The past months have been bad for Bollywood Box office. There has been no major release and ‘faltoo’ films have been staying too long. Gajini was still running in Gopi Krishna.
DEV-D
Direction:Anurag Kashyab
Starting with ‘Dev D’, the movie as critics and viewers alike voted was good. It surely collected more than ‘NO Smoking’ did and Anurag Kashyap is basking in its glory with ‘Rajuben’, his new venture in the small screen. Sadly, I haven’t seen the movie but it looks good and Abhay Deol has caught the eyes of many directors. I am waiting to watch Sonam and Abhay’s pairing in the Indian version of ‘Emma’. It already sounds like a hit.
DELHI-6
Direction:Rakesh Omprakash Mehra
Rating: ***
‘Delhi 6’ looks more like a director’s personal collection than a movie. The look of the film is auto biographical and Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra tries to relive his past in the streets of Delhi. The story may not be good enough but the characters are so well developed you would miss their performance if you didn’t watch the film. Om Puri, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta ,Rishi Kapoor,Waheeda Rehman, Pawan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak and Tanvi Azmi make a great ensemble cast. Sonam has few dialogues but her presence speaks it all. Mehra has directed her so good that I can’t help thinking this should have been her first movie. She could have swept all the best debutant awards. Abhisekh Bachhan plays low key and you could forget him. The
monkey man attire saves him.
The movie goes wrong when Mehra tries too hard to make Roshan stay. He uses it all – Hindu muslim riots, some fakir and his mirror, chessy dialogues and his sudden fascination for Bittu.The kala Bandar (langur) concept is the thread of the story. It works well but doesn’t work well to make it a must watch or a hit. Mehra’s in a dilemma- what’s the movie about?
• Is it a romantic story?
• A Delhi girls quest to become Indian Idol
• Roshans holiday away from home
• Hindu-Muslim riots
• Beautiful pigeons found in
• Kala bandaar’s inside us
• Woes of untouchables
• Ramlilas
• Family fights
• It’s all the above
• It’s none
The movie’s over and yet you are puzzled what to take and what to leave .Maybe you should take it all in or forget it. Personally, I wanted to watch the movie only for ‘Rehna tu’ – the whole song but is just popped out of nowhere (sonam wasn’t even there) like all other songs and left without making a mark. I was disappointed. The promos were so damn good.LUCK BY CHANCE
Direction:Zoya Akhtar
Rating: ****Akhtar
My favorite Bollywood movie of the year. The story is good, the script suits the plot, the characters are so real and Konkana can’t be forgotten. Zoya Akhatar’s outstanding. She’s directed her brother well enough to prove that he can act. I didn’t like ‘Rock on’ and he didn’t show any acting skills. This film has changed it all. Shankar, Ehsan and Loy have captured the essence of the movie in their music. ‘Sapno se bhare naina’ is my favorite track.
I was disappointed with myself for not having visited a theatre to watch the film-it was worth the tickets. The film was already pulled out then. If you haven’t seen the movie, come on buy a dvd. The movie is Balram Haluwai replicated on screen.
BILLU (BARBER)
Direction: Priyadarshan
Rating: ***
I would give the movie four stars except for some loop holes. If you are an Irfan Khan fan you will love him more. Priyadarshan has an eye for filming village life. You should watch the movie only for the sake of Irfan. His subtle ways win your hearts. Sharukh has been cast to add monetary value to the movie. He‘s done his part with a last minute turnoff, cheesy but emotional speech. Lara proves that she can act. Rajpal Yadav brings in a few more laughs. Om puri is good as always.
The best part of the movie is its combined package of sadness and laughter. In the case of loopholes there are numerous-
• Why doesn’t Billu shout out to Sahil Khan when’s he’s in the roundabout?
• Why does Sahil never talk about Bilu until the end?
• Why’s does Bilu never talk about him either?
• How do his children, wife know about their friendship when they never show him talking about the actor?
Anyways watching the movie once will do you no harm.
Time for all the faltoo films-‘Gulaal’ I heard was a good movie but it didn’t come to our theatres. ‘Dhood te Rehe jaoge’ and ‘Jai Veru’ from their names tell you what the movie will be like. Did anyone know there was a movie called13 B? ‘Bidesh’ I heard is good. I wanted to watch the movie today but it’s already been pulled down. 8*10 Tasveer looks like a turnoff to me from the promos. Akshay and Ayesha look like Dad and daughter.So, there’s going to be no Hindi movie watching for some more weeks-sad for the box office.
3 responses so far ↓
Jennifer Briganza // April 13, 2009 at 5:14 pm |
Those are exactly my thoughts about these movies. I would say that the Indian cinema is beginning to revive after having fallen into an identity crisis of ‘India vs. West’. The new genre of movies is closer to reality and less of a confused and chaotic story. Then again, there are a majority of movies that are totally clueless of what they want to portray. I guess that the insight and technical precision required getting a movie score an ace on all aspects is still a far cry. A little debate in this direction might reveal an absence of professional training…be it for an actor, director, script writer etc. If we need to get good movies consistently, we need a sound training in all skills related to film making and the lessons should be given only by those who have done it before and can give valuable criticism and guidance to youngsters. I know that Subhash Ghai owned film training institute Whistling Woods International (http://www.whistlingwoods.net/main.asp) has veterans like Naseeruddin Shah, Shyam Benegal, Madhuri Dixit, Govind Nihalani, etc imparting key skill sets to aspirants. Such initiatives formalize a learning system and supremacy of talent rather than have all sons and daughter’s of yester year veterans rule the roost. and it is best to have individuals learn critical skill sets and then develop a style of their own and Voila! Almost all Indian movies will win 4 stars.
Dikshya // April 13, 2009 at 10:03 pm |
Whistling woods is a good name and maybe the right place for all ‘jai-veru’ directors to take a course.Nepal has a film school too ‘ Oscar college of film studies’ which is not very reputed. It was opened by veteran actor Nir Shah but he recently handed over the administration to someone else. There are no other notable film schools in the country. If our directors here could even learn the basics our cinema industry would have a larger audience.
About the ratings- they are always subjective but Nepali films are not worth rating and most Hindi films don’t get above an average. Institutionalizing cinema is a good idea but creativity seldom sprouts inside classrooms.
Anyways, Tnks for bringing out this topic.
Luck By chance isn’t a waste of time.
Tickets // April 14, 2009 at 8:36 am |
I have seen “LUCK BY CHANCE”, It’s a great film, thanks a lot.