Woh Lamhe

Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Kangana Raut, Purab, Shaan Randhawa
Director: Mohit Suri
Music: Pritam. Excellent music.
Action: Not much. More of a serious drama
Mobiles Spotted: Nokia 9500, 6670, 7250i, Samsung E900

Mohit Suri comes up with a very serious film high on emotion and drama. The performances of the cast are commendable. The screenplay is very good and keeps the viewers gripped to the storyline.

The top draw in the movie is the performance of Kangana Raut and the music. Kangana Raut’s portrayal of a schizophrenic is outstanding. The trainsition from a normal person to one with bouts of schizophrenia within a single scene is excellent. The negative however is that her character has shades of her previous role in the film Gangster especially the costumes and the portrayal of an alcoholic smoker look a bit stereotypical.

Shiney Ahuja just seems to go through the motions and doesn’t really do anything outstanding. Purab’s role is worth a mention and so is Shaad Randhawa who comes up with a rather decent debut although he looks really stoned.

The plot is about wannabe director Aditya Grehwal who aspires to make it big and considers himself a creative genius and his love with a top actress Sanaa Asim which is modeled on the lines of the Mahesh Bhatt-Parveen Babi historyline. Aditya tries hurting Sanaa’s ego to get her interested in his movie which he does. However he falls in love with her during the making of the film. The first half is at a very good pace with a nice storyline and great music. The second half is about how Aditya discovers that Sanaa Azim is actually a schizophrenic and tries to rescue her from degenerating into psycho.

The music by Pritam is very good and adds very well to the feel of the movie. There is a extremely generous bit of skin show by kangana but she also scores high on her acting skills as well. A good film to watch.

At the mall...

Stayin alone becomes easy if the place you live in has a few good places to hang out and spend some time. the presence of two malls in lucknow really brought my spirits up. the whole act of going about and loitering in the mall and nearabout areas is called ganjing in lucknow.

What i would like to talk about however is a few things i observed during the many hours that I have spent on sundays over the last couple months wandering about in the malls.

Firstly i fail to understand the use of the wooden gate arch at the entrance which emits strange noises.What exactly is it detecting? Has anyone who has ever passed through it been stopped. the great insight the arch gives is the instruction to walk. The arch has this led that says walk. What else would one do at the entrance of a mall? stand and appreciate the narrow entrance?

The next strange phenomenon is the initial reaction of many people entering the mall.the sheer size of the mall coupled with the sudden pleasant weather seems to have them enthralled. Many people stop and gaze at the mall jus after passing through the entrance thus blocking the way for others.

The most widespread wierd practise at the mall is the act of people using the escalator. I am convinced that about 60% of people visiting the malls come there to learn how to use the escalator. Without an exception one will always find a set of people hesitating to get onto the escalator,one would also find a set of ladies franticakky worrying about their dress getting sucked by the stairs and the most irritating one would be the set of people who pretend to be afraid of using the stairs, just because they feel it looks cute and their companions trying to teach them how to do it.

But then the whole fun aspect of going to the mall is precisely this..looking around at others and trying hard not to look tooo amused with their antics...

Shiva

Cast: Mohit Ahlawat, Nisha Kothari, Zakhir Hussain, Prabhat Nawalkar
Director: Ram Gopal Verma
Music: Ilayaraja. Very good music with some repeats of old south Indian film hits.
Action: Very good thrills and well shot action sequences
**NEW** Mobiles spotted : Nokia 6600,3120,6030,6170,6630, Motorola V3i (only one last scene)

Ram Gopal Verma is back! Shiva is a brilliant directorial work. The technical aspects of the movie, the different angles of camerawork, use of background music are all extremely good. The movie plot is a hash of Telugu super hit Shiva and a bit of Telugu super hit Tagore (Chiranjeevi Starrer). An avid movie goer who has been following Vermas films right from his days in Tollywood would find many instances and scenes in the movie which were path breaking moments in verma’s earlier films.

