Kaminey Kritics!

I don’t remember any movie in a long time whose pre-release fuss was so much. Honestly speaking, I get a little excited and little more curious with all this kind of stuff. Ever since I saw the trailor of Kaminey in march [when I was watching Pink Panther-2. No! I don’t want any comments on this, coz this post isn’t about that] for the first time, I knew I’ll be seeing it as soon as it gets released. My only tiny apprehension was regarding Shahid Kapoor. Just that, he really can’t act. But I convinced myself, coz the movie bore the tag of Vishal Bhardwaj. That was March.

Aah! The notorious bollywood strike was here. April. May. June. July saw the unveiling of the music of  Kaminey. And also, the very famous Dhan Te Nan. So far so good. Then there were the tracks Pehli baar mohabbat ki hai and Raat ke dhai baje. Things were looking better. We’ll get to see an intelligent movie; probably the first one after DevD.

Two days before the release of the movie, I read this review. Things haven’t been so good ever! I was super excited. I couldn’t wait for it’s release. I’ve lost count on the number of attempts I made to book the tickets. Online, Offline. All Failed! Because, my ATM Debit Card is neither Visa or Mastercard. But I was content. I was watching it on saturday. Not too shabby for me. And I already had plans to watch it again sometime in the coming week. Yaayye!

Saturday, 15th of August. This was the first time I was not watching a movie in PVR in Delhi, attributed to apparent unavailability of tickets. Duhh! We were at 3Cs in Lajpat Nagar. The movie hall was good. The company which I had was even better.

Cut to the movie. The movie [almost] began with a very sensual lip-locking between Shahid and Priyanka. Very realistic! Very passionate. Instantaneous turn-on. With respect to the movie, ofcourse. 😉 Half an hour into the movie, there was just this one chasing sequence which got me to the edge of the seat. And I wanted to be on the edge for the rest of the movie too. I was glad! Finally, the movie is really ‘starting’. Little did I know that it’d be last time I’ll be on the edge in a 3 hour long ordeal. Well, ‘ordeal’ would be a little too harsh word to use. It was a nice movie. When I say ‘nice’, all I mean is that it wasn’t bad. Definitely not good. The disappointment which I felt after the movie was over was not because of Vishal Bhardwaj [or even Shahid Kapoor!], it was because of the reviews and the hype.

The movie had nothing which the critics claimed it did. You can compare Vishal Bhardwaj to Quentin Tarantino in a very broad sense of word. But you just can’t compare Pulp Fiction with Kaminey. So Not done, dear reviewers! I’ll never understand why Guddu stammered, or why Charlie lisped, or why Shahid wasn’t made to dance [the only thing which he is really good at]; probably not till I am alive and in my right senses. And I’m very sorry Priyanka, I didn’t fall in love with Sweety -like we did to Geet in Jab We Met– simply because she was hardly there in the movie. Apart from the hand-held camera work, there was nothing extra-ordinarily brilliant about the movie. It is so not the most well edited movies of recent times. Let’s not talk about DevD, but even Gulal was much better edited. Vishal Bhardwaj ji, I think you had too-much-to handle in one go. Go Charlie Go was good. But not Charlie, or Guddu, or Sweety! Gulzar sir did justice, and so did the music director in Vishal Bhardwaj. But that was pretty much it.

This review, is more like a review of reviewers rather than of the movie per se. I think I’ve lost faith in you people. May be, me and my friends should start our own reviewing service.

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Tweet Tweet!

Breaking News- Twitter is killing Blogs! Is anyone listening?

That is the reason why this -and I’m sure, many other- blogs are well on the way to oblivion. Blogging is like a test match. You need insane patience, you never know how long it would be and most importantly, whether it is worth the efforts putting in. Twittering, is more like the T20 game. Latest, Innovative, Improvized and Miniaturized version of an previously popular game.. which is set to take over it’s predecessor. I didn’t find Twitter much appealing initially, but lately I’m finding myself significantly hooked to it. The story of my life. Like today, I had this sudden and almost indomitable urge to tweet about my feat in achieving 0.00 balance in my phone. Sad. Lame. Sadly Lame. Lamely Sad. Go ahead, I won’t stop you from judging me. I surely don’t have any discretion after saying that publicly.

***

Facebook is the new Orkut. I’ve been considerng to change my home page pretty soon to Facebook. My orkut is dead. Or would be, in a month or so, if the things didn’t change drastically; and I see no possibility of that in near future. So.. Dead! This phenomenon of social networking sites, some people will never understand. And by “some”, I mean people in their thirties, mid-thirties. It’s one of those idiosyncracies which our generation will boast of in future. You know son, I met your Mom on Facebook; which is really a remarkable and unique paradigm of interfacing, because facebook never supported strangers interacting; unlike Orkut in it’s infancy. Fancy that!

