Review: 7 Khoon Maaf (Directed By Vishal Bhardvaj)

Directed By: Vishal Bhardvaj

Starring: Priyanka Chopra

It has been always great to experience Vishal Bhardvaj’s cinema and I honestly see him as India’s own Quantine Tarentino. He always brings something new on screen (which most of the filmmaker will avoid to even touch) with excellence. His latest offering 7 Khoon Maaf also follows the path which he started with Makadee. Its based on Ruskin Bond’s short story “SUSSANA’s 7 HUSBANDS”.

The story spans 3 decades from 80’s to present day. A story of Susanna who has lost her parents in her early life and being brought up by her servants and marries to six men who dies one after another. She has 3 honest servants who stays through her for whole life and a boy-Arun( Vivan Shah) of whom she becomes care taker. How these different men comes in to her life, marries her and what makes them being killed is centre idea of the movie.

The subject itself is quite sensitive and was needed to be written and executed perfectly on screen which Vishal Bhardvaj did excellently. Narration through Arun’s(Vivan Shah) character is one of the plus points of movie. Dialogues, especially for narration are very good with blend of poetry. Priyanka Chopra is a scene stealer and gives her best by far. Supportive Cast has done good job specially the Person who plays role of her butler. Vivan Shah as Arun has made a mark successfully on screen. Real surprise was Annu Kapoor (Susanna’s 5^th husband) was superb. Apart from these all the actors who played her husband had very small screen time and where reasonably good. The Climax is quite surprising one (I don’t know how many will digest it) and positive as well.

All in all the hates off to Vishal Bhardvaj and Priyanka Chopra and their efforts. The movie does not appeal to all kinds of audience but its worth watching.

RATINGS: 7 OUT OF 10.

REVIEW: THE SOCIAL NETWORK 2010 (all u want to know about the‘FACEBOOK’)

DIRECTED BY: DAVID FINCHER

STARRING: Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg (founder of FACEBOOK)

The Social Network is Directed by David Fincher who has made some of the very well known and successful movies in past (like the curious case of Benjamin button, the zodiac and my favorite Fight Club). It’s about social networking website FACEBOOK and its founder mark Zuckerberg .A high voltage drama consisting great narration and performances from young cast.

Story starts with Mark creating a website called FACEMASH in one night about attractiveness of female students of Harvard after breaking up with his girlfriend. He was given six month’s academic probation for violation of rules and bringing down Harvard’s network. This attracts the eyes of winklevoss brothers and narendra and offers him to work with him on the website harwardconnect. But mark had some other plans in his mind so he works on another website with his friend Eduardo called thefacebook exclusively for harward students and soon site gains popularity among the students. When Winkelvoss brothers and narendra learns about this, they thinks that he stole their idea and wanted to sue him.

Meanwhile Sean Parker (founder of ‘Napster’) comes to know about this website and in a meeting with mark and Eduardo he tells how to move forward with their website and gets in to the team of facebook when mark bring company to Palo Alto as suggested by parker. From here game of money and betrayal gets deeper which creates so many problems for them.

The beauty of the movie is the way it’s been narrated, the whole story is told in between discussions of the 2 law suits faced by Mark, one from his friend Eduardo and another from Winklevoss brothers and narendra. David Fincher did great job and made it superbly entertaining from start to the end. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg’s character with utmost sincerity.

All in all full of entertainment and superb drama. Watch it for sure.

RATING: 7.5 FROM 10.   

(Review) WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS -2010

DIRECTED BY: OLIVER STONE

STARRING: MICHAEL DOUGLAS, SHIA LaBeouf

Wall Street-money never sleeps is a sequel to 1987 movie Wall Street directed by Oliver Stone. It brings back the famous character of Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas) back on the screen where he comes out of jail after 8 years. Gekko’s daughter lives with his boyfriend Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) who is working for Keller Zabel-an investment bank.

It’s the story of an old Dog (Mr.Gekko) who wants to be back on the street but there is no direct way for him to enter and fortunately his daughter’s boyfriend (Jacob) comes to him as he needed to find who destroyed Keller Zabel and in return he promises Gekko that he will reunite him with his daughter, but Mr.gekko has some other plans. He had $100million in his daughter’s name in Switzerland’s bank which he gets by stealing from his daughter’s bank a/c and starts a financial company in London. Jacob feels betrayed and approaches Gekko but nothing turns positive for him. Jacob writes full story of how Churchill Schwartz destroyed Keller Zebel and at the end everything turns positive ,gekko returns to his daughter and asks for apology and Jacob also gets reunited will her.

This movie frankly has nothing special. A sequel which came after 22 years has nothing to offer-a total disappointment. Seems like Oliver Stone wanted to cash out the brand name of original movie but he failed. Story has more of family drama than hard core Wall Street drama which we experienced in original one. Nothing great about direction of oliver ,just average. Mr.Gekko (Douglas) didn’t shine like the original one which won him Oscar for that role. Shia was also average. All in all an average movie, instead I would like to recommend watching the 1987 wall street but not this.

