Movie Review: Big Hero 6

The recent Disney movies have been must-watch, not just because of the kids but also for their story line and message that we can identify with in our daily lives. Disney has moved on with time from traditional fairy tales to more contemporary story lines that gives the female lead more than just glass slippers.

Big Hero 6 trailers tempted us to watch it for the adorable and chubby robot. Little did we know he turns out to be a healthcare robot. Protagonist Hiro finds himself building a special bond with his deceased brother's inflatable robot. Determined to uncover the mystery behind his brother's death, Hiro transforms his friends into a group of high-tech superheros, you guessed it, called Big Hero 6.

The movie started with a robot fight, bringing in so much laughter and fun especially for the little ones with the underdog winning in the most unimaginable way possible. However, it only goes downhill after that.

It was fun watching our kids enjoy the movie. Yes Baymax is super adorable and makes funny squeaky sound as he moves, just as a balloon would. Story wise it just fails short of achieving even 50% of Frozen or Wreck-It Ralph.

Big Hero 6 is set in an imaginary or rather futuristic city San Fransokyo, a fusion between San Fransisco and Tokyo. What a noble idea to bring the two cultures together, giving a good scope for the story. However one wishes it was leveraged better than this.

For some reason Disney is trying to make new superheroes, when the world (the cinema world, at least) has plenty of. We don't need another team of Avengers or Justice League. Neither do we need a robot or microbot with fancy costumes or transformations. Nor a red coloured robot suit that has self-thrusting robotic hand. We have seen it all. All these ideas, falls behind being original. Sad but true.

Not sure how this movie would fare at the box office, but I sure hope Disney would get the message and stick to what it is best for, less action, more adventure and family drama. Or least, a movie with a message, which is lacking big time in Big Hero 6. 

And by the way, with a number already in the title, this movie will have a hard time finding a name for the sequel. Unless they go Big Hero 7.

Movie Review: Interstellar

Interstellar brings a futuristic movie with a different possibility. Instead of being a super-advanced civilization, the world slows down to concentrate on farming, to provide food for the growing population of the lone planet. No budget or support given for engineering or technology of any kind.

Predictably there is a secret government funded project that aims to save humanity from extinction, by giving mankind a possible alternate planet, in a galaxy so far away it takes a wormhole to travel through.

A group of explorers is set to travel beyond the solar system in search of a planet that can sustain human life.While the rest of the world is barely surviving on farming the last possible food, corn.

The very plus point of this movie is the director Christopher Nolan himself, who has made movies that goes beyond our thinking. Thanks to him our imagination runs wild everytime we think 'Inception', and even Batman is not the same anymore.

Interstellar is like a quantam leap back into the days I loved, lived and breathed science. Astronomy in particular was my favourite topic to read on, probably because we did not cover much of it in physics subject in school.

Interstellar does have some inaccuracies as far as science is concerned, in fact I am guessing it will be at the butt of jokes in The Big Bang Theory for those slight blunders. It is the nerd in me speaking. After all I have been a big fan of TBBT, Back To The Future and TV series Sliders (don't know if anyone remembers it at all). Space time-continuum relation, inter-dimension travel and worm/black holes are all interesting possibilities and raises a thousand questions in my head!

Last year it was Gravity that amazed me (after Life of Pi, of course). And this year it is Interstellar! While Gravity and Life of Pi were on emotional and spiritual side, Interstellar is intellectually tantalising!

Movie Review: Return To Zero

"It means returning to a place where you need to rediscover a new philosophy for life. When you lose a child in this way, in a way you never thought possible because no one ever talks about it, it makes you question your faith, how everything works. It takes you back to a zero point, where you have to start over. [It means] building an entire new life philosophy from scratch"

                                                                                                   Sean Hanish
                                                                                                   Director & Writer of Return To Zero

I have been invited by Lifetime (Ch 709 on Astro) for an exclusive blogger preview of the new Lifetime movie, Return To Zero, which will be premiering on 20th May 2014, at 8pm, only on  Lifetime.

Based on a true story, Return To Zero tells the story of a successful couple, Maggie and Aaron who are preparing to welcome the arrival of their first child. However just weeks before the due date the couple is devastated to discover that they have to prepare for a stillbirth.

The two attempt to go on with their lives and try to escape postpartum grief in their own ways. This affects them not being available to provide emotional support to each other, and brings their marriage apart.

Find out how the couple bring it together when hope strikes for the second time, when Maggie discovers she is pregnant again. With the help of an empathetic doctor, Maggie learns to cope with the grieve and the coming bundle of joy.

