Reviews
3 Idiots (2009)
The three idiots show us what is wrong with our current system of education
Aal iz not well
education system
Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra coupled with Aamir Khan have come out with an ingenious film. The film exposes the fact that the Indian Education System needs to be revamped and how well they do it. Picturized in trademark Hirani style, the film is a must watch for every student and parent. The current scenario where teachers feel that whatever has been taught in class is the only thing that the student needs to learn and a scientific or questioning mind is not welcome in the classrooms is shown in good humour. The student too gets conditioned to this rote learning or falling in line syndrome for earning favours from the teachers. The setting is in a premier engineering college of the country ICE where three students are thrown into the situation because their parents wanted them to do so. This is so true of innumerable students who are just following their parents diktat in opting for engineering. Madhavan wants to get into wildlife photography but is forced into ICE. Sharman has to do it because he has to succeed and support his family which is struggling for survival with an ailing father and a working mother and an unmarried sister of marriageable age.Aamir Khan is the odd man out in the trio with a penchant for technology and a sharp and questioning mind. But these threesome are found unfit by the college director (Boman Irani) . In the leadership of Aamir Khan they thwart the college's efforts to punish their waywardness but to no avail . By the time they reach the final year there are two groups – one the studious , loyal types and the other is the threesome who are mischievous and non-conforming. Time and again they pester the college authorities with their pranks .Aamir is not the serious study variety but is successful in topping the exams . This point drives home the issue that if you have the passion you can do it – you don't need to cram.After being rustigated from college, Boman changes his heart and takes them back because their ingenuity saves his daughter as they help her deliver her child in extraordinary circumstances and with the help of Kareena , who is a doctor and also Boman's daughter. Aamir disappears after his college only to be traced by his friends in what is the ultimate goal of his passion. The gags, jokes, ragging scenes, classroom sequences, romantic scenes, gatecrashing into marriages and all such bits in the movie are so realistic that all of us would have done the same in the colleges. Aamir is superb and looks the college student. He fails to surprise because each time he surpasses himself and has the uncanny knack of choosing the right films.Madhavan and Sharman support him to the hilt as true friends who are ready to crashland flights, gag car owners and ditch the college authorities to support each other. The light-heartedness is there but there are some touching family scenes too which makes the movie one of the best in recent times. Raju Hirani proves to be a master storyteller again. Swanand Kirkire's lyrics are youthful and meaningful. Shantanu Moitra's music is adequate but is the only mediocre thing in an otherwise brilliant film.Boman is his usual hilarious with grey shades . Kareena is beautiful .
Race (2008)
Race-Racy Ambitious Complicated Entertainer
Racy Ambitious Complicated Entertainer
RACE is Abbas Mustan's attempt to find the golden touch that they had displayed with Baazigar, Khiladi and Ajnabee. 'Naqab' failed because it was too complicated and this is the same with RACE too. In a bit to give a super hit, AM duo put in too much- the result , a slick but complicated thriller in which everyone double crosses the other.
A story of absolute mistrust between two loving brothers Saif and Akshay Khanna, the thriller starts off with the usual élan of a Abbas Mustan movie and keeps the pace going for the first half an hour. The story builds up with Akshay falling in love with Saif's girlfriend Bipasha. Saif sacrifices his love thinking that his alcoholic brother would quit drinking. Akshay and Bips marry each other as a scheme to usurp the 100 million insurance that they would get if Saif is killed in an accident. Everything goes as per plan but after Saif's death, Katrina playing Saif's secretary , claims that Saif had married her before dying hence the money is hers. What follows thereafter is too complicated with each one backstabbing the other. We will leave the cinema hall absolutely not trusting the director duo for the state of affairs after building up the tempo for a fantastic thriller.
Nevertheless, the touch of the duo is evident in the twists and turns, the business strategies and the backroom operations. Saif has come of age and has started playing different shades and experimenting with films like Omkara, Dil Chahta Hai and this. He adequately plays his role of the elder brother who plays to win. Akshay as the younger brother who seeks revenge against his brother is good at times . Bipasha as the sexy siren, fits the role and has shades of grey. She is glamorous as the model, seductive as the lover and plays her role to her limited best. Katrina looks beautiful and has not much to do except looking good.
