Movie:Delhi-6
Language:Hindi
People:Rakyesh Mehra,AR Rehman,Rishi K,Atul K,Divya Dutta,Abhishek B.,Sonam K.,Waheeda R,Om Puri,Pavan Malhotra,KK Raina
Rating: 2.5/5
I have never been to Delhi, what I know of Delhi is from Hindi movies and Republic day speeches. Which means for me Delhi = Chandni Chowk + Red Fort (Lal Kila [Not to be confused with Crazy Eyes Killah:)]) . We blame The West that they generally have a stereotypical view of India,which they paint it on their movies, but we stereotype ourselves in bollywood too . Think about it.
I had great expectations from this just movie coz, Its a Rakyesh Mehra project. RDB has created high standards for Mr Mehra to live upto. Story starts off with Roshan (Abhishek) bringing his Grandma (Waheeda) to Delhi. After reaching Delhi , Mehra introduces multiple stories viz brothers Om Puri and Pavan Malhotra, wannabe indian idol Sonam K, Lalaji Prem chopra (yeah Prem chopra!! - meri umar Shahrukh se thoda jyaada hain aur Atalji se thoda kum) , modern thinker Rishi Kapoor, funny man Cyrus Sahukar, self accepted local idiot Atul K, low caste Divya dutta .
As you may have noticed there are a lot of characters in the movie to keep up, thats where I think it starts to go wrong. By the time all these stories were introduced , movie was half way through . I remember asking my friend -"When is this movie going to start ?".
On the backdrop of BlackMonkey Man story, Rakyesh Mehra intended to touch upon the subject of the evil inside every one. Btw I wasn't aware that there was actually BlackMonkey Man news in Delhi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhi_monkeyman) . I was surprised to know this.
One of the high points of the movie is its music, I was listening to them before I saw the movie.I liked them even more after watching the film. Its definitely a great job by Oscar winner A R RaQKHman (could not resist :) ) . The song Dil gira Dafatan looks good on screen too, rickshawwallah's on times square is brilliantly done.
Acting front, supposed to be lead actor in the movie Abhishek Bachchan, I think got his fee for doing nothing. He had put no effort , just sort of played himself . His character is born and raised in New York but forget about New York accent he didn't even have an American accent. Yet every dialogue he would start with "Hey, wassup?" , As if that signifies that he is from the states.Sonam Kapoor did well to start off with but her acting turned dull,unnecessary melodramatic as a movie moved on. Surprise packages in the movie were Atul Kulkarni and Divya Dutta. Atul Kulkarni took up a completely different role compared to RDB. Divya Dutta should thank to whoever gave her this role, its an independent role and unlike her sister/friend roles in big budget projects.Rishi Kapoor did a respectable job , good to see KK Raina after a long time.
Overall you might want to watch this movie once, It should encourage Directors like Rakyesh Mehra, Ashutosh Gowariker and to an extent Farhan Akhtar to experiment with their movies, explore different subjects. They are definitely better than The Farah Khans , The Sajid Khans and The Karan Johars , who speak out loud that "we know that the audience is dumb and we will prove it to you".
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Cumulative Chaos To Catastrophe
Movie:Chandni Chowk to China
Language:Hindi
People:Akshay Kumar,Deepika Padukone,Nikhil Advani
Rating: 1.25/5
So finally Warner Bros. decided to take a plunge into bollywood, They would've planned to piggy back on Akshay Kumar's success had leave a mark on Indian film Industry. Well,they left a mark alright, something they most definitely had not expected.
My primer to Chandni chowk To China (also know as CC2C) was its trailer before Ghajini was about to begin, and my first impression was that the trailer was definitely different and had a hollywood touch to it. Later did I realize that it was a Warner Bros. production.
So then what does CC2C contain : Akshay Kumar, comic scenes , twin sister-reunion, memory loss, kung fu, flying action sequences , Made in china products ofcourse the great Wall. Everything right? oh yes there was one small part missing THE SCRIPT. I am serious it does seem that the movie is made "on the fly" if you are unfortunate enough to watch it, you would feel the same. Nikhil Advani has to take the blame on this one. After he made Kal ho na ho, He had mentioned in one of his interviews that this (KHNH) is not his kind of cinema more in Karan Johar's alley. Well Mr Advani if CC2C and Salaam-e-ishq are your kind of cinema then God help you ...and us.
