The Bisexual Tag

Ever since this tag has hit the blogging circuit, people are going crazy. You can see the samples here, here, here, here, phew!! here and here. Its actually not a “Bisexual” Tag, but I have turned it into one. What’s the harm in exploiting the situation to its fullest? 😉

So, for this tag, I am supposed to turn into a woman and list all the men who might make me drool all over my keyboard. Believe me, this was as simple as Rakhi Sawant getting married to Tom Cruise! Urghhh! Just the thought sends shivers up my spine!

Anyways, so when I am supposed to undergo the blasphemous transformation(in my mind, that is), why not list all the women and men in the world whom I find absolutely good looking? I was supposed to list 5 of them, but I really can’t make such a short list. So here is the long list. Feast on it! 😛

WOMEN

Audrey Hepburn

I first saw her in Roman Holiday and that is when I fell in love with her. She is THE star. She has worked in the biggest blockbusters of her times and had the magic, the aura required for a great actress. Watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, My Fair Lady and Sabrina and you will know.

Madhuri Dixit

I don’t remember any other actress who had been so popular and respected in the  1990s and this decade as her. She is what I call an Electric Beauty. The smile, the “ada”, the dance…I went completely bonkers when I saw Devdas. I saw the movie thrice in the theatre just for her. Just to see her dance to “Maar Daala” and “Kaahe Chede”. Uff!!! Maar Daala!

Julia Roberts

My Best Friend’s wedding has been an all time favorite followed by Pretty Woman and Erin Brokovich. Julia has this carefree attitude which makes her beautiful. She has this dazzling smile and a very cute throaty laughter.

Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai is undoubtedly the most beautiful Indian Actress ever. Whatever people say about her acting skills, I have always felt that she is pretty good. She has definitely improved. I also don’t understand what’s plastic about her. She comes across as a very genuine person.

Penelope Cruz

The Sultry beauty. I haven’t seen much of her movies except Vanilla Sky, Gothika and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She was particularly good in the last one for which she picked the Oscar this year.

Madhubala

The Eternal beauty of the Black and White era. Here is an interesting fact about her from Wiki : In the early 1950s as Madhubala became one of the most sought-after actresses in India, she also attracted interest from Hollywood. She appeared in many American magazines such asTheatre Arts. In their August 1952 issue, Madhubala was featured in an extensive article with a full page photo. The piece was entitled: The Biggest Star in the World (And She’s Not in Beverly Hills). It presented the actress as a mysterious and ethereal woman of mythical beauty with a legion of fans.

Meryl Streep

An Enigmatic beauty. She is one actress who has fully explored a wide spectrum of roles and I specially liked her in Sophie’s Choice, Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison County and Doubt. From wiki : Streep has received 15 Academy Award nominations and 23 Golden Globe nominations (winning six), more than any other person in film history.

Jennifer Aniston

She is my favorite F.R.I.E.N.D.S character. She is a woman whom I can define as cute and sexy at the same time. From wiki : When F.R.I.E.N.D.S was aired, her hairstyle at the time, which became known as the “Rachel”, was widely copied.Aniston received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last two seasons ofFriends, as well as five Emmy nominations. According to the Guinness World Book of Records (2005), Aniston (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the tenth season of Friends.

Sarah Jessica Parker

I love her eyes and her voice. She skyrocketed to fame with her role of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. I saw her for the first time in a movie named The Family Stone( This is one movie which can be definitely made into a Bollywood blockbuster).

Megan Fox

She looks like a beautiful wax doll and has this amazing figure. 🙂 From wiki : Fox’s breakout role was playing Mikaela Banes, Shia Labeouf‘s character’s love interest in the 2007 blockbuster film Transformers, a role for which Fox won and was nominated for various Teen Choice Awards.

Katrina Kaif

Our Indian competition to the Hollywood babes. 🙂 No matter how bad her acting crying skills are, she is a show stealer. ‘Teri Oor’ was one song which extracted a collective sigh from the male fraternity. Watching her dance in front of the Pyramids of Egypt clad in a saree was too much for us!

Cate Blanchett

She is the Best Actress in Hollywood right now. A beautiful woman and a charming personality.  She rose to fame with Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth, followed by great movies like The Aviator, Babel, Notes on a Scandal, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

MEN

Now comes the difficult part. I had to litrally scratch them out!

