Avatar

Cast
Michelle Rodriguez ... Trudy Chacon
Sigourney Weaver ... Dr. Grace Augustine
Giovanni Ribisi ... Selfridge
Zoe Saldana ... Neytiri
Laz Alonso ... Tsu'Tey
Sam Worthington ... Jake Sully
Joel Moore ... Norm Spellman (as Joel David Moore)
Wes Studi ...
CCH Pounder ... Moha (as C.C.H. Pounder)
Stephen Lang ... Col. Quaritch
Matt Gerald ... Lyle Wainfleet
Peter Mensah ... Akwey
Julene Renee ... Med Tech #1
Dean Knowsley ... Pilot
Kevin Dorman ... Tractor operator
Sean Anthony Moran ... Fike
Dileep Rao ... Dr. Max Patel
Logan Pithyou ... Blast Technician (uncredited)
Grant Roa ... Bouncer (uncredited)
Woody Schultz ... Med Tech #2 (uncredited)

Crew
James Cameron ... Director
Jon Landau ... Producer
James Cameron ... Producer
James Horner ... Music Director
Mauro Fiore ... Cinematography
Stephen E. Rivkin ... Editor
John Refoua ... Editor
Janace Tashjian ... Associate Producer
Colin Wilson ... Executive Producer
Peter M. Tobyansen ... line producer
James Cameron ... written by
Brooke Breton ... co-producer
Josh McLaglen ... co-producer

A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world.
As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is "Avatar." And he did it almost from scratch.

There is no underlying novel or myth to generate his story. He certainly draws deeply on Westerns, going back to "The Vanishing American" and, in particular, "Dances With Wolves." And the American tragedy in Vietnam informs much of his story. But then all great stories build on the past ( "Avatar" premiered Thursday in London).

After writing this story many years ago, he discovered that the technology he needed to make it happen did not exist. So, he went out and created it in collaboration with the best effects minds in the business. This is motion capture brought to a new high where every detail of the actors' performances gets preserved in the final CG character as they appear on the screen. Yes, those eyes are no longer dead holes but big and expressive, almost dominating the wide and long alien faces.

The movie is 161 minutes and flies by in a rush. Repeat business? You bet. "Titanic"-level business? That level may never be reached again, but Fox will see more than enough grosses worldwide to cover its bet on Cameron.

But let's cut to the chase: A fully believable, flesh-and-blood (albeit not human flesh and blood) romance is the beating heart of "Avatar." Cameron has never made a movie just to show off visual pyrotechnics: Every bit of technology in "Avatar" serves the greater purpose of a deeply felt love story (watch the trailer here).

The story takes place in 2154, three decades after a multinational corporation has established a mining colony on Pandora, a planet light years from Earth. A toxic environment and hostile natives -- one corporate apparatchik calls the locals "blue monkeys" -- forces the conglom to engage with Pandora by proxy. Humans dwell in oxygen-drenched cocoons but move out into mines or to confront the planet's hostile creatures in hugely fortified armor and robotics or -- as avatars.

The protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a disabled former Marine who takes his late twin brother's place in the avatar program, a sort of bone thrown to the scientific community by the corporation in hopes that the study of Pandora and its population might create a more peaceful planet.

Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na'vi. Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes into the fresh air -- to a native -- to throw open Pandora's many boxes.

What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a crisp 3D realism. It's every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It seems -- although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver's top doc have barely scratched the surface -- a flow of energy ripples through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the Na'vi know how to tap into.
The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what the humans want to strip mine.

Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love birds.

They must overcome obstacles and learn each other's heart. The Na'vi have a saying, "I see you," which goes beyond the visual. It means I see into you and know your heart.
In his months with the Na'vi, Jake experiences their life as the "true world" and that inside his crippled body locked in a coffin-like transponding device, where he can control his avatar, is as the "dream." The switch to the other side is gradual for his body remains with the human colony while his consciousness is sometimes elsewhere.

