I Am Number Four Review

Its been a long time since I blogged and I thought I shall do it on a movie review that I saw yesterday. I had been waiting a long time to see an action movie and had gone to watch "I Am Number Four".

It is Directed by D.J. Caruso and it is Starring Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer. I had huge hopes on the script and direction, because it came from the guy who directed Eagle Eye & Disturbia. Both weren't what one would call has blockbusters, but still I liked these two movies and Disturbia was quite an awesome movie. I had thought he might bring in the next Shia LaBeouf, because I feel he is the guy who got him fame and name. But Alex Pettyfer was no Shia LaBeouf. He was more of a Robert Pattinson from Twilight. The script also at times did have familiar theme like Twilight.

The trailer, which I had posted some days ago had a lot of action and I was drawn to watch the movie based upon that trailer. The Trailer:

The  trailer did make an interesting watch and had a good gripping effect. The movie did have some effects like those and the climax had an awesome edge of seat action sequence lasting more than 10 minutes. The movie being produced by Micheal Bay had some similarities to transponders in the form of a character which reminded me of Bumble Bee, had a great character in Timothy Olyphant which was quite like Optimus. The movie was more like some mush from Twilight mixed with Transformers.

The movie is basically the story of John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) who is an alien who is being protected by a father figure Henri (Timothy Olyphant). The story is of 9 alien kids who escape the planet Lorien while it is being attacked by an evil species The ruthless Mogadorians, a rival race of tattooed aliens with gills on their faces and Big black shoes on their feet. They're also experts in the killing business, and they're on the trail of Lorien's nine special kids -- known as Number One through Number Nine -- whom they can kill only in chronological order. The movie starts with Number 3 being killed and Number 4 getting a signal for the same. Each time this happens Number 4 and his protector change identities and change the city of their residence.

The move after Number 3's murder is the same reason John and Henri move to tiny Paradise, Ohio, and set up a new life there. But although John is an alien, he's also a teenage alien, and he's not immune to typical adolescent turmoil: the pangs of romance, the trouble fitting in, the feelings of, well, of alienation. Visually, it's a great movie - the effects are very well done and especially all the light effects are very well done

The movie at times was quite slow with John walking Sarah (Dianna Agron) home and they smooching out and I also felt the villians were a bit too outrageous in their powers and at times the script became a bit cliched with certain sequences right out of Star Trek and Star Wars and the kind of space warrior movies. There are entertaining moments along the way, and some likeable characters. (One wonderfully truthful line, uttered by the class nerd about the school's quarterback/bully: "He's in the third year of the best four years of his life.")

The climax was really one big fight and there was an awesome fight scene with Number 6 (Teresa Palmer) kicking the ass of the Mogadorians with some fancy stunts and an entire High School becoming the fighting ground of the good guys vs the bad guys and in the end the good guys win with chest thumping action. The evil Mogadorian Commander played by Kevin Durand of 'Lost' fame does enough snarling to be enjoyable.

Still, you've got to believe its chances of repeating the runaway success of Stephenie Meyer's series are slim. Catching that kind of lightning in a bottle twice ranks right up there with the likelihood of convincing a sparking vampire not to just devour Kristen Stewart and be done with it. Likewise, you can't blame audiences if they don't get hot and bothered this movie.

It kept me entertained. I was hoping the movie would dig deeper into what happened on the home planet and who and where the remaining 9 were. Can't understand why it took the baddies so long to locate the first three. I see a strong potential for a sequel if not on the big screen then as a Mini-Series.

Snapshot: A teen sci-fi soap opera about a mysterious 15-year-old -- being pursued by lethal enemies -- who discovers powerful new abilities while trying to lay low in a tiny Ohio town. If you liked Transformers you'll most certainly like this one too.

I give the movie a 7/10 because of the acting, the effects, the pretty sweet action scenes, the dudes with fins on their cheeks and because it was able to raise a weird rage inside of me when the main bully was shaking up the nerd... I don't know why, but any kind of emotional effect is a success I guess.

It is a good watch for the 1 hour 50 minutes with the last action sequence really worth a one time watch.

Fashionable Heroes :)

For the past few days am in Kolkata. AGAIN! I know i've mentioned a lot about this city in my past posts, but this time i wasn't here for pleasure. I was here for Business, as part of the tour that my company's making all the trainee's undertake before their confirmation. A detailed post will come shortly about the entire tour, but now i'll mention about two movies that i saw in the past few days.

