EK DEEWANA THA


Director - Gautham menon
Producer - Gautham menon, Reshma ghatala, Venkat somasaundram
Screenplay - Javed Akthar
Music - A.R.Rahman
Starring - Pratiek Babbar, Amy Jackson, Manu singh
Rating - 3/5


They say first love is something that is cherished life-long. The 'pehla-nasha', the 'pehla-khumar' is the most beautiful thing in life they say. Ek Deewana Tha (EDT) captures the very alluring moments of first love with the grotesque agonies of being in love.
As the trend of remakes catches on, director cum producer Gautham menon brings a splendid treat to bollywood with EDT. But along with it, he brings a not so splendid Amy Jackson. Pratiek Babbar however is hands-down the best thing to have happenned to the industry in recent years. He is magnificent with his acting and I ve become a huge fan of his, after dhobi ghat and EDT. We discover that Pratiek can dance as well ( atleast a lot better than Naga chaitanya from the telugu version ). How much ever you praise pratiek for his acting skills; it would seem less. When Sachin (Pratiek) is in love, he looks like definitely in love. When he looks like nervous around her, he looks like 'definitely nervous'. When he is very nervous around her dad, you can say 'definitely very nervous'. Well, Amy Jackson, you can say she is definitely 'uncomfy' with hindi. Although she is equally gorgeous in sarees as in jeans and t-shirts.

The film is the love story of Sachin ( Pratiek Babbar ) a budding filmmaker who falls in love with a south-indian christian Jessie ( Amy Jackson ). After the pleasing Fox studio trade mark, the film begins with the charming music of the maestro, and we are introduced to Sachin ( Pratiek ) who instanly falls in love with his landlord's daughter Jessie ( Amy ). He falls in love so instantly that it made me wonder, if this is how people fall in love, then I fall in love four times a day ( everyday mind you!! ).
He is a typical bollywood - wala, a sholay-praising 'wannabe director', and she is a MCA student who has watched only five movies and doesn't even remember their names. Such is her family detached from movies that , Mohanlal was fine but her dad doesn't even know Amitabh Bachchan ( The Amitabh bachchan, for crying out loud???).
So he falls in love, follows her around, beats up her pestering brother and then beats up his gang of friends, and then she has to go with her dad to get married to an NRI and he again follows her to the marriage ceremony where she rejects the neatly dressed Groom( poor fellow!! couldn't she have said no to him before the ceremony, but this is a bollywood film, so she has to reject him at the ceremony only ).
What follows next is a great script and a nice climax. The music makes it all the more enjoyable.

Ever been in love? If your answer is yes, then do not miss this movie. If your answer is no, well watch it anyway. India is losing the matches, nevertheless, right ;-). It's a nice film and just short of being magnificent. Maybe a better heroine or a better chemistry would have done the trick. Nonetheless, it is a cute film and deserves 3 stars. 

Rockstar

Director - Imtiyaz Ali
Producer - Shree Asthavinayak, Eros International
Music - A.R Rahman
Starring - Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakri
Rating - 3/5

Rockstar speaks volumes about the capabilities of Ranbir kapoor as an actor. After iT starts off  with the most unusual of an entry of the main protagonist. Rockstar builds up to a great level. If Shahid Kapoor has Kaminey to his credit, Ranbir proudly will write Rockstar in his resume if he ever has to make one.

The plot of the film is about Janardhan (Ranbir kapoor) who is born and bought up in a middle-class family of Delhi, but has dreams of becoming a rockstar. He is criticized by his audience and gets slapped by the cops for trying to entertain a bunch at the bus stop. Then he discovers that all great rockstars have had one thing in common. They have all been an outcome of tragedy. Then he cribs about no tragedy happening to him, says he has not had to fight for food, was not molested in childhood. Grim-faced, says even mother- father are still alive and says, "pyar bhi kabhi nai hua". So he goes looking for tragedy and finds Heer ( Nargis Fakri, who looks cute but like a malnourished Zarine Khan or let's say Katrina Kaif part 3). This girl is believed to be a heart breaker to anyone who proposes to her. Now our tragedy seeking Janardhan approaches her and proposes, in the funniest way ever. He gets rejected for the obvious, but he isn't heart broken yet and has samosa with less chutney in the canteen. However, they meet later and become friends and have some fun.
Imtiyaz ali tries to recreate a Geet( from jab we met) here, but that doesn't work, for some reason.
All of this happens before the interval. After you come back dealing with the non-bargaining and pricey canteen wala. Your already irritated brain is tested to how long can it withstand the frustration of senselessness.
After the interval, it is a totally different film. Heer turns Janardhan into Jordon, who has now become a rockstar, but then she gets sick and the doctors are of no help, but an appearance of Jordon ( ( Janardhan turn Jordon..get it? ) in front of the bed-ridden Heer, suddenly gives her a supply of the Red blood cells from the unknown. She runs around and becomes alright in a few minutes. However, in a few minutes of Jordan going away from her, the red blood cells go back to the land of unknown and she is on death bed again. 
This love story part in the second half seeks to ruin the movie but immediately as Jordan ( Ranbir ) is back on the stage, he pulls the film out and prevents an otherwise imminent drowning. The climax of the film is another thing unimpressive about it. It is an open-ended thread, and it is left to the audience' perception          ( a la titanic? ). I for one wasn't really impressed with it.

