Aids Jaago - Films.

Well, I've been watching shit loads of cinema every single day. But sadly, reviewing everyone over here is a bit tedious task considering the time I get to log in. Anyways, since this was a long weekend break. Most of the time went away in discussing our own project films rather than watching some. The new releases (read : 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' and 'God Tussi Great Ho') are exceptions. But I'm glad this Sunday is not turning out to be 'just-another-one' in the list.

As I was surfing about some movies 'gyaan' over net. Accidentally I happened to find out some great work of cinema, which I was looking for ages. And yes, the wait was worth. The movies I'm talking about were made last year for the "AIDS Jaago" foundation by some of the most renowned film makers of our country. I'd been looking for them since then, but little did I knew I'll finally stumble upon it today. Its a series of 4 short films on AIDS awareness. There are only two words to describe all of them: 'Short' and 'Beautiful'.

Positive -
Director - Farhan Akhtar
Starring - Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi, Arjun Mathur.

Yes! Its made by our very own Farhan Akhtar. I don't think so he needs any introduction. I loved the way the film starts. The whole narration is very captivating. Actors like Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi serve you with another knocking performances in such a short role. The newcomer Arjun wraps up his job well too. Its definitely a well crafted film.

Blood Brothers -
Director - Vishal Bharadwaj
Starring - Siddharth, Pawan Malhotra, Pankaj Kapoor, Ayesha Takia.

This ones my favorite, no doubt it comes from one of my favorite directors too. Vishal Bharadwaj is one of the best film maker our country has ever seen. The best part in a short film one can do is to make the audience glued to the screen right from the first shot. Vishal succeeds in it. The way the story unfolds is amazing, and this continues to the last scene. The protagonist of the story played by Siddharth (fame Rang De Basanti) perfectly adapts the character. Pankaj Kapoor in that small cameo leaves a mark. The film makes you understand the psyche of an AIDS patient. Yet, the last scene takes the crown.

Prarambha (The Beginning) -
Director - Santosh Sivan
Starring - Prabhu Deva

Santosh Sivan as we all know is one of the most prominent cinematographers of our country. This film is simple, touching and on the same hand carries a slight blend of humor and satire.
Prabhudeva and the little kid are fairly well in their roles.

Migration -
Director - Mira Nair
Starring - Sameera Reddy, Shiney Ahuja, Irfan Khan, Raima Sen.

Mira Nair is a BIG name. This extremely talented film maker manages to leave her mark in this short film as well. 'Migration' is perhaps the most hard hitting of all. At times, it gets hard to sum up the whole thought and concept in a short film and yet maintain its charm. Mira is a master at this art. Acting is too good. Even in the most smallest of role and scenes, every actor gave an honest kickass performance. Very well made!

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The best part about all the above films is that it conveys a basic message to its audience. AIDS does not just affects the one suffering from it, but also every single person related to him/her. The entire family. And all these cutting edge directors manage to put forth the issue in a very profound manner.

Here is the link where you can watch all of the 4 short films.

http://www.jaman.com/aidsjaago/

MUST WATCH!! ALL OF THEM!!

Review : Kismat Konnection!

Starring :- Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla, Vishal Malhotra, Om Puri.
Directed by :- Aziz Mirza.

The movie starts with Shahrukh Khan's voice over with oh so "just-write-something" dialogs. Concluding by the awesome background introduction for our Hero. He, in the same "80s till counting" style wakes up with a phone call after his alarm clock fails! *Sigh! Bollywood oh, Bollywood!*
Boy (Shahid Kapoor) meets Girl (Vidya Balan). Girl is lucky for boy’s career. Boy wants to keep girl. So he lies. Girl finds out…yada, yada, yada.
This 2 hr. 45 mins. flick has got nothing new to serve. Yes, the same old wine has been served in the same old style. Its as predictable as one can get. It is said to be inspired by "Just My Luck". Afraid from the fact of surviving through couple of hours of Lindsay Lohan, thankfully I am yet to watch "Just My Luck".

Anyways, Kismat Konnection has got all its connection utterly loose. Director Aziz Mirza just doesn't seems to get off from the "I am directing SRK mode". The undisputed "Raj Malhotra" and "Priya" as names of the lead characters makes you imagine how SRK-ed the show will be. During alot of moments, I had to remind myself. I am watching Shahid Kapoor not Shahrukh Khan. I guess the character must have surely been written keeping King Khan in mind, as one can see it all through the film. I am yet to understand is there no way a romantic film can be made without adding few stupid moronic negative characters and plots as well? And then as I said, its merely "predictability " all through out. So when you can already judge the next scene and the one after and the other one after, eventually there is no point when you are actually glued on the screen. You keep on fiddling at your seat hoping for something different to happen. But alas, they failed in creating and so we fail in our expectations. Then there is a climax with the so not required speech by our hero. I guess the only part which I enjoyed was the song "Bakhuda" and the scene after it when Vidya tells about her ideal match. That culminates into a romantic moment. But sadly, thats it!

