Halla bol - Conscience is a Killer !!!!!

After Rajkumar Santoshi’s fall from grace in Family, especially hard considering the superlative Khakee that preceded it, Halla Bol is his attempt at getting back into the game. Considering mass-flavored vitriol aimed at the system and the apathy of people at large is what he does best, the themes of Halla Bol come as no surprise. Even so, if you have heard that this is a movie that aims to talk about the total collapse of the judiciary system during the Jessica Lall murder case, you have heard wrong.
What's noteworthy is that Santoshi succeeds in stirring and pricking your conscience. The accomplished storyteller, who started off with a bang with GHAYAL, DAMINI and GHATAK, films that raised a voice and issues, lost his touch in between, although he appealed greatly in THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH in the intervening period. With HALLA BOL, Santoshi is back with what he's best at -- hard-hitting drama.
‘Raise your voice against all social evils and evil doers’ is the message that Rajkumar Santoshi conveys through the movie Halla Bol. The first 15 to 20 min in the movie is about the film industry, the self-obsessed star and a flashback of his good-old fameless days made me feel that Halla Bol is just another take on the film industry like the recently released Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand. But the reels that followed proved me wrong. After the cruel episode at the party, the movie takes on a different track and puts you into a great deal of thinking. The second half of the movie gets into a serious tone as the hard-hitting message of the movie slowly emerges with each reel.

Rajkumar Santoshi excels with Halla Bol. The story has been deftly handled and a lot of scenes are executed with confidence that they leave a strong impact on our minds. The street play about a politician in the first half of the movie, the scene where Pankaj kapur comes across as a solid man when bullets are fired at him, Pankaj’s reaction when he is offered bribe by Abhay Bhargava near the pool side and Ajay Devgan urinating on the carpet at the minister house leaves you awestruck. The dialogues are well written. Ajay’s dialogue at the politician’s house, Vidya’s reply to the media when the media bombards her husband with questions regarding their marital life and Pankaj’s eruption towards the end when Ajay was hospitalized makes your hair stand still.
Halla Bol has its share of negatives too. A few sequences from the first half could be easily chopped off and added to the second half to make climax more effective. The climax was not ground-breaking and abrupt for a subject of this sort. Music by Sukhwinder is good. Cinematography is wonderful.
Every performance in HALLA BOL stays etched in your memory. Ajay proves yet again that he's a magnificent actor. He conveys a lot through his expressions. Here's yet another award-worthy performance from one of the finest actors of the country. Vidya's role may not be as substantial as Ajay and Pankaj Kapur, but she's fiery in the sequences. Pankaj is awesome yet again. A power-packed performance. In fact, he's to HALLA BOL what Sunny Deol was to DAMINI. Darshan Jariwala is superb, changing expressions like a chameleon.
Anjan Srivastava manages to create an impact. Abhay Bhargava is efficient. The actress enacting the role of the victim's sister is very good.
The film has a host of stars making appearances, which include Tusshar Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Neeraj Vora and Aarti Chhabria.

Taare Zameen Par - Bench mark for bollywood !!!

I loved the film. It’s emotional and tugs at everyone’s heartstrings.How can one not love a movie about children crafted with utmost compassion - children with special needs at that? But, is that the only reason I liked Tare Zameen Par? Maybe - maybe not. What I know for sure is that a strong one-line story is narrated extremely charmingly. It is truly uplifting when spirit wins and yet, it is not all about the spirit of winning.
Tare Zameer Par is about a child who suffers because no one around him recognizes that he is a slow learner. The beauty of the narration is that the message applies to all children - learning disability or not. How can creativity not deserve a place in academics? It also points a very subtle finger at how we build conformation in our system right at the roots.
The pace of the first half gives you time to think of normal children who are just not academically inclined. The resolution in the second half, however, comes by too quickly compared to the trauma shown earlier. But, I guess, if the point is to show that difficulties can be overcome, you don’t necessarily want to show how difficult it is to overcome them.
About 45 minutes post-interval, Darsheel Safary (Ishaan) said a line which made me realize that he hadn’t said a line in the last hour or so. There I was feeling sorry for Ishaan, feeling like yelling at someone to give him a big hug while I fought this lump in my throat that had been there for the longest time. All this based solely on Darsheel’s expressions and body language!
Yes, that’s the story of the film…. But the film is more than the story per se. The film belongs to the performances of Aamir as the ultra-sensitive art teacher who was dyslexic himself and sees his own image in the child. It belongs to Tisca Chopra’s portrayal of the mother who loves her child and is exasperated with him in equal measure.
However, more than anything, it belongs to Darsheel Safary as Ishan, who silently conveys turmoil, glee, wonder, anger and carries the film on the strength of his performance alone.
The film also belongs to Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s amazing music which in my view raises the emotional content of the movie to a huge extent.

