Raavan

When the team from the fabulous 2007 movie Guru come together once again – director Mani Ratnam, Abhishek and Aishwarya – you start looking forward to another fantastic piece of cinema. Atleast I was. And then word comes that its an adaptation of Ramayana – knowing Mani Ratnam’s calibre, it just adds to the expectations - you cant wait to see his take on the epic. But as we saw two weeks back, Indian mythologicals do not lend themselves very easily to adaptation.
(Maybe we should just leave the adaptations to Vishal Bhardwaj and his school of filmmakers)

While a stellar star cast and a great cinematographer might be the strong points of the movie, the lacklustre screenplay is the weakest point – and the reason why the movie disappoints. The script never rises up to a Mani Ratnam level of cinema – it seems more like what a fresh film school graduate might write. We get the fact that SP Dev is Ram, Beera is Raavan and Ragini is Seeta – but we all have read/seen the Ramayana. Where is the thinking that makes it different from the stock Ramayana story ? Where is the magic Mani Ratnam touch ?

The only tinkering the director has made to the story is to add a bit of gray in all the three lead characters. Dev is not always morally upright, Beera has a genuine grievance and Ragini has a change of heart towards Beera. But this little ‘mirch-masala’ is not enough to spice up this otherwise boring story. Some of the literal adaptation is painful – like Dev asking Ragini to take a polygraph test!! There are little deviations here and there – like Govinda’s portrayal of Hanuman – which show flashes of what the movie could have been. But alas, the rest of the story is dull, insipid and boring. Not once in the movie do you sit up and start thinking “wow, this is really interesting”

The focus being on Raavan, Beera’s character gets a lot of screentime initially. The makers attempted to make it a maverick character – which called for a manic unpredictable performance. Unfortunately, Abhishek Bachhan is not up to the job. I found the whole crazy eye movements and the “jhika jhika” talk completely unconvincing and a put off. Vikram, who plays SP Dev comes across more passionate actor – but his role as a hard-as-nails police officer lent him only a few facial expressions to play with. I think he would make a better Beera in the tamil version. Aishwarya does Ragini reasonably well – she doesn’t emote and act all that well yet, but she looks beautiful throughout the movie.

And you do have to marvel at the numerous times she falls/tumbles in the movie. She must have picked up a LOT of bruises while doing the movie.

The litany of complaints just goes on and on. The music of the movie is very un-Rahman like. Meaning it sucked ! Apart from Behne De and Beera, the rest of the songs are bad. And the director insists on shooting only the bad songs in full !! And you might have heard that the visuals of the forests etc are breathtaking and it’s worth watching the movie for it - I didn’t think they were that good in the first place. Also, as wife put it – if beautiful forest scenery is what you want to see, you are better off watching National Geographic. The makers also fail in the detailing. Initially the location is implied to be somewhere in Madhya Pradesh, but then there are Kannada coracle boats used in some scenes. And there is a marriage sequence shown in what appears to be Rajasthan – all the women are dressed in bandhini sarees !

The only positive highlight of the movie I can think of is the climatic fighting sequence on a bridge. Both Abhishek and Vikram show real passion in the fight – and it’s picturised superbly. The ending is the only real deviation from the stock Ramayana story – but even that fails to excite..

Raavan is then a failure on all counts – it’s not engaging, the acting is unconvincing and the music is disappointing. It is not the worst movie on an absolute scale definitely – just that the expectations were raised too high and it failed to meet them spectacularly.


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Raajneeti

Prakash Jha’s name usually evokes images from the hard-hitting Gangaajal (and the underrated but equally hard-hitting Apaharan) – which shows a very realistic image of the Northern heartland – a man who has his pulse of the ‘cowbelt’. Both these movies, apart from mirroring the socio-political scenario of Bihar/UP, were impressive for the strong roots in reality. No flashy stars, no foreign locales – but the movies had a soul in them. So in his latest magnum opus, choc-a-bloc with big stars (Ajay Devgan, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif etc), you expect nothing less than awesome.

And for a while, he does hold your interest – esp in the frenetic first 20-30 min where the entire political first family of an unnamed state is introduced. There are two brothers, Bhanu Pratap the ex-CM and the Chandra Pratap the organizer. Bhanu’s son is Manoj Bajpai and Chandra Pratap’s sons are Arjun Rampal and Ranbir. Both the elder sons have an eye firmly on that party president and hence the CM’s seat. So when Bhanu Pratap falls ill, all hell breaks loose in the family. What begins as a Machiavellian game between the two warring factions, explodes into a full scale war in the second half.

