Warning- Contains spoilers, and recommended for those who have seen the film (at least once).

The intellectual is always showing off,
the lover is always getting lost.
The intellectual runs away.
afraid of drowning;
the whole business of love
is to drown in the sea.
Intellectuals plan their repose;
lovers are ashamed to rest.
The lover is always alone.
even surrounded by people;
like water and oil, he remains apart.
The man who goes to the trouble
of giving advice to a lover
get nothing. He’s mocked by passion.
Love is like musk. It attracts attention.
Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.

–RUMI

‘ Khatara bhai, mujhe ye sab kuch nahin chahiye..mujhe nahin banna hai bada..mere paas kuch nahin hai iske ilava..mera dil nahin tutna chahiye..’

–Jordan

After weeks and weeks of postponing, controlling, and denying, finally, I write on “Rockstar”, my favorite film of the year 2011. I do it with a simple hope, that maybe, hopefully, with this little, pointless, insignificant post, the movie will leave me, and somehow, settle, somewhere deep, very deep, inside me, as a part of me, for a long, long time to come. I was afraid that somehow my words will in some strange way, put a measurable emotion or an expressible meaning to what I feel and want to say about Rockstar, which is exactly opposite to what the film succeeded in doing with me.

In a scene in the end credits of the film, after the credits are almost over, the poem of Rumi which was narrated in the beginning of the film is repeated again-

‘ Yahaan se bohot dur, galat aur sahi ke paar, ek maidaan hai, main wahaan milunga tujhe.’

While the poem is repeated, a shot from the scene right before the interval is repeated, of Jordan and Heer in an open field holding hands, just before they kiss. This kiss, the moment of intimacy, of a silent never ending infinitium, which drew the lines of right and wrong based on not what they were or wanted, but what those things rigidly are meant to be, in the man-made society we live in, that neither they, nor their world, nor their past neither their future, would ever remain the same. It’s not hard to figure out the parallel, which consciously or subconsciously comes out from the poem and the scene and what is ultimately the soul of the film. After that moment they shared, they were never meant to be together, what they had was too powerful to break, but too divine to last. What remained at the end was the open field, and the memory of that moment, when there was no right and wrong, only Heer and Jordan. From there on, it was always too late, as Jordan says.

For me, it’s interesting, I have written more drafts of this post, then I did of my last short film. That is till I realized, that a film like this, does not deserve a post, like any other, which is an impersonal spoon feeding talking majorly about the story from a distance. So I decided not to do that, I just will scream what I felt, and continue to feel, hoping that whoever reads this, would have seen the movie atleast once, and if not, will in the most minutest way, just feel my love for the film, if nothing else.

The film is about Jordan, and his life journey, but after watching the film half a dozen times, I ask myself, who is Jordan? Maybe he is someone who right from his friends in college, to his family, to his agent, to the music company head, was very often a spectator to these people using him, telling him what to do, making a scapegoat of him, when all he knew was that he loved music and wanted to be a ‘Shhtar’. What he did not know is that this love, along with the love for Heer will ignite a passion in him which will consume him up and chew him out. Ironically, in a film so musical, there is almost no music in the beginning of the film. As Jordan mumbles and fumbles in college competitions and faces rejections, there is silence. That’s maybe because then the guitar was only part of his body, not his soul. That he may have words but did not understand their meaning. Maybe a kid, who just wants to go home, a home that does not exist anymore.

As he meets Heer, he begins to discovers himself and life. They have this inexplicable connection with almost nothing in common except a zest for living, and ‘living’ through Heer, music starts taking over his emotions and feelings. Whether its drinking ‘desi daru’ and getting drunk, or passing the snow clad mountains on that bike just before Heer gets married, they share something which is not talked about, cannot be talked about, because even after she is married, no matter where they are and what happens to them, the warmth they shared in the coldness of those mountains always remains their own, something nobody can take away from them. Just before she gets married there is a scene where nothing is said, but everything is felt. When Heer, dressed as a bride, about to marry someone else, looks in his eyes, but says nothing  - the mysteries of life are not that are spoken, but those that are felt.

