Interesting that I found the desi brand chai - Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea bags at Walmart @ 121 and Ohio, plano for $3.99 which is $2 cheaper than all the desi stores 😉
Monday, February 10, 2014
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Don 2 - music review by Koustubh Warty
Huge hangover from SRK's Don: the chase begins. First of all let me say that I've been looking forward to this movie since it was decided that a sequel was in the works. I am a huge fan of Farhan who has an amazing filmy brain and has the knack of what the viewers want to see.
- Aa raha hoon palat ke: We've all listened to SRK's voice in the trailers. He tries to speak in a slightly heavy tone and succeeds (unless you think that he is trying to immitate Big B)..nice!!
- Zara dil ko tham lo: Anusha Mani starts of the celebration of the return of the king and then Don (Vishal) going on about himself and his qualities! Typical SRK stuff! Strictly ok stuff.....
- Hai yeh Maya: Marks the return of Usha Uthup after a long time. Of course this is no ' Jeete hain Shaan se' but her vocals are perfectly suited for such a song. Cannot help feel the song starts and also ends with the techo beats of 'Aare deewano from the original Don'. Very clever from SEL team.... Excellent remix of this song with outstanding beats!
- Dushan mera: Sunitha Sarthi tries in vain to get into the Asha Bhosale mode and succeeds to an extent. Enter the male singer and the first thing that strikes is who is this wannabe Kishore Kumar singer ? Turns out to be none other than Shankar Mahadevan himself who messes up the song...would have been perfect to let either Amit Kumar or even Sumeet Kumar take on the reigns just to get that Kishore Kumar feel ;). This song ends with the fast paced Don's tune.
- Mujhko Pehchaan Lo Main Hun Don: KK gets his chance this time displacing Shaan (why??) in this eagerly awaited song. KK is known for his versatility and i am one if his biggest fans and here SEL get him to sing the title song in a very heavy voice without displaying any histronics! I have mixed feelings about this song.....there is a remix too which gets tedious hearing SRK's monotonous Don dialog.....
- The King is back (theme)A mixed bag of the above songs plus the trademark Don tune and SRK's Don chant (literally ).....not bad....
- The Don Waltz: Very interesting!!! Finally we get to hear the tune of the old golden days. Caralisa Monteiro gets a chance to hum a few words and thank you SEL for this composition though not sure where thus would appear in the movie.
- What's missing is a romantic song....but maybe there is no scope for that in the movie....
- I would have loved to see a much better soundtrack from SEL....
- P.S. Needless to say that I shall be watching this movie...first day and hopefully in 3D :)
Monday, October 26, 2009
All the Best and me, myself and my family
I am back which means that there is a new round of 'philum' review :) and the privileged movie is ....well..the title of this post should have been self-explanatory. Apologies for the buffonery but that's what my mood is since last night (10/21/2009) when I watched 'All the Best' at Hollywood Theaters in Irving, TX.
The last movie that I watched at a cinema hall was Kaminey (Aug 2009) with my parents who were visiting us. Indeed as is the case, we reached there 10 mins before the movie started and by that time the theater was 90% full and we had to watch it from the 3rd row :(. Well...but that's the past but getting back to the present....
Let's set the expectations straight...I am not going to give you the story in details since you can find that by just doing a search for the movie name in a search engine. But this is what I thought about the movie --
Expectations had sky rocketed from the Ajay Devgan/Rohit Shetty combo post their alliance with Golmaal, Sunday and Golmaal Returns. A bit of trivia here which not many people might know :) -- AD and RS have been friends since AD's first film Phool Aur Kaante which was 1991. Actually Rohit Shetty's first film was called Zameen (2003) with Ajay and Abhishek based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane which was a good action flick. Zooming into 2009, the very interesting thing that struck me before the release of the movie was that both RS and AD in their interviews said that they were pretty confident about this movie. They had made sure that there were no under the belt jokes and in every interview assured us that this is a complete family entertainer. So is it as they had promised us....Hell YES is what I can say after watching it. On the way to work yesterday I mentioned about this movie to Manjari (my wife) who said that we could go and watch it in the theater with our daughter who is 4 who seems to be a fan of bollywood naach gaana along with our 11 month old boy. Hmmm....somehow we were confident that our boy could make it thru the movie and YES he did by eating Popcorn, sleeping for sometime, drinking milk and looking at the audience in the hall laughing. We did not see any problem showing this movie to our kids! Thanks to RS for making a clean entertainer.
