You cant have it both ways!

"Sports and politics are separate faculties and should remain so" outcry looks so idealistically rosy on paper. In reality you do not invite your nasty neighbor to play a game of scrabble who’s been repeatedly shitting in your own backyard,

Not for a moment I deny the fact that hatred begets hatred, but those who have lost their dear ones in 26/11 will not be all cozy to watch players from Pakistan cheering and frolicking on our soil and go away with tones of money. eye for an eye policy will make all of us blind, but you cant wait and watch when the opponent is ready with a slingshot loaded with sharp stones, stretching it way too far and eying for your eye!

Pakistan, till date, has not taken any concrete action against the 1993 serial bomb blast perpetrators, forget 26/11. if reports are to be believed,Pakistan is digging tunnels in the vicinity of indo-pak borders, getting all set to be up to yet another notorious act, and we are more than welcoming to their players. Sounds ludicrous!

You win a game you go home. You loose a game you still go home, you lose a war you don’t go home!!

Avatar sets a nearly impossible to breach benchmark .

One of the many reasons why we are blessed with eyes is that the all mighty wants us to experience Avatar. It doesn’t take a genius to comprehend why our own Bollywood went on the back foot and not released any movie on the day Avatar hit the Indian shore. Never-before-seen special effects, extra ordinary shot taking, finest possible detailing, zippy-zappy-zoom camera movement, razor-sharp editing and breathtaking visuals deprive one of all the possible superlatives and adjectives. In fact, no word could possibly define James Cameron’s Avatar. Ten minutes into this movie and you enter the world of Avatar [read Pandora] and from there onwards the director keeps elevating the visual explosion from one unattainable level to the other, leaving you shocked, awestruck and moist-eyed at the same time. Unlike many other alien-centric dramas made in the recent past, this film has a heart, and has it at the right place.

Set in, say a hundred years or so from now, the earthlings have landed on a distant planet called Pandora, not to explore its beauty but to exploit it, to strip it from its splendor. In order to assuage our greed, 'we the humans' it seems, have concretized and mechanized the earth. In order to solve the energy crisis here, the US marines are in search of the super energy-rich mineral called ‘unobtainium’ exist on Pandora. Armed with exquisite technology and massive force of ultra modern ammunition and gigantic robots that are ready to destroy the beautiful Pandora, a place where mountains fly, where the sky is still smoke free, where jungles are wild, enriched with fearsome and equally colorful creatures, US marine is ready to fight any battle to show that we humans ‘must’ get what they ‘want’ by any means possible, by using brutal power, but there are a few challenges this planet pose.

Earthlings can not breath on Pandora, they need a constant oxygen supply to survive. The magical land of Pandora also comes with its deadly surprises. There are animals that are larger, more powerful and the most unpredictable. In short survival is a task there, but the most prominent hurdles are the gigantic, blue skinned, tail wagging Navis, the aborigines, who are brainy, skilled and are sitting on the Unobtainium field. That is when Jack sully’s character is sent into the tribe, more as an under cover agent, the one who is genetically-morphed as one of the Navi’s and brain-controlled from the spaceship. Having entered the ‘blue monkey tribe’, he’s Avatar gives day to day info back to his mission chives. As the days start flying by, Sully’s character realizes that Pandora is as charming and lively as it is hostile. He falls in love with the nature-loving Navi’s, who share an eternal bond with their environment. He realizes that Navi’s love and care for Pandora is more than what we humans do for our earth. Ready to betray his own selfish and crafty human roots, Sully’s Avtar gets all set to give the greedy earthlings a taste of their own medicine, and the reverse battle begins.

Avatar also has some striking subtext vis-à-vis the war diplomacy and world politics. First you bite someone with a venomous pang for selfish motives and when the opposite clan retaliates, you label them as rebels. The film also has a ‘green’ heart at the core. Great performances from all actors [Zoe Saldana is wonderful, makes you fall in love with her even in her blue skinned form], incomparable SFX, terrific background score makes avatar a must watch. Every frame of this film screams out at you, proclaiming the humungous amount of money pumped into the project, it shouts and brags about the twelve years gone into making a feast for senses that avatar is. The film talks about the effort of very individual associated with it, but most of all Avatar is about a visionary, who makes us understand that if you can see it, you surely can make it, Hats off to James Cameron! Standing ovation at the end is as much a must as the special glasses required to watch this 3-D bliss.


Rating- ****** 6 on 5

When the ghosts go digital!

