PAA - Auro se Alag

The rushes of ‘Paa’ reminded me of the early days when there was a cutout of a new brand look of Amitabh Bachchan aka AURO in one of the leading national newspaper’s city edition. It was a thrilling moment for me particularly. It made me realize that Amitabh Bachchan’s golden era still continues, wherein he is getting very different roles every now and then, that too challenging ones in his late sixties. I wonder whether anyone other than Bachchan in Hindi film industry will ever get a chance to do full fledged roles when they will reach their seniority as Mr. Bachchan is today.

Having said that, it’s a lifetime dream for any upcoming filmmaker(s) to exploit the creative talent’s of Bachchan to the extremes and R Balki is one of the few successful ones. His first venture, a light romantic ‘Cheeni Kum’ with Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in the lead pair was received well which later eventually is followed by his next with again Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as AURO in the movie ‘PAA’.

The starting credits have been kept simple with soulful melody by the maestro IlaiyaRaaja Sir. But it was very odd rather strange to see Jaya Bachchan narrating the credits which I felt was not creatively done. I doubted whether the movie is about blindness or progeria or maybe the producer (Abhishek Bachchan) wanted her mother’s blessing before the actual start.

One of the best part of this movie, apart from AURO, are the dialogues. It has been kept concise, witty, thoughtful and not preachy. This aspect is easily noticeable in the first half which has brought the lost clean humor back and it was the first time for me to experience that the entire crowd in the cinema hall sharing the same opinion, as for most of the witty lines the hall was getting very louder.

The technical aspects of PAA are above par. Be it the frames of PC Sriram or the cuts of Anil Naidu. The good thing the director has done with PAA is that he didn’t focused the grim side of this disease progeria, as many films show the grim side if the plot is about a prime character who is diseased. Also the film does not show the optimistic side as to how to fight an incurable disease. Rather it selects the realistic way to show the feelings of the diseased character’s ‘AURO’ lookout towards his friends, mother, grandmother and his PAA.

There are many scenes in PAA which I will carry for some time after watching this film. Like the only scene between Amitabh and Paresh Rawal. I rate this scene as the best. Then there is a telephonic conversation scene between Amitabh and his classmate, wherein his classmate friend Vishnu brings out the sheer frustration of having a father who tries to nag him every now and then is simple fabulous and superbly executed. Also the climax scene between Amitabh and Abhishek is very touching when Amitabh realizes Abhishek about one of the prime mistakes in his life and many more scenes.

The music by IlaiyaRaaja Sir is very commendable, the background score adds more flavors to the scenes. But I would go for Cheeni Kum as his best music, as it had some great compositions and some great renditions by Shreya Ghoshal.

Acting wise Paresh Rawaal has done it again, actually Paresh has joined in good safe hands after Priyadarshan’s faltering experiments on Paresh since Hera Pheri. Vidya Balan has shown respectful potential to portray the maturity of her role. Even Arundhati Nag has delivered a stunner. Watch her especially when she answers the phone call of her to be son-in-law. Abhishek looks very rigid in this role, he’s been the disappointing factor for me from the ensemble cast. For emotional scenes he seem to very stiff rather he should have let loose. The school kids have been a surprise package, they were just too good especially Vishnu!

Then comes AURO, the movie belongs to one and only Amitabh Bachchan, he has completely transformed himself to AURO a 12 year kid. He tampered his voice, changed his looks, changed the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he expresses when he gets his hands on the Playstation. SPEECHLESS! Simply sensational and different.

I am not going to rate this movie, as I am not entitled to rate a movie of this caliber based on an artist like Amitabh Bachchan. On the contrary, am blessed that I belong to a generation wherein I can see a old man in the late sixties fighting his heart out with the today’s young guns in a very ethical way.

A must watch for film enthusiasts and buddying actors (including the current top film stars). It’s like a golden opportunity to learn/unlearn the art of acting from the institution itself near your cinema theatres.

Puthiya Mugham (A new Face)

Originally Posted at PFC - http://passionforcinema.com/puthiya-mugham-movie-review/

PUTHIYA MUGHAM (Malayalam Movie)

Malayalam cinema is going through a phase of exploring a complete change over in the story telling, searching a new experience to attain the lost era of golden cinema which carried the legacy in late 80's and early 90's. Going by the records of recent malayalam cinema, it was clear of the fact that today's malayalam cinema is running on two 'M' shoulder(s) i.e. Mohanlal and Mammooty. They have proved it most of the times, which kept me puzzling who will be the next genuine actor after Mohanlal, the response was NONE.

