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Movie Review : Ra One

Posted on October 28, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Sci-fi
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 36 minutes
Director : Anubhav Sinha
Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, Arjun Rampal, Tom Wu, Satish Shah, Shahana Goswami, Dalip Tahil
Kid rating : PG

RA ONE : SCI-FI MASALA !

Shekhar Subramanium (SRK), a software developer , works for a game developer. He lives in London with Punjabi wife Soniya (Kareena) and son Prateek.To please his son, Shekhar develops Ra-One, or Random Access Version 1.0, a virtual reality game where Ra-One is the villain who cannot be beaten. Ra-One is imbued with artificial intelligence – it is a program that can learn. The good guy is the game is G-One, but he/it is less powerful. In a trial test of the game, Prateek beats Ra-One, and the program humiliated, manages to break out of the virtual world to pursue Prateek in the real world . . .

First, the good : This is probably the best sci-fi Indian film to-date. Sci-fi stunts in the first-half of the film (a dream sequence featuring a long-haired SRK fighting the three Lee sisters : Iski, Uski, Sabki) reminded me of “The House of Flying Daggers” and the later ones weren’t bad either. Not quite Matrix quality, but good, especially the slo-mo pixelization. The virtual reality sequences, sets and costumes were pretty good. There are also some excellent chase sequences like the one where Ra-One follows Prateek and Mom on foot in crowded traffic. Arjun Rampal, who’s lost a lot of weight made a menacing villain. Kareena is adequately flighty (and that’s good), and the film has enough masala to keep everyone entertained.

The bad : The story is ham-handed and sorta reminded me of Schwazanegger’s Terminator series with the mother-son angle. The characters prop up the story, and are themselves card-board-ish, and flat. Direction is average (and I’m being kind) and the screenplay is choppy. Shahrukh in a super-hero costume and a Mohawk is still Shahrukh; he still has the twitchy eyebrows and the dance-y moves, and when he kicks, his kicks go only ye-high. Middle-age is showing. Plus he looks a little goofy in super-hero mode, trying to get into the “super zone” and not quite getting there – I couldn’t resist a smirk every-time the camera tried to take in all his G-One-y glory. Then there were SRK’s wigs – and they were unspeakably ugly. The curly-haired one transformed SRK into a nerd having a bad hair day, and the flowing lock thingy made him look like a King Ashoka with a Fabio hangup.

While I can go on (and on) about why this film is not what it could have been, I have to admit I got what I expected – a decent desi masala entertainer. For starters, Anubhav Sinha is not quite the crème de la crème of desi directors; his earlier ventures include “Cash” and “Dus”, so I wasn’t expecting earth-shaking cinema. Secondly this is a sci-fi flick, which means you can suspend belief (scientific and non)without feeling guilty. And good thing too, because there is not a shred of realism anywhere in this film – it’s fantasy all the way.

As I said before this film is like some giant Bollywood-ian stew : there is emotion, drama, (lowbrow and borderline vulgar) humor, romance, there is Tamil and Rajnikanth to keep the Southerners happy, and Karva Chauth to appease the Northeners, and virtual reality gaming and a child artiste to keep the younger set interested. It’s like SRK and team brainstormed the precise mix of masala to pull in every potential patron, and then built up a storyline to fit everything in. It is colorful and out there, but it’s not very pretty or polished.

Sci-fi doesn’t quite mix with all the other elements of a desi masala entertainer. A better director could have taken it deeper and developed the story and it’s characters in sync. , and I await the day when someone more talented will attempt it. For now, there is Ra-One.

Yes, it is paisa-vasool; I was decently entertained and my kids loved it.

Kidwise : Rated PG because of some scary (to kids) graphics, violence and vulgarity.

Posted in 2011 | 3 Comments

My Interview on Women’s Web

Posted on October 18, 2011 by amodini

And here’s the link!

Posted in 2011 | Comments Off

Movie Review : The Ides of March

Posted on October 13, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 1 hour 38 minutes
Director : George Clooney
Cast : Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright

Directed by George Clooney, this political drama is based on Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North”. In it, Clooney stars as Governor Mike Morris fighting the Presidential Primary in Ohio. Clooney’s political star is on the rise and Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) Morris’s Press Secretary works in tandem with Campaign Manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to keep it so. Opposing Morris in the state’s primaries is Senator Pullman aided by his wily campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti).