Being a mother of two myself, it was painful to imagine the pain and agony of a couple going through such situation of a stillborn. As how it was quoted at the memorial service for the baby, "This child never knew anything but LOVE.  He was never hungry, he was never cold…." nothing stands more true than this.

Director/Writer Sean Hanish has done an impressive job in capturing emotions at all different situations in the movie. Not just a parent, but everyone would be able to feel for the couple facing the loss of their baby. He and his wife lost their son Norbert in 2005, after 37 weeks.

Sean used the actual diagnosis of his baby in the film as well as the beautiful moments at the memorial service. It is really not common to have movies on this subject of stillbirth.

When life gets tough, we find our hope and move on with the positive side of life. Follow Maggie and Aaron as they find theirs.

Return to Zero will be premiering on May 20th on Lifetime Channel (Ch 709 on Astro) at 8pm.

Man Of Steel

You remember the saying 'you can't have your cake and eat it too'? Well in our case it is 'we can't have our movie and watch it too'.  We have been taking the boys for movies recently but most of the time we hardly get to watch even 50% of the movie to understand what is going on.

This time it was 'Man Of Steel' and something went differently. We actually did have our movie and watched it too! I actually understand the storyline, and the whys and whats of the movie. And before I get on with the kids' story, I want to say Man Of Steel is totally awesome. A lot more into the background of Krypton and the Els. A lot more into Clark Kent's childhood growing up with super powers. And his relationship with daddy Kent, is very touching. Although we see his fellow Kryptonites having similar powers, Superman just stands out. Definitely a must watch during this hot hot season.

The little boys of steel were dressed to the occasion. And at the cineplex we saw plenty of dudes of steel wearing similar t-shirts, but hey the little boys looked cuter pretending to be Superman and even got comments from young girls who were enchanted with their macho-ism. Ok that's pushing it but you get the idea.

In the beginning the boys were anxious and asked 'I want Superman' as much as donkey asks 'Are we there yet?' in Shrek 2. We were trying to hush them before the others decide to lodge complaints against us for not turning down our 'ringtones'.

And finally once Kal-El came, and slowly started practising his powers (for once we do not see effortless flying and weight lifting like in those older movies) the kids knew their hero was here. They were pretty engaged throughout, and just to curb any possibilities of boredom, we decided to move to the floor right behind our couple seat. At least Jeev had some space to walk about. And he even stole a popcorn from some stranger.

Once the movie was over Sanju walked out with a new glow, as though he is The Superman. He did not once change his serious face, and gave us glances from the corner of his eyes. And during bedtime, he slept hugging Superman dolly. Such moment are just so priceless! Not to mention we actually got the full value of our RM26 spent on the tickets by actually watching the movie!

Go see Man Of Steel, he is back in a new avatar. They got rid of the curly bangs and the red undies on the outside. But the glasses remains, for the clever (?) disguise!

The Man Of Steel with the two boys, comfy on the carpeted floor while I took over the whole couple seat.

When I sent this picture to my bro in law, he replied 'Real Steel'! And come to think of it, he does work in the largest steel company in Asia!

Reward for the Men Of Steel, this midweek snack, chicken ham and cheese rolls.

The recipe is same as my bacon and onion rolls except I arranged chicken ham slices diagonally. Enjoy!

The Iron Fever

The Ironman 3 fever has been on full blow. Since like months that we started seeing trailers at cineplexes. Thanks to our recent cineplex trips with the kids, every time the trailer started with the Paramount Pictures credits they will start exclaiming 'Air-man, Air-man!' - which translates to 'Ironman'.

The excitement for this new installation for the Ironman series has been mostly on our side, the hubby and I. The thing we were most eager to see was not the new Mark 42 suit, but the reaction of the kids to their favourite superhero's appearance on the big, big screen. All this while the kids spent their spare time watching the first two movies of the series, and it goes without saying how much they love the movie, especially the suit up sequences.

Pre-movie build-up was pretty good. The kids had their Ironman 3 mask and hand-gadget thingy ready. Which by the way we did not bring along for the movie, in effort not to freak any other patrons out.

The Ironman 3 fever was so intense that even my little sister gave it a go by suiting up!

 

For a change I am not gonna write a review for this movie, because, for a change, I hardly watched it. We were busy making sure kids were comfortable, eating their snacks, and not getting restless. Which by the way is inevitable. For the record, I never really watched the other Ironman movies either because while the kids enjoy, it is always my time to catch up with chores.

Ironman 3 has a more intense storyline that is not that appealing to kids of most ages. I say this because I saw several other kids walking up and down the steps or hanging around the top most floor playing, instead of watching the movie. Hubby and I too were having our own mini entertain-the-kids-other-way session halfway through the climax till the ending. We ended up sitting on the carpet floor, watching the kids instead of the movie.

