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From the time I heard about this movie “The Dirty Picture” acted by Vidya Balan, we (myself and my wife) wanted to see it. After the movie got released few months back we couldn’t make it to the theatre every time we planned to go. In the few months after the release many magazines including Hindustan Times Brunch has written good reviews about Vidya Balan’s excellent performance in the role. I purchased the DVD from FlipKart and saw it today, DVD has the advantage the Hindi movie will come with English Sub-Title making it easier for me to understand it. The movie made by Ekta Kapoor said to be loosely made on the life story of South Indian film sensation Silk Smitha.
The movie didn’t meet the expectations I had. Though Vidya has done a good performance, having seen Silk Smitha on screen earlier I couldn’t see any resemblance of real Silk in Vidya Balan. Similarly almost the entire cast didn’t match the Tollywood or Kollywood people it claims to portray. The settings & costumes were impressive, they have been painstakingly brought back to life the 80s Kollywood. The first half of the movie was boring, the second half was better when “Silk” goes to her high moments and falls back rapidly from it. The makeup of Emraan Hashmi who plays Director Abraham makes him look like Director Cheran, which I think is accidental. The screen play was average at most places with the best in the scene when Silk walks out after her Filmfare award, when the reporter Naina advices her “Don’t think too much, just be yourself”. We are able to enjoy the play of emotions between Silk and Abraham (Director) in the last portion of the movie. The sound track for the song "Ooh La La" makes you hum it few times.
Travel is when I get to watch more movies. Last week I was on a business trip to Singapore. Got to watch Badmaash Company in the onward journey in Air India, 3 Idiots on the return and Race to Witch Mountain in Star Movies in the Hotel Room.
Badmaash Company: Badmaash Company is a Hindi film starring Shahid Kapoor & Anushka Sharma. The movie was about 4 friends making it big time by exploiting the holes in the tax & banking system and by outsmarting businesses. Second half of the movie happens in USA and the screen-play is kept quite interesting throughout. The plots employed to win are pretty naive to pull off in real-life. Anushka comes out beautiful throughout the movie and most of the costumes by all the characters were looking good. Overall, usual Bollywood Masala but worth watching – nice entertainment.
3 Idiots: A box office hit Hindi comedy film directed by Munnabhai fame Rajkumar Hirani, staring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan & Kareena Kapoor. I have been wanting to see this movie as it was adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, which I had read few years back and enjoyed thoroughly. Obviously the movie is not exact rendering of the novel, but has been adapted for Aamir Khan and added Bollywood touches – I felt the changes are necessary and done nicely to keep the movie more entertaining. Kareen Kapoor is appearing much older for the role, while Aamir Khan amasses viewers by his young college student look. The subtitles I watched in Air India console were quite nice too. Overall, a definite watch Hindi movie.
Race to Witch Mountain: A typical Hollywood Aliens visiting Earth story with US government officials conspiring to keep the truth away from public. A Las Vegas Taxi driver in his cab saves the two alien kids from US defence forces and from Alien military forces – you can’t get any bigger than this for absolute entertainment  . The two kids have done their characters quite nicely. For me the movie was better than watching Nth time BBC & CNN in my Hotel Room!
Today I watched this movie on way from Chennai to New Delhi by Jet Airways, as I was lucky to get a business class seat available as upgrade using my Frequent Flyer voucher.
ISHQIYA, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan. For Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi their role may have been cake-walk and they have done it nicely. It was Vidya Balan who catches our attention by performing with ease whether in scenes she appears as a typical housewife managing the household, when she appears glamorous and on scenes where she handles a Rifle or a Gun – simply brilliant performance by her. The movie touches a subject that is kind of Taboo in Indian films – two men falling in love with a married woman (they believe to be a Widow) and she engaging knowingly in infidelity. But the story is told by the director skilfully with no trace of any vulgarity.
Must watch, don’t miss.
 Few months back, while on an international flight I watched this movie “Teesri Manzil” staring “Shammi Kapoor” released in 1966. Of course I could follow the Hindi movie only due to the English Subtitles  . As in many times in the past, I missed the first 15 minutes, but watched the rest of the movie and then came back when it ran the second time for the missed starting.
Anil Kumar (Shammi Kapoor) finds a young woman named Roopa jumping from the third floor of the hotel at night where he regularly performs as a musician named "Rocky." Roopa’s younger sister (Asha Parekh) believes that her sister committed suicide because of a supposedly ruined affair with Rocky, so she comes to seek vengeance. A nice murder mystery which was taken very well by Nasir Husain, the scenes keep moving fast and you are at the edge of your seat almost till the climax.
