Sarkar Raj

Movie: Sarkar Raj
Cast: The Bachchans, Mario Puzo(?)
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Genre: Political/Family Drama
Rating: *** and 1/2
Review:

It is a little late in the day, but definitely deserving some blogspace ;the Sarkar Raj review

Now we know what Amitabh Bachchan was doing when all the media was asking him to reply to Raj Thackeray's diatribe. He was filming Sarkar Raj. The movie is as much a sequel to the popular first part as it is a cinematic reply to all the commotion that had surrounded Mr Bachchan in the last few months.

The movie begins 3 years hence from the first one. Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachchan) has stepped into his father's shoes all too comfortably, he is married, Maharashtra has a new CM and Sarkar has just turned 60. In steps Aishwarya Rai, with an idea that has the Nagre's divided. A power plant that will solve the state's power problems while displacing the residents of ahem Thackerwadi.

Shankar convinces his dad and embarks on a trans thackerwadi tour with the pretty miss. Along the way he gives her gyan about power, money and change(impressing her but really putting the rest of us off). Oppposing him is a be-spectacled, clean shaven, kurta pyjama clad wannabe politico (the director adds the red gamcha to leave no room for doubt).

Soon the heat is on the Nagre's who find that opening the plant involves a lot more than good intentions. Like the first part, a host of shady characters descend on the screen all wanting a piece of the pie. Or is it?

To the movies' credit it packs in enough tricks and twists in the plot to keep you hooked. The background score is a little loud for comfort but has it's roots in the amazing "Govinda" track from the first part. The actor's are too seasoned to botch up and both the Bachchans(male) pick up from where they left in the first part. Aishwarya has to look surprised/impressed/scared throughout the movie, the real waste is Supriya Pathak who should perhaps be paid the most for simply accepting to feature in the movie. The bad guys are many and easily forgettable, not one character sticks in your mind after the movie. But for the uncanny resemblance to real life characters this aspect of the movie lacks bite.

So does the movie work?

Surprisingly Yes, simply coz of the script, the legacy of the first part and the father-son combo who deliver. The direction is tight barring a few scenes like the unseen assasin(right out of a horror movie), and the climax which almost drags it's feet before suddenly realizing it is the climax !! and exploding.

If you liked the first part there is more than a fair chance that you will walk away satisfied if not gleefully anticipating the third installment..... (who'll star next Hrithik?... Neil Nitin Mukesh anyone?)

The Incredible Hulk

Movie: The Incredible Hulk
Cast: Edward Norton, Tim Roth, Liv Tyler
Genre: Action/Superhero(?)
Rating ***
Review:

The angry green man is back not only to bulldoze his enemies but also the perceptions people had built about the future of this series after the rather depressing first part. I for one belong to the side who actually liked that one. I thought Ang Lee had given us the most lyrical action that one can imagine with a lead who was well nothing more than an Ogre. Also the editing of the movie to me was a fine effort wherein the movie unfolded like a comic book (which is what is was). But the movie drew more jeers for it's handling of Bruce Banner, who came out like a unwilling hero (which again he was), and in the times when Peter Parker was fighting Doc Oc gleefully swinging , our sulking green friend did not cut an impressive figure.

Edward Norton a smart actor had auditioned for the role that eventually went to Eric Bana. Stung by the rejection, he was further appalled on seeing his favourite hero biting the dust on the silver screen. Teaming with the scriptwriters, he also went on to star in the The Incredible Hulk, the movie in question.

The Incredible Hulk makes two things pretty clear:

a) the makers have distanced themselves from the original with more than a 10 yard pole

b) the Bourne series have had more effect on the psyche of all future action movies than Ludlum or Paul Greengrass would've imagined

Right from the opening shots of a Brazilian chawl like dwelling to the chase sequences that follow, you can literally smell Matt Damon in the air. Not that it's a bad thing, but well, no marks for originality. But hell full marks for execution, the aerial shots of Rio are breathtaking to say the least and Norton with his baseball cap and vulnerable look on makes for some engaging viewing.

The movie introduces Tim Roth as the Abomination aka Emil Blonsky an overzealous commando who is drawn by Hulk's powers and wants some of the green juice for himself too. The anticipation for the final fight builds up nicely and finally Norton is able to put Hulk in the hero zone from the fugitive mould.

