Genre: Drama, Romance

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D’ Souza, Mohnish Behl, Parikshit Sahni

Director: Ken Ghosh

Music: Adnan Sami & Pritam

Reasons to watch: Shahid Kapoor has tremendously improved as a dancer. And of course his chiseled abs (for the ladies).

Reasons not to watch: For a movie driven by dance, the music by Adnan Sami and Pritam is good, but not the awe-inspiring stuff you expect out of such a movie.

Storyline: Sameer Behl (Shahid Kapoor) comes to Mumbai with dreams of making it big in Bollywood. He barely makes both ends meet as a courier boy and doesn’t have much luck in auditioning for advertisements. He refuses to take any financial help from his dad (Parikshit Sahni) in Delhi and is thrown out by his landlord (Kurush Deboo) due to stereotypical rental problems.

With no roof over his head and no job to support himself, Sameer sleeps in his ‘car’ (I didn’t know one lungi ad could fetch you a car – Blemish) and joins as a dance teacher in a school (for some reason he hates kids). Then one fine day, Sameer is signed to play hero in a film and his friend Tina (Genelia D’Souza) is chosen to be the choreographer for the same project.

Subsequently (read as stereotypically), Sameer is dumped from the project and he is brought to naught. Motivated by Tina, Sameer takes part in a reality show dance competition whose winner would get to play the same role Sameer was signed to do earlier. I don’t think I need to ‘divulge’ more details on the climax. I bet you would have guessed it by now.

Climax Handling: Nothing new. But money’s worth to watch Shahid in his final act (gets the groove going with a signature move).

Points: Ken Ghosh’s experience with music videos seem to have helped him a lot in chalking out a story such as this. But though the movie moves on well with Shahid at the helm, it gives you a feel of a dreary mix of reality shows and connected music videos as a consummate film.

Rating:6.5/10

Comments: Maybe you can give this dance a chance.

Language:

Genre: Romantic comedy

Cast: Uday Chopra, Priyanka Chopra, Dino Morea, Anupam Kher

Director: Jugal Hansraj

Music: Salim-Sulaiman

Reasons to watch: It is one of the first releases this year. So you will want to watch it.

Reasons not to watch: Story and screenplay by Uday Chopra — KEEP OFF!

Storyline: Abhay Sharma (Uday Chopra) and Alisha Merchant (Priyanka Chopra) study in the same university in California. Nerdy Abhay falls in love with beautiful Alisha, who is every girl’s ‘wanna-be’ in college. Abhay constantly keeps dreaming of a life with her, but Alisha neither knows his name nor recognizes his presence around her. Having saved her from drowning one late night, Abhay thinks this will serve as a ‘pick-up’ incident like in a zillion Bollywood flicks, but to his disappointment, Alisha leaves college the next morning and returns to India to reside with her father. Our poor geek-boy is left stranded and heart-broken. Seven years pass and Abhay still harbors his crush on Alisha, without being able to get her out of his head. At this point walks in Dino Morea who plays Siddhu, an insidious businessman who robs a groundbreaking software developed by Abhay.

The scene then shifts to Singapore, as Abhay, having drawn motivation from his father (Anupam Kher), decides to go in search of Siddhu. This trip turns out to be a shocker when he learns that Alisha works as the PR and Marketing Head of the company owned by Siddhu. With renewed hope Abhay follows Alisha to her home, only to discover that she is a single divorced mom. Then, a simple moment of mistaken identity leads to Abhay working as a male nanny for Alisha’s kid and he plods along with the situation. The rest of the plot can be divided into two parts — Part 1 is about how Abhay and Alisha get together with Alisha falling for Siddhu (whose real name turns out to be Varun) and Part 2 is “Revenge of the Geeks: Retrieval of the Secret Software.”

Climax Handling: Too tame and predictable. The message is contradicting — Real beauty lies in the inner soul — if this is what the movie tries to send across, then why doesn’t the same apply to Uday Chopra’s character? Seriously, there is no other reason for Abhay to fall in love with Alisha apart from her being a dazzling ‘beauty’. She has a screwed up forced accent and is a very good example of beauty with’out’ brains.

Points: 1 Beauty + 1 Geek = A messed up movie

Rating: 5/10

Comments: Pyaar impossible is impossible to watch!

10 – New York

Director: Kabir Khan

Cast: John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan

Where it scored: Great individual performances. It turned out to be the meatiest roles ever done by John Abraham and Katrina Kaif.

Where it missed out: Got predictable after the first half. A lot of ‘filmy’ element was involved and the the director pretty much lost a sense of practicality towards the end.

9 – Love Aaj Kal

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna

Where it score: Two parallel love stories narrated in a unique and wonderful manner. Depiction of modern day relationships without any filmy clichés was commendable.

