It's a wonderful life

Although India is the land of festivals but it is rare in Bollywood to have a movie based upon a festival. Surely there are Holi songs in some movies, a fire cracker here and there, but never a full fledged movie on the backdrop of a festival. Hollywood hands down beats us with all the limited festive occasions they have got, invariably there is a valentine day movie during February, and a Christmas movie during December.

It’s a wonderful life lives the spirit of Christmas, the movie starts with God calling one of his Angels (Second class, because he has not earned his wings yet), and starts telling him, the story of George Bailey, a kind hearted fellow who lives in one of the sleepy town of America, with a dream to explore the world, to live a care free and an adventures life away from his hometown. But as luck has it, whenever he plans to leave the town, one or the other thing happens which restricts him from going anywhere. He takes care of the company his father founded, which help poor people to build their own houses, and is the only institution of the town not controlled by Mr. Potter, most rich person of the town but a sadist at heart.

All is well as George Bailey becomes occupied with his family and work. But one Christmas Eve, George’s company misplaces $8000.00, and apart from the huge financial loss, George is faced with the possibility of criminal charges against him, it is this time that he loses all hopes, and starts contemplating with the idea of committing suicide.

God dose not wants a fine man to loose the most precious gift a man could have i.e. ‘Life’. He tasks the Second Class Angel to take care of the situation with the promise to give him Wings (for which he has been waiting for the last 200 years), if he could persuade George against ending his life.

How the Angel makes a depressed George see the beauty of his life, and earn his wings simultaneously, makes the biggest twist of the story.

Friends it is one of those rare movies that can give you something that is in extremely short supply, and that thing is ‘Hope’ and the strength to live another day and fight the odds.

   

Highly recommended, watch this movie, and love your life.

Rating ***1/2

The Dirty Picture

Behold, that here comes Milan Luthariya, with a titillating, enticing and provocating tale of a fat yet seductive, Silk. A lot of people thought that this film may be vulgar after looking at the promos. Well personally I believe ‘vulgar’ is something when you give obscene gestures or talk double meaning. Here there is no vulgarity, because people are talking directly what they mean and what they want. I can not repeat what was said in the movie here, as my parents may read this blog.

And that is the reality about this movie; people can enjoy this movie, only when not accompanied by their family. So watch it alone or with friends, and if you dare to take your kid to this movie, rest assured, sex education may look outdated.

Coming back to the movie in question, as well known is the fact that it is based on a real life of Silk Smita, we can not say for sure how much told here is genuine, but it is entertaining for sure. The film dose not takes the age old route of hue and cry for the tormented and suppressed girl who got exploited by the system. But takes the bold and more realistic yet elevating route where the Heroin knew what she gave and what she got in return. No confusion over the morality aspect, as already more than million movies have exploited the issue, while the viewers slept and the financers wept. But the director was bang on target with what he wanted to do with this movie. It was as if the Director himself was saying those iconic words which came out of the mouth of Vidya Balan, “Filmen sirf theen vajoh se chalti hai, entertainment, entertainment, entertainment, aur main entertainment hoon’. Its gives you the nostalgia of, “The first rule of fight club is, you don’t talk about fight club, The second rule of fight club is, you don’t talk about fight club”.

Song, Ooh la la, may feel erotic to people, but I think it has a lot of sarcastic value attached to it. The dialogues are acidic and plenty in number, and the reason why I went to this movie. Performance wise Vidya is just splendid. Naseeriuddin Shah is reliable as always, Tushar Kapoor fails to impress, but for me the surprise package was Imraan Hashmi, I never liked this guy before, but loved his character in this movie.

On the whole watch the movie if you can handle adult entertainment,

Rating ***.

RA.ONE

First thing first, it is great to be in Bhopal, I have seen a movie in Bhopal after a long time. The last movie I watched here was a disaster called ‘Sucker Punch’. However coming to the movie in question, one of the most awaited and anticipated movie of the year; RA.ONE, does it deliver? Well there is no straight answer.

Shahrukh’s last release (apart from his 3 movie cameo appearances in between) was in Feb 2010, so after about 21 months he comes up with the most expensive movie in Bollywood (175 crs). First of all there were rumors that the movie was inspired from ROBOT, which actually is not true, even Rajnikant Sir makes a special appearance in the movie, which for me was the best part of the movie. Jackie chan was approached for an important part in the movie, which he eventually turned down. Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra also makes special appearance in the movie as well. And everybody has seen the trailers of the movie, so the quality of special effects is no mystery. Can some thing go wrong, well yes and it dose go wrong at a lot of places.

To make myself clear, the plot where a villain comes out of a video game is not a problem for me, you have to accept a basic premise for any movie to enjoy, it may be accepting a 45 year old Aamir Khan to play a college boy in ‘3 Idiots’, or accepting that Anushka Sharma cant recognize her husband in a different getup in ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’. So I am comfortable with the idea that a super villain comes out of a video game, but my problem is, although the villain may have the same intellectual capacity in the real world as he had in the virtual world, but how do you account for the same physical capabilities he has in the game to be carried of in the real world, which defies physics from the very beginning. Because an artificial intelligence program can develop by itself and could transmit itself from one location to another makes sense, but the powers enjoyed by a video game character in a video game can not be just transmitted to an ordinary suit. Another weakness comes in the climax when somehow Shahrukh’s son is able to make a connection between reality and the game, it just doesn’t makes any sense.

Even the director needs to evaluate his humor quotient, as in the initial 15 minutes of the movie, you get a Priyanka Chopra in an irritating role, and you get a Shahrukh who looks terrible as a south Indian and plays the character without any conviction. Abuses by Kareena dose not enlighten anybody neither it entertains.

However leaving all the negative things said above in the backburner for some time, the movie is watch able, the effort and money put in could be felt without any effort. Especially the local train sequence is best of the lot. Performance wise Shahrukh has done well as G.ONE but failed as Shekher Subramaniam, Kareena is fine when she is not abusing, the kid who plays Shahrukh’s son is good, Shahana Goswami and Arjun Rampal dose not got any scope in the movie, although Arjun is the main villain, the Chinese actor is likeable, Sanju Baba in guest appearance is excellent, best performance for me is by Suresh Menon with his 3-4 minute of role.

