Awaiting.....

Next awaited watch - I Hate Luv storys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbKuI8ut1as

Raajneeti

Raajneeti is a movie based on politics and lives it up completely without any deviations throughout, for a Hindi movie which is a rare feat these days.
The movie is set in a non-metro, which adds to the charm of the story. The movie is gripping from frame 1 and it is essential to keep up with the story. The parallel has been drawn to Mahabharat and this is justified, with a bed ridden, partially paralysed patriarch Bhanu Pratap who nominates his younger brother to take over the reins of the political party (Dhritarashtra making Pandu the king). This irks the son Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpayee - Duryodhan). Chandra Pratap and elder son Prithvi (Arjun Rampal-Bhim) continue the campaigns. Younger son Samar (Ranbir Kapoor-Arjun) who comes down to India from America for the b’day celebrations of his uncle is away from the political goings-on in the family. Indu (Katrina Kaif- not sure if it was Draupadi’s character) in restrained clothing but free spirited role is in love with him and proposes to him. But Samar refuses since he has always seen her as a best friend.
Samar has to stay back in India due to the untimely and tragic demise of his father, and help his brother Prithvi achieve political greatness. Veer Pratap’s suggestions and moves for the party are always questioned and resentment builds up. He does not have a worthy ally until Suraj (Ajay Devgn- Karna), a representative of the backward classes, is also equally wounded politically by Prithvi’s moves. The friendship of Karna & Duryodhan has been portrayed by Veer and Suraj. Suraj has to be by his friend and calm him in moments of unrest and attack, similar to how Karna shouldered responsibility & wisdom while stood by Duryodhan.
Craftiness and conspiracy becomes inherent in both teams and they make use of it in abundance. Samar and Brij Mohan (Nana Patekar- Krishna) duo have an uncanny resemblance to Arjuna and Krishna. Veer Pratap forces the eviction of the brothers from the party and they launch their own, and rise in the eyes of the masses. Each step is planned meticulously that backfiring is not an option.
Meanwhile Sara, Samar’s girlfriend from America visits since he has not returned as promised. With a little bit of romance thrown into his character, he plays it with clinical precision. He cannot be distracted by her with all that is happening around him, which requires him to be 2 steps ahead of his rivals. Tragically, the 2 important people of his life, Prithvi and Sara get killed as a result of the conniving Suraj and Veer Pratap. But nothing can stop his mission, not even death. He consoles bhabhi Indu and prepares her to take on the mantle. He ensures that she plays on the sympathy from the masses and gains support.
Eventually he plans the elimination of his rivals, step by step and avenges the deaths of his father, brother and girlfriend.
For all those who were objecting to this movie claiming it was the story of the Gandhi family and was not being portrayed appropriately, Indu’s entry into politics was the closest it got. The rest of it was the Mahabharat revisited. The resemblance to the Mahabharat is so strong in the scene where the mother of Prithvi and Samar, goes to Suraj (her illegitimate son) to spare the life of Samar and join the family in the midst of the clashes between Veer and Prithvi. Quite similar to Kunti going to Karna and requesting him to join the Pandava army or atleast spare the life of Arjuna. Including the confrontation by the banks of a river.
What I liked about the movie:
· A hatke performance from Arjun Rampal and Katrina Kaif where the roles were not based on the glamour quotient.
· Ranbir has shed his teeny bopper and fun image (from Wake up Sid and Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani) and delivered a serious & mature role. Even his romance track is calculated. He is so determined in achieving his goals, that his smiles are also with absolute purpose.
· After a very long time, this is a Hindi movie, minus the OTT costumes (most characters are in Indian clothes of kurta pyjama; for Ranbir it was more dress down in khakis, button-down shirts glasses), naach-gana, and dream routines and with a well written script with distinct characters.
· A special appearance by Naseeruddin Shah, who starts the ball rolling in the story and a distraction in Shruti Seth to add spice to the tale.
· Nana Patekar, has abided by “ Actions speak louder than words”, quite a different take from his usual hard-hitting ground reality kind of dialogues.
My rating: 3.5/5 and possibly add a 0.5 for just the oomph of Ranbir Kapoor
Thought I'd add this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3-OPh8xl5g
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/video-play.html?video_id=4283

