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Get busy living or get busy dying

Any person who calls himself at least half a movie buff would definitely have seen this movie. And most probably it would be in his top of his favorite movies list. Yet, I was zero biased when I started to watch and to say I was overwhelmed at the end of it is an understatement.

It starts off with one of the protagonists Andy ( according to me there are three important characters ) is tried and sent to a jail (named Shawshank) under the offense of killing his wife and her friend, but he is innocent. In jail he makes friendship with Red who is also serving life time.

There are those sadists and jail goons who unnecessarily insult and thrash Andy, who tries his best to stand up and fight but is always beaten up. Meanwhile in one of the best scenes, Andy using his banking knowledge, offers to help one of the officers to save money. In return he asks beer for his co-workers. In this one master stroke act, he not only wins friends, but also gains recognition as a guy who could do with banking and finance. Also, the officers, when the goons beat him up again, thrash the goons and reduce them to utter pitiable bodies.

There is another librarian, who after serving for 40 years is let free. The scene in which he wants to kill another prisoner, just so that he stays in jail, afraid of the life outside is a very touchy scene. He is set free and unable to cope up life outside jail, he kills himself.

Red is slowly becoming what he so clearly understands – institutionalized. After spending, so many years within the walls, he realizes there is nothing he could do outside even if he is let go. He slowly gives up hope.

Meanwhile, Andy is so silent. He gets promoted from laundry to assist librarian, does tax work, he teaches a new prisoner to pass his exam, he even manages the records of Warden and cover his financial scams. He also gets the clue to who had killed his wife, for which he is serving in jail, but warden prevents the case get any further. 20 years pass hence.

But he does not give up, he has a goal – an immediate one was to survive prison, long term is the life after prison. He plans to get out of prison and achieve them. How he achieves forms the surprise and is the beauty of the movie.

There is this scene which is one of my favorites – Andy plays the opera music to the whole of jail through the speakers which is meant only to give orders. He knows he would get punished or ill-treated for it, but he does not care. All jail inmates feel happy for a minute hearing to the song, and Andy sits silently there. Even when warden threatens to open up the door, Andy ignores and sits silently, allowing the music to go on for a little while more.

Another interesting lesson is in the perseverance Andy demonstrates – he keeps writing a letter each week to get grants for the library and finally after getting fed up of his letters they agree to give one time grant and send over many books. Not very satisfied, Andy plans to increase the frequency of letters asking for more !!

It is slow, but likable in a vague way. There are sequences which absolutely mean nothing to the story and there are sequences which look trivial but add up to a grand plan at the end. And at the end, I was left gaping.

No wonder it has been rated in top films even among top spiritually significant films.

Some dialogs are excellent :

The funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.

He’s just institutionalized…The man’s been in here fifty years, Heywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man, he’s an educated man. Outside he’s nothin’ - just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried…these walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on ‘em. That’s ‘institutionalized’…They send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway.

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

My wife used to say I’m a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. God, I loved her. I just didn’t know how to show it, that’s all. I killed her, Red. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I drove her away and that’s why she died - because of me, the way I am.

Philosophy other than movie :

The movie, at its face value, is as excellent as it could get . It has a good story, good performances and well written. The cruelty invoke pity from the audience, the surprise elements leave the audience speechless and mouth open in awe for a minute. But for me the take away from the movie, is “hope”. I enjoy the movie while watching for what it is, but when I go over it again and again, when I munch over it, I draw extensions, I draw comparisons…and thats when I probably come to a better conclusion whether movie was really worth the time or not.

This movie could possibly be summarized in that one great dialogue Randy says to Red “Get busy living or get busy dyin.”. For 20 years, he hasn’t lost the hope and he was reconstructing his life. Silently, persistently.

Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.

That’s TWENTY years and I am always just too eager to give up ! I get frustrated , disappointed very fast. Many of us are all in our own dungeon and after a certain time we give up.

There are three different mentalities depicted nicely in three characters..one who has given up..one who is confused but is moving towards giving up ..and the one who holds up.

From

Since people call on hope in circumstances ranging from those where one has much control over matters to those where one can do nothing but expect outside influences to help, Andy’s use of “hope” is ambiguous. That is because given Andy’s basic circumstances, it may appear he’s invoking the latter meaning of “hope” — that is, he can do nothing but expect that his innocence will somehow, someday be revealed and he’ll be set free by these influences outside his control. However, as evidenced by Andy’s characterization prior to this scene, “hope” to him means the belief that the good, such as freedom, has a chance of being achieved, but such a chance can really only arise through one’s rational thought and actions

Whether or not Andy succeeded in achieving his freedom, it is his fundamental view of life, one which refuses to resign to hopelessness in the face of evil, that makes The Shawshank Redemption a great, heroic work of art.

Tagline of the movie goes “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.” And it definitely does not just mean about prison. It is the principle one should adapt towards any helpless, any hopeless situations in life – it does not or need not solve the problems, need not show the solutions, but at least it makes it easier to breathe.

PS: Kashmir Singh (who got released from jail after 35 years) said “Hope kept me alive”.

You know what?

Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work… Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I’ll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: You know Marcel Proust?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.

Olive: Grandpa, am I pretty?
Grandpa: You are the most beautiful girl in the world.
Olive: You’re just saying that.
Grandpa: No! I’m madly in love with you and it’s not because of your brains or your personality.

Sarcasm is the refuge of losers.

Inside each and everyone of you, deep inside the core of your being is a winner waiting to be awakened and unleashed upon the world.

Losers are people who are so afraid of not winning, they don’t even try.

- Little Miss Sunshine

• Expected the movie to be funny/sweet for some unknown reason.
• Kept waiting for some twist that could make it look like all good. But it keeps going, like real life, and all characters meet failures. That is at the end did I realize, this movie is really about majority normal life- where no miracles seem to happen, where no dreams get fulfilled, where failure is to be accepted.
• ‘Be there till the end’[& finally you loose though], did sound like a distant lesson to be taken away.
• Loved the vehicle and its tantrums! It felt like it too was a character of the movie (a failure too!)

I am confused how to react to this movie. First of all Kajol rocks as ever, as expected. Coming from me may sound biased and cliched - but the way Kajol manages to increase the average feel-good, average quality and to decrease the average dislike towards a movie, when everything/everybody else look like pulling in opposite direction is beyond explanation. Kesarinalli kamala. And everytime I feel, there is so much that could be extracted from her given a full fledged role of variety,instead her prowess is just in parts here and there. This is not particular to this movie but including previous few movies of hers.

Sidenote: Purely from a fan point of view, Fanaa first half gave greater happiness.

[Spoiler alert]

The movie is intentionally slow. Thankfully it is little beyond a stupid love story. Ajay Devgun’s direction is quite good. Performances, Ajay manages to hold the scenes in those dark moments but otherwise is slightly more than ok [possibly I write him off without even evaluating but can't help], others are barely tolerable.

The story starts old Ajay telling story of a person Ajay who falls in love at first sight with a cruise hostess 25 years ago. He lies and impresses her, but she also falls for his good intent and they marry. If the movie’s intended love story was this part (thankfully it is not), then it does not strike a chord at all. In between two couples’ who are friend of Ajay are shown - one of them is unhappily married and other happily unmarried. Just to fill the lack of substance. (If it was some other lead pair, possibly I would have credited their addition to the story ! )

Once married, Ajay faces a different problem, he realizes Kajol has Alzheimer. How he deals with it, how it affects the child and family is rest of the movie.

I got the clue about memory very initially and felt at the end, he could have just remade “First 50 dates”. Kajol in that role would be a treat (and of course SRK/Salman as hero).

Dialogues are not great.(Except one which I like personally coz I keep talking something on those lines, he he. It is the one where Ajay Devgun confesses that hum bane tum bane is fake and continues how everything is selfish at a point). There are few dialogues which attempt the word play by utilising the different meanings of same word. I was unimpressed though. The adult/sms jokes fall flat.

Songs are ok. Nothing great about picturisation, but the colour or the look of many scenes is good - be it the posh hospital or the interior decoration of the house or the cruise. Loved the Saheli jaise sayyan which is possibly the best part to a Kajol fan. Of course her costumes are pretty good in many places.

