Paa – Simple and Beautiful!!

Cast – Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Paresh Rawal, Arundhati Nag

Direction – R. Balki

Paa is a light hearted film with elements of comedy and seriousness in it. Tackling tough issues like the single mother, premarital relationships, , a life threatening and deforming disease (Progeria) that Auro is suffering from, and corruption that our country is suffering from, in a light way. The film concentrates on the basic plot due to which it is is high on emotions.

Paa’s brilliance lies in its simplicity. The film is shot in a simple way, the acting never looks over the top, the scenes are simple, music is very simple, and everything looks beautiful!!! The dialogs of the film are good too, apart from a few which could have been avoided and were added for unnecessary laughs.

While the promos suggested that the film would focus on the chemistry between BigB and JuniorB, and Vidya Balan would just be a third character in the film, the film actually gives every actor the required screen time and the film had more scenes between Vidya Balan-Amitabh Bachchan than Abhishek-Amitabh. In fact the affection shown between BigB and Arundhati Nag was also very good.

Amitabh Bachchan, once again proves his brilliance in acting. Believe me, if you don’t know the look of Amitabh Bachchan in the film before watching the film, you will keep searching for him in the entire film. Auro hardly looks like Amitabh Bachchan. I would give 10/10 to the makeup artist for doing the makeup of Auro. Whether Amitabh Bachchan will spoil Shahid’s chances of winning the best actor trophy remains to be seen. Abhishek Bachchan, playing the role of a young politician who wants to remove corruption from the country and wants to remove the dirtiness from the word politics, does a very fine job playing the father of his real father. His character had shades of Rahul Gandhi in him. But for me Vidya Balan stole the show when it comes to acting. Playing the role of a single mother and a gynecologist, she excels!! She always has looked good in simple characters like Parineeta. For me she is the new Juhi Chawla who too used to excel in simple roles. I thought Vidya Balan was a bit unlucky to have faced Kareena Kapoor (Jab We Met) in 2007. She was excellent as Majulika in Bhool Bhulaiya. Yet again in 2009 she faces Kareena Kapoor (Kurbaan) with Priyanka Chopra too in Kaminey. It was great to see Arundhati Nag (Dil Se..) back in the film. She too did her job very well.

Extramarital affairs seem to be cropping up in the real life of celebrities these days, it is highly co incidental that the film too shows an illegal/premarital affair. Thus the issue remains topical and real for the public.

The opening credits had the ever so charming Jaya Bachchan in it, narrating the cast and the crew of the film. Somehow whenever she smiles, I remember the line “Mushkuraon kabhi, toh lagta hai jaise hoton be karz rakha hai” from the song “Tujhse Naraaz Nahi (Masoom)”. I don’t know why, I feel she hesitates to smile. She does look extremely beautiful to me even today when she smiles.

The introduction scene of Amitabh Bachchan is one of the finest scenes ever. Never before in my history of film watching, had I cried within the very first few minutes of the film. Auro jumped, danced, laughed in the introduction of his character and I cried seeing the 67 year old actor still so passionate about films.

Illayaraja, yet again composes very fine, sweet and simple music for the film. The background suits the situations perfectly. Mudi Mudi and Hichki are two very melodious songs in the album.

One thing that bugged me in the film was a strange clock like thing that was shown every 15 minutes. I didn’t understand the reason for it being shown so many times in the film. Also the editing of Mudi Mudi song looked a bit off-track to me. It was like the director wanted to cover the entire love story of Abhishek and Vidya Balan in one single song.

Overall, the film is one of the most beautiful films to have come out this year. The simplicity is very endearing and the film should be watched for that very reason!!

Kurbaan – Dil Se.. meets Ek Hasina Thi meets NewYork

Cast – Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri, Vivek Oberoi, Kirron Kher

Direction – Rensil D’ Silva

Kurbaan, the latest film on terrorism, has a similar theme to Dil Se.., with the male and female leads interchanged. While Manisha Koirala was involved in terrorist activities in Dil Se, we have Saif Ali Khan getting involved in terrorism in Kurbaan. While Manisha Koirala uses Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se.. Saif Ali Khan uses Kareena Kapoor in Kurbaan. However, the way Saif Ali Khan uses Kareena Kapoor in Kurbaan can be compared to Ek Hasina Thi more than Dil Se… Also the character of Vivek Oberoi had some similarities to what Neil Nitin Mukesh was playing in NewYork. But in NewYork, I had problems with how the story was being treated. A depressing theme was made into an action film which didn’t suit the theme at all in my opinion. But in Kurbaan, one is hardly asked to sympathize on the terrorists and the reason they became terrorists. And for that very reason Kurbaan works while New York failed. Dil Se.. obviously was treated in a completely different way.

Review – Garam Hawa (1973)

Cast – Balraj Sahni, Faaroq Sheikh, Gita Siddharth, A.K Hangal

Direction – M.S. Sathyu

I went to a video store to purchase this film.

Me: Do you have a DVD or VCD or Garam Hawa?

Store Owner: What? Which film?

Me: Garam Hawa starring Balraj Sahni

Store Owner: [leans forward to say something in my ears] Is it a XXX film?

Maa Sunao Mujhe Woh Kahani – Melody at it’s very best.