****

The oscars are out. Slumdog Millionaire is clear cut winner of the tournament this year. It’s a good movie. One or Two oscars would have been more than sufficient to honour it. But Eight! And just Two to The Dark Knight? For me, this marks the beginning of total disbelief in Oscars henceforth. Most certainly, bollywood has churned out some better movies than this one. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie. Just that, we’ve made better, which deserved to be acknowledged; but were not. It kinda feels like some charity-cum-conspiracy to placate. Just because the movie is based on India, lets give it oscars. Coz China and India are the forces to reckon with currently.

For the ‘best movie’ category, I think The curious case of Benjamin Button was miles ahead of it, notwithstanding TDK. Oh, and by the way, TDK wasn’t even nominated in that category! Here is an interesting fact- All the 5 movies nominated in that category did a combined business of $270 million [approx]. The Dark Knight, on the other hand, is only the fourth movie in the history to cross $1 billion mark.

I finished Watchmen. Perhaps for the first time, I didn’t find something [especially in this genre] as much appealing as I had expected. I guess Alan Moore messed up the ending. It was good while commencing. It became better in the middle. And just when my hopes were raising, it crashed them down flatly.

There are bad vivas. There are worst vivas. Mine was embarrassing today.

*****

Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to be remembered from time to time that nothing worth knowing can ever be taught.                                                                                                                                                                                ~ Oscar Wilde.

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Come on, 2009! :)

A very Happy New Year to all!

The previous post was written in a jiffy. So it doesn’t count. Not for me, at the least. You see, the thing is that I’ve realized I can’t do many -or for that matter, any– thing in haste. I take my own little time. Which – in most cases is – [much] more than others. Eating, Ironing, Studying, Socializing… just to quote a few random examples. People who have known me wouldn’t be surprised a wee bit at any of it.

Anyway, let’s make it musical. There was a time – I can’t exactly recall when- perhaps last year or so, when there was such a dearth of good hindi music. I mean the songs weren’t just worth listening to twice. And I was pretty sure that that was the near end of Bollywood music. But thankfully, I was wrong. And wrong by light years! Of late, from November onwards or so, I don’t think I’ve listened to much of English. Songs from Dostana, Fashion, Yuvvraj, Ghajini, Jaane tu.., Rock On, et al.. and very recently, from Slumdog Millionaire, CC2C, Raaz-2, DevD, AR Rehman’s new album, LuckByChance… They all have been just too good! A huge chunk of this quality music is attributed to Rehman. I mean, the songs from Yuvvraj were so brilliant that I watched the entire movie just for them. [FYI- That movie isn’t worth watching at all except if you’re highly interested in Salmaan’s looks, or Rehman’s music or both.] Then there is Ghajini these days and there was Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na a little while ago.

If you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, or listened to it’s OST.. then you should immediately stop reading this crap and do aforementioned things ASAP! Or you can wait and watch it in theatres from 25th January onwards. I highly doubt if any Indian Director could’ve possibly made this movie the way a Firangi did. He showed a much more veracious India than any other contemporary Indian movies. Talent, can’t just be the raison d’être for this. Rather, what can be perceived from the movie is perspicacious homework. And the background score makes it even more lively. Your heart beat do get increased. Mine did! I won’t reveal where. Indian film industry, I feel, isn’t lagging behind in technology or talent or resources much these days. It falls back when hard work comes into picture. I mean, how many of the actors did built 8-packs just to make some action scenes look authentic and get into the feel of such character. But yes, there are those who would build a 6-pack to show it off in some totally inane dance sequence. But then, this is a free democratic country and people have their choices and preferences. I just wish they’d have prioritized a little more scrupulously.

While we’re still on movies, I feel morally obliged to let you people know about the movie named ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ which is one of the most intelligent movie I’ve seen in the recent present. It’s too long, boring.. Nonetheless Brilliant. I won’t say much about it, except that you should watch it.

***

In this new year, I’ve learnt that you can’t force yourself to fall in love. It just happens. Contrary to what I used to believe, but my credos have been fully replaced now by new ones. Change, as they say, is only inevitable. And necessary for one’s growth. [BTW, in that previous quote, I’ve been wondering from time immemorial that who are those they?] I used to hear this in movie/books, but now I know the truth behind it. And not vicariously. Then, it just doesn’t matter how good or bad the person might be. If you don’t feel, you just don’t feel. Nothing can be done about it. I don’t know how it is for others, but for me this has been the case so far. Also, you can’t make someone fall in love with you. Coz after all, the choice is theirs ultimately. Eh, it’s just too complicated. I can’t even express it here with panache. Chuck it. I landed incongruously.

