Jannat

Rating : 5/10
Running Time : 140 Minutes
Release Date : 16th May ‘08
Director : Kunal Deshmukh ; Writer : Vishesh Bhatt ; Music : Pritam
Starring : Emraan Hashmi, Sonal Chauhan, Javed Sheikh,Vishal Malhotra, Samir Kochhar

I’m probably being over-generous here but after some of the turkeys I’ve seen in recent times (U Me aur Hum, Mr Black Mr White , Tashan, and even Bhootnath), this was actually a bit of a relief. An unpretentious film, very natural dialogue (at times quite funny) and decent performances overcome the lack of depth and the melodramatic, predictable ending.

The movie follows the rise and rise of a small time gambler (teen patti player, the Indian equivalent of poker) who, based purely upon his intuition, starts to bet on cricket matches and then cannot stop winning. Soon he becomes a bookie and then is hired by a big underworld don from South Africa to become his match fixer. All this is interwoven with his relentless and extremely expensive pursuit of his queen of hearts – a girl he spots in a mall one day and of course, its love at first sight (is there any other kind in Hindi movies ?).

She, with a little egging from his father (a good, honest, poor man), tries to find out whats the secret behind his sudden wealth but he makes a ‘love means never asking questions’ kind of pact (‘don’t ask and I wont lie’ were his exact words). However, she obviously does find out one day, co-incidentally around intermission time, and what happens next is the focus of the second half. I was able to think of at least a couple of good, interesting endings but unfortunately the makers of this one chose to play it straight, though I liked the little touch they gave in the very last scene.

I’ve actually avoided Emraan Hashmi movies, thinking of him as quite a one-dimensional actor, frankly puzzled by his success. But based on this one, I’ve done him a disservice – he was quite nice, likeable, doing justice to a character who speaks little but knows what he wants. Sonal was ok, nice to look at, with time may improve as an actress. Javed Sheikh provided the necessary gravitas to the role of mafia don while Vishal Malhotra and Samir Kochhar were good as Emraan’s best friend and the cop who’s on Emraan’s trail, respectively (ever noticed how, after Dhoom, the sartorial sense of cops has improved dramatically ?). Also, special mention of a nice cameo played by a character named Patel Bhai, I couldn’t find his name anywhere on the net.

Don’t go looking for any depth in this one and you wont be disappointed – it’s a film where one song is all it takes for the courtship, another for the obligatory under-the-covers scene and a final one for the lover’s tiff and that’s pretty much that as far as the love affair goes. If you can look beyond that, the title song is pretty nice and some of the dialogues will keep you entertained, may even make you laugh.

Celebrating A Century of Reviews

I recently completed a hundred reviews and decided to celebrate by writing about it. I feel like a movie director felt when the film completed a silver jubilee in the good old days or 50 days in the current slam bang multiplex era. I never thought this far ahead when I began reviewing but I have truly enjoyed watching the movies and writing about them. Writing especially, is something I had lost touch with during my professional career, and it feels great to be able to put non-work related thoughts to the computer screen.

I also have an impressive collection of statistics
• I’ve watched a 100 movies (mostly Bollywood) in the period from 13th July’06 till May’08 working out to a average frequency of 4.5 movies per month – kind of one every weekend.
• This has consumed approx 500 hours of my already incredibly hectic professional & personal life – that’s almost 21 full days !
• Total spend approx ~Rs 45,000, a shade over $1000, in watching the movies
• Readers from over 250 cities, across the 6 continents, view my blog / read my reviews. The map above shows last months dispersion – it gives me so much personal satisfaction to view this, I cant even begin to describe it.
• Total page views would be greater than 20,000 over this period.
• Movies that I have enjoyed the most (the non-mega releases, in no particular order) : Loins of Punjab Presents, Cheeni Kum, Manorama Six Feet Under, Khosla ka Ghosla and Dor
• Movies that I have loathed : RGV ki Aag (I still cant believe how someone can ruin Sholay !), Buddha Mar Gaya (the only movie I walked out of, during the interval), Baabul and Red.

My family has been incredibly supportive. It’s almost a dream come true for my wife as she gets to watch all the recent releases along with someone who, in the ten years prior to Aug’06, had not watched more than 5 hindi movies. My kids have enjoyed themselves as well – they either watch the movie or if it’s not good enough, punish the cinema hall for its bad taste by running around the whole hall and doing their best to wreck it by jumping on the seats etc. Even my parents have joined me whenever they can, willingly in the case of my mom and a tad reluctantly in the case of my dad.

I’ve also found myself getting more and more involved in the world of film-making. I’ve now met producers, actors, script-writers and very recently a script-writer cum lyricist. I’ve found out much more about the entire business of cinema – who makes money, how are deals structured, how there is now some amount paid for branding in almost every scene etc. Also, once you take away the A-list, it’s a world where people struggle to make ends meet. Take away the glamour and it’s just another job. I also think that our cinema is too reliant on the A-list stars – there have been no commercial hits I could think of in my reviewing period that did not have at least one or two stars, which is sad.

