RajA chance visit to MG Road on Friday evening turned eventful when I saw a tall girl standing near a corn stall. She looked familiar. I thought about it for few seconds and then I realized that it was Deepika Padukone, the upcoming model and actress and daughter of famous Badminton champion, Prakash Padukone. She was with another girl and on old lady. But I wasn’t sure if it really was her. I then walked till Cauvery Emporium and was waiting for my friends to catch up. But Deepika caught up before they could and she stood right next to me near the entrance of Cauvery when the old lady shouted “Deepika” and she looked back so I was sure of who it was. She looked beautiful, I must say.
Archive for the 'Movies' Category
- I finally saw “Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind” on HBO last Saturday. It was really good. This was the first time Jim Carrey looked like a normal man to me rather than looking like someone whose teeth are too keen on breaking free from his mouth. For some reason, the movie reminded me of “Vanilla Sky”.
- Things are getting pretty ugly on Indian Idol 2. Sonu Nigam is upset that the contestants are giving too much time to publicity events and makeovers rather than singing and he’s right to a large extent. But he has that unique quality that makes him look like a jerk no matter how right he might be. He makes even Anu Malik good.
- You may or may not have seen Indian Idol 2 so let me catch you up on the 9 remaining contestants.
- Panna Gill: Everyone on the show thinks he looks good which is a lie. He can barely sing but survives bcos apparently teenage girls think he looks good too.
- Monali Thakur: She looks good, has big eyes. Sings well too. She should have lasted till the final five but is sadly out now.
- NC Karunya: Great singer. Looks like a case of Abhishek Bachchan-cloning gone awry. Would probably make it to the final three.
- Ravi Tripathi: The biggest f**ktard ever on the show. Terrible singer. All contestants hate him, as do the judges. Makes a fool of himself every time he is saved (no thanks to the retarded people who vote for him).
- Sandeep Acharya: Udit Narayan’s rajasthani cousin. Looks okay. Sings fine. But we don’t need another Udit Narayan, do we?
- Amey Date: Most deserving but slightly dumb. People don’t seem to like him much so he may lose which would be sad.
- Meenal Jain: Simple yet efficient. Judges love her, people don’t. Why? Because people suck. She is good but not too good. Final four probably if the Indian public somehow remembers that they vote for the best not the worst.
- Anuj Sharma: He’s just got in when Jolly Das had to quit bcos of chicken pox. Heh. What luck. Looks lost. Don’t know much about him yet except that he has a girlfriend.
- Antara Mitra: The village belle. She thanks people in Bengali every week and why does she think people should vote for her? Because she is from a small village and if she wins, it would send a message to all girls in small villages. And what exactly would that message be? That as long as you are from a remote village, we will make you win no matter how bad you sing.
- You might have heard about model and actress Kuljeet Randhawa’s suicide. Read about it here. Now, everybody may not have known her but being the big TV buff that I am, I did. In fact, I really liked her. The news of her suicide was all over the news channels yesterday. The spooky thing is that she was a friend of Nafisa Joseph, who committed suicide one and a half year ago. They even acted together in CATS, a bad Hindi version of Charlie’s Angels. Sad!
I rarely watch 3 movies in 2 days but since I did and that too, good movies which I wanted to watch for a long time, I decided to share my views with everyone here.
The film depicts the lives of four different people living in Brooklyn on their quest for satisfaction in life. It shows the direct and indirect effects that drugs and various addictions have on each of the individuals, and then portrays their downward spirals from the hopes of blossoming dreams into the helpless state of moral and physical decay. – From IMDB
The first time I watched it was back in 2001. I had to look for it in 3 video shops before I finally got the VCD and the print was really bad. I remember liking it back then but it never had the effect it had this time. The movie is absolutely brilliant. It has an award- worthy performance by Ellen Burstyn. Other cast members - Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans (first time I see him in a non-comedy) are good too. The maker succeeds in making you feel as helpless as Ellen’s friends by the time the movie ends. The scariest thing about the movie is that the main characters are happiest right before their fall starts. In spite of being a serious movie, it is very slick and stylish. It’s a must watch for everyone. But remember, it’s a downer.
A folk tale - supernatural love story about a ghost who falls in love with a newlywed woman. – From IMDB
I couldn’t see it last year cos I had other movies (Bunty aur Bubli and Parineeta) on my must watch list and couldn’t watch it after that because my DVD player doesn’t work with my TV (which is such a sad part of my life that it deserves a post!). So Star Gold, of all channels, gave me the opportunity of finally watching it. I expected it to be bad given all the negative comments it got after it was sent for Oscars but it was surprisingly good and not boring at all. The movie is entertaining and has good performances by Rani Mukherjee (who’s my current favorite). She looks hot even in traditional clothes. The fact that such movies aren’t made anymore works to the movie’s advantage. The movie never gets too serious or melodramatic either. Plus it has some scintillating songs.
The song, “Dheere Jalna” is one of my favorite songs from last year. It just doesn’t have great music and good singing but awesome lyrics too. All credit goes to Gulzar, of course.
The film reflects the intensity and fate of three young characters, who start out on the same platform but board different trains and reach a destination of their own making. – From Rediff
I wanted to see it ever since the Indian blogosphere went crazy over the movie last year but got the change only this Monday, thanks to Star Gold again. (I guess, they are finally tired of showing dubbed English movies.) It’s again a great watch. The movie has got me interested in the late 60s and early 70s’ India – something I don’t know much about. The movie is very real. All actors too give a real performance. Kay Kay is good and Chitrangada Singh both looks good and acts well too but its Shiney Ahuja who steals the show. He is very natural. The movie is a little amateurish but still makes an impact. The surprise ending totally caught me unawares. It was great to see a good film by Sudhir Mishra after Chameli.
