Friday, August 24, 2007

Heyy Babyy: Watch it baby!

Unlike many mindless comedies (leave aside Bheja Fry and Khosla ka Ghosla) of recent times, this one has an story. It's not just a set of gags put together to look like a movie. Sajid Khan has done a brilliant job in his first effort towards direction. He knows what he wants to show and is to the point most of time.

Start credits roll with the title song showing all the flop actresses of bollywood and our three heroes flirting with them. The song is enough to draw the character sketch of these three. The movie starts with a baby being dropped at the doors of these three friends, and how they struggle with the new problem in hand, i.e. raising the baby. That's not it. The movie is full of surprises. The story unfolds with these guys bonding with the baby and then baby being taken away from them. The second half is all about how these guys get the baby back in their lives.

All the characters have done fair job with the role they have been given to play. Akshay proves that he is good even when he is not doing comedy; watch out for the hospital scene. Riteish Deshmukh has a long way to go. He handles his character with ease. Boman Irani doesn't have much to do but he makes his presence felt. Vidya Balan is again great at her part. Fardeen Khan seems to be learning, still there is a lot for him to learn. Finally last but not the least Angel. It's really amazing how the director Sajid Khan has made the baby act. SRK does his bit of overacting in the small cameo; however the reference to DDLJ is funny. There are some scenes not as good as they could have been, like the restaurent scene, where Akshay and Riteish are dressed as arabs. BTW who is that girl Devika, she is really HOT. ;-)

Would rate this one 5 out of 10.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Are you also fed up of these calls?

You are sitting on the comfortable sofa in your living room. You have just come back from a tiring day in office and trying to relax in front of TV. Before switching on TV, you have kept all the stuff in your pockets on the table. Now you are watching TV, you don't want to move for next 15-30mins at least. Suddenly you hear your phone ringing.

You think. You think it could be someone from office (may be something went wrong), it could be your girlfriend (why she calls up at odd times always), it could be your school friend (he is in town for last 2 days, and this is the suitable time for this bugger to call up) or whoever it is, it could be something important which needs your immediate attention. Buried in these thoughts cursing the person who invented cellphone, you get up from your comfortable sofa to pick up the phone. You look at the display. It's an unknown number.

Who it can be? May be some bugger has dialed a wrong no. You are gonna be really mad at the guy, you are going to teach him some dos and don'ts before dialing any no. Today is the bad day for the person who has just called you, by mistake may be.

You angrily, cursing the person who doesn't look at the keypad before dialing any no, pick up the phone. The conversation goes as below:

You: Hello, who's this?
Caller: Hello sir, this is X, calling on behalf of ABC.
You: What is it all about?
Caller: Sir, do you hold an ABC Bank credit card?
You: Yes (thinking, has there been any fraud on your card and bank is trying to report it. See, this is the benefit with these banks, they are so concerned about their customers)
Caller: Sir, we have a very exciting offer for you. (Before you can say anything) Sir, we are offering you a health insurance worth Rs Y Lacs on your credit card. Whenever you visit hospital and pay for medicines, just use your ABC Bank credit card and all your money will be reimbursed.
You: That's really good. (See, I told you, this bank is really concerned about their customers)
Caller: Sir, for that you just have to verify some details and the facility will be made available to you.
You: Isn't this facility provided by default to all your card holders?
Caller: No Sir! we are providing this to some of our most preferred customer. (You, feel proud. Oh! so I am their preferred customer.)
Caller: Sir, your date of birth please. (This rings a bell inside your head, why the hell they are asking for my date of birth)
You: Why are you asking for my date of birth? Can you explain to me in details about your offer.
Caller: Sir, we are offering you a health insurance worth Rs Y Lac, for that you will have to a premium of x Rs quarterly.
You: That part you did not tell me earlier.
Caller: Sir, but you don't have to do anything about it. It will come as part of your statement.
You: But I'll have to pay the bills, right?
Caller: Yes, Sir!
You: Then? (Now you are thinking, all of them are cheats, they just want to earn money, no matter how they do so. If you hadn't asked for those details, they almost convinced you for that.) I don't want any insurance, I already have health insurance and don't need one. Please don't call me again for this.
You hang up cursing your credit card company.

