Angels and Demons – The Movie

Robert Langdon is back searching for more clues in Angels and Demons. The moment I heard the movie is releasing this month end, I took off to the nearest crossword store to pick a copy of the novel. After having seen The DaVinci Code, I presumed that I would not be able to grasp much out of this movie too unless I read the book beforehand. I was not completely wrong.

The first half of the movie would suggest that it is just another murder mystery, Robert Langdon trying to save the cardinals who have been kidnapped, and concentrating less on the Antimatter that has been planted in a secret location. And even lesser stress on how Langdon cracks each clue to find the path of illumination, in which the cardinals would be murdered. The cracking of the clues, I thought, was the most important and interesting part of the novel. But having said that, you just cannot have everything in the novel covered in detail, in a two and a half hour movie. I should say, the screenplay has been adapted pretty decently.

The highlight of the movie of course is Tom Hanks, who plays Robert Langdon, who carries out the role like eating a piece of cake. He surely has had more challenging roles in the past. Ewan McGregor plays the Camerlengo and does it brilliantly too. Ayelet Zurer playing Vittoria is unimpressive. The kind of chemistry between Langdon and Vittoria which was found in the book was completely missing in the movie. Ayelet Zurer for some reason kept smiling throughout the movie. The other roles were carried out the way they should be.

The movie picks up pace towards the second half. Again, I am not sure though, how much you could have grasped of the proceedings in the enclave, unless you had read the book before. They even axed off a couple of important characters present in the novel. The whole movie was like watching a one hour highlights show of an entire test match. But an exciting one at that. The cinematography was brilliant. And so was the background score of the movie.

All in all, the movie is worth a watch to see how your visualization of the characters and events has been picturised. Again, at least a couple of shots showing the beauty of the Vatican would have been a good idea. But this is definitely a better adaptation than the The DaVinci Code. It will be a while now before Robert Langdon comes on screen, if at all he does. But then I wouldn’t assume that anyone would be waiting anxiously for one too. I am not sure if I am inspired to see the movie again, but I am quite certain that I am inspired to read the book once again!

Star of the movie: Dan Brown

Point Table: 3/5

Reco: Read the novel and then watch

99 – The movie

I saw the promo of the movie and thought it might be worth a visit to the movie hall. 99 comes as a breather for all the movie buffs who have been deprived of hindi movies this summer. However, I did not have much expectation from the movie. The “Multiplex movies” can be either too good or too bad. When I saw the names of the producers & directors of the movie, Anupam Mittal & Krishna/Raj Nidimoru , I got excited. These guys had made a movie called Flavors earlier, which is still one of my all time favorites.

It’s tough making a thriller. And it is tougher making a comic thriller. 99 is just that. From the first scene to the last, the movie keeps you glued to it. I have never seen Kunal Khemu on screen before. And I was mighty impressed with his acting. An actor can be best judged with his comic timings and expressions. And Kunal has got the right blend of both. Paired along with Cyrus Brocha, these guys go the dumb and the dumber way. The directors could not have got a better cast to pull of the characters in the movie. Boman Irani playing the gambler -Rahul, Vinod Khanna playing the bookie, Mahesh Manjrekar playing the gangster – AGM and Soha Ali playing the hotel manager. And add to it the small little characters like that of the collection agent, Kuber played by Amit Mistry, who keeps trying to speak in English. The way cyrus has been made to look in the movie is amazing.

The movie revolves around the Match fixing scandal that happened in 1999. And the script keeps moving from one character to another smartly. Rahul owes money to Kuber and AGM. Sachin and Zaramud (Kunal and Cyrus) owe money to AGM. Sachin and Zaramud go for collecting AGM’s money from Rahul. And all of them together lose the money Rahul flips from his office. Confusing? Well, that is the whole crux of the movie and the whole confusions are handled awesomely well in the script. Add to it the amazing dialogues, which is the heart of any good comedy. Raj & Krishna has just got it perfect. Like for example the dialogue that Cyrus says. “Dilli mein sala march mein Tand padti hai. Aur Har koi ladkiyon ka naam Pooja ya Neha hota hai”. Soha Ali Khan plays the character of a hotel manager, Pooja! She strikes a chord with Sachin who stays in her hotel and helps them bail out of the fix.

