Sunday, September 30, 2007

Dil Dosti etc: Hat Trick

Wah Tiwary ji! kya movie banayi hai. Maza aa gaya. Aapne meri bhi hat trick karwa di (last three movies I have seen are brilliant)

The movie is about two students Sanjay Mishra (Shreyash Talpade) and Apurva (Immad). Sanjay is a student politician, who is from Bihar and knows what he wants in life. Apurva is a rich guy, trying to enjoy life by buying sex and flirting with girls. Sanjay is going for the post of college President. He falls in love with future supermodel Prerna. Apurva, when challenged by Sanjay starts looking for love. The whole story revolves around these two characters, while showing the delhi college life to some extent (that is not the motive of the movie).

Shreyash Talpade has done a brilliant job. Immad needs to work on his acting, may be he can take some tips from his very talented father. The direction is great. Background of the movie is DU, and I was expecting Haasil, but the movie does not disappoint. Still Haasil remains the best bollywood movie about college politics in my books.

After a long time I have seen a movie, which has made me think. I was quite (which is very rare) for sometime after watching this flick. I would rate this one as 7 out of 10. Some scenes/events should have been justified and also the ending. I would have made it end differently, wont mention it here because I don't want to reveal how it ends.

Johnny Gaddar: treat to watch

I went to watch "Johnny G" with great expectations and I am glad, the movie was up to what I expected and sometimes even exceeded my expectations. Sriram Raghavan is clearly one of the best directors in the Industry these days. I really liked "Ek Hasina Thi" and was expecting a thriller, which makes me sit straight and enjoy each and every scene. This is a thriller where the suspense is not about who, it's about what. You know who is Johnny Gaddar, but you don't know what is gonna happen next. Your brain is trying to work out the next scene but the director keeps surprises in store for you.

The movie is about and gang of 5 people, Sheshadri (Dharmendra), Shardul (Zakir Hussain), Prakash (Vinay Pathak), Shiva (Daya Shetty) and Vikram (Neil Nitin Mukesh). Sheshadri gets a call from his police inspector friend in B'lore (Govind Namdev), they are about to earn 2.5 crore in 5 days out of it. Vikram is in love with Mini (Rimi Sen) and is planning to start another life with her (again there is a surprise for you). Introduction scenes of each character describe the characters well. The movie is all about this gang and the 2.5 crore deal. All other characters complete the story and are important for the story. The movie is really fast pace and there is no dull moment.

This movie again proves that script is the real hero of the film. The script is really gripping. All the actors have played there part beautifully. Neil Nitin Mukesh is discovery, he will go places, considering he keeps on working with good directors. The scenes in the movie are inspired by various flicks Johnny Mera Naam, Parvana, Scraface to name a few, and the director is not making an attempt to deny that. He on the other hand is accepting the same by showing the scenes from these movies or mentioning them. However the movie is not a copy of any of these movies.

Do a favour to youself, spend some money and take yourself for a treat to watch one of the best suspense thrillers made in bollywood in recent times. I would rate this one as 8 on a scale of 10.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne starts his search of himself from his last known location Moscow. There are still some people at high positions in CIA think that he is dangerous and should be eliminated. Chase begins again, but Bourne is always one step ahead of his prosecutors. In the middle of high speed action he keeps on unfolding some more truths about his past.

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon had really big challenge to keep this movie up to the expectations raised by last two movies of the series and he does not disappoint. One thing I like about Jason Bourne is that whatever he does can be done in real world and is humanly possible and that's the USP of the series. This movie also shows some great work with the camera. It seems cameraman didn't know what the next scene will be, camera seems to follow the movements.

This is a fitting finale to a great series. Hope they are not planning movies on The Bourne Legacy and The Bourne Betrayal.

