Sunday 28 February 2010

Buzz Edition no.5

I haven’t had a buzz edition in some time (probably a week) so I thought that could be today’s post…

This is quite hilarious! This is the internet’s reaction to Saif getting the Padmashree… as you can guess, it’s not positive!

Kirathanz Saif Ali Khan gets a Padma Shri For what to get Kareena to size zero I thought it was a scientific achievement!!

I don’t believe this! This can’t be true, Shahid Kapoor and Piyanka Chopra don’t hit me as such people.

Here’s the winners from this years Filmfare awards, I don’t agree with a few such as 3 Idiots for best story… Hello! It was copied from a book! And Ranbir for Best Actor Male, true he has consistently been giving good performances throughout the year but they don’t come anywhere near Shahid’s perfection in acting out Charlie and Guddu. Hell, the guy can’t even carry out a stammer accurately. Filmfare was a dud this year, but the performances might turn out to be good. I’ve heard SRK and Saif did a great and entertaining job.

On a side note did you know half the ‘performances’ don’t even happen in front of a live audience? Kareena, Deepika, Katrina and Salman performed before the main event and pictures are being used from then, the audience are told to cheer as if a star if onstage and the sounds are added later. Check out twitter.com/rajnigandha and scroll through her tweets to see what I mean! Only Shahid, Ritesh and Jacqueline had the guts to perform in front of a live audience. Shame on the rest of you!

Its good to hear exes can still remain friends (that is if they were ever together and its not just rumours).

A hilariously cute interview with Shahid and Genelia:

What happened when you guys met for the first time on the sets?
S: I was shooting from eight in the morning to nine in the night. I was tired when the ‘star’ Genelia arrived.
G: Rubbish. I was waiting since nine in the morning to shoot with the ‘star’ Shahid. I was waiting for the star to finish his shoot so that we could start shooting.
S: Rubbish. I was waiting for her and she finally came after her beauty sleep.
G: Rubbish. Never. I came after waiting for so many hours in my van.
S: What did you do in the van, when you were waiting? Push ups? You were sleeping only ...

They seem to like the work rubbish!

Kajol and Ajay’s relationship seem to be treading the rocky road… I’m sure everything will be fine though!

Here’s a rather catty article about Imran and the camera, do the paparazzi know what the word privacy means?

Here’s an interesting comparison of the different dancers in B’town

That’s it for today folks!

Saturday 27 February 2010

Awards Performances…

Its the time of the year when all the awards are meted out and along with them come some good, some not-so-good and some hilarious performances. I’d thought I’d have look at some of them today…

Katrina at Stardust 2010

Lets start with one of the worst to get it out of the way… What was Katrina thinking?!?

I like nothing about this, neither the dancing nor the costumes nor the songs. Katrina is normally saved in my eyes by her onstage presence but even that couldn’t save her here.

Shahid at Stardust 2010

I’m not too fond of the choreography of Dhan Te Nan here but then again, its a hard song to dance to…

He took too long to actually start dancing in my opinion but his rendition of Pe Pe Pepein was utterly cute! We got to see the innocent shaitan expression on his face (especially at 4:51) again which immediately brought a smile to mine ;) I quite like what he is wearing.

Saifeena at Stardust 2010

This one is just hilarious! Neither can dance so it gives me great pleasure to watch both of them together:

I was laughing all the way through, completely worth watching! I kept smiling whenever they zoomed into Shahid’s face and he was there trying to keep his face straight, probably thinking breaking up with Kareena was a good idea… They look like they haven’t rehearsed even once and they’re just trying out some dance moves to see if they work.

Katrina at Music Mirchi Awards

What really carries this performance is Katrina’s fabulous onscreen presence. Her dancing is nothing to boast about but her costume is quite classy and sleek, she has put on some weight but I have no problems with that… better than anorexic Sonam! She seems to be enjoying herself which is always nice to watch.

Shahid at Music Mirchi Awards

This is one of my favourite performances of Shahid’s till date!

I thought it was interesting the hostess used the lisping thing to introduce him but she seemed quite stiff… any thoughts on that?