Amazing dialogues, intelligent script and perfect portrayals of the characters makes 99 a must watch movie. I would even recommend buying a DVD for a second time watch of the movie. A special mention on the songs that run on the background throughout the movie – I am sure they are worth listening to again. I hope the director/producer combo comes up with more movies like this in the future too.

Star of the movie: Krishna/Raj Nidimoru & Sita Menon

Point Table: 3.5/5

Reco: Must Watch

A.R.RAHMAN LIVE IN CALICUT – The concert experience

The whole of Calicut was filled with hoardings of “JAI HO”. It was the talk of the town. The media was both happy and sad. Happy that they could get everyone to read their news/articles featuring Rahman in depth. Sad that they were not allowed to shoot anything happening inside the stadium. By 5 P.M the stadium was almost full and people were waiting eagerly. A bunch of fanatics, including me, were in the stands singing out Rahman songs and gathering quite a bit of attention from the local crowd as well.

The show started with DJ Medley playing shano shano and sayonara warming up the crowd to chant a few Jai Hos. And in a minutes time the sitar would start playing mausam and escape. It was exciting as well as disappointing. The sound system to be specific was disappointing. It was like the sound system was designed for a local “Ganamela”. But nevertheless, the show was on! The crowd was on their feet. I am sure the Appu Kuttan nairs of the crowd clad in their dhotis did not understand what was being played. But even they coming in to see Boss, speaks the volume of love and admiration that a billion people have for Rahman.

Before even the Mausam & escape ended, the track for O saya was on. And there he was – the man of the moment. No stylish entries, no fireworks in the background. Just walking into the stage singing O Saya. The noise in the stadium was deafening. O saya was lost amongst the cheers and screams. Rahman went on to sing Athiradi along with Sayonara. It was clear that he was getting warmed up and was concerned about the sound system. After the song, Rahman addressed the crowd. Again, not much could be heard. The next song was meant to excite the local public and it did. Padakali Chandi from the mallu movie Yodha. Not many would know that it is a Rahman score – Benny dayal and George Peter not only singing but enacting a bit of the song as well. The song indeed is a masterpiece by Rahman.

Sadna Sargam followed with Tu Muskura. The tempo of the song was just perfect. Soothing, I should say. And towards the middle she would switch to the beginning aalap of Roja Janeman. Enter hariharan, who took the stage to a higher level. Hariharan is one of the best on stage performers India has and he did not disappoint this time either. He would have sung the song a zillion times and each time it creates magic. Raja Hassan of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame was next with Massakali. He did a decent job. Still the problems with the sound persisted. Rahman’s Jiya se jiya rocked. It was a visual treat too. I would have had all the singers coming in at the end and giving him a Free Hug[:)]

Blaaze’s Style got the crowd dancing and so did Liquid dance which was tracked. In fact most of the songs were tracked and sung like in a Karaoke. May be Rahman should conduct a full fledged instrumental concert. Javed ali, the new guy in the block sang Guzarish. But the best of the concert was around the corner. Chitra started with Netru illada matram and she couldn’t have sounded more perfect. And as she moved on to Malargale along with Naveen’s flute and Hariharan’s voice – it felt like I am in heaven! Raashid Ali’s with Kabhi Kabhi aditi was cool. Rahman continued with Rehna Tu. The chorus could hardly be heard in this song. The sound was that bad.

Neeti Mohan is born to be a star. The way she performed Taal se Taal and Ringa ringa was magical. The stadium was filled with drool by the time she ended the track. Kaala Bandhar, Gansta Blues and New were performed as a medley by Benny, Blaaze and Tanvi. Kaala Bandhar could have been performed better or dropped! And then the next medley with Rahman leading it, comprised of Azeem-O-Shaan, Rukmani Chorus and Veera Pandi Kottayile. Suzanne stunned the crowd with the range of her voice in dreams on fire./Latika’s theme.

There are moments which you would cherish all your life. And one of them, for me, was the qawali performed by AR, Javed Ali and Hassan Raza. It was Khwaja mere and Ariziyan back to back. I really can’t find words to describe how I felt at that moment.

