Rocket Singh SOTY is the 3rd Ranbir movie movie coming in a short space of time. It is also Shimit Amin's 3rd movie as a director. Some might think 'teen tighada kaam bighada', but for me Rocket Singh was a thrid time wonder. It's my favorite Ranbir Kapoor movie so far and a par-satisfaction movie as far as Shimit Amin is considered.
The plot is simple. Harpreet Singh(Ranbir) is a young individual who simply doesn't believe in academics = intelligence funda. He enters the big bad world of a corporate company as a junior Sales trainee. After being harassed and humiliated by his bosses, Ranbir decides to start his own business at the company's expense. The rest of the story picks up from there.
The movie is full of delightful witty one liners. Once again, like the previous Jaideep Sahani(writer) movies the characters are very strong in this one too. The best lines go to D. Santosh(He played Rajguru in Legend of Bhagat Singh) who plays a service engineer in the movie. His mere presence is very funny and I burst out laughing whenever he came on screen.
Music wise, nothing much to talk about since the movie is pretty much song less. The opening song in the credits was likable.
Ranbir was very good in his role again and was very convincing as the ordinary boy who dreams to make it big. Shazahn Padmasee looks beautiful but doesn't have much of a role. The ensemble cast was a treat. Everyone from Gauhar Khan to Santosh to the actor who was called 'Nitin' in the movie were awesome. Not to forget Prem Chopra, who did not look anything like his mean old self and was a very sweet granpa.
Shimit Amin's direction is top notch. This is a movie which could have gone horribly wrong but kudos to the director for handling it masterfully. Not his best, but right up there somewhere.
Rating: Definitely worth watching 1ce or twice.. Do not miss it !
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Comedy
Even before the trailers were aired for this movie, I was excited to see it just because RajKumar Santoshi was making a comedy for the first time after Andaz Apna Apna. The trailers were modest to be best except for 2-3 good numbers from Pritam. I heard mixed reviews from people around, ranging from very poor to AAA like. Warning, this movie is only for people who can digest half mad jokes like the ones in AAA.
The plot is simple. Prem(Ranbir) is a below average guy who is a 9th dropout. He runs a club in his town, called the Happy club, which appropriately solves peoples' problems. He falls for a girl, Jenny(Katrina) who is exactly his opposite, smart, intelligent etc. etc. They just have one common element, they both stammer when they are upset. This kicks off their friendship. The rest of the movie is based on this plot and there are abundant comic scenes in between to show how Ranbir woos Katrina.
There are a couple of brilliant comic scenes in the movie in which I was laughing my #$$ off. After a certain time I guess I just lost it. I think I haven't laughed so much in a movie since Haseena Maan Jayegi. After the interval I was thinking that the movie will go little senti. But the film continued to be a laughathon till the end sequence. Its the kind of movie where I still laugh just remembering some of the scenes.
Pritam has been outstanding this year. He must have "composed" music for at least 10 movies and most of them have been outstanding. This one is no different. The best song of the album is "Tera Hone Laga Hu" and Katrina looks tooooo cute in the song.
Ranbir carries the film brilliantly on his shoulders proving once again that he is improving with each instance. Katrina finally has learnt the art of acting. A gorgeous face along with acting is a lethal combo. All the supporting cast is also very good. Darshan Zariwalla shows his prowess at
comedy.
Rajkumar Santoshi has tried his best at recreating AAA magic and he has almost hit bulls eye. Its a gem in its own right.
I know I am gonna watch this movie multiple times
Rating: Definitely catch it!! (.. more than once :) )
Spoiler Joke: In the climax, Ranbir's dad tells him "aaj mujhe tujhpe kitna garv hai beta etc. etc." So Ranbir tells him "Waah zara phir se kahiye". His dad literally repeats the entire senence with the same serious expression. lol :P
The plot is simple. Prem(Ranbir) is a below average guy who is a 9th dropout. He runs a club in his town, called the Happy club, which appropriately solves peoples' problems. He falls for a girl, Jenny(Katrina) who is exactly his opposite, smart, intelligent etc. etc. They just have one common element, they both stammer when they are upset. This kicks off their friendship. The rest of the movie is based on this plot and there are abundant comic scenes in between to show how Ranbir woos Katrina.
There are a couple of brilliant comic scenes in the movie in which I was laughing my #$$ off. After a certain time I guess I just lost it. I think I haven't laughed so much in a movie since Haseena Maan Jayegi. After the interval I was thinking that the movie will go little senti. But the film continued to be a laughathon till the end sequence. Its the kind of movie where I still laugh just remembering some of the scenes.
Pritam has been outstanding this year. He must have "composed" music for at least 10 movies and most of them have been outstanding. This one is no different. The best song of the album is "Tera Hone Laga Hu" and Katrina looks tooooo cute in the song.
Ranbir carries the film brilliantly on his shoulders proving once again that he is improving with each instance. Katrina finally has learnt the art of acting. A gorgeous face along with acting is a lethal combo. All the supporting cast is also very good. Darshan Zariwalla shows his prowess at
comedy.
Rajkumar Santoshi has tried his best at recreating AAA magic and he has almost hit bulls eye. Its a gem in its own right.
I know I am gonna watch this movie multiple times
Rating: Definitely catch it!! (.. more than once :) )
Spoiler Joke: In the climax, Ranbir's dad tells him "aaj mujhe tujhpe kitna garv hai beta etc. etc." So Ranbir tells him "Waah zara phir se kahiye". His dad literally repeats the entire senence with the same serious expression. lol :P
Friday, October 30, 2009
Black and 'Blue'
Its been two weeks since I saw Blue. The film has gone on to become a big hit. My disappointment with the movie though, has not abated yet. I had huge expectations from the movie and it bombed big time as far as I am concerned. Everything looked promising in the promos. Akki back in an action role, stunts, underwater adventure, background music. I don't know how it all failed so miserably. I am gonna keep this one short as there is not too much to write about
Akki is an owner of a shipping company and Sanju is his friend cum employee. Sanju has knowledge of a hidden treasure which is apparently worth millions. Zayed is a good for nothing kid who owes money to a local don and lands up at Sanju's place to seek refuge. The trio decide to search the treasure and solve Zayed's problems.
The suspense build up is pathetic and you know from the onset what to expect. One would have expected something like Nicholas Cage's National Treasure wherein there are several clues before unraveling the mystery.
I feel the story idea was a good one but the screenplay was very poor. They should have built up better scenes and better dialogs. There are only 2 scenes which are good in the movie. One being a bike chase and the other an underwater sequence.
Music is okayish. Below par by Rahman's standards. I have taken a liking to Aaj Dil Gustakh hai and the Blue theme though.
Akshay is okay but the role was not written well enough. Sanjay Dutt looks horrible and only God knows how someone as unfit as him can be a diver. Zayed is irritating as hell. My sincere plea to directors, please do not cast him! Lara has no other part in the movie other than bikini modeling. She it pulls it off amazingly and the lyrics of "Aaj Dil Gustakh hai, Paaniyo mei aag hai" seem apt when she is on the screen.
Anthony D'Souza needs to learn a lot. I have heard the team has decided to come up with a sequel called "Aasman". I hope he does not repeat his mistakes in future and does not leave the audience bruised up black and 'blue'.
Rating: Skip it!! (even on DVD)
Akki is an owner of a shipping company and Sanju is his friend cum employee. Sanju has knowledge of a hidden treasure which is apparently worth millions. Zayed is a good for nothing kid who owes money to a local don and lands up at Sanju's place to seek refuge. The trio decide to search the treasure and solve Zayed's problems.
The suspense build up is pathetic and you know from the onset what to expect. One would have expected something like Nicholas Cage's National Treasure wherein there are several clues before unraveling the mystery.
I feel the story idea was a good one but the screenplay was very poor. They should have built up better scenes and better dialogs. There are only 2 scenes which are good in the movie. One being a bike chase and the other an underwater sequence.
Music is okayish. Below par by Rahman's standards. I have taken a liking to Aaj Dil Gustakh hai and the Blue theme though.
Akshay is okay but the role was not written well enough. Sanjay Dutt looks horrible and only God knows how someone as unfit as him can be a diver. Zayed is irritating as hell. My sincere plea to directors, please do not cast him! Lara has no other part in the movie other than bikini modeling. She it pulls it off amazingly and the lyrics of "Aaj Dil Gustakh hai, Paaniyo mei aag hai" seem apt when she is on the screen.
Anthony D'Souza needs to learn a lot. I have heard the team has decided to come up with a sequel called "Aasman". I hope he does not repeat his mistakes in future and does not leave the audience bruised up black and 'blue'.
Rating: Skip it!! (even on DVD)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Prabhu Deva "WANTED" dead or alive
Finally I decided to watch 'Wanted' after all the praise and box office acclaim it has been getting. After I was 10 minutes into the movie I realized what I was in for. I continued just to see how worse the film can get than the first 10 minutes. I have just one question for Prabhu Deva. What in the world was he thinking when he made this movie?
Radhey, yes thats Sallu's name in the movie, is a big time thug. There are 2 gangs in mumbai and are fighting with each other over area possession. Sallu joins one of the gangs and there are random action sequences where he kills around 1578 people alone. Utimately a major suspense is revealed which changes the whole dynamics of the movie. Oh yeah and there is a tharki cop in between too played by Mahesh Manjrekar. I don't know why he was there the whole time.
This movie has only masala with a tadka of some hot chilli powder, garnished with some more masala. The entire movie has a south india look and feel attached to it and makes Akshay's kung fu in CC2C look awesome. There are random characters and random filler scenes in the movie which have absolutely no relation to the main plot. The main villain is shown to have a sense of humor which is extremely funny in the end, not because of the content but because it goes all wrong. In fact the entire movie can easily fit into Sajid Khan's ham scene section.
One example of the amazing jokes you will witness in this movie. Salman and Ayesha get locked in a lift. So Salman blows air over Ayesha's face since she is feeling hot. So ayesha asks him "Vicco Vajradanti?". Salman nods in approval and Ayesha goes "Me too!"
This movie was tailor made for Rajnikant, but Prabhu Deva took a risk and casted Salman Khan instead. Result? The movie turns out to be a huge grosser.
The movie has horrible music. I did not like even 1 song.
There is no acting in this movie, only hamming. Negative points for the main villain.
Prabhu Deva, please stick to dancing and choreography. Please do not attempt another movie and make me hate you.
Rating: Definitely skip it.
P.S. You can definitely watch it in a group if you are desperately in need of some senseless laughs. Watch out 'Gunda' your throne is challenged.
Radhey, yes thats Sallu's name in the movie, is a big time thug. There are 2 gangs in mumbai and are fighting with each other over area possession. Sallu joins one of the gangs and there are random action sequences where he kills around 1578 people alone. Utimately a major suspense is revealed which changes the whole dynamics of the movie. Oh yeah and there is a tharki cop in between too played by Mahesh Manjrekar. I don't know why he was there the whole time.
This movie has only masala with a tadka of some hot chilli powder, garnished with some more masala. The entire movie has a south india look and feel attached to it and makes Akshay's kung fu in CC2C look awesome. There are random characters and random filler scenes in the movie which have absolutely no relation to the main plot. The main villain is shown to have a sense of humor which is extremely funny in the end, not because of the content but because it goes all wrong. In fact the entire movie can easily fit into Sajid Khan's ham scene section.
One example of the amazing jokes you will witness in this movie. Salman and Ayesha get locked in a lift. So Salman blows air over Ayesha's face since she is feeling hot. So ayesha asks him "Vicco Vajradanti?". Salman nods in approval and Ayesha goes "Me too!"
This movie was tailor made for Rajnikant, but Prabhu Deva took a risk and casted Salman Khan instead. Result? The movie turns out to be a huge grosser.
The movie has horrible music. I did not like even 1 song.
There is no acting in this movie, only hamming. Negative points for the main villain.
Prabhu Deva, please stick to dancing and choreography. Please do not attempt another movie and make me hate you.
Rating: Definitely skip it.
P.S. You can definitely watch it in a group if you are desperately in need of some senseless laughs. Watch out 'Gunda' your throne is challenged.
Wake Up Sid - Lakshya + DCH
Ayan Mukherjee has had a dream start to his career. One of the most beloved films by the youth today, Swades, was penned by this guy, who by the way is just 25 years old and was 20 when Swades released. This goes to show the talent this guy possesses. Wake Up Sid thus, taking into account Ayan's age, naturally belongs to the Farhan Akhtar genre of movies, young and energetic and very today.
The plot revolves around Sid (Ranbir) who is a rich spoilt brat that has all the possible worldly pleasures in the world. His funda in life is to just enjoy today and think about tomorrow, tomorrow. In the process he meets Aishaa (Konkona) who is his exact opposite, ambitious, hard working and wanting to achieve something.
Sid's life is all good till he flunks in his exams. This is where his life goes topsy turvy as his father, in a last effort to sudhrofy Sid, throws him out of the house to face the big bad world. In this journey, Sid discovers his "Lakshya" in life and his love too.
Aishaa on the other hand who has all her goals set, changes her ways to get there after meeting Sid. She realizes that it's important to enjoy life in the moment as well. Her realization that she has fallen for Sid is very nicely handled.
This movie has been brilliantly executed. Just after seeing the opening scene you are automatically hooked on. I could totally relate to the opening scene where Sid tries to study for his exams. The movie is all about emotions whether it be love, hate, laugh or cry. The scenes between Sid and his mother are fantastic. All said and done you cant help it but remember about "Lakshya" and DCH after seeing this movie. I found too many similarities.
Musically this is a strong movie for Shankar Ehsaan Loy. It too belongs to the Farhan Akhtar genre of movies. In fact one song is very reminiscent of the "Kaisi Hai yeh rut" song from DCH. The best song of the album though belongs to Amit Trivedi. You just cant seem to get enough of "Iktara". Its a brilliant composition!
Ranbir has improved a lot. He is no longer his irritating self from Saawariya and was very much likable in the movie. The role fits him like a glove. Konkona was very good as usual. There is some cuteness in her which is very attractive. Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak are brilliant in their cameos.
Ayan Mukherjee, take a bow. A brilliant effort for a first movie. I will be definitely marking my radar for Ayan's future movies.
Rating: Very good and entertaining watch. Highly recommended.
The plot revolves around Sid (Ranbir) who is a rich spoilt brat that has all the possible worldly pleasures in the world. His funda in life is to just enjoy today and think about tomorrow, tomorrow. In the process he meets Aishaa (Konkona) who is his exact opposite, ambitious, hard working and wanting to achieve something.
Sid's life is all good till he flunks in his exams. This is where his life goes topsy turvy as his father, in a last effort to sudhrofy Sid, throws him out of the house to face the big bad world. In this journey, Sid discovers his "Lakshya" in life and his love too.
Aishaa on the other hand who has all her goals set, changes her ways to get there after meeting Sid. She realizes that it's important to enjoy life in the moment as well. Her realization that she has fallen for Sid is very nicely handled.
