Cheeni Kum - A Mature Romance!

Ingredients- Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Spice, Lemon, Rain and Rice!


Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zohra Sehgal
Direction: R Balakrishnan
Genre:
Rating: *** ½
Official Website: http://www.erosentertainment.com/cheenikum/


Cheeni Kum falls in a different genre of movies, not like any Hindi Movie. It’s a mature romance with out bells and whistles or song and dance. The humor is subtle; the dialogs are caustic and straight forward; the cast is perfect, each actor has an outstanding performance; the music and songs are very pleasant; script is crisp and movie entertaining.

64 year old acidic bachelor, chef and owner of London Restaurant meets his match in the 34 year old strong minded quick witted unmarried tourist and patron at his restaurant.
Passionate & perfectionist in his art of cooking, but himself a simple vegetarian; arrogant and self assured, but sensitive of older mother and neighborhood kid; He is Bhuddhadev or fondly called ‘Ghass Phus’! The spirited, confident woman who hadn’t yet found the man to match her rational, straight forward attitude and wit is Neena also dotingly called by Bhuddhadev as ‘Tangdi Kabab’!

Zafrani Palao helps make their acquaintance, and London rains and one dear umbrella helps their relationship blossom. Their romance is matter of fact but their chemistry is amazing. Another interesting part is broaching and convincing the 58 year old retired, food and cricket lover and part time Gandhian, Neenas dad, Mr Verma about accepting their marriage!

Cheeni Kum makes a very interesting unconventional movie to watch. Good script and direction by Balakrishnan, who beautifully and positively handled an odd subject among Hindi audiences. Beautiful songs by Illayaraja- Cheeeni Kum, Sooni Sooni, Bathein mein, Jaane do, all are good to hear and hum. Amitabh and Tabu make an extraordinary pair with amazing performances as the pony tailed brattish old man Bhudhadev and brilliant acting by Tabu in a role perfectly carved for her. Good performances include Paresh Rawal’s, Zohra Sehgal’s and child artist Swini Khara’s. The Ironic romance and an urbane setting make it a delightful sugar free treat!

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - Spins tall tales without a story.

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Amitabh Bachchan (special appearance)
Direction: Shaad Ali Sahgal

Genre: Musical
Movie Overall Rating: *** (2.5 stars out of 5)
Length: 138 minutes


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

Its crazy, outrageous, brainless, script less, bizarre, also different, glitzy and funny! But as advised by a family friend before we entered the theaters, leave your intellect, and logic behind!


Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is on the lines of Shad Ali’s favorite topic-spinning tall tales and fabricating inconceivable fantasies, ala Bunty aur Babli. Here the fibbers are laidback desi Londanite Abhishek as Rikki Thakral and Preiti Zinta as Pakistani Britisher Alvira Khan. Both having outrageous romantic stories to swap while waiting at a train station to pick passengers arriving from Birmingham. While narrating their love stories set in Paris with theatrical songs at Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe and other in London singing with Madame Tussauds supermen, this very unlikely pair - the Bhatinda born small time entrepreneur of illegal businesses who keeps saying “I have class!” and polished prim and proper Lahori British girl get smitten with each other!


The other characters in this farcical ludicrous love story are Pakistani Parisian Ritz manager Anaida Raza ( Lara Dutta) and Punjabi Britt millionaire lawyer Steve Singh( Bobby Doel).


Jhoom Barabar … starts and ends and jhooms intermittently with the bohemian gypsy Amitabh Bachchan’s singing and dancing in London’s Waterloo Station . His outlandish colorful designer jacket, feather hat, double-necked guitar, necklaces, rings, jeans and boots, makes him look like a cross of Carlos Santana, George Clinton and Jack Sparrow!


