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Dostana Review
iView Author: Dr.Mandar V. Bichu (Sharjah, U.A.E)

Email: drmandarvb@yahoo.com

Dostana

Just as the end credits were rolling I managed to latch on to the name of the publicity firm for Dostana. It was‘Hype’- no kidding, I am dead serious. By the way, the firm has indeed done a good job. With slick promos and clever chat shows this first ever full length ‘Indian Gay Comedy’ has certainly managed to raise the public interest to unprecedented levels.

Just a few days ago, I even read a news report where the chief spokesmen for Indian gay community were fervently hoping that Dostana would bring a change in general public’s discriminatory attitude towards gays! And that they were also planning a special show of the film for the gay community! I can well imagine the horror on …

Dasvidaniya Movie Review

I have been praying for her death. Almost everyday. The last time I met her, she could not recognize me or recall my name. I tried hard. But after few minutes, I gave up. Could not see her in that condition any more. She is quite old, completely bed-ridden with a fractured leg, has blood pressure problems and some complex disease that’s killing her brain slowly. Doctors can’t do much. They don’t want to operate as anything can happen. Her only son is also praying for the same.

Death is a strange thing. You don’t think about it unless you face it, some way or other. On my way back to Mumbai, all I saw was old men and women, and kept thinking about the all those days i have spent with her. so many memories. Train, bus, road, restaurants, flight. Everywhere I saw the …

Avakai Biryani Movie Review

The morning show got delayed for 45minutes and I was totally frustrated ,as there were no friends accompanying me I couldn’t share my frustration which made my situation more worse. After entering into the Cinema hall I had to wait for another 15 minutes to watch Anish Kuruvilla’s “Avakai Biryani”.

A film from Amigo Creations definitely creates some hope in every telugu film lover due to the reputation of the previous films released through that banner.Anish Kuruvilla’s “Avakai Biryani” is produced by ‘Sekhar Kammula’ and ‘Chandrasekhar Kammula’.

“Avakai Biryani” is a small love story of Akbar and Lakshmi in the place called ‘Devarakonda’. Akbar is a muslim Auto Driver and Lakshmi is a Telugu Brahmin who wants to sell the Avakai made by her. Lakshmi is B.Com Hons Graduate and Akbar is yet to pass his …

Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon is one of the great movies ever made because of numerous reasons .I always wanted to write something on BARRY LYNDON but did not dare to write because I felt that it’s hard to write an article on BARRY LYNDON by providing justice to its greatness but now I decided to write a article on BARRY LYNDON because of one of the comment made on BARRY LYNDON referring to an article – “We can watch the 2nd CD of Barry Lyndon without watching the 2nd CD”.

PART 1
- By what means Redmond Barry Acquired the style and title of Barry Lyndon.
The caption of Part1 might give us the hint that Redmond Barry’s rise to the title BARRY LYNDON. The first scene of the first part is the long shot with a beautiful background which shows us the death of Redmond Barry’s father. After the death of his …

People will always complain. It’s in their genes, branded in their sensibilities. And when it comes to films not only does everyone have an opinion about things but as it seems, everyone has a unique complain regarding it. There is no escape from this, no matter what genre of film you make, be it a ‘social satire’, a ‘thriller’, ‘rock musical’ or in this case a look into a world under veils unfamiliar/ inexperienced by most of the audience…..a friend of mine said this. Here is another complainer. Am not a fan of Madhur Bhandarkar’s films, its true that I don’t hate them its just that I don’t care for them. Found “Traffic Signal” to be an infinite snore fest, “Corporate” despite the ending which redeemed it a bit, seemed hastily done by a person with least knowledge and experience of the world he is talking about, “PAGE 3″ with …

iView Author: Suprateek Chatterjee (Mumbai, India)

Email: supchats [at] gmail [dot] com

Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside): Finally, a Foreign Language Film Oscar winner that isn’t overrated!

Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) (2004)

(Winner - Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 2004)

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

A Film Review by Suprateek Chatterjee

Rating: 4 out of 5

The protagonist Ramon, played by Javier Bardem, at one point says – “When you’re dependent on others and you can’t escape, you learn to cry by smiling”. And smile he does, a most benign, avuncular smile which is infectious, slightly mischievous and, ironically enough, full of life. I say ironically, because “The Sea Inside” is based on the true story of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, a quadriplegic, who in the late ’90s championed the cause of, and eventually committed, euthanasia. This Oscar-winning movie throws up some …

More competent people than me have spoken about the cinematic merits of Hulla and I have little desire to add to the cacophony. However, the response to Hulla only corroborated a trend of polarized opinions that we seem to be engendering especially when it’s about appreciating popular arts and cinema. It’s either unquestioning acceptance or outright rejection. There isn’t a middle ground nor is there a balance.

This only proves the academic belief that media explosion doesn’t lead to a cornucopia of ideas and wider acceptance of divergent views. Rather, people start simplifying their world and stick only to tried and tested outlets that give them their preferred version of reality. So, you have the paradox – a proliferation of information sources but a narrowing of outlooks.

Therefore, the view that I go to a cinema hall for entertainment and I won’t appreciate anything that remotely differs from my view of …

Towards the end of Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear, in a scene, Amitabh Bachchan’s Harry is about to take a step which can put his life at risk. As the tension builds up towards the moment I suddenly felt what if Bachchan died today.
Yes, what if Bachchan died today.
This man, who had failure pinned on him from the day he faced the arclights, had 12 flops back to back and then became a popular film star with a similar series of superhits, ventured into politics which boomeranged dutifully, floated one of the first corporate movie production houses in India, got bankrupt, begged for movie roles, single-handedly revolutionised television, delivered celluloid success again and now is referred to as the star of the millennium.
I don’t know if you are supposed to touch wood if you accidentally think of something bad but I was suddenly desperately looking for a piece of wood. …

Every morning I would double click the Vanish icon on my desktop. It’s a Final Draft file, a script I am writing, hoping to turn it into a film. If I look at the script five times, I look at the clock on the wall seven times. It’s time, I have to go to office and hunt for an interview, dig out a story and make the newspaper page on Quark Express software. I save the file and while doing so I realise I have hardly added two lines to the script.
Once in office, I would do my job with all sincerity or so I would like to believe. But what is the job? Writing about films, writing about film-makers making their first film, interviewing someone who gave up a 9-to-5 job to wield the megaphone. And as I hear them speak trying to think of the next question to …

Films like Singh Is Kinng is made specifically for the common man, meant for entertainment, not for snobbish intellectuals, AAM ADMI FILMS as the majority of these directors are calling it. So we have films like no entry, welcome and now Singh is Kinng hitting the theatres and all of their producers seem to be overtly confident of the success of these films depending on the AAM ADMI. So who is this aam admi or common man?

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

khoon khaulane ka muhavara aapne jaroor suna hoga, dekha nahin hoga. singh is kinng men aap ise dekh sakate hain.

yek murgi ko pakadane ke pichhe poore ganv ko nasht-dhvast karane ka drishya bhi sinh is king men hai.

australia jane vale yatri galat bordig pas lekar egypt pahunch sakate hain aur vahan ke airport adhikari un yatriyon ko shahar ghoomane ke liye ek din ka visa bhi de dete hain. sinh is king men yah mumakin hai.

helmet ki tarah ghade ko pahanakar pujari bagair doolha-dulhan ko dekhe shadi ke mantrochchar kare aur kisi aur ki shadi kara de….yah sinh is king jaisi film men hi sanbhav hai.

sabhi kah rahe hain ki buddhi ko tak par rakh den aur singh is king ke nonsense drama ka aanand len. logic bhool jayen aur akshay kumar evan kaitarina kaif ke majic …

It amazed me no end that someone would try a equivalent of professional hara-kiri by redoing any film of Tim Burton. But Nolan did and gave such a fresh breath to the franchise with Batman Begins that The Dark Knight was the most anticipated film of the year!! He began with elan, is making merry with the knight and the journey has just begun.

And I am being extremely balanced and fair here when i say its worth every fucking minute!!!