After she is married and gone, his life goes on, but a vacuum always remains. He is banished by the family which was bound to happen as he was always a ‘misfit’, and as he lives in a durgah for months he discovers music in his veins. Heer is somewhere in those veins too, and this is seen in the sparkle in his eyes when he gets a chance to go to Prague where she is. By now, they have lived life a bit more, grown up a bit, but also realized that what they had felt in those mountains has only got stronger, and it’s too special to let go, but there is a difference between realizing and accepting.

When they meet in prague, they pick up from where they had left, and find that what they have is ‘something else’. But no matter what they feel, they are what they are, and he can never express what he wants. She is bound in a soulless marriage, and they part ways again, only to meet years later to never part again. Their confusion and conflicts, which are never really thrown in the face or spoken of, are just referred to subtly under that white sheet, which is and always will be their world. A world where the lines of realizing and accepting merge, and they can be one.

Why, in that beautiful scene in prague, when Jordan and heer suddenly wake up early morning, in the song “AUR HO”, and start running towards her home as she is late, when she stops, midway suddenly, and turns to look back at him, and he runs towards her, in that beautiful long shot, does Imtiaz ali, cut it before they hug, and instead just shows him running towards her? Why do they never propose each other, which is common in most of his film characters? What does she mean, when she says ‘HAAN’, in that bridal dress, just before she is about to get married, looking straight into Jordan’s eyes? Why does he go to Kashmir, when they don’t even know what they have? Who are those ‘PARINDEY’, which Jordan talks about on stage? Why, when he has everything he ever wanted, does he stand on stage, and blankly remembers the time when he was nothing and was sitting outside a temple? Why when he meets her after 2 years, in as she lies half dead and slowly opens her eyes, does Imtiaz choose to show the light and breeze coming from the window, through her? It’s these choices, which Imtiaz ali, and his characters make, these confusions, these flaws, which are more real to life, then any amount of logic and clarity.

Yes, Ranbir has great screen presence and more so, seems to have great trust in his director and has an understanding of cinema, which gives him the confidence to have a blank face in so many scenes (for example, with his college friends in the start, where he is often just a viewer, or at the end in the climax bed scene, where he trusts that he does not need to do anything more then be in the moment, silently, just feel, and the movie will do the rest). Yes, also AR Rehman is brilliant and no words will come close to unearthing his brilliance. Nargis did grow on me over repeated screenings of the film and has a vulnerability and honesty which shines. Special mention for lyrics by Irshad Kamil, who turns up with his best work yet quite easily.

But there is only 1 rockstar, in the film, and maybe in the film industry today, which is obviously Mr. Imtiaz ali. Music from a musician may not come out of how he may have lived his life, but maybe how he perceives it, how he remembers it. The non linear structure besides keeping up the mystery element, in subtle ways highlights how his music was in that sense structured. And that is what he does so brilliantly.

If someday, I get to meet Imtiaz, I would like to ask him, ‘Why after establishing the fact that we are looking at her death from his point of view and feeling his pain in the last stage show, when she comes on stage did he use a woman’s voice, and in a way, her view with the line ‘Tum ko paa hi liya’?

There are many questions like these, and everyone whom I ask this question , including me, has a take on it, and I would like to thank you sir, if you ever read this, to give us a chance to use our heart and minds for a Hindi film after long.

For years and years, in a conventional hindi film, when a couple break off, the characters go right in the dump, and it comes out as lamely as it sounds. Where Imtiaz defies convention, like in Jab we met when Geet goes off to Anshuman at the end of first half, and Aditya comes back to Mumbai, inspite of knowing that the love of his life is with someone else, Aditya uses the memories of her, to inspire himself, and uses it positively.

