Science Fiction and Special Effects. Two phrases that seem to have got inextricably linked together. You can’t have a science fiction movie without mind blowing special effects - that seems to be the popular belief. But why? Do you have to rely upon special effects to make a good science fiction movie? Is that what science fiction is all about? Just mind blowing special effects that leave you feeling like you just travelled through space? Sure, special effects do have a place of their own in movie making, but do they need to be the sole criteria to judge the quality of a science fiction movie?
Well, no, if Star Trek: Nemesis is any example to go by. Sure, the movie has its fair share of special effects to offer, but it does not completely rely upon them to carry itself, unlike some other recent sci-fi movies - Lost in Space and Matrix Reloaded come to mind. Real trekkies don’t care about special effects! Well, at least, not much.
So, what is a sci-fi movie supposed to be? How about a story set in a different time other than our past and present. Or a different world. Or perhaps in our time and world, but of a nature than does not fit in with our current understanding of the world and the laws of the universe. Something unexpected that cannot be explained by our current knowledge of science. And if such a sci-fi movie can stand on the basis of its story, its message, its performances, its entertainment value, then that is a movie with longevity.
On these lines, I am glad that the makers of ST Nemesis decided not to depend on special effects and instead paid more attention to the story and innovation in ideas. And that is what made ST Nemesis a good movie - a movie of substance. So many sequels these days are susceptible to being mediocre because they have no new idea to present - just an old idea of the original but embellished with plenty of icing to disguise the lack of innovativeness. Not so with ST Nemesis. Yes, cloning is not quite a completely new idea, but cloning was only a tool used in this fascinating story woven around Captain Picard and Commander Data. And the movie was not expected to provide a completely new idea - just a new twist to the existing idea of space travel in the 24th century.
The story is about a Romulan Shinzon’s plan to conquer the federation and rule the whole galaxy. Or is it? Is there perhaps a more personal reason for Shinzon to be after Enterprise and its captain Jean-Luc Picard? Early on in the movie, we find out that Shinzon is actually a clone of Picard, created by the Romulans to replace Picard so they could conquer the federation. But they abandoned the plan and sentenced Shinzon to the mines of Remus, a sister world of Romulus. Shinzon survived, and now he has plans of his own. And he is dying of a rare syndrome. Enough said.
In addition to a clone of Picard, there is also a clone of Data. And he is imaginatively named B4 - because he supposedly came into existence ’’before’’ Data. However, if you recall, earlier ST movies and the ST-TNG series featured an evil twin of Data. Given that, it was hard to understand why the discovery of B4 caused such concern - Enterprise crew reacted as if this was the first time a positronic android similar to Data had been discovered. So, whatever happened to Data’s original evil twin? B4 and Data have a major role to play in this movie - watch the movie to find out what! But at times, it looked like the creators of ST-TNG crew have got bored of Data - nothing much is left to develop in his character. So, they needed a new android who was not as advanced as Data so he can go through the same ’’growing pains’’ as Data did years ago.
Among the other characters, Riker and Troi get married in this movie. Phew! Hopefully, that will be the end of Riker’s womanizing - now he can stop copying Kirk’s favorite pastime. Worf has no role in this movie at all. Ah, but the big surprise in this movie was that our most lovable empath Deanna Troi actually does have a role in the story, other than just looking decorative and making dyspeptic faces while announcing dramatically ’’I feel pain!’’ In this story, her empathic powers are actually used to determine the location of a cloaked ship. Woohoo! Troi’s job is safe in case of layoffs and crew cutbacks on Enterprise.
At the end of the movie, Riker leaves the crew of Enterprise as he is assigned command of another ship. Does that mean an end of an era - will there be no Riker in the future movies around ST-TNG crew? Or will there even be any more ST-TNG crew movies at all? Perhaps its time to switch to other crews, such as the crew of ST Voyager led by Captain Janeway.