***

It’s always great to catch up with old friends. It’s even greater to catch up with older friends. It’s even grander to catch up with people who have known you for past 10 years. The fact that you were together then, and you’re together now too.. is overwhelming enough. Everyone of them have changed drastically. But the best part is that we all changed in sync with each other. We are still as good friends as we used to be. The only difference being that then, we spent almost a day daily together, and now we spend a week together annually.

C’ est la vie…

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Zendagi Migzara

Have you ever wondered why a certain thing (movie, book anything) is liked by majority and yet you’ve no clue what the fuck is it about. Then one fine day, you just decide that you’ll just watch/read/feel it to know what is it that gives the junta such a high. And bang! There you’re, cursing yourself in the long run, that why didn’t you do it earlier. Sometimes, going with the flow, being in the crowd and not out of it isn’t as bad as it may sound. I’ve experienced this innumerable number of times, and am still continuing doing so. The latest case being of Roadies 5.0 and The Kite Runner.

I always knew ‘The Kite Runner’ is a book definitely worth reading and more, but somehow I wasn’t able to jugadofy it from anywhere. But once I laid my hands on it, I made sure I finish it as soon as possible. 8 hours isn’t too long a time period, is it? After reading a sufficient numbers of best-sellers, now I can safely discern ’em and others. The narrative description is impeccable. Sentences extremely terse yet dramatically poignant and ostensibly symbolic. I’m already feeling at least 5% Afghani, if nothing else. The plot loosens grip somewhere in the middle, but then Khalid Hossieni becomes even more ferociously captivating.

Ehh.. Who am I kidding? You people must’ve read the book ages ago. Chuck it. I’ll move on.

Roadies 5.0. First thing which comes to my mind after seeing this word is Raghu. Second thing is that why am I not there. And thirdly, all cute girls ain’t scrupulous[yeah, I’m talking about Sambhavi]. Nonetheless, it has made Raghu a celebrity in its’ own distinct manner. The tasks, the politics, the bikes, the girls.. it so very Me! 😦

***

It’s 3 O’ clock in the morning, and I’m yet not feeling sleepy, despite the fact that I’ve to attend class at 8 in the morning. I’m getting a little insomniac. Perhaps, coz I’m not getting as much attention from females as much as I was used to. It’s a complete black out for me these days. But that doesn’t vex me much. My major concern is her. I’m getting this feeling that she has started ignoring me. Not replying to someone’s routine SMSs suggests so.

***

I’ve a lot of academic work to do in coming few days. By the way, yesterday I got my first pay check. I thought the feeling will be overwhelming. But strangely -and sadly- it wasn’t. Probably I’ve no one “special” to share it with. I’d loved to spend my first salary on her -or for that matter, anyone who were my love interest- but unfortunately no one is there to acknowledge it. It wasn’t meant to be, or may be, it was meant not to be. Arguably, one of the best lines I’ve ever come across! No candies for guessing the source 😛

****

This post could very well be attributed to my ongoing drinking spree.

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Errr..

I just realized I haven’t blabbered casually here for a long period of time now. Probably, I’ve been too busy with some other, more important stuff. This post, was never conceptualized, it’s just materializing right now. Perhaps, for the first time ever, I haven’t written anything in my mind before hand and whatever crap am scribbling here is produced dynamically.

• First things first. I just wish -and wish pretty badly- that this weekend turns out to be my most memorable weekend. I just hope I do not screw up things.
• 16th to 23rd of Dec ’07, 28th Jan ’08 and 24th Feb ’08 are dates to be memorized by heart.
• India winning in Australia, India [U-19] winning in Malaysia, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa doing unprecedented wonders in Golf… ’tis arguably one of the best phases of Indian Sports. India Shining, rightly and Brightly.
• Haven’t seen Jodha-Akbar yet. I wanted to see it so very much in theater. But it’s getting banned gradually in all over the state, and if I may add.. Shamefully! I don’t understand. Ain’t these people have any thing better to do than just to create fuss about every movie which is even remotely related to religion or history? Can’t they just keep their asses on their seats and take things as they are supposed to be taken? Ashutosh Gowarikar never claimed he is recreating some historical incident. It is just a story based on history. Not history itself. So what if he distorted some facts and figures. They were all done in good spirits, just to make the screenplay more captivating. Thats what my tini-tiny filmi brain comprehends.
• On similar lines[I mean filmy], I saw Juno a while ago. Some movies have got that thing in them. I’m not sure what “thing” am I talking about… the effort which they put in to make the movie seem effortless makes for “that thing”, I believe. The feel-good-factor which the movie gives is seriously commendable. Pretty much like TZP. No! I’m not comparing anything.
• Lastly, but definitely not the least, the traffic on my blog has increased mani-manifolds! Yet people aren’t commenting in the same proportions. Some think that my posts are too good to comment! Whatever! 😛 Nonetheless, I’m loving this all.

