New York

New York is a movie on a concept, which film makers in Bollywood haven’t tried much. The story starts with the friendship of 3 friends but mainly revolves round the aftermath of 9/11.

Aditya Chopra, the writer as well as the producer of this movie have taken a bold step by making this movie. Also as a director, Kabir Khan does a good job in his second film and had made an entertaining movie while maintaining the essence of the movie.. The good thing is that these people have chosen a concept which is different from normal Bollywood movies. Firstly, this is not a romantic movie unlike the trademark of Yash Raj Films. Secondly, this movies tries to bring out the other side of the story of the 9/11 attacks, brings out the effects of those deadly attacks on the normal people and their lives.

As far as the characterization is concerned, the story revolves around 4 people: Irfan Khan, John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh. It’s always worth watching Irfan Khan’s performance, he fits into every character so naturally and provides an uniqueness to all of them. He did a good job as always.

John Abraham too is maturing by every film now; he too has done a decent job in fact in some scenes he has done a fantastic job but at times he could have been better too… Neil Nitin Mukesh has done the best job amongst all the actors. He is so natural in the film and suits the character. Definitely slowly and steadily he is gaining the ground in Bollywood…

For Katrina Kaif, I think it’s her career best performance in terms of acting. After this movie, filmmakers would offer her more performance based roles instead of the ones she was getting till now. This movie can help her to come out of her Barbie Doll image and may bring her in the league of good actresses like Priyanka, Kareena, etc.

The music of the movie is soulful and few of the songs are already ruling the chartbusters, even the placement of these in the movie is very appropriate. Like all other Yash Raj movies, this one is a visual treat for all the audiences. Another aspect which I found good was the editing of the movie. The editing of the movie keeps it the story moving at a good pace and also intact. The director and editor have remembered to show the Twin Towers in all the scenes which were supposed to have occurred before 9/11.

There are few loopholes in the script, mainly towards the end of the story. This movie, especially climax could have been made in a better way but for me, then too it was a good, a different and an entertaining movie…

Overall I'll give New York, 3.5 out of 5 stars...

General Elections 2009: Indian Political Bazaar

The counting of votes for Indian General Elections 2009 will begin today at 0800 hours.

And the leaders of various National and Regional Political Parties have already negotiated with each other, against their parties support to form the Government at the Centre. Still few hours are left before any trend / results come out but these people have already heated up this political market, where governments are not only formed by the peoples’ votes but also by horse trading.

Similar to Cricket IPL, here to the regional parties which are believe to win more seats are commanding better prices and portfolios in the cabinet ministry. JDU leader, Nitish Kumar wants special status for the state of Bihar, Naveen Patnaik of BJD wants to become the Chief Minister of Orissa while Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh of SP , and BSP Supremo Mayawati wants best portfolios for themselves and their party MPs’.

Even this is not enough, politicians like Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and also Sharad Pawar of NCP , who all belong to Regional Parties and their parties have major presence mainly in their respective states, have ambitions to become the Prime Minister of India after these elections. I’m not saying that being ambitious is wrong; but the problem is that anyone of them can only become the PM, only when all of them come together, with many other parties to form the Third Front and form the Government at the Centre. And this to me seems to be a major problem and distant possibility for a stable government.

Anyways let’s wait for tomorrow and days to come to see the final outcome of this Political Bazaar, which is currently going on in New Delhi. And also at the same time let’s hope that any government which comes into the power does something good for the country and its people…

Do VOTE !!!

On the eve of the third phase of voting for General Elections 2009 in India, I request all my readers and the voters of this country to Vote…

Yesterday I watched a video on YouTube, Kuch Nahin Ho Sakta... This well-edited video, starring lot of young Bollywood actors and actresses, conveys the message to vote in a classical way…

8x10 Tasveer

8x10 Tasveer is a different movie, with a unique plot which Bollywood have never experienced before (correct me, if I’m wrong)…

Nagesh Kukunoor, writer and director of this movie, had done a far better job as a writer than as a director. According to me, the ending could have been better; for me it was difficult to digest the correlation used to derive the ending. Screenplay was decent and some scenes were really good. There is only 1 song in the movie and which I believe wasn’t required too; also if the film makers wanted to keep that song then they should have inserted it somewhere before… The movie is shot beautifully at various countryside locations; in the initial parts, except for the cast everything looked similar to a Hollywood flick…

Apart from Akshay Kumar, who does a good job, there are many other talented artists like Girish Karnad, Javed Jaffrey, Benjamin Gilani, Anant Mahadevan and Sharmila Tagore; but all these actors were wasted since neither did they have a strong character nor did those characters’ had much length. Ayesha Takia too didn’t had a great role, unlike to what she had in Dor…

A Nagesh Kukunoor movie having a superstar like Akshay Kumar could really have been a delight for the audiences and to some extent, it was… But this combo too wasn’t able to keep the cash registers ringing at the Box Office for long…

Overall I’ll give this 8x10 Tasveer, 3 out of 5 stars…

Delhi-6

Delhi-6, a Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra movie… A movie much hyped and awaited too but definitely not worth all that...