1. Heroes

Me and my friends went to see this movie on sunday. Being in a metro has it's advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to watching movies, the disadvantages take a heavier side. The movie was Originally titled Mera Bharat Mahaan (My India is Great), the film was rechristened Heroes, to avoid sounding jingoistic(source Wiki). They even did a song with the previous title. The theme of the film slightly revolves around the cult classic, The Motorcycle Diaries, the famous film that shows the transformation of Ernesto "Che" Guevara to become the legend. In the original it's the diary that marks the transformation, while in the Indian version, we've two hunks who've to submit a short film to their institute to complete their course in Film Direction. They both desperatly need the degree's to run off to USA for enjoying all the good things in life waiting for them. The storyline doesn't have lot of originality and there's lot of lifting from many popular books and movies. Like for instance there's a scene straight out of five point someone, of the guy wearing the gal's dad's pajama's and then meeting him on the road. I don't know why they needed to make such rips when we've so many other wonderful stupidities shown on MTV and Channel V all day long. The guys Sohail Khan, Vatsal Sheth are shwon to be the kind of carefree youngsters that are now almost in every nationalistic film, be it Rang De Basanti or Lakshya. Both the movies had the hero's going under a transformation and getting the idea to do somethng for the nation. Here they have the transformation by making a film titled "Why one shouldn't join the Indian Armed forces. They start the journey to deliver the last letters of three soldiers who die in the kargil war. These letters are given by the slain soldiers to a TV Journalist who has saved them with him for three long years and when he hear's the titile of the short film, he gives them these letters thinking of making a change in these guys' lives. We are shown even footage from Lakshya with the bofors firing and all.

So the journey begins, we get to see Kuljeet Kaur (Preity Zinta) first who's the widow of Balkar Singh (Salman Khan). She's having a tough time managing the finances with the meagre pension the govt gives her. The guys are convinced when they read the letter to her and she is left all crying. Preity sort of takes off her role from Veer Zaara. Similar situation's similar dialogs. So i wasn't a bit impressed with that. The guys decide that the defense job just doesn't do good for a widow and are still on the positive when it comes to their title and firmly believe that one shouldn't join the forces.

Next comes the other duo of brothers in the story Vikram Shergill (Sunny Deol) who's brother Dhananjay "DJ" Shergill (played by real brother Bobby deol) was killed in action. Vikram was a pilot in the Indian Air Force, he's now in a wheelchair and the story never tells how he got to that chair, other than a small story about Vikram following the enemy planes and getting shot down. The film never shows any real battle scenes. I expected some from the start but then the director wanted to get the emotional side of a war and not the action side. So we've to be happy with the descriptions given by Vikram who's patchy at best. Except for some footage from Lakshya, the movie has lot of ANIMATED Airforce planes doing sorties. Nothing REAL. But the description are a lot more emotional here with a particular scene where they show the elder brother saluting the corpse of the younger brother. It made me remember a photo that came n the papers during the kargil war time when there was a wife, an officer in the army, saluting the corpse of her husband who died in battle and not having one tear in her eyes. I still get a tear in my eyes when i see or remember that scene. Here also the guys decide that the forces don't take care of someone who lost his limbs in battle and leave him to die a painful death. So the title still stands true for them.

The next and last letter was a bit different, the letter was from Sahil Naqvi (Dino Morea), to his Commanding officer asking for leave. On the way they hav a problem with the bikes and get a lift from the trucks carrying the deadbodies of slian soldies. Again lot of emotion. The CO then gives the guys a letter to his family. The guys are a bit shocked to see Sahil's mom engaged in socialite parties and not caring about the last letter her son sent her. Then she tells the story of Sahil's dad (Mithun Chakraborty) who's left all his normal life and is in isolation since the death of his son. The guys play the part of the dead son and make the man happy.

After the long journey, the guys have a trasnformation and that's the whole thing is based on. In the end they realise that honour and patriotism aren't just punchlines to be used in movies but the real thing.

Lot of emotions, lot of nationalism, lot of patriotic scenes. I'd say i was a bit sad only coz i spent Rs 200 watching the movie. The direction and script could have been much much better, the music is at it's best bearable. The cinematography is awesome. The locations, especially the one's in leh are breathtaking.

Rating : 6/10

2. Fashion

I'd wanted to see the movie the day i saw the trailer. The reasons are many, the director Madhur Bhandarkar is among my favorite directors and i've loved all his movies to date, plus this time he had some really good people in the cast, that inclues my favorite actress Priyanka Chopra. I just love her looks and that's what she uses to her best in the movie. The movie is about the dirty underbelly of the Indian Fashion Industry which we never see, the dirty ego wars between the models, the casting couch phenomenon, the male model world filled with the gays who never allow a straight man to becme a top model and so on and on.

