Ankhon Dekhi

Esoteric, abstruse, obscure, arcane, recherché, rarefied, recondite, abstract, difficult, hard, puzzling, perplexing, inscrutable, cryptic, complex, complicated, over/above one's head, incomprehensible, opaque – just a few words that come to mind when you watch Ankhon Dekhi.  Sadly the average audience will agree because of their mental faculties not being upto to the levels Rajat Kapoor expects them to be.

10 ml Love

When you look up 10ml Love on the net, it shows you a year of release as 2010.  But to my knowledge, the movie wasn’t actually released till as late as December 2012.  I remember having missed it in one of my 7 movie weekends (where I have a weak track record) and actually looking for it quite hard.

Midnight’s Children

2 movies in a day that start with a character called Ghani (Anupam Kher).  But to be fair on who had a claim on that name earlier, it would be Salman Rushdie, considering that he had released the novel over 30 years back.  But the Ghani from David had significantly better screen presence and charisma (the character that is).

 

I M 24

One of the few saving graces in September was this off beat movie called I M 24. When you have a movie with a cast that includes the likes of Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Vijay Raaz and Lilette Dubey, it is a safe bet to spend a little bit of money on. This was part of the triple header that was planned for the 2nd September 2012 (not Finding Nemo – which was on the previous Sunday) and thankfully it turned out to be a decent watch. Else my death warrant was pretty much sealed.

Shubendu Roy (Rajat Kapoor) – and I kid you not when I say that I burst out laughing loud when I heard the name itself – is a thirty something writer who has come in from somewhere in the Indian hinterland to the city of dreams. He shares his lovely house in Ghatkopar with his childhood buddy Gagandeep Singh (Ranvir Shorey). Gagan is a struggling actor himself and uses his smooth talking skills to get odd jobs. Given a choice, Gagan would never speak the truth. Shubhendu is the magnetic opposite.

Gagan lands up a small time job with a leading producer, director of small time serials played by Saurabh Shukla. The only worry is that the house is notorious for not making payments. On the sets he meets Sheela (Neha Dhupia) a struggling actress. Using the same slick talk, Gagan starts wooing Sheela. In the meantime, Shubhendu bumps into Kanak (Manjari Fadnis) on a chat site. When Kanak asks Shubhendu his age our man replies – I AM 24.

I M 24 is a bitter sweet movie that may have several inconsistencies and probably doesn’t stay true to its central theme that is – BE HONEST. But the lies and inconsistencies Saurabh Shukla (as the director) throws at you are petty ones with a certain endearing quality to them. From the first shot, you know that it is a super low budget movie that will offer not too much in terms of quality of movie. But what it lacks in quality of execution, I M 24 more than makes up in terms of story.

And then there are the performances of the cast that I had called out earlier in this review. True to their reputation – Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Saurabh Shukla, Lilette Dubey and Vijay Raaz all deliver very strong performances. Neha Dhupia is slowly but surely getting some quality roles to keep hopes alive on people believing that there is an actor somewhere there. Overall, a pretty decent way to spend a Sunday evening. May have left the screens by now. But the DVD would be a safe pick. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HVJtPfPAuE

Fatso

If one were to go by the posters of Fatso, one would probably imagine that you will be getting into a movie that’s probably a bit slapstick. But then you would look at the star cast which has in the past given us good comedy. The likes of Ranvir Shorey or Purab Kohli for example. Not that you could say the same about Gul Panag who has been going through a patch which can be described as desperate of late. And then there is the aspect of the movie being directed by Rajat Kapoor. The story rritten by Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla. One will not blame you for giving the movie a chance right?

Fatso comes a cropper in each one of these points (except that of Gul Panag). Firstly, it is heavily inspired from the Hollywood flick Down to Earth which features Chris Rock and was released in 2001. So much for the originality that Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla were to get to the table. So we have Navin (Purab Kohli) who has proposed marriage to Nandini (Gul Panag). In a freak accident that was supposed to claim his close friend Sudeep aka Fatso (Ranvir Shorey), he gets picked up by the minion instead.

He figures this out when the mistake comes to the fore at a government like office which is the transit point before you get complete freedom from life. The bureaucracy upstairs is not able to correct the mistake in time. So Navin now doesn’t have a body because it has been cremated already. In the interim, Navin finds out that his close friend Yash (Neil Bhoopalam) has the hots for Nandini and is going to gun for her now that Navin is – erm – out of the way. After much persuasion, the General Manager upstairs provides him the option of swapping places with Sudeep which Navin takes gleefully.

The one aspect about Fatso that sticks out like a sore thumb is that it adds to the complete and utter capitulation that Gul Panag has seen in her acting. Where is the person we saw in the likes of Dor and Manorama Six Feet Under? I am sure she has been taken away by some ghost. What remains is the palest of all pseudo shadows that you can think of. Purab Kohli is very good in the limited screen time that he gets and the rest of the cast is above average except one Gunjan Bakshi who desperately needs an class in acting.

