Just Married

Review : Just Married

Rating : Average (3.0/5)
Genre : All-in-one
Year : 2007
Running time : 3 hours 17 minutes
Director Meghna Gulzar
Cast : Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, Satish Shah, Kiron Kher, Mukul Dev, Sadiya Siddiqui, Tarina Patel, Raj Zutshi, Perizad Zorabiyan, Bikram Saluja

JUST MARRIED (JM) : Sweet, simple and very average

Another movie with a bunch of people on a bus. And again all honey-mooners. Or almost. This did remind me of Honeymoon Travels, but HMTPL was so much more interesting. HMTPL had many stories running in parallel, each of them being equally important. JM, on the other hand, is focussed on one particular couple Abhay (Fardeen) and Ritika (Esha) and the others are just there to support them or make a point for the script.

Meghna Gulzar in her second directorial venture after "Filhaal", in which she also tried to portray the sensitive side of an unusual story, tries to show us the bonding of two strangers after they're married. So, Fardeen is the affable, ex-NRI Abhay, and Esha is the pretty Ritika Khanna. Both harbor doubts about the arranged marriage system, but have not the gumption to question their parents outright. Thus, the duo find themselves at the wedding Mandap, and off honey-mooning to Ooty soon after.

Since they are veritable strangers, there is awkwardness and reticence, mostly on Ritika's part. In the film, she is supposed to be an educated (MA) girl holding down her first job. However, Ritika appeared to be what can only be described as painfully shy, something which I'd thought a job could cure you of (how do you work with people if you can't even look them in the eye ?). The director seems to substitute shyness for awkwardness. And while I can understand the awkwardness, I wasn't sure why Ritika was SUCH a shrinking violet.

Abhay's character is a nice guy and all, and he's making a real effort to allay Ritika's fears, whatever they may be. But I'm thinking - what about the guy ? It's his wedding too. Doesn't he have qualms ? What about his feelings ? Ritika and Abhay should have an equal awkwardness so to speak. And they don't. Once they get back from the honeymoon to the joint family home, I could think of Ritika's burden as heavier (the whole "the woman must adjust" idea), but at the honeymoon, just the two of them - no kith and kin to cause trouble - it should have been a level playing field.

The film thus moves along, very, very slowly. In the middle it got boring and I almost gave up hope. My husband didn't like it at all; he found Ritika and Abhay boring - as in boring characters. They weren't really smart, or snappy, or even energetic. They had no bright ideas, they didn't say much striking stuff. My take on that was that at that minute level, in the nitty-gritty of everyday lives, we are all boring people. But then, must you take the film down to that level, and should you be making a film that depicts that "boring-ness" ?

You can, theoretically. Will it work ? That's sorta up in the air. But to do it so that it sticks in your audience's head, and nobody can just wave it away as a simple little bit of fluff (which it is in JM) takes talent and/or vision. Which I'm not sure that Meghna, and Gulzar's daughter she might well be, has at this point of time. Most people I know have actually either liked this film, or are indifferent to it. No-one thought it bad. It's considered a simple story told simply. Not outstanding, not fantastic, not "oh my God what a movie it was". Just simply that it was nice and that was all it was.

I do think that the supporting cast were all very competent, and that’s added considerable sparkle to a film that could have turned to be as dull as ditchwater. There was Sadiya Siddiqui and Mukul Dev as a newly-wed, urban, Muslim couple, Satish Shah and Kirron Kher as an older couple with many years of married life, Raj Zutshi and Tarina Patel as the American-born/NRI couple, and Perizad Zorabiyan and Bikram Saluja as the very-much-in-love couple. Kher and Shah were, as reputation suggests, very good. And Esha, in mannerisms and acting, is very much her mother's daughter.

I do appreciate that we have now in Bollywood directors with varying sensibilities; our good fortune thus being that we now have a burgeoning “multiplex” genre - films that stray from the filmi-masala factory and tell different stories in ways yet unexplored in traditional Hindi cinema. Still not everyone that tries succeeds, and while Meghna Gulzar seems to be taking steps in the right direction, she isn’t yet there.

