"Dabba" movie!

I just returned from Inox after watching Stanley Ka Dabba, evening show. Most of you might not have heard of this Bollywood movie by Amole Gupta. I hadn't heard of it either. Over the phone my sister said "We're going for Stanley ka Dabba". I said "Family ka what?". She said "No!! STANLEY ka DABBA! It's supposed to be like Taare Zameen Par!" She went on to explain how everybody wrote very good reviews of the movie, how Rajeev Masand said the movie is a brilliant work of art, blah blah blah. I said ok and agreed to go because she promised food at Taco Bell! :D

So the movie began with comical stick figures of Stanley and a fat guy with a big moustache fighting over a ball. Then the movie actually began, where the "cute" little boy, enters school. He doesn't take a dabba to school, he eats from other's tiffin boxes, so he gets busted by this fat oaf of a teacher who eats from everyone's dabba. Trust me, he is the most disgusting man you'll ever see on screen! His mouth is perpetually watering (literally) and he keeps wiping it off with a dirty hankie and burping loudly after eating! Yuck! So we saw again and again, shots of tiffin boxes being opened, eaten closed and just like that it was half time!

Only the last ten minutes of the movie make sense and add some sort of story to the two hour-long torturous piece of crap! Seriously! I have never seen such a pointless movie. We laughed ludicrously through out the movie! It just made no sense! There's a song every few minutes that goes "dabbe dabbe noodles ke dabbe, paneer, mushroom, bleeaarrgghh". :-/



Nobody can even act in the movie. It's so made-up! Even my sister, who cried while watching Terminator-2 (!) didn't cry! That should explain, there is a major lack of any sort of "feel" in the movie.

Kids can't watch it, they won't understand anything. Young people can't watch it without cribbing about not having gotten high before the movie, old people might fall asleep. Bullshit I tell you. :-/

Yesterday two hours in the temple and today two hours of this nonsense! So not cool to celebrate like this after I passed exams! I should have watched Tamil movie "Ko" or Golden Star Ganesh's "Cool". Dammit I always make the wrong decisions in life! Sigh!

Well, at least I got my Cheese Quesadilla and Unlimited Coke! So I'm still happyy! :)

Cheers! :)

2012

The makers of 2012 have timed the release of the movie perfectly; when everyone is so very curious about what’s in store for them in the unfortunately near future. Roland Emmerich brings unto you what the end of the world would look like, in a realistic, thrilling atmosphere.
2012 is a movie based on what scientists think will happen to, not a city, not a country, but to the whole world on 21st December, 2012. It revolves around a middle aged man Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) and his family, who miraculously dodge disaster after disaster, when everything behind them is quite literally falling to pieces. While a global calamity brings the world to an end, the survivors heroically struggle to keep the human race from extinction.
John Cusack has acted fairly well and so has Amanda Peet, who plays Jackson’s ex wife. The two kids in the movie, Morgan Lily and Liam James have also expressed themselves well. I liked the creepy guy, Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), for his simplicity and great acting. What I disliked about the movie is how everyone is so melodramatic. It was a little over-the-top, making it unreal. Be it the President or the Science Advisor of the President, nobody is going to make an emotional speech when a colossal tsunami is going to hit your ship within the blink of an eye.
The most astounding part in 2012 is that one explosion or earth quake has more buildings and trees and cars collapsing than in a million Hollywood movies put together. The graphics are amazing! Visual and sound effects are the best part of the movie. You feel like you’re flying along with Jackson Curtis, ducking every time a tree or a giraffe (heh) comes your way. If you watch the movie in a 3D theatre you’re sure to go insane.
It is alarming to think of all catastrophic implications the end of the world might have. It is downright frightening to visualize all the things that will be destroyed. Sure, if you use “Earth” as a general term it doesn’t sound so bad. The way the destruction of each little important part of each country is shown is overwhelming. Like the Wonders of the world, Mount Everest, St.Peter’s Church in the Vatican City, the White House, Yellowstone National Park, Caesar’s Palace at Vegas, I mean all that effort gone into building these enormous structures and the respect the buildings have somehow earned going down in flames raises goose bumps.
So 2012 isn’t a movie that’s gonna slap you in your face and say “You are doomed” with a booming voice, neither is it a movie that will just go over your head. It might make you put your thinking cap on and go “why”. Funnily, my friend and I were really happy after the movie, simply because we were alive and nothing else I suppose. All in all a great thriller; a good watch; will keep you at the edge of your seat till the end! Three on five.

