My Name is Khan – Review

Simply Khan-tastic

There was a debate at home before going to watch the movie. One said let’s wait and watch, the others said let’s just watch. Now all four are saying, “We’re glad we watched.”

‘My Name is Khan’ was surrounded by controversy. I chiefly wanted to watch it because of the performances it has to offer, but then I also wanted to watch it because of the performances that the politicians had to offer before its release. The theatre was full of people who wanted to see firsthand what the fuss was all about.

Anyway, let’s cut to the movie. MNIK is a story about a man suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome, an autistic disorder. While his mind and intellect are sharper than most, Rizwan Khan’s (Shah Rukh Khan) social skills and adjustment to his environment are warped. But he is not as severely autistic as individuals suffering from the disability can be and comes across as witty and endearing. This is what draws Mandira( Kajol) to him and his relentless pursuit of her pays off in marriage. All is hunky dory until 9/11 sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, disrupts the equation of their relationship and leaves one vengeful and thirsty for justice, while the other does what he does best. He copes, perseveres and emerges the victor.

Enough about the story. I don’t want to write any more simply because I don’t want anybody to read the spoilers and not watch the movie. Director Karan Johar has made a fabulous film which deserves a round of applause. Shah Rukh Khan has set a benchmark way up there and to reach it, leave alone surpass it, will be quite a task. The performances of Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Paa’ and Aamir Khan in ‘3 Idiots’ pale in comparison. There is not a single frame in ‘My Name is Khan’ that could have been better. It’s a masterpiece.

I personally am very critical about the over mushiness that is Karan Johar’s brand, which he flawlessly executes, but here got it absolutely right. People who think that he can make only movies like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ should go and watch MNIK – it will certainly throw their reservations in jeopardy. Kajol has done her bit and thank God the director didn’t give her more of a role than was required because of the SRK-Kajol combo syndrome. The only way this movie won’t sweep awards is if the jury is blind. There is nothing to be critical about in MNIK. And trust me when I say this — I don’t praise too many movies (please refer to my earlier reviews).

Hats off to Mr. Shah Rukh Khan for his performance. He has shown why he is King. If I had to describe ‘My Name is Khan’ in one line, I would simply say “It’s Khan-tastic.”

RishiO Rating – 4.9/5

Wake Up Sid – Review

Wake Up Sid – Review

A spoilt brat called Sid (Ranbir Kapoor), Aisha (Konkona Sen) (I want to be) independent girl from Kolkata, a father who’s upset and a typical Bollywood mother. Well, that sums up the cast. Let me start the review by saying that this is a film for rich kids who would be able to identify with the protagonist. Im not sure if there are too many. And also a few (I want to marry Ranbir, he so cute) girls who would swoon over him.

The movie opens with Sid trying to study but fails everytime he tries to put his mind to it. He has a Man-Friday called Chotu who wakes him up everyday and serves him his breakfast. He has 3 best friends who hang out with him at college and parties. Sid spends his fathers money like water on himself and his friends and drives around in imported cars. He meets a girl called Aisha who hails from Kolkata. She is career minded and dreams of living independently in Mumbai.

Sid wants a Porsche car for himself and makes a deal with his Daddy to attend office for a month in return for the car. Obviously he doesn’t finish his term at office and in the meantime helps Aisha rent a house in the city. He gets his results and fails in more than 3 subjects and starts blaming everybody but himself for the failure. He gets home and insults his mother and has a huge fight with his father, who in turn asks him to leave the house. He straight goes to Aisha’s house and starts living in with her.

Aisha is the kind of girl who is looking for a man with ideals absolutely in contrast with Sid’s. So they share a platonic relationship and Aisha gets him a job at her office as an intern photographer. He does well at his job and gets his first paycheck, which he takes to his father and reconciles with him. He returns home much to the irritation of Aisha who has gotten used to living with Sid by now. The end is rather strange when it starts raining and Sid decides to go to Aisha and confess his love. They meet and say “I love you” to each other and the movie ends. Huh