When she is, hopefully some time (soon) from now, we will surely have a much finer product than “Just Married”.

Ta ra rum pum

Review : Ta ra rum pum

Rating : Below average (2.8/5)
Genre : All-in-one
Year : 2007
Running time : 3 hours
Director : Siddharth Anand
Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Javed Jaffrey, Angelina Idnani, Ali Haji

TA RA RUM PUM : SLICK PACKAGE CAN’T SAVE THIS ONE

Another film from the director who made Salaam Namaste. And as I leave the theatre, I’m wondering how old the guy is. He’s actually 27 or more, I’m amazed to find. You’d think at 27 you’d make less juvenile movies. But no, TRRP proves me wrong.

I’d seen the trailer, so had a pretty good idea what the movie was about. If you’ve heard about it even in passing, you know it’s about car-racing – Rajveer Singh or RV (Saif) being the car-racer, who’s starts out as pit-crew but ends up behind the wheel when he accidentally impresses a racing team’s manger (Jafri). He also meets pretty young pianist Radhika (Rani), they fall in love and wedding pheras (sans Radhika’s Dad’s blessings) follow. A lovely modern house, and two precocious, annoying kids (Champ and Princess) help complete the suburban, desi, richie-rich package in Manhattan.

And all is well until (surprise, surprise) RV speeds into disaster at the race-track . . .

The film is set in New York, so nice, polished locales are a given. Plus if you’ve seen SN, you know the director pays attention to detail – clothes, sets the works. The film even features a cartoon character filled song. The story is the usual – happy-happy romancing, marriage and kids etc. and then problems strike. The film ran along it’s predicted path pretty tamely, and if I had to relate to you the entire story verbally, it would be a saga of un-ending sentences starting with boring “And then ……”s.

By the time the interval came, it seemed like eons had passed, and not a single emotion in that first-half had moved me – I had trouble believing, and sympathizing with the flaky characters. One does not feel for morons. Major flaws in Rani’s characterization – pre-marriage, she’s thrifty even being super-rich, and post-marriage the woman can’t open her mouth to tell her extravagant, “let’s pay for everything in installments” husband to straighten up. Plus being a parent, I was pretty ticked off with the whole “let’s not tell the kid’s we are poor” philosophy. Kids are smarter than that – they’ll cotton on. Yes, people make mistakes, and do dumb stuff, and my problem is not with the fact that Radhika and RV do all of that – what leaves me unmoved is that they have very few redeeming qualities.

Rani appears as a rich, college-girl majoring in music, in the first half of the film. Thus, I assume the choice of mini-skirts – which Rani can’t carry off at all (unless she majorly loses weight). She ends up looking dumpy. And that terrible, fusili-inspired hair-do didn’t help at all. What exactly was that supposed to be ? Delicate tendrils of hair framing her face? It widened her face, and she looked vacuous. Along with the mini-skirted bottom, she looked like a walking-talking cylinder – which is amazing because she’s a gorgeous woman and I’d imagine you’d have to try hard to make her look bad. Saif could stand to lose some weight too.

The kids, who were specially selected to play these roles, did well, considering the terrible, and sometimes very mature lines they were given – I’m thinking which kid actually talks like this ? Kids are mostly smart and interesting to talk to – why are they always so annoyingly ESP-ish on desi films ? Whatever credit is due in this film, goes to Javed Jafri as strongly accented Harry, and Rani who’s managed to imbue this improbable role with some sincerity. I didn’t feel Saif in this film at all, no spark, no sizzle, and his sweat-encrusted face (in his helmet) was a total turn-off – he looked like he had cold sores all over his face. Plus the name RV – when I hear RV, all I can think of is recreational vehicle (the kind SRK drove in Swades).

The second half is just about tolerable, and that’s a relative measure because the first half left me indifferent. Tepid, very tepid, and in retrospect something I wished I hadn’t watched.

Teen Deewarein

Review : Teen Deewarein (3 Walls)

Rating : Above average (3.8/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2003
Director : Nagesh Kukunoor
Cast : Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Gulshan Grover


TEEN DEEWAREIN : TWIST IN THE TAIL !

