Rab Ne Bana Di Movie

Don't be confused by the title of the post, I have selected this after much thought and it's very much relevant with the movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Well if you pull rab out of the movie there is nothing left. Like the leading characters in his film, Aditya Chopra would have also thought that Rab sab theek kar denge. Well God helps those, who help themselves. In this case God doesn't seem to be helping Adi, because you don't expect an almost empty theater in the second weekend after release of a SRK movie. Is there a decline in SRK's popularity or Rab nahi chahte ki Aditya Chopra aur movies banaye.

By now everybody knows the story so I would not waste words in telling you the same. It could have been a brilliant film if Rab was not to decide everything, somethings could have been left on Bobby, played by Vinay Pathak. Whenever there is a difficult situation Adi looks up to Rab for help. Well Rab has given you a brain so that you can help yourself sometime. Not to take the credit away, some scenes are really beautiful and I enjoyed them and had a good laugh on some of them. The only problem I have is with the over dramatic scenes, which seems to have become a trademark of each YRF film and may be the whole country agrees with me, which explains the 100 crore loss, which is being talked about these days.

I always knew SRK can act, you have to just let him not be himself in the movie and I have again been proved right after watching him as Surinder Sahani. Surinder Sahani, Panjab Power, lighting up your life ji, this dialogue is enough to light up your faces, when they are spoken by Suri, not by SRK. On the other hand Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, really irritated me. That's one irritating way to say bye. They should have put a disclaimer "never try this at home", whenever this dialogue was being spoken.

It would have been a nice film and I would have liked it better if it was 20 minutes shorter. While I enjoyed the first half in pieces, second half didn't seem to end. While SRK is good as Suri, he irritates as Raj*. Anushka Shrama has done a good job. Special mention for Vinay Pathak for his special role. Rab has also done a brilliant job by entering on his convenience wherever he felt like and making the movie more predictable. If you are an SRK fan, you would like this movie, if you are not go and watch Suri.

*Raj is played by a well known celebrity, please do not try these tactics to woo girls in your colony. In case you get slapped, beaten or caught by Police, the producers of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi can not be held responsible.

The unfailing Indian ability to turn disability into philosophy

I just read an article in Times of India, by Swapan Dasgupta and would like to quote one phrase from that, "the unfailing Indian ability to turn disability into philosophy". We have been invaded for centuries. Some of those invaders stayed back raped our women and raised kids. Now we say Indian culture adopted them. Please open your history books again, Babar came with his canons and we could not compete with them. We failed in keeping him away, we did not adopt him by will, it was by force. If someone robs you at gun point, you don't say that you were generous and helped the needy. If you say so and don't resist, there are chances of you being robbed again and most likely by the same person. Why? Because he knows you are weak and can not fight back.

What is happening currently in India in the name of Pakistan sponsored terrorism is the outcome of the same inability to accept the truth as it is and handling the same. Every time we are attacked, instead of taking some action, we hide behind the curtain of forgiveness. We not only pretend to forgive, but also forget. Why we forgive? because we are too weak to fight.

When we ask for extradition of criminal and terrorist like Dawood, who is and Indian citizen wanted for crimes done in India against Indians, Pakistan has the guts to say that he will be put to trial in Pakistan provided India provides ample proof (which never is ample).

I don't understand, when India TV can reach Dawood, why can't our RAW agents. Why can't he be abducted by RAW and brought to India or assassinated? This failure is being turned into which philosophy? Mr. Pranab Mukharjee, I am waiting for a response.

Not that Lucky

Mumbai terror strike has an unlikely victim in the form of our film industry, that is the reason I did not see the crowd one would expect on a movie from the makers of hilarious Khosla ka Ghosla. So in that sense Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! did not turn out to be that lucky for it's makers.

Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! is story of a thief Lucky, who steals anything and everything from rich homes and sells the stuff in black market. His catalog includes anything from kitchen utensils to Mercedes. In his stealing spree Lucky meets many people and the story moves forward with Lucky meeting the girl of his dream. That all to tell as far as story is concerned. I wish they had a tight story for the film.

The film has some very funny moments and witty dialogs. I would have liked the kid Lucky's story to go on instead of the grown up Lucky. Nothing against Abhay Deol, I think he is growing up real fast as an actor, but grown up Lucky's story is not as interesting as the kid's. The movie has been very well directed backed by a fine performance by lead actor. However there were some loose ends, like the story with Lucky's brothers. We really could not understand the point behind those scenes. May be those incidents pushed Lucky towards opening a restaurant, but they didn't look very convincing.

Overall it's a fine film and deserves one watch, but please don't expect Khosla ka Ghosla, you will be disappointed. It's not a match for Lucky is no match for Khosla. I would go with 7 out of 10 for Lucky.

Three Days of Terror: What Now?

Suddenly after recent terror attacks in Mumbai, I see a lot of patriotism in people. People who never talked about India as a country before have also suddenly become the biggest patriot you could see around. There is nothing wrong in being patriotic, in fact everyone should feel that way. But the problem starts when people start doing stupid things in this overflow of patriotism. Like 4 youths in Rang de Basanti suddenly started feeling patriotic due to one particular incident and did something very stupid i.e. killing the defence minister.

The biggest problem with this sudden patriotism is that everyone wants to flaunt his feelings for the country and they choose various ways to do so. I have been witnessing some of these in last few days. People start sending forwarded messages, start signing different petitions, organise public gathering and some of them go to the extent of filing PILs in courts. I think all this has been done before and none of these have worked most of the time, instead these ways of demonstrating your feeling use a lot of valuable resources and time. Some well educated and well known faces have even suggested stop paying taxes. I don't know if these guys actually think about how these suggestions are going to be implemented and most importantly are they really the solution to our problems. By the way, not paying your taxes can never be patriotic. Instead everyone should pay taxes. Can you guys imagine if trillions deposited by Indians in Swiss banks is just brought back to India and deposited in Indian banks, we will not be talking about liquidity crunch for years to come.

I think the best way to deal with the situation and show your patriotism is to do whatever you are supposed to do with honesty and perform your duties before enquiring about your rights. Do whatever possible to educate the next generation and vote for the right candidate and not against the wrong candidate.

The new Bharti campaign comes to my mind. Think about what a billion Indians can do.

Three Days of Terror: Mumbai Spirit

Whenever any unfortunate tragedy strikes Mumbai, be it a natural disaster like flood few years back, bomb blasts or riots, we instead of reforming and rediscovering ourselves we start talking about Mumbai spirit and how every time it bounces back in no time. First of all Mumbaikars don't have a choice than to bounce back and go back to their daily lives no matter what has happened yesterday and this not having a choice has given a wrong impression to our politicians sitting in Parliament and Vidhan Bhawan. Our friends in Parliament and Assembly think that now the tragedy is over and everyone seems to have forgotten about it, let us forget it as well. Digging too deep into it might cut some of our votes in next election as some people might rightfully take this as the failure of the government and vote against the ruling party on next election. So sooner we forget about it the better for our politician who seems to be suffering from short term memory loss and it always takes some big tragedy to awaken them from their sleep and refresh their memory. A job which these terrorists have been doing so efficiently.