This movie has been brilliantly executed. Just after seeing the opening scene you are automatically hooked on. I could totally relate to the opening scene where Sid tries to study for his exams. The movie is all about emotions whether it be love, hate, laugh or cry. The scenes between Sid and his mother are fantastic. All said and done you cant help it but remember about "Lakshya" and DCH after seeing this movie. I found too many similarities.
Musically this is a strong movie for Shankar Ehsaan Loy. It too belongs to the Farhan Akhtar genre of movies. In fact one song is very reminiscent of the "Kaisi Hai yeh rut" song from DCH. The best song of the album though belongs to Amit Trivedi. You just cant seem to get enough of "Iktara". Its a brilliant composition!
Ranbir has improved a lot. He is no longer his irritating self from Saawariya and was very much likable in the movie. The role fits him like a glove. Konkona was very good as usual. There is some cuteness in her which is very attractive. Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak are brilliant in their cameos.
Ayan Mukherjee, take a bow. A brilliant effort for a first movie. I will be definitely marking my radar for Ayan's future movies.
Rating: Very good and entertaining watch. Highly recommended.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Whats Your stamina??
Ashutosh Gowarikar is known to make movies with mammoth running times. Lagaan, Swades and Jodha Akbar were all well above 3 hrs of running time. Whats your Raashee is no different. It has a humongous running time of 210 minutes which is a killer blow to the movie.
Some may believe that the previous movies absolutely needed all the content and hence were justified to be that long. Unfortunately WYR doesn't fall into the same category. It can easily be cut short by a good 30-35 minutes which could have helped the film's cause so much more. Don't get me wrong I loved the movie but the length does hamper the final impact of the movie. In a day and age when people opt for Twenty20 over ODIs because you get entertained in a short span of time, you just have to respect the audience's patience.
Yogesh Patel(Harman.. oops sorry "Hurman" Baweja) is an NRI who comes down to India and his family decides to get him married off so that he inherits his grandfather's wealth according to his will. A lot of pressure is put on Yogesh as it will solve the family's monetary problems. Finally Yogesh gives in and decides to marry but has a condition. He will meet only 1 girl from each zodiac sign and then take his decision.
So he meets one girl after the other (different characters played by Priyanka) which are in essence 12 different short stories with one common factor, Yogesh.
Every story has a mandatory song in it, which I believe is the BIGGEST mistake. For some of the girls you instantly know that she is going to be rejected but we have to sit through a 5 minute song which is totally hampering the movie's flow, tempo and ofcourse length. I can easily count up to 6 songs which could have been either cut short or left out which alone reduces the movie by 25-30 minutes.
Now the good part. The movie is full of fall of the seat humor. It has amazing one liners and punch lines. I remember laughing off my seat whenever I got to see the movie in between the songs. It has some touchy feely moments too which were executed pretty well. The songs which do matter are very well shot. Especially the concept of the recap song was very creative.
Personally, I loved the music. Especially 4-5 songs are just too good. But when you see them in the context of the movie you are disappointed coz most of them were not needed in the movie. None the less hats off to Suhail Sen for striking gold in his first outing. Rahman's shoes were not small ones to fill in.
This movie belongs to Priyanka Chopra and is another feather in her already amazing crown of performances. What a brilliant job she does! The walk, the talk, the posture, the small small mannerisms, the smile, the anger, the puzzled look. I can just go on and on. I was simply awed by her performance. I take back my statement of calling her today's Kajol. She is right there at the top beside Kajol in the list of amazing actresses of all time.
Hurman put in a very sincere effort. I couldnt help it but find a similarity to Hrithik though, which seriously works against him. All the other character artistes were good too but they have appeared in almost all Gowarikar movies and you cant help but imagine them as the previous characters that they have played. For e.g. whenever Yogesh's grandpa came on screen I couldn't help but think of the farmer in swades saying "Jo Kabhi nahi jaati.. ussi ko jaati kehte hai".
Ashutosh does it again and shows why he is a brilliant director. If only he can take it in his stride to chop down his movies it would work wonders according to me. I hope he takes the feedback and re-releases a lite version of this movie with 30-40 mins of less playing time.
Rating: A very watchable and lovable movie (minus the songs)
Those that don't have the stamina to watch a movie for 210 minutes, better wait for the dvd to be able to FF the songs.
Some may believe that the previous movies absolutely needed all the content and hence were justified to be that long. Unfortunately WYR doesn't fall into the same category. It can easily be cut short by a good 30-35 minutes which could have helped the film's cause so much more. Don't get me wrong I loved the movie but the length does hamper the final impact of the movie. In a day and age when people opt for Twenty20 over ODIs because you get entertained in a short span of time, you just have to respect the audience's patience.
Yogesh Patel(Harman.. oops sorry "Hurman" Baweja) is an NRI who comes down to India and his family decides to get him married off so that he inherits his grandfather's wealth according to his will. A lot of pressure is put on Yogesh as it will solve the family's monetary problems. Finally Yogesh gives in and decides to marry but has a condition. He will meet only 1 girl from each zodiac sign and then take his decision.
So he meets one girl after the other (different characters played by Priyanka) which are in essence 12 different short stories with one common factor, Yogesh.
Every story has a mandatory song in it, which I believe is the BIGGEST mistake. For some of the girls you instantly know that she is going to be rejected but we have to sit through a 5 minute song which is totally hampering the movie's flow, tempo and ofcourse length. I can easily count up to 6 songs which could have been either cut short or left out which alone reduces the movie by 25-30 minutes.
Now the good part. The movie is full of fall of the seat humor. It has amazing one liners and punch lines. I remember laughing off my seat whenever I got to see the movie in between the songs. It has some touchy feely moments too which were executed pretty well. The songs which do matter are very well shot. Especially the concept of the recap song was very creative.
Personally, I loved the music. Especially 4-5 songs are just too good. But when you see them in the context of the movie you are disappointed coz most of them were not needed in the movie. None the less hats off to Suhail Sen for striking gold in his first outing. Rahman's shoes were not small ones to fill in.
This movie belongs to Priyanka Chopra and is another feather in her already amazing crown of performances. What a brilliant job she does! The walk, the talk, the posture, the small small mannerisms, the smile, the anger, the puzzled look. I can just go on and on. I was simply awed by her performance. I take back my statement of calling her today's Kajol. She is right there at the top beside Kajol in the list of amazing actresses of all time.
Hurman put in a very sincere effort. I couldnt help it but find a similarity to Hrithik though, which seriously works against him. All the other character artistes were good too but they have appeared in almost all Gowarikar movies and you cant help but imagine them as the previous characters that they have played. For e.g. whenever Yogesh's grandpa came on screen I couldn't help but think of the farmer in swades saying "Jo Kabhi nahi jaati.. ussi ko jaati kehte hai".
Ashutosh does it again and shows why he is a brilliant director. If only he can take it in his stride to chop down his movies it would work wonders according to me. I hope he takes the feedback and re-releases a lite version of this movie with 30-40 mins of less playing time.
Rating: A very watchable and lovable movie (minus the songs)
Those that don't have the stamina to watch a movie for 210 minutes, better wait for the dvd to be able to FF the songs.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Dil Bole (Rani Mukherji)
When I saw the promos of Dil Bole Haddippa for the first time during the screening of Kambakht Ishq, they somehow did not excite me enough. I neglected the feeling as I was super excited to see Kambakht Ishq that time. But that feeling came back to me when I saw the trailer the next time and the songs did not help the movie's cause either. Probably if I wasn't a big Rani Mukherji fan I would have given this movie a miss and wouldn't be writing this blog entry.
Is it just me or is every one feeling overdosed by the punjabi look n feel in yash raj movies? It seems like they have built a set and have been using it for movies for the past 3-4 years. Seriously it feels like the producers just took out SRK out and put Rani in. Rani's house in the movie is so reminiscent of SRK's house in Veer Zaara and there are umpteen such similarities in the movie. Not to mention the movie gets so cheesy in portions that I must have gained 2-3 kilos only by watching this movie.
Veera (Rani) is a young girl who is a cricket fanatic like the 90% population in India is. She is a cut above the rest because not only does she aspires to play cricket in the Indian team one day, but she is darn good at it.
Every year on independence day a local team from Amritsar play with a local team from Lahore for the "Aman" cup. For a string of 7 years India has been losing this cup. The team's manager tricks his son, Rohan (Shahid) into playing for the Aman cup. Rohan, by the way, is a rising English county player. Rohan decides to build a new team and calls for selection drills.
Veera gets super excited and goes for the selection but is driven away since she is a girl and this was a men's cricket team selection. They killed Veera's chances but not her spirit. Veera comes back, but this time dressed as a young sardar, Veer. Ultimately she gets selected and plays for the team. I guess everyone knows whether Veera will help her team win or not.
The main match is a major disappointment. Director Anurag Singh had so many references from the modern film era to use to his advantage. There was Lagaan, Yash Raj's own Chak de! India. Hell even the match in the film "Victory" was better. Anurag Singh is a big let down in this area.
The film has its moments though. The script had its heart in the right place of showing girls fighting for equality among men. But the execution fails to keep the audience engrossed. The length doesn't help either. A major flaw in the script according to me is that all this fight was to show a girl playing in a men's team and in the end she doesn't get to score the century, the guy does, which was odd.
Coming to the performances, this movie is a Rani Mukherji show all the way. What ever the movie is, its only due to Rani. If Veera was good, Veer was as brilliant as it can get. She performs the part with elan. She mastered the mannerisms and style to such perfection. She actually looked like a young 16-17 year old sardar. Simply awesome. Rani also put in a lot of effort in her cricket. Her strokes looked so real. Everything from her stance to her follow through to her fielding was so believable. Everybody else was there to support Rani. Shahid and Anupan Kher were good in their parts.
Music by Pritam has to be his weakest work for a long time now. Not one song felt hummable and were outright boring. Even Sonu Nigam's vocals couldn't save one of the songs.
Director Anurag Singh had directed a movie called Raqueeb which was a much better effort than DBH. He has to pull up his socks if he wants to last in this industry as this is the era of young brilliant directors in bollywood.
Rating: Watch this movie for the brilliance of Rani Mukherji.
You can safely give it a miss and catch it on TV or DVD after a month or so if you are not a Rani Mukherji fan like me :)
Is it just me or is every one feeling overdosed by the punjabi look n feel in yash raj movies? It seems like they have built a set and have been using it for movies for the past 3-4 years. Seriously it feels like the producers just took out SRK out and put Rani in. Rani's house in the movie is so reminiscent of SRK's house in Veer Zaara and there are umpteen such similarities in the movie. Not to mention the movie gets so cheesy in portions that I must have gained 2-3 kilos only by watching this movie.
Veera (Rani) is a young girl who is a cricket fanatic like the 90% population in India is. She is a cut above the rest because not only does she aspires to play cricket in the Indian team one day, but she is darn good at it.
Every year on independence day a local team from Amritsar play with a local team from Lahore for the "Aman" cup. For a string of 7 years India has been losing this cup. The team's manager tricks his son, Rohan (Shahid) into playing for the Aman cup. Rohan, by the way, is a rising English county player. Rohan decides to build a new team and calls for selection drills.
Veera gets super excited and goes for the selection but is driven away since she is a girl and this was a men's cricket team selection. They killed Veera's chances but not her spirit. Veera comes back, but this time dressed as a young sardar, Veer. Ultimately she gets selected and plays for the team. I guess everyone knows whether Veera will help her team win or not.
The main match is a major disappointment. Director Anurag Singh had so many references from the modern film era to use to his advantage. There was Lagaan, Yash Raj's own Chak de! India. Hell even the match in the film "Victory" was better. Anurag Singh is a big let down in this area.
The film has its moments though. The script had its heart in the right place of showing girls fighting for equality among men. But the execution fails to keep the audience engrossed. The length doesn't help either. A major flaw in the script according to me is that all this fight was to show a girl playing in a men's team and in the end she doesn't get to score the century, the guy does, which was odd.
Coming to the performances, this movie is a Rani Mukherji show all the way. What ever the movie is, its only due to Rani. If Veera was good, Veer was as brilliant as it can get. She performs the part with elan. She mastered the mannerisms and style to such perfection. She actually looked like a young 16-17 year old sardar. Simply awesome. Rani also put in a lot of effort in her cricket. Her strokes looked so real. Everything from her stance to her follow through to her fielding was so believable. Everybody else was there to support Rani. Shahid and Anupan Kher were good in their parts.
Music by Pritam has to be his weakest work for a long time now. Not one song felt hummable and were outright boring. Even Sonu Nigam's vocals couldn't save one of the songs.
Director Anurag Singh had directed a movie called Raqueeb which was a much better effort than DBH. He has to pull up his socks if he wants to last in this industry as this is the era of young brilliant directors in bollywood.
Rating: Watch this movie for the brilliance of Rani Mukherji.
You can safely give it a miss and catch it on TV or DVD after a month or so if you are not a Rani Mukherji fan like me :)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Life Partner & Paying Guests
Life Partner - novel concept, loosely handled
Rumy Jaffery as a director gave us the horrendous 'God Tussi Great ho' which was such a bad remake of Bruce Almighty that Jim Carey's aatma will tadpofy for ever. Apart from that he has written scripts for numerous David Dhawan flicks.
Life Partner is a step in the right direction but there is still a huge scope of improvement for Rumy. The idea behind the script was wonderful to show love marriage and arranged marriage as 2 faces of the same coin.
Karan and Bhavesh, played by Fardeen and Tushhar are best friends. Karan has a steady girlfriend in Sanjana (Genelia) and Bhavesh is saving up his romance for his would be wife Prachi, played by Prachi Desai.
Jeet(Govinda) is a common friend who is a divorce lawyer. After several admonitions from Jeet, the 2 guys decide to get married. The couples face differences and this leads to their divorces in 6 months.
The plot continues as to how these couples sort out their differences. Surprisingly unlike most of the movies, this movie has its best portions in the middle. The movie is at its weakest in the starting few reels and the climax is simply poor.
Govinda provides some humor in the middle portions but he is no where near his old self. He looks horribly misfit for the role. The background score for him which goes like "Mr Lawyer Lawyer" was funny. It reminded me of the bg score from Mujhse shaadi karogi "wicked Sunny.. churalega rani" for Akki.
The best things about the movie were Genelia and Tushhar. The worst things about the movie were Genelia and Tushhar. Depending on which side of the fence you are on, when it comes to liking these 2, you will either love them or totally hate them. Personally I loved Genelia in this movie. FK was irritating as usual. Prachi was nice.
Direction is a little poor and the weight of the movie can be seen in Govinda's eye bags. Music is horrible. This script had ample potential to become a laughathon. Maybe Rumy should have handed the reins of direction to David Dhawan.
A TP flick which can be caught on TV.
