M S Dhoni - An Untold Story is a wonderfully told story of Mahi!

Sometimes a simple linear story line is the best way to tell a story. Simple stories are best told in simple ways.

M S Dhoni - An Untold Story is such a simple tale. Neeraj Pandey has created a great movie on one of the greatest sportsperson of India. Great, not because he was talented. That he is. But great because he had the strength to choose cricket despite the pressures of having a normal life. Great, because he aspired to achieve something beyond what he could have settled for.

This is also a story of India, an India that has been waiting to display its talent and grit. Its determination. 

The story begins with Mahi being discovered by the school sports coach. Mahi's family, as with millions of Indian families, is trying to provide the best education possible to him. Theirs is a simple hope, that Mahi grows up to be someone who is able to reach beyond where his father could. Even when Mahi pushes his luck by taking risks in examinations, he ensures that his family is taken in confidence and the trust is shown to grow stronger.

He has his share of supporters in the school coach, the local sports shop owner, his friends and so on. 

His stint at Railways is fascinating. The initial hope and the later feeling of being trapped is something that is shown well.

While there is not too much of exploration of his thought process, there are hints given. I find it perfectly understandable that a 3 hour movie cannot delve into every little detail. And Indian cinema viewers would like to know as much about M.S. in these three hours as possible. 

A couple of scenes are very poignant. I did feel these scenes gave an insight into what the cold-blooded thinker M.S. is made of.

And yes, there are some lovely light moments that make you chuckle if not laugh.

All in all, the film is a great biopic. One that should be seen with our next generation. One that tells us how much sweat, blood and thought goes in achieving success.

This movie belongs to Sushant Singh Rajput. He has put everything to make this look good. And it does look very good! 

We all know Mahendra Singh Dhoni very well. I bought a new TV in 2007 and MSD won the T20 World Cup for us. These stories are common in India. We are proud of him for giving us unexpected victories and we also criticize him for prolonging victory at times or dropping veterans at times. India has a special place in its heart for MSD. We remember him for leading India to two World Cup victories!

To create his character and to make people relive all those moments is a monumental task. Sushant Singh Rajput has delivered his performance flawlessly. The famous helicopter shot is an example. Even good cricketers cannot play that... Sushant does play it beautifully. 

And as earlier, Neeraj Pandey's direction gets full marks. To create any sports scene in movies is not easy. To create so many of them deserves credit! Anupam Kher, Bhumika, Kumud Mishra and others are good in supporting roles.

One more observation, this movie reminds me of Forrest Gump for its use of computer graphics to insert the actor's face in real clips from history! Well Done!

Go watch the movie in the nearest cinema hall with your family!

Life of Pi - Visuals and Metaphors

Life of Pi is a stunning movie.

I have not read the book. And those who have read have mentioned that the movie tries to remain as faithful as possible to it. Ang Lee brings to us another wonderful story with stunning visuals and some very good acting.

I have seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which too had a lovely story told with some brilliant visuals, great cinematography by Lee.

Life of Pi begins with Irrfan Khan narrating his birth and childhood. His parents (Tabu and Adil Hussain) are owners of a zoo and a botanical garden. The story of his name "Pi" is an amusing anecdote told nicely. The story moves ahead where Pi and his family and their animals begin a journey to the new world.

The bizarre, incredible and stormy journey begins with a thunderstorm on the ship. Pi survives and ends up with a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena and a tiger on a lifeboat. There, the story begins. Pi, armed with a book, some food and his father's advice, and the tiger share some moments of glory in the story. The story takes us through a magical journey with a denouement as brilliant as expected.

Trust me when I say that I cannot describe it on the blog. Go, go to your nearest theatre and see it. It is recommended for children of 8-9 years and up. But you do need some patience and that is a small weakness, since we are talking of cinema here.

The story is a metaphor to how one must live a life. One can wonder whether it is the best way to explain things, but the extreme example makes it a brilliant medium.

Suraj Sharma, as Pi, is magnificient. So is Richard Parker. Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu, Rafe Spall, they all add up well. But the movie belongs to Pi. The special effects, 3D images and the vistas shown are brilliant.

4* of 5* from me....

English Vinglish & My love for Food!

We saw the delightful English Vinglish yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sridevi's Shashi Godbole and her English class is a fantastic tale with the moral that no odd is bigger than your will! The movie was worth every penny and the best part is that it is 100% family viewing affair.

That said, I loved the supporting star cast of the movie - most of them, Mehdi Nebbou, the silent Frenchman whose yearning for Shashi starts growing on you, the viewer.

Now there is a fine discussion between Shashi and Laurent where they say something of this sort:

Laurent: Food is art.
Shashi: When a man cooks, it is art. When a woman cooks, it is her work / duty.
Laurent: No no no... you cook, you make other people happy. This is worship. This is art. Prayer.

It is better viewed on the screen than me describing it here. It is a fine discussion on how we all should view the person cooking for us - your mother, your wife, the cook, the vada pav waala....whoever. I have never heard a more intelligent discussion on food in Hindi cinema.

I am absolutely loving the way Indian cinema is moving. English Vinglish is another example of this sophistication that is coming our way.

Barfi!++ : Loving where Indian cinema is going!

Having seen Barfi! and being completely charmed by the lovely fairy tale of Barfi, Jhilmil and Shruti, I refuse to fall into the debate whether this should have gone to Oscars or not.

For me and for us Indians, I do not think it should matter. What should matter is where our cinema is going! After the rubbish we saw coming in the 1980s, some limited risk taking in the 1990s, some more boldness is portraying stories in the 2000s, we have now reached a wonderful point where some excellent movies are being produced.