Oru cheriya idavela – A short break! Not in the review, but in the show. It tested everyone’s patience in the stadium. The charity would have had more meaning if they just did it without showing it off.

The sound got better after the break. Chitra resumed the concert with a Malayalam song, manasu manasinte, composed by R.K.Shekar(Rahman’s father) and followed it up with Malayalam version of Kannalane! I really wish the language barrier in music goes away, at least in Rahman concerts, so that he does not have to perform specific songs for the local crowd, bending his original scores. Jiya Jale made a good visual with the lights and fires flying around. Sadna joined Hariharan for Aye hairetein Aashiqui with hariharan trying to make the crowd sing a bit of aalaps as well. The pair then sand Vaaji Vaaji

Kabuli entered the stage from a crane while playing his electric guitar. It was the build up for Mustafa Mustafa. And the crowd was looking stunning with everyone waving their mobile phones and singing along. Rahman ended it up with a bit of Dhakka Laga Bukha which I thought was quite unnecessary. It was dancing time for the crowd as Benny and co started Pappu can’t dance saala and Suzanne followed with Aye Bachu. She was simply awesome. I never have loved the song so much as I did on that day. It felt like the climax was around the corner with tempo going up. Rahman’s Urvasi and Benny/Blaaze’s Taxi Taxi got the crowd going crazy. Hariharan entered the stage and did some alaap’s making the crowd wonder what is up next. The way hariharan blended the alaap into the beginning of Humma Humma was terrific.

After the song, Rahman stopped before the next track. He made the crowd sing Ooo oo in various styles before he made them scream JAI HO. Jai ho it was and all the singers joined Rahman on stage with Tanvi leading the song along with AR. The crowd had their money worth. And Rahman ended it with Vandemataram. Again only a piece of it was played which was bemusing. But then Boss is always right!

Rahman is no more just a music composer. He is a wave that is sweeping across the world. And for the bunch of people whom I sat with, music is our religion and Rahman, the almighty. The concert had it’s glitches – like the poor sounds, the lack of star singers. Not to take away anything from the newbies who did exceedingly well. But it would have been nice to listen to the likes of SPB & Shankar mahadevan. However, I have no complaints. I had a whale of a time. Watch out for the Jai Ho tour coming to your part of the world soon, if you want to experience the same.

Playlist – (H)Indi Rock

“I feel ashamed to take this award, when there has been some great music given by people like Amit, Salim Sulaiman”, said Rahman when he was receiving the filmfare award for the Best Music composer. He was being modest alright, but the fact that the guys like Amit Trivedi are (literally) rocking the Indian music industry. If you haven’t heard the soundtrack of Aamir, you might not realize the talent that Amit Trivedi has. But surely you couldn’t have missed his “Emotional Atyachar”! Check out the rock version of the song. It’s mind blowing.

Rock music hasn’t been too significant in India until lately. Although every guitarist would have been a part of a so called “Rock Band”, not many could achieve popularity. Even if their music is good, they seldom get noticed. For instance the Tandav track by a band called Agni, is a classic. For me, this song signifies Indi rock. There has been the odd bands like Indian Ocean who were noticed for a couple of songs. Like the song, Bandeh was pretty popular one. But again, not to the scale that everyone took to them. I have heard some amazing rock bands emerging out of the western part of the country and also from the south. But no one could make their mark in the industry. Check out this amazing song called Nada Nada in the playlist. This is by a mallu rock band called Aviyal. The paki bands as usual were able to get noticed here. But the songs which got popular would have to be in the pop genre rather than the rock. Not many would have noticed this cool track called Shayad by a paki band called CALL.

Hindi movies have been averse to rock music. A few songs did pop up here and there like Maut by Lucky Ali in Kaante, Gandha hai by Sandeep Chowta, Garaj Baras in Paap to name a few. A movie called Paanch, which didn’t see the theatres had an amazing song by KK called Khuda hun main. The movie was supposed to be centered on a rock band. But a similar sort of movie did see the movie screens and was hugely successful as well. It was called “Rock On!”. Well the movie shows SEL’s versatility. My favorite song of the album – Zehreeley! I can’t seem to have enough of it. And every time I listen to it, I end up having a sprained neck!

