Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category
Sarkar Raj - Taut, but does not rise to be a great movie
On August 19, 2008 in Drama, Crime, Politics, Bollywood, Movie
Sarkar Raj was a move that was awaited for quite some time; it came after a few clunkers for The Factory of Ram Gopal Verma such as ‘Aag’, ‘Darling’, etc. Memories of his earlier movies such as Satya, Company, Rangeela, and Sarkar (for which Sarkar Raj is the sequel) were fading out due to these recent disastrous movies that he made. All his admissions that the movies were bad, mistakes were made, etc, don’t really help in lifting his reputation. So, this movie was awaited for multiple reasons:
- This movie showcased the Bachchan clan; Amitabh, Abhishek, and Aishwarya (not Jaya though)
- It was supposed to have the same kind of suspense, the taut and slick making that was there in the original movie Sarkar (made in 2005)
Kasam Seh - strange happenings
On August 12, 2008 in Values, Drama, Zee, Family, TV, Crime, Hindi Serial
Most Hindi serials use 2-3 tactics to get rid of their top stars, or to spice up the show. So, the serial could either get characters to do a plastic surgery so that their face is completely changed (helpful when you want to get a new actor in), or they get a good person to suddenly become bad (helpful to give a twist to the story), or they make time fly past and bring in a change of 15-20 years (people change, but otherwise, the house, the cars, everything else looks exactly the same). All of these strategies have been employed in this popular serial from Zee.
Appearing weekdays at 9 PM, the serial tells the story of 3 sisters, Bani, Piya, and Rano; The story though primarily is that of Bani and her life. After the departure of Prachi from the lead role, the serial had to bring in a new face for the lead role of Bani. And so they bring in the plastic surgery for the new face, and give her the name of Pronita. She is out to take revenge against Meera (initially shown to be good, then turned into evil). Meera has ruined the lives of all of Bani’s children, and Pronita has to also try and help them out.
So, Pronita gets married to Mr. Walia (why he divorces Meera was not clear), and then has to face a lot of resistance from the other family members including her own kids. And who supports her ? Her old enemy - Jigyasa (very surprising). Right now Meera has got Krishan arrested for drugs smuggling, and Pronita was unable to prevent it.
Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki - the murder mystery
On July 16, 2008 in Values, Drama, Star Plus, Revenge, Character, Family, TV, Detective, Crime, Hindi Serial
Balaji serials have the unique ability to spin a murder mystery into a long and complicated hunt with one common characteristic - at one point, all the characters have become suspected of the murder before they are one after the other proved innocent. And so it is starting to happen in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. Consider the scenario.
The wayward daughter of the house, Tanu, becomes more and more rebellious, and soon after the real life case of the Arushi murder case, the serial starts advertising her death in a similar manner. After much public criticism, the serial denied that it wanted to cash in on the Arushi murder case.
However, soon after, Tanu starts becoming even more confrontational, not caring about whom she is speaking to. She even starts learning secrets of the others in the family and threatening them with their secrets. Soon after that, she is found murdered, poisoned by a chemical. Her friend was suspected of the murder, but soon after that, her friend is also found murdered. And Om Agarwal is suspected of the murder on the basis of some evidence (the evidence seems to be incredibly light, and seemingly with no actual proof).
Patthar Ke Phool (1991)
On July 04, 2008 in Mafia, Song, Video, Police, Crime, Bollywood, Romance, Action, Movie
Patthar Ke Phool was a movie released in 1991. It was the debut movie of Raveena Tandon and one of the earlier movies of Salman Khan; and unlike some of Salman’s earlier movies, this was not exactly a hit. Some of the other characters in the movie were Vinod Mehra, Kiran Kumar, Reema Lagoo and Manohar Singh. Vinod Mehra passed away before the movie could be released, and the movie was dedicated to his memory. The movie was directed by Anant Balani and produced by GP Sippy. Music for the movie was by Ramlaxman, and the movie was written by Salim Khan.
The movie was about this young police officer fighting an underworld gang. He is also in love with Kiran (Raveena Tandon) who is actually the daughter of the leader of the gang, and about whose real activities she is unaware.
Raveena won the Filmfare Lux New Face Award for this movie.
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So what happens when the duty of Suraj (Salman Khan) leads him to fight against the activities of his beloved’s father ? Her father is also against this relationship, and the movie is about this conflict.
Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyaan - The end of Bhavishya ?
On June 10, 2008 in Star Plus, Revenge, Video, Drama, Character, TV, Crime, Family, Hindi Serial
Many months ago, Saraswati was shown as having got married to Bhavishya, the worst time of her life. He caused immense torture to her, and then tried to burn her. She finally got out this problem, and Bhavishya was diagnosed as being mentally ill and sent to a mental hospital.
And then the rule of the doubles came in; Durga met a young man who looked exactly like Bhavishya. The family was very suspicious of this new person, but slowly everybody (and hesitantly Sawaswati) got over the whole worry and accepted him. He married Durga, and things seemed to be fine. He was actually genuine, and then Bhavishya, having got out of the hospital in some way, kidnapped this guy and took his place. And then he started plotting again.
He started drugging Durga, and had more plans to cause problems to the rest of the family. He also caused immense tensions between Durga and Saraswati, and eventually for Saraswati to be declared as mad and sent off to a hospital. But now his game seemed to be up; both Karan and Lakshmi realized his truth and plotted as to how to expose him. And eventually, the sisters and Savitri cornered him, and burned him to death (not good, you should never show using murder for any kind of revenge; it is illegal and gives essentially wrong advice to people).