This exists because directors / producers are excessively obsessed with the songs and stars and not enough on the script / dialogue. I also loathe the trend of dumbing down movies, with a very elitist view of ‘making it accessible for the masses’, ‘this is what people want etc’. If you have the guts to make a good film, holding on to its creative integrity and soul, the same masses welcome it and flock to the cinema. Taare Zameen Par is a marvelous sentimental, emotional film which was restrained, not once did it go over the top or fall prey to providing cheap thrills yet was a blockbuster with gross earnings of Rs60 crore ($15 mn) in India alone. Cheeni Kum is today called a multiplex film (still raked in Rs30 crore at the box office) but in an era long ago there were brilliant, commercially viable films like Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke etc which touched on bold themes or entertained without falling into the slapstick trap. I think making a good film takes balls and if you succeed, the rewards will come, punto !

I’ve personally now written one full-fledged script and have two more outlines written out. Some day I hope to bring them to life. I also need your help, for another project I have in mind. I would like each of my readers to list their top10 hindi movies (preferably the ones shot in colour) in the comments section. If they are ranked fine, else even just the list is great. Also, If there are 13 or 8, don’t knock yourself out making it 10, that’s only indicative…

Your thoughts on my thoughts are welcome as always. Until the next review, then…

Bhootnath

Rating : 4/10
Running Time : 150 Minutes
Release Date : 9th May ‘08
Director & Writer : Vivek Sharma ; Music : Vishal-Shekhar
Starring : Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Aman Sidiqui and Shahrukh Khan in a very long guest appearance
The movie is about a ghost in a house (Amitabh as Bhootnath), who normally scares would-be residents away, but befriends a kid who’s come to stay, has some fun with him and then gets very very emotional in the second half. Above-mentioned kid is accompanied by Juhi as mom, while SRK as daddy works on a ship so is absent for large periods. This film forced me to ask several deeply philosophical questions. Can ghosts choose who they are visible to and whom not ? Can they decide to change their preferences or does this get ‘locked in’ ? Are they stuck to a place (like a house) or are they free to roam (go on holidays etc) ? Can they move physical objects ? Can ghosts cry ?

There were some nice touches in the film. I think more could’ve been made of Satish Shah’s fetish for tiffins, more could’ve been done with even the ghost and how it used different means to scare different people off. Maybe they could’ve even made it ( another philosophical one - do ghost’s have gender ? Is ‘it’ ok or should it be ‘him’ instead ?) a ghost who was just having fun (kind of like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day) instead of being a sulking, seething ghost ? Aman thankfully behaves like most normal kids do and is not sickly sweet like most Bollywood kids, except in a couple of scenes where he’s a got a ridiculous mix of ‘Kodak moment’ meets ‘Close-up confidence’ kind of a grin/smile. And Rajpal Yadav is getting too predictable and irritating. Do something different or retire is my humble plea - there are better ways to make money.

I think the director / producer here couldn’t quite figure out who was their target audience. Was it kids and adults who behave like kids or was it adults who behave like adults ? If it was the former, then the second half was too soppy and sentimental and even the first half needed a few more laughs. If it was the latter then the first half was too frivolous and even the second half’s sentimentality was a bit forced, a bit much-a-do-about-nothing. So the film, kind of like its lead character, Bhootnath, inhabits the mid-world, and is neither here, nor there. Being an active and hopefully lifelong member of the adults-behaving-like-children club, I just wish they had gone whole hog on the laughs !

PS – I think its safe to take kids to this one – some ‘scary’ moments in the first half but nothing which will lead to sleepless nights or huge psychiatry bills later in life…

Mr Black Mr White

Rating : 2/10
Running Time : ~140 Minutes
Release Date : 2nd May ‘08
Director & Writer : Deepak Shivdasani ; Music : Too Many People Who created horrible soundtracks
Starring : Arshad Warsi, Suneil Shetty, Sandhya Mridul

This movie suffers from the curse of the multiple S’s…
• Stupid Story
• Silly Slapstick
• Simpering, Soppy Sentimentality
• Slinky, Sleazy Sexiness and Skin show
• Scatter-brained Sub-plots

It was too painful to watch, makes you cringe in several places, the story has more flaws than Rakhi Sawant’s body jobs and the only people who laughed during the movie were these 6 year olds sitting near us. A waste of Arshad, Sandhya and Suneil’s acting talents (especially considering Sandhya and Arshad were last together in the brilliant ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part2’).

No other comment necessary. And I still don’t understand why the name ?

Sirf

Rating : 5/10
Running Time : ~150 Minutes
Release Date : 25th April ‘08
Director : Rajaatesh Nayar ; Writer : Santosh Saroj ; Music : Sohail Sen, Shibani Kashyap
Starring : Kay Kay Menon, Manisha Koirala, Parveen Dabbas, Rituparna Sengupta, Ranvir Shorey, Sonali Kulkarni, Ankur Khanna and Nauheed Cyrusi

I’m going to give this one 5 cause of what they attempted, the messages they sought to give. They didn’t tie it all up as well as they could, it lacked finesse, the production values were poor and the songs were terrible / misfits. But it was decent and very realistic.