So is CC2Cnot watchable from scene 1? Not true. Initial scenes of the movie are definitely watchable, some comic relief by Akshay , however it degrades exponentially as soon as the China component comes in .
Read this in one of the reviews that the "movie takes itself seriously", I do agree to this If they would have really gone ahead and made this just a spoof movie like Scary series . It would have been creative and possibly funny. Akshay Kumar seems to have put a lot of effort into this movie, I also read somewhere that he helped out Nikhil changing some of the scenes/storyline. I bet Nikhil's version was shoddier. Most part of my rating is because of Akshay Kumar's effort. All in all dont try to watch this movie as that would encourage Mr Advani to make Chandni Chowk To Africa!!
Language:Hindi
People:Akshay Kumar,Deepika Padukone,Nikhil Advani
Rating: 1.25/5
So finally Warner Bros. decided to take a plunge into bollywood, They would've planned to piggy back on Akshay Kumar's success had leave a mark on Indian film Industry. Well,they left a mark alright, something they most definitely had not expected.
My primer to Chandni chowk To China (also know as CC2C) was its trailer before Ghajini was about to begin, and my first impression was that the trailer was definitely different and had a hollywood touch to it. Later did I realize that it was a Warner Bros. production.
So then what does CC2C contain : Akshay Kumar, comic scenes , twin sister-reunion, memory loss, kung fu, flying action sequences , Made in china products ofcourse the great Wall. Everything right? oh yes there was one small part missing THE SCRIPT. I am serious it does seem that the movie is made "on the fly" if you are unfortunate enough to watch it, you would feel the same. Nikhil Advani has to take the blame on this one. After he made Kal ho na ho, He had mentioned in one of his interviews that this (KHNH) is not his kind of cinema more in Karan Johar's alley. Well Mr Advani if CC2C and Salaam-e-ishq are your kind of cinema then God help you ...and us.
So is CC2Cnot watchable from scene 1? Not true. Initial scenes of the movie are definitely watchable, some comic relief by Akshay , however it degrades exponentially as soon as the China component comes in .
Read this in one of the reviews that the "movie takes itself seriously", I do agree to this If they would have really gone ahead and made this just a spoof movie like Scary series . It would have been creative and possibly funny. Akshay Kumar seems to have put a lot of effort into this movie, I also read somewhere that he helped out Nikhil changing some of the scenes/storyline. I bet Nikhil's version was shoddier. Most part of my rating is because of Akshay Kumar's effort. All in all dont try to watch this movie as that would encourage Mr Advani to make Chandni Chowk To Africa!!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Die Walküre
Movie:Valkyrie
Language:English
People:Tom Cruise
Rating: 3.25/5
This one is for the History fanatics, okay If not fanatics then at least for them who are interested/fascinated by World War stories. The film is about one of the assassination attempts on Hitler from within the German Camp.
Tom Cruise plays the leader of the German Revolution Camp (Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg) .
For me Tom Cruise did quite well, and he also looks German (doesn't he?) . His camp consists of officers from the military as well as some politicians. They try to use Hitler's own system against him.
The reason I say Hitler's "own" system is because, One of his good achievements was that he was able to organize /regroup Germany after World War I (Well, may not be for the right cause). But he had converted Germany to run like a well oiled machine. His military mind was such that he had thought everything (Well, almost everything ... bunker,cyanide) . Anyways he had kept a Reserve army to regain Berlin, in case he died -Fail Safe mechanism.
Tom Cruise's (Colonel Stauffenberg) men decided to use this Fail-Safe system to their advantage. The movie keeps the audience hooked on to it at all times, be it the command sending routine or strategy discussions at the Wolf's Lair . There are a few surprises as well along the way. I would definitely recommend this movie, and if you want to increase your World War II knowledge before you see this movie google some stuff up like "Wolf's Lair", "Hitler's inner Circle","SS/Schutzstaffel".
Language:English
People:Tom Cruise
Rating: 3.25/5
This one is for the History fanatics, okay If not fanatics then at least for them who are interested/fascinated by World War stories. The film is about one of the assassination attempts on Hitler from within the German Camp.
Tom Cruise plays the leader of the German Revolution Camp (Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg) .
For me Tom Cruise did quite well, and he also looks German (doesn't he?) . His camp consists of officers from the military as well as some politicians. They try to use Hitler's own system against him.