The movie may remind you of Terminator-2 :The Judgment Day, in various scenes or in the general feeling of the story, where a robot is trying to kill a little boy and other is trying to save him, only difference being in Terminator the robots came from future, in RAONE they came from a computer game. The climax of RAONE also leaves a possibility of a sequel if the movie does ample business, which looks a certain possibility.

So altogether on the script level the movie could have a few flaws, but that should not stop you from watching it at least once. And if you have kids in home, they are going to love the movie.

Rating **1/2

Force

Going to movie after a favorable review saves money, time and a possible headache. Yet the question remains, which reviews to believe. Of late I have realized that the movie reviews are like statistics, you can justify a favorable review of a bad movie by highlighting a single good point of the movie or vice-versa.

However coming back to the review of the movie in question, one can safely assume it to be a decent film. Yet another remake of a South Indian blockbuster; ‘Force’ not only boast of likeable raw action sequences, but also decent performances from overall cast and gripping drama.

The movie more or less walks on predictable lines, involving a police team dedicated to finish narcotics trade, and a gangster on hunt of these policemen and their families. The movie starts with good pace and maintains that speed throughout the climax.

John Abraham is a senior official in anti narcotics department of police, his strength is, that he has no weakness. No family member to think of, and no back story that could pinch him in his butt. With the help of a new found informer, he and his team are able to finish four gangs dealing in different varieties of drugs. The problem starts to arise when the team discover that they have been setup by a different gang headed by Mukesh Rishi, the gang in question planted the informant to the police department so that the anti narcotics department will finis off the competition for them, and then they could have a free run.

During the unfolding of above said events another threatening situation arises for John, as he falls in love with Jenelia Desouza, realizing he has now developed the weakness, which by now he has avoided in his line of duty, but like all, he surrenders in front of heart and plans to get married. It is during this turmoil when nightmare begins for the police team, as a new enemy emerges who has no regard for convention and would attack when you least expect. This in all leads to a dark and bloody climax for the movie.

While watching the movie you may easily be able to predict the upcoming events, but the sheer pace with which the drama unfolds keeps you away from any distraction. Even the situations shown in the movie are not new to Bollywood, but the treatment keeps you interested added with good dialogues and nicely placed characters. The director has done his job well, all the characters have got scope to play there part, and it’s not just about the Hero and the Heroine. However a big difference from the original movie is the characterization of the main villain. In the original, he is more practical and dose not exposes himself to the police, but in ‘Force’ he has no qualms about giving open challenges, which for one looks indigestible. However the overall treatment of the subject keeps you away from such logic finding thoughts.

In all a watchable movie on a lot of accounts; entertaining and time pass.

Rating ***1/2

I have not seen Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam; so it will be wrong for me to compare or contrast it from Sahib Biwi aur Gangster, I just had a chance to read its synopsis.

Although there are certainly some similarities in both the movies, like both have a ‘haveli’ filled with a Sahib, who although is broke but can’t compromise with his royal attitude and life style. Then there is a desperate biwi, who wants to keep his husband away from the other woman and close to herself; failing to do so she tries to attract her husband’s attraction by continuously consuming Vodka. (I don’t know which brand or product was used by Meena Kumari in the original); and then there is the external catalyst that enters the ‘haveli’. ‘Aamir khan being replaced by Shahini Ahuja’ i.e. ‘Ghulam’ being replaced by ‘Gangster’.

Jokes apart, what separates the two movies infect are the motives of these characters and the circumstances that evolve due to their constantly changing relationship. The backdrom has been changed from sleepy West Bengal, to Modern day U.P. surrounded with high political ambition and supported with gun power.

Sahib (Jimmi Shergil) is a highly influential but financially challenged descendent of a royal family, with a half crazy Biwi (Mahie Gil), he lives with a couple of his loyal henchmen. He tries to survive on occasional help from his step mother, and rest on government contracts and sometimes through his muscle power. Genda Singh is his constant enemy who is trying to beat Sahib by any possible means, he plants his mole in the Haveli, and the mole is none other than the Gangster (Randeep Huda) who happens to be the nephew of Sahibs honest driver.

Drama keeps on intensifying with introduction of each character, although the focus remains on the three main characters, but the supporting cast has been given proper individuality as well. The man playing the role of State Minister stands out, other artists have also played there character very well. In the lead roles, Jimmy is just fabulous; he looks royal and pissed-off simultaneously, he has got some of the best dialogues that you may have listened in the last few years. Mahie has came close to give competition to Kangana Ranaut to play mentally challenged roles, she dose her part well, although Randeep Huda is ok-ok, but he has not optimized the opportunity that this role provided. But altogether the performance of all the actors is very fine.

People who love intense drama, added with some very good dialogues, should watch this flick. Although the movie had ample scope for violence and abusing, the director has refrained himself from getting ‘realistic’, for which he deserves full marks.

Rating ***.      

Bodyguard

When I started watching this movie last night, I knew exactly what I was getting into, I had already seen the previous two “blockbuster 100 Crs” earning movies of Salman Khan i.e Dabang and Ready. So the expectation of logic or even a shade of story was undoubtedly not there. But as this movie has also hit a 100 cr mark, watching this was like a compulsory blind that I had to play.

The movie starts off with Salman jumping like a Tarzan from inside of one local train compartment to top of another, only point of concern being, who the bloody hell was holding the tree branch that helped him made the swing, because clearly there were no trees between the two train tracks. Anyhow these kinds of questions should not be asked as they are generally offensive to the action choreographers, as they raise serious concerns over their IQ.

