Ishqiya - Movie Review

What a movie! There was a time when I used wonder what ails our industry to have some nice classy movies? What does Hollywood eat to make stuff like Blood Simple or Usual Suspects or LA Confidential? Well, time has come that Bollywood has started making intense, interesting and intriguing movies. And yes, Indian cinema is getting all these elements in a single movie.

The movie begins with an accident in which Vidya Balan gets widowed when her criminal husband dies. In a different town, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi run away from a big goon with his money. They plan to escape to Nepal with the money.

They had once helped Vidya Balan's husband and so reach at her place with the intent of getting help in their plans. The goon traces them there and gives them few days to return money.

Now things start unfolding in a manner they both had not imagined. Both Shah and Warsi start falling for Vidya Balan. And she is much more than what she seems.

What happens? Well I suggest you see the movie to find out.

The dialogues are funny, witty and add to the intrigue. The songs are brilliant. Background music has lot of stuff that reminds of Western classics. Acting wise, Vidya Balan is great! She never seems overawed by Naseeruddin or Arshad. They both are great as well. The best part is the plot and the direction.

Welcome to the new Indian cinema. Enjoy!

4* out of 5*.

Rann - Movie Review

Rann is an OK watch. It is not bad but not great either. Ram Gopal Verma is in his element in places but is generally not able to decide when to stop. So Rann comes out as a drawn out, at times weary movie.

The story begins with Harshvardhan Malik (Big B) as a reputed journalist and the head of a channel. The channel is facing problems of falling viewership. His son (Jay played by Sudeep) and others in team are trying to convince him to change somewhat to ensure higher TRP. 

There is a spy in his team who seems to be leaking vital information to his biggest competitor, Mohnish Bahl. Then there is the politics of the land where Huda and Pande are the leaders. 

Big B breaks a big story and causes a political earthquake. His TV viewership shoots up. But there is a problem of which Big B is not aware. Riteish Deshmukh joins Big B as a fresh recruit with all the idealistic thoughts. He suspects something and investigates.

There is not much of suspense but I will not reveal more of the story.  There is the climax which is very long. The movie could have stopped a good 20 minutes before it actually did. The climax scene has Big B speaking long sentences that are made of good 30-35 words. The dialogue writer I think must have used every word in Hindi language in that ramble.

Who shines? Sudeep and his girlfriend are very good. Probably the most complete characterizations in the movie. Big B is quite flat - may be a problem the way script is written. It is good to watch Riteish in a different, more serious role. But he too wears just one expression throughout. Mohnish Bahl, Suchitra Krishnamurty, Rajat Kapoor are all ok in their roles. Gul Panag is unnecessary in the film. 

There is nothing that we don't know. Nothing that is stunning. And in the climax, Ramu takes the easy way out. When deciding between glory as a good analyst of human psyche and possible box office success, Ramu has opted for the latter.

All in all, see the movie if you don't have anything else to do. Else wait for it to come on TV.

3* out of 5*.

3 Idiots - Movie Review

3 Idiots - Raju Hirani and Aamir Khan's new offering is a good movie.

It is light, entertaining and gives the right messages. In some sense, it is also one of the many forms in which art in our country is trying to convey the change in people's mindset.

The movie begins with 2 friends trying to meet their third one who has been missing for some time. And then the story moves back in time when they meet first time. Three engineering hostel roomies - Farhan Qureshi, Raju Rastogi and Ranchhoddas Chanchad become best friends during their studies.

The gag fest begins there. Non-stop. Some of them outrageous, some picked from many of the jokes / anecdotes - of these some are contemporary and some very old. At times, you laugh (and really loudly) and at times you can only smile. But the good part is that the message is always delivered.

There is that element of suspense built up in the middle of the story that is good. But the climax feels contrived and, therefore, slightly stretched.

Aamir is good but his role, as an all-knowing, cannot do anything wrong fellow, seems stretched after some time. Madhavan seems wasted in a rather small role. Boman continues his only-needs-change-of-heart villainy.

Who shines? Sherman Joshi in a more sensitive role, Kareen Kapoor in a small but great role and their Uganda-born Pondicherry educated enamored-with-marks classmate (I don't know the actor's name).

The movie has some fantastic campus scenes, great dialogues and locales.  Raju Hirani continues his mission of spreading the right messages. This certainly looks in line with the earlier Munnabhai episodes. All-in-all, good watch.



