JohnDay

The posters claim, “An Edge of the seat thriller from the makers of A Wednesday”.  The similarity with A Wednesday unfortunately ends with the fact that Naseeruddin Shah was part of both movies.  The premise and story of JohnDay is significantly different from that of A Wednesday.

Talaash

Nearly 2 years since Aamir Khan’s last movie. January 2011 to be precise with Dhobi Ghat aka Mumbai Diaries. So it wasn’t too surprising to see that the paid preview shows @ Cinemax Versova were kept as the world’s best secret. Or is it just me? That I was too lazy to actually look it up is probably the reason I missed out on a show on the 0th day . Made a mental note to myself to ensure that I am more active (fat chance)

Honestly I have been cautiously optimistic about Talaash since the first trailer. This weird feeling that told me that whatever exciting was present in the movie has already been put into the trailer has been hounding me for a bit. Thank God it doesn’t fall under that genre and Reema Kagti has not really followed on the footsteps of her best friend – Zoya Akhtar. Also quite certain that Reema credited Zoya with the story along with herself because of the friendship and nothing else.

Talaash follows the life of Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) aka Sury (imagine being called Surjan your entire life =))) who is married to Roshni (Rani Mukerji). He is a Senior Inspector who is in charge of an area in Mumbai where the ill fated Sea Face Road lies. A few accidents have occurred over the past few years which have been unsolved. And on a fateful day, a well known Bollywood star – Armaan Kapoor (Vivan Bhatena) decides the take the aerial route into the Arabian Sea. Sury is called to investigate.

Along the way, Sury’s back story comes to life that involves a fateful accident where he loses his first born 8 year old. Roshni is to date recovering from it. Sury finds his work as a release out of it. A part of the story that need not have been stretched to the extent that it eventually has been honestly. And as he goes about digging dirt, he bumps into Rosy (Kareena Kapoor) who starts helping him out by dropping clues. All of them, at times when Sury has all but given hope of solving the case.

While I have made light of the story for purposes of easier reading, Talaash is a very intense story directed by someone who is only 1 movie old but has a long way to go in Indian Cinema. Reema Kagti gave me a few reasons to dislike Talaash. The stretched back story of Sury and Roshni’s son & the séance (planchet) scenes with Frenny (Shernaz Patel) were over the top. Kagti could have also cut a bit on Rani’s midriff and her impeccably manicured nails – especially when everything else about the look of Rani was that of a distraught housewife and was done well.

Talaash does get a tad predictable in several places but on the whole Kagti manages to hold the suspense thriller well enough for over 2 hours. The seasoned movie goes will take about 10 minutes to figure out the bad guy and about an hour to figure out the suspense element.

As regards the acting on display, Rani has very little to do. Aamir, as always has a commanding presence on screen despite his limited repertoire of 5 expressions. Nawazzuddin Siddiqui is brilliant as always. And for some reason, Kareena’s best performances come in the role of a prostitute (Chameli I hear was her last best one). The support cast holds its own. Ram Sampath’s music is perfect for the movie. This one should have been a Diwali release. 7.5 on 10. Very close to GoW but not as good is my final verdict.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi860529689/

RockStar

Away…. Beyond all the concepts of wrong doing and right doing
There is a field….. I will meet you there – Rumi

The movie ends with this couplet. And probably sums up the entire story quite aptly. The story of Janardhan Jhankhad (Ranchhod Das Chanchad has started a trend with Bollywood which will be here for a long time to come) – JJ for short is a sadak chhap Dilli ka Chhokra (a roadside romeo) from Pitam Pura. He has known only the guitar from the time that he was born probably. But as the lyrics state is, “Jo Bhi Mein, Kehna Chahoon, Barbaad kare, Alfaaz Mere” (Whatever I would like to say are ruined by the words I use). There is no X factor. And as his mentor, Khatana (Kumud Mishra) tells him – he can never be a star because he has never seen tough times. Never been hurt in love. Never fallen seriously ill. Still has his parents and family. So JJ decides to make an attempt to fall in love with Heer Koul (Nargis Fakhri) from St. Stephens. Violent rejection followed by a slight softening of the stand followed by a friendship which never seems to turn into love for a long time. But after Heer gets married, JJ or Jordan as he is known now finds his groove and turns into a Rockstar.

Something missing in the story? Maybe I have summarized it in a matter of fact way. But that’s not it. There is that little something that has me a bit muddled in my head. Because I left the hall feeling a little let down and yet reasonably satisfied with my experience. Rockstar is definitely not giving Shaitan a race for the best movie of the year in my books. But it is not that feeling that has me confused. I will definitely pen it down in the future.

The editing is slick from Aarti Bajaj. Just the right cuts at the right times and piecing it together to give a collage that just comes together very well. Rahman’s music along with Irshad Kamil’s lyric is superb. One of his better pieces of work. Most importantly, fits very well with the movie and comes out as a blend of a soundtrack and typical Bollywood singing. The costumes are real and very appropriate. Jordan’s costumes will definitely start a fresh trend in dressing and facial hair. Some consistency errors but only if you have a good eye. The camera work is solid again which ensures that Ranbir’s fingers on the guitar are not visible (mostly) when he may not be playing the right notes.

Imtiaz Ali keeps getting better with his direction in each movie. Rock Star is his 4th movie and he experiments this time by varying the pace from the exceptionally fast moments to the snail paced sequences. And just as you are about to give up, he ups the ante and gets you back into the movie. Ranbir Kapoor continues to be intense and committed on screen (so what if he isn’t with his women). And the support cast has performed really well with Kumud and Piyush Mishra bordering on outstanding.

