Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews - Part 64Amodini's Movie Reviews | Movie Reviews by Year, Genre and Rating

Movie Review : Shaitan

Posted on August 6, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B0056L5T86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link] Rating : 4/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Bejoy Nambiar
Cast : Kalki Koechlin, Rajeev Khandelwal, Rajit Kapoor, Neil Bhoopalam, Nikhil Chinappa, Rajat Barmecha, Kirti Kulhari, Gulshan Devaiya, Shiv Pandit, Sheetal Menon, Pawan Malhotra
Kid rating : A

SHAITAN : THE MONSTER WITHIN

Anurag Kashyap’s films always have a touch of the extraordinary about them. They tell chaotic, but real-looking tales of lives in tumult, and this time it’s the lives of a bunch of richie-rich kids who have too much time and money on their hands. The story is kind of similar to Kashyap’s 2003 film “Paanch” which never saw the light of day, thanks to the Indian Censor Board which deemed it unfit for release because of the disturbing violence, and drug use.

In Shaitan, five friends band together. All are unhinged to a certain extent, misunderstood and disturbed in their own ways. Amrita Jaishanker, or Amy(Kalki Koechlin) has moved from Los Angeles to Mumbai with her father Rajeev (Rajit Kapoor) and step-mother. Deeply traumatized by her mother’s attempted suicide, Amy doesn’t settle in until she meets Karan Chaudhary, or KC (Gulshan Devaiya) who introduces her to his gang of fellow misfits – Tanya (Kirti Kulhari), Zubin (Neil Bhoopalam of “No one Killed Jessica” fame) and Dushyant Sahu, or Dash (Shiv Pandit).

The youngsters idle around getting their highs from drugs, alcohol and one particular time with cough syrup. Driving under the influence, they get into an accident and need money in a hurry to smooth things over. Unable to ask their parents for help for fear of repercussions, the five concoct up a crazy plan to kidnap and extort money. They think it’s a simple plan, but things start to go berserk when the police get involved . . .

Shaitan is a dark, disturbing story where you know the protagonists are heading straight for big-time trouble, but it still keeps you on edge. The direction is deft and the film is tightly paced. All the crazed characters are well sketched out, and you have a background against which to fit their deranged, surreal lives. Shaitan is violent and gory at times, with shades of horror. The film’s story treats violence almost casually, almost as something which has to happen, and this adds to the movie’s macabre mood.

The main characters of the film are dangerous lunatics, privileged and wealthy, and you can’t help but look upon them with disdain and some pity. The character to root for here then is hot-headed Inspector Arvind Mathur (Rajeev Khandelwal of Aamir fame), who can’t tolerate corruption, and has been suspended for letting loose his fists on a powerful bureaucrat. Mathur’s character gives this film it’s heft and resonance, especially with the underplayed romance angle with the wife who’s leaving him and whom he still desperately loves.

The acting was fabulous. Veteran Rajit Kapoor is superb as Amy’s father Rajiv Jayshankar who refuses to see the strains of insanity in his daughter, and Rajeev Khandelwal is effective as honest Inspector Arvind Mathur. All the five youngsters : Bhopalam, Kulhari, Koechlin, Pandit and Devaiya are very, very good. There are also a few known faces : Nikhil Chinappa of MTV Roadies is Inspector Arvind’s fellow policeman, and model Sheetal Menon essays the character of Arvind’s wife Nandini.

Music is quite rock and roll with a few remixes – the yesteryear hit “Khoya khoya chand” has been used quite interestingly in a violent shootout scene – has to be seen to be believed. A remix of the Sridevi number “Hawa hawaai” is also used.

A well-made, interesting film, I highly recommend “Shaitan”.

Posted in 2011, bollywood, drama, rating-A, rating-R, recommended, thriller | Tagged noir, violent | 9 Comments

Movie Review : Shor in the City

Posted on July 30, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Krishna D.K., Raj Nidimoru
Cast : Tushar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Sundeep Kishan, Radhika Apte, Zakir Hussain, Pitobash Tripathy, Nikhil Dwivedi, Preeti Desai, Amit Mistry, Girija Oak
Kid rating : PG-13

SHOR IN THE CITY : CRIME IN MAXIMUM CITY !

