Review : Dev D

An egotistical brat returns from London to meet her childhood love, only to blow her off with his saddistic ways, resulting in love getting married to a widower and brat resorting to liquor and a kothewaali. That's as crisp and accurate summary of Devdas you can do. Still it's surprising to see fascination of bollywood with the character and the story. Three times, three directors made their version with top actors of respective times. Anurag Kashyap definitely does not belong to aforementioned genre. He believes that those movies/story are too melodramatic. He believes that Devdas is nothing but a sore loser. And that's how Devdas takes a big leap of faith, if you will.

Kashyap's Devdas is not totally a biographical of a man of misery. Dev, Paro and Chanda all get their own narrative until they converge. Dev, in the beginning, is no cute child artist who gives a hug or an innocent kiss to his childhood love. Instead he threatens his girlfriend to bite her hand if she doesn't obey him and he does. In one of the rare hilarity of the movie, when asked to leave for London, Dev asks whether he is being sent to London because he was caught smoking or for calling his father 'Sattu'. Shahrukh Khan's passion towards Paro is in expression is with melodramatic Koi tumhe chhue yeh main bardaasht nahi kar sakta, while Dev (Abhay Deol) here, looking at nude picture of his girlfriend,with expressions full of lust, goes Paro, main aa raha hoon. Paro (portrayed beautifully by Mahie Gill) too, on the other hand is no silsila yeh chahat ka girl of yours. She is succumbed to lust as much her man is. I was probably the only one in the whole cinema to laugh out loud when she starts carrying a mattress on her bicycle stand, but that shows the extent she is willing to go to follow her lust and that of her man. When, now cult song, "Emosional Atyaachar" by Patna ke Presleys breaks during her marriage celebrations, uncaring of her surroundings she breaks into a zesty dance, much to shock of her relatively-old husband. When asked by his ex about physical satisfaction from relationship, she not only retorts, she goes on to say, tumhe tumhari aukat dikha rahi hoon. While Sharat Chandra's Chandramukhi does not have much background to identify with, Kashyap's Chanda (Kalki Koechlin) goes through roller-coaster of teenage, scandals, hatred until succumbing to Easy Money for her life. Dev's journey of rise, fall and redemption goes through dark --figuratively and literally-- nights, lots of vodka, mountains of himalayas, grief of the father's death, misery of a criminal and lot more. Even if that meant a little dragged and arbitrary second half of "self discovery" and "epiphany". That's where movie deserves its share of criticism.

Two strongest department to come out of these movies are cinematograpy and music. Kudos to Amit Trivedi and Kashyap for not only creating a surreal music, but also blending it to the film so beautifully that in spite of 18 tracks, it never distracts narrative, but only adds to the effectiveness. For example, after confronting her ex, when Paro leaves hotel, in slow frames, hiding her sorrowful eyes with sunglasses, to the tunes of saavan barse/ chubhan de hazaar/ saavan barse. And it's amazing how much sense Dhol Yaara Dhol or Paayaliya makes after having actually seen the movie. DevD's sojourn through underground pubs and drug bars reminds you of another visually stunning expression of misery, Requiem for a dream. Originally, Abhay Deol himself conceived the idea of Dev.D and he knows his character well. It's sure a challenge to portray someone whose perpetual mood is that of sorrow and masochism. I will go on to say that Devdas is one of the most unidimensional character you'll ever come across in hindi cinema in the ranks of all babujis of Alok Naths and maas of Nirupa Roys and Reema Lagoos. Only for that, if for nothing else, Abhay Deol deserves accolades. Mahie Gill as Paro makes an interesting debut. She does not make a cute or girl-next-door debut, but a role that requires her to shed clothes in first few minutes of movie and not for titillation that one. Challenging and well done! Kalki Koechlin is passable as Canadian-Indian high class prostitute. Chunni here gets more color than Sharat Chandra's counterpart here. He is not just an accomplice of Dev, but a shrewd drug dealer and an accomplished pimp. Kashyap will surely get some of his fans back he lost with "No Smoking".

Thumbs up for beautifully crafted and visually stunning film. I say bring on more.
PS:- Just as I was about to publish this, I got the answer for Special Thanks to Danny Boyle frame at the beginning of the movie.

