The best and worst of 2008!

Since its year end, its mandatory that I do this!

Movies that you have to see:
A Wednessday
Rock On!
Jaane tu ya jaane na
Fashion
Dasvidaniya
Tashan
Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
Dostana

Spare a thought for :
Jodha Akhbar
Sorry bhai!
Rab ne bana di jodi
Ghajini
Kismat Konnection
Aamir
Ru ba ru
1920
U, me aur Hum

And you'd definately like to miss :
Singh is King
Race
Krazzy 4
Karzzz
Dil Kabbadi
Love story 2050
Ugly aur pagli
Maan gaye Mughal -e -azam
Dronaa
Golmaal returns
Desdrohi

And now for the so-called "awards"
Best picture : A Wednessday
Best director : Dibaker Banerjee (Oye Lucky!Lucky oye!)
Best actor in leading role : Naseeruddin Shah (A Wednessday)
Best actress in leading role : Priyanka Chopra (Fashion)
Best actor in supporting role : Arjun Rampal (Rock On!)
Best actress in supporting role : Kangana Ranaut (Fashion)
Best actor in negative role : Anil Kapoor (Tashan)
Best actor in a comic role : Abhishek Bachchan (Dostana)
Best cinematography : Ayananka Bose (Tashan)
Best art direction : Dipankar Mondal (Aamir)
Best original story : Neeraj Pandey (A Wednessday)
Best adapted story : Arshad Sayyed (Dasvidaniya)
Best screenplay : Abbas Tyrewala (Jaane tu ya jaane na)
Best music : Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy (Rock On!)
Best song : Pappu cant dance saala (Jaane tu ya jaane na)
Best male singer : Atif Aslam (Bakhuda tumhe ho - Kismat Konnection)
Best female singer : Dominique Cerejo (Yeh tumhari meri baatein - Rock On!)
Best lyrics : Kailash Kher (Alvida - Dasvidaniya)
Best male debutant : Farhan Akhtar (Rock On!)
Best female debutant : Shabana Goswami (Ru ba ru)

And now for my favourite categories :
Worst movie of the year : Singh is King
Worst hero of the year : Himesh Reshammiya (Karzz)
Worst heroine of the year : Vidya Balan (Kismat Konnection)
Worst new comer of the year : Harman Baweja
Worst rip off of the year : Ghajini
Worst song of the year : Dil dance maare (Tashan)

A Ridley Scott masterpiece!

A Good Year (2006)

Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. Flavour. The film has a distinct fun, sepia - ish flavour, that is less woody and much more woollen. Just like fine wine.

The story is cliche and predicatble. But the treatment given to it is beautiful. Its like one of those things that you can't describe in words. Like a cold Delhi morning. Or a rainy evening with a warm cup of tea. Neon lights and all that. You have to watch the movie and smile!!!

Rate - 3.5/5

So who are the real Heroes?

Heroes (2008)

Now this hindi movie was abashed as a cheap try at an army saga. So, I never put my money on the theatre tickets. But after I caught this movie on TV by mistake, I would like to swallow my guilt.

Sohail Khan and Vatsal Sheth are two student film makers who set out to deliver three letters of dead army officers to their families. Add to that a documentary, a cruiser bike and locations like Kargil, Punjab and other places in north India. I was interested from this very point. But the story gets even better.

Instead of showing boring ground battles and fake air raids, the director has cleverly shown the aftermath of a war. The heroes who die on the battlefield are undoubtedly great men. They talk to their relatives after months of biting cold so that I could sit here and blog everyday. But, there are heroes, too. A wife who takes care of her dead husbands' ailing parents and yet finds the time to nurse her kid to be an army officer is also a hero. The brother who has lost both his legs in the Air Force and a brother in the Army, runs a school to physically train kids is also a hero. A mother who lives to forget the death of her heroic son, at the same time dealing with a disheartened husband who is an angry father is also a hero. These silent, unsung, real life hereos is what the film potrays. They all live their entire life by two words - Pride and Honour. Is that really enough?

The movie is hilarious at times, like Sunny Deol being on a wheelchair and yet fighting with goons in a bar or the voice recording from the middle of a battlefeild. But I'd forgive Samir Karnik for that. After all, he is all Bollywood!

On a serious note, the film does move you. As cliche as it sounds, but our problems do seem trivial to other people in severe discomfort. They have a smile on their face. And we whine, whine and whine! Do you know why they have a smile on their face? Because they make others smile. They have suffered, they know what its like to suffer and wouldn't want anyone else to go through the same experience. The joy of helping others, or should I say the satisfaction of greater good, as much more, rather uncomparble to small, materialistic or selfish happinesses. (if there exsist a word so!)