About the movie now -- The highlight of this movie is Sanjay Dutt able backed by everyone else. Almost all characters in this film were properly sketched out and with the only purpose of creating confusion and chaos in a very positive and effective way. I felt the role for Mugdha Godse was really short. Let's look at them real quick:
1. The mute 'Tobu' Johnny Lever (I think he is a welcome addition to the RS camp) who has a very interesting way of communicating
2. The 'aaya' Ashwini Kalsekar who speaks hindi in a South Indian accent
3. The 'RGV' Sanjay Mishra who brings the house down with his dialogs as well as 'just chill chill''
4. The 'dhondu' a typical Marathi character played by the lovable Atul Parchure who asks RGV his last name and when he hears 'Vakavle' he asks if it is 'Waakavle' (Marathi stuff here)
5. The 'muhawara giving' Asrani
6. The 'secretary' Mukesh Tiwari who has a hangover of his love from Golmaal series
7. The 'translator' Vijay Patkar who creates sentences from the clinking of a spoon and glass
The whole audience was in splits from start to the end. Sanjay Dutt is very lovable, Ajay seems to be getting his comic timing right, Bipasha looks good and Fardeen seems to excel in such supporting roles.
Songs do not seem to hamper the proceedings: The title track at the start, a unique stunt 'propose' by Ajay song, the Dil Kare and then Kyun do not seem out of track and simply flow along with the stories. RS seems to have realized this at Golmaal Returns which simply had 2 songs in addition to the title track. Here he goes one up above David dhawan who still thinks songs (even though out of place should be a part of his movies).
Disclaimer: If you think 'moronic playfulness is bad' and you'd rather be uptight then I don't think you will be able to enjoy this movie. I remember of a chapter in school which said 'Jeevanath Poorkhel chi gharaj asate'. If you do not agree with that view....there is a good chance you will not like this movie. If you want to leave you brains at home or in the office and just go and have FUN UNLIMITED then this is your ticket! As usual, please do not think and come up with why and what...that takes away the fun from such movies. Again if you think the scenes are very silly then surely yes they are and that is what the intent is and mostly it makes you laugh.
BTW....my only complaint about such movies is that before I get done laughing on a dialog or a scene the next one strikes and I am unable to savor that scene since I get hooked on the next comic scene/dialog. But I am not complaining with RS: Keep it coming our way...so what's next All the Best 2 or Golmaal 3? :) :)
Paisa Wasool, Family entertainer with loads of lively moments! Go for it!
- Koustubh
The last movie that I watched at a cinema hall was Kaminey (Aug 2009) with my parents who were visiting us. Indeed as is the case, we reached there 10 mins before the movie started and by that time the theater was 90% full and we had to watch it from the 3rd row :(. Well...but that's the past but getting back to the present....
Let's set the expectations straight...I am not going to give you the story in details since you can find that by just doing a search for the movie name in a search engine. But this is what I thought about the movie --
Expectations had sky rocketed from the Ajay Devgan/Rohit Shetty combo post their alliance with Golmaal, Sunday and Golmaal Returns. A bit of trivia here which not many people might know :) -- AD and RS have been friends since AD's first film Phool Aur Kaante which was 1991. Actually Rohit Shetty's first film was called Zameen (2003) with Ajay and Abhishek based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane which was a good action flick. Zooming into 2009, the very interesting thing that struck me before the release of the movie was that both RS and AD in their interviews said that they were pretty confident about this movie. They had made sure that there were no under the belt jokes and in every interview assured us that this is a complete family entertainer. So is it as they had promised us....Hell YES is what I can say after watching it. On the way to work yesterday I mentioned about this movie to Manjari (my wife) who said that we could go and watch it in the theater with our daughter who is 4 who seems to be a fan of bollywood naach gaana along with our 11 month old boy. Hmmm....somehow we were confident that our boy could make it thru the movie and YES he did by eating Popcorn, sleeping for sometime, drinking milk and looking at the audience in the hall laughing. We did not see any problem showing this movie to our kids! Thanks to RS for making a clean entertainer.
About the movie now -- The highlight of this movie is Sanjay Dutt able backed by everyone else. Almost all characters in this film were properly sketched out and with the only purpose of creating confusion and chaos in a very positive and effective way. I felt the role for Mugdha Godse was really short. Let's look at them real quick:
1. The mute 'Tobu' Johnny Lever (I think he is a welcome addition to the RS camp) who has a very interesting way of communicating
2. The 'aaya' Ashwini Kalsekar who speaks hindi in a South Indian accent
3. The 'RGV' Sanjay Mishra who brings the house down with his dialogs as well as 'just chill chill''
4. The 'dhondu' a typical Marathi character played by the lovable Atul Parchure who asks RGV his last name and when he hears 'Vakavle' he asks if it is 'Waakavle' (Marathi stuff here)
5. The 'muhawara giving' Asrani
6. The 'secretary' Mukesh Tiwari who has a hangover of his love from Golmaal series
7. The 'translator' Vijay Patkar who creates sentences from the clinking of a spoon and glass
The whole audience was in splits from start to the end. Sanjay Dutt is very lovable, Ajay seems to be getting his comic timing right, Bipasha looks good and Fardeen seems to excel in such supporting roles.
Songs do not seem to hamper the proceedings: The title track at the start, a unique stunt 'propose' by Ajay song, the Dil Kare and then Kyun do not seem out of track and simply flow along with the stories. RS seems to have realized this at Golmaal Returns which simply had 2 songs in addition to the title track. Here he goes one up above David dhawan who still thinks songs (even though out of place should be a part of his movies).
