In my books,
Roy, was one of the movies of 2015 that I was really looking forward to. The posters gave a feel of a slow but
different and dark movie with Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. The rumoured story was one of a love triangle
and Ranbir Kapoor playing a thief. Enough
to get your intrigued and want to watch.
Showing posts with label Arjun Rampal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arjun Rampal. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 February 2015
Friday, 30 August 2013
Satyagraha
It was only a
matter of time before someone had to take inspiration from Anna Hazare for a
movie. If someone had told me that
Prakash Jha would be that somebody, I would not have been the least bit
surprised. I have been a keen follower
of Jha’s work and more importantly, I have been eagerly waiting for him to show
the intensity and straight forwardness that he did with “Gangajal”.
Thursday, 25 July 2013
D-Day (Hindi) (2013)
Nikhil Advani’s
rap sheet in Bollywood is not the most attractive to begin with. Salaam E Ishq was too long, Chandni Chowk to
China was horrible, Delhi Safari was an animation disaster. He was tolerable in Patiala House. But with D-Day he seems to have learnt the
fine art of Bollywood cinema – doesn’t say too much about him though. Because
it is still B Town. Not H Town.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Inkaar (2013)
Lets rant out a
few facts which most people will believe in provided they are sensible enough
to believe in them. Now I may be
ruffling quite a few feathers when I say these things but those who know me
well enough have heard me say these things in person. So I have little to lose. And more importantly, Sudhir Mishra seems to
believe in these facts for sure. Because
he has used these facts (or clichés as I could say) very generously in Inkaar.
Friday, 26 October 2012
Ajab Gazabb Love
Jackky Bhagnani and Uday Chopra have two things in common. Rich fathers who produce movies. And more importantly those who are willing to ignore the fact that their sons are incompetent actors and nowhere remotely close to good looking. Regretably, one of these days their luck is bound to run out because their families will start figuring out the losses they are making repeatedly. And apparently, the additional k in the name hasn’t made any difference to Jackky’s competencies and luck.
Along with Jackky in Ajab Gazabb Love, we have to tolerate several people. Arjun Rampal in a double role that is excruciatingly painful. And it has very little to do with the corny names – Karan – Arjun. It has a lot to do with the constipated attempt that they falsely call acting. There should be a penalty for lying to the people in this manner including ban on any further performances till marked improvement is noticed.
Then there is the newbie Nidhi Subbaiah who could not have picked a more horrible movie to debut in. Usually in a good movie, even if her acting was below par, it would have gone un-noticed thanks to the really good looks. Unfortunately for Nidhi, she is as horrible an actress as the movie is. The support cast led by Kirron Kher 7 Darshan Jariwala can do very little to salvage any pride for the movie.
Rajveer (Jackky) is a multi millionaire whose father (Jariwala) is a massive industrialist. They are in the business of cars. And Rajveer has worked for nearly 2 years building his DC – Dream Car. While his mother (Kirron Kher) is waiting for her DB – Dream Bahu. And that is not the corniest line in the movie. There is more.
Anyways, our hero sees a girl listening to music and walking down the escalator of his office and falls in love immediately. Only to find out in a couple of days that she hates rich people. So to make her fall for him, our hero decides to get his entire family pretend to be miserably poor. That, in sum and substance is the story.
I wonder what director Sanjay Gadhvi thinking when he put in so many cavalcades in the movie. Everyone and their uncle comes with their entourage of 6 to 7 cars that would put the Prime Minister’s rally to shame. And then there is the usual useless fat friend who speaks in horrible Hindi – and I am being nice when I say that.
All in all, a horrible waste of time. The best part of the movie was the trailer of Jab Tak Hai Jaan in the interval. 1 on 10 for Ajab Gazabb Love
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VrAvbrSm00
Along with Jackky in Ajab Gazabb Love, we have to tolerate several people. Arjun Rampal in a double role that is excruciatingly painful. And it has very little to do with the corny names – Karan – Arjun. It has a lot to do with the constipated attempt that they falsely call acting. There should be a penalty for lying to the people in this manner including ban on any further performances till marked improvement is noticed.
Then there is the newbie Nidhi Subbaiah who could not have picked a more horrible movie to debut in. Usually in a good movie, even if her acting was below par, it would have gone un-noticed thanks to the really good looks. Unfortunately for Nidhi, she is as horrible an actress as the movie is. The support cast led by Kirron Kher 7 Darshan Jariwala can do very little to salvage any pride for the movie.