He provides solid intelligence about the Na'vi defensive capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head of security for the mining consortium and the movie's villain. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri's eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na'vi occupy for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose in this.
The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the film. The planet's animal life -- the creatures of the ground and air -- give battle along with the Na'vi, but they come up against projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their ruin.

As with everything in "Avatar," Cameron has coolly thought things through. With every visual tool he can muster, he takes viewers through the battle like a master tactician, demonstrating how every turn in the fight, every valiant death or cowardly act, changes its course. The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-'em-ups you care to mention (watch the "Avatar" video game trailer here).

In years of development and four years of production no detail in the pic is unimportant. Cameron's collaborators excel beginning with the actors. Whether in human shape or as natives, they all bring terrific vitality to their roles.

Mauro Fiore's cinematography is dazzling as it melts all the visual elements into a science-fiction whole. You believe in Pandora. Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg's design brings Cameron's screenplay to life with disarming ease.

James Horner's score never intrudes but subtly eggs the action on while the editing attributed to Cameron, Stephen Rivkin and John Refoua maintains a breathless pace that exhilarates rather than fatigues. Not a minute is wasted; there is no down time.

De Dana Dan

Cast
Akshay Kumar
Katrina Kaif
Sunil Shetty
Paresh Rawal
Neha Dhupia
Sameera Reddy

Crew
Priyadarshan ... Director
Champak Jain ... Producer
Ratan Jain ... Producer

Hats and caps off to Priyadarshan. Just when we thought that comedy - stifled in Bollywood by the silly slapstick we’re served in the name of humour - is dead, shrouded, coffined and buried, Priyadarshan the saviour strikes form and resurrects it in his latest screwball sit-com De Dana Dan.
Unlike the rib-ticklers that are solely propped on the charm of either Akshay Kumar or Paresh Rawal, in ‘De Dana Dan’, the script and story is the hero. It’s a comedy of errors based on mistaken identities in a mad melee of oddball characters that cross paths inside a hotel in Singapore. The cobweb of confusion is created with such craft that gags keep flying and whizzing by endlessly - left, right, up, down…de dana dan! And you come out of the theatre with every cell of your body giggling with joy.

It’s all about money, honey! Nitin (Akshay Kumar) wants money to free himself from the clutches of his authoritarian maalkin (Archana Puran Singh) and marry his rich GF Anjali (Katrina Kaif). Ram (Sunil Shetty), a courier delivery boy, too wants money to marry Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), daughter of an industrialist. And Harbans Chadda (Paresh Rawal), a serial conman posing as a millionaire, wants to marry his good-for-nothing son (Chunkey Pandey) to any rich girl whose father is willing to open up coffers for dowry.

After their respective lives hit the rock bottom, Nitin and Ram decide to kidnap someone important (not telling who?) to make some easy millions as ransom. But the kidnapping goes wrong as the duo check into a hotel where preparations are underway for Manpreet’s wedding.

Add to this melee a number of screwballs like a testosterone-driven, middle-aged lecher (an appropriately cast Shakti Kapoor) desperately looking for sex, or a nit-wit cop (Sharat Saxena) looking for the conman, or a prostitute (Neha Dhupia) waiting for a client, or an assassin (Johnny Lever) who carries chloroform bottles, or a bumbling waiter (Rajpal Yadav) on the verge of losing his job, or a harried father (Tinnu Anand) out to find his runaway daughter (Katrina), or a local don (Asrani) with a dead body nobody’s willing to take.

It’s a mad, mad world out here in this Singapore hotel.

The best part about ‘De Dana Dan’ is that gags aren’t just mindlessly stitched together but flow out of situations that arise out of mistaken identities. Full credit should go to its crispy script laced with punchy dialogues from Jay Master and full credit to Priyadarshan for executing it with his masterly skill that makes the movie a hell of a rollercoaster ride, leaving the audience doubled up with laughs.

