Taare Zameen Par – Thats CINEMA in its purest form.

Words fell short as I start writing about this impressive emotional movie from “Aamir Khan” & his team. Unarguably the film deserves a standing ovation for its unusual content and for its near perfect execution. The impact I felt after viewing it was quite similar to what I felt after watching movies of great film makers like Bimol Roy and Guru Dutt.

Aamir Khan delivers what was expected from him, an out of the routine, emotional, memorable and enlightening film which is capable of bringing changes in the lives of many families. The film revolves around a boy who is facing difficulties in studies and his teacher who comes in his life as a morning breeze. The film emphasizes completely on the character of the child, his thoughts and it’s a journey into the imaginative world of his mind. The visual interpretation of what he is thinking is innovatively shot and is a visual treat to watch.

Aamir Khan is a thinking brain with a heart of gold and that he has proved with his directorial venture. He has the guts of following his heart and coming out with an unconventional film like this. Another merit of the film is that it is not preachy, it teaches along with providing the required entertainment to the viewers.

The film talks about a condition of a child who is finding tough to compete with his classmates but it never talks about it as a disease or a mental disorder to cure. Aamir focuses on the fact that we got to give proper attention to all kids as everyone has his own areas of abilities. He also pin points on to the parents who always want their children to score in their studies and just ignore the other aspects of life relating to art and culture.

Darsheel Safary, the eight year old child has given a stunning performance. He is not acting, he is emoting his character and has done his part so well that he even overshadows the subtle and cool performance of Aamir. Another actor to watch out is Tisca Chopra as the mother of the child. She is just perfect and makes you remember the motherly touch in your childhood days. The scenes of Aamir with the father of the child are the most effective in the movie. The lyrics of Prasoon Joshi are above than the music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. They both are more impressive while watching the movie.

In short, it’s the movie which should be watched as a compulsion by all parents along with their children (would be parents too) and also by all the teachers who should feel the responsibility they have towards each & every child they teach.

Concluding my review I would like to request my Indian film lovers that this is a movie which is meant to be watched without munching the popcorn and rightfully deserves a respectful viewing. Hats off to Aamir Khan and Thanks for giving us “Taare Zameen Par”.

The movie is simply above the star rating system……

Welcome – A comic of jokes edited together.

 

 

  

The latest in the inspired comedy series is this laugh riot which is full of stars. The basic plot is inspired from the Hugh Grant movie “Mickey Blue Eyes” (1999) & “Marrying the Mafia” (Korea). Even the hero’s profession is kept same as an art house auctioneer. But then the script takes on indianized plots and tries to make you laugh through comic sequences. No doubt the promotional packaging was superb which surely gave the movie a big initial draw at the cinema houses. But the content is rather not impressive and its like several comedy sequences joined together. The focus of the screenplay keeps shifting from one plot to another.

The biggest disappointment is that it has less of Akshay and the viewer keeps waiting for the scenes with his brilliant timing. There is more of Anil Kapoor & Nana Patekar as two dons. Nana is kind of same with his expected mannerisms but Anil is superb and acts like he is enjoying every minute of his act. He even looks a lot younger than his age. Feroz Khan looks graceful but is loud at some scenes. He has more scenes in the climax of the movie and is also introduced after the interval. The heroines are only there for the glamour quotient of the movie and could not ask for more in this heavy star cast movie.

The first half of the movie has many unwanted sequences which are only inserted to create laughter and have nothing to do with the screenplay. But the film gains momentum in the second half when Vijay Raaz enters as a phony film director. Infact in my opinion this plot of making Nana an actor in a fake film should have been the highlight of the movie, which could create more laughter’s in the cinema. The songs are all inserted as usual and only few are hummable.

The best part of the movie comes towards the climax after Katrina accidently shoots the son of Feroz Khan. The chase and the play with the dead body afterwards is surely hilarious. It is the main highlight of the movie as you get to see some quality comedy scenes and timing in this.

In all the film is not as expected but still will brings audiences to the cinemas due to the superb promotional packaging, immensely popular catchy title song “Welcome” and due to the current hot thing in Bollywood – Akshay Kumar.

Rating : 2 Stars 

 

Khoya Khoya Chand – Not so impressive journey of the past.

Its an attempted journey into the film world of 60s when writing was an important aspect of films and many writers became directors of their movies. The ambience of the 60’s film industry is captured rightly to some extent as its all mostly indoors and vintage cars. But the film does not impress and fails to make an impact. The viewer does not relate to the happenings and cannot feel anything for the characters. The story has its plots pointing towards the life of Guru Dutt, Gulzar & Madhubala.
The script before the interval seems like pieces joined together. It only gets its grip after the interval but till then the audiences have lost hopes. Its as if we are watching a well made documentary on how the films were made in the 60s and how the artists related in their personal lives.
After seeing the flick one is forced to believe that the casting couch existed in the film industry long time back too and everybody had illegitimate relations around them.
Performaces wise Soha Ali Khan tries her best which shows from her effort but she looks too young and immature to play the role. Her act is satisfactory but she lacks the depth demanded by the script. Shiney Ahuja is impressive but gets loud at some places. The best act comes from Saurabh Shukla as the punjabi producer and he looks superb and very enjoyable. The music is good but doesnt have any memorable song. Only the title song scores the highest among the all.

