From Paris With Love

I wonder why studios would release a movie much later in India than they did world over. Especially with an all out action flick like From Paris with Love. A movie which has all the ingredients to go down really well with an audience that holds action flicks in really high esteem. FPWL released in the International market in February this year. And we had to wait till the weekend before Diwali to watch it. By now most of the target audience would have already downloaded it. Which would explain why the theatres running not so full. I think there were all of 10 people when I caught up with the afternoon show today. Sad – but true.


James Reece (pronounced Reese – Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the highly ambitious Personal Assistant of the US Ambassador in Paris. Super efficient and is held in extremely high regard by the Ambassador. More to do with his chess playing skills I would assume. Not that it takes anything away from his capabilities to execute his basic responsibilities. He also keeps doing odd jobs for the Secret Service but is never given a piece of the real action. His repeated attempts to get a field job have not yielded any results yet. He is in a relationship with the gorgeous Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) who is a designer by profession. She is very much in love with Reece and would like to get married to him. And coz Reece is making no effort to take that little step forward, she proposes. Reece is floored and obviously accepts.

But as luck would have it, our couple’s sweet moment together is short lived. But for the right reason. Reece finally gets his opportunity to get onto a field assignment and is assigned to a partner Charlie Wax (John Travolta) a secret agent par excellence as they would say in France who has just landed into Paris and is stuck with customs over some cans of energy drink which could have been picked up in any department store in Paris. However, our hero is called in to bail him out – which he does very effectively.

Now Wax is not your average ordinary every day secret agent and he goes about his tasks – shall we say – a bit adventurously. Reece is blissfully unaware of it but starts getting extremely uncomfortable when the first stop that they take is at a Chinese Restaurant for a cocaine bust. Now why would a secret agent of Wax’s stature be interested in a few kilos of cocaine? Reece tries his best to get some information out of Wax but only manages to get some crap about how the minister for defence’s niece overdosed on coke and a few important guys were pissed about the entire episode.

What follows is an absolutely fabulous series of chases and non stop action led by one of the most versatile actors of our time – John Travolta. I mean the guy is almost pushing 60 and is much larger than his SNL days but man does he have screen presence. He carries on with the same charisma that he show in Taking of Pelham 123 – only this time in a positive role. He completely overshadows Rhys Meyers who in all fairness does a fairly decent job in executing his role as the rookie secret agent. No one else worth mentioning in the entire movie. Director Pierre Morrel though continues with his love for Paris. His previous directorial attempt was Taken starring Liam Neeson again based out of Paris and was a wonderful flick. With FPWL he achieves a similar result. Not the same one unfortunately. FPWL still stands out thanks to, as previously mentioned, superb action sequences. I give this a 6.5 on 10. Watch it even if you are not an action freak. Travolta rules yet again!!!!

The Other Guys

Det. P K Highsmith (Samuel L Jackson) and Det. Christopher Janson (Dwayne Johnson) are New York’s finest. Yep they are the guys who get all the action. They are guys who get first priority on all cases. They are the guys who live life on the edge – and how. They are the guys who ensure that they destroy in excess of $16 million worth of property chasing a bunch of kids who have a couple of grams of marijuana worth a few dollars in their possession. They are the guys who get all the awards and all the medals and all the chicks and all the publicity and everyone else fades in the background.


And then there are the Other guys. The guys who don’t get any of the cases. Who are left with completing the documentation in the backend and closing all the reports that the 2 high flying detectives should be doing in the first place. They are Det. Allen Gamble (Will Ferrel) and Det. Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg). Gamble is the geek. He is the guy who has all the information about everything that seems irrelevant or trivial. He is the guy who goes by the book and can qualify to any geeky job. But not that of an NYPD Detective. Gamble is the kind of guy who prefers his desk job to anything else in the world. Why? Because he has a history. A deep dark history before he became a cop. One which got him into shit loads of trouble and also got him to meet his current super duper hot wife Dr. Sheila Gamble (Eva Mendes).

Hoitz on the other hand is the desperate NYPD Detective whose only claim to fame is that he shoots an NY Yankees star baseball player, Derek Jeter, while on security duty @ the Yankees stadium. It was of course an accident but one that gets him to being the laughing stock of everyone in the force. And relegated to being partners with the biggest geek on the house – Gamble. Hoitz is one hot blooded detective and is desperately trying to break the shackles and get out on the field. But the cases just don’t find their way to anyone but Highsmith and Janson – not till the 2 decide to jump off a building when chasing a bunch of criminals… er… one doesn’t survive a jump of 20 floors into pure concrete. Not unless u are a super hero.