After seeing the trailers of Delhi-6, I felt that it has all the masala (indegreints) which is required to make a Hit Hindi movie. Scores of brilliant character artists, amazing lead pair, soulful music, amazing background setting, etc etc and I was sure that this movie will definitely strike the chord with both Indian as well as foreign audience.

Good points about the movie were definitely its music, especially songs like Masakali, Arziyan, Delhi and also acting by actors like Vijay Raaz, Divya Dutta, Pavan Malhotra and Atul Kulkarni; but these actors weren’t also able to save the movie… For other actors like Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri, Waheeda Rehmaan, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi and for that matter even Abhishek Bachchan, I think their talents were wasted and should have been utilized better… Sonam Kapoor looks beautiful and gorgeous in the movie and she is definitely better than her debut movie.

More than blaming the director, the script was the primary cause of such a debacle. The first half of the movie was boring, even the number of songs and so many Ram Leela sequences (although I liked them) could have annoyed the audiences. Second half was much better except for the climax which I think was written in haste, in order to bring a dramatic ending to the story and also to send out a social message like RDB…

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra really thinks differently but such out of box thinking, to which audiences aren’t able to relate, may land him in difficult situations; cause at the end of the day what matters for a commercial movie is its box office success.

After watching the movie I think that except for the music, everything else will find hard to strike any chord, with anyone. Two positive points points which I can draw after watching Delhi-6 were Rehman’s melodious compositions and in my memories, I revisited Chandni Chowk…

For me watching Delhi-6 could be a sheer wastage of both your money and time. I'll give Delhi-6, 1.5 stars out of 5...

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (RNBDJ) was among one of the most awaited movie of the year. It is a film by none other than the team of DDLJ, from the duo of Aditya Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan.

After coming out of the theatre, the first thought which came to my mind was now SRK is the strongest candidate to win the Best Actors Award, for his role of Surinder Sahni, Punjab Power, Lighting up your Life…

RNBDJ will definitely have mixed responses from the audiences. This movie might not have a straight reponse; but some people will definitely like the simpleness and lightness and others might figure out the flaws in the story / screenplay. According to me, the movie may do more business in single screen than multiplexes because of the plot itself. This movie definitely has the guts to become the biggest hit of the year…

Shah Rukh Khan plays the role of Surinder Sahni (Suri), a common man who works in an electric company. The character written beautifully and also played vibrantly. SRK does a fantastic job while potraying the character; the way he talks, walks, thinks, every action he does, justifies the simplicity and characterstization of the character, which the director would have wanted the audiences to see.

SRK also plays another character Raj, which is totally opposite to Surinder Sahni, but I think that SRK does an ok job there since this a character which he had been portraying since years. But one thing here is to appreciate that the both the characters were different and we really got to see 2 different people in the movie.

Anushka Sharma, the debutante actress looks confident, is a good dancer and does a good job considering the fact that this was her first movie. Initially when I saw her in the promos, I thought she is not so pretty as other new actresses these days are; but certainly after watching the movie I agree that she fits into the character well. She is both traditional as well as modern at the same time. Vinay Pathak aka Bobby Khosla, is also another character to look for in this movie…
I agree with some of the critiques that the writing department wasn’t upto the standards of Aditya Chopra. The story and dialogues were simple but by any chance you not comparable with the likes of DDLJ, and for that matter neither with Mohabbatein. The dialogues weren’t heavy but they were surely similar to what a common man like Mr. Sahni will use in his daily life. The screenplay was one area which really wanted some more polishing; the first half was good but I felt some scenes of the other half were long and bit monotonous.

The music by the duo of Salim-Suleiman is very soulful and catching up with the audiences well. Haule Haule had already become a hit while Tujh Mein Rab is out an out romantic song. Chance pe Dance is a song which has the capability to teach dance even to poor dancers like me; it can be used for dance teaching lessons in the future. These songs are liked by the listeners not only because of the music but also due to their lyrics. The lyricist Jaideep Sahni had written some very beautiful and touchy lines; he is equally responsible for making the music so wonderful. The choreographers Vaibhavi Merchant (Haule Haule) and Shiamak Davar (Dance pe Chance) had given their 100%, both were successful in bringing out the innocence of Suri and the studness of Raj.

