Ghajini : A review

Ghajini
Cast: Amir Khan, Asin, Jiya Khan
Dir: A Murugadoss
Rating: **

I did not plan to watch this movie. I had an uncanny feeling what this is going to be like. I have never been a big fan of south indian movies. As i have always felt they lack the finesse which I am looking from films. And woo hoo, I was right. I saw Taran Aadarsh giving a whopping four and a half rating out of five to this flick. I am sorry Taran. You have lost it this time.

Lets see how this one fared in my own yardstick!

I would not give this one more than a mere 2/5...THe story was an interesting one and the script does not do justice to it. I was told by my tamil friends that original ghajini was a mindless flick (though a hit) and it doesn't make sense to remake it in hindi.. I now totally concur with them.

the weak points of the movie are:

1. the weak dialogues. This movie has got real poor dialogues. especially those by the villain. was a pain.

2. A villain totally notwithstanding this era of movies. He could be a villain of 80s or 90s...not today..so lack of charm or horror. this guy can only shout and not act. he never instills that fear that you need him to do to justify the horrifying memories Aamir bears.

3. Song sequences: Many of the songs fall in to hte movie out of the blue. THere was no sequence for that Lattu song(an item song for the sake of an item song total rubbish), bachchu song (put in to introduce Asin), behka(to show amir falls in love)....and guess what all are dream sequences...apart from lattu.

4. some important scenes not given importance. Like the scene where asin tells amir she loves him. And amir gives a dumbfound look. He clearly was clueless how to react and so must have been the director. i mean a girl tells you she loves you, u just dont look at her back with that deer caught in headlights look. thats rubbish. another scene is jiya khan comes to hospital to tell amir about ghajini. Amir shouts in agony but where is that agony. all i could see is the round eyes, his egg-head, and jumping in adrenalin. there was no emotioon there... there was no fucking drama.

5. Story. well this is the fucking age of internet you moron. you wanna kill a guy, you don't just go looking for him. you search for him, you google him or you atleast look in the directory...you go to his house...anyway even if we decide to take that crap in, the story is loosely bound. That's why there are actually three scenes where that diary of sanjay singhania is read...

6. Amir himself is one of the weakest links in the movie. He has built a stupendous body. hats off to him for that. but so much of muscles has surely not done much good to his brain. the brainy and classy aamir whom we can see even in disasters like mangal pandey, has gone missing here. in places he shows his brilliance. but mostly totally absent.

7. Song shooting. The videos can liven up a movie experience. The way behka behka song was shoot i was really expecting something breathtaking to come as Ghuzharish was still left. But that disappointed me. A classic example why breathtaking locations is not enough to make a music video. The chemistry which cud be found otherwise among amir and asin, ws not there in this video. most of the scenes amir is walking, asin is walking...totally unlike Suraj hua madhyam which was shot in a similar location and was shot in the best possible way. again oye bachchu was a okay type song...lattu was a crappo which started brilliantly but then the song is not on screen for more than a minute...and i totally hated that item girl/ med student idea of jiya khan!

8. The plot was fucked up. nothing more i want to say.

Then you may ask what are those two points for if I absolutely hated the movie?

1. Trying to do something diferent will earn 0.5 points here.

2. Asin will bring a 0.5 points. She looks natural and apart from one or two scenes she's done justice to her character. she's stunning in more scenes than one...and i completely fell in love with a mature yet so kiddish girl. most importantly she doesnt look that sweet sixteen (which she's not obviously) and gives an image of a more of my age girl...which makes the sex appeal ever so great for atleast ppl belonging to my group.

3. In some places amir and asin make a great couple. I want them to see in a better movie. for that 0.5

4. More importantly, although the action scenes were good, they were shot without the emotioon. but comedy at places were real good and charming. especially those scenes involving asin.for those actioon and comedy i gave 0.5.

now then amir fans, wanna give me some blow?

Rock On

I am not a good reviewer. Neither am I a good watcher. Plus I suck at memory. Guess most of my upper compartment is made of highly volatile memory stuff. Hence what I see in a movie gets evaporated with a speed faster than light. Unless it’s a real crap movie, I seriously can’t remember any bloody thing about the movie. Be it Godfather be it the dark knight and be it the lord of the rings. 