Incidently, Janeway makes a guest appearance as an admiral in the movie. Now I am confused about the relative timeline of Janeway and Picard. I thought Janeway and Voyager came chronologically later than Picard and Enterprise.
The movie is at time quite predictable. The revelation that Shinzon is really a clone of Picard did not utterly come as a surprise. However, the way Shinzon cuts his skin with a dagger to draw blood so Picard can test it and get to know the truth is so dramatic that it sure caught me by surprise. What was the need for such dramatization - as if a huge surprise was being revealed!
Another such predictable scene it the fight between Riker and the Romulan viceroy! How come every space ship in sci-fi movies has a deep shaft that seems to lead into infinity and which has a narrow bridge running across it. And the adversaries invariably make their way onto that bridge during the fight. No prizes for guessing who is going to fall down that shaft. Haven’t we had enough of it already?
Ok, finally, on the topic of special effects. The movie did not rely on special effects, but did have a fair sprinkling of them every now and then. The scene where the Enterprise bridge is taken out by the Romulans is simply breathtaking!
There’s nothing new to say about the acting. Almost all the actors in the movie have played their roles before, and they live up to their expectations. The only new face in a major role is Tom Hardy who plays the part of Shinzon - he delivers a good performance. He is being called one of Star Trek’s sexiest villains!
In summary, Star Trek Nemesis is a good and worthy member of the Star Trek movie series. It is not earth-shattering (pun unintended) as, say, The Matrix was, but certainly a decently entertaining and enjoyable movie. Worth a watch. So, if you are a trekkie, watch it. But if you have never seen a Star Trek movie before, this one will not blow you away.
(Originally posted on MS on Nov 2, 2003)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Inarticulate jumble of a myriad issues
I have usually been a bit wary of these off-the-beaten-path Indian movies, particularly movies that touch upon issues related to non-resident indians. It has become quite a fashion with many film makers to highlight how the NRIs and their foreign born (and/or raised) children don’t see eye to eye with each other about the importance of their own culture. However, some of the recent movies made by NRIs have been refreshingly entertaining, such as Bollywood Hollywood or Bend It Like Beckham. So, when a friend of mine asked me to watch Leela and tell her what I thought of it, I rented the DVD with slightly above average expectations. Boy, was I disappointed! Sorry, AKR. I don’t know what you thought of this movie, but here is what I thought.
First of all, lets see what this movie was about. Here is the possible set of themes, any of which could have inspired Somnath Sen to make this movie:
- relationship between a student and a teacher
- relationship between a younger boy and an older woman
- open marriages where husband and wife have the freedom to explore extra-marital relationships
- NRI children’s alienation from their native country and culture
- expectations of a stereo-typical Indian male from his wife
- a son’s alienation from his parents, particularly father
- a mother’s dishonesty with her son and her lack of respect for her children
- parents’ respect for their children’s privacy, especially grown up kids
- teenagers’ obsession and experimentation with sex
All of the above topics were touched upon in this movie, when any one of these could have carried the weight of a whole movie all by itself. With so much baggage to deal with, its no surprise that this movie could not to do justice to any, and just fell flat on its face as an incoherent mumbo-jumbo of all the currently fashionable topics of discussion in many a pseudo-intellectual gatherings.
Okay, a bit about some of the specifics. On the surface, the story is about a woman, Leela Dahlvi (Dimple Kapadia), who comes to United States from Bombay on a visiting professorship. In US, she meets another Indian woman professor, Chaitali (Deepti Naval) and her 18 year old son, Kris (Amol Mhatre). The two women initially develop a bond because of various reasons, but the bond breaks when Chaitali realizes that Leela is having an affair with Kris. Leela also re-evaluates her relationship with her husband, Hriday ’Nashaad’ Dahlvi (Vinod Khanna), with whom she has an open marriage. As far as I could tell, Nashaad is the only one taking advantage of the openness of their marriage. Clearly Leela is just a dutiful faithful wife who lets her philandering husband woo any woman he wishes to. For when it is Leela’s turn to have a relationship outside of her marriage, the director had to justify that by making her go through a traumatic emotional experience on hearing a woman’s voice on the phone when she calls her husband. Essentially, Leela sleeps with Kris not because she is attracted to him, but because of what her husband has done to her self-esteem as a woman. Well, she is a bhartiya nari after all.