Then I came to know of a movie called 'Puthiya Mugham' via Television. The rushes were cool, very good music and moreoever it had PrithviRaj in it. The media claimed PrithviRaj as the next superstar in Malayalam cinema. I wasn't happy for this, as I wanted PrithviRaj to be the next best actor representing Malayalam cinema like Mohanlal is doing now. But the media created an undying anxiety in me to watch this movie only on theatres. As I reside out of Kerala, I had to wait for a long time to see the small poster in our national newspaper about the scheduling of this movie. I jumped on it, rescheduled my office priorites to make sure that I watch this one. The songs were constantly running on the Music channels which was just adding the vigour to the undying anxiety in me.

The day arrived, I was at the cinema hall, the cinema was delayed by half an hour, after half an hour we got seated in the halls, advertisements was shown like a goods trains passing by. I thought they have lost the reel of this movie and were just fooling around with the ads. Then after a while, the movie started. Bang on! the movie started with the theme song sung by PrithviRaj 'Puthiya Mugham', the start credits were cool and the song geled well with the credits. Expectations raised a level above, hoping that the golden era of malayalam cinema is right here.

Unfortunately it is not, the start was very fast as if the director was in no mood to treat a scene as a scene. He was running from one visual to another leaving zero connect to the drama, not assuring any emotion to get registered in viewers mind. He has used many unnecessary dissolve(s) (dissolves mean to transit from one scene to other) in the first half which was disturbing. I was shattered by the way the filmmaker has handled the first half, it would have been a great opportunity for the filmmaker to use the talents like Nedumudi Venu to the extreme in these segments.

The second half delves with only action. Action for what? There was no logical plot, as I was really not into it why these guys are fighting for? There were many questions running behind my mind like
1) Why Bala behaves politely with Priya Mani in the first half, as he is a womaniser, he could have done his deed to Priya Mani in no time.
2) PrithviRaj bashing the police officer like anything in the police station, surprisingly Kerala Police were getting beated left right and no officer dared to carry gun/revolver. Why?
3) Why NeduMudi Venu hides the fact to PrithviRaj that he has lost his mental balance. Whereas it felt to me that PrithviRaj was behaving normal when he comes to know about this.
4) The ending was disgusting, Bala choses not to live and throws his life when PrithviRaj tries to save him by lending his hand, then in the next frame PrithviRaj is shown in the college with his new girlfriend Priya Mani, so what about his mental imbalance. No police case, no medication, WOW that's a good treatment. Isn't it?
And many more...........

To be honest, the action scenes were also cliche, we have seen it many a times in southern cinema. The sad thing about these stunt sequences were, one can see the carpet lied on the ground when anyone falls down on the ground. The camera work is nothing exceptional. The editing is disturbing and the background score is irritating. The technical aspects of this movie is really below par. The direction is very pathetic, one wonders how this movie gained such respect to the filmmaker.

The only saviour for this film is PrithviRaj, he is certainly the next big thing in Malayalam cinema and the director Diphan understands this and is exploiting Prithvi for his next disaster errr ... I mean film. Hope this time Diphan works on the characters and comes with a sensible plot.

Acting wise PrithviRaj has very limited scope. In the second half he just beats up everyone and stares while he moves. As far as I feel, PrithviRaj is wasted, he can do a better job if he is provided some meaty roles rather just hitting people left right. Priya Mani is decent with her role. Bala does justice to his character. NeduMudi Venu, Sai Kumar (he was just destined to get thrashed by PrithviRaj) are wasted. Shammi Thilakan impresses with his very small role. Meera Nandan looks overweight, she looks below moderate on screen.

In all, because of PrithviRaj; director Diphan will stay in Malayalam Cinema for years to come. Let's pray Almighty that he works on the script rather stunts, camera movements and pathetic editing pattern. Am not sure about the future of this filmmaker, but one thing is for sure, Puthiya Mugham fails to provide a new face in Malayalam Cinema. The search for good cinema is still ON. Are you hearing Diphan?

