Student of the Year

The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear Karan Johar is a Yash Chopra mark movie, with heroin standing on a icy mountain, with wind blowing at full speed making her hair dance like a bunch of cobras.

However the movie that KJo wanted to make this time was partly different, I am saying partly because you still get to see the icy mountain, but instead of heroine you see a girl who looks like someone who has bunked the school, granted the movie is based in and around school, but only the heroine i.e. Miss Bhatt looks like a school student, rest of people are seriously from post graduation I believe, however what makes the movie interesting for me is the other part, where actually you see a director who can make a movie beyond a love story.

Don’t get me wrong, this movie has all that Mr. Johar is famous for, love, dysfunctional family, lots of money, two new comer heroes and an underage heroine. But the movie has also competition in its core, the passion to succeed and fear of failure and the changing interrelationship between friends. To be honest I myself became curious in the second half of the movie that who is going to win the award for Student of the Year. This is his side that the director had not shown to public before.

Let me be very clear on a few point here, the director is the man who makes the movie work, because he has become such a good story teller that minor flaws in his movie are overshadowed. Like in this movie the part where both the heroes are not comfortable with their respective families is more of a cliché than anything else. To be honest the track between Varun and his father looks forced on the story as it is not well conceived.

Performance wise Siddharth impresses and Varun shows sign for decent performances, but as far as leading lady is concerned a little less talented director and reality will strike like lightning. However the actor who impressed me the most was Kayoze Irani, he is a talent to look out for, I will appreciate the director for having his focus not only on the lead 3 characters but giving substantial roles to supporting characters as well, not only that but their charters also have a few shades.

Story is decent so is music, the narrative is definitely very fresh and stylish, on the whole the movie makes a onetime watch, but bear in mind the overacting you are going to encounter at various moments during the movie.

Rating **1/2

Talaash (2012)

It’s really hard for me to watch a movie in the town I currently live, not because movies don’t release here but due to pathetic condition of theaters, I even don’t mind the poor infrastructure or broken seats, but the constant ‘maava’ chewing and nonstop spitting by people makes it a nightmarish experience, however I try to make an exception for suspense movies, as they have a very short shelf life, and it’s not possible for me to go to a nearby city every time for a better theatre.

Talaash was obviously a must watch for me since the day it was announced, however I was afraid that someone may leak the suspense of the movie so I wanted to watch the movie on Friday night itself, but my program got delayed by one day, as luck would have it my cable connection has not been working for the last one week and even my newspaper man in not delivering the paper for the last four days, so in a way I thought it was kind of lucky for me, as someone from a TV channel or any random article from the newspaper could have revealed the suspense of this movie, but I couldn’t smile for a long time as that one day delay cost me the suspense of the movie as someone posted the climax of movie on facebook on Saturday morning, but I went to the movie anyhow.

Anyway leaving aside my grief and coming to the point, dose Talaash carries off the burden of immense expectations levied upon it, yes, would be my answer. One needs to understand that a suspense movie loses its charm as soon as the story is reveled, unlike in case of comedy or romantic movies, audiences don’t come to watch suspense movie for the second time. So keeping in mind the fact that I already knew the suspense watching the movie was more or less pointless, but that didn’t happened here, the movie keeps you glued to your seat throughout the 2 and a half hours, so even though I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more if I didn’t knew the suspense, still the director kept my interest in the movie alive.

For obvious reasons I won’t talk about the story of the movie, but will point out that the screenplay is flawless, minute details have been taken care of efficiently. About the suspense, its good but may not be acceptable to all alike, if I hadn’t known it already my views over the movie could have been entirely different from what they are right now.  However the director does not give away everything on a plate to the audience, a viewer needs to be attentive during the movie to understand the plot.

Performance wise everyone enacts his or her part well, but you don’t feel like you are watching an Aamir Khan film rather the movie belongs to the director, Nawazuddin Sidhiqui has come full circle, from playing an extra in Aamir starrer ‘Sarfarosh’ to a lead in ‘Talaash’.

Music wise my favorite track is ‘muskane jhooti hain’, dialogues are good (Farhan Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap), technically the movie is well made.

On the whole the movie is a fine balance of emotion and suspense which deserves a watch, however I won’t rate the movie as I was not in a position to determine the effectiveness of the suspense of the movie.

P.S. My cable is still not working and i dont know wether i will have access to tomorrows news paper.

Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012)

Watching a Yash Chopra Movie without bias is difficult. Coz he is someone who has not entertained individuals but generations, ‘ Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ being his last movie makes it further difficult to have a rational mindset, to be honest I thought I wouldn’t write the review of the movie if I didn’t like it, but  his last movie, though not his best, still deserves a watch.

The movie has a thin premise to start with, but it is the director, who shows it with conviction. Few people may call the basic plot to be idiotic, and it may have looked that way if a lesser director would have directed the movie. But it is Mr. Chopra who makes you believe in the story, and than takes off splendidly after that, something like this was also seen in ‘Rab ne bana di jodi’ where a girl is not able to recognize her husband in disguise, people who had problem with this basic story didn't enjoyed the movie after that, same way the people who wont accept the basic premise of this movie may not find the movie to be amusing, but I accepted the plot and enjoyed every bit after that.

Performance wise Anuska Sharma is a fireball, although she overdo the role in a scene or two, but overall she is the refreshing part of the movie, Katrina has became type cast with the image of an Indo-British or Indo-American girl, but her performance is good as well, SRK delivers another role consistent with his abilities, there are two aspects of his role one as a young and cheerful man another as a tough army guy, I liked the second one more.

