Black (Hindi, 2005)

(review written in 2005)

Bollywood has arrived. When mainstream movie makers like Bhansali get top stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee in a movie and then go ahead and make a movie which does not conform to the standard categories of romance, action, suspense and so on; a movie which does not have even one of the the mandatory five songs of Bollywood movies; a movie which is based purely on the acting ability of its two protagonists; a movie which forces you to think without preaching; a movie which is about hope and despair together - then you have to say - Bollywood has arrived. And unlike my last sentence, the movie is quite short by Bollywood standards - just 2 hours. And not one moment of those two hours is your mind distracted from the screen. The brilliant role of a blind-deaf girl essayed by Rani will leave you spellbound. It will not ask the non-handicapped out of you for pity, or support, or even understanding, it will not preach to you to go out and donate to the local handicapped support association. It is the story of a handicapped girl taking charge of her life, and the enabling of this action by a determined and dedicated teacher. Amitabh surpasses himself in the role of God in the movie, for that's what all of us have been taught as children to treat teachers as.

In writing this review, I wanted to compare the acting levels to some good movies in Hollywood. However, I can't. I can't recall even a Hollywood movie where the acting has been so high class. Amitabh today can confidently stand at par with Anthony Hopkins and Jack Nicholson in his acting calibre.

What I can recall is a Sanskrit shloka (verse) that came to my mind while watching the movie गुरूः ब्रह्मा गुरूः विष्णू गुरूः देवः महेश्वरः गुरूः साक्शात् परब्रह्मः तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः (My teacher symbolizes GOD and the Holy Trinity, to such a teacher, I bow my head)

What I am hoping now is that the Indian audience will appreciate the film. I am also hoping that some newspaper would be printing an article on some girl who is the real life Michelle MacNelly or some teacher who is the real life Mr. Sahai, the names of roles portrayed by Rani and Amitabh respectively. I am praying that my India is already at a level where such things can happen.

Recommendation: See it in theaters, and then on DVD.
Rating - ✔✔✔✔✔

Swades (स्वदेश)(Hindi, 2004)

Had gone in with mixed expectations.

What I knew before the movie - Shahrukh Khan in a role which is neither lovey-dovey like DDLJ nor intense like Darr. Ashutosh Gowariker's second movie, with the expectations set by Lagaan to meet. A story which is modern but hackneyed. Good Songs. A new heroine.

What I know after the movie - Shahrukh Khan can act in subdued roles also. Lagaan was Lagaan, no comparison. Ashutosh Gowariker IS a good director. The story IS hackneyed. Songs ARE good, if you like poetry. The new heroine is good enough if you are talking just about looks, don't even start talking about acting talent. If you want to see this movie, see it as a study of stereotypes. See it if you are interested in a collection of characters like I-am-an-Indian-girl-in-India-and-anyone-who-does-not-leave-cities-and-stay-in-villages-is-a-good-for-nothing or I-am-an-Indian-villager-and-proud-of-our-cultural-heritage-and-will-oppose-anything-just-for-the-sake-of-opposing and I-am-of-lower-caste-and-must-wait-for-a-Brahmin-to-uplift-me and so on. See it as an art movie. See it for moments like the beautiful choreography of the lead pair's eyes in the dhoti wearing scene. Ignore the messages the movie is trying to convey if you think they are shallow or they make you think you are shallow. Ignore if you feel some people are overacting. Ignore if you think the movie is too long and putting you to sleep. Ignore if you don't see any logic in the actions happening on the screen. It's not about logic, or messages, or pure-fun-cinema. Its about..... I don't know.

Have come out with mixed feelings.

In Summary, the movie begins well, and then fizzles out.

Recommendation: Worth seeing once, but can wait for the video release.
Rating - ✔✔✔

Chup Chup Ke (चुप चुप के)(Hindi, 2006)

To begin with, let me make it straight. Chup Chup Ke is not a great movie. It will not be counted as one of the memorable events in the history of Indian cinema. As a comedy, as a drama, as a romance. Simple.

Having said that, if you are able to control your laughter in the first half of the movie, if you are able to hold on to your sides and not fall over the aisles in fits of laughter, you must be German (Though the last German I met was quite funny). The movie belongs to Rajpal Yadav. His comic timing is unparalleled. In a film with stalwarts like Om Puri and Paresh Rawal, with stars like Shahid Kapur and Kareena Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav steals the show. His every dialogue involves you in the film and you are always left wanting for more.

