Ambarsariya se Banarasiya via Agra

It's rare that the last 3 movies I saw in cinemas were all movies that I an watch a million times over and over again... I cant remember the last time this ever happened (if at all)...

The title of the blog should, as always, give the clues to the movies I'm talking about...

Fukrey is the 1st one.. This is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time... It seems to be inspired by Delhi Belly, especially considering the amount of twists & turns & mistakes & misunderstandings.. Hunny, Lali, Zafar & Choocha take us through a entertaining, if unlikely, ride through Delhi... They are accompanied by Neetu ma'am, Priya and Panditji, while being pursued by a villain called 'Bholi Punjaban' (Innocent Girl from Punjab)... The funniest amongst them is no doubt Varun Sharma making his screen debut as Choocha...  The performances are exemplary, even if the storyline is a little loose... All in all, a laugh riot !

The next was Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani... Ranbir Kapoor is becoming one of the most bankable stars in the Hindi film industry, with this becoming his third superhit in a row (Rockstar & Barfi previously)... This is more commendable considering that this is only his 10th leading role... The film is definitely entertaining, though hardly original... The director, Ayan Mukherji, probably got lost in getting inspired by too many movies, so he tries to retain some of his charm from Wake Up S!d, while adding a bit of a road trip with friends theme from ZNMD, and topping it with a love story from an Imtiaz Ali movie... Well, going by the box office returns, it seems that Ayan mixed 3 winning formulae to get a new & improved one ! So what if Aditya Roy Kapoor looks like he just continued his character from Aashiqui 2... So what if Farooque Sheikh's role got overshadowed by his cross-eyed-ness.. The truth is that the songs are amazing, the production work is awesome, Deepika looks gorgeous (and is learning how to act!) and Ranbir, is as charming as ever... YJHD is a film that I can watch over & over...

Last, but definitely not the least, is a love story called Raanjhanaa... This is a movie that most people discounted after looking at the lead actor, K Dhanush Raja... The general buzz was that this ugly looking dude cannot possibly pull off a hero's role in a Hindi movie... Well, Dhanush has proved everyone wrong... He should now be asking the Hindi audience 'Why were u so Kolaveri?' To be fair, even I did not expect much from him... The only reason I wanted to watch it was because I had loved the director's last film, i.e. Tanu weds Manu... A 140 minutes later, I was left with a gaping mouth... 'This guy is awesome' ... Dhanush has pretty much the most expressive face I have seen on an actor, ever... The effortless transition from a school kid to a twenty-something was simply amazing... And his character of a 'Die Hard' romantic could not have been played better by anyone... I should not discount the rest of the cast, however... Sonam proves yet again how under-utilized she is as an actress... Abhay Deol is effortless as usual, and is immensly likeable in his little screen time... The best friend 'Murari' played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayuub is outstanding, as is 'Bindiya' played by Swara Bhaskar... Aanand L Rai loves to shoot in real locations, and it shows... A R Rahman's music grows on you like it should, and 'Tum Tak' refuses to leave my mind alone... The story is intriguing instead of being predictable, which adds so much more into the experience... My final word, 'Must-Watch' !!!

Of Emosunal Attyachar & the 'Monkey in Me'...

Well, to start off, I must apologise for not being regular (again)... I keep having these phases where I just procrastinate about things that I know I wouldn't have to put too much effort in... Things like, writing... Writing is a gift, I guess, that I have... I have always been better in communication with the 'written' word than the 'spoken' word.... In fact, most people (possibly, all people) who know me would concur that I'm a very quiet person... Some might use the word 'Reserved'..... I guess it is true to some extent, since I take quite some time to open up to people when I'm in the speaking mode... Switch to the writing mode, however, & I think people would see a completely different side of me.... Many persons have even admitted this to me.... A case in point is that I have much better & more meaningful conversations with people with whom I'm not that close when I'm on text chat with them....

Getting back to the point, I was trying to say that I put off 'writing' on my blog because I know it really wont take too much effort.... yet, whenever I do get down to writing, it does give me a sort of pleasure that very few other things give me in life... one of those few 'other things' is watching movies....

Which leads me to the update of my cinematic experiences in the past few months (yes, I just realised that I've not blogged since mid-November'08)... I'de mentioned that I was looking forward to Dasvidanya (a masterpiece, if I may say so), RNBDJ (a simple but effective film) & Ghajini (left me a little disappointed since I thought the excellent performances were let down by a weak screenplay, especially in comparison to the original Memento)... I also saw OL!LO! which was really a revelation.... My brother watched the first 20 mins of this movie every day for more than a month, and though I cannot boast of similar records, I did love the performance of Manjyot Singh (who played the young Lucky) & I became an even bigger fan of Abhay Deol.... which brings me to Dev D....

Dev D is our answer to Hollywood greats like Trainspotting (which I've yet to watch) & Requiem to a Dream.... It's a modern day take on Devdas (duh) & relates the story to real life incidents from Delhi (the infamous MMS scandal & the BMW 'kaand')........ The performances are mind-blowing.... the characterisations are extremely good & I'm kinda running out of words to praise the movie further.... I was discussing with someone that Chandramukhi's character is the best portrayed though Dev is the obvious gray-shaded hero.... hats off to Anurag, Abhay, Mahi & Kalki... I'm looking forward to Mahi in Anurag's next, Gulaal, which releases in 10 days....

Now, on to Delhi 6... This is actually the movie which brought me to write this post... since I just got back from watching it... I'd thought I'll watch it in Delhi itself (I was there the weekend it released) but could not get the chance to do so.... Back in Mumbai, I couldn't find anyone to go with me during the week since most people had not heard the best things about it.... Even today, I'd orginally planned on watching Benjamin Button, but I got late & watched Delhi 6... alone, by the way.... Coming back to the point, I don't regret watching it.... the film uses many parallels to point out some of the many hypocrisies which exist in our society today... the usage of parallels is the only similarity with RDB, though, and the comparison with RDB is what, I think, has led to people not liking the film... if one appreciates the film on its own, I think it is an excellent effort which would open the eyes of anyone who understands its true meaning... on the performances front, I think the character actors took the cake here, away from Abhishek, who also plays his part perfectly, but he's the outsider, so his character is pretty straightforward in that respect.... Waheeda Rahman, Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri, Supriya Pathak, Pawan Malhotra, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, Deppak Dobriyal, Prem Chopra & the rest deliver excellent performances that showcase the amount of talent we have in our industry.... I also liked the performance of debutante Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays Rama, the unmarried 'bhua' to Sonam Kapoor.... I hadn't watched Saawariya, so this was my first experience of Sonam ... I've pointed out to many people that I like expressive faces in actresses since they can say so much 'more than words'.... (I can't help but hum the song in the mind now) .... Sonam is a prime example of that.... she has beautiful eyes that can pretty muich have a conversation on their own.... I should mention that another recent debutante whom I liked in this respect was Anoushka Sharma, of RNBDJ fame....

Wow... this is already such a long post.... I think that's enough for now... I'm looking forward to Benjamin Button this week & then Gulaal next week.... until then... Good Night, & God Bless !