The music by Sagar Desai cannot keep you glued onto the screen in any manner. The script / dialogues is not very inspiring again. It would suffice to say that whoever was responsible did a below average job. Rajat Kapoor seems to have made this movie in some kind of a hurry because he has not paid any attention to details at all. Just went ahead and closed the movie out before the required deadlines. 4 on 10 is the best I would give Fatso. Watch it at your own risk.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otKcvjhj6B4

Bheja Fry

Yet another advantage of visiting your friends abroad.  You get them DVDs that they have always wanted to have and more so with friends down under coz they don’t get most of our Desi Titles and even if they do, it is horrendously expensive.  The best part is that they have probably not watched an all out hilarious movie like Bheja Fry and a maniac like me was only looking for the next available excuse to watch it.  So on a not so warm evening around 8 kms away from a place called Margaret River in Western Australia, I seized the opportunity to watch one of India’s finest comedies to date with my close friends Shilpa and Parikshit. And for those who were wondering what I was doing watching desi movies on vacation – do come down to wine country and try to find some place open after 7. Would love to know J

Ranjit Thadani (Rajat Kapoor) is a successful music producer.  He is married to Sheetal (Sarika – and does she look gorgeous still – wonder why Kamal Hassan left her – the vagaries of the world I say).  Their marriage is going through troubled times.  Ranjit cares more about his work than what Sheetal does.  Sheetal is a reasonably successful singer in her own right and was actually seeing a music director, Anant Ghoshal (Milind Soman) when she met Ranjit, who promptly steals her under Anant’s nose.  Ranjit and his friends have a fetish.  A fetish to have fun at the expense of unsuspecting folk who think that they are searching for new talent (helped by the fact that they are in the music business). Every Friday, the gang meets up to “unearth” fresh talent.  Stuff like people a guy who genuinely believes he has talent because he can spit a really long distance – Ugh!!!  Whats worse is that the group actually believes that the entire process is a great stress buster for all of them.

It would be Ranjit’s turn the next Friday to introduce the next talent to the gang. And he is quickly running out of time.  But a close friend, Jagdish Varma (Ikhlaque Khan) bumps into a genuine “talent” on his way to Pune.  Someone who actually believes that he was born to do only one thing – sing.  Meet Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak).  He is not only under the illusion of being a good singer, but also goes that extra mile to convince people that he really can sing.  He doesn’t waste a single opportunity to sing. And he is a leech to the core.  One doesn’t have much of a choice but to hear him out.  Complete chaos ensues when Bharat Bhushan enters the scene.  And very shortly, you would be holding on to your stomachs in pain – thanks to some amazing comedy that will come your way.

Bheja Fry is the kind of movie that comes every once in a while to reaffirm our faith in quality comedy.  Director Sagar Ballary is far from being a superb director considering the number of inconsistencies that existed in the movie and the editing that was definitely below standard.  But these gaffes are more than masked by the superb performances of everyone in the cast.  Everyone but for Milind Soman who for my money’s worth should realize by now that acting is not up his alley.  He should stick to modeling which he can continue with for the next 10 years plus – he still looks absolutely stunning and is a huge role model for us 30+ paunchy folks who have resigned to not looking smart and fit coz it is all too late.  People are going to remember the performances of Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey for a long time to come.  And Bhairavi Goswami will be talked about till eternity for her classic dialogue as Suman Rao, “Ranjit, Jaane se pehle mujhe ek baat bata doh.  Yeh “Tharki” kya hota hai”? Complete Master Card moment I say!!!! Long Live Comedy.  7 on 10 for this one.

Phas Gaye Re Obama

Comedy is still alive!!!! And the low budget comedy which goes onto make big bucks @ the Box Office is definitely here to stay. To the entire bunch of people who were inspired by that work of art called “Bheja Fry” – More power to you I say!!!! Keep them coming!!!! You are the reason why the semblance of faith in the movies still exists. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

Om Shastri (Rajat Kapoor) is in trouble. He has been a victim of the R word which for some reason did not hit India with the vengeance that it hit the land of the free. It has eaten up his life slowly but surely. First his outlets, then offices and now his house. The so called millionaire has pretty much been reduced to rags. He is now faced with the possibility of losing his house to the bank unless he pays up dues of $100K to retain ownership. Not left with much of a choice, he has to make the arduous trip back home to sell his ancestral property.

Armed with loads of hope and a one way ticket (he has no money to take a return trip) he lands up in the hinterland of the most populous state in the country after 7 years. He is pleasantly surprised to see a welcome party of almost everyone that he knows back home. But he is not very pleasantly surprised when he realizes that they have come over not to receive him but are themselves not in the best of shape and have made the Haveli their residence for good. And the caretaker, Om’s Chachaji (Paternal Uncle) doesn’t have the heart to ask them to leave.

Simultaneously we see the gang of Bhaisaheb (Sanjay Mishra) rueing their fate of being in the kidnapping business. Business is slow and people are not willing to give as much money as they used to for their Phirauti (return). One of the gang members, Anni, has always been in awe of the US. Now that Om is in town, Anni is not going to lose a golden opportunity. In atypical UP ishtyle, he begs and pleads Om to take him to the US. Slowly but surely, the rest of the town also gets to know that Om is visiting. And the person most excited is Bhaisaheb who looks at this as an opportunity to get a few crores of Phirauti. A plot is hatched, much to Anni’s disgust, to kidnap Om.

Phas Gaye Re Obama (PGRO) is a satire on the kidnapping “business” in UP and its presence all way upto the top. It is packed with tasteful humour which has you in splits most of the time. A welcome change from the crappy slapstick humour that gets dished out to us day in day out. In several ways, it is like Tere Bin Laden and kind of takes off from where TBL left – in terms of humour that is. Director Subhash Kapoor has done a fabulous job of handling a bunch of theatre artistes and very few star value actors. Rajat Kapoor is as calm as ever in his role of Om Shastri. Sanjay Mishra is simple superb as Bhaisaheb and so is Amol Gupte as the evil politican. The most surprising performance comes from Neha Dhupia as the notorious Munni. Subhash Kapoor must have talent if he can get someone like Dhupia to perform with a commitment that I have never seen before. Most importantly, for the first time, she shows that she CAN act. The icing on the cake are the brilliant performances of the support cast of Devendra Choudhary, Brijendra Kala & Sumeet Nijhawan.

Fantastic movie for any day of the week. The only reason I would give it 7 on 10 is due to some minor inconsistencies which could have been avoided. Without that it would have easily got an 8. Don’t miss it.