The movie starts crumbling in the first 5 minutes of Rajpal Yadav being off the scene. Decent enough performances by all other actors are unable to save a movie which has no story, no presentation and a concept of love as antiquated as the crumbling walls of Purana Qila. Here's how the script was written, most probably. Begin with a hero. A nice sweet and naive hero (Shahid Kapur). Lets put him in some problems. Debts from failed business initiatives. What to do now. Let him jumps in sea so his family can claim insurance. Can't kill the hero, of course. Introduces a fisherman (Paresh Rawal) and his sidekick (Rajpal Yadav). Introduce more characters. So the fisherman is in debt of local businessman, Om Puri. Add some family drama. Om Puri has a big family, which of course includes the heroine, Kareena Kapoor. Some more drama. Kareena Kapoor is mute. Introduce hero to heroine's household. Add some gags on perceived identities, handicapped people, fake handicaps etc. So far so good. What to do now? Develop love interest. Twist. The ex-love interest is waiting back at home. Twist. Heroine has a brother who will kill if anyone cheats her sister. Twist. Heroine sacrifices for ex-love interest. Twist. Ex-love interest realises heroine is mute and sacrifices saying "आप उसके जीवन में उजाला ला रहे हो मैं बीच में नहीं आऊंगी" (You are bringing hope to a handicapped person, I will not come in your way). Sick!!! Audience is almost puking by now, thankfully movie ends.

Recommendation : See it on DVD, and please shut it off just before the interval.
Rating - First Half ✔✔✔, Second Half ✘✘✘✘

Krrish (क्रिश)(Hindi, 2006)

आओ सुनाऊं बोरियत की एक कहानी
फ़िल्म इतनी पकाऊ कि याद आ गयी मुझे नानी

I so, so wanted to write a "Indian cinema has arrived" review to this movie. A major fan of superheroes, a major fan of the kind of cinema which makes you forget the limitations of world around me, I had been eagerly awaiting the "Indian Superhero" movie. Koi Mil Gaya had given Hritik a chance to show his acting skills and he had performed A+, so was looking forward to the same magic. Alas, it was not to be.

The story - It is debatable whether the last Chacha Chowdhary comic book I read was more imaginative than this or not, but certainly the film fails to rise anywhere to an intelligent level. The plot goes like this - the powers which Jadoo gave to Rohit in Koi Mil Gayaa are passed on to his son, Krishna (Hritik Roshan) through birth. Rohit has supposedly died in an accident while his mother (Rekha) believes he has been killed and hence hides her grandson and his powers from the world in a remote mountain village. One day, Priya (Priyanka Chopra) comes to that village and Krishna falls in love. Priya gets Krishna to travel to Singapore with the intention of showing his powers on her news channel and hence getting a promotion. Krishna goes to Singapore, takes on the mantle of a masked superhero Krrish, finds out that his father is not actually killed but is being held hostage by an evil entrepreneur (Naseeruddin Shah), and takes revenge for his father, all this meanwhile singing a lot of songs with Priya and making her fall in love with him.

The performances - Great Actors, all wasted. Naseer, were you under some debt from Rakesh Roshan that you had to do this film? And Rekha, forget sparing us, please spare yourself from such roles. The movie first half is dominated by Rekha whining "बेटा मैं तुम्हें दुनिया से बचाना चाहती हूँ" (Son, I want to save you from this cruel world) and second half with Naseer grinning "Breaking news! Dr. Arya भगवान बन गयें हैं" (has become God). Please excuse me for saying so, but the acting level of Indian TV serials is better these days. I never thought a day will come when I have to day that Naseer's and Rekha's performances looked so tired.

Saving Grace - Hritik's performance, songs, cinematography in Indian Hills and Special effects. Hritik is a real superhero anyway. Great body, good looks, dances superbly, acts well, and is very much "into" the role he is playing. He actually manages to portray a man who knows he has super powers, is basically nice at heart and always ready to help people but is entirely unsure of how to deal with the world. Rajesh Roshan comes up with brilliant songs for this movie - Aao sunau pyaar ki ek kahani and Koi tumsa nahin are brilliant, pyar na kiya is good. The cinematography is very good in most of the Bollywood movies these days, and this film lives upto expectations, especially for the Indian Hills part. Singapore, inspite of promotions by the start cast for Singapore Tourism Board, does not come across as very appealing. And finally, the special effects. Forget the superhero effects during chases and fights and jumping around buildings. There is a scene in the movie where Priyanka's parachute gets caught in a very tall tree and she starts falling to ground, and Hritik jumps over trees and catches her high in air and then they land together on ground. The sheer poetry of the scene arising out of the special effects here was enchanting. I am almost ready to forgive Rakesh Roshan for this movie for that one scene.

Recommendation - Go watch it, because the special effects will look good only on a large screen. But do not go in with high expectations.
Rating - ✔✔

Omkara (ओमकारा)(Hindi, 2006)

It is either the best Bollywood movie I have seen this year or the worst, I am not sure. But then, that is exactly what I had felt the first time I had read Othello, the Shakespearean masterpiece portraying masculine jealousy. So probably after seeing the movie 2-3 times more, I will be able to say that this is a very good movie, just like I now classify Othello as a masterpiece.

First, as a viewer, I must acknowledge that the review in this weekend's Times of India for this movie was very much on the spot. Those who have not read it, read it on www.timesofindia.com. Then, as a reader, I must tell you to go and read Othello, if you have not done so already or have done that so long ago that you have forgotten. Then, as a reviewer, I must tell you that if you are not a "serious-cinema" buff and have no inclination to graduate to that kind of art, please avoid the movie. Then, as a movie-buff, I must tell you that there are some movies whose reviews are meaningless. Omkara is such a movie. The movie is the reviewer, and you are being reviewed for your maturity as a viewer. It is entirely upto you to spot the nuances in the plot or in its screenplay adaptation from an ancient feudal British background to a current-day rustic rural Indian setting or in the brilliant performances by the star cast or in direction or in editing or something else.