The story continues with Salman becoming Bodyguard of Kareena Kapoor, daughter of Sartaj Singh (Raj Babbar), a man who is highly regarded by Salman. The reason why someone wants to hurt her is of course not explained throughout the movie, (may be they were pissed by her previous irritating performances in different horrible movies)  it’s just like different bad guys keep on coming in the way of Salman’s duty, so that he could kill them. Even police is not bothered for such trivial matters and you are not going to notice even a constable during the whole movie, and we are not talking about some far flung remote place in India but Pune. But why need government sponsored Police when you can hire a private bodyguard.

Anyhow by this time Kareena had started a phone-a-friendship with Salman without disclosing her identity, Salman falls for her without actually seeing her (remember ‘Sirf Tum’) and so do Kareena after watching his choreographed action sequence.

But there is a problem; Kareena can’t disclose her real identity, because Salman will never agree to accept her, because she is the daughter of his God like figure, even Sartaj Singh wont accept him. Now this is the only part of the movie which makes any sense, is likeable and without script glitches. So the whole movie was constructed keeping just climax in mind. Generally a lot of movies faulter in the end reels after a great start. On the contrary, Bodyguard starts with a week premise, unplaced characters, lame jokes, unwanted villains, and a Superstar added with the climax saving the day.

Performance wise I have no complaints with either Salman or Kareena, the supporting cast is wasted like anything, anyhow, the movie is only good due to its climax and to some extent its music. Watch if you have 2-3 hours to spare.

Rating ** 

Pyar ka Punchnama: Must Watch

I feel the name of this movie should have been Pyar ka Postmortem, because love dies a slow and painful death during the end reels of the movie. Virtually I had tears while watching PKP because it had touched that part of my heart which contains a profound terror for relationships. It reassured me of my commitment towards non-commitment.

No other endeavor so far in Indian cinema has been able to defy the very foundation of Bollywood like this one, the movie says it simply, and that can be defined in just two words, ‘Love Sucks’.

Watching a movie full of new comers and a new director is always a risk of money; and more so, of being prone to the feelings of numbness, where the mere existence of that movie raises several questions regarding existence of ‘logic’ on the entire planet. While people producing that movie remains in the hopes of creating another Aamir and Mansoor Khan from their first production, but ends up in creating Khan Rashid Khan’s (KRK) and Himmesh Reshmaiya’s to torture the already frustrated Indians. Thankfully PKP doesn’t falls in above category.

Every person from childhood had heard stories about the inhuman behavior that women had to bear, and about the utter selfishness of men which causes women to reflect towards their miserable existence. Well my friends after watching this movie the Americans will surely call it a conspiracy theory with an underlying agenda to convert all human male species into obedient dogs.

Jokes apart, PKP hits where it hearts, it defies convention and puts the unquestionable integrity of love into scrutiny and asks a valid question about its coexistence with actual happiness. It talks about three happy guys sharing an apartment who always stand for each other, they do all the activities happy kind of people are supposed to do, like karaoke, boozing, abusing etc. And then ‘Shani Dev’ enters in the horoscope of each of them in the form of love. All three guys come in contact with a different girl, every girl with a different life style, different hair style, different priorities but only one thing in common, tension for their friend/boy friend, even the activities of these guys changes dramatically, now they become busy in shopping for their girlfriend, ‘listing about the boyfriend of the girl, from that very girl, whom one of the guys wants to woo (its complicated isn’t it, but a lot of guys can feel associated with this kind of behavior)’, becoming a slave/dog in form of a boy friend, and other such encouraging activities.

Since the protagonists of this movie are males, they soon realize that the only two option left for them to choose in life is between being a single happy male, or a systematic collapse toward a definite nervous breakdown. They choose the later one and live happily ever after without a single woman in their life.

 “So all that bollywood had taught you about love for decades falls flat on the ground, and the truth is finally reveled, which is beautifully shown in the form of song during end credits, the lyrics goes something like ‘Ban gaya kutta, dekho bandh gaya patta’, trying to elaborate the misery of the male species in a relationship.

All the actors have done wonderful work in the movie, I specially like the scene where one of the guys can not bear the trauma caused by his girlfriend and talks breathlessly for about four five minutes. The director is sound technically, but I feel the climax of the movie needed to be more powerful, but the rest of the movie makes up for that mistake. The music is good.

The movie can be treated as a all boys night out, where every body is bitching about his girlfriend, so my recommendation to all the boys in a relationship is to stay away from this movie, or you may see your reflection in any of the three male characters, mind you they were able to escape, you may not, and the feeling of that failure may eat you from inside. As for my friends who are not in a relationship, please watch this movie and you may decide to stay away from relationships as a choice rather than what ever your reasons are. However this movie is only for those girls to watch who have not felt insulted for a while. A cult of a movie.

Rating ***1/2  

Aarakshan

‘Arakshan’ had Big B (Bachchan), Chote Nawab (Saif Ali), a top heroine (D.Padukone), a dazzling performer (Manoj Bajpai) a future potential (Paritk Babbar), some really trustworthy supporting artists (Saurabh Shukla, Darshan Jariwala), even a special appearance from the dream girl (read aunty), a eyebrow raising subject, with an extremely gifted director, and above all the whole shooting of the movie was done in my hometown Bhopal. What possibly could have gone wrong? Well some things went wrong.

To be honest the movie starts on a high note with the first scene being an interview between Saif Ali (who plays a talented man from a lower cast) and 3 cast and background conscious hypocrites. But the next 20 minutes really took the graph of movie down, probably it was due to introduction of different characters, then comes that part of movie which actually is unbearable, it is an extremely pathetic ‘Basti Song’ which one may starts believing was not directod by Shri Prakash Jha, however the pace picks up with the announcement of Supreme court, allowing 27% reservation for OBC, and suddenly the whole society starts compartmentalizing in two groups, one who feels reservation is their right and second who feels cheeted. Amithbh Bachchan who plays a  ethical college Principal find himself in between these two groups, where constantly his loyalty is challenged by both the groups. Even loyalties of people who used to considered Mr Bachchans character to be God like are also challenged by constantly changing situations.

