Cast: Vinod Khanna, Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan, Boman Irani, Mahesh Manjrekar, Simone, Cyrus
Director: Krishna DK, Raj Nidimoru
Rating: ***
The movie promised to be a laugh riot and to a little extent lives up to its expectations. There is nothing in the script to make you sit back or think. Kunal Khemu and Cyrus Bocha are SIM card thiefs who create duplicate SIM cards for people. Their business is busted by cops and they end up stealing a Gangster's(Mahesh Manjrekar) Mercedez before ramming it on a road divider.
Mahesh sends them both to Delhi to retreive money from Boman Irani who is a compulsive gambler. Boman looses lots of money in cricket betting.
Kunal, Cyrus, Soha & Boman decide to form a team and bet on a Indo-SA match in Delhi. They have to get information from Vinod Khanna who is a bookie fixing cricket matches.
Soha Ali Khan works for the hotel where Kunal and Cyrus stay. Soha Ali Khan is definitely wasted in a totally insignificant role. Soha plays Kunal's love interest in the film.
The movie is really funny in parts especially when Amit Mistry the bookie agent speaks english. Boman Irani is the lone actor who holds the movie together.
After all the cop chase and the controversial Indo-SA cricket match the movie ends. Too many characters in the movie who dont add much value to its script. Example Simone Singh who comes as Boman Irani's helpless seperated wife.
I would only recommend this movie, if you are looking for a few laughs and forget about it completely when you reach home.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Angels & Demons
Director: Ron Howard
Caste: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor
Rating: ****
After the dissapointing film adaptation of 'Da Vinci Code' comes 'Anegls & Demons' directed by Ron Howard. The book was written before 'Da Vinci Code' and in many ways better adapted by Ron for a movie.
Plot:
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) a Harward professor is called to identify ancient symbols after a murder in CERN laborotaries. Four cardinals are kidnapped in the vatican city during the mass enclave to elect a new pope. Tom Hanks is requested to help save the cardinals who are threatened to be killed every hour. The group calls themselves "Illuminati" a 400 year old scientific secret society who are back for revenge against the Vatican for persecuting scientists in the past.
The movie becomes a run chase where Tom Hanks and CERN scientist Ayelet Zurer look for clues inside the Vatican state where the cardinals are held hostage. They have also stolen the latest explosive material called the 'Anti-matter' from CERN to destroy the Vatican state.
How Tom Hanks gathers all the clues within split seconds will remain a mystery. He is the expert here who knows all the secrets about the Vatican.
Despite its flaws on narration the movie holds your interest throughout its length. Tom Hanks is a pleasure to watch especially when he takes a dig at the Vatican for its misdeeds. Ewan McGregor is adequate in his role as the the priest in charge after the Pope's death.
There has been a few changes from the novel to make it less confusing for the viewers. For the average viewer it will be difficult to understand about 'Illuminati' , 'Anti-matter' and all the other things. Please research a little before watching the movie, you will enjoy it.
I would give it a good rating for its slick direction and pace.
Caste: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor
Rating: ****
After the dissapointing film adaptation of 'Da Vinci Code' comes 'Anegls & Demons' directed by Ron Howard. The book was written before 'Da Vinci Code' and in many ways better adapted by Ron for a movie.
Plot:
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) a Harward professor is called to identify ancient symbols after a murder in CERN laborotaries. Four cardinals are kidnapped in the vatican city during the mass enclave to elect a new pope. Tom Hanks is requested to help save the cardinals who are threatened to be killed every hour. The group calls themselves "Illuminati" a 400 year old scientific secret society who are back for revenge against the Vatican for persecuting scientists in the past.
The movie becomes a run chase where Tom Hanks and CERN scientist Ayelet Zurer look for clues inside the Vatican state where the cardinals are held hostage. They have also stolen the latest explosive material called the 'Anti-matter' from CERN to destroy the Vatican state.
How Tom Hanks gathers all the clues within split seconds will remain a mystery. He is the expert here who knows all the secrets about the Vatican.
Despite its flaws on narration the movie holds your interest throughout its length. Tom Hanks is a pleasure to watch especially when he takes a dig at the Vatican for its misdeeds. Ewan McGregor is adequate in his role as the the priest in charge after the Pope's death.
There has been a few changes from the novel to make it less confusing for the viewers. For the average viewer it will be difficult to understand about 'Illuminati' , 'Anti-matter' and all the other things. Please research a little before watching the movie, you will enjoy it.
I would give it a good rating for its slick direction and pace.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire - Review
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Mathur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan
Rating: *****
4 Golden Globe awards, 5 Critics choice awards, 10 Oscar nominations, 11 BAFTA nominations, the hype around Danny Boyle’s Slum Dog Millionaire is never going to die down for quite some time. I am not going to write this review with a biased opinion nor am I going to thrash it like many others. The critics say the western world is exploiting Indian poverty to make money. Why aren’t the Hollywood movies showing the brighter side of India but always depicts us as the underbelly slum dogs? This has been the most debated topic on the movie.
The story has been discussed a zillion times but nevertheless will give a brief synopsis. 3 Kids from the Mumbai slums the brothers Salim(Madhur Mittal) and Jamal(Dev Patel) and a girl Latika(Freida Pinto) get orphaned after the Bombay riots. They are left on the streets vulnerable to criminals who use them for begging and crime. No one in Indian movie has been able to capture the plight of slum kids as Danny Boyle. Real slums and kids from the slums were used to play the child characters of the lead artists. The scenes have to be watched to be believed, very realistically shot (If you have not seen Indian slums before it can churn your stomach a bit to see all the dirt and sewage).
