Now this is the kind of movie that reeks of Yash Chopra all the way from start to finish. And it also reeks of being written by Aditya Chopra. Because it is a larger than life and unbelievable kind of romance. The one that transcends all sorts of boundaries – in the literal sense of the word. One that can be described using the word – unrequited. Very few instances where this ten letter word can be used.
Showing posts with label Manoj Bajpai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manoj Bajpai. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
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, 23 June 2012
Gangs of Wasseypur
It is very difficult to find fault with the likes of Anurag Kashyap because more often than not, he makes masterpieces. Masterpieces which are fleshed out to the level of detail that leads to most people to interpret the movie as too slow. Like I mentioned to someone a couple of days back that movie makers such as Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee put so much of emphasis on characters that the intensity often comes at the expense of pace and is not appreciated by most people. Gangs of Wasseypur is no different from any such movie that you have seen from Tipping Point productions.
GOW gets to the table the atypical commitment towards making a movie that one has come to associate with the likes of Anurag Kashyap only. The emphasis on each character and each frame is stunning. And in this case, Kashyap has gone to great levels to get the back story absolutely in place before moving on to the actual story, for which we will have to wait for a while. The back story itself has taken over 150 minutes of which the first 90 minutes itself gets to a point where you actually start to wonder – is there an interval to this movie? So on a not so serious note, ensure that you relieve yourself before the movie starts lest you are not able to hold back too long
The back story starts way back in the 1940s where the roots of Wasseypur are established. It is a small village on the outskirts of Dhanbad – primarily dominated by the Qureshis who gain their livelihood by robbing trains of the British Raj. A new smart alec Sultan Khan throws a cat amongst the pigeons and earns the wrath of the Qureshis who are actually butchers by profession.
He is banished from the village and starts to make a living in Coal Country where he is noticed by a new Thekedar (Contractor) Ramadhir Singh and taken under his wing. Sultan eventually gets eliminated by Ramadhir when inadvertently learns of Sultan’s ambitions to take over from him. Many moons later Ramadhir is a politician and Sultan’s son Saradar has grown in stature and slowly but surely starts avenging his father’s killer.
Part 1, spans 3 generations of the Khans and the Qureshis with Ramadhir being the constant feature across all of them. GOW, one may rightfully feel, is a bit stretched because after all of this, we still have another part to go. If there is a flaw, this would be it. And that in some scenese, Anurag’s human nature comes to the fore with some silly consistency errors and some even sillier factual errors. Albiet not visible to the normal human eye for certain.
One this is for certain though. The performances from every single person – lead or supporting is stunning – superb work by the Casting director – Mukesh Chhabra. The extras may not have done too well though which is very unlike Kashyap again. The screenplay is absolutely Jharkhandi and so is the music from Sneha Khanwalkar. Both keep the interest and humour alive in the movie which would otherwise have put the audiences to deep sleep. I was unable to catch the name of the editor but without the superb cuts, GOW would not have turned out to be a brilliantly finished movie.
That its an Anurag Kashyap movie in itself is enough reason to watch it. But that it is a very well made one will only make it better. But be prepared for the slow pace. 7.5 on 10 as of now. I may take the rating higher once I have watched 2. Mind you, watch 1 and you will not be able to skip 2. Enjoy!!! Oh yes, I forgot – extreme violence and super gory scenes – not for the light hearted.
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/user/Viacom18Movies?v=j-AkWDkXcMY
GOW gets to the table the atypical commitment towards making a movie that one has come to associate with the likes of Anurag Kashyap only. The emphasis on each character and each frame is stunning. And in this case, Kashyap has gone to great levels to get the back story absolutely in place before moving on to the actual story, for which we will have to wait for a while. The back story itself has taken over 150 minutes of which the first 90 minutes itself gets to a point where you actually start to wonder – is there an interval to this movie? So on a not so serious note, ensure that you relieve yourself before the movie starts lest you are not able to hold back too long
The back story starts way back in the 1940s where the roots of Wasseypur are established. It is a small village on the outskirts of Dhanbad – primarily dominated by the Qureshis who gain their livelihood by robbing trains of the British Raj. A new smart alec Sultan Khan throws a cat amongst the pigeons and earns the wrath of the Qureshis who are actually butchers by profession.
He is banished from the village and starts to make a living in Coal Country where he is noticed by a new Thekedar (Contractor) Ramadhir Singh and taken under his wing. Sultan eventually gets eliminated by Ramadhir when inadvertently learns of Sultan’s ambitions to take over from him. Many moons later Ramadhir is a politician and Sultan’s son Saradar has grown in stature and slowly but surely starts avenging his father’s killer.
