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

TASHAN – The music

Presenting the hip-hop fakers – Vishal & Shekar.

A dynamic duo they make indeed, with their songs covering all genres of music. Riding on a high from OSO, these guys are getting too “Bollywoodish” for one’s liking. However that doesn’t take away the fact they are amazingly talented.

The album has 5 songs, although it would look like it has 9 songs on the CD cover. 4 of them are intros of their own characters by Akshay, Saif, Kareena and Anil. Thankfully there are no crazy/funky remixes of the songs.

Dil Haara:– After Dard-e-disco it is not surprising that they are sticking to Sukhwinder Singh. But this song is far from it. The starting bit of the song is good. The guitar piece and the howling that you would hear in the trailer is pretty catchy. But the song on a whole is pretty ordinary

Chaliya:- Again a catching intro tune. But the song is too cliché. The song would fall in the “mind blowing mahiya” class! And ofcourse it is sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. With English lyrics “Don’t you look at me like that mahi”. Now why on earth is such a lyrics required. Well, it suits Kareena kapoor I guess!

Dil Dance Maare:- Lets just say it is easily one of the worst song by Vishal n Shekar.

Falak Tak:- Now that is one of the better songs of the album. It gives you a nice hindi film music feelings. The once you would get when u hear those 90’s songs, with Dhols and Tabalas. Udit Narayanan and Mahalaxmi Iyer have done the needful, Mahalaxmi sounding extremely nice.

Tashan Mein:- This would be the best song in the album. It has Vishal-Shekar stamp all over it. Sung by Vishal and a new pro called Sameer, the song is rocking. Especially in the lines “ Apni toh, baat kuch nirali hai. Apna jeena toh jeena.”

Point Table: 2/5

Reco: Don’t bother to buy. Don’t miss Tashan Mein.

U Me Aur Hum -The Music

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music:VIshal Bharadwaj, Lyrics: Munna Dhiman

 

It is always worth hearing when Vishal Bharadwaj gives music. He is one of those music directors who never get credit for their talent. Intriguing music is what I feel he comes up with. Complex tunes and light orchestration marks his kind of songs.

 

 

Dil Dhakda Hai: It is not a typo. The song is called Dil Dhakda hai, Kuch lafda hai. Vishal has always worked with Gulzar and the lyrics stands out in most of his songs. It is not Gulzar this time around but a new writer on the block called Munna Dhiman. And he does a damn good job of filling in Gulzar’s saab’s shoes. Atleast in this song. Adnan Sami and Shreya Ghoshal sing it with ease and it is a typical Vishal Bharadwaj song, in the league of chai chappa chai(Hu tu tu) and rama rama(love keliye). Adnan Sami and Vishal is a relatively new combo and hope it goes on for long.

 

Jee le: A soothing salsa number again by Adnan & Shreya. This was the song they started promoting first and not surprisingly so. The glimpses of the song looked good as well.

 

Phatte: It’s is a peppy Punjabi song. But with less Dhol and, for a change, Daler mehndi not singing it. You will have to hear it a couple of times to get a feel of the song. Adnan Sami has a hatrick and Sunidhi Chauhan gives him company.

 

Saiyaan: For me Sunidhi chauhan is easily the leading singer in the country now when it comes to hindi movie songs at least. She amazes time and again with the spice she adds to each n every song she sings. Saiyaan is no different. The song kept ringing in my head after listening to it a couple of times. And I am sure it will sound much better when you watch it with Kajol lip syncing to it.

 

U Me Aur Hum: I would have loved Chitra to sing the song. Having listened to Sunset Point, I am sure she would have done a super-cool job. Not taking away anything from Shreya Ghoshal who has done her job jolly good. And yet again the song has Vishal Bharadwaj stamp on it. He himself has sung another version of it. And adds a melancholic strain.

 

Point table: 3.5/5

Reco: Buy If you are a Vishal Bharadwaj admirer.

Jodha Akbar

UTV motion pictures presents Jodha Akbar. Well they should have put it as UTV “slow” motion pictures presents Jodha Akbar. After the ruffle and scuffle amongst the distributors and the multiplexes Jodha Akbar hit the screens on Saturday in most of the places. The movie can be easily put into the romance genre. For it is the story of love between the hindu Rajput princess Jodha and the Mughal emperor Akbar.

 

Will not disclose the story out here since I never believe that is a good thing to do. But I can assure you that it has a solid story line. The first half of the movie lasts for ages. I could see the audience getting really frustrated with the pace of the movie. There are not too many characters which would require such a detailed introduction too. Adding to the woe, comes the song “Khwajaji”. It is a great qawwali from Rahman, but honestly even a die hard rahmaniac like me did not enjoy watching the song.

 

The viewer almost waits for the moments when Hrithik comes on the screen. And when he does, he would have all the eyes fixed on to him firmly. Hrithik carries the whole movie on his shoulders with impeccable acting and amazingly unique reactions. Watch out for the tussle with the elephant that Hrithik has. Truly well shot. And Aishwarya looks beautiful again after long time in this movie, thanks to some awesome costume designing by Neeta Lulla. Most of the movies she would appear in red sarees. And for a change she has acted well too. She always does a good job with good directors. The chemistry between both is also good. Especially in the scene where they have a sword fight.

 

But it was very unlike a Ashuthosh Gowarikar movie. Intelligent dialogues is what one usally associate with his movies. Couldn’t find much of that in Jodha Akbar. Also the fact that most of the movie has heavy content of Urdu, it would be really difficult for a viewer to understand the dialogues. And there were so many unnecessary scenes in the movie. For example the scene where Akbar shows of his body to Jodha did not make any sense whatsoever. And the casting of the Rajput emperors could have been much better. I am sure they would have been much more majestic than what was shown.

 

Well, if you can sit through the first half with a bit of difficulty, you sure will enjoy the second half which was crisp and lovely. Rahman does his part with the Background scores but surely nothing close to Lagaan or Swades BGMs. The Azeem o shaan shehensha song has been picturised superbly. And the song itself is yet another gem from Rahman. If Akbar himself would have heard it, I am sure he would have given a chain or two to Rahman. A special mention about Javed Akhtar for the amazing lyrics. Nitin Desai’s art direction is astounding. If a few scenes were chopped off from the first half, it would have been another cult classic from Gowarikar. But it was not to be.

 

Star of the movie: Hrithik Roshan.

Point Table: 3/5

Reco: Watchable once.