For a while, the Mahabharat structure of the story seems very interesting – there is a clear Karna, Duryodhana, Yudhisthir and Arjun. A Krishna substitute Brij Gopal is there – and so is a paralysed Dhritarashtra. There is also a Godfather twist to the story in – Sonny and Michael Corleone. But soon the novelty wears off and you start getting restless at the pace of the movie. The movie reaches a peak interest level just before the intermission. Unfortunately, after that the movie literally crashes and burns.

What works for the movie is the interesting Mahabharat setup in politics, the real-life chess game played by both sides. Acting is decent all around except the usual suspect – Katrina Kaif, who is terrible in the first half - and debutante Nihila Trikha in the second half. Arjun Rampal is a little inconsistent – he does the role well overall, but I couldn’t shake off the nagging feeling that a more earthy actor like Kay Kay Menon or Atul Kulkarni would have suited the role more.

Things that don’t work for this movie are quite a few
- The length : At a little over 3 hours, the movie drags on at a lot of places. Esp in the latter half, where there were a lot of groans from the audience for “khatam kar”
- The screenplay : from a crawling but still sensible first half, the story becomes a literal ‘yudh’ in the second half, racking up a ludicrous body count. Realistic, my ass !!
- The dialogues : they are plain ridiculous. Using the Mahabharat analogy is cool – using the same dialogues is not! The movie is full of arcane shudh-hindi dialogues that will be completely Greek to the generation born after the tv serial. When was the last time you heard the statement “tum mere jeshtha putra ho” – or the term “aadarneey karyakari adhyaksh mahoday” 5 times in 2 min? I am sure even Mulayam Singh uses the term General Secretary in his daily life rather than “party mahasachiv”

So Raajneeti, despite the filmmaker’s reputation and taking inspiration from various stories like the Mahabharat, the Godfather and Sonia Gandhi’s own life - turns out to be as unrealistic as, say, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion. The usage of pure Sanskrit-ised hindi in today’s times is just silly and the sequence of events in the second half make the entire movie appear quite harebrained. I mean if killing off multiple CM candidates is so easy to get away with, why bother with using any politics in the first place ? Just hire an army of goons and assault the bugger anywhere.

So a thumbs down for Raajneeti and a recommendation to catch something else this weekend – I hear Shutter Island has a great rating on IMDB ...



PS : Four out of Prakash Jha's last five movies - Raajneeti, Apaharan, Gangaajal, and Dil Kya Kare (1999) - all have Ajay Devgan in the lead
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Kites

As star vehicles go, Kites is up there with the best – Papa Roshan’s gift to beta Hrithik is this smashing entry into Hollywood - a beautifully photographed love story that tries its best to pose as an epic romance. However, the catchword is ‘tries’ – because beautiful lead actors or superb cinematography cannot salvage a non-existent script. Rakesh Roshan even signed up X-Men 3 director Brett Rattner to make a shorter, sharper version for the international markets – with a running time of 90 minutes instead of the 130 minutes of the Indian version. However I doubt if Rattner’s editing skills can fix Kites’ fatal drawback – an excruciatingly slow and overtly simplistic screenplay.

Which is quite a pity because barring the listless story, Kites is almost unrecognizable as a Bollywood product. Shot extensively in the US (and with some Hollywood technicians, no doubt), Kites feels and looks like a classy Hollywood movie. Especially since there are very few hindi dialogues in the movie – its mainly English and Mexican. Hrithik looks fabulous as usual – and the dancing at the beginning of the movie is breathtaking - though some of his emotional scenes in the climax felt a little wanting. Overall, its a perfect vehicle for him to showcase his toned body, fighting skills & dancing.

But the surprise package of the movie is Barbara Mori. Not only does she look great in bikinis, but she has a glorious smile which brightens the screen. AND, she can act as well. Acting-wise, the movie has everything well covered – except for the guy who plays Tony – he seemed a bit over the top. Kangana Ranaut repeats her psychotic persona from Gangster etc – but she really has just a 2 min appearance.

There is a lot going on for Kites – gorgeous lead pair, decent acting, beautiful locations, fabulous production values, not-too-bad music – everything, except for a good script. What is essentially a two-line story has been stretched into a movie of more than 2 hours – the story moving at a languid pace and nothing seems to happen most of the time. And some scenes keep happening too many times – like the numerous chases and narrow escapes these two have.

The other slight failing of the movie is the lack of a chemistry between Hrithik and Barbara. While they both perform well individually, barring a bathroom scene between the two, they do not evoke the same feeling that other famous romantic movies do – they fail to make you care for their characters. That, combined with the insipid screenplay makes Kites a very middling offering.


