Archive for the ‘Despair’ Category
Kayamath - Prachi is finally happy
On June 17, 2008 in Drama, Star Plus, Video, Character, Family, TV, Despair, Romance, Hindi Serial
It seemed like in every episode of Kayamath, Prachi does nothing but cry. So it was somewhat relieving to see that there was finally an episode in which she is happy. And why is she happy ? Because the inevitable finally happened. The long long (too long in my opinion) scene of Milind having lost his memory, and then ditching Prachi for Ayesha (with Ayesha doing a lot of manipulation, portraying herself as the perfect manipulative and ruthless person, and combined with getting half of the dialogues where she only speaks to herself) finally turns around.
Milind, even though he seems to have not regained his memory, cannot stay away from Prachi to the utter disgust of Ayesha who tries everything possible to threaten Prachi, and to plot against her (including manipulating a relationship between Sukriti and Alaap, only thwarted when Milind sees Prachi telling Alaap to stay away from Sukriti). In all this, nobody ever suspects that Ayesha is the one behind all this.
In the end, Milind refuses to marry Ayesha, getting up from the actual marriage place (just the night before, he had told Prachi that he loved her, but he was duty bound to marry Ayesha). Ayesha is devastated by this and cannot believe that Milind is rejecting her for Prachi. Further, right then a fire happens, and in the midst of this fire, Milind miraculously regains his memory (you just need to tap them on the head and they either lose their memory or regain it). And then of course, he recognizes that Prachi is the one that was with him, and they get ready to marry. And in the midst of all, they want Ayesha to attend (after rejecting her and humiliating her, they want her to attend !).
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.
+-+Movie+Poster.jpg)
Movie: Jab We Met (2007)
On April 10, 2008 in Melody, Drama, Video, Romance, Comedy, Bollywood, Music, Despair, Movie
This is a tragic cum successful movie. For a long time, the pair of Shahid Kapur and Kareena Kapoor tries their luck in movies that did not work (example, Fida and 36 China Town, etc. ). And then when they broke up and announced to the whole world that they were not together, here comes a movie that was very successful, both critically and commercially. However, given that they have broken up and Kareena waltzed off into the arms of a married father, Saif Ali Khan, it is unlikely that they will start any new project together (may complete old projects, but no new ones).
The movie is directed by Imtiaz Ali, who had earlier directed another great, yet low-key movie, Socha Na Tha. Music of the movie was a big hit, by Pritam, and lyrics by Irshad Kamil. Overall, the movie, although not a very new theme, seems to attract, and not a hackneyed plot. Performances by Kareena as the hyper girl from Bhatinda, and Shahid as the much more mellow counter-foil, the businessman who failed in love and is depressed, and then comes up trumps, gives a great performance, not letting Kareena get all the credit.
.jpg)
Kasturi suffering for her past mistakes
On March 25, 2008 in Values, Drama, Star Plus, Character, Family, TV, Despair, Romance, Hindi Serial
This is the beauty of making a serial, you can change the story any which way and thus cause the story to go on and on. In Kasturi, till some time back, the story was all about how Kasturi, the dutiful wife of Raunak would get revenge on music superstar Robbie for Raunak’s death.
It all started at a stage in Kasturi’s (Shubhangi Atre Poorey) life when she reaches a stage where family honor is at stake because of Robbie’s doings. It is at that stage when Kasturi is facing everybody’s anger that Raunak steps in and offers to marry Kasturi. Kasturi accepts and becomes devoted to Raunak, an ideal wife. However, Robbie is very angry about this and keeps on needling them both. And then Raunak dies and Kasturi blames Robbie for his death.
Kasturi eventually marries Robbie in order to gain revenge, and keeps on attempting to try to get revenge even while pretending to be a dutiful wife. She even pretends to be pregnant so that she remains loved by everyone. And even when she is revealed to be false, she still gains her revenge since Robbie falls severely sick and is comatose for an year.
Swades: An eminently watchable movie
On March 22, 2008 in Patriotic, Culture, Video, Values, Classic, Movie, Bollywood, Despair, Society
Swades, released in 2004, was a much awaited movie. Ever since Lagaan was released in 2001 and its theme of a rural village uniting to fight a foreign oppressor became a hit, there was always the expectation of another movie on a rural theme making it big. And thus when the same director, Ashutosh announced another movie, this one too on a rural theme, there was a great amount of hope that the presence of Shahrukh Khan would make this movie a super-hit as well. However, this was not to be. The movie came, got some good press, got some criticism over its length and the fact the movie seemed to many people too unrealistic, too much like a documentary. Come on, a successful NASA scientist chucking it all away, and then going off to generate electricity almost single-handedly for a rural village. Fiction indeed.
The fact remains, Swades is a great movie. The movie has a legend of ‘We, the people’, and seems to be a labor of love (with the movie having been written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker). It shows a fair amount of the ills such as lack of knowledge, illiteracy and discrimination that plague our villages. At the same time, it does not present these as obstacles that cannot be overcome (as many other movies do, which try to show conflict as the only way to resolve the problems). The movie has a great romance theme, heavily under-stated with a great new comer performance by Gayatri Joshi. The movie has great music, seemingly very appropriate for the movie theme (Music is by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Javed Akhtar).
Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992)
On December 27, 2007 in Corruption, Character, Values, Culture, Crime, Romance, Movie, Bollywood, Music, Despair, Society
Ranju Ban Gaya Gentleman is one of the early Shahrukh movies, made before he became the King Khan and one of the hottest property of Bollywood. The movie has a fresh feel to it, being made (director: Aziz Mirza) when there was not so much money riding on Shahrukd Khan and movies could afford to skip the current formula of hard core masala, breakneck action, and so on. The movie has a nice flow to it, with a simplistic story set mainly around ambition. One needs to remember that this was 1992, when India was still totally under the grip of socialism, and movies high-lighted naked ambition as something bad and ugly, something that could cause a person to loose their morals and their bearings.
A great movie: Gangster (2006)
On November 16, 2007 in Mafia, Song, Melody, Revenge, Police, Crime, Bollywood, Despair, Classic, Action, Movie
A typical urban gangster movie of the 70’s and 80’s (thus excluding the rural dacoit movie such as Sholay) was all about the larger than life character, fighting against the police, and maybe reforming or dying. It was the odd movie such as Deewar which tried to look into the mind of a gangster, but these were still movies about larger than life characters. It was films like Vaastav & Satya that tried to break into the basic characters mind, and show the goings on around them, along with the overall despair that involved such criminals (and make no mistake, no matter the circumstances, the new age of movies display them as criminals even when showing their sequence of steps to becoming a gangster).
A refreshing new movie in this regard is the movie called Gangster (directed by Anurag Basu for Mahesh Bhatt). The movie pulls no punches, showing the old game of gangster vs. police through the eyes of a young woman forced to make her choices. The movie is truly a different movie, able to de-glamorize the whole gangster-moll and romance bit. The movie does have some unrealistic parts as well, such as the alcohol-sunken portrayal of a bar dancer by Kangana Ranaut in a great debut role. With some excellent roles given to both Shiney Ahuja and Emraan Hashmi, this movie is also a good example of a movie doing well on the basis of story and performances (and some good music).
Zinda (2006): A different kind of movie
On October 06, 2007 in Crime, Melody, Revenge, Action, Classic, Bollywood, Music, Despair, Movie
This is the movie that people love to hate. There is a lot of hard violence in the movie (including using a drill on a person), it does not have any kind of social message whatsoever, and in addition, is not a original movie. On the contrary, I liked the movie. It is one of the movies that I see that is moving Bollywood away from the romance and around-tree-song dramas and more towards a fast-paced Hollywood kind of slick movie. The movie is based on acclaimed director Park Chan-Wook’s Korean classic OLDBOY [released in 2003], and there are very few scenes in the movie that seem out of control or excessive. And did I mention that I really really liked the songs and the music. The song by ‘Strings’ was very very good, and the singing by Shibani Kashyap was also excellent.
The movie is directed by Sanjay Gupta (who had made similar fast-paced thrillers ‘Kaante’ and ‘Musafir’), and stars Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham, Mahesh Majrekar, Lara Dutta and Celina Jaitely (in a small role). Music is by a whole set of people, Nikhil Chinnappa, Dj Nawed, Kinky Ronald, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani.
Songs: Hum Na Samjhe The (Gardish)
On September 09, 2007 in Action, Crime, Police, Despair, Legal, Movie, Bollywood, Music, Society
In 1993, Priyadarshan made a movie called Gardish that starred the cast of Jackie Shroff, Amrish Puri, Dimple Kapadia, and Aishwarya (a different one). The movie was a remake of the 1989 Malayalam blockbuster, Kireedam. It provided Jackie Shroff a good platform with a very strong role, that caused him to display a lot of emotions. In my opinion, he did a very good role. Music Director was R D Burman, and lyrics were by Javed Akhtar.
The role was simple, he did the role of the son of a police constable (Amrish Puri), and his father wants him to join the police force as an inspector. One of the requirements is that he should not have a case against him. One day, Jackie finds his father being beaten up by the local goonda Mukesh Rishi, and intervenes. Even though he does not want it, he gets a reputation of being the goonda, and soon his father throws him out of the house. He is very desperate, and in great despair. At this time, his lady love also gets married and Dimple gives him some support.
The climax of the movie is when his sister gets kidnapped by Mukesh Rishi, and then his father delivers him to Mukesh Rishi and tells Jackie not to fight back. However, as Jackie is getting beaten to a pulp, his father is unable to take it and tells him to fight back. Jackie fights back and eventually kills him. At this stage, he confronts his father as to when Amrish Puri could not take Jackie getting beaten, how could Jackie earlier take Amrish Puri getting beaten. He is taken away by the police, his dreams in tatters.
Read the rest of this entry »
Baghban: A very emotional movie
On September 01, 2007 in Family, Values, Song, Drama, Classic, Despair, Movie, Bollywood, Music, Society
Sometimes you come across a very emotional movie that also seems very realistic. The same is the case with Baghban, where you realize the state of the parents who have been mis-treated by their children, and eventually leave home. However, in the movie, the parents have a partial happy ending, but this is not necessarily true in real life where parents when left by their children do not have any other resort, either willing to live a more depressed way of life, ill-treated by their children, or moving out of the home and moving to an age-old home / shelter. No good choices for them.
The movie is about the concept of a Baghban, a gardener, who plants a tree for the future and nurtures it so that it will give him re-assurance in later life. Same is the case with Raj (Amitabh Bachchan) who lives with his wife (Hema Malini) and their 4 children. Raj has a good life when working, investing heavily into the future of his children and giving them the best, with the expectation that they will take care of him later. In this, he disregards any need for savings, and instead invests even his pension and gratuity. He also takes care of an orphan, Salman Khan, showering him with love as well (and this is where the true of fruits coming later in life show themselves).
Read the rest of this entry »