The story reminded me of a Tamil Movie starring Kamal Haasan “Kalaignan” (DVD available here)
Though Lagaan was a very popular Hindi movie that came early this decade, I haven’t seen it so far. I bought the collector’s edition of the DVD few years back, but it has been sleeping in my CD rack. Today with the rains in Chennai, I was not able to go out, so I watched this movie.
The first impression anyone seeing the film is that it is an excellent movie, must see. Initially I was worried on how I will sit through for a Three-and-Half hour movie, but the director & actors keep the interest level high all the time. The other significant things that impresses you is A.R.Rahman’s brilliant background score, the choreography and the dialogs.
In the evening today there was a Bollywood play "All the Best" directed by distinguished director "Feroz Khan". I was hoping it will be in English as my understanding of Hindi is extremely limited, and I will certainly not be able to appreciate a Comedy Play in Hindi. The play did turn out to be in Hindi, but since the play had a mute character there was lot of hand gestures and body language so I could understand it well and was able to have split laughs as well. The appreciation should go to the four excellent actors (Iqbal Azad, Kikoo Sharda, Kranti Redkar and Vikas Kadam) who performed brilliantly on the stage.
The play deals with three friends, one blind, the other deaf and third mute, who all fall for the same girl.
If this comes to your town, don’t miss it.
Yesterday I took my son and his cousins to this movie – "Ghatothkach". As Sathyam Cinemas website was down I used their door delivery facility for getting the tickets which was very convenient and you had to pay only Rs.75 extra for the service.
In Mahabharat epic Ghatothkach is the son of Bheema (Pandavas). Ghatothkach inherits immense strength from his father and wonderful magic powers which he uses for good. With this one line story from the epic and inspired by the 1957 live action film Mayabazar, Ghatothkach movie gives a clean entertainment for kids. The movie is directed by legendary director Mr.Singeetam Srinivasa Rao.
My kid loved the scenes where Ghatothkach and his pet elephant utters the magic words "Ambilica Bambulica". Having seen the Tamil Mayabaazar movie and the song "Kalyana Samayel Saatham" (Same video clip in Telugu here) I expected the scene in the movie to be more grand and entertaining, but it was very brief here. The movie ends kind of suddenly before you expect the end. There is nothing for grown-ups in the movie other than the superb animation and music. My wife slept through the 90 minutes film. Good time pass for kids in the summer.
On my flight from India to US two weeks back, I watched Chak De! in Jet Airways In-Flight Entertainment. Irony is that I have the DVD of the movie purchased and lying idle in my house for months now.
The movie is a great attempt and a much-needed one to highlight the neglect of all other sports in India other than Cricket that too on Women Hockey. Other than track games and recently tennis, women sports have been for long least appreciated in the country. This movie where SRK acts in the role of a wrongly corruption tainted coach who desperately fights in getting the girls ready and there by clean his records. Very well done movie, must see.
Having bought the DVD several months back, I managed to watch the movie “Guru” staring Abhishek Bachchan yesterday. The story was widely rumoured to be based on Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani’s life. Abhishek definitely has done a superb performance in the movie coming as the ambitious businessman. Though Aishwarya Rai comes throughout the movie, she has very little role and leaves no impact.
The first half of the movie, where Gurukant Desai raises to fame fast was well taken, but the second half resembles more a routine Hindi Movie with a fight (not physical) and the Hero winning at the end. Overall, if you remove the Reliance Ambani connection from your mind, this is a very ordinary movie – Director Mani Rathnam could have done better.
I have watched few Hindi movies, main reason being I understand little of the language. Though I can read and write Hindi (since I was in a CBSE school where it was compulsory till 8th standard), strangely I cannot understand the language much.
Last week in NDTV, I saw the coverage of a new movie produced by Sanjay Dutt – “Dus Kahaniyaan“. Somehow the idea of 10 different short stories made into one single movie interested me, especially the part “Shabana Azmi” playing a south indian grandmother. So today we went to the movie in Sathyam Cinemas “Season” theatre. Before I say about the movie I liked Satyam’s online booking which includes facility to order snacks and softdrinks as well (these are delivered to your seat during interval).
The movie was certainly a different experience, with each director doing their best to set the character, highlight the background and tell the story all in 15 minutes. If you a regular movie goer, don’t miss this movie. I saw a good review from Times of India about the movie, which reflects pretty much what I had to say and has said it better.
BTW, at few instances I did ask my wife to help me in understanding of the dialogues
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