If you are already fed up of such calls, then the conversation could go somewhat like this:

You: Hello, tell me! (you have probably guess who is on the other side)
Caller: Sir! this is X calling from ABC.
You: Why are you calling ME then?
Caller: Sir! we have a very exciting offer for you.
You: I am not interested in any of your offers and don't ever call me again.

Or something like this:

You: Hello!
Caller: Sir! this is X calling from ABC
You hang up.

It's even more irritating if the conversation is as follows:

You: Hello!
Caller (an IVR): Download kijiye latest ringtones........

Now you don't even have anyone on the other line to scream at.

I always wonder how many such calls actually mange to impress the customer and end up in successful selling.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Vinashak-Destroyer: The most meaningful ending ever

If you have seen Vinashak starring Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Danny, you would relate to the post and if you haven't, after reading this post you would want to see it. I was amazed by the knowledge and insight of the director (Ravi Dewan) and screenplay writer (Rajkumar Santoshi) of this movie. They have definitely done a lot of thinking before writing this movie. Every scene has a message hidden in it and has a broader significance. Climax and ending of the movie are really remarkable and well thought of.

In the climax of the movie our Hero Anna Shetty kills one of the villains Azghar (Mukesh Rishi) by burning him alive. The scene goes like this, there is fight going on between Anna and Azghar and Azghar falls in the water. Anna Shetty throws petrol on the water and burns him alive. After a few minutes Danny arrives at the scene and he sees his body getting explode. (I couldn't understand, how?) After some thought, I realized the brilliance of Santoshi and Dewan. Since the body was burnt in cold water, it was cold outside and hot inside. Due to inside heat of the body which was dying to come out but was not able to because of the cold water surrounding the body, it exploded. The knowledge of science of Rajkumar Santoshi is extraordinary.

Ending of the movie carries even deeper meaning. Lankeshwar (Danny) and Arjun (Anna Shetty) are in the same jail, whose staff is controlled by Danny. Fight breaks out between jail staff and Anna Shetty. Looking at Anna Shetty fighting many to one, one of the jail staff having sympathy with Anna Shetty decides to open another front for jail staff and sets all the prisoners free. At first prisoners fight with jail staff and then they start running carrying Charkhe (Gandhi ji style). I thought probably they will use these Charkhe for breaking out from the jail, but to my astonishment sab ek circle me baith ke sut katne lage. I was wandering ki ye log sut kyon kat rahe hain. Suddenly I saw all the threads converging at one point and at the center one person was joining all the threads. Then I realised the deeper meaning of the scene. They were preparing a rope to hang Lankeshwar. Finally in the end Lankeshwar was hanged by Anna Shetty using the rope made by all those threads. After watching the scene I remembered one quote from Gandhi ji, "If I had to choose between cowardice and violence, I would choose violence." This one scene says it all. Imagine the brilliance of Rajkumar Santoshi and Raj Dewan. This scene clearly says ki agar Anna Shetty ki jagah Gandhi ji bhi hote to wo bhi yahi karte.

I really salute Santoshi and Dewan. Every aspiring script/screenplay writer should worship these talented writer/director.

Monday, August 13, 2007

ChakDe India: It's nice to see SRK ACTagain after long time

Watching ChakDe India is like watching a fixed match whose result you already know, but you still feel the excitement. I give full credits to Shimit Amin for the excellent direction. Watching SRK act is a treat, he should do more such films which showcase his acting not his King Khan image. This is an sports flick and unlike other sports flick it concentrates only on our national sport. Thanks to SRK, a lot many people now know that there Hockey is a 70 minutes game with two halves of 35 minutes each and a lot more about a sport which no one cares to watch these days. It's undoubtedly the best sports movie made in Hindi film industry.

The movie is well made with good screenplay and dialogues. Some dialogues are really touchy and some make you smi0le. All the girls though not very good actors have done there part well, specially the girl who played Komal Chautala. I also liked the songs, they are really inspiring and suit the mood of the film.

