Talking Popcorns

Aisha

2010-08-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Rajshree Ojha

Produced By-
Anil Kapoor and PVR Pictures

Featuring-
Sonam Kapoor, Abhaay Deol..

Another movie whose trailer seemed far better than its complete running time of 126 minutes. Directed by Rajshree Ojha, Aisha is an below average watch and you definitely wont take long to realize that. Aisha an adaptation of the novel Emma by Jane Austen, starts off flat and just fails to take off at any level. The makers look to have spent more time packaging Aisha than adding the spice required in the script.

Aisha is a story of a young charming girl Aisha(Sonam Kapoor) who finds match-making the most amusing thing in her life and gives it more importance than to make a career outside. She alongside her best friend Pinky(Ira Dubey) are off making couples of every single girl or guy they meet. Then there is her childhood buddy a quiet handsome guy Arjun( Abhay Deol), whom Aisha finds annoying yet likes him who in turn rubbishes every aspiring plan of Aisha. They then find their match making subject in their friend Shefali(Amrita Puri), who's coincidentally looking for a groom too. Then starts the big brand shopping, the polo matches and the lavish spending behind Shefali's make over. Their then off setting her up with every close friend they probably know, the first being dumb headed Randhir(Cyrus Sahukar) who in turn confesses his love for Aisha and then her own cousin Dhruv(Arunoday Singh) who doesn't match with Shefali either. Arjun on the other hand makes constant effort to make Alisha realize the value of love and marriage which Aisha ignores till reality hits her. The events leading upto Aisha's realization and Shefali's quest to find her special one is to watch for yourself.

Careless writing and uninteresting screenplay pulls Aisha straight down. But that does not make Aisha completely unwatchable. Few bits keeps you going and just about makes you sit on your seats for the complete running time. The humor factor is one major thing that Rajshree Ojha fails to capitalize on and somewhere does lead to the failure of its writers. The actors are just about decent. Sonam Kapoor's performance looks raw and Abhay Deol is wasted in a poorely written role. If one has to really compliment that one person in Aisha, it has to be its music director, Amit Trivedi (of Dev D). He's seems to have given Aisha the soul without which Aisha would be nothing but a big bore. Listen to them here. "Sham" being the most special of the lot.

For a few including me, Aisha did look promising but sadly, it disappoints.

I will go with 6 BOP's for Rajshree Ojha's Aisha.

Reviewed By-
Raghav Ramaiah

Go watch this, if you dont find any other watch this weekend.

The Twilight Saga : Eclipse

2010-08-05T01:12:00.000-07:00

Directed By-

David Slade

Produced By-

Wyck Godfrey and Karen Rosenfelt

Cast-

Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

How many of you have read the Twilight series? Well if you have, then you

would be able to understand the movies better, if not you’re gonna have a bit of a tough time getting the hang of stuff, and as is so common with movies that are made out of books and saga’s there is a huge disconnect in explaining everything, a lot of loose ends are left and the audience is wondering what something or the other meant.

Having said that, I believe that the director has done quite a good job in trying to tie up all loose ends and give a vague if not complete explanation of most things , such as imprinting, the were wolves and vampires and their pasts and why they are natural enemies and so on and so forth.

Coming to the characters, Bella Swan(Kristen Stewart), now I don’t know how many of you think so, but I get this very dead vibe from her, and by her I mean Kristen Stewart, I mean what is with that monotonous “I hate this world and I am so dead” look she has on throughout the movie, I don’t see any longing for Edward, no pain, no nothing, just the whole goth inspired make up and dressing and the “I don’t give a damn” look. Really badly done, because Bella Swan, is supposed to be, a little nervous, a little desperate, quite depressed and a little angry, just like every other teenager, but that completely does not come across from Kristen Stewart,so she gets a 2 out of 10 from me.

Edward Cullen(Robert Pattinson), yes he definitely looks every bit the romantic vampire that

every teenage girl would want to marry, and yes he does succeed to an extent in bringing out the intensity and the love he feels for Bella. There are some heart warming moments as well, like when he tells Bella about his old world beliefs and how if he was back in his days then they would have iced tea’s on the porch and kiss sometimes, but only with her fathers permission, and he finally goes down on one knee and puts a stunning ring on her finger and asks her to marry him, quite a good job on Edwards part I must say and I would rate him with a 7 out of 10.

Last but not the least Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) , drool drool drool and drool some more, ok now that we’ve got that out of the way, there really isn’t anything else worth talking about. Yeah, Jacob Black doesn’t have much else to do except for swagger around shirtless and showoff that great bod (drool drool drool). No role, no acting, no nothing, even the action is taken over by the digital were wolves, so well he gets a 10 out of 10, *wink wink wink* hey no complaining, the carved out of rock bod, does the trick, ok ok acting wise 1 out of 10 .

The others are just side kicks, who do their bit quite well, such as Carlisle and gang, and the Volturi (what a waste of Dakota Fanning’s acting prowess), the New born vampire gang, led by blood thirsty Victoria played by Bryce Dallas who has replaced Rachelle Lefevre, who is after Bella’s blood, because Edward killed her mate James. Must say Bryce was not as convincing as Rachelle.

The crowning jewel of this movie was the FIGHT between the Cullen family alongwith the Werewolves against the newborn vampire army. It was definitely worth waiting through the rest of the movie for this sequence, extremely well shot and well put together, very impressive.

Cut to the end of a 124 minute flick, not bad, lived up to true Twilight reputation, all in all Masala flick. Entertaining! I give it 7 BOP’s.

Reviewed By -

Taru Girdonia

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

2010-07-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

Directed By -

Milan Luthria

Produced By -

Ekta and Shobha Kapoor

Featuring-

Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut..

Bollywood has yet again brought out the good old subject of the Mumbai underworld with Luthria choosing his subject well this time. Believed to be based on the lives of Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai definitely manages to deliver the goods well. Milan Luthria's style of story telling is different and is quite evident with Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and we saw that previously with Taxi 9211 too. Showing the shades of Mumbai in the 70's, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai is quite well crafted, may it be its writing, its dialogues or its acting department.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, is a story of the two most

notorious mafias in the Mumbai Underworld, Sultan Mirza(Ajay Devgan) believed to be based on Haji Mastan and Shoaib Khan(Emraan Hashmi) believed to be based on Dawood Ibrahim. Sultan Mirza a poor man's Robin Hood, sees himself achieve great heights becoming the only big smuggler in Mumbai and also by earning the trust of a lot of people in very short span of time literally ruling the streets of Mumbai. He soon finds Shoaib, wanting to join Sultan Mirza and his underworld group. The story post Shoaib's encounter with Sultan Mirza is for you to watch it yourself.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai's highlight are its actors and its dialogue writing. Both impressive in their own ways. Ajay Devgan is quite brilliant playing Sultan Mirza and so is Emraan Hashmi. Randeep Hooda does a good job playing ACP Agnel Wilson and is well supported by Kangana Ranaut and Prachi Desai.

Music by Pritam is good and people are sure to like a few in the album, "Pee Loon" being the most catchy of all.

I'll give 8 BOP's to Milan Luthria's Once Upon a Time in Mumbai

Try and watch this one, and all you people who love real life stories this one's for you.

Reviewed By-

Raghav Ramaiah

Coming Soon - Dabangg and We Are Family

2010-07-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

Dabangg

Featuring: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan

Directed By: Abinav Singh

Produced by: Arbaaz Khan

Release : 10 September 2010

The trailer that promises to be a no brainer entertainer.The new look of Salman Khan is sure to impress.
___________
We Are Family
Featuring: Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun RampalDirected By: Siddharth MalhotraProduced By: Dharma ProductionsRelease Date: 3 September 2010

The trailer surely looks promising and is said to be a remake of the english flick "Stepmom".
__________

Inception

2010-07-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

Directed By-

Christopher Nolan

Produced By-

Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Garden-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard

I am sure you have heard the words “mind blowing” before, but here’s a movie that gives a whole new meaning to those words.

You start off in a strange place with an old Japanese man mumbling a sort of riddle, to a haggard looking DiCaprio, dragged in from the sea shore, and you end wondering “What the????”.

Inception, the word is perfectly defined through this movie. It is a time in the future where entering peoples minds and stealing information through dreams is a perfectly possible phenomena, and ofcourse Mr.DiCaprio is the best man in the world for the job, he is also the man being hunted by the United States Government, in connection with his wife’s murder. He is the only suspect, his wife told them so.

He chases dream after dream and his wife chases him through them, stepping out when least

expected, always attacking, sometimes in gruesome manner. It comes to a point where he can no longer build a dream, and he has lived so much of his life chasing people in their dreams, that now it is the only way he can dream.

In comes a Mr.Saito (Ken Watanabe), and asks only a simple question. If a thought, an idea, a bit of information can be stolen from a mind, then can an idea be planted in the mind as well? While Dom’s (DiCaprio) sidekick, Arthur (Joseph Garden-Levitt) begins to explain to Saito why this is not possible Dom merely asks if he has a choice to not take up the offer to do, hence making it quite clear that “Inception” is possible.

Dom and Arthur are walking away from Saito, and he asks if Dom would like to go back home, to the United States, back to his children, at the mere mention of his children Dom is hooked, and from that point there’s no looking back.

First step is to form a team and that of trust worthy people, next step is to get them to agree! He

finds an accomplice, and an architect to build the dreams, he has his trusty side kick, and now for a specialist in chemistry, a man who can make some really potent drugs to put you into a deep hypnotic sleep for hours on end.

The idea to be planted is quite simple, a man must be convinced to break up his father’s empire, but to plant an idea in someone’s mind, they need to go way deep down, hence levels upon levels of the dream is constructed, at the same time Dom’s thoughts of his wife, his dreams of his wife and the most dangerous memories of his wife are getting worse and worse and it is getting more and more difficult to enter someone’s mind without Dom’s projection of his wife interfering.

Knowing all these complications, the whole team along with Saito get onto a flight from Sydney to LA, and on this flight is the man whose mind they need to plant the idea in. The journey into his mind begins, and little do they know that he has been trained to keep extractors out of his mind, they fight through the military like security force in his mind, and proceed from level to level.Finally the architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), helps Dom realise that his wife is dead and keeping her memories locked up in his head wont keep her alive, but what she doesn’t know is that the first person Dom tried the concept of Inception on was his wife, and he must live with the guilt of its consequences forever more.

They are finally able to successfully plant the idea in the mind of Robert Fischer, but at the same time there is the fear of Saito, who was been badly injured in one of the levels of the dream, dying. DiCaprio wants to save his life, but this requires a big risk on his end, which he is ready to take, for if he doesn’t save Saito, he will never be able to get back home to his children.

Does he save Saito? Does he get back home? What is a dream and what is reality anymore? Don’t you want to know? Watch and find out! The movie is sure as hell gonna keep you at the edge of your seat, and its gonna put some wild thoughts in your head. Just when you thought you had it all figured out, you are brought face to face with, Inception.

This movie had me on tenterhooks , definitely gets 9 BOP’s. Totally blown away, and I am sure you will be too.

Reviewed By-

Taru Girdonia

PS: I watched it twice, tee hee…

Knight and Day

2010-07-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

Directed By:

James Mangold

Produced By:

Cathy Konrad & Todd garner

Cast:

Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard

Did we walk into the movie hall with expectations? Yes, we did! Did the movie live up to them? No, it didn’t. Do most movies ever live up to expectations? Unfortunately not! Hence what we have here is an expected run of the mill (and not even a high quality mill at that), movie.

