Ahh, I love premieres. A time for film watching. A time for celebrating the industry. A time for every C and D-lister to make his presence felt. Dabangg also didn't disappoint!
First up is of course Salman Khan who still dresses the way we did in the 80s. Very modest, you see. Along with Junior Shotgun, Sonakshi Sinha. After the premiere, she is heading straight to perform in a Medieval Times dinner and tournament show.
If the Bachchans can parade around, why not the Sinhas? Daddy and Mommy Sinha in attendance-
In a religious country like India, where people have ended up fighting over Rama and Allah, it needs some courage to take up one of the two greatest epics written and show our worshipped Lord Rama having a grey side to him. It takes even more courage to start telling the story from the villain Raavan’s point of view and justify his actions. Mani Ratnam is his latest film does exactly that when he gives the mythological story a realistic setting in today’s world and twists the story a bit to make people sympathize for the villain of the epic.
Abhishek Bachchan plays an outlaw called Beera(Raavan) in the film. Though he goes against the law, the villagers believe in him, his actions, and his ideology which makes him a character like Don Vito Corleone or the Sarkar. The only difference is he is wilder than those. The wildness, ofcourse is to draw parallelism to Raavan’s character in Ramayana. He kidnaps Raagini(Sita) played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to kill her for reasons told later in the film. But instead of killing her, he starts falling for her beauty, her bravery. This is where we see the film getting similar to RGV’s Jungle where the lead bandit started falling for Urmilla Matondkar and starts taking wrong decisions.
Mani Ratnam goes back to what he is most known for and does the best, depicting violence and terrorism on screen. Though Raavan isn’t exactly a film about terrorism, its style is very similar to those. He might not have come back to his real best, but it seems like he is on his right way now after Guru where I thought he completely lost his way and like other directors got pulled and attracted by commercial brand of cinema. With Raavan, he seems to be coming back to his own.
The most pleasing thing in this film is the visuals, the cinematography. Santosh Sivan is really a master of camerawork. He has never disappointed me with his camera work. While Terrorist is his best piece of work for me, Raavan isn’t very far behind. Though shooting infront of the waterfalls, and naturally beautiful scenes makes it easier for him to make the picture look beautiful, he is equally good in indoor scenes and close-up shots. He and Manikandan make the film a visual treat and worth watching just for the visuals alone.
In a religious country like India, where people have ended up fighting over Rama and Allah, it needs some courage to take up one of the two greatest epics written and show our worshipped Lord Rama having a grey side to him. It takes even more courage to start telling the story from the villain Raavan’s point of view and justify his actions. Mani Ratnam is his latest film does exactly that when he gives the mythological story a realistic setting in today’s world and twists the story a bit to make people sympathize for the villain of the epic.
Abhishek Bachchan plays an outlaw called Beera(Raavan) in the film. Though he goes against the law, the villagers believe in him, his actions, and his ideology which makes him a character like Don Vito Corleone or the Sarkar. The only difference is he is wilder than those. The wildness, ofcourse is to draw parallelism to Raavan’s character in Ramayana. He kidnaps Raagini(Sita) played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to kill her for reasons told later in the film. But instead of killing her, he starts falling for her beauty, her bravery. This is where we see the film getting similar to RGV’s Jungle where the lead bandit started falling for Urmilla Matondkar and starts taking wrong decisions.
Mani Ratnam goes back to what he is most known for and does the best, depicting violence and terrorism on screen. Though Raavan isn’t exactly a film about terrorism, its style is very similar to those. He might not have come back to his real best, but it seems like he is on his right way now after Guru where I thought he completely lost his way and like other directors got pulled and attracted by commercial brand of cinema. With Raavan, he seems to be coming back to his own.
The most pleasing thing in this film is the visuals, the cinematography. Santosh Sivan is really a master of camerawork. He has never disappointed me with his camera work. While Terrorist is his best piece of work for me, Raavan isn’t very far behind. Though shooting infront of the waterfalls, and naturally beautiful scenes makes it easier for him to make the picture look beautiful, he is equally good in indoor scenes and close-up shots. He and Manikandan make the film a visual treat and worth watching just for the visuals alone.
