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Can't believe it’s been 11 months since my last blog, no wonder both the people who read my blog noticed it.
I must confess I haven't seen many movies in this period anyway, of the few I remember are 'Om Shanti Om' well was a bit difficult to resist the Shahrukh mania at that time (Gosh! what am I saying I am a AamirKhanite) and would you believe I had seen Madhumati (yes the one with my childhood crush Vyjayanthimala Mala in it) just a week before! Om shanti Om is nothing but original Karz and Madhumati squashed together. But nevertheless still a good entertaining movie, Deepika looked good and Shahrukh with his 6 pack looked ugly and Shreyas acted well.
I did see ‘Dhamaal’ which I thought was really funny with Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Dutt, Reethesh Deshmukh and Asrani. Of course you have to discount the usual bollywood masala to enjoy this movie but do give it a go.
‘Taare Zameen Par’ we all acclaim was the best of the lot in recent times, two reasons one its directed by Aamir khan and second it starred Aamir Khan in it.

The other movies I watched was ‘Mere baap pehle aap’ because it had Genelia D’Souza, ‘Singh is King’ because everybody was watching it, then I realised why, it had Katrina Kaif in it, it makes you wish ‘Katrina is Queen’ would have been more apt.

Probably one of the best movie I watched recently was ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ if you still haven’t seen it just go see it. It will remind you of your good old college days, good fun filled entertainer no wonder it’s from the Aamir Khan Production house.
More recently I watched ‘GolMaal Returns’ and wished it hadn’t.

‘Rab ne bana de Jodi’ with Anushka Sharma and SRK which I thought was decent but kept forgetting whether Surinder Sawhni was pretending to be Raj or Raj was pretending to be Surinder….”Punjab Power…lightning up your life ji” well sometimes you can forgive Shahrukh but I believe it was Anuska who was lightning up the house.
And even more recently I watched ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur” directed by Shyam Benegal and stars Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao. Funny in parts but stretched a bit too far.
Hopefully my next round up would be soon….till then thanks for being here!

Dhol

Dhol
Rating 2/10

Dhol stars the usual suspects Tushar Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Rajpal Yadav and a newcomer Kunal Kemu (remember the small kid from ‘Hum Hai Rahi Pyar ke’?). Priyandarshan is touching new lows with each successive release, soon I will have to start negative rating it seems! Not sure for how long Rajpal Yadav can be burdened the task to carry a film all alone. In the absence of a script there is very little an artist can do, even that little can be achieved if there is a director. In fact this qualifies as a film only because it has a beginning and an end otherwise you would like to believe you saw one of those Balaji episodes, a stupid story of 4 friends who are as aimless as the scriptwriter (if at all there is one!) looking to get rich by marrying a rich girl. I wish I could get back the 3 hours and 5 minutes I lost here. (The 5 minutes is for writing this blog, if I can help one innocent Bollywood fan out there, the purpose of the site will be served)

Verdict: Avoid

Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local

Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local
Rating: 9/10

Having liked Abhay Deol in ‘Socha Na Tha’ I have seen all his movies since his debut, well not sure if he did anything more than ‘Ahista Ahista’ and ‘Ek Chaalis…” the former was hopelessly disappointing while ‘Ek Chaalis..” is a complete comedy thriller. Earlier in the day I was watching an India-Pak test match and the commentator were on about this “Corridor of Uncertainty” where if pitched right, one is not sure which way the ball would go. As the hero of “Ek Chaalis..” you remain in this corridor of uncertainty where you are not sure which way the balls would go. So maybe not that much of a family entertainer but a must see never the less. It has a feel of ‘Pulp Fiction’ but seems to be pretty original, let me know if you have seen this in any other language. Abhay fits the bill perfectly as a Call Centre guy named Neelesh (I wonder when was the last time a lead was given that name!) who misses the last local train and then fate/destiny takes him to ride that will change his life forever. In a brief interval of two and half hours he manages to gamble with the underworld dons, fall in love, and see gang wars, heartbreak, police encounter and lot more…

Verdict: Don’t miss

Chak de! India

Rating: 8/10
I must confess I haven’t had time to see many movies of lately, but this one I made it a point to see it, wanted to see it across few days but saw it in one sitting. With the T20 win recently the movie is well placed to raise the patriotic fervor. It’s about a talented hockey player with a haunting past out to prove a point and redeem his lost stature. His only chance is to lead the Indian hockey team to an improbable win in the world cup. His challenge is to make them play as a team. Still no big deal you might think, then think again, it’s the women’s hockey team we are talking about here. Some typical Bollywood stuff here, might be a bit away from reality but then that’s what dreams are made off. Nobody gave India a chance in 1983 with odds as high as 1:70 at one stage and the rest as you know is history. With no lead actress to distract the King Khan, he gets on well with his job this time! And I quite like the movies churning out of Bollywood mill of lately daring to focus on the story rather than lead couples.

