Cinema Garage

REC (Spanish)

2009-01-11T10:59:00.002+05:30

It had been a long time since I saw a good horror movie.

REC is a brilliant horror/thriller movie. It is about a TV crew recording about the life of a firefighter.

DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE. JUST KNOW THAT IT IS A MUST WATCH MOVIE. GET A COPY WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES, CREATE AMBIENCE FOR A HORROR MOVIE - Lights Off, Volume Levels High and Preferably sitting alone! - AND WATCH IT

The movie is about a TV crew recording the life of a firefighter and gets trapped in an infected house. The infection is contagious and spreads through saliva. The TV crew thought they were being brave before they found themselves trapped amongst zombies. Then it was just a run for their lives. With the building sealed by Police from outside and the house full of zombies, they did not have any option but to shit in their pants (not literally). The camera from TV crew is all we have.

The ambience, soundtrack and the screams make it a perfect horror flick.

Do watch it if you haven't seen it yet.

The movie earns a rating of 4 on 5 - Must Watch!

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-11T10:09:00.003+05:30

Swagat hai aapka kaun banega Crorepati dwitya mein!
Aur ye raha 2 crore rupaiye ke liye aapka sawaal...

The above two lines are no strange to Indian audience.. Amitabh Bachchan did it first and then Shahrukh Khan followed but now Anil Kapoor does the same although not on TV but on the larger screen. He plays host of the show: "Who wants to be a millionaire" (English translation of Kaun Banega Crorepati).

No one would have thought that someone will make a full movie on a TV show but British director Danny Boyle found an opportunity to make a brilliant masterpiece keeping the TV show in background. The movie has already won several awards in the selected limited screenings it has had so far.

The movie is basically about a kid from slums of Mumbai managing to get a berth in the show "Who wants to be a millionaire" and the events that follow. The kid was arrested for a probable case of fraud/cheating as no one expected the kid to advance to the final levels. This suspicion prompted the show host to call for an enquiry, where the kid (referred to as Slumdog in the movie) takes the police inspector (played by Irrfan Khan) through his life and how an illiterate kid from slums of Mumbai knew answers to the questions that even literates might find dicey at times.

The movie takes you through life of a slumdog through a series of events. It is basically like walking through the tragedies of life of a slumdog without having that thrown directly at face. The changeovers between the TV show and the life are so subtle that you at times even forget about the show running in background.

In all this drama and action, the movie also conveys a message of "Never give up" in a very profound manner. The quest of finding her girlfriend never ended for the slumdog despite the challanges and problems he faced!

Although the storyline of the movie is not very strong so as to say but the magnificent screenplay and excellent direction makes this movie a brilliant watch. I am yet to find a person who did not like this movie.

No suprises, the movie scores 4.5 on 5 and is highly recommended.

Thodi Game-Theory Thoda Magic (2008)

2008-07-04T04:55:00.003+05:30

Oh My Goodness!
Now what the hell is this?

Even after having seen one of these movies, I had no clue that these were two different movies altogether. I saw the name different at two places and neglected that for a possible typo but after having seen the movie and when I could not find any of the songs, I was confused. A basic search on Google revealed something that made me jump out of my chair!!

Jun 27, 2008 - Two new movies were released.
One from Yash Raj Films - Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (TPTM)
and the other one from director Anand Rai - Thodi Life Thoda Magic (TLTM)

Should I call this a case of game theory in practice?
Consider the scenario: Two directors have decided upon the name of their movies as TPTM and TLTM and conflict regarding who came up with the name could not be resolved. Now the next issue in context is obviously the advertisements, promotions and the release date of the movie.

YRF being the bigger banner could get a larger share in the media and the other group did not contest it much (Not a dominant strategy for unknown banner to spend high on advertisements). So the more important factor here comes out to be release date.

Consider the case when Movie 1 comes before Movie 2. The name of these movies is so much similar that the second movie would be lost in the identity of the first one. If the first one is a success, it could draw some public or alternatively could lose market since people might confuse it for the first one, which they have already seen. On the other hand, if the first one is a flop, then there would be hardly any public knowing about the second one and it would pay for the sins of other one. So the payoff matrix if we see comes out to be negative if you move late, positive if you move first and unpredictable if you move along.
As a result, both the players would try to move before the other player but since it is like a game of simultaneous move where all the information is shared between the two players, second player would know as soon as first player tries to release it. This would lead to a further early move from the second player.

Clearly the dominant strategy for both the players comes when they move along, i.e. release the movie together, which is exactly what they did to avoid heavy negative payoffs involved with late release.

How much did it pay for each of the players and what is the effect of others performance on each movie would be known only by the end of this week or may be by the next week but in any case, it is really confusing and misguiding for the moviegoers. Moviegoers will have tough time in deciding which of the magic they want to see - Life or Love is the choice!

Amu- Simple yet very powerful

2008-02-21T18:25:00.002+05:30

A good week for watching movies. The second review for movies I watched this week.

Amu- Simple yet very powerful

the central character of the movie is a foreign return girl Kaju played by Konkana sen sharma who left the country when she was 3. Now that she is back in the country she wants to explore her motherland and is more keen to know about the interiors and about the poverty ridden. Among these she was also keen to know about her actual family as she was an adopted child. During her interaction with people she gets to know about the 1984 riots and gets very curious to know about it in details. This coincides with her quest to know about her family as she finds out that her mother had migrated to city before she died and she happened to be living in the region which was most affected by the riots. She falsely assumes some drunkard to be her father as his wife's initials match with her mother's. This is the time when she is told everything about her family. The movie enters a flashback mode. She belonged to a Sikh family and her father was killed in the riots. Her mother tried to get some help and in trying to do so, she also loses her baby brother. Her mother shifts with her to a relief camp and there her mother hands her over to her new mother.

