Wake Up Sid.

Wake Up Bollywood, to Ayan Mukherji, the new creative kid on the block. The debutante director is among the current crop of young, 20 something Bollywood directors who have brought about a wave of refreshing and new cinema which clearly reflects in his movie.



Wake Up Sid is essentially about this happy-go-lucky guy Sidharth (Ranbir Kapoor) whose sole aim in life is to continue splurging on his dad's money. In stark contrast is Konkana Sen Sharma's character ,Aisha Banerjee, who is focused, independent and mettlesome. Ranbir Kapoor is absolutely flawless as the good for nothing-sweet-immature-Bombay [with all due respect to the Thackeray's] loving guy. He is real, simple and believable. Konkana delivers yet another stellar performance as the Kolkata bred girl who comes to Mumbai to carve an identity for herself. WUS is very unlike your regular popcorn romcom movies. Instead of treating the love story as a highly complicated young-man-older-woman relationship, Wake Up Sid manages to simplify it for us, making it easy on the mind and richly entertaining. It dwells into the nature of many other relationships - those with our parents, friends and neighbours too, to an extent :). And that’s what makes Wake Up Sid different from the usual coming-of-age films.

Each and every character is neatly etched out. Right from the college geek Debbie, to the sultry babe next door [ideally played by Kashmeera Shah], the close friend Lakshmi who is blessed with abundant amounts of love, care and well, fat. Worth a mention is Rahul Khanna as the quintessential, jazz-loving editor[He's gorgeous by the way ;)]. It's high time he got full fledged roles rather than sidey characters [read Love Aaj Kal]. Not to forget, Sid's parents- played by Supriya Pathak and Anupam Kher are superb in their rags-to-riches avatar. But, the script is the hero, WITHOUT A DOUBT. Also, hard to miss is the awe inspiring art direction of the movie. Great shots, amazing landscapes and superb decor's - a treat for the eyes. Kudos to the creative heads *thumbs up*

The music is soulful and goes with the essence of the movie. Majorly used as background scores, it saves you from the typical song and dance routines, with an exception of the promotional video, OBVIOUSLY. All in all, a great entertainer...WUS will make you want to fall in love :)

Do not miss!


Rating- 4/5


Guest Review by Jigeesha Nayyar.

Bore is your Rashee!!

Some films are meant to go down the drain just the same way as they came. But when that film happens to be directed by someone you admire, and stars someone you admire EVEN more, you cant help but feel a tinge of sadness. What’s your Rashee is one of those films that you wont forget watching ever.. Simply because the overwhelming regret of committing the blunder wont let you.

The basic plot is that a calamity befalls upon the Patel family as their older son has borrowed crores of rupees from some Bhais and must pay it back or else the inevitable (Read: Casualties in the family) will happen. To save the family from doom, the younger son- Yogesh Patel (Hurman Patel), a suave MBA graduate n Part Time DJ residing in the US is summoned back to India. Yogesh only must redeem his folks as he is meant to inherit a handsome amount from his grandmother on getting hitched.

So a reluctant Yogesh goes out on a bride-hunt and decides to meet 12 Gujju girls, one of each Zodiac. Because there are only 12 types of girls, he says (Bizarre for an Ivy League graduate, don’t you think ??). And yes PC plays all 12 of them.

Criticising a film like What’s Your Rashee is easy and taxing at the same time. Easy because there is so much to criticise. And taxing because there is oh-SO-never-ending-much to criticise. The plot of the film is ridiculous to say the least. It is apt for a soap starting with any damn letter of the alphabet, not just K. But put it on the silver screen and from the start to the end, it spells Torture. Hurman sleep-walks through the film. Amrita Rao in Vivaah emotes more than Hurman. The Priyanka you came to see in this film is buried deep under the massive weight of the 12 annoying characters she is given to play. Not one of them is the kinds you would see, or even want to see in the real world. (The thought terrifies me. If I had to contend with even one of those characters in real life, I would strangulate them to death.) They sing, dance, make faces, do absurd things in the name of acting for no friggin reason. AVOID !!

I am devoting a whole paragraph to the length of the film because it adds to the misery so badly. 3 and a half hours long ! Did Ashutosh Gowarikar forget somewhere in the middle that its meant to be a Romantic Comedy and not Mahabharata ? This is what happens when you try to act too much genius.

All in all, the movie is a disaster from the word go. The number of times I glanced my watch during the film, waiting for the agony to end, is more than the number of reasons I can think of, for watching a film like this.

What’s your logic, Ashutosh ? Ye toh bata do na. :P

Rating- 1/5 (0.5 for Priyanka and Hurman each)

Dil Bole Hadippa!!

Dil Bole Hadippa, this week’s big release, is the story of a feisty Punjabi Kudi, Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee) who eats, breathes and lives cricket. But her village has no Girls’ cricket team so that gives her very little chance to play. Her ultimate dream is to bring glory to her Pind by playing against the Pakistanis in the Aman Cup, a friendly cricket tournament organized by two best friends- Liaqat Ali from Pakistan and Vikram Kapoor (Played by Anupam Kher) from India. After facing defeat for 7 years straight, Vikram summons his son-Rohan from England (Shahid Kapoor) to lead the team and infuse the much needed spirit. Rohan conducts selections for the team, which Veera takes to be her golden chance. So she dons the attire of a man, in order to be able to play. Veera, becomes Veer Pratap Singh. And hence, the confusion begins.

