Quantum Of Solace

Daniel Craig, the only man I know who can carry off white pants with panache! I enjoyed Casino Royale better but this one was good too. Didn't care much for the women in the movie and Eva Green was definitely more beautiful. The villain is what was the saddest. I like movie with good villains and this one had a frail ugly looking one. The plot itself wasn't great and much of it was spent trying to avenge the betrayal by Vesper. I hope the next one is better. They have a more believable bond and it should be hard to come up with a decent storyline to do justice.

Hello

The lesser said about this movie the better. The book was silly and the movie with its oh-so-bad-that-I-want-to-pull-my-teeth-out dialogues was even worse.

The Happening

I am such a big Night Shyamalan fan!!!! I love all his eerie movies and they spook the hell out of me. I first regret not watching this in the theatre and secondly not watching it on Halloween night. The whole build up is fantastic and the scene of construction worker walking off the edge of the tall building is simply awesome. It delivers on the chills. thrills and gore that one expects from his movies. The Alma character is a little weird. The way the whole concept of the plants/trees and toxins is brought in is a little stupid too especially given that it is the weird nursery guy who says it. Not to say that the concept in itself is bad. I think it is interesting and they could probably have given further details/explanation to show my Eliot starts believing in it. The old lady who lives by herself, a fantastic character to scare the crap out of you. A highly recommended watch if you are into Night Shyamalan movies:)

I was so desperate to watch this movie because it was a Madhur Bhandarkar product. I really liked his Page 3 and Corporate (Traffic Signal not so much). The movie did not disappoint although some of the characters were over the top. I am sure that the picture he paints is not true of every supermodel but at least a few. I did not like the fact that all male designers were portrayed as being gay and all the gay men were so stereotypically gay. The acting by the three women was fabulous and I especially give credit to Priyanka who did justice to the role. Kangana played the same character as many of her other movies but again did a good job of it. There was this one scene shown in the promos where she gives a disgusting expression while looking at Priyanka and I did not see that in the movie. But she was so good as the show stopper in her first scene. This movie was totally worth the watch in the theatre and I am glad I chose it over Golmal Returns although I am sure that is a fun one too.

Karzzzz

The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was all the curiosity that it roused up with the hype and the fact that I actually like Himesh Reshammiya and his music (most times except when he comes up with something stupid like Tandorri Nights). The movie wasn't good and I saw it in bits and parts and you can totally give it a miss. I do like the Lut Jaun number though. Urmila has done something with her face surely (botox??). Anyways no more Himesh movies. Just his songs.

Kidnap

Promos can be soooooooo deceptive. The only reason I even rented this DVD was because of the fancy promos they kept showing on TV. The songs were ok too and I was definitely curious to see what this Imran dude is all about since I didn't quite get the feel for his acting in JTYJN. The movie would have been ok if part of it weren't so ridiculous that you wonder why the the movie is still going on. The movie starts randomly with a hip-hoppish number starring Minissha Lamba. This has been done before but never ever works for me. Minissha has lost a lot of weight and was good in the song but passing Vidya Malvade off as her mom is plain silly. They never really told what caused the rift between her and Sanjay Dutt except innuendos about his lack of time for the family. But if his wife is a doctor (as they claim with a Dr before her name), did she even have the time fight about it??? Anyways I can go on and on about the flaws in the script but then I guess I shouldn't have expected much anyways given that Sanjay Gadhvi's other movies (Dhoom 1 & 2) both had tonnes of flaws. I was not too impressed by Imran Khan either. He sounded like he was holding a chewing gum between his teeth all the time while speaking:P. I think he is a better chocolate boy than action hero. All in all a disappointing movie.

Mumbai Meri Jaan & A Wednesday

This was an interesting weekend and thoughts about terrorists and bomb blasts stayed with me throughout. We watched Mumbai Meri Jaan on Friday night followed by news of Delhi blasts as soon as we woke up on Saturday and ended up watching A Wednesday on Sunday night. To add to this I just finished Chetan Bhagat's 'Three Mistakes of My Life' which is set to the backdrop of Gujarat communal riots. Both the movies are excellent and fall into the same genre as Aamir and they have excellent actors doing complete justice to the roles.


Mumbai Meri Jaan:





A very thought provoking story of -

• A journalist who realizes the shallowness of Indian media reporting when her loved one is affected by the blast. Soha is passable and yet again loses her fiancee.
  
• A regular person who refuses to run away from India to escape reality and goes through a gamut of emotions during the blast and is scared to even step onto a train because of the trauma. Madhavan has acted really well in this role.
• A poor man shamed by the treatment of a mall worker in front of his family who finds an easy way of hassling the rich. He is also hit by guilt and remorse when his prank causes an old man to colapse. Irrfan Khan needless to say excels at this.
• A suspicious man who fears and doubts the Muslims around him but comes to terms finally with the fact that they are no different from Hindus. Kay Kay Menon, is simply awesome.
  

