Category: Movies

The movie is about a kid affected by dyslexia and how his family and school deal with it. Amir Khan is a teacher at the school who identifies the problem and ensures that all and sundry work together to transform the kids life. This in short is the story line of the film.

The theme is certainly new and Amir Khan deserves credit for experimenting with a new topic. This is one of those rare Hindi films that you can watch with the kids since it is sans the usual Bollywood masala.

Amir Khan appears to have gone completely low budget. There is not a single familiar face in the film besides himself! The songs in the film are unnecessary and don’t quite fit in. The film tends to get preachy (reminded me of the tone of the film Swades) at times. Parts of the film are really slow and could certainly have been “speeded up”. Amir Khan the teacher confronts parents and lectures them about not pushing kids to excel. It would have made a lot of sense to explore and discuss the issue (like Amitabh and Om Puri discuss communal tensions in Dev) in as much detail as possible because in reality it is easier said than done. Also, it might have been far more powerful if the teacher’s past had been explained in greater detail. How did it work for him? How did he adjust to growing up with dyslexia?

Darsheel Safary, the child actor who plays the lead role as Ishaan Awasthi has put in a fine performance. The Director has done well to capture his emotions even with minimal dialogues. For a directorial debut, Amir Khan has certainly done well despite the weaknesses in the film. While by no means a “must see” film, it is certainly watchable.

A complete disaster is a simple and direct way to describe this film. The films is based on a Russian short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, originally published in 1848. The film was completely out of touch with the times. The sets were completely bizarre and impossible to relate to. The dialogues appeared even more out of place. The songs are nothing great either and they are thrust in quite unnecessarily at various points in the film. The two new comers Ranbir and Sonam could have done well to pick a mainstream masala over this one to make their debut. For first timers, the two performed reasonably well though I suspect Sonam has better acting talents that Ranbir. Rani Mukherjee and Salman Khan have been added for star power, but the film is so poorly made that their roles have little hope of saving the film.

This film unfortunately marks Sony’s maiden entry into Bollywood. Unfortunately, it could certainly have been better planned. I suspect they fell for Sanjay Leela Bansali’s brand name without resorting to even the slightest reality check. Besides, the clash at the box office with King Khan’s OSO meant that this film was bound to sink at the box office. Not surprisingly, we found very poor response at the theater.

It is hard to capture the story of this film because there isn’t quite one to write about! It is quite a nonsensical mish-mash of events, interspersed with many songs, a few fights and plenty of clowning around. If you are in the mood for a typical Bollywood fare in a “I won’t question anything” state of mind, then this movie is “your type”. There is lots of “goofy” stuff to keep you entertained and laughing, though at the end of the day all of it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. (If you are one of those who just said “That’s what Bollywood films are all about anyway”, then this movie beats even such critics by a very huge margin.)

Shahrukh Khan is perfectly at home clowning around throughout the film. Deepika Padukone is a pretty face (and noticeably taller than the hero) and does a decent job in her first Hindi film. Arjun Rampal as the villain does justice to his role. The movie is based on Bollywood itself and so there is an endless parade of movie stars and film personalities to engage the film crazy audience. The scenes involving them are particularly funny, especially the Filmfare awards. Akshay Kumar appears in a brief funny cameo which was adapted straight out of an unknown Hollywood film but widely viewed on youtube.

Vishal Shekhar’s music is trendy. Dard-e-Disco which has a middle eastern tune (with a belly-dancing type of beat) sung by Sukvinder is a catchy number. Main Agar Kahoon, a typical Hindi duet and Ajab Si also belong to the “hit variety”.

At the end of the film (when the names are shown) every single person (including spot boys and other technicians involved with the film) whose name was listed actually appeared on the screen. A nice new touch, that I have never seen before.

I suspect that despite early media reports this film is not as big a hit as Shahrukh Khan’s earlier hit films. Tickets were available despite it being the long weekend and though the film is only a week or two old. The film is a spoof on Bollywood and to appreciate it you really have to be aware of Bollywood in the 70s and 80s. The younger generation of movie goers are unlikely to catch the subtle humor based on Bollywood’s past that is visible throughout the film.

Farah Khan, seems to revel in “hard-core masala films”. This one was clearly worse off on the masala scale than her earlier film, Main Hoon Na. As for Shahrukh Khan, after Chak de India, this film was clearly at the other end of the spectrum.

Overall, a goofy light hearted film which is bound to produce a fair share of laughs.

This is a film that is very different from conventional Bollywood productions. Besides, for a change, Shahrukh Khan is not playing a romantic hero!

The film revolves around how a former Indian hockey captain takes on the role of coach for the Indian Women’s hockey team and transforms the team into a World Cup winning unit! The movie seems to have been inspired by the constant media coverage of Greg Chappell and Team India for a good two-year period. The move makers chose hockey and a women’s team instead. A clever twist that helped highlight a number of issues: women’s empowerment, neglect of hockey, cricket’s overwhelming dominance, the role of a sports coach, team work, unity, the constant pressure on Muslims who represent India.