Meyers is an idealistic young campaigner in the cynical, jaded world of politics, but he is so because he truly believes in his man. And he says as much in the beginning of the film; Morris as President will be good for the country. Morris indeed is a liberal Democrat, avowing equality for all, standing up for the weaker communities and women’s rights – an incorruptible man who will not make compromises to further his cause.

But, you know that thing they say about feet of clay . . .

This was an interesting film. It is told from Meyer’s point of view, and he is the character we follow around in the narrative. Ryan Gosling is superb as Meyers, smart and swaggering, assured in the righteousness of his cause. As the film progresses, we get to see him vulnerable and incredulous, his character slowly developing an edge. Clooney himself plays a much lesser role as Morris, but his charisma fills the screen. Clooney as President? I think we’d all vote for him :-).

The film takes you into the hubbub of the political campaign, the strategizing and the slogging, the political maneuvering and the lobbying that go into creating a leader palatable to the American public. This wasn’t your average bad guy-good guy film, but as a viewer you’re involved anyway. Your sympathies lie with Meyers and as you watch him sink into a morass not-of-his-own-making, you sink a little too.

This plot-heavy film is well-paced and smartly directed. An engrossing watch, I highly recommend this one.

Posted in 2011, drama, english, hollywood, recommended, thriller | 1 Comment

The remixed “Khoya Khoya Chand”

Posted on October 7, 2011 by amodini

I talked about this song in my review of Shaitan, and here it is, beautifully done (although it is rated R just like the film). The song was remixed by Mikey McCleary and sung by Suman Shridhar. It’s a pity that it isn’t included with the soundtrack of the film:

For comparison sake, here’s the original, sung by Mod. Rafi. The film was “Kaala Bazaar”(1960) and starred dashing Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman :

Posted in 2011 | 1 Comment

Movie Review : Mausam

Posted on October 3, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B005TFFLSM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : 3/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 45 minutes
Director : Pankaj Kapoor
Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Anupam Kher, Manoj Pahwa, Aditi Sharma
Kid rating : PG

MAUSAM : THE OVER-LONG TALE OF LOST LOVE !

Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Just when it looks like it might be happily ever after, she ups and leaves. No explanations provided. As their paths cross 7 years later, and it looks like they may yet re-unite, another tragedy befalls them. Will this star-crossed love ever have a happy ending ?

That’s the story in a nutshell – true love cast asunder because of this evil world! This is a true-blue romance, more blue than true, but we’ll get to that in a moment. The film is languorously directed, with veteran actor-turned-director Pankaj Kapoor taking his time to develop the romance, filling us in on the characters, their setting and their quirks. Mausam starts off well enough, but starts to go downhill post-intermission when Kapoor foists upon us his version of pyar – old-fashioned, and seriously chronologically challenged.

Shahid plays Harry or Harinder Singh, the self-assured, Punjabi brat from village Mallukot, who falls in love with village newcomer Aayat (Sonam). Kashmiri Aayat is seeking temporary refuge with bua (father’s sister) Fatima (Supriya Pathak), as her father attempts to relocate out of Kashmir. For both Harry and Aayat, this is the love of a life-time, the kinds that legends are made of.

So yes, it is a simmering love-fest, coy glances, lazy smiles, stolen glances; in short, the works. And it works well as a romantic film, except . . . when it tries to do more than just romance. The film’s initial love-story, pre-intermission, is situated in the early 1990’s. Post-intermission, the film throws in elements of patriotism and heroism, and the romance is pushed onto the back-burner.

This is a clean film and boasts some great acting and sizzling star-power. All that potential however comes to naught as the film meanders all over the place. It is over-long, and could have been cut by at least an hour – where was the editor ? There’s lots of screen-time given to unimportant details like the entire Air-Force Mission, and the film plods along, dragging it’s feet. Then there’s the hero Harry, who’s a little callous and a bit of a cad – not very endearing. Plus am a little disappointed that director Pankaj Kapoor, with his NSD sensibilities, cannot rise above the obvious clichés (the child-rescue sequence at the finale), and the poor, lets-poke-fun-at-the-fat-guy, humor.