It would be inappropriate to say that the movie portrays the sufferings of people well (since those sufferings actually could not be reflected/portrayed at all - The loss and suffering caused is uncomparable). It attempts to reflect on the insane and irrationale behaviour of the Hindu community then. Although at times, it appears to be an attempt to target specifically the Hindu community but a few otherwise instances were sufficient to get the benefit of doubt from me. As far as timing of the movie is concerned, I think it is a bit late and could have been released when the rulings on 1984 riots were announced. Anyways the movie would not be able to cash in huge amounts for being on such a serious and sensitive issue but crititcally, the movie manages to score high for good handling of a sensitive issue, for apt screenplay, an engaing pace and above all its simplicity and effectiveness!

The movie by no means is a commercial movie but for all fans of sensible movies, Amu is yet another treat. All the people sensitive to the social issues are likely to feel touched by the movie.

Going by the rating tradition, Amu manages to score 4 on 5 for its subject, good acting by Konkana Sen Sharma (and others) and a good and engaging pace of the movie.
It is indeed an art to present so much sensitive issues in a manner that will heart everybody's heart and yet not offend anybody.

Jodha Akbar

2008-02-21T18:15:00.002+05:30

Jodha Akbar
Good direction, Good Sets, Good Acting, Proper dialogue delivery, Proper casting ... is sufficient enough to make a successful period movie.

Akbar is a kind hearted king who doesnt believe in inwanted tortures and uncalled wars. His target is to rule whole of the country but with harmony. He believes in making allies(to work under him) and not fighting them for stake. A fight is last resort to him and he would like to do anything to save any bloodsheds and to save honour of his territory. In fulfilling this quest, he is confronted with a difficult condition to marry a Rajput girl. He agrees to marry and also agrees to allow her to keep her religion. This does not pleases some of his family members who try their best to distance Jodha and Akbar. Falling into one such trap, Akbar sends Jodha back to Amer but as soon as he realises his mistake, he himself moves to Amer to get her back. Jodha made her feel that although he can win wars but he knows little about ruling. He gets the point and did a marketing research on what is percieved wrong among common man and he takes immediate actions to bring about changes. Then there are couple of war scenes, which are very similar to the scenes from Troy.
Hrithik Roshan does a terrific job in the Mughal getup. Deliviering Urdu dialogue is not that easy but he does it with so ease that one could not help but admire. Aishwarya Rai also displayed extremely good acting display. The emotions are pretty similar to what I was expecting for this being a period movie.

What I think lacked in movie was some focus on Jodha and Akbar. At times movie strayed a bit from the theme but those durations are so small that before someone realises it is off the point, it gets back. So, it doesn't hurt the movie as such.

Overall a tremendous performance on part of actors, a beautiful job on part of script writer and terrific job as far as costume designer is concerned.

Based on the lively performances by the actors, I would rate Jodha Akbar 3.5 on the scale of 5. There is not much more one could expect from a Period movie.

Why to watch?:
Lively performances by actors
Good Direction
Long yet engaging throughout
Good sets
Well written dialogues

Why not to watch?:
Only if period movies is not your taste and you do not admire Hrithik Roshan or Aishwarya Rai

I strongly recommend that you watch this movie.

Jogger's Park (2003)

2008-02-09T12:31:00.000+05:30

I had heard a lot about this movie but never had the chance to watch it and then I thought it was too late to spend any time watching an old movie. But things do change and yesterday was a bit different. While browsing through list of available movies on LAN, I came through the name Jogger's Park and thought 'why not?'. And to tell you frankly, I have become a huge fan of this movie now.
I know you must be aware of story but still just for the sake of background in case you missed it, here is the story:
Justice Jyotin Prasad Chatterjee (JC) , one of the most respected judge, retires from the post after serving the nation for 40 years. He has never taken any favours from anybody and has always gave rulings in favour of justice. But now is the difficult thing for him. He, being a judge, never socialised much throughout his life and now being a public figure is afraid of social gatherings. He, who used to be busy all the time with his work, has now nothing at all to do. His family members suggest him to join Jogger's Park to keep himself fit and busy. Initially he did not like the idea much for the fear of public there but when everybody insists, he agrees to join the Jogger's Park. There he meets a 'model cum VJ cum event manager cum hotel manager'- Jenny, who is a big fan of his. The bonding between them gets stronger and stronger and JC feels love for first time in his life (but he has a family!!). The story carries on and a lot of characters are introduced. Then one fine day, Jenny was unwell and JC took him to hospital and Jenny also felt love for JC (Earlier it was mostly regard for him). But JC has a family and there is a big age gap!!. Jenny's friend told her about Ranjit's love for her (Ranjit is a famous singer) but she is incapable of deciding anything at the moment due to feelings for JC. Her friend told her not to get carried away with those feelings for JC as that is not love but infatuation. To prove the point, she asks JC to come over to Jenny's place for a party on the day of JC's wedding anniversary (which JC did not remember as he was so much involved with Jenny). While he was about to leave, a newpaper editor visits his place and handed over some photographs of him and Jenny that were supposed to be published in next day's edition but he, being the editor, stopped it from happening for some favour JC had done in past. JC's daughter gets the photographs and asked him to choose either if the two. JC had no choice but to choose family and they moved to Pune. After 4 years, JC met Jenny at airport and she was married to Ranjit. She was happy.

