Khalid

 

Khalid Mohamed's Blog

  • 133
    Kurbaan Movie Review : Kuch kuch terrorism hai?
    Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri Direction: Rensil D’Silva Rating: One and a half stars I desisted from writing an instant-noodle review of Kurbaan. I said I wouldn’t, there’s no point etc. Because it raised my hackles to the extent that I wondered whether I was responding to this travesty of a film as a critic or as a Muslim. I saw the film again, reflected...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 20th, 2009 at 06:11 am
  • 35
    Tum Mile Movie Review : Wet Until Dark
    Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Soha Ali Khan, Water Kumar Director: Kunal Deshmukh Rating: Three stars Squawk. The wannapaint Picasso is facing an artist’s block. How he rumbles, bumbles, grumbles. Then flash! He sees his live-in girlfriend sitting sadly on the bed, our faces turn red, and heil M F Husain, the artist is ready with a canvas overnight. Right. That’s a rather...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 13th, 2009 at 07:11 am
  • 21
    A Simple Story
    On an unusually rainy Tuesday, she passed away. Simpy – that’s the sobriquet she used on her Facebook account. She called her sister Dimple, Di. Coincidentally I was chatting with her on Facebook on Sunday. She was swift with her chat responses, pretty upbeat that she was on the mend at the Ambani Hospital. “I am cured..almost, touchwood,” she wrote, and we agreed...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 10th, 2009 at 09:11 am
  • 11
    Politics… rare, medium or well done?
    Politics! It’s tackled by our B-town movies..only once in a flu moon. Right now, in Prakash Jha’s Rajniti, the Mahabharat is sought to be adapted to today’s realpolitik. Fine, should be punchy, worth spotting the reference to the context, who’s playing which epical character. Shyam Benegal did practically the same update with Kalyug, incidentally. Twenty-eight...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am
  • 26
    Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani Movie Review : Laugh’s like that
    Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan (for a minute!) Director: Raj Kumar Santoshi Rating: Two and a half stars The kid’s brilliant. So watch it Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor and all the big and small Khans. At the rate he’s going – by sheer evidence of his screen charisma, technical felicity and youth power – Ranbir Kapoor...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 6th, 2009 at 07:11 am
  • 106
    Jail Movie Review : What a jail bin machhli!
    Jail Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai and Ram Gopal Varma movie-type of clowns-`n’-clones Director: Madhur Bhandarkar out of form Rating: Two stars (there’s nothing here that you don’t know or haven’t seen already) Egg tu Bhandarkar!  His angry young prisoner is thrown right into the dark-as-a-burnt-omelette baida cell. During  solitary confinement,...
    by Khalid Mohamed at November 5th, 2009 at 10:11 am
  • 78
    London Dreams movie review : Rock Yawn!
    London Dreams (limited) Cast: Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Asin, Om Puri, Kababs Direction: Vipul Amrutlal Shah Rating: Two stars (okay so it has a huge budget, technical varnish, A-list stars..so what?) Whip whip hurray. To keep himself away from carnal pleasures – read Miss Asin – the wannasing, wannarock star snaps his belt off, and flagellates himself. Ouch,...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 29th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
  • 17
    Paul McCartney: My Emosional Atyachar
    (Gonna get unashamedly emotional and still strive to give you a straight, reportorial account of the first..and I’d like to think the most magical interview..of my life). “She’s some lady,” he said, rolling his powder blue eyes heavenwards. “Ooooh, she’s mean. How can she do this?” That was Paul McCartney talking about Mrs Indira Gandhi at Santacruz airport...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 27th, 2009 at 09:10 am
  • 6
    Hey MAMI
    No cracks please. Just don’t say MAMA, or even think of your long-lost uncle, because this year’s MAMI promises to be a film gourmand’s banquet come true. That’s the Mumbai International Film Festival presented by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images, acronymed as MAMI. Daniel and Anna Funded by munifience of Anil Ambani, the eleventh version of MAMI  unspools ...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 19th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • 17
    All The Best Movie Review : The Good The Bad The Gaudy
    ALL THE BEST The good, the bad and the gaudy Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Bsu, Mughda Godse Director: Rohit Shetty Rating: Two and half stars Once ‘pun a time. Referring to the household ayah, a guy trills Baharon phool barsao mera mehboob ayah hai.  Quips are made about Slumdog Millionaire, and there’s this madcap moment involving Ajay Devgn (he’s dropped...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 16th, 2009 at 09:10 am
  • 157
    Blue Movie Review : In Shallow Waters