Paying Guest - very funny
I watched this movie yesterday, long after its release, and boy was I surprised. It's one of those brainless stupid comedies which are stupid but howlarious. The punch lines were just too good and even the comic timing.
Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jaffery, Vatsal Seth and Ashish Choudhary are 4 friends who are in need of an apartment. Desperate needs call for desperate measures and 2 of them have to disguise themselves as the wives of the other 2. What follows is a plot full of comedy and awesome punch lines.
There is some repetitive stuff in the movie. For instance, Shreyas plays a woman again and does a damn neat job again. The climax is totally inspired from 'Jane bhi Do Yaaro' but is well done in the end.
Performances were nice. Especially Shreyas and Javed Jaffery's comic timing rocked it. Paritosh Painter's direction was good too. Songs were of fast forward variety.
All in all a very entertaining watch.
Rumy Jaffery as a director gave us the horrendous 'God Tussi Great ho' which was such a bad remake of Bruce Almighty that Jim Carey's aatma will tadpofy for ever. Apart from that he has written scripts for numerous David Dhawan flicks.
Life Partner is a step in the right direction but there is still a huge scope of improvement for Rumy. The idea behind the script was wonderful to show love marriage and arranged marriage as 2 faces of the same coin.
Karan and Bhavesh, played by Fardeen and Tushhar are best friends. Karan has a steady girlfriend in Sanjana (Genelia) and Bhavesh is saving up his romance for his would be wife Prachi, played by Prachi Desai.
Jeet(Govinda) is a common friend who is a divorce lawyer. After several admonitions from Jeet, the 2 guys decide to get married. The couples face differences and this leads to their divorces in 6 months.
The plot continues as to how these couples sort out their differences. Surprisingly unlike most of the movies, this movie has its best portions in the middle. The movie is at its weakest in the starting few reels and the climax is simply poor.
Govinda provides some humor in the middle portions but he is no where near his old self. He looks horribly misfit for the role. The background score for him which goes like "Mr Lawyer Lawyer" was funny. It reminded me of the bg score from Mujhse shaadi karogi "wicked Sunny.. churalega rani" for Akki.
The best things about the movie were Genelia and Tushhar. The worst things about the movie were Genelia and Tushhar. Depending on which side of the fence you are on, when it comes to liking these 2, you will either love them or totally hate them. Personally I loved Genelia in this movie. FK was irritating as usual. Prachi was nice.
Direction is a little poor and the weight of the movie can be seen in Govinda's eye bags. Music is horrible. This script had ample potential to become a laughathon. Maybe Rumy should have handed the reins of direction to David Dhawan.
A TP flick which can be caught on TV.
Paying Guest - very funny
I watched this movie yesterday, long after its release, and boy was I surprised. It's one of those brainless stupid comedies which are stupid but howlarious. The punch lines were just too good and even the comic timing.
Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jaffery, Vatsal Seth and Ashish Choudhary are 4 friends who are in need of an apartment. Desperate needs call for desperate measures and 2 of them have to disguise themselves as the wives of the other 2. What follows is a plot full of comedy and awesome punch lines.
There is some repetitive stuff in the movie. For instance, Shreyas plays a woman again and does a damn neat job again. The climax is totally inspired from 'Jane bhi Do Yaaro' but is well done in the end.
Performances were nice. Especially Shreyas and Javed Jaffery's comic timing rocked it. Paritosh Painter's direction was good too. Songs were of fast forward variety.
All in all a very entertaining watch.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Kaminey - Dhan Tan Na
Its been one week since I saw Kamminey last friday and I still cant seem to get it out of my system. I can still remember the movie as though it was etched in memory. I will be watching this movie several times more for sure. Its one of those movies that will grow even bigger with time Ala Satya, Rang De Basanti etc.
Vishal Bhardwaj is definitely heading in the right direction, getting even better with every movie that he finishes. Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara and now Kaminey. The music of Kaminey is mind blowing too. This has to be Vishal's best work as a music director, I believe, after Maachis.
Kaminey is totally a collective effort. Everything from the story, screenplay, acting, music and lyrics rocks in this movie. The plot could have been easily written between 2 siblings but Vishal decides to make those brothers twins to introduce more drama and suspense. Intelligent screenplay keeps the audience involved the whole time. You cant leave the theater for a quick leak or drink hoping that you wont miss much.
The main plot revolves around Charlie and Guddu who are twins with speech impairment. Charlie is a grey character working with criminals while Guddu is a goody goody boy. Guddu has a brat of a girlfriend played by Priyanka who I think is the new Kajol of Indian Cinema. She plays a marathi 'mulgi' with ease as if she was born marathi.
Charlie gets stuck into a mess with a certain gang who are dealing with drugs. Guddu gets into a mess because his girlfriend (who apparently is the sister of a mumbai don) gets pregnant. What follows is chaos, confusion, crime and drama beautifully put together.
This has to be Shahid and Priyanka's best performance till date. Shahid shows a new side of him with lots of 'kaminaapanti' in his acting. Especially the glare he gives when playing Charlie in the penultimate sequence where the two brothers clash is superb. Priyanka is OUTSTANDING. This one is surely a winner for her. Amol Gupte is too good. Cant believe the guy wrote such a heart touching story(TZP) after seeing him here. Tenzing Nima as the other don is outstanding too.
This film belongs to Vishal Bhardwaj. Music and direction are top notch and he brings out fabulous performances from every one. The story telling style is very different from his previous movies and innovative.
Music by Vishal and lyrics by Gulzar is a lethal combo. Awesome work. Although I was disappointed not to see some numbers which were put in the background. Ofcourse the script demanded them to be in the background but I personally would have liked to see the Mohit Chauhan number as a part of shahid-priyanka romance.
Rating: Due to some agitated remarks from people around, I will no longer rate movies in stars. Also I believe that stars do not tell the true story every time.
This is a cult film. Don't miss it. Watch it while its there on the big screen.
Personal Input: I thought Charlie's character was gay. It was not shown in the end but that's my assumption. :P
Vishal Bhardwaj is definitely heading in the right direction, getting even better with every movie that he finishes. Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara and now Kaminey. The music of Kaminey is mind blowing too. This has to be Vishal's best work as a music director, I believe, after Maachis.
Kaminey is totally a collective effort. Everything from the story, screenplay, acting, music and lyrics rocks in this movie. The plot could have been easily written between 2 siblings but Vishal decides to make those brothers twins to introduce more drama and suspense. Intelligent screenplay keeps the audience involved the whole time. You cant leave the theater for a quick leak or drink hoping that you wont miss much.
The main plot revolves around Charlie and Guddu who are twins with speech impairment. Charlie is a grey character working with criminals while Guddu is a goody goody boy. Guddu has a brat of a girlfriend played by Priyanka who I think is the new Kajol of Indian Cinema. She plays a marathi 'mulgi' with ease as if she was born marathi.
Charlie gets stuck into a mess with a certain gang who are dealing with drugs. Guddu gets into a mess because his girlfriend (who apparently is the sister of a mumbai don) gets pregnant. What follows is chaos, confusion, crime and drama beautifully put together.
This has to be Shahid and Priyanka's best performance till date. Shahid shows a new side of him with lots of 'kaminaapanti' in his acting. Especially the glare he gives when playing Charlie in the penultimate sequence where the two brothers clash is superb. Priyanka is OUTSTANDING. This one is surely a winner for her. Amol Gupte is too good. Cant believe the guy wrote such a heart touching story(TZP) after seeing him here. Tenzing Nima as the other don is outstanding too.
This film belongs to Vishal Bhardwaj. Music and direction are top notch and he brings out fabulous performances from every one. The story telling style is very different from his previous movies and innovative.
Music by Vishal and lyrics by Gulzar is a lethal combo. Awesome work. Although I was disappointed not to see some numbers which were put in the background. Ofcourse the script demanded them to be in the background but I personally would have liked to see the Mohit Chauhan number as a part of shahid-priyanka romance.
Rating: Due to some agitated remarks from people around, I will no longer rate movies in stars. Also I believe that stars do not tell the true story every time.
This is a cult film. Don't miss it. Watch it while its there on the big screen.
Personal Input: I thought Charlie's character was gay. It was not shown in the end but that's my assumption. :P
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Love Aaj Kal - recreates DDLJ magic.
With every movie that Imtiaz Ali makes he raises the expectations for his next movie and raises the bar for his competitors. If you thought he couldn't better his last outings Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha, think again. LAK is all about a simple story through some brilliant story telling via excellent script, screenplay, dialogues and direction.
The best part that I liked about LAK was that its characters are so real and so today. To go with that Imtiaz decides to tell his story in two threads. One in Aaj and One in Kal. The inference is that times may change, approaches may change but the one thing that doesn't change is Love. The dialogs make you laugh and avoid an all out mushy gushy moment. This movie really has some repeat value.
Jai(Saif) and Meera(Deepika) meet in a bar and start going around. After a year both decide to part their ways as Meera has to move to Delhi and the both believe that long distance relationships do not work out. They break up on a good note, or so they believe.
Its only when an interfering Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor) pushes Jai that he opens up and starts realizing that he actually misses Meera. Veer shares his love story which takes us back in time into eastman color and a younger version which is played by Saif again.
Its Jai and Meera's journey of realizing how much they love each other which culminates the rest of the movie.
Acting front Saif is brilliant in both the roles. I liked the Aaj wala Saif slightly better though. Deepika looks stunning and does a very decent job. Rishi Kapoor is likable as always. Giselle Monterio (who I just found out is a Brazilian actress !!!!) played Harleen, younger Veers love interest, to perfection. Rahul Khanna is nice in his cameo.
This movie has an Imtiaz Ali stamp all over it. Not only is the story and screenplay awesomely written, it has been equally well executed which would have been difficult BTW. The opening 15 minutes confuses the hell out of you. But like an orange, the good stuff comes after a little peeling. As the story moves ahead everything falls into place beautifully. I officially mark Imtiaz Ali as a genius in my book after this movie.
The music is really up to the mark. Pritam does it again. Until we find the source, credit has to be given to Pritam. The songs fit into the movie like fish in water. The "Yeh dooriyan" number by Mohit Chauhan is mesmerizing. I loved the way "Mai Kya Hoon" was shot. Truly brilliant.
Rating: **** (Do Not Miss it !!! Watch it Aaj ya Kal !)
--Added Incentive to watch it in theaters is that we get to see the Aladin promo.
Spoiler: One dialog was really funny. Saif goes like, "We are the mango people" which is like literal translation for Aam Aadmi. LOL.
The best part that I liked about LAK was that its characters are so real and so today. To go with that Imtiaz decides to tell his story in two threads. One in Aaj and One in Kal. The inference is that times may change, approaches may change but the one thing that doesn't change is Love. The dialogs make you laugh and avoid an all out mushy gushy moment. This movie really has some repeat value.
Jai(Saif) and Meera(Deepika) meet in a bar and start going around. After a year both decide to part their ways as Meera has to move to Delhi and the both believe that long distance relationships do not work out. They break up on a good note, or so they believe.
Its only when an interfering Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor) pushes Jai that he opens up and starts realizing that he actually misses Meera. Veer shares his love story which takes us back in time into eastman color and a younger version which is played by Saif again.
Its Jai and Meera's journey of realizing how much they love each other which culminates the rest of the movie.
Acting front Saif is brilliant in both the roles. I liked the Aaj wala Saif slightly better though. Deepika looks stunning and does a very decent job. Rishi Kapoor is likable as always. Giselle Monterio (who I just found out is a Brazilian actress !!!!) played Harleen, younger Veers love interest, to perfection. Rahul Khanna is nice in his cameo.
This movie has an Imtiaz Ali stamp all over it. Not only is the story and screenplay awesomely written, it has been equally well executed which would have been difficult BTW. The opening 15 minutes confuses the hell out of you. But like an orange, the good stuff comes after a little peeling. As the story moves ahead everything falls into place beautifully. I officially mark Imtiaz Ali as a genius in my book after this movie.
The music is really up to the mark. Pritam does it again. Until we find the source, credit has to be given to Pritam. The songs fit into the movie like fish in water. The "Yeh dooriyan" number by Mohit Chauhan is mesmerizing. I loved the way "Mai Kya Hoon" was shot. Truly brilliant.
Rating: **** (Do Not Miss it !!! Watch it Aaj ya Kal !)
--Added Incentive to watch it in theaters is that we get to see the Aladin promo.
Spoiler: One dialog was really funny. Saif goes like, "We are the mango people" which is like literal translation for Aam Aadmi. LOL.
Monday, July 27, 2009
The genius named Rakesh Roshan
Recently, in an award show Rakesh Roshan received the director of the decade award. So I looked up IMDB for his credentials. He did not make it big as an actor but as far as writing directing goes this guy is amazing. He has directed 12 movies so far out of which 8 are hits and out of those 3 are super hits.
Roshan Sr. has always tried his hand at something different. Whether be it a woman's revenge saga in Khoon Bhari Maang or the reincarnation in Karan Arjun or Hrithik's launchpad love story in Kaho Na Pyar Hai. He was the first director to try his hand in a sci-fi movie with aliens in Koi.. mil gaya and the first to make a Indian super hero movie with Krrish.
Apart from his obsession with the letter 'K' Rakesh Roshan has been innovative every single time. Sometimes his stories might be very cliched revenge sagas or love stories but he weaves it so wonderfully around a different theme/ plot and makes it so commercially viewable and enjoyable for the viewers which I think is a great skill. Yes some people might argue that all his films are "formula" based but its the way he portrays them which makes them different and enjoyable.
I mean apart from Karz, Karan Arjun is the only reincarnation movie which comes to my mind. I even watched it today after getting nostalgic about it :) . Even Kishan Kanhaiyya which was touted as a male version of ChaalBaaz had some magic to it. Khel, based on 2 con artists and their love story starring the then hit jodi of Anil-Madhuri is one of my favorite movies till date. Ditto for King Uncle. Although the movie did not work at the box office it was a lovable affair for me. I guess I do not even need to speak for Kaho Na Pyar Hai and Koi Mil Gaya as they were block busters and speak for themselves.
When Krrish got released, it got a bumper opening and was declared a super hit. But I saw it take a lot of flak from many people. I was really disappointed from the people who downright rejected the movie. I loved the film and respected Rakesh Roshan for trying his hand at something really really new for the Indian audiences. No one at that time even dared of thinking on these lines. With the limited finances for special effects that he had, he weaved a beautiful story around the main theme of a super hero flick and I really respect that. Moreover it really felt like a sequel to Koi.. Mil gaya.
Hrithik Roshan has always excelled beyond expectations under Rakesh Roshan's direction and that speaks volumes for the director itself. When Hrithik was down in the dumps with the disaster called Mai Prem Ki Deewani Hu, out came Rakesh Roshan with Koi.. Mil Gaya, which put Hrithik back in the spot light. Yes, it had a special effort from Hrithik, but it just goes to show how much difference a director makes for an actor.