I have seen a couple of Tushar Kapoor’s films and am mostly unimpressed by them. So when I heard about “Shor in the city” produced by his sister, Ekta Queen-of-the-soap-opera Kapoor, I surmised that the two together couldn’t have come with anything fancy either. But I was wrong. And I am glad I was wrong because I got to see a pretty good film in the bargain.

“Shor in the city” is a pretty hatke film from the directors of the entertaining 99. It is about maximum city Mumbai, and the people that call it their home. This superb film is not the traditional single hero/heroine venture, but features three narratives running in parallel. All three stories meld together during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrations. So there are small-time conmen like Tilak (Tusshar), who has a business of mass copying books and selling cheap copies of them at streetlights, and then there are people like Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy), an American of Indian origin who is looking to set up a business in Mumbai. Among the cast of characters there is also Sawan Murthy, a cricketer in love with the game and dreaming of making the Indian National Team.

Tilak is a bonafide Mumbai resident used to the fetid, corrupt mess that is the city. Aiming to take his illegal copying business further Tilak has come up with a plan and it involves a new book, the book’s author and kidnapping. Abhay, a US returned desi is used to fair play. When threatened by Mumbai’s underbelly, he must decide whether he wants to cave-in to their unjust demands or brazen it out. Sawan our young cricketeer has a lot of people to please. His girlfriend Shamli, is on the brink of marrying another man, because Sawan has been so unsuccesful at his suit and his career. His career is at the mercy of corrupt selectors, who demand that their palms be greased. What will it be for Sawan : his ideals, his life or a possible bank heist?

This dark film succeeds like it does because of it’s off-beat, but well-structured story, wonderful characterization, delectable acting and tight pace. I cannot say enough of it’s wonderful actors. Firstly – Tusshar Kapoor can act!! What a revelation! I am pleasantly surprised to actually see him emote instead of grunting through his roles. As the Coelho-loving goon Tilak, Kapoor was impressive.Tilak’s wilder, risk-taking friends are Ramesh, and Mandook played by Nikhil Dwivedi and Pitobash Tripathi respectively. Both do an excellent job, especially Tripathy who brings to his character that extra edge as the eccentric and border-line nutty Mandook. Radhika Apte plays Tilak’s wife Sapna with the hesitant grace and tremulousness of a new bride. Another strong female actress is Preeti Desai who plays Shamli, Sawan’s almost-lost love, fending off her middle-class suitors in hopes of her knight in shining armor riding through.

Sendhil Ramamurthy (of Heroes fame) as Abhay, fits right into the storyline as the desi who’s returned to his own land only to fall into the clutches of corrupt goons hand in glove with the police. The villains of Abhay’s story are the hafta-demanding goons. Suresh Dubey is the leering Hemraj – he smiles as he threatens, and remains menacing even when her grins. And Zakir hussain is the cold Premal. If it were not for the sheer fineness with which Hussain and Dubey portray the vicious, omnipresent underbelly of Mumbai, SITC would have lost much of it’s desperate edge. Amit Mistry is fantastic as Tipu-bhai, the fixer who has his corrupt finger in every illegal pie.

Genre wise I would classify “SITC” as a crime thriller but it does have it’s moments of humor, like when during the bank robbery, Tilak declares that he is there only for “moral support”. A great mix of noir, high drama, pathos and thrills, SITC is one of the best films of the year. And I say it now even though we are only halfway through 2011- this one goes straight to my Top Ten List.

I was floored by this unexpected gem of a film – make sure you see it.

