Khwaabb

I dream of an India where all sport is given equal importance and not just cricket.  I dream of an India where an athlete who can run fast enough to qualify for the world championship is given the proper facilities to maximize his performance.  I dream that this athlete also gets his due and is not asked to pay `1.5 lacs ($3000 approximately) after he has qualified for the world championships.

Yamla Pagla Deewana

This one was what I was really waiting for. After the disaster of their first movie together titled “Apne”, the Deol family probably sat down together to have a serious discussion and decided that the next time they would come together would be for a comedy. Either ways people were laughing at their first attempt. Might as well get them to laugh at what is meant to be laughed at right? The rushes were quite reasonable and I was quite keen to catch up with the movie. So after a 12 hour sleep to recover from the jet lag of spending 32 hours @ either an airport or inside an aircraft and that too without any sleep, I opened skull, left brains in freezer and proceeded towards PVR Mulund to catch an afternoon show of a completely slapstick brainless comedy. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed at all – I got what I had expected!!!!


Param Veer Singh Dhillon (Sunny Deol) is a family man to the core. He is married to Mary (Emma Brown) and has 2 kids. His mother, Manto (Nafisa Ali) also stays with them. No points for guessing that they all live in Vancouver, Canedda (read Canada). And if u are a sardar in Canedda, u cannot dream of having a Canadian accent. After all, you are in your 2nd home right? The entire family including the Canadian wife is uncorrupted and not influenced by anything Canadian. Even the wife speaks in Punjabi – so what if it’s a little broken. 100% believable I say. Now, Param has always wanted to go to India to visit his Des (read country - wonder why they all go to Canada if all they want to do is come back?). But Mary will not have anything to do with these dreams. He doesn’t trust India one bit.

The story goes that while Param was very young, his father, Dharam Singh Dhillon (Dharmendra) who is the only person in the world that google cannot locate, is a petty criminal back home and leaves Manto and Param at a very young age. He doesn’t leave alone thought. He carries his 2 month old son, Gajodhar (Bobby Deol – when he gets older that is) and continues his life of petty crime, relieving unsuspecting people of whatever is valuable. One of the Dhillon families friends in Canedda comes home and blows a fuse when he sees Dharam Paaji’s photograph on the wall. He has recently been duped by the father and son duo, in Benras (how many times have people been told not to travel alone to India!!!!!). Now that he knows, Param has to go to Benares to get the two back to Canedda as promised to his mother isn’t it?

Yamla Pagla Deewana, lives upto to everything it promised in the trailers. Corny dialogues such as “Tussi Bade Impotent ho ji” (You are very important) and “Aap Kaise Karte Ho Ji” (How do you do?) and most of all Jat Risky after Whiskey as the icing on the cake. Not to mention the corny background music that plays from every Bobby Deol movie even though there is a fight sequence on. After all, Jab Sunny fight kar raha ho toh Bobby romance hi karega na??? And then there are three brilliant fight sequences featuring Sunny Paaji’s Dhai Kilo ka Haath (2.5 kg fists), the first of which causes little or no damage to any surrounding furniture. Just when u begin to think that things would be different, the next sequence shows a beer bar being single handedly crashed to pulp but guess who – Sunny Paaji. Even Dharam Paaji decides to show his might in the climax sequence. And I must also say that the three on screen together has some solid chemistry. So much that they dance better than the girls in both the so called item numbers in the movie (if they can qualify to be called that). And did I mention Bobby’s love interest in the movie played by Kulraj Randhawa, who is a photographer from the Punjab and is making a coffee table book on Benaras and expects to do that with her camera always on full zoom and wearing a pair of really short shorts roaming the streets of Benares. All believable hai ji. Not to worry. Samir Karnik’s direction continues on the lines of his previous debacles. Some guys never learn. Thanks to our trio, the movie will not flop. Entertaining definitely but follow instructions about brain as mentioned earlier. I give it 4 on 10.

And if you haven’t seen the trailer, here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY1wOMEDBc4&feature=fvsr

Guzarish

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.