Wake up Sid!!

Main apne saamaan ke saath ek choti si khwaab layi, writer banne ki. :)
I’m so glad I watched the first day, first show of Wake up Sid. What with the ridiculous speculation going on about Sid having referred to “Mumbai” as “Bombay”, the movie might even be banned for a while. Go take a hike Raj Thackeray. Coming to the movie, the director Ayan Mukerji has done incredibly well for a debut in directing under the guidance of Karan Johar. The atmosphere of the movie is a lot like that in Dostana, bar the perverted acts.
Wake up Sid is about a young about-to-graduate lad, who goes astray with his friends after joining college. Sid, (A fan of Arsenal!) son of a well-heeled business man, is an immature boy stuck with a Peter Pan syndrome. This spoilt rich brat befriends Aisha, who has come to Bombay (In your face Raj Thackeray! :P) from Calcutta to become a writer. She is mostly craving for freedom and to be able to stand on her own feet and that. Quite obviously, Sid and Aisha become best of friends. The story is a platitude of any other Romantic Comedy in Bollywood, but very realistic and a lot people will definitely be able to connect to it.
Ranbir Kapoor has acted well. I suppose he didn’t have much acting to do because he was just being himself. He looks slightly tipsy all the time. He does NOT look gay in the movie. His t-shirts are to die for! Need I say about Konkona Sen Sharma’s acting? She is expressive as always and looks better than in her other movies. They make their friendship look very natural.
Everyone in the movie has done a good job. The Mumbai Beat office in the movie looks exceptionally innovative; very alluring. The background scores are not very appealing. It almost goes unnoticed. The movie sort of gives a new hope to people out there who think they are good at nothing. It also makes you forget about the devastation caused by rain and look at the monsoons positively for a while. The story is damn predictable but has a nice feel to it. A simple and sweet movie and for a change, a good movie which is safe enough to watch with your whole family. Hehe. Three on five.

A Clockwork Orange

“Hi hi hi there”! A Clockwork Orange is an English movie directed by Stanley Kubrik based on a book by the same name. His last movie was Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. According to IMDB, his other movie Full Metal Jacket, is as good as A Clockwork Orange, both being rated 8.5 on 10. A Clockwork Orange stars Malcolm McDowell playing the protagonist, Alex. I was surprised to find that McDowell has done voice-overs for a wide range of cartoons, including my favourite ever cartoon Phineas and Ferb. He has also appeared in TV series HEROES and Entourage.
It’s a tad bit hard for me to write a review on A Clockwork Orange because the movie is very peculiar. It is about a young school going boy Alex, who along with his ”droogs” Georgie, Pete and Dim, goes about his town, wreaking havoc by making outrageous sex offenses. He assumes the surname DeLarge after successfully luring two girls from a music store to sleep with him. Being the leader of his fellow “droogies”, he becomes a “malenky” bit too bossy, his mates betray him and he gets caught by the police, being accused of murder. After two years in prison he volunteers for a therapy that will allow him to get out of prison in a fortnight’s time. The therapy sort of rehabilitates him by creating an aversion in his mind against any sort of crime. So according to the treatment, he is made to “viddy” destructive and violent movies and as a result of it, he gets struck by a wave of nausea and a load of negative reactions in response to “ultra-violent” crimes.
The very first scene in the movie is so bizarre. The first few minutes are very disturbing and might make you want to stop the movie, but once you make it through those petrifying minutes, you’ll be fine. The most eccentric scene in the movie in my opinion is when he is undergoing the therapy. It’s scary and idiosyncratic. The idea of the fake eyelash to make Alex look atypical and mysterious totally works. The intensity of the scenes towards the end is hair-raising! The background scores, a lot of it being Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony9 blends in perfectly. You’ll find a rather strange variation of the British accent and peculiar form of slang among the teenagers. Best if you watch it with subtitles! Alex DeLarge’s character is solid and influential. (The Joker’s character from Dark Knight is inspired by Alex’s character) The movie completely deviates from the normal thriller or drama movies. Very unusual and different. An extraordinary, brutal masterpiece! Four and a half on five.