Whenever the top director's list of this decade is made, people always talk about Adi Chopra (who has just 1 super hit to his name btw), Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Farhan Akhtar, Raju Hirani etc. But it is Rakesh Roshan who heads the list with amazing consistency at churning out entertaining movies. Heartiest congratulations to Rakesh Roshan, take a bow sir. Awaiting your next offering as a writer director, Krrish 2 which has gone into production.
Roshan Sr. has always tried his hand at something different. Whether be it a woman's revenge saga in Khoon Bhari Maang or the reincarnation in Karan Arjun or Hrithik's launchpad love story in Kaho Na Pyar Hai. He was the first director to try his hand in a sci-fi movie with aliens in Koi.. mil gaya and the first to make a Indian super hero movie with Krrish.
Apart from his obsession with the letter 'K' Rakesh Roshan has been innovative every single time. Sometimes his stories might be very cliched revenge sagas or love stories but he weaves it so wonderfully around a different theme/ plot and makes it so commercially viewable and enjoyable for the viewers which I think is a great skill. Yes some people might argue that all his films are "formula" based but its the way he portrays them which makes them different and enjoyable.
I mean apart from Karz, Karan Arjun is the only reincarnation movie which comes to my mind. I even watched it today after getting nostalgic about it :) . Even Kishan Kanhaiyya which was touted as a male version of ChaalBaaz had some magic to it. Khel, based on 2 con artists and their love story starring the then hit jodi of Anil-Madhuri is one of my favorite movies till date. Ditto for King Uncle. Although the movie did not work at the box office it was a lovable affair for me. I guess I do not even need to speak for Kaho Na Pyar Hai and Koi Mil Gaya as they were block busters and speak for themselves.
When Krrish got released, it got a bumper opening and was declared a super hit. But I saw it take a lot of flak from many people. I was really disappointed from the people who downright rejected the movie. I loved the film and respected Rakesh Roshan for trying his hand at something really really new for the Indian audiences. No one at that time even dared of thinking on these lines. With the limited finances for special effects that he had, he weaved a beautiful story around the main theme of a super hero flick and I really respect that. Moreover it really felt like a sequel to Koi.. Mil gaya.
Hrithik Roshan has always excelled beyond expectations under Rakesh Roshan's direction and that speaks volumes for the director itself. When Hrithik was down in the dumps with the disaster called Mai Prem Ki Deewani Hu, out came Rakesh Roshan with Koi.. Mil Gaya, which put Hrithik back in the spot light. Yes, it had a special effort from Hrithik, but it just goes to show how much difference a director makes for an actor.
Whenever the top director's list of this decade is made, people always talk about Adi Chopra (who has just 1 super hit to his name btw), Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Farhan Akhtar, Raju Hirani etc. But it is Rakesh Roshan who heads the list with amazing consistency at churning out entertaining movies. Heartiest congratulations to Rakesh Roshan, take a bow sir. Awaiting your next offering as a writer director, Krrish 2 which has gone into production.
Jashnn - A little too late.
Jashnn was supposed to be a launch pad for Adhyayan Suman, the latest star(?) kid on the block. Directors Raksha Mistry and Hasnain S Hyderabadwala (after making straight copies in their previous movies, Killer and The train) decide to get inspired from a desi flick this time. Rock on you guys :)
Jashnn is about a young man and the mess in his life. With all that's happening in his life how he finds a way to succeed in the field of music, his true love is what this movie is about. This movie really has some nice emotional moments which makes me believe that the rumors of Mahesh Bhatt ghost directing this movie actually hold some sense.
Akash(Adhyayan) is a young boy for whom music is his life. He dreams of being the country's best singer. His sister Nisha(Shahana) is a mistress to a rich businessman, Aman Bajaj(Humayun) so that she can afford a good lifestyle for herself and her brother. Akash is disgusted by her attitude and walks out of the house one day. To add fuel to the fire he falls in love with Aman Bajaj's sister, Sara(Anjana).
The rest of the story is about how Akash continues with his journey to becoming a successful singer. This movie was being promoted for around a year and hence could have been more effective if it would have released before Rock On.
Jashnn is a performance oriented movie. It needed powerful performances from every character. All the actors do justice to their roles with putting in powerful performances. Adhyayan is great in his role and proves Raaz was not a fluke. Shahana was great as expected. Anjana surprised me with her performance. Humayun as the baddie was good too.
Music is the soul of the movie and new comers Toshi-Sharib and Nauman Javed really do a good job. I don't know what or how Toshi has impressed the Bhatts but he is getting tremendous footage in the Bhatt camp. For those of you who don't know, Toshi was one of the contestants in singing reality shows and 80% people including me hated his singing :)
Direction is well done. The movie flows at a nice pace. The songs fit into place. A couple of emotional scenes were handled really well and the baddy's transformation in the end was well shot too and credit to Humayun for some splendid acting in the climax.
Rating *** (Deserves 1 watch)
Jashnn is about a young man and the mess in his life. With all that's happening in his life how he finds a way to succeed in the field of music, his true love is what this movie is about. This movie really has some nice emotional moments which makes me believe that the rumors of Mahesh Bhatt ghost directing this movie actually hold some sense.
Akash(Adhyayan) is a young boy for whom music is his life. He dreams of being the country's best singer. His sister Nisha(Shahana) is a mistress to a rich businessman, Aman Bajaj(Humayun) so that she can afford a good lifestyle for herself and her brother. Akash is disgusted by her attitude and walks out of the house one day. To add fuel to the fire he falls in love with Aman Bajaj's sister, Sara(Anjana).
The rest of the story is about how Akash continues with his journey to becoming a successful singer. This movie was being promoted for around a year and hence could have been more effective if it would have released before Rock On.
Jashnn is a performance oriented movie. It needed powerful performances from every character. All the actors do justice to their roles with putting in powerful performances. Adhyayan is great in his role and proves Raaz was not a fluke. Shahana was great as expected. Anjana surprised me with her performance. Humayun as the baddie was good too.
Music is the soul of the movie and new comers Toshi-Sharib and Nauman Javed really do a good job. I don't know what or how Toshi has impressed the Bhatts but he is getting tremendous footage in the Bhatt camp. For those of you who don't know, Toshi was one of the contestants in singing reality shows and 80% people including me hated his singing :)
Direction is well done. The movie flows at a nice pace. The songs fit into place. A couple of emotional scenes were handled really well and the baddy's transformation in the end was well shot too and credit to Humayun for some splendid acting in the climax.
Rating *** (Deserves 1 watch)
ShortKut - The con is on (the public)
Promos / Trailers are an integral part of a film which can make or break a movie. When Priyadarshan had decided to show Hera Pheri as suspense thriller in his promos, he was very smart to leave out the humor element for the movie so as to not make it stale. On the other hand the recent CC2C's trailers consumed all of the movie's best scenes. One has to be really smart while cutting promos.
ShorKut was promoted to be a funny movie. The director's credits even forced you to believe it would be a funny movie. No offense to Neeraj Vora, but he has kind of been flagged as an average comedy film director. The public was fooled as the movie did not at all revolve around any comic situations. Mind you, I am not saying it was a bad movie. It was a good film, but I had expected something else out of it. This is a movie which shows the 2 different routes to attain success and the drama around it. Yes there are a couple of funny scenes in the movie but aren't those there in almost every movie?
Shekhar(Akshaye) is a talented script writer and is touted to make it big one day by his peers. Raju(Arshad) is a (non)actor who aspires to make it big in the industry. On one hand where Shekhar believes that only hard work is the key to success, Raju believes that there is always a shortcut to get to the top.
All hell breaks lose when Raju steals Shekhar's script and sells it to get a role in a film. Shekhar is devastated and decides to quit films, but his wife, fellow colleagues and his "basti waale" help him get out of the rut and make a movie. Shekhar decides that he will conquer his anger by working with Raju. Raju decides to ruin Shekhar and decides that he will leave the movie after 70% of its shooting.
For the climax, which is pretty good by the way, watch the movie.
Acting wise Akshaye is brilliant as always. I really feel he is the biggest underdog of Indian cinema. Whatever comedy there is in the film rests solely on Arshad's shoulders. He is supposed to be the bad guy with the gray shades. The final scene in the climax is where Arshad shows us that he is a fantastic actor as well. He gives some awesome expressions. I had really liked him in Sehar too. He should give a try for non comic roles as well. Amrita is OK.
Songs disappoint big time. This has to be S-E-L's weakest work till date. They try to recreate Kajrare with Mareeze Mohabbat but fail terribly. All the songs are fast forward material.
Director Neeraj Vora handles the subject well. He tries phasing into a different genre. A good try. Ditto for writer Anees Baazme. Neeraj Vora doubles up as a dialogue writer and this is the best of the lot. Some dialogues really hit bulls eye. The second half could have been tighter with less songs. Amrita's angle was not necessary in the movie.
Rating: ** (Watch it with a clean slate perspective. You might actually like it.)
ShorKut was promoted to be a funny movie. The director's credits even forced you to believe it would be a funny movie. No offense to Neeraj Vora, but he has kind of been flagged as an average comedy film director. The public was fooled as the movie did not at all revolve around any comic situations. Mind you, I am not saying it was a bad movie. It was a good film, but I had expected something else out of it. This is a movie which shows the 2 different routes to attain success and the drama around it. Yes there are a couple of funny scenes in the movie but aren't those there in almost every movie?
Shekhar(Akshaye) is a talented script writer and is touted to make it big one day by his peers. Raju(Arshad) is a (non)actor who aspires to make it big in the industry. On one hand where Shekhar believes that only hard work is the key to success, Raju believes that there is always a shortcut to get to the top.
All hell breaks lose when Raju steals Shekhar's script and sells it to get a role in a film. Shekhar is devastated and decides to quit films, but his wife, fellow colleagues and his "basti waale" help him get out of the rut and make a movie. Shekhar decides that he will conquer his anger by working with Raju. Raju decides to ruin Shekhar and decides that he will leave the movie after 70% of its shooting.
For the climax, which is pretty good by the way, watch the movie.
Acting wise Akshaye is brilliant as always. I really feel he is the biggest underdog of Indian cinema. Whatever comedy there is in the film rests solely on Arshad's shoulders. He is supposed to be the bad guy with the gray shades. The final scene in the climax is where Arshad shows us that he is a fantastic actor as well. He gives some awesome expressions. I had really liked him in Sehar too. He should give a try for non comic roles as well. Amrita is OK.
Songs disappoint big time. This has to be S-E-L's weakest work till date. They try to recreate Kajrare with Mareeze Mohabbat but fail terribly. All the songs are fast forward material.
Director Neeraj Vora handles the subject well. He tries phasing into a different genre. A good try. Ditto for writer Anees Baazme. Neeraj Vora doubles up as a dialogue writer and this is the best of the lot. Some dialogues really hit bulls eye. The second half could have been tighter with less songs. Amrita's angle was not necessary in the movie.
Rating: ** (Watch it with a clean slate perspective. You might actually like it.)
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Kambakht Ishq - Kareena's Hottt and Akki's Cooool
Throughout the latter part of the 90s Bollywood churned out these "Keep your minds at home" genre of movies. This era was dominated by the David Dhawan - Govinda combo. Lately post Hera Pheri, a major part of the Akshay Kumar starers have turned out to be belonging to the same genre. So if you did not like the likes of Garam Masala, Welcome and Singh is King, this review is not for you and hence you can stop here.
Kambakht Ishq has a lot of eye candy and very little of logic and lots of humor. One should not apply any logic while seeing such kind of movies. Its mostly shot in Los Angeles and hence viewers get a free LA darshan. The music is peppy and adds to the movie's masala. Some of the jokes are really really funny and just cracks you up. I was laughing on a couple of jokes even after 5 hours into the movie. Humor is the soul of this film on the backdrop of a battle between the sexes.
As shown in the teasers, Viraj (Akshay) is an award winning stuntman in Hollywood and Simrita (Kareena) is a part time super model who is also a budding surgeon. The two main characters are cocky, arrogant and rude. They face each other when they try to stop their sibling/ friend (played by Aftab and Amrita Arora) from marrying.
In each other's ego trip they try their level best to break up these two. There are bets placed, accidents and what not. The humor changes into some sentimental drama (dont worry only for about 20 minutes) when KK and Akki realize that they have fallen for their biggest enemy. Characters are woven around these two central characters to provide even more humor. There is a random character of Mr. Keswani played by Javed Jaffery which just gets you rolling on the floor with laughter.
The first half of the movie is extremely funny. The second half opens with a bang with Akki hearing the Om Mangalam chants every where around him. It gets a little dull in between and a little too foolish in the end. A tribute to Sunny Deol is given by Sylvester Stalone in the end.
Akshay is funny as always with his expressions and acting. He looks cool in his new mohawk like hairdo. Kareena is hott. Although in parts she looks too skinny. Javed Jaffery is howwlarious. Aftab is ok and Amrita gets to enact herself on screen (a dumb girl) and does a good job. Sylvester Stallone adds star power. Denise Richards gets to act bollywood style in the end.
Sabir Khan doubles up as a co-writer and director and has a done a good job with whatever content he was provided with. Ishita Moitra has co-written the script and screenplay. But the clear winner is Anvita Guptan with her dialogues. It got me reminiscent of Kadar Khan's witty one liners in the David Dhawan era.
Music by Annu Malik is very peppy and hummable. But the chart stealer is RDB's Om mangalam. This song is a chart-buster. Although none of the songs make the story flow, they are shot very well which makes them a pleasure to watch. Not to mention the lyrics which are absolutely funny. My favorite line being "Kehti hai ki Taare dila do, maang mein fir mujhko saja do; Antariksha ka kya theka liya hai, bhaade pe kya rocket liya hai? ".
Rating: *** (Great watch if you are a fan of this genre).
Spoiler: The awesomest joke ever.. Javed Jaffery cons the hot dog seller by showing him a needle(sui) in the hot dog. He goes like "I am gonna sue you for this. You will be the suee(needle) and I 'll be the suer(pig). :)
Kambakht Ishq has a lot of eye candy and very little of logic and lots of humor. One should not apply any logic while seeing such kind of movies. Its mostly shot in Los Angeles and hence viewers get a free LA darshan. The music is peppy and adds to the movie's masala. Some of the jokes are really really funny and just cracks you up. I was laughing on a couple of jokes even after 5 hours into the movie. Humor is the soul of this film on the backdrop of a battle between the sexes.
As shown in the teasers, Viraj (Akshay) is an award winning stuntman in Hollywood and Simrita (Kareena) is a part time super model who is also a budding surgeon. The two main characters are cocky, arrogant and rude. They face each other when they try to stop their sibling/ friend (played by Aftab and Amrita Arora) from marrying.
In each other's ego trip they try their level best to break up these two. There are bets placed, accidents and what not. The humor changes into some sentimental drama (dont worry only for about 20 minutes) when KK and Akki realize that they have fallen for their biggest enemy. Characters are woven around these two central characters to provide even more humor. There is a random character of Mr. Keswani played by Javed Jaffery which just gets you rolling on the floor with laughter.
