An adda to vomit my thoughts

Heroes

2007-09-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!!

2007-06-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Lage Raho Mamu

2006-09-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

The 1st chapter trailed a blaze in beginning 2004. I missed most of the blaze because I was not around in good old mumbai, when the movie started making its presence felt. I think I ended up watching the movie on my laptop, courtesy a rented DVD borrowed from a Pakistani store on a very gloomy Saturday afternoon in a very lazy city called Duesseldorf in Germany. The movie did well to lift my gloomy spirits, and I found it genuinely funny in patches thanks to Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani combo. But, overall the movie by itself, didnt appeal to me and it was still a 1 time watch for me.
This time around I am lucky enough to be around when the movie released...and I got to watch the movie in a theatre on the 2nd day 1st show. And this time around... i liked the package better, apart from the superb comic timings displayed by Warsi primarily and Sanjay Dutt. The movie simply rocks .. this is no sequel to Munnabhai MBBS. Only the characters of Murali Prasad Sharma (Munnabhai) and Sarkeshwar(aka circuit) are carried over, rest of the
characters are all new entities. Dr. Asthana is replaced by Lucky Singh, a sardar builder...thats Boman Irani for you. Also, the laughter therapy is gone out of the window....and he does not share that much screen footage as he did in the MBBS story. Vidya Balan plays the role of a RJ (radio jockeyfor those who share an intelligence level on par with me) and is pretty
comptetent in handling herself. Munnaabhai is the good hearted bhai who wants
to win over the lovely RJ , and the movie is all about his efforts to win her over with .. surprise, surprise.. Gandhiji's help. The gandhi idea is blended well into the movie, and at very little stages does it sound overly didactic or preachy. If the movie can make u pull ur stomach muscles while laughing, maybe it can also have an effect of touching an emotional chord here and there. Most of the stomach muscle pulling related injuries can be attributed to Warsi, and his excellent sense of timing in the comic department. And Sanjay dutt does well in both the comic and emotional content department.
Wouldnt really comment on the music since its hardly the focus of the movie.
Overall, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have yet another winner that they have served out to the public.All I can say is.. lage raho Hirani and Chopra.
Watch it and chances are really good that u will like "Gandhigiri" served out to you.....

Are you THE MAN....?

2006-08-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes watching movies on flights can be advantageous .. u end up watching watchable movies that you would normally give miss on your local theatre just because you did not hear much in the media. And then these movies fade way into oblivion....
Was fortunate to get onto 'The Man' on a flight earlier this year.... and kinda liked it, coz it was funny and i was not expecting much from the movie anyways. But since flight movies are cut left right and center to fit in with their movie schedules, decided to watch it up on the big screen and solve some missing links. The basic premise of the movie revolves around Eugene Levy (some may recollect him as the father of Jason Biggs- the fatso- in American Pie) landing up in Wisconsin for some sales conference, and gets unwittingly involved in helping up in the bustup of a gun-stealing mob by a very truant cop, Samuel L Jackson (in a new hairdo). The movie is fast paced and funny, and keeps you reasonable interested...no great movie this, but entirely watchable once (ok..ok.. i have watched it twice already) There are some hilarious moments between eugene levy and samuel jackson , and some loud humour too (especially the farting bit).. all in all the humour is just about passable, and as i said watchable too.
So watch it is the verdict, before it fades away into oblivion.

