Movies calling SainPri and Away they go.

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....