Part 1, spans 3 generations of the Khans and the Qureshis with Ramadhir being the constant feature across all of them. GOW, one may rightfully feel, is a bit stretched because after all of this, we still have another part to go. If there is a flaw, this would be it. And that in some scenese, Anurag’s human nature comes to the fore with some silly consistency errors and some even sillier factual errors. Albiet not visible to the normal human eye for certain.
One this is for certain though. The performances from every single person – lead or supporting is stunning – superb work by the Casting director – Mukesh Chhabra. The extras may not have done too well though which is very unlike Kashyap again. The screenplay is absolutely Jharkhandi and so is the music from Sneha Khanwalkar. Both keep the interest and humour alive in the movie which would otherwise have put the audiences to deep sleep. I was unable to catch the name of the editor but without the superb cuts, GOW would not have turned out to be a brilliantly finished movie.
That its an Anurag Kashyap movie in itself is enough reason to watch it. But that it is a very well made one will only make it better. But be prepared for the slow pace. 7.5 on 10 as of now. I may take the rating higher once I have watched 2. Mind you, watch 1 and you will not be able to skip 2. Enjoy!!! Oh yes, I forgot – extreme violence and super gory scenes – not for the light hearted.
Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/user/Viacom18Movies?v=j-AkWDkXcMY
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Aarakshan
The power of marketing or should I be more specific and say “Jab PR kiya toh darna kya”??? (Corny as hell ain’t it :P). But that is exactly what you could describe the events over the past 2 days as. First there were reports from Uttar Pradesh and then Punjab if I am not mistaken. And then finally Andhra Pradesh joined the bandwagon. One can be quite certain that this bandwagon is not going to grown exponentially. The reason – Because there is nothing objectionable at all in Aarakshan. Its nothing but a brilliant piece of PR and I tip my hat to the agency behind it. A superb way to generate more excitement around a movie that was anyways expected to be good and fare quite well at the BO. The news of the ban and the intense promotion around the news has only helped it more – or has it? I would have thought that people would have anyways gone to see the Big B in his 2nd movie for the year and his first truly respectable role since Paa. I thought BBuddah was OK but nothing immensely respectable by a country mile for the biggest star in Indian cinema. As such the entire PR stunt was generally much ado about actually nothing. In fact I thought I may have missed a thing or two since I was so eagerly looking out for what was it that people of UP or AP and most surprisingly Punjab found in the movie to ban it. Weird I say.
Aarakshan (Reservation) tries to deal with the ever controversial topic of reservation on the basis of caste and creed. Is it justifiable to use reservation as a means of getting back at another caste or group of people from a specific caste purely because hundreds of years back, you were a victim of the same? Doesn’t it make sense to reserve seats for the truly economically backward and that too if and only if they really show some spark? Why is it that teaching as a profession is not given as much importance as say the Police or Civil Services. So where you have options to become an IAS Officer or an IPS Officer, why is it that you don’t have the option of becoming an ITS Officer (Indian Teaching Services)? And then again should the government not be doing its bit to really work on quality primary education and providing facilities to those who are economically backward or for that matter from the so called backward communities which give them a level playing field with anyone else and encourage fair competition? Are these coaching classes just converting education into a full fledged money making business and nothing else? Just some of the questions that Aarakshan throws up. What was so controversial about it, I would never know. Just leads me to believe that we are still just a literate nation and far from being an educated one.
I have always loved Prakash Jha’s direction especially since Gangajal where he really got his levels of intensity into direction really high. A trait which kind of seems missing in the first few minutes of Aarakshan but if you are a bit patient, it slowly creeps up and comes to the Prakash Jha that we are familiar with. The tempo also keeps fluctuating but Jha keeps the overall interest alive all through. What I did find a tad tacky was that some scenes were not seamlessly stitched together. From a perspective of performances, I could only find fault with Pratiek Babbar who still seems like a struggling child artiste. The screen presence of the Big B and Manoj Bajpayee are superb to say the least. And Saif continues to do reasonably well with the exceptions of some robotic moments. The same case with Deepika (who is totally stunning especially for 10 seconds when she wears the blue saree and pink blouse). Music was average. A couple of consistency errors which I found too surprising just added to the feeling that not only was this clearly not Jha’s best effort to date but also one where not much attention has been put in either. A tad disappointed but still a good movie to catch up with. 6.5 on 10 is the verdict.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi792042521/
Monday, 18 October 2010
Ramayana – The Epic
Sometime back I had reviewed Toy Story 3 in which I had put down the definition of Animate. I had also gone on to wax eloquent about one Pixar Studios who have the expertise like no one else in this field. Also, I have been informed that a large chunk of animation movies are designed right here in India. It would seem we are the best when it comes to creating these movies. Then pray tell me why is that when we ourselves make an attempt to get into the business, we fall flat on our faces? Ramayana – The Epic adds to the long saga of failed attempts by Indian film makers to get into the field of animation. There is of course no point in getting into a story telling mode for what is probably the 2nd most popular piece of mythology that comes from this country (No points for guessing which one occupies the #1 slot). So lets delve right into why I am of the opinion that Ramayana – The Epic is a failure as an animation movie.
