Mere Brother ki Dulhan (2011) - movie review

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Even before you've seen MBKD, you know you can expect only so much from a film like this. A YRF film, after all, is supposed to be enjoyed like a YRF film. Just like you can't imagine Amir doing a Chulbul Panday and/or Shahrukh doing a Ghajini, it's only feckless to expect highbrow cinema from a YRF banner. 

Yes, it's got cliched characters (very!) and the most predictable plot, but MBKD still makes for a fun film. (If critics are liberal enough to shower a 4 on 5 stars to a film like Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani, this one, surely, deserves lot more love).

Despite Katrina being loud and annoying (in bits), you develop a soft corner for her sometime into the film. Watch out for her in the scene where she hums a song from Swades. She's hilarious and adorable. Despite the actor that Imran is, he's likable as Kush. He plays the nice guy (and as boring as that may sound) you do end up liking him. But while our bhaisaab, Ali Zaffar, was all too impressive in Tere Bin Laden, he seems to have completely hammed it up here. It felt as though I was still watching the rushes.

While the music is mostly forgettable, the whole loud Punjabi feel to the album makes the songs come alive and gels with the mood of the film. One song that will stay longer in my head is Isq Risk by Nusrat Fateh Ali.

Overall, if you're up for a fun weekend, go enjoy this one with your bucket of popcorn and pepsi!

Preview - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

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"The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name." - imdb.com

Say what you will about Tom Cruise in the US, but he is still the biggest international movie star. And, at 49, he doesn't plan to stop anytime soon. Besides M:I 4, he'll next be seen as Stacee Jaxx in the rock musical Rock of Ages (2012). 

A great producer as well, he has taken his Mission Impossible franchise through several thematic transformations over the years, insisting on a new director's vision for each film. It all started with Mission Impossible back in 1996 where Cruise first introduced Ethan Hunt to the world and became America's answer to James Bond. The film was a great success, and a first for a "smart" international spy thriller with truly unique action sequences. And while the second film was fun, it lacked the originality of its predecessor.

It wasn't until J.J. Abrams (Creator of Lost, Fringe) took over the director's chair for the third film that the franchise returned to its roots. And the action sequences were plenty.

With 2011 marking the 15th year of this franchise, the stakes couldn't be higher for Ethan Hunt's fourth outing - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The Impossible Mission Force (seriously, that's what its called) has been shut down, and Hunt and his team are the only ones who can redeem its name. However, if they fail, they will all be charged as terrorists planning to incite global nuclear war.

Besides a chemical weapon, nuclear war perhaps wins first prize for a one-man-saves-humanity scenario. High stakes. Once you go nuclear you don't go back. 

With two time Academy Award winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) directing, and both Cruise and Abrams producing, could you be more excited? This is the dream team for action blockbusters. 

Also, a plus for bollywood fans, our very own Anil Kapoor has a significant role in the film. 

Author's Note: It's being said that this will be Cruise's last film as Ethan Hunt, and Jeremy Renner will be taking over the franchise. No offense to Renner, but I personally don't look forward to an impossible mission not being accepted by Ethan Hunt. And who leaves a franchise after 4 films? Seems like a very odd number to pick. At the same time, judging by the 4 to 6 year long gaps between each M:I film, I wouldn't be too keen to watch a 53-55 year old Tom Cruise jump off tall buildings. Only Bruce Willis can pull that off. 

December 21, 2011. 

Check out the trailer here:

Greatest Films of All Time: Part IV

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The Departed


Dial M for Murder


Lord Of The Rings Trilogy


Se7en


Schindler's List


Past Lists:
Greatest Films Of All Time: Part I
Greatest Films Of All TIme: Part II - The Tarantino Magic
Greatest Films of All Time: Part III - PIXAR

Schindler's List (1993)

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In the fall of 2009, I saw Schindler’s List frame by frame over the course of two days. Having avoided the film for a very long time (I had a copy for 8 years without watching even a single scene), I was finally pushed to see it by a film professor at my university as the subject of an analytical paper.