What can I say about Tom Cruise, the years are not just being kind, they are being generous to

the man. The age shows, but in a good way, he total works the swagger and that cocky attitude, that is so him and was so missed in the last couple of movies he worked in. The spy-good guy-bad guy-confused guy? Eh! Who cares?! He grips you and holds you till the end.

Cameron Diaz on the other end! Ahem Ahem! Maybe botox aint that bad an idea after all lady, cause you got some serious lines on you, and believe you, me, they aint doin you no favour. Moving forward, what is with that role??? A damsel in distress is such a disappointment after her role in Charlies Angel’s etc. Well, anyway, the woman is extremely annoying throughout the movie, it would’ve been a way better watch if it didn’t have her at all.

Coming to the plot, a wronged by the government spy, a battery to be saved, a usual girl next door, yada yada yada, many half-baked action sequences, exotic locations, bikini’s, dresses, suits, luxury hotels later, we’re still at yada yada yada!

Tom Cruise definitely does his bit to the T and why not? After the MI movies I would think anything else would be a let down, anywho! He pretty much finds the woman just as annoying and proceeds to drug her or “martial-art” her into sleeping through his fight sequences, which we obviously don’t get to see either, hence I wonder why they would take an expert action hero and make an action comedy if they did not want to show us the action!?!

The action sequences which we do get to see are so predictable, including the “every action movie with a couple on a bike” scene, where the woman goes around, sits on the guys lap and shoots the “BAD GUYS!” , I actually turned to Raghav and went “I told you so”. So we get on with the plot, oh wait! Did I say the word “plot”? I wonder what I am thinking, considering there really isn’t one!

So, let me sum it up for you, girl meets boy at the airport, they like each, boy turns out to be psycho killing apparent good guy trying to save a battery from the bad guys, who refuses to let go of the girl throughout the movie, and fight, fight, fight, Happy ending!

I must at this point mention that the movie did have its funny moments, don’t get excited, not too many, and not too funny either, the one pretty funny scene showed a very stereo typical perception of women, so I’m wondering if calling it funny is really a good idea.

Well, anyway, its good to be back at reviewing, and I shall strive to remain regular, thank you all for reading up regularly, now that we’re back, you keep reading.

The movie? Oh rite! It gets 5 BOP’s!

Reviewed By,

Taru Girdonia

I Hate Luv Storys

2010-07-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

Directed By,
Punit Malhotra

Produced By,
Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwala

Featuring,
Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor,

Dharma Productions have come a long way from the time when Shahrukh Khan used be the only weapon in their arsenal. Karan Johan's trust on young directors has worked wonders for him, may it be Nikhil Advani with Kal Ho Naa Ho or Ayan Mukherji with Wake Up Sid, they have delivered just about everything that they probably needed. And this time around its no different, directed by debutant director Punit Malhotra, I Hate Luv Storys is a good watch.

I Hate Luv Storys is a story that revolves around Simran(Sonam Kapoor) and Jay(Imran Khan). Simran, who's an art director and Jay, assistant director with a leading production house. For Simran, life's just like a love story with everything just about perfect with everything red and blue. And for Jay, Life's just Life. Simran loves anything and everything about romantic movies and sees the Mr.Right in her fiance Raj(Sammir Dattani) and Jay hates every aspect of the same. Both their lives intertwine when Jay's asked to work under Simran for an upcoming romantic film. From here's when, Simran and Jay's chemistry takes a big leap. And the fun string of events that follow leading up till the climax is for you to watch it yourself.

What makes IHLS an enjoyable watch is its freshness. Punit Malhotra's writing seems average and so does the screenplay. Both Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor look impressive with their respective roles and are supported well by the rest of the cast. Though the movie impresses you with the funny bits, it has its share of moments that's sure to make the audience restless. And this is the biggest low of IHLS. The main reason why Wake Up Sid worked, was its stupendous screenplay which IHLS lacks. But this does not make IHLS completely unwatchable.

Music of IHLS by Vishal-Shekhar is impressive. Tracks "I Hate Luv Storys" and "Jab Mila Tu" being the most catchy ones.

I'll give 7 BOP's for Punit Malhotra's I Hate Luv Storys.

Go with no expectations and you're sure to like it.

Reviewed By,

Raghav Ramaiah

Julie & Julia

2009-11-23T04:35:00.000-08:00

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Amy Adams, Chris Messina

Let me get done with this: “awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww”!

Heartwarming, endearing, delightful, adorable, and all the other synonyms for these words wouldn’t be enough to describe this movie and the acting.

From the word “Go” the movie grabs you and keeps u in its grasp!
Meryl Streep! Over and over she makes me fall in love with her, is there anything the woman cant do? WOW! Mind blowing, she can single handedly make a movie work, the woman is a living legend, I once again pledge my undying devotion to her.

Amy Adams, also stood her ground, and did hold up as much of the film as possible, but when Meryl Streep is part of the same movie , can you really manage to be shone? But I must say that it was a commendable effort and successful to a certain extent.

Every element of this movie is “just right”, not a bit more not a bit less, the feeling of inherent satisfaction is brought out after watching this movie, the maternal vibes given out by Meryl as a woman who everyone loves, or rather a woman who no one can hate, and the “lost soul” vibes given out by Amy as the government employee who’s wasting her life away, for she has never achieved any goal she ever set herself, all these things just hit the right note with us average people.

Enough about the women, though the movie is by them, for them and about them, we come to the men, they are not merely there to look good or make the women look good, they have their parts, and are absolutely indispensable to the plot of the movie.

Whether it is Stanley Tucci as Meryl’s all-supportive, unconditionally loving husband or Chris Messina as Amy’s almost-always-supportive and almost-unconditionally loving husband, they have both created the image of a real person, playing their parts, they are believable, they are within reach, and that I think is an achievement. They did make their presence felt in a movie all about the women.

Well coming to the plot, once again I will say, it is something so believable, so plausible, and so acceptable. Yes, I know its based on a true story, which is part of why it is believable, but it is the actors who act out each of those scenes who provide you with a sense of reality. Scenes where Julie (Amy) has a breakdown and is lying flat on the floor crying, or where Julia(Meryl) is informed of her sisters pregnancy and even through her happiness she cannot hide her tears of sorrow, for she is childless. These scenes touch you, they make you laugh and cry with them.

Well in conclusion all I can say is add a dollop of butter to anything, and it becomes bearable, lets use that philosophy in life, laugh throw the sorrows, for they will go away one day, and there will be sunshine again. This is a must watch for all the girls and women, and for men who can enjoy a movie that involves real emotions.

I would give this one 8 BOP’s.

Reviewed By-
Taru Girdonia

Kurbaan

2009-11-21T11:23:00.001-08:00

Directed By-

Renzil D'Silva (Debut)

Produced By-
Dharma Productions

Featuring-
Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi..

Dharma Productions have always lived up to the expectations and this time around its no different. I said this when i reviewed Wake Up Sid and am telling it yet again. Kurbaan is a good example that shows the amount of homework done before coming up with such a script, all thanks to the debutant director Renzil D'Silva. Kurbaan is an intense thriller based on backdrop of terrorism in the US. Having already seen numerous scripts that dealt with terrorism before, Kurbaan still manages to stand out and this time with an impact, thanks to its fabulous screenplay.

Without letting out anything major about the plot, Kurbaan is a love story between Ehsaan(Saif Ali Khan) and Avantika(Kareena Kapoor) that begins in Delhi and ends in New York. Both their lives post their marriage is something for you to watch it yourself.

The highlight of Kurbaan are its actors. Saif Ali Khan and Kareen Kapoor share some magnificent on screen chemistry and at the same time look the best in the most intense scenes. Did anyone know there was Vivek Oberoi too in the film? And if you didn't you are in for a surprise. Vivek Oberoi is flawless and looks impressive in every bit. If you think Kurbaan is a mixture of Fanaa and New York, then you have mistaken! Kurbaan alone makes a massive impact what Fanaa and New York made put together.

The music is another thing that adds on to your experience. Salim-Sulaiman are stupendous and looks like they might just give all the other music directors a run for their money in the best music category this year.

I'll go with 8 BOP's for Renzil D'Silva's Kurbaan.

Go watch this if you love quality cinema.

Reviewed By,
Raghav Ramaiah

2012

2009-11-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton

I wonder why he does this? Mass destruction, absolute disaster, End of the world! Whoa! Slow down, we get the point, the planet has begun circling the drain, but dude how about toning down on the issue?

Yes the first few shots of absolute destruction are breathtaking, but after a while you’ve taken one too many breaths and your sick and tired of being expected to keep taking those deep breaths for the same old same old.

So we have the failed writer, with the failed marriage and he’s also a failed father, in short the “LOSER”, typical zero to hero track, how many times do we gotta deal with that? Fine we get past that, and what do we find? The loser guy hits jackpot in the form of a cracked radio jockey who is relaying updates on the end of the world as predicted by the Mayans, the poor guys most probably ran out of paper on which to write out the further calendars, but it is human nature my friends, to expect and to an extent want what is the worst, I guess its just a way to make our selves feel better for the lives we are living right now (sitting in front of a monitor writing about movies like this ;) ).

Anyhow, lets not lose the plot, so Mr.Loser’s ex-wife is living with a man who specializes on Boob

jobs or the like, and he quite obviously could not convince the love of his life to look a little more womanly, but we shall not dwell on that. Well we have Mr.Surgeon, who is the exact opposite of Mr.Loser, for he won over the latters lost wife and got the kids free in the package, and they quite obviously adore and idolize him, which makes Mr.Loser feel more loser-ly, and how can we not mention that Mr.surgeon also flies planes and does every other heroic thing our zero to hero doesn’t.

Coming back to the movie, everyone is packed first into a limo, then into a twin engine aircraft,

then into a full fledged Jumbo Jet and finally into the “very big ship”. And quite obviously the various modes of transport that is being used by the heroic family will be the one that somehow escapes with just a close shave, add to the family, the fat Russian boss of Mr.Loser, his bimbette wife who is having an affair with the pilot, and his 2 evil twin sons. Phew, how much more must we add to this already complicated plot.

I would like to sideline the plot for a few minutes to ask, why the hell does the INDIAN scientist

have an AMERICAN accent, and why the hell does he live in some god forsaken remote place, Why the hell is he wearing a kurta pyjama, which is also something his 10-12 yr old son is wearing? Why Why Why?? Why are we still being portrayed as the snake charming, elephant riding, chess playing weirdo’s?? If your gonna make a big budget movie and your gonna portray a certain sect of people , please do your god damned homework. Oh! And I forgot, the only other thing they can think of to pportray India is the temple, while we are a secular country, and have places of worship of almost every religion present over here, all they can think of portraying India with is a temple breaking to pieces . Sad.

Well all that being said, the movie isn’t a total disappointment, its got its good points being mostly the panoramic views of mass destruction, the actors have hammed their way through the movie and some very shoddy camera work but over all it’s a mediocre movie, and I would suggest you watch it only if you are capable of shutting down your brain to logic.

I'd give it 5 BOP’s to Roland Emmerich's to 2012.

