Archive for the Category »A R Rahman «

Dec

After 24/7 promotions, continuous interviews, and giving youth the Ghajini hairstyle by acting as a barber, Aamir Khan’s most awaited and commercial movie till date, Ghajini, finally got released. Now, the hype around the movie was superb, full marks to the marketing team of Ghajini for that. So, the question is, does it leave to the hype? No, I don’t think so.

There is a lot of discussion going around if Ghajini is a copy of Memento, and believe me, it is. And we’ll talk about it in the end of the post. But first, let me give you a quick review because I’ll forget everything in 15 minutes just like Aamir Khan in the movie.

Story is about a business tycoon, Sanjay Singhania (Aamir Khan), who is suffering from anterograde amnesia, and is looking for revenge, why? Well, because his girlfriend, Kalpana (Asin) was murdered by the villain guy, Ghajini. As you can see there is nothing special in the story department.

Let’s talk about the treatment of the movie. It’s clearly following the Tamil Cinema where action is over the top and our hero can beat anyone, no matter how many they are, you know Rajnikanth style, as popularly known to Bollywood audience. This is the very first mistake of this movie.

Director of the movie, A. R. Murugadoss, is a South Indian movie director, and he thinks that this type of stuff will work in Bollywood, but sorry to say sir, we’re not living in the 80s anymore. We want some real action, and not this non-sense.

This brings me to the villain, Ghajini (Pradeep Rawat), wearing white pants and jewelry. I mean, c’mon! When Hollywood is giving us cool villains like The Joker, here we have a moron Ghajini, who can’t even fight the hero. We really need a better quality of criminals. The scenes which were supposed to be intense drama, were the ones in which people were laughing. That explains a lot!

The main problem of Ghajini is the incorrect presentation of the disease, anterograde amnesia. The thing which is the main plot point of the story is the weakest link of the movie. There is no consistence in portraying the disease. Sanjay can forget things anytime he wants, irrespective of the limited time frame that is 15 minutes. For example; he can spend more than 15 minutes killing the bad guys but will forget what he is doing only after he killed all of them.

Biggest loophole

Story is filled with loopholes. In the movie, they show us that Aamir doesn’t remember the death of Asin and he only comes to know about it when he reads the tattoos on his body. Fair enough. But the problem arises in the long run.

Now, if we go by the disease, he should forget about her death every 15 minutes, but he doesn’t. He should remind himself every 15 minutes that his girlfriend got murdered. But NO! He’ll forget everything but not this. He’ll forget it only when he sleeps. What kind of BS is this?

And the last scene, how can he remember that his girlfriend is no more? He is happy, enjoying a birthday party, even forgetting the girl who helped her, but doesn’t forget that Asin is no more. As I said earlier, there is no consistency in the disease. Ghajini falls flat when it comes to some logic.

Music is average and songs are forced. If you leave out Kaise Mujhe, there is not one song which comes out natural. The only saving grace of the movie is the love story of Aamir Khan and Asin. It’s simple, innocent and beautiful. For me, it’s the second best love story of 2008 after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Performances

Now let’s talk about the performances. Aamir Khan did all he can do to save this film. He put all of his efforts but there is still lacking the punch. He scores 100 out of 100 for the love story part but when it comes to action, sorry to say, he looks like a Sunny Deol wannabe.

Screaming, running and beating up the guys, no emotions as such. Well, I respect Aamir for his acting and his choice of roles but this time, he got it totally wrong. I know you want to do commercial cinema, but check out some good scripts in lieu of this trash. You’re not Akshay Kumar, so leave the brainless stuff to him.

Asin the best part of Ghajini, people totally loved her. She has a great future in Bollywood because she has a great control over Hindi and her expressions are natural. There will be a tough fight for best debut actress awards this year.

Was there Jiah Khan too in the movie? Damn, this 15 minute thing is really catching up to me. Now, I can see why she was not in the promotions. No acting skills, poor dialogue delivery, another Katrina Kaif wannabe.