Now the cases start flowing in and Gamble stumbles upon one that seems to be up his alley – that of a multi billion $ scam which involves David Ershon (Steve Coogan) of the Ershon corporation. An affair that no one seems to be interested in coz its not where the “Action” is you see. But our friend Gamble smells a dead stinky rat and cannot contain himself. It takes bit of being conned also by Hoitz who has pretty much had it with the lack of cases and picks up the first one that comes along his way along with Gamble. Complete Chaos ensues

The Other Guys is an attempt to get to the fore, a topic that has not been discussed much – that of financial scams in the recent past that have seriously eaten away into tax payers money. How it does that is upto you guys to find out. Will Ferrel is as cold and yet humourous as ever. Mark Wahlberg, for the first time appears in a role of a complete all out Loser. And I must say he does a pretty decent job. Sam Jackson and Dwayne Johnson just provide the spice. Eva Mendes is furniture – HOT FURNITURE …. OK MAKE THAT SIZZLING HOT FURNITURE. And rounding off the star cast is Michael Keaton as Captain Gene Mauch who keeps dropping one liners from TLC Songs. Director Adam MacKay only works with Will Ferrel it would seem. Taking the Director Actor Relationship to a whole new level u see.

Now I am not sure what to rate this movie as. The best description I can find for it is “Weird”. Mind u – Weird is not bad. It is just weird. Different. It is hilarious in parts and totally slap stick in other parts. The fact that it gives an interesting perspective on the scams that have hit the US of late makes it worth a watch I guess. Yep – I think it deserves 6 on 10. Never been much of a Will Ferrel fan but the past 2 movies that I have seen with him turned out to be good ones. One more and I would qualify as a convert I guess. Watch it if u can.

Eat Pray Love

There are movies where the book is better and there are movies where the movie is better. And then there is the type where both are probably as good. I was a few pages down Eat Pray Love when I could not take the risk of the movie leaving the screens in Mumbai. It had been 2 weeks since the release. Plus my schedules were going downright crazy. Could not catch up with completing the book. So just went right ahead. I am not sure, in which category would EPL (not the soccer variety) fall into but I am kind of willing to stick my neck out and say it would be the third variety.


Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is a thirty something author who is in a marriage to Stephen (Billy Crydup) which dreams are made of. Settled, big house, well to do husband and her own career going northwards. And the prospect of going the family way also seemingly around the corner. But what if she doesn’t want any of this? What if she is not ready to be a mother? What if she suddenly realizes that the past few years were nothing but a mistake? That she is not the kinds who is willing to settle down in the first place. That her choice of getting married was probably the biggest mistake of her life? – BITCH is what most of us would call her isn’t it?

But then, Ms. Gilbert finds herself in exactly this position. After days on end of crying herself to sleep and trying to figure out what she prefers – Being called a bitch or staying in a marriage that is not what she wants. Liz takes option 1. Which I personally believe is the choice one needs to have the courage to make. Seriously what is the point of being in a relationship, friendship or whatever one wants to call it if one is just not interested – isn’t it? So Liz makes the choice of bailing out on her marriage.

In between all of this on a trip to Bali she meets Ketut Liyer, a medicine man who predicts that Liz would lose everything, come back to Bali for a few months and then make everything that she lost back. True to Ketut’s prediction, when she returns and breaks her wedding, she actually loses everything that she has made coz Stephen decides to take her to the cleaners. Somewhat on the rebound, she finds herself in love with David (James Franco) an actor. But is still not able to find any happiness. She finally decides to quit everything and follow her heart to three places – Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and Indonesia (Love).

I am totally in awe of Julia Roberts. I don’t think there is any role that she cannot play. And when there is an opportunity to play a serious character role like that of Liz Gilbert, she comes out on tops totally. Just like she did with Erin Brockovich. The classic example of a method actor. I am certain that she takes the concept of getting under the skin of her character to the highest possible level. The more I think about her, the only word that comes to mind is ETHEREAL. The rest of the cast is quite good but pale in comparison to her just because of the sheer presence that she gets to the screen. And had it not been for the magical Javier Bardem who plays the role of Filepe, it would have probably been called The Julia Roberts Show and not Eat Pray Love.

