Housefull

Film: Housefull

Dir: Sajid Khan

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone

Rating: ***

Welcome to yet another ‘leave your brains at home’ kind of comedy. An almost impossible task I think, to surgically remove your brain, and then to make your way to the cinema sans it.

Though I think, if you don’t already possess a brain, or your intellect has been considerably eaten away by recurring cinema such as this, then you may actually force yourself to patronize this stupid starry ordeal. I sadly caught myself chuckling a few times in a bid to recover my 320-rupee ticket price, a hefty sum for such little ‘entertainment’.

The unlucky Aarush (played by Akshay Kumar) must marry a girl to change his fortunes. His best friend Bob (Riteish) and his girlfriend Hetal (Lara Dutta) take him to a lavish London party where he meets the eccentric and drunk host, Randhir Kapoor (hic!). Aarush and Randhirs daughter Jiah Khan meet and instantly fall for each others traditional Indian values and within a few seconds the drunk dad announces their marriage, bequeathing a few million pounds to the lad he just met.

It didn’t make sense. So I swung a cricket bat and knocked the side of my head, subjecting my brain (which I had to bring with me) to a nasty blow. It still didn’t fly.

So Aarush and Jiah are on holiday in Italy/Greece/Film City or wherever the hell this exotic resort is and Aarush is thrilled to have better luck. The resort is run by a loud and irritating Indian who speaks in an Italian accent and is imaginatively named ‘Aakhri Pasta’ (Chunky Pandey). ‘Pasta’ cant keep his hands off Aarush’s bride (Jiah Khan) and Jiah cant keep her hands off a hairy and expressionless white man. Aarush is shocked to learn that Jiah and 'hairy white man' are lovers and that his marriage is a sham.

Enter Sandy (Deepika Padukone), who rescues a drowning Aarush and then dances with him in a sexy song sequence. It must be true love! What makes Sandy’s heart beat faster for the forlorn loser is ‘Aakhri Pasta’s’ lie that Aarush’s wife died on his honeymoon. Why the lie? You ask? I am clueless. I suffered another blow to my head with the cricket bat. My brain refused to shut up even then.

Well, If we must go further; you can expect inane misunderstandings between the two couples and then add characters like a farsan making Gujrathi father who sleepwalks, a man eating old heiress who is less entertaining than the man eating tiger on a couch, A parakeet that gets sucked into vacuum cleaner and a monkey that gets into a fist fight with Aarush.

Menaka Gandhi, fret not, the self respecting monkey gives it back in equal measure.

While the situational ideas have the potential to entertain like in a ‘Dumb & Dumber’ or in an ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ sort of slapstick way, the execution and smugness of the making, leaves you baffled as only the cast seems to get most of the jokes. The exaggerated climax, where laughing gas is released into Buckingham palace, is anything but funny. As you watch white skinned extra’s and red-faced Indians laughing uproariously on screen, you are deafened by the silence of the audience in the cinema hall.

There are racist jokes; like the Gujrathi father looking at a black woman and disdainfully calling her ‘Surpanakha’ (Ravan’s ugly sister), bad Italian accents with the use of words like pasta and De Niro to frame sad sentences and even done to death closet gay jokes; where the Gujrathi father seems to find the boys in compromising positions. Sadly Unoriginal.

Yes, we’re looking for entertainment and not necessarily intellectual stimulation all the time. But recent films like ‘3 Idiots’ have proved that our cinema can be 'silly funny' and yet have heart. That we can laugh at jokes and gags without having to surgically remove our brains or knock them out cold with cricket bats.

As we settle back into cinema halls post the IPL season, and look for entertainment worth the insane ticket prices, we must remember this. A lavish and starry production with a great marketing budget is no compensation for amateur dialogues, predictable screenplays and hammy acting.

Instead, you could watch Amitabh Bachchan in the 1981 hit ‘Kaalia’ on the telly this weekend.

Source: chakpak

Kites~~

Kites is an international film in every sense of the word. It takes one of the biggest stars from Bollywood and places him opposite one of the most popular actresses in Latin America. You could say it’s a story about star crossed lovers but that would be too simple. Kites is so much more. It’s a drama, romantic-comedy, and an action flick all rolled into one, and somehow despite its heavy description, nothing gets lost in translation.