PS: Don't try to relate the movie with the Book. The character is from the book not the story.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Manorama SFU

Before starting to write my views (i am not qualified enough to churn out a review :P) I must confess that I have read numerous reviews, previews, behind the scene diaries etc etc and any resemblance to any such article is purely co-incidental. :D
Khair, I went to watch Manorama with loads of expectations (as it was recommended by Mr. Anurag Kashyap himself) and to sum it all, I didn't return empty handed. Since its a thriller involving lots of twists and turns (sadly most of them happen during second half) so i would not divulge into the details of the story but surely i would like to tell that in spite of being a thriller, it appears to be too slow esp in the first half. The knowledgeable people call it paying homage to the "Noir" genre of 50's but only question I would like to ask is that wasn't the director thinking about aam junta who payed 175 bucks to watch the movie.
Still that takes nothing away from the debutant director Navdeep who shows his brilliance in EVERY frame of the movie. The story is set in Lakhot district in Rajasthan and I am very glad with the way Navdeep has shown the small town and its very small details in the movie. One cant help but notice the funny posters that are a very normal scene in any small town in North India. Also the introduction scene of Vinay Pathak is shown very intelligently. These things showed that the director and his team did their homework well and god how well have they done it!!
Coming to the performances, Abhay Deol delivers yet another good performance but his voice modulation lacks the knockout punch. He looks well prepared physically for the role of a man who has a kid and a wife but wants something more for himself but Abhay looked unprepared mentally for the role. Trivia: Irrfan Khan was to play Abhay's part in the movie but due to lack of finances the director had to settle with Abhay. Surely Irrfan would have taken the movie to another level. Gul Panag is right on target in a role which is of a real(not a saas bahu type) housewife who runs a saloon. She essays the role with such an ease that we wonder why the industry hasn't given her more chances. Only thing which i didn't appreciate in her role was her posh accent which could have been altered for the role which shows her to hail from Rohtak. Raima Sen average in her outing but clearly needs to improve on the dialog delivery. The supporting cast is TOPNOTCH. The character of Abhay's intruding/jealous yet submissive neighbor is simply too good (played by the same guy who played Suggi in Haasil). Even the tiny one-second-zero-dialog role of his wife and her neighbor is amazing. Sarika doesnt has much to do in the movie and Kulbhushan Kharbanda is yet again totally reliable as a scheming politician. Vinay Pathak is simply awesome and I wished he had some more of the screen time. Lastly the characters of two goons are quite properly etched and provide some relief in the first half.
Though it was slowly paced in first half, still i liked the movie due to the braveness of the director and the treatment he gave to the subject. This movie stands out amongst the Dhamaals, Hey babyys and Dhols which are being lapped up by the junta. I was disheartened to see quite few people in the audi and heard that Dhol had 80% opening.

Lastly I want to confess that I havent seen Chinatown yet and even if the director has copied frame by frame of the classic (which i dont think is true), still i would laud his effort as very few people would have done Chinatown in Lakhot and fewer would have done it so brillantly.

(I dont like to give stars to the movie so dont scroll down for stars or ratings :P)

EDIT-- I missed out on Vinay Pathak (That happens when u blog while in office)..khair added it now!!
--Dubey

Das Kahaniyan Trailer

Dhol: Same Priyadarshan Again

Priyadarshan is the most repetitive director of recent times in Bollywood. Why can't he be more creative with his films and give the viewers something new for a changes. It started with Hera Pheri (Don't know about any of Priyan's hit comedy before that), but just because Hera Pheri worked does not mean you keep on repeating the same stuff in your every film.

Every Priyan movie is a comedy of errors, where actors get into certain situations because of some mistake of their or someone else. Dhol is again the same. Our four leading characters Kunal, Sharman, Tushar and Rajpal always find themselves in certain situations they did not expect in order to follow their dream of being rich by marrying some rich girl. Then there is a dhol in the middle of all the confusion, which is sought-after by Zikomo. So before interval it's the girl Tanushree and after interval it's the dhol, but there is confusion everywhere.

Some parts of the film are good and actually make you laugh. Rajpal is excellent, all other are OK. Last fight scene is something we see in all Priyan comedies and this time it does not make you laugh as it did in Hera Pheri. I think editor has forgotten to use his scissors on certain scenes. Overall, the movie will be liked by Priyan's fans but I would recommend Priyan and Neeraj Vohra to be more creative (they are capable of doing better). I would rate this movie as 5 out of 10.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Why do I like sports flicks?

