Ek Main Aur Ek Tu : Good

       

        Ek Main Aur Ek Tu has all the typical ingredients of the regular RomCom and is very predictable. Rahul, an architect meets Riana, a free lance Hajaam ( Hair Dresser) in Las Vegas . Rahul has controlling parents - Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah , while Riana is “live in the moment” type of a character. They get drunk one night and get married . They decidoo to annul the marriage, that is when they realise that they get along very well. 

The movie unfolds with a few funny moments when the couple gets to know each other. There are moments where the humor falls down. Even though the movie is predictable with all the standard ingredients that go into RomCom, you will feel a connect with its characters. But the movie ends on a more mature note than the other regular RomComs , which will come as a good surprise.

Imran Khan gets into the Rahul’s character very well. Including an emotional scene where Riana takes Rahul to her school to show him around. Kareena Kapoor’s role is very much like her role in “Jab We Met” who encourages her counterpart to take life easy and have fun.She gives the movie energy with her bubbly performace. If you liked her in “Jab We Met” you will like her in this movie. Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah play their characters of a boring success minded business man and fashion obsessed woman with conviction. The music too strikes a note Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya having done a decent job.

Overall the movie is good . Its engaging for most part and does not drag along for too long and has a different ending.

Rockstar - WOW !

**Spoilers ahead**

Mujhpe karam sarkar tera
Arz tujhe, kar de mujhe
Mujhse hi riha.
Ab mujhko bhi ho deedar mera
Karde mujhe mujhse hi riha
Mujhse hi riha.

Thrown out of his house by his brothers, Ranbir takes shelter at a Mosque and blurts out these words mentioned above. He is struggling with many demons here, few inside of him and few others outside. But none bigger than his love.

Imtiaz Ali has mastered the art of showing emotional conflicts of separated lovers. May be, he has a patent of such sorta movies.  But, he excels every time he attempts it. He must have slipped in terms of totality in ‘Love Aaj Kal‘ but ’Socha Na Tha’ and to large extents ’Jab We Met’ were well made movies. Major share of accolades deservingly went to Imtiaz. He uses the same pattern of story in Rockstar albeit this time with a musical theme.

Ranbir Kapoor is like just another common guy living in Delhi. He aspires to become a big music sensation one day but just fails to take it to the next level from being a random guy singing to his friends in his free time. He is constantly encouraged by Kumud Mishra , the college canteen guy to follow his dream and to try and pursue his musical aspirations.  Mishra suggests that greatest artists have always had a pain to fuel their creative inner selves that turns them into the great artists.

So, to turn into a musician driven by his pain, Ranbir ‘tries’ to get his heart broken by sheepishly confessing his fake love to the beautiful Nargis Fakhri. She expectedly despises him for doing this. Ranbir’s attempt doesn’t succeed in making him a failed lover as it was all based on fake feeling anyways. But, in a turn of events, Nargis befriends Ranbir and they become good friends in no time. Nargis’s wedding is only a month away and they both set out to fulfill her “wish list” that she won’t dare to think of, after getting married.  Meanwhile, they get close to each other emotionally and unknowingly fall in love only to be shattered and longing for each other after her wedding. She moves to Prague with her husband and loses contact with Ranbir.

He returns to his home after the wedding but unfortunate turn of events lead him to a fight with his family. He then has to depart from there and take shelter at a Dargah. He then tries to rediscover himself and later with the help of Kumud Mishra, Ranbir embarks on his musical career. But, being the simple person he is, he feels smothered in the world driven by music labels.

A journalist, Aditi Rao trying to make a story out of Ranbir’s life inadvertently tells him about an opportunity to visit Prague through his music label and he grabs the chance at the first sight of it. He appears infront of Nargis with no notice and they then begin the second chapter of their ‘relationship’. With the realization that they are going on a path that is ethically inappropriate, they continue to defy their guilt and spend time together. But, Nargis pulls the curtain down by deciding that she can’t go any further with Ranbir on this. This makes a deeper wound in Ranbir and he gets into a web of disappointment and depression.

Tum logon ki iss duniya mein,
har kadam pe insaan galat.
Main sahi samjh ke jo bhi karoon tum kehte ho galat.
Main galat hoon toh phir kaun sahi. 
Marzi se jeene ki bhi main  
kya tum sab ko arzi doon ?
Matlab ki tum sabka mujhe pe mujhse bhi zyada haqq hai!!