Reviewed By,

Taru Girdonia

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and Jail : Mini Review

2009-11-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Ajab Prem Ki.. is an absolute fun film. Having seen Rajkumar Santoshi experiment with comedy before, APKGK is not another Andaz Apna Apna but tries hard to revive the old classic. The movie starts well and somewhere during the middle is when you start to wonder if Santoshi wanted to make a comedy movie or a love story. The movie is funny and has its share of dumb-foolish moments spoiling the fun here and there. Having Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles, makes APKGK all more special. Both actors play their roles convincingly and makes you like them instantly. The music is by Pritam and is above average.

I will go with 7 BOP's for Rajkumar Santoshi's Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

Jail

Madhur Bandarkar has never disappointed, has he?? Having proven himself previously with scripts that dealt with social issues, Madhur this time around has let us down with Jail. Story that revolves around a young ambitious boy Parag Dixit(Neil Nitin Mukesh) who is falsely convicted in a drug case. The life of Parag changes post conviction and his quest to freedom is for you to watch it yourself. Jail is a good film but for its pace which makes you restless as the movie steps in to the second half. Neil Nitin Mukesh is commendable and delivers just about everything what the role requires. Music by Sharib Sabri and Toshi Sabri is average and goes unnoticed provided the theme of the movie.

I will go with 7 BOP's for Madhur Bhandarkar's Jail.

Reviewed by,

Raghav Ramaiah

Up (2009 - Animated film)

2009-10-05T05:29:00.000-07:00

Directed by - Pete Docter

Cast - Edward Asner (Carl Fredricksen), Jordan Nagai (Russell), Bob Peterson (Dug) and Christopher Plummer (Charles F. Muntz)

Disney-Pixar does it again. After the tough-to-top Wall-E, the gold mine of animation has come up with, yet again, another visual treat for the young and old alike. "UP" is Pixar's tenth movie to-date. And it doesn't disappoint.

Have you ever had a dream as a kid? A plan? One that you swore you would see through no matter what?

Meet Carl Fredrickson. A shy, quiet boy whose hero is the world renowned explorer Charles Muntz. Carl befriends Ellie, a feisty little chatterbox who shares his devotion of Muntz. Ellie dreams of moving to South America one day and building a house on top of Paradise Falls and makes Carl promise he'll take her there someday.

Ellie and Carl grow up and get married, living blissfully and very much in love. They try to save up money to go to Paradise Falls but something or the other always crops up and makes it impossible. After several years, just when it seems like they can finally make it there, Ellie dies of old age, leaving Carl alone and bitter, missing his wife very much (Four minutes of wordless, heart-breaking montage encompassing Carl and Ellie's life together, set to a haunting number by composer Michael Giacchino - One of the many reasons I love this movie) To make matters worse, the City Council wants to run down Carl's house and build something else in its place.

When it all finally gets too much, 78-year old Carl hatches a plan to get away from the concrete jungle and honour Ellie's wishes at the same time by moving his house to Paradise Falls. Using, literally, thousands of helium balloons tied to his house, he lifts it off its foundations and floats his way to South America.

But unbeknownst to Carl, eight-year old Russell, a little-too-eager boyscout stows away along with him. Carl has no choice but to take Russell along with him. When they finally crash-land in South America after running into a storm, they realize they need to walk the rest of the way to get to the Falls and pull the house behind them.

Along the way, they run into a colourful, chocolate-loving bird whom Russell adopts on the spot and names Kevin (we are later told Kevin is, in fact, a female), a talking dog named Dug (a voice box on his collar allows him to speak) who adopts them and a whole lot of trouble which they were better off staying out of.

The what, the who and the how that follow is what makes this movie one of the best in 2009. The laughs are aplenty and it gets you chuckling in all the right places. Russell (the first Asian-American lead in a Pixar movie) and his naivety are just adorable. The initial moments between him and Carl are something to watch out for. Dug steals the show (A talking dog! Come on!) and his obvious love for Carl and desire to please him is just so like a dog that you can't help but love him.

It's a simple, heart-warming storyline that touches every aspect of life - love, death, sadness, betrayal, friendship and that tricky little thing called hope - with amazing finesse and leaves you longing for an adventure of your own.

I'm gonna go with 10 BOPs for this visually stunning masterpiece

(I would give it more if I could - I dare you to come out of the movie theatre and say you disagree with me. Now, shoo. Go watch it!)

Reviewed by,
Mithila Ananth

Wake Up Sid

2009-10-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Ayan Mukherji

Produced By-
Dharma Productions

Featuring-
Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen Sharma..

Dharma Productions have always lived up to the expectations and this time around its no different. Wake Up Sid in one word is delightful. Directed by debutant director Ayan Mukherji, Wake Up Sid has something in it that makes you like it instantly. An old plot that is well packaged and presented. More like "Old wine in a new bottle".

Wake Up Sid's protagonist Siddharth Mehra aka Sid(Ranbir Kapoor) is a college student who like any other boy of his age is carefree-laidback and totally uninterested in many aspects of life. He's excited by simple things may it be parties, long drives or abstract photography. He soon meets Aisha(Konkana Sen) in a party and within no time they start liking each other's company and much to Sid's amazement finds out that Aisha to be independent, career oriented girl unlike him. Just when things seem fine in Sid's life, is when he fails in his exams and over a long argument with his father leaves home in frustration. Soon to realize the tough world outside. He's sheltered by Aisha and here's when is starts realizing the things that was missing in his life. The things leading up to Sid's transformation is for you to watch it yourself.

Wake Up Sid is one movie that delivers even with such an old storyline, hats off to its screenplay. The movie is engaging and keeps you with it till the credit roll. Both the leads are impressive and deliver the goods well.

The Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is good as always.

I will go with 7 BOP's out of 10 for Ayan Mukherji's Wake Up Sid.

Go in with no expectations and you are sure to like it.

Reviewed By-
Raghav Ramaiah

What's Your Rashee?

2009-09-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Directed By-

Ashutosh Gowariker

Produced By-

Ronnie Screwvala, Ashutosh Gowariker

Featuring-

Harman Bhaweja, Priyanka Chopra..

How many of you were waiting for this one from Gowariker? i know many! Sadly for all Gowariker fans, What's Your Rashee? is absolutely disappointing. Based on Madhu Rye's novel Kimball Ravenswood, WYR's? script is as flat as it can possibly get.

What's Your Rashee's? story revolves around Yogesh Patel(Harman Bhaweja) an MBA student studying in Chicago, who is forced to return to India after receiving a message about his father's deteriorating health. On reaching India is when the family of Yogesh let out the actual reason. Yogesh is then told about the share scam committed by his brother and the family's huge debt. He's also told about the solution offered by a astrologer according to whom, If Yogesh gets married on the 20th, huge wealth is to follow the family on the very day. He's given a mere 10 days to decide a girl and get married. It does not take long for his family to convince Yogesh and he's then out looking for brides. After a lot of confusion about the brides shortlisted by his uncle, Yogesh comes up with a bizarre idea of meeting one girl from each of the 12 zodiac signs. And the plot leading upto Yogesh deciding his soul mate among the 12 is for you to watch it yourself.

Gowariker seems to have failed miserably with WYR? provided the quality of movies that he

made previously. The movie fails to take off and the plot of the movie does not really convince you at any level. The one and the only thing that is impressive with WYR? is Priyanka Chopra's impeccable performance playing 12 different characters. She's absolutely mind blowing with each of the 12 characters and probably the only thing that makes you sit right through the exhausting 3 hours 15 minutes. Harman Bhaweja is good and tries his best to make an impact with his honest acting supported well by rest of the cast. The funnier parts that were supposed to be funny are not funny and it just frustrates you more.

The music by Sohail Sen is ordinary and the 12 songs used for 12 the different characters are not impressive either.

I will go with 4 BOP's out of 10 for Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Rashee?.

Avoid this Flick!

Reviewed By-

Raghav Ramaiah

Wanted

2009-09-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Prabhudeva

Produced By-
Boney Kapoor

Featuring-
Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia, Mahesh Manjrekar..

If you were waiting for a good film from Salman Khan, your wait is certain to continue as Wanted turns out to be a below average watch. Directed by dance guru Prabhudeva, Wanted will fail to impress you on every level. Adapted from the original telugu flick Pokiri, Wanted is an out and out action film. The script of Wanted seems more like its made for the audience down south and implementing it with Salman Khan makes it all more interesting. Having proven his abilities with action flicks, Salman Khan looks to have gone that extra mile to give Wanted the classy touch.

Wanted's protagonist Radhe(Salman Khan) is a local thug who terminates people when offered the right price. He's seen shifting between two rival gangs to terminate one another who ever offered more money. Radhe takes no time eliminating people and is seen doing the same in every second scene and here's when he falls for the innocent-pretty girl Jhanvi(Ayesha Takia) who works in a call center. Not so impressed by his rough gangster looks, it takes a while before Jhanvi starts feeling for Radhe who helps her out from the hands of the corrupt crook inspector Talpade(Mahesh Manjrekar). On the other hand due to constant killings in both rival gangs, the top don Gani Bhai(Prakash Raj) is forced to visit mumbai to take over the underworld activities. Now is when the plot takes a unanticipated bizarre u-turn giving Wanted the much needed climax that you might end up liking. The abrupt unpredictable climax is for you to watch it yourself.

Wanted has hardly anything that you might want to look back at except for Salman Khan. The script is ordinary and the execution part makes it even more lousy. The dialogues are ineffective and fails to derive the energy necessary except for a few. Salman Khan has delivered a decent performance with some great action sequences which you are sure to enjoy. Not so impressive are the costumes which look awful in nicely shot backdrops especially in the songs- "Tose Pyar karte Hai" and "Dil Leke Darde Dil". The performances of Ayesha Takia and the rest of the crew is forgettable.

The music by Sajid-Wajid is again ordinary and is tolerable provided the violent theme of the movie. "Love me Love Me" being the most catchy of all.
Having seen the huge commercial success with the Tamil and Telugu versions, Wanted will have to literally run full shows to even compete with its counter parts.

I will go with 5 BOP's out of 10, for Prabhudeva's Wanted .

Go watch it if you are a Salman Khan Fan, and not really advisable for the rest.

Reviewed By,
Raghav Ramaiah

The Ugly Truth

2009-09-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

Directed By

Robert Luketic

Cast:

Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Eric Winter, Bree Turner

Why is this happening to me? Why is it that every time I decide to watch a movie and write a review for it , it turns out to be a

really bad choice? Bad luck, I must say! Well if those 2 lines weren’t enough, then read on.

Katherine Heigl, the unlucky in love lady, who is all independent and believes that she will never find a good man, and that she thinks is because they are all intimidated by her. Well absolutely uptight television producer Abby Richter (played by Katherine Heigl) is this really pretty and hot woman who well apparently cant find a man. Now someone please explain how a gorgeous woman like her is not able to find a man? Please ask the directors/writers!

Gerard Butler, the STUD! The shock-jock! Any other testosterone driven words you can find to describe a man, can be used here. Well this man, as very obviously shown in the promotional pictures, believes love happens with an organ that has nothing to do with emotions. Mike Chadway (played by Gerard Butler) is a television host, who is forced upon Abby, because the ratings shoot up as soon as he’s on air. Makes you wonder, how with his absolutely chauvinistic, horrible locker-room trash talk, the ratings go up?

