Snip-In
I've almost stopped watching TV after around Diwali of 2009. Not in touch with the latest movie -promos, songs to any extent. I was almost unaware of the movie apart from so-much-being-talked backless shots of Kareena with the beau Saif. Some of the friends were planning to watch the movie for almost a week and half and finally we could make it on a Wednesday evening, after going back and forth multiple times . Fortunately no business calls scheduled over that evening :-). Well Jehad has become a tag-line not only for Bollywood and Indian movies but also for the Hollywood and world cinema. I can recall Kite Runner, Khuda Ke Liye, Firaaq, New York, Amir, Wednesday, Ramchand Pakistani, Mumbai Meri Jaan, and what not. I watched almost all, barring New York. And every movie has its own charm for sure. So what's new this time? I'd say glamour! Yes - Courtesy Karan Johar, Kareena and Saif. The story briefly happens in New Delhi and then transpires to New York.
And please bear with me as this was written in bits and pieces over several days and including the places as airports and in-flight. Hence it may not be very structured and may have become lengthy.
It's Renzil Desilva's directorial debut. He has already worked with Rakeysh Mehra as a writer. The dialogues are smashing at certain points (Anurag Kashayp). Kareena has proved her mettle for her acting skills, even if there is a some amount (or a lot !?) of skin show as well. Saif and Vivek are ok. The amazing performance was by Kirron Kher, while playing a cool-headed, has-seen-it-all- and-very-mature Afghan lady. She seems to have actually lived that role through her accent, dialogue delivery and the chilled looks at the apt scenes in the movie.
Well it was the third week of the movie in theatres and still it was decently crowded show at Rahul, Shivaji Nagar. I've been to Rahul after many years and was surprised to see a lot better version of it. Especially the chairs were really cozy, adjustable and not available in any of the multiplexes at least in Pune. So as the crowd which was a decent one and some of them are actually watching the movie for the second / third time. They were rhyming the dialogues, giggling and making comments before any scene begins. Also some of them apparently bored and making phone calls / SMSs, flashing their cell phone screens diverting my attention. A bit of a disturbance and I was not able to watch it with the same intensity as usual.
Songs is a big plus, 'Salim-Sulaiman's' best ever music till date. Has a great Sufi influence especially on 'Shukran Allah' and I guess that is the best song of the movie. 'Dua' one of the romantic number is shot at very different local, and is a visual treat. It mostly is shot in Northern regions of 'Penn' state, surrounded by snow and definitely a difficult task for Kareena to enact in sarees and similar apparels. In fact the crew has worked in temperatures ranging from -18 Deg Celcius. 'Rasiya' is the most-talked-about song a semi-classical, but can be rated as one of the 'most-classical' and sensual number of Bollywood. Karan has cashed in the off-screen chemistry of the duo on the screen and I'd say to a very successful extent. Even if it’s very intense it doesn't become vulgar at any point.
Apart from the music and songs, another superlative aspect is in the sound department. I could sense around 4 instances which otherwise apparently are not captured in Bollywood flicks. 1) Saif gets down his GMC Gimmy, the door of the SUV is still open and the door ajar is beeping. 2) Saif and Vivek are at the Airport security and the beeps coming out of the people passing by the security checks. 3) Rasiya song starts in complete silence with just ticking of a clock in the background. 4) Kirron Kher passing through the door of a mall and is caught for shop-lifting has again the beeping sound captured in that.
I also want to touch-upon other movies on Jehad / Terrorism. From the global impact perspective, 'Kite Runner' stands out. It touches upon the aspects related to lives of Muslims in the US asylums, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. A very tight effective and authentic script. Great acting by the wonderful young actors (don’t recall the names now).
'Khuda Key Liye' again a bit Global - covers situations in the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, also has a nice romantic angle, most notable because this was my first introduction to Pakistani movie and surprisingly turned out to be a great experience.
'Ramchand Pakistani' is remembered for how a person living on the borders of India and Pakistan can go through an hell. Great acting by the kid and young Ramchand and his mother Nandita Das.
'Amir' is a pleasant surprise from directorial and acting standpoint. Rajiv Khandelwal as a lead in the debut film was outstanding.
'Wednesday' for the fact that, what a common man can do to eradicate the terrorism. At no point, it deceives you even if what Naseer does is superhuman act in the movie for the standards of the common man. 60 some Naseeruddin Shah has come a long way and is a treat to watch him playing yet another stunner role.
'Mumbai Meri Jaan' was a bit overrated but again would be remembered for the Marathi Constable played by Paresh Rawal. He is been doing the variety of roles over the years and still can bring a whole new perspective to every new character . Without making use of silly one-liners (Gulshan Glover) or doing a lot of makeovers. However the movie was impactful only in bits and pieces.
Lastly 'Firaaq', again a directorial debut of none other than Nandita Das. Very well executed story-line. A great performance by Naseer, portraying an aging non-extremist Musilm maulavi, supported by Raghuvir Yadav and Sanjay Suri as notable performers. Sanjay Suri's character in Firaaq and that of Pravin Dabas in YMI are very similar. I can still remember a very simple yet effective shot from Firaaq and which easily leads to the creative thought process of the director - Nandita Das than just the Cinematographer. It is a silhouette of Naseer and Raghuvir - And this mid-shot silhouette gives a hint about Naseer talking to someone (Raghuvir), but when the camera pans and focuses on Naseer with the normal lighting, we can see him reciting Namaz and Raghuvir is sitting at the window, and both of them are in different planes (plane as in the depth of view!).
Wow 7-8 quick reviews - Shorter version of Snipper - A Nanoer?
Snip-Out
Comign back to Kurbaan. In terms of acting Saif probably haven't acted to his potential. He seemed to be deeply involved in Kareen off-screen and that could have impacted his performance. Omkara is still the best of his work. Vivek Oberoi is also just ok, couldn’t succeed in making a mark. The least impactful is Om puri - I'd say Kirron Kher has overshadowed him , otherwise Om does leave a great impact on anything he does, be it a movie, serial or a play.
I'm not too sure why they have shown a person from subcontinent (Saif) driving a GMC Gimmy. A CRV, Pilot, Explorer, Pathfinder would have been an ideal choice. (The only reason could be Saif is the brand ambassador of Chevy! And I sense Vivek soon would be endorsing a Ford product, as he is flaunting his Ford Mondeo in the movie) And again I'm not too sure about the following Snip-Out as I couldn't focus a lot on the movie. But the GMC Gimmy which Saif blasts himself, is shown again in the movie, while Saif was taking the gang to the Subway stations. And here is a snip-out which is told to me by another avid movie watcher friend - Om Puri tells Vivek Oberoi that cell phones are not allowed within the gang and the very next sequence, Saif who's the key member of the gang, is shown using the cell phone while driving his vehicle. Another one if very weird for the Cops at any standard. Saif and the other person are driving the GMC Gimmy, to dispose the corpse of his friend's wife which has already started stinking. They are caught by the cops at the security post. Immediately after the window of the car is rolled down, the Cops should have sensed this and should have reacted. Instead the Cop gets into a conversation for 1-2 minutes with Saif and the other person in the car, which is un-thoughtful.
Well some of the intimate scenes between the duo are really bold and not required, the one in the college teacher room is absolutely uncanny and unrealistic. I still feel we as in India haven't reached that stage where the professors are romancing the in teachers room which is open for all the teachers and students :-)
Snip-O-Meter
Well I was so instigated by friends and colleagues to watch the movie and I somehow was under the impression that the movie would largely be romantic, considering again the duo and Brand 'Karan Johar '. But it really lives upto the 'Title' and the subsequent expectations of viewers from the subject. A very good script, great performance by Kareena and decent acting performances from others, ear-soothing and different genre (Sufi, Classical)music composed by only adequately leveraged instruments, no sub-plots, and unnecessary slew of characters makes it a decent enough flick to watch once. And lastly the movie must be remembered for the Duo for their first 'hit' flick.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Snipper_YMI (Yeh Mera India)
Snip-In
The promos were giving an idea about the nature of the film - Hardcore patriotic flick in the backdrop of Hindu Muslim riots / Unity? Also the promos were highlighting the number of characters representing the strata of Indian cultural, economic and social aspects. And all of them are entangled in a religious thread. Well the story has roots of Godhra riots and 2007 Mumbai train blasts. It merits in terms of direction, story, dialogue and acting, not much in terms of music or cinematography though.