First of all, the animation seems robotic and not fluid by a country mile. Actually, what you could associate it with best is a puppet show. Quite surprising since it was touted as the best ever animation made to date etc. I personally felt that the movements in “Gayab Aya” which came to the fore 20 years back were much more fluid – not to mention that the entire series was extremely entertaining. Maybe Chetan Desai and co. could have learnt a few things from the creator of Gayab. Secondly, one gets into the voice overs. The choice of voices was not bad at all when u look at the names – Manoj Bajpai (Ram), Juhi Chawla (Sita) and Ashutosh Rana (Ravana). Quite an impressive voice cast. But these impressive names flatter to deceive. Manoj Bajpai seemed to make too much of an effort to sound like the “Sarva Guna Sampan” character he was trying to play. And Juhi Chawla did exactly the same thing to arrive @ Sita. The key to great voice overs is to sound like you would do normally. That is why Tom Hanks makes a fabulous choice for Woody. Also, the character should look like the artiste who is playing the voice over. The final product as such is very disappointing to say the least.
The stand out performance however is Ashutosh Rana as Ravana. Excellent use choice of voice over. Not to mention that everything that was associated with Ravana in the movie was executed very well. The conflict between the 10 heads which is probably the easiest thing to think of but extremely difficult to execute has been shown very well with a lot of intensity. The courtroom of Ravana is grand to say the least. The palaces of Ayodhya pale in comparison. One would be justified to wonder if this was the Ramayana or a propaganda for Ravana.
Lastly, Chetan Desai’s direction is weak to say the least. In the interest of squeezing everything in under 90 minutes, he rushes through the entire storyline. One could argue by saying that anything longer could have resulted in a big bore. But as a counter point, there should reasonable attention given to at least one aspect like say the final fight with Ravana. Here, we find a hotch potch that can be best described as “Jack of All Trades and Master of None”. Disappointing way to have spent a Saturday morning. 3 on 10 for this one.
First of all, the animation seems robotic and not fluid by a country mile. Actually, what you could associate it with best is a puppet show. Quite surprising since it was touted as the best ever animation made to date etc. I personally felt that the movements in “Gayab Aya” which came to the fore 20 years back were much more fluid – not to mention that the entire series was extremely entertaining. Maybe Chetan Desai and co. could have learnt a few things from the creator of Gayab. Secondly, one gets into the voice overs. The choice of voices was not bad at all when u look at the names – Manoj Bajpai (Ram), Juhi Chawla (Sita) and Ashutosh Rana (Ravana). Quite an impressive voice cast. But these impressive names flatter to deceive. Manoj Bajpai seemed to make too much of an effort to sound like the “Sarva Guna Sampan” character he was trying to play. And Juhi Chawla did exactly the same thing to arrive @ Sita. The key to great voice overs is to sound like you would do normally. That is why Tom Hanks makes a fabulous choice for Woody. Also, the character should look like the artiste who is playing the voice over. The final product as such is very disappointing to say the least.
The stand out performance however is Ashutosh Rana as Ravana. Excellent use choice of voice over. Not to mention that everything that was associated with Ravana in the movie was executed very well. The conflict between the 10 heads which is probably the easiest thing to think of but extremely difficult to execute has been shown very well with a lot of intensity. The courtroom of Ravana is grand to say the least. The palaces of Ayodhya pale in comparison. One would be justified to wonder if this was the Ramayana or a propaganda for Ravana.
Lastly, Chetan Desai’s direction is weak to say the least. In the interest of squeezing everything in under 90 minutes, he rushes through the entire storyline. One could argue by saying that anything longer could have resulted in a big bore. But as a counter point, there should reasonable attention given to at least one aspect like say the final fight with Ravana. Here, we find a hotch potch that can be best described as “Jack of All Trades and Master of None”. Disappointing way to have spent a Saturday morning. 3 on 10 for this one.
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