Rock On !!!

‘Rock On’, as the name suggests, is based on a Rock band. The music draws its inspiration mainly from hard and raw rock. This particular genre remained untouched in Bollywood and for the first time something like this has been done.
The movie directed by Abhishek Kapoor has music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
The album is an experimental one with a fresh feel oozing out from the talented music directors accompanied with the master of words Javed Akhtar. Lyrics are wonderful especially in the song ‘Socha Hai’ and ‘Pichle Saat Dinon Mein’. The track ‘Socha Hai’ is a soulful rendition by Farhan Akhtar, stepping into the shoes of a singer for the first time.
‘Pichle Saat Din’ is again a solo by Farhan Akhtar. Now, it’s interesting to see that a first-time singer like Farhan has wielded microphone for four songs out of nine in the album. ‘Pichle Saat Din’ is a kind of college song with a good tune and impressive vocals.
The album has track ‘Sindbad’. It is a thematic song on Sindbad. Vocalists Farhan and Raman have done wonders with their vocals. A soothing number with complementary lyrics.
‘Zehreelay’ is the typical hard rock song. But as the genre of rock is particularly western, this hard core number fails to strike the right chord with not-so-supportive wordings. Suraj Jagan, the singer of the title track of ‘Johnny Gaddaar’, hollers on the top of his voice. The song is the weak point of this album.
‘Yeh Tumhari Meri Batein’ is a bit Bollywoodish kind of song with a touch of soft rock. Dominique Carejo has sung it effectively and captured the emotive appeal of the lyrics. A sensuous number, worth listening time to time.
‘Tum Ho Toh’ is a mellow number sung beautifully again by Farhan Akhtar. Director turned actor turned singer, Farhan has done a remarkable job of rendering the songs.
The title song ‘Rock On’ is a youthful track again crooned by Farhan Akhtar. His voice is well-suited to this song. This tells the story that why it’s a hit.
Another song which can score high is ‘Phir Dekhiye’ by Caralisa Monteiro. Her stylish and convincing vocals make this song a mesmerizing one. A track which is composed mainly on guitar, this number is a lovely one. Shankar Ehsaan Loy have done a good job with Javed Akhtar’s words.

Phoonk - The Black Magic

Once again Ram Gopal Varma treads one of his favourite territories – horror. His movie Phoonk doesn’t spook you as much as it intrigues you with its black magic theme and its unexpected conclusion.
Not that the story’s conclusion is unconventional or novel. Rather, it’s somewhat hackneyed. But what surprises you is that a man like Varma would endorse such a climax to his story where superstition holds a sway over scientific logic.
Every frame of ‘Phoonk’ has an unmistakable Varma stamp over it. The dimly lit rooms, the uncanny characters, the lingering shots of props like toys or statues or even crows or cats, the camera angles and the background music – all mesh together to give an eerie look to the movie. However, after a while, it becomes a tad too repetitive.
The movie tells the story of Rajeev ( Sudeep ), a builder and a staunch atheist with a family comprising of a loving wife ( Amrita Khanvilkar ), two kids Raksha ( Ahsaas Chana ) and Rohan (Shrey), and a religious mother.
A non-believer in God or Devil, Rajiv’s world and his belief system goes topsy-turvy when an evil is let loose in his house and the most affected is his daughter Raksha who begins behaving in strange ways.
The doctors say Raksha suffers from “psycho dissassociative disorder” but offer no conclusive cure. Not long before it’s clear that a black magic spell has been cast on Rajeev’s family by some malicious ill-wishers. It’s a spell that only an exorcist can break.
Unlike any pulpy horror flick, ‘Phoonk’ doesn’t scare you with its gory details but by gradually building up your anticipation regarding what would unfold on the screen. Varma’s technical prowess does come handy to this effect but there are a couple of scenes where the filmmaker overindulges in this style.
However, Ramu does manage to extract good performances from the cast – particularly from Sudeep and Ahsaas Chana. Sudeep is convincing as a man whose mind is muddled because all his non-beliefs turn out wrong one by one. Ahsaas Chana is excellent as a child possessed by an evil spirit. Amrita Khanvilkar gives a restrained performance while Zakir Hussain (as exorcist) is a bit over the top.
All in all, ‘Phoonk’ is an average horror flick that shakes and stirs you at times but doesn’t blow you away.

1920 - A Love Made in Heaven A Revenge Born in Hell !!!