Whenever I listen to this playlist I make sure I have my Bose headphones on. Make sure you have a good one too. Here is the playlist.

Playlist – Classic Collection

Till the early 80s, it would have been pretty hard to listen to a Hindi film song which was not based on a hindustani raaga. The disco dancer and the nonsense collection of Govinda songs, somehow almost drove away the influence of hindustani music from hindi film music. Except for Boss, not many music composers ventured into bringing true melody to the film music.

Music has changed in hindi movies these days. With so many fresh talents evolving there is a sigh of relief for all genres of music lovers. And the influence of Hindustani music is also back. People like Rahet Fateh Ali Khan are starting to get the kind of recognition that they might not have got a decade back. And when Ajay Pohankar came up with Piya Bawari, it was like a fresh breath of air. Apparently most of the songs in Piya Bawari 2 album went unnoticed. I personally loved 3 of the songs in the album.

Suddenly there were a flurry of songs that could fit into this genre. You can almost term a few of them as Fusion. Call it what you want, these songs are just the ones which would set a soothing calm inside you and leave you wanting for more. Try going on a morning ride with a CD playing these songs. You will see the horizon, as I once did.

Here is the playlist.

There is another set of songs that would fit into this category. But they are on a different plane. Simply because they are composed by Rahman. The divinity associated with each track is phenomenal. Surpassing the boundaries of religion, you tend to surrender yourself to the almighty. Here are a few of the awesome tracks(Couldn’t get them all). Click here to play.

Delhi 6 is Disappointing!

The problem with making amazing movie like RDB is that the expectation from the makers of the movie goes sky high. And when with that expectation you g o in for watching , you get nothing but disappointed. Add to that 9 amazing soundtracks by Boss. I wish they were not wasted.

If you hear the song kala bandhar and one could easily guess the story line of the movie. And in the first half there are nothing but references to the Kala bandhar and you would want to believe that there is something amazing coming up at least in the second half. Abhishek Bachan with his fake accent, which he does pull off well by the way, would be the title for the first half of the movie. Sonam Kapoor is far from being impressive. I thought the home coming scenes were pictured much better in Swades. And the movie lacked the “punch” which is required for a movie of this kind. When you are trying to convey a message through a movie, you better do it strongly. Like in the scene in RDB where Soha says “maar dalo use”. That is the kind of feeling you are looking for. But even in the second half, we can see nothing of that sort in D6.

RDB had so many characters to movie the movie forward. Keep the audience gripped to the movie. And there were so many good dialogues. D6 has neither. I know it is a different movie, and the comparisons are unfair, but when you are making a movie in similar lines, the comparisons are inevitable. Even the way Rakyesh Mehra handled the songs – I thought golden pieces like Rehna Tu were wasted. I heard somewhere that Rahman did not complete the BGM of the movie on time. But I wonder where he would have fitted those, even if he did. It looked like an attempt to fit in all the songs in the first half, since they are there.

All is not bad with D6. The first half in fact flies off in a jiffy. The “funny dialogues” of AB is not that funny. But ya it can keep your hopes alive. Dil Gira Dafatan song, I thought, was pretty well visualized. The kids in the movie were awesome. And so was Atul Kulkarni. The rest of the characters were boring, the least to say. The hindu-muslim divide is an old subject to dwell upon, especially when it has been dealt with so well in so many other movies, starting with Bombay in 1995!

Most importantly, the message in the movie fails to reach the audience. It usually requires a “hero” of sorts to convey the messages. But honestly the character of Abhishek was far from being a hero. There are good morals involved in the movie. But they have been presented so boringly that you don’t buy them. And could anyone please explain to me what the hell was Amitabh Bachan doing in the movie towards the end?!

Star of the movie: A.R.Rahman
Point Table: 2.5/5
Reco: Watch if you have nothing better to do.

Drop dead – Delhi 6 is here !