The topic of my thesis was the recurrence of the “lists” in the film, and their significance to the story as a whole. While I will not use this medium to broadcast my 12 page long essay, I will say that watching this film in slow motion with the ability to pause only makes the story easier to swallow.

Spielberg worked very hard to get this film made; at one point not wanting to direct it because he didn’t think he could do justice to the material. And the film studio system of “one for us, one for you” (make one blockbuster film for us, and we’ll give you a fraction of that film’s budget to make a small movie we have no expectation to make money from) finally accomplished a win-win situation for both the studio and Spielberg: he made Jurassic Park for them (made $920 Million in the summer of 1993) and they let him make Schindler’s List ($321 Million in december 1993). 

When films like these do commercially well (sadly Schindler’s List is the only one that comes to mind), it makes you not lose faith in the intellectual depth of the audience.


Greatness Elements: The girl in the red coat, the letter at the end - the last list to save the man who saved them, and everything else as well.


Favorite Scene:


I have never been fooled by the celluloid and fictional nature of films to break, but the intangible and unimaginable power in this sequence would make any person feel inadequate about their accomplishments.


Warning: Since this is a true story, this isn’t really a spoiler, but if you haven’t seen the film I’d advice you to watch the film from the beginning to be properly blown away by this sequence.


(I couldn’t find the entire sequence in one video, so here it is in two parts with some overlap)

YOUTUBE LINK 1   ;   YOUTUBE LINK 2


“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”


Author’s Note: If you’ve read the LOTR post, you will see what I meant by “Power can only be earned.” For the Schindler in this sequence, power is respect; given by one human being to another. And even the weight from the power in this one small ring is too heavy for Schindler. This scene is the most moving scene in the history of film - no competition whatsoever. 

Se7en (1995)

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A certain entry in many genres - crime, murder mystery, thriller, drama. Director David Fincher was robbed of his Oscar for The Social Network earlier this year, but his unique storytelling techniques can be found here as well. 

Se7en is a brilliant story about a serial killer who kills a person every day based on the 7 sins, and the two cops trying to stop him (played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt). With an ending that will leave any viewer shocked, this film is quite possibly the smartest, most brutal serial killer chase film in history. 

The theme of the film, which starts as a mystery about “who is the killer?”, quickly turns around to “who is the victim?”. Creating and executing such a change mid-way through the film is a commendable achievement in itself, but the true genius is in the characters and how they react to the film’s twists and turns. 

Beautifully filmed as well - if the cinematography in the film doesn’t make you feel disgusted and disturbingly-impressed by the gruesome murders, you don’t have a human soul. 

Fincher and Pitt followed this film with the cult classic Fight Club in 1999, a previous honoree in  the Greatest Films of All Time list.

To our bollywood readers: you may remember India’s response to (read: copy of) this film: Samay (2003) with Sushmita Sen as both Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. 

Author’s Note: If you liked Se7en, check out the show “Criminal Minds” (if you haven’t already). The mood is lighter, but the villains are complete psychopaths. 

Greatness Elements: screenplay, direction, characters. 

Favorite Scene: Not a spoiler (i.e. not the last scene), but a great sequence about the theme of the film and pretty much the entire human existence. Even without the film around it, this is just one of the greatest scenes ever by itself: YOUTUBE LINK

Bodyguard (2011) - movie review

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The number of weeks a film runs today (unlike years in the Sholay/DDLJ days!) is only courtesy the pre-release controversies spawned by it's makers. But a film like Bodyguard doesn't even need that. It's got Brand Salman backing it. Unfortunately, this time even he fails to keep the boat from sinking. Despite being record grossers, its no news that Salman's recent breed of films sucked when it came to ideas. Bodyguard only reiterates the fact.