Posted in 2011, bollywood, crime, drama, humor, outstanding, recommended, social issues, thriller | 12 Comments

Nero’s Guests

Posted on July 26, 2011 by amodini

Genre : Documentary
Year : 2009
Running time : 1 hour
Director : Deepa Bhatia

A quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide since 1995. Sound shocking ? Well, I’m not making this stuff up – this is still happening, in present day “shining” India. And this is the subject of Deepa Bhatia’s documentary “Nero’s Guests”, which I happened to watch via the NDTV Documentary series. In it, Bhatia and her crew follow around P. Sainath as he visits and documents the conditions of the farming community in Maharashtra.

Sainath, along with being the Rural Affairs Editor for The Hindu is also the recipient of the Ramon B. Magsaysay Award (sometimes called the Asian Nobel) for Journalism. Sainath reports widely on marginalized sections of society and his writing has appeared on India Together besides the Hindu.

In “Nero’s Guests”, which is presumably so named because of the the legend in which Emperor Nero burnt his guests for light, Sainath is the heartfelt and vociferous voice for the marginalized farmers, and brings to attention the agrarian crisis in modern India. In the film, Sainath visits many of the affected areas, and you see him talk to the farmers and document their woes . He also talks directly to the camera, presumably at his home, where he brings from his documents photos of the people who have passed.

One is affected as you see him talk of hapless folk like the woman farmer who committed suicide, and whose family was ineligible for compensation from the government because the state did not recognize females as farmers – women could only be the wives, mother, sisters or daughters of male farmers. He tells us, as he shows us a photograph of a mother and son, of the emptiness in the boy’s eyes after the father has committed suicide. He talks of the feeling of humiliation and helplessness he feels when he faces desperate farmers and knows that there is nothing that he can do to alleviate their troubles. And he tells with visible emotion of the cold hard fact that when he meets family members of a deceased farmer he can see that they are planning the same fate for themselves. Such is the desperation.

India’s farmers are a poor lot. In this film they relate their woes. With the cost of farming having gone up and the returns paltry in comparison farmers find it hard to make ends meet, and are often indebted to corrupt moneylenders. With debt multiplying (farmers in the film talk of debts of 2 lakh rupees, about $4000) and no ray of hope in sight farmers are committing suicide. In the film, Sainath visits a local village hospital and while he is there, two men bring in a third who is violently throwing up. As the camera follows the three into the dark, dank, dismal looking hospital building, we are told that the man has swallowed pesticide.

This is an important film, and it tells an important tale. Well-directed, this film gives us news that the mainstream media deems unfit to report on. “Nero’s Guests” is a must-see. Kudos to Bhatia and Sainath !

Posted in 2009, documentary, recommended | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Mere brother ki Dulhan

Posted on July 21, 2011 by amodini

Awkward to fall in love with your brother’s to-be bride? You think? Yeah, well that’s the premise of this YashRaj production which hits theatres in September. The film features Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Ali Zafar (of Tere bin Laden fame). It seems a tad overdone from the trailer, but I hope it makes more sense than it appears to; I would really like to see YRF back to producing quality films:

Posted in 2011, bollywood, Previews, romance | 2 Comments

Movie Review : Zindagi na milegi dobara

Posted on July 17, 2011 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 35 minutes
Director : Zoya Akhtar
Cast : Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Deepti Naval, Ariadna Cabrol, Suhel Seth
Kid rating : PG-13

ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA : YUPPIES IN SPAIN !

Zoya Akhtar’s new film sorta reminds me of Farhan Akhtar’s past films – “Dil chahta hai”and Lakshya, in that it’s a pretty personal film and features fairly well-off, upwardly mobile folk – no poverty laden angst here. “Zindagi na milaegi dobara” is about friendships and relationships and the ties that bind and gag (to quote Erma Bombeck). The story goes thusly : 3 friends set out on a “bachelor” party of a lifetime to travel through Spain. Going by appearances that’s what it is – a pleasure jaunt for three affluent young men out to experience the wonders of the world. Below the surface however it appears that the three have to find themselves and resolve a major conflict in their respective lives.