Disclaimer: If you think 'moronic playfulness is bad' and you'd rather be uptight then I don't think you will be able to enjoy this movie. I remember of a chapter in school which said 'Jeevanath Poorkhel chi gharaj asate'. If you do not agree with that view....there is a good chance you will not like this movie. If you want to leave you brains at home or in the office and just go and have FUN UNLIMITED then this is your ticket! As usual, please do not think and come up with why and what...that takes away the fun from such movies. Again if you think the scenes are very silly then surely yes they are and that is what the intent is and mostly it makes you laugh.
BTW....my only complaint about such movies is that before I get done laughing on a dialog or a scene the next one strikes and I am unable to savor that scene since I get hooked on the next comic scene/dialog. But I am not complaining with RS: Keep it coming our way...so what's next All the Best 2 or Golmaal 3? :) :)
Paisa Wasool, Family entertainer with loads of lively moments! Go for it!
- Koustubh
Friday, January 02, 2009
Review of Ghajini
Hey...I am back after a hiatus of almost 5 months with another review of a bollywood film called Ghajini. Well....why did I not review any other movie during the past few months? The reason being I did not feel any movie was upto that mark!! Morever I just review the movies that I watch at a cinema hall and not the ones I watch at home on a DVD.
So now you would assume that I did watch Ghajini in the cinema halls....right? You guessed it right...I watched it on Dec 31, 2008 @ 7 pm at the Hollywood Theaters in Irving, Texas. Before we get onto the actual movie review I would like to take a detour and mention the fact that I feel priviledged to be in a place like Dallas metroplex which can boast of the only South Asian Radio station that airs on FM round the clock which is 24x7x365. It's called Radio Salaam Namaste and before you jump to any conslusion, I am in no way associated with them :). It is owned by a company called as "Everest Heights" that is in the process of constructing the first ever South Asian mall in US. More info on this can be viewed at http://www.everestheights.com/.
Back to the movie....This being the last movie to 2008 there were lots of expections from Ghajini. To top it all it was Aamir Khan's first movie of 2008 and as usual we all expect something different from him over the past few years and for which he delivers consistently. Ever since the first promo was released with Aamir in his 8-pack abs, there has been this kind of curiousity that we have not seen in Bollywood for the past few years. The think-tank of Ghajini also released the video of Aamir Khan building his body over a period of 13 months which is pretty much evident on screen.
Aamir in this interviews classifies this film as an Action film....but I would differ on his view. It is a complete Bollywood masala package which includes romance, action, comedy and is by all means a thriller. Aamir suffering from a short-term memory loss and that he can only remember only for 15 mins and the way he tries to cope up with this shortcoming has been remarkably illustrated on screen by the director. Of course it is a revenge saga...but has been treated in a 'different' way. The story has a lot of conviction and also the potential to keep the viewers engrossed. As usual I will dwell on the various aspects on Ghajini in the forthcoming lines ....readon ......
The director & writer: A R Murugadoss -- He has a story that capivated the audiences from the start to the end. I really do not care if he picked up the story of Memento but from what I saw was a splendid direction from him. In one of his interviews he heard him say that this is his 5th film (first in Hindi). Aamir had infact recommended Salman Khan for this role. But what Murugadoss told Aamir was that if Salman does it then it would be just like any other film but if Aamir does it then it would be different and now I know what he meant by that. Hats off to the director for making this movie engrossing inspite of it being 3 hrs long. I have heard people say its better than the Tamil original version which very well could be the truth since the last 30 mins of the hindi version was totally changed as compared to the Tamil version.
The actor: Aamir Khan -- He is not called "Mr. Perfectionist" for nothing. He delivers an incredible performance which needs a standing applause. After watching the film I realized that this may be his first movie ever where he seems to deliver more with his eyes and his body expressions than his dialogs. I hardly remember him talking throughout the movie. First rate performance does he deliver and Aamir does know when to flash his well-known smile/smirk when romancing Asin in the movie. Aamir has never looked so good in the past few years. I remember his jaded face in Rang De Basanti or even Fanaa where I was like 'what the heck has happened to him??". All those things are history now and he looks as fresh as ever and with his well toned body he rocks!!
The actress: Asin -- Wow...what a debut film for Asin in Bollywood!! To top it off, it's with Aamir Khan ...what more can an actress wish for! She seems to have this great presence on the screen along with an infectious smile which keeps a kind of joy on the audiences faces when she is on the screen. Her dresses are awesome and she looks great in bright dresses....e.g a red dress. She provides us with a very good performance from the start to end and makes her presence felt. As in fact as I mentioned above, she is doing most of the talking even when Aamir shares the screen with her. She seems to have no problems talking in Hindi and she looks very good in the songs in which she is a part of.