Yet again, Akshay brings a lovable goofiness to his character even though he’s locked inside a wardrobe for a substantial chunk of the second half. Sunil Shetty is okay while Paresh Rawal and Manoj Joshi bring the house down with their remarkable bonhomie. The ladies, Katrina, Sameera and Aditi Govitrikar (as the money hungry wife of Rawal) are more of eye candies, though Neha Dhupia does get to shoot off a few smutty dialogues. The supporting cast chips in with fine performances.

The movie’s pace slackens a bit with the song ‘Paisa’ which, though a hummable ditty, acts as a bump in this joyride. Also the flood in the climax doesn’t add as much to the humour as it could have.

These sores apart, ‘De Dana Dan’ is the best comedy of errors to have come out of Bollywood in a long time. Anyway, it’s much better than the comedy of terror we saw last week.

Go for it. It’s loaded with fun.

The Rocket Singh - Salesman Of The Year

Cast
Ranbir Kapoor
Shazahn Padamsee
Sharon Prabhakar
Gauhar Khan

Crew
Shimit Amin ... Director
Jaideep Sahni ... Story/Writer

He won’t grease anybody’s palm to get a sales order for his company. He’s persuasive but doesn’t spiel to sell off goods. Worst of all, he’s honest and believes in doing things the right way. Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) isn’t cut out to be a salesman. No wonder he gets the rap from his boss after he botches up a deal and is scoffed at by his colleagues who keep flying paper-rockets at him to remind him that he’s a loser.
After scraping through his college with minimal marks, Harpreet is determined to make his mark as a salesman. Working as a trainee in a company called AYS, which sells computers, he soon finds himself relegated to a corner, snubbed by his colleagues, insulted by his boss. Staring at the possibility of a ruined career, Harpreet stashes his honesty aside, and, while keeping his job as a trainee, secretly begins his own small company Rocket Sales Corp on the side, and ropes in co-workers from AYS and builds a customer base using the resources of AYS. Smart strategy, you would say. But then, Harpreet’s secret is exposed and time comes for him to pay the piper.
Coming from the director-writer-producer team of Shimit Amin-Jaideep Sahni-Aditya Chopra that gave us the cult movie Chak De India, Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year is an eminently watchable film that, however, falls a wee bit short of expectations. Granted that Shimit’s eye for details is as sharp as ever, and Jaideep’s writing (story, screenplay and dialogues) as steeped in reality as one could hope, but there’s something lacking. It’s hard to stomach the fact that people in AYS would risk their well-secured jobs for a rag-tag company run by a rookie who’s been branded a ZERO by his boss. Secondly, Jaideep Sahni ought to have given more depth and fire to Ranbir’s character. As a viewer you don’t feel the spark of the high-flying Sikh hitting pay dirt after convincing his clients with his mere honesty and willingness to take big risks.
The fuel of ‘Rocket Singh’ is its myriad characters that drive the story. There’s a porn-junkie computer engineer (enacted superbly) who sits cheek by jowl to Harpreet in the office and later helps him in Rocket Corp. There’s a feisty receptionist (Gauhar Khan) with a dream of rising to managerial position. There’s a street-smart team-leader who grills Harpreet but later joins him. There’s a sneering boss who’s interested only in sales figures and numbers rather than people. There’s a peon who’s tired of taking insults from his bosses. And, of course, aside from this melee is the newbie Shazahn Padamsee who gets only three scenes with Ranbir.
Ranbir Kapoor plays his part well but doesn’t modulate his voice much. Though his exterior, his body language (how he dances and adjusts his turban like a true-blue Sikh) is bang on, when he speaks, you almost hear a Sid or Prem talking. Prem Chopra, playing his father, is delightful in just a few scenes. But it’s the terrific performances by the supporting cast that makes ‘Rocket Singh’ what it is. It’s an almost perfect cast ensemble put together by Shimit, Jaideep and Aditya. The only three songs in the film (Salim-Sulaiman) play out in the background and cinematography by Vikash Nowlakha is a treat to the eyes.
Kudos to Shimit for the finesse with which he brings realism to a heart-warming story laced with wit and humour by Jaideep Sahni. But how one wishes the trajectory of this Rocket did not dip in the second half; and how the final message (that people are more important than numbers) did not feel shoved down our throats.
Rocket Singh’ is good, but it could have been much better.