The external factors start causing problems to Ranbir and he in turn gets into a self destruction mode that threatens to finish his career before he could make a real mark for himself. Kumud Mishra tries his best to make him realise all this but Ranbir fails to see why he does things that are destroying him slowly.

Nargis gets diagnosed with a serious medical condition and comes back to her parents in India. Situations force Ranbir and Nargis to be face-to-face again and this starts the final chapter of their love saga. But, things like always, do not go smoothly and we see how the Ranbir battles with these problems.

Kaagare, kaagare ,
More itni araj tose,
Chun chun khaayio maas.
Re jiya re, Khayyo naa tu naina more,
Khayyo naa tu naina more,
Hai piya ke Milan ki aas.

For me, there are 5 true rockstars in this movie : Ranbir, Imtiaz , Rahman, Irshad Kamil and Mohit Chauhan.  Rahman’s music had already created hysteria before the movie released. But, Imtiaz takes it a notch higher with brilliant picturisation. The music haunts the viewer and aided by mystical voice of Mohit and brilliant lyrics by Irshad, it turns out be an out of the world experience.

Ranbir is on cheat-mode in this movie. Simply surreal. Whatta brilliant actor!! This one should be among his best performances and is almost as good as the one in Rocket Singh. K.Jo should now stop asking his guests from next season the question about who among Ranbir and Imran has a better future, if it wasn't obvious so far!! Just chuck it K.Jo.

Imtiaz continues his fine run and displays mastery over his act here. He opts for a twisted screenplay and non-linear narration that simply take the movie from good to the next level. His unconventional approach in narrating a love story stands out and offers freshness in its style. The characters(apart from a few) are very well written and Imtiaz doesn’t get into creating too many sub plots that could have undue diversion of attention.

The only problems I see with this movie are with the casting of Nargis and weak character played by Aditi Rao. The beautiful Nargis Fakhri tries hard but fails miserably as an actor. Imtiaz must have gone for charm over talent for her role but I don’t think that choice is totally justified. For me, things would have worked better if he had just swapped roles between Nargis and Aditi Rao!

I don't really care much about the 'Free Tibet' image blurring controversy. Imtiaz had to agree to it as it would have been a huge risk taking on the Censor board few days before the release.Everything works from a monetary angle these days and it would be stupid to claim that director used this as a gimmick or chickened out under pressure. If someone has to be blamed for this then it has to be our esteemed censor board that does inane stuff like this.

This movie may not be a master piece but is still one of the better movies delivered by our revered hindi movie industry. We may cause more harm to ourselves if we fail to appreciate the beauty of this movie. It is not an everyday thing for such a well made hindi movie excelling in almost all departments to be presented to the audience in this country.If we fail to see the good points here then maybe we deserve crap like Ready, Bodyguard and Double Dhamaal.

Jo bhi main kehna chahoon,
barbaad kare alfaz mere!

Delhi Belly – Mediocrity at its best

Not every day affair this when a movie shocks, surprises and disappoints all in a span of 100 odd minutes. But, this movie did that and how!

Delhi Belly is a common term for what wikipedia calls as ‘Traveler's diarrhea’. So, one of our main characters Kunal Roy Kapoor, a photo journalist is suffering from this condition. His roommates are Vir Das, a cartoonist and Imran Khan, a journalist. The basic plot involves these 3 guys getting intertwined with a local gang chasing an item that contains diamonds worth crores. The trio gets stuck in a deep mess and the story is about how they manage to find their way out of it.

The story is not fresh but the treatment is. A real highlight of this movie is the free flowing profanity filled dialogue. I don’t remember a mainstream movie that could boast of such dialogues. This will make many people identify the characters as real and few others may think that it is overdone.

So, is this movie worthy enough to be given cult status? Not quite. I didn’t really find the basic plot gripping enough. The humour was inconsistent and wasn’t really laugh inducing in many of the places. But, I must say that those patches with good humour are really good. Few sequences are hilarious like the opening ones and the one where the burkha clad trio visits the jeweler to get their stuff back.

I still can’t get convinced about Imran’s acting. He has the meatiest role but fails to impress when compared to the other two lead characters. Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor would have really made most out of better roles. They still do a brilliant job at what they have been asked to do.