Put together an ice-queen and shock jock and what do you get? The Ugly Truth! Ha! A joke that one is, the

whole movie is a series of horribly choreographed scenes, that don’t even raise whimper from the crowd. There are a couple of disgusting , toilet-humor based scenes, like a pair of vibrating knickers on Abby. They managed to put in a part where Mike tutors Abby on how to get the attentions of her very hot neighbour, who also happens to be a doctor, that doesn’t really work for the movie either!Well well, no imagination, no thought put into the screen-play. It’s a very run-of-the-mill script, that did not succeed in being a rom-com, not romantic, not a comedy!

As a saving grace I can say that the all the actors tried their best at making something good out of the script, and they do manage to get a laugh out of you in some rare scenes.

Why is Katherine subjecting herself to this, one movie after another is a failed attempt at being a rom-com, and what a waste of Gerard Butlers absolute HOT-ness! This was such a horrible choice on both their parts, I cant believe I spent hard-earned money on watching this flick! If you guys value the money you or your parents earn, please don’t go spend it on this one, buy yourself a nice accessory to go along with that new shirt.

Girls I know rom-com’s call out to us, but believe just stay away from this one.

Boys, you still might enjoy this one, for all the stud-talk and the abuses, in that beautiful accent that Gerard Butler has, and I am sure that all of you will secretly want to imbibe all that he is on screen into yourselves, but seriously that works only on screen. In real life, the girls are definitely not going to be hounding you with that sort of attitude.

I guess there is a certain section of society that could still watch it, but that doesn’t mean it still wouldn’t be a waste of their money. So well if your really really bored, then you might as well occupy your time with this one.

I would give this 4 BOP’s , it doesn’t deserve any more no matter how hard I try searching for some part of the movie that demands one more BOP from me, it really doesn’t get any further than 4.

Reviewed By,

Taru Girdonia

First Look at London Dreams, Ishqiya and Main Aur Mrs Khanna

2009-08-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

London Dreams

Directed By-
Vipul Shah

Produced By-
Aashin Shah

Featuring-
Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan,
Asin, Om Puri

Ishqiya

Directed By-

Abhishek Chaubey

Produced By-

Raman Maroo

Vishal Bharadwaj

Featuring-

Naserrudin Shah, Arshad Warsi,

Vidya Balan

Main Aur Mrs Khanna

Directed By-

Prem Soni

Produced By-

Sohail Khan

Ronnie Screwvala

Featuring-

Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor,

Sohail Khan.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

2009-08-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Stephen Sommers

Cast: Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans, Christopher Eccleston, Dennis Quaid,Brendan Fraser, Channing Tatum and Jonathan Pryce

OK! Here goes my attempt at salvaging this spoof they call a movie.

GI Joe-No story, but none was expected, what was expected was a choc-a-bloc action flick, with mind numbing stunts and special effects. Numb my mind they did, but not in the way expected, if it was not for those extremely loud sound effects there was nothing that could’ve kept me awake during this one.

What I fail to understand is, if the director was out to fill a movie wit CGI then why did he just not make a 3D cartoon movie. I am sure the cartoons would’ve portrayed the characters better. Over acting is an understatement here, the villain being over-villainous & the hero being over-zealous towards his cause of none other than, “saving the world”. One of these days I am going to give these super heroes a piece of my mind , because they are all at it and yet no one succeeds in “saving the world”!!!

Well well, getting back, one of the only good things I can say about this movie is that Sienna Miller looks smoking hot and has a whole load of fun being the “bad girl”, but as cliché as always, madame is forced into a second-skin sort of Black Leather outfit. What has happened to that word we so often relate to the making of movies, IMAGINATION! They have the creative license too, but no! everyone wants to walk the tried and tested route.

The action shifts from dense forests, to the streets of France, to underwater locations, to above the clouds and many, many locations in between, and you sit there wondering how one shot leads to another?

They have also tried to add, a comic character, and an inter-racial romance, both these sub-plots

as out of place as the Queen of England in a theatre watching GI Joe. Someone please explain to the director that a hard core action flick can be made without any of the added sub plots for entertainment, but only if the special effects are good enough. Here I believe the special effects were also added to give the movie a more comedic effect, very amateur and quite clearly highlighting the fact that the budgets could not cover all the CGI.

I must explain at this point, no matter if you go in with expectations or with none, you will be disappointed my friend. It cannot even be stated that this is a movie that children can watch for entertainment, because believe me the cartoons on TV these days are way more technologically advanced. So I would like to advice that no one wastes their time on this one and spoils the image that we have of watching GI Joe as children and worshipping them, do not shatter that image they worked so hard to build.

Now comes the time for the all important verdict, I give it 3 BOP’s out of 10 , this comes after a lot of deliberation with myself, for no one deserves ½ out of 10, I was once in school as well, not a good feeling that one.

Avoid this flick!

Reviewed By,

Taru Girdonia

Sikandar

2009-08-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Piyush Jha

Produced By-
Sudhir Mishra

Featuring-
Parzan Dastur, Ayesha Kapoor, Madhavan, Sanjar Suri..

If you guys loved Parzan Dastur in Parzania and Ayesha Kapoor in Black, you'll love them yet again in Sikandar. Directed by Piyush Jha, Sikandar has a terrific script but when it comes to execution of the same is where it fails. Going by the sidelines of the tension that surrounds Jammu and Kashmir, Piyush Jha manages to capture the essence of the lives of young children really well.

Sikandar is a movie of a young boy Sikandar Raza(Parzan Dastur) who like any other 10 year old is naughty-innocent and a passionate football player. Living alone with his aunt and uncle, soon Sikandar finds a pal,a 10 year old Nasreen(Ayesha Kapoor), who accompanies him during the morning walk to school. During one such walk to school is when both of them find a gun lying on the same isolated path. Sikandar is cautioned by Nasreen not to get close to the gun but much to his curiosity takes the gun and without much knowledge is left with no other option but to use the gun to his own benefit, may it be scaring off the bullies in school or scaring people on the street. Soon he's seen training with a Jihadi militant who promises him a washing machine if he trains and shoots the person that they target on. Circumstances get way too complicated when Sikandar shoots the Jihadi Militant out of frustration and makes his life even more miserable. The army start a search operation in pursuit of the little boy and the twists that follow is something that you need to watch it yourself.

Sikandar is not a bad movie but it takes time for you to realize that its a good movie. You don't really feel for the characters like you felt for Ishaan Awasthi in Taare Zameen Par or Michelle McNally in Black. By the time you get into the rythm and start liking that characters, the curtains are down. The main let down factor of this movie is its promise that it created with its trailers. Parzan Dastur is impressive and manages to deliver the goods well. Ayesha Kapoor's performance is average and has blank expressions in a few scenes making her look awkward. Madhavan who plays the role of a Commander of the Indian Army is also good and is supported well by Sanjay Suri.

Music of Sikandar by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is one thing that needs special appreciation. Neatly done are the tracks "Dhoop Ke Sikke" and "Gulon Mein".

I will go with 7 BOP's for Piyush Jha's Sikandar.

Reviewed By,
Raghav Ramaiah

Blue : Exclusive First Look

2009-08-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Directed By-

Anthony D'Souza

Produced By-

Dhilin Mehta

Featuring-

Akshaye Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Katrina Kaif, LaraDutta..

The trailer of blue definitely looks impressive and i hope this Akshaye Kumar movie doesn't disappoint which is believed to be made with a budget of 70 crores.

Tell me what you thought of this trailer.

Kaminey

2009-08-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Vishal Bharadwaj

Produced By-
Ronnie Screwala

Featuring-
Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte..

The much awaited and the most talked about movie of 2009 releases this week and it quite simply lives up to all the hype that surrounded the movie before its release. Directed By Vishal Bharadwaj, Kaminey makes up for all the lousy movies that released this year and for once you feel, "What- a- movie". Kaminey just goes on to score in every department may it be direction or the Music. Vishal Bharadwaj this time around has written a terrific script, outdoing his previous critically acclaimed Omkara. Kaminey in simple words is a complete package where in every tiny character does its bit to impress you.

Kaminey's main protagonists Charlie and Guddu(Shahid Kapoor) are twins who have quite some amusingly distinguishable characteristics when it comes to their natural way of communication. Charlie, a local thug who lisps and pronounces S as F and Guddu is a small NGO worker who stammers while he talks. Both of whom live on different dreams and values are seen fighting it out in their respective fields. Guddu's life enters a mess when gets his girl friend Sweety(Priyanka Chopra) pregnant and after much persuassion decides to marry her and much to add to his agony finds out that she is the sister of a local gangster-politician Bhope Bhau(Amol Gupte). Charlie on the other hand during one of his criminal prowl gets his hand on a guitar box that contains cocaine worth 10 crore's. From here on is when the lives of Charlie and Guddu intertwine making the plot even more interesting and engrossing. The unusual twists and turns right till the climax is something for you to watch it yourself.

The script of Kaminey is gripping and engaging too. The main thing which will blow your minds with Kaminey is its stunning dialogues that will sound serious and funny at the same time. The highlights of the movie are the actors and the bang on casting. If Shahid Kapoor impresses you with both Charlie and Guddu, Priyanka Chopra marks her presence by her bold-marathi girl's character. And for the people who had just heard of Amol Gupte and not seen him, you can see a top notch performance in his very debut movie playing Bhope Bhau. Kaminey is so skillfully made that even a few slow scenes are covered up by some stunning performances.

The music of Kaminey is Marvellous, may it be Dhan Te Han or the thought provoking song Fatak that has a AIDS awareness theme to it, all of them score full points.

Vishal Bharadwaj's magic is going to work yet again.

I will go with 9 BOP's out 10 for Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey.

And that simply makes it a **Must Watch**.

Reviewed by,
Raghav Ramaiah

The Proposal

2009-08-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Directed By -
Anne Fletcher

Cast-
Sandra Bullock (Margaret Tate), Ryan Reynolds (Andrew Paxton), Mary Steenburgen (Grace Paxton), Craig T. Nelson (Joe Paxton), Betty White (Grandma Annie), Malin Akerman (Gertrude), Oscar Nunez (Ramone).

We’ve all had to deal with our share of mean bosses and here is one straight out of hell, bad enough for her assistant to beg his colleague for a shirt when he soils his own.

In walks a very ‘devil wears prada’-esque boss, Margaret, played by Sandra Bullock. Preceding her entry to the office is a flurry of scurrying employees and a lot of instant messages informing everyone that “it” has arrived. The “it” in question not particularly showing her mean side to anyone but the harassed assistant, Andrew, played by Ryan Reynolds.

Predictably a situation arises from which only Andrew can rescue the witch and a whole load of some funny and some very not funny drama ensues. The funny bits being overshadowed by the non-funny parts.

Margaret, a Canadian citizen living in the US needs to be saved from deportation, hence Andrew placing his own terms and conditions agrees to be her fake fiancé, this is followed by a hilarious trip to his hometown in Alaska where the Jimmy Choo and Prada wearing Margaret is humbled and is taught the value of family and relationships.

Andrew turns out to be a millionaire and is the heir to the family business, now follows some serious Hindi movie style drama with his father black-mailing him quite unsuccessfully into coming back to Alaska and taking over the business. At the same time there is apparently romance brewing between Andrew and Margaret that no one including themselves can see.

A lot of very predictable situations , which bring to mind movies like Ramji Londonwaley and Meet the parents and just about any other rom-com ever made, skipping forward comes the day for the cute grandma Annie’s 90th birthday, she says she wants to see her grandson get married before she dies, hence dump the birthday celebrations, there’s a wedding to take place.