Incidentally, this film too has a song that I love. I loved “Bavraa Mann” the moment I hear it the first time in 2003. The song has great music (Shantanu Moitra), has been sung well (Swanand Kirkire) and has fantastic lyrics (Swanand Kirkire).
Since I’m in the mood, here are few lines from the song:
Bavre se is jahaan mein bavraa ek saath ho
Is sayaani bheed main bas haanthon mea tera haath ho
Bavri si dun ho koi bavra ek raag ho
Bavri si dun ho koi bavra ek raag ho
Bavre si pair chaahne, Bavre taraano pe
Bavre se bol pe thirakna
Warning: Contains few spoilers and “my” views
This is the first time I saw the fist day, first show of a movie and I’m happy that I did.
Storyline:
Rang De Basanti tells the story of Sue (Alice Payton) who comes to India to make a documentary on Indian freedom struggle as mentioned in her grandfather’s diary. She meets Sonia (Soha Ali Khan), DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) and Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni) who are all college students and work as actors for her documentary but due to some twists and turns, she finally ends up amidst another revolution in the making.
Pluses:
- The movie is well directed. I was really hoping that it doesn’t turn out to be a disaster like “Aks”. But Raykesh Omprakash Mehra didn’t disappoint me. It has a fresh storyline, good screenplay, fantastic cinematography and efficient editing. The film is technically very good.
- The film has a great cast and the fact that most of them are relatively new helps. All performances are commendable. Aamir Khan is good, as expected. Kunal Kapoor and Sharman Joshi are impressive. Soha Ali Khan is surprisingly good. Atul Kulkarni is always efficient so that’s no surprise. Alice acts well and speaks great Hindi. The best performance, however, belongs to Siddharth. It is his character that is “awakened” by the happenings the most and he is remarkable in his role. Thats good casting at work.
- The dynamics of the group has been well-developed. Even the relationships within the group, like the Aamir - Sharman duo and the closeness between Siddharth and Soha have been developed effectively.
- The dialogues are different from the normal fare and all the songs are of course superb. The placement of most songs is good too. In fact, “Rubaroo” gets the best place a song can ask for in a movie.
- The film tries to present the freedom fighters in a new light. Sepia tone, special effects and bike chases make them look very cool.
- The film touches a very contemporary issue of MIG accidents.
- The movie never gets too dull or boring. Its entertaining throughout. It also has a certain freshness about it.
- The message of the movie has been put across well.
Minuses:
- Aamir Khan looks old. I know he is a great actor (though overrated) but if the director could find so many young actors for other roles, he could have very well found someone to play Aamir’s role. Bollywood really needs younger actors.
- The mixing of scenes from the freedom struggle with the present scenario works most of the time but not always. Some people in the audi even laughed when the five heroes were shown as freedom fighters just before they enter the AIR.
- The Jalianwala Bagh sequence is not effective. Its a little shoddy. Though the satirical replacement of General Dwyer with the Defence Minister as part of a dream is funny.
- Even though the songs are good, the film could have done with lesser number of songs.
My Rating: 8/10
My Verdict: A well-made movie definitely worth a watch.
I’m really thankful to INOX for starting SMS booking. No, I don’t buy my tickets though it but others do and then they don’t turn up to collect them on time and so I get a ticket to “sold out” shows at the last moment and that too in the second row from the top. This has happened thrice till now.
Work is again coming in the way of my blogging. The post frequency would be low for a couple of weeks.
I went to my cousin’s place on Makar Sankranti and somehow the discussion moved to songs that became huge hits but seem very dumb and laughable now. Here are a few examples:
Saath mere aaogi- kahaan, ice cream khaoogi- haan haan - 2
saath bulate ho ice cream khilate ho, bolo irada hain kya
apana yeh wada hain nek iraada hain, waah waah
tumko ghumaunga main duniya dikhaunga main aayega tumko mazza
taram param pam param pam taram param pam - 2
And this one’s even better:
pom pom - 2, hey mama miya mama miya
pyar ki gaadi tez chalaon, accelerator aur dabaaon
prem gali mein mode bahut hain, dekho dil ke tod bahut hain
rasta mudd jaane wala hain, main road aane wala hain
stop, love, love (mama miya pom pom - 2)
These were the lyrics of a popular song from Justice Chaudhury starring Jeetendra and Sridevi. I myself was a big fan of this song. In fact, I had a compilation cassette of this movie with Himmatwala and I listened to it all day. I loved all songs of Sridevi.
Then there was a song from Dance Dance that I absolutely loved:
Aa gaya aa gaya
halwawala aa gaya
aa gaya aa gaya
halwawala aa gaya
rang jamaane aa gaya
roop dikhaane aa gaya
aa gaya aa gaya
halwawala aa gaya
Then, back in the mid 90s, Bali Brahmbhatt became very popular because of:
Amma dekh, aa dekh, tera munda bigda jayee,
Bebe dekh, aa dekh, tera munda bigda jayee.
The song is from a flop movie starring Jackie Shroff called Stuntman.
There are lots of such songs but I don’t have the time to find the lyrics and I’m too lazy to write the lyrics myself.
PS: All the non-Hindi-speaking readers are requested to forgive me for this very Hindi post. I would have loved to translate these songs but there’s no time. *very sad face*
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