In this movie you will see more of Robert Downey Jr instead of the CGI Ironman, which is probably a good thing for the actor. Also you see all other the other suits (or rather Marks?) coming out to fight, through a remote access by Tony. Cool stuff, definitely, and I am sure everyone will love the new suit-up sequence!

After being not so entertained with 'Air-man 3' the kids got entertained with some arcade games. Works all the time! And hey, we were not the only ones bringing kids in superhero themed tshirts, most kids in the cineplex were either in Superman or Batman tshirts!

In an another adventure, the kids were being entertained at a kids' play center, and guess what Sanju got? Every child's dream, the never ending slide! All he had to do was push the smaller slide towards the larger one, and he could slide up side down, climb up or do other unimaginable stuff. You know the saying, 'you can take the baby out of the boy, but not take the boy out of the baby'!

And the unexpected good boy was playing something quiet, for a change.

After he posed at the electrical shop.

All in a day's work, the kids get to unwind by savouring their juicy milky milk in their bottle.

Talaash for the Life of Pi

It is nothing short of a historical moment when you have watched not one but two movies at the cineplex with two toddlers who would never stay put. Last week hubby and I attempted the impossible, and we would like proudly to announce that we did it, successfully, with movies Talaash and Life of Pi.

Talaash means 'search' in Hindi, hence the title for the post. Talaash is the latest Aamir Khan movie, with an awesome line up of story, dialogue, additional dialogue and screenplay writers, and boosts of even awesome team of producers, including Aamir Khan himself! With such powerhouse technical team, there is no way to even hit average expectation, total awesomeness expected all the way!

Talaash is supernatural thriller about Inspector Surjan Singh who investigates a mysterious accident whilst dealing with a tragedy in his personal life. The character actors play very important parts and watch out for Kareena Kapoor for another great acting. Aamir Khan as usual does not disappoint, totally fitted his role. No Bollywood masala action or any wasted moment. Every second contributes to the story. Many film makers ought to learn from this movie and please please start making quality films as this. This was definitely my Talaash for quality cinema after all the masala themed out these days.

After this 'Talaash', we went on another talaash for the Life of Pi. As it is said, you don't watch the Life of Pi, you live the life of Pi. Only after watching the movie I realise how true that is. Apart from the fact that the movie is based on an Indian boy, another reason for us to watch it was for Ang Lee's portfolio of movies, and visually stunning trailers.

The Life of Pi will definitely strike a chord with everybody, especially in the world of science where we are trying to balance religious beliefs with modern lifestyle, and struggle to make living despite all conveniences around us. It is a pure visual treat that makes us feel the moment with Pi. A very meaningful story, carefully spiced with some humour that works well with its genre. And most of all, Richard Parker has amazingly expressive eyes, somehow we feel less fear and more of a determination watching him. And right now as I recollect the moments I have this need to watch it just again, feel it again. Its very absorbing that way.

The verdict? Two great movies in a week is freaking awesome. What a way to end the year, I don't expect better movies coming up till end of the year. And on the kids' front, we made it, with some minor hiccups such as Jeev crying and Sanju taking numerous toilet breaks. Other than that everything was good. And I am pretty sure we got cursed by several people due to our antiques. What can I say,we are just living, the Life of Pi!

Movie Review: MIB 3

Hubby is a great fan of Will Smith and I have been pretty excited with the upcoming third installment of the series, which came like after 10 years of the sequel. Its been a while since we brought Sanju for a movie, and his attention on the movie trailers seemed like he might enjoy the movie given the weird aliens and all. And as for Jeev, we just hoped that he would nurse and nap as much as he wanted.

We made sure we bought the tickets hours ahead of the show, and only had to show up at the cineplex minutes before it started. Our punctuality missed its precision, we entered the cineplex miliseconds before the movie started. And this time we made no mistake of buying the popcorn, remember KungFu Panda 2?

The movie starts with Boris the alien criminal escaping the prison, and travels back in time to kill Agent K, who had arrested him back in 1969. This causes a major change of events, allowing Boris' alien race to overrun the Earth. Agent J finds a way to travel back in time to 1969 in order to save Agent K and rectify the tragic consequences of his death.

There are several 1969 cultural references that perhaps would be familiar to the older generation. For us it just provided with some light comedic moments. After the climax, there is a little revelation about Agent J that makes an 'awww' moment for the audience.

It is always a pleasure to watch a Will Smith flick. This one was no exception. The movie was good, but I think our expectations were higher. The time travel story was very similar to the 'Back To The Future' we had back few decades ago. Only thing this one had added an extra ingredient, the aliens. 

