Movie Review : Kites - Pour fa BORE !

Genre: Romance

Sizzling Heroin, Muscular Hero, Psychotic Vamp, Idiotic Villian, Scenic Setting, Frantic Chases, Brooding Romance, A Tragic End, Eternal Love - Ingredients of a Potential Blockbuster. But sometimes the sum of parts is not the whole. Because it depends on the cook, how much a particular spice should be added. This one has one too many slow motion set pieces, tight frames with a crazy background than can be digested. Its like attempting to make Tortilla and ending up with an Enchilada!

Kites, an ambitious project set in and around the border of Mexico and US, is a love story of 2 people who do not know each others languages. They meet out of need, get seperated and when they meet again, they dont want to seperate all over again. So, there's Hritik who forces himself to marry the Psychotic Kangana for her money and there's Barbara who for the same reason wants to marry the Idiotic Villian. Suddenly, out of no where Love appears in their hearts and they decide it's time to make a run for it. But Crazy Vamp and Idiotic Villian want revenge. So, starts a never ending sequence of chases intertwined with slow motion romance sequences.

The film has its plus points. First of all, its not too long, even though it feels long. Next, it has some amazing Cinematography, excellent production value and decent screenplay for the weak script. Also, it is a brave attempt of making an international film as its got a mix of spanish, english and hindi dialogues (characters dont speak hindi just for the heck of it!!) It would be a good idea though, to dub it in Hindi and release it in B and C centers. Also, the Director Basu, has some flair in terms of shooting sequences and his style leaves a mark. 

But this is where the GOOD-buck stops!!! The problem with the movie is the weak script. The romance between the 2 main characters never achieves depth. They say "I love you" , but you never feel it. You see Hritik pining for her, but why you never understand. Anyways, maybe that's love - complicated ! Then there is the problem of some horrendous background score. When you have a movie so heavily dependent on background score, you need something operatic, magnificient. Though the attempt is brave, its weak. Most of all, the script is extremely weak.

Pages of the screenplay document seem to have been misplaced, thus resulting in converting half the scenes into SLOW MOTION pans! The first half is filled with THINGS UNSAID, LONG STARES, A SPANISH GUITAR playing in the background and you trying to plan what to eat next ! The second half is full of Chases and you laughing your guts out at some woefully shallow romantic sequences. Also, you wonder why Hritik, a U.S. citizen keeps fluctuating between an American and an Indian English accent? Our SuperStars really need to start getting into the skin of the character more and leave their own persona behind.

Overall, Hritik has done a good job in the film, while Barbara looks good, pouts and emotes decently. If you survive the film, you might take back a few good moments, but that is if you do not leave in the first half. I would say its a decent attempt at giving India a different kind of a love story. Anurag Basu, tried to create a Romantic Painting, but it ended up being a romantic PAIN thing ! Save your money for better fares coming up in the coming weeks, unless you are a Hritik fan. After all one of the films songs itselff preaches "Zindagi - Do pal ki" - why waste it !!! Pardon my Spanish - this one's POUR fa BORE !

Rating: 4.5 / 10

Movie Review - Love Aaj Kal - Nayi Packet Cheez Puraani

I went to see this movie to a good old Cinema Theater (and not a multiplex) and thank god I did!!! I am sure we all have great expectations from this film and its director, though I was a bit skeptical because of the total lack of chemistry between Saif & Deepika even in the Ads shown during the T20 world cup. So, I went to Chandan cinema with my usual pack of hooligans and when the film started - the first 15,20 minutes of the film were kind of confusing. Nobody in the whole theater never quiet understood what was going on. A bizarre sequence of uninteresting events clubbed together to show the growth of the relationship between Saif and Deepika. But then, finally the movie started to make more sense.

The movie is about these 2 modern individuals staying in London who are more practical than emotional. To them their relationship cannot come between their ambition. True. I could relate to that completely. Then, there is an age old romantic (Rishi Kapoor) who makes Saif realize, that love happens only Once and one should not let “the One” get away without a fight. “So long and so clichéd!” And then you see a parallel story of a younger Rishi Kapoor (played by Saif) and an Anonymous actress called Harleen in the film. (Even though she looks Picture Perfect – she has 2 left feet and doesnt even know the “A” of acting – to that extent good she has strangely been left out of the credits.)

The problem with the film is that it goes from the uber cool new, to the mildly predictable romance, to the super clichéd melodrama. Yes, the lingo and the dialogues do have a freshness to them but too much of anything can be harmful. Unfortunately, the film is too heavily dependent on dialogue. There is so much dialogue in the film that it gets irritating at times. It seems to be preachy at times and you wish the movie would just move on. I must say some of the exchanges are brilliantly witty, though too few and far between.