Memories seem to be a common factor in almost all of Imtiaz Ali’s films. Memory of those few moments, spent by characters, which stays deep inside them, and becomes a part of them forever. It’s these moments and what he brings out through them, which bring out the beauty in his films, whether its Manali (JWM), or Delhi, London(LAK), or Kashmir(Rockstar). Thank you Mr Ali, for bringing love back to Indian screens again, bringing beauty again, and through Rockstar, passion again(the scene when he goes to kiss her from the stage, has to be the most passionate moment on Indian screens in the longest time).

For me, the soul of the movie is the song ‘Jo bhi main kehna chahun, barbaad kare, alfaaz mere’ which highlights so many of Jordan’s life situations, arising out of choice or otherwise. And that is what Ali does so magnificently to tell the story. For him songs are a means of expressing, not relieving. He has always done that.

In a scene, when Heer goes into coma, and he comes out of the hospital, and the whole crowd/media are standing and pounce on him, there is a shot when a police guy slaps Jordan, and he attacks him back, the people surrounding them, the viewers, the media, are all getting entertained, either laughing or staring, as this one man dares to feel, to express -that one shot tells more then entire films in India manage to do. Jordan always wanted to be a ROCKSTAR, and he does get everything what he wanted, but loses everything else. Maybe Jordan will go on living, will keep on breathing, his life will go on, what will remain is that void, that guilt, forever, and after.

Today, after many days of controlling, I will go and watch ROCKSTAR again, for the 7th time, and probably the last time on the big screen, in the final remaining show on the city. One of the things I had heard, when I left my job, and jumped to filmmaking was that one of the reasons a movie can score over other ‘Art’ forms is because it may affect your senses with the greatest impact. I very rarely felt that. Very few movies succeed in touching you. Rockstar did not touch me. It put a hand inside me, grabbed my inside, ripped me apart and splashed it on my face. The interesting thing is, I found beauty in that pain. How many movies can claim to do that? And so, I go to ‘FEEL’, again, and watch ROCKSTAR again.

A gutsy foreigner girl survives in Mumbai doing an odd-job against the wishes of her mother, all in an effort to search for her father, more so, to search for that someone who cares for her. This is the backdrop of “That Girl in Yellow Boots” which is very real and captures your full attention initially.

Ruth (Kalki) is a survivor in the big city, who works in a shady massage parlor and doesn’t mind giving the extra ‘handshake‘ service to make an extra buck.

The movie is a time-slice of Ruth’s life where she struggles hard, both as a foreigner in native land and as someone who is lonely and longs for unconditional love. How she manages her job, her eccentric boyfriend, the gangster who comes out of nowhere, the cop, the regular customer who cares for her, and the passport office officials makes up the rest of the movie. Kalki revels in this role (I am a major fan by the way). Her attempts to learn Hindi and her sustained efforts to look for her father seem genuine and you can’t help but sympathize with this girl in yellow boots who puts up with all of it with a brave face.

Positives

• Some very powerful performances from Kalki, Prashant Prakash (her boyfriend), Puja Swarup (as the spa owner) and the Kannadiga gangster (Gulshan Devaiah) who steals the show with an absolutely fantastic display of acting talent.
• A very crisp and tightly held screenplay, not peppered with the usual mainstream songs which is a major relief.
• The lighter moments during the movie are hilarious to say the least, with some very genuine situational comic sequences which help to tone down the serious aura that lingers around.

Negatives

• Too many cameos (although most of  them are good), which are more of a distraction than a means to take the plot forward. Naseerudin Shah’s role as the regular customer who cares for Ruth could have had more depth.
• The plot in itself is a not multi-layered, which makes it tough to keep the momentum going on the solo track of Ruth looking for her father in the monster metropolis.

Its hard-hitting, bold, in-your-face, and leaves you queasy at the end. This is another one of Anurag Kashyap’s masterpieces that you should not miss, if you have the stomach for it that is.

