The Week It Is Turning Out To Be  

Posted by Vee

March 20th was the day of small budgeted releases. Five such movies were released. Firaaq, Barah Aana, Straight, Lottery, Aloo Chaat. Lottery was absolutely out of question. Abhijeet Sawant had always been unbearable. Despite being Nandita’s debut Firaaq was not priority. Of course, I would watch but not soon. And same goes for Straight and Aloo Chaat. Barah Aana was on top of mind and it is still there. I haven’t watched it yet. So, I saw Gulaal once again. However, as the week progressed I saw Aloo Chaat and Straight (by chance) and circumstances yet dodged me to watch Barah Aana. This week three Hindi movies got released and I had seen Videsh (Heaven on Earth) before its release in India. So, one more Friday went without First Day First Show. I am planning to catch Barah Aana and Aa Dekhen Zara this weekend.

Aloo Chaat: 2.5 Stars

Aftab returns to India from USA to find his family looking out for a girl for him. He is already in love with a Muslim girl (Aamna) in USA. The conservative family can accept a videshi-bahu but not a musalman. He along with his father’s friend Hakeem Tarachand (Manoj Pahwa at his usual best) plots a story. The movie works only when Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Manoj Pahwa and Sanjay Mishra are on screen. Whenever this trio appear, it is a treat. Also Aftab’s granny (Dolly Ahluwalia) in few scenes. Rest of them were below average. Aamna Sharief cannot act and dance AT ALL. Not an impressive debut. The best part was the witty dialogues here and there. 2.5 just for some of the wittiest lines and Manoj Pahwa.

Videsh: 2 stars

Well-educated Punjabi Kudi (Preity Zinta) marries a Canadian-Indian. She suffers at the hand of obnoxious mother-in-law and irate husband (Vansh Bhardawaj). Deepa has a way of showing the intricacies, the minutest details get covered when she comes on board. I thoroughly enjoyed her Fire, 1947 Earth and Water. But I did not enjoy Videsh as much. In fact, I was disappointed with the way it progresses towards the second half.

It's all about belief in the shesh-naag theory. Few will, and few will not. I do not. But, that doesn't hinder me from appreciating a good cinema. Shesh-Naag theory will not go down with many people for sure. It did not go down with me and I am not taking that as a bias. It's fictional. But, as a whole, it lacked soul.

Preity and Vansh are the only people worth watching. It is delight when they are on screen (quite often) but the side happenings deter the pace and in the end it just turns out to be another story of Wife-Married-To-NRI-Suffers. Nonetheless, I rate this as Preity’s finest work. I give 2 to the movie and 4 to Preity.

Straight: 2 stars

Pinu Patel (Vinay Pathak), hotelier in London runs to India with his uncle-aunt-cousin to marry an Indian girl. The girl runs away. He comes back. He is dejected. He is virgin for long now. He cries at his state. Things get worse for him when his employee Kamlesh in the state of jubilation kisses him on lips. Pinu is now confused about his sexuality. The movie could have been a well-brought-up-all-the-way-through if story post interval did not become clichéd. Direction, performances apart, movie is outlandish. Parvati’s debut Rules, Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula was better than this. She loses her touch this time. To add to it, I would say I am getting tired of Vinay now. I am sure if he keeps going this way, few years down the line it would be very hard for me to differentiate Dasvidaniya from Oh! My God and Bheja Fry from Straight. And he will be remembered more as SRK’s sidekick (Rab Ne.. ) or Madhuri’s actor (Aaja Nach Le). This is scary. He is a genius but getting repetitive.

This week also saw me meeting Oz (of PassionForCinema). For uninitiated, he along with Anurag started the website for Cine Maniacs called Passion For Cinema. He lives in USA and is currently on a tour here. I recommend his torture series on the site for every filmi enthusiast. I started writing on PFC last October and after 3 in a row articles I got bored (typical of me) and confided myself just as regular reader and commenter there. My procrastination did not make me author there, still I made some filmi friends there and thanks to them I got to meet Oz. A second chance meet and planned third before he scooted off made me his bhakt for life. The guy is a living encyclopedia of movies. Without sounding immodest he was impressed with my knowledge of Bollywood of 60s, 70s and 80s which is hardly observed these days in new-age-bloggers (as he calls those born in 80s) and left me his personal contact number. Anyways, I got to hear some of the amazing untold stories of Bollywood first hand. The stories that cannot be accommodated any where in writing. What else a filmi wants?