Akshay Kumar, depressed with his life, swims for a very long time, until he gets tired and tries to commit suicide by drowning himself. Deepika Padukone, just like Clint Eastwood in Spaghetti Western films, comes out of nowhere, lifts him up and carries him towards the shore that is some miles away. And we call Akshay Kumar a Khiladi!!!!
The film starts with the most hilarious disclaimer of the decade. Sajid Khan mentions the names of 5 very important directors in Bollywood who have influenced him to direct films. And that includes Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Heyy babyy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? HouseFull and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? Ohhhh, that was joke as the film is supposed to be a comedy. Such is the humor in the film that you yourself would need to find out the humorous moments if you want to laugh as the film hardly is humorous.
This is hardly an Akshay Kumar kind of comedy. If you want to watch Akshay Kumar kind of comedy, I think you are better off watching Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai. He manages to make you laugh more in his two and half minutes special appearance than this two and half hours long film. Being a fan of his comic timings and his work in films like Mr. and Mrs Khiladi, Garam Masala, Bhool Bhulaiya, this one surely is a disappointment. The film mainly belongs to the ‘Timepass’ genre films which Sajid or Farah makes. While Farah tries to spoof The Matrix, Karz, Madhumati, Youtube videos in her films and manages to get some laughs, Sajid Khan straightaway copies them with no intention of even spoofing if he can’t get original. He plays the game of wife swapping in the film, something we just saw 6 months ago in All The Best. The game is not even half as funny in Housefull as in All The Best.
Five years ago, filmmakers in India started to feel that a film that does not have the King Khan has to have an item song to make it a hit. The latest trend in ‘Timepass-Filmmaking’ says a film has to have some gay humor in it. Housefull tries having both of them. And since it is a Sajid Khan film, he does not even try putting in efforts in the item song. Instead he simply took up an old Bollywood hit number and remixed it. Though it is wonderfully sung song by Mika, IMO, who manages to keep the craziness alive in the song, the video is very disappointing, thanks to the Arjun Rampal. For most of the film Arjun Rampal plays an angry man with one expression on his face, and for once he was asked to enjoy and he ends up ruining a song, How can one fail to get the right expressions in that song? It should have come out naturally given that song is so crazy. The video really missed the craziness I was expecting it to have.
Akshay Kumar, depressed with his life, swims for a very long time, until he gets tired and tries to commit suicide by drowning himself. Deepika Padukone, just like Clint Eastwood in Spaghetti Western films, comes out of nowhere, lifts him up and carries him towards the shore that is some miles away. And we call Akshay Kumar a Khiladi!!!!
The film starts with the most hilarious disclaimer of the decade. Sajid Khan mentions the names of 5 very important directors in Bollywood who have influenced him to direct films. And that includes Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Heyy babyy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? HouseFull and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? Ohhhh, that was joke as the film is supposed to be a comedy. Such is the humor in the film that you yourself would need to find out the humorous moments if you want to laugh as the film hardly is humorous.
This is hardly an Akshay Kumar kind of comedy. If you want to watch Akshay Kumar kind of comedy, I think you are better off watching Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai. He manages to make you laugh more in his two and half minutes special appearance than this two and half hours long film. Being a fan of his comic timings and his work in films like Mr. and Mrs Khiladi, Garam Masala, Bhool Bhulaiya, this one surely is a disappointment. The film mainly belongs to the ‘Timepass’ genre films which Sajid or Farah makes. While Farah tries to spoof The Matrix, Karz, Madhumati, Youtube videos in her films and manages to get some laughs, Sajid Khan straightaway copies them with no intention of even spoofing if he can’t get original. He plays the game of wife swapping in the film, something we just saw 6 months ago in All The Best. The game is not even half as funny in Housefull as in All The Best.
Five years ago, filmmakers in India started to feel that a film that does not have the King Khan has to have an item song to make it a hit. The latest trend in ‘Timepass-Filmmaking’ says a film has to have some gay humor in it. Housefull tries having both of them. And since it is a Sajid Khan film, he does not even try putting in efforts in the item song. Instead he simply took up an old Bollywood hit number and remixed it. Though it is wonderfully sung song by Mika, IMO, who manages to keep the craziness alive in the song, the video is very disappointing, thanks to the Arjun Rampal. For most of the film Arjun Rampal plays an angry man with one expression on his face, and for once he was asked to enjoy and he ends up ruining a song, How can one fail to get the right expressions in that song? It should have come out naturally given that song is so crazy. The video really missed the craziness I was expecting it to have.