Slowly , slowly

2006-08-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Have u ever wondered that you have seen great movies but never been able to relate the title back to the theme of the movie. Such instances would be few , because all producers would be more keen to ensure that the title reflects the summary of the movie as far as possible. After all, the title is the brand ambassador for the movie...A "Rang De Basanti" would instantly
give a summary of a film set against a patriotic background. "Yuva" signifies the film is about youth and their movements, "Lakshya" speaks about the goal set ."Darr" signifies the fear element created by the anti-hero and so on.
"Ahista , Ahista " tries to follow the lead of these good if not great films. The movie really lives upto its name.....it moves as slow as a tortoise.... (on second thoughts , this seems like a personal affront to the speed of the tortoise , and i apologise to maneka Gandhi or any animal activist reading this blog.) What the director/producer failed to provided (post their stupendous achievement of matching the pace of the movie with the title) is something like a credible and interesting storyline. Even if you forgive them for not coming up with a storyline, the director could have compensated the lack of the same by infusing some real chemistry between the lead pair. And that seems non-existent. Though Abhay deol does come up with
an earnest performance with the limited flexibility he has , Soha Ali Khan looks lost in the movie. And Shyaan Munshi looks as if he has still the Jesicca Lal case on his mind.... he looks all out in the sea. Dialogues are dull and uninspired, and at some point of times non-existent...and even if they come ahista ahista.Supporting actors are dull and dreary. To add to
the slow pace, is Himesh Chammiyas music......that was just about the last straw i needed to walk out ahista ahista out of the multiplex. But I held onto the end, and lived to see that happen.

P.S. I convinced a friend to watch Ahista AHista, when the person was thinking of KANK. But couldnt help think, that KANK couldnt be much more worse than this movie... suddenly i feel i have it in me to watch KANK.. just to compare which one of the torture is more bearable. Dont rule out a review of KANK soon i.e if i dont become shaheed in this process of comparison.

Hail Vishal

2006-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

I normally catch up movies the week they are released ..but been extremely lazy past couple of weeks, and probably too lazy to go flat out to book tickets. Rather, I prefer to wait till the clamour for the movie has died down... and then i can book aaraam se.
Omkara was a much awaited movie for me, especially since I had seen Vishal's Makdee as well as Maqbool, and was pretty much in admiration for Vishal direction in getting out good performances from his actors as well as involving the audience spellbound with his narration and depiction of events.If Makdee and Maqbool were good movies, then Omkara goes even several rungs highers. I have not read Othello nor have i seen screen adaptations of the same...but I am pretty much sure that if Shakespeare was alive and kicking , and he knew a little bit of Hindi , then he might be definitely impressed with what Vishal has to offer to the world. For starters, the casting is superb ..with actors like Ajay Devgan, Saif, Naseruddin Shah,Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sen and others...you can rest be assured about performances, with Vishal wielding the megaphone. Secondly, the story might be an adaptation of Shakespeare, and in essence revolves around the basic plot of jealousy and deceit. But , to depict it on the screen is a different skillset, and to involve the audience in the process requires a fine balancing act between doing it right and overdoing it. Magically, Vishal manages to do just that. The characters of most esp Langda Tyagi(Saif) and Omkara (Devgan) is well sketched out...but characters like that of Keshu(Oberoi) and Tiwari (Naseeruddin Shah) are not much focussed on.. but then the great Shah's role is not central to the basic premise of the plot. Ajay devgan is the usual brooding self, and is shown to be a man of great control and restraint, but
then his insecurities are exploited by Saif ali khan, who does justice to the great character provided to him.Konkona sen is the surprise package, and does good even with the comparitively teeny role given to her. Kareena kapoor is good, and Vivek oberoi just passes muster. Overall , everybody seem to be doing their bit to make the movie look realistic. Dialogues written by the great all rounder Vishal Bharadwaj, smack of a distinctive UP-ish rural
dialect, and though some of the dialogues are offensive and brutal, you cant but help but chuckle. Music by again Vishal is restricted to 2-3 songs , but they do pass the muster.
Building up the jealousy factor was key to the storyline, and the director does it well (though Saifs evil strategies seem to be all going suspiciously all too well fo you to be entirely convinced), and ends it up well.
All in all, a movie that i will watch again....but a movie to avoid if you hate violence and abusive talk.