The problem is that the film is so predictable that it becomes tedious at times. Its difficult to identify with Sid because he is a dumb spoilt guy who till the end gets what he wants in spite of being himself. The characters have no depth, well none of them except for Aisha. Basically it becomes irritating at some point due to the movies predictability. Ranbir and Konkona have both acted well but it would’ve been better if they had done another film together. Some reviewers have given this movie good reviews, but the same ones have give DO KNOT DISTURB, the movie that released along with this one, good reviews as well. I guess that doesn’t say much for it. You have to see that one to believe what I am saying (and try to come out without pulling out your hair). Ranbir Kapoor is a promising actor but I think he should read the script and not the name of the production house before signing a film. Well, in a few days the story of this film being a hit will come out in the media and he will sign 3 more big budget films (he might’ve already) but I think an actor needs a genuine hit for his own confidence, which is absent in his case.

To sum it all up, this is the director (Ayan Mukherjee’s) attempt at making a cute film but it takes a lot more than just a chocolate boy and an award winning actress to get it right. Better luck next time, I guess. Wake Up Ayan.

RishiO Review meter – 2/5

Love Aaj Kal – Review

A love story. No, sorry two love stories. One hero. Two heroines. One heroine with dialogues, the other without. And one hot Brazilian model with dialogues in an accent only she can understand.

Okay, let’s get to the plot. Jai (Saif Ali Khan) is a happy go lucky guy living in London. He meets Meera (Deepika Padukone) and they start going around. They usually hang out at a restaurant owned by a Sardar, Pappaji (either they didn’t mention his name, or I forgot what it was) played by Rishi Kapoor. Pappaji is a die hard romantic. Jai is a cool guy who doesn’t want to fall in love (it’s trendy nowadays in Bollywood — irritating cliché). Meera is a career-oriented girl, who is also not very keen on love. She is going away to India to pursue her career in architectural restoration. Jai decides to break up. Meera is cool about it. They decide to have a party to celebrate their amicable separation, which they too realise is unusual. The next day Pappaji decides to escort Jai to the airport to send off Meera. She leaves and Pappaji starts narrating the tale of how he fell in love.

Young Pappaji, played again by Saif, is a middle class boy who falls for Giselle (there is confusion over her name and nationality), who plays a spineless Sardarni named Harleen. He follows her through the streets with his friends on a cycle everyday. Now I’ll try to cut it short (probably what the director Imtiaz Ali should’ve done). She is packed off by her family to get married and the guy is heart-broken. Simultaneously, in the present, Jai starts going around with a Brazilian, Jo. He tries hard to forget Meera but fails. He stays in touch with her over the phone and both narrate their relationship developments. Meera falls for her boss, Vikram, played by Rahul Khanna.

Jai decides to visit India with Jo. He and Meera meet each other and the sparks fly as before. They lie to their respective halves to spend time with each other. But then Vikram proposes to Meera and she tells Jai to stay away, realising that her life with Vikram would be better. Jai leaves and then returns to India to attend the wedding. Post the wedding Jai goes back to London and Meera decides that she has had enough of her new hubby after just one night. She tells him that she is in love with Jai and has to leave him. Now comes the moment every filmmaker dreads. It happened when Deepak Malhotra (a model) tried to deliver dialogues in a film called Lamhe that released in 1991. A serious scene becomes funny and the audience starts laughing at the character due to the weird dialogue delivery. Rahul Khanna showed us, after all, why he hasn’t signed too many films. Because he doesn’t get too many offers.

Jai by now has left for America and has got his dream job. His happiness doesn’t last too long. He wants to get back with Meera, who he thinks is still married to Vikram. He comes back and finds out she has also left Vikram (probably because of his poor acting skills) and meets her. And they live happily ever after.

The movie is not as bad as the performances. Deepika Padukone has still to mature as an actress. Imtiaz Ali, for some reason, couldn’t figure that out before signing her. She would make a good model, but then again she must’ve signed about a dozen films by now, and we will have to bear watching her long (really long!) journey of growing and maturing as an actress. I hope directors start taking auditions before casting, however famous the actors in question are. Saif Ali Khan has become the Indian one-liner king, but actually he is pretty good at it. Rishi Kapoor has done his bit, but I think he should’ve been given a bigger role. The music is not too bad, but I really don’t know how original it is, it’s composed by Pritam, so you know… The director, they say, is as good as his last film, so I think Imtiaz Ali will have to work harder the next time. His intentions were good, but the audience is not here to appreciate intentions, they want to watch a good movie.