Verdict: Don't miss.

Partner

Trailers:

Rating: 9/10

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, if you thought Govinda has passed his sell by date..well go see this movie. Although a remake of 'Hitch' it is one of the better remakes in recent times. Sallu looks quite cool and Govinda well dressed...not to mention how gorgeous both Katrina and Lara look. Katrina for me is fast filling up the void left by Madhuri...as far as looks are concerned...hopefully one day she will act too, but at the moment that’s not a necessity. Salman is the Love Guru whose job is to teach the not so blessed guys on how to get their girls….Govinda comes to Salman and the movie takes off to a roller coaster fun ride…

Verdict: Don’t miss this one.

Catching up....

Thanks to all the phone calls, emails, SMS, FAX, telex and letters (not to mention the DHL, Fedex and Pigeons) from all my readers out there who kept pestering me to come back with more, I am finally back, but the backlog is so much that I thought the best way forward is to put a few lines against all the movies I have watched of lately before resuming normal service.

Just after Eklavya, I saw ‘Tara rum pum’ starring Saif and Rani, Halfway through the movie I realised I had seen something similar before and yep the movie is “inspired” by ‘Days of Thunder’, with all the typical bollywood masala….but on the whole I liked it, a good family entertainer.
Encourage by Saif’s performance I tried to see ‘Nehle pe Dehla’ next, also starring Sanjay Dutt, but gosh!! What a movie it was! I watched the whole of 30 minutes, even the lure of writing a review for this movie couldn’t take me to the 31st minute…I need to ask the only other person I know, Jonaki Ghosh who might be able to last such a movie to tell me if there was indeed any plot in the movie….till then lets move on to the next movie…

’Naksha’..this movie came last year starring Sunny Deol (yep you read it right, it did come last year), Vivek Oberoi, Jackie and Sameera Reddy…a movie about an ancient map which will lead to something from the Mahabharta days….interesting plot I thought, soon it become a bit funny then later ridiculous, I was thinking maybe I should have completed ‘Nehle pe Dehla’.
Next I watched ‘Chinni Kum’ which was one decent movie starring AB and Taboo, good comic timing from both and well worth a watch. Taboo especially was very impressive.
Finally I saw a thriller that had also come 2 years back ‘Ek Khiladi ek Haseena’ unfortunately starring Fardeen Khan and Koina Mitra, but I found this one heck of a thriller and definitely the best of all the movies listed above, not sure if it is a remake of any movie, if yes do let me know, if not then count this as a master piece.

To sum up the ratings:
Tara Rum Pum (8/10)
Nehle Pe Dehla (0/10)
Naksha (2/10)
Chinni Kum (8/10)
Ek Khiladi ek Hassena (9/10)

Eklavya - The Royal Guard

8/10

This is a story well narrated, the film is very well made, the cast fit into their role perfectly, it has some element of suspense drama too…but it somehow fails to deliver…I think. Just one title song still the movie appears a bit slow, but it does leave an impact on you and for me falls into the must watch category. Great performances by Amitabh as Eklavya the royal guard, Saif as the crown prince, Boman as the king, also stars Sanjay Dutt as the investigating inspector, Jacqui Shroff, Jimmy Shergill and Nandita Balan (again!). The entire movie seems to be shot in a dark background and somehow gives you a feel that you are watching a play rather than a movie…at least in the cinema it did seem like that. The story seems to question the age old principles of Eklavya…was Eklavya right in cutting off his thumb? Well this will remain debatable…this is about a man who believed that Duty and tradition comes above all and about another who was taught that principles and tradition should be accepted only if you can justify its fairness…..This movie is a product of Vidhu Vinod Chopra gang.

Verdict: Worth a Watch