Shahid always seems to try hard and perform well at the Music Mirchi awards, he was great last year too! I like the collection of songs and suddenly Gangsta Blues has got 5 plays on my iPod ;) I love the choreography for Blue and Jalwa, not as much for Dhan Te Nan. The costumes were good even if Shahid’s trousers seemed a bit loose. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable performance!

That’s it for now, I’ll probably have a post on the Filmfare awards, but no guarantee.

At the Filmfare awards which are going to happen today and will be aired 7th March, I think Shahid, Kareena, Hrithik and Katrina Kaif. I’m looking forward to it!

Thursday 25 February 2010

Happy Birthday Charlie Boy!

Happy 29th Birthday Shahid Kapoor!

Our Kamina is 29 today (although he hardly looks it) and I wish, along with his millions of fans, that the next year is as good as his last. May he be happy in life and give us truly praiseworthy films that bowl us over like Kaminey.

On this special day, he got a surprise party thrown by his friends an family:

“So I got thrown a surprise bday party n I sure was surprised even dad n family were in on it Wow ! Its actually my first surprise bday party”

Wow, I wish I could have one like that! Never mind the ghetto typing, he sounds thrilled which is always nice. He’s spending some of his birthday rehearsing for Filmfare, as he’ll be doing a Michael Jackson tribute. Good luck with that!

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2010/02/25/13811/index.html Here’s a nice, if over the top, article about his birthday.

I can see him reaching the top, forget Ranbir and Imran, Shahid’s here! Shahid will have my support every step of the way. He’s taking on some different and challenging roles and I hope he continues to play characters such as those in Kaminey.

Shahid has three films coming up in 2010; Paathshaala, Milenge Milenge and Badmaash Company. Wishing him all the best; a wonderful birthday and a successful year to come… MsBlogger

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Rewatches Rewatches

I’ve rewatched a few movies recently and I thought I’d review the rewatches! I’ll start from the worst and move down to the best… This is just how good I felt the rewatch was, not how good I felt the film was.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

The first time I watched this I gave it a 3.5 out of 5. Now, after rewatching it, I’d probably give it 1! This is definitely a one time watch. The first time I found the acting varying between good and average, on the rewatch I found it all more hamming and Ranbir’s fake stammer was really starting to get to me. Katrina seemed OK on the rewatch but Ranbir had my begging for my sanity! He seemed to overact in all the scenes except for the emotional ones. the songs were nice once again, but the story seemed to drag on and on, until I had to switch it of halfway to spare my brain from melting. Never again!

Three Idiots

This, to my surprise wasn’t anywhere near as good on the rewatch. This might be because you already know what is going to happen, and when it is going to happen. The acting still felt excellent, even if Kareena’s over expressive face started getting to me a bit after a while. I guess it was the way the director wanted to make sure he disappointed no one and practically spoon fed the audience every little idea and part of the plot that spoiled the rewatch. It is understandable the first time, but by the third ‘demo’ we’ve got the idea that Rancho is a genius with a heart of gold, no need to force it down our throats with the fourth, fifth and sixth demos! Overall worth it if you are an Aamir fan like me and for the light comedy moments.

Chak De India

On a side note, is it me or does this poster suggest Shahrukh=God?

This was just as good on the second viewing. *SPOILER ALERT* You know India is going to win *SPOILER ALERT* but you keep cheering them on all the same. I guess what works here is the fact that the plot is so simple and meaningful, that it doesn’t need to be spoon fed to us, we’re big enough to take it in by ourselves. I’m a sucker for patriotic films to this completely worked for me, I can hear Maula Mere Lele Teri Jaan a thousand times and still love it afresh! Shahrukh was so sincere in this, it really touched my heart, you could feel the patriotic blood pumping through his veins, coupled with his need to prove himself. The film has good rewatch value mostly because of its performances, the girls are really believable and I have no problem with Balbeer’s monobrow.

Kaminey

As anyone who reads this blog can tell, I adored this film even the first time round.