Imminent- Minors, Poltu.. and a whole lotta futile hardwork. It’s a formal declaration, that I’ll not be involved in any kinda politics henceforth. Concerned people make a note of it. I’m damn serious. I’m not making any such proclamation for minors though. No matter how ardently I want to, I just can’t afford to 😦

***

I think I’m looking good these days 🙂

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If ‘You’ know what ‘We’ mean..

I saw Scent of a Woman yesterday. Boy! The best visually challenged role I’ve ever witnessed! Al Pacino is growing on me[actingwise, I mean 😉 ]. I end up being his fan more and more, each time I see any of his flicks. Nonetheless, this is not about the movie. I was just vivisecting with one of my other friend of all Oscar Winning movies. And we came up with two things- Dialogues, and the way they are delivered. Sure shot ingredients of any award winning movie.. except, ofcourse.. some immaculate and superb acting by all the characters. So here it goes…

The day we stopped looking my boy is the day we die!

Source- Al Pacino[as Lt. Col. Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman]

Its for the readers to sort out the relevance of it 😉

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Every child is Special

I don’t know about every child, but yes.. every movie with which Aamir Khan has anything to do is definitely way more than just being special. I’ve been his fan –perhaps “fan” is not entirely justifiable, am his admirer- since I saw Ghulam, and ever since he has been delivering astounding, classy performance.. and mind you, not just in terms of acting but also production, and very recently with direction too. Rangeela, Ghulam, Raja Hindustani, Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Mangal Pandey, Rang de Basanti, Fanaa- Munna, Siddhu, Raja, Bhuvan, Aakash, Mangal Pandey, DJ, Rehan. No similarity between any movie and character whatsoever, except that they all are played by one man.. common to all of these- Aamir Khan! These characters are as vivid and fresh in our minds as anything. This is versatility, not to undermine the underlying perfection. The guy has grown over the period of time.
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak came in 1988. It immediately was the hot favourite among youth of those times. It started myriad new trends. He was the style icon back then. Dil Chahta Hai came in 1999, almost 11 years later. Aamir was the hot favourite again. His style was again copied, profusely. He was again the style icon. RDB was trendsetter.

Circa 2008- Aamir is still the style icon. 20 years, and things have constantly been getting better. Yes, Yes.. I’m coming to TZP in a while. I do not care what he is doing in his personal life. We won’t mind him showing attitude in public and press alike. We do mind when he doesn’t do cheap publicity stunts, not showing himself too often, not giving many interviews, never talking about his films beforehand.. but that’s all because we love him. We can never have enough of him. And then if we look at things from his point of view, we are brimmed with awe.. sheer respect for his talents. Let my work -and not me- speak on my behalf. Sure he is hell correct in doing so. I don’t know about olden times, have not seen much of it. But whatever little understanding I have about cinema, I think he is the best product bollywood has ever been able to produce. There is a very little possibility of anyone coming close to him, nonetheless, I place Hrithik and Rahul Bose in the same category as him.. that is what Hollywood-wallas call “Method actors”.

***Time for a Break***

 

..And apparently that break lasted not just for few minutes or hours but days! I’ll not say much about Aamir now. I think I’ve already made my point, despite the fact that I’m still left with so much to write about him yet, nonetheless.. I’ll come to the point now.

Taare Zameen Per. You know, I always used to regret why I didn’t see the greatest movies ever made in theater.. not any more though. For once, I did watch this one in theater. And what an amazing experience it was! Totally worth of the money spent, rather more. First time ever, I witnessed the entire multitude of people with redden eyes. All this, with no deaths, no ultra-sensitive love story, no complex fiction.. nothing. That’s the beauty of perfection. Just a little dyslexic kid winning a painting event makes us all so ecstatic that we are filled with tears. Now I know why people cry when they are too euphoric.

There have been a few other movies which made me cry.. worth mentioning among them are Black[coz of its gloomy shades and apparent drama involved thereafter], some silly bollywood(shahrukh) stuff like Devdas, DTPH, KKHH. Among the Hollywood movies which brought tears to my eyes was Dead Poet’s Society. The movie was nowhere sentimental at all, except the last scene when Robbie Williams comes to collect his stuff for one last time and all students gives him a standing ovation, reciting Oh Captain, My Captain, just the way he taught them. Wonderful! Next I’ll place Cinderella Man and Gladiator. Russell Crow is God, like Al Pacino. And not to forget The Shawshank Redemption.