Plot and Star Cast: Omkara (Ajay Devgan) is the Bahubali (head henchman) for the local politician Bhaisaheb (Naseeruddin Shah) and is about to marry Dolly (Kareena Kapoor). When Bhaisaheb wins election and gets Omkara to join politics, Omkara chooses to make Kesu (Vivek Oberoi) as the Bahubali and passes over Langda Tyagi (Saif Ali Khan), his chief lieutenant. Langda takes his revenge by sowing suspicion in Omkara's mind that Dolly and Kesu are having an affair. Eventually, the mutual suspicion and jealousy ends up spoiling everyone's life. Other stars are Indu (Konkana Sen Sharma), Langda's wife and Billo (Bipasha Basu), Keshu's girlfriend and village dancer

Performances: Brilliant. There is no other word for it. Every one of the star cast shines. Ajay Devgan conveys the expressions of love, lust, jealousy, anger, suspicion with a brilliance that has become his trademark in his serious roles. Kareena, Konkana Sen Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah all have impeccable timing of facial expressions and dialogue delivery, leaving you wondering whether they are acting or just being their natural self. Bipasha Basu turns a surprisingly good performance. But the movie belongs to Saif Ali Khan. Iago was my favourite character in Othello. Before seeing the movie, I had not imagined anyone less like Iago than Saif. After seeing the movie, I cannot imagine anyone else doing a more perfect portrayal. You hate him throughout the movie for his machinations and his treachery, but you cannot stop yourself from admiring his cunning as well. Watch the movie for wonderful performances, if nothing else.

Treatment: The plot is an extremely negative one, with hardly any positive events taking place till end. The movie sticks to the Shakespearean plot and does it so beautifully. The adaptation to Indian rural setting is so perfect that is you were not told so, you will not realise that this is an adaptation of something foreign. The rustic ethnicity tied to a background of lawlessness of western Uttar Pradesh hits you, and below the belt. But what really shakes you up is that inspite of all your sophistication and your comfort of "I am not as crass as characters portrayed in this movie", you identify with the kind of emotions portrayed in the movie. It is very easy to tell yourself that you will never do the actions the protagonists of this film do. What will disturb your peace of mind is the thought that, given this situation, will you also react in a similar direction or not, though much less violently and not to such extremes.

Recommendation: A must see movie for all serious movie lovers. Go see if only for performances, if nothing else. But if you are in a mood to relax for the evening, please avoid this movie.
Rating - ✔✔✔✔✔

Lage Raho Munnaibhai (लगे रहो मुन्नाभाई)(Hindi, 2006)

Consider the situation. You are dead tired, have not had any food and you are dragged to see a movie on a dead old topic like Gandhism. What are the chances that you will like the movie? The correct answer is - 100%, if the movie is Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Munnabhai (Sanjay Dutt) is the local goon who has fallen in love with radio jockey Jhanhvi (Vidya Balan). To impress her, he goes in posing as a Gandhian professor. However, in his endeavor to be convincing, he starts reading up on Mahatma Gandhi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi) and starts believing in his ideas. He fancies that Mahatma actually comes and talks to him and shows him the way to do things. Employing the language of man-on-the-street, he connects to people through radio and advises people to solve their problems in a Gandhian way.

The movie is very aptly described in the words of the charachter who plays Gandhi - तुम मुझे तस्वीर बनाके दीवार पे टांग दो या मुझे अपने दिल में बसा लो. (You can either frame my picture to decorate your walls or keep me in your heart and follow my ideals). Somewhere down the line, we have lost the ideals of that great man and have started believing him to be "out-of-context" of the couurent world, forgetting that he was out-of-context even when he started. It was his moral strength and the strength of his ideals that enabled him to modify the context towards his goals.

Lago raho Munnabhai is a comedy of Chaplin's genre. It makes you laugh out loud, it makes you clap at the brilliant individual scenes and dialouges, it makes you completely involved with the impeccable timing of every emotion on the face of every charachter and it touches you to the core to realise that what you are laughing at is finally the apathy of your own actions in your day to day life.

Munnabhai MBBS, the movie to which Lage Raho Munnaibhai is a sequel, was also a good movie. A sort of a decent enough adaptation of Robin William's Patch Adams. Lage Raho Munnaibhai, however, is brilliant. Marking the movie as perhaps the first successful sequel in Bollywood, both Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi surpass themselves in the roles of Munnaibhai and Circuit respectively and we really cannot have enough of them. The rest of the cast of Boman Irani, Diya Mirza and all do a good job. But the movie belongs to the producer, Vidhu Vinod Chopra for having this vision and most of all to Raju Hirani, the director, screenplay and dialogue-writer.

Recommendation - If you have not seen it, Go watch it. If you have seen it already, I don't need to tell you, go watch it again. And then purchase the DVD when it is released. Pirated DVDs are a curse.
Rating - ✔✔✔✔✔