Review : Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

There is a sense of irony with Shahrukh Khan. You, as a director, can't let Shahrukh Khan be "Shahrukh Khan" if you want to extract performance from him. "Shahrukh Khan" can be all mushy. He can sulk for the whole movie if you want him to. He can flow through the role easily. and that's the Shahrukh people flood the theatres to watch, but that's the "Shahrukh" we are tired of watching, because practically there is no difference between Raj of DDLJ, Rahul of Dil to Pagal hai or Aman of Kal Ho Naa Ho. On the other hand, if you are adept at it, you can get Mohan Bhargava (Swades) or Amjad Ali Khan(Hey Ram) out of him, but with the exception of Chak De India that doesn't go to well with boxoffice. So Aditya Chopra, after 8 long years of deliberation, probably decided to have his cake and eat it too.

Surinder(Shahrukh Khan) is your typical first-bench-sitting, specs-wearing, dull topper, who is now working Punjab Power. You can't help but smirk when he picks up the phone to greet "Punjab Power. Lighting up your lives" where as a matter of fact, he himself could do with some light up himself or how suitable the headline of the newspaper "Living in the fear" applies to him. He knows affection for sure, but does not know what love is as he has not even talked to any "ladies" in his life. He works hard to make life easy for his reluctant wife Taani, who has been through series of accidents in no time. You feel for Surinder or Suri's sincerity and honesty, even his little gestures of affection. He is the underdog you want to win, but that's clearly not what his wife desires.

Enter Raj. He is combination of all the previous Shahrukh Khans you have seen in your life what with "Raj... naam to suna hoga" and all those hand-swooshing gestures. He is someone who is meant to sweep-the-girl-off-her-feet, but you fail to understand whether he is himself or parody of himself. As the movie unfolds, I found myself asking the same question which the little annoying girl next to me kept asking to her parents through out the movie, "kya ho gaya?" and by the end of the movie, you, as audience, have lost the sense of the purpose, you no longer know what you actually want to happen with mess that has been created or rather you no longer care. As most of the characters in the movie do, you leave rest of the things to the Rab(God) to solve.

You fail to go along with the character of Shahrukh Khan. He begins with good intension of just making her happy, but it's incomprehensible as to how he expects Taani to love her husband when in fact Raj is doing all the work. Also the ease with which Suri fits into the character of Raj leaves you wondering what would be the befitting word? Schizophrenic or alter-ego or masochistic? Parodying themselves seems to be the flavour of the season for YRF and SRK. First Om Shanti Om, then Dostana, now this. Sure it's funny when Raj hums the tune of Dhoom or Taani does a John Abraham, but they are on the verge of overdoing it. Although to the credit of Aditya Chopra no hariyale khet, sarson da saag, makke di roti for this one. Thanks for that!!

Shahrukh Khan proves he is, for good or for bad, as the cliche goes, "director's actor". Otherwise how do you explain a perfectly restrained and lovable portrayal of Surinder and at the same time straight-from-previous-movies, annoying, repetitive portrayal of Raj in the same movie? Anushka Sharma almost fits the mould of a YRF heroine. Vinay Pathak as Bobby Khosla is decent as over-the-top-fashion sidekick of Suri.

If this is what Aditya Chopra came out of exile for after eight years, he better go back to it again.

Of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Saawariya

Eagerly awaited and hopefully looked upon time by Bollywood is approaching as Diwali nears. This year, Diwali is going to witness two mega-budget releases Saawariya and Om Shanti Om. As for, whole versus thing, I will reserve it for another post. For now, I am here to talk about Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his latest offering Saawariya.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali silently entered with not-so-successful Khamoshi, but he really hit the marquee with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which went on to become one of the most successful in the year and put Bhansali at front of successful directors. Bhansali continued his success march with really-mega-budget Devdas, churning out enough money to justify the big budget, even resulting in the selection for India's official entry to best foreign-language film at Academy awards, only to be ousted too early just like most of Indian films. Strengthening Bhansali as one of looked upon figure of Bollywood, but surprising was yet to come. In 2005, Bhansali came up with "breakthrough cinema", "critically-acclaimed", "beautifully crafted" et al BLACK. Now let me try to put Saawariya into my own little perspective about Bhansali and his films in general. I won't dig too much past, just little something from recent past. Devdas and Black.

