Guru has been receiving rave reviews with critics and audiences claiming its the best movie in ages , Abhishek's wonderful performance etc . I don't think the movie is terrible by any stretch but falls short being good as well , forget the great movie people claim it to be .
The things i like about the movie :
Performances of the leading characters are good . Clearly Abhishek's best performance till date. Aishwarya is not as irritating as she can be . There is actually a lot of chemistry between the two . Mithunda reminds us that he is a two time national award winner and is clearly the best part of the movie. Maddy has lost weight and delivers sincerely . The relationships between Abhishek and his dad , brother-in law and Mithun leave a lasting effect .
Despite all of this the movie disappoints primarily cause i expect a lot more from Maniratnam . Here are a few reasons why :
The predictability of the screenplay
Everyone knows its a bio pic of Dhirubhai Ambani , still it doesn't need to be so predictable . The biggest disappointment was that there was no evolution in the the protagonist as he grows from being a common villager to India's biggest industrialist . Abhishek didn't age at all , physically or otherwise ! Obviously one was no expecting the mastery of Nayagan here , but atleast he had potential to get some where close to that.
There was no insight, revelation or the plotting that made Guru the man he was . Lots of instances in the movie is happenstance . Guru bumping into Mithun on the road , winning the contracts , deciding to make polyester or even meeting Aishwarya for the first time.
Glorification of Guru
The end glorifies Guru as the messiah , as the best gift to mankind and the masses . While the film maker has every right to express his opinion on the protagonist , the glorification clearly plays to the galleries and all those who had confronted him for a right reason are totally forgotten ! ( the BIL, Maddy , Mithun etc )
The relationship with Mithun
The movie hinges on the relationship between Mithun and Abhishek . Some of the best moments in the movie are their scenes together . It so wonderfully set up leading to the interval and subsequent scenes of Abhishek's aides trying to bash up Mithun and the Aishwarya visiting Mithun at his house , leading you to hope that this is heading somewhere ! But alas, the movie ends with an elaborate court drama and Mithun who his is father figure is conveniently forgotten and sidelined .
Vidya Balan & Maddy track
It had absolutely no relevance to the movie . Why was Vidya Balan a handicapped person , what does she really think about Guru ? Her elaborate death scene had no connection with the plot .
Music :
ARR and Mani have always created magic . Here barring Tere Bina and Jaage raho , the rest of the songs are just plain ordinary . Both Maiya Maiya and Ek lo Ek Muft would feature in the bottom 10 songs of ARR of all time . Even the background music is pedestrian.
Overall , Guru is not a bad movie , but I was just disappointed that it didn't deliver what it promised .
Just check out this interview with Mukesh , which talks about how Reliance was built . Will give you lot more insights than the movie did ! http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jan/17inter.htm
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Why i didn't like the new Don ?
Don has been panned by critics and junta at large, but still will make tonnes of money and the slew of remakes shall continue. As a die hard movie fan, who watches almost anything which Bollywood dishes out, I must say even I was disappointed with don . The reasons :
Firstly I watched the original Don , on TV from 9:00 am in the morning and watch Farhan and SRK’s take on it at 12 :00 pm the same day . The first Don , though not in the league of Deewar and Sholay was very enjoyable and was a roller coaster ride from start to finish . The climax obviously was a big let down but still the plot had enough intrigue and Amitabh’s chutzpah and Zeenat / Helen’s oomph makes it a good time pass flick .
Here I was hopping that , the new Don would be much moré slicker , would tie in the lose ends of the first Don, cooler stunts, a gripping climax and a more contemporary plot . Here the argument is not whether who makes a better Don , will Priyanka match up to Zeenat , and if Kareena can do a Helen. These arguments hold no good for me , since we all trip on nostalgia and obviously the original would be better
If we put aside all these obvious comparisons, what do we get ,
SRK as Don, who brings style but no menace to the Don’s character. Spouts the memorable lines paying a tribute to original. However fails to differentiate between the Don & Vijay . Vijay seems a total caricature .
Baring Priyanka and SRK , the rest of the characters are not fleshed out at all :
Ifitakar Ahmed as Desilva was a sincere cop who weaved around the entire plot for a reason. Here Boman’s character and his interpretation does not make much sense at all. The casual ease with which he bumps of Singahania makes us wonder why he had to go through all this trouble .
Om Puri is completely wasted as the Interpol officer. The only reason they cast seems to be that the original character was played by Shivpuri.
Arjun Rampal – the s/w engineer turning into a hi- tec thief by night is ridiculous , and his son being part of SRK’s nach gaana troupe doesn’t make sense in today’s scenario. This entire character could have been done away with and no one would have missed him.
Isha Gopikkar looks pretty , but that’s about it . Considering that “ Anita “ is central to the new plot , she should have been given something more to do.
The “ Khaike Pan “ songs seems such a force fit in Kuala Lampur , but liked the subtle touch that SRK refuses the pan saying “ Don “ pan nahi khata hain.
And the stunts , while some of them look slick I couldn’t bear the “magnetic lift of the ambulance” and the plane / parachute dropping sequence .
Merely shifting the scene form Mumbai to Malaysia doesn’t make it contemporary enough , and obviously this Don doesn’t deal with Gold biscuits and smuggling of cocaine.
