| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Idiots - Unrated | December 26, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Jail - Unrated | December 17, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| De Dana Dan - Unrated | December 17, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Paa - Unrated | December 17, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Unrated | November 8, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna (Mrs Khanna and I) - Unrated |
This is not a film I can recommend. For the record, I fled during the interval. Ever since his first notable appearance in Maine Pyaar Kiya (his debut, if I recall correctly, was in another film), Salman Khan has always been a Star, inspiring millions of fans- of both sexes- to dizzying heights of frenzy. Yet- and this is a fact even his fans, should they decide to look at things objectively, would find difficult to deny- he doesn't have the faintest clue about acting. His directors- Sooraj Badjatya and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, to name two- have always known this: in two of his biggest best films (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam etc.) all his characters are required to do is to look dashing, smile and make at least one big selfless sacrifice; they are, however, rarely expected to act. In Wanted: Dead or Alive (playing in theaters now), Mr Khan does an Arnold, not an Aamir (a la Ghazni): actions speak louder than words. Not only does he not have many dialogues to deliver but his role doesn't even require him to appear romantic (the wooing, in this case, is also left to the girl so that he can get on with the more important business of disposing the villains in highly imaginative and bloody ways). Likewise in his comedy films, in which he is part of a larger ensemble, loud slapstick (scatological jokes and farts not excluded) compensates for the lack of acting. Having said that, all of these films have worked- marvelously so- not despite but precisely because of this: people don't go to a Salman Khan film to see acting; they go to worship their Star. And that- more than anything else- is the reason for Mr Khan's iconic success. It's a pity then that his own brother, Sohail Khan, who acts in and directs this film, doesn't seem to realize this. By putting the burden of acting on the Star, he has ended up making a very bad film, which rather than celebrating his brother's stardom only ends up bringing out his deficiencies as an actor. Even Ms Kapoor seems to realize this: she is quite the misfit in this company of complete non-actors, and I couldn't help feeling that the only reason she did this role was as a personal favor to the Khan Brotherhood. Even Mr Khan's die-hard fans might be slightly disappointed: his efforts at acting make him look tired and it is all to clear that India's Star has, like the rest of us, grown old. Worse, attempts to disguise this fact with a hair-transplant and bigger biceps only tend to make him look hopelessly desperate. Perhaps Main Aurr Mrs Khanna will make him realize the virtues of aging gracefully à la Amitabh Bachchan & c- and much more importantly, help him come to terms with the fact that it's too late for him to be taking up acting. Mr Khan would do well to remember that once a Star, always a Star- and if he does try to act, then all that film might hope to get is One Star (on a 5-star rating scale)! |
October 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Wake Up Sid - Unrated |
A delightful if somewhat predictable romance between a happily spoilt rich kid and one seeking to be independent. The first half could use some editing but the film really picks up steam in the second. The casting is- how does one put it?- picture perfect. I can't think of any other actor who could have pulled off the title-role with more élan than Ranbir Kapoor: everytime I see him light up the screen- especially in the scenes with his on-screen mother- confirms my belief that he's indeed a chip off the old block! (I can only hope for his sake that he doesn't remain as underrated as an actor as his father is.) Ms. Sen doesn't quite dazzle- but then her character isn't really expected to do so. On the whole Wake up Sid is one of the better films to emerge from the Bollywood-factory this Diwali...Go see it with someone you love- or want you to love! |
October 11, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Dil Bole Hadippa! (My Heart Goes Hooray!) - Unrated | DDLJ meets Chak De! But romance suffers at the cost of cricket. Much too long, it loses direction midway; it could use a lot more editing. In any case, Rani Mukherjee, as always, is wonderful- even in drag. | September 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Wanted - Unrated | September 29, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Kaminey - Unrated |