I am so against showing any shit under the tag of 'cinematic liberties'. And sadly our film makers tend to do the same. An architect who is broke (as narrated) has a big house with big TV and the most trendy clothes which are in. And I am convinced more than half of Canada is inhabited by Indians. And even after our architect hero gets a job, why the hell does he needs to show off his bod in a vest doing carpentry. And I thought Architects need to "design" stuff not cut ply boards. And finally, I register my protest against women putting on full make-up before they leave for mourning their lost love. You think we are fools? I mean you "still" think we are"still" fools?

The music is good enough. All the songs worked for me except "Sohniye". Though the use of the hit song "Aai Pappi" (title track) seems baseless. Oh wait, dream sequence maybe! Yeah, right!!
Out of all of them, I loved the filming of only "Bakhuda", perhaps the only place where our couple look good and it was romantic enough. Still If I had to admit, this seemed just another "Jab We Met" kinda album by Pritam. Same genre songs, same kinds music, even sung the same way!

Performance wise, Shahid definitely looked good in every frame, but was just okay in most of the scenes and good in few. Decent performance I say. Again, "JWM" still holds his best!
Vidya looked "aunty" in our desi lingo. Yet, better than "Heyy Babyy". I found her acting too irritating at times while strictly average in others. This is a really talented female but sadly she's yet to impress me after "Parineeta". Om Puri I wonder what makes him chose such roles. We cannot really call it bad acting, its just sheer waste of talent. Vishal Malhotra the guy who plays Shahid's friend is funny in few scenes but rest you start getting irritated when all he had to yell was, “we’re getting late for the meeting, and this is such an important meeting” every 20 minutes or so. And I admit, I did not liked Juhi Chawla at all. No way!! She was just too cliched and irritating man! And those entire sequences of Shahid's visit to this fortune teller's place seems kiddish. Utter waste and stale humor. And yeah, there is Mr. Boman Irani again for a small cameo during the climax, which is not even worth a mention I guess.

We have been served with such dishes since we were born. Yes, we have grown up watching such so called romantic love stories and its HIGH TIME the film makers of our country realize this. Bollywood refuses to change. "Kismat Konnection", yet another one into the list!

Sad, but true!

Rating :-
1.5/5

The Rare And First's Of Bollywood!

A weekend can surely be termed as 'kickass'; when it is filled with 'movies' and some amazing friends who are as passionate about them as you are. The last couple of days went away in eating, drinking, breathing and of course watching 'movies'. Thanks to some of the greatest cinema freaks I've ever known, got a chance to watch few rare pieces of art from Indian Cinema. These movies are from FTII (Film and Television Institute of India). For all those who don't know its an institute where some of our greatest thespians, film-makers and other efficient technicians learnt their first hand at cinema. And so, the movies are not available anywhere else. I saw two of them for now :-

Suman - Directed by Madan Bavaria.

This is a 16 minute black and white film made in 1970. It is a story about a 15 yr. old girl played by Jaya Bachchan whose shown indulging in childlike behavior -- playing with children, stealing money from the temple to buy ice candy, watching a monkey dance, catching a butterfly and plucking fruits from someone else's farm. It was perhaps the second time Jaya Bachchan faced camera, and this was a product of her days in FTII. The movie basically talks about the phase from adolescent to adulthood. And while most of the scenes are filled with Suman's childish activities, there is one particular scene which fills up for the 'growth' part. Shot entirely in a village, the camera work included more of wide angle and aerial shots. Jaya Bachchan was in her teens when she did this movie and the complete innocence on her face required for that of a 15 yr. old girl was perfect.
Danny Denzongpa also stars for a short cameo.

Murder At Monkey Hill - Directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Murder at monkey hill was made in 1976 as a part Vidhu Vinod Chopra's diploma film at FTII. Yes, its the "first" film directed by this extremely talented film maker. The story deals with a professional hitman, who falls in love with the woman he's supposed to murder at 'Monkey Hills' (a place somewhere near Pune). Vidhu himself plays the role of the hitman along with Anjali Paigaonkar whose playing the women. This short film is a clever work of art. I have always liked Mr. Vidhu Vinod Chopra's work and the thought of having a look at his first attempt at film making surely excited me beyond core. To say the least, I loved it!! Extremely!! This guy has always been thoroughly perfect with the technical aspects in his films. "Eklavya - The Royal Guard" being the latest example. What actually got my attention was that, this film was shot in 1976. But when you watch it, right from the first frame, the falling of the title credit you'll be shocked by the way he has handled the film considering the poor budget for its making. Cinematography is brilliant. Thats the perfect word for it, BRILLIANT!! Imagine, using split screen in 1976 in the same scene. Woah!! Cinematography takes the crown et al. Its great, considering the time when it was made with almost no budget by a normal cinema student's first attempt at film making. Acting by both of them was up to the mark. Vidhu really suited the character very well, his looks, voice and his performance was absolute. It has got a innovative layering of narration and since they did not have enough funds to give his film a deserving end. The film ends abruptly, cleverly underlining the need for more money to make more reels! It ends up with a line, which reads something like 'what else do you want us to make in such a low budget Mr. Financier'. This whole satirical approach is worth applaud! I was about to watch Vidhu's second film called "An Encounter with faces" which is again not available anywhere too. And was also nominated for ''The 52nd Oscar Awards - Documentary Short Subject'' from our country. But somehow plans had to change and I ended up with "Murder at monkey hill". But I am more than glad I happened to catch this one too. I was literally astonished after watching it. And I am so kicked to have a copy of this rare and fantastical piece of cinema now. This movie earned Vinod a National Award, Guru Dutt Memorial Award and recognition at the Montreal and Leipzig festivals.


