Monday, August 28, 2006

Hunting down the Hunters

A review after so long.. Not that I’ve had a silent life without watching any movies. Not that I have such a compelling lethargy to stop chasing my long time dream of being an amateur movie writer. It’s just that the long break needed a bigger motivation to write. None better than the most talented tamizh actor of my time.

The movie starts like any other. Kamal has probably never had a grand entry in any movie, it just happens. Same here. The fact that the first scene that leads into a “run of the mill” rap, has nothing to do anything with the rest of the movie is saddening. But who cares as long as the rest of the movie is watchable. Which it is.

Gruesome murders, big mystery as to why it happens. “Execution” style of the murders complicating matters worse. No direct link to anything in the past. It feels straight out of a James Patterson or an Ian Rankin novel. An officer’s daughter gets murdered and the officer and his wife leave to NY, where his daughter wanted to study later, to take their minds off it. They get killed there and Kamal (Raghavan DCP, Chennai) who investigates the murder of the daughter in India opts to go to NY to assist NYPD in the quest. Thus the story unfolds.

Big strength to the movie is the man himself. In an age where heroes half his age are aiming for comebacks, the man eases into the role like a cub to hunting. Jyotikha looks extremely pleasing on the eyes. She’s getting increasingly beautiful every passing day.. And has also acted pretty naturally one feels the Kushi days are like long gone. Paartha Mudhal Naale song was a kind of a letdown since I imagined Jo in the song. But Kamalini more than makes up for it. There’s some chemistry there, but when was that lacking with Kamal in the picture anyways..

Kamal plays the instinctive cop better than anybody I can think could’ve been a possible replacement. Probably one of his really good performances, a list I can’t count on fingers. There is a touch of Kaakha Kaakha Soorya in the storyline. When you’re doing a similar story line I guess it’s difficult to stay away from the previous hit emotion line. Thus throughout the movie you will feel that KK vibe in it. Arguably that movie had a more concrete villain and reason for villainy. IMO the reason for the villainy is not explained properly though the renaissance of the same is. But for that I guess all other links are tied.

The movie pace is as good as KK in the first half, but the latter half is very disappointing. One romantic song, typical kollywood out of the blue genre, and a dance item number, suggestive that “if it was not there one might never understand the bad guys are womanizer”, ruins the pace. I felt it more than a lot of people since I had only 15 mins from end of show to get home before the start of F1 action live. So I guess for the first time I prayed a Kamal movie ends and ends soon. Also there are a few questionable things about Kamal’s copwork in NY which ends up pretty costly later.

The music IMO is very mediocre, the background even worse. Couple of songs linger in you head especially Paartha and Manjal Veiyil. Bad guys type cast, Frechie long hairs. The relation between them is a surprise later on. The camera work is really good and pleasing. Locations also look pretty right and fit in. Bottomline is if you like Kamal this is one movie you may not want to miss.

Posted by Dinesh at 5:16 PM | | Comments

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Chinese Fiasco

I don’t know why I thought "36 China Town" was an OK movie. The only reason I can put that down to is that the last two movies I saw were "Pyare Mohan" and "Tom, Dick & Harry", the two of which were real bad movies. Guess I have some good knack of picking them out. Ever since my days in B’lore were numbered, I had wanted to see a real good hindi movie. That might’ve sounded like an oxymoron, but believe me I feel that it isn’t gonna happen since there is so little time and even fewer prospective options.

To start a movie with a small mist of mystery is a real good idea for a so-called thriller movie. To start it with new face Upen trying to play a Romeo wanna be is as bad an idea as his tricks to pick up. Lines like "Is your dad a thief/ terrorist" et al, ones I could not use in the 3rd grade because gals were way smarter even back then, turn you off in the first few minutes. The only saving grace is probably the eternally elegant and lovely Isha (Yeah, love her) playing the rich owner of a casino. Isha is murdered and that’s what the movie is all about. Now that’s 2 reasons why you’d have not wanted her to die.