I have unashamedly professed a love for comics before. Once the red and blue cape fantasies wore thin, Batman has always been the most intriguing amongst them all. Whilst Burton made Batman in his own signature style and Schumacher tried his bit to resuscitate the comic (pun very much intended) bit, Nolan reinvented!! The character depth and detailing which he gave Bale’s crusader is what prompted me and so many like …

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

Title: THE CUTEST FILM OF THE YEAR!! - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na…

Who goes in to see a movie 9.30 am in the morning? Quite a few apparently.
I, amongst them, treaded into the line outside the ticket counter�.god what are so many people doing here this early! I thought am going to be the only hapless person to come over to a theater this early�..they must be for LOVE STORY 2050, stupid people!! Why would anyone pay money to see a hrithik clone dance with robots! But then again, am sure the hall for jaane tu ya jaane na is going to be half empty�..I need to stretch my legs! So I reach the counter, “one ticket for jaane tu, current show please”, and then comes the shock, “sir is 3rd row from …

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 …

2/5. Impeccably done up nothingness.
IMDB

‘Lendormin’, is one of the most commonly used drug for curing insomnia. Now, the makers of the drug have stiff competition. Our own Priyadarshan has come up with a movie guaranteed to put u to sleep. It’s pace is slower than a paint peeling off a dry wall. A 150 year old snail who’s suffering from Arthritis would walk much faster. It’s called ‘Mere Baap Pehle Aap‘ (the movie’s name, not the snail’s).
Priyadarshan is known for his comedy movies, and he’s equally well known for his remakes (a euphemism for the term ‘rip-off’). But this time, he has made me cry. He has not only just ripped off a malayalam movie called Ishtam directed by Sibi Malayil, he has also made a royal hash out of it. All the …

Chaos theory…butterfly effect…..existence of God…….an unstable biochemical substance which may destroy the world….Tsunami…..Now these words blabbered by the voice-over and that too in an Indian Movie can make anyone excited …..but wait there is more…we have a George Kamal Bush who does a rajni to get up from his seat……we have a Japanese girl who speaks Tamil….we have a Punjabi Kamal Bhangra singer who apparently does a bhangra in Tamil……..There is a extended looooong chase which starts with 15 mins in the movie and finishes just mins before the movie ends……and ya there is Mallika Sherawat……

The story begins in an era where Vishnu clan and Shiva clan or you can say cults are trying hard to vote down each other…..The leader king of Shiva Clan wants to move the Ranganatha idol ..errr not move..to throw it into the sea……He is opposed and fought by none other then Kamal who is …

Rajkumar Gupta: �Kaun kehta hain ki aadmi apni kismat khud likhta hain?�

thani: �Kismat agar khud likh sakte, to usey kismat kyon kehte!�

Anurag Kashyap is India’s most provocative filmmaker. With his filmmaking, he creates avenues for scores of cinephiles to dream their cinematic dreams, and when that’s not satisfactorily accomplished he angers them enough to want to better his offending efforts. That is, when the said cinephile does not resort to the shortest possible route to his directorial debut - namely the remake.

It is to Rajkumar Gupta’s credit, and to the film’s superior craftmanship, that i refer to his debut feature Aamir as cinema. Nevertheless, a COUNTERFEIT one, if you know what i mean. The password is Cavite. I might as well review Cavite, and nobody would recognize the difference. To be fair to the nobody, in as many words, Aamir is a copy of Cavite [pronounced 'ka-vi-th-ey].

Of course, …

As the credits start to roll in with various romantic quotes in the background; you may be forgiven in thinking that Ajay Devgan’s directorial debut might be one of those romantic movies where the hero gets the heroine against all odds and settles down to a lived happily ever after scenario. But the movie turns out to be quite a serious movie which attempts to tackle a sensitive subject of a patient suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease.
The movie initially disappoints you due to an insipid first half. We are introduced to a psychiatrist Ajay (Ajay Devgan) who goes on a cruise trip with his friends. Things get quite bad when we are introduced to his friends whose sole purpose in the movie seems to be: scream-shout-drink-scream-shout-drink making the audience want to scream-shout-for-head-ache-curing pill. There are a lot of corny jokes thrown about and even worse dialogues are …