Heroes

I hated X-files. I couldnt understand what was the fuss about aliens on this planet.... i hated all science fiction based serials and movies... i just could'nt digest them.
When i heard about 'Heroes', my first reaction was that this is not for me. My niece Shilpa got me the entire season 1 videos, and i was hesitant to watch it. In fact, i guess i copied only the 1st 11 episodes, as i was convinced i would never watch it, and even if i did manage to watch one, i wouldnt like it.
A day came when I was really bored, and had really nothing to do.....so i thought why not. And guess what, i picked up the 11th episodes to watch... because it was titled as 'Six months back'.....
i was entirely confused by the going-ons...... but what ignited an interest was the way the serial moved... traversing across the stories of the multiple characters, and trying to tie them together.
Some weeks later i was even more bored, and i thought i will try 'Heroes' again.. and this is where i realised i had watched the wrong episode first. And from then i was hooked on. Once i complete the 11 videos, I had..... i was desperate for more..... and thankfully my broadband and an internet site came to the rescue allowing me to watch online videos for free. And thats how i completed all videos for season 1.
'Heroes' is the story of several characters, who discover that they are blessed with supernatural ability.Almost all of these characters are blessed with only one specific power like flying, ability to time-travel, hypnotise, raw power, ability to walk through barriers, read other's mind, ability to figure out a person's location, hearing ability, re-generate and heal body parts, be invisible, paint the future and so on. One of them - Peter Pitrelli- is blessed with the ability to imbibe all the abilities from the heroes by virtue of proximity. He is one of the good heroes.
The main theme of episode 1 is the introduction of the heroes, and their special abilities, as also how the good heroes come together via circumstances to save the world from a predicted disaster triggered by one of the bad heroes.The villain in the piece is Skylar, who has the ability to understanding how things work, and uses that knowledge to kill the heroes and acquire their special abilities. And there is an indian connection too.. the story is triggered by an Indian scientist who predicts the existence of such people, and devotes his entire life to find such people..... and his son takes over his mantle after the father is murdered by Skylar.....
The 20 + episodes involve a gradual revealing of links between the heroes, and that seems to make up for a complex story. Add to that ability to time-travel, and things get more complicated. But you cant help being riveted, as the story unfolds.
At no point do you feel the story is letting off steam..... you cant wait for the next episode.. lucky me.. i had all episodes on demand.... so i was relatively luck not to go through agony of waiting for a week for what happens next..... like most others wud have...
Now i cant wait to watch season 2... i am told that the characters are all new...... and the so is the story line.. looks like i am not going to be bored for some time.
My advice is... watch it, if u havent... and if you have, i neednt tell you anything more.....

The Hamaal

bees saal pehele... i remember watching a movie called 'Its a Mad Mad World'. I am not sure i understood the plot of the movie then... or the humour... but i remember laughing a lot. Cant really tell whether the movie was good or a 8 yr old guy was ready to laugh at anything in the age where Doordarshan was the only boss.
Bees saal baad.... i happen to watch a bollywood movie called Dhamaal. Dont know if its a rip-off of the movie i saw 20 yrs back or not, but one thing that stands out as a common pattern is the fact that both movies involve loads of people looking for piles of cash buried under a W formed by coconut/palm trees. Apart from it, i do not recollect any commonality.
Thoough i do remember laughing at the hollywood movie (reasons still unclear), 20 yrs down the line... i just couldnt handle the stuff that Indra Kumar threw up in our face. To be frank, I didnt expect a sensible plot per se, bt what I really didnt expect was really bad jokes executed with the worst timing ever. The direction and story are really tacky.. and so is the acting cast.
Arshad warsi cannot breathe life into unfunny dialogues, but thankfully he is the only one who doesnt go over the top. Javed Jaffry's comic timing never surfaces. Riteish Deshmukh's attempts to make you laugh irritates you endlessly. Ashish Chaudhry needs serious acting guidance. Asrani is at his loudest best..... and Sanjay dutt is as bad as any one else.
The theme is relentless..... loud, loud, loud humour is the focus... never mind if people arent laughing...(well some in the theatre actually did though).. all the scenes seem to be wrapped up in a couple of takes... never mind if the joke wasnt executed properly.....as long as the noise factor was achieved, i guess Indra Kumar canned the shoot.
I was actually debating watching 'Darling' , inspite of it being a RGV movie, but then opted for 'Dhamaal' for Warsi. At the end, i thought i shud have opted for ' Darling'.. atleast if the movie was bad, i could go to sleep..... Dhamaal's loud sound didnt even allow me to sleep properly. And all i felt like coming out of the theatre was like the Hamaal.