The Villian: Pradeep Rawat -- Hmmm..does this name ring a bell? Not really but I am sure if you see a lot of hindi films then you will recognize this person. He was also a part of the famous Lagaan team. Incidently he plays the same character in the hindi version that he played in the Tamil version of Mr. Ghajini. He does a pretty good job while some may argue that a better known person might have suited more to this role but......never the less he does a good job. I read somewhere that during the filming of the Tamil version, it was Pradeep who had recommended Murugadoss to approach Aamir Khan with this story and the rest I can say is History!
The maestro: A R Rehman -- Wow is the word I would use to describe his compositions for Ghajini. He did not pick a single song from the original version. Well....he was not the music director for the original version and he comes up a winner with the songs. Behka, Guzarish, Bacchi, Latoo, etc very instantly liked by your truely the very first time....hmmm...wait a second. That is not what happens with Rehman's hindi tunes....one has to literally listen to them a lot of times before they catch up on you. Nice songs and excellent cinematography which makes the songs extremely watchable on screen.
The Songs --
1. Aye Bachhoo: Suzanne renders this song as only she can. This is an song that is exactly after 30 mins into the movie which introduces Asin to us and is nicely picturized with various bright colors which makes the song extremely watchable. Mind you courtesy of lots of make up on Asin her real face is seen only in the scenes to follow.
2. Behka: Karthik (I don't know who he is but...) is the singer here who sings this with a lot of ease and is easy on ears. This song is exactly 25 mins after the Bachhoo song. I simply loved the picturization of this song with a vibrant colors which brings out the real mood of Aamir in this song. Fabulous ....and we are not yet at Guzarish :)
3. Latoo: Shreya Ghosal sings this and is evolving as a versatile singer (remember Ahista Ahista from Bachke Aye Haseeno). This song is 24 mins after the previous Behka song picturized on Jiah Khan. A very important note here is that this song if I remember correctly is only a filler and not even the first paragraph is shown since the story moves ahead and does not act as a hiindrance. Great editing if I may say.....
4. Guzarish: Javed Ali (the man behind Nagada Nagada song) is in charge here. Interestingly this song starts with Sonu Nigan humming and then Javed Ali takes this song to altogether different level. This song is 24 mins after the previous song and is the highlight of the film. As with the other songs the picturization is fabulous and Aamir Khan with his 8 packs rocks this song with able support from Asin. Again great locations and awesome photography!
5. Kaise Mujhe tum: Benny and Shreya render this song is a sober way which is meant to reflect the mood of the actor. Again this song just keeps the story moving and is not a hindrance :).
The Lyricist: Prasoon Joshi -- Hmmm...why am I not surprised to see Prasoon once again when Aamir Khan is related to a film. This cannot be a mere coincidence. Let's look at something here -- Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par and Ghajini. What's common in these films? All are Aamir Khan films and surprise surprise all have lyrics by Prasoon Joshi :) !!! Once again Prasoon comes up with wonderful lyrics and keeps his successful association of hits with Aamir Khan!
Closing comments -- It's wonderful to see such a nice thriller made in Bollywood. Of course there was one such not long ago called "A Wednesday" which ofcourse was a classic in itself. There is some violence which might not be good for kids but mostly the film is viewable by all audiences. Ghajini being remade in Hindi along with the climax of the movie (about 30 mins) being different in itself is a huge thing. I read some comments about the Tamil hero Surya who acted as the lead role in the original version that he loved the new climax better than the one from his own movie. He also said that he had to convince Aamir for this role which I think suits Aamir to a T. Hats off the "Mr. Perfectionist" for giving us another treat in form of Ghajini. Please watch it at the cinema hall ...it's more than worth it.
Next for Aamir Khan: I am now eagerly awaiting the release of his next film "3 Idiots" to be directed by Munnabhai fame "Raju Hirani".......Keep them coming Aamir. BTW...how about a sequel to Andaz Apna Apna? :)
Signing off.....Koustubh Warty
So now you would assume that I did watch Ghajini in the cinema halls....right? You guessed it right...I watched it on Dec 31, 2008 @ 7 pm at the Hollywood Theaters in Irving, Texas. Before we get onto the actual movie review I would like to take a detour and mention the fact that I feel priviledged to be in a place like Dallas metroplex which can boast of the only South Asian Radio station that airs on FM round the clock which is 24x7x365. It's called Radio Salaam Namaste and before you jump to any conslusion, I am in no way associated with them :). It is owned by a company called as "Everest Heights" that is in the process of constructing the first ever South Asian mall in US. More info on this can be viewed at http://www.everestheights.com/.
Back to the movie....This being the last movie to 2008 there were lots of expections from Ghajini. To top it all it was Aamir Khan's first movie of 2008 and as usual we all expect something different from him over the past few years and for which he delivers consistently. Ever since the first promo was released with Aamir in his 8-pack abs, there has been this kind of curiousity that we have not seen in Bollywood for the past few years. The think-tank of Ghajini also released the video of Aamir Khan building his body over a period of 13 months which is pretty much evident on screen.