The visual effects were nothing to rave about. The aliens in this installment were more in quantity and super extra creepy. What happened to those rugged and rustic aliens from Cybertron, those Transformer dudes, don't they ever use MIB's immigration services? I would surely love to see that!

Enough about the movie. How did the kids fare? Sanju left his seat and sat with his daddy, kinda terrified with the Boris alien (Transformers would have been less creepy), but watched it till the end. And my little Jeev watch a little, watched the people on the row behind us, and slept the rest of the time. It went almost perfect till 5 minutes before the movie when Sanju demanded to go toilet. We told him its ok to pee in the diaper but he still insisted and poor daddy had to miss the ending bit. Overall a success, hoping for similar future movie to bring the kids again.

Don 2, Chocolate and The Gift

This post was actually meant to be a movie review for Don 2, but it was a rare opportunity for movie, shopping and dinner date for us parents of 2, hence the title. So we had the kids safely tucked away with their grandparents, while we had once in a lifetime experience spending quality time (and watching SRK movie).

It is the double bonus season for SRK fans, after Ra.One, Don 2 comes hitting the screens worldwide with huge expectations. And whats more, this film boosts of the sleek director Farhan Akhtar's venture after his successful acting stints. Don 2 is the sequel of the remake Don from the early 80s. After the success of Don, Farhan Akhtar left no stones unturned in coming out with the sequel that is huge in every way.

After conquering the Asian underworld, Don 2 is back to take over the European scene. This time he does it by planning a crime such that he foils his enemies, gets money printing plates and leaves no evidence behind. The story is very fast and gripping, and somewhere in the middle it starts to falter and drag a little, only to come back with a bang later! Little details and sub plots suddenly fall into place and you won't realise what hit you. The screenplay is perfect and Don-Roma's love hate relationship is used well in this movie. The audience (and Roma) is still left wondering what Don really feels. And the ending very much suggests another sequel. As long as Badshah Khan is in business, I bet there is going to be a huge franchise of Don sequels in the future. He did an awesome job as the self-absorbed criminal.

I am about to blow an extra candle on my birthday cake, so we were also busy shopping for my gift in between the movie. Yes you read it right, before and after the movie. It was one of the moment that you have bought the movie tickets, and while walking around you suddenly like something, and you don't have adequate time to purchase it without missing the movie. Thank goodness we made it for both. As for the gift, I ain't revealing it here, lets just say I added another bling to my possession. Although my dear half was more into getting me a gadget, I turned out to be a typical woman who swoons over the blings. Lets get the i-anything for our next celebration.

In all happiness we went on for our planned dinner at Bubba Gump. Movie and shopping made us so very hungry. We ordered a huge appetizer, two main courses and a desert. We ate like 2 hungry horses and sped up to our most favourite part of it, The Chocolate Thing. The experience is definitely one of a kind, at the risk of sounding like junkies, we can suddenly feel a rush of happy hormones into our already happy system. How happy can one get? Definitely not happier than The Chocolate Thing!

Here is hubby waiting for the shot to end, before the gobbles up the desert.

Ra.One

They call him King Khan for a reason, for he is the Badshah of Bollywood whenever he has a new movie release. Ra.One is the most awaited film after My Name Is Khan, apart from Don 2, of course. After being labelled as candy floss lover boy, King Khan has moved on and tried his hands on different roles, proving his critics wrong again and again.

Ra.One brings what would be known as Bollywood sci-fi masala in the future. You have all the elements in one, comedy, emotions, song and dance routine, and action with a bad-ass villain. Shekhar, played by SRK, tries hard to impress his son despite his clumsy self. Upon his son's request he invents a game with a super villain that is almost unbeatable. Things go wrong on the day of the game launch and they find themselves in a challenge with Ra.One, the bad-ass villain. And that is when the real hero, G.One comes to their rescue.

SRK acted adorably as Shekhar, the Tamilian who even eats noodles with curd. Kareena was just ok, not much required of her in the film, except to shine in the Chamak Challo song. Armaan Verma as Shekhar's son did a great job, and his chemistry with G.One is amazing. Arjun's avatar as Ra.One was good, but one wishes to see more of him.

The effects are so good that comparisons with Endhiran is inevitable. In fact, we even see a special appearance of Chitti in a comedic scene. That being said, the effects in Ra.One is a tiny notch better than Endhiran, especially the train sequence that ends with the Mumbai train station being partially destroyed, truly breath-taking!

The downside of the movie is the pace could have been done more intense considering the action nature, but I suppose in order to fulfill the masala genre, the spoof-like comedy scenes were serving that purpose. The first 15 minutes were totally hilarious with the dream sequence.