Chak de Jaideep and Shimit

Its not as if I haven't watched movies ...since i have returned back from London.. I must have watched loads of them...... but none worth remembering... including the joke-in-the-name-of-a-movie called Jhoom Barabhar Jhoom. The movie was true to the title... your mind comes out twirling after watching it... and the lesser said about it, the better.
Also, we (me and my partner) have religiously avoided movies like .. Cash, Partner, Hey Baby.
I guess i am growing old and thrifty.. the very thought of blowing up 150+ bucks on a single ticket for these movies sends down jitters down my spine.
I guess that money would be better off watching better movies..... and when u get quality stuff, you dont mind spending 190 bucks on tickets. especially a movie called as 'Chak De India'.
That I am a SRK fan is a much publicised info (if u didnt knew, read my post on Don). But when SRK acts in a movie that actually makes sense, and where his acting is understated rather than over-the-top thats like double VFM.(Value for Money in my lingo).
However SRK is not the real star of the movie. Obviously, he plays an important role, and is credible as the wronged player who is out to restore his credibility by coaching an incompetent and squabbling bunch of girls to hockey World Cup fame. Neither are any of the 16 girls the stars. A motley bunch comprising of both actors and non-actors give an earnest effort to look natural on the screen playing hockey.
The real stars are Jaideep and Shimit. Come again , who?
Jaideep Sahney is the person who has conceived and developed the script for the movie. He is also the guy who wrote the script for Khosla ka Ghosla and Company. Comes with an impressive CV, for sure. His story can definitely be highlighted as 'different'.
Shimit Amin is the director of the movie. He is also the guy who directed 'Ab Tak Chappan'.
The story was 'Hatke' for sure... but the direction is pretty much spot on. There is sufficient focus on the girls in questions, and highlighting the rivarly and groupism within the team. Also, the real match sequences seem to have a natural look to them rather than an made-to-order look...... overall the movie keeps on moving and doesnt seem to get stuck at any time.
Planning to watch the movie again now... even if rates are 190 bucks... what the hell... its worth watching thrice i would think.

Cheeni Perfect!!!!!!!!

Been in London for 3 months now, and havent had a dekko at any movies in the theatre...... prime reason is that my permanent movie partner is back in mumbai while i am here.. another reason is i am plain lazy to go out alone.
Thats when Toshan and Deepti stepped in and forced me to watch a movie with them, while they were with me for a day in London.(Toshan is my college friend and Deepti is his wife studying in Bristol).
'Cheeni kum' was the chosen movie to break my fast of movies of 3 months. Quite a feat, considering that ever since i started working 7 years back, i have fed myself on a steady diet of movies. We missed the 1st 10 mins of the movie because we opted for a quick drink and bite at TGIF's near the theatre. But , then Toshan having seen the movie in India , gave us a quick background of what we had missed out, which didnt turn out to be much.
Cheeni Kum doesnt have a radically different concept to offer as far as storyline goes. A senior citizen fallin in love with a woman much younger to him. Three years back i wouldnt have made that statement.. but since then we have some movies that explored the concept....'Joggers park' and 'Nishabd' coming to mind immediately.(though have not watched jogger's park).
Amitabh is the 64 yr old bachelor chef owning his restaurant in London, and staying with his even older mom. Tabu is the software engineer coming down to London to work (hey thast very much like me). The whole story kicks off with Tabu, the customer rejecting an ordered dish back to the kitchen, and Amitabh berating her for the lack of knowledge of Indian cuisine. Tabu makes him eat humble pie by cooking up a perfect dish. And thats when the dating and love story game starts.
The name Cheeni Kum is pretty apt .... it is a perfect summation of the interaction between the lead couple. Full of dry humour and witty sarcasm, the couple make it a point to have barbs at each other.. in their own sweet way. While Amitabh is his usual self, Tabu gives him a good takkar allright in terms of screen presence and dialogue delivery. I have not seen in a long time a Bollywood movie that has relied so much on dry humour.. and with very good effect.
The movie ambles at a nice pace, allowing love to develope between the couple, and also introduce characters like Sexy and Amitabh's mom. I liked up the drummed up excuse of the umbrella to enable the couple to keep on meeting up..... as also the way Amitabh defends his vegeterianism and ridicules Tabu for her eating a fish dish. The movie is made up of small small moments full of sarcasm and ripostes between the couple, that you cant help but chuckle. Zohra Sehgal and Sexy perform their roles well too. I felt that Paresh rawal was kinda wasted in this movie.. esp in the last stages when he clams up. But he does bring up a chuckle or two when he always makes it a point to remind Amitabh that they both are old.
The only part i would complain abt is the melodramatic ending... but i guess thats the logical way to go for a bollywood getup.. else the movie simply wont feel like its ended.
Apart from it, its been no complaints........ this is Cheeni Perfect stuff.

