Perspectives and perceptions

So yesterday I went for the movie and my oh my was I surprised! :) To finally see a Hindi movie that's been directed so well, it was amazing! Ranbir Kapoor has done such a fantastic job that there are markings of Michael Corleone in his mannerisms. Similar to him, he's back from US for some time and has the innate ability and the acute mind to play the political games... The movie shocks you at times, and manages to make the entire story believable, to a point where I was praying that I never come across a cold-blooded strategist like him in my life! His expressions, his acting is so subtle and is bang on. Katrina wasn't bad herself, except her diction needs to be worked on, especially if she's going to deliver a speech! Unlike the hype, she's not the central character, rather Ranbir, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai form the main characters of the movie. Manoj Bajpai however disappointed me with his performance, I was expecting a lot from him, especially

Okay, so i was out on this awesome day + evening + night this sunday... and we had to catch a movie. Wanted to watch 'Date Night' but the timings just didn't work out, so there we were watching 'Bounty Hunter'... :) Jennifer Aniston in yet another movie proves that she's just not cut out for acting in movies, she was great in Friends, but has not been like that in anything else! Clearly, the director needs to be able to get her to act like the one in Friends did. I think what was missing was, her expressions, she's just too controlled, too straight-faced, and too just 'tight' in everything and you just can't feel for her. Gerard Butler is okay. Nothing great. He's not even half as good as he was in P.S. - I love you! The movie's nice. I mean it's not great. You wouldn't miss out on anything if you didn't see it, but it's not like you'll be terribly bored watching it either! There were some really funny moments, especia

Well... This movie was one of the most forgettable movies I've seen in the recent past! To begin with, the movie starts off like 300, with a narration that's supposed to set the pace and the base to the entire story. But they forget to use things like voice modulation, and most importantly a script?! The narrator mumbles something about the creation of the earth by the Gods, and talks about their love for man... and you just don't get the drift. Then you see a woman who places a kid inside a basket (kind of like Moses) into the sea along with a woman in the same basket. A family adopts the kid and he's raised. Cut to 18-20 years hence, the kid's grown, the family of four are sailing, trying to catch fish for their livelihood. Suddenly you hear the talk of an uprising, and men fighting with the Gods! It's so far-fetched that you just never understand or believe what's happening. So lightning strikes, the family's boat sinks, and as expected, everyone exce

There are some movies where you should just choose to leave your head behind and see only the movie. This movie, Hum Tum aur Ghost, is somewhat similar. The plot is fairly simple, you have Arshad Warsi, playing Armaan, a fashion photographer who's a heavy drinker, assisted by a gorgeous Sandhya Mridul, playing Mini, in love with Dia Mirza, playing Ghehna, who's supposed to be the editor of Cosmopolitan (and is not seen under pressure, is not hyper fashion conscious, or busy at all!). That said, you have an entire entourage of "ghosts" who are following Armaan, because he has the "gift" to see, and hear them. Similar to the Sixth Sense, each of them have died having something unfinished and need help from him to complete that deed so that they can move on to heaven... It's interspersed with some comic dialogues, and some great acting esp. by Boman Irani, and Sandhya Mridul. Arshad Warsi fails to evoke the right sentiment of pity, warmth, and affection in

Well, I reached late for this movie and did regret it because it took me the better part of 20 mins to figure out why the movie looked like it did. It's shocking, gruesome even at some points, daringly different, and just managed to make me squirm in my seat at points. Technically this film is very different because it's shot completely using weird camera angles... it's made primarily on a handycam, a CCTV camera footage, sting camera videos. It's actually uncomfortable to see the movie because of these angles, jerky hand movements, and brisk cuts. The film is basically an integration of 3 stories, one each on love, sex and betrayal (dhokha)... the characters are very real, very ordinary, daily life people whom you would meet anywhere. The dialogues are what you would actually hear people talking. The ease with which they abuse, they call names, everything is very realistic. If you're the types who leads a sheltered life in your comfort zone, this is a movie that do