Up in the Clouds

2006-08-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

Its always been a childhood fantasy for me to be among the clouds... I think that fantasy was more powered by the fact that somehow the clouds would remind me of the pinkish looking cotton candy that some vendor would sell outside of our school, and i never could get to taste them, and i always thought the clouds would be exactly like them.
However time goes by, and most people mature naturally...guess that process never happened with me. Of course, i matured enough to realise what the clouds were really made up of... (thanks to the mindless education i received from my science and geography teachers) ... but the feeling to be among the clouds still persisted. And that fantasy is what we all set to look to turn into reality.... and thats what probably led me to agree on Malshej being the place to go for the weekend, the place where clouds mingle with us mere mortals. Have been hearing that Malshej is the place to go during monsoons, and looks like people may not have been way off the mark.

Its a nice Saturday afternoon and as per our unplanned plans - we are 6 of us and 3 bikes(a CBZ(mine), a pulsar 180 and a splendor ) - yo it was to be a bike journey all the way- we were supposed to leave latest by 2 pm onto our destination with just a Outlook weekend traveller handbook for guidance and no reservations for accomodations. Inspite of the utter disarray of our travel iterinary, the guys were cool and landed up at the usual expected 3 pm. Rakesh Shetty, Arvind Shetty and Deepak Rao (fellow Tulu guys) and Tapan (gujju seth) were the partners in crime conspiring not be in time, and then we had to halt at Thane to pick up another guy I had never met...Hilary Lasrado. And Hilary is a guy...contrary to the name sounding like the wife of a famous ex-US president(who became known for his other life than his presidential actions).And Hilary, who turned out to be Tulu speaking as well turned out to be a saviour in disguise...coz he seemed to know the road to malshej from the back of his hand. Th outlook book was keen on sending us in a longer circuitous route.... and Hilary guided right all along way to the straigher route. Initial roads out of thane were bad with major traffic, but slowly the roads opened out, and so did the engines and their horsepower...and we were off flying.. but making the occassional stop to let Deepaks splendor catch up with us. I could see that my bike was enjoying it... it was purring so smoothly. Inspite of all that huffing and puffing, by the time, the ghats came up ...it was dark and wet and soggy and foggy...all thanks to my much fantasised clouds... u couldnt even see 5 meters ahead and with Deepaks splendor not having any headlight...biking then soon became a real challenge.
And just when things looked lost..out of the blue, came this guy in a maruti who thought we were being too sissy ,and overtook us to lead the way.And that turned out to be the best thing for us...coz his headlights were much brighter... and the guy pretty much realised his folly some seconds later. After a couple of near misses with the cliff edge, he had taken us across to the ghats safely.
As usual we didnt book our accomodation... as a result we still had the added chore of findinga place to stay. In the fog, we missed the MTDC resort(we realised it the next morning) which boasts of a great view but pathetic service, and instead landed up at Sushant resort, and fixed up a small cottage with attached toilet for 1200 bucks with additional mattresses thrown in. The toll of travelling 150 kms showed, and sleep was soon the preferred activity post dinner.

Next morning, after a lovely breakfast, we were out on the road again on the way back... and the fog was still at its peak with intermittent rain.We couldnt see anything for some metres and had to lumber down the road at not more than 20 km/hr, wit the headlights on as a warning for any incoming vehicles. And soon we came across the waterfalls, one of the prime reason for
visiting Malshej. And to tell the truth... i really dont think the waterfalls are any better than else where... so kind of disappointed with the hype surrounding the same. So a quick dip under the waterfall and we are back on the road again.... and down the ghats.
And this time we realised how much of stuff we had missed in the dark.... the ride and the view from the top was simply amazing....we switched the engine off and started our descent.... and the scenery down below in the valley is undescribable (if there is a word like that), so is the view of the clouds against the peaks. Simply supra....The ride down was easy, and better since
we could see and avoid the potholes now, and also could stop at vantage points where some Kodak moments could be captured.

