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Movie Review- Rock On

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Rock On

“Ajeeb dastan hai yeh. Kahan shuru kahan khatam. Yeh manzilan hain kaun si. Na woh samajh sake na hum.” The Lata Mangeshkar classic from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai effectively captures the spirit and the innocence of this engrossing work. It’s the story of almost all of us who at their early twenties feel the world is just waiting for us to take it over and ten years later find ourselves where we never belonged in the first place. This is about dreams, about love & heart break, about lasting friendship and above all about music. This one is straight from my heart.
The mainstay of the movie is music and Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy have excelled once again. They have composed rock music before but Rock On’s melodies are special. All the numbers with the exception of “Zehreeley” can be listened to time and again. My car stereo has been blasting the movie’s music & my pony tail bobbing up and down for the past two days and people are beginning to give me weird looks every time I stop at a traffic light. Why can’t it be understood that no self respecting rock fan can hear the music at low volume and with a little bit of head banging? Farhan Akhtar’s talent in the craft of movie making is a proven fact but he has been a revelation as a singer and an actor, in that order. An awesome stage presence and his primal screams were reminiscent of Jim Morrison’s stage acts. The live performances have been flawlessly executed and the enthusiastic participation of the audience beautifully captured.
So far as others performances go everyone has done well but I found Luke Kenny to be a wee bit wooden which was surprising considering his long career as a VJ with MTV. Arjun Rampal has put in a restrained and an intense portrayal of a passionate guitarist torn between his longing for his passion and the daily domestic struggle to earn bread. I also loved his long hair. Sigh, mine are never going to be as long as his. Purab Kohli has walked effortlessly through his role with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes. His jiving to the song “I Will Survive” was a masterpiece. We ought to see more of him soon.
The pace of the movie is electric and does not slacken even when going through the mushy part. The story is of four friends who pick up the threads of their broken past and strive to realize their unfulfilled dream. Each one is an adept musician and seems made for each other until fate & reality steps in to destroy their dreamlike existence. But since the good guys should always win they are given a second chance by the Man up there. The progression of their quest is peppered with flashbacks of the past which torments their souls but also contains the elements of their salvation. For those who seek happiness with passion, the paths are not always lined with roses. The trick is to keep the passion alive and happiness will follow. Our dudes do just that. Like I said, this one is straight from the heart. We have all been there.

My Changed Life

All my wonderful days of eating & drinking & making merry are taking a well deserved break if not totally over (I hope not). Mother nature decided to tell me that there is no such thing as always being the King of good times. Besides my fanatsy world it happens only on TV. So when my wiser half, my beautiful muse Chhamak Challo observed that I had lost seven kilograms while paying obesiance to Bacchus followed by the curries that Supriya grudges me, she marched me off to a pathology lab. I turned out to be Medical Resident's dream. All the counts would have done Late Sir Edmund Hilary proud. They had all climbed unheard of peaks. Mr Pancreas had decided that I shall be sweeter to the fair wenches than ever before and to help me in doing that instead of considerable shots of Glenmorangie I now freak out on Insulin twice a day. Mr Liver had decided to gain weight and girth but is getting back to shape now. Mr Heart was also fnding it hectic to keep pace with my speed of indulgence. Both these guys are behaving themselves now as I have put them in their proper place. But I have had enough of being betrayed by my own flesh & blood. The loss of the next 7 kgs was entirely my own doing. I found this reallly pretty & passionate (about her work, silly) dietician in Fortis Hospital who made me this fantastic diet plan. I am now on very intimate terms with various vegetables. The curries of yore are beginning to become a bit of a dream. Before you burst into tears let me assure you that I am still me. Every twenty days or so I eat whatever I like (nothing sweet though) but that evening its an extra ten minutes of exercise.
Pegbaazi I don't do now but fear not, the bar is still stocked and open and no one is turned away from my door thirsty. Thou shall imbibe and the pleasure shall be all mine.And I still cook for others and I am loving it.