Bhandarkar has done it all in this movie, he's shown every possible reason why a girl should never join this world. The movie is a real showstopper. The story revolves around Meghna Mathur who's from Chandigarh, a small town girl who's having the dream of becoming a super model. When she packs her bags and leaves for Mumbai to join this world, her dad(Raj Babbar) isn't all that happy. She gets here and soon is aquainted to the CELEBRITIES in the fashion world. During that point the movie is so much like page three. Even showing model's being hired to go and become EYE CANDY for parties .Slowly Madhu learns the tricks and comes in one show. During that period Shonali Gujral( Kangana Ranaut) is the reigning queen of the model world and Madhu sets her targets on her and aspires to be like Shonali one day. The film shows what all the models go through; drugs, alcohol, smoke and everything. I wonder why Mr Ramadoss didn't toss this movie through the censor board. During the course of time she meets a guy(Arjan Bajwa), has a live in relation with him. He's a male model who's finding it tough coz he doesn't want to turn gay for some designers. Meanwhile she slowly gets to the bed of the top boss in the fashion world and finaly replaces shonali from her top position.

The second half of the movie show's how quickly a model's life can be shattered with drugs, smoke and alcohol ruling their nights. While camera's and schedules dule their days.

There are lot of censorable instances, especially with the smoke. The film even has a wardrobe malfunction and then the whole media going berserk on the fashion world and how the media doesn't care for the girl whose image gets damaged each time the clip is being aired.

The solid reason why Fashion works is because the script brings alive everything you've read in newspapers or watched on TV as an outsider, to the big screen. That's the talent of this director. The music is apt for the movie with lot of good trance music during the shows and then a lovely romance song too.

I tell everyone to go and watch this movie.

Rating:9/10.

Opulence @ its best

Malls malls and more malls. That's all i could see on my way to Gurgaon from Delhi. 1st was the beautiful Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, where even with just 10-15 mts between each vehicle, the average speed was touching 90-100 kmph. It was despite the fact that only the previous day a 7 year old was killed while trying to cross the road. I wonder which idiot left that kid to cross a busy road like this where even if a full sized Mac truck wouldn't stop the incoming traffic, let alone a kid.

Enroute we see the IG International Airport. Its another splendid sight in this route. The highway is a 6 lane with amazing surface. Leaving all this behind, lets come to the point. I reached Gurgaon and easily located my training centre and hostel. After having put up all my baggage, i decided to go out for a stroll @ 10 in the night with my friends @ work.

Just a stone's throw away is the mall road(don't know what's the exact name, but we guys used to call it so coz it had about 8-10 HUGE shopping malls on either side of it, with around same number under construction. The one's that caught my eye were:

Sahara Mall

City Centre

The Metropolitan(Chivas coz of the logo)

DLF's Ambience Mall- This is India's LARGEST shopping mall, with 8 stories and each one kilometer long(yeah u read that right)

So as we were strolling, we saw the Mc Donalds', the Pizza Corners' and etc etc. All the major brand names, one's that i'd heard and seen only in FTV, CNBC and all; like Dior, GUCCI etc. While walking a poster of National Treasure 2 caught my eye and i thought, i should see the film. Now i'd never seen a film in a MULTIPLEX and wanted to know what's the experience like, so we went to The Metropolitan mall which had 7 or 8 screens and was having the film in one of them. At first, the ticket prices alone made me go back. One movie for Rs 175, all for a bit better sound and a cozy chair. I could see 4 movies and still have spare change for popcorn back in my home town of Trivandrum.

Anyways i had stepped in and so we two (by now just 2 of had the INTEREST to watch the movie, others had better things to do; like watching all the good looking gals in the malls) went ahead and took the tickets. A cool 350 bucks were emptied from our pockets. Still i didn't learn my lesson and did the mistake of going and ordering a pop corn bowl and 2 pepsi's. They came to Rs 165. Total 350+165=515 for havin comitted the SIN of watching a movie in a MALL's multiplex.

After all this the lesson that i learnt was that, if i were to be posted in Delhi or for that matter any other metro, my salary of 20k will be vanished in a single day. I'm happy with my rural Orissa for a change, than enjoy the girls and the HAPPENING life in a METRO.