Vikram Bhatt’s horror movie ‘1920’ doesn’t leave you zombied. But it does scare you enough to have a few sweaty, sleepless hours when you hit the bed at night.
The movie derives its title from the year it’s set in, when huge mansions (in present-day Yorkshire) stood tall on the suburbs of Mumbai and horse-drawn carriages plied on dusty grounds carrying dandy men in suits and women in Victorian gowns and hats. Sadly, there aren’t any buxom ladies in tight corsets here.
Rajneesh Duggal plays Arjun, an architect, and Adah Sharma plays his catholic wife, Lisa. The couple, wedded despite parental disapproval, arrives at a haveli that the suave architect plans to convert into a hotel as his big project. The only trouble is – the haveli is haunted by a spirit that eventually possesses Lisa. Even as the girl transforms from a beautiful bride to a withered zombie that talks in multiple voices and levitates in bed, the guy doesn’t run away but stands beside her, his love unshaken, until he finds a way to exorcise her of the demonic spirit.
Plotwise, ‘1920’ doesn’t offer anything remarkably novel or nightmarish. It abounds with clichés that collage any typical horror film – a large, empty and dimly-lit mansion with huge portraits staring down ominously at its audience. Or its rich architecture that glistens through the shifting shadows. Or a lantern-carrying housekeeper with mysterious facial expressions.
Despite this, the film works to an extent because Vikram Bhatt holds it tight until the very climax. The director lays the ground in the first half and shoots up the scare-quotient in the second half considerably enough for you to feel a full bladder mid-way through your carbonated drink.
The film also works because its actors, Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma, deliver credible performances in aptly-suited roles. Adah’s blanched complexion particularly makes her well-suited to play a possessed girl. Raj Zutsi as the scowling priest is too stilted.
The music is quite evocative except the Rakhi Sawant number which stands out like a sore thumb in this sufficiently spooky tale.
Just don’t go expecting too much and there are chances that you might get some paisa-vasool scares.

A Wednesday !!

Starring :


AT Cop : Aamir Bashir
Jimmy Shergill
Journalist : Deepal Shaw
Commissioner : Anupam Kher
Common Man : Naseeruddin Shah
Writer-director: Neeraj Pandey

An angry common man wages his war against the system in ‘A Wednesday’.
Now, here’s a flick that could make your day. It doesn’t send you home romping with joy and crooning sweet songs shot at scenic locales in some distant continent. A Wednesday has none of that Bollywood guck and gimmickry. What it does have is a riveting plot, directed skillfully and imaginatively by writer-director Neeraj Pandey. And it has wonderful performances by its two unglamorous but charismatic leading men – Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher .
‘A Wednesday’ is a film set right in our backyard, in Mumbai. And it talks about terrorism from a new angle. The antagonist in it doesn’t come with a stereotyped religious label. In fact, he has no label at all. He is a ‘common man’ who vents out his angst by taking on the system and trying to bring it down to its knees. Only an obdurate Police Commissioner can foil his mission.
Anupam Kher plays that top cop. On a fateful Wednesday he receives a call from a man who claims to have planted bombs in different parts of the city, set to go off at half-past six in the evening. The caller (Naseeruddin Shah, the great) describes self as a ‘common man’ and demands the release of four terrorists if the impending calamity has to be averted.
The threat sends the cops into overdrive as the Commissioner, with the help of an ATS commando ( Jimmy Shergill ) and a tough cop (Aamir Bashir) and a journalist ( Deepal Shaw ), tries to foil the common man’s uncommonly dangerous plan.
What’s most remarkable about the movie is that it keeps you gripped despite opening its cards at the very outset. Yes, you are told at the start what the end is going to be. What keeps you hooked is how the plot meanders through many unexpected twists and turns before reaching its predictable denouement.
Kudos to Neeraj Pandey and his technical team for putting together a neat, cohesive and engrossing film about a subject that’s beginning to feature more than often in Bollywood movies. But hats off to Naseer bhai for yet another memorable performance. To the every inch of his skin does Naseer bhai look the angst-ridden antagonist who takes up cudgels against the system in an extreme way. Anupam Kher manages to bring about a calculated balance of calm, control and panic in his performance.
Jimmy Shergill is much better than what we saw last of him. Aamir Bashir shows only flashes of good acting. Deepal Shaw is okay.
What’s not okay is the slightly preachy mode the movie slips into at the end. After all, the last thing we need at the end of the day is a lecture. This, and a few foibles apart, ‘A Wednesday’ makes for a paisa vasool watch.