As the murder is shone, the clock rewinds to Mumbai and enter Shahid and kareena. Both in dire need of money, come across the prize for anybody who finds Isha’s baby boy. And also come across the kid. So they take it back to the parent and get implicated for the murder of Isha.

With a whole load of suspects and with none of them speaking the truth, Inspector Akshaye has a real hard time solving the murder. Though who committed the murder was a real mystery, it’s not that difficult to deduct if you’re a mystery fan and know the formula that the least talked about suspect generally ends up being the murderer. Paresh and Payal did a decent role IMO. Payal showing her ample curves looks real good in scenes that she’s present and not acting.
Johnny is a little loud for my liking and that part gets on to Paresh when the two meet. Kareena wears only mini skirts all through the movie and her toned body really shows off. If you’re a bebo fan and like to see her and hers you might like the movie. Excuse me, even that wasn’t a reason for me to like it. Akshaye as the inspector comes off ok though his assistant and his constant nagging about his wife would get to you sooner than you think.

Would anyone be wise enough to tell Himesh to only do the music and not sing almost every song available. Even with the music, I felt it’s getting a lot repetitive. And as is usual you won’t know why the movie has those songs. Two stupid songs in the span of 10 minutes very early in the movie seriously piss you off.

Final Word: I don’t find one reason why any sane person on a normal day would want to go and watch this movie. Even if you end up in a multiplex with tickets available only for this movie, believe me it’ll be a wise choice for you to turn around and head back where you are otherwise. Else if you have too much time with nothing else to do, like where I was, and not bothered about wasting a few hundred bucks this movie will help. It’s seriously a real waste.

Posted by Dinesh at 10:53 PM | | Comments

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Reserved against Reservations

A dumb SC/ST student whose father is an industrialist and has wealth enough to buy a college would get a post secondary education seat if his mark is poor say 50%, but if a brilliant person from the forward caste, say the son of a kurukkal a poor old brahmin, gets 90% he's still unsure whether he can study further. Thre goes the biggest paradox in democratic India. The paradox of "EQUALITY"..

The forward caste has been made the under previleged and the so called under previleged are so fortunate.. Welcome to Modern India where every political party makes such hue and cry abt abolition of caste system, but none have the balls to abolish reservation. Accepted that reservation was once necessary. But as is the case in this country a benefit once given can never be withdrawn and would continue till such time the world exists.. The world out there is competitive.. Make sure the competition is tapped.. When competitive seats available are lower than 50% of the total seats, ain't it taxing on the real competitive student. Any student who doesn't get in is so frustrated, that he goes abroad and never returns!! Did the HRD ministry ever think this is how it is really losing the "Resources".

The govt had plans of introducing employment reservation in private sector.. Watta joke.. If i were an industrialist all that i'm bothered is my employee works well. I cant have a dumb ass working for me just coz he was born in a backward caste. I would happily shift even to a communist country and tackle communism as a problem than tackle the resevation crap.. Am not talking abt acheivers here who work their ass off to climb up the ladder.. I'm talking abt losers who beleive in national policies, which can change with change in demography.. If ur caste loses ground to others who are vote banks, pity u, ur benefits could be withdrawn, coz ur trivial to the party needs.. Wake up and study..

Reservation based on caste system is probably the best form of demonstrating how effectively paries use caste.. The so called secular parties are no different..

Thats all i can crib, but there is a way out.. Reservations oughta exist.. But fix it on Economical Terms ie to base it on income and wealth.. Fix slabs of income and related reservation.. The problem of assesing the true income will still exist.. Link it to income tax and make sure whoever wants to claim reservation needs to file tax.. If there's still fraud god help ur tax department.. Abolish caste based reservation.. that is the first step to abolishing caste..
This helps in a lot of way.. a) Nobody would plan to earn less because their child gets reservations.. The basic motive is to earn more.. b) As u earn more ur reservation decreases and hence when ur not under previleged anymore ur reservation is phased out.. c)There is no discrimination between a poor SC and a poor brahmin.. If ur poor u get reservation depending on how poor u are.. d) Everybody has a right to education and a way to acheive it, coz nobody decides which caste they are born in.. e) U stop conversion as a technique to qualify for better benefits and so many more i can't think of at the moment and the associated problems are outnumbered by the pros..