Comparison of Memento and Ghajini

As I promised, let’s see how Ghajini and Memento are similar. People, who haven’t seen Memento, please don’t bother replying to this part because you don’t know what you’re dealing with.

Ghajini steals all the main plot points of Memento i.e. Anterograde Amnesia, hero seeking revenge, murder of his love, maps on the wall, a girl helping the hero, and not to forget the Polaroid Camera, they didn’t even bother to change the camera, so stupid! Now if you don’t call it stealing the idea of the movie then I don’t know what you call it.

For those who’ll say that the treatment is different in Ghajini then let me give you an example. Consider an exam and one student is copying answers from another student and then suddenly, teacher catches him. To his defense he says that, “Teacher, our answers maybe same but our hand writing or presentation is different.”

This is what the director and Aamir Khan is doing. A. R. Murugadoss said that he just read the plot line of Memento or saw the trailer and then wrote his script. Well sir, tomorrow you’ll also say that you just heard the name of Memento and wrote a script of your own and surprisingly, it had a lot of similarities. Give us a break!

You can just totally copy “Hitch” and make it “Partner” or thousands of other Hollywood movies into Bollywood but not Memento. Memento is an all time classic and people from all over the globe respects it a lot. Check out imdb.com rating for Memento, you’ll find out yourself.

I’m pissed off because it’ll give such a bad name to Bollywood when people from other countries watch it.

I’m more worried about Christopher Nolan, the guy who made Memento and The Dark Knight. This movie will surely make a bad impression about Bollywood on him. Ok, fine, you copied the movie then at least have the decency to give the credit to Nolan brothers for working so hard over the script. Shameful!!

One thing to Mr. A. R. Murugadoss, you can copy the movie and claim it to be yours but you can never match the respect that Nolan has, not even in your wildest dreams. And please, don’t come to Bollywood with this trash.

Verdict

Ghajini is your total masala film, with all the elements in one package. The script is fully flawed and makes no sense. Aamir Khan really tries to save this film with his superb acting but Ghajini works only because of Asin. If you take out her from the movie then there is nothing left in the movie. A. R. Murugadoss really needs a movie making lesson in Bollywood otherwise there is no future.

In short, Ghajini is dumbness at its best.

For those people who think that this movie is too good then do yourself a favor and watch Memento. You’ll come to know what real movie making is all about. I’m giving the link to IMDB page of Memento below the post so that you can check out the reaction of the public and the ratings.

IMDB Page – Memento

Rating –

Cast – Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan

Music Director – A. R. Rahman

Movie Director – A. R. Murugadoss

Post your comments, reviews and suggestions in the comment box below and I’ll reply to them and vote in the poll.

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Nov

Ghajini Music Review

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Ghajini Movie Review – 2 stars

Ghajini is, indubitably, Aamir Khan’s most awaited project till date and he has done a great job in promoting the movie till now, but the trailer didn’t seem to have the excitement which is required for an action film, and if reports are to be believed, it’ll surpass every action movie made till date. But those are just reports, so we can’t trust them much.

We’re here to review the soundtrack of Ghajini, which quite surprisingly released only a month before the release date. Well, I think that’s because Aamir Khan was not sure about the songs because they are not really good. Soundtrack of Ghajini comprises of 6 tracks, 5 originals and with one instrumental. Just like Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, A. R. Rahman tried to concentrate on originals rather than remixes.

Here is the song by song review of Ghajini

1. Guzarish

Guzarish, the song which was released in the trailer of the movie as the background score, and also the first song promo to be released from the album, is a soothing experience. Melody of the song is really smooth and simple, A. R. Rahman style, and the lyrics are above average. Sung by Javed Ali, the man behind the hit, Jashn-E-Bahaara, from Jodhaa Akbar, is not a good choice for this song and guest vocals are by Sonu Nigam. If you’ve Sonu Nigam in the song, who is doing more justice to the song just by “humming” then you should give the whole song to Sonu.