Don't be surprised to find a 3 star rating despite the flaws. Rockstar is a great film and deserves a watch.  Ranbir Kapoor carries the film on his shoulders with ease and gives a performance of his lifetime. All credit to Imtiyaz Ali for extracting the best out of the talented Kapoor.
The movie is a great one undeterred by the flaws.

Ra.one

Ra.one

Director - Anubhav Sinha
Producer - Gauri Khan
Music - Vishal-Shekhar


The best part about super hero movies is the villain. The badder the villain the better the movie. The dark knight was one such example and closer home Mogambo the 'khush hua' guy or look at any great super hero movie. Ra.one the villain is nothing as such or anywhere near the class of such villains. He is weak and can only blow fire balls from his hands. Equally boring is the good one (G.one) who is not powerful at all to be called a superhero.
Ra.one so hysterically tries to be a Hollywood flick that you can identify almost every third scene "inspired" from Hollywood flicks, be it G.one perched roof top like batman or the head tilting like the terminator,the iron man like HART or the bullet blocking like superman. They all give you a sense of deja vu.

Ra.one has a plot that made me doubt my credibility as an engineer and left me staring at my degree in software engineering. It so desperately tries to prove that it is possible for the characters in the game to come out to the real world, that you want to bang your head against the wall. Sadly that wall isn't available anywhere close and you have to continue watching Ra.one.
Shekhar (Shahrukh Khan) is a geeky game designer married to Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) and they have a kid Pratiek (Armaan Verma) who is crazy about gaming. Shahana Goswami is also there in a negligible role of a programmer. So apparently these people make a game which Shekhar (Khan) dedicates it to his gaming freak son Pratiek / Lucifer(Armaan) in which he makes the villain more powerful than the hero. The game is developed and Akon sings 'criminal' in his Himesh Reshammiya-like nasal twang. But things go awry and  supposedly the Ra.one in the game comes to life into a prototype (spare me the nonsense explaination) which only the kids must have understood how. And this guy Ra.one is angry at Lucifer who beat him in the game, so is in search of him and kills everyone who comes in his way including Shekhar the maker( in real life 'lol' ). Neither does this real-life game character have a pause button on his head nor on his butt. So he goes on and on. Finally when he finds Lucifer/Pratiek (Armaan Verma) he discovers that G.one is also out of the game to protect the kid ( oh! god, what headache). So these people fight stupid fights although with good graphics, these people can do nothing more than blow fire from their circled little palms ( again for the kids only ). 

The first half of the movie is considerably entertaining with some comedy but immediately after you return from the interval you willl find that it's yawn yawn time. Some more of yawn yawn time and its climax but these guys are not done fighting yet. Its level three seemingly and they continue to fight ( just like kids) and finally you get what you have waited for , 'the end credits'. And you say to yourself  "those are three hours of my life, I am never getting back".

The special effects and the Rajnikanth guest appearance prompt me to give an extra half star to it.
Rating - 2/5 


 

bodyguard
director,screenplay-siddique
produced by-atul agnihotri
music himesh reshammiya

Bodyguard is among those epic love stories rarely made these days,a genre bollywood is known for.the combination of action and love story works wonders for bodyguard,add to that the great chemistry bettween salman khan and kareena kapoor and u have got a blockbuster film.the film also has aditya pancholi who looks great on the screen after such a long time,u can see the intensity in his eyes when he is acting.

The movie is about lovely singh(salman khan) who is aabhari to sartajji as he had saved his life at his birth,also lovely singh's father was his bodyguard ,one who had given his life to save the life of sartajji.
sartajji is shown to be in trouble as his daughter is in danger so he calls up the agency and lovely singh reports for duty as the bodyguard of divya(kareena kapoor).she is annoyed with him accompanying him to college so she plays a prank on him calls him up saying her name is chaya and makes him fall in love with the voice,by the turn of events divya happens to fall in love with lovely singh,who in turn is in love with chaya(the voice on the phone which i felt was dubbed by karishma kapoor).fearing that lovely singh might reject her proposal divya delays it and soon things get messed up and its time u realise that the real villian of the movie is someone else,divya's(kareena) friend maya(hazel keech)who betrays her.
amid all this there is a lot of banging the bad guys some comedy here and there which is enjoyable.himesh reshammiya's music(minus his singing) is good to listen to after such a long time.

bodyguard takes you through a ride filled with emotions,u laugh when he makes u laugh,u smile at the cute chemistry bettween salman khan and kareena,u cry when they are separated.
my verdict 4/5 stars.one of the best films made in recent times.do yourself a favour go watch bodyguard.