Rajveer (Jackky) is a multi millionaire whose father (Jariwala) is a massive industrialist. They are in the business of cars. And Rajveer has worked for nearly 2 years building his DC – Dream Car. While his mother (Kirron Kher) is waiting for her DB – Dream Bahu. And that is not the corniest line in the movie. There is more.
Anyways, our hero sees a girl listening to music and walking down the escalator of his office and falls in love immediately. Only to find out in a couple of days that she hates rich people. So to make her fall for him, our hero decides to get his entire family pretend to be miserably poor. That, in sum and substance is the story.
I wonder what director Sanjay Gadhvi thinking when he put in so many cavalcades in the movie. Everyone and their uncle comes with their entourage of 6 to 7 cars that would put the Prime Minister’s rally to shame. And then there is the usual useless fat friend who speaks in horrible Hindi – and I am being nice when I say that.
All in all, a horrible waste of time. The best part of the movie was the trailer of Jab Tak Hai Jaan in the interval. 1 on 10 for Ajab Gazabb Love
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VrAvbrSm00
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Chakravyuh
Naxalite - a member of an extreme Maoist group in India that originated in 1967 in West Bengal and which employs tactics of agrarian terrorism and direct action. Named after Naxalbari, a town in West Bengal where the movement started.
That’s how the world knows them. But every coin has 2 sides is what they say. And Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh tries to paint a picture that gives us a perspective of both sides of the story. At no point of time in the movie does Jha take a side. He leaves it to the intelligence of the audience to figure out right or wrong by themselves.
Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) is married to Rhea Menon (Esha Gupta). They are both cops and with a great amount of difficulty ensure that they get posted at the same location – Bhopal. Adil’s best friend is Kabir (Abhay Deol). They completed their graduation together and then join the police force. Kabir is a hot head and stands for what is right. He gets into a fight with a cop and is forced to leave the forces.
Seven years later, after several failed business attempts, Kabir re-surfaces and makes up with Adil. At the same time, Adil decides to take up a challenging posting deep in Naxal territory. Stupid decision but one that prompts Kabir to step in to help him. They plan to seed Kabir into the Naxal group led by Govind Suryavanshi (Om Puri) and Rajan (Manoj Bajpai). The group is ably supported by Naga (Murli Sharma) and Juhi (Anjali Patil).
As Kabir goes about building his credibility and playing the role of an informer, he slowly but surely starts seeing merit in what the Naxals are upto. How the poor get more and more marginalized and how the rich (read politicians) squeeze the maximum out of the land. But he is also well aware of the fact that the way the Naxals are going about their job is not the best possible way. That’s where Jha strikes a fine balance.
Which side is right in the war where truck loads of blood is being spilt through ages of in-fighting? At the end of the day, if there are 2 parties losing they are the police force and the naxals. The people who are in power, running the country are sitting pretty and laughing their way to the bank. Only a matter of time before this entire movement reaches a boiling point and both cops and naxals start targeting who need to be targeted.
Prakash Jha’s attempt, however, falls flat. Mainly in the aspects of finishing. The cheapest of all green screens gives an effect that’s over 30 years old. The sound mixing and quality was poor. The stunts were even worse. Adil Khan charging into a band of naxals like Bajirao Singham was comical to say the least. Why would Jha stoop to such levels is beyond understanding.
The screenplay and dialogues were not too great either. Abhay Deol is fast losing his edge as an actor who takes his role seriously. Esha Gupta has about 6 minutes and 32.83 seconds of screen time where she manages to hold her own. And Arjun Rampal is as always only eye candy for the women. The music is not too inspiring either. Overall a very disappointing effort from Jha. Without the good story line it would have been a disaster. 5 on 10. Watch it on TV.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnamEA8iLGY
That’s how the world knows them. But every coin has 2 sides is what they say. And Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh tries to paint a picture that gives us a perspective of both sides of the story. At no point of time in the movie does Jha take a side. He leaves it to the intelligence of the audience to figure out right or wrong by themselves.
Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) is married to Rhea Menon (Esha Gupta). They are both cops and with a great amount of difficulty ensure that they get posted at the same location – Bhopal. Adil’s best friend is Kabir (Abhay Deol). They completed their graduation together and then join the police force. Kabir is a hot head and stands for what is right. He gets into a fight with a cop and is forced to leave the forces.