Kites – review One of the most awaited release of Bollywood post IPL….Kites. A bit of controversy surrounding the lead pair had given this movie an initial push. Kites is the story of an American dance instructor Jay (Hrithik), and Geena (Kangna Ranaut), his dance partner. She is also in love with him. Over time, he is introduced to her family, who are part of the underworld. Jay meets the family and meets her brother Tony and his fiancé Natasha (Barbara Mori). Cut to flashback, Jay who wants to make money anyway possible to realize his dreams of making it big. One of his part time money making schemes includes, posing as the husband to illegal women immigrants and granting them citizenship. One of his business deals involves Linda (Barbara Mori). The night before Linda/Natasha’s wedding, she wants to hang out with her friend (Jay) and Tony finds out, that they know each other. They escape from him and the rest of the story involves car-chases, hot air balloon escape, a bank robbery and a wedding around the deserts of America. What works for the movie: there isn’t anything in the movie since they forgot to write a decent story. One dance performance of Hrithik and Kangna is a saving whisker. What does not work: There’s a long list of it: No storyline – for a dance-based movie, hardly any dance in it So called chemistry of the leading pair is missing Barbara talking constantly in Spanish and Hrithik in English/Hindi and most of the movie with no dialogues. Trademark music from Rajesh Roshan absent since there are abt 2-3 songs and rest of it is just background music. From Rakesh Roshan’s stable, this is a huge disappointment. This could well have been a Hollywood movie, starring Hrithik and Kangna. My rating: 1.5/5

55th Annual Filmfare Awards!!

55th Filmfare Awards
The Filmfare awards is always one of the most awaited award functions in Bollywwod. The perfect time to show of the best of creations and attitude on the red carpet, which gives us a feeling of Oscars, desi isthyle. With the same spirit, the 55th annual Filmfare awards started with the best of the industry being greeted by Swapnil Joshi and a midget asking the stars all kinds of cute questions.
SRK – SAK Jodi made their grand comeback as the hosts and the ghosts of their humour was heavy in the air. Keeping in tune with the current developments, the event started off with a mock scan of SRK which could happen in “Immigration” and the results of which cannot be shared here (LOL)
The first award was for the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Shashi Kapoor, rightly presented to him by Shabana Azmi and Yash Chopra – from 2 icons to another. Following this, was the hilarious session by the Khan twosome…picking up right where they left it couple of years back. This time around they made themselves the butt of the jokes. Talented I must say!!
Then came the first set of technical awards:
§ Visual effects- Kaminey
§ Sound design – Firaaq
§ Prod design and art direction - Dev D
§ Editing – Firaaq
§ Choreographer – Chor bazaari– bosco caeser – Love Aaj Kal
This was followed by a very insipid performance by Deepika Padukone with the tracks “Uff Teri Adaa” and “Twist” – she had more energy in the movie picturization than on stage. And the stage got taken over by K Jo and Sidharth (the guy from RDB) for the next set of technical awards, giving the rib-ticklers a break.
§ Action – Wanted
§ Cinematographer – Dev D
§ Costume design – Firaaq
§ Background score – Dev D
This was followed by a performance by Riteish Deshmukh and Jacquline Fernandez (who she is – the one who debuted in Alladin…whetever) to introduce their “out of this world” movie, which I’m sure will live up to its name.. Saif ka saamna happens and is equally controversial :
o Hrithik – How high does your kite fly? - As much as kurbaan did/ billu barber
o Neil – Where is the surname? – Ridiculous question acc to Neil, and he was insulted (scripted or not – can’t tell yet) and then there is pin-drop silence
o Madhavan - Want to learn Tamil from him – Translate dialogue from Love Aaj Kal
o Vidya Balan – What are her first words when she sees Saif? - sodium sulfate and she would choose death even if these 2 are the last men on earth
And then Bollywood saluted Sachin Tendulkar for the awesome 200*….then back to awards, starting with popular ones in Music
§ R D Burman award for upcoming talent in music –Amit Trivedi
§ Playback singer – Female – Kavitha Seth for Iktara – Wake up Sid & Rekha Bharadwaj – Genda Phool – Delhi 6
§ Playback singer – Male- Mohit Chauhan – Masakali – Delhi 6
And then a silly lyric writing session by taking random words like Baingan – bistar – twitter – hurrrrrrrrrrr – peth – with a c-minor key chord
Mere dil ka baingan – duniya ka bistar…..
§ Lyrics – Aaj Din Chadaiyaan – Love Aaj Kal – Irshad Kamil
§ Music – A R Rahman – Delhi 6
Though Pritam had 2 nominations, Shankar-Ehsaan Loy , Vishal Bharadwaj, who can possibly compete with a legend like A R Rahman – and his 25th award, very humbly put. What a man!!
And a performance by Katrina Kaif to some peppy numbers like Main tera dhadkan, Tera hone lagaa hoon, Yaaron jee bhar ke jee le pal….
And we had the gorgeous Shruti Hassan and Sidharth hosting a part of the show for the next set of awards
§ Story – Abhijat Joshi , Raju Hirani – 3 idiots
§ Screenplay – Abhijat Joshi, Raju Hirani and VVC – 3 idiots
§ Dialogue - Abhijat Joshi, Raju Hirani – 3 idiots
A solemn moment to remember all those who left the film fraternity and made their loss felt: Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan,Prakash Mehra,Gulshan Bawra(yaari hai imaan), Simple Kapadia,Joginder,Leela Naidu(one of the 10 most beautiful women by Vogue),Sujit Kumar, Tahir Hussain,Nirmal Pandey & ……Michael Jackson.
Shahid Kapur pays tribute to MJ in a befitting manner