Guess its high time we change and make Equality a reality..

Posted by Dinesh at 12:54 PM | | Comments

Friday, April 07, 2006

Shoddy hai Pehle



I finally saw the movie. Well it wasn’t worth the wait or the obnoxious ticket fare. Ayesha was probably pleasing on the eye, well thgh I dunno if fleshy means healthy and that’s what she’s trying to be. But the highlight of the movie was obviously Mallika “Sher”Ravan oops Rawat… Well she did act or well she did try (U can’t take her down on that count, she did show it all, I mean tried acting)

The movie did have a lot of firsts. The best one though was the fact that such a bad movie has never been made in the real old history of the movie industry. There were mobiles that play video all by themselves and just when the hero wants it. Is that how “Tele”pathy originated?? Interesting…. The movie also had two girls who can’t cry to save their lives. The movie was so sequentially well taken I almost forgot how the fastest two and one half hours of my life passed. (How much ever I wish am unable to believe that last statement)

The story obviously was a first. The hero a hypochondriac, overhears his doc talking on the phone on the anvil of his tests about cancer and assumes he is the one dying. (The movie killed about 125 people n all in just one screening) so he tries to ward off the heroine by acting like a loafer. Helped by the totally naturally clad mallika (nearly totally) he does manage to do that.

The breakup scene is the most beautifully picturised scene ever caught on camera. Ayesha trying to act and Akshaye trying to look perplexed and yet sad at the same time. I never knew one scene can bring out so many different emotions. I also need to mention how obvious a few dialogues were. Like for example when Akshaye plays the piano and mallika walks around and despite her brilliance asks him “Oh so u play the piano?” That scene was followed by the most unbelievable scene, mallika speaking a 5 min dialogue so emotionally that it brought a tear to my eye. Out of pity people, she tries so much yet can’t seem to do it.

Then it had the typical movie stuff. You can never understand why there are songs in the movie and when they come, why they do? A typical villain who always shouts some funny dialogue trying to look scary yet muttering funny dialogues. And of course u can never understand why the villain actually is there. The best part of the movie was the attitude people carried. For Example Mallika’s favourite “When am good am good, when I’m bad I’m better” I don’t know if there was any pun intended. If yes I agree on the pun.

And finally it all ends well. The best part about the movie was some shers that were really funny. And some really good jokes were also put in at intervals, the aggregate of which was about 15 mins n the movie. So if you’re so bored that you can wait 3 hours for the 15 minutes laughter I suggest you go watch it. Go watch it in theatres and not n VCD/DVD. Am sure the pirates would not find the movie worthy enough to pirate it properly.

Posted by Dinesh at 10:37 AM | | Comments

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Me a normal Chennaiite, like numerous others. But i have been awestruck by a lot of common things in relation to Chennai and more so Tamilnadu in general.

Like Politics for example. And filmdom. And how these 2 were always linked. How the ever shining (read whining) stars from the tinseltown always struck paydirt in politics. (Well some just did bite the dust, but lets discount them from this discussion) and more so by how some of these people made it big in tinseltown in the first place :-? Well some things have no explanations. Movies on animals or closely related to them have always been a hit with the tamil crowd. Maybe it's gotta do with their own reactions to a lot of things. Reactions that are inhuman in nature to say the least.

Well, this blog is an attempt at contempt and opinions of dismay as well as admiring how despite such evident not so right qualifications, how things are always right. How someone like Captain (Not dada, thgh he is close to being one such) can contest in elections? How enemies join hands for the common good of the people (yeah u read that right, thats what am told too)

Once there, then i would like to move up on the ladder to inconsistancies at the higher levels and on broader perspectives. This post is more a post to get things started. Else the blog doesn't exist on the map apparently. So my first few crawls towards thinking loud my perspectives.

Posted by Dinesh at 5:58 PM | | Comments