Brad Pitt

An extremely extremely handsome man. I started liking him as an actor after Troy and Babel. I think he was extraordinary in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Hrithik Roshan

One of the most handsome Indian Actors, Hrithik’s debut will always be remembered in the history of Indian Cinema. He is the only actor besides Rishi Kapoor who took the Best Actor and the Best Debut trophy in the same year. Jodhaa Akbar could have turned into a disaster if he would not have played the lead.

Enrique Iglesias

He has the perfectly lean body. Not too muscular, not too pulpy, just perfect. His face has a certain innocence which is quite well exploited in all his songs.  Of all his song videos, I think Rhythm Divine is the best.

Shah Rukh Khan

Yeah! I know quite a lot of you don’t like him because of his a-a-a-acting skills but that can’t take away the charisma from the man. I have always believed that 20 years down the line, our generation will be known as the Shah Rukh Era generation, very similar to how we refer to our parent’s generation as the Amitabh Bachchan era generation. Undoubtedly, he has given the biggest blockbusters in the past 20 years and he can do wonders with the right role. Examples : Swades, Chak De India and Dil Se.

Tom Cruise

Another guy with the right mix of personality and good looks. I specially liked him in Top Gun, Rain Man, Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire and Minority Report.

Mel Gibson

What eyes! And what smile! A fantastic director who gave us movies like Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.

Shahid Kapoor

He is amongst a very few talented actors we have in our industry right now. Jab We Met was definitely his breakthrough movie. I really wish he had won some awards that year. Do you know that he was a background dancer in the song – ‘Kahi aag lage’ in Taal?

Chris Evans

Chris is best known for his work in the movie Fantastic Four as the Human Torch for which he was also nominated in the Teen Choice Award. I handsome upcoming actor.

Akshay Kumar

Its almost 20 years now and this man has no sign of fatigue. Started as an action hero, he has given some huge hits in the past few years. A very handsome man with a croocked smile. 🙂

Amit Sharma

What!?! Stop laughing!! Haven’t you heard of the phrase – Love thyself!? How can I expect someone else to like me if I don’t like myself? 😛

Thats it folks! Clean up your keyboards now!

Sarkar Raj – Movie Review

After shocking and terrifying the masses with “RGV ki Aag” and “Darling”, Ram Gopal Verma is back with the sequel of his most successful movie in recent times – Sarkar. Frankly speaking, I could never understand how a director who made Satya, can make movies like Aag. Thankfully, Sarkar Raj pulls up Ramu and he is in his top form.

The movie picks up where Sarkar left, but like our good old soap operas on the idiot box, the plot jumps two years in future. Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachchan)  has now completely taken his father’s place as Sarkar and his father(Amitabh Bachchan) is nothing more than a opinion provider and someone who can help with his contacts and pull in the crowds. Enters Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai), who is keen to set up a power plant in a rural area of Maharashtra but the only catch is that 5 villages and 40,000 people will have to relocate. Subhash Nagre refuses to help but his son talks him into helping Anita as he thinks that the project will be beneficial for Maharashtra in the long term. Soon, Shankar starts a campaign to convince the people of the villages to be displaced and is almost successful when the trouble starts. Things are not as simple as they seem to be and there are vested forces at work and this project turns into a landmine of tricks and betrayal. I would not like to go deeper into the movie as it would give away the plot which has its own share of surprises and shocks.

If you have liked Sarkar, then you would like Sarkar Raj too. Although comparison with the first movie is inevitable but the movie lives up to its successor. Abhishek Bachchan is at par with his father and both of them compliment each other perfectly well. Aishwarya is also good as the woman in power who is still helpless and groping with the system and her father. The movie has a dark feel to it and is too serious. Although no one will expect comedy scenes in such a movie, but I was wondering throughout the movie that when was the last time this family had a laugh or a good time? And Ramu used a lot of different camera angles which didn’t make sense to me. There were some scenes which almost made me dizzy because of the erratic and haphazard way they were shot. On the other side, some scenes were very effective because of the way light was used in them. Well, that’s Ramu for us. Always trying new things and not afraid of failing.

And yes, before you ask, there is ample scope for part three. Go ahead and watch it if you liked Sarkar and if you want to find out what finally happened to the Nagre family.

Rating – 3.5/5 

Director – Ram Gopal Verma

Jodha Akbar – Movie Review

 

 

Phew!!! Finally saw it. There are a few things you need to prepare yourself for before watching the saga.