Director Ryan Murphy is known for the TV Series Glee. Now in the past I have said that TV directors should stick to TV. But Mr. Murphy seems to be out to prove me wrong. Slightly stretched but I guess it had to be for the book @ hand. And specifically, the India segment was probably not handled with the best of finesse. At the end of the day, I think he does a pretty good job out of it. Some poignant moments especially when Richard from Texas (Richard Jenkins) breaks down in front of Liz while telling her his story and what got him to India for the past 10 years. All in all, EPL is a pretty good watch. Scores 6 on 10 in my books. But more importantly another potential Oscar nomination for Julia Roberts on the cards.

Do Dooni Chaar

This is the one almost everyone is raving about. Everyone from the kids in the apartment complex to your parents I am sure. And if you haven’t seen it yet then you have definitely missed something. As one of the lines in an advertisement stated, “Ä fitting tribute to the great Indian Middle Class”. Welcome to the Duggals – The man of the house – Santosh (Rishi Kapoor) is a high school teacher of Mathematics; The lady of the house – Kusum (Neetu Singh) who is a typical Delhi housewife; The elder daughter – Payal (Aditi Vasudev) who goes to the Kirodimal College and is forever depressed that she was born in what is probably the worst home in the planet; Sandeep (Archit Krishna) the younger son who is in school and is the smarter cookie of the entire lot. They stay in an atypical DDA flat where you have 1 Bedroom which is allocated to the mom & dad, a tiny kitchen, a dining / drawing room area where the children also sleep on a sofa cum bed and a single bathroom over which most people fight. There is also a utility area thrown in for good measure.


And then there is the infamous scooter. The manifestation of middle class India on 2 wheels. The most used mode of transportation– especially by those who were born in the mid 60s. The “Buland Bharat ki Buland Tasveer” as proudly proclaimed in the 80s by and organization which no longer produces these works of art as they are slowly making way for the box on 4 wheels. Thanks to the aspirations of the family of 4 and the introductions of the concept of Equated Monthly Installments (EMIs). The Duggal family is also facing the same predicament. However, Papa Duggal is quite clear, and rightfully so, that the most efficient method of transportation in this country is the 2 wheeler. And has a full fledged thesis to prove the same. But “Honi ko kaun taal sakta hai”? (who can prevent the inevitable).

Enter Santosh’s sister who is currently married and settled in Meerut. In atypical Delhi fashion she pushes the Duggals to attend her sister in law’s wedding. And there are some pre-conditions. They should be dressed in brand new clothes. And they should come by car and not by the 2 wheeler OR bus. “Izzat ka sawaal hai bhai” (Matter of pride). As luck would have it, the best efforts of the family come a cropper and they have no other choice but to borrow their neighbor, Farooqui’s car for the trip. On their return, the car gets inadvertently damaged. Not so polite words are exchanged again in atypical Delhi fashion and in a fit of rage Papa Duggal declares that within 15 days they will have a car of their own.

DDC is one of the best movies to date in this year. It captures the emotions of the Average Middle Class family in India better than most other movies to date. The continuous struggle that the father has to manage expectations of family. The frustration that sets into the children when their expectations are not met. How they would prefer travelling by bus instead of their father’s scooter. How they would move towards not so correct methods to make a fast buck and enjoy that much more than their family can afford. The pains that a father has to go through to bring to reality, a dream that his children have. And then there is the mother who holds it all together through thick and thin. The characterization of all these aspects is very well done to say the least.

The performances are stellar. Rishi Kapoor as we all know is a wonderful actor. Its in the blood. Neetu Singh for the first time on screen for a full role in a really long time, proves that actors mature with age. Not to mention that she looks absolutely gorgeous :P (loads of drool – stop it Kartik she is almost as old as your mother). Stand out performance by Aditi Vasudev. I hope we will be seeing a lot from her in the days to come. Archit Krishna as the street smart Sandeep is a little over the top and probably the only chink in the entire movie. And rounding it all off with the direction of Habib Faisal. His first directorial venture – 2010 has seen an amazing number of first time directors which is great news. His prior works included the writing for Ta Ra Rum Pum. Must say Habib has come a long way. Seems to be a natural @ direction. Very very compact movie with no unnecessary frills and fancies. Straight and to the point. Just the way it is done. I give this 7 on 10. Must must watch.

