Kurbaan

Kurbaan is a romantic movie with terrorism as the backdrop. But you shouldn’t compare it with Fanaa or New York, the basic theme of all these movies are totally different from one another. Although, there are few similarities between Kurbaan and Khuda Kay Liye, the widely acclaimed Pakistani movie.

Kudos to Renzil D'Silva, the director of Kurbaan, for choosing such a topic for his debut movie. After seeing the movie, one thing I strongly felt was that this guy knows his work, his treatment of the subject, camerawork and other technicalities are better than most debutante directors. Rensil is also the co-writer of the story, alongwith Karan Johar, who is the producer as well as. I would also like to praise KJo for producing such a movie. The story and screenplay are the major USP of this movie; the movie is well written, where a love story between a couple and the story of Islamic fundamentalists have been shown in parallel. There are few flaws in the script but overall it’s worth watching.

The camerawork and the editing is good. I really liked the way, how the cameraman has captured the monuments of Delhi and also how they have shown some parts of New York, especially the Tube stations. The background music by Salim-Sulaiman is fabulous, complimenting the screenplay at every point and this is what makes the movie a real thriller. Although I feel that songs of the movie, done by the same composer duo, could have been better; my personal feeling is that unlike other KJo movies, the songs of this one won’t rule the chartbusters for long.

Now let’s come to the other important factor in making any movie a hit or a flop, that is, its Actors & their performances. Saif Ali Khan, gives another solid performance, looks equally cool and dashing. Kareena Kapoor was not as good as she was in Jab We Met but definitely far better than Tashan and Kambaqt Ishq and for all her male fans, she is looking stunning in the initial portion of the movie. The couple “Saifeena” look great onscreen.

Vivek Oberoi, after a long long time did a good job, audiences might have forgotten him but this movie could prove to be his comeback film. Om Puri, as usual, is brilliant. Kiron Kher acts more or less in the same way as she has been doing in her recent films, except in the climax where she too is good. If I’ve to dissect the performances of the actors in one sentence, I’ll say that every actor has done played his or her part beautifully.

People going to the theatre should remember that it’s not a normal Bollywood or Karan Johar movie but it’s an intense movie. Overall Kurbaan is a good movie to watch, I’ll give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Four Years

Today’s date (7th November) was, is and will be very important for me always; four years back on this date, I got my first (till date the only) job…

For me, today I not only completed four years in a company; but lot of other things which how small or big, matter to me in some way or the other:

• Most importantly I’ve gained four years of professional experience. It’s not that I was waiting for this landmark to take any further action but I’m happy to do so.

• Four years back I made some friends and needless to say we’re still good friends . Infact in the due course, our friendship have become better and matured too.

• Since last four years I’ve been living in Mumbai (city of dreams); actually it was sort of a dream-come-true when I got a job in this city.
  

• Four years of financial independence.

The above mentioned four points are the ones, which I can remember without thinking. In the coming as this count of years will increase, I want to do lot more things but only God knows that where I'll go from here...

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...