Long time no 'write' post.. Been quite busy with work Anyway taking a little time out to write about some movies I saw (over the last few months or so..)
Rang De Basanti
A much hyped Aamir starrer. Saw it at Ramakrishna theatre. Not the best place to watch a movie which is more than a dumbass comedy. The audience didnt appreciate anything about and it does add to your movie watching experience. Anyway moving onto the movie now.
Well, its an interesting story well-told (mostly). Unravels the tale of 4 youngsters (if you can call 41 yr old Aamir that..) who have nothing more to their lives than guzzling beer and laughing out loud (well, that sounds fun.. no?).. actually hysterically for no reason. They encounter this Brit girl who is in India to shoot a docu-movie on the great Indian freedom fighters. They are 'coerced' into acting for the movie and playing freedom rebels like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and their ilk. They guys (and the girl, Soha) get touched by their experience of re-living the lives of the freedom fighters. Soon, they encounter a modern day calamity where they are forced to take a stand against a wrong by the new 'rulers'. How they again relive the freedom fighters deeds is what the movie unfolds.
Well, for one, its a good strong story.. and mostly well directed by Rakeysh Mehra. It isnt easy to connect the freedom struggle with the modern day exploitation the protagonists face. But the screenplay is neat and connects the same well. The casting is mostly appropriate, leave aside Aamir, who clearly doesnt fit in. They needed a younger chap.. Having said that, Aamir does enact his part real nice. The other young guns are spot on too.. Sidharth (a Tollywood actor) does a good brooding young guy act, he actually stands out. Kunal Kapoor plays a cool soft hearted muslim young-man. Atul Kulkarni is expectedly strong. Sharman Joshi over-acts mostly.
My complaints (quite few actually) are with the first half. The portion when these fellas are shown to be carefree and having fun gets out of hand soon. It becomes irritating and unnatural. They plain over-do it. Music is mostly faantaastic with AR Rahman handling it deftly.
The climax is the subject of debate whether the guys did the right thing emulating their predecessors or did they get carried away. My take:
No doubt did they get carried away. But there are times when you feel soo strongly for a cause that doing it seems the most natural thing. The movie seems believable to me. Specially the second half.
RDB on the whole does send a strong signal, to the youth of the country. "We are the system.. so lets not blame it and sleep.. Lets move things..."
A must watch.
(Rating : 7.5/10)
Taxi No. 9 2 11
A fast paced thriller (??) of a dashing John Abraham out to lay claim to his billion dollar inheritance that his father didnt want him to have (coz of his flashy lifestyle..), and his proverbial thorn in the flesh Nana Patekar, a hot headed cab driver who gets pissed off by the bragging, spoilt brat. How they try to outdo each other is all that happens. At the end, both sober down to realize its the fire within them they need to sort out to reach their goals.The bad news is, again no real substance.. no real story. Just a thin string of story repeated episode after episode. The good news is, its mostly soo fast that you can dont stop to realize its weaknesses. Nana acts well and plays to the galleries. His over the top act is .. well just Nana. Its so funny, Nana always does the same thing. When he comes on the screen after a break of couple of years, people love his act. Within a couple of months he gets boring and unbearable. John, looks dashing and does what he does best.. look dashing :). A popcorn masala, better that a lot of rubbish you can watch these days. Watch, if its too hot in your house and the cinema not too far away ;-).
(Rating : 5/10)
Being Cyrus
Zinda
DEV