Apart from these two, its Vijay Raaz and Poorna Jagannathan who impress the most. Vijay Raaz should get more roles of these types and directors should stop wasting his talent in mindless movies. Poorna is fresh and she should now shift base to Mumbai from Hollywood as she is sure to get more offers after this performance.

Why on earth was Shenaz Treasury(wala ?!) needed in the plot ? That whole sub plot of Imran getting engaged to Shenaz was the most boring part of the movie and could have been handled differently. Also, Vir Das’s love story was under cooked. That could have been given 10-15 minutes more and for sure it wouldn’t have been bad.

The songs have been used fairly well. Its good to see that there are no forced song sequences though more than couple of songs had caught up well with the audience. These songs are used in the background and go well with the narrative.

I think the ploy of using too much of profanity has worked for the makers. I noticed that the audience enjoyed seeing the main characters foul mouthing so much. But, the movie should have had more to it than just the shock/surprise inducing dialogues.

I wouldn't be surprised if this movie is considered one of the better movies this year.But, it would make me cringe if its mentioned in the same breath as 'Stanley Ka Dabba' and 'Dhobi Ghat'. This movie is more of a marketing triumph for Aamir Khan than a hit based on its content. So, that’s how it should be treated.

All in all, it is an average movie with few good sequences and over the top profanity through out. Different than most of the other movies these days but not really better. 

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

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.

Stanley Ka Dabba - WOW!

There is a scene in the movie when the teacher gives Stanley a chocolate as a mark of her appreciation towards his beautifully written essay. With a sheepish smile, Stanley takes it amidst generous applause from his friends. He then tries to put that chocolate into his shirt pocket only to find to his dismay that the pocket is torn and is no good to hold his chocolate. This is one amongst the many bits in the movie that fall into place at the end.

Stanley ka dabba is a story of a kid who is special in his own ways. On the exterior he comes across like any other kid who narrates stories to his friends, sings songs during class breaks, and doesn’t miss a chance to have fun. But, the only shortcoming here is that Stanley doesn’t get a lunch box to school. It’s a problem only according to his hindi teacher Khadoos Verma but Stanley’s friends like all kids have no qualms about sharing their dabbas with him. But, Verma who himself doesn’t get a dabba is always preying on others’ dabbas gives Stanley a piece of his mind and asks him to get lost till he doesn’t get a dabba of his own to school everyday. This point in story leads to the big climax of the movie which I must confess is one of the most overwhelming and extremely touching ending to have seen in recent past.

This movie is all about the magical moments held together by threads of simplicity and honesty. Amole doesn’t employ any overtly comical, emotional scene to score brownie points. The movie just floats in a good pace giving enough depth for the characters to evolve and get identified by the audience. He sets up the proceedings so brilliantly that the viewer can’t really help but feel like he is in the same class as Stanley’s and is actually looking at everything happening right there. And of course, all this culminates into one fantastic climax that’ll remain etched in the viewers’ memories for long time.

Amole Gupte was last seen in ‘Phas Gaya Re Obama’ and ‘Kaminey’ donning the actor’s hat. Before that, he was credited as writer and creative director for the beautiful ‘Taare Zameen Par’. He comes back with this movie, now managing all the major departments and delivering a movie that’s just sheer genius of art.

Amol Gole, the cinematographer of this movie shot it in a handheld Canon 7D camera because they didn’t want to scare the kids away or make them nervous as the kids didn’t know at that point in time that they were shooting for a movie !! Yes, the kids were told that these were regular acting workshops and only in the end were they informed about it. These are the things that make this movie look life like and come across as a simple story with an honest intention.

Hitesh Sonik’s music and Amole Gupte’s lyrics gel so well with the scenes that they seem like dialogues between characters but with a difference.

The kids Abhishek Reddy, Saisharan Shetty, Aman Mehra, Walter D’souza and others have all done a brilliant job considering that they are the real supporting cast of the movie. Divya Dutta as the charming English teacher who Stanley admires a lot is brilliantly casted. Divya Jagdale and Raj Zutshi are good as well. Amole Gupte as the khadoos teacher just carries on the great work he has been doing lately. But, if this movie has to be remembered for one person then it has to be Partho Gupte(Amole gupte’s son) who plays the central character of Stanley and seems so natural in every dialogue and action of his as the lovable kid.

