Sunday, February 22, 2009

Dilli - 6!!! Nope...

Mohan Bhargav (in Swades) ends his line in the song “Pal Pal Hai bhari” with “….. Mann se Ravana jo nikaale, Ram uske mann main hai”. Thats exactly what Rakeysh wants to project as his theme in his movie. But the only difference is “Kaala Bandar”, which is used as a metaphor to highlight the issues prevalent in India. But the point is the issues dealt with are outdated and hence fall short of execution!!!

Mehra in his previous outing narrated the story of “A journey of directionless brats turning into Rebel for a cause”, turns Dilli-6 into incoherent movie which at times is hard to relate to.

Roshan along with his ailing grandmother comes to India to fulfill her wish of spending final moments with her loved ones in Puraani Dilli(Chandni Chowk). During his stay, he finds himself surrounded by colourful characters viz. the brothers Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra who seem to share a negative vibe with each other, in contrast to their family who enjoys their moments through a brick-hole. A Muslim jilebi shop keeper who generously distributes jilebees. Dumb servant “Gobar”(Atul), for whom two 1 rupee coins hold more value than one 10 rupee note. A sub-caste sweeper(Divya Dutta) woos Gobar but shuns the local inspector(Vijay Raaz) for his indecent proposals. Then there is Cyrus who plays an unfaithful fashion designer in an affair with Lala Munshi’s(Prem Chopra) wife. If that was not all, u come across few aunty’s with bucket pouring eyes and neighbour Rishi Kapoor who confesses to being in love with Roshan’s mother.

Among all this is “Kaala Bandar”- a mixed metaphor, which Mehra repeatedly tries to represent it as a character, to display the issues like communal polarization, untouchability, other irrational beliefs and misconceptions. Fairly a good theme, only if the they had implicit narration woven in to understand with. Unlike RDB where the characters(though unrelatable) just had a cake walk into the scenes, the scenes over here are just thrown in haphazard manner, which unfortunately leaves the audience in confused state of mind since the characters are such lively.

My favorite scene is the Jagran scene, where the brothers fight it out to outshine each other vocally. And the one in which he Pawan malhotra has a theory of killing kala Bandar, the misinterpretation of which is broadcasted by his wife to her peer only to be made fun of by his brother. Truly enjoyable scenes…

Binod Pradhan(Cinematographer) provides great pleasure by taking us through Chandni chowk’s criss-crossed wires, narrow gullies, the vibrant crowd and hop-ABLE houses.

For the first time, apart from Genda Phoool, ARR’s music is used ineffectively throughout the movie. For example, Rehna Tu plays in background when Ab and Rishi are playing a polo! “Kaala Bandar” comes in just before the first half without any specific reason to support. “Dil Gira” is dream sequence demanding us to realize about a world mis-mashed with US and chandni chowk’s streets. ”Bhor Bhaye” song just slips in whenever its required. Due to which Prasoon Joshi’s extreme display of imagination is also wasted. Aaah how disappointing!!

Am I missing something? Yup.. its Sonam Kapoor as Bittoo, who plays a liberal ,free flowing Masakkali (dove) girl with utmost sincerity and spontaneity. An exhibition of Indian looks at its core, she looks hauntingly beautiful with her latts and jhataksss.. Watch her in those scenes where she repeatedly tells Ab of her ambitions. In contrast to this, Ab with an American accent slips in with decent performance, but not sure why and how he is doing sort of somersaults in between..


Aaah.. heavily disappointed … In the end credits the director demands for a self introspection through a mirror image.

How I wish I had gone to “Valkyrie”

Leia Mais

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

~ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi ~

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Few months back i along with my friends took an oath of not watching any of Yash raj’s ”jute bag” movies, but with an exception of Aditya Chopra’s “Rab ne … “. Simply because one of the most romantic moments like “Palattt…” and “Senorita …” of DDLJ was churned out by this man and still sounds fresh among teenagers. It was the time when women fraternity swooned for larger than life character “Raj”. This time its “Raj” again, the difference being he ends up spoiling the entire mood of the film.



It’s a story of an ordinary man Surinder Sahni(SRK) who works for Punjab power in Amritsar, is forcibly married to Tani(Anoushka) under adverse conditions. Surinder fails to develop a rapport with his wife due to her unacceptability, and they end up living under the same roof without much emotional connect. Surinder’s desire to give all happiness to his wife turns into despair when she decides to join a Dance competition for Best Jodi. Failing to spend time with her, he goes for a makeover with heavy assistance from spike Bobby khosla(Vinay Pathak).And here enters the over-the-top Punjabi version of “Raj” with his sign-off line “Hum hai rahi… Phir milenge…Chalte chalte”. Tani fails to recognize her own husband and ends up confessing love for Raj.

Now what happens or what shud happen next makes other “predictable” half of the story..



It isn’t an extraordinary story, which it could have been had the writer Aditya given more space for Surinder’s character and underplayed Raj. The screenplay falters as soon as the Raj enters, and multiple references to own films make things worse.