These terrorists seem to have taken a pledge that till government does something concrete to equip Mumbai to help itself in time of crisis they will keep on doing this and nature seems to be on terrorists side by killing a number of people in form of rain every year. I have been taught as a kid that God help those who help themselves and in this case God seems to be helping terrorists because they are putting a lot more effort in destruction than we are in construction. Help yourself and hope that God will also help you.

I am a great admirer of Ratan Tata and when I see him so sad after witnessing the damage of Taj, I highlighted that to one of my friends. I said, "I have never seen him so sad". My friend promptly replied, "he is paying the price of being an Indian". I think we all are, by being subjected to such situations. We are all responsible for this in some ways because we allow all this to happen. We Indians have a very short memory and we forget everything so soon that by the time we decide to take some corrective action, we have already forgotten what needs to be corrected. No wonder a certain Raj Thakarey would rise again tomorrow and again try to divide us in the name of region and language. Or a certain Sonia/Rahul Gandhi asking for votes just because they belong to a particular family. Or a certain Advani trying to teach us about Hindutva, without even understanding what Hindutva means. I wish for once we Indians start using our brains instead of doing what someone else wants us to do.

One dialogue from Krantiveer comes to my mind at this point, "uparwale ne bahut kamal ki cheese banayi, insaan. Neeche jhank ke dekha to sab sale keede makode ban gaye the." I wonder for how long we can keep on living like keede makode. I hope this time Mumbai does not bounce back as it does after every disaster, and reforms itself instead.

Three Days of Terror

Last three days everyone was glued to their television sets watching the live coverage of the terror attacks at various locations in south Mumbai, covered by all the news channels across the globe. The whole operation took more than 50 hours to be over and that was done by only 10 armed and well prepared terrorists, who managed to kill cops with more experience that their age. DO you think it was their preparedness that allowed them to hold for such long, considering there was no hostage situation or negotiations? I think it was more of our lack of preparedness rather than their preparation that helped them hold so long.

When it all started everyone thought it's a gang war and by the time we could realise that it's much bigger than what it seems, we were clueless what to do. Nobody seemed to be equipped with the necessary skill or training to handle such situations and that's when we are constantly under terrorist attacks for last so many years. Looks like we don't want to learn from our mistakes. Every time there is a terror attack, we talk about spirit of Mumbai and how it bounces back. Does Mumbai really has a choice than bouncing back. Since Mumbai bounces back, we forget to prepare ourselves for next such attacks. I mean how ridiculous it is that in case of terrorist attacks in the financial capitol of the country, we have to bring in NSG commandos from Delhi. By the time these commandos arrive terrorist would have already done the damage and taken secure positions. Lack of decision making ability of our politicians actually allowed terrorists enough time to make bunkers inside these fine buildings.

The worst thing Congress government has done to the democracy that it has given us a spineless Prime Minister and Cabinet. I wonder why these office bearers in the cabinet consult Sonia Gandhi every time they have to take a decision. I think they are taking decisions as an office bearer of Cabinet and not as a member of Congress working committee and as per my knowledge Sonia Gandhi doesn't hold any office in the cabinet. She is just an MP and there are more than 500 for that matter. In such situations decisions need to be taken at the blink of eye, others can be briefed about the decision later, if need be. As per my understanding a Union Home Minister is fully capable of taking such decision on his own and if anyone needs to be consulted are the NSA and their staff in such matters and not Sonia Gandhi. I doubt if he has consulted NSA before taking the decision instead he preferred consulting Sonia Gandhi as if she is an expert in handling such situation. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, when heard about the unfortunate incident (as if he didn't know about it already), guess who he calls up. Your guess is as good as mine, Sonia Gandhi. I find it unfortunate how President of ruling party has become more important person that Prime Minister and that's the kind of democracy we keep on bragging about.

I have so much to write and don't think all my feelings can be covered in one post. So that's all for now. Will take this further in my next post.

Divide and rule

I was speaking to a guy few days back about recent Raj Thakarey fiasco and realised how easy it is to influence the common man of India. It was the day Raj got arrested and for obvious reasons I don't subscribe to the tactics (not calling is ideology) employed by Raj to gain political mileage. I asked the guy, why so many people are supporting Raj and going around burning buses and beating harmless people. The answer I got was "wo jinke liye lad raha hai, wo log uska sath denge hi." I mean people really believe Raj Thakarey is fighting for Marathi people's rights and that is why they are supporting him so violently. On the above answer I asked, "buses jo jalayi hai wo Maharashtra me hi jali hain," so how can you fight for Marathi people by destroying public property in Maharshtra. For a moment I could not believe the answer I got for this. The guy said, "wo to government ka loss hai." As if those buses were meant only for government or non-marathi's.

If there are people like these there will be many more Raj Thakarey's and he is not to be blamed for whatever has been happening in recent times. It's the people who are following him without giving it much thought. Indian public gets influenced too easily. I may not be able to pin point the exact reason for the same, but in my opinion, it's lack of education and employment. You would have heard of old saying "Khali dimag shaitan ka ghar." I don't think anyone who has a job to do and earn breads for his family would have even thought about what Raj is saying, till it was blown out of proportions by our news-deprived media.

I think it's the lack of education that we have a political party by the name of Maharashtra Navanirman Sena and there are people who would actually vote for it in next general election. My only question is, how can a political party be called Sena (army), and since when armies started participating in Navnirman, they have always been known for destruction and what kind of Navnirman these MNS people are doing by destroying the public property. On the expense of sounding funny, they are actually justifying their name, they are fighting (which armies do) and destroying property so that same can be replaced by new establishments thus making the path for Navnirman clear.

Bachelors not allowed

I am sure this would have happened to a lot of people looking for an apartment to stay in Mumbai. You walk into a housing complex looking for an apartment and someone tells you "bachelors not allowed". I wonder what's wrong in someone being a bachelor, I mean all those so called family persons were bachelor some day.

Renting a flat to a bachelor is much more convenient than renting it to a family. Why? Bachelors don't crib for small small things, they just come home during the night mostly just to sleep, hence the furniture and other stuff is less used, they don't have any problems in leaving the flat in case required, because families form an association with the flat because their kids are studying in a particular school, which has to be changed in case they change the flat. So many positives of renting a flat to a bachelor, still so many issues have been created out of nowhere.

There could be some things associated with bachelors, which probably these family men used to do when they were themselves bachelor and think that all bachelors are like this. The problem has to be with some things, which are associated with bachelors and not any person. If this is the case don't allow those things, why deprive of bachelors staying away from their home and family of a roof.

I have noticed, most of the times it's not the owners of the flat who have a problem, it's the society. If you ask these society people about the real issue, they always fail to provide a logical explanation for this ridiculous demand. Some site some hypothetical or real incident/experience they had with some of the bachelors staying in one of the flats in the society, well I also can share many such incidents involving married people. Just because one person behaves in a particular way does not mean everyone is same. In the end each individual is different and has different behaviour and attitude.

In the end only one thing, most of the bachelors looking for a flat in Mumbai want to live with their family but they can not afford a flat alone, with the rent so high, to keep their family with them. That is why they decide to share the flat and rent with their colleagues or friends and sometimes even with people whom they have never known before.