Its about four couples and each one is shown facing different issues, have different things on their mind. Also, each one envies the other couple who reside slightly above them on the social ladder (their names of the couples are given above in order of social hierarchy). There are one or two characters who weren’t fleshed out fully – for Kay Kay and Manisha, I struggled to pin point the key issue, as the main problem they showed was too trivial, could’ve been solved quite easily. Key messages of the film
1. Most humans truly think the grass is greener on the other side, especially if the object of their envy is wealthier. Even the wealthy ones yearn in some ways for the simplicity of life when they were not so wealthy. And neither truly comprehends exactly what the other couple’s are going through.
2. We sometimes postpone what is truly critical (in personal life) for some ‘crisis’ or the other at work. As someone said, no one died regretting that ‘he didn’t spend enough time at the office’. Yet, one of the sad facts of life is, the rat race seemingly magically compels us to do so…
3. Indian couple’s are terrible at communicating with each other. I think most of us get so dragged in the routine ‘who’s doing what, when, how’ that we forget the why, the big picture. Half the problems shown amongst the couple’s could’ve been solved by better communication

The acting was good overall, with Ankur probably being the weakest link. Dialogue was reasonable, quite true to life without being mundane. Its pretty interestingly set-up at the interval but definitely had some issues, none more glaring though, than whats mentioned in the first para. I would also have handled the ending differently – I would’ve preferred the points to come across without some of the drastic steps taken by the script writer. Also, I wish they’d not made the stunning Rituparna look as terrible as she did – she fit her role perfectly, but I wish they had cast someone else instead.

Depends on your mood this one, depends on how your relationship with your spouse is placed on the day you watch it (you’ve had a fight, are making up etc) to determine what you make of the movie. Its not going to change your life but most couples can probably pick up a thing or two from this bittersweet movie.

Mixed Doubles

Rating : 7/10
Running Time : 94 mts
Release Date : 10th Feb ‘06
Director : Rajat Kapoor ; Writer : Rajat, Anurag Kashyap ; Music : Sagar Desai
Starring : Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor, Koel Purie, Saurabh Shukla

An old release that i finally managed to get hold of. Its an interesting one, touching a topic that not too long ago was taboo, would’ve had people from assorted minority groups protesting in front of cinema’s screening the film, breaking windows etc. Probably the fact that it was not a big banner and therefore wouldn’t have made the news prevented them from doing so. Its another Rajat Kapoor film, starring his usual suspects (Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Saurabh Shukla) and one unusual one (Konkona Sen)

The movie deals with ‘swinging’, the type of parties where a couple go together but come back separately (if you still don’t get it, the movie is definitely not for you). The plot is simple enough with Ranvir Shorey being the middle-class husband who is having middle-age problems in terms of being able to keep it up. He loves his wife (Konkona Sen) but wants something to spice up their marriage and once he hears of this concept, he cannot get it out of his mind. After a lot of effort, he manages to find a like-minded couple (a suave Rajat Kapoor and a slightly ‘wonky’ Koel Purie), finds a devious, underhand way to get his protesting wife to agree and soon its time for the big night…

There are certain truths which are established in the movie quite clearly
1. Males are still hypocritical when it comes to the topic of sex, especially the extra-marital variety
2. People in Rajasthan eat rabbits
3. There is still a class-divide prevailing, and we mercilessly make fun of people who cant speak English properly
4. Don’t trust everything NRI’s say. They aren’t always as cool as they pretend to be.

Konkona looks lovely in a short bob-cut and effortlessly slips into character. The others are good, as always. The movie, however, doesn’t quite scale the heights of greatness. It’s the type which is pleasant to watch, makes you smile in a few places but never makes you laugh out loud (nor is it trying to). I wish they had made more of the ending, it was pretty interestingly set-up when it ended and I was hoping for more. It’s a nice, realistic, slice-of-life view of suburbia and is content to be a hill without any aspiration to become a mountain. Please also read Rajat Kapoor’s hilarious commentary on his life and also about marriage on his website.

Tashan

Rating : 3/10
Running Time : 160 Minutes
Release Date : 25th April ‘08
Director & Story : Vijay Krishna Acharya ; Music : Vishal - Shekhar
Starring : Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
This is a film about cheap thrills. A flat-stomached Kareena in a bikini and other skimpy little nothings, who’s hour glass figure had even the women raving, was undoubtedly the highlight of the movie. Everything else didn’t really measure up, pun intended.