Added later to post
The movie has elements of various sources from around the world. The ones I see obvious connections to - Earlier Munnabhai episodes, Taare Zameen Par, Kite Runner (the book), Forrest Gump

Movie Review - All The Best

***&1/2 out of 5*

All the Best is everything you want to end a perfect weekend. The only prerequisite for enjoying this movie - keep your brain outside the cinema hall.

Back in mid-90s when Ajay Devgan was new and was mostly doing forgettable action movies - critics used to pan him at will. One newspaper had called him "oily and retarded" (To be  precise it was "tupkat mandabuddhi chehryacha" in Marathi). Devgan over last 10 years or so has been consistently proving why he should be considered one of the better actors in the industry. This is one more comic addition to those good roles.

The movie is fun. Ajay Devgan (sans the 'a' in last name) plays Prem Chopra and Fardeen Khan - Veer Kapoor they are friends and both are subprime loan cases. However their creditor is a local goon (played by Johnny Lever). Bipasha Basu (as Janhavi) and Mugdha Godse (as Vidya) are their respective lead actresses. Their subprime situation leads to Prem Chopra giving extremely creative ideas to Veer on how to get money from his rich elder brother (Sanjay Dutt playing Dharam) from Africa. These creative ideas lead to confusion that make elder brother think Bipasha is Vidya. The whole movie is on this confusion.

The gags are in dialogues, sight gags, references and every other possible way. That said the jokes are not repetitive, they keep you interested and they don't make you wait long for the next joke.

Ajay Devgn reaffirms why he is a good actor. Almost half the movie is poking fun at his character. Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha are great. Fardeen has increased his expressions to more than 2 and that is encouraging. Johnny Lever is looking better with his translator sidekick. BTW, I loved Sanjay Mishra nicknamed RGV :D  who mimics Pran in the entire movie. He with Atul Parchure are awesome. And finally the ultimate Mallu accent from Ashwini Kalsekar is zimbly awzum.

Endpiece - The experience in this movie and mirth levels in the theatre reminded me of Andaz Apna Apna that I had seen back in 1994.

Kaminey - Movie Review

Kaminey is awesome! That is my 1 word review.
***** (out of 5*)

I know it is a bit late but it would be incorrect to not praise Vishal Bharadwaj for this one more gem. Indian cinema is coming of age. A thriller that matches any other from any part of the world.

Bharadwaj does not take the easy way out (the one typically used in Hindi double role movies) of the brave guy replacing the simple one. He makes sure he does not go that way by fimply creating a fituation where one pronounfef 'fa' af 'fa' and the other s....s....stammers. So no chance of swaps.

I am not going to say much about the movie. You folks go and watch it in a movie theater that has a good sound system. The music, the chases, the songs, the dialogue, everything....everything is top class. The background of rain, the gaps in story left for you to fill in your mind and many such things are new to our cinema and they work well. The director is respecting you.

Shahid is fantastic as the crazy derby gambler Charlie who cannot fay 'fa' and Guddu as the stammering NGO worker. Priyanka Chopra is mindblowing as the Marathi mulgi Sweety. She spouts fire ...literally. Her Marathi is almost impeccable. There are those loud and mean Bengali brothers, much feared Tashi, 2 crooked cops and other kamineys who are all very good in those characters.

One character that stands out is Bhope Bhau by Amol Gupte.

Though there are a lot of good scenes in Kaminey, I loved the hotel chase and the final climax. The dialogue during the climax are the most enjoyable ones.

When I saw movies like Shawshank Redemption and Usual Suspects, I always felt that our movie makers should also make similar stuff that is original. Well then...here is Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminey for you.

Love Aaj Kal - Movie Review

** (out of 5*)

Love Aaj Kal is an interesting experiment. Unfortunately, it is just that...an experiment and mostly a boring one. It is nowhere close to the fire that Jab We Met was.

At the beginning, we know that Meera and Jay have broken up. There is a collage of scenes that form the mystery element of the movie. But then as we learn more and more about Meer and Jay, we feel it is all superficial. Sure they are not committed to each other but still have feelings for each other. This does not come out. After that we see many scenes interwoven in 2 time periods which is good if they are handled well. They are sudden and disrupt the flow of movie.

