Golu ke gappe

January 2012 so far

2012-01-08T18:11:00.009-05:00

8. Hugo (8/10)
This is a treat to watch on big screen that too in 3-D. I am not a big fan of 3D films, in fact they give me headache but trust me this film is worth it. It is a touching film with just the right doses of everything. Scorsese has done it again.

7. Desi Boyz (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Over the top and boring. My patience for non-sensible hindi films is just reducing day by day

6. Horrible Bosses (4/10)
Funny in parts. Guilty pleasure. My ratings are based on more meaningful cinema. I am sure many people will love this movie a lot and might identify as well.

5. Crazy, Stupid Love (5/10)
There was a time I used to like rom-coms but not any more. I can see myself absolutely loving this movie 5 years ago but now, this was strictly an ok movie.

4. Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Such a disappointment form the team of BBB. This was just such an ordinary film that I could not believe what I was seeing. Nothing.. absolutely nothing was special in the film except maybe The Chopra girl. I was surprised to see how under utilised Anushka Sharma was. The charm that Ranvir Singh brought in BBB was totally lost by his "star" attitude in this film.

3. Such a Long Journey (UK/Indian) (8.5/10)
Based on the novel by Rohinton Mistry, I had no expectations of this movie but it was such a fantastic and pleasant surprise. A slice of life film focusing on a Parsi man Gustad Noble. He is forced to deal with a number of unexpected problems in his life, including his sick daughter, his individualist eldest son, a distant friend who gets him involved with some dirty money, and an unhealthy neighborhood. Acting by the entire principal cast is very natural. Released way back in 99, I am surprised this film did not get any recognition. Highly recommended. It is very very real.

2. The Guard (9/10)
This film reminded me so much of 'In Bruges'. An unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality is teamed up with an uptight FBI agent to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring. The humour in this film is subtle and wrong but it is so so funny. Either you will get the humour and you will crack up and enjoy it or you would be miserable. Be careful of the Irish accent. It helped me watch it with subtitles an dont missing out on any jokes.

1. Flowers of War (English/Chinese) (7/10)
A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety. This film is too real and very depressing. It just kills your heart to see what the little girls have to go through during the war. I did not know about the history of Japan's attack on Nanking in China but the film focuses more on the human aspects of it. Very real, touching and sad. Good piece of cinema.

20 films in December

2011-12-06T14:51:00.013-05:00

20. Warrior (8.5/10)

19. Don 2 (Hindi) (6/10)

18. Inkheart (2.5/10)

17. Drive (7/10)

16. We Need To Talk About Kevin (4.5/10)

15. The Debt (6/10)

14. 50/50 (7.5/10)

13. Contagion (4/10)

12. Damadamm (Hindi) (4.5/10)

11. A Separation Of Nader & Simin (Iran) (8/10)

10. Albert Nobbs (Ireland) (4.5/10)

9. Midnight In Paris (7/10)

8. The Skin I Live In (Spanish) (7.5/10)

7. Tere Mere Phere (Hindi) (3/10)

6. The Ides Of March (5/10)

5. Shame (7.5/10)

4. Sarah's Key (English/French) (7.5/10)

3. Shabri (Hindi) (5/10)

2. My Friend Pinto (Hindi) (3/10)

1. The Dirty Picture (7.5/10)

19 films in November

2011-11-05T15:51:00.012-04:00

19. Hum Tum Shabana (Hindi) (1/10)

18. Bol (Hindi) (6/10)

17. The Objective (1/10)

16. Hanna (4/10)

15. Force (Hindi) (6.5/10)

14. Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge (Hindi) (6/10)

13. Mod (Hindi) (7/10)

12. Henry's Crime (5/10)

11. Trespass (2/10)

10. Rain Man (6/10)

9. Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster (Hindi) (7/10)

8. Tabloid (Documentary) (7/10)

7. Captain America (2/10)

6. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (5.5/10)

5. The Help (4/10)

4. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (part 2) (8.5/10)

3. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (part 1) (5/10)

2. Sahi Dhande Galat Bande (Hindi) (7/10)

1. Incendies (French) (8/10)

Only 11 in October

2011-10-01T17:27:00.004-04:00

11. Submarine (3.5/10)

10. Last Night (4.5/10)

9. Green Lantern (3/10)

8. Ra.One (Hindi) (4/10)

7. Soundtrack (Hindi) (7/10)

6. 13 (4/10)

5. Toy Story (4/10)

4. Something Borrowed (3/10)

3. X-Men: First Class (7/10)

2. Aarakshan (Hindi) (3/10)

1. Not A Love Story (Hindi) (5.5/10)

13 films in September

2011-09-02T19:44:00.012-04:00

13. Khap (Hindi) (3/10)

12. Mausam (Hindi) (5/10)

11. Misery (5.5/10)

10. Iti Mrinalini (Hindi) (3.5/10)

9. Bubble Gum (Hindi) (5.5/10)

8. Kashmakash (Hindi) (6.5/10)

7. That Girl In Yellow Boots (Hindi) (5/10)

6. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (Hindi) (7.5/10)

5. Limitless (4.5/10)

4. Jane Eyre (4/10)

3. Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (Hindi) (6/10)

2. Bodyguard (Hindi) (5.5/10)

1. Rio (4/10)

19 films in August

2011-08-06T19:08:00.015-04:00

19. Super 8 (4.5/10)

18. Fish Tank (3/10)

17. Madeo (Mother) (Korean) (8/10)

16. Singham (Hindi) (7.5/10)

15. It's Kind Of A Funny Story (1.5/10)

14. The Italian Job (6/10)

13. Chillar Party (Hindi) (7.5/10)

12. Bhindi Baazaar Inc. (Hindi) (5/10)

11. West Is West (Uk English/Punjabi) (5.5/10)

10. Burlusque (3/10)

9. Always Kabhi Kabhi (Hindi) (4/10)

8. Monica (Hindi) (6.5/10)

7. Murder 2 (Hindi) (7/10)

6. Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap (Hindi) (7/10)

5. Ready (Hindi) (5/10)

4. Source Code (5.5/10)

3. Bheja Fry 2 (Hindi) (2/10)

2. 404 (Hindi) (5.5/10)

1. Double Dhamaal (Hindi) (6/10)

Only 4 films in July

2011-07-05T15:56:00.004-04:00

4. Shaitan (Hindi) (6.5/10)

3. Stanley Ka Dabba (Hindi) (8/10)

2. Love u Mr. Kalaakaar (Hindi) (5/10)

1. Delhi Belly (Hindi/English) (7/10)

15 films in June

2011-06-01T09:36:00.018-04:00

15. Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (2.5/10)
I saw this film for first 15 minutes and thought it could be an interesting film in spoof genre but it really could not make up its mind whether this was real or really a spoof. Film has a very thin plot of a widow's houseboy and a divorcee's chauffeur bet on which will bed the other's employer first. Could have been much better with more spoofy jokes and situations.

14. Shagird (Hindi) (5.5/10)
This film was somewhere in between. OIT could have been better if editing was tighter. Acting from Nana Patekar was good. In fact he was in form after a long time. This is the kind of film that would make a goo viewing on TV or dvd but I dont really see myself spending money on big screen despite it having something different although not completely new. Mohit Ahlawat really can't act IMO. Rimi Sen is getting a little repetitive with her shocked expressions

13. Bride Flight (Dutch/English) (7/10)
Wonderful film and a great surprise. I am so glad I saw this film. A romantic drama that charts the lives of three women from different backgrounds, forever changed when they emigrate to New Zealand as war brides. All three of them have something to do with a young man. The film takes us through the entire journey of their life. Beautifully shot in New Zealand, now I wanna visit the country. The acting, story and direction were all great.

12. Shor In The City (Hindi) (7/10)
Very interesting film. 3 stories in parallel but they never meet each other but still somehow it doesn't feel disjointed. There are small moments in the film which make a deep impression. Acting from all principal characters is good. Female characters are wasted. I think Tushar Kapoor did a fantastic job. Again, I prefer these kinds films because they have something new to offer

11. Pyaar Ka Punchnama (Hindi) (7/10)
Only if the length of this film could be controlled a bit, this could have been super awesome. I love the spontaneous acting of the 3 male lead actors. It is straight out of our today's life. The film is a hilarious take on how sometimes girls take boys on a ride for their personal benefit and how a decent man actually ends up becoming a girl's 'kathputli'. I enjoyed this film a lot.

10. Memories Of March (English/Bengali/Hindi) (7/10)
I give high ratings to this film just for the choice of the subject. It is bold yet sensitive but unfortunately the treatment of the film leaves a lot to be desired. Deepti Naval acted very well as an estranged mother who has recently lost her son and is finding out shocking realities of her son's life. But her reactions would change so drastic that there was no reason that at one instant she likes Rituparno Ghosh and the next she hats and then likes him back. It was odd. Rituparno Ghosh in his first film as an actor was very good. Somehow I felt his performance was not very much upto the mark.

9. Luv Ka The End (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Bollywood has finally ventured into the candy floss genre. It is not like there was never the film but this film whose central protagonist is a girl is really a chick flick. When Shraddha Kapoor finds out that her boyfriend (newcomer Taaha) is cheating on him and just playing around with her for some stupid club, she is shattered but vows to take revenge on him. 2 of her best friends are her confidants in the film. The good thing about the film is that it comes straight o point very quick. As a viewer you dont feel that the film is stretching. But still if you put a little brain, it is a dumb silly film for teenage girls.

8. Faltu (Hindi) (3.5/10)
I cannot fathom why this film is a such big hit. The same story was earlier done in 'Admissions Open' film that came last year. I guess that was done in a serious tone whereas Faltu has just one aim- entertainment. But I think I have reached a stage where I have stopped enjoying films if they do not have a meaning behind them. This film is about 4 youngsters taking on the Indian education system. Jackky Bhagnani, Deepak Dobriyal, Pooja Gupta and Angad Bedi were actually all pretty confident and very good in their respective roles. But having seen the story in an earlier film, there was not much originality left for me. Arshad Warsi and Ritesh Deshmukh were actually annoying.

7. True Grit (3.5/10)
A teenage 14 year old girl hires an aging US marshal Jeff Bridges and another lawman Matt Damon in search of her father's killer in the old Indian territory in US. Interesting story but it was sooooo slow that it tested my patience. It really did. Something that could have been finished in about half an hour took forever. The only saving grace was the very wonderful performance of the 14 year old girl. The confidence and determination that she showed was remarkable. This was definitely not my cup of tea.

6. Crimes and Misdemeanors (5/10)
I have a feeling that had I seen this film long time ago about the time it came out , I would have absolutely loved the film. A very famous doctor has been having an affair for over 2 years with a woman who now threatens to destroy his life if he did not do anything about it. WHen he discusses this with his brother, he assures him that he will take care of it. Meanwhile Woody Allen plays this documentary film maker who is falling in love with a co-worker and cannot do anything about hi failing marriage. There were some really good witty one liners which I liked specially the ones that Woody says to his niece. They are outrightly funny. But overall from a movie's perspective, a lot has changed since the time this movie actually came out.

5. Jack Goes Boating (4/10)
Philip Seymor Hoffman's directorial debut is a poignant story of love growing between 2 people and also about love lost between another couple. An awkward shy couple slowly get together and become close as time and events bring them close and at the same time, their friend's life is being teared apart by love lost, infidelity, boredom, career etc. The high point of the film is acting but then again the film is very very slow.

4. Dum Maaro Dum (Hindi) (7/10)
I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the film. I had very low expectations and somehow it worked in the film's favor. Abhishek Bachchan plays a cop who is out to nab the drug mafia in Goa and of course succeeds. Goa has been captured beautifully. Acting by everyone is pretty god. I expected something more powerful from newcomer Rana Duggabatti but he was ok. Prateek Babbar was also decent. Songs somehow fit well in the narrative except the title track. Music Director's please stop spoiling the classics.

3. All Good Things (5/10)
A murder mystery based on a true story which till date has not been solved. Exciting idea and executed well. But why does it still get a low rating? Because I am very curious to know if the director himself knew why he was creating the character of Ryan Gosling the way he ended up doing. Why would he behave in such an odd way? The story is about a latent psychopath man, his aging older power hungry father, and a charming young innocent woman caught up in a struggle for happiness and wealth?

2. Toast (7/10)
I loved this film. I am so glad that I chanced upon this film. I think its the first film that I have seen with food as a background. A young boy loves his mother despite she not knowing anything about cooking. When she dies, he is left alone with his father who is now getting close to their cleaner. She takes the age old route of a man's heart is through his stomach. The young boy yearns for his father's love and wants to cook the best dishes to get his attention. A young chef whom he meets in a restaurant gives him the confidence to leave his father's house and take his dream forward of becoming a great cook. Excellent performances and wonderful movie.

1. Haevnen (Danish) [In A Better World] (7/10)
A ten year old boy Elias is bullied at school until another boy Christian comes to his rescue and they become very close friends. Christian is a troubled young boy after his mother's death and doesn't like to talk to his father but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. There were parts of the film that were confusing and did not add any relevance to the story directly but it was beautiful poetic direction. The boys acted so well specially Christian as the troubled child. This is an interesting cinema with amazing performances, good story and a message.

15 Films in May

2011-05-07T18:13:00.013-04:00

15. Sutradhar (Hindi) (4/10)

14. Chalo Dilli (5.5/10)

13. Disturbia (4/10)

12. Bridesmaids (7/10)

11. Thor (5/10)

10. The Ninth Gate (2.5/10)

9. Utt Pataang (Hindi) (6/10)

8. Zokkomon (Hindi) (4/10)

7. Rabbit Hole (6.5/10)

6. Game (Hindi) (4/10)

5. Fair Game (3.5/10)

4. The City of Your Final Destination (3/10)

3. Joneses (3.5/10)

2. Thank You (HIndi) (3/10)

1. Biutiful (Spanish) (4/10)

19 Films in April

2011-04-01T16:28:00.020-04:00

19. Aaja Nachle (Hindi) (6.5/10)

18. The Machinist (3/10)

17. Dhobi Ghaat (Hindi) (7.5/10)

16. Exam (3.5/10)

15. Barber Shop (4/10)

14. Love And Other Drugs (3/10)

13. 127 Hours (4/10)

12. Frozen (2/10)

11. Robot (Hindi) (5.5/10)

10. Blue Valentine (7/10)

9. Hereafter (2.5/10)

8. The Next Three Days (7/10)

7. Yeh Saali ZIndagi (Hindi) (6.5/10)

6. Tangled (5/10)

5. Shriman Shrimati (Hindi) (5.5/10)

4. Takers (3.5/10)

3. Made in Dagenham (5/10)

2. Debshishu (Hindi) (3.5/10)

1. Ada - A Way Of Life (Hindi) (1/10)
What a terrible film and such pathetic acting by the male lead. The young man (with a very sad looking face) is always either engaged in heavy duty serious philosophical discussion with his parents (annoying Ayesha Jhulka and Rahul Roy) or is dealing with a gangster to kill someone. IN between he somehow finds time to romance Nauheed Cyrusi. I mean there is absolutely no connection whatsoever in the scenes. His acting is so bad that if you watch this supposedly serious film as comedy, you might enjoy and laugh over it. This 1 star is just for Rahman's music which is actually pretty good. What a waste in such a film

16 Films in March

2011-03-05T14:04:00.013-05:00

16. Step Up 3 (3/10)

15. Tanu Weds Manu (Hindi) (7/10)

14. Micmacs (French) (4.5/10)

13. You Again (3/10)

12. Dancing at Lughnasa (4/10)

11. Inside Job (Documentary) (5/10)

10. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish) (7/10)

9. The Tourist (5.5/10)

8. Hostel (Hindi) (3/10)

7. Turning 30 (Hindi) (4.5/10)

6. Patiala House (Hindi) (5.5/10)

5. Secretariat (5/10)

4. 7 Khoon Maaf (Hindi) (4/10)

3. Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (Hindi) (3.5/10)

2. Easy A (3/10)

1. Yamla Pagla Deewana (Hindi) (4/10)

10 films in February '11

2011-02-02T21:52:00.008-05:00

10. Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji (Hindi) (6/10)
A nice warm no brainers entertainer but very unlike the David Dhawan or Anees Bazmee types. This is not the kind of comedy where you burst out in pearls of laughter. Rather this is the kind of film, where you actually relate to the characters and there is always a smile on your face. Ajay Devgan is someone now you can bank on as actor. Emran Hashmi is just getting better. I have actually started to like the guy. It was also refreshing to see a light film finally by Madhur Bhandarkar

9. Dance Like A Man (Indian/English) (3.5/10)
I had been wanting this film for a while now just because I have always tried to encourage the so called 'art' cinema. I have a feeling that had I seen the film right when it came out, I might have appreciated it bit more than what I did now. Acting by Shobhana and Asif Zakaria was good. In fact pretty good, but overall, it failed to leave a mark on me the struggles a man goes through trying to prove to be a man but at the same time taking his passion for dancing to the next level. Things are not so easy when your better half (read wife) is better than you.

8. Haat - The Weekly Bazaar (Hindi/Rajasthani) (1/10)
A weird film by actress turned director Seema Kapoor. The choice of subject was interesting and could have made a good art film but the bizarre narration style and not a crisp story line leaves a lot wanted. There have been several films on women being tortured and misused, this one follows the same path with Divya Dutta's life being used by her husband and her lover. This film has nothing new or novel to offer. Yawn !!

7. Transamerica (7.5/10)
I had been meaning to see this film for such a long time and finally manage to do so. The film is about a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York. Felicity Huffman is just brilliant in this role. I am so so disappointed to now read that she never won the oscars for the performance. She so deserved it. The film also manages to open your eyes on how society discriminates and ultimately its the soul that matters. Brilliant and a very brave effort on the film makers part.

6. Unstoppable (3.5/10)
A so so film. It kept reminding me of the hindi film 'The Burning Train'. Plus it was very very predictable. It just cannot meet the level of excitement and nervousness that other disaster films can take you through.

5. Conviction (5.5/10)
This film surprised me. Based on a true story about a sister trying to get justice for her brother was very emotional and has been handled with a lot of sincerity. Hilary Swank was wonderful in her portrayal. Despite the fact that you know the final outcome, you still feel so happy and elated for the family who have suffered long to see the day.

4. You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (4/10)
I used to love Woody Allen cinema but something has been missing in his recent outings. The film focussing on mall multiple stories. We follow a group of people, as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. The film ends up abruptly without justifying certain actions or even giving a closure to any one event. It i as if you are watching a slice of life of your neighbour, and just when it got interesting, the neighbour decided to move out.

3. Red (3/10)
When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants. Simple story but it is kind of a British black comedy that makes you laugh at certain points. If you dont wanna put your brain to work , then you might actually enjoy the film. My problem was that I tried to find logic into so many situations that I stopped having fun. Don't repeat the mistake that I did.

2. Toonpur Ka Superrhero (Hindi) (1.5/10)
It as bad, specially if you are very used to the whole American animation world where the things are so much better. From India standards, the animation quality was decent but then just that is not enough. The story was very bad and please, what was Kajol thinking when she did this film. A big downer!

1. Jhootha Hi Sahi (Hindi) (6/10)
I dont know why this film got so bad reviews. I, for once actually enjoyed watching this film. It was sweet and simple and I particularly enjoyed the chemistry that the circle of friends shared with each other. Sometimes simple things are better and I have always wanted to be in such a circle. But what the hell was Abbas Tyrwala thinking when he signed his wife Pakhi for the film as lead actress. C'mmon now, anyone can see how she just can't act and has pathetic screen presence.

18 films in January

2011-01-04T17:36:00.017-05:00

18. Band Baaja Baaraat (Hindi) (9/10)
What a fantastic film. Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma have done such a brilliant job. Yet another film with total Delhi flavour and it makes it o much fun to watch. I think Habib Faisal (the dialogue write of the film) is a man to watch out for. Please watch this one for sure.

17. The King's Speech (UK) (8.5/10)
Arguabley, one of the best films to come out in 2010 and almost perfect acting by Colin Firth. The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. This one is a must watch. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, the king is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war.

16. Manon Of The Spring (French) (7/10)
COntinuing the story from Jean de Florette, the daughter is now grown up. As she discovers the truth of what happened to her father as a result of the scheming of their neighbour (Yves Montand), who took the land for himself, she vows revenge, realising that the neighbour's deeds have irrevocably shaped the course of her life. Her moves toward avenging her father's demise provide an ironic twist to this harsh and thought-provoking saga.

15. Jean de Florette (French) (6.5/10)
Two 1920's farmers engage in a bitter rivalry as one tries to tend to a plot of land and the other deviously undermines his efforts in order to conceal a valuable spring. The peasant farmer (Gérard Depardieu) who comes to the countryside to tend the land he has inherited is a naive and trusting soul seeking only to provide for his wife and daughter, while his neighbour (Yves Montand) is intent on doing whatever he can to discourage and demoralise the farmer so that he can take the land for himself. This simple tale unfolds in a wrenching fashion to a tragic conclusion, bringing forth questions about human nature and the prevalence and price of greed.

14. The Fighter (4/10)
The Fighter, is a drama about boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime. The film is just ok but brilliant acting by Christian Bale and the girl who played the mother.

13. Phas Gaye Re Obama (Hindi) (7/10)
This is called a black comedy with a very very intelligent script. This film proves once again that if the script is right, you can make a wonderful film with lesser known stars and low budget and still come up with a great product. US returned Rajat Kapoor gets kidnapped hoping that since he is american, kidnappers can make good money. But due to recession, he is broke. How he comes up with a brilliant plan to escape the kidnappers and also make some money from this makes the film very interesting.

12. How To Train Your Dragon (8/10)
Normally I dont watch animated films unless I get strong recommendations and this film definitely surprised me. This is a great great film specially after watching it with such nil expectations. Excellent story, direction, connection with audience and everything else. I think I might finally be getting into watching more and more animation movies.

11. Alles is liefde (Dutch) [Love Is All] (2.5/10)
Heavily inspired from British film 'Love Actually'. The film again shows various couples , which I think again here it was 6, and what is going on with their love life around St. Nicolas day. Every couple is unique in their problems and love. While "Love Actually" was a great movie to watch, this was hardly bearable. The characters were very poorly sketched and I thought that the acting was also pretty bad.

10. Rakht Charitra-2 (Hindi) (7/10)
An excellent follow-up to part 1. The story moves forward and now Vivek Oberoi finally has an enemy (in form o south start Suriya). The film is high on emotion, dialogue and acting rather than plain bloodshots like in first part. I think Ram Gopal Verma re-invented himself with this 2 part series. Sad that it all went unnoticed by critics and audience alike.

9. Rita (Marathi) (6/10)
Interesting debut from Renuka Shahane as a director. The story was regular, a little hatke and modern but brilliant acting by Pallavi Joshi. One of the actresses, who never got her due as an actress. It gets a little draggy towards the end and confusing but i think the story was the heart of the film and how Rita deals with people around her (her parents, siblings and lover)

8. No One Killed Jessica (Hindi) (6.5/10)
I am glad that bollywood is still coming up with some good films and some really terrific acting specially by leading ladies. based on the true story Jessica Lal murder case, this film never moves out of where the heart of the film lies and focuses on nothing but just the realities of the case. Excellent acting by Vidya Balan. It was also good to see rani in form after a long time.

7. Butterfly on a Wheel (5/10)
Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello star in this tense thriller about a couple whose daughter goes missing. Bello plays the grieving mother alongside Gerard Butler. Brosnan appears as a mysterious gunman who tortures his victims through a series of sadistic mind games. Now this one was interesting and with a perfect twist which no one saw coming.

6. The American (4/10)
There were all good things being said about this movie in reviews etc. but this movie was so super slow, that it tested my patience. George Clooney is an assasin who is now hiding in Italy to complete one of his final assignments. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

5. No Problem (Hindi) (1/10)
Wow!! This film was nothing short of torture. You would have expected at least a decent affair from Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kappor, Akshaye, Kangana, Sushmita but let me tell you, watching this movie was a very very painful experience. Over the top acting, loud dialogues, no comedy and a very forced script. TERRIBLE !!

4. The Extra Man (3/10)
A man who escorts wealthy widows in New York's Upper East Side takes a young aspiring playwright under his wing. Sounds interesting but it wasn't. Acting was good but after a point, I really didn't care either for actors or the characters and if a film fails to sustain someone's attention, then its just not worth it.

3. Alpha Dogs (4.5/10)
Based on a true story (Jesse James Hollywood), this film brings out some very fine acting from Emile Hirsch, Timberlake, Stone, and a host of first class actors. This is edge of the seat stuff when you can see the terrible consequences unfold - you want to warn the characters to make different choices. But it doesn't happen, up to the tragic end which was very very sad to see> the only reason I am giving low rating is because of the loud nature and no repeat value of the film.

2. Aakrosh (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Although this one is a copy of some foreign film, but I had not seen the original, so I actually thought that film was pretty decent. There was not much to talk about honor killing but that sure was the basic premise of the film. Paresh Rawal was the best thing about the film. And Akshaye, please stop wearing those hideous wigs.

1. Revanche (German/Austria) (7/10)
Very well paced, mostly very quiet and tense. The ending was surprising, but rang true, life can be just like that! When a bank robbery goes wrong, Alex starts living in the country with his grandfather. He wants to take revenge on the police officer who ended up killing his prostitute girlfriend while chasing them. Very interesting twists and turn of events and how he takes the control of his enemy's life and events.

34 films in December 2010. I had to catch up

2010-12-31T17:58:00.001-05:00

34. Le silence de Lorna (French) [Lorna's Silence] (6.5/10)
Lorna marries a druggie , pays him to get Belgian citizenship in hope to open a snacks bar. This i arranged by a dealer Fabio. He nows wants to overdose the junkie, so that Lorna can now make money by marrying a Russian who also now wants a citizenship. What will Lorna do now specially now that she has started to have feelings for her now dead junkie husband. Interesting story but the end was a bit weird. It was all good thus far. But still I must say that the film was much better than some of Hollywood crap.

33. Ek Din Achanak (Hindi TV Film) (2/10)
This was a film made for TV where Rohit Roy and his real life wife play husband wife. The film is about money, greed and power where the husband hires a killer to get rid of hiswife for money but tables turn when she finds out he truth. It wasa very TV telefilm types. Acting was strictly ok. Manasi Joshi Ry seriously needs to loose weight.

32. How Do You Know (0.5/10)
After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball. A bad bad bad film on all accounts. If I can leave a film midway in theatre, you can guess how awful it really was.