Vibhor...gonna miss you for sure

There is a theory that GOD sends down some people down to earth purely for a specific objective. And whens the objective done, its time for them to go back. No questions answered.
Maybe Vibhor was one of those people...... sent down with the specific objective of teaching people how to live life without inhibitions. Maybe the world was getting too monotonus for HIS liking, and he wanted to inject some enthusiasm and joy around. If thats the case, Vibhor has done his job well. For atleast, i can claim to have my perspective and attitude towards life and my fellow beings being turned around for good. I am sure countless people that would have got the whiff of the Vibhor effect and would come forward to make similar claims.
My bonding with Vibhor is not an age-old one ...roughly 3 odd years... and to be frank when i met him for the 1st time, i was kinda intimidated with his shaven head and firm handshake. This huge punjabi looking guy came loaded with a confident swagger , and i had made up my mind to avoid him for good. And thats when Gun-N-Roses got our friendship going.... both of us happened to be fans of the band......and before we knew it, we had become the best of friends. The one thing that you couldnt escape from Vibhor was his loud booming laughter, which was pretty infectious. And one things I learnt best from him, is to laugh whole heartedly at myself, and how to royally give a shit to anybody who cares a shit abt you.
He was my drinking partner too.. when i was in my beer drinking mania.... Vibhor always was the willing partner. Beer + rock music is a heady mix... and we probably kept grinding that mix on so many weekends. One thing that I cant get out of my mind is... vibhor karaokeing to GNR's 'Sweet child of mine' in his most natural but besura tones.........man those were fun times.
Temptations at Bandra and Sai Palace in Andheri was our fav zones to get drunk.
The thing with Vibhor was that u could never have a dull time when he was around. Be it movies, pubs or just an outing (Goa and Kashid), we have always had a whale of time. I so much used to hang around with him, that me and Vibhor started joking to everybody that we were committed boyfriends. :) And he used to say ..Lavin, I love you allright, but i cant marry you... coz you aint rich....lol
He was called back by HIM before he could attain 30. I remember him speaking to him while he was in the hospital , and he asking me 'Do you know whether people die of jaundice?Some one was telling me that it can be fatal' And i remember saying 'Kisine terko ullu banaya hai? I have had jaundice long back and i am not dead yet'. And we both had laughed over that.( And i was right.... it wasnt jaundice that proved to be fatal. Coz apparently he was wrongly diagnosed.....and ended up with a fatal brain infection).
Its been more than a week since he passed away, but the tears aint coming...... dunno whether its because its still not registered to me that he is not gonna be around. OR because I am totally de-sensitised to happenings around me....OR something in me tells that Vibhor wouldnt have liked people to be crying for him.
While there is definitely a gloom around for his absence, i am proud of the fact that he lived his life to the fullest. And there was never any looking back for him ever. He had done his job, and he had to go and HE wanted him back. Bro, I hope you teach HIM how to live his life too.....
gonna miss you for sure.

Rukaavat ke liye khed hai.......krupaya prateeksha karte rahe

Been a long time since yours truly has put the fingertips to the keyboard(a very feeble attempt at trying to parallel realistically the usage of 'puttin a pen to the paper') ..... I dont have a dedicated blog viewership like most people do, but out of the single digit range of people I do know who manage to find their way onto my URL, i am happy to note that they have actually noted that there has been no movement on my blog content for months now....... and more especially for the fact that i have not published my movie reviews, which I have made the core base of my blogging.
I am aware that my reviews are as amateurish as they get, but then most of the people i know are amateurs too......... and who better than an amateur to review them and let them know whether the review can help their decision making process...i.e. if they can get Lavin the ass to watch a movie beforehand and let them know whether its value-for-money and what sort of company to take along.....if the movies good, then they wudnt have a problem shelling out 150 bucks to watch a good movie alone or with friends. If the movies bad, its time to spend some 'quality time' with your girl... paying 150*2 bucks for an airconditioned enclosure that definitely guarantees you more privacy than the next best love-spot in the maximum city called Mumbai.
In either case, i am helping the multiplex guy earn his livelihood......
For those who wonder, whether i stopped blogging, esp movie reviews in the last few months, because i have aint seen any movies in the recent past...... well u cudnt have been more off target... statistics reveal I have watched more movies in the months leading to October2006-Mar 2007 than i would have watched in the immediate calendar year.
I have watched some pretty good movies... The Departed (twice..and wisecracks yes..i got it the first time.....allright), Blood Diamond (twice again), Last King of Scotland.. and have watched some average ones like Water (come on.. I didnt think the movie was that great shakes..... remember , I am supposed to be an amateur reviewer) and some pretty downright bakwaas stuff like Salaam-E-Ishk. It was not the dearth of movies that led to the slowdown in the blogging......... Its just that my personal life has taken such a dramatic turn (and for the good, I must add).
I am happy to let the world know that most of my weekend time in this stated period has been spent in the company of my ex-school mate -cum-firstcrush-cum benchpartner-turned life partner. And these wonderful weekends left me so distracted that my blogging has taken a complete backseat.
And i still expect it to take a backseat(inspite of being far away in London.. away temporarily from my partner)....... so for anyone reading this.. I repeat..... rukavat ke liye khed hai..... krupaya prateeksha karte rahein..........................