According to me, RNBDJ, a movie with a simple story, light comedy and full of romanticism, is definitely worth watching…

I’ll give RNBDJ 4 out of 5 stars, where 1 extra star is only for Mr. Surinder Sahni…

Mumbai: The Battleground

After 24 hours of the ongoing War against Terrorism as I walk on the streets of Mumbai, the life here seemed to be somewhat normal. People were seen moving in and out of the bars & restaurant, enjoying the delicacies like vada pav & chat, youths roaming around; even the buses were running almost full. Nothing as such has changed except for the mental peace of the common man or the common Mumbaikar…

Last night, Terrorists attacked our Financial Capital, the city of Dreams – Mumbai at 10 different locations… But the attacks were different in terms of the modus operandi this time. Till now, bombs were placed secretly and terrorists never attacked from the front but this time they came out openly to spread the terror amongst the innocent citizens, using AK-47 guns and Grenades. They opened gun fires at many places. The second unique thing about these attacks were that the places like temples, trains, airport where common Mumbaikar would have been, weren’t targeted; but terrorists have chosen places which people might not have thought off, even in their nightmares. The terrorists attacked 5 star hotels – Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident, Café Leopold and peace loving people living in Colaba, etc. The attacks in the hotels and café were done at the time when various foreign tourists would have come back to the hotels and while corporates were having seminars and meetings.

As of now, the death toll has risen to 155 including atleats 14 policemen, 2 NSG commandos and some foreigners, while approximately 327 people have been injured in these Terror attacks. The dead also include Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. It’s a really sad day when so many people have lost their lives but our politicians are only making false claims or as usual playing the blame game. My heartfelt condolences to the family of the all the people who died in these attacks… And I would like to salute the NSG commandos, army men, navy men and policemen for fighting bravely, continuously for almost 2 days now.

The titles like “War on Mumbai” or “Warzone Mumbai” can easily be justified after viewing the various footages available on Internet / TV. It simply reminds me of the Kargil War that time infiltrators captured Tiger Hill and other points; while this time they captured Taj, Trident and Nariman House. The only differences between the two were that it was in J&K while this in Mumbai; in Kargil War the terrorist might have taken months to capture those points while this time it took only few minutes for them to enter the targeted places and make hostages. Only thing which have changed that the attacks now are more planned, organised intensified and more terrifying…

A lot have been spoken about the spirit of Mumbai and Mumbaikars, whenever any such calamity had happened, but I would like to ask that till when this spirit will continue? If the people of this city or may be our country have good fighting spirits, this doesn’t mean that they should suffer from such attacks, blasts, etc. The government or the authorities should not take as an excuse for treating such matters lightly. Let me warn the government that these spirits of Mumbai could dampen too, if something concrete is not done. And let me clarify that alongwith the spirits, the common man is full of anger against these terrorists, terror groups and also against the government.

Something more disappointing was to watch our politicians giving interviews about Islamic & Hindutava terror, their election meetings, vote banks, etc. They’re saying that we need Federal investigation agency and police reforms but why do we only realize these necessities after something of such a magnitude had already happened? Why can’t be more pro-active or be more prepared? Where was our Intelligence agency when the recent attacks were being planned or was it an Intelligence failure? Or are the govt and the agencies were more than happy after catching few terrorist from so called Indian Mujahedeen or Sadhvi???

I would also like to ask Mr. Raj Thackeray that these attacks are on Aamchi Mumbai and after almost 2 days of these attacks, we hadn't heard any statment from you, pacifying the Mumbaikars. And just for your information, the NSG commandos who have been fighting here with the terrorist, have come from North and all of them may not be Marathi’s. Shouldn't the principles of MNS for a common man in Mumbai, i.e. not allowing North Indians, should have also been applied on the NSG commandos? Sir, this is a time for our country when we should be unite to fight against these Terrorist groups and not against our own countrymen.

Honourable Mr. Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers, I think this is a high time to take some concrete steps and not just make speeches. They have entered almost everywhere in our country and it’s really difficult for an ordinary citizen to live peacefully in his / her own motherland.

(PS: The blog was originally written on 27/11/08 but was updated on 28/11/2008)

Dostana

Dostana - as the name suggests, is a film about friendship...

Some people might say that Dostana is only one time watch or may be not worth watching et al but one thing which I witnessed in the theatre was that audiences present there were laughing out loud... 

I too agree that the story in general is predictable and the weakest link of this movie but overall the plot of the movie is new for Bollywood... The screenplay and dialogues were the areas to look forward too...