Years later Jamal who is still in love with Latika finds Malik and tries to get her back in his life. Latika who also loves Jamal is unable to leave gangsters Javed and Malik(He kills Javed’s rival to join his gang). Jamal was thrown out by Malik earlier to get Latika. To reach out to Latika, Jamal participates in KBC where Anil Kapoor is the host. Anil plays an eccentric man who is unable to digest a chai wala winning money on his game show and even gets him arrested. Irfan Khan plays the role of the inspector who is interrogating Jamal to check if he is cheating. Jamal’s story on how he knows all the answers strikes a chord with Irfan.
The movie shows each scene in flashback as Jamal answers questions in the show and interrogated by Irfan Khan. He narrates incidents of his child hood experiences with riots, foreign tourists, begging and call centre which helps him answer most of the questions. The music is good but people who have listened to earlier scores of A.R.Rahman, this is not extra ordinary. Having 3 oscar nominations, it will be a proud moment to watch him receive an oscar.
What is stopping the Indian directors from showing the negative side of the western world? Drug abuse, broken families, high crime, mugging, lonely lives and there are many more bad things about the west. We show the Swiss Alps, Scenic beauties from Europe, London, Clean roads, Casinos, flashy Sports cars, posh apartments, beaches and our heroes/heroines dancing in them. We all must have seen some of the pitiable living conditions of children on the streets. Why get so offended when a westerner is showing it? Should we all pretend that everything is perfect in our country. Aren’t we all in one way or the other answerable to the way our society is shaped? I don’t want to sit in Air conditioned offices and see only IT parks, Shopping malls which is not the only side of India. The movie also for the matter shows tall buildings and BPOs in Mumbai. The only flip side in the movie is the accent of lead actors especially Dev Patel. This would have been more realistic, had it been shot fully in Hindi with english subtitles.
I would highly recommend this movie for everyone, leave your prejudices at home before you go. Too high expectations can also cause disappointment. Watch it like a simple love story and a typical Indian movie.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Ghajini - Review
Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin, Jia Khan, Tinu Anand, Pradeep Rawat, Riyaz Khan
Director: A.R.Murugadoss
Rating: ****
Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ was marketed very well all over the world that it took the biggest opening ever for an Indian film. Was it really worth all its hype and publicity over the past few months? I would say it is for the riveting performance of Aamir and slick direction of Murugadoss who had earlier made the tamil/telugu version of the movie. For people who had seen the original English version ‘Momento’ this can be a poor cousin but remaking it completely would not suit the Indian audiences. The director has done well to Indianize the movie.
Since I had seen the tamil version of the movie the comparison was inevitable. Surya and Asin played the lead roles in the tamil/telugu versions. Surya and Asin onscreen chemistry and their romantic angle was a huge plus for the movie in the tamil version but the climax was extremely poor and looked like a typical masala movie. In the Hindi version however the climax leaves everyone speechless. The director has changed the climax and together with Aamir’s stunning performance will make a huge impact on any viewer. The first half of the movie and the Aamir-Asin romance does not strike a chord with the audience and it drags big time. Its only the second half which makes the movie very interesting.
Sanjay(Aamir) a business tycoon who returns from US falls for a model Kalpana (Asin) working in a low level ad agency. A murder and a very bad head injury leaves Aamir with a permanent short term memory loss. He cannot remember anything beyond 15 minutes. I don’t want to narrate the entire script in the review and kill the suspense.
Jia Khan dissapoints big time both with her looks and performance and does not look anywhere close to a medical student. Asin who is making her debut in Hindi overacts a bit. She is very impressive though in her final scenes. Not many in Bollywood know Asin is a leading actress in the south especially in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Will she follow the footsteps of Hemamalini and Sridevi to make it big in Bollywood only time will tell.
For Aamir Khan its another feather in his cap. After an extremely impressive directorial debut in Tare Zameen Par, he pulls of another big success leaving his rival SRK and his Rab Ne Bana De Jodi way behind in box office collections.
Director: A.R.Murugadoss
Rating: ****
Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ was marketed very well all over the world that it took the biggest opening ever for an Indian film. Was it really worth all its hype and publicity over the past few months? I would say it is for the riveting performance of Aamir and slick direction of Murugadoss who had earlier made the tamil/telugu version of the movie. For people who had seen the original English version ‘Momento’ this can be a poor cousin but remaking it completely would not suit the Indian audiences. The director has done well to Indianize the movie.
Since I had seen the tamil version of the movie the comparison was inevitable. Surya and Asin played the lead roles in the tamil/telugu versions. Surya and Asin onscreen chemistry and their romantic angle was a huge plus for the movie in the tamil version but the climax was extremely poor and looked like a typical masala movie. In the Hindi version however the climax leaves everyone speechless. The director has changed the climax and together with Aamir’s stunning performance will make a huge impact on any viewer. The first half of the movie and the Aamir-Asin romance does not strike a chord with the audience and it drags big time. Its only the second half which makes the movie very interesting.
Sanjay(Aamir) a business tycoon who returns from US falls for a model Kalpana (Asin) working in a low level ad agency. A murder and a very bad head injury leaves Aamir with a permanent short term memory loss. He cannot remember anything beyond 15 minutes. I don’t want to narrate the entire script in the review and kill the suspense.
Jia Khan dissapoints big time both with her looks and performance and does not look anywhere close to a medical student. Asin who is making her debut in Hindi overacts a bit. She is very impressive though in her final scenes. Not many in Bollywood know Asin is a leading actress in the south especially in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Will she follow the footsteps of Hemamalini and Sridevi to make it big in Bollywood only time will tell.
For Aamir Khan its another feather in his cap. After an extremely impressive directorial debut in Tare Zameen Par, he pulls of another big success leaving his rival SRK and his Rab Ne Bana De Jodi way behind in box office collections.
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