The first half of the movie is extremely funny. The second half opens with a bang with Akki hearing the Om Mangalam chants every where around him. It gets a little dull in between and a little too foolish in the end. A tribute to Sunny Deol is given by Sylvester Stalone in the end.
Akshay is funny as always with his expressions and acting. He looks cool in his new mohawk like hairdo. Kareena is hott. Although in parts she looks too skinny. Javed Jaffery is howwlarious. Aftab is ok and Amrita gets to enact herself on screen (a dumb girl) and does a good job. Sylvester Stallone adds star power. Denise Richards gets to act bollywood style in the end.
Sabir Khan doubles up as a co-writer and director and has a done a good job with whatever content he was provided with. Ishita Moitra has co-written the script and screenplay. But the clear winner is Anvita Guptan with her dialogues. It got me reminiscent of Kadar Khan's witty one liners in the David Dhawan era.
Music by Annu Malik is very peppy and hummable. But the chart stealer is RDB's Om mangalam. This song is a chart-buster. Although none of the songs make the story flow, they are shot very well which makes them a pleasure to watch. Not to mention the lyrics which are absolutely funny. My favorite line being "Kehti hai ki Taare dila do, maang mein fir mujhko saja do; Antariksha ka kya theka liya hai, bhaade pe kya rocket liya hai? ".
Rating: *** (Great watch if you are a fan of this genre).
Spoiler: The awesomest joke ever.. Javed Jaffery cons the hot dog seller by showing him a needle(sui) in the hot dog. He goes like "I am gonna sue you for this. You will be the suee(needle) and I 'll be the suer(pig). :)
Monday, June 29, 2009
New York - a serious theme gift wrapped in commercial cinema
For the past 2-3 years YashRaj banner has failed to give the audience any supplement of good movies (barring a few like Chak De India). YashRaj has been accused of time and again repeating the same look n feel, soul lacking movies. New York comes as a survivor for the YashRaj banner.
9/11 and terrorism is a sensitive topic which if not handled properly could become a farce. Writer Sandeep Shrivastav not only handles the topic extremely well but weaves a thriller/ drama story around it beautifully to intrigue the viewer. Hence adding the commercial value to the movie.
Omar, Samir and Maya, played by the 3 main characters Neil, John and Kats, are 3 close friends in college pursuing their Masters from the state university. A love triangle is budding between the three and when John and Kats confess their love for each other, heart-broken Neil decides to
leave town after graduating.
7 years down the line, post 9/11 era, Neil is caught for illegal possession of weapons. His only way out is to work undercover for FBI agent Roshan (Irfan Khan) to unearth a terrorist sleeping cell suspected to be led by Samir Sheikh (John). Neil is bullied into helping the FBI and goes back
into his best friends' lives.
into his best friends' lives.
Neil works his way to find out about John's life. Find out whether John is actually a terrorist or if he is being framed into being one by the FBI.
Acting front, Neil Nitin Mukesh is amazing. He has enacted his transition of a newbie in college to an undercover agent very convincingly. John Abraham, simply one word, WOW. Move over people, John has arrived! Katrina is improving vastly, and of course she looks gorgeous as ever.
If only looks and her smile could kill. Irfaan provides some humor in the movie and is good. I still remember seeing him in a soap called 'Banegi Apni Baat' and thinking, "man.. he is gonna make it big one day". Good to see him getting what he deserves.
If only looks and her smile could kill. Irfaan provides some humor in the movie and is good. I still remember seeing him in a soap called 'Banegi Apni Baat' and thinking, "man.. he is gonna make it big one day". Good to see him getting what he deserves.
Music by pritam is good and flows with the movie. The songs don't interrupt the story telling. They gel into the movie superbly. Speculations of Pritam lifting some tunes do exist, but the music nonetheless is good. Kabir Khan who had also written and directed Kabul Express,
does a very good job. A story told very well and extracting brilliant performances from the actors. If only the ending could have been nicer. There were some flaws in the end.
Rating: ***1/2 (Worth watching at least once. Best commercial movie of the year so far)
Friday, June 26, 2009
Let's Dance - feel good film.
A generation inspired by Michael Jackson is making movies dedicated to his style of dance moves. Its a pity he is no longer with us to witness it. Rest in peace Michael! I hope you finally find peace.
Just last week we saw the abysmal launch of Jacky Bhagnani by super producer, Vashu Bhagnani. This week another producer, though less famous, gives his daughter the launch pad for an entry into the "Sapno ki Nagri".
Genrally movies that have a competition in them, song based, dance based, sports based etc. have a feel good factor in them. We have seen many such movies but Aaja Nachle and Rangeela are the closest which come to mind while watching this movie. Although Gayatri Patel is no Madhuri or Urmila as far as acting or looks are concerned, she makes it up with her dancing skills. One disappointing aspect about this movie is that it has a B-gradish look n feel to it which might scare away half its viewers.
Suhani (Gayatri Patel) is a dance school teacher who aspires to feature in a music video some day. She teaches children for free and works night shifts in the bars. Her friend and roomie (played by Shaleen from JTYJN) helps her along the way financially. Along her journey of life she meets some people who influence her life in some way or the other. She meets a guy who falls head over heels for her and turns out to help her whenever she needs it the most. A music video producer who gives her the much needed break also comes along during the course.
Parallely, a story about young kids from the slums being exploited to deliver drugs goes on. The leader of this kid-pack, Aftab (Abhaas Yadav) is an excellent dancer but doesnt put his skills to productive use as he thinks its useless.
The rest of the story is how Suhani battles to get Aftab out of this drug racket and inspire him to join her dancing clique. The climax of this movie is the best part according to me because there is no preachy stuff.
Acting wise, Gayatri is ok. She could probably work on her diction and take some acting classes. Gayatri weaves magic with her legs though. She is an awesome dancer. Glimpses of modelling herself on Madhuri Dixit could be seen. Young Abhaas gave a powerful performance and dances even better than Gayatri. Watch out for this kid. The others were plain ok. Aqib Afsal playing the music video director hams to death.
The music is the soul of this film and is outright brilliant. Vipin Sharma, take a bow. In my view, this is one of the best alnums of the year. Sunidhi Chauhan has rocked in the 3 numbers she was alloted. I highly recommend giving this album atleast one go even if you do not intend to watch the movie. Especially, Sansanati, Taare tod ke la and Jaana Hai.
Debutante director Aarif Sheikh, who has won the national award for best editing (Maqbool) has done a decent job with this movie. With the limited resources that he had in hand, this is the best he could have extracted. Hats off to the choreographer's as well for some mind blowing choreography.
Rating: **1/2 (Go For it if you are a dancing fan..)
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Kal Kisne Dekha - maine dekha par kyun dekha
After a hiatus, Bollywood movies return to the screen. Even a movie minutely entertaining would have passed on as a relief. But instead we get tortured by a demon called Kal Kisne Dekha. The cliche of Cliche's is the core part of the story in this movie. Let alone the forced use of "Kal Kisne Dekha hai" in the dialogues. Last year Abbas Tyrewala showed us that even cliches can be lovable to watch if told well. Unfortunately, Vivek Sharma who was impressive in his debut offering Bhoothnath, both as writer and director, fails miserably in this flick. Looks like he was put on a gun point to incorporate dumb scenes in the movie where Jacky can show his prowess.
In the past few months we have seen several movies dealing with the central character being able to see the future. As terrible as AA Dekhen Zara was, it has got a neck to neck competition with Kal Kisne Dekha.
Nihal Singh from Chandigarh, yes thats what Jacky refers to himself throughout the movie, is a simpleton who has big brains for "Science". He used to make "inventions" since he was a kid. He comes down to Mumbai for further education and meets a spoilt rich brat Meesha, played by Vaishali Desai (Manmohan Singh's grand niece). On one hand Nihal impresses his professor, Rishi Kapoor (still in his Luck by chance wig), with his intelligence and difference in thinking while on the other he is unpopular amongst his seniors and gets subject to some lame ragging.
This goes on basically till Nihal shows some of his ability to predict the future as he avoids a series of bomb blasts in the city. The attacks are conspired by a frustrated gang whose intentions for the terrorism are unknown till the end. The gang is led by Marshal (Rahul Dev) who gets a promotion from his last movie, Aa Dekhen Zara. (His name was Captain in ADZ). I have no words left for the nomenclature of villains in such movies. The gang also has another key member who is close to Nihal and is using the latter's ability to the gang's advantage.
Find out how Nihal saves the city from here on. Mind you you will have to go through some needless songs and the worst of action scenes ever witnessed in between.
Acting wise, Jacky is ok considering this is his first movie. He looks like a better version of Uday Chopra and dances well. Jacky should stay as far as possible from action. He cant do action for nuts!! To be fair on Jacky, his character in the movie is inspired straight from Alok Nath (Mr. Goody two shoes). Whenever he opens his mouth only sugar flows out. It gets irritating after a while. Vaishali looks gorgeous but doesn't have much scope to act. Rishi Kapoor is good and the only saving grace. If only they would have worked on his wig. Archana Puran Singh is amazingly funny. Rahul Dev, Satish Shah and Ritiesh Deshmukh are totally wasted.
Music by Sajid-Wajid is good. Especially 3-4 numbers are really nice. Aalam Guzarne ko is my favorite. Its a pleasure to hear Sonu Nigam.
Writer Director Vivek Sharma, disappoints after an interesting Bhoothnath. But again we don't know if his script was modified under any circumstances by a certain producer daddy for his aspiring actor son.
Rating : * (Skip it ! The 1 star is for the music and Rishi Kapoor)
In the past few months we have seen several movies dealing with the central character being able to see the future. As terrible as AA Dekhen Zara was, it has got a neck to neck competition with Kal Kisne Dekha.
Nihal Singh from Chandigarh, yes thats what Jacky refers to himself throughout the movie, is a simpleton who has big brains for "Science". He used to make "inventions" since he was a kid. He comes down to Mumbai for further education and meets a spoilt rich brat Meesha, played by Vaishali Desai (Manmohan Singh's grand niece). On one hand Nihal impresses his professor, Rishi Kapoor (still in his Luck by chance wig), with his intelligence and difference in thinking while on the other he is unpopular amongst his seniors and gets subject to some lame ragging.
This goes on basically till Nihal shows some of his ability to predict the future as he avoids a series of bomb blasts in the city. The attacks are conspired by a frustrated gang whose intentions for the terrorism are unknown till the end. The gang is led by Marshal (Rahul Dev) who gets a promotion from his last movie, Aa Dekhen Zara. (His name was Captain in ADZ). I have no words left for the nomenclature of villains in such movies. The gang also has another key member who is close to Nihal and is using the latter's ability to the gang's advantage.
Find out how Nihal saves the city from here on. Mind you you will have to go through some needless songs and the worst of action scenes ever witnessed in between.
Acting wise, Jacky is ok considering this is his first movie. He looks like a better version of Uday Chopra and dances well. Jacky should stay as far as possible from action. He cant do action for nuts!! To be fair on Jacky, his character in the movie is inspired straight from Alok Nath (Mr. Goody two shoes). Whenever he opens his mouth only sugar flows out. It gets irritating after a while. Vaishali looks gorgeous but doesn't have much scope to act. Rishi Kapoor is good and the only saving grace. If only they would have worked on his wig. Archana Puran Singh is amazingly funny. Rahul Dev, Satish Shah and Ritiesh Deshmukh are totally wasted.
Music by Sajid-Wajid is good. Especially 3-4 numbers are really nice. Aalam Guzarne ko is my favorite. Its a pleasure to hear Sonu Nigam.
Writer Director Vivek Sharma, disappoints after an interesting Bhoothnath. But again we don't know if his script was modified under any circumstances by a certain producer daddy for his aspiring actor son.
Rating : * (Skip it ! The 1 star is for the music and Rishi Kapoor)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Top 10 must see flicks in my book.
Folks, these are some of my favourite movies. If you haven't seen any of them, they are higly recommended.
1.] Andaz Apna Apna
This is a cult classic and probably #1 on many people's list. Words cant explain how funny this movie is. I have watched this movie like a zillion times and it still cracks me up. :)
My Fav Part: The climax. Teja mai hu, mark idhar hai :)
2.] Dil Chahata Hai
Another cult classic. Not only were the characters amazing but Farhan showed us his brilliance behind the camera.
My Fav Part: The part after Koi kahe song, where Aamir gets a black eye.
3.] Swades
One of my all time favourites which really got me to think.
My Fav Part: SRK's journey to the poor man's village and the song, yeh jo des hai tera.
4.] Khiladi
A cool campus flick with a murder mystery. This film marked the entry of Akshay Kumar and Abbas-Mustan
My Fav Part: Post interval portions of solving the mystery
5.] Jab We Met
One of the best romantic comedies I have seen. Such an irony of life that Shahid and Kareena broke up during this movie.
My fav Part: Kareena's blabbering and the song Tum se Hi.
6.] Hera Pheri
Out right hilarious. I remember this film was publicised as a thriller/murder mystery. But it turned out to be a laugh riot.
My Fav Part: When the trio are fighting and Baburao gets hit by a coconut.
7.] Mr. India
Probably India's first Sci-Fi flick and pulled of brilliantly by Shekhar Kapur.
My Fav Part: When Mr. India makes Teja eat pulses with stones mixed in them.
8.] Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
A cliched campus flick story told with a difference. This movie shows that the story is as good as its story-teller.
My Fav Part: When Jai finds out Aditi is engaged and meets her fiance.
9.] Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar
A classical movie where the characters were inspired straight out of the Archie comics.
My Fav Part: The cycle races.
10.] Samay & Gupt
A tie at the 10th spot for 2 of the finest suspense dramas. Gupt was more commercial and its also the only Bobby Deol movie that I have ever liked. Samay is a fantabulous movie where the clues to unfold the mystery are much more mesmerizing than the actual mystery murderer.
My Fav Part: (Gupt) When Bobby Deol finds out that his step father is murdered. (Samay) The clues unfolding .
Friday, May 22, 2009
99 - Almost "Brilliant"
No people, the strike is still on. But the courageous producers of this film went ahead with releasing this film in single screens and private multiplexes. This might actually be a blessing in disguise for this film. Just think about it, which film would you watch at your nearest Multiplex, had there been no strike, out of "Kameenay" (Shahid-Priyanka), "Kambakht Ishq" (Akki-Kareena) and 99 (Kunal Khemu, Boman Irani, Soha Ali Khan) ? This film is like an oasis in a desert and hence was lapped up by viewers like me.
99 is a movie based in the year 1999. It is like a perfect ODI wherein the first 15 overs and the last 10 overs provide the maximum entertainment. The middle overs just take the story ahead slowly. Writers and directors of this film, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K have done a great job. They fail to keep the continuity of humor in the middle stages of a film, but considering that this is their debut in bollywood, this film is an achievement.
