Its been a long time since I have written a review on a Hindi film (i suppose Guru was the last one)....well rather than writing the review on each of the films separately, me decided to recap the 6 months gone by.
Black Friday (10/10): Powerful movie....direction, screenplay and editing were spot on...performances of each and every character was excellent....
Tara Rum Pum (6/10): Big disappointment from the Yashraj camp....Siddharth's second outing was a bad rehash of Days of Thunder....moreover Saif's and Rani's acting was also not exceptional...songs were good but not something which will be remembered after the year has gone by...
Parzania (7/10): Another good movie which became a bit monotonous towards the end...moreover this movie has lot of similarities with Bombay
Namaste London (6/10): Never had high expectations from this movie...movie was so-so....i thought it was just a copy of several movies (Hero Hindustani, Pardes, Raamji Londonwale)....some of the dialogues were good...songs were really good specially Dilruba and Main Jahaan Rahoon.....
1:40 ki last local (9/10): Really loved this movie....Abhay is a terrific actor when it comes to comedy...all his movies (Socha na tha, Ahista Ahista, Honeymoon Travels) have been good...he is the only one in the industry who is choosing light hearted movies....he is Amol palekar and Farooque Shaikh of today's era...
Honeymoon Travels (8/10): Nice cute movie....KK and Raima Sen were terrific...songs were good (Pyar ki ek kahaani, Halke Halke, Sajnaaji)...dunno why Halke Halke was not marketed well....
Guru(7/10): It deserves 7 points just for Abhishek's acting and Maiyya Maiyya song (not the video but the vocals in the song)
Bheja Fry (10/10): It one of the better comedy films of recent times.....Vinay Pathak was simply superb in this film....
Eklavya (9/10): Acting was top grade from everyone...be it Amitabh, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Khan, Jimmy or Raima Sen...Vidya Balan was somewhat wasted...direction is till now the best of this year...
Salaam-e-ishq (3/10): Nothing to write about this movie....a big big disappointment...however songs were exceptional.
Cheeni Kum (9/10): the combo of Amitabh and Tabu was deadly....Tabu handled the lighter scenes really well....even the child actress was good....
Shootout at lokhandwala (6/10): Didnt njoi this movie that much....somehow the characters looked fake...
The Train (4/10): Bad acting by everyone (Emraan, Sayali and Geeta)...songs are among the best of the year...
Life in a Metro (10/10): Another excellent movie..Shilpa, Irfan and Konkona was superb...the entire track of Irfan and Konkona was hilarious...music is the best of this year...
Fool n Final (3/10): bad remake of Snatch(a must see film)
I havent seen Awarapan(mindblowing music) , Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (already a box office disappointment), Apne (killer starcast) and Aap Ka suroor (multi talented Himesh) yet....
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
A R Rahman concert in NY (16th June 2007)
was lucky enuf to catch the AR Rahman 3rd dimensional concert in Long Island, NY last weekend....the show was about to begin at 8 but we (myself, Harshad and ungle) were so excited that we reached there by 6:30 PM....already by that time people had started pouring in at the Nassau Coliseum....by the time i was inside the stadium I had met many of my junior college frenz, undergrad mates and colleagues who all had come to catch this magical nite.....
the show kickstarted at 8:35...this was as per IST....the first song of the evening was the masterpiece "Jaage Hai" from Guru....there was some sound problem during the first 2 songs and hence the lyrics were not clear...but who cares about the lyrics when Rahman is playing...what a way to start the show...amongst my fav songs composed by Rahman recently....Rahman looked dapper in a purple chudidar... the next song to be played was the energetic number "Khalbali" from RDB.... rahman then left the stage and his troop took over.....
Sukhvinder and Neeti were first to take the lead with "Ramta Jogi"..this was followed by "Ayo re sakhi" from Water...Sukhvinder sang this song so well along with Sadhana Sargam that I was awe-struck...somehow I didnt notice this song when I saw the movie...but now after the concert this song ranks among the best rendered songs...Rahman too regards this songs as one of his best compilations....
Hariharan followed it up with the evergreen "Roja Jaaneman" from Roja...this was the song that catapulted Rahman (his first movie as composer) to stardom....none of the Rahman's recent concerts are complete without Sivaji...he sang close to 4-5 songs from Sivaji...the first one to be sung was "Vaaji"..Hariharan and Madhushree were dancing throughout while singing this song....the next Sivaji song was "Sahana Saaral" by Vijay Yesudas and Chitra...