The first half of the movie is excellent with a strong theme and acidic dialogues, but the second part takes down the movie to new lows, one even starts wondering that these are two altogether different stories, one before the interval was actually about reservation but the one in the second half becomes about the fight of one man against private coaching classes. It may make sense to some people but it didn’t make any sense to me. My expectation was the director’s view over the subject, at least an honest bystander’s opinion. But Mr Jha disappointed big time in the second half, by digressing so much from the story altogether, as to reservation was never an issue to start with. The only reason I could think is that the director became scared, that by either favoring or condemning ‘reservation’ he may face protests by either of the communities, or may be due to political mileage he may loose (he himself is a politician).

However Amitabh Bachchan is just outstanding in the first half, in the second half the script weakens his otherwise flawless performance. Saif is convincing and likeable, Deepika has got scope and she has not disappointed, but Manoj Bajpai is not utilized to his potential, there is no ‘karara javaab’ from him this time, like he gave last time in ‘Rajneeti’ with the same director, but the real disappointment is Prateik, he is below average and after some time you may think his track in the movie was half baked as well. Hema Malini’s special appearance is uninspiring, in supporting cast Darshan Jariwala excels, Saurabh Shukla could have got more footage as he is a seasoned performer.

On the whole the movie is a mixed bag, with some good performances and sequences added with a disappointing second half.

Rating **1/2

Singham

It is always said that a movie with a good first half, but a below average second half drowns even a good movie, an average first half with an elevating second half results in good business, and a good first half with an amazing second half results in a classic.

Even though Singham is about to breach 100 crore mark, it falls in the second category. It retells the age old story of good v/s bad.

This genre was extensively over used by movie makers through 70’s to 90’s, and even before and after that. The problem that used to be with these kind of movies was, that the hero after fighting a near lost battle with the villains and defecting them, still used to take a bullet or two in the chest during climax, but didn’t forget to educate the people around and babbles about duty or the bad effects of ‘System’ with an unbelievably sad and intolerable background music and a lot of crying character artists added with a bangle breaking heroin.

Jokes apart, the setting of such a movie became too predictable to tolerate. But Rohit Shetty reintroduced the same with Singham, but he made sure to make appropriate changes. The director took his sweet time to build the story, and during the time put all the light moments in the narrative, however the quality of humor during this section is questionable, still there is no denying to the fact that the drama starts unfolding with the very first interaction of the villain and the protagonist. The director has relied equally on action and heavy duty dialogue delivery for both Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj. Each of their confrontation gives you a rush of adrenalin. Post interval portions are high point of the movie; however the best part of the story for me was fact that due to the stress and uncooperativeness of his own people the character of Bajirao Singham, tries to get help from politicians, even thinks about quitting the job, he gives signs of not being a super human, who can fight any thing, its only after he regains the confidence that he starts his battle with the bad guy. However the climax of the movie was a let down, what happens there is simply idiotic to accept by any reasonable man. Taking nothing away from the director, I would have liked a better thought after finale. 

Ajay Devgans excel in the role, but the best performance comes from Prakash Raj, only thing is that you can not differentiate his style from ‘Wanted’ or ‘Buddha hoga tera baap’, still you enjoy this actor. For me the surprise package was Sachin Khedekar, his comic timing is astonishing in the movie; the director has used the ring tone of his mobile to create repetitive laughter.

All together a decent movie to watch with your family, although I know most of you have already seen this movie.

Rating ***.

The Greatest Game Ever Played: Sports with Sportman Spirit

Before he fought with the decepticons in Transformers, before he rode on a motorcycle with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, Shia LaBeouf played a character called ‘Francis Ouimet’  in the movie ‘The greatest game ever played’ , a 20 year old boy form a humble background with aspiration to become a golf player.

Since the boy loves the game so much, he works as a caddy (person who carries player bag and clubs) at a golf course. But financial difficulties, added with a disapproving father, make him a probable candidate of being another victim of unfulfilled dreams. However watching his dedication to the game a regular player at the golf course offers him an opportunity to enter in an amateur golf contest, as his father won’t agree, he becomes so desperate in his attempt to become a regular player that he makes a deal with his father, that he won’t look back at being a player if he loses the contest. As destiny has it, he loses and starts working at a shop, as agreed with his father.

Opportunity knocks again, as the US Open Golf Tournament is being held, and one amateur player will be allowed to play with the champions from around the world. Reluctant at first, Francis however agrees to participate. As he can’t pay a caddy for himself, he is stuck with a 10 year old, a very adorable golf fan who agrees to do the work without any remuneration as he will get an opportunity to be on the golf field with all the champions of the game, he apart from being a caddy becomes Francis’s guide, the smaller boy has a simple enough strategy for Francis, ‘They play their game, we play our game’.

The tournament becomes the prestige point of Americans and British, as the British are considered to be the best players of the game, but an American had won the tournament the last year. So British are adamant to prove their dominance and Americans are trying hard to make sure that the last won was not a fluke.

But the unexpected happens, and there are only three players are left on the final day of the game, the two British players and Francis as the only American. What follows is considered to be the greatest game ever played. Where an amateur player defeats the big guns of the game in an astonishing playoff.

P.S – The movie is based on actual events that took place in 1913.

The movie has amazing cinematography, with good performances and believable narrative. It is one of those films, which makes going to cinema an experience.

A must watch with every standard.

Rating ****.

Murder 2 : Dark and just Stupid

I am not a fan of Emraan Hashmi, or Mohit Suri, and for that matter any director with Bhatt as a surname. I respect them as good businessmen although. There concept is simple, take any foreign movie which can qualify as a thriller, put some weird characters, chop off sequences which are not acceptable to Indian audiences and change them according to Indian ethos, it may however happen that now the story has become illogical, so put up an unwanted hot actress on the screenplay to kick the reasoning out of men watching the movie. In the process you may have sucked the soul of the movie, but who cares. And you have a product ready at the expense of 7-8 crores, with mediocre actors who are available on daily wages. End result is profit. And just to clarify there is no link between this movie and Murder 1, barring a same irritating Emraan Hashmi and a song which is uttered by a character few times in the movie.