Seven years later, after several failed business attempts, Kabir re-surfaces and makes up with Adil. At the same time, Adil decides to take up a challenging posting deep in Naxal territory. Stupid decision but one that prompts Kabir to step in to help him. They plan to seed Kabir into the Naxal group led by Govind Suryavanshi (Om Puri) and Rajan (Manoj Bajpai). The group is ably supported by Naga (Murli Sharma) and Juhi (Anjali Patil).
As Kabir goes about building his credibility and playing the role of an informer, he slowly but surely starts seeing merit in what the Naxals are upto. How the poor get more and more marginalized and how the rich (read politicians) squeeze the maximum out of the land. But he is also well aware of the fact that the way the Naxals are going about their job is not the best possible way. That’s where Jha strikes a fine balance.
Which side is right in the war where truck loads of blood is being spilt through ages of in-fighting? At the end of the day, if there are 2 parties losing they are the police force and the naxals. The people who are in power, running the country are sitting pretty and laughing their way to the bank. Only a matter of time before this entire movement reaches a boiling point and both cops and naxals start targeting who need to be targeted.
Prakash Jha’s attempt, however, falls flat. Mainly in the aspects of finishing. The cheapest of all green screens gives an effect that’s over 30 years old. The sound mixing and quality was poor. The stunts were even worse. Adil Khan charging into a band of naxals like Bajirao Singham was comical to say the least. Why would Jha stoop to such levels is beyond understanding.
The screenplay and dialogues were not too great either. Abhay Deol is fast losing his edge as an actor who takes his role seriously. Esha Gupta has about 6 minutes and 32.83 seconds of screen time where she manages to hold her own. And Arjun Rampal is as always only eye candy for the women. The music is not too inspiring either. Overall a very disappointing effort from Jha. Without the good story line it would have been a disaster. 5 on 10. Watch it on TV.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnamEA8iLGY
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Heroine
Dear Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar – a few pointers that I picked up from Heroine
1. What is the necessity of getting in so many characters into the movie to support your main cast? After a while, I actually lost count of the number of characters. Aryan (Rampal) is boyfriend 1. Angad (Randeep Hooda) is boyfriend 2. Rashidbhai (Govind Namdeo) is secretary. Pramita (Shahana) is lesbian fling. Mummy (Lilette Dubey) is having affair with politician. Rhea Mehra (Mugdha Ghodse), Shaheen (Pooja Chopra)and Gayatri Reddy (Meenakshi – I think) are competitors. Tapan Da (Ranveer Shorey) is an eccentric Bengali director. Abbas (Sanjay Suri) is the hot shot lead actor. Zara (Shilpi Sharma) is Abbas’ wife!!! Like WTF??? The average movie watcher would go half psycho by the time s/he finishes the first 45 mins.
2. And why is everyone after ruining Randeep Hooda’s image as an actor by forcing him to over act like his life depended on it?
3. Arjun Rampal is one of the – if not THE MOST – constipated in this performance of his. He was always challenged but this time the struggle was super obvious.
4. Why in the blazes would you make up Kareena to look even more heinous than she looks normally? Seriously – some of the shots with mascara running down her face made me believe that Heroine was a horror flick ala Vikram Bhatt.
5. And as if that weren’t sufficient, your actual run time is 2 hrs 29 mins!!!! What???? Seriously???? SERIOUSLY???? Why do you have to stretch all your stories to an extent that it starts competing with Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan – in my time it was called the Height of Elasticity.
6. And what makes you believe that everyone and their uncle and their mother in the movie industry is a chain smoker? The “Cigarette Smoking is injurious to health” disclaimer at the beginning was apt for Heroine. There was barely a shot in which there was no cigarette. Now don’t get me wrong – I am a smoker myself but with so much smoke around, I would have contracted cancer even by watching. And if the idea is true then at least try and get your actors and actresses to smoke naturally and not like they have been forced into it.
7. For future reference – Please do not use terms such as Bi-Polar disorder loosely. It is a serious psychiatric issue. Mahie Arora (Kareena Kapoor) showed any indication of a “frenzied state (as described by Wikipedia)” probably only once in the entire movie. Eccentric – yes. Bipolar disorder – you fell way short of that. – not the first time you are doing it.