Illayaraja comes up with pretty good music with couple of songs having tunes which are repeats of his south Indian hits. The performances by the actors is also very good and basically shows that when there is a good director the actors just need to fit into the script. Verma’s choice of actors for different characters in the film is also very good. Mohit Ahlawat plays a very good role which is reminiscent of the Angry young man Amitabh. Mohit’s physique also helps him have a dominant screen presence. Nisha Kothari however disappoints in emotional scenes. All hope is not lost as she definitely does not d isappoint the front benchers with generous bit of Skin show in couple of songs which is quite typical of a Ramgopal Verma movie.

The movie is just the right length and has the right amount of powerful effect and message conveyed. Definitely a must watch for Ram Gopal Verma fans and not at all a bad choice for some good timepass in the weekend.

By the way the Chor Police song finds itself censored with the cast only lip synching Chor but the actual song having the word muted.

Lagey Raho Munnabhai

Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan, Bomman Irani,
Music:Decent,Shantanu Moitra
Comedy: Very humorous feel AWESOME movie...
Action: Only in traces

"Dil Khush ho gaya, Month end ki closing ke baad aisi picture dekhne mein mazaa aata hain. Closing ke barey mein bhul jate ho" This is what i overheard from a couple of guys who had come to the movie. They had just been through the rigours of the month end closing for their sales job (presumably) and guess the closing dint go well. They came to watch this movie for the same purpose as any other movie goer, to forget their worries and feel good ...Lagey Raho made them feel great!!
Rajkumar Hirani comes out with another masterpiece. After his debut film Munnabhai MBBS, he lives up to the high expectations of the viewers and does not disappoint the followers one bit. Lagey Raho Munnabhai is not a sequel.. it is a continuation of the Munna-Circuit Series and that is what helps Hirani pull off a class act.
Unlike the sorry attempts like Krish and Phir Hera Pheri where there was a very weak and flawed attempt to connect with the previous film, Lagey Raho.. is just an extension to the basic concept of using the characteres of Munna and Circuit and their simple experiences to come forth with a message.
The movie has Munna going gaga over Vidya Balan whom he has been devotedly hearing over the radio. He poses as a prof in order to impress her and befriends her. Love blossoms between the two. Akin to the hospital in Munnabhai MBBS we have a large bungalow called 2nd Innings house in use in this film which houses a group of elderly people who have been sent away by their children. Munna ends up getting involved in a fight with his long time friend Lucky Singh (a real esate warlord with a difference) to try and win back the old age home.
The movie uses this backdrop to try and put forth some of the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.The best thing about the film are the dialogues and the simple method used for story telling.
The music in the film is not outstanding but the way in which all the songs have been used brilliantly in true situational style jut to aid story telling rather than the current practise of totaly out of place nonsensical timing of songs really adds a great deal to the experience. Rajkumar Hirani's use of music and songs is a must learn lesson for all directors who throw in arbit songs and arbit scenes just for commercial purposes.

Must Watch movie,will be easily one of the best movies this year.

Aap Ki Khatir

Aap ki Khatir
Cast: Akshay Khanna, Priyanka Chopra, Suniel Shetty, Amisha Patel, Anupam Kher, Dino Morea
Director: Dharmesh Darshan
Music: Excellent foot tapping numbers by Himesh Reshammiya
Comedy: Sometimes bearable mostly unbearable. Anupam Kher’s role does bring a smile though
Action: None

Releasing a movie at the right time is fast becoming a real strategic decision similar to the decision that a Formula One team needs to make regarding a pit stop. Aap ki Khatir should see a decent opening thanks to being one of the very few movies to release this week and only big multi starrer.

The movie however is not that great. There is nothing much to write home about the movie except for Anupam Kher’s role which brings in a little bit of comic relief. The movie starts off with an attempt to recreate the chemistry that Saif and Rani shared in Hum Tum during their flight between Priyanka Chopra and Akshaye Khanna. The attempt is a total failure and puts the viewer to a lot of pain in the first 45 minutes. Add to this a very poorly sketched role for Sunil Shetty and even worse dialogues and the first hour of the movie makes you regret walking into the theatre.

