First of all, film-makers should give up using promising terms like 'ajab', 'ghazab' and what not in their movie titles. It's not just misleading, it is unbearable. Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani has ajab and ghazab only in the title. Everywhere else, it is absolutely 'sada hua' and 'mara hua'. The weak plot, saddening so-called comedy sequences and overall stupidity is so overpowering that one almost ignores Ranbir Kapoor's decent performance. The Kapoor boy definitely has it in him. However, the script did not have anything in it.

The film is about a laidback young man Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) who, for reasons I have no clue of, falls in love with Jenny (Katrina Kaif), who in turn is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel), who is a dedicated son of a religion-obsessed politician Pitambar Jalan (Govind Namdeo). The story drags on - Prem falls in love with Jenny, and the day he goes to proclaim his love to her, she confesses her love for the Canada-returned Rahul. Prem is heartbroken, but soon enough picks up the broken pieces and decides to help Jenny marry her love. However, Rahul's father, Pitambar Jalan, is dead against the inter-caste wedding. Using all the tricks up his sleeve, Prem manages to convince Pitambar to agree to the wedding, but on the D-day, Jenny realises that she is 'madly' in love with Prem, and runs off with him. Go figure!

So yes, the storyline is as stale as it can get. Since the movie was intended to be a rom-com, the unappealing storyline is not what worries me. Ideally, the winner should have been the comedy. Unfortunately, except for a couple of scenes, the jokes don't really have the intended effect.

Katrina is as pretty as a wax statue - flawlessly beautiful, but painfully emotionless. Upen Patel looks very silly. Maybe he should give up acting altogether and thus help save movie-buffs from killing themselves. And Salman's special performance has to be mentioned, simply because of the hideous jeans and T-shirts he wears. What was he thinking? Arrgh!

Darshan Zariwala, as Prem's father, does justice to his role and I feel that he is the only genuinely funny person in the film. The locations seem out of place for some reason. They are too clean and nice to be Ooty, and if the movie was shot in Turkey, I'd say it was an unnecessary waste of money! The location is definitely beautiful, but it doesn't look or feel Indian.

On the whole, one gets to see a lot of flaws. Amidst all the chaos, there are two things about the movie which allow you to breathe a sigh of relief - Ranbir Kapoor and Pritam's music. Ranbir's performance is worth the watch. However, he really needs to pay attention to the kind of films he chooses to be in. The song 'Kaise Baataon' makes for pleasant listening, and 'Tera Hone Laga Hoon' brings a smile to one's face.

A romantic comedy from Raj Kumar Santoshi years after the classic Andaz Apna Apna invariably implies sky-high expectations. But the movie is a disappointment. I did read articles mentioning that the movie did well at the Box Office. However, in all honesty, I don't see why this film should become a hit. My verdict is - do not go through the torture of watching this film even if you are offered free tickets. Why beg for a headache?

 

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First of all, film-makers should give up using promising terms like 'ajab', 'ghazab' and what not in their movie titles. It's not just misleading, it is unbearable. Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani has ajab and ghazab only in the title. Everywhere else, it is absolutely 'sada hua' and 'mara hua'. The weak plot, saddening so-called comedy sequences and overall stupidity is so overpowering that one almost ignores Ranbir Kapoor's decent performance. The Kapoor boy definitely has it in him. However, the script did not have anything in it.

The film is about a laidback young man Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) who, for reasons I have no clue of, falls in love with Jenny (Katrina Kaif), who in turn is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel), who is a dedicated son of a religion-obsessed politician Pitambar Jalan (Govind Namdeo). The story drags on - Prem falls in love with Jenny, and the day he goes to proclaim his love to her, she confesses her love for the Canada-returned Rahul. Prem is heartbroken, but soon enough picks up the broken pieces and decides to help Jenny marry her love. However, Rahul's father, Pitambar Jalan, is dead against the inter-caste wedding. Using all the tricks up his sleeve, Prem manages to convince Pitambar to agree to the wedding, but on the D-day, Jenny realises that she is 'madly' in love with Prem, and runs off with him. Go figure!

So yes, the storyline is as stale as it can get. Since the movie was intended to be a rom-com, the unappealing storyline is not what worries me. Ideally, the winner should have been the comedy. Unfortunately, except for a couple of scenes, the jokes don't really have the intended effect.

Katrina is as pretty as a wax statue - flawlessly beautiful, but painfully emotionless. Upen Patel looks very silly. Maybe he should give up acting altogether and thus help save movie-buffs from killing themselves. And Salman's special performance has to be mentioned, simply because of the hideous jeans and T-shirts he wears. What was he thinking? Arrgh!

Darshan Zariwala, as Prem's father, does justice to his role and I feel that he is the only genuinely funny person in the film. The locations seem out of place for some reason. They are too clean and nice to be Ooty, and if the movie was shot in Turkey, I'd say it was an unnecessary waste of money! The location is definitely beautiful, but it doesn't look or feel Indian.

On the whole, one gets to see a lot of flaws. Amidst all the chaos, there are two things about the movie which allow you to breathe a sigh of relief - Ranbir Kapoor and Pritam's music. Ranbir's performance is worth the watch. However, he really needs to pay attention to the kind of films he chooses to be in. The song 'Kaise Baataon' makes for pleasant listening, and 'Tera Hone Laga Hoon' brings a smile to one's face.

A romantic comedy from Raj Kumar Santoshi years after the classic Andaz Apna Apna invariably implies sky-high expectations. But the movie is a disappointment. I did read articles mentioning that the movie did well at the Box Office. However, in all honesty, I don't see why this film should become a hit. My verdict is - do not go through the torture of watching this film even if you are offered free tickets. Why beg for a headache?