Shahrukh Khan plays the lead as Kabir Khan. The new comers together make up the Hockey team. The Director deserves credit for remaining focused on the main story throughout with no distractions like song and dance, romance etc. Even the comedy parts were nicely blended into the story line. The cricketer character in the film and the scenes involving him are very well handled. However, the script/direction is not without holes. Kabir Khan disappears for 7 years and there is no mention of what he was up to during those years. When he re-appeared as coach, the media surprisingly didn’t care to talk about it either despite he having taken on the job of coach of the women’s national team. He transforms the team in 3 months! There was very little use of technology in the coaching process either. Kabir Khan’s dressing at the games appeared out of place. Shorts or track bottoms would have made more sense. Instead he was looked like a guy dressed to go to work in an office!

For once, Yash Chopra and crew reached out for characters beyond Punjab and Bombay to other parts of India. Heading south was seemingly painful –the selectors refer to a player from Tamil Nadu, but it later turns out to be a player from Andhra Pradesh, who eventually had little to do in the movie but make up the numbers.

Shahrukh and the rest of the cast put in a fine job. He deserves special credit for experimenting with an off-beat theme like this one instead of sticking to formula. The movie is well made and definitely worth watching. Even if you have a dislike for Shahrukh Khan (for some reason!), this is one of his special films. This is a movie you can easily watch with the kids.

If you are a nerd who writes software (like many desis) this film gives you some reasons to feel “cool”. In this film, Sivaji (played by Rajnikanth, of course) is a US-returned, (hold your breath!) computer system software architect!! He returns to India to use his wealth to build free educational institutions and hospitals. He is concerned about the fact that “Rich get richer and poor get poorer”. The local goon (played by yester-year hero Suman) who is very corrupt runs hospitals and schools and uses his political clout and “goonda-giri” to stop Sivaji. The film is about how Sivaji goes about achieving his goals despite seemingly insurmountable odds. The film highlights corruption that occurs at various levels of government.

Hats off to Shankar and team for a hot, contemporary theme. The rest is “masala” all the way, enjoyable nevertheless. Shankar who is also known for lavish sets and technical finesse continues to experiment in Sivaji. The stunt sequences are a combination of fights scenes straight out of Jackie Chan and Matrix-like films. Rajnikanth sports so many different hair-dos throughout the film until he finally settles for a bald look! At 57, the man still remains slim and trim and with makeup he is still able to pull it off.

The songs are picturized in lavish (often garish) sets. There is one song (in hip-hop style!) picturized in front of the beautiful Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain which features Rajnikanth in a blond wig, an African wig, among others! This song apparently involved some “skin grafting” computer graphics special effects which make Rajnikanth appear white!

The customary intro’ song that is a characteristic of all Rajnikanth films is a complete disaster in this film. “Balleilakka” as the song goes is cacophony to say the least. The hordes of extras in the sequence further accentuates cacophony, a “whipped up to shape” Nayantara not withstanding. The film crew completely went over-board with this song. Of all the songs in the film, the duet “Sahana” (despite Udit Narayan) is easily the best. Rahman seems to be at his best composing such duets. The other song that is catchy is “Vaaji Vaaji”, a nice blend of standard dance music and a Khawali-type beat. Hariharan whose style of singing is more suited to melody, does a great job of this song.

The first half of the film is focused entirely on comedy. Vivek is brilliant as the hero’s side-kick (uncle actually!). Punch lines that are a characteristic of all Rajnikanth films is this time given a nice twist — Vivek delivers a few instead of the hero. The second half is action packed and the climax is a little too long.

Rajnikanth is in his elements when he appears with the bald look. The script gives plenty of opportunity for his trademark histrionics. Cigarettes are out, bubble gum is in. After some gimmicks with a one-rupee coin, it lands in his shirt pocket! It is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t grown up on his films why these gimmicks work so well with the audience.

Indian “masala” cinema is all about make-believe. Rajnikanth takes make-believe to an altogether different plane. In many ways his films are like a desi incarnation of James Bond. A hero whose looks common man can identify with, one who constantly epitomizes the victory of good over evil, thrown in with unique mannerisms and distinctive style, and a flair for comedy, together has earned Rajnikanth a larger than life screen persona — a powerful combination that the box office can’t seem to get enough off. Sivaji is one more example of this.

More recently leading portals like Rediff dedicated a separate tab from their home page to track progress of the film. With portal players in the game, this meant that almost everyday some news or the other related to the film had to be posted including interviews with all and sundry even remotely related to the film. Prior to this, the songs of the film (tuned by AR Rahman) were released and there was plenty of press resulting from this as usual.

Then, the release date of the film was moved out time and again until 15, June was settled on as the big day. This had already driven the expectations (not to mention patience) to a frenzy among the scores of die-hard fans. All along there was frequent news about the sale of overseas rights, Telugu rights, Kerala rights and what not.

The otherwise reclusive star himself appeared before the English media in a rare 2-minute interview on the eve of the release of the film. The simplicity of the man and his humility won him more well-wishers (like he needed more!). In a further attempt to win broad support for the film, the superstar arranged for separate private screenings for politicians Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha and Chandrababu Naidu. The Channel rights of the film were sold to Karunanidhi’s Kalaignar TV channel for a record sum (Sun TV losing out on what would usually have been their deal, given Maran’s recent fall-out with Karunanidhi)

For the first time, several corporates joined in the drama by signing up for shows of the film in droves for their employees en masse. As for the print media every single magazine and newspaper imaginable had a report about the movie and the frenzy surrounding it.