Anil Kapoor enters the fray as the fruit loving inspector along with his stupid secretary Sameera Reddy a la Karamchand and kitty. He lends comic credence to the second half with his double entendres and corrupt methods. Anil Kapoor has these days made a mark for himself in these side but important roles.
The locales and cinematography of South Africa and Dubai are breathtaking. The action scenes are also well picturised. Music by Pritam is inspired and is one of the high points of the film. The background music by Salim-Sulaiman is also thrilling and adds to the effect.
All in all , Race seems to be another misled but good attempt by Abbas Mustan. They should concentrate more on simple thrillers like Baazigar and Ajnabee instead of complicating things too much like Naqab and Race. They are still the masters of the game and have the energy and verve to direct thrilling moments like no one else in the industry.
Om Shanti Om (2007)
Just For Fun
OSO is not extraordinary but is an adequate entertainer.Although it does not justify the hype created but it does not disappoint.Moreso because of the presence of Shahrukh .Farah Khan goes the Manmohan Desai way. Leave you mind at home and go to watch OSO just for fun. And its an out and out fun film. The movie is inspired by Karz,Madhumati and what not. It starts in !977 when Karz is being shot by Subhash Ghai and a junior artist Om (SRK) is dancing. Om is obsessed with bollywood and in particular Shanti Devi ,the star played by Deepika Padukone . In a film shoot, he saves Shanti and finds her favour.He is killed in trying to rescue Shanti who is burnt alive in the studio by Arjun Rampal , a producer.He is reborn as Om Kapoor, a superstar and as usual he remembers all that has happened to him in the previous birth and seeks vengeance. The climax has the ghost of Deepika coming and doing the deed of killing Arjun Rampal. The story is old and the characters jaded. But the presence of SRK is electric.He turns the mundane proceedings by his livewire performance in both births. As the junior artiste, his comic sense is uncanny. As the south Indian superstar he is over the top and as Manoj Kumar he is restrained. He balances the act so beautifully that the first half is over before you know. As the gen next superstar he is full of attitude and his by now famous 6 pack body is in place. The second half is again the same old story a la Karz with the role of Simi Grewal being played by Arjun Rampal. The awards function is awesome and Abhishek and Akshay are at their sporting best. The dance of 31 stars in another attraction . The climax is picked up from Madhumati. Deepika is fresh in both the roles and does justice. Shreya and Kiron Kher support SRK as the best friend and mother respectively. All in all its an entertaining film in which one should not ask any questions, Just have fun and come home.The music by Vishal Shekhar is good and both the 70s and present moment are well represented.
Saawariya (2007)
Flattered to deceive
Saawariya is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's worst film to date. Not that the movie does not have any moments of glory. Expectations are high in SLB's movie but this does not meet the expectations for sure. The storyline lets it down.Its a two line story.Boy meets girl and falls in love,spends four nights of togetherness as good friends.The girl loves and waits for the return of her lover Salman,the boy is left alone at the end. Ranbir Raj, a happy go lucky vagabond musician reaches a dingy blue chilly town infested with prostitutes to croon in JK Bar. His first acquaintance is a sweet prostitute Rani who loves our fella and his sweet mannerisms and clean heart. Ranbir , one night, sights a girl on the bridge and falls in love. The girl too finds him a good friend and they spend four days of togetherness.On the third night Sonam tells Ranbir that she loves Salman and he has promised to return on the fourth day.On the fourth day Salman returns , albeit a little late and takes Sonam away leaving Ranbir alone again. The music by Monty is the best one could have asked for and that was proved even before the release of the film.But the songs are not so effective in the film because some of them do not fit the narrative. For the first time ,I find a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film which is not having a storyline and music that justifies the script. The songs seem to have been fitted in forcibly . The film is a poetry as far as the visuals are concerned. The landscapes and the quaint town is beautiful and is a true SLB visual. The bridge, lake and other dingy lanes are beautifully picturised.The rain and snow sequences are like exquisite photographs. Rani is the lone survivor from this film She exudes positive energy from every frame of the film.As the prostitute her overtures portray the character to the fullest. Her Birthday sequence , the Chaail Chabila song, her scenes of anger when a frustrated Ranbir comes heartbroken to her all go to prove that she is one of the finest actresses of today. Ranbir is good but the script does not support him.Sonam is inconsistent, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sanjay Leela Bhansali seems more in love with the visuals and music than with the storyline.The film is not taut enough to sustain a two line story.The public attention wavers and the hold is let go. First time I am experiencing this in an SLB Film.Is Sony to blame for this?