Still, the biggest flaw in the film is the (lack of) logic; it creates a mountain out of a molehill. The separated lovers need not really be separated, moi thinks. Love is so much more palatable with a little common sense; one wonders why the madly-in-love pair, when separated, aren’t a bit more persistent with the phone calling. This could have worked had it been situated pre-partition, when we could have railed at this heartless, unconnected world wreaking havoc on our innocent hero-heroine. But having lived through the 1990s in India, I have to say that the 1990s were not the dark ages; there were phones even in small towns, and the internet was making communication easier. So to believe that Aayat leaves Harry high and dry, and doesn’t attempt to connect with her one, true love for seven years is stretching it a bit too far.

There is something vastly appealing about the flame of love burning true year, after year. To know that there is that one special person for whom you could wait a lifetime; that’s the juice of pure romance, around which unforgettable love-legends are born. Pankaj Kapoor taps this emotion well, and gives some us very nicely done romantic sequences. How I wish that he had stuck to this one genre, instead of making this film a melting-pot of all others!

This is decent as a dvd watch; only keep the fast-forward button handy.

Kidwise : Mostly clean, one lip-lock and some images of communal violence (Godhra etc.)

Posted in 2011, bollywood, family-friendly, rating-PG, romance, watchable | Comments Off

Movie Review : Singham

Posted on September 23, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 3.8/5
Genre : Action
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 18 minutes
Director : Rohit Shetty
Cast : Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj, Kajal Aggarwal, Goving Namdeo, Sonali Kulkarni, Ashok Saraf, Sachin Khedekar
Kid rating : PG-13

SINGHAM : WELL-MUSCLED !

I’d heard so many mixed reviews of this film before I saw it, that I was a bit wary of actually seeing it! But see it I did. And I’m sort of surprised, because I liked it. Yes, it is Southie inspired, so it’s over the top with the stunts and the emotion, and it’s overwrought characters seems to live in the Himmatwala era (Kajal’s churidaars reminded me of the ones Sridevi so often sported in her movies) – a throwback to the 80s. Therefore there is some foolishness, but it is mostly relegated to the first half of the film. The second half is cinematic meat – fairly tight and action packed.

Bajirao Singham (Devgan) is a small town policeman, ensconced in his near-Goa hometown where he ensures that all it’s denizens live peacefully. Honest Singham gets into hot water when he refuses to kowtow to slimy Goan politician Jaykant Shikre. Shikre, affronted and eager to get revenge, arranges for Singham to be transferred to Goa, where the police and the bureaucracy are in his pocket. Singham moves to Goa, which is conveniently where his lady-love Kavya Bhosle(Kajal Agarwal) resides. Romance might be blooming on the home front, but on the work front all is rocky. Shikre is a formidable enemy and will stop at nothing to crush Singham. With the deck stacked against him, will our hero be able to fight back ?

This film has characters which are big and bigger. Singham (the name means lion) is all righteous muscle and brawn, displaying a ferociousness not usually seen in Hind film heroes. Ajay gives the film it’s rabid appeal, because he appears powerful and unstoppable. He is fitter than ever – all biceps and chest – and when he beats up ten goondas at once, you kind of believe it. His is an unsmiling character, and since Devgun has the best scowl in all of Bollywood (yes, it can fell trees!) , this character suits him just fine. Singham is a taciturn hero but when he does speak, it is to deliver meaty, over-the-top filmi dialogues to make the bad guys quaver. The bad guy Shikre doesn‘t quaver quite so easily. Played impeccably by Prakash Raj, Shikre is egoistical, evil and oh-so-wily. Both Devgn and Prakash Raj dominate screen space, especially with the camera angles that make them into towering figures. This film belongs to both of them.

The rest of the cast was adequately supportive. Kajal Agarwal is tall and sweet and stuck with an inconsistent character; Kavya seems to vacillate between I-have-no-brain-to-my-name petulant and eminently sensible, with intermittent bouts of being love-smitten. Sonali Kulkari has a small but pivotal role as the widow of an honest police officer Rakesh Kadam (Sudhanshu Pandey). Veterans like Govind Namdeo, Ashok Saraf and Sachin Khedekar have small roles but delineate them with the required overwrought-ness.