Snip-Out
The director has used the shock treatment and anti-climaxes in most of the scenes very effectively. However it's used so repeatedly that it becomes too predictable and weakens the overall impact otherwise the movie could have had on the viewers' minds. The story is told in such a bland way (read 'Balbodh!)such that I could analogue it with the Sathyanarayanan Katha :-) - The stories about how someone can suffer if not followed the divine commands and how everything can work well if they just follow the same :-)
The language is little filthy at times.
Snip-O-Meter
N. Chandra is back with the bang. He was lost in weird flicks like 'Style' and 'Excuse me' for almost 21 years after the success of Tezaab which started with Ankush and Pratighaat. A very intriguing cliché of variety of characters and situations portrayed by able actors. Apart from Rajit Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Sayaji Shinde and Seema Biswas, the most notable was Pravin Dabas - I could recall him with this movie moving forward. Some scenes are plotted considering Atul Kulkarni's expressions especially his eyes, that works, but those seem really planted - 'Paisa Vasool' scenes. And at many occasions, it succeeds in making you thrilled, saluting the tri-color and loudly reverberating in mind 'Mera Bharat Mahan…', 'Jay Maharashtra…' and so on. Net-net a good movie that can be watched once, at least for the die-hard N Chandra followers of early years of his career.
The promos were giving an idea about the nature of the film - Hardcore patriotic flick in the backdrop of Hindu Muslim riots / Unity? Also the promos were highlighting the number of characters representing the strata of Indian cultural, economic and social aspects. And all of them are entangled in a religious thread. Well the story has roots of Godhra riots and 2007 Mumbai train blasts. It merits in terms of direction, story, dialogue and acting, not much in terms of music or cinematography though.
Snip-Out
The director has used the shock treatment and anti-climaxes in most of the scenes very effectively. However it's used so repeatedly that it becomes too predictable and weakens the overall impact otherwise the movie could have had on the viewers' minds. The story is told in such a bland way (read 'Balbodh!)such that I could analogue it with the Sathyanarayanan Katha :-) - The stories about how someone can suffer if not followed the divine commands and how everything can work well if they just follow the same :-)
The language is little filthy at times.
Snip-O-Meter
N. Chandra is back with the bang. He was lost in weird flicks like 'Style' and 'Excuse me' for almost 21 years after the success of Tezaab which started with Ankush and Pratighaat. A very intriguing cliché of variety of characters and situations portrayed by able actors. Apart from Rajit Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Sayaji Shinde and Seema Biswas, the most notable was Pravin Dabas - I could recall him with this movie moving forward. Some scenes are plotted considering Atul Kulkarni's expressions especially his eyes, that works, but those seem really planted - 'Paisa Vasool' scenes. And at many occasions, it succeeds in making you thrilled, saluting the tri-color and loudly reverberating in mind 'Mera Bharat Mahan…', 'Jay Maharashtra…' and so on. Net-net a good movie that can be watched once, at least for the die-hard N Chandra followers of early years of his career.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Trivia: Wake Up Sid
I never felt like writing a snipper review on ‘…..Sid’. Below is more of Trivia and was evolved while exchanging emails with friends.
Well the movie wasn’t that impactful as far as I am concerned. I was having great expectations from the earlier reviews I read (I could only see Gautam’s review in the evening.) The movie was not captivating. It was a bit boring in between. Also the Ranbir - Konkona chemistry didn’t fly. Konkona was very artificial as compared to her almost all the roles. Ranbir was splendid one more time, played 6-7 year younger character with ultimate ease. For Anupam it was usual stuff. Supriya Pathak was very melodramatic and again a bit artificial, especially in the scene when Ranbir tells her about his failure in the exam. Rahul Khanna looks (walks and carries himself) more like a model than an Editor. Namit Das is great find. Ayan as a Director is good but could have made the movie more interesting.
Trivia
Moon: Ranbir and Konkona at Marine Drive, before sipping the cutting chai. At the left top of the screen you can see a full moon, a small one though. The same shot cuts-off when the moon is still on the left top quadrant (the direction and place in the sky is changed), but a Crescent though J
Emails: Ranbir in his dad’s office is browsing the Microsoft outlook email, clicks an email and bang… it opens the email in Hotmail J Does Microsoft support that?
Vodka?: Ranbir at the ‘Mumbai Feat’ party. Ranbir asks for vodka. The glasses and drink that is served doesn’t look like Vodka. (I may be wrong in interpreting this, not a connoisseur J)
The girl in college who hates Ranbir (Debbie?): While paying Ranbir’s pizza bill she tell him the truth of hating him. Apparently she has lost a year because she didn’t get the admission
in the college because of Sid. Also apparently Sid has not failed barring the last year. How come they can be in the same class then?
Konkona’s apartment: Apparently it’s a 4 storied apartment. The terrace shown is probably of a sky scraper J
One more from script flaw standpoint ;)
Konkona’s interview at Mumbai Beat - She mentions to Rahul that she has only 2 months prior work experience. Well she is already 27, looks to be from middle class family, has only done her graduation, has come all the way to Mumbai looking for a job, and still can afford to set-up a flat in Mumbai, ideally she should have been carrying more experience than just 2 months J
And a very subtle on the b/g score:
Ranbir and his mom: When he comes to meet his mom at their home, there is an Indian string instrument (Sitar?) played in the b/g. It’s patchy and doesn’t go well with the texture of the movie. I guess everywhere else it’s more of Western / Fusion kind of music used.
Please don’t get me wrong here. Some of these observations may be wrong, but it’s fun watching the movie this way as well;) Again no offenses against anyone as movie making is probably one of the hardest performing arts and in fact a nicest amalgamation of number of such arts into one. So hats off to movie making.
Well the movie wasn’t that impactful as far as I am concerned. I was having great expectations from the earlier reviews I read (I could only see Gautam’s review in the evening.) The movie was not captivating. It was a bit boring in between. Also the Ranbir - Konkona chemistry didn’t fly. Konkona was very artificial as compared to her almost all the roles. Ranbir was splendid one more time, played 6-7 year younger character with ultimate ease. For Anupam it was usual stuff. Supriya Pathak was very melodramatic and again a bit artificial, especially in the scene when Ranbir tells her about his failure in the exam. Rahul Khanna looks (walks and carries himself) more like a model than an Editor. Namit Das is great find. Ayan as a Director is good but could have made the movie more interesting.
Trivia
Moon: Ranbir and Konkona at Marine Drive, before sipping the cutting chai. At the left top of the screen you can see a full moon, a small one though. The same shot cuts-off when the moon is still on the left top quadrant (the direction and place in the sky is changed), but a Crescent though J
Emails: Ranbir in his dad’s office is browsing the Microsoft outlook email, clicks an email and bang… it opens the email in Hotmail J Does Microsoft support that?
Vodka?: Ranbir at the ‘Mumbai Feat’ party. Ranbir asks for vodka. The glasses and drink that is served doesn’t look like Vodka. (I may be wrong in interpreting this, not a connoisseur J)
The girl in college who hates Ranbir (Debbie?): While paying Ranbir’s pizza bill she tell him the truth of hating him. Apparently she has lost a year because she didn’t get the admission
in the college because of Sid. Also apparently Sid has not failed barring the last year. How come they can be in the same class then?
Konkona’s apartment: Apparently it’s a 4 storied apartment. The terrace shown is probably of a sky scraper J
One more from script flaw standpoint ;)
Konkona’s interview at Mumbai Beat - She mentions to Rahul that she has only 2 months prior work experience. Well she is already 27, looks to be from middle class family, has only done her graduation, has come all the way to Mumbai looking for a job, and still can afford to set-up a flat in Mumbai, ideally she should have been carrying more experience than just 2 months J
And a very subtle on the b/g score:
Ranbir and his mom: When he comes to meet his mom at their home, there is an Indian string instrument (Sitar?) played in the b/g. It’s patchy and doesn’t go well with the texture of the movie. I guess everywhere else it’s more of Western / Fusion kind of music used.
Please don’t get me wrong here. Some of these observations may be wrong, but it’s fun watching the movie this way as well;) Again no offenses against anyone as movie making is probably one of the hardest performing arts and in fact a nicest amalgamation of number of such arts into one. So hats off to movie making.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Snipper: Mukkam Post Bombilwadi (Marathi Play)
Snip-In
One of the Friday evenings, I was exploring the DVD rental shop for something off-beat (and good ;)). I shortlisted 4-5 movies and finalized one of them - Mukkam Post Bombilwadi, without having any prior idea about it. I have remotely heard about Paresh Mokashi the director, but wasn't having any clue about this Marathi play, not even it's genre. But it turned out to be an outstanding pick.