This one seems to be like wine (not that I drink), it gets better with age… I actually preferred it the second time round in comparison to the first. This film compels you to rewatch it because it is so darn difficult to understand the plot the first time round and take note of the subtle symbolism used and the dialogues and the acting and the drama and the list goes on. Like on my fourth viewing I worked out *SPOILER ALERT* the brothers fight at the end in the old house they used to live in as kids together, how fymbolic and fweet!*SPOILER ALERT*

Also, it was refreshing to watch some real acting after partly rewatching Ajab Prem Ghazab Kahani, once again, I was left stuttering by Shahid’s rendition of a stammer. The dialogues were so new and original, they really stood out in the rewatch, I leart about four new Hindi swear words in one night because of Kaminey.

Overall, I’d recommend everyone to watch this at least twice to really enjoy it, I know I’ll be watching again!

Monday 22 February 2010

Buzz edition no. 4

Shahid’s birthday is coming up so I thought I’d start with some news about that…

Shahid is gifting himself guitar lessons for his birthday, I’m sure he’ll be strumming away in no time!

Deepika would like to work with Madhur some time in the future… I wonder what Fashion would have looked like if Deepika had been in it, I think she would have looked a lot more innocent. I want to see Karthik Calling Karthik!

Leap Year, a Hollywood film has been inspired by Jab We Met, is set to release on 26th Feb. Here’s the trailer:


I know if I watch this I’ll constantly be comparing their acting and plot to that of Shahid and Kareena’s. Here it also hits me as Geet’s character is a lo more annoying than in Jab We Met.

While we’re talking about these two… Shahid and Kareena are apparently friends again as they were talking at SRK’s party celebrating the success of MINK.

SRK tends to do well overseas… tell us something we don’t know. MNIK has broken records overseas.

On Times Of India, there is a regular article about celeb tweets, they are normally quite entertaining and here’s today’s. SRK just bamboozled me there…

There’s a rumour Shahid and Anushka ran away from the sets of Badmaash Company to practise kissing because they were no good the first time round. Apparently, they went and bought books on the topic and returned and gave a perfect smooch. The reporter says they were in Mumbai but the earlier report that came out saying the had lip locked in the first place said they had been in Bangkok when they shot the kiss. The moral of the story: if you’re going to lie, lie convincingly!

That’s all for this edition!

Sunday 21 February 2010

My Name Is Khan- Review

This film has such a heartfelt message that could have been conveyed better.

Meet Rizwan Khan, he isn’t a terrorist but people judge him to be because of his name, his religion, his identity. This is his journey to prove his innocence.

Character portrayals were definitely excellent and this is the first film I adore SRK in. Kajol didn’t really have much scope but did well with what she had. I agree with other reviews that there were plenty of American stereotypes, starting from the airport security right to the American children. The kid who played Sam was realistic but Rizwan stole the show. Shahrukh was actually Rizwan, not himself! Innocence shone from him and you really bonded with him.

The first half was definitely better than the second. There was a fresh feeling of not knowing where the plot was going there that was missing from the second. *SPOILER* The torture scenes were definitely toned down compared to New York *SPOILER*

They could have missed out the second bit in Wilhelmina, we already know Rizwan is a good person, no need to drill it in to our heads! On a side note, can people with Aspergers not cry? It seemed like it but I’d be grateful if someone could enlighten me.

I loved the message this film was trying to convey,

“We are all equal and none of us deserve to be reduced to just a name, or a religion or just to the way we look”

I think this is an essential idea that all of us must accept. What with the economic crisis, problems of population, poverty, terrorism and global warming, it is all the more important for us to work together and stand united, no matter who we are or what our backgrounds. Whit parties like the BJP and the BNP who are trying to divide us up, using hatred as their weapon, I am grateful to Karan Johar for trying to give us a film that attempts to open our eyes. I say attempts because it could have been better. One example would be *SPOILER* that the Asians in America could have reacted differently to the racism shown towards them, rather than yelling at the racists *SPOILER*.

The film’s message worked for me partly because, in all honesty and modesty, I’m very open minded. I could appreciate the idea and even though the film could have been better, it still made me all the more determined to never be prejudiced to anyone. Ever.

Rating: 4/5

P.S. Thank you to the two people who are following me, please do comment and say what you would like me to include more of in my blog. Also recommendations of good movies are always welcome, as are your thoughts on anything mentioned. Also, don’t forget to vote on the poll at the top.