31. Tees Maar Khan (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Huge expectations usually crumble down. I went with very low expectations specially after all those reviews. So that way at least I enjoyed the film and wsn't disappointed. I hate to say but Katrina was the only saving grace of the film. Her bimbo act was superb and so was Sheila Ki Jawani song. Akshay really needs to do something different. He is getting so repetitive.

30. Coco Before Chanel (French) (5/10)
We all know of the famous Chanel brand. This movie shows us the life of Coco before she became the famous Chanel. It is a historical reconstruction (dunno how much of it is actually true) but nonetheless it made for a very interesting viewing. The film shows Coco Chanel's rise from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.

29. Mohandas (Hindi) (7/10)
ery engaging film. It is again sad that these mall films never get he audience they deserve. I must admit I had my apprehensions but so glad that I gave the film a chance. Never has a hindi film dealt with the subject of identity theft and what does an individual has to go through because of it. Please watch this one.

28. The Colors Of Paradise (Iranian) (6.5/10)
Directed by famous Majid Majidi, this film also explores and celebrates childhood. Blind boy Mohammad is loved by everyone including his sisters and granny but his single widowed father finds him a burden and wants to get rid of him to stay witha blind carpenter so that he can marry a woman. The story descends into scripted tragedy and a contrived, action-packed climax where it your interpretation of what happened to the boy.

27. Life Express (Hindi) (3.5/10)
A noble theme and handled well but the problem is these issues are so often dealt in small screen that no one cares about it as a film. The film shows a very busy couple who are so much into their careers that they dont have time or kids. They plan to go for surrogate mother so that they can have their cake and eat too. Of course the mom (Rituparna Sengupta) soon realizes that she actually wants to become a mother rather than otherwise. Divya Dutta as always is the only saving grace of this film.

26. Une Petite Zone De Turbulences (French) [A Spot of Bother] (5.5/10)
A comic French film that shows a french dysfunctional family. An aging old man thinks he is dying, cannot accept that his daughter loves a man who is probably not as intelligent as he should, cannot accept the fact that his son is gay and later finds out that his wife is cheating on him. All this happens in the due course of the film with a funny touch but humane angle at the same time. I am not sure what the director's intentions were behind the film but it was alright and easy to watch.

25. Urf Professor (Hindi) (6/10)
THis film was made by now Late Pankaj Advani much before he made Sankat City. This was banned for its very very strong sexual language which I for once have never heard in a hindi movie. But this film was still interesting in terms how many layers of the film interacted with each other and how segments flow. The film basically deals with a professor who is a hit man and what all happens with him and people surrounding him. Also features Sharman Joshi and Antara Mali in extended roles. You can now see why Sankat City was such a wonderful film.

December is still going great. Lets see what it ends up with

2010-12-28T19:19:00.002-05:00

24. Hisss (Hindi) (0/10)
So yes this is THE WORST movie ever made. I read all the reviews and felt how bad can it be. But OMG!! this beats everything. Period!. So called special effects are so tacky that any B/C Grade movie can beat it. Film makers, have mercy on us

23. Wasta The Relation (Hindi) (3.5/10)
A late 80s artsy movie where the village is terrified of a local goon and no one reports him. Except when his cousin gets married to introducing Kiran Juneja and she takes charge. Imagine an 80s movie and you can imagine pretty much what the acting, story and everything would have been like. I dunno why I watched it now.

22. Identity (7/10)
9 people get together in a motel and slowly one by one people start getting killed. Half way into the movie you think that this is one of those regular who-dun-it kinda movies but wait when they throw in a surprise for multiple personality disorder and the movie takes completely different turn. End is equally surprising. Definitely worth a watch. John Cussack was the only known name for me

21. Ankahee (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Dr. Shriram Lagoo is an astrologer who wants his son Amol Palekar to marry Deepti Naval. But he loves another woman by the name of Sushma and is determined to marry her. And then his father tells him that he is fated to have two wives in this lifetime - the first will die within eleven months of the marriage - and that's when he will re-marry. Modern-day educated Nandu must now decide to believe his father and let go of Sushma, or defy his astrological beliefs and marry her.

20. Defending Your Life (4/10)
A witty peak at afterlife where before moving on, you have to go on a trial to prove if you have overcome your fears. If you have, you move on to either heaven or hell and if not, then you are sent back to earth for your next birth. The idea on paper would have been bad but the film was entertaining. A light family bond time movie starring Meryl Streep.

19. Red Rose (Hindi) (3/10)
Gosh!! Rajesh Khanna was so bad in this film. It had all the cliches of 80s thriller film. I was vaguely familiar with the story but I can imagine that in ealy 80s it might have been quite a sensation specially seeing the then super star in a negative avtaar. Poonam Dhillon was ok from 80s point of view but so OTT if you watch the film today.

18. Benny And Babloo (Hindi) (1.5/10)
Rajpal Yadav and KK Menon in title roles. Just a bad film. Although I think the thought and intentions behind the movie were honest but the film lost in trying to be comedy vs preaching a point.

17. Life Goes On (Indian English) (7/10)
Brilliant!! An english film from Uk starring Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad and Soha Ali Khan, the film shows how the family of 3 daughetsr and the father copes up after the mother unexpectedly dies. The film goes back and forth in flashback showing how many thing were being handled by the mother and how she was this tiny thread that was keeping the family together and everyone would go to her for their problems. You should watch it. Its a little slow but I got totally into it.

16. Break Ke Baad (Hindi) (5.5/10)
I wonder why this movie got such bad reviews. It wasn't actually bad at all. I enjoyed it. It showed a new perspective of modern day couples who once in a while like to take a break to ind an identity for themselves. I dont see anything wrong in that but of course since this is a bollywood film, they show that in doing this, how you might be losing out on the love of your dear ones. Still enjoyable. Imran Khan needs to branch out and do more varied roles. I still dont like Deepika Padukone but she definitely can act.

15. Wet Hot American Summer (1/10)
Set in a Summer Camp in the 1980's, it focuses on the camp counsellors and their charges trying to organise a last day of fun and frolics before the kids go home. But with the counsellors barely older than the kids, and their minds on each other rather than the welfare of their campers, things soon start to go very wrong. This was such a bad bad bad movie. Completely avoidable.

14. Red Alert (Hindi) (5/10)
A 2010 take on what Naxalite movement in India was, although done with thought, taste and issue based that makes people think. Other films in past have been too artsy to leave an impression. Sunil Shetty cant act but in this film, he was a little better. Sameera Reddy was strictly ok. Seema Biswas always does a good job. Watch it if you dont have anything better.

13. The Town (6.5/10)
Ben Affleck is a part of local bank robbers. When him and his partners think that a local girl saw more thanshe should have at a robbery, he befriends her and slowly fall in love with her. Unfortunately things dont go as planned because he cannot leave the business even if he wants to do. There is lot more on stake. Excellent movie. Surprising was the fact that Ben Affleck directed it as well. Totally the kind of movie I prefer.

12. Golmaal 3 (Hindi) (6/10)
For some reason, I wasn't too excited for this movie specially since Golmaal Returns was soooo bad but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The gags were funny and there was a story to tell. Best one liners according to me were given to Kunal Khemu. Ajay and Kareena were ok. By now we all know that Rohit Shetty's films have to have all bright coloured sets and lots of car explosions and there were aplenty here as well

11. Action Replayy (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Vipul Shah and Akshay's combo has given us some really good films in past plus promos were exciting, so I had high expectations but the movie was a complete downer. Time travel needs to take care of explaining all loop holes but I dont think proper thought was given to it. Ash is no ways looked from 70s (although Neha Dhupia totally did). Songs were all forced. Only saving grace was wonderful acting job by debutant Aditya Roy Kapoor.

December so far...

2010-12-02T15:37:00.010-05:00

10. Black Swan (4/10)
Natalie Portman lives with her obsessive mother and is a ballerina. She is selected as the leas for musical Swan Lake. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Natalie fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily, a new girl is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Natalie begins to get more in touch with her dark side, something that threatens to destroy her. The storyline gets a little confusing. You are not sure what is going on, Is Natalie schizophrenic or something else. Her acting was brilliant but overall I was left a little confused.

9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (5.5/10)
Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world. As I expected, the movie was enjoyable experience but it lacked the thrills and actions of first 2 parts specially the first one. I watch these movies for visual thrills which I still got to an extent.

8. Kajraare (Hindi) (2.5/10)
I am so glad that this film was released only in 2 theaters and 1 show each. I would have felt really bad for people to spend all this money on the ticket and see such a bad film. I had high regards for Pooja Bhatt, who I thought would never give in to commercial cinema and continue to make offbeat films but Pooja, you disappoint me. Bhushan Kumar said the right thing, " Himesh is good MD but terrible actor". This film just proves it. It has nothing to watch out for. The story seems straight lifted from a early 90's movie and even the direction seemed that way. Even the lead actress Mona Laizza is pretty bad. And I was reminded again why Amrita Singh is called 'mard' singh. Stay away.

7. Ramaa The Saviour (Hindi) (0.5/10)
A good concept gone horribly wrong because of a terrible script. A bunch of kids get transported into a video game while playing it. Its all confusion and mish-mash after that without any explanations of the game or characters provided. Why Tanushree Dutta or Sahil Khan are the way they are, whey are they fighting and everything else. No wonder kids films are first not made and if made, they are shoddy as hell.

6. A Murder of Quality (UK) (2.5/10)
Intelligence agent George Smiley investigates a murder within an elite British school. Storyline takes aim at the British class system. Amidst the suspects is a young boy who is either a victim or a suspect. Murder mysteries are interesting but this one just did not do for me. Acting of everyone seemed pretty lame or maybe it is just a British thing :)

5. Crook (Hindi) (2/10)
Vishesh Films are having a bad run off late. The recent attacks on Indian students in Australia could have created for a good premise but this film could not use the potential. Why does a love story have to be embellished in a serious film? Emran was good. New actress Neha Sharma was pretty good. The sudden turning of Arjan Bajwa into negative was totally uncalled for. Mohit Suri disappoints. The songs were good though

4. Rakht Charitra (Hindi) (7/10)
Wonderful and a very tight script an acting. Ram Gopal Varma is back. Vivek Oberoi has acted so well and also the main villain. The main hero of the film is the background score. It takes the film to another level. There s constant twists and turns in the story. There is a not a single minute in the film that an bore you. Watch this for sure. There is excessive violence (nothing like seen in Hindi films before) but it gives that realistic touch to the film that it needs.

3. I am Love (Italian) (3.5/10)
This film tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family. The family patriarch surprises everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi and grandson Edo. However, Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a talented chef. At the heart of Tancredi's family is his wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, Emma's existence is shocked to the core when she falls deeply in love with Antonio and pursues a passionate love affair that will change his family forever. Sounds interesting but the film was way too long and the scenes just seemed stretched at various points. The good thing was that there was no forced drama in any moment of the film

2. The Girl Who Played With Fire (Swedish) (5.5/10)
Follow up to the Dragon Tattoo movie, this film fells short of the hug expectations that the first movie had set both on terms of story and execution. Lisbeth Salander is now a wanted woman. A researcher and a Millennium journalist about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Mikael, Salander's friend and Millennium's plublisher is alone in his belief of Salander's innocence. Digging deeper Bloomkvist unearths evidence implicating highly placed members of Swedish Society-as well as shocking details about Salander's past. I hope the third one is better in series. But still it is a decent watch.

1. Walk On Water (Israel/English/German) (4/10)
Eyal is a top assassin in the Israeli secret service. He has killed terrorists before and is now sent to eliminate an aging former Nazi war criminal. During his mission, Eyal meets his target’s granddaughter and grandson, who inadvertently help him uncover his own troubled history and face his demons, while they discover the ugly truth their family has hidden from them for decades. The film has an interesting plot. Eyal's role is played very well and his character is the only one that makes the film believable. The grandson and granddaughter although very important to the film seem not natural in the sense, these kind of stern characters in my opinion really do not exist.

November number is 13

2010-11-21T06:10:00.007-05:00

13. Knock Out (Hindi) (6.5/10)

12. The Oxford Murders (2/10)

11. Aashayein (Hindi) (5.5/10)

10. The Assassination of Richard Nixon (3.5/10)

9. Anjaana Anjaani (Hindi) (3/10)

8. The Social Network (8.5/10)

7. Guzaarish (Hindi) (7/10)

6. Do Dooni Chaar (Hindi) (7.5/10)

5. Khichdi The Movie (Hindi) (5.5/10)

4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1/10)

3. Buried (2.5/10)

2. The Kids Are All Right (4/10)

1. Salt (5/10)

October number is mere 12

2010-10-04T17:27:00.005-04:00

12. Karate Kid (4/10)
When Jaden Smith moves to China with her mom, he is bullied by local students and he is now scared. He somehow meets Jackie Chan, a former Kung Fu master who no remains drunk having some family history of his own. Together they both teach other different meaning of life and finally Jaden overcomes his fears. Strictly alright.

11. Sex And The City 2 (6.5/10)
Embarrassed to admit but I actually liked the film. It was cheesy, sp cheesy but funny at the same time. I saw it on the flight to India, but found myself laughing at a lot of scenes. Story wise there was nothing. As the name suggests, it was all about fashion and sex. You might hate it but hat the hell, I liked it.

10. The Perfect Murder (India/English) (5.5/10)
This 80s Merchant Ivory movie was probably a very novel idea in those days specially a movie made in Bombay in English. The story was interesting and the movie was funny in parts but it was so funny to listen to English dialogues which were clearly written in Hindi and then translated into English. Naseeruddin, Amjad Khan etc were in form. It is very interesting when you see the film as to why it is called so.

9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Swedish) (7.5/10)
A very very impressive must watch film. It is a little shocking and depressing but the mystery is so profound that it instantly hooks you on. When Harriet disappears an dno one can tell how and why that happened, 40 years later, her uncle wants to try to find the reaosn one last time before he dies. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael and the tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. Must Watch !

8. Strictly Ballroom (Australia) (3/10)
A crazy old ballroom dancer wants her son to be the champion and will go to any length to make this happen and a convince dance committee that is determined that "there are no new steps!" The dancing is enjoyable, yet not overwhelming, and the movie strives hard not to take itself too seriously. I was not impressed with the movie. Neither humor nor dance. Surprising since it is from Baz Lurhrmann

7. We Are Family (Hindi) (5/10)
I have not seen Stepmom , so I cannot compare but then this movie in itself was quite boring. I mean there ws nothing in this movie that could hold my attention. This kind of family dramas are big on TV these days and no one wants to see this on big screen , not even when you have a Kajol and Kareena involved. And music? SEL have been disappointing so much of late.

6. The Film Emotional Atyachar (Hindi) (2.5/10)
Small indie Hindi films have always raised my expectations specially because few of them earlier were big good surprises. Not this one. A huge disappointment in every department specially since the actors involved are all well known for doing off beat good films. The plot is simple but made unnecessary complex. Completely avoidable.

5. Lafangey Parindey (Hindi) (4/10)
Lafangey Parindey movie is a love story set in the gritty streets of Mumbai. The film is about bike gangs in Mumbai. Neil Nitin Mukesh plays the character of One Shot Nandu, a fighter who pummels his opponents in the ring blindfolded. Deepika Padukone plays Pinky Palkar, a dancer who is blind but ambitious and dances with roller skates on her feet. Neil and Deepika both did not suit their characters. They are classic case of misfit actors. Neil does not look rough street fighter whereas Deepika looks too polished to be a chawl wali Maharashtrian girl. Film could have been much better with better actors.

4. MacGruber (2/10)
A 90 second small kit on SNL hs been blown up for th ebig screen. This itself is a big feat. The film take a 80s plot where MacGruber is the only person who can fight the bad guy (Van Kilmer). MacGruber may not set the world on fire, but the insanely committed Forte, like MacGruber, will do anything, no matter how obscene, to complete his mission. You will get the humor and scenes if you watch it on SNL. But even then it does not tickle your funny bone since it is not a skit anymore, it is a full length feature film.

3. Housefull (Hindi) (3/10)
I still don't understand why was everyone so gung-ho about this movie. This was the biggest disappointment for me. Barring one single scene, I did not laugh at ll in the entire movie. The chunky Pandey sequence that everyone liked, was such a big yawn and very very irritating. Sajid Khan, I expected much more from you specially when you publicize your own movie so much and then make a crap. Akshay was again a big bore

2. Phoonk 2 (Hindi) (1/10)
A very bad follow up to the first one whih had some moments of scare. This one just had long camera angles with no specific scary moments. The worse part is that the film ends just randomly without any explanation of what happened and whether is spirit is alive or dead or what. And please, spare us from part 3. This torture cannot go on.

1. Back-Up Plan (1.5/10)
Since Jennifer Lopez has not found her dream man, she still wants to become a single mom and gets inseminated. Bang when she finds she is pregnant, she fonds her dream man and now she doesn't know how to tell him about the back-up plan of kid that she had. Supposedly romantic comedy of course ends up with initial fight and the guy finally accepting the reality. I like candy flosses, but this was a really bad movie.

20 (mostly good) films in September. Awesome

2010-09-29T23:27:00.002-04:00

20. Ek Tho Chance (Hindi) (2/10)
Sw this film at the film festival. This film has been made for a while now and has not been released yet. No wonder. This is a bad pathetic boring film. It drags at so many places. The characters are not sketched well at all. Not everyone can give a good storytelling of various stories interwoven together. It was funny when in the middle of the film, everyone herd this guy snoring loud. Totally avoidable.

19. Just Another Love Story (Bengali) (7.5/10)
Kudos to the director and the actors to make such a brilliant film. Rituporno Ghosh, as we all know is a wonderful director but he makes his debut as a brilliant actor in this film that shows a completely new complexity of life that the 2 characters of Chapal Bhaduri and the new age director Abhiroop face. Can't wait o see how the aam janta respond to this when this film finally gets released in India.

18. Mirch (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Another one of those unreleased films by Vinay Shukla, the director of Godmother. The film shows 4 different stories and how they come together. The stories are very witty, humourous and funny. Konkona Sen Sharma and Raima Sen have also acted very well. Newcomer Arunoday Singh ipressses yet again after Aisha. I really wish that this film gets the release and audience it deserves in India.

17. Choosing Connor (3/10)
Idealistic 15-year old Owen gets the chance of a lifetime to be the youth spokesman for U.S. Senate Candidate Lawrence Connor, only to be exploited in a fierce campaign of TV and radio ads, posters, interviews, and speaking engagements in the cut throat media-image-is-all world of American politics. The film started interesting but somewhere totally lost the point it was trying to make unless they were trying to tell that all politics is dirty and nasty. The kids acting nevertheless was awesome.

16. Paromitar Ek Din (Bengali) (5/10)
This film directed by Aparna Sen shows a relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and how it evolve over a period of time. If you see a lot of Bengali films, you will see this one is also a true slice of life film with very very realistic acting specially by Aparna Sen and Rituparna Sengupta. The film at times is very very slow in pace which could have been avoided. I would suggested much better Bengali films to start with before you see this one.

15. Parama (Hindi) (7.5/10)
First thing first. Rakhi Gulzar looks stunning in this early 80s film. Tackling a very bold theme for its time, this film tackles and shows adultery like never before. How Rakhi , who is everything to everyone in a family meets this photographer and start an affair. Where ultimately that leads to makes a very very interesting watch. Must see.

14. I Am (Hindi) (6/10)
I have been a big fan of Onir after watching his previous films. The whole concept of 4 distinct short films as one big film excited me. And actually the stories were good too dealing with issues of single motherhood, Kashmiri Pandits, child abuse and cops harassing gays. Acting from all principal characters was good. Its sometime hard to show everything in a short but this was perfect because anything more would have dragged the pace. One thing that I didn't like was the lighting. Somehow it seemed that film was made in a hurry. At some level the soul was missing specially in the Kashmiri Pandit story with Juhi and Manisha. The lighting in the film could also have been better. It would be interesting to see how janta in India reacts when the film comes out.

13. Khatta Meetha (Hindi) (2/10)
Khatta Meetha is an all around major disappointment that leaves you annoyed if you're one who's looked forward to the film. Priyadarshan tries desperately to bring across some valuable life lessons but sadly due to the non-gripping and poorly structured screenplay the film fails all around. Every character in this film is either screaming on the top of his voice or just slapping one another. And comedy by Johny Lever, Rajpal Yadav etc is so forced taht its a huge drag. Akshay Kumar sleep walks thru the role because he has done so many of those. Completely avoidable.

12. The Stoning of Soraya M. (Iran) (6.5/10)
A shocking but very good film. The film shows a true story of how a man , when could not get divorce from his wife in a remote village in Iran uses the Islamic rules to accuse his wife of adultery and get her stoned to death. The film was very realistic and disturbing but honestly people need to see that all these things exist in the society even toay and there are people who have to live through this. Excellent.

11. Aisha (Hindi) (5.5/10)
I guess the Indian version of Sex and the City where it is all about gamour. Well, this one had some story too but overall, there was nothing much that was going on. Sonam Kapoor is matchmaking for everyone but the way she keeps changing couples is odd. Then suddenly she has change of hearts. The romance between any of the couples was just not convincing. One of the weakest films that my favourite Abhay Deol has done but he was still good in the film. The 'bachkana' fights between him and Aisha were the only highlights for me in the film.

10. The Family Stone (6.5/10)
I love stories about dysfunctional families. Saw this movie, I guess 6th time when it was coming on TV. Still liked it. There are various moments that I like, although some may seem irrelevant and illogical but hey who cares.

9. Four Lions (UK) (7/10)
Hilarious! I am so glad I found out about this film. Who wold think that a film of prospective suicide bombers could have such a hilarious twist. A group of UK based Islamic want to create a name and become suicide bombers. How they go through the whole process with support of family and everyone is hilarious. I strongly recommend this film.

8. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2/10)
Big Bore!! I dont feel like writing anything about it. It is a very poor man's Hary Potter or at least thats whatthe makers thought when they made this film.

7. Dabangg (Hindi) (6/10)
Total entertainment, paisa vasool. Although I still fail to understand what is so great about the film that everyone is going crazy and the film is soon going to become the highest grosser of Hindi films of all time. what the heck!! I enjoyed it. Munni Badnaam hui was perfect. I think I am liking Sonakshi Sinha.

6. The New Twenty (3/10)
This was an independent film set in NY. Started off well but somewhere down the line lost its steam and was totally not fun. The film tells story of 5 friends who meet 7 years later in NYC and what is going on with every one's life and how they are coping with it. No matter how rewarding or difficult (and everything in between) life is for these almost-thirtysomethings, they can always rely on the strong bonds of friendship. My biggest negative was that it did not give explanations for various events like what is making a relationship last or break, why is there so many stereotypical everything. C'mmon give me a break.

5. The Ghost Writer (6.5/10)
I like these kind of mystery films with some element of suspense but not really a murder mystery. Ewan McGregor is hired to to organize and write the memoirs of an ex-British Prime Minister Pierce Brosnan. He suspects not all is well but it takes a few discoveries to determine that there is more to the memoirs than just names and dates. He may not be an invective reporter but he is too nosy to let it go. What he cannot let go of could very well mean his life. The direction is good and the story unfolds slowly and keeps you glued. The final scene gives a shock but if you smart , you will expect it to come.

4. Kick-Ass (5.5/10)
Nice fun filled movie about an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so. It was nice timepass movie. You will definitely not get bored.

3. Udaan (Hindi) (9/10)
UDAAN is a simple, straight-forward film that doesn't need to be explained. It needs to be experienced. This one will touh your heart and soul and every single one of you will identify with the film. Acting by everyone is awesome specialy the 2 brothers. Even Ram and Ronit Roy are pretty darn good. Now only if movie lovers good get to see more films like this and Tere Bin Laden.

2. Bhutto (Documentary) (6/10)
This is a great and very informative documentary on life of Benazir Bhutto. It also covers incidents in Pakistan right from the time of her father to the current times. The best part of this docu-film is the fact that unlike most docs, this one always keeps your interest alive. There are so many things that I personally did not know of and was very very surprised to find and know. Benazir Bhutto's life is nothing short of ups and downs and what not. A great effort and a very informative watch.

1. Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (Hindi) (7/10)
Loved the film. A very good presentation of old 70's. Very different view from the movie Company. I am not big fan of Emraan Hashmi but I think he did a wonderful job . So did everyone else including Prachi Desai. She is a bundle of talent. I wish film makers wake up to her talent. Oh ! and the songs are so melodious.

14 films in August 2010

2010-08-06T13:45:00.010-04:00

14. Tere Bin Laden (Hindi) (7/10)

13. Lamhe (Hindi) (7.5/10)

12. Milenge Milenge (Hindi) (3/10)

11. I Hate Luv Storys (Hindi) (5.5/10)

10. Admissions Open (Hindi) (1/10)

9. Peepli Live (Hindi) (8.5/10)

8. Dil To Pagal Hai (Hindi) (7/10)

7. Pas Si Grave (French) [No Big Deal] (3.5/10)

6. Ararat (English/Armenian) (3/10)

5. The Householder (Indian English) (3.5/10)

4. Swaha (Hindi) (1/10)

3. Raavan (Hindi) (4.5/10)

2. EK Second.. Jo Zindagi Badal De (Hindi) (2/10)

1. Gajagamini (Hindi) (0/10)

13 in July

2010-07-05T21:40:00.008-04:00

13. Fateless (Hungary) (6/10)

12. Death Becomes Her (6/10)

11. It's A Wonderful Afterlife (Uk) (4/10)

10. Inception (8/10)

9. Quantam Of Solace (6/10)

8. The 13th Day (Hindi) (0/10)

7. Mr Singh & Mrs. Mehta (1/10)

6. Bumm Bumm Bole (Hindi) (4/10)

5. Badmaash Company (Hindi) (5.5/10)

4. The Hangman (Hindi) (3.5/10)

3. Extraordinary Measures (2/10)

2. The Last Station (5.5/10)

1. Prince (Hindi) (4/10)

15 films in June - mostly bad

2010-06-21T06:42:00.002-04:00

15. Un prophète (French) (5.5/10)
19 year old French Arab guy comes in jail for 6 year jail sentence. He is hoping to serve that in peace. Due to logistics, the head of Corsican inmates, a sadistic mafioso named César Luciani, co-opts Malik as part of the Corsicans' activities, not only regarding what happens inside the prison, but also continued criminal activities outside. The film trails the guys journey from an innocent man to the leader of the whole arab gang and the hardships he has to go through and the transformation he has.

14. Kites (Hindi/English/Spanish) (2/10)
I didn't realize that this movie would be so bad and awful. The only saving grace was Hrithik Roshan. A modern day rehash of the film Koyla which itself was so bad in the first place, had absolutely no chemistry between the lead pair. Kangna Ranaut was completely wasted and the movie itself was soooo slow. A big yawn !

