Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews - Part 62Amodini's Movie Reviews | Movie Reviews by Year, Genre and Rating

Movie Review : Don2

Posted on December 26, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 2.5/5
Genre : Action/Thriller
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 25 minutes
Director : Farhan Akhtar
Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra, Om Puri, Kunaal Kapoor, Nawab Shah, Aly Khan, Sahil Shroff
Kid rating : PG-13

I was king of worried that with all the build-up and hype that this film was getting, when it finally released, it would be a stinker. And alas, it is; 50% stinker and 50% snoozefest.

The story is nothing much to write about, another “intricate” caper where Don is trying to steal money printing plates from the DZB mint/bank. Once he has them, he thinks, he’ll be able to print tons of money, before the bank can get new plates and deprecate the old currency. To do this he first lands in jail in order to extricate his old enemy Vardhaan (Boman Irani), so that Vardhaan and Abdul Jabbar (Nawab Shah) can help him in this job. There is also expert hacker Sameer Ali (Kunal Kapoor) to deal with the bank’s computer controlled systems. Svelte beauty Ayesha (Lara Dutta) rounds off the gang. Of course, there’s no fun without the cops in pursuit, so there are Interpol officers Roma (Priyanka Chopra) and Vishal Malik (Om Puri) determined to catch Don and keep him in jail this time.

The film starts off with Don turning himself into Roma and Mallik in Malaysia, and extricating Vardhaan. The rest of the movie deals with the planning and execution of the heist. The first half kind of dragged – I dozed a little right before the intermission. The only thing to do then was to get an antidote – samosas+chutney did the trick; I was awake again! (And here a note about desi theatres in the US – their sound systems suck and the screen is so dark, that I’m glad I’ve remembered to bring my glasses, but then they also offer samosas and chicken rolls – your only succor during a bland film – I clung to my samosa like it was a life-jacket; it was the only spice I was getting in these 2.5 hours!)

This film has good action/fight sequences, but suffers from slack direction. For a thriller, this movie has precious few pulse-pounding moments. It is expected in action films that there isn’t much emotional quotient, but these characters were totally flat. And if Don’s character wasn’t cardboard-ish enough, ShahRukh pushed it over the edge with his expressionless (and wrinkle-free) plastic-surger-ied face. I have often poked fun at his twitching eyebrows, but give me the twitches anyday instead of this plasticky, unnatural face. I noticed this in Ra-One too, but in that SRK was playing a robot anyway, LOL, so it suited the character.

Priyanka has very little to do except glower at Don, or melt in concern when he gets hit. She does get in a couple of kicks though, and a car-chase. There are some romantic undercurrents between her and Don, but these scenes are so poorly scripted that ze sparks – they do not fly (to quote Poirot :-)). Of course not much else does either, in this film, and that’s the honest truth. Lara Dutta gets to play the moll, and does what a good moll does; looks pretty, nods, smiles and looks on appreciatively. Boman Irani has the second largest role, but fails to impress. Irani is a good actor, but when I see him get menacing, all I see in my head is the rotund professor of “Three Idiots”. All these top stars clubbed together in this film, and not one to breathe life into it!

This is a very average movie; if it had had lesser stars it might have not been even that. Definitely not quite what I’d expected from a Farhan Akhtar film. The first Don had the double role to keep up the anticipation, but this one doesn’t have that. The only thing which worked for me here was Don’s sneer and snarky one-liners. The rest of the dialogues are terrible and sound fake. When his enemies try to kill him off, they first explain to Don, why they need to do it, and then ask for any “akhri khwaish”. Jaded, anyone ?

This movie was flat, flat, flat. You want to see Don, go see the first one instead!

Kidwise : Pretty clean, this film does have plenty of violence.

Posted in 2011, action, All Netflix, bollywood, crime, Hindi movies on Netflix, rating-PG13, thriller, watchable | 3 Comments

Movie Review : Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Posted on December 18, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Action/Thriller
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 13 minutes
Director : Brad Bird
Cast : Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Mikael Nyquist, Anil Kapoor
Kid rating : PG-13

We got in half an hour early for the MI4 show, and had trouble finding 4 seats together. Did find them though after a single guy was nice enough to move a few spots. Once seated, an usher came in and asked everyone to scoot up and make space, because they were expecting a full house. MI4 is running only on IMAX here, so you could not see it on “regular” screens now even if you wanted to (you’ll have to wait another week for that), which is some sharp business strategy, btw; IMAX tickets cost 50% more than regular tickets. And shows are going houseful!