Except for the title "Jhoom" song, the rest of the songs in this musical movie are colorful wacky numbers! “Ticket to Hollywood” has Lara in micro miniskirt with ostentatious & theatrical back up dancers, “kiss of love” is horrendous with blonde Bobby dancing in court with superman and batman wax statues in background! “Bol Na Halke Halke” leads us to Indian railways,roadways, patli galis(bylanes), Taj Mahal and even Humayun ka maqbara with ridiculously confusing dream sequences. The dance contest with the elongated jhoom barabar song tries our patience.


Abhishek Bachchan carries out his funny guy character with aplomb. If JBJ does well for any reason, it will be for him! But this is his third movie with a similar character after Bunty aur Babli and Bluff Master. He should stop repeatitive roles even though he does it well. But as Thakkral, he overacted a little specially on the british colloquial "blimey". Preity is pretty as always. Lara Dutta is very accomplished in both her characters. She is equally at ease in her french accent and her south hall street foul talk. Bobby Doel both as the blonde lawyer and the gay optician looked and acted miserably. Huffy bhai aka Hafeez bhai, Rikki darling’s partner and associate in crime and illegal business is an interesting character. Played by Piyush Mishra who wrote his own poetic dialogs, added a witty dimension to the film.


The movie has some funny moments, some silly, some you may just laugh because you paid to watch it! There are some mistakes and many gimmicks too. - Preity’s butterfly tattoo changes from left to right in different scenes. Shaad Ali as a director is so enamored with films he grew up with, that he likes to bring in a thread of those into his own movies. -Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby Doel ride a motorcycle and sidecar just like Sholay’s Amitabh Bachchan and Dharamender, with the song playing in the background. -In a dream sequence, Abhishek acts like coolie with red shirt, just like his fathers movie - Shad Ali repeats the Bunty Bubli scene of wedding at Taj in another song sequence. - Abhishek snickers and talks about ashji and amit ji in Madame Touassads...... JBJ seriously needed a better editor and more importantly a script writer. What it had for sure was a choreographer and flamboyant dress designer!

Jhoom barabar jhoom is good when you have nothing to do and want to rest your brain!

Provoked to Act!

Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Nandita Das,Robbie Coltrane, Steve McFadden, Raji James, Rebecca Pidgeon

Director: Jagmohan Mundhra
Writer: Carl Austin, Rahila Gupta
Genre: Drama
Length: 113 minutes
Movie Rating: ***

Aishwarya can act! Provoked may be the first movie where Aishwarya makes an effort to be not herself but the protagonist Kiranjit Ahluwalia. Here she shows very less of the “I am Aishwarya Attitude”, a trait which made all the roles in her movies, seem like her!



Provoked is based on a real life story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia ( Aishwarya) a battered London housewife from Punjab who after ten years of domestic violence and abuse gets provoked to kill her husband –( Naveen Andrews) and is charged with third degree murder. But this landmark case re-defined the word “Provocation” in the British judicial system and changed the verdict.

The narrative flows well with intermittent flashback sequences of domestic violence and abuse. The movie based on the novel ‘Circle of Light’ an autobiography of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, shows her saga of torture, fear, freedom (ironically in prison!) hope, self transformation, and real freedom!

Aishwarya surprises with her ability to act! Her delicate helpless look empathizes with the character of the movie. But Aishwarya can’t stop being Aishwarya and does show her fashionable attitude in the later part as the confident transformed Kiranjit! Nandita Das as the South Hall Black Sisters’ social activist portrays the dedication and zeal of the character suitably. She is little dramatic at times, but it demonstrates the characters zest. Naveen Andrews impeccably plays the brutal husband Deepak and makes you resent and hate his character. Miranda Richardson as the sweet and friendly fellow prison inmate who develops Kiranjits confidence and demeanor and finally aids in her final fight for freedom is excellent in her performance.

Jag Mohan Mundhra makes a good movie but it may be because of the story itself ! He overall doesn’t make a directorial impression or impact. Mundra’s choice of Aishwarya may have benefited the movie with a larger presence and popularity, but also his bollywoodization of the story softened the provocation!

Hopefully such incidence of domestic violence and brutality will come under check with more such awareness.

