Review of Star Trek - Into the Darkness (2013)...

Space: The final frontier, These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, To explore strange new worlds in the next 5 years, To seek out new life and new civilizations, To boldly go where no man has gone before...

When Star Trek (2009) had released, it was the pinnacle of the Star Trek series. Guess what, the leader has been displaced after 4 years. The latest from the Star Trek Franchise is an awesome experience that one needs to be part of. The previous movie was primarily based on the conflict between the Romulans and Vulcans and the detruction of their  Planet.  It was focussed on Spock and Nero, the current one is based on Earth and focuses on the inner conflict of James Tiberious Kirk and his coming face to face with his eternal enemy KHAN.

Khan's presence in the movie has made an impact a villian has'nt for a long time in any Hollywood movie in the recent past (read 4 - 5 years). Khan, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (from the BBC "Sherlock " series), comes out as the mysterious and ruthless being whose intentions are not clear to either Spock or Kirk all throughout the journey.

The movie begins with an unrelated sequence with the USS Enterprise is trying to save a planet from a volcano eruption that threatens to wipe out its primitive population. The whole sequence sets the tone for the rest of the movie, with fast pace, unexpected turns and the ever loving nostalgic Star Trek sound track. From then on, there is hardly any time that you will feel not at the edge of your seat or even blink your eyes.  The rest of the 2(+) hours is a ride you take along with the Crew of USS Enterprise, their ups and downs and also the whole destruction of their ship :-). 

The story in short is, Post some strong attacks on the Starfleet Headquarters, Kirk sets on course to settle a personal score in the enemy land (read Klingon planet) in pursuit of Khan, not releasing he is being used as a pawn in a bigger chess game. What follows are sequences that test the strength and patience of Kirk, Spock and the crew of USS Enterprise, putting Kirk in situations where he has to choose between killing his Enemy (Khan, person responsible of killing his Father figure, Commander Pike) or saving the only family he is left with now , the crew of USS Enterprise.

The movie is fast paced on the edge thriller with excellent performance by each of the actors. While the 2009 version of Star Trek introduced the characters of Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Zulu, Uhura, Bones and Chekov and how they come together, this one takes their relationship to the next level. How the bond of friendship between each of them becomes strong, and how each of them are ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the rest in the crew.

This one has Bones and Scotty at their witty best, Kirk at his risky best, Uhura as the seductress whose human emotions keep Spock at completely loss of words, but it is Spock who has the maximum transition during the course of the movie. Spock goes from a Vulcan who is emotionless and logical decision maker to let his human side take over towards the second half, who shows emotions and takes calculated risks and chances. He starts to act thinking what would Kirk have done a particular situation and EVEN CRIES IN THE MOVIE.

JJ Abrams has done a bang on job in the movie, the only missing factor though for me here is that the movie is mostly based on an internal Human Conflict and the regular Star Trek species other than humans are missing.  The cameo by Leonard Nemoy(The Original Spock) is ever wanted and welcome, and the movie closes with the paragraph I started the review with. The 2009 Star Trek had Leonard Nemoy saying those words, how I wish William Shatner had closed the movie this time around. It would have been a complete circle for the two legends that we all have grown up seeing and secretly wish to be if ever given a chance. The movie has released in India a week before its release in some of the other key countries, just like Iron Man3, make the most of it and watch it Before the rest of the world does!

In the End, while the USS Enterprise is bashed, Kirk beaten up by Khan, Uhura makes Spock's life miserable - The whole spirit of what makes a  Star Trek movie so special remains intact. If you are a Star Trek series fan, drop everything and go for this one, and if you are not very hot about the series, watch this one, as you are bound to go back looking for more. 

KIRK OUT!!

Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (2013)...

"Jab Dill Saand ho, to har ladki Bhains nazar aati hain", these are the words of a drunk Mandola 30 mins in to "Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola" to a pink wearing Navnit Nishant. By now you have already fallen head over heels in love with Haria Mandola's (Pankaj Kapur) character and his twin personality. One when he is Sober and a fierce Business Man who dreams of converting the huge and fertile land of his village into Factories, Housing Complexes and Malls and the other when Mandola is drunk, turning into to big hearted village caring philanthropist, encouraging the villager to do mutiny against himself.

This is the latest offering of the immensely talented Vishal Bhardawaj and this one totally belongs to Mandola (Pankaj Kapur). Mandola who is father of Bijlee Mandola (Anushka Sharma) and employer of Matru (Imran Khan), whose father had taken 1.5 lacs loan to send Matru to study law and now job of Matru is to ensure that Mandola does not get drunk and self distruct. The movie opens with a Limo being rammed into a desi theka for refuisng Mandola a crate of his favourite Gulabo Brand whiskey on a dry day and ends up revolving around Gulabo (the whiskey bottle and a pink buffalo). The whole metaphor of the pink buffalo has been used beautifully by Vishal Bhardwaj to create some mind blowing hilarious scenes throughout the movie.

The story is focused around the sale of the fertile land of the farmers of Mandola Village (named after the richest person of the Village) to be converted into Factories and Malls, and a state Politician is an equal partner in to this scam. The Politician (Shabana Azmi) has the desire to marry her Son Badal (Arya Babbar) with Bijlee to gather enough clout using Mandola's money so that she can get entry into National Politics from the current State politics. There is the character of Mao (secret identity of Matru) who is trying to get the villagers to fight for their rights and stand up against the current political regime and money power of Mandola. Its the concept about land and farmers and how farmers are pushed to a corner to sell off their lands to government, who in turn sell the same to rich builders for hefty profit sharing. A topic very much in focus a few years back with the Tata Nano plant incident in Bengal or the agitation by villagers who sold their land for the Delhi Agra Yamuna Express way. Vishal Bhardawaj has been able to give a very comic turn this whole serious situation, Simple story told with a lot of heart and thought. 

There are enough sequences in the movie which are a trademark of Vishal Bhardawaj and leave you big time laughing and smiling. He has also touched a cord with the viewers to show the plight of the poor farmers and how they get arm twisted easily by the rich and those in Power. There is a sequence where Mandola is explaining his dream to Shabana Azmi and the whole fertile land starts to get converted into Factories and Malls and housing complexes, pollution and how the money paid to workers in factory is taken back via sale in the malls. The whole sequence leaves you spell bound on what is so evidently happening all around us, but we have never stopped for a minute and look at it the way Vishal Bhardawaj has shown. Its is a scary picture that comes out of that scene, and makes you think what world are we  leaving for our future generations. 