Bourne Ultimatum

Long time since i had a movie review! Was waiting for a movie which really made me sit up all night and then write its review with the enthusiasm still in me. I hadn't had the pleasure to watch The Bourne Ultimatum in a theatre thanks to on-time Kerala theatre's that have english movies always months after they are released. The ONLY movie i've seen in Trivandrum on the day the world saw it 1st was Matrix Revolutions and that wasn't worth the money.

Like many of my pals, i too downloaded the movie. Fake cam prints were available online even before the official release and i was waiting to get my hands on a DVD rip, which is how i like watching movies(even while watching them pirated, watch them in style). Now lets come to the FILM:

The first word to come too mind as I sat in my seat & watched this was "AWESOME". The movie took me away from my comfy couch and made me sit on the edge of the seat. Ultimatum is the last of the Bourne trilogy films. Here Jason is back on the search for his past that began in the depths of the ocean five years back. I had seen the 1st two movies and was totally surprised the way the movie was made. It had relatively no gadgets that are usually present in a spy movie. But what set Bourne apart are the story, direction and of course Matt Damon. He's the perfect guy to play the silent, swift assassin that Jason Bourne is.


Ultimatum starts from where Supremacy left off. Bourne is being chased and he's totally out of his mind trying to recollect his past. He's being chased by none other than CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen, which is skilfully enacted by David Strathairn. Vosen is after Bourne with more resources and people that Pamela Tandy(Joan Allen) ever had. It all begins when a journalist traces the path of Jason Bourne and the scene where Bourne meets the journalist @ the crowded Waterloo Station at London is too good. The precision, the way Bourne takes over and lets nothing be left to chance is too good to watch. From then on each and every moment Bourne is being chased all over Europe by Vosen and his boys.

Ultimatum may be the best serious action movie I've ever seen. From the moment that the opening title appeared, I knew i was in for a ride. Paul Greengrass has done it again. Everything i loved from the previous Bourne films is here once again: the action, the dialogue, and of course the shaky camera. However for me, that last one was never a problem. I think it adds to the suspense. The camera shakes, but remains steady enough for you to see everything and feel like you're there with Bourne as he tries to elude his pursuers, and the performances are so good that these guys seem as though they are the characters they're portraying, instead of just being actors performing well-written roles.

It doesn't ruin the story line and doesn't take the audience on break-neck action sequences, rather it has the naturalistic docu-drama style which is inspired from Director Paul Greengrass. He's used camera's which zoom in and out of the situation as if its been played real-time, like in a news channel or some live show. That's the beauty of the camera work, it takes you right INTO the action. You feel you're being pursued by Vosen and his vast network. The movie makes us feel that Matt Damon has the conviction and swelling desire of the troubled assassin. Kudos to Damon and Greengrass for getting the real essence of the identity that is Jason Bourne.

If you are a fan of the first two Bourne movies, you will not be disappointed by the third instalment. It sticks to what worked in the previous films and adds a little more. I was very pleased to see how well all the information we obtain in 'Identity' and 'Supremacy' all mesh in 'Ultimatum' to finally paint the full picture of Jason Bourne's troubled past.

The action scenes are so brutally fast-paced and well choreographed that they seem instinctive instead of planned to the minutest movement; the stunt-work is nothing short of amazing. The Bourne Ultimatum does not rely on gimmicks, CG effects, or razzle dazzle. Even its chase scenes seem mostly tame compared to the one near the beginning of 'Casino Royale', for example. This is because you are watching a psychological drama--- Jason Bourne is searching for his true identity, by trying to remember his past. Matt Damon plays his part to the hilt and deserves a nomination for best actor for his cumulative performances in these three films. We sense his anguish, his anger, his animosity, his angst, his ambivalence.

Ultimatum is, without doubt, the best of Bourne ever. Highly Recommended.

Sivaji-The Boss, whose boss i ask!

Today i had the privilege to watch a Rajni film on its first day. To be honest am NOT a big Rajni fan. No not even a small one. I just find his antics funny and YES there are some of his films that i adore for their story and for the style. We can't go for a Rajni film expecting it to have a logical story or a stunt that is close to what can happen actually, NO. My 1st Rajni film was Muthu if i remember and that was a film that i didn't like that much. Mainly coz of a basketball stunt. For guys who have seen the film, you'll know what am talking about. Till date the best Rajni film i have seen is Baasha. That had the amazing dialog "Naan oru dhadavai sonna nooru dhadavai sonna madhiri" (நான் ஒரு தடவை சொன்னால் நூறு தடவை சொன்ன மாதிரி) - for non tamilians it translates to "If i say it once, Its equal to saying it a hundred times"(don't curse me if i got it wrong). That was a dialogue that created waves and still is the 1st thing that comes to mind when Rajni comes to mind.