Aishwarya-Abhishek Wedding- Nothing Private about that!!

The A&A wedding was supposed to be small scale private affair! But if media got umpteen number of pictures and fans danced in the barat, it looked like any film shooting!! Except, like in many a movie, we have seen Amitabh Bachan singing and dancing in barats, ex " sona sona dil mera sona ".. But here he looked serious, haggard and stressed.

Well hopefully like a good movie, Abhi-Ash marriage will have a happily ever after ending......

A&A Big wedding -Small scale!

Finally this time its happening, but it’s a private affair, few invitees ( offending many in bollywood) and no media coverage!

Invitation: Golden box with multi page invitations tied together with a ribbon
Contents: Golden card with 'AA, the initials of the star couple, embossed on it in white gold; Another card with embossed Lord Ganesha and shlokas; A poem written by Amitabh Bachchan father and a known poet, Harivanshrai Bachchan on new begginings and marriage! Invitations to sangeet; Invitations to Mehndi; Invitations in English and hindi to the wedding ceremony at the Bachchan’s residence. Each invite has been signed by the parents of the bride and groom to add a personal touch.
Aishwarya apparently sent this 16-page wedding card in a box, accompanied by another box, of cookies!

Venue- Amitabh’s residences- Prathiksha and Jalsa.

Invitees: Bachchan relatives, Rai realtives, Kapoors, Nandas, Ramesh Sippy, Rohan Sippy, Yash Chopra family, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Sanjay Dutt, Goldie Behl, Apoorva Lakhia, Suniel Shetty, and Ram Gopal Verma .Bal Thackeray, Anil Ambani, Tina Munim Ambani, Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav have also been invited.

Wedding dress: Aishwarya Rai's wedding outfits are designed by Indian fashion designer Neeta Lulla, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.

Sangeet: Wednesday, 18, April 2007
Both Ash and Abhishek are expected to dance together from their film numbers; few other close friends and actors are also performing.
Mehndi: Thursday 19, April 2007
15 kg of Mehndi from soojat , Rajasthan is ordered for the mehndi function.
Wedding : Friday 20. April 2007

Best Wishes!!

A & A wedding in April!

The Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachan wedding is postponed now to April 18. The wedding is being planned as close-knit affair with family and friends at the Bachchan residence. Rumors say that exclusive rights of the wedding coverage have been sold to a foreign media house for an undisclosed sum of money!

This wedding is becoming a ‘Hollywoodish’ Bollywood affair!

AB sr, AB jr and now AB bahu….

Aishwarya and Abhishek's Big wedding on March 19,2007!

Abhishek Bachchan, bollywood’s most eligible bachelor and actor, son of legendary Amitabh Bachchan and former Miss World and actress Aishwarya are getting married on March 19, 2007. The venue for the wedding bash is a palace in Rajasthan, India.

After much rumor, gossip and buzz about their affair, mismatched horoscopes, ‘manglik’ or shadow of mars on Aishwaryas horoscope, havans and pujas , and Kumbh Vivah’s -Aishwarya’s marriage to banana trees etc, the real marriage is finally going to happen soon.

Abhiwarya is what they call the saga of Abhishek and Aishwarya in the media these days, on the lines of ‘Brangalina’ ( Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie) I don’t know why they didn’t think of 'Ashshek' like ‘Aashiq’which means 'lover'. Whatever the name, this story will be watched by India and Indians across the world. Speculations are already on the strength and length of the marriage and thier careers. Both Abhisheks and Aishwarya’s career prospects may go on a rise or slump affected by their wedding! Some say “they make a bad pair”; some say “they are made for each other”; some say “they don’t have chemistry”; some say “He was a fool and fell for her”; some say, “She hooked the biggest family in bollywood”; some say, "it was most practical and social relationship, to pair the popular Ash with eligible Abhishek" ;some await to see the jinxed Ash's and Abhisheks futurerama!; some say " they are a lethal pair!" Everyone these days has a say...... What is your say?