Yes, it is a preview of a review I am about to write. But I thought I would share this clip with you so you could walk, jog, run, to the nearest shop and BUY this DVD package. It is truly memorable, an excellent inside look at the genius of a man who changed the game forever!
Yes, it is a preview of a review I am about to write. But I thought I would share this clip with you so you could walk, jog, run, to the nearest shop and BUY this DVD package. It is truly memorable, an excellent inside look at the genius of a man who changed the game forever!
Eleven years before Walt Disney came up with its first animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed was made. The Adventures of Prince Achmed isn’t the first animated feature film made, but it is the oldest surviving animated film. Two other films, The Apostle and Without a Trace by Quirino Cristiani are considered to be lost.
The film uses Silhouette animation technique where the characters and other things appear dark while the background is light in color. The director of the film explains about how she animated her film using this Silhouette technique –
“…The technique of this type of film is very simple. As with cartoon drawings, the silhouette films are photographed movement by movement. But instead of using drawings, silhouette marionettes are used. These marionettes are cut out of black cardboard and thin lead, every limb being cut separately and joined with wire hinges. A study of natural movement is very important, so that the little figures appear to move just as men and women and animals do. But this is not a technical problem. The backgrounds for the characters are cut out with scissors as well, and designed to give a unified style to the whole picture. They are cut from layers of transparent paper.”
- Lotte Reiniger,Sight & Sound (1936).
The Adventures of Prince Achmed isn’t all about the effort put behind the animation and the technicalities. The story of the film is based upon the characters taken from different stories from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights and made into a fascinating tale on how Prince Achmed wins Princess Pari Banau from the evil African magician.
The film was full of imagination both in terms of story as well as the technique behind animation. Taking in different characters from different stories of Arabian Nights and making a good supernatural story with romance in it was a real treat. The film took 3 years to complete because of the animation technique, which required lots of effort to make the simple photographs of cardboard cutouts to appear in motion. The scenes are very much detailed and every movement is shown flawlessly and with lot of clarity. It was a lot more difficult to make the animation in those pre-computer days compared to today where we mostly make the animation digitally (I don’t mean digital animation is easy). It involved taking pictures of every frame of every movement a character or object is making and juxtapose them to make it appear in motion. Given that there are normally 25 frames a second, it means it required 25 different still photographs for every second of the film and putting them together with every photo differing very slightly from the previous one.
Eleven years before Walt Disney came up with its first animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed was made. The Adventures of Prince Achmed isn’t the first animated feature film made, but it is the oldest surviving animated film. Two other films, The Apostle and Without a Trace by Quirino Cristiani are considered to be lost.
The film uses Silhouette animation technique where the characters and other things appear dark while the background is light in color. The director of the film explains about how she animated her film using this Silhouette technique –
“…The technique of this type of film is very simple. As with cartoon drawings, the silhouette films are photographed movement by movement. But instead of using drawings, silhouette marionettes are used. These marionettes are cut out of black cardboard and thin lead, every limb being cut separately and joined with wire hinges. A study of natural movement is very important, so that the little figures appear to move just as men and women and animals do. But this is not a technical problem. The backgrounds for the characters are cut out with scissors as well, and designed to give a unified style to the whole picture. They are cut from layers of transparent paper.”
- Lotte Reiniger,Sight & Sound (1936).
The Adventures of Prince Achmed isn’t all about the effort put behind the animation and the technicalities. The story of the film is based upon the characters taken from different stories from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights and made into a fascinating tale on how Prince Achmed wins Princess Pari Banau from the evil African magician.
The film was full of imagination both in terms of story as well as the technique behind animation. Taking in different characters from different stories of Arabian Nights and making a good supernatural story with romance in it was a real treat. The film took 3 years to complete because of the animation technique, which required lots of effort to make the simple photographs of cardboard cutouts to appear in motion. The scenes are very much detailed and every movement is shown flawlessly and with lot of clarity. It was a lot more difficult to make the animation in those pre-computer days compared to today where we mostly make the animation digitally (I don’t mean digital animation is easy). It involved taking pictures of every frame of every movement a character or object is making and juxtapose them to make it appear in motion. Given that there are normally 25 frames a second, it means it required 25 different still photographs for every second of the film and putting them together with every photo differing very slightly from the previous one.