Imran (Farhan Akhtar) is an ad agency copywriter, and the joker of the group. Wisecracks, practical jokes and some lovely pidgin English impressions are his forte. Arjun (Hrithik Roshan) is an investment banker in love with filthy lucre. Kabir’s (Abhay Deol) family is into construction, and when he proposes to the daughter of another business family Natasha(Kalki Koechlin), the time is ripe to go on an extended guy-trip with three of his closest friends. The plan then, is to travel through Spain, experiencing three new and different sports, each chosen by one of the three and kept a surprise until the very end.

As they begin their holiday, they meet and become good friends with beautiful swim instructor Laila (Katrina Kaif). Love is in the air, but so is jealousy as Kabir’s new fiancée gets wind of the new girl in the bachelor party. Besides all the personal drama, the three must also face their physical fears (and metaphorically their emotional ones) in three new adventure sports. The journey will soon end, but will Arjun, Imraan and Kabir get what they wanted out of it ?

ZNMD is well-directed, even though it’s story is stretched thin at times. The first half is full of great humor – casual, everyday humor, natural and well-shot. The second half flags just a little bit, and I thought the ending a tad abrupt. Music by Shankar-Ehsaan & Loy is average although “Khaabon ke parinday” and “Ik Junoon” stood out. ZNMD is shot quite a bit in Spain, amid beautiful locales and features world famous events such as the Tomatina Festival of Bunol, and the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Akhtar, Roshan and Deol do well – their friendship comes across as tight and tangible, and they themselves come across as real characters, with real feelings and flaws. Akhtar is a natural actor and does the nutty humor very well. Hrithik has gotten thinner (if that’s possible) and looked younger, fitter and very –ahem- visually appealing. Abhay Deol is the philosopher of the three friends, and is well-suited to playing Kabir – something he does with ease. Katrina as Laila is herself – an Indo-Brit girl, and her acting is passable. Kalki is cute in her role and does a fine job of portraying Natasha.

This film is to a great extent a “guy” film, more so than “Dil chahta hai” ever was. The main characters here are the three men, and ZNMD is about male bonding while doing “manly” stuff. The women here are either the user-gold-digger types, aka Shruti (whom we hear of but never get to see), unsteady Rohini who wanted too much and married another on the rebound, shrewish-but-sweet Natasha who is threatening to overwhelm Kabir with her possessiveness, or the I’m-a-guy-with-boobs quality Laila. Not a single female character strikes me as “real” here – something I’m a little disappointed about.

This is a good film, but falls sort of the “Dil Chahta Hai” mark – I give it a 4 star rating, with reservations.

Kidwise : This film has a U/A rating from the Indian Censor Board – which amounts to “parental guidance”. I give this an equivalent PG-13 rating, since it’s for the most part clean and classy. It does have lip-locks, language (f—, a—hole etc.) and some verbal and hinted at references to sex and adult relationships.

Posted in 2011, drama, humor, rating-PG13, recommended | 8 Comments

The Netflix price hike

Posted on July 14, 2011 by amodini

Once upon a time I was a Blockbuster subscriber. I received DVDs in the mail, and then went over to the physical Blockbuster store (a 10 minute drive) to exchange them for free. I remained a Blockbuster subscriber for a pretty long time. Then Blockbuster raised their rates. I canceled my Blockbuster subscription and got Netflix, and a Netflix compatible Blu-ray player. I’ve remained with Netflix ever since.

There is not a moral to that story – in case you were looking; raising rates does not immediately get you booted. It is only when you think that the price does not deliver the goods that it promises, that it does. Today I received an email from Netflix. It said :

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $11.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray access) will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray), 1 out at-a-time (no streaming)
for $9.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $17.98 a month ($7.99 + $9.99). You don’t need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

So, here’s the backstory. Netflix had a plan that allowed you to rent DVDs by mail, and stream films for $9.99. I paid $2 extra since my mail-in plan had the Blu-ray option. Still, $11.99 to get DVDs by mail (one at a time) and have hundreds of films at your finger-tips, via streaming, was a no-brainer. Now that Netflix is separating it’s plans, you are forced to choose one or pay a premium if you want both.

