Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - A Preview


        We have waited for this movie with lot of anticipation and excitement. A casting coup of sorts with few of the best technicians from the industry.
 
Release Date : 15 - July - 2011 

Basic Plot - Abhay is engaged to Kalki and he wants to go on a bachelor trip with his friends Hritik and Farhan before his wedding. All 3 of them set off on a road trip across Spain.Katrina meets them on their journey and what follows is an adventure of a lifetime.


Cast and Crew

Director - Zoya Akhtar made a confident debut with 'Luck by chance'. Though the movie did not go on to be a commercial success, it had enough good stuff in it to be noticed by the audience.

Story - Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar

Producer - Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar's EXCEL Entertainment

Lead Actors - Farhan Akhtar, Hritik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Katrina Kaif

Music - Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Lyrics - Javed Akhtar


Trailers

For all the expectations and excitement that people had about this movie, the first trailer was such a turn off! it seemed like a student's project put together in the last minute.At least, I didn't like it! Watch it below -


Then came a teaser of shorter duration but slick and stylish. Something that should have been released first. It did perfectly what a trailer should do. Give out enough details to get the viewer interested and hold back enough stuff to make it intriguing. Watch it below -




Song promo of 'Paint it red'



Song promo of  'Senorita' 



Music

Shankar Ehsaan Loy have had a bad couple of years or so. They are out of form, stuck in their stereotypic tunes and had to do something to break all the self imposed cliches.

They do something to regain their reputation here. The music brings back a touch of memories of 'Dil Chahta Hai'. Its fresh, soothing and youthful(is that a word ?). Javed Akhtar doesn't normally go wrong with his lyrics and he sticks to his class.

The album boats of at least 3-4 songs that are catchy and it remains to be seen how much impact the visuals will have on rest of the album.

Link to the wiki page on music - Click here

Listen to the songs online - Click here

Controversies

  • It was widely reported that the movie was having serious problem on the editing table. The director Zoya was having a tough time with the editors(or other way around) to get the movie edited according to her approach. For further read - click here to check the article in Open magazine by Rajeev Masand.  
  • Then we had the poster plagiarism story going all over the blogosphere. Here is what we pulled out -

            What do you think ?

Irrespective of the 'controversies', (we expect) this movie will be worth the money spent.

Final words


This movie has been in the news since the casting was announced and it would be an under statement to say that the people joining hands on this project made it more than exciting for all the movie fans to keep the anticipation up.

Its a movie that the fans have pateintly waited for and this is precisely what could take the movie down if it doesn't boast of a praise worthy script and premise. Fingers crossed!

Videos - Youtube
Information - Wiki

Monday, June 13, 2011

X-Men : First Class is Refreshing!

Brett Ratner(X-Men Last Stand) and Sam Raimi(Spiderman 3) both messed up big time with the 3rd installments of two very famous movie franchises to the dismay of loyal fans. Though these movies made loads of money, it was more than an agreement from most of the fans that lack of quality was apparent and this meant that the studios had to do something about the disappointment. Hence, the decision by the makers to reboot the franchises.

So, here we have Matthew Vaughn of ‘Kick Ass’ fame directing the first installment of this new series. The movie takes us back to 1960s and talks about the circumstances that the mutants had to undergo in their initial days and how they all came together to form the team X-Men. The story has a backdrop of cold war and how the team does its bit to avoid a nuclear warfare.

So, does this movie really leave a positive impression ? For all the expectations it had and all the cynicism surrounding the take of origins approach employed, this movie does one hell of a job! It is beautifully shot, has great background music, good action scenes and all this topped off with brilliant acting performances.

James McAvoy(Professor X) and Michael Fassbender(Magneto) are a treat to watch every time they are on the screen. Not a single line delivered by these 2 gentlemen comes across as ‘off the target’. They don’t seem unmatched to the two legendary actors who played these roles in the earlier franchise. They carry the narration forward and impart great composure and panache to the proceedings.

I loved Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s bone. She plays the role of Mystique here and gives a very humane touch to the character which definitely was never intended to be portrayed in the earlier franchise. The other mutant characters are also very well etched and are able enough to catch the attention of the audience. Kevin Bacon plays the badguy and gives the negative role enough style and meat.

First point that I’m most happy about is the fact that the movie doesn’t go overboard by including too many mutants in the mix and in the process too many stories in the plot. This helps the movie to keep firmly attached to the main plot with the few sub-plots adding enough spice. It would be interesting to see what the future installments will do on this front and how well do they introduce the newer mutants and how many. Second point is that the movie doesn’t solely rely on special effects to provide the ‘whoo-aah’ moments. Its not overdone and used adequately and effectively.