8. But fear not. The movie is not fraught with only bad points. There are some high points in acting for certain. I thought the support cast – no matter how unnecessary they were – actually put in a solid effort. Govind Namdeo, Shahana Goswami, Divya Dutta, Helen and even Ranveer Shorey as the eccentric Bengali director were all superb.
9. So much that they kind of overshadowed a performance from Kareena that was much better than her usual performances to date. Maybe she really took a leaf from the role of Tarannum that she played in the movie. All this despite the sad make up. Overall, a decent watch, despite all the negatives.
10. Yet again, you have delivered an average flick that will be received reasonably at the Box Office, make some money and maybe get a national award (much as I would hate Kareena pipping Vidya Balan’s performance in Kahaani).
11. Will the audience get bored? No. But is it essential to watch on big screen – No again. 5 on 10.
Thanks & Regards
An avid movie watcher and a hopeful that someday you will deliver a superb movie
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWB_h91HqP0
1. What is the necessity of getting in so many characters into the movie to support your main cast? After a while, I actually lost count of the number of characters. Aryan (Rampal) is boyfriend 1. Angad (Randeep Hooda) is boyfriend 2. Rashidbhai (Govind Namdeo) is secretary. Pramita (Shahana) is lesbian fling. Mummy (Lilette Dubey) is having affair with politician. Rhea Mehra (Mugdha Ghodse), Shaheen (Pooja Chopra)and Gayatri Reddy (Meenakshi – I think) are competitors. Tapan Da (Ranveer Shorey) is an eccentric Bengali director. Abbas (Sanjay Suri) is the hot shot lead actor. Zara (Shilpi Sharma) is Abbas’ wife!!! Like WTF??? The average movie watcher would go half psycho by the time s/he finishes the first 45 mins.
2. And why is everyone after ruining Randeep Hooda’s image as an actor by forcing him to over act like his life depended on it?
3. Arjun Rampal is one of the – if not THE MOST – constipated in this performance of his. He was always challenged but this time the struggle was super obvious.
4. Why in the blazes would you make up Kareena to look even more heinous than she looks normally? Seriously – some of the shots with mascara running down her face made me believe that Heroine was a horror flick ala Vikram Bhatt.
5. And as if that weren’t sufficient, your actual run time is 2 hrs 29 mins!!!! What???? Seriously???? SERIOUSLY???? Why do you have to stretch all your stories to an extent that it starts competing with Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan – in my time it was called the Height of Elasticity.
6. And what makes you believe that everyone and their uncle and their mother in the movie industry is a chain smoker? The “Cigarette Smoking is injurious to health” disclaimer at the beginning was apt for Heroine. There was barely a shot in which there was no cigarette. Now don’t get me wrong – I am a smoker myself but with so much smoke around, I would have contracted cancer even by watching. And if the idea is true then at least try and get your actors and actresses to smoke naturally and not like they have been forced into it.
7. For future reference – Please do not use terms such as Bi-Polar disorder loosely. It is a serious psychiatric issue. Mahie Arora (Kareena Kapoor) showed any indication of a “frenzied state (as described by Wikipedia)” probably only once in the entire movie. Eccentric – yes. Bipolar disorder – you fell way short of that. – not the first time you are doing it.
8. But fear not. The movie is not fraught with only bad points. There are some high points in acting for certain. I thought the support cast – no matter how unnecessary they were – actually put in a solid effort. Govind Namdeo, Shahana Goswami, Divya Dutta, Helen and even Ranveer Shorey as the eccentric Bengali director were all superb.
9. So much that they kind of overshadowed a performance from Kareena that was much better than her usual performances to date. Maybe she really took a leaf from the role of Tarannum that she played in the movie. All this despite the sad make up. Overall, a decent watch, despite all the negatives.
10. Yet again, you have delivered an average flick that will be received reasonably at the Box Office, make some money and maybe get a national award (much as I would hate Kareena pipping Vidya Balan’s performance in Kahaani).
11. Will the audience get bored? No. But is it essential to watch on big screen – No again. 5 on 10.
Thanks & Regards
An avid movie watcher and a hopeful that someday you will deliver a superb movie
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWB_h91HqP0
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Rock On!
Rock On! was an absolute hit when it released. Personally, I was quite surprised at the huge success that it had at the BO. I wasn’t too impressed when I saw it for the first time. I thought it was good alright. But I didn’t quite get what the entire hullabaloo was about. But then as the days have gone by and as you see the re-runs on TV and start looking at the story again and again I guess it kind of grows on you.
