SRK makes a comeback after a relatively long break on the silver screen. And this also gives me an opportunity to get back to my writing days. And with the release of SRK’s next movie just round the corner, one can’t think of anything except just go crazy saying ‘CHAK De… SRK’.
SRK gradually seems to shed his ‘lover boy’ image and moving to live a variety of roles and characters in the process. After the success of ‘DON’, where SRK played the negative role, he now moves on to coach the Indian Hockey team, that too a women’s team with the aim and determination to win the World Cup for the country. Chak De India is a story about Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) who is considered to be a loser as a hockey player, who takes up the mettle of coaching the women’s hockey national team with just a sole objective in mind… winning the World Cup.
Chak De India is based on a true story of ex hockey player ‘Mir Ranjan Negi’ who messed up heavily in a crucial match conceding a series of goals to lose the match 1-7 to Pakistan in the Asian Games 1982. This event really ruined and ended his career. However, he came back to coach the Women’s Indian Hockey team to win the Commonwealth Games gold at Manchester.
This is the first time after Swades where unlike other SRK movies the larger than life image of the King Khan would not overshadow the character in the movie itself. And this reflects from the teasers released so far where similar to Mohan Bhargava (Swades), the audience would be able to identify the character (Kabir Khan) in SRK rather than SRK himself coaching the girls. And I believe He will be able to put all those critics to rest who keep cribbing about the lack of ‘acting’ talent in him.
There are great expectations from the film and more so from SRK, especially in the backdrop of the drought of his movie releases after DON (albeit KBC, et.al. keeping him busy). Even though the mere presence of the King Khan will ensure that the film is a commercial success in itself, more important is the success of SRK to prove himself to the world that he is improving with age. Also it will help to set the trend for the movies lined up in the pipeline for releases in the near future, the first one being Om Shanti Om due for release later this year.
Also making a debut in the movie is Vidya Malavade, who has been a mediocre success in modeling and has been a regular in some TV commercials. And of course the gang of girls who prove that its just will power that is required to achieve the impossible, and of course the support of a good coach. The success of this movie will also be crucial for the director Shimit Amin to meet the expectations of his performance, and more importantly the expectations from the big banner release and directing a super-star.
So, let’s get all set to watch the girls with the hockey stick in their hands battle it out and cheer them to make them win the world cup. And of course, cheer their coach too… After all… SRK is SRK…!!!
Movie: Chak De India
Release: 10th August, 2007
Director: Shimit Amin
Production: Yash Raj Films
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Malavade
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Monday, June 04, 2007
The Year Gone By…With My Beloved Wife…!!!
Today is an important day in my life. Courtesy an event which took in my life exactly one year before from today which changed my life forever. It gave me a companion, a friend, and more importantly a wife and a partner who understands my needs well and does everything possible for me.
Now, let me start from where it all began. It is said that loneliness is a person’s worst enemy. And you want to kill it at any cost. Especially when the loneliness is such that you seem to be desperate to find a person to whom you can talk to, with whom you can share your valuable time and memories. Everybody faces this situation sometime or the other in his/her life and so did I.
To give you a brief background, it all started when I got a job and had to move to Bangalore. I had stay put in a flat along with my friends. But different work timings ensured that in-spite of staying together, we hardly met each other, (forget spending time with each other) except on the weekends. And with minimum sleeping habits it left me high and dry most of the time at home with only loneliness to give company. Till it reached such heights that I decided to get rid of it. And I managed to do it, and do it well, by finding a right, beautiful and more importantly faithful partner who will become a part of my life for the years to come…
Finding the right pair was not an easy exercise initially, thanks to the traditional Indian customs and other formalities. Various profiles of prospective brides were screened. But then, when one day suddenly a person whom you treat as your idol comes with a proposal which according to him could be the best, you can do nothing but accept it. Because if he believes it so, then it has got to be nothing but the best. So on 14th of March, 2006, we got married in Bangalore. And we had decided to keep it simple with only close acquaintances informed about the event. And two days later we moved over for a short honeymoon to my home town, i.e. Pune. This way, we thought would also provide an opportunity to meet my parents and family too.