Singer – Siza Roy
Composers – Jagjit Singh, Sudhir Narain
Album – Arman-e-Dil

Lyrics –

Maaaa, maaaa, maaaa, maaaaaa
Maa, Sunao Mujhe Woh Kahani
Jisme Raja Naa Ho Naa Ho Rani

Maa, please tell me the story where there is no king or Queen.

Review – Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009)

Cast – Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Govind Namdeo, Darshan Jariwala, Zakir Husain, Upen Patel, Smita Jaykar

Direction – Raj Kumar Santoshi

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi, was one of the most awaited films of the year especially because Santoshi earlier in his career made Andaz Apna Apna, which many call the best comedy film ever in Indian Cinema. Furthermore, it starred Ranbir Kapoor who looks to be the best bet as of now to wear the crown of the next superstar in Bollywood. Katrina Kaif paired up with Ranbir Kapoor only adds to the craze.

Review – Kaminey(2009)

Mere baap ne marte huye kaha tha ki beta Charlie,

yaad rakhna,

Life badi hi kutti chiz hai,

Aur if duniya me, kutton ka baff, ek hi jawab hai…

KAMINEY

Cast – Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte

Direction – Vishal Bhardwaj

Fuperb, Fuffpenfeful, Fekfy, Folid, Ftunning, Fweet, Fmart, Ftyliff. This is Kaminey!! A Bomb. It will explode(BHUMMMMMMMM). Or it will betray you(PHUSSSSSSSSSS, no, PHUFFFFFFFFFFF). For me it explodes and HOW!!! For a person who has a past record of Maqbool, Makdee, The Blue Umbrella and Omkara, all of these being critically acclaimed though not commercially successful, you can only expect another great film. With Kaminey he might taste commercial success too.

Review – Aladin(2009)

Cast – Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jaqueline Fernandez, Sanjay Dutt

Direction – Sujoy Ghosh

Somehow, fantasies that belong to Tim Burton genre (Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish) have always appealed to me. I enjoy films that are set in fantasy locations and have real people in it as they have a different kind of excitement to it and have a huge scope of imagination. And having spent most of my childhood with Aladin, playing video games of Aladin, solving jigsaw puzzles, watching his cartoon series, etc., made me very much interested in watching the film. I always have loved Aladin.

Review – London Dreams(2009)

Cast – Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Asin, Om Puri

Direction – Vipul Amrutlal Shah

Vipul Shah’s latest film London Dreams like his previous films (Waqt, Namastey London) has a predictable story with a treatment that has all ingredients of a masala film in it. Except the fight sequences .

London Dreams is very similar to Abhimaan (1973) directed by the one of the greatest director of all time – Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Ego problems, jealousy on seeing a person close to your heart rise up after an opportunity given by your to him/her, and music as a background, basically sums up both the films. And in all departments, be it music, acting, directing – Abhimaan wins.

Review – Haasil(2003)

Cast – Irrfan Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Tinnu Anand, Murad Ali, Ashutosh Rana

Direction – Tigmanshu Dhalia

The game of politics begins when you thought it all ended. And by the time you understand what’s going on, your life has already been consigned to HELL.

Haasil is a story of politics played by different student level parties whose leaders plan to make it big by joining national politics later on in their life. The power of a student leader is well shown in the opening moments of the film when we see the students wish their leader while the vice-chancellor is giving a speech, thus showing the power of a student leader is more than the power of teachers or vice-chancellors of a university.

Between all these games of politics we have Annriudha (Jimmy Shergill), a theater artist who is in love with one of his co-actors, Niharika. (Hrishitaa Bhatt). But slowly even Annirudha starts falling into the trap of political scheming after making friends with Ranvijay Singh (Irrfan), leader of one of the parties. Very similar to Dileep Singh’s story in Gulaal, before he could visualize all this, his life is already in a mess.

Review – Blue(2009)

Cast – Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Rahul Dev, Katrina Kaif

Director – Anthony D’ Souza

‘Duniya Ka Sabse Bada Nasha – Risk.’ This is a dialog in the film Blue, and if you take out how much of the producers’ money was risked in the film, there is no other risk taken. With that kind of a theme, Blue could have easily been made into a great underwater adventure film with some risks (and of course some thought too). The people involved in the film were only interested in money whether it is earning it or spending it. After watching Blue, one can say that the dialog written above is wrong and Duniya ka sabse bada nasha isn’t risk but paisa.

Anybody hearing the narration of this story would know instantly that the soul of the film is the TREASURE HUNT, and thus the film should focus on that portion more. But the problem with an underwater adventure is while you are under the sea you can’t say anything. So the film has to be dialog-less for that period of the film. Thus it is a risk to make the hunt the focus of the film, if at all the audience loses interest in the hunt, the entire film loses out then and there. But how good is to sacrifice the soul of the film for not taking a risk!!!!! Anthony D’ Souza prefers not to take the risk and instead of concentrating on the hunt, he concentrated on the bare tattooed body of Akshay Kumar, stunts, bikinis, vulgar humor and Kylie Minogue!!!!!! BAD OPTION Mr. D’ Souza. You ruined the entire film just to avoid the risk and thereby killed the soul of the film.