What stands out in the movie is the amazing control that Amole Gupte has on the narration of the story. Never does he let the rhythm drop and displays great control on his direction. For me, the dabba was a metaphor for what Amole wanted to convey through this story. It was a medium for him to give out the message in the end.

Its not everyday that I quote Karan Johar but here I go. On the day of the music release, he said, ‘There is no mainstream or alternative cinema. There is good cinema and bad cinema, Stanley Ka Dabba is very good cinema’.

Yeah, Stanley Ka Dabba is one of those movies that’ll try to give out a message without trying to be preachy or dumping that thought heavily on the viewers’ minds.

As an avid movie-watcher , I get disappointed when I watch tons of mindless and stupid movies churned out by the movie industry but still hope that every now and then on a friday there is a movie like Stanley releasing!

Stanley Ka Dabba - Not a review!

You wake up to some noise.Popping of sesame seeds.U avoid and go back to sleep.Daily routine they are.

 Lethargically you start preparing by stuffing the books, separating them as either 100/200 pages or text books and placing them in different compartments, only to retrieve it easily. Packing Done .

Its late.You start rushing with your heavy bagpack.Empty handed.R u missing something?
A loud scream from  back..

DABBA … Food for lunch it is ..

After some mundane morning  sessions  and some short naps, you desperately wait for lunch break. With less time on hand, you along with the your Gang start finding a place to have packed food peacefully(Hang out is what we call now..).

Open the Dabba.There is something.Yeah something.U dont give a damn whats packed inside.Seated in a circle you start passing it in round robin fashion to make sure each and everyone has tasted it. A curious friend X asks Y if he has brought chutney along with curd rice that so much suits the taste.X enjoys a spoon of that and passes on a smile. All they want is to just to hang out. They hardly keep track of the individual’s contribution/share. It’s a crime.

You go back to attend more classes,some mundane ,some interesting and some deserving a nap. End of the Day. You go back to home and start the next day afresh.

Memories . Million Memories those school moments were . They were brought to life again and refreshed after watching the most endearing and heartwarming children movie that lights up those childhood days when we were at our purest state.

Stanley Ka Dabba

Stanley is 4^th Grade(‘F’ section to be precise) student who keeps his class entertained by his impromptu parallel world stories. The stories he narrates to teachers to bail himself and his gang members out of a situation. In free time(or recesses) he makes the whole class *head bang* to his tune of Dan Tan Tan.  

Lunch Period is the time that he hates the most. That’s because he doesn’t get the Dabba like others. Unlike others he kills his hunger by having copious amount of water  to sustain the afternoon sessions. Often shares it with his generous friends, but hesitantly though.

Mr. Verma(Amole Gupte) , a Hindi teacher  faces a similar sort of a problem.In this case he gets his colleagues share their food by pestering them. Shamelessly though.  He is better known as Khadus among kids for hijacking  sharing their food, albeit alone.

Thinking that Stanley is robbing his share of food from gang members, Verma vents out his anger and passes disparaging comments on Stanley by asking him not to come to school until he gets his own Dabba.

At the end , Stanley gets out of this awkward predicament by getting a Dabba of his own. How? Anything beyond this would be a spoiler J

Though Stanley and Verma are facing the same problem,empathy for Stanley grows. In actual they both are representation of same character. But still we end up empathizing with Stanley and not Verma.Why? If observed carefully it would reveal that Verma was once Stanley, hence his behavior (opinions may differ).Verma just didn’t wanted to see that side of life. May be.

Lets discuss the Gang. Yes the Friends, that we cherish the most. Reminds us of those bench fights that we picked up for crossing an undrawn borderline, the extra classes that we bunked to watch the fag end of a Test match, times when we deliberately punctured girl’s bicycle for fun, moments when we  were either caught playing radio in the extra classes or passing our answer sheets to our friends.

It was all unadulterated.

If God tells me that I have only 3 hrs to go, I would request for couple more so that I could watch Satya , Lagaan and maybe end with full stomach  after watching Stanley Ka Dabba.

Ragini MMS - Movie Review



Image Source: Wiki



It was only a matter of time before someone in Bollywood pulled off a "Paranormal Activity". While Paranormal Activity shattered box-office collection records all over, Paranormal Activity-2 did a decent enough job to live up to the expectations that viewers had, especially after watching the first edition. And so, we have Ragini MMS, our own desi version of a film that encompasses the strange sequence of events around a couple, triggered by a supernatural force.

