Fata poster nikle Heroes

Saw Heroes with Mommy... Initially didnt have any expectations from the film but then it got decent reviews so decided to watch it. Other option was Roadside Romeo which I didn't think my mom would enjoy...

I was looking forward to watching Oyeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh Sunny and Yayy Mithunda.

Sunny didnt let me down but I got bored with Gunmaster G-9.

I really don't feel like really blogging about this movie so I'll just say what's on top of my head.

Unique concept for a Hindi film. A proper road movie has not been shown before but the director and writer screw it up by blending it's uniqueness with regular masala. So you see Sunny bashing 20 men once again, unwanted songs, unwanted mini romantic angles and just an amateurish screenplay.

I haven't seen Kyon Ho Gaya Na or Nanhe Jaisalmer (Thank you Lord) but I definitely have to say that Samir Karnik is a bad director. No two ways about it.

The cinematography is very bad. It should have been the highlight of such a film. It's surprising considering Binod Pradhan was behind the lens.

I've never loved Preity Zinta more. Amazing performance. Sohail Khan too is good. I was vouching for Vatsal Seth but his dialogue delivery was bad. However, his acting is pretty decent.

Taran Adarsh in his review writes that this is one of Salman's finest works. Considering that he has three scenes in the film, I don't know what he is talking about.

Stay tuned for a completely dedicated post on the Sunny Deol fight scene from Heroes. A funny thing which I must mention. I was speaking to my friend Payal and she innocently asked me if Heroes is a sequel to Sunny Deol's The Hero... Hahahahahahahahaha!!

Kashyap VS Malani- Anuragpatti VS Poda Patti

I read Anurag Kashyap's blog on passionforcinema.com after a very very long time. It was on Hulla directed by Anurag's friend Jaideep Verma so going by his past blogs I was pretty sure Anurag would rave about this one considering the fact that it flopped. Before reading further I was certain that he would immeditaly talk of how immature the Indian audience was for not liking and ignoring the film and Sushant Singh. And that is exactly what happened...

Here's the link
http://passionforcinema.com/hulla-bol/

Now I'm no one to pass judgement over the film mainly because I havent seen it. But I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be spending money watching this one considering the promos were pretty lame. Had it received good word of mouth publicity I wouldn't mind catching it. It received negative reviews... Now I know (this is where I agree with Anurag) that most of India's top critics are lame but over the years I have learnt how to read between the lines and figure these reviews out. And the end result was that I still didnt want to watch this movie.

However, as curiosity got the better of me I decided to pass the link to my friend Gaurav Malani (who is also a critic for Indiatimes). His reply was pretty interesting...
The following is a reply to my e-mail sent by Gaurav...

"What I can conclude from this is that Anurag is not only an influential speaker but also an influential writer (no screenwriter - but blogger)... the way in which he expresses his throughts make you question your viewpoints to an extent...

But I strongly affirm to the fact that Hulla was not a good film... as Anurag says 'we get so impassioned that we abuse teh film even disregarding it and we start discussing how the filmmaker should have done it'... why people started discussing because they felt that Hulla had a very interesting start but the way in which it culminated was stupid... stupid to the core... open ending and all that crap is not an excuse... there are very very few films that are impressive despite an open ending... I personally am against open endings.... it completely kills the purpose of making a film... if the audience had to interpret, why see your film for 2-3 hours then...

Back to Hulla, the believable characters and story is all fine... but there were may more flaws in the films over the side performances and casting (the only weak link that Anurag discusses)... if you have seen the film u will understand that there are so many unsolved subplots, repetitive jokes and redundant dream sequences... and the end is not open... its unintelligent, unconnected to the entire film and bad (yawn)!
Independent cinema doesn't give you the right or excuse to serve any crap to the audience in the name of something different... one can be entertaining, intelligent and yet different... that's where Kashyap's Black Friday differs from his No Smoking

And his complaint on Big Films being a bad producer, et al is crap.... he said the same thing for Eros after No Smoking saying that the film didn't work because the distributors pulled out the film from theatres instead of waiting for it to pick up by the word of mouth.... he was just trying to blame his incompetence on the distributors... As for Adlabs they at least got out his film Black Friday to theatres which nobody was willing to touch...

