By Taran Adarsh, October 14, 2009 - 08:08 IST
Blow the conch shells.
Beat the drums.
It's time to pop champagne...
BLUE, the most awaited movie of the year, with its canvas as huge as the ocean, comes alive on the Hindi screen this Friday. Like every biggie, this one also comes with the baggage of monumental expectations. With tremendous hype surrounding it, the inescapable question that crosses your mind is, will BLUE live up to those colossal expectations?
Let me keep it concise and to the point. You haven't watched something like this on the Hindi screen before. Never ever!
Final word? Go, grab a ticket, if you haven't booked one yet. This under-sea treasure hunt is a kickass film. A must-see for all those who love adventure flicks.
BLUE is set in the sun-soaked white sand beaches of Bahamas. Sagar [Sanjay Dutt] is a simpleton, while his friend Aarav [Akshay Kumar] is a rich, ambitious businessman.
If you're a die-hard moviegoer, you'd draw parallels with a lot of international projects [especially THE DEEP] that were set in the ocean. In Bollywood, flashes of the Dharmendra - Jeetendra starrer SAMRAAT cross your mind instantaneously, but comparing the two is akin to comparing chalk and cheese.
BLUE grabs your attention from its opening titles itself. The marine life, which you may've watched on National Geographic Channel or Animal Planet, comes alive in all splendour at the start itself.
The story is uncomplicated and Anthony D'Souza garnishes it beautifully. If the aquatic life keeps your eyes wide open, the action sequences are sure to make your jaws drop to your knees. The bike chase at the start, yet another chase subsequently, the chase soon after the interval [atop a running train] is simply astounding.
Anthony's expertise comes to the fore in several sequences. One sequence that needs to be singled out is when Sanju narrates the tragic past, how he was responsible for his father's death. It's simply incredible!
On the flip side, the climax could've been more impactful. The villain's track looks cliched, but you tend to overlook the minor aberration since the film never falls prey to mediocrity.
Anthony D'Souza is a director to watch. This film has style as well as substance. Also, it requires courage and conviction to think out of the box and most importantly, execute the material with panache. There's not much scope for music in an action thriller, yet A.R. Rahman's score suits the requirements. The Kylie Minogue track - 'Chiggy Wiggy' - is already popular. Sanju and Lara's romantic track - 'Aaj Dil' - is sensuous. The song at the end credits - 'Fiqrana' - has a lot of energy.
Sound design [Resul Pookutty] is fantastic. Action scenes [James D. Bomalick and R.P. Yadav] are a treat and, in fact, one of the mainstays of the film. Dialogues [Mayur Puri] are effective, while the screenplay [Anthony D'Souza and Jasmine D'Souza] is well thought-out, especially towards the second hour.
Lara Dutta has never looked so good before. Though the story revolves around the guys, you can't overlook Lara's small but significant contribution to the film. Katrina Kaif [sp. app.] looks gorgeous and performs exceedingly well. The feminine charm [at the start specifically] would send the youth in a frenzy. Rahul Dev is first-rate. Kabir Bedi is hardly there.
On the whole, BLUE has style as well as substance. The film has everything going in its favour, right from its incredible star cast to the superb action scenes to the hitherto unseen marine life to the tremendous hype and hoopla. At the box-office, BLUE will strike like a hurricane in the festive week. It should set new benchmarks in days to come. In short, the business will be humungous.
'Kaminey' is story of two brothers Charlie & Guddu [Shahid Kapoor], Two identical twins who live two different lifes separately and how at one stage their lifes colide as their fate were meant to be one. The screenplay unfolds their characters, one who slutter and other who lisps elegantly but the beauty is how amazingly it fit to them. The screenplay itself was written with superb knowledge of particular cinema but direction was the part which took it to a new level. First half laid the foundation of a brilliant second half and both equally shared the excitement, thrill and fun. There was not a moment in the movie which let it down.
Performances were just awesome, Shahid Kapoor-The Actor born again. One has to see how effortlessly this lad played two drasticly contrast characters and really came out victorious in every sense. Priyanka on the other hand was as usual in skin of her character and played her part beautifully. Rest of the cast was good too. Dialogues in characteristic style were brilliant and despite being lispy one repeats it often after movie. Cinematography was top notch too, the angles were perfect and it catches. Editing was something applaud worthy, it won't be this without such editing.
Music was brilliant, each song was a gem for me. Hard hitting 'Dhan Ta Nan' or soothing 'Kaminey' or peppy 'Raath Ke Dhai' or Dancing 'Fatak' . My favorite picks 'Pehli Baar'[Credits] 'Dhan Ta Nan' & 'Kaminey'. Every song leaves the mark on those who try different.Background score was thrilling and kept the play on heat.
On the whole, 'Kaminey' is one of finest and brilliant mixture of elegant screenplay & brilliant direction with topping of awesome performance. It's just great to see such cinema rising in 'Bollywood', one has to tap back of Vishal Bharadwaj for this one specially.It's true 'Charm Lies with Originality'. Bole tu Ek Dum 'Fplendid'.
