Wake up Sid

Wake up Sid
Direction:Ayan Mukherjee
Rating:***
Jo barse sapne boode boode
naino ko moode moode
kaise me chalu
dekna na saku
anjane rastein…
Finally I did watch Ranbir and Konkona. I would love to write about it but at the moment it’s 12:55 a.m, my back is aching, my eyes are sore and I lost a edited version of a file I have been working for the past three hours.Somebody help me!

Yupiee I did find it. I am tired and all I can remember is Ranbir kapoor.I am too tired to write. I will tomorrow. For now, good nite

Now, I am back. Well, this is not a conventional review and it’s more about me and less about the movie.More than six months ago I remember going to a site and reading about a new movie starring Konkona and Ranbir. I did comment and even left my e-mail address.

Kaminey: As good as the name

Kaminey
Director:Vishal Bharadwaj
Rating: ****

The thing is I love underdog gangster movies. Who doesn’t? If you watch Kaminey you will know for yourself why it’s as good as its name. ‘Company’ or any other ‘Ramu’ movie doesn’t come close. It’s very stylish and double entertaining. It does borrow from ‘ Gangster gurus’ from the west but Sahid is Desi and he rules the screen. Bharadwaj was right when he mentioned ‘It’s my most stylish and challenging film’.

Love: Na Aaj na Kal..

Love Aaj Kal
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Rating: ***

Are you in a long distance relationship? Or Have you never been in a relationship and find love every complicated? In both these cases you will enjoy the movie. It’s not a classic love story or a very new one. It’s just another fresh love story from Imtiaz Ali. He has a way with love stories, Punjabi culture and trains.

Kambaqt Ishq…..bachaoooo!

Direction: Sabir Khan
Rating: **

Have you had a hell of a week:lost your job, flunked a test, your exam got cancelled and rescheduled three times in one day,there’s a strike in the locality, the newspapers are splashed with the beating and death of two innocent guys, sixty six people died in a remote district in your county in the last two months from diahhorea and all the T.V reports is the memorial of M.J and his message;love and peace, you have been secluded from the world for almost a fortnight now, Ryands philosophy is slowly getting to you and you can’t help sleeping for ten hours. What do you do? Go out for a movie. That’s what I did

If you decide to watch “Kambaqt Ishq” two things will happen: you will be emancipated or you will feel suicidal. Well, I hugged escapism and Binni nearly passed out.

We decided to meet sharply at 7:30. After a long time I am on time but sadly she isn’t. I watch all these class bunking teenagers count their tiffin money slowly and hand out to the cashier. I buy two tickets for “New York”. The movie starts at 8:10 she arrives maybe at 8:20.
We walk into the hall. Akshay Kumar is giving a flying kick.”Hey! It’s the wrong hall.” “C’mon let’s refresh our minds for once, the three sullen faces from New York was bugging me”. We find our seats and decide after half time it’s going to be ‘New York’.After half time we didn’t find the other hall so we got stuck.

Deepak Rauniyar on his film:an interview

‘Threshold’ is the first film by a Nepali director to be screened in the ‘Short Film Corner’of the ‘Non-competitive category’ at the ‘Cannes Film Festival’. The film was the third prize winner in the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival 2008. It was also selected for the ‘Phuket Film Festival’ to be held in Thailand in june. Recently it won accolades in the Ahemdabad Film festival held in India and was also screened at Kumari Hall.
The director of the film is –Deepak Rauniyar. Here are excerpts from the interview taken by me before he left for France(almost two months ago).

What attracted you to films in the first place?
It was in 2047 B.S that I came to Kathmandu. Before, I used to work in Biratnagar in Radio Nepal. In kathmandu I worked in a number of print media like Nepal Samacharpatra, Himal and Kantipur. During that time I met a lot of Nepali film directors and got a chance to critique their work. There would always be discussions with directors and they challenged us to make films and show them.
That was how my seniors like Nabin Subba got into films and how I did too.

Do you remember the first film you saw?
No I don’t. But I remember when I was small there were no cinema halls in my village and televisions were rare. Only a few people owned television sets. They used to charge us two rupees to watch programs. We used to walk miles to watch World Cup matches on television at neighboring villages.
I however remember my first cinematic experience maybe I studied in grade eight. It was to watch ‘Shehansa’. We bought the lowest priced tickets and got the front row seats. We had to tilt out heads completely to watch the film. Amitabh Bacchan looked even more magnificent with his chain and hairstyle. The movie now as I remember seems to have been inspired from Spiderman. During the day the protagonist is a shy village boy but at night he turns into a superhero.

Which Nepali film directors do you admire?
I have worked with Nabin Subba and Tshering Rhitar Sherpa and admire their work. I also like Tulsi Ghimires detailing and use of Nepali sentiments in his films.

You have worked in print media, visual media and now you are working as senior editor and producer for ‘Katha Mitho Sarangi ko’? Which medium do you find the most effective?
Well, film is the most effective medium but radio is the pathway to awareness. Print landed me into films and now radio is helping me make films. It is teaching me how to make characters work.This visit to the Cannes will further add an expense of one to two lakhs. I don’t know where it will come from? My job is financially supporting my career as a film maker.

Indi-watch

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.

Hats off to Slumdog millionaire

Amitabhs helicopter is on its way..

Since its release, Slumdog Millionaire has spread like an infectious disease among viewers and critics alike. If not rightly for its content, it has got its heart at the right place. It’s a masterly directed piece of art with fairy tale characters plotted in the reality of Mumbai slums.

Dev Patel shines through out the movie and Anil Kapoor makes a mark as the show host of ‘Who wants to be Millionaire’. Every other cast has been aptly chosen to play their roles.