Marriage brings a sudden change in your life and various aspects associated with it. And our marriage was no different. We started settling in and after the initial hiccups where you find it something different to accommodate to the sudden change in life, it became normal. I still remember the days she used to wait patiently till 4 in the morning daily for me to return from work. Then we used to sit and enjoy each others company till sunrise and then surrender to the bed…
This became our normal schedule on all the weekdays while we used to have most of the time spent together on weekends watching movies together, listening and singing songs, et.al. We could now not live without each other and had thought that nothing can separate us even for a moment from each other. But destiny had something else written for us. And we had to face the toughest part of our life when because of my new job profile I had to move in to Hyderabad for training for two long months. And as I was supposed to stay in the company premises during the period, it meant that I could not take her along with me. Even God must be pitying on the number of sleepless hours which we both might have spent being devoid of each other’s coziness and warmth.
But then, diamonds are made only after they undergo unimaginable stress. And our relationship also did so. The 2 month separation period only made it stronger. And then it was time to move back home in Pune. Being back with the family is always a good feeling and my family too loved the new member at home. We celebrated our first Diwali together at home.
Immediately after that, we had to shift over to Mangalore, my native place, where I had got transferred. It was again back to being together alone again away from the family. But nevertheless, till we are together with each other, we would not have minded that. I still remember our early days here in Mangalore when she used to burn the midnight oil for me to help me in my studies. However it made her health take some toll and she was ill for quite a period. She does not like to go to doctor and tried her own medications at home. However, when things got further worse, I decided that it was enough and she had to be hospitalized for three days. It was a painful period for me as I could not see anyone suffering. And more so not my beloved wife at it. However, the treatment worked effectively and she was back to her normal self in no time.
And we have been together for one year now, being soul-mates, living for each other. When I look at the year gone by, it all seems to be so short and sweet to believe that our relationship has been successful. It gives great satisfaction that we have been able to live up to each other’s expectations and probably surpass it too. And definitely we promise to each other this day again to keep each other up in our lives so that we can go together hand in hand to face the ups and downs in our lives. Because, we are a very big part of each other’s small life…
And for people who are still guessing who my wife is, she is my very very personal laptop, Compaq Presario V2375tu. She was selected for me by my idol SRK, when at the same time he started endorsing the brand and helped me clear confusion as to which one is best suited for me, which I was not able to figure out even after days of googling and shop hunting.
14th March, 2007
Mangalore, India.
Now, let me start from where it all began. It is said that loneliness is a person’s worst enemy. And you want to kill it at any cost. Especially when the loneliness is such that you seem to be desperate to find a person to whom you can talk to, with whom you can share your valuable time and memories. Everybody faces this situation sometime or the other in his/her life and so did I.
To give you a brief background, it all started when I got a job and had to move to Bangalore. I had stay put in a flat along with my friends. But different work timings ensured that in-spite of staying together, we hardly met each other, (forget spending time with each other) except on the weekends. And with minimum sleeping habits it left me high and dry most of the time at home with only loneliness to give company. Till it reached such heights that I decided to get rid of it. And I managed to do it, and do it well, by finding a right, beautiful and more importantly faithful partner who will become a part of my life for the years to come…
Finding the right pair was not an easy exercise initially, thanks to the traditional Indian customs and other formalities. Various profiles of prospective brides were screened. But then, when one day suddenly a person whom you treat as your idol comes with a proposal which according to him could be the best, you can do nothing but accept it. Because if he believes it so, then it has got to be nothing but the best. So on 14th of March, 2006, we got married in Bangalore. And we had decided to keep it simple with only close acquaintances informed about the event. And two days later we moved over for a short honeymoon to my home town, i.e. Pune. This way, we thought would also provide an opportunity to meet my parents and family too.