Coming to Sivaji:The Boss. I didn't plan to go for the film till today noon. Mainly coz i had a series of examinations and didn't have the time to stand in the serpentine queues for the tickets and all the fuss associated with it. Also as i said before am not a BIG fan who'd go for the 1st day's show. But luck struck me when Rakesh called up today around noon and asked if i will be willing to come for the film's 6 PM show. I said no probs boss as long as you can get the tickets. So i got ready to go and was supposed to be there at 530. I had to face a slight drizzle on my way and by the time i reached there i was fully wet. Then we waited for Rakesh's contact to show up with the tickets. Then i got the news that there were 3 tickets for the 3 of us(Me, Varun and Rakesh) but 2 were in the balcony and 1 was in the reserved category in the ground floor. I hadn't planned to sit in the ground floor, but then Varun's puppy face look and the dialog "you selfish guys planned to dump me" made me grab the ticket and get in the ground floor seat. The theatre was New, supposed to be the BEST in the town(I'll come to that later) tried to get a seat as back as possible and succeeded in getting a 3rd row seat(from the back) in the middle row. The seat was bw two chain smokers and i had a pretty bad time. Even before the film began the guy on right had done wth 2 and the one on left 1.

Warning Plot spoiler follows:(don't cry later on, or come to beat me up)

The film began by 645. The intro was simply too good, the audience jumping around throwing bits of papers. I was like "Thalle Thiruvanthorathu itreum paandikalo" :O. After the intro they showed Rajni who's a US returned "Senior Software Architect" supposed to be in his early40's(yeah you read it right, 40's for a guy who's 67). 1st thing i couldn't digest was that fact. He looks around 40yish(at the minimum) with all the makeup and the paunch make him look very old than 40's(even for a software GEEK that he is). He's back in India coz he's TIRED making software for the computer giants of the world and wants to invest the money for the improvement of our Indian society by building colleges and hospitals for the poor where education and treatment is free of cost. BTW he's earned about 250-300 CRORE from his great software skills. He shows this off by giving a 500 rupee note to a begger in the opening minutes of the film. Wish we had more NRI's with so much money and such noble thoughts. He finds it a tough deal to start colleges and hospitals and the story is good in this part coz it shows that corruption is rampant in the nation and even if someone wants to start something new for the welfare of the society he has to pay bribes to get his way through.

Then comes the search for a girl to marry for this ELIGIBLE BACHELOR. He needs a girl who's having TAMIL in her looks, thoughts and ways. He finds that in Shriya, our heroine, who's unfortunately not impressed by the hero's wealth and style(rather too much of it). So the story takes a break and Rajni is busy pursuing Shriya in the movie till the interval. I didn't like many of the songs in the 1st half mainly cause they were just there for the sake of having a song. I really felt bad at the Music too. The film just goes on and on without much progress in the hero's plans to build the university in his name, except the moves to get the building sanctioned and paying bribes to people starting from the panchayath officer to the chief secretary. He starts off well and by the interval the villain makes sure that he gives up all his hopes and our Rajni is on the road without any money, except a 1 rupee coin given by the villain as a sign of being the bad guy. Maybe i felt like this because i was waiting to pee for a long time and just wanted the interval to come ASAP. But then that's what I FELT.

Now the facilities @ New theatre's ground floor have been really bad from time immemorial or maybe i felt so coz this was the 1st time i was sitting in the ground floor there. But the queue for the toilet was very long and i was having a BIG problem. I wish the management took note of this and did something to improve the facilities. I felt pretty bad more coz the ticket rates were 10 more than the usual 30 for a reserved seat(40 for reserved and 50 for balcony). Still there was no change in the pathetic conditions.

Now during the interval there was a FIGHT(real one) near the doorway and fortunately i was just watching it from the confines of my seat and from what i saw, i'll never trade seats with the guy who was made a poster on the wall by a huge, burly, dark guy. He looked like one of the gunda's from the film. But as soon as the film restarted, the fans had a truce and all settled to watch the movie.