I'd heard a lot about this film, and everyone pretty much gave it rave reviews. And while Kukunoor has proved to be quite adepting at presenting stories on the screen (Dor, Iqbal), he is not quite the director, yet. Expecially when he casts himself. Still, this is an interesting film, and well worth the watch.

The film is about 3 convicts on death-row, and a film-maker Chandrika (Chawla) who comes in to interview them and get to know more about their lives and compulsions. There is Jaggu (Shroff) a philosophical almost-poet, who believes he deserves to be hanged and that death is his atonement. There is Nagya (Kukunoor), who tries to convince everyone he knows that he hasn't committed the crime he's going to be hanged for. Hope is what his life hinges now, believing that one day his truth will come to light. The 3rd convict is Ishaan (Shah) a small-time con-man, who's gotten an accidental death on his hands. He seems the most unrepentant of the lot.

Chandrika follows them around their daily chores, talks to them and films them talking about their lives and their guilt. The wife of an abusive man, Chandrika also has her own problems to deal with. But as Ishaan discovers later, Chandrika has motives beside the obvious for choosing to dissect these three convict lives . . .

The story has quite a few twists and turns and unexpected connections. This de-glamourised film is presented sans frills (no song and dance routine here) and is stark and at times brutal (like the scene where Chandrika's husband tells her he wishes that she was a bit more attractive). The actors do a competent job, although I could have done without Kukunoor as Nagya; it's not that he's ineffective, his acting just lacks the punch which comes with a strong delivery.

The script and screenplay are fairly strong, so the film holds your interest, although if you've watched other Hollywood convict films (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) you might not be quite as enthusiastic as a greenhorn.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Review : Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Note : The edited version of this review appears at Planet Bollywood

Rating : Good (3.85/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Rima Kagti
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Diya Mirza, Kaykay Menon, Raima Sen,Abahay Deol, Minissha Lamba, Vikram Chatwal, Sandhya Mridul, Ranvir Shourie , Boman Irani, Amisha Patel, Karan Khanna


HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT. LTD. : THE FEEL-GOOD FILM OF THE YEAR !

Finally ! After wading through the duds of 2007, this film is one I actually enjoyed watching. I had expected HTPL to be good, seeing that it came via young producers (Farhan & Zoya Akhtar) known for their different film treatments. And it is – it’s different, fun and quirky, weaving together the stories of 6 couples on their honeymoons on the same tourist bus.

There are old-timers Nahid & Oscar (Shabana & Irani) on their second marriages, reflective and forgiving of live. Then there’s the Gujrati couple Hitesh and Shilpa (Ranvir and Diya) who can’t get anywhere near each other without scrabbling, the super-compatible Parsi couple Aspi and Zara (Abhay and Minissha), and the oddball NRI husband Bunty(Chatwal) with his desi, fun-loving wife Madhu (Mridul). Kaykay Menon plays an uptight and insecure Bengali man Partho very much in love with his beautiful, free-spirited wife Mili (Sen). And rounding off the sextet are the Kapoors, the Punjabi couple comprising of talkative Pinky (Patel) and contemplative Vicky (Khanna).

This is a fantastic cast – everyone fits their characters right down to their accents – do note Ranvir Shourie introducing himself as “Hites” and wife as “Silpa”. The film starts off with the start of the bus journey, and Kagti throws us a couple of red herrings, like Shilpa crying her eyes out at going on the honeymoon. Then there’s a opinionated bus driver, and a mysterious motor-bike, rider following the bus. And while everything looks lovey-dovey in the beginning, with familiarity and time, problems crop up. Kagti deals with each couple and their quirks without letting go of the momentum, and ties together each story nicely into the larger narrative.