With all these plus points, there are some negatives also, like some scenes have been dramatized unnecessarily (YRF effect may be), like the end and the climax. But overall packaging is really beautiful to conceal all other negatives. It's a must watch, and I would rate this movie as 8 out of ten.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Cash FAQs

Some questions are crawling in mind after watching the great movie Cash. No movie other than Gunda has left me with an itching brain. Thanks to certain community and blogs, Gunda FAQs are answered. Can someone be kind enough to answer the following questions about this masterpiece made by Anubhav Sinha:

1. What kind of engineer Ajay Devgan was (It has been told in the movie that he was an engineer, but which stream)?
2. Why so many scenes were animated?
3. What happened to the businessman's son from whom the third diamond was stolen?
4. What was Chinese mafia doing throughout the movie after stealing the third diamond?
5. How many devices Ajay Devgan actually places on the bridge where Shamita Shetty’s car breaks down? (If you see the entire seem closely the no of devices switches from 2 to 1 and then again 2 and this keeps on repeating till the seen ends)?
6. What was the use of those gadgets placed on the bridge by Ajay?
7. Why Shamita Shetty did not hear any sound, when Ajay’s cellphone fell down and then Ajay himself?
8. Why was the police following Zayed Khan after Riteish Deshmukh throws the painting to him in the water?
9. What was the IQ of Shamita Shetty’s character in the movie?
10. When Zayed Khan meets Esha Deol in Capetown for the first time, he says he’ll need her help in the assignment he is there for. What, when and where did Esha help Zayed in that particular assignment i.e. stealing the painting?
11. In last chase sequence from where Ajay and Riteish get cars, they started the chase on roller board?
12. How many times people change targets in the last chase sequence?
13. Why police is always chasing Esha Deol?
14. Why Riteish Deshmukh always says Kabaddi Kabaddi, when surrounded by Police?
15. Does marking the money means, mark some notes with big black spots?
16. What was in the painting that was stolen by Riteish from exhibition and why the same was stolen?
17. When Dia Mirza exchanged her car keys with Riteish, why didn't he say or do anything? Did he know she had a better car than his?
18. Why police following Zayed Khan started shooting at people on Uncle's boat?
19. Why one helicopter was following Anna Shetty after he shot Uncle?
20. What did the man in the helicopter do when Anna Shetty snatched his gun and threw the same in water? (he must be crying like hell. bahuhu, meri bandook fek di, ab dusari kaon dilayega.)
21. Why Anna Shetty drove the car blindfolded when he first met Dia Mirza in the movie?
22. Ajay Devgan was controlling only one toy plane from the helicopter, who was controlling the others and how?
23. When Shamita Shetty jumped on the van, carrying the money, Ajay was inside the van. How he managed to get out of it, without Shamita Shetty spotting him?
24. When Ajay Devgan smashes the manager of Princess Yacht on the cake, I thought his intentions were to remove the name from the cake, but the same was visible later also. What his real intention was behind smashing the poor guys face on the cake?
25. Does Anubhav Sinha have sleeping disorder and was sleeping during the shooting of various scenes? Why there are so many continuity flaws in the movie?

I would be really grateful to whoever clarifies these doubts. I haven’t slept properly since Friday.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Cash: Confused

While watching Cash, one thought that kept on crawling my mind again and again, was am I the only confused one in the hall. The movie is all about confusion (don't get me wrong, it's not the Guy Richie style of movie making I am talking about). Everyone associated with the movie seems to be confused. Scriptwriter did not know what to write, Dialogue writer could not write suitable dialogues to the characters, editor did not know which scene to edit and to what extent, director did not know what he was doing, actors did not read the script/character sketch even once before coming for the shoot and finally last but not the least audience, they seem to be wandering why they took the decision of watching this film.

The film is full of so many flaws that you can not count them on fingers. Continuity has not been taken care of at various occasions. A is chasing B (both are unaware of the reason, why?) may be because the director told them to do so, suddenly director himself forgets, who was chasing whom and next thing you see is, C is chasing B and A is chasing D (how?).

The movie should have been titled Chase (have heard this is the title of Anubhav Sinha's next movie), instead of Cash. In the entire movie someone is chansing someone else with or without a reason. The intentions behind making such film are still unknown, may be further analysis of Anubhav Sinha's brain reveal some facts.