A.R Rehman’s music adds to the transition of the story and the excellent camera work cum editing is too good to miss. Each scene is layered with an event from the past.

Dear Salim peeks out from that ill fated van..

Precisely, I would call it a must watch for everyone who lives in the Indian sub-continent. The film might have been directed by an English man but he’s got the eye of an insider. It won’t be surprising if the movie sweeps half the number of Oscars it has been nominated with. S.M might not change the lives of thousands of children languishing in the slums of Mumbai but at least it has told their stories.

‘Amitabh Bachhan’ the ‘Shahansa of Bollywood’ however has expressed scorn at the movie’s content outlining the intention of western directors to sell poverty of undeveloped nations. He might have his reasons but the Indian film industry needs to learn to give audiences more than ‘escapism’. Hits like ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ and ‘Singh is King’ are a turn down to many sensible viewers. Why can’t directors blend reality with entertainment? ‘S.M’ has done it, so why can’t they?

Bollywood might have a countable number of movies that touch the global audience but our film industry is ages behind. Cheesy dialogues like ‘My heart is a temple and only one God can reside in it’ are used to advertise movies. If only our directors here took inspiration from one aspect of the movie audiences would be emancipated.

Personally, S.M touched me both cinematically and emotionally- from the first scene when the police men come in their scooters shouting ‘Private land’ to the last dance in the train station .The innocence of little Jamal, Malik and Latika , the faces of the slum goons ,Arvinds eyeballs and the song by Surdas haunted me for days

Lastly here’s my favorite scene: Jamal meets Arvind in an alley and he’s singing ‘Darshan do Bhagavan….’ He hands him a 100$ note and asks about Latika. Arvind recognizes Jamal and asks him who is on the note. Jamal does not know his name but Arvind does. It’s Benjamin Franklin. He thanks him and tells him Latikas address. As Jamal runs away, a man is spraying something (probably pesticide) on the entrance and Arvind shouts back ‘Now I will sing, only when performing your death rites (Ab to teri mayat me hi gaunga)’

What’s your favorite scene??

G for Ghajini, S for Short term memory loss

Ten days into watching Ghajini, I still can’t get over its tunes. I want ‘Guzarish’ as my ring tone but I don’t have the original version. The movie has grossed 100 crores in its opening week in the box office and has become the no 1 movie of 2008.

Ghajini turns out to be the re-re make of ‘memento’, its south Indian version was also ‘ Ghajini’ and Asin was in it too.

If you thought Bollywood was loosing itself without heroes fighting a dozen ‘gundas’ with the power of his biceps, heroines and heroes had stopped dancing around and there was no item song thrown at you for no reason- don’t turn away: ‘Gajini’ has it all.

Amir and Asin make a great pair. It’s only Amir who can make you believe he can ring a dandy’s neck with a swift punch and if you are a depressed lover with a short term memory you act like a mad bull.

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly (pura paisa wasool jo hua). There’s action, comedy, tragedy and romance all in one. Murgados has made a great directorial debut, Jiah Khan’s done her part by shouting ‘SSSSANNNJAY’, Asin’s the next big thing and Amir proves he’s can shine in both commercial and critical cinema. The villain’s(Was he Aswathama from Mahabharat?) dialogue delivery was impressive ‘Short term memory loss, tu mujhe samjhayega?’’

The script fits the plot and the action scenes are marvelously directed. But questions can’t be stopped:
• Who writes personal diaries now a days?
• Are we allowed to carry notes of One Lakh thirty five thousand bundled in jet planes(Oh!private planes…but??)
• Why does Amir never eat in the movie?
• Where does all that power come from (just from exercising??)

Besides these futile questions there’s no reason why you shouldn’t watch ‘Gajini’. After RBJ any movie could do the trick but Gajini is the chosen one.
I am looking forward to watching Asin in ‘London dreams’ and Amir in ‘Three Idiots’. A number of off the beat movies like ‘Dev D, Dil Kabbadi, Oei Lucky Lucky Oei, Luck by chance and Delhi 6 will be my priorities after the exams. For now I must go back to my books.Enjoy the upcoming weekends:Chadini Chowk to China is on its way.

No Rab no Jodi

Cool dance step

Sharukh towers above RBJ. If you didn’t watch the movie you didn’t miss any thing and you were spared endless moments of cliched crap.
Surendar Sahani is a well written character but nothing else in the script supports him. Aditya Chopra let me down. I was expecting a love story equal to DDLG-it’s far from being close. Anuska is beautiful, so what?
The plot is useless-all that dancing and Sumo fighting crap. The first half is bearable with Surendars presence on screen ,the second half too much to bear.I felt cheated in a way. The story is dragged unnecessarily and no ”leap of faith” can justify a wife not recognizing her husband with and without a thin mustache.
A hit isn’t a good movie. RBJ grossed 60 crores in the release of its first ten days. But how can I get my ticket money back?
The title of the movie is named so to cash on “Rab”. There is no logic to justify ” I see GOD in you, that’s why i love you.” What about atheists.

I am expecting more from Amir in Gajini.

Dosti rocks

Dostana isn’t a typical Karan Johar movie and doesn’t pretend to be one.
It has however all the style and melodrama of a Bollywood masaledar movie. Johar shines in many of it’s scene -the perfect styling, cool music and a number of K jokes. Mansukhani’s done a wonderful job and given a much needed entertainer. ‘ fashion’ was a lot of rona dhona, ‘Dostana’ has all the laughs.
It’s a movie you go without any expectations and come out without any baggage.John gets hotter and Abhi has the perfect comic timing.Priyanka can act and so can Bobby dear. Go and have a bash. Popkorn and a hearty laugh can revitalize your senses…