I couldn't help thinking that this is Vishal Bharadwaj's take on- perhaps, even tribute to- Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. He is arguably India's finest director- but Kaminey isn't his finest work. In his earlier films, Maqbool and Omkara (both brilliant adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies, Hamlet and Othello) Mr. Bharadwaj didn't just tell tales; he gave us entire visions of worlds- or more precisely, underworlds- complete in themselves, populated with their own distinctive vocabularies. Like Chopin's piano concertos, we could feel cannons pounding away under a bed of roses. In Kaminey, however, Mr. Bharadwaj tends to get carried away: one might even say, he tends to become over-indulgent. The same scene is approached from several angles, the long-shots get a bit too long, and the music crowds out Gulzar's deeply-felt lyrics: put simply, the filmmaker's craft- its obsession with technical wizardry- becomes, at times, a burden on the film itself. Unlike his previous films, inhabited by characters who were neither all good nor all bad but lived precariously in a moral twilight zone, this one has heroes, heroines and a bunch of comically bizarre villains. They all seem, to me, to lack depth. Priyanka Chopra is wonderful, her role possibly award-winning, and Shahid Kapoor, in a double role, is, well, passionate. There is much he has to learn from his father, Pankaj Kapoor, who starred in Maqbool. For instance, not all things have to be said or shown on screen; the best scenes are when things are simply felt. The same holds true for Kaminey. For feeling is precisely what is missing in this otherwise brilliant filmmaker's film. |
August 14, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Love Aaj Kal - Unrated |
Indian love in the 21st century isn't quite as innocent- or for that matter, Beautiful- as what it used to be in our parents'- and grandparents'- day and age: these days, lovers' egos are much too big; their minds, much too fickle; and they never seem to mean what they say. This, anyway, is the message of Imtiaz Ali's latest offering. Personally, I didn't much care for it: for one thing, there is no chemistry between Mr Ali's pair of star cross'd lovers. They meet, have sex, break up, and somewhere in between all that, manage to fall in love: but when exactly, and why, and how, is left to our imaginations. Moreover, by alternately telling the stories of a yesteryear romance and the modern one, I have a feeling that Mr. Ali wanted to show us the timelessness of love; that underneath all the glitter, Love has always been the same, and will be so forever: Pure, 24 carat Gold. Unfortunately, that is a message this film fails to deliver. Rishi Kapoor, who plays Saif's amanuensis-cum-guide, is, as always, refreshing; but the one true revelation of this film is Harneet. She doesn't say a word, but her Innocence, such as it is, is worth more than all the words in the world. It's not difficult to imagine why anyone couldn't help but fall in love with her. (This reviewer certainly did!) In the end, Love Aaj Kal is too much icing, but too little cake. For real Gold- and not just glitter- see Jab We Met, Mr. Ali's first film. |
August 14, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Guide (Survival) - Unrated | Waheeda Rahman is a goddess without compare... | May 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Twilight - PG-13 |
Twilight is not a great film; it doesn't aspire to be. But it does have a beautiful tale to tell. It is a twisted tale of teenage love; all of its characters- not just the gloriously seductive vampires googled out of the internet but also the humans- are out of place, living their lives on peripheries, in forgotten old towns where the sun doesn't shine. Also, there is something deeply erotic about the heroine's wish to consummate her affair with her vampire-lover even at the cost of eternal damnation. At the end of it, I couldn't help wondering why he- her vampire- doesn't oblige? I mean wouldn't it be great for the two lovers to live and love forever rather than watch one of them grow old and die...But that doesn't happen: not in the book, and not in the film. The reason I guess has got to be moral: immortality for some strange reason is still considered quite immoral especially if it comes at the cost of drinking blood (personally, I think that so long as the blood is of the animal variety, there should be nothing sinister about it). But that's not the point either. This is a great contemporary love story of our time; and like all great love stories before- and possibly after- it, its Love must remain necessarily unrequited. Think Romeo and Juliet. And then, replace Romeo with a Vampire. And voila, Twilight is what you have. |
March 18, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Three Colors: White (Trzy kolory: Bialy) - R | March 6, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| L'Avventura (The Adventure) - Unrated | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Snatch - R | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Girl, Interrupted - R | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Fierce Creatures - PG-13 | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - G | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Touch of Evil - PG-13 | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| La Double Vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronique) - R | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Pink Panther Strikes Again - PG | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Blade - R | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Daredevils of the Desert - Unrated | March 3, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Changeling - R | March 3, 2009 | N/A |
415 ratings
66 reviews