The story takes place in 1940s in a backdrop of the world war II. It very briefly starts in Europe and then continues in a small village of Maharashtra - Bombilwadi. It has references of the war, including the then world leaders like Hitler and Churchill, who are actual characters in the play and very wittily most of it happens in Bombilwadi. The comedy comes through caricature in terms of Hitler and Natzi army, parody of the films of 40s Prabhat Talkies- in terms of the dialogue delivery, a bit of farce, but a very prominent slapstick aspect of the comedy which is highlighted by very powerful acting skills of this theater group. It uses all the strong aspects of the traditional Marathi theatre (including songs) with a fresh new perspective given by the director. Even being a play, it never takes you off and keeps your interest alive in the era of fast-paced movies. The biggest plus is it's wide appeal. Myself and Rajita were watching it with my mom, and Kinjal, and all of us were able to enjoy every sequence with the same vigor.
Snip-Out
The only hitch is such a great work may not be able to come forward to a larger / wider audience. Being a play and that too Marathi may not get it the accolades it deserves. Let's hope that one day it gets converted into celluloid in Bollywood / World Cinema.
Snip-O-Meter
Can be slided-in the list of top 10 favorite plays/movies and worth to be a part of home collection series.
A great work by Paresh Mokashi as a director and supported equally greatly by his versatile troop of young talented theatre actors. Now eagerly awaiting his 'Harishchandrachi Factory' - the Marathi movie which is India's nominations for Oscar '09.
One of the Friday evenings, I was exploring the DVD rental shop for something off-beat (and good ;)). I shortlisted 4-5 movies and finalized one of them - Mukkam Post Bombilwadi, without having any prior idea about it. I have remotely heard about Paresh Mokashi the director, but wasn't having any clue about this Marathi play, not even it's genre. But it turned out to be an outstanding pick.
The story takes place in 1940s in a backdrop of the world war II. It very briefly starts in Europe and then continues in a small village of Maharashtra - Bombilwadi. It has references of the war, including the then world leaders like Hitler and Churchill, who are actual characters in the play and very wittily most of it happens in Bombilwadi. The comedy comes through caricature in terms of Hitler and Natzi army, parody of the films of 40s Prabhat Talkies- in terms of the dialogue delivery, a bit of farce, but a very prominent slapstick aspect of the comedy which is highlighted by very powerful acting skills of this theater group. It uses all the strong aspects of the traditional Marathi theatre (including songs) with a fresh new perspective given by the director. Even being a play, it never takes you off and keeps your interest alive in the era of fast-paced movies. The biggest plus is it's wide appeal. Myself and Rajita were watching it with my mom, and Kinjal, and all of us were able to enjoy every sequence with the same vigor.
Snip-Out
The only hitch is such a great work may not be able to come forward to a larger / wider audience. Being a play and that too Marathi may not get it the accolades it deserves. Let's hope that one day it gets converted into celluloid in Bollywood / World Cinema.
Snip-O-Meter
Can be slided-in the list of top 10 favorite plays/movies and worth to be a part of home collection series.
A great work by Paresh Mokashi as a director and supported equally greatly by his versatile troop of young talented theatre actors. Now eagerly awaiting his 'Harishchandrachi Factory' - the Marathi movie which is India's nominations for Oscar '09.
Snipper_Gandh (Marathi Movie)
Snip-InI watched this a few weeks back towards the end of Sep '09, a week after it got released. I only had seen the pre-launch posters and have read a bit about this movie before its release. Still I was very anxious for a) it was probably the first Marathi movie having 3 different stories in it (Trilogy) - b) it was directed by Sachin kundalkar - started hearing a lot about him (very late though) c) because of the cinematographer - Amlendu Chaudhary who is our classmate in school.
As the title suggests the stories revolve around some very prominent smells (Gandh). The first story is about a typical Puneri girl in early 80s (?). She is a decent looking, working girl but for whatever reasons she is not getting into the wedlock. To her delight, she comes across the Prince of her dreams, and every time he comes in front of her, she is mesmerized with some unique fragrance. The story then moves forward through the lanes and by-lanes capturing the slow paced and very middle class, still 'chalkari' 80s Pune. Amrita Subhash is at the pinnacle of her acting career and also superseded all other stalwarts in the movie. She actually makes the viewers feel the fragrance at all the entries of Girish Kulkarni - her Prince. The dialogues at the climax of this part are witty and very skillfully written.
The second one is about the HIV +ve patient and his wife who is not staying with him now. There is a very well crafted suspense till the end. Milind Soman is a breeze to watch in a Marathi movie. Sonali is great as well. The on-screen chemistry is near-perfect and they very well show the love-hate kind of relationship in most of the sequences. The music al pieces, a dance sequence, Milind's home and overall detailing of the interiors is very uncommon (but absolutely welcome) in Marathi movies. Well here the viewers at times get irritated because of the reference of some bad odor, but couldn't experience that as in story #1. Leena Bhagwat as Milind's maid, is a little loud.
The third and last one takes place in a small town in Konkan (Western/ Coastal Maharashtra), may be again in 80s / early 90s. It's about a woman Nina Kulkarni, her sister-in-law who is delivering a baby at their home, and how Nina Kulkarni during those 4 days, is not allowed to support any daily chores because of the rituals. And there are couple other aspects related to this as well. Nina Kulkarni is as usual - pretty good. Her scenes with her nephew are really touchy, at times witty, and came out very well. The typical structure of a house in Konkan is very nicely captured. But real big deal is the audio -visual backdrop of the 'Konkanatala Paus' (pours in coastal Maharashtra) and various smells that of a tea, flowers, muddy water, and above all the smell of a new born and the 'dhuri' (herbal steam bath) which is being given to the baby towards the end of the movie. (I doubt whether'd be experienced at home on DVD :-()
What matters most in the movie is it's Cinematography. The viewers get an experience of reading through a novel and the same is being portrayed in front of their eyes. The movie gets a very subtle poetic treatment as the camera pans, zooms, trollied and craned unveiling the story. A magnificent craft by Amlendu Chanudhary.
Snip-Out
Milind Soman doesn't look like a patient even after trying hard and still looks very charming.
Sonali has revealed herself on the screen when she is not in best of her forms ('Physical') .
Girish Kulkarni is just ok. He gets completely shadowed by Amrita, which appears a little odd, even if that’d have been the need of the story.
Snip-O-Meter
It gets over in 90 minutes - No-nonsense songs, no melodramas, no twists and turns.
A close to '4-D' experience (like the 'Shrek' 4-D show in Universals Studios), sheerly through the acting and visual effects, and without any technical gimmicks.
A must see for the enthusiast for directorial (Sachin Kundalkar), acting, and cinematographic excellences and for very different stories and genre in the Marathi cinema.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Snipper: Gulaal
Snip-In
We watched this in May '09 and was about to be writing on this for last 5 months. Got sometime today. And thus has kept this really brief as I wont be able to detail this out :-). Anyways….
First of all it’s a very different backdrop and (per me) has got an immense influence of Omkara. It's all about college and small-town, cast oriented politics in a remote town in Rajasthan. It draws a graph of the life of a very cowardly (but Rajput!), be-spectacled, Urban guy, who comes to this small town for studying, how he gets caught under the dirty politics and how that changes his life completely in a negative sense. There are master-pieces thrown-in by Kay Kay Menon, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal (Bhati, Omkara Fame). But the highlight of this movie I'd say is Piyush Mishra. He played an elder brother of kay Kay, who is mentally disturbed, but at the same is outstanding at writing and presenting the poems and songs of all genre in the movie. In fact he is the actual lyricist of those songs and has also sang a couple of them in the movie ('Arambh' and 'Duniya' are the master pieces). 'Ranaji' is already a hit. The songs actually talk about the local and global politics, culture, various other related aspects which are composed equally sensitively to retain the texture of the words.
All in all it shows how politics unless otherwise seen as glorified and value based from outside, can be vey mean, and at times cheap.
Anurag Kashyap comes out as a Burgeon director with a different vision and all the passion and an extremely great command on the medium. He is equally supported well in the cinematography, dialogues, lyrics and music sections. And one more time hats-off to him for giving a complete cinematic and creative justice while working on two absolutely different movies in Gulaal and Dev-D.
Snip-Out
Violence and language. Extreme abuses. There are some bold scenes by Mahie Gill and Jesse Randhava which come in as a 'need' of the plot, but could have been avoided in context of erstwhile Indian movies.
Snip-O-Meter
A very apt title? while it comes out through an insane bloodshed. Must see for the acting juggernauts of Kay Kay with his expressive eyes (resembles of Sanjiv Kumar in that), Abhimanyu Singh who appears to be a Khandani Rajput, and Deepak Dobriyal. The latter two have tremendous acting talents, but not greatly utilized in Indian movies yet.