Smart dialogues are consistent throughout the movie. An aircraft scene where Matru and a completely drunk Mandola end up flying a glider and then jumping off it, as Mandola has learnt how to take off but has no idea how to land it. Another one in which Shabana Azmi is raising a toast to her victory over the farmers (who sign off their lands to the Govt) by saying "Ab dilli door nahin, Kursiya". With Kursiya being a replacement of Cheers (Chairs) but a metphor for the seat of Power that she is targetting in Delhi. Another one in which Mandola is holding two bottles of Whiskey and has to give one to Matru, he asks him to take the one from left hand as he is a Mao (a leftist). The movie also has Gulabo, a pink colored buffalo whom Mandola keeps seeing as part of Withdrawl symptoms while he is trying to leave whiskey. There is an African tribe that badal has brought as a gift to Bijlee, though they could have been done without. 

On performances, this one is for Pankaj Kapur, his performance of a drunkard has no parallel in cinema as yet. Simply mind-blowing. Till the time he is on screen, the movie remains interesting. Imran Khan and Anushka get noticed only in scenes when they are with Mandola, otherwise there performance is ordinary., though Imran's looks for the part are apt and very well suited. Shabana Azmi as a villainous Politician is brilliant. Music is ordinary and the other cast and crew are there for support and that is what they have done. Special mention is due for Gulabo, the Pink Buffalo, the way the buffalo smiles at Mandola, teasing him and inviting him to come back to his loving Gulabo, whom is craves so badly is simply hilarious and comical though very simplistic. 

There is'nt enough in the story, and the movie does kind of slack for around 20-25 mins in the beginning of the Second half, but again gains momentum with Pankaj Kapur coming back and lifting the whole script with his performance. The climax seems a bit hush hush, and could have been handled a bit better with more acrobats from Mandola. Having said that, the movie has more than enough moments to get you laughing and thinking of the simplicity and the brilliance of this director, Vishal Bhardawaj.

Overall, Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola is a must watch. Whether you are a fan of Vishal Bhardawaj or not, this one has to be watched for what will surely be the best Drunkard depiction ever performed by any one in the history of cinema! Hats off to Mandola, kamaal kar diya Penchoo Penchoo!!

Dabangg2 (2012)...

Chulbul Pandey is back, and he is back with more Charisma, more Energy and more Power. Back are also, Rajjo, Prajapati Pandey and Makhi. What has changed, the Director is now Arbaaz Khan instead of Abhinav, the villian has also changed and so has the Jurisdiction of Robinhood Pandey, he has moved to Kanpur. Is Dabangg2 a Big Bang over Dabangg1, well will reserve the comment for the closure.

Dabangg2 opens with full recap of Dabangg1 and sets up the stage on what to expect from Dabangg2. Full on action, Full on masti and Full on style of "Chulbulle Pandeyji". He is still the Robinhood of people, even though now it is people of Kanpur. It would not be wrong to say that Dabangg2 is Chulbul Pandey and only Chulbul Pandey overloaded. Am I minding that though, not at all. Till the time the Pandeyism is on in the movie the movie races through and keeps you glued with full on entertainment. The big difference between Dabangg2 and Dabangg1 is the storyline. This version is very lean on Story and complex drama between relationships. Most of the relationship issues got sorted out in the previous part and hence there was not much left for Chulbul to resolve in this version. While Dabangg1 had multiple stories crossing each other, whether it was Chulbul and Rajjo, or Chulbul and Makhi or Chulbul and Prajapati or Rajko and her Father, or Chulbul and Rajjo's Father, or Chulbul and Chedi Singh or Makhi and Chedi or Chedi and Chulbul's mom, Dabangg2 from story perspective is Chulbul and Bachcha Bhaiya and that is about it. So this kind of tells you the depth of Story line in this version. 

Story in nut shell is Chulbul Pandey has moved to Kanpur along with his Wife Rajjo (Sonakshi), father Prajapati (Vinod Khanna) and his brother Makhi (Arbaaz Khan). While the jurisdiction has changed, Chulbul has not and he makes life of local goon and soon to be politician Bachcha Bhaiya (Prakash Raj) miserable. The rest of the story is about antiques of Chulbul Pandey and Bachcha Bhaiya. Whenever Chulbul is upto his Dabanggism, you are glued with the movie, and the moment the Dabanggism fades into a song or villian's action time, the movie looses you immediately. 

So then is Dabanng2 worth it, The first half is a breezer and for me made it worth it in itself. The Second half slows down a little and there is a effort by Arbaaz to create some story line with other characters, but fails to do so. Mainly because the persona of Chulbul Pandey is so big that anything else feels boring. You want Chulbul Pandey to carry on with his dhulai and cleaning mission for the entire 2hrs and 20 mins duration. Munni is back for a special appearance and so is Kareena with Fevicol Se. Personally disappointed by the Fevicol song picturization and performance of Kareena, though some of the other songs specially Pandeyji Seeti, in which Munni makes a special appearance are worth the watch.

Action in Dabangg2 is Dabangg style and worth the entertainment quotient expected from it. It would have been better had the climax had a bit more kick, it missed the Red Bull effect of Dabangg1 and kind of ended too soon. May be because Chulbul comes into form in the Second half only in Climax and you expect him to take that to a larger than life performance, but alas!

From Performance perspective, Salman as Chulbul Pandey is amazing, there cannot be any other Chulbul Pandey anymore. Prakash Raj as Bachcha Bhaiya has done ok, and rest of the caste hardly has anything to do worth mentioning. Only Vinod Khanna as Chulbul's father has a decent role and has done well, Sonakshi looks stunning. Arbaaz as Makhi has scenes you can probably count on fingers of one hand.

How do I sum up Dabangg2, when the movie started for the first 45 mins, every scene of Chulbul Pandey was welcomed with Whistles, Claps and screams in the hall, you could easily witness the Rajni-ization of Chulbul Pandey. By the second half though they were all missing and even Chulbul could not energize the crowd in the Climax with his Antiques.

My memory of Dabangg1 is when 5 of us guy friends got together for a Friday evening Dabangg DVD get together, which had Vodka, Rum and Chulbul Pandey. Dabangg1 was thoroughly enjoyed and so was Chulbul Pandey. Will I be happy to do the same with Dabangg2, Oh Hell YES! It has everything to make it a full on entertainment.

So, watch Dabangg2 for sure. The news that Dabangg3 will be a Prequel to Dabangg1 makes it sound interesting, but the Director surely needs to be someone else, till then "Hud Hud Dabangg Dabangg Dabangg Dabangg, Kamal Karte ho Pandeyji!!!"

Talaash (2012)...

Talaash means to Seek. Not necessarily what is visible should be taken on face value. Not everything that you seek is right and not every that you find is the way it seems. That is the message from Reema Kagti with Talaash - The Answers lie within!.

Talaash set in Mumbai, is the story of Surjan S Sekhawat (Aamir Khan), married to Roshni (Rani Mukherjee) who is seeking answers around an accident of a famous movie star. How the story unfolds around his whole investigation sets the context of the the movie, but not the premise. The key premise of the story is the inner struggle that Surjan is currently having, to come to terms with the loss of his 8 - 10 year old son. He is in constant state of self blame about the accident of his son and how his one small action could have avoided the same. This state of mind puts tremendous pressure on his mind and at this juncture enters a prostitute in his life Rosy (Kareena Kapoor), who helps him come to terms with reality in both the cases he is handling at the same time. 