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Chance Pe Dance

Chance Pe Dance has been panned by everybody – and for a good reason. A overly-simplistic screenplay, punctuated with songs with absolutely NO link with the story, it’s a doomed effort - despite the best efforts of Shahid and Genelia. You know something is not right when the opening is a full length song, and THEN the conventional opening credits come. No explanation given about the song and neither does it have any connection with the subsequent scenes. Possibly at the editing table, the makers realised that they had one extra song that didn’t fit in the movie, and they didn’t want to waste the song …

Not to mention, a dance movie atleast can have some hummable tunes – sadly, not even one. Its like these guys never watched Jhoom Barabar Jhoom!

Apart from horrible placement of songs and indifferent songs themselves, the movie suffers from a clear lack of thinking in the script. While watching Chance Pe Dance, I kept going back to Kaminey, Shahid Kapoor’s last outing – how meticulously thought out each dialogue, each scene was. Compared to it, Chance Pe Dance feels like a really amateur attempt – hard to believe it’s a seasoned director’s movie. (Before you jump on me, there is no similarity between Chance Pe Dance & Kaminey – only the same lead actor)

However, any dance afficianado (or Shahid Kapoor fan) would probably find a lot to like in the movie. Shahid looks good, emotes very well and dances fabulously. His dancing was known to be good, but in this movie he is in Hrithik Roshan territory. Genelia plays the bubbly-girl role that we all know by now – but my ears are still hearing a strong southie accent in her hindi. Overall, her’s and Shahid’s chemistry is pretty good.

The plot – Sameer (Shahid) is a son of a sari-shop owner (Parikshit Sahni) in Delhi who has been struggling in Bombay for 3 years now. He happens to catch the eye of a prominent director at a pub, and lands the lead role, only for it to slip it away from his fingers. He is also thrown out of his apartment for non-payment of dues. But he meets and befriends a choregrapher Sonia (Genelia) – who convinces him to take part in a talent hunt competition. Meanwhile, Sameer becomes a dance teacher at a school to bunch of no-hopers – I guess you can work out the rest.

If the script had been worked on a little more, it would probably have made a successful underdog movie. To director Ken Ghosh’s credit, he has tried to show how a struggler’s life can be – the opening scenes of the movie are good that way. But then goes and spoils it by giving Shahid’s character a car – how many strugglers can afford a car ? And for such a fabulous dancer, the finale song was such a damp squib – with six-packs, yes, but the dance was just ordinary.

And that is unfortunately, how its best to describe Chance Pe Dance – ordinary.


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Barah Aana

This movie could easily call itself the Indian Slumdog Millionaire – not only does it have Indian artistes, the makers are also Indian :) !! Having certain similarities with both Arvind Adiga’s White Tiger and the runaway Danny Boyle success, Barah Aana is a story of three have-nots who are fed up of their wretched existence and decide to take matters into their own hands.

Shukla (Naseeruddin Shah), Yadav (Vijay Raaz) and Aman (Arjun Mathur) share a room in one of Mumbai slums. They are simple, honest people struggling to eke out an existence in the city – Shukla is a driver for a businessman but he has a painful past, Yadav is a watchman in a building and Aman is a waiter in a Barista. But life isn’t so forgiving - Shukla is constantly ridiculed and abused by his mistress, Yadav is being made to do double shifts and treated more like a peon, running errands all day and Aman harbours romantic dreams in his heart about the friendly Italian woman at his café.

Things reach a critical point when Yadav’s son at his village falls ill and he desperately needs money for the treatment – but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Desperation leads to an accidental crime and with it comes a realization that now they have a way to fight back the system for the dignity that they have been denied so far …

The story has very interesting possibilities, and the acting is certainly top notch. Naseeruddin Shah has only 3 lines of dialogue in the entire movie, that too in the climax – he communicates only with his facial expressions and shrugs in the rest of the movie – and that itself is a study in acting !! Vijay Raaz is the most vocal among the three and he is good as usual. Amrit Mathur (the guy was Farhan’s friend in Luck By Chance) does the aspiring young man role very well too. But I thought Tannishtha Chatterjee made the major impact in the small role of the phone-booth owner in the slum.

However, the director fails in one very important aspect - to innovate in the movie. The script is completely linear and the pace doesn’t vary at all. Sometime in the second half, I even started looking at my watch – even though the movie is just 100 min long ! The first 30 min is spent establishing the difficult lives of the three lead actors and the story then moves steadily towards the ‘accident’ – the plot is very guessable and the director doesn’t do anything to dispel the disinterest once you realize you got the plot. The humour scenes are very few – and some more funny scenes might have improved the pacing of the story.

The director, however has one big last laugh in the end – but that is not enough to redeem the movie. The plot was interesting, the acting flawless but Barah Aana is let down by a slightly unimaginative screenplay. Its not a bad movie, but just nothing special ..


