Sai and Shujath talk Cinema

All the Best November 6, 2009

Posted by Shujath in Hindi, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: Movie, Film, Review, Sanjay Dutt, comedy, Hindi, Bollywood, DVD, Fardeen Khan, blockbuster, Pritam, Rohit Shetty, Mukesh Tiwari, Bipasha Basu, Ashwini Kalsekar, Mughda Godse, 2009, Prem Chopra, Ajay Devgn, All the Best, Fun Begins, Ajay Devgn FFilms, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Mishra, Tobu, Just Chill, Car Porn, Comedy of Errors, Asrani, Right Bed Wrong Husband
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Rohit Shetty’s fetish for car porn just got worse, his gags have become a lot more sillier and predictable – yet All the Best makes you laugh-out-loud for a satisfactory duration of its run-time enough to make you leave the theatre with a smile on your face.

This one’s a very traditional comedy of errors (supposed to be based on the play “Right Bed Wrong Husband” and also with a strong resemblance to the Kamal Haasan starrer Navvandi Lavvandi/Kadhala Kadhala) with the usual mix-ups and the ensuing mayhem – which is so unoriginal that you can correctly guess almost every forthcoming situation. Still, the actors seems to get their timing right most of the time and do succeed in tickling your funny bone. But beware that a film like this only works when you watch it in a theatre with a large crowd.

For me the best part of this movie is to see Sanjay Dutt back in form – especially after that horrendous Blue. He doesn’t do comedy much but has always delivered the few times he’s tried. As always Ajay Devgn manages to be very funny in Rohit Shetty’s films. Fardeen Khan and the girls have nothing much to do. Johnny Lever is quite impressive and he actually gets a meaty role after a very long time. Another surprise is Sanjay Mishra who brings down the house every time with his one note “Just Chill”. The rest of the supporting cast also delivers mostly.

If Rohit Shetty could have let gone of those unbearable car, action and song sequences All the Best could have been a memorable comedy; but I am sure he is so addicted to them that wishing something like that is a big joke. In any case this one works just fine for a lazy weekend watch.

London Dreams November 6, 2009

Posted by Shujath in Hindi, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: 2009, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Ajay Devgn, Amadeus, Ambition, Asin, Barso Re, Bhatinda, blockbuster, Blockbuster Entertainment, Bollywood, Brinda Parekh, comedy, Concert, Drugs, DVD, Film, Friendship, Hanuman Chalisa, Hindi, Jealousy, Khanabadosh, Khwaab, London, London Dreams, Mann Ko Ati, Movie, NRI, Om Puri, Rajkumar Santoshi, Rannvijay Singh, Review, rock band, Salman Khan, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Vipul Shah, Wembley
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When I was glancing around reviews for this film I came across many people complaining about how this is an awful “rip-off” of Amadeus. Agreed, that the basic characterizations of Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan are inspired from the latter film’s protagonists but calling that a remake or a rip-off makes me wonder if they actually have seen that film. Another recurring complaint is about how it fails to match Rock On!! – well…why on earth does one expect it be a Rock-On!! when the makers never promised anything like that.

Anyways, Vipul Shah’s latest directorial venture is a suprisingly effective old-school tale about friendship and jealousy. It doesn’t take much time for anyone to realize that the whole rock-band thing is nothing more than a backdrop to this story. Arjun (Ajay Devgn) – an extremely ambitious guy whose sole aim in life is to perform at Wembley. However, as he comes closer to acheiving his dream his limelight is effortlessly stolen by his carefree childhood friend Mannu (Salman Khan) – who ends up dealing a double blow by wowing the crowds and wooing his girl. Arjun decides to get back at Mannu by bringing him down in everyone’s eyes – albeit he also has guilt pangs for doing the same.

Most of the film is quite breezy and a lot of fun while not deviating much from the main plot but it gets rather inconsistent (and ineffective) when things start getting a bit serious. Yet, one has to applaud Vipul Shah for the mature way in which he handles the last portions of the film (especially if you’ve seen in his last two films how cringeworthy he can get when it comes to melodrama). If London Dreams fails it is only because the writing in the second half (the emotional scenes) does not do justice to the intensity of the actors involved – which is why those portions don’t seem so heartfelt. Shah admitted in an interview about excising a lot of those scenes due to the runtime which answers to an extent why that part didn’t work.

Another thing is probably Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s score which has its share of great and not-so-great tunes. This aspect is rather glaring because all the average numbers turn up only in the concerts (with the exception of the wonderful “Khwaab” track which I must say covers most of the failings of the second half).

But it is hard to keep picking flaws when you have the powerful duo of Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan in superb form. Ajay’s grudge in the movie is that everybody loves Salman – it’s no wonder the latter’s role is written keeping that aspect in mind. Whether you love or hate the film, you cannot but be charmed by Salman. The box office still has not been completely kind to him but the superstar has truly begun to shine again. Asin, Rannvijay Singh and Aditya Roy Kapoor are just passable.