Music wise the movie leaves a lot to be desired, the combination of Gulzar and Rehman is not up to the mark, “Mirza” being the only track I loved, although “Challa” is also OK. I believe at least 2 to 3 tracks should have been chopped from the movie considering the length of the movie.

I would specially like to mention the beautiful dialogues of the movie which makes watching this movie a pleasure, and special appearance by Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor adds to the charm of the movie.

Overall this movie deserves to be your weekend watch. Goodbye Mr. Chopra.

Rating ***1/2   

English Vinglish (2012)

Years ago I read an article in a news paper which said, that although there is cricket in it yet Lagaan is not a sports film, although there are British in this pre independent era movie yet it is not a freedom struggle movie, although there is one hero and two heroines in the movie, yet it is not a romantic movie. So what kind of movie is Lagaan? I believe it is a movie about the sheer courage and determination of people who stood against the improbable and won anyway.

English Vinglish is no Lagaan, still I compared the two because just like Lagaan, English Vinglish has a camouflage over its core sense, from outside it looks like a women oriented movie, but it is not, it is again a movie about the determination of a lady who succeeds in achieving her goal against all odds, to gain respect of her family. And when I say it is not a woman oriented story, what I actually mean is that you can actually put a male character as lead character against the female one, and still you can tell this story with the same sensibility.

To say that it is not a routine movie would be an understatement, it is a beautiful feel good movie which makes you fell good about yourself. I had expectations from the move right from the start as the movie was been directed by Gauri Shinde, who is wife of hugely talented R.Balki (Cheeni Kum, Paa). Here I want to say that I can’t ignore the commonalities in the style of both film makers, firstly, the characters are not melodramatic and very practical most of the times, and secondly the lighter way in which all the above mentioned movies have been picturised.

Having said all that, one thing remains unstated still undoubted that Sridevi is the body and the soul of this movie, the ease with which she has portrayed the character is amazing, you never fell that she has not acted in years. Her performance is top notch and flawless. The supporting cast has done good work as well, be it the Indian actors or the foreign ones.

The story of the movie could be told in two lines, but it is the screenplay that holds it in every frame. The movie is a fine balance of humor, emotions and content.

It is must watch for all young and old alike. Go for this one.

Rating ****

Oh My God (2012)

Today I had a choice between watching either “Barfi” or “Oh My God”, as my friend had already seen ‘Barfi’, I settled for OMG and never regretted my decision for a second after the movie was over.

First things first, Paresh Rawal is the hero of this movie not Akshay Kumar, although Akshay has a significant role in the movie, but the screen belongs to Paresh for this one. As you may have seen in the trailers of the movie, the story deals with a case filed by a common man against God, but the core of the movie holds more than that, what looks like a comedy movie has intense thought and a lot of gut behind it. The question about existence and work of God is constantly asked throughout the movie, but more importantly even somewhat answered as well.  

As I said earlier, it is a difficult movie to make, because the faith of people is openly challenged throughout the proceeding of the movie, notwithstanding the fact that people could have seriously objected to it theme of the movie. But here I would like to congratulate the director for coming out with an objective and balanced screenplay, where justice is done to both the sides, people who believe in God and people who don’t.

The movie is multilayered as it not only deals with the questions surrounding God, but also about the business people have made out of, on the name of God.

Even without God (Akshay Kumar) the movie could have been made, but would have missed its depth. As beautifully put in lines by the character, “मैं कृष्ण हूँ इसलिए चमत्कार कर सकता हूँ, चमत्कार कर सकता हूँ इसलिए कृष्ण नहीं हूँ”.

The best part of the movie comes when you think that the movie has ended with the end of court case, but the director still has a point to make and he does that with excellence, viewer is caught surprised with the drama unfolding during climax, brownie points to the director and writer for that.

All in all, a must watch, not for comedy but for the thought provoking idea.

Rating ****

 

 

 

   

Samsung V/s Micromax: Slap on the face

I never felt thrilled about offensive advertising, I understand when a commercial says “Smart people use this product”, but I have serious reservations when the advertisers’ starts saying people not using our product are idiots, even more downgrading situation is, when they say, “hey man, you are not good enough for our product”, seriously in this era of global competition how can a brand even think of offending other segments to impress their target group.

A couple of years ago TVS launched Apache with advertisement where young people riding this bike were ridiculing people who didn’t had this bike. They made fun of a boy doing routine work for his household by making him look like a momma’s boy, then of a simple couple which was on a stroll with their little baby, by making the husband look lustful and spineless, and in the end of guys who were working for their boss as idiots, just because these people didn’t had this motor cycle or these kind of people doesn’t deserve this kind of superior product.

I can appreciate a brands requirement to be distinctive in the market, “rebellious” and maybe even “spoiled” in this case, but the problem is TVS Apache targets college going, fun loving kids for this product, but what our dear advertiser forgets is, how these kids are going to purchase this bike on their own? The target group for this product doesn’t work as they are college going crowd, so these kids need to go to daddy for money, and daddy who has worked hard all his life to get his children into college and saved enough to get them a vehicle, watches this advertising where working guys are ridiculed, and now daddy is pissed.

I don’t know whether working class people were pissed or not after watching this commercial, but the hell I was, and I sworn to my God that I would never purchase this bike (as I was planning on purchasing a motorcycle for myself in those days). Work of advertising is to convert potential customers into actual customers not to lose them altogether.

