ghajini

dissappointed is how i would summarise my experience after watching ghajini. no, the film is not mediocre in content, direction or acting. the reason for my disillusionment is sky high expectations from aamir khan.

i do not feel the need for criticism of a film if it is inspired or remade from another, what matters is what one feels after the running time, what matters is the end product because at the end of the day, every directors interpretation and perception of a script is different. 'memento' is one of my all time favourite films and it just shows  the sheer class of mr. nolan as a director...and it is here where my dismay starts. i could not help but compare mr. murugadoss to mr. nolan and the difference was very very apparent. the aim of nolan was to make an astounding, intriguing, impressive film whereas with murugadoss has dedicated himself into making a slick, action packed, masala thriller which is commercially bankable and plausible. 

do not get me wrong, i am a huge fan of mr. aamir khan's work and i firmly believe that he is the best leading actor we have in the industry today but i really really hoped that he would do a film which has an ending like 'memento' and not the tamil 'ghajini' (i guess it was not in his control). 

thus, ghajini is the kind of film that could have been a masterpiece...a film that would have always been remembered but in the end, it turns out to be a 'masala film'. i feel sad because it is one of those films that could have taken bollywood to another dimension.

aamir khan delivers one his finest performances...one can literally feel his pain when he cries and screams. he handles the anterograde amnesia character with a sublime touch and has enough charm to carry out the rich loverboy as well. he does not overact a single scene which shows the amount of control he has in his acting. asin impresses as the leading girl and has the 'je ne sais quoi' to carry out a relatively difficult role. i was not at all impressed by jiah khan and i cannot believe she is from the lee strassburg studio of acting. pradeep rawat plays the 80s style goon very well and has the presence and intensity needed for such a strong character.

the love story in the film was a pleasant surprise and i thought that asin and aamir had great chemistry. 

'ghajini' is a film that has it all...violence, romance, thrills, drama...but what it lacks is greatness; which is lost to make the film a commercial success. the film's direction did not impress me...it did not bore me either. watch it!

rating - 3/5

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

they say a director's skill is best seen when he has to deal with a weak script. adi chopra shines not only as a skilfull director but as someone who deals with emotional scenes brilliantly and who has acumen for minute detail.

the premise of 'rab ne' is not impressive and i wasn't expecting too much. but, in the end, it turned out to be heartwarming tale of a middle aged, mild, clumsy, boring, unattractive middle-class man finding in his love. it made me smile because in mr. surinder sahni's triumph, i found mine...and i am sure everyone who is not blessed with godly looks smiled too. 

'rab ne' makes you question love, "do only rich, charming, handsome men deserve beautiful women?" "is love only based on how we look from outside and not inside?". the only and probably most important thing that differentiates this film from others is that it is not 'a hero' who wins his love in the end.

shahrukh khan has always been known for his persona and stardom than his acting skills. but it is this film that shows us the evolution of him as an actor. he puts in his best performance after 'swades'. he potrays surinder sahni to perfection, from the punjabi accent to his body language, he gets everything right. sure, he hams up and overacts the role of the jat but you still cannot make out a single difference between the two. i almost believed he was a method actor after watching this film. its the emotional scenes, he deserves special praise for...he delivers every line with a heart-wrenching and superb expressions. i have to say he is the best in the industry when it comes to emotional scenes. his comic timing has always been excellent and this film is no exception.

anushkha sharma delivers a fine performance as the wife and is fortunately well cast. she handles serious scenes with maturity and i could not believe this was her first film. vinay pathak is brilliant as usual and his chemistry with srk is very good.

adi chopra handles a fragile and an implausible storyline very well, which itself is an achievement. every dialogue of the film is perfectly placed, so are the lyrics of the songs.

the film does have short-comings, like the part where you feel that the wife not being able to recognise her husband after a makeover (although srk almost makes us believe it), the pace of the second half which lags behind, the unnecessary shots of amritsar and the songs of the gurudwara.