For me London Dreams worked completely because I haven’t seen a film in a very long time which had such an authentic “feel-good” vibe about it. It could have been a lot better but given its merits the flaws are very easily forgivable. Go for it…

Main aurr Mrs Khanna October 19, 2009

Posted by Shujath in Hindi, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: 2009, Akash, Bade Achche Lagte Hain, Bappi Lahiri, Bollywood, Chauvinist husband, Deepika Padukone, Dino Morea, Don't say Alvida, DVD, Ego, extramarital relationships, Film, Happening, Haseena Jagmagia, Hindi, husband-wife relationship, Kareena Kapoor, Mahek Chahal, Main aurr Mrs Khanna, Melbourne Airport, Movie, Nauheed Cyrusi, Orphan, Preity Zinta, Prem R Soni, Rabba, Raina, Review, Sajid-Wajid, Salman Khan, Sameer, Sohail Khan, Sohail Khan Production, Surname, UTV, Yash Tonk
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Prem R Soni is credited for the Story, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction for this film. After conceiving the film, at some point of time he seems to have come to the conclusion that a movie with all the four aspects might be very complex. To keep it simple, he decides to do away with most of the aforementioned details. When the movie ends, you practically keep scratching your head wondering if something really happened in the film and if it did how come you didn’t spot it.

Mr. Khanna (Salman Khan) loses his job in Melbourne. To recoup, he plans to move to Singapore but unceremoniously tries packing off Mrs. Khanna (Kareena Kapoor) to India. Shocked by this harsh move Mrs. Khanna sets up shop in the airport until her husband’s return. In comes Akash (Sohail Khan) who is instantly smitten by Mrs. Khanna and slowly they become close to each other. When Mr. Khanna is back Akash wants to discredit him in Mrs. Khanna’s eyes tries but fails. Inevitably Mr. Khanna confronts Mrs. Khanna about Akash but Mrs Khanna is too dumb to believe that Akash could be love with her. She then decides to confront Akash with the same question – Akash responds rather diplomatically and has an inexplicable change of heart….and the movie ends. There is a so called twist in the end which is supposed to justify Akash’s behavior – but that actually only serves to finally convince Mrs. Khanna (who still can’t believe it!!!) about Akash’s love.

The most bewildering thing about this film is that you have no clue what it is trying to say (or is trying to say something in the first place?) Why does Akash change his mind out of the blue? What about Mr. Khanna who is portrayed as a rather eccentric and unpleasant person for most of the film but towards the end he seems to be exonerated? What exactly is going on in Mrs. Khanna’s mind? What is Bappi Lahiri doing in the film? Why did Preity Zinta have such an awfully bad cameo? In a way Main aurr Mrs Khanna is the most thought provoking film of the year since the number of questions you might want to ask Prem Soni could easily exceed the size of his script.

On the brighter side, this is not really a bad watch if you discount the B-list supporting cast (and promise not to ask too many questions). Sajid-Wajid come up with a pretty good soundtrack which is quite refreshing compared to their usual dance numbers. All the lead actors perform well but how do you rise above the script when there isn’t one. Main aurr Mrs Khanna is a one-of-a-kind movie which just seems to exist because it has to – it’s your call if you want to watch it for that.

Blue October 19, 2009

Posted by Shujath in Hindi, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: 2009, 250 Deep Lies the Secret of Blue, action thriller, Akshay Kumar, Anthony D'Souza, AR Rahman, Bahamas, Bangkok, bikini, blockbuster, Blue, Bollywood, Buried Treasure, Chiggy Wiggy, Dhilin Mehta, DVD, Film, Fiqraana, Hindi, Kabir Bedi, Katrina Kaif, Kylie Minogue, Lady in Blue, Lara Dutta, Merzin Tavaria, Movie, Prime Focus, Rahul Dev, Rehnuma, Review, Sanjay Dutt, Sharks, Stunts, Treasure Hunt, Underwater, VFX, Zayed Khan
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250 feet deep lies the secret of Blue….100 minutes is what it takes to convince Sanjay Dutt to lead a quest to find that…18 minutes is what it takes for you to realize why Sanju Baba was being so difficult.

In the film, whenever anyone mentions the buried treasure in Sanju’s presence he automatically has these series of flashes about a wrecked ship and skeletons. Writer-Director Anthony D’Souza assumes that those flashes are enough to keep one awake and curious for most of the movie’s duration. Needless to say, the action sequences as well as the underwater stuff for all their finesse are extremely unexciting.

Even if you excuse the lame script, there is something fundamentally wrong here – it’s not just the buried treasure which is underwater….the overall energy levels of everyone and everything in the movie also seem buried 250 feet in the deep. You instantly know this because 1) Zayed Khan and Katrina Kaif actually outshine everyone else in a multistarrer film 2) Lara Dutta in a bikini has just about the same sex appeal as an overweight Sanjay Dutt in a diving suit. (To add to Sanju’s woes he is made to fight on land wearing that thing). 3) You pray that Akshay Kumar actually switches back to doing one of his monotonous comedy films.