What stands out in this movie is the story of Veer Singh and Harleen Kaur. The story exudes passion, something of the type of Amitabh's Jay and Jaya Bhaduri's Radha of Sholay. With her quiet presence, terse one liners and stunning simplicity, young Harleen steals away our hearts. Veer, with his Pratigya, patience and building maturity makes a place for himself.

But, overall Imtiaz Ali and his editor have created such a mish mash of scenes and have tried to pace it so much that we somehow do not connect to the main characters - Jay and Meera. And isn't that the crux of any good romantic movie?

Now to the actors. Deepika Padukone is completely flat and boring in her acting. What happened to the Shanti of Om Shanti Om? Her acting was flat in Bachna Aye Haseeno and I did not dare to see Chandni Chowk to China.

Saif Ali Khan's one liners, gibberish and confusion as Jay is heart warming but the serious scenes again miss to connect with the viewers. Veer is great...Saif is good in intense scenes (like Omkara). Rishi Kapoor is mind blowing. I am a big fan of Rishi and feel he has always been under-appreciated by everyone. The new girl, Giselle, as Harleen is excellent. Lastly, why waste someone as wonderful as Rahul Khanna?

All in all, a good movie if you have nothing else to do. Perhaps Imtiaz should try to show us the complete story of Veer and Harleen next time. BTW, songs are good but are mostly placed in wrong places and break the movies continuity...except the last one that is ;)

- Sid

New York Movie Review

Living alone in a city is boring and so 2 sad and lonely souls went to see New York in its Saturday matinee show.

In a nutshell, New York is brilliant with its weaknesses.

The movie begins with Hollywood movie style FBI raids where Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is detained for possessing weapons. An Asian FBI officer (Irfan Khan) plays a good-cop and bad cop to extract the truth from Omar. Omar is made to tell the history about his friends Sam (John Abraham) and Maya (Katrina Kaif). We find, very interestingly, how Omar, Sam and Maya become friends. The story moves ahead to reveal deeper relations.

Then starts the real story. Sam is a suspect and FBI wants Omar to help them. Omar, pressurised and threatened, agrees and tries to re-enter Sam and Maya's life.

I am going to stop telling the story here. The movie is a mix of drama and thriller.

The movie is a poignant story of what Asians of certain faith went through after the horrific 9/11 attacks. The way it is told is what is new about this movie. Our Bollywood cinema is learning new things and new directors are willing to cross the traditional boundaries of thoughts.

Neil Nitin Mukesh is great, but John Abraham is excellent. I have seen him in other movies where I always thought he was superficial. He was fantastic in this movie. Irfan Khan is as usual with his blend of seriousness and humour. But the crown of acting in this movie goes to Katrina Kaif. She is brilliant. It is amazing to see an actress shed her glamour quotient and enter the territory of deep and sensitive acting. I am impressed with the way she has improved over the years after everyone had called her another glamour girl.

The first person narrative, the editing, direction and acting are all amazing. Keeping songs in background is an achievement considering how our directors fall to peer pressure and insert songs in places that break a movie's continuity.

Finally, I felt the climax was slightly slack. It could have been more tightly handled. I am not suggesting anything is wrong, it was good, just that it should have been handled in a better way.

All in all, brilliant work! Go see it in the nearest movie theater.

Appreciating a new genre of hindi movies

Dibakar Banerjee just moved few notches up in my great director's list. Ahem, methinks me is a great reviewer of movies ;-)

But seriously, compare his movies Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. Look at the protagonist, then we understand the effort the director and scriptwriter has put in creating the character.

Chiraunjilal aka Cherry and Lucky are not very different. There is a fire simmering within but the triggers are different. Cherry is far more controlled and jumps in when his father gets pushed in a corner.

Lucky is more enamoured in the superficial but his crossing the line comes with a full knowledge of ones own wrongdoing. He is never disillusioned that he is doing something correct. The strife within comes to the surface in his drinking binge when he meets his family. His heart breaks for his father (whom he has detested so far).

The director Dibakar gives us some fantastic characters to study and observe. While Khosla ka Ghosla is intended to keep spirits up with light humour, Oye Lucky delves deeper inside the skin. Both films are on a backdrop of rising spending power and its interpretation by the two protagonists. That backdrop is not to be missed.

Dont miss out on the actors either - underrated power performers.

Great going hindi cinema!