The moral of the story is to be a superhero with a HART, and don't smoke!

On the whole, Ra.One is the movie to watch this year, and due to the fact Don 2 is yet to be released, this statement is subject to change. Don't hate me, SRK is the King after all.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon Movie review

When it comes to movies, there is this law of expectation that applies. When you anticipate or expect so much, you end up being disappointed, and when you expect nothing, you are surprised by unexpectedly good stuff. This is what happened to me when watching Transformers first movie and the sequel. When the first movie was about to be released I wrote it off as a typical comic-cum-movie. In fact I only happened to watch it 3 months after release when my company had a subsidized private screening, and boy was I surprised! Although mostly sci-fi, the machine-human connection in it was amazing.

Next came Transformers 2, I had my expectations so high, and with Transformer crazed hubby, it is difficult to avoid it at all. Day in day out I had lots of trivia info thrown my way, and heck, I was so excited to see the whole sequel of a satisfying first film. But, I was disappointed big time, as there was only metal-clanking action all over and little to do with storyline, come to think of it, I can't even recall if there was any.

When Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is slated for the summer release, I was anything but excited. Yet again hubby fed me with enough information to get me convinced for it, at least only abt 2% of me. I was still skeptical of these CGI laden movies that make effects top notch but forget to feed the intelligence of the audience. And the law of expectation did not apply here, the movie sucked as much as the earlier sequel. However it is a full metal-mania action, I am sure action loving audiences would have loved it. And for the guys, Michael Bay has ensured that Megan Fox's absence is filled well with the newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in skimpy clothes and posture, and a cheesy love story to contribute to the rest of the cliches of the movie.

I am not going to talk about the plot or even review it, there is hardly much to say expect it is so cliched that it makes any cheesy cliched movie look normal. Actions and effects of the CGI was amazing I must say, but that is not all that is needed to make a good movie. We have numerous illogical and science defying things happening everywhere. Even the seductive aspect of the movie had ensured an excellent change of clothes despite being held hostile by the antagonist McDreamy of Grey's anatomy, Patrick Dempsey. The human team into the invaded city mostly escapes without a scratch despite being through hell lot of falling building, machine attacks and whatnot. And the whole conspiracy theory linking man's first step on the moon does not fit into the rest of the story from the first 2 films, or did I miss it while blinking?

So much for a movie escapade before I get tied down with my secondborn later on. Thankfully this time round hubby and I went in with a no-popcorn decision, as to avoid any kind of popcorn mishap from Sanju as happend during KungFu Panda 2. He slept througout the movie only to wake up towards the end catching the Autobot vs Decepticon war. I just all that metal clanking session did not encourage him to create more metal clanks that he already does on his high chair with the spoon!

Kung Fu Panda 2

My rating for the movie, total awesomeness of the highest degree!

I am no Hollywood movie fan, in any case, these days I am no movie fan at all, but then I totally love animation movies, especially if they come with awesome reviews. It was time to bring (test) Sanju out for another movie after A Tangled Tale, and as promised, his 2nd trip to the cineplex was very very much less girly than the first.

In this sequel, the Dragon Warrior Po finally finds out the shocking truth about his past, and how the goose is not his real father after all (real shocking, LOL). The best thing about this movie is how clumsy, candid and real Po is portrayed, despite being the Dragon Warrior. As you can guess, the movie is damn hilarious, even serious moments of confrontation with the antagonist cracks you up. The furious 5 and Po work in the most comedic way that every action in their fight against evil has something that cracks you up. The bouts of kiddy laughter in the cineplex was a proof to that.

My toddler however, was busy snatching the popcorn cup from his mother, and halfway through the movie, he successfully spilled the popcorns all over himself. Papa voluntarily took some time away to clean up the 'sweet' boy, and then we got back watching the movie together.

I love movies that come with a feel-good motivating one liners. In this movie it goes something like this: 'It is not where you came from but it is what you want to be'. I believe it applies to all of us when we tend to dwelve over the past and forget to live for the present. It was a nice thought for the day, and I really feel such one liners make your 1.5hrs at the cineplex more meaningful. It does not matter if the movie is about a Kung Fu fighting and food loving panda.

This was definitely a rare case of sequel being made as good as the first film, if not better.

Aisha Movie Review

Q: What do you do when you are having a girly nail polish time with your little sister?
A: Get the slumber party on, while watching Aisha on the thumb drive lying around (for ages).

Aisha is about this super rich good-hearted luxury-snob who sees nothing beyond anything high class, and she can very well afford to. Sonam Kapoor plays Aisha, who is some sort of a cross between Sex and The City's Carrie (in her quintessential fashion sense) and Cher from Clueless (in her adorable snobbishness). She's into social services such as protecting animal rights, appreciating and creating arts, and not to forget her newly found talent, match making.