We watched this in May '09 and was about to be writing on this for last 5 months. Got sometime today. And thus has kept this really brief as I wont be able to detail this out :-). Anyways….
First of all it’s a very different backdrop and (per me) has got an immense influence of Omkara. It's all about college and small-town, cast oriented politics in a remote town in Rajasthan. It draws a graph of the life of a very cowardly (but Rajput!), be-spectacled, Urban guy, who comes to this small town for studying, how he gets caught under the dirty politics and how that changes his life completely in a negative sense. There are master-pieces thrown-in by Kay Kay Menon, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal (Bhati, Omkara Fame). But the highlight of this movie I'd say is Piyush Mishra. He played an elder brother of kay Kay, who is mentally disturbed, but at the same is outstanding at writing and presenting the poems and songs of all genre in the movie. In fact he is the actual lyricist of those songs and has also sang a couple of them in the movie ('Arambh' and 'Duniya' are the master pieces). 'Ranaji' is already a hit. The songs actually talk about the local and global politics, culture, various other related aspects which are composed equally sensitively to retain the texture of the words.
All in all it shows how politics unless otherwise seen as glorified and value based from outside, can be vey mean, and at times cheap.
Anurag Kashyap comes out as a Burgeon director with a different vision and all the passion and an extremely great command on the medium. He is equally supported well in the cinematography, dialogues, lyrics and music sections. And one more time hats-off to him for giving a complete cinematic and creative justice while working on two absolutely different movies in Gulaal and Dev-D.
Snip-Out
Violence and language. Extreme abuses. There are some bold scenes by Mahie Gill and Jesse Randhava which come in as a 'need' of the plot, but could have been avoided in context of erstwhile Indian movies.
Snip-O-Meter
A very apt title? while it comes out through an insane bloodshed. Must see for the acting juggernauts of Kay Kay with his expressive eyes (resembles of Sanjiv Kumar in that), Abhimanyu Singh who appears to be a Khandani Rajput, and Deepak Dobriyal. The latter two have tremendous acting talents, but not greatly utilized in Indian movies yet.
Snipper: He's Just Not That Into You!
Snip-In
Watched an Hollywood flick after a long time, off course with no expectation and without referring to any pre-conceived reviews / comments. It turned out to be a nice pick. The subject is quite contemporary, close to everyone's 'heart'. This shows various angles of relationships and what the gen-x is going through because of the complications arising out of those. This is a collage nicely woven of young singles, married couples, couples in live-in relationships, where these different tracks are very nicely integrated with each other. There is a desperate single Gigi played by Ginnifer Goodwin, confused singles played by Justin Long, Kevin Connolly and Scarlet Johansson. We have seen these characters in Bollywood recently where very close friends of opposite sex do not know that they are made for each other till the last reel starts winding in :-) ('Jaane tu…' and 'Jab we met'). Then there is a matured married couple of Jennifer Connelly and Brad Cooper. Here Brad starts seeing Scarlet (a Yoga teacher) but Jennifer his wife actually starts doubting that he is becoming a smoker, which she is very paranoid of, as she has lost her father because of the lung cancer. The last and one of the key couple is of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston, well they are 'Living- in' for last 7 years! Jennifer wants to get married so as to get in to a more 'secured' relationship and Ben is always able to convince her how good their current status is:-) And yes, he actually shows how caring a 'husband ' he is without being actually married by helping Jennifer when her father comes across a cardiac arrest and where she is not getting any help from her close family members.
There is also a cute Drew Barrymore (hmmm...), but I guess not used very effectively. The plot becomes touching for many reasons, as the story is told in a very simple and direct way. There are hardly any outdoor shots, no camera gimmicks, no 'acting schools'. However Ginnifer Goodwin, has portrayed the dumbo with awesome ease. Same is the case with all other great stars in the movie. Brad Cooper, Ben Affleck, Kevin Connolly and Justin Long are way too good which have portrayed varied shades of 'manism' :-).
Snip-Out
Jennifer Aniston looks too old for the character. The length of the movie could have been kept a little smaller (around 100 minutes instead of 120 mins) even after giving due weightage to all the characters, it becomes a little boring in between. The movie name is difficult to remember (may we very 'Super' American - ' Youth in-phrase of 2009'), at the same time a great pick for the Dumb charades :-).
Snip-O-Meter
A 'True Blue' and 'All Star' American gen-x romantic comedy. Telephone as a medium of communication (and at times the lack of it) is very nicely used as well. Also gives you a feeling of watching 'Friends' / Sex and the City (American Soaps) because of the closely neat friend circles and interactions between them.
(Courtesy - Director Ken Kwapis is equally successful at big and small screen.)
A must see on a lazy weekend with friends and family (intimate and extended :-))
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Snipper: Kaminey
Writing exhaustive reviews has not been possible lately, because of various reasons. Hence I’m trying to capture quick reviews and hence the name Snipper J. The below is still lengthy and you’ll hopefully see shorter versions next time around….
------------------------------------------------------------------
Snip-In:
Vishal Bhardwaj’s best ever directorial work after Omkara. Climax of Omkara was soaked in a bloodbath and could have been less violent (as against the tragic Othello L). But Vishal is stunning in all the departments with Kaminey. I guess in his mind this time he was not comparing his work with numerous versions of Macbeth and Othello, as Kaminey seems to be an original one and not depiction of classics of Shakespeare (Maqbool and Omkara) or Ruskin Bond (Blue Umbrella).
The plot, editing (can be confusing at times for hardcore Desi movie buffs ;)) and storytelling is fabulous. I read somewhere that Vishal superseded Torantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill). Can’t say about that, but yes the pace and the overall treatment was at par with any Great Hollywood Action Classic.
The most remarkable aspect after direction was Shahid. I realized while walking out of the theatre that I was treating Guddu and Charlie as 2 distant characters and there was no Shahid involved even in scenes where the 2 brothers are in the same frame. Only in first couple of scenes (song - Bhanwraa) Shahid was prominent instead of the character. The biggest success in portraying the 2 opposite protagonists lies in not using any deliberate external differences like the makeovers or dress-code etc. Within Bollywood I am not able to recall any other double-role played with equal vigor at least in last 2 decades (a recent good one was Shahrukh’s DON – He played the two characters differently but Shahrukh was not able to separate himself from the character J)
Priyanka, Amol Gupte, Hrishikesh Joshi, Chandan Roy Sanyal (Michael) have acted superbly.
Shahid and Priyanka at picnic, captures one of the most intense and at the same time the wittiest scenes of Bollywood till date.
Cinematography was great. Some low angles and a few hand-held camera shots help in keeping up the pace of the movie. Gray and black hues have been extensively used throughout the movie which goes well with the theme – It subtly tells that in every one of us a gray shade exists and so is the title ‘Kaminey’. The sound effect of rain in the backdrop adds to the thrill. But one more time unfortunately we get to see the dark, ugly, and poor side of Mumbai. That could have been avoided to some extent.
Snip-Out
Climax
The climax revives memories of Tashan L, but thankfully it gets over quickly and is also more bearable in the background of the earlier great 2 hours of the movie.
Tashi in Taxi
Tashi is shown as a real BIG drug mafia and throughout the movie he is relishing in luxury. However in the climax he and his side-kicks get out of age-old Premier Padmini taxis, don’t know why ;-) Also till the end he appears to have South East Asian Origin, but in the climax he asks in Marathi ‘Bhope kuthe rahto?’ That sounds odd and funny.
Disconnect with the Charlie’s dad’s quote
Charlie at the start while narrating the story mentions, ‘Mere baap ne marte waqt hame ye bola tha…’ However later on when his dad commits suicide in the movie, he do not speak anything with his 2 kids while dying.
Sub-Titles
I guess the whole movie refers to incidents taking place within 1-2 days and mention of the date / time / place in sub-titles would have been great to involve viewers more and for keeping in-line of the pace.
Snip-o-meter
Dhan Te tan!
Take a bow to the ever revolving new-age Indian Cinema.
Overall a must see as it’s a great entertainer and for an acting marvel by Shahid. It’s a vrooming Ferrari ride.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Yogesh Dixit
------------------------------------------------------------------
Snip-In:
Vishal Bhardwaj’s best ever directorial work after Omkara. Climax of Omkara was soaked in a bloodbath and could have been less violent (as against the tragic Othello L). But Vishal is stunning in all the departments with Kaminey. I guess in his mind this time he was not comparing his work with numerous versions of Macbeth and Othello, as Kaminey seems to be an original one and not depiction of classics of Shakespeare (Maqbool and Omkara) or Ruskin Bond (Blue Umbrella).