Main hoo don

I have a confession to make..... something which only few of my friends till now knew about.... there was this part of me which was completely hidden from the public perception.... the disclosure of which might lead to me being ostracised and disowned by my own friends and kin.... maybe i will be pelted with stones and be tried in public by my very own. But the turbulence in me is too much to hold it within my heart as a secret forever... I need to come clean on this and let everybody know about it...... let them know what the real Lavin is all about....
Where here goes... I, Lavin Kotian, in my full consciousness declare that I am a... hell no , i am not a gay (with all due respect to the gay community) ......
I am a Shahrukh Khan fan.
And before you guys to start holding me by my collars, let me put my case forward. I am a hardcore shahrukh fan for the personality that he exhudes off-screen (no-no.. have not met him up anytime. personally..I mean his interactions via interviews) . I do not necessarily subscribe to his choice of movies and roles that he chooses to ham on, but of the handful he does, I do make it a point to watch.... Swades being the last good movie I saw, and I loved the guy in it (again no gay references here please). Also, the fact the man has come up in a very fickle industry on his own, without any godfather, is a matter of great achievement ...
and i can go on and on... but the objective of this blog is not praising the King Khan.
Its about an old movie called as Don (which i have watched endless number of times whenever our good old DD metro was benevolent enough to show), which now has been repackaged by another favourite of mine.. Farhaan Akhtar.. (people this is just a coincidence that all my fav people mentioned so far here have been male... just a coincidence, i re-emphasize).
I have loved both of DCH and Lakshya, and more of Lakshya.
So its hardly surprising that I wouldnt flinch at a nice 180 bucks (move over gawli and dawood... we have the multiplexes operating as the new extrortionists) to watch Don on a hot Sunday evening.
Farhaan Akhtar , it seems, said that people should not compare the new Don with the old, and SRK with AB , and Priyanka Chopra with Zeenat Aman and so on..... but its hard not to. And i know why he was saying that, because if u compare with the old, the new Don seems really pale. Maybe the new Don is very contemporary and more polished , with the usage of computers and discs and cell phones and what not......., and with locations like Malaysia coming into picture.
The x-factor that you see in the old Don is probably because you cant help but marvel at the tautness of screenplay in that movie. And AB for me beats SRK by mile as the sophisticated don as well as the street side performer. Thast there where i end with the comparisons, lest i start dragging the movie under a negative magnifying glass.

The good part is that the movie is still watchable. If you knew the story in the 1st part, the new don deviates from the original in the second part, and thats when you start getting involved, coz you dont know entirely as to whats happening next. Thats probably what Akhtar meant when he said, he wanted to see Don with some changes as he thought best. And dont think those changes were entirely bad.

SRK as the don holds his ground, as done Priyanka Chopra . Boman irani is everywhere now, and he does an ok job. Didnt know whey they needed a senior actor like om puri for miniscule roles. Overall, no ground breaking stuff as far as acting is concerned.

Overall the movie, looks polished and worth a watch, and when ticket rates come down to manageable levels. Its not one of those Farhaan Akhtar movies that i can watch again and again. Maybe, i can watch the old Don again.

