Filmi Chatter Box

Dabangg

2010-12-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

Actor to bahut hote hain, par Hero ek hi hota hai.
Khans to bahut hote hain, par Salman Khan ek hi hota hai.

You know what I mean, right? :-)
The year's biggest blockbuster - Dabangg. The fearless. With a mediocre story, debutant actress (Sonakshi Sinha), debutant director (Abhinav Kashyap), this movie really did well. And the credit goes to the 45 year old never aging actor - Salman Khan.
In an era, where it is hard to get people to watch movies in theatres, not only did Dabangg change the equations but it also ensured that the theatres were fully packed. Whistles, cheers and vuvuzelas were just part and parcel of the theatre ambience. Impressive!

The sound track collection boasted of a range of songs. Starting from romantic ones like 'Mast Mast Do Nain', 'Chori Kiya Jiya' to nation raging hit 'Munni Badnaam'. The item song was such a big hit that Zandu Balm couldn't help but cash on its popularity. Read more here.

Besides the song, not to mention the love symbol glasses that became a rage. So much to say that, Salman offered free photo edit service on his twitter account.

Story:Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan), detests his step father, Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna), and brother, Makkhi Pandey (Arbaaz Khan), from childhood. His mother, Naina Devi (Dimple Kapadia) is the bond that keeps the family together. Chulbul grows up to become a corrupt police officer. His encounters with goons makes him Chedi Singh (Sonu Sood)'s enemy #1.

Makkhi steals Chulbul's money to get himself married. He gives that money to his father in law (Tinnu Anand) as Prajapati wouldn't consent to the marriage without dowry. A chain of events later, Naina Devi dies leading to Chulbul leaving the house.

Despite the dowry, Makkhi is not able to get married as Chulbul hijacks his marriage venue to get married to Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha). The movie had a parallel plot of Chulbul falling afer Rajo going on so far.

Chedi Singh comes to know of the animosity between Chulbul and Makkhi, and uses it to his advantage. But how complex can a Hindi movie go. Prajapati gets a heart attack, Rajo's persistent insistence to reunite with family, Makkhi realizing Chedi's intentions - all leads to a happy ending with a not-to-miss climax.

The movie is a perfect masala movie - it has action (the scene: Salman is angry and his shirt tears away giving room to his anger infused muscles), comedy (the scene: one of the goons has a cell phone ringtone of a song from Wanted), drama (the scene: Arbaaz stealing money and his conversation with Dimple), emotion (the scene: Salman's visit to Vinod Khanna in hospital), romance (the song: Chori Kiya Re), suspense (the scene: revelation of Dimple Kapadia's murderer) and style (loads of it throughout the movie).

Screenplay and direction was crisp and rock solid. Choreography was good but not exceptional. Perhaps, this would be the sole reason why Sheila would steal the item song of the year tag away from Munni. Nothing to boast of in the cinematography department either.

In the acting department, everyone acted well. Sonakshi Sinha is impressive for a newcomer though her role is not much. Sonu Sood has proved time and again that he is a great actor (I just loved him in Jodha Akbar too). And what do I say about Salman. I couldn't agree more to what Raja sen says (for once) about Salman on rediff:
You can tell a lot about a megastar by the way he throws his punch.

A Hindi film hero might routinely fell over seven with one blow, but each has their own approach. Aamir Khan, all bloodshot eyes and biceps rippling with the fury of thousands of killed wives to avenge, brings both physical intensity and a sense of inescapable irony to the picture.

Shah Rukh Khan, his every sinew straining with gargantuan effort, bellows like a wounded animal as he metamorphoses from charming lover to crazied aggressor.

Salman Khan doesn't bother breaking a sweat or even trying for realism as he buffets his opponents, effort be damned, smirk and quip steadily in place. The ubiquitous one-liner just underlines how one-sided the battle always is because Salman Khan is larger than life. And he believes it.

This post is just a trailer to all the fun you can expect from the movie. Wikipedia has loads of references confirming the huge entertainment value of this movie.

think M Rating: 4.0/5.0

Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar

2009-01-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

Kiran Kumar is the hero of this movie.
Who would want to watch such a movie?
I urge you to differ as he's a great actor and I think he could have been a superstar, had luck favored him.

Let's start another way. What did you think of 'Golmaal Returns'? Funny. Interesting. Different. Well, you need to revisit your conclusions. Because, it's *inspired* (in total Anu Malik style) by this fun loving 1973 flick. You can read more about this inspiration here.

AKTK (Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar) has a plethora of comedians filled in - Asrani, I. S. Johar and Paintal.The movie has its fair share of star attraction as well. There's one song each for Helen, Mehmood and Jayshree T.

Shankar Jaikishan are the music composers and you would have surely heard the classic 'Mujhe meri biwi se bachao' song.

Story:Sunil Mehta (Kiran Kumar), gets caught in a funfare along with an unknown lady atop a giant wheel for a night. His wife Geeta(Radha Saluja) refuses to believe him which forces Sunil to come up with a fake story about his friend Champak Bhoomia. Ramji (I. S. Johar) is a smart servant who knows, which trigger needs to be pulled and when.

Sunil Mehta convinces his friend Amit Desai (Asrani) to play as Champak Bhoomia in front of his wife. However, an actual Champak Bhoomia (Paintal) shows up at their residence to create chaos. To add to this, we have Champak's wife (Padma Khanna) who thinks Champak's having an affair with Geeta and Amit thinks his wife Kesari (Manju Asrani) is having an affair with Sunil. The latter confusion is stemming from the fact Kesari is the lady who was stuck with Sunil in the carnival. All ends well as every one learns their lesson of having a mutual trust between husband-wife relationship.