Murder 2 doesn’t go far from the above stated thoughts. The movie is dominated by violence, not the kind where you see a lot of blood shed, but where you are constantly haunted by the ugliness of the dark and dirty corners of the characters. The director has left on important part of the story without proper justification, and that part is character development, all the character looks and behaves unreal, granted the villain is a psycho, but what caused him to become one, the back ground story is simply not sufficient. Same is the case with the characterization of hero, he is having a sad past, just because every hero in a dark movie is supposed to be having one, even why he left the job of police is not very convincing; it’s explained in a single dialogue, where the hero says he wanted to earn a lot of illegal money, but my dear friend, who in India is to believe that police man doesn’t earn loads of illegal money, and by remaining in the police he would have much more opportunities to earn as well. Now all that was needed was a heroine with a sad past as well, so we again have a one line explanation by heroine about some crap that happened with her mother. So all that is left in the world of her is to drink like a fish and shed clothes.

Now there are a number of girls who are missing from Goa, and police is desperate to catch the culprit, however when they get hold of him suddenly they are under pressure by the government to conceal the information from public, but why and how does it even     helps anybody other than the killer is not revealed, maybe it was the only way to convince the hero to become the savior, even a honest policeman confesses to him that he is the only man in the whole town to do something as the police is in a holiday mood for one week, even when the police becomes convinced that the killer is caught for the above murders, suddenly a couple of politicians comes to rescue for no apparent reason, and police even leaves a serial killer on just a telephone call, brilliant just brilliant.

The only saving grace of the movie is the performance of Prashant Narainan, rest all are just ok too just pathetic.

Watch the movie if you don’t have anything else to do.

Rating **

The Hero is Back

The Hero is Back

There was a time when anything was possible, not in real life, but in Bollywood, Hero fighting 100 bad guys in one go and still winning, stopping the ticking bomb in time to save his family just by deciding which wire to cut ‘yellow or red’, escaping from prison without planning, surviving even after being hit by a dozen of bullets, like those bullets were his Sunday cereal breakfast.

But slowly these became a thing of the past and Indian hero started becoming more realistic in his nature. He became a salesman in Rocketsingh with a target to sale more computers. He became a bank manager in DTBHJ with a mid life crises where he is not able to woo a young girl, because of his age. He became an executive in a big cola company in Corporate, where he is thrown out of the window to die, when he started to raise questions which were dangerous for his organization.

His perpetual power to survive and fight the injustice, and win in the end of course, was slowly sucked out of him by the very writers who once upon a time gave him the above mentioned dreams. This happened partially due to the focus of film makers on the business generated by multiplexes. The usual audiences were educated, used to raise questions over the logic of movie all the time and a lot of them had exposure to Hollywood movies as well. So it was inevitable to change the concept of hero.

But one thing was forgotten, the audiences of the single screen, who wanted their share of dishum- dishum from a hero. They desperately wanted their hero to win in every battle he participated, they wanted the heroine to have no other options and come and fall in the strong shoulders of our mighty hero, and killing the hero was like worshiping the devil.

Enters Salman Khan with ‘Wanted’, a smash hit, where he played a ‘know all – seen all – done all’ kind of a guy. He came, He saw and He concurred. He brought with him the old larger than life kind of persona which was lost in the era of realism like Titanic was lost in ocean.

Taking the clue from it every Bollywood hero started becoming Rajnikant in his own style. Salman repeated this strategy with Dabang. But best hand was played by the makers of Buddha hoga tera baap, watching Amitabh Bachchan in that charming character, where he smashes every bone of every villain while uttering most tongue and cheek dialogues, and dances with videshi gories while flirting with Raveena Tandon and Romancing with Hema Malini. It was just the kind of movie a Bachchan fan can’t afford to miss. Even with a average director and a script which needed trimming and a good editor, the movie is entertaining for the families, the 2 scenes where Amithabh talks with Hema Malini makes you realize that even a bad director can’t make these two legends act bad.

However in coming weeks we are going to witness more raw action in the form of ‘Singham’ and then ‘Force’. It looks the macho is back and the party has just begin.

Inside Job

The destruction caused by a falling economy is much more sustainable than that to of a natural catastrophe like flood or an earthquake, because in case of the later, the whole damage is done in one go, and the reconstruction starts from the scratch just after that, and people are aware that there are no more surprises left for them. But in case of the former, you can never be sure as to how much is still lying beneath the carpet, every time you think all the dirt has come out in open, some thing more happens. But there is one much more vital difference between the two. Natural disasters never give signals months before in advance of their occurrence.

Many have wondered and some still dose on the reasons as to why the economic meltdown of 2008 happened. Even I fail to understand as to why the whole world economy collapsed, just because there was some problem with the housing market in USA. Would a similar situation arise in India, if our housing sector collapses, probably not. Not because our economy is robust, but because people in our financial sectors will look like saints if we compare them with their counterparts in USA.

It has been general opinion in India, that the financial sector of America became greedy and created complex products to increase profitability. But truth goes deeper than this, a weak structure was created and harbored, while constantly ignoring the high risk involved, laws were made so that big corporate can make huge profits and those laws were restrained which could have stopped this. The meltdown was not caused by human error, it was a well planned elaborate con game, in simple language you can call this as a fraud, which involved, investment banks, stock brokers, rating agencies (like S&P, Moodys, Fitch), housing mortgaging companies and people sitting at the apex government departments like, federal reserve and treasury.

All the high ranking government officials involved in this constant endeavor to serve the gigantic financial conglomerates while ignoring safety for public money made huge amount of money as consultants to these very companies, and the joke doesn’t end here as well, not only there were no criminal action taken against these very people, few of them were actually taken back in the system at the same critical positions.