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Seven Pounds

Add Gabriele Muccino (maker of ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’) & Will Smith (star of ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’) – and you should be looking at another moving, heartwarming drama about struggles and redemption. They both thought so too. Unfortunately, maybe they got a little cocky and figured that they knew exactly how to touch the audiences with emotional tear-jerker scenes - who knows. But the resulting movie ‘Seven Pounds’, while heavy with emotional drama and loss, is a little too smug for its own good.

I had read a preview of the movie before watching the movie, so I knew what was the general plot. Bad decision maybe, but its now become a practice. However, as I started to watch Seven Pounds, I realized that if I didn’t know the summary, understanding the story would be quite difficult ! The movie appears quite disjoint initially and moves into flashbacks intermittently, in a confusing way. It was enough to irritate wifey (she hadn’t read the preview) – she wondered aloud what was going on !! However around the intermission, the story becomes somewhat clear.
So if you (the reader) havent watched the movie yet, take a call now if you want to read further :)

The title Seven Pounds is never explained in the movie. Someone suggested that it had some connection to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice – Shylock’s pound of flesh – but in Shakespeare’s version, a pound of flesh was not in return for a life. Google throws up conflicting answers as well. Basically nobody knows :)

Anyway, Seven Pounds opens with Ben Thomas (Will Smith), an IRS man on a mission. He is out investigating people with tax defaults, first an old-age-home doctor and then Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), who has a congenital heart defect which can only be cured with a heart transplant. Ben freaks out on the doctor, but he befriends Emily and promises to help with her taxes. But you can see Ben is a disturbed man – he has a sadness on his face all the time – and his eyes tell us a story of troubled soul.

The movie then moves back and forth in flashes and you get tantalizing clues to the cause of this grief in Ben’s life. But its still not clear what Ben is trying to do – all his actions, including his conversations with his friend Dan, brother etc is very cryptic. All that you can make out that he has a definite motive – but he gives no clue as to what it is. Only in the second half do things become clearer – and the emotional tugging begins. I admit I did get a little moist in a few sequences – its difficult not to. But at the same time you cant shake off the feeling that this is deliberate - showing you the most pitiable stories and their final redemption, great sacrifices etc. And this is the downfall of the movie – nobody likes to be so obviously manipulated.

All the good things in this movie lie in Will Smith – he really has the charisma as well as the depth to carry off such a complex character. And his eyes really speak out in some sequences ... But all that goes waste when, you come out of the hall not feeling warm and fuzzy, but a little deceived


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Luck By Chance

Is it just me or is Luck By Chance just a trifle overrated ?

Pick up any review about it and its plaudits and praise all the way - no brickbats in sight!

Yet it did not touch me at all - everytime I walk out of the cinema hall, something or the other about the movie usually buzzes around in my head. In most cases the movie is bad and I am thinking about where the director goofed up and how the scriptwriter was stupid. And once in a while when the movie is good, I am thinking about the more memorable sequences. But after a long time, nothing - empty, blank !!

However just because I didnt connect with the movie doesnt mean its a hopeless movie. Its a story about two two strugglers trying to make it big in Bollywood - Farhan Akhtar is Vikram Jaisingh, who is fresh from Delhi and Konkona Sensharma is Sona, who has been hanging around fringes for three years now. And surrounding them are a gamut of characters - producer, director, actresses, their moms, film journalists etc. One thing I appreciate about the story is that Zoya Akhtar has shown both sides of luck - how it can be both important and inconsequential. On the whole, the movie is quite competent and there are no major failings that I can place my finger on .... just that it didnt work for me.

I will try to think out aloud and list what I liked and what I didnt like about the movie - and you can decide for yourself. And did I mention there is a whole host of celebrities making special appearances in the movie ? I wont give out the names, but trust me, you will be surprised. They do add a bit of realism to the story - and make themselves look a little more human.

Positives for the movie include Isha Shervani - she is quite the revelation in the movie ! She hasnt been seen much after Kisna, way back in 2005, but she looks damn cute and attractive in Luck By Chance - she almost drips with freshness !!! She is so convincing is a star-kid that its difficult to believe she is not one in real life. The other thing that Luck By Chance got spot on was the characterization - Zoya Akhtar has to be commended for fleshing out ALL the characters in the movie - even the ones with just 2-3 scenes in the movie are rendered as believable - real - people (unlike Aditya Chopra's painful attempt in RNBDJ)

And among these, the best by far is Rishi Kapoor as the producer Romi Rolly. Javed Akhtar claimed that he had subconsciously modeled Romy Rolly's character on the different producers he has worked with - and it works !! Rishi Kapoor's performance is superb and you totally connect with the character.