However now the new commercials of TVS Apache released in 2012 have started to concentrate on their features rather than offending others, maybe they got the massage.

Now Samsung made the same kind of mistake of offending all those who doesn’t have the ‘Galaxy Y series’ Smart phone, by calling them uncle in a derogatory way. Again the big mistake, targeting the ‘hip and smart’ college going kids while making fun of working class guys, my dear Samsung, working class guys are the biggest spender on mobile phones in India, even if young generation is purchasing your product the money is coming from the same “Uncle” kind of guys.

However twist in the tale is Micromax Mobiles gave Samsung their own taste of medicine, their new advertising shows a girl (presumably having Samsung phone in her hand), making fun of a guy by constantly calling him uncle, as soon as she is finished two guys having Micromax Mobiles starts making fun of her by calling her “Aunty” while talking about superior features of Micromax over Samsung.
 

It is uncommon in India to have such kind of advertising, where directly products of competitors are bashed, even in this commercial Samsung name never comes up, but everybody gets the reference. Similar kind of advertising can be seen where Bajaj Motorcycle is making fun of presumably Hero Honda (rather Hero Moto Corp now a days), but what Micromax and Bajaj dose is to make fun of competitors products, as they talk about superiority of their product over that of others, they don’t make fun of people who are using these product, as they very well know, that this is the same target group to whom they need to sell their product as well.

In the end all I can say to Samsung and TVS is, it is very easy to make fun of others, but try to do the right thing by trying to concentrate on your own strong points otherwise your competitors can use your own stretegy againt you, so rather than calling others idiots, try to be smart yourself.

Jewel Thief (1967)

My friends may say that I don’t need to write about a movie that every one has already seen, how I am supposed to tell everyone something that everyone already knows. Well there are actually two reasons I want to do it anyway, first, there still may be few people in my generation or a lot of them in the new generation, who may not have seen this movie, and second, ‘Jewel Thief’ is my all time favorite Hindi thriller.

The protagonist of the movie ‘Vijay’ is a precious stone expert who lands in a good job in a reputed jeweler shop, the trouble starts when everybody starts calling him ‘Prince Amar’ because he looks just like him; the bigger problem is ‘Prince Amar’ is a notorious Jewel Thief who is wanted by Indian police.

The plot keeps on deepening with entry of each new character, and ‘Vijay’ starts getting mixed up in a lot of trouble with each passing day. The story that starts form ‘Bombay’ culminates in ‘Sikkim’.

The best part of the movie is the style with which it has been presented; the lines given to characters are beautiful which derives a lot of impact due to its excellent background music. I believe background music is the part of movie that can make or destroy the mood of the whole film, especially in a thriller; the chilling effect of background music can’t be ignored, which in case of Jewel Thief has amazing recall value.

Plot of the movie is like a jigsaw puzzle where every part or scene of the movie has its significance, in spite of technological advancement, a lot of movies now-a-days can’t even touch the editing level of this movie. The director has given it an international appeal, as this movie can give run for its money to any international movie, not to forget this movie was made in 1967.

I need not comment about the performance of the whole cast, still Dev Anand and Ashok Kumar were excellent; music is wonderful, even my mobile caller tone is from this movie.

So all in all, I believe it to be the best ever thriller of Indian cinema, the people who have seen it should not tell the climax to the people who are still to watch it. A must watch by every standard.

Rating ****1/2.

Chicago (2002)

Chicago is an interesting movie by all means but not a usual one, this is a movie which relies heavily on its visual appeal rather than story or screenplay. You are in a middle of a scene and suddenly the background changes, jazz starts playing, and you see actors are now wearing shining outfits, with a lot of people dancing behind them while the actors sing and tell the world their story. The movie changes into a stage show as frequently as in every ten minutes. But you enjoy the way these songs are done.

Something of this kind you may remember watching in the Romantic Comedy ‘Jaaneman’, where movie was shot in the style of an opera. However ‘Chicago’ is much grander in its appeal. Set in Chicago 1924, the movie tell the story of a famous song and dance artist (Catherine Zeta Jones) and an aspirant girl (Renee Zellweger) desperately wanting to try her luck on stage. The only thing common between these two girls is both of them are accused of murder and are sent to the same prison.

Enters their defense attorney, the flamboyant and famous Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), notoriously famous for never loosing case of a woman in his life. Thus begins a three way tussle, as everyone starts playing to get what he/she wants.

The beauty of the movie is the way the lawyer tries to defend his clients, not by logic but by publicity, with public sentiment taking the front seat nobody cares about the truth, and the reporters starts having a field day to tell the common men the misery of the defendants, while the climax of the movie takes place in a courtroom where our hero makes it a high stake gamble to win all he can.

Frankly speaking the movie is not for everybody, few may enjoy it while others may start cursing me for making them watch an illogical ‘musical’ court room movie. But the movie was actually inspired by a two real life murder cases. So all I can say is leave the logic and enjoy the performances.

Rating ***

The invention of lying (2009)

The term ‘high concept’ film may be new to Indian audience, but it’s rather a famous one on the other side of the world. What a high concept is a ‘What if’ scenario, like what would happen if something unexpected or sheer impossible thing happens, like, what if a robot can come from future to kill someone (Terminator series), or what if different kinds of aliens come to earth and start fighting each other (Transformer series), or what if an Indian woman can’t recognize her husband if he shaves off his moustache (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi)… alright, don’t panic, I was kidding about the last one.