Teamed with her best friend Pinky, Aisha tries to match make a plain-Haryana-Jane (named Shefali) with her friend Randhir, whom she thinks is perfect for Shefali, but Randhir in fact is in love with Aisha herself. Her only obstacle is Arjun (Abhay Deol), or so she thinks.

In a nut shell, Aisha is a feel good movie, with cute and lovely characters, who each leave their mark with their roles and acting, although I felt Abhay Deol was shortchanged for the amount of potential he has. Amrita Puri (Shefali) in my opinion is the best one to watch out for. Sonam is also very lovable in the snobbish role of a high society snob whom we'd love to hate.

One downside of the movie is that I felt the movie was really pretentious with the amount of super high flying luxurious life shown, especially with the polo match and unreal river rafting getaway in a well-equipped camp house for the vain people. On a positive note, the movie was some very light hearted moments, even makes a what seems serious love declaration at the wedding function into a light comedy moment. You can't help loving Aisha!

Band Baaja Baarat Movie Review

Q: What do you do when you are on medical leave, with toddler under babysitter's care for the day?

A: Watch the movie rotting away in the thumb drive given by your sister ages back.


Finally a YRF movie that is getting good reviews, and made me really curious to watch and check out what is the deal all about. Lead actors are debutant Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma, who has already had a box office hit with her debut film with SRK.

The movie is fully set and shot in Delhi, and all characters speak with authentic Delhi-ite accent, it almost becomes difficult understanding after being so used to the Mumbaiya accent in all the other films. Shruti (Anushka) aspires to open her own wedding planner business while Bitto (Ranveer) is finding a way to escape his father's plans to taking him back to village to help in the sugar cane business. They get together and start their wedding planning company, named Shaadi Mubarak, with strict policy of never involving emotions or love in between them. Business goes successfully for them, and predictably, emotions come in between, causing a conflict in running the business together.

The love conflict is not new, but the treatment given on the subject, and the whole execution of the movie is fresh and commendable. Also, the movie has a fairly fast pace where there is no dull moment. However, I wish the ending would have been handled a different way, but I guess the director did not want to opt for cliched ways.

Anushka is very pleasant to watch, and she is looking very good in her simple girl-next-door getups, some scenes even with minimal makeup. Ranveer does his role well too, but seeing his interview on Koffee With Karan, it almost feels like he acted as himself.

Highly recommended rom-com!

Dhobi Ghat Movie Review

Not all films are made for commercial success, and not all the films are made for the masses. Dhobi Ghat is one such example.

As the tagline, DG indeed is the Mumbai Diaries. DG shows the different classes and masses of India, from both extremes. The poor is so down and dirty, and the rich are living luxuriously. It amazed me how different contrast of lifestyle can be put together in just one film, this is not something that you see often in an Indian film.

There are four characters with their lives crossing each other. Shai (Monica Dogra) is a New Yorker on a sabbatical in Mumbai, who meets Arun (Amir Khan) at this art show, and after a one night stand, she gets attracted, and perhaps in love with him. Then enters Munna (Prateik Babbar) who is the dhobi (washerman) for the two. He gets close to Shai, falling in love with her, while showing her around Mumbai and getting her to do his portfolio. Arun, who has just moved in to a new flat, comes across a few video tapes recorded by Yasmin for her brother.

One character is having fascination and feelings for other, and there we see the lengths they go for it.

The pace was slow, and very little of Amir Khan was impressing. Then again, he was playing someone serious, with a sad past. Monica was very pretty and alluring, and did her role well. But the show stealer has got to be Prateik Babbar, as the dhobi-partime-mouse-killer-actor-wannabe. His acting would make you empathize and yet laugh at his antiques.

Just as the trailers show, do not expect anything loud or overly dramatic here, just go for a simple showcase of Mumbai diaries.

Manmadhan Ambu Movie Review

Manmadhan Ambu is a classic example of half-baked story with an over-hyped starcast. The movie starts by showing arrival of movie star Nisha at the airport, later some details are thrown in as to how she is escaping from her personal life issues with her fiance back in India. The first half was so bland, with some hospital scenes of a cancer patient of some emotional factor. Nothing funny, interesting or engaging that happened at all. Yet, I continued watching, keeping some faith in the movie and Kamal Hassan's story.

It got interesting when some revelations came up in the second half, but only to be put down again with bad screenplay. The flashback song in the second half is the only engaging 5 minutes of the movie. I must say I was amazed at the whole song that was shot in a reverse order, at the same time, the actor was miming in a forward order, totally amazing. It feels as if 100% of the efforts in conceptualising & execution went into the song only.