Impossible Mission Force (IMF) Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is extricated from a Russian prison so that he can get to work on his next critical mission. And it is to stop a Swedish scientist/terrorist Hendricks (Michael Nyquist) from obtaining nuclear launch codes and setting off the warheads. Hendricks bombs the Kremlin and cleverly implicates the IMF in it, causing the Russians to take umbrage and the US President to declare “ghost-protocol”, i.e.; the IMF is dis-avowed and it’s agents persona non grata. Hunt and his 3 associates Benji (Simon Pegg), Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Jane (Paula Patton) must go underground, and still complete the mission, sans support from the US government.

This MI installment takes us to Moscow, Dubai (in one stunt Cruise walks up the Burj Khalifa, with spiffy magnetic gloves) and Mumbai. The coolest stunts and dialogues are for Cruise, who at 50, is not as fit as he used to be, but delivers. Pegg is Benji, the computer whiz, while Patton plays Jane – the female agent who’s pretty and curvaceous but deadly. And Renner is Brandt, the “analyst” who is the late addition to the team. The villain is well portrayed by Nyquist, known for his role as Mikael Blomquist in the Swedish original of the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series.

Anil Kapoor plays Brij Nath, a rich Indian tycoon. The IMF team lands in Mumbai in pursuit of Hendricks and crashes Brij Nath’s party in the hopes of extracting information from him. Kapoor’s role is a caricature (all 2 minutes of it), where he is a dapper, gullible lech, falling quickly for the firang in the low-cut gown. He is, as I tweeted, a non-smart doofus with ungrammatical English (“Indian mens are hot”. Ouch! And Ewww!)

The film is non-stop action with some beautiful stunts and some hi-tech gadget-work. The story is standard action-thriller fare, so realism, gravity and nuance take a back-seat. The locales are beautiful, direction crisp and thrills aplenty. The climax is shot in Mumbai, in a space-age multi-level automated parking garage, which apparently was constructed specially for the film. The film seemed very Bond-like to me, with it’s stylish opening credits, plethora of deadly assassins, high-tech gadgetry and fight sequences. Bullets zinged, bombs exploded and the snap-crackle of action was everywhere.

This is an engrossing thriller executed with wit, style and panache – well worth a watch.

Posted in 2011, action, english, hollywood, rating-PG13, recommended, thriller | Comments Off

Movie Review : Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge

Posted on December 12, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B005WYXGMI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2011
Running time : 1 hour 45 minutes
Director : Nupur Asthana
Cast : Saqib Saleem, Saba Azaad, Nishant Dahiya, Tara D’Souza, Mita Vashisht
Kid rating : PG-13

An almost teeny-bopper romance in the age of Facebook – that just about sums up this movie. Except it’s not half as bad as it sounds. When I heard the title, I did the lord-have-mercy eye-roll, anticipating two hours of watching inane college-going brats being brainless and drooling in the sappy-oh-cho-chweet-but-oh-so-ewww trappings of desi-modern love. Ah, but what a surprise! They are smug and silly, but not brainless or boring. Interesting youngsters with well-etched personalities and minds of their own – now this I can handle!

The love story such as it is, is probably inspired from the Annals of Stupidity, but bear with me – it gets better. Vishal Bhatt(Salim) and Preity Sen(Saba) study in the same college, but dislike each other. Vishal is interested in hooking up with good-looking Malvika Kelkar (D’Souza) and Preity thinks college rocker/lead singer, Rahul Sareen (Dahiya) is cute. Now Vishal is friends with Rahul, and Preity and Malavika live together with Preity’s single mother Arunima (Malavika’s parents live abroad). When Vishal realises that Malvika is a Facebook friend of Rahul’s he uses Rahul’s facebook account to send her messages, posing as Rahul. And when Preity realises that Rahul is a facebook friend of Malavika’s she uses Malavika’s account to send him messages, posing as Malavika. Each is entranced with the other’s online personality, while disdaining the other in the real world.

When Vishal and Preity are both assigned to work on the same project for the 25th Anniversary of their College, they try to dissuade the other from pitching in, but neither will back out. The project entails creating a documentary about ex-students who fell in love and got hitched for life (apparently college life has gotten way more interesting than when I was in it). As Vishal and Preity begin to work together, they begin to tolerate each other much better. Outside of college, Vishal hangs out with Rahul in the hope of meeting Malvika, and Preity prods Malvika into meeting up with Rahul in the hopes of befriending him. When the foursome do party together, sparks do fly, but in surprising directions!

This film is a decent watch. When the leads are as young as this (21 year olds in this film), one does expect some silliness, and yes there is some. However, the college kids in this movie, unlike other disasters I’ve watched actually have minds of their own. Both Preity and Vishal have their own interests – she loves photography and he is a computer whiz. They are strong personalities in their own right, complete with witty one-liners and snarky barbs. It was fun watching them interact on screen, because these characters never pretended to be more than just plain goofy young adults figuring out the world – they actually had believable personalities.