Aamir in this interviews classifies this film as an Action film....but I would differ on his view. It is a complete Bollywood masala package which includes romance, action, comedy and is by all means a thriller. Aamir suffering from a short-term memory loss and that he can only remember only for 15 mins and the way he tries to cope up with this shortcoming has been remarkably illustrated on screen by the director. Of course it is a revenge saga...but has been treated in a 'different' way. The story has a lot of conviction and also the potential to keep the viewers engrossed. As usual I will dwell on the various aspects on Ghajini in the forthcoming lines ....readon ......
The director & writer: A R Murugadoss -- He has a story that capivated the audiences from the start to the end. I really do not care if he picked up the story of Memento but from what I saw was a splendid direction from him. In one of his interviews he heard him say that this is his 5th film (first in Hindi). Aamir had infact recommended Salman Khan for this role. But what Murugadoss told Aamir was that if Salman does it then it would be just like any other film but if Aamir does it then it would be different and now I know what he meant by that. Hats off to the director for making this movie engrossing inspite of it being 3 hrs long. I have heard people say its better than the Tamil original version which very well could be the truth since the last 30 mins of the hindi version was totally changed as compared to the Tamil version.
The actor: Aamir Khan -- He is not called "Mr. Perfectionist" for nothing. He delivers an incredible performance which needs a standing applause. After watching the film I realized that this may be his first movie ever where he seems to deliver more with his eyes and his body expressions than his dialogs. I hardly remember him talking throughout the movie. First rate performance does he deliver and Aamir does know when to flash his well-known smile/smirk when romancing Asin in the movie. Aamir has never looked so good in the past few years. I remember his jaded face in Rang De Basanti or even Fanaa where I was like 'what the heck has happened to him??". All those things are history now and he looks as fresh as ever and with his well toned body he rocks!!
The actress: Asin -- Wow...what a debut film for Asin in Bollywood!! To top it off, it's with Aamir Khan ...what more can an actress wish for! She seems to have this great presence on the screen along with an infectious smile which keeps a kind of joy on the audiences faces when she is on the screen. Her dresses are awesome and she looks great in bright dresses....e.g a red dress. She provides us with a very good performance from the start to end and makes her presence felt. As in fact as I mentioned above, she is doing most of the talking even when Aamir shares the screen with her. She seems to have no problems talking in Hindi and she looks very good in the songs in which she is a part of.
The Villian: Pradeep Rawat -- Hmmm..does this name ring a bell? Not really but I am sure if you see a lot of hindi films then you will recognize this person. He was also a part of the famous Lagaan team. Incidently he plays the same character in the hindi version that he played in the Tamil version of Mr. Ghajini. He does a pretty good job while some may argue that a better known person might have suited more to this role but......never the less he does a good job. I read somewhere that during the filming of the Tamil version, it was Pradeep who had recommended Murugadoss to approach Aamir Khan with this story and the rest I can say is History!
The maestro: A R Rehman -- Wow is the word I would use to describe his compositions for Ghajini. He did not pick a single song from the original version. Well....he was not the music director for the original version and he comes up a winner with the songs. Behka, Guzarish, Bacchi, Latoo, etc very instantly liked by your truely the very first time....hmmm...wait a second. That is not what happens with Rehman's hindi tunes....one has to literally listen to them a lot of times before they catch up on you. Nice songs and excellent cinematography which makes the songs extremely watchable on screen.
The Songs --
1. Aye Bachhoo: Suzanne renders this song as only she can. This is an song that is exactly after 30 mins into the movie which introduces Asin to us and is nicely picturized with various bright colors which makes the song extremely watchable. Mind you courtesy of lots of make up on Asin her real face is seen only in the scenes to follow.
2. Behka: Karthik (I don't know who he is but...) is the singer here who sings this with a lot of ease and is easy on ears. This song is exactly 25 mins after the Bachhoo song. I simply loved the picturization of this song with a vibrant colors which brings out the real mood of Aamir in this song. Fabulous ....and we are not yet at Guzarish :)
3. Latoo: Shreya Ghosal sings this and is evolving as a versatile singer (remember Ahista Ahista from Bachke Aye Haseeno). This song is 24 mins after the previous Behka song picturized on Jiah Khan. A very important note here is that this song if I remember correctly is only a filler and not even the first paragraph is shown since the story moves ahead and does not act as a hiindrance. Great editing if I may say.....
4. Guzarish: Javed Ali (the man behind Nagada Nagada song) is in charge here. Interestingly this song starts with Sonu Nigan humming and then Javed Ali takes this song to altogether different level. This song is 24 mins after the previous song and is the highlight of the film. As with the other songs the picturization is fabulous and Aamir Khan with his 8 packs rocks this song with able support from Asin. Again great locations and awesome photography!
5. Kaise Mujhe tum: Benny and Shreya render this song is a sober way which is meant to reflect the mood of the actor. Again this song just keeps the story moving and is not a hindrance :).
The Lyricist: Prasoon Joshi -- Hmmm...why am I not surprised to see Prasoon once again when Aamir Khan is related to a film. This cannot be a mere coincidence. Let's look at something here -- Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par and Ghajini. What's common in these films? All are Aamir Khan films and surprise surprise all have lyrics by Prasoon Joshi :) !!! Once again Prasoon comes up with wonderful lyrics and keeps his successful association of hits with Aamir Khan!
