Review of Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi? (2009)...

One sometimes wonders whether the Indian society is a "Society of Guilt" or a "Society of Shame". Most people in India will try to justify their acts, not because of their Guilt of committing them but actually from the fear of Shame that their act would bring, specially once they become known to others, be it their neighbors, friends and family. Raat Gayi Baat Gayi also has this theme in its background, though it is a very subtle one. A low budget movie, released without a lot of hop-hoopla last year, RGBG will surprise you with its wittiness and constant twists. Released last year, having a cast of actors and not stars, this is a movie that is fast paced, comic, gripping and most importantly very unpredictable. Loosely inspired by the movie "The Hangover", the movie tracks a day in life of Rahul (Rajat Kapoor), who is unable to remember the what happened the previous night in a party after he gets overtly drunk. But the similarity ends there. This is an entirely different story and a very different treatment. The main character here is trying to find out what exactly he ended up doing and who all are aware of that act. More out of Shame of that act of his, than the Guilt of committing that act. Interestingly, there are other characters in the movie who find themselves in the guilt of their act more than the shame. Hence it makes for an intelligent viewer ship for this type of movie.

The story opens with Rajat Kapoor having a huge hangover from a previous night party, and he starts to recollect his flirting games with a beautiful young female, Sofia (Neha Dhupia). He is able to recollect the series of events up to a particular point in time, beyond which his memory goes completely blank. While he is trying hard to remember what actually happened, he sees his wife walk out of the house with their daughter. This triggers a panic situation of him where in it becomes extremely important for him to find out what all actually happened in the party, that has led to his wife walking out on him. Parallely we have a close friend of Rahul, Amit (Vinay Pathak) who gets thrown out by his wife as she finds out that he is chatting on Pornographic web sites. So, both the heroes start travelling to no where in the day, one trying to figure out what happened the previous night, so that he can get back his wife, and the other trying to run away as far as possible from his wife. The movie traverses back and forth in flash backs and present time in a very interesting manner. The movie also has the characters of Dalip Tahil and Navneet Nishant in whose party all these events take place. Both have done wonderfully well in their respective roles. There are constant twists and turns in the story that will keep you extremely engaged and also attentive.

The reason I say attentive is because the story is extremely smart and so are the dialogs and situations in the movie. Some of the sequences and dialogs are frankly to die for. Unlike the David Dhawan type of comedy, here the director has assumed the viewer to be intelligent, hence has extremely smart and witty jokes. The movie has Situational comedy along with dialog comedy. What made this movie special for me was the overall casting. Every actor in the movie has done wonderfully in their respective role. The timing of every character is impeccable and so is that of the director. The movie also stars Anu Menon (from Lola Kutty fame), who plays the wife who throws her husband out, instead of walking out on him. Iravati Harashe (I remember her in the serial Shanti), plays the wife of Rahul, and has done her part with extreme sleekness and sexiness. Neha Dhupia is very Sexy in her role as the seductress who plays with both Rahul and Amit to the maximum possible and has them running after her in the party. If I have to find a flaw, it would be the shortish role for Ranvir Shorey, who surely would have added to the already masaledar story if was given a little longish role.

The movie is directed by Saurabh Shukla (Kallu mama of Satya). Am sure, he would have found it extremely difficult to resist not being in front of the camera with such a wonderful story. Full marks to him for his directorial effort. Now coming to the music of the movie. That also is a very refreshing part of the movie. The music is extremely suave, very lively and most importantly each songs really fits into the slots they are brought in. Very Chirpy music and extremely fresh.

A product from group of people who have given us movies like "Bheja Fry", "Dasvadaniya", "Mithya", RGBG is another feather in the cap for this team. Their movies are targeted for the Multiplex audience and they surely deliver to the mindset of such audience.

Make sure you catch this movie, whether on a DVD or at a Multiplex near you. Definitely worth every penny that you will spend watching it. This one is bound to leave a big smile on your face. Watch out for the last dailog of the movie by Vinay Pathak, for me that was ending with a bang!!!

Review of the Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)...

Sometimes you accidentely chance upon a movie that you did not plan to see, but it really catches your eye. Same happened a couple of days back when I started to watch this movie with a long and funny title. While scanning through the TV channels after putting our daughter to sleep, we chanced upon this movie running on MGM. "the Courtship of Eddie's Father". A very simple story line with a feel good factor to it. If you a Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Basu Bhattacharya fan, you are bound to make an instant connection with the movie.

The story actually follows the bonding between a father-son duo, after they loose their Wife/ mother to illness. The movie has small events which lead the son to realize that he needs to find a new partner for his father and hence starts on the look out for the same. There is a friendly neighbor who is a nurse who helps both the men in their hours of need. The relationship between the father and the neighbor sees multiple ups and downs, as the neighbor herself is coming out of a Divorce and has to come to terms with that herself. The movie goes ahead with the father starting to like a Fashion designer who is very self confident and believes in women empowerment. A topic which was very much in discussion in America in the 1960's. The son though has a dislike towards this new interest in his father's life, and in-spite of numerous attempts by the father to change the same, the feeling remains that of detest. There are a series of events that follow, with the Father ending up proposing for marriage and the son also trying to convince his father not to marry to this lady. There is a very interesting angle that parallely develops between the Nurse neighbor and the Father-son duo. There is a Mexican house keeper and also a wanna be Miss Montana who add good flavors to the story line. The story also touches upon the emotional ups and downs that the men go through when they loose some as close as their wife or mother and the sacrifices that both are ready to make for each other's happiness.

While the story might sound very simple, it is the performances of the characters which is extremely pleasing, specially the one by the little Kid Eddie. On doing some research on the actor, it did not come as a surprise, when I found out who this actor is. The actor playing the little boy is "Ron Howard", the man who recently gave us "A Beautiful Mind". The performances by the other actors is very pleasing and the movie keeps you involved throughout its running time of 2 hours.

Watch this movie on a weekend night over DVD, specially for a wonderful performance by Ron Howard, this time in front of the camera instead of behind it. An extremely pleasing movie, that will leave out with a feel good factor. Happy gold hunting over "Metro Goldwyn Mayer", as they say, "Old is Gold", while for most of the time.