Slumdog Millionaire a movie made popular by the Golden Globe Wins, Oscar Nominations and a lot of discussion in Media for good as well as bad reasons. There have been movies made earlier about the life in Mumbai slums, but this one is special because this one is directed by a foreigner Danny Boyle. The movie is based on a novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup and talks about the journey of two kids Jamal and Salim from childhood to boyhood to adulthood. It's the story of their survival and how Jamal ends up having all the right answers on one of India's biggest quiz show Who Wants to Become a Millionaire. How does he know all the answers? He has not read them anywhere, he has neither heard about them from someone nor he is cheating. Life has taught him all the answers and how is the screenplay of Slumdog Millionaire.
Jamal is interrogated by the Police on charges of cheating in the game show and the entire is movie is about Jamal narrating the Police how he knew those answers. Each question asked by Prem (Anil Kapoor) in the show is related to some significant incident in his life and that is how he knows the answers. The story starts from Jamal and Salim two kid brothers trying to survive in the slums of Mumbai in the middle of poverty and crime. In their bid to survival they meet Latika and Jamal finds himself attached to her. The movie like all other bollywood movies is about love and hate, good and evil, separation and reunion and in the end there is hope. Hope that a boy from slum can be a millionaire overnight.
We have seen two boys running after a train and then growing old in many Hindi movies. Danny Boyle shows how difficult it is grow old for two orphan kids in this bad bad world. Many scenes in the movie look like a tribute to 70s Hindi cinema. The kids have acted well and are true stars of the film. The screenplay is brilliant and has been supported well by able direction and top notch cinematography. A R Rehman's soundtrack takes the narrative to entirely different level. Danny has used Rehman's talent very well for his film.
I have heard many opinions about the film before and after watching the movie and would suggest don't by the opinions you hear in this case because at many occasions the opinions might be biased because of the fact that the film is made by a foreigner. I would suggest everyone to watch the movie and form there own opinion or better just enjoy the journey of Jamal and Salim. For the first time in my life I was watching a movie alone in a theater and it didn't bother me, I found the movie so gripping. Would go with 9 out of 10 for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and wish A R Rehman all the best for Oscars.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Find Him. Kill Him.
A man wakes up in a room and is not able to recognize where he is. He enters the bathroom, with a perplexed look on his face. He looks confused from his body language. He reads the sticker pasted on the mirror in the bathroom, "TAKE OFF T-SHIRT". He follows the instruction and takes off his t-shirt, looking even more surprised. While taking of his t-shirt first thing he sees "REVENGE" written on his stomach. Even more surprised, he takes his t-shirt off and now he knows what is it all about. Now he knows, "KALPANA WAS MURDERED" "FIND HIM" KILL HIM" "GHAJINI". The man is full of pain and anger and he screams, may be to ease his pain and anger. Now the man knows, he is Sanjay Singhania, love of his life Kalpana was murdered and the only thing he knows is the name of the murderer, GHAJINI. To make things worse, Sanjay is suffering from short term memory loss and can't remember anything for more than 15 Mins.
If you have a bad memory and want to remember something important you write it down. Your brain is not able to remember things so you build your memory in the form of notes. That's exactly our hero does in Ghajini and that's what Guy Pearce did in Memento. So what, Ghajini is not Memento and it's good that nobody in the movie is trying to match it with Memento. I don't think we have guys like Christopher Nolan in bollywood. Back to Ghajini. I personally found the movie well made and everyone has acted their parts very well. The chemistry between Amir and Asin is a treat to watch.
Amir Khan has already proved his acting skills many times and a good performance was expected out of him and he did brilliantly both as a sophisticated business man smitten by an upcoming model and as a disabled man in pursuit of revenge. He is believable when he smile at Asin's innocence as well as when he breaks the neck of people with a single punch. Asin fills the otherwise violent movie with light moments and you love her when she is on the screen. Pradeep Rawat, who played Deva in Lagan and Sultan in Sarfarosh, has done a brilliant job as Ghajini. You can see the fear inside him when he is shouting. Jiah Khan didn't have much to do in the film but wherever she was, she looked convincing. I wish there was more of the Lattoo song. By the way, there weren't any songs needed in the story except may be Kaise Mujhe. The songs seem to be disturbing with the pace of the film. On the other hand it's a good sound track and the magician A R Rehman never fails to deliver the best. I like all the songs, specially Bacchu.
Overall I think Ghajini is a well made film with great acting. The only point against the movie is that it's not one of those feel good films you can watch again and again. It's a disturbing film with so much violence in it. Violence or no violence, this movie deserves a watch. I would rate this one as 8 out of 10.
PS: Don't blame me for not mentioning the Tamil version, I haven't seen it hence can't comment on it.
If you have a bad memory and want to remember something important you write it down. Your brain is not able to remember things so you build your memory in the form of notes. That's exactly our hero does in Ghajini and that's what Guy Pearce did in Memento. So what, Ghajini is not Memento and it's good that nobody in the movie is trying to match it with Memento. I don't think we have guys like Christopher Nolan in bollywood. Back to Ghajini. I personally found the movie well made and everyone has acted their parts very well. The chemistry between Amir and Asin is a treat to watch.
Amir Khan has already proved his acting skills many times and a good performance was expected out of him and he did brilliantly both as a sophisticated business man smitten by an upcoming model and as a disabled man in pursuit of revenge. He is believable when he smile at Asin's innocence as well as when he breaks the neck of people with a single punch. Asin fills the otherwise violent movie with light moments and you love her when she is on the screen. Pradeep Rawat, who played Deva in Lagan and Sultan in Sarfarosh, has done a brilliant job as Ghajini. You can see the fear inside him when he is shouting. Jiah Khan didn't have much to do in the film but wherever she was, she looked convincing. I wish there was more of the Lattoo song. By the way, there weren't any songs needed in the story except may be Kaise Mujhe. The songs seem to be disturbing with the pace of the film. On the other hand it's a good sound track and the magician A R Rehman never fails to deliver the best. I like all the songs, specially Bacchu.
Overall I think Ghajini is a well made film with great acting. The only point against the movie is that it's not one of those feel good films you can watch again and again. It's a disturbing film with so much violence in it. Violence or no violence, this movie deserves a watch. I would rate this one as 8 out of 10.
PS: Don't blame me for not mentioning the Tamil version, I haven't seen it hence can't comment on it.
Friday, December 26, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)