Decent script, decent performances from all actors make this film a decent afternoon time pass. It might be a bit slow paced for today's time but then we do respect originality. Don't we?!?!? :)

think M Rating: 2.5/5.0

Dadagiri

2009-01-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't even blame you for not knowing anything about this movie. And as Basanti would have said it, "Yeh toh wahi misaal ho gayi, koi zaamendaar ki bekaari toh hai nahi, ki marzi na marzi karni hi padegi".

A 1987 release, this movie marked the debut of Deepak Shivdasani as a director. Deepak, who? He directed Bhai (the one with 'Khul Gaya Naseeb' song and Sunil Shetty in its star cast) and Baaghi (starring Salman Khan and marking the debut of Nagma).

The movie is not bad but perhaps it might not adhere to today's audience's taste, who would predict perhaps each and every aspect of the movie. There's nothing that is noteworthy about this movie but for perhaps a typical 80s style direction.

Interesting tidbit: Anu Malik is the music director for this Dharmendra, Govinda, Padmini Kolhapure, Amrish Puri starrer flick. The music is a disaster. And it is surprising to find that even in those days, Anu did not hesitate from lending his voice to songs. It's the 'Barkha bani Durga' background song. Yeah, those are indeed the lyrics of one of the songs! If interested, the ear-irritating collection can be found here.

In fact, one of the songs (Joh Muskuruhaat) has been repeated by Anu in another album of his. I can't seem to recollect it now but will update this part pretty soon.

Story: Dharma daada (Dharmendra) and Deepa (Rati Agnihotri) love each other. But to save the life of her ailing father, Deepa sacrifices her love and marries some one else leaving a heart broken Dharma who get's addicted to alcohol. A few years later, Deepa's husband dies leaving behind their daughter Barkha (Padmini Kolhapure).

Deepa's husband's elder brother, Bhanupratap (Amrish Puri) kills Deepa in a plan to acquire her entire wealth. However, he's trapped by fate as Deepa's will has handed over a trust, the responsibility to caretake the wealth and business till Barkha turns 21. Bhanupratap and his wife (Shashikala) move to Deepa's house along with their 2 kids - Roshan (Rakesh Bedi) and Chandni.

Barkha grows under the terror and fear of Bhanupratap and his family. To relieve herself of the pains, she tries to commit suicide. Suraj (Govinda) saves her. It's first sight love for Suraj to be only accepted later by Barkha.

Bhanupratap makes Barkha sign legal deeds to transfer all her wealth to the former on the day she turns 21. Post that, she's thrown down from a cliff. Dharma dada saves her to find that she's the daughter of his long lost love, Deepa. He decides to avenge Deepa's murder. He teaches Barkha fighting skills and transforms her from Barkha to Durga (Guess, which song would be playing now? :)). A series of twists before the goons are killed and all is well.

Did you say where did I get to see this movie? It's on Rajshri. Here's the link for the more inquisitive ones. And you would be amazed by the high quality print.

think M Rating: 2.0/5.0

Ghajini

2008-12-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

-- Update 2 --
Read about the movie's accomplishments here.

-- Update --
I just loved Aamir Khan's quote that I came across while reading Rediff's top 10 pick of the year and had to post it here. :) The quote was reply to a question in regards to whether Aamir feels he's # 1 given Ghajini is declared #1 movie of 2008.

"Does Lata Mangeshkar ever say that she is number one? Or for that matter, does Sachin Tendulkar say he is the number one batsman? So why should I say that? The only people who say they are number one are in real, not number one!"

Read more here.

-- Original blog --
SPOILER WARNING!
A remake of the 2005 Tamil superhit, the film retained the original title, the director (A. R. Murugadoss), the heroine (Asin Thottumkal) and the villain (Pradeep Rawat). The remake marks debut of the director and heroine into Bollywood. However, Pradeep has acted in quite a few movies, including Sarfarosh.

Pradeep RawatThe main protagonist has been essayed by Aamir Khan replacing Surya Sivakumar. The music director changed as well. The Tamil collection was composed by Harris Jayaraj (remember, RHTDM?) whereas the Hindi one boasts of A. R. Rehman. (Who else could it be? After all, Aamir seems to have clear favorites - A. R. Rehman, Prasoon Joshi.)

Despite facing competition from RNBDJ and CC2C, Ghajini aroused enough interest to beat its Yashraj films competitor in its opening collections. Whether CC2C meets the bar is yet to be seen.

Story:Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan) is suffering from anterograde amnesia. Sunita (Jiah Khan), a medical student takes interest in the case study of this patient. Sanjay commits quite a few murders and utilizes pictures, notes, body tattoes to over come his 15 minute lasting memory ailment. He wakes up every morning to remind himself of his motive - find Ghajini (Pradeep Rawat) and kill him.

A police officer investigating the murder cases is able to find Sanjay and get hold of a diary that is the gateway to his past - Sanjay, CEO of Air Voice and how life presents him his love, Kalpana (Asin).

But before the officer could delve further into Sanjay's past, Sanjay wakes up and ties the officer up. Sunita in her pursuit of exploring Sanjay's case further, visits his apartment and rescues the officer. She happens to come across the diaries as well and quite a few pictures of murdered victims and potential targets, including Ghajini. But before Sunita and the officer could leave, Sanjay comes back and in a chase, the officer is hit by a truck and dies on the spot. Sunita takes advantage of Sanjay's 15 minute state and escapes. However, she meets Ghajini and cautions him against Sanjay. Sanjay finds out about Sunita and tries to kill her. Sunita manages to save herself and have Sanjay evicted to jail.

Later, Sunita browses through Sanjay's diaries to find what the officer found earlier and more. However, the diary is incomplete. Sunita is intrigued and after a bit of research finds that Kalpana exposed a girl molestation racket and saved 25 odd girls. However, that led to exposing Ghajini Dharmatma as well. Ghajini killed Kalpana and hit Sanjay with a heavy metal that led to Sanjay's current state.