Wondering if everything is so good then whats wrong with the movie ? Among the things that dont work, music is one - except for the Baawre and Sapno Se Bhare Naina song, rest of the tunes feel boring. Farhan Akhtar's average looks stand out a bit harshly in the movie - unlike Rock On where his non-hero looks made the character believable, here he just cant cut it as a standout newcomer! Same goes for Konkona - she just doesnt have a pretty face - and it stands out starkly in the dream love song. Apart from this, the movie moves quite slowly for the most part - and I wish they had cleared up the friend angle in the end. Is he jealous about Vikram's success, or does he like Sona, or is he just gay ?

But mostly, it doesnt work for me is because whatever happens in the movie is bit too understated - its hard to put it in words. I guess I expected a more lively movie - and while this is not gritty filmmaking, its a little sober for my taste.
I have to qualify that this is my personal take on the movie - most of my friends disagree with of and insist its a much better movie than the rating I am giving. But then after all, its my blog - I can say whatever I want :D

I would be extremely interested in hearing what you have to say about Luck By Chance - leave some comments if you agree or disagree.



I thought I would put in some words about Fun Cinemas as well - I watched it in Fun Republic, Andheri. We had a 25 min intermission in the movie - we were regaled with 4 full length Ghajini songs (audio only) before a barrage of video commercials. One or two commercials in a movie is the regular practice and is tolerable (even the supremely irritating HDFC Insurance ads). But at Fun Cinemas, it feels more like watching tv movie on Friday night - there is atleast 15 commercials shown after the 10 min intermission (note after, not between). And the same happened when we had watched 'The President is Coming' too. If I have to watch all these commercials, I might as well watch tv at home for free. Why should I pay Rs. 280 and then watch all this crap ? So take my advice and skip Fun Cinemas if you have a choice - if not, you have been forewarned
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Chandni Chowk to China

The first mega-budget movie of the year – starring Akshay Kumar & Deepika Padukone - promos everywhere. So what are you expecting from the movie ?

You are probably expecting an action-comedy movie, with Ranvir Shorey adding to the comedy department …. and a sizzling romance between Akshay & Deepika. But what you get is something very different – a love story ….. between Akshay & Mithun Chakraborty !!!

But before you get your hopes up, its nowhere as funny as Dostana! It’s instead a weepy, sad romance … doomed for separation.
Ok, so Mithun plays the father figure. But Akshay definitely gets loads of emotional screentime with Mithun and zero with his leading lady. With Deepika, this is what you get ....

[After working on his forearms for two weeks with something called Iron Forearm technique … which actually resembles the roti making action]
Akshay (standing with Deepika in his arms) : I have Iron Forearms now. Jaldi hi mere paas honge Iron Legs, Iron Chest, Iron Stomach, … (pauses and looks down towards you-know-what) … aur ek Iron …
Deepika (coyly covering her face) : Bas
Akshay : Ab mujhe mat roko. Mera poora body Lohe ka ho gaya hai ...
Deepika (fluttering her eyelids) : Oh, mere Iron man …

Want more ? He calls her lovingly as his ‘aloo paratha’ – infact CC2C had more than its share of potatoes !! There is a Ganesha shaped aloo in his hand almost throughout the movie. Deepika is his aloo paratha. And then in the climax, he begins to see aloos in his enemies …

Honestly, I cant decide what exactly to say about the story. It’s a combination of some four movies. Let me list them – Singh is Kinng, Kung Fu Panda, Chaalbaaz and a ‘Ajay Devgan’ movie called Jigar :) Add the 4 movies up cleverly and you have the entire story …. the resemblance to Singh is Kinng is especially striking, probably because it wasn’t released too far back. The same country bumpkin (Akshay Kumar) going international with his (comparatively) smarter sidekick, falling in love at first sight with extremely pretty ladies, songs at historical locations (Pyramids in Egypt/Great Wall in China) … you will feel déjà vu throughout the movie.

I am not going to say anything more on the story, except that its EXTREMELY BORING and humourless in the first half. Till intermission, it seems like its going to be the biggest flop of 2009. Thankfully, it picks up significantly in the second half of the movie. The sequences with the hindi-speaking-beggar and the kung-fu training are the best part of the movie. Akshay Kumar is right in his element here. Deepika looks ravishing throughout the movie – she looks especially cute in the Chinese silk dresses. And the make-up artists have done a commendable job in differentiating the twins – Meow Meow (the Chinese twin) actually looks almost Oriental ! Deepika doesn’t have much of role(s) to act, so she is ok as far as acting is concerned. But I thought she was looking the best so far in this movie – almost lighting up the screen with her smile.

Ranvir Shorey was a disappointment though – his acting was quite flat, even in the opening sequences. Mention must also be made of the soundtrack of the movie – Kailash Kher and partners manage to provide a most lament-filled soundtrack – the hindi word ‘rondu’ being apt. Except the title track, which is quite sprightly and appears early in the movie, the rest of the soundtrack REALLY makes you weep … in frustration. Quite disappointing. And didn’t wait around for the rap song at the end, so cant comment on that one.