I’m not saying song is below standard or something, but the only thing that I’m pointing here is Javed doesn’t feel like a good choice as it doesn’t suit his voice. Sonu Nigam or Roop Kumar Rathod would have done better job. But, overall, Guzarish is an amiable song which can find a little place in your I-pod.

2. Aye Bachchu

I listened to Aye Bachchu a lot of times before writing this and sorry to say, it’s such a cool wannabe song. I’ve no idea how this song would fit in the movie, but I think it’s an item number, going by the lyrics. Well, there is nothing great about Aye Bachchu, lyrics are so ignorant, music is below standard, and Suzzane doesn’t do any favor to the song by pronouncing “bye bye” as “bi bi.”

3. Kaise Mujhe

Kaise Mujhe, another romantic ballad, sung by Benny Dayal and Shreya Ghoshal, is another average love song. Well, I really don’t know what to say, if the lyrics are so wannabe soppy. “Uparwale ko fursat nahi, phir bhi tumhe bana ke vo, meri nazar mein chhad gaya”, or this one “Kaise tum mujhe mil gaye, Kimsat pe aaye na mujhe Yakeen”, please explain this stuff to me. Prasoon Joshi, you got it all wrong this time.

It’s not his fault alone, A R Rahman’s melody is too difficult to sing for Benny while Shreya does a terrific job in the song, and you’ve a sigh of relief when she comes to sing, almost after half of the song is finished. Listen it only for Shreya, and I hope we’ll get an only Shreya version of the song.

There is also an instrumental version of Kaise Mujhe, as the last track of the album.

4. Behka

After Tu Bole Main Bolu, A R Rahman try to do another jazz stuff, although Tu Bole Main Bolu was an instant classic, Behka is a below average affair. Behka is sung by Kartik, and lyrics, I should point it out again, have no sense at all. There is no consistency in the lyrics and you really don’t know what it means unless you listen to it as if your life depends upon it.

I don’t see it as a situational song, so I assume it would be a background song, but that’s not a good choice if you’re trying to show the condition of Aamir’s character in the movie. As film is dark, looks from promotions, it’s really ironic that none of the song has a dark feel.

5. Latoo

Another weird title joining the league of “100 weird song titles from Bollywood”, Latoo is the second best song of the soundtrack. Not a genius work, but if you’ve to go through so many bad songs in a row then anything will appeal to you just for the sake of it. A R Rahman should thank god because he has Shreya, who made this almost dead beat song a worth wile listen.

Honestly, I was really looking forward to the soundtrack, after listening to Guzarish, but I was totally disappointed by the soundtrack. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is one of my favorite albums, and undoubtedly, one of the best works of A R Rahman. But this time, he got it all wrong just like he went wrong with the music of Yuvvraaj. Lack of sales of Yuvvraaj proves my point and I think Ghajini will not perform any better.

Moreover, I don’t see the point of so many songs in a movie like Ghajini, which is a remake of Hollywood classic, Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, the man behind the master piece, The Dark Knight. I don’t understand why they’re focusing on so much romance while the movie is itself an action film. I’ve not seen the Tamil Version of Ghajini, so I don’t know what to expect from this. Sold for 93 crores, Ghajini is a very costly affair for the distributors, and as I already said previously, if the music of the movie is good then half of the battle is won, which is not in the case of Ghajini.

Verdict

Ghajini is another average Bollywood album with only 2 amiable songs which you can listen to again and again. After disappointing Yuvvraaj, A R Rahman gives another prosaic album. People say that it takes a lot of listens to like Rahman’s album and I agree with them, but you can listen to this as many times you want, it won’t change your opinion. Ghajini is only for A R Rahman fans and for others, there is always something else in the store.

Rating –

Cast – Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan

Music Director – A. R. Rahman

Movie Director – A. R. Murugadoss

Post your comments, reviews and suggestions in the comment box below and I’ll reply to them and vote in the poll.