Its more Cash than Dhoom2 (or even Race). It’s a movie that tries very hard to be cool, which is why it fails. Its more about hype / style than strong intrinsics or substance. The plot is laughable, thinner than a Pringles. The characters are all caricatures with Anil Kapoor’s one-joke, ultra-hammy ‘Bhaiyya ji’ probably being the worst. The twists / turns would have been better off in another movie. The ending is farcical, the fight / action sequences are so over the top, they make Everest seem like a mole-hill. And there are several pathetic sub-plots, with the whole ‘gudiya’ angle however, easily taking the cake and all other party foods in its sheer terrible-ness. The songs are all forced and mostly tasteless. Kareena looks gorgeous, overdoes the pout a bit, but no complaints overall. The rest were terrible.

This is nothing but a three hour extension of the two-minute Akshay action sequence that was shown in Om Shanti Om. Its likely to be his first film in quite a while which is not a major hit. As one of my friends remarked, this just proves that Yash Raj films has officially lost it. I, however, understand why they were having yet another battle with the multiplexes about the share of spoils in the initial weeks – they knew that its highly unlikely to be running after that !

U Me Aur Hum

Rating : 3/10
Running Time : 165 Minutes (in India), 150 mts internationally
Release Date : 11th April ‘08
Director : Ajay Devgan ; Writer : Ashwani Dheer ; Music : Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring : Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Isha Sharwani, Divya Dutta, Karran Khanna, Sumeet Raghavan
Its more fun watching paint dry. Or watching grass grow. At least that doesn’t make you feel icky-yucky all over. I think a good comparison would be hearing nails scratched over a blackboard.

Ajay woes Kajol on a cruise ship. A very predictable love story (including some pathetic pick up lines that would normally merit a cold shoulder at best or a call to arms at worst) becomes a descent into psycho-medical mumbo jumbo and then becomes predictable all over again. We know nothing much about the two lead characters (how do they think, what are they looking for in their soulmate) apart from the superficial ("I like white", "I don’t like salsa" etc). The camera angles are way too close and slightly wonky, some of the songs are forced, and the role requires Ajay to be way too expressive. I think he’s much better in dead-pan, brooding sort of roles.

Some much needed comic relief comes from Karran Khanna (the 'Pushpa' one deserves special mention), one half of the 2 couples/friends Ajay’s character has. Ajay’s directors note on the official website is actually quite a good read, but he doesn’t manage to translate his thoughts in his debut directorial venture, like ‘a film should entertain’, into reality.

The restlessness in the audience while watching was palpable and the most common sight around the hall was the good old yawn. The predominant thought people walked out with here was ‘where can I get a drink to help me forget this’? I blame this movie for being directly responsible for the three pitchers of cocktails that my group consumed during lunch and for being generally low-key through the rest of the day. It was too obvious and too painful.

Krazzy 4

Rating : 3/10
Running Time : 130 mts
Release Date : 11th April, ‘08
Director : Jaideep Sen ; Writer : Ashwani Dhir ; Music : Rajesh Roshan (with a little help from Ram Sampath)
Starring : Arshad Warsi, Irfan Khan, Juhi Chawla, Dia Mirza, Rajpal Yadav, Suresh Menon
Imagine 4 mental patients are taken for a day out by their doctor. En-route, the doctor stops for an errand and then disappears. Now the four are left by themselves and have to figure out where their doctor is. Interesting ? I thought so too…

However, then the producer / director and scriptwriter conspire to ruin the movie by dumbing it down, adding every single PJ they could think of, throwing in every emotional trick in the book to vainly spice it up including lost love, cute daughters, villainous husbands etc and force-fitting numerous songs which totally break any momentum the movie starts to build, including pathetic item numbers (there’s one with Rakhi Sawant flashing abs which put Shahrukh to shame. As an aside, can anyone think of any other woman on the silver screen who looks more sluttish than Rakhi ?). Finally, the performances were highly ordinary, with all the actors entering ‘sleepwalk’ mode.

Why then did I give it 3 ? Because it made me laugh a few times. There is an imminent threat of a part2 as this one ends with a ‘to be continued...’ but I will enjoy skipping that one. And that my friends, is that.

Shaurya

Rating : 8/10
Running Time : < 120 mts
Release Date : 4th April, ‘08
Director : Samar Khan ; Writer : Jaydeep Sarkar, Aparna Malhotra, Samar Khan ; Music : Adnan Sami
Starring : Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Amrita Rao, Deepak Dobriyal
This is gripping, intense stuff, definitely not for those looking for light hearted entertainment alone. Its clearly inspired by ‘A Few Good Men’, but its better in most respects except at the end, in terms of how it brings it all together. AFGM had a more logical connect, carried the audience with it a bit better.