In all the predictability come very few truly funny moments which is a disappointment coming from a Sandra Bullock movie who sadly enough is in an absolutely non-comedic role. What Sandra does best in the movie is, look absolutely ravishing , at 40 she is in absolutely great shape which she does not fail to show off in a highly unnatural and predictable scene with an equally undressed Ryan, who also, I must say is in great shape.

The movie basically has all the typical elements, the cute grandma, the rich short-tempered father, the loving mother, the sugar coated sweetheart ex-girlfriend, the couple that hates each other(but is actually in love), and a crazy multi tasking stripper cum salesman cum priest.

This romantic comedy was not romantic, mildly funny, and very predictable and I must say, all in all quite a disappointment. Being a member of the female population of our species, I can say this movie was anything but a chick flick, definitely not a drama or thriller. Then what was it? Well go ahead watch it yourself and find out.

Reviewed By,
Taru Girdonia

Love Aaj Kal

2009-07-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Imitiaz Ali

Produced By-
Saif Ali Khan and Dinesh Vijan

Featuring-
Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna..

The drought of good movies that seemed to have taken over Bollywood from the past few months ends with Love Aaj Kal releasing this week. Directed by Imitiaz Ali, Love Aaj Kal in one word is Fantastic. Keeping his previous stint of success with him Imitiaz Ali has delivered a love story that is narrated in a surprisingly innovative way. Shot in different parts of London, San Francisco, Old-Delhi and Punjab, Love Aaj Kal shows a fantastic blend of two love stories one in the past -"Love Kal" and the other in the present - "Love Aaj" crisscrossed, linking the past to the present.

Love Aaj Kal is a cross of two love stories, one of Jai Vardhan Singh( Saif Ali Khan) andMeera Pandit(Deepika Padukone) the other of Veer Singh(Saif Ali Khan/Rishi Kapoor) and Harleen Kaur (Giselle Monteiro/Neetu Singh). Jai and Meera two modern independent career oriented people living in London fall in love and as times pass by, decide to break up and move on with their respective careers in a rather happy way with an unusual break up-party unlike other break up's. Here's when he meets Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor) a owner of a coffee shop, who keeps hinting Jai of the mistakes that he is making considering the break up with Meera. Very soon, Veer Singh( Rishi Kapoor) is then seen narrating his love story with Harleen back in Punjab years ago. The stories of Jai and Veer are then played alternately showing the obvious overlapping instances between both the love stories. The story post Jai's break up and the various fun moments is for you to figure it out yourself.

Love Aaj Kal doesn't really disappoint you at any level irrespective of what expectations you had with the movie. The highlight of the movie is the naive love story of Veer and Harleen, that brings with it a lot of innocent-natural-spontaneous moments that you will surely enjoy and relish even after your out of the theater. Beautifully done are the links between the two stories with hint of light humor.

Imitiaz Ali has yet again selected and used his resources intelligently. Saif Ali Khan impresses you with both Jai and young Veer's role playing it quite convincingly. Deepika Padukone's performance is average and is definitely impressive in certain parts of the movie. Rishi Kapoor is good and delivers a fun performance. Rahul Khanna is seen on a role thats quiet and there's not much for him in the movie. Debutant Giselle Monteiro looks raw with her acting and yet is bang on for the role of Harleen surprisingly making you like her as the movie progresses.

The music by Pritam is stupendous and simply one of his best composed albums. The picturisation and the songs compliment each other really well. Tracks like "Chor Bazaari", "Twist", "Yeh Doorian".. being the highlights of the album

Imitiaz Ali has literally left no stone unturned to give Love Aaj Kal that classic refreshing feel.
I will go with 8 BOP's for Imitiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal.

Don't miss this flick.

P.S: BOP stands for Buckets of Popcorn. New rating system instead of stars, as this site is transforming into new review site.

Jashn and Luck ( Reviewed by Bhargav Saikia)

2009-07-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

Jashn

1 out of 5

What's it all about?

A struggling musician overcomes all obstacles and becomes an overnight star. Yawn! Give us something fresh, Maheshji.
Direction & Screenplay
Raksha Mistry and Hasnain Hyderabadwala are known for their ridiculous rip-offs of Collateral(The Killer) and Derailed (The Train), so it's futile to expect anything credible from them in the first place. In Jashnn, their treatment of the.. Click here for more

Luck

1 out of 5

What's it all about?

A bunch of very 'lucky people' participate in a survival game orchestrated by mafia boss, Karim Moosa (Sanjay Dutt), who is on a mission to establish and lead the human-betting business. Instead of 'survival of the fittest', it's 'survival of the luckiest' here. So you have Ram Mehra (Imran Khan), Major Jawar Pratap Singh (Mithun Chakraborty), serial killer Raghav (Ravi Kissen), sixteen-year old Shortcut (Chitrashi Rawat) and Natasha (Shruti Hassan) relying solely on luck to win this bizarre game of life and death.

Direction & Screenplay
Writer-director, Soham Shah, needs hardcore lessons in script-writing. Shah's story and character development skills are zilch and funnily enough.. Click here for more

Orginally posted at

www.BhargavSaikia.com.

Shortkut -The Con is On

2009-07-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Neeraj Vora

Produced By-
Anil Kapoor

Featuring-
Akshay Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao..

Yet another movie to go absolutely impact less at the box office this week. Directed by Neeraj Vora, Shorkut is boring and is as predictable as it can get. No wonders were really expected from Neeraj Vora having seen his previous stint as a director. Shorkut disappoints you even more because the promos looked a lot good if not really impressive. Having actors with a such impeccable comic timing, the director fails to capitalize and relies on the writing skills of Anees Bazmee to do the job rather than the actors. Shorkut portrays itself to be a movie filled with humor, which sadly isn't. The scenes that are close to funny are already unveiled in the promos and there's no real surprise element in the complete package.

Shorkut - The Con is On's two male protagonists, Shekhar(Akshay Khanna) and Raju(Arshad Warsi) an struggling asst director and a wanna-be actor respectively each of whom believe in different values to make it big. Shekhar, a hardworking-determined-conventional lad who believes in efforts rather than luck to find himself achieve things that he dreams of, which is writing and directing a movie someday. Raju on the other hand is careless-unrealistic- easy-way-out-kinda lad who believes in shortcuts to becoming an actor rather than skills and hard work. Shekhar is seen desperately working on scripts to realize his directorial dreams, so as to confess the secret love with already established actress Mansi(Amrita Rao) to the world. Shekhar's dreams are then shattered when Raju steals his script to trigger a acting career out of the stolen script. The race to career glory of both Shekhar and Raju is for you to watch it yourself.

Shorkut fails to engage you even for a petty continuous stretch of ten minutes forget the complete running time of the movie. The transition of the movie from the humor zone to the serious-emotions zone is something that is hard to digest provided scenes involving Arshad Warsi. The actors are seen on characters that are so poorly written that actually makes you wonder did Arshad Warsi actually play a Cirkit. Shorkut, a movie that could have helped Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao to revitalize their wavered career is indeed not going to. Akshaye Khanna looks decent as always and looks to contribute filling in the patches. Chunkey Pandey is seen on a role that looks dumb and definitely not funny.

The music bu Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is average except for "Patli Gali", which seems to received really well among the audience.

I will go with 4 out of 10 for Neeraj Vora's Shortkut - The Con is On.
Please avoid this flick!

If anyone can get this across to Anil Kapoor, i want to know what was Anees Bazmee doing as a writer of this movie?

Kambakkht Ishq

2009-07-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Sabir Khan

Produced By-
Sajid Nadiadwala

Featuring-
Akshaye Kumar, Kareena Kumar, Aftab Shivdasani,..

Now i apologize if i said Kal Kissne Dekha had the potential to be the worst movie of the year, now here's bollywood's much awaited and talked about movie which will quite simply go ahead and win the award comprehensively in the worst movie category this year. Directed by Sabir Khan, Kambakkht Ishq in one word is "nonsense". I know one could hardly expect anything from Akshaye Kumar after CC2C, but this really broke the barrier of making some real hard core senseless cinema. Its quite impossible to believe the fact that the makers of Kambakkht Ishq actually thought just Akshaye Kumar and Kareena Kapoor could make a movie run at the box office and not the script.

Kambhakkt Ishq's protagonist Viraj Shergill(Akshaye Kumar) a stuntman by profession who strictly believes in the fact of staying bachelor and is quite successful to pass on the same values to his brother Lucky Shergill(Aftab Shivdasani) another stuntman by profession until the day he finds out himself about Lucky's marriage plans with Kamini(Amrita Arora) a model. Now here's where he bumps into Simrita(Kareena Kapoor) , Kamini's friend who thinks the same way about men as Viraj does about women.

Now till about this point, i think director Sabir had a script in place and was seriously planning on something really good with the movie until the first song rolled out. I wonder what the director was thinking while filming this song. The scenes right after the song make you feel like walking out of your seat right away. Kambakkht Ishq, is not a comedy movie if you think it is. Its a movie that even the director is not sure to which genre this movie belongs to. You can actually count the parts that are actually funny ignoring the cheap scenes which lack every hint of homour. Actors like Javed Jaffri, Boman Irani and Kirron Kher are seen on roles which are poorly written and absolutely make no sense in the movie. The cameo's by hollywood stars adds no value whatsoever. The scenes meant for a star like Sylvester Stallone are lame and adds to your frustration.

The music by Anu Malik is as pathetic as the script. The songs are lousy and definitely something that you would love to fastforward if given a chance. I waited patiently till the credits actually rolled for something that could make me like this movie. But sadly, there's wasn't one thing that you can like abut the movie.

For fans of Akshaye Kumar, please avoid this flick if you want to remain his fan for long. And the rest looking forward for this movie this weekend - A big NO !!

I will go with 3 out 10 for Sabir Khan's Kambakkht Ishq.
Double thumbs down to Nadiadwala for making it and Akshaye Kumar for acting in it.

New York

2009-06-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

Directed By-
Kabir Khan

Produced By-
Yash Raj Films

Featuring-
John Abraham,Katrina Kaif,Neil Nitin Mukesh..

The most awaited release from the Yash Raj Banner this year, New York is good yet not convincing. Directed by Kabir Khan, New York is definitely a worth watch. After Kabul Express's disastrous performance at the box office, Kabir Khan had to bounce back with something really impactful and is successful up to an extent. Having actors with mediocre acting abilities, Kabir Khan has managed to pull off a pretty good movie and again with a script that seems quite close to reality.

New York, a movie that revolves around 3 friends,Omar(Neil Nitin Mukesh),Sam(John Abraham) and Maya(Katrina Kaif) in the city of New York and their life post 9/11. The movie starts off with Omar being interrogated by Roshan(Irfan Khan) an agent with the FBI relating to Sam being involved in terrorist activities in the US. Omar is convinced rather threatened to enter Sam's life and dish out information about Sam's other suspect activities. The events that follow Omar entering Sam's Life is for you to watch it yourself.

New York, is very much engaging though predictable in most of the instances. Prominently visible are the glitches in the script. However, even with such glitches Kabir Khan executes it pretty well. The actors are just above average, except for Irfan Khan who looks as stunning as always with his performance. .

The Music by Pritam is the only thing that impresses you right away. Especially "Junoon" and "Tum Ne Jo Na Kaha". Looks like Pritam is back to his glory days with this one.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Kabir Khan's New York.