If these things were not an adequate amount to make me contented, my twin brother whose first brush with Abhay Deol was Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye and then Dev.D asked me for DVDs of Abhay’s movies. He was having a long weekend and he wanted to watch other movies of Abhay. I handed him the movies of Abhay in the chronological order of their release. He loved Socha Na Tha. He found Manorama – 6FU his best (after Dev.D, exactly the way I feel) and we just finished watching Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local. He enjoyed the movie. I was watching his expression now and then. Aahista-Aahista and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. are in offing this weekend. My bro doesn’t easily appreciate any actor/director/performance/story. He is equally enthusiast of a movie but of a different sort. He doesn’t read any reviews (not even mine), he doesn’t crave for a movie the way I do. He watches them at his own pace. He might take years to watch even a gem of a movie but he will never rush himself (unlike me). He can talk of the intricacies like a pro. He doesn’t just watch movies. He absorbs them when he wants to. I won’t say he is a convert as of now when it comes to Abhay but he did say one thing: Abhay is natural. The last time he said same was for Irrfan Khan in Maqbool and Ajay Devgan in Company and Omkara. His favorite now is Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh) from Gulaal.

Some good small-budgeted movies, a meet with a fellow filmi, and re-runs of Abhay’s movies. I am having an amazing week.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28, 2009 and is filed under , , . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .

27 Pointless but Viscous Comments.

I saw Aloo Chat too and concur with you. Its the older actors who grip you. I liked Dolly Ahluwalia too. She is a chandigarhian and I loved her act in The Blue Umbrella and Yahan. She even did the costumes in Yahan.
The 'meri laash ke upar se' dialogue was good hehe..

Aamna ! Hey Bhagwan, uski jagah ek gudia rakh dete, she was just a clothes horse. Even that firangan was grt looking and a better actor.

I sort of thought the movie was a bit too harsh on angrez log.

You are soooooooo lucky to meet oz. I will check out his torture series right now.

Abhimanyu ka phone number nahi hai :(

This comment has been removed by the author.

your observations regarding vinay pathak is true.. he is being repetitive.. he should wait for some good characters before getting stereotyped in the commercial bollywood movies..

am a great fan oz too.. great that u got to meet him and build a relationship..

:)

waiting for review of 12 aana...

Ailaaa, you got to meet OZ ??? Gr8 going Oxy boyyyy!!! Me me thinking you you going to meet Abhay also pretty soon. Yet to watch all these movies, my weekends are kinda getting tied up these days and I need to break all those very soon. Gotta get back into my movie watching spree.

and you converted your twin into an Abhay-maniac!!!! Now, you have competition, boyy!

You are so damn lucky to get access to all the hindi movies released! God's own country - Kerala has no such luck!!

Great reviews and written well!!

Keep Blogging!

Reminds me that I haven't been to the movies in ages now!

Thanks for the extensive write-up!

Anonymous  

Everything is fine with this post except the obsession with Abhay Deol :P.

I find him just a good actor, maybe a little underrated but by the way you go gaga over him, I have started becoming allergic. [God, am I sounding like your wife :) he he]

After Dhoondte Reh Jaoge, I didn't dare watch Aloo Chaat. And none of these movies released here, only Aa Dekhein Zara which I'll see in the next few days.

Man I am so behind on movies, am at the point where I will never catch up! Enjoyed the review any way!

bas bhai bas...so many movies...kya baat hai.

thanks for the reviews :) wont watch them :)

@Ava, Yups, it was an ok watch. Manoj Pahwa and Sanjay Mishra were just too good. Have you heard of Manoj Pahwa's 'Urf Professor' by Pankaj Advani. Never saw the day light. Read about it on PFC. Hoping it will release soon.

Haha, Abhimanyu aur aap. Uff Yu Maa..