We (me and couple of my partners in crime of bachelorhood) wish to build a huge high class housing complex with all the facilities and rent it to bachelors in half the market rates. In case some family man wants to rent a flat in the complex they will have to pay the market rates and will have to go through an interview before they are be allowed to stay in the locality. We might be married by that time, but still we don't want bachelors to go through all the trouble just because they are not married. In fact looking at the population in the City/Country, we should be encouraging the bachelors instead of forcing them to start a family just for this very idiotic reason. Common guys, think about the future.

He did it on a Wednesday

Thanks to Ronnie Screwvala, that we got to watch movies like Aamir, Life in a Metro, Rang De Basanti, Khosla ka Ghosla and now A Wednesday. A Wednesday is a movie based on the backdrop of terrorism, but it's different from plenty of other movies on terrorism we got to watch recently. The movie brings two of the finest actors of Hindi film industry together in well defined no-nonsense roles.

Commissioner of Police Prakash Rathore gets a call from an unknown number claiming that he has planted bombs at different locations in Mumbai and to prove his claim he guides the Police team to a bomb planted at Colaba Police station. In return the unknown caller demands release of four terrorists. The caller is played by Naseeruddin Shah and Prakash Rathore is a no-nonsense cop played by Anupam Kher. This leads to start of a high speed thriller involving two other cops played by Jimmy Shergil and Amir Bashir and a news reporter played by Deepal Shaw. There is a twist in the end and a brilliant monologue by Naseeruddin Shah about problems of the common man.

There are so many movies getting made on terrorism, but this one is different. It has a story to tell, which it does without deviating from the objective. There are no subplots, not forced songs in the movie. The movie progresses in a straight line and it's a short film and does not take much of your time. All the actors have performed their part brilliantly and dialogues are very well written. Specially the last conversation between Naseer and Kher. You don't want any songs in such movie and I am glad there are none. This is one good thriller made with a twist in the end and it forces you to think. Not to forget, this is first attempt of the director Neeraj Pandey, who has written the script as well. I am looking for more from him, he certainly seems to be a good story teller.

I would rate this one as 8 out of 10 and would recommend it to everyone.

Chamku can't die sala

Dear God! forgive me cause I have sinned. I was so out of mind (it can happen after having a couple of drinks) that I have decided to watch Chanku. Oh God! forgive me, I have sinned.

Chamku is story of Chandrama Singh aka Chamku (Bobby Deol), who joins naxal movement after his father is killed by Thakur (Akhilendra Mishra) and he is saved by naxalite leader played by Danny. He becomes an active member of naxal movement before getting caught by Police and taken for encounter. This time he is saved by Kapoor (Irrfan) and recruited for a covert team of political assassins. During his stint in the team, he meets Priyanka Chopra and falls in love with her. He also comes across Thakur during one of the operations and decides to kill Thakur. After a failed attempt on Thakur he is again captured by Police, taken for encounter but again saved by Kapoor.

It's an outdated script and has been shown many times on silver screen. Presence of Bobby Deol is reason enough for not watching the film. Priyanka Chopra is doing so many movies these days that she herself would have not known she has worked in this film. She looks out of place, her character is also not well defined. Irrfan has very less to do in the film. None of the songs in the film are worth listening and irritate when they are played out of place in the film. Overall, there is nothing to talk about in the film.

I would not dare to rate this film and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Two powerhouses of acting together

Mumbai Meri Jaan

When something is done with good intentions it shows and Mumbai Meri Jaan is a movie made with good intentions. On 11th July 2006, 7 bombs in local trains rocked Mumbai. You saw people getting with their day to day activities from very next day. You heard numerous news channel talking about Mumbai spirit. What is Mumbai spirit? What was it that kept Mumbai going? Mumbai Meri Jaan tries to capture the answers to these questions.

Mumbai Meri Jaan is story of 5 characters and how they deal with the sad incident. Madhvan is a senior executive in some corporate house and uses local trains to commute though he can very well afford a car. He happens to be in one of trains, which exploded and is lucky to survive. Soha Ali Khan is a TV reporter and her fiance is killed in the incident. Paresh Rawal is a hawaldar in the verge of retirement. K K Menon is a computer salesman, who happens to suspect every muslim he sees around. Irrfan is a poor coffeewala from south India, who after being insulted in a shopping mall, makes hoax calls to police to create havoc is malls. The movie explores how Mumbai returned to it's self after the incident through these characters.

Everyone in the movie has acted really well. Soha Ali Khan is one actor to watch out for, she is growing into a fine actress. All others have already established themselves as fine actors and don't need any introduction. Vijay Maurya has impressed with his performance as a policeman, whose leave has been canceled because of the blasts. Although the movie handles a sensitive subject it doesn't get heavy at any point. Dialogues are very well written. I am really impressed by the way the subject has been handled.

I would give this movie 8 out of 10. Would recommend everyone to watch this film, make this film work. I want more such films to be made and encourage the filmmakers to keep up the good work. It's better than spending your money on watching various meaningless films being made these days.

PS: Happened to watch the trailer of A Wednesday during the interval and the movie seems interesting. Looking forward to watch this one too. It would be interesting to watch two fine actors Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher confront each other in a fast paced thriller (that's what it looked like from the trailer).

Singh is King: Not Exactly

What would you expect from a film whose story is derived from the title instead of the other way round? Well, since Akshaya Kumar is there I expected it to be a no brainer laugh riot. No brainer it is, but laugh riot it isn't. The movie doesn't have a script at all and the entire cast and crew looked confused about what they wanted to show to the audience. Sometimes it seems like a comedy, sometimes a movie with a message, but in the end it turns out to be a big joke on you.

The movie starts with Lucky Singh AKA King (of Australian underworld) being attacked on his birthday and Lucky played by Sonu Sood catching the killer by performing a gravity defying stunt. The scene is shifted to Punjab where Happy Singh (Akshaya) is making everyone's life miserable by trying to help them. All the villagers decide to get rid of Happy by sending him on a mission to bring Lucky back to his home. Happy on his mission to bring lucky back meets Sonia (Katrina) and ends up becoming the new King. Entire movie is full of crap except only a couple of good scenes (which actually made me laugh) in the entire 2 hrs runtime. Most of the scenes don't even make sense like why Puneet's father resembled Mika (King's brother), sudden change of heart of every character in the King's gang, why Puneet surrenders so easily during the climax, well there are plenty such loopholes. The couple of scenes I liked were the one with "King ka khoon khaul raha hai." and the one where paralysed king is used as a tray to pass things among people.

There is no story in the movie to talk about. The director should go on a sabbatical and learn some skills before trying his hands again in this trait. Akshaya Kumar should not be over confident and relook at what he is doing. Katrina Kaif is so beautiful that she I don't care about her acting. Yashpal Sharma shouldn't try such kind of stunts again; he is so good at playing bad guys that he should be doing more often than doing such silly stuff. I had great expectation from Neha Dhupia after watching her in Mithya and Ek Chalis ki Last Local, but she doesn't seem to be serious about her career. Om Puri should retire, it's better than doing such roles. It's sad watching him in roles he has been playing lately like in Mere Baap Pahle Aap, Buddha Mar Gaya and now this one. None of the songs including the one with Snoop Dog sound good, actually I got irritated whenever any song was played. Not to mention all of these songs were forced into the script.