Journey post climbing down the ghats was a pure bikers pleasure...reasonable roads, no vehicles in sight and a strong desire to crank the engine to the hilt. So off we went at 80-100 km/hr on those roads with the wind in our face.And need less to say journey time on the way back drastically reduced, and we were flying back. The funny part was that we must have encountered intermittent rain now and then..atleast 8 times. And everytime we got wet,
because of the speed we were travelling, we got dried up in 10 odd mins, only for another bout of rain to start again and get us wet. And the raindrops at that speed felt like needles poking at us...but it was fun neverthless.
A long lunch at one of the resorts, and then we were ready to head back and we were in Mumbai in good time.Surprisingly the strain of having travelled 300 km in 26 hrs didnt show on me....neither physically nor mentally...whereas my co-members seem drained out. Looks like finally my gym work is paying off.... :)
Next trip should also be pretty soon.... so keep watching this space.

2006-07-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

A Tale of 2 Chaddi Wearing Guys

2 movies in a weeks span time- related to superheroes-
getting released in India is pretty much of a rare
occurrence. And me who is not a caper movie fan
managing to catch both of them is indeed more rare.

1st to hit my eyeballs was the Bollywood extravaganza
called Krishhhh (not sure of the number of h's in the
name)- produced and directed by 1 of the most savvy
film makers in Bollywood. Well , actually more than a
film-maker, would like to think that Rakesh Roshan is
marketer and brand manager par-excellence. And the
winning product for him has been his son. You
witnessed that in 'Kaho Na pyaar Hai' and you
witnessed that again in 'Koi mil Gaya', and now you
witness that again in 'Krishhhhh' (again apologise
for the number of h's here, in case incorrect).
If I just talk about the story of the movie, I would
literally put you guys to sleep.... and thats if I
managed to find the story line somehwere. But, if I
talked about the lead actor..... there definitely much
more substance to talk about. For starters, if anybody
in Bollywood can play the role of a superhero.. it has
to be Hrithik. With all that bulging biceps and
torso, the superhero tags rests lightly on his
shoulders. Secondly, the dad has properly packaged the
story to focus on his strengths to the hilt. All the
rest of the characters seem just trivial to the plot
and screenplay.
And surprisingly (and pleasantly I must say), the
humour in the 1st half of the movie was certainly
sharp and well played out ..(as opposed to the limp
set of specialist comedy movies that are hitting the
screens regularly).
And the special effects were passable....

. atleast
they didnt look out of place , like some Bollywoood
movies i have seen in the past.
Priyanka chopra is the cutey as ever......and
Naseruddinn shah seems to be given a role in which his
acting skills are never tested(so u cudnt help but
feel disappointed for his role in the movie)
Others are just incidental to the movie the
plot....while Krishh the superhero towers above the
rest.
All in all, a decent movie to watch , in my opinion,
if you would ignore the non-existent story line.

As far as the red undy guy's movie is concerned, I
have been a great fan of the man since i have started
understanding the Queen's language, and have been a an
even greater fan of Bryan Singer (the guy who directed
Usual Suspects- one of the better movies made on this
planet). That combination made plenty of sense to go
and watch it on the dome...on an Imax print.... my
1st movie on the dome screen had to be an awesome
experience ...and trust me, it was an awesome
experience falling asleep in the comfort of the dome
with my feet stretched on the nearby railing. Thats
precisely what the movie help me achieve.... for
starters the nararation was damn slow for a caper
movie, secondly the story was all about Superman's
feelings for his bachpan ki girl...who now seemed to
be content with another guy. Dont get me wrong here..i
dont abhor romantic movies per se.... but when you are
given Superman, all you can think is him thinking
about curing all the evil in the world...rather than
trying to find a way to mend his heart.
So all in all, I would definitely recoomend the movie
to thiose amnesiacs who have tried every tarqeeb in
the book to catch some shut-eye.. but have failed.
'Superman Returns' might be just the tonic you were
looking at....