RATING: 5 OUT OF 10

Review: RAIN MAN (1988)

DIRECTED BY: Barry Levinson

RAIN MAN is 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Its story of Charlie (Cruise) who finds after his estranged father’s death that his father has left all his 3 million dollar property to his other son Raymond (Hoffman) whose existence he was not aware of. Raymond is an autistic person and living in a mental institute. Charlie initially for his selfish motive tries to get the possession of his brother but by the end they find a beautiful bonding between each other.

Hoffman was simply superb and deserved the Oscar which he was awarded for this movie. He portrayed Raymond with utmost sincerity. Cruise as his younger was also good and looks fit for the character of Charlie. The movie has its own moments to enjoy and to feel good. Beautiful narration of story by director Barry Levinson. Watch it especially for Hoffman.

MAR ADENTRO (The Sea Inside)

Language: Spanish

Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar

The movie is based on true life story of Ramon Sampedro who got paralyzed by his both arms and both legs after a diving accident. He fights for 28 years for his right to end his life but could not get the court judgment in his favor.

Story is told from the point of view of Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) who is paralyzed by his both arms and legs. He decides to end his life because he believes that living life without dignity is worthless. In the due course of movie he tells how he was before accident a person with full of energy who went to explore the world in the age of only 19. Even after he got paralyzed he writes beautiful poems with the help of his mouth. His family members are against of his decision of ending life but he has kind of personality which moves the thinking of others like lawyer who herself is also suffering from a strange disease, his family members and his friends who wants him to live, but he conveniences them why he wants to die.

The movie is very touching and some of the scenes are performed so well and helps in building story strongly. Like one where his lawyer asks him that why he wants to die?, he explains that different between your hand an my hand is merely 2 feet but that 2feet is like dream for me to cover on my own. (He put this way his point of living life without dignity). His character is not the usual characters we see who are paralyzed and feeling sad and laying on bad, he is ever smiling and confident about his state of mind. He is having great sense of humor.

Performances are excellent. Javier Bardem portrayed Ramon Sampedro with utmost perfection. Belen Rueda as Julia (lawyer) and Lola Duenas as Rosa were superb as leading ladies. Alejandro Amenabar’s direction is outstanding and narrated the story very well. He has woven Ramon’s character perfectly.

A heart touching tale of person with superb performances. A worth watching Academy award winning movie. ( A 2004 Oscar winner for best foreign language film)

RASHOMON (1950)

Language: Japanese

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Movie has taken 12^th century of Japan as backdrop. It starts with two people sitting on gate of RASHOMON under heavy rain and later joining them another guy. These two people, a monk and a woodcutter tell the story of a bandit, a samurai and his wife. Where samurai and his wife were attacked by bandit in forest and samurai gets killed.

The story of samurai, his wife and bandit are told in four different ways by different witnesses in front of authority. One by the bandit, second by samurai’s wife third by samurai’s soul by the medium of his wife and last by the woodcutter who claims that he had seen all the happenings in the forest. but at the end it was believed and concluded that story told by woodcutter was true.

The movie tells the story of how people become selfish and liar. Why and how human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They have a tendency to mould the truth and they can not talk about themselves without embellishing.

I think movie was way before its time. Kurosawa has narrated the story with brilliance. He has smartly used all the different characters in narration for different point of views of story. Camera work is also superb to that time ( it is to be noted that the movie was made just few year later the second world war ). All performances are superb.

For me movie has to have a story and that also well crafted and narrated and this movie has all. It’s a classic from Kurosawa will all the merits.  

12 ANGRY MEN (1957)

Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall

     Martin Balsam, Jack Warden, John Fiedler

     Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney

     Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

12 angry men released in 1957 is directed by Sydney Lumet. The story is surrounded by a court jury of 12 men who are to consider a case of 1^st degree murder and the defendant’s (an 18 year old boy) fate of if they found him GUILTY or NOT GUILTY.

The jury consists of 12 different people from the society with distinctive mindsets. Movie starts with a judge instructing jury after the hearing of case about the verdict to be decided by them and as it was 1^st degree murder case the decision of jury must be unanimous and all the members must be of the same conclusion at the end.  After that the whole movie is shot in one room except 2 scenes (one in washroom and one in the climax which is of outside court).

Now as the jury started with their 1^st vote count JURY#8 votes NOT GUILTY and so they have to discuss the whole case and things went through the court-room. The whole movie shows 12 men with different personality from different fields, who think differently, who have nothing in common and even don’t know each other are to decide the fate of the defendant. Two of the jury are rude old men who have their personal bias opinions for slum people and children of young age (the defendant was from slum). Two-three were not much interested in the case they just wanted to finish the things and get out the room to enjoy some baseball match. Others would believe that what ever witness told was true. But as the discussion of case goes on they required to re-think on all the possibilities and why the witnesses would be wrong in testifying.

Sydney Lumet has narrated the script so well that it left the viewer spellbound during 96min of drama. Whole story focuses mainly on behavioral aspects of humans. It has brilliant performances from all the actors and Henry Fonda( who played JURY#8) deserves special mention.

