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iView Author: Elvis D’Silva (Mumbai, India)
Email: withheld

Title: The Dark Knight - Review : Embracing Darkness

Very rarely do I go into a movie theatre expecting an experience. Instead I think, ‘the promos lied’, ‘my expectations are too high’ or ‘the director/writer promises a great deal but rarely delivers.’ Yeah, ‘benefit of the doubt’ is not my strong suit. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw of The Dark Knight in the promos and teasers. Loved the Joker make-up, was pleased with the casting of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, was intrigued by the new vehicle but I wasn’t quite sure where they were going with it all.

And then the news of Heath Ledger’s death arrived. This is an actor whose performances I thoroughly enjoyed in movies like 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale. …

iView Author:Rusted Rick
(Kolkata, India)
EMAIL: ritchick.mozumdar [at] gmail [dot] com

Title: HANCOCK: Super Yawn

When the chips are down, things not going all right and trips to the theatre are neither SUPER or HAPPENING in anyway you can always count on the alien fighting, robot smashing rapper to turn things around. And WILL SMITH almost does just that, or at least he gives his best shot at doing so. Over the years WILL SMITH has an impeccable record at the box office, come-on nine straight block busters!! Every movie gaining more than a 100 million at the box office, that’s some record. And if someone calls him the greatest star in Hollywood today well you have got to say that he earned it.

And then comes 2008, the year of the super heroes. Frankly I cannot take it any more, iron man, hulk, and now …

If Khuda Kay Liye was a fine example of fledgling independent cinema from Pakistan – distinct from the Lollywood’s mindless masala – then Ramchand Pakistani by debutante director Mehreen Jabbar is sure sign that quality cinema from our neighbours are surely getting revived, thanks to a young breed of filmmakers who have largely cut their teeth through television and are socio-politically conscious.

Ramchand Pakistani had its first public screening in the Subcontinent at the 10th Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema in New Delhi on 12th July – three weeks before it becomes the first Pakistani film to have simultaneous release on August 1 in both the countries – and wowed viewers with its sensitive storytelling shorn of any melodrama.

Based on a true incident of a young Hindu Dalit boy from a village across the border from Gujarat, who had inadvertently crossed the international border along with his farmer father at …

iView Author:Azad
(Bangalore, India)
EMAIL:azad.ksingh [at] gmail [dot] com

Title: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - Too Many film makers spoil the movie

Imagine Aamir Khan making his debut with Andaz Apna Apna!!! And what if the director of the same is Mansoor Khan and not Raj Kumar Santoshi! This is the kind of feeling I had after watching Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. This is a movie gone wrong, primarily because it had too many film makers in the crew. The movie is meant to be a spoof of the romantic films made in the Hindi Film Industry, or so it seemed to me. But at the same time it tries too hard to be innocent.

And its not that the film is without its moments. This is one of those rare films where I was waiting anxiously for the scenes involving the khan duo(Arbaaz and Sohail). …

Murphy’s law (From Wiki):

“If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.”

“Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” .

Murphy’s law , this is what one of the protagonist narrates at the very beginning of the movie, and what follows is almost proof to it.Checkmate tells a story of three young men from different backgrounds,duped by a fake financial company.They lose whatever money they had, money their family had earned ,the property they had, in short the only option they have is to recover their money in any damn possible way.So all three come together and plan , plan to recover their losses.The rest of the movie shows the execution of the plan and how each …

iView Author:

Tanul Thakur
(Dhanbad, India)

E-Mail:

thakurtanul [at] gmail [dot] com

Love Story 2050 - Dud chala dude banne?

One upon a time there was a boy. He used to watch a lot of Hrithik Roshan movies. And he had a dad who was a director. And the boy wanted to be an actor. And he wanted to be Hrithik. So, one night when he was watching Koi Mil Gaya for the 537th time, he thought he had enough of it. He went up to his dad and said ,” Papa Papa, Mujhe hero banna hai.” It was very late in the night and his dad was feeling very sleepy watching I, Robot. He was too jaded to reply. But his son repeated, “Papa Papa, Mujhe hero banna hai!” Papa dear was really sleepy but even then he asked ,” Accha Beta! Kya kya chahiye tumhein movie me?” Son dearest replied …

The language of the post is Non-English.. only the script is in english.

suna aur padha ki kuchh logon ko ye film bahut buri lagi.kisi bhi film ko aap uske samay se kaat kar dekhenge aur kuchh khojte rahenge to amooman nirasha hogi.films bhi doston ki tarah hoti hain,unhen unki khoobiyon aur kamiyon ke saath samjhiye to jyada anand aayega.haan,agar koi hisab theek karna ho to chashma laga lena galat nahin hai.
is review ko hindi mein padhna chahte hain to login karen:http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/

kuchh naya nahin, fir bhi novelty hai

realistic andaj men bani entertaining film hai jane tu ya jane na. ek aisi prem kahani jo hamare gali-mohallon aur builings mein aaye din sunaee padati hai.
jane too… ki sanrachana dekhen. is film se ek bhi kiradar ko aap khisaka nahin sakate. kahani ka aisa pusht tana-bana hai ki ek soot bhi idhar se udhar nahin kiya ja sakata.aapne ek kirdar idhar khiskaya …

Love Story 2050 ya Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na ? Me and KK were not confused about making the choice. Its Harry Baweja vs Abbas Tyrewala. But KK had some other reason. At Love Story 2050 screening, booze would be there. May be we can sit through the film then. No, lets vote for the writer. Afterall he co-wrote one of our all time favourite film, Maqbool. We compromised on the booze factor.