Kal Kissne Dekha

2009-06-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

Directed By,
Vivek Sharma

Produced By,
Vashu Bhagnani

Featuring,
Jacky Bhagnani, Vaishali Desai, Rishi Kapoor

Written and Directed by Vivek Sharma, Kal Kissne Dekha in one word is awful. Produced by Vashu Bhagnani KKD is so terribly written, that it could be a potential worst movie for this year. Vivek Sharma was pretty decent if not impressive with his previous venture Bhoothnath, but with KKD his skills seems to have gone absolutely hay-wire. Its obvious that not everyone expects a movie like KNPH to be their debut movie, but KKD is so terribly scripted that even debutants Jacky Bhagnani and Viashali Desai's sincere efforts in the movie are covered up. Its yet another Sc-Fi fiction.

Kal Kissne Dekha's protagonist Nihal Singh(Jacky Bhagnani) is a boy from a small village near Chandigarh who wishes to study science and dreams of making it big someday. Who is then seen convincing his mom to pursue his ambitions, moving into another city. Nihal being a gifted boy with a power of seeing the future is then seen comforting the college life when circumstances lead to Nihal falling in love with Meesha(Viashali Desai), a beautiful brat in college. Now the plot of the movie till this part is predictable and more of a 90's kinda college . But from the time they actually start executing the Sci-Fi bit of the movie is when it actually loses its plot.

I do not understand, Why a Sci-Fi flavor to a love story? When its not executed the way its meant to be. Kal Kissne Dekha might have done the trick if not wonders had Vivek Sharma made KKD a simple love story. However, with so many negative aspects about the movie and so many things that has not worked for KKD, the debut leads are definitely good even with such poorly written characters. Both Jacky Bhagnani and Viashali Desai have shown off their acting skills well and it definitely looks like they have a lot more potential than what they have been shown on screen. Rishi Kapoor who plays a Scientist/Professor is above average and looks like he wants to seriously contribute but what can one do when the whole script is so faulty. The actors like Rietesh Deshmukh and Juhi Chawla are seen on guest appearances that makes you feel even more frustrated as the movie sails along. When Vashu Bhagnani can produce a decent debut movie like Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai for Tusshar Kapoor, why couldnt he do the same for his own son?

The music of KKD is close to ordinary and again not impressive.

I will go with 3 out of 10, for Vivek Sharma's Kal Kissne Dekha.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writers Lounge

8 X 10 Tasveer

2009-04-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

Written and Directed by
Nagesh Kukunoor

Produced by
Percept Picture Company

Featuring
Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore..

8 X 10 Tasveer, written and Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor is another Sci-Fi-Suspense-Thriller releasing this week. After the disastrous blow with Bombay to Bangkok, Nagesh Kukunoor tries his hand at thriller this time and succeeds to some extent. 8 X 10 Tasveer is entertaining and dumb too. Its a fairly new concept executed in a convincing way but doesn't really impress you much.

8 X 10 Tasveer's protagonist Jai Puri(Akshay Kumar) an officer with the Environmental Protection Society is gifted with a stupendous power of going back in time through photographs and watch the last few minutes of a person's life moments after the photograph is clicked replayed in his mind. But he can stay inside the photograph upto a maximum of 1 min after which he finds himself fighting for life. He's seen helping out people find their loved ones using this power of his. His dad's untimely death which is suspected as a murder by the funny detective Happi(Javed Jafri) is when Jai actually feels the necessity to find the events that lead to his dad's death through the photograph clicked moments before his death. The quest of Jai along with his fiance Sheela(Ayesha Takia) to find the actual reason behind his dad's murder is something that cannot be revealed and is left to you to watch out for yourself.

8 X 10 Tasveer is engaging and keeps you guessing almost till the end. The climax is where you feel you were let down and let down big time. I guess Nagesh Kukunoor totally forgot what he was making when he scripted the climax of 8 X 10 Tasveer. Its yet another movie that spoils the fun right at the end. But its definitely a good watch. Akshay Kumar is finally seen in something that's far from his usual slapstick comedy. He looks convincing after a long time. Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad and the others are ordinary. 8 X 10 Tasveer's script could have better had it been looked into more seriously. CC2C proved that only Akshay Kumar cannot run a movie with his charm and its holds good with 8 X 10 Tasveer as well. The marketing factor could also hit Nagesh Kukunoor's ambitions with 8 X 10 Tasveer. Had Nagesh done the climax well, it could have done the trick for him.

The music by Salim Sulaiman is ordinary. Remix version of "Nazaara Hai" being the most catchy one. The background music is impressive and goes well with the suspense part of the movie.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Nagesh Kukunoor's 8 X 10 Tasveer.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Aa Dekhen Zara

2009-03-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Aa Dekhen Zara, a Sci-fi action thriller first of its kind in Bollywood released this week with no other competitors at the box office. Directed by debutant director Jehangir Surti, Aa Dekhen Zara is a good watch with every ingredient rightly added.
The script is good not great. Being Neil Nitin Mukesh's second movie, ADZ is not a Johnny Gaddar and doesn't even come close. First half is absolutely engaging and keeps you on your toes right till the intermission. Like a few previous flicks,the script of ADZ too is let loose as the passing second half.

Aa Dekhen Zara's, protagonist Ray(Neil Nitin Mukesh) a photographer finds himself a camera left off by his dead grandfather which quite amusingly clicks photos, when developed shows the future of the people in the photos. During one such camera encounter is when he accidentally runs into Simi(Bipasha Basu) a DJ at a club. Ray adds color to his struggling life by the aid of the camera to win bucks through Lottery, Horse Racing and various other sources. He then starts living a polished life with Simi when fate strikes. He finds himself chased by both cops and Captain(Rahul Dev) to get hold of the camera. To add to Ray's agony is when, he finds out that he's going to be dead in a week's time and all he has is 7 days to find a safe place both for the camera and Simi. The events that lead upto the climax is for you to see it youself.

Aa Dekhen Zara is fresh and feels good. Second half of the movie is more of the typical Bollywood chases and makes you feel restless as it seems never ending.
All the actors are pretty decent but the performances are nothing to be excited about. Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu both look good together and their screen presence is felt right away.
Rahul Dev with his age old trademark negative role is spot on.

Music of ADZ is composed by Pritam and its average. Though nothing remarkable is seen in the Music Department, the album of ADZ is not a bad one.
Though being an above average watch, the trick that is going to work for ADZ, is the marketing factor which was done quite superbly and that is going to pull people to the theaters.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Jehangir Surti's Aa Dekhen Zara.

A good watch for this weekend.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Barah Aana

2009-03-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Firstly,Extremely sorry for reviewing the movie so late.

Written, Produced and Directed by Raja Menon, Barah Aana is an below average watch. The movie that claims to be comic flick doesn't even come close to making you laugh and the max that you can probably do is to smile at a few scenes. I cannot believe the fact that an actor like Nasserudin Shah is wasted in this movie. Barah Aana's script is extremely ordinary and execution of it is where Raja Menon goes wrong. His way of story telling doesn't impress but is sure to make you bored. This movie doesn't engage you for more than a stretch of 5 minutes at a time.

Barah Aana is a story of three poor and simple individuals Shukla(Nasseruddin Shah) a car driver, Yadav(Vijay Raaz) a watchman in a housing society and Aman(Arjun Mathur) a waiter at a restaurant. All their lives change when they involve themselves into a crime accidentally committed by Yadav. Both Aman and Shukla find their reasons of continuing the crime may it be Shukla's grudge against the Owner's Wife or Aman's attempt to save his love. And how the things lead up the climax is for you to watch out for.

Barah Aana is definitely a light comedy. A light comedy that makes you smile and nothing else. Barah Aana's soul are the actors in it. Vijay Raaz is the most impressive of the lot. He recreates the magic created by in him in Raghu Romeo(2003) that had him in the lead. He's funny and emotional. Arjun Mathur after petty roles in movies like Luck By Chance..etc, gets a slightly important role in Barah Aana and he does justice to the role completely showing his potential. He's good in every part of the movie. The setback of Barah Aana is the execution of the script. Its way too ordinary to make an impact. Nasseruddin Shah goes totally unnoticed which is quite rare for the actor of his caliber.

Barah Aana is an below average watch but not that bad after all.

I'll go with 6 out of 10 for Raja Menon's Barah Aana.
Thumbs down for wasting Nasseruddin Shah in the Movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Little Zizou

2009-03-13T03:13:00.000-07:00

Written, Directed and Produced by Sooni Taraporevala and distributed by Studio 18 Little Zizou just manages to make it to the above average category. Sooni has been a part of almost every Mira Nair venture right from Salaam Bombay to The Namesake. After such a vast experience with a different genres of movies, the expectation bar was already set high for Sooni with Little Zizou which does not even come close to the movies that she's previously worked on. Little Zizou is definitely a fresh script that simply is made for the multiplex audience. The movie is a little funny and a little emotional had it been funny or emotional completely, it would've done the trick.

Little Zizou is a story of 2 Parsi Families called the Khodaiji's and Pressvala's.
Cyrus Khodaiji(Sohrab Ardeshir) who claims to be a religious Parsi healer wanting to establish an liberation organization for the parsi's is often troubled by his parsi counterpart Boman Pressvala(Boman Irani) who owns a Parsi news journal and is against the values and principles of Cyrus Khodaiji and makes sure to print articles against him everytime.The youngest little boy of the Khodaiji family is Xerxes or Little Zizou(Jahan Bativala) a football freak who idolizes Zinedine Zidane and hopes to meet the football star if he ever toured Mumbai. His brother Artaxerxes(Imad Shah) an soft spoken artist and who visualizes life through his weird cartoons and dreams to build a Flight Simulator with his two other friends. The young little gal of the Pressvala's is Liana, who is clever and witty. The story just revolves around this subject and things go way too complicated when people react to the articles written by Boman Pressvala. The events that follow is to watch out for.

Little Zizou is a movie that could be watched once. It entertains you convincingly till the first half concludes but gets a little slow as you step into the second half. What is really good about the movie is, it keeps you with it till the credits roll. The two child actors Iyanah Bativala and Jahan Bativala steal the show. They're absolutely lovely and makes you love them as you watch the movie. They're naive and funny. Sohrab Ardeshir, who's seen mostly in ad-films gets his nod to show his acting skills and is impressive too. Boman Irani is very good as usual.
Dilshad Patel,Shernaz Patel and Imad Shah have their done their bit convincingly.

Music by Bickram Ghosh is ordinary and suits the subject of the movie quite well.
Little Zizou could be your movie for this weekend provided many releases this week.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou.
And a thumbs up to the two child actors of the movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

13B - An Average Thriller

2009-03-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

13B, produced by Big Pictures and directed by Vikram Kumar is more of a thriller with a slight hint of horror, is an average movie. 13B lacks the energy that a thriller movie needs to carry right till the end. Again this movie is engaging and makes you cling on to your seats only in parts. The script is let loose on most of the occasions.
However 13B doesn't disappoint once you're done watching it.

13B's protagonist Manohar(Madhavan)an civil engineer moves in to a new flat 13B with his family. Strange events follow, after their entrance into the building. Every event makes Manohar aware of the presence of something that's very unusual like the camera in his phone or the lift in the building. Till one day when he finds out that a daily soap on TV which starts siring at exactly 13:00 p.m resembles the story of his own family and how the family's future is dependent on the Daily Soap. A series of unpleasant incidents follow, making Manohar desperate to solve the mystery about the Soap and characters in it. He goes on to find out, how a family was brutally murdered in 1977 in their home which marked the same house number and address as his own apartment. The uncanny events that follow are something to seriously watch out for.