There's nothing in the film to be discussed about. From the awry song sequences (which spring up as and when the director feels like), out-of-gear characters (Asrani and Raj Babbar are thoroughly wasted) to a boiler-plate plot, everything about Bodyguard is lame and haphazard. It was almost like watching an early 90s bollywood film where you sit and outguess every dialogue and eventually the entire plot. 
It's a shame to see such mindless sub-standard trash become a top grosser in Bollywood. I fondly remember Salman's good old 'Maine Pyar Kiya' days. Wish he'd pick more meaty roles than just playing to the gallery.

The only good part about the film - Kareena's wardrobe and the song I love you. 

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

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A milestone in modern cinema. Peter Jackson’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s colossal masterpiece brought fantasy fiction, a genre not yet profitable, to the masses worldwide - earning a total of $3 billion. 

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” - Harvey Dent/Two-Face, The Dark Knight (2008).

If the One Ring could speak, Harvey’s words would be it’s tag-line. It consumed Gollum to villainy - although to be fair Gollum did start as a villain and then tried to redeem himself only to give into this can’t-imagine-going-invisible-would-be-this-awesome-a-power drug; it almost took Bilbo; and we all know the transformation it made Frodo go through during the story (which took place over a year roughly). 

Good and evil have their own well defined and represented places in this story, and it is only those who stay away from the ring (Aragorn and Gandalf to name a few - because there were few) who become living and breathing poster-children for the saying “Power cannot be taken, it has to be earned.” 

While another giant fantasy fiction franchise, Harry Potter, has seen many underwhelming clones, LOTR remains untouched territory. The only worthy exception being the must-watch show on HBO - Game of Thrones (2011): think Mahabharata meets LOTR, for adults. And when I say adults, I mean adults. Bad things happen in this show. And it is awesome. 

Greatness Elements: direction, special effects, scale.

Favorite Scene: The (literal) Return of the King - "You bow to no one." YOUTUBE LINK

Dial M for Murder (1954)

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“An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B.” - official imdb.com description. 

Imagine pitching a movie to a studio in 1954 with that line. 

Actually, if you’re really imagining that, I’m sorry that you look like Alfred Hitchcock and scare young children just by looking at them. 

Isn’t blackmailing someone to murder your wife the most eccentric (and lazy) way to kill? And when things go wrong instead of giving up you plan an even more complicated yet-brilliant-in-theory plan? Even the best detective stories/murder mysteries can’t force such a clever chain of events. 

Such original ideas (the film was adapted from a play) are very rare in today’s hollywood, since studios want location shoots and CGI and 3D - which makes this film even more relevant.

M is my favorite Hitchcock film. He stays true to the play which the film was adapted from (Frederick Knott, the playwright, also wrote the screenplay), using his camera to only enhance the story in terms of depth and not scenery. Also, the husband-wants-to-kill-wife (and vice versa) plot has been beaten to death - but this film started the trend and has yet to be surpassed. This film launched my love for 50’s films and TV shows.

Hollywood in the 1950‘s was all about the actors, with their own style and personality being used as character elements, and not the other way around as is apparent in hollywood today. But that’s why we have cinema eras, so we can go back and reminisce instead of trying to sit through remakes of classics (I’m looking at you, Pyscho (1998)). 

Let’s hope no one in their right mind ever tries to remake The Godfather. I can stand an unnecessary-and-two-decades-too-late sequel (Godfather Part 3), but no one should be paid to do a bad impression of Brando. 

Bollywood Readers: Many of you may have seen Humraaz (2002) by Abbas-Mastan - heavily inspired by Dial M for Murder and one of the best films India has ever “borrowed” from hollywood. The video below should remind you of a certain scene from the film. 

Author’s Note: Grace Kelly is gorgeous; why would anyone ever want to kill her? Just for this reason the film makes no sense to me. Also, wanting to hear your wife die on the phone is pure evil. 

Greatness elements: Story, cast, music, direction.