Dilon mein tum apni betabiyan lekar chal rahe ho
To Zinda Ho Tum
Nazar mein khabon ki bijliyan lekar chal rahe ho
To Zinda Ho Tum

Hawa ke khozo ke jaise azad rehna seekho
Tum ek dariya ke jaise lehero mein behna seekho
Hare ek lamhe so milo tum khole apni baahein
Hare ek pal ek naya lamha dekhe ye nigahein

Jo apni aankhoein mein hairaniya lekar chal rahe ho
To Zinda Ho Tum
Dilon mein tum apni betabiyan lekar chal rahe ho
To Zinda Ho Tum

Beautiful poetry written by one of the greatest poets and lyricist alive in our country today, Javed Akhtar, and rendered as eloquently by his multi-talented son Farhan Akhtar in the just released Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara. These lines sum up the emotions of the film perfectly. The movie has been directed by Javed Akhtar’s daughter Zoya Akhtar.

The premise, if stated in one line, is not new.

Zoya’s brother, Farhan, had made his directorial debut with a similar movie, Dil Chahta Hai, which presented the life of three male friends, their life and tribulations. ZMND is also an out an out male bonding film, with a slightly different take.  The three are school friends, who go for a Bachelor trip to Spain, right before one of them is getting hitched.

The whole movie revolves around the days these friends spend in Spain, and the changes these days bring about in their personalities. Some old demons get exorcised, some new relationships get forged, some secrets get revealed and some bonds get strengthened. The movie is all about life, and the way these lessons are taught, well, nobody would mind learning them.  All three face their worst fears on the trip and learn about bonds, family, love, friendship and dreams.

I am not going to reveal the secrets, but to experience what they experienced, one just has to go and see the movie.

Every experience is so beautifully captured that you feel a part of it. The cinematography is beyond brilliant in this one.
And if we talk about performances, every performance is top- notch. Even though the girls don’t have much to do, but they have played their part well. The boys, well, it is difficult to judge who is better and who is not.  My vote will always go to Farhan, a personal favourite,  but Hrithik and Abhay are as good and well defined in their roles.

But the real clincher for me are the lines rendered by Farhan in between the movie, describing the mood of the movie. For me, they are the actual soul of this film – inspiring, engaging, entertaining, emotional, everything packed into one, without an abuse, without a Sheila or a Munni or a DK Bose.

“There must be some f&%#ing chemical, chemical in your brain, that makes us different from animals…” are the lyrics of the opening track of the movie 127 Hours. The movie celebrates human life in the best possible manner. The soundtrack composed by Free Blood sets the mood racing, and within an instant the director conveys the message that with will power we can survive anything in our lives.

127 Hours, directed by Danny Boyle, is based on the true life story of American mountaineer and public speaker Aron Ralston. Aron Ralston played by James Franco gets trapped in an isolated canyon named Blue John in Utah, while on an adventure expedition. During the 127 Hours that he spends trapped in the canyon he displays utmost courage without panicking by surviving on a liter of water and few morsels of food. All the while he tapes himself on a video camera that he is carrying, for his family to see. Aron, even after being stuck in the canyon for three days comes up with the wittiest lines while filming himself on the camera.

The soundtrack composed by A R Rahman sets the tone of the movie. The music adds to the tension and the struggle that Aron goes through. As Aron hallucinates about his past and his future you can see his pain on the face of the person sitting next to you. Boyle uses the landscape brilliantly, and the music compliments the cinematography. The movie is based on the book written by Ralston himself – “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”. The screenplay by Boyle and Simon Beaufoy is gripping, and the cinematography by Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle will simply take your breath away. James Franco is brilliant as Ralston. The small things that Boyle captures, like the beads of water on the bottle of a Gatorade or Aron struggling to get a few inches of sunlight on his cold body, add to the tension and the desperateness that the audiences feel along with Aron.