I have written this earlier too, Hindi cinema is undergoing a wonderful transformation that needs to be appreciated, applauded and encouraged.

Now Barfi! may have picked up some scenes, but the way the story is told, the cinematography, the music and the actors, they all show what can be achieved. The audience is entranced by this team. And this has been happening at a very good frequency. In fact that is what is making us spend reasonable sums at the movie halls.

In general, this bodes well for Hindi cinema viewers.

Now the point of Oscars, sure they should award an original movie over one which may have redone some scenes. But the way movies are made today, we need not worry too much.

Before you go, here enjoy this lovely lovely song from Barfi!

Kaksparsh - Movie Review

Sunday evening went viewing the new film Kaksparsh.

Kaksparsh - the title translates as the Crow's Touch - people with knowledge of Hindu customs would identify this with a custom that happens after the death of a person. This is probably the Golden Era of the Marathi Cinema. Having seen Deool, Natrang, Valu in recent past.... the addition of Kaksparsh is a welcome addition.

Mahesh Manjrekar breaks new ground by reciting this haunting tale of love and sacrifice on the big screen. So power packed is the impact of this story that the scenes and dialogues keep coming back to your mind hours after you have left the theatre. Before this, there was English Patient that left such a haunting memory in my mind.

Coming to the movie, it starts in, I think, 1930s and goes on till early 1950s. The movie is set in verdant Konkan region of Maharashtra. The backdrop of the village, the customs, the clothes, the local involvement with freedom struggle, boat travel and other such things set up the tone of the movie.

The story starts with a tragedy striking a newly married couple of Mahadev and Uma, where Mahadev dies on his first night after his wife Uma reaches puberty. Mahadev's elder brother, Hari, is a well known and respected elder of the village. He breaks tradition and protects Uma from being forced to tonsure her head as a widow as per the customs of the time. Not just that he becomes inaccessible to opinions on how to treat Uma. He is authoritarian and does not allow any decision to be taken by anyone when it comes to Uma. This lasts for almost 2 decades and each development in family, the village only puts the entire village and us, the viewers, confused and perplexed about his motives. The denouement is perfect, if you have the guts to digest such a story.

The critical question this movie asks is about relationships and marriage. The movie tries to explore the topic of existence of love and how it manifests between two individuals. I must say, it is a very difficult topic and has been brilliantly handled by Mahesh Manjrekar.

Now the actors - Sachin Khedekar has delivered the performance of his lifetime. I easily put this in the ना 

भूतो ना भविष्याती category for him. He is astonishing as the hardnosed, principled, unshakeable Kartaa purush of the family.

Ketaki Mategaonkar and Priya Bapat both as the young widow, Uma, deliver stellar performances. With so little dialogue your way, both these ladies have shown rich expression through eyes and body language.

The supporting cast is also very good and completes the story - the villagers, a local villain, Hari's freedom fighter friend, and his family members.

Go watch it, but only if you want a serious treatise of a difficult topic.

Trailer:

Tangled - Walt Disney's Magic Continues

The magic that Walt Disney created many decades ago still continues to mesmerize millions like us. 

Rapunzel is an ageless fairy tale that is itself fantastic. Add to that some fine creativity, brilliant direction and amazing dialogues - we have a brilliant movie called Tangled.

Tangled does not play with the main story. It sticks to the original one mostly. It is lovely and unique by the way it presents itself. As I said, the dialogues are cool. The 3D effects are fantastic.

The one scene that I absolutely loved was where Rapunzel and Flynn escape from a dam. Its action is truly great. 

This was the first 3D movie where I did not feel weary wearing those glasses. The length of the movie is just perfect. It runs at a rapid pace and comes to closure quickly too.

I think the best compliment came from my kid with this line, " I feel like seeing Tangled again!". I think that sums it up for me too - I want to see it again!

My rating - **** out of 5*

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*.

Sherlock Holmes - Movie Review - Excellent movie!

Rating ***1/2 out of 5*. 

Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant movie! It is fast paced, witty, sometimes comic, action packed and ends with a bang.

What is done in this movie is that it has made Holmes a sort of James Bond of the 19th Century. It has been many years that I have read Sherlock Holmes stories. But from whatever I remember, this movie presents to us quite a different man. In fact, this Holmes is an explosive mix of supreme deductive powers and equally supreme physical powers!

Robert Downey Jr. as the legendary detective and Jude Law as his trusted Dr. Watson shine in this movie. In fact everything shines....including the plot.

The movie begins with Holmes and Watson stopping a crime from being committed. They apprehend Lord Blackwood in an act of Black Magic. Blackwood is hanged to death. Blackwood resurrects himself and then begins the game of smoke and mirrors. He challenges and lures Holmes into traps and Holmes continues to investigate for a larger plan. A group of people from a secret society also ask Holmes to stop Blackwood at any cost. They fear Blackwood is upto something immensely sinister and his abuse of magical powers needs to be stopped.

Irene Adler, shown as Holmes' love interest is also a very intriguing character. She has been hired by a mysterious rich man to lead or mislead Holmes to something.

Holmes, Watson and Irene investigate. The investigation is a mind-blowing roller-coaster of action and suspense. Viewers are almost breathless when the movie ends. And it ends well. Ties up all the knots and gives a nice closing to it all.

London of late 19th Century is brilliantly depicted. Hans Zimmer's music is terrific. And the action is fantastic. Guy Ritchie shows how Holmes first plans his action and its effects and then actually executes it. This is done in several scenes and sometimes the effect is humorous. The dialogues are witty. And the suspense opens up slowly and carefully.

Excellent movie. Watch it in a cinema hall!  

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!