The film is set in teeny-bopper locales – college, disco, bar. Asthana brings in energy and a general atmosphere of youthfulness without making it teeth-grittingly sappy. I liked the fact that the girls in this film were not demure wall-flowers. Direction is decent, acting is good, dialogues are snappy, and the music is beautiful. I quite liked “Baatein Shuru”, “Uh-Oh, Uh-Oh”, and “Choo Le”.

This one brims with verve and personality – recommended.

Kidwise : Fairly clean; no vulgarity/innuendo. Short clothes, MMS scandals, drinking and necking are present, also some liplocks. Should be safe for the 13+ crowd.

Posted in 2011, bollywood, hinglish, rating-PG, recommended, romance | 4 Comments

Movie Review : The Dirty Picture

Posted on December 5, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Drama, bio-pic
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 20 minutes
Director : Milan Luthria
Cast : Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor, Emran Hashmi, Rajesh Sharma
Kid rating : A, R

Vidya Balan is Reshma, a spirited girl who runs away on the eve of her marriage, to Chennai. Trying to make it in the acting industry, she is rebuffed until she does a suggestive dance number in a film and becomes a hot commodity, in more ways than one. Director SelvaGanesh who “discovers” her confers on her the name “Silk”. Silk, ready to do what it takes, uses her sexual wiles to persuade the important men in the industry to further her career. She rises to prominence for the skimpily-clothed, overtly sexy characters she plays in films, but her career goes into decline when she makes enemies of superstar Suryakant, and an art-house director Abraham.

“The Dirty Picture” is based on the life of South Indian screen siren Silk Smitha. In it, Milan Luthria depicts Reshma’s character as a woman who knows what she wants and goes about getting it. She sees nothing wrong in using her sexuality to gain a foothold in the industry. She wants to be a star, the film-makers want to sell their films, and the audience wants to see smouldering sexuality on screen. Silk delivers the goods and wants her due. Despite all the crudity this involves, Silk’s character still comes across as innocent and free of malice. She questions the double standards of the industry in labeling her “dirty” while they create the “dirty” portrayals in their imagination and translate them on screen. She also shakes up the power structure because she flaunts her power over men openly. The male-dominated Southern film industry gets mighty uncomfortable with this confident woman, as is evinced by a scene where a director expresses his qualms about Silk making it to the front cover of a film magazine.

The film also delves to a certain extent into her disturbed life – non-acceptance by her parental family, her alcoholism, her debts and desperation and her lonely personal life. Vidya Balan carries the film – she is Silk. I cannot imagine any other actress doing a better job. Even though the role requires her to don skimpy, suggestive clothing, and emit many orgasmic oohs and aahs, Vidya plays it with aplomb and classiness. With any other actress, the role and the film might have seemed cheap or C-grade, but with her even the sultry siren gets credibility.

Balan is so effective in her portrayal of Silk, that even when we see Silk suggestively moaning on screen we can’t help sympathizing with the exploited and friendless Reshma . Vidya balances out the overt sexuality with the innocent frankness. She is a siren one moment, and a vulnerable lonely young woman another. There is the jutting out belly and the jiggling thighs, all very evident in midriff baring blouses and short skirts, but Vidya displays not the slightest amount of self-consciousness as she embraces the physical imperfections of Silk’s character – quite a feat in itself; a commercially successful actress enacting a role which displays her in such an unflattering light physically is almost unheard of in Bollywood.

Milan Luthria directs this film ably. The film embellishes the true life story, but has good narrative structure. While I can’t say that the screenplay was outstanding or that the film had that sheen which only deep involvement brings, this was still a very engrossing film. And most of the credit for that goes to the excellent cast of the film. Balan, as I’ve said above, is truly magnificent. But even the actors playing the three important men in Silk’s life were quite fantastic.

Naseeruddin Shah plays Smashing Surya, the reigning superstar. All kow-tow to this selfish philanderer, and to him Silk is just another conquest, to be used and discarded. Shah is superb, as he always is. Tusshar Kapoor plays Ramakant, Surya’s brother who is also obsessed with Silk and takes up with her once her affair with Surya starts tapering off. Kapoor does a fine job as weak Ramakant. Then there is Abraham, the artsy director played by Emraan Hashmi. Convinced that he produces intellectual cinema and Silk is it’s natural enemy, he hates Silk. Hashmi is a good actor and he proves it here again. Rajesh Sharma, as SelvaGanesh is also very believable.

“The Dirty Picture” molds Silk Smitha’s lifestory into a palatable film format, remaining content to only scratch the surface. But even that attempt results in a fairly good film. To go deeper might require more courage and risk than the average film-maker cares to take, but one hopes for the best.

Besides drama and earthy humor, this film also has good music. Go see it; it is worth watching, especially for it’s courageous heroine.

