Just back from the night show for Bluffmaster. Actually, I sulked and whined through the whole movie for the utterly bad screenplay and too-much-gyan; but the end of the movie was as surprising as refreshing it was. Agreed that most plots are picked up from a few Hollywood movies (I don't recollect the name, but one movie which is used most, starred Michael Douglas) - but its not a plain vanilla remake and hence the effort is quite commendable. Technically too, the movie is quite refreshing. There's one more distinction that I would give the movie - of showcasing outdoor locations of Mumbai. Bandra Flyover, Buildings in Walkeshwar and Mahalaxmi, streets of Colaba, distant views of Nariman Point and Marine Drive are quite discernible as are few indoor albeit public locations like CCD (Cafe Coffee Day) - Carter Road and the Renaissance - Powai. No movie in the recent times has used locations in Mumbai so effectively as this one. The trend of using foreign locations seems to be pa...

Which trend will be credited to have started in the year 2005? Reality Shows – but you had similar (albeit less orchestrated ones like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) running even earlier; MMS – but again Podcasting or MMS are just improved forms of porn-exchange that has existed since we had earliest Sex sites on the net; Sensex – have you forgotten the dot com boom; Rain Havoc in Metros – no major precedents except the Tsunami; Blogs making news – ah! Any precedents here? I don’t have any. Indeed, blogs have emerged as sure opinion makers this year. Though, blogs usually cannot be counted in isolation – they created opinion while being supported by emails, instant messaging and websites – however, in the past one year Blogs have risen from being support structures to the web to being central themes around which the online world is slowly starting to revolve. Further, Blogs are rising in numbers ; overly optimistic estimates quote the number of Indian bloggers to 12 lakh – even a pessimistic figure o...

Any movie which is accompanied by lots of pre-release fanfare invokes a typical scepticism in me; so was the case with ‘Mangal Pandey – the Rising’. I had almost expected a larger than life character of Mangal Pandey and an overenthusiastic performance by Aamir Khan. But to the credit of the film-makers, Mangal Pandey is a classic yet real-life presentation. Mangal Pandey was just a cog-wheel in the revolt of 1857, albeit an important one; the first spark but not the fire; a common sepoy in the British Army and a religious one. And so is he depicted in the movie. Neither the storyline nor Aamir’s portrayal of the character project Mangal Pandey as a great soldier – moderately educated, devoutly religious and even non-progressive (as implied by his strong belief in Castiesm). The narrative and storyline are successful in depicting that Mangal Pandey got caught in the winds of controversy merely due to coincidence and not because he had some heroic traits in him. There are some hints to ...

The weekend is here and many of you must be planning to watch a movie. I saw ‘My Brother Nikhil’ (yes my own name too is Nikhil!) yesterday at R-Adlabs, Mulund. The movie is well made and does justice to the sensitive subject it deals with. Here’s a review of the movie from me. If you are not interested in my review here’s a link to a good professional review http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/25brother.htm While Swades was a documentary presented as a movie/fiction, ‘My Brother Nikhil’ is a fiction presented like a documentary. It is a flashback narrative primarily by – Nikhil’s sister Anamika (Juhi Chawla), mother (Lillete Dubey), father (Victor Banerjee) and most importantly a dear friend Nigel (Purab Kohli). With dates appearing in the bottom left corner as every scene changes the documentary effect is so complete that sometime one wonders if this is indeed fiction or reality. Those of you who have seen ‘Phir Milenge’ will find this movie a better presentation in terms of depth a...

Wonder If any of you have ever heard of this Movie; nice one! I just chanced upon it on the Movie Server and thought why not!! But it really turned out to be a fantastic flick ... and had a great message in it ... what's more is that what it said is what I myself have been feeling for the past few days. Here's the link http://www.ingoodcompanymovie.com/ Its about this 52 year old salesman Dan Foreman(Dennis Quad) who works for a sports magazine but suddenly finds himself demoted and being 'bossed' over by a 26 year old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) when the magazine is taken over by a another company. At first this new exec is all booming with ideas about the company's new 'synergy' strategy. 'Synergy' is shown as some shitty management jargon which is far from the company's real-life business. While during the movie Dan has to lay off his old buddies while not agreeing with the company's new policies and has a hard time; the end makes things ...

Watched the film BLACK today - a movie about a deaf (and dumb) and blind girl and her teacher. It is good to see that the general public is also exited about such contemporary cinema than just song-and-dance masala movies. There are some dialogues in this movie that really touched me from inside . . . "Its not eyes that dream, the mind dreams .. and so even the blind can dream" - very true . Even medically its some electrical signals that reach our brain that cause the illusion on pictures which we see as dreams. These signals like real vision don't originate at the eyes but in our mind. "Black does not stand for misery and frustration - it is the color of knowledge, the color of wisdom .... the color of the graduation robe" - how true again !! Even today most text that we read whether in print or electronic is Black. Black indeed is the color of knowledge !!

Just got over watching 'Naach' ... the movie is bogus .. another version of the age-old story 'Abhiman' (featuring Bacchan Sr. & Mother Bacchan)...and some semi-porn stuff added... But what struck me here is the potrayal of the habit that most boyz/men have(may be even girlz/women have it .. but I aint sure) - a habbit to conceal your emotions...Whether its love or sorrow - men never speak .. and then I dont know why its always that we expect men/boyz to propose to the girl first!! Leave alone expressing love.. even expressing sorrow is taboo .. and nowadays in the (so-called) civilised world even anger is not a permitted emotion to show (though in the old patriarchial societies anger was taken to be a symbol of manhood) .. so whenever you feel any emotion strongly - back out! Move out of public, escape in loneliness .. and sulk if you would. All this usually further aggravates your BP (figuratively) and deepens your feelings .. and though one might feel I am...