Lets look at the other characters in the movie as well. Chaitali, in her turn, has plenty of baggage from her own life to deal with. Her marriage to Jai (Gulshan Grover) has been over for a long time, and each of them has a new beau presently. Jai’s girlfriend is known to all, but Chaitali hasn’t told her son about her boy friend, Summer. (Isn’t Summer a girl’s name though?). But the baggage doesn’t end there. Jai has a somewhat rocky relationship with his son, Chaitali goes snooping through Kris’s room to confirm her suspicions about his sex life. She is concerned not only about him having sex at only 18 years of age, but also that he is probably sleeping with an older woman and his teacher! Then there is Jai, her ex-husband who supposedly wanted a servant for a wife and that is why Chaitali kicked him out. Hey, how come then he is going out with a white girl - she is surely not going to be a servant to him!
Kris (actually Krishna) is a stereo-typical NRI child, who hates everything about India, prefers to play guitar over sarod, and thinks he is american despite being called Gandhi by his american friends. Of course, in the end he realizes the greatness of his culture, and begins to call himself Krishna instead of Kris. By the way, what’s with the name Krishna? How come all the NRI children in Indian movies are called Krishna alias Kris? Why not Sameer alias Sam or Siddhartha alias Sid, or.. the list goes on! There is also a smart intellectual girl Mira who seems to have a soft corner for Kris. And naturally, there is a geeky looking stereo-typical FOB Shantanu who does silly stupid things that only FOBs can do to get Mira’s attention. Are there any stereotypes left that this movie does not contain?
Deepti Naval puts up a good acting performance. The contrast between her and Dimple’s acting skills is so apparent in the first scene where the two of them meet. Deepti is animated and natural while Dimple stands stiff and rigid with barely a muscle moving in her face. Or perhaps, it isn’t the lack of acting talent - perhaps the director is subtly trying to tell us that women who live in India are stiff and oppressed, while Indian women living abroad are animated and liberated! Gulshan Grover and Vinod Khanna do a fairly good job in their roles - not bad, but no oscars for them either. Amol Mhatre is convincing in his role - being an NRI child, I suppose it was easy enough for him to portray what his character was all about. His boasting of sexual success with Leela at first, but denial of having done anything sexual with her later when in fact he has, was reminiscent of Little Darlings.
The music, composed by Jagjit Singh, was just about okay. The main songs in the movie sung by him and a couple sung by Shubha Mudgal and Jaspinder Narula were quite good, but the background score was average. And the music during the ending credits - what was that? Did Jagjit Singh really compose that too?? Oh, another thing related to music - I am no expert at guitar techniques, but didn’t the guitar in the final song sound like hawaiian/slide although Kris is shown playing it in spanish style? Of course, I could be completely wrong here.
There was only one scene in the movie that was even remotely funny - when Kris comes to Leela to apparently pay his guru dakshina. However, since the rest of the movie was pretty serious, the joke just seemed totally unexpected and misplaced.
To end, the overall impression of the movie is that of a mish-mash of a variety of hot topics. The flow is fairly incoherent and non sequitur from scene to scene. And the movie leaves you wondering about the following loose threads:
- If Leela was aware of her husband’s philandering ways and believed in open marriage, why was she so upset to hear a woman’s voice on phone when she called her husband?
- What was the relevance of the cremation scene at the beginning of the movie? I kept waiting for it to somehow tie in to the story.
- What was it really that made Leela sleep with Kris? Alienation from her husband? Then why did she want to go back with him?