In the beginning of the film, Kajol looks quite uneasy and gives a forced expression - I was already cringing if that would continue - thankfully she finds her touch slightly later. Ajay does know the beauty is in those eyes, in those signature expressions and does his best to concentrate on them and put just the face on screen :).Kajol shines in nice scenes anyways, but there are few scenes ( thankful for their presence, but regret they are few in number ) where she gets to scream, to look worried, to look confused, to look in pain , to look lost and thats when the natural actress in her comes out and I can imagine the shooting crew just standing there and watching in awe, and the audience not even daring to wink lest they miss to see it.

We first went to book the tickets in advance but returned after hearing negative opinions about movie. The reaction was like “Is this the same person who used to watch almost all movies and used to write reviews.” Wow..I had a reputation to keep!! Yes, among other things like this blog had not been updated for 4 months or so, my tastes, thoughts, activities had all taken a detour for last few months. Oh, the details, the world will never know. Or it may. Anyways, for now I think I will restart blogging..will slowly re-invent myself. Or the resolve might long as long as I take to write this post only!

Coming back to movie, read few more reviews (esp of Bharadwaj Rangan’s ..which seemed to suggest it is watchable for certain factors and romance.) and decided to give it a try. Contrary to general conception about me that I like romantic movies, I actually am not particular - and especially am almost fed up of love stories unless there is breath taking newness or freshness in them - like Jab We met.

In Summary, movie did not work for me. If you either wish to see it or wish to like it, do not read further !

Jodha Akbar:
So this period romance starts with some history lessons. How Jalal grows up and builds empire etc, how he gets trapped in an intercaste marriage. Now, come on, I did not think he sacrificed a big deal or he took any major earth shattering decision -it was so simple..he could get the whole Rajput land, plus a beautiful Aishwarya all for allowing her to do a pooja in her corner and not to ask her to convert her religion. That simple decision!

Now I am not that interested in history but if I went to a historical movie I obviously wanted to know more about it..so that I could make up for my ignorance caused by showing no interest to history in high school. But I guess there is not much in this story. Since there was so much romance, instead of actual war and politics, I wonder why love story was not present in history text books. At least that would have made it little interesting - the history lessons!

But what a love story it turns out to be too…it never really took off for me…except for few great moments here and there. But surely it did not need a periodic backdrop if all there was to tell was this. The major reason people would visit halls for this movie is for the stars -Hrithik and Aishwarya, but unfortunately I am not a big fan of neither of them. Ok, they look good (oh! Ash’s costumes nd colour !! ), but I can not go to a theater for fashion parade! So I almost felt it was like Dhoom2 - esp when Hrithik displays his curves, sword swirls and glances at Ash, I almost heard “Are you ‘like’ checking me out?” dialogue from Dhoom2.

The one compelling reason that took me to hall was Ashutosh Gowariker’s name. In Swades and Lagaan, the romance was on backdrop, the central theme holds the pulses of audience and touches heart. Here,sugar candy was central theme-and it for some reason never really takes off-and the backdrop of politics is there as if it is a compulsion. For eg, after taking one decision about exempting piligrimage-tax (or some such thing), Jalal is hailed as a great king. The respect is never built up. Or at least I expected a major war sequence with all gory and glory but all that was shown was elephant crushing heads and a boring duel.

When it is a movie based on history, I am very concerned about how many things shown were for real - if you are taking cinematic liberties to an extent to change what exactly was - I would be disappointed. But here, since my history is weak, I don’t even know what is right - for eg, did they do the duel in the end instead of actual war ? Did Jodha know to use sword ?

There are few funny moments and I doubt if it was intended.Left to myself I would have mocked this movie like anything! My biggest grouse about the movie remains - there was no sign of Birbal.

The following is what I wrote on Flixter to my flixter account through FB

I wish I could give it 5 star rating! The progress is good, the first half builds the entire premise and second half goes around tieing the lose ends, but it is not until last few frames that the entire picture becomes clear. Classic novel-like script makes it a tight watch. All the actors pitch in with terrifc perfomances and leave a lasting impression.
A thoroughly impressive debut direction, impressively shot in Rajastan and the slow and steady flow not once bores.
Full paisa vasool but if you are looking for jolly entertaining no-braner stuff for a lazy sunday afternoon, then turn to some other crappy stuff which is being passed off as comedy these days.

# Watched “Heyy Babyy”. What a waste of money - Rex has increased its price overnight. I noted that the comedy scenes were all shown in the promotional videos. Rest is all emotional crap. This is the first movie where I feel, trailer is the only best part in the entire movie. What a cheating. Grrrr….

There is one totally entertaining scene in which I almost died laughing - the scene of slow-driving the car.

Also observed those who apparently hadn’t watched trailers were enjoying movie to the core. Especially two girls in front of us. Even in the scenes I barely managed to smile, they rolled on the floor (laughing). Only reason to forgive someone who actually believed he could extend the toilet jokes that he cracks on a TV hosted show to a movie and can call that movie a comedy, Sajid Khan, but you are forgiven - you managed to make some people laugh.

I so wished SRK married Balan. They should give choices of which climax I would want to see and I should be able to select them.

To console myself, I say that there was one single compensation for going to theater - 2 scenes of Vidya Balan. One throwing flowers in the introductory song sequence and entire song sequence is watchable just because of her (or that I did not see anything else). And another in red saree, I for a second felt I was seeing Kajol. Go Balan go, just for this one reason, I am ready to forgive small things about you which I don’t enjoy - oversmiling for one.

Given the box office earnings for this movie, we are in for films like this in the future.

What an experience it was to watch “Chak De”. I have always loved a sports theme based movie - Iqbal, Lagaan, Million Dollar Baby, so it was almost a given that I would like this movie and add to that there were positive reviews. However the experience was something even better - the crowd, the shouts, the whistles. When I had been to watch Rajini I could not get so involved and wondered what was it. Or rather when was the last time for me - involvment and celebration together ? Was it Lagaan ? Was it a laugh riot like Hungama ? Was it Swades ? When was the last time ?

Now I can say, Chak De. I admit, it was surprising for me at few points, but overall it was cliched and predictable, yet it was totally entertaining. For which half the credit might go to the highest paid screen writer in Bollywood.  

It could have got a little more detailed, at least a cursory look, into what went into those 7 years. And why “7″.

I wouldn’t rate SRK’s performance higher than his in Swades.

Most importantly, the movie was more dearer for it was based on a real story of Mir Ranjan Negi. Got to know more details like he took active part in the movie and coached the movie’s hockey team. 

I knew few dialogues ( from reviews ) but my favorite is the one where SRK says, “Kisi gore ko pehli baar tiranga lehrate hue dekh ke maza aa raha hai”. Priceless ! I enjoyed many other moments.

There were few other points I wanted to make, not recollecting now. What a loss !

# Yes, somewhat old movie, but watched it recently only.

# Directed by Zoya Akthar, Farhan’s sisReema Kagti. (Corrected after C’s mail

# She also heads to Goa like her brother. Goa does not tire you.

# 6 (right?) couples go to honeymoon in a bus.

# Each of their story is told, not at once, but as it moves on. The advertising plug of Radio Mirchi was unintrusive and sounded natural.

# Whoa, that superman bit was one thing I felt was out of place. Frankly, I did not get a hint until it was disclosed and was very surprised. The lorry repair, the girl catching coconut made sense was what I could connect only later ! There are very few occasions where I am so clueless, and perhaps none with so many obvious hints.

# However on second thoughts, this movie was like a fairy tale, but is not careless and includes some serious reflections of life. I am surprised how the director/script-writer pulled it through, though, with such contrasts. At one corner you have an old couple, who probably both wanted to end their life, but have been on honeymoon and the sadness is just not completely forgotten, yet they smile in front of each other and get away to reach out to their inner feelings, separately, hiding from the other. Boman’s daughter’s tale was executed amazingly well - with so little screen time but with lot of impact. Except for the sermon by Shabana Azmi, which perhaps was required, but I felt it got a little preachy and a littler long, but could have been done in a different manner - just a slap, if you ask me.

# On the other corner, forget it, I would not want to discuss each tale.

# Had a hint at the different interest of Mridula’s husband. But did not understand, how the end was closed. What was that bathroom coughing scene ? What next for Mridula ? However the pair was mature from the beginning.