DBH is one of those Great Indian Potboilers. It stands for all things archetypically Indian. Like London returned guy falling in love with the Desi Kudi (Yawwwn...) , Village girl going on to prove her detractors wrong, the Father asking his Son to fulfil his sapna, a Rakhi Sawant Item number, a song after every few minutes, the whole 'Ik Onkar Satnam' playing everytime Rani comes to bat (!!) , even a “Rani -Jhansi-can-do-it-why-cant-I" speech at the end ( Lol).…..the list is endless. Infact the village where DBH is based, is the one that you have seen in (COUNTLESS ) squared number of films. DDLJ,Veer Zara, Namaste London, Singh is King…For god’s sake, why cant we have a different setting ? The film has nothing to offer in terms of originality, the plots and the concept is done to death. The matches are shoddy, they lack the finesse and thrill of Chak De or Lagaan. While cricket could have been the high point of the film, it slips into the background in the second half when the focus shifts on their love angle.

Well.. before you conclude.. there’s a bright side too. The film’s entertaining to the extent that it gives value for money. Its funny in parts. Particular scenes stand out.. like the one where Veera is taken to the Men’s room forcefully. Rani is endearing, to say the least. And Rakhi’s overshot expectations, whatever little is there of her, it makes for pleasant viewing. After the Dev Ds and Kamineys, its kind of refreshing to have a family entertainer which doesn’t require you to expend your intellect but just enjoy the ride.. however senseless it may be. Rani’s comic timing is perfect, though her dialogue delivery is a little irritating at times. Shahid is pushing the envelope with every film. He might not have given an Oscar Winning performance here but it is better than what the so called Rulers of Bollywood (SRK, Akshay Kumar etc) do.

If only the cliches did not so much outweigh the goodness of the film, we could have had a decent caper at hand. Dil Bole Hadippa is STANDARD Bollywood. And sorry to say but we have had decades of it.




Rating- 2/5

Kaminey

There are directors. And there is Vishal Bhardwaj. Few directors in Bollywood can claim to match Vishal Bhardwaj’s insight of human psyche. Every film of his explores a singular emotion in a gamut of situations. While Makdee explored Fear.. Omkara was an abstraction on jealousy, Blue Umbrella- innocence and so on. Kaminey, Vishal’s latest direction, is a film on meanness. It takes a nosedive into the deepest, darkest crevices of the human brain-where no bad is bad enough.. Where relationships have lost their significance..where social give-and-take is a transaction…

Kaminey is essentially a film about twin brothers Guddu and Charlie. One stammers, the other lisps. Guddu is the honest fellow. He has a job, a girlfriend, middle class dreams. All well. Charlie is a small time crook who indulges in small crimes like fixing races, petty thievery etc. But he dreams big. Both lead individual lives, separated by a childhood tragedy. Their lives come together when Charlie catches hold of a guitar hiding drugs worth millions. Here, the comedy of errors begins.. the brothers being confused for each other and all. Add to it- a pregnant girlfriend, a Bal Thackeray spoof politician, a race fixing company, drug mafia, corrupt policemen. Since the plot is so convoluted, it is difficult to put it further in text.

Kaminey strikes the right note on all aspects. The plot is intriguing.. It takes you to the thick of the action without wasting much time. Before interval, the screen time is spent introducing parallel characters (The number of characters is mindboggling). The plot thickens post interval. As more and more parallel stories come into the picture, the film moves at a breakneck speed. It is a part satire, as it makes a mockery out of the Maharashtra-UP issue...and how our politicians use issues like these for personal vendetta. The cinematographer too succeeds in laying the dark underbelly of Mumbai bare in front of the audience.

But the life of the film lies in its characters. Each one of them is.. needless to say.. one big Kamina. Shahid effortlessly portrays the dual roles, proving all his detractors wrong who say that he is not mature enough to play the single lead. Priyanka, as the firebrand Sweety is the girl next door with loads of tadka ! She plays the role with such conviction that it is difficult to imagine someone else playing it. Watch her in that scene where she comes out and shouts..”Toh kya rape kiya hai maine tumhara ?” That one scene singularly brings out Priyanka’s prowess as an actress. The film crackles with her presence. The way she has enthused life in her character is outstanding. Amol Gupte, as the too-big-for-his-shoes local politician is funnily menacing. A special word of mention for Chandan Sanyal, the guy who plays Mikhail. He brings that sexy edge-that tashan to his character. And it rocks!

In the age of reality television, where ‘mean’ had taken a different meaning altogether..Kaminey brings a fresh connotation to it,one that hits closer home. The music is great and used at just the right places. All in all.. it is a must watch for all those who think they have fed enough on mindless flicks to watch some real cinema. This one will bring your faith back!

A word of caution- The plot is a little confusing, with many characters.Make sure you carry your brains with you. This one makes you think!

Rating- 4/5