Marriage brings a sudden change in your life and various aspects associated with it. And our marriage was no different. We started settling in and after the initial hiccups where you find it something different to accommodate to the sudden change in life, it became normal. I still remember the days she used to wait patiently till 4 in the morning daily for me to return from work. Then we used to sit and enjoy each others company till sunrise and then surrender to the bed…
This became our normal schedule on all the weekdays while we used to have most of the time spent together on weekends watching movies together, listening and singing songs, et.al. We could now not live without each other and had thought that nothing can separate us even for a moment from each other. But destiny had something else written for us. And we had to face the toughest part of our life when because of my new job profile I had to move in to Hyderabad for training for two long months. And as I was supposed to stay in the company premises during the period, it meant that I could not take her along with me. Even God must be pitying on the number of sleepless hours which we both might have spent being devoid of each other’s coziness and warmth.
But then, diamonds are made only after they undergo unimaginable stress. And our relationship also did so. The 2 month separation period only made it stronger. And then it was time to move back home in Pune. Being back with the family is always a good feeling and my family too loved the new member at home. We celebrated our first Diwali together at home.
Immediately after that, we had to shift over to Mangalore, my native place, where I had got transferred. It was again back to being together alone again away from the family. But nevertheless, till we are together with each other, we would not have minded that. I still remember our early days here in Mangalore when she used to burn the midnight oil for me to help me in my studies. However it made her health take some toll and she was ill for quite a period. She does not like to go to doctor and tried her own medications at home. However, when things got further worse, I decided that it was enough and she had to be hospitalized for three days. It was a painful period for me as I could not see anyone suffering. And more so not my beloved wife at it. However, the treatment worked effectively and she was back to her normal self in no time.
And we have been together for one year now, being soul-mates, living for each other. When I look at the year gone by, it all seems to be so short and sweet to believe that our relationship has been successful. It gives great satisfaction that we have been able to live up to each other’s expectations and probably surpass it too. And definitely we promise to each other this day again to keep each other up in our lives so that we can go together hand in hand to face the ups and downs in our lives. Because, we are a very big part of each other’s small life…
And for people who are still guessing who my wife is, she is my very very personal laptop, Compaq Presario V2375tu. She was selected for me by my idol SRK, when at the same time he started endorsing the brand and helped me clear confusion as to which one is best suited for me, which I was not able to figure out even after days of googling and shop hunting.
14th March, 2007
Mangalore, India.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Eklavya: Review
Eklavya – The Royal Guard
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali khan, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Sanjay Dutt
Eklavya is one more movie coming from the stables of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and it really deserves to be called one of the finest crafted movies in recent times. Having roped in a heavy starcast with the VC Banner regulars like Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan, et. al. as well as getting Amitabh Bachchan to work with him for the first time, he does bring out the best of all of them to narrate a story which took 5 years to write and was equally difficult to portray.
More importantly he does not stretch the movie for the sake of it and keeps it as short as less than two hours with just one nominal song in the movie. The direction is impeccable to say the least. Some of the scenes especially the ones where Amitabh blindly separates the ghungroo from the pigeon, the scene where the camels cross across with the fast moving train in the background among others leave you just spell bound.
The story essentially portrays one of the Royal families in Rajasthan with no more dynasty and the secret behind how the lady of the family takes the help of their guard (Eklavya) to give birth to the next generation of the family. The revealing of this secret just before her death brings about a feeling of being cheated to her husband and sows the seeds of taking revenge for it. The director has shown great detail of creativity to create a scene as to how the secret is revealed to her son by the way of a painting by his twin sister (Raima Sen) who is mentally retarded by birth. And then starts the entire plot of how Eklavya keeps up the fight to keep up his duty of protecting the Royal family which otherwise would have resulted in ill-effects for the next few generations in his family.
Amitabh Bachchan comes up with and delivers one of the splendid performances till date. So much so that never in the movie would you feel that he is someone greater than the servant of the royal family. Saif is pretty neat in his role with lots of glimpses and shadows from his erstwhile Parineeta and so is the case with Vidya Balan too. Sanjay Dutt does a cameo in his short and sweet role of a policeman while the others (Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Raima Sen and Jimmy Shergill) don’t disappoint either in their tits and bits roles which bind up the plots.