The movie portrayed that love sees no age barriers, which was portrayed beautifully by running the love story of JC's granddaughter in parallel. On the other hand was social norms - either it can be about you and your happiness or your responsibilities. Society doesn't approve of such a behaviour and JC himself gave a ruling against similar case involving his son in family court(A judge never retires in that sense). On the one hand, movie talks about freedom of individual while talking about social norms restricting our actions on the other hand. Director manages to strike a perfect balance between the two, effectively conveying the importance of striking this balance in real life as well. The actors really played the characters well and you can relate to them as common man. Despite of building a plot around high power individuals (which I think was an appropriate act), the characters are representative of the common man and there is no jazz about the high end society.
There is just this one story and a very powerful one. There is no redundant story running parallel, which had become quite a common phenomenon lately. The songs are really good and the background score by Usha Uthup, which I earlier thought was irritating, managed to engage me totally into the movie.
Hats off to the apt screenplay, awesome music, simple yet effective script and good story.

Halla Bol is no RDB

2008-01-14T22:31:00.000+05:30

First things first.. Unless you know what this movie is all about, you would not be able to know that till last 20-25 minutes of the movie. The movie aspires to be another RDB but fails miserably in doing that.

RDB was about a common man raising his voice against the corrupt system in the country, Halla Bol is about a famous movie star doing exactly the same. Aamir Khan in RDB chose the route of violence, Ajay Devgan suggests Gandhian ways to fight the same.
To be frank, it seems like the director did not have it clear as to what was it that he was trying to focus and convey. On one hand, it had ingredients common with RDB while on the other hand, the first half of the movie focuses on the character of Ajay Devgan (who plays a famous action hero in the movie) and film industry in general. The transition from the film industry to the fight for truth was not abrupt but it was ineffective. Although I would have to agree that some of the scenes reflect that the director wanted to show things from real life but unfortunately, he could not mend up those gaps of artificiality in between.

The movie starts with Ashafaq Khan, an aspiring actor, trying to get break into film industry. He happened to have good references but still no one seems to be interested in signing him. Then he happens to meet a director who was looking for a person in specific and on listening to a fake story by Ashafaq, agrees to sign Ashafaq as hero for his movie. (A very simplistic and very stupid portrayal). Ashafaq changes his name to Sameer and Sameer becomes egotist. He even rejected his Guru's request to perform for a protest presentation. Everybody leaves him and he is alone in his life, yet focused on his career. (Again too simplistic a portrayal). Then he encounters murder of a young lady he knew from some Acting competition he chaired long back. Everybody refrained from making any comment, even after being eye-witness to the incident, so as to stay away from controversies. Some silly comments and comparisons are being made to celebrities suffering for getting into such controversies (e.g. Aamir Khan's involvement in Narmada case). The convicts are sons of Member of Legislative assembly and a Liquor Barron (The idea is highly influential people) and obviously threats are being made to Sameer and his family. He fights!! They lose the case but he doesn't stop. He still fights and decides to perform a protest presentation - "Halla Bol". Obviously the influential people decide to prevent that but he doesn't stop. The impact is that he finds himself fighting against death in a hospital. It is then that Junta feels awaken. They come in full heartedly in support of Sameer Khan and there is a nation wide protest. Courts decide to re-open the case and a verdict is passed stating every member who made false statements along with convicts guilty. Junta wins and movie ends!!

As far as my personal opinion goes, an under-prepared script and poorly managed direction is what this movie indicates! The concept might have been a decent concept(although that would make it just another RDB) but unless presented properly, it is worth nothing.

Overall, Halla Bol is a disappointment!

Halla Bol get 1.5 stars out of 5
Why you still might consider watching the movie:

An average performance by Ajay Devgan
Vidya Balan is charming as always (although very short appearances)
Good acting by

You have enough reasons not to watch it:

Frankly if you read goods above, I don't need to write any bads as such.
Wasted actors
Under-prepared script
Poor Direction
Too many fundaes being put into one movie
A complete "Disaster"

'No Smoking' Explained

2008-01-05T15:47:00.000+05:30

For those who could not understand what No smoking is all about, here is the mystery resolved for you.

I assume you have already gone through the previous review. Continuing from there on..

This film has nothing to do with quitting smoking. But everything to do with quitting any addiction in life. Smoking being one of the worst, yet popular addiction is difficult to kick, because of the availability of cigarettes was just chosen by him. This film is about habits, that has gotten in to us, in the subconscious, which makes us feel we need it. The inner struggle , whether for good or bad.

the dream K is having is of Siberia represents oppression, a communist rule, where there is no individual liberty. He strongly believes in his autonomy and is suddenly made to give up that liberty. His dream state just signifies that.

Typically anybody who is being forced to quit an addiction goes through phases like this. All these are just mental phases, which are jelled so well with reality that you always keep on guessing "what is going on?".