Rating : 1.5/5 (0.5 - Starting credits, 0.5 - NeduMudi Venu/PrithviRaj, 0.5 - End credits)

Kaminey

It's being a long time me visited any multiplex or rather a cinema hall for almost five months. There were many justifiable reasons for the cause viz. multiplex strike, no interesting movie(s) popping out and the scary H1N1 virus. The last reason has been the recent development which had stormed Pune and transformed it's stature from a quite calm city to one of the scariest city of the country. Today when I reached the same multiplex which I usually visit and used to refer others to visit gained my attention towards the not so long ticket counters, people gathering at the entrance, the smell of the popcorn's etc. which made me realized the same anxiety which I used to have five months before wherein I used to walk briskly towards the entrance so that I get to watch each and every second of the movie. At the same time there was a difference observed which scared me that, most of the people's face were masked, this in turn re-created the existence of the virus somewhere which is still haunting the psyche of every other viewer in the hall. The next moment I got masked, why take a chance?

Coming back to Kaminey, this movie was one of the most awaited movie for many reasons, the filmmaker-composer-singer (Vishal), the title, Amole Gupte and Priyanka Chopra. I arrived at the cinema hall five minutes late, it was completely dark and it took a while for me to track my seat and get comfortable. After viewing the movie for five minutes, I got the feel that the plot has been missed in the first ten minutes as every other thing were going over the head. Interestingly, this movie was not taking a single sigh of relief wherein one can rethink on the visuals and build a plot in their mind, it had a terrific pace for sure.

Later I realized that it had nothing to do with lost ten minutes but on the contrary it has to do with the editing which is not in a flow, it's totally shuffled and keeps you thinking constantly whether are you keeping yourself there with the plot's pace. The credit has to go to Vishal for writing a plot which is not at all linear, hat's off. Secondly the characters are very interesting from Charlie to Guddu to Sweetie, from Lene to Lobo, from Tashi to Bhau to Mikhail. Every character has been etched well, they all have their gray shades which is a stamp of any Vishal's movie.

Performance wise, every other actor has outperformed themselves but it is Amole Gupte for me who is the cream of this well baked cake. A genuine actor, very spontaneous and at the same time keeping it subtle. Awesome! Kudos to Priyanka who played a simple yet beautiful maharashtrian girl, simply fantastic, shockingly she was even fluent with her marathi lines. Shahid Kapoor was also refreshing in his double act, the disability of speech in Charlie and the stammering Guddu definitely adds a spark and also distinguishes between the duo effectively.

Technically the movie is very high on every aspect, as I said earlier for me the Editing excels. The background score and the music score is timely and it never hinders one's attention from the plot. It's all about Vishal when the film ends who keeps on surprising me after every other film, he is the one of the new faces of Indian cinema.

To put in Charlie's accent, it's a chotta fotcut to brilliant cinema. Watch it for sure! Am going to watch this one again next week that too masked ;-)

Dhan Te Nan: 4.5/5

8x10 Tasveer Movie Review

Every movie has got a promo (trailer) to attract the attention of the public. The promo of this movie didn't created any fuss but still it's from the director (Nagesh Kukunoor) who has made top grade movies like Hyderabad Blues, 3 deewarein, Iqbal and DOR. This is the only reason for me to get into the line of the multiplex ticket counter to watch this movie.

I never expected this movie to be a suspense thriller, rather I thought it has to do with some science fiction mystery. Hence this was a surprise treat for me as I love suspense/horror genre. The film starts very amateurishly, with very poor acting from the foreign local actors. The initial scenes were also not convincing and it looked totally out of context.

As I mentioned, the movie is suspense thriller, hence it is but obvious that there is a killing happening and the whole movie is about finding the culprit. That's true with this movie but there is a unique thing that differentiates Tasveer with the rest. It is the way the killer is tracked down by a photograph. The main protagonist (Akshay Kumar) has an abnormal behavior of going into the minds of any person from the photograph and seeing things through the eyes of the photographed person from the moment the photo is clicked that too for only 60 seconds.

At first this behavior looks very boring and funny but as the plot builds up one gets used with abnormal characteristic of that character. The film is majorly shot in Canada and the location looks apt for the plot. Also the characters are well established and more convincing.