Not often does it occur that you stand still hearing a song. And when that happens 7-8 times on a trot, you have to be listening to an album called Delhi 6. Reggae, rap, raaga you have everything in it. The man just completed a year with 6 amazing albums. And add to It a Golden globe award. As the world listens and India starts adoring him, he comes up with this album called Delhi 6. Some people once said Rahman is getting repetitive and there is no variety in his music. I would like to gift each one of them a CD of Delhi 6. I have been visiting the music stores daily since last week, to check if the album has come out. And strangely, it was out in the net first before even it hit the stores. And fighting the slow internet download speed was some effort. The speed was teasing me with every song taking ages to download. But then it was worth the wait. Like I always say, I just cannot review AR’s album. I would not do justice(if at all it sounded not so good to others). Just jotting down what I felt while listening to it.

Masakalli: Never knew that Mohit Chauhan could sound ‘unromantic’. He always has been singing the love songs of this era. Suddenly Rahman surprises everyone by making him sing something like Masakalli. Can a song sound naughtier? I doubt. From the glimpses seen, I am sure the song has got it’s full justice when it comes to the video.

Arziyan: Tumse kya mangun mein…Tum khud hi samajh lo MAULA! What a line and a half by Prasoon Joshi. I was litterally stunned when I heard this line. So true isn’t it. And the song would just push you into another level. In the league of Piya haji ali, khwaja and noor un alla. Javed ali and Kailash Kher almost compete with each other. I have come across Rahmaniacs who refer to him as GOD. I guess they have their reasons. I think he is GOD sent.

Dil Gira Dafatan: It’s been only a day now since I have been hearing the album. But believe me, in 3 days, I will be hooked to this song. It will drive you crazy. Will make you want to listen to it a thousand times a day. The three days would be for understanding the tune!

Noor: Big B renders his recital of a nice little poetry. More of a OST it is.

Aarti: A traditional aarti track. I am sure this song would have been different if it were to be in Tamil. Just a hunch.

Genda Phool: I am sorry. I cannot describe this song. You have to listen to it to believe it.

Hey Kala Bandhar: He has started where he left RDB patshala. Kala Bandhar is in the same genre. The songs such variety to the album. Karthik, Naresh and Srinivas in one song. It better be good. The rap sounds just about alright.

Delhi 6: Blazee and Vivinenne Pocha, Tanvi and Clarie – all have just jammed together to give an amazing title track. And of course Benny dayal too is there. As he is in every rahman album these days.

Bhor Bhaye: Shreya Ghosal for me is the next Lata Mangeshkar of the Indian music industry. Listen to her following the footsteps of Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan. For Indian classical music lovers, this is a treat. I am glad that Rahman is doing such amazing tracks too.

Rehna Tu: From Humma Humma to Rehna Tu rahman has come a long way as a singer. He never is given credit for the same. He usually ends up singing the best song in the album. This t ime too I guess he has done it. And watch out for the instrument being used towards the end of the song.

I couldn’t resist writing this. I know not how else to express the pure bliss that I am experiencing while listening to the tracks. HE gives yet another reason for us to live on.

Playlist – The Indi Pop

 

I was sitting at the airport waiting for an eternity for my flight, playing my iPod in the shuffle mode as I usually do. Then suddenly I got bored of the stupid sequence of songs playing one after the other. I opened my playlist and selected the Indi Pop playlist. Ab na ja by Euphoria was first. And it immediately transported me to the good old days of Indi Pop. Good old? Seems that long doesn’t it?

I remember MTV being the premier music channel. And there were few others like Channel V, Z music. But one of my favorite channels was ETC. For the simple reason that they played so many good songs in Indi Pop. It was the time when the hindi film music even took a back seat. So many stars were born, Small and Big. From Lucky Ali to Anaida. And from Sonu Nigam to Jojo, everone were coming up with their music albums. It was almost like a Friday movie release. A music album would be released per week on an average. Gulshan Kumar was the God of small time performers. And there were the amazing videos too that would come with each album. For instance the video of Ho gayi Hai mohobbat. I haven’t heard about Aslam ever after that . But that one song was memorable. On the backdrops of Kerala, the guy walking into the poodle of water to fetch a paper ship for a kid. And the amazing old world charm created in the Na jaane kahan kho gaya hai song by Nitin Bali.