* The Baba is a Doctor. The Baba who lives in that complex underground world does not exist. He does not use any of those punishing techniques and instead does a psychological treatment of K. After all smoking is more a psychological addiction

* The dialogues about Antaratma etc. show the subconscious state of K - The effect of forced transformation. The person who firmly believed in his autnomy(and hence highly resistant to change) is amde to undergo a significant change(almost from one extreme to other). Baba is just trying to tame the subconscious of the subject(Mr.K).

*Remember a lot of unusual things happening to Mr. K, including the Police instance where he takes Police to Baba's hideout and make Police talk to Baba- Beautiful description of disturbed mental state of the subject. All of those acts show the abnormal state of mind Mr. K is going through. You might have noticed people acting abnormally when not provided with cigarettes..ever thought what he is going through.

*There are no actual loss of ears, eyes, family, what ever. Those are fears of losing loved ones harming them, causing harm to oneself, by smoking, there are no accident, but its what he is going through. His brother has lungs problem, he lost his wife(she is not dead but she left him)- all of this is attributed to his cigarette smoking habit and that is what the different punishment indicates to.

* the dialog I reached here through bathtub, him though Almari, signifies the subconscious of other people going through the same, similar phase * the other K inside the that dirty room, trying to reach the original K, is none other than his subconscious trying to reach him, and make him smoke, the dirt signifies many things, the smoking dirt, the suffering he is going through * remember the announcement "those who have paid full fees can go for the bath". It means the course is complete, where the subconscious is cleaned up * finally he, the subconscious, is being burnt , and finally K is relieved and treated.

* the cut finger is none other than the fact that, he is missing the smoke in his had, the fingers which are cut are the ones which we use to smoke, so when he finally quit smoking, he is missing those, the only way he can get out of it is to get himself company and relief, which is why he has to enroll another person for the program.

Now what do you think about the movie!! Do you like it now or not?? Isn't it The Matrix of Bollywood?

I am Legend is not Legendary

2007-12-17T23:24:00.000+05:30

The world is on the verge of end but there is someone in the world who would not let this happen. He makes his family safe and himself goes against the odds to save the world. He tries..fails. Then suddenly something makes him realise that he was almost correct and he finds the solution, sometimes minutes before he dies or sometimes being alive.

The Story:
The above theme has been used in God knows how many movies and the new release "I am Legend" is no different. The protagonist(Dr. Neville), played by Will Smith, who is a scientist and a soldier, decides to save/revive the city of New York from the incurable virus that has spread in the city. The virus has made living beings violent and the skin is prone to melting by Ultraviolet rays, which makes it impossible for infected people to get out in the sunlight. This is the time, when Dr. Neville gets out in the open to gather basic requirements and subjects for experiments from the city. He is carrying out experiments in his laboratory in the basement of his house, where he performs tests on rats (and later humans). He gets disappointed with all the results failing to make any impact and just then he realises that one of his subject rats shows lesser signs of violence. He captures a living human and performs the same test on him just to realise that the test does not works for humans. He is disappointed. The next day he gets trapped and while escaping it starts getting dark. The infected animals attack him and his dog. The dog saves him but itself gets infected. Doctor has to kill it and loses his mind.
Next night, he goes out in open at night. All these zombie-type humans attack him. He kills some but they are too many in number. He is trapped.
Some lady comes and saves him. But the infected people get to know Dr. Neville's place and they attacked him the next day. While hiding from them, he finds out that the experiment on humans has been successful. He hands over the solution to the lady and makes him leave.
He dies. Humans saved. Movie ends.

The movie succeeds in engaging people till last 10-15 minutes where the director fails miserably to contain the excitement built up so far. The ending sequence seems being fitted forcibly to the movie and it actually ruins the movie in whole. Further movie doesn't even try to explain how come Dr. Neville gets immune to the virus, while there is no other individual in the city unaffected?? How come all the basic services (electricity/water etc.) still in place although no individual is left to work??
Even if we ignore these questions, the last 15 minutes are not anything to let go easily.

Unlike Aaja Nachle, where despite no excitement you come out happy after the movie, here you come out feeling sorry for your decision to spend 150 bucks on such a movie.

Overall movie gets 2 stars out of 5
Positives:

Will Smith
Well directed..a few fancy sequences
Well carried movie theme till last 15 minutes
Effective use of sound effects

Negatives:

Last 15 minutes ruined all the above positives
The two questions (raised above) left unattempted

Recommendation:
There are a lot of movies on the same theme and you must have seen atleast a couple of them and you may like to skip this one.

Aaja Nachle: Only Madhuri Nothing else

2007-12-17T19:49:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

Ever seen a movie which you feel is not a great movie but when you exit the theatre you certainly feel good about it. Aaja Nachle is one of those.

The movie marks comeback of arguably one of the best actress in Bollywood, Madhuri Dixit. She makes a comeback after 5 years and undoubtedly the movie will benefit from the fact that she is still a crowd puller. Not even Shahrukh Khan or Salman Khan or Aamir Khan have so much of fan falling, forget about actresses.