I finally managed to watch Victoria no. 203 (1972), a rip-roaring comic crime caper. The roots of so many films of modern times could be traced back to this gem. It began with a museum display of diamonds, a thief who knows the sewage system runs under the museum, and he will exit from a manhole a block away after stealing the diamonds! Dhoom 2 anyone? The diamonds are stolen but have to be stashed away in a hurry as a double cross scheme goes awry. The rocks find their way into a Victoria (yes, the ghoda-gadi) standing nearby as the thief is stabbed. After this, the story rapidly gets layer upon layer of intrigue that involves a railway station locker, a scrap of paper with the number of the Victoria, and a key hidden under a toupee! There is a chocolate boy hero (Navin Nischol) who mostly just dallies with various girls while he waits for the real thing. There is a leading lady (Saira Banu) with so much oomph then no item girl is needed in the film. In fact the leading lady dons a towel after a rain drenching, while the item girl of the time (Helen) merely walks by in a scene, fully dressed! But the real fun starts when Raja (Ashok Kumar) and Rana (Pran), two petty thieves come out of jail, are “gifted” a car they think they are stealing, and chance upon the toupeed gentleman, now dead, and the KEY! The duo are in fine form as they rampage through Mumbai looking for the taala to go with the chabhi! The 60+ year-old Ashok Kumar mostly skirt chases women of all shapes, sizes and ages (Sexy Sam of the 70s!), and drinks desi tharra like a fish imbibes water. The villainous villain Anwar Hussain has numerous henchman, who fall like flies as they try to double cross him at every turn. In the end there is a climax in a warehouse with ropes and barrels and a coal fire pit, and tricks with fake diamonds and real diamonds! Mr. Santoshi was taking careful notes at this point in the film – watch this and then Andaz Apna Apna to see what inspired the climax of that one!
The story and screenplay are attributed to KA Narayan. Upon checking his filmography you find story credits for Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam. Victoria no. 203 certainly matches those others in the quality of the story and screenplay. The plot never sags at any point, and the twists and turns in the story keep coming at a fast pace. The comic genius of Ashok Kumar and Pran carries the entire film. There is a point in the climax when Ashok Kumar asks for a dying wish – can he pray? And then queries the baddies “Bhai Sahab Farrukhabad kis taraf hai?” Pran reacts in horror and says “Mathura, Raja, Mathura”. Sheer genius!
I finally managed to watch Victoria no. 203 (1972), a rip-roaring comic crime caper. The roots of so many films of modern times could be traced back to this gem. It began with a museum display of diamonds, a thief who knows the sewage system runs under the museum, and he will exit from a manhole a block away after stealing the diamonds! Dhoom 2 anyone? The diamonds are stolen but have to be stashed away in a hurry as a double cross scheme goes awry. The rocks find their way into a Victoria (yes, the ghoda-gadi) standing nearby as the thief is stabbed. After this, the story rapidly gets layer upon layer of intrigue that involves a railway station locker, a scrap of paper with the number of the Victoria, and a key hidden under a toupee! There is a chocolate boy hero (Navin Nischol) who mostly just dallies with various girls while he waits for the real thing. There is a leading lady (Saira Banu) with so much oomph then no item girl is needed in the film. In fact the leading lady dons a towel after a rain drenching, while the item girl of the time (Helen) merely walks by in a scene, fully dressed! But the real fun starts when Raja (Ashok Kumar) and Rana (Pran), two petty thieves come out of jail, are “gifted” a car they think they are stealing, and chance upon the toupeed gentleman, now dead, and the KEY! The duo are in fine form as they rampage through Mumbai looking for the taala to go with the chabhi! The 60+ year-old Ashok Kumar mostly skirt chases women of all shapes, sizes and ages (Sexy Sam of the 70s!), and drinks desi tharra like a fish imbibes water. The villainous villain Anwar Hussain has numerous henchman, who fall like flies as they try to double cross him at every turn. In the end there is a climax in a warehouse with ropes and barrels and a coal fire pit, and tricks with fake diamonds and real diamonds! Mr. Santoshi was taking careful notes at this point in the film – watch this and then Andaz Apna Apna to see what inspired the climax of that one!