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Nov

Yuvvraaj Movie Review

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2008 proved to be a really bad year for Bollywood, with very few hit films and innumerable flop films which include many mega budgets and just when you thought 2008 can’t get worse than this for Bollywood, another bomb drops again and this time it is, Subhash Ghai’s, Yuvvraaj.

I, normally, never like when people talk during the movie, but thank god, they made fun of the movie otherwise I would have left the theater during the movie only.

Well, nothing was right for Yuvvraaj from the starting of the promotions. Music has not been well received, promos lacked the required punch, and then there was Zayed Khan who seriously needs to quit this industry or at least join some acting class.

Yuvvraaj is a vacuous effort from the showman himself, who gave us legendary movies in the past. Nothing is right about this movie, except Anil Kapoor.

For first, script of the movie is so stupid that you would laugh during the emotional scenes, believe me, people were laughing and add to that imbecilic dialogues which directly came from the movies of 1970s. Background score of the movie is a total waste and only two songs are good in the movie; “Tu Meri Dost Hain” and “Shano Shano.”

Subhash Ghai spent most of his time and money searching for exotic locations, if he had spent half of that time and money on his editor then Yuvvraaj would be have somewhat watchable. Most of the movie scenes start with a fade-in effect and end with fade-out effect.

You can’t blame the editor much if the direction of the movie is weak. Mr. Ghai, here is a suggestion for you, how about watching some 2008 movies and then directing a film? I’m sure you would do much better. Exotic locations, beautiful sets, and foreign people don’t attract Indian audience anymore.

And what’s with the subtitles in Hindi for the English dialogues spoken by foreign actors? We can understand English pretty well, thank you!

Now let’s talk about the foreign actors or are they really actors? I mean, Mr. Ghai, you could have spent a little money on hiring some good actors instead of wannabe people on the streets who act even worse than Katrina Kaif, ok that’s not right, no one can act worse than Katrina.

What about the scene in which Katrina and Salman are in a restaurant and talking and the angle is such that you get to see foreign actors in the front with wine glasses. You’ve to watch that scene, they didn’t do a thing sitting there, and the lady was too hesitant to drink the wine. I wonder what was in it.

Talking about acting, there is none. If you leave out Anil Kapoor, who is the only saving grace of the movie, then there is no one in the movie who knows how to act. What the hell happened to Salman Khan in Yuvvraaj? After giving such a good performance in Heroes, he is like total blank here and those inconsistent looks of him don’t help either.

And if you’ve Zayed Khan and Katrina Kaif as other leads then only God can save you. Katrina doesn’t do anything in the movie except looking good just like her other films and this time she is defeated by the girl who played Zayed Khan’s gold digger girl friend (the girl in Shano Shano song). It was a delight to watch her whenever she came on screen, even though she couldn’t speak Hindi that well, but at least, she knew some acting.

People were mocking Zayed’s acting and laughing at him, especially the scene in which his car broke down and he was screaming in the middle of the road.

Then there are bunch of supporting actors who are just smiling here and there and don’t know the “abc” of acting. You’ve to see the expressions of those actors, seriously. This is also because of the bad editing and Mr. Ghai’s outdated style.

And this leaves us to Anil Kapoor, playing the autistic son, who only knows how to act in the whole crew. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have given Yuvvraaj a big ZERO. Salman, Zayed, and Katrina should learn something from this guy, who is, undoubtedly, the most versatile actor in our industry today.

Verdict

Yuvvraaj is a not a movie which you should watch by spending your hard-earned money, hell, don’t even waste your internet’s bandwidth in downloading the pirated copy of this film, because it doesn’t deserve it.

Mr. Ghai, with all due respect, I’ve to say that you’re still stuck in 1970s era and you’ve to come out of it seriously. If you’re teaching this type of stuff in your film school then God saves our film industry. Even those extra “v” and “a” will not be able to save this movie from becoming a flop. Better luck next time.

Rating –

Cast – Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif, Boman Irani, Mithun Chakraborty

Music Director – A R Rahman

Movie Director – Subhash Ghai

Do you want to comment on the movie or my review? Then go to comment box and do it. I’ll reply to them and don’t forget to vote in the poll.