Its just a case of sour grapes with Anurag Kashyap... he just goes on bitching any film, person or company that does not understand (forget respecting) his work..."

What Gaurav wrote is pretty interesting... Actually reading that has given me incentive to watch the movie now. I'm waiting for the DVD... I'm surprised it hasn't come out yet.

Time for dinner. Right now... Balika Vadu seems more interesting...

Watch KarZZZZZZZ!! Get a hole in your PurZZZZZZZ

All right I know that the whole ZZZZZZZZZZZZ thing is pretty cliche. That was the first thing I thought when I came to know that numerology was added in this title as well. However, this title is more grounded as compared to nose-man's debut film Aap Kaa Surroor: The Moviee - The Real Luv Story.

I remember another Karz which released six years ago... Karz- The burden of truth starring Sunny Paaji, Maa Shakti Suniel Shetty and Shilpa Shetty sans Big Brother. Himesh's film could have well been titled Karz- the burden.

Now, let me tell you my expectations before watching this movie. I am by no means a Himesh fan. Do I find him fascinating? Yes, I do. Do I respect his work? Absolutely not. So I go to watch this film hoping for a few unintentional laughs which I did get early on. Himesh dancing on stage as a rock-star with his face bigger that his biceps is hilarious. But the funniest part was when a firang actually fainted in awe watching him- TWICE. After the initial laughs, it just got pretty lame and boring.

Some points I have to mention-
Urmila is supposed to be 25 years older than Himesh in the film. WTF... I mean they could have just bought back Simi Garewal in this version as well. With her surgeries and face-lifts, the 80 year old can pull off being 45.

Himesh is supposed to be 20 years old. He must have never looked 20 in his entire life.

I finally liked Dino Morea in a movie. It took him just 40 of them to get there.

Why the fuck does Gulshan Grover have an electronic arm which makes music?

In Taran Adarsh's latest trade report, he says that Karzzzzz flopped big time in U.K. and U.S. which actually took me by surprise. The 'vicks ki goli lo khich khich door karo' guy has a big fan following out there but it didnt work. It did make me happy for a bit thinking that the audience has finally woken up and is not accepting average masala cinema with huge sets but then it struck me that this could be because of rising inflation and the dipping economy of the U.S. Can Obama or McCain save Himesh's acting career?

The only salvation I got was that I watched this movie on a Vodafone tuesday so got a free ticket and it was a morning show so it cost me only Rs. 90. Didn't go to office as the MNS started their shit again so could watch this film at Fame Adlabs. I love the Vodafone dog and the MNS bitches.

Filmy quote of the week

"After all, in Bollywood, you're as good or bad as your last Friday." - Taran Adarsh

Short Film Center at IFFI

Couriered my film The Neo Testament to the Short Film Center in Goa. It's an initiative taken by IFFI this year to focus on short films. Thanks to Gaurav who told me about it, I managed to send it 6 days before the deadline.

IFFI is probably the biggest film festival in India and I hope that my film gets selected. I dont know how much exposure it will give me as a film-maker but seeing one's film on the big-screen to a packed audience is a different high altogether. The Neo Testament was screened at Universal Studios in Hollywood as part of NYFA's final screening. Felt really good.

I had to submit a lot of documents and other things. Firstly and most obviously was a DVD copy of the film. Apart from that they required me to fill a form. Name, address, the usual but apart from that I had to write a 30 word synopsis, 100 word synopsis, technical details like aspect ratio, etc. etc.

Also had to give a demand draft of Rs. 1000 non-refundable even if the film is not chosen. And apart from that a few movie stills which I didn't have. So I cut frames from the movie itself. My dear Sadhana resized them and then gave it for prinitng. Came out decently. Also had to give my own picture. Found a decent one taken on my last day at Indiatimes.

I remember going for IFFI as an official trip two years ago while I was at IndiaFM. Gaurav, Moses and Chanakya were with me. Was nice and saw a lot of film-enthusiasts. It was the first film festival I had been to and was very good even though I couldn't attend all the days.

Will come to know on 30 October if my film is selected or not. Reels crossed...

Watch my film by clicking on the following link...

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=RDWeVE4NsWY

Please leave comments and give feedback... will appreciate it.