In my case, I will now have to pay $17.98 (+tax) if I want the service that I had before : $10 for Blu-ray by-mail rentals, and $8 for streaming. Me thinks Netflix is trying to get out of the DVD business and concentrate on the streaming alone. Redbox kiosks charge $1 for movie rentals/day ($1.50 for blu-ray), and get the film faster than Netflix. Over the past year or so, Redbox kiosk locations have tripled and a few more wouldn’t hurt.

So, the upshot of all this is that I will probably keep my streaming service (and hope that Netflix provides more content on it) but get rid of my mail-in service. In all fairness I’ve got to say that Netflix service is pretty good. I don’t have empirical data, but on the whole Netflix turnaround times are pretty fast ( faster than Blockbuster was). I mail in a movie today, and the new movie is mailed out the day-after – a 2 day turn-around. So I mail-out Monday morning and go check the mail on Thursday evening and the red envelope is in there – not bad, yeah ?

And yes, the streaming films are not in hi-def, but they are pretty close to DVD quality. Netflix’s selection is large when it comes to streaming desi films, from Sanjeev Kumar’s classic “Mausam”, to the Sonam starrer Delhi-6, to the newer “Dhobi Ghat” – way more than any desi video store would ever get you. Plus they have the esoteric titles like say, “Loins of Punjab presents”. Try asking for that at a desi video store; they look at you perplexed, and one of them even told me that they didn’t carry documentaries e.g.; “Lions of Punjab”. Being the ardent movie-watcher that I am, with streaming I have the opportunity to watch gorgeous foreign films like “Bread and Tulips”, or discover fantastic titles like “Moon”. Streaming is wonderful and is all set to be the future and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

Today’s price hike has irked a number of Netflix subscribers, most of them venting their ire on Netflix’s blog or Facebook page. #DearNetflix is a trending topic on Twitter. Now, Netflix is a money-making concern not a charity, so I’m assuming that this is the way they look to make profits. It is up to me as a subscriber to decide whether I want to spend my money on them or on Blockbuster or on Hulu or on Amazon Prime. Plain economics really. Price it too high and not deliver enough value for the money, and you lose people. Price it too low and go out of business.

Still, I must say that Netflix needs to work on it’s PR. To announce a 60% price hike all in one day ? Really ? How bad does a 60% increase look printed across headlines in most newspapers and information websites, and have angry subscribers announce (to the world) that they are going to quit come September ? Talk about negative press! If you have to go up, how about 30% spaced out by 6 months? Or how about introducing a hybrid plan in addition to the 2 separate plans ?

I’m not sure what the head honchos at Netflix are planning but I sure hope that they get a larger movie database on streaming, and find a way to get hi-def on it too. One would appreciate it if a quality movie rental service remained that way.

Posted in 2011, All Netflix | Comments Off

Movie Review : Super 8

Posted on July 11, 2011 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B0052EV846″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Rating : 3/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours 10 minutes
Director : JJ Abrams

Are you nostalgic for the days of yore? I mean really nostalgic ? Well then this film is for you. Hark back to the 80s with this throwback of a film. It reminded me of the ET era since the film makes a real effort to reproduce the feel of that time – the clothes, the sets and the technology. And I didn’t like it. For one thing, I was bored. Secondly, we’re well into the 2000s. Time has progressed. Why then go back in time ? If I did want to do that, I would just use my handy time-travel machine; I wouldn’t go see this film.

This film is very ET-esque. There are a bunch of kids, and one of them Charles (Riley Griffiths) is passionate about film, and sets about producing one, as a kind of a summer project. Well, as he and his friends are shooting a scene for the film near a deserted railway station, they witness an accident. A truck rushes onto the path of a speeding goods train and the train derails. The kids narrowly miss the flying debris and rush home not telling anyone about their presence at the scene of the accident. As the train derailment gets attention, it appears that the train was carrying some special hush-hush cargo. And now the cargo has gone missing . . .

