The Bollywood tinseltown seems to be at it's glory as it did the IIFA awards in Bangkok this weekend. I couldn't help but think about the politics within the Tinseltown. I seem to be at a loss to understand what is the definition of Bollywood and what constitutes a Bollywood movie.
SRK seemed to rule with Chak De and his home production Om Shanti Om. Of course no award ceremony is complete without the Bacchan family being there. However, what seemed amiss was the Best movie of 2008 - "Taare Zameen Par". Amir Khan has been the rebel in Bollywood who hasn't cared for the Filmfare award and I guess hasn't been to one in over a decade. He is an idealist who does not care for the fancy publicity stunts. He is now ostracized not just from the Filmfare but also from IIFA!!!
Is it fair to not consider the good movies because of the politics or is the award just another staged reality show!!!
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Monday, September 24, 2007
Dhamaal Da Kamaal
I guess it is a little too late to write a review on the movie nor do I want to have just another review out there. I happened to see Dhamaal this weekend and this is certainly a hilarious laugh riot. What I liked about the movie was it was clean fun, simple jokes, a lot of PJ's; No Double meaning or cheesy stuff. Asrani and Javed Jaffrey were at thier best, they seemed too natural for thier roles. Arshad Warsi seemed to be a bit lost and was not his usual self. What I did not realise during the movie but something that struck me when I was driving back home.. was that the movie had no heroines.. which is pretty unique for a hindi movie.. I can't remember any other bollywood movie which did not have any heroine in it.
The movie certainly makes itself in the all time comedy list along with the likes of Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri, Golmaal, Angoor and others...
The movie certainly makes itself in the all time comedy list along with the likes of Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri, Golmaal, Angoor and others...
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Our Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman is back
Our friendly neighbourhood spiderman is back with a bang. This time it's a mega melodrama with all the right ingrediants to keep the audience on the edge of thier seats for the 2.5 hrs. There is humor, Action, Emotion, Love, Jealousy and Hatred.
Spidey seems to be attracting more villians. They add two more nemesis, the Sand man and another arachnid Venom apart from the second gen Green Goblin (Harry Osborn)
Spidey gets taken over by an outer space host that enhances his super powers but the one's on his dark side. We can see spidey turning into a casanova. He gives some groovy moves, flirts around and gives a spidey kiss.He has to fight a internal battle a kinda Dr Jekyl n Mr Hyde... the super hero vs sycophant.
Sandman comes out as a result of a phsyics experiment where he is de-molecuralized and resurrects from sand.
When spidey finally gets to sway away from his dark side, the host takes over Topher and makes him venom (his dark side).Venom has an arachnid suit similar to Spidey but has a vicious face.
The film is filled with a lot of humorous moment as spidey tries to be a casanova, who gives some saturday night groovy moves. The Boss of Daily Buggle is also entertaining.
The movie is full of feel good factors; Peter Parker forgives Sandman, who had killed his uncle; Harry turns away from the effect of Green Goblin and turns around to help Spidey fight Sandman and Venom.
Overall, it's a movie that is worth watching. The movie seems to be the last of the series as the character trail ends here.
Spidey seems to be attracting more villians. They add two more nemesis, the Sand man and another arachnid Venom apart from the second gen Green Goblin (Harry Osborn)
Spidey gets taken over by an outer space host that enhances his super powers but the one's on his dark side. We can see spidey turning into a casanova. He gives some groovy moves, flirts around and gives a spidey kiss.He has to fight a internal battle a kinda Dr Jekyl n Mr Hyde... the super hero vs sycophant.
Sandman comes out as a result of a phsyics experiment where he is de-molecuralized and resurrects from sand.
When spidey finally gets to sway away from his dark side, the host takes over Topher and makes him venom (his dark side).Venom has an arachnid suit similar to Spidey but has a vicious face.
The film is filled with a lot of humorous moment as spidey tries to be a casanova, who gives some saturday night groovy moves. The Boss of Daily Buggle is also entertaining.
The movie is full of feel good factors; Peter Parker forgives Sandman, who had killed his uncle; Harry turns away from the effect of Green Goblin and turns around to help Spidey fight Sandman and Venom.
Overall, it's a movie that is worth watching. The movie seems to be the last of the series as the character trail ends here.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Alag - Zara Hatke
Casting: Akshay Kapoor, Diya Mirza, Mukesh Tiwari, Jayant Kriplani
Rating: 4, rating is high as the concept is good and not Bollywood ishtyle.
I saw this movie called Alag over the weekend. This movie hasn't seem to have done well on the box office, but I was pretty impressed with the non mainstream topic. This sci-fi had a good story line and the acting by Akshay Kapoor is awesome.
The story line is off beat, the kind i appreciate than the conventional movie themes.