(4.5/5) Outstanding
Today, living as a Muslim in this world is really a hard job, if i say hardest, it won’t be wrong. Some say, all terrorists are Muslims, some say most of them are. But both statement hardly find a difference, because at the end of the day, we are pin pointed, no matter how good we are.
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New York, a story of three people, Sameer aka Sam[John Abraham], Maya[Katrina Kaif] & Omar[Neil Nitin Mukesh], first two Americans later one an Indian Muslim, who came to U.S.A for studies and how one incident changed the life of all of them, actually millions like them. The story didn’t covered all, still covered the most. It really gives us a chance to ‘Face The Truth’, but what truth is? which has to be understood by both sides. This movie gives you a chance, may not in a brilliant way, but still manages to click chordes.
It does put forward view point of both sides and gives you a chance to think.
Director Kabir Khan, well known for his ‘Kabul Express’ which was on the very closest issue to this one, did well, in fact very well. He in his ‘restricted liberty’ , holds you till the end and makes a way of every frame before your eyes. Screenplay is quite predictible to some extent, a bit slow at places, still manages to bring out something that leads the movie to the end, a good end. Cinematography was very good.
Music of the movie is touching, be it, ‘Junoon’ or ‘Tu Ne Jo’ or ‘Mere Sang’, they have a good place in screenplay and doesn’t make viewer think, ‘From Where The Song Popped Up’. It does’nt apply brakes on screenplay.
Now one of the best part Performances, some stunners for me this time, Neil as expected did brilliant and leads the chart in every sense. Stunners were John and Katrina, they did well, stunner in the sense…you know what i mean. May be i should credit that to Kabir Khan, he did wonders .Irfan Khan as usual in skin of the character and did justice.
On the whole, New York gives you a chance to see beyond ‘Preconceived Opinions’ about either sides of the story. After a dull phase of ‘Strike’ and not appealing movies in days to come, New York is the best choice. If you want to see a bit of ‘Truth’ and mixed with reasonable entertainment, Go For It.
***1/2
i am gonna talk about Public Enemies of Bollywood. I do not know why some production houses, some directors and sorry to say some lead players take audience for granted. Not once, not twice, in fact they made it a habit. The era of mindless comedies started in 2007, okay we handled some of them saying ‘Comedies sometimes are bound to mindless’, but how long? Actually the question now is not how mindless, it asks how ‘Cheap’. After watching promos, one can easily guess, where the film will go and what is it all about with no signs of innovation. Still it managed to do beyond that, yes it disappointed in more than one way.
Now lets talk about the movie[amm it really was one?], anyway lets move, its a story about a stuntman in Hollywood, Viraj[Akshay Kumar],Simirta aka Bebo :O[Kareena Kapoor], Viraj is ladies man and a play boy, no matter how clearly he does it, girls keep drooling over him[blondes are so stupid?]. On the other hand, Simi a rude doctor cum part time model. There are lots of questions go unanswered, so i am sorry, why should i bother to find them anyway? Lots of profanities, unnecessary skin show and lots of toilet humor, that defines the movie. Climax was as predictible as a politican promise and emotional ending doesn’t console the ethical blunders in the movie.
Amrita in one scene ask Kareena about the place, ‘Isn’t that Sleazy’, she should have asked the same question to herself while shooting for the movie.
Screenplay was fine and tolerable till first half, but the movie just bites the dust in the second half and audience will go bananas with lots of yawns and sneak peeks. Direction disappointed, the debutant director fails to grip the lousy script, may be it isn’t his fault, he was anyway going to do it. Cinematography was the only good thing left in the movie, camera managed to catch the heart of Hollywood somehow from the first scene, in fact it is one of the best scenes in the movie, don’t know why they repeated same slide in between, rest was good. Music, what to say, Anu Malik disappointed yet again, with only ‘Kyun’ managed to strike my chords, rest were okay to fine. Background music was good.
Performances, Akshay Kumar brought nothing new to his character and ended up with a loud act, he managed in some scenes but they were far too less in the movie. Kareena on the other hand, disappointed in the way that the character was not suitable for her. Kiron Kher was as usual, over the top, with my no expectations from Aftab and Amrita, so they came out the ones who do not disappointed us to disappoint.
On the whole, Kambakht Ishq is lousy dish served in golden plate of Hollywood, it has very few very good action scenes from Akshay Kumar rest it has nothing no entertain you at all. It may click with rural audience who do not understand some profanities or overlook them, families amm forgeti it. I don’t mind Hollywood stars working in Bollywood but in such way, a big NO!. I will go with one and a half star to this movie for cinematography and few action scenes, and work of workmen behind scenes, these stars are for you. If you are still asking me, Should i go, you should delete the word ‘Integrity’ from your dictionary.