13. Do Dilon Ke Khel Mein (Hindi) (0.5/10)
Another pretty bad film. Kids of 2 long term friends meet and hate each other instantly. When they find that their parents are friends, they think they might force to get them married, so they start getting misunderstanding between the two. Another really bad film. What sucks is the fact that once a superstar Rajesh Khanna has to resort to such cheap misfit roles.

12. Dear John (1.5/10)
While John is on leave in his hometown, he finds Savannah, a college student visiting the town. Although love was unexpected, it doesn't mean they didn't find it. With the knowledge of John having to leave for the army, their love still lives, until his re-signs on due to the 9/11 attack. Troubles invade and their love put on hold. One cannot bear it anymore; can the other? The film just doesn't strike a chord with audience. In fact it tends to get boring after a while.

11. Trump Card (Hindi) (0/10)
A purely pathetic film. The story revolves around a huge transaction of property which leads to murders and sting operations and spying. A group of young people get involved in order to make quick money and using girls, love and friendship. Save your valuable time. Please dont watch this for your and my sake.

10. Fermat's Room (Spanish) (3.5/10)
Four mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host on the pretext of resolving a great enigma. The room in which they find themselves turns out to be a shrinking room that will crush them if they do not discover in time what connects them all and why someone might wish to murder them. Interesting concept on paper but the film fails to hold your interest throughout. The drama is very little and the reasoning given is also pretty lame.

9. Sadiyaan (Hindi) (2/10)
Just about nothing works for this film. Set in 70s the film trails the story of a muslim boy who has been brought up in a hindu family. Twist happens when the real parents from Pakistan come for his wedding. Rekha, Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor; great cast but so misused. Luv Sinha is just bad. I dont think he has a future in Bollywood and same goes for the actress (whoever she was)

June is slow. Need to catch up

2010-06-04T18:16:00.006-04:00

8. Tandoori Love (German/Hindi/English) (2/10)
Tandoori Love is the story of an Indian cook, Vijay Raaz and his series of (mis)adventures in the Swiss mountains. These include leaving his Bollywood troupe to starve as he starts working for a Swiss restaurant, delighting people with his Indian delicacies, stabbing a man, singing, and perhaps most significantly, falling in love with his boss fiancée. This did not keep me interested at all specially why would all the girls keep falling for Vijay Raaz of all the people.

7. Apartment (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Neetu Chandra has moved to Mumbai and rents a room with Tanushree Dutta. After a good few days, Tanushree starts suspecting Neetu's actions because she would not want her to get close to her boyfriend. Next door neighbor Anupam Kher also gets involved and a mysterious past of Neetu's life is uncovered. But its too late. Interesting story but we know these things dont work in Bollywood.

6. Raajneeti (Hindi) (8/10)
A brilliant film in all counts. Story to acting to direction to all the characters fitting their role. Manoj Bajpai was awesome and the way Ranbir Kapoor turns into a shrewd manipulative politician was awesome. Story writer definitely needs applaud to make a modern political story which is so intertwined with Mahabharata. Ajay, Katrina, Arjun etc, everyone was superb.

5. Blue Oranges (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Surprise film. A very good thriller film with nice twists and turns. Performances by everyone was very good. It was good to see Rajat Kapur in form after a while. The film follows t he murder of a budding painter. Various members in the cast are introduced and their link to her with a very unexpected climax. Although climax reminded me a little bit of the recent film 'Right Yaa Wrong'. Its sad that no one probably has even heard that there is such a hindi film that came last year.

4. Vroom (Hindi) (2.5/10)
Reminded me of another hindi film 'Tarzan-The Wonder Car'. A scientist makes a chip that makes anything robotic. To save his life he puts that in a car which is purchased by our main characters. The film follows on how the young teenage kid using the car gets his love and fights evil. A very annoying negative cast characters.

3. It's Complicated (5/10)
Meryl Streep who is now divorced from Alec Baldwin starts having an affair with him after divorced for 10 years. In the meantime she also meets Steve martin, the architect working on her house. She is now confused in what's the best thing to do. Should she give a second chance to her ex or look for new real love. Decent movie but a very annoying Meryl Streep. All she did was kept laughing in the entire movie for no rhyme or reason.

2. The Great Indian Butterfly (Indian English) (4.5/10)
The film unlike its name was interesting primarily because of good cast in Sandhya Mridul and Aamir Bashir. They are a couple on a road trip to Goa. They have been dealing with work pressure which of course is affecting their private life. The film shows how unhappiness in life is mostly man made and if you try to, you can be very happy and content in what you have.

1. Dashavtar (Hindi Animation) (2.5/10)
An interesting concept when you are a kid to see various stories that show you 10 different avatars of Lord Vishnu. I knew all the stories, so they had not much novelty for me. Only if the animation quality was better, this would have made a great watch.

Number for May is 23

2010-06-02T20:41:00.002-04:00

23. Robinhood (3/10)
Age old story of Robinhood done to death many times. I was actually very bored in the movie and did not find anything interesting. The film was so dark (literally), it just did not hold my attention.

22. Prince Of Persia (5/10)
I thought the movie was interesting, kept your attention intact in a lot of places and had a story to tell. What I am tired of is costume dramas with thin story line and its all about special effects. I am longing for some good cinema. Jake Gyllenhall was good but I did not think the main actress was beautiful to the extent she was made out to be.

21. Edge Of Darkness (2/10)
Mel Gibson meets his daughter after along time and then she is murdered right in front of him. He now has to find the reasons and the things he finds out are just shocking one after the other with a predictable ending. I personally could not connect to the film at all even with the characters. It was plain jane.

20. Law Abiding Citizen (6/10)
When Gerard Butler's family is murdered and the one of the killers does not die because he turned against the other one because of prosecutor Jamie Fox, his life is turned upside down. He takes 10 years to plan to take revenge with everyone involved in this using his brain and still doing everything within the law. Only Jamie Fox can stop the killing and finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead. This was definitely a very interesting film.

19. Kushti (Hindi) (0.5/10)
A very stupid film where kushti is a big deal and there are 2 rival parties. Rajpal Yadav falls in love with the girl of one of the rival camps and then he has to fight a kushti against the might Khalli to win his love. This one was plain simple stupid waste of time and money

18. Pankh (Hindi) (1/10)
Really bad film. It had an interesting concept of a other forcing her son to play girl roles as a baby and the boy then grows up to be a very confused man. What the heck was Bipasha doing in the film. It was absurd and stupid. The movie was really really bad. I did not know that Lilette Dubey could also overact.

17. The Japanese Wife (Bengali/English) (2/10)
Aparna Sen has made good meaningful films but what was this? Just a random film where 2 lovers across the two nations share a life, a marriage without even knowing or meetig each other. The entire film goes in letter exchanges and life moves on. This could be Japanese, Irish , Korean or anything for that matter. I want Aparna Sen of Mr and Mrs Iyer days

May progresses well

2010-05-17T13:50:00.013-04:00

16. Pathshala (Hindi) (5.5/10)
The heart of the film was in the right place but sometimes you get faulted with corruption. Its a huge school but only 6-7 teachers, barely 100 students etc. The story is about Nana Patekar and what will he do to save his school from getting closed to be built into a mall in name of globalization and economy. Shahid and Ayesha Takia were decent. It was very good to see Nana Patekar so restrained.

15. The Stepfather (3/10)
When Michael Harding returns home from military school, he finds his mom is madly in love with her charming live-in boyfriend David. At first, David appears to be the ultimate nice guy and an ideal future husband and stepfather. But when Michael and his girlfriend start delving into David’s past, they begin to discover a dark and dangerous side to Michael’s new “daddy” in this riveting, chilling thriller.

14. City Of Gold (Hindi) (8/10)
A brilliant film in all aspects. Film shows the life of mill workers in 80s in Mumbai. Everyone acts so well and natural. Mahesh Manjrekar is back in action. Very very strongly recommend this film to everyone.

13. Well Done Abba (HIndi) (5.5/10)
This was a very interesting film. When government actually plays with a poor Boman Irani, he fights back with wit and smartness thanks to his daughter and plays backs with the system. The proceedings in the stat are a little slow but half way it becomes very interesting. Minissha Lamba surprisingly acts really well. I so wish she had not gone under knife and get her beautiful face all screwed up.

12. The Waiting Room (Hindi) (2/10)
This was a short film about 4 people who are stranded in a waiting room on a train station overnight. They all read different stories in newspaper and somehow think that one of them is the person n the news. So everyone ends up thinking something bad about at least one of them. In between there is a murder. Movie ends up with all doubts being cleared up.

11. Alice In Wonderland (3.5/10)
This movie is an interesting twist on the original series. Alice, now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. She has to help the original queen now get her throne back by defeating the evil sister. Just alright for me although I think the kids (specially the girls) would love it.

10. Iron Man 2 (4/10)
Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role but now he has to fight his friends, government and Mickey Rourke who now has all the skills and talent that Iron Man possesses. The movie was entertaining but not half as good as the first one. This sequel was made just for the hell of it.

May starts and progresses well

2010-05-04T18:57:00.010-04:00

9. Valentines Day (3.5/10)
A truly multi-starrer aimed at love birds, this film was a big yawn for me. I am usually ok with candy floss movies but this was so predictable. Actors could barely act. There was no single moment that did anything for me

8. The Twilight Saga : New Moon (5.5/10)
The 2nd movie in the twilight series, it was nowhere close to the first one. The love between the vampire and Bella gets more intense that they have to separate to keep away from ancient secrets. Enter Bella's friend Jacob who has his own secret of being a werewolf. The movie was still good but not as good.

7. Road, Movie (Hindi) (4/10)
I am so sad to say but this will go as the first Abhay Deol film that I didn't like. I ill applaud Dev Benegal's attempt to do something different and Abhay Deol to act in an offbeat film but then in terms of entertainment, there is absolutely nothing that this film offers. Neither masti not art. Abhay's and Tanishtha's performances are good and so is Satish Kaushik. The film is about Abhay driving a age old truck that shows movies on road and people he meets on the road in desert.

6. Tum Milo To Sahi (Hindi) (4/10)
The film involves multiple characters but central theme is around saving a coffee house that is run by Dimple Kapadia. Nana Patekar is a retired lawyer who helps with this fight. Sunil Shetty and Vidya Malvade are an estranged couple and it is Sunil Shetty's company trying to buy off the cafe. This film was good for a TV episode. Dimple and Nana were brilliant in the film. Watch it only for them. Anjana Sukhani and Rehaan Khan were intolerable.

5. The Secret In Their Eyes (Spanish) (6.5/10)
This film is part cold-case mystery, part long-lost love story, and part thriller set both in the present and in 1970s Argentina, under the tight control of its infamous military dictatorship. A policeman is investigating a case of murdered girl gets totally involved with it. Although on paper the case is closed, he is still not convinced and 20 years later is writing a book on the case. This leads to his meeting of some of the players involved. A very interesting film specially the climax.

4. Lahore (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Now this is one film that needs more viewership. Such a underrated movie, I would highly recommend it. The central theme of the film is family, emotions, companionship, sportsmanship and kick boxing. Everything about this film was good. Special mention needs to be done about the kick boxing scenes. They were so true and intriguing. Everyone suited their part very well. Must watch.

3. Teen Patti (Hindi) (6/10)
This was supposed to be copy of hollywood film 21 but its entirely not. Viewers are taken for granted when it is not completely explained how does Amitabh crack the possibility of finding out who is going to win the teen patti competition. But that apart, the film still makes an interesting viewing. Surprisingly all newcomers have acted very very well. Madhavan was the only one who I felt was totally out of place and character.

2. Brothers (4.5/10)
WIth a starcast like Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire my expectations were high but alas they were not entirely met. Tobey leaves for war and soon news comes he dies. He has been PoW and somehow gets rescued but now when he is back with his family, he is acting all weird and the family is not sure if they want him around. Meanwhile his brother who was always the bad boy takes up responsibilities while he is 'dead'. An interesting take but leaves a lot desired.

1. Broken Embraces (Spanish) (5.5/10)
This one was a typical Pedro Almodóvar movie. Penélope Cruz stars as an actress who sacrifices everything for true love. The films keeps going back in present and past told through the directors eyes who is now blind and is telling the story of how he made this film with the actress which never got finished. Of course there are hidden secrets that come out wrt to the directors agent, her son and everyone around them. I takes time to get a hang of what's going on but soon you are totally involved in the movie.

April 2010 number is 22. Not bad

2010-04-22T22:34:00.005-04:00

22. The Blind Side (7/10)
A well to do family of Sandra Bullock adapt Big Mike who has no knowledge of his family and his strengths and goes on to become one of the most famous football players in American history. The film is very interesting and no doubts that Sandra Bullock has acted really well. The film is intelligent, genuine, and alternately funny and moving.

21. Harishchandrachi Factory (Marathi) (6/10)
It was a very interesting film about Dada Saheb Phalke who is credited for making the first ever Indian film. The film shows how he got interested into films, and the troubles and risks he had to go through to make this first film. The most impressive for me was the fact that he could never have done anything without the great support of his wife. Interesting film for movie lovers to learn how this whole film industry started.

20. Bombay Summer (English/Hindi) (6.5/10)
Bombay Summer explores the fleeting and delicate friendship between three young people and its eventual disintegration in the face of betrayal and personal loss. Set in contemporary India, the film subtly mirrors the turmoil within tradition bound Indian society as it copes with change and rapid modernization. This film has some of the best and most natural acting I have seen specially by Tanishtha Chatterjee and the guy playing the part of Madan. A definite watch.

19. Veer (Hindi) (5.5/10)
It was alright. Novel story and total entertainment. The film lost its direction when it unnecessarily focussed too much on love story in London. The other thing was how tired and lost Salman looked in various parts of the film with his puffy eyes and unnecessary shouting. The film could do with some serious editing. Strictly timepass

18. Karthik Calling Karthik (Hindi) (7/10)
Farhan Akhtar has arrived. He is dam n good in this film. Even concept wise, I think the story is very interesting that of a schizophrenic guy trying to cope up with himself and helping him become and extrovert from introvert. Deepika lends a good supporting hand. I think she looked gorgeous throughout the film. There was nothing histrionic that she had to do in acting department anyway.

17. Veronica Guerin (6/10)
This is a biopic of an Irish journalist who became the first woman to fight against the drug usage that had taken over Dublin which lead to her ultimate death in 1996. Recommendable for Blanchett's performance.

16. The Game (7/10)
Rich Michael Douglas is given a gift by his brother Sean Penn to play 'The Game' to bring some excitement in his life. Before he knows the game has even begun, Douglas is caught up in a series of unexplained events designed to strip him of his tenuous security and cast him into a maelstrom of chaos. How do you play a game that hasn't any rules? That's what Douglas has to figure out, and he can't always rely on his intelligence to form logic out of what's happening to him. The film was very very interesting. I just wished it was not this long.

15. Rokkk (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Rokkk is based on a combination of supernatural thoughts and Inevitable emotions. Story of 2 sisters, younger one Udita Goswami is on a mission to find elder sister Tanushree when she disappears after killing her husband. Its all because of a cursed house and now everyone has to bear the consequences. Sad film

14. Prem Ka Game (Hindi) (0.5/10)
I dont even wanna write about this film. This one should be an embarrassment to Arbaaz Khan and Salman Khan as well to do even a cameo in the film. Pathetic

13. Lions of Punjab Presents (Indian English) (6/10)
I finally got to see this film and I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The film is about Hindi singing contest to find that one desi voice of America. The film is cheeky, with good humor, nice nice music an very realistic. Definitely recommended.

April is going slow too

2010-04-02T15:39:00.007-04:00

12. Idiot Box (Hindi) (0/10)
Sushant Singh, please excuse us and stop doing these lame ass, half baked movies. You are embarrassing us

11. Cellular (2.5/10)
After getting a frantic call on his cell phone from a kidnapped woman, a young man must battle his way through a ruthless world of lies and murder to rescue her. A fast-paced thriller. But I had already seen the hindi inspired version 'Speed' featuring Urmila etc. Bore !!

10. Hum Tum Aur Ghost (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Inspired by the film 'Ghost Town', I dunno what Arshad saw in the story (credited to himself) to produce it. How could you even think that the film is gonna make any business. Dia Mirza was good in the film though

9. Toh Baat Pakki (Hindi) (5/10)
Tabu was great in the film. The film itself doesn't offer much but it was very interesting to see Tabu as this manipulative elder sister who all she wants is the best groom for her little sister. Draggy, a little boring but still enjoyable.

8. Na Ghar Ke Na Ghaat Ke (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Very rarely you get to see a film that is totally rooted in Indian soil and sentiments. I completely enjoyed each and every moment in the film. There was nothing over the top and it was real. I thought the actor/director did a very very good job.

7. An Education (6/10)
Carey Mulligan is brilliant in the role of a young school girl who fall sin love with a rich older man and suddenly her life becomes all about enjoying and hanging out with rich and because oif this she starts questioning the whoel reason for education. Ultimately as expected, she is hurt and realizes that education is the only things that remains with you. Recommended.

6. Precious (6.5/10)
Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant…again. Naïve and abused, Precious responds to a glimmer of hope when a door is opened by an alternative-school teacher. She is faced with the choice to follow opportunity and test her own boundaries. Prepare for shock, revelation and celebration. In my opinion, the lead actress definitely deserved an oscar.

5. Hide & Seek (Hindi) (4.5/10)
A tribute to 'I know what you did last sumer', film plays out as a cat-and-mouse game, with the friends captured in the mall taking their own lead in unmasking the killer before he can diminish their ranks. Strictly ok.

4. Chance Pe Dance (Hindi) (2/10)
Bad film. Why did even Shahid choose to do this film. Story, songs even dancing was bad. Usual chirpy Genelia also could not save this film. A very poor excuse for a film. I am still waiting for that exclusive dance film in bollywood.

3. Love, Sex Aur Dhoka (Hindi) (5/10)
I think the overhype of this film killed all the fun for me. I thought it was just alright. There was nothing extraordinary for me. Yes it is scary that these days cameras can record each and every action of ours but then we all know by now. The 3 different stories were definilety real and inter-related but thats it. Maybe I am missing something that others see.

2. Sherlock Holmes (7/10)
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law put memorable imprints on Holmes and Watson. I enjoyed each and every single moment of this film. Exactly the kind of films that I enjoy

1. Right Yaaa Wrong (Hindi) (7/10)
Now this was a good film. Sad that the movie was not promoted well. Story and direction is very well . Sunny and Irfan have acted their parts very well. Isha And Konkona dont have much to in the film but I would strongly recommend this to everyone. Good film

Sad March with only 13 films

2010-03-14T12:43:00.008-04:00

13. Up In The Air (5.5/10)
I could relate to the film in the sense of being on road for work. George Clooney is an executive who travels a lot for work and has no personal life until 2 women come in his life and he has to rechek his priorities in life and what he wants to do with his life.

12. Click (Hindi) (6/10)
Shreyas Talpade is someone you can always rely on. The story of this horror flick is thankfully refreshing and different from run of the mill hindi horror films and the ending is also very novel. The fact that everything is not right in the end makes it unique.

11. Colegas (Spanish) (3/10)
Two best friends are forced into street hustling and and ever-expanding life of crime when one impregnates the sister of the other. It shows a very realistic portrayal of some lower middle class people in SPain in 1982. A decent effort. A reality slice of life

10. Dulha Mil Gaya (Hindi) (4/10)
Gosh!! this is perfect example of overacting. I just could not understand why Sush had to so overact in the film. It is one of those cliched films which are supposed to make you feel good. SRK's cameo is total waste and someone please tell me why Fardeen Khan still gets movies. IS there any talent in him at all?

9. Ishqiya (Hindi) (7/10)
Vidya Balan is on a roll. She is so perfect in the film and so are Arshad and Naseer. Ishqiya is a story of romance between individuals caught in a web of crime, suspense, passion, and deceit. Two thieves, Khalujan and Babban, are on the run from their boss, Mushtaq. They seek refuge with an old friend, and instead meet his widow, Krishna. As they plan their escape, their time spent together draws the duo to her, Khalu with his tinted vision of old-fashioned love, and Babban with his lustful eye. The threat of imminent death forces them on a path of violence and betrayal.

8. Road To Sangam (Hindi) (7.5/10)
It is a pity how some very good hindi films are made but just because they dont have stars, people dont even watch them. This film is so beautiful, so nice with such great acting and a nice social message. A simple story of a God fearing, devout Muslim mechanic named Hasmat Ullah who has been entrusted the job of repairing an old V8 ford engine, not knowing the historic significance that it once carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi which were immersed in the holy river Sangam. He is caught in a complex situation after a powerful bomb explosion rocks his town leading to the arrest of innocent Muslim youths of his locality. A strike to work is called by the prominent Leaders of his community to protest against the unjust treatment meted out to those arrested youths by the police.

7. Bandit Queen (Hindi) (7/10)
I wanted to show my friend this film and show him another face of bollywood which is shocking. The direction is brilliant and definitely shows why Shekhar Kapur is one of our finest talents.

6. The Walker (4.5/10)
Set in Washington D.C., The Walker follows Carter Page, a popular socialite who serves as confidant, companion and card partner to the wives of the most powerful men in America. When Carter's dearest friend finds herself on the brink of a scandal, he covers for her. Suddenly he finds himself the chief suspect in a criminal investigation and this well-connected man-about-town becomes an outcast, hounded by the police and forced to hunt down the true culprit in order to clear his name. Just an alright film.

5. Shutter Island (3.5/10)
Man, this has to be the slowest movie ever made. The plot was very interesting and the twist towards the end catches you by surprise but still there could have been better handling of the entire screen time. What a waste of a potentially great film

4. Pink Panther 2 (3/10)
Aishwarya Rai's so called Hollywood main stream debut. But the film was so pathetically bad, its unbelievable. The first one was way way better

3. Striker (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Brilliant film. This is Chandan Arora's 3rd film and I like every single one of them. Siddhartha has acted very well. The location in Mumbai and locals has been captured really well. Each character fits very well in the plot. definitely worth a watch. It made me nostalgic of my childhood days when we spend hours playing carrom board.

2. In Invention Of Lying (2/10)
Premise is interesting but the film is actually pretty bad. The film shows a time when no one knows what lie is and they all speak truth. Somehow a man discovers he can actually lie without knowing and understanding what he has accidentally discovered. Mark can get anything he wants...but the one thing he truly wants is the love of a girl named Anna, and she's the one person he can't bring himself to lie to.

1. Fashion (Hindi) (6/10)
Revisited this film on a flight. It was definitely a well made film with brilliant acting by Priyanka and Kangana. Although I would still question if they were worthy of the national award

February number is 15

2010-02-22T20:37:00.004-05:00

15. Paris, I Love You (4/10)
A set of 20 different stories set in Paris. Some were good. Some were bad

14. Informant (5/10)
Matt Damon plays the central character in this awkward comedy movie where he is maybe a bipolar guy. He is helping FBI expose his company's multi-national price fixing conspiracy but at some point he is majorly himself involved with it. It was interesting to see how he himself changes his stand scene after scene.

13. Love Happens (3/10)
Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart star in the romantic drama Love Happens. When self-help author Eckhart arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets florist Aniston, the one person who might be able to help him help himself. But will two people who may have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love a chance? A very very basic love story here. Not interesting at all.

12. Natrang (Marathi) (7/10)
This is one of the better movies I have seen in recent times. The effort in body and acting put in by Atul Kulkarni is amazing. Both the characters of body builder and the theatre artist have been played by him with elan. Must watch

11. Ice Storm (5.5/10)
When a self-centered husband's relationship with his wife and mistress grow cold, it takes a wife-swapping "key party" and a freak ice storm to clear the air and change their lives forever. This is a classic example of a f***ed up american suburban family

10. Paheli (Hindi) (6.5/10)
It was nice to revisit this film. It is definitely beautiful to watch. Not worthy to send to Oscars but this film has a lot of charm to it. You have to watch it for songs, Rani's beauty and an innocence of the fairy tale. And plase dont out your brain and try to find logic. It is a folk tale after all

A slow February so far

2010-02-07T12:32:00.007-05:00

9. Stage Beauty (5/10)
This one is a costume drama when all men used to play female characters on stage. This story shows how one man has always payed a woman and is good at it. When the rules change and women are finally allowed to work on stage , his future is in danger. He has ben so good at it that even if he tried, he cannot act as a male. Hw things change when the lead actress (his one time helper) helps him to come out of his shell, act as a male and she gets her part as the female lead right. Very interesting.

8. Rann (Hindi) (5.5/10)
All the fuss about RGV's exposure of media was such a downer. It was a very basic thing which somehow he made seem a huge issue. I think no one Madhur Bhandarkar does a good job of exposing. RGV's film was more drama. Amitabh, Sudeep, Ritesh were all ok. The film goes with decent pace. There is not much thrill but you dont get bored either. It would not be right to call the film as realistic cinema.

7. Pyaar Impossible (Hindi) (6/10)
This one was a surprise. I thought Uday Chopra would have copied the story from somewhere but I personally had not heard of this story, so that way it looked a little original. Priyanka Chopra suited the role. Uday was ok but please spare us of your acting. I can't handle it anymore. Nice songs. A simple sweet film overall.

6. Couples Retreat (2.5/10)
Gosh!! such a bad film. 4 couples go on a week retreat to analyze where their marriage is going and try and save it. Each of the couple has their own dynamics and problems and they go through it together. I still dont understand how this film becam a romantic comedy. There was no romance or comedy. It was just bad.

5. My Name Is Khan (Hindi) (7.5/10)
This film got very good reviews. It definitely is one of the Khan's better acting gigs very well complimented by Kajol. The film makes you sit and notice certain things about humanity in general and people around you. Its definitely a very good watch for first time but does not hold any repeat value. I am so glad that both the actors were not lip synching to the songs.

4. Devdas (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Wanted a friend of mine to see this film. And I surprisingly had not revisited this film since it first came out. Sanjay Lela Bhansali's grandeur is awesome. Shahrukh hams but Aish and Madhuri's beauty and songs are still a visual treat. Watching it second time made me realize how long this film was. Still pretty neat.

3. Kamla Ki Maut (Hindi) (5/10)
So glad to revisit some of the 80s movies. Pankaj Kapoor lives with his wife and 2 daughters. Their neighbour Kamla commits suicide and gossips start of her being pregnant. the film progresses with all 4 members thinking of what they have done so far in life because of which either they could have thought of committing suicide or spoil others life. An interesting concept. Good acting by everyone.

