Mon invite avis : Movie Review - Ghajini - Aamir's stellar, rest is amnesia!

Watching a premiere show for the 1st time in life is an experience I tell you.. and add to that the anticipation of watching Aamir Khan,one of our all-time  best actors,makes it all the more exciting..

To begin with,you have a medical student-Jiah Khan(doesn't look like one) picking up the case of Sanjay Singhania(Aamir Khan) for a case study project,but is not allowed to do so by the Prof, since its a police case..  Aamir is shown to suffer from short term memory loss.. He has stick-on notes all over to help him carry out his daily activities.. photographs to remind him of each and every thing he has done or is supposed to do, like the way to his house,etc.. he has a camera that beeps every 15 min..(why so..?? the director might know i guess..)

Next you have a stupid policeman following Aamir for a murder he has committed,and happens to read his diary dated 2005..(you'll wonder why is the police officer all alone without any vehilcle of his own and a gun...)

The movie now goes into flashback of how Aamir, the rich famous guy, owner of a cell network company, falls in love with Kalpana(Asin), a small time model.. she does all the social service stuff.. helping a blind man cross the street,etc.. Aamir though doesn't reveal his identity to her( why again...)

Now the brave girl that Asin is,she saves 25 girls from kidney cum sex racket,while  Aamir is away in London.. The don(Ghajini) now wants her dead cause 2 of those girls tell his name to the police.. The brutality with which the act is done will give you goose bumps.. and leave you wondering if it really is so scary to help people out in this country.. how many would if you're bound to meet such a fate. Aamir in his attempt to save Asin is hit with a rod on his head that gives him his characteristic scar and a memory that lasts for  max 15 minutes..

But he's all out to find the man-Ghajini(the name whispered into his ears by his dying fiance) and take revenge,even though he doesn't recognise/remember his face..

He does succeed in the end.. opens an orphanage in the name of his beloved and is back to normal life ( no.. he doesn't get his memory back.. and thank God for it, unlike the usual predictable climax of our hindi movies).

Downs:

• Direction,editing, fight sequences very amateurish.. the fight scene in the end is better of the lot..
  
• Background score.. we've heard that umpteen no. of times.. Music & lyrics are a let down.. only Guzarish and Kaise mujhe tum are good.. you don't need songs in such movies.. and for god sake not at all the likes of lattoo and bachcho.. it makes the movie look mediocre..
  
• The choice of actors(esp the villain)  could have been better.. Jiah Khan's over enthusiastic act was just not needed.. in fact the character wasn't required at all..

Ups:

• Its Aamir all the way..  his look in the movie, gestures, expressions.. nobody does that better than him.. he's a perfectionist no doubt...
  

 

You have to watch it for Aamir  and Aamir alone.. QED.

Contributed by Aparna - Maiden guest post for the blog - Voila :D !

Mon Avis : Movie Review - The Day The Earth Stood Still - A dud remake!

Never make a remake,  if you cannot outdo it - more so, a science fiction.

It isn't enough justice to remake a classic hit of 1951 (with the same name) and get away with sticking too strictly to the plot and execution , even if it means dishing out an outdated concept - To the generation that has tasted Independence Day, War of the Worlds and too many of the likes, TDTEST 2008 is frankly an old wine in an even more outdated bottle - and it is over aged- Bad bad timing! :)

And it isn't that TDTEST 2008 hasn't changed a bit from the 1951 flick. The alien (Keanu Reeves) is more morose, appears to save the earth for a slightly 'different' reasons (Hold your breath! Global Warming , vis-a-vis Nuclear endangermnent in 1951). 

An alien Klaatu lands on earth through a mysterious glowing sphere in the middle of Central Park , New York. He is from another world inhabiting a human body (Keanu Reeves at that ! ) and descends along with a robot Gort to warn the world leaders about earth's destruction through global warming. US government reacts in panic, issues code red and then goes on to disregard Klaatu's warnings which forces him to initiate the annihilation procedure (through a bizarre release of some darn insects which eat up all the living /dead matter - some creativity there!). In there is  Jennifer Connelly who plays a micro biologist of some kind and develops a bonding with Klaatu and keeps on hamming "We can change" line throughout as if subtly campaigning for Obama!

Downs:

• The inherent problem of the movie is stale execution and sketchy development of the characters. Nothing is explained enough and nothing is introduced enough to require an explanation. The script has not been tweaked and everything hence appears to be haphazard compilation of underwhelming special effects - Honestly, they are making TV series with better sci-fi characters than this! Neither there is a strong message, nor any applaudable graphics!

• Wasted cast - Keanu is wasted in his morose portrayal of a half-baked character, he derives it directly from Matrix and Constantine. But to absolute no effect. Connelley frankly had no special purpose in the movie and her step-son played by Jaden Smith (Will Smith' son) could not half manage the endearment from his The Pursuit of Happyness.

• Average special effects - really nothing to write home about and totally unsupported by the script
  

It is waste of time even if you have high tolerance for sci-fi stuff! You can only survive if you are a die hard Keanu Fan but even then there are chances of you tearing your hair by the time credits roll.

Avoid it!

Mon Avis : Movie Review - Rab Ne... SRK's Classic Cliche!

Yes, he has done this over and over again and that this one just about puts him at what he does best! Pairing up with Ady Chopra after years of creating blockbusters - Mohabbatein.. and DDLJ..., AC tries to weave the same magic again .. though not with the same success. No doubt the movie works, it even offers you a fresh script, almost a musical and danci(cal).  