In summary, Leela was one confused woman who didn’t know what she wanted, who had no direction in life, and who couldn’t decide what was good for her and what wasn’t. Not only at the beginning of the movie, but even in the end. She still had no direction.
Would I recommend this movie to other? No. Its just a waste of time, as it neither entertains nor gives you any food for thought - just a lot of tidbits.
(Originally posted on MS on July 6, 2003)
First of all, lets see what this movie was about. Here is the possible set of themes, any of which could have inspired Somnath Sen to make this movie:
- relationship between a student and a teacher
- relationship between a younger boy and an older woman
- open marriages where husband and wife have the freedom to explore extra-marital relationships
- NRI children’s alienation from their native country and culture
- expectations of a stereo-typical Indian male from his wife
- a son’s alienation from his parents, particularly father
- a mother’s dishonesty with her son and her lack of respect for her children
- parents’ respect for their children’s privacy, especially grown up kids
- teenagers’ obsession and experimentation with sex
All of the above topics were touched upon in this movie, when any one of these could have carried the weight of a whole movie all by itself. With so much baggage to deal with, its no surprise that this movie could not to do justice to any, and just fell flat on its face as an incoherent mumbo-jumbo of all the currently fashionable topics of discussion in many a pseudo-intellectual gatherings.
Okay, a bit about some of the specifics. On the surface, the story is about a woman, Leela Dahlvi (Dimple Kapadia), who comes to United States from Bombay on a visiting professorship. In US, she meets another Indian woman professor, Chaitali (Deepti Naval) and her 18 year old son, Kris (Amol Mhatre). The two women initially develop a bond because of various reasons, but the bond breaks when Chaitali realizes that Leela is having an affair with Kris. Leela also re-evaluates her relationship with her husband, Hriday ’Nashaad’ Dahlvi (Vinod Khanna), with whom she has an open marriage. As far as I could tell, Nashaad is the only one taking advantage of the openness of their marriage. Clearly Leela is just a dutiful faithful wife who lets her philandering husband woo any woman he wishes to. For when it is Leela’s turn to have a relationship outside of her marriage, the director had to justify that by making her go through a traumatic emotional experience on hearing a woman’s voice on the phone when she calls her husband. Essentially, Leela sleeps with Kris not because she is attracted to him, but because of what her husband has done to her self-esteem as a woman. Well, she is a bhartiya nari after all.
Lets look at the other characters in the movie as well. Chaitali, in her turn, has plenty of baggage from her own life to deal with. Her marriage to Jai (Gulshan Grover) has been over for a long time, and each of them has a new beau presently. Jai’s girlfriend is known to all, but Chaitali hasn’t told her son about her boy friend, Summer. (Isn’t Summer a girl’s name though?). But the baggage doesn’t end there. Jai has a somewhat rocky relationship with his son, Chaitali goes snooping through Kris’s room to confirm her suspicions about his sex life. She is concerned not only about him having sex at only 18 years of age, but also that he is probably sleeping with an older woman and his teacher! Then there is Jai, her ex-husband who supposedly wanted a servant for a wife and that is why Chaitali kicked him out. Hey, how come then he is going out with a white girl - she is surely not going to be a servant to him!
Kris (actually Krishna) is a stereo-typical NRI child, who hates everything about India, prefers to play guitar over sarod, and thinks he is american despite being called Gandhi by his american friends. Of course, in the end he realizes the greatness of his culture, and begins to call himself Krishna instead of Kris. By the way, what’s with the name Krishna? How come all the NRI children in Indian movies are called Krishna alias Kris? Why not Sameer alias Sam or Siddhartha alias Sid, or.. the list goes on! There is also a smart intellectual girl Mira who seems to have a soft corner for Kris. And naturally, there is a geeky looking stereo-typical FOB Shantanu who does silly stupid things that only FOBs can do to get Mira’s attention. Are there any stereotypes left that this movie does not contain?