Thursday 18 February 2010

Salman’s Joining Twitter and a couple of mini reviews

Salman Khan is joining twitter but I hope he refers to us as more than the ‘common people’ like he did on his blog!

Love Aaj Kal

I probably didn’t do it justice with my miniscule review in one of my previous posts.

I just cant understand how one can possibly enjoy this! Throughout this, all I wanted to do was doze off, what was there to enjoy?

Now generally I think Saif is OK and Deepika is quite sweet but I saw very little in either of their performances here. The parallel storylines weren’t hard to follow but I found myself drawn to Rishi Kapoor’s past a lot more than Saif’s present storyline. Thier love seemed so much more simple and clean, while the modern one seemed more about lust than love! Jai and Meera hit me as plain confused, by the intermisiion I was yelling for them to just quickly discover that they loved each other and be together and spare me the pain!

The only performance I liked was that of Giselle Montiero, in her debut as the sweet longing Harleen Kaur. Another plus point was the music, it’s generally enjoyable and doesn’t slow down the narration.

I’m disappointed with Imtiaz Ali, after giving us the superb Jab We Met, why did he have to plague us with this?!?

Overall: It dragged on for far too long and the storyline just wasn’t captivating enough!

Rating: 1/5

Dostana

Dostana’s a nice flick that no one should take seriously.

The first half was entertaining but the second let me down. Priyanka’s role was a cakewalk and she fit right into the skin of her character. John and Abhishek were totally entertaining but I felt the rather touchy issue of gay relationships could have been handled by Karan with a bit more care. I mean *SPOILER* if an inspector comes over to check if you’re gay, the last thing you want to do is overact in front of him! Surely he’s not that stupid? Well, apparently he is. *SPOILER*

Bobby Deol needs to take classes in chemistry as the second half was spoilt partly due to him. I didn’t think the transition from slapstick humour to rona dhona was smooth enough.

Overall: Just watch when you have some spare time on your hands

Rating: 3/5

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Buzz edition no.3

I'm not too sure what this article is trying to imply... How can you be quoted out of context? Also, does it not feel like Priyadarshan is blowing his own trumpet?

"I'm not such a bad filmmaker, you know. If I'm the director of 'De Dana Dan', I also made 'Kancheevaram'."

Aamir feels ignored and has decided to desert a committee reviewing the proposed amendment in copyright laws. I sympathise with this guy because knowing him (not personally), he probably has some good suggestions to make; but really? 'I am unable to function' Only your ideas have been rejected! Your body hasn't been beaten to a pulp! Aamir is really sensible so i think it would have been better if he had stayed but I like the other members too. Boney Kapoor, Javed Akhtar and Vishal Bhardwaj especially are all people I consider clear headed so I guess the show must go on.

MNIK has been dubbed in German.

Hema Malini is deciding what size her daughter's waist should be.

And seen as I'm a total Shahid Kapoor fangirl, I'll try and include one link about him in each of these Buzz editions! Mausam is reportedly not a remake of Top Gun. Seen as I want Mausam to blow me off my feet, I certainly hope not! But as Shahid says, Pankaj is known for doing original cinema so we can expect the same here. It seems like Sonam will play the lead in Mausam and I'm disappointed because she really annoys me!

Enjoy!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

A Rant About The Media

Is it just me or do the media really need to get their priorities sorted out?

There were so many reports about My Name Is Khan, they blew the whole problem out of proportion. I felt the same about the tiff between Chetan Bhagat and the producers of Three Idiots, what started off as a small dispute that could easily be sorted out in a sensible manner quickly grew to become the page 3 article in many newspapers.

We’re hardly being informed about the rate of farmer suicides in rural India, or about what we as the people can do to help this world become a better place to live in. Rather, our minds are being filled with sensational stories about the woman who didn’t know she was pregnant till she got to the operation theatre or gossip about ‘Who Is Priyanka Dating Today?’ How can we be expected to grow into learned citizens if this is all we’re being taught by the media?