Ending of Khanjar- The Knife

I have been fortunate to watch the hilarious ending of Khanjar- The Knife twice in the past month on television. Released in 2003 and starring Suniel Shetty and Tabu, this one was definitely delayed by a decade or so. Suniel Shetty when he was known as SUNIL Shetty and Tabu when she looked like a 14 year old whose features hadn't yet developed.

It begins with Anna warning his long lost brother over the phone in the phone-booth that their mother and sister have been kidnapped by the bad guys. The goons now find Suniel and tie up the phone booth and drag it to a jungle of all place. Enters unknown villain who claims to have killed Sunil's father (Mohan Joshi)- dumb quick flashback in slo-mo. Now begins the fun part.

I assume that this film got really delayed and hence Suniel refused to complete the film. So the goons put a blinding mask over a duplicate Suniel and the dupe fights with a mask on. So now Suniel has added 50 pounds within 1000 frames.

However, one has to show that the mask has come off eventually, so the over-weight dupe takes it off and does the fighting with the camera positioned behind a leaf. And then finally stock footage is used of Suniel for close-ups. What's hilarious (and I'm sure really frustrating for the director) is that his close-ups are shot in the night while the fights are actually happening in the day time.

And after the bad guy is dead, for some strange reason we see the dead Mohan Joshi come back. Not a recommended watch, but surely 10 unforgettable minutes.

Supersize Me (2004)

I'm never eating at McDonalds again!! The Macs at Linking rd, Bandra is gonna lose some of it's business.

Supersize me is an experimental documentary written and directed by Morgan Spurlock. This dude actually had the balls to go on an all Mac diet for 30 days just to make a movie.

The rules are simple...
He has to eat and drink only from the McDonalds menu, including the water. If they don't serve water in that particular outlet, then he has to settle with a shake or coke.

He has to eat all the items available on the menu in the alloted 30 days.

He can only buy the Supersize meal if he is asked to by the Mac guys.

33 years old and very healthy, Spurlock puts his health on the line. By the end of day 21, he gets almost screwed... his once upon a time healthy liver turned into fat and doctors said he probably might get artery problems in the future.

Not as good as Fast Food Nation even though FFN never really took names of McDonalds. I thought the ending could have been more impactful nonetheless a decent effort.

Opinions from doctors, lobbyists, activists make a great watch even though one would have liked to see a litttle more of humor in the film.

Film was showcased at Sundance and received good critical acclaim and according to imdb this was the highest grossing documentary in Australia.

Watch this and you are bound to get one MacStomachache!

Escape from New York (1981)

Now after watching the movie and reading up on it, I found out that this was a cult classic.

The idea was pretty cool... It's about 20 years into the future (from 1981) and New York has been evacuated and separated from the rest of the U.S. and has become a dumping ground of prisoners and low-lives.

Air Force One gets hijacked and is crashed into a building (ironically, lead Kurt Russell lands his glider onto the World Trade Center). The President surives as he enters his escape pod but is then captured and kidnapped by The Duke... the guy who runs the place. Kurt Russell an ex-army man is supposed to be sent to New York for armed robbery. He gets a deal where all his crimes will be forgiven if he gets the President back in 23 hrs. And that's when the mayhem begins...

Really good concept and I guess for a movie made in the early 80s, it was something really original and different. Keeping that in mind, personally I felt there was a lot left to be desired in the screenplay.

Director John Carpenter did a pretty good job. He had a good vision but I felt he couldn't take it to the next level. Nonetheless, a decently engrossing film even though there were half-baked characters and patches of boredom.

Kurt Russell (I'm an in-the-closet Kurt Russell fan) is awesome as the patch wearking Snake Plisskin... Carpenter and Kurt came together again for a sequel Escape from L.A. Will watch that one soon and write about it. But heard it was a disaster for various reasons and bombed at the box-office.

Trivia: The bad guy Duke played by Isaac Hayes was the voice of chef in South Park. He passed away a couple of months ago.

From what I heard, a remake of this film is planned to be produced by New Line Cinema starring Gerard Butler. It definitely has tremendous potential today.

Dawn of the dead (1978)

Dawn of the dead is the best zombie (not that I've seen many) movie I have ever seen. This one makes I Am Legend, the 28 series and Resident Evil look as bad as the human intestines eaten by the zombies. Gota bunch of Zombie flicks to watch now. Really want to explore this genre...