But then he falls into his own trap of making everything grander than life.. and he blows the otherwise seemingly innocuous script into a slight exaggeration. Come to think of it, a girl does not recognize her geeky-spectacle wearing husband because he rids himself of specs, gels his hair, and wears some almost glaring clothes. But I guess that is what 70 mm is all about - Larger than life...and mostly unreasonable (though extremely entertaining)

So here you have a geeky Surendra Sahani - lighting up people's life through Punjab Power (Actually his greeting words on phone . haha). Turn of events force him to wed Taani (ANoushka) when he merely visiting her already scheduled wedding (Talk about destiny! ).. So there begins a jodi orchestrated by Rab himself! A journey where SRK tries to win his lady love (wife! ) becoming Raj (Oh so familiar - Naam toh suna hi hoga?). We see him kidding his own previous masterpieces through Raj, DDLJ mentions and various other such funny acts! Delight when an actor make fun of his own achievements and cliches! . 

Ups:

• SRK restricts his hamming only to his alter ego Raj and pulls off the geeky romantic with a flair, somethings that very few actors capable of! His hamming is what we have got used to and to many of us, that is what makes him so endearing to us (exclude me)! And of course his comic streak and even monologues (see one in him talking to a mannequin) are nothing less than endearing! And as one of my friends pointed out, his only restraint has been Swades!
  
• Music - Well, it works too - Haule Haule and even Dance pe Chance manage to keep you hooked - Then comes a most outrageous portrayal of films within a film - another SRK special spanning over four generations of Bollywood with four different heroines of the curent era! Well choreographed by Miss Merchant! - How can be an Aditya Chopra film be without hummable music!
  
• Anoushka - She comes out as an affable and chaste beauty and balances her act brilliantly - Terrific screen presence too I must say - Not bad debuting with the King Khan!
  
• Cinematography - Carried off well, showcasing most of Punjaabi streaks - Though I would still prefer an OLLO style cinema for that!
  

Downs:

• V P - Let me state earnestly , I dint know Vinay Pathak was in the movie.. and in the hind sight , i am thankful I dint, or else my expectation would have been more than what I got from him - After , past few wonders from him, he could have been a paired-comedy-classic with SRK - But alas, wasted - He plays SRK's buddy Bobby Khosla who is his partner in crime for the transformation into Raj and a little more than that for few just about bearable comic scenes!
  
• Length - Almost 170 Mins was way too long for me to bear - but then it ended . :)
  
• Exaggerations in script took this one again into the lala land.
  

A timepass, and not a disappointment if you are a hard core SRK fanatic!

Mon Avis : An 'aside' note on 60 Seconds Deep !!

Having seen Jaimini Pathak in Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi and a couple of soaps on erstwhile TV erea , I was intrigued by his history of experimental theatre. And with nothing interesting to watch in movie theatres this weekend, I decided to give Jaimini Pathak directod 60 seconds deep a shot. Premiered at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, 60SD came to Chennai on its way to IHC, Delhi (Click on the link)where it plays in the coming week. 

Less than half an hour into the play, I was awed by the absurdity of acts! Not much later I realised, this one was not going to have one single threaded script - it is half a dozen acts wound together symbolizing fast paced urban life and a search...  A hilarious radio gig, a comic rip off of "the moment of truth" and half a dozen musical acts of variety angles and all that united by a common theme - Search ... To be honest, not being used to theatre medium has its own mental hold-backs - I had to strain my mental faculty to make sense of this otherwise almost bizarre 100 minutes of roleplay. As I find later, Jaimini filled up for an absentee in the cast by acting in it  and did quite well ! 

Good show, and a good change normal dose of theatre! Though, mentally challenging! Smile!

Mon Avis : Movie Review - Transporter 3 - Action stuffed!

In another of the unapologetically ridiculous 100 minutes spin-off of the Transporter franchise, Frank Martin (Jason Statham)., lets his Audi do all the talking, while he is brooding in almost a Bond-like style and intensity. Ahem! Did we hear , " In my profession, a man is as good as his car?".. Aha! There we have it! The movie is all about the maneuvers, jumps, skids, floats and climbs of his Audi! Some really breathtaking stuff, I must say, as it unfolds on the bigger screen, beyond the run-of-the mill car chases.

Amongst all the slick car stunts , thrown in are few characters - a villain played by Robert Knepper, the Transporter playing expressmail for a package (a freckled Ukrainian daughter of hi profile minister), a bunch of goons fist fighting with Statham and of course, the hero (or the heroine) of this flick - The Audi A8 which is W12 engined!

Ups:

• Good action sequences - Jumping onto the running training , inventive-float out from the water and couple of others give you your money's worth . Add to that, Jason ridiculously does (or say overdoes), Bourne like action - fist fights et al. Who said the two had only first name in common? lol
• Hyper-caffeinated editing - lets you from being bored
• Jason Statham - He carries off the third franchise with decent flair
• Good OST - Yeah, few of the Numbers really work! :)

Downs:

• Though good, the stunts and story become repetitive and predictable. Though not boring, yet for the third straight time - it merely relies on high powered action and some high fidelity editing. Add to that some really senseless manual hand fights where the hero comes out unscathed - arent we getting inspired from Bollywood here? lol
• They seemed to have hit a bell curve here.. T1 was Good, T2 was Better and now T3 is just about Good - I hope they dont go over to T4 unless they really have a novel concept.

All in all, a decent time pass with some edge of the seat action. If you could bear QoS, this one should not do much harm