The role of Rosy in the movie is the key pivot around which the story starts to revolve. Surjan starts getting leads from Rosy to make head way into the accident of the movie star, but some-where creates a bond with her where in he starts to share his inner remorse about his son's death. The remorse he is not able to share with his own wife, causing a major upheaval in their married life. Roshni, Surjan's wife is undergoing treatment after her son's loss and is shown seeing a skrink as well in one of the scene. She befriends a neighbor whom Surjan despises.  Apart from this, there is'nt much for Roshni to do in the movie.

The major pie though gets taken away by Rosy, as she is this enigma in the movie which keeps you guessing whether she is guiding Surjan towards solving the mystery or getting him more distracted and away from a conspiracy being played out. The third main character of the story is Taimur (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a limping servant of a pimp, who lives in this red light area and is running a parallel investigation of his own, not to solve the mystery but make some quick bucks so that he can get away from this life of his in the red light area. The underbelly of the Mumbai Red light area comes out at your face, and you even with all your efforts cannot ignore the Neon lights, the stinky bars and the hookers and pimps living in some pathetic environments. This sets up a fantastic background to the whole story, the movie also plays almost 80% of the time in the night, an active time for this side of the city. It is in this background that the lives of Rosy and Taimur cross each other, lives of Surjan and Rosy are completely entangled and luckily, Rosy and Roshni never come face to face.

From a performance perspective, Rani has very little to do in the movie, from Nawazuddin we have come to expect a lot more due to Kahaani and GOW, does a good job in a small but significant role. Aamir plays the whole serious cop role to perfection, somewhere that energy of the Cop from Sarfarosh is missing in this one though. His whole look and feel is that of the character and he looks like a serious cop doing his business. The find for me though is Kareena. Done a fabulous job and the credit for that will entirely go to the Director of the movie. She has made use of Kareena's various strengths to the maximum and made her come out as the key to unlock this mystery. 

Cannot disclose much beyond this and also will not talk about some of the hi-impact scenes from the movie as there interpretation can give away the suspense, and I have no intention of spoiling the suspense for people who have not seen the movie. All I will say is that Reema Kagti has done a good job, and the music of the movie is A-one, simply awesome and appropriate for the sequences. 

Talaash is not an over the edge Thriller that keeps you guessing what next and there are no major twists coming every 2 mins. It is a suspense story that runs at a slow and steady pace, but does not seize to surprise you in the end!

A must to watch once atleast, and watch it before someone spoils your fun by leaking the mystery out. I have not done so, but have left enough hints for you in my first paragraph of this review. Read it again and carefully and you might be able to understand some of it!!! Happy Mystery Solving and may you succeed in your Talaash!!!

Kahaani (2012)...

Its Vidya Balan back to back for me in my reviews. This time in Kahaani, but have to say unlike in The Dirty Picture, Vidya as been upstaged. Upstaged by Kolkata, the charm of Kolkata, the richness of its culture and more importantly the shear presence of life in that place that comes out in the movie. Sujoy Ghosh has captured the essence of the city Beautifully.

Coming back to Kahaani and Vidya Balan, Kahaani is a kahaani of a pregnant female who comes from UK to India in search of her Husband, who came here 4 weeks back and has gone missing for the last 2 weeks. Its a thriller where the main protagonist Vidya Bagchi (or as the Kolkatains say Bidya Bagchi), searches for her husband and slowly and steadily uncovers the plot which opens up one peel at a time. The movie will grip you from the first scene itself which takes place in the shape of a terrorist attack in the Kolkata Metro and then post that in walks a probably 7 months pregnant Vidya Bagchi with a Evian water bottle in one hand and her passport in the other, immediately getting mobbed by the ever waiting Taxi guys in Kolkata Airport. From there on the ride is preety interesting going in Roller Coaster mode and then slowing down to again go back in Roller Coaster mode. This really helps as it gives the viewers that breathing time badly needed in between these developments.

Giving Vidya Balan company are a few unknown but very good actors, who seem to grow on you slowly and steady. But what really grows on to you in the City of Kolkata, or if I may say, the Charisma of kolkata, slowly one shot at a time. This for me is the best ever catching of this wonderful place in any movie that I have scene, may be even going way ahead of Amar Prem, with a Drunk Rajesh Khanna sitting on a boat with Sharmila Tagore under the Howrah Bridge. Watch out for a really odd looking LIC agent who really brings to life a very interesting character and for the weak hearted, please close your eyes at the Intermission scene, you are bound to skip a beat.

Vidya has again done a very good job in the movie, She is bound of continue her award winning streak with this, don't see any other actress upstaging this performance on a fair award distribution. Her Character gains the sympathy of the viewers slowly and steady with her condition and the progress of her search. The rest of the actors will be better remembered for their characters instead. Whether it is the ever committed Rana (a Sub-inspector) who for what ever reasons becomes Vidya's man-friday in this new town or Khan (Second in Command in the Indian Intelligence Bureau -IB), who flies down from Delhi to Kolkata, troubled by a female looking for her lost husband. Why is he curious, well that forms the crux of the story and I ai'nt revealing that, for that will kill the fun for you.

So, if Kolkata is ever beautiful, Vidya is as good as she always is in her performance, all the characters do there role to the core and the story ever gripping, then is there anything that I did not like. Well there are a few, like the Number 2 in the IB needs help from a IT professional from UK to help him hack a machine. Surely India IB has its set of genius hackers who can easily hack their way into a Computer. The ease with which Vidya is able to get one clue after the other which the IB is trying to search for the last 2 years also somehow seems a little off track. Having said that, treat this as a movie and a story and do not let your practical side to take over, things should then remain fine.

So in the end, what does Kahaani have in store for you, well its 2 hours of gripping and thrilling drama with the soul of the story being the Kolkata city itself. For me the last scene between Vidya and Darshan Jariwala was a little more dramatic, something that could have been avoided, but then that might just be a personal choice and it might work for a lot of you instead. On the question of whether it is worth watching on the Theatre, you bet it is. If not for the Thrills, or the ups and downs of the story, or the beautiful performances by the actors, then only for the way the whole Kolkata city will make you fall in love with it. This one's got almost everything, ALMOST!!!

The Dirty Picture (2011)...

The following review has adult content, please ensure you are 18 years or above before you proceed. :-)

When you review a movie like "The Dirty Picture" some of the content of the movie is bound to rub on to the article. Its better to warn the reader upfront, which was the case the website did while booking the movie tickets for this movie. Did not realize, it might be so open and free in its content. Now before you all start running away with your imaginations, even though the movie is loosely based on the life of the so called "Soft porn queen" of Soft, the movie is not. It is explicit in nature both with Dialogues and certain acts though. Actually just like the previous Balaji production, "Once upon a Time in Mumbai," this one also has some really interesting dialogues.