Firstly, if you don’t have the stamina or courage to sit through a movie which has a running time of 3 hours+ then AVOID it. Secondly, the last biggest hit of Hrithik-Aishwarya as a pair was Dhoom-2, something too dimensionally different from Jodha Akbar. So it will be hard for a big chunk of audience to digest them this way. The costumes, the dialogues, the customs are too different from the present era and I found many people in the audience laughing. Thirdly, we have a certain image of Akbar in our minds (thanks to Mughal-E-Azam) and its hard to see him as a madly in love, vulnerable and “young” Akbar trying to grope with the nitty gritties of politics. And that is exactly the problem with Jodha Akbar.

The negatives first. The first half of the movie opens up very well. The war sequence in the beginning is well executed. The marriage of a Mughal Emperor and a Rajput princess was completely unacceptable and a lot of political upheavals occurred before this happened. This buildup takes up a major portion of the first half, which is quite well shot and narrated by Amitabh Bachachan. The problem starts when the movie is inching towards the interval, when Jodha finally arrives in Agra after marriage. It is at that point when the movie begins to drag. Maham Anga, played by Ila Arun, is on the verge of turning the movie into some Balaji Telefilm’s serial ( Jodddhaaa Akkkkbar), when thankfully the interval appears like a knight in shining armour. Thankfully, just after the interval, Akbar throws out Maham Anga out of his life with his mother’s ( played by Poonam Sinha ) support and the movie picks up its pace. Another problem in the movie is its abrupt ending.

Now the positives. The movie boasts of some lush never seen before visuals. In a way its a beautiful visual treat throughout. May it be Jodha’s introduction scene or the elephant taming scene ( Its hard to imagine how Hrithik managed to do that) or the sword fight scene between Jodha and Akbar or the enchanting love story which enfolds as the movie progresses, the movie somehow sucks you in the flow of events. There are so many facts about Akbar which the movie reveals and which I have no intention of revealing here. It also portrays Jodha as a powerful queen who had a big hand in changing and moulding Akbar’s thought process and the way he handled his powers. She was the source behind his transformation, though in a very subdued way. The sublime scenes between the lead pair are the ones which hold the movie together. Hrithik has this huge burden of playing the Emperor and sometimes he puts too much effort and it shows. But somehow if I try to imagine someone else from the current breed of actors who could have done the role, I can’t imagine anyone else. Aishwarya is looking nothing less than a queen (*SIGH*). The songs are beautifully picturised. “In lamhoon ke daaman main”, “Khwaja mere Khawaja” and “Azeem-o-shan shenshah” perfectly stand out. The supporting cast which consist of Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Suhasini Mulay, Raza Murad, Sonu Sood, Ila Arun, Poonam Sinha have well etched roles which are performed well.

Hrithik and Aishwarya had the albatross of their last mega hit around their neck. I had a nightmare in which Jodha breaks into “Crazy kiya re” in front or Akbar and I promised myself that if Jodha Akbar would have one scene which would make me forget Aryan and Sunehri (Hrithik and Ash’s charecters in Dhoom 2), I’ll call this movie good. And yes, its good. Watch it for the honest effort which went into its making, watch it for Ashutosh Gowarikar who woke up a sleeping genre of films from its slumber and watch it to know the love story which somehow got lost in the pages of history.  

Directed by – Ashutosh Gowarikar

Rating – ***

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Jodha Akbar, Controversies and more…

While galloping google a few days back, I came across this article about the plans of Rajput outfits to boycott Jodha Akbar. If you read the link, then as per the organisations opposing the movie, Jodha was married not to Akbar(surprise!!!!) but to his son Salim. So, apun ka Bollywood, the prodigal daughter of controversies, has done it again. Or is it the other way round? If you would have followed the news on Bollywood controversies in the last few years, you would easily come to the conclusion that most of the movies which were made to gulp the controversy pill, were forced to do that for the most inane reasons. Its either because we don’t know the D of democracy or we can’t take the medium with a pinch of salt. Hence, its very important that the filmmaker should keep the following points in mind before starting a project :