    Blue Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Sharks, Bahama butts Direction: (not much of it) Anthony D’Souza Rating: One star..and that’s being generous Sharks, there go those shucks! Ulp, excuzee, pardon, sowie. Shucks there go those sharks! And hey, they’re smooth-as-slate grey. Their teeth aren’t visible (must be senior seatizens). Plus...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
  • 39
    Ashok Kumar… forget him not
    (Image: Ashok Kumar with Nutan) October 13. It was the 98th birth anniversary of Ashok Kumar on Tuesday. No one noticed. His family said, without an element of surprise, “What did you expect? Only one Gujarati newspaper carried a week-long series on him.” Like it not Gen Next, too, does not know of the sheer artistry of Dadamoni, the most clean-hearted actor I have...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 13th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • 22
    Acid Factory : Wake Up Gupta!
    Manoj Bajpai in Acid Factory Acid Factory Cast: Fardeen Khan pursing his lips, many gents in shades of black, olive and brown, Dia Mirza wearing karela-juice colour contact lenses,  cars, cars, cars Director: Suparn Verma Rating: One and a half stars No, no. This couldn’t possibly be producer Sanjay Gupta ki Aag!..but what to do? Bar bar cars jump in the Cape Town...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 10th, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • 37
    Question of my Rutba
    Hello, hello, am returning to Passion for Cinema, with the hope of keeping my voice intact. Was working for website aslibaat.com. It was fun doing it but like all good things my role in it had to end. On the other hand, my film project Rutba has not ended, and never will. If I am writing this it is mainly to exhort filmmakers never to give up, never mind the odds. At this...
    by Khalid Mohamed at October 2nd, 2009 at 08:10 am
  • 71
    Kambhakt ways of film censorship
    ‘You girls are good only for one thing.’ – quote, unquote Akshay Kumar, in the theatrical promo of Kambakht Ishq A film trailer is a trailer. And the completed film, that is released, is another story altogether. Elementary logic dictates that the trailer and the film should be certified separately by the censors. And thank the lord, that’s the...
    by Khalid Mohamed at March 29th, 2009 at 08:03 am
  • 32
    No way to treat a lady..or women in the movies
    *Hear out the honcho. The movie production house COO (not even the CEO), says airily,“Please not another woman-oriented film.” The implication is that women are the second-rung gender out here. *A TV interviewer, a woman, asks tetchily, “But why always women?” To that you ask, in sheer despair, “Why not?” * A well-meaning producer...
    by Khalid Mohamed at March 14th, 2009 at 08:03 am
  • 31
    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Genius replayed
    No reason, no occasion, except maybe the fact that it’s just another evening and I’m looking for music to go with the end of February. There’s something special or ‘unspecial’ about a month ending..bills to pay, projects inching closer to deadline, the mildest of winters switching to scorching summer, Holi aee re, you know the drift. I try...
    by Khalid Mohamed at February 27th, 2009 at 08:02 am
  • 101
    Dev D Review: His Vaginal Manologue
    More for my sanity than anyone else’s, I trotted off to Dev D three days ago. All because I was being berated, okay you’re taking a break from the reviews, but how many stars would you give to it. This particularly from Facebook pals, super-photographer Natasha Hemrajani. And from Sneha Mahale, a feisty young journalist who has learnt one thing from me,...
    by Khalid Mohamed at February 13th, 2009 at 08:02 am
  • 98
    Every job is like moviemaking – Starring the Cafe gals and dudes
    Every job is like moviemaking Starring the Cafe gals and dudes Backstory: After two years and let me count, three months, I quit two days ago as editor of HT Cafe, an entertainment supplement of Hindustan Times in Bombay. And as I left it was almost..not it was, like the last day of a film shoot. I was in it together with colleagues..actually they were all old enough...
    by Khalid Mohamed at January 30th, 2009 at 07:01 am
  • 13
    Cinema Ray – Indentification points
    Indentification points To be absolutely candid, the responses both in terms of quality and quantity far far exceeded my expectations. Heart bracing to know that there are even far more passionate Ray bhakts than I am. On re-seeing Pather Panchali — albeit on DVD with a distracting logo of its distributor perched on the north-east tip of the screen — still find...
    by Khalid Mohamed at July 1st, 2008 at 09:07 am
  • 82
    Ray to go!
    Okay, so an indulgently kind and persuasive cell phone voice, belonging to Kartik (surname not quoted), invited me over to blogland. Not quite techno-whizzy, I procrastinated. There were thel hmmms, i don’t know, I’m the good old ink and paper type, Remington typewriter was so sturdy..but yes, I can handle PCs with not a little help from my friends and colleagues....
    by Khalid Mohamed at June 29th, 2008 at 06:06 am
Page 1 of 11