So what is The Dirty Picture (TDP) all about. Its the story about a girl Reshma/ Silk (Vidya Balan) and her rise and fall in the Southern Cine world. Her struggle to break the male bastion of being the one, who make or break a movie, the so called "Crowd Pullers". Does she do it? As a matter of fact almost before going into a self destruction mode and ruining everything she has gained, Name,Fame and Money. She becomes a Huge Crowd puller, pulling away the attention of everyone, Fans, Journalists, Producers and Directors from the existing rulers of the Movie Industry.

In parallel, Abrahim (Emraan Hashmi) plays the narrator of the story and also a misfit director in the times, when there is no takers for his kind of serious cinema. There is a dialogue by a producer to him saying "You wanna make movies which will make the audience scratch their head, where as the audience comes to see a movie, where they can scratch something else". (There are multiple such dialogues, some with Double and some direct meanings, so be prepared). The story also sees him start from hating the Silk kind, who believe in providing Pure Entertainment to their audience to slowly moving to become not only one of them but also fall in love with Silk. And this is the part of the story that is weak for me. There is hardly any convincing reason given behind this such a big sea change in his thinking.

There are also brothers, Suryakanth (Naseeruddin Shah) and Ramakanth (Tusshar) playing the first family of South Film Industry (now you all know who is the first family of South Film Industry and which Kanth... ;-)) They both end up bedding Silk, while she uses that to rise up in her career. Her heart break by both of them one after the other actually becoming the undoing of a promising career. (The scenario is partly inspired by Maryln Monroe and the Kennedy brothers story, with Silk's end also similar to Maryln).

So, what is actually there in TDP to watch. Frankly its a Vidya Balan show to the core. She has displayed the role fantastically (there is a lot at display by her), apart from the immense talent as well (hats off to her for taking on such a role and playing it beyond excellence). She has excelled in every act that she comes in and frankly the scenes without her seem very boring. That is the power of her performance in the movie. Naseeruddin Shah has played the role of the Ruling king of South amazingly, but frankly has been overshadowed by Vidya. Emraan Hashmi has done preety well, with Tushhar actually shining only in one scene for me. (Once you watch the movie, you would know which one ;-)

Coming to Disappointments, the movie is based on the story of a Item Girl (may be the first in South Film Industry) and hence you would expect the movie to have strong music support. Completely fails in that, hardly anything (apart from Oh La la) to talk about. Secondly, the fall of Silk in the movie should have been a tag bit slower, I felt the depiction of the same was very quick.

Two scenes stand out for me, and both have Vidya Balan in it. One the speech she gives after receiving her first award, practically declaring a war to all Male actors and the other in which she decides to spoil the party of Nyla (Anju Mahendroo), playing a magazine journalist, when Nyla refuses to meet her after writing a nasty article about her. Both the scenes are just stealers for me.

So what do I think about TDP, let me try by saying it in a dialogue in the style of the movie, "Entertainment comes from 3 things, Vidya, Vidya and Vidya, aur Vidya TDP mein hain". That for me sums up the movie.

So the final verdict, if you are an ardent Vidya Balan fan, go ahead and watch it in cinema (worth every penny), else wait for the DVD to come out. A word of Caution though, if watching on DVD, make sure you do not have Kids or Elders around, else you will watch 75% of the movie in Fast Forward (oh la la!!!) ;-)

Review of Yeh Saali Zindagi (2011)

Very rarely one comes across a movie where the story rises above all the protagonists and becomes the main character of the movie. "Yeh Saali Zindagi" is one such movie. Inspite of having known names like Irfan Khan, Yashpal Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, and not so known like Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh and Prashant Narayanan, it is the story that binds you for the 2 hours running time of the movie. The story does slack some times in between for 5 - 10 mins, but for the rest of the time keeps you completely engaged and guessing "what next".

The story is about love, money and revenge, but then there is nothing new in that. What is new is the criss cross of multiple story lines which end up meeting at one point or the other. Arun (Irfan Khan) is madly in love with Priti (Chitrangda Singh), who in turn is in love with Shyam. Shyam is about to get married to the Daughter of Minister Verma. Minister Verma works closely with Bade (Yashpal Sharma) a don and Bade has all account of Verma's black money. Verma gets Bade arrested and in his efforts to get free, Bade involves his protege Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh). Arunoday is himself having domestic problems, but ends up kidnapping Shyam, and by mistake also picks up Priti. Now Verma is involved as he has to get his future Son-in-law released, Arun gets involved as Priti has been kidnapped as well. There is a inspector Satbeer (Sushant Singh) , who fluctuates between his duty, greed and loyalty towards Bade. The highlight in all this criss cross and confusion, the story of the movie that rises above all these characters, keeping the viewer guessing what is going to happen next.

Acting wise, Irfan's voice over during the entire film are better than his acting and Chitrangda Singh has an accent throughout the movie (feels very odd and distrubing frankly!). Arunoday Singh has done a decent job along with Sushant Singh. Also Arunoday has tried to be the next Imraan Hashmi via this film. Both Yashpal Sharma and Prasant Narayanan (As Chote) have a small role. Frankly the biggest disappointment of the movie is the role played by Prashant Narayanan. An actor of his caliber should have had a much meatier role than this.

There is Comedy, Drama, Action, Emotions and lots of swearing (not to be watched with kids). Direction by Sudhir Mishra is good and he keeps going back and forth in time in order to keep the viewers engaged. Old delhi has been used as a additional character in the movie nicely. Net net a nice movie to spend your 2 hours on. Watch it just for gripping Story line and a nice controlled editing. Go for it!!!

Review of Guzaarish (2010)...

It seems with Guzaarish, Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) has come a full circle. Starting from Khamoshi-The Musical(1996) to the current Guzaarish(2010). Though, Khamoshi was not that impressive as a movie, it had some brilliant individual scenes which definitely were a class apart. From there SLB went on to improve with HDDCS and Devdas, before achieving immortality with Black. In Guzaarish again, there are multiple brilliant scenes which really sweep you from your feet, but when put together the movie has come out very ordinary. It is disappointing that a Director of the caliber as SLB has really not done justice to such a intense subject as Euthanasia (practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering).