2. Unn Hazaron Ke Naam (Hindi) (2.5/10)
The movie was made for TV as dedication to all the people who died in the recent Mumbai blast. It was interesting to see from the point of view of families who ultimately get affected by this whole ordeal and go through. My ratings are mentioned from an entertainment perspective. This one seemed like a poor documentary with drama.

1. Aamras (Hindi) (2/10)
I was interested in the film because it is directed by Basu Chatterji's daughter. ad decent hopes but screenplay of the film was just not right. Story of 4 girls in school. They are best of buddies from 4 statuses of life. But ow quickly their temper an feelings keep changing is unbelievable. Some of them treat each other as shot but still cal each other best friends. It was little odd. Overall a disappointment

January number is 19

2010-01-26T18:37:00.007-05:00

19. Four Christmases (3.5/10)
Vince Vaughn and Resee Witherspoon are a happy couple who just like being with each other without getting married because it brings responsibilities and expectations etc. One year because of bad weather they are forced to visit their families for Christmas. They are both from broken families. By the end of their trips they realize how much they miss being a family. Started off funny but it lost steam towards the second half.

18. Hello.. Hum Lallan Bol Rahe Hain (Hindi) (2.5/10)
It's a decent concept of a perfect person who is doing ok for himself and who never compromises with his ideals. Rajpal Yadav is in love with a girl back in his village but can never express his love. The film follows various phases of his life of sticking to his values and principles even if that means losing his love. A good idea but its hard to digest Rajpal Yadav in such a role. The film is def not a comedy.

17. Panga Gang (Hindi) (2/10)
A really bad hindi animation film. A bunch of kids try to stop a gang from deforestation. Its bad and boring

16. Holi (Hindi) (1.5/10)
This was Aamir Khan's first movie supposedly made as an experimental film. Based on one day at college where students demand holiday for Holi. This is again one more really really bad film from all aspects

15. Consequences (1/10)
A very badly made and acted film about 5 friends. It shows you how some of your simple deeds can come back to haunt you. 4 of the men always keep picking on the 5th one. So ultimately after 15-20 years how the 5th dude takes revenge with other guys. Its an awful awful film

14. I am Legend (4/10)
Will Smith is the sole survivor of a virus breakdown. Its been 3 years since he has been alone with his dog. FOr 3 years he has been religiously trying to find another person by sending radio signals and he finds ultimately a woman and a child. Mutant victims of the plague watch all his moves, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. His only hope is to find a cure to that. Interesting concept but the film failed to keep my interest alive.

My weekend of few movies

2010-01-24T21:32:00.002-05:00

13. Public Enemies (1/10)
Johnny Depp is the most wanted Bank Robber of the 30s. He is being chased by Christian Bale and his love interest is a girl. The entire movie is about a game of outrunning and outgunning the FBI, culminating in an explosive, legendary showdown.This ne is a bad bad bad movie and very repetitive.

12. Rocket Singh - Salesman Of The Year (Hindi) (8.5/10)
One of the finest movies to have come out last year. This is what annoys me when people say that hindi films don't offer anything new but when they do, there is no acceptance of it. This is the most original, very realistic film which is filled with damn good performances. Ranbir is to watch out for. Even Gauhar Khan impresses a lot. Must watch

11. Bolo Raam (Hindi) (6/10)
A surprisingly good movie. The hero is very very close to his mother and would do anything for her. One day he gets arrested in charge of murdering his mother and he would not speak why he did what he did. Although when the real reason and cause comes out, its a little anticlimax but I somehow was still very engrossed in the film and it manage to keep my attention throughout. Nice performances and the chemistry between the new uy and Padmini Kolhapure as his mom is very nice.

Film watching has slowed down a bit

2010-01-19T22:33:00.004-05:00

10. Mixed Nuts (2.5/10)
This was a bad movie. Supposed to be a laugh riot, a corky comedy, this film did not make me laugh even at 1 single point. A group of 3 people led by Steve Martin run a crisis counseling. The film just walks us through the kind of crisis that is going on in these people's life and with some of their friends. The entire film is based on a Christmas Day.

9. Raat Gayi Baat Gayi (Hindi) (7/10)
This film was a big surprise. I actually ended up enjoying myself this movie a lot. Brilliant acting by each and every one in the film. AFter a party, when Rajat Kapoor cannot remember what happened the previous night while he was flirting with Neha Dhupia, he spends the next day spending time with his friend Vinay Pathak to find out what actually happened. This could cost his marriage. I think a wonderful direction, a simple film, extremely enjoyable. Something very very different.

8. In America (6.5/10)
An Irish family moves from Canada to Manhattan. The husband is looking for acting jobs. They think the life would be easy and the film depicts their trials and tribulations during their stay in a run down manhattan building. The film also shows their interaction with other people specially with a painter guy in their building who affects their life in more than one way. Very good acting specially by the female lead.

Film trend continues

2010-01-08T18:26:00.002-05:00

7. The Hurt Locker (6.5/10)
War is just the job the characters in the movie do. The main protagonist is addicted to the almost nonstop adrenaline rush and the opportunity to express his life on the edge. He is the main guy who disarms the bombs in Iraq. The people who work with him slowly get used to his working style and can't wait to get out of this work. The hurt locker of the title is a box he keeps under his bunk, filled with bomb parts and other signatory memorabilia of "things that could have killed me." Excellent direction where every tactical detail and nuisance are shown in detail. It might sometimes get boring but it is needed.

6. Accident On Hill Road (Hindi) (2.5/10)
These kind of stories are good for a half an hour slot on television, otherwise they seem pretty dragged on big screen. On top of that you take terrible actor like Celina Jaitley and the film is over. Idea of showing how people's mindsets change if they happen to be in an accident is good. But the film overall is pretty bad.

5. Up (Animation) (7.5/10)
One of the finest animation movies I have ever seen. Guess I am finally getting into animation films. The story was fantastic and it is unbelievable to see such great acting being done by animated characters. I guess lot of hard work is done by director and his team. My favorite segment is when there are no dialogues and in about 15 minutes the lives of the protagonists change from kid to old age. Must watch

4. The Ugly Truth (4.5/10)
Another one of those nonsensical date films which we are supposed to like for some reason. The whole thing of men just think of 1 thing is again explored in this film with a twist where a news anchor Gerard Butler helps the girl get the man she wants but in the process ends up falling in for her. Now how many times have we already seen that?

2010 begins

2010-01-02T16:53:00.003-05:00

3. The Proposal (4.5/10)
Decent film. Started off well but towards the end as always the director made it emotions and drama. Had the corkiness and cheesiness between the 2 characters kept intact, the film would have been far funnier. Although I now do wanna visit Alaska. :)

2. 3 Idiots (Hindi) (8/10)
Fantastic film. Inspired by 'Five Point Someone', Mr. Hirani has done wonderful job of screen adaptation to make people aware of Indian education system and also proposed a solution. Fantastic acting by all characters, the film keeps yu entertained in almost all departments. The film is not without flaws but common we can just be happy that finally someone made a film that entertain everyone. Every scene makes you laugh and cry at the same time.

1. This Is It (7/10)
Documentary film made after death of Michael Jackson that focusses on the big concert that MJ was planning just when his unfortunate death happened. The film has clips of all his rehearsals and preparations. I don't care to much for MJ, but if you are a fan, you will freak out after watching this is it.

Now that I have ended 2009 on a high note and more than met my target, I am not too enthused about writing reviews for all the films that I am gonna watch this year. I will though try my best, at least will keep a track of the names.

Final December number is 25

2009-12-28T13:13:00.003-05:00

25. A Single Man (6.5/10)
At least the year ended on a positive note. A poignant tale of a man who has just lost is lover and is trying to come in terms with the fact. The way director has portrayed the loneliness that Colin Firth is going through is amazing. You can feel the emptiness in his life and how much he could use a friend. Though the film tends to get tooo slow and draggy at places but I think that was necessary to keep the soul of the book alive. Definitely a good watch.

24. Love Ka Tadka (Hindi) (0.5/10)
Featuring Nauheed Cyrusi and Sameer Dattani, this is nothing but a bad bad film. There is no excuse to make such films. Boy-girl meet, fall in love, get married. Boy doesn't have money, girl's father is visiting and now they have to act up as if everything is fine. Gosh!! Gimme a break!!

23. Julie and Julia (7/10)
Wonderful movie. Showing parallely the lives of julia Child, the legendary French cook book writer and julie Powell who mastered the art of cooking every single recipe and blog about it. Great acting by Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, I also liked the honesty with which both the husbands supported their wife. Definitely a watch.

22. Dashavtar (Tamil) (1/10)
What was this? This was self-indulgence to its height. Kamal Hassan please spare us. Every act of his is so OTT and there is a stupid story to tell (or is there?). This is such an utter waste of time, effort, money and talent for everyone in the movie and everyone watching the movie.

21. Kurbaan (Hindi) (7/10)
Another ilm that dealt with terrorism and Muslims albeit handled in a different manner. Initially the movie moves fast but after a while when all cards are open, the film moves on with single focus of terrorism. The debate in the class on who's right who's wrong (America's war vs terrorism) was a god discussion. Kareena, Saif and Vivek were all good specially Vivek. SOme more detailing should have been given to the locations. Although I can see why the film would not work on box office because of its dark theme and a very focussed subject which doesn't entertain you but makes you think.

20. Beynelmilel (Turkish) [The International] (4.5/10)
We learn the life of Gevendes' - local musicians- in Adiyaman region. People were looking for a little bit freedom for their way of life. For the moment, it seems strange even listening music was prohibited by law makers. We should appreciate the freedom we have now. It is definitely that the freedom needs enlargement in Turkey. The movie was simple and nice

19. London Dreams (Hindi) (3.5/10)
This is not what I expected from Vipul Shah. Such an ordinary story. Just by shooting it in London and changing the setting to some lavish UK locations and throw in some Italy and Paris is not going to make a film. The actors just dont suit the characters. The music is bad considering it is supposed to be a movie about a band. Surprisingly bad film by a director who I thought directed decent films so far.

I Think I can do it

2009-12-19T14:22:00.007-05:00

18. The International (3/10)
Interpol agent Clive Owen has been on the brink of conclusive evidence against the villainous international bank, but his sources always end up dead. WIth the help of Manhattan District Attorney Naomi Watts, he stumbles on the trail of the bank's favorite hit man, through whom he might finally get his trail. The film was confusing and things would happen randomly. For me the film was worth watching only for architectural beauty of Italy and Turkey that they showed.

17. Mrs. Doubtfire (7/10)
Everyone has seen the movie and loved it. Finally I also managed to watch it and of course absolutely loved it. Robin Williams has done such a great job. It is entertaining to the core. It was interesting to see Pierce Brosnan in his pre-Bond days. Overall very very entertaining.

16. Radio (Hindi) (6/10)
I had literally zero expectations from the movie and like most times it works to the movies advantage. Himesh actually did a pretty good job in his acting. He was OTT. After getting divorced from his wife Sonal Sehgal, he meets Shenaz Treasurywala and a fake love affair starts between them for Radio TRPs. At some point Sonal wants to return back to his life. He likes Shenaz to but is utterly confused on what to do. Himesh's scenes with Shenaz's family are very entertaining. Even the songs are very god and placed well. They are a lot but still manageable.

15. Zor Lagake Haiyya (Hindi) (4/10)
A bunch of kids make a tree house and their life revolves around it. A big builder Gulshan Grover wants to get rid of the tree but the kids dont want it. They try their best by playing different tricks. A roadside beggar Mithun is also a part of the plan t save the tree. The film is decent with some nice message for greenery but one whole film surrounding the tree is a little too ambitious specially in Bollywood.

14. Inside Twin Towers (Documentary) (5.5/10)
A very very insightful and interesting documentary. Based on some experiences of people who were saved in the terrorist act and what they actually went through during that horrifying ordeal. Even though most of the scenes were enacted, it looked very real and some of the scenes were heart-wrenching. Watching the towers fall down still gives me chills.

13. Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (Hindi) (7/10)
Wow! What a film and what an actor Ranbir Kapoor is. The whole party sequence where he is continuously dancing is just unbelievable. The movie is a very ordinary sweet simple friendship turned love story between Ranbir and Katrina but Santoshi's execution of this simple subject is very captivating. Mixed with great performances and a melodious score, no wonder this movie was a hit at box-office.

12. The Manchurian Candidate (6/10)
Serving together in the Persian Gulf War, Denzel Washington and Sgt. Raymond Shaw were part of a platoon of soldiers kidnapped and brainwashed. Ten years later, Shaw gears up for his vice presidential campaign while Denzel eventually remembers being kidnapped and discovers Shaw's powerful mother played a big part in that scheme. Determined to reveal the truth behind everything, Denzel must first convince Shaw that the brainwashing really happened. It is scary to watch such movies and to think that there are people out there who will do anything to get power. Power specially in politics can make you so ruthless.

11. Avatar (6.5/10)
Fantabulous visuals but less than half can be said about the story. No doubt, anyone who watches this film would not have seen anything this spectacular on the screen before bu fr me the fact that just about everything was based on visuals does not do the trick. Plus I guess the fact that I watched the film at 12:01 show in the night (just to catch first show of the movie), I was not able to enjoy the movie to the fullest. Maybe I will give it another chance.

Few more movies added

2009-12-10T22:55:00.009-05:00

10. Fruit and Nut (Hindi) (4.5/10)
A mapcap comedy whose central character Cyrus Broacha is a simple, nerdy, 'buddhu' type of person who is looking for friends and love. One fine day his colleague Dia Mirza gets kidnapped. How and why Boman Irani has done this and what's Mahesh Majrekar's involvement comes clear after a series of roller coaster and comical mishaps. Acting wise, everyone is good. The film just did not hold my attention

9. Far From Heaven (6/10)
Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a housewife whose husband has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have such an impeccable command of the look and feel of the genre that every moment is simultaneously artificial and deeply felt. Its laudable for director to handle issues of racism and sexuality so beautifully.

8. Paanch (Hindi) (5/10)
The movie has never released but I got hold of a pirated version that released on the internet. Excellent performances, Anurag Kashyap's hold on the plot is very evident for the get go. He has touched upon teenager's drug, music and greed issues. Story might not be very novel but handled in a very dark manner, exposing the grey side of human brain, this movie definitely catches your attention The problem of the film i sits length. Almost 3 hour long, the movie needs some serious editing.

7. Wonder Boys (6.5/10)
This is a very interesting movie. Tobey Macguire acted very well. Michael Douglas is an aging professor who has been writing a novel for many years and cant stop it. Its gone beyond 2000 pages. His wife has left him, his affair with her department's head is in soup since she is pregnant. Now his editor Robert Downey Jr is in own wanting to read his script and then there is his literature student Katie Holmes who is more than interested in easing his pain. And then we have another student Tobey who will soon be responsible for a very disruptive but a life changing weekend for everyone involved.

6. 42 kms (Hindi) (0.5/10)
A film portraying life of 4 people from different sections of society. How they use marathon to change their lives form this move. The film is completely illogical and very poor performances from Mandira Bedi, Bikram Saluja, Porab kohli and everyone else involved. Complete waste of time.

It's Bollywood time

2009-12-03T17:48:00.003-05:00

5. Tum Mile (Hindi) (4.5/10)
I think my patience level for Hindi films has gone down. This is a love story of Emraan Hashmi and Soha who meet 6 years after their breakup in the backdrop of Mumbai rains on 26th July. Movie keeps going in flashbacks. Love story is ok, nothing novel. Rain and flood scenes are done ok. Only thing nice I can think of is that Soha acted pretty good and natural.

4. Aladin (Hindi) (4/10)
Nice concept gone wrong by overconfidence. Movie started well, nice and funny. But somewhere it got unnecessarily serious and gimicky. Sanjay Dutt was total gimmick. If the movie was just about Aladin and Amitabh, the genie, it would have been fabulous. Love angle was absolutely unnecessary and Bachchan Sr overacted quite a bit. Sujoy, enough of 'Aladin' and 'Home Delivery'. Give us 'Jhankar Beats' back

3. De Dhana Dan (Hindi) (5.5/10)
I think some movies make a dierence by how and when you watch it. I am sure had I watched this film with friends in a theatre full of people laughing, I would have def enjoyed it. Like a typical Priyadarshan film with 20 off characters, this film is all about confusion and how people are mistaken for someone they are not. Its hilarious. But the fact I watched it by myself in a theatre occupancy of maybe 20, it was just an ok affair for me. Akshay can now just sleepwalk in these kind of films

2. Paa (Hindi) (6/10)
Thank God that Amitabh Bachchan did not bring Bachchanism in his character of 13 year old Auro. Its very sensitive and funny too. More than paa, film should have been Maa. Vidya Balan has much stronger role, character and she did full justice to it. She is great. Abhishek is just ok. I still wonder why the film was called Paa, considering Abhishek comes to know of his son just minutes before the film ends. Watch it for Vidya and Amitabh

1. Aao Wish Karein (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Another movie gone wrong. I think these kind of stories need to either be done exceptionally well or just relegate to TV. A younger kid suddenly finds himself grown up because he loves this neighborhood girl. And then various things happen which are clearly not very important. Aftab was good. Aamna Sharif had really nothing to do. This film has could have done ok if it was made strictly for kids but somewhere producers get greedy and cant keep a balance between kid flick and romantic youth flick.

November number is 19

2009-11-23T22:58:00.012-05:00

19. Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna (Hindi) (6/10)
This one is a very sweet and simple film. Unfortunately these kind of films don't work today. After some financial problems, Salman Khan goes to Singapore and his wife Kareena decide to stay back in Melbourne. She starts to work at the airport where Sohail Khan also works and falls in love for Mrs. Khanna. As expected, misunderstandings between the couple are cleared. Salman and Kareena live happily and move to Singapore while Sohail still awaits his Mrs. Khanna.

18. All The Best (Hindi) (6/10)
This one thankfully was not as mindless as I thought it would. It had a decent plot of mistaken identities of wife swapping. When Sanjay Dutt gives surprise visit to Fardeen, he mistakenly takes Bipasha to be his wife who is actually Ajay Devgan's wife. A few sub plots with some character artists keep the humour quotient of the film going. Just relax and enjoy this comedy.

17. Jail (Hindi) (4/10)
By unfortunate turn of events, Neil Nitin Mukesh finds himself in Jail being tortured by police for drugs. After initial horror he gives in to prison anarchy while the Indian Judicial system takes its own sweet time to have a hearing for his case left alone prove him innocent. Manoj Vajpai is his only salvation in prison who believes in his innocence. Neil has acted very well but the screenplay of the film was not very tight. There were unwanted characters which made the film drag in places. Madhur's earlier films were tight and crisp but this one somehow fails to hold the attention.

16. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Portuguese) (3.5/10)
São Paulo, 1970, the World Cup Soccer Games, Young Mauro is swept away from his home by his parents to live in São Paulo with his grandfather: his parents tell him they are going on 'vacation' while in reality they are escaping the dictatorial 'disappearances' that challenged the Brazil of the time. It ends up that the grandfather has died. His Jewish neighbor takes care of him. The story winds through the disparities of Jewish life and the governmental changes that are disrupting the flow of this important year for Brazil and how Mauro manages to live alone all along till his mother finally comes back

15. What's Your Raashee? (Hindi) (4/10)
The idea was good in TV series Mr. Yogi but in a film, it just keeps stretching. Initially I was excited but slowly when I realized how many more Priyanka's I will have to watch (making it a 3 plus hour movie), my interest kept reducing. I liked the songs and they fitted well in the film. Harman Baweja did well but Priyanka actually disappointed. Though all her 12 characters were quite different from each other, but something was missing. Director's fault I guess.

14. Blue (Hindi) (5/10)
A good attempt but sadly the outcome is not what one expected. Publicized as a treasure hunt movie, the movie barely had 10 minutes of treasure hunt. Otherwise it was usual. Zayed takes mony from Rahul Dev and now he doesn't have it to return. He comes to Bahamas to live with his brother Sanjay Dutt who works in Akshay's shipping company. Akshay keeps asking Sanjay Dutt to go find hidden treasure in the sea since he knows it but he wouldn't go until now he has to in order to protect Zayed. Surprise surprise, all miseries of Zayed were thanks to Akshay Kumar himself but he wanted to clean his family name.

13. Wanted (Hindi) (7/10)
A total masala Bollywood flick. It has action, emotion, comedy, romance, drama and guess what, its actually entertaining. Its silly to think one man being so powerful but once in a while its good to watch and live with escapist cinema which in the process also entertains you. Salman Khan and Ayeha Takia both suited the role. Its a god directorial debut for Prabhu Deva as well.

12. Twilight (7/10)
The first in series of Vampire based films based on the novels. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film a year after it was released. The love story between an innocent girl who falls for vampire was interesting. I thought the visuals were good and the acting was impressive as well. The movie now is prompting me to read the book. Lets see if I can do that. Definitely worth a watch

11. Lawn Dogs (3/10)
Newly arrived in an up-market housing development, quiet ten-year-old Devon doesn’t quite fit in. Ignoring the urgings of her social-climbing father, Devon chooses the company of Trent, who mows the estate’s lawns, rather than of the girls her own age. Their friendship grows during her visits to his trailer home, but although it is completely innocent it is obvious that it would be unacceptable to the residents if they found out.

10. 2012 (6.5/10)
Exactly what I was expecting from this disaster film. Dumb storyline but excellent visuals. Put your brains aside and try not to find logic as to how John Cusack is able to save his family and others. This movie is strictly to enjoy for its visuals. I loved one line from a review that Cusack I read "The world is dying and somehow we are only supposed to worry about John and his family" and thats exactly what the film is about. I wishes they had dealt more with history on how Mayans predicted the end of world in 2012.

What has happened to Bollywood?

2009-11-15T16:55:00.004-05:00

9. Fast Forward (Hindi) (1/10)
Dance movie got me excited because there are very few in Indian cinema but this was very amateurish. Dances were good but no great shakes as they made them to be. All the actors be it lead or supporting were really bad. The story was the same age old about struggling actors trying to make it big. Throw in some 'gundas', some emotion and there you go. No wonder it was such a big flop.

8. Quick Gun Murugan (Tamil/English) (5.5/10)
A Indian satirical comedy about a cowboy who is on earth to take revenge from evil Rice Plate who is making everyone non-vegetarian. Its a different genre of film which not many Indians are aware of but it makes for a pleasant watch.

7. Acid factory (Hindi) (5.5/10)
I was impressed by Suparna Verma's 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' but his one more like a dramatic TV series more than a film. All 6 actors wake up in a acid factory and they dont remember anything. They get a phone call and slowly they start putting pieces together till they all remember everything. Whom to trust and whom to betray. It makes for an Ok watch.

6. Do Knot Disturb (Hindi) (4/10)
I seriously can't deal with anymore of nonsensical David Dhawan's comedies. Govinda married to Sushmita is 2-timing her with Lara Dutta. When she starts suspecting, because of some errors, he has to make Ritesh pretend to be Lara's boyfriend. Sushmita's character is so weird (dumb or intellectual) and so are others. SOmeone, please give us a comedy that really makes us laugh

5. Vaada Raha.. I Promise (Hindi) (4.5/10)
A decent concept gone wrong. Bobby Deol, who loves life starts hating it when in an accident his whole body gets paralyzed. A kid named Roshan makes him realize the same values of life and make him love it. When Bobby is ready for everything, its too late because the kid has died by now. Kangana had absolutely nothing to do in the film. The songs were big bore and forced. The kid was awesome

4. Orphan (3.5/10)
More than horror, it was psychological thriller. When a couple adopt a daughter who looks different and mature in thoughts, things start going wrong in one way or other. Te mother sees it but not the father. What's the real reason. It definitely comes as a surprise because the young girl is not a girl. She is a grown up 33 year old woman. Weird? Go figure.

Slow start to November

2009-11-10T10:16:00.001-05:00

3. For Your Consideration (6/10)
A sattire on the c-grade hollywood actors who are driven to a brink of madness by the possibility of winning an Academy award. Some of the scenes are hilarious. Though at only surface level but they keep your attention. The fact from getting plastic surgery, to break-ups; it is very interesting

2. Scoop (3.5/10)
When an inquisitive college journalist Scarlett Johansson stumbles upon new clues to a string of murders, her investigation leads directly to a handsome businessman Hugh Jackman, who draws her in with his mysterious charm. SHe pairs up with magician Woody Allen whose funny antics keep your attention grabbed. Awful acting by Scarlet and movie is strictly ok although some point down the line I realized I was watching it second time.

1. Aagey Se Right (Hindi) (3/10)
The film is about a cop Shreyas Talpade and terrorist Kay Kay Menon. Through a series of events not in their control the Shreyas loses his gun and the Kay Kay loses his heart. Their two worlds collide in a maze of chance and mayhem, Shreyas ends up becoming a supercop when he unknowingly helps solve few murder cases all in chance of trying to find his gun. Odd movie with odd plotline, I dont think I liked it.

October number is 25

2009-11-04T04:00:00.004-05:00

25. Kisse Pyaar Karoon (Hindi) (2/10)
Seems to be inspired by De Taali. Ashish Chowdhar is in love with Aarti Chhabaria. But then later meets Udita Goswami and falls for her. Soon his friends Arshad Warsi and Yash Tonk realize that the girl is shady and try to protect him but keep getting failed. After some twists and turns the film ends with happy ending and as expected Udita falling for Arshad and Ashish gettng Aarti Chhabaria. BAD.

24. Swapner Din - Chased By Dreams (Bengali) (1.5/10)
Prosenjit travels from one village to another screening films on family planning methods. He falls in love with the image of a girl in one film and dreams of finding her one day. Chapal is proxy driver who wants to go to Dubai to make quick money. Rimi Sen is a pregnant girl they pick up along the way whose husband has been killed in the Gujarat riots after they crossed the border illegally. She wants to go back to Bangladesh because she feels she will be more secure in her homeland. As they travels through his fixed itinerary, unprecedented things begin to happen to all three of them. I did not find anything interesting at all in this film

23. Team - The Force (Hindi) (1/10)
Usual Hindi masala crap where one man army tries to fight evil. Sohail with his friends Yash Tonk and Vrijesh Hirjee fight against Evil by kidnaping his sister Amrita Arora because he keeps taking extortions just by one phone call and people fear him. Instead of going for his passion for music, he instead opts for 'samaj sudhar'. Bad film.

22. Wafaa (Hindi) (0/10)
Good god!! This was a bad porn C-grade film with Rajesh Khanna. Its unbelievable why would anyone do it. The plot is weird. The lead actress (straight out of porn film) is physically not satisfied from her husband Mr. Khanna and therefore plots to kill him after she starts having an affair with her driver. The dead comes back and she gets crazy and mad literally. Completely avoidable.