Knock Out

This one is an out and out cut copy paste job of Phone Booth (Colin Farrel). Just a change of language to Hinglish. Irrfan (no longer Khan) is Tony a.k.a Bachchu, a middleman in high value political dealings going into thousands of crores of tax payer’s money. He is the guy who knows how much of the money is in which bank account for a leading politican called Bapuji (Gulshan Grover). He lives with his wife (Rukhsar) and daughter in Mumbai. He treats women with absolute disdain and uses them as toys and has several extra marital affairs. His wife, however, thinks he is the best husband possible.

Sanjay Dutt is a common man who decides the take things into his own hands. He works alone but has access to the best available technology – stuff that only people @ very high levels in the services would have access to. One fine morning, Bachchu is at his favourite PCO (u CANNOT use mobile phones if u are such a high profile pimp). What he doesn’t know is that he is being watched / stalked by Sanjay Dutt at the same time. He takes his list of drop off points for the day and is about to leave when the phone rings. Against better sense, he decides the pick up the call and quickly finds out that he is trapped inside the booth. At least till his stalker decides otherwise. When a druggie decides to harass Bachchu for some money he was to pick up, he gets shot in broad day light.

A crowd slowly starts building up, followed by the cops led by the officer in charge (Sushant Singh) and his sidekick. It is only a matter of time before the media also arrives led by Nidhi (Kangana Ranaut) who is a correspondent for India TV. And a smart correspondent at that. She takes long range shots of the area, especially the phone booth much before the crowd becomes uncontrollable. Starts putting 2 and 2 together and figures out that there is a stalker. What does she do? Like any other responsible media person goes both to the cops and her boss. She is attractive enough to make a Mumbai Cop drool and dim witted enough to believe that she will get the first rights to everything that happens around the area.

The drama then slowly begins to unfold into what can be described as a mini laugh riot. It is appalling to see the bad bad bad execution of a very good original. The direction is Tacky. Mani Shankar it would seem hasn’t learnt much from his earlier experiences which were equal disasters. The execution is all over the place. Editing – almost non existant. Consistency – out of the window. Effects – looks pasted. Green Screens – again non existant. Sanjay Dutt and Irrfan continue to perform in any movie to the best of their abilities. Although Irrfan could have done with a proper hair cut. Kangana is sincere to the core. She is definitely good looking – I am increasingly beginning to believe that since Once upon a time in Mumbai. But her dialogue delivery totally sucks. She says everything with an emphasis on every single word like a class 4 student would do in her first elocution competition. Cant quite say anyone else existed. Quite a badly made movie – not surprisingly – 3 on 10.

Aakrosh

Jhanjhar is a village in Bihar where there is only one law – that of the jungle. And in this case its not a lion that rules the jungle but a pack of wolves led by Bahubali – the village head in a manner of speaking. Holding him in good stead is mainly Ajat Shatru (Paresh Rawal) the local SP and Pappu Tiwari (Jaideep Ahlawat) who is the local goon. And in this jungle you don’t mess with the wolves. But that’s exactly what 3 students from a Delhi Medical School do. Led by Deepu who is from Jhanjhar and in love with Roshni (Amita Pathak), they make their way to Jhanjhar and try to elope with Roshni. All it takes is for one priest to see Roshni take off and the 3 are caught. They go missing and are untraceable for the next couple of months. The apathy on the government’s part gets to the students of the med school and they go on an indefinite hunger strike till the government takes the required action.


Promptly, a CBI Team is appointed. The team is led by Siddhant Chaturvedi (Akshaye Khanna) a hot blooded young CBI Officer who is 2 cases and 6 convictions old. He is joined by his sidekick Keshav (Vineet Sharma) and Major Pratap Kumar (Ajay Devgn) – Officer on special duty. The clash of personalities is very obvious. Siddhant is an officer who goes only by the book and follows protocol to the T. Major Pratap is all for protocol but a bit more street smart and aware of the intricacies that exist in a place like Jhanjhar. He knows that the law means little of nothing to the people there. More so since he comes from a background where his entire family is wiped out thanks to the vengeance of one such Zameendar.