The reason I say Hitler's "own" system is because, One of his good achievements was that he was able to organize /regroup Germany after World War I (Well, may not be for the right cause). But he had converted Germany to run like a well oiled machine. His military mind was such that he had thought everything (Well, almost everything ... bunker,cyanide) . Anyways he had kept a Reserve army to regain Berlin, in case he died -Fail Safe mechanism.
Tom Cruise's (Colonel Stauffenberg) men decided to use this Fail-Safe system to their advantage. The movie keeps the audience hooked on to it at all times, be it the command sending routine or strategy discussions at the Wolf's Lair . There are a few surprises as well along the way. I would definitely recommend this movie, and if you want to increase your World War II knowledge before you see this movie google some stuff up like "Wolf's Lair", "Hitler's inner Circle","SS/Schutzstaffel".
Monday, January 5, 2009
Dawg bana Crorepati
Movie:Slumdog Millionaire
Language:English
People:Danny Boyle,Dev Patel, Irfan Khan ,Sourabh Shukla
Rating: 3/5
Don't go by the Indian "Star" cast in this movie, this is a Hollywood movie, not Indian made .However the story does have a bollywood touch to it. Story is very much based out of Bombay ( or Mumbai as it is called now) .
The movie is about a young kid Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who was thrown out of his home (slums near the airport). He and his brother move around the country trying to make a living. In due course of the movie The Brothers fight over a girl Latika, Jamal's love interest, and get seperated. Movie advances on to the show who wants to be a millionaire where everything unfolds.
On first look you would say this isn't a great story, you are right this isn't one . It definitely a run of the mill story , more like bollywood ishtyle. This is where the director comes in , Danny Boyle has played with the story and managed to get best from his actors to keep his audience always involved . Movie is laid out nicely with some very good music by AR Rehman, not sure how this guy keeps churning such nice tunes time and again.
As the movie pans out, Mumbai also plays a character in this movie. As is the case in all Hollywood and Madhur Bhandarkar movies, The negative side of Mumbai/India is highlighted, that's what sells it seems. Unfortunate part of this is, what is shown in the movie is true and is a part of Mumbai. Good part is this is not the only component of Mumbai or India . Movie makers have not really able to package the better part of the country into a film. May be they don't want to ?
On the acting front 18 year old Dev Patel has acted well, Irfan Khan and Sourabh Shukla justified their roles. However Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar (Notable omisson from the people list above) ham it up , Mean while the younger version of Jamal Malik (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) has done a good job , Amitabh autograph scene is a must watch but preferably not immediately after dinner [:)].
This movie is not released in India yet (I think), but If and when it releases some directors in India should watch this movie and learn, Sometimes just keeping it simple works. If you haven't seen this movie yet , It should come on DVD soon considering its nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Language:English
People:Danny Boyle,Dev Patel, Irfan Khan ,Sourabh Shukla
Rating: 3/5
Don't go by the Indian "Star" cast in this movie, this is a Hollywood movie, not Indian made .However the story does have a bollywood touch to it. Story is very much based out of Bombay ( or Mumbai as it is called now) .
The movie is about a young kid Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who was thrown out of his home (slums near the airport). He and his brother move around the country trying to make a living. In due course of the movie The Brothers fight over a girl Latika, Jamal's love interest, and get seperated. Movie advances on to the show who wants to be a millionaire where everything unfolds.
On first look you would say this isn't a great story, you are right this isn't one . It definitely a run of the mill story , more like bollywood ishtyle. This is where the director comes in , Danny Boyle has played with the story and managed to get best from his actors to keep his audience always involved . Movie is laid out nicely with some very good music by AR Rehman, not sure how this guy keeps churning such nice tunes time and again.
As the movie pans out, Mumbai also plays a character in this movie. As is the case in all Hollywood and Madhur Bhandarkar movies, The negative side of Mumbai/India is highlighted, that's what sells it seems. Unfortunate part of this is, what is shown in the movie is true and is a part of Mumbai. Good part is this is not the only component of Mumbai or India . Movie makers have not really able to package the better part of the country into a film. May be they don't want to ?
On the acting front 18 year old Dev Patel has acted well, Irfan Khan and Sourabh Shukla justified their roles. However Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar (Notable omisson from the people list above) ham it up , Mean while the younger version of Jamal Malik (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) has done a good job , Amitabh autograph scene is a must watch but preferably not immediately after dinner [:)].
This movie is not released in India yet (I think), but If and when it releases some directors in India should watch this movie and learn, Sometimes just keeping it simple works. If you haven't seen this movie yet , It should come on DVD soon considering its nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Ghajini,Watch it for Aamir...only
Movie: Ghajini
Language:Hindi
People: Aamir Khan,AR Murgadoss,AR Rehman.