This movie is a perfect launch that the new franchise could have hoped for. All major characters have been firmly placed now and it would be a challenging job to go one up in the sequels.

Its a perfect BIG SCREEN movie that any regular movie watcher wouldn’t want to miss.


Shaitan - A review

   


      Before I get started with the review, lets get one thing clear. Contrary to public opinion, this is NOT Anurag Kashyap's Shaitan. This is debutant Bejoy Nambiar's Shaitan (remember AK is the producer). So Bejoy deserves a lion's share of the appreciation that the movie is receiving.(I appreciate AK saying the same in an interview on one of the news channels)
Having said that, its hard to leave out the "Anurag Kashyap" factor out of the picture. People who have watched Dev D, Black Friday or Paanch would know what AK brings to the table. In the same way, Shaitan too has little chunks of AK's charisma sprinkled over the script that works like magic, for most of the movie.

Cast:
---------
Shiv Pandit - Dash
Kalki Koechlin - Amy
Neil Bhopalam - Zubin
Gulshan Devaiah - KC
Kirti Kulhari - Tanya
Rajeev Khandelwal - Inspector Mathur

What its all about:
----------------------
Dash - the restaurant worker cum drug peddler,
Zubin - the computer geek,
KC - the guy who's blowing up his dad's money at the brink of treading an unwanted career path,
Tanya - the fashion model cum actress.

The thing that holds these four beings together. Cocaine.

Amy, the daughter of an NRI architect who has moved into Mumbai (Rajat Kapoor) is often tormented by disturbing memories of her mother. After meeting KC at a party, Amy is introduced to rest of the gang, and its theme of mutual trust, a healthy disregard for the rules and of course, Cocaine. The gang together has plenty of fun living their lives in a rush, be it getting high on joints, bar brawls, robbing a medical shop in of cough syrup (alcohol substitute) or racing around the night roads of the city in a giant Hummer. It is the combination of these that leads them into a life changing incident, when KC accidentally runs over some people while driving recklessly. To cover up the mess, they try to work out a deal with corrupt cop Malwankar (Raj Kumar Yadav). When Malwankar demands a hefty amount, the gang decides to fake Amy's kidnap to get the money from her father. What follows is a series of incidents that only worsen the matter for them. On the other hand, Inspector Mathur, a total bad-ass cop whose anger has cost him more than his job, is given an oppurtunity to reclaim some of his lost pride by offering him to get to the bottom of this case. As the group tries to wriggle its way out of this trouble, Mathur tries to connect the dots laid down by the various events. Eventually, the theme of the gang is what gets in the way of each individual and his/her dark side. Which one trumps, is to watch and know.

Hits and Misses:
-------------------
Groovy background score, brilliant one-liners, some good performances from Rajiv Khandelwal, Gulshan Devaiah and Kalki all contribute greatly to the movie's intent. Raj Kumar Yadav deserves a special mention as well for his role as the corrupt cop. Kalki's role of the mentally disturbed girl is portrayed with equal care. The movie has some terrific sequences where the viewer gets sucked into the character. The scene where KC beats up a guy for flirting with Tanya, or the one where KC is driving the Hummer in an unannounced race against an Audi, there is a feeling of an adrenaline rush. A scene or two where a slap lands on an arguing person's cheek, if you are too engrossed, will make you jump. Every time Rajiv Khandelwal appears on the screen, his anger is almost felt around us. With nerves on forehead and temple rising, teeth clenching, it is as if something somewhere is going to snap real soon. One scene that the viewer will remember for a very long time is where Rajiv Khandelwal kicks an auto rickshaw guy who refuses to go where he wants him to. Rajat Barmecha makes a cameo appearance as Shomu, the inspiration behind the kidnap idea.

While the first half of the movie is very well paced, the second half loses grip on the story as the characters begin to fade out of action and script begins to get a little predictable. In the end, it isn't hard to guess how the story ends, but is rather a curious wait to see how it all unfolds.
Debutant Director Bejoy Nambiar has done a commendable job with Shaitan, a movie that is sure to attract the youth of today, not only because of the story, but because of their resemblance with the characters' qualities. While Shaitan doesn't tick all the checkboxes in a viewer's wishlist, it is a must watch for everyone who prefer a change from the regular Bollywood candy floss.