This tale is firmly rooted in reality, in that it’s finally about what one wants out of one-self, one’s significant other, and life. However Kagti is not above taking forays into the fantastic, adding to the pep quotient, and giving us wonderful snippets like Pinky rising out of fur-lined clam-shells, and a demure wife beating the crap out of hoodlums while her husband watches open-mouthed. I was at times amused, at times surprised, at times moved, and at other times laughing my head off. All in all, I was thoroughly engrossed in these honeymooner’s lives, feeling for them, and wishing them all happiness.

The sound track of this film is gorgeous. From the delicate “Halke-halke” (sung by Bombay Viking Neeraj Sridhar) to the foot-tapping “Sajnaji”, vocalized by Sunidhi Chauhan, the songs suit the mood and situations of the film. Direction is good, and the film veers from the beaten track in that it is not afraid to experiment and take chances. The script while banking upon that old adage “Truth is stranger than fiction”, mixes the real with the ludicrous and the funny, and doesn’t hesitate to laugh at itself. Something which very Bollywood films do, and do well.

To sum up, this is a clean, fresh, and enjoyable film, moving away from the clichéd old Bollywood formula. If this is Kagti’s debut as full-fledged writer and director, I eagerly await her next offering.

Namastey London

Review : Namastey London

Review : Namastey London
Rating : Average (3.2/5)
Genre : All-in-one
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hrs and 17 minutes
Director : Vipul Amritlal Shah
Cast : Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Rishi Kapoor, Clive Standen, Upen Patel, Nina Wadia, Javed Sheikh

NAMASTEY LONDON : Just about tolerable


After the nauseating Waqt Shah returns as director again. This time with a love story. Take a Brit girl, a Funjabi boy, the girl’s fat hypocritical father, and the boy’s caricaturized Pindi family, and what have you ? You guessed it. Namaste London.

Gorgeous and leggy Katrina Kaif appears as Jasmeet or Jazz, the very-British daughter of a very Indian father Manmohan Singh (Rishi Kapoor). With her ability to down several shots of vodka, and conjure up ex-boyfriends and memories of oft had one-night stands, she is adept at scaring away all the good desi boys, her parents try to arrange for her. However when she really gets serious about her thrice-divorced, English boss, Charlie Brown (Clive Standen), Dad gets worried enough to spirit her away to India under the guise of a sight-seeing vacation. Only being a typical desi Dad, he’s actually planning to get her married to the first “achha ladka” he can lay his hands on. Thus starts a series of “boy viewings” where we are introduced to men obsessed with Indian Idol, the saas-bahu serials, and over-analysis.

Jazz is vastly amused but really starts to feel the pressure when Dad carts them all to his home-town in dear old Punjab, and everyone begins to drown in a surfeit of the two staples of clichéd Punjabidom - desi ghee, and tall glasses of lassi. Enter the son of the household, the local Jat, Arjun. Resplendent in a pink kurta, Arjun not only helps repair Manmohan’s stranded car, but is also skilled at serenading Jazz, in full view of her father. His masculinity thus established, he becomes the apple of Manmohan’s eye, and Manmohan decides that this particular Neanderthal is just the man for Jazz. Jazz of course, thinks otherwise . . .

Life is full of truths one must accept. One of them is that this film lacks logic, and one must not tax one’s brain with finding intelligence where there is none. The film’s characters are black and white, no greys here. No common sense either, for that matter. The film’s story or plot if you will, has such gaping holes, that at the end of it all, I was amazed that Shah had managed to make a cohesive film of it.

Inspite of all that, this is a tolerable film. The first half was better, because in parts it was funny (all the prospective bridegrooms and their fetishes) and in other parts ludicrous – which is also fun. Plus when exactly are digs at the mustard fields of Punjab not successful ? Katrina as Jazz is all that and more. Akshay as the Punjabi Jat, carries off the pink well, and displays some of that admirable comic timing which make him such a good fit for these kinds of roles. Rishi Kapoor has put on even more weight; I can now safely call him rotund. However credit is due and deserved by the entire cast for handling such incongruous and sometimes lapsing-into-stupidity roles with ease.