in all, 'rab ne' is a beautiful and touching tale which is a little too long. it made me smile and i am sure you will too.

rating 3.5/5 

Quantum of Solace

i had heard from all my friends that 'quantum of solace' did not have characteristics of a bond movie, there were a lot of emotional scenes in the film, no gadgets, etc. i agree with all these comments, its not your typical bond movie...but i dont see why thats disagreeable to people. for ages now, 007 has fought grotesque villains holding the world at ransom, charmed and slept with beautiful women, used amazing gadgets. the same formula has been repeated from sean connery to pierce brosnan (apart from a few great films). 'quantum of solace' tries to steer clear from the eternally used formula and its different from the others in this respect. 

quantum of solace uses cynicism in a lot of its scenes...from the present economic meltdown to taunting the greed of u.s for oil. daniel craig plays james bond very impressively giving him a new dimension...a kind of depth that probably all the other actors failed to do. there is no ease in which he kills his opponents, there is rage in all of his actions, a rage stemming from the death of the person he loves the most. in every scene; there is sorrow, regret, anger on his face. he is driven by a vengence that clouds his professionalism. in the end, he finds redemption and freedom saying "the dead don't care about revenge".

quantum of solace is a sequel to ‘casino royale’ and a prequel to the next bond movie...thus, the ending is a little bit of a dissappoinment but that takes nothing away from the movie itself. after a brilliant first half, the second half is a little slow, but i guess to show depth, angst and sorrow; this is required.

for the second time now, after vesper lynd, the bond woman shows substance and a connection with the spy which is more emotional than physical. judy dench as M is as usual impressive, trusting, controlling and protecting bond at the same time. 

as far as the experience goes, quantum of solace is not as good as casino royale, which was a masterpiece. but, it still is a good film, a different film, a film with more substance and less vanity. the one thing I missed in the film was an Aston martin J

rating - 3.5/5

 

fashion

the first thought that came to me when i got out from fashion was mr. bhandarkar always make sure his films have ironical endings...he's done that in all his previous films and i appreciate that about him. it needs a lot of courage as a film maker to come up with such endings in a world which is filled with cliched predictable ones.

i am not saying 'fashion' itself was a surprise or unpredictable...it had too many cliches, a predictable storyline and an ending which didn't surprise you. almost all films have endings where the protagonist triumphs, but the difference here was that there was a lot of sorrow in her triumph, a lot of angst...which probably itself is the triumph of mr. bhandarkar.

'fashion' to me is one of those films that could have been have a masterpiece...its main problem is its length. the second half drags and the camera spends too much time focussing on moments where there isn't any need to.

mr. bhandarkar has always been a director who has been proud of his realistic themes...and this one is no different; what stands out from the rest of his work though is the fact that there is higher production value and he has tried to make it look sophisticated. perhaps, this attempt wasn't his best...he could have done with a finer touchers and les gimmicks.

priyanka chopra delivers one of her finest performances, one which she will probably remembered for. her forte comes out in the scene where she realises having lost herself in a world of drugs, money and alcohol. my only complain against her is that she looked a little too old to play a struggling model who makes it to the top. kangana ranaut does justive to her melodramatic and eccentric role...a part which she has come to perfect having played it so many times, perhaps it's time she stops being repetitive. mughda godse is very well cast in the character of a b-model who never makes it to the top...her inexperience shows in a couple of scenes but i honeslty did'nt expect much from a model who is making her debut.

the story is predictable...the struggle, the rise, the fall and the comeback. it's been seen many times...but the touch of director like bhandarkar adds substance to it and makes it, well, un-boring. the potrayal of so many gay men (which is a reality in the fashion industry) is done very well, with every character having different shades and different mannerisms. sanjay suri stands out in a very mature performance which, i hope, will get him some good roles.

in all fashion is a serious film with high emotional quotient, great performances, a good music score and a long reel.

rating - 3.5/5