Deepti Naval puts up a good acting performance. The contrast between her and Dimple’s acting skills is so apparent in the first scene where the two of them meet. Deepti is animated and natural while Dimple stands stiff and rigid with barely a muscle moving in her face. Or perhaps, it isn’t the lack of acting talent - perhaps the director is subtly trying to tell us that women who live in India are stiff and oppressed, while Indian women living abroad are animated and liberated! Gulshan Grover and Vinod Khanna do a fairly good job in their roles - not bad, but no oscars for them either. Amol Mhatre is convincing in his role - being an NRI child, I suppose it was easy enough for him to portray what his character was all about. His boasting of sexual success with Leela at first, but denial of having done anything sexual with her later when in fact he has, was reminiscent of Little Darlings.
The music, composed by Jagjit Singh, was just about okay. The main songs in the movie sung by him and a couple sung by Shubha Mudgal and Jaspinder Narula were quite good, but the background score was average. And the music during the ending credits - what was that? Did Jagjit Singh really compose that too?? Oh, another thing related to music - I am no expert at guitar techniques, but didn’t the guitar in the final song sound like hawaiian/slide although Kris is shown playing it in spanish style? Of course, I could be completely wrong here.
There was only one scene in the movie that was even remotely funny - when Kris comes to Leela to apparently pay his guru dakshina. However, since the rest of the movie was pretty serious, the joke just seemed totally unexpected and misplaced.
To end, the overall impression of the movie is that of a mish-mash of a variety of hot topics. The flow is fairly incoherent and non sequitur from scene to scene. And the movie leaves you wondering about the following loose threads:
- If Leela was aware of her husband’s philandering ways and believed in open marriage, why was she so upset to hear a woman’s voice on phone when she called her husband?
- What was the relevance of the cremation scene at the beginning of the movie? I kept waiting for it to somehow tie in to the story.
- What was it really that made Leela sleep with Kris? Alienation from her husband? Then why did she want to go back with him?
In summary, Leela was one confused woman who didn’t know what she wanted, who had no direction in life, and who couldn’t decide what was good for her and what wasn’t. Not only at the beginning of the movie, but even in the end. She still had no direction.
Would I recommend this movie to other? No. Its just a waste of time, as it neither entertains nor gives you any food for thought - just a lot of tidbits.
(Originally posted on MS on July 6, 2003)
Watch it for the music if you are not a purist
Dil Vil Pyar Vyar revolves around three love stories - well, actually four, but the fourth is only mentioned in passing and not really developed. However, the movie is not really about the love stories. The movie is about R.D.Burman’s music. Strikingly similar in concept to (and perhaps inspired by) Mamma Mia, the show based on Abba’s music, DVPV is a tribute to R.D.Burman’s unforgettable music, the idea being to weave a story around his music. The love stories are just such instruments to provide situations to fit the songs in.
However, the failing of the movie is that it puts a bit too much emphasis on the stories. In Mamma Mia, the story was purely decorative, with no substance, except to provide a few laughs and situations for the songs. Not so with DVPV. It develops the stories to an extent where each story can be the plot of a movie by itself (well, somewhat), but not enough to really do justice to any of the stories. The stories detract from the music. And that leaves the movie hanging in mid air between being an outright musical and a serious plot-based film. Instead, if the makers of this movie had chosen to keep the stories light and add more music, the movie could have been more enjoyable. Just putting a variety of themes in a movie tends to make the movie lose its focus - instead just focusing on the main idea and do full justice to it. That can make the movie so much more powerful. But I suppose its a Bollywood movie - a one stop shop for all your movie needs - comedy, emotion, family drama, songs, dance, and what have you. No fights though (gasp!).
Another Bollywoodism in the movie is its male-centric attitude. The story is not about three couples, but about three males who find themselves in a singing competition. And the women in their lives are effectively just prizes to be won by succeeding in the competition.