The second half of the film sank into the melodramatic, with lots of patriotic fervor thrown in. The film then relied heavily on it’s main principle – that of the glorious culture of the motherland. India/Pakistan are portrayed as salvation for the cultureless immigrants. Have a wayward son/daughter ? Go to India and all ills will vanish and even the most Brit.-inflicted child will be saved ! Pub hopping, vodka-drinking women harboring intentions of independence will metamorphose into butter-churning, domesticated, coy Punjabi maidens, ever ready to hop onto tractors driven by their manly men. Your son ready to switch religions for some gori mem ? A spell in Karachi should change his mind !

Another reason that despite it’s flaws, this film was watchable, is that the humor (except for one particular joke which was beeped out, but displayed very clearly in the sub-titles) is not of the vulgar kind. No sniggering at women’s chests, no sexual innuendoes etc. Yes, you have your doses of women being shown their “rightful” place – like the scene where the formal marriage decision is taking place and Jazz and Arjun sit opposite each other. Arjun’s grand-mom asks him to look at Jazz carefully – so that he won’t complain later. She also asks Jazz if Arjun is acceptable to her – but that’s in a very different tone, like taking her answer for granted. After all which girl wouldn’t want a crude, unsophisticated Jat for her very own ?

The direction is fairly OK, although the music is nothing to write home about. The only song that I actually liked was Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Main jahaan rahoon”. To put it bluntly, this film will succeed commercially because of Akshay’s bankable charm, Katrina’s statuesque beauty, Rishi Kapoor’s conviviality, and a story which despite it's rough edges is enough of a romantic tale to sway the junta.

Dil Chahta Hai

Review : Dil Chahta hai

Rating : Excellent (4.6/5)
Genre : All-in-one
Year : 2001
Director : Farhan Akhtar
Cast : Aamir Khan, Akshay Khanna, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Dimple Kapadia, Ayub Khan, Sonali Kulkarni, Suhasini Mulay


DIL CHAHTA HAI (DCH): A Classic for you & me


Watched DCH for the nth time, this time courtesy Star. DCH came in 2001, and makes the #1 spot in my Top Ten List for that year. I thought I remembered it quite well, but turns out I didn't. And the film that this is, I didn't just watch it in passing - you know how it is with older films on TV, you kind of walk around doing stuff around the house, and view the film in bits and pieces - I actually got into bed and watched the film, advertisements, interruptions and all.

Ever wondered what problems the rich and urban have ? You know, no dal-roti woes, no how-am-i-going-to-pay-the-rent and where's my next paycheck coming from ? Well, DCH gives you a pretty good idea. It's a story of three friends, young, urban, and veritably rolling in the moolah. Or atleast one of them.

Aakash (Aamir) is the Benz-driving, happy-go-lucky son of a really wealthy family. Which means that besides having a big-screen TV in his bedroom, perpetual vacations, and the Sony laptop he totes, he's also got typical desi parents who are worried about what he's doing with his life. His friend Samir (Saif) is another young 'un, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and is perpetually falling in and out of love with pretty young things, as time and fancy takes him. Siddharth or Sid (Khanna) is the ultra-sensitive one of the lot, an artist by demeanor and profession, and the son of a single working mom (Suhasini Mulay). His problems are vastly compounded when he falls in love with an older divorcee (Dimple Kapadia).

All three live comfortable lives, and have fairly reasonable parents. Aakash's unfocussed life changes when, under parental pressure, he must lend a hand in his Dad's business abroad, while Samir, the romantic, must face the horrifying prospect of an arranged marriage wih Pooja (Kulkarni). Sid must sort out his feelings for Tara. Aakash leaves for Australia, Sid remains busy with his art, and his fascination for Tara, and Samir tries to steady his emotions when he spies true love on the horizon. The friends scatter, but does their friendship hold ?

