Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dabangg- A Movie Review



Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Om Puri, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mahi Gill
Producer: Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Dhillin Mehta
Director: Abhinav Kashyap
 Story: Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap
Music Director: Sajid, Wajid
Genre: Action comedy
Rating ***
Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

This movie was made for certain target market and achieved in entertaining that focus audience well, hence became a blockbuster hit! The rest of the elite audiences who like a movie to intellectually appeal to the senses while entertaining them found this a little cheesy watch!

The movie had Salman Khan all over in his silly funny ways with his hip swinging, tongue in cheek dialogues and slapstick  comedy.  The action looks like desi Rajnikant meets Antonio Banderas in Desparodo, ducking bullets Matrix style! It also had yesteryears inspired ‘Angry Young Man Hero’ in goofy style ;)

 Though there is not much of a story, it’s a typical hackneyed story of a sibling rivalry taken advantage by a goon, and of course there is a heroine to add some oomph. Finally to this equation is the much hyped and talked about Mallika Arora's munni badnam …..zandu balm item song! Though the song is not on par with other popular item songs like beedi jalai le jigar me… it got free publicity from the Zandu Balm folks warning to sue them for uninformed inclusion of their product in a song!

The positives and negatives of the movie is its silliness, the point of view of course  changes with each viewer! There is not all nonsense in the movie though. There has been a serious thought and effort to leave  an open ended  climax and  unexplained dialogs for making a sequel.  Unexplained dialogs like why Rajjo/Sonakshi is called Arota by her father, which  she doesn’t explain and  wants it  to be  uncovered by Chulbul/Salman could be a lead to another angle of a story!

Salman khan has aged and grown out of shape, though suitable for the role of an Indian cop. His acting or overacting is meant to entertain which it does!  Experienced actors like Dimple Kapadia and Vinod Khanna are wasted in small roles. The debutante Sonakshi Sinha, Shatrugan Sinha’s daughter surprisingly a Reena Roy look-alike performs well and apparently is having a beeline of movies.

Dabang is apparently  successful and beating box-office records,  the  plain logic could be:-Timing- the timing of the release was right, a release on Eid, after Ramadan where people flock to theatres is bound to get major first day record sales ;) ; Niche market- In the recent past most movies have been either made for elite thinking audiences, urban audiences or the expat NRI’s , hence this movie catering to the local common man/ aam admi  of the heavily populated India  grabbed that niche market.   ….. whatever the reason, this  movie isn’t about sense! It’s senseless.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

We are Family - A Review


Directed by Siddharth Malhotra
Produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar

Written by Gigi Levangie Grazer; Venita Coelho
Starring Kajol, Kareena Kapoor,Arjun Rampal
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography Mohanan
Genre: Drama
Rating: **.5(2.5/5)

Inspiration: Stepmom

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)


'We are Family' is the first bollywood movie legitimately copied and credited and rights purchased from its original Hollywood version! But why make an apparently Indian version of ‘stepmom’ when it’s set in Australia, and is an' Expactriate-Indian' version of the story with similar scenes and dialogues as the original!  Yes, it has the natural performer and an excellent actress like Kajol, but why watch a movie which is a very predictable and sad version of the Hollywood one!

This movie handles the difficult issues of divorce, separation, relationships and death.  It’s a tragedy, and its written all over in every scene with its gloomy predictability, depressing story, zero light-hearted relief and lack of depth.  It has a few sad and heartrending scenes, but  that doesn’t affect you throughout the movie, because of its superficiality.

Kajol has to be applauded for her natural performance reflected as the multi tasker disciplinarian mom, with shades of possessive, envious, jealous, sad, helpless, big hearted, scared of her impending death and departure from her family and finally accepting of the inevitable. Kareena too has matured in performance but comparing her to Julia Roberts in Stepmom, it’s not good enough. Arjun Ramphal is the man involved with these strong women and nothing much.