Posted in 2011, bio-pic, bollywood, drama, rating-A, rating-R, recommended | 8 Comments

Movie Review : Rockstar

Posted on November 14, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 40 minutes
Director : Imtiaz Ali
Cast : Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri, Kumud Mishra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Shammi Kapoor, Shernaz Patel, Piyush Mishra
Kid rating : PG-15

Rockstar is director Imtiaz Ali’s 4th directorial venture after Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal (all three make it to my Top Ten List). His reputation now precedes him; if anyone does romances well, it is this man. Rockstar is also a romance. But unlike the first three which were mired somewhat in the practicalities of day-to-day life, Rockstar is a film about an ethereal love, transcending the boundaries of ordinary logic, reasoning and morality.

Janardhan Jhakar, or JJ (Ranbir) is a student of Hindu College, Delhi. A budding musician, JJ can’t seem to find his niche and get his talent noticed. Advised by a know-it-all well-wisher, Khatana bhai (Kumud Mishra), to experience pain and sorrow, for that is the hallmark of great artistes, JJ sets about trying get his heart broken – the easy way, he thinks, to angst. When he hears that soon-to-be-married Heer Kaul (Nargis) of St. Stephen’s college (next door to Hindu) is a heart-breaker, he professes undying love to her. Little does he know that he will get more than he bargained for . . .

Rockstar is JJ’s story. It tells us of how Janardan Jakhar becomes Jordan, the mega rock-star. But at the core of it, this is a true-blue romance. Because wherever Jordan goes, and whatever condition he is in, he is always beset by thoughts of Heer. Imtiaz Ali portrays this love very well, from the nascent attraction that sneaks up on JJ and Heer and takes them unawares, to the irrefutable pull that they both cannot resist, even at the risk of societal condemnation and overstepping the bounds of morality.

The film is told in flashback fashion. Sorta kinda. Director Ali deftly spins through the story, working backwards, until he comes full circle. The beginning shots are of an eccentric, raggedy-looking rockstar Jordan, in full artist mode, sporting baggy, almost salwar like pants and headgear, scuffling, running. Soon, however, we move backwards in time and meet Jordan as JJ. The first-half of the film is build-up; there is Janardhan, in all his middle class glory, resplendent in his high-waisted jeans, garish sleeveless sweaters and dorky haircut in the middle of a Delhi winter, lugging around his guitar. There are sessions in the college canteen with the portly Khatana bhai, who I guess is some kind of clerk at the college. The fabulous attention to detail made me nostalgic for that time and place, and by extension for Delhi itself.

Post-intermission, the lead pair are in the throes of a surreal love. The beautifully composed shots are almost poetry in motion, and the mood is set by some soulful numbers. Ali walks a fine line in depicting this love. It is other-worldly, and beatific, and Jordan and Heer are consumed by it. We get that this is a great romance, but Ali keeps this almost transcendental passion tethered in the real world with a skillful screenplay, so we, as viewers, are still engaged in the pair’s lives. It is proof of Ali’s artistry that he manages to bind together an interesting story with a depiction of such an intense romance, and still keep this film balanced, not letting it bogged down by either the pragmatic or the ethereal.

Credit also goes to Ranbir Kapoor who gives it his all. He is dorky as the young student, suffused with angst as the bearded Jordan, and oh-so-broken-heartedly in love. He lends his character charm and wit and innocence and carries the film. American model Nargis Fakhri will not will any awards for her weak acting skills (but then this is Bollywood, so she might), but she is a luminous beauty, and well-suited to the role. It is not hard to imagine that she, with her glowing good looks, is the object of such an intense passion. Kumud Mishra brought Khatana’s character to life wonderfully, Aditi Rao Hydari has a small role as Sheena, and Shammi Kapoor looked fragile in his last film appearance as Ustad Jameel Khan.

I must also applaud the soundtrack. Rahman is a true genius, but his brilliance comes through in fits and spurts. In Rockstar fortunately, he delivers. “Jo bhi main” is wonderful, and “Kun faya kun” is awe-inspiring; it is of the caliber of his earlier “Yeh jo des hai”(Swades), “Khwaja mere Khwaja”(Jodha-Akbar) and “Jaage hain”(Guru) numbers. With lyrics by Irshad Kamil, and Mohit Chauhan’s voice (among others) this is an outstanding soundtrack.

This was quite a film. I fear that some of you might find the second half a tad “flighty”, but I quite loved it. Go, see it!

Kidwise : Some scenes of semi-nudity, and love-making make it unsuitable for the younger set. Children younger than 15 may not “get” the film, and the whole love rigmarole.

Posted in 2011, bollywood, rating-PG15, recommended, romance | 15 Comments

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.)