After last year’s Love Story 2050, comes another film where you have to observe a two minute silence in solidarity with the technical crew. A.R Rahman’s compositions are somehow salvaged mostly because the most energetic ones appear during the opening title sequence and the end credits. The buried treasure was unlucky enough to be found by the team of Blue – you could escape the same fate if you haven’t ventured out to watch this one.

Wake Up Sid October 16, 2009

Posted by Shujath in Hindi, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: 2009, Aisha, Anil Mehta, Anupam Kher, Ayan Mukherji, blockbuster, Bollywood, Bombay Controversy, Breezy, College, Coming of age, Dharma Productions, DVD, Film, Friendship, Hindi, Jason Mehta, Kainaz Motiwala, Karan Johar, Kashmira Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Lakshmi, Lazy, Movie, Namit Das, Niranjan Iyengar, Photography, Rahul Khanna, Ranbir Kapoor, Responsibility, Review, Rishi, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shikha Talsania, Sid, Supriya Pathak, Wake Up Sid
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It’s not very often that one gets to see characters portrayed with who you can identify with so closely. It’s another thing that instead of taking your protagonist through uncharted terrain you settle for putting him in the regular triumphant coming-of-age script – and that’s exactly why I felt a bit cheated with Wake Up Sid. That it’s an extremely well made film – there is no doubt; but then it could have been so much more – maybe I was a bit too impressed at the beginning that I forgot this is a product from KJo’s stable.

Sid (Ranbir Kapoor) is exactly the kind of guy who the rest of the “mature” world prods on to “wake up”. But Sid has other plans (or rather lack of them) and finds himself in a spot when after an unsavory incident he is homeless. Not for too long though, for Sid has found his way into newfound friend Aisha’s (Konkona Sen Sharma) apartment. You know the rest – it’s all about Sid waking up – to life and (surprise)….love! Debutant Ayan Mukherji has inherited his mentor’s visual sensibilites and has admirably taken a few taken a few steps forward when it comes to the writing. There are some really wonderful moments in the film – the best one’s being the emotional and confrontational scenes between Sid and his parents. The humor is also quite breezy but the best part is the superb cast.

Ranbir is just too believable as Sid which why you can so closely relate to his character. Konkona, Supriya Pathak, Anupam Kher also deliver praiseworthy performances. There are quite a few new faces like Shikha Talsania, Namit Das, Kainaz Motiwala and Jason Mehta who are very impressive. The funniest moment in the film (though unintentional) comes when you realize that Rahul Khanna gets to play the leading lady’s boss yet again (not to mention that he isn’t going to get her in the end yet again). Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy deliver yet another winning soundtrack which provides the perfect mood for the film. Wake Up Sid is a really nice watch but I do wish its plot was as real as its leading man.

Surrogates October 14, 2009

Posted by Shujath in English, Movies, Reviews.
Tags: 2009, blockbuster, Bruce Willis, Comic Book Series, Crime free world, DVD, Dystopian, Film, James Cromwell, Jonathan Mostow, Losing touch with humanity, Movie, Plugged to a chair, Racism free world, Radha Mitchell, Review, Robert Venditti, Rosamund Pike, sci-fi, Science Fiction, Special Effects, Surrogates, The Prophet, Touchstone Pictures, Ving Rhames
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The first question which comes to my mind is this – Unless you are completely paralyzed from head to toe or you are trying to save the world from “The Matrix” why would you want to be plugged to a chair for most part of your existence while a made-to-order surrogate robot actually lives out your life in the big bad world.

Apart from experiencing brief nostalgic feelings about “losing touch with one’s humanity” it is suggested (or rather assumed) that having a good looking surrogate is anyone’s natural choice. More laughably the first shot of the film shows a news report mentioning that once “surrogates” have become common the rates of “crime and racism” have fallen by 100% and 99% (who’s that unfortunate 1%?) respectively. The actual news report also should have had one more line “Mortality rate climbs 100% due to lifestyle diseases caused by being stuck to a chair for entire life”.

Also, except for the benefit of not getting physically hurt what is it that stops human controlled surrogates from commiting “crimes and racism” (even to that mysterious 1%). In fact when the “human” Bruce Willis has to step out in the real world (after his surrogate is destroyed), everyone around warns him how dangerous it is for humans to be out in the world of surrogates (maybe these adventure seeking “humans” constitute those 1% ). I don’t think I actually saw a child in the movie except in a photo and a brief glimpse of a pregnant “human” (thankfully no surrogates here).

If you’ve read till here and still want to watch the film then stop right there because I am giving away the ending now. SPOILER ALERT: Bruce Willis saves the world one more time. Humanity is free to get out of their chairs only to be greeted by the creepy sight of an equal number of disconnected surrogates lying on the street – which I presume they’ll have the spend the rest of their lifetimes cleaning up. Thank Bruce for that!!!