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..:)).