The Movie is about Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) a brilliant Magician and now a Quadriplegic, who during one of his shows met with an accident (which one later discovers was a sabotage) and is paralyzed neck down. Ethan is left with no movement or feelings in his body below the neck and has been in that state for 14 long years. He files for a petition in the court to be put to sleep for ever to relieve him from his misery and this is exactly where SLB has faltered. The way the whole petition process is handled is very amateur. Does not seem that part is at all directed by SLB himself. Though his petition keeps getting rejected, he does not give up and keep trying to get his right to die. There is Sofia (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) who is Ethan's care taker for the last 12 years and there is nothing that can happen in Ethan's life with out Sofia. Another angle added to the movie is of a budding magician, Omar Siddiqui (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who comes to Hrithik to learn his magic tricks and become the best magician in the world after Ethan. These three form the three pillars of the story along with some other characters, but frankly there is hardly anything to write about these other characters. There is Ethan's Mother, a lawyer, a doctor, a former girlfriend and a friend turned foe.

So then what makes this movie special? Its the scenes in which Ethan keeps going back to his magic shows, which are shot unbelievably. The pain that comes on his faces after remembering the kind of applause and adulation he once commanded and now he is constrained to a 5 by 6 feet bed with only a whistle to call for help. He is so helpless, that in one scene there is a Fly which is running on his nose and he is unable to do anything about it other than accepting it a part of his body and let her be. Really a touching scene. Then there is a fight that he has with the droplets of rains falling from his roof on his forehead, he ends up suffering that torture for the whole night helplessly. There are multiple such scenes which are brilliantly used to display the helpless truth of a quadriplegic's life. SLB has captured the helplessness of Ethan so beautifully that you cannot help but feel his pain yourself. The magic shows are done beautifully. Let us not get into the practicality of those, but just the whole execution of them along with Hrithik, it is simply Magical!!! Hrithik is just brilliant in his dance movements in all of them. Specially the one in which he is playing with a Bubble, and the whole dance sequence is at par with Hrithik performance in Lakshya (main aisa kyon hoon), or may be even better than that. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has done a very good job in playing the secondary role to Hrithik in the movie as his care taker and also his emotional bond with life (what ever of that is left within Ethan). She gets her moment of glory in a dance sequence "Mil Gayi" in which she just lets her hair down to blow everyone around. Now coming to Omar, the budding magician, while his role is very key, unfortunately the rendering of the same by Aditya Roy Kapoor is very inconsistent. He is good in some scene but really ordinary in most. SLB should have picked up someone else. If given a choice I would have gone with Sharman Joshi or Shriyas Talpade for that role instead of Aditya Roy Kapoor.

Coming to the Music of the movie, some songs are really good, like "Sau gram zindagi". Unfortunately the thing that took "Black" to being an immortal movie, its background music is a let down in Guzaarish. Again, this assessment is purely based on the comparison between Black and Guzaarish. Stand alone Guzaarish has a nice music, and aptly very few songs in the movie. The cinematography is beautiful, though most of the movie is shot in a single room, to which Ethan is restricted to. Its the magic shows that SLB comes into his elements and proves why he is definitely one of best directors that are there around currently.

Hrithik in his Avataar of a Quadriplegic is just magical. One cannot imagine anyone else who could have played this role more aptly than him. He is looking like a Greek god who has descended down to play this role with his beard look and long hair, only to return back to his clean shaven look. Wish we could have has a few more movies with Hrithik in such a look. There is hardly anyone in this Industry, who apart from Hrithik could have carried that look. Aishwarya is perfect fit for the care taker role. A special mention of Goa as being the third most impressive protagonist of this movie. The whole culture, the beautiful locations and the life that is very different from what is there in rest of India. The ending of the movie is something that is a point of view, with which many might disagree, but the whole thing has been handled nicely. It is a night in which Ethan celebrates Life!!! Hrithik is unbelievable in those last 10 mins again.

So then, should one spend 2.5 hours of their life on this movie, for sure YES. It is 2.5 hours well spent, with some magical moments that will stay with you for a long time, some magical performances that you will remember for a long time and some magical tricks, which will take your breath away for some time atleast. Please go and grab a Dekho of the movie as soon as possible and if possible on the Movie hall for sure, else on the DVD. That is a Guzaarish from my side...

Review of Star Trek (2009)...

Space: The final frontier, These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, To explore strange new worlds, To seek out new life and new civilizations, To boldly go where no man has gone before...

Words that a lot of us have grown up with watching Star Trek the television series and its follow up generations. We are used to these words being recited at the beginning of each series by James T Kirk or to be specific William Shatner. This Star Trek movie ends where the rest of the series begin with, that is with these famour words. This Star Trek, takes us to the very beginning, where it all started from, how the elite crew of the famous USS Enterprise came together, bringing in their share of strengths and responsibilities. But unlike the regular Franchise, in this one James T Kirk is not the Captain of the Enterprise, but rather he is a Rookie, who gets a chance into the Enterprise, thanks to the liking the Captain of the Enterprise Captain Pike has for him, who is followed by Spock becoming the Captain of the Enterprise. James T Kirk remains a Rogue continuing to defy Logic and orders to follow what his instinct says. Kirk and Spock are fighting a Miner from the Future, who after destroying the Home Planet of Spock, Vulcan, is now on his way to Destroy Earth. Eric Bana, plays Nero, this Romulan miner hell bent upon destroying Earth and Vulcan, as he blames them for the destruction of his planet Romulus. The rest of the movie is about how James T Kirk and Spock, in spite of their differences, come together to stop Nero in his plans. There are multiple racy scenes in the movie, which make the viewers pulse go racing. Multiple occasions which will keep you at the edge of your seats. What makes this movie different from the previous Star Trek franchise movies is the pace with which this movie progresses. It is amazing to say the least, with hardly any scenes in the movie that will disappoint you.

The Movie has all new and young actors with only Leonard Nemoy (Original Spock) making an small but very important appearance. And what an impact he has on the whole movie. For me his entry and stay in the Movie is the highlight of the movie. The Movie is gripping and for a running time of 127 mins, extremely fast paced, leaving no time for the viewer to even blink. The Movie beautifully captures the emotions and strengths of each of its characters and how each of them slowly develop into stalwarts that we are used to and have watched them as. Whether it the Engineer head Scooty, or the Pilot Checkov and Sulu to the communication in-charge, Uhura, each of them have a key role to play in the entire movie.

The movie captures the future on Earth for a short period and is mostly shot in the USS Enterprise. The entry of Leonard Nemoy is on a Marooned planet, where he meets James Kirk and makes him realize, how important it is for him to take over as the Captain of the Enterprise. The special effects of the movie are top class, but what sets this movie apart from the other Sci-fi movies in the recent times is the emotional connect that it is able to create with the viewer, specially via the original and old Spock. The emotional connect is amazing and you really feel it when Spock says his customary "Live long and prosper" to James Kirk. The background score of the movie is amazing and captures the excitement and emotions throughout the movie. While the whole movie is amazing, for me the way Nero gets defeated does not match the spectacle that the rest of the movie is. Having said that, Its an exciting re-start to this franchise and makes it super exiting for the sequels of this movie to follow.