Javed Khan (I’m terrible with army ranks so wont even try) is accused of killing his peer officer, Rathore while on a search operation in Kashmir. He is maintaining a stoic silence, refusing to speak to anyone. There are quite a few witnesses, so it seems like an open and shut case. Since he is a Muslim, there is also the inevitable talk of him being a terrorist supporter. Also, since their unit reports in to Brig Rudra Pratap Singh, the self styled Lord, God and master of the area, who is destined for a big promotion shortly plus since Rathore was one of his favourites, the case is a very high profile one. Jaaved Jaafri and Rahul Bose are both great friends, employed in the army as legal officers. While Jaaved is about to get married, and is a more serious, stable kind of guy, Rahul’s life is all about adventure sport, dating etc. They get appointed on opposite sides of the case, with Rahul getting the unenviable job of defense. One of the people he meets in Srinagar is Minissha Lamba who is a journalist who wants to make it big. How the case fares, how the different relationships get on is the focus of most of the movie.

I don’t think I have seen a better performance than Kay Kay as Brig Pratap. He was awesome, roaring vitriol in one second, calmly discoursing on the merits of single malt in another.

Rahul Bose was very good as the defense lawyer, his role also required him have a Jekyll and Hyde personality. To be a good for nothing frivolous guy yet introspective. Be disinterested one moment, but willing to put his job on the line in another. It was refreshing to see Jaaved Jaafri doing a role of substance as well. The last couple of times I saw him he was doing a caricature in one movie (a Crocodile Dundee rip off in Salaam Namaste) and a cartoon in another (Dhamaal). Minissha Laamba was good and Amrita Rao made a positive impact in the few scenes she had. And a special mention of Deepak Dobriyal who played Javed Khan, he was almost unrecognizable from his earlier role in Omkara and was very good as well.

Where the movie was very good was Indianising the plot, making it very credible and keeping the interest going throughout the movie. They built the climax up very well, and towards the end, there was hushed silence as the audience watched the drama unfold. Also, what they managed very nicely was keeping the tension going but not letting it get too heavy with some very nice humorous touches. Where it suffered was at the editing table, where I really feel with some minor changes, the end could’ve been made even more exciting, things explained more clearly.

However, let nothing detract from the sheer watchability of the movie. It has some excellent performances, brilliant dialogue and lovely humour. And it builds up beautifully to an explosive, emotion charged climax. I really enjoyed this one, a good movie at last that is cerebral, requires you to use your brain and is very intelligently made. Samar Khan, in a very refreshing Director’s note on the official website, stated that he doesn’t care about the box office success but if only 40 people saw it, he wants 39 to say it touched them. By that criteria, on the basis of the group I saw it with, the film is a roaring success !

Anuranan

Rating : 7/10
Running Time : 113 Minutes
Release Date : NA
Director & Story : Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury ; Music : Tanmay Bose & Aashis Rego
Starring : Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta, Raima Sen, Rajat Kapoor
I saw this little gem of a Bengali movie yesterday night. Hard to describe, since most of the beauty lies in the dialogue, the relationships and the breathtaking cinematography of the Kanchenjunga mountain range.

Rahul Bose is an architect / project head of a company that transfers him from London to Kolkatta, where he has to execute an eco-tourism project overlooking the Kanchenjunga for a company headed by Rajat Kapoor. Their wives are Rituparna Sengupta and Raima Sen respectively and most of the movie focuses on the inter-relationships between them – more specifically Rahul’s relationship with the two of them.


He is a mischevious, creative, artistic person, prone to making observations on life on his Dictaphone, uneasy at parties or on a dance floor but happy reading / conversing or just watching people / life go by. He makes friends easily and his friendship with Raima reminds her forcefully of what her life has become, stuck in a marriage with a dominating husband obsessed with making money, wishing she can be a bird in her next life. Rituparna is shown to be a sensual, loving, slightly temperamental wife who can’t get over the fact that she can’t have kids.

The ending is slightly jarring. Probably, like the relationship between Akshaye Khanna and Dimple in Dil Chahta Hai, it was the directors way of showing that some relationships are never meant to be understood. I also feel that some more time could’ve been spent on some of the relationships / conversations – which were easily the best part of the film.


The movie is a reminder of the beautiful, lyrical quality of the Bengali language – it was lovely hearing the words roll of the characters tongues. Rahul Bose was very good – I don’t know why but he seems much stiffer in Hindi films, while here he was relaxed, bringing life to most scenes featuring him. Rituparna looks and acts stunningly – very very sensuous and sultry, she is a treat to watch and I can't fathom why is she not appearing in Hindi movies ? Raima’s is very good as well, slightly restrained, as befitting her character but making her emotions come through nonetheless.

Anuranan means resonance and the movie is all about trying to find people with whom you resonate…what a beautiful thought to end the day with….

One Two Three

Rating : 3/10
Running Time : 137 Minutes
Release Date : 28th Mar ‘08
Director & Writer : Ashwini Dheer ; Music : Raghav Sachar
Starring : Suneil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tushar Kapoor, Isha Deol, Sameera Reddy

An interesting premise, unnecessarily dumbed down and converted into brainless slapstick in the vain hope of being a ‘mass comedy’.