There is a whole brood of fine actors in the industry currently and coming out with fantastic roles - Kay Kay, Irrfan Khan, Ranvir Shorey (although not sure what he was doing in SIK), Vinay Pathak, Konkona Sen to name a few. I would compare their talent to the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Farooq Sheikh, Anuradha Patel, Rekha, Shabana Azmi who used to come out with movies like these in the previous era. The whole change in the industry of makingmovies with real stories is wonderful for hungry movie goers like me.


A Wednesday:



A very well made (from a regular movie watcher's perspective) movie with veteran actors like Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah where thankfully they are not wasted at all. All the characters are well chosen especially Jimmy Shergill and his collegue Jai (dunno his name). I really liked Jimmy Shergill in this movie after a long time. I simple hated him in some recent roles with those ridiculous highlights but this one was a fresh surprise.
I am simply in awe of Naseeruddin Shah and the talent he packs into each of his roles. I have heard a lot about this movie called 'Ijazzat' and his acting in that and thankfully my sister sent me a DVD. That is definitely going to be the next on my watching list. God bless him and may be live many many years to work in more movies. His son is really cute too and I liked his movie Dil Dosti, etc but haven't seen him in anything after that;)

Rock On

I caught this show on Friday night and it was a very very long movie. It could have easily been cut down by 30 minutes and made more fun. Liked almost everyone in the movie and and there were several unintended funny moments (like when Prachi Desai keeps instructing the house help to lift stuff or open stuff). Especially liked the music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and the fact that they got Farhan Akhtar to sing all the songs. The only number I found so-so was the Sindbad the Sailor one. The story was ok except the whole fight causing the split and I did not understand Farhan Akhtar's reaction. Why would he leave his girlfriend because of the fight??? But all in all a decent watch. Arjun Rampal needless to say looked like a dream:). Totally hooked to the laundry bill song now like hubby (who btw missed this movie).
ps: The zehreele saanp number lade me laugh real hard!!!

Karzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have been hearing about this one for a while now. Himesh Reshammiya decides to take up a classic with the amazing cute looking Rishi Kapoor and star in its remake. Not only does he decide to replace Rishi Kapoor but also decides to sing for it and do the music. I must admit I am a fan of Himesh Reshammiya (I know I know but I still like him). I happened to goto his concert in Oakland and he was awazing live. He sang just like he sings in the albums, a little nasal but with a very strong voice. I know a lot of singers who go off key when they sing live and do not have all those synthesizers and software to modify/correct their mistakes.

I listened to the songs of Karzz and I am not too impressed. The title track is so-so compared to the original. I liked the Lut Jaaoon one but didn't really care much for any of the rest. Like my sister said, soon there will be a "Chana Bhature Night" to compete with the Tandoori nights number:). I think I will still go watch the movie though:) Definitely want to see Urmila again. I recently saw Banaras and liked her in it. I even found Ashmit Patel bearable. I don't really know who the new babe in Tina Munim's role is. Will update this blog with the movie review once I have watched it.

Singh Is Kinng - SIK

So SIK finally!!! Heard and read so much about this one and saw soooooooooo much of it on B4U that I was tortured into singing SIK even in my sleep and the "making of" was drilled into my brain. Finally watched it last night and I had a lot of fun. True, the plot is mindless and not a lot is logical but it sure gave me good laughs and nothing amused me more than the promotional song at the end with Snoop Dog in a pagdi. Must say that Akshay has a nice style in that song. I have been a big Akshay Kumar fan since Khiladi, that being the first ever movie I watched on cable television and that too right before a half yearly exam. I have been his fan through thick and thin and have been ridiculed by my siblings numerous times. A lot of humor is really crass and you may not be able to stand it but some of the other funny moments are awesome. When Kiron Kher butters her toast with the huge knife and when they use the poor Lucky in wheel chair to pass around their munchies that go with their drinks, you cannot help but have a good laugh. And the joke about not having changed kachcha is just too funny!!! Om Puri and Kiron Kher of course do a great job. Neha Dupia looks very well toned in this mvie and probably has more screen time than Katrina. Katrina as usual has nothing much to act but is very easy on the eyes. Akshay needless to say holds the mvie on his shoulder and makes it very funny:). The one surprise was Ranvir Shorey and I have no idea what he is doing in this movie. Why someone as talented as him felt the need to take this role up is beyond me! I would recommend this to whoever like mindless comedy.

Why this blog?

So I realized that I spend a good amount of my time on two things - food and movies. Since I already blog about food it is only appropriate that I also blog about my second love:). In case you don't already know, I am in love with anything bollywood/hollywood related. I follow a lot of online sites featuring both bollywood and hollywood gossip (especially my friend Gaurav's site Bollywood Mantra) and watch at least one movie each week if not more. The movies do not have to be of any particular standard or intelligence to get me interested. Not to say that I do not like serious cinema. My partner in crime is often my poor hubby who sadly stands by all my choice in terms of movie watching and in return I watch some dishum-dishum and sci-fi stuff with him:). So it works well for us. So here goes nothing!!!