Life is such, we don’t know what will happen the next moment and still we fret so much about the future. We get very easily flustered with the small obstacles that we face in our daily lives and forget to enjoy our life. Each one of us has the will power to overcome all the obstacles we face and achieve the dreams that we have seen. But while doing that we should not forget our present, and live life to the fullest. This I guess is what sums up Aron’s story.

127 Hours is a brilliant movie and is a must watch for everyone who is willing to enjoy life. Watch it if you want to get inspired by life. Watch it over and over again.

Have you ever had a dream which bothered you for a long time? Or have you ever had a dream which you have remembered forever? Or, while you were asleep, have you ever had a dream due to which you did a certain thing in your real life?

This is the very theme of Christopher Nolan’s movie, Inception. The movie is the story of Dom Cobb played by DiCaprio who is a thief, but he doesn’t steal material things – he steals secrets from people’s mind by entering their dreams. He is hired by a business tycoon Saito, played by Ken Watanabe, for the ultimate job. Saito doesn’t want to steal a secret instead he wants to Cobb to plant an idea into the mind of his archrival Robert Fischer’s mind played by Cillian Murphy.

Cobb cannot go back to his own country because the police are looking for him as they think he killed his wife Mal played by Marion Cotilard. Everytime Cobb is in someone’s dream Mal turns up in the dream projected by his own subconscious mind and tries to ruin his plans. So when Saito promises Cobb a safe passage back home to his kids he can’t resist even if it involves the great risk of going into multiple levels of dreams.

Aided by his trusted friend Arthur, played by Gordon-Levitt, Cobb assembles a team of the best “dream architects” – Ariadne (played by Ellen Page), who can create and maintain the balance of the dream world, and a forger who can shift his identity inside a dream (played by Hardy).

Nolan’s narrative is simple. In spite of the theme being so complex it doesn’t confuse the audience. The first half is spent in explaining in detail what Cobb’s job is, and in the second half the job is carried out.  All the actors play their part well. To rate this movie would be blasphemous. If Avatar left you in awe, wait till you watch Inception.

The movie is like a huge puzzle which the audience starts to solve from the moment the screen lights up. The movie challenges your intelligence. As DiCaprio and gang jump from one level of dream to another, the audience participates and enjoys the puzzle. Scenes like the one where Arthur fights security guards in anti gravity in his dream is so well shot that you might just start feeling as if you are a part of that dream.

In the end the movie makes you think what if such a concept can become a reality. It would be a scary world. But then isn’t this already a reality. From the day we are born there are people who are trying to plant ideas into our head. The marketers are trying to plant the idea of purchasing their products into our heads or the politicians trying to plant the idea that they are the leaders; no wonder the world has already become a scary place. And what about me? Even I am trying to plant an idea into your head to go watch the movie.

The phone rang and I knew who it was. I couldn’t pick up because I was taking a shower but I knew what the person at the other end wanted to tell me. They had bought the tickets for Kites and the movie was to start in another 10 minutes. I’m one of those guys who need at least an hour to get ready. Not because I’m particular about how I look but I’m just too damn lazy. So, there I was, breaking away from my routine and pushing myself so that I could make it in time for the movie.

I ended up being 5 minutes late. I entered and saw Hrithik flirting with Kangana Ranaut. I gathered from my friend that I hadn’t missed much. J (Hrithik Roshan) is a young, handsome guy who marries women (illegal immigrants) so they can get citizenship. He lies with ease and is looking for an easy way out of his impoverished life. Enter Bob (Kabir Bedi). Bob is your typical rich, arrogant man who runs a shady business and has the entire government machinery in his pocket. He runs a casino, is filthy rich and his family is as eccentric as he is. Tony (Nick Brown) and Gina (Kangana Ranaut) are Bob’s kids.

