Monday, July 25, 2011

Chillar Party


Chillar Party. A gang of kids. All are 1st to 5th standard going kids. Ever wondered where all the innocence that is part of being a kid has disappeared? Its all in this movie. Their expressions, plans, enemies, emotions, fears, enthusiasm - have been wonderfully portrayed in this two hour long movie.

The movie starts out with an introduction of each of the characters (kids). This part is wonderful, DO NOT MISS THIS! The nicknames they keep for each other, hilarious :)
They now have a new enemy - a new kid with a pet dog. The plans they try, so innocently to drive this enemy out of their society only hurts the new kid on the block. Even though these kids are so young at age, they realise that they cannot hurt anyone else-even though he maybe a stranger. (Wonder why grown ups don't realise something this easy). This chillar party then befriends the new kid and the friendship blossoms. The "friend in need is a friend indeed" attitude helps the new kid maintain his position as a "car-washer" in the society.
What then starts is a bollywood style twist. Enter politics. These kids take on a politician to save their favourite pet dog from being captured by the "stray dog" van. This is a little exaggerated, but I liked the "battle hour" at the end. Brings out a message so strong that I wish every grown up would watch this just for that.

The direction is good. The acting skills of all those teeny weeny kids..is superb! The story telling is also nice. 

Go watch this movie to feel like a kid, to remember your childhood masti, to enjoy and relish the innocence of these kids, which is highly missing these days. Enjoy! I'd say this movie is a must watch, atleast once!

--
Zaru

Monday, July 4, 2011

Delhi Belly

I'm not sure why people are blowing out of proportion what this movie brings. It brings you stuff that happens inside a toilet and I am sure, this is not what modern cinema is! There is something known as "abstraction" which can be used efficiently. There is something known as aesthetic cinematography, which does not need abstraction but it displays the truth with so much beauty that something as gross as sh!t can appear pleasant. This is one of the complaints I have with this movie.
The second is, just because its an adult movie doesn't mean that you should limit the words used to only f*** words! Every alternate word being a gaali does not make it a *bold* movie.
The language and the cinematography for a few scenes could have made the movie better.
As for the story, there is nothing new. Its the same madness, crazy life depicted in Shaitan. The pace of the movie is not fast enough to make your adrenaline pump neither is it too slow to put you to sleep.

The good part about the movie? yes the dialogues minus the gaalis are witty. Some sequences are hilarious. The background score is nice. The item number by Aamir is funny. The song "I hate you (like I love you)" is awesome!

I did not expect cheap slapstick humour from Aamir Khan. A thumbs down!

--
Zaru

Thursday, June 23, 2011

X-Men First class

The movie posters had all new faces and that made me tell myself, this movie is going to be a disaster. But the reviews and good vibes I was getting from all around, made me reconsider my decision.

The movie is a prequel to all the X-Men movies. It is the prequel to Wolverine too.

The movie has an amazing story line and is pretty fast paced. You hardly get a breather between all the events that take place. You remain glued to your seat right from the start till the end.

The era depicted in the movie is one in which not all were aware of the existence of mutants. The mutants knew they were different and tried their best to fit into the life of normal people.


A rogue mutant (Sebastian) has set out to free the earth from the burden of normal, weak humans. A CIA agent unknowingly sees someone disappear in thin air and comes to think that mutants might exist. When she hears about Professor Xavier's thesis on mutation, she catches up with him to discuss the possibility. These two then join forces to protect the very existence of humans against Sebastian's army. The story just sprints from here picking up more characters on the way.

The performances by each and everyone are great. The direction worth a mention.The action is absorbing, the effects interesting and the story..well as I keep saying is very well knit. Wolverine also shows up in his usual fould mood, for a miniscule moment much to the joy of everyone in the audience.
This movie has made me want to watch all the X-Men movies again and I'd like to coax you to go and watch it if you already haven't. Enjoy!

--
Zaru

Monday, June 20, 2011

Pyar ka punchnama


Its a guys movie. Gals can watch it if they don't mind getting a little offended and finding out some extremist behavior traits in their species! (There I said it. Its true..about the characters in the movie. But, not all girls are the extreme characters portrayed in the movie)

The movie starts off with the routine lives of three IT professionals. One who is always complaining about his current job, whereas the other two don't really care about  the kind of work their doing. They are room-mates, stay, eat, drink and have fun together. Their lives are pretty usual, until they meet their girls. The movie then proceeds as to how these girls interfere in everything they do, use them and then throw them away like the wrappers of a chocolate and basically make their life hell!

The three girls in the movie are:
Neha : The control freak
Charu : The long distance chick
Riya : The can't say NO gal

The movie is well directed. The story is well told. The acting is good, could have been better. The guys are way better than the girls though. The end is a bit melodramatic and stretched. But overall a movie you must surely go and watch to have a good laugh.
The reason why this is movie is so enjoyable is, even though this is reality, it doesn't want you to weep (like some KJo movies try and try to make you want to weep). It brings out the truth and emotions all too effortlessly.