If you have a script so heavily dependent on dialogue then you need interesting people to deliver them and unfortunately Rishi Kapoor is the only one that could sleepwalk through it in this department. He has an effortless class that the other actors lack. Saif is good in some scenes and awesome in a few, though his charm alone can’t help you enjoy the barrage of dialogues (Somebody please check his underpants please. The way he dances, it seems they were completely starched!!). The one that fails miserably in the acting department is Deepika. She is trying so hard in the film to act that its apparent in every scene. Somebody please put her through a course, else such a pretty face would be lost. When there is so much weight on “one to one” dialogue, it is bound to fail if one of the participants is so poor and if the protagonists lack chemistry.

The music of this film is enjoyable to the extent of 2 songs – Twist and Aahun Aahun (which unfortunately comes with the end credits). Others are just excuses to stretch this tiresome experience.

Imtiaz seems inspired by the song from Phir bhi Dil hai Hindustani – “Nayi Packet main bechey – tumko cheez puraani”. The film keeps reminding you of films like “Hum Tum”, “Dil Chahta Hai” and “Dilwale Dulhaniya Ley Jayengay”. A song shot supposedly in San Francisco seems to be totally inspired by “Tanhayi”. Some of the shots of Saif are identical to the ones of Aamir in DCH. Being such a talented director, you expect much more from Imtiaz. But I guess the law of averages has caught up with him. After a cute “Socha Na Tha” and the charming “Jab We Met” comes the confused “Love Aaj Kal”.

This movie gave us Hooligans the perfect opportunity to howl, laugh at emotional scenes and sqeeze double meanings out of innocuous dialogue ( Generally reserved for SRK films :) ). To that extent it was fun. Plus the audience in a good old theater beats the boring ones in a multiplex hands down.

Rating – 4.5 / 10

Sorry Bhai: Thank you Onir for this apology

It’s a story of a simple family, Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi, Sharman Joshi and Sanjay Suri. Things take a turn when the younger brother Sharman fell in love with elder brother Sanjay’s Fiancée when he goes to attend Sanjay’s wedding in Mauritius. Things get difficult for everyone including the girl in contention Chitrangada Singh.
It’s a movie about realtionships and the proceedings get awkward at times..
The performances are Brilliant and are second only to the outstanding direction. Director Onir is so good that may be after watching this movie you will try to search his filmography in quest to find his other works.
The characters are close to reality and yet create enough drama. The movie works because the director does not fall in the traps and templates of relationships known in Bollywood and follow the storyline he set to tell. It’s a very crisp well said story, even though it deals with romance, my least favorite genre.
All in all an engaging movie, definitely worth a watch.

My Ratings : 3.5/5

Along came Polly

Cast: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Philip Hoffman, Alec Baldwin

Rating: 3.5/5

I saw this movie only beacuse it featured Jennifer and it was a small movie of 1 hour 20 minutes. Anyway the movie starts with Ben marrying Debra. Ben features as a Risk Assement guy for an Insurance company and Debra is property agent. Just when the two went on Honeymoon, Debra fell in love with a local guy and slept with her, she leaves Ben and Ben comes back to his town and spends time with his best friend Philip who had once acted in a movie long ago and still thinks himself as the great actor.

Ben is given a charge to do risk analysis for Alec a guy who loves adventure sports. Heartbroken Ben went to a club with Philip and found his old classmate there as waiteress (Jennifer). Now, Ben thinks of an idea to date with Jennifer so as to heal his wounds. The movie revolves around how a man who does not like spicy food eat spicy food for a girl, does Salsa for her and so on. This are some very hilarious moments here.

Now Debra comes back and wants to go along with Ben again, just when Ben was happy with Jennifer (they even had sex). Ben does an risk analysis of the two only to find Jennifer better than Debra, Jennifer came to know about this and leaves Ben and the city, but Ben caught hold of her. Philip who gave some very light moments in the movie was given a task to give a speech on Alec's insurance in place of Ben who has to stop Jennifer from leaving the city.

All in all the movie is entertaining and short. A nice one to watch.

Casablanca - Eternal Charm

Cast : Humphrey Boggart and Ingrid Bergman.

I have seen this movie in the top movies of all time list several times, so I had to see it and judge for myself. So, I watched it and it turned out to be an outstanding movie.

This movie is set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. This place is not taken over by the Germans and is the place through which people can leave for America - if they get a "letter of transit". Rick - Humphrey Boggart is an owner of a night club in Casablanca and is quiet an influencial man. The local Police under command of the captain Louis Renault comes to Ricks club to catch a person who has robbed two "Letters of Transit". This they know is for the safe escape of a Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, who is presently in Casablanca with his wife. They dont want him to escape because he had escaped a Nazi Concentration camp and was fighting a battle against the Germans. The Captain is aiding the Germans in getting Victor caught again and send him to a concentration camp, but they know they cant catch him without any evidence of wrong doing in a neutral territory. The guy who smuggles the Letters gives them to Rick for safeguarding, before getting caught.

