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