Dev D

The modern and punjabi version of Devdas.....well it is a great attempt at recreating the classic story with a lot of contemprory social issues like teenage sexuality, family honor, drunken driving and booze & drugs.   

First of all you should forget the details of the original Devdas story and just remember Dev, Paro, Chandramukhi and Chunni babu.  Apart from these main characters reverse almost everything you knew about the original and see everything from a perspective of modern Indian youth.  

The youthful Dev and Paro are both open-minded, not afraid of trying out the physical love.  In one of the most radical scenes in the Hindi movie history Paro carries a mattress on her bicycle in a field and tries to seduce Dev into having sex with her.  The camera just shows a small portion of her back while the rest of the screen shows greenery.  The suggestion is that she is astride him and tearing off Dev's shirt.  Dev refuses to have any of it because he suspects that Paro has already lost virginity to somebody else.  In another scene a friend of Paro is trying to cover the hickies on her breast after a few moments of passion and kissing with Dev

The dialogues are....... closer to how real youth might brag of their escapades...... again quite sexually explicit. 

The introduction of Chanda is again quite explicit in terms of the visual as well as spoken innuendo.   In Chanda and Dev's scenes together there are shades of "Leaving Las Vegas". While Dev indulges into all the vices possible drinks, women and drugs.  Chanda teaches Dev the need to move on in life rather than destroying it.

There are references to the vain Indian concept of family honor.  Once Paro asks her father why is he bothered about his own honor while disregarding hers.  At another time Dev's younger brother gives him a wad of notes to be given to Dev's lawyer but there is nothing for Dev himself who is otherwise not socially welcome in the family.

One should look at this moive as perhaps a milestone in Indian film making where various tabboo topics have been shown together and with quite a brazen openness.  The content however could have been handled more tightly.  At times it seems that the director is just trying to match art film making by using surreal camera motions and psychedelic colors and imagery.  

Overall it is a watchable movie but with the warning that it has strong and sexual language and content (specially in Indian context).  If watching with children be prepared to give guidance too !!

Rating :  *****

Taare Zamin Par

Taare Zamin Par or Stars on Earth is a simple story telling with some realistic look at the parent child relationships in modern competitive India.  There is little Ishan (Darsheel Safary) who is a naughty impish boy who does not like school and his elder brother Yohan who is good at studies and also a champion at tennis.  Little Ishan does everything to avoid going to school; when he reaches school gets scolded by every teacher; he sees alphabets dancing in front of his eyes.  Yet he remains incorrigible; he bunks classes; comes back home and has bloodied brawls with neighborhood children.  

His parents decide to send him to a boarding school and enters his art teacher Ram Nikubh (Aamir Khan).  Ram analyses Ishan's problem of dyslexia and rest is a poignant tale of how Ram nutures the child while fighting with society systems and parents' stereotypical reactions to such  problems. 

The movie has some touching moments specially about relations between parent and a troubled child and about the 'concerns' of parents when dealing with such a child. 

Aamir is brilliant as usual and Darsheel really comes out as a very precocious talent.  It is a must watch film which really shows how "each child is special" if adults can see what each child is capable of.  The music is good, cinematography is artistic and colorful as the movie is really about children.  It is a pity that the film has already bowed out of the Oscars race; it would have been a worthy competitor - but now a days the world likes movies about violent life in the slums more than the problem of more innocent children. 

Rating: * * * * * 

Dostana

Dostana is one of the sickest movie ever to have been made in India.  It is beyond my understanding and sensibilities for sure.  

 It makes fun of the gays; it makes fun of those that are straight; it makes a mockery of the words friendship and love.  It is vulgar, it is demented, it is worse than a C grade cheap film made in Bhojpuri.  Had it been any other film maker even David Dhawan or M F Hussain people would have burnt the movie halls and vandalised muliplexes.  But since it is from 'the great' Karan Johar people still want to go see the movie.  

In fact the original Dostana which was a predictable love triangle was 100 times better.   On the subject of homo-sexuality 2 good movies I have seen are Philadelphia and My brother Nikhil.  But I do not know what message does this Dostana want to convey.  

 

In fact had it not been for Priyanka Chopra (oomph as well as some little bit of acting) I would have left the movie after 1/2 an hour. 

Karan Johar started with a good fresh kind of movie in Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai. This was mostly based in India.  Then came Kabhie khushi kabhie gham half of which was based in the UK; this was an average passable movie.  Then Kabhi Alvida na Kahna which was the worst from Karan Johar till then; it was totally based in the US.  This one has proved that the 'great' director is on a consistently steady decline even when he now makes movies only for the Punjabis based in the West.  

Wonder why was he trying to make fun of the gays while also making straights look perverted ?