Sachin (Kunal Khemu) and ZaraMud (Cyrus Broacha) are techno savvy crooks who deal in making duplicate sim cards for the then new technology of cell phones. Rahul (Boman Irani) is an executive who is addicted to gambling and betting. Sachin and ZaraMud get caught in their scam and in an attempt to flee, they total AGM bhai (Mahesh Manjrekar), a small time gangster's car. On the other hand Rahul loses a bet of 20 lakhs to AGM and flees to Delhi. Sachin and ZaraMud owe the car's price to AGM and hence he sends them to fetch Rahul from Delhi. From here begins the main plot and characters come into play to add humor to the plot. How these 3 repay AGM is what the film is about.
The film has a number of humorous jokes referring to the cricket match fixing scandals of that era along with mumbaikar's perspective of Delhi. Those people who like PJ's should really go in for this one. Whether it the giant thug named Dimple getting beaten up by the hero who is half his size or be it the jokes made on Delhi, its outright hilarious. The only drawback is that this movie gets slow in the middle stages.
On the acting front, Mahesh Manjrekar steals the show. His expressions and dialog delivery just cracks you up. He is simply brilliant in the movie. Kunal Khemu and Boman Irani do justice to their roles. Cyrus and Soha are OK. A special mention for Amit Mistry for a funny performance. Vinod Khanna has hardly anything to do.
Music is very dull in the movie. Although it only comes as background scores in the movie, it is not at all catchy.
Directors and writers are the heroes of this film. With the awesome one liners and witty jokes they surely must have caught some attention from the film fraternity.
Rating: *** (Watch it once)
Spoiler: One of jokes in the movies goes like this. A man is watching an ODI and India of the 90s is losing. He goes like, "Yeh log kabhi jeet nahi payenge.. Agar 20 over ki match hoti toh world champion ban jaate.. ", which is hilarious since India did win the 20-20 world cup. For more, watch the movie :).
Friday, May 8, 2009
Striked Out !!!
As many of you might know, there is an ongoing dispute amongst film makers and the multiplex owners regarding the share of revenue amongst them. Currently it is divided up as 50-50, 40-60, 30-70 for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd weeks with the higher share in favor of the multiplexes.
While the film fraternity did not mind this for the first few years, it has now suddenly woken up and has stood united against this so called exploitation. According to me, the reason that the film fraternity ignored this in the previous years was either because they are making more money now, out of shows running in multiplexes, than they used to for single screens and have only gotten greedier with time, or they were just dumb enough not to do the math earlier. It might even have been the recession, inflation or the string of flops for biggies, that we have seen in the last 4-5 months, that has led them to take this step.
With the revenue that can be achieved from multiplexes in mind, the producers started to increase the budget of their movies. Hence single screens merely became an add-on for big releases. The main moolah came from multiplexes. I remember, back in the day when the multiplex era had just begun, Mangal Pandey was released on a huge scale with as many as 33 shows running on a single day of the 1st week in a single multiplex in Pune. Even though it was a mediocre movie, it ran to packed houses for the 1st week and finished at par on the cost front. To take a perspective 33 shows x 7 days = 221 shows for a single multiplex in a week which is as good as 11 single screens playing 4 x 7 shows a week. No wonder that producers found this new methodology of movie distribution very enticing. Generally in one city 1-2 single screens get to distribute a movie. So that's almost 1/10Th of the number of shows we have these days. Hence the big budget movies cannot afford a small scale release.
On the other hand, multiplexes have their own canteens, other entertainment facilities like pool tables, McDonald's, CCD's which earns them an extra revenue. If a movie does well, it wipes out their expenses easily. Some or the other movie generally works. Very rarely is the case that we have seen movies failing for over 6 months. Keeping their expenses and the growing inflation in mind, the multiplex owners are adamant to stick to their current revenue sharing plan.
In this wrestling match between the filmmakers and the multiplex owners, the biggest loser is the avid movie-goer. In this time of strike, its bollywood buffs like me who have been deprived of their staple diet of movies. I think this is a contest where the biggest bully will win. Both sides feel that the other party should give in first, giving rise to a stalemate. Both sides are at a win win situation. Filmmakers don't mind stalling their movies by a month or two and go back to the drawing board to touch up on their movies. Multiplexes on the other hand, can keep showing re-runs of old Hindi hits like Ghajini, along with the new Hollywood movies and new regional movies that are being released which is a good enough scheme for the time being, without having to lose much of their business.
Now there are talks of releasing movies to single screens but again the big banners won't do that because it would virtually need a DDLJ like run to make their movies work which is more than ambitious in today's date considering the video piracy issue. Hopefully, I guess with the summer holidays arriving, both these fraternities are going to come to a consensus and we will see some movies releasing soon.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
8 X 10 Tasveer - An interesting Concept
Regardless of how the suspense is, viewers take home the suspense element from a suspense/murder mystery genre of movies. It sticks in their head for a long time. Generally the suspense decides the make or break of such kind of movies. Hence you tend to get rave reviews of such films.
Tasveer gives us a unique combination of Nagesh Kukunoor and Akshay Kumar which is a good enough reason for the regular movie buff to watch this flick. Apart from the main suspense Nagesh, excels in both departments of writing and direction. He is one of the finest directors of Indian cinema and he doesn't fail the audience's trust.
Jai (Akshay Kumar) is a forest ranger and has a god given special ability. He can touch any photo and teleport into the time the picture was taken and be around for about a minute. If he stays for over a minute his heart stops. Initially neither the doctor's, nor the damily can explain this behavior. Jai doesn't let any one into his secret, not even his fiance Sheela (Ayesha Takia).
One day Jai comes to know that while celebrating with his close friends, his father has met with an accident and has died of a heart atack . Jai was never at good terms with his father due to their line of work. But a series of dreams and a private investigator Happi (Javed Jaffery), who is indebted to Jai's dad, force Jai to realize that his father had been murdered for the money. He decides to unearth the secret by teleporting to the time his father clicked a photo during the last few moments of his life. Watch how Jai and Happi solve this mystery to unearth the killer.
The music by Salim Sulaiman is in sync with the movie and there are a couple of really good tracks. These tracks appear in the background and do not hamper the pace or connectivity of the story.
Acting wise, Akshay is very good. It was very refreshing to see him come out of his comfort zone and try something new. Ayesha Takia is good as always. Javed Jaffery provides some humor in the movie. The rest of the ensemble is a group of character artistes who are interestingly cast in this movie. All of them have a very short role but are effective. Benjamin Gillani and Sharmila Tagore play Akshay's parents and are good. Girish Karnard is wasted. Bollywood's step son, Anant Mahadevan (who gets screwed in every movie) has no different treatment. Rushad Rana is good.
Nagesh Kukunoor is a brilliant director and has done a terrefic job with this movie. If only the main suspense would have been better, the whole outlook towards the movie would have changed.
Spoiler: The movie has a Shakespearan ending wherin every one dies.
Personal Input: My version of the ending which according to me would have worked and would have been innovative. Akshay has a split personality and he is the one who kills his father. This also explains his special ability of going back in time to when the picure was taken. He actually remembers the things he did or saw at a subconscience level while his alter ego had taken over. :) Let me know what you think about this ending.
Rating: **1/2 ( Definitely worth waching once)
Tasveer gives us a unique combination of Nagesh Kukunoor and Akshay Kumar which is a good enough reason for the regular movie buff to watch this flick. Apart from the main suspense Nagesh, excels in both departments of writing and direction. He is one of the finest directors of Indian cinema and he doesn't fail the audience's trust.
Jai (Akshay Kumar) is a forest ranger and has a god given special ability. He can touch any photo and teleport into the time the picture was taken and be around for about a minute. If he stays for over a minute his heart stops. Initially neither the doctor's, nor the damily can explain this behavior. Jai doesn't let any one into his secret, not even his fiance Sheela (Ayesha Takia).
One day Jai comes to know that while celebrating with his close friends, his father has met with an accident and has died of a heart atack . Jai was never at good terms with his father due to their line of work. But a series of dreams and a private investigator Happi (Javed Jaffery), who is indebted to Jai's dad, force Jai to realize that his father had been murdered for the money. He decides to unearth the secret by teleporting to the time his father clicked a photo during the last few moments of his life. Watch how Jai and Happi solve this mystery to unearth the killer.
The music by Salim Sulaiman is in sync with the movie and there are a couple of really good tracks. These tracks appear in the background and do not hamper the pace or connectivity of the story.
Acting wise, Akshay is very good. It was very refreshing to see him come out of his comfort zone and try something new. Ayesha Takia is good as always. Javed Jaffery provides some humor in the movie. The rest of the ensemble is a group of character artistes who are interestingly cast in this movie. All of them have a very short role but are effective. Benjamin Gillani and Sharmila Tagore play Akshay's parents and are good. Girish Karnard is wasted. Bollywood's step son, Anant Mahadevan (who gets screwed in every movie) has no different treatment. Rushad Rana is good.
Nagesh Kukunoor is a brilliant director and has done a terrefic job with this movie. If only the main suspense would have been better, the whole outlook towards the movie would have changed.
Spoiler: The movie has a Shakespearan ending wherin every one dies.
Personal Input: My version of the ending which according to me would have worked and would have been innovative. Akshay has a split personality and he is the one who kills his father. This also explains his special ability of going back in time to when the picure was taken. He actually remembers the things he did or saw at a subconscience level while his alter ego had taken over. :) Let me know what you think about this ending.
Rating: **1/2 ( Definitely worth waching once)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Aa Dekhen Zara... Out of focus
Pace is the key when it comes to action thrillers. So far we have seen many action movies which are slow paced. My complain with the makers of this movie is that its a little too fast paced. For a moment I was wondering if I had missed a scene or two.
I cant help but compare this movie to one of the all time classics 'Mr. India'. While the former's story, characters and treatment made us believe in the invisibility gadget and then root for the protagonist, AA Dekhen Zara falls flat on the face in this aspect. The story idea was noble and fresh but the screenplay has gone haywire. Writers Sheershak and Shantanu should have focused a little more on the screenplay.
Ray (Niel Nitin Mukesh) is a jobless photographer with nothing going right for him. He inherits a camera from his grandpa after his demise. Apparently the camera only clicks on a future date and time. When the pictures are developed they show the scene on that future date and time. In his first handling of the camera, Ray figures out that the camera predicts the future and his reaction is such that it would make you think, you can buy such cameras from your nearest chor bazaar and is very normal. There was no explanation akin to that of Mr India.
Ray goes on a picture taking spree and wins lotteries, horse races and becomes a crorepati in the progress. He also starts dating Simi (Bipasha) but doesn't let her into his secret. Meanwhile he comes into the spotlight after winning so much money in the horse races. Captain (Rahul Dev) comes to know of his secret behind betting correctly every time. (I don't know when Bollywood will let go of such cheesy names for bad guys. They could have seriously come up with a better name than captain). Even he doesnt show a surprise element after coming to know the secret of Ray's success.
As if the bad guys were not enough Ray discovers in one of the pictures that he is gonna die in 5 days. His life goes Topsy turvy and the chase begins to save his own life. There are several characters who are introduced in this time frame but they are insignificant. Watch out if Ray can defy the future and make 'honi ko anhoni'.
The music by Pritam is below his standards. 1-2 tracks stand out but are absolutely unnecessary in the movie. Neil Nitin Mukeshlends his voice to the title track. Intelligent mixing with Kishore da makes him sound nice. Peppy number.
On the acting front, NNM is ok. He has played a safe bet by choosing a similar genre to Johnny Gaddar. Bipasha did not need to do this movie after her successful run with Bachana Ae haseeno, Race etc. She doesn't get scope to act. It was good to see Rahul Dev back. Sophia is ok in her cameo.
To be fair to director Jehangir Surti, there is only so much you can do with a bad script. He tried his level best but the movie was weak at its heart. A better screenplay for the story would have worked wonders.
The last scene of the movie keeps the hope for a sequel alive. Only if we would have had Ray's camera we could have known if that's gonna come true. Hopefully not, for the audience's sake.
Rating: *1/2 (kisna se thoda zyada, yaadein se thoda kam :) Skip it !!)
I cant help but compare this movie to one of the all time classics 'Mr. India'. While the former's story, characters and treatment made us believe in the invisibility gadget and then root for the protagonist, AA Dekhen Zara falls flat on the face in this aspect. The story idea was noble and fresh but the screenplay has gone haywire. Writers Sheershak and Shantanu should have focused a little more on the screenplay.
Ray (Niel Nitin Mukesh) is a jobless photographer with nothing going right for him. He inherits a camera from his grandpa after his demise. Apparently the camera only clicks on a future date and time. When the pictures are developed they show the scene on that future date and time. In his first handling of the camera, Ray figures out that the camera predicts the future and his reaction is such that it would make you think, you can buy such cameras from your nearest chor bazaar and is very normal. There was no explanation akin to that of Mr India.
Ray goes on a picture taking spree and wins lotteries, horse races and becomes a crorepati in the progress. He also starts dating Simi (Bipasha) but doesn't let her into his secret. Meanwhile he comes into the spotlight after winning so much money in the horse races. Captain (Rahul Dev) comes to know of his secret behind betting correctly every time. (I don't know when Bollywood will let go of such cheesy names for bad guys. They could have seriously come up with a better name than captain). Even he doesnt show a surprise element after coming to know the secret of Ray's success.
As if the bad guys were not enough Ray discovers in one of the pictures that he is gonna die in 5 days. His life goes Topsy turvy and the chase begins to save his own life. There are several characters who are introduced in this time frame but they are insignificant. Watch out if Ray can defy the future and make 'honi ko anhoni'.
The music by Pritam is below his standards. 1-2 tracks stand out but are absolutely unnecessary in the movie. Neil Nitin Mukeshlends his voice to the title track. Intelligent mixing with Kishore da makes him sound nice. Peppy number.
On the acting front, NNM is ok. He has played a safe bet by choosing a similar genre to Johnny Gaddar. Bipasha did not need to do this movie after her successful run with Bachana Ae haseeno, Race etc. She doesn't get scope to act. It was good to see Rahul Dev back. Sophia is ok in her cameo.
To be fair to director Jehangir Surti, there is only so much you can do with a bad script. He tried his level best but the movie was weak at its heart. A better screenplay for the story would have worked wonders.
The last scene of the movie keeps the hope for a sequel alive. Only if we would have had Ray's camera we could have known if that's gonna come true. Hopefully not, for the audience's sake.
Rating: *1/2 (kisna se thoda zyada, yaadein se thoda kam :) Skip it !!)
Top 10 worst hindi movies...
Top Ten worst hindi movies of the last 2 decades..
Note all these movies had a decent cast and crew.
This list does not include the obvious B grade movies..
10.] Trimurti
*ing SRK, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff
Tough call for the 10th spot. But I think Subhash Ghai has lost it post Karz. He has been on a declinig curve.