2006-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Phir Hera Pheri ho gaya

The Mumbai-Pune expressway is the best thing that could have happened to the junta that shuttled between the 2 frequently. And even better is the upsurge of many private and public bus travel companies that promise a relaxed and comfortable journey all the way. And most of them do deliver...except for a very sore point... video on the coaches.
Now, I do like the concept of watching the movies on the go....but what i like even better is if I could choose whether i want to watch the video or not.... and forget watching, whether i want to listen to the movie track or not. Unfortunately, the bus travel industry has yet to cater to that requirement, and as a result, the unfortunate me still has to go through the ignominy of hearing silently and watching movies that would make their blood boil.
One such movie that I had to suffer through was "Phir Hera Pheri'. Obviously, the movie would always be compared to the original(which was a total laugh riot), and hence expectations would always be high, and sometimes high expectations would lead to a very average film being decried as a very below par one. But i started watching Phir Hera Pheri with very low expectations,(in fact was not too keen to watch the movie at all...coz maybe i was already disappointed with recent Priyadarshan kind of comedies) and the movie yet went going downhill from shot 1.
Neeraj Vohra seems to be emulating the recent form of his guru Priyadarshan in delivering loud humour in a poorly scripted and edited movie effort. The movie tries to start off where the original version left off.... and immediately goes of the rail. Craziness that was an essential part of the original version and was hilarious coz it was logically linked to a certain extent, goes on a mindless trail and results in a really heavy head. And then when the script writer ran out of ideas, all they did i guess was borrow the DVD of 'Lock Stock and 2 smoking Barrels' from the nearyby DVD store, and simply decide to weave the entire plot around it.
Not only did the they lift the idea , but most of the scenes are frame to frame copy. Suddenly, Sanjay gupta has got rivals to the title of DVD director in Bollywood.
But, if you wanted to really laugh, then forget the poorly scripted and handled version of the Lock, Stock Plot, go and watch the original....if u can handle, dry, saracastic humour, u will not be able to handle ur stomach from splitting with laughter. With the bollywood version, its the head that will take up the splitting burden.
As far as the acting is concerned...
If Paresh rawal was at his timimg best in Hera Pheri, he looks like a drag in this version. I didnt find baburao at all funny in this version. But maybe, the scriptwriter didnt give him enough funny lines....and thought Paresh Rawal could still do wonder with mediocre lines. And ,still dont know how people cast sunil shetty as an actor...forget casting him in a comic role. So the less said on him, the better.The only bright spot is Akshay Kumar, i guess, with his sense of timing ....but then thats about it. The 2 glamour dolls in the movie....the liberated women of the millenium do nothing but add the required female presence. Rajpal Yadav, Sharat Saxena and Rajpal Yadav try to be funny...but I was not laughing. Maybe the definition of humour needs to be explained to Neeraj Vohra and his cast.
All in All, Lavin advises to give a movie a miss...you are not losing anything at all. Better, invest the money in watching 'Hera Pheri' or 'Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrels'. That would be money well spent.

2006-06-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

I am back again this time of the year to save you a
ton of money....
Money that can be better used to feed the poor in teh
country (I am poor allright)
Money that can be better invested for a rainy day
(invest on me and u will get good returns...sometime
in ur life)
Money that can be used to buying a asset (I am an
asset all right)
Money that could contribute to our economy, and not
teh american one (I am very much a part of the Indian
economy)

Ok..ok will stop about the resource depoyment
alternatives, and get back to the main point in
question... saving the money thingy.

And heres how it goes:
Dont even for a moments sake.....think or make the
effort of thinking of spending ur money on a Mission
Impossible movie (a.k.a MI3) ..... and if u do so, you
would go through the same mixed emotion of humour (coz
the movie was unintentionally hilarious) and agony
(coz there is a point beyond which unintentional
humour starts jarring on ur pysche) that i did....and
especially when i have paid a more than normal rate to
go and see a special premiere show.
I can see a progressive decline in MI movies...the 1st
one was best of the lot (though must admit , I had to
watch it twice to understand it 8-9 yrs back)...
the 2nd one was a pure Hindi movie...but atleast it
had good stunts.....with the cool bikey thingy in the
end.
The 3rd one....has denigrated to an abysmal
level...esp about something called a rabbit
foot...imagine going through an entire movie trying to
get something that looked like a flask containing
tea....and then they dont even expalin whats it all
about. If I thought Fanaa's concept of a bomb trigger
was childish, MI3's concept of rabit foot was
infantile (if there is ever such a word ).