# Re-entrance of Diya’s tale was unexpected !

# Amisha looked like over-acted. But, actually, the character was thus.

# Reema Sen’s karate kick and probably her entire character is likeable. The parasailing bit was beautifully executed.

# Ah, I think I forgot something.

# Enjoyed the movie. Am sure there are stuff to make a sequel and how I wish Zoya does that as well !

# Oh, not to forget totally lovely groovy track.

Having heard that it is a free-flow like the director’s previous attempt - Bunty aur Bubli, I was all the more keen to watch it. I had a very good time watching BaurB, only grouse was the money spent watching in a multiplex. This time, I was wise. Watched on computer screen. Am surprised by thrashing reviews - this movie did not take it seriously, nor did expect you to. Also it did not pretend to be something other than what it set out to be - a light heart fun and free-flow movie, that rests mostly on the shoulders of the lead artists more than anything else - and the lead pair does not disappoint.

All - Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Priety Zinta, Lara Dutta - are perfect at their roles. I wish Zinta and Abi do more movies like this. Zinta is lovely to watch - scenes like  - the happiness and content that suddenly erupts of her face ( when she is running down the stairs and the lady asks what happened to the proposal, Zinta had rejected it)  are a treat to watch, wonder if anyone else would have done it so well ! (Oh yeah, lets leave aside Kajol and Madhuri Dixit). Abi’s flow is so effortless that, till that one bit of sad song, you will forget to notice that this guy is acting. Nail biting Bobby cracked me up with his innocent looks and nail biting. Lara, actually in two different roles is surprising.

There are various tributes/references to movies - from the number 786 (number plate on a car) - AB’s badge number in a famous movie, to the one I loved - Bobby and Abi going in the similar vehicle as Dharam and Big B singing song - Yeh Dosti hum nahin chodenge.

Finally loved the song. Yes did not mind the never ending song in between in what was a competition. The song just goes on and on but no complaints ! I loved the song so much that I thought that there was only one song in the entire movie (other than the sad song). At the end of the movie, when the song is again played I was practically swaying myself in the chair - at 2 AM in the night

What an apt title ! When you feel something is less, that means you want more of it. That is what the characters feel here - they want more in life. Thats what everyone wants but here is a difference - the characters are counting days. Totally loved the small kid - though some feel this is an un-necessary sub-plot I liked it. The kid was somewhat very similar to AB, both are counting the days and but want to enjoy life just before that, there is a hurry and they want to break the societal restrictions - kid wanting to watch movies he is not allowed to and AB wanting to marry a girl whose father is younger than him. Kid’s comradeship/rapport with Amitabh is the best thing. Next only to Tabu-Amitabh interactions. If there was one lady who could not only hold her head - as the character does - but also shine - even more than AB, then it is Tabu. Totally loved her. I had always felt, if there was a better actress who would effortlessly fit in both - art and commercial genre and if there was a better contemporary actress almost as good as Kajol, it was Tabu. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been ‘contemporary’ for last few years.

AB is fine, perhaps quite good considering other weekly fare he churns out. Paresh Rawal’s bit extended more than required and instead of AB’s speech, I’d wished his mother came and delivered a punch.

And this Cheeni Kum has succeeded in removing the bitterness of “Nishabd”. And it is interesting to note the contrasts and the treatment in both - in Nishabd it was all about lust, but it was masked behind some insanity or the intent was justified partly as seeking a joyful companionship. And audience saw through it. Here it is quite opposite - the actual love grows, the need for companionship and compatibility is clearly shown. But, without shying away from the subject, sex is explicitly hinted at. And audience sees through it.

Quite enjoyed - despite on monitor.

# Ramesh’s direction. Cast includes - Ramesh, Jennifer Kotwal, Daisy Bopanna, Anirudha, Mohan, Netra.

# Jaggesh’s brother Komal has, unknown to me, good fan following. Crowd cheered, clapped, whistled when he came on screen. There is a sub-plot for him which is not in the original.

# Its a remake of “Maine Pyar Kyoun Kiya”. Knew this before going to the hall, but last time we had gone to the remake of Biwi No 1 - Rama Bhama Shama and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Comparitively, Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya itself is quite funny and improvising it little difficult.

# Its good, ok, but due to this I-wanna-be-director-of-remake-movies mindset of Ramesh, I somehow feel we have lost a terrific actor to an average director. I mean this movie could have been directed by anyone. But remember Ramesh, the actor of Amruthavarshini ?

# There are few scenes which are different from the original. And these are specifically good. I liked the club scene very much.

# Sweet & eye-candy cast - Jennifer, Daisy and Netra !

# There are very many scenes where the audience cracks up. And despite being remake, I enjoyed very much.

# Full marks to Daisy. That is one performance which is notches above the original of Sushmita Sen’s. Anirudh is slightly better than Sohail Khan. Ramesh and Salman are equally good.

# Picturisation is good. Hotte chitte song is good

# Verdict: Not as much a laugh riot as RBS but still a very good comedy movie. Hang out with entire family - a nice outing. Even better if you have not seen the original.

Sometimes you never know what hits you. Himesh Reshamiya (HR), yesterday in Saregamapa show, when asked what he feels about the feedback for his movie Aap Ka Suroor (AKS) which has got the biggest opening collection of this year, he said he is thankful for the audience and God for encouraging him. He also said, as usual the 1% of critics is unhappy about my product and has trashed it and ridiculed it heavily - but I will work harder and win them over next time. It could convey many things - is it his honesty or a doubt if this is just a masked sentence in the place of actual anger and arrogance, or is it just a sincere self-feedback that he has to work hard and he is ready to work hard, or is it a plain treat that the sequel is in the making ? But it hits - the honesty and hard work part hits.

It hits even further when the movie is watched because he makes fun at himself - the nasal singing becomes a part of the joke, the cap thing is a part of another. It is known that he has accepted that he is a nasal singer but to make it a part of joke and throw at himself takes some courage.

This movie was expected to open a can of worms, to answer few curious questions one has ever since the day we have seen him on TV - why does he not laugh, why is he in pain in all songs, why are his most songs about lost-love or something like that, why does he wear that bloody cap all the time, where was he before he started coming out of every channel and every speaker in the autos, what was he before and so on and so forth. The promos and speculations touted that the movie would answer everything.

Unfortunately the movie begins with him in the cap and instead of being a semi-biographical is instantly in a commercial story telling framework. That he is an already established singer - India’s rockstar at that - and the best performer in the world (whatever that means). That he is a very good man at heart. For the first time in his life he falls for a girl who also falls for him. Her father opposes their marriage strictly, as he is from a different lifestyle. HR is determined to win over him. Throw in between a denial of a singing contract , a third-angle Mallika who wants to seduce HR. And throw in a murder accusation and classic proving oneself innocent.

Performance wise, it would not have hurt if HR had shed his weepy image and looked somewhat cheerful. Giving any point to his acting would be major insult to him - he is acting himself ie he is HR in the movie and there is no way he should be any different than he is in his actual life - a painful face which he has mistaken to be the face filled with emotions. The teenager Hansika Motwani is not bad - her previous experience in movies makes it easy for her. But she does not have much to do in this HR worshipping movie, sorry movieee. Mallika chips in and does her part. The much publicized Mehbooba song is not a part of the movie, but it is just shown at the end, totally out of context, for which my explanation is this - producer had signed on Mallika for an amount for the movie but they also wanted a video song done by her. By making it a part of the movie, they saved on the extra expense on her! And I feel equal pity for the person who takes 3.5 pheres with Hansika but his face is not even shown!

It moves at Ok pace and sometimes it picks up more than enough - like one second he is bashing up villian, second his herione started her marriage third he gets the confession from villian, fourth the saath-pehre is stopped after 4 pehre in between after the heroine sees the live telecast of the confession. Wah, thanks to technology!

When one is not seeing Hansika Motwani or Mallika Sherawat but does not want to see HR, there is enough scenery to look at in the background which has beautiful locales of Germany.