The movie in question deals with another such scenario, what if lying was never invented? Or simply put what if everybody only speaks the truth? Intrigued, well so was I. The movie takes place in a hypothetical scenario where nobody knows about lying as nobody has lied, ever. You may start believing the situation to be too good to be true, but it is not what you imagine. As nobody lies, people bluntly say what they think, never caring about the feelings of other people, as nobody can see beyond the obvious, there is no imagination or creativity, and there is no fictional literature or movies, just plain documentaries.

Our hero is a fat looser, who works as a writer for a documentary production company, as he is assigned the 14^th century to make documentaries, a century where nothing exciting happened,  he ends up making very boring and depressing movies, and gets fired from the job. To make things worse he is also rejected by a very pretty girl as well, because she feels he won’t have a perfect genetic code for their children if they ever marry.  

Things take a turn when he goes to the bank to withdraw money, but as the system is down the cashier asks him how much money does he have in his account, and there in a flash he lies by telling the casher that he has $800 in his account instead of the actual amount of $300, initially he himself is not sure what he has done, but soon as he realize that he is the only man in the world with the power of lying, then he starts turning his miserable life into an extraordinary one.

What is beautiful about the movie is that after building the basic premise, the story goes further deep in the concept by analyzing the aftereffects of lying, the scene where our hero creates the concept of ‘Man in the Sky’ i.e. God, is outstanding, and so is the scene where he consoles his mother.

Although there are a few times when some characters just speak for the sake of being funny, which could have been easily avoided, however so, the movie altogether makes a compelling watch, not only for having a new idea but also executing it beautifully.

Rating ***1/2 

The Boondock Saints (2009)

Well sometime you don’t need a story to entertain people. The Boondock Saints is one such example. The movie starts with a premise where two God fearing Irish brothers have epiphany that bad people needs to be eliminated and they start doing just that, while there is a FBI agent is on their tail, and this is more or less the whole story for you, but what distinguishes the movie is the style and execution.

The movie keeps you engaged through its humor and action sequences, the way of presentation strongly resembles Guy Richie and Quentin Tarantino. The action sequences are highly violent and contain a lot of bloodshed.

The movie was a disaster when released; it generated just about 30 thousand dollars during its theatrical release, however when the movie was released on video it generated revenues in tune of about 50 million dollars, and developed a cult following as well, it also has a squeal released about 10 years later.

The movie on the whole is for specific audience, who don’t want to get into logic but prefer the gun rolling and ever increasing body count.

It’s a mad entertainer for mad people.

Rating ***.

  

Crash (2004)

Although from name it may look like a movie surrounding an accident but it is not, it is rather a story with deeper context, racism and stereotyping.  Although in India we may not witness discrimination based on skin colour, but we have our own sets of socio-cultural problems, which I won’t like to comment upon, as you must be aware about them yourself.

The beauty of the movie is the narration, the director holds each and every frame and knows what he wants to convey to the audience. The movie deals with not one but multiple storylines, all touching one or another at different times, like ‘Love Actually’ or its Indian version ‘Salam-e-Ishq’.

One story deals with a white district attorney, whose car is robbed by two black thugs, another about a Persian shop keeper whose shop is robbed by people who mistakenly thinks him to be an Arab, one involving a white policeman and his partner who has strong ill feelings about black people, another about a well to do black who is a television director and his wife, and one involving a Mexican lock smith.

There are more characters and lot of sub plots; it is the director who has done a beautiful job of weaving all the stories, stories which will make you realize that racism exist in high propensity everywhere, and more importantly even behind that racism good people exist.

Watch the movie on a slow Sunday afternoon to enjoy it fully, I wish such a movie is made in our county as well, because even in India a lot of racism exist and so does good people.

Rating ****. 

Ek Tha Tiger

Salman Khan today has become synonymous with 100 crore business, and in case of Ek Tha Tiger the expectation is a double century. Kabir Khan the director couldn’t have asked for more, Salman as Hero, Katrina as Heroine, Yashraj as producer and a good story with a budget of 75 crores.

So what can go wrong, well the screenplay of course, and I believe Yashraj didn’t had any money left to take services of an editor. So what could have been a beautiful movie became more of a caricature.

Ek tha Tiger starts like it is expected to be, a fully fledged action sequence in the roads of Iraq/Iran or some country, and Tiger returns India ready to go for the next mission, on the next mission he encounters the beautiful Katrina Kaif, and trouble starts as he has to choose between his country or his girl.

I won’t go further to reveal the story, but I felt disappointed after the show, what I expected to be a action movie was more of a romantic one, granted the movie was about the love story of a spy, but as the backdrop was of RAW and ISI, a certain amount of conflict between these two agencies was missing, even the way these agencies operate was never given much importance. But the saddest part is even the romantic portions of the movie are not impressive, as they say; there is no chemistry between the lead pair.

The first half is a drag, and you feel trapped in a time zone where story denies moving. In the second half the momentum improves but by that time you realize that the director had a wafer thin plot and minimum story to back it.

Although the action sequences are amazing, especially the opening one and one later in Cuba, a few laughs come here and there, but the movie lacks the depth that was required for this story, and the intensity that was required for the love story, Tiger who is should to be a seasoned spy, suddenly becomes a soft hearted trusting human being, ditto to the characterization of heroine, no background, no character development, just get her into pretty dresses and audience will forgo logic, maybe that’s what the director thought.   

Girish Karnad and Ranbir Shorry provide good support, even performance wise lead pair is also ok, but the director had wasted a beautiful opportunity, as even though the overall movie is alright, the expectations are not matched.