Verdict: A combination of good talent putting up a great performance all together. Can there be any other reason for not watching the movie. Definitely a one time watch. (Though the subject of the movie is such that it cannot expect repeat audiences)Photo Courtesy: IndiaFM
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali khan, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Sanjay Dutt
Eklavya is one more movie coming from the stables of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and it really deserves to be called one of the finest crafted movies in recent times. Having roped in a heavy starcast with the VC Banner regulars like Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan, et. al. as well as getting Amitabh Bachchan to work with him for the first time, he does bring out the best of all of them to narrate a story which took 5 years to write and was equally difficult to portray.
More importantly he does not stretch the movie for the sake of it and keeps it as short as less than two hours with just one nominal song in the movie. The direction is impeccable to say the least. Some of the scenes especially the ones where Amitabh blindly separates the ghungroo from the pigeon, the scene where the camels cross across with the fast moving train in the background among others leave you just spell bound.
The story essentially portrays one of the Royal families in Rajasthan with no more dynasty and the secret behind how the lady of the family takes the help of their guard (Eklavya) to give birth to the next generation of the family. The revealing of this secret just before her death brings about a feeling of being cheated to her husband and sows the seeds of taking revenge for it. The director has shown great detail of creativity to create a scene as to how the secret is revealed to her son by the way of a painting by his twin sister (Raima Sen) who is mentally retarded by birth. And then starts the entire plot of how Eklavya keeps up the fight to keep up his duty of protecting the Royal family which otherwise would have resulted in ill-effects for the next few generations in his family.
Amitabh Bachchan comes up with and delivers one of the splendid performances till date. So much so that never in the movie would you feel that he is someone greater than the servant of the royal family. Saif is pretty neat in his role with lots of glimpses and shadows from his erstwhile Parineeta and so is the case with Vidya Balan too. Sanjay Dutt does a cameo in his short and sweet role of a policeman while the others (Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Raima Sen and Jimmy Shergill) don’t disappoint either in their tits and bits roles which bind up the plots.
Verdict: A combination of good talent putting up a great performance all together. Can there be any other reason for not watching the movie. Definitely a one time watch. (Though the subject of the movie is such that it cannot expect repeat audiences)Photo Courtesy: IndiaFM
Salaam-E-Ishq: Review
Salaam-E-Ishq: Review
Cast: Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda, Akshay Khanna, Ayesha Takia, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla
Director: Nikhil Advani
Twelve People. Six Love Stories. One Problem. Love.
And more problems for the audience. That sums up all the movie is all about. Four hours… yes you got it correct… Four Hours of absolute torture and pure non-sense.
In the quest of making an out of box movie with a high profile multi-starrer cast, the director forgets to give the movie any sort of life or rather any sort of story even to begin with. In the first 15 minutes itself, you come to know that the movie is an absolute crap. And you wasted your hard earned money, and more importantly 4 precious hours of your life.
The absence of any sort of Story in the first place makes you feel whether the producer of the movie forgot to pay the writer. The Director, Nikhil Advani, wanted to bank on the success of his previous venture with Kal Ho Na Ho. But he rather forgot that he had to put in some efforts to make a movie which people would at least like to see in entirety. And regarding the Music of the movie, there is not a single song other than the title song which you would even like to hear once.
And the movie does more harm than any gain for seasoned actors like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla. The scenes with Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar seemed quite interesting with the former getting to desperate to have the after marriage activities with his wife, but things not working each time. Only Akshaye Khanna and Ayesha Takia have something to take away from this movie with some meaningful roles and enough time on-screen and both justifying it with their acting skills.
Verdict:
- If you don’t want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, better not watch it.
- If you want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, then too better not watch it as there are better thing to waste time on.