21. Humpday (7/10)
Awesome film and best acting ever. 2 very very close friends one night decide to do something very crazy one night in the name of art and in this case it means making a gay porn film with each other. Now the next day they are sober but can't back out of project. It all about dare. Only person standing and whom they have to deal with is wife of one the guys. This is a very very interesting film. Sure watch.

20. Tingya (Marathi) (5/10)
A nice film about a young village boy' love for his cow. The village family is in debt and they need to repay. The bull is old and is not worth farming. Family is planning to sell the cow. How Tingya's love for the bull saves his life and it shows passion for animals. Its an interesting film that shows the most dark and turbulent times in the lives of farmers in India.

The movies never end

2009-10-14T19:18:00.005-04:00

19. Chal Chala Chal (Hindi) (1/10)
A really really bad movie. It might have worked in 90s but there is no way it can work now. Govinda plays a simpleton who cannot stick to a job because he cannot compromise. Ultimately he starts running abus with his friend Rajpal Yadav. For comic relief we have his 2 sisters and their husbands, usual gang of Asrani, Upasna Singh, Amita Nangia and someone else. The movie drags with all kinds os senseless incidents and of course we have the heroine Reema Sen who takes the bus that he runs.Awfully bad film.

18. Fargo (6/10)
Based on a true incident that happened in Minnesota and North Dakota. A hapless car salesman ineptly orchestrates the kidnapping of his own wife. The plan goes horribly awry in the hands of bumbling bad guys. The pregnant sheriff of Brainerd, Minnesota, is suddenly faced with a case of multiple murders. Her investigation is laced with offbeat observations about life in the rural hinterland of Minnesota and North Dakota. The way incidents are unraveled and mystery solved forms a very interesting story and got a much deserved oscar for Frances McDormand playing the pregnant sheriff

17. Watchmen (3/10)
First thing first. This movie went on forever. Movie is based on comic book ( I haven't read it). Changing scenes between present, past, earth, universe, it tries to keep viewers attention. When one of the x-watchmen is killed, another watchmen starts investigating to find out what's going on and the results are shocking. It grabbed my attention here and there but like I said , the movie went on far to long for my interest.

16. Life Partner (Hindi) (4/10)
Gosh! What a loud film. Everyone in the film Fardeen (expressionless), Govinda (very loud), Tushar (bechara), Genelia (dumbo) seem to be screaming all the time. Only saving grace is Prachi Desai. Fardeen and Genelia love each other and have love marriage. Tushar and Prachi enter arranged marriage. Govinda is a divorce lawyer and does not believe in institution of marriage which very surprisingly and suddenly changes when Amrita Rao comes in his life. How the other 2 couples deals with their marital problems, get separated and get back together is what this film is about. Bad.

15. Raaz - The Mystery Continues (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Finally I mustered the courage of watching this film after being scared all this while. The movie wasn't as scary as the original Raaz but someone like me can get pretty scared even by this. Kangana as expected acts very well. Adhyayan was ok but doesn't suit with her. Emraan was good. Although the whole concept of him panting and predicting future was just very odd. But then who said horror films have logic. She has to find out the whole truth by herself as to why these things are happening and how is she involved in it.

14. Chal Chalein (Hindi) (6/10)
A very interesting concept which very sadly was not promoted at al. I seriously hope and wish that most children and parents should watch this film and learn. This film essentially focusses on how these days parents impose their wishes and dreams on teenage children and make them slog at studies to achieve something that they dont even want to. This situation sometimes leads to suicide by some kids fearing their parents reactions on their failure. The film never goes off its focus and presents some really good suggestions as to what should be done to avoid it. Please someone make the 'aam junta' aware of this film

13. Phir Kabhi (Hindi) (3.5/10)
What could have been an interesting pseudo love story between an elderly couple (Mithun and Dimple) was unnecessarily marred with another love story of a young couple which acted as nothing but a speed breaker with unwanted songs in an otherwise sober film. Mithun acts really well. Other characters were also ok. It was heartening to see the chemistry that grandfather and granddaughter shared. Time pass on dvd circuit.

And October continues too

2009-10-10T08:35:00.003-04:00

12. Babbarr (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Unlike other films, this film that also deals with underworld gang and 'gundagardi', this film explores it with a difference and something that keeps your attention grabbed. Newcomer Sohum acts very well. UP politics and gundas have attracted film goers time and again but this one is nice and different. The message is clear, One Babbarr dies but somewhere someone is still alive as Babbarr.

11. Recount (4/10)
I had wanted to watch this film for a while. This film recounts and recall viewer of the 2000 Presidential election that went on forever because of Gore/Bush problems. For me who had not witnessed it first hand, it was so surprising to see all that went into that election. You could be the world's supreme power but even you can screw up b giving elections to someone who actually lost elections and the winner is busy educating world about Global Warming.

10. Chintu Ji (Hindi) (5/10)
Part true, part fiction the film is very interesting. Rishi Kapoor plays himself, a superstar who wants to joins politics. He is arrogant and when he comes back to his birth village, he doesn't mind playing with their emotions, of course later realizing everything. Overall it was very interesting concept, The interactions between the villagers and the star was very interesting. Overall a very engrossing film.

9. Bollywood Hero (IFC Mini Series) (3/10)
Heavily promoted in US, this one was such a major disappointment. Bad acting, over the top (except Pooja Kumar), the film was more targeted towards Americans giving them a totally false and wrong picture of india and indian film industry. Kris Katan was ok but it seemed like everyone in the film was trying to top the other actor in going overboard with acting. My favourite was the grandma and her dialogues in Hindi. Neha Dhupia was bad.

October starts off well

2009-10-03T09:55:00.006-04:00

8. The Stoneman Murders (Hindi) (6.5/10)
In Bombay in 83, there were series of murders that happened of poor people by a serial killer who killed them with a stone. This film explores into possibilities of what and why they happened and what could have been the motive behind this and why is that puzzle still unsolved even after 25 years. Great screenplay and acting by Kay Kay. The whole justification and why's are shown very interestingly with a very interesting story-line behind it which make it completely believable.

7. Dil Bole Hadippa (Hindi) (6/10)
The movie works only because of Rani. The way she changes her body language playing the girl and the sardar boy is really commendable. Shahid Kapoor leaves absolutely no impact at all (good or bad). Watch it if you are Rani's fan but otherwise the movie has nothing new to offer. The songs are also just boring and forced into the narrative. Even the concept of a girl faking to be man just to play in cricket tam is also not very novel. And Yah Raj please spare us with all these suden 'deshbhakti geet' and 'mera punjab mera india' fakeness.

6. Wake Up Sid (Hindi) (8/10)
An absolutely wonderful film starring complete natural actors Ranbir and Konkona. They were flawless. And to all credit to the director, the story and treatment was very fresh about a young boy who just enjoys his life spending his father's money and refuses to grow up. The events are handled very real without showing that suddenly there is a big change overnight. The boy becomes man in a slow process and how Konkona fits in the whole piece is very endearing to watch. Must watch.

5. Aeon Flux (3/10)
400 years in the future, after a virus decimates the world population, only one city on Earth remains. Ruled by the Goodchild dynasty, it is a perfect society of peace and prosperity – except that its citizens keep mysteriously disappearing. Charlize Theron stars as Aeon Flux, a secret agent/assassin/warrior whose mission is to bring down the regime. But as she goes deeper into her mission, Aeon uncovers some shocking secrets that jeopardize the mission – and her life. Except for the visuals everything in the movie was bad. I just could care less about the events happening.

4. Bachelor Party (Hindi) (0.5/10)
This one is so bad that you dont have enough words to describe it. Acting, screenplay, story, concept everything was downright C-grade. Arbaaz Khan & Nauheed Cyrusi really cant act. A good actor like Jimmy Shergill also looked like a clown. Arbaaz loves Nauheed but she is getting married to Jimmy whom even her father doesn't like. How they plan to get rid of him in a comical way via a bachelor party is what this film is about

3. The Virgin Suicides (5/10)
Set in 70s, and shown through the eyes of the boys growing up and who had grown up in an American suburb, the story is about four surviving Lisbon sisters lost a sibling to suicide, and as its title suggests, the film follows their mutual course to oblivion under the vigilance of repressive and very strict parents. Unfolding at the cusp of innocence and sexual awakening, the film is ultimately, about the preservation of the sisters by their own deaths. Interesting concept and execution. What was baffling to me was justification not been given to some of the actions. Good for an Indie film.

2. Daddy Cool (Hindi) (2/10)
A scene to scene copy of 'Death At a Funeral', I couldn't enjoy the film at all because the original was fresh in my mind plus it was so funny. Bollywood directors need to realize that making funny faces etc doesn't make a good comedy and not every story will fit into Indian perspective. And making a film with so called actors (Sunil Shetty, Kim sharma, aarti chhabariya, ashish chowdhury, aftab, tulip joshi), there is nothing more to say. Avoid.

1. Teree Sang (Hindi) (5.5/10)
The subject if teenage pregnancy has been handled by Satish Kaushik very well. The film does not become vulgar or cheesy at any point and the lead characters Ruslan Mumtaz and Sheena look and act so believable in the parts they act, that the while film is completely believable. Reaction of parents, chemistry of friendship between the lead pair and everything is good. Where the film fails is when suddenly the pair is on their on and in a total filmy style they have a huge house all setup and the 15 and 17 year olds are living on their own. But other than that a very honest and sincere attempt. Good for the young teenage generation.

September Number is 27

2009-09-25T17:46:00.007-04:00

27. Sikandar (Hindi) (5.5/10)
An interesting film from a child's perspective. How a young teenage child is forced and used for militancy without him being realizing what he has to do with an interesting twist towards the end. Nice performances by Parzan Dastur, Madhavan and Sanjay Suri. The movie holds interest initially, loses steam towards the end but comes back on track with an excellent climax.

26. District 9 (4.5/10)
20 years ago a space ship just hung there mid air in city of Johannesburg. Their refugee camp is called District 9. Now a corporation is trying to relocate them. Wikus is assigned this job doing which he gets infected by a chemical because of which he starts to turn into one of the aliens. Wikus goes on the run from scientists who want to harvest his evolving, new parts and aliens who see him as a threat. When he pairs up with an extraterrestrial secretly planning an escape from Earth, however, what should be a fascinating relationship story becomes a series of firefights and explosions. Interesting but not engaging enough for me.

25. Fame (3/10)
Remake of 8s film by same name that takes us through the lives of various students studying performing arts to get trained in singing, dancing, acting etc. The film fails to grab attention primarily because of really bad acting and all unfinished stories. I would stay away

24. Coraline (4/10)
Teenager Coraline moves in a new house but is bored because her parents are always very busy. Her only friends are some crazy neighbors of hers. One day she find a secret door traveling through which she discovers a whole nw another family and friends sam as her real life but with buttons instead of eyes. Her 'other' parents give her lot of love but soon she finds out a dark secret about this other family and what they are really after. Its just ok. Animations are not my thing but this one really did not have anything exciting

23. The Sea (Iceland) (1/10)
This is the worst movie I have seen. A dying father calls his children back to the countryside and thats where a lot of secrets are revealed. Every single person has a weirdness about him/her and a totally f***ed up past and present and th whole dynamics including father and the step mother. Just stay away from this film. I dont even want to think how did this film manage to get so called Icelandic Academy Awards.

22. Love Khichdi (Hindi) (3.5/10)
Interesting concept not yet fr typical Indian viewer. Randeep Hooda is womanizer who is at the same time either wooing or wooed by 6 separate girls. In all these girls, there is his closest friend and she is the only one he really likes as a friend and who actually loves him back in return which he doesn't realize. A few encounters with the girls are good and interesting but after a while it just gets boring and repetitive. Only good thing is Randeep Hooda who I thouht was pretty natural in the film. Sonali Kulkarni also did 'kaam wali bai' acting pretty good.

21. Rafoo Chakkar- Fun On The Run (Hindi) (1/10)
Terrible movie from every aspect. Acting, story, direction everything you can think of. The things that you can learn from this film is how not to act, how not to direct and how not to write a script. These are the kind of films that make a decent actress like Mita Vashishtha to look like a caricature. Please dont even bother for this one. A shame to the highly entertaining Rishi-Neetu film of 70s by same name.

Time for Bollywood masala

2009-09-20T12:00:00.003-04:00

20. Shadow (Hindi) (3/10)
This film was made purely to showcase the talent of newcomer Nasser Khan who is actually blind in real life. To keep that in account, he does singing, dancing, acting and all deadly stunts by himself is pretty commendable. But still the movie is pathetic. Police led by Sonali Kulkarni are trying to solve various murder cases that are happening in the city. Milind Soman and Hrishita Bhatt are reporters handling the case. and then there is a car mechanic who is great at his work and everyone loves , Nasser Khan. It turns out he is the killer and the logic behind it is bad. Poor acting by everyone else and a overweight Sonali in tight pants. Stay away

19. Kisaan (Hindi) (5/10)
This was actually not a bad film. Said to be inspired by Manoj Kumar's Upkar, te story is about kisaan Jackie Shroff with 2 sons. Elder son Arbaaz Khan studies in city and younger Sohail Khan becomes anther kisaan. Enter villain Dilip Tahil who wants to but all kisaan's land which Jackie and Sohail oppose but he smehow infiltrates Arbaaz Khan's mind for monetary reasons. This causes a rift between the family and in the end everything is fine. Dia Mirza and Nauheed Cyrusi are fillers.

18. Firaaq (Hindi) (7/10)
Nandita Das' directorial debut is actually pretty heavy but interesting. It showcases multiple stories of various people and what are they going t hrough after the Gujarat riots. It involves a Muslim slum family (Shahana Goswami), a muslim husband and hindu wife, Deepti naval dealing with he own trauma under abusive husband and a maulwi. Interesting character sketch but some stories were left open ended. Nevertheless, very interesting.

17. Luck (Hindi) (6.5/10)
It is definitely a different movie. Sanjay Dutt alongwith Danny collect people from all over the world who they think are lucky and are in need of money. (Shruti Haasan, Mithun, Ravi Kissen, Imran, CHitrashi etc). They work on human betting and make them go through the most dangerous life threatning games. No one actually gets special treatment though you can say that for Imran Khan. All of thes people play dangerous games thereby eliminating one by one and ultimately Imran wins big betting money of 20 crore. Its def a nice eye candy watch

16. Three: Love, Lies and Betrayal (Hindi) (4/10)
Nausheen Ali Sardar lives with husband Akshay Kaoor in a huge mansion but are in need of money. Husband wants to sel house but she doesn't because its hr parents aakhri nishani. They keep a tenant Ashish Chaudhary. Soon game of deception , love and lies start. Ashish pretends to love Nausheen but whats the secret behind. It turns out Akshay is one deceing her but ultimately how Nausheen ends up being a winner. Something similar came long back in movies like Danger and Jackpot. No one remembers those movies and neither will they remember this.

September is cruising along fine

2009-09-09T21:43:00.005-04:00

15. The Hours and The Times (1/10)
In 1963, just months before Beatlemania swept the world, John Lennon and the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, took a four day vacation together in Barcelona. They were there to relax after a grueling series of concerts, but the trip remained charged with an unspoken tension. Those four emotional days are embodied in The Hours and Times, a flight of imagination that evokes the complex relationship between Lennon and Epstein. It was a a very slow movie and mot much happened. Plus it being so called fictional work as to what happened during that vacation makes this movie which is not my cup of tea.

14. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (4/10)
A sweet film for teenagers , a comedy which happens in a span of one night. Nick a budding musician is recovering from heart break and Norah if trying to figure out her own assumptions of the world. Though they have nothing in common except for their taste in music, their chance encounter leads to an all-night quest to find a legendary band's secret show and ends up becoming the first date in a romance that could change both their lives.

13. Fox (Hindi) (5/10)
It could have been a decent thriller but hindi film makers still need to get a pulse of this genre. Arjun Rampal , a lawyer has made lots of money defending criminals. But soon he realizes his mistake and leaves law profession and is living in Goa. He gets book published which is not really his. Soon he finds himself being trapped in some conspiracy where he is now being held for murder of 5 people and Sunny Deol is handling his case. Finally the suspense is revealed which is a major letdown. Good for Tv watching and spend s a decent 2 hour of thrill. Could have been better.

12. Harry, He's Here To Help (French) [With a Friend Like Harry] (6/10)
Michel and Claire are on vacation and they meet Harry who identifies himself as friend of Michel from back in school days. He remembers a lot about Michel specially his poems and writing skills. Michel being the nice guy invites Harry and his girlfriend to their summer house. He wants to make Michel's life better which starts with buying up a new car and continues with killing his parents, brother, his own girlfriend etc. because Harry thinks that they are all the people who are making Michel's life unhappy and stopping him from continuing his writing. The film is slow in the beginning but gets very interesting midway. Although why Harry is doing all this is not very clear but he clearly is very inspired by Michel's writing skills. Def a worth watch

11. Yeh Mera India (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Yeh Mera India is an attempt to explore the real stories behind these headlines. These stories deal with racial bias, communal bias, caste bias, class bias, gender bias, lingual bias and immigrant bias that plaque the today's society and the outcome is startling. A huge ensemble cast where everyone delivers fine performance and how all individual stories all come together is very heartening. It is a story of one day in the life of 12 people from different strata of Mumbai city which is a melting pot of cultures. Very very strongly recommended.

10. Born On The Fourth Of July (5.5/10)
Based on the memoir of combat veteran Ron Kovic, the film stars Tom Cruise as Kovic, whose gunshot wound in Vietnam left him paralyzed from the chest down. He is deeply embittered by neglect in a veteran's hospital and by the shattering of his patriotic idealism because of the horror and futility of the Vietnam conflict. While painfully and awkwardly adjusting to his disability and a changing definition of masculinity, Kovic joins the burgeoning movement of antiwar protest, culminating in a climactic appearance at the 1976 Democratic national convention. The film started off well but somewhere it just lost my interest. Tom Cruise definitely acted really well.

September so far only bad movies

2009-09-01T12:39:00.005-04:00

9. State of Play (6/10)
Russel Crowe is working on investigation of a murder of a secretary of his Congressman friend Ben Affleck with Rachel McAdams. During the process he uncovers truth and harsh reality that threatens to bring down US's big corporates. The truth thats is finally reveald is very interesting and unexpected.

8. Bhaji On The Beach (UK English) (3/10)
Gurinder Chada's first (I think so) movie. Much before "BILB'. This movie was total disaster. Lot of over the top acting, miscellaneous characters everyone trying to deal with their issues. A group of estranged women go on a trip out to the beach and the film follows their troubles: a broken marriage, 3 old women, a pregnant teenager, 2 sisters etc. A very odd movie.

7. Employee of The Month (4.5/10)
Matt Dillon seems to have perfect life with fiance and a job at a bank and his best friend. Day starts with he getting fired, fiance dumping him and fights with friend. Next day there is a huge robbery in the bank and his dealing with it. How even though he was the master mind behind it with his friend and his mistress in bank, ultimately every single person is wearing a mask and is cheating and finally killing the other person.

6. Bruno (5/10)
Another funny stroke from Sacha Baron Cohen. This time he plays a gay Austrian who wants to get famous. There are a lot of scenes which evoke a genuine laughter but over all the movie is a bit downer. Previews make u expect more but thats all it turns out to be. It definitely runs out of the fizz. But I must ay that he did a pretty good job.

5. Ghatothkach - Master of Magic (Hindi) (3/10)
The only interesting thing abut this was that I had no idea about the story between ghatotkach and abhimanyu and it was interesting. Apart from that bad animation and worse songs. Give us a break from mythological hindi animation movies

4. Maruti Mera Dosst (Hindi) (3.5/10)
A girl tells her friends her childhood story of how Lord Hanuman himself was her friend as a kid and how he protected her from al evil forces including her step mom's evil mother. The characters had pretty much nothing to do. The young boy playing Maruti is the only character that holds your attention. Th eveil forces are straight out of some bad bollywood hindi kids film in which they ham and overact.

3. Kalaakaar (Hindi) (5/10)
It was interestng to revisits 80s films. Kunal is budding singer. Sridevi taps her talent and makes sure he gets a chance. Love blooms but soon Kunal finds out he has blood cancer, He tries to snub Sree so that she can hate him and marry someone else but she finds out the truth and commits suicide by the time Kunal also dies. An age old love story formula that worked big time in 80s. Excellent score

2. Agyaat (Hindi) (3/10)
It was a complete downer. First 30 minutes boring. Finally when the invisible creature starts killing people, the suspense if build but the climax is a total let down. You feel totally cheated. Plus I personally did not feel any chills or thrills. And why everyone in Ramu's films overact these days is beyond my comprehension.

1. Razzle Dazzle (4/10)
An australian hilarious mockumentary about kids' competitive dance, complete with overbearing parents, precocious kids, eccentric instructors, and a host of other quirky characters. It had very interesting characters like mothers of teenagers and dance teachers and how seriously (or not) they take the competitions.

August Number is 23

2009-08-31T12:01:00.003-04:00

23. Bariwali (Bengali) (7/10)
Saw this film the second time. As always director Rituparno Ghosh impresses me. Kiron Kher is a lonely aged woman living on her own. Her husband died 2 days before her marriage. Her only confidants are her maid and her housekeeper. Things change when she allows a film shooting in her house. She gets drawn towards the director knowing very well that he is married and had an affair with the film actress ultimately of course to get heart broken in the end.

22. Tumhari Bina (Pakistan Short Film) (5/10)
This film deals with the desires of an older single woman who lives by herself in the house that she shared with her deceased brother. Her only other companion is her trusted gardener and the pleasures of the internet through which she plays her sinister games. A creepy film where you never expected the end.

21. Burnesroad Ki Nilofer (Pakistan Tv FIlm) (7/10)
I could have died laughing in this film. Reminded me of the days when we used to watch pakistani dramas. Nilofer is 17 yar ld who lives in a cramped flat in Pakistan with mother, father and 8 younger siblings. Beguiled by the soaps on television, she dreams of true love but has little chance to go out and find it or even to express herself in the presence of her parents. A hilarious film that gets a little serious towards the end but still very funny.

20. Midnight Lost & Found (Hindi Short Film) (7/10)
Arvind (Deepak Dobriyal) spends his nights reading Batman comics caged in behind iron bars at his lonely chemist shop in Bombay. A prostitute (Geetika Tyagi) stops every night to buy condoms, until their conversations help Arvind break free and find the superhero within. Excellent short and brilliant acting by both leads.

19. My Daughter the Terrorist (Sri Lanka Documentary) (5.5/10)
A very rare documentary of inside look into the lives of 2 girls of LTTE group whom the world calls as terrorists. This even-handed documentary sheds light on the reasons that the Tamil Tigers continue their bloody struggle for independence while questioning their tactics. Deep in guerrilla territory, two female Black Tigers train for theultimate mission. Its a personal choice to dcide who's right or wrong but the film is very hard hitting.

18. Beauty Parlor (Pakistan Short Film) (4.5/10)
Four faces, fur masks and 4 short stories. Two friends long for intimacies of a different kind, a to-be-bride longs for another while getting ready for her wedding, the ‘other woman’ struggles to define her existence via her relationship with her married lover and a physically challenged transvestite has dreams of a different kind.

17. Let's Talk (Indian English) (8/10)
Boman Irani's first feature film and what a fantastic acting debut on big screen. A wife is cheating on husband and has got pregnant now. She wants to tell her husband and is scared. The film shows her imagining 8 scenarios of how her husband could react to the news. From committing suicide to beating her up to just talking, these are few ways in which she thinks her husband would react. Awesome film. Must watch.

Few more movies added to the kitty

2009-08-24T17:47:00.002-04:00

16. Sanam Teri Kasam (Hindi) (1.5/10)
A movie of 90s (Sambandh aka Yeh pyar hi to hai) releases in 2008 with Pooja Bhatt, Atul Agniotri and Saif who hams throughout the movie, with a new name. Pooja Bhatt so does not suit the characters of damsel in distress wearing saris and stuff. Everything is so over the top and melodramatic that film would have bombed even if it was released in 90s. And whats u with changing the title of the movie 3 times. If the film is bad, nothing really helps.

15. War of The Worlds (4/10)
Ended up watching this movie again since it was coming on TV. Not one of the better works of Steven Speilberg. And Tom Cruise at least in this movie can't act. A usual cry of war between mankind and machine, this movie has everything that is expected from such movies.

14. Morning Walk (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Interesting concept. Somehow these family value and stories I like in Bengali films but when they get translated to Hindi film, they try to commercialize it and lose the whole essence. Anupam Kher moves to Bombay to live with his son and his family. He meets Sharmila Tagore, a girl whom he used to love in his young days. He later finds out that he has a daughter with her. Without going into morals of what's right and what's wrong, the film shows how he does what he feels is right (making sure his daughter has money to go to US for studying rather than giving money to his greedy daughter-in-law for buying a house in Mumbai)

13. Siddhartha The Prisoner (Hindi) (2/10)
I like indi films but this was just a lame excuse. I wonder how come Rajat Kapoor got best actor award in some lame film festival. Siddhartha (Rajat Kapoor) is out of jail and in the process of restarting his life. He write a book but his briefcase gets exchanged with another one containing money at an internet cafe. Rest of the movie is about the gang trying to find out their lost money and Rajat finding his book. The film moves at such a slow speed that if you take a nap and watch again, you probably wont have missed anything.

Time for some Indian films

2009-08-18T11:22:00.002-04:00

12. Gulaal (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Anurag Kashyap's take on Rajasthan politics. Never seen before story, execution and minor details and how an innocent young man is dragged into politics, everyone takes advantage of him and then what follows in the name of politics. Bravo. SO many new faces and all of them just brilliant.

11. Good Luck (Hindi) (0/10)
A very poor scene to scene copy of Hollywood film 'Just my Luck'. When will the Indian film folks learn their lesson? Terrible direction, pathetic acting and everything else also was just sad and bad. Please dont even bother.

10. Antaheen (Bengali) (6/10)
I like Bengali films because they seem very real and fresh and just like a slice of life and this film is no different. 2 very different people who are friends online looking for love and their interactions with the people surrounding them and all their relationships. No one showcases relationships better than a few Bengali films. Rahul Bose, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, everyone is good.

9. Kaminey (Hindi) (9/10)
What happens in life span of 24 hours with 2 twin brothers? A roller coaster from the word go, this one takes the director and the actor straight to the top league. Everything from acting, music, direction, story, screenplay was just flawless, though some people might argue. This one is not to be missed for Shahid, Amol Gupte, Priyanka, Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj.