This emotional drama fell flat from my  good expectaions of  it being a Stepmoms remake with actresses like Kajol and Kareena with a producer like Karan Johar!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Upcoming Bollywood Releases- September 2010


We are family
Directed by  Siddharth Malhotra
Produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar
Written by Gigi Levangie Grazer; Venita Coelho
Starring::Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Genre: Drama
Inspiration: Stepmom









Dabangg
Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan
 Directed by     Abhinav Kashyap
Produced by     Arbaaz Khan; Malaika Arora;Dhillin Mehta
Written by  Dilip Shukla; Abhinav Kashyap
Starring  Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia
Music by  Sajid-Wajid
Genre: Action










Enthiran - The Robot
Directed by  S. Shankar
Produced by Kalanidhi Maran
Written by S. Shankar; Sujatha Rangarajan; V. Balakumaran
Starring  Rajinikanth; Aishwarya Bachchan , Danny Denzongpa
Music by  A. R. Rahman
Genre: Sci-Fi










 Crook
Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma
 Director:   Mohit Suri
Producer:   Mukesh Bhatt
Music Director:   Pritam Chakraborty
Genre: Social









Anjaana Anjaani

Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, Sharan Kapoor
Screenplay by     Advaita Kala, Siddharth Anand
Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Zayed Khan
Music by Vishal-Shekhar
Genre: Romance; Comedy

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Bollywood Museam!














There have been talking about a Bollywood museum,  since some time now, a  Bollywood  tourist attraction!  Though Bollywood has the highest fan following and movies are the biggest entertainment in India, not much has been done yet to showcase Bollywood in India.

Like MGM  studios and Universal studios and wax museums  and walk of fame and  hall of fame immortalizes the Hollywood actors and movies and showcases the movies and memorabilia in United States;  Bollywood has plans to house a Bollywood museum in ‘Film City’. Film city is where some indoor and outsoor sets and facilities  are made for shooting and producing movies, and may be a good location to add the museum to it. 
The Tollywood -Telegu film industry in Hyderabad which houses the Ramoji studious already attracts tourists, and Bollywood version would be a biggest attraction and  great memoir to the Indian cinema.

The museum is set to have costumes, jewelry,  props, weapons used in famous movies, film posters,  gallery of actors and  films personalities since the beginning of Indian cinema, Wax statues, and more.
After the launch of the Bollywood museum, apparently a Bollywood theme park is also in the plans.

Lets hope the plans start rolling soon for us to enjoy a total Bollywood experience next time we visit the city of Bombay/ Mumbai!


http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bollywood-museum-to-showcase-history-of-films/Article1-585504.aspx
http://www.cnngo.com/mumbai/play/massive-bollywood-museum-coming-soon-beach-near-mumbai-629549
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5710125.cms

Friday, August 6, 2010

Upcoming Bollywood Releases- August 2010


Aisha
Cast: Abhay Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Arunoday Singh,Cyrus Sahukar,Ira Dubey
Directed by Rajshree Ojha
Produced by Anil Kapoor & Rhea Kapoor
Written by Screenplay: Devika Bhagat
Genre: Romance
Inspiration:  Jane Austen's Emma
website: http://aishathefilm.com/





And Once Again
Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Rituparna Sengupta, Antra Mali, Gerson Dacunha,Nivedita Saboo, Yudene Zongtenpa

Director: Amol Palekar
Genre: Drama






Aashayein
Cast:  John Abraham, Prateeksha Lonkar, Shreyas Talpade, Anaitha Nair, Sonal Sehgal, Girish Karnad,Farida Jalal,Ashwin Chitale,Anaitha Nair
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Genre: Drama

Help
Cast:  Bobby Deol,Mugdha Godse,Sophia Handa
Directed by  Rajeev Virani
Produced by Vinay Chowksey,Sanjay Ahluwalia
Written by Deepak Pawar,Viddesh Malandkar
Genre: Horror, Thriller








Peepli Live

Produced by Aamir Khan ,Kiran Rao
Writtten and Directed by Anusha Rizvi
Starring  Omkar Das Manikpuri,Raghuveer Yadav,Malaika Shenoy
Nawazuddin Siddiqui,
Genre: Social







Lafangey Parindey

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Deepika Padukone
Directed by Pradeep Sarkar
Produced by Aditya Chopra
Written byGopi Puthran
Genre: Romance
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

16 Blades of Grass


We see movies for entertainment most of the time but sometimes we are exposed to some documentaries with a purpose. This is one such documentary a friend’s friend was writer/director of this film.

This documentary  “16 Blades of Grass” explores the ways in which education remains limited in rural India for children, especially for girls. It also shows the challenges young women must overcome to advance from traditional societal roles and village mentalities.