And awards for :
§ Debut – Female – Zoya Akhtar – Luck by Chance
§ Debut – Male – Ayan Mukherji – Wake up Sid
§ Supporting role – Female – Kalki Koechlin – Dev D
§ Supporting role – Male – Boman Irani – 3 idiots
And a new product was launched: Bipasha’s fitness video and it gets promoted thru a jumping jack with Ramesh Taurani,SRK, SAK (these two can make anyone dance to their tunes)
After a spoof by Saif on his sweetheart Kareena, an act by Kareena on Zoobi doobi
§ 2nd lifetime achievement award – Khayyam
§ Critics award
o Film –Firaaq
o Actress – Mahie Gill – Dev D
o Actor – Ranbir Kapoor – Wake up Sid
§ IPL – idiotic performances auction
o Kaminey – horse - to Salman – looks good always without a shirt
o Paa- Auro’s uniform – to Katrina – for learning Hindi in a Hindi medium school
o Wake up Sid – socks – Sherlyn Chopra – to match her swimsuit
o 3 idiots’ bums – (Aamir doesn’t turn up for award functions nor does he send his body parts also) – John Abraham – to be used for sequels of Dostana

§ Salman’s performance – Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di to main apne aap ki bhi main nahin sunta nahi – with his superman tee, was like having the best and longest performance for the last but again, the zing was just not there.
o Tune from HAHK (pehla pehla pyaar)
o Kabootar ja ja ja
o Jhoothe le lo
o Oonchi hai building
o Jeene ka hain char din
o Yeh raat aur yeh doori
o You’re my love
o Love me love me
o Maria maria
o Jalwa
o Barso yaaron barso
o Hanuman ki jai

§ Leading role – Female –Vidya Balan – Paa
§ Leading role – Male – AB – Paa
§ Best director – Raju Hirani – 3 Idiots
§ Best movie – 3 Idiots

Somehow humour is not so obvious and is coming at very long intervals…not like it used to be. And SRK & SAK have begun to border on the outrageous when it comes to humour. We need a change in anchors for the next edition.
3 Idiots, one of the biggest hits of all times walked away with most of the popular awards with some competition from Dev D so much like the David Goliath story but Firaaq was a surprise. Should watch the movie to find out what it is about. This year also marked a change in handing out awards for best debut...it was to diretcors rather than actors...could be cos there was no impactful acting performance by actors..