I would say, it is Spock, who for me defines Star Trek, and he is the real star of this one as well, whether as a Old Spock or the Young and aggressive Spock. Its worth watching the movie only for his presence in the movie. A movie not to be missed at any cost, Please watch it today, if you have not seen it yet.

Review of Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (2010)...

The thought of controlling Time has always fascinated humans. The ability to alter one's future when you have control over Time can probably be one of the biggest drug and the ultimate power weapon. You can become invincible, if you have control over time, even if it means for as short a time as a few seconds, as a lot can be done to change things in those few seconds. Imagine having a capability to travel 30 seconds back in time, you can make millions by betting in Horse Racing or at a casino. One can avert an accident and even cheat death, theoretically atleast.

There have been multiple movies around Time travel, whether we look at H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" or Spielberg's "Back to the Future" series or Rakesh Roshan's "Krish". Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (POP-TSOT) is in the same category of movies. POP-TSOT also tries to do things similar to what have been done in this earlier movies. So then, what is different in the movie.

When you plug together the mystery of an Persian backdrop with Time travel, what we get is an interesting and engaging story, that is what is brought to life in POP-TSOT. A rather long title, but thankfully the movie is'nt, which really helps in giving an on the edge kind of drama to the viewers. The mystic and essence of Persian backdrop stories have not really been captured on the big screen till now. All efforts regarding Sindbad or Arabian Nights have not been very elaborate and successful. POP-TSOT make a first of its kind effort to bring us the charm and magic of the times when the Persian empire was feared and really huge. Add to it the magic and legends related to these stories, and we get a engaging screenplay. Two hours of non-stop action, some of which might seem a little unnecessary, but mostly a very engaging watch.

Coming to the story, Prince Dastan (played by Jake Gyllenhaal, of Brokeback Mountain and Day after Tomorrow fame) is adopted by the King of Persia from the streets and is raised along with the other 2 sons of the king. During one of their missions the Prince happens to get hold of a beautiful Dagger, which has the capability of enabling a person to travelling back in time for a few seconds ( or in other words can make Time stand still for himself). The prince gets framed in the killing of his Father , the King of Persia and is declared an Outlaw by his brothers. He not only needs to prove his innocence, and avenge the death of the King, he also needs to protect the powerful dagger from falling into wrong hands. There are multiple parallel tracks that run in the movie, including that of the real sons of the King, a young brother of the King (Nizam, played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley). But the most interesting angle of the story along with the Prince is that of a Princess, the rightful owner of the Dagger and the protector of a secret. A Secret that can give a human the power to travel in time as much as he wants and change the course of his history. Unlike other magic or time travel movies, where the heroine does not have much to do, in POP-TSOT, the princess is a very integral part of the story and is there in almost all adventures of the Prince, not just as a spectator, but someone who is in the thick of things always.

The movie moves at a very fast pace from scene one, and ensures that one has a Roller coaster ride for the next 2 hours. There are certain theoretical and tactical flaws in the movie, but then when you are going for a good time, you do not bother about them much. Full of action and stunts performed very well by the protagonists, the use of CGI is quiet evident, but is very aptly done as well. The whole set up created to replicate the times of the Persian empire is very engaging, and well captured.

Towards the end the movie does make you think, whether being a person who can control time is really a boon or a curse. Being the only person who remembers what has happened or rather what is in store for us in future, may not always be a easy situation to find oneself in. People who have been so close to you and you develop feelings for, suddenly become strangers. While you have met them multiple times in the future, for them, you are meeting them for the first time. A bit confusing, well watch the movie and you will surely understand what I am trying to say.

POP-TSOT is surely worth watching once on the theaters. Approach it as the same category as movies like Speed or Bourne Identity, only that this one is a Period drama with action, and hence the costumes, sets and era along with the thrills. Go grab a look for this one.

Review of Agora (2009)...

Set a few centuries after the crucification of Christ, Agora gives an account of the turmoil that went through during the days of the Fall of the Pagan (Romans) culture and the rise of Christianity. Set in Alexandria in the late 300 A.D., it follows the life of the Philosopher, Hypatia in the background of the political turmoil that Rome went through in those days. What is really interesting is, that while it has been almost 1700 years since, but the context of those times still seem so relevant to our current times. Yes, we have made progress from those days, but some how the religious turmoil and basic ideology differences between humans still remain similar to those times.

Agora follows the life of Hypatia (played beautifully by Rachel Weisz), who is trying to solve the cosmic dilemma of that era, whether Earth is in the center of the world or the Sun. She happens to be a professor in the great library and University of Alexandria, and witnesses the almost complete annihilation of the library, tipped to be a Wonder of that era. While she is busy solving these mysteries, Rome is undergoing a Massive change with a big revolution taking place in the form of "Rise of Christianity". Christianity is gaining mass support, specially amongst the "Have not's" of the society and a mob situation is getting created in Alexandria. Over the span of a few decades, that are covered in the movie, not just does Christianity take over, it kind of takes a Talibanistic form. There is a religious leader who reads his diktates from the Holy Book, there is a moral police which takes charge of the Morality of the society, going to the extent of punishing men and women for what they consider immoral activities as per them. The religious leader declared the working of females as immoral, and also men working under the direction and guidance of females to be against the wish and declaration of God. There is a hard hitting scene where this Moral army, punishing a group of Jews for enjoying Theatre, as they consider it to be anti-god.

There is also the character of Davus(played by Max Minghella), who is a slave of Hypatia and a Christian himself, but musters the courage to fall in love with her. He though sees the atrocities on Christian by his master (Hypatia's Father) from close proximity, an hence ends up becoming part of that moral police. The movie portrays multiple human emotions like curiosity, love, forgiveness, violence, political and religious oppression,these bring conveyed through the dilemmas that Hypatia and Davus go through.

Though all this is happening in 300 A.D., if we look at the current times, we still have these issues. Christianity might have attained a reformist outlook, we can clearly see Islam taking over the role of gaining mass support amongst the "Have Not's". We have moral policing being done by some self proclaimed groups across the world, we have religious leaders reading out Diktats in various forms, some being named as Taliban, some as Rama Sene. But the context remains the same. So how much have we as a Human race really progressed. I guess, the basic premise remains, everything is a circle, and things are ought to get repeated.

The movie ends on a very hard hitting note, and has multiple ironically nodes. And while, the movie ends, it leaves you thinking for a long time, whether we should be judgmental towards the so called Anti-society elements? What was Anti-society and talibanistic in 300A.D. is now a reformist and liberal religion. Why would'nt the same happen to the current Taliban in another 300 years? History might forget all this and consider them as liberal and acceptable in the society then. Will that put a stop to the circle though? No, there would be a rise of something else then to take on the aristocratic governance.

The only way to cut this cycle is by bridging the gap between the Have's and the Have's Not's, and until that happens, human race might take leaps and bounds of steps in progress, we shall remain entangled in this cyclical web.