After having been completely enamored and in love with the song "Uff Teri Adaa" I couldn't wait to watch the movie finally. The end emotion being, a decent watch, but could've been much better. The movie begins with a very stereotypical life of a guy (Farhaan) who's just not got anything going for him, from a landlord who's hounding him for money, to a boss who's blaming him for everything that goes wrong, to the hot co-worker (Deepika) who just doesn't know of his existence at all! The change that comes into his life, is a call, at 5 am each day, by a man who claims to be "Karthik" himself who guides him to becoming the man that he is. And voila, suddenly, the real "Karthik" begins to stand up for himself, asserts himself in front of his boss, and manages to strike conversation (a rather witty one) with Deepika too! Sitting in the audience, you literally feel like whistling and hooting when you see him walk down the corridor of his

For days i've been thinking about what i should blog on... and then my friend took me and some of my college friends for this movie at sterling (yes we paid rs. 150 per ticket, which reminds me i need to pay her back...) so anyways we go. after the awesome reviews given by ALL the people, expectations are running high... the story is quite simple, srk is autistic and was raised by a very sensible, level-headed mother, whose acting is amazing btw... being autistic did not in any way hamper his intelligence and thus, he grew up to be quite an intelligent guy, just different. in her efforts to appreciate his smaller victories, she ends up neglecting the younger son, (essayed by jimmy shergill) and he ends up feeling left out and resented. he grows up and goes to the US and then starts the process to invite her and srk to the US. just when they're weeks away from immigrating, she dies. thus srk flies alone to the US. joins his brother's company and starts working there. during

No this post is not a review on the book by Alvin Toffler, which I do want to read but haven't managed to so far... it's just that lately i've been dreaming and thinking about my future... personal yes, but professionally too. i'm doing a masters in advertising and marketing which has got me thinking about various careers that it can lead to. ad agencies, fmcg companies (fast moving consumer goods, like HUL and P&G), marketing companies, brand management, copywriting, account planning... there are a lot of options but i'm still searching. i wanted to do something with films and designs. i thought a career which required me to meet people, talk to them, understand their requirements, get it executed, imagine, design, etc. would be ideal. this sounds like the perfect job description for client servicing and account planning. but i don't know. i think i'll know only after i begin working in a company. then i also had these thoughts of working with a magazin

What a better way to begin your morning than to write about the movie, Wake Up, Sid! :) It's one of the most happy, feel-good rom-coms the Hindi film industry has produced in a long long time! There are a lot of things right with the movie, from the simple story, to the well etched characters, to some fantastic acting, seamlessly blended background songs, real locations, and good cinematography. For starters, I saw this movie almost immediately after I saw, "What's your raashee?" and so I was obviously highly impressed with the HUGE difference in the two... But even otherwise, this movie was a happy movie which left you with a smile on your face... A simple story about a rich father's son, Sid Mehra (Ranbir), whose only occupation is to spend his father's money on parties, time-pass, and clicking photos. He meets Aisha Banerjee (Konkana) who's just come to Bombay from Calcutta (using the old names purposely - the movie did too!) She's a mature, wanting

There was a time when a new movie released and I would watch it within a week or two... I simply don't know what happened to those times anymore. Somehow I seem to have become content with watching repeats of the movies I've seen before, reading the books that I've read before, meeting people that I meet everyday, I have shut myself to the possibilities of everything new. I seem to be stuck in a phase, stuck in an image. I prefer to eat at places I've eaten before, I drink the same drink, I have the same shot, it's all the same. Thankfully the last haircut I had was way different from what I've got ever! I'm beginning to realise my downfall, I'm beginning to realise that I'm choosing this, I'm behaving safe, I'm being foolish! I need a jolt, I want to break free. The only thing different I'm doing these days is work, I'm doing different kinds of work! :) Aah.. for those who don't know it, it's a pleasure to work. It really is.