The solace is that the first hour is so bad that the rest of the movie looks much better icomparisonon and helps you leave the film hall in a decent mood. The storyline is nothing great. Akshaye Khanna and Priyanka Chopra are colleagues and the former doubles up as a male escort as well. Priyanka hires him to take him to London with a view to make her ex boy friend (Dino Morea) who deserted her at the marriage altar jealous. The catch here is that the reason for him deserting her involves her step sister Amisha Patel, whose wedding with Suniel Shetty Priyanka and Akshaye are attending. Interesting plot isn't it.The movie also has Amisha Patel and a Kaun Kiska cousin trying to doBritishish accent which only adds to the pain of the viewer.

The best thing about the movie is the foot tapping music belted out by Himesh Reshammiya. All the songs are real good and are sure to be chart toppers. Watch the movie only if you have nothing to do at all. You are better off waiting for it to be aired on TV.

and SO it begins

Ive borrowed the title from a friend of mine who happens to be going through the same training stint as me. My corporate journey has begun…armed with a piece of hard paper that says that ive been conferred a degree from what is probably one of the best B-Schools in India ive set out to do almost every B-School grad does…make money.

We’ve been carted off to disparate locations across the country for what is called a Sales Officer (SO) stint. So from the cosy environs of the head office we have all headed off to places far and wide in the country including Bhilai, Ujjain, Patna, Rohtak, Lucknow (thats where I am)…to name a few.Im still not sure of where im going to stay initially in Lucknow. I knew I was supposed to be prepared for ambiguity but then… The thing is at my firm the Hr/Admin people (if available at a location) are supposed to handle such logistics regarding stay. However, the HR contact in Lucknow has been very happy to pass on the entire task to my already over burdened Sales Manager who after this last minute directive is frantically trying to find a decent accommodation for me which would also come at a price that i am entitled to…all this amidst handling one of the biggest and fastest growing mobile phone markets in the country.

A friend of mine arranged for his friend to go through the trouble of recieveing me and dropping me at the hotel. “”Misra told me you are not good at Hindi”, he says…as a reaction to which I start conversing only in Hindi to display my speaking skills of what is the national language. All ambiguities of initial stay done…I decide to take things in my own hands and go about searching for accommodation on the very first day of work and get lucky in landing a furnished annexe at a walking distance from my office.

Im all set now I think and head off into the city of nawabs in the weekend to try and explore the various places and happening place (if any) over here. The best things for me about Lucknow are the multiplexes it has. Atleast I’m much better off than a lot of my counterparts in this regard. I have some place to go and pass the time over the weekends. Food and local transport is pretty convenient here as well. Now for those who have stayed south of Madhya Pradesh all their life and despite having traveled extensively across India I would like to mention a few things about Uttar Pradesh (much of this is common to Bihar as well, only in much worse magnitude). Almost every third house in Lucknow and second family in U.P will have a set of rifles/revolvers/arms and ammunition/weapons call it what you may. Living up to the image of U.P in Omkara and movies of the past which featured dacoits on horses with rilfes on their backs, you would find lots of Motor cycles with the pillion riders brandishing a rifle or two. “Lucknow is a nice place. Just don’t get into any uneceessary squabbles and look the other way and you will be fine” is what my soft spoken Manager had to say to me. My mother has been worried about the Manjunath (May his soul rest in peace) incident repeating with me given my hot blooded nature. But then seeing the sheer volume of rifles here I think better sense would easily prevail over me (frankly, this country aint worth dying for).

Ahista Ahista

Cast: Abhay Deol, Soha Ali Khan, Shayan Munshi
Director: Shivam Nair
Music: Himesh Reshammiya (one would have been surprised if it was somebody else) nothing great.
Action: None
Comedy: Painful attempt at giving comic relief now and then

Its been a while since ive seen a movie which made me repent spending money and time and effort on watching it...Ahista Ahista finally ends that trend. The sole point of my review is to provide a warning to all those contemplating watching this movie...STAY AWAY!! You are much better off whiling away your time watching the pointless news being flashed in the zillion desi news channels we have.

Abhay Deol, of Dharmendra’s nephew fame (though he would like to be known as “of Socha Na Tha’ Fame) stars in a most horridly slow paced pointless movie which has Soha Ali Khan as the romantic lead. The marketing team of the movie has got it right by carefully keeping Shayan Munshi (of “I know who killed Jessica Lal… but I don’t tell” fame) off the promos and airing shows talking about the great chemistry that Abhay and Soha share to try and orient the viewers towards a conclusion regarding the climax of the movie.