The film is an action flick – first and foremost. Yes, there is romance and slapstick, but that’s in the background, mostly frivolous and done with pre-intermission. The action sequences on the other hand, use a lot of slow motion for impact and are almost Matrix-like in their quality, even when they are outlandish and defy the laws of physics. A lot of people have compared this film to Dabangg. Yes, the storyline is similar – good cop against evil villain(s), but this film is differentiated from the rest by the character of Singham – a policeman who is serious, scrupulous and not as given to whimsy/comedy as Chulbul Pandey.

This film may not win awards for realism, but is fairly good paisa-vasool; masala at it’s bombastic best.

Kidwise : Yes, there is cringe-worthy stuff in here, but tolerable enough for the 12+ crowd; I rate it PG-13.

Posted in 2011, action, bollywood, comedy, crime, drama, rating-PG13, romance, watchable | 4 Comments

Movie Preview : Ra. One

Posted on September 16, 2011 by amodini

Ra One Theatrical Poster

Here’s a preview from Shahrukh Khan’s next home production Ra. One – a Hindi science fiction movie set to be released in 3D (and 2D). Sci-fi in Bollywood is oh-so-rare; remember the last one ? Ra.One stars SRK as Shekhar Subramaniam/G.One a superhero, with what looks like, from the Theatrical Release Poster, an energy source in his chest. Courtesy Wikipedia, here’s what Sharukh had to say about this superhero flick :

“Ra.One is the modern, new age technology version of our mythological “Raavan”, who was a mixture of ten different evil characters. I am essaying the role of G.One or better say Jeevan, a superhero who saves mankind from Ra.One’s torment. Through this film, I want to prove that Indian superheroes can also be as cool as the international ones.”

I don’t really care whether G.One is cooler than other super-heroes; all I want is for this film to be the full-on entertaining blockbuster of 2011 (yes, we haven’t had one yet!). Well, we’ll see, come October 26th. Meanwhile here’s a song “Chammak Challo” from the film, featuring Akon’s music. Notice the southie influences in the dance movements. Also hard to tell that the lyrics are in English in the beginning, unless you listen carefully.

Posted in 2011, action, bollywood, Previews, sci-fi | 4 Comments

Movie Review : Mere Brother ki Dulhan

Posted on September 10, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B005YA1IHA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : 2/5
Genre : All-in-one
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Director : Ali Abbas Zafar
Cast : Katrina Khan, Imran Khan, Ali Zafar, Parkshit Sahni, Kanwaljeet Singh
Kid rating : PG

MERE BROTHER KI DULHAN : BIG AND BORING!

By now Yash Raj Films has a reputation. I go see Yash Raj productions because I think that they will be better than they appear to be. Sometimes they are, and most of the time they aren’t. This film falls into the latter category. The famous production house will have to seriously up it’s game and stop making movies which showcase the unremarkable. Old stuff in old bottle=stinker. Get it, YRF ?

The title says it all. He, our Kush Agnihotri (Imran) is in love with his brother-ki-hone-wali-biwi Dimple (Katrina). Yes, he has found his NRI brother Luv (Ali Zafar) a bride, since the bhaisaheb has given him carte blanche on selecting a nice Indian girl. He’s sick of the London types he says, after a particularly bad breakup with British born girlfriend Piali Patel (Tara D’Souza). Little brother takes the given task very seriously and sets to with gusto. After meeting spectacularly stereotypical Indian women, Kush chances upon Dimple – a flamboyant rebel who’s toned down enough to want an arranged marriage. Great family, gorgeous, good-hearted girl – what more does one want for a brother? The match is finalized.

While spending time together in preparations for the wedding, both Kush and Dimple realize that without each other, they are a bit lost. Ergo, they must be in love. Of course, by now Dimple and Luv are engaged, the wedding date and venue set, and cards printed. Plus, think of the badnaami – hai, hai ! What to do ? There isn’t a way to break up a wedding gracefully and opt for the other brother instead, is there ?