Lavin says keep ur money in ur pocket, or refer back
to the alternatives provided at the beginning of the
mail to spend it better. Either ways u wont regret it.

2006-05-31T04:30:00.000-07:00

Any aaamir khan movie cannot escape headlines....and especially in wake of his urban hit called RDB, and the contrversy created on his Narmada dam comments and subsequent ban on showing his movie in Gujarat.And with Yashraj films hitting a roadblock with multiplexes on sharing profits, things didnt look actually rosy for Fanaa. Thats the backdrop that Fanaa was released....Getting to the content of the movie..... the movie does start off really well. I thought the initial screen meeting of AK and Kajol was very well handled..... and as usual the 2 people handle their> characters well. The humour in the initial scenes is sharp and laughable in the positive sense.... Aamir khaan is is his usual in the face character, and Kajol is the nice Kuch kuch hota hai kind of character( the 2nd part of that Karan Johar film i.e). The movie does extremely well in the 1st part, and thought Kunal Kohli had done a good job of handling the movie and giving it his personal and independent touch.... And then the 2nd part belied all such hopes...it turned out to be 1 hell of a James bond meets karan johar kind of movie. The usual karan johar mushy moments and the melodrama is seen to be believed, even though the lead actors come unscathed. The whole convoluted part about the interbnational terrorist and corny attempts to steal a nuclear device is really childish to say the least....and i never figure dout what Tabu was doing in the movie. But, then overall, the chemistry between Aamir and Kajol is worth a watch, and a reasonto go and watch the movie. Lavin says go and enjoy the 1st half, and bear and grim through the 2nd half. U might just like it.

2006-03-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Back to Mumbai...and back to the movie watching spree again.And this time 2 back-2-back movies.Movie 1 is the bollywood product-in-English offering called 'Being Cyrus'.Being Cyrus is more in the nature of I-dont-know-whether-this-movie-is-going-anywhere, until you reach the end. It has a reasonably big star cast for a not-so-typical Bollywood movie, but no great performances to boot about.Saif Ali khan to start with....no great shakes, strictly ok and restrained as the role might have demanded... Naseruddin Shah is completely wasted (all puns intended...he is shown as a pot-smoking guy with no care in the world) in the movie....Dimple Kapadialooks ravishing for her age, and is marginally better than ok for her role as a scheming seductress..boman irani doesnt exactly steal the show but probably is still better than others...All in all, would recommend it as a strictly 1 time-watch...if not for the mediocre performances, atleast for the fact that its a little less run-of-the-mill.
Movie 2 is the hollywood offering...'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'. ...which was in the nominations for Oscars a good 1 year back. And i used to think,atleats in Mumbai, we used to get Hollywood movies atleast with only a slight delay, if not at par with the rest of the world.But, I can tell you , its been worth the wait.....The movie deals with the a very weird concept of it being possible to erase a person from ones memory permanently through a medical procedure . And to deal with a storyline as crazy as that, and still come out with a movie that makes u laugh and also to touch achord here and there is absolutely fantastic..and hats-off to the director. The pace of narration is very frenetic at times, and the story does move between thepast and current very rapidly,and sometimes it does becomes a tad bit difficult to hold a grip on the current.....but still its been handled well. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are good....and so it makes for a very nice package to watch out for.....highly recommended by me.
Note: Planning to watch Crash/BrokebackMountain/Syriana ..so do expect some more reviews in the future....u cant escape it.