Unfortunately everything about the movie is woefully wrong and the climax just makes things even worse with its abrupt and poorly written plot. The movie lives upto one thing though…its name. The story moves on so slowly remindful of serials on Dorrdarshan. The performances of the actors also are nothing to write home about. Abhay Deol just can’t seem to deliver dialogues right and would do well to have someone with a different voice dub for him. Soha tries her hand at acting but her role is more so limited to weeping carefully so that the kajal in her eyes doesn’t spoil the make up and otherwise look pretty. Shayan Munshi (who???) does a good job of being himself…looking dead and pale and just running around displaying an extreme sense of urgency and desperation.

Trust Himesh Reshammiya to have an extremely high pitched number for the title song as well. The title Ahista Ahista (Slowly Slowy) is howled out in a song contrary to the pace of the movie. The most irritating role in the movie is that of Moti (an elderly lady who is Abhay’s friends mom) who figures in a set of totally rubbish so called comical scenes.

If one would still want to watch this movie even if it is aired on TV then God Save him!

Himesh's source of Inspiration...

There is a deafening high pitched nasal sound based cry, the dark setting is now slowly being replaced by a faint light…the camera zooms into an old worn out Baseball Cap, the cries become louder and the Cap slowly begins to rise. With growing intensity of the nasal shrieks, the cap rises higher and it reveals a chubby, bearded guy closing his eyes with an expression akin to that when one whines in pain, The camera zooms out and we are presented with a flabby unshaven entity who is still crying out loud hysterically into a microphone kept at a hair’s breadth from his nostrils, the entity wears a jacket over his attire to cover the excess flab…the camera zooms out further…and there he stands..Himesh Reshammiya!
Himesh has suddenly emerged as the trump card for many a producer wanting to rake in good money through music sales. The number of critics and detractors that he has might just equal the number of fans he has for his music. If somebody were to do a research on the most viewed personality on TV he would easily win the race hands down far outnumbering even politicians and film actors much more famous than him.
Himesh Reshammiya seems to have perfected the art of giving great foot tapping numbers in every movie’s sound track. In addition to this, his penchant to load the soundtrack with remixes of the songs as well gives a lot of dance numbers and additional revenues as well. Although his critics may go hoarse ranting about his high pitched nasal tone and loud music, they will not be able to deny that Himesh Reshammiya SELLS and probably SELLS better than any other music director in the industry today.
I have absolutely no issues with his brand of music, Infact I listen to his numbers a lot and am a fan of his music as well. There is however one major problem and a real painful one at that - Himesh’s urge to feature in the videos of his songs and if that was not bad enough... even worse is his attempt to actually try and act in those videos! There will hardly be a gap on 15-20 minutes that you would find in most TV channels wherein either Himesh Reshammiya himself or his name, do not feature on screen.
The other day when, as is the case while channel surfing, I happened to chance upon yet another Himesh Reshammiya video and noticed his expressions and style of singing. I started thinking why does Himesh Sell? Where does he get the creative inspiration or ideas from? A few more music videos of Himesh were viewed and many songs of his heard...and then it struck me…I found the answer…Himesh Reshammiya is what we would generally call a bathroom singer…but he uses his bathroom and the time he spends there to come up with innovative tunes and expressions for his videos. Take for e.g. the Jhalak Dikhlaja song…it starts of with a UMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAH and Himesh in the video totally focused on relieving himself of some heavy matter in his body/mind, he slowly raises his crouched face and as he comes to the AAAH part of his song you can see the relief on his face, and after that the master stroke..”Ek baar aaja aaja aaja aaja…” this song had to be crooned when Himesh was busy with his morning rituals, if you know what I mean. And if you were to actually look at lot more songs of his...they would all have this common thread in them. Also Himesh is probably the easiest Music Director for a lyricist...all the lyricist has to do is give him a couple of words or at max one stanza and Himesh will weave his magic and come up with a 4 minute song plus 3 remix versions as well. Lets take a few songs of his…Naam hain tera tera is repeated a zillion times in the song, just give Himesh the words Ishq Kiya and he will repeat them 25 times in his song…on the same line you have the famous Jhalak Dihklaja, Tera Suroor to name a few…
Of late there has been a new dimension to Himesh’s songs…his extensive use of English sentences in the songs…some of them being “I’ll love you unconditionally… Soniye”;”I love you Oh Sayonee Whats up? “ ;”I’ll love you till I die” and so on…Lets just see how long and to what extent would he carry on this trend as well…
There you have it…Himesh’s sources of inspiration and creative inputs...the good old bathroom!