The efforts of the CBI Team come to naught as they find all their leads disappearing by the day. Every person in the village is petrified of Bahubali and his cronies. Getting someone to be a witness seems to be a far fetched idea. None of them are willing to even speak to the team. Their main lead, Deepu’s maternal uncle is first threatened and then killed along with his kid. That leaves them with Jhamunia (Reema Sen) who is again threatened first and then the goons chop her tongue off. Their last straw would be Geeta (Bipasha Basu), Pratap’s ex flame and Ajat Shatru’s current wife who can be their only hope.

Priyadarshan’s last attempt at making a Drama would have been Virasat (1997) preceded by Kaala Pani (1996) and Gardish (1993). His attempts @ serious cinema and not slapstick have yielded much better results to date. Wonder why he doesn’t stick to something that he is good at. Its probably the typical case of having tasted blood with Hera Pheri (2000) and then living in the illusion that comedy is exactly what he is cut out for. Aakrosh marks Priyadarshan’s reasonably successful return to a genre of films that he is more suited for. Although the movie is extremely stretched out for over 2.5 hours, it still delivers a strong story line. It could have done without the meandering about in the first half and been delivered in a much more compact fashion. But I guess Priyan was quite rusty (13 years) and took a while to get into the groove. Way off from his best performance to date for sure. There are several editing and consistency flaws in the movie. Akshaye Khanna is shown coming into Jhanjhar in a First Class Compartment but gets out of an AC compartment.

Ajay Devgn has definitely come of age over his past few movies. Yet another solid performance with little or no constipated looks. However, all the others with the exception of Paresh Rawal are sad to say the least. Paresh Rawal once again comes on tops and shows us why he is probably the most versatile actor of our time. His execution of Ajat Shatru really makes one cringe in a way only a good villain can. Akshaye Khanna tries very hard but falls woefully short. Bipasha Basu as always is furniture – good looking furniture if it makes her feel better that is. Moreover, one cannot help but draw similarities with the likes of Mississippi Burning. Overall not 2 great a movie. I would give it 4 on 10.

Khichdi The Movie

In what is India’s answer to The Brady Bunch, we have the Parekh family. A bunch of lovable losers, they are – Tulsidas Parekh a.k.a. Babuji (Anang Desai), Jayashree (Nimisha Vakharia), Praful (Rajeev Mehta), Hansa – Praful’s wife (Supriya Pathak) and Himanshu – Hansa’s brother (J D Majethia). Their idea of a panic situation is the maid not turning up. So much so that they would be distraught when the maid doesn’t come but not when their own father passes away. And they are capable of psyching the brains out of even God – in this case Buddhi Dev (Satish Shah). Adding to the confusion are their neighbours – A Sardar joint family which has 65 members to be precise. And all of them are called Parminder. Welcome to what is truly a KHICHDI.


Now things take a slight turn when Hansa’s father, Chandrakant, kicks the bucket. But before he dies in a very painful slapstick manner, he makes Tulsidas commit to doing whatever is possible to fulfil Himanshu’s biggest wish. He passes away before telling him what the wish is. So now we are left to believe whatever Himanshu says. Now the dude’s wish is as ridiculous as himself. He wants to have a memorable love story that has a happy ending with him getting married. Now there is no woman in the picture and getting married seems to be a distant dream. But that’s when Jayashree Ben gets into action and starts calling everyone from Sonia Gandhi to Barrack Obama to spread the word that Hee-Maan-Su is now marriageable. But despite her best attempts, they are unable to find any alliance – leave alone a suitable one. And as Himanshu’s dream starts seeming very distant, they are subject to one more phone call for the Parminder’s. Which is when a female Parminder (Kirti Kulhari) who is the darling daughter of the family comes into play as the love interest of of Himanshu.

If there was any award in the category of slapstick comedy, Khichdi – The Movie would be way up there. If you really like the slapstick variety of Indian comedy, then u must must must watch Khichdi – The movie. If you are not the kind then avoid it like the plague. It can be one of the biggest ordeals in your life. But then that’s probably what u could expect from the Brady Bunch kinds correct. Guess I had my expectations a bit misplaced. The saving grace though is that it is very very clean. The music is also fairly decent and I wonder why “Bhonsale Market” hasn’t really picked up on the charts.