Movie Review- The Dark Knight

Two superhero movies in two weeks is not my usual choice but the near simultaneous releases turned out to be a happy coincidence. Batman has always been my favourite comic book character, right after Phantom & Mandrake and since I have followed all the movies of the caped crusader right from my childhood, The Dark Knight was a must see. In my review of Hancock I had dwelled upon the change in the characters of the super heroes keeping up with the changing social mores & perceptions. It’s a more humane face of the super league that we are presented with. Even the dark & blue hues of Gotham city have been substituted with the metropolitan ethos replete with crowded streets and towering skyscrapers. Of course, the tall buildings are a great incentive to our hero for those un-nerving dives and the elegant flights. My vertigo prone Chammak Challo watched all those scenes with her eyes closed.
Val Kilmer had been my choice for Batman’s role till Christian Bale took over in the Batman Begins and what a powerhouse performance that was! Incidentally, for the movie buffs, Bale’s first major performance was the key role as a 14 year old in Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. In The Dark Knight we find him much more restrained. In fact he’s more appreciable when out of the costume and the contrived voice of Batman didn’t quite impress me. Apart from that he has acquitted himself well. The freshness of the character of Batman is in the realization of the fact that he is human after all and despite all the super mega talents not entirely invulnerable. He bleeds, is getting aware of the passing age and feeling a wee bit tired in the persistent role of the singular vigilante of Gotham City. As a logical progression of this thought, in steps the District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who takes on the city’s scum with single minded fortitude. Batman is almost relieved that perhaps he can pass on his mantle to the zealous D.A. Both crime fighters team up the police chief Gordon (Gary Oldman) and devise a plan to clean up the city.
However they are up against Batman’s arch foe, Joker. Even when he is drawn out in the open by the crusading trio he turns the tables on them by some ingenious maneuvering. Amongst all the action the Joker also seeks to test the limits of incorruptibility of men and their social conscience. He partially succeeds only to discover that the good guys do get to win in the end. I thought Jack Nicholson was the ultimate in the Joker’s role and never thought that Heath Ledger had it in him to match the earlier version but the man has made it his swan song, may his soul rest in peace. While Nicholson’s portrayal hinged on comic, the late Mr. Ledger has given a stunning performance as the menacing psychopathic Joker. The timing and the content of his dialogue and the delivery thereof is flawless.
Morgan Freeman plays the CEO of Wayne Enterprise and Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s man Friday. Caine is becoming as much a permanent fixture of Batman movies as was Desmond Liewelyn as “Q” in the James Bond series. The heroine is forgettable.
Although the special effects are awesome as would be expected from an A list movie, the real thrill is in the high powered hand to hand combat. The sound and sight of a Batman hit does great credit to his prowess. Both the principal gizmos viz the Batmobile, a souped up Lamborghini and the monstrous bike were great fun to watch.
For a comic book movie the dialogues are thoughtful, almost philosophical. The climax is surprising and nerve wrecking. And the debate between honour & corruptibility continues.

Moview review- Hancock

All ye DC Comics and Marvel aficionados need to reorient your conception of superheroes. In the constantly meandering labyrinths of social transactions where the nature of man is redefined everyday our good old superhero hasn’t remained unaffected. Gone is the emotionless face wearing which he would clinically execute the fall of his super foes. Now they feel the love, get affected by loss & rejection and also get drunk & roundly abused. Are these the super guys we have grown up with? I am not complaining but merely marveling at the imaginative twist that the movie makers have come up with.

Will Smith has come a long way since his hip hop days. Back in the mid eighties to early nineties he was better known as The Fresh Prince, the lead vocalist of the group DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. His rendition of “Summertime” still remains one of my favorite songs. The movie’s Big Willie, Mr. Hancock is thousands of years old fellow whose flying skills can put Superman to shame. And while he is not busting the villains, destroying property worth several million dollars in the process he is busy emptying bottles of whiskey and taking a nap where he wills (pun intended). Besides defying gravity he is also bullet proof, knife proof and hit proof. In short nothing affects him physically. And here is the twist! The superhero goes ballistic whenever he is abused. How human! Due to his flawed crime fighting abilities and a foul mouth the media, the police and finally the public turns against him.

This is the age of celebrities who conjure up a hyped image of themselves aided and abetted by media manipulators euphemistically called image consultants. In walks Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) who becomes eternally grateful to Hancock for saving him from being run over by a train. Sensing an opportunity to put his PR skills to test he proposes an image makeover to Hancock which involves surrendering to the police, spending some time in the jail and waiting for the police to call him back because crime is bound to rise in his absence from the streets even as the public property is safe from him. There are some interesting shots of the jail. One of them is of the self purging meetings on the lines of those of Alcoholics Anonymous. After consistent refusals to open up, a single line comment “I am Hancock and I drink and stuff” is enough to be reciprocated by loud and encouraging applause. Soon Embrey’s plan begins to bear fruit and Hancock is back in mainstream circulation and this time without the previous opprobrium. At this time everyone can happily live ever after but what about twist number 2?

Mrs Embrey (Charlize Theron), as it turns out, is a super heroine as well and to top that she is “technically” Hancock’s wife since the like of them were made in pairs. The cynical Hancock suddenly finds that his love quotient has taken a northward swing. Only the object of his affection is torn between the loyalty to her husband and the love of three thousand years. The raison d'etre is twist number 3. The invulnerability of the super couple goes down when they come closer emotionally. In some ways it is a Greek tragedy where love is doomed despite best intentions. The resolution of this mess is what rest of the movie is all about. Its entertaining, its different and its fun. Go watch!