Why is it that we only like or appreciate movies that tell a depressing tale or are extremely lively? We have begun to conform to some norms for films and we expect every film to be better than the last. Delhi-6, I felt was a beautifully made movie especially in terms of the rendition of some scenes and some shots. The story is quite simple with a lot of characters. Waheeda Rehman wants to back to her city, Delhi from New York to die peacefully. Her son refuses to come back, and hence her grandson, Abhishek Bachchan decides to bring her back and stay with her. Once here, he is immediately absorbed into the daily brouhaha (organised chaos) of a local city. Rishi Kapoor plays a character of Baig Uncle, Om Puri, Suchitra Phatak, and others are neighbours. Divya Dutta essayed her role of a sweeper very beautifully! The usual Hindu-Muslim angle is also brought in with seamless accuracy. Sonam Kapoor though a leading character doesn't have much of a role, her aim is to become an Indian I

A musical is like a breath of fresh air. For me, it's an outlet for a voice that's been away in hiding... I've always loved musicals, My Fair Lady and Sound of Music are movies that make me want to sit up, and sing! Sister Act (I and II) was fun too! We had heard a lot about Mamma Mia, but somehow we kept missing it at the theatre... Until finally my mom and I decided that today was it. We were just going to see it! And we did! To begin with we saw the movie at Gem which is just a tiny theatre with a capacity of 40 people. It was a late night Saturday show. Most people knew the songs of abba even before they walked in. The movie begins and there’s this cheerful girl who starts singing honey, honey and suddenly we realized that we are not the only ones humming the song. In fact people are singing the songs! The lyrics were being displayed on the screen and so we all started singing along with the movie and it turned out to be a sing-along mamma mia! Just like that! Without a

For a long time now, I've been in love with romantic comedies... I just can't seem to get enough of them. Today, I saw Notting Hill for the 'nth' time, although for some reason the movie completely eluded me... it was when I saw it that I remembered having seen it previously... Anyways, so I've finished watching this movie, and I know that the next time I read 'Notting Hill' in the schedule, I will sit to watch the movie like I would for 'You've got mail' and 'Sleepless in seattle' and the other million lovely romantic comedies... Until I asked myself why? What is it that makes me want to go back and watch these movies... the fact that love exists? the fact that you could have a day like that? the fact that these dreams are not unachievable? the fact that for once you want to feel like that? or what? Pondering, I am still thinking... Framing my thoughts while I pen this down... I dismiss my own theories because I know that I have felt thi

For all these years, I've been hearing this oft repeated phrase "Gone with the wind" and I knew it was in reference to the book written by Margaret Mitchell. It was just about fifteen days ago that I finally saw the movie! The first thing that striked me about the movie was the price! I wanted to buy it from the shop, and it was for Rs. 1,500! It must have been some collector's edition, nevertheless, I didn't have so much money to spend on it... So I ended up renting it for the night, little did I know that the entire movie is around 5 and 1/2 hours long... I sit to watch this movie, and it takes me into this different world that I knew very little about. I had only read a little about the Civil War and about the differences that made South and North America.. There was a short introduction to the movie, enabling viewers like me to understand the contexts. Another reference though not so prominent was a book that I had read a couple of years ago (which I re-read m

One of the most talked about movies, one that I saw a month later than most... It's a movie, that introduces a sensitive issue to all, one for which there is no awareness, that of dyslexia. A simple story line, revolving around the life of a 9 year old boy, a character beautifully essayed by Darsheel, who has a learning disability that no one diagnoses. He's tormented and hurt by friends, school teachers and most of all by his own father. His mother and brother, try to support him, but without knowledge of his problem, they too are unable to understand him. Shunned into a boarding school, where he faces the same opprobrium, he is lost, unhappy and terribly hurt, when he meets his temporary art teacher, played by aamir khan, who diagnoses his problem and strives to help him. Through creative methods, songs, and most importantly by allowing him to express himself through his wonderful drawings, darshan soon transforms into a boy who's comfortable with himself. Knowing what he