The movie is about a girl, Diya (obviously Madhuri), who runs away with a US photographer after falling in love with him in just a couple of days only to realize later that the person did not love her truly. By that time she was already pregnant. They divorced and Diya started training people in dance(in US) to make living. Her Guru was dying and she flew back to India to see him but before she reached he had already passed away. Now she comes to know that local people are going to demolish Ajanta Theatre (an Open Air Theatre) to build a shopping mall at that place. [Ajanta Theatre is the place where she learned dance and hence carries emotional importance to her]

She comes to rescue that and took up a challenge with local MP. Either she performs with local people within 60 days (i.e. get people support within 60 days) or the Ajanta becomes history. She stages a show to get people to the place and there asks for their support. Everyone ridiculed and left. Local ex-MP even goes to the extent of trying to destroy it the very next day. Diya shows the politician a political motive in saving the heritage and gets his support. With a few people in her team, she starts getting support of local public as they get enthusiast to participate in the drama- Laila Majnu. She takes screening tests of all the interested people and builds her team. The team works with dedication towards making the event a success till the time the constructor who had the contracts for building the mall played trick by bribing ex-MP (who was playing an important part in the play). The contractor also manages to do some negative publicity of Diya through his wife (who was a good childhood friend of Diya). The wife’s conscience scolds her after she does the act and she decides to join the play as well. D-day comes. They do the play and do it well. In the meantime Laila and Majnu had already got into real life love as well. The event is a success and Ajanta remains. Diya returns to US and movie ends.

Nothing in movie as such but the play towards the end of the movie is good. Songs are good and obviously Madhuri rocks. The Laila Majnu play is a musical play and engages viewer well (atleast engaged me very well). It runs for about 20 minutes and includes 3 of the songs in the movie but never looked like dragging or something and in fact, director manages to make movie run faster during those 20 minutes. The movie drags during the mid part of the movie and viewer almost loses interest (if any) at all but with no choice sits through. The director tried to explain each and everything no matter how trivial it is and that sometimes looked irritating.

Overall as I said, the movie has no content to boast of but still manages to give a happy ending feeling to the viewer and viewer comes out of theatre happy and smiling.

Overall I rate Aaja Nachle 1.5 on scale of 5

Brownie points include:

Madhuri Dixit!!

Good songs and Beautiful dance sequences (Again Madhuri!!)

Laila Majnu play is good but not worth 150 bucks at all

Brownie turned black for:

Slow pace and drags

Unnecessarily complicating the relationship dynamics (Many relationships did not make any impact on movie in general)

Under-cooked story and Under-utilized actors

Recommendation: Watch it only for Madhuri (She rocks!). No point looking for story etc.

Goal missed the 'time-goal'

2007-12-17T19:47:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

Dhan dhana dhan GOAL

If I have to speak it in a line, it is a remake of Chak de India!, released this year. Chak de India was based on a hockey player who created a World Cup winning team out of a losing team after being accused of match-fixing and _________. Goal is about a football player who made a losing team win the league championship, after himself having skipped the final game in 1985 due to threats.

The concept is good but another movie of the same kind in a year!! Definitely not a good idea and the second mover had to lose for sure.

The Story: The movie is about Southall Football ground, which was to lose its existence if the management fails to pay 3million pounds in 11 months. Players from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh origin play for this club and this club is an identity for them. They now have only one chance to get this amount and that is by winning the league championship. But it is not that simple. They do not have a coach, the team is good for nothing- physically and mentally, the manager died of heart attack. And here steps up our hero- The Captain- Shaan Ali (Arshad Warsi). He approached a veteran player of the club,Tony Singh(Boman Irani), and somehow convinced him to coach the team. One of the player mortgaged his garage to raise funds for the player kits, team bus etc. The coach worked hard on the team and brought them in shape. He also brought in a player from other club- Sunny(John Abraham).

Same as in Chak de, they start with losing first game due to no coordination among team members and then coach inspires them to play for team and forget about personal grievances. The team finally turns into a team, which nobody can beat. But with two matches to go in the championship, Sunny signs up with another club. The team manages to end the second last game in a draw but needs to win the final match to win the league championship. Sunny comes to know the story about his father and his dedication to the Southall club and he joins back Southall in the final match. He played in spite of having line fracture in nose. The opponent team targets his nose but he, being the hero of the movie, doesn’t really bother and inspired by his father’s dedication, he keeps on playing and takes the team to victory.

Southall wins and the stadium and club are saved.

As far as performances are concerned, Arshad Warsi is just fine, John doesn’t look very natural and Boman Irani is unnecessarily loud. Other actors put up an average show in overall. Director did a fine job but Producer needs to be blamed for late timing of movie release. Had this movie released before Chak de India!, it could have been a different story altogether.

Overall the movie scored 2.5 out of 5.

Why to watch?

If you have missed Chak de India!, then the movie is definitely worth watching

Inspiring movie

Why not to watch?

Remake of Chak de India!

Anout average acting performances

A lot of inconsistencies and movie drags at times

Recommendation: Your wish [:)]

No Smoking - A miracle or a fluke!

2007-12-17T19:45:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

NO SMOKING (2007)

Genuinely speaking, I did not expect a Bollywood movie to be of that class. Deeply impressed by the concept and the way abstractness is handled in the movie. HATS OFF!! -

A miracle indeed.

The movie switches on and off dreams so beautifully that sometimes you just can guess it being real or illusion. The movie runs in good pace and the surprise factor is created beautifully as well. The acting department has certain glitches at places but still it manages to score above average in that. The characters had their roles to play and none of the character looked under developed. Although the director failed to show the emotions properly at places (As for example, the scenes with Ram, Shyam, Balram could not depict what the director really wanted to). And more importantly, I failed to understand the purpose of keeping the names as K and J..may be trying to imitate James Bond (I am K..only K) or may be trying to portray the ego (which was clear from the actions and hence did not make any impact).