The story and screenplay are attributed to KA Narayan. Upon checking his filmography you find story credits for Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam. Victoria no. 203 certainly matches those others in the quality of the story and screenplay. The plot never sags at any point, and the twists and turns in the story keep coming at a fast pace. The comic genius of Ashok Kumar and Pran carries the entire film. There is a point in the climax when Ashok Kumar asks for a dying wish – can he pray? And then queries the baddies “Bhai Sahab Farrukhabad kis taraf hai?” Pran reacts in horror and says “Mathura, Raja, Mathura”. Sheer genius!
You get in the car or get ready to board a plane and there is this flashback moment. You hurriedly search for just the right song to play on your iPOD as you travel! Here are some of my favorites:
Pukarta chala hoon main (Mere Sanam)! Forget that Biswajit is just a footnote in Hindi film history now, this is THE quintessential road song, an avenue of tall trees (poplars?), the girls on bikes, the guy in an open jeep:
How about the guy walking on a road and trying his best to obstruct the way of a bevy of beauties in a car? Only Dev Anand could carry off this song, singing and walking in his signature loping walk with a big white plastic fish dangling on the line! And Tanuja was cute as a button – unforgettable in this film.
Next up are two phenomenal road songs with a similar graph – the girl is on a train and the guys on cars and there is ample romance and nok jhonk between the two. In Jab Pyaar Kise se Hota Hai we have Dev romancing Asha Parekh on the train. Rafi’s singing is divine and Shakar JaiKishen are unforgettable here:
No doubt this was the inspiration for Shakti Samanta and the SD Burman/RD Burman duo as they spun this most famous number between Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore in Aradhna:
Pride of place in train songs has to belong to Chaiyya Chaiyya! Not satisfied with dance and romance in a train or on the road, here the romance is near dead - “Duniya ki sabse choti prem kahani”, as the girl is gone! And the hero is on the rooftop of a train in an exuberant number as he details the qualities of love. Gulzaar, AR Rahman, and Farah Khan combined to make this Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora number one for the history books.
Then there is this unusual road song, part patriotic, part self-discovery, sung while driving a motorhome – again AR Rahman combines with Ashutosh Gowarikar and Javed Akhtar to bring this Shahrukh Khan and Makarand Deshpande song to us.
I want to end with a bicycle song – from Padosan! The one and only Saira Banu and her gang on sakhiyaan, singing while they take to the road on bicycles!
You get in the car or get ready to board a plane and there is this flashback moment. You hurriedly search for just the right song to play on your iPOD as you travel! Here are some of my favorites:
Pukarta chala hoon main (Mere Sanam)! Forget that Biswajit is just a footnote in Hindi film history now, this is THE quintessential road song, an avenue of tall trees (poplars?), the girls on bikes, the guy in an open jeep:
How about the guy walking on a road and trying his best to obstruct the way of a bevy of beauties in a car? Only Dev Anand could carry off this song, singing and walking in his signature loping walk with a big white plastic fish dangling on the line! And Tanuja was cute as a button – unforgettable in this film.
Next up are two phenomenal road songs with a similar graph – the girl is on a train and the guys on cars and there is ample romance and nok jhonk between the two. In Jab Pyaar Kise se Hota Hai we have Dev romancing Asha Parekh on the train. Rafi’s singing is divine and Shakar JaiKishen are unforgettable here:
No doubt this was the inspiration for Shakti Samanta and the SD Burman/RD Burman duo as they spun this most famous number between Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore in Aradhna:
Pride of place in train songs has to belong to Chaiyya Chaiyya! Not satisfied with dance and romance in a train or on the road, here the romance is near dead - “Duniya ki sabse choti prem kahani”, as the girl is gone! And the hero is on the rooftop of a train in an exuberant number as he details the qualities of love. Gulzaar, AR Rahman, and Farah Khan combined to make this Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora number one for the history books.
Then there is this unusual road song, part patriotic, part self-discovery, sung while driving a motorhome – again AR Rahman combines with Ashutosh Gowarikar and Javed Akhtar to bring this Shahrukh Khan and Makarand Deshpande song to us.
I want to end with a bicycle song – from Padosan! The one and only Saira Banu and her gang on sakhiyaan, singing while they take to the road on bicycles!
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.
