Sanjay Leela Bhansali has to be the most whimsical director in Indian cinema. But I tip my hat to him because he seriously seems to have the courage to follow what he believes is right. It would be fine to say that all his movies seem right out of picture postcards and that he may as well have signed up for a photo exhibition instead of making a movie worth a few crores. But at the end of all of it, one lands up seeing a treat that is probably a sight for sore eyes. Maybe not for the die hard movie fan who has come there to see some acting as well which in this case is almost missing. Not to mention that SLB has completed his quota of colours with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (Yellow/Orange), Devdas (Red), Black (Do I need to say anything), Saawariya (Blue) and now Guzarish (Green). And did I miss Khamoshi – haven’t seen it so can’t say which colour :P
Ethan Mascarenhas (Hritik Roshan) is a quadriplegic – for the benefit of those who do not understand – someone who cannot use any of his limbs and is paralysed neck down. He lives in an exotic (a la SLB) place in Goa which is also aptly titled Villa Mascarenhas. He is taken care of by his nearly full time nurse, Sophia D’Souza (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) who would qualify to be the most made up nurse in the history of the world for sure. And also one whose lipstick never fades. Maybe Ethan always wanted her to dress up this way – a part of the deal that was not covered in the movie but left to the viewers imagination. Sophia is helped by 2 maids with the day to day work. Ethan maybe disabled but is a shining example to most others who are. He has since his disability written a best seller book and also has a radio show which is heard by most of Goa and is hugely popular. He is a shining example of the never say die spirit that most of us would kill for. He has been quadriplegic for over 14 years now out of which Sophia has helped him through 12.
But all is not well in Ethan’s world. He has slowly but surely lost his will to live. He finally calls his closest friend & lawyer, Devyani Dutta (Shernaz Patel) to formally file a mercy killing petition. Devyani leaves in a fit of rage but I wonder why she waits till the wee hours of the morning to call Dr. Nayak (Suhel Seth) and inform him about this. Dr.Nayak has a similar reaction to this and even threatens to certify Ethan as mentally ill and therefore incapable of taking his own decision. But somewhere, they have also seen enough of suffering and eventually do file the petition which is promptly rejected by the courts. But Ethan is not one to give up. He starts a campaign for “Ethanasia” – a play on Euthanasia to gain support for the cause. But surprise surprise – people don’t want Ethan to die. They want him to stay in his suffering.
And adding to the suffering for the audience are 2 specimens of humanity – the erstwhile Miss World and a new Veejay (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who must seriously consider giving up the profession because – how do I put it – aah to hell with the language – YOU CANNOT ACT TO SAVE YOUR LIVES!!!!!! Please spare us the pain. The support cast of Shernaz Patel, Suhel Seth and Nafisa Ali are miles ahead of these 2 but still not really upto the best that they have come up with I guess. I haven’t seen quadriplegics but for in movies and I guess somewhere Hritik has done his research and has come up with a reasonably impressive performance. Definitely not his best. Somewhere I believe that Hritik would be best as a villain. A damn good looking villain like he was in D2. Probably waiting for the right impactful role that would catapult him from a wannabe to an actual acting talent which I believe he is capable of.
Guzarish is an incredibly esoteric movie. Not for the faint hearted and definitely not for those who do not believe in the concept of mercy killing. And it is meant primarily for the die-hard SLB fan. 6 on 10 I say. Worth a dekko for the grandeur that SLB gets to the frame and the decent performance than Hritik gets to the table.
Showing posts with label Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Show all posts
Monday, 22 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Action Replayy
Dear Robert Zemeckis – I hope and pray to God that you never get around to watching this broad day light carnage. At this rate they will get to Forrest Gump in a bit. So it may well be worth it to put some stay orders on Vipul Amrutlal Shah lest he considers making Action Replayy 2 and then 3 and then eventually gets to being “inspired” by your best movie to date. Please consider this as a humble request to send your people to set up a representative office here in India – or at least ask Universal Pictures to do the same. It is a humble request / plea.
Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Tanya (Sudeepa Singh) are in a relationship for quite a while now. Funnily, Tanya is the person who has been asking Bunty to marry him for quite some time now. If I had someone like Tanya I would grab her with every single bone in my body – I mean seriously the chick is HOT guys!!!! She was to date known for only the small screen. 2 serials under her belt – Risshton Ki Dor & Kabhie To Nazar Milao – and thanks to Vipul Amrutlal Shah she is no longer seen only on a 29”screen . Nevertheless, for someone to reject several marriage proposals from Tanya would mean some kind of terminal illness or child abuse which has left a permanent scar on his brain and prevents him from understanding the difference between True Love and Hotness (trust me – Hotness prevails ). It would seem that Bunty has been a victim of the latter – CHILD ABUSE – those long drawn nights where his parents – Kishen (AK) and Mala (ARB) – who were never meant to be together spent hours on end fighting over the most trivial issues. These instances have gotten our poor little Bunty to a situation where he has given up on the institution of marriage completely.
But Tanya will have nothing of it. She has had it finally and wants Bunty to make his decision right away – Atta girl I say, I am first in line after Bunty. But my excitement is to be short lived as Tanya drags Bunty to meet her Grandfather (who she refers to as Grandpa in the same manner as a 6 year old would – and the bubble of Tanya has finally burst – Bunty you can have her). Now Grandpa (Randhir Kapoor) has an equally corny name – Gonsalves – Anthony Gonsalves (By now u are reaching for your own throat). He gives Bunty 24 hours to decide whether he wants to marry Tanya or not. But Bunty is more fascinated with the old scientist’s (Oops I forgot to mention that Anthony Gonsalves was a scientist) contraption or Time Machine as he refers to it. Bunty dodges the marriage question by claiming that it is his parents 35th Anniversary the next day and he is too busy to think about marriage. As luck would have it, Kishen and Mala cannot help but fight once again and things come to breaking point – DIVORCE!!!! I mean it took them 35 years to get there!!!! Some patience. Bunty swears that he will not let the D word enter the family and runs off to meet to scientist, takes his time machine and sets off to 1975 to change what he calls the one mistake in his life that he would change if he could – his parent’s marriage.