Khosla ka ghosla

Take a middle class man, working in a government job, and looking to invest his lifetime savings in building a house for his entire family. Enter the big bad boys of real estate, and with all use of money power and blatant use of police influence, the plot is encroached on. Enter some good samaritans, and they get back the plot without having to shell out additional money.
Thats the plot (all puns intended) of the movie called "Khosla Ka Ghosla".
An affirmation of the heartening trend in Bollywood, where the content and direction of the movie, drive audience to the movie theaters, rather than just a pure star fan following. With no powerhouse stars in the movie to get in in the audiences, the movie relies on the simplicity of the plot ,the interaction between the actors and a realistic backdrop of how things work in the real estate world. Before you start wondering whether this is one of these realistic gritty RGV kind of movies (read Shiva aka James aka Shiva) , you couldnt be more off target. The movie is a refreshing comedy, which relies more on the situation to generate humour rather than loudmouthed dialogues or buffoonry to get us to chuckle. Witness the scene where the middle class guy is trying to convince his son to give up his quest for changing his name from Chiraunjilal. Give us more of these, rather than the Golmaal (new) kinds.
Anupam Kher as the middle class gentleman is in his elements. He does look like 1 of those kind hearted guys who does dream about things in life, but cannot take on other people when his dreams are trampled upon, and is willing to suffer in silence. Kiron Joneja as his wife is his pillar of strength, and also the reconciler between him and his children. Parveen Dabbas as the IT professional has to play dumb most of the time, but i guess thats what the role demanded.... so think its a fair job done. His girlfriend Tara sharma is cute, but she better start having someone dub her voice..... i think her nasal twang would put Himesh Reshammiya saab to shame. Ranvir sheorey is the comic element, and the guy is really funny..... Vinay pathak, in a more restrained role, and Navin nischol play their part, so does 1 more TV actor whose name I dont think i know.. so will let it be. Boman Irani as the real estate tycoon is intimidating on the screen, and you cant help but admire his screen presence, while in the same breath you would tend to despise him for bringing the feeling of being evil into his character.
All in all, the movie rocks, and i have watched the movie twice already and both times i enjoyed it(wisecracks, i understood it the 1st time.. the 2nd time was from the pure fun part of it..:)).

More of Dor

Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling, Teen Deewarein, Iqbal. All movies directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. But, if you didnt know that bit of trivia, guess that guessing that fact would be really an achievement. Coz none of his movies seem to repeat a storyline.... they are all radically different from each other as chalk and cheese. If Hyderabad Blues was a story of an NRI dealing with family pressure to marry, and Bollywood Calling was an attempted spoof on the working of Bollywood, Teen Deewarein was an unique twist-in-the-tale story of 3 men serving time for a murder, and Iqbal was a deaf-mute guy fight to win against the odds. However inspite of the difference in storylines, there are lot of similarities you could look out for.... for starters Nagesh kukunoor has acted in all of them in a small part or large in all of them (except Iqbal , me would think)... secondly,none of the character seem larger than life (except Bollywood calling, but the subjectline demanded it) , conversations are slow but measured and relevant (except Bollywood calling again), characters are well defined, and humour is mostly situational , rather than contrived.
Dor follows that pattern.... it is different from his other movies from a story point of view, yet the characters and story flow has been well etched out, like his previous films (and yes, Nagesh Kukunoor plays a small role here too). Dor symbolises a relationship (atleast thats what my intellect allowed me to interpret) , and its all about 2 women - in different parts of the country- in love with their husbands (respective husbands I must add - it pays to be specific in this kalyug), and how fate contrives one of the husbands to be held responsible for the other husbands death, and how the very fate makes 1 of the women to make an attempt to meet the other woman to help her save her husband from the gallows for the crime. Dor portrays Ayesha Takia as a Rajasthani young girl married into a typically conservative Rajasthani family. Gul panag plays the independent Himachal ki ladki. Both the girls, hardly know for their acting skills per se, have done a commendable job. Probably, Nagesh Kukunoor had a fair bit to extract good performances out of them.... Shreyash Talpade, who had his mouth shut throughtout Iqbal, has finally a chance to show his dialogue delivery skills. And to be frank, didnt expect him to come up with anything special...but he does a good job allright ....with surprisingly being the funny element in the movie. Humour, whenever it makes an appearance, is pretty subtle most of the times, and with Shreyas Talpade mimicking celebrities in the movie (duno whether thats him or a dubber for him) , the laughter aspect is well presented. However, the movie moves at a leisurely pace, and so dont expect a fast paced laugh riot neither expect an out and out tear jerker. Here's a movie that looks at a womans position in a conservative society, displays the emotional quotient of a wifes love for her husband, without being overtly emotional. This is not Karan Johar zone thankfully.
Background music, along with 1 song (I dont recollect the song name) is played repeatedly in the movie, and i liked it immensely. And watch out for the Kajra Re song ....in this movie...its gooood.
Overall opinion is thumbs up, even though its not quite in the league of Iqbal. But then if i compared most good movies to Iqbal, i might have so start using thumbs down too often. My say - go and watch it.