If you have watched Paranormal Activity, you will immediately notice the similarities between it and Ragini MMS. Both claim to be based on true events. Most parts in both the movies are shown and shot through a handheld video camera and cameras setup throughout the house for one purpose or the other. Then comes the limited number of people in the cast. And then there is the couple who are tormented by the demon. Both movies are relatively low budget movies and shot in a very short duration. Fortunately or unfortunately, that's where the similarities end. While Paranormal Activity was the work of a relatively unknown Oren Peli, Ragini MMS comes from the production house of Balaji Telefilms headed by Ekta Kapoor, who is riding on tons of success attributing to her SOAPs that have driven Indian TV channels into submission and have garnered massive viewership. Further, while the motive remains relatively unknown to the viewer (atleast in PA-1), Ragini MMS somewhat puts a few pieces together by the end of the movie just to put the average movie-goer at ease. And then, the release date Friday the 13th was something that made quite a bit of news for Ragini MMS, while Paranormal Activity was one of those movies that gained popularity just by word of mouth. So, its not actually fair to do a head-to-head comparison of the two.Instead, let's give credit to either of them where its due, be it the acting, the screenplay or the storyline.

What its all about:
------------------------
Uday Jhala (played by Raj Kumar Yadav) and his girlfriend Ragini (played by Kainaz Motivala) head to a bungalow located in the middle of the woods outside the city to have some "private fun-time" over the weekend. On reaching the bungalow, it however becomes evident that Uday has his own hidden agenda of making an MMS sex video of Ragini and has all the arrangements already in place, with cameras setup all around the house. Strange things start to happen as the couple try to get intimate, with a few sightings of the ghostly figure before the movie is half-way through. The spooky mood established in the initial part of the movie is thrown away to a little extent with the intervention of Ragini's friend Piya and her boyfriend who add nothing but a few more minutes to the movie. Other than rile the ghost with their unnecessary presence, the only value that they add to the movie is drop a hint that confirms the haunted nature of the house. Its however after their exit that the movie gets interesting. Starting from a possessed Uday hissing "Main chudail nahi hoon" (in marathi) while getting naughty with Ragini (who was intentionally handcuffed to the cot by Uday to shoot the sex video), to Uday being pulled out of the bed by his hair to an extent that it rips his scalp to bleed, the ghost makes its presence felt within the house every second. Having become fully aware of a supernatural presence within the house, the rest of the movie revolves around the attempts of a helpless Uday and a handcuffed Ragini to get out of the forsaken place and how the ghost seeks them out.

Hits and Misses:
---------------------
The standout performance in the movie comes from Uday, who is brilliant with his abuses as he is with his acting. Be it the sex-hungry boyfriend or the petrified human being, Uday does great justice to both the roles. He is shameless when it comes to getting things done his way, and gives the exact cheap image of a man ready to go to any extent for it. Ragini on the other hand, is good enough to complement Uday with her acting, both in fright and in frustration. The one thing of Ragini follows you out of the theatre is her scream for help, hollowed by frustation and helplessness.

Ragini MMS has its moments, with a few instances that will make you jump in your seat (not necessarily the sighting of the ghost). But what it lacks is the finesse with which a horror story needs to be told. The background score is unnecessarily used, consistently throughout the movie, trying to spook the viewer. But most of the time, all it did was alert the viewer that something is about to happen, thus stealing the surprise factor out of the scene. Next come the ghost sightings. The movie was not even half way through and the viewer had already seen the ghost half a dozen times. To quote a line from "The Usual Suspects",

-- The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

The essence of a horror movie is to keep the surprise factor intact throughout, and that includes the appearances of the ghost to a good extent. As someone rightly said, if a viewer sees the ghost enough number of times in the movie, he/she is not far from assuming that the ghost is just another role in the movie and not THE key role. Ragini MMS falters on this front as well. Frequent portrayal of a creaking staircase, doors opening and closing by themselves was yet another thing that could've been avoided. The last 20-25 minutes of the movie was a wee bit boring, as the end was pretty much what one can guess and does not add any value as far as the story of the movie is concerned. And yet another but not so significant shortcoming in the end, its the ghost itself. A white saree clad, flowing haired Noori styled ghost is a world renowned stereotype. But then, a ghostly figure of a woman dressed in traditional marathi "kachchi" saree attire was a little too much to handle in a horror movie, atleast for the rational viewer in me. Pawan Kripalani has put together a decent piece of story, but there is something about it that is missing, something that I cant put a finger on  for certain and if you were me, you would feel the same 9 out of 10 times.