Where it missed out: Unnecessary interruptions in the form of songs. Failed to meet the expectations the viewers had after Imtiaz Ali’s previous venture - Jab We Met.

8 – Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year

Director: Shimit Amin

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Manish Chaudhary, Gauhar Khan, Naveen Kaushik, Mukesh Bhatt

Where it scored: A breath of fresh air with restrained melodrama, real-life clogs and sensible character portrayal.

Where it missed out: The movie got a mixed response as it was a seemingly long movie which required a lot of patience to watch. Music by Salim-Sulaiman was a big let down.

7 – Wanted

Director: Prabhu Deva

Cast: Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prakash Raj, Govind Namdeo, Inder Kumar, Aseem Merchant

Where it scored: It was a no brainer. A total commercial ‘masala’ entertainer that kept the audience at the edge of their seats. Half the battle was already won because of the pre-release hype.

Where it missed out: Prabhu Deva could have tightened the script a little more. The songs were absolutely disastrous.

6 – Luck By Chance

Director: Zoya Akhtar

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Isha Sharvani, Dimple Kapadia, Hrithik Roshan and others.

Where it scored: It was quality cinema at it’s best. The honest depiction of the way Bollywood works struck a chord with many aspirants who wish to make it big in Hindi cinema. Zoya Akhtar excelled in her directorial debut. Realistic performances by Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma.

Where it missed out: Nothing new in the plot. Very slow – paced first half that makes you feel drowsy.

5 – Three Idiots

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Omi Vaidya

Where it scored: Absolute laugh riot with a tinge of emotional moments and a social message – signature Rajkumar Hirani style. A dazzling Rang De Basanti starcast and amazing individual performances by Boman Irani, Kareena Kapoor and Omi Vaidya added to it’s success.

Where it missed out: Much was expected of this movie and it lacked the genuineness and high standards set by Hirani’s Munna Bhai MBBS.

4 – Kaminey

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte, Tenzing Nima, Chandan Roy Sanyal

Where it scored: With only a normal storyline, Vishal Bhardwaj proved to be a master story-teller. Shahid Kapoor sky-rocketed to stardom with a scintillating performance.

Where it missed out: A violent ending did not find universal acceptance.

3 – Dev D

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin

Where it scored: Randomness happens often in our newly-experimental cinema, but it’s always great to see a film where no detail is an accident, where the director gets to execute his vision exactly as he wants — and this seemed pretty darned close.

Where it missed out: The critics gave the movie good reviews and this raised the expectations. Even so, this was a rather radical project; a movie that could well have done more but accomplished far more than enough, and I think the only reason we expect even greater things is that it really, really whets our appetite.

2 – Wake Up Sid

Director: Ayan Mukerji

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak, Rahul Khanna

Where it scored: Rendering flawless performances, Ranbir Kapoor matured as an actor and Konkona Sen Sharma was as elegant as ever. It was an absolute feel-good movie that catered to a wider audience who could relate themselves to the movie and it’s characters. The movie redefined the true meaning of ‘platonic relationship’.

Where it missed out: Did not really miss out on any grounds. It is in the No.2 position only because Paa ended up being a better movie.

1 – Paa

Director: R. Balakrishnan aka R. Balki

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan

Where it scored: Amitabh Bachchan carries the movie on his shoulders! A different story is always welcome amidst the flurry of hogwash that Bollywood offers every year. Vidya Balan rendered a strong performance.

Where it missed out: Negative aspects of this movie include a weak music section and the length of the movie. But, nevertheless Paa was a ‘one-of-a-kind’ movie.

Language:

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Cast: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Omi Vaidya

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Music: Shantanu Moitra

Reasons to watch: It is Christmas time and good laughs are guaranteed.

Reasons not to watch: Some scenes drill in the film’s message too often.

Storyline: Rancho (Aamir Khan), as it turns out, can do just about anything. Right from electrocuting his senior with a spoon and two wires to delivering a baby using a vacuum cleaner. He remains an oddball among all the students studying in the Imperial College of Engineering run by Hitler’s reincarnation, Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani), fondly known as ‘Virus’ among students. Rancho’s motto is to strive for excellence rather than success. But half-hearted efforts or fear or even worse, a mechanical methodology of studying will not help in the attainment of excellence. Enter – Farhan (Madhavan) whose dream is to become a wildlife photographer, but is forced into engineering by his dad; Raju (Sharman Joshi), a poor lad whose fear of failure thwarts him from achieving his dreams; and Chatur (Omi Vaidya) who is a mechanical mugging machine. Rancho’s efforts to help his friends live their lives by instilling his ideals in them, pits him against ‘Virus’ who sees him as a threat to his conservative ideology of education. But soon after helping his friends in achieving their dreams and touching their lives (Hirani’s signature touch that leaves you with moist eyes) in some way, Rancho disappears. The film is almost shown as a flashback, with Farhan and Raju going in search of their long lost buddy after ten years.