How this whole game was played is very elaborate to explain, watching this documentary will be an excellent way to understand this mess. This documentary makes a mandatory watch for all people who are related to the financial sector, and for those people who find this field interesting.

Rating ****.

Ready

Its 9:30 P.M, I am sitting in a small less than comfortable chair in a single screen theatre at Morbi, although it is a Tuesday, still the board outside the premises says houseful. Inside the theatre people are perspiring (because only dogs sweat, men perspire) due to humidity, and only three fans can not take care of the hall filled to capacity.

And with the entry of Salman with a super hit song, people started shouting his name hysterically; all that was needed now was a good movie. What I got was a movie that works in part i.e. makes you laugh, and rest of the time entertains you with age old jokes forced into the narrative, scenes with keeps on going beyond a point that you start thinking that the director forgot to say cut and where the screenplay writer was probably sleeping.

I won’t go in to the story of the movie as it doesn’t matters in a comedy film; neither had it mattered to the story writer. I agree you take a lot of things for granted in such type of movie, but “reason and logic” died a sudden and terrifying death in the first few minutes of the movie itself.

So is it a movie worth avoiding when half the population of the country is getting into a queue outside a cinema hall. Well even after criticizing in lengths about the technicalities of the movie, fact remains it is a movie you enjoy and like. It may be due to the fact that Indians are not getting good enough entertainment off lately that is the reason why we have started enjoying even average movies to the extent that these movies become blockbuster hits. Anees Bazmi is an extremely talented director, but he is turning into a factory now a days, ‘Ready’ being his third movie to be released in last few months

(No Problem and Thank You being the first two), he has started to compromise with the quality of the movies he is directing, and just for information he is currently working on the sequels of ‘Singh is King’, ‘No Entry’ and even ‘Mr. India’ although these are rumors till date. So it may be possible that he is directing just a few parts of the movie while rest is directed by his assistants.

Coming back to the point whether the movie works or not, well certainly in parts, but a great opportunity missed by the director to make a much more entertaining movie, if only he had worked hard on the movie as hard he had worked on the songs. Turing out to be the second undeserving blockbuster for Salman after Dabang. So go to this movie as not much better options are available.

Rating **.

Deathtrap: Just Wonderful

Last few weeks i have watched a lot of movies, but not one of them was like Deathtrap. A sheer pleasure to watch, it is a real treat for the fans of thriller genre. Adopted from a play itself, the movie is about a play writer, who used to be very successful, but now is struggling with continuous flop stage shows and a ‘writer’s block’ (A condition where a writer can’t generate new ideas for a new plot or story).  Telling anything more would be unfair as the movie keeps on surprising you.  I feel no gifted Indian film maker has seen this movie otherwise it would have surely remade in Bollywood, or maybe i have just not watched that movie.

Anyhow the settings are just like a play, only limited characters and more or less just one location, with a couple of scenes shoot at other places. The story is amazing, the budget is low and the actors are wonderful, just when you will think you know what is going to happen the movie will surprises you.

The director of the movie is Sidney Lumet, the man who directed ‘12 Angry Men’, one of the most wonderful movies i have ever seen in my life. And now after watching this movie, i have turned into a fan, and would surely watch all his movies.

It is a gem of a thriller, don’t miss it.

Rating ***1/2.

Stanley ka Dabba

Not a lot of movies are made in India for children, and when they are made they either lack proper promotion, or big names, and even budgets many times. This may be the reason why we don’t have any established name in this particular genre.  However when a talented man like Amol Gupte (Creative director of Taare Zameen Par) makes a movie for children, the expectations are sky high. So does ‘Stanley ka Dabba’ deliver what it promises? The answer is a bit tricky.

The story revolves around a young school boy named Stanley, he has a lot of friends in the class, who don’t mind sharing their lunch box with Stanley, because he never brings a Tiffin with him. There is yet another man in the school who is not in a habit of bringing tiffin “the dabba”, the Hindi teacher, role played by Amol Gupte himself. Now the teacher like to eat the tiffins of other teachers and students as well, the problem starts when the other kids have to choose between Stanley or the teacher to share the lunch, as both cannot be accommodated.

It’s difficult to criticize a movie which has been largely appraised by a lot of people; but you can’t change your opinion just because it doesn’t go with the majority. However ‘Stanley ka Dabba’ is not such a bad movie that i need to go out and fight the world to prove a point. But the movie has its own problems.

The story is wafer thin, with an ok ok script. The first half drags, but the second half brings on some interesting moments. However the performance of kids is flawless, they never look like they are in a movie, and they look like kids out of daily life. There are other teachers played by known names like Divya Dutta and Raj Zusti, but their significance to the story is not much. The climax of the movie is so farfetched that it looks like a pathetic attempt on the writer’s part to create a social message kind of a thing, this part is just not acceptable on the ground of common sense.

Was it an attempt to make a movie with a message or just another trick to touch the sympathetic side of the audience is hard to tell, however a better and logical climax was possible with all certainties.

The movie is low budgeted with a lot of favourable reviews, so it won’t be difficult for the producers to recover the cost. It may have already been recovered as we talk. It’s not such a bad movie, but the climax drowned the 150 bugs I spent on the tickets.

Rating **.

The Practice

One thing about American television that I appreciate most is the fact that, they work hard for their serials, whether that is to do with the story line, character development or just taking the serial from one season to another. They make about 20 to 24 episodes on higher side in one ‘season’,  which means in one year, just compare that to the crap that comes to Indian television 5 times a week. We make about 220 to 250 episodes in one year with no near possibility of its end. Our serials have become eternal and we actually don’t mind that.

And here I started watching ‘The Practice’, because of my natural flair for court room dramas, I was pleasantly surprised, not only because of its entertainment quotient, but for the very fact that the serial dose not deviate from being factual. The cases may seem unrealistic in various episodes, but the approach with which they are handled gives you a close look at the American legal system, and the very basis on which it works. I learned a lot about court proceedings through this serial, and this has made me curious about Indian legal system as well. I really hope someday someone will make a serial as gripping and as realistic as ‘The Practice’ in India with Indian law context.

