National Treasure

I could watch it for second time and still go through the same excitement and fun !

Nicolas Cage and his friends are in a search for “hidden treasure”. A “treasure hunt” movie along with action, good direction, good performances, precise dialogues, good pace and excitement to keep you involved – what more do you want !

Me, fresh from Da Vinci code, enjoyed this one all the more! Movie might not be a “never-seen-before-classic”, but perfect for a weekend chill out.

Don’t miss it!

Kisna – The warrior poet

Artistic Value (AV) – 1/2 star (for glimpses of some good cinematography)
Entertainment Value (EV) – You’ve got to be kidding!!!

“Nothing survives forever ………… but love”

Yeah Mr. Subhash Ghai, I had doubts about my own survival towards the end of your much awaited, much hyped epic about a warrior poet and his love story against the backdrop of the freedom movement and partition. I have to admit that you were extremely successful in raising the expectation levels of the audience especially after that dud called Yaadein. A good period flick from Ghai, who must have learnt from his past experience was what I was expecting. Instead of all that what I witnessed on screen was senseless and extremely crass quality cinema which appeared to be the work of some overzealous amateur moviemaker.

What must have attracted the initial audience which includes me? Promises of an original story? A different treatment?
Well I must say that, there was nothing, not even an ounce in the name of originality. The movie kicks off with the arrival of the firang heroine, who’s now gracefully aged and ready to share her love story (???) with the people and media through a marathon mother of all flashbacks. Titanic anyone?
As her tale progresses, we find that she falls in love (yawn!) with the gaon ka chora Kisna (a completely lost Vivek Oberoi) at the banks of the holy Ganga where they discover their “wet & wild” side (ahem!) thanks to the her Mandakini style drenched see-through white saree. Ram teri Ganga maili anyone? Utterly unconvincing.

We are also introduced to the other heroine, a hyper kinetic gaon ki chori, who at the drop of a hat goes and performs rope malkhamb or can we say “The great Indian rope trick” and fullto leg splits and acrobatics like a gymnast. I wonder what exactly her character wanted to express, but it was unintentionally hilarious and totally unwanted. Yeah, predictably enough this nutcase is totally gaga over the moron chora and thus forms a love triangle; chora-chori & woes in the form of firang heroine. Lagaan anyone?

Add to all this mayhem, the backlash against the English, Kisna and the firang’s wild goose chase, heavy & repeated Bhagwat Gita doses, a bunch of Hindus & Muslims running here and there in the name of partition, a lecher who’s only aim in life is to mate with the firang chori, a bunch of omnipresent sidekicks resembling zombies, songs that pop up anywhere and anytime, extremely irritating Hindi diction by the firangs (sometimes had me in splits), an English song (Lagaan again!) which went on and on and on, nudity (!!!) which explains “showman” Subhash Ghai’s desperation for a hit, and pray, an item mujra by Sushmita Sen who croons “chillman, chillman” which of course did little to chill me.

To sum it up:-
Vivek Oberoi’s career is in deep peril. The firang girl can feature in body lotion ads. The gaon ki chori can kiss bollywood goodbye and join some malkhamb club. Rahman’s lone song was reduced to a few lines, Darbar’s music lacked punch, some monkey was given the scissors to do the editing, the dialogues were lifted from Ramanand Sagar’s mythological serials and special mention to Subhash Ghai, the director, who must have been too embarrassed to make an appearance in this movie unlike his previous ones. Frankly, I never found any of his movies good enough, the worst being Taal and Yaadein but Kisna is miles ahead when it comes to making the audiences feel like complete baffoons. This movie proves yet again that Mr. Ghai has completely lost whatever touch he had and its high time to call it quits for heaven’s sake!!!

If you want to settle scores with someone, gift him the tickets of this movie. Rest will be taken care of by the “Ghai” behind the camera.

-Arun “searching painkillers” Ganesh.

Elaan

AV-*
EV-*1/2

Five unlikely heroes and their one Elaan. “Baba Sikander, Kutte Kamine main tera khoon pi jaonga.” Not exactly the same style but its same after all. Here is a brief profile of our unlikely heroes who are supposed to bring Baba Sikander whose army is bigger than that of Bangladesh and Nepal combined back to India and handle it over to the Police.

Rahul Khanna : Captain of the ship knows more business than guns but his father killed by baba & his sister accusing him for the fathers death, so revenge time. Doesn’t even need training to handle guns.
Amisha Patel : Only reason she is in the movie is ‘coz movie is directed by Vikram Bhatt. She looks pretty. I mean pretty ugly with her so-called new blonde look. Well she is a reporter closely watching Rahul Khanna and his mates and finally falls in love with Rahul, can’t have a better reason to join the gang; well after all the person who was killed was supposed to be her future father-in-law.
John Abraham: He’s Baba’s ex –driver. Falls in love with Lara and wants to have a clean life so pleads Baba to let him go away from his big bad world. Baba listens to him and sends him to jail. He breaks out with help of others and is on the mission with some new tattoos all over his body.
Lara Dutta: John’s sweetheart is a bar dancer,doesn’t have much to do, wear some skimpy clothes and some sizzling item songs and of course has to accompany John on the mission.
Arjun Rampal : Ex-Cop with sweet li’l daughter and living happily. Only some bad memories of his wife’s death make him join the mission. Leaves her daughter for a foolish mission, only to know he isn’t going to see her again. But the only sensible man in the gang.
Baba Sikander : Mithunda please do whatever you have done earlier. At least that appealed to some class of audience. This performance appeals to no one.
This movie is a sort of remake of any 70’s revenge movie. Nothing new in it; not only the movie has wasted my time and money but at least a million bullets. Some times I wonder why it is so difficult to hit the target even from 10mts away. And also the so called humour and Chunky Pandey in the movie are bad or more to say pathetic. You will curse yourself why did you go and see such a movie. Mr. Bhatt please stick to something which you know better ie to make remakes of Hollywood movies blindly, atleast in that you won’t come up with your own logic and audience would be happier. Rahul Khanna is only ray of hope during the entire period of 3 hours.
Moral of the movie.
If you receive extortion calls, please pay the money and spare the audience and think twice before going for another Vikram Bhatt movie.

-Aditya Parekh
Guest Reviewer

Swades – a reprise

AV – ****1/2
EV – ****

Scene 1:
Made plans with the guys (equally interested in “meaningful” cinema) for late night show of Swades.
Reached home, extremely tired. Checked the watch; 8.15 PM, still one hour to go before we gather and move out for the 10 PM to 1.30 AM show.
Voices of my friends running in my mind; “It’s very long and sluggish…..”, “It’s a flop………”, “Its a documentary……”.

Scene 2:
Movie begins. A few minutes later, there comes a scene in which Shahrukh breaks down in front of his friend and professes his desire to come to India to visit Kaveri amma, his nanny; goose bumps.
The titles roll and the background music (scintillating harmonica interlude) starts to play; more goose bumps!
The proceedings, the songs, India in its vibrant colours minus Punjab, the true to life village characters, the overall earthy feeling of the movie sticking firmly to the roots and the issues discussed gave the feeling by intermission that this is indeed one of the best things that happened to Indian cinema in an otherwise lacklustre 2004.

In the post Interval scenes, there is a lot of intricate detailing which slackens the pace, but who cares if the events are unfolded in a systematic manner. Be it the whole sequence of events leading to the lighting of the bulb or the launch of the GPM satellite, everything seems so real.
The cinematography is mindblowing, the set designs and detailing flawless, the costumes are apt, the dialogues excellent – sample these:
“baraf ko apne hi paani mein pighal jaana hai“

” You do realize what you are going to lose.”
“John, I know what I’m going to gain.”
“You could have gone places”
” I am going places”
“Okay, go light your bulb”

The background score is one of the highlights of the movie and so is the music by the maestro himself. The tracks are simple, penned in a simple yet poetic manner and exuberate brilliance. Notable are “yeh tara, woh tara” (also for effective choreography), “yun hi chala chal” and above all “yeh jo des hai tera” which definitely must have moved all the NRIs to tears. Acting department is extremely rich & proves yet again the Gowarikar choses the right people. The post man, sarpanch, the cook and all the village characters are played to perfection. Kaveri amma’s character deserves special mention, she is terrific. Gayatri Joshi looks too good and gives a decent performance. This is Shahrukh Khan’s best performance till date and he genuinely deserves all the awards in the stock. He gets into the skin of Mohan Bhargava with amazing ease.
Finally, kudos to Ashutosh Gowarikar for making an earnest and classy movie. Its his tremendous confidence in the subject and the realistic treatment which reflects as pure gold on the silver screen. Wish we had more film makers like him who believes in meaningful cinema, giving us the tale of ordinary people achieving extraordinary feats with just their self belief and good faith.

Notable scenes:

• Shahrukh’s trip to the remote village to collect rent from a poor farmer. Touching. (such is the detailing that the next day u can observe a slight growth of stubble on his face)
• The scene where he buys water from a kid in a remote railway station.
• His scene with Joshi where she accedently hits him with a blackboad duster.
• The scene where he says in front of the whole village that “Main nahi maanta ki hamara desh sabse mahaan hai, lekin hum mein mahaan banne ki kabiliyat hai”. There was pin drop silence during this scene.
• The turbine rotates generating electricity and a bulb glows in darkness, which lights up the face of an old woman. She smiles and says “bijlee.” A great scene.
• The final scenes at NASA.

Scene 3:
Out of the cinema with an overwhelming feeling and full bladder. Cursed the government for not making it tax free and the watchman to have locked all the toilets by then.

-Arun Ganesh

Obituary: Amrish Puri – Mogambo nahi raha….

Most respected villian is a small honour to an actor who became synonymous for villian in Bollywood. But negative role was just another role for Amrish Puri who enacted father and policeman with the same conviction. From ‘54 till yesterday, having done over 200 movies in various languages, his choosy nature helped him gain respect and awards,thanks to his amazing screen presence. Mr India brings Amrish Puri to mind, and not Anil Kapoor. Infinite girls may have found the shade of their father after watching the desciplined father of DDLJ.The perfect voice coupled with clear and thunderous dialogue delivery did the job.His talent ensured him success, fame and money. For Bollywood, which has seen Amjad Khans to Prans and Shakti Kapoors, Amrish Puri stands out. The roles designed for Amrish Puri went to Jackie Shroff – because Amrish Puri was busier and unaffordable!!!

That voice, that laughter, those eyes might not remain but Mogambo’s memories hamesha rahenge.

Ravikiran.R

Rog

AV-***1/2
EV-***

“I see dead people”. Perhaps this line is known to all of us. This movie is a li’l different it says “I love dead people”. Irrfan, a super cop, investigating a murder falls in love with the girl who’s murdered. Sick isn’t it or better to say it’s a ROG. But after all it’s a Hindi movie in which the Hero ought to get his Lady Love. So does that girl gets resurrected or what? I’ll not reveal the mystery and no, this isn’t a supernatural film.

Movie starts with Irrfan explaining a psychiatrist why he wanted to commit suicide, how he attempted it, and why he wasn’t successful. This is one of the best scenes of movie. Girl who is supposedly murdered is Ilene Hamann, a South African Model. Well there are very few words in English dictionary that can describe her and angelic, enticing and ravishing are just few of them. She is supposed to be a ROG or a virus that can creep inside any man without even his knowledge and she’ll conquer his mind, body, heart and soul. Suhel Seth as a high profile writer is amazing to watch. Munish Makhija and his Dadaji are the funnier part of the movie. Bollywood has got just a handful of good actors and Irrfan is surely one of them. I regret not watching his earlier movies. Either with expression or expressionless he seems so real.

You’ll find glimpses of Basic Instinct in the movie.But its not a remake. Mr. Director is also li’l bit confused whether he is making a love story or murder mystery in the end he comes with a combo of both which is not all that bad. There are only a handful of characters in the movie so its not that tough to guess the killer. ROG is once again a film in a different genre coming from Pooja Bhatt’s production house. Music by M M Kreem is good, not as good as JISM but of same type. He should definitely do more movies. Mr. Director, plz try Hollywood b’coz there would be few people who’ll understand and like your movie in Bollywood. In the end I would only say that 100 bucks not so badly spent.

Moral of the Movie:
If you are a cop investigating a murder you could end up finding your Lady Love.

Aditya Parekh
Guest Reviewer