Kudos to the director for taking this decision and many such with brilliant confidence. And, finally we have a dialogue writer who knows when not to give the actors a helping hand. There are a couple of verbose, preachy scenes. But, they made the point because they were well written.
Aamir Khan’s entry into the movie seemed over-the-top and forced, mainly because it was in absolute contrast with the tone of the movie thus far. But after a little while you realize that you can’t distinguish between the actor/director Aamir Khan and his character Nikhumb. They are both fighting the same cause. Passionately. The other characters serve their purpose as caricatures - stereotypical father, loving mother, understanding sibling, ruthless teacher, and jeering peers.
No matter who or what the focus of the camera is, the love it feels towards its subjects shows in each frame. And, in turn, you fall in love with what you see on screen. Compositions, lighting, angles, colors all work successfully together to engross you and very often to enchant you. The lingering camera might have added a good 10-15 minutes to the run-time. But you will be hard-pressed to point out exact scenes which the movie could have done without. Everything is building character or atmosphere or both.
The songs too contribute to the narrative. The lyrics are sheer poetry. I know-I know, that’s what they are supposed to be, but can’t remember the last time lyrics brought me to tears. “mein kabhi batlaata nahi” kept me speechless (and we all know how difficult that is!). And rock-style guitar strumming to a kids’ song - that’s what I call creative.
At that level, it is a intensely human film that tells us a very human story.No item numbers, no heroine, no songs in Switzerland. And it works ! Bravo, Aamir Khan, producer, director and actor of “Taare Zameen Par” ! In fact, the only drawbacks in the movie were the caricatures of some characters, like Mr. Awasthi, the father, and the boarding school teachers (who apart from Aamir Khan, are made to look like either buffoons or cruel sadists). The high achieving elder brother however, is not a caricature, thankfully !
Yes, that dash of seemingly inevitable melodrama exists. The side-characters transform for no apparent reason. The climax is exaggerated and is as unrealistic as it could get. However, the aim is to show not reality of life but reality of the condition that this child suffers from. Once you get that, you pardon the make-up a mother is wearing at 6 AM while doing her chores. And anyway, most of this is towards the end, by which time you are willing to forgive. Because, above all else, it makes you think.
When did we grow up? When along the way did we forget what it felt like to be yelled at, to be put down, to be ridiculed? And why did we choose the next generation for revenge? Will we recognize the child in us that is struggling to get out? Will the sensation that the lump in the throat created, stay after the credits roll?
Over and above Aamir is a better Director than an actor, Even though he has impeccable acting skills.

Welcome - Hilarious Time pass

This year has already passed very well for the Akshay Kumar and he has almost succeeded in solidifying his position as comedy king of Indian cinema. This film also helps him in proving his comedy skills. Story of film revolves around the three gangster brothers, who are searching a good and honest groom for their sister. Katrina Kaif is playing the role of sister of these gangsters and Askhay is playing the role of a smart and honest boy. Overall, this is a complete masala movie with hardly any reasonably explainable storyline and events.Still, laughter moments goes on striking the people after few intervals and therefore, it become easy and to some extent enjoyable to watch this movie. This movie is not an exceptional kind of movie from Akshay and may be weakest of his three big hits of this year (Namastey London, Bhool Bhulaiya and Hey Baby). Despite, some weak points, Welcome is all set to become another hit from the Akshay Kumar.Both Nana Patekar and Anil Kapoor are also fine in their comic roles of dons and provide number of chances in movie to laugh at them. Feroz Khan, third don in this film is average in acting and has nothing new to offer to the audience. Malika Sherawat is also present in the second half of film and she is also fine. At the end, I can only see that Welcome offers a good time pass but it is not a kind of movie which leaves some kind of impression behind.