Kareena Kapoor as Pia adds to the on-screen vivacity. Though her expressions give you an impression of a Jab We Met hangover, she excels in her role as daughter of ‘Virus’ and Rancho’s romance with finesse. Omi Vaidya as Chatur (hats off to him) cracks you up with his portrayal of a typical innocent engineering student who is obsessed with being No.1, which surprisingly turns out to be the life-line of this movie.

Climax Handling: Though not up to the standards set by Munna Bhai MBBS, Rajkumar Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi give us a mix of emotions at the end; a lump in the throat, the never ending slapstick and a satisfaction of having watched a totally refreshing movie.

Points: More or less based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots takes many a light-hearted jabs at the Indian education system, evoking apposite wringers about the congruity of learning by rote, the usual rat’s race for high grades, and the alarming consequences of parents squeezing their wards into pursuing long-established educational streams.

Rating: 9/10

Comments: ALL IS WELL! Go for it!

Watch out for ‘My Name is Khan’ as it hits the theatres on February 12, 2010.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Manish Chaudhary, Gauhar Khan, Naveen Kaushik, Mukesh Bhatt

Director: Shimit Amin

Music: Salim-Sulaiman

Reasons to watch: Films like this are rare and hard to come by.

Reasons not to watch: The first half tests your patience.

Storyline: Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) is a quixotic B.Com graduate with an embarrassing 35% aggregate. In spite of his abysmally low marks, he lands a job as a salesman, working under a boss who sets impossible targets. For a morally upright person, he finds himself in a soup; a work environment that defines dishonesty and incapability – a team-leader who goofs-up conveyance vouchers, co-workers with a ruthless sense of competition, a maintenance guy who is addicted to porn and a receptionist who would literally go to ‘any extent’ to get a work upgrade. This depiction of a workplace is more realistic and defies the usual boilerplate that engulfs Bollywood. With a sanguine conviction that a business can be run in an ethical manner, Harpreet puts together a team comprising fellow colleagues and sets up his own business within the company he works for. Working discreetly and prudently, they progress steadily and eventually their business measures up and pits them against their boss.

Climax Handling: A breath of fresh air with restrained melodrama, real-life clogs and sensible character portrayal.

Points:

“ Risk toh Spiderman ko bhi lena padta hai, main toh phir bhi Salesman hoon ” (Even Spiderman has to take risk, I am just a Salesman).

The makers have also risked promoting this off-beat movie and looks like the gamble has paid off.

Rating: 8/10

Comments: Jaideep Sahni’s script is the heart of the movie. Ranbir Kapoor matures as an actor and renders a scintillating performance.

Genre: Drama

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan

Director: R. Balki

Music: Ilayaraja

Reasons to watch: Watch it for the brilliant performances of Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan.

Reasons not to watch: For a simple father-son story (mother-son would be more apt), Balki stretches the movie too far.

Storyline: Simple storyline – Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Girl gets pregnant. Boy walks out of her life, while girl gives birth to a ‘baby boy’; well not exactly

Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) is an ingenious, jocular 12-year-old boy suffering from progeria -  a rare genetic defect that causes accelerated ageing. Psychologically, he is 12, very sane, but physically he looks about five times older. Auro is a content boy, despite his physical condition. Clueless about his father’s identity, his life centres around his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan), a gynaecologist and his granny.

The first hour of Paa clasps the audience in a misty way. Auro’s introduction is exceptional, but the story totally goes off-track the moment Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan) enters the scene. Though his portrayal as a determined politician is welcome, the way he  relentlessly keeps slamming the media is vexatious. In spite of some titillating scenes, the overall impact is not up to the mark. Some of Abhishek’s dialogues are simply unconvincing and lack substance in them.

But post-interval, Balki weaves magic. This portion of the movie conceals all the obscurities and the father-son relationship in the final 20 minutes  amplifies the magical effect the movie has on the viewers. With an overwhelming emotional quotient, Paa is a tear-jerker.

Climax Handling: You are bound to leave the theatre with moist eyes.

Points: Writer-Director R. Balki could have made the movie less lengthy. Looks like music maestro Ilayaraja has run out of musical notes. P.C. Sreeram’s cinematography is laudable.

Rating: 8.0/10

Comments: Vidya Balan’s excellent performance is ensconced by Auro. Amitabh Bachchan scores!