In the 2nd half we see how Rajni uses the same coin that he got from the villain to screw up the villain's life and then how he earns more and more money and builds up his dream infrastructure. We see his empire expanding to many places and how he uses his muscle power and mind power(i don't know if i can call it so) to get things done his way. Here Rajni uses his laptop and formulates plans to eek out the black money from all the big industrialists and politicians and convert it to good money and invest in his Sivaji Foundation. The laptop has a kool voice recognition software(designed ofcourse by the gr8 NRI himself) which is of importance in the later stages of the film. The songs in the 2nd half are much better than those in the 1st half. I liked "Sahana Saaral" and "Athiradee" quite a lot. Really felt some good effort was given by Rahman in composing these songs. The picturisation was also awesome, especially "Sahana Saaral". The props and set used in this movie are mind blowing and its very evident in this song where we see a set of glass pyramids and cubes, the size of the one in front of the Louvre museum in Paris and the Apple Retail store @ New York.

Glass pyramid @ the Louvre, Paris

Apple store on 5th Avenue, New York

In the end the movie has a surprise and that is something that i could guess about 30 mins before it happened. There was a slight hint about the surprise in the middle and a character was introduced in the movie just for this. The end is usual all out fight ending with Rajni killing the villain and returning the coin in true Rajni style.

The movie has its share of Rajni one-liners, stunts and Rajni tricks(what els to call them?). We see the usual sun glass trick, the coin trick and a new addition is the shifting the gun from right hand to left(which am sure all have seen in the trailer). We also have the amazing set of stunts that defy gravity and often logic; like Rajni getting away with a scorpio with Shriya beside him by doing a wheelie(that too front wheels, ON A 4 WHEELER), Bullet slowing down as it approaches Rajni(think its coz of the repelling magnetic effect that he has on the bullet). Also they had a kool full form for BOSS-Bachelor Of Social Service.

But this maybe the 1st film where in addition to Rajni we see the heroine, SHRIYA doing one that outshines all the tricks and stunts that Rajni does. Its like this, during the 1st half when Rajni's after her; he says that he'll jump in front of a train and die if she doesn't agree for marriage. He stands on the tracks and the train is approaching. Our heroine is watching all this from above the bridge and then she walks off. Now Rajni was putting up a bluff, but now he was really stuck there as his foot got bw the tracks. Rajni is katta desp and the audience prays something happens like a lightning strike or a earthquake that derails the train. But what do we get, we see Shriya jumping onto the track and waving her shawl that was RED (what a coincidence) and the train driver gives in and stops. The guy next to me had a better theory saying "Who wouldn't stop if those were on display". Hats off to Shirya as she's done her part to be a co-star with Rajni.

Vivek rocks in the film as Rajni's UNCLE(yeah you read it right). He has the precise timing and the dialogues that he says are truly for the fans rather than adding meaning to the story. 10/10 for him.

Also forgot to mention, the 1st song is an ITEM NUMBER by Nayanthara. She's changed a hell lot. Now she's much slimmer than she was in Vallavan or the other films.

The Art Direction is truly amazing and hats off to Thota Tharrani for the amazing sets and props, will give 10/10 for that. But that's like standard fitting in a Sankar film. His films always have a message for the public, may it be Gentleman, Indian,Boys or even Anniyan. All have some message that's to be absorbed and i really enjoy watching his films. I will give 6.5/10 for the music by Rahman. The songs don't have the refreshing feel that Rahman's music used to have. Even now when one hears the sweet melodies in Roja or the fast paced numbers in Boys its a great feeling, that is something that lacks in Sivaji's music. The cinematography is pretty good and we get to see some amazing camera work in the stunts and the songs. 10/10 to K.V. Anand for that amazing work. Editing was spot on and i didn't see any glitches even with the elaborate action and song sequences. 10/10 to Anthony for that. I didn't find anything worth mention in the choreography, but was shocked to see that it was done by Prabhudeva and a few others. Maybe coz Rajni really shows his age, they skipped the fast steps.

The film will earn millions by the time the next one comes and that was pretty evident when more than 300-350 people turned up in the queue for the SECOND SHOW. The film ended at 10pm and we were terribly hungry by then. We went and had a ghee roast each and a coffee to do away with the sleep. But i couldn't think about sleeping replaying the stunts again and again in my mind till i reached home.

This is what all that remained of the ghee roast and the ticket.


Overall 7/10 if you look at it from a film's point of view, but 15/10 if you are a Rajni fan.

Dhoom 2 Back in Action-I don't think so

After a long wait i took my sister to watch Dhoom 2 today; it's not that i wasn't looking forward to watch it. In fact i was, but then all my friends saw it on the day of release and told that it's a damp squib and watching it will be a total waste of money. But my sister being a mad fan of Hrithik. Well for people who went to this film expecting a action flick, it's a total disaster. The stunts are too much to believe and almost all of them are done with the assistance of rope tricks. But after watching Krrish i wasn't gonna expect much from this.