Twilight (The movie)

I know it’s too late, I wanted to write it anyway.
What on Earth were they thinking when they made the movie!! It looked like the director, Catherine Hardwicke had a good idea in her mind but the movie turned out completely different, possibly, the opposite.
Twilight is a romantic story based in a fictional town in Washington called Forks, It revolves around the lives of Isabella Swan, mommy’s little girl and Edward Cullen, a vampire. Bella is pale and dull, yet easily becomes the centre of attraction among the boys in Junior High. Edward Cullen is essentially the heart throb of all girls in Forks High School but is unconditionally in love with Bella. Their love leads to complications with others of The Cullens’ kind, and ends with a dramatic, suspenseful build up for the second movie.
Robert Pattinson has been given this supposed-to-be vampire-ish look, and it’s a disaster. He might look like a vampire, but almost everyone who sees him will immediately think he is homosexual. Heck Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) looks more like a vampire without make up! Edward Cullen is supposed to be this real intense character, with impeccable features but I don’t think anyone who has read the book would appreciate Pattinson’s portrayal of the character.
Kristen Stewart, not a beauty contest winner, just another American face, has miserably failed to represent Isabella Swan from Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. She might look it, but she is just not it. She cannot act for nuts! She shakes her head a little too much and has the same expression when she is supposed to be able to clearly display a number of emotions. The facial expressions play such an important role in the book!
I just got a hunch that the actors might not have read the books at all to get a feel of the character. If you don’t want me to compare the movie with the book, fine by me. The movie, by itself, to a lay person, will be appalling. Nobody can act in the movie, nobody looks good, the viewer might be confused because too many things that need an explanation are taken for granted and the dialogues are not clear.
There was this particular scene I was shocked by. I was waiting with bated breath to see how they made Edward Cullen look in the sun light. The book gives a beautiful description of him-serene, beautiful, and other worldly, “you shine with the light from the sun” sort of description. There was no mention about silver sparkles poking out of his face in an obscene manner. The baseball game was presented well though, the only part of the movie that was shot well.
The background scores; I don’t even want to think about them. The music was positively appalling! To me, it was like a two hour Kannada movie. There was background music almost throughout the movie, where it was completely unnecessary and it wasn’t nice. The hero getting thumped by the villain before coming back to life was too Sandalwood. The movie is absurd and incongruous. I couldn’t wait until the movie got over. If you really have nothing to do but kill time, after having done all possible things that you can do, then go ahead and watch the movie. Otherwise, it’s not worth it. Half on Five.

New York

“Buck Fush”. That’s the most captivating line in the newest Bollywood flick New York, starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh. Kabir Khan has made remarkable progress in movie-making after Kabul Express. Neil Nitin Mukesh has been given a nice sober look and of course, his acting is top notch. He is a typical lover boy of the 21st century. Katrina Kaif is like a fresh ray of sun light. She looks extremely beautiful and has expressed herself more clearly than in her other movies. As for the protagonist, John Abraham, he looks dashing as always and has performed well. He has vague expressions at some parts of the movie, but fits the role perfectly.

It is not possible to decide if New York is a movie about Terrorism or about the American FBI. I consider it the latter, given that the whole movie revolves around the life of three friends, whose lives change drastically due to the FBI’s doings, post 9/11. There are few twists in the movie but many scenes may shock you and antagonise you, especially the torture scenes; they have been shot very well. The basic plot of the movie is not very original. I rather felt they copied a few ideas from the Hollywood action flick The Departed.