Three people, all named Lakshmi Narayan, check into the same hotel and receive instructions on what they have to do next. Suneil Shetty, an employee of a car dealer, has to buy a car. Paresh Rawal, a retailer of ladies undergarments, has to see some new designs. And Tushar Kapoor has to kill someone. The three instructions get predictably mixed up and mayhem happens. The director / producer / writer could have now chosen 2 routes
• making a comedy (like Khosla ka Ghosla) which all could have enjoyed
• making a timepass movie by making everything slapstick (like Dhamaal), with generous dollops of crude, sexist humour and brainless fun.

To be fair to them, seeing the commercial success of Golmaal, Welcome and Dhamaal, you can’t argue with the financial part of their reasoning. Suneil, Paresh and Sameera were as good as they could be. The rest were one cacophonic blur…

My kids loved it, there were a lot of people laughing in the audience but I was only weeping at the loss of 1600 bucks and the wasted time…a lot of my family members also felt I was being over-generous with a 3 rating. Guess it takes all sorts to make a world.

Black & White

Rating : 4/10
Running Time : ~120 Minutes
Release Date : 7th Mar ‘08
Director & Writer : Subhash Ghai ; Music : Sukhwinder Singh
Starring : Anil Kapoor, Anurag Sinha, Shefali Shah, Habib Tanvir

There is something about religious fundamentalism which is so alien to my constitution that this movie made me uneasy – it wasn’t pleasant watching. It traces the story of Nuwair, a muslim fundamentalist, raised in Afghanistan, who has come to India to be a suicide bomber at the Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort on 15th August and stays with some sympathizers / ‘relatives’ in Chandini Chowk (area in Delhi, near Red Fort).

One day, in a chance encounter, he meets Professor Mathur, renowned professor of Urdu in a university and a well respected and well connected personality of the area. Due to various reasons, Numair realizes he has to make friends with the professor and needs his help to make his plan successful. What happens, how does his plan fructify and how does his relationship develop with the professor and his firebrand wife, is the focus of most of the movie.

One thing that comes through quite clearly is how lucky we are that most Muslims living in India are not fundamentalists. Numair, shown to be a quiet, intense and very narrow minded in his thinking is quite perturbed to find music, dancing, drinking and even mixing with Hindu’s, quite common amongst his support group. I was lucky to experience this close-hand in Bangladesh as well – to find most Muslims there very chilled out, relaxed unlike the rabid fundamentalists of the Gulf.

I think where the movie really lets itself down though is in its overall amateurnishness. There is a lack of slickness, its jerky, the acting of most of the people is either over the top or very B-grade. And the sets are almost laughable (especially the Afghanistan bits). The dialogue is quite ordinary, again doesn’t flow smoothly with very few exchanges sticking in your memory – there was a real opportunity missed here to have some philosophical exchanges between the professor / his wife and Numair. The songs are good, some quite hummable.

So, a movie which makes you squirm, made me uneasy for most parts. The ending is quite irrational, a bolt from the blue. Something interesting conceptually but it fails to fulfill its true potential. Noble intentions, but there was something amiss in the overall package…

Race

Rating : 8/10
Running Time : 154 Minutes
Release Date : 21st Mar ‘08
Director : Abbas-Mastan ; Writer : Shiraz Ahmed ; Music : Pritam
Starring : Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy, Dalip Tahil

One non stop adrenalin rush….more twists and turns than the crookedest street in the world (San Francisco)…a plethora of pretty, skimpily clad (young ?) things…a horde of handsome hunks and highly strung horses …and full of fast cars and even faster double-crosses … kind of like ‘Wild Things’ on skates…

Life is not easy for Ranbir Singh (Saif), elder brother and primary heir of a large horse racing empire. He is ruthless and plays hard but fair (unlike the Aussie cricketers who only pretend to do so). He is saddled with a few double crossers, an alcoholic good for nothing younger brother Rajiv (Akshaye) and some unidentified people trying to kill him…but he’s indestructible and aided by a gorgeous girlfriend (Bipasha) and sexy secretary (Katrina) he’s not doing too badly, despite the evil machinations of rival horse owner (Dalip Tahil)….

Now, that’s all I can reveal about the story – else I will start giving away key plot elements…suffice to say that the next 150 minutes go very easily in one breathless rush, hardly giving pause for air, in a very slick, sensational mix of cross and double cross…

Its very nicely done. The key characters are sufficiently built, they (and some of the stunts) are definitely over the top but not beyond the point of losing credibility or stepping into the territory of ridiculousness. And its very slick, very heady and you’re begging for more when it ends (I really hope they’re thinking of a part2).


Star of the movie, beyond a doubt was Saif. The man has reinvented himself so many times that you’ve run out of counting fingers…this is a new, lean, mean, muscular action hero. Looking every inch the part…no more adorable, boy next door, no more the lovable rogue. This is a serious, restrained, brilliant performance. And he looks every inch the part – in fact the only time he looks out of sorts is when he is dancing some silly steps in one or two songs. Akshaye was good – he’s got a meaty role and does enough with it to make it credible. Bipasha was hot as ever as was Katrina (in a slightly smaller role). Sameera and Anil Kapoor come on as detectives in the second half – I thought some of the humour here was out of place, not needed – too slapstick and unnecessarily crude / sexist. Both did their roles justice though and I really admire the way Anil has managed to reinvent himself as well. Sameera also proves she can act if you can look beyond her more obvious assets.