Now the most important question – how does the movie fare on the whole ? Does it disappoint like Singh is Kinng? Well ….. not as much as Singh is Kinng, but disappointing nevertheless. As I have highlighted in the beginning, CC2C is expected to be an action-comedy. Instead, you will find a whole lot of sentimental melodrama (unhelpfully accompanied by Kailash Kher in the background) …. and it is a complete downer. Nikhil Advani has lost the plot midway into a movie yet again.

However, given that we are talking about Akshay Kumar and the droll and boring Singh is Kinng became a superhit, I wouldn’t be surprised if CC2C also did good business - especially since it’s a notch or two better than that sardar caper.


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Australia

After being delayed by more than a week, I thought I would chuck the ‘Australia’ review. But then I find that its still playing in most of the multiplexes in its second week, so here goes ...

If you are the type who get spellbound at magnificent footage on the huge cinema screen - in movies such as the Gladiator - you are going to like Australia. Attempted on a similar scale and scope, it features some breathtakingly beautiful scenes from the Land of Down Under. However, those of you who caught the word ‘attempted’ in the previous sentence would have guessed it right - there isn’t much to the movie other than beautiful camerawork.

Australia is Baz Luhrmann’s attempt at an epic movie ... combining love, adventure, travel, World War II, family values, racial equality and everything else you can think of. In reality it seems like a movie in two parts where the first part is a complete movie by itself and the second half is a mix of a little of everything else.

The story starts off pretty simply. Nicole Kidman plays Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who comes to Australia to dispose off her deceased husband’s cattle ranch, only to land in the middle of rivalry with local rancher King Carney. She then decides to undertake her husband’s last wish and herd 1,500 head of cattle to Darwin to fulfill an Army contract. She hires for help The Drover (Hugh Jackman), a freewheeling Australian cowboy sort of. Along with them comes the narrator of the movie, a half Aborginal child Nullah.

However this accounts for only the first half of the movie. The story then meanders into love, ruthless business rivalry, racism, family ties, blood ties, Japanese invasion of Australia ...

The chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman is good in the first half, when Lady Sarah Ashley is trying to come to terms with the Australian outback. However, Nicole Kidman is quite ordinary in the second half, especially in the emotional scenes. Hugh Jackman is cool as ever, acting the macho guy throughout the movie. And Nullah does exceedingly well too.

However the movie is completely let down by its unending storyline. I could hear groans of people all around me waiting for it to end. And the predictable nature of the story meant that the outcome of the movie was very obvious an hour before it actually ends – and the screenplay did nothing to make the intervening hour any interesting. The Japanese bombing of Darwin town looked quite CGIed and honestly, after ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Pearl Harbour’ the ability of explosions to ‘wow’ us is quite limited now.

Interestingly, after you watch the movie, the strongest impression left on you isn’t Nicole Kidman’s bad acting, but the rampant racism prevalent in Australia at that time. We know about the oppression on blacks in the United States - partly because of reformists like Martin Luther King – but it was an eye opener for me as far as oppression on Aborigines is concerned.

Since I am a sucker for the visual grandeur of cinema, I am giving it an extra 0.5 star solely for the camerawork. If you too enjoy the big screen cinema experience, you can watch Australia. Otherwise you are ok without it.


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Sorry Bhai

Rocket Singh : Salesman of the Year [IMDB]

Story of a fresh graduate trying to find a balance between the maddening demands of the 'professional' way, and the way of his heart

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Shazahn Padamsee, Gauhar Khan

Direction: Shimit Amin


The Twilight Saga : New Moon [IMDB]

Based on the Twilight book series. After Bella recovers from the vampire attack that almost claimed her life, she looks to celebrate her birthday with Edward and his family.

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson

Direction: Chris Weitz Read More!

Fashion

Are all male fashion designers gay ? YES, if you go with Madhur Bhandarkar's latest movie about the fashion world. A world where instead of females, male models face the casting couch - and where a single modelling agency has the ultimate power over all top models' careers.

The movie follows Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3, Corporate and Traffic Signal - movies which purportedly give the viewer an insider view into the subject. But somehow, maybe because of the preponderance with Priyanka Chopra, the movie seems to be more about the models themselves and should probably have been named Models.

This movie is completely around Priyanka Chopra and she does justify the director's faith in her. However quite a few of the highlights come from the other characters. Kangana Ranaut is literally a show stopper as a supermodel on the decline. She has amazing screen presence on the ramp - and an exaggerated style of walking which is almost like a gallop - when she comes onto the ramp at the beginning of the movie, she literally sizzles !! Ironic that an actress (Kangana) looks more impressive on the ramp than Priyanka, who is a former Miss World.