Amir Khan at British Academy of Film& Television Arts

Amir Khan an intelligent actor in an indepth conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir about film making, scripts and acting.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5832618792525892669&hl=en

After the nomination of RANG DE BASANTI
at
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
www.bafta.org

“Eklavya- The Royal Guard” – Story of Rightful Reasoning!

Cast:
Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Jackie Shroff, Boman Irani, Raima Sen, & Jimmy Shergill.

Direction: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Genre: Drama,
Movie Overall Rating: **** (4 stars out of 5)
Length: 1 hr 45 mins

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

The philosophy of Eklavya is about ‘Dharma’ - What is Rightful and What you Believe is Rightful! "Dharam Wohi hai jo apna mann sachcha maaney.” an oft repeated dialog in the movie translates to “Dharma / Sacred Duty is what your heart and mind feel is right”!

Eklavya, the royal guard - Amitabh, is named after the legendry character Eklavya in Mahabharata who gave up his thumb as a Guru-Dakshina/ teacher payback to Dronacharya ; Eklavya, an incredible marksman, is duty bound and zealant in protecting the royal dynasty of Devigarh. Though the King Rana Harshvardhan (Boman Irani) is just a figure head in the modern democratic state of Rajasthan in India, the formality and splendor continues so does Eklavya’s duty and family loyalty to the dynasty which has been continuing for nine generations.

After the Queen’s (Sharmila Tagore) inconvenient death, Prince Harshvardhan (Saif Ali Khan) is called for from London. He is confronted with intriguing family secrets, conspiracies, deceptions, murder plots and confusion. This is followed with murders, deaths and bloodshed for money; revenge; or dharma/duty! Finally it’s the triumph of Dharma. You will have to check out yourself which facet of dharma!

Vinod Chopra excels in making a concise and succinct movie of 1 hr 45 minutes, yet building an action packed intriguing thriller with dramatic and spectacular action sequences, smooth screenplay with no loose ends, drama and melodrama, romance and comedy, all into one impressive movie.

Eklavya is amazing in the big screen experience with its beautiful palatial settings, picturesque deserts of Rajasthan and awesome cinematography. The action scenes in the movie need a special mention- the pigeon sequence which applauds Eklavya’s marksmanship is amazing; and another scene with a large herd of camels and a moving train in the desert has incredible choreography and cinematography. The music is good and doesn’t intrude, but accentuates the story. There is only one song – ‘chande re’, which makes us appreciate the director’s film making abilities of not intercepting the movie with a string of songs.

The movie boasts a magnificent star cast- Amitabh Bachchan has a brilliant performance as the ageing royal guard. The character, look, costume, and the bloody red eyes get enlivened with his dialogues and acting. Saif Ali Khan has been giving mature and amazing performances lately, and of course the Nawab Pataudi’s son carries his princely role with grace. Sanjay Dutt, as DSP Pannalal Chohar, adds wit and humor with his cheeky dialogs and delightful presence. The untouchable turned into a man of authority was depicted well. He is a classy actor and does well in every kind of performance. Sharmila Tagore, as the queen mom is graceful in the short role as Saif’s Mom! The enchanting Vidya Balan impresses in the role of Rajjo/Rajeshwari, the chauffeurs daughter, the prince’s romantic interest and the princess Nandini’s companion. Raima Sen acts well as princess Nandini, the mentally unstable twin sister of the Prince. Boman Irani plays a complex personality with a feminine side reasonably well. Jackie Shroff plays intensely the negative role of the Rana’s covetous brother Jyotivardan. Jimmy Shergill too pulls a good job in his small role of Jyotivardans son Udayvardhan.

Eklavya is not your typical 3 hr long masala movie. The movie is commendable for its uniqueness in today’s bollywood cinema with its ability to pack everything into a crisp movie. It’s surely worth a watch on big screen. But if you forget the hype about the movie, you will appreciate it much better!