Closing comments -- It's wonderful to see such a nice thriller made in Bollywood. Of course there was one such not long ago called "A Wednesday" which ofcourse was a classic in itself. There is some violence which might not be good for kids but mostly the film is viewable by all audiences. Ghajini being remade in Hindi along with the climax of the movie (about 30 mins) being different in itself is a huge thing. I read some comments about the Tamil hero Surya who acted as the lead role in the original version that he loved the new climax better than the one from his own movie. He also said that he had to convince Aamir for this role which I think suits Aamir to a T. Hats off the "Mr. Perfectionist" for giving us another treat in form of Ghajini. Please watch it at the cinema hall ...it's more than worth it.
Next for Aamir Khan: I am now eagerly awaiting the release of his next film "3 Idiots" to be directed by Munnabhai fame "Raju Hirani".......Keep them coming Aamir. BTW...how about a sequel to Andaz Apna Apna? :)
Signing off.....Koustubh Warty
Friday, August 08, 2008
Review of Singh is Kinng
To say that Singh is Kinng is one of the most anticipated movies of 2008 is an understatement. First of all understand that this review contains the review of the movie without actually going into the frame by frame details which you can find on any other website.
What does a common man need to see when he spends his hard-earned money? Of course dhammal and masala entertainment. I for one would prefer that anyday over serious movies which I can watch on a DVD :). I want a paisa-wasool entertainer in the mould of say Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Priyadarshan or even David Dhawan. Before the previous line ticks of any debate, let me be clear that I am not trying to compare the 3 directors mentioned.
So does Singh Is Kinng give me what I am looking for?? Read on....
I for one watches this movie yesterday in Irving, Texas on a thursday on the 8:00 show which is even before the movie was released in India....don't ask me how/why but that's the case :). I went there with my wife and also my 3 yr old daugther who is a fan of such masala songs and wants to hear the Singh Is Kinng songs in the car...anyways now onto the movie --
Most of you would be familiar with the story of the movie which is the hero goes from Punjab to Australia to bring one of his villagers who is a King (Don). Ok...so onto the characters -
Akshay fits the role of Happy Singh to a T. He has played such roles before and this one is another feather in his cap. His comic timing and his screen presence reminds me of only person that Bollywood has ever known as the real king which is (not Shahrukh unfortunately) but of the Big B when people used to flock to cinemas (before and during the start of the VCR era). Oh...yes that is a big statement but he is awesome and I don't see anyone really doing it better than him (including Shahrukh) ....
Katrina looks amazingly beautiful on the screen. The amazing combo of Akshay and Katrina is at their best once again. Katrina has a lot of English lines that she is comfortable with and her role is justified from the fact that in this movie she is from brought-up in Australia.
Soonu Sood is an actor we saw in Jodha Akbar in the role of 'Sujamal'. Here he is the main King in Australia. Notice his scenes rock and brings life to the movie when Akshay is in front of him :).
Om Puri as we all know is an excellent actor (remember his scenes in Hera Pheri) is Akshay's friend who goes to Australia and another country (won't give out the secret here). Unforuantely he is pushed out of the movie in the second half and not fully utilized but I guess there is a reason for it which is next.
Javed Jaffrey, Kamal Chopra, Yashpal Sharma, Sudhanshu Pandey, Neha Dhupia all as the King's men and woman have their own scenes of realization and that is why Om Puri gets.....as mentioned above
Kiron Kher, Ranvir Shorey are good and make up as the fillers for the story to proceed.
Music and songs are zabardast as follows in the order they appear in the movie -
1. Bhootni ke: Mika Singh's tiger remix is used in the movie rather than Daler Mehndi's but chalta hai...bhai bhai mein. Not sure why this one was preferred over the other one
2. Jee Karda: Labh Janjua and Suzanne (Mahiya fame) bring a nice fusion of western and desi
lines and the song looks good on screen
3. Bas Ek Kinng: Mika is back with Neeraj Shreedhar (who is Pritam's lucky charm) and as
expected input from Hard Kaur who seems to be all over these days. The song has been a big hit since the audio release and the picturization is awesome! Hard Kaur's lines are lipped by Neha Dhupia.
4. Talli Hua: Again Labh Janjua and Neeraj Shreedhar take on the dance floor in a disco which
Akshay and Katrina dance to...nice picturization
5. Teri Ore: a melodious song sung effectively by Rahat Fateh Ali Kh anand Shreya Ghosa. Since this song is towards the end, the director realized the importance of keeping this song to a
minimum and only one paragraph which is excellent bit of editing. Interestingly this song seems to be picturized in Egypt while the previous and next scenes are in Australia......
6. Singh is Kinng: isn't that we all were waiting for? As per the trend we see Akshay and Snoop D-o-g-g rap to this song in only half the screen while the bottom half is the ending credits. An
amalgamtion of desi punjabi music and hip-hop at its best!! That leaves us wanting to see more
and in full screen just like I would have liked to watch may of Askhay's other songs in the past
years.
