Cheeni Kum - Melody Jyada

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

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.