-- I will soon be getting some more of such FTII products. And apart from these two, luckily I also happened to catch some rare footages. One was watching the legendary singer Mohd. Rafi's "only" appearance in front of camera in a song from an old movie 'Jugnu', where he sings along with Dilip Kumar. Another was watching the complete hit song "Jaanu Meri Jaan" from the 1980s Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor starrer ''Shaan''. Yes, the song which is in the movie does not have one stanza. Though it was originally shot, only two are shown in the movie. We got it from Ramesh Sippy, the maker of "Shaan" himself. Next was the best. It was watching the colored version of one of my most favorite and a truly classic beautiful song "Abhi na jao chod kar" from 1960s Dev Anand starrer 'Hum Dono.' (Click on the song to watch its original black and white version). Ended the day with a classic trash movie, Manoj Kumar's multi-starrer "Clerk". If you love trashy hindi movies, this ones the BAAP of all!

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HAIL BOLLYWOOD!

Farhan Akhtar - Welcome Back!

Well, let me inaugurate this page with a post on one of our upcoming desi film.

Being honest, I have been a Farhan Akhtar fan since the time I saw 'Dil Chahta Hai'. Well, there must not be anyone who didn't liked the movie. It was a grand box office success and created a sort of hysteria amongst the youth. It was the return of showing 'friendship' in movies. How can we forget those cool funky hair cuts, and Aamir's goatee. Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan got their careers back on track as well. DCH is considered as a cult film, and no doubt it deserves it too. Farhan's next attempt at direction was 'Lakshya' starring Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta. After a long gap Mr. Javed Akhtar wrote the script for any movie, the jinx broke with 'Lakshya'. It proved out to be average on Box Office, but got good remarks from critics. I still consider it as Hrithik Roshan's best performance till date. I love the film as well, its one of my favorites too.
Farhan's next venture 'DON' starring Shahrukh Khan which was a remake of Amitabh Bachchan's classic 'Don' generated much hype before its released due to these same factors. And all that SRK v/s Big B issues were blown out of proportion to promote the film. Movie ended being a hit. The climax made it different from the original version.

By this time, people considered Farhan's level as a director had gone down. But I somehow always liked his style of film making. All these three movies were produced under Excel Entertainment, which is a brain child of Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar. Next from this production house was 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.' and a short film called 'Positive' which was directed by Farhan Akhtar and starred Shabana Azmi and Boman Irani.

Their next in line from Excel Team is 'Rock On!' directed by Abhishek Kapoor. His last film 'Aryan' starring Sohail Khan was a disaster and a lame attempt at Rocky. But what makes 'Rock On!' special is Farhan Akhtar. He is debuting as an actor, along with TV actress Prachi Desai. Other casts includes :- Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny, (do read about him) Shahana Goswami and Koel Purie. A story about four friends and how they live up their dream to become the best rock band in country. Everyone has been given a perfect look of a rockstar. The trailers and first look is out, and it surely appears to be impressive. The entire look, feel and the names attached to it makes you excited and expectations arises from it to be something different than our usual Friday releases.

I had gone for its music launch today. Javed Akhtar did the honors while the whole cast was present. It was a real astonishing experience to watch Farhan perform live with the band of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy as the audience grooved in that heart thumping loud music. The guy has sung 6 out of 8 songs in the movie and very few may know but he is a great dancer himself as well. I got its audio CD and have been listening to its music since then.
Quite surprisingly I am loving its songs. Music is surely perfect according to what was needed, but we are not really used to hear hindi lines going off with such hardcore music. So in the start seems bit awkward. Though, if you have a look at the lyrics Javed Sahab has done a good job considering the concept of movie.

My favorite song till now is undoubtedly the title track. I am abso-fuckin-lutely loving it. The music used in it is from the same theme music used in 'Lakshya' during the mountain climbing scene before the climax. The song gives you one boast and energizes you inside for its words project all euphoria and bliss! Do listen to it when you're high, and when you're low in order to get high. ;)

I am really looking forward to this movie. Hope it turns out well!

I'll end up with few lines from the song.

Jaise jeene ko dil chahe.
Jee waise tu.
Meri toh hai bas ye raaye ki.
Apne jitne bhi armaan hain poore karle tu.

Rock On!!
Hai yeh waqt ka ishaara.
Rock On!!
Har lamha tumhara.
Rock On!!
Yun hi dekhta hai kya tu.
Rock On!!
Zindagi milegi na dubaara.