Anil Kapor saves this movie from landing any higher than the 10th spot.
The others are hamming away to glory.
9.] RGV ki aag
*ing Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, Nisha Kothari
This must have been the most tainted film in bollywood history. From day 1 it ran into problems. To be fair to Ramu he was fighting a lost battle. This movie would have worked if it was promoted as a spoof.
Watch out for amazingly hilarious dialogs including "Diwali kab hai? kab hai diwali?"
After watching this movie, if I meet Nisha kothari i am gonna strangle her !!!
8.] Vivah
*ing Shahid Kapur, Amrita Rao
Although this movie worked at the box office (please dont ask me how) it was one hell of a torture. All the characters are so sweet n goody two shoes that you would suffer from diabetes if you watch the entire movie.
Use of archaic words like "jal" for paani were reincarnated in this movie.
7.] Ram Jaane
*ing SRK, Juhi Chawla, Vivek Mushran
Another one which worked at the box office purely on SRK value. But one doesn't have to see the entire movie to know how bad it is.
SRK (in his white jacket with no shirt inside) hams like theres no tomorrow in this one.
6.] Mai Prem ki deewani hun
*ing Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachhan, Kareena Kapoor
This is a must watch movie to learn what not to do in a hindi movie. It is a horrrrendous affair.
Koi Mil Gaya released later in the year and Hrithik seemed to have mixed up some of KMG scenes in this movie.
KK was loud as usual and Abhishek did not have anything to do in the movie.
The only saving grace is Annu Malik's music which helps this movie to the 6th spot.
5.] Himalay Putra
*ing Akshaye Khanna
This was the launch pad for Akshaye Khanna back when he had hair on his head.
This movie shows Akshaye's skills in horse riding, driving super bikes in hills, swimming, polo, golf, tennis...hoooooof..
I guess they left out couple of small things, his acting skills and the movie script.
(Just for the record, post DCH Akshaye has transformed into an amazing and probably the most under-rated actor)
4.] Jai Veeru
*ing Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemu, Dia Mirza
Fardeen Khan should be the king of bad movies. This movie has all the masala of the yesteryear. Car chases, Dons, Vamps, name it and you shall get it.
Titled on the famous Sholay pair, the movie did not fool the audience. Those who missed this flick saved themselves a couple of hundred hair. No wonder Firoz Khan has lost all of his :)
3.] Jaanasheen
*ing Fardeen Khan, Celina Jaitley
I simply have no words for this one. A master piece.
2.] Talaash
*ing Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor
For a long time this was my benchmark for bad movies until recently. This movie is so bad that you tremble with fear when it just doesnt stop.
I guess this was the shock which Nostradamus had predicted which could end the world. In the movie "The Ring", the characters were being shown this movie and hence they came back to haunt people.
1.] No Smoking
*ing John Abraham
This is my new benchmark for bad movies. I am really proud of sitting through this movie entirely till the credits rolled.
There are different themed movies and then there are different themed movies. This movie is a good candidate to giving 3rd degree torture to criminals. If you can watch this movie in its entirety without fastforwarding any part, you will have developed good tolerance skills.
Thats it folks.. Lemme know if i left out any obvious ones :)
Note all these movies had a decent cast and crew.
This list does not include the obvious B grade movies..
10.] Trimurti
*ing SRK, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff
Tough call for the 10th spot. But I think Subhash Ghai has lost it post Karz. He has been on a declinig curve.
Anil Kapor saves this movie from landing any higher than the 10th spot.
The others are hamming away to glory.
9.] RGV ki aag
*ing Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, Nisha Kothari
This must have been the most tainted film in bollywood history. From day 1 it ran into problems. To be fair to Ramu he was fighting a lost battle. This movie would have worked if it was promoted as a spoof.
Watch out for amazingly hilarious dialogs including "Diwali kab hai? kab hai diwali?"
After watching this movie, if I meet Nisha kothari i am gonna strangle her !!!
8.] Vivah
*ing Shahid Kapur, Amrita Rao
Although this movie worked at the box office (please dont ask me how) it was one hell of a torture. All the characters are so sweet n goody two shoes that you would suffer from diabetes if you watch the entire movie.
Use of archaic words like "jal" for paani were reincarnated in this movie.
7.] Ram Jaane
*ing SRK, Juhi Chawla, Vivek Mushran
Another one which worked at the box office purely on SRK value. But one doesn't have to see the entire movie to know how bad it is.
SRK (in his white jacket with no shirt inside) hams like theres no tomorrow in this one.
6.] Mai Prem ki deewani hun
*ing Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachhan, Kareena Kapoor
This is a must watch movie to learn what not to do in a hindi movie. It is a horrrrendous affair.
Koi Mil Gaya released later in the year and Hrithik seemed to have mixed up some of KMG scenes in this movie.
KK was loud as usual and Abhishek did not have anything to do in the movie.
The only saving grace is Annu Malik's music which helps this movie to the 6th spot.
5.] Himalay Putra
*ing Akshaye Khanna
This was the launch pad for Akshaye Khanna back when he had hair on his head.
This movie shows Akshaye's skills in horse riding, driving super bikes in hills, swimming, polo, golf, tennis...hoooooof..
I guess they left out couple of small things, his acting skills and the movie script.
(Just for the record, post DCH Akshaye has transformed into an amazing and probably the most under-rated actor)
4.] Jai Veeru
*ing Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemu, Dia Mirza
Fardeen Khan should be the king of bad movies. This movie has all the masala of the yesteryear. Car chases, Dons, Vamps, name it and you shall get it.
Titled on the famous Sholay pair, the movie did not fool the audience. Those who missed this flick saved themselves a couple of hundred hair. No wonder Firoz Khan has lost all of his :)
3.] Jaanasheen
*ing Fardeen Khan, Celina Jaitley
I simply have no words for this one. A master piece.
2.] Talaash
*ing Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor
For a long time this was my benchmark for bad movies until recently. This movie is so bad that you tremble with fear when it just doesnt stop.
I guess this was the shock which Nostradamus had predicted which could end the world. In the movie "The Ring", the characters were being shown this movie and hence they came back to haunt people.
1.] No Smoking
*ing John Abraham
This is my new benchmark for bad movies. I am really proud of sitting through this movie entirely till the credits rolled.
There are different themed movies and then there are different themed movies. This movie is a good candidate to giving 3rd degree torture to criminals. If you can watch this movie in its entirety without fastforwarding any part, you will have developed good tolerance skills.
Thats it folks.. Lemme know if i left out any obvious ones :)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Aloo Chaat - Chatakdaar
The title of a movie being 'Aloo Chaat' itself brings a smile on our faces. The movie live up to its name and is more than a giggle or two. Its a khatta meetha comedy which has amazing one liners. Director Robby Grewal who had directed one of my favourite movies 'Samay' has done a wonderful job yet again.
Aloo Chaat has a hoard of comedians who are true to their genre. A special mention for Sanjay Mishra who is growing to be an extremely funny actor in hindi cinema. If you thought his 'Pinto(s)' character from the movie 'One Two Three' was funny, then watch out for him in this movie.
Nikhil (Aftab) has returned from the US after completing his education and his family decides to marry him off. Nikhil doesnt have a good rapport with his dad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and hence confides to his uncle(Manoj Pahwa) that he actually loves a Muslim girl, Aamna (Aamna Sharif).
His uncle helps him to devise a plan to make Aamna win over the family members' hearts. Their plan is based on transpose DDLJ logic. They decide that Aftab will fake his love with an american girl, Niki, and Aamna will come in as her friend and win over everyone, much like SRK wins over Kajol's family.
The rest of the story is based on this plot. Theres a twist when Nikhil's father gets a heart attack and he decides to get Nikhil and Niki married the next day. Watch how Nikhil gets out of this one.
The movie is full of very funny one liners. The dialogues are simply awesome. Hats off to Divy Nidhi Sharma. But there are a couple of minuses too. The build up to the love between the lead pair of Aftab and Aamna is missing and hence you do not feel for those characters as much as you felt for a SRK and Kajol in DDLJ. The music is very boring and one can easily fast forward them without losing too much narrative in the movie.
Of the actors Manoj Pahwa and Sanjay Mishra lead the pack. Their comic timing is awesome. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is good in certain scenes but for the rest of the part he adds more ham scenes to his repertoire. I guess we should call him 'The Hamster' by now. I guess some one like Om Puri would have done a much better job. The rumored real life love birds Aftab and Aamna are okay in the movie. They do not get a meaty part of the funny lines. Aftab is much more capable and should select roles carefully. Aamna Sharif looks drop dead gorgeous.
Director Robby Grewal is joining my favourite director's list. So far all his three movies have been successful at entertaining me. 'Samay', 'Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar(MP3)' and this one. Good job Mr. Grewal. Stand up and take a bow. I just wish he could get as much hype and recognition for his work as his counterparts do.
Rating: *** (Do watch it. Very entertaining. Paisa vasool)
Aloo Chaat has a hoard of comedians who are true to their genre. A special mention for Sanjay Mishra who is growing to be an extremely funny actor in hindi cinema. If you thought his 'Pinto(s)' character from the movie 'One Two Three' was funny, then watch out for him in this movie.
Nikhil (Aftab) has returned from the US after completing his education and his family decides to marry him off. Nikhil doesnt have a good rapport with his dad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and hence confides to his uncle(Manoj Pahwa) that he actually loves a Muslim girl, Aamna (Aamna Sharif).
His uncle helps him to devise a plan to make Aamna win over the family members' hearts. Their plan is based on transpose DDLJ logic. They decide that Aftab will fake his love with an american girl, Niki, and Aamna will come in as her friend and win over everyone, much like SRK wins over Kajol's family.
The rest of the story is based on this plot. Theres a twist when Nikhil's father gets a heart attack and he decides to get Nikhil and Niki married the next day. Watch how Nikhil gets out of this one.
The movie is full of very funny one liners. The dialogues are simply awesome. Hats off to Divy Nidhi Sharma. But there are a couple of minuses too. The build up to the love between the lead pair of Aftab and Aamna is missing and hence you do not feel for those characters as much as you felt for a SRK and Kajol in DDLJ. The music is very boring and one can easily fast forward them without losing too much narrative in the movie.
Of the actors Manoj Pahwa and Sanjay Mishra lead the pack. Their comic timing is awesome. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is good in certain scenes but for the rest of the part he adds more ham scenes to his repertoire. I guess we should call him 'The Hamster' by now. I guess some one like Om Puri would have done a much better job. The rumored real life love birds Aftab and Aamna are okay in the movie. They do not get a meaty part of the funny lines. Aftab is much more capable and should select roles carefully. Aamna Sharif looks drop dead gorgeous.
Director Robby Grewal is joining my favourite director's list. So far all his three movies have been successful at entertaining me. 'Samay', 'Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar(MP3)' and this one. Good job Mr. Grewal. Stand up and take a bow. I just wish he could get as much hype and recognition for his work as his counterparts do.
Rating: *** (Do watch it. Very entertaining. Paisa vasool)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Gulaal - Thought provoking and Disturbing
Anurag Kashyap definitely has a style of story telling and abstract seems to be his favourite kind. Although Gulaal is no Black Friday, but it has to be one of Anurag Kashyap's finest work. Its like a little jigsaw puzzle which unfolds as pieces fit into place one by one. Gulaal is not the kind of movie that would appeal to everyone. Its not the type of movie where you sit with a bag of popcorn to enjoy and relax. Its a movie with a message. Neither is it a kind of a movie where in you can leave the room for an odd minute or two and then understand the on-going after coming back.
Gulaal has multiple threads running at one time and Anurag Kashyap tries to unearth many issues in one movie. There is the student politics, along with hard core ragging. In its parallel runs a fight for a separate state and on another totally different track runs a love triangle. A drawback of this scheme is that it makes the movie very confusing at times.
Dilip Singh, played by Raja Choudhary, comes to Jaipur for his higher education and meets the rest of the characters in the process. His room mate Ran Sa (Abhimanyu Singh), is an easy going, good for nothing rich kid. Unhappy with his room mate Dilip goes in search of an hostel and gets badly ragged. He meets Anuja there, played by Jesse Randhava, who also undergoes ragging of the top degree. When Ran Sa comes to know about this he urges Dilip to take revenge. They go for help to Dukki Banna ( Kay Kay Menon) as he is one of the royal bloods and has a huge clout.
Impressed by Ran Sa's heroics, in proving his Rajput blood by taking revenge, Dukki Banna urges him to stand for the GS elections. Ran Sa's main rival in the elections is Kiran (Ayesha Mohan). Kiran is backed strongly by her brother Karan (Aditya Shrivastav, better known as Inspector Abhijeet from CID for us commoners). Karan and Kiran are Ran Sa's illegal step siblings whose sole motive is to gain their father's name in public.
Ran Sa gets killed in the process of fighting the elections and Dukki Banna decides to put up Dilip in his place to get sympathy votes. Dilip wins the election and from there on starts his downfall. Kiran allures him into sleeping with him and makes him fall in love with him. Dilip starts defying Dukki Banna under Kiran's influence. Dukki Banna tries to show Dilip that his vision is bigger than just student elections. His main aim is to free Rajputs and fight for a separate state of Rajputaana and college elections is a way of raising money for his freedom struggle.
What happens next is for you to find out. Will Dilip understand Anuja's true love and Kiran's machinations? Will Karan and Kiran finally get recognized by their father's name in public?
The major drawback of this movie is that it runs in parallel over many issues and gets confusing at times. Also some of the issues could have been an individual movie in their own right and hence one feels that it was not given enough footage. There are too many characters in the movie who have no significance. Jesse Randhava's character and her angle could have totally been left out. Mahie Gill is wasted. Dukki Banna's elder brother's angle is totally abstract and one doesnt know why it is there.
On the positives, this film tackles with a lot of the social issues that still exist in India. The influence of rich people, the weakness of the police force in such areas of the country, the ragging and student politics. All these aspects make the movie an intriguing watch.
The music is not at all inspiring and if it would not have taken the story forward one would not have watched the songs. Some of the lyrics are well written though.
Acting wise the entire ensemble has done a tremendous job. Kay Kay leads the pack once again with his impressive performance. Aditya Shrivastav (Inspector Abhijeet) is outstanding but should have got more footage. Raja Choudhary, Ayesha Mohan are good. Abhimanyu Singh and Deepak Dobriyal are outstanding in their cameos.
Raja Choudhary doubles up as a writer and does a decent job. Anurag Kashyap is top notch in his direction. A tighter script and better ediing could have done the film a world of good.
Rating: **1/2 (One time watch)
Gulaal has multiple threads running at one time and Anurag Kashyap tries to unearth many issues in one movie. There is the student politics, along with hard core ragging. In its parallel runs a fight for a separate state and on another totally different track runs a love triangle. A drawback of this scheme is that it makes the movie very confusing at times.