RATING-4/5

READY

READY-
Director-anees bazmee
written by gopimohan
music-pritam,devi sri prasad

BANG AFTER DA'BANG

Athough the 1st half of anees bazmee's ready made me think i ve wasted my money,but later i was delighted to find myself proved wrong.The bad part was only the 1st half which is a comedy which doesnt make u laugh and miserably fails although desperately trying.there are only mini ha ha's u could find there.
.after a bad attempt at comedy the film comes back on track after the pee break (as they prefer to call the interval).
asin and salman look lovely together and have a great chemistry which was invisible in the very forgettable london dreams.

the film begins with the main protagonist prem(salman khan) introducing his family (which  takes ages).then
sanjana(asin) is introduced at the airport where she is shown to have escaped from her uncles who are at war with each other for the intent of  getting her married to their own sons for her 200 crore worth property.prem and sanjana meet at the airport,fakes her identity blah blah and as one thing leads to ther they slowly fall in love.meanwhile during the
mediocre comedy there are glimpses of action that is yet to come.prem bang-bangs the son of one of sanjana's uncle's who goes into coma and the film goes on and on watch the film to know if prem is able to get his premika
and save his family from factionist villians.

ready is a good film but could ve been a better film looking at the potential of the direction of anees bazmee.i couldnt help but compare 'ready' to 'welcome',which i think is the best work of anees bazmee.and the comparision has a large difference in favor of the latter.
but the action in it and the better work done in the 2nd half saves the film from drowning.
Verily salman khan carries the film on his shoulders and pritam's music is awesome.while the song dhinka chika does enough marketing to bring huge crowds
to the theatre salman khan takes care of the crowds and doesnt make them yawn.that should be enough to make the film a hit.
i would wanna watch it again cos despite the little flaws here and there its a wonderful entertainer and i would give it 3/5 stars

7 KHOON MAAF

7 khoon maaf
director-vishal bharadwaj
written by-ruskin bond
music -vishal bharadwaj

 A writer of ruskin bond's calibre and the direction of vishal bharadwaj's,is a deadly combination for a movie and you couldnt find a better result than 7 khoon maaf
The irony about the film is that we learn that even a murder could be justified with certain circumstances.This is one killer movie from vishal bharadwaj and the best thing about the movie is the dialogues.The dialogues are crisply written.

The plot of the film is d story of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes who falls in love and gets married just as any normal girl or woman but has to kill all of her husbands out of necessity.The time of the events taking place is also indicated by showing various incidents like the babri masjid demolistion,the kashmir revolts the taj hotel terrorist attack,the first indian nuclear test etc.

Her first husband is an army major played by neil nitin mukesh,major rodriguez.the second jamshed or jim as he wanted himself to be called played by john abraham is a rockstar who steals music and also becomes a drug addict.the third is a shayar (irfan khan).and then a russian spy and by the time keemat(anu kapoor) is to get married to suzzana i had lost count.Naseeruddin shah plays one of her husbands as well.
i d rather prefer you watch the movie to know why her husbands get killed cos thats an intriguing part of the movie and also funny how each of them get killed.Mark my words you are gonna love this part.
The music, both the background score and the songs are another treat,i especially loved the hindi heavymetal songs in the movie.
The negatives about the movie are tacky screenplay at some parts where the movie goes slow and the uneasy ending which neither did i understand nor did i like,these could become a reason why some would not like the movie.
overall i think its a great watch and i enjoyed it.
its a 3 1/2 out of 5 stars 

dhobi ghat;mumbai diaries

DHOBI GHAT
written and directed by kiran rao
music by gustavo santaolalla 

Ask me to describe dhobi ghat in one sentence and i would say "unbearably slow paced" with the background music of the gramofone and others making it look longer ,much longer than the 90 minutes running time.
the positives that i found in the movie was the innovative idea of taking us through mumbai through a camera lens.the camera,on or off definetly sees a lot.
and pratiek babbar who hadnt gone unnoticed as amit in 'jaane tu ya jaane na',announces himself to the industry he is a superb actor.the underconfident dhobi 'munna' who want to be an actor is marvellously played by pratiek.
The plot of the film revolves around munna the dhobi who wants to ba an actor, a slumdog who later doesnt become a millionaire,arun an artist who is a nomad of the urban area,and shai (monica dogra) a photoghrapher from NY who is on a sabbatical.Arun is a divorcee, a loner and a nomad who keeps changing houses and in one such house finds the recorded messages of a married woman(yasmin) played by kriti malhotra to her brother.this part of the movie is interesting as she shows mumbai through her cam.these messages make arun fall in love with her.meanwhile munna meets the photographer shai and asks her to help him out with a portfolio shoot for an actor they both start going out together gradually and munna falls in love with her.the stories progress very slowly in this part and the gramofone music gives u company.
the recorded messages of yasmin show us some real mumbai, corners of mumbai shall i say.all of this and abruptly u find the credits.the climax wasnt really impressing.

the movie is very artisitic and not bollywood type.its short without an interval but is slow making it look longer.
i would give it 2/5 stars after again a mention to pratiek babbar who was awesome.