Coming to the acting department, nothing really stands out. In fact, even someone as talented as Supriya Pathak seems to be extremely forced in her effort. If anyone does stand out it is Nimisha Vakharia in her role of Jayashree Ben. Seems like a natural talent to say the least. I am not sure if Aatish Kapadia also directs the Television version but the movie version has too many consistency issues. Editing is not worth writing home about. All in all not the best movie made by a country mile. However, a vast majority of the Indian audiences would definitely love it for the kind of humour. There are enough and more Harish Bubnas (an ex colleague) in this country for sure. I give this 4 on 10.

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.

The Town

Located in the outskirts of the “Tea Party” city of Boston is a small hamlet called Charlestown. “The Town” is famous, or should I say infamous for producing the maximum number of criminals in the Boston area. The saying goes, “It’s a family business – passed on from father to son”. And in this small hamlet stay Doug McRay (Ben Affleck), James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke) – a gang of bank robbers masterminded by MacRay and controlled by Fergus 'Fergie' Colm (Pete Postlethwaite) a.k.a the Florist. Between the Florist and MacRay 4 robberies have been masterminded to date. Obviously the florist keeps a cut from the job. The FBI is of course onto their backsides but there is absolutely no proof of their involvement with anything. The gang is smart enough to not leave any fingerprints. They either torch anything that they have touched or spray the place with chemicals to not leave any DNA traces either. And also burn any tapes that may have recorded the entire activity. This obviously leaves FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) quite frustrated.


Frustrated till they pull off their next piece of work. They go about the heist dressed as Skeletors but almost get caught this time around. The Bank Manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) manages to sound a fire alarm. She also manages to see the tattoo of a cartoon character on Jem’s neck. The gang is about to leave but on 2nd thoughts decide to take Claire along with them as some sort of a hostage if the cops catch up with them on the way out. Nothing untoward happens though and a blindfolded Claire is dropped off @ the beach with a warning against talking to the cops or the FBI. For some reason the gang also keeps her license. A highly traumatized Claire is then interviewed by Agent Frawley. Still reeling under the stress of the robbery, she divulges very little. She specifically leaves out the part of the tattoo.

In the meantime, our anti-heroes are back @ their rendezvous point and realize that Claire stays barely 4 blocks away from Charlestown. Panic starts setting in and Jem is all set to dispose her off. But better sense prevails and McRay asks the gang to calm down and focus on the next job which he secretly wants to be his last. He takes the onus of following Claire to check on whether she finds her way back to the cops. He also befriends her in the bargain to try and figure out what she has been speaking to the cops about. Now there is no points for guessing that there is a soft corner that MacRay has a really soft spot for the Bank Manager ever since the robbery was in progress. For a seasoned Bank Robber it was quiet surprising that he lets himself fall for the victim. Not sure what they call this. But the reverse is the “Stockholm Syndrome”.

The Town is Ben Affleck’s 2nd directorial venture. His first being an equally intense drama starring his brother Casey Affleck. He continues with his style of movie making which is set against a dark easy going background and deals with a topic that is extremely socially relevant. Must give him credit in the direction department. Definitely not Oscar worthy as on date but definitely loads of potential in there. Lets put it this way, he is a much better director than an actor. He has definitely done his best to squeeze out as much possible from the not so famous cast. He also keeps the movie going with very little or no low points. There could have been some more effort made on consistency. For e.g. Blake Lively plays the role of Doug’s ex Krista Coughlin. For the kind of set up the Charlestown has, one would not expect Krista to have immaculately manicured and painted nails. Maybe I am wrong but instances like these stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise well made & compact movie. In the acting department, I thought Jeremy Renner’s performance was quite noteworthy. The rest of the cast barely made it. And yes ladies – you can drool over Affleck’s 8 packs for all of 3.5 seconds during the movie. Overall, I give this a 6.5 on 10.

Anjaana Anjaani

I had seen the rushes of Anjaana Anjaani about a month back. Had tweeted / FBed at that time that it did not inspire any confidence in me. The occupational hazard of being a movie critic is that one doesn’t have much of a choice in picking the movies that should be seen. Therefore, we land up getting our brains chewed every once in a while. Not that Anjaana Anjaani was a brain chewer. But it was only as good as the trailer. That I was seeing a 1050 show after a decent RomCom (Going the distance) didn’t quite help the cause of Sid Anand and company.


