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.