What got me thinking about this was Javed Akhtar’s speech at the Star Screen Awards. He said something along the lines of:

‘It’s not that people don’t want good lyrics and good scripts, it’s the film industry denying them this.’

This could easily be applied to the world of media. It isn’t that people don’t want to be informed about important things, it’s the media that have got it wrong and think all the general public want is gossip and sensational stories.

I do agree that gossip about the celebs we love and hate is generally quite fun to read, but the very least that should be done is to get complete confirmation about if the stories are true or not. Take the recent alleged link up of Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, a thousand articles came out linking them and now it turns out it was all a rumour spread by fanatics.

Some people say these stories are to cheer people up and to stop the newspapers from being all about doom and gloom. I know I’d like to read about a child saved from a well rather than where Saifeena are going on Valentine’s Day if I need cheering up.

All in all, the media need to pull their socks up and stop getting so worked up about arguments that happen in Bollywood. I sometimes feel sorry for some the stars, imagine having your every move tracked and written about. The media should try and bring about peace rather than egging on fighters, and if they decide not to do this, atleast they can publish honest, important and meaningful stories and give Bollywood the amount of limelight it deserves, which I, while being an avid fan, still think is less than what they are getting currently.

Monday 15 February 2010

Buzz edition no. 2

Vivek Oberoi has been accused of stalking Aishwariya, here's his response. It has failed to explain why he's always at the award functions Ash is at.

Shahid Kapoor has supposedly given Parmeet a hard time on the sets of Badmaa$h Company. But then again these rumours go round all the time, first its Ken, now Parmeet. His publicist, Rajni Gandha, cleared these rumours on twitter.

Has anyone seen this before on BollyWhat? I can tell this is going to entertain me for hours!

Here's a list of Filmfare nominations. Unlike Star Screen Awards, Kaminey has got more nominations than Three Idiots, I personally loved Three Idiots but I do feel Kaminey was better overall. Who do you think should host Filmfare this year?

Sunday 14 February 2010

16th Annual Ftar Fcreen Awardf! Along with a very short review of Love Aaj Kal

Last week I decided to give this a try, even after last year’s disaster with Farah and Sajid, two people with very little comic skills. I’m glad I did because it was an absolute delight to watch! The hosting was better, with Shahid being absolutely hilarious and Omi did a good job too though. Here’s a list to the main people who performed and hosted and my opinion:

  • Madhavan: In all honesty, not that much comedy coming from him. He seemed there pretty much only to give Omi the cues and introduce ‘Aamir Khan’. But he was bearable all the same.
  • Vishal Bhardwaj: I know he didn’t host or perform but I loved his questioning. ‘Saale Kutte’ really got me laughing, which was topped off with Shahid’s ‘Main kutte banne ke liye bhi tayar hoon’ and Shahrukh’s ‘Kamineeey grrr!’
  • Kareena: I have to admit, she gave the best female performance. Her introduction was also rib tickling, I thought it was really polite of Shahid to go along with all of this and even clap for her. Back to Kareena, atleast she looked like she was performing that challenged her slightly and not too much of the gliding across the stage like Katrina.
  • Katrina: She actually danced in this, unlike in the promo of the Stardust Awards below, there was some gliding across the stage as mentioned above especially in Tera Hone Laga Hoon but otherwise it was a nice, pleasing performance. I giggled at her introduction, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome on stage *high pitched voice and jig* Katrina Kaif!’
  • Bipasha: Strangely enough, I normally find her more impressive than this… I can’t remember which awards show it was but on one of them she put on a stunning performace of Lucky Boy but here, as hard as she tried to make her Paa dance funny, it seemed more immature than professional. I slightly felt sorry for her because she hardly got an introduction, compare hers to Kareena’s!
  • Amitabh: His performance was a bore in all honesty. However, I liked his “speech” when accepting the Jodi number 1 award. I must also add, his Paa dance was quite sweet.
  • Omi Vaidya: Now we’re coming to the real hosts! Although most of Omi’s ‘shudh’ Hindi was too complex for me to understand, the bits I did were thoroughly enjoyable. One of my favourite bits were Katrina’s entrance ‘Prem angry ho jayegi’Arrey main bhi to Prem hoon Rajshri ki’ The two had a great rapport. I wasn’t too keen on his ‘edited’ songs with Madhavan and only the lyrics tickled my funny bone.
  • Salman Khan: I guess the background story was quite cute but what failed was that the children seemed to dance better than Sallu himself! Still, it was a valiant effort, showing the kinder and better side of Salman.
  • Shahrukh Khan: He has hosted before so of course expectations were high but I felt he was trying really hard to steal the limelight all the time, I think he wrote the script because whenever he was on stage, all the bindaas lines went to him, leaving poor Shahid with ‘ji’ and ‘yes’. At times I felt he was being quite harsh,