Now, as everyone knew Devdas was an adaption of a novel, which was already adopted twice before and in fans' words immortalized by K. L. Saigal and Dilip Kumar respectively. Bhansali roped in Shahrukh Khan, baap of all of them, atleast as far as melodrama is concerned. Gargantuan sets, full of colours, two beautiful leading ladies, graceful choreography and dependable Shahrukh Khan made this movie a huge hit. Devdas, as a novel and even as a movie is classic example of all the drama/melodrama that can be incorporated. Bhansali did just that, so although people might have described it as gaudy or anything, one needs to understand that it needed to be gaudy. So far so good.

Then came BLACK. Bhansali set his eyes on critics and junta both this time around and decided to remake Academy-award winner The Miracle Worker. A story of deaf and blind girl and her teacher inspired from Helen Keller. Decided to go for black and white instead of colours. Name of the film is black you see. Whatever came out was darling of critics and not to mention a huge hit. He got all the praise for venturing where no Hindi movie director had gone, lifetime role of Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee etc. etc. Now here is where my problem starts. Black was a good watch alright, but it went little too far. Let me try to put it into words. Raja Sen, one of the prominent hate-figures on rediff message boards and among my favourite movie reviewers, in his article Why Paheli is better choice than Black for Oscars raised a few good points. I may not agree with all good things he said about Paheli, but for black.. sure!! (No wonder people hate him like that. I mean "how can he bash ah-so-great, movie of the century, Black like this..."). Greatbong, in his review rightly described movie as A technically polished weepy is all that I can call it. Baradwaj Rangan properly describes Sanjay Leela Bhansali as unapologetically melodramatic. That works for Devdas, but not quite for Black, mate.

Now coming to Saawariya. As we know, Saawariya is adaptation of Fryodor Dostoevsky's short story White Nights. Russian authors are known for their dark, depressing love stories about unrequited love, with most of the stories ending in agony, nervousness and depression. As a screenplay, story is good alright but why do I have this serious apprehension that all of that is going to get lost between sets, songs and Ranbir's bottom? (Rediff insanity at its peak. What do you mean Should INDIA see Ranbir's bottom????. Oh, let's keep nuclear deal aside for sometime, while INDIA discusses the utmost national security issue such as this). Or is it only me that has this feeling that Bhansali will be as unsuccessful in doing the justice to the subject as he was in Black. Well, only time can tell that but as of now let's just say that I am apprehensive about Saawariya and would rather wait-and-watch.


(cross-posted to DesiCritics)

Marigold

I had no intension of watching Marigold whatsoever and this start of a review on Desicritics just strengthened belief.

Did you know Marigold is the name of a flower? You did? Oh well, tough luck then - this movie is not for you, because that is about the most interesting thing you come out with. Yeah, it’s that drab.

I know it's not *that* funny, but I ROTFLed for atleast 3 minutes after reading it...!!!

Partner -- The Review

Just a question. What do you do if you have a script of proved hit comedy film from Hollywood? Answer. If you are David Dhawan, you rip-off the script, you mess it with as much as you can and turn it into a slapstick, Govinda-ish comedy. Yes that's Partner for you.

As you already know Partner is a rip-off from Will Smith, Eva Mendes starrer Hitch. Partner, which our good old Taran Adarash defines as, It's stylish, it's crazier, it's a bigger entertainer than David's last two laughathons. I have only one question. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Partner is as bizarre as it can get. Now copying Hollywood movies is not anything new we have heard in Hindi movies (What else do you expect when you have the very word Bollywood derived from Hollywood just because it's located in Bombay?). Directors have forgotten that people actually watch Hollywood movies now-a-days. Anyway, all David Dhawan had to do was remake the movie frame to frame and would have turned into a decent entertainer, but my frustration gets even bigger after they try to put some intelligence into it. Sanjay Gupta did it with Zinda and now it's David Dhawan's turn to prove his "superiority".

As for plot, a loser trying to pataofy a rich, simple-minded, kind-hearted girl with help of a love guru, who has problems of his own with the girl whom he is trying to pataofy and all's well that ends well. Well, that's pretty much it. Flavour it with child scientist making accurate missiles and cool-dude child helping other dude so he can marry his mother. All the crap about Salman-Govinda chemistry and Govinda's applauded comeback non-sense doesn't make any sense.

Verdict : Strict no-no. Rather go to a local DVD shop and watch Hitch again.

PS:- While you are at it, don't watch Naqaab - Shaatir Iraade - Disguised Intensions either. Worse of the two? Difficult to pick.

Bollywood plagiarism at its best(???)