The Story: Mr. K(John Abraham) is deeply into smoking and feels ashamed even about the idea of leaving it. His wife( also secretary) (Ayesha Takia) decides to leave him and it was then that he decides to quit smoking. He is referred to ‘Baba Bangali’ by his friend and then the real drama begins. Beyond this point the movie runs into illusions and imaginations. Mr. K is put to agree to condition that he will do whatever being asked to do. What happens next: watch it for yourself!!

The movie does preach of downsides of smoking but does that in a style. It talks about the cost one incurs on cigarettes etc.. It talks about the impact it has on friends and families. It talks about the diseases it spreads. It talks about the impact on health and expenses due to that. It talks about it all but in such a style that it never looks like some preaching. Well Done!

Phoonk de!

Ratings:

Overall No Smoking gets 4.5 out of 5

Why to watch? (I hope you dont need a reason after reading the plot above)

- If you want to quit smoking

- Good concept

- Well executed

- Decent acting

Why not to watch?

- If you do not want to quit smoking [:)]

Big guns fail to deliver again: OSO, Saawariya take a hit

2007-12-17T19:43:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

Nothing new with this but I fail to understand why are these producers/ directors considered top shots.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who brought a new dimension to Indian Cinema with Amitabh Bachchan-Rani Mukherjee starer Black and revived memories of old Devdas with his version of Devdas, failed miserbaly to deliver this time.
Farah Khan, made a dream debut with entertainment movie "Main Hoon Na" but seems like she used up all the masala in her first movie. Om Shanti Om, is terribly tasteless.

Saawariya: (Rating at the end)
Following the tested funda of narrator, movie starts with Gulabji(Rani Mukherjee) telling the story of true love although she sells false love every night(being a call-girl by profession). The movie is about Raj,a singer (who God or may be SLB knows does what to survive-had a job of singer at bar which he left for Sakina) and Sakina, who still lives in ancient era and waited for over a year for a person she had met for a few hours. Don't get surprised, there are a lot more elements like this in the movie. The movie marks a debut for two new Kapoors in the industry, Ranbir Kapoor, grandson on Raj Kapoor and son of Rishi Kapoor, played Raj while Sonam Kapoor, daughter of Anil Kapoor, played Sakina. Sonam is beautiful but failed miserably to make an impact with her acting. Ranbir looks cute (Handsome or not..subjective!) and I would advise him to take some inspiration from Shahid, who started of in a similar fashion with Ishq vishq and then made a image makeover with his subsequent movies and definitely avoid becoming another Sonu Nigam(wrt acting). In such a role, it is difficult to comment on acting skills, although he looked pretty natural in most of the frames.
OK. So the story goes as: Sakina goes daily to a small bridge in the area to see if her love, Imaam (played by Salman Khan), is back to take her. On one such night, Raj met her and fell in love with her (I thought this was a thing of past!) She also felt good in his company and and made friends with him. The next night, she tells him about Imaam. (I dont understand this as well. She tells a stranger about her love life in second meeting itself!!). Our hero is hurt but after listening to the complete story makes a ridicule of the girl for she fell in love with Mr. Imaam in just a meeting or two, who then left her without even telling about his whereabouts and when, if at all, he will come back?!. She asks Raj to help her find Imaam and the ship(movie) sinks further.
Finally when she is all set to get along with Raj forgetting Imaam, Imaam reappears. She goes to Imaam. He proposes, she accepts and movie ends.!
Add further to this 'jhelao' story line the fact that no 10 mins of movie go without a song. Too much of trying audience patience!!

Om Shanti Om:(Rating at the end)
Rishi Kapoor did wonders with Karz 30 years back but the concept of something from this and something from that killed this movie. Farah Khan gave an impression from her debut that probably she knew the recipe of making a good masala entertainer but this time she disappointed as this time, it was all disproportionate. OSO features a story line which probably is a mixture made from a dozen movies or so.
SRK is a junior artist, so is his mother(Kiron Kher) and so was his late father. He had ambitions to become a star and his friend suggested him change his name from Om Prakash Makhija to Om Kapoor, making ridicule of 'Makhija' (as Makhi-ja). [ I do not understand why is not there any protests against this and in fact, even not being Makhija, felt it as like a ridicule on an ethnic group.] He is also in love with a star ShantiPriya(Deepika Padukone), who is secretly married to the producer "Mukesh Mehra", played by Arjun Rampal. Mukesh Mehra was planning his next movie as the biggest movie ever and had the sets ready for the movie but since ShantiPriya tells her that she is pregnant with her child, he planned to get rid of her. She took her to show the sets of this new movie titled Om Shanti Om and set the sets on fire and locked her in. Om saw it all. He tries to save her life but lost his life as well. He takes a re-birth as child of one of the most successful heroes in the industry and goes on to become a hero himself. During shooting of a movie, he starts getting memories of his past life back. He also happened to visit the sets of Om Shanti Om and that brought back all the memories from his past life. He decided to take revenge from Mukesh Mehra and found Sandy who looked exactly like ShantiPriya. He planned some mind games for Mukesh and succeeded significantly till Mukesh finds out that this girl was alive and not a ghost or something. Om threatened Mukesh but Mukesh had realisation that nobody will believe the incarnation story of Om Kapoor and the ghost of ShantiPriya appears and killed Mukesh Mehra at exactly the same spot where whe was buried. The movie ends!
There were still a few good points in the movie like the dressing sense, styles, sets, language etc looked contemporary to correct periods. SRK showed that he can act as well (Yes you read it right..he acted well this time and showed some diversity in his acting this time).

