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!!

OYE IT’S DOOMSDAY!!!!

I am dying to lay my eyes on the nice, cozy couch and some nice corner pieces to complement the much talked about coffee wall. I am getting even more impatient to see the creamy coffee swirling in a big mug with glimpse of shiny celebrities getting dissolve and reappear with equal élan. I miss the way the SRK or the big B would walk and hug Karan, and the way Karan would get engaged in conversation with his filmparivar.
Cut to flashy sets, bright smiles, blondes dancing on the latest Bollywood numbers and some extremely high profile celebrities spilling it out, right from the topic of what lies in their closet to some ‘inside news’, punctuated with some slapstick humor. Oye its Friday is a total bhelpuri I have developed distaste for! The show has Farhan, the intelligence largest when it comes to direction and talent abundance if we talk about acting prowess. But his hosting skill is not as heart warming and interesting as that of Karan Johar. He got the celibrities on his show, any host would die for. But the show has no punch in-spite of having some crazy punch lines and weird one liners. Everything is rapid on oye it’s Friday but it has no fire. This fantastic director-actor should stick to what he does the best [no singing pleez!] and let Karan do the rapid-fire!!!!