The producers and distributors of the film decided to cash in on the mania by releasing the film in an unprecedented 850 screens across 25 countries! (a clear record for an Indian film). Tamil Nadu accounted for 350 of those screens showing clearly that the star has a huge following well beyond the state. This widespread release ensured that even if the film was a flop the sheer initial momentum will ensure at a minimum a recovery of the investment. In any case, the film has been running to packed houses. Rajnikanth is easily the Boss of the box office by a long long way.

Overall a brilliant marketing effort, planned or otherwise.

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Director Ram Gopal Varma deserves credit for exploring so many diverse topics through his films. There is no question that he has a tremendous repertoire of movie making skills. If you consider sheer diversity of topics (Rangeela, Sarkar, Company, Satya etc. etc.), RGV is easily India’s leading Bollywood director. Nishabd is one more movie in this category of thus far unexplored themes in Hindi films.

Nishabd is about an old man (played by Big B) falling in love with a young girl (played by new comer Jia Khan), his daughter’s friend, who visits the family to spend a holiday. The movie is set in Munnar (in Kerala) and needless to say the location is beautiful.

The movie is extremely well-made with great attention to detail, like most RGV films. The acting is optimal (restrained) with minimal dialogues. The Director focuses instead on facial expressions and uses a monologue by Big B at the start and various points in the film to talk about issues related to the story. There are only a handful of actors in the film and all of them deliver good performances. In films like these (in particular most RGV films), there is very little of the conventional melodrama that is associated with Bollywood cinema. So purely from an acting point of view, the actors have to emote with minimal or often no dialogue. It almost feels like the actors have little to do, while the bulk of the work revolves around, the background score, the lighting, the editing etc.

Big B handles a role, unlike any he has ever played, and delivers an impressive performance. Revathi is a good choice for the role of the wife, but barring a couple of scenes, she has little to do. The movie is dominated by the leads, Amitabh and Jia Khan. The newcomer, Jia does a creditable job for someone in her first film, especially when it appears that the Director appeared to be more focused on her legs than on her acting!

The director possibly chose Amitabh for the role, because of his stature in the film industry. From the point of view of the story, however, a younger man (Anil Kapoor perhaps?) might have made the story more believable but probably not as “sale-able”. Overall, this film is fundamentally different from other Bollywood films. Some might find this movie too slow, others might find it arty, but at the end of the day its different, and worth watching (IMHO).

Starring: Kal Penn, Tabu, Irfan Khan
Language: English
Director: Mira Nair

Not having read the book (Pultizer prize winning novel by Jhumpa Lahiri with the same name), I went into see this movie with absolutely no preconceived expectations about the movie. It is one more of those “crossover” films where Bollywood stars share the screen with Western actors.

The movie is set partly in Kolkata and the rest in New York (NY). The story revolves around an immigrant family from India living in NY. The young man, Ashoke (played by Irfan) comes to the US as a student and returns to India to have an arranged wedding (something many NRIs can relate to quite easily). Then, he lives with his wife in NY and has two kids, a boy and girl. The boy, named Gogol (after his Dad’s favorite Russian author) is the central character in the film. Kal Penn does a remarkable job as Gogol playing the role of a second generation Indian kid growing up in America. Bollywood stars, Irfan and Tabu as the couple deliver creditable performances.

The Director deserves credit for the manner in which several scenes, particularly the emotional ones, are handled. These scenes are captured very tactfully with subtle facial expressions and minimal dialogues. The parents have been portrayed as being traditional, at the same time, the Director has done a fine job of not overdoing it like most other cross-over films. Overall Namesake is a well-made, and watchable film. If you are a desi immigrant in the US, this movie won’t disappoint you.

And now here are a few complaints about the film. When Irfan’s character, Ashoke, temporarily moves to Ohio from NY, it is not clear why his wife chose not to move with him. For a traditional Indian housewife, it made little sense not to follow her husband especially since her kids were no longer living with them. It might have been a little bit more believable, if he was moving a great distance, to say Australia or some place in Europe.

Mira Nair appears to have succumbed to the temptation to add needless “masala” by introducing a partial nude scene. There was no need for it in the film whatsoever. Likewise there was a brief Hindi song with Gogol and Moushimi. This was neither funny nor did it seem to serve any purpose in the story.

The scene where Gogol tells his Mom that he was separating from Moushimi, could have been better handled. In reacting to the news, the Mom simply accepted it and blamed herself for it! She did little to offer to help. This I thought was very unusual especially for first generation immigrants from India.

The photography (by Fredrick Elmes) in the film is nothing to write home about. Of late, Bollywood films have come a long way with regard to the quality of its photography. Films by Mani Ratnam, K. Shankar, and Ram Gopal Verma, in particular, tend to stand out in this regard. Considering the availability of excellent desi talent, Mira Nair might have been better off tapping “off-shore” resources for this part of the project! 🙂