There are no dearth for some cheesy dialogues. Like the one where his friend suggests “if i cut your nose …. how can you sing”, or Mallika suggests “if you want something, feel free to call me..any time in the day ….or night”

Given that it is a music artist’s film, there had to be enough number of songs, yet it just saved itself from being a story hastily thrown in between the video songs. It does better than that, for there is, however cliched and not-done, a story unlike many others that succeed despite the absence of any logic.

But I really wouldn’t have minded if the movie contained his old hit songs. They keep humming in the background music though.

Not sure what happened to the girl with heart problem. It was the most bizzare stuff that looks like a scene fallen from some other movie on to the editing table of this one. Don’t know what happened to Rajbabbar.

Though I drew for myself some parallel between Sivaji and AKS ( small things like both the stories start with the hero in jail and in the flashback and they escape after an attempt to kill them inside jail, so on and so forth, small things) I do not compare between the two. But let me just say, if you liked Sivaji and dislike AKS - there is some bias&difference in taste in your viewing, for both follow the traditional film making to the core.

And how can the talk about HR be complete without a mention of his caps. He wore around 13 different caps, yes I counted - but lost the count because even though he changed cap for every next scene, but he repeated his caps.

Since this is more of a personal interview than a movieee, there were few answers provided like why does he always keep a weeping face “why do you never laugh, HR?” - his dearest elder brother isn’t been around (I heard that right, no?) and he lost all interest towards life. ( But he sings even romantic songs with a weepy face which was why I always thought he was a singing Devdas ). Even in the movie he keeps his face as sorrowful and drunk as possible during all the times without any reason.

All said and done, this movieee is more about HR and his caps than anything else. Probably in the history of movies or history of anything for that matter, nothing has given as much importance to the cap as this does.

But the biggest question remains unanswered - why does he wear cap. And to know that, wait for the sequel.

Ps: As for myself, had ample amount of fun and laughter in the theater, no regrets at all ! We were more often laughing at it and not because of it. Low stakes and good company helps too !

Its rare that I find myself agreeing to each and every point of a review by others. The review of Life in a Metro by B Rangan had me nod in agreement for almost everything (excluding perhaps Dharmendra part, which I did not think much about).
Excerpts to which I strongly agree:

[...] Go Bollywood!

There’s a lot about Metro that makes you want to get up and cheer. The story is a loose lattice of crisscrossing episodes about finding (and also losing) love – the film really should have been called Love in a Metro.

As with Shivani, there’s a refreshingly physical component to the love stories.

Shikha (Shilpa Shetty; [...] this is at least as good a performance, if not better – plus, she looks fantastic)

Kangana Ranaut, once again portraying a damaged-goods soul; she may be hitting the same notes in all her movies, but she does hit those notes extremely well

So you have adultery and betrayal and a lot of admittedly banal (in the sense that there’s not much you can’t predict) relationship drama, and it’s inevitable that Metro ends up resembling nothing more than a rather sophisticated soap – but no soap you’ve seen has had this kind of cast, these kinds of performances.

This is high-end ensemble acting, and I’d hate to single anyone out – but with a gun to my head, I’d probably admit to liking the story arc with Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan the most. By now, it goes without saying that these two actors are terrific in whatever they do, but here they play that most heartwarming of rom-com staples: opposites who end up discovering that they may be destined for one another – and they’re just so good together. They’re funny and sad and confused and philosophical and they almost make you wish for an entire movie about their characters alone.

(There’s lot of rain in Metro, an indicator, perhaps, of the bad weather the relationships keep running into.)

Her umbrella is ruined in a gust of wind, and Akash uses a safety pin to fix it temporarily. And that’s the point, really. It – the fix with the safety pin, and the subsequent relationship with Akash – is only a temporary solution. The real issues still need to be tackled head-on. They won’t go away because you put a band-aid on them, and that’s as true of life in a metro as anywhere else.

Some my additional points :
1.The sad ending of Shika’s story is sad. Infact, I was disagreeing when she apologises itself. If in KANK, the adultery is justified by any weird logic, for Shilpa’s character it should have been a “right”, not even justification ! It was so easy to change the end, just make Kaykay enter the house after she has left (along with the child), because his return is the only “event” shown as a reason for her to stay back – apart from perhaps the child hugging her father – and not any other moral reasoning, which is why I feel that event could have been avoided. Even logistically, that climax would have made 2 people happy vs 1. But it looks like “compromise” is the theme – even Konkana’s character, Sharman Joshi’s character compromise.
2.The songs were finely blended in the movie and the lyrics too complimented so well that, dialogues and lyrics felt like extensions of each other. And with musicians appearing in the same frame as actors and through out the movie, songs were never this well a part of the movie !
3.Sharman Joshi looked/acted quite mature.
4.Dialogues sounded new. I was taken by surprise and clueless when Shiney Ahuja, on asking whether he left her or she left him, quite normally quips “Love left us”.

Salaam-e-ishq:
Whole lot of parallel plots..was quite interesting as an experiment. I did not like the Priyanka-Salman story which was done in an artificial manner. John-Vidya story was on an extreme of senti-scale. The small comedy plot was also not very worth mentioning. I seemed to like the rest three. Perhaps a little more attention could have been given to that of AnilKapoor-Juhi. It was good to see Govinda after a long time! The way the different characters criss-cross reminded me of Crash.
Overall, this movie got lot of +ve and extremely –ve reviews. Those who identify with the emotion seemed to like it and those who didn’t, didn’t. But from a cinematic point of view, with stricter editing and more attention would have made it better.

Black Friday: Had heard about this film years ago. Finally got a chance to watch it. Its bold, to the point.

In pursuit of Happyness: Was very satisfied about this one. The fact that its based on a real person (Chris Gardner) motivates all the more. The real-life details were displayed on the screen after the show. Will Smith breathes life into character – notable scenes are – when he attends interview in soiled/painted clothes, father and son (Smith’s son – cute n firm) hallucinate in railway station and many more.
I returned with only one thought in my mind – just keep doing it. Persistence is sometimes more important than the hard work. And I give up too easily.

Ekalavya I liked this. The settings, the colour, a play like plot - poetry on screen.

Nishabd: It was too long. I disliked it for many reasons. Had a rant in draft, if I feel like editing it, it would be posted here.

Classic ! Vinay Pathak gives a lifetime performance in the role of –Bharat Bushan. He is a budding singer- who loves himself and his talents . Thadani(Rajat kapoor) is a music industry guy whose Friday night dinners are like Indian idol first round – making fun of people – but in this he along with his friends have fun without letting know the victim – that much decency they have. His wife one day walks out of him the day he had called Vinay Pathak for dinner. The same day, he has got his back terribly hurt. With his good intentions and superb body language, Vinay steals the show. He has right intentions but what ever he does or says results in more damage for Nandani. He turns the table around and the whole world laughs (the audience) at the nandani. Vinay, though very irritating is very amicable – one enjoys his actions. Even his wife has walked out on him. But how he has handled is different from how nandani is handling the issues. Meanwhile Milind soman, who was ex-friend of Nandani’s wife enters the scene. Another IT officer (Ranvir) also enters the scene. Together they manage to create a laugh riot.

This movie could have been set up as a play and I think that could have been better for it could have continued to reach people much after – not like these movies which get pulled out of theaters once the big ones arrive. Secondly the movie entirely relies on the dialogues and body language so much that, anything else is of little importance.

If tried it is possible to point out minor things which could have been corrected (like the pun on Bappi Da was unnecessary) but there is quite a lot to be enjoyed – even small actions from Vinay like closing the briefcase, or folding the cover in which he carries his “kahani suron ki zubani” or “its ringing” are quite fun to watch – that other things could be forgotten.