First there is a spoilt rich brat Hrithik (Jimmy Shergil) in love with Jojo (Hrishitaa Bhatt), a simple sensible girl from a stereotypical Indian christian family. He needs to prove that he is capable of earning a livelihood for himself, without depending on his dad’s millions. Of course, he has no skills to do any such thing, but winning one singing competition (or even trying) will convince his ladylove of his worthiness.
Then, there is the story of Krish (Madhavan) and Raksha (Namrata Shirodkar), both singers aspiring to make it big in the showbiz. Their story is predictably reminiscent of the plot of an old Hindi movie, Abhimaan. The wife makes it big and the husband gets submerged in an ocean of self pity under the weight of his hurt male ego. His redemption lies in winning the same aforementioned singing competition, so he can convince the world that he is more than just the singing sensation Raksha’s husband but a great singer himself. And convince his wife that he is a not jerk but just a struggling man trying to make it big on his own merit and not on somebody’s pity.
And finally, there is the story of Dev (Sanjay Suri) and Gauri (Sonali Kulkarni) intertwined with the story of the Gauri’s handicapped brother Gaurav (Rakesh Bapat) and Dev’s sister Rachna (Bhavna Pani). Dev’s motives for competing in the same competition (move over Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) are at least more mundane. He needs the money so he can send Gaurav abroad for medical treatment. But apparently not because he wants to help Gaurav, but because his lady love refuses to marry him as long as she has to take care of her kid brother. They seemed to have forgotten the fact that Rachna is waiting hand and foot upon Gaurav.
Lets take a quick look at the actors and actresses. Madhavan does not look like a typical Bollywood hero - he looks more like a serious intellectual college student. And so his hero-type actions don’t look very convincing. But to his credit, his hand movements actually matched the music when he is sitting at the piano during the song Tere Bina Zindagi Se, which is more than what most film heroes seem to be capable of. Hats off to Madhavan. Jimmy Shergil, on the other hand, is as Bollywood as one can get. Sanjay Suri fit his role well. Rakesh Bapat is a good dancer. Namrata Shirodkar looked awesome - graceful and dignified. Somehow, age doesn’t seem to show on her. Sonali was her usual lovable self. Hrishitaa seemed a bit raw though. Her dancing was stiff as if she doesn’t have it in her and has to force herself to make those very mechanical looking movements. Riya Sen, who played Gaurav’s ex-girlfriend, seemed a lot more fluid in her movements and did a much better job dancing. By the way, what’s with Sonali’s eyeshadow? It was horribly purple! But then, what do I know about makeup! I am not a big fan of eye shadow anyways. However, Hrishitaa’s eyeshadow did make her look a bit more attractive.
Okay, finally the most important part of the movie - its music. I think Babloo Chakravorty has done a decent job of recreating Pancham da’s music. The bits that he has added here and there quite add to the beauty of the songs. Of course, if you are a purist, you will hate Babloo Chakravorty’s guts for even daring to sully RDB’s music with his dirty paws. (Urp.. sorry, I’ve been watching too many Hollywood movies, I suppose). But if you are open to some innovation and improvisation, you will be pleasantly surprised with the musical score.
Overall, I think the movie is reasonably entertaining, and surely worth watching once -- if for nothing else, at least for the music. But not a movie that you would want to add to your collection so you can watch it over and over and over again.
(Originally posted on MS on June 11, 2003)
However, the failing of the movie is that it puts a bit too much emphasis on the stories. In Mamma Mia, the story was purely decorative, with no substance, except to provide a few laughs and situations for the songs. Not so with DVPV. It develops the stories to an extent where each story can be the plot of a movie by itself (well, somewhat), but not enough to really do justice to any of the stories. The stories detract from the music. And that leaves the movie hanging in mid air between being an outright musical and a serious plot-based film. Instead, if the makers of this movie had chosen to keep the stories light and add more music, the movie could have been more enjoyable. Just putting a variety of themes in a movie tends to make the movie lose its focus - instead just focusing on the main idea and do full justice to it. That can make the movie so much more powerful. But I suppose its a Bollywood movie - a one stop shop for all your movie needs - comedy, emotion, family drama, songs, dance, and what have you. No fights though (gasp!).
