It's just Saturday night and I have already watched 4 movies this weekend..whoa! That's almost a record. It started fairly innocuously last night with Blades of Glory on ABC family... Surprisingly good for a Will Ferrell movie. And it got over fairly fast too. So fast that we had time for another movie...we decided to finally watch Ishqiya, and that was very good (reviewed in the previous post).
Well, today started with some guitar practice and a lunchtime movie: Away We Go. John Kratsinski and Maya Rudolph star in a fresh, romantic comedy that looks at parenthood from the eyes of soon to be parents: Burt and Verona. It all starts with the sudden need to settle down somewhere when Burt's parents, their only family in the area, decide to move to Belgium. Verona thinks at 34 they are bunch of f-ups for not having settled anywhere yet in life. Burt keeps assuring her that is not so, but without a convincing reason.
They come up with an implausible itinerary and along the way meet: people who have had the life sucked out of them by parenthood, people who are not fit to be parents, perfect parents unable to have kids of their own and a recently broken home. Along the way through a series of realizations they come to the conclusion that there is no right/wrong way to parenting and have an impromptu wedding ceremony with a set of extremely cute vows.
John Kratsinski perfectly plays his Office-Jim nice buy(although unshaven) role with great conviction. His boyish concerns, though they belie his age, are extremely genuine and convincing. Maya Rudolph's Verona certainly wears the pants in this house and gradually leads Burt from husband to father.
Overall a 4.5/5 movie with an extremely convincing plot and a poignant message. We loved it.
Once the movie was over I had to rush off to guitar practice. Almost as a last minute plan we decided to go the movies (again!). I actually bought tickets for Amitabh's Teen Patti, but after looking at some bad reviews online and with a stroke of great luck, we switched to Karthik Calling Karthik which is the subject of what follows:
I don't want to reveal any part of the plot, so as to not spoil the experience for you. The movie is touted as psychological thriller. While the thriller experience is there in parts, it is certainly a movie anyone can watch. Farhan shines as Karthik the lead protagonist and portrays his inconsistencies, self doubts and failings extremely honestly. Boy, this man can sing, act, write and direct. He is truly the one man film industry of 2010 and seems to get better with every movie.
The movie has parts of what made me like Rocket Singh: portraying the contemporary without going overboard with cool. Their characters are certainly not made of cardboard. This growing list of movies that belong to new age Indian cinema show real people, whom you can almost reach out across the screen and feel. Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan should seriously watch these movies, take notes and try to improve their stuff.
Deepika as the female counterpart of new age Indian Cinema's Farhan/Ranbir and plays her part with consummate ease, neither hogging the screen nor playing the bimbo.
Overall a 4.5+/5 for a tight storyline and a "highlight of a career" performance by Farhan. Go watch it....
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Dil to bachcha hai jee
Bahut sune hum is picchar ka baare mein, par saala dekhan ka taim ich naahi mila.
And then yesterday I finally got around to watching it. I'd rate it a 4/5 for the originality of the story line and the treatment and depth of its characters.
Naseer as Khalujaan, the romantic, "culchured" and overtly optimistic father figure and Arshad as Babban, his "wham bam thank u ma'am", uncouth and pragmatic bhanja both fall for Vidya as Kisna, a "widow" who is very much the femme fatale under a damsel in distress garb. While Khalujaan and Babban are on the run from Mushtaqbhai (played by Salman Shahid, Pakistan's Naseer) , a villain to love, and seek refuge at Kisna's place, she has plenty of plans of her own. And in the end like any old Hindi picture each of them has a happy ending.
So where's the originality, you say? Literally every frame from start to end is original. Be it the ajeeb dastaan hai ye @ the start, the tota toti joke (btw if you hadn't heard it before, the end of that joke has the 2 pious totas [on seeing the toti] remark "Our prayers have finally been answered"), nandu and kaaki's characters and lines, naseer and arshad's onscreen chemistry and lines, naseer's flirting with vidya, ku-ku and the "beauty parlour" phone call irony, to name a few. And the very fact that the end is kept ambiguous is so unlike any Hindi triangle, where one guy has to get the girl. And they all seem very human and flawed, noone's willing to play the Rajendra Kumar of Sangam, if you get my drift.
The songs are nicely mixed, a good reflection of new age rural India. The commentary on Hindu caste war as a backdrop to the movie is also very subtly done. Overall the director, Abhishek Chaubey does ample justice to Vishal Bharadwaj's script, and largely tries to stay out of ur face and let these amazing actors weave magic on screen (pretty much what every director should do).
Last but definitely not the least: Dil to baccha hai jee is "the" song. Raahat sparkles yet again. I'm so looking forward to his concert @ Oracle arena in May. All in all I absolutely loved this movie.
There is this distinct possibility however, that you may not love the movie or it's pace and think that I'm smoking dope. If you do then I have only one thing to say to you
Bus na: aapka ishq ishq....aur humaara ishq.....
And then yesterday I finally got around to watching it. I'd rate it a 4/5 for the originality of the story line and the treatment and depth of its characters.
Naseer as Khalujaan, the romantic, "culchured" and overtly optimistic father figure and Arshad as Babban, his "wham bam thank u ma'am", uncouth and pragmatic bhanja both fall for Vidya as Kisna, a "widow" who is very much the femme fatale under a damsel in distress garb. While Khalujaan and Babban are on the run from Mushtaqbhai (played by Salman Shahid, Pakistan's Naseer) , a villain to love, and seek refuge at Kisna's place, she has plenty of plans of her own. And in the end like any old Hindi picture each of them has a happy ending.
So where's the originality, you say? Literally every frame from start to end is original. Be it the ajeeb dastaan hai ye @ the start, the tota toti joke (btw if you hadn't heard it before, the end of that joke has the 2 pious totas [on seeing the toti] remark "Our prayers have finally been answered"), nandu and kaaki's characters and lines, naseer and arshad's onscreen chemistry and lines, naseer's flirting with vidya, ku-ku and the "beauty parlour" phone call irony, to name a few. And the very fact that the end is kept ambiguous is so unlike any Hindi triangle, where one guy has to get the girl. And they all seem very human and flawed, noone's willing to play the Rajendra Kumar of Sangam, if you get my drift.
The songs are nicely mixed, a good reflection of new age rural India. The commentary on Hindu caste war as a backdrop to the movie is also very subtly done. Overall the director, Abhishek Chaubey does ample justice to Vishal Bharadwaj's script, and largely tries to stay out of ur face and let these amazing actors weave magic on screen (pretty much what every director should do).
Last but definitely not the least: Dil to baccha hai jee is "the" song. Raahat sparkles yet again. I'm so looking forward to his concert @ Oracle arena in May. All in all I absolutely loved this movie.
There is this distinct possibility however, that you may not love the movie or it's pace and think that I'm smoking dope. If you do then I have only one thing to say to you
Bus na: aapka ishq ishq....aur humaara ishq.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