At best it is a onetime watch.

Rating **.

Gangs of Wasseypur - Part II

While watching Gangs of Wasseypur-II, my friend said that this movie belongs to a genre unseen before in India, it is a violence comedy, and I to a certain extent agreed with him, the movie in question is an intense drama with liberal doses of profanity and unassuming humor, and to be honest that keeps this movie on the lighter side for most of the time which otherwise is a story filled with blood and gore.

What impressed me most about both the parts is the excellent background music; the sudden occurrence of music during certain scenes elevates the mood of the movie to a higher level. Camerawork is excellent and so are the action sequences. The beautiful conceptualization of these action scenes reminds me of Kill-Bill series, although both the movies are far apart from each other, but maybe the common threads between them are revenge and using action in form of a language, although technique wise Kill Bill action sequences were highly stylish, and action sequences here are very raw.

The story picks from where the last ended, death of Manoj Bajpayees character, and revenge sworn in by his sons. Although I feel more than the story, what separates this movie from others is the formation of individual scenes, sometimes related to story and sometimes unrelated. But remain sure, entertainment is never compromised during the whole movie, new characters keep on emerging and old once keep on getting killed, and the story keeps on moving.

Some scenes are exceptional, like when Ramadhir Singh talks with his son about his incompetence and other one where assassination of Sultan is being executed while he is purchasing vegetables.

Performance wise you can’t complain about a single actor/actress, Nawazuddin Siddiqui takes off where Manoj Bajpayee left, the guy performing the role of “Definite” leves a mark, dialogues are well written and scenes are executed very well. Director has made his best film so far.

Only down side for the movie is its excessive length for which it had to be broken into two parts, and if you haven’t watched the first one, you will miss a lot of context. As well as the violence and use of open abuse makes this movie a strict no for family audience. Otherwise it is a cult movie in all respects, watch this treat.

Rating ****

Road, Movie (2009)

Abhay Deol is the hero of the new age crowd who loves intelligent and experimental cinema. I myself seldom miss any of his movies. I even watched a chick flick like ‘Aisha’ for him, and that same excitement for his movie made me watch, Road, Movie.

The movie starts slowly, progresses slowly and ends slowly. At times it feels like the director was paid to torture the audience. Although the movie can easily become part of the exclusive club of “Artistic Cinema”, even I like artistic movies, but sometimes a director’s misplaces sense of creativity conflicts with viewer’s expectations. But to tell the truth, who puts Rs. 8 crores to produce an art movie.

Although performance wise the movie is good, supporting actors have done good work; especially Satish Kaushik is first grade, the movie comes up with certain good dialogues once in a while, even white sand dessert shots are beautiful.

But story is lame and purposeless, the movie was supposed to be about journey of a man while discovering himself, but director makes it a point to frustrate the audience by reveling nothing about the mentality of the same man, only thing that you know throughout the movie is that the man doesn’t want to work for his father’s oil business and even in the end how is life is impacted is not revealed. I would like to mention the sequence where all the characters are searching for the ‘mela’ in desert, the endless scene constantly showing barren land makes you feel dizzy and thirsty as the movie characters themselves. 

Overall negatives of the movie simply makes you feel, was the movie worth 2 hours of your life?

Rating *1/2

Maximum (2012)

Movies based upon Politicians interfering and manipulating Police Department is a common theme in Indian film industry, but a movie based upon internal power game where all the major players belong to department only, promises to be a fresh concept. Maximum deals with the power struggle between two cops in Mumbai police, one played by Sonu Sood other by Naseerudin Shah. The movie starts with backdrop of 2003 and ends somewhere on the later part of 2008.

Sonu Sood is the blue eyed boy of Mumbai Police, an encounter specialist, having good backing in the form of a supportive higher police official, and a politician from the political party in power. Competition arrives in form of Naseerudin Shah, who starts shaking the boat. The power struggle results in forming of groups and both the groups wants to acquire more power by weakening the other party, and even killing other party’s underworld informer becomes trend. And there is a journalist who is a neutrally watching both the sides. Interesting! You bet, but then the director commits major mistakes.

The premise, where power struggle of two cops, neither of whom could be called as positive character, being witnessed by a bystander contains a lot of promise, but suddenly the director starts taking sides, he focuses on Sonu’s character, comfortably ignoring the back story or no character development of Naseeruddin Shah (which is a sin, not a mistake), even the neutral bystander stars supporting Sonu’s side.

Now we are left with the hero of the movie who doesn’t have a morale standing against the other group, because their side is no different from the other. An additional problem the movie faces is the treatment of the movie very highly resembles ‘Sahar’ another movie by the same director. Which makes the pace of the movie slower then it should have been.

The end of the movie may remind you of any Quentin Tarantino movie, where every character has drawn gun towards the other actor, and this portion diluted any effect the movie may have so far generated, the director should have gone for a more sensible climax.

Overall the movie is ok; one time watch for anyone who likes the genre, but for me the most remembered part of the movie would be the screw up that the director did with ‘Aa Ante Annapuram’.

Rating **

Kya Super Kool Hain Hum (2012)

The line that distinguishes between obscene and entertainment is fast blurring in Indian Cinema. Once what could have been called a sleazy movie (The Dirty Picture), wins a National Award, a movie filled with profanity (Delhi Belly) grosses approx 92 crs, and not to forget the highly anticipated debut of a porn star in Jism-2.