3 Idiots

Cast:
Amir Khan - Rannchoddas Shamaladas Chanchad
R Madhavan -Farhan Qureshi
Sharman Joshi as Raju Rastogi
Kareena Kapoor as Pia Sahastrabuddhe
Boman Irani as Viru Sahastrabuddhe (ViruS)
Mona Singh as Mona
Omi Vaidya as Chatur Ramalingam (Silencer)

Production
Development
Three Idiots is credited as "Based on a novel by Chetan Bhagat."The novel is Five Point Someone. While Bhagat was involved in the initial development, he was not involved in the creation of the screenplay due to conflicting schedules. Bhagat notes that 3 Idiots is different from his book but is none the less an enthusiastic supporter of the film.
Filming
The shoot of the film with the supporting characters began on 28 July 2008. Hirani and his team left in late August for the shoot with the principal cast. The film was shot in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ladakh and Shimla. Aamir and rest of the cast began shooting in early September. Hirani planned to wrap up the film by December. The first scene was shot in an aircraft with Madhavan. From Mumbai, the crew and cast comprising Aamir and Kareena went to Ladakh for a 20-day schedule.The shooting also took place at the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore for 33 days as a part of the second schedule of production.

Movie Review

Pants down and palms up! Give a high five to Rajkumar Hirani, whose formula of cocktailing entertainment with social messages has given us jaadu ki japphi and Gandhigiri in the past. His latest baby 3 Idiots isn’t exactly the cinematic ‘chamatkar’ it’s cracked up to be. It’s a frothy, feelgood, fun-filled, one-time-watch film that leaves you smiling but doubtful whether you wanna walk back in for another viewing.
Borrowing only scraps from Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five Point Someone’, Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi churn out some delectable idiotgiri, laced with juvenile humour and tear-shedding moments. The only trouble is that the film’s core message is hammered out so many times that by the end it begins to lose its punch.
Salt water is a good conductor of electricity. Everyone’s read it, but Rancho (Aamir Khan) applied it on his ‘pissed-off’ senior to escape getting ragged on his very first day of the Imperial Engineering College. An Edison-in-the-making, he believes in striving for excellence rather than success, which, in fact, is the core message of the film.
But excellence can’t be had if you strive half-heartedly or fearfully or, worst, mechanically. Thereby come in three more characters - Farhan (Madhavan) who wants to be a wild life photographer but is doing engineering to fullfil his dad’s dream; Raju (Sharman Joshi), a poor lad who’s so afraid of failure that his fear has become a self-fulfilling prophecy; and Chatur (Omi) who’s a learning machine adept at mugging up books.
On top of them is the ever grimacing professor Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani), fondly called Virus, telling them that the world’s a rat race in which one has to step on another to get to the top. No wonder the ingenious Rancho is an oddball out in the herd. His questions perplex his professors. And his disdain for the education system that professes learning by rote makes him the arch foe of Virus. Sandwiched between the two foes is Virus’s doctor daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor) who falls for Rancho but has to face up to her eccentric pa at home.
Hirani and Joshi take this basic story, spin it on its head, and make it a tale of a quest of Farhan and Raju for their lost friend Rancho, who disappeared after topping the college. The writer duo packs in some fine humour and drama but overshoot the mark at some places. For instance, Chatur’s convocation speech in which the word ‘Chamatkar’ is replaced by ‘Balatkar’ is a gag stretched too long. And there’s too much butt baring and dropping of pants. And the screenplay too takes a circuitous route through a funeral and a wedding, both not essential to the plot.
Despite these foibles, ‘3 Idiots’ makes for an enjoyable watch, thanks to the bonhomie cracked up on screen by Aamir, Madhavan and Sharman. Aamir’s Rancho is a bouncy, fidgety genius with a golden heart. The 44-year-old actor almost passes off as a 22-year-old collegian, bringing out in his character the juvenile buoyancy and vivacity few actors of his age can. Madhavan and Sharman give ample support from the flanks, but a word of praise needs to be reserved for Sharman who shines equally in dramatic as well as funny scenes. Kareena, sadly, has been relegated to a corner but makes her presence felt in a few well-enacted sequences, but it’s Boman Irani who comes up with the best performance in the ensemble with his brilliant portrayal of an eccentric professor. His jawline protruded, his brows pursed, his gait ungainly, his speech lisped, Irani is every bit the vile and virulent Virus he’s supposed to be.
Shantanu Moitra’s music and Muralidharan’s cinematography complement the flick well. Rajkumar Hirani spins a yarn that despite a few botches has its heart in the right place. For this alone, ‘3 Idiots’ definitely ought to be seen and enjoyed.