 

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Filed under: Celebrity, News, Opinion

How long can you milk a concept for all its worth?
Once is great. Twice is good.Thrice is audacious. 5 Times would be pretty stupid is what anyone with a reasonable amount of common sense would say.
And Jail has proved it right.

Madhur Bhandarkar hit upon this motherlode of 'reality' movies with Chandni Bar in 2001. It was first of its kind in the franchise, and there were possibilities in a subject of that nature , and true to its content even recieved a National Award for the film. With Page 3 and Corporate he thought he had the Average movie fan eating out of his hands. Fair enough. The movies were big commercial successes, which made him audacious enough to go on with this now - predictable format of taking this cooking pan, throw in a handful of characters made famous or infamous through the media, known to the public, create a handful of others to support them, saute in over medium heat, add a dash of pithy dialogues and a song to taste, and voila, the latest Bhandarkar dish was ready for public consumption.

Madhur Bhandarkar is a brilliant craftsmen, but knowingly or unknowingly, he has gradually become a prisoner of his own ideas. maybe he should even get a patent for this version of 'reality - films and resell the franchise.
The reasons for the above are many. Chandni Bar worked at various levels. As a story, though the characters had elements of familiarity in real life, the narrative was natural, and honest. As his movies progressed on the same format, of half reelity and half reality, his narrative seems to be becoming more and more contrived and stilted.

Though the concept of a story centered around a jail has been surprisingly not had any takers in Bollywood ( ok, Teen Deewarein, what else?), this time Madhur Bhandarker has gone for the ready - mix variety for his cooking, and predicatbly, the end product looks colorful, sans soul.And as for Jail, all he had to do was look around through the world classics in this genre and pick the most popular of the characters and give it a Bollywood twist.

C'mon, Mr.Bhandarkar, whom are you trying to convince with this deep, intense buddy act interplay between Parag and Nawaab - is it for those who are not familiar with Andy and Red from The Shawshank Redemption? The character sketch is so blatantly similiar that it is disgusting. And Manish mehta as Joe D'souza who runs over 6 people (aha) on a drunken driving spree.
Cardboard cutouts anyone?

The characters as evident form the released story line are too boring to be true. Maybe Madhur never realised that the themes he progressively chose, unlike his first subject, that of dance bars, were so deeply ingrained in the popular media, that events have taken on a jaded sheen in everyday affairs.

How in God's name are you going to put uniqueness in a character that's been so familiar with the public, who knows the beginning, the middle ground and the end of ever character's screen life?
Break out of your shackles, Mr.Bhandarkar.
Maybe its way too symbolic to have this project named as Jail.
Its a bit ironic and sadly funny too.

 

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Filed under: Celebrity, News, Opinion

Neither an impregnable marriage vow nor a heartfelt love proposal is strong enough to keep a real-life relationship working on reel - at least it seems like that to me. Even sensational couples in reality don't seem to create much sensation at the box office when they come together.

Take Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, for instance. I think that with the entire media hype around them, they could easily pass off as the most sought-after couple, after Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. But when they come together on screen, the sizzle is somehow not translated there or is done wrong. Tashan? Gosh, let's not even get there!

Ditto with Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor. I personally think they look cute together. However, I must admit that their combination in Bachna Ee Haseeno was not really a great idea!

Kajol definitely broke the hearts of many fans - men and women alike - when she decided to move out of the Bollywood fraternity after tying the knot with Ajay Devgan. We were all glad when she announced her return to films. But Raju Chacha was a terrible comeback. And to think that her chemistry with her own husband was pathetic! It hurts. The more recent U, Me Aur Hum was no exception either. Stolen from the very beautiful Hollywood flick, The Notebook, the Hindi version had no appeal - neither did the couple.

Akshay Kumar, in the good old days, sent temperatures rising with Ayesha Jhulka, Raveena Tandon and Shilpa Shetty, and has now accomplished the same magic with Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor and so on. But with wife Twinkle Khanna, he was ice cold in movies like Zulmi and International Khiladi.

Beauty queen Aishwarya Rai looked very pretty in Kyun... Ho Gaya Na. But, her pairing with her then boyfriend Vivek Oberoi was not so pretty. It was the same case with hubby Abhishek Bachchan in Sarkar Raj, Umrao Jaan, Kuch Na Kaho and Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. With all the news around the junior Bachchans at the time of their marriage, the last thing people expected to see was a lack of onscreen chemistry between the two love birds.

Then again, there's the steaming hot John Abraham and Bipasha Basu. We have to agree that together, they create news off-screen. But, together, onscreen, they are often a tragedy. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Madhoshi, Aetbaar - all bad!

It feels funny when I think of Kareena and Shahid Kapoor's chemistry. When they were blindly in love, in real life, they made disasters like 36 China Town and Fida. Once they broke up, Jab We Met was born. Sigh! Somebody please explain to me how this happened.

My wild guess is that for a couple to be successful onscreen, they should break up in real life. Okay, that's really evil! Let's get logical here. Irrespective of how much the couples are in love, the movie makes a difference only when it is made well. However, good chemistry is more like a cherry on the cake - while it's not particularly necessary, it is definitely preferred.

P.S. - Now if we slyly do a bit of shuffling among these couples, they work magic. Like say, Kajol with Shahrukh Khan, which is an evergreen choice, Saif with Rani Mukherji, which is cool, Akshay with Priyanka Chopra, which is hot, and John with Priyanka, which is good too. And the winner of the best-chemistry list would be Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with Hrithik Roshan (much to Abhishek Bachchan's annoyance)! This list can go on and on... but sadly, it has no real-life couple in it yet.
That's the sad truth. Sob!

 

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