The list is endless, so success of these movies can’t be called a fluke, so have we became more open minded to accept this kind of cinema or is it some kind of suppressed emotions that is being touched by these movies, the answer probably lies between the two extremes.    

However by the time we get to a conclusion, reality is more movies of this kind will come to cinema halls near your home. And without becoming a morale judge about its impact on society, especially children, I would like to focus on another important aspect of this movie i.e. entertainment.

Kya Super Kool Hain Hum, comes as a sequel to 2005 hit Kya Kool Hain Hum, which in itself maybe called the pioneer in sex comedies in India. The characters are different from the original, and apart from Ritesh Deshmukh, Tushar Kapoor and Anupam Kher a couple of actors from the original are casted in this movie.

KSKHH is much more explicit in its content than the original, the story at best could be called as absurd and at worst as pathetic. But to be honest nobody expected a story from this movie, the expectation was of raw entertainment coupled with adult jokes, and the director has performed this job to perfection, but believe me it would become difficult for you to laugh at them if your family is sitting with you.

However the movie remains true to its basic setting throughout its running time and jokes and punches keeps on coming, the music is good, however the movie requires some trimming in the first half as well as, the song ‘Hum to hai cappuccino’ could have been easily chopped. Performance wise the overall cast has worked fine, Ritesh and Tushar complement each other throughout the movie, and even the leading ladies have got decent roles.

Ekta Kapoor may be known for her 'saas bahu' serials, but as a movie producer she is a lot more daring, ‘Love Sex or Dhokah’, ‘The Dirty Picture’ being prime examples of her attitude, and even in this movie, she has boldly made fun of a lot of other movies, which is more or less unprecedented in India, especially look for the spoof of Ra.One.

On the whole, KSKHH delivers what was expected out of it, watch it, but alone!

Rating. ***1/2    

   

Chanakya's Chant (Ashwin Sanghi)

“Chetan Bhagat is making India read like never before”, something of this kind was published by a news paper or a magazine a couple of years ago, and I believe it’s hard to argue with this fact. However after his huge success, shelves of book stores started covering itself with a number of books with Indian names, many of whom were young and first time writers, there was only one problem, everyone wanted to be the next Chetan Bhagat and instead of developing new ideas, everyone wrote their experience in their Engineering or MBA colleges with adequate dosages of booze parties and complicated relationships. I like to call this the “K factor” phenomenon for Indian fiction, just as same done by Ekta Kapoor, where every new serial on Indian television started with the letter “K” and contained a grieving Heroine and headache.

Although Indian Television still needs to get out of wrath of the women, Indian fiction market has improved with diverse genres. They are even not afraid to touch Indian Mythology or History and tweak it a little bit with imagination. Chanaky’s Chant falls in preciously this category. History, Politics, Manipulation, Power, King and the King Maker, everything worth reading.

What’s unique about this book is the way of presentation. There are simultaneously two stories. One about the original Chanakya, his revenge and his aim to make Chandragupt king of unified India. And other about Pandit Gangasagar Mishra, a present day political strategist, with a sole aim to put a girl from a slum into the chair of Prime Minister of India.

The book draws parallel between these two; similarities include, a bright minded fellow from humble beginning with an unthinkable ambition, making the dirty choices with little consideration for morality and manipulating people around to get the work done.

The writer has worked hard, but book contains a few historical inaccuracies, and a few instances which look straight out of an action story, and a lot of famous quotations for which proper acknowledgement have been provided. Otherwise the flow is good, and you feel like keep on reading until the very end and makes a thrilling read.

If you are into politics, or like to read about it, this is your book. The power play is well written, sometimes though it looks unreliable but is passable.

Cost of book is Rs. 195 on cover and you can get a discount from Flipkart or any other web based shop.

Rating ***. 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

In 2009 Guy Ritchie took the most famous literary character in the world and put him on celluloid, something that has been attempted more than a dozen times since 1916. What however differentiated his adaptation of Sherlock Homes with any other previous attempt was the style quotient that he always brings on the table. Although all the basis traits of the maverick detective were kept as per the original works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyal, but a lot of masculine aggression (read hand to hand combat with extensive doses of gun usage) was added, unlike the original characterization. Robert Downy Jr. had a role tailor made for him, with all the eccentricities and ego that the role demanded, RDJ was the obvious choice.

The second installment of the series was highly anticipated; Sherlock’s face-off with his arch enemy Professor. Moriarty made it a must watch. Interestingly the movie is inspired by “The Final Problem” (one of the original stories by Sir Doyal), simultaneously a BBC program “Sherlock” second season was also aired in Jan 2012, had its last episode inspired by the same story, and Moriarty as the Antagonist, that episode made a facinating watch as well. 

Coming back to the movie in question, it starts with occurrence of seemingly unrelated events all over the globe, and Sherlock starts investigating those events, believing Moriarty to be the center point of them all. His journey towards the solution has with him a reluctant and married Dr. Watson and his brother Mycroft Holmes. The story slowly unfolds, and all the pieces start making sense.

The movie has some great action sequences, mine favorite happen on a train. But the most chilling sequence is a chess game being played between Sherlock and Moriarty during the climax. Overall it makes a good watch for any body and a compulsory one for a Sherlock Holmes fan. Waiting for the third one……..

Rating ***1/2

Agent Vinod (2012)

One of the most awaited movies of the year is out. Two years in making, by one of the finest thriller director in the country, filled with expectations of action and style. The obvious question everybody is asking is, whether it stands up on the hype. Well in my opinion, yes, most of the time.