The filmy gaane, as I always feel, was unnecessary. They don’t make a difference in the movie whatsoever. There are a great deal of scenes in the movie that underline the fact that New York is a Bollywood movie, like they three of them running on green fields, slow motion running and that. The movie might make you walk out of the theatre cursing George Bush and the FBI or might just make you unsure of what to think, because the main intention of the movie is not put across very clearly. All in all, an entertaining movie, worth watching once, with friends or family. I’ll give it three on five.

(The funniest part of the movie was when the guy in front of us yelled at Avi because she was talking too loudly. This was only when the advertisements were playing! Priyam got pissed off and told us to close our ears and told the ending of the movie loudly and the guy turned and said “Thanks a lot!” Priyam hid her smirk, smiled brightly looking at him and said “You’re welcome”. Haha!)

Delhi-6

First of all, Sr.Philomena, we all love you very much. RIP.

I’m quite cheerful after watching the ‘First day, first show’ of Delhi-6. I hardly ever do that. Abhishek Bachchan has again performed very well. First Dostana, now this. This guy is on a roll! He looks incredibly handsome, especially when he is angry. He plays Roshan, a young NRI who comes to India with his pious grandmother, who happens to be suffering from a fatal disease. Sonam Kapoor plays Bittu Sharma, a boisterous Dilli ki chokri, who aspires to be the winner of Indian Idol. She is showcased as a rebel, who wants to be different from the typical Indian girls. She looks extremely beautiful in Indian clothes. There is another lady in the movie that looks remarkably good. She plays the role of Bittu’s bua.
The entire movie is shot in Old Delhi. India has the same, clichéd cow-in-the-middle-of-the-road and no-space-to-breathe sort of look. But it looks striking from the roof of the house where Sonam Kapoor dances with a lovely dove. If sources are to be believed, the director had to shell out rupess 13,000/- per day for the bird in hand.
The whole plot revolves around a certain “kala bandar”, which causes a nuisance and creates panic in the hearts of thousands of naïve Delhiites. It gains the attention of the media and makes a big issue of itself. The first half of the movie is light with a little humour here and there. The second half takes on a serious note. There is a little misunderstanding between the Hindus and Muslims, who had till then lived in harmony. That’s a rather delicate topic to handle but Rakesh Omprakash Mehra has carried it out very well. The story is partly depicted through the famous Ram Leela.
Roshan and Bittu eventually develop a thing for each other, making the spectators hope things will go their way. Like all other Bollywood movies, this one has a moral, put forward by Atul Kulkarni. The music is pretty different and fits the movie perfectly. I got mixed reviews from people in the theatre. In my opinion, it is over all, a run of the mill movie and definitely not Rakesh Mehra’s best. Rang De Basanti was ten times better than Delhi-6. I would say it’s worth watching the morning show in a multiplex when you’re assured of getting attendance in college. That’s that. Three on five.

Ghajini

Right. It was a cold night while returning from Ghajini. We went to our favourite theatre- Cauvery. We rode on the footpath while going. It was utterly crazy but we had to make it there on time. We walked in around five minutes late. The first face I saw on screen was of Jiah Khan. I think she tried to get the “Priyanka Chopra tan” but it got two shades darker by mistake. Anyway, it suits her pretty well. As much as I dislike her, she has done a good job in the movie.
Aamir Khan, who suffers from a loss of Short Term Memory and Insomnia in the movie, has amazing presence. His acting is immaculately perfect! When required, he is an adorable, sweet chocolate boy. When he is not hot and awesome, he is a mad dog. Seriously! He growls, bites, kicks, scratches and what not! He has that mad look in his eye that can make chills run down your spine. He loses his sanity from time to time and makes you squeeze whatever you have in your hand real hard. In the second half of the movie, I actually sat in my seat, shivering from head to toe, not because I was cold but because I was that excited. I watched about five minutes of the movie through my Santa cap because I felt it was a little too gory. I heard a little kid say “Mummy, Taare Zameen Par is only nice”. Heh. Poor chap! When there were around ten minutes left, I sat there hoping the movie would never end. Brilliant action!
Asin looks ok-ok in the movie. Should she shed some pounds, she’ll look stunning! Her acting is remarkably good especially when she is scared to death sitting in the Pooja room. That scene will give you goose bumps. You might see a little over acting when she gets one dabba Ambassador, then again, nobody is perfect.
The songs were unnecessary. A R Rahman is definitely not at his best. No comments about the lyrics of the songs. (They are terrible. :P) And what the hell is with Aamir Khan’s clothes?! He really doesn’t look like the CEO of his company. He looks like he came dressed up for the shooting of Matrix or James Bond. Nevertheless, he pulled it off!
Overall, brilliant movie, thanks to Aamir Khan’s flawless acting. If not for him, the movie would have been like one of SRK’s action flicks. (Ahem! By SRK I mean Shivraj Kumar. :P) Enthralling and action-packed, the movie will make you yell “hodyo ounna” every ten minutes or so. Hehe. I’d give the movie 4 on 5.