- The Prestige
Similar to magic tricks, a suspenseful story or play or a film has 3 parts generally termed as Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3, and having similar significance as the 3 parts of the magic trick. How about modifying the meaning of Act 3 a bit and instead of solving everything for the audience, for a change leaving it unsolved. I think it is better to leave some mysteries unsolved instead of ending them badly. Though the general audience may get disappointed because they want closure and mysteries to be solved so that they don’t think about the film at all, but not all mysteries in life get solved. IMO, Karthik Calling Karthik was just that kind of a film that would have worked better for ME if it was unsolved instead of ending in the ridiculous twist that was shown. I was hoping against hope that the director really would not reveal the twist and leave the ending open or something, because the way he was moving the story forward, I knew, the twist won’t be as exciting as the buildup was. But like I said, that would not have been generally appreciated .
The film is about Karthik (Farhan Akhtar) who blames himself for the loss of his brother in childhood and can’t concentrate and focus on his life and tries to commit suicide until he gets a phone call. Karthik Calling Karthik is a confused film, and is a clear example of a the director did not know how to carry the story forward after having thought of a brilliant idea. The film could have been a lot better if it was made into a horror thriller kind of a film just like 13 B. Instead the director chose to take the story forward in a very relaxed manner. A few scenes in the film could have really worked better if it had the horror touch to it. The concept suited the horror genre a lot. But in KCK, most of the scenes instead of giving a thrill, look more like an unintentional comedy. Like when Shefali Shah receives the phone call, I ended up laughing instead of being thrilled. I really think the film should have had that 13 B kind of touch to it.
Though I say the idea of Karthik Calling Karthik was brilliant, I must say it is very much inspired from Fight Club (David Fincher), just that we don’t see the alter ego of Karthik in this film; instead we hear his voice over the phone. I won’t call it a remake of Fight Club, it is hardly that, but yes the concept seems to be inspired. A major part of the film in the second half reminded me of No Smoking where the protagonist tries to run away from himself. But unlike No Smoking this film is not a surreal one and a confusing one.
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.
- The Prestige
Similar to magic tricks, a suspenseful story or play or a film has 3 parts generally termed as Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3, and having similar significance as the 3 parts of the magic trick. How about modifying the meaning of Act 3 a bit and instead of solving everything for the audience, for a change leaving it unsolved. I think it is better to leave some mysteries unsolved instead of ending them badly. Though the general audience may get disappointed because they want closure and mysteries to be solved so that they don’t think about the film at all, but not all mysteries in life get solved. IMO, Karthik Calling Karthik was just that kind of a film that would have worked better for ME if it was unsolved instead of ending in the ridiculous twist that was shown. I was hoping against hope that the director really would not reveal the twist and leave the ending open or something, because the way he was moving the story forward, I knew, the twist won’t be as exciting as the buildup was. But like I said, that would not have been generally appreciated .
The film is about Karthik (Farhan Akhtar) who blames himself for the loss of his brother in childhood and can’t concentrate and focus on his life and tries to commit suicide until he gets a phone call. Karthik Calling Karthik is a confused film, and is a clear example of a the director did not know how to carry the story forward after having thought of a brilliant idea. The film could have been a lot better if it was made into a horror thriller kind of a film just like 13 B. Instead the director chose to take the story forward in a very relaxed manner. A few scenes in the film could have really worked better if it had the horror touch to it. The concept suited the horror genre a lot. But in KCK, most of the scenes instead of giving a thrill, look more like an unintentional comedy. Like when Shefali Shah receives the phone call, I ended up laughing instead of being thrilled. I really think the film should have had that 13 B kind of touch to it.
Though I say the idea of Karthik Calling Karthik was brilliant, I must say it is very much inspired from Fight Club (David Fincher), just that we don’t see the alter ego of Karthik in this film; instead we hear his voice over the phone. I won’t call it a remake of Fight Club, it is hardly that, but yes the concept seems to be inspired. A major part of the film in the second half reminded me of No Smoking where the protagonist tries to run away from himself. But unlike No Smoking this film is not a surreal one and a confusing one.
Chandan Arora’s new film is very much unlike his previous two attempts – Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon and Main Meri Patni Aur Woh. While his first two films were quite good and simple, Striker looks to be a fake attempt in showing realism.