All in all, Ragini MMS is a great watch if you haven't watched Paranormal Activity solely for the fact that you then don't have a scale for comparison. But if you have already seen Paranormal Activity, Ragini MMS is a good one time watch, more so for the brilliance pulled off by Raj Kumar Yadav, well supported by Kainaz Motivala and not to forget, a decent enough storyline moderately influenced by the Hollywood flick.



FALTU - Movie Review

I feel that one thing is very important when you enter a movie hall to spend the following few hours in a big dark room staring the big screen. Do not go in with huge expectations every time. Better if there are no expectations at all. More often than not it’s difficult to get into that mindset but if you do then be sure of not cribbing a hell lot about the movie later.

All that prelude was to tell about this movie that I watched, FALTU. Its now an old joke  that the movie was named based on the quality of its content and the seriousness of its appeal to the audience.

The first time I saw FALTU’s trailer , I was reminded of the movie ‘Accepted’(Trailer) starring Justin Long. The theme seemed similar and so did all the histrionics. But then, I was waiting for the movie to be released so that I could see if my doubts were true. Meanwhile, this happened .Well, it is one thing to get inspired and act as if one wasn’t even aware of the original. But, it’s an unashamed act to argue that the movies are totally different! Duh!

Anyways, let me now tell you how good was this movie that according to its makers is totally different from a certain Hollywood project. FALTU adds to ‘Accepted’ all the Indian flavour necessary and though it doesn’t come out with flying colours, it doesn’t totally let you down either.

The story revolves around a group of friends who get rejected by all colleges due to their low marks and then a series of events make them run a university of their own. Story then moves on to all the problems they face before culminating into a happy happy ending.

The movie has a fair share of good and bad things about it. So, what are the few things that go in favour ? Good music, fresh cast and a new story(though not original[I know it’s the 100th time I touched that aspect]). Couple of songs had already caught up well among audience and may just bring in the herds for the same but expecting more stuff around these songs. The songs are indeed impressive , especially ‘Char baj gaye’ and ’Fully Faltu’.

Jacky Bhagnani gives a decent performance in the lead role but can still brush up his acting skills as he could go a long way in this business. Puja Gupta(gorgeous!!) and Angad Bedi mark their debut and do a fair job in whatever little they get to do. But, the best of the lot has to be Chandan Roy Sanyal(he played Mikhail in Kaminey) who is here to stay. His dialogue delivery and acting is top notch. We would be more than waiting to see his future work. The supporting cast of Arshad Warsi and Riteish Deshmukh are at normal best and no complaints there. Darshan Jariwala is first rate and rest of the cast does a good job too.

The movie could have done away with 15-20 minutes of stuff that gives the narration a saggy feel. Humour is good only in patches and more effort could have been put into dialogues that seem jaded for a majority of post interval portion. Many people may find the whole concept of the movie unconvincing but then the movie doesn’t go over the top trying to be ‘preachy’.

Post Interval, I was wondering as to where was Remo’s master choreographer contribution in this movie. There had to be stuff that tells the audience why he is regarded as one of the best choreographers in hindi movie industry. And then came the best bit in the movie at the very end. It’s a UV light dance performance that really catches your attention. I last saw this dance form on India’s got talent and was totally smitten by it. This sequence in the movie is a clever replacement of what could have been a long boring speech by the lead actor and Remo scores points for this.

Remo makes a confident debut as a director and hits neither of the extremities in quality. Undernourished script doesn’t help his cause. He should next choose a better script and the audience will be more than willing to testify.

All in all, FALTU is worth a watch if you have no great expectations!