The death of a retired professor and the mysterious way in which he was staying at his bungalow was a mystery to the neighbours. The police during thier investigation find a hidden basement and they find the protagonist Tejas (Akshay Kapoor). Tejas is fully bald with not a hair on his body including eye lashes. He has been down in the basement for the last 18 years of his youth.
The Police decide to move him to the rehabilitation center run by Purvi (Diya Mirza). This rehab was opened by Purvi's mother and after she went into a coma was being run over by her father.Diya extends a hand of friendship to tejas and initiates his exposure to the real world. Tejas had some kind of disease which made his eyes very sensitive to the sunlight. This and his near death experience with death due to an electric shock. Post these expeiences, his father decided to home educate him and kept him in the confimes of the home with no social life. Tejas proves to be well read as he had read books on every possible topic and had an excellent memory.
Did all this reading prepare him to face this world? As he joins the rehab, he tries to make friends. People around him start to realize that not only does he looks wierd, but that he also had extra sensory powers that made him very sensitive. This is displayed by some cool production around him being able to attract all the butterflies to him and magnetizing a spoon to attract all the spoon in the mess.
His display of these tricks and display of his knowledge kind of puts in on the wrong page with the boys and the dean (Purvi's father).Purvi becomes his saving grace and they fall in love. They go to a picnic to a park, The security guard shoots a dove . Tejas does not like this agression towards the dove and holds the hand of the guard in one hand and the dove in the other. The guard seems to go in a state of shock and he feels the electicity thr' his body and has a near death experience.
The boys try to take revenge with him and try to give him a electric shock. On the contrary, Tejas stands thr' the high voltage strike and one of thier buddy gets electrocuted in return. This becomes a turning point in the relationship with the group. In the mean time, the guard tells his experience to the dean and mentions that it was more of a spiritual journey for him as he could feel the soul of the dove when he had his experience. Tejas then proceeds to cure Purvi's mom just by spreading his hand over her head.
This miracle seems to excite the medical scientists and they wish to experiement on him. On the other side, a rpgue scientist (Tom Alter) captures him in order to finish his experiment on cloning of the human brain. Tejas survives this with the assistance of Purvi and family, but loses Purvi in the process and returns back to lead his life back in solitude in the confines of his basement.
Overall, a nice movie decently directed and produced with a good story line. There were some stuff done to conventionaliize it by adding a couple of songs and some rugby scenees and stuff. It looked too good to be an original Hindi movie. I had to google around to find that this was a copy of an english movie called Powder produced about a decade back. When will we get the originality in our art!!!
Inspite of these, a movie that's worth a watch for the un-conventional storyline and the awesome acting by the rookie Akshay Kapoor.
Rating: 4, rating is high as the concept is good and not Bollywood ishtyle.
I saw this movie called Alag over the weekend. This movie hasn't seem to have done well on the box office, but I was pretty impressed with the non mainstream topic. This sci-fi had a good story line and the acting by Akshay Kapoor is awesome.
The story line is off beat, the kind i appreciate than the conventional movie themes.
The death of a retired professor and the mysterious way in which he was staying at his bungalow was a mystery to the neighbours. The police during thier investigation find a hidden basement and they find the protagonist Tejas (Akshay Kapoor). Tejas is fully bald with not a hair on his body including eye lashes. He has been down in the basement for the last 18 years of his youth.
The Police decide to move him to the rehabilitation center run by Purvi (Diya Mirza). This rehab was opened by Purvi's mother and after she went into a coma was being run over by her father.Diya extends a hand of friendship to tejas and initiates his exposure to the real world. Tejas had some kind of disease which made his eyes very sensitive to the sunlight. This and his near death experience with death due to an electric shock. Post these expeiences, his father decided to home educate him and kept him in the confimes of the home with no social life. Tejas proves to be well read as he had read books on every possible topic and had an excellent memory.
Did all this reading prepare him to face this world? As he joins the rehab, he tries to make friends. People around him start to realize that not only does he looks wierd, but that he also had extra sensory powers that made him very sensitive. This is displayed by some cool production around him being able to attract all the butterflies to him and magnetizing a spoon to attract all the spoon in the mess.
His display of these tricks and display of his knowledge kind of puts in on the wrong page with the boys and the dean (Purvi's father).Purvi becomes his saving grace and they fall in love. They go to a picnic to a park, The security guard shoots a dove . Tejas does not like this agression towards the dove and holds the hand of the guard in one hand and the dove in the other. The guard seems to go in a state of shock and he feels the electicity thr' his body and has a near death experience.