Mummy I want panipuri. A squeaky voice from the row behind us.
Must be kid.
Beta panipuri bahar jaake khayenge.
Ahhhh…naaaaiiiii…papa….panipuriiiiii…mummy.
Ok, we are fucked.
Beta, dekho papu cant dance aayega…abhi jaldi aayega.
KK looked around…Koi aur seat khali bhi to nahi hai.
In theatres, the message on the screen should be changed – switch off your mobiles and KIDS!! OR please go and watch thoda pyaar thoda magic with your kids.

Kk – the credit roll looks nice.
Me – ya, love all around …

Two directors from the “Far East”, known for their visually stunning cinematic delights and two films that mark some what of a turning point in their careers. For Wong Kar-Wai last year was finally a time to test the Hollywood waters with his first English language film “My Blueberry Nights”, and Ang Lee went back to his roots directing the Chinese war period, “Se, Jie” (Lust, Caution). Now, while Wong-Kar-Wai has seldom strayed from his trademark visual style and patented haunting-romantic melodramas, Ang Lee has probably tried his hands in all genres. Fantasies (Crouching Tiger), CG’s (Hulk), taboo relationships (Brokeback Mountain, The Wedding Banquet), literary adaptations (Sense and Sensibility).. you name it and Lee has been there, done that. And so is the case with the directors’ latest works. While Blueberry Nights is just an extension of Wong Kar wai’s earlier works, Ang lee continues to explore unchartered …

3.5 scenes in the film and he still deserves to be called as The Naseeruddin Shah!

Simply because of his brilliant portrayal of Inspector Mike Lobo. “Short role can still be great” is proved by Naseeruddin Shah in Ardha Satya.

Mike Lobo is often discussed among policemen before he actually appears on screen. In the present time, he is a broken man, a drunkard who was suspended from the police department because he could not do compromises with the usual functioning of the department and tried to work in his own manners. He was too rebellious. Its told by other policemen that he used to say that whoever would come between he and his duty he would have to face his wrath. Whoever was found against his opinion of law and order, he fought with him. Vested interests could not bear his presence in the police force and he …

In continuation with the post Ardha Satya : Silver Jubilee remembrance–Part 1.
——————————————————————————————-

Two things can easily be said about Ardha Satya or by taking clues from Ardha Satya

(1) Fine characterisation is the most beautiful aspect of Ardha Satya

(2) Good director never needs to use harsh back ground music or chanting of shlokas to
introduce a powerful character. Such gimmick is not needed.

It rarely happens that in a 2 hours film, one gets hardly 5-6 scenes consuming not more than 20 minutes, and still his presence is felt all over the film. Rama Shetty (RS) is that character in Ardha Satya and Sadashiv Amrapurkar has played the character with a great command over his craft of acting. Villain always remains an important part in such a story but rarely such a non dramatic villain was presented in the past, who could leave such a deep …

Those of us who have loved Ramu for Rangeela, Satya, and Company will recall our regret on how film after film the brand RGV’s coffin was getting nailed (Naach, James, Shiva-II, Nishabd, Darling, Aag). With Sarkar Raj he saves himself from certain destruction. But then with Ramu you can never be too sure; he might have this formula working for him: get to produce & direct half-a-dozen odd films, and even if one works, the financiers will commission another adha dozen films. Sarkar Raj is that one ‘hit’ after the ‘six’ misses.

Sarkar Raj is sequel to a Sarkar (2005); the latter was a daft remix of Coppola’s Godfather film series and imagined power politics in Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray’s household (nonetheless, Sarkar managed a general positive response from the critics and the audience). Presently, in the sequel, Shankar Nagare (Abhishek Bachchan) finds himself drawn to an NRI-funded power generation project …

That urban Bengali cinema has been dead meat for the last couple of decades is as widespread a phenomenon as the very existence of Bengalis across the face of the earth. Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, yes folks you are very good film-makers and we critics love your work but sadly the people haven’t turned up to watch your stuff. A couple of non resident Bengalis in Houston may have your DVDs flown down but Calcuttans don’t queue up at the theatres for a Dosar or a Kaalpurush or a 15 Park Avenue.
But maybe someone out there has found the impossible formula of how to get Bengalis back to the cinemas. In Calcutta and elsewhere. Perhaps, fingers crossed and wood touched, it’s finally happening!
Dutt’s the man, Anjan Dutt. Mrinal Sen’s favourite actor, a musical phenomenon, a failed Bollywood film-maker, Dutt knows what he is saying when he says …