Jannat (2008) - Disappointing story of a match fixer
On June 08, 2008 in Drama, Video, Cricket, Values, Police, Bollywood, Despair, Crime, Movie
Mahesh Bhatt has been making movies for a long time, and they have been very good movies. So, for example, I really liked some of his older movies such as Arth, Saransh, Janam, Naam, Murder, Woh Lamhe, Daddy, Ashiqui, Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahin, Sadak, Sir, Tamana, etc. He has also turned out turkeys such as Duplicate. In recent time, Bhatt has moved out of the director post and is partner in the banner Vishesh films (along with his brother) that produces movies. It is expected that movies made in the banner retain the touch of Mahesh Bhatt to some degree, with a strong focus on human relations, relationships whether they be a marriage, or outside marriage. However, Jannat disappointed. The story of a person who wants to attain success, and a great deal of it (portrayed by Emran Hashemi); he does not seem to know the difference between right and wrong.
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Tum Bin (2001)
On June 08, 2008 in Song, Melody, Drama, Video, Values, Character, Bollywood, Classic, Romance, Crime, Movie
Tum Bin was a movie that was released in 2001, and was a pretty low budget and low profile movie. It turned out to be the sleeper movie, becoming a much loved movie by the audience and a big hit. The songs, as well as the storyline caught a lot of attention (this was after not a classical tale of romance against the odds or a similar such formula), instead a story of an anguished semi-guilty man trying to make amends for what he has done to another family by killing their chief hope; and then the guilt of what he has done preventing him from trying to fulfill his hopes and ambitions, and his love. In addition, the same sense of shock and distraught feeling causes the heroine to back away from love and more towards responsibility. This was a story of emotions, and truly a good story (even though there were some deficiencies in the story).
The movie was produced by Super Cassettes industries (Bhushan Kumar & Krishan Kumar), and directed by newbie director Anubhav Sinha, who also wrote the script and the dialogues. The movie also stars newcomers Sandali Sinha (Piya) and Priyanshu Chatterjee (Shekhar Malhotra), and these 2 gave a good portrayal in their roles that demanded a fair amount of emotion (they have not managed to do too well after this initial good start). They are supported ably by some good casting comprising of Rakesh Bapat, Himanshu Malik, Navneet Nishan, Rajendra Gupta, Dina Pathak and Vrijesh Hirjee.
Imtihan (1994) - Saif, Sunny and Raveena
On May 25, 2008 in Song, Drama, Revenge, Video, Mafia, Crime, Bollywood, Music, Romance, Action, Movie
Imtihaan was a movie released in 1995, starring Sunny Deol, Raveena Tandon, and Saif Ali Khan. Saif was relatively young in the movie industry at that point of time, and it showed on screen (he comes across as a gangly youth, moving with energy, but still to show his renowned acting abilities that he showed in later movies). The movie was directed by Harry Baweja, and had music by Anu Malik. The movie did average business, but the songs were a big hit.
The movie had one selling point, it had an element of suspense, something not always well executed. However, and maybe people who saw this movie for the first time would feel, the suspense is not always the type of suspense you see in American movies, since a lot of people in the audience were able to predict as to what would happen when the suspense breaks, and here too, the story was predictable.
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Jhuk Gaya Aasman: A nice masala movie
On May 09, 2008 in Song, Drama, Video, Crime, Action, Bollywood, Comedy, Romance, Movie
Jhuk Gaya Aasman is a 1968 film directed by Lekh Tandon. The film stars Rajendra Kumar, Saira Banu, Rajendranath and Prem Chopra. Music is by Shankar Jaikishan, and lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. The film is a remake of the Hollywood film Here comes Mr. Jordan. I watched the movie the first time when I was in my school years (am not telling you how far back that was), and I found it to be a ridiculous movie, and yet I have watched it numerous times. It always seems like a great masala movie, a movie that is a total entertainer.
The movie is a bit off the beaten track; it has the familiar stories of a bad younger brother, of a romance between a beautiful outsider and a man of the hills, a devoted friend - but where this movie took the twist into a new area was the concept of dying, then finding out that you died by mistake and having to go into another body where you find that the girl you loved actually hates you; and then the innate goodness taking over and making things fine.
The movie is about this hill town guide on a jeep, Rajendra Kumar. Saira Banu shows up along with friends, and soon they fall in love with promises for later. On the way back when he has dropped her off at the airport, Rajendra Kumar has an accident and can see himself going off to heaven; where he is informed that he is the victim of mistaken identity. He was brought to heaven when it was his lookalike who should have been brought. However, his body has been burnt and he can no longer go back to what he was; he can enter the other body and live that life.
Prahaar: A great movie by Nana Patekar
On May 06, 2008 in Crime, Mafia, Video, Action, Classic, Movie, Bollywood, Society
There are times when you watch that is so impressive that you don’t mind watching it again. I found Prahaar to be one such movie. The movie was released in 1991, and it has been quite some time, but it can’t take away the topical nature of the movie. The movie was directed by Nana Patekar and produced by Sudhakar Bokade. The movie had music by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lyrics by Mangesh Kulkarni.
Nana Patekar showed a commendable amount of skill in extracting good performances from the cast of characters that included Dimple Kapadia and Madhuri Dixit (there was a story floating around the time when the movie was made that he wanted a natural look, and so when one of the female leads reported to the set in make-up, he asked her to wash the make-up off). The movie does not have a direct villain, but there is a struggle against many kinds of bad elements, whether it be terrorists, or the normal city ruffians and hoodlums who take hafta (extortion money), or even of the normal population who have been so terrorised that they have lost some of their sense of right or wrong. The movie also has some good performances from the second tier of characters such as Gautam Joglekar (who plays Peter D’Souza).
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