Ishqiya

A Western movie made in the rustic badlands of Eastern UP......

Brilliant acting by Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan and Arshad Warsi in recreating the dialects of Eastern UP and Bhopal. Vidya Balan steals the show from the great Naseer with a character that has all shades of womanhood - grace, beauty, oomph, guile and tact.

Music is good and lyrics from Gulzaar as always brilliant in their contemporary lingo but deeper meanings. It is not a slam-bang thriller but still has shades of The Good, Bad and the Ugly or After sunset with each character trying to out-wit the other in one way or the other, by hook or by crook.

An endearing quality about Vishal Bharadwaj movies is the Inidanisation of whatever the situation and the rustic simplicity of the situations.

Overall not a movie that sets the box-office on fire but worth a watch as a thriller.

Rating : * * * * *

3 Idiots

Aamir, Sharman and Madhavan as Ranchhod Das, Raju Rastogi and Farhan .... brilliant, brilliant, brilliant

Boman, Bebo and Omi ..... briliant, brilliant, brilliant

3 Idiots are brilliance 3 times.....

Education is necessary but inclination and aptitude to study a subject comes from within and can't be forced. The Indian system inhibits natural knowledge building and encourages cramming where chamatkar becomes balatkar. Innovation is suppressed at the cost of human lives.

We dont need no education ....... is ....

Saari Umra Hum

Mar Mar ke jee liye
Ek pal to ab humein
Jeene Do Jeene do

There are far-fetched situations of humor like the spoon used for cooking also used as a back-scratcher or Omi cramming for a speech absurd / crass words that were replaced mischievously by Rancho the main protagonist. Similarly the case of an alternate identity (not trying to reveal too much) is too exaggerated but in the context of the theme is passable.

That the education system is too flawed and how much burden does it put on the young is very well illustrated through various episodes in the inter-play of lives of 4 students their professor and his young daughter who is studying to become a medical doctor.

Another very topical Aamir Khan film yet again ......

Rating : * * * * *

Kurbaan

A good taut action thriller with terrorism as the reason for the violence ..... Islam vs. the West ..... is the central theme. But like Fanaa this movie fails to tug your heart emotionally as well as a serious movie on terrorism should.

Otherwise for a Bollywood film this is much better than average with good characterisation, good strong performances, great camera work and stunts. My recurring grouse with modern Indian movies is about trying to show too much realism in violence e.g. somebody's brain spilling out from a bullet shot or a bullet wound being stitched. Showing the aftermath of a bomb blast can still be reasoned for trying to show the realistic horrors of modern day terrorism and therefore in a way promoting the message of shunning it.

Kareena Kapoor (Avantika) plays the damsel in distress most brilliantly and it seems to be an equally strong performance as her Dev and Omkara earlier. Incidentally Saif Ali Khan (Ehsaan Khan) puts her in trouble yet another time in a movie. Saif however has the weakest role in the film. His acting does not look convincing either in the emotional sense of love or in the ideology that he is shown following. In fact Vivek Oberoi turns up a much stronger performance in terms of emoting and dialogue delivery. Surprisingly the seasoned Om Puri is also not so convincing. Kirron Kher as the Afgani woman out to seek revenge for the Western atrocities is brilliant both in keeping her accent through out the film as well as delivering the most convincing performance out of all jehadis.

In fact the only really tugging scene is the last one between Avantika and Ehsaan climaxing in the last close up of Avantika whose grief shows up in her eyes.

Some situations are very unbelievable like a terrorist group recruiting a rank outsider and a Hindu father marrying his daughter to an unknown Muslim without proper verifications.

The film could have been shortened but the director also wanted to cash in on the Saif-eena chemistry and has introduced an unnecessary bed-room sequence which again is ideologically and passionately unnecessary and impractical. There were other means of Avantika achieving the same goal.

The music of new duo Salim Suleiman is good and catchy. Camera angles and movements are slick and of Hollywood standards. Sadly for all its filming techniques and brilliance of taut story-telling the film is very Anti-Islamic. It fails to show a balanced view of Islam or of the fact that only a few Muslims who really endorse terrorism. The background of how the protagonists became terrorists has been verbally retold in few sentences by the Afghan lady; however doesn't sound plausible. For example one can't become a suave English speaking professor and world's top terrorist and assassin within 4 years after surviving American bombings in remote villages of Pakistan.