The introductory scenes of Nana Patekar ,Anil ,and Paresh are comedy filled . Specially the one liners which the characters deliver are interesting and applaud able with comedy touch.
The director makes sure to open three more surprises Vijay raaz, Feroz khan and Mallika sherawat who are introduced in the first half, but don’t have much scope in the beginning. But in the second half they are a must for the films story to fillm it with more hilarious comedy. the sequence between Nana and Mallika, and Anil & Mallika will surely make the audience laugh especially in the funeral scene which is shot with a comic touch.
The music is well balanced and is apt for the movie. It was composed by Anand Raj anand. The locales of Dubai and South Africa give the film a grand look.
Although the film has many super stars of bollywood the whole limelight is taken out by Nana Patekar with his impeccable performance.
Akshay looks simple and is fixed between his love and the mobster gang. This film will be a mark in his career.
Ail kapoor comes up with yet another dhamaka. The actor compliments nana beautifully and handles his role well. Paresh Rawal is superb yet again.
Although the meatier scenes are reserved for men, but still Katrina gets a good out of them. Mallika sherawat is simply superb with her acting, attitude, sex appeal, sexy curves and the foremost her acting as she carries away her character with zeal.
Feroz khan has justified his character well. Vijay raaz is first rate yet again.
On the whole, WELCOME is a fun ride all the way. The tremendous hype will at least make its ticket counters full for minimum 3 weeks. And this film is going to run for 50 days surely and already on the premiere show in UAE this film has made history with a record collection of AED 450,000 (app).

Strangers - Really Strange

A dark, devious, and stylish thriller, “Strangers” comes across as an amalgamation of a cocky Hitchcock and a desi Brian da Palma without steamy scenes, deriving inspiration from Karan Johar’s “Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna”.The three main characters, married or involved with one another, are at each other’s necks while poor Sonali Kulkarni — excellent in the one scene where she breaks down after her son’s death — remains largely out of it. Sometimes it pays to not get involved.Jimmy Sheirgil is so much like Shah Rukh Khan in “KANK” that you wonder if the character has been modelled on the Khan. The only difference is that Jimmy’s impairment is more emotional than physical.An unemployed, worthless writer, he lolls around on a sofa all day long taunting his wife about her sleeping habits. The still-lovely Kitu Gidwani does a good job of playing his supportive but disgruntled publisher.The quadrangle, with Kulkarni’s minimal contribution, has interesting Hitcockian possibilities, only half-realized. The narration moves at a measured momentum. You feel the director is holding back the characters from a fuller emotional expression. Maybe they are shy. Maybe they just don’t care.Debutant director Aanand Rai has a game plan and a destination. But he is in no hurry to get there. The initial conversations between Sheirgil and Menon on a speeding train hold plenty of prattling promise.The exchanges, you soon realize, aren’t so much about the two men as about the wives in their lives.This is where the situation gets tangled beyond the plot. Just why the two men would want their respective spouses killed never comes into the kingdom of the convincing. We are left looking at a world manoeuvred by the selfserving desires of four innately unhappy people in two marriages that aren’t half as wretched as the ones Karan Johar designed in “KANK”.The film’s crux is a murder plan that never quite takes off. As layer after layer of deception is peeled off in steady motion of a narration that knows its boundaries and never dreams of crossing it, we’re left looking at the characters as they are rather than the way they want us to see them.The film is stylishly put together. Cinematographer Manoj Shaw captures the quartet of cut-up characters in a languorous sea of Londoners who don’t seem to care enough to even stare. The incidental characters are as half-finished as the main protagonists, hovering between desire and fulfilment, never quite sure which way to go.The performers attempt a kind of candour, which works when the dialogues support these irrelevantly unhappy people.The sequence in the bar where Nandana Sen flirts cautiously with her soon-to-be extra-marital lover Kay Kay Menon, who is as clenched as ever, shows the directors’ command over the craft.But somewhere down the line, the betrayals of the plot far exceed the game of deception played by the characters.The music score is uneven and the club song with a pole dancer is laughably at odds with the smoky sophistication that the presentation aims for. Somewhere in the second-half, Lata Mangeshkar’s voice pops up for a ballad but she belongs to a different world.Strangers is a strangely stirring thriller with echoes from Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder” and Johar’s “KANK” setting off an uneasy chain of events that lead to a disastrous denouement.One isn’t sure if the director should share the blame for his characters’ messy emotional life.