Arjun (Ranbir Kapoor) is a successful stock market broker (I can only assume coz I landed up a minute late into the movie) who is known for playing the high risk high gain game. But when the market crashes, he does too. Unbeknownst to his partners, he has already taken loans of over $12 million from the market. His partners were under the impression that it was only a million or thereabouts per head. Obviously they are up shit creek right now and have no clue how to pay the bank. Not to mention that their beautiful partnership is no longer beautiful. And how can I forget to mention that it is in times like these that your partners remind you about how self centred you have been all your life.

Nevertheless, a distraught Arjun decides to commit suicide by jumping of the George Washington Bridge - oops… did I forget to mention that the movie was set in the US. I thought you guys would have figured that out by now considering that I we can barely remember when was the last time a movie was set in India. Nevertheless, lets come back to the story. So our hero is going through the convoluted process of deciding whether to commit suicide or not and really boring the shit out of the audience when like a breath of fresh air, Kiara (Priyanka Chopra) enters the scene with her bottle of Vodka. But wait a minute. Our happiness on seeing Piggy Chops is short lived coz she is also here to kill herself. As such neither of them land up doing what they were there for. The cops come in to disperse the situation. Arjun throws himself in front of a car. Injures himself badly but doesn’t die. Kiara falls off the bridge – onto the road mind you – and twists her neck.

Both of them now find themselves in hospital and make a run for it together. They reach Kiara’s place where a guide book for “What not to do when you are attempting suicide” is being published. After several ridiculous attempts to end their life fail, they say it’s a sign to not kill themselves. So they decide to set a date for the event. I mean how morbid can it get. But morbid is what you have to live with here for the next few days (in movie days that is) till midnight on the 31st December 2010 – how poetic – which is the date set by our protagonists for the auspicious activity of moving into the other world.

I wouldn’t say you would watch Anjaana Anjaani at your own risk coz it is not really that pathetic. There are some saving graces such as the music. Vishal Shekhar belts out some peppy numbers and some softer ones too. There is a typical mélange that you have come to associate with Vishal Shekhar. One kind of knows what to expect. The direction however comes a cropper. I would have expected Sid Anand to come up with a better attempt. Although the trend line has been going south. There was some hope he had generated initially with Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste. But Bachna Ae Haseeno and then Ta Ra Rum Pum and not Anjaana Anjaani. Sid Anand – please take the curve upwards or you will definitely become Anjaana (such a corny line but had to put it in there :P)

Ranbir Kapoor flatters to deceive. Piggy Chops is below her best. And will someone please help me understand what qualifies that twit Zayed Khan to be an actor?????? Is there a paucity of reasonable actors in the market who are willing to play the role of a boyfriend who cheats on his girl who also happens to be the lead actress. The only reasonable performance from the support cast was from former Miss India USA – Pooja Kumar (Peshto). Probably coz her screen time was all of 2 minutes and 43.89 seconds. Surely she could lose the excess make up. She is good looking even without it. A bit of polishing in the acting department wouldn’t hurt either.

Disappointing as expected. AA gets 3 on 10 from my end. The review goes on air as I am listening to “Tere Aane Se” – as I said – the music is very nice indeed.

Going the Distance

Meet Garret (Justin Long) is your atypical man in his late twenties (presumably). His “boy next door” image ensures more often than not that he has company. He is not averse to being in a relationship but he just doesn’t know how to sustain it in the long term. He has no clue on the expectations of the fairer sex when in a relationship. To quote, “I didn’t get you a birthday gift coz you asked me not to”. Duh!!! Even I know what THAT means. After every such instance he finds himself at the local bar with his best friends Dan (Charlie Day) & Box (Jason Sudeikis) wondering what could have possibly gone wrong. Not getting drunk. Just getting his mind off. And if he is really off his mind then he indulges himself in a game of Centipede.


Meet Erin (Drew Barrymore) is 31 years old. Very Girl Next Door. She is studying journalism @ Stanford and stays in San Francisco with her sister Corrine (Christina Applegate). She is completing her internship in New York. A few twists of fate in her life led her to drop out of school and follow a guy all over the place (with no references to which places). But over time, realization dawns on her and she eventually gets dumped. She picks up the pieces and gets back to completing her grad school. She is an extremely basic woman with almost little or no hang ups – a man’s dream come true and decent looking to boot. And she is brilliant @ Centipede.