He died in the movie and that suggests the movie should make good business but I have a feeling that his lucky charm might not work this time.

Rating:
OSO gets 1.5 stars

Why to watch?:
Consistency in styles as per time
SRK finally acted!

Why not to watch?:
No entertainment with no storyline
You watch almost the same twice (Post-interval =Pre-interval after 30 years)
Read the above post, if you haven't

Saawariya gets 1 star
Why to watch?:
Melodious songs
Cute Hero, Beautiful Heroine

Why not to watch?:
No storyline at all
Melodious songs! (The frequency makes it very frustrating)
Drags are there
Rani Mukherjee and Salman Khan both wasted!!

So overall a poor week for Bollywood and for cinema lovers. Do not bother your pockets for any.

BTW my placements start tomorrow morning 7:30 a.m. and I have been writing this for now over 2 hours since 10:00 p.m. Definitely a stupid time to do this but anyways this is who I am! :)

Dil Dosti etc.- A sensible movie

2007-12-17T19:40:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

It is evident from my posts that I generally dont write many movie reviews but again like it happened as with Blood Diamond, I am deeply touched by the simplicity, by the screenplay and more importantly by the message conveyed by the movie. This time it is 'Dil Dosti etc.'.

I dont know how many would have even heard the name of this movie or even if heard how many would have seen. Further, even if seen, I doubt how many would have seen the value in the movie.

Introduction: The movie is simply about Politics and Sex! That's what those who have seen will tell you. My perspective is different. I believe the movie is about the values and the mindset of different economic castes.
The upper class believes in freelancing and living-in while the middle class believes strongly in values like trust, bond, love, relationship. However, I do not comment anything on what is correct and what is not. Neither did the movie. I neither comment on which one is better. Nor did the movie. It just brings out these aspects in a very touchy and emotional setup. The movie also seems to be following my line of thought that nothing is wrong and it is the perspective which makes it right or wrong. The story teller tells it as a high class individual but more from a middle class perspective. (which ensures it doesnt touches any of those extremes)

About the Story: There is not much in the story as such. The story revolves around two individuals: One from a very rich family in Delhi, who has only one ambition in life - SEX and other from a middle class (or may be lower middle class--The whole point being not a rich/upper class) family from Bihar who wants to become student council president and may be join politics. Thanks to the ragging in campus, these two get into a friendship and the rich guy ends up helping the other in election campaigning. The middle class person tried preaching his values to the high class dude and ended up challenging him to have Sex thrice in a day before the elections. With self-respect at stake, both sincerely get set to their missions.
In the meantime, the middle class guy also finds a love(as likely to be used by upper class people) in a high class babe who aspires to be a model in recent future. The conflicts in their thinking are apparent as well.
Finally, the movie ends with guy from Delhi having sex with Bihari's girlfriend(third sex on the day of election), which meant nothing to the two high class people but meant his life to the middle class guy from Bihar. The poor guy had even lost the meaning and excitement of having won the election.

Plus: Smooth Story telling, No major breaks as such, Songs much into the story line of the movie, No explicit content (Plus from middle class point of view, although may be minus from upper class point of view [:P]), Good screen play, Decent pace, No preachings, Overall Well executed

Minus: Nothing much into story, No well recognised stars(although acted well), Somewhere between a commercial and an arts movie.

Recommendation: Recommended for people who like to watch movies that make some sense, that give some message. If you liked 'Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi', you are quite likely to like this movie as well.
Additional Remarks: Not many movies impress me enough to write a review for.

Blood Diamond (2006)

2007-12-17T19:37:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

It is not a new movie but I had not seen it then.
I had heard a lot about it but watching it was really a different experience.

"Sierra Leone,1999
Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields.
Thousands have died and Millions have become refugees.
None of whom has ever seen a diamond."

The people are innocent. They have never seen a diamond. To them, it is just another white piece of stone but they are still being killed for it. Children are doped and trained to take lives...to help fighting in struggle for motherland!! (something which is already yours!) All foreigners are our enemies!!(Is there any rational at all!)
And all this just to make some money..OK a lot of money.. but is it still worth the cause!! On one hand we claim of distributive effect of money (poor benefits from rich getting richer) and this is what rich do to get more richer!!

Greed is such a vice that it can make any rational human being do such pathetic acts.

I appreciate the director/producer's effort to bring up the issue to public..and I agree to my friend's words, "Movies are biggest source of learning after Reading".

The closing message of the movie was not just a mere consolation but also a warning. This needs to be stopped..at least for the sake of humanity.

"In January 2003, forty nations signed "The Kimberley Process"--an effort to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
But illegal diamonds still find their way to market.
It is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free.
Sierra Leone is at peace.
But there are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa"

Stop smuggling Blood Diamonds.
Stop selling Blood Diamonds.
Stop buying Blood Diamonds.

I suggest Ban the company even if a single case in this regard is reported..The world wont be any different without the Diamonds but the presence of diamonds is making such a big difference!!

RGV made mockery of a classic: Sholay Bhature

2007-12-17T19:08:00.000+05:30

Originally Posted at Abhi's Space

Kitne aadmi the?
Sardar ek(RGV)...wo ek aur tum karod.. phir bhi torture sah liye.. kya soche the oscar milega..