Bollywood has done it again. After blatant rip-offs from Hollywood masterpieces including Reservoir Dogs (Kaante), Usual Suspects (Chocolate), Old Boy (Zinda) and many many more, bollywood has struck again.

Read synopsis of new David Dhawan-Salman Khan-Govinda comedy. Does it remind you of anything? Straight lift from Will Smith, Eva Mendes starrer Hitch you might say, but David Dhawan won't even use a word inspiration or remake and who knows might deliver another hit from the shoulders of a successful Hollywood comedy. God bless us!!!

Munnabhai chale amrika

Third movie in the fabulous Munna-Circuit series has been announced. It's called Munnabhai chale amrika. Script isn't finalized yet but it's evident from the titel that Munna and Circuit will embark on their journey to America and movie is expected to release in 2008. This one will be definitely worth waiting for.

Rang De Basanti out of oscar contention

Could I be more happy? Garnered with all the accolades at home, inspite of being above average movie, didn't deserve Academy awards nomination. As Amit Varma says, Much joy comes :).

Abhishek-Aishwarya get engaged

Rediff says, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, also known as Abhiwarya(%$#@!&%$@) got engaged on January 14th.

Well, do I care? No, but I will make sure not to switch on any news channels for atleast 4-5 days now.

Dhoom 2 : disappoint kiya re!!

Hindi movies suffer from this problem. They try so hard to be, what's the word, yes cool. Pretty ironical, but that's the fact. Dhoom 2 is one of them too! Everyone tries to be Oh! Look at me, I am so cool !!!.

Ok, so there is a thief, popularly known as Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan), Notorious for stealing precious antiques. While his predecessor (John Abraham), had knack for creating a pattern on Bombay Express Highway, Mr. A has mathematical ambition of stamping his name on the world (literally). After demonstrating his sandsurfing, disguising and but ofcourse dancing skills, it seems all is going well for Mr. A. On the other hand, Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) is still accomplishing missions with all Suzukis, Ducatis, Waterscooters and his punter-cum-sub-inspector Ali (Uday Chopra) for Mumbai police. Enter his ex-classmate, who had (has) crush on him, sharp-shooter, ACP Shonali Bose. Ah! Shonali does make a wonderful dancing partner than Rimi Sen. Anyway, so now that Mr. A has completed his mission of imprinting his name on the world, is looking for more trouble and enters like desi Angelina Jolie, Sunehari (Aishwarya Rai), who is vying to become accomplice of her long time idol Mr. A. With that begins the tale of betrayal, revenge and theft in new destination of bollywood, Brazil. And in the end lo! Hrithik Roshan is not actually Hrithik Roshan, but John Abraham wearing a mask. Now that is one thing that, thankfully, doesn't happen.

As far back as I can remember, Greatbong always claimed that Sanjay Gupta had biggest collection of hollywood DVDS, but as it turns out, his namesis [sic] , Sanjay Gadhavi isn't far behind either. With bikes and babes, he manages to pay tribute to many hollywood bike-chick flicks. As for the cast, Hrithik Roshan is definitely cooler of the lot, but every now-and-then you have feeling that he still has big time hangover from Krrish, except designer clothes have replaced village attire now. However hard he might try, doesn't pull-off coolness of Rusty Ryan. Abhishek Bachchan manages to stay not to go overboard and is still no-nonsense cop at best. It's becoming harder these days for me to defend my choices. After SRK, it's time for Aishwarya Rai. All-is-well when she removes her disguise and gives Lara Croft-esque pose, but my question is this. WHY DOES SHE UTTER A WORD AT ALL ? I am feeling so hot in here, aren't you? ... Are you like checking me out??. Ms. Rai, as for look and feel, you look charming despite of your age, but you are not Angelina Jolie. Take that. No offence Ms-Rai-soon-to-be-Mrs-Bachchan, but you have definitely given enough reasons for AB fans to crib about you. Bipasha Basu is adequate until Shonali Bose turns to Monali Bose. As for Uday Chopra, lesser said the better. Now that his screen presence is reduced as compared to Dhoom, you don't mind him too much. Biggest villian of the movie is soundtrack. You don't remember a single song (may be except Krazy kiya re...) when you walk out of a theatre and it annoyingly keeps reminding you that you are watching sequel with constant Dhoom again... in background.