Yesterday I was watching "The Greatest Game Ever Played", again. Though I had already seen the flick before, I knew what is gonna happen (that's the case with all sports flick I guess, you already know, what will be the ending). Still I was watching it with interest and was excited at every shot played by Harry or Francis (two main characters of the film). Though I don't know the rules of Golf, I never watch it on ESPN, still while watching the movie I kinda felt associated with the characters and the game. Same is the case with all the sports flick (except few).

Take example of recent release "ChakDe India", although it was based on a game I personally am not very interested in (I think that's the case with most of the people who watched the film and made it a hit). Still I rate it as the best sports flick ever made in Bollywood. I have watched this one twice already and did not loose interest while watching it for the second time. (ChakDe is one of the few movies I have seen more than once in theater)

My all time favorite Hindi film is "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar". I have seen the last race more than 100 times by now and I always watch it with equal interest. I am as excited as I was when I watched it for the first time (I think the excitement wouldn't have been more, if I was watching it live, why? Will answer this why in later part of the post). I feel like cheering for Sanju (it was Sanju, I cheer for, not Amir Khan), I feel like telling Sanju to change gear at times. I feel more excitement than the character Ratan is.

List of my all time favorite movies include "JJWS", "Cinderella Man", "Rocky", "ChakDe", "Lagaan", "Remember the Titans" and many more, which I might not have seen yet.

Why I find these sports flick more exciting than a live match? When I am watching a live match I don't associate with the players as closely as I do while watching a movie. I know the real life players from newspapers, TV etc, but while watching a movie I virtually live with the players. I know the struggle these players have gone through before playing the game. There is always a story associated with the game, which in all cases is climax of the movie and by that time, I want the hero/s to win the game. Because till the time match starts, those players are not unknown to me, they are like my friends/neighbors, who have gone through a lot of struggle/training to reach the stage they are right now. To top it all, there is always an emotion attached, like in Cinderella Man, Russel Crowe was fighting to earn bread for his family, in JJWS, Amir was racing for revenge and pride, Lagaan match was for lives of so many families and ChakDe was again for regaining lost pride. I think these emotions make the game bigger than live matches.

I hope that even more such movies are made in future and I keep on enjoying the game as well as the movie. It's kind of combo offer, watch the movie and get to watch one very exciting tournament as bonus.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Dhamaal: Good in pieces

After a lot of thought finally I decided to go for Dhamaal this weekend. Frankly I did not expect much from the movie. The movie isn't a great work of art. It's full of jokes you have already heard and scenes you have already scene. But at some places it works. I actually laughed at some of the jokes, I have heard so many times. But some scenes are stretched unnecessarily, like the aeroplane scene.

Ending does not fit with the mood of the movie. yaar, itna senti marne ke kya jaroorat thi. Overall, if you don't have anything to do, you can watch this film once. It's a light fun film, and I would rate it 6 out of 10.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Missing Shiva Gang

This weekend I wanted to watch the much hyped and publicized Ram Gopal Verma ki AAG, but thanks to the bad reviews and feedback, I could not. I could not find a company to go for this so called tribute to one of the biggest commercial success in bollywood, Sholay.

It's not that I had some great expectations from the movie. After watching the various trailers in TV, I had an idea that this is going to be one of the worst movies made by Ram Gopal Verma. All the reviews proved me right. Still I want to watch this film, just to see how bad it is. I want to see if this movie is directed by the same person, who debuted in bollywood with Shiva and directed movies like Rangeela, Satya, Company, Sarkar and produced movies like Shool, Ek Hasina Thi and Ab Tak Chhappan. I wanted to see how someone like Ram Gopal Verma can fail to deliver, even with a tried and tested script. I wanted to see how someone can make, three national award winning actors Mohanlal (4 times), Amitabh Bacchan (2 times) and Ajay Devgan (2 times) act so badly.

From the trailers, it is evident that Bacchan is over expressive in all the scenes, and Ajay isn't even bothering to show any expression. I know that the Veeru-Basanti (Heero-Ghungroo) romance would be one of the worst parts of the film. Still I want to see the film.

I can't blame my friends for not coming with me to watch this film, because I know it takes a lot of guts to see such a film, which has been bashed by reviewers so badly. That is why I am missing the Shiva gang. I would have watched this film if any of them were in Mumbai this weekend.