Khoya Khoya .....sa....... Chand .....

To recreate the bygone era is not only strenuous, but a challenging task as well. It's equally arduous to capture the essence of Bollywood of 1950s and 1960s with precision on celluloid. In that respect, Sudhir Mishra's KHOYA KHOYA CHAND succeeds in transporting the viewer to the golden era.Although the story doesn't focus on any person in particular or highlight any incident or event, the director drops enough hints to draw parallels with real life characters. So far, so good! Wait, you can't turn a blind eye to the deficiencies… KHOYA KHOYA CHAND looks like an assemblage of smartly executed sequences. You remember KHOYA KHOYA CHAND not because of its stirring and gripping storyline and the impact it creates in totality, but the recall value is thanks to the individualistic scenes. Also, the pace dips at several points and what also goes against it is its length. The film goes on and on, testing the viewer's patience towards the second hour. Ideally, Mishra should've shortened the narrative by 20 minutes at least. Besides, the execution of the subject restricts its appeal to those who tilt towards offbeat cinema. To sum up, KHOYA KHOYA CHAND does not hold universal appeal. It's for a niche audience with an appetite for unconventional movies, catering more to the festival circuit and a tiny section of moviegoers. Set against the Hindi film industry in 1950s and 1960s, KHOYA KHOYA CHAND is the tumultuous story of Nikhat [Soha Ali Khan] and Zafar [Shiney Ahuja]. Nikhat, a fledgling actress, becomes a big star with the help of superstar Prem Kumar [Rajat Kapoor]. But in return of favours. Zafar helps Nikhat get free from the iron grip of Prem Kumar. But the relationship is short-lived. Sudhir Mishra captures the behavioural pattern of stars, budding actors and film-makers to perfection. Note the tantrum-throwing heroine or the finicky producer who's more of a 'Yes Man' to the superstar or the heroine's mother and her companion who live off the heroine's money -- only an insider who knows Bollywood inside out or has watched them from close quarters would get it right. Mishra's execution of a number of scenes is exemplary. But the grip to keep you hooked non-stop, from start to end, is missing. The film dips at regular intervals in both the first and second hour. Also, the culmination to the story is abrupt. Shantanu Moitra's music is in sync with the old-world charm. The title track is lilting, while 'Ye Nigahen' is equally exuberant. Sachin Krishn's cinematography is striking. The production design [Gautam Sen] is first-rate. Ditto for the costumes [Ashima Belapurkar and Niharika Khan]. It would be erroneous to give the credit to just one actor, when the fact is that all three -- Shiney, Soha and Rajat Kapoor -- deliver sterling performances. Shiney is a complete natural, expressing the anguish through his eyes. Soha is a revelation. This film exhibits her potential to the optimum. Rajat Kapoor is only getting better with every film. Sonya Jehan is effective. Saurabh Shukla is in terrific form. Sushmita Mukherjee deserved more footage. Vinay Pathak is excellent. Dipannita Sharma is okay. On the whole, KHOYA KHOYA CHAND has some interesting moments, but the impact it ought to create as also its slow pacing and excessive length dilute the effect. At the box-office, the film caters to a tiny section of moviegoers, but that's not enough!

Dus Kahaniyan ::: New Concept ,Bad Execution !!!

Dus Kahaniyan is a film made around ten small stories of approximate 10-12 minute length. Every story is a unique story and do not have any kind of link with the other stories. Six different directors have directed these small movies and for every story there are different set of actors. This film was promoted as watching ten movies on the cost of one movie, however at the end we realise that we have even failed in enjoying a single movie. This is a small film and run time of film is around 2 hours.
Already, earlier we have some similar versions of films like Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai and Salaam-e-Ishq. However, “Dus Kahaniyan” is weaker than all these movies. Out of the ten stories only three stories have something really to offer and rest of other stories are either below average or are total garbage. I admit that it is really-2 hard to make small ten minutes movies which are entertaining and justify themselves well. For this, we require a great combination of good story, solid theme, super acting performance, best direction and best editing, however, most of the ten short movies of Dus Kahaniyan miss on number of fields. Many times acting look totally unrelated to the mood of story.
One good short story in this movie is 'Pooranmashi'. The main stars in this small movie are Amrita Singh, Minisha Lamba, Parmeet Sethi and Vishwajeet Pradhan. Pooranmashi is about relationship between a mother and daughter and is good one to watch in movie. Other good short films are 'Zahir' staring Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza and 'Rice Plate' staring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. The biggest drawback of the film is that audience finds it very hard to relate with the film, during the whole movie, we move from one unrelated theme to other unrelated theme and that with poor execution.
At the end it becomes very hard to tell that what we have actually watched in this movie and what is “Dus Kahaniyan” all about? Absence of good music also makes this movie further dull and boring. Though, “Dus Kahaniyan” has number of good messages like all people are same, life is small and respecting different religions with some solid dialogues but poor delivery make these points irrelevant. People even can find more good entertainment on the daily soaps running on the small TV.