It is a good time-pass entertaining thriller despite its shortcomings of being unconvincing on the central ideology. Kareena deserves some critical awards for her performance.....however the slim size zero her does not look too pretty to the eyes any more ... in many scenes she looks like a scary ghostly apparition moving silently in the dark !!! Saif can perhaps escape the criticism of looking old and haggard because of his characters "painful" background and current profession.

Rating : * * * * *

Wake Up Sid

How difficult can adults be.... difficult and stubborn, at most times insensitive. They start taking people and situations for granted. Everybody has an immature streak which can be very hurtful to the near and dear ones....how does it affect lives of all involved; that is what this movie is about. Everybody has problems and it is how one takes them on is what differentiates a child from an adult. And friends can be very helpful in showing the right perspective in the nirror of truth.

A brilliant portrayal of a rich spoilt brat Sid by Ranbir Kapoor and another strong earthy arty performance by Konkona Sen Sharma as Aisha....amazingly their pairing actually looks good. Also very strong portrayal of rich parents of a wayward teenager by Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak....supported by mature and restrained show by new young actors playing Sid's college friends. The effect is a realistic picture of a college not like in the past where the joker of the pack used to be 40ish Johnny Walker, Rajendra Nath or Birbal. Situations are real and the emotions conflicting at times but aptly presented. The only place where the film defies any logic is when Sid puts on the Kurta of his girl friend Aisha !!

The whole brouaha over the use of the word Bombay may well have been a publicity stunt pulled off by Karan Johar but in true sense this movie has enough in it to not need any such gimmick. With such a strong stoyline, brilliant characterization and casting, great camera work, tight editing and beautiful background music and meaningful lyrics this movie is a straight ace as brilliant as any master could serve. Might go down in folklore of Indian cinema ... and by the way finally the son of great Rishi Kapoor seems to be believable for the first time ..... may be Sid may have streaks of the real him that he has portayed it so strongly ... only time and his subsequent films will tell the true story.

This is ultimately an adult Taare Zamin Par and perhaps equally brilliant.....

Rating : * * * * *

Kaminey

.....Camera, Action !!!!! Oh you forgot the lights Mr. Vishal Bharadwaj? Ssshaahid Kapoor and Faahid Kapoor along with Priyanka Chopra and an unknown cast were so costly that you could not rent out the lights for shooting? Oh no...may be your Oscar winning Guru Mr. Gulzar or mercurial singer Sukhvinder proved too costly.....? What a shameful movie after a brilliant Makadee and dark yet dramatic Maqbool and Omkara.

When one comes out of the hall at the interval or at the end one is fearful of almost losing eyesight because of the complete darkness on the screen and in the hall for hours. In fact the brightest scene in the movie is the Dhen Taen Naan song which has the camera moving along with psychedelic colored lights of the dance floor where the hero and his violenr gangster 'brother' are dancing. The song has a good tempo but is almost impossible to view without damaging your retina. And people said that Babel had one or 2 scenes with jerky camera and psychedelic colors bad for the eyes !!! This entire movie is bad for the eyes and can give you a violent headaches if you are not used to the unnecessary profanity, blood and violence.

Shaahid Kapoor is good in his 2 roles and it seems Priyanka after Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion has gone back in time and is shown entirely in cheap get-ups as if from the movie Chandni Bar. Rest of the actors were as it is unknown; they may have been good but I could not read most of their expressions because the screen was so dark and most of them had wierd facial hair.

Strangely the film has dialogues in Bengali, Marathi as well as some south American language yet for Bengali and Marathi there are no subtitles which could have eased some pain in the eyes that the film was meant on giving.

A word on the great Gulzar who seems to have helped get the great RDs numbers introduced in the background in some scenes. But it is strange that he chose to write for this dark, dirty, profane, almost idiotic movie whereas we have always associated him with clean thematic and topical cinema. The words of his songs are still good, the music also is OK and popular but not brilliant. I am sure the great Gulzar must be regretting this movie as one of his works

And yet again critics at Times of India have swayed with the director's name and his previous movies to give this TRASH of a movie 4 star rating......Times of India is losing its credibility ... in fact I am sorry Mr. Imtiaz Ali but Love Aaj Kal was 10 times more brilliant.

However the title was most apt and people were seen coming out and heard saying "Vishal, you ........."

Rating * * * * *