@Vinz, 12 Aana still eludes me. Haha, I don't know how but some or the other reasons. And I ended up seeing 'Aa Dekhen Zara'.. Haha... Masterpiece Movie.

@Vimmuuu Boi, Yes, it was an absolute fun talking to Oz.

Get back to your watching spree. Moreover after April 3rd, there ain't any Bolly releases for a month or so. You would be able to finish the backlogs.

My bro is not a convert yet and I am not sure whether he would be. I doubt though.;)

@Magik, Thanks to you Oye. It was cuz of you only I could meet him. I can't thank you much.

@Biju, Shift to B'lore. Ha Ha. Thanks Buddy.

@Rakesh V, Thanks Macha.

@BB, Hehe..:)

@Rakesh Bro, Hehe. To set records straight, I am not obsessed with Abhay Deol. So far, I have found all his 7-8 releases a great watch, so I like watching his movies as I believe it would be worth, entertaining and a good cinema. That's it. If he had done Singh is King, or Tashan or Drona, I would have ridiculed him accordingly. But he has not and all his movies from Socha Na Tha till Dev.D are 'ek se badhkar ek'.

Ha Ha, nopes not like a wife but yeah, like a nagging GF.. ;) He He. No frets. Jo Mann Me Aaye Bol Do.

'Dhoondte Reh Jaoge'.. hahaha, I do not wish to even talk on that. Idiocy of first order. But Aloo Chaat does work for older actors as I mentioned.

I saw Aa Dekhen Zara. It was a stupid movie. I am still LOLing. I had fun watching it. More so, it is fun to watch such movies with group.

@Angel, Start catching up from next month onwards as there won't be any Hindi releases for more than a month.

@V-Bhai, Kya yaar, movies mere rag rag me hai.

@Reema, Good. Don't. :)

@Einstein, Thanks.

Anonymous  

I don't remember if I have said this earlier here, but Abhay is the best amongst the Deol brothers. And he has done a series of good movies.
I saw Gulaal this weekend. It was good. I liked it.

@Amit: Abhay best amongst Deol brothers!! There is NO comparision amongst them. Ajay is too fine a actor to call that comparision.

@Vimal: I know what you mean. You jealous lover, inwardly praying that Vee neve rmeets Abhay. Don't know what Vee will do after meeting him.

@Vee: I am surprised you didnt feel any urgecy for Firaaq. But now reading the rveiews, I understand there is no urgency required. You have OCD when it comes to Abhay. I agree with your twin brother, Ransa was best. HE has a PRESENCE.

Vee!! Where is that name/URL option to comment?

@Amit, I agree. Dharmendra was good in his own way, But I connect to Abhay more than any Deols. Som finally u saw Gulaal. Awesome.

@Poonam, Blame it on his choice of movies and his performance for that any tiny-winy OCD. That option is corrected now.

Aloo Chaat, Videsh - Waste of 700MB ;)

Straight I liked only because of Vinay Pathak ;)

Anonymous  

Too much content for one post. Unfortunately the only movie both of us have seen is Aloo Chat. You already know my views on the deluge release already. Btw, Raja Menon accepted it was a mistake releasing all small movies on one Friday.
I can only get jealous about you meeting oz.
We anyway agree on Abhay Deol.
I never knew you had a twin bro(unless I am missing some innuendo here).
Regarding Vinay, Dasvidaniya & Oh My God and now Straight probably making him a stereotype. But Like you mentioned his other memorable roles, his inspector role in Manorama 6 ft was also good.

After 3 movie marathon last weekend me took a break this time. Will watch ADZ though.

Cheers!
~uh~

@Chirag, Delete maar de..:)

@UH, Barah Aana is still eluding me. Or I am eluding it.:)

Raja seems to be very down to earth fellow. I followed your conversation with him.

Yes, I have a twin, indeed I have. Called Dev.

Vinay needs to slow down. I mentioned the top of mind ones (acc to ppl), for me top of mind when it comes to Vinay is def his Inspector role in Manorama and Jism. And then, his other.

Will wait for your take on ADZ.

Anonymous  

thanks for the reviews...you saved my time!

and someone's on love with abhay, huh!! Re-runs??

Anonymous  

"in" love, i meant! :D

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