Also impressive are Mugdha Ghodse - who plays a model with realistic ambitions - and Kitu Gidwani, who plays the head of the modelling agency who has seen it all. Harsh Chhaya's potrayal of a stuttering fashion designer was very refreshing - the sequence with Konkona and Ranbir especially so.

The movie is about Meghna Mathur's (Priyanka Chopra) rise from a Chandigarh girl to a supermodel - and then her downfall and what happens next. Dont kick me for telling you this - barely 20 min into the movie, Kangana tells Priyanka the same thing and so you know what the movie is all about right then - which robs the movie of all its curiosity value.

And this brings me to the couple of grouses I have with this movie. First, we all have heard how difficult - and sometimes dirty - the industry is. The expression often used is 'dog-eat-dog world'. The promos of the movie also seemed to highlight the fact that here you have to lose so much to succeed.

Yet in the movie, there is hardly any dirty linen washed !! Meghna Mathur had to face almost no struggle to make it big - her 'struggling' days are shown drinking coffee at CCD or strolling on the beach (looking quite dapper - no trace of any small-townism). The only compromise she had to do was a lingerie ad - that too, a nightwear ad and not proper lingerie-lingerie ! (Infact, I guess today's models would LOVE to do one - as a way to add to their portfolio as well as showing their glamorous side).

And just in case you are interested, there was no casting couch either - she is properly seduced by Arbaaz Khan and she doesnt do it to bag any contract or something. Looking at her growth, you cant help but think about the stories you have read about this industry - are they not true ? Of ill-treatment of models on foreign shoots, accomodating 4-5 girls in a single room - or the bad working hours - or the alternate jobs people do to make ends meet. kind of things. You would think that getting success in this industry wouldnt be so easy ....

Secondly, did you know the fashion industry is such a nice place where the friends you make will keep helping you forever - irrespective of whether you treat them nicely - even taking professionally suicidal risks for you ? That is how nice Meghna Mathur's friends are !

Really Mr. Director? In this industry ?

And ofcourse, they could have definitely made the ending a little less dragged.
There are potshots taken throughout the movie - from plagiarism among designers to using of bollywood stars on the ramp to the director making a joke at himself - but they are just two lines each and one wishes they could have been involved in the script a bit more. The much discussed wardrobe malfunction is filmed nicely, but is depicted as a pure accident, so nothing new there.

On the positive side, the movie has a great soundtrack and the theme music is just perfect.

The movie is technically competent with no obvious shortcomings apart from a slightly stretched ending. But the movie fails to involve the viewer - partly because the story is so evident from the beginning - and partly because of the way Meghna Mathur behaves. Her downfall is her own doing and she doesnt get any sympathy at all.

Additionally, instead of a look into the real workings of the industry and the struggle faced by newcomers, this is story of a girl somewhat superficially set in the modelling world. While its not a bad thing in itself, its not exactly what you expected - or atleast what I was expecting.


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Heroes

After a long time, an actual ‘new’ story in a hindi movie – two lazy, good-for-nothing filmmaking students decide to make a graduation project movie about “Why not to join the Indian army” - by capturing the emotions of the family members of 3 deceased soldiers, to whom they will deliver the ‘last letter’ written by the soldiers. The idea being to capture the sorrow and hardships faced by the families after the soldiers are gone …

Any casual movie-goer can tell you – the idea, if properly executed, can be a blockbuster.

Unfortunately, the director - Samir Karnik (Kyun Ho Gaya Na, Nanhe Jaisalmer) – was probably not the best person to bring the story to the big screen. In my opinion, he lacked the depth and vision, to bring this story to life in a way that would touch the viewer throughout the movie – instead of just the couple of tear jerker scenes (done admirably by Preity Zinta and Mithun Chakraborty). It reflects in the choice of actors as well – the Deol brothers, for example. No disrespect to them, but subtly showing emotions is probably not their strength.

And this lack of subtlety is what destroys the movie in the end. This movie needed to connect with the viewer emotionally – making you feel for each of the families. Instead, the director goes for some extremely over-the-top sequences, which jarr your senses and completely obliterate any emotional connection you might have been making with the movie – to highlight a couple, the Sunny Deol pub fight sequence and the rugby sequence at the end. Neither do the number of songs or their picturization help matters much. This story needed a good haunting background score rather than a “Badmash Launde”.