The movie stars with murder of a KGB (Russian Intelligence) agent, which creates waves around the world, and a certain chain of events is kick started, which involves players from RAW, ISI, International Arms Dealers, Money Launders and certain private parties. An international conspiracy starts shaping, whose leads are scattered all across the globe, right from San Petersburg to London and from Somalia to Pakistan, unlike Hollywood movies the target of this conspiracy is India not the USA. And this is the only differentiating factor between Agent Vinod and any other American Spy thriller. Because right from the sensibility to the execution, the movie has an international feel. The action sequences are really good, the story line doses not have loopholes, background score, especially the theme music is captivating, and performances by lead as well as side characters are good.

Although the added advantages over any other Hollywood movie are a ‘Mujra’ and the definitive ‘Pungi’ which even James Bond never had a chance to witness!  

There are a lot of characters in the movie, and a lot of recognizable faces which are used aptly and for short durations. Personally I appreciate that, only the central characters are the constant focus in the movie, others come, play their part and vanish.

I would specially like to mention a action sequence, where the whole scene of around 3-4 minutes is filmed in a single shot, with a song being played in the background. Simply fantastic!

However on the flip side, there are at least 2 to 3 sequences where luck plays a major role rather than screenplay. Other part which I didn’t appreciate, was the characterization of Agent Vinod, as there is minimum background given for the character, nor there are any specific traits of his, which are depicted properly other than his risk taking attitude. Whenever you think about James Bond or Jason Bourne a specific persona comes to your mind, but I didn’t got any such image for Agent Vinod when I left the Cinema Hall. Maybe this was a conscious effort by the makes to have a unpredictable characterization for the Protagonist or maybe he is saving the same for a Sequel. However the positives simply overtake all the negatives by a good margin.

On the whole, the movie is the best effort till date in Hindi Cinema to make a spy thriller. If you like hi octane entertainment, this is the movie to go.

Rating ***1/2

Kahaani (2012)

The trailer of Kahaani reminded me of an episode of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, the famous show dedicated to half hour mystery stories. That particular episode in itself was inspired by one of Hitchcock’s famous movie, ‘The Lady Vanishes’. I was sure that Kahaani was inspired by this story; alternatively I thought the movie may fall in the category of those stories which have a fascinating basic idea to begin with, but end up miserably because the story teller could not conclude the narrative in equally fascinating way.    

However after getting continuous positive feedback from all my friends, I became curious and went to the nearby single screen talkies, which I otherwise detest for various reasons. The movie catches your attention from the very first scene, as it’s a suspense film therefore I will not reveal much about the story. Only one thing I want to say is that, it’s neither a remake of that episode, not it has a dull ending.

Although the centre of the movie is a pregnant lady with a missing husband, the melodrama is kept at minimum, the movie remains on the basic problem all the time. The suspenseful environment is aptly created, as well as the supporting characters are well placed. Performance wise Vidya Balan is reliable as ever. However special mention needs to be given to two actors, one who plays the sympathetic sub inspector, and other one who plays IB officer.

Sujoy Ghosh is right on target with direction, story and screenplay, however I feel there are couple of loopholes in the story, but they could be ignored, as the grip on the narrative will not let you have time to think about what happened, rather you will be glued with the movie to know what is going to happen.

Overall it is a must watch.

Rating ****.

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

Danny Bolyle is a famous name in India considering the fact that he is a Hollywood movie director not an actor, he can easily give a run for the money in popularity to Steven Spielberg as well. However he had directed more than half a dozen movie in Hollywood before Slumdog Millionaire. One of those was A Life Less Ordinary in 1997.

The movie begins with Gabriel (Messenger of God), dressed in a professional outfit and pissed like a boss who’s bottom-line for the quarter has not been achieved, calling two of his employees (read Angels), who are in charge of the section that take cares of Love between Man and Woman on Earth. The problem being they have not been effective for some time and many of their cases have ended in divorce. As Gabriel himself is feeling the heat from Top Management i.e. God. He gives an ultimatum to the employees, that either they perform by cracking the latest case in hand, or they will be given pink slip.

The case in hand is a tough one, they need to make sure a beautiful and spoiled girl (Cameron Diaz) with a filthy rich father should fall in love with a floor cleaner (Ewan McGregor) who works for his father. The boy loses his employment because he is replaced by small robots who can clean floors more economically, his current girlfriend leaves him too, and whatever is left, is taken by the Angels, so that the boy can get into the play.

The boy decides to confront his ex-employer, and ends up in kidnapping his daughter in broad daylight. The girl is more than willing to help the boy in getting the ransom from her father, so that she could also have her share. She even couches the boy how to be a good kidnaper as well. (Ring any bells; I say a certain story idea lifted for latest Hindi Movie: ‘Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya’). How things go ahead forms rest of the story, and believe me things keep on getting wilder.

The thing that strikes you the most is the unassuming way in which humour keep on coming in the story, it will strike you where you expect least. Not to get away from the fact that the intervention by the Angels keeps the things interesting, the Angels keep on working hard on the case, getting humiliated and physically abused in the process just like a salesman. Love, Crime, Humour and Devine Intervention it has it all.

The movie is a dark comedy, and few times makes you laugh a loud, it remains on track for most of the time, however the climax is sort of a mix bag, and could have been better. However it makes a good watch for anybodies money.

Rating ***.