Bandit Queen - From the hindi film diaries

Roles for women in 90’s were as simple as calculating the perimeter of an equilateral triangle.Following are an array of examples in which girls of 90’s were often seen doing

1. Girls playing roles wherein they importuned men using her choking technique
2. Used her cuteness to get him do whatever it takes to marry her, be it breaking off with his parampara, that would consist of 100 members that he/she have hardly met or often making a gentle request to hum some lines, even if he doesn’t know the tricks of guitar
3. Or merely act as a pendulum, who then had to oscillate between 2 or more (then) hot looking men based on a formula of who would make love to me in a better way, thereby putting the audience through a no-confidence motion.
4. Or some jhinchak things wherein they would feature in atleast 2 hot numbers, an eye candy for the audiences(like me), who would leave the theatre with wet memories of the songs than the engrossing story itself.

At the end of it all audiences felt a genuine connect with all those females/girls portraying the roles , so much so that they started naming their daughters after the character names.

If any “Women centric“ roles/stories  were attempted by then directors/writers,they were either trashed by audiences as art movie or ignored by many, unless it is portrayed by an actress who had already made it to masala movie list. If that was not enough we had Indian Censor board suffering from fear of “castigation of Indian culture” which suggested “few” cuts in the movie, thereby skewing the intentions of the movie consequently the emotions, vision of the “makers”.

One such movie was “Bandit Queen” by Shekhar Kapur. Based on the dictated diary entries titled “Goddess of Flowers”, Kapur narrates the journey of a woman from an aborted childhood, to making of a dacoit, to experiencing Love, carnal abuse, series of retributions and finally ending up as a politician.

It addresses the social issues that existed in the 1960’s when women were never given the respect and were given an unfairly treatment, which Kapur appropriately quotes at the start with “Animals, Drums, Illiterates, low castes and women are worthy of being beaten”. Also highlights the casteism where, the Thakurs were the Unch Jaatiwaale and all other at the bottom end of the pyramid.

Young Phoolan is married off forcibly to a Thakur, twice her age to act as a housemaid. She rebels and flees from his home when she is forced into sexual acts, followed by abuse. 

In dusty lands of UP operated many dacoits, off which Babu Gujjar is the the most notorious upper caste dacoit . By now Phoolan is already considered as a centerfold in that village.Gujjar decides to lay his hands and abducts Phoolan,subjecting her to carnal abuses. Vikram Mallah, a dalit and deputy of Gujjar rescues Phoolan by killing Babu Gujjar, thereby proclaiming the leadership of the group.  Vikram teaches Phoolan howto’s of dacoit viz shooting and rock climbing stuffs.

Meanwhile The head of the group, a Thakur is out of Jail, refuses to accept the the idea of the gang to be operated by the lower caste Mallahs. Things get worse when he makes indecent advances to Phoolan, thereby leading to an altercation,shoot-out between the Thankur and Mallahs. Phoolan along with Vikram and his gang escape to a remote city for hiding. By this time the relationship between the two has grown more than love. 

Knowing nothing else to do apart from dacoity, they come back to the UP to carry on their business. On one fine day during a casual conversation between the two, Vikram is killed, leaving behind Phoolan again,Helpless.

What follows is the most disturbing part. Thankurs take advantage of her helplessness. She is gang-raped , dishonoured and affronted in the upper cast community. In the most helpless of times, she is helped by an old friend of her who gives her some shelter to recover from.

Outraged at all this, Phoolan plans for vengeance by joining a gang headed by a Muslim leader. In a ghastly act of retaliation and misjudgment she ends up killing all the innocent upper caste people in the community. This massacre makes her the most wanted and notorious bandit that the governments are looking for. Faced by a series of attacks on her gang, she finally gives up the dacoity and surrenders to the government and joins politics, promising to help for the welfare of the people. 

As mentioned initially, it is just the kind of role one would not want to do but was pulled off by then theater artist Seema Biswas.  A poignant and disturbing role ever written, that sketches the life cycle of a girl from a teenager to bandit to politicians, admiringly is one of the best by any Hindi actress ever seen. 

And final word goes to the Mala Sen(Writer) and Shekhar Kapur , who unfortunately had the guts to make such a brave movie at a time when the masala movies was at its entertaining best. Unfortunate because, hurdles faced pre and post release forced Mr.Kapur to move to West and make movies that he could relate to. 

No matter how many biographies you read, articles you refer to make a movie, the absoluteness of “true story” from one’s perspective can never be achieved and shall always be debatable.
 A disturbing movie in most parts, but engaging throughout. This is highly recommended.