It has enough moments for fans and masses to cheer about no doubt. You can't help but to smile when, AB says, Let's do the way my dad used to, just before tossing the coin. You have seen Manhattan buildings and European locales, but you never saw Brazilian beaches, did you? Here is your chance then.

Not that I had many expectations with Dhoom 2 in first place, but people and reviewers going ga-ga about it had raised the bar atleast a little. My Verdict : Go watch it if you liked Dhoom. You might be disappointed, but you won't be bored for sure. Now that movie has released, what I will be eagerly waiting for is Ghoom 2.

Why SRK, why?

He did Polio campaign. Good. Always good when superstars come to spread social awareness. Then he did Navratna tel. Then he did ICICI Bank. Then he did DON. No problems till now, but just a question. And now to top it all he does this, replacing Amitabh Bachchan for STAR Plus' biggest show ever, Kaun Banega Crorepati. Why does he always have to follow Big B all the time?

I am not arguing on the point that Big B is irreplacable and no one can match him blah blah talk (which albeit is the fact). The point is Big B is altogether a different persona. With Big B comes grandiose, towering personality and respect. Shahrukh Khan, on the other hand, brings a charming personality and energy, who with his smile can be and is a big crowd puller. He might not be the greatest of the actor, but he surely rules boxoffice and above all he knows that. He knows his strengths and weaknesses. He is a clever man, who doesn't believe in hiding weaknesses and showing the world exactly what's needed to be shown to make sure he doesn't get all pretentious and hypocrite. (Don't believe me? Read this and you'll know exactly what I am talking about. Karan Thapar, who otherwise manages to frustrate the guest on Devil's Advocate, sees himself on the other side.)

Anyway, so why this? Why is he trying to prove that he can succeed, if not replace, Big B? He simply can't and doesn't need to either. People like and love him for what he is. He has fan base of his own. He has proved himself. He doesn't need this. He can make big by doing his own than trying to fit in someone else's shoes. God bless you!

Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay

After years of speculation, RGV's Sholay is finally hitting the floors. It's offically called Rom Gopal Varma Ke Sholay , sucks. It has been making news ever since RGV announced it. Starting from the whole hearted acceptance from Amitabh Bachchan to denial from Ramesh Sippy, Dharmendra et al. In a chain of events, RGV , almost everyfortnight declared an actor for the particular character in Sholay, creating buzz all around. He sure knows how to stay in headlines. In the recent move, he unveiled new look of Gabbar, which has brought mixed reactions. Anyway, it has been topic of lunch table discussion and here I am to summarize some of the points/suggestions/comments straight out of discussion, Ram Gopal Varma might think helpful.

Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif plays role of Jaya Bachchan. Well sort of suits given that Jaya Bachchan didn't have many lines to speak, but we are seriously worried as to how she will do the scenes of Holi where Jaya did running and speaking at the same time. We wish Katrina luck in her most adventorous and toughest job of her filmi career. This one being new age version we have our own suspicion that she might originally belong to London, so that Hindi can be pardoned.

Mohit Ahlawat

Mohit Ahlawat. strain your brains and dude on the left side might seem familiar . Yes he is the RGV's latest find, protagonist in the latest movie "Shiva", which was remake of movie "James" (duhh), which in turn was remake of the movie which brought RGV into limelight "Shiva" (huh??). And what role he plays? oh yes. Jai. All Amitabh Bachchan fans, start digging your graves. We wonder considering his chemistry with Nisha Kothari in above mentioned movies, why Ramu didn't opt for Nisha in role of Radha?

Urmila Matondkar

Urmila Matondkar plays seductress Helen. Considering her early reputation of hit item girl with Rajkumar Santoshi camp, she might be able to live upto expectations.


Trivia :- In one of the biggest ironies of World Cinema, Anu Maliik's (no typos there) Chhamma Chhamma was copied to Hollywood hit double oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge!, albeit with permission. Oh did I say irony? I take my
words back after coming across this piece of interview.

Q : The music industry is facing its worst-ever recession now...



A : Let me tell you why! It is not downloading, nor technology like MP3, nor piracy. It's just bad music! Why are we still seduced by The Backstreet Boys and Whitney Houston? Why can't we be original? Why should people pay money to listen to poor music? The pop element and the obsession with sound and technology is a passing phase.

Thoughtful indeed(Source)

Suniel Shetty

Suniel Shetty (No sir, no typos there either) has gone too far this time. He is playing Sambha. I wonder how much he paid for this role. His boutique business must have earned him enough to pay for this role.