In the end, when it comes to making movies Script is King and not Singh, in this case there is no king only a bunch of Jokers (just talking about the joker in cards, don't confuse with the brilliant act of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight). This movie does not deserve anything better than 4 out of 10, 2 points of these are for the two jokes, but I think 200 Rs is huge price to pay to watch just two jokes. It's not a fair deal. If you are Akshaya Kumar's fan don't watch it because you will be disappointed and if you are not, you are anyways not going to watch it.

Wah Aamir Wah!

It seems perfection is associated with the name Aamir (okay lets forget the rash Paki opener Aamri Soheil). This movie is simply perfect. I couldnt find any flaw even after spending one night think about the movie. Its just the perfect thriller India has ever produced. Ekdum hollywood estyle picture hai baap! The story starts with a wonderfull casting song and some nicely taken shots of Mumbai. And then one great scene starts following another. Unfortunately I can not tell any more about the story, it will spoil every thing but surely some extremely splendid scenes can be discussed. 1. Small Victory Scene: This scene comes up when everything is going wrong in Aamir's life. The way he beats up those thugs is awesome and the audience also feel like kicking their asses. This scene is enhanced by the beautiful Qwalli which goes on in the background. When the scene end I felt like clapping for the person "Aamir" , he seemd so real! 2. Realization Scene: This best part of the scene is just for a second when Aamir realises what has actually happend to him. This time I felt like clapping for Rajeev Khandelwal, the actor this time. His emotions are simply outstanding. Actually there are many more such scenes like when Aamir goes to the public sandaas, the power of the scene is so much that the audience also feels like pukinh when Aamir does. As I am trying to remember such scenes, the more scenes are cropping up in my mind, but such aalsi I am, I can't describe any more scenes. The direction of the debutant RK Gupta is awesome, infact awesome is also an understatement. My vocabulary is too small to describe the art of this man. The cinematography by Alphonse Roy is out of the world stuff. The OST of the movie is brilliant and I wonder why such beautifull songs were not promoted. Seriously bad marketing of such a good product. Editing is perfect, the movie never drags and it ends exactly when it had to end. Total 1 and a half hour paisa wasool. Finally some words for the splendid actor, Mr. Khandelwal. He, along with the director, deserve standing ovation whereever they go. Rajeev could have done atleast a dozen TV soaps uptill now and could have married 19 times but he chose to be a part of this movie. I hope a certain Ms. Kapoor is watching this movie and think of funding these kind of movies, not the ones in which her brother plays a dreading don. This movie is a must watch and that too ONLY in theaters coz the only thing that I found disappointing was the 3 quarter empty cinema hall.

The Dark Knight Trailer

The truth is, I am Iron Man.

I wanted to say those lines after watching the movie Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr in the title role. I have never read any of the Iron Man comics before and neither knew that any such superhero existed. So it's a movie about the lesser known hero of Marvel. But it seems to have the potential of become a bigger franchise than Spiderman in movies. This movie is not about a hypothetical Gotham city, or a guy from another planet or someone who has powers of a spider, this movie is about a real person, living in a real world dealing with real life problems, using his extraordinary scientific brain. This movie is one superhero flick someone can actually relate to.

Tony Stark is a brilliant scientist, a playboy and CEO of Stark Industries, the biggest arms manufacturer in the world. During his visit to Afghanistan for demonstration of one of his innovation Jericho missile, Tony is kidnapped by some terrorists and is forced to make one of the Jericho missile for them. In the captivity Tony builds a escape suit and the Iron Man is born. In the captivity Tony realizes that the arms he is building for world PEACE are being used by terrorists for killing innocent people and he decides to use his newly acquired powers against terrorists. There are some interesting twists here and there just like any other super hero flick. Just like any other super hero flick there is love interest of super hero, this time she is Pepper Potts, Tony's personal secretary, played well by Gwyneth Paltrow. There are close friends, Colonel Jim Rhodes, played by Terrence Howard and enemies, Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger, played by Jeff Bridges.

The movie is brilliantly made and is contemporary. Robert Downey Jr seems to have born to play Tony Stark/Iron Man, he is absolutely brilliant and makes the character even more interesting. I think it's the brilliance of Director Jon Favreau that has made the Iron Man look so brilliant on the screen.

I have seen many super hero flicks in the past and this one is one of the best. I would rate it as 8 out of 10. Get over IPL, go for Iron Man and I assure you full entertainment.

Tashan: How worse it can be now?

Bade bade stars ko cast karke, ek ghatiya story pe ghatiya presentation ke sath unse ghaitya acting karwana. Yahi hai Yash Raj films ka Tashan. At least that's what seems after watching last few films (except Chak De) from Yash Raj Banner. I think distributors of Tashan knew that the movie is not worth 200 Rs, that is why they haven't released it in multiplexes. I did not expect the most awaited film of the year to be like this. That too when Akshaya Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor are a part of the film. I mean whatever these four are touching turns into gold these days, but alas Yash Raj Films could not benefit from them and have given all four of them a flop (may be) after a long run of hits at box office.

The movie is about Pooja (Kareen) who works for Bhaiyaji (Anil). Pooja hires Jimmy (Saif), a call center employee to teach Bhaiyaji English. Jimmy falls in love with Pooja while teaching English to Bhaiyaji. Both of the decide to run away with Bhaiyaji's 25 crore. Here comes the man everyone was so desperately waiting for after being bored by watching badly shot scenes with some even worse dialogues, ten headed Akshaya Kumar. Akshaya's Bacchan Pande, who is a collection agent in Kanpur is sent after Pooja and Jimmy to recover the money. Entire second half is about the chase and many badly shot senseless action sequences.

Frankly speaking, after watching Tashan I have realized that "Cash" wasn't that bad, this one is even worse. There is some story but nobody cares when the same is presented so badly. Akshaya Kumar is the only one who impresses (again) with his acting. Yash Raj Films owes everything this movie earns to Akshaya and Kareena (for 3 seconds of bikini shot). Only watchable scene where Akshaya Kumar is not there is Kareena in bikini but alas that lasts only 3 seconds. Anil Kapoor irritates with his badly written dialogues. Saif has nothing great to do in the film. Songs sound good but when you watch them they don't look that great. Overall the movies is a big disaster only saving grace for the movie is Akhsaya Kumar and he has also been made to so much silly stuff that he also looks stupid in many scenes.
I would rate this one as two out ten, one for Akshaya Kumar and one for Kareena Kapoor in bikini.

Khuda Ke Liye

Before watching this film, I used to think all Pakistani movies are like those B-grade Bhojpuri films, with names like Sasura Bada Paisa Wala. To be frank when I first heard the name of this movie, first dialogue that came to my mind was "Khuda kay liye mujhe chhod do," something similar to "Bhagwan ke liye mujhe chhod do" from our very own Hindi films. Then I read about the appreciation this movie has received all over the world. Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India has given this movie 4 stars and said "There have been a number of post 9/11 offerings from Hollywood, but it takes a Pakistani film to create the maximum impact". Though I am not a big fan of Mr. Kazmi but such strong statement about the movie made me watch this film. BTW, don't read too much between the lines, the movie is not about 9/11, it's much more than that. It's about how some fanatic Moulanas influence youths in the name of God and how people get effected by that.