Having seen the review of AAG at IBNLive, I thought it was probably an exaggeration when Rajeev(watch CNN-IBN review) called it sholay-bhature. Still curious to verify that, watched it to realise that it was probably an understatement-- the movie is even worse than that. More so coz RGV made a mockery of a timeless classic.

To start with, Lets look at the characters he chose:
Nisha Kothari as Ghunghroo to replace Basanti Hema Malini, with his tanga(Dhanno) to be replaced by an auto-rickshaw(____). Add to it the arbit things like naming as per numerology(U seem to be quite advanced Mr.RGV), too much use of "too much", etc. Overall a poor imitation of the character of Basanti.

Some newbie to play the legendary role of Jay Amitabh Bachchan is a stupid idea, any person who even knows who Amitabh Bachchan is would be able to tell. He could not even generate 1% of the aura of Jay. No fake coin to toss with.

People might have expected Ajay Devgan to do some justice to the role of 'Veeru' Dharmendar but 'Hero' equally competed with others. This is what happens when you try to imitate some character which does not suit ur personality. Veeru's live personality could have least matched Ajay Devgan's serious part-gangster kinda image. I pity 'Hero' for trying suicide with gun.

Sushmita Sen had a very serious role, similar to her image in Hindi Cinema, but probably she got deeper into the character than it was required. Her character, in turn, turned out to be dull and boring!!

RGV remembered his friendship of Company days with Telugu actor ___ to cast him now for Thakur Baldev Singh. And he came just to give some far from good (and even far from mediocre) performance. Hands to be replaced by fingers this time..another poor imitation!!

Rajpal Yadav as Chhota Don(Soorma Bhopali of Sholay) also set up a poor show for a change and with no substance in his roles and dialogues, he is not the only one to blame for that.

Thank God there was no Jailor(Angrezon ke zamane ka jailor)

Sholay produced a timeless character in Gabbar Singh and Aag produced an easily forgettable character in Babban Singh. With poor script and worse dialogues, there is very little Amitabh Bachchan could have done here. To add to it, Gabbar was a character close to perfect while Babban has no connection with practicalities. More people know Amjad Khan as Gabbar than by his name but for sure Amitabh would not like to keep these haunting memories with him.

If the selection of characters was not enough, RGV arranged for some pathetic Background score. I dont understand how did he manage to find such a poor background score- more than remake of Sholay it looked like remake of Company.

Before discussing the worst part, I would like to give due credit to Mr. RGV for the only high point in the movie- Item number by Urmila Mantodkar (Mehbooba song). Urmila looked even better than what she looked like in Rangeela. Please to ignore Mr. Amitabh Bachchan's desparate attempts to dance in that and sorry Abhishek Bachchan but just because ur father is in the movie, u dont necessarily have to be in there.

So finally getting to the worst part: Dialogues
Selecting star cast might be called a mistake but selection of script writer was surely a blunder.
None of the charcters in the movie had reasonable dialogues regardless of dialogues being new or adapted from Sholay. Some of the worst lines (adapted or otherwise) are:

mujhe lagta hai maine tujhe kahin dekha hai..
mujhe lagta hai maine tujhe kahin nahin dekha..
haan to theek hai naa balance sheet barabar ho gayi..

ae rajnikant khali hai kya
nahin peeche khatmalon ki shaadi ho rahi hai..dikhta nahin tere ko
ae shani driver kidher hai
tu andha hai ki yeda.. pata nahin kahan kahan se chale aate hain
tere ko kya lagta hai main yahan pe tere jaise chhokre logon ko entertain karne ke liye baithi hoon..main hi driver hoon
lekin tum to ladki ho
ladki auto nahin chala sakti aisa bhagwad gita mein likha hai kya

waah ghunghroo kya gadi chalati ho
tunhari driving ke saamne to yeh mard driver kuchh bhi nahin
maloom hai kyun?
kyun
kyunki jab se ghar chalane ki zimmedari muhjpe aa gayi hai na tab se auto chala rahi hoon

"ghunghroo kisi ki madad nahin leti"
"lekin ye ghunghroo hai kaun"

"ye to 'too much' ho gaya"

"tu 'too much' nahin, tu to '3 much' hai"

maar doonga maar doonga tujhe
dekh teri dushmani mere saath hai ladki ko jane de
dam hai to mujhse lad marna hai to mujhe maar

kya khati hai ri tu.. sab asli ghee ka
kahan hai tera wo..tera wo kahan hai

tu kya sochta wahan inspector shirt utha ke chhati dikhayega tujhko.. saala thanda na karo to jal hi jata hai
main wo galti nahin karega jo america iraq ke saath kiya

kitne? (for Kitne aadmi the?)

tension nahin
tension nahin lene ka
ja raha hai

choohe billi ke khel mein bada mazaa aata hai
billi bil mein ja nahin sakti aur chooha andar rehna nahin chahta

Forgot to mention, the dance scene when Gabbar has captured Veeru, has been replaced by a rape scene. What a pity!!

As CNN-IBN puts it,RGV makes sholay bhature out of Hindi cinemas most endearing classic. RGV ki Aag is a recipe of disaster.
Unlike Rajeev, I do not have an option of throwing egg on camera so I can only write @#$#%$# RGV.