He cannot do it… Kareena Kapoor’

Abbey, autograph tera baad mein hoga’

Control yourself Shahid’

It isn’t anyone’s fault if they stammer! I know it sounds like I took this all too seriously but in all honesty I loved his jokes but these are just afterthoughts I am having.

  • Shahid Kapoor: I absolutely loved his bits (inner fangirl comes out)! And I’m glad he gave credit to Aamir although I thought the ‘tofu’ stuff was pushed a bit too far. His geeky act was really sweet and I enjoyed his comebacks:

Honesty pe aa hi gaye hain to main bhi ke sakte hoon ki aap Amitji ko hamesha copy karte hain, arrey copy kya… aap to uske filme kar rahe hain’

He says it with such an innocent shaitan look on his face! His copy of Aamir was good but then again, it is quite easy to mimic him. I thought his entrance was also really original. On a side note, in his speech ‘acche’ gets replaced by ‘tuchhe’, what does tucche mean?

Overall, this was probably the best SSA I’ve ever seen, everything was good about it except for who the awards went to but I think most of us have established that already.

Stardust promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in5Acs-7oig

Saif + Kareena + Dancing = Ridiculously hilarious!

As for the review of Love Aaj Kal- Totally, utterly and completely boring! Can't believe it won't so many awards!

Buzz edition no.1

I thought I'd create some posts about the latest buzz around B'town so here goes...

Aish is really ill so Abhi had to step in to take an award on her behalf, I have to admit, the illness does sound serious.

Some celeb thoughts on Valentine's Day...

I'm getting a bit sick of the amount of news spewing out over My Name Is Khan but here's a nice review. I'll write my own once I've seen it.

I like this bit though:
My name is Bollywood and I'm not just an entertainer

Amitabh is leaving Jaya for his dog! Why do I get the feeling he's going a bit senile with old age?

Nobody does this Shanouk .. no one !! What you do no one else does! Are you aware of this? You should be .. but you never express it. How does one describe you? You must be exceptional to all. Such a blessing that you are who you are... and not a human!

Enjoy!

My favourite of last year - Dhan Te Nan...Kaminey


I can’t say enough about this film, this is going to be a long post so bear with me…

Let me just clarify, this film ranks with movies such as Lagaan, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par in my mind. There are very few faults in this film which is just one of the reasons I love it so much…

The six things I must have long and detailed ramblings about are the acting, the direction, the plot, characters and of course… the music.

The only faults I could find was the cinematography, although stylish, was a bit annoying if you wanted to see one character clearly. And the Tashi storyline.

First of all… the acting and wow is it good! Every character is life-like and all the actors have definitely done a commendable job. First of all, let me say I absolutely adored Priyanka, Shahid and Chandan Roy Sanyal’s acting, they struck me as perfect. I really really liked Amol Gupte’s act of the rouge politician, who thought the writer of TZP could churn out such a performance? Priyanka looked great in a spunky, deglamourised character but i wish she had gotten rid of the manicure, because that was the only bit that spoiled her image in my opinion. I liked the idea of a girl being ‘the man’ in a relationship and she portrayed in a way I feel only she could and there was definitely some wonderful chemistry between the two leads. Shahid played his two roles to utmost brilliance. There was this charming screen presence when he was on, he constantly understated himself such as in the interrogation scenes and the scene when Amol’s men come to Charlie’s house. He brought life in to the two characters. I could hardly recognise him as Charlie in the confrontation scene near the end. I thought he was pretty much perfect in his speech defects. As I stammer when reading out sometimes, I could completely sympathise with him and his story about his past in year six, although why it might make someone nearly fail I couldn’t understand. However, it might have been he developed an inferiority complex therefore didn’t try as hard as he wasn’t as confident. I loved the way he was constantly understating himself, he seems like the future Aamir and SRK mixed together. The confrontation scenes were great because it was totally convincing (without a moustache) that there were two different characters onscreen. The lisp was far far far better than Ranbir’s as he did things like contract his throat and close his eyes and even occasionally hit something. This was something totally different to his other characters but I did feel it had some vague similarities to he role in Fida, which I really liked which may seem strange. It is evident he inherited a lot of his acting talent from his father Pankaj Kapur. Chandan Roy Sanyal made me laugh every time he came on the screen. Right from the first “kaisa hai tu?” to the ‘Bhope Tope’ scene.


