Gabbar Singh

A treat to Power Star’s fans. A complete entertainer. Enjoyed it very much. I must admit I occasionally indulge myself by getting carried away by the charisma of the star(s) and this surely is one such an occasion. It’s an adrenaline rush experience to watch him and listen to people around whistle and applaud at his style, stunts, and dance.

The in-built comedy both tickles and derives quite a few good laughs; Even the punch dialogues are not too overboard. They all make sense coming from Pavan Kalyan. He has it in him – power. He surely has put on some weight and reminded me of Chiranjeevi many times.

Pavan Kalyan has created magic. Sruthi is decent. Music is great.  My favorite is the title song, with the item song coming a close second.

There is a lot of energy in the movie; na, the hero. Would like to watch it again.

Urumi

Been to this historical fantasy movie last weekend. Liked it very much. It was so picturesque and beautiful. Of course, what else can we expect from the acclaimed cinematographer cum filmmaker Santosh Sivan?

This is the story of a little known hero from Kerala (Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar  – Prithvi Raj)whose mission is to kill Vasco De Gama, who did atrocious things to its citizens and had been a threat to its wealth and future. The way Santosh drew analogies between the history and the present was good. At the time of watching the movie, I thought it depicted the history accurately but a superficial search on Net revealed that much of it is fiction.

The narration in the first half, especially the first 45 minutes or so, had been so fast, as the director tried to acquaint the historic backdrop and significance of the story/events to come, that the audience were really kept on toes. But the pace dropped down alarmingly to match that of snail’s in the second half and it’s only the chemistry between Genelia and Prithvi , which attempted to hold the audience’s attention at that point – with marginal success.

The performances were good. Prithvi was awesome – elegant and macho. He is such a looker. I was practically drooling over him. Nitya, Prabhu Deva and Arya did well. Arakkal Ayesha is a very remarkable character and Genelia was adequate in it.

The backdrop chosen by Santosh Sivan was so novel and fresh that the movie acquired a unique appeal.

By the way, to those who are wondering what Urumi means – it’s a long sword made of flexible steel. It’s the hero’s weapon in the movie. Innovative, isn’t it?

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Finally I got to watch the mega and much awaited movie of the year so far – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It took us more than a few weekends to finally manage to make it to the movie.

Well, I liked it. It’s definitely new age, with sophistication in every bit of it – taking, story, characters, dialogues and the like. I admit that it’s slow but I feel inspite of that, it manages to exude a charm and make an impact. The slow narrative had in itself been a plus point for me, which enabled me to enjoy the whole experience in a leisurely way without being subjected to a whirlwind of emotions like in many other movies.

The spectacular and scenic Spain besides the beautiful Katrina (a few words about Kathrina here – She has improved a lot compared to her earlier films and I can see the truth in Bollywood’s comments that she works really hard. I feel that she is the most striking lady in the Bollywood second only to Aish. In fact I feel that in some ways, Kathrina is even better. While Aish always seems to me like a pretty doll, Kathrina has her sweet smile and her foreign genes in her favor which gives her an appeal much greater than that of Aish.) and hot Hrithik more than ensure one’s unwavering attention. Even though not all can really relate to the ultra-modern and cosmopolitan protagonists – living in London with means enough to take an expensive vacation trip and with an adventurous streak in them -, I feel that the image they portray has been very becoming these days and it’s something which can appeal to the fancies of many. Still, it can be said that it’s yet another NRI movie (movie made with NRIs as the main target audience).

Despite the rave reviews, I wasn’t very excited for the movie before. The sandy brown hues of the scenes from the trailer reminded me somehow of the dreadful Kites which, instantly curbed any kind of enthusiasm I might feel about ZNMD. I know it’s an absurd reaction but still there it was. So, the movie had been a kind of pleasant surprise for me and I took it all in greedily.

The songs didn’t really register with me.

My take on the comment that “ZNMD is the DCH of this decade” – I can’t really say anything about it as my memory of DCH has faded except that we loved it then and watched it countless times. I doubt ZNMD emulates that kind of reaction with any comparable intensity. Or is it just the fact that I’m a decade older that’s responsible  for this judgment?

Wake Up, Sid! (Bollywood movie)

Lazy weekend, gloomy weather: perfect motives for watching a good movie. Encouraged by the positive reviews of Wake Up, Sid!, we drove 30 miles to watch it in the only desi-movie-screening theater nearby. We weren’t disappointed. It’s a well-made movie and I have more than a few words to say about it. 

For starters, Ranbir was really handsome! I felt that Konkana didn’t look her best though. I’m not sure what the film-maker actually wanted to convey but from what I understood, it’s about responsibility, maturity, friendship and love. 

I liked the scene where Rahul comments Konkana that she is immature and she was totally caught off-guard.  I thought it to be one of the important scenes in the movie. Rahul’s remark surprises her because she considers herself as a very mature person, especially when compared with Ranbir, which of course is very true. I feel that after some point, maturity is just a relative concept, like everything else. 

And Ranbir and Konkana eventually falling in love with each other reminded me of my theory that if a man and a woman live together or at least spend so much time together, they are bound to fall in love at some point. Time and opportunity plays a very important role. It doesn’t matter how much alike or different they are. (Any extremes are ruled out by the fact that they remain in and/or enjoy each other’s company.) 

An unconventional aspect of the movie is that the heroine is older than the hero. Well, it can be said that it is demanded by the story because the script requires the lead woman to be more mature than the lead man. But as is common knowledge, women usually tend to be more mature compared to men of the same age. So it could have been the same way in the movie, in case one wants to stick to conventionality. But the impressive fact is that the age difference was never imparted any significance. In fact, the atypicality didn’t even strike me until after the movie ended. That doesn’t mean that I have any problem with the girl being older than the guy. I’m just mentioning it because it is not the norm. 

The music was pretty bland. In fact, I didn’t even notice when the songs started or ended.  All were just background songs. I could have done with something more interesting.

The Time Traveler’s Wife

I’ve just started reading this novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Though the title was  self explanatory, I was not prepared for what is actually inside the book.

Henry is a time traveler who travels back and forth in his life. His wife Clare knows him ever since she is six, but he meets her for the first time only when he is 28.  The author tells the story by a strange jumble of dates and ages:

September 7th 1987, Henry 32, Clare 16 etc

For the first 50 pages, I was overwhelmed by all those dates and it seemed to me that the story wasn’t progressing in any particular direction. One question I kept asking myself was – how the hell did the author contrive such a story idea. And I’m really awed by the author’s power of imagination.

Once I got over my initial shock and got adjusted to the style, I’m found it very interesting..  The fact that it’s a love story made things easier, because if it was about  some mundane subject, it would have been a very confusing and difficult read.

I’m still around page 100 and there is a long way to go.. But I already have a feeling that it will turn out to be a very touching love story – perhaps one of the best I’ve ever read.

I’m also very eager to see the movie, but I would first like to finish reading the book.