Naresh Iyer took over for the next 2 songs "Be a rebel" and "Roobaroo"....by this time the audience were up on their feets and dancing merrily....the next 2 songs were sung in Hindi as well as Tamil...."Kehna hi Kya" from Bombay and "Kabhi Neem" from Yuva...the mukhda and 1st antra were in Hindi whereas the 2nd antra was in Tamil...Hariharan and his team then turned up in somewhat a remixed version of "Ghanan Ghanan" from Lagaan
then there were a couple of more Sivaji numbers...but then came the best part of the day "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from Sukhvinder....during this song almost the entire 13000 junta was dancing in their aisles...this 6 minute song was converted into a 10 min song because the audience was njoing so much that Sukhvinder could not resist but extend the last antra by bringing tremendous variations in his voice...Rahman then sung the brilliant " Dilse re" from Dil Se.
then the find of the evening Aslam Khan sang Kesariya Balam...i assume that this is the song from Dor...Rahman during this tour had picked up 2 singers from US thru a talent hunt...one of the guys was from Dilawar (Delaware) and the other was from Texas...they sang "Mitwa" from Lagaan and "Yeh Tara" from Swades.... Sivamani then turned up with his amazing solo performance....this guy is simply mindblowing....there was also a small piece of jugalbandi with another guy which too was brilliant....
Rahman then sung a song from his new international album "Pray for me brother"...this was a song dedicated to poor all over the world.....all the spectators were waving their cell phones (with lites on) during this performance...the sight was worth a spectacle... this was followed by an unplugged version of "Tu hi re (Bombay)" from Hariharan and "Aie Hairate(Guru)" from Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam...
then came my best song/performance of the day...this was "Maiyya Maiyya" from Guru...this was sung by Neeti Mohan...Neeti Mohan was one of the babes from the Aasma band (Chandu ke chacha) from V Popstars...her performance, overall look, voice modulation, belly dance was simply stupendous...this is among the most difficult songs to sing and she turned up aces with this one...this dame should be given more opportunities in Bollywood...
then there were some more songs which moved the show towards climax: "Ni Main samajh gayee (Taal)", "Ik Onkar (RDB)" and "Rang de basanti(RDB)"...Aslam Khan sang the title song of RDB really well and had this talent been discovered earlier Rahman would have taken him instead of Daler....
then came my fav Tamil song "Secret of Success" from Boys...Naresh and Blaaze sang this song really well...the show ended with Rahman singing "Humma" from Bombay and "Vande Mataram".....
the 3.5 hrs show got over so fast that audience were longing for more....there were some songs which I wished could have been performed but thats fine considering the time these guys have to perform....some of them were
"Nahi Saamne" from Taal by Sukhvinder
"Chupke se" from Saathiya by Sadhna Sargam
"Banno Rani" from 1947-Earth
"Yaakai thiri/Fanaa" from Yuva
"Chanda re" from Sapnay
Well here are some pics from the show
Pics from Rahman Show
the show kickstarted at 8:35...this was as per IST....the first song of the evening was the masterpiece "Jaage Hai" from Guru....there was some sound problem during the first 2 songs and hence the lyrics were not clear...but who cares about the lyrics when Rahman is playing...what a way to start the show...amongst my fav songs composed by Rahman recently....Rahman looked dapper in a purple chudidar... the next song to be played was the energetic number "Khalbali" from RDB.... rahman then left the stage and his troop took over.....
Sukhvinder and Neeti were first to take the lead with "Ramta Jogi"..this was followed by "Ayo re sakhi" from Water...Sukhvinder sang this song so well along with Sadhana Sargam that I was awe-struck...somehow I didnt notice this song when I saw the movie...but now after the concert this song ranks among the best rendered songs...Rahman too regards this songs as one of his best compilations....
Hariharan followed it up with the evergreen "Roja Jaaneman" from Roja...this was the song that catapulted Rahman (his first movie as composer) to stardom....none of the Rahman's recent concerts are complete without Sivaji...he sang close to 4-5 songs from Sivaji...the first one to be sung was "Vaaji"..Hariharan and Madhushree were dancing throughout while singing this song....the next Sivaji song was "Sahana Saaral" by Vijay Yesudas and Chitra...