The plot, editing (can be confusing at times for hardcore Desi movie buffs ;)) and storytelling is fabulous. I read somewhere that Vishal superseded Torantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill). Can’t say about that, but yes the pace and the overall treatment was at par with any Great Hollywood Action Classic.
The most remarkable aspect after direction was Shahid. I realized while walking out of the theatre that I was treating Guddu and Charlie as 2 distant characters and there was no Shahid involved even in scenes where the 2 brothers are in the same frame. Only in first couple of scenes (song - Bhanwraa) Shahid was prominent instead of the character. The biggest success in portraying the 2 opposite protagonists lies in not using any deliberate external differences like the makeovers or dress-code etc. Within Bollywood I am not able to recall any other double-role played with equal vigor at least in last 2 decades (a recent good one was Shahrukh’s DON – He played the two characters differently but Shahrukh was not able to separate himself from the character J)
Priyanka, Amol Gupte, Hrishikesh Joshi, Chandan Roy Sanyal (Michael) have acted superbly.
Shahid and Priyanka at picnic, captures one of the most intense and at the same time the wittiest scenes of Bollywood till date.
Cinematography was great. Some low angles and a few hand-held camera shots help in keeping up the pace of the movie. Gray and black hues have been extensively used throughout the movie which goes well with the theme – It subtly tells that in every one of us a gray shade exists and so is the title ‘Kaminey’. The sound effect of rain in the backdrop adds to the thrill. But one more time unfortunately we get to see the dark, ugly, and poor side of Mumbai. That could have been avoided to some extent.
Snip-Out
Climax
The climax revives memories of Tashan L, but thankfully it gets over quickly and is also more bearable in the background of the earlier great 2 hours of the movie.
Tashi in Taxi
Tashi is shown as a real BIG drug mafia and throughout the movie he is relishing in luxury. However in the climax he and his side-kicks get out of age-old Premier Padmini taxis, don’t know why ;-) Also till the end he appears to have South East Asian Origin, but in the climax he asks in Marathi ‘Bhope kuthe rahto?’ That sounds odd and funny.
Disconnect with the Charlie’s dad’s quote
Charlie at the start while narrating the story mentions, ‘Mere baap ne marte waqt hame ye bola tha…’ However later on when his dad commits suicide in the movie, he do not speak anything with his 2 kids while dying.
Sub-Titles
I guess the whole movie refers to incidents taking place within 1-2 days and mention of the date / time / place in sub-titles would have been great to involve viewers more and for keeping in-line of the pace.
Snip-o-meter
Dhan Te tan!
Take a bow to the ever revolving new-age Indian Cinema.
Overall a must see as it’s a great entertainer and for an acting marvel by Shahid. It’s a vrooming Ferrari ride.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Yogesh Dixit
Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na' - Review
‘Who’s Aamir Khan? Ask the girl next door’ – Hoardings flashing across Mumbai in the summer of 1988 before QSQT was released. 20 years later, Aamir himself could have redone the same while launching his nephew ‘Imraan Khan’ through his own production house. But the tag lines, teasers, and promos were on different lines, not to promote Imraan alone but the movie itself - ‘Jaane tu…Ya Jaane Na’. It may be a bold statement but it would definitely rewrite the history for Bollywood movies, especially in the ‘romantic- light-comedy’ genre. Also it has probably given the Bollywood 2 stars in Imraan and Genelia, a director and lyricist in ‘Abbas’ and another equally capable actor (guess who…?)
The storyline is not a lot different. It’s a closely knit group of six college-going, new-age youths, 3 girls and 3 boys. Jaisingh Rathore (Imraan) is a middle-class, level headed, steady and little bit of out-of-the-place boy in the 21st century (he doesn’t carry a cell phone!). He has been brought up by his mother giving him a daily dose of being non-violent at every juncture of life. He never fights with anyone, instead he likes to resolve most of “pangas” dealing with others in an uncanny friendly way. Aditi (Genelia) always calls him “rats” because of his nature. She is completely opposite of Jai. She always likes to fight for small little things. She is a contemporary ‘Mumbaiyya’ girl. Jai calls her “Myaaw”. And there is Shalini, Mala, Rotulu Bombs, and Jignesh. Rotulu is a typical funny guy and Jignesh hails from a rich family with a heavy ‘Gujju’ accent (read ‘Jinges’). And both of them have better roles to play than just being usual sidekicks. Well everyone cares for others in that group. But Jai and Aditi are very close friends? of each other and share a love-hate relationship between them.
But the story has other multiple aspects to look at: Various relationships such as - between lovers and x-lovers, within the parents, parents and their youthful kids, between siblings, and other aspects such as corrupt system, social values and so on. And the beauty is, it is so wisely woven in the script that none of the character is preaching any values, morale in the movie but it still succeeds in passing on the messages, without making the viewers bored.
One of the strongest relationships came across through Jai and her mother. Jai’s mother Savitri Rathore played by Ratna Pathak Shah is a social activist and comes across situations where she has to fight it out with the system – AKA corrupt inspector Ghorpade (Paresh Rawal). And there’s her husband who keeps popping out of the full-sized poster hanging on the wall of their living room. He is a true ‘Rajput’ and appears in the poster with a big mustache, ornaments and is fully geared with swords et all. The husband is played by the real-life husband, none other than ‘Naseeruddin Shah’. Savitri and her husband keeps on debating about Raj’s upbringing and whether to make him a true Rajput or a non-violent (read timid) guy. Savitri’s scenes with her husband and inspector Ghorpade have come across really well in light hearted mode.
The next one is off-course between Aditi and Jai. They are being friends for all five years in the college. So much so close that Aditi picks up Jai everyday on her way to college. They are spending all the moments during their college life together in that group of six. The real story starts when both of them come to know that they can not meet regularly as the college is over. Hence Aditi invites Jai to meet his father to help him in his business. This scene has really came up very well, when her parents mistook him as their would be ‘son-in-law’. Both Jai and Aditi deny being in love, where everyone including the audience and their parents are already convinced about the same. This is where we start realizing the aptness of the movie title, the tag lines (‘When do you know you are in Love’) and director’s commitment to the script. Here onwards the story takes all the twists and turns where both of them choose the right? girlfriend and boyfriend for each other and to start a new life where they can still be friends, while being married to someone else. There are relationships being developed within this group which are again hovering over the borders of friendship and love and it portrays a lively chemistry between Aditi, Rotulu, Jignesh and Bombs.
The other equally interesting relationship portrayed in the movie is between Aditi and her brother Amit. It’s again having an angle of love-hate relationship. He is shown as an artist (painter) who is seen in the movie with colors applied all over his clothes and body and always carries a little white mouse as his pet. The mouse is his best friend in this world. Amit is aloof, overly possessive of her sister and hates all the friends of hers, especially Jai. The reasons for this are strikingly different and should be ‘felt’ while watching the movie. This guy has acted superbly. He is Smita Patil’s son – Prateik. I knew that Prateik has acted in the movie and was so desperate to find him out from shot#1. I have made every attempt to relate Prateik with the characters like Rotulu and others. But when he made an entry, I was stunned to see the huge resemblance with her mother Smita. He is all Smita’s child in every sense with the same expressive eyes, face and creative presence on the screen. He doesn’t have too much of footage, but makes it one of the memorable characters in the movie.
Abbas Tyrewala lives more than the expectation. He has painted the collage of relationships in a very effective manner without making it melodramatic, still imposing the audience to seriously think about life, and at the same time putting a dash of comedy to ease out the slightest tensions in the movie. The success of the movie is 3-fold, the way a) he has built the story as a Writer, b) narrated as a Script-Writer / thru Dialogues and c) the way he has directed it really makes all the difference. His writing credential include ‘Maqbool’ ‘Main Hoon Naa’ ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ and ‘Chupke Se’. He and the Producer - Mansoor Khan, have driven the others departments of the movie equally well, ‘lighting’ in the movie is one of the prominent aspects. But Abbas has gone beyond all this, while being a lyricist. All the songs in the movie are very well thought of and written to capture the exact mood of the moment and to make the storyline even stronger. A.R. Rehman is at his best while composing all the songs. ‘Pappu’, ‘Aditi’ are already big hits before the movie is launched. But ‘Najare Chura Naa’ is actually a master-piece in terms of audio-visual treat. Like you can’t forget the ‘harmonium’ tunes from ‘Kahenaa Hi Kya’ ( Bombay ), you won’t be able to forget the ‘Mouth-Organ’ played in ‘Najare Chura Naa’. This song has become my personal favorite and can definitely lighten up the gloomy moods at any times. Hats-off to Rehman. (There is a continuity flaw in this song though – Jignesh in one shot during this song, has seen taking off his T-Shirt to get into the lake, but in the next shot he is seen in some other T-shirt in the waters J)
Well there is a surprise in store to add more spice to the comedy. The cameo played by ‘Arbaaz (Bagheera) and Bhallo (Sohail Khan) are distinctly different characters and their roles can more closely be related to one of those in a Hollywood movie. While we see them for the first time, we assume it to be a one-scene cameo, but again Abbas has made very wise use of them by roping them in couple of other screens including the climax.