Aamir is ‘different’ in the sense that it seems that after eons one sees the streets of Bombay in a film how one might find them in real life. Aamir has its namesake protagonist land in Mumbai from the UK and get trapped in a nightmare situation. As soon as he gets out of the airport, he is put on call with a demanding and menacing gangster who wants Aamir to execute a terrorist plot if he wants to rescue his family that the gangster has taken hostage. Through the film, our man Aamir is sent from pillar to post running errands, collecting information, note slips, money and the bomb. Will he be be able to take control of the situation and prevail (the somewhat puzzling tagline goes, Kaun kehata hai aadmi apni kismet khud likhta hai, or Who says man is master of his destiny)?

Aamir is played honorably by …

[Guys, I am on maternity leave, living in Bihar. Films come in late, often pirated on cable TV and DVDs. I will be trying to write in reviews when I can. For the next 2-3 months, they will be irregular, short and a bit out of focus. Do bear with me. Thank you, Padmaja].

For those few who have cared to follow the release of Shaurya, the end credits roll with ‘101’ definitions of Courage. One is missing. Courage is also being original. Shaurya is ‘inspired’ by Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men (based on AB Sorkin’s play of the same name). Shaurya is the story of Siddhant (Rahul Bose), a cocky lawyer in the army (Tom Cruise in the original) who is searching for meaning and adventure in life. He is waiting for something that would challenge his spirit. This he finds in defending a soldier Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal) …

Once starts off as a self-confessed song on the street.

The healing has begun…

The song picks up, and the apparent admirer of the said song picks up the jhola of our street-singer protagonist instead. As the camera soon establishes it’s an indie film, we feel a little eased off, of the commercial hangovers. You know, all the discounts that come along with an indie film. What’s good here, though, is that you never think about it again. The film moves on, along the smooth strained guitar and the bearded hero.

Titles
Glen Hansard
Marketa Irglova

C from top
O from left
N from bottom
E from right

Scratching out the surface now
And I am tryin’ hard to work it out
So much is gone misunderstood
And this mystery only leads to doubt
And I didn’t understand

When you reached out to take my hand
And if you have something to say

You better say it now

‘cus this is what I’ve waited for…

In …

There is a little difference between a good person and a person with grey charateristics and exchange between two kind of natures of people can take place very easily with little management. Though they are seen and understood as good men but several times in their life majority of people enter in to this grey shed, though sometime to fulfil their temporary desires, which they can not suppress anymore for the sake of their inherent ideal nature.

CSB’s Amol Palekar could become a man with some villainous characteristics but director shows masterly ability to maintain a fine balance and Amol Palekar comes out clean as a hero else plot had that slippery ground that his character could fall down and then it was not possible for him to remain as Mr White.

CSB reveals difference between genuine person and hunters.

There …

iView Author:
Amanda Sodhi
(Washington DC, USA)

Email :
amandasodhi [at] gmail [dot] com

Maqbool—Taking Macbeth to Bollywood

I was going through some old college assignments and came across a film review of Maqbool I wrote for a Theatre History course I took. Below follows the write-up for those interested in reading it:

Vishal Bharadwaj is a name which has almost become synonymous with excellence—whether it be his music score for critically acclaimed films such as Maachis, Satya and No Smoking or his direction of films such as Makdee, Chatri Chor and Omkara, Bharadwaj continuously proves his versatility and dedication to deliver the very best. He has created a niche for himself as the king of Bollywood film adaptations—after all, three out of his four films are adaptations, and successful ones for that …

Kamal Sir,

This from a humble fan, who happens to be in the same fraternity as you, though much lower, pretty much to the point of non-existence on the rungs of the acting ladder. I sincerely hope this text finds you in the best of health and spirits. That’ll make one of us. Sir, I’m a huge, unabashed fan of yours, and with the best of intentions I write this.

You see, I just came back from watching Dasavatharam. And I have a few questions/comments/concerns, none of which I expect an answer to, but such was the film that if I didn’t get these off my chest, I fear insomnia for the next month or two, and as much as I can handle it for a few days here and there, I don’t think I can do without sleep for too too long.

Sir, I’ve been very conscious of …

Taste of good cinema is a cultivated one. One sees good cinema and when a bad cinema is shown the choice is easily made.

I have seen bad cinema and my exposure to some gems have cultivated my taste for good cinema.

I am not talking about No Country for Old men or some other foreign language movies.

I am talking about Padhinaaru vayadhinile - the movie where characters came alive with blood, flesh and sweat of a Thamizh Nadu Village.

I saw Sigappu Rojakkal and was amazed at how a psycopathic misogynist can be sketched without using the black and white strokes.

I saw Raja Paarvai and was amazed at the success of a blind man’s love - and that of cinema too.

I saw Moondraam Pirai and was thrilled at how tender moments of life can be shown without burning them in the glare of arclight.

I saw Saagara sangamam and found how “True art …