Naresh Iyer took over for the next 2 songs "Be a rebel" and "Roobaroo"....by this time the audience were up on their feets and dancing merrily....the next 2 songs were sung in Hindi as well as Tamil...."Kehna hi Kya" from Bombay and "Kabhi Neem" from Yuva...the mukhda and 1st antra were in Hindi whereas the 2nd antra was in Tamil...Hariharan and his team then turned up in somewhat a remixed version of "Ghanan Ghanan" from Lagaan
then there were a couple of more Sivaji numbers...but then came the best part of the day "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from Sukhvinder....during this song almost the entire 13000 junta was dancing in their aisles...this 6 minute song was converted into a 10 min song because the audience was njoing so much that Sukhvinder could not resist but extend the last antra by bringing tremendous variations in his voice...Rahman then sung the brilliant " Dilse re" from Dil Se.
then the find of the evening Aslam Khan sang Kesariya Balam...i assume that this is the song from Dor...Rahman during this tour had picked up 2 singers from US thru a talent hunt...one of the guys was from Dilawar (Delaware) and the other was from Texas...they sang "Mitwa" from Lagaan and "Yeh Tara" from Swades.... Sivamani then turned up with his amazing solo performance....this guy is simply mindblowing....there was also a small piece of jugalbandi with another guy which too was brilliant....
Rahman then sung a song from his new international album "Pray for me brother"...this was a song dedicated to poor all over the world.....all the spectators were waving their cell phones (with lites on) during this performance...the sight was worth a spectacle... this was followed by an unplugged version of "Tu hi re (Bombay)" from Hariharan and "Aie Hairate(Guru)" from Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam...
then came my best song/performance of the day...this was "Maiyya Maiyya" from Guru...this was sung by Neeti Mohan...Neeti Mohan was one of the babes from the Aasma band (Chandu ke chacha) from V Popstars...her performance, overall look, voice modulation, belly dance was simply stupendous...this is among the most difficult songs to sing and she turned up aces with this one...this dame should be given more opportunities in Bollywood...
then there were some more songs which moved the show towards climax: "Ni Main samajh gayee (Taal)", "Ik Onkar (RDB)" and "Rang de basanti(RDB)"...Aslam Khan sang the title song of RDB really well and had this talent been discovered earlier Rahman would have taken him instead of Daler....
then came my fav Tamil song "Secret of Success" from Boys...Naresh and Blaaze sang this song really well...the show ended with Rahman singing "Humma" from Bombay and "Vande Mataram".....
the 3.5 hrs show got over so fast that audience were longing for more....there were some songs which I wished could have been performed but thats fine considering the time these guys have to perform....some of them were
"Nahi Saamne" from Taal by Sukhvinder
"Chupke se" from Saathiya by Sadhna Sargam
"Banno Rani" from 1947-Earth
"Yaakai thiri/Fanaa" from Yuva
"Chanda re" from Sapnay
Well here are some pics from the show
Pics from Rahman Show
Monday, June 11, 2007
Johny saves the sinking Black Pearl
This movie was a disappointment...what an anti-climax to the built-up that was created by POTC-2...Johny was the only saving grace in the film though not on par with POTC 1 and 2....Barbossa (Geoff rush) too was mediocre...Orlando as usual was bland....however Keira showed a terrific improvement over 1 and 2.....
visuals are stunning....especially the last 45 minutes (the entire fight between flying dutchman and black pearl)....
if ratings need to be given to each of the installments then POTC-1 wld get 10/10, POTC-2 would settle with 8.5/10 and POTC-3 will get 7/10....
anyways Jack Sparrow rocks and who cares if the movie was bad....though i wld like to see an animated film on POTC with voiceover by Johny Depp
visuals are stunning....especially the last 45 minutes (the entire fight between flying dutchman and black pearl)....
if ratings need to be given to each of the installments then POTC-1 wld get 10/10, POTC-2 would settle with 8.5/10 and POTC-3 will get 7/10....
anyways Jack Sparrow rocks and who cares if the movie was bad....though i wld like to see an animated film on POTC with voiceover by Johny Depp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)