Hence I am typing fast. But alas, nothing can beat the speed of light. Now after having written the first paragraph of this blog entry, I no longer remember what it was for if it was not for the title which I have written at the top. Yes, things are that desperate with me! Now before I forget anything more, let’s go back to business and talk about this movie.

Rock on is a refreshingly different movie. For a change no boy meets a girl. They don’t sing a song where invisible musicians and angel dancers flock around. The characters are not invincible. Shades of grey are aplenty. And yet, could not classify any of the characters as a dark one. That’s why I classify this to be a feel good movie, however the good feeling is not only about the story and the user experience (err, forgive my IT lingo), but about the movie itself. It’s well made. It talks its hearts content without any pretension. It is there to warm your heart. It does so effortlessly.

The characters are played quite flawlessly. Apart from one or two minor actors everyone has done well. Special mention is required for Farhan and Arjun Ram Pal. Farhan is charismatic and plain at the same time. Sings effortlessly with absolutely delighting expressions and has all the symptoms of a rock star. At least those I have seen during my college days, those fossils, kaktus guys, they are assimilated in Farhan. Yet when he is back in today’s world, as a successful executive, he glows there as well. He doesn’t talk to his wife, he is disturbed and nowhere he makes it over-emphatic, his simple dialogues and his sincere delivery makes it all too natural. He if he wishes to, can become a great actor like Irfan Khan like Rahul Bose and likes of them.

Arjun Ram pal astonished me. For years that have passed, I have seen this mountain of muscle sink into more obscurity from obscurity. And suddenly he rises and in what style. The failed guitarist Joe is a delight to watch. He fights with his wife, he fights with friends yet talks less, keeps his pain to himself, and does perfect justice to the role entrusted to him.

While KD is normal, I believe Rob was the weakest link among the cast. Prachi comes in a similar role to her sas bahu roles and she excels. The others are quite normal.

Now the movie doesn’t have a great story and all. It’s a normal winning story. But what it gets is a great making. And a brave director.

The movie is a winner and gives us a lot of insight on how to make a successful commercial movie.

The draw backs I would say, dialogues and the songs. When you are making a movie on music, the songs should have been a bit more authentic rock music and I seriously expected at least one punk/trash rock number in the OST. The dialogues are no where near what they were in DCH. But then DCH was a cult movie. And I have no grudges to keep it that way. This is a commercially successful enjoyable movie. It is nothing more than that, and it never pretends to be!

Now what I did not write about the movie is this is also a movie about friendship. Heart warming friendship. this movie talks about breaking up, coming together back again. it talks about how to shake hands give a hi five and forget the past and move on. this movie talks about life, and living on. This is the reason I like this movie.

Phew, writing down all that you wanted to write, is a difficult thing. But thank God I did it. Cheers.

Aamir

Rating: ****
Casting: Rajiv Khandelwal

Its not necessary that a movie should always give out a message neither is it necessary for a movie to please everyone who watches it. So if the some people say its crap i am happy to listen why and start a debate on this.

Apart from that, I felt the movie had its short comings. Like the plot is not so believeable, a network of terrorists so well organised that they could actually follow aamir's every movement, whether in a hotel room or anywhere they could have found an easier manner to do a bomb blast. I don't see it to be the best of the methods to do that. But I had a suspicion that it was their method of engulfing aamir into their network. However I don't buy that crap! that storyline is weak.

But again, the movie is a thorough entertainer. Its got a gripping screenplay. The suspense is kept in amazing manner. Even better is the camera work. One sceen when it shows the doll which runs and stops captures the thoughts of aamir so well. Even if we don't classify it to be a great movie, its definitely one of the better movies Bollywood has produced offlate.

A Saturday worth Blogging!

A busy Saturday at last. Oh how much do I enjoy busy Saturdays. Lots of useless stuff to do. Lots of useless places to go. Lots of useless people around. And endless useless stuff to rant about.

How did I pass the day? A great movie! A great dinner! Some long forgotten faces! And a fight in the club.

Phewww… now that’s something isn’t it?

We friends went to a movie at Harrow. Which one did you ask? Well what else the (in)famous Jodhaa Aakbar. And I must say the movie isn’t even worth spending 3 and half hours in the hall. Well there were couple of typical gwarikar’s romantic moments which I liked. I liked Hrithik’s childishness in somescenes and some places his emperor like rage. His command on acting is increasing and that’s a healthy sign for Bollywood. But the movie shows how pathetically inexperienced Bollywood is in handling periodic dramas.