It’s a Wonderful Life.

“Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” That being the tagline of the movie, to an extent, reflects our own lives. No one can do without friends. Not me, not you, not George Bailey.

Released in 1947 in black and white, directed by Frank Capra, the movie is based on a book called “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. The movie was shot just after the Second World War, starring AFI Lifetime Achievement Award winner, James Stewart and Academy Award winner, Donna Reed.

A little bit of fantasy mixed with drama and romance, the movie is a classic. It is set in the story-bound town of Bedford Falls. On Christmas Eve, George Bailey, who manages the Bailey Building & Loan Association, decides to commit suicide because of financial bankruptcy. This stirs the angels in heaven and Clarence (Henry Travers) comes down to the Earth as George Bailey’s Guardian Angel and “saves his life”. He shows George how the world would be without his existence and how he makes a difference to his kith and kin.

It was not the kind of movie that would make me check the time frequently. In fact, it did not feel like two hours at all. The movie was very entertaining indeed, which is quite contrary to what I expected when I saw the “angels” (asteroids and starts) talking to each other. Donna Reed looks absolutely stunning and James Stewart can wear super high pants and still look smart! Remarkable among all of them was Little George Bailey (Robert J Anderson, who died in June, 2008). I felt he has acted very well. The movie put across a rather strong message but in a very good manner. Anyone can easily relate himself to the movie. The movie is flawless and will certainly awaken your emotions. The aftermath of the movie is the best part! It leaves you all optimistic and gives you that nothing-can-go-wrong feeling. It is the sort of movie, which you are speechless about! It makes you think “Oh! It’s a Wonderful Life!” I would give it a nine on ten.

My first movie review :)

I just returned from the theatre after watching Dostana. I’m listening to Jaane Kyon from the movie at present. Until I watched the movie, I disliked the song. Now, I love the song, although I’ll get bored of it by tonight. Weird. The movie is hilarious through out, especially the first half. It got me cracking. I have not laughed so much in a theatre as far as I can remember. Abhishek is super funny. In fact, I think he has acted well. Maybe acting gay is his cup of tea. Except for his selection of clothes, he is excellent. As for John, it’s all about his good looks and ability to woo girls. Not much acting from his side, except when Neha’s (Priyanka Chopra) boss visits them. He “acts like a girl, but thinks like a man”. That part was uproarious. Abhishek and John make a great pair on screen! Priyanka Chopra looks dazzling all through. She wears very pretty clothes and carries herself well. A few scenes may lead you to reminiscences of Fashion; the homosexuality, the fashion shows and Priyanka’s hair do-which never seems to change. On Bobby Deol, I have no comments. Watch out for Neha’s aunt. Although appalling, she is ludicrous. The movie is filled with a whole lot of perverted jokes. I felt a little awkward because I was sitting next to twelve year old, who, I assume, did not understand quite a few parts of the movie.

The plot is an archetype of any Karan Johar movie. Three guys fall in love with one female and the obvious guy manages to be the victor. The story is very predictable. Nevertheless, the movie is super fun. All in all, Abhishek, John and Priyanka form a great trio and the movie is definitely worth watching at least once.