But all these movies had some real serious stuff. Jimmy was fighting for his life and more, Andy escaped from the prison after 20 years of innocence. Not TZP. It’s different from all of them. And hence it’s better, cinematically. That’s the magic of Aamir Khan. No gaudy starcast, no interviews before the movie release, no desperate publicity, no going to cricket and football matches.. Just plain and simple and superb direction. Mr. Shahrukh, you’ve got a lesson to learn, kindly concentrate on making the movie better, rather than doing all these. Trust me, that’s all that matters in the long run.

This proves that you can make movie on anything, provided if you’ve that talent and this kind of understanding about films. Aamir always had both, and he is quick learner too. He knows exactly where to strike, and this time.. with “what” to strike. There was no story in the movie, just screenplay, and a brilliant one. The cinematography, those close shots of Aamir’s watery eyes, and of Ishaan’s exasperated, troubled looks is more than brilliant. Even all the minor characters were damn so good!

Aah, the music. It’s not Shankar-ehsaan-loy’s, its Aamir’s, again. The best song is Mera Jahaan, with the voice of Adnan Sami.. that add special effects. As if Ishaan’s heart was singing it. Beautiful lyrics, courtesy Prasoon Joshi. He is the new gem of Indian cinema. How could anyone think of this line for a hindi song – sapno sa buna sweater sa warm! I’ve clue how creative he is. The other song ain’t too bad either. In fact every song is worth listening to a million times and more.

Movies can also be made with zilch glamour coefficient, and could be successful too. What we audience want is some non-iterative substance and real good acting. This one had a little overdose of both. And we loved it.

It’s getting too long. Just one last thing- if this movie is not able to bring home Oscar, no other bollywood movie will ever be able to.

Hail Aamir!

 

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Bollywood-Bollywood

I saw Saawariya yesterday, at Priyas. I had to; after all it is a Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s. The day before I watched Om Shanti Om, and today I saw No Smoking. All three are abjectly disparate. They must be having their own fan-following (the Movies, I mean), but am not sure about them statistically. Anyway, let’s see them one by one.

Saawariya

I’d been waiting for this ever since I heard about it. I assumed it to be a blockbuster right from its inception. It would have done the same for Ranbir and Sonam what Phool aur Kaante did for Ajay or Kaho na Pyar Hai for Hrithik, but let’s first accept it.. Ranbir isn’t as talented as either of them. Nonetheless, he is definitely better than many of his peers though, solely by virtue of his face, looks and dance. And He can act too! The movie, though ostensibly is about him… And yet you can sense Bhansali Ji pervading in each and every nook and corner of the movie. In all departments, he has a say. And an above-average say, for sure. The movie reminds me closely of Devdas minus the sunlight and the reddish touch modified to pan-blue. As usual, the sets are elegant, the setting exquisite, the blueness and flip-flops making quotidian streets eloquently grand. And that’s precisely why you’ve to watch it on 70 MM screen to appreciate this finesse. Definitely not the best work of Bhansali, yet a commendable gesture to promote scions of two very different –yet, ironically Namesake- Bollywood families.

P.S- Mute-Deaf-Musical, Gujrati love and Beauty, Reddish-Orange Magnum Opus, Blackly Handicapped, Blue-White Fyodor Dostoevsky… And they say He is repetitive and predictable. Rubbish! What next, Bhansali Sir?

Om Shanti Om

Shahrukh, Farah… What else could you’ve expected? No matter what the people say, I say that the movie is lovingly hilarious. That’s it. And nothing else, in no other way you could possibly appreciate this one. Shahrukh does the routinely monotonous “good” acting, the same clichés played and said time and again. Highly dramatic or over-acting – whichever you prefer- is also equally applicable herein. If you have to enjoy the movie, there is a way out- watch it as purely senseless comedy movie, you sure would relax your facial muscles quite a bit. The USP of the movie is definitely Arjun Rampal, looking all the more deadly in grey-locks! Ofcourse, only next to (slurp!) lascivious Deepika. She is Ambrosial.

No Smoking

Weirdly Intellectual. That’s Anurag Kashyap for you. The guy is himself a smoker, to quote him, “I’d quit smoking only when I won’t have the money to buy it”. This guy making a movie promoting anti-smoking in the most of eerie of ways ever witnessed… where all the anti-smokers smoke themselves… Something is definitely missing somewhere. The movie is overtly symbolic, and am yet to decipher it. It left me disturbed, though in strangely pleasant of manners!

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