I really cannot put my finger on one thing that makes Rock On! a good movie to watch. Would it be the story which has a genuine aspect of making things work against all odds? Possible. Magik is a rock band that has 4 people – Aditya Shroff aka Adi (Farhan Akhtar) – lead singer, Joseph Mascarenhas aka Joe (Arjun Rampal) – guitar, Rob Nancy (Luke Kenny) – keyboards and Kedar Zaveri aka Killer Drummer aka KD (Purab Kohli) – Drums.
They are quite a rage with the crowds and win the annual Rock Band Hunt. En route to cutting their first album, the hang ups that come with the producers and the record labels get them quite worked up. And when Joe decides that enough is enough, it comes down to a fist fight with the Music Video Director and eventually Adi. Of course the band breaks up.
A few years later now and each one of them are on different ways. Some – like Adi are successful but unhappy Investment Bankers. Others – like Joe are unsuccessful but unhappy out of work guitarists. A chance meeting occurs between KD and Sakshi (Prachi Desai – Adi’s wife – at the jewelry store that KD helps his dad with. One thing leads to another and the band slowly but surely gets back together.
Another success factor of the movie could have been the sincere effort put in by the entire cast. Sincere and really good too. Actually, I cannot think of a single person – even the small role that the likes of Suraj Jagan played – who did not come up with the goods in terms of what the role demanded. I thought the band – together – was very good. But the find of the movie had to be Shahana Goswami in her first major role.
However, what I believe has kept Rock On! in the minds of everyone since then has to be the music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy which was as rock as it could have been – at least in this country. They even experimented with a hard rock number in “Zehreelay” which was sung very well by Suraj Jagan. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the most popular number. And much as I am not a huge fan of Javed Akhtar – I think he was fantastic this time around.
Much as I hate to correct myself on my initial assessment of the movie – Rock On! is one of the better ones to come out of Bollywood in the past decade. It could actually make it to the top 10 of the decade quite easily. Different. Brave. Well treated by Abhishek Kapoor. All the ingredients that go into making a good solid musical. Watch it if you can. It keeps playing quite often on TV these days. 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzdDjnqfW4
I really cannot put my finger on one thing that makes Rock On! a good movie to watch. Would it be the story which has a genuine aspect of making things work against all odds? Possible. Magik is a rock band that has 4 people – Aditya Shroff aka Adi (Farhan Akhtar) – lead singer, Joseph Mascarenhas aka Joe (Arjun Rampal) – guitar, Rob Nancy (Luke Kenny) – keyboards and Kedar Zaveri aka Killer Drummer aka KD (Purab Kohli) – Drums.
They are quite a rage with the crowds and win the annual Rock Band Hunt. En route to cutting their first album, the hang ups that come with the producers and the record labels get them quite worked up. And when Joe decides that enough is enough, it comes down to a fist fight with the Music Video Director and eventually Adi. Of course the band breaks up.
A few years later now and each one of them are on different ways. Some – like Adi are successful but unhappy Investment Bankers. Others – like Joe are unsuccessful but unhappy out of work guitarists. A chance meeting occurs between KD and Sakshi (Prachi Desai – Adi’s wife – at the jewelry store that KD helps his dad with. One thing leads to another and the band slowly but surely gets back together.
Another success factor of the movie could have been the sincere effort put in by the entire cast. Sincere and really good too. Actually, I cannot think of a single person – even the small role that the likes of Suraj Jagan played – who did not come up with the goods in terms of what the role demanded. I thought the band – together – was very good. But the find of the movie had to be Shahana Goswami in her first major role.
However, what I believe has kept Rock On! in the minds of everyone since then has to be the music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy which was as rock as it could have been – at least in this country. They even experimented with a hard rock number in “Zehreelay” which was sung very well by Suraj Jagan. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the most popular number. And much as I am not a huge fan of Javed Akhtar – I think he was fantastic this time around.