Since I entered the theatre late, I don’t really know how but J manages to successfully woo Gina and they are ready to tie the knot. Now is the perfect time for J to get friendly with Gina’s family. Tony, Gina’s brother is the villain in the movie. His level of eccentricity is slightly greater than his dad’s. He’s smug, rich and a brat. His idea of fun is to step down from his chauffeur driven car, shoot some poor fellow and walk away like a badass! He makes it look so simple that I’m considering this as an alternative to Facebook to pass my time. Natasha a.k.a. Linda (Barbara Mori) is Toni’s fiancée. The first time J looks at her is when he is diving in the sea. She swims past him, completely captivating him. The next second, she does a P.C. Sorkar and vanishes into thin air!

A few minutes later, it’s revealed that Natasha is one of the 11 illegal immigrants J had married. This is so casually shown that you could miss it even if you had your eyes glued to the screen. Tony treats Natasha like doggie poo, and she is with him for the money. When she was a kid, her dad passed away and now she has to support her family. And yeah, when J was little, he lost his mother. Sad, right? It was somewhere here that I realised that 130 minutes of my life were going to go waste. So, I exited and decided to grab some popcorn. When I returned, the movie was still where I’d left it. Hrithik and Barbara were dancing in the rain. Oh my, How romantic.

Kids! It’s time to put your thinking hats on and imagine the rest of the story. I swear it isn’t much of a challenge.

“They run away together and Tony goes on a rampage throughout the nation hunting them down”, you ask? Bingo! You’re right!

“Hrithik and Barbara rob banks, outrun police cruisers in pick-up trucks, jump onto hot air balloons from running cars, dodge sticky situations with ease and destroy more than two dozen police cars single-handedly”, you ask? Booyah! You nailed it!

“Barbara drives her car over the edge of a cliff and Hrithik returns to that place after killing everyone and jumps to his death”, you ask again? Time to hand over the certificate of appreciation to all of you… You got another one right!

If you’ve read till here you must have realised that I’ve basically let the cat out of the bag. This review is one hell of a spoiler! That’s because I don’t want you to spoil your mood and waste your time watching something which you can easily avoid. Although, if you relish cheap copies of Rajnikant flicks, then this is the film for you.

If it were the days of “Khoon Bhari Maang“, I might have still given Kabir Bedi a pat on the back. But Bedi does not miss this opportunity and delivers yet another outlandish performance. There is no real reason for this character to even exist in the movie. Nick Brown as Tony is somewhat convincing as the retarded brat but the character is too loud. Kangana Ranaut hardly speaks. She does a P.C. Sorkar too, towards the end. I’ll let you discover this yourself if you watch Kites. Barbara Mori has a beautiful smile and does act to some extent. Her dialogues are mostly in Spanish and there are subtitles for majority of the movie. However, I believe the makers of the movie realised that by the time the movie reaches its climax, the audience wouldn’t care a bit if Barbara spoke in Spanish or Urdu. So, it’s pretty frustrating when you see Barbara yap in Spanish with no subtitles to help you decipher what’s going on. Hrithik needs to lose his silly “Raj Uncle” accent from Yaadein (anybody remember that?). He’s acted well but it’s not something extraordinary.

Overall, I’d give Kites a score of 2/5. The two points are for the camera work and some visually stunning scenes. The story is a dud and the performances are lousy. Give it a miss. I wish I had. Spending my time in the shower would have definitely been better than watching Kites.

If you are not into offbeat films, you may want to give this movie review a pass.

I have always been a fan of Abhay Deol, and look forward to his films. Maybe that’s because his movies can be harsh, in an in-your-face kind of way, and can also be very close to reality at other times. Dev D and Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye are two of his movies I’m referring to here. It was after these movies were released that I started following his movies. But, I digress… back to the movie review.

Road, Movie is based on a journey taken by Vishnu (Abhay Deol).