Looking forward to a better Filmfare awards nite next year!!!

Karthik Calling Karthik

A phone call can change everything!!
Well, the tag line of Karthik Calling Karthik (KCK) created a lot of curiosity… going by the kind of movies that Farhan has made or acted in, was actually expecting a path breaking movie, but alas…. It’s like all good things come to an end.
Movie starts with a dorky Karthik Narayan (Farhan Akhtar) who is overburdened and treated as much like a wallflower, but the sunflower of his life, Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika Padukone) gives him reason to live. He composes mails everyday to her but does not have the guts to hit the all important “send” button. And it takes a while in the movie before you figure out her job profile, cos she dresses like a socialite, waltzes into work cheerily at 1 pm and wishes “good morning”. I kept thinking she was the EA or the PR person till it gets revealed that she’s an architect. She spends more time on her clothes and smoking than on the blue prints. Plus she has a cute affair with office hottie (Vivan Bathena – he was Abhimanyu Singh in Chak De India).
How does he spend time after work? Visits a psychiatrist to help him get over his guilt ridden childhood. And then one fine night rather, he decides to end his life, with a huge bottle of pills and then the phone rings…… which really changed the narration of the story. The call becomes a pep-up pill, acting like a guardian angel, giving him advice to stand up for himself and get what he deserves. Soon, wardrobe revamp, glasses are off, gets a new bike and of course Shonali after a lot of pleading and begging for a cuppa. Well all’s well in paradise, until he decides on being honest… since when did honesty in a relationship make things easy thereafter???
And then the rigmarole of his mental disorder, the break up and his decision to start life all over again takes you thru the 2nd half. And then the lovers re-unite… how predictable!!
Some of the stuff at the start is really funny: the bad boss, the persistent landlord, having coffee in Khandala, the new –improved version of Farhan. The song “Uff teri Adaa” is a peppy number while “Hey ya” has good vocals
What sucks: the exaggeration in the 2nd half, Deepika doing similar roles of the independent new-age woman who scars herself in relationships (Bachna Ae Haseeno, Love Aaj Kal, KCK) and yet foes back to the guy…
My verdict: Maybe a one-time watch for Farhan Akhtar fans.

Radio - It is complicated!!!

Himesh Reshammiya is back in his new avatar – weight loss, no cap, neat hairstyle and no nasal twang. The result is seen in Radio, whose story revolves around Gen X, which takes its relationships and online life with equal seriousness.

The movie opens with the divorce of Vivaan (Himesh) and Pooja (Sonal Sehgal). At the end of the fateful day, there is a clown at Vivaan’s door singing “Happy Anniversary”, and he is not amused, since the sender’s name shows as Pooja. He then drives the clown (Shania – Shenaz Treasurywala) across Mumbai to make her realize her immaturity on the gesture. But the flowers were to be delivered elsewhere…(why is this predictable in the land of misunderstanding).
In the next few days, RJ Vivaan keeps bumping into Shania through sheer coincidence and they strike a friendship, to the extent that she suggests a new angle to make his radio show more interesting.
Parallely, Vivaan allows us to be introduced to the funny family of Shania which is a Punjabi Parsi household. They even have a lassi called as Paranjaabi lassi(heaven knows what went into making it. The movie is all done in a chapter by chapter version (for a the much deserved break for the viewers)
While we go back to the Radio show, Shania and Vivaan come up with a “Mystery Girl” idea and that’s where this whole movie resembles the relationship status of Vivaan – “Complicated”. On the other hand, Pooja is in a damsel in distress mode and calls her ex-husband at the slightest hint of trouble even though she had claimed that she cannot live with him. He helps her out like the knight in shining armor and the sparks continue to fly, even buying a Karva Chauth lamp (what on earth is that, and who’s bright idea was it?) To the extent that one night she calls him and asks him on his relationship with Shania, after downing quite a few drinks.
So, now there are 3 equations in this complicated triangle:
Pooja still cannot let go of Vivaan, but thinks that he will be happy with Shania and tries to get them together.
Shania thinks that Vivaan cannot forget Pooja and tries to bring them back together
Shania and Pooja strike a friendship which does not let them talk about their feelings for Vivaan honestly
While the women are shopping and bonding, Vivaan is busy trying to fix the Dish antenna in Shania’s house so that they can watch TV.
The three of them believe that breaking crockery is a sign of good luck, while Shania, provides an update oh-so regularly on Facebook on her relationship status but cannot tell Vivaan that she is in love with him. Her family though believes and treats Vivaan as her boyfriend.
And then we come back to the subject of this movie, Radio, which by now has been relegated quite obviously to a second-grade status. The show that they are doing is obviously fiction based but it is said “Fact is stranger than Fiction” and a few complications later, which has been the bloodline of this movie, “all’s well, that ends well”