There is one important reason why this movie is terrific – all the characters around us have been made into characters in movies but the Bharat Bushans that roam around us were never shown on screen. A small attempt was made in DCH in the character of Timetable but this is the first one where complete attention is given. These Bheja-fry-bharat-bhushan characters are absolute fun in their absence and total headache in their presence. I have had many such acquaintances. The movie ends when the audience is still thinking there is more to it, that’s the best way to end rather than elongate

And guess what ..I could come away with a quote too -

Paap se door raho lekin paapiyon se nahin - Bharat Bhushan

“Kelo rasika” is a non-profit team of volunteers interested in making good art reach the people. They have several programmes like “poetry reading”, “screening movies” etc. Suchitra Film Academy is partnering with them for some events. One such event of screening of Alfred Hitchcock movies, I attended to see ‘Vertigo’. I have heard about the director but have not seen any of his movies.
The programme started with Sridhar Murthy (editor of Mallige) giving a small speech about “Tradition of Suspence-thrillers in Kannada Movie industry” (”kannadadalli pattedari cinemagala parampare”). He begun with the meanings of words like “pattedari” “parampare” and how they fit the Kannada cinema context. He explained the difference between what we consider as “suspence” or rather “bond films” and that of the idea of Hollywood cinemakers. He narrated the advent of such movies in Kannada and chronologically took us through what he called 3 stages/generations of such movies. I dont even remember the names of first generation movies but second generation movies had those bond movies by Rajkumar/Kalyankumar and third by SunilKumarDesai. He aslo put an analysis of suspence novels/novelists in Kannada and how some of them were made into movies. He explained the reasons why some suspence movies failed and how SunilKDesai tried to emulate/give tribute to Hitchcock. There were lot of details (and many names of movies that I have totally forgotten) in the interesting speech and what I liked about it was how he “stuck” to the topic (except for a small deviation when he talked about the suspense novelists whose novels were “not” made into movies).

This was followed by the movie. Since this is an old movie, I don’t mind talking about the entire story. Its about a famous detective who is adviced retirement as he gets scared of heights following an incident that happens during the job. While relaxing himself, he meets up with his old friend who had just come to the town. His friend’s wife, he explains, is acting very strange these days and he thinks, some dead person’s soul has possessed her. He explains things like she staring into something, going somewhere etc and asks his friend just to follow her and find out what it is after which he could take her to the hospital.
At first detective dismisses the idea of soul etc, but decides to give it a try. He follows her. She visits a museum and stares at a painting, goes to a hotel whose owner was once the lady in the painting, goes near a tree, goes to a cemetery and stares at the same lady’s tomb, goes to a forest and stares at a tree. This happens for few days and the detective collects enough details for him to confirm that that dead lady has possessed this girl. He meets his friend and explains him these findings and his friend tells - he had a doubt. Because that lady is none other than great grand mother of his wife, but he says they both had not communicated and also that his wife has started using her jewels - further proof to the wandering spirit. Next day the lady visits some water spot and jumps into it, our detective saves her and after that they become quite good friends. Detective tries to know things from her but she claims she does not remember anything. Over the time, the detective starts liking her and promises to cure her. Once suddenly she explains a dream and the details of the spot resembles to an actual location.They both go there and she starts running towards the top of the church where the bell is hung. He due to fear of heights fails to follow her and in between sees her body falling along with her scream. She falls down and dies.
After investigation, police/judge decide that she had tendencies of suicide and due to the valid fear of heights, even the detective could not save her. Judges do not believe about the spirit story but does not punish anyone and the case is closed. Detective is very distrubed again and he sees that girl in every other girl he encounters. He visits the places, hotels etc they had visited together. He can not come out of her memories. One day he finds a girl almost similar looking one and follows her. She gives all proof that she is a newcomer to the town. He convinces/forces her to spend more time with him. At this point the audience is told the truth that both the ladies are same. When she climbs up, the culprit - detective’s friend - was ready with his wife’s dead body and he throws that instead of the actual girl. The fact that they looked remotely similar was made use to fool everyone and the fact that detective was afraid of heights was exploited by his friend and he wanted respected detective to be the witness to the suicide scam to be safe.
Now our detective tries to change everything the lady does - from her dresses to the hair coulr and style - and it gets little dragged. He finally wants to take her to the same spot so that he can get over the fear and to confirm that he has lost her, so he asks her to get ready - at which point he sees her necklace - this is the same necklace he had earlier seen on the statue in the museum! Now he is clear of everything and now forces her to go to the same spot almost in anger that she is now afraid that he might kill her and she confesses the truth while climbing up. But she also tells him that she loves him and thats why she did not run away when he has found her the second time. However she is at the same spot from where she had supposedly fallen down and suddenly a sister comes from nowhere and says something. In the fear, shock and confusion the girl slips, falls and dies.

Once the screening was over, people were asked to talk about it. Many people shied away from talking and those who did (except for one - a prajavani cine-journalist) didn’t articulate their thoughts well - they spent most of the time thanking the organisers for giving us a chance to see the movie or they talked how great Hitchcock was - not why - and about Hitchcock making an appearance in his movies. Those were all right, but inconsequential. Only one interesting trivia was mentioned that “zoom” was first introduced in this movie.

There were two important points that got discussed after the movie but I am sure not many had understood it. First, everyone thought the ship-builder pushed down the doll of his wife, while I think it was “the wife” herself was pushed. Since the investigators went and saw the body soon after, throwing a doll would have got ship-builder under the scanner immediately. Second, not all were clear why the lady jumps off(it wasnt clear whether she jumped off herself or if she was pushed) - actually she does not jump off - she falls by accident. Why ? Because she saw a lady coming from the dark and speaking which was unexpected. In sudden shock she lost the balance and falls. Another way of explaining this (this was told by another person in the audience) is that sinners need to be punished so in the story she is made to fall off.
Also, if only the audience were not told the secret so early in the story it would have been even more better. After knowing the suspense, it kind of got slower and we just waited for the inevitable to happen - that of detective finding out the truth. Another point is if the detective did not know that girl is the same one till he sees her necklace, why does he forces her to do everything - to dress etc. Also, there is no detective intelligence - he does not try to find out some leads, does not put effort to find out if something went wrong, just forces her to look like earlier again, it just so accidentally happens that he sees her necklace. I felt these two points could have been improved upon.

However it was a good watch, the audience’s interest is kept till the end, audience is kept guessing what would happen next. There is another Hitchcock show on May 27th, planning to go for that.

Warning - Spoilers: Story and Ending revealed.
Story:
The story, in a broad sense, is like any other gangster movie which has this protagonist who is forced into the underworld due to poverty/helplessness etc. Like Jogi, this movie also has two threads running in parallel – or even more than Jogi here the emotional line is quite strong. What is impressing is that both the parts are given equal footage and both run without hurting the flow of the other. What stands out in this movie is the honest performance by Vijay. His dialog rendering is so simple and natural that it feels we are actually watching a live act rather than a show in the hall. I would not say Vijay has amazing acting skills as this movie did not require him to experiment or to depict something different – it just required him to be honest. It would be interesting to see how he would suit in a comedy or some other kind of roles. Talking of comedy, his many dialogues do invoke laughter – though unintended from the character. To that extent he seems to have good timing to click in a comedy role. Rashmi manages well to look innocent, look confused and cries well. And a special mention to the newly found supporting role – he reminds me of someone, but not able to remember.

Coming back the story, Vijay is an innocent village guy, due to some circumstances happens to come to city and comes in touch with underworld guys. He does not know them /their illegal work but joins theand beats . The story is quite complicated to narrate. How Vijay gets into the gang, how he gets beaten to get money, how – there are so many characters ! Someone is waiting to is waiting to fix up /take revenge on the other and how Vijay fits in the scene. Quite complex things and interwoven events to narrate.

In between this, he saves the girl from kidnappers, she has no place to go, so both of them start living in a s bus-turned-house. He tries to earn money for himself and help her study. Bothe develop a liking for each other but meanwhile the sword is ready above Vijay’s head.

Ending revealed ahead:
Caught between the gangsters and between police, both for the acts he didn’t do, Vijay faces danger of getting killed. Rashmi decides to end both their lives.

The supporting cast of friend is good. Also inspector in his tough cop act sends shivers down the spine. Some open ends remain – Inspector had first agreed to save him but later suggests to shoot him down as soon as he is seen. Inconsistent. But again at the end he says he would not have taken action – there clearly was a way director could have saved the protagonist from killing himself when he had done no crime. But for cinematic effects and to evoke sympathy, he is made to die and then later inspector too shows signs of mercy. Another open end is about her preparation to write exams but that is not completed.

Minus points include – same old story framework – innocent man with a machchu¹. The highlights of the movie include fast pace, songs, picturisation, lyrics², sharp dialogues and performances. Clever usage of additional characters to the plot. And of course good acting and direction - quite a few things like romance, actions are packed well but yet nothing is over done.