And if u haven’t made the connect yet, that’s how Garret and Erin meet. @ the local bar in New York over a game of Centipede. Garret interrupts her game rudely to say the least. However, when he realizes that she is “ËRL” – the highest scorer on that very Centipede machine – he is quick to apologise and offers to buy her a drink. Well cupid strikes. And quite quickly at that. Before you know it the two are getting really really REALLY close. This despite knowing that the affair can last for not more than 6 weeks coz Erin will be headed back to SFO after her internship. At the end of 6 weeks, Garret drops Erin off to the airport. Both of them have pretty much resigned to the end of the affair. However, they are unable to go through with it and decide to give the long distance relationship a really good shot.

Directed by Nanette Burstein (not known for much per se), GTD is quite funny in parts and very entertaining in the first half. It gets a but mushy towards the 2nd half where our cute couple are struggling to maintain the excitement in the Long Distance Relationship. But it doesn’t drag all over the place. The direction is quite decent. Both Drew Barrymore and Justin Long pull off an above average performance. The support cast is also quite entertaining. Not to mention that there have not been too many movies made on the topic. So definitely a different Rom Com positively. Worth a dekko and even an DVD rental or buy if you haven’t been able to catch up with it on the big screen. 5 on 10 for this one.

Stranger Than Fiction

“As Harold took a bite of Bavarian Sugar Cookie he finally felt as if everything was going to be OK. Sometimes when we lose ourselves in fear & despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness & tragedy – we can thank god for Bavaraian sugar cookies. And fortunately when there aren’t any cookies we can find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin or a kind and loving gesture or a subtle encouragement or a loving embrace or an offer of comfort. Not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish and soft spoken secrets and Fender Stratocasters and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things – the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties – which we assume only accessorise our days are for a much larger and nobler cause - They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange. But I also know that it so happens to be true” – Zack Helm, Writer


Quite a long way to start off a review. I know. But definitely a line worth sharing. Written by Zack Helm, Stranger than Fiction, is about Harold Crick – someone who would auto qualify for the “World’s Biggest Nerd” contest. He may in fact go on to win it. What with his capabilities of being able to multiply 11503 x 3486 on the fly (don’t hold me to the numbers please)? He is single. He counts the number of strokes he takes to brush his teeth every morning after he wakes up at exactly 7:13 am. He goes through the same routine diligently every morning before he gets to work by the 8:17 Metropolitan Bus. Now wait a minute – the worst is yet to come – He works for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS for short) – HE IS A TAXMAN!!!!!

All is seemingly fine in Harold’s life until one Wednesday morning he begins to hear a voice in his head describing everything that he is doing. A first Harold ignores it but after a few minutes it begins to get really irritating. Nothing that he does seems to get the voice out of his head. His structured days start going for a toss. As the constant narration gets to him, he has no other option but to see a shrink, Dr. Mittag Leffer (Linda Hunt) who diagnoses it as schizophrenia. Harold would hear nothing of it. His constant denial gets the good doc to guide him to Prof. Jules Hilbert who is an expert in Literature – since the Voice (Emma Thompson) is extremely eloquent and speaks in proper English. Adding to the spice, in a manner of speaking, is Ms. Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhall) who is a rebellious civilian who has not paid part of her taxes the previous year due to her objection to the money in which the taxes are being used.

The essence of STF is captured in the first paragraph of this review. However the core twist in the tale, the USP has to be seen to be believed. It is truly Stranger than Fiction to say the least. Zack Helm’s writing is superb and the narration is extremely tight. One may say that it gets slow in parts but that was absolutely required. Anything faster and we could have lost the plot. I have never been a huge fan of Will Ferrel but he has come up with an outstanding performance here. Probably his best to date. He is supported ably by Maggie Gyllenhaal who is definitely not THE most talented actress these days but can definitely act. Add to the fact that she looks normal which gets her to look just that bit sexier as well. I like her.

Add to this the extremely super talented troika of Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman. Emma plays the role of the voice and that of acclaimed author, Karen Eiffel who is stuck with the task of finishing her novel but is unable to do so since the lead character has to be killed. She is as always effortless in her acting. And that voice – so calm and composed and soothing to the ears. Rounding off the acting talent on display with Queen Latifah who plays Karen’s assistant and the oh so 60+ but yet cool and confident and still baby faced Dustin Hoffman. Marc Forster is indeed extremely lucky to have worked on a concept like STF with the cast that was on offer. STF is indeed a “different” movie – but even different movies have to be well executed. Very clearly a 7 on 10 minimum.