This movie was so tiringly boring and inanely silly, that it is best to give it a miss. No Himesh’s trademark music/songs to look forward to and nothing really worth remembering it for, except for some mistimed “Ghanta Singh” rip offs by Paresh Rawal. And for the women, looking pretty is not quite sufficient, acting is a pre-requisite to be called an actor.

Paa

Paa
As the pre-release publicity has suggested, Paa deals with a rare condition called Progeria, which is caused due to a genetic defect. The condition causes the body of the person to age 5-6 times the actual age, making the constitution of the person go hay-wire. Mentally the person would still have the brain functions and development of the actual age. The life span of Progeria patients is not beyond 13-14 yrs with a maximum of 20 yrs.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Paa has its opening credits narrated in a very artificial way by Jaya Bachchan (the only missing person in this movie was the Bachchan Bahu, to complete the family participation) – found it mistimed.
The movie is set in a school which has Auro (AB) being brought into frame with a bathroom accident and happens to be the winner of the prize for the best “Vision of India” depiction. The judge for this contest happens to be – no prizes for guessing – AB Jr, whose looks have been modeled on Sachin Pilot.
With a politician visiting a school, there is bound to be media coverage…and Auro’s condition is splashed across national television. Only to be noticed by Vidya, Auro’s mother (played by Vidya Balan – without being a fashion disaster this time around)……n then Flashback
(Med student)Girl bumps into (Political Sc student) boy…sparks fly….and poof …she’s pregnant. And typical situation, they can’t get married now, since studies and career are more important than the relationship. Boy asks Girl to abort the baby, but she doesn’t want to…goes home to mom…..crying obviously. Here comes the kahaani mein twist…mom is not the type cast Indian mom, who says “ Beti, yeh tune kya kar diya? Hamari izzat ko mitthi mein mila di….main kisi ko moonh dikhaane layak nahin rahoongi”. She takes care of the daughter and the grandson.
Enter Auro as a child whose condition of Progeria is confirmed to have no cure. Then starts the engaging Auro, who would need hospitalization since his body cannot take the stress of school, n then mom, has to drop him off every morning, which he finds very embarrassing. Meanwhile as a make-up for the media disaster, AB Jr, promises him a trip to Rashtrapati Bhavan. But due to unavoidable political circumstances, he stands Auro up, is not forgiven easily,
In a totally filmi moment, mom reveals who the dad is, on his b’day. This strengthens Auro’s resolve to meet the politician father.
And then the trip happens, with a bonding session. On return, Auro violently falls sick and requires hospitalization, paving way for a predictable climax.

The movie has its highs and lows.
The highs being: Auro’s matter of fact dialogues and good performance by Vidya Balan & Amitabh Bachchan. Just 2 songs which are pleasant
The lows being: a lil dragged out storyline in patches and a typical political father act by Paresh Rawal, which can border on the lines of insensitivity.