Usually you wont find too many moview reviews on my blog. It's because likes and dislikes in movies is a highly personal and individual choice. So if some slap stick Govinda humour can tickle one it may give seizures to another and like wise Sharukhs stammering may seem "style" to his fans but gives me the hickups:-) So this is my view of Farhan Akhtars "Don-The chase begins" you are free to have yours.
The verdict upfront is that Remakes, if not the Remixes, work well!! You will return fully satisfied with the wholesum entertainment that this thriller offers. Even if you spend $25-for-two as I did, it will be "fultu paisa vasool". Except Sharukhs repetitve acting style of menacing sneers, stupid smiles, slightly improved stammering and a desperate but inadequate effort at matching the original Don (Big B) everything else in the moview is well above average. It is slickly shot and can easily compete any above-average hollywood thriller.
Acting Department: Sharukh is routine. But his extremely trendy wardrobe and a fitter physique make him look ultra cool.He is a delight to (just) look at. Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar are regular looking gangsta molls, hot bods with attitude and everything. Even their acting is believable. Boman Irani, though a misfit (due to his physique) in his role of a crime branch action packed DCP, is excellent as usual. He has a meaty role in the movie and does full justice to this opportunity. Then there is a surprise guest appearance by a leading actress for the main event item number - "Ye Mera Dil...". She fails miserably to oomph even an ounce of sexiness in the gyrating moves of the song which the original protagonist - The sizzling Helen could do even in sleep. But still she looks hot, what with those lost pounds which she badly needed! Om Puri has no role worth mentioning. Arjun Rampal, gets yet another role where is shown handicapped. Poor fellow, as if his handicap of acting talent is not enough!!
Music & Choreography: Considering that new "Don" is a remake, I did not expect new songs. But unfortunately Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy did add few soundtracks of their own and ended up diluting an otherwise excellent remix score. "Ye Mera Dil" and "Khai Ke Paan" have some new foot tapping beats. Udit Narayan did really well at the latter song. But the best part was the background score throughout the movie. It is inspired from the original Don but the music directors were successful at adding a hypnotizing lull to that. There is one particular piece which stills rings in my ears. Dance sequences in all the songs were a treat to watch. But the director cum script writer Farhan Akhtar has got the "set" and "situation" for the rustic holi number "Khai Ke Paan" entirely wrong. Its difficult to digest traditional "Bhaang mixed with milk" being available in Kaula Lampur!
Script & Story: THIS is the biggest plus and stronghold of the new "Don". For a change there is a main stream hindi cinema which has strong, gripping and flawless script which covers all other flaws mentioned above. The pace of the movie is just right, not too fast nor too slow. Gives time to digest while keeping you on tenterhooks until (literally) the last scene. Suspence is maintained well and even and is very hard to guess. Be ready for a double whammy!
The script has many deviations from the original one, which I believe does not qualify this movie as a version-2 but a real remake complete with makeover. Though it is a remake it has its own personality which refrains the audience from comparing it with original Don. And for this I raise my hats off to Farhan Akhtar. It was very intelligent of him to do so, because it frees his new Don from shackles and shadows of original one which otherwise would have been its own dejavu! Well done. Here, take your five stars *****
Now lets wait for Ramgopal Varma's Sholay!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Frogs in the (huge) well
This is a long and maybe a boring post. So be warned.
I have been a regular newspaper enthusiast since childhood. I guess I started reading newspapers since the 7th grade and always had subscription to at least two of them - one in English and other local vernacular edition. That was always in addition to subscription to various magzines like Outlook and libraries. Some of the best papers I have been reading since childhood are The Hitwada, Navbhart, Dainik Jagran,Economic Times, Sakal, Lokmat, and ofcourse the Times Of India(ToI)which I prefer to call TOIlet paper these days. I would love to switch over to The Hindu which I have heard is a much better paper. I will never get tired of praising the benifits of reading a newspaper, especially Indian newspapers.
Thanks to the Brits for leaving us a gift, the lingua pura- English language which I feel is spoken in its purest form only by Indians these days. I see only "slang" and "spoken" English in US, UK and other tradionally English speaking countries. The worlds business language is now limited only to that - business, in form of ultra shorthand emails and crisp news items which sounds like notes from technical manuals. The poetry and prose heritage of English is found only in some rare novels now a days.
Anyway lets come back to the subject of this post again: The above gives a background to the audience that yours truly has been a regular newspaper reader.That holds good even here in US since I have subscribed to "Chicago Tribune". This paper rougly compares with Tabloids as far as dimensions are concerned and is so thick that I feel it is humanely impossible for anyone to ever finish reading the paper all in a day. Such a waste of paper and environment.In contrast,I find the size and dimensions of Indian newspapers perfect.
But that is not my key complaint. I wont mind such thick news papers provided they have some QUALITY news in them. One thing that I have noticed in all the developed countries that I have visited is that their media (Print as well as Television) is very country centered. For them international news is limited to natural disasters
(that too only if they are the size of Tsunami), nuclear explosions,big explosions,tiny explosions,diwali cracker explosion and of course those political turmoils which can be a "threat" to their existance. Everything else is immaterial and not news worthy.
And US seems to be leading the pack of such nations whose media believes in keeping their masses highly ignorant of happenings in the world other than those mentioned above and in their immediate vicinity and radius of about 50 miles. And this I believe is the root cause of the shock and awe an average american felt after 9/11 while he or she was left wondering why on earth would someone want to hurt their "peaceful" country so badly. It was only after that they woke up and took notice of existance of many other smaller muslim/asian countries and read about how their wrong foreign policies lead to a general discontent and discord against US in minds of these nations.