Rating : ***** 

Luck By Chance

It is very difficult to laugh at oneself, be critical of ones own fraternity and look at your own life objectively....yet this is what this movie tries to do and wih quite a bit of truthfulness and honesty. It is not about creating spoofs of earlier movies or parodying old songs or critisising famous personality.  What this movie attempts is a realistic look at the Indian film industry, its struggles, pains, manipulation and machinations.  

Its a story of 2 struggling actors - Vikram Jai Singh from Delhi (Farhan Akhtar) and Sona Misra from Kanpur (Konkona Sen Sharma).  Its a story of a star daughter Nikki Walia (Isha Sharvani) whose star mother Neena (Dimple Kapadia) pulls the strings of her life.  Its a story of a bunch of Producers Mr and Mrs Rolly (Rishi Kappor & Juhi Chawla), Mr Chaudhary (Aly Khan) and a flop actor turned director (Sanjay Kapoor).    In between a lot of big stars including Amir Khan, Shahrukh, Rani, Akshaye Khanna, Abhishek Bachchan, Karan Johar, Anurag Kshayap and Hrithik Roshan have been thrown in.  A lot of attention has been kept to small details like a messy open  suitcase lying in the actor's hotel room or a small middle class kitchen of the struggling actress.

The struggler hero Vikram is a smooth talking suave city boy who plays around with different people's emotions to go up the ladder of success.  And there is the naive actress Sona who keeps waiting for others to give her a lead role for 3 years, only to realise that one makes ones own success and failure.  

An acting school teacher explains to his students that to make it big in the Film Industry one has to be at the right place at the right time.  Karan Johar later also reminds the big star Zafar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) that outsiders like SRK and Amitabh became big because bigger stars of their times didnot accept different type of lead roles in Darr, Baazigar and Zanjeer.  

Vikram becomes a star of the film industry and Sona of Television.  Same people who would scoff at a struggler would be quite ready to mingle with you if you have become big.  There is no preaching of morality, right or wrong but just the plain and simple motto that Nothing succeeds like success.  

The best thing about this self-critique is that there has been no attempt to paint anybody fully black or fully white.  There are realistic people - all of them having shades of all human emotions.  At one point the jovial producer (Rishi Kapoor) calls the starlet's mother as a "crocodile in chiffon" to explain her greed which she is now fulfilling through her daughter.  Rishi Kapoor and Juhi are brilliant as the fully loaded Punjabi producer couple who have made big movies and stars and are looked up to by the industry as star makers.  

Shahrukh Khan later delivers a very strong reminder that Its a cocktail - a heady mix of fame, money and power.  But as a star one would do well to not forget those who were your friends when you were a nobody because they are the only ones who will tell you the truth. 

A very good philosophical kind of film from the debut director Zoya Akhtar. The music is good - there is no violence at all and it is quite a clean classy kind of movie.  

I reckon the movie will do good in big metros and cities but might not work as well in small town India.  But it should get a lot of well deserved awards for the director and the lead actors. 

Rating : *****

Dasvidaniya

The Best Goodbye!!! Its a beautiful picturisation of the daily struggles of a middle class Indian Amar (meaning Immortal).  This simple bespectacled pot bellied guy has an obesession about planning his life on a To Do list every day.  He is a perfect conformist who leads a mundane but disciplined life - the home and office being the 2 poles of his entire life.  He bears the whims and eccentricities of his boss until the realization about his mortality hits him.

What follows is his new struggles of saying a nice peaceful goodbye to all his friends and loved ones.  In the course of this  journey  (his new 10 things to do) he realises the truth about the fickle & changing nature of relationships, childhood friendships, teenage romance, love, luck and death.  

Its a movie that should surely appeal to Indians who have seen the struggle, aspirations and hope of the Indian middle class.  The movie makes you think about life and reminds you of death being an integral part of it.  Characters are very real, life like and quite endearing.  There are a few over the top exaggerations in the cameos played by Saurabh Shukla, Ranvir Shorey and Purvi Joshi. These 3 portrayals help the lead player Amar understand that life can be fun too.

 Vinay Pathak (Amar), Sarita Joshi (Mother) and Gaurav Gera (Vivek) are brilliant.  Surprisingly Neha Dhupia gives a very restrained and beautiful performance as Amar's love interest from his teenage life.  And Rajat Kapur as a long lost friend completes a very able ensemble cast.  

Certain scenes like the one where Amar plays dumb-charade with his sweetheart and the one where a Russian prostitute saves Amar from committing suicide are touching.  

This is kind of old time cinema of Basu Bhattacharya and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.  Whereas Vinay Pathak played a perfect buffoon in Bheja Fry in an out and out Comedy; this time he has out-done himeslf as a very loveable city-simpleton who has considered himself to be a loser all his life despite so many endearing qualities.  

A most watchable film - one of the best ones to come out from Bollywood in recent times !!

Rating : *****