Khuda ke Liye is a story of one family living in Lahore. Two brothers Mansoor and Sarmad, who love music and have an small band of their own. One day Sarmad's friend takes him to Mullah Tahiri and gets influenced by his views of Islam, which include quitting music, changing dress code, wearing beard etc. One day their uncle, who has been living in London for years and married a British come to Lahore to marry his daughter Maryam to one of the two. Reason, she was in love with a British boy and was ready to marry him. Sarmad, against the will of everyone else in the family takes Maryam to Afghanistan Border and marries her with the help of Moulana Tahiri and keeps her captive. Why, according to Moulana Tahiri, it's against Islam for a girl to marry outside the community. In the meanwhile Mansoor is in USA studying music, and falls in love with an American girl, who he later marries. Then 9/11 happens and everything changes in everyone's life. Mansoor has been arrested and tortured and Sarmad has unwillingly, influenced by Moulana's views joins Taliban. Everything changes. What follows then is an eye opener for all the orthodox, so called religious people.

The movie is made with good intentions and the director knows what he wants to show. He is always to the point, with no nonsense. All the three lead characters have been developed well and the transition in Sarmad's character is justified by his conversations with Mansoor and Moulana Tahiri. Everyone has played his part well. Music of the movie is top class.
I would rate this movie 7 out of 10, go and watch it.

One, Two, Blah Blah

Straight coming to the point, One two three is NOT worth wasting your money in a multiplex but if you are a chiller party like yours truly and dont mind the single theater charm then this movie is a must watch!! (BTW I watched it thanx to the piracy, not much single theaters in Gurgaon). This movie is about three idiots named Lakshminarayan and the usual Priyadarshan type confusion that occurs. The plot ends here, yes there's nothing more to write about the plot instead the director Ashwini Dhir needs some mention. It seemed the final output was far from what he wanted to show. I believe it because of the fact that this is the same man who gave us Office Office. The glimpses of such artist is seen in the scenes between Manoj Tiwari's gang and Anna Shetty. Special mention to ever underrated Sanjay Mishra (As Pintos) who does a Jeevan impersonation brilliantly. If I had to pick two performs of this dim wit movie, then they have to be Manoj tiwari and Sanjay Mishra. Rest all are plain and simple BAD. Yes to add to misery of the viewer, Upen Patel and Tannissa (or whatever her name is) are also there in a role which would have been rejected by umpteen junior artists. Apart from few genuine moments, this movie is full of double meaning jokes and corny dialogs. Whatelse we could have expected from a movie which had a leading character as a lingerie supplier. Background score is also a minus point, the behan de takke track which keeps on playing during Anna's scenes is simply irritating. Music is poor, cinematography poorer but a good comedy need not have these two things still it can be successful but this movie isnt good comedy either.
Now coming to the point why this movie can be enjoyed in single theater cinema halls. Firstly in that sort of ambiance, you will certainly laugh on 80% of the gags in the movie. Afterall its jokes are better than Anil Kapoor jokes in Race, which is running to packed houses. Secondly when the ticket costs you just 40 bucks then you dont mind sitting through any movie :D.
I am still hopefull for Ashwini Dhir and his second outing as writer, Krazzy 4. In One two three it seems he wanted to make an Andaz Apna Apna but ended up making a Priyadarshan remake instead.

Race: Sex, lies and style with lot of confusion.

There is one thing common in all recent Abbas-Mustan movies, all the characters in the movies have their defined game plan. All of them are scheming against each other. I think now I know how Abbas-Mustan make their movies. They are two brothers with clearly distinct way of thinking. They first discuss one idea and write their individual scripts and in the end they club each others script and the result is a movie like Race, where everyone is conspiring against each other. I am not against unpredictability but, the way these movies are made it's more confusing and sometimes even director seem to forget, what exactly they want to show.

Race is a movie about two brothers Ranveer (Saif) and Rajiv (Akshaye). Sonia (Bipasha) is an upcoming model, who is falling for Ranveer and Sofia (Katrina) is Ranveer secretary, who secretly loves him. At least that is what we are told by Anil Kapoor's voice in the beginning. But after watching the entire movie, it seems that Anil was trying to confuse the audience by giving them irrelevant and incorrect information. Soon after we are shown some scenes involving Saif and Dileep Tahil, which we later come to know had nothing to do with the basic plot of the film. Finally we are told about Rajiv's master plan to earn 100 million from Ranveer's insurance policy by killing him with the help of Sonia (confused? you thought Bipasha was in love with Ranveer. Hold your breath may be she also has her own master plan. May be she actually loves Ranveer and is just double crossing Rajiv). By interval Ranveer is dead and RD (Anil Kapoor) is the investigating officer of the case. In second half we are told that Sofia also has her own plan of claiming the 100 million insurance money. We see confused faces of Rajiv and Sonia, but to your utter surprise Sofia and Rajiv are together in this plan. Confused again? me too.

May be some day Abbas-Mustan will learn that not everyone in this world is scheming against each other, there are actually some normal characters who react to the situation instead of having everything planned in advance. May be we can someday get to watch something like Bazigar or Khiladi from the director duo. I am certainly not expecting another Naqaab or Race.

This movie promises to be full of sex, lies and style, and that is what it delivers, with overdose of confusion. The movie is a visual treat with several good looking faces and beautiful locales of South Africa. I think in action movies don't require great acting, so wont talk about acting performances except mentioning Anil Kapoor, who is good in an underdeveloped role, speaking double meaning dialogs. None of the songs have anything to do with the story and could have been avoided. Minus the songs and some other irrelevant scenes, the movie could have been a better watch.

I would rate this as 5 out of 10. If you have Johnny Gaddaar's DVD, watch that instead of Race, if you are looking to watch a good thriller. Else you know what to expect from Race.

PS: If Anil Kapoor knew everything from the beginning, why he took all the trouble of investigating the case. Specially going to Capetown and meeting the real estate agent, he could have easily asked Ranveer, what happened there.

What toothbrush do you use?

Every time you switch on your TV there is a fair chance that you will end up watching some commercial, no matter what channel you are watching. I find those toothbrush and toothpaste ads where someone posing as a dentist will claim that he uses this particular product because 80% of dentists across the world use the same.

If you notice, you will find that 80% of dentist use colgate, 80% use pepsodent other 80% use oral b toothbrushes and so on. Sometime I wonder how many dentists across the world brush their teeth multiple times and each time they use a different brand toothbrush.

10,000 BC or was it Ramayana? (incomplete)

We have seen and heard about Ramayana. Sita is kidnapped by Ravana and Ram goes in search of her. Ram with the help from local tribes crosses the sea and destroys golden kingdom of Ravana to bring Sita back. Well, the story of 10,000 BC is more or less the same, except here our hero crosses the sea of sand instead of sea of water.