Only at the last 1 hour that they decided to put in some comedy or errors, lies and cover-ups, which is nothing new, probably you would have seen this in 101 other films. The dialogue depends heavily on dirty and double meaning jokes to bring in the laughs.

So many things of important events were not explained or given proper justification.

1) What took Trisha 3 years to escape to a holiday away from Madhavan?
2) With such a bad accident happening just a distance away, how come none of the crowd of people heard it?
3) What triggers the romance between Trisha and Kamal? All of a sudden they announce that they are lovers?
4) The scene where Trisha was to confess about the 'accident', why does she suddenly turn all so romantic, citing her poem, and what not?
5) Why did Madhavan (the rich guy) refuse to pay Kamal?
6) Deepa promised to get Nisha to read Kurup's script, why does Kamal in the end walk around with it, saying he promised Kurup instead?
7) Deepa and Madhavan get together in the end, WTF for?

Instead of the comedy of errors and dirty jokes, they could have given more attention to Madhavan-Trisha-Kamal's relationships and development in a rom-com style. Badly disappointing. Kamal's 2010 offering is nowhere near Rajni's Endhiran. Better luck next time.

Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale Movie Review

I am a total animation movie freak. Fairy tales, however, usually do not count, because most of them, we have either heard or read them when we were young and pretending to be princesses.

What really made us watch Rapunzel was the fact that we needed some time out, and introduce Sanju, gently, to the cineplex, and what better than animation film to brighten up his time? Not to mention, this is a Disney musical, so there were songs in between, and I am pretty sure Sanju was as comfy as watching a hindi film with song and dance sequence. You know what I mean. Funny thing, Sanju's first ever movie experience had to be a princess story.

Rapunzel somehow diverts very much away from the usual fairy tale stereotyped stories. Forget the knight in shining armour rescuing the damsel in distress. This damsel actually rescues the the lad from trouble, not once, not twice.. err I think it is 4 times, if you count the ending (don't wanna give spoilers away here). She does this with her innocence, determination and a frying pan, yes you read it right.

The story is very much different from the version I have read during my childhood. But I am glad they spiced it up a little bit here, because thats how it becomes more fun. I shall not elaborate the story much here, as Rapunzel is as Rapunzel does... bring your kids for the fun, and yourself for the treat!

The moral of the story: Do not leave home without your frying pan!

Whats with fairy tales and princess stories anyway? I suppose it is the chic-lit and chic-flick of those days.

Endhiran Review

Superstar Rajinikanth is back with his a new film for his fans that not just idolise him but also worship him like their God. Just when you think, what else can be new? A super entrance scene for Rajini, countless Rajini punch dialogues, and stunts with glasses and cigarettes, who wants to see those things again? Definitely not me, that is why I was super sceptical about watching Endhiran in the first place, furthermore his last film, Shivaji didn't exactly earn good reviews.

With countless positive reviews on Endhiran buzzing around, it got me curious to see how exactly can Rajini be different this time. This movie has been raved for the special effects & sci-fi content, on par with Hollywood standard. And not to mention hubby who has been losing sleep (ok, maybe that's a little exaggeration, but somewhat to that effect) over catching the movie ever since the trailers were released.

How can Rajini triumph himself? By himself, of course! That is how Shankar's latest offering, Endhiran seems to have been conceived. Shankar has always shown his mastery in direction and highly imaginative song picturisation. He has always come up with the most unique special effects and amazing skills in his film song picturisations. It is high time he put his visions into a film that actually justifies the use of special effects.

The good news is, there is no lame Rajini super-entrance scene. It all starts with Dr. Vasi creating an andro humanoid (not to be confused with android), Chitti, to work with the military and help the society. Chitti is configured with the most advanced specifications and has the ability to do what human can and can't do, minus feelings. Vasi has a girlfriend, Sana, vying for his attention, so he lets his Robot spend time and help her out, eg bashing up thugs in the train, rescuing her from rape and even cheating in exam. While trying to get Chitti qualified with the Artificial Intelligence Research Department, Vasi gets influenced by his mentor Bohra, into programming feelings into Chitti, which is when the trouble begins. Like most Indian films, we have a love triangle situation, with a twist! Once Vasi realises the repercussions, he finally destroys and disposes Chitti, later falling into the wrong hands, and voila, you have the super-villain Chitti version 2.0.

