Student of the Year

Let me at the outset clarify for the benefit of the younger generation who will be the key target audience for Student Of The Year. Just because the business tycoon Nanda (Ram Kapoor) decides to wear a striped tie over a striped shirt and a striped jacket with striped trousers – DOES NOT MAKE IT ACCEPTABLE FORMAL DRESSING!!!!! Ram Kapoor could have, with a little bit of common sense, refused to make such a clown of himself in front of a billion Indians. Thankfully, the gaffe is not oft repeated during the extended 3 hours that you have to tolerate SOTY.

If you walk into SOTY expecting the usual cheesy Karan Johar movie which includes any or all of the following, then you would probably leave the cinema hall very satisfied
1. There will always be a super rich boy – Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) and a super rich girl – Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt) who will be either great friends or having an affair. In this case it is the former.
2. There will be a school or a college – in this case school – St. Teresa’s. The school will be situated in an exotic location in India – say Dehradun – but will seem like it is actually in Switzerland and have a Highland Metroploitan Hospital. Metropolitan??? Dehradun???
3. Students of a School are allowed to dress in the fanciest of clothes. Boys in Tight T shirts that show rippling muscles and if not good enough can lose the T Shirt to reconfirm your deepest doubts. Girls will be in various stages of skimpiness but will be the homely “ghar ki bahu” types in behavior when it comes to it.
4. There will be a not so rich academically brilliant boy or girl who will enter the life of the school and will shoot to fame. In this case it is Abhimanyu (Sidharth Malhotra). But even this not so rich boy will come from a household that is an independent villa with 4 parking lots and cutlery at a dining table that is worth killing for – emphasis on killing and not dying.
5. There will be a series of events that will lead to some misunderstanding or a fight between the lead trio – in this case it is a doubtful relationship between Ro (that’s short for Rohan) and Shanaya where Abhi comes in as a prospective option for the woman. And there is of course the annual SOTY contest that has been conducted under the aegis of Dean Yoginder Vashisht (Rishi Kapoor) for over 25 years. The dean has since then retired and stays in his own 23.83 bedroom villa and continues to talk to his bonsai plants. Did I mention he was gay?

So if you expect all of this and the latest in fashion and some gorgeous bodies in various stages of dress and undress then SOTY is just the movie for you. Don’t expect much in terms of dialogues or screenplay or whatever it is that makes movies better than the rest. Definitely expect corny one liners like “Tata ke stocks hila dega aur Bata ke rates badha dega” (He will get the stock market rates of Tata down and the retail rates of Bata up).

You can also expect weird situations like when Abhi threatens his grandmother (Farida Jalal) – “Tumhe kuch ho gaya toh mein tumhare saath baat nahin karunga” (If something were to happen to you, I will not talk to you ever). Dear Abhi – your Dadi was on her death bed. If something untoward were to happen to her then it would only be death. How can you speak to hear after that anyways?

Karan Johar all over from frame 1 to frame 26543 – 3 hours of standard mush. With loads of crappy dialogues and slapstick one liners thrown in. Watch it at your own risk. But if you liked his previous movies then this is a must watch. 3 great looking human specimens on display though. Which Karan Uncle is quick to take the credit for from the first frame itself. All the best if you decide to watch it. 4 on 10.

Oh and one more thing. A couple of great tracks - especially the Radha one. And it is definitely better than Aiyya if you were to ask me.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivOhPjX9YM

Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)

Dhobi Ghat was by far the most awaited movie in this month. And it everything that people expected it to be from the trailers. If one was disappointed with the end result then I guess we were giving too much credit to the audience. In a very “Crash meets Bollywood” style of movie making, Kiran Rao gives us the story of 4 people in the city that doesn’t sleep, whose lives are intertwined thanks to various twists of fate if one may call it that. And she doesn’t do a bad job at all.

Arun (Aamir Khan) is an eccentric painter (that’s redundant right – aren’t all painters eccentric – no offence meant to the painter community). He shies away from public appearances and doesn’t make an appearance at any of his exhibitions. Any of them until now. He lands up at his latest exhibition which is based on Mumbai – his muse, his whore, his beloved – as he proclaims proudly. As he is getting away from the socializing, he bumps into Shai (Monica Dogra) who is an investment banker from New York on a sabbatical to Mumbai. Her passion is photography and she wants to use the time in Mumbai getting a look into the lives of the marginalized people including the exotic varieties such as the “Night Rat Killers” (didn’t know something like that existed out here – so much for being a Mumbaikar).

Needless to say, Arun and Shai hit it off and land up in bed that very night. Arun, however, is not really interested in anything long term. Especially coz he is divorced around 2 years back and completely unprepared to get into another relationship. Quite a bad morning after for sure.

When Arun moves to a new place, he finds 3 video cassettes left there by the previous tenant, Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra). He tries to return them but is unable to find out any details. Intrigued, he decides to watch the tapes to find out whats in them. They turn out to be video letters that Yasmin planned to send to her brother about her stay in Mumbai.

Arun’s Dhobi, Munna aka Zoheb (Pratiek Babbar) is the common link between Arun and Shai. He wants to be an actor. Shai is quite taken in by Munna in a manner of speaking and decides to take his help on her project. Munna also, coincidentally helps her get to Arun’s new place. The friendship between the two develops quite quickly and as time goes by, Munna develops feelings for Shai which are obviously one sided.

Dhobi Ghat tries to get to the fore the complexities of relationships that develop in this city between different kinds of people. The hope that is existant in most people about the next day being better than the previous one. The casting is quite good with Pratiek Babbar probably being the weakest of the lead 4. But he does come across as extremely sincere and puts in a genuine effort. Aamir Khan being Aamir Khan is quite effortless in his portrayal of the eccentric Arun. I suspect, it didn’t take quite an effort cause he was probably being himself. The pleasant surprises were definitely Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra both of whom, I thought, were quite superb. Both first time actors in main stream cinema. Both essay their respective roles with high levels of confidence, unperturbed by the fact that there are other well known names. Acting performances are what keeps Dhobi Ghat alive despite its slow pace. The music by Gustavo Santaolalla & Anibel Kerpel is again well placed with good use of Indian Classical for effect. However, the lead track had striking similarity to that of Krrish of all the movies (maybe a figment of my imagination or just the same raga). If you like the arty kind movies where the story is strong but the pace is really slow and it includes still shots which seem to last forever for no apparent reason, then Dhobi Ghat is just the way you would like to spend your evening. The ridiculous “95 minute without interval” gimmick kept aside, it gives Kiran Rao a very strong start. I liked it. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1451268889/