• Make sure that there are no jokes/references related to any communities. Always remember what happened to “Jo Bole Sonihaal”, “Khamoshi” and recently to “Aaja Nachle”. I could never understand, what in the name of Beelzebub, was the controversy behind Aaja Nachle? As far as I could remember, if a song used to have some controversial lyrics ( remember “Sexy Sexy” and “Sarkaiyo khatiya” ?), then the lyrics were changed and that decision was taken by the members of the Censor Board. But banning the movie in a state for this reason takes the cake. Are we moving back to the Neanderthal era?
• If you want your movie to be released peacefully, make sure that you are not making a movie on any historical characters. Such movies have a high probability of running into troubled waters. Jodha Akbar, Mangal Pandey, Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh rammed into trouble because of depicting lives of History book characters. The filmmaker will always find a set of people who will not agree with his research about the character which would lead to “Aa Bull mujhe maar”.
• Never ever make fun of Veteran film personalities. If the movie is a hit then no one is going to bother but if its a flop then the filmmaker will have to live with the “kalank” of making fun of matinee idols whom he/she is supposed to worship. Recently Om Shanti Om went through the ordeal because of taking a dig at Manoj Kumar. Thankfully, the movie was a hit and recently Manoj Kumar was seen laughing at the Screen Awards function when the movie was mentioned.
• Don’t make movies on social issues which are very hush hush. Remember the wars waged on Fire, Water and recently Black Friday. After finally watching Water, I think the kind of “Halla” created for the movie was nothing less than National disgrace. When are we finally going to grow up? Was there anything shown in the movie which we don’t know already? Do our beloved moral policemen consider the Indian audience to be so naive? Anyways, the point is that NO hushy hushy, only mushy mushy. 🙂
• If a filmmaker has followed the above points religiously and has a bad luck, he/she will still land up in trouble anyways. The best examples in this category are Rang de Basanti(for the horse race scene (hhrumphhh!!!)), Fanaa( because of Aamir’s involvement in the Narmada river controversy in Gujrat) and recently Taare zameen par(for the same reason in Gujrat again!!!!). To evade such conditions the filmmaker should not actively participate in any Social causes, and should choose a cast which has an equally “I-don’t-care” attitude towards social issues and finally should consult an astrologer for the extra “Ks” and “Ms” in the movie title.

So, finally, what are the choices left? Well, love stories set in Alps, Fantasy(apparently, Indian movies are “too bad” in this category), Animation, crude comedies and stories which are different and don’t neglect any of the above points are the ones which would lead to a smooth and non-controversial release. 🙂 A last word for the audience and our self appointed moral policemen : Watching a movie is nothing different than reading a book or buying a painting. If you don’t like the book then don’t read it again, if you don’t like the painting then don’t buy it and if you don’t like the movie then don’t watch it again, but don’t take away the right of another person to form an opinion about it, specially when you are living in a country which is the largest Democracy of the world.

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Best of Bollywood in 2007

Its awards season again and Bollywood came up with quite a number of choices in 2007. And yes, this list does not contain Om Shanti Om. The last time you heard the name of this movie on this post was in the previous line. It also does not contain movies like Welcome and Partner as I can’t understand such movies. This year the keyword was – Different. A story which does not follow the trends, where character building is important than putting a dance number to pull the crowds.

Chak de india

15 August would not have been better. As I sat in my seat waiting for the movie to begin, I had my own apprehensions. By the time the movie ended, I pinched myself to make sure that I have actually seen something like this and was not dreaming. The movie was path-breaking in the sense that it opened a new door, a new thought thread which could lead to different movie ideas. It also made a loud point that – Yes, you can have an entirely new plot and don’t need to rehash older plots again and again. Two thumbs up for the daredevil Shimit Amin.

 

Taare zameen par

I can bet that this movie can bring tears in the eyes of the most stone hearted person. As the song “hai na maa” started, there was hardly anyone in the theatre who was not crying. I consider this movie as a ray of hope. Its a tight slap on the face of the directors who say that we make movies for money and thus have to cater to the likes of the public. It woke up everyone to the power of the medium, to the fact that a movie can carry a message which can change so many lives. There are so many NGOs which try to spread awareness about dyslexia, but what this movie did in 15 days, the NGOs were not able to do in 15 years. Thanks to Aamir Maverick Khan, the director.

 

Jab we met

Aahhh!!!! the DDLJ of this decade…as I call it. In a span of 10 years one such movie comes which somehow redefines love, underline the fact that a simple movie can be entertaining, the fact that a subtle plot and characterization is required for filmmaking AND the fact that love stories can still be told differently. The only problem as I see it is that this year there is no competition for Kareena in terms of Awards, but Shahid will be having a tough fight. Ironically speaking, this is the Biggest hit of the pair after the breakup. Both of them will be seen again in Satish Kaushik’s Milenge Milenge in 2008.