Overall, Love Aaj Kal is tolerable. You won’t pull your hair out. But then again, there are a few scenes when your hand almost reaches for your head.

RishiO Rating – 2.7/5

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Firaaq Review

I went to see Firaaq with a friend on Saturday afternoon. The movie released on Friday. I saw the movie being discussed on a few news channels the previous night. Some said it’s the most controversial movie of the year.  After seeing it I didn’t think so. The sad part of it all was that I was one of the 15 people in the theatre. The theatre looked empty.

Firaaq is a movie written and directed by Nandita Das. It is based on the Gujrat riots. The movie deals with the lives of different people affected by the violence. The intentions of the Director are very clean and non biased, contrary to the opinion of a few people. She has tried to portray the true picture of how people’s lives will never be the same again. The screenplay is brilliant. Luckily the Director hasn’t tried to insert mindless songs and dances to please a few movie goers who think that without this a movie is not a movie. It has brilliant performances by Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal. The movie is worth a watch.   

5 Q Theory

 

Q1. Should you watch this movie?

A1. Absolutely yes.

 

Q2. Why?

A2. The movie is made for people to understand what violence does to people. It shows that it is not an option for a solution but only a reaction that does more bad and no good. It shows how people take advantage of situations that breed lawlessness.

 

Q3. Have the actors acted well?

A3. Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Dipti Nawal and Shahana Goswami are brilliant.

 

Q4. Will the movie make money?

A4. According to me this is not a big budget movie. And thank God for that. But still I think it won’t be easy.

 

Q5. Are there irritating bits?

A5. No

 

RishiO Meter – 3.1/5

Gulaal Review

 

This film should’ve been named laal (red). There’s a lot of blood, a lot of reds and a lot of gaalis. No doubt, Anurag Kashyap’s sincerity shines through in the script, but sadly it fails to make for a gripping watch. One expects a lot more from the director of Black Friday, DevD and let’s not forget he wrote Satya at the age of 22. I happened to speak to him just before the press screening of Gulaal and he told me the movie has been cut down a lot more than he expected by the Censor Board.

 

Shot in Rajasthan, the plot revolves around a secret Rajput separatist movement. Kay Kay Menon has acted brilliantly; the problem is that the other actors are too inconsequential. Gulaal is the story of an innocent young man, Dileep (played by Raja Chaudhary), who comes to study in the city and gets mixed up and involved in the separatist movement. A nice, simple and impressionable young boy, he goes through a lot of hardships as he enters college. His rebellious room mate Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh) is the son of the Rajput king; he has a lot of radical ideologies, but tries to protect Dileep from ragging and unnecessary trouble. Dileep hates violence and Ransa can’t do without it. Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon), from one of the most powerful families in the area, supports Ransa. When Ransa stands for college elections, he is killed by his illegitimate half brother and Dileep is sucked into replacing his roommate at the elections, backed by Bana.

 

The problem with Dileep’s character is that one expects more of him than what is portrayed. He wins the election and gets involved in politics without knowing it. It’s difficult to identify with him because you expect a reaction from him eventually, but no such luck — the wait is endless. Till the very end I was expecting a rise out of this dumb guy but NO — he holds no water and frankly, this is what didn’t work for me. Lawlessness in these states is a major problem which these guys capitalise on, but I doubt the cops are such nincompoops. Cinematic liberty goes a little beyond what it should. Kay Kay holds the movie with his performance. Newcomer Abhimanyu Singh’s acting is also noteworthy but the other roles could’ve been played by any good theatre actors available in abundance.

 

The music is not that great either. If you’ve ever been a Pink Floyd fan, there is a small surprise for you in Gulaal. Goodbye Blue Sky plays in the background during an intense scene. Such instances don’t come too often, though. But Anurag Kashyap does try to pack his musical taste into his movies, which comes as a breath of fresh air.

 

Conclusion: A lot of anti-India sentiments are expressed throughout the movie and the Censor Board has not taken this lightly. Probably the cuts that have been made are working against the very essence of Gulaal. All in all it turns out very mediocre. Probably the protagonist should’ve had some brains or brawn. Sadly, he has none.

 

RishiO Meter – 2.5/5