Jab We Met (2007)
Real vs Reel Love
Kareena and Shahid were really in love when this movie was shot and it shows om screen. JWM is a sweet little love story which is full of realities. It starts with a young businessman getting into hard times and losing his love . In frustration he gets on to a train. A bubbly punjabi girl gets into the same train. She cannot stop talking a la Basanti in Sholay. She tries to help out the Shahid the business man as if she were an agony aunt while Shahid wants to get rid of her. So he gets down midway in the night at some station but Kareena finding him out of berth gets down from the train to get him back but instead finds herself out of the train. She gets angry on Shahid and he takes a taxi for her to Ratlam. In Ratlam station she enters into an argument with a shopkeeper and loses the train again . She and Shahid then go to a hotel for the night and they narrowly escape the police raid in the hotel. During these escapades they get to know each other. Shahid has lost in love whereas Kareena , the happy-go-lucky eternal optimist is in love and is going home to Bhatinda from where she will go to her lover at Manali, marry and settle. All this without her family's knowledge. Shahid learns to forget his woes and be happy after he meets Kareena and slowly falls in love with her. He reaches Bhatinda only to be embroiled in another controversy. The parents of Kareena have called her childhood friend Manmeet to settle her marriage. In order to get rid of him she feigns love with Shahid. She also runs away from the house to Manali with Shahid to her love. Shahid leaves her at Manali and goes back to his business at Mumbai.In nine months with newfound enthusiasm he revives his business and launches new products . He does well all the while remembering Kareena for teaching him how to live life kingsize. On seeing his face on TV the parents of Kareena come to Bombay to see their daughter thinking he has married her. Shahid asks for 10 days to get her to Bhatinda.He goes to Manali to find that her lover had betrayed her and refused to marry her. In search of Kareena , Shahid reaches Shimla where she stays in a working women's hostel . He sees her a changes person having lost her earlier cheerfulness . He teaches her all the earlier things she had taught him. He also asks her to call her lover abuse him, get rid of the pain and get on with life. She does that only to find that her lover realizes his fault and comes to marry her. The threesome go to Bhatinda . Ther the confusion starts that all the family members think Shahid to be her lover and pamper him. The confusion ends when Kareena realizes that Shahid is right for her and marries him. Kareen is superb as Geet and so is Shahid. Both generate a chemistry which shows their real love for each other. Umfortunately the break up in real life betrays these feelings. Pritam is restrained and melodious. Its a good family fare with no frills. Imtiaz Ali shows maturity and fine comic sense in handling characters.
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007)
RGV ki jhaag- Sholay Remix.