 

Cheeni kum

The promos of this movie were so compelling that I had to see it. Again I found it very different and daring too. Its not easy in India to showcase a romantic movie with such a dimension and get away with it. If I let go of the over extended ending, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. There were so many scenes like Paresh Rawal forgetting to zip his trouser after Amitabh tells him that he wants to marry his daughter and the one in which Tabu makes Amitabh run so that she can check his stamina and the one in which Zohra Sehgal keeps asking Amitabh if he went to the gym or not.

 

Namaste London

This is the type of comedy I can understand. When the filmmaker try to find fun in real life situations and not by making actors vomit out loud and foolish PJs. The surprise package of this movie was Katrina Kaif. I didn’t knew she could act but somehow she surprised me and the role was tailor-made for her. Another hit in Akshay Kumar’s kitty which already includes Heyy Babyy and Bhoolbhulaiya from this year’s list of hits and thankfully Himesh gave some decent numbers after a loooong time. “Teri yaad” and “Rafta rafta” were way above the unbearable category of songs Himesh churns out these days. 🙂

 

Life in a metro

Too many cooks may spoil the broth. This is what came to my mind as I went for this movie. But the dish was made well and served well too. So many plots but well woven and well shown. Whether it be Dharmendra, Shilpa Shetty, Konkana Sen Sharma, Irfan Khan, Kay kay, Shiney Ahuja, Kangana or Nafisa Ali, everyone had a well etched character to play. The music was composed by Pritam Chakraborty who surprisingly popped up with his band in each song. grrrrr….

 

Guru

Mani Ratnam splashed his talent in Hindi movies after a long gap. Its generally hard to show the life of a person in 3 hours as the director have to jump years, but it somehow worked in advantage for this movie. Abhishek and Aishwarya looked good together, specially as the older couple. 😉 Vidya Balan, Mithunda and Madhavan were perfect for their roles and the songs fitted like gloves. The love story between Vidya and Madhavan was heart wrenching and you actually feel sad for the couple. And thank God someone gave apna Mithunda a “Role” after ages.

 

Provoked

The real life story of Kiranjit Ahluvalia was well crafted. The public opinion was not too good but somehow the movie stayed with me after I saw it. What Kiranjit went through made me realize that even a smallest person can change the course of the future. Aishwarya was able to bring out the growth in the character from the time she accidentally murders her husband to the time when she faces the judge at the end. The scenes between Kiranjit and her cellmate Veronica were the best in the movie. Nandita Das was as usual great in her cameo.

 

Bheja fry

After Khosla ka Ghosla, Rajat kapoor again shined in Bheja Fry. There were no big stars in the movie but it stood on the plot and the cast assembled. Sarika was seen after a long gap and she is still pretty(sigh!). Milind Soman looked like he had just returned from some deserted island where he was marooned from the last 5 years. It was not the usual kind of film, was short and crispy and that is why it was enjoyable .

 

Aaja nachle

I can’t let go of this one. 🙂 Madhuri’s comeback movie was something I was looking forward to from a long time and I was not disappointed at all. Again, a different movie and a great group of actors accumulated, whether it may be Konkana Sen Sharma, Rajat Kapoor or Kunal. The play at the end was unexpectedly well picturised. No matter what the public opinion may be, the movie was worth the wait for me. “Mohini” still rocks. 🙂

 

Heyy Babyy

Inspired from the 1987 hit comedy Three men and a baby, Heyy Babyy had something for everyone. Thankfully Sajid Khan’s debut as a director was not as “over the top” as his sister’s. The movie had good performances by Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan and surprisingly Fardeen was also seen “acting”. 🙂 Angel was very cute and adorable and held the movie together in the first half till Vidya Balan makes an appearance. The movie had some foot tapping numbers by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. A crowd of heroines made guest appearance in the title track and Shahrukh appears in “Dil da mamla” which is the highlight of the movie. All in all a complete package entertainer.

 

Bhool bhulaiya

After being made in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu, the script finally reached apna Bollywood. I went for this movie after people started praising it. Yes, it was spookily surprising. Till the entry of Akshay Kumar the only holding factor was the ghost, but after his hilarious entry, Akshay takes the movie to an entirely different platform. The climax of the movie is a revelation. Just watch out Vidya Balan in the climax and you will surely get gooseflesh. The song towards the end where Vidya imagines herself as the dancer Manjulika is one of the best picturised songs in recent times.

 

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