1. success of this has resulted in a parade of other such ones like masti by upendra, shivraj kumar again, sudip and who not. The posters tell half the story – man with a machchu. [back]
2. I am not impressed by what these VJs, RJs say about the song “Kariya I love you” that it has given confidence to people in town with dark complexion. It is one of the nonsenses I have heard – how do they know the confidence has increased, why if in a song of a movie a girl’s role says I love you, the confidence should rise for other dark people – that says nothing – first of all did she love him because he “was” dark etc arguments suddenly show how silly the claim is. I am not saying movies/songs shouldn’t mean something to people, for eg what can inspire people or increase confidence is like a song in My Autograph – araluva hoovugale neev alukadiri or say a song like – aagadu yendu kailagadu yendu kai katti kulitare sagadu kelasavu munde. This kariya song lacks any intent and is just created for rhyming.
   When I come to lyrics, first when heard this song I cringed – usage of English words , use of words simply to help rhyming – who have you seen swearing on Karunadu when he is expressing his love or worst since when did people start swearing on “bili moda” – Gods will really get angry for having forgotten them in this swearing game. But this song’s music – especially the flute – is quite catchy and later lyrics mean something when seen from the context of the movie – like he says he is an illiterate and she is like mother to him – after losing his mother he treats this girl as a companion just like his mother was and lyrics catches it quite well. And when I saw the movie, I was totally awestruck with some of the lyrics – especially the simple, rhyming and meaningful songs like nodayya kwaate lingave sung amazingly well by MD Pallavi. The other songs like “preeti maaye husharu” or even “ee paapi duniya” or “saala madiyadru tuppa tinnu” – a new proverb coined by our lyricist ?! score surprisingly well on lyrics scale. They are set to good music too but what is more important is that these songs perfectly fit in the story like hand-in-glove.
   [back]

Yes, its more than 100 days since the release and almost everything that had to be said about the movie must have been said. But should that be a reason to stop me from writing on my blog ? ( After all its my blog and there are few regular readers, who too will skip through this, so why bother ? ).

First of all the movie is near to me for it invoked DDLJ feelings. I can not clearly mention what it was, but that DDLJ magic was the prime reason that I kept going back to the movie. (Even though the movie was already a hit by the time I had watched it, for me it did not matter - one I was far away in Chennai not being aware of various talks about the movie second I kept myself from reading anything related to it, so it was still fine. Also I am very clear of not taking any prejudices with me to watch a movie). By DDLJ, I do not remark about the striking similarity - almost a love at first sight, girl being wary of the boy initially, girl starting liking the boy, boy showing his good-boy image to girl’s parents while preparations for girl’s wedding is going on, boy re-affirming girl that he would carry her away, entry of the bride-groom and that scene where hero takes heroine’s father on a walk - I could almost see a SRK-Amrish Puri in white dhotis trying to feed nuts to kabootars. The similarities might not be striking for others but it was for me. And due to all this, I had thought I know how this is going to end. At one point I thought the rabbit was there to do some sort of magic like the dog in HAHK. Hero’s father is left out after first few scenes (I had expected him to return like Anupam Kher in DDLJ). ¹ I kept waiting for the hero to impress the girl’s parents and to take her away. And at first I was disappointed it did not happen. I do not know whether it was a conscious deviation and I do not see anything against that climax too (I mean I believe even that would have worked out in the box office but since now people have seen this version they claim this is the biggest factor for the success). On the second thoughts, I like this climax too though the cine-freak in me was expecting yet another climax - that of him jumping off the cliff. One is a decisive happy ending, other a decisive sad ending and one more indecisive one where people are free to attach their own philosophical meaning - and that is the one which has worked !

Before I get into my commentary² let me say movie works for me.

Flow:
At the first look, nothing (nothing dramatic, actually) actually happens in the movie for the most part. Just like DDLJ. We see them romancing but nothing looks like progressing on that front. No other event like the “turning point in cricket” happens so that we can expect this is how it is going to proceed. There is no drama. Contrast this with eg Nenapirali and you probably get what I mean. Yet, this movie works. Just like DDLJ did. Only one reason can be attributed to it is the consistent flow and the narration.

Songs and lyrics : I had listened to songs many times before I saw the movie. The lyrics as everyone knows by now are just excellent. I was in awe after listening to the words but once I knew it was from a poet - Kaykini - my surprise ceased. He has affirmed one of my beliefs that “rhyme” is not “the most” or “the only” thing that makes songs good. I have seen some go out to create rhyme but somehow trading the simplicity of the meaning in the process. In this case, the meaning and simplicity was given the most importance and how! Set to brilliant music by Mano Murthy, the songs of this movie have been the propulsion for the success. I say, propulsion, because however good they were, they only got the people into theaters and later made them relive the movie by listening to songs but that should not take away any credit from what happened in between. Some observations - in one of the songs, there is “saavinallu naguvuda balla” which made me assume that hero would die andit would turn to be a tragedy. I was prepared to see the hero die and in part this spoiled a little of my experience - the actual tragedy is on a different level to his death, second since I was expecting that to happen every other time and anytime. The lyrics should have actually read “novinallu naguvuda balla”. And “anisutide yeko indu neenene nannavalendu..mayada lokadinda nanagage bandavalendu” immediately reminded me of “kabhie kabhie mere dil mein khayal aata hai ..ki aise tujhko banaya gaya hai mere liye..sitaron mein bas rahi thi kahi..zamein pe aye ho mere liye”. I am not saying its copied or even inspired but I strongly feel this might be an intentional tribute to that song which is anyone’s favourite ! Two more ingredients to songs that get a kudos are picturisation and choreography. Talking of choreography I didn’t quite expect “punjabi” set-up for “suvvi suvvali” song.

Picturisation:
When it comes to picturisation, there is no two ways about it. Its just as excellent as it could get. With the backdrop of rain, scenic beauty looks almost competing with the colourful costumes people have worn.
Performances and dialogues :
‘Comedy time Ganesh’, the household name it is by now, is one single element without whom it is difficult to think about the movie. True, all departments have shown results but its on Ganesh’s shoulders the screen magic had lied entirely. And how he manages ! With his next-door-boy looks, with his honest acting, that ever present smile which alone must have won him all female fans and most importantly, for me - dialogue delivery skills with good timing. He has the qualities that make a good hero though it would be interesting to see him in a real sorrow role. Heroine Sanjana Gandhi was effective in few scenes and complimented well in others. Though, an extra-ordinary performance was not expected by that role anyways. The supporting cast were not bad too -Anant Nag donning an important role - gave a natural performance. The dialogues were quite refreshing - they were bereft of cliches or used analogies. In fact that drunken dialogue -”tale na kerdu, gaya aagi cancer etc” was very unexpected!!³ But some jokes - like the one he uses to lighten her mood - did not work for me.

And for the sake of completion

Preetham is a kiddo with no near future goal. He falls in love with Nandini at the first sight. He decides to search for her. Accidentally they keep coming across each other. When he finds her he shares his feelings for her. But she refuses. He warns her if he finds her next time then he will marry her. He feels disturbed when he comes to know she is getting married. He decides to go away from her. If that was the case the movie would have said to end, but it doesn’t! Must watch movie.

That was an extract from my bro - who has been too happy for the number of comments and hits his posts on this movie are attracting.

This post is already so long and I haven’t even started to talk about how the climax does make sense and how I realized it even better after I saw almost a replica of these events unfold in front of my eyes. I haven’t even talked about the romance/love part of the story – after all it was “hani hani prem kahani” - how their “falling in love” , expressions were different and different feelings/attitudes of hero, the villain, the girl and I haven’t also commented how sudden & illogical for the girl to get carried away at the end – she should have tried to know the truth and how better it would have been if she was made a conscious partner in the decision rather than making her a scapegoat and making her take the result not understanding the whole picture/point. I just made a mention to say that I do see “the movie” not just the “its ingredients, making and execution”.

And finally kudos to the director who has managed to put together good pieces of work into one great piece of work.