Among the three stories, the first one was by far the best. Preity Zinta plays a Punjabi widow struggling to provide for her family after her husband’s death – played by Salman Khan, who gives a restrained performance after god-knows-how-many-years !! (some reviews claim its Salman’s best performance in years !!). The other two stories, apart from not-so-good acting, suffered from lack of credibility – they just didn’t seem real ! A father CAN be angry at his soldier son for leaving him alone – but the way his anger is defused is ridiculous ! Left to me, I would have completely changed the Deol brothers story into something more believable – but that’s probably why I am just criticizing on my computer and not making movies myself.

Sohail Khan and Vatsal Seth play the roving students and do a pretty good job – you can see that they are intrinsically good human beings, despite their tomfoolery. And their funny sequences help break the serious mood of the movie. Ofcourse mention has to be made of the opening sequences filched shamelessly from Friends (Ross’ leather pants) and the book Five Point Someone (when Hari wears the Prof Cherian’s shirt and goes out in his car – only to run into Prof. Cherian himself)

This movie has its high points – but the emotional connect is totally lacking. Most of the audience appreciates what the soldiers do for us – a film depicting the lives of their families should be ... just better somehow.


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Kidnap

I guess the basic plot has been given away in the trailers itself - Minisha Lamba is Sanjay Dutt's daughter who has been kidnapped by Imran Khan to take some kind of revenge. So the things to look out were - what made Imran Khan cry revenge and what are the ransom demands ?

The movie titles open with a small graphic novel where we see what happens to Imran when he was a boy - which I think was a very clever way of showing everything without any actual melodrama. But before you can get to the vengeance drama, something else threatens to take over the movie completely! And What A Show !!!

Throughout the movie, Minisha Lamba and Vidya Malvade (the Chak De hockey captain) are competing furiously for the most-cleavage-show-award. Situations etc. be damned !! Minisha Lamba cant help showing even when she is being held by a kidnapper and mom Vidya Malvade does it throughout the movie (even though she is grieving for her daughter – or when she is goes to a jail on some pretext at night !!) And Minisha Lamba wins hands down !! Or ... ahem, deep down :) !!

Though all this provides quite a few laughs – like when Imran Khan cant help his eyes wandering over Minisha when she is having a bath.

Returning to the main drama – both the leading men Imran Khan and Sanjay Dutt do well. Minisha Lamba does her part pretty well too - she is a 'revelation' :D. Vidya Malvade is a failure – and singularly irritating too – but hers is an insignificant character. And the much-hyped chase scene between Imran Khan and Sanjay Dutt is executed pretty well (for those who didn’t catch it, the location was the under-construction Rustomjee apartments near the Goregaon flyover signal).

But even with good performances and good technicals, the film doesn’t work. Here’s why – for this genre of movies, the important thing is to either keep the audience curious/guessing about how or why. The film progresses very well till the intermission – where the audience doesn’t know what is driving Imran Khan or what exactly is his revenge. But post interval, Imran’s background is given away – which robs the movie of its suspense. The only reason left to watch the movie now is to see what exactly is his revenge. And here the script falters - the revenge is hardly something unique or cool.

The ending is just stretched too much – the audience were in the mood “just finish it !!”. In my opinion, it would have been a better movie if he had made Imran Khan a little more … badder and crazier – and made him do something crazy in the end instead of the goody-goody ending.

All in all, I would say, even with the cleavage show (no doubt the best in a hindi movie for a long time, Dhoom 2 included) it is an opportunity wasted. It had a good premise, but ultimately wasted.


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Kismat Konnection

VERY cliche movie !! Didnt have a single standout feature - actually no, there was one - Vidya Balan's weird dresses !! Looks like the lady was trying very hard to shake off her 'worst dressed heroine' tag - and she came up with some really weird designs - like a big bunch of thin aluminum bangles on one hand and a broad black "junk jewellery" bracelet on the other (with a black dress). Trust me it looked really weird :) !!

Juhi Chawla was slightly irritating ... but since her screen time is limited, tolerable.

Overall, the unimaginative storyline with lack of twists (the director tries with the Boman Irani angle, but fails miserably) means this is a ho-hum story ...

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Hancock

The movie joins the endless list of movies who show great promise in the first half but then fizzle away in the second half. Infact this one does something better - it explodes a pie in your face and you are like "WTF" !!

The first half has Will Smith in a parody of a superhero role - boozing his way through his life, smashing and destroying things without a care. Then he meets a PR guy, who sees a great branding opportunity in him - and befriends him. He invites him to dinner with his family, where his wife gives Hancock mysterious looks and Hancock too is attracted to her ...

After that, the movie just goes for a free fall. I wont tell you the entire story but lets put it this way - its not worth finding out. The second half becomes a stupid emotional drama devoid of any coolness or intelligence which was abundant in the first half - its almost as if they were directed by two different directors !!
So in conclusion, give it a miss and watch The Incredibles again :)


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