It was a very enjoyable experience and having it set in one of the most beautiful countries in the world (South Africa) helps add to the glamour quotient. Like this review, most of the movie is about hyperbole but there are enough thrills and spills to make the price of the entry ticket worth it ! a very well spent three hours…beautiful people, beautiful places and some very evil thoughts and devious plans…I’ll fall for it hook, line and sinker every time…

Sanjay & Suneil's Yaaron ka Tashan

The Making of "Yaaron ka Tashan"

The "Yaaron Ka Tashan" commercial

Sanjay Dutt's Mardangiri

I found this great...

Jodhaa Akbar

Rating : 7/10
Running Time : 213 mts
Release Date : 15th Feb ‘08
Director : Ashutosh Gowariker ; Writer : Haider Ali ; Music : A R Rahman
Starring : Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Ila Arun, Suhasini Mulay, Sonu Sood and Punam Sinha.

Viewers of this film will be forced to make a choice.

They will either choose to be swept away by the wonderful visual imagery of this period drama, the awesome scale of it all, the undeniable charisma of the two leading stars, the very solid performances of all the character actors. They can soak in the authenticity, the clothes, the jewellery and the elaborate sets, and even the formal language, the relaxed pace and the overall ambience.

Or they can choose to focus on the lack of a powerful, stirring storyline (a la Lagaan), they can focus on the length and the fact that its more a series of sub plots which comprise the film without a truly unifying plot, they can complain about the lack of a great climax or the fact that there are periods during the film when you can look around the hall and wonder what everyone else is thinking. They can complain even about the formal language, the relaxed pace and the overall ambience.

I think it totally depends on your perspective, the mood you go in with, the degree of the expectations etc. As for me, as my rating suggests, I'm more in the former camp than the latter (I was actually at sixes and sevens between giving it a 6 or 7 and then decided to be generous). I enjoyed the way the it does wrap you up in its atmosphere and transport you into another era. I also acutely felt the lack of a great ending / a single focal point in the film and was disappointed that Ashutosh was not able to bring it all together like the cricket match in his earlier film.

The movie is about a Muslim prince entering into a alliance with a unwilling Rajput princess due to political expediency and then charting how their relationship develops, the court intrigues, the foibles of that era etc. The clear highlights were the performances of the leading pair, both easily fitting into that era, changing their walk, language and mannerisms to suit their characters. If you want to see how not to do it, you can observe Abhishek in the remake of Umrao Jaan, where he seemed to mouth the dialogue without believing in the lines or their meaning and his walk still retained the jauntiness of the twenty-first century rather than the stateliness of another era.

The other notable features were the sequence involving Hrithik practising sword-fighting in front of Aishwarya's room (made interesting when he realises she's watching), the fight with the elephant and two magnificient songs, one 'Khwaja mere Khwaja' because of its simplicity and spiritual picturisation and the other, 'Azeem-o-shaan Shahenshah' because of its scale, choreography and grandeur.


In this film when you walk out, you do it with no great emotional change or no provacative thoughts mulling around your head. So in that respect it is a 'time-pass' film. However, it is a beautiful experience, enjoyable for those who relish this kind of thing and its made all the more magical by the presence of Hrithik and Aishwarya, who, according to me, continue to be the best looking screen couple in the world.

Mithya

Rating : 3/10
Running Time : 100 Minutes
Release Date : 8th Feb ‘08
Director : Rajat Kapoor ; Writer : Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla ; Music : Sagar Desai
Starring : Ranvir Shorey, Naseerudin Shah, Neha Dhupia, Vinay Pathak, Saurabh Shukla

I think the rating would probably be 7/10 for the first half and 1/10 for the second…

It starts off as a kind of comic ‘Don’ (or Don on skates, to be more precise) and then…,well I’m not quite sure what happens next really except to say that it crashes and burns. The 20 minute ride back home at 1am in Pune was actually more interesting than the second half (thanks to the amazingly narrow exit at the Inox car park, two idiots in Indica’s who felt the desperate need to race each other and a very lazy autodriver who, from my left lane, felt the sudden, inexplicable yet compelling urge to u-turn)

We shouldn’t take anything away from the first half where Ranvir, Vinay and Brijendra Kala combine spectacularly to provide us a barrelful of laughs. Ranvir is excellent throughout the movie and hopefully this movie can help him appear in more meaningful roles vs the comic cameos so far. Neha Dhupia confidently struts her stuff (pun intended, she has potential, this girl). Naseer is good and the whole thing is brilliantly set up. Which is why the events of the second half are absolutely baffling – I really struggled to stay awake, my wife actually managed a gentle snore and even when we returned home, despite a debate, we couldn’t be sure exactly what had happened. It was like a football match where two sides go hammer and tongs at each other in the first half for a 3-3 halftime scoreline and then replace their strikers and decide back-passing to their respective goalies is the best form of offense for the whole of the second half. Baffling, absolutely baffling, the mysteries of day to day life continue to confound, I tell you…

