HOUSE M.D.

Just finished watching the second season of House M.D.... Am partially hooked... not so much into it like I was hooked onto the first season of Lost, Heroes, Monk, M*A*S*H*, NCIS, etc. but nonetheless (well... a little less) a good watch. I recall leaving from work early just so that I could watch Lost.

First saw House on Star World and then a few episodes in the U.S. and now got hold of the entire second and third season...

Hugh Laurie is simply superb as Doctor Gregory House... magnificient is just the right word for his performance of the no-caring all-caring abusing pill popping limping hooker hiring divorced doctor...

I guess one big fault in the show is that the supporting characters arent strong enough... mainly coz all of the other doctors are always proved wrong by House and so they seem pretty lame and incompetent despite using a lot of big medically lingo unheard to the common man before...

and secondly one wonders how on earth the weirdest cases always end up in the hospital in which House is working in... and why despite House always being right do the Dean and even his own colleagues always confront/ contradict him and give him more problems...

I like the way symptons and diseases are explained in the show... never have heard of so many terms but the beauty is the way the docs let the audience know what they are talkign about.

The first medical show that I ever saw was Doogie Houser M.D which I really loved as a kid. That was followed by other shows like Children's Ward, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy and a sorry excuse for TV shows called Sanjeevani and Ayushman on Indian television... No no, didnt watch the last two... just an episode or so... (I am beyond crap I am beyond crap)

The worst song sequence ever!!

On youtube there are many videos which say best car chase sequence ever, best comedy scene ever, best fight sequence ever and honestly none of them actually are... but my friend Diti mailed me this link of youtube which says Worlds Most Pathetic Dance Video and without a doubt I truly second that.

This dude is hilarious and makes Sunny Deol look like Michael Jackson. You have to believe me on this... I didn't believe Diti but I do now... simply incredible... I can't really believe somebody actually shot this and didn't realize how bad it actually is...

It's literally like a bunch of illiterate retards out of a tabela who have dreams of making and acting in films...

Have uploaded the video and you can also chek it out on youtube on the following link

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=LYUBL4cWSO8

Don't forget to read the text comments on youtube...

Gha Jee Nahi

Had gigantic expectations... probably the highest I've had in a very long time for any film and they did come crumbling down after a few initial reviews but I think that helped somewhere mainly coz I went in with zero expectations. Devansh Patel really ripped the movie to the core and Taran Adarsh praised it to no end but honestly I didn't think it was worthy of either.

Not a bad movie but definitely had so much more potential... let's me tell you that the film was over three hours long... and if I was the director or the editor then I could and I would definitely trim it down by atleast 45 mins. I wish there was a 2 1/2 hour international version. I expected intellectual stimulation cosidering the core plot of the film but was let down by a screenplay dominated by South Indian styled and 80's based sequences.

There were so many unnecessary and cliche scenes in the film like Asin's entry, the entire Ambassador buying scenes, the Aamir-Asin romance was just too long, don't know why they gave a newbie cop so much footage if he was going to eventually die much before the interval... lots more... dont wana take 3 hours to write a review...

Direction was bad... had a particular south style seen in many Hindi films made by South Indian directors with Nayak really coming to mind. I know people have loved Aamir's fight sequences but if you really dissect them then they actually were like any other Sunny Deol fight minus the 'Oyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!' Editing too seemed very much out of a Shankar film...

I really dont understand so many things... Why wasnt Aamir killed along with Asin? Why couldn't Asin escape from her apartment even though she had many opportunities to do so? Why does the main baddie Ghajini who also happens to be an popular industrialist do his own dirty work? Why dont Asin's house, Jiah's girls hostel have watchmen? Why does Jiah Khan bore?

On the plus side... Aamir's performance was good though I wouldnt say was his best. I predict Asin to be the next big actress in the Hindi Film Industry and I dont mean eye candy like Katrina but a real actresss like Smita Patil. Definitely a contender for numerous debutant awards... Another debutant who has great dialogue delivery is veteran writer Anjum Rajabali... Jiah was theek theek... no wonder she was side-lined in the promotions...

Even though A.R Rehman's music was pretty good, the film could have been better without any songs. Loved Aye Bachchu and Asin looks great.

I would never want to watch this film again even if it comes on television mainly because of the length but I must admit that I could sit thru it unlike Salaam-E-Ishq. Probably a trimmed version might be worth a watch some day!!

Ghajini apprehensions

Got three reviews of Ghajini so far...

Taran rates it to be a 4 1/2 star movie. Didn't read his review as I though it would reveal a lot.

Devansh Patel gives it one over chat.

Gaurav Malani says, "Ghajini is essentially a romance-cum-revenge saga. Only externally it's sewed up with the memory loss syndrome which could have been the highlight." Rating- **

Going to watch the movie in a one and a half at Fame Malad. Fingers crossed. Shilpa and I were predicting Ghajini rating yesterday evening... both unanimously said 3 stars but somehome I dont see that happening anymore. Hopefully the Birthday of Christ doesn't co-incide with a migraine!!

Merry Christmas Everybody :D

Street Kings (2008)

Five minutes into the movie and I said 'great, another cop movie'. Not that I dont like cop movies but its really been a while since I saw a good one and the dumb Dus nausea still hasnt left me. But this movie took me by surprise... nothing that we havent seen every Hollywood star do but yet it was pretty interesting. Read up that the screenplay was in the making for over a decade.

LAPD cop Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is out to find out the men who killed his former partner (not really original now is it?). As he climbs up each rung of the ladder he thinks he's one step ahead of everyone but is he at the end of the 'Hoody' night?

Finally I saw Keanu with some expressions on his face... He looked and acted the part really well and so did Forest Whitaker as Tom's captain. This is the first time I saw Hugh Laurie in a movie. Love him in House M.D. and he was pretty good albeit a small role.

The climax might come as a surprise but if you really think hard (which I wasnt) you just might guess what's in store...

Neat basic action- foot chases, car chases, gun shots (and even a shovel) to the face and more.

Check it out if you like some neat dishum bishum.

Kanti Shah-- The true Baadshah of B-grade Bollywood

Now I have been a big fan of Kanti Shah's cinema. He knows his target audience very well even more than people like Bhansali, Anurag Kashyap, Raj Kumar Santoshi. Of course I wouldn't like to consider myself to be part of his TA but I can't disown this master film-maker whose cinema has just entertained me profusely on lonely Sunday afternoons.

I think his Gunda is probably the best and ultimate B-film of all time. Just too amazing for words. If you can watch it plz do so or else check out the following link for some youtube fun... http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=qZcURBogNlA Dont you just love a hamming Ishrat Ali. "Kundaaaaannnnn... Marne ka Nai Marne Ka Naaaaaaiiiii..." Do check him out in Aatank Hi Aatank (DVD available on Moser Baer Home Video for Rs. 34) as well.

The villains intro in the film is hilarious.
Mukesh Rishi- "Mera naam hai Bulla, karta hoon main sabka khulla." Now I might be wrong but after hearing that rather than sounding like a bad ass I feel he gives blowjobs to his posse.

Shakti Kapoor's name is Chutiya. (The word is uncensored. You have to love the double standards of our dumb Censor Board)

Harish Patel is Ibu Hatela. (I think Harish pulls off an Ibu. Don't know what it means but the name suits him.)

For the mere mortals reading this piece, Gunda still has a huge dedicated fan following and it's DVD is sub-titled in English, French, Dutch and German (No jokes).

Apart from that I have seen Kanti Shah's Loha a million times on television. Dharmendra is in his hamming and whamming best. There is a scene in the film where the bad guy Rami Reddy shoots his gun at him. Dharmendra just catches the bullet and says "Teri goli shareer ko phaad sakti hai magar LOHE ko nahi." Wah Wah!! Excellent!! Now we know that Sunny's super-human strength is genetic.

There is an item song by Govinda and Manisha Koirala which cleanses your heart and touches your soul- "Teri Behna Se Dosti, Tere Bapu Se Jagde..." is an instant classic.

Another movie of Kanti bhai which I liked is Duplicate Sholay. I gifted the VCD of the film to my friend Krushant on his birthday. Don't know if he ever saw it. If he didn't then it's his loss. Duplicates of Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sunny, Mithun, etc. do a good job in hamming. One scene which really gets me rolling on the floor is when duplicate Sunny screams 'Main Indian Hoon Indian' and goes to whack the Rs. 100 per day extra but surprise surprise he ends up over-powered as the villain creams him and says 'Main Bhi Indian Hoon.' Clearly this one didnt have his dhai kilo ka haath.

And then there is Kabhi Kranti Kabhi Jung. Cable zindabad. Again full of duplicates (including one of Parvez Musharraf) and they also play a cricket match. Was interesting in bits but definitely not on the level of other Kanti Shah classics.

Now I havent seen his Munnibai but I recall it being a super hit in the interiors. Still remember reading a trade article in Stardust magazine a decade ago which said... "Munnibai has struck gold in the B and C centres. Trade Pundits still haven't been able to figure this one out." Believe it or not, this film actually outdid Madhur Bhandarkar's Trishakti which released around the same time.

Love him, hate him, ignore him but he will strike back again and again. Kant stop Kanti!!

Also check out Moses Navgire's article on one of Kanti's other film Marna Zaroori Hai... http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2006/06/23/1312/index.html