Had the media of these developed countries fed information about the issues facing the developing world, I believe at least the shock would have been less. How can anyone explain the Breaking News of "a mother and a child disappearing somewhere in US only to resurface later" being covered round the clock on CNN when there are many more important news worthy things happenings all around the world? Watching news channels and reading news papers here is a joke.I sincerely wish the media in US sets their priorities right and dishes out something interesting and informative to read in tomorrows paper. That may be a tall order considering the average inability of an american to comprehend issues not related to them! Alas they are the frogs in the Well who believe that they live in a ocean. Only difference here is that the size of thier country and economy is really oceanic so it doesnt really matter to them!
I have been a regular newspaper enthusiast since childhood. I guess I started reading newspapers since the 7th grade and always had subscription to at least two of them - one in English and other local vernacular edition. That was always in addition to subscription to various magzines like Outlook and libraries. Some of the best papers I have been reading since childhood are The Hitwada, Navbhart, Dainik Jagran,Economic Times, Sakal, Lokmat, and ofcourse the Times Of India(ToI)which I prefer to call TOIlet paper these days. I would love to switch over to The Hindu which I have heard is a much better paper. I will never get tired of praising the benifits of reading a newspaper, especially Indian newspapers.
Thanks to the Brits for leaving us a gift, the lingua pura- English language which I feel is spoken in its purest form only by Indians these days. I see only "slang" and "spoken" English in US, UK and other tradionally English speaking countries. The worlds business language is now limited only to that - business, in form of ultra shorthand emails and crisp news items which sounds like notes from technical manuals. The poetry and prose heritage of English is found only in some rare novels now a days.
Anyway lets come back to the subject of this post again: The above gives a background to the audience that yours truly has been a regular newspaper reader.That holds good even here in US since I have subscribed to "Chicago Tribune". This paper rougly compares with Tabloids as far as dimensions are concerned and is so thick that I feel it is humanely impossible for anyone to ever finish reading the paper all in a day. Such a waste of paper and environment.In contrast,I find the size and dimensions of Indian newspapers perfect.
But that is not my key complaint. I wont mind such thick news papers provided they have some QUALITY news in them. One thing that I have noticed in all the developed countries that I have visited is that their media (Print as well as Television) is very country centered. For them international news is limited to natural disasters
(that too only if they are the size of Tsunami), nuclear explosions,big explosions,tiny explosions,diwali cracker explosion and of course those political turmoils which can be a "threat" to their existance. Everything else is immaterial and not news worthy.
And US seems to be leading the pack of such nations whose media believes in keeping their masses highly ignorant of happenings in the world other than those mentioned above and in their immediate vicinity and radius of about 50 miles. And this I believe is the root cause of the shock and awe an average american felt after 9/11 while he or she was left wondering why on earth would someone want to hurt their "peaceful" country so badly. It was only after that they woke up and took notice of existance of many other smaller muslim/asian countries and read about how their wrong foreign policies lead to a general discontent and discord against US in minds of these nations.
Had the media of these developed countries fed information about the issues facing the developing world, I believe at least the shock would have been less. How can anyone explain the Breaking News of "a mother and a child disappearing somewhere in US only to resurface later" being covered round the clock on CNN when there are many more important news worthy things happenings all around the world? Watching news channels and reading news papers here is a joke.I sincerely wish the media in US sets their priorities right and dishes out something interesting and informative to read in tomorrows paper. That may be a tall order considering the average inability of an american to comprehend issues not related to them! Alas they are the frogs in the Well who believe that they live in a ocean. Only difference here is that the size of thier country and economy is really oceanic so it doesnt really matter to them!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Clemency for Afzal ? - An unwilling NO
Here is the reproduction of a reply that I gave to an opinion poll on a popular portal on the subject of clemency for Afzal who is facing the noose in the 2001 parliament attack case:
"I am usually against the institution of capital punishment due to the human values and principles that I have imbibed. However since many decades the so called freedom-fighters have been targeting India for the cause of "free Kashmir" and that this idea was fomented by Pakistan is a well known fact.Recent statements made by Pakistan Govt clearly indicates that "free Kashmir" is an already lost cause and all its original instigators have given up on the idea.So what they do next is to make "use" of local Indian youth by misguiding them through false propoganda and cashing on their poverty and unemployment. Even highly literate youth are easily tutored, not because they believe in the Jehadist cause but simply because literate people can think logically and all their masters need to do is spin their thoughts with consistant propoganda and thus make the idea of jehad seem very logical. Thus homegrown terrorist are born. Due to this, difficult times have set in for the country and tough times call for tough measures. It requires us to toughen our hearts, overcome the emotions and clench the jaw and give a nod to hang our own brethren who have gone horribly wrong, including Afzal"
"I am usually against the institution of capital punishment due to the human values and principles that I have imbibed. However since many decades the so called freedom-fighters have been targeting India for the cause of "free Kashmir" and that this idea was fomented by Pakistan is a well known fact.Recent statements made by Pakistan Govt clearly indicates that "free Kashmir" is an already lost cause and all its original instigators have given up on the idea.So what they do next is to make "use" of local Indian youth by misguiding them through false propoganda and cashing on their poverty and unemployment. Even highly literate youth are easily tutored, not because they believe in the Jehadist cause but simply because literate people can think logically and all their masters need to do is spin their thoughts with consistant propoganda and thus make the idea of jehad seem very logical. Thus homegrown terrorist are born. Due to this, difficult times have set in for the country and tough times call for tough measures. It requires us to toughen our hearts, overcome the emotions and clench the jaw and give a nod to hang our own brethren who have gone horribly wrong, including Afzal"
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