Much as I hate to correct myself on my initial assessment of the movie – Rock On! is one of the better ones to come out of Bollywood in the past decade. It could actually make it to the top 10 of the decade quite easily. Different. Brave. Well treated by Abhishek Kapoor. All the ingredients that go into making a good solid musical. Watch it if you can. It keeps playing quite often on TV these days. 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzdDjnqfW4
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
RA One
I had passed judgement on RA. One after seeing the first trailer itself. It looked so much like Tron Legacy that I was completely turned off with the idea of RA.One. You could argue with me that I get too biased too soon but my regular readers would agree with me that of late, I have tried my very best, not to be biased at all – and successfully at that. I was in fact hoping and praying for a good movie to begin an otherwise dull Diwali day. However, it was not meant to be. Approximately 100 seconds into the movie, when you come across the characters of Lucifer and Desi Girl (Priyanka Chopra), you do check if you are in the right movie hall. And then the corniest characters of all come in – Bruce Lee’s sisters i.e. Iski Lee, Uski Lee and Sabki Lee and you are left, yet again praying that it is just a bad start to an otherwise good movie. But the final nail on the coffin is drilled about 2 minutes later when the Khalnayak i.e. Villain (Sanjay Dutt) says, “Abhi Spiderman ko maarke aaya hoon – Baygon Spray se”.
About 140 minutes later (if you survive that long), you are left with teeth that have almost been chewed and hair that is disheveled to say the least. You have just been subjected to the latest method of torture (cannot venture to comment on the country of origin because I have yet to discover the same) – movies designed for the IQ of a 2 year old. It progressively reduces itself over time to the IQ of a 1 year old over the period as defined 2 sentences back. Not surprising therefore that the cricket team of kids to my right had a blast. I can assure you that us adults would not get what the hullabaloo is all about. The guy at the snacks counter did mention to me, “Bachchon ki film hai sir” (It’s a movie meant for kids.
Anubhav Sinha is not best known for producing block buster movies as such but Cash and Tathasthu weren’t really atrocious if you know what I mean. They were slickly made and had reasonable consistency. At least they didn’t show Karwa Chauth before Dushera… duh!!!! Come on Mr. Sinha you could have at least sequenced your movie well. And lets not go down the direction track because poor Anubhav seems to have lost whatever basic capabilities he had in this department.
One cannot expect much in the acting department when King Khan is sharing screen space with the appallingly irritable Kareena Kapoor – some may argue that she looks heavenly in the movie but I can assure you that the only angels you will find in the movie are those which are referred to in a couple of sentences. Newbie child artiste – Armaan Verma looks more like a girl than a boy throughout the movie. I mean whats with his hair yaar??? And girls who thought would get a glimpse of the chiseled Arjun Rampal would be disappointed with his 4 minutes and 38.5 seconds on screen in the role of Pi / 2 aka Ra.One. Shahana Goswami is much too talented to be wasted on movies like these. Please to be reconsidering your choices in future.
Overdoing the Tamil angle also didn’t quite go well with my roots. And whats with “Paityakaran (Mad Man)” playing continuously in the background for about 10 mins after the movie started. The only Tamil angle and probably the only good part of the movie was the 30 seconds that the one and only superstar of today made his presence felt. As the joke goes, Shah Rukh made a 2.5 hour special appearance in the movie that was led by Thalaivar. Rajani just dazzles in the role of Chitti.
Discouraging you from watching RA One will fall on deaf years because it is destined to beat Bodyguard in terms of first week collections. But try to avoid it. Its no more than a 3 on 10 and that too for some good special effects and of course the track that is going to be around for a while – Chammak Challo
Oh yes and as I had tweeted – taking inspiration from Tron or Hancock or Iron Man or Terminator is definitely acceptable. But doing the same from “You Don’t mess with the Zohan”???? What??? Zohan??? Come on Anubhav Sinha – what in the blazes were you thinking.
Sorry about the longish review. An extremely frustrated viewer here as you can see.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1860607513/
About 140 minutes later (if you survive that long), you are left with teeth that have almost been chewed and hair that is disheveled to say the least. You have just been subjected to the latest method of torture (cannot venture to comment on the country of origin because I have yet to discover the same) – movies designed for the IQ of a 2 year old. It progressively reduces itself over time to the IQ of a 1 year old over the period as defined 2 sentences back. Not surprising therefore that the cricket team of kids to my right had a blast. I can assure you that us adults would not get what the hullabaloo is all about. The guy at the snacks counter did mention to me, “Bachchon ki film hai sir” (It’s a movie meant for kids.