I’d complained in the previous review (of Sunday) about how the director couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to make a comedy or a thriller. Imagine the complication when the director here decides to make a comedy – thriller cum romantic movie ? I’ve known a lot of successful comedy –thrillers (48 Hours, Stakeout, Beverly Hills Cop spring to mind) and even more romantic comedies or rom-coms as they’re affectionately called (When Harry Met Sally, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pretty Woman all were great to watch) but I struggle to name one which successfully spans all three genres…And I’d been so looking forward to this one ! What a pity….

Sunday

Rating : 4/10
Running Time : 135 Minutes
Release Date : 25th Jan ‘08
Director : Rohit Shetty ; Writer : Robin Bhatt ; Music : Shibani Kashyap / Daler Mehndi & others
Starring : Ayesha Takia, Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Irfan Khan

Or how to remake a brilliant film into a very timepass movie
Sunday is a slightly loose remake of Anukokunda Oka Roju, a fantastic Telugu film which my wife and I saw only a couple of months ago. I say slightly loose because it effortlessly manages to murder the essence, the surprise elements and the ending. It does dial up the comedy – the combined talents of Arshad Warsi and Irfan Khan do have some very funny moments together, but overall it falls far short of what could’ve been…

The basic premise of the movie is simple. A girl goes to a party. When she wakes up in the morning, she’s a bit hazy about what has transpired and then suddenly finds strange unknown people trying to kill her. Piecing together what happened at the party and making sure she remains in one piece then form the basis of most of the film.

Here, the trailers reveal too much about the plot (destroying some of the surprise), there is not enough time spent on the character development of the girl, too much time spent showing off the big star (Ajay Devgan) or the comic talents of Arshad / Irfan. Also, there are far too many stunts in what’s supposed to be a ‘realistic’ story, the ending is completely illogical – at least a couple of life-threatening flaws and there is a desperate attempt at commercialism via 2-3 unnecessary item numbers. Performances are very ordinary, couple of hummable songs and as mentioned before, there are some very funny moments…but then that’s about it….

I think the director / producer got very confused here – should they make a comedy or a thriller ? Should they stay true to the spirit of the original or bow to commercialism ? In both cases, they unfortunately made wrong choices and led to a waste of a Sunday…

Dharm

Rating : 7/10
Running Time : 103 minutes
Release Date : 8th Jun ‘07
Director : Bhavna Talwar ; Writer : Varun Gautam / Vibha Singh ; Music : Debajyoti Mishra
Starring : Pankaj Kapur, Supriya Pathak Kapur, Hrishta Bhatt, Krish, KK Raina, Dayashankar Pandey, Pankaj Tripathi.

Most people across the world have their religious prejudices and Indians are no exception. The anti-Muslim prejudice is probably the strongest one and the cause of most grief for us over the last 50 years, despite India being the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. And as outlined in the review of Mr & Mrs Iyer, it shows no sign of abating...

Now thats just the common man. What if you're Pandit Chaturvedi (Pankaj Kapur) ? A man with a very strong standing in Benares, the head priest of the local Shiv Mandir. A man who bathes twice if touched by a sweeper, who insists his wife (Supriya Pathak, his real-life wife as well) bathes before serving food, is always punctual no matter what. A man who lives life as per the Manu Smriti, the ancient Hindu text. Fate puts them in charge of an abandoned baby boy, which his wife and daughter manage to persuade him to 'adopt'. At first hesitatingly, but then increasingly, over the next four years, he and the child, named Kartikey, develop a strong bond. Imagine his shock when one day, the child's mother returns to claim him again. And it turns out the child is Muslim....

Bhavna, in her directorial debut is very assured and deft in her handling of this complex topic and manages to communicate the angst and dilemma Pandit Chaturvedi goes through extremely well. Pankaj Kapur is brilliant once again, looking every inch the all-knowing Pandit. I think we're privileged to have him and 3-4 extremely good chamaleonic character actors in our midst currently, including Vinay Pathak, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Rajat Kapur amongst others. KK Raina and Pankaj Tripathi, playing a local rich man and his rebellious, angry son respectively, were also very good as was Dayashankar Pandey as a 'rival' mercenary pandit. The cinematography is breathtaking, calm and serene, a nice contrast to the turmoil Panditji's going through mentally and the communal riots around them. The end left me a bit unfulfilled – however, can't elaborate why without giving it away, so will desist.

I love movies which provoke, engage the brain, force you to choose sides. This is one of them. As the official website says 'Manavta Paramo Dharm' – I cannot agree more and it saddens me that most religions or rather its practioners have drifted from this core. And yes, I think this would have been a more worthy entry for the Oscars instead of Eklavya.