Now on to direction. I really need to see Omkara! I loved this piece of Vishal Bhardwaj’s work so hopefully I’ll love that too. The attention he gives to detail is outstanding, I had heard about the ‘Apna Haath Jagganath’ problem in a newspaper and it is a perfect example for what I mean about detail. This script was a diamond in itself if it was only $4000. What I really like about him is that he can get actors to get out of their comfort zones and do something original. Priyanka has so little make-up on and Shahid is playing the ‘bad guy’ (with a vulnerable bit to him) which is lots of fun. Another thing I really liked was he was true to his word. I difcovered my mean fide! I felt this weird side to me when Shahid hits Francis on the head multiple times with the UBT (Unidentifiable Black Thing) I don’t have a clue what it was! I found myself cheering on the violence and enjoying people getting hit on the head with fire extinguishers, so much for me being a conditional pacifist. Pfft!
I really liked the original plot, this is what helps to give this film re-watch value for two main reasons:
The plot is so complicated that it is easy to miss the finer nuances on first watch. When you know the basic version, you can fill in the small gaps, I personally didn’t notice any plot holes.
The first time, one must focus on the plot even though one knows here are some great lines being said and some wonderful action, one must stop their attention from wavering. However, when one has got to grips with the plot, one has to watch it again but this time enjoy the acting, cinematography (even though this didn’t go down all too well with me) and dialogues.

I feel the story is split into five sub-plots that all intertwine:
Charlie and Mikhail which starts off with ‘Franfif’
Guddu and Sweety with their pregnancy problems
Tashi, the diamonds and his brother-in-law
The policemen and the picture of Charlie
Bhope Bhau finding out about Guddu

*SPOILER ALERT* The climax is fantastic and you have the choice of picking the happy or the sad ending. It can either be that Charlie lived and Sweety has twins is true. Or the sadder version would be that that was all just a dying dream and Charlie actually dies. I want to believe the happy one is true but the sad one keeps popping into my head! *SPOILER ALERT*

Another golden coin in this treasure chest are the characters the complex, comical characters. I have been picking them apart in my head and they all seem to have many facets to them but I’ll disclose my thoughts on each character here:

Charlie: He is probably the most interesting gem of the lot. There are a lot of different sides to him and even after reaching the end, you don’t feel like you fully know him. He shows he can be loyal (him and Mikhail); he can be treacherous (the scene on the train); he can make good decisions (Charlie Guddu fight scene) as well as bad (taking the guitar case in the first place); he can almost be sadistic (him hitting Francis with the UBT- hey I know I said I felt something weird at that moment but that does not imply I’m a sadist) and he can be sarcastic (him and Burgess and him and Guddu). He also seems to have hallucinations.

Guddu: He’s probably the character I can relate to the most. He’s the underdog, the stutterer with an inferiority complex. But he also proves he can be as treacherous as he can be loyal, he proves this on the train and at the airport. You feel real sympathy for this guy when he is being tortured and when he tells his year six story and in the interrogation scene. I am aware some people found his stammer funny, shame on you all. It was a brilliant, accurate and well enacted performance minus any hamming by Shahid that deserves a round of applause, not to be laughed at. The one thing that still isn’t completely clear to me is the amount of love Guddu feels for Sweety. Any views on that?