Darwaaza Bandh Rakho

Cast: Aftaab Shivdasani, Chunkey Pandey, Zakhir Hussain, Snehal Dabhi, Isha Sharvani, Gulshan Grover, Kota Srinivas Rao and many more…
Action: Has a few fight sequences but then the film promos call it and edge of the seat comedy so don’t expect too much on action front.
Music: Now that I recollect, there are no songs in the movie
Comedy: Out and out comedy film but quality of humor not that great
Tragedy: Zilch

J.D Chekravarthy (another name change...Formerly J.D Chakravarthy) of Satya fame comes up with a well woven plot and has picked up good actors for the different roles. The story and incidents about how things keep going bad for a motley gang of four when they kidnap a millionaire builder Raheja’s daughter and choose a bankrupt gujju'stock broker's house is entertaining. The comical thread is very good and some of the jokes and dialogues are sure to have the audience in splits.
The problem with the movie is that though the train of incidents, the jokes and the performances are pretty good nothing stands out as exceptional. Telugu audience would find Kota Srinivas Rao’s performance hilarious. On a different note, the door bell does stand out in the movie as it is heard in alternation with every dialogue throughout in the movie.
The sequence in which the number of hostages held captive by the gang to avoid the kidnapping from coming to light is one of the attractions of the movie. Chakry does not go overboard with the comical element and there is nothing that would classify as slapstick but if compared with the recently released Golmaal then the movie does look a bit pale.
What lets the movie down is the hype in the initial promos of it being an “Edge of the seat” comedy. There is good comedy in the film but not really an edge of the seat laugh riot.
The good thing is that the movie is short so is light on your mental bandwidth and does serve the purpose of giving you a relived and fresh mind once you are done watching it.

Anthony Kaun Hain?

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Minisha Lamba, Anusha Dandekar
Action: Very Little action, a few gunshots and couple of punches
Music: Good foot tapping numbers with the usual Himesh Reshamiyya zing
Comedy: Bearable and decent amount of humor
Tragedy: None in the end, it has a few sad set of events though
Attractions: Anusha Dandekar’s skin show, Himesh Reshammiya's music and a Red Ferrari.

Anthony Kaun Hain? Doesn’t quite live up to the expectations associated with a Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi starrer. For starters, he movie revolves completely around Champ (Champak Chowdhry), played by Arshad Warsi with Sanjay Dutt having a supporting role to play. The comical standards set by Arshad in his recent movies such as Golmaal and that set by the duo in Munnabhai are found missing in AKH?.
Raj Kaushal has made decent strides from his earlier attempts at film making. He also ensures that he makes the viewer aware of him being the director by casting wife Mandira Bedi in a totally pointless, out of context, 10 second-5 word dialogue cameo. Her appearance is utterly pointless that it leaves you thinking why on earth she comes and then the connection strikes!
The screenplay by Soumik Sen wherein he carefully merges the flashback and background story and connecting the same to the present events is pretty good. Although there is comical relief in the movie it is not really funny enough. Minisha (name changed from Minisha) Lamba plays the romantic lead opposite Warsi but there is only so much that the script offers and hence has a minor role.
The key point of the movie is Arshad Warsi around whose performance and character the whole story revolves. Arshad Warsi after this year’s successes can finally say that he has arrived and the transition he has made from his first role in ACL’s debut venture Tere Mere Sapne to being a well acclaimed commercial actor is commendable. However there seems to be a stereotypical element in his characters of late and he would do good if he were to look for the superb roles such as those is Seher and Waisa Bhi Hota Hain – II.
Overall the viewers can afford to stay away from the film and wait for it to be broadcast on one of the TV Channels. Ardent Sanjay Dutt fans may want to hit the theatres but then all they can do is look forward to September 1st when Lagey Raho Munnabhai releases.