Language: Hindi

Genre: Comedy, Action

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Om Puri, Kirron Kher, Ranvir Shorey, Javed Jaffri, Neha Dhupia

Reasons to Watch: No exercise of brain required, Akshay Kumar, Ranvir Shorey in a different role, some kinky but funny moments

Reasons not to: Hardly any story line, Om Puri and others wasted, largely unbearable songs.. too many reasons actually

Director: Anees Bazmee

Music: Typical Preetam Stuff, Period. And Snoop Dogg comes in the credits and fails to impress.

Storyline: Happy Singh is a happy go lucky villager who wants to help people but ends up causing a lot of trouble. To do away with him for a while, the villagers send Happy Singh to Australia to bring back Lucky Singh, a don in Australia who is from the same village. Happy is accompanied by his friend Rangeela and by some accident; they end up in Egypt rather than Australia. Here Happy meets Sonia and falls in love at first sight. Somehow Happy manages to reach Australia and ends up replacing Lucky Singh as the new don. Being the nice person that he actually is, Happy begins helping people and thus manages to show light to Lucky Singh and all his accomplices to cause a change of heart. Till something goes wrong again…

Climax Handling: Funny…

Points: Typical run-of-the-mill entertainer, lifted on the shoulders of Akshay Kumar, Katrina looks stunning and that is all that she has to do, Ranvir Shorey does a strangely different role.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Comment: Worth a casual look, go for it with a group of friends and come out laughing(at least smiling..)

]]> http://www.themovieanalyst.com/2008/08/19/singh-is-kingg/feed/ 0 http://www.themovieanalyst.com/2008/07/12/jaane-tu-ya-jaane-na/ http://www.themovieanalyst.com/2008/07/12/jaane-tu-ya-jaane-na/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:10:42 +0000 Tejaswinee http://www.themovieanalyst.com/?p=106 Language: Hindi

Genre: Drama, Romance, College

Cast: Imran Khan, Genelia D’Souza

Direction: Abbas Tyrewala

Reasons to watch: MUSIC! JAZZ by A R Rehman. Just mind blowing! Well written dialogues. Meticulous direction and art direction. Aamir Khan Productions, Cute cute cute cute Imran Khan, very cute Genelia.

Reasons not to: Story is quite predictable. And the climax disappoints a lot.

Story: College group. Parents. Meeting up all the time. Hanging out all the time. Not worrying about what to do and how to do it. Two friends in the group who can’t do without each other. Jai and Aditi. And everybody else who thinks that they are in love. And their violent denial of the fact, even disgust at it. The way the group sticks together, and has fun. Jai and Aditi’s respective searches for people they think would suit them enough to be involved with them. Then the big R. Realization. Jai and Aditi are really meant to be together. Then their failed efforts to see that the other person… yawn

Climax Handling: Bad. But Funny… That is all I’m saying! Laugh it off!

Points: I don’t know… It’s alright…

Rating: 6/10

Comment: Watch as a pass. A lot out of here is going to be quoted, and revised and reworked and reshown and reheard!

Genre: Mafia, Action, Drama

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, K.K.Menon, Katrina Kaif, Supriya Pathak

Reasons to Watch: Vintage Ram Gopal Verma stuff, stunning performances, a gripping tale quite close to The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola would have felt proud.!

Reasons not to: If you are too obsessed with The GodFather, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando.!(Do not compare this movie with the original masterpiece, this is a ‘declared’ inspiration, superbly adopted to the Indian way of life, and not a cheap rip-off)

Director: Ram Gopal Verma

Music: Sandeep Chowta creates a dark, brooding background score with “Govinda govinda…” haunting the screen time and again.

Storyline: Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) – popularly known as Sarkar – is a wealthy and influential person in Mumbai, who does the ‘wrong things for the right reasons’ and imparts justice to the down-trodden and the helpless, being on the wrong side of the law. Still he is too powerful and politically connected and has a strong army of goons and support of the masses(read: Vote Bank). He has two sons, a foreign educated, Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachchan) and the ‘black sheep of the family’. Vishnu Nagre. Enter a drug dealer, ,Rashid (Zakir Hussain), who needs Sarkar’s help to operate. Sarkar refuses to allow this trade in his region and what follows is a tale of violence, betrayal and killing, which leaves Sarkar bruised and broken, his family and his power weakened. Shankar, then rises to the occasion, restoring his Father’s influence and respect, eliminating his enemies and becoming the next ‘Sarkar’.

Climax Handling: Climax is gripping yet predictable, but with a twist in the tale

Points: This is the closest any director can get to The GodFather, several have tried and failed miserably, watch it for the impeccable acting, cast and screenplay

Overall Rating: 8/10

Comment: If you have been disappointed by Ram Gopal Verma lately(AAG rings a bell..!) It reaffirms your faith in the director and also lays the groundwork for his sequel Sarkar 2, releasing soon in June.