Kurbaan

Only if someone other than Karan Johar had written the story of Kurbaan, it may have been a better story… Or maybe I want to tell Karan Johar to stick to his ‘Its all about loving… whoever’ formula. The biggest flaw in the story – why doesn’t Vivek Oberoi go to the cops from the word go?? That would have saved the lives of hundreds of people!!! But then there would be no Kurbaan!

Since I found the story flawed, I cannot rate this movie anything above 3/5. But I will give my due to Rensil D’silva (I had expectations from him since he wrote the screenplay for Rang De) for some good direction, especially in the first half of the movie. The first quarter of the movie is slick, progressing quickly and showcasing the bare minimum – the few months of romance, a quick song in the background, Saif meeting Kareena’s father and in the next shot, the plane landing in New York! Again, the neighbors inviting Saif and Kareena for dinner and the next shot, they are already there! Also, I will give it to Saif and the director that until the scene with Kareena, you would never guess that he is a terrorist. I found Saif’s character mysterious but did not expect him to be one of them… Maybe the first half was so engrossing that it didn’t give me a lot of time to think.

But the second half started going down the drain, right from the time Vivek decided to take things in his own hands!!! Saif, supposed to be one of the most sought after terrorist, believing in Vivek based on two speeches made by him, the terrorist group doing NO background check on Vivek, all seemed like flaws in the story and screenplay. Similarly, I was amazed by the fact that all the terrorists live in the same neighborhood, travel together in the same car when they are going to bomb subways in New York, I mean come’on – kache khiladi lag rahe the. You cannot just bring together four Muslim looking men with beards and throw them at the audience – these are terrorists!!! The bunch of terrorists in the movie New York seemed much more dangerous and convincing. Similarly, the FBI had only one agent Collins who had to be at the Church to meet Vivek and then drive all the way across town to save all the subway stations. Agent Hayes evacuates the subway station and instead of running for his life decides to cut the red wire on the bomb… I guess enough of movie bashing…

Now for the good parts other than the direction in the first half. Most of the supporting actors have done a good job, be it Diya Mirza in a three screen cameo or Hakeel or the experienced actors like Kulbushan and Kiron Kher. Since I don’t consider Vivek Oberoi an actor, I would give him credit for his role and his part. Though, towards the end he got so comfortable in the role that he started to overact. There is nothing to write home about Saif but he is surely becoming a versatile actor – be it a lover boy in Love Aaj Kal or a terrorist in love in Kurbaan. But I was the most impressed with Kareena – although not the main protagonist of the movie, she delivered every scene very well – right from the romance with Saif, the excited new bride, the terrified mother and the last scene of the movie. I have always struggled with calling her a good actor, but every now and then she delivers good performances and this one is surely one of her better one’s.

I have been hearing that everyone is loving the movie - rediff.com actually titled the review as a ‘bloody smart movie’ – not sure if I would go that far! As far as I am concerned, with no expectations about the movie I did not dislike the movie – but then my tolerance for movies is much higher and I would not call any movie out right bad! So, if you have nothing better to do and like trying new movies and new directors, give this a watch!

Love Aaj Kal

Catchy music, stunning Deepika, Imtiaz Ali... nothin to lose to watch Love Aaj Kal... with this mindset and the enthusiasm of watching a hindi movie in AMC, I entered the movie theatre and I wasn't disappointed!

I spent the past couple of days listening to the songs. Pritam's (whichever Korean serial they maybe copied from) music and Imtiaz Ali had set the stage to expect a romantic comedy! And that's exactly what was delivered. A light 150 mins entertainer with some laughs, some emotions and some hip rocking music! I have liked both the previous movies directed by Imtiaz, though I think there was more heart in Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met was one of the few movies I liked Kareena and again it entertained me. Love Aaj Kal, as the title suggests is a love story about Saif and Deepika, who spend two years with each other in London and then decide to part ways to pursue their careers and passion. But since they have fallen in love with each other (it takes a while for them to realize it), they keep coming back to each other. No points to guess that the girl realizes her feelings much before our 'trying to be casanova' Saif! By that time Deepika is married off and Saif has got his Lakshya! But then he realizes how much he loves her and comes back looking for her. So a simple love story and told in a straight forward way!

But wait, Imtiaz is smarter than that... He also draws a parallel to Rishi Kapoor (a sardar in London who gets reminded of his younger days after seeing Saif) and his love story with Harleen Kaur. A nice narration nuance is that young Rishi Kapoor is played by Saif Ali Khan. All those who thought that Imtiaz was trying to save money by using the same actor, give the director some credibility. The 70s love story is very well directed and even though Harleen Kaur had very little dialogues, she emoted well with her eyes and expressions. Full marks to Imtiaz on this piece... the exchange of glances, the exchange of boondi and chai, in the first conversation with Harleen young Rishi Kapoor explaining that he has a good job; all these are very well shown... this is how love would have been in yesteryears!

