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 ***