Genelia has played the role quite well. She has crafted all the shades of her character convincingly and also while delivering the dialogues in Hindi has not shown any accent. Manjiri Fadnis a lookalike of ‘Rimi Sen’ has played the role of ‘Meghana‘ – Jai’s girlfriend. She is another capable Marathi Girl making a promising entry in Bollywood.
The biggest find is however ‘Imraan Khan’. He has a resemblance with the Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix (‘The village’) and doesn’t carry the face of typical Bollywood hero. Unlike his uncle, he seems to be a very natural actor and even looks like a spontaneous one too. While seeing him in one of the interviews before the launch of the movie he appeared to be a very calm, less talkative (shy), middle-class boy. He was just enough confident of his work in the movie and was not claiming any big success during this interview. I can recall another such interview of Harman Baweja, before launch of his movie ‘2050’ (ironically both got released on the same day). Harman was talking like a business graduate from ‘ Harvard University ’ and like a Lead Manager doing a road-show for a Global IT/infrastructure ‘IPO’. The movie ‘2050’ was so futuristic that it vanished like a UFO without a trace of it in 2008. Looking at the promos of ‘Kidnap’, which is Imraan’s just second movie he is playing a negative / gray-shaded character and I’d say he has all the courage not to remain a stereotyped chocolate hero. This took his uncle Aamir about a decade to get into a role like ‘Gulaam’ and Shahrukh around 2+ years through ‘Bazigar’ when his first 4-5 films did just well and were not super-hits.
Imraan, Pratiek and Abbas are here to stay and will go a long way in their careers. I’d say the same for Genelia as well, but she might concentrate on movies in South than Bollywood. Net-net it’s a movie that will remain close to our hearts forever, and would definitely revive the similar feelings of famous love stories of our times such as ‘QSQT’ and ‘DDLJ’. But this I’d say is a more contemporary, realistic, less-romantic and more real-life package than these other movies. Also Aamir Khan Productions has given 3 big hits in a row and which is definitely a moment of pride and is making him most successful amongst all the Bollywood Khans.
Looks like the Independence Day ’08 long weekend is turning out good, as I was able to push this review off (Took around 5 hrs over the last few days to complete). Also I’m just returning back watching ‘Bachna Ae Hasseno’ and would rate the movie very high. Everyone including Ranbir, Deepika, Bipasha, Minissha, Hiten Paintal, director Siddhartha Anand and music director ‘Vishal-Shekhar’ have played their parts with clinical ease. The detailed review, some other time….
Yogesh Dixit
The storyline is not a lot different. It’s a closely knit group of six college-going, new-age youths, 3 girls and 3 boys. Jaisingh Rathore (Imraan) is a middle-class, level headed, steady and little bit of out-of-the-place boy in the 21st century (he doesn’t carry a cell phone!). He has been brought up by his mother giving him a daily dose of being non-violent at every juncture of life. He never fights with anyone, instead he likes to resolve most of “pangas” dealing with others in an uncanny friendly way. Aditi (Genelia) always calls him “rats” because of his nature. She is completely opposite of Jai. She always likes to fight for small little things. She is a contemporary ‘Mumbaiyya’ girl. Jai calls her “Myaaw”. And there is Shalini, Mala, Rotulu Bombs, and Jignesh. Rotulu is a typical funny guy and Jignesh hails from a rich family with a heavy ‘Gujju’ accent (read ‘Jinges’). And both of them have better roles to play than just being usual sidekicks. Well everyone cares for others in that group. But Jai and Aditi are very close friends? of each other and share a love-hate relationship between them.
But the story has other multiple aspects to look at: Various relationships such as - between lovers and x-lovers, within the parents, parents and their youthful kids, between siblings, and other aspects such as corrupt system, social values and so on. And the beauty is, it is so wisely woven in the script that none of the character is preaching any values, morale in the movie but it still succeeds in passing on the messages, without making the viewers bored.
One of the strongest relationships came across through Jai and her mother. Jai’s mother Savitri Rathore played by Ratna Pathak Shah is a social activist and comes across situations where she has to fight it out with the system – AKA corrupt inspector Ghorpade (Paresh Rawal). And there’s her husband who keeps popping out of the full-sized poster hanging on the wall of their living room. He is a true ‘Rajput’ and appears in the poster with a big mustache, ornaments and is fully geared with swords et all. The husband is played by the real-life husband, none other than ‘Naseeruddin Shah’. Savitri and her husband keeps on debating about Raj’s upbringing and whether to make him a true Rajput or a non-violent (read timid) guy. Savitri’s scenes with her husband and inspector Ghorpade have come across really well in light hearted mode.
The next one is off-course between Aditi and Jai. They are being friends for all five years in the college. So much so close that Aditi picks up Jai everyday on her way to college. They are spending all the moments during their college life together in that group of six. The real story starts when both of them come to know that they can not meet regularly as the college is over. Hence Aditi invites Jai to meet his father to help him in his business. This scene has really came up very well, when her parents mistook him as their would be ‘son-in-law’. Both Jai and Aditi deny being in love, where everyone including the audience and their parents are already convinced about the same. This is where we start realizing the aptness of the movie title, the tag lines (‘When do you know you are in Love’) and director’s commitment to the script. Here onwards the story takes all the twists and turns where both of them choose the right? girlfriend and boyfriend for each other and to start a new life where they can still be friends, while being married to someone else. There are relationships being developed within this group which are again hovering over the borders of friendship and love and it portrays a lively chemistry between Aditi, Rotulu, Jignesh and Bombs.
The other equally interesting relationship portrayed in the movie is between Aditi and her brother Amit. It’s again having an angle of love-hate relationship. He is shown as an artist (painter) who is seen in the movie with colors applied all over his clothes and body and always carries a little white mouse as his pet. The mouse is his best friend in this world. Amit is aloof, overly possessive of her sister and hates all the friends of hers, especially Jai. The reasons for this are strikingly different and should be ‘felt’ while watching the movie. This guy has acted superbly. He is Smita Patil’s son – Prateik. I knew that Prateik has acted in the movie and was so desperate to find him out from shot#1. I have made every attempt to relate Prateik with the characters like Rotulu and others. But when he made an entry, I was stunned to see the huge resemblance with her mother Smita. He is all Smita’s child in every sense with the same expressive eyes, face and creative presence on the screen. He doesn’t have too much of footage, but makes it one of the memorable characters in the movie.
Abbas Tyrewala lives more than the expectation. He has painted the collage of relationships in a very effective manner without making it melodramatic, still imposing the audience to seriously think about life, and at the same time putting a dash of comedy to ease out the slightest tensions in the movie. The success of the movie is 3-fold, the way a) he has built the story as a Writer, b) narrated as a Script-Writer / thru Dialogues and c) the way he has directed it really makes all the difference. His writing credential include ‘Maqbool’ ‘Main Hoon Naa’ ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ and ‘Chupke Se’. He and the Producer - Mansoor Khan, have driven the others departments of the movie equally well, ‘lighting’ in the movie is one of the prominent aspects. But Abbas has gone beyond all this, while being a lyricist. All the songs in the movie are very well thought of and written to capture the exact mood of the moment and to make the storyline even stronger. A.R. Rehman is at his best while composing all the songs. ‘Pappu’, ‘Aditi’ are already big hits before the movie is launched. But ‘Najare Chura Naa’ is actually a master-piece in terms of audio-visual treat. Like you can’t forget the ‘harmonium’ tunes from ‘Kahenaa Hi Kya’ ( Bombay ), you won’t be able to forget the ‘Mouth-Organ’ played in ‘Najare Chura Naa’. This song has become my personal favorite and can definitely lighten up the gloomy moods at any times. Hats-off to Rehman. (There is a continuity flaw in this song though – Jignesh in one shot during this song, has seen taking off his T-Shirt to get into the lake, but in the next shot he is seen in some other T-shirt in the waters J)
Well there is a surprise in store to add more spice to the comedy. The cameo played by ‘Arbaaz (Bagheera) and Bhallo (Sohail Khan) are distinctly different characters and their roles can more closely be related to one of those in a Hollywood movie. While we see them for the first time, we assume it to be a one-scene cameo, but again Abbas has made very wise use of them by roping them in couple of other screens including the climax.
