Rab-bing the wrong way!!

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)

Some movies are meant for pure entertainment. The things like logic and sense don't work in such movies. They are the symbol of true Indian Commercial Movies made just for entertainment. And the fact that such movies exist in Indian Filmography is very obvious thanks to our culture, traditions and beliefs. And such movies will continue to work in India, no matter you are in 2008 or 2080. This movie is an example of such movies.

The best part of this movie is the screenplay by Aditya Chopra. In fact, it is the only thing which makes this movie a one-time watch. The story lacks sense, logic and hold in several parts but still the way it is presented by Aditya is commendable. I believe that Aditya as a screenplay writer and a dialogue writer succeeds than he as a story-teller. The dialogues and the tactful presentation of scenes has been his forte in all his movies. Same was the case in Mohabbatein.

Anushka Sharma is the worst choice for the role of Taani. If the director wanted to cast a new face only, then he could have searched for someone better than her. She looks good and sweet but lacks the much needed serenity or emotions on her face for the role of Taani.

The music is RNBDJ's another plus point. Salim-Sulaimaan has done pretty well job. Haule Haule keeps on haunting you even after the movie. Tujh mein rab dikhta hai and Dance pe chance are soothing to hear. Even the shabad in the opening credits sounds too well. End credits keep you engaged for a while.

Yash Raj Movies are always technically sound. No wonder this movie has a good cinematography.

It's Suri's character which Shah Rukh has done very well. As Raj, we have always seen him. Such a performance was expected from him after being in the industry since so many years.

Lastly, as I said, logic and sense doesn't hold any grounds here. So it's fine if Taani fails to recognize Suri as Raj and falls in love with him. It's a Yash Raj Hindi Film. I am sure many are here to love such movie. Let them enjoy!

Rating: 2/5

Fashion (2008)

Rating: 3.5/5

Fabulous! Basically almost all of the Bhandarkar movies are my favourites. This one adds to the list.
I loved the movie. It's in typical Bhandarkar style. Cinematography is very gripping. And Priyanka does her part right. Oh man, she looks amazing throughout the movie! Another sensational character, Shonika is well designed and Kangana Ranaut is the best choice for the role. She's surely gonna win all the supporting actress awards next year! And is it true that almost all fashion designers are femnine or gay? At least that is what been portrayed in the movie.
Bhandarkar articulately brings out the face of fashion world with his high profile dramatic scenes and songs. His last movie, Traffic Signal was nice as well but not as good as Chandani Bar or Page 3. With this one, he has gone to his basics again and surely gonna bag awards next year. Go for it!

Saawariya (2007)

Rating: 2/5

Over-exaggeration of anything may result in a failure. And the best example of this statement is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya. It worked for Devdas since it had some mind-blowing performances and a soulful screenplay. It worked for Black since it had a brilliant theme and a purpose keeping the dumb-and-deaf people in sight. But it doesn't work here. There isn't anything new to see and the exaggerated art direction just puts you off. And the end result is an over-exaggerated play of love and emotions which lacks depth and soul.
The tragic end adds fuel to the fire. Why did he choose such an end? Does he wanted us to rave about his so-called gracious and delightful couple? The scenes slide one after another as if we're watching an extended version of Black. Music is no doubt, appreciable (Jab Se Naina, Yu Shabnami and Saawariya were brilliant!) but how does it matter if screenplay itself lacks soul?
The only positive point about this Bhansali's saga is the performances. No, not of Sonam Kapoor..she's cute and sweet but sadly, lacks the much required acting aura for the character of Sakina. Rani Mukherji comes out as a pleasant surprise, gets to the skin of the character and delivers a mind-blowing performance (and she doesn't cry a lot in this one!!). Zohra Sehgal is sweetest lady I've seen in the recent times...hats off to her performance which adorns the sincerity of her character. And yes, last but not least, Ranbir..who's charismatic..handsome..does extremely well. The shades of his father were visible in his oration. Definitely, a graciously inherited heritage of acting is his plus point. But it couldn't save the movie.
Silence...grand sets...and lots of drama doesn't always help. Bhansali lost this time.

Dostana (2008)

Rating: 3/5

It’s all fun. Music is hilariously best…appreciable work by Vishal and Shekhar. I wanted to see more of Kirron Kher who was excellent. And heyy, what’s up with Priyanka? I mean…she have always looked beautiful, but this time she is unbelievably awesome! She looks sexy, charming and elegant in each and every scene of her. A competent performance…though nothing more challenging for her to do but still looked and acted very well…this is definitely her year…Fashion…Dostana…no wonder you hear it next year…and the Best Actress Award goes too…
And all the fuss about gays and homosexuality…uff! I mean it’s nothing to do with it. Still Karan maintained, in his interviews, that the movie will change people’s perception about homosexuality. Really? Ho-hum!
John needs some acting lessons…and Abhishek was excellent. But anyway, first time ever the commercial cinema has at least dared to laugh on gays whole-heartedly. Fire, My Brother Nikhil were the serious attempts but commercially tanked. And I heard that NCP leaders are high on this movie too. Why? Maa ka ladla bigad gaya?

Arth (1982)

My Rating: 4/5

If you haven't watched this movie, then you have really missed something so important as far as Hindi Films are concerned.

The story is very much simple. You may feel that now but remember the year in which it was released and I would like to salute the writer-director Mahesh Bhatt for presenting and highlighting the issue of extra-marital affairs at that time!
It's a story about an extra-marital affair between Inder and Kavita, a popular film actress and the consequences of this affair on his marriage and his wife, Pooja. Kavita turns psychic and slowly starts feeling insecure about being in such an undefined relationship while Pooja leaves Inder's life to enter a life full of self respect, independence and dignity.