Favorite Scene: This is how the movie begins - YOUTUBE LINK

The Departed (2006)

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The film that got Martin Scorsese his much deserved Oscar - and is, in my books, his greatest work. This film should be labelled branded as the crime genre classic - a category that already has several Scorsese works. 

Surprisingly, it isn’t the huge star cast - Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin - that made this the best film of 2006. The greatest element of The Departed is the on-screen execution of what is inherently a story about cops and snitches. 

No other actor can pull off a everyone-hates-me-and-I-still-don’t-give-a-shit villain like Jack Nicholson does. But the actor who shines the brightest in this film is Matt Damon - pulling off an excellent and hard-to-hate portrayal of an undercover gangster (a cop who works for the mob/mafia). 

Of course, Leo Dicaprio is flawless as always making it hard to believe he is one of the youngest actors in the cast. After watching his performance it’s obvious why Martin Scorcese loves to work with him. 

In closing, that scene in the elevator at the end should be made synonymous with and officially represent the word “twist” or “shocker” (if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about - video below). Call the dictionary people. We need to have a video/show/movie associated with every word. If this idea ever kicks off, this post is proof I came up with it first. 

Author’s Note I: I still believe Dicaprio deserved to win best actor for The Aviator. No offense to Jamie Foxx. But hopefully Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, or Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained will bring the oscar to the Dicaprio house. 

Author’s Note II: A-list actor villainy (Matt Damon in The Departed) will soon be crowning its new king: Leonardo Dicaprio as Calvin Candie in Django Unchained. Christmas, 2012. Best Supporting Actor Oscar predicted right here, on this very blog, on the second day of september, in the year two thousand and eleven. 

Greatness Elements: cast, direction, screenplay.

Favorite Scene: ***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT*** YOUTUBE LINK

Bollywood upcoming: 2012

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The Act of Murder
After putting their monies on one of the most successful films of the year, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidwani will be socking away some of it for their next, a killer thriller, featuring Rani, Kareena and Amir Khan. Amir plays a cop in the film. (He'd garnered a lot of appreciation for his role as a cop in Sarfarosh). Reema Kagti, known for her directorial debue Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., and an assistant to Zoya in Zindagi na Milegi Dobara, will be directing this film. She's also worked with biggies like Mira Nair (in Vanity Fair) and Ashutosh Gowariker (Lagaan) and Farhan (DCH, Lakshya). Hopefully, the film won't turn out as boring as the title (which is prolly still a working one) and as odd as the cast!

Barfee
Another oddball title (this one from Anurag Basu's arsenal) casts Ranbir opposite Priyanka Chopra, both playing handicaps in the film. Basu, who started his career in tellywood directing Tara, one of longest running soaps of the 1990s (I'm sure my generation will remember that!) has directed films like Gangster (2006), [everything about which was good except Kangana's annoying shrieks] Life in a Metro (2007), Kites (2010). Barfee, initially titled Silence, will be ready for release in January next year.

Ek Main aur Ekk Tu 
This one's a romcom featuring Imran opposite Kareena. The film will be directed by Shakun Batra (who's assisted on films like Jaane Tu ya Jaane na (2008), Rock On! (2008) and is produced by Karan Johar (which explains the extra 'K' in the title ;) It looks like an interesting cast, with Randhir Kapoor, (Kareena's dad), Boman Irani and Ram Kapoor (of tellywood fame) playing supporting roles in the film. Besides, The Act of Murder, Ouatim 2, Ek main aur Ek Tuu, Kareena also has Bodyguard and RaOne coming this year. @kareena, enjoy the spotlight while it lasts.

OAUTIM 2
Akshay Kumar, who will be playing Dawood Ibrahim's character, is  paired opposite Kareena in the sequel of Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. Apparently Shahid Kapoor too is a part of the film, playing Chota Rajan. Kareena, who will be working with Imran Khan in Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, has been pushing for Imran's name for the role of Chota Rajan. We all know why. Since there's ample time for the film to see light of day, let's see who manages to oust whom from the film!