Run Lola Run (1998)

Lola rennt (German)

Run Lola Run

There are a few movies which deserve constant attention of the viewers; otherwise the viewer will not be able to understand it fully, for example ‘Inception’, you took a phone call in between the movie for 5 minutes and boom, you start wondering what happened. And than there are others that warrant the imagination of the viewers or else the viewer will be lost again.

Run Lola Run belongs to the later category, the director wants the viewer to imagine and just believe. And why is that required is for a simple reason, the movie plays the same events 3 times. It’s just like ‘what-if’ scenarios, what would have happened if something in past would have been done in a slightly different way; surely it would have impacted the present and the future.

The movie starts with a phone call received by Lola, ‘Sammy’ her boyfriend is on the other side, he is a small time criminal, and whose attempt to climb up in the crime hierarchy had gone terribly wrong. He now owes 1,00,000.00 Marks (German currency) to some pretty bad criminals and he needs it in the next 20 minutes, or else as a back up plan he intends to rob a nearby super market. That leaves Lola with twin objectives to achieve, she needs to arrange that kind of money and reach his boyfriend as well in the next twenty minutes.

She starts running immediately with intention to ask his father for money, and while on the way she interacts with a few people, and you can see that even those people are shown to have different future outcomes in all the three scenarios. What changes from one scenario to another is the speed with which Lola runs, like on first time she runs at the normal speed, next time due a mischief by a neighbor she falls on the stairs, so she is a bit slow this time, and in the last act she is shown to have a faster start to her sprint.

Due to the change in pace the interaction with different characters and situations are changed considerably, which impacts the conclusion of the story every time.

The movie is fast paced as you may have guessed by now; even the length of the movie is just 81 minutes. However an attempt to remake it in Bollywood went south when some very talented people like Rahul Bose and Nandita Das starred in Ek Din 24 Ghante, this movie was plain pathetic for lack of a worse word. However the original one deserves a watch.

Rating ***

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

It is not everyday one comes across an intelligent yet funny movie like EMAET. EMAET scores where every other rom-com fails, it’s a very stylish, non melodramatic, yet effective and entertaining affair.

I must warn you in the beginning itself that many people may not be able to relate with the characterization of a few character, mainly the open minded parents of Kareena Kapoor. The overall movie is placed near the lines of profanity but never crosses it, the maker should be applauded that he never used the modern theme of the movie to venture into the areas of so called boldness or vulgarity.

The movie deals with two separate kinds of individuals, who by mistake get married in Las Vegas out of their utter intoxicated condition. They realize the mistake soon enough and are mature enough to go for annulment i.e. declaring the marriage null and void from the beginning. However the heroine is kicked out of her job, as well as her apartment (due to non payment of rent), and since there is no where else to go, she stays with the hero. Even the hero has been kicked out of his job, but has not told his parents. As the hero is living his life in a miserable condition since childhood, as his overbearing, filthy rich parents have never appreciated him and that has turned our hero in a dull and uninteresting personality. With the entry of ‘high on life’ heroine in his house he starts getting easy on his life. While developing a soft spot for the heroine in the process.

This is one of the better performances of Kareen, any may be the best one for Imraan. The supporting cast has done a wonderful job as well; Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah as Imraan’s parents are excellent, even Ram Kapoor who gets just 2 scenes is pretty good. The dialogues are good, the music is great, the scenes are funny; especially look out for Imraan’s wild encounter in bathroom, and the family dinner sequence near climax.

But the icing on the cake for me was undoubtedly the climax. Many may not agree with it, I feel there could not have been a better culmination to the story. The first time director has got every thing right, starting from the script to the casting, and music to editing.

One of the best movies of the year, go for it.

Rating ***1/2.

Don 2

The concept of an anti hero is not new to Bollywood, but there were certain cliché associated with these characters, killing him in the climax or him going to prison were the most common of them. The ultimate demise of the bad character allowed the filmmakers the convenience to end all the complications of the story in one stroke. You don’t need to put efforts to find out a more creative and innovative culmination to the story, rather just shoot the character who had taken law in his hand to avenge the carnage of his family, or someone who went to the dark side out of circumstances and never has the opportunity to make a come back to normal life. So truth prevails, and characters with criminal background dies (unlike parliament), in the great world of Bollywood.

Right now there are two super hit franchisees in Hindi Cinema where the focus of the story remains with the Antagonist i.e. the main negative character or simply put, the villain. Those two franchisees are Dhoom and Don.  Although the formal differs from the later in the way that, the good policemen are able to catch the criminal in the end in case of Dhoom movies, but Don has already survived two perfect crimes. Don has already crossed 100 crs mark already (India + Overseas) and still counting.

The character of Don is in no way a victim of circumstances, he is in the business for the simple reason of money and power. Still, while watching the movie, we don’t want him to be caught, we are cheering for the villain for a change. Any other movie with the same story, but with the point of view of the police and we would have sweared by heart if the police would have missed someone like Don.

What’s happened is that, may be we can’t see our beloved SRK to be defeated in a movie, or may be we are enjoying a movie with a difference, or may be now we have become more matured or the most uncomfortable of all, that we have stared accepting the truth that there is a good side and a bad side in us simultaneously, and the bad side is more appealing, and the manifestation of that side winning against all odds without being apologetic about it satisfies you in some irrational way.

I have not commented upon the story, screenplay, music, performance or any other technical aspect of the movie, because I believe many would have already seen the movie, however the above mentioned aspect fascinated me more than any other thing about the film. I wont call the movie path breaking or thought provoking but it success shows something more, and that is, you don’t need to become preachy with every story and sometimes it is good to be bad.

No ratings this time.