The boys try to take revenge with him and try to give him a electric shock. On the contrary, Tejas stands thr' the high voltage strike and one of thier buddy gets electrocuted in return. This becomes a turning point in the relationship with the group. In the mean time, the guard tells his experience to the dean and mentions that it was more of a spiritual journey for him as he could feel the soul of the dove when he had his experience. Tejas then proceeds to cure Purvi's mom just by spreading his hand over her head.
This miracle seems to excite the medical scientists and they wish to experiement on him. On the other side, a rpgue scientist (Tom Alter) captures him in order to finish his experiment on cloning of the human brain. Tejas survives this with the assistance of Purvi and family, but loses Purvi in the process and returns back to lead his life back in solitude in the confines of his basement.
Overall, a nice movie decently directed and produced with a good story line. There were some stuff done to conventionaliize it by adding a couple of songs and some rugby scenees and stuff. It looked too good to be an original Hindi movie. I had to google around to find that this was a copy of an english movie called Powder produced about a decade back. When will we get the originality in our art!!!
Inspite of these, a movie that's worth a watch for the un-conventional storyline and the awesome acting by the rookie Akshay Kapoor.
Monday, April 23, 2007
You Tube - The Web 2.0 world
One of my favorite past times has been you tube. The yet another networking site is house to video blogs, snippets, ads and much more. Quite a lot of people have been enthu enough to upload desi movies. I've happened to see quite a few movies though on the small screen.
I've seen a few movies which aint worth seeing in the theater on you tube. This has become by replacement for the cable tv back home. More intresting has been availability of some of the old serials online. This includes the desi sherlock holmes Byomkesh Bakshi from the old DD days as well as Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show. you can also find a lot of episodes from the Great Indian Laughter challenge.
Apart from this I have been able to get a great deal of videos on travel, funky inventions, Indian history as well as religionism. Overall, if you have the right bandwidth, there are tons of things that can be explored on You tube which has become my replacement to the regular tube- my Idiot Box.
I've seen a few movies which aint worth seeing in the theater on you tube. This has become by replacement for the cable tv back home. More intresting has been availability of some of the old serials online. This includes the desi sherlock holmes Byomkesh Bakshi from the old DD days as well as Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show. you can also find a lot of episodes from the Great Indian Laughter challenge.
Apart from this I have been able to get a great deal of videos on travel, funky inventions, Indian history as well as religionism. Overall, if you have the right bandwidth, there are tons of things that can be explored on You tube which has become my replacement to the regular tube- my Idiot Box.
Delhi Heights - The heights of movie making
Delhi Heights seems to be a pathetic effort at making a Delhi production. The only good part about the movie was the theme which revovles around how the corporate lifestyle affects family life and how compromise needs to happen from both sides to make it happen.
The protagonist starred by Jimmy Shergil is an creative director in an advertising form. He is in love with Neha Dupia who is also a creative director at a rival form working on the same product line.
An intro to the other residents at the Delhi Heights:
Right next door is Bobby who flirts with every woman he can lay his hands on, which his wife abhors. Om Puri is a reeal estate agent and a father of a young daughter. He is friends with a bookie and has a peculiar laughter. Then there are some college going kids who like to have fun.
The marriage of the ad gurus soon turn sour as the work life starts affecting the family life. This includes business development dinners and last minute travel plans affecting thier original plans. The apex of this relation happens when Neha Dupia happens to approach the same star for the campaign as Jimmy. Jimmy misunderstands this as a sabotage and turns away from the relation without listening to what she has to offer.
Then comes the drive for happy ending where bobby realises that he needs to be faithful to his wife and he comes back to life. Jimmy then patches up with <> to make a happy ending.
The songs have the Rabbi Shergil's sufi influence except for some punjabi numbers. overall an ok story with pathetic movie production. Dilli waloon .. leave the movie direction to the mumbaiya dons...
The protagonist starred by Jimmy Shergil is an creative director in an advertising form. He is in love with Neha Dupia who is also a creative director at a rival form working on the same product line.
An intro to the other residents at the Delhi Heights:
Right next door is Bobby who flirts with every woman he can lay his hands on, which his wife abhors. Om Puri is a reeal estate agent and a father of a young daughter. He is friends with a bookie and has a peculiar laughter. Then there are some college going kids who like to have fun.
The marriage of the ad gurus soon turn sour as the work life starts affecting the family life. This includes business development dinners and last minute travel plans affecting thier original plans. The apex of this relation happens when Neha Dupia happens to approach the same star for the campaign as Jimmy. Jimmy misunderstands this as a sabotage and turns away from the relation without listening to what she has to offer.
Then comes the drive for happy ending where bobby realises that he needs to be faithful to his wife and he comes back to life. Jimmy then patches up with <> to make a happy ending.
The songs have the Rabbi Shergil's sufi influence except for some punjabi numbers. overall an ok story with pathetic movie production. Dilli waloon .. leave the movie direction to the mumbaiya dons...
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