IF you thought that spirits evil or otherwise, use only people as a medium to convey their messages, or haunt someone in order to reveal the dark, murky secrets gone to grave with their death, you definitely need to think again! If you believe the ghost can take up only the flesh and the bony matter to carry out the action and quench the thirst of the unfulfilled will, you need to have the hint of the changing psyche of 21st century ghost. In the era of internet and digital ramifications, ghost could well use any medium to convey the message, it could be a television that sits nicely on the corner piece [in this case read central piece] or a sleek mobile phone that you carry to do anything and everything except talking over. Yes, ghosts today are like hyperactive wannabes, even they want their share of twenty seconds of fame. Well, that is the basic premise of 13B.

Madhavan’s character and his family shifts to a new apartment [do I need to tell you the ominous room number?] surprisingly, things start going awry, in this order- milk spilt everyday, Elevator clogs when Madhavan hops into it, Pictures taken on the mobile phone go crooked, lights go flickering like crazy dancers etc. Madhavan takes it lightly till the intensity of the things escalates to a fatal height, then, to his surprise he accidentally finds out that he is a part of this mumbo jumbo and follows a character’s flow ditto from a horror soap, which his family is fond of, and follows it religiously. So whatever happens on the mini series the same follows in the house immediately! Or, the other way round. And the drama within a drama of paranormal existence starts unfolding.

13B has more than a couple of moments that sends a cold, scary sensation down your spine. The movie spares you the horror of occult powers and witchcraft but fails to scare you as much as you would want it to. Excellent cinematography and equally good editing makes the plot even more intriguing. The movie ends up being more of a mystery than a ghost story in the final stages.[ wish it could have both] A novel ghost story that doesn’t take you on the edge of the seat. You don’t find yourself biting you nails while watching the movie, for it lacks the namkeen flavour. The movie!

Ratings 3/5 ***

Black Monkey steals the show

Movie review-Delhi6

While driving back home from a surgeon in some part of New York, he [Abhisheik Bachchan] agrees to take his ailing grandma [ Waheeda Rehman] back to the place of her Origin-Chandani chowk. The yo mama kid [junior Bachchan] had never been to Delhi, and having arrived here he takes time to adjust the hustle-bustle of the chandani chowk, the crowd, the jalebi, the over-the-top emotional play, spilling love and fetish for American culture. He Likes the Ramleela commotion and is impressed by the bonded by blood relation, but hates the judicial system and an anonymous black monkey, responsible for creating havoc in the red-fort city in equal measures.

She [Sonam Kapoor] is a chirpy, in-your-face small town girl busy getting her video shoot done in order to clinch the coveted title of Indian idol. Abhishiek falls for her love for life mantra, her bubbly smile and her charming appearance. Well, Sonam makes him feel that she is hot he is not! Things are good so far till the black monkey raises its bar and creates more ruckuses, leading to communal riots, maramari, blame game, violence. The Message is loud and out, we Indians are good people with our faiths, our emotions, our culture and love, but we are capable enough of turning ourselves into hyper reactive, tamashebaaz, pushing all the good attribute under the carpet in the name of God when the situation get worse. And indulge in emotional atyachaar.

Delhi 6 has some captivating moments and some fabulous hard hitting lines. Without being offensive and offending, the BLACK MONKEY concept works [no it’s not Symond-Bhajji altercation.] What does not work, is the treatment of the movie which seems like some excellent concepts broken into jigsaw puzzle pieces. And the director finds it even more difficult to place them back in order to create a nice meaningful picture. Here, the pieces look good but they somehow don’t shape proper coherent product in the end. Delhi6 talks about some genuine concern of our society and the problem that we with our over the top emotions, are capable of leading to more dilemma and chaos. There are certain issues you can not afford to touch and flinch. Delhi6 does that mistake; it touches a sensitive nerve and then flinches.

Delhi6 holds your attention especially, in the first half, thanks to the excellent and experimental camera movements, easy flow and peppy desi music. As far as acting is concerned, this is easily one of the best by Abhishek Bachchan. He simply flows with the character. There isn’t much to talk about Sonam’s character, but this girl promises to deliver. She smiles, dances and speaks her lines aptly. Waheeda Rehman is as graceful as she is effective.

Overall, Delhi six is good. You must watch this movie only if you are patient enough to develop a palate for hatke cinema.

Rating – 3/5 ***

A good end could have saved RAAZ!