Rating: 2.75/5
So Finally I managed to get a decent seat in the theater for Ghajini , yeah it was the same ticket that we got the other day and guess what we were the first ones in the auditorium. About the movie, The combination of two AR's and one AK and one of them didn't do quite so well.
Ghajini is a typical bollywood ishtyle masala flick, boy meets girl, boys falls for her, villian, dishoom dishoom etc. happy ending . It does have a gripping begininng (inspired from Memento) keeps the audience guessing onto what happens next . The comic contribution in the first part of the movie is very much welcome .There was good on screen chemistry between Aamir and Asin, who by the way has done very well for herself in the movie especially during the terror-fight sequence .
Later on Murgadoss has juggled well with the past and the present however he was a bit too repetitive. AR Rehman's music was well, pretty good. So everything seems to be good about this movie then whats wrong? Well to begin with its a bit too lengthy. Last hour of the movie could have easily squeezed into 15 minutes or so. It has only six songs, They seem to be one too many.
May be couple of them could have been just a background score (e.g. Ru Ba Ru )
Movie promos definitely showed that it had more fight sequences than normal, but still even with that mindset the violence in the movie was a bit too much , probably came from Tollywood (I dunno if thats a term , Tamil-ollywood) . Lets face it a bollywood movie cant be remade scene-2-scene and expect it to please the audience in Tollywood, vice versa is also true . Violence in the movie could have been toned down a bit.
The star of the movie is definitely , without a doubt Aamir Khan. To start with he has really worked on his body (18 months or so ... they say) And his eight pack frame is very much seen throughout the film , not just for a song (:P) . Some critics are asking questions as to why did AK do this movie.Well the answer is, he generally does one bollywood masala flick every now and then.In between DCH,RDB,Lagaan,TZP there is one Fanaa. The kind of cinema that Aamir indulges in is what I call divergent cinema ,Its not really parallel cinema . It starts of with commercial mainline movie and diverges off to, what we call as parallel cinema. So I would recommend you to go watch Ghajini without having a mindset that its an Aamir Khan film, you will enjoy it more and If you really want to watch a movie about shaart term memaary lass the get the DVD of Memento from a video library near you.
Language:Hindi
People: Aamir Khan,AR Murgadoss,AR Rehman.
Rating: 2.75/5
So Finally I managed to get a decent seat in the theater for Ghajini , yeah it was the same ticket that we got the other day and guess what we were the first ones in the auditorium. About the movie, The combination of two AR's and one AK and one of them didn't do quite so well.
Ghajini is a typical bollywood ishtyle masala flick, boy meets girl, boys falls for her, villian, dishoom dishoom etc. happy ending . It does have a gripping begininng (inspired from Memento) keeps the audience guessing onto what happens next . The comic contribution in the first part of the movie is very much welcome .There was good on screen chemistry between Aamir and Asin, who by the way has done very well for herself in the movie especially during the terror-fight sequence .
Later on Murgadoss has juggled well with the past and the present however he was a bit too repetitive. AR Rehman's music was well, pretty good. So everything seems to be good about this movie then whats wrong? Well to begin with its a bit too lengthy. Last hour of the movie could have easily squeezed into 15 minutes or so. It has only six songs, They seem to be one too many.
May be couple of them could have been just a background score (e.g. Ru Ba Ru )
Movie promos definitely showed that it had more fight sequences than normal, but still even with that mindset the violence in the movie was a bit too much , probably came from Tollywood (I dunno if thats a term , Tamil-ollywood) . Lets face it a bollywood movie cant be remade scene-2-scene and expect it to please the audience in Tollywood, vice versa is also true . Violence in the movie could have been toned down a bit.
The star of the movie is definitely , without a doubt Aamir Khan. To start with he has really worked on his body (18 months or so ... they say) And his eight pack frame is very much seen throughout the film , not just for a song (:P) . Some critics are asking questions as to why did AK do this movie.Well the answer is, he generally does one bollywood masala flick every now and then.In between DCH,RDB,Lagaan,TZP there is one Fanaa. The kind of cinema that Aamir indulges in is what I call divergent cinema ,Its not really parallel cinema . It starts of with commercial mainline movie and diverges off to, what we call as parallel cinema. So I would recommend you to go watch Ghajini without having a mindset that its an Aamir Khan film, you will enjoy it more and If you really want to watch a movie about shaart term memaary lass the get the DVD of Memento from a video library near you.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Ghajini The Preview ... Review
Movie: Ghajini(2008) [Preview]
Language:HindiPeople: Aamir Khan,AR Murgadoss.