All the songs, be it Tum ye jo itna muskurarahe ho.. or Koi ye kaise baatayein.. are touching and heart-melting..Jagjit Singh and Kaifi Azmi deserves the credit which they got. Direction is too good and last but not least, the performances by almost all actors which keep you engaged till the end. Shabana Azmi delivers a flawless Pooja with such a calm and restrained performance. She excels truly in that party scene when she first faces Kavita. Kulbhushan Kharbanda plays the troubled man with much needed consciousness. Rohini Hattangadi and Karan Razdan are too flawless. But more specifically, I watched this movie for one actress and that is Smita Patil. Hat's Off to her!!! She has sparkled in whichever scenes she did and brought the warmth and craziness required to play an 'other' woman. Terrific performance by late Smita Patil.

Watch it if you haven't..at least for the peformances by Smita and Shabana..both truly compete!!

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna...

The other day, I happened to watch one of my favorite movies again on TV and it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black. There are many reasons why I term this as one of my favorite movies. Firstly, it was fabulously directed by Bhansali. Secondly, the story was touching, the background score was gripping and cinematography was marvelous. And lastly, performances! No doubt about a classic act from Big B. It was very much expected from him. But I was surprised to see Rani Mukherji as Michelle. I mean, it’s not that I was watching her in any movie for the first time. I had loved her in Mani Ratnam’s Yuva as well. But the way she has performed in Black left me speechless then in the theatre where I watched this movie for the first time and also this day when I was watching it on TV.

I can certainly rate and categorize Rani amongst those classic actresses of Indian Film Industry who gave an altogether different meaning to the word ‘Bollywood Herione’. Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Vjayantimala, Nargis, Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit are the most anticipated names of this category. They were Bollywood Queens. There are other ace actresses as well like Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Karishma Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai who made their best attempt to reach the topmost pedestal but weren’t very successful. Rani had the spark to reach the top. The performances she delivered in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hey Ram, Saathiya, Hum Tum, Yuva, Bunty Aur Babli, Mangal Pandey – The Rising and Black aren’t some jokes. Her last successful attempt was Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna but unfortunately it was the director of the movie Karan Johar who messed up the script and the film couldn’t turn out that well.

But what after that? Babul, Tara Rum Pum, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Saawariya were Box Office Duds. Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic turned out to be another good-for-nothing movie. Is that all from Rani?

The Low phase in career graph is witnessed in each and every actor’s career. Madhuri Dixit too experienced it in 1996 when her movies were simply failing to create the flutter. But don’t forget that Dil To Pagal Hai came in 1997 and Devdas in 2002. Actresses like Madhuri and Sridevi enjoyed a greater period of dominance in the industry. But look at Rani…it’s as if her career graph is going low and low.

The reasons are very much obvious. Rani’s association with Yash Raj Banner has done a lot of mess with her choice of selection of movies. Yash Raj Films are very much stereo-typical and Rani is doing similar kind of roles again and again without any variety like the way she did in Yuva or Black. Or is it that the air of the two consecutive Best Actress Awards which she received for Hum Tum and Black in 2005 and 2006 has gone in her head?

Is this the end of the empire of this queen?

Mind's play!

All the following thoughts are completely my own. It doesn’t have any scientific basis. It’s just a result of what I feel about the things going on around our mind and metaphorically, I relate it to a play.

Knowing one’s own self is as much a difficult task as cracking MBA’s CAT entrance exam! Probably more difficult than it…but it is really difficult task. Many people say that they know their self. They are close to their soul and are living a life full of happiness and content. I would like to appreciate such people’s thought process which makes them say so or feel so. May be they are really happy. But many-a-times, truth aren’t the one which we see. Nobody on this planet is happy with whole of his/her heart at the moments which pass by. Every one has some or the other kind of worry or grief which engrosses their mind. But the thing is that every one tries to find a possible solution of that problem or a probable fix on that worry making it feel that things are all right in their case. I call it as a play of mind.

Yes, I feel it is the play of this abstract thing of our body which is called as mind. It is the mind which makes us laugh, cry, think and ponder over the situations around us. And this is the same mind which makes us react and respond. Mind is an abstract entity of our body which makes us feel about our selves.

Many-a-times, we find ourselves in a pickle…in a situation which we’ve never expected us to be. We take some decisions in haste, not thinking about the consequences but just being what we think right. When we’re in a mob of people, it’s a mob psychology which works and rules. We never try to be someone different from the group in which we are, only because we want other people from the group to relate us. All this is a play of mind.

People find themselves in love and relationships; they decide for a commitment and at the end find themselves separating their ways. This happens many times, with many people. It is the fault of neither of the couple who goes through this kind of situation. It’s just the play of their mind which makes them do certain things which they could’ve done without. Most of the times, we blame it on God, our destiny or time. But, I feel it’s not the fault of any of these. It’s simply a play of mind.

Mind, though how abstract it is, is a stage and day after day, thoughts come and hover around it, sit on it, act on it and go away from it. A play goes on this stage. We act and respond accordingly. But if someone does some mistake, it’s not entirely his fault. Thoughts come and act around on his mind and they propel him/her to do certain things which could not have been done. And thoughts are the consequence of the situations and moments which we experience continuously.

But there are some people who have a control on this play. They try to be the orator of their mind’s play, try to anchor the thoughts and let them act the way their brain or heart tells them to do so. Such people think rationally and are said to have a control on their mind. Hence I say, knowing yourself is a difficult task. It requires observing yourself very closely with a keen and patient eye. Only such people succeed in anchoring their mind’s play. So, now you decide, whether you want to be the anchor of your mind’s play or a mere spectator?