Aaja Nachale - Come back of Madhuri ,Is it ????

The return of Madhuri Dixit ends up telling the tale of Romeo and Juliet but ends up being Much Ado About Nothing. The energy of the aging actresses and a mind set of maker viewer mix eats into the script and the film that could be a master piece turns out to be yet another Mumbai Masala package. The story lacks imagination, the script lacks guts, the screenplay lacks energy and the film purpose. Backed by a huge film making house the Director falters once too often and ends up telling a simple story with too much naivity. Dia (Madhuri) suddenly receives a communication from her dying Guru (Darshan Zariwala) to revitalise the dying Ajanta theatre in a town she left behind one night many years ago. A quick peep into the past and you know that Dia defied local norms when she eloped with Steve (Felix D’ Alveelia) a photo journalist against the wishes of her unforgiving parents ( Vinod Nagpal and Uttara) . Embittered with matrimony andrejected by her parents she looses touch with native India till the letter forces a ‘return to the roots ‘journey. Back home she is confronted with the local MP Uday Singh( Akshaye Khanna) who seeks to demolish the crumbling theatre and replace it with a shopping Mall. Dia opposes the move and sees it as a personal agenda against Indian culture. She has a hostile town that has not come to terms with her decade old elopement. To many theatre is a bad word and she has to get over the challenge. Also joining the battle are the local goons who take upon the task of being the local moral police ( sounds familiar!!) and would not permit the expression of art and see it as a degrading human platform. It is however not long before she gets the town together. She first gets the assistance of a local politician Om Singh ( Akhilendra Mishra) and goes about the task of doing a dance ballet on Laila and Majnu with Imran (Kunal ) playing the unwilling Majnu and Anokhi(Konkona) playing the over enthusiastic Laila. The story has many layers as reservoirs of story telling: the return of an artist to her art in a domestic scenario that accepts her art but not her; the threatening death of many Indian art forms in the light of a growing market economy; the incapacity of town folk to keep pace with urban development; the crisis of conscious of an artist who gave up her art for a marriage that never worked; art in the presence of moral policing; the story of the unwilling Majnu and the energetic Laila- all and every of this permutation with the energetic presence of Madhuri Dixit and the rest would have made a master piece. Every time the camera lingers on the theatre you are reminded of the theatre show that Guru Dutt took for his Kagaz Ke Phool and then see where cinema in our country has journeyed for a price of technical superiority. The film is yet another case of lost opportunities and over simplification in the name of art or commercial film making. Fiction thankfully does not answer question of logic but to build a story of this kind on the flimsy sands of poor imagination leaves one too many wholes and even a marginally thinking audience refuses to follow the fictional ease of life ..

This is a clear case of too much talent and too little delivery. A huge waste of human resource. A star cast with the likes of Konkona, ( over acts) Kunal ( sleep walks) Irfan Khan ( drifts) Divya (sobs) Sushmita Mukherjee ( makes faces) Ranvir Shorey (dazed) Vinay Pathak ( amused) you wonder why they are all assembled if the script was unwilling to give them space. Only Madhuri takes herself seriously. She may have lost voltage on her smile but even she were to do her role from memory this was good enough.
Yet some where she lacks the real punch the take the role on straight and is thus to take to some finely choreographed moments to take the film forward. She looks brilliant in patches and faded in the rest. No the role and the preparation are not visible and that could be the cause for the let down. Of course director Anil Mehta would have to take the bulk of the blame.
If you cannot keep the audience engaged with this kind of a story line and star cast then you surely have failed. To assemble talent is one thing, to make them deliver is another. The film maker believes making a film is like doing the dance ballet in a fictional world and ends doing just that.