The movie is all about D'leh, we will refer to him as Symonds because of similar hair style. So our hero Symonds lives at a very cold place may be North or South pole, there Badi Maa keeps on telling stories about some prophecies. Symonds is not liked in the village because all think that his father was a coward and he abandoned his people. But while hunting mammoths Symonds somehow manages to kill one accidentally and everything changes. One fine day Symonds girlfriend Evolet is kidnapped by warlords along with many others from the tribe. Now it's time for Symonds to get his love back and release his fellow tribesmen. He along with great warrior Tic Tic, Karan and Baku go on the search of his love. On his way, he meets various tribesmen and has to face some wild creatures. Karan and Baku are also captured during the search.

Now Symonds along with Tic Tic, joins hands with many other tribesmen, whose brothers and sisters were also captured by the same warlords. So these allied forces decide to bring their fellows back. In their search they cross the sea of sand and reach Egypt. Where all the captives are forced to work as construction workers to build the pyramids. Finally our hero manages to free everyone and kill the almighty ruler of Egypt.

Vantage Point: Storytelling Rediscovered

I wonder how easy it is to kidnap or kill US President. We watch so many movies on same plot every year. Vantage Point is again a movie where the target is US President addressing an anti-terrorism summit in Spain, and falls prey to a terrorist plot. In this movie it takes only 5 well placed terrorists to kidnap/kill the president, unless they had one super agent in secret service.

The movie is about a 20 minute long incident, and we are shown these same 20 minutes 5 times from the eyes of different characters looking at the incident from different angle, different point of view. First we get to see US President getting shot at through the camera of a news channel, then our super agent in secret service, an American tourist shooting the event through his handy cam, a local cop, who somehow happens to know one of the terrorists. We even get to see the same event from the eyes of US President and finally we see the same event through the eyes of the terrorists and find out what actually happened.

Story of Vantage Point is very simple and straightforward, it covers a 20 minutes long event, but the beauty of the film is non-traditional narrative. We have shown the same event from different angles and that is what is the USP of the film. Some people actually didn't like the repetition of same scenes again and again, but I guess they did not notice the difference every time same scenes were played on the screen. Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker have done brilliant acting. Others also look convincing. By the way the movie is not about acting, it's about the narrative and the pace. It's story telling rediscovered in true sense.

My rating for Vantage Point is 7 out of 10. Worth a watch.

O Michael! Dear Michael!

Tony Gilroy, the guy who has the screenplays of The Devil's Advocate and the Bourne series to his credit, takes the directors seat for the first time with Michael Clayton. The subject he has chosen for his directorial debut is a legal drama. Legal dramas are difficult to make, because the pace has to be slow, the dialogs have to be carefully written so that the audience can understand what exactly is going on and trust me people don't like to watch slow paced movies unless the movie is really good and has some substance to keep the audience glued to the screen. Well, Tony has chosen a difficult subject for his first film as a director and see how successfully he has done so. I mean, how many movie have managed to get seven Oscar nominations and how many of them were made by first time directors.

Michael Clayton is a fixer in one of the biggest law firms in United States and he is really good at his job. He is one person who can make his clients problems disappear except his own. His business has gone bad, he has debts to pay and he is addicted to gambling. His company is handling a high stake case for U/north, but a sudden change of heart of his friend and colleague Arthur Edens changes everything and Michael is given the job to clean everything up. Micheal is trying to pull everything back together, but when Arthur is killed, he decides to dig deeper.

The movie has enough stuff to keep you interested. Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton have done great job as Arthur Edens and Karen Crowder respectively. George Clooney is brilliant in the title role. The movie starts with a scene from the climax and the most of the story is a flashback, may be it's inspired by Martin Scorsese but it certainly made the screenplay much more interesting. I would give Michael Clayton 7 out of 10 and am certainly waiting for more movies from Tony.

Jumper: Anywhere is Possible

What will you do if you have the ability to teleport yourself to any location of your choice? Sounds interesting? Well that is what Jumper is all about.

Jumper is story of David Rice, whose mother has left him when he was five. He stays with his father. He secretly loves a girl in school Millie. One fine day accidentally David discovers that he has the ability to teleport himself and decides to have fun with it. He visits various places around the world. Robs some bank for the money and lives a lavish lifestyle. Just when he starts getting used to his lifestyle, enters Roland, who has vowed to kill all the Jumpers. Second half is all about David trying to escape Roland and save Millie from him. How he does it is quite interesting and there are couple of surprises to keep you interested.

The concept is interesting and a series of movies can be made on it. Movies like Jumper are not about acting, so lets not talk about that. Having Rachel Bilson is bonus. She looks great. You get to see some great special effects and beautiful locations around the world, that to a different view. Have you ever wondered how Sphinks look from the top. The movie is average and there were occasions in the first half, I wished I was a Jumper. My rating for Jumper is 5 out of 10.

Jodha Akbar: was it Suraj Barjatya directing the movie?

Ashutosh Gowarikar said in one of his interviews, Jodha Akbar is an epic romance. I just want to ask, why? How this romance was different from the life of any average Indian couple, whose marriage is an arranged one. In an arranged marriage both persons don't know each other and they get to know about each other by living together and observing each other's life style and behavior. Like our many TV serials, here also there is an scheming mother-in-law (kind of), trying to destroy the developing love. How many times have we seen people marrying each other for political or business advantage, in our movies, serials and in real life as well. Then why this is an epic romance and others not. May be because this involves one of the most celebrated character of Indian history or may be because of the money involved in making this film or the sets. This somehow looked like a movie made by Rajshree Productions.

People who might go to watch this movie for getting the feel of Moghul era, the wars fought during that time or the politics. This movie is not about all that. This movie is entirely about one arranged marriage and the couple sort out their differences and fall for each other. One of the biggest disadvantage for this film is, it's length. The run time is too long.

The movie starts with voice of Amitabh Bacchan giving a brief about Moghul history and how Jalaluddin became emperor and how Bairam Khan helped empire grow. You are shown one war scene, which failed to impress me. Akbar grows up and decides to take his decisions and we are shown that he doesn't want slaves or to kill people. He wants to rule their heart. In the mean while we get to know that Jodhabai's marriage to Ratan Singh is called off because Jodha's father, king of Amer, decides to surrender to Moghuls. This leads to an agreement between King of Amer and Akbar, and the first condition of the agreement is that Akbar will have to marry Jodhabai. Jodha reluctantly decides to go by her father's decision, with a little resistance of course. Then starts family drama. There you find husband and wife sleeping in different beds. Husband trying to impress his wife by showing his body and some skill with sword and wife trying to impress husband by cooking food for him. Then there is Maham Manga, who doesn't want the relationship to grow. By interval some confusion develops between husband and wife, curtsy Maham Manga. But as happens in every Hindi film, by the end everything is hunky dory between the couple.

I don't know the history behind Jodha Akbar but if what is shown in this movie, this doesn't look like a great story. Dialogs sometime are not consistent with the language spoken during that time, but such incidents are quite few, so can be ignored. I don't know how Akbar looked like, but somehow I didn't feel like I was looking at one of the most talked about emperor of Moghul era, by looking at Hritik in the movie. He neither talks like an emperor nor walks like one. Aishwarya somehow looks convincing. All the songs seem too long and make you feel restless. The pace of the movie is another weak point, the movie could have been better if the length was somewhere around two hours, but this one is almost 3 hour 15 mins. More value has been given to the sets than the story.