This time leave out John Abraham and add in his girl Bipasha Basu. Also add in a dash of Hrithik Roshan and a pinch of Aishwarya Rai and you get Dhoom 2! For those guys who went to see some Booty and for gals who went to see Hrithik flex his great Ab's and Biceps it's a total value for money package. The story is totally BULLSHIT, the picturization is truly great with awesome locales like Mumbai, Goa and Brazil. The songs are also pretty good and are already topping the charts. There's even a KISS to keep the audience entertained, but then what i look forward to in a film is a good story to backup the whole thing and that is a great detail to miss.

The film started with the introduction to the greatest thief in the world, Aryan; played by none other than Hrithik. He's supposed to be so good at his job that no police force in the world has seen his real face and they all are kept guessing about his next robbery. Leading the Indian police force in finding this thief is ACP Jay Dixit( Abhishek). He's helped in his efforts by the sexy and smart ACP Shonali Bose(Bipasha Basu). Well if all policewomen in the force wore what she wore to office, there will be daylight robbery coz half the force (the men) will be looking at them rather than work! Also the expected addition to the force is Ali(Uday Chopra). He plays the funny slapstick comedian's role pretty well and has his share of slow motion walks and muscle flexing too. If Abhishek had some appreciable bod, then he would have been flexing those biceps too, am SURE! The Heroine in the story is played by Sunheri(Aish), and boy has she lost weight and got into shape. She looks amazing in the intro scene with a small pair of shorts that hardly covers anything and a top which is better left unsaid.

The story's like this: Aryan is a master thief who leaves his mark at all the robberies that he carries out, it's a mysterious A. After each robbery he stays quiet for some time and then he moves onto his next target. He steals only things which are in Jay's words: Priceless, things like crown's, antiques and such stuff. After Shonali shows a presentation of his targets across the world and then says that the police all over the world is looking for him, Jay comes up with his brain whacking idea that he's gonna come to Mumbai for his next heist. And so they plan to trap him and obviously FAIL. Next they put Aish into his trail as a thief, but in reality she's a double crosser who's put into the case by Abhi to help him, but in the end she helps Hrithik to escape. Finally the good cop catches the bad thief and that's the end of the story!

When you watch Dhoom 2 ,you realize its not about the plot but about high-tech action,beautiful locations,danceable songs and not to forget: our good-looking hotties. There are way too many great locations and a large number of CHICKS. So go for this movie if you wanna get some thrills from cheap tricks played by our own Hero's and they do try to emote a lot of Hollywood movies. There are scenes which reminded me of the bike chase in the final minutes of MI 2 and some really stupid moves, like the one where Hrithik comes out of a water pipe's manhole as if it's a Coke bottle.

Coming to say about Coke, well he makes sure that he gives good airtime to the COKE label and cans!

Final VERDICT:Yeah I didn't like this movie, but it's not the worse of 2006. I think KANK deserves the worst movie of 2006.Don't bring along your brains for this movie-Just sit back and relax as top bollywood stars flex their muscles and toned bodies and try to entertain you.

Classmates - A real entertainer

Well before writing about th movie i would like to tell about how i watched the movie. It was a lazy day for me, and i didn't go for the CAT class in the morning. The excuse this time was " Cough and Cold" and i was really very drowsy from my medicine. But the real reason was that it was raining like hell and i was NOT in a mood to bathe in icy cold water @ 6 AM. So i slept a bit more and then got up at 730. Reached college at 9 am only to find that i had no class in the 1st hour. The second hour was also free and we guys were having our usual discussions, this time about sports in the last few days, it all began with the Indian Hockey teams PATHETIC show @ the world cup. Then we went into EPL and Champions League and it was 1030. At that time i had a idea for going for a film rather than sit in the class and waste my precious time.

So i asked if anyone was coming and had a mixed response, by 1040 i had just 1 guy willing to come and that was Jai, so we went in my bike and on our way to the theatre, we had 4 guys calling us and asking us if we can get tickets for them too. We said we would try our best and by 11 we reached Sree Padmanabha, it was jam packed with guys n gals frm various colleges(guess all had free hours!) We were in a serpentine queue which extended well into the road. By the time we reached the gate of the theatre, we had varying offers for black tickets like 30 for 50; 30 for 40 and so on.