Sweety: Here’s a girl who doesn’t let others control her life! She’s in charge and she knows it! Sweety is deeply in love with Guddu but I don’t like the deceit she uses to get him. I was as surprised as Bhope Bhau when she pulled the trigger, you must watch to understand what I mean. Overall I quite like Sweety’s character.

Mikhail: How could the characters part end without Mikhail? What an amazing smackhead! I’m in two minds about this one; one part of me reminds me of Charlie’s dialogue ‘Dil se bachha hai magar deemag se paagal hai faala’ while another part of my brain keeps mentioning he’s a dangerous cokehead, who without meaning to gets Charlie into trouble *SPOILER* and himself killed. Somewhere inside me I felt Mikhail’s time coming to an end just before the Bhope Tope scene, I was so desperate for him to live, I remember urging him to listen to Charlie and leave. *SPOILER* Mikhail is easily the most crazy character on the surface but the deeper you get, the murkier he seems.

All of the other characters: The above four really stood out but all of them left a mark, be that Bhope Bhau or Tashi. At first I didn’t like Tashi because he hit me as boring and annoying, but the line that redeemed him in my eyes was ‘Bhope, tope hamare paas bhi hai par khamakha war kyun larde? I’m not America’ haha lol rofl yay ;)

I’ve been going crazy about the music and have even started trying to learn Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai, although this isn’t my favourite track. My favourite is easily Kaminey the title song, oh my word what lyrics. I bow down to you Gulzar sir. Pure poetry in music and it really touched my heartstrings. I thought the songs were well placed, maybe possibly with the exception of Dhan Te Nan because it disrupted the flow of the plot whereas Fatak helped it flow. I agree with most other bloggers, it would have been good if Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai had been left in, it would have made Priyanka and Shahid’s love so much more believable because Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai is very real, with normal lovers doing normal things. I personally adored the lyrics of Fatak, what a great way to promote AIDS awareness! Something unrelated that annoyed me was the way Aamir was lauded for saying for about ten seconds that smoking is bad in Ghajini while Shahid sings a whole 4 minute song about protection and he gets no such recognition! Where’s the justice in that!


Overall, the best film I saw last year!
Rating: 4.75

Saturday 13 February 2010

I just discovered this...

I just found this awesome web page which makes me feel like a fool because it has been around for ages but it has got me excited!
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/releasedates/index.html
I bet most people already know about this and it highlights what a novice I am but now I have dates to look forward to:

19/2/10-Toh Baat Pakki
26/2/10-Karthik Calling Karthik, Teen Patti
26/3/10-Prince
2/4/10-Milenge Milenge
9/4/10-Paathshaala
7/5/10-Badmaash Company
21/5/10-Kites
28/5/10-Raajneeti
2/7/10-Anjaana Anjaani
November '10- Golmaal 3, Patiala House
Decembet '10- Tees Maar Khan





Also, I just saw the first look of Badmaa$h Company and I'm impressed:


I hope Shahid is playing the bad guy again, from the sounds of it, it seems so. Anushka looks a bit fake it in but I like Chang and Vir Das' look, especially the latter. On a side note, is it just me or does it look like Shahid is edging away from Anushka?

Friday 12 February 2010

My Name Is Khan

Hello, I hope you all have a great weekend. If anyone has any links to reviews of My Name Is Khan, please could they post it in the comments section. I've really been looking forward to this film as I love anything that'll make me think and I have a feeling this one will...

"My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist"
What a tagline! I love Kajol, I'm OK with Shahrukh and Karan Johar tends to provide decent, fluffy stuff -although this might be different- so I have every reason to look forward to this.

Thursday 11 February 2010

Why I've decided to blog...

I've read a lot of other blogs before but I have finally decided to start my own about Bollywood mostly. I love the idea of using the internet as a medium to communicate our thoughts and I hope you enjoy reading Bollywood Ishtyle! I apologise if the name already exists.

I only started watching movies a year ago, so I don't know all that much but I definitely am interested by all things filmi. I will probably copy Filmi Girl's style of linking articles that interest me (hope you don't mind!) and write my own comments on some issues of interest. I will also review movies and music in any random way I can.

Enjoy!