Raaz-The mystery continues [Review]

Just like most of the actors in the tinsel town of Bollywood, the mysterious evil spirit in the movie Raaz-The mystery continues, prefers he’s Hindi script to be written in English. The ghost conveys the threatening messages and clues in the language of Hindi, boldly written in the Queen’s alphabets. You wonder why? But that remains as good a Raaz as the coils of mystery keeps unfolding in the first half of the movie. [The second half is insane, and, hey, you don’t get answer for the above question even in the second half, I certainly didn’t]

Director Mohi Suri’s Raaz scares you, builds quite a mystery, and as it goes into the spiral of spooky events leading toward the second half, it makes you build an expectation of a good solid flashback to substantiate the trauma the protagonist [Kangana Ranaut's character] goes through and that expectation evokes a hope that the director would at least give a shocking, surprising ending to an otherwise one of the run-of-the-mill horror films. And the hope comes crashing down like the sensex of the Bombay stock exchange.

Supermodel [Kangana] is happy in the city of Mumbai, with her boyfriend [Adhyayan]- An ace reporter cum Anchor busy busting the myths and superstitions the Indian society is grappled with. The couple achieves quite a success by compromising on the great Indian values and what not. Their sole Mantra is- ‘own a dreamworld no matter what it takes.’
life seems good and happening until, Kangana comes across an artist [Hashmi], who claims to know the discourse of the evil things are on their way, slowly approaching Kangana through the ‘masterpieces’ he paints. Life is no more a peppy ball for Kangana as she confronts with weird instances happening, one after the other, that’s when, she decides to meet Hashmi, only to get to know that she is part of a plot, a mistake committed in the past. Soon, she discovers the death of some people from the city under suspicious circumstances is the end result of their inclusive, collective Paap committed in the past and she is to meet the same fate the other people died with. And the journey to get to the root of the rotten fate err…Razz begins. To know the Mystery you will have to go through Animated Bisons, Black-magic, voodoo dolls, occult power and wooden faced Adhyayan.

The Film is not bad, but it will serve a great example of how a good, intrigue generating story could be butchered by a hurried direction. As I said, the first half of the movie is good, but the second half is so overwhelmingly unjustified that its failure overpowers the goodness of the first half. Kangana by now knows how to portray that drowsy, bleary-eyed problem-infested young woman. [Right from Gangster to Life in a Metro to Fashion to blah blah] there isn’t a much difference between the characters she has portrayed till now. In this movie she has done a good job, but again the same tone and more or less the similar character she has portrayed before. As for Hashmi, he dosen't kiss anybody on screen this time [The job is passed on to Adhyayan this time around, and he does that well] yes, Imran has done a justice to his character with an apt performance. His lost in his own world artist comes across very subtly but pretty nicely. Adhyayan could have been portrayed by any Tom, Dick and Harry and it could have come better if not the same.

Like Bhutt's earlier success at the box office, Raaz too has good music especially, the two tracks of soniyo and aaja mahi. The movie is marred by an unconvincing, almost a laughable end that suddenly takes the fizzle out of a well built up drama. What makes the matter worse is the fact, that, unlike, the Raaz part 1, presence of a ghost doesn’t come across well. [You start sympathising with the ghost instead of getting scared by him, and guess who the ageing ghost who has played a spoilsport can be?] This flick is in no way related to the Dino Morea and Bipasha starrer prequel. [no continuation of mystery, no matter what the title says.] All in all, not a bad watch for one time if you are up to a naught!

Ratings- *** almost three on five [and that’s being generous!]

Valentine special

Do we really need one specific day to profess our love to our special someone? Of course not, But what if we have one? What harm does a day on which lovers meet, exchange gifts, make a vow for a lifetime, knit the dreams to stay together, forever, may possibly cause? Valentine’s Day has always been a tug of war between those who want to show people ‘yes, we can’ and those who say, ‘show us how you can’. Love has been evaporated out of the equation long back. There has always been a lot of scope to raise the controversies their ugly head on this special day-the day that has always been perceived in India as a mere blind imitation of the western culture. But according to my understanding, that’s how the culture evolves. Adaptation, imitation, absorption and assimilation are the basic factors that help form a culture. and as the world has become a global town, thanks to the media which have become faster than ever before, helps to form a new culture. In short, you don’t form culture, culture builds you. It is a constant flow, an unstoppable influx. If we can understand this I presume, no one needs to start moral policing and impose it on anyone. I agree to a certain extent that a lot of cheesy things see their easy way on Valentine’s Day as much as some of the political parties try to gain out of this day by certain uncalled for actions. Let there be love in abundance on this Valentine's Day, that's what the day is meant for, nothing else!