Farhan Akhtar in his debut as director chooses impeccable actors; not only do the lead threesome fit the characters to a T, even supporting roles such as Mulay's are potrayed superbly. Aamir is as Aamir almost always is - fantastic ; just the right amount of confidence blending in with the half-cocked sense of humor make Aakash a charismatic character. Saif as Sameer displays admirable comic timing, and makes the perpetual-Casanova thing almost believable. Akshaye as Sid, looks artistic; soulful, searching gazes and all, and presents the perfect foil for bluster-filled Aakash and romantic Sameer. Preity as Shalini, looked oh-so-young, and fresh, and was wonderful as the beautiful young woman Aakash yearns for but cannot be with. Sonali Kularni in a small role as Pooja, is cute. And Ayub Khan as the possesive fiance, is very good too. Kapadia is gorgeous as Sid's muse, Tara.

A good film is made even better with the kind of music Shankar-Ehsaan and Loy provide. From the enthusistic "Koi Kahen", to the wistful "Dil Chahta hai", and even to the sad "Tanhai", each song is beautifully scored and apt. The comic nature of finding perfect love is celebrated in "Woh ladki hai kahan ?" . Direction is taut; one is always engrossed - taking bathroom breaks is unthinkable. With expert cinematography and dialogues that are so every-day and natural, you and I could have spoken them, Akhtar weaves it all together seamlessly.

Let me say, with an unprejudiced (hah !) eye, that I consider this film a modern classic. Although this is a very, very urban film, and is a sure hit with the metro crowd, this will also go down well with the youngsters in smaller towns. Because it's youthful, exhuberant, and in it's own inimitable way parodies every-day worries and anguishes of finding one's way in an uncertain and turmoil-ridden world. Whew, that done, I'll tell you that this is an engrossing, fun film. It celebrates. It engages ; I am drawn into the story, moved by Sid's self-less love, laughing at Sameer's zany escapades, and sorrowful at Aakash's anguish. Above it all, the friendship and the camraderie between the three friends shines through - have we all not wished for friends like them ?

If you haven't seen it yet, make haste to the nearest movie rental place. Hurry ! Go ! Now !

Traffic SIGNAL

Review : Traffic Signal

Rating : Average (3/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : 2 hrs and 20 minutes
Director : Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast : Kunal Khemu, Konkona Sen-Sharma, Neetu Chandra, Sudhir Mishra, Ranveer Shourie


TRAFFIC SIGNAL : DAMP SQUIB !

Another Bhandarkar film. Another film on stark reality. This time on the ubiquitous traffic signal - the one we pass by in a fleeting few minutes. The film looks closely all the people who depend on the traffic signal for their livelihood. A little about each character, their lives, loves, struggles.

Silsila (Khemu) is the "manager" of one traffic signal, that is he collects the "hafta" from each signal squatter plying his trade. There's Tsunami, a little scavenger boy, hoping for news from his parents lost in the tsunami, there's Rani - a Gujrati girl selling ethnic clothes on the sidewalk, and there's Dominic (Ranvir Shourie) - a drug addict and the prostitute (Konkona) who feels for him. Then there's Silsila himself, who's an orphan, and reports to Jaffer bhai the local goon.

Jaffer bhai in turn reports to Haji (Mishra) the leader of the local mafia. And the hafta, from each traffic signal and territory Haji controls, seeps upward to the politicians. Life is routine, until Silsila and Jaffer bhai get caught up in a chain of events which threatens the very source of their livelihood - the traffic signal itself, and Silsila must either remain mute with fear or protest . . .

Bhandarkar's earlier films – “Chandni Bar” and "Page 3" were stunning in comparison to his later products. His work further spirals downward with "TS". The film suffers from a lack of plot; it's more an ode to the Traffic Signal than a film. Bhandarkar could have written a poem instead of making this film, and it would have suited me just fine. The action/plot (so to speak) appears in the last half hour, too late and too weak to make it worth the wait. While the look into the lives of the Signal dwellers is interesting in a documentar-ish fashion, it does not make for engrossing cinema.

The acting is good enough; with some briliant acting going to waste. Konkona and Shourie's characters don't impact the story in any way - which is such a pity. Kunal Khemu is OK, as is Sudhir Mishra. The director takes pains to etch out the characters, and to introduce us to the grimy underbelly of Mumbai's street-dwellers. However this concept of street-side character vignettes doesn't work without a compelling story.

A very, very average film; a DVD rental might be best.