Anubhav Sinha is not best known for producing block buster movies as such but Cash and Tathasthu weren’t really atrocious if you know what I mean. They were slickly made and had reasonable consistency. At least they didn’t show Karwa Chauth before Dushera… duh!!!! Come on Mr. Sinha you could have at least sequenced your movie well. And lets not go down the direction track because poor Anubhav seems to have lost whatever basic capabilities he had in this department.
One cannot expect much in the acting department when King Khan is sharing screen space with the appallingly irritable Kareena Kapoor – some may argue that she looks heavenly in the movie but I can assure you that the only angels you will find in the movie are those which are referred to in a couple of sentences. Newbie child artiste – Armaan Verma looks more like a girl than a boy throughout the movie. I mean whats with his hair yaar??? And girls who thought would get a glimpse of the chiseled Arjun Rampal would be disappointed with his 4 minutes and 38.5 seconds on screen in the role of Pi / 2 aka Ra.One. Shahana Goswami is much too talented to be wasted on movies like these. Please to be reconsidering your choices in future.
Overdoing the Tamil angle also didn’t quite go well with my roots. And whats with “Paityakaran (Mad Man)” playing continuously in the background for about 10 mins after the movie started. The only Tamil angle and probably the only good part of the movie was the 30 seconds that the one and only superstar of today made his presence felt. As the joke goes, Shah Rukh made a 2.5 hour special appearance in the movie that was led by Thalaivar. Rajani just dazzles in the role of Chitti.
Discouraging you from watching RA One will fall on deaf years because it is destined to beat Bodyguard in terms of first week collections. But try to avoid it. Its no more than a 3 on 10 and that too for some good special effects and of course the track that is going to be around for a while – Chammak Challo
Oh yes and as I had tweeted – taking inspiration from Tron or Hancock or Iron Man or Terminator is definitely acceptable. But doing the same from “You Don’t mess with the Zohan”???? What??? Zohan??? Come on Anubhav Sinha – what in the blazes were you thinking.
Sorry about the longish review. An extremely frustrated viewer here as you can see.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1860607513/
Sunday, 12 September 2010
We Are Family
The bane of “We Are Family”, surprisingly is the fact that it was probably not positioned or marketed to the right target audience. If there was a compelling effort made to get across the relevant middle class housewife in India, it would have managed to achieve much much much more success than it actually achieved @ the BO. But then KJo these days manages to make most of his monies from the US and UK markets. So much so that it would seem clearly that he has forgotten that there are a billion plus people in this country who would probably enjoy a movie like WAF.
Aman (Arjun Rampal) & Shreya (Kareena Kapoor) are a couple very much in love. Aman, however, has been married before to Maya (Kajol). Its been 3 years since their divorce but there are also 3 children in question – Aaliya (Aachal Munjal), Arjun (Nominath Ginsberg) and Anjali (Diya Sonecha). Aman wants Shreya to meet the kids and get to know them. And 3 years seems sufficient time for the kids to have gotten used to the concept of their father not being married to their biological mother anymore. With this in mind, he gets Shreya along with him to Anjali’s birthday party. But getting the kids to accept Shreya turns out to be a whole different ball game. Hell breaks loose in the first meeting when Shreya ruins the birthday cake and then Aaliya takes off in a few minutes when she sees Aman consoling Shreya. The kids call Shreya a witch for spoiling their party and Maya is not of much help either.
Shreya, swears never to get to know them. But as luck would have it, she has no other choice on a weekend where Aman doesn’t land up to pick up the kids because he misses his flight and Maya is not reachable. Shreya does her best to get on the right side of the kids but they continue to give her a really tough time. Shreya sweet talks here way with Anjali and Arjun but then Aaliya is your average 13 year old who continues to be a tough nut to crack. Nevertheless, Shreya keeps at it and takes the kids with her to work where Anjali saves the day. She takes the kids after that for ice-cream. And just as everything seems to be falling into place, Aaliya plays spoilsport. She tells Anjali that Shreya is trying to butter them because she wants to take their father away from them. Anjali runs away but is quickly found at the cop station with Maya. Aman also joins them. After a few heated words, Maya very clearly asks Shreya to stay away from the kids unless supervised by her.
WAF, as most of you would know by now, is a copy of “Step Mom”. But I am not sure if most of you know that it is a Columbia Tristar Release. Yes my dears, the influence of the west is slowly but surely creeping into the country. And therefore, you are seeing producers such as KJo being very candid in accepting that the movie is a copy. Does a lot for the goodwill in the export market eh? Better late than never I say.