The main problem of Striker is that it has nothing new to offer except for the game being played. Siddartha plays an ambitious person who plans to go to Dubai to make it big in life. He falls into the trap of gambling and plays carrom to earn money. I never thought carrom is such a famous or popular game that people actually bet in lacs of rupees on it. And then we have the unneeded Mumbai Communal riots in 1992 in the film. The setting and the scenes were very much inspired from ‘Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro’ film by Saeed Akhtar Mirza. Also there are some scenes in films like when Surya and his friend chat with each other on terrace which reminded me of the chemistry between the two brothers in Slumdog Millionaire.
The best part of the film was the soft and sweet romantic track between Surya and Noorie. And with a mesmerizing song sung by Sonu Niggam. Sad the entire romantic track only lasted for a few mins. Why couldn’t he make the entire film on this sweet romance?? Simplicity is where Chandan Arora excels. Sadly, the romantic part was the only segment in the film that was worth watching.
Chandan Arora’s new film is very much unlike his previous two attempts – Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon and Main Meri Patni Aur Woh. While his first two films were quite good and simple, Striker looks to be a fake attempt in showing realism.
The main problem of Striker is that it has nothing new to offer except for the game being played. Siddartha plays an ambitious person who plans to go to Dubai to make it big in life. He falls into the trap of gambling and plays carrom to earn money. I never thought carrom is such a famous or popular game that people actually bet in lacs of rupees on it. And then we have the unneeded Mumbai Communal riots in 1992 in the film. The setting and the scenes were very much inspired from ‘Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro’ film by Saeed Akhtar Mirza. Also there are some scenes in films like when Surya and his friend chat with each other on terrace which reminded me of the chemistry between the two brothers in Slumdog Millionaire.
The best part of the film was the soft and sweet romantic track between Surya and Noorie. And with a mesmerizing song sung by Sonu Niggam. Sad the entire romantic track only lasted for a few mins. Why couldn’t he make the entire film on this sweet romance?? Simplicity is where Chandan Arora excels. Sadly, the romantic part was the only segment in the film that was worth watching.
It is a late review of the film, so I am not writing everything about it. Most of the things have already been said about the film, so I don’t think it makes much sense to revisit them. The review might have a few spoilers as it describes a few scenes in the film.
For a change we have an Indian film where a character is suffering from a disease but we don’t have any lectures, or doctors giving lectures, on how the character would behave. SRK simply plays the role and lets the people understand on their own the behavior of the disease by seeing the mannerisms of the lead actor and hearing his voice-overs. The disease was never highlighted in the film and I really liked that fact very much.
Karan Johar tried to do something different in this film while still managing to bring in the right emotions. There is lot of emotional manipulation done in the film mostly in the second half. We can see Rizwan Khan feeling the pain of losing Sameer especially in the church scene in Georgia where he speaks about Sameer. SRK delivered a very powerful performance in the scene where he had to express sadness but could not cry because he had Asperger’s. He smiles while mentioning his son’s death and yet he manages to express his sadness. We can see tears in his eyes that were not able to come out because of his condition. In the penultimate scene where he finally meets Kajol in the hospital, a drop of tear that was waiting to come out for a long time finally drops from his eyes. So, even though the film had made some sacrifices when it came to the disease, it was very rich in emotions and worked well for me.
My Name is Khan may not be a perfect film, but it is a very brave effort by the team who almost pulled off 3/4 of the movie very well. There were some unwarranted moments like product placement of Reebok shoes in the film or the introduction of the lead characters in a suspenseful way. I don’t think that suited a serious film like MNIK at all. I don’t know what was the need for President Obama’s role in the film and if it would have mattered if SRK meets President Bush instead of President Obama. Introduction of Obama’s role unnecessarily extended the time period in the film from 2005 to 2008. Also I didn’t quite agree with the job of salesman that Rizwan Khan was asked by his brother to do. I read that autistic people don’t like meeting new people, but the job of salesman is nothing but meeting new people.
Also I don’t agree much with the screenplay of the film. I don’t think the film deserved a non-linear screenplay. It was a kind of film which should have been told in a sequential order so that the reason of the journey is clearer to the audience. It is clear to those who have seen the trailers of the film, but a few years from now, for a person who is completely unaware of the film and catches it on DVD, the non-linear timeline might not work too well.