The only thing I could genuinely find fault with is the acting of the speculated next Kapoor Khandaan Ki Bahu (Daughter-in-law of the first family of Bollywood). It was Nargis Fakhri who probably single handedly took away the intensity of the movie and probably the only reason I will give Rock Star less than the 7 it could have got. Nargis dear – New York calling back I guess.  We will miss you at least for your gorgeous looks. But don’t worry – Ranbir will be with you where ever you decide to go – the chemistry between the 2 of you is so thick, you will need an axe to chop through.

All in all, RockStar is a well made movie and worth a dekko if not 2. I give it 6.5 on 10. Shaitan’s place as the best movie of the year from Bollywood is firmly secure. Don’t see anything else coming up in the next few weeks to displace it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn1jx_JUpi0

I Am Afia Megha Abhimanyu Omar

I Am Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu, Omar. Not the name of one movie. Not the names of the lead characters either. But 4 different stories. Each dealing with a topic that is extremely sensitive and has been portrayed quite boldly on screen. 4 short stories with a minor extent of intertwining through the appearance of one stray character somewhere in the story who is the lead character in the other. I Am is directed by Onir, who seems to have finally got his sense of direction in place. He seemed to have lost interest in film making with Bas Ek Pal and I was dead certain that he has lost his ability to direct with Sorry Bhai!!! It would seem that our man, who coincidentally was born in Bhutan, seems to have found his groove. Now, I haven’t seen My Brother… Nikhil yet and therefore am ill equipped to comment on whether he had it in the first place. But with I Am, Onir seems to have pushed back his detractors just that little bit. In a little under 100 minutes he has been ably supported with screenplay by Urmi Juvekar of “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” fame and Merle Kroeger.


The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.

Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.

Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.

Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.

The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.

In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.

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

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.

Lamhaa – The Untold Story of Kashmir

“The biggest casualty of war is the innocent” – This statement kind of personifies the intent that the director had to give “The Untold Story of Kashmir”. But neither does he give us something that was untold but also keeps us waiting for the essence of the message to come through strongly. Yes there is an attempt to get the message across but Rahul Dholakia comes up short. Surprising that this is the same guy who gave us Parzania which was far more hard hitting and true to reality.


Mohd Hussain Rauf (Yashpal Sharma) is an undercover ISI officer in India who works closely with Brigadier Sharma from the Indian Army known to be a corrupt guy but no proof for the same. The key to their success is Samar Singh a power broker.

In an attempt to break their nexus, Col. Kapoor (Vipin Sharma) calls for Vikram Sabharwal (an extremely ragged 50 year old Sanjay Dutt )– an agent from outside i.e. outside of Kashmir returning after 18 yrs. Then current year is shown as 2009 and past is shown as 1989. Then Dear Mr. Dholakia, mathematically it is 20 right? Anyways… about 20 years back is when the leader of Azaad Kashmir movement Mir Owais Ansari was shot dead following which almost every male Kashmiri for interrogation. Thousands of such Kashmiri men disappeared sometime in the early 90s. Kashmiri Pandits left kashmir and no one tried to stop them. People had taken to arms. Sabharwal now makes his way back into the valley undercover as Gul Jahangir. No one knows about him and what do you know… no one can find out either 

People for Kashmiri Freedom is an organization led by Haji Syed Shah (Anupam Kher) who took over the reins after Mir Ansari’s death and adopted his only daughter Aziza Ansari (Bipasha Basu). Aziza is romantically involved with Aatif (Kunal Kapoor), one of the key members of PKF but is expelled due to his aversion to arms and wanting to make a difference without involving external militant entities like the Lashkar e Toiba. Aziza also is a key member of the Fatima Squad, a bunch of burkha clad women who like to take action against any societal atrocities.

Aziza starts rubbing the seniors @ PKF the wrong way when she inadvertently uncovers a sex scandal that involves someone senior from the PKF

Things take a slightly nasty turn when a 17th attempt is made on his life. But this time under the watchful eyes of Jahangir who smells a fish and takes to investigating it. Haji’s right hand man is Pervez (Yuri Suri) who seems to be like the fish. He poses as Yusuf Khan (now I am going to lose track of who he is… Sabharwal, Jahangir or Khan) and recovers a CCTV footage of the blast (wonder how it survived the blast in the first place). His investigations slowly lead him to Anwar who is the guy responsible for the blast and then eventually to the fish (Pervez… in case u have lost track of the review by now). But Sabharwal’s mission has just started. There is more to come and he needs to figure out what the root cause of the problem is.

There are several attempts from the director to try and paint a sentimental picture. He tries to do that through a village cornily called Dardpura which has half widows (who don’t know whether their husbands are alive or dead). Through a scene where Sabharwal wakes up to see a kid play with bullet shells instead o marbles. Through a bunch of kids screaming “Ai Ai Lashkar Ai - Bharat Teri Maut Ai”. But none of these scenes have any amount of intensity in them.

There are a whole host of corny dialogues – “God made Heaven. Man created Hell. This is the story of Kashmir” OR “Aakhon mein gussa har kashmiri ko virasat mein milta hai” OR “Aaj hamari identity I card banke reh gayi hai”. Mr. Dholakia – I refuse to believe that you made Parzania.

Several editing flaws and consistency flaws and sound editing flaws dot the movie. I have no clue why Sanjay Dutt needs to have a swagger in a movie that is oriented around Kashmir. Completely gets the seriousness out of the movie. Bipasha speaking Urdu… well the lesser said about it the better. Kunal Kapoor does not have even a % of intensity that he showed in Rang De Basanti. Performances are insipid all around. Wouldn’t highly recommend Lamhaa. Its at best a 3 on 10 for just the effort of putting it together.