During his journey Vishnu goes through different emotions. At times he is having fun, at times he lusts. Vishnu learns that he should share, goes through a phase of feeling hopeless, and displays quick thinking through the course of the movie. Every dialogue in the movie is meaningful, and it takes a while to get to the deeper meaning of each sentence. Vishnu’s dad runs a small business of selling hair oil. This hair oil would become a key life saving element for Vishnu towards the end of the movie. Vishnu gets hold of an old Chevrolet Truck which contains all the equipments necessary for screening a movie. He does not intend to show movies to people, but circumstances force him to.

There are some breathtaking shots in the movie, shot in Rajasthan. Every scene looks so well composed, and aesthetically superb. Innovative camera angles and locations made me feel I was watching a movie of international standards. So, not surprisingly, the movie has been nominated for many awards. The slow pace, with excellent dialogue interspersed with patches of silence in between, and lots of things unsaid and left for the viewer to imagine just adds to that extra element of creativity.

The background score is awesome, and with not much song and dance the director has ensured that the focus is not lost. The movie touches upon various social issues like the water problem, the law and order situation, and the way women are living in the deserts of India. Like I said, the movie just touches upon these issues and these do not form the central theme, as Vishnu tries to complete his journey of 6 days.

Abhay Deol has been very well supported by Satish Kaushik, and Tannishtha chatterjee. There is also a child actor in the movie, Mohammed Faizal Usmani, who is brilliant. I have always seen Satish Kaushik doing comedy roles, and hence the role of a burly mechanic, wearing filthy clothes, and being serious, was refreshing to see. It was the first time that I was watching Tannishtha and I liked how she played the role of a Rajasthani widow. She can actually act and it is about time that our directors started using such actresses.

Road, Movie is an off beat movie that is a superb combination of creativity and acting at its best. Thank you Dev Benegal.

Rating: 4/5

After a hectic week it was time to relax on the weekend, and what better way than to watch a comedy. Well that is what I was expecting the movie to be. To my disappointment, this was a badly done cocktail and, to my horror, a sheer waste of some real good actors.

The movie starts with Ajay Devgan, who happens to be a film writer, narrating a movie story. A joke lifted from a Pakistani play, which I just wished they had lifted completely, than just do a rehash. There are a few scenes of Konkona Sen too, but I felt her acting talent was grossly underutilized. Maybe, the makers didn’t have enough confidence in her comic skills?

Enter Paresh Rawal who has been playing the role of an old, pot bellied comic character since Hera Pheri. Filmmakers need to get creative now – we are bored watching the same character again and again, with only the movie names changed. There is a parody of a bhajan which I feel was the only high point in the movie – very well done and enjoyed by the audiences.

All the jokes dry up even before the interval. In fact, Paresh Rawal farting around in the movie repeatedly isn’t funny all the time. By this time, however, the movie has a good base to make the audience expect a decent second half.

But, never before have I seen someone commit a sin of combining comedy with tragedy. Hang on, I think the last time I saw Jaspal Bhatti do just the opposite -  he, however, was successful in making a comedy even though he tried his best to make tragedy. So, it was a real shoddy job of trying to end a decent comedy movie with a really sick tragic plot.

I’m still waiting to watch a decent comedy movie, however for those who still plan to watch this movie, my suggestion is to leave the movie hall after the first half.

Rating: 2/5

Images: From the Internet

Even after another fantastic performance by our very own Big-B, and some good support by seasoned actors around him, this movie fails to impress. The movie has great cinematography, but a weak and predictable story line which just does not help the movie much.

I had a lot of expectations from the movie after watching the promos, and that just added to the disappointment. Choosing to watch Amitabh Bachchan in Rann, over Ishqiya, proved to be a wrong decision it seems. The movie could have been better with a stronger story line. The actors have done their bit, but this movie can be a classic example of what can happen when even though your actors perform well, you don’t have a good story to tell – the movie just seems ordinary.