Sanjay is released from jail with the help of his Air Voice colleagues. As police knows that Sanjay's body has 'Ghajini' tattoed all over it, Ghajini decides to not kill Sanjay but instead destroy all things that helps Sanjay fulfil his mission.

Sunita decides to help Sanjay take revenge. The rest of the plot is predictable. But the climax is nail biting.

For folks that have already seen Memento, there's nothing new. And for them, I would perhaps say this movie is a 3.0 rated one. However, there are scenes in the movie - like the one where Kalpana is killed, that reminds you of the Gabbar Singh terror when he killed Thakur Baldev Singh's family in Sholay. Let the background music do the terrorizing. Good job with music there!

Talking about music, it's hard not to say that some part of the climax music simulates the signature Doordarshan (DD) music. Here's a version of the DD music on youtube (quality sucks on this video link).

Aamir Khan had mentioned in an interview that a tight screenplay attracted him to Ghajini and I would tend to agree with him on that. Asin Thottumkal has delivered a paragon of power-packed performance. Asin has a striking resemblance to Mallika Sherawat and reminds of Revathi just before the 'Kaise Mujhe Tum' song. Jiah Khan is passe.

No complaints from the rest of the departments. Just like how I said earlier, the screenplay and direction are too good and magnetic; and overshadow rest of the things.

think M Rating: 3.5/5.0

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

2008-12-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

RNBDJ had enough hype aroused. Touted as the next biggie from Yash Raj Films camp, directed by Aditya Chopra (who makes a comeback after Mohabbatein) and presenting Shahrukh Khan along with their latest discovery Anushka Sharma.

The 'Chance Pe Dance' song fails miserably in trying to accomplish the feat of having beats, so irresistible that almost anyone is pulled to the dance floor. The item number 'Hum Hai Rahi Pyaar Ke' doesn't sound like an item number or interesting or ...anything. Salim Sulaiman need to take a cue from Vishal Shekhar's Deewangi from Om Shanti Om. Overall, the music is dull and boring. Read rediff's review of the movie's music here.

Besides, the production house left no stone unturned in their effort to get publicity. Have a dekko at the number of competitions that they launched pertaining to RNBDJ.

The movie managed to collect so much cash in it's first 10 days to be declared the biggest hit of 2008 so far. Read more here.

And after watching the movie, I would say that I tend to agree more with Raja Sen (for a change) than I do with Suparn Verma.

Story: Circumstances force Taani (Anushka Sharma) to marry Surinder Sani (Shahrukh Khan). Taani's fiance dies in a bus accident just before marriage. Taani's father dies of heart attack before requesting his favorite student Surinder to marry Taani. Taani doesn't love Surinder and makes it clear to him at the onset of their newly married life.

However, Surinder is head over heels in love with Taani and is hell bent on impressing her. Bobby (Vinay Pathak) succors Surinder in this and transforms Surinder into Raj. (It had to be Raj - after all, it's an Aditya Chopra movie, remember DDLJ, Mohabbatein.)

Another series of instances and Taani is left in a position to choose between Surinder and Raj. In a weak moment, she confesses her attraction towards Raj. However, all ends well.

The biggest ask from the movie is that of a tighter screenplay. Vinay Pathak marvels and actually steals limelight in quite a few scenes. Anushka is good, specially considering that she is a newcomer. No complaints in the cinematography department. Music plays a pivotal role in how well a choreographer can do. That can explain not a impression carving dance from Shiamak Davar and Vaibhavi Merchant.

One thing I would surely like to add is that the RNBDJ sumo scene is totally copied from Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi's sumo scene.

Last but not the least, the item number featured Kajol, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji trying to imitate Nargis, Sadhana, Helen, Mumtaz and Neetu Singh. Bipasha and Preity couldn't do much justice, whereas Kajol, Lara and Rani did a job par excellence.

think M Rating: 2.5/5.0

Akayla

2008-12-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

My childhood memoirs of this movie
* the new villain was very frightening
* the song 'Meri Rampiyaari', very popular amongst kids
* an overall bore

So, why would I watch or write a review on this one? To save you from the pains that I bore on a Sunday evening. Not really. It so happened that while browsing youtube, I came across this movie with the preview photo of an inspector that resembled Monish Behl. I wonder that is it really Mohnish Behl who acted with the famous Big B? And that got me started to this painful journey.

I had initially planned to see just one part before I continue hunting down another movie for the holidays. But then big names started flashing - Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh, Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, Ramesh Sippy! I recollected only AB and Amrita Singh. But the rest of the names made me wonder if I was being harsh on this movie. Ok! I would give it a try. After all, how bad can it be given Ramesh Sippy gave us Sholay, Shaan, Seeta aur Geeta and much more.

Coming to the story section. Did I hear you mutter: Is there a story? Sigh! There's one very predictable and unnecessarily elongated one.

Story: Vijay Varma (Amitabh Bachchan), Shekhar (Jackie Shroff) and Seema (Meenakshi Seshadri) are college friends. Seema and Vijay are in love but never disclose to each other. Shekhar loves Seema (completing the typical Hindi triangular love story). Shekhar asks Vijay to aid him in asking Seema's hand in marriage from Seema's mother (Helen). Vijay decides to sacrifice love for friendship and takes to alcohol ever since. His only solace lies in his brother Ajay(Aditya Panscholi), who loves Neeta (Kiran Juneja, after all she is director's wife and needs to be casted). Ajay stays in college as he continues his education while being a teaching assistant.

Vijay is a very lonely police officer (hence the title Akayla) whose aim in life to is to kill criminals to get rid of crime. As a result, he finds quite often disreputing himself and the police department. Consequently, having verbal disputes with the police commissioner (Shashi Kapoor) as well. Vijay finds his lost love interest in Sapna (Amrita Singh) who he meets while saving her from Ranjeet's (Mahesh Anand) clutches.