The greater good are very strong words, with very simple meaning. As a person from any walk of life, if you can make a small difference, to make someone smile, just one random person everyday - you are a hero! A hero who is unsung, and yet is satisfied with his/her existence. If you don't belive me, try me!

Rate - 3.5/5

The Fountain

The Fountain (2006)

Not that I couldn't think of a title for this blog. I couldn't zero down on what it would be! Because this is a movie of mixed bags. The three intertwined stories are absolutely well collabarated. Same people playing different characters with a similar tinge is an age old eye - catcher. And this movie is no different.

A very weird and original storyline. A man researching on monkeys with brain tumours so that he could save his wife from dying of the same illness. The wife, who is now hallucinating due to her tumour, is writing a book on a Spanish queen who sends a Man to fetch the elixer of life so that she could live forever with this man. She leaves the last chapter for her husband to finish. The last chapter is very vague - this man trying to enter a dying star through its nebula (in outer space) so he can make the tree immortal. (The tree is like the dying wife)

Metaphorically speaking, the film is very rich. Hugh Jackman does an allrite job but Rachel Weiz is stunning as the spanish queen.

Darren Aronofsky has done a masterful job of directing this film. Visually its very appealing, like Van Gogh!

Rate - 3/5

Here's lookin' at you kid...

Casablanca (1942)

Arguably the best romantic movie ever! I didn't think so. Maybe I've become a cynic.

Rick who owns a cafe in Casablanca has a misfortunate love affair in Paris, after which he becomes a cynic. Because a girl betrayed him, he would want to watch the world burn. But when the same girl walks into his cafe one night, accompanied by her husband, who is the leader of a freedom movement against the Nazis. Rick has an exit visa which could help Victor Lazlo go to America and countinue the freedom struggle. Our hero is caught in a dilemma, of revenge or of courage and strength.

Humphrey Bogart defines how a cool voice should sound and Ingrid Bergman looks a classic beauty. The movie has a gripping storyline. And the whole part of how Rick would / could / should react when he meets Ilsa again is played very well. It brings so many different feelings and interpretations in the minds of the viewer. That is what I think the tipping point of the movie is.

Without saying, the ending has Rick helping Ilsa and Victor getting on the plane to leave Casablanca. Rick sticking his neck out for the apparent love of his life. This brings me to another point. My friend came up with this line - Nice is not natural! This theory states that man needs to be taught and reminded how to be nice. Children in school are drilled with lessons of behaiour. Elders are there to remind us at every step. Movies and music inspire us to be a bigger man. Because, it's not natural to us. Being bad, rude, destructive, revengeful is all our natural instinct. Humans are more of a self destruct machines than block builders. Rick had the-whole-movie-of-an-internal-conflict so that he would do the right thing! Why are we any different! Make mistakes, but learn from them!

Rate - 3.5/5

Live free or die hard

Die Hard 4.0 (2007)

Its a very good work out movie! (That is if you're working out and you're as old as Bruce Willis OR you think that mentioning your working out schedule would get some honeys to this blog, nobody ever visits anyway!) Its like watching the latest Indiana Jones movie : Kingdom of crystal skull, with a worn out old man playing the lead paired with a young gun (who, thankfully, is not Bruce's son...his daughter falls for him though!) Atleast that was a Steven Speilberg movie!

This movie is only about action. No brainer, blasts of fire, choppers and car action. The scenes of the F-35 jet hovering around the flyovers and how a running car takes out a helicopter are very well done. But thats about it. There isn't much to talk about in this movie. The story is too predictable, the characters are too stereotypical.

I would rather suggest you go read the book "The fall of arms" from which this movie is inspired.

Rate - 1.5/5

Man with a heart

Invincible (2006)

You might think I'm targetting actors to diss - Mark Wahlberg and Jason Statham. But thats not true. Its a cosmic plan that I only watch movies by these actors and instead of saying bad things about them, I'd be rather impressed.

This is a football-inspirational-cinderella story. Boy, am I a sucker for those! But there is something different (And you think what do I look for in movies!) This movie is based on a true story. This movie is a Walt Disney movie (surprizing, as is Pirates of the Caribbean!) And thirdly, this cinderella story is a sort of mixed bag. (Unlike Goal, where everything happens to extremes. Rise and fall.)

A 30 year old bartender gets picked for a dying football team, but its really the new coach who revives the team. The protaganists' support system (friends) and new love interest character is/are very corny. The story is pretty predictable, but thats not what keeps you gripped.

Its the film making. The movie has a very nice sepia tone off the field and a very pastel tone in the football games and practice sessions. Detailing has been given a lot of emphasis and it shows.

Heart of a person can beat his talent. The movie is about a place where people trust others on a an instinct, believe in the goodness of people and do whatever they can to make the people you really care about, happy. Gosh! I just summarized the meaning of life in three lines!

Rate - 3/5

The true test of character is when you're up against it.