Ghajini

Starring

Aamir Khan.... Sanjay Singhania
Asin .... Kalpana
Jiah Khan .... Sunita

Director : A.R. Murugadoss

Music Album : Ghajini

If you can digest an overdose of physical violence, then Ghajini is a film you shouldn’t miss for Aamir Khan’s unforgettable performance.

It’s been years since I saw a Hindi film that had so few dialogues for the leading man. Quite unlikely for a masala movie about romance and revenge! Stoically, Aamir Khan walks and rips through the film with the charm of a Casanova and the beastliness of a vengeful man, and delivers a performance that will be remembered even though the movie itself may be forgotten after a few months.

‘Ghajini’is a film that ought to be seen for the sheer novelty of its theme. Inspired – and to some extent, lifted – from Hollywood’s ‘Memento’, it tells the story of a man who can’t remember anything beyond 15 minutes. He suffers from short term memory loss. But somehow he has found ways to remind himself of just one thing – that he has to find and kill the man whose name his murdered lover ( Asin ) whispered in his ear just moments before he too was hit on the head with an iron rod, never to fully recover his memory again. So, through tattoos and polaroids and notes he keeps reminding himself of just one aim – to find Ghajini, the killer whose face and whereabouts he neither knows, nor can remember.

As our amnesiac hero, Sanjay Singhania (Aamir), closes in on Ghajini and goes about bumping off one bad guy after another, we are given repeated flashbacks into his past life, when he fell in love with a struggling model Kalpana (Asin), an Indianized version of the French ‘Amelie’ who helps the poor and needy on the streets. It is this very quality of Kalpana that makes her the target of a gangster, who hunts her down and kills her.

Now, Sanjay, with his limited memory and eight pack abs, lives for one purpose – revenge. He is like a loose canon, a self-propelled torpedo that keeps veering off the course and leaves behind a trail of broken bones, wrung necks and pummeled jaws wherever he passes through.

And oh! I almost forgot. There’s also Sunita ( Jiah Khan ), a medical student interested in the case study of our amnesiac hero. She’s a frail collegian who hinders and helps Sanjay in his mission.

Director A.R. Murugadoss tells a long story at a brisk pace and shows no frugality in depicting violence in all its goriness. It is blood curdling stuff gruesomely glorified. Stuff that gives you the heebie-jeebies! It’s mostly hand-to-hand combat with frequent use of iron rods that serve the sole purpose as skull-crushers. Repulsive!

But if you have stomach for such revolting violence, you would enjoy sitting through ‘Ghajini’ for many reasons. First, it’s unique plot. Second, Aamir’s mind-blowing acting. Third, Asin’s confident debut in a heart-winning performance. Jiah Khan is appropriately cast in a role that doesn’t demand much from her. Pradeep Rawat, as the antagonist, is menacing.

