A Prolonged Absence...

Wow... A 5 month hiatus.. That's a long time... And its not that I've been too busy, or that there haven't been enough good movies to write about... The primary reason why I did not get the urge to write was that I had already read something close to what I'd have written on a subject somewhere else..

Take for instance, the masterpiece from Hollywood this summer, i.e. Inception... I simply loved the movie, and a post on it would have been a natural extension for my post on The Dark Knight.. But I don't think anything I'd have written would be 'original' in any sense, having read so much about it before & after I watched the movie.. Anything that I thought would be interesting about the film would already have been covered...

That brings me to what brought me to write this post today... I have seen a few movies in the past couple of weeks that the critics would have panned for various reasons like lack of a plot, too much violence, predictable storyline, etc etc etc. However, these movies proved to be extremely entertaining, especially to a male, action-loving audience. These are the movies which prove to be excellent breaks from the monotony of office life while not forcing you to think beyond what is visible on the screen. There will be no hidden plot elements that you will intelligently recall as the story develops ("Hey, look at that.. They'd shown that same thing in the first scene, remember!") and no moralistic lessons to learn... The movies in question here are the A-Team & The Expendables.. Both movies are mindlessly fun to watch, though the humour in A-T would score a few extra points ("He's trying to fly a Tank")... It is amazing to note that Sylvester Stallone, at the age of 64, can pull off a movie like this, especially since he's directed & co-written it as well.. Kodos to you, sir.. (P.S.: To be fair, I watched Salt too which could fall into these categories above, but lets just leave that out of the reckoning since it made the audience feel plain stupid. No offence, Angelina)

I also watched Peepli Live & Aisha which I'll not dwell too much upon, since neither impressed me too much, frankly..

Due on my list of must-watches is Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai & Lafangey Parindey...

Till next time... Cheerio...

Yaaron, Jee Bhar Ke Jee Le Pal...

Yeah, the header is from the hit song from 'New York' which I just returned after watching & obviously have been humming since... Plagiarism & inspirations aside, there's no doubt its a great & catchy song... But back to the point...

Yes, the 'Junoon' is back in my 'Jeena' ever since watchable cinema has started hitting the big screens again... New York (which I quite liked, & I think Taran Adarsh over at Bollywood Hungama did a great job at reviewing it, so I'm not even going there) is the first hindi film I watched in a cinema since my last post, though I've caught up on lots of Hollywood over the past 10-15 days... Lets see... Monsters vs Aliens, Star Trek, 17 Again, Wolverine, Terminator Salvation... These are in the order in which I watched them, though looking at it another way, I liked the first 3 where as the last couple were just about passable...

The Hangover is due tomorrow, and I've heard great things about it... I mean, its got an 8.4 on IMDb and is already 131 on the top 250, all in 3 weeks... Its already being called one of the best comedies 'Ever'... Which other movie can boast of something like this ? Yeah, I know... 'Up' has a similar story (technically better, since its an 8.8 with a rank of 22 and is gunning for the 'best animation ever' tag...) But then, its not released here yet, so I exempt it from this reckoning...

Transformers 2 should be coming here soon, and I hope that lives up to the hype, and of course Ice Age & Harry Potter will be back in July too....

Bollywood also shows some promise with Kambakht Ishq, Love Aaj Kal & Kaminey lined up for July & August...

All in all, it seems we'll have a healthy 'baarish' of cinema this monsoon, even as the H2O variant seems to be shying away...

"Hai Junoon....ooooooo-oo-oo-oo.... Hai Junoon sa jeene mein....."

Why ..... So ..... Serious ?

The most enduring image that leaves one when the movie (or should I say, Epic) gets over is that of 'The Joker' laughing cynically at his own defeat ... Yes, he does get defeated... It is a superhero movie after all... But I'm not going to give anything away b'coz I sincerely believe that every avid movie watcher should go & see this movie...

Chris Nolan is brilliant as usual & if I think about it, I can't remember a single movie of his which I have disliked (to be fair he has only directed 6 full-length movies, of which I've watched 5)...

As I said in the opening line, the movie is 'Epic' ... in its conception, production, direction & enaction... and every other '-tion' you could think of...

But back to the late Heath Ledger... He completely steals the show... A cousin who was staying in Chicago while the movie was filiming there was telling us about how Ledger would run around the city streets in full make-up & costume to get into the skin of his character completely... more reports of his 'preparation' are on Wikipedia. The hard work pays off in a portrayal of The Joker which is completely unlike Jack Nicholson's from the era of Tim Burton's Batman... This Joker carves a completely new identity for himself ...

This post goes out to Heath, & I'm sure he's up there looking down at the faces of fans going to watch the Dark Knight and saying - 'Let's Put a Smile on that Face'...

One weekend, Two movies...