Here are the two choice, IMHO, which might surpass or atleast match the original cast. Mohanlal as Thakur and Rajpal Yadav as Surma Bhopali, but we have serious issues to handle i.e. unconfirmed cast.

RGV approached Shreyas Talpade (Iqbal) for role of Ahmed (originally played by Sachin) and when he asked for narration, RGV got temperamental saying what does he think? won't I do justice to him? Doesn't he trust me? Man's gotta do, what he's gotta do ... anyway... so we were talking about unconfirmed cast. For Basanti we have scanned everyone from Rani Mukherjee to Esha Doel but none of them seems to fit in the scheme of things, but we'll soon find it out.

On the other line of thought, we were thinking who from Original Sholay can still part of this one, without losing his/her original charm. Considering fact that Mac Mohan hasn't changed a bit in last 'n' years, he could still play Sambha, but as mentioned above Suniel Shetty has already paid hefty sum, we couldn't back out on that, but then we finalized the man to top them all, A K Hangal, I don't think anybody would have problem with that. Do ya? do ya ? do ya?

BUT, Here comes the biggest of all, which made me right this whole crap in first place. Who is going to sing Mehbooba Mehbooba opposite Urmila? Just try to sing this in Jalal Aaga's voice



Mehbooba O Mehbooba.. uuuuuuuuuuuu



and tell me the name comes first into your mind. Bingo! You got it
right. Devil's own singer, Himesh Reshammiya, is going to get featured opposite Urmila in this song and is also composer of the movie. What else could you ask for? Guys go watch this one in theatres near you. SUMMER ... 2007...? 2008?..2015? Let's just keep it SUMMER as of now.

---

PS:- Reasons for putting so many outgoing links and pictures, are simply pedagogical, on the special request by SlimShady, who says he doesn't know half of the name mentioned in this article. Uff yeh nayi generation!!!

Hrishikesh Mukherjee no more..!!!!

A huge shock if you ask me. Makers of some excellent movies like Chupke-Chupke, Golmaal, Anand, Bawarchi, Guddi, Anupama, Khubsoorat, Namak Haram, Anari. Undisputedly best comedy film maker of India. I don't remember tears rolling down my cheeks when some film personality died. Salute to you Hrishi-da.

Anand mara nahi, Anand marte nahi...

Omkara

Omkara - A beautiful poem from Vishal Bhardwaj.

After struggling I finally saw the movie and that too by bunking office on that day. Yeah!!!! It feels so good and it was all worth it. Much has been already said about
the movie. I don't want to add much to it, but I strongly recommend movie to everyone. Vishal Bhardwaj has done fabulous job of bringing Othello on Indian Cinema and in Indian context. I haven't read Shakespeare or even Othello, but movie is a sincere and honest effort to present a story of a tragic hero.

Story is pretty much known, so won't write about it much here, but I will definitely put a word for performances. Saif Ali Khan is a revealation. I bet noone ever expected him to give such a fine performance as Langda Tyagi (Iago). I am betting for Saif for this year's National Award... again. Konkona Sensharma is a boon to Bollywood. This girl handles every role with finesse. Second surprise for me was Kareena Kapoor. I officially detest Kareena, but I must admit after Chameli for the first time, I actually liked Kareena (Kareina if you prefer). Without any makeup, she is perfectly cast as Dolly Mishra (Desdemona). Ajay Devgan succeeds as the tragic hero, but I somehow felt Manoj Bajpai would have done fabulous job as Omkara, but never mind that.

Bottomline : Omkara, without a doubt, is the best movie of 2006 with Being Cyrus being second. If you raised your eyebrows... yes I have seen Rang De Basanti, Fanaa, Krrrrish, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna or any other crap you have in your mind.