One question to ask if the situation ever arises... Which is the most resourceful place on the planet if it is suddenly infested by Zombies? A Mall naturally... You have food, water, clothes, toys and if you're a pervert a mannequin as well...

Two SWAT guys and a couple end up on the roof of a mall using their helicopter. There they find a room which is not yet discovered by Zombies. They make that their hide-out. But now they need food and other supplies for survival.. It's how they strategize, outwit and outpunch the zombies is what the film is about...

The film is not really scary as everything is revealed pretty early- we know the zombies, their mannerisms... so its mostly strategy which I love in movies or in computer games.

Director George Romero who earlier made another hit Zombie flick Night of the living dead did an outstanding job as a visualizer and story-teller. No sleek editing (shouldnt expect it in the 70s.) but I guess that adds to the charm of the film.

This one is definitely a classic. Try to get a hold of it or give me a call for a copy.

Had one great line "When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth." I think that was Romero's prediction on George Bush.

FILMY QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Pataal Bhairavi is better than Drona" - Tapan Mehhta

Hammer Films- The original Ramsays

Picked up the Hammer Story : The Authorized History of Hammer Films from the Strand sale... Before I go on I want to compliment Strand Book Stall for the wonderful service that they provide us with. While a Crossword or Granth give a minimum of 10% off on every book during their sales (and highly publicize it), Strand offers 20% off on every book on any given day. That's the magic of Strand. I eagerly wait for their bi-yearly sales which even though burns a hole in my pocket, it gives me immense happiness.

I had briefly read about Hammer films when I was doing research on the cinema of the Ramsay family. The Ramsays known for their horror movies in India actually were inspired by Hammer Films including their first horror flick Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche.

Did a little reading out of curiosity on Hammer a year ago and was surprised to find this book at the Suburban sale. Decided to pick it up... Hammer was a production house based in UK which churned out horror movie but eventually shut down as they could not recreate themselves with changing times. The book cost me a cool Rs. 750. There was just one copy of it and I wonder if it wasn't for me would someone ever pick it up. I would like to know who would buy something like that... Still waiting to meet a collector who collects books on various aspects of movies.

Have just brushed thru the book so far and it seems pretty interesting. Will read it when time permits.

Surveillance- Teesri Aankh

I really have no idea whether the surveillance security at malls and multiplexes in India is as good as what they show in Surveillance. With bombs erupting everywhere, I have to admit that I think twice before watching a movie at a multiplex. I wonder if there will be any salvation for me in dying in a bomb blast in a multiplex mainly because I'll die doing what I really love.

Caught it on Star Movies thinking it to be another average small budgeted Hollywood film but this one actually caught me by surprise.

It ended up giving me the creeps on how much power a single man can have because he has security cameras at his disposal. Now, this wasnt gory gory horror but the idea of someone breathing down your neck all the time is no less eerie to me. Being in the thriller genre, I would love to put it in the horror genre as well...

Now, this is the second Hollywood film in recent times that I've liked despite it getting really bad reviews. The other was See No Evil starring Kane, the WWE wrestler.

Armand Assante is amazingly cast as the obsessive security guard in the flick but like all Hollywood films this one too gets predictable after a while. But Assante is pretty amazing. Don't know much about him but he is definitely a seasoned actor or simply a completely natural old new-comer.

Try to catch Surveillance... Your experience in a mall will never be the same again!

Film em up

Hello friends, foes and hoes,

Welcome to my second blog. The first one got ruined because MSN doesn't offer unlimited space in theirs. That's why I love anything and everything that Google comes out with. If you aren't a googleaholic then you are probably one of those who prefer a non-flat television, lo-def cable TV and Yahoo!! Please, don't be santusht!!

Now I understand that in this over-communicated as well as fast-paced world where time is money and honey, you have taken time out to read what's in my brain so I'm going to try my absolute level best to not get you bored. My blog will be about the movies and TV shows that I watch, some incidents that I come across in the film industry, the books that I read and my personal views on cinema. So sit back, grab your popcorn and coke and welcome to my world of movies.

I was going to end with a SRK quote saying "Picture abb baki hai mere dost" but since I already used his "don't be santusht" line, I decided to go with another ham- Porky Pig i.e. "That's all folks!!"