Finally a few words about Pritam who seems to have mastered the Punjabi music after his success of Jab We Met. This is a fabulous album composition that blends in great with the picturization of the songs which is lavish in nature and the director has left no stone unturned to make this a success. Pritam seems to climb one success ladder after another. Kind of reminds me of Himesh Reshamiya from a couple of years back where everything he touched turned gold!
Now what about the director Annes Baznee? He is come a long way in terms of directing films from Pyar to hoona hi tha to No Entry to Welcome and now this one. He is a real king who needs to be saluted as well!!
Vipul Shah's friendship with Akshay is well known and they have had a series of hits which prompts them to work together. He seems to have a very good mind for scripts and directors! Keep up the good work Vipul!
Action sequences are good but not great. It kind of reminded me of Akki's action sequences in the yester-years when he did his Khiladi films (most recent would be Khiladi 420...remember his airplane scene)
Paisa-wasool factor: Reading this review you would have guessed that it is indeed a ful-to-timepass film with witty dialogs. The editing is done at a fast pace and movie transcends rapidly across its frames. Most importantly there is no vulgarity which would automatically qualify it as a 'family film'. I heard some people say after the movie that this was a Punjabi movie which I beg to differ since I could understand each and every word of what was said in the movie. So basically the mantra is leave your brains home and get ready for a big ride of fun and frolic. Make way for the new entertainer Akshay Kumar who proves himself with hits after hits. Let's not get into the argument about Tashan (if you know what I mean!). Also the movie moves at a fast pace and one keeps longing for more and more. Before you can digest a scene and finish chuckling on a dialog you come across another one.
Last but not the least I loved the fact the before the movie started there was "Jana Gana Mana" India's national anthem which prompt everyone to stand-up. Once that was done we had quite a few folks appreciating this happening!
What this movie stays away from: First and foremost it does not really preach about being a good person. It is just that our hero Happy Singh is that way. There is a "Ma" factor but it is not hammered upon a lot. Then there are a few scenes with the King's hunchmen that you feel could get a bit serious but they are never stretched to an extent where you get bored. None of the songs seem like they are forced upon and I did not notice anyone leaving the hall during the songs except yours truely who thought that it "Jee Karda" was a good time to grab Samosas, popcorn and hotdog for the family.
Bonus: Trailer of a couple of movies...
1. Chandni Chowk To China for which rumours are that it is a real story based on Akshay Kumar's life
2. Kidnap which stars Sanjay Dutt and Imraan Khan who plays a negative role. The promos looked refreshing fresh and towards the end I realized that the director is Sanjay Gadhvi (Dhoom series fame).
Koustubh's rating: I would give it a 4.5 but let me clarify this. I cannot think of what could make it a 5 star rating ;)
What does a common man need to see when he spends his hard-earned money? Of course dhammal and masala entertainment. I for one would prefer that anyday over serious movies which I can watch on a DVD :). I want a paisa-wasool entertainer in the mould of say Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Priyadarshan or even David Dhawan. Before the previous line ticks of any debate, let me be clear that I am not trying to compare the 3 directors mentioned.
So does Singh Is Kinng give me what I am looking for?? Read on....
I for one watches this movie yesterday in Irving, Texas on a thursday on the 8:00 show which is even before the movie was released in India....don't ask me how/why but that's the case :). I went there with my wife and also my 3 yr old daugther who is a fan of such masala songs and wants to hear the Singh Is Kinng songs in the car...anyways now onto the movie --
Most of you would be familiar with the story of the movie which is the hero goes from Punjab to Australia to bring one of his villagers who is a King (Don). Ok...so onto the characters -
Akshay fits the role of Happy Singh to a T. He has played such roles before and this one is another feather in his cap. His comic timing and his screen presence reminds me of only person that Bollywood has ever known as the real king which is (not Shahrukh unfortunately) but of the Big B when people used to flock to cinemas (before and during the start of the VCR era). Oh...yes that is a big statement but he is awesome and I don't see anyone really doing it better than him (including Shahrukh) ....
Katrina looks amazingly beautiful on the screen. The amazing combo of Akshay and Katrina is at their best once again. Katrina has a lot of English lines that she is comfortable with and her role is justified from the fact that in this movie she is from brought-up in Australia.
Soonu Sood is an actor we saw in Jodha Akbar in the role of 'Sujamal'. Here he is the main King in Australia. Notice his scenes rock and brings life to the movie when Akshay is in front of him :).
Om Puri as we all know is an excellent actor (remember his scenes in Hera Pheri) is Akshay's friend who goes to Australia and another country (won't give out the secret here). Unforuantely he is pushed out of the movie in the second half and not fully utilized but I guess there is a reason for it which is next.
Javed Jaffrey, Kamal Chopra, Yashpal Sharma, Sudhanshu Pandey, Neha Dhupia all as the King's men and woman have their own scenes of realization and that is why Om Puri gets.....as mentioned above
Kiron Kher, Ranvir Shorey are good and make up as the fillers for the story to proceed.