I wonder why Indian directors fail take a clue out of great Hollywood epics like Gladiator or Troy or Kingdom of Heaven. People in India who are eager to make a historical movie should take some training sessions from Ridley Scott or Peter Jackson or Wolfgang Peterson. I mean the war in this movie almost is from the age of Ramanand Saagar’s Mahabharat and nothing more than that. Although the movie improves in the later half where Sujamal is being chased by afghan archers on horse and being shot at the scene is taken excellently.

But overall the film made me feel sick. On one side there was this gibberish farsi urdu mix that was given to Hrithik as his dialogues on the other side really bad acting from Akbar’s mother, some of the extra actors. Then there is endless useless song sequences and a timeless movie Yuckkkkkkk

Whatever the rest of the day was good. Met some old time friends. Tom and Shelly who got married recently had come to Watford to catch up. So we had gone club hopping. Then there was a fight at the Columbia press. Bloody noses, torn shirts, yells of “Freeze! Or I will shoot you!”, Swearing, in the fucking mean time getting served drinks for free and a bloody hell broken loose! All at the same time.

Movie Review: Halla Bol

Movie: Halla Bol
*ing: Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan, Pankaj Kapur
Rating: ** 1/2

Review:

Well, I am no movie reviewer, so I will write only what I felt about this movie.

1. This movie had a strong ambition.
2. This movie had a good story.
3. This movie had a strong actor to support both the above.
4. This movie had a strong actress to support the all of the above.
5. Yet this movie fails to achieve any single impact in the audience’s mind.

You will wonder why! I did too, and this is what I found out the reasons to be:

1. The movie has poor dialogues.
2. The movie has very poor script. Which makes all the decisions taken in the movie to be hasty and illogical.
3. This movie like every other RajKumar Santoshi film suffers from melodrama.
4. This movie like every other Raj Kumar Santoshi film suffers from over simplification of things.

I won’t give more details here because I am bored of typing. But do go and watch this movie to get a feel of how a good storyline and a great idea can be wasted!

Halla bol !!

Da Vinci Code

(Thursday, July 20, 2006)

This movie disappointed me. Many will be startled, many will look back at me stating who da hell you are to say about a movie which is loved by millions and hated by billions. and at the end watched by 1001 million!!Well definitely a minnow like me should not comment in public about a figure like Ron Howard. Much much larger looms his shadow than life over anyones mind whoever is watching. We always remember that we are infact watching a RH movie...which if you are not a blasphemious bastard like I am will have to like........But still with all those giants shadows fallingover me and covering me with darkness......still with feeble voice I shout that Oh Jesus ...... if this movie was supposed to be like this then they should've written outside the movie hall that viewers please be warned that if you have read the book and have some original thoughts in place how this movie will destroy those and that's where you will be disappointed first time.....Let's come down to the point why I was disappointed with the movie.First of all the quality of editing….I hated it when it had to adjust the storyline to make it a 2 hour movie rather than a 4 hour one. And so radical was it that it almost ignored some sane points what the book doesn’t overlook but the movie does. Like in the airport when they board the flight …None stops them actually. That’s stupid.Also Tom Hanks doesn’t look convincing in a symbol specialist’s role. There is nothing apart from the first few minutes where he can establish that he was a symbol spec.Next is the history behind the brawl of the girl and her grandfather. Why they were not so much in touch none tells us properly. That’s a shame to omit that part as that is the part which tells us about pagan religions.

MI3

(Monday, May 08, 2006)

MI 3….. deliveres

MI-3 deliveres although this is definitely not the one movie you can put in the same row as THE ROCK. But its sleek, and its tense. That’s where the movie wins actually. Lets go into the tits and bits of the movie…

Story:-
Ethan Hunt our protagonist is an agent for IMF…one of those many top secret agencies of America. He is getting married this summer. His love is beautiful Julia. But he has this last mission to complete … and that is Mission Impossible the third of the trilogy. But this time things are more complicated and there are rats inside his own agency….and his opponent is a deadly and sadistic villain…Owen Davie.

PLUSS:-
The movie as I said is sleek. Like the two other MIs. And it has got good strong acting support from Tom Cruise. Also not to forget the famous Morpheus: Laurence Fishburne in a cameo. more to come on this.......