Movie Review- Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

It’s been way too long for Indiana Jones to whiplash his way back to the silver screen and only Spielberg could bring alive the persona of Indiana Jones, hat, boots, bull whip and all. For the uninitiated let me first give a small history lesson. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, two of the hottest talents of the seventies decided to come together to make a movie which at the time was promoted as “the return of high adventure”. The movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was directed by Spielberg & produced by Lucas, and went on to be one of the highest grosser of all time. Set in the time of 2nd World War, the pulsating story of the search for the Ark of the Covenant moved from US to Nepal and climaxed in Egypt.
It was followed by the not so good “Indiana Jones & the Temple of the Doom”. Amrish Puri made a forgettable Hollywood debut but the romance of Indy’s adventures remained alive. The third “Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade” is my second favorite because it had the unflappable Sean Connery who plays Indy’s father. The search of the Holy Grail is one of my all time favorite yarns.
The common thread in all the above movies was the swash buckling, devil may care Indy Jones who got into and out of the most impossible situations with charm and panache. He plays a professor of archaeology who goes after the most difficult searches for old and forgotten relics, fights the bad guys, gets the girl and always has a happy ending.
The latest offering is all of the above but hey, Indy is twenty years older and yet hasn’t seem to have lost his appetite of jumping over unjumpables and avoiding the million bullets that chase him. But then he has an illustrious contemporary in our own Rajnikant who can do all of this and more.
The movie is set in the mid fifties when US saw a commie behind every pole and the obsession of UFOs was coming of age. However Spielberg’s obsession with aliens continues to be unrelenting as ever. So this time we have a sword brandishing Kate Blanchett, a protégé of Stalin, who with a little help of stoic faced hoodlums manages to get hold of Indy to guide them to the high security warehouse where the US Govt. stores all its rare, unexplainable artifacts. Those who have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark would remember the last scene where the Ark is being wheeled into this warehouse to its new and anonymous residence. The desired object this time is, well what else, a crystal skull which is the key to untold knowledge and unlimited power. Indy scores in round one and escapes, only to resume the chase later in the time honored tradition of the perennial adventurer.
Accompanying him this time is a John Dean look-alike teenager with an attitude. As it turns out he is Indy’s son and from whom? Surprise, surprise, its Karen Allen, the vivacious, hard drinking, kick ass girl friend from the first edition of the series. Like Indy she has aged but the passion remains alive. It was great watching her all over again.
The end is predictable. The special effects from Lucas’s factory Industrial Light & Magic are awesome, especially the aliens sequence at the end. And Indy decides to settle down with his old lady love and the new found progeny. I loved his reply when asked by Karen if there were other women in his life and why he didn’t marry them. The man says”Yes there were some but all of them had the same problem. None of them was you”. Here’s a toast to old love and fairy tale endings. Cheers !!

Movie Review- Sarkar Raj

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Sarkar Raj

The Bachhan family gets together finally and it’s a reasonably good for a fist time togetherness act. Also Ram Gopal Verma must have found his smile back. What intrigued me particularly how after safely copying the storyline of The Godfather in the first movie, would RGV hold the story together in the sequel. There is however a thinly disguised difference. Those familiar with the Godfather story would remember the Sollozo episode where he makes an offer of partnership for import of drugs to the Don and is turned down. And then all hell breaks loose. Well over here there is a proposal of setting up a power project (worth two hundred thousand crores, no less) by a well meaning Ash but she is surrounded by sleazy characters who are in it for their pound of flesh. The senior Nagre(AB) declines help because it involves displacement of thousands of people. The junior AB however keeps quiet because he has his own opinion on the project. His silence does not go un noticed. To quell a possible backlash AB junior goes to the masses. Things are not so cut and dried because opposition and resistance to his convictions erupt in the countryside spearheaded by the grandson of the mentor of the senior Nagre.
Interesting concept, yes, but the sequence of the action drags till the intermission. The story changes to political power play with the end game being to destroy the hegemony of the Nagre family. The opposition succeeds partially but the end is predictable. Paying homage to all the three Godfather movies RGV bumps off the entire opposition and at the end you are left with the feeling that Sarkar III is on its way. Whew, where will he find the story this time. Well there is no dearth of homegrown gangsters. Maybe now he won’t have to look for American aid.
Powerful emotions are sought to be highlighted by thumping background score rather than the expressions of the lead actors. Honorable exceptions are Sayaji Shinde, who plays the buffoon of a leader of opposition and Govind Namdeo who plays the sleazy fixer and of course Rao Saheb (AB senior’s mentor) brilliantly portrayed by Dilip Prabhavalkar (remember the Gandhi of Munnabhai). Amitabh is his usual competent self. Ash looks pretty. Abhishek is capable of much better.
The music is ordinary and (sigh) copied. “Govinda Govinda” is a straight rip off of “Ave Satani” from Omen II (Damien). Nothing to die for but the flick is a good watch especially if you have seen the first one.