It was a busy last week, wherein I've seen a total of 4 movies (including one repeated twice) over the past 8 days... The one I saw twice was "Get Smart"... (no, I'm not much smarter watching it the second time) ... One helluva movie... (a good review by my frnd on http://without-an-h.blogspot.com/)

The next was "Made of Honour"... there's not much in the story so I'll just give it away... it's 'My Best Friend's Wedding' with a different ending... no prizes for guessing wat the difference actually is... One might wonder that it doesn't boast of the most famous of starcasts & the story is used, so what is left in the movie... the answer is that despite this it manages to hold its own with over-all good performances & an intelligent screenplay...

The last was "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" which is another sugar-coated Hindi movie (to quote a friend who hated it)... the story is predictable & performances are ordinary... though I did not get bored, I wouldn't say I'll watch it again even if I was paid to do so..... As Taran Adarsh puts it for many movies - "Average Fare"....

Winner, Winner... Chicken Dinner...

21

I saw '21' last night and what can I say... it was one of the best movies I have seen recently... Iron Man was loads of fun, & Narnia was Narnia, but this was one excellent screenplay... Jim Sturgess, who has not done too much notable work till now, has put in one hell of a performance with a lot of help from Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth & Lawrence Fishburne...

This is one of those movies where everyone knows what the story is going to be, but you go to watch it anyways to see how it has been shown. I've seen a documentary on Discovery Channel about Jeff Ma & his friends from MIT who set out to beat the Vegas casinos by 'Card Counting' techniques... 21, however, uses the plot & twists it to make one helluva movie which keeps you gripped to the seats...

Next up, Sarkar Raj... whenever I get the time to see it...

Back after a hiatus....

Hello boys ... I'm baaackkkk !!! :-P.... (For the uninitiated, that was Randall Quaid's line from Independence Day.... I don't mean any gender discrimination...)

Its around 6 months since my last post, & I wonder what I have done in these past months ... For one, my laptop was stolen from my home, so I'm still kinda lost without it... Also, work's gotten pretty hectic, & I'm struggling to reach some kind of work-life balance, however cliched that may sound)...

But I'm happy to report that I've still been watching all the movies (though I've not seen Jodhaa Akbar yet)... The last I saw was Mithya... a brilliant movie in every sense ... Rajat Kapoor behind the camera & Ranbir Shourie in front of it... the movie is perhaps the best satire to come out of Indian cinema in a long time (the only reason I say 'long time' is that I have watched a certain movie called Jaane bhi Do Yaaro which is a class apart)...

Other than that, my DVD collection has built up considerably.... I watched Charlie Wilson's War yesterday, but was quite unimpressed... Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Julia Roberts starred in the movie, but the screenplay (by Aaron Sorkin) was not good enough...

Juno, on the other hand, was very good... Diablo Cody has written a witty story & has been supported in front of the camera by a brilliant performance from Ellen Page...

I'll get back with more reviews soon, & hope to be more regular...

Cheerio !!!

I'm Back ... & so is RGV...

After a 5-month long hiatus... I'm back !!!

I'm now working full time with Reliance Retail helping them set up their newly launched hypermarkets all over India... I just got back to Mumbai (my new home) after a month long stay in Ahmedabad where we launched Reliance Mart...

Well, thats enuff about my job... on to more exciting stuff

Though there r a lots of movies I've seen recently, there r none i'd particularly like 2 write about... Chakde was one of the best movies in recent times & Heyy Babyy was a wholesome entertainer... Ratatouille was amazing & Transformers was average... But what stole the show was RGV ki AAG... I don't remember seeing such a wholesome load of Crap in my life... For all those who thought Salaam-e-Ishq was the worst... we have a new contender in town !!!

I thought the movie was an utter insult to the original Sholay... if RGV wanted 2 spoof Sholay I think he should have just gone ahead & done so, rather than get caught in the dilemma of whether to spoof or to remake... even the Big B has embarrassed himself by becoming a mere caricature of Indian cinema's greatest villain...

I think that's sufficient bashing for now... I'll try 2 keep the blog up 2 date with the latest in my life...

Ciao for now...

It's over, folks....

Yes, ppl, Its over... A year (10 months to be precise) of moulding us into managers has concluded... It's 2 weeks since I've been back at home, n I've just been making up on the sleep I've lost over the past 10 months...

I've been 'preparing' to join Reliance Retail, and RIL is famed for stressing out the employees.. I figure it can't be worse than Ispat, where 12-14 hour work days were a norm, and the 'alternate Saturdays off' remained just in the HR Policy...But it will be challenging to enter a company which is poised to transform the retail sector in India. Whether it succeeds or fails remains to be seen, but I'm sure it will be a hell of a ride...

Aside from Reliance, another thing happening this summer will be 'Sequels'... As Spiderman: 3 releases today, it starts off a juggernaut of 'thirds' and then some which are set to release this summer... Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ocean's Thirteen, The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, Rush Hour 3, Mr. Bean's Holiday... these are a few of the sequels lined up... Being a movie buff, I think my summer's gonna be quite busy....