rekha-r-nair

If you repeat a lie enough number of times will it become the truth? 15 park avenue is the story of an alternative reality of a schizophrenic (Mithi). The movie is about her search for her home at a fictitious address where her imaginary husband and 5 children live. Aparna Sen delivers yet another masterpiece. Each and every actor of the movie was better than the other. Konkona Sen looks unbelievably convincing as a schizophrenic. She pulls off the role with such ease and maturity beyond her age. Shabana Azmi is incredible as usual. She plays the dominating and fiercely independent elder sister of Mithi who takes care of her ailing sister and aging mother. She refuses to accept that in-spite of all her strength and courage, she still feels lonely at times. This should have been a very easy movie for Rahul Bose. The role was least bit demanding and anyone could have done the role.

The ending of the movie was the most surreal part of the whole park avenue experience. It took me a while to digest that the movie had ended. It left me confused and maybe even a bit disturbed. But later on, it started sinking in. My eyes are black. But if everyone says they are blue, will I still believe that its black??!

I watched 'No Entry' yesterday evening. I laughed so hard that my stomach is aching even now. If you leave your brains aside and watch it, I am sure that it will tickle your funny bone too.

The story revolves around three married men - Anil Kapoor who is dedicated to his highly suspicious wife Lara Dutta, Fardeen Khan who is newly married to Celina Jaitley and Salman Khan who cheats on his doting wife Isha Deol. The madness starts when the sizzling hot Bipasha Basu comes into the picture. Sallu promises to pay Bips 2 lakhs if she can get Anil to sleep with her. Lara thinks Bips is Fardeen's wife. Celina thinks Bips is Anil's wife. Thus starts the crazy circle of life that ends in a dramatic cliff-hanging scene, and a 'nagina' and some funny remarks about Sunny Deol ;) As far as the soundtrack goes, the ONLY good song is 'No Entry'. All others are quite forgettable. My favorite scene in the movie is where Fardeen comes to save Sallu who is hanging off a cliff. The rest of the cliff scene is just hilarious!! Altogether, the movie is worth the ticket money.

The trailers were definitely better than the movie. With cutie Josh Lucas, rugged Jessica Beil and a very forgettable Jamie Foxx, this movie is having an identity crisis - it is somewhere between a testosterone overdrive and a chick flick. The movie defies so many laws of science and gravity that it almost borders on fantasy.

The only interesting part of the movie was Eddie (EDI rather)... a machine with a mind. If you are the kind of person who is paranoid about the computers someday ruling the humans, this movie will just make your beliefs stronger. But honestly, its an insult to AI.

PS: EDI would have been a nice i-Pod. It apparently downloads ALL songs from the net!! Now who wouldn't you like that.... Record companies beware :)

Today is a generation obsessed with western clothes, western accent, western everything... They tend to forget that they can explore these luxuries ONLY because their homeland is a free nation and a democracy. Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi is meant to be an eye-opener for the youth who have not seen India when she was down and a reminder for the adults of what their generation and their older generations survived.

The movie starts off as a few people just following some ideologies that are very common in the college campuses. But some of them take it too far and decide to live their lives by those ideals while others go and make money and a grand living. Both lives have meanings of their own. The movie very eloquently shows how diverse India is... it shows the cities that are flourishing in wealth and dirty politics; it also shows villages where people die because of poverty or even caste related oppression.

The movie might be perceived in another way too... It could look like the moral is to "Not follow your ideologies if they are for just the well being of others"... but then is that life really worth living?? I think the underlying message was to just follow your vision to completion even if the sacrifices required are humongous.

The casting was perfect. Kay Kay Menon proves to be a very versatile and powerful actor. Inspite of being quite new to movies, he shows a lot of maturity and intelligence in the way he acts. I cannot imagine anyone other than Shiny Ahuja in the role of Vikram. He brings in the "cool" element in the movie. He has the charisma of a fixer-upper guy and also the fiery passion of a man in love with a woman who is in love with someone else. Chitrangada Singh does a terrific portrayal of the girl born and brought up in metros but finally following her ideals (or maybe the ideals of the man she loves). She has a lot of potential to be a powerful character actress.The two songs - title track and 'bawra mann' are really haunting melodies.

I don't think the film was a commercial success... But I definitely vote it as a "must see"... worth every penny! Its nice to see Pritish Nandy putting his money into projects that have some social value...

What applies to the cooks and broth applies to stars and movie too. Dus was a disappointment to say the least. The only saving grace is the soundtrack... especially the title track.