Trivia: Which hero has acted most along with AB? And your four options are:
(A) Vinod Khanna (B) Dharmendra (C) Shah rukh khan (D) Shashi Kapoor
Answer towards the end of the blog

The villains of this story happen to be twin brothers - Tony and Jojo (Keith Stevenson). They kill Shekhar and Seema as well who try to stop them from escaping. The Rampiyari song is when Vijay and Sapna try to cheer up Shekhar and Seema's son.

After many attempts, Vijay succeeds in killing Jojo. An angry Tony kills Ajay and Neeta and attempts to kill Sapna as well. However, she is rescued just in time. And the rest of the story is another set of chase sequences.

Salim Khan (of Salim-Javed duo) is credited with this story. Like Oscars, if there were Filmfare awards for most painful movie of the year - this movie would have no competition in winning the coveted title for the year 1991. This was not the last torture from Ramesh Sippy. I recollect Zamana Deewana, also directed by him, as a very bad remake of Khudgarz.

You can easily fast forward all the songs. Not much to write about any other department - choreography, cinematography!

Trivia: Of the four options, correct answer is (B) Dharmendra
(A) Vinod Khanna (10) (B) Dharmendra (20) (C) Shah rukh khan (7) (D) Shashi Kapoor (14)

In case you are still wondering if there was Mohnish Behl in the movie then it was Kanwaljeet who I mistook for Mohnish Behl in the preview photo.

think M Rating: 2.0/5.0

Chandni Chowk to China

2008-07-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: The movie is slated for a January 16th, 2009 release. Rumours has it that it is slightly inspired by Akshay Kumar's own life - he was a cook in Bangkok, learnt martial arts in Hong Kong and then entered Bollywood. Read more about his biography here and here.

Previous Post

Agar yeh blog pre-trailer site ban bhi rahi hai toh kya harj hai ;)

Here's one more for your eyes. Click on the picture for the trailer to start:

Looks like yeh Deepawali it's going to be fun. Official site is here.

De Taali

2008-07-01T18:37:00.001-07:00

After a long time, there's a movie out which targets youth audience and is all about friendship, love. Yes, I am talking about 'De Taali'. There wasn't much publicity for this movie but it did good at box office.

The songs are hummable. Vishal Shekhar are slowly finding their way in my list of all time favorites. My personal favorite is the 'Maari Teetri' song. The beats are too good and different.

Story:Paglu (Ritesh Deshmukh), Amu (Ayesha Takia) and Abhi (Aftab Shivdasani) are best of friends. The story takes interesting turn when Amu falls in love with Abhi and Abhi finds his soulmate in Anjalee (Rimi Sen), the con. How Paglu and Amu save Abhi from Anjalee's evil clutches forms the rest of the story.

This movie is one of those that depends a lot on tight screenplay and crisp editing. Both areas could have been improved. However, the shortcomings were covered very well by solid performances from the four leading stars of the movie.

The movie has its own moments which I just loved:

1. Rimi Sen being tortured by making her watch 'RGV ki Aag' repeatedly
The director, E. Niwas was a former assistant to Ram Gopal Verma
2. Aftab proposing love to Ayesha
3. Saurabh Shukla rescuing Ritesh & Ayesha with the 'Jai Maharaj' slogan
4. Rimi Sen enjoying monkeys on TV with her eerie laugh

There's not much really to say about anything else but that some of the boring scenes could have been cut. Cinematography, Choreography - everything was just fine. Read Rediff's review here.

think M Rating: 3.0/5.0

Amar Akbar Anthony

2008-06-29T22:38:00.001-07:00

Masti, Masala, Comedy, Drama - sab kuch toh hai iss movie main. So, what's such a movie called? Classic.

Story: This story is about Kishanlal (Pran) and his family. Kishanlal is released from jail and is dishearted, shocked to find how his ex-master Robert (Jeevan) has never taken care of his family despite Kishanlal being loyal and taken the blame and punishment for latter's deeds. Robert, on the other hand, insults Kishanlal to make matters worse which evokes Kishanlal to rob Robert of some of his riches.

Kishanlal's wife, Bharati (Nirupa Roy), tries to commit suicide to free her husband of more worries, leaving behind their three sons - Amar, Raju and Chotu. Her attempt proves to be futile as fate had something else stored in for her and she turns blind. While trying to escape the bad goons chasing for Robert's goods, Kishanlal has an accident that makes everyone think that he's dead. Another turn of luck and that his three sons are separated too and lost in the big world.

Amar, Raju and Chotu grow up to be Amar, Akbar and Anthony respectively. Amar (Vinod Khanna) is raised by a Hindu police inspector, while Anthony (Amitabh Bachchan) is raised by a Christian priest and Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) is raised by a Muslim tailor.

Now, this is one movie which is not at all deficit of 'kahaani main twist'. Kishanlal kidnaps Robert's daughter and raises her as Jenny (Parveen Babi). Another reason for Robert to seek vendetta from Kishanlal.

Anthony and Jenny paint the town red, while Akbar is head over heels in love with Salma (Neetu Singh) and Amar finds his soulmate in Laxmi (Shabani Azmi). Each love story has its own villain. Zebisko (Yusuf Khan) wants to marry Jenny and won't stand Anthony a second. Salma's father, Taiyyab Ali (Mukri), finds Akbar not so perfect for his daugher. And then, we have Laxmi's step brother Ranjeet (Ranjeet) who molests Laxmi and is jailed by Amar.

Disclosing anything beyond this would be an awful crime. :) It's a Hindi movie and so all ends well as all separated ones reunite.