Rajini has definitely outdone himself in Endhiran. He does a wimpy Dr Vasi, comedian Chitti, and villainous Chitti v2.0 (here we get to see some of Rajini's usual style, I believe infused to satisfy die-hard fans of his). And not just that, Rajini also plays the thousands of henchmen Chitti v2.0 creates by himself as his army. You also see multiples of Rajini in one song sequence, which is done nicely without looking like copy and paste of Rajini images. It is amazing the kind of acting and action Rajini can do in his 60s, a feat not many actors can stand up to.

Aishwarya, with not much acting to do, looks gorgeous throughout, and looks almost goddess-like in the songs. I like her hip-hop rapper image in 'Boom Boom Robo Da' song. She looks younger for her age, but does not look like a student, heck, if you have a 60 year old Rajini playing much younger role, why not her? She has, perhaps the best, body language and dancing skills in the industry. AR Rahman's music is just OK, but watching the film, it really grows on you.

Not much scope and attention is given to the other characters, perhaps to keep the storyline emphasized between the main characters. Most amazingly, you would feel more chemistry between Sana and Chitti than with Vasi himself.

Some unnecessary scenes and situations are added in to accomodate the chartbusting songs, which could have easily been omitted to keep the pace. The two comedian acting as lab assistants for Vasi, are avoidable, as Chitti himself provides us with plenty of laugh and light moments.

The moral of the story, andro humanoids can have all abilities, but humanity is not something to be memorised, but to be understood. The evil in humans is what creates evil and suffering in the world.

I have always believed in not comparing Indian films with Hollywood because both the industries produce movies of different genres to server their respective audience. And with Endhiran, it is the dawn of a new film genre, masala sci-fi action. It is in a category of its own with fantabulous effects and action. Watch out for the 25 minutes climax action scene, it got a non-action-lover like me gawking with out-of-the-world awesomeness! There are going to be countless film makers following this genre after this.

Finally a movie that can justify Rajini's super-human actions, and it does not disappoint. Endhiran, it is! What humans can't do, Rajini, I mean, Robot can!

Vinnaithandi Varuvaya Review

Will you cross the skies for me?

That is what the title means. This is a rather unique love story between Karthik (played by Simbhu) and Jessie (Trisha). Its been like 5 months since the movie was released, much delayed, but I feel this movie truly deserves and appreciation in the form of review.

An aspiring film maker, Karthik, falls in love at first sight with his neighbour Jessie, who eventually turns out to be not only older than him, but also from a different religion. Typical formula for a Indian romance movie, you'd think... the mixture of conventional and non-conventional romance story is what makes the movie work.

While in the midst of bulding his career in the film industry, Karthik takes up all opportunities to pursue Jessie, be it even following her to her hometown to just meet and spend time with her. Jessie is shown aloof and not interested in Karthik from the beginning, but there is a twist that totally changes everything. Yet, as the story progresses, you'd notice there's more to it, and till the end, our prediction does not work. The ending can be somewhat confusing for some, but for me, it was shown from the eyes of the film maker in the film, Karthik, when he directs a movie about his love story with Jessie.

Throughout the movie, Karthik speaks and explains of the girl he loves, Jessie, but many times we ask, why Jessie? That is the beauty of love, not everything has a logical explanation.

My favourite scene is the confrontation scene in a cafe (which seems more of a overseas shot rather than Indian locale), where Karthik is trying to get Jessie to admit her attraction to him, in one quick scene we are shown a wide shot of the cafe, with Karthik sitting alone on the right side, and Karthik romancing Jessie on the left, this scene just got me goosebumps, and somewhat showed how much of chemistry and attraction between the two characters. And I also love the film references and little jokes made at the movie making front, the director was somewhat taking mild potshots at the industry, very ironical and cute!

Simbhu was excellent as Karthik, the simple boy in love, and Trisha was perfectly dressed with plain sarees, yet so sensual, with her crimped hairstyle. They both share a great chemistry from the beginning till the end. The music is phenomenal, AR Rahman comes with a fresh new theme for the movie songs, and all songs are shot in Karthik's point of view, with a set of 5-6 dancers that look young Spanish kids, work out well with the music and tempo. Be it the title song, or Hosanna, it is sure to get you humming along. So totally evergreen!

There is so much more that I could talk about the film, just goes to show how much I enjoyed and loved it, truly one of the best romance films out there. And who says all love stories need to have a happy ending? I have perhaps given away from hints of the ending, but you would still wonder, why Jessie?

My Raavanan movie review

I had high expectations on Mani Ratnam's new flick... IMO he has never gone wrong in any of his films... his films are somehow fit in a backdrop of ugly reality, with a emotionally touching story embedded within.. eg Kannathil Muttamital, Anjali, Roja, Dilse... This time MR decides to make a film based on the Hindu epic, Ramayan.



Vikram as the bad