Another Bollywoodism in the movie is its male-centric attitude. The story is not about three couples, but about three males who find themselves in a singing competition. And the women in their lives are effectively just prizes to be won by succeeding in the competition.
First there is a spoilt rich brat Hrithik (Jimmy Shergil) in love with Jojo (Hrishitaa Bhatt), a simple sensible girl from a stereotypical Indian christian family. He needs to prove that he is capable of earning a livelihood for himself, without depending on his dad’s millions. Of course, he has no skills to do any such thing, but winning one singing competition (or even trying) will convince his ladylove of his worthiness.
Then, there is the story of Krish (Madhavan) and Raksha (Namrata Shirodkar), both singers aspiring to make it big in the showbiz. Their story is predictably reminiscent of the plot of an old Hindi movie, Abhimaan. The wife makes it big and the husband gets submerged in an ocean of self pity under the weight of his hurt male ego. His redemption lies in winning the same aforementioned singing competition, so he can convince the world that he is more than just the singing sensation Raksha’s husband but a great singer himself. And convince his wife that he is a not jerk but just a struggling man trying to make it big on his own merit and not on somebody’s pity.
And finally, there is the story of Dev (Sanjay Suri) and Gauri (Sonali Kulkarni) intertwined with the story of the Gauri’s handicapped brother Gaurav (Rakesh Bapat) and Dev’s sister Rachna (Bhavna Pani). Dev’s motives for competing in the same competition (move over Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) are at least more mundane. He needs the money so he can send Gaurav abroad for medical treatment. But apparently not because he wants to help Gaurav, but because his lady love refuses to marry him as long as she has to take care of her kid brother. They seemed to have forgotten the fact that Rachna is waiting hand and foot upon Gaurav.
Lets take a quick look at the actors and actresses. Madhavan does not look like a typical Bollywood hero - he looks more like a serious intellectual college student. And so his hero-type actions don’t look very convincing. But to his credit, his hand movements actually matched the music when he is sitting at the piano during the song Tere Bina Zindagi Se, which is more than what most film heroes seem to be capable of. Hats off to Madhavan. Jimmy Shergil, on the other hand, is as Bollywood as one can get. Sanjay Suri fit his role well. Rakesh Bapat is a good dancer. Namrata Shirodkar looked awesome - graceful and dignified. Somehow, age doesn’t seem to show on her. Sonali was her usual lovable self. Hrishitaa seemed a bit raw though. Her dancing was stiff as if she doesn’t have it in her and has to force herself to make those very mechanical looking movements. Riya Sen, who played Gaurav’s ex-girlfriend, seemed a lot more fluid in her movements and did a much better job dancing. By the way, what’s with Sonali’s eyeshadow? It was horribly purple! But then, what do I know about makeup! I am not a big fan of eye shadow anyways. However, Hrishitaa’s eyeshadow did make her look a bit more attractive.
Okay, finally the most important part of the movie - its music. I think Babloo Chakravorty has done a decent job of recreating Pancham da’s music. The bits that he has added here and there quite add to the beauty of the songs. Of course, if you are a purist, you will hate Babloo Chakravorty’s guts for even daring to sully RDB’s music with his dirty paws. (Urp.. sorry, I’ve been watching too many Hollywood movies, I suppose). But if you are open to some innovation and improvisation, you will be pleasantly surprised with the musical score.
Overall, I think the movie is reasonably entertaining, and surely worth watching once -- if for nothing else, at least for the music. But not a movie that you would want to add to your collection so you can watch it over and over and over again.
(Originally posted on MS on June 11, 2003)
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