However, this blog does call for quoting certain popular moments. Or should I say, THE CLASSIC MOMENTS.

* What do I think of when I need to start a song with 'Ma' in Antakshari???
Think, think, think... :D

* Talk about how one should apply dettol on their wounds, then have a dekko here.

* If you feel desolated about losing a conversation/fight with someone with scoreboard of 2 vs 10, you gotta know that this is THE life saving dialogue video from 9th minute.

Something that has always amazed me is the pace of some of these classic movies. There are so many twists and turns. And some of the masterpieces (like this one) have taken every care to make sure that every scene is connected logically and that there's a reason for everything that happens. For example, does it matter what profession does the hero/heroine belong to? Not really, as seen in majority of the movies. Consider Neetu Singh's character in AAA: She's a doctor. And that's for just one purpose: she's the one to overhear Jeevan identify Nirupa Roy as Pran's wife.

Manmohan Desai, the director of this movie did repeat the very same formula after a gap of 4 years - Naseeb. A hard core AAA fan can easily call Naseeb a passe'. However, Naseeb did purvey the famous 'John Johnny Janardhan' number.

Besides making sure that his movie has twists and turns, nothing new to proffer and a cast full of stars - Manmohan Desai also made sure to convey a point that India is a secular country.

The movie had music composed by Laxmikanth Pyarelal. The music department gets a 4.0 rating as well. Now the songs are popular and well known till to-date.

That's all from your very own think-M for now. Happy reading!

think M Rating: 4.0/5.0

Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na

2008-04-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

I just love the beats, the spirit, (basically everything) of this song and so had to post it here:

Previous Post

Ok, this blog ain't becoming a pre-trailer site. I'll have reviews shelved out soon. Very soon! It's a promise!

But for now, let's focus on the new trailer we have here:

So, what do you think? The movie boasts of some high creds: Aamir Khan/PVR productions, Abbas Tyrewala (the master mind and writer of Munnabhai series) as director.

My thoughts: Too early to say anything. Early feel is that the movie will have its share of boring scenes outweighing the interesting ones. And that Imran Khan scores low in looks department and Genelia D'Souza gets a plus. However, the trailer doesn't have Manjari Fadnis in it.

Raja Jani

2008-03-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

OK! I have heard lot of complaints for not writing reviews on the latest and greatest! But I would still request the permission to continue writing reviews on some oldies as well.

Boasting of a cast full of stars and the then hit jodi of Dharmendra and Hema Malini, this movie has nothing to proffer in any department. Apparently, a hit in its time, the movie proved to be an important milestone in Hema Malini's career.

Story: Rajmata's (Durga Khote) grand-daughter, Ratna, has been missing since the age of 12. Rajkumar Singh (Dharmendra) and Diwan Gajendra Singh (Premnath) conspire to hoodwink the Rajmata by getting an imposter to take her place. They find Shanno (Hema Malini) to do the job. Shanno agrees to do the job as she is in love with Rajkumar and hopes to change Rajkumar back to a good human, who's gone bad due to his ex-girlfriend's (Bindu) deception in love.

On finding Ratna, Rajmata is ecstatic and prepares to hand over the crown as well as the keys to a vast treasure to her. Rajmata's nephew Pratap Bahadur (Prem Chopra) wants to marry Ratna for the wealth as well.

But this is an Indian movie, so all ends well. Also, Shanno turns out be to the original Ratna. Johnny Walker is good in the role of a Dharmendra's house keeper. Nadira is wasted in a minisule role as Shanno's guardian.

Nothing more to write about this movie. The songs aren't impressive either. You can skip it, if you like.

think M Rating: 2.5/5.0

Tashan

2007-12-19T16:59:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: This movie is slated for April 25th release.

ANIL KAPOOR ROCKS!
And here's how. Watch the trailer below.

We all knew that Anil is a good actor but so much of voice modulation. Man, thats ishtyle indeed!

But the million dollar question being still the same old one, i.e., will this movie be worth watching? In other words, will it be worth being reviewed at think-M? ;)

Om Shanti Om

2007-12-15T12:56:00.000-08:00

Some great moments and good comic scenes can have a weak story converted into a big blockbuster and here's how by Farah Khan, the directory of OSO.

1. Cast SRK and a newbie hottie: Deepika Padukone.

2. Generate enough hype and arouse good amount of interest in media, public.

3. Throw in some good music.

4. Project it as remake of one movie and make it a remake of another one.

As far as the last point is concerned, I am talking about obvious comparisons being made to Karz and the movie turning out to be a remake of Madhumati. What saddens me the most is not a single review out there gives credit to Madhumati. Leave alone the makers.

Well, now with these 4 stellars, the pot-pourri is ready to be presented. :)

Here's the story for those who have not yet seen the movie or read about it elsewhere.

Story: Om Prakash Makhija (SRK) is a 70s junior artist smitten by the then popular actress Shanti (Deepika Padukone). He saves Shanti's life from a fire mishap that happens during one of the movie shoots giving him a chance to get close to Shanti. The latter however is already in love with her secret husband Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). Mukesh is an evil man and is tired of Shanti not helping him get a certain producer's wealth and daughter. He kills her and in the process kills an already heart broken Om.

Here is when the Karz like part starts. Om is reborn as Om Kapoor, son of a famous actor, who gets stardom spoon fed to him. Certain incidents help OK (Om Kapoor) remember his previous birth and that's when he decides to take revenge from Mukesh. He finds Sandhya/Sandy (Deepika Padukone) and convinces her to fake as Shanti's ghost to force Mukesh to confess his crime.

The climax is a ctrl-C, ctrl-V version from Madhumati. I would highly recommend my readers to watch the classic.

Do you wonder where's Shreyas Talpade and Kiron Kher? They are Om's best friend and mom in his previous birth. Trying to set up the Karz link.