From my point of view the movie was engaging as well as a learning experience (especially for those who are studying Human Behavior or who are interested Human Behavior’s different aspects).

A must watch for classic movie lovers.

       

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM (1987) starring:Robin Williams

Directed By: Berry Levinson

Starring: Robin Williams

               Forest Whitaker

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM is a comedy-drama film Starring ROBIN WILLIAMS as Adrian Cronauer. Film starts with the arrival of Robin Williams in Vietnam as he was appointed the new DISK JOCKEY at AFRS-armed forces radio services in South Vietnam during 1965.

Cronauer is like live-wire, full of energy. Very soon he becomes hugely popular among the American troops. He has great sense of humor and his style makes him instant star in radio space, which his immediate bosses don’t like. They don’t even find him funny but Cronauer is unstoppable, he speaks whatever he thinks fit. Soon in Vietnam he makes friends and also see the dark and dirty side of war and how people of Vietnam gets to suffer because of the war.

As the story goes ahead we get to see different shades in the character of Robin Williams. Especially after the scene when a bomb blast happens at a restaurant where he used to have fun with friends. And when he gets to know a very dear friend of him is actually a terrorist. Williams makes excellent mark in the movie not only with his humor but with his emotions.

I had decided to watch this movie because I am big fan of Williams and I am glad that I watched this not only because Williams was brilliant but also the story is good and the way story is woven makes it a joyful ride.

THE KARATE KID

STARRING: JADEN SMITH (SON OF WILL SMITH)

                      JACKIE CHAN

Last movie got released for kids before the summer vacation gets over, THE KARATE KID. This is the remake of 1984 film of the same name.

Story is of a 12 year old kid who has moved to china from USA with his mother. As soon as he reaches Beijing he finds himself in to trouble by taking the attention of school bullies. The kid gets beaten down by those bullies and finds difficult to defend himself until one day Mr.Han (Jackie Chan) comes to help him out. Here starts kid’s journey to learn kung fu and defeating those bullies in the Kung Fu tournament.

This time the lead cast (the kid and those bullies) has been kept much younger than the original movie to attract the teen audience and this will differentiate this from the 80’s movie.

Movie stars Jaden Smith (whom we have seen giving heart touching performance in PERSUIT OF HAPPYNESS with his father WILL SMITH) and Jackie Chan. These two has managed to keep the movie enjoyable till the end, even if the end was predictable. The training sessions of kung fu between these two are high point of the movie. The tournament part was also enjoyable. This time I have seen Jackie Chan in much matured way than his usual comic roles. But the one who impress the most is Jaden Smith, the kid has given a good screen time and proven to be an entertainer.

Those who have not seen the 80’s THE KARATE KID will like this one and those who have seen the original will not dislike and kids (for whom the movie is made for) will enjoy this.

All in all a good movie.

RATING: 6 OUT OF 10.

RAAJNEETI- (REVIEW) ( PPP-Power Packed Performances)

DIRECTED BY: PRAKASH JHA

STARRING: NANA PATEKAR, AJAY DEVGN, ARJUN RAMPAL, RANBIR KAPOOR, MANOJ BAJPAI, KATRINA KAIF & NASHIRUDDIN SHAH.

Looking at the Prakash Jha’s previous movies I have found one thing common that whatever the storyline, it’s the characters that lead the movie to a different level where you see the movie from the perspective of the characters only. Here In Rajneeti, I found the same thing but this time there are so many powerful characters which leads the movie.

Movie is based on modern day political environment which takes the characters of The epic Mahabharata in the backdrop and How those characters would work in present scenario.

Nana patekar is playing vital role of mentor of arjun & ranbir. He is a politician who has seen and understands the whole political system very well. Arjun rampal is emerging politician with lot of aggression, who sees himself as new face of the party which is running by his family. Manoj bajpai is also emerging politician who believes that he is the only person entitle to get the whole power. Ajay devgn on the other hand comes from minority, whose loyalty toward his leader is everything for him and can do anything for that. Katrina kaif portrays a girl who is traded off for the politics and unwontedly dragged to the dirty world of politics. Ranbir is the guy who believes that the active politics is not for him despite born in the political family but he also has to drag himself in the politics for his family and honor.

Who has read or seen Mahabharata on screen will understand the whole story and who portrays which kind of Mahabharata character. So no need of story to tell.

Performance: after a long time I have seen Manoj Bajpai in such a powerful character and portraying it with great conviction, the energy required for this character was seen in him. Arjun rampal has played his part equally well and with sincerity ( WHO SAYS ARJUN CAN’T ACT? WATCH THIS MOVIE). Katrina Kaif was good but she had not much to do. Ajay devgn was also powerful, full of energy. Though this time he has not much powerful role has he had in earlier Prakash Jha movie. Real scene stiller are Nana patekar and Ranbir Kapoor, specially Ranbir. He hass overpowered every one in the movie with solid performance(10 ON 10). Nashiruddin shah was in special appearance and did well.

All in all a worth watching movie for some superb performances and engaging storyline. Mr.Jha has done wonderful and this time his style looks more commercial. Good.

RATING: 7 OUT OF 10.