13B is an sincere attempt by the debutant director Vikram Kumar to give the audience a good movie but he just manages to make it a average watch. 13B's main highlight are the actors, who have done a stupendous job. Madhavan is absolutely spot on with a very good performance supported well by the rest of the cast. Not impressive but certainly good are the old creepy sound scares. 13B could have been better had there been no songs.

Music of 13B is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is nothing to be talked about. The music is ordinary and totally unnecessary provided the theme of the movie.
Background Scores by Tubby and Parik are definitely good.

At the end of the day, 13B is an average movie.
Go with no expectations and you may well like it.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Vikram Kumar's 13B.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge.

Delhi 6 : Absolutely Disappointing

2009-02-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

Delhi 6, a release from the UTV Movies and ROM Productions released today the 20th February worldwide. Directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Delhi 6 is a good film but it slightly leans towards being an average watch. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra fails to recreate the magic that RDB created 3 years ago. But again, he continues to point out the hard hitting reality and this time with Delhi 6 goes on to script a movie about the most common social- religious issue told in a very unique and special way.

Delhi 6's protagonist Roshan(Abhishek Bachchan) is an American born Indian residing in the city of New York. He decides on coming to India with his grandmother(Waheeda Rahman)following her bad health who desires to stay in Chandni Chowk of Delhi in her last years of her life. Here is where he meets Bittu(Sonam Kapoor) the daughter of an old family acquaintance who simply is the typical bubbly-traditional chandni chowk gal. Roshan goes on to experience warmth of the people of Chandni Chowk and the whole new culture. He too comes across the whole news saga regarding the "Kaala Bandar" or the "Black Monkey" that has become the talk of the town after the attacks killing people and injuring a few.
Now, the above few events are the only things that take up the whole first half of the movie making it engaging in very few parts.

The movie goes on to show, how the lives of the people in Chandni Chowk are disrupted due to the communal violence following a Sadhu's advice of building a temple in place of a Masjid claiming that a temple existed in the same place as the Masjid years ago. During these events is when, Roshan falls for Bittu. The whole set of events following the violence that leads up to the climax is certainly something that cannot be explained just because of the unnecessary things that's added on to the movie. Just when you feel the movie is getting better with the flowing second half, climax hits you and hits you quite hard. The climax of the movie is something that Rakesh Ompraksh Mehra will be asked and re-asked from the numerous people in the film fraternity about why he chose on such a weak climax which is really dramatic and that is more of a thing,that's hard to digest following climax of RDB.

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra though has chosen an unique way to convey the message to the masses through the whole "Kaala Bandar" thing but again annoys the audience with the too much of "Kaala Bandar" in the first half and the whole "news flash" about it.
Though Abhishek Bachchan occupies most of the screen time does a good job. But the highlight is Sonam Kapoor, and she's delivered sincere honest acting which every viewer is sure to like. Waheeda Rahman too does justice to her character. Om Puri, Vijay Raaz, Pawan Malhotra and Divya Dutta are quite exceptional in the movie providing some humorous scenes in the movie. Atul Kulkarni is the one actor who is certainly not used to his best potential after his flawless performance in RDB.

The music of Delhi 6 is very good.
A.R.Rahman again scores, with an amazing album. "Masakali" being the most liked and hummed one.

Delhi 6 is definitely an average watch after all the expectations from Rakesh Omprakash Mehra. He fails to reach to the level of his own best RDB.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi 6.
Could be your movie for the weekend.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

Billu Barber : Could've been better!!!

2009-02-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Billu Barber, this year's most expected release from the Red Chillies Banner simply turns out to be an ordinary watch. Directed by Priyadarshan, who's known for his Malayalam remakes in Hindi yet again fails to mark the everlasting impression on the audience. Billu Barber definitely looks like a sincere effort to make everyone like the movie. The movie starts off with low pace and just when you feel the movie is catching pace,the curtains are down.

Billu Barber's protagonist Billu(Irfan Khan) is a petty barber from the village called Budbuda who struggles to earn every penny but still somehow manages to make a living supporting his family. He's simple, humble and a character that everyone in Budbuda loves. His destiny changes when, the filmstar Sahir Khan(Shahrukh Khan) lands in Budbuda for the shooting of his film. Billu is then pestered by his children to go meet him,to whom he had once said Sahir Khan was his childhood friend. Things go out of hand when the news of Billu being the childhood friend of Sahir reaches every corner of Budbuda. Billu then refuses to accept the fact that he once knew Sahir, assuming that he wouldn't recognize their childhood friendship now. He's then mocked up by villagers for making such a fool of himself. The things leading upto him meeting Sahir Khan is for you to watch for yourself.

Billu Barber's heart and soul is Irfan Khan. He's quite stupendous in the very first commercial movie that claims to put him as the main lead. His funny, serious and emotional shades are quite perfectly done. He's bang on with his performance as always. The highlight of the movie is the acting of Lara Dutta who plays Billu's wife. This is when you actually come to know, how important the script and the character are in making an actor give his-or-her best. Lara Dutta is extremely good giving her career best in BB. As always,Screenplay and dialogues of Billu Barber are something that's a little carelessly done as compared to the previous release of Red Chillies OSO that scored almost in every department. Shahrukh Khan does his bit of acting convincingly. The actors like Rajpal Yadav and Om Puri are let down with ordinary dialogues, who still try creating humor that goes totally unnoticed. The movie lacks the energy that a typical Shahrukh Khan movie usually tends to generate. The special appearances by Deepika, Kareena and Priyanka is good but lets you forget as continue watching the movie. Though the money is spent lavishly on the sets, the film fails to deliver the expectations of the audience.
The Music of the movie is not appealing either.
Billu Barber scores an mediocre rating in every department.

I will go with 6 out of 10 for Priyadarshan's Billu Barber.

Not a must watch.
But go with no expectations and you might not be disappointed.

Dev D : Something Different

2009-02-09T13:27:00.001-08:00

Well, apologies for the late review.

Dev D,is a movie that definitely is not a Devdas. And it certainly does not boast about being in the league of the previous Devdas's may it be Dilip Kumar's or Shah Rukh Khan's. Dev D, is a fresh script and the characters are superbly written. Director Anurag Kashyap, has made a movie with a simple script told in a really complex way with the casting director being absolutely on target with the casting of every charcter. Dev D is no over the moon movie, but it simply justifies the fact that you do not need big stars to make a movie look good.

Dev D's protagonist Devender Singh Aka Dev(Abhay Deol) is a spoilt brat coming from a really well off punjabi family. Dev,arrogant yet so sensible falls in love with his childhood friend Paro Aka Parminder(Mahie Gill). Unseen circumstances lead to Dev losing Paro, who goes on to marry an close family acquaintance leaving Dev to his all time companion "Alcohol". Dev goes on to realize how much he actually loved Paro and gets completely into Alcohol-Drugs and Girls. Now during this phase is when he comes across Chanda(Kalki Koechlin), a prostitue through a local pimp Chunni(Dibyendu Bhattacharya). Dev finds comfort and lot of relief as he continues to spend time with Chanda letting out all that he ever had for Paro, both fall in love. Dev leaves Chanda no sooner his conscious pricks him about Chanda being a Sex Worker. Life again seems to take Dev for a ride as circumstances put him into some serious legal tangle. The things that follow is to watch for, which gives this movie a happy ending.

Dev D, definitely is engaging.. but only in parts. The movie is slow paced which might make the audience restless during certain parts of the movie. Dev D also has the real world touch to it, recreating the DPS MMS Scandal and BMW Road Rage killings in the movie. The man who steals the show with an impeccable performance is Abhay Deol. He is awesome throughout the movie making you cling onto the movie even in the most slowest of scenes.He is definitely showing his worth as an Actor. The performance of Mahie Gill and Kalki Koechlin is to watch out for. It definitely does not feel like its their first movie. They're too good for their first movie. And as far as the other actors go, they've delivered the goods quite perfectly. Dev D, is movie that shows intimate scenes of the movie differently and boldly. Music of the movie is average,the song "Tauba Tera Jalwa" being the most liked one.

Dev D simply lacks the pace that's needed, making it an average movie at the end of the day. And am quite sure about the fact that the movie will get mixed reviews among different groups of audience apart from the Critic's. Dev D is a movie that not everyone will like after watching it, as its so far from the usual commercial cinema.
I would suggest you to go watch the movie and see for yourself.
But still for people who're in a double mind, this is not a Must Watch.

I will go with 7 out of 10, for Anurag Kashyap's Dev D.
Ans two thumbs up for the freshness and the direction of the movie.

Not a Must Watch, but i suggest you to.

Raghav
Movie Critic
Writer's Lounge

Slumdog Millionaire : Awesome!

2009-01-19T19:43:00.001-08:00

Awesome!
Just Awesome!
Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that goes right into the absolute must watch category. Now am not telling you this, just because it won a few international awards or anything. This movie is something that you cannot afford to miss. This movie is based on a novel Q&A written by Vikas Swarup and it quite simply justifies the fact that movies could be as good as the books. Directed by British director Danny Boyle, and Co-Directed by Loveleen Tandon, Slumdog Millionaire is the final product which couldn't be made better. This movie is so flawless that you will be absolutely spellbound once you're done watching it. The script is something that is written with caution and attention to detail, writer Simon Beaufoy has done an exceptional job with screenplay of the movie.

Slumdog Millionaire's protagonist Jamal Malik who's on the verge of winning the indian version of "Who wants to be a Millionaire", is arrested and interrogated suspecting him of Cheating. Now the movie starts off with Jamal Malik being questioned by the police. As he goes on to clear his fairness regarding every question that he had answered in the reality show is something to watch out for. Frankly, I don't want to reveal anything else in the movie. Its better you watch it for yourself. The movie revolves around Jamal Malik and his elder brother Salim Malik, and the things they go through to reach to the situation they're in, is something again to be given to the writer. Jamal Malik played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanay Hemant Cheda and Dev Patel as Youngest Jamal, Young Jamal and 20-yr Jamal respectively. The youngest Jamal being the most impressive and loved of the three. The casting is again so good, that every actor fits into in perfectly. The roles of Latika and Salim are so well written that the actors do a complete justice to the characters. The camera work is the other thing which needs to be keenly observed. Slumdog Millionaire simply scores in every department that you can think of.

How can i forget Mr.Rahman? He's the other person who adds in that soul to the movie. He's created a beautiful album with tracks that could be liked by all age groups. Latika's theme, Jai ho and O..Saya being most catchy ones.

Slumdog Millionaire is something that shouldn't be missed whatsoever.
I confess on watching the movie after downloading it from the Internet. But after watching it i realized that the effort the people behind movie is something that needs to be appreciated. So am planning to watch it again in the theatre once its released. And i would strongly suggest you all to go watch Slumdog Millionaire in the theatre only. Such movies needs to be supported and appreciated.And as far as the few things that's being criticized about SM and Danny Boyle is the fact that they depict Mumbai as a large slum and nothing else. I totally agree with them showing a little too much about Mumbai that's not completely true. But yet again, Mira Nair did the same in 1988 with Salaam Bombay. Movies on such subject needs to be shot in the right way. So as far as the pleasing the western audience by Danny Boyle goes, thats not completely true!