The movie tries to expose the dark side of the News Channels in India, however, at times, the examples given become a bit boring. There is a section in the movie where Ritesh Deshmukh who is working with Amitabh Bachchan’s News Channel tries to investigate a story on his own; the whole investigation sequence I thought could have been handled better, but for the weak story. At another point in the movie, Amitabh, who is portrayed as someone who stands by his values and is disciplined when it comes to journalism, does not even bother to verify authenticity of a story and breaks the news to his viewers. There are many such instances where it seems the writer has not worked hard enough; the screenplay too therefore does not do justice to the movie. It seems like a complete patchwork knitted together without someone having looked at the complete package that was being delivered to the audience.

The closed camera angles and the color tone used were impressive. Rajpal Yadav’s performance in a serious yet comic role was a relief. Amitabh Bachchan’s performance was great, but that seems to be given these days, he’s a gem and I admire his acting. I was most impressed however by Sudeep. He has left a mark in the movie, and it seems he means business when it comes to acting. Riteish Deshmukh is very ordinary, and to me he seems fit to be doing only comedy roles.

I would suggest you wait till the movie gets released on one of the movie channels, and then you can enjoy it at home.

Rating : 2.5/5

Director/Writer: James Cameron

Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang

A tweet review would be – “A visual and aesthetic treat. This marks the beginning of an era. Cameroon has done it yet again.”

Right from my cousin who’s in primary school, to my friend in college, to my NRI uncle, absolutely everyone has been mesmerized by this masterpiece. This has to be one of the very few movies that has lived up to its hype and has actually delivered more than it promised.

The Plot:
Firstly, we have a US Govt. commissioned space mission to the planet Pandora, in search of the mineral ‘unobtanium’ (loved the name) which is precious and can solve the energy crisis on planet earth. Then we have the locals of Pandora, the Na’vi people, a tribe of ten-foot tall blue skinned, pony-tailed humanoids. Then we have the paraplegic war veteran, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who is brought in place of his scientist twin brother who dies before the mission. Then we have a person’s “avatar”, a body made by combining the genes of the person with the native Na’vi genes. These avatars are controlled by their owners, who are in an unconscious state in a lab in the human base station. The purpose of developing avatars is to form a better connection with the natives, and persuade them to move from their traditional land to make way for mining. Lastly, we have the military forces led by Colonel Miles (Stephen Lang) who thinks that war is the only way to handle the situation in Pandora.

Jake being an ex-marine, initially tries to straddle two boats at the same time – being loyal to the military as well as the scientist camps. But as he mixes with the natives and understands their affinity towards the ‘Home tree’ (the center of their existence), he takes the side of the natives in this unfair and unjust battle. His falling in love with the king’s daughter only hastens the process of the increase in his affinity for the natives. Jake takes it on himself to save the Na’vi race from the human onslaught and that shapes up as the epic Na’vi versus humans battle in the climax.

The Positives:
All the lead actors have done justice to their roles, but a special mention must be made of Sigourney Weaver who plays the lead scientist, and Zoe Saldana who plays the warrior princess (and is Jake’s love interest as well).

Each scene is picturesque. The level of detail in each frame is astonishing, setting very high precedents for the movies that use CG henceforth. The first half is breathtakingly beautiful, where you cannot but observe each and every intricate detail in Pandora’s landscape.

The subtle references made to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq hit bull’s eye each time around. The tone in the dialogue when the colonel says “We’ll fight terror with terror” is so similar to the many speeches given out by Rumsfeld, Powell and Bush.

The Negatives:
A very predictable plot, nothing novel in it. But as some critics have said, there have to be some things that shouldn’t be experimented with in an experimental big budget movie like this, and Cameroon chose not to tamper much with the storyline.

Some of the characters are not well-rounded off. It is these characters that could have given much more depth to the wafer-thin storyline.

All in all, it’s a must-watch. It’s Cameroon’s gift to the world of cinema, and boy what a gift this one is. Go book your tickets for the next show and join the ‘Avatar’ fan club.

(Have you watched the movie yet? What are your thoughts on the movie?)