Going back to the review...

Everyone acted well and the movie did have its moments. I liked the 'Bhaago' scene. The spoof on Filmfare awards was well executed too. However, Akhsay Kumar registering the title of 'Return of Khiladi' is going a bit too far.

Deepika is a delight to watch and does well for a newcomer. She already has bagged quite a few roles, thanks to the success of OSO.

However, Arjun Rampal disappoints. He had my hopes high... Vaada and Elaan justify this.

Shreyas Talpade is wasted in a miniscule role. He deserves much more. Watch Dor, Iqbal to know what I am talking about.

And what to say about SRK. He's after all SRK and enough has already been written about him over so many years. He's managed to get Star Screen Best Actor award for Chak De! India this year already, much to my surprise, as I would have handed over the trophy to Abhishek Bachchan for Guru. On a side note, did you know that 'Chak De! India' was first offered to Salman Khan? Read more here. And that Salman Khan had even turned down Baazigar, before it proved to be a major milestone in SRK's career.

OSO's music is good and Vishal Shekhar are impressive. Well, not as impressive as they were last year. If you remember, I had already handed them a trophy for best music last year.

Farha Khan is good but she needs to improvize in the script and story department. Atleast, the good part is that it's not like Welcome, where all the good comic scenes are out in trailers.

think M Rating: 3.0/5.0

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

2007-05-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

Given that I was so excited by the promo of the movie, what would one expect of me but to watch it the very first day. However, nothing on those lines ever materialized. Thanks to all the pre-reviews that linked this movie being a Chopra family remake of an already poor Johar movie 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna'.

Though it was almost a year's gap between the release of these 2 movies, the shock of KANK was huge. That said, I did give Shaad Ali (the director, also credited for 'Saathiya' and 'Bunty Aur Babli') a chance by watching the movie a few months later. Am I kind or what? :)

Well, given my low expectations and all that, the movie did manage to still disappoint me in a few departments. However, the positive point about it is the movie had some bad luck too. The story was different and very sweet too.

The failure of the movie can be attributed to perhaps the following few factors:

1. An over dose of many similar looking YRF releases.
2. The false hype of JBJ being a remake of KANK.
3. Poor screenplay and equally poor direction. The movie should have been crisp and not unnecessarily elongated to fill those painfully long 132 minutes.

As said, the music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy was decent and would fair an overall rating of 3.5 with a special mention of the song 'Kiss of love' and 'Bol Na Halke'.

You can find more promos here.

think M Rating: 3.0/5.0

--

I just couldn't resist myself from posting a blog for promo for this movie. It's an awesome trailer with everyone - Abhishek, Preity, Bobby, Lara leaving an impression!

Bhoot Bangla

2007-03-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

The only reason this movie deserves a mention and a rating is because of its music, which is composed by R. D. Burman.

Remembered as a classic movie (shouldn't be really), this black and white non-entertainer boasts of Mehmood and Tanuja in the lead roles. It is directed by the veteran comedian himself.

Enough told!

Synopsis Link.
Music Link.

think M Rating: 2.5/5.0

Kabul Express

2007-02-04T23:38:00.000-08:00

The only reason this movie gets a rating of 3.0 is because of its novelty in concept and idea. Other than this the movie has nothing great to talk about.

Newbie director, Kabir Khan, hasn't done bad for the first time but he hasn't excelled either. The Yashraj banner has, ofcourse, ensured that this movie gets enough publicity and it did. It was part of lot of international film festivals.

There are no songs in the movie. The background score is not very enchanting. Locales wise, Afghanistan is a beautiful place. It was a treat to see it in Khuda Gawah as well.

Story: Suhel Khan (John Abraham) and Jai Kapoor (Arshad Warsi) are two Indian journalists trying to interview atleast someone from Taliban group post 9/11's twin tower incident. They hire a Afghani guide (Hanif Hum Ghum) and they find an American journalist (Linda Arsenio) too. But a Taliban kidnaps them to save his neck and reach Pakistan border.

The movie is about their journey till they are freed. However, it's interesting to know that they cut the 'Osama Bin Laden' joke from the movie, which they showed in trailers. Wonder why though?

I was never a fan of John Abraham's acting skills and this movie did not prove me wrong either. He has nothing to proffer in that department. And Arshad Warsi is on the other end of talent. He is just like a diamond, the more you polish it, the more it shines. As in, the more movies he does, the more he surpasses himself.

Salman Shahid, Hanif Hum Ghum and Linda Arsenio were mediocre. I am not sure if I would ever see them in another Hindi movie, unless Aditya Chopra decides to repeat them. Hey, talking about Aditya Chopra, did you know that he's apparently seeing Rani Mukerji these days? And that the trailer of his next venture, Tara Rum Pum looks interesting.

Yes, there's slight introduction of gossip in think-M columns starting with this review. :-) See ya soon!

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The Angrez

2007-01-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hilarious! Undoubtedly a winner! Yes, that's 'The Angrez' for you. If you ever wanted to know what true Hyderabad looks like, this one is definitely for you. You would love it from start to end as you appreciate the true Hyderabadi spirit.

Not a single named star to its credit, this movie is a paragon of a paisa wasool movie. Kuntaa Nikkil, the hero and director of the movie, needs a mention definitely.

Story: The story is about two angrez coming to India to be vice-president of technology and marketing of a call-phone servicing company in Hyderabad: Brigade. They are after all angrez and grab attention from everyone on streets, in office and in neighborhood.

Result of this attention:
1. animosity with folks from Old City, especially, Ismail Bhai (jinku bahut kaamaan hote ;))
2. goons trying to kidnap them for money (dollarraan, dollarraan)
3. and more.