Finally we made it to the interior of the theatre and got to the end of the queue, by then we had the RELUCTANT guys coming in and we had a small crowd from our class. We took 10 tickets and still we hadn't got for 3 guys who showed up late. Now the tickets we had in our hands were the Rs 20 one's; the very front row. I thought we might have to sit in the 2nd row or 3rd, but when we got inside all that was left was the very 1st row. The closest i had got to the screen was th 7th row for ANNIYAN, and that was kinda bad, i thought this is worse and got in. I could see that the screen really is BIG, but now it looked gargantuan.

I took a seat at almost the middle and when i got in A R Rahman's composition of the Vande Maataram was being shown, the whole audience was swaying to it's tunes and it was good to see them do that. After this the picture began and it was really tough to watch it. It was like watching a tennis match from the front row, had to shift my head from one side to other as the characters spoke on screen. It was really tought to see it all together. But then it was great that i could hear every dialog, every joke from the screen(wch is usually impossible due to the audience comments and laughter). So in that way it was good.


Now about the movie: well if you are going for a stereotype campus romance, don't waste your money over this one. Ofcourse it has a love story, or rather two of them, but there stops the similarity from the other CAMPUS films. This film captures the real essence of a typical Kerala college, with lovers, strikes and friendly(and Unfriendly) teachers. I was really happy to see that this was NOT a story based on a engineering college, not that i don't like it, but then being a engineering student i hate the mockery that such films make of engineering colleges and the students who study there. There have been umpteen number of films that show a guy coming from a poor background scoring centum's in all papers and being the hero in the end. I do agree that it happens, but come on; this can't be the story in all colleges.

Ok now coming to this film, it has a good story and surprisingly good casting, each character fits into the role perfectly and there are no scenes to show the bravery of the hero or the eternal love story or anything, i appreciate the director Mr LAL JOSE for doing justice to the script and the keeping in with the story. The story tells us about the bond between a group of friends who during their prime in the college, enjoyed a lot and then come back to the campus after a short span of time. They find that all of them have changed, but then the bond is still strong in them and they still feel for eachother what they felt years before.

The film has all the essentials for a good movie, nice story, good acting, melodious songs and great picturisation and yea, it has the elements of a thriller too. For more spend ATLEAST 20 buks and go watch the film. The film is another must see, if you really wanna get 100% value for the money spent on the ticket.

Munnabhai Lagey Raho...........

"Munnabhai Lagey Raho" The much awaited film of the year.... But when i saw the small crowd outside Athulya today i was kinda stunned to see that there were hardly 100 people for a film that was supposed to be running full house across the nation. But then what can one expect from the kerala crowd which is traditionally more into action and adventure when it comes to NON-MALAYALAM movies. It is pathetic about the Kerala crowd that we get more people to come for crappy hollywood makeover like Krrish and get so many people and housefull show's.

We were 7 people in total, and went for th 2 pm show. I had huge expectations about the sequel to Munnabhai MBBS and i hadn't heard much about the storyline of the 2nd part, so i was expecting a continuation from where we had stopped in the 1st part. But the director seems to have a entirely new storyline and cast, but there are the usual characters associated to Munnabhai, like the right hand man-Circuit and some other petty thieves. Then ther's Boman Irani in the classical villian type role. Supporting cast includes almost all of the people from the 1st part.

Then in the form of lady interest we have Vidya Balan, doing a pretty good mimic of Robbie Williams in his unforgettable role in GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, only here it's GOOD MORNING MUMBAI...... Munna is our old self itself with his NOT so intelligent ways and talking style, akha Tapori estyle. He's also got his OWN style of getting things done by hook or crook. The film begins in the same way the 1st began, with a Kidnap. But then the drama and the humour in the 1st kidnap was not matched even closely by the opening sequence. In this part munna is more into Social activities and suddenly has a craze to read about Mahatma Gandhi. His involvement with Gandhiji begins there and then he beings to have hallucinations and see's Mahatma wherever he goes. Mahatma tries to change Munna and imbibes in him the qualities of Ahimsa and Satyagraha.

There are very nice songs in the film with picturizations in the beaches of Goa and also locations in Mumbai. The humour and the dialogs in the film are on par with the 1st part. The story moves in a very nice way and the movie never seemed to drag eventhough the second half was pretty serious and there was less scope for humour. The climax was pretty much unexpected and we had a surprise entry from Abhishek Bachchan. But it wasn't like the stupid cameo he did in Salaam Namaste.

The film is a good entertainer for any crowd and also makes one remember the values that Mahatma had given importance and how much we have forgotton them. I will say this is a MUST SEE for the Genext.