There is a gaping hole that yawns right at the very base of Ghajini’s story. If a man can’t remember that his lover was killed or who killed her, why does he need to remind himself again and again to take revenge. Wouldn’t his vengeance wane away with his memory? Murugadoss should have established some internal link that keeps pushing the protagonist back to his mission – something like sporadic dreams or memory flashes.

Anyway, realism is something you shouldn’t expect from ‘Ghajini’. It’s a full-on masala film that is stylishly shot and has above average music by A R Rahman . It’s a film that needs to be enjoyed with mouthful of cola and fistful of popcorns even though the no-holds-barred violence keeps getting on your nerves. Despite its long duration of three-plus hours, the movie, with its quick pace, doesn’t weigh heavy, and leaves you with a mind out of time. Anterograde Amnesia, anyone?

Chandni Chowk To China

Starring

Akshay Kumar .... Siddhu Sharma
Deepika Padukone .... Sakhi
Ranvir Shorey .... Chopstick
Mithun Chakraborty .... Dada

Music Album : Chandni Chowk To China

Here’s a chop-suey with desi tadka. Karate with some dhobi patak wrestling. But this cocktail called Chandni Chowk To China turns out to be utter mess.

Akshay Kumar can no longer be the saviour of no-brainer comedies that have become a sort of excuse for many directors to hide their incompetence behind. Making a good no-brainer requires brains. It requires a script in which humour is so potent that even if the story stretches beyond the point of its credibility, the gags still flow out of the situations in the plot, however implausible they may be. That is certainly not the case with ‘Chandni Chowk To China’, which is like an over-stewed chop-suey with burnt tadka.

The movie, mind you, is not an out-and-out comedy. It see-saws between being slapstick and weepy, and also has a generous smattering of ouch-ing tiger and hideous dragon.

So in the name of entertainment you have the tomfoolery of a goofy cook Sidhu (Akshay) who’s tired of his dreary existence of chopping vegetables everyday and being kicked about in his butt by his righteous, hard-working Dada ( Mithun Chakraborty ). Leaving Chandni Chowk, Sidhu goes to China after a bunch of Chinese men convince him that he is the reincarnation of an ancient Chinese warrior, even though Sidhu is told by a feng shastra expert ( Ranvir Shorey ) that he was a machchar (mosquito) in previous life. Little does Sidhu know that he’s taken to the other side of the Great Wall to fight and kill an evil and powerful ganglord Hojo (Gordon Liu).

In the name of drama, on the sidelines, there’s a dull, tortuously boring and weepy subplot of a Chinese cop separated from his twin daughters after losing his memory while fighting Hojo many years ago. The twins grow up to be Sakhi and Meow ( Deepika Padukone ). While Sakhi is a telemarketing model who uses a variety of gizmos, Meow does Hojo’s dirty work.

Initially beaten and battered by Hojo, how Sidhu takes his revenge is what the remaining movie is about.

Nikhil Advani , who made the super turkey Salaam-e-Ishq two years back, may not get a hit movie to his filmography this time around as well. Working with a tacky script that runs in many directions without going anywhere, Nikhil makes a complete hodgepodge of this mad-cap caper despite having a crowd-puller like Akshay at the helm. By the time the movie ends you sincerely wish it were the director and the writer who were at the receiving end of Mithun’s many kicks on Akshay’s bum.

As for the charmer, Akshay, himself, his goofy act is becoming a tad too predictable by now. After digesting his antics in Welcome and Singh Is Kinng , the audiences are already overfed. And he goes about doing the same in ‘Chandni Chowk To China’. He does make you laugh at times, but the humour doesn’t have the explosive effect that you expect from Akki.

Deepika Padukone catches your eye when she fights and hops like a monkey gone nuts, but she is insufferable as the sentimental Sakhi in search of her estranged family.