Some excellent reviews : Bardwaj Rangan,Falstaff (Not too impressed with the movie, but excellenet review), Raja Sen, Jai Arjun

SRK fascination and 'Don'

Let me accept this first. I used to be a fanatic SRK fan. I used to publicize and recommend anything and everything that attached Shahrukh Khan name with it. If I say ever since Deewaana and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman came, I was SRK fan I would be lying. As a kid, I used like Shahrukh as Abhimanyu Rai in "Fauji" a lot. Baazigar and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge just strengthened his status. I still remember when DDLJ re-released after almost two years, I took my friends willingly/unwillingly for the movie on my 18th birthday. Now I was out in full swing. I was ready to take on fan of any other hero. Then I went to see Baadshah first day first show, I came out with all praise (although with a little guilty). Unfortunately, after that I started listening to my conscience more than my fanaticism. Meantime, I also saw Guddu, English Babu Desi Mem, Ram Jaane, Zamaana Deewana (bet you haven't heard this one), Ram Jaane, Duplicate. Duh... what more do I say? Although Hey Ram, Dil se and Swades(an apt review) made me proud.

I am not a fan now, but in some corner of my heart I still hope his every coming film beats any other Aamir (although he is a better actor), Hritik flick. Whatever I or you say about Shahrukh, we must admit he has an aura about him. Whenever he is onscreen doing a typical mushy, candyfloos Yashraj-Karan Johar scene he makes his presence felt. There is energy about every step he takes in his dance. His dance for 5 minutes can make crap like Kaal a hit. I bet there are millions like me out there who would want to watch an SRK movie, although it might be clearly evident from promos that it's just another Rahul/Raj movie, you never know he might surprise you with Aman Varma or Amjad Ali Khan or Mohan Bhargav.

How was I remembered of Shahrukh suddenly? Because I watched First promo of a first official Hindi remake, Don. Disappointing I say. I hope he is not pulling off yet another Mannu (a la Duplicate). Amen!!

Related Posts : Gaurav Sabnis on defending Khan. My feelings aptly put.

Promo Source : IndiaFM

Being Cyrus

Once the game is over, The king and the pawn go into the same box.

With arrival of movies like Raincoat, Black, Iqbal, Page 3, Hazaaron Khwahishein aisi... Bollywood has proved that it's certainly moving forward and going to routes which has remained virgin to it. Being Cyrus is one such attempt. While others have attempted to go subtle. Being Cyrus is not only subtle, but also highly professional, stylish and well executed.

We see the movie through eyes of a young parsi, Cyrus Mistry. He joins family of Dinshaw Sethna, well-known pot-maker in the past and his wife Katy. What follows is a twisted story of Sethna family of Fardounjee Sethna and his sons, Dinshaw Sethna (Naseeruddin Shah) and Farokh Sethna (Boman Irani).

First half deals superbly with development of characters of both of the brothers, their father and their spouses. Homi Adjania, being a Parsi himself, gives superb look into the Parsi culture and mannerisms. Scenes like Boman Irani's encounter with his neigbour, Boman Irani's dealing with his father give a fair outlook. Second half starts a mystery where actual plot starts. Who is good? Who is bad? Who is killer? Who is victim? You never know!!!

Saif Ali Khan vowed to do film with a solo hero after Kal ho naa ho. At that point of time, he seemed overconfident, but in recent times he has definitely grown up into a decent actor. Boman Irani and Naseeruddin Shah are at their usual best. Simone Singh scores. Dimple Kapadia is adequate. Manoj Pahwa does more than what director might have hoped for him as Inspector Lovely.

At no point in movie you have dragging feeling. Editing is superb. Why not? Editing is taken care of by Jon Harris, who edited Guy Ritchie's Snatch. Camera work, Cinematography gives you an international feel. While other offbeats (Page 3, Iqbal) were different yet Indian, but this one is truly international class. Homi Adjania's work as a debutant is fabulous. Watch out for him, he's going to make big in new-age Hindi Cinema. Movie is a punch with its 90 minutes storyline. Highly recommended!!!

Other Reviews : Gaurav Sabnis, Rediff

PS:- This review has been cross-posted to InFiCa, where I am ahem...a movie critic now.

Parineeta

Bollywood these days is experimenting with all sorts of techniques. One of them is trying to recreate magic of old work. After success of Devdas with Grand sets and wonderful music, now it's Parineeta. No this is not going to be another review of movie, but what made me come here is the music of the movie. Managed to watch movie last month and must say I liked and it was treated well with maintaining proper backdrop of '60s.

I heard this album first time when I was working on my thesis report at 3 am and it really moved me. I could feel the music deep within my soul. Only few albums/tracks have managed this. Again, today I am sitting in my office and it's 8-15 in the evening and it's time to leave, but after long time I have managed headphones and can't hold myself back from completing this whole sound track second time before I leave for home. (Anyway, I haven't got anything to do when I reach home ;-) )

Album starts with Piyu Bole by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. I feel this song is dear to more after I watched the movie, because the chemistry between Saif and Vidya Balan is very well depicted in the video and song seems natural and not forced in the movie. Kasto Mazza includes superb use of the sound of a chugging locomotive like some '60-'70 movie.

