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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Filed under: Celebrity, News, Opinion

Usually when one receives the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his first film, despite the fact that it was a bland and a bird-brained-script laden Saawariya, you tend to lose your bearings, and your moorings. It also piles on tones of pride when you get it beating another debut act (Neil Nitin Mukesh) whose Johnny Gaddar was a refreshingly crafted Bollywood product, which had both the critics and the fans rooting for it. Surely, the voting community at Filmfare Awards must have seen something in Ranbir Kapoor which the Constant Movie Fans missed in Saawariya.

There is a pattern seen among most of those who "arrive" into Bollywood with this deadly combination of a starry lineage and a Debut Award. It also brings along with it the pompousness and foolish pride masquerading as star power. Once the misplaced feeling of self - righteousness has set in, only God can save you. Usually after the next three releases that sink without a trace, sanity and commonsense sets in ( Hritik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna - the list is an eye - opener). For Ranbir Kapoor, there was a slight change in the script here. His debut film itself sank without a trace. Though the leading role came on a silver platter, along with a marketing strategy and an A -list Director, Ranbir Kapoor curiously had earned it, slogging it in a very useful apprenticeship, learning the craft under the tutelage of the very same Director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

But the pattern was back. Saawariya was followed by an equally miserable disaster called Bachna Ae Haseeno, directed by Siddharth Anand must have put the much needed sensibility and the fear of the Lord in Ranbir Kapoor because it seemed to take Ranbir in an altogether different direction, daringly decisive and later proved right.

His new direction was pursuing a strategy of relying on the script and NOT the budget, along with the confidence the director brought to the script. Ayan Mukherji's directorial debut, (produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and distributed by UTV), called Wake Up Sid, that released on October 2nd, 2009 was refreshingly different. Though the script had holes and patchy transitions at parts, he literally lived the role of Sid - "a lazy, aimless, unmotivated slacker from Mumbai" who finds direction in his life with the arrival of Aisha ( played by Konkona), who teaches him the real purpose of living a life, rather than existing by virtue of being alive. For a movie made on a modest Bollywood standard of Rs 15 Crore, the Box Office earnings as of 15 October, 2009 stands at Rs 25 Crore.

Ranbir seems to be poised at the rising tip of a growth curve now. Wake Up Sid seems to have metaphorically transcended to real - life if one takes a look at his choice of roles for his forthcoming movies that would be releasing in November and December.
There is promise in the air.
There is Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani directed by Rajkumar Santoshi - a rollicking love story, paired opposite Katrina Kaif, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons of late.
And in December, Ranbir's Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year - directed by Shimit Amin ( of Chak de India! ) and produced by Yash Raj Films, hits the theaters meeting Aamir's Three Idiots head on.
Rocket Singh also bears a striking resemblance to the Hollywood Flick - Employee of the Month. But, we will confirm it as we get more details.
The last quarter of 2009 will be decisive for Ranbir as far as his craft, carrer and his growth curve in Bollywood is concerned.
Here is wishing him all the luck Prem and Rocket can bring around, in 2009.

 

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Filed under: News, Opinion

It may sound awfully inauspicious this Season, but somebody has to say it. It is one thing to have 'inspiration' from a creative product but it is doubly painful to watch the line getting longer by the day.When Dil Bole hadippa came around, and the biggest love factory in Asia went about promoting that spunky Kaur moon - lighting as a spunkier cricket - crazy Sardar, and reams of interviews about the uniqueness of the plot, you forgave them.
I mean, how can you be so naive about all this in this age of information, where evrything you need to search and be informed is at the ease of pressing a key.
Did Aditya Cjopra really think that no one would find the startling similarities been Dil Bole Hadippa and She's the Man directed by Andy Fickman, released in 2006 which is the story of this girl who takes the place of her identical twin - brother, stars in football and falls for his buddy. Yeah, I know, where you are heading with the counter - argument for this one. Change football to cricket, add punjab and patriotism (the usual Yashraj ingredients) and voila, your dish is complete.
What is even more hilarious was She's the Man itself was a reworking of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
And then came Acid Factory. Coming from Sanjay Gupta, it was no surprise about the originality of the film, but this took the cake amongst all his inspirations.The Columbian film - maker Simon Brand's Unknown released in 2006 in English worldwide and as Mentes en Blanco in Columbia tells you exactly the same story. But, even the original loses steam after the first 20 minutes as the director loses all semblence of ideas and the plot goes into hamming over - drive. It was more of taking Christopher Nolan's Memento (our own Ghajini) and extending it to the entire movie's set of characters. But, it was an acid bath, literally for the movie fans as they watched this garbage in Hindi.
It just didn't stop there.
Blue, the biggest and the costliest Bollywood production is a a mix of two movies , main parts copied from Into the Blue and land action from Torque. Even the story line seems uncannily similar to Into the Blue, starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker was about a under water treasure hunt by a deep sea diver dreaming of discovering a Spanish galleon, loaded with gold and becoming rich.

And to top it off, Into the Blue was inspired from Peter Benchley's The Deep which was made into a movie in 1977.

Or, for that matter,Sallubhai's Main aurr Mrs.Khanna.

Take the song Tumne Sochcha from Mein aurr Mrs.Khanna.
The song is an unprecedented feat of musical mastery by Sajid - Wajid who seemed to have taken the rhythm of Every breath you take and the song structure of Blackhole Sun by Soundgarden. Amazing!!
The much awaited Teen Patti is another inspired thriller from 21 starring Kevin Spacey.
More on it later.
Warm Diwali wishes to everyone.

 

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