Gordon Liu has an arresting screen presence but a poorly etched role to match it. Ranvir Shorey is totally wasted in an inconsequential role. The moist-eyed Mithun Da oscillates between crying and hollering in the name of acting.

With its forgettable music, lowbrow performances and shoddy direction, ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ is like a trip you never wish to have made. Promoted as a no-brainer, this naan and noodle combination can seriously wreck a few wirings in your head if you watch it more than once.

Slumdog Millionaire

Starring

Dev Patel .... Jamal Malik
Anil Kapoor .... Prem Kumar
Irrfan Khan .... Police Inspector
Freida Pinto .... Latika

Question: How convincingly and credibly can a British director make a film that’s set right in the underbelly of aamchi Mumbai – with its slums and squalor – and yet tell a life-affirming, buoyant tale with a universal appeal?

Options: (a) Not a chance in hell. (b) It’s a fluke (c) He’s a cheat. Someone ghost-directed. (d) The guy deserves an Oscar.

Saving the answer for the last, let it be said at the outset that Slumdog Millionaire is a kind of movie that is made only once in a while. It requires more than just an accomplished director to tell a story that cuts through cultural barriers while still being rooted in the grime and crime of Mumbai’s netherworld that lies in the shade of the symbols of India Shining – the skyscrapers and malls. It takes more than just a good ensemble cast to make a film like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ work. Everything has to fall in place – the script, screenplay, direction, acting, music, editing – in sync with each other to have a movie as frisky, stark, shocking and uplifting as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. It doesn’t happen often. May be it’s the stuff of destiny.

That’s also what the film’s story is about. An uneducated chaiwala ( Dev Patel ) at a call centre is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’. How did he manage to answer all the questions correctly? Is he a cheat? Well, the show’s host ( Anil Kapoor ) and a local cop ( Irrfan Khan ) certainly think so. But may be he’s not. May be everything that happened in this slumdog’s life somehow conspired to bring him to the hot-seat of the television show where he would know almost all – if not all – the answers!

As we are given flashbacks into the life of the protagonist Jamaal (Dev Patel), we are taken into Mumbai’s underbelly where he grew as a kid with his elder brother Salim and a girl named Lathika.

Orphaned as kids, the three impoverished musketeers of this story have to survive the big bad world of Mumbai. It’s a world where goons take kids under their wing and gouge out their eyes to make them beg on the streets. It’s a world where orphaned girls end up in brothels or as some ganglord’s mistress. It’s a world where young teens take to theft and killing because there’s none but criminals to guide them. It’s a world that Jamaal grew in and out of, but his brother Salim and love Lathika could not.

Against the backdrop of this filth and squalor unfolds a beautiful love story, a story where a guy does the impossible just to find the girl he loves, and in the process wins a few millions as bonus.

Right from the opening reels, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ unspools at feverish pace as Simon Beaufoy’s superbly crafted screenplay – adapted from Vikas Swarup’s book ‘Q&A’ – takes us into the innards of a Mumbai slum. Unflinchingly, the movie mirrors some stark realities that few Indian filmmakers have dared to tell – the killing of Muslims by a rioting mob, the brothels that thrive in the by-lanes of Mumbai, the greedy and cold-blooded gangsters who maim and blind little kids, and the cops who torture the suspects in custody. Yet, against this shocking reality there’s something that jars. That’s the film’s English dialogues. Danny Boyle and Beaufoy have stuck to English, rather than Hindi dialogues for the most part of the film, despite the fact that you would hardly find an uneducated slumkid or a chaiwala in India who speaks English fluently. But why Boyle and Beaufoy did so is understandable. They were making a film for the international audience. If not for this cinematic liberty, the movie would not have cut across the cultural fault-lines as it does now.