The Players:

Director: Anurag Basu

Screenwriter: Anurag Basu, Robin Bhatt, Akarsh Khurana, Rakesh Roshan (story)

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Bárbara Mori, Nicholas Brown, Anand Tiwari, Kangana Ranaut, Yuri Suri

Music By: Rajesh Roshan

The Plot:

Kites centers on Jay, a self-centered man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. His main goal in life is to be rich but his priorities change when he meets and falls in love with Natasha, a Mexican woman who marries a powerful man for his fortune and a free pass into the States. Both have their own agendas that get tossed to the wind when they realize that love is a lot more important than any possession including their own lives.

The Good:

Hrithik Roshan: This leading man proved that he’s more than just a pretty face with his performance. He has great comedic timing, yet still manages to deliver some heavy emotional scenes, while pulling off a believable high speed car chase. He does it all!

The Action: These days action films are laced with heavy CGI and because of that a lot of the excitement is lost. In Kites, there were real explosions and real danger, which made the scenes more enjoyable to watch.

The Narrative: This narrative isn’t told in a linear way, yet Basu keeps you invested in the story, while constantly changing the point of view from one character to another.

The Score: The music in Kites is amazing. The score is such a compliment to to the story. It intensifies each action without being too overbearing.

The Cinematography: The composition of each scene is gorgeous. There are so many stand out sequences that are shot at the right angles and with the right lighting. It’s at those moments you can’t take your eyes off the screen.

The Bad:

The Montages: In typical Bollywood fashion there are several montages and musical breaks that are appear during the film. They’re not too extreme but if they were cut out they would shave off some excessive length that the film doesn’t really need.

Overall:

Kites is an entertaining film that tells one of the oldest stories in the book but does it in an interesting and entertaining way. It’s filled with a great cast led by the charismatic Roshan and has one of the best musical scores that’s appeared on film in recent years. If you’re willing to expand your horizons, Kites is a great introduction into the world of Bollywood without coming on too strong.

Rating: 9/10

Source: screencrave

Raajneeti!!

RAJNEETI PORTRAYS the battle for political supremacy in the Pratap family. The film is like Mahabharata, wherein Duryodhan considered to be the rightful heir of the Kuru legacy has to fight within the family as he has to compete with Pandavs.

Similarly in Prakash Jha's Rajneeti, Manoj Bajpayee, who is the son of a venerable politician feels sidelined after power shifts from his father, who suffers a paralytic stroke to his uncle. Bajpayee is not able to reconcile with the fact that he has been left behind in the shadows, whereas his cousins Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor grow in stature and influence.

To change the political equation, he reaches out to Ajay Devgun in order to neutralise his political opponents. However, the entry of Ranbir Kumar as Samar Pratap Singh, who comes on a vacation from New York changes the ballgame altogether. Ranbir guided by the veteran Nana Patekar has an ace up his sleeve for every political trick used by his opponents.

Rajneeti as a film speaks about the political system of India, how it operates, and how the dynasties perpetuate their political power. Rajneeti also depicts the saga of violence, betrayal, crime and use of money to secure power and pelf for oneself.

Ranbir Kapoor has delivered a powerful powerful performance as he learns the tricks of political trade faster than his rivals, much to their surprise and discomfiture. He has a lot of people including elder brother Arjun Rampal, his political mentor Nana Patekar and his childhood buddy Katrina Kaif to support him, but in a quintessential God Father style he plans and executes almost singlehandedly.

Rajneeti movie review: Raajneeti stars Ajay Devgan as Sooraj Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor as Samar Pratap, Katrina Kaif as Indu Pratap, Naseeruddin as Shah Bhaskar Sanyal, Nana Patekar as Brij Gopal, Arjun Rampal as Prithviraj Pratap and Manoj Bajpai as Veerendra Pratap. Directed by Prakash Jha; written by Anjum Rajabali and Prakash Jha; music by Wayne Sharpe; art director, Jayant Deshmukh; produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Prakash Jha; released by UTV Motion Pictures.

Source: merinews