1. You need not tell me I am too much into DDLJ, I know it [back]
2. yes thats what I would call my reviews from now on, as “commentary” makes more sense than “reviews”. [back]
3. Though this talking matters of heart only after getting drunk has been used quite a lot of times in movies like HDDCS, DTPH. I can’t help thinking - Help of liquor is taken even to start telling and when one doesn’t get the girl, he again drinks - Whats with lovers and drinks ?! [back]

Image from WarnerBros
Immediately after watching United93, went into Happy feet. It was quite some time that I watched back2back ! Happy feat is, well, a cute movie about Penguins. The hero, Mambo or Mamble, is born with a bad throat and can not sing.This is unusual among his species, who sing for almost every other reason. And thus he finds himself odd-manpenguin-out. But our Mambo is gifted with dancing. He is also a person penguin who is brave enough to go after his difficult mission and he has a bigger mission than to cry over his shortcoming. He considers his mission to be even more than the love of his life. Thus he goes out to find why there are no fishes, who is taking them and to ask them not to do it. He manages to find that aliens (humans) were taking away the fish ! During his quest and during other times, there are many sequences with adventure, fear, sorrow, happiness. It is serious movie you see, and unlike the cartoon series which put me to sleep !
I liked many scenes, in no particular order:
1. Mambo fights for the fish, for Gloria. And then later says “Eat the damn fish”.
2. The big sharks play volleyball with penguins.
3. Mambo finds itself in zoo/acquarium and tries to talk to his parents who were not there and whose impression melts out.
4. The dialogue - You have done everything penguinly possible (Now I keep saying to console myself “I have done everything ravikiranly possible” ).
5. The dialogue “Size may be daunting, but I love you”. I am sure I will use this sometime
6. The scene when Mambo fights Gloria and sends her back, the fight is so cute (like hum-tum fight). I did not expect Gloria to return! Then the next scene with the lillyputs trying to defend Mambo’s actions (Forgot the dialogues).
7. There were many other dialogues that were so good that I want to watch it again and note them down! Some of them are found here and here.
8. The dance choreography was first class !
9. The scene where mambo asks “why are you taking our fish”.
Happy ending was not foreseen but anything but that would have been a tragedy. A hurried climax shows that fishing is stopped by humans,thus helping penguins. Comedy, adventure, music-n-dance and all other ingredients, its a complete entertainment package. Wholly recommended.
The film is dedicated to Steve Irwin.
If there is a choice, which there was always, I always avoided to see the animated movies, for some reason, and used to go for real movies. But with this, I have changed and I watched Iceage1(for second time) and Cars yesterday. Other normal people graduate from seeing cartoon series to natural movies, I am graduating in the reverse direction I guess
Link to Official site, trivia,2

I watched United 93, because I had somewhere read that it is based on WTC related hijack. The movie was very gripping and very realistic. The sense of horror and unbelievability was evident on faces of many in the interval (or may be it was my state of mind). Was feeling sorry on one hand and was wondering how real this movie was. Later found out from net that it is based on real data except for may be few cinematic additions.

The movie is about that hijacked plane on the 9/11 which did not hit its target. Other 3 planes did. This plane was saved by the brave passengers on the board. The tensions/ confusions on the board, in the cock-pit, among those who were tracking the flights etc was filmed effectively. Without the interval, when I sighed, it could have been even worse.

More details about the movie here

My scattered views as expressed over a chat (with cousin) is here :
Did I like it??
Not entirely…felt something is missing… but an excellent movie overall.
There was no punch in climax…there was no punch in anything he did…the intensity is there in terms of the dialogues than acts… there are only hints..not the exact actions.
What happened to “saala”
What happened to his another friend
What happened to madhavan/mithun
Why is guru “great” ?
Why is guru “bad” ?
Does the end justify means ?
The dialogue baazi in courtroom was not strong enough….ppl expected to see Ambani story etc
And the songs…were hindering the flow
once again the same feel….”it could have been better”
Madhavan had told he never has or never will kiss onscreen…was shocked to see that scene,
it was not definitely needed..
Vidya just accepted for the sake of Mani Ratnam I guess…and Ash probably to spend time with Abhi (and bcoz of Mani factor) but has done well and looks good.
**
Yeah, thats pretty much my views. I liked the making of the movie (even dont mind a second watching), the impressive acting, picturisation, songs etc (Especially after realizing how much effort goes into the art, after reading this informative interview of Rajiv Menon). But somehow the story did not hit me. Only one point I would like to take away is, just keep working at it. Do not get distracted, keep working, keep dreaming.
Also, here is Arun’s review of Guru.
Here is another interesting review of Mani’s movies.

Jote joteyali :

The hero of Nenapirali was the only reason that I planned to see this. There was a flurry of opinions as soon as I exited the hall. Bulleting the ones I remember now :
1) It closely resembled Sathiya. I had thought Sathiya was already remade to Kannada but bro disagrees. Anyways, the resemblance is superficial and though there are similarities, things are different here.
2) Wrt to above or otherwise, I felt something crucial missing out in the story and this is becoming very normal these days , both here and in bollywood. The audience is just expected to believe the missing flesh in a relationship. For eg, the hero sees heroine and starts dancing and we are to assume he is in love. Perhaps it was love at first sight, but it continues with heroine too - she falls after reading his “sentimental” love letter where he is supposed to have poured out his love but audience is not told what was written in there.
3) Predictability is a major thing that makes me not appreciate the story. I could almost guess every other scene.
4) Using an established star to get an ad contract was intuitive and thumbs up for that. Very satisfied with the use of guest appearance of Darshan.
5) I absolutely hate the climax - a villian who was nowhere till then, pops out and becomes a reason for “unifying” the couple who was just waiting for divorce. Totally meaningless. I agree that it was to appease some section who want a fight in the climax but isn’t there any way out than to fall back on the age-old trick ?
6) Had not seen any Ramya’s film, looks like she can easily do roles with greater flexibility.

Khosla ka ghosla:
Enjoyed it right from the word go and for the most of the movie. More movies like this should be made. It is different, it is simple and it makes you smile. Some scenes were somewhat out of place - like Anupam Kher offering drinks to his son - it looked as though he had just then adopted his son. But other things like involving drama teacher (Navin Nischol) as a person to act as business man was wonderful. His performance is first rate as is Anupam Kher’s or Boman Irani’s and then everybody else’s. And the confused son played by Ranvir Shorey looked like he did not act at all - he must be so puzzled in his life too Liked those songs too. Feel good, totally timepass and worthy movie.

Don:
I had read many many reviews before watching the movie but thankfully none of them contained spoilers (like my reviews do). So there was still something left to be watched and boy, I was as clueless as any. By reading the reviews I made few observations. Every movie has likers and dislikers but this being the remake theoritically had four combinations : those who liked both versions, those who disliked one but liked the other and those who disliked both. Above that there were people who either like me had forgotten the original version or hadn’t seen the earlier one and these could like/dislike the movie on its own merit. So that increases the variety of reviews one can get

Going a little back, when I saw the poster of Don being directed by Farhan, I surely disliked it. I mean, Farhan gave a refreshing look to the whole thing and gave a cult classic which is the No 1 favorite of most people of my generation, falling back to do a remake. That too a remake of old successful film ? I decided not to forgive Farhan. If he really wanted to remake he could have done any comedy or romantic movie or even something that was there in some other language. But instead he takes on to remake an old movie which is a thriller.If he wanted a suspence thriller he could have gone out and designed something on his own - am sure he could have scripted a potboiler, hair raising stuff. How thrilling could a ‘remake’ get ?

But then, after seeing the movie I realised it did make sense (not much though). I might sound like lying, but back when I saw Don few 10 years ago, I was not convinced about Don’s death. How could a “hero” die? How could the one who mouthed the dialogue like “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai”. And I was hoping that his death turned out false somehow. It did not happen. I had the same feeling even while watching KNPH, I was all the time thinking Hrithik was not dead afterall and he is the one in Swiss too, till I was told it was not so by my neighbour. Coming back to the topic, I can perfectly understand the Farhan’s mentality - similar to many of us who after watching a movie or after reading a novel , wish we could make some change to the story , we wish if someone was not dead, we wish if someone was dead sooner and things like that. But the advantage with Farhan is that, he could actually go ahead and make the change and release a movie.