Genelia has played the role quite well. She has crafted all the shades of her character convincingly and also while delivering the dialogues in Hindi has not shown any accent. Manjiri Fadnis a lookalike of ‘Rimi Sen’ has played the role of ‘Meghana‘ – Jai’s girlfriend. She is another capable Marathi Girl making a promising entry in Bollywood.
The biggest find is however ‘Imraan Khan’. He has a resemblance with the Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix (‘The village’) and doesn’t carry the face of typical Bollywood hero. Unlike his uncle, he seems to be a very natural actor and even looks like a spontaneous one too. While seeing him in one of the interviews before the launch of the movie he appeared to be a very calm, less talkative (shy), middle-class boy. He was just enough confident of his work in the movie and was not claiming any big success during this interview. I can recall another such interview of Harman Baweja, before launch of his movie ‘2050’ (ironically both got released on the same day). Harman was talking like a business graduate from ‘ Harvard University ’ and like a Lead Manager doing a road-show for a Global IT/infrastructure ‘IPO’. The movie ‘2050’ was so futuristic that it vanished like a UFO without a trace of it in 2008. Looking at the promos of ‘Kidnap’, which is Imraan’s just second movie he is playing a negative / gray-shaded character and I’d say he has all the courage not to remain a stereotyped chocolate hero. This took his uncle Aamir about a decade to get into a role like ‘Gulaam’ and Shahrukh around 2+ years through ‘Bazigar’ when his first 4-5 films did just well and were not super-hits.
Imraan, Pratiek and Abbas are here to stay and will go a long way in their careers. I’d say the same for Genelia as well, but she might concentrate on movies in South than Bollywood. Net-net it’s a movie that will remain close to our hearts forever, and would definitely revive the similar feelings of famous love stories of our times such as ‘QSQT’ and ‘DDLJ’. But this I’d say is a more contemporary, realistic, less-romantic and more real-life package than these other movies. Also Aamir Khan Productions has given 3 big hits in a row and which is definitely a moment of pride and is making him most successful amongst all the Bollywood Khans.
Looks like the Independence Day ’08 long weekend is turning out good, as I was able to push this review off (Took around 5 hrs over the last few days to complete). Also I’m just returning back watching ‘Bachna Ae Hasseno’ and would rate the movie very high. Everyone including Ranbir, Deepika, Bipasha, Minissha, Hiten Paintal, director Siddhartha Anand and music director ‘Vishal-Shekhar’ have played their parts with clinical ease. The detailed review, some other time….
Yogesh Dixit
Death of 2 Words - Tashan the Review
Cut 1 – A big time company in the easterly Silicon city. IT folks working hard throughout the year, and finally getting the award for best annual project of ‘07. The prize money was to be spent on something ravishing to make it a memorable event. The young and enthusiastic in the team plan for a combo deal of movie + dinner for 100 odd member team. They initially plan for Krazy4, and then give it a thought to wait for another 2 weeks to watch the most awaited movie of the year. The movie is supposed to be shown only at the single screen theatres and not the multiplexes. Our lads do a herculean task in snatching the tickets to watch the 1st day 2nd show and booking 4 rows in an uptime Pune theatre. The stage is all set for the Giga event.
Cut 2 – Just before the start of the movie I throw myself into one of the chairs and I am about to start getting a proud feeling of facilitating this event. Amit and Makarand are sitting alongside me in the theatre. The man behind the projector is generous, doesn’t spend too much of time and starts beaming the titles without showing any trailers. And immediately a sound echoes in both my ears “It’s a flop!!!” - Courtesy Amit and Makarand. I thought it’s their STYLE (Wait… before stumbling, please get to know the meaning of the once widely used English word “style” from your parents). I was pretty sure that the YR banner, the Great Writer, foursome Super Stars (together worth around 25 crores), and the musician duo of Vishal Shekhar would definitely be a rock-solid entertainer. Like an avid movie geek as always, I put all my senses to watch the movie.
Cut 3 - A decent looking retro convertible red Mercedes traversing through the snow deserts of Ladakh appears on the screen. My mind registers the number on car’s front number plate which reads “UGR …”. And then during the course while watching the movie when I try hard registering something in my mind, the harder it became as my brain started getting duped because of the …….. insignificant, irritating, irrelevant, mad use of the word Tashan and so is the act as well. Next 2+ hours everyone in the theatre was bolted to their chairs so as to find a single moment to cash-on their hard earned money. For me it was a mammoth 25 Grand just on the movie tickets! And I could see all of it going for a waste. The crowd was cheerful though and it find it’s ways to “enjoy” the movie (by clapping and hooting during the romantic, comic, tragic and action scenes). Well there’s nothing to write about it, at least nothing good. But what’s provoking me to write is the same 25 Grand J. This is also the first movie I watched after a gap of 3 weeks J!!! (I’ve been watching movies on DVDs every single weekend for last whatever months. And I was expecting a real big one this time after the prolonged gap.)
Cut nnnn - So it’s a story about a super-urban dude working in a call center -Saif, an itsy-bitsy-revengeful girl-disguised-behind-cute-face- Kareena, a wannabe-English-speaking-big- Mumbai-Don - Anil, and a suburban-small-time-thug - Akshay Kumar. We should show this movie to the people in the 1st world (I don’t know whether such a word exists, it’s an opposite of the 3rd world). Saif (Jimmy Cliff) who is a FTE J in a call center + part-time English language teacher, roams around Mumbai flaunting his ultra-modern cruiser bike which must be as costly as a “D” segment car in India. Same is the case with his lavish condominium. (Insane I’m, who do not understand about director’s “Creative Liberty”) But wait… if we show this to the “firangs” we’ll loose all the forthcoming off-shoring jobs which are already diminishing rapidly. (I’ll leave that to Kiran Karnik of Nasscom, Chopras, and CEO’s of Offshoring companies.) Saif’s character must have been intended to be carved out as a simpleton, but he can not provide justice and gives a lot more glamour to the character unnecessarily.
Kareena works as Anil Kapoor’s personal secretary. Anil Kapoor (Bhaiiyyaji) wants to become a fluent English speaker to impress his fellow businessman. Well Anil hails from Kanpur and carries heavy Kanpurriyya accent. Kareena introduces Saif (as her own secret plan J) to Anil as his English teacher. The initial scenes of Anil learning English have come up very well and reincarnation of the famous “Diwar” monologue (“Khush to bahut hoge tum…”) would be one of the best scenes Anil must have delivered till date. The linguistic and phonetic variations create a lot of interest initially, but then overshadow the character and the movie as well. We have seen such characters in “My Fair Lady”, “Chup ke Chup ke (Dharmndra), Goal Maal (Utpal Dutt) and none of these appeared to be doing linguistic circus as in Tashan.
Akshay’s entry is probably the other best part of the movie. It reminded me of one of my favorite Hindi movie “Jaane Bhi Do Yaron”. But pretty soon our friend Vijay Krishna Acharya makes a worst mockery of the legendary mythological sequence from the masterpiece. Akshay appears to be the coolest dude in the movie and has actually portrayed it close to the character - A small time thug in Kanpur and aspiring to be a #1 shooter in the Mumbai underworld. But again Acharya does the trick and dilutes the role along the length of the movie.
Acharya couldn’t repeat the success of Dhoom(s) in terms of weaving the storey. The script and direction is simply horrible. Though he creates some waves sporadically with the dialogues. When the same number plate of the red Mercedes appears in the movie one more time it reads something like “MH 03…” (which should have been UGR…). By this time I already have lost the interest and the winning feeling of catching the continuity related flaws in the film.
Music doesn’t appear to be entirely of Vishal-Shekhar (They must have off-loaded the same to small time music cookie-cutters in Ulhasnagar). One of the songs – “Dil Hara” is audible, but that’s lost due to the ill-coordinated choreography and visual effects. It has a flavor of Indian folk song and is shot on the backdrops of seashore in Greece. That fusion doesn’t go well at all. “Dil Dance Mare” is another one which is a cheap entertainer. The background music and voice overs eat up most of the dialogues.
Some of the scenes are visual treats but it’s not because of any particular camera angle, or frame, or light effects, but merely because of the beautiful locations in Ladakh, Greece, Rajasthan and Kerala.