I am not gaga over this film. I am not even remotely happy with it. It was inconsistent, slap-dash, and more than a little silly. The characters were iffy, and badly sketched out. The story was immature and probably the product of a juvenile young mind not past it’s 17th year. The screenplay was choppy, direction sparse and dialogues cringe-worthy. The songs are un-hummable, and lyrics wanna-be-cool. Here’s a sample : “kaisa yeh ishq hai, ajab sa risk hai”. Yes, yes, I know, such poetry; it brings me to my knees.

Plus, the acting was terrible; I had a hard time deciding which of the three main characters was the worst actor. Imran cannot emote to save his life. Ali Zafar didn’t fit into his role and was awkward and artificial. And Katrina has dramatic skills like I have a green thumb. Plants that I attempt to ministrate to, take one look at me and die.

Like a YRF film this movie too had lots of color, interesting locales, good cinematography and a slick finish. What it didn’t have was the oomph required to make it into even a decently watchable film. A waste of my time, let it not eat into any of yours.

Kidwise : This is a fairly clean movie. There are dance numbers featuring women in little clothing, couples getting almost kissy-kissy, but no overt vulgarity or double entendres. This film is probably OK for the 10+ crowd – I give it a PG rating.

Posted in 2011, all-in-one, bollywood, rating-PG, romance | Comments Off

The Reel-Life Bloggers Contest

Posted on September 9, 2011 by amodini

Harken, Blogging Folk!

Here is a contest to gladden the Ardent Movie Lover’s Soul! ReviewGang (where I am an Editor) and Wogma have announced the Reel-Life Bloggers Contest where you, as Blogger, are invited to write about three of your favorite films. Sound interesting ? Well, then get to it! I look forward to reading all the Winning Entries.

Here are details.

Posted in 2011 | Comments Off

Movie Review : That Girl in Yellow Boots

Posted on September 5, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B005GTOE8E” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : 2.5/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Anurag Kashyap
Cast : Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Devaiah, Puja Saroop, Prashant Prakash
Kid rating : A, R

THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS : GRITTY!

That girl is Kalki Koechlin playing Ruth, an British-Indian girl slumming it out in India in the hopes of locating her missing father. Ruth lives in a small, seedy Mumbai flat, and earns a living working in a “spa” giving massages and more. Over time, she has learned to be street-smart, but still regains her core of goodness, even when surrounded by users like her druggie boyfriend. Life has a tedium – she works, she goes home. Intermittently she gets leads about her father, but they go nowhere. And so it goes, until she actually locates his address . . .

Propelled by the quality of Kashyap’s earlier work, I went to see the film at the theatre, where it was surprisingly running – most low-budget “indie” type Hindi films will not even make it to the theater here. There were four people in the hall, including the husband and I. (Everyone else I assume, was watching Bodyguard.) The film was shot well, and told it’s story, such as it was, with panache. The characters are etched in great detail, and Kashyap takes care to present them from different angles creating them as fully-fleshed, real people. Kalki is a strong actress, balancing out Ruth’s innocence and street-smarts nicely. Gulshan Devaiya, as Kannadiga gangster Chitiappa, and Puja Swaroop as the massage parlor’s garrulous receptionist are wonderful.

The film didn’t work for me though because I fail to see what it tried to achieve. It wasn’t feel-good. It was sad and depressing, and had elements of perversity and sordidness. A sad story without an end goal. I wasn’t emotionally attached or affected, and there weren’t any take-aways. Koechlin’s character, Ruth, was compelling, but loses strength, because she isn’t a protagonist caught between a rock and a hard place, but a young adult with serious self-esteem issues. Not that it makes the situation any better – it’s still dismal, perverted and distressing; it just makes it hard to empathize with her. You know that her view of reality is warped by the deficiency within, so you pity her, but are not invested in her life.

Knowing Anurag Kashyap’s penchant for gritty reality, you know that there is no silver lining to this story. And as the film trundles towards the in-escapable truth, and as Ruth realises, what you have as a viewer long foreseen, the film comes to a sad, sordid end.

Unless you are in the mood for some self-flagellation, I cannot recommend this one.

Posted in 2011, bollywood, drama | 1 Comment