The serial is about a firm of attorneys, who generally specialize in criminal defence; now in Indian movies a lawyer defending a guilty accused is considered a villain from the very first scene. A notion that is hard to get by, but here in this serial, the side of those lawyers are shown, the moral obligations that they are required by law to fulfil. Defending the guilty with all the efforts, even when they personally don’t want the accused to be acquitted. And the use of loop holes in the American law to their aid.

The situations shown in the serial are sometimes just amazing, you may yourself feel entangled in them, and start wondering what you would have done in that situation. By now i have completed 3 seasons of this serial out of total 8 seasons. And I am loving it.

Highly recommended for a person with a law background, or even with an intention to make a career in this field. And for people who appreciate good work that not only entertains but educates.

Rating ****.

Shagird (2011)

I am a big fan of director Tigmanshu Dhulia since his first movie “Haasil” the movie which placed Irfan Khan on the map of Bollywood. However this time he comes with another wonderful actor Nana Patekar. The director has a certain style of film making, stories with heavy doses of politics and violence. This movie is also special because it features famous director “Anurag Kashyap” in a prominent role.

Nana Patekar as ‘Hanumant Singh’ plays an ‘old song loving’ and ‘corrupt as a politician’ cop, who carries out all the dirty works for a minister named ‘Rajmani Singh’ (Zakir Hussain) without any questions of morality or dignity, enters Mohit Alawat a quite subordinate who does not wants to be the part of corruption, but nobody is asking for his opinion anyway. Then there is a famous criminal Bunty Bhaiya (Anurag Kashyap) who has been caught by police recently. In a plot to release two terrorist and Bunty Bhaiya alongside three journalists are kidnapped including Rimi Sen, the love interest of Mohit Alawat. What follows is story where all the characters are entangled in a tale of conflict, deception, blood and betrayal.  

The story is gripping, with a lot of twists and turns, some even unexpected. However a better editor could have done wonders with the final cut, the movie becomes lengthy after a while. But taking nothing out from the director, there are a lot of praiseworthy sequences and a lot of good dialogues.   

Nana Patekar is just fabulous, a ‘10/10’ performance. Mohit Alawat shows good temperament; Anurag Kashyap does his role with relative ease and Zakir Hussain excels in his role as well. Rimi sen is just ok, no fireworks there, even i feel, her role could have been spared, i.e. to say, her character is kind of forced on the story, and few sequences between Rimi and Mohit actually drags the narrative.

Overall the movie is a nice watch, however the climax is kind of a letdown, still a better movie than a lot of stuff available now a days. A fan of Nana Patekar should not miss this one.

Rating ***.

I Hate Love Storys

Indian love stories always have a lot of formulas or, “cliché” as some people call it, and we love them for that. Bollywood is not exciting without these masala movies, although we know what the climax is going to be from the start of first frame. Still these movies are fun. Now, is there any difference between those movies and IHLS???? Well who cares. Give me some great visuals and melodious soundtrack with a lead pair who shows some chemistry, some ‘rona dhona’ and ‘dramebazzi’ and of course an Airport in the climax, and we have got a winner.

We all know that 90% of times a love story will have these things but we still go out and enjoy them, nothing wrong in it as well, we pay to get entertained and if a movie can entertain us with all the above formulas than I don’t care about originality. Of course treatment of a subject makes it worth watching.

Now coming back to our movie in question IHLS, is more of a romantic comedy with the hero always having a sarcastic look on the popular formulas in a typical love story because he dose not believe in love, but his problem is that he works for Veer Kapoor, a very famous movie director who is known for his masala romantic movies with all the ingredients from Yash Chopra to Karan Johar. And then we have a heroine of course, who actually believes in a perfect love story, who believes she is living in one of them, and then these two meet and story begins, which we all know is going to end with these two getting together. Anyhow the good thing about this movie is that it uses a lot of popular music and famous scenes from other hit movies of Chopra and Johar and make sarcastic remarks about them being cliché and the director of this movie has taken a lot of pot holes at the producer of the movie itself i.e. Karan Johar and also at Shah Rukh Khan. This is commendable, because we in Indian cinema are prone to such things, and there are potential deformation claims in waiting (Remember the Manoj Kumar incidence from Om Shanti Om). So better make mockery of the inside people.

To be frank this movie makes me remember ‘Love Aaj Kal’, in that movie it was shown how a today’s man who does not believes in love starts believing in it after he could draw parallel with the story of an old guy. And understands in the end, that love has not changed, even though time has changed. Likewise the hero in, I Hate Love Storys, feels all the romance shown in movies is false, but slowly starts believing in it when it starts happening to him.  

   

Overall the freshness of visuals with melodious music with ok ok performances from the cast, makes the movie one time watch, if you have not seen it already.

Rating **1/2

Chalo Dilli

Chalo Dilli is the first movie produced by Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupati, a movie made with careful financial planning and market scope. The leading lady is the producer so no money required to be paid, the other main character is very popular yet economical. No need to build big sets as the movie is shot on real locations and other characters involved are not very expensive as well, however there were two mistakes made by the producer, for one it was released with as many as 8 to 10 more movies on the date and other being stretching a good idea long enough to dilute the effect.

The story revolves around a sophisticated and successful lady who wants to reach Dilli and her unwarranted yet inseparable by destiny co-passenger during their journey towards their destination. Frankly the two characters are so predictable that the burden falls entirely on the story, which for the matter of fact could have been good if a better screen play was used to support, but the situations are dragged and the impact is lost. The movie takes a lot of time to come to the point, and the climax is so lengthy that the noble intentions of the writer goes for a toss.

Performance vise Vinay Pathak is superb and Lara Dutta compliments him in most of the places, but could be seen overdoing the act in a few sequences as well. However supporting cast does its work good enough, but the movie overall lacks in impact to a great extent, however lower cost, fan following of Vinay

Pathak and moderate entertainment may be able to cover the cost and may show a bit of profit for the producer as well.