Now, children are the heroes of this film. The main protagonist Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is a school going kid, and the son of the local police chief Jackson Lamb (Jackson Lamb). Joe has just lost his mother in a local factory accident, and is dealing with his loss this summer. Charles the film-maker is a good friend of his. It is a small town and everyone knows everyone else. The film’s story is told mainly from the kids’ viewpoint – their fantasies, their fears and their adventures. They do the thinking and the running around. Of course they are assisted by the adults at appropriate sticky points. There is a good guy and a bad guy and a problem and everything is resolved at the end. Very standard movie formula ; interesting for a child maybe, but rather tepid for an adult viewer.

My kids who are a product of this internet ready world found it kind of novel. They were amazed at the bulky old television sets, big fat cameras, the old, old cars and aged looking houses. I on the other hand am a bit older and have actually lived through the 80s – you will understand why I didn’t want to be drawn back into that time-period again. My children did like this film; they haven’t watched ET or any of the films from the 80s, so this was a little new for them. They were caught up in the kiddie intrigue and appreciated the kid antics.

While there is not much to fault in this product as a standalone film, I can’t appreciate it. It is very been there done that. There is nothing new, no attempt to stretch the boundaries or attempt a new spin – something you expect from Steven Spielberg. It’s the same old movie fodder in the same old packaging, and why with all the smart, witty, interesting movies out there would you want to watch this rehash of an 80s film ? Beats me.

Posted in 2011, english, family-friendly, fantasy, hollywood, sci-fi, watchable | 2 Comments

Movie Review : Delhi Belly

Posted on July 5, 2011 by amodini

Rating : Above Average (3.3/5)
Genre : Comedy
Year : 2011
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Abhinay Deo
Cast : Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Vijay Raaz, Shehnaz Treasury, Poorna Jagannathan, Paresh Ganatra
Kid rating : A

DELHI BELLY : SHIT HAPPENS (REALLY) !

As you know, I couldn’t wait to see this one. An Aamir Khan production with three protagonists who seemed really funny when interviewed by NDTV, this one had to be worth it. I’ve seen it now and I’ve got to say – this film isn’t all that. I’ll tell you why.

But first, if you haven’t heard already, here’s a little on the story. The film is a Wodehouse-ian caper about three young men, roommates, getting unwittingly mixed up with a diamond smuggler and his diamonds. The three heroes work in creative fields – Tashi Dorjee Lhatoo (Imran) is a journalist, Arup (Vir Das) is a cartoonist and Nitin (Roy Kapur) is a photographer. Tashi is engaged to Sonia (Shenaz Treasurywala), an airhostess with richie-rich parents. When Soniya helps out another air-hostess pal by delivering a package for her, she delegates the actual delivery to Tashi. Long story short, the package isn’t delivered to the right person, making the smugglers come in search of the missing loot.

The film’s plot is pretty interesting and while crime capers are a dime a dozen, this one does stand out with the attention to detail and nuance. The characters in the film speak Hindi and English, depending upon the situation, which is pretty realistic. Each of the characters has his/her quirks. While bearded Tashi is succumbing to parental pressure to tie the knot quickly, portly Nitin is fighting off a stomach bug (hence the title Delhi Belly) and curly-haired Arup is fending off a picky boss. Even the secondary characters like the goon, played by Vijay Raaz and the landlord (played by Paresh Ganatra) are beautifully etched out. The humor is very young, born of the storyline and involves lots of Hindi epithets. Quite funny really and fits right in with the look and feel of the film. I’m not sure why everyone is in such a huff about the “bad language”, since other films (like Omkara) have had such “earthy” words too.

So essentially we have a good story, decent character development, humor and a satisfactory climax. You’d think that’d spell out a fantastic film, but it doesn’t. The direction is slack – the film doesn’t move fast enough, although the second half is better than the first. Also the acting got a tad self-conscious. Imraan isn’t that great of an actor to begin with, and here he actually has to emote. Thirdly, the female lead is Poorna Jagannathan who has the amount of oomph Katrina Kaif has in her little fingernail – a problem because this is not a documentary; the female lead has got to have screen presence and charisma. Fourthly, no romantic sizzle. Yes, this isn’t a romance, but it does have romantic scenes and some kissing – would’ve helped if we’d really rooted for Imran and his wavering heart. There are also the extraneous plots – whatever happens to Arup and his girlfriend ? Is the “Dayan” song just gratuitous screen fodder ?