People to look for in this movie are Priyanka Chopra and Abhishek Bachchan. Priyanka looks ravishing, even hotter than what she looked in Fashion and definitely deserves the introductory scene showing her sensuous lips and curvaceous body. She once again gave a solid performance... Abhishek was best among the male actors, his expressions as a Gay were mind blowing, especially in the scene where he narrates the incidence of first meeting with John Abraham... John and Bobby Deol did an ok job but definitely they could have been better... Definitely for girls, it would have been a retreat to watch John bare chest... Characters of Boman Irani, Kirron Kher and Sushmita Mukherjee are also worth watching and had good comic timing...

The music of Dostana is good but that not great like any other typical Karan Johar flick... Songs like "Maa Ka Ladla" and "Desi Girl" are foot tapping numbers while "Jaane Kyun", "Kuch Kam" and "Khabar Nahi" are soulful and romantic songs... You'll like the songs but may not remember them for long as we remember KKHH, K3G, KHNH songs... But as any other KJo movie, the cinematography and editing are awesome... It was a pleasure (and tonic for the eyes) to watch the Miami beaches...

Tarun Mansukhani, the debutante director overall does a good job... The chemistry between the 3 (Abhishek, John & Priyanka) of them is certainly a thing to look for... 

I'll give Dostana 3.5 out of 5 stars...

I've been Tagged...

Thanks to Narayanan for tagging me, actually this gave me a reason to Blog after few months...

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your first thought be?

- What happens; happens for good…

2. If you can have a dream coming true, what would it be?

- I’ve lot of dreams, so mentioning here about one and ignoring others would be   sort of injustice.

3. What is the one thing most hated by you?

- Hypocrites

4. What would you do with a billion dollar?

- Only a Billion Dollars, that’s it.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?

- Maybe, but only if the friend is a girl…

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

- Definitely, being loved by someone…

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?

- If I really love someone then I’m ready to wait for my entire life…

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

- Look out for a better prospect… :D

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?

- Dunno.

10. What takes you down the fastest?

- Attitude

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?

- To know the answers, you’ll have to wait till then…

12. What’s your fear?

- Losing my family & frndz…

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

- Narayanan: Smart, intelligent, techie and a friend…

14. Would you rather be single and rich, or married but poor?

- Neither.

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

- Want to sleep more…

16. Would you give all in a relationship?

- Can’t say since I’ve never been into it…

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

- Both.

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

- I believe in forgiving but not in forgetting…

19. If you get to go back in time and fall in love all over again, would it still be with the same person?

- May be Yes… May be No…

20. What will you do about climate crisis?

-  No idea.

 

Now I tag Anshul, Dheeraj, Niraj,  Rohit & Tammy !!!

ROCK ON !!

Sometime back I saw a promo saying, “From the makers of Dil Chahta Hai” and yeah after watching it, I can easily say that they haven’t lowered their standards and were also up to the expectations of their audience…

Rock On is a movie not only about a Rock Band but also about relationships and friendships…

Abhishek Kapoor, the director as well as the story & screenplay writer has done a fantastic job. The story is unusual but at the same time very realistic, to which people can easily relate to, all the characters of the story were well defined. First half of the movie consists of many transitions from present to past and vice-versa but well written screenplay and editing helps you in not realising the same. One thing which I feel about the story is that people from metros / bigger cities will easily relate with it while people from smaller towns may not bond with it so easily…

Through this blog, I would like to ask Farhan Akhtar a question “How can 1 person be so talented; an intelligent director, successful producer, brilliant actor and an amazing singer?” Farhan performs excellently in all his 3 roles, acting, singing and dialogue writing. Songs have already become chartbusters and guys believe me; he’ll definitely give a fight to Imran Khan for Best Male Debut Award…

All the other characters were equally important in the movie and they all too did full to their specific roles.

Rock On’s music is very refreshing, youthful, different (with a touch of Rock music) and already ruling the charts. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy once again proved that they are one of the best in the industry and especially when it comes to experimentation; who would have allowed a new singer like Farhan to sing 6 out of 9 tracks of the album. Generally our Bollywood actors sing 1 or at max 2 songs but in this case hats off to the combo of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Farhan Akhtar.

Javed Akhtar, as usual have written mind blowing lyrics; one may not understand them when listening for the first time but after watching the movie you’ll definitely like it.

Another thing which I also liked is the use of the song, “Tum Ho Toh”. This is a romantic song but in the movie it has been used as friendship song and the placement of the song is so perfect that it fits the situation…

Overall Rock On is a good movie to watch… I'll give this flick 4 out of 5 stars...

ROCK ON!! definitely rocks...