And the era of the debutante director also continues in Bollywood. Siddharth Malhotra, I m sure would have liked a less soppy project to start with. But with him proudly proclaiming that KJo is his guru and that he will stay with KJo till he is kicked out, one does have doubts about his orientation. Nevertheless, he does a pretty decent job with WAF. He could not have influenced the story much. But he does his 2 bits by getting as much he can out of an otherwise quite uninspired star cast. Kajol is way off her best, Kareena better than average and Arjun Rampal pleasantly better than average. The kids do their best to get the cutey pie image to the fore. However, the make up department totally sucks. Kajol looks anything but suffering from a terminal disease. Kareena in the final scene doesn’t look a day older considering that it would have been at least 10 years after the scene before. Arjun Rampal’s beard in the final sequence is totally eew!!!! But then again, consistency is not what one would expect from a KJo movie.
As a movie I would give WAF 5 on 10. It’s a sad movie :’), A complete tear jerker. But it is definitely not a bad movie. It doesn’t do justice to Step Mom but then one cannot replace the performances of Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts and Ed Harris. And Sid Malhotra can in no way be compared to Chris Columbus. Worth watching with the family.
Aman (Arjun Rampal) & Shreya (Kareena Kapoor) are a couple very much in love. Aman, however, has been married before to Maya (Kajol). Its been 3 years since their divorce but there are also 3 children in question – Aaliya (Aachal Munjal), Arjun (Nominath Ginsberg) and Anjali (Diya Sonecha). Aman wants Shreya to meet the kids and get to know them. And 3 years seems sufficient time for the kids to have gotten used to the concept of their father not being married to their biological mother anymore. With this in mind, he gets Shreya along with him to Anjali’s birthday party. But getting the kids to accept Shreya turns out to be a whole different ball game. Hell breaks loose in the first meeting when Shreya ruins the birthday cake and then Aaliya takes off in a few minutes when she sees Aman consoling Shreya. The kids call Shreya a witch for spoiling their party and Maya is not of much help either.
Shreya, swears never to get to know them. But as luck would have it, she has no other choice on a weekend where Aman doesn’t land up to pick up the kids because he misses his flight and Maya is not reachable. Shreya does her best to get on the right side of the kids but they continue to give her a really tough time. Shreya sweet talks here way with Anjali and Arjun but then Aaliya is your average 13 year old who continues to be a tough nut to crack. Nevertheless, Shreya keeps at it and takes the kids with her to work where Anjali saves the day. She takes the kids after that for ice-cream. And just as everything seems to be falling into place, Aaliya plays spoilsport. She tells Anjali that Shreya is trying to butter them because she wants to take their father away from them. Anjali runs away but is quickly found at the cop station with Maya. Aman also joins them. After a few heated words, Maya very clearly asks Shreya to stay away from the kids unless supervised by her.
WAF, as most of you would know by now, is a copy of “Step Mom”. But I am not sure if most of you know that it is a Columbia Tristar Release. Yes my dears, the influence of the west is slowly but surely creeping into the country. And therefore, you are seeing producers such as KJo being very candid in accepting that the movie is a copy. Does a lot for the goodwill in the export market eh? Better late than never I say.
And the era of the debutante director also continues in Bollywood. Siddharth Malhotra, I m sure would have liked a less soppy project to start with. But with him proudly proclaiming that KJo is his guru and that he will stay with KJo till he is kicked out, one does have doubts about his orientation. Nevertheless, he does a pretty decent job with WAF. He could not have influenced the story much. But he does his 2 bits by getting as much he can out of an otherwise quite uninspired star cast. Kajol is way off her best, Kareena better than average and Arjun Rampal pleasantly better than average. The kids do their best to get the cutey pie image to the fore. However, the make up department totally sucks. Kajol looks anything but suffering from a terminal disease. Kareena in the final scene doesn’t look a day older considering that it would have been at least 10 years after the scene before. Arjun Rampal’s beard in the final sequence is totally eew!!!! But then again, consistency is not what one would expect from a KJo movie.
As a movie I would give WAF 5 on 10. It’s a sad movie :’), A complete tear jerker. But it is definitely not a bad movie. It doesn’t do justice to Step Mom but then one cannot replace the performances of Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts and Ed Harris. And Sid Malhotra can in no way be compared to Chris Columbus. Worth watching with the family.
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