This is an average film – I wouldn’t care to watch it a second time around. Stalwarts like Vijay Raaz prop up this slick film, but I was hoping for so much more from the trio of heroes. I know Amir Khan tries to make good cinema, even if it be experimental. I’m sure we all are richer for it, even if the product doesn’t quite turn out to be as brilliant as expected. And this might just be me, but whenever film-makers get-together and try too hard, the film falls short of the expected winner.

Kidwise : Unsuitable for children – a wide array of expletives, adult situations.

P.S. : Why is Imran’s character named Tashi Dorjee Lhatoo – he doesn’t look anything like a Tashi Dorjee. Anyone know ? (At first I thought that this was a Delhi-esque short form of a Santosh, maybe, but it wasn’t)

Posted in 2011, All Netflix, bollywood, comedy, english, Hindi movies on Netflix, humor, rating-A, watchable | 7 Comments

Singham and 6 packs

Posted on June 30, 2011 by amodini

Ajay Devgun’s new film”Singham” is a remake of a Tamil film which originally starred Suriya – I saw the trailer/song today on MTV. Notice the over-the-top violence, the thousands of dancing extras and Ajay’s robust moustache (a must on most South Indian heroes) – all proof of it’s Southie origins. Ajay playing the role of Inspector Bajirao Singham is a tough cop against some very nasty goons in what looks to be an action-packed, Total Time Pass flick. He sports a real worked out body – I mistook him for Salman with those six-packs, and the film actually reminds me of Dabangg et. al. Here’s a look-see :

Posted in 2011, action, Previews | Comments Off

Movie Review : Letters to Juliet

Posted on June 23, 2011 by amodini

Starring : Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal
Genre : Romance
Rating : 4/5

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) a fact checker who longs to write, is engaged to Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), a chef opening his new restaurant. When they make a pre-honeymoon trip to Italy so Victor can look through wines and vineries, Sophie visits Juliet Capulet’s house where she meets Juliet’s secretaries, a bunch of women who answer each and everyone of Juliet’s letters. She decides to help them in this very romantic task and chances upon a letter from Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), a young British girl looking to reunite with her lover Lorenzo. Sophie writes back to Claire and Claire receiving a reply to her letter many, many years later makes her way to Verona with her young grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) in tow.

Sophie, having given the now elderly Claire hope, now joins Claire and Charlie in the search for Claire’s long lost love. As it happens, Sophie finds herself warming to good-natured Claire, but at loggerheads with Claire’s cynical grandson. As the animosity wears off (you know it will) and Sophie finds herself more than a little interested in Charlie, she must decide where her romantic loyalties lie.

Yes, I’ll say it : “Letters to Juliet” is sappy, soppy and all sorts of mushy. Yes, it works the ooh-I-find-my-soulmate-but-I’m-already-engaged formula to the max. And I didn’t care. It’s partly the star-cast and the chemistry they share and and partly the fact that this is a warm, sun-kissed, beautiful locale-filled film. “Letters to Juliet” worked for me. The characters are well-developed and I did care about Sophie and Charlie. The tale of Claire and Lorenzo sort of made the backdrop to the younger love story.

Seyfried essaying the role of sentimental and good-natured Sophie does so very well, her persona suiting the character perfectly. Seyfried does have the knack of portraying tremulous vulnerability so well on screen, and is very believable as unsure and insecure Sophie who having “settled” (so to speak) now finds the man of her dreams on her doorstep, a little too late. Redgrave makes a dignified Claire and Egan is well-cast as the British charmer.

This is a romantic drama that injects the required amount of warm-and-fuzzy sentimentality when you need it, and works great as film of the romantic genre. It’s well directed and has adequately developed characters. Lovers of the genre will do well to watch it.

Posted in 2010, english, hollywood, recommended, romance | 1 Comment