So in all a great story, good direction from Imtiaz and a different style of narration got me hooked on. But the issue I had with the movie was Saif and Deepika. Deepika falls FLAT when she is given powerful dialogues and a scene full of emotion. And she is not given this once but atleast thrice in the movie and I think she couldn't carry it through even once. Similarly Saif is ok when he starts to talk a lot in the sensitive scenes but the story had a LOT OF SCOPE for much stronger scenes and a display of emotions. Saif and Deepika (and I don't consider either of them good actors) couldn't carry what was offered to them. I don't know who could have played these roles better but it felt like no justice was done to the strong story line by these mediocre actors. Imtiaz could get the emotions out of Abhay Deol (he is turning to be a good actor and more on it later) in his first movie but he somehow couldn't get the emotions out from one established actor and other not-so-new actor!

But just because of this I wouldn't rate the movie on a lower scale. I think Imtiaz has put in his effort in to the story and direction and I think he gets my full marks! I liked the titles where he throws in some scenes from the movie just to give an audience the glimpse of what is coming next and that way keeps them guessing until they see all those scenes from the titles played out. Even the way he has breezed through the two year courtship period of Saif and Deepika is well done! Another good touch was the way 'Main Kya Hoon' was shot - several months of Saif's life shown in 5 mins and that too conveying everything he wanted to.

Before I end, don't miss out the songs, Chor Bazaari, Twist (remix) and Dooriyan!

The new Bollywood Muslim

A very interesting perspective on the changing face of a Muslim in Bollywood... The articles starts with the new bollywood Muslim but also takes you to the 50s - 80s period and how different individuals/characters contributed to indian cinema.

Slightly long article but take 10 mins if you have similar beliefs like mine - Bollywood hi aapli sanskriti aahe (Bollywood is our culture). Movies are a reflection of our society and in the recent times Bollywood has managed to portray different aspects of our society with much finesse!

P.S. - one error in the weblink is that the link for page 4 takes you to a different article so you read page 4 you will have to manually change the URL to pg=3

Beyond the shallowness of bollywood

'Hindi films he aapli sanskriti aahe'... these words said by Shirish Kanekar, have been etched in my memory and as I grow old watching more hindi movies and absorbing more cinema, these words make more sense to me!


I enjoy every bollywood movie for whatever the film maker has to convey and Luck by Chance seems to be one more movie made by a bollywood patriot. If Om Shanti Om was a satire/spoof on bollywood movies, Luck by showcases everything about Bollywood - the double standards, the struggle, the glamor, the superistitions... But what touched me the most was, debutante director Zoya Akhtar showing the 'heart' of bollywood - the advice from ShahRukh to Vikram Jaisingh, the perspective provided by Karan Johar to Hrithik, Neena Walia's practical and selfish attitude towards life, Rolly's disappointment on Hrithik's disappearance. The film actors and media personnel are humans too and even though we give them a demi-god status, the actors themselves are like you and me and go through similar emotions... Btw, the advice about sticking to your friends pre-stardom couldn't have been more apt than coming from the King Khan. Some more thoughts on these later...

The movie is not an extraordinary work of cinema, but its an honest attempt to show a good sensitive story in the backdrop of bollywood. Maybe Madhur Bhandarkar (director of Fashion) can learn a bit about showing the usual 'struggle to success to reality' story with a bit of sensitivity! The movie may not have the strongest written characters but the casting and direction makes up for any flaw in the characterization. Some of the tit bits of the movie which added humor and displays the peculiarities of bollywood which the director ensured included -
- a double standard, yet shrewd producer Rommy Rolly, a star kid whose mother is strict and manipulative coz she knows the ins and outs of the industry, the supportive, superstitious but glamorous producer's wife, a failed actor turned director,
- Saurabh Shukla and his Nand Kishore acting school which functions in a hall of some building and him inviting a yesteryears actor MacMohan to give away certificates
- Anurag Kashyap and him replacing 'murder' for 'khoon'
- Rommy Rolly's insistence on changing the script / character of the movie to retain Zaffar Khan in the movie

Though all these supporting characters take the movie pretty far, the main actors Farhan and Konkana drive the movie till the end. Though Farhan's lack of acting skills fit well into the character of a struggling actor, he seems to show improvement over Rock On... I cannot see him carrying a movie all by himself and without the likes of Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and ever so comfortable Konkana Sen, Farhan would have had a tough task in front of him. Konkana Sen Sharma is comfortable and flawless in her acting and is one actor who can play a girl next door and a struggling starlet with equal conviction. She proves that even for a glamor struck film industry like ours a female actor who doesn't have the face or the bod of a hot supermodel can be a favorite with the film makers and the audience. The on screen chemistry between Konkana & Farhan isn't that convincing but some of their scenes are great - especially the last scene where Konkana thrashes Farhan out of her life and for obvious reasons shows the changing maturity of we indians!

Last but more importantly the final monologue given to Konkana is what changed my opinion of the movie from being average to good... how many of us can say that we are doing something which really makes us happy... I had never thought of this about the film industry but beyond the glamor, money and shallowness, there is a sense of satisfaction that some of them (may not be all of them) get from doing something which each of them really enjoys doing... Every struggling actor, film maker, singer, music composer (and u can add every aspect of creativity profession here), however small roles or parts they play in a movie, television or anything related to the glamor world, somewhere they derive happiness from doing what they really enjoy doing! think about this...