Cast: Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda, Akshay Khanna, Ayesha Takia, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla
Director: Nikhil Advani
Twelve People. Six Love Stories. One Problem. Love.
And more problems for the audience. That sums up all the movie is all about. Four hours… yes you got it correct… Four Hours of absolute torture and pure non-sense.
In the quest of making an out of box movie with a high profile multi-starrer cast, the director forgets to give the movie any sort of life or rather any sort of story even to begin with. In the first 15 minutes itself, you come to know that the movie is an absolute crap. And you wasted your hard earned money, and more importantly 4 precious hours of your life.
The absence of any sort of Story in the first place makes you feel whether the producer of the movie forgot to pay the writer. The Director, Nikhil Advani, wanted to bank on the success of his previous venture with Kal Ho Na Ho. But he rather forgot that he had to put in some efforts to make a movie which people would at least like to see in entirety. And regarding the Music of the movie, there is not a single song other than the title song which you would even like to hear once.
And the movie does more harm than any gain for seasoned actors like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla. The scenes with Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar seemed quite interesting with the former getting to desperate to have the after marriage activities with his wife, but things not working each time. Only Akshaye Khanna and Ayesha Takia have something to take away from this movie with some meaningful roles and enough time on-screen and both justifying it with their acting skills.
Verdict:
- If you don’t want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, better not watch it.
- If you want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, then too better not watch it as there are better thing to waste time on.
Monday, January 22, 2007
GURU... Gem of a Movie
Guru… A Mani Ratnam Film…
This statement itself was enough to make the movie a must watch. And no surprises this time. The movie is truly a must watch one… and that to at least more than once. There was enough of hype created around the movie from quite some time and with raw speculations of the movie being based on the story of one of the noted industrialists which India has ever seen, and more so his growth from a villager to a visionary, from rags to riches, from working for an MNC to running an MNC and more importantly from being part of the political system to almost running it… virtually.
The story starts where the lead character GuruKant Desai, son of a school teacher in a small village in Gujarat dreaming big about going out of his village and his country to
earn money and much more defying the wishes of his father who felt it embarrassing that his son can’t even pass the school exams. And very much like the industrialist portrayed, he goes to the Gulf to work as delivery boy for Burma Shell.And from there on, there is no stopping his dreams except that he has no money to invest to cultivate his dreams of being a big industrialist. And guess what… he actually marries his friend’s sister just for the sake of getting the prized amount in the form of dowry. And then, as and when there were hurdles to stop him, he knew just one thing… You have to get them out of your way at any cost. And he had his wife rallying with him with the necessary support all the time.
However, cloudy times come when Guru is charged of violating ‘n’ number of laws and regulations, taming the political system and the judiciary to make his company grow. And in those testing times even the million of shareholders of the company who treated him no less than God do ask him some questions. And this time he justifies his acts to open the tales of the system which is full of bureaucracy and red tapism and how he built his empire to make the nation grow in-spite of all that.
This is probably the biggest role for Abhishek Bacchhan and he does tremendous
justice to it by actually living the role to the hilt. This might actually prove to be the right kind of push he required in his already soaring career. And at many times during the movie, especially in the second part you will notice the class and the charm of Amitabh Bachhan coming out in his acting. There is hardly anything though which Aishwarya Rai and Vidya Balan can take from the movie due to their small and immaterial roles. However, there was absolutely no point in getting a great icon from the south in Madhavan to do such a petty and non-worthy role in the movie.The Music of the movie by A. R. Rahman is superb to say the least and the songs are quite hummable for quite some time to come. However the timing of the songs in the
movie or the necessity of the same in the first place can be debated. And less said about the choreography, the better it is. The direction and the screenplay of the movie is nothing less than what you would always expect from Mani Ratnam.Verdict: The movie is definitely a must watch for two reasons. One, the movie itself. Two, to get to know the growth of a man who transformed India and Indian industry to a great extent and the ploys he used to get there… it was not an easy road as it seems after all…!!!
Photo Courtesy: IndiaFM
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