Dilip Singh, played by Raja Choudhary, comes to Jaipur for his higher education and meets the rest of the characters in the process. His room mate Ran Sa (Abhimanyu Singh), is an easy going, good for nothing rich kid. Unhappy with his room mate Dilip goes in search of an hostel and gets badly ragged. He meets Anuja there, played by Jesse Randhava, who also undergoes ragging of the top degree. When Ran Sa comes to know about this he urges Dilip to take revenge. They go for help to Dukki Banna ( Kay Kay Menon) as he is one of the royal bloods and has a huge clout.
Impressed by Ran Sa's heroics, in proving his Rajput blood by taking revenge, Dukki Banna urges him to stand for the GS elections. Ran Sa's main rival in the elections is Kiran (Ayesha Mohan). Kiran is backed strongly by her brother Karan (Aditya Shrivastav, better known as Inspector Abhijeet from CID for us commoners). Karan and Kiran are Ran Sa's illegal step siblings whose sole motive is to gain their father's name in public.
Ran Sa gets killed in the process of fighting the elections and Dukki Banna decides to put up Dilip in his place to get sympathy votes. Dilip wins the election and from there on starts his downfall. Kiran allures him into sleeping with him and makes him fall in love with him. Dilip starts defying Dukki Banna under Kiran's influence. Dukki Banna tries to show Dilip that his vision is bigger than just student elections. His main aim is to free Rajputs and fight for a separate state of Rajputaana and college elections is a way of raising money for his freedom struggle.
What happens next is for you to find out. Will Dilip understand Anuja's true love and Kiran's machinations? Will Karan and Kiran finally get recognized by their father's name in public?
The major drawback of this movie is that it runs in parallel over many issues and gets confusing at times. Also some of the issues could have been an individual movie in their own right and hence one feels that it was not given enough footage. There are too many characters in the movie who have no significance. Jesse Randhava's character and her angle could have totally been left out. Mahie Gill is wasted. Dukki Banna's elder brother's angle is totally abstract and one doesnt know why it is there.
On the positives, this film tackles with a lot of the social issues that still exist in India. The influence of rich people, the weakness of the police force in such areas of the country, the ragging and student politics. All these aspects make the movie an intriguing watch.
The music is not at all inspiring and if it would not have taken the story forward one would not have watched the songs. Some of the lyrics are well written though.
Acting wise the entire ensemble has done a tremendous job. Kay Kay leads the pack once again with his impressive performance. Aditya Shrivastav (Inspector Abhijeet) is outstanding but should have got more footage. Raja Choudhary, Ayesha Mohan are good. Abhimanyu Singh and Deepak Dobriyal are outstanding in their cameos.
Raja Choudhary doubles up as a writer and does a decent job. Anurag Kashyap is top notch in his direction. A tighter script and better ediing could have done the film a world of good.
Rating: **1/2 (One time watch)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Top 10 songs that might have missed your ears..
Hi folks,
The other day while chatting with a friend of mine I came to know that he had not heard one of my favourite songs from this 1st quarter of 2009. Hence I am posting a list of the top 10 songs of 2009 so far, which according to me were very good but might have got skipped from your playlist in the midst of some other famous numbers.
Note: This list doesn’t contain the obvious hits like Masakalli and Maahi (from Raaz TMC) etc.
10.] Hey Kala Bandar – Delhi 6
This Rahman number is very situational in the movie and one doesn't appreciate the track till one has seen the movie. Its a very hip hop kind of a song. The song has some shades of Shankar Mahadevan's Breathless and Rahman's own Shano Shano from yuvvraaj
9.] Duniya – Dev D
This is a funfilled track from debutante Amit Trivedi with nice lyrics
8.] Tere naina – CC2C
Agreed Chandni Chowk 2 China was a below the mark movie, but the songs were nice. This track is from Shankar Ehsaan Loy. A soft romantic number which was horribly dealt with in the movie.
7.] Tenu Leke – Jai Veeru
Bappa Lahiri pulled out a couple of gems in this movie. Really catchy song. Omer Inayat does a wonderful job with the vocals.
6.] Chak Lein De – CC2C
Another CC2C number. This one is composed and sung by Kailash Kher. This one is a peppy number but again shot very disappointingly in the movie.
5.] Pardesi – Dev D
Amit Trivedi pulls out yet another awesome number.
4.] Sufi – Jai Veeru
This is an awesome song with an awesome video. Bappa Lahiri produces a gem. The singer Saim brings soul to the song. His voice is uncannily similar to Atif Aslam.
3.] Saawre – Teri Justajoo Roop Kumar Rathod
This one is from an album. Roop Kumar Rathod takes all the honours for this one and really gets in that sufi mode.
2.] Soniyo (Krishna) – Raaz TMC
Most of you might have heard the Sonu Nigam version of this song. Krishna's version is equally nice. It is sort of an accoustic version with nice guitar strumming. The composer is Pritam so dont know if its lifted from somewhere. But till we have proof, Pritam take a bow for this number.
1.] Yeh Zindagi bhi - Luck by chance
This song has a lethal combination. Shankar Ehsaan Loy as composers and Shekhar (from Vishal Shekhar) on the vocals. This song is simply mesmerizing. It just takes you into trance.
Well these were my choices, so some of you are bound to differ. Let me know if i missed out on an obvious number. Cheers !!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Jai Veeru - Masala Gone all wrong
In times when Hindi cinema is improving by leaps and bounds, here comes a movie, which makes me wonder what made writer Vekeana Dhillon to write it or director Puneet Sira to direct it and above all what made me to watch it?
This movie is a logic less, nonsensical affair with no flow in the story or direction. There have been logic less movies in the past (alluding to Govinda's movies) but they have had some good point or the other which would make it entertaining. This is a movie which makes you think that each scene was shot in a different month. Such is the poor connectivity.
Veeru, Kunal Khemu, is a small time crook who steals cars. Jai played by Fardeen Khan is a car mechanic, who by the way has a very upscale lifestyle by the means of a mere car mechanic. Jai and Veeru bump into one another in a party and click instantly and become best of friends and escalate to brotherhood in one night. They come up with an ingeneous plan of stealing cars together as they might form a lethal combination.
Veeru later introduces Jai to his boss Arbaaz Khan who is the bad guy in the movie. Arbaaz Khan runs a fake note distribution racket. In a turn of events differences arise between Jai and Veeru and the latter shoots the former in the head in an accident. The bullet hits Jai smack on the forehead, but voila Jai gets all better without even a scar on his forhead. Apparently the doctors fit in a metal plate due to which there is no scar. :) Yes its that kind of a movie.
Jai and Veeru meet again and this time they are on a same mission, that of exposing Arbaaz Khan and his racket. Will they be able to co-exist together? Find out for yourselves.
Bappa Lahiri's music is good in parts. Two songs stand out the most, Sufi and Tenu Leke. These songs have been shot well too and are quite watchable. The rest of them are plain ok to skippable. All the songs are unnecessarily injected into the screenplay and have absolutely no significance in the story.
Fardeen Khan has been reinventing himself to become the undisputed king of boredom and this film is no different. I wonder what Sajid Khan must have gone through to pull off such a fine performance from FK in Heyy babbyy. Kunal Khemu repeats his Dhol like performance and brings nothing new to the table. Dia Mirza and Arbaaz Khan are okay. Anjana Sukhani, I dont know why she was in the movie. She did not have even 1 relevant scene out of the 3 scenes which she had.
If you thought "I - Proud to be an Indian" was Puneet Sira's worst work then please watch this movie. This movie makes "I" look like a master piece.
Rating: 1/2* (Skip it ! The half star is for the 2 songs by Bappa Lahiri. You can watch them on youtube)
This movie is a logic less, nonsensical affair with no flow in the story or direction. There have been logic less movies in the past (alluding to Govinda's movies) but they have had some good point or the other which would make it entertaining. This is a movie which makes you think that each scene was shot in a different month. Such is the poor connectivity.
Veeru, Kunal Khemu, is a small time crook who steals cars. Jai played by Fardeen Khan is a car mechanic, who by the way has a very upscale lifestyle by the means of a mere car mechanic. Jai and Veeru bump into one another in a party and click instantly and become best of friends and escalate to brotherhood in one night. They come up with an ingeneous plan of stealing cars together as they might form a lethal combination.
Veeru later introduces Jai to his boss Arbaaz Khan who is the bad guy in the movie. Arbaaz Khan runs a fake note distribution racket. In a turn of events differences arise between Jai and Veeru and the latter shoots the former in the head in an accident. The bullet hits Jai smack on the forehead, but voila Jai gets all better without even a scar on his forhead. Apparently the doctors fit in a metal plate due to which there is no scar. :) Yes its that kind of a movie.
Jai and Veeru meet again and this time they are on a same mission, that of exposing Arbaaz Khan and his racket. Will they be able to co-exist together? Find out for yourselves.
Bappa Lahiri's music is good in parts. Two songs stand out the most, Sufi and Tenu Leke. These songs have been shot well too and are quite watchable. The rest of them are plain ok to skippable. All the songs are unnecessarily injected into the screenplay and have absolutely no significance in the story.
Fardeen Khan has been reinventing himself to become the undisputed king of boredom and this film is no different. I wonder what Sajid Khan must have gone through to pull off such a fine performance from FK in Heyy babbyy. Kunal Khemu repeats his Dhol like performance and brings nothing new to the table. Dia Mirza and Arbaaz Khan are okay. Anjana Sukhani, I dont know why she was in the movie. She did not have even 1 relevant scene out of the 3 scenes which she had.
If you thought "I - Proud to be an Indian" was Puneet Sira's worst work then please watch this movie. This movie makes "I" look like a master piece.
Rating: 1/2* (Skip it ! The half star is for the 2 songs by Bappa Lahiri. You can watch them on youtube)
Sunday, March 15, 2009
13B = Superstitious + Paranormal - Belief
Gone are the days when we used to see a giant Ramsay ghost lurking in the shadows with blood drooping from his hands. Post RGV's Bhoot, hindi cinema horror movies finally make some sense.
Generally horror movies are a suspense thriller at heart. 13B is no different. There are no twisted faced, blood drooping monsters/ ghosts in this movie. This movie focuses more on the paranormal activities which give in a horror angle. The movie has some serious flaws as far as the length is concerned. Its a tad bit too long. The songs just prove to be speed breakers and should have been omitted. Attention has been paid to minor detail in the flashbacks which is one of the best things I noticed.
Manohar played by R.Madhavan and his family move into a new home. Manohar and his elder brother have taken a huge amount of loan in order to buy this house. From the outset strange incidents take place in the house but Manohar and his family don't give it much of a heed.
After a few days Manohar starts to realize that somethin is wrong in the house but doesnt utter a word as his mother being superstitious would make them to change the house and the brothers wont be able to afford that.
One fine day, while Manohar is at home he stumbles upon a TV serial which apparently shows exactly what has been happening to Manohar. The serial ends with an incident which takes place in Manohar's real life. In one such incident he loses his to be born child. Manohar is convinced that the serial is related to the unfortunate incidents in his real life and starts observing the serial to prevent his family from getting into danger.
He consults his friend about these activities and decides to unearth the mystery behind the serial. He seeks help from his family doctor, played by Sachin Khedekar, who has researched a lot on paranormal activities too.
Will Manohar be successful in deciphering the paranormal activities and the mystery behind the serial? Or will the ghosts win and force Manohar to leave the house?
Note: Director Vikram Kumar may have pulled off a genius little taunt at housewives that the real ghosts of the modern world are the TV serials.
The music by Shankar Ehsan Loy has to be their weakest work. Come to think of it, I have not heard a SEL album yet which has not a single hummable tune. Moreover the songs are of fast forward variety and the picturization doesnt make the viewer engrossed in watching the song. They could have been easily edited.
R.Madhavan is an accomplished actor down south and has given some great performances in hindi movies too. He starts off on a very poor note in the movie trying to immitate SRK of the 90's. But thankfully he comes into his own, half way through the movie and delivers a fine performance. Neetu Chandra as Manohar's wife is good. I wish we could see more of her. She just gives the impression that she is a bundle of talent waiting to explode. Sachin Khedekar is good as usual. Deepak Dobriyal is very good in his cameo. Poonam Dhillon as Manohar's mother is extremely irritating. I have to rate this as her poorest performance.
Writer, Director Vikram Kumar had the right idea but missed a trick here and there. He could have pulled off a more tighter version of the movie instead of trying to commercialize it.
Rating: **1/2 (One time watch)
Generally horror movies are a suspense thriller at heart. 13B is no different. There are no twisted faced, blood drooping monsters/ ghosts in this movie. This movie focuses more on the paranormal activities which give in a horror angle. The movie has some serious flaws as far as the length is concerned. Its a tad bit too long. The songs just prove to be speed breakers and should have been omitted. Attention has been paid to minor detail in the flashbacks which is one of the best things I noticed.
Manohar played by R.Madhavan and his family move into a new home. Manohar and his elder brother have taken a huge amount of loan in order to buy this house. From the outset strange incidents take place in the house but Manohar and his family don't give it much of a heed.
After a few days Manohar starts to realize that somethin is wrong in the house but doesnt utter a word as his mother being superstitious would make them to change the house and the brothers wont be able to afford that.
One fine day, while Manohar is at home he stumbles upon a TV serial which apparently shows exactly what has been happening to Manohar. The serial ends with an incident which takes place in Manohar's real life. In one such incident he loses his to be born child. Manohar is convinced that the serial is related to the unfortunate incidents in his real life and starts observing the serial to prevent his family from getting into danger.
He consults his friend about these activities and decides to unearth the mystery behind the serial. He seeks help from his family doctor, played by Sachin Khedekar, who has researched a lot on paranormal activities too.
Will Manohar be successful in deciphering the paranormal activities and the mystery behind the serial? Or will the ghosts win and force Manohar to leave the house?
Note: Director Vikram Kumar may have pulled off a genius little taunt at housewives that the real ghosts of the modern world are the TV serials.
The music by Shankar Ehsan Loy has to be their weakest work. Come to think of it, I have not heard a SEL album yet which has not a single hummable tune. Moreover the songs are of fast forward variety and the picturization doesnt make the viewer engrossed in watching the song. They could have been easily edited.
R.Madhavan is an accomplished actor down south and has given some great performances in hindi movies too. He starts off on a very poor note in the movie trying to immitate SRK of the 90's. But thankfully he comes into his own, half way through the movie and delivers a fine performance. Neetu Chandra as Manohar's wife is good. I wish we could see more of her. She just gives the impression that she is a bundle of talent waiting to explode. Sachin Khedekar is good as usual. Deepak Dobriyal is very good in his cameo. Poonam Dhillon as Manohar's mother is extremely irritating. I have to rate this as her poorest performance.
Writer, Director Vikram Kumar had the right idea but missed a trick here and there. He could have pulled off a more tighter version of the movie instead of trying to commercialize it.
Rating: **1/2 (One time watch)
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