The biggest let down was Farhan Akhtar . Lakshya though not in the league of DCH was very sincere. I had high expectations of his take , and while the beginning and the end of the movie were satisfying ( I had no issues with the twist ) , the entire 3 odd hours in between seemed like it was directed more by Gudda Dhanoa than by Farhan . Farhan claims that the original Don was the first movie he remembers seeing, hopefully he goes back to original plots now and doesn’t pester his dad for old screen plays !
Firstly I watched the original Don , on TV from 9:00 am in the morning and watch Farhan and SRK’s take on it at 12 :00 pm the same day . The first Don , though not in the league of Deewar and Sholay was very enjoyable and was a roller coaster ride from start to finish . The climax obviously was a big let down but still the plot had enough intrigue and Amitabh’s chutzpah and Zeenat / Helen’s oomph makes it a good time pass flick .
Here I was hopping that , the new Don would be much moré slicker , would tie in the lose ends of the first Don, cooler stunts, a gripping climax and a more contemporary plot . Here the argument is not whether who makes a better Don , will Priyanka match up to Zeenat , and if Kareena can do a Helen. These arguments hold no good for me , since we all trip on nostalgia and obviously the original would be better
If we put aside all these obvious comparisons, what do we get ,
SRK as Don, who brings style but no menace to the Don’s character. Spouts the memorable lines paying a tribute to original. However fails to differentiate between the Don & Vijay . Vijay seems a total caricature .
Baring Priyanka and SRK , the rest of the characters are not fleshed out at all :
Ifitakar Ahmed as Desilva was a sincere cop who weaved around the entire plot for a reason. Here Boman’s character and his interpretation does not make much sense at all. The casual ease with which he bumps of Singahania makes us wonder why he had to go through all this trouble .
Om Puri is completely wasted as the Interpol officer. The only reason they cast seems to be that the original character was played by Shivpuri.
Arjun Rampal – the s/w engineer turning into a hi- tec thief by night is ridiculous , and his son being part of SRK’s nach gaana troupe doesn’t make sense in today’s scenario. This entire character could have been done away with and no one would have missed him.
Isha Gopikkar looks pretty , but that’s about it . Considering that “ Anita “ is central to the new plot , she should have been given something more to do.
The “ Khaike Pan “ songs seems such a force fit in Kuala Lampur , but liked the subtle touch that SRK refuses the pan saying “ Don “ pan nahi khata hain.
And the stunts , while some of them look slick I couldn’t bear the “magnetic lift of the ambulance” and the plane / parachute dropping sequence .
Merely shifting the scene form Mumbai to Malaysia doesn’t make it contemporary enough , and obviously this Don doesn’t deal with Gold biscuits and smuggling of cocaine.
The biggest let down was Farhan Akhtar . Lakshya though not in the league of DCH was very sincere. I had high expectations of his take , and while the beginning and the end of the movie were satisfying ( I had no issues with the twist ) , the entire 3 odd hours in between seemed like it was directed more by Gudda Dhanoa than by Farhan . Farhan claims that the original Don was the first movie he remembers seeing, hopefully he goes back to original plots now and doesn’t pester his dad for old screen plays !
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Kaal – it’s all about living up to your promise.
Yes, Kaal promised much. A songless thriller from The Karan Johar stable! Set in Jim Corbett, an array of dazzling stars, an item number from the Chaiyya Chaiyya pair and a man eater tiger to moot. And super cool promos which got most of us excited.
But alas, kaal is all about a great promo and an ordinary product. It pretty much falls in the slasher fest genre which studiously sticks to the following rules ;
- Loud is scary. Yes, every scene is recorded with high pitched sound and screechy noises! Sure there could be a better way of scaring people.
- The hero’s best friends are the first to be killed. Here the character Vishal, dies twice in five minutes, if once was not bad enough.
- Point the needle of suspicion on the main characters and get them into a scuffle. We do not even get to see John and Vivek fight. The way their girl friends, get them to back off has to be seen to be believed.
- Have one scary dream sequence in the middle of nowhere, and expect the audience to wake up after that! Headless corpses are a must; throw a couple of them for good effect.
But, hey this movie is set in Jim Corbett (read Orbit Park) and we need to talk about tiger conservation. Remember we have a marketing tie up with Nat Geo. Sure show a hanging owl and langoor dangling from a tree every twenty minutes and a python wrapped around John’s torso (strong suspicion that Karan insisted on this shot). And John is after all a “Tiger expert” working with Nat Geo.
The acting skills in a slasher fest are strictly limited to the women shrieking, screaming, running and obviously dressed in skimpy clothes (remember no songs for such displays). And the men , Vivek Oberoi has perfected the art of being Mr. Irritating (with kajal and lipstick make up !) and considering his acting skills are rather limited , one can be rest assured his real life persona is not way different ( now do we blame Sallu for wanting to bash him up). Devgan who has a psychobabble mumbo jumbo background score blaring as he enters, has a staff to cover his face and his intense brooding eyes hope to add to the terror. John looks good and it’s a little too much to expect him to act.
Yes, Kaal is all this and more! Do watch it, you would never complain about why Karan Johar makes the same kind of KKHH, KHNH, K3G movies. He should leave this genre to the Ramus of the world and not to forget the director of this venture is Soham Ali (he was assistant to both Ramu and Karan prior to this). One piece of advise to Soham, stick to assisting, it’s not such a bad thing.
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