Coming back to the Movie, the story telling is very compelling with some unbelievable performances by the main characters. Though the movie moves at a slow pace, it keeps you engaged during its entire duration.

Please make sure you do not miss this one, definitely a must watch. Is surely going to get your thinking juices flowing.

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.

Review of Julie & Julia (2009)...

Hollywood has a nag of taking real life stories and converting it into reel life stories. Julie & Julia is one such story, or should I say two such stories about two main protagonists Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and Julie Powell (Amy Adams) whose lives are set apart 50 years. The movie portrays the situations that both the females face in-spite of being generations apart and the fact that while generations separate the two and the world has seen tremendous progress, how somehow the environment around the two females create similar challenges for them. The story is a first hand account by Julie Powell and how she gets inspired by Julia Child's cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1962)" and goes on a 1 year journey that changes her life to say the least.

The movie tracks the lives of Julia and Julie in parallel, switching back and forth between 1950's and 2002. Julie Powell(2002) is a government insurance official who is unhappy with her job, and that starts to reflect on her personal relationships including that with her husband. She is encouraged by her husband to start a blog to take up a challenge to recreate Julia's 524 recipes from her cook book. So the blog is created, challenge is taken to complete 524 recipes in 365 days. While Julie is trying to discover her flair in cooking, the movie also tracks the life of Julia (1950's) and how she ended up actually creating one of the best cook books written on French cooking. Julia is posted in Paris with her husband and on being unable to find a good French Cooking book in English, decides to learn French cooking taking cooking classes. One thing leads to another in her journey of learning cooking, and she starts writing a book herself.

Interestingly the movie tracks Julia's life for couple of decades where as only an year of Julie's. In this one year, Julie ends up experiencing some of the situation that Julia found herself in, almost half a century back. What is interesting is that both these stories are based on separate books actually written by Julie and Julia on their lives. The director has taken two autobiographies and beautifully entangled them together. A unique idea, and it comes out really well. While the duration of the movie is around 2 hours, it does go on a very constant pace.

Characterization wise, Meryl Streep is tremendous in her role as Julia Child, playing it almost to perfection. She does not seem to do anything wrong. She has created the demur of Julia Child ( 6 feet plus) fantastically. She actually wore huge heals in order to remove the 6 - 8 inches height different between her and the actual Julia Child. Amy Adams is decent in her portrayal of Julie Powell. We also have Stanley Tucci as the back bone for Julia supporting her in her journey throughout, which he plays quiet well.

The story also tries to handle the long discussed question, "Should one do, what he/she likes?" or "Should one like, what he/she does?". Interestingly there are frustrations in both, as is evident in the movie. When one tries to like what they are doing, they get frustrated slowly and steadily, while when you try to do what you like, even a small failure leads to big frustrations. Clearly there are no perfect answers, as there are no perfect situations.

Julie & Julia is not a perfect movie, and neither does it perfectly capture the lives of its protagonists. But then, who cares till the time you get to see some unbelievable performances, specially by Meryl Streep. I would highly recommend watching it on DVD's, but keep in mind, that the movie goes on a slow pace and on a single track, with no major ups and downs.

Review of Kurbaan (2009)...

When one watches a movie like Kurbaan, one ends up wondering, what is the message of the movie, what is the director trying to say by using the movie as the means. I frankly did not understand what Renzil D'Silva was trying to convey. Was he trying to put a justification behind the Terrorist actions of his protagonist, or was he trying to show that there is still goodness amongst a particular community, which is generally associated with any kind of terrorism globally. He fails in both. The failure in the first is because there cannot be any justification to the killings of innocent people. Two wrongs don't make a right. Doing atrocities to people whom one holds responsible for the plight of your own can never be justified. He fails in the second as there is too much focus on the negativity of the characters, that one hardly thinks about the moderate or clean characters of the movie and there actions.

Kurbaan is the story of a group of people who are planning a series of terror attacks in America to avenge the what they feel are sufferings caused to people of Afghanistan due to the actions of Americans. The movie begins with Saif Ali Khan (Ehsaan) and Kareena (Avantika) starting their romance and then shifting to America for their career. Soon Kareena realizes that Saif is part of a Sleeper cell who are planning terror attacks in America. Meanwhile, Vivek Oberio (Riyaaz) begins his own objective of exposing this group, as they are responsible for the killing of his girl friend in a plane explosion. He becomes part of this group in order to understand their plans and get them caught them at the right time. There are multiple ups and downs in the movie with quiet a thrilling climax of around 30 mins.

The movie starts on a very dull note with the first 30 mins being extremely boring, then the next 30 mins are extremely exciting, when Kareena finds out the reality of his husband. Again the movie goes into slow motion to again become alive after sometime. The movie actually alternates like this for its entire duration of 2 hrs 40 mins, with the last 30 mins again being extremely thrilling. From a performance PoV, Kareena does not impress much, Saif has done a decent job, and Vivek is also so so in the acting area. Actors like Om Puri and Kiron Kher are wasted. The direction of the movie is sleek but in parts, and that is what keeps the interest a bit alive for the overall length of the movie. The title of the movie says, "Some Love stories have blood on them", frankly there is no Love story at all in the movie. The movie is full of flaws, How come Kareena does not find a way to escape and report the presence of this sleeper cell, even though she is left all alone in a shopping mall? How is a dreaded terrorist Khalid (Saif) able to roam openly in America, in spite of being on the most wanted list of FBI? Why does Vivek decide to take things in his hand, while he can easily expose this cell to FBI? How can Saif get away inspite of landing in the middle of a Gun fight with the Police and actually getting injured in the same? The list goes on actually.

I sometimes wonder the need to make such movie. With so much of hatred and misconception already afloat all around, is there is need to add to that. All this movie ends up achieving is creating a hateful opinion about a particular section of people and clearly for me, one could have done without having such a movie ever made. All that this movie spreads is not a message of peace or love, but rather a message a Hate, that is easily avoided in the current geo-political scenario of the world.

Watch it if you must, but please treat this movie as just a thriller and do not make any kind of opinions because of this movie. To which ever community you belong to, this movie cannot be taken on face value and the message of the movie should not influence you in setting an opinion about the other community.

PS: I have deliberately not named any community in this review, as that would defeat the whole purpose of the same. I regret hurting feelings of anyone because of this.

Review of My Name is Khan (2010)...