8. Perfect Mismatch (Indian/English) (4/10)
Another one of those indian english film trying to depict lives of a couple of Indian families living in US. This time the protagonists are a Punjabi and gujrati family. Their kids fall in love but the fathers dont see eye to eye. In this day and age where inter religion or even inter country marriage is no big deal, the producers are still stuck to age old cliche with some unnecessary drama thrown in.

A slow August

2009-08-09T21:26:00.003-04:00

7. Wall-E (7/10)
So finally I also saw Wall-E. After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, the curious and lovable Wall-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named Eve. The film has great message on how not to get totally caught up by the technology and ho wit is important to care about people and things around you. Wonderful

6. Dekh Bhai Dekh (Hindi) (5.5/10)
The film may have flopped but it was actually not a bad film. Gracy Singh, Siddharth Koirala, Raghuvir Yada and Vijay Raaz form a tam to steal an age old statue of god to make instant money but with the money split , its still not enough for everyone. They then decide to kill an old lady with lot of money but also in greed end up killing each other or so they think. With a twisted end and a village setting, this film could have never worked but honestly it is different. Maybe good for a TV film.

5. I Love You, Man (4/10)
A couple is getting married but the girl and her friends are worried that the man does not have any friends at all and who will be his best man for his wedding. Then starts a process of the lead man to find a guy and be friends with him. He meets Sidney, a carefree, super laid back guy and they hit off well. His only desire is to have fun. Hw he brings about changes in our hero's life. It was an all right film. There are a little too much of this chick flick romantic comedies these days.

Where will August end up going

2009-08-03T14:36:00.006-04:00

4. Sleuth (5/10)
Based on a play, this movie stated off very interesting, dragged a little bit in the middle and ends with a bang. Jude Law is a struggling actor who doesn't know what to expect when he visits Michael Caine (whose wife he is sleeping with). A strange proposal from Caine for Jude Law sparks off an interesting twist and game plan of one upmanship over the other. The best thing about this Sleuth are the performances of Law and Caine, who could have been even better with a great script.

3. Barah Aana (Hindi) (6/10)
Someone please finance these directors who have such brilliant stories to tell but because of zero promotion, these films fall off the radar. Barah Aana is story of 3 friends (who have nothing in common except poverty). How they struggle with their life despite being different ages and how they find out a business of kidnapping people and making quick money out of it. They dont want to do it but its the fastest way to make money. Brillaint performances by Naseerudding, Vijay Raaz (seen after a long time) and Arjun Mathur. Again, a worth watch film.

2. Love Aaj Kal (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Of course Imtiaz Ali's film has great expectations. Mine were fulfilled to a great extent. Saif acted fine. Deepika looks gorgeous. The film shows us how today's generation struggles with what true love is (given the fact that we have too many choices) vs how love was in old days when purity was at its top and people would do anything just to have one glimpse of the girl they loved. Harleen is breathtakingly gorgeous. Songs are good but they seemed forced in the film. Overal a decent film

1. I've Loved You So Long (French) (8.5/10)
This is one of the best films I have seen in the recent times. The main protagonist comes out of jail after 15 years for murdering her son. Her sister takes her in who was very young at the time. The woman is now struggling to get back to a normal life. No one knows why she murdered her son but when the truth finally is found by her sister, it breaks her heart completely. Awesome performances. Must watch movie.

The number for July is 19

2009-07-26T10:05:00.003-04:00

19. Little Zizou (English/India) (7/10)
A wonderful movie based on Parsi community. Told by the eyes of a 9-1 year old boy who is big fan of footballer Zizou. The movie tells the story of his community which involves his father, a wannabe leader, a newspaper editor Boman Irani and his family, Zizou's older brother who wants to become a graphic novelist. How all these people affect each other's lives and struggle through everyday chores makes this cute small film. A very well made film with an interesting cameo by John Abraham and Kamal Sidhu, I loved the film.

18. Kal Kissne Dekha (Hindi) (4/10)
Some producers directors never learn. They keep giving viewers a mix dose of comedy, action, drama, song, dance and somewhere along the line story and think they can fool audiences. Jackie Bhagnani has the ability to see future. Once he leaves his small town and goes to Bombay, he falls in love with Vaishali Desai (who had absolutely nothing to do in the film). He starts seeing some bombings in future and then helps the police from these incidents to happen. Turns out the mastermind behind these is his profesor Rishi Kapoor. (yawnn!!) Completely avoidable.

17. Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (8/10)
One of my most fav Harry Potter films ever. This one had story, pace and was simple and emotional. It did not have too many side tracks. I wish though that parts of the movie were in 3D. These days I have some strange fascination for 3D movies. A lot of chemistry between lead characters and other students was introduced which was fun. Definitely a worth watch.

16. Batman Begins (7.5/10)
This movie starts back the series on how Batman started. Batman flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows. The instructor now wants him to destroy Gotham city because it is full of corrupt people but instead batman wants to improve the situation. He instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. I wish I had seen this movie before Dark Knight. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness. I liked it.

And the list continues

2009-07-19T13:39:00.002-04:00

15. Jashnn (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Like the title it is a story of nobody who wants to be somebody. Adhyayan is Shahana's brother. She is mistress of a Humayun and thats how they live. Anjana Sukhani is his sister and she falls in love with Adhyayan. HE wants to make big with his music but he always et hurt whenever he wants to do something big. Slowly al his dreams die and he is shattered completely. At this stage, his love helps him come out of his shell, prove that he can be someone and give back a life of respect to his sister. Decent performances and an emotional film. I would have rated it better but I just cant digest Adhyayan and Anjana. Shahana Goswami was superb as expected.

14. Kiss of The Spider Woman (6.5/10)
Hemmed in by the narrow walls of a Latin American prison cell, Molina (William Hurt) is telling his new cellmate, Valentin (Raul Julia), his favorite story. Molina is a gay man imprisoned for seducing a minor; Valentin is a bearded revolutionary still bleeding from his interrogation. There are stories twisting within stories, each drawing a new, surprising level of difference between the two heroes: escapism versus realism, romance versus politics, gay versus straight, hero versus coward. As their unstable friendship grows more real, their stories become more vivid. A well deserved Oscar for the leading man in 80s. Must watch.

13. Vicky Christina Barcelona (7/10)
This is my second time watching this film. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain. Vicky is engaged to be married and Christina is in search of herself. They meet a charming Casanova and Vicky ends of sleeping with him and thereby confused but she doesn't pursue it further because she is engaged. Christina meanwhile has full fledged affair and even moves in with him. And then comes Penelope Cruz (his ex-wife) and what follows is a complex look at relationships with each of the character and how they directly or indirectly affect each other. Brilliant film and even more brilliant Penelope Cruz.

12. Sankat City (Hindi) (7/10)
A great intelligently made comedy film. This is worth a dekho. KayKay is a car thief who works with Dilip Prabhawalkar (garage owner) in overhauling the car and selling it. Once he find a mercedes and 1 crore rupees with it. What hey dont realize is that the car belongs to Anupam Kher, a don. Then we have RImi who cons people and is trying to do one big final heist and retire. The guys she is targeting at owes money to Anupam Kher. There are a couple of other people involved too with the Don. How do these people interact each other, how money keeps exchanging hands and how things get resolved ultimately make this fun filled roller coaster. The screenplay is the best part. Its not easy to develop the inter relations of the characters.

11. Mamma Mia! (7/10)
One of the first Hollywood musicals that I liked. The story is simple. A girl lives on an island with her mother. Its time for her marriage and she wants to know who her father is. There are 3 possible options but fun is that the mother herself doesn't know. She invites all 3 men for her wedding and the fun, confusion follows. Music of course is great. Title song and dancing queen and their choreography is amazing. I now want to see it on Broadway.

10. Wendy and Lucy (5/10)
Michelle Williams is in economic crisis and is on a road trip on her way to work Alaskan fishing boats with her dog Lucy. Her Honda breaks down, and while shoplifting once she loses Lucy. She befriends a local security guard who genuinely helps her find her dog. As the film speaks to many young people who have been broke and stranded, one will inevitably wonder why Wendy makes the unwise choices she does, for example sleeping in a dangerous area along a train track instead of finding a safer campground, or wandering the streets looking for her lost pooch in lieu of hunkering down for a temporary part-time job. A slow decent movie.

These new films are bad

2009-07-13T14:11:00.004-04:00

9. Kambakkht Ishq (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Glamourous pair and hit songs but they dont make a good entertainer. Akshay is a stuntman in LA and Kareena is a medical student who models to pay her fees. Its a battle of sexes between them where they both hate each other and try to put each other down. Ultimately there minds change and they fall in love. Akshay has done this role so many times before that he can sleepwalk through it. Kareena looks stunning. Amrita Arora looks and acts dumb though she is probably better than Denise Richards.

8. Short Kut (Hindi) (2.5/10)
Arshad Warsi is a wannabe actor whm no one gives a chance. Akshaye is working on writing a script for his forst direction. Arshad steals his script and becomes a star overnight. SItuation brings them together where Akshaye is forced to work with Arshad to make his foothold in the industry. In between all this, Amrita Rao keeps appearing for glamour quotient and songs. I dont even understand why this film is a comedy. I am tired of watching Arshad hamming in all his movies and repeating himself.

I dont feel like watching movies any more

2009-07-08T11:23:00.004-04:00

7. Sita Sings the Blues (4/10)
This film is an interesting animated version from the director's vision. It intersperses events from an episode of the Ramayana, illustrated conversation between Indian shadow puppets, musical interludes voiced with songs and scenes from the artist's own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plot are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes. One of the parallels of what is happening in a couple's life in modern day is actually autobiographical.

6. Kirayadaar (Hindi) (5.5/10)
It was good to go back in time and watch one of those middle class targeted Basu Chatterjee's movie. Padmini Kolhapure lives in a flat in Mumbai with Mother Vidya Sinha for 15 yrs. The flat is owned by Utpal Dutt who lives in Lucknow with son Raj Babbar. When he gets a job in Bombay, Utpal Dutt wants them to leave the flat but they refuse. They ultimately get in a court case which is going nowhere because the lawyers are just getting money out of the whole deal. Of course all's well that ends well and the hero heroine get married. Not to much fun to watch in today's times but still much better than the crap that is coming out these days.

5. Runway (Hindi) (2/10)
Amarjeet is a young man who loves Deepal Shaw. She is into drugs and now needs liver transplant. To earn money for that, the hero works for a don, kills a guy and now someone is after his life to kill him. On the run, he meets Tulip Joshi who helps him save his life and go back to India. Terrible movie, contrived plot and ridiculous acting.

A good start to July

2009-07-02T18:19:00.002-04:00

4. The Hangover (6/10)
4 friends go for a bachelor party. The next day they wake up with the room missing, room completely shattered with a baby and a tiger. What follows are hilarious sequences of what happened that night and where did the groom disappear. The film is funny in lot of parts and completely college fun filled film that you will bound to enjoy with friends.

3. New York (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Dealing with terrorism, this film starts with 3 close friends. Seven years after 9/11 FBI asks Neil to work for them to prove that John is a terrorist or else they will put Neil in detention. Neil doesn't believe but still agrees. John is now married to Katrina and has a baby. Neil soon finds out that FBI was right but also now understands the reasons why John is doing what he is doing. A very interesting take on terrorism and on what Muslims in different pats of the world had to face. Enjoyable.

2. Let's Dance (Hindi) (4/10)
New girl Gayatri Patel is an exceptional dancer. She runs a dance school and wants to make it big but doesn't want to compromise on her principles. She gets a chance but cannot make much out of it because she refuses to sleep with video director. She ultimately makes a team with students including with roadside goondas and presents one of the best shows the city has seen. The only good thing about the movie was excellent choreography. Gayatri can move.

1. Glass House- The Good Mother (2/10)
Teenage Abby and brother than move with foster parents after their parents die. BUt all is not hunky dory. Abby son realizes that there new parents are crazy and the mother has the psychiatric disease where she slowly poisons her kid and kills them. She has so far killed 4 foster young boys. Abby finds out about this and helps herself and brother escape. A story with lots of loopholes ideally suited for a 1 hour TV episode. Poor acting.

Number for June is 18 :(

2009-07-01T14:30:00.002-04:00

18. Paying Guest (Hindi) (6/10)
It wasn't a bad film (like I was expecting). This is story of 4 friends who pretend to be 2 couples to get room in a big house (Shreyas and Javed Jaffri pretend to be woman) after they lose their job and original room where they were living in Bangkok. They live in Johny Lever's house and a lot of funny incidents follow involving these 4 friends and their love interests. A total time pass film. It doesn't let you get bored but just dont think too much while the film is on.

17. Aparichit (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Dubbed from Tamil film Anniyan, I wished I had seen the original version with real voice than fake dubbing. Vikram suffers with multiple personality disorder with 3 dominant personalities - simple village man in love but the girl doesn't reciprocate and strict follower of rules, aparichit who can kill people whoever goes against the laws and principles and a very modern young man who finally sweeps of the girl. Very well made film it has a very interesting premise and well directed by Shankar. Why dont more mainstream bollywood film makers look for similar subjects?

Some regional movies are sooo good

2009-06-26T14:07:00.006-04:00

16. Knowing (3.5/10)
I usually like natural calamity movies but of late they have been not good. Add this film to the list. Nicolas Cage plays MIT professor who gets hold of a paper from tim capsule from his son's school which actually has some chilling predictions of the natural calamities and disasters that happened and will happen. How will he save the world (if at all he can) goes on in the movie. But the world does come to an end but there is a hope because the son and a young girl are saved by aliens (or whoever they were). A very stupid movie which takes viewers intelligence for granted.

15. Quinceanera (Spanish/English) (7/10)
Sometimes its the simplicity of the film that bowls yu over. Thi sis one such film. Simple yet brilliant. As Magdalena's 15th birthday approaches, her working class family prepares for the all-important Quinceañera - a lavish coming-of-age celebration. But when her father discovers she's pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth - she's actually still a virgin - Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle and gay cousin Carlos. Her newfound family is soon put to the test, however, when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.

14. Tell No One (French) (8/10)
Tell No One tells the story of pediatrician Alexandre Beck who still grieves the murder of his beloved wife, Margot, eight years earlier. When two bodies are uncovered near where Margot's body was found, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes a suspect again. The mystery deepens when Alex receives an anonymous e-mail with a link to a video clip that seems to suggest Margot is somehow still alive and a message to Tell No One. One of the most suspenseful thrillers I have seen in recent times, this one has so many twist and turns that you will love it. Brilliant acting by one and all.

13. Confessions of a Shopaholic (6/10)
Isla Fisher plays the title role here. As clear by the title she is a shopaholic. Desperate to work for a fashion magazine , she lands up a job in a sister magazine where she has to writ articles of managing finances (clearly an oxymoron). But her column becomes a hot and she also falls for her handsome boss. The film deals with how she overcomes her craze for shopping and saves her love and friendship. Actually not a bad film (which I had thought of it initially)

12. Forever Fever (Singapore/English) [That's The Way I Like It] (5.5/10)
An interesting dance based film set in Singapore sometime in future when English is the official language. The lead character is a Bruce Le fan who is big fan of motorbikes but has no money to buy one. Initially bored, he comes to life when he watches cool dance moves in a dance flick. He joins dance classes with his friend hoping to enter dance competition and win big money for himself. He struggles through his friend, a girl whom he likes in the class, the bad guy and also his own family issues. Like all films, he hero is ultimately the winner and alls well that ends well. Good basic 80s dance moves (although film is from 98) but not boring at all

The numbers for this month are just ok

2009-06-17T12:58:00.003-04:00

11. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (6/10)
It was again nice to go in a movie knowing nothing abut it. Sometimes lack of knowledge does pay off. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is about the young son of a notorious gangster who spends his last teenage summer roaming around with two friends. The interesting twist is that the guy then has to choose between those 2 friends, incidentally a guy and a girl. What he has to struggle and find out that if that is bromance, really close friendship or love. I just found out that the film was based on a book and now I am gonna have to read the book

10. Happy Endings (7/10)
Wow! Finally a good film. The humor in this film was the kind I saw in 'In Bruges'. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Following a few parallel stories (of course they are related in some way to each other), we have Lisa Kudrow, an abortion clinic counselor with a massage therapist lover, Javier, who gave up her baby for adoption which she had 18 years ago with her gay stepbrother Charley. One day, Nicky Kunitz, a sleazy filmmaker, shows up and plans to blackmail her with information on her child's whereabouts so that he can film the reunion and use it to get into the AFI. Charley now runs his father's restaurant with his lover, Gil, and suspects that their lesbian friends lied about using Gil's sperm to create a child so that they wouldn't have to share him with them. Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has been kicked out of her cousin's house and is now living with the latent Otis, who lives with his widower father. Otis is gay and Father gets obsessed with Jude. Initially in for money, Jude soon falls in love with Frank. Everyone ultimately has a happy ending.

The film 'mela' continues

2009-06-14T12:54:00.003-04:00

9. Ken Park (1/10)
A total waste of time. Its more like a soft porn rather than a feature film. The film focusses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim. But they spend precious little time together. They have various troubles and at the end they meet and Shawn's brother commits suicide. There is no logic, no reasoning. AVOID

8. Jumbo (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Another animation film from Bollywood or so they claim. Apparently the film was originally made in Thailand and some producer just bought the rights and got it dubbed with Indian stars. Still the animation quality was good, it had a storyline and as a kid it would hold on to your attention. Same old story of good vs evil and a son taking revenge of his father's death albeit they all being elephants. Just for kids. Adults are bound to get bored.

7. Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (Hindi) (8/10)
I mean why would I even write anything about the film. I probably saw this film for the 35th time and this time to sow my American friend what a typical bollywood musical is filled with Indian traditions and customs. What better than this. I loved it yet on more time and he loved it too. One thing which is funny is how awful was the film industry's fashion sense in early 90s. Madhuri's and Renuka Shahane's smiles were and are to die for

6. 99 (Hindi) (4/10)
I had few expectations from the movie but was disappointed. The film was sometimes so slow that you could easily take a nap, continue watching and you wouldn't lose anything. 99 is about 2 crooks Kunal Khemu and Cyrus Broacha who steal a car which ends up being of a gangster. He then hires him to work for him because they cannot pay. On other hand we also have Boman Irani who is a compulsive gambler and bets on cricket and has taken lot of loan from the gangster. the 2 friends are sent to Delhi to collect money from Boman. They eventually become foes turned friends and make money out of betting in a bizarre twist and turn of events. Plot could have been much funnier. I like Kunal Khemu . He is such a natural performer. One thing I did not understand is why was Cyrus made to wear the fat body suit. It jut did not make any sense.

5. How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (4/10)
A small time British journalist Sideny is hired by an upscale film magazine in New York after he catches attention by some ridiculous events in an event. He thinks he will make it big but all his plans fall flat. Sidney possibly the most annoying person you will meet first puts off his colleague (whom he ultimately falls in love) and gets involved in one mad incident after other> How he keeps alienating people which at one point almost makes him lose his job and how ultimately he compromises his principles to make it big in journalism is what the film about. I personally did not think too much abut the movie. It was made just for the heck of it. I agree it was funny in bits and parts but overall it did nothing for me

June starts

2009-06-07T22:45:00.002-04:00

4. Straight (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Vinay Pathak owns a restaurant in London. he tries but cant get married because somehow the girls are not into him. He has hired Kamlesh as a cook and Gul Panag as cashier in his restaurant. The three of them become good friends. Kamlesh is a very happy go lucky kind of guy and one day he just randomly kisses Vinay. Now he starts thinking that maybe he is gay. He doesn't know what to do and there is no way to confirm him. There are a few hilarious moments when he goes on a date with couple of girls but all in vain, thereby increasing his confusion. Ultimately he realizes the truth, falls in love with Gul and things are all great. There are so many light moments in the film that I loved. I thought it was a very good film, very sweet, nothing over the top. The acing of all 3 principal characters was very good. Guy playing Kamlesh was very natural. Another good film from director Parvati Balaopalan after Rules pyar ka superhit formula.

3. Romancing The Stone (3.5/10)
I was recommended this film because apparently it involves treasure hunt and I love those films. Treasure hunt it was but that was probably 5% of the film. The other was about romance and love and deceit and just some random things. I guess, a typical 80s film. It was fun to watch Michael Douglas though. There were so many dumb moments in the film when I was like, does the director think we are stupid, but again then thats the fun when you watch an 80s film. It was allright but I probably would still skip it.

2. Blindness (1/10)
Now his one has to be one of the worst movies I have seen and believe me I dont say that very often. A man suddenly one day turns blind and the disease apparently is communicable. Slowly a bunch of people turn blind including the doctor. But for some reason Doctor's wife is fine. When all blind people are detained in a government cell away from the world, the wife sneaks in too. They are treated worse than prisoners. Blind people form various groups in there and there are fights, murders, rape etc. N explanation as to when the wife can see everything, why doesn't she do anything about it. It was so weird and unfortunately the movie went on and on. God knows why all the blind societies were doing all those protests when the movie released. I guess everyone needs a little attention.

1. He Is Just Not That Into You (5/10)
Having watched the reviews for so long, I wanted to see this film expecting a lot of comic moments but sadly the comic lines were very limited to just the ones that they showed in the previews. As the name suggests, the movie walks us through life of few girls, one desperately in search of love, one been with boyfriend for 7 years but not ready for marriage, one married and loking to save it and the other one just looking out for it. The film shows some cliches on what men mean when they say certain things on a date. Film ends on a good note that everyone needs love. It was ok but I had huge expectations.

37 Films in May

2009-05-30T17:53:00.004-04:00

37. Awake (3/10)
A psychological thriller about a common occurrence called "anesthetic awareness" a horrifying phenomenon wherein a patient's failed anesthesia leaves him fully conscious but physically paralyzed during surgery. During such a surgery, the lead in the film finds out about a plot to kill him for his money driven by his doctor friend and wife. Nice thought on paper but silly execution with too many loopholes and medically not possible things. Waste of time.

36. Breach (6/10)
This is based on a true story about the biggest breach in US history in FBI around year 2001 timeframe. The bureau suspects a chief to be giving US secret information to Russia but the guy being so smart, they cannot arrest him because of lack of proof. A new division, a new team and a wanna agent are put on case to keep an eye on him and catch him in action when he drops information next time. Interesting film although at times it can get a little confusing because of too detailed technical discussion. It still makes for a god tea time watch.

35. West Is West (Indian English) (2/10)
A movie with this name feauring Ashutosh Gowariker in the main lead gets your expectations high. Ashutosh arrives to SF but realizes that his sponsors have moved to India, he has not gotten into college and is running out of money. He lives in a chap motel run by Pearl Padamsee and starts working there. Constantly harassed by immigration officials, the only option he is left with is to marry an American girl whom he made friends with. He realizes then he doesn't see any reason to stay in US and goes back to India. Months later his wife joins too. This ne was such a silly and bad film that its hard to even write how bad it was. Apparently made in 1995, the production looked like 70s film and the acting was bad, just bad from each and every person. Well maybe not from Pearl Padamsee. She was charming as she always is.

34. Baran (Iran/Persian) (7.5/10)
My first Iranian film recommended by a dear friend and boy did I love the film. It was a wonderful experience to watch love in the purest form. 17 year old Lateef is a man working on a construction site. He just kills time, picks up fight rather than working hard. When another construction worker injures himself, his 15-16 year old son Rahmat becomes the bread earner and joins the site. Soon enough Lateef realizes that Rahmat is in fact a girl Baran posing as boy t get work. His life changes because he gets drawn irresistibly towards her. He sees her working hard, cries for her and wants to help her. In the process he ends up losing his money, identity and everything just to make her life a little better. The family soon leaves for Afghanistan and Lateef could never even tell the girl how he felt for her. Must watch film.

33. Hallam Foe (5.5/10)
Hallam, a young man suspects that his stepmother may have had a hand in the sudden death of his biological mother. Fleeing the family home (which is like in middle of woods), Hallam takes up residence upon the rooftops of Edinburgh, it's not long before he is drawn into a voyeuristic obsession with a young woman who shares more than a passing resemblance to his mother, who is older to him and actually employs him. Changing equation of Hallam with the girl and how things end is this film. The film is interesting in bits and pieces. With a tighter and faster pace, he film could have been better,

32. Karma Aur Holi (Indian English) (3/10)
The film finally released and yes it was torture to watch the film. A very amateurishly directed film, its a classic example of how you can waste money and talent of people involved in the film. Randeep and Susmita are a couple living in NY suburbs who are hosting Hli bash at their huge suburban mansion. Different people with different backgrounds ultimately end of sharing a secret about themselves that no one knows which ultimately can change their lives. Neither the people not their secrets were exciting at all. See this film to know what bad acting, bad dialogue delivery is all about.

The May end number is.. still counting

2009-05-22T15:35:00.005-04:00

31. Last Chance Harvey (5/10)
Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are 2 lonely individuals. When he visits London for his daughter's wedding, his chance encounter with Emma changes both of their lives forever. They teach other that they need to take chances in life and how its important to love and respect their family. He gets a last chance before he can decide whether to return back to US or spend his life with Emma whom he has hardly known for not even 2 days. A decent plot but it has ben done to death so many times that for me to had nothing new to offer

30. Bicentennial Man (7.5/10)
A robots journey over the course of 200 years where he struggles to fit in the human world, trying to understand their life and ultimately trying to become a human himself so that he can marry and live his life with the girl whom he loves so deeply. It was a very very interesting film. Had my friends mom not told me about it, I would have neevr seen this beautiful film. A bit lengthy but its marvelous. Robin WIlliams does a brilliant job.

29. Rachel Getting Married (7/10)
Few minutes into the film, it kind of reminded me of Monsoon Wedding. Inspired yet very different. Anne Hathaway is visiting her family from rehab for her sister Rachel's wedding. The entire film is dedicated to various functions and festivities that go on in the family and the fights they have because Anne is still going through her rehab days and how he cannot let the guilt of possibly being responsible for her brother's death out of her mind. Brilliant performance by her. A rightly deserved Oscar nomination. A simple indie film.