This is definitely a nice time pass movie. Though I suspect non-Hyderabadis appreciating it. The entire movie is available in parts on you-tube for viewing, starting here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Vivah

2006-12-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Rajshri Productions have always been good with their marketing strategy and so it is not surprising to find an average movie become a hit. Vivah is directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya, who has given us hits like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, etc in the past and who had all of us disappointed with Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon.

Slow pace and not at all impressive music (by Ravindra Jain) are the biggest drawbacks for this movie. However, the biggest strength of this movie is its cleanliness (no vulgarity), a simple and touching story, and absence of overacting.

Story: Prem (how can the hero be named something else in a Sooraj Barjatya movie) is all geared up to get married to Poonam. Poonam is an orphan staying with her chaacha's (Aloknath, eternal favorite of Sooraj Barjatya) family. Her chaachi (Seema Biswas), however detests Poonam, as her own daughter Chhoti (Amrita Prakash) is not as pretty as Poonam. But something changes during the journey from engagement to marriage. What? See the movie. :-)

Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao are good. Their screen chemistry (defined since Pyaar Vyaar) works even today. If you are bored of the current trend of movies, then this is a welcome change.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Khosla Ka Ghosla

2006-12-10T02:30:00.000-08:00

Khosla Ka Ghosla, an interesting name for a movie with an interesting subject too.

Debutant director Dibakar Banerjee chose to be different and his different venture was an impressive one. KKG portrays a very real India, with its share of masala movie touch. Jaideep Sahni deserves a mention, afterall, he was in charge of everything from Story, Screenplay to Dialogues and Lyrics.

Alongwith proven actors like Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, even starlets like Parvin Dabas and Tara Sharma shone. 'Chak De Phatte' is a huge hit in India and abroad and can be easily heard in any discotheque (ofcourse desi ones). Bappi Tutul and Dhruv Dhalla get the honors for it.

Story: Head Khosla (Anupam Kher) spends his entire life time savings on buying a piece of land to build what else other than his 'ghosla' (nest). ChironjiLal (Parvin Dabas), one of Khosla's 2 sons, hates everything related to his family and wants to run to US (he being a software engineer); breaking all dreams and hopes of his father that Cherry (aka ChironjiLal) would help build the nest.

And then comes the twist, Khurana's (Boman Irani) goons want the land and they are willing to resell it to Khosla. Typical real-estate problem. Watch the movie to find out more.

Tara Sharma is impressive. She can make it big with right moves, she has the potential and she has proved it many a times. A nice weekend watch reco, this movie gets from your very own think-M! More soon.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Don

2006-12-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Not anybody can fit into AB's shoes and this take off on Don has proved it right. After all, 'AB ban-naa mushkil hi nahi, naa-mumkin hai' :).

But, let's admit that Farhan Akhtar did a good job at making another Don. It's just that SRK falls short of trying to fit in AB's shoes. Kareena might look beautiful but she has to learn a lot in acting department. Priyanka is good but Zeenat's Roma was different. Boman Irani is a good actor but Iftikhar had his own chemistry working in 1978's Don. Only Om Puri was the closest match to the old Om Shivpuri character.

There would be definitely surprise for viewers who have seen the earlier Don. There would be disappointment too, especially when you meet SRK's version of Vijay.

Story: Do I really need to write anything in this section? :-)
But if you still want it, read it over here.

Definitely, I would give 4.0 to Farah Khan's choreography on the song 'Khaike Paan Banaras Waala'. 3.5 to Farhan Akhtar, 3.0 to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for their effort in music department, 2.5 to SRK and rest.

The official site for the film is here.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Dhoom : 2

2006-11-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

There would be no denying the fact that Dhoom was different and impressive. So, do you not expect a huge rush for Dhoom:2 (better known as D:2). But it's just natural when people can even comment on its posters.

Sanjay Gadhvi and Aditya Chopra had enough expectations raised and had the movie nicely hyped. Though there was no need for it to fear competition from Don and unnecessarily delay its release.

The movie is good with its share of boredom (thanks to Uday Chopra and Bipasha Basu). Choreography is good and with Hrithik, everything looks good.

Pritam hasn't delivered anything that can compete with his own 'Dhoom'. His music is kind of getting repetitive and boring. 'Dhoom Machale' still being the best amidst D2's lot.

Story: Mr. A loves leaving impressions. Whether it is impressing Jai Dixit or Sunehri, he has all tricks in his pockets. But what Mr. A doesn't know is Jai can make him impress someone... Wit of Jai against Perfection of Mr. A...

Credits: Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan); Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan); Sunehri (Aishwarya Rai).

I think it is waste even saying that Bipasha Basu and Uday Chopra exist in the movie. Their characters are not even well crafted.

It's a movie of and for Hrithik from start till end. But Abhishek and Aishwarya can make their presence feel.

If the director and music were to be rated alone, it would be very hard for them to even manage 3.5. But how can I be strict with rating, when the 2 most happening stars (Hrithik & Abhishek) star together in dhoom like this!

With two big hit movies to his credit, this year certainly belongs to Hrithik Roshan! Dhoom Machale!

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Jaan-e-mann

2006-11-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

An average movie, which any cine-goer can afford to watch in theatres. By average, I mean the age old triangular love story and a movie with cast boasting of star power (Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta).

However, a different execution style (thanks to our new director on-board: Mr. Shirish Kunder) and nice screenplay overall (with its share of pits and falls too) manages to keep the viewer engrossed.

The first half of the movie is so good that I would be tempted to promote this movie to a 4.0 category but ... the second part is slow and a bore in many parts. However, the climax is unique and took me by total surprise.

Anu Malik is credited with the music for this movie which could have been much better though Sonu Nigam rocks in 'Humko maloom hai'. Anu Malik hasn't delivered anything impressive for quite some time now.