I simply give it a 10 on 10.

And ten thumbs up for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire.

"MUST WATCH"

Chandni Chowk to China : Disappointing

2009-01-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

The curtains finally rose on the all hyped Chandni Chowk to China which released yesterday the 16Th January worldwide. CC2C is an movie with an sincere and desperate attempt to tickle the funny bone, but... it fails miserably. This movie Directed by Nikhil Advani goes impactless on the audience like his previous directorial venture Salaam-E-Ishq in 2005. Now at that point you can actually feel a lot better after watching Salaam-E-Ishq because of its music unlike CC2C whose music is pretty much ordinary.
CC2C's protagonist Siddhu(Akshaye Kumar) is a petty vegetable cutter at a food stall at Chandni Chowk owned by Dada(Mithun Chakraborthy) who's more like a father figure to Siddhu, who was brought up by him after being abondoned as a baby . Siddhu is innocent yet dumb,desperate to earn money and become rich, attempts some really weird things right from buying Lottery Tickets to seeking the help of astrologers and Palm readers to try change his luck. Fortunately or Unfortunately for him, he's recognized as an reincarnated Chinese warrior and taken to China to fight for the people against Hojo (Gordon Liu). And how circumstances lead to one another transforming him into a figher is something to watch out for. In this very country he comes across the twin sisters Sakhi and Suzy(Both played by Deepika Padukone) who have their own story recipe to be added into the already screwed up CC2C story dish.

2009 for Bollywood has definitely started off on a real bad note with CC2C totally disappointing the audience and not even living up to half the level of its expectations. CC2C is clearly dumb, illogical and funny is parts. What were the Sippy's Production House thinking when he approved of such a crap script from Nikhil Advani. After this movie, it really makes you wonder on the fact - did Nikhil Advani actually make KHNH. To top off such a bad movie is that "Warner Bros" are the distributors for this movie, that too first time in Bollywood. Don't think they'll come back again. For once, The promos of CC2C are far better than the full length movie. Music of the movie again going unnoticed and has a reason for it. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, extremely disappointing music which is not even close to Rock On!!.

But you cannot really take this off from Akshaye Kumar, he's extremely hilarious but only in parts. And watching only these parts of the movie, you actually feel like sitting through the complete movie. Deepika Padukone does justice to her role completely,acting out well both as Sakhi and Suzy. What can an actor or an actress probably do.. when the script itself is filled with such flaws. Can't believe Shriram Raghavan has written the screenplay of CC2C after the movie like Jhonny Gaddar which was an absolute perfection in the screenplay section.

I heard Akshaye Kumar saying in one of his interview's- "Leave your brains at home when you come watch CC2C". After watching CC2C, i seriously wished "I should have left everything at home before watching, or even probably stayed back at home totally".

I'll go with 4 out of 10 for Nikhil Advani's CC2C.
Ten Thumbs down for all the unnecessary hype.

You can let go this movie for the weekend.

Ghajini - Worth a watch

2008-12-28T22:34:00.000-08:00

Ghajini, a perfect remake complimenting the Tamil version of the same, that quite convincingly lived up to the expectation of everyone. Ghajini is a movie with emotions, suspense, revenge and adventure. Its a script where in every bit is meticulously done. The casting is one thing which is pretty debatable here. But all the actors deliver the goods with all the necessary ingredients with respect to every character. This movie's script is again kind off influenced by the English flick Memento. Its an influence and nothing else.
Aamir Khan doesn't need any special introduction, he's the Movie. An out of the world performance yet again. Aamir Khan plays the role of a Business Tycoon Sanjay Singhania, Chairman of a Big telecom company who falls in love with a small time upcoming model Kalpana played by the south indian actress Asin who was also a part of the Tamil flick of Ghajini. Some uncalled unpleasant circumstances leads to the death of Kalpana and resulting in Sanjay becoming a victim of amnesia- a short term memory disease, who cannot remember things for over 15 mins. Yet making him a kill machine on a rampage to kill his girl friend's murderer. During the way to his finding the murderer he comes across a Medical student Sunita played by Jia Khan who adds some spice and suspense to the script. Jia Khan does justice to the role by her simple honest acting. The performance of Ghajini - the murderer played by Pradeep Rawat is commendable making this movie perfect with respect to the acting department. Asin's acting is exceptional and her bollywood debut is going to be remembered.

Director Murgadoss doesn't disappoint anyone at the end of the day making Ghajini a worth watch, though the fights and few other scenes depict some peculiar south Indian flavour raising a few eye brows.
The music by A.R.Rahman is OK-OK! Not generating the usual Rahman effect. Guzarish being the most hummable.

Overall Ghajini is a good entertainer with a running time of 3 hrs 3 mins.

I would go with 8 out of 10 for Murgadoss's Ghajini making it a kind off must watch for all Aamir Khan fanatics.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - Scripted to Perfection

2008-12-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Rab ne Bana De Jodi is a movie which definitely brings back the old touch of YRF movies. And who else could it be apart from the king himself,who would bring the magical touch with such a impeccable performance. A performance that will be defintely remembered for years to come.

Shahrukh Khan plays Surinder Sahwni a pale-typical-middle-class-man working with Punjab Power marries Tanni a-beautiful-bold-fun-loving girl played by the debutant Anushka Sharma because of some uncalled circumstances and how life takes them from then on is something to watch out for. How well Surinder Sahwni tranforms to Raj just to impress his own wife Tanni becomes her partner in a Dance Show in which she wishes to participate changing his looks completely into a Fun-loving-jovial-cheerful guy. The character of Raj adds the right humor in the right ratio with emotions and romance. The icing on the cake is Vinay Pathak who plays Bobby-a close friend of Surinder adding on that extra flavor making the movie look even better. Anushka Sharma steals the show with a performance that every other actress should watch out for. Very Impressive in her very first movie. Overall a great package that us as an audience would love to watch. Aditya Chopra has directed another gem of a movie after his previous wonders DDLJ and Mohabbatein. Though still thought the Music could've been a lot better. "Haule Haule" being the most catchy of the lot makes you humm the tune till you reach your house from the theatres.

The movie is all about 1. Shahrukh's amazing act as always. 2. Anushka Sharma's refreshing performance. & 3. Aditya Chopra's directorial brilliance.

I would really suggest you to just pull any of your loved one and go watch this movie and you will be more than pleased after watching it though you might find some dull instances in parts. Entertainment Guaranteed.

And do stay till the credits roll. You've something more to enjoy.

Dasvidaniya - movie that touches the emotional string

2008-12-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

Dasvidaniya.. the best goodbye ever. Is that one movie which manages to pull down that tear you shed way back when you watched Aamir Khan's TZP. Dasvidaniya is one of its kind. Now damn you people who think this story is a lift off from the english movie The Bucket List. I can very well tell the writer may be just influenced while he was actually writing the story of Dasvidaniya and its nothing more than a influence. He's managed to write a gem of a script and another gem actor to compliment it. Who else could it be who could've played the role of Amar Kaul better than Vinay Pathak. He plays Amar Kaul, a 37 year old lonesome man who only has his mother as the person in his life. Following which he finds his sudden illness during its last stage. The movie starts pacing well, when he does all those things he ever wished to do once after finding out about his illness.

The characters that follow in his life after that is to watch out. Movies of Vinay Pathak do not end without Rajath Kapoor and Ranvir Shorey making their appearance and yet again all the three of them compliment each other. The roles of Amar Kaul's mother and his childhood love interest played by Sarita Joshi and Neha Dhupia respectively have done their bit convincingly. Its definitely the career best performance of Vinay Pathak. This is not the first time you've see him pull off a stupendous performance. He adds that extra quotient to the movie as he always does. The music is the icing on the cake. Kailash Kher provides that special touch of music which embraces you as watch the movie. Summing up.. Dasvidaniya becomes a must watch!!! Its a movie you're gonna remember for a long long time to come. High time Vinay Pathak is respected as an actor.

An obvious 10 on 10 for Shashant Shah's Dasvidaniya. (MUST WATCH)

Hulla - a movie that could've been better

2008-11-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hulla- a typical movie made for the multiplex audience with a touch of humor with an uninspired climax. Hulla is story of a Stock Broker Agent Raj Puri played by Shushant Singh of "Legend of Bhagat Singh" fame who has moved into a new flat with his wife but gets frustrated and looses his cool due to numerous incidents thats keep happening in his apartment.

This Movie starts off well and goes on pretty smoothly till about 40 Min's keeping the audience glued but looses its way right when you cross the 40min mark. Though the movie has its bit of good acting seen with Kartika Rane, Rajat Kapoor and Vrajesh Hirjee. Its got to be Kartika Rane who plays Abha-the wife of Raj Puri who actually seems pretty pleasant on-screen when compared to the other few actors. Not to forget some decent acting by the watchman played by Chandrachood Karnik. Got to mention, the music is by Indian Ocean which doesn't the suit the movie theme or even the movie's pace. I guess Indian Ocean are far better on Stages. The movie has a pretty depressing second half and ruining the audience's respect for the movie with some total unusual ending which actually shows you the loopholes of the story. Jaideep Verma the director could've done a far better job than what his end product of Hulla is. I would say its definitely a watchable movie. Watch it with no expectation and you won't repent spending your precious 110 Min's.

I'll go with 6 out of 10 for Hulla which i sincerely feel could've been much better.

Mumbai Meri Jaan - a movie with a soul

2008-11-30T04:23:00.000-08:00

Well this my first movie review.. Hoping to review every movie I Watch from now on ie 30 Nov 08.

Mumbai Meri Jaan... this a new movie produced by UTV Movies and directed by Nishikanth Kamath.

All you guyz.. go shelll out 80-100 bucks and watch this movie. Trust me.. you'll love every part of the film. Its so well scripted and directed. Every character so perfectly woven. It shows the agony and the frustrations of every mumbaikar after the blast. Paresh Rawal who portrays a character of a 60 year old policeman "Patil saab".. steals this show with commendable performance by Vijay Maurya..not everyone know him..he's this side actor who's not really noticed in most of his movies plays the role of a hot blooded constable "Kadam". I can actually sit and appreciate every character and every actor of this movie cos its simply superb!!

So all you people.. am doing my bit of advertisement for the movie because i simply think you all should watch it..!!

Ends with this beautiful track by OP Nayyar.. Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan... Zara Hat ke Zara Bach Ke,.. Yeh Bombay(mumbai) meri Jaan.

I'll go with a 10 on 10 for Nishikanth Kamat's Mumbai Meri Jaan just for the amazing script and some sincere performances.

About

2008-08-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome, to TalkingPopcorns.com!
We're more than happy to have you here reading our view on the movies that release every week.

Previously known as "Your Movie Critic"(http://www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com/) was the first movie review blog started by Raghav back in Nov 08' listed reviews of more or less every hindi movie that released during that period. Quite Recently he was joined by a close friend of his to review english movies and that was Taru Girdonia.

And this is what they have to say,

Engineers by Education.
But talkers by Profession!
Any movie & we will have a take on it!
Without our comments how would any movie be complete?
We are the critics!
We will give u the Good, Bad & the Ugly about all the new movies in town.
Watch this space for our next review!

Raghav Ramaiah
Hindi Movie Critic

Taru Girdonia
English Movie Critic

I would want to thank Mithila Ananth for all the blog designing that she's constantly been doing and the valuable feedback for better reading experience. You Rock!