Category: Movies

Title: The Departed
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Leornado Di Caprio, Matt Damon

Jack Nicholson plays a mobster. Di Caprio is a cop who infiltrates the mafia. Matt Damon on the other hand is a rising star cop who is connected to Jack Nicholson (how believable is that?). The movie is set in south Boston. A standard cat and mouse fare which I must admit keeps you on the edge of your seats. Besides, the acting is excellent given the top star cast. In short, its an excellent “masala” film — entertaining and fast-paced. It ends with a spate of murders/shootings. Can’t think of better way to end a film of this kind I suppose. What I find hard to believe is that the movie won an Oscar for being the best motion picture of the year! Its a pity that the Oscars could not find better films this past year.

Martin Scorsese’s direction was commendable and probably deserved the Oscar ( I haven’t seen the other films), though his earlier film Aviator was a much better film overall. If you are in the mood for a thriller this one won’t dissappoint you for sure.

Title: Dhoom 2
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachhan, Ash, Bipasha

Riding on the huge success of the first Dhoom, the movie makers tried a variation with a slightly different cast — Hrithik for John Abraham, Bipasaha for Esha Doel, and Aishwarya for a slight twist in the plot. The concept is the same. Cop chasing a cool dude big time thief. This time around the thief operates at an international level giving the movie makers plenty of scope to show beaches set in foreign countries. Hrithik has Ash for company. The stars in the film perennially move around scantily clad in slow motion or at high speed in jerky motion. Uday Chopra manages to continues to irritate in this sequel. The songs are weak especially when compared to the first Dhoom film. In short the overall slickness and fast pace of the original Dhoom was clearly missing.

What is most surprising is that Hrithik Roshan won the best actor Filmfare award for this film! Apart from constantly exposing his chest and displaying his colored stylized hair he had little to do by way of acting. The rest of the cast just ambles along taking turns to wear skimpy clothes.

If you are looking for an easy going light film, Pyaar Ke Side Effects is a good choice. Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat are in the lead. Rahul Bose’s acting, the comedy and the fact that its a simple and fairly believable theme together makes this a worthwhile film. Mallika is minus the usual glamor except for one needless song.

Copying Western films and adapting them to suit the Indian mindset is not new. Three relatively recent films Salaam Namaste (Hugh Grant’s Nine Months), Zinda (Korean film Oldboy) and Taxi 9211 (Changing Lanes) are a few examples of “shameless” Bollywood copies. Interestingly, of these Zinda and Taxi No 9211 appear to be better than the originals. Salaam Namaste was a huge stretch for the Indian audience. So the film makers based the film in Australia and added the usual Indian masala resulting in a film far inferior to the original. Zinda (starring Sanjay Dutt) and Taxi 9211 (starring John Abraham, Nana Patekar) on the other hand are far more watchable.

Movie: Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Rani, Abhishek, Amitabh and Preity.

My top 10 complaints about this film:

01. Shah Rukh Khan is back to his overacting self. Too bad Yash Chopra wasn’t in charge to keep him under control like he did in Veer Zaara.

09. The story could very well have been set in India. The NY setting was a blatant attempt to target the NRI market. It had no relevance to the story whatsoever.

08. It sounds like the Director took the title too seriously and never wanted to end the movie. 🙂

07. Abhishek and Preeti Zinta were running into each other everyday in NY and suddenly they lost contact and never bumped into each other until three years later.

06. The songs were so formula-like –very much like earlier Karan Johar movies. Makes me wonder if they have automated the music composition process!

05. Amitabh’s character was so unreal and not not to mention so “un-desi”. What were the movie makers thinking?

04. The Director appears to have forgotten that the movie is set in NY. Amitabh gives a speech in Hindi to a predominantly white audience!

03. At least the the small kid (growing up in NY) could have had an American accent.

02. What was Abhishek’s job? He has a fancy house in NY, bums around in the coolest cars and is always at fancy parties!

01. Way to many holes in the story/script starting with the chance meeting of two strangers who right away delve into deeply personal issues.

This movie seems to have produced extreme reactions. Many seem to have loved it, while others hated it. One friend went to the extent of saying, “Its not even worth watching on DVD let alone going to the theater”

The DVD rental approach was what actually worked for us. We saw the movie in parts spread over three days! There was no time to get bored since you watch it in focused parts (!!), you also overcome the length problem, and to some extent overlook the flaws in the script. The theme of the movie as such has merit, but the rest is where it falls apart. If you like the typical Karan Johar gloss (pretty faces, great locales, hip dresses etc.) you won’t be disappointed, else it can be a drag.

Language: English
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney

A good, but disturbing film on how two boys deal with their parents’ divorce. The younger son is closer to mom while the elder adores his Dad and really looks up to him. The negative impact (to put it lightly) the divorce has on the kids is believable but highly disturbing. The couple and the two sons have all put in great performances.

The movie is fairly short — an hour and a half — and fast paced. The professional side of the Mom’s character could have been explored some more. There was very little about what she does professionally and suddenly she ends up with a plum book contract! This part I thought was pretty weak. Overall a watchable film for sure (especially if you have kids!). The movie was released a couple of years back.

Nagesh Kukunoor’s new film is based on the Malayalam film, Perumazhakalam. But it sounds like sufficient changes have been made to add “masala” elements.