It cannot really be termed as Pop if you take a closer look. There surely was variety in hindi music back then. If Daler Mehndi’s Ho gayi teri Balle Balle rocked the nation, so did Shuba Mudgal’s ab ke sawan. From the famous song from Jalwa 2 – dhagala lagli gala to the Hariharan’s Kaash. Everyone was hooked to the Cassettes of Indi Pop. It was instant access to stardom. Even people like Anaida, who could not sing one note in proper sur would go on to become a star with songs like Banoongi main Miss India! But then nobody complained. There were no Judges sitting in some stupid shows giving their “expert opinions”. So many one album wonders would pop up. But somehow we tend to remember each one of them. Sunita Rao’s Pari hun main, Vikas Bhalla’s Hey dhuan/Awara, Kamaal Khan with his O O Jaane jana/Kya yahi pyar hai, Shaamak Dawar’s Jaane kisne, Chitra’s Piya Basanti, Abey’s Aye sanam, Aaryan’s ankhon mein tera hi chehra. Jojo’s who kaun thi, Bali Brahmbatt’s   Tere Bin jeena nahi , Rageshwari’s Duniya, Remo Fernadez’s O meri munni, Misty Rhythms’ sathyabhama deera chalna, Mumbhai by Javed Jaffri. The list is a long one.

And then there were the stars of t he hindi film music coming with their own albums. Many graduated to playback singing after their successful albums. Shaan’s Tanha Dil/Gumsum Ho Kyun/Love Ology/Bhool ja, Shankar Mahadevan’s breathless/Tere Khayalon se/Aasman ke paar shaayad, KK’s Pal/Aap Ki dua hai, Adnan Sami’s bheegi Bheegi raton mein/Teri Unchi shaan/Tera Chehra, Lucky Ali’s Sunoh/Sifar and Aks, Pankaj Udhass’ Ahista/Kya mujhse dosti karoge/Phir haath mein sharaab hai, Colonial Cousin’s Krishna nee/Sa ni da pa, Sonu Nigam’s Deewana, Rabbi’s Bulla ki jaana, Alisha Chinoy’s Made in India, Nusrat Ji’s Aafreen/Mast kalandar/Piya Re, Mika’s  Sawan mein lag gayi aag, Alka Yagnik’s Sare sapne kahi kho gaye, Bally Sagoo’s Rising from the east. And even Boss came out with Vandemataram.

The bands from across the border created quite a stir. And apparently they are the only ones carrying with their success. Strings, Fuzon, Jal, Junoon all had major hits with their albums. The awesome video of Mora Saiyyan mose bole na still would make you stick to the TV sets whenever it is played. The Indian Bands did well too. Atleast some of them did. Bands like Viva and Band of boys came up with an album each which sounded decent. But they never could replicate the success of the Paki bands. Euphoria and Silk Route were the odd success story of the lot. And may be Indian Ocean too with their amazing song Bandeh. And there is the remix saga which is a long list in itself.

Like I said many stars were born and they disappeared in a flash. But the songs they gave and the videos shot during the period were quite memorable. So many albums came that a few amazing songs were lost in the crowd. Songs like Kachi Rang Guzar jane from the album Sunset Point, Abhi nahi aana sajna by Sona, Alvida by Infiniti, Guncha koi and Sapnay by Silk Route. Someday by Shankar Mahadevan, Piya Bhawri 2(the whole album),  Mana Janab ne pukara nahi latin version by Shaan, Badalon ki gehrai by Lucky Ali(Sifer),

It is quite sad to see the dearth of music albums coming out these days. And we no more stick to the ETCs of the world for that one song to be played a million times. I hope the good days come back soon. Meanwhile we can enjoy the songs from good old Indi Pop days. Here is the Playlist. (Will try and keep updating it) and few of the Rare ones.

 

 

 

U ME AUR HUM – The Movie

“U know something” … The movie is BORING !! That by the way is the most used dialogue in the movie. Whenever the movie makers are hell bend on marketing the movie so much, we should get a clue: That they are hoping the movie to do well due to the marketing rather than the content. Ajay Devgun and Kajol were visible in every channel with their ads, interviews, judging stupid shows and what not. I liked the promos. It gave an impression that it will be another pyar toh hona hi tha. And so did the thousands who flocked the theatre over the weekend.