Fight sequences are more of a comedy including the one inside a fort in Rajasthan, where Saif kareena and Akshay all start gunning their AK47, revolvers and 303 look alike without ever seen those. Akshay mimics Keanu Reeves of Matrix which in fact reminds me of ninja series movies such as “shadow less snake” or “monkey less shadow”, or “shadow’s shadow” etc. The super-stretched fight sequence towards the climax is a lifetime tribute to the action heroes such as Mithun and Rajani, and directors such as Ramu (Aag fame) and David Dhawan.
While coming out of theatre I had a tale to narrate to my younger one “Once upon a time there lived 2 words, “Tashan” and “Style” which were vanished on 28th April 2008………………………”
I literally had to cover my face while entering the dinning hall. Half an hour after the movie I could see that the team has already started enjoying the food. The restaurateur was eligible for a hefty tip which he got in the end, as the food really salvaged the situation - elevating the mood of 100 odd loosers.
Well for me NOW it’s time to go to sleep and dream about Acharya being whacked by Sr. and Jr. Chopra’s, Chopra’s being whacked by distributors, Anil who is giving his first and the last impressions together, Akshay reciting Hanuman Chalisa and Tulsi Ramayana every morning and enacting Ram in the Ramleela pandals somewhere in North this Dushera, so as to pay homage to the Almighty. Also Twinkle divorcing him for doing all the manly Kanpurriya and sachin-making-pad adjustments-on-the-cricket-pitch, kind of acts on the screen. Kareena going on pilgrimage to Haridwar to do rituals of the movie, Saif obviously following Kareena but in the midst changing tracks and going after “marina” (whoever…what’s in the name anyways?). And then I’m getting out of the bed next day having a great feeling of giving ways to my frustration, writing this review after spending 7 some hours over last 8 days.
Regards, Yogesh Dixit
Cut 2 – Just before the start of the movie I throw myself into one of the chairs and I am about to start getting a proud feeling of facilitating this event. Amit and Makarand are sitting alongside me in the theatre. The man behind the projector is generous, doesn’t spend too much of time and starts beaming the titles without showing any trailers. And immediately a sound echoes in both my ears “It’s a flop!!!” - Courtesy Amit and Makarand. I thought it’s their STYLE (Wait… before stumbling, please get to know the meaning of the once widely used English word “style” from your parents). I was pretty sure that the YR banner, the Great Writer, foursome Super Stars (together worth around 25 crores), and the musician duo of Vishal Shekhar would definitely be a rock-solid entertainer. Like an avid movie geek as always, I put all my senses to watch the movie.
Cut 3 - A decent looking retro convertible red Mercedes traversing through the snow deserts of Ladakh appears on the screen. My mind registers the number on car’s front number plate which reads “UGR …”. And then during the course while watching the movie when I try hard registering something in my mind, the harder it became as my brain started getting duped because of the …….. insignificant, irritating, irrelevant, mad use of the word Tashan and so is the act as well. Next 2+ hours everyone in the theatre was bolted to their chairs so as to find a single moment to cash-on their hard earned money. For me it was a mammoth 25 Grand just on the movie tickets! And I could see all of it going for a waste. The crowd was cheerful though and it find it’s ways to “enjoy” the movie (by clapping and hooting during the romantic, comic, tragic and action scenes). Well there’s nothing to write about it, at least nothing good. But what’s provoking me to write is the same 25 Grand J. This is also the first movie I watched after a gap of 3 weeks J!!! (I’ve been watching movies on DVDs every single weekend for last whatever months. And I was expecting a real big one this time after the prolonged gap.)
Cut nnnn - So it’s a story about a super-urban dude working in a call center -Saif, an itsy-bitsy-revengeful girl-disguised-behind-cute-face- Kareena, a wannabe-English-speaking-big- Mumbai-Don - Anil, and a suburban-small-time-thug - Akshay Kumar. We should show this movie to the people in the 1st world (I don’t know whether such a word exists, it’s an opposite of the 3rd world). Saif (Jimmy Cliff) who is a FTE J in a call center + part-time English language teacher, roams around Mumbai flaunting his ultra-modern cruiser bike which must be as costly as a “D” segment car in India. Same is the case with his lavish condominium. (Insane I’m, who do not understand about director’s “Creative Liberty”) But wait… if we show this to the “firangs” we’ll loose all the forthcoming off-shoring jobs which are already diminishing rapidly. (I’ll leave that to Kiran Karnik of Nasscom, Chopras, and CEO’s of Offshoring companies.) Saif’s character must have been intended to be carved out as a simpleton, but he can not provide justice and gives a lot more glamour to the character unnecessarily.
Kareena works as Anil Kapoor’s personal secretary. Anil Kapoor (Bhaiiyyaji) wants to become a fluent English speaker to impress his fellow businessman. Well Anil hails from Kanpur and carries heavy Kanpurriyya accent. Kareena introduces Saif (as her own secret plan J) to Anil as his English teacher. The initial scenes of Anil learning English have come up very well and reincarnation of the famous “Diwar” monologue (“Khush to bahut hoge tum…”) would be one of the best scenes Anil must have delivered till date. The linguistic and phonetic variations create a lot of interest initially, but then overshadow the character and the movie as well. We have seen such characters in “My Fair Lady”, “Chup ke Chup ke (Dharmndra), Goal Maal (Utpal Dutt) and none of these appeared to be doing linguistic circus as in Tashan.
Akshay’s entry is probably the other best part of the movie. It reminded me of one of my favorite Hindi movie “Jaane Bhi Do Yaron”. But pretty soon our friend Vijay Krishna Acharya makes a worst mockery of the legendary mythological sequence from the masterpiece. Akshay appears to be the coolest dude in the movie and has actually portrayed it close to the character - A small time thug in Kanpur and aspiring to be a #1 shooter in the Mumbai underworld. But again Acharya does the trick and dilutes the role along the length of the movie.
Acharya couldn’t repeat the success of Dhoom(s) in terms of weaving the storey. The script and direction is simply horrible. Though he creates some waves sporadically with the dialogues. When the same number plate of the red Mercedes appears in the movie one more time it reads something like “MH 03…” (which should have been UGR…). By this time I already have lost the interest and the winning feeling of catching the continuity related flaws in the film.
Music doesn’t appear to be entirely of Vishal-Shekhar (They must have off-loaded the same to small time music cookie-cutters in Ulhasnagar). One of the songs – “Dil Hara” is audible, but that’s lost due to the ill-coordinated choreography and visual effects. It has a flavor of Indian folk song and is shot on the backdrops of seashore in Greece. That fusion doesn’t go well at all. “Dil Dance Mare” is another one which is a cheap entertainer. The background music and voice overs eat up most of the dialogues.
Some of the scenes are visual treats but it’s not because of any particular camera angle, or frame, or light effects, but merely because of the beautiful locations in Ladakh, Greece, Rajasthan and Kerala.
Fight sequences are more of a comedy including the one inside a fort in Rajasthan, where Saif kareena and Akshay all start gunning their AK47, revolvers and 303 look alike without ever seen those. Akshay mimics Keanu Reeves of Matrix which in fact reminds me of ninja series movies such as “shadow less snake” or “monkey less shadow”, or “shadow’s shadow” etc. The super-stretched fight sequence towards the climax is a lifetime tribute to the action heroes such as Mithun and Rajani, and directors such as Ramu (Aag fame) and David Dhawan.
While coming out of theatre I had a tale to narrate to my younger one “Once upon a time there lived 2 words, “Tashan” and “Style” which were vanished on 28th April 2008………………………”
I literally had to cover my face while entering the dinning hall. Half an hour after the movie I could see that the team has already started enjoying the food. The restaurateur was eligible for a hefty tip which he got in the end, as the food really salvaged the situation - elevating the mood of 100 odd loosers.
Well for me NOW it’s time to go to sleep and dream about Acharya being whacked by Sr. and Jr. Chopra’s, Chopra’s being whacked by distributors, Anil who is giving his first and the last impressions together, Akshay reciting Hanuman Chalisa and Tulsi Ramayana every morning and enacting Ram in the Ramleela pandals somewhere in North this Dushera, so as to pay homage to the Almighty. Also Twinkle divorcing him for doing all the manly Kanpurriya and sachin-making-pad adjustments-on-the-cricket-pitch, kind of acts on the screen. Kareena going on pilgrimage to Haridwar to do rituals of the movie, Saif obviously following Kareena but in the midst changing tracks and going after “marina” (whoever…what’s in the name anyways?). And then I’m getting out of the bed next day having a great feeling of giving ways to my frustration, writing this review after spending 7 some hours over last 8 days.
Regards, Yogesh Dixit
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)