"My Name is Khan (MNIK)", one of the most media hyped movie in the recent years, which got released under a lot of speculation and hu halla!!! The only reason I was keen on seeing this movie was because in some of the reviews, the movie got compared to "Forrest Gump", one of my all time favorite movie. While the message of the movie is quiet appealing, the methodology used did not appeal to me much, thus making the storyline look very weak. The message "Every Muslim is not a Terrorist" has been shown in multiple movies in different ways and the same is the core of this story as well. The main protagonist of the movie sees the world with a filter of "Good" or "Bad" people, or in other words "Black" and "White". There is no place for "Grey" in there, which is probably the missing angle in MNIK. For me, a key part of being Human is the "Grey" area we all operate in, and react to similar situations in a different way given the current circumstances. The director has tried to show both sides of the story, the sufferings at both ends, be it Muslim or Non-Muslim and still he does not justify the actions of either of them. It is the circumstances which made people react the way they did.

The story of MNIK is about a man who suffers from Asperger syndrome (autism spectrum), and his life's struggle to overcome his inhibitions, from his childhood to his role as a father and husband. The character Rizwan Khan(Shah Rukh Khan (SRK)) grows up in a small mumbai neighborhood with his brother and mother. He then moves on to US to be with his brother, played by Jimmy Shergill (very unconvincing performance by him). There he bumps into Mandira Rathore (Kajol) and after upteen attempts convinces her to marry him. While all this is happening pre-911, their life suddenly changes post-911. Post a very tragic incident in their life, the only mission of Rizwan is to meet the President of United States and tell him that he is not a "Terrorist". On the path, Rizwan touches lives of multiple different kinds of people, some of whom become his fans and some don't.

The first 30 mins of the movie were actually a complete bore for me, but post that the movie is a little more bearable. There are certain incidents in the movie that do touch your heart, though just slightly, the general depth of emotions related to Karan Johar's(KJ) movie is missing here. Most of the scenes seem incomplete and very superficial. It is only in the last 30 mins of the movie that saved it slightly.

On the performance front, both SRK has given a good performance and Kajol has done a tremendous job. Certain scene in the movie Kajol has done so well, that you can call the movie "My Name is Kajol". :-)) Let me be candid here, I am not a big SRK fan, for me he has given only 2 good performances in his entire career, "Swades" and "Chak de India". I would put MNIK as the third good performance by him. The most surprising performance of the movie though was by Sonya Jehan, playing the role of Jimmy Shergill's wife. Her portrayal as a racial victim and the changes she undergoes have been captured by her very well, and she has also done a fabulous work to portray the same.

The music is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is OK. Certain songs like "Sajda" and "Tere Naina" are good, but nothing great to rave about. May be good to listen to for a few weeks on your Ipod and surely by then something better will come over.

Now coming back to the comparison with "Forrest Gump", well there is no comparison. It is like comparing BMW with a Maruti 800. I did read somewhere, (i think in TOI), where the review said that MNIK has gone beyond "Forrest Gump" and SRK beyond Tom Hanks. I can just say this to the person who wrote this, "Get your eyes tested" or go and see "Forrest Gump", because either you are blind or you have not seen "Forrest Gump", just heard its story from someone. MNIK is not even 10% of "Forrest Gump".

Overall, it is not a bad effort by SRK and KJ combination. If you do not have anything important to do, please do catch this in the theaters, but frankly, if you were to do that over the DVD, that won't be a big loss either.

Review of Ishqiya (2010)...

What Ishqiya brought back for me is the "Mitti ki Khusboo". The Rustic rural setup, the calm and quietness of a small town and the simple looking complex problems of its people. Living in Bangalore now for the last 10 years, some how I have gotten cut off from the farm lands and rural part of India. The days I used to spend in my Grandma's house, with people living a really carefree life. I had started to believe that in this mad progress that India has made in the last 2 decades, that kind of India has been lost somewhere. Ishqiya has brought back those days and the belief that that India still is very much there, may be not in the Bangalore and Delhi's of the world, but certainly in the Gorukhpur's and Lucknow's of India.

Ishqiya is a story about 3 key characters Vidya Balan(krishna), Naseeruddin Shah (Khalujaan) and Arshad Warsi (Babban), and how there lives get entangled in Love, Lust and Deceit. There is the plutonic style love of Naseer for Vidya, and also the Lusty love of Arshad for her. Both the love stories progress together, and one cannot understand why Vidya is playing with the emotions of both of them, clearly she has an agenda of her own. All this going on with a Maoist movement, Murders and kidnappings happening in the background, A business man having an affair outside of his marriage, a young boy having his own dreams, a small time Bhai trying to recover his money or blow off the brains of our characters and all these characters being involved with each other in some way or the other. I will not reveal the plot of the movie further, as there enough twists and turns in the story, incase I was to reveal them, it would make your movie experience predictable. All I can say, the story is like a Onion, with each peel coming of, the story becomes more and more interesting. Just that in this case peeling of Onion does not bring tears to your eyes, but rather a smile to your face.

The screenplay is co-written by Vishal Bhardwaj along with Abhishek and Sabrina Dhawan, and is the main strength of the movie, like all the previous Vishal Bhardwaj ventures. He has not taken the role of Director this time, instead it is Abhiskey Chaubey who has directed Ishqiya. Inspirations from Vishal's previous works, Omkara, Maqbool are clearly visible though. Vishal has in the last few years has managed to create a handsome following for himself and a unique moving making style. In his movies, it is the characters of the movie that are in the limelight and not the stars playing them.

Though the story line is complex, it is told in a really calm and realistic way, and it grows on to you slowly as every leaf of the story unfolds. Each of the 3 main characters have an equally strong role to play and each of them try to outdo the other with their performances. There are equally strong support characters in the movie, which contribute to the movie becoming more and more gripping. For me the second half of the movie is more interesting than the first half. This does not mean the first half is boring or anything. Its just than the movie takes off beautifully in the second off, and does not look down after that.

On the performances, while we all are aware of the acting ability of Naseeruddin Shah, it is Vidya Balan and Arshad Warsi, who have come out with some mind blowing performances. Arshad Warsi has clearly given the best performance of his career yet. Vidya Balan has shown that one does not need to be Size zero and wear small clothes to look sexy and seductive. A village girl can be as Seductive and attractive as a big town girl wearing designer clothes.

My favorite performance of the movie though was by Salman Shahid, playing the role of Jijaji in the movie. A person whose money has been stolen by Arshad and Naseer and he is after them to get his money back or blow off their brains. The way Salman has played his character is really fantastic. He has brought in so much of realism to his character with his Dialogue delivery and suttle nuances, that one looks forward to his return to the screen. We surely could have done with another 10 mins of his additional screen presence.

The movie flow is crisp and with a running time of hardly 2 hours, is aptly timed. The music is nice and simple and the camera work great. Another feather in the Cap for Vishal Bhardwaj, looking forward to his next movie now. Net net a great story, some sleek direction and great acting by the actors, make Ishqiya a must watch in the Theatres. Incase you can't catch it on the Theatre, Wait for a the DVD release. A good item to add to your collections.

Beware, the dialogues are very realistic (very U.P. like) hence it will not be a good idea to watch this with your Kids (what ever be there age). Strictly for Adult viewing.