Overall, I didn't like the movie, but would like you to give it a try, because a lot of money and effort has gone into making this film and who knows, you might like it. My rating to this film is 5 out of 10.

PS: If someone close to Akbar did something wrong, he/she was not imprisoned or trailed. He/she was just sent to Makka Shareef. Did historians anywhere mentioned about any travel agency owned/run by Akbar?

Mithya: Welcome 2008

Finally the year 2008 has started for bollywood. All other movies released before this one in 2008 were not up to the mark and somehow failed to impress. I was waiting for this film since I read about it about four months back. And after watching the film I am glad that I watched this film. My friend was really hesitant about going for this movie (he was insisting on watching Fool's Gold) and I persuaded him and I am glad the movie did not disappoint me. After Mixed Doubles and Bheja Fry, Rajat Kapoor, Ranveer Shorey and Vinay Pathak trio has again done wonders. Rajat was not acting this time and was more keen on making other act.

The movie is about the life of a struggling actor VK (Ranveer), who finds himself in the middle of a gang war just because of his looks. This movie has a lot of twists and it will be unfair on my part to give away those here. In one line, the film is story of a guy who finds himself at the wrong place in the wrong time and how that changes his life. Although the movie is not a remake of Don, but this is how a Don remake could have been.

Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla have come up with a brilliant script, which is very unpredictable. Although I somehow knew the end, but the way movie reaches it's end is worth watching. The story has comedy, drama, action, romance, love, almost every element of a good script. Arindam Chaudhary has made up for his mistake (Rok Sako to Rok Lo) by producing this film. Rajat Kapoor has presented this brilliant script beautifully.

If we talk about acting, everyone in the cast has played his part beautifully. Ranveer Shorey has performed really well in a very demanding role. Vinay Pathak leaves his mark in a small but significant role. Other actors Naseeruddin Shan, Saurabh Shukla, Iravati, Brijendra Kala, Harsh Chhaya all are good in their part and have been suitably cast. Neha Dhupia has proved that she can act, if she is given good roles. By the end of the year, this movie will definitely find it's name among one of the best movies of year 2008.

I would rate this film as 8 out of 10 and would recommend every cinema lover to go and watch this film. I am sure you will be glad that you watched this film.

We Own the Night

What do you expect when 6 times Oscar nominee (one time winner) Robert Duvall, 2 times Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix and one time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg come together in a movie? I at least expected some people in the theater but to our surprise, we were the only two people watching the movie (later on we were joined by 3 more).

Robert 'Bobby' Green (Joaquin Phoenix) is manager of a night club, which is frequently visited by Russian drug mafia boss Vadim Nezhinski. His father Deputy Chief Albert 'Bert' Grusinsky (Robert Duvall) and brother Capt. Joseph 'Joe' Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg) are after Vadim. When Joe is shot by one of Vadim's hit man, Bobby decides to save his family from the bad guys.

This movie is only the third by writer-director James Gray, and he has done a brilliant job here. The movie is not an action packed crime movie. It's a drama. A story about a family, about relationships. All the three leading actors have done brilliant job, as expected. The characters of Bobby and Joe have been developed really well. In run time of almost 2 hours, you get to watch a good story executed by able actors.

To see how good an actor Joaquin is, watch him in the scene where Vadim tells him about the hit on his brother and he is planning to target his father next. Also watch him confronting with Jumbo, when he finds out that Jumbo betrayed him. I have never been a fan of Eva Mendes' acting abilities, but she has done a fairly decent job here. Robert Duvall and Mark Wahlberg are great in their part.

Overall, I would rate this movie as 7 out of 10. Go and watch it, it's worth your money.

Mithya: A movie I am looking forward to.

Same Same but Different

Like the tag line of the movie this movie is same same (Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling) but different (Dor, Iqbal) from Nagesh's previous work. Nagesh is one of the film makers I really admire, because he is daring, he is not afraid of experimenting, he knows what he is doing and he is one thinking film maker. Who else than Nagesh can come up with something like "Jeevan Dhara ka Jwalamukhi". With this movie Nagesh is back to what he has started his career with.

The movie is about a cook Shankar Singh, who steals money from gangster JAM-K AKA Jamal Khan and lands in Bangkok with a group of doctors. On his first night in Bangkok he meets one Thai massage girl Jasmine and feels the attraction towards her. The same girl is working as a volunteer in the medical camp by day, where Shankar has landed by the turn of fate. They don't understand each other but are attracted to each other and over the course of events they fall in love. There is another story of Eminem worshiping wannabe rapper gangster JAM-K, who lands in the same medical camp following Shankar and meets Dr Rati, a psychiatric just to realize that she is the love of his life he has been searching for so long. There are many funny incidents in between the story and in the end there is a twist, which is a bit weak, but who cares.

Nagesh has yet again chosen a different topic and has been successful to certain extent. I was really impressed by the actor who played JAM-K, he made us laugh most of the time he was on screen. Shreyas is a good actor and should keep on doing such films. Lina (Thai actress) is good in her part. In the supporting cast I liked Rash, the guy who was interpretor for the two lead actors. The idea is brilliant but the story could have been better and a little bit fast paced. There are some scenes, which should have been shot differently. Like the one, when Shreyas dances singing gas thi bhai gas thi.

Overall the movie is a decent light comedy and deserves at least one viewing. I would recommend it to everyone who liked Hyderabad Blues. Would rate this one as 6 out of 10.

My Name is Anthony Gonsalves

I read in Bombay Times some time back that Nikhil Dwivedi (hero of MNAG) is asking close to one crore for every film and after watching the film I have realized, either he is highly overpaid or I am highly underpaid. I was very impressed with E Niwas' first film Shool, but something happened and he lost his touch. Love ke Liye Kuchh Bhi Karega was light comedy, decent one. Then he made Dum and Bardasht, two really bad films. Dum even managed to kill the rising star in Vivek Oberoi. So, frankly speaking, I did not have very high expectations from the film. The only thing I was looking forward to was watching Anupam Kher as a bad guy and Pavan Malhotra.

There is one small boy, who is spotted by a gangster and the gangster decides to take care of the boy and make him a good human being. The boy grows up learning lessons in order to become a good person. The same boy, now grown up crosses paths with the same gangster who gave him a new life. DejaVu, isn't this the same story we did watch in many films, when we were kids.

Anthony (Nikhil) is an orphan, who has been brought up by Sikandar Bhai (Pavan Malhotra) and has learned lessons of life by Father Braganza (Mithun). He dreams of becoming a film star and works in a pub. Anthony gets a lead role in a film and falls in love with the assistant director of the film Riya (Amrita Rao). One day Anthony sees something he should not have seen and then starts all the trouble in everyone's life. What will Anthony do now? Will he sacrifice the man who gave him life in order to do the right thing or he will keep quite about what he saw? What will Sikandar do? Will he go with Murtaja Bhai (Kher), the man who brought him up, or will he save the kid, who he brought up and decided to give him a good life? You can guess the answers by your experience from watching old Hindi films.