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and why they liked to hate it.

A dingy locality, dilapidated shanties, chock-a-block houses, lanes so narrow that if two individuals try to pass through at the same time, would be seen as fierce competitors for some slimming test. Slumdog millionaire showcases every ugly and possibly every real side of Mumbai slums very starkly, and with no hold bar, in-your-face manner. Right from the slum kids playing cricket on the wide-open runway of the nearby international airport, to slum dogs trying to get some daytime nap as all the loud commotion happens around with heart pounding and pulse racing intensity, Director Danny Boyle has captured it all in a bit overt, but certainly not in an unreal way. No wonder, the film has been nominated in 11 different categories for the Oscars.
Having bagged the prestigious golden globes, the film has become the talk of the global town. But at the same time, the film has received brickbats and ire in equal measures from some bloody losers and moralistic-cultural tightass, who either do not want to see the reality around them for they travel in the plush luxury cars and stay in supreme deluxe hotels and hum the India shine song from the rooftop, or they are pure jealous, or worse still, they belong to cunning wannabe group- the so called voice and saviours of the underprivileged section of the society, trying to jump the fame bandwagon, so that the news hungry media make them shine on the television screen. There could be one more possibility of stretching the non existent issue a way to further to gain the political mileage. Here are the worries, plights, concerns and voices raised against slumdog millionaire by some of the limelight seekers, lets bisect them one by one in order to know where the shoe pinches.

• It shows India [Mumbai] in a poor light

what the heck! The film uses Mumbai slums as a backdrop and exploits it, but that’s what the story of the film is all about, about a fellow who had to fight against all odds especially, the circumstances life throws him into. If it’s was a story about eunuchs in Mumbai, then as a director, Danny Boyle was not expected to take you through sandy golden coastal life of beautiful Australia, right? Similarly, a story based on the destiny of a slum kid from Mumbai can not be shot in the vicinity of Hiranandani skyscrapers. What were all these big-mouth critics doing, when our very own films busy showing Mumbai underworld, life in filthy localities etc. very vividly minus aesthetics?
Just because I have never been to paris, I can not claim that such place doesn’t exist, likewise, if you can come out of your protected cocoon and see around [forget about exploring the life in Dharavi slums], you will find innumerable Latika and Jamaal pretty easily.

• Dharavi is not like that anymore- Huh!
  Yes, there have been changes in the discussed place, but Dharavi was like the way it’s portrayed in the film,and that’s what the film says-it’s the Dharavi when the protagonist, Jamal, was a tiddler. How could one forget the scene in which Jamal and his brother, while reflecting upon their past, also get engaged in a conversation about the change, the arrival of the new towers on the old ground, hence new lifestyle, at the same place where they used to reside once. Here, the director doesn’t fail to show the changing face of the city of Mumbai as he gives more instances of the change by giving us scenes like a hustle of the call centre in which Jamal works as a chaiwala etc. [some wish Danny had shown Malls from Mulund, Salons from Bandra, high end lifestyle of the town, but don’t you think that would have changed the tone of the cinematic expression of the film, hence the plot?]
  A few News channel actually went on to make the comparison between Dharavi shown in the film and how it truly is in today’s times. And some nonsense banter over the incongruous visuals could fill their half hour slot easily. And that was reason enough for us to form an opinion about the movie, without even watching it! [I doubt even the news presenter of the bulletin watched the movie before writing it off!]
  
  I am ready to buy this

1. Name of the film has created quite a flutter, and justifiably so. How could a white skinned come here, make film on our slums, and call the dwellers dogs? But before getting into this part of the debate, can anyone get us the person who coiled the proverb-every dog has his day?. By that standard anyone who is trying hard to win is a dog? Nonsense, well, the debate should come under the same category, the debate may make sense but the topic over which it may begin, is absolute nonsense.
   
   
2. The biggest flaw of the movie is the fact that neither I’ve watched live telecast of KBC, nor the Big B would ask contestants a question and gave them all the time in the world while the commercial break was on. [Big B would at least freeze or lock the answer and then go for a commercial break]
   
   
3. Why Jamal who speaks English with a heavy British accent serves chai, instead of attending calls?
   
   Barring above errors, Slumdog Millionaire rocks…so it’s better if we accept the shear masterpiece created by Danny Boyle and his company, without bickering about inconsequential controversies, and hum Jai ho!!