When Victor and his wife Isla Lund (Ingrid Bergman) arrive at the famous night club, Rick recognises her as the girl who broke his heart recently. He loved her deeply and she had said she would come with him, only to leave him completely at sea, when the time came for escape from a city attacked by the Germans. He hates her for it. Isla loves Rick and wants to explain why she did not come with Rick. She tells him how she was already a married lady before she had met him. But abck then she was told that Victor had been killed in the concentration camp. On the day of the escape Victor had come back, so she cudnt leave him. She respected Victor a lot for being a revolutionary fighter and she could not possibly leave him when he needed her the most. She pleads Rick to give her the Letters of Transit for Victors escape, because it is for the greater good. Rick, jealous as ever first denies and then agrees on one condition -that she would stay back with him. She agrees. Then Rick plans the escape. The movie ends with an amazing sacrifice by Rick, for the greater good - because he sees what a great man Victor is. Don't worry, nothing happens to him - this movie has a happy ending :)

This may seem a movie surrounded by war, but is a great love story. One which has Seperation, Pain, Suffering, Sacrifice and Passion. Ingrid Bergman is one of the most beautiful woman you would ever see. She is spectacular. Humphrey Boggart is the spine of the film. He displays pain, jealousy and swagger with equal ease. I can see how these two are legends of Cinema. Overall the story is the winner. It was an Oscar winning movie of 1942 and runs for just over 90 minutes. But it surely is endearing and engaging. I enjoyed watching it and I will surely watch it several more times. I recommend this classic to one and all. Ah! Ingrid - U R divine:)

Dot the I - shocking!

Rating : 6.5/10

had seen this movie sometime back but had not planned to write a review of it untill I saw the promo of "NAQUAAB", the soon to be released ABBAS MUSTAN thriller with Akshaye Khanna and Bobby Deol. It seems to be a frame by frame copy of DOT THE I. Even in the promos you know it. I would wish you all to see DOT THE I before this movie comes to the theaters, bcos the film, the story is completely original, shocking and brilliant. Abbaas Mustan have a sure shot success in their hands!

This is not a main stream Hollywood film, it is probably a small budget intelligent flick. It was realased in 2003 and that you might not heard of it, is a testament of of its lack of popular stars. We miss loads of such good films.

There are 3 prime characters in this film and just a dozen extras. One rich, lonely man - Barnaby Caspian (Brilliantly potrayed by James D'Arcy) , one deeply enchanting lady - Carmen Collazo ( Natalia Verbeke - you have to see her to believe her beauty - her sex-appeal, when she dances - you are completely floored) and one poor enchanter Kit Winter(Gael Garcia Bernal - the perfect chocolate boy) The story is about deception and betrayal, but thats true about many triangular love stories. This story is truly different - its shocking.

Carmen is about to marry Barnaby, when on her bachelorette party - she meets this dreamy eyed guy Kit. As a part of some Bachelorette fun, she kisses this stranger in front of the whole restaurant. But its much more than a small kiss, its something deeply seductive. Later, she dwells on the kiss, and starts to think why did she stay lip locked for such a long time with this stranger, when she loved another man. At the same time, Kit falls in love with Carmen ( who wudnt!!!- she's wow) Then starts the betrayal, Carmen's illicit affair with Kit. Meanwhile, some ghost of the past comes back and haunts Carmen. She is afraid for her life, but Barnaby assures her safety and love forever. When Barnaby comes to know about this affair, he is completely shattered. What happens next is what's shocking. You would never know whats happening, and you cant even imagine. Its twisted and truly different.

The performances are simply great - Carmen plays the perfect lady in distress. She exudes amazing feminine sexuality and portays her helplessness with utmost grace. Kit is good , but Barnaby is awesome - playing the multifaceted character with aplomb. The screen play and direction fit the storyline perfectly and I have no complaints. I think this movie would satisfy anybody who sees it. Its the perfect pot-boiler for a Bollywood Flick and hence the apparent lift for Naquaab! The real winner is the story .

This movie was completely written off by Americans and was a complete flop, but still I dont think it deserved that. Maybe it lacks substance and maybe it seems too far fetched, but it is original and shocking.

This movie is rated R for strong sexuality and explicit language, so for all those Under 18, I think Naquaab will be their best way of knowing this twisted script. The thing that goes for this movie is that its not the usual run of the mill kind of stuff. Pick up the DVD today.