Just by copying the looks of SRK, no one can become him and just by copying the name from a hit song, film can not be hit. The only good things about the movie are Pavan Malhotra and Anupan Kher. No other actor has been able to impress with his acting. The story is age old and has been shown many times in many different versions. Music also is not very impressive. By the way I liked Hrishita Bhatt in the item song 'na baba'. Nikhil Dwivedi has to learn a lot many lessons in acting before he makes his second film. Waise soch raha hun main bhi hero ban hi jata hun.

Overall, if you have anything else to do, don't go for this movie. I would rate this one a 4 out of 10.

Halla Bol: He has got balls!

Although I am not a big fan of Rajkumar Santoshi (I liked Andaz Apna Apna), I was looking forward to this one. Pankaj Kapoor was reason enough and fortunately he didn't disappoint me, as usual. The movie is supposedly inspired by Jessica Lal murder case and life of Safdar Hashmi (who was killed during one of his street plays). The two events mixed together can really make a good script.

The movie starts with the launch of biography of super star Sameer Khan (Ajay Devgan) and we are told that he is the kind of person who can go to any extent to remain at the top. He is even ready to sacrifice his marriage for his acting career. Then in a party he witnesses the murder of Rashmi Sahani, by sons of two very influential persons, one a state minister and another a liquor baron. He decides to keep quite in order to stay out of any controversy. Sameer Khan's past is told to us, using flash back. We are told that he was Asfaque, who used to work in street plays on social issues by a retired (not sure about the choice of word) decoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapoor).

By the time movie reaches towards interval our hero decides to fight for the girl and appears in front of police claiming that he can identify the killers. Suddenly his life changes. Fathers of two accused try everything in their power to stop him. Over the course of the film, his wife and friends join him in his fight and then Rajkumar Santoshi's Safdar Hashmi, organizes a street play 'Halla Bol'. No points for guessing what happens next.

Rajkumar Santishi has yet again tried his hands on socially relevant subject. The movie is being compared with RDB, but let me tell you. This one is different. RDB was a class, this one is not. RDB was targeted to awaken the masses, this movie does not do so. The movie has a very bad supporting cast. Except the brilliant lead cast, none of the supporting characters impress you. Pankaj Kapoor is brilliant as always. He has made 2 time national award winner Ajay look dwarf in acting department. I liked all the scenes involving Pankaj Kapoor. I have seen sword fights in many bollywood movies and none of them looked real, but give the same sword to Pankaj Kapoor and he makes it look real. Look forward to scenes where Sidhu is talking to media outside hospital and where Sidhu confronts with two truck drivers who are sent to kill Sameer. I am also not convinced with casting of Ajay Devgan as a superstar. I feel Santoshi is missing Amrish Puri badly. The movie lacked an impressive villain.

The story has many flaws in it and one of them is, it defies logic. Someone should tell Mr Santoshi, that there is a huge difference in Shayan Munshi and Sharukh Khan or Safdar Hashmi and Sharukh Khan for that matter. A Safdar Hashmi can be beaten to death in front of a crowd, but nobody would dare touch SRK in public, no matter how powerful he is. The story would have a been a bit more convincing if Sameer Khan was an struggling actor instead of a super star. I am also not very fond of watching villains who make weird gestures and speaks even more weird dialogs. Negative characters could have been written better and also Santoshi should have casted better actors to play those roles.

Overall, the movie is not a masterpiece but it deserves one viewing, if nothing, watch it for Pankaj Kapoor, one of the greatest actors we have in bollywood. I would rate this one as 6 out of 10.

Steve Bucknor: Umpire of the Year

I am amazed to hear that 96% of the decisions taken by Mr Steve Bucknor is last 2 years were correct, which is very impressive while the average for the elite panel of ICC umpires is 94%. Bucknor should very well keep on officiating during important matches, if we go only by this statistics.

But, should this be the only criteria to judge an Umpire's performance. If an umpire is giving 96% correct decisions, it means he is physically fit and able to see and hear the ball clearly. Have ICC ever looked into the fact that most of the wrong decisions by Bucknor have come against team India. Doesn't that show a clear bias on Bucknor's part. I would prefer to have an umpire who is less accurate, but unbiased rather that taking someone who is biased against any particular team or country. The only purpose of having umpires in the game is to have an unbiased decision. Having umpires like Bucknor defeats the purpose of umpiring.

Cricket Australia at it's peak

Yesterday Australian cricket reached it's peak and this is one achievement no country should be proud of, but Australian cricketers seem to be enjoying that. They looked really happy in achieving what they achieved. Ricky Ponting and his team looked so hungry for putting their names in record books for one more time that they didn't even feel bad about whatever happened on the field.

Steve Waugh justified the behavior of team Australia by saying, "Teams playing against Australia fail to understand that banter, gamesmanship, sledging or whatever anyone would like to call. It is just the way Australian kids joust and play on the schoolyard and backyards." So Mr. Waugh is saying gali dena while playing is a part of Australian culture. well then Mr. Waugh please note that gali khana is not a part of our culture and the same stands good for any other cricket playing nation for that matter. If gali dena is a part of your culture, then don't run around complaining when someone replies to your galis.

I also fail to understand, since when monkey has become a racist comment. Let's assume Bhajji called Symonds Big Monkey as claimed by him and his team mates Hayden and Clark and Symonds thought it was racial. In these matters feeling of the person who said this should be taken into consideration and not of the person to whom the things have been said. In this case it's what Bhajji's intention/motive was after calling Symonds a Big Monkey is more important than what Symonds felt about the same.
Since I have mentioned motive here, what motive Bhajji could possibly have after calling names to Symonds, when he was batting and Symonds was fielding (not even bowling). I have never ever seen something like that in my entire life. If Bhajji said something to Symonds (by the way, TV clippings clearly show that Symonds started it all, as this is a part of his culture according to Steve Waugh) and he took it into the wrong spirit then Symonds should be banned not Bhajji.

Well, if we look back, Bhajji has never been accused of racial slur or any other kind of sledging before, while Symonds has complained against players and spectators around the world regarding being targeted to racial slur. This shows there is some problem with Symonds and his attitude and not with Bhajji.

Ban Symonds for at least 6 matches for spoiling the spirit of the so called gentleman's game. Also, Ricky Ponting should be punished appropriately for supporting Symonds in this wrong deed. And yes Mr Ponting, I am questioning your game spirit.

Edit1: I have just heard that after facing the 3 match ban for calling Symonds a monkey, Bhajji falls more into trouble as monkeys all around the world along with Peta and other lesser known animal rights organizations have decided to protest against Bhajji for insulting their race by calling Symonds a monkey. Bhajji what have you done, you should not have hurt monkey feelings, by referring to Symonds by same name.

Edit2: I am amazed by the fact that Mike Procter believed Symonds and Clark over Bhajji and Sachin. Symonds is the same person who did not walk out of the crease even though he knew he was out and admitted the same in press conference after day 1 of the match. Clark is same person who claimed a catch that he picked from ground and then grassed the ball. Dear Mr Procter has chosen to believe their word over Sachin's.

Edit3: There is another theory, which says Bhajji did not call Symonds a monkey, he actually said Teri Ma Ki and Symonds thought it's monkey (ma ki). But I think even if this is proved, Bhajji will still be called a racist, because he did not think Symonds was worthy for the complete gali because of his race.