No, I am not going to talk about Memento , Christopher Nolan , the Tamil Version or The hair Cut. But this entry is specifically dedicated to the hype that ghajini has been able to generate. Kudos to Aamir & Co. for it.
Talking about the Hype I am not going to crunch numbers or to tell you how a certain celebrity has taken to art after watching the movie. Instead how the Hype has affected me . Now being in US , I have been watching a lot of movies on the big screen, probably one every weekend/fortnight. Big blockbusters or super duds, Hindi or English,Action or Comedy. So that narrows it down to ... well basically anything.
So after all this movie watching, never before , and I mean NEVER before it has happened to me that I have walked into a movieplex and I couldn't get a seat to watch the movie that I wanted to. Ghajini has done that to me more than once !!
Day before yesterday We walked in at 9:05 for a 9:15 show ( that's not late, that's good enough to get a seat and some popcorn) . We got the tickets (Yes!!) walked in but there wasn't a decent seat available, So we walked out thinking wow! An Indian movie has done something extraordinary. It made at least one screen in that multiplex to say "Sold Out". We got our tickets refunded , No questions asked (yeah , try doing that in India) .
So Yesterday , We planned the mission to perfection (Or So I thought) . Reaching for the same show but a good hour at hand. and Guess what SOLD OUT !! This was really something that had an unsettling soothing feeling about it. My friends and I were not gonna give up, So the battalion marched towards a another theater that was 20 miles away. We reached our new destination at 9:15 , The next show of Ghajini was at 10:50. There was a horde of people over there , which is unusual because 9:15 in atlanta is like midnight in India.
Anyways ignoring the crowd we split ourselves into three queues in hope to get a ticket, Since the queue wasn't moving I went up to the counter to check what's going on. Well a part a me might have been expecting that answer, yeah SOLD OUT again. So then the worn out soldiers went back to the original place get a ticket for today , Yes we managed to lay our hands on a ticket yesterday. Now we need to make sure today that we get a seat , Will we be fourth time lucky?
Having scribbled this stuff, It has nothing to do with the movie, It might as well turn out to be an ordinary movie .But the Hype and hoopla can only be compared with maybe a Yash raj film or could be Johar prodn but not an Aamir Khan movie. So as I said earlier kudos to the production house to create this pain for me to get a TICKET!!.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
The day I hoped... that the earth should've stood still
Name: The Day the Earth stood still (2008)
People: Keanu reeves.Language: English
Rating: 2.5/5
Another flick about aliens "visiting" earth, Another movie with govt. officers with cheap shades. Another story about ...uh ..no wait, Its not a new story but a remake of the 1951 film with the same name.Yeah, Of course its a remake!
Any Sci-fi movie tries to woo two different sets of audiences , the Sci-fi ones and the commercial audience, more often than not the movie ends up as an action movie for the latter. This one has its share of good moments and well .. bad ones.
Lets start with the good ones, Keanu Reeves, does a pretty good job as an extra terrestrial . He had to play an alien visitor with no emotions . Seemed like this character sort of came natural to him [:)],No seriously he did well , looked like he picked few of his expressions from his matrix triology.Moving on, another good part of the movie is the premise , the base ,the beginning It keeps the audience involved and guessing on whats gonna happen next ? Where is the alien etc etc.
Bad moments, I am afraid there are one too many . The movie turns out to be a thriller after the initial landing. I think there was a car chase, running, hiding , some love snippets and some
step mother- son-alien father like scenes. Director realised that he has run out of time and forgets to tell the audience some more answers about the beginning . When the movie ends you start to think if it was an alien movie or transporter4 . All in all , no need to go to the theaters for this, wait for the DVD or better wait for it on Cable , By the looks of it both will be sooner rather than later.
Now that the movie review is done , I'd like to rant a bit about remakes. I simply don't understand why do filmmakers go for a remake. The story of a film is the base on which the movie stands upon screenplay and acting comes later (and in that order) . Why would I watch a movie if I know what's gonna happen next. Yes, Some good actors can make some scenes worthwhile watching but not the entire movie. Well thats my 1 Rupee (2 cents as per todays conversion rate) .
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