In the beginning the movie seems to live up to the promos. Catchy dialogues keeps you interested.. You do get to exercise your jaws (for smiling) here and there in some scenes. But then they keep doing that through out the movie. And you start exercising your jaws more (yawning). It’s almost at the interval that this movie is vaguely inspired from 50 First Dates. And your heart sinks. How can you make such a beautiful concept into a dumb movie! Kajol has alzheimer’s in the movie and she starts forgetting things. Easy plot for weaving some romance, high end emotion and sacrifice. But you feel none of it when kajol/ajay depict the characters on the screen.

They depend on sms jokes to keep the movie lively towards the second half! Can it get more boring than that? And your head start aching, because you are watching the characters so closely. Not because the movie is intriguing, but because of the stupid camera work. I don’t know what gave them the idea, but it was really irritating to watch all the scenes so closely. We don’t even get to see them delivering the dialogues. Add to that some stupid graphics, by which they want us to believe that the whole thing was shot in a cruise. And I wont forgive them for making Kajol look bad in the movie !!! Spoiling the nice songs by Vishal, we have to bear with 6 odd people who just cant dance and there they are attempting Salsa. You also get to see Isha sherwani who is there to show off her flexibilities alone and there is Divya dutta who is way too keen to show her cleve off in every scene.

The only entertaining part in the whole movie for me was the small kid who kept entertaining us with dialogues of her own. Ajay Devgun was at his over-acting best when he asks Kajol: “ Tum nahi pehchanti ki mein kaun hun”. After he did that for the third time, the kid would say “Ajay Devgun hai”.

Star of the movie: None

Point Table: 1/5

Reco: Give it a miss.

SHAURYA – The Movie

There are movies where you come out of the hall happy, sad, disgusted, bored or even horrified. But there would be only a few movies you would come out dumb-struck. RDB, Bombay, Kannathil Mutham Ittal, Anbe Sivam to name a few. Shaurya will definitely fall into this list. Apart from the “off-beat” movies that hit the screen, not many movies in India are made which can be categorized as Drama. Very less when compared to Hollywood atleast. And when a movie like Shaurya comes, it is a breath of fresh air for movie lovers.

Shaurya is an army movie. I heard it is an adaptation of the book, “A few good Men”. But I care less. In hindi movies the only army related things shown till now would be how to kill the pakis and how India was done proud. But Shaurya deals with the lives of army personnel. Rahul Bose & Javed Jaffri play the roles of advocates in the Indian Army. Rahul Bose is the guy who does not know what he is doing as a lawyer. And the story revolves around a case where “Javed Khan” is accused of murdering his superior and faces court martial. Both Rahul Bose and JJ play their part to perfection. I was glad to see JJ doing a sensible role after such a long time. Minisha Lamba and the guy who plays “Javed Khan” (I surely will update his name in this space!) play the role aptly. Minisha plays the role of a Journalist who prompts a turn around for Rahul Bose to take the case up seriously. Amrita rao appears in a cameo as well.

If you thought Rahul Bose was playing a great role in the movie, there comes KK. He is there in the movie for only around 20 minutes. And in those 20 mins he gives such a power packed performance that would rank him amongst the best actors in the country. I was in awe of the precision with which he played the role. And in the ending scenes I actually felt as if I am watching a real court martial! KK makes a superb actor like Rahul Bose look mediocre.

The way in which the issues happening in Kashmir is plainly shown, without any filmy stuffs added to it. A strong message in the movie is put across. The scene where the superior kills villagers mercilessly runs a chill down your spine. Just goes on to show a classic movies do not require crappy comedy or cheap publicity or over-marketing or rakhi sawant dance. I hope this movie goes on to be successful in the market which might lead to many more such movies being produced.

Brilliant screenplay and direction by Samar Khan, a relatively new director. Nice cinematography (Srinagar – always looks beautiful!) and a decent music score by Adnan Sami. But the movie is high on performances. I sure will get myself a DVD of the movie!

Star of the movie: KK

Point Table: 4.5/5

Reco: Must Watch