Having said all this, I sincerly had no clue what change Farhan was upto untill I had watched the last scene. Those suspence plot changes mentioned in all reviews made me all the more curious. And hence like other purists, I too did not like the changes made, in an immediate reaction. I mean how could the cop himself be the gangster - isn’t this the old stuff again. And how could the Don-look alike could be Don itself ? Nah. But, ok, what else could you have expected the remake to do to make it interesting ? And givent that it was what is wanted, there are no implausible things(considering that this is a movie where a top cop could be a gangster in not implausible).

So how does it fare compared to the original ? Or how SRK fares with respect to BigB ? To both the questions, the answer is similar. This DON is stylish - in making, in looks, in costumes - and is appealing to SRK fans, SRK himself needing to remain loyal to his image and chained by his limitations. Yet, he does a neat job of it.¹ His stamp is always there , be it ready-to-romance-Kamini or in the indifferent portrayals of //village-man and Don// (Now do not go and claim, that was intentional given the story’s twist) or even in the Paan song.² Priyanka handles the necessary babe-factor well.

Without a boring moment, this movie deserves pat, despite being a remake.

PS: 1. There were few other things I wanted to say, blame it to procastrination, have forgottem them.
2. Arun wrote review of this movie for rediff and due to that or otherwise, we had many discussion over Don and I read many reviews/readers comments. The supporters and bashers are both at extremes - half luuuuvv it and other half hates it.

Umrao Jaan
Bulleting::
1) I had not seen the original, so there was some suspence left. I did hope Abhishek ends up at the end. To my surprise, he did not.
2) Had heard that over 1 year of research was done to select the costumes and that over 70 topis were discussed before zeroing on one which is on screen for barely 5 minutes. Which is, just a ok thing. I am never an admirer of over perfection (isn’t there something like that ?) because it somehow misses the point.
3) Somehow could not connect/get involved to/in the movie. Don’t know what worked against it.
4) Was hoping for the song “In ankhon ki masti..” Disppointed that it never came. If Paan song could be remade, why not this ?
5) Hope someone stops RGV and the rest of the men to ‘remake’. Do at least sequels, no ?

Footnotes:

1. Lets face it, any ‘boy’ is eager to find mistakes in SRK and hates SRK for similar reasons that a girl hates Sherawat. The girl next to my seat uttered “sexy” at least twice the number of minutes SRK was on screen [back]
2. The other day, I was asked who would I suggest to replace Amitabh, if I had a chance. The first name that comes to mind is, well SRK, but on second thoughts, Abishek or Dev-brooder-gan. [back]

Rediff on Woh Lamhe

If there is one reason you need to watch Woh Lamhe, it is Kangana Ranaut. She is a brilliant, outstanding actress

Rangan on Woh Lamhe :

Kangana inhabits Sana wonderfully. At first, this seemed to be a reprise of the boozy moll she played in Gangster, and all I could think was that she’d better find herself a rom-com fast, or all this lacerating, baring-of-soul acting – the slurred shrieking, the eyes glistening with unshed tears, the drinking straight from a bottle while perched precariously at the edge of her first-floor verandah – is going to end up affecting her in real life. But I can’t imagine another heroine today who could have pulled this off and made Sana so compulsively watchable.

I too wish she gets out of this stuff otherwise she would be stereotyped and forgotten soon. There is not much I wanted to say about the movie apart from that - it is intense and full of pain and it drains emotionally. So much that the heart goes out for the characters and for their helplessness. Movie has some unwanted awful moments as well as some untied ends. It has soulful music and editing that cuts slack as well as allows for slow moments keep the movie going. And another point, that lady (Masumi Makhija) did scare me too much. 19 yr old actress, 25 yr old director and such movie - man, good times ahead for cinema.

After all these days, I finally went to Innovative Multiplex. And btw, impressed by this service too : iTicket.in

Coming to the movie, it is as tender and as powerful it can get. Shot beautifully in Himachal Pradesh and most of it in Rajastan, this movie is how a meaningful cinema should be - it is not void of entertainment, but it is in small touches by a character created for only that purpose - tells a story, gives a message - in very small details again - and most important of all, it works.

Zeenat is played by Gul Panag and Meera is played by Ayesha Takia. Both the ladies look like apt choices for the role, with Gul carrying off it with such ease that I wonder where was she all these days. She looks like an ideal replacement for Tabu ¹ having both beauty and talent to match. Ayesha’s acting is also just right.
And there is Shreyas Talpade, whose is the character I mentioned above, who ensures that we dont get all that weepy and lumpy-in-the-throat. His role is responsible for the few refreshing laughs but yet in some ways stays with us. Probably for that just one scene - “ek mahtva poorn baat kehni thi”. Not to say that other scenes were any bad.

The dialogues were all intense like when Meera says “Keh doongi bhajan sun rahi thi, ab naatak shuru hoga” and puts on her veil. When Zeenat says something on the lines -”Who laughs and dances with her friends when she knows her husband is on the doorstep of death”. One more I can remember is something on the lines of “society is as merciless as heat of Sun”. There are moments as well, like when Meera dances in the lane, very cautiously fearing if the society observes that act of a widow. When all of them dance to their hearts content in the midst of the desert. Two scenes, my most favorite, are
1) the ritual when Meera is de-bangled.
2) “Ek mehtva poorna bhaat kehni thi” Given the background, this was supposed to be just funny. But it wasn’t, and that we come know only later.
Messages thrown here and there about liberation of women or even about girl infanticide is so below the surface, but it hits the target.

Such dialogues and moments, not completely breaking away from our melodramatic style, yet not exaggarating it or not highlighting it, are at the heart of the movie which also succeeds in its primary motive - that of telling a story and that too in grand colour and picturisation.

Nagesh Kukunoor, more power to you. If I recall Hyderabad Blues and such like, I can not imagine this is the same Kukunoor.

1. only an other person who could have done this role and btw where is Tabu [back]

What a surprise packet. I hadn’t caught any promotional clips nor had observed the poster carefully and man, I was overwhelmed. Anyone who saw, kept saying, go watch yourself. I will concur that.

Hope you watched. When I had lost all hope on a sequel, after the debacle of the year Phir Hera Pheri, this resurrects the hope. In fact, this is as original as the first part.

Munna bhai is madly in love with a Radio Jockey and just like the first part, to impress her, he lies that he knows about Gandhiji and he follows Gandhi’s principles - which gets a new phrase from this movie - Gandhigiri. “How” he follows the principles and “how” he succeeds is what the movie tells us. There is a message and there is loads of laughter.

Random thoughts and minor spoilers ahead.

Of course at one point of time, I doubted how the story can win. There is no way by sending roses you can change one’s heart. Thats where the sub plot enters and I was convinced that, it works.

I expected in the beginning, Munna’s role, in realizing everybody’s dreams of those in Second innings house.

Jokes were not sms jokes, as is the usually case these days and they were very original, unheard of before.. But, it will take no time before Munna Bhai jokes going around in sms.

Full marks to most underrated performer of the decade - Arshad Warsi - what an impeccable comic timing this guy has. Everytime he said, “hey uthna, sorry bolneka hai”, I cracked up in laughter. His dialogue in jail explaining that he never went to jail after doing many crimes but went when he said sorry once , is my another favorite scene. And his facial expressions while searching for Bapu is great.

Vidya Balan chips in with cute looks and reasonable performance. Sanju babu is at his best. His listening to Bapu’s story of theft is my fav scene. And of course, “chemical locha” scene. See how he cries when he apologizes to circuit. Such innocent looks adds great value to the character. “Put me back in jail” near the wedding scene is a touchy one. Similarly, his shout about the corrupt bureaucracy. His all earlier work might be forgotten, but Munna will remain in every one’s hearts for ever. If Vaastav had given him second birth, Munna bhai has made him immortal. Munna and circuit together will go down as iconic characters from Hindi cinema on the lines of Gabbar Singh.

Bapu’s acting was touching.

Two things could have been kept from the first part - Lucky Singh should have been laughing/grinning whenever he gets angry. That used to crack me up in 1st part with Dean’s character. Second, there should have been a “jadu ki jappi” somewhere

After laughing for nearly 3 hours continuously, things look so good. Hopes on Bollywood resurrected. Am looking forward for sequels, remakes and what ever. Don, Ghayal - bring them on…