In a variant of Sholay , Ram Gopal Verma ventures into what can be called an unknown territory where the blockbuster takes a new shape. The Thakur goes south.Mohanlal as Narsimha the police inspector whose family has been killed seeks vengeance Madrasi style. The accent is totally South Indian in contrast to Thakur from the north. The severing of the hands of Thakur by Gabbar is also cut down to the fingers in Aag. So make up costs are cut down because there is no effort to hide the hands instead only a long shouldered Kurta covers up for the cut fingers. Moreso in the climax where the Thakur uses his legs and says"Tere Liye to mere paer hi kaafi hai" here Narsimha uses his finger stubs to fire a gun and kill the villain. Babban, the new avtar of gabbar is also different. He is not from Bihar or UP. He is Bambaiya. Gabbar's infamous laugh is also in two instalments this time and is more subdued. Babban asks for Diwali instead of Holi and romances Urmila the replacement of Helen in Mehbooba. he also dances and enjoys dancing with Abhisheh who plays Jalal Agha in Mehbooba.Babban is more intelligent this time. He tosses the apple and asks the question that made Isaac Newton discover laws of gravitation. Basanti is more verbose than the Auto driver Ghungroo. Nisha Kothari cannot play the auto driver and looks too artificial using words like 'entertain' and 'too much' with gay abandon. Viru was fun whereas Ajay Devgun is a misfit for the role. The God Speaks to Basanti incident and the shooting lessons and the Koi Haseena song and the water tank sequences are painful. The water tank turns into a well and the drunk Devgun is so bad in the sequence that the audience would have wanted him to commit suicide. Jai was composed and serious. Prashant Raj is better than the others because we do not expect anything from him. But he also bungles on the Mausi sequence. He is not as romantic as Jai with the mouth organ . Jaya's role played by Sushmita changes careers. A pure housewife turns into a doctor this time plunging into full time social service after her husband is killed. She too lacks the pain that Jaya displayed. Her flirtations with Jai are more open this time. Samba gets a bigger role this time as Tambe. He does not have to point guns and answer questions of Gabbar this time. He follows Babban wherever he goes and is a bodyguard with more visibility outside the den. Horses give way to Jeeps and auto. The Gabbar's hideout here keeps changing and Ramgarh becomes Kaliganj. All in all it is more of a spoof than anything else. RGV comes up with his own interpretation of the classic. But we remember the original so well even after three decades that our minds refuse to accept stylized versions and changed dialogues. So we call it a spoof. So Mr.RGV(Sholay ) and Farhan Akhtar (Don) and JPDutta(Umrao jaan) stop making remixes and start making originals.
Guru (2007)
A perfect wedding gift
Mani Ratnam's Guru holds forte for the whole movie period and lets it off at the end. The enthralling story of the rags to riches is a true tribute to Dhirubhai and his business acumen. It is also a peek into the way business is and should be run in present times. The shackles of the licence raj and how the protagonist Gurukant Desai breaks them is beautifully depicted. The fearless Guru makes
his way wherever he goes. It also shows that in today's business education or the lack of it is no deterrent. Dhirubhai and Bill Gates are examples of this . Gurukant enacted by Abhishek lives up to the character. The smiling face, the twinkle in the eye shows that he is confident of himself. The interactions are also at extremes, with the snobbish he is rude but with the friends and relatives he is subdues. A heady mixture of earthy charm and brilliance is what Abhishek shows in a neatly drawn character of Guru. Ash as his wife who has lost in love and marries Guru out of no choice is also restrained and supports Guru not getting awed by the brilliance of the character and showing the strength that was trademark of Dhirubhai's wife Kokilaben. Mithun Chakravarty shows flashes of his Mrigayaa brilliance in the character of the media baron and how his love turns into hate and how he goes on to be the ruthless media baron after he knows that Guru has used his media is a fine effort by a veteran actor. Vidya Balan acts well but her life and death are not well integrated into the story and bear no relevance to Guru and his life. Madhavan too as the journalist in the cameo acts well. The story of a rural boy who goes to Istanbul to trade and comes back to India to set up his own business, marries for the sake of dowry to set up his business, finds his way through the market, sets up his textile plants , takes care of his shareholders , gets into trouble with the Government in his fast rise , is paralyzed, fights back and comes out a winner. Guru is ruthless and shows no emotion for what is right or wrong . This is shown by his marrying Ash for the need of 25000 rupees as seed capital. He again uses the newspaper of his Nanaji to get the membership. He bribes officials and ministers to get clearances. This shows that all is fair in war and business. The only weak point in the movie is that after building up the second half with misery for Guru, the jury makes up its mind to punish Guru. Only one lecture of Guru makes the learned men overturn their decision . The lecture is not logical. Its emotional. Here also Guru is more interested in the public trial and makes the most of it. But the sequence in which he equates himself with Gandhiji does not bear semblance to Dhirubhai and brings the movie to an abrupt end as if a racing car comes to a screeching halt. AR Rehman is fantastic with his music, as usual and uses Hariharan,Bappi and Shreya to the hilt and also the Mayya Crooner. Mallika Sherawat does her bit but is not as hot as the song. All in all the blemish is only at the end. Otherwise a good movie.