28. Marley And Me (6/10)
It started out fun. I am not big fan of dog films but just witnessing the kind of dog Marley was in fact fascinating. The film is about this couple who has a god Marley, their life, aspirations , career, kids and how in all this Marley , the dog plays an important part in their life before ultimately succumbing to death after living his full course. Comical performances by the dog, Jennifer Aniston and Owen wilson. Time pass flick

27. Faltu (Bengali) (6/10)
This is a story about 20 year old guy Faltu who is in search of his roots (who his father is) and is looking for love. It is also the story of a small village and its people and the story woven around these characters who have helped Faltu to grow in a mature young man but they never want to talk about who his father is. Every person in the village at some point raped his mother (who was a mad woman), so no one is sure of who the father actually is. The guilty feeling of raping Surikhepi haunts almost every single male in the village. That is when a twist in the tale ensures Faltu and his love don't get married. The story and direction is very fascinating. It is still so difficult to understand human relationships and desires and Bengali cinema has time and again shown us different facets of it.

More movies in pipeline

2009-05-19T13:38:00.003-04:00

26. Happy Go Lucky (6.5/10)
Sally Hawkins play this free and effervescent high school teacher whose unstoppable optimism guides her life. Bubbling forth with giggles, laughter and jokes, life's a bowl of cherries even when she comes across a few pits. Whether it's a cranky driving teacher or a fiery flamenco instructor, Poppy embraces life on the sunny side of the street. It's a joyous, feel-good film you'll find irresistible. Great acting by Sally and she totally deserves the golden globe for this.The film just reminds you of how different things can be if you look at bright and positive side of all events that happen to you.

25. Igby Goes Down (6.5/10)
Igby is a teen struggling to find any purpose or meaning to his life; surrounding him are his tyrant mother Susan Sarandon, schizophrenic father, wealthy and deceitful godfather D.H. and a cold brother - all of whom have their own problems. While evading being sent to yet another boarding school, Igby seeks solace with two women: a drug-addicted dancer who's D.H.'s mistress, and Sookie, a college student who becomes perhaps his only friend and his brother's girlfriend. Brilliant acting by everyone, this film makes you realize and remember some of your own teenage issues.

24. Kissing Cousins (Indian/English) (4.5/10)
A weird title, isn't it. Story is about this boy in LA who works as a relationship terminator (who gives the bad news to people). He has group of friends but they are all couples. They want him to have a girlfriend. When his cousin visits him, they pretend t be a couple just for fun, thereby making the dude realize that he too is capable of love. The cousin returns back to her boyfriend and our man is ready for love. Ordinary story and ordinary acting. Supposed to be a comedy, it hardly evokes any laughter but still makes for a time-pass watch

23. Ru-Ba-Ru (Hindi) (7/10)
Another bollywood adaptation of an english film 'If Only', but this movie surprised me. The story and above all the acting by Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami is pretty awesome. She reminds me of Konkona's natural talent Their chemistry, fights, interactions are so real and natural. Randeep gives prefernce to work more than love and happiness and ends up losing Shahana. Next day, he sees the events of the previous day repeating itself and he tries to change them by being a more sensitive and sensible man.

Theatre time

2009-05-17T13:28:00.002-04:00

22. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (5.5/10)
Wolverine lives a mutant life, seeks revenge against Victor Creed (who will later become Sabertooth) for the death of his girlfriend, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program. The movie was visually good but plot was little weak. I did not have many expectations so it was ok for me. I cant say that acting was exceptional or anything but it definitely did make a good time pass viewing.

21. Angels and Demons (6.5/10)
I loved the book. Much more than Da Vinci Code and had been waiting for this film for a while. I knew it was hard to squeeze all that was in the book in a film. The director tried best but the thrill which the book creates and the way clues and puzzles are solved, it didn't come any closer to that i the film. I still feel Tom Hanks is not the right choice for Robert Langdon. Book is better any day but I would still not mind watching it just to visually see the pages unfold on big screen

20. Star Trek (8/10)
I wasn't too sure to watch this film but I am glad I did. Watching it in IMAX really did the trick. Plus actually the storyline was also pretty interesting and gripping. Having no background of Star Trek, I was still very much drawn into the film, the characters, the visuals, the space, everything. From the first stunning visuals of a pre-Enterprise time to the final iconic sweeping space shots Star Trek is fully and wholly back, completely engaging for Fan and newcomers alike

Its time to make up and watch films

2009-05-13T22:28:00.004-04:00

19. Rihaee (Hindi) (6.5/10)
It was good to watch an 80s artsy Indian Cinema. The story is about a village which is mostly inhabited by women since their husbands have gone to the city for work and come at most once or twice a year. A village man Naseeruddin Shah returns from Dubai and every woman in village gets attracted to him, two of them ultimately getting pregnant including Hema Malini. She refuses to get abortion like the other woman. When the husband returns there is a huge debate on whats right and whats wrong and the woman has an equal right to live her life. Excellent performances by an ensemble cast, I loved it and I was glad that I saw it.

18. Kaash Mere Hote (Hindi) (1/10)
Another one of those fatal attraction movies where a teenage girl is obsessed with a man who already has a lover. Terrible acting by each and every single person, be it newcomers or Sneha Ullal. Its a torture to watch and you cant feel anything but pity for Rajesh Khanna, superstar of his time who has to do these kind of roles.

17. In Bruges (7.5/10)
Brilliantly made movie. One of the finest ever. Killer friends are asked to go to Bruges by Harry who gives them work. Once in Bruges, one of them is asked to kill the other one because he accidentally killed a kid. BUt he refuses. How Harry shows up there and things end is very interesting. I loved the way the whole film is in a subtle comic tone trying to keep the drama going at the same time. Its hard to explain but it is brilliant. Loved it. Must Watch. Deserves all praises for direction , acting, photography, story etc.

16. Seven Pounds (3/10)
Will Smith has had an accident in which his girlfriend dies. He is looking for redemption by radically transforming the lives of seven people he doesn't know. Once his plan is set, nothing will be able to stop him. At least that's what he thinks. But he ends up falling in love. Even that doesn't stop him and he ends his life to give them new beginning. It was a confusing film. For such films, you have to connect with the audience but I could not feel the connection. Also the proceedings were a little confusing to understand why and what is going on. A downer!

Five more down under

2009-05-09T18:49:00.001-04:00

15. City Rats (UK) (5.5/10)
Eight f****d up haunted people meet and fall apart - looking for redemption in each other. Jim is testing affects of suicide when he meets Sue on adjacent roof trying the same. Her ex boyfriend Dean is dealing with his creativity issues and is looking forward to his muse in a prostitute in his building. After one time fling with Dean, Olly is lost in a world of sexual confusion. He also has to look after his deaf autistic brother who incidentally is gay and comfortable with it. Their eldest brother Pete is stalked by an old lady Carol who is looking for her son whom Pete knows from his druggy days. By the end, each lost soul finds a solution in darkness or in light. Interesting stories and interweaving of them . A pretty decent watch with multiple simultaneous stories.

14. Frost/Nixon (7.5/10)
Amazing movie. Well deserved academy nominations. When disgraced President Richard Nixon agreed to an interview with jet-setting television personality, David Frost, he thought he’d found the key to saving his tarnished legacy. But, with a name to make and a reputation to overcome, Frost became one of Nixon’s most formidable adversaries and engaged the leader in a charged battle of wits that changed the face of politics forever. It was interesting to see certain chapters of US history which I was oblivious to. Brilliant acting and direction.

13. Dhoondhte Reh Jaoge (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Paresh Rawal needs superstar Sonu Sood to get financiers for his film. Meanwhile the poor Kunal Khemu needs to make money so that he can impress girlfriend Soha, a wannabe actress. Kunal Khemu comes up with a scheme according to which they will make a flop film, get money from various financiers and have all their money. They make a mish mash of al recent superhit films. The film turns out to be hit instead of flop and the two guys then end up in jail. The film is funny in parts. The actors are passable except Kunal Khemu. He is definitely talented. All he needs is that one project that he can prove himself.

12. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (French) (6/10)
This is an inspiring true story about the awesome power of imagination. After having a stroke, Jean can move his left eye and through that he learns to communicate one letter at a time. With the help of his therapist and a stenographer. he writes the stunning memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Brilliant concept and direction. The movie is slow at times but there is no other way to portray the sufferings and idea except the way the director did. Very good.

11. 8x10 Tasveer (Hindi) (4.5/10)
Akshay Kumar has power to see the past through a photograph. When his father dies in a mysterious boat accident, he needs to find all about it. As he discovers clues he realizes that his father was actually murdered and that everyone on the boat had a motive. Now on a mission to unmask the killer, he undertakes the dangerous journey of visiting the past repeatedly. The ultimate truth turns out to be scary and shocking for him which he never expected. How does he get out of the past and take revenge is this movie. Akshay gave a decent performance but the punch to run on box office was clearly lacking in the film. Nagesh Kukunoor took certain things for granted and they should have been better explained. Good time pass.

I am cruising along good

2009-05-05T20:54:00.002-04:00

10. The Wrestler (7/10)
Mickey Rourke plays a heavily scarred and battled wrestler who was at peak of his career 20 yars ago. He still gets involved in second rate fights to make money and nursing his pride. He goes to a strip club and flirts with Marisa Tomei. A day he gets a heart attack and he cannot fight. He tries to make mends with his daughter because he is scared to be alone but that doesn't work. He finally realizes that his family are the people who come to watch him. Excellent performance by Rourke. What a comeback! The film was very depressing to see the fall of a star and how he lives. I have never felt like that in a movie.

9. Chandni Chowk To China (Hindi) (5.5/10)
The film got bad reviews and hnce my expectations were low but it turned out a decent DVD watch. Villagers in China mistake Akshay to be reincarnation of their saviour. They take him to China to fight against the bad guy. Meanwhile Deepika Padukone goes to China in search of her twin sister who it turns out is with the bad guy. How and why ultimately Akshay learns Kung Fu to fight against the bad guys and how Deepika's family finally meet each other, is this film. Lave your brains and try to enjoy. Its really not that bad.

8. The Other End Of Line (5/10)
This I believe is an Indo-American venture. Shriya Saran working in Indian call center poses as an American working in SF and calls his customer regularly. She somehow thinks there is a connection and falls for him even though she is engaged. She decided to go to SF to meet the guy but i scared to tell the truth. Eventually they become really close but there are misunderstandings which finally get cleared and everything is fine. It was a decent film with good performances. Some things didn't make sense but when the film is supposed to be a rom-com, who really cares.

7. Aasma (Hindi) (2/10)
A bunch of friends decide to start a theatre group. They have certain challenges when it comes to raising money which causes some friction between few of them. Meanwhile the lead character instrumental in starting the group is dianosed HIV positive. How this fact brings the friends and family close makes this film. Interesting concept but bad film. Poor acting and direction. Everything was so fake and artificial.

6. Quemar Las Naves (Spanish/Mexico) [Burn The Bridges] (7.5/10)
Brother, sister and an ailing mother. Sister takes care f her mother and brother who is 18. AFter the mom dies, the siblings dont know what to do. The brother is getting attracted to a local boy, wants to leave the town with him but somehow he can never leave because he feels he is responsible towards the sister. Sister meanwhile is locked always in the house and has odd feelings for her brother. Finally she realizes what's right and tells her brother to leave and do whatever he wants and she also would move on in life. This is one of the better films I have seen. The strange chemistry between the siblings might make you uncomfortable but thats the directors vision. Brilliant acting by every character. Very good.

5. Swing Vote (4/10)
Kevin Costner plays this average Joe who lives with his daughter Molly. During presidential elections, by a turn of events it boils down to his vote to decide the candidate. WHat would the candidates do to get his vote and how finally, his conscience will wake up and he will decide fairly is what this movie is about. You dont have to put too much brains for this film. Just an average mindless, trying to be funny film.

The start of May

2009-05-02T09:42:00.001-04:00

4. Secret Window (4.5/10)
Based on Steven king novel, Johnny Depp plays a writer, depressed and nearly divorced, who's stuck in an isolated cabin when a stranger arrives, accusing him of plagiarism. The stranger slowly starts getting aggressive and violent over a few days while Depp is trying to gain more evidence. With a twist in the end, the viewer is shocked to know who was the stranger. The story was interesting but somehow I expected what's going to happen. Plus expectations from Depp's movies are big

3. American History X (7.5/10)
Edward Norton is dangerous, a coiled fury of hate who leads a neo-Nazi gang. But time and events start to change him. He reassesses his ways while doing time for manslaughter and emerges from prison eager to keep his younger brother from falling victim to the thug cycle of violence and payback. It may be too late. Weaving in and out of events past and present in his life, American History X is revealing in its look at white-supremacist gangs and impassioned in its message that hatred and bigotry can be unlearned. It was very interesting for me giving some insight in those years of America.

2. Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang (Hindi) (3/10)
The animation flick is about 2 rivals ant gangs (red and white). The black ants and red ants are at war and one mediator named Ghunn double-crosses both kingdoms for his personal gains. Of course, the kids of both kingdoms are in love. As if the poor animation was not enough, the story line itself had nothing to boost off. Pretty sad. I doubt if even the kids will like it.

1. Kaalpurush (Bengali) (5/10)
A man struggles to come to terms with the memory of his powerful father, which prompts a plunge into long-hidden secrets. Rahul Bose is caught in a world that he doesn't really belong in, and retreats to the comfort of memories, both real and imagined. His father had long ago left home and his wife Sameera Reddy is having an affair with another man. She keeps blaming him for not being able to achieve anything in life while she herself seeks success as an author. The film was a little too poetic. I have loved Bengali cinema but this was somehow was not for me. I will stick to Rituparna Ghosh's films.

Its 19 for April

2009-04-30T10:12:00.004-04:00

19. Doubt (7.5/10)
Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep), the rigid and fear-inspiring principal of the Saint Nicholas Church School, suffers an extreme dislike for the progressive and popular parish priest Father Flynn (Hoffman). Looking for wrongdoing in every corner, Sister Aloysius believes she's uncovered the ultimate sin when she hears Father Flynn has taken a special interest in a troubled boy. But without proof, the only thing certain is doubt. The movie leaves you with questions and your individual interpretation of what the truth is but no one can deny that film has the 4 most powerful acting characters I have ever seen. Streep and Philip Seymor were superb.

18. Step Brothers (5/10)
A 39 and a 40 year old live with his mother and father respectively. When the parents meet, they fall in love and get married hence making the 2 guys step brothers. As their laziness threatens to tear the family apart, these two immature, overgrown boys orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together and form an unlikely bond that between them. It wasn't a boring film but a decent time pass watch.

17. Bride Wars (6/10)
2 best friends have always dreamed of the perfect weeding. When they both get engaged, there i a mix up with reservations and their wedding ends up being on the same date at same place. SInce both of them had dreamed of it, neither backs out and the friends turn against each other in a hilarious battle. It was a fun movie to watch on dvd but I would not have paid for it on big screen

Time for some bollywood masala

2009-04-25T22:07:00.004-04:00

16. Jugaad (Hindi) (2/10)
Manoj Bajpai own an advertising firm which one day gets locked because it is in a residential area. What follows is string of events and how different people give different idea and do things that need jugaad. Manoj doesn't agree because he believes in karm. But everyone else believes in jugaad. Ultimately karm wins. They thought they were making a Leader kind of film but it was so bad that no one should waste their precious 2 hours on a film like this.

15. Gumnaam - A Mystery (Hindi) (4/10)
Mahima Choudhary is murdered. The bad guys find out a struggling girl who resembles Mahima and sign her up for a film. Soon Mahima realizes that something fishy is going on. BUt she is trapped. It turns out original irl is worth 800 crores. Dino finally rescues her and everything is fine. A bad movie which made no sense at so many places. Random songs, poor acting by everyone.

14. Meerabai Not Out (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Zero expectations and turned out to be a decent film, a bit long though. Mandira Bedi , a school teacher is passionat eto the core about cricket. After a long time, when she finally meets her man, she runs away to watch a match on her engagement day. How she wins back hearts of people and still justify that her passion for cricket is not wrong makes this film. The film has good mix of everything. You dont get bored but it definitely can be edited well and made more crisp.

13. Oh My God (Hindi) (5.5/10)
At leat this movie was something different and tried to be hilarious in parts. Vinay Pathak is a happy married man who wants to make big money but a money sharing/investment scheme. He is passionate/annoying for this that God decides to come down and make him rich but he refuses because he wants to make money n his own terms. Then starts the game where God plays with his mind between money and his brochures and making a man realize towards the end that money is not everything. A happy family is much more important than anything.

12. Ek - The Power of One (Hindi) (4/10)
A typical masala 80s kind of film. Usual story of a man running from cops for the murder of a minister ends up in a village where a big Punjabi family mistakes him for their lost son and he starts transforming and helping the entire family in need. His heart changes. Following all this is an annoying cop Nana Patekar who wants to nab him. I dont know why they made this film and why the weird title. Waste of money and audience's time.

I need to catch up

2009-04-21T16:40:00.003-04:00

11. Aloo Chaat (Hindi) (5/10)
Interesting start. I thought it will get further spicy just like aloo chaat but on the contrary it got repetitive and boring. The characters had a very punjabi Delhi flavour which I loved. Aftab loves Aamna who is a muslim girl. To make sure his parent accept her, they do a drama in which he brings in a American girl to show he is marrying her so that by the end his family ends up preferring Aamna over American.

10. Aa Dekhen Zara (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Innovative idea but somehow the excitement of a thriller was completely missing. You didn't feel too much for the character or the storyline or the chemistry between the pair. Neil finds camera that clicks events that will ocur in future. H uses this initially to make a lot of money. Soon he realizes that his life might be in danger and how he tackles the bad guy and saves the camera from falling into wrong hands. Bipasha is just for glam quotient.

9. The Time Machine (4/10)
A man invents a time machine that allows him to travel 800000 years into the future. He is looking into answers as to why he can't change the past. He ends up in a new home with the peacefully primitive Eloi. There he realizes that things happen for a reason and decided to just stay there after his machine gets destroyed while fighting the evil. I did not like the film. There was nothing in it for my taste

Why don't we make any more good movies

2009-04-10T20:26:00.003-04:00

8. 13 B (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Its not right to put this movie in horror genre. It was more like a thriller. A family moves into a new house and soon the owner realizes that things that are happening in one particular TV serial are exactly the same that later happen in their house. Trying to solve the mystery, they unfold a past 30 years ago about a family who was brutally murdered in the very same area and how they want to contact the world and take revenge about it.

7. The Fan (5/10)
Robert De Niro plays a pathological baseball fan whose obsession is focused on a San Francisco Giants all-star outfielder (Wesley Snipes). While the newly signed baseball star is having trouble getting his favorite uniform number from a competitive teammate, De Niro is having career troubles at the knife company his father founded. To boost morale of his idol, DeNiro kills the competitive team mate and in the process gets so obsessed with Snipes life that he kidnaps his son. What follows is some many a time seen scenes of an obsessed individual (in this case a fan of a baseball player)

6. Maharathi (Hindi) (5.5/10)
The movie started off very good but somewhere round the line lost the steam. Very interesting story wherein a driver played by Paresh Rawal plots with his master's wife to prove his suicide into murder because thats the only way wife can get the insurance money. The wife also has an accomplice in the form of Boman Irani, the lawyer. The game of cat and mouse between all these characters and who can ultimately get the 24 crores in the jist of story. Excellent cast, the film lacked pace of a thriller. It looked more like a TV drama series. Nevertheless, very interesting story.

5. Role Models (4/10)
Its hard to put this film in a genre. It wasn't really a comedy either. The 2 main characters crash the company truck and mess with the cops. COurt orders them jail or community service of mentorship. They become mentors for 2 young kids and the problems and what all they have to o through with it even though they dont want to makes this film. In the process they realize their mistakes of life and try and grow up. Paul Rudd was decent but thats it. It made me laugh at very few places except one scene when Paul Rudd goes to the king for forgiveness.

April Begins with some decent flicks

2009-04-06T11:36:00.004-04:00

4. Body Of Lies (5.5/10)
The CIAs hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Leonardo is the agencys man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events mostly in middle east. An eye in the sky a satellite link watches him. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIAs head Russel Crowe, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival. A well made movie, it moves at a slow pace for almost an hour trying to build the background. My only problem is that of late we have seen too many similar movies and the subject just doesn't interest me anymore

3. Shoot On Sight (UK) (6.5/10)
The best thing about this movie was performance by Naseeruddin Shah. He plays a Muslim police officer in Scotland Yard who is asked to hunt down the suspected killers of July 7 bombings in London. Being a Muslim he has to face tough terrain. A innocent Muslim is killed in the process by a British officer. he story progresses how Naseer tries to investigate the issue at the same time dealing with the harsh reality that maybe his own nephew is one of the terrorist squad members. A sensitive issue delicately handled by director Jagmohan Mundra makes for a good watch for lovers of meaningful cinema.

2. Molière (French) (5/10)
Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright is up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt in return that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed Marquise, various things happen. Disguised as a priest, Molière becomes a guest in Jourdain's palace on the pretext of teaching Jourdain the craft of the stage, which annoys his wife, Elmire. But, soon after, the confrontation between Elmire and Molière turns seductive. Too busy to notice, Jourdain enlists the aid of a well connected and scheming acquaintance, to help him pursue the young widow. Finally he realizes that he cannot win over the Marquise and Molière in the process realizes that he is an actor made to do comic roles.

1. Dev D (Hindi) (8/10)
This is one of the best ever modern adaptations of any literary work in Indian cinema. Right from direction, to presentation, to acting, to background music, everything is just set perfect. It tries to remain close to the basic stroyline of Devdas with a very modern twist and interpretation. Anurag Kashyap definitely deserves a pat for this beautiful movie. And as I read somewhere, this movie is for the entire family albeit every member should watch it separately.

A sad number 16 for March

2009-03-30T09:57:00.004-04:00

16. Duplicity (5.5/10)
Julia Roberts working for the CIA and Clive Owen working for MI6 play competing undercover corporate high level top secret business spies who may or may not be conning each other. The movie shows us what lenghts mega corporations will try and go to keep their new product information out of the hands of their competitors. The spys in this case will not even acknowledge their relationship as a sly parallel to regular relationships. BIG disappointment for me. Its very hard for a common man to understand all thats going on. Plus ther are so many loop holes. Did not work for me

15. Monster (7.5/10)
This is one movie I have been wanting to see for a long time now and finally it happened. A true story on the US's first woman serial killer make s avery depressing and shocking film. A well deserved Oscar for Charlize Theron. Must watch

14. The Accidental Husband (5/10)
I like romantic comedies but this one was way too predictable and not spicy enough. Uma Thurman, playing a doctor and RJ n radio suddenly finds herself married to a man on papers just 2 weeks before she is actually going to marry her love. Turns out the guy she is accidentally married to plotted all this to revenge on her. How her life turns upside down and how she eventually falls in love with her accidental husband is the story.

13. Last Train To Mahakali (Hindi/TV short film) (6/10)
I am so glad that I got to watch this short film directed by first time director Anurag Kashyap and powerful performance by Kay Kay. The story is about this medical student who is very odd and wants to do research in field of having a cure for virus. The story begins and ends with how he ends up in jail in attempts for murder of people on whom he tries to experiment with his drug. Interesting concept and well done for standard of Indian television in 90s

More letdowns and a not so impressive March progress

2009-03-23T09:13:00.002-04:00

12. La Haine (French) [Hate] (3/10)
Big expectations and huge letdown. STory f 3 friends; a Jew, and Arab and a African American guy who are jobless in France. ONe day they find a lost policeman's gun and what they do with and how their life goes on in a span of one day and the events that happen with him. Its sounds interesting but honestly, the film did nothing for me. Maybe it was a little too intlligent for my tastes.

11. Showgirls (2/10)
The less said the better about this film. It was sooooo bad that at the end you dont even want to think about it. We friends have never had so much discussion about any movie as this one. Everything about this movie was wrong. Unnecessary story, nudity and horrible and terrible acting by everyone. This film might as well be a cult in the porn film world. r as my friend would say, its worse than a porn film because they at least get you off.

10. Victory (Hindi) (6/10)
Victory was actually not a bad film. Hurman acted decent. The only thing he needs to work on is his dialogue delivery. It sounds childlike in a lot of emotional scenes. Victory is a story of a boy from Jaisalmer who dreams of being a big cricketer. HIs dream fulfills but soon he is lured by the money that comes with branding and not the game itself. The story ends with how he redeems himself and rises back from the ashes.

9. Jai Veeru (Hindi) (4/10)
I had to watch the film just because I have to watch all hindi films. I thought at least the film would be interesting but it was a usual mix of action, emotion, drama, music, comedy, a mish-mash of all that used to happen in 80s films but doesn't work anymore. A story of friendship where one man turns out to be a cop and another a suspect. The actresses would randomly come for singing and go away. Only saving grace was Kunal Khemu's performance. People, please stop giving films to Fardeen. He can't act for nuts.

The movie journey continues

2009-03-16T11:27:00.003-04:00

8. Boys On The Side (7.5/10)
Three women; a club musician, a demure real estate agent and a flaky drug-dealers girlfriend make a break with their pasts and form an unlikely family while traveling across the country together. The film is a mix of love, tragedy, comedy. The director makes you fall in love with the characters. You feel their pain, their love and loneliness. I thought it was a brilliantly done film.

7. Under The Same Moon (Spanish/English) (6.5/10)
Carlitos's journey to meet his mother Rosario who left him 4 years ago in Mexico to work in LA so that she can have him a good life. This journey is full of ups and downs, knowns and unknowns, filled with lot of emotional moments. Its truy said that never act with children. They will make you look bad. The kid in this film was superb.

6. The President Is Coming (Indian English) (6.5/10)
A hilarious take in a mockumentary style is the best way to describe this. What would people do and lengths they would go to shake hands with President Bush on his visit to India. Konkona as always is the best but even others are very good. The various competition rounds between the participants have fair share of good comic moments.

Different language Different Genre

2009-03-13T17:05:00.002-04:00

5. Ma femme est une actrice (French) [My Wife Is An Actress] (5.5/10)
A "normal" guy who is married to a hot actress gets worried that she is involved with her costar. This worry turns into jealousy and causes problems in their relationship. This is a story about trust and a comedy about the actions between men and women. They tried to show the movie in a comic style but it was just strictly ok. They could have dealt with more pros and cons.

4. The lookout (6.5/10)
Chris, whose once-bright future has been dimmed by a severe head injury because of an accident, is a night janitor at a bank. Lonely having just one blind friend and frustrated, Chris falls prey to a con man’s seductive promise of romance and a better life, and agrees to help rob the bank where he works. What happens before and after and how he deals with his disabilities makes for a very interesting watch. Beautiful performances by everyone.

3. Dosar (Bengali) (7/10)
Yet another beautiful film by Rituparno Ghosh With an awesome and beautiful performance by Konkona Sen Sharma. This girl never stops surprising me. Shot in b&w, the story is about this husband who gets into an accident and in the process the wife finds out hat he was cheating on her. How she deals with the whole situation makes the crux of the film. The emotions Konkona portrays of a betrayed wife but still being very strong is just unbelievable.