Soona Mann Ka Aangan is the paragon of the album. Sonu Nigam manages to fetch millions accolades from me for this one. He managed to put in all the dard required and wonderfully accompanied by my favourite new age singer Shreya Ghoshal.

Kaisi Paheli Zindgani by Sunidhi is on the lines of dil ko hazaar baar of Murder, but once again consistent with backdrop of the movie. Raat hamari toh is melodious solo by Chitra. Dhinak Dhinak Dha is nasty song and typical wedding song. OK types.

Album ends with title track, Sonu Nigam-Shreya Ghoshal duet Hui Main Parineeta. A romantic and sensual song to fit wedding of Shekhar and Lolita. Both Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal are going up and up in my favourite singers. Cheers for both of them.

PS:- You can listen songs on Raaga.com Here is the link.

DUS : Funniest thriller of the year...

Well, these days movies seems to rule my blog, but watched many movies in last some days. And this unexhaustive list contains some very good movies like Raincoat, Sarkar, Hitchcock's Notorious, Guns off Navarone, Al Pacino's Scent of a woman, but here I am going to talk about something for people like me who think that standard of bollywood movies is improving and someday we'll be at par with hollywood.

... few Priyadarshan movies are yet to be released in this year, but I bet you won't find any of them funnier than this creation of Anubhav Sinha. We were laughing like anything when we came out of hall after watching "Thriller" DUS.

so here is a plot. wait a minute... was there anything like plot? probably there was. Few brave men from ATC(Anti Terrorist Cell, cool isn't it?)decide to save a big jeopardy which they even don't know about except that it was going to happen on 10th May, but these are brave soldiers. Now IMDb tells me that Naa Tum Jaano Naa Hum and Ab Ke Baras were released on 10th May, but probably more dangerous disaster exist in world, so they are searching for it. After some furious action and some "relay bombing" (as Suniel Shetty can't directly throw grenade, he would pass on that to Zayed and eventually Zayed on flying bike would throw that into car and before grenade could explode lo! Zayed is standing beside Jr. AB and Shetty inorder to give that high-profile action movie look). Well they have found some clues and caught a man who helps them in searching the villian Jamaal or Jambal or Jamval or something like that... and when finally so called Jamaal is killed Sanjay Dutt tells them that man who pointed them to Jamaal he himself was Jamaal. Shut up you all morons if you said that this is copied from 'Usual Suspects'. Our intelligent ATC chief Dutt Jr. finds out that disaster is going to happen at stadium. Now at the climax, they found out where bomb is and AB Jr. is on plane with disastrous C-4. Only way he could save Canada is that he jumps along with plane and his love Esha Deol, wait but somebody said she was traitor, but she has to die anyway. and then starts eternal dilemma. Whether Abhishek should die and save people or He should leave Canada to God. Everbody forces him to leave the plane, but he is "true soldier" and saves Canada. May his soul rest in peace.

I strongly recommend that everyone should see last 15 minutes of this movie (if you manage to survive till that point). No matter what will happen to that bomb, but Zayed tries to convince Abhishek that not only himself but both should take care of Dia Mirza. Sanjay Dutt is into tears and doesn't care to stop Jamaal who is not running away, but waiting for elevator to come. Sunil Shetty is shouting.. "fenk do bam, mar jaane do logon ko.. kud jaao Shashank..." Director will teach you geography which you've never learnt. He'll enlighten you that AIIMS flyover is situated near some sea or something. I bet you didn't know that.

Well, there are few saving graces for movie. 'Dus Bahane' and 'Deedar de' are treat to hear. Pankaj Kapoor proves that he is definitely one of the frontline actors and AB Jr. proves himself again after Sarkar. and yes, how can I forget Shilpa Shetty and her stunts (a la Trinity) and one must not forget the guy, whosoever it is,who made the trailer(download) and posters (see the one in my blog, doesn't make you believe that this one is definitely going to be different) and made people believe that this is movie worth watching, so go and watch in theatres. arre bhaiyo, suno, agar movie dekho to upper/stall mein dekhana aur mazaa aayega...