SRK as Surinder Sahni is one of the most relatable and adorable characters ever met recently. All the scenes right from the first one viz.. His reaction when Tani calls him in the midnight, only to realize that his thumb drive locked with laptop J. A scene where he leaves a note with a rose alongside and then hesitantly puts it back is just too endearing to watch.. He breaks into Haule haule mood(wonderfully choreographed ) after seeing an yellow Tiffin carrier ..And many more… How I wish SRK had more scenes to play as Mr.sahni..



To nullify the above, aditya slaps us with another bigger-than-vessel-spoon kind of character Raj. Until now we only saw the urban version of the character, but u literally flinch when u see the Punjabi version. Its over the top, avoidable and un-relatable. The scenes where he flirts by referring her as “Tani partner” and the one where he lights up the whole city with “I love you” are just tooo old to be digested and contrived.. How many times u havent seen such things??

The writer doesn’t even convince the makeover from Sahni to Raj, allowing screenplay to falter at every point.



If that was not enough, we have sequence like Dhoom 2 giving us an idea of physicality of the leading lady and “Paani poori” challenge sequence. Aaah!! Is this the same man who had velvet touch in his narration in DDLJ and DTPH?



Even though the movie belongs to SRK, anoushka makes a decent debut, her low-neck salwar-kameez :P and 50W smile only makes u smile.



All said and done, if u r huge fan of SRK, then go and watch it. U will only come out by saying “How ham the character Raj was!!”



I still take an oath not to watch any Yash raj movie.. Because such things will make me realize that I am getting older and older….



Ok!! at the end of it, even if u still go and watch it, don’t miss Kajol and End credits…

Leia Mais

Monday, November 24, 2008

"Yuuuvvvraaaj"--- Give it a miss

Sick and tired of watching movies based on Gay themes, adultery, infidelity and clichéd love stories, I went in to watch(amidst Economic slowdown :)) Ghai saab’s “Yuuvraaaj”(pardon me if spelling is wrong :)) with a high expectation of neat story, woven with high drama and trademark Ghaisaab’s display of his passion towards music. Alas!!!!That wasn’t!! And the pity is it doesn’t even have music as a backdrop of the story!!

Deven(Sallu) one of the neglected brothers of “Yuvraj” family, is a chorus singer of an orchestra group in Prague and is madly in love with its lead violinist Anoushka(Kats) since 5 yrs(man!!! A great feat!!).Anoushka’s father Boman considers him unworthy, thereby proving to be an obstacle. Now Deven wants money, hence eyes his dead father’s property in London. His dreams are shattered when he comes to know that most of property has gone to Gyanesh(Anil bhai)’s Pishvi(a marathi word for bag :)).He along with spoilt brat Danny(Zayed) work in partnership to have FULL PLATE MEALS rather than mini one :D.But how each of them realize their mistake and become an united family remains other half of the story(if any!!).

Problems for ghaisaab start from beginning. Why the story is set in Prague and Austria??
Ok Casting?? Salman is “ultra natural”,hence fails to perform the character which has few shades of grey. He seems painful as if Kats had already said NO to him on the sets.

Boman as Kats father is at his moronic best.

Zayed khan delivers smooches more than the dialogues. He is the weakest link of the story.. Watch him in that scene in which he is supposed to cry in front of a mirror.He acts as if he suffering from appendicitis or a brain cancer(how I wish!!).

Kats on the other hand is vivacious, gorgeous(Watch out for her close up shot in Tu Muskura song).She acts as a brainless girl who at one point gives long gyan on “fatherhood” and the very next moment supports Sallu’s greed for his dead father’s property.

Anil Kapoor portrays a 15 year old boy suffering from “Genius Disorder” of Indian classical music and is the only guy who does justice to his character to certain extent.

The punch line says “Music Binds Love”. Very true!! That’s the only reason why you should watch this movie. There are very few directors who can pull off Rahman’s music in a picturesque way, with Gowariker and Shankar leading the pack.Ghaisaab displayed that in Taal, but I guess he got so much involved in this process that he forgot to bake the story itself.

To me the hero of the movie is A R Rahman’s music which throws in a lot of variety viz. Fusion “Manmohini Morey” , a well shot Symphony “Dil Ka Rishta” with huge orchestra and roooomantic number “Tu hi meri Dost hai” with a simple arrangement of instruments.All of these seep thru ur heart. Gulzar’s lyrics adds only a cherry on top!!


Frankly Ghaisaab has pulled off simplest of the stories in the past,each of which had high drama quotient and its own identifiable entertaining moments.And that’s the reason why he was an unmatched genuine entertainer of his era.Its disheartening and painful to see the way the film is being treated.Neverthless I expect him to come back with a more simpler story with a strong treatment(Only after recession is over :D),along with A R Rahman.


Well one of my bro called me up and summarized how in 1 hilarious one-liner..

He said “Subhash Ghai is not only back…. He has gone further back..”

Leia Mais