance shit. And such movies make attempts to bring those ancient gawar thinkings back. Though the attempt was made, RGV couldnt really make one believe even for even a split second that it can really happen to you!

I wish I had applied for that contest...I could have easily got those 5 lakhs and actually given Ramu some tips how to scare me the next time he made one!! So literally, Darna Impossible Hai!!

RAB KARDE SETTING!!

2008-08-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Film: Singh is Kinng
Director: Anees Bazmee
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif

A name which has set fire in the hearts of all Singhs in the world, Singh is King, seems to be a very apt title for this flick. Akshay Kumar plays Happy Singh in the movie. He is what we call a mufat man and says whatever is correct and does accordingly. Very helpful by nature, Happy makes other people's problems his own and messes them up further. The village loves him from inside but is irritated by his mad activities. He is sent to London to bring back another man from their land, Lucky Singh, played by Sonu Sood. Lucky is something bigger than a Don in London and is called a King. He with his batallion of unique sardars run the ultimate criminal organisation of the UK.
Meanwhile, Happy comes to London and before that in an accident when he reached Egypt, had fallen in love with Katrina Kaif. When he came to London, Kirron Kher gave him shelter and he realised how Kirron and Katrina were related. Katrina again has a fiance in Ranvir Shourie. After some accident, Akshay has been crowned the new king...In this heavy weight confusion the story proceeds.

This movie is no oscar material, nor I would recomend it for a filmfare. But the fact remains that on a low day you go out with your family and watch this and just keep laughing. And you do not go empty handed. Theres a little message in the story....For most people this might be an entertainer and yes it is, but for the thoughtful crowd, it induces a thought....on the question that what is a king really?? King not only rules, but leads and changes. The expansion of this thought is beautifully expressed in the movie.

Like most Bolly flicks, there is a question, who gets Katrina in the end? Akshay or Ranvir?? The answer to this fact is also very interesting....find out....

Another interesting concluding fact...The song "Bas Ek King" starts with a line, "Ek colour ke tera patte". Think a bit about it, its utterly wrong....There are infact 26 cards of a colour, which are divided in 13 and 13 of two different types....And there are 2 kings in that...so lyricist saab, aage se dhyaan rakhiyega....but who cares...the song's a hit and the movie is a superhit!!

HAPPINESS PURSUED!

2008-08-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Film: The Pursuit of Happyness
Director: Gabrielle Muccini
Cast: Will Smith, Jade Smith

Firstly, I would like to thank this movie as it has made me think of what happiness is. Happiness cannot be achieved, but only pursued. Everytime we say that we are happy is may be because we compromise with our aspirations and bargain with our desires. We suffocate our wishes and be content and then we say that we are happy. That is not happiness. Lets not be content and satisfied with small achievements, lets go run behind those dreams of ours which we dreamt. Lets achieve them and then lets say that we are "happy"

Chris Gardener(Will Smith) is not a happy man. He is a street smart fellow and great at heart. He has a small family which includes his son(Jaden Smith) and his wife(Thandie Newton). His wife works in a laundry shop and he is a salesman, a struggling salesman. Set in the year 1981 this movie shows Chris Gardener selling a machine which was double as costly as an X ray machine but was very little more powerful than it for scanning bones.

He struggles in his profession and the immediate effects of it are rising pressure of due taxes, bills, rents and an unhappy wife. The child, a five year old, is kept in a cress where the wall doesnt know the spelling of Happiness...it writes Happyness..along with the F word.

With an annoyed wifes screams and an unsuccesful salesmanship, Chris decides to become a stock broker, which is not a halwa. He after a lot of struggle and pain and after his wife goes away, finally gets a chance for a no salary internship so that he gets a chance to work as a strock broker.

More and more problems strike his life and he under this immense impossibilities and extremities holds on, pretty well and plays the role of a great father, a great learner and a great worker at the brokerage firm.

Director Gabrielle Muccino has beautifully carved the human emotions entangled in this plot and with the brilliance of Will and Jade Smith, the movie has been a complete treat to watch.

Chris works days and nights together. He and his son see bad days, probably the worst of days. They live in a dormitory, he doesnt sleep, keeps studying for his internship exams. This goes on for six never ending months.

Chris tells us about various parts of his life. Sometimes he tells about his running about through the city streets, sometimes about his sorrows, sometimes about his fate. He is told that to be a good strockbroker he needs to be good with numbers and good with people. He was good with numbers and he turned out be great with people.

With unimaginable tenacity to pursue his happiness, Chris actually is able to do the impossible. Against all odds, all possible odds, a man stands out and does what hardly any human could do on this planet. He had set a goal long back and now he has it. He did not compromise with his ambitions. He held on and held on as tightly as possible, shielding his son from all odds(something really similar to Akele Hum Akele Tum) . But he succeded to be the winner, he succeded in getting the job of the strockbroker.

Today Chris tells about another part of his life. A part called Happiness....He is really "Happy"

MAD AND UGLY

2008-08-14T04:30:00.000-07:00

Movie: Ugly aur Pagli
Cast: Ranvir Shourie, Mallika Sherawat

Past many movies I watched never lived upto its title...For instance one of the noisiest and loud movies was named Om Shanti Om , When we knew everything of whats going to happen in the movie, it was still called Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.... Finally I found a movie which lives upto its name as this Pritish Nandy Communications' Mallika Sherawat and Ranvir Shourie starrer Ugly and Pagli was really ugly and really mad(pagli)....

I was actually looking forward for this crap as I was in love with Pyaar Ke Side Effects, from the same banner....The movie is about our lead boy Ranvir Shourie....He is an engineering student whose failing from the last four years. One day he finds Sherawat almost dying at the local train station and he saves her....She in turn pukes on a passenger and Ranvir has to take her through to keep her safe...He takes her to a hotel in the night where he gets into further mess and ends up in a police station....The plot starts losening from this instant....Set up in a world which is far from the reach of reality and where everyone is continuosly overacting....Be it laughter be it anger and be it sorrow everything shown is out of proportion...

The story is about the love story of Ranvir and Mallika. Ranvir becomes Mallika's dog (literally) , but he likes it and does all sorts of madness whatever is prescribed by her and he does that only to keep her happy....

But when proposing time comes, Mallika realises she cannot forget her past which was some dude called Aditya who is no more in this world and was an ex-dog of Mallika...Now in all this confusion will Ranvir and Mallika ever make it???

Thats what the viewer asks in this never ending saga....With unbelievable sequences and bad music and bad direction and worst possible acting, this movie is really ugly and really pagli....But you would get to see a lot of slapping, Mallika wearing her innerwear out, Everyone cracking stupid jokes and Ranvir Shourie swimming with five year olds.....All the best to you if you are watching it!!