Music and songs are zabardast as follows in the order they appear in the movie -
1. Bhootni ke: Mika Singh's tiger remix is used in the movie rather than Daler Mehndi's but chalta hai...bhai bhai mein. Not sure why this one was preferred over the other one
2. Jee Karda: Labh Janjua and Suzanne (Mahiya fame) bring a nice fusion of western and desi
lines and the song looks good on screen
3. Bas Ek Kinng: Mika is back with Neeraj Shreedhar (who is Pritam's lucky charm) and as
expected input from Hard Kaur who seems to be all over these days. The song has been a big hit since the audio release and the picturization is awesome! Hard Kaur's lines are lipped by Neha Dhupia.
4. Talli Hua: Again Labh Janjua and Neeraj Shreedhar take on the dance floor in a disco which
Akshay and Katrina dance to...nice picturization
5. Teri Ore: a melodious song sung effectively by Rahat Fateh Ali Kh anand Shreya Ghosa. Since this song is towards the end, the director realized the importance of keeping this song to a
minimum and only one paragraph which is excellent bit of editing. Interestingly this song seems to be picturized in Egypt while the previous and next scenes are in Australia......
6. Singh is Kinng: isn't that we all were waiting for? As per the trend we see Akshay and Snoop D-o-g-g rap to this song in only half the screen while the bottom half is the ending credits. An
amalgamtion of desi punjabi music and hip-hop at its best!! That leaves us wanting to see more
and in full screen just like I would have liked to watch may of Askhay's other songs in the past
years.
Finally a few words about Pritam who seems to have mastered the Punjabi music after his success of Jab We Met. This is a fabulous album composition that blends in great with the picturization of the songs which is lavish in nature and the director has left no stone unturned to make this a success. Pritam seems to climb one success ladder after another. Kind of reminds me of Himesh Reshamiya from a couple of years back where everything he touched turned gold!
Now what about the director Annes Baznee? He is come a long way in terms of directing films from Pyar to hoona hi tha to No Entry to Welcome and now this one. He is a real king who needs to be saluted as well!!
Vipul Shah's friendship with Akshay is well known and they have had a series of hits which prompts them to work together. He seems to have a very good mind for scripts and directors! Keep up the good work Vipul!
Action sequences are good but not great. It kind of reminded me of Akki's action sequences in the yester-years when he did his Khiladi films (most recent would be Khiladi 420...remember his airplane scene)
Paisa-wasool factor: Reading this review you would have guessed that it is indeed a ful-to-timepass film with witty dialogs. The editing is done at a fast pace and movie transcends rapidly across its frames. Most importantly there is no vulgarity which would automatically qualify it as a 'family film'. I heard some people say after the movie that this was a Punjabi movie which I beg to differ since I could understand each and every word of what was said in the movie. So basically the mantra is leave your brains home and get ready for a big ride of fun and frolic. Make way for the new entertainer Akshay Kumar who proves himself with hits after hits. Let's not get into the argument about Tashan (if you know what I mean!). Also the movie moves at a fast pace and one keeps longing for more and more. Before you can digest a scene and finish chuckling on a dialog you come across another one.
Last but not the least I loved the fact the before the movie started there was "Jana Gana Mana" India's national anthem which prompt everyone to stand-up. Once that was done we had quite a few folks appreciating this happening!
What this movie stays away from: First and foremost it does not really preach about being a good person. It is just that our hero Happy Singh is that way. There is a "Ma" factor but it is not hammered upon a lot. Then there are a few scenes with the King's hunchmen that you feel could get a bit serious but they are never stretched to an extent where you get bored. None of the songs seem like they are forced upon and I did not notice anyone leaving the hall during the songs except yours truely who thought that it "Jee Karda" was a good time to grab Samosas, popcorn and hotdog for the family.
Bonus: Trailer of a couple of movies...
1. Chandni Chowk To China for which rumours are that it is a real story based on Akshay Kumar's life
2. Kidnap which stars Sanjay Dutt and Imraan Khan who plays a negative role. The promos looked refreshing fresh and towards the end I realized that the director is Sanjay Gadhvi (Dhoom series fame).
Koustubh's rating: I would give it a 4.5 but let me clarify this. I cannot think of what could make it a 5 star rating ;)
Monday, May 01, 2006
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Sri Lanka thrassed 6-1
OMG......I still cannot believe this. Indian Cricket that was down and out since after the historic Pakistan tour has suddenly come to life from the start of this India vs. Sri Lanka series. All this is attributed to the youngters in the team and also the new combination of Dravid and Chappel.
For those people who keep on continuously questioning Sachin's contribution and his role in the team can now hopefully see, that it was he who set the tone for this series in the first 2 matches.
Later.....
- Koustubh
For those people who keep on continuously questioning Sachin's contribution and his role in the team can now hopefully see, that it was he who set the tone for this series in the first 2 matches.
Later.....
- Koustubh
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