On the whole an OK-OK type of movie, which may appeal to few because of the packaging.

Rating **

Dum Maro Dum

Dum maro dum is the third movie directed by Mr. Rohan Sippy, who makes movies only with Abhishek Bachchan. First a love story (Kuch na Kaho) then a Con story (Bluffmaster) and the latest one is an out and out crime thriller, dealing with the drug mafia(s) of Goa.

The movie starts with Lorry (Prateik Babbar) who needs money to pursue his education abroad, where his girlfriend had already got admission. One of his friend named Ricky offers him the required sum if he agrees to become a drug courier and deliver the drugs in USA.

The other angle of the story deals with ACP Vishnu Kamat (Jr. Bachchan) a cop with a death wish who has been entrusted with the duty to clean sweep the roads of Goa from drugs.

And the third angle of the story deals with a singer cum musician Joki (Rana Dugabali), who is a friend of Lorry and wants to save him from the claws of the drug business as he has previously lost his love (Bipasha Basu) due to this trap to the drug king of Goa (Aditya Pancholi).

The story is very interestingly woven out, as all the three angles of the story meet at the airport where Lorry is about to fly with drugs to USA.

The most impressive part of this movie is its story no doubt, the writes have done a lot of hard work to write the story as well as the screen play. The first half of the movie is fast pased and interesting, with all the other drama aside a major question that keeps on repeating is the identity of "Michael Barbosa" a character on the lines of "Keyser Soze" from the cult classic movie "The Usual Suspects" even the audience keep on guessing about his identity, but it is my bet that you wont be able to guess correctly till climax . The second half drags for some time, but the movie gets to a steady pace after some time. The movie contains a lot of drama, a few pappy numbers, a few unwanted songs and reasonably good performance from overall cast.

The beauty of any script lies in not leaving any loop holes in the story, and Dum Maro Dum scores here, about all the angles of the story are revealed and with proper reasoning as well. The camera work is very good, especially the sequence where Abhishek Bachchan raids for the very first time.

Overall a decent outing for a thriller fan, a recommendation to watch with a parental guidance for mild violence and some rough language.

Rating ***1/2.

Devil (2010)

The basic purpose of a movie is to tell a story, this is where a lot of film makers make the mistake, they keep every thing in the movie except the story. How ever with introduction of small budgeted movies, this problem has been tackled to a large extent. Devil is a shining example of a well made movie, with a basic concept, good production value and a considerably low budget as compared to other Hollywood films.

The first thing that strikes you about the movie is, that there are no famous names in the title sequence, except Mr. Manoj N Shyamalan who is the producer of the movie, may be his recent big budgeted flops have forced him to enter the world of small budget movies.

Coming back to the basic concept of the movie, it is about 5 people who have been stuck inside a lift of a building, and one by one they start getting killed, on of the security man, who is watching the action through a CCTV camera is confident that this is the work of devil, and he is one among these 5 people. A police officer who is trying to resolve the situation dose not believes it initially but than finds on other explanation, the question is not only that who among them is the devil but also what is his motive.

The movie is virtually shot inside a lift, with some action taking place into the building where the lift is hanging, the movie may even influence upcoming film makers who dose not have heavy budgets to support them. The movie is a good watch for thriller/horror fans, with captivating story telling and a good climax, which is such a rare commodity now a days.

Rating ***.

Little Manhattan

What happens when a 10 year old boy falls for a beautiful 11 year old girl. The discovery of love, hate, confusion, dilemma,  jealousy, fights, romance and all of stuff that is possible in any other love story, with only one exception, i.e. this story has innocence as well.

Meet Gabe, a 10 year old boy how believed that he despise girls because all boys are supposed to, till he meets 11 year old Rosemary, a beautiful and nice girl, with a perfect family. Gabe who's own parents are on a verge of divorce is not very comfortable with the idea of love, and he is happy with his present life, but there is a problem, he has fallen in love with the third most beautiful girl of the class.

The story is told in narrative of the boy himself, and all the emotions he goes through during his adventure with love. The movie is sweet and watchable when you need to relax and laugh a little.

Recommended for a holiday when you don't have any other worth thing to do.

Rating **1/2

Sherlock (2010) TV Series

I had been an admirer of Sherlock Holmes for ages, although i have not read the complete collection of this esteemed fictional character, but i plan to do the same shortly. Incidentally my dear uncle is a huge fan as well, so when the movie "Sherlock Holmes" came to theaters in 2009 i was more than sure that he will accompany me to the theaters. But he had a different opinion, he said that he has always perceived Sherlock Holmes to be a serious and no nonsense fellow and the characterization done by "Guy Ritchie" dose not amuses him, he liked the image that "Jeremy Brent" carried of when he enacted the role in the old time TV series based on the character. However i enjoyed the movie a lot and i am looking forward to the sequel as well.

Now coming on to the latest thing, a new TV series again based on the same character, dose it offers something, the answer seems to me as yes, the only difference this time seems to be that, the setting of the present series in 2010 not the Victorian era. That means the series will contain the dosage of modern technology to full extent, and it will be amusing to see how Mr Holmes solve the crime with the help of these modern methods.

Only 3 episodes have been made for the first season of this series, with the strong possibility of another 3 episodes in the next season. I have watched only the first episode "A study in Pink". The episode introduces the lead characters i.e Sherlock Holmes an eccentric Private detective and Dr Watson an ex-army doctor how they first meet and the first crime they solve together. A matter relating to "serial suicides:.

The series highly focuses not only the crime and its detection but to a large extent on psychology of both the lead characters. Holmes for whom crime is a game which he enjoys, and even finding the truth is more important for him than catching the criminal as well and Dr Watson who seems to be the victim of stress of war but actually thrives for danger.

A stylish way of presentation, with added humor and a very intelligent plot, which not only focuses on who did the the crime, but more importantly "How" and "Why", makes this episode an irresistible watch for any fan of  suspense genre.

Rating ****1/2