The storyline was the same old Bollywood formula. The casting was OK but their acting was terrible! Sanjay Dutt looks bored all through the movie. He is better as a munnabhai or a Raghu Shivalkar. Shilpa Shetty's role is quite forgettable. The grunge clothes and the fake tattoos don't really go well on her. AB Jr and Zayed Khan looked hot. Isha Deol was horrible!! First half of the movie was still bearable... second half was more torturous on the audience than on the villains!!! The best part of the movie was Pankaj Kapur. His acting was brilliant. Too bad that its wasted on a movie like this.

I'd advise you to wait for the DVD to come out. Don't buy it. Just rent it... watch the title track (excellent choreography) and then just return it!

Imagine a priest preaching about leading a virtuous life and then having a parallel existence defying all the preaching. Its no surprise that all the Christian organizations made so much noise over it!! But it is, by far, the most boldly made movie I have seen from an Indian director/producer. The story line was amazing. Its sad that people would give any amount of money to see SRK say 'K-K-K-Kiran' but no one wants to see a movie where they are portraying a priest and his conflicts between his wants and vows.

Shiny Ahuja does a brilliant performance as the priest. I could not believe that it was actually his first movie! He portrayed all the shades of the character so beautifully. The actress (did not catch her name) was not really that impressive. Nice body... but acting needs to improve a lot. The background score was good too...

I am amused as to why so much noise was made over this movie. Come on, a priest is also a human being. It is just human to slip up and make mistakes. Why do people have to generalize it and protest?? No one said that all priests are like this. It is just the story of one man who obviously was not ready for a life of celibacy. As far as the direction goes, I think Vinod Pande did a terrific job in keeping the movie from becoming just a skin flick. He concentrates on the story line and follows it to completion with amazing grace.

If you have been working or studying too hard, or even going through a rough patch in life, let your brain take a vacation. And go watch Maine Pyar 'Kyun' Kiya (MP2K). There were no surprises for me at the movie... A David Dhawan movie! I knew exactly what to expect.

Now time for spoilers... The movie is a medley of a lot of other movies. Salman recreates the madness of Biwi No 1. IMHO, Sallu should stick with comedy. He makes you laugh even though it is at his own expense. Sohail Khan imitates some of the old Sallu comic roles. He was very adorable in this movie. He's a lot better than he was in Lakeer and Krishna Cottage. Katrina Kaif is just eye-candy. She does not know how to act. If the director or producer where expecting to cash in on Sallu-Kat off-screen romance, it really did not work. Like most real life couples, even Sallu and Kat don't have much of a chemistry on-screen. She should just walk the ramps and not waste her time in Bollywood. Maybe an item number once a while is all she should try to do. Sush sizzles beyond compare!! After Main Hoon Na and MP2K, Sush is emerging as a gorgeous, sexy and humorous actress. She looks graceful in a Saree and carries out her role with so much ease. The special appearances by Arshad Warsi and Isha Koppikar also adds some masala.

The movie has a slightly different angle than the regular Hindi movie. A Casanova doctor (Sallu) who claims to have a wife to avoid women asking for commitment... When he finally meets "the one" (Kat), all his lies return to haunt him. To cover up one lie, he builds a mountain of other lies. He finds a fake wife in his nurse (Sush) who brings two kids also into the equation and a trail of other boyfriends. A struggling actor (Sohail) is always there to save the damsel (Kat) in distress. The mayhem and madness peaks half way through the movie when Sallu's mom turns up in the fake court during his fake divorce and accepts his fake wife Sush as her real bahu.... The rest of the movie is all about how Sallu tries to kick Sush out of his life and how finally "Love conquers all"!!! All in all, total entertainer. Watch it once. Don't try to find logic or reason... And oh yeah, the songs!! They are just totally foot tapping. I think that a movie is not a success by just having a great story or cast or direction or winning awards... it is by moving people into some extreme emotion. Something that makes you laugh so hard that you cry or something that makes you cry so hard that you will laugh at the dumbest of jokes...

A very Indianized version of Godfather... When I went to watch the movie, I thought that this will be just another hyped up movie with a good trailer... But Sarkar was a pleasant surprise. RGV puts together an ensemble cast making this the best RGV movie till date. Brilliant performances by Big B and Kay Kay. AB junior is overshadowed by his dad in the first half but after watching the whole movie, I think this is one of his better movies till date. If you liked AB Jr in Yuva, you will definitely like this one too. The entire cast did total justice to their roles... One of the best movies released this year. Its worth the money... And please watch it on the big screen... The dull lighting and the echoing voice of Big B is sure to give you goose bumps. But if you looking for the regular Bollywood mix of action, drama and songs, you will be disappointed.