My sentiments of Action Replayy are best captured by one of my co-movie watchers who probably ruined his Diwali evening too. At the interval there was a loud, “THANK GOD”!!! that erupted from a dark recess in the movie hall. Just a word of advise though. If you have survived till the interval – believe me the toughest part is over. The 2nd half is much better but don’t get your hopes too high. Much better than the first half is what I meant. The 4 good things for me in Action Replayy were the introduction of Sudeepa Singh (purely from the perspective of hotness), the voice in the interval which said “Thank God”, The music which is really foot tapping and worth listening to and lastly the way Kishen says “Aawaaz Neeche”!!!! once he changes his avatar to a super confident one. The rest of the movie is vastly forgettable.
Direction is pretty much absent most of the time. Consistency has nothing to be written home about. Posters of Bobby (released 1973) still dot the lamp posts outside Capitol cinema in 1975. AK has lost his comic timing more than 2 years back. Ash has anyways been only furniture. The only time she has tried to act was when SLB directed her. The costume designing is a total khichdi between everything from the 60s to the first decade of the 21st century. The sets look good till you figure out quite clearly that a lot of it is Computer Graphics work very badly executed. The support cast with the exception of Kirron Kher and Om Puri is extremely insipid. This music as mentioned earlier is a saving grace but even that may have been “inspired” considering it comes from the house of Pritam. I know Nakhre is inspired from a 60s number. But the rest will eventually come to light (hopefully not). 2 on 10 is the verdict from my end. Not the worst movie of the year as predicted from my side earlier.
Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Tanya (Sudeepa Singh) are in a relationship for quite a while now. Funnily, Tanya is the person who has been asking Bunty to marry him for quite some time now. If I had someone like Tanya I would grab her with every single bone in my body – I mean seriously the chick is HOT guys!!!! She was to date known for only the small screen. 2 serials under her belt – Risshton Ki Dor & Kabhie To Nazar Milao – and thanks to Vipul Amrutlal Shah she is no longer seen only on a 29”screen . Nevertheless, for someone to reject several marriage proposals from Tanya would mean some kind of terminal illness or child abuse which has left a permanent scar on his brain and prevents him from understanding the difference between True Love and Hotness (trust me – Hotness prevails ). It would seem that Bunty has been a victim of the latter – CHILD ABUSE – those long drawn nights where his parents – Kishen (AK) and Mala (ARB) – who were never meant to be together spent hours on end fighting over the most trivial issues. These instances have gotten our poor little Bunty to a situation where he has given up on the institution of marriage completely.
But Tanya will have nothing of it. She has had it finally and wants Bunty to make his decision right away – Atta girl I say, I am first in line after Bunty. But my excitement is to be short lived as Tanya drags Bunty to meet her Grandfather (who she refers to as Grandpa in the same manner as a 6 year old would – and the bubble of Tanya has finally burst – Bunty you can have her). Now Grandpa (Randhir Kapoor) has an equally corny name – Gonsalves – Anthony Gonsalves (By now u are reaching for your own throat). He gives Bunty 24 hours to decide whether he wants to marry Tanya or not. But Bunty is more fascinated with the old scientist’s (Oops I forgot to mention that Anthony Gonsalves was a scientist) contraption or Time Machine as he refers to it. Bunty dodges the marriage question by claiming that it is his parents 35th Anniversary the next day and he is too busy to think about marriage. As luck would have it, Kishen and Mala cannot help but fight once again and things come to breaking point – DIVORCE!!!! I mean it took them 35 years to get there!!!! Some patience. Bunty swears that he will not let the D word enter the family and runs off to meet to scientist, takes his time machine and sets off to 1975 to change what he calls the one mistake in his life that he would change if he could – his parent’s marriage.
My sentiments of Action Replayy are best captured by one of my co-movie watchers who probably ruined his Diwali evening too. At the interval there was a loud, “THANK GOD”!!! that erupted from a dark recess in the movie hall. Just a word of advise though. If you have survived till the interval – believe me the toughest part is over. The 2nd half is much better but don’t get your hopes too high. Much better than the first half is what I meant. The 4 good things for me in Action Replayy were the introduction of Sudeepa Singh (purely from the perspective of hotness), the voice in the interval which said “Thank God”, The music which is really foot tapping and worth listening to and lastly the way Kishen says “Aawaaz Neeche”!!!! once he changes his avatar to a super confident one. The rest of the movie is vastly forgettable.
Direction is pretty much absent most of the time. Consistency has nothing to be written home about. Posters of Bobby (released 1973) still dot the lamp posts outside Capitol cinema in 1975. AK has lost his comic timing more than 2 years back. Ash has anyways been only furniture. The only time she has tried to act was when SLB directed her. The costume designing is a total khichdi between everything from the 60s to the first decade of the 21st century. The sets look good till you figure out quite clearly that a lot of it is Computer Graphics work very badly executed. The support cast with the exception of Kirron Kher and Om Puri is extremely insipid. This music as mentioned earlier is a saving grace but even that may have been “inspired” considering it comes from the house of Pritam. I know Nakhre is inspired from a 60s number. But the rest will eventually come to light (hopefully not). 2 on 10 is the verdict from my end. Not the worst movie of the year as predicted from my side earlier.
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