Winged Migration

Breathtakingly Beautiful - Winged Migration is a documentary on migratory birds - 5 film crews follow these migratory birds thru 40 countries and come with this visual treat.
Absolutely amazing.

Veer Zaara - A love legend

"Mohabbat mauka dekhke nahin hota", for me this sums up Veer Zaara, the Chopra's take on recreatng an eternal love story, VZ is he story of Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian Air Wing commander( played by Shahrukh Khan ) and Zaara Hayat Khan, a rich pakistani heer ( played by Priety Zinta ), their love & sacrifice, and a debutant attorney Samiya's ( played by Rani Mukherjee ) fight to give back Veer's his name/honor and his country along with his lost love.

Romance & Love are Chopra's forte and they rule this domain,Yash and Aditya chopra are a lethal combination and Veer Zaara shows that loud and clear. Beautiful dialogues, restrained performances,excellent work by Divya Dutta, Kiron Kher, AB and Hema Malini, slick graphics, pleasant cinematography, well written characters, strong script,Madan Mohan's classic tunes and superb direction, Veer Zaara is a 3 hour of pleasant cinema.

One Observation,Shahrukh and Priety were made to look at their 70's after 22 years of separation, and somehow you wonder what their age was when it all started.
All in all, Veer Zaara is another great love product from the romantic Yashraj banner and definitely worth a watch.

Kisna - The Warrior Poet

A Question for you Mr.Ghai, what's a warrior poet? Neither I saw a poet in Kisna nor any relevance. Kisna fails to deliver the goods. A Blockbuster does not guarantee a success on inspirations, Kisna's prequel as I would like to call them ( You will see spurts of Lagaan, Devdas , Braveheart, Titanic .....)were either first's or a production par excellence, take Lagaan for example, it's a first of its kind movie making,cinema par excellence, barring its length."Kisna" unfortunately is devoid of creativity and serves as a mere remind of those epics.


Kisna has its moments of glory as well, it is visually stimulating, thanks to Ashok Mehta's eye for beauty. Antonia Bernatt as Katherine is brilliant and Darbar's score specially "Chilman uthegi nahin" is a treat. The music has a heavy Ghai stamp otherwise & neither Vivek nor any other in the cast is noteworthy of a mention, Isha Sharvani and her character, looks to be an INSERT in the movie, her acrobatics needs another platform for a showcase, her portrayal like her rope tricks is a waste and bear no relavance to situations, emotions and the movie in total.

I am still haunted by "Yaadein" of Mr.Ghai's last production ironically by the same name "Yaadein", and "Kisna" proved that Mr.Ghai needs a makeover. Mukta Arts will probably have better investor confidence without Ghai at the hot seat, his earlier non-directorial & non -interferal productions ( Joggers Park & Aitraaz) have either received critical acclaim or Box office returns and proves a point. He's lost it.

Kisna has nothing new to offer, you will need the much needed remote, so watch it at leisure.

Swadesh

Ashutosh Gowarikar has matured with his movies, I remember watching his debut effort "Pehla Nasha" and the very forgettable "Baazi". It wasn't extraordinary or worth a mention till "Lagaan" happened. Aamir had a inkling he would make it big, gave him the reins of his first home production, rest we all know.

Swadesh had to go beyond Lagaan, way too much expectation post Lagaan success and that's where it got beaten up. Swadesh has a touch docu film style, slow paced yet hooks you to its simplistic presentation.Its also a first in many years,when Shahrukh's charisma failed to draw crowds to the theater's, its sad coz, for a change he did a very "real" role, minus "shahrukhism" & his instant teary eyes. Viewers couldn't accept him without the Chopras, Johars, Malhotras and Mirjas.

Swadesh talks of reverse brain drain and may make you nostalgic, more so if you are abroad, Swadesh has a refreshing Shahrukh, a simple story, a beautiful Gayatri Joshi, his repeat cast of selected lagaan actors , and few very good numbers by Rahman, specially the theme song.

Swadesh lacked pace, a well weaved script,cinematography and the punch. You would need the remote, so I would recommend the DVD strongly.

Open Water

I thought this movie is amazing for a husband & wife team to pull it off, Open Water is a true story of a couple that got stranded in the middle of an ocean because of a scuba tour operator's mistake.

Its an inde movie which was shortisted by Lions Gate at the Sundance festival for a nationwide release as it had a strong commercialisation potential.

What bowled me, was finding that a hubby & wife team shot this movie in entireity with their own funds during vacation and weekends.

Open Water deserves a watch, I thnk its a genuine production and showcases a tragic tale of a couple that became shark baits for no fault of theirs.

Grab it!

Kumar and Harold goes to white castle

What a waste of time & money, I wished I used my free coupon somewhere else, Felt like checking Kal Pen, the indo guy - had liked his earlier performance in American Desi. This one has nuthing to offer except few fem farts.

Trash it!

Page 3

I liked Madhur Bhandarkar's previous attempts (barring one ) , his movies are mostly spoof's of real life incidences, he uses sarcasm just about correctly to showcase his views which tends to strike a chord with the masses. Chandni Bar and Satta broke the "box office" mentality and gave the cinegoers with sensible, true to life work and in a way challenged classes/masses to come out thinking of the theatres. Altough, Aan was close to a disaster, I think Madhur knew Page3 would bring him back to where he left with Chandni Bar.

Page3 is a two hour of good cinema, Its a work of art that has a strong commercialisation potential, a fine balance we hardly see nowadays. Page 3 has an ensemble of a actors and everyone seems to make their impact on the movie.The main film protaginists, Konkona Sen and Sandya Mridul does justice to their roles,Atul Kulkarni always does a good job- somehow I felt this was one of his forgettable roles. Page 3 depicts the harsh behind the glamor world, the pseudo and phoney starry lives, the elite paedophiles, the bomgay lives - Page 3 in short is a journalist's journey of life,love, betrayal thru her experience at work.
Finally, Its ironical for the same Madhur to be in middle of a Rape scandal, I guess he needs to look at his own movies for self education.
He sure scores with Page3.

Grab it if you are in the mood to spend a good evening.

Elling

my visits to blockbuster has at least one round of the foreign section, I wish they had a better collection, anyways I happened to treat myself this weekend with a Norweigian movie which happened to be nominated for the best foreign language film at the ACADEMY AWARDS.
Its a movie about two roomates ( Elling & Kjell Barne ) recently released from Mental insitution and their time with life after. A triumph of human spirit, a creative capture of innocence and a true narration of what I call cinema.

Grab it! if you want to watch good cinema.

fry day

Stars are created/cremated on this day, for many, its a day to unwind,for Stars & wannabe stars - its showtime. If I manage to squeeze time, its 'the' day I use my self proclaimed "critique" status and use my limited/unlimited gyan to disect a group effort of skilled craftsmen and their gamble on a story they felt could entertain us. Friday - (read Fry-day ) is the make/break day for these craftsmen, the stars, gamblers under the guise of a production team. Its the day they dread the most, its the day cine goers will either love or loathe their product.

Movie making isn't a lemonade,behind the glamor of the Posters that adorn billboards lie broken marriages, insomniacs, bankrupt production houses, star tantrums, sweat and determination of a creative unit.

There's a pool of talent in the nation, still we are left to watch and critique sub standards productions. I wish they could say TGIFriday, then having to wait anxiously to get fried on that day.