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Jul

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Movie Review

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When was the last time a romantic movie complied with your level of penchant? I know, Jab We Met in 2007. But, this is 2008, and it feels like it’s been ages since we saw an up to scratch Bollywood movie, predominantly because of the thrash talking, nauseating and brain slaughtering movies like Tashan, Krazzy 4 and the latest, De Gaali, I mean De Taali.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

In spite of all this, Bollywood finally gave us a movie which will make you gaga over its freshness, unique presentation and too good to be true performances and that movie is, indubitably, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. I think I’m praising too much, but on a second thought, it deserves this.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is about Jai Singh Rathore (Imran Khan), also known as Rats and Aditi Mahant (Genelia D’Souza) a.k.a Meow or “Kaali Billi”. Jai is a person who doesn’t believe in violence while Aditi is a girl who is violent and who calls her own brother, “Son of a Bitch”. And, both of them are best friends or let’s just say more than friends. A perfect case of “Opposites attract”.

Based upon the life of 6 college friends, it is a simple yet fresh love story, at least in terms of storytelling, but the same can’t be said for the script as it is based upon the tried and tested formula for love stories in Bollywood. For example; love between two best friends, opposites attract and of course, the Airport climax scene.

But, it is the fresh style of the debut director Abbas Tyrewala, the writer of movies like Munnabhai M.B.B.S and Main Hoon Na, which makes the movie, seem like Dr. Manmohan Singh standing between the uneducated Indian Politicians. Sounds palatable, right?

From the very first frame, you’ll come to know that you are about to witness a rollercoaster ride. But, just like any other movie, it has its own share of rust on it. And in this case, it is the most ignorant mistakes that I’ve ever seen in movies.

Mistake 1

I don’t expect this kind of mistake from Aamir Khan’s production and that is the choppy editing of the movie. There are many scenes which could have been funnier especially the one in which Jai and Aditi’s brother try to catch his pet. Substandard editing and direction totally ruined that wonderful scene.

Mistake 2

There are too many characters and their stories which are not required at all. Take the example of Aditi’s brother who has his own little story which distracts the viewers from the main idea of the movie and it doesn’t hold any significance.

Mistake 3

They are shown as 21 years old youngsters who are too keen to get married. Does it really happen these days? I don’t think so. And, they have spent 5 years in college which makes them 16 when they entered the college. Brainy students, right?

Mistake 4

I want to tell this but I can’t, because it is the climax scene and I don’t want to ruin the fun.

Performances

Imran Khan – He is undoubtedly the next Big Khan. He is really comfortable with his role and does perfect justice to it. I don’t think there is anyone who could have done this role better than him. Moreover, his smile and looks are already a hit among the girls of all age groups. One more thing for the ladies, don’t miss him when he rides the white horse, he surely looks like a king at that time.

I think Ranbir Kapoor should drop another towel to get all the attention back.

Genelia D’Souza – She steals the whole show hands down. She is cute, funny and perfect for the role. She pulls her role off with utter brilliance. It was a surprise as her performance in Mere Baap Pehle Aap was not that good. Nevertheless, she is the one to watch out for.

Supporting Cast – Most of the supporting cast was perfect especially Manjari Phadnis, Ratna Pathak (Jai’s mother), Naseeruddin Shah (Jai’s dad), Ayaz Khan and the three guest appearances. Paresh Rawal in his short role make you laugh more than any character in the movie.

Problem with the movie is that, the director sometimes tries too hard to impress you. And, sometimes, story loses its original path and become confusing thanks to the editing which was carried out with utter shame. I expected a lot from this movie, but, it didn’t live to my expectations because of the stupid mistakes.

In spite of all this, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is a movie to watch. You just can’t miss it. It is a movie to watch with your friends, or better, with your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Showstoppers – Imran Khan, Genelia D’Souza

Rating – 3/5 (I’m being generous for this one)

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