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala has repeated the hit combination of Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar post 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi'. Though it's not the first time that he's working with Preity. Remember, the 'Piya Piya' song?

Story: There was a dude (Salman) and a geek (Akshay). Both loved a beauty (Preity). Ten years pass. The dude lives in his dream world, the geek lives in space and the beauty lives all alone. Watch the movie to find out more.

Preity looks georgeous and is different. Much better than what she looked in her last release: Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna!

All actors have done justice to their roles. Full credit to debutant director Shirish Kunder. Me's definitely eagerly looking forward to his next. Check out more about this movie here!

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Krrish

2006-06-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hurray! There comes a movie, finally, on this blog after a long time which is 4.0. Yay!

The trailer makes you think of it as a well-hyped movie, which raises the expectations, arises curiosities in one and all alike. What's up with Hrithik this time? The actor who had a marvellous launch pad in Kaho Na Pyar Hai and the one who was at one point even written off because of his series of flops like Yaadein, Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon.

The music launch of the movie was not impressive however. Rajesh Roshan hasn't managed anything as good as Kaho Na Pyaar Hai in a long time. Even Koi-Mil-Gaya was mediocre. So is music of Krrish. Rakesh and Hrithik Roshan though think that the music might catch up along with the story but I suspect it. But that doesn't matter. The movie rocks.

An out and out entertainer, a thorough paisa-vasool movie. All kids in the nation would just adore this movie. Everything about the movie is just amazing. Now, now, there are parts in the movie which are influenced from a lot of English movies but then there are scenes which are original too. HRITHIK is too good to be true. His charisma leaves no one untouched.

Farah Khan does a good job in the choreography department. Hrithik Roshan's wardrobe is impressive and I should say much better than what it was in its prequel - Koi Mil Gaya.

Hrithik has essayed a rock solid award winning performance. He easily steals show right under the nose of solid actors like Naseeruddin Shah. Not only he essays wonderful performances under his father's directorial ventures but also seems to have matured with age. If the movie deserves a 4.0, the credit goes to only Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik Roshan, and the screenplay.

Story: Krishna (Hrithik Roshan) has inherited all powers given by Jaadoo to his father, Rohit. Krishna has lost his parents in early childhood. Daadi (Rekha) brings up Krishna. She is very protective of him and wouldn't let him go to the real bad world. She relocates to a very small place to avoid attention to Krishna's magical powers.

Enter Priya (Priyanka Chopra) and Krishna is head over heels in love with her. Priya visits Krishna's home town along with her friends for camping and returns back to her home in Singapore leaving Krishna in a distressed state. Priya's friend Honey forces Priya to fake false love to Krishna to save their job. They work for Star Plus and need a scoop and they want to telecast Krishna's magical powers to the entire world.

Unaware of these lies, Krishna exchanges heated arguments with his Dadi who wouldn't allow him to step out of their home town. This is when Dadi is forced to tell him the entire truth (how he lost his parents, etc.). Krishna respects his Dadi a lot more and promises to hide his powers from the world.

Enter Singapore. Dr. Siddhant Arya, (Naseeruddin Shah), the bad guy wants to become God. (Oh, how much I miss Mr. Amrish Puri here. Reminds me of Mogambo so much, hey but I am not complaining). Who can stop him? Krishna? No. Enter Krrish. After all Dadi's promise needs to be kept.

Story is pretty simple with a surprise element stored for you. But the effects and Hrithik Roshan make you bite your nails till the end. I am all excited to see this movie again... Oh, I do not feel like seeing Superman any more now... I am sure I won't find it as interesting as Krrish.

It would be hard for any actor (especially any superhero) to meet the levels set so high by Hrithik in this movie. Whether its muscle-powers, whether it is fighting the goons, or whether it is displaying the plethora of magical powers he possesses, ... it's all awesome!

You still reading this blog... Go watch the movie!!! :)

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Ankahee Mahal n Banaras

2006-06-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

A week full of torturous movies, yes that's what it was. One followed by another. If I were to write review about them, more or less, it would be the same - Do not watch it. So, I thought how about clubbing them together... And here it goes!

*Ankahee*	*Mahal*	*Banaras*

Rating: 2.0/5.0	Rating: 2.0/5.0	Rating: 2.0/5.0

Fanaa

2006-05-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

Despite the story being predicted even before the movie released, despite it being the same old wine in new bottle, there's something about this movie that can keep you glued to the seats till the end. Never mind the stretchful watch post intermission. The 3.0 credit goes to this movie solely because of the director Kunal Kohli.

Story: Rehan meets Zooni and cupid strikes them. Nothing stops them - neither Rehan's flirty nature nor Zooni's blindness. But Rehan has other promises to fulfill. He leaves Zooni... and after 7 years, when Rehan accidentally knocks her door, she shouts 'Rehan'... Zooni has her sight back but has lost her mother. But everything is forgiven and forgotten as old flames revive. But Rehan needs to leave for one last time... will Zooni let him go?

Rishi Kapoor needs no proof that he is a brilliant actor. It's refreshing to see Kajol after a long time and she meets her expectations. Aamir Khan looks aged in front of Kajol but his acting skills show more maturity with every performance he delivers. Tabu is, however, wasted in a miniscule role.

A Yashraj movie and good cinematography, good locales are free with your purchase of entertainment ticket. Kunal Kohli has not done a marvelous job but it's not bad either. In short, it would not be easy for him to get a Filmfare nomination.

There are certain scenes in the movie which are just superb. The scene where Kajol discovers that her father is dead has been brilliantly executed. Though the songs lack freshness, they have been picturized well.

Do not expect much from this movie but just watch it for time-pass entertainment. In short,

Hum na jhel paate shaayad
Agar junoon na hota aapka
Shyaad na karpaate hum
Itne paise bhi fir fanaa

Rating: 3.0/5.0