The best part of the movie : do not miss the awesome dialogue that two guys share when one is telling the other the problems he is facing with his girlfriend. Hilarious! (note : this can give ur bfs many more dialogues to use when you act stupid :p)

--
Zaru

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Shaitan

An Anurag Kashyap movie..had high expectations. Only that it was produced by him, but directed by Bejoy Nambiar. Nevertheless it did have moments of brilliance in direction.

The story is about Kalki (Amy a.k.a Amrita) whose family has shifted to Mumbai from L.A. She meets a K.C. who is another rich spolit son. She then joins his gang of friends, who belive they are enjoying life to the fullest by indulging in drugs and alcohol. One such moment of brashness and drunk driving changes their lives forever. The story ahead is a ride full of fear, confusion, greed, ego, madness, corruption, honesty, an urge to clean the system and finding one's true self. Its no doubt a hell of a ride, with no time to think what will happen next. Rajeev Khandelwal always does well. Kalki, no doubt is an intense actor. The rest of the cast is not as impressive, but they manage to do some justice to their roles.

All in all, a nice watch. Could have been better, but deserves to be mentioned. The best part of the movie..rather two parts were very well done.
1. The incident that changed their lives. A littlt obscure at first, but very very effective.
2. The scenes towards the end, where Amy remembers her last moments with her mother. Brings out the unstableness of her mind, which we keep registering throughout the movie but never really think about.

--
Zaru

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Source code

I had great expectations from this movie. One being the name of this movie..so appealing to all software engineers. Second, well.. no..it was just one reason.

The concept was great, create a new universe which is an exact copy of this one, with a little time lag. All the characters in the new universe are also a copy (no reference). The events that take place in the new universe are also a copy of the original. Sound interesting? Yes, the program that did this was called source code. One more interesting part is that it can send you into the universe, as whatever you would like to be. A handicapped man could be sent in with all his limbs intact. Sound wonderful? Yes.

Well, this concept didn't hit home when you saw the movie. The direction is below average, which makes you feel yes..why..sigh..yawn..again? but he was just here.
The direction was as I mentioned earlier not to the mark. And hence you turned towards the performances for some hope, but that didn't save the movie too. I mean everything was so monotonous after some time that the one and a half hour of the movie seemed like ages.

So in essence this movie is a nice concept gone totally waste! 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Haunted

This is Bollywood's entry into the 3D movie world. Nice effort, could have been better. Some scenes in the movie appear blurred. But, the horror part makes good use of the fact that it is a 3D movie. When you are totally at ease, a scary face pops out right in your face! So, the movie has the chills and the thrills a horror movie should offer.
The acting..is sad. The actor even sadder. The actress..she looks cute but that impression is valid until she starts talking. The dialogues..well they did make me laugh (This was supposed to be a serious kinda movie :P)
The direction..I'd give it a nice try. The music..hardly matters. The background score..good.

Besides that, its a typical bollywood masala movie. You name the concept and it is there in the movie. pyaar, mohabbat, izhaar, ikraar, judaai, takraar etc etc. And then, you wouldn't believe it, the movie also has a twist of time travel to it :D

So, the story starts with our hero coming all the way from US to complete a deal..selling this age old villa. He reaches the villa only to find out that there is something wrong there. He hears someone playing the piano and then someone yelling out her guts. He has to find out the truth about this, before the new owner turns up in 10 days. So, he goes to talk to this uncle who stays in the same city and has obviously heard about the villa. And when his uncle refuses to believe that there is a ghost, our hero says "Mein pagal nahi hoon. Maine MBA Stanford University se kiya hai". Okay, so point proven :P
So anyhow, he tries seeking help from a "spiritual walker" But she gives up saying that this soul is 80 years old and has grown very strong and evil. But the hero won't give up. (Would have been better if he gave up on acting actually :P) Some tantrik baba then sends him back 80 years in time. (Ohh how wonderful, bollywood comes up with time travel..but not with the use of some big machine...but some tantrik) Now he tries to prevent the evil teacher from becoming a soul but he doesn't succeed (obviously) and so has to protect the girl, because he has fallen head over heels in love with her (I wonder how anyone could like her voice?) Then follows the drama of the two innocent love birds trying and escaping the evil spirit to reach some other tantrik baba who tells them how they can free the evil spirit to send it back to its right place. There is running and screaming and yelling and destruction and howling and a scary background score which finally ends with the hero returning to his present and the actress being free. (Whoa that was a lot to write)
For the whole story with details..you can read this

If your bored..and are craving for some horror :P this is the movie you want to go to. But, go with a group who will not shy away from passing witty and funny comments. Thats the best part of the movie. The crowd in the theatre was so jovial that I ended up enjoying this movie more than any other comedy movie I have seen. Awesome fun :)

--
Zaru