The performances in the film are topnotch, right from the kids Ayush Khedekar (as the kid Jamaal) and Azharuddin Ismail (the kid Salim) to Dev Patel (grown up Jamaal) and Freida Pinto (Lathika). Patel, who gets maximum screentime, is quite a find. With conviction he switches from a vulnerable contestant in the hot seat to a confident guy who dodges the trap laid by the game show’s host and even puts all his money on the line on the final question, all for the sake of love.

Anil Kapoor as the deriding host, Irrfan Khan as the empathetic cop and Saurabh Shukla as the cussing constable deliver upto the mark.

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ would not have been the same without A R Rahman ’s gritty, grungy and extraordinary score that literally breathes life into the movie’s frames – be it ‘Paper Planes’ when the kid Jamaal and his brothers sell candies in train, or the raunchy ‘Ring Ring Ringa’ when the brothers (as teens) visit the red light area.

There are some brilliantly executed sequences in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ that prove Boyle’s mettle as a director. The kid Jamaal, locked in a makeshift toilet, jumps into a shit-hole just to get the autograph of his favourite filmstar. Or when the grown up brothers meet again on an under-construction building. Or the exhilarating finale when Jamaal doesn’t know the answer to the question that’s ironically the most personal to him. After all the suspense and drama, the movie leaves you in an ecstatic mood with Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’ (a dash of Bollywood song and dance in the end) and sends you home with a bounce in your walk and smile on your face.

As for how good Boyle is in ‘Slumdog’, the answer is –

(d) The guy deserves an Oscar.

Raaz - The Mystery Continues

Starring

Kangana Ranaut ....Nandita
Emraan Hashmi ....Prithvi
Adhyayan ....Yash


Music Album : Raaz - The Mystery Continues





A painter has haunting premonitions about a girl he’s never met. A girl whose hidden insecurities come to surface when she is faced with a deadly truth. And a lover who won’t let go of the woman he loves. A mysterious story unravels among these three characters in Raaz - The Mystery Continues .

The movie, a Vishesh Films presentation,


is not a sequel to Raaz but an entirely new suspense thriller directed by Mohit Suri .


Emraan Hashmi as Prithvi

A silent brooding artist who expresses all his feelings through what he paints. He has a unique gift that goes beyond his talent as a painter. He can see future. And now he sees Nandita’s future – fearsome and deadly. Can he save her soul?

Kangana Ranaut as Nandita.

She is a young, accomplished and independent model. She has found her life in Yash. Behind her self-confident façade lies a woman vulnerable to fear and insecurities. She is about to witness a terrifying struggle for survival. What will survive – she or her fear?

Adhyayan as Yash.

Yash is a charismatic and extremely ambitious man. A documentary filmmaker, he aims at dispelling and debunking religious superstitions and paranormal beliefs. His strong commitment to rationality and logic sometimes results in him challenging and taking a stand against existing age-old traditions and myths.

And yet when Nandita, who is closest to his heart, claims to be traumatized by supernatural occurrences, will his belief still hold true?

Synopsis:

A brooding artist Prithvi (Emraan) experiences mysterious and distressing visions about Nandita (Kangana), a woman he has never met, which he paints on a canvas. Intrigued by these visions, Prithvi tracks her down and warns her that these are not merely paintings of her, but accidents waiting to happen.

At first Nandita refuses to believe him and dismisses him as an eccentric stalker. However, the striking resemblance between Prithvi’s paintings and the near-death incidents in her life is hard to ignore.

Haunted by a series of deadly and paranormal experiences, her reason crumbles in the face of fear.

Now, one of Prithvi’s paintings has revealed her as dead. The only way she can change her fate is to unravel this mystery with his help, at the risk of alienating herself from her boyfriend, Yash (Adhyayan), a rational and logical man who refuses to believe in Prithvi’s premonitions.

Will Natasha risk her love and her life to unravel this mystery? Is there no escape? Are some mysteries better left unsolved, some secrets left uncovered, and some questions left unanswered?

‘Raaz – The Mystery Continues’ is produced by Mukesh Bhatt . The film is set to hit the theatres on January 23, 2009.