The USP of the movie is Akshay Kumar doing a different role after a long gap, Jaaved Jafferi's character and a unique concept. The drawbacks lies in the direction, one of the weakest film by Nagesh so far (excluding Bombay to Bangkok). The storytelling at places is moving and at places is stale. The movie leaves no doubt on the viewer's mind but the treatment could have been far better. There's a need to chop off few scenes in the beginning and the climax which could have made this one a fast paced slicky suspense thriller.

Regarding the technicalities of Tasveer, every department say music, camera, editing, acting all are just average nothing extraordinary. So nothing much to say about it. This leaves me to say that, Tasveer is film which could have been another top grade movie by Nagesh but unfortunately it does'nt go beyond an Average fair.

If you love suspense movies then you can watch this but don't expect much as the movie would struggle very hard to cross your expectation.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

13B - Unknown world seeks technology

Man has become over addicted or dependent on technology like mobile, internet, or say television and they have no time for human concerns so there is no reason for them to care for the unknown world. The makers of 13B has exploited these scenarios and have made the unknown world a bit smarter to interact with the known using the man made technologies say Television.

The start of the film shows the making of a television, one gets an intuition that it has to do something with TV for sure and this question persist till the movie reaches it's intermission.

At first it finds very funny or rather foolish as to how technologies are being used by unknown world to interact with the known. But it somewhere down the line convinces you on that front as the story telling capability of the director is above par. That's the major USP of this project 13B.

Vikram K. Kumar, the director is to be applauded for carrying the subject solely on his shoulder and come up with a very unusual murder mystery ever in Indian cinema. To brief on the plot, Madhavan and his family moves to their new apartment (13 -B). Things change mysteriously after they transit to the new house, the daily milk spoils while boiling, elevator doesn't work for Madhavan alone so he has to use stairs to reach the 13th floor and vice versa. TV remote control doesn't work after 1pm in the afternoon and the females in the house have to see a serial show which they find it interesting. This TV serial is the gist of the plot which I do not wish to reveal.

It is not a horror movie, sadly it could have been a gem of a one but still it's a very good murder mystery. The plot interestingly is treated in a very practical way rather showing Tantriks, havan pooja, psychotherapists and so on. Though these tricks are always visible in any RGV horror flicks.

This is an apt role for Madhavan and he enacted the character well. Also to mention Murli Sharma to come up with subtle lines providing scope for humor in between some real tense scenes. Neetu Chandra has nothing to do much and she played her part decently. Poonam Dhillon, a stylish buxom mother was a total mismatch, she never looked Madhavan's mother, also Poonam looked younger than her elder son.

Frames used for the movie were high class, specially the ones used in Black and white it gave a feel of watching some international movie. Cinematography was good, somewhere it reminded of RGV's Bhoot specially the Lift motion scenes from the top angle and also the wide shot of housing complex taken from outside.

Music was a huge letdown, a total disappointment from Shankar Ehsaan Loy for the soundtrack. Also the background music was very loud and not subtle which became one of the major drawbacks of this intelligent plot.

Also there are some questions in my mind which remained unanswered after the movie was over. Still not to take away the good work done by this filmmaker. Really a commendable effort.

This era is the Golden Era of Hindi cinema, where every now and then one gets to see different stories popping out of different filmmakers. It's worth watching 13B as it gives a new dimension in Hindi Cinema handling murder mysteries. I loved it.

Verdict: 3 out 5

Delhi 6 - Delhi Personified in a Mirror

Man evolved from monkey, a black monkey evolved from ???. Well that's the gist of this movie Delhi 6. It's a satire look at the people in Delhi 6 for how they act, react, politicize a torturous act of a BLACK MONKEY in their vicinity.

The film starts with a sound over of Amitabh Bachchan portraying the only inherent core of this plot . Roshan, played by Abhishek Bachchan, returns to India to leave his grandmother (Waheeda Rehman). Waheeda Rehman's character is about to die and she wants to live her concluding days in India, being the primary conflict.

Roshan meets various characters in Delhi6 including his love interest Bittu, played by Sonam Kapoor. The characters are well written by Rakyesh, no doubt on that. There's estranged brothers played by Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra, there's Gobar played by Atul Kulkarni, there's untouchable Jalebi, sixty year old Lala married to a teenage girl, a manipulative photographer, a cracko carrying a mirror on the streets of Delhi6, Politicians, Police, News Reporters and many more including the great backdrop of RAM LEELA. The concept of using RAM LEELA to narrate the story has been very creative and successful.