Looks like even March is going slow

2009-03-03T18:16:00.003-05:00

2. Brideshead Revisited (5.5/10)
A middle class man CHarles manages to be friends with the rich scion Sebastian and is invited over to his houe for summer, things turn when Charles meets Julia, Seb's sister. Charles becomes seduced by the opulent lifestyle of the Marchmain family, and by Julia, Sebastian's sister. As their romance deepens, repercussions follow, and Charles discovers that at Brideshead, love, money and power come at a price. It was decent film but towards the end it started dragging and too many isues were being handled at the same time. It probably would be a good read.

1. Der Junge Törless (German) [Young Törless] (4/10)
The film is set at a boarding school in the pre-war Austro-Hungarian Empire. When a pair of students find out about their classmate Basini stealing money, the two decide that rather than turn Basini in to the school authorities, they will punish him themselves and proceed to torture, degrade, and humiliate the boy, with ever-increasing sadistic delight. Törless is a passive member of the group but observes rather than participates and frustrates the tormentors by dryly analyzing their behavior. A weird film. I was expecting something else but it turned out different. Definitely not of my taste.

A rather disappointing number in February - 18

2009-02-28T19:37:00.002-05:00

18. Raja (French/Arabic) (2/10)
Raja is an orphan literally and figuratively scarred by life. Fred is an emotionally bankrupt westerner living amid his plush garden. Fred's attempt to seduce Raja, and their mutual attempt at manipulation, are fractured by their gross disparity of income, age and cultural sophistication. I really did not get this movie. I tried hard but I just did not get it. Its got good reviews but hey what do I know. :) oh btw: great acting by the leading lady for sure.

17. The Scent of Green Papaya (Vietnamese) (3/10)
This one has t be the slowest film that I have seen in my life. It you take all the scenes which had some dialogues to it, the movie would probably end in like 20 minutes. A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years later Mui (now a young woman) was sent to another family, a young pianist and his wife. The musician falls in love with the peasant, he taught her literacy and they eventually married. The only good thing about the film was that it was visually beautiful.

Its hindi films time

2009-02-19T13:18:00.006-05:00

16. Phoonk (Hindi) (5.5/10)
After somehow managing to get courage to watch a scary film, I saw Phoonk. Apart from initial few scenes, the movie wasn't actually horror. It was more thriller with elements f black magic thrown it which made the proceedings interesting. It was interesting premise and something new for Indian cinema. The young girl acted well. Watch it. Its a god time pass. You definitely wont get bored. I am scared but you probably won't.

15. Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye (Hindi) (3.5/10)
A decent concept gone horribly bad by poor direction, poor screenplay and very bad acting. Raima's husband Arbaaz cheats on her and has made her loose the confidence. How she manages to do something with her life by dreaming of this imaginary man whom she shares with everything. First few times it was fine but then over the top imagination scenes were getting on my nerves. This film can be totally ignored.

14. Delhi-6 (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Sometimes expectations soil the movie. Great music and wonderful ensemble did not ensure a good film. It was just amish mash of characters, with a paper thin plot. Agreed it was shot beautifully but we ned more. Worse is that Rahman's music has not been used well at all in the film. I was so angry. The only good thing for me in the film was Sonam Kapoor. She was great. And Abhishek Bachchan, please loose weight, shave and start looking like a hero.

13. Tahaan (Hindi) (6.5/10)
Its so refreshing to see a director try something new. This film based in Kashmir is about a story between a young boy and his donkey, who has to be sold to the local money lender to repay the loans. The boy will do anything to get his donkey back. And of course, people trying to take advantage of his innocence in Kashmir by giving him bombs etc. Very natural acting by everyone specially the kid and Sarika. Rahul Bose surprisingly seemed complete misfit in the whole proceeding. Watch it for its simplicity.

Not every film I watch is good :(

2009-02-15T10:00:00.003-05:00

12. The Heartbreak Kid (4.5/10)
Premise sounded interesting but barring a few funny scenes here and there, the film in a whole was not fun. Story of a uy who thinks he's married the perfect girl realizes soon after that its a big mistake and there is something not right with her. How his world changes , he falls for anther girl etc. A romantic comedy gone wrong.

11. Billu Barber (Hindi) (6.5/10)
I had very low expectations form this film somehow. I was not super charged to watch it but I still did. Surprisingly it was good. Very real. Irfan was brilliant and Shahrukh was thankfully not bad. As everyone said , last 20 minutes are very real and can choke you if you watch the film with heart. Priyan has done a decent direction.

10. Righteous Kill (4/10)
Big expectations from a De Niro and a Pacino film but somewhere something was missing. They play 2 Turk and Rooster, longtime NYPD detective partners who are faced with a serial killer who is murdering sociopathic criminals. They both have personal issues, and when they start working with a younger team, Perez and Riley, tensions between the pairs of partners is inevitable, especially since Turk is now living with Perez's ex-girlfriend, also a homicide detective. Decent acting but a non gripping plot

2 beautiful wonderful romantic films

2009-02-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

9. The Bridges of Madison County (8/10)
THe films is about following your heart and do everything it takes you to be happy. SOmetimes its better to think about what makes you happy rather than worrying about people around you. World-traveling National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson aren't looking to turn their lives upside down. Each is at a point in life where expectations are behind them. Yet four days after meeting, they wont want to lose the love they've found. Its hard to explain in a few words how brilliant Meryl Streep and CLint Eastwood are in the film. The film is bound to make you cry. Watch it with a loved one. YOu will feel special

8. The Notebook (7/10)
I saw this film for the second time and I still loved it. Sometimes love is so pure, real and last forever and this film is all about that. Its old fashioned tear-jerker with cheesy sugar syrupy love but who cares. I love it. Teenagers meet, fall in love and separate. Reunite after 7 years and all these years they had never forgotten each other. Time makes them make tough choices. And how even though in old age after suffering from senile amnesia, he husband is still very much in love with the wife. Brilliant !

3 more different films with varied genres

2009-02-06T21:55:00.004-05:00

7. Sexo por Compasión (Spanish) [Compassionate Sex] (5.5/10)
A very different film subject. Personally I would enjoyed the film much more if it had more comic angle rather than taking it seriously because clearly it has to be fiction. Dolores is a mature and kind woman whose husband abandons her because he can’t stand her uncanny generosity. Desperate to get her husband back, she devotes her life to works of charity, which results in her "soothing" all the village men as Lolita with remarkable results. Even the wives are pleased with the results. It is through her compassionate sex that she literally brings back the color and the happiness to her community.

6. Into The Wild (6/10)
True story of Christopher McCandless, a freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people. A fearless persn who tried to understand the balance between man and nature. A very interesting film by some great performances. You should watch this film in a certain frame of mind and you will like it. It teaches you a few things.

5. Starting Out in the Evening (4/10)
Aging novelist Leonard Schiller is slipping into literary obscurity. Formerly a famous author, Schiller has been all but forgotten by the readers, colleagues and critics who once praised him. But when Heather Wolfe, an ambitious graduate student, convinces Schiller that her thesis could reintroduce his writing to the world, the reclusive writer is forced to confront his past regrets. The film was strictly ok. Too much talking and not much going on. I usually like these kind of offbeat films but there was definitely something missing for me in the film

Lets see how February goes

2009-02-01T15:57:00.006-05:00

4. Se, jie (Mandarin) [Lust Caution] (7.5/10)
Set against the backdrop of a transforming country, a young woman finds herself swept up in a radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent. As she immerses herself in her role as a cosmopolitan seductress, she becomes entangled in a dangerous game that will ultimately determine her fate. Brilliant acting and direction. After the initial inhibition of maybe 15 minutes of not understanding what's going on, give it a chance and you will love the film. The climax was good too.

3. Amal (Hindi/English) (6/10)
Auto rickshaw driver Amal is very happy and content driving people in and around Delhi safely and quickly. He i snot money minded at all. But his sense of duty is tested by an eccentric, aging billionaire, who, moved by Amal's humility, bequeaths him his entire estate before passing away. The story is woven around different people who have amjor role to play in and out Amal's life. A little naive act by the male lead but still watchable.

2. The Last Lear (Indian English) (4/10)
An agin Shakesparean who takes up a challenging role for a film after much co axing from the director. I am surprised at people who say this is Bachchan's one of the best performance. It was so over the top; it was unbelievable. I have liked Rituparna's most movies but this somehow was no way close to his previous works. Only savinggrace according to me was Shefali Shah. She has never disappointed me in her acting.

1. Coeurs (French) [Private Fears in Public Places] (5.5/10)
Seven lonely lives in Paris: a middle-aged estate agent; his co-worker whose Bible is close at hand in times of stress; her late-night charge, an angry, nasty bedridden old man; his son, a patient bartender; the bartender's best patron, an ex-soldier; his fiancée who doesn't now why she is still with him; and, the estate agent's much younger sister, who answers ads in the personal. Will any connect? Can open hearts trump fears? Decent performances but there was something lacking in the direction. Maybe pace or the direction

January number is 34

2009-01-30T11:03:00.004-05:00

31. Oceans Thirteen (7/10)
When one of the senior Ocean member is double crossed by Al Pacino, The Ocean's team is back together this time with the help of an old enemy to bust the opening night of the casino and steal the diamonds. The film was fast and pacy. I personally liked it better than 2nd part.

32. Ek Vivaah Aisa Bhi (Hindi) (6/10)
Dont hate me for saying that I liked this film. I know its romantic, very cheesy but what can I do if I like these kind of films. ONly annoying thing was the heavy dose of songs. Worse is they weren't even melodious. The movie was good but Barjatyas need to come out of their regular mould, please.

33. The Boy In The striped Pyjamas (7.5/10)
Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences. A depressing film with a very shocking end, I loved this film. Very good.

34. Luck By Chance (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Another hindi film that shows us what happens behind the scenes of a hindi film. But this one according to me is very realistic and shows us different facets of different people realistic and fake both. A very brave attempt by a first time director and excellent performance by my favorite Konkona. Farhan is good too.

Reaching number 30

2009-01-22T11:23:00.005-05:00

27. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (Hindi) (7.5/10)
Inspired by the incredible true story of Lucky Singh, an extremely charismatic and fearless confident man and thief who socialized with the rich, famous and influential of Delhi society and then proceeded to rob them blind. He robbed both the rich and the poor without prejudice. Funny film with a full on setting of Delhi. O love Abhay Deol's film. He deserves all praises and I hope he keeps doing all these wonderful films. Cant recall any of his film that I did not like

28. Sukkar banat (Arabic) [Caramel] (8/10)
Six women in Beirut seek love, marriage, and companionship and find duty, friendship, and possibility. Four work at a salon: one is engaged, second is divorced mother fearing getting old; third is a attracted to a clinet and fourth is in love with a married man. There's also Rose, a middle-aged seamstress, who cares for Lili, old and facing dementia. Excellent excellent movie. The sheer direction, spontaneity, natural acting and everything brings this film to life.

29. Waitress (4/10)
An unhappy waitress Jenna who makes excellent pies but wants to run away from her husband once she has enough money. BUt she can't because now she is pregnant. Enter a handsome young doctor and life changes. She is having an affair and cant get away from Earl, her husband. Finally when the baby is delivered, she gets the courage to separate from husband and make a life of her own. A very very ordinary fare. Nothing great about it. I like the southern accent though.

30. The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (5.5/10)
The third and latest in the Librarian series. This one was the least interesting among the three. This time he has to make sure that the vampires who are still living hoping to bring themselves to life using Judas Chalice cannot do so. A good girl vampire is this time his associate who helps him in his challenge. There were no thrills in this one at all. A downer.

7 more in a few more days (3 were awesome)

2009-01-16T15:06:00.004-05:00

20. DIl Kabaddi (Hindi) (5/10)
A supposedly comedy based on lives of 2 couples and how each one of them is not too happy with it. Everyone has different reasons and is just not honest enough to share that with their partner. A few extra marital affairs, very few laughs and realization of mistakes, this film could have been edited much better and ended sooner than 2 hours. Always dependable Konkana was best of the lot.

21. First Snow (4.5/10)
A guy's life turns tailspin after a psychic tells that his life is limited but he is safe till the first snow. Very later that he can use this opportunity to plan for future of people around him after he's gone. He does certain nice things. After he miraculously escapes a killing from his ex best friend whom he feared al his life, he ends up dying in a car crash on a nasty snow day. A very slow film for me with decent performances. It seemed like a TV film.

22. Ghost Town (6.5/10)
Dentist Dr. Pincus, is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. The movie was funy in a weird way. I liked it specially Dr Pincus.

23. Revolutionary Road (7.5/10)
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children. Amazing amazing performances by Leonardo and Kate but the film was a bit too slow for me.

24. Kadachit (Marathi) (6/10)
A famous surgeon's life turns upside down when her father returns after a 20 year life imprisonment for killing his wife based on his daughter's testimony. It turns out that it was all imagination of the doctor as a little girl and how her confidence on herself starts getting down. Brave performance by Ashwini Bhave and others.

25. Gran Torino (9/10)
Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino. Excellent performance by Clint Eastwood. The movie had small instances of humor even without trying hard.

26. Defiance (8.5/10)
I wasn't too sure about this one. But what a surprise it was in every aspect, be it story, direction of performance including Daniel Craig. Three Jewish brothers escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger. A must see film

4 more down and under

2009-01-14T15:24:00.004-05:00

16. Roadside Romeo (Hindi) (4/10)
India's first joint venture with Disney to give an animation film. Romeo a street dog used to have a good life. Now that he is on streets, he has fallen for Laila, another cute dog and he will have to fight with gangster dog Charlie Anna to get his love. Very thing story line with nothing new except the whole animation experience to offer.

17. Hamlet 2 (5.5/10)
In this irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama-teacher rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet. This was a satirical comedy with a very interesting finale when the actual play is staged. A very decent fare.

18. Man On Wire (Documentary) (6.5/10)
A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century." Its good when you see it as a documentary. What surprised me how the whole event unfolds of preparation like a sit film. It was good and interesting

19. Vantage Point (7.5/10)
This is a very very interesting political thriller. During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer, the shattering final truth is revealed. A very intriguing story with many twists.

I am making good progress

2009-01-12T09:59:00.002-05:00

I think I am watching a lot of films (well who doesn't know that). Hopefully the saga will continue

14. The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (6.5/10)
The next in 3 part series so far, this movie sows us next step journey of the librarian to the king solomon mines. As is always the case in these movies, the ultimate bad guy turns out to be the one whom you never expected. One thing that I just dont understand is how come the main protagonist faces all these hurdles to reach the destination and the bad guys are always there so quick. Fun for me because I like these kind of films.

15. Ramchand Pakistani (Hindi/Urdu) (6.5/10)
Now this on was interesting. Ramchand, a hindu dalit pakistani mistakenly crosses the border and his father follows. They are arrested. What follows is their trials and tribulations in the jails in India and how his mother played beautifully by Nandita Das copes up with the situation back in Pakistan not knowing about their whereabouts.

Films that I saw in past 9 days

2009-01-10T11:29:00.008-05:00

Starting this year, I wanna see and keep a tab of how many films I watch. The goal is to see if i make it to the magic number of 365 (less or more) per year. So in very short, I am going to write names, few sentences and what I thought of the movie.
So here's what have I seen so far in past 9 days:

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (7.5/10)
A brilliant story that takes us on a journey of a man who ages reverse. Brilliant concept and acting by both Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. I thought it was superb.

2. The Day the Earth Stood Still (3/10)
A remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth. Even with Keanu Reaves, the fate of this film could not be salvaged. This was bad . Period.

3. Yuvvraaj (Hindi) (5.5/10)
Thee kind of stories dont work in these days but still it was pretty decent attempt. If nothing else, the locales in the film were brilliant and songs were very melodious.

4. Khela (Bengali) (6/10)
A film director, a bored housewife tired of her husband. The director plans a film with a child an din the process comes closer to understanding children , something he never was ready for. Manisha was decent, Prasanjeet was great and so was the kid.

5. The Reader (9/10)
BRILLIANT. Thats one word to describe this film. Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Burk re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial. How does Kate Winslet do it every time, its unbelievable.

6. Finding Amanda (5/10)
A television producer with a penchant for drinking and gambling is sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to enter rehab. A cross between drama, comedy and message, a short budget film which was a decent watch. Not bad

7. Things We Lost in the Fire (7/10)
I loved it. If only it was not stretched towards the end, I would have loved it more. A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss. Hale Berry and Benicio Del Toro gave performances to die for.

8. The Princess Bride (7/10)
A very good mix of fantasy, modern day, fights, swordplay, evil prince, beautiful princess. I wasn't sure before the movie. But the movie is very very entertaining. Its a must for kids.

9. Sorry Bhai (Hindi) (7.5/10)
I really dont understand why people did not like this movie. It was so natural slice of life and very believable. Al the characters were so true and real. Brilliant performances specially by Sharman. I loved it. I love Onir's films

10. Karzzzz (Hindi) (3/10)
The less, the better. Awful acting, direction and songs. Everyone was so over the top. The plot was not developed properly ad the film it seemed was made just for the heck of it. Himesh bhai.. please hamein maaf karo.

11. Penelope (4/10)
A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with "one who will love her faithfully." It could have been so much better but somehow somewhere it lost the steam.

12. The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (7/10)
When a magical artifact is lifted from his library, a meek librarian sets out to ensure its safe return. Exactly the kind of films I like. Thanks to Manu for recommendation. Cheesy treasure hunt type. Perfect!!

13. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (8.5/10)
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelery store the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that sends them, their father and one brother's wife hurtling towards a shattering climax. Brilliant acting by Philip Seymour and Ethan Hawke, this film will keep you on your edges. Crisp editing and one of the best. MUST WATCH

PS: I see many many more 'my kind of' films than I will actually write here but there is a separate blog for those special films. If you are interested, I can send you the link. Read at your own risk.

Cheeni Kum - Melody Jyada

2007-06-26T18:23:00.000-04:00

Now this is one album that is hugely under-rated. Music maestro Ilayaraja has created some soulful melodious music for this less sugary romantic flick between adults. To be very frank, I have never been fond of his music. I felt that there was a lot of touch of south indian music even for the movies with a noth indian background, but I am glad that I have been proved absolutely wrong with Cheeni Kum.

The album starts of with the brilliant 'Cheeni Kum Hai' by Shreya Ghosal. Melodious to the core is how you can describe this song. The most surprising part is that there is no music prelude before the lyrics. I can't jog my memory to think of the last time when such a thing happened. The startingis not very impressive but the moment song goes to antara, u cannot help close your eyes and just enjoy the melody.

The next 2 songs are my personal favourite. 'Baatein Hawa Hain' and 'Jaane Do Na' both sung again by Shreya Ghosal. While the former can be appreciated for the simplicity of the music and briliantly written lyrics, the latter has that 60s-70s feel of a chhed-chhad song between the main protagonists. Every time I hear these songs, I have a smile on my face and a I feel good listening to them. Some people feel that 3 songs in succession sung by Shreya is a downer. But I say that this is the best part. And if you are a serious melodious music lover like me, you will know what am I talking about. Thanks to Saregama and Sanjay Leela Bhansali for introducing us to Shreya Ghosal. I love this girl.

There are a couple of music pieces and different versions of Baatein Hawa and Cheeni Kum which are good but even if they weren't, I would just go ahead for the album just for the sheer magic of first three songs. Listen to them if you say that love Indian melodies and complain about the music situation in our films these days. After going through the album, one really expects to hear some more heart- warming soundtracks that have been missing in Bollywood for quite long.

This is truly a BHEJA FRY

2007-06-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

I finally managed to see this movie after it was out on DVD. The fact that this movie was made in mere 70 Lakhs and has made approx 8 crore of money really made me look forward to it. I mean , this movie should have something in it that everyone from common man to Madhuri Dixit has become a fan of Vinay Pathak and the movie.

There is a group of friends whose only stress buster is Friday night dinners where they invite an IDIOT ( you read it correct) and make fun of him. The idiot of course is oblivious to all this. Rajat Kapoor heads this group and is the one who usually looks out for this murga. This time fortunately or otherwise, he finds Vinay Pathak and invites him over to his place before dinner so that he can test him out. Till this point the movie is strictly okay but the real fun begns when Vinay Pathak arrives at his home.

Rajat's wife Sarika has just left him and he is in severe back pain and can hardly move. Vinay Pathak joins him in this situation and what follows is a laugh riot, mad caper, witty dialogues and hilarious situations. Small incidents like Vinay calling the wrong number, non stop bragging about himself, carrying his childhood blog, talking just about anything makes it a worth a watch. In short rather than Rajat making fun of Vinay Pathak, he ends up getting his Bheja Fried with all the nonsense antics that he carries.

There are cameos played by other actors like Ranvir Shorey, Milind Soman who act decent. Ranvir is strictly ok (for a change). Milind Soman and Sarika have acted decent. The two performances that stand out are that of protagonists Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak with special mention to the latter. This is his movie all the way. Its difficult to imagine anyone else after seeing him in this role.

Go for this movie if you haven't. You will like it and may be after this your perspective that bollywood dishes out only crappy song and dance boy meets girl story might change.

"Aaj Ki Raat" - DON

2006-09-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Picture these lyrics
"Shaam Hai, Jaam Hai, Aur Hai Nasha..... Tan Bhi Hai, Mann Bhi Hai, Pighlta Hua"
(Its evening with a drink and fun... Both body and heart are melting down)

"Aaj Ki Raat...Hona Hai Kya....Paana Hai Kya....Khona Hai Kya..."
(Tonight, whats going to happen, whats to loose, whats to gain)

Well nothing great in these wordings but when you start hearing the song, you get a very sensual feeling. The song starts with very 70s retro n modern beats and maintains the tempo throughout. One always thought that Alisha Chinoy was the best singer for these kind of songs , which is true here as well; but the real surprise comes from Mahalakshmi. You haven't heard anything lke this before from her. And this girl doesn't disappoint a bit. If Alisha is sensual, then Mahalakshmi is sedate. Sonu Nigam joins later and fits in well.

Don't be surprised if the retro lounge number with brass walls, techno effects, lots of ambience sounds and a catchy chorus line reminds you of "Raat Baaki Baat Baaki". Its a haunting and goose-pimple evoking song. One of the best compositions to come from Music trio SEL, this is definitely a number to look out for this year. I can't wait to see some hot-n-happening choreography on the screen when Kareena (or would it be Isha) and Priyanka burn the floor on fire.

Well , then am I saying that is the best thing about the music of DON? Hell, YES!!! Yes with a capital Y. Go for the album just for this foot tapping number.

MM Kreem - A diamond we still need to relish

2006-07-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

M M Kreem : I clearly remember the first time I actually heard about this name was when music of 'Zakhm' was released. Well, I had definitely heard the name but nothing special about this composer had stuck me. But with this film things changed. The oh so melodious "Hum yahan tum yahan",the naughty "Raat Saari bekarari mein guzari", the very sensitive "maa ne kaha".. they were all musical gems among all the beautiful songs of this film. I remember those were my engineering days and my room mates were music fans like me (may be not as crazy as me) but all of us used to love Zakhm songs. And this was when I had to find out more about the composer.

How many of us remember songs from the film RGV's 'Drohi'. Out of the 2 songs I remember, I cannot forget 'Dhadkati Mere Dil Ko Aayi Tu'. Like most of us even I used to think that it was a RD Burman composition as were the other songs of the film but it turned out that this one was Kreem's. I remember as teenage i actually used to dance on this song (yeah.. believe it or not). Kreem's so called break actually came with "Tum Mile Dil Khile" from the film 'Criminal'. This song was lapped up by everyone but did not get as popular since the film bombed. Frankly saying, I used to like the song but never thought of it as anything out of the way special or something. And I guess thats the reason the name MM Kreem never stuck me even then.

'Chup Tum Raho' from 'Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin' was one song which was neglected by everyone including by the promotores of the film. Showing his singing skills, Kreem proved that given a chance e could do something amazing with the music. 'Mere tere Naame Naye Hain' is a beautiful song. You might take some time to like the song but believe me once you give this one a patient hearing, you get hooked to it. 'Pehli Nazar Mein' was a non-film album released by T-Series. Its tile song by Kreem himself alongwith Anuradha Paudwal is still one of may favourites. Beautifully sung, the song would have a different history if it was a part of some movie.

Pooja Bhatt gave another chance to MM Kreem after Zakhm with Sur. The film was musical brilliance. 'Aa Bhi Jaa' gives you goose pimples when u hear it even today. 'Kabhi Sham Dhale' sung by Mahalaxmi according to me was the best composition of the film and was so appropriate with the film. With 'Jism', he was on an all time high. Each and every single song was something special. Lyricially or musically they were all great. I wont even bother to go into details of these songs. They were and are pure gems. He composed just one song for 'Saaya' but "O Saathiya" was the best thing to happen to the movie. This was foolowed by 'Rog'. The music according to me was a little deviation from the usual Kreem music and was pretty good. "Maine Dil Se kaha" and "Khoobsurat Hai woh itna" are my favourites.

2005 saw a poor film 'Kasak'. Frankly by now expectations are MM Kreem are so high for me that i found this just about OK. 'Saansein Madham Hain' is only worth mentioning sng though after a few hearings I started to like Jagjit Singh's version of "Jaana Hai Jaana Hai". Still not much can be said about the music.

After giving music for Bhatt's movies and an odd Kasak, his commercial big break came with Shahrukh Khan starrer 'Paheli'. "Dheere Jalna" is an awesome song brilliantly sung by Sonu Nigam. Other songs gelled with the Rajasthani theme of the movie and he incorporated it very well for the film. "Laaga re Jal Laaga" is my another favourite.

Film-makers.. its high time that you start recognizing the real talent and give the audience and listeners a chance to listen to some real music rather than some odd pop beats here n there with remix versions. MM Kreem deserves much much more than what Bollywood has offered him till now.

My top 10 Favourites of MM Kreem in no particular order:
1. Chup Tum Raho (Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin)
2. Pehli Nazar Mein (Pehli Nazar Mein)
3. Hum Yahan Tum Yahan (Zakhm)
4. Raat Saari (Zakhm)
5. Kabhi Shaam Dhale (Sur)
6. Aa BHi Ja (Sur)
7. Awaarapan Banjarapan (Jism) and all others
8. O Saathiya (Saaya)
9. Dheere Jalna (Paheli)
10. Maine Dil Se Kaha (Rog)