Overall its an average movie with insights on the Indian Film Making System. But surely much more was expected from Sudhir Mishra who gave us “Hazaron Khwaishen Aisee” & “Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin”

Ratings : 2 Stars
(Go for it if you want to take a look how films were made in the 60’s)

Dus Kahaniyan – Some work some not.

Dus Kahaniyan – Six Director’s 10 short stories in one film is the novel part which can be compared with “Darna Mana Hai” kind of movies. The only difference is that here “Its like seeing 10 short films at one go” as they are not related with each other and have no linking scenes. Here I will rate each story for you and that will give you the whole idea of the movie :

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The Best of 10 Stories
1. Puranmaasi (Amrita Singh, Minisha Lamba and Parmeet Sethi)
If this short story does not inspire our film-makers to look into our own literature in Hindi, Urdu & Punjabi for new subjects then no one can inspire us really.
Directed by Meghna Gulzar its based on the short story of Kartar Singh Duggal. The plot is so powerful and shockingly impactful that you feel surprised, why it was not adopted for a complete movie. The most impressive of the 10 and unarguably the best part of the movie. You will only remember this at the back of the mind after watching all the 10.

Other Good Stories
2. Strangers in the night (Neha Dhupia, Mahesh Manjrekar)
(Good use of surprise element, human touch and sensuality)
3. Zahir (Manoj Bajpai, Dia Mirza)
(You find it funny as you get to know the real thing though its quite serious)
4. Rice Plate (Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah)

Rohit Roy makes his directorial debut but chooses an inspired theme.
Though he does a fine job but the similarities with the short film “The Lunch Date” (1989) are really questionable.
Check out : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100076/plotsummary

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Below Average Stories
5. Matrimony (Mandira Bedi, Arbaz Khan and Sudhanshu Pandey)
(On Out of marriage Relations told many times)

This story is inspired from 1st Episode of SEASON 6 of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”

Titled : Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat

Check out at :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047708/episodes#season-6 http://www.alfredsplace.com/presents.htm

6. High On The Highway (Jimmy Shergill, Masumeh)
(About a drug addict couple..Not impressive)
7. Love Dale (Anupam Kher, Aftab Shivdasani and Neha Oberoi)
(Follows the “Darna Mana Hai” tradition with Ghosts)
8. Sex on the Beach (Dino Morea and Tareena Patel)
(This too follows the “Darna Mana Hai” Ghost thing)
9. Gubbare (Anita Hasnandani, Nana Patekar and Rohit Roy)
(Again on “Darna Mana Hai” lines)
10. Rise and Fall (Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty)
(Gang Fights and Stunts……Just Passable) (Alos an inspired one)

So with only 4 out of 10 watchable stories, it gives only average rating to the movie.

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Rating : 2.5 Stars

(Dont miss “Puranmaasi”, the story is the pride of our rich literature)

Aaja Nachle – Madhuri’s Return to Centerstage.

Aaja Nachle – Madhuri’s comeback movie could not create the ripples it should have in the movie world. The first thing which was not in tune were the weak promos and the weakest musical score for a comeback movie like this. If you see the movie, you will find that there are better scenes and dance sequences which should have been used to introduce the film in the market.

The story line and the basic plot has a striking resemblence to the theme of a Brazilian Movie called “Xuxa Requebra” which came in 1999 (http://imdb.com/title/tt0228778/), which was also not a well made movie.

 

In the whole movie Madhuri is the only positive thing to see and she keeps on trying to make it happening with all the artists. She still looks ravishing and can carry a whole movie on her own but she was not given the backup of a good script. The next best thing in the movie is Akshay Khanna & Divya Dutta, but they also have their limited scenes. The talented Irfan Khan is just wasted. The viewer never gets convinced or feels entertained while watching the movie. The writing is not upto the mark and almost all the scenes are weakly written which simply fail to impress. The only scene which i liked was the emotional breakdown scene of Divya Dutta and Irfan Khan in the climax.

The movie has the weakest start as Madhuri is straight away introduced in the first scene and that also in a song sequence. The climax “Laila-Majnu” concert is well executed but the melody required is not there.

The movie has a good feel but you dont get entertained which is a must for a good film.

Ratings : 2 Star Rating

(with special mention of Madhuri’s spirited performance)