It's about India, Indians looked by an outsider. It's like the way Roshan says India is overcrowded but it is balanced. This balancing force astonishes him every now and then when the other characters react to situations. That is why we see Roshan speaking less and observing more.

Technical aspects are supreme like the camera work, editing, music, direction. This is one of the different plot tried by Rakyesh after Rang De Basanti. The good thing to happen after RDB is that we got a director like Rakyesh. The conflict has been handled cleverly and it was very impressive.

The first half just unfolds the characters and at instances the havoc of Black Monkey. It's the second half the story really gets serious and comes out as a social message, which strikes hard!

The Positives being the flawless performances by Om Puri, Pawan Malhotra, Rishi Kapoor, Vijay Raaz ,Divya Dutta and DELHI. Abhishek Bachchan is good but not great as his character has nothing to contribute much as Delhi itself is the leading character. The music by the genius AR Rahman. Awesome story telling by Rakyesh.

The Negatives being the picturising the song sequences, I was disappointed like anything. Rahman's songs were not given due justice by the visuals. Only the song Dil Gira Dafatan was something I can cheer about; rest were really not upto the mark. Sonam Kapoor was shockingly disappointing. Amitabh Bachchan's presence not utilized properly during climax.

My Rating: 4/5 (Must Watch)

DEV D

RGV (Ram Gopal Varma) said this in an interview for PFC (Passion for Cinema) about DEV D that people would not be interested in to watch Devdas again with a sarcastic smile. These words from RGV were running in my mind while I entered the cinema hall to watch DEV D.

The start credits gratified sincere thanks to Danny Boyle. I recalled the interview of Anurag Kashyap (Director of DevD) when he consulted with Danny about the type of camera to be used to shoot underwater sequences of Abhay Deol. Danny suggested him to use the camera which he used for Slumdog Millionaire. I am not able to remember the camera version but it is said to be latest HD camera in recent times. The result was very striking to be honest.

The film started and as expected the film is very different, as Anurag Kashyap is known to make films which means to him lot personally. The film started with a bang with few very unusual scenes between Paro and Dev. That set up the mood of this very raw, unpredictable yet known plot. The plot of Devdas has been used several times in Indian cinema but this one stands out because it shows the raw meaning of love i.e. LUST. Lust is one emotion which controls your life in a positive or in a disastrous way. Moreover the film is said to be made in contemporary format which makes the film different from others, but I felt that emotion of LUST remains the same irrespective of their times.

The way Paro sends her nude clip to Dev in England. Dev after seeing the clip (completely charged up) calls Paro and in excitement says that he is coming India soon! This is what makes Dev D very unique in it’s storytelling aspects as well as the spontaneity that keeps you wondering every now and then. The prostitute or commercial sex worker character Chanda has been portrayed in a very unique way, very independent, very practical, very calm yet she has a past which keeps her in a loop of pain. All these characters are handled in a multi layered way in the form of chapters.

Acting wise the character played by Paro stands out easily. What a find! Mahie Gill being very beautiful has played the role with extreme rawness. The scene where she looses her control when her father discusses a marriage proposal with her! Simply amazing. Abhay Deol has done justice to his role. I cannot commit that this is Abhay’s best performance. The character has been played very naturally yet I believe it lacked the punch! Even the character played by Chanda (Kalki Koechlin) is good but not great when I compare with the one played by Mahie Gill.

The music by Amit Trivedi is praiseworthy. As he is looked onto the one who can give music in comparison with AR Rahman. But honestly the first question aroused in my mind whether 18 songs were really needed for this movie. Secondly as there were many songs in the movie, I personally lost the connect with every other song which would be way ahead in the composition. Nevertheless the music wasn’t an emosional athyachaar!

Talking about Anurag, he cleverly unfolds all the recent real life scandals of Delhi into the plot like DPS MMS, BMW case to move the story ahead. Also the camera work is exceptionally brilliant. Hats off! Anurag is the one who has brought a new dimension in Indian movies, no doubt. Really Inspired! Apart from a slow second half and a hasty climax, the movie looks very fresh and a must see.

Coming back to the RGV interview, RGV was right that no one would want to see the Devdas again. You will have to dare to watch this movie and accept the fact that Love has its own equations which is equated by LUST and JEALOUS rather CARE and TRUST.

My Rating : 4/5