This film  is being screened  in Austin on Saturday, July 31st   in a small non-profit film festival called Lights. Camera. Help. The screening will happen at Space 12, a cool gallery/arts venue in East Austin. So interested Austinites can check out this movie and other movies screened at this film festival!

check out the vedio trailer online
http://vimeo.com/5418252

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Upcoming Bollywood Releases: July 2010

I Hate Luv Storys
Directed by Punit Malhotra
Produced by C. Ashwini Dutt,Karan Johar
Written by Punit Malhotra
Starring     Imran Khan,Sonam Kapoor,Sameer Dattani,Samir Soni
Music by     Vishal-Shekhar
Genre: Romance, Comedy
http://www.ihateluvstorys.com/










Milenge Milenge
Directed by Satish Kaushik
Produced by Boney Kapoor
Written by Shiraz Ahmed
Starring     Shahid Kapoor,Kareena Kapoor, Delnaaz Paul, Satish Shah, Kirron Kher, Sarfaraz Khan, Aarti Chhabria, Himani Shivpuri, Satish Kaushik
Music by     Himesh Reshammiya
Genre: Romance








Red Alert - The War Within
Directed by Ananth Mahadevan
Produced by T.P. Aggarwal, Rahul Aggarwal
Written by Aruna Raje
Starring -    Sunil Shetty, Vinod Khanna, Nasseruddin Shah, Sameera Reddy,Ayesha Dharker,Bhagayashree,Seema Biswas,Ashish Vidyarthi,Makhrand Deshpande,Sunil Sinha, Ehsaan Khan, Gulshan Grover
Music by Lalit Pandit
http://www.redalertthemovie.com/
Genre: Action Thriller, Suspense








Lamhaa
Directed by Rahul Dholakia
Produced by Bunty Walia, Jaspreet Singh Walia
Written by Rahul Dholakia
Starring     Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Anupam Kher, Kunal Kapoor
Music by    Mithoon
Genre: Action Thriller










Khatta Meetha
Directed by Priyadarshan
Produced by Akshay Kumar
Written by Sreenivasan, Jay Master
Starring -    Akshay Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Urvashi Sharma, Manoj Joshi, Makrand Deshpande, Rajpal Yadav, Johny Lever, Neeraj Vora, Milind Gunaji, Asrani, Atul Parchure, Aruna Irani, Paritosh Sand
Music by Pritam, Shani
Genre: Romance, Comedy,

Monday, June 7, 2010

Upcoming Bollywood Releases: June 2010

Raavan:

Director & Producer: Mani Ratnam
Writer: Mani Ratnam,Suhasini Mani Ratnam
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Govinda, Priyamani, Ravi Kishan, Nikhil Dwivedi
Music Director: A. R. Rahman





Krantiveer - The Revolution
(Sequel of Krantiveer)

Producer: Shekher Shetty
Director, Sceenplay: Mehul Kumar
Cast: Sameer Aftab, Jahan Bloch, Harsh Rajput, Aditya Singh Rajput, Farida Jalal
Govind Namdeo, Aman Verma, Ashok Samarth, Ranjeet, Mukesh Tiwari,Raj Premi, Hiten Paintal, Anil Nagrath
Music Director:Sachin, Jigar

Friday, May 14, 2010

Upcoming Bollywood Releases: May 2010


Badmaash Company
Film: Badmaash Company
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das, Meiyang Chang
Genre: Drama
Direction: Parmeet Sethi
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Music: Pritam
website: http://www.badmaashcompany.com/



Kites

cast:Hrithik Roshan,Bárbara Mori,Kangana Ranaut,Kabir Bedi,Nicholas Brown
Director: Anurag Basu
Producers: Rakesh Roshan &Sharan Kapoor
Writer: Anurag Basu
Music: Rajesh Roshan
website: http://www.kites-thefilm.com/



Rajneeti

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Manoj Bajpai, Nana Patekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Ranbir Kapoor
Director: Prakash Jha
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Screenplay: Anjum Rajabali, Prakash Jha
Story: Prakash Jha
Music:Pritam, Aadesh Srivastav, Shantanu Moitra, Wayne Sharpe







Bumm Bumm Bole
Cast: Darsheel Safary, Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta, Ziyah Vastani
Director: Priyadarshan
Music Director: M.G. Sreekumar, Tapas Relia, Azaan Sami