Jennifer Connelly is replaced by Liv Tyler in this one and as the General's Daughter she is fine. Emil Blonsky too swaggers away impressively throughout the movie. But like the first part, it are the effects that really leave you impressed. True we've seen them all before, but there is something about the scale of the action that Hulk indulges in that is well and truly his style.

All in all a movie that you shall not repent watching unless you were actually expecting an Ang Leeish sequel. And yes, watch closely; the opening scenes have a clue (that could'nt be Starker) for a guest appearance that is made right at the end.

Final Solution

Movie: Final Solution

Genre: Documentary
Director: Rakesh Sharma
Rating: Compulsory Viewing
Review:

"Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes"

"religion is the opium of the masses"

Karl Marx

What do you write about a movie that shakes the very belief on which a nation is founded. A movie that shows Hitler and Mussolini live on; albeit wearing Saffron and brandishing trishuls. A movie that makes you squirm hearing what a man can do to another man. Final Solution is not as much a movie as it is a damning piece of video that takes you right in the middle of a land where religion and politics were mixed in horrific proportions to produce the most devastating results. Welcome to Gujarat 2002.

Sample this, a five year old boy recounting the deaths of his grandparents, aunts , uncles, parents to the last gory detail and declaring war on all Hindus when he grows up. A graveyard keeper refusing to speak of the condition of the bodies that he had to bury post riots. A VHP spokesperson stating that Muslims must accept Hindus as elder brothers and respect and obey to stay in the country. A Muslim crying after the election that unanimously brought Modi back to power, clutching to his voter's identity card fearing that one day he may be asked to prove his Indianness.

Final Solution takes you from election rallies to peoples drawing rooms all the while doing nothing but asking the right questions to the right people. To the movie's credit it does not allow the viewer to be distracted by some voice over or running commentary. All it does is club the right excerpt at the right place, at times bringing out the Contradiction so brutally that it is saddening. In one scene we are taken deep into Gujarat where the BJP election campaign is in full flow. The speaker is spitting venom; proudly stating that he had cleansed the area of all Muslims; he says if anyone goes to the booth and does not vote for the BJP, the ghosts of Godhra incident shall not let him/her rest in peace. The scene then cuts to a jubilant LK Advani post the Gujarat victory bloating that his party must be admired for maintaining a dignified silence on Godhra issue during the campaign when they had the chance to use it as an election issue.

In an interview the director Rakesh Sharma says "I decided to stay away from what I call the 'bookshelf interview' - having 'The Expert', 'The Sociologist', 'The Activist' who attempt to explain events to the audience. I wanted primary material, people's own voices, whether it was from within the minority community, the Hindu families who had lost lives, or the rightwing leadership" It helps, the movie is absolutely rooted to the ground. Hence what you get is not what any expert thinks of the riots but victims, survivors, witnesses, participants and perpetrators of that horrific event.

Strangely enough the issues raised in the movie are not specific to the Gujarat riots only. It is a testament on the use of divisive politics; in this case religion. But the recent Raj Thackeray diatribe against North Indians is eerily on the same lines.( Only if Hitler was alive, he would've been proud to have seen these guys in action). Frequently during the movie the director uses the dictionary meaning of words just to put forth his point, words like Genocide, Ghetto are explained to the viewer followed by some telling footage just to confirm your worst fear. Yes what happened in Gujarat was Genocide. Ghettos are not things of the past where Jews were segregated and later exterminated, it also happened in aapno Amdavad.

The movie was banned by the Indian Censorship Board. Rakesh Sharma then had to use a "pirate and circulate" effort wherein he circulated 10,000 copies of the movie free of cost asking people to circulate them among 5 more people and so on. Within 2 months 80,000 copies of the movie had found it's way to people. One of those was Nishant, my next door neighbor who got the movie during his IIT days. I don't think that the movie is still released for general viewing and you would probably have to download it, but no matter how you get it make sure you watch it.

21

Movie : 21

Genre: Drama

Cast: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Lawrence Fishburne

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review:

"The house always wins"

Daniel Ocean; Ocean's 11

"...it is legal and more importantly , it is BEATABLE."

Prof Mickey Rosa ;21

Duping the casino's seems to be a favourite Hollywood hobbie, so many a times have the Vegas guys been robbed of their millions that you actually wonder how do they pay the bills for those fountains and lighting!

21 shows how you do not need layout plans of the vault, tapping the phones, and blowing out the power grid of Vegas to rob the Casino's. A group of MIT grads led by their Maths prof Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) learn how to count cards and beat the dealer in Blackjack a game Rosa says, is simple Math.

Told through the eyes of Ben Campbell(Jim Strugess) who needs the dough to fund his Harvard dream, 21 is a stylish entertainer. Jim Strugess essays the role of the brilliant yet reticent guy on the Campus who with his buddies tops all the courses, yet cannot find the guts to approach a girl. All that changes when he is spotted by his Maths prof. in a lecture. He soon learns that Prof Rosa is not only charming teacher, but also a brilliant businessman (of the most bizarre kind). He trains Ben alongwith a team of other equally sharp students to stump the casino's.

Life changes for Ben on every weekend when Rosa takes this oddball team of Mathematicians to Vegas and rake some serious Moolah (and gets a girlfriend too). Ben soaks it all as he gets to lead a life that he only dreamt of, though at the the expense of losing his nerd friends. The movie then takes a predictable path as Jealousy and Greed kick in within the team. Ben finds out that the Prof. is not all that sweet and the Casino's find that something is wrong somewhere and set a soon to be redundant thug (Lawrence Fishburne) after this team. Soon enough Ben has to make choices to set things right in his life. How he does that makes up for the climax of the movie, which sure does take you by surprise.

By the posters the movie seemed to be a Kevin Spacey movie, but make no mistake the movie belongs to Jim Sturgess. As Ben the guy is at ease playing the both the Nerd and the Gambler. It is his performance that keeps you rooting for him throughout the film. Kevin Spacey is well Kevin Spacey, very few people can deliver a line like this guy and here too as Prof Micky Rosa he is absolutely brilliant in the scenes where he has something to say, but sadly his role keeps tapering as the film progresses and by the end you actually seemed to have lost track of this brilliant, maniacal professor. But the movie is not about the prof as much it is about the students, and they all perform well.

The movie is supposed to be based on real life incidents, difference being the team's ethnicity. In real life the team was comprised of only asians while here Ben is shown as the leader of the team with a couple of Asians tossed in for the effect. But then it's Hollywood and who really needs re-assurance that we guys are actually smarter than the Americans eh?

The movie is well paced at approx 2 hrs and alongwith it's stylish Vegas shots and some good background score never lets you drift away. All in all a paisa vasool flick that never gets heavy on you and leaves you with the feeling of having seen something Fresh!

Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Desperate times call for desperate measures; and it was nothing short of a desperate measure that led me to watch this excuse of a movie. In fact watching the movie gives you a sense of paranoia. What if the IT dept. is keeping an eye on my movie habits? Watching this movie is a sure hint of excess and disposable wealth.(not true sadly)

Nothing justifies watching this movie but in my defence it was the only show playing and I had to kill time. Anyways the movie is all about Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal playing dad and son who have nothing else in the world but to take care of each other(Akshaye Khanna plays a CEO of a mall(?) and he is and engineer with just 3 years of work ex!!, some career move that!!). Om Puri plays a lustful divorcee on the hunt for a new wife. Together he and Paresh play out some of the most distasteful jokes I've seen on the big screen ably aided by a foul mouthed Archana Puran Singh.

The movie has an interesting premise but fall flat when it comes to developing a real story out of it. From one numbing joke to the other the movie drags on for a never ending 2.45 hrs before Naseerudin Shah makes a cameo and puts you out of your misery.

How Priyadarshan is able to convince actors such as Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri,Shobanaa (from Mitr- my friend) and more importantly the Producer to do this film is beyond me. The man must be a marketing genius.

So if you are planning to catch this movie consider options such as:
Cutting Nails
Changing Cells of your Wall Clock, T.V.Remote etc
Writing your name with you left hand
I'm sure you'll find these activities more rewarding and satisfying than spending a good 3 hrs watching this film.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Yamaha R15

It's finally here, after all the fanfare at the Expo;


Yamaha is out with the R 15 .



Let's see what the bike is all about.


First things first, the bike is important as it reflects Yamaha's Plans for India. They realize that the Indian consumer has enough muscle to demand products that are heavy on performance.


Even though the market is small for such bikes, the fact that Yamaha has taken cognizance along with other giants such as Ducati hints that the market is only going to expand.


Returning to the bike, the fully faired macine is definitely a looker and the R1 is definitely the right family to belong to if you were to inherit the looks.




At 131 kgs it is lighter by almost 20 kgs to bikes such as the Pulsar 220.





With 150cc and 18 mailto:bhp@8500 rpm the bike shall definitely be fast off the blocks. The engine is 4 valve
Yamaha has also gone ahead and provided the rider with dual disc brakes. The rear suspension is monocross previously seen only on the Honda Unicorn.

It is heard that Yamaha will launch the air cooled as well as the liquid cooled version of the bike.
The liquid cooled version is rumoured to be costing in excess of a lac.

But it is the air cooled version that could bring Yamaha some serious volumes. If the news heard is to be believed then Yamaha is planning to price the air cooled version of the bike at Rs 70,000.

Such a scenario should really open up the already heated 150 cc segment in the bike market with pressure right back on the existing players (Bajaj, Hero Honda, TVS) to come up with something as exciting and fresh.

Yamaha plans to bring the bike in graphite and Yamaha Blue, both stunners in their own right.

Whatever be the sales of this bike, Yamaha has definitely taken the game higher as far as the domestic bike market is concerned and now it is match on.

Aamir

How often have you heard the saying "Good things come in small packages" come true. This week amidst all the anticipation attached with Sarkar Raj a small movie walks away with the honours.

Aamir a movie of first timers right from the actor to the director to the composer not only entertains, but makes you a part of it. From the word Go, the movie is full of sights and incidents we have grown used to seeing in real life but never on the big screen. Aamir a doctor returning to India from the UK finds out that his welcome has been planned out in horrific detail. A fundamentalist keeping his family hostage wants him to carry out some work as instructed through the phone. Aamir goes from bewilderment to denial to anger to compliance in a period of time. Taking him through the by-lanes and dilapidated houses, the man on the phone tells him "Kaun Kehta hain aadmi apni Kismat khud likhta hain", a oft heard but in this context chilling statement. What happens next is for you to find out (as I strongly recommend)

Despite having a setting similar to movies such as Phone Booth or Cellular, what makes Aamir stand out is it's execution which is brutally brings out the "filthy" side of Mumbai like never before.

Not for a moment does the director shy away from showing us the Butcher's knife, the heap of garbage, the cheap motel. They all come alive (kudos to the cinematographer for the expert use of the hand held camera) as Aamir walks through them in a Van Huesen suit broken and harrowed.

What will also catch your attention is the stunning (that's the word) background score, you will jump in your seat when Aamir is surprised, you will get the impression of impending doom when Aamir speaks to his tormentor on the phone. The songs are good too (especially the Reham Khuda one).

A word for the performances as well, Rajeev Khandelwal as Aamir pitches in a performance that you have to laud as downright Honest, Aamir's plight and anguish becomes your own as you watch Rajeev emote on screen, a great debut. Gajraj Rao who plays the man on the phone largely remains in the dark, but emotes through his voice to good effect (albeit a bit repetitive). Rest of the characters all make apperances for a minute or two and do justice.

Above all the movie has a message too, in the age when media and people seem to know everything and are ready to jump on conclusions Aamir shows what also could have happened, and that leaves you with some food for thought.

All in all a must watch.

The Blog- What and Why

Hi guys,
Starting this blog is a second attempt to pen (rather type) my thoughts (the previous aborted attempt lasted all of 2 posts). Since then a lot of water has flown(been working fr a year now) and unbelievably I find myself with more time and inclination than my college days to write.
I wanted the blog's name to be self explanatory yet catchy and came up with (P(Re(Views))). That is what I intend to do with this blog, give some Previews of stuff to come; from Cars and bikes to gadgets to say a cricket series, Review of stuff such as movies to books to the results of a State election. At the centre of it all would lie my VIEWS (for all that they count). That is what the name is supposed to convey albeit a little heavy on BODMAS.
I'll try and keep the blog as current and relevant as possible,( but be prepared for some bias when it comes to Cricket or Bikes) and I hope that you will not only read but also discuss the posts and maybe we can have some fun here.