Noticed the new 'trend' in 'movie premiers' on entertainment channels these days? They play the same movie twice on the same day - 12 pm & 8 pm or some such. Strange? Not quite. If (huh?) there is a movie you would really want to catch, it's not a bad idea at all. Snatch half of it in the afternoon until siesta time and the rest in the evening well before sleep time if you may (the best of both worlds - ha!).
I'd read a few good words about Band Baaja Baarat and watched the movie (in the fashion noted above) last Sunday. Well. Tell you what, not a bad effort at all, especially from a debutant director Maneesh Sharma! In fact, if the actors (Anushka, Ranbir) were slightly more than the amateurs that they are in this flick, it would've deserved an extra star rating. I liked the way the movie flowed (no flashbacks, no side-kicks, no inserted humour), I liked the practical, believable characters and the well written dialogues. (I particularly liked the exchange between the two in the last-but-one scene). I liked how convincingly the wedding planning industry is depicted. Some unnecessary songs and a few over the top heroics notwithstanding... Bollywood has to survive after all!?
The female protagonist (Anushka/ Shruti) is an urban, independent sorts with the courage to pursue her dream confidently. Endorsing her cause is the rural, not very sophisticated young man (Ranbir/Bittu) who wins the partner's role in her venture and her heart too. Anushka, the menacingly annoying off-stage gal (if you were patient enough to see the 'extra shots' you would realise how Anushka didn't let Ranbir complete a single sentence) actually played a sweet girl, though I wish her dialogue delivery wasn't so slurred and hurried. Ranbir's rural touch was way better than his namesake's in Ajab Prem....
How the love angle comes up is how it would normally happen in real life - no melodrama, emotional outbursts and filmi-stuff here. Eventually it had to have that predictable happy ending, but it didn't happen in the predictable sort of way. There were a few surprises - a few directorial surprises at that. The lack of the usual climactic run-up to the end made it more enjoyable for me.
I often find that liking a movie on television is a bit more difficult than liking it in the cinema hall where there are so many parameters installed to make it an 'experience' for you. You also don't judge the movie in the same way - in a theatre you mostly look for value for money - at home you may just look to relax on a weekend with something passably watchable.
Catch it if you missed it last weekend. I'm sure you'll get plenty of opportunities to do so - I bet its going to be television's next Jab We Met.
My verdict - 3.5 out of 5
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, May 24, 2010
Rocket Singh - a refreshing watch
I'd really liked Ranbir in Wake Up Sid - and he brings his same boyish charms to Rocket Singh. I saw the television premier yesterday and notwithstanding the annoying breaks, I actually enjoyed something on the idiot box after a long long time. I know the movie hadn't created any major stir when it released. But I thought it had a decent storyline and a strong message - based on honesty and integrity that's gone so missing from around us these days. Perhaps it appealed to me a bit more because of the peculiar point at which my life stands right now - disappointed by corporate life and on the brink of entrepreneurship.
The characters are a bit over the edge - I had the same feeling about the director's previous film Chak De. The story has a slow but steady pace, but the plot is so unpredictable that it keeps you guessing all the time. You can see every emotion in Ranbir's eyes and your heart goes out to him on several occasions. Especially when the whole office is making fun of him and he finds himself alone, yet determined to continue. Most of us have had a difficult time or two in our careers, especially at the outset, and the reminiscence strikes hard.
All in all, I enjoyed the innocence and the 'people-orientation', far removed from emo-dramas and surrealism that I've never fallen for in Indian cinema. No song-and-dance sequences, no garish fashion, no side-kicks; just plain engrossing cinema.
My verdict: 4 out of 5... A really nice watch!
The characters are a bit over the edge - I had the same feeling about the director's previous film Chak De. The story has a slow but steady pace, but the plot is so unpredictable that it keeps you guessing all the time. You can see every emotion in Ranbir's eyes and your heart goes out to him on several occasions. Especially when the whole office is making fun of him and he finds himself alone, yet determined to continue. Most of us have had a difficult time or two in our careers, especially at the outset, and the reminiscence strikes hard.
All in all, I enjoyed the innocence and the 'people-orientation', far removed from emo-dramas and surrealism that I've never fallen for in Indian cinema. No song-and-dance sequences, no garish fashion, no side-kicks; just plain engrossing cinema.
My verdict: 4 out of 5... A really nice watch!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Paathshala - Horribly misses the target
Writing a movie review of Paathshala is also in fact a painful task. There is not one thing that stands out, apart from may be a few hummable tunes. The movie attempts to highlight an issue that is in the thick of things these days - the commercialization of education, but director Milind Ukey fails miserably to tackle it properly.
Characterizations are totally missing, melodrama prevails throughout the second half, too many sub-plots jostle for space without any of them being taken to a logical conclusion. Shahid and Ayesha are unbelievably wasted, other actors have virtually no role apart from the sports teacher Sushant Singh may be. Saurabh Shukla is so annoying, you'd want to kill him not for his bad acting but for accepting an utterly illogical role. Nana Patekar could have been impressive, but the scriptwriter has not done any justice to his capability.
I have come to think that every such disaster sets back the pace of Bollywood cinema by a few notches. A similar theme revolving around education and its treatment of children was so well-tackled in the focused and just-adequately emotional Taare Zameen Par. The trick lay in the empathy with the main character, I think, rather than the temptation to please everybody. The beauty of TZP was that no one was intentionally bad, everyone had their reasons for the way they were behaving. That is totally lacking in Paathshala. Gone are the days when Hindi cinema had clear-cut 'heros' and 'villians'. Good modern Hindi cinema is more situational, practical, human.
My verdict: All in all, Paathshala makes for a pathetic watch. A must-miss for all age-groups.
Characterizations are totally missing, melodrama prevails throughout the second half, too many sub-plots jostle for space without any of them being taken to a logical conclusion. Shahid and Ayesha are unbelievably wasted, other actors have virtually no role apart from the sports teacher Sushant Singh may be. Saurabh Shukla is so annoying, you'd want to kill him not for his bad acting but for accepting an utterly illogical role. Nana Patekar could have been impressive, but the scriptwriter has not done any justice to his capability.
I have come to think that every such disaster sets back the pace of Bollywood cinema by a few notches. A similar theme revolving around education and its treatment of children was so well-tackled in the focused and just-adequately emotional Taare Zameen Par. The trick lay in the empathy with the main character, I think, rather than the temptation to please everybody. The beauty of TZP was that no one was intentionally bad, everyone had their reasons for the way they were behaving. That is totally lacking in Paathshala. Gone are the days when Hindi cinema had clear-cut 'heros' and 'villians'. Good modern Hindi cinema is more situational, practical, human.
My verdict: All in all, Paathshala makes for a pathetic watch. A must-miss for all age-groups.
Monday, January 4, 2010
3 Idiots - the over-hyped revenue machine?
I went to see 3 idiots early in the New Year on a Saturday morning. Opted for the morning show for three reasons: One, I was not partying so hard on the 31st that I would need to spend the next 2-3 days recuperating. Two: Judging by the size of the queue for advance booking, I did not even expect to get the tickets for an evening show over the long weekend. And three, and rather obviously, it was the cheapest show. By saying cheapest, I am being very relative, since the price of the cheapest movie ticket that day was actually higher than what a typical ticket would cost on another day. Hard to see why the movie would not gross as much as it has.
Let me bring in some more necessary digression by telling you that I am not exactly what they call a movie buff. You would hardly find me in the theatre as soon as the movie is released, unless its Harry Potter may be. I seek the opinion of people whose taste in movies matches that of my own before I even consider seeing a movie in the theater. I would probably allow more concession when it comes to renting a DVD, but that’s simply because I can walk away from the movie at any time if I am bored, without feeling guilty about having paid through my nose for the ticket. Even after all the reviews, and after the calculated risk of expecting to like the movie, I end up not liking the movies, and have in fact burnt my fingers real bad on some occasions. Which basically means you would rather place me in the critic or even cynic category when it comes to movies.
However, I completely believe that some movies ought to be seen for their ‘public image value’ (PIV). They can’t be missed if you want to uphold that ‘happening status’ in your social life. I decided that 3 Idiots was one of those movies with a high PIV.
The euphoria surrounding 3 Idiots was evident in the packed theatre with people of all age groups scrambling at 10 am to be equipped with popcorn and all the other paraphernalia that comes with seeing movies in a multiplex these days. I must admit the movie made for an entertaining 3 hours. The audience was compelled to laugh, cry, marvel, ogle, smirk, and all of it in the time. And as has come to be expected from a Rajkumar Hirani creation, people got out of the theatre feeling good.
I actually came out feeling a little ‘different’. Yes, movies must be entertaining. But perhaps my expectations about an underlying message are too high. What is the real takeaway from spending so much money and putting in so much effort into moviemaking? In this case what was it - Question marks on the Indian education system? Tips on how to rebel against stereotypical professors? Lessons in true friendship? Or a different take on how to derive more value from life? Did you really think it achieved any of this?
May be it is the whole genre of escapist cinema that fails to appeal to me. Five-Point Someone is a simple story, of ordinary people in a common setting. Yet it says a lot, yields more realism and ends pleasantly though not without trying to tie up all the loose ends. The movie on the other hand, enjoys creating the larger than life image to the extent of being melodramatic at times, stretches all characters to the extreme by either glorifying or falsifying human nature, and seeks that picture-perfect ending that one can never dream of in real life. (And not even give credit to the author – but let me get into that some other time.)
My verdict – I would give it 3.5 out of 5 for the excellent cinematography and Chatur’s speech. A definite one time watch, especially for the PIV.
Let me bring in some more necessary digression by telling you that I am not exactly what they call a movie buff. You would hardly find me in the theatre as soon as the movie is released, unless its Harry Potter may be. I seek the opinion of people whose taste in movies matches that of my own before I even consider seeing a movie in the theater. I would probably allow more concession when it comes to renting a DVD, but that’s simply because I can walk away from the movie at any time if I am bored, without feeling guilty about having paid through my nose for the ticket. Even after all the reviews, and after the calculated risk of expecting to like the movie, I end up not liking the movies, and have in fact burnt my fingers real bad on some occasions. Which basically means you would rather place me in the critic or even cynic category when it comes to movies.
However, I completely believe that some movies ought to be seen for their ‘public image value’ (PIV). They can’t be missed if you want to uphold that ‘happening status’ in your social life. I decided that 3 Idiots was one of those movies with a high PIV.
The euphoria surrounding 3 Idiots was evident in the packed theatre with people of all age groups scrambling at 10 am to be equipped with popcorn and all the other paraphernalia that comes with seeing movies in a multiplex these days. I must admit the movie made for an entertaining 3 hours. The audience was compelled to laugh, cry, marvel, ogle, smirk, and all of it in the time. And as has come to be expected from a Rajkumar Hirani creation, people got out of the theatre feeling good.
I actually came out feeling a little ‘different’. Yes, movies must be entertaining. But perhaps my expectations about an underlying message are too high. What is the real takeaway from spending so much money and putting in so much effort into moviemaking? In this case what was it - Question marks on the Indian education system? Tips on how to rebel against stereotypical professors? Lessons in true friendship? Or a different take on how to derive more value from life? Did you really think it achieved any of this?
May be it is the whole genre of escapist cinema that fails to appeal to me. Five-Point Someone is a simple story, of ordinary people in a common setting. Yet it says a lot, yields more realism and ends pleasantly though not without trying to tie up all the loose ends. The movie on the other hand, enjoys creating the larger than life image to the extent of being melodramatic at times, stretches all characters to the extreme by either glorifying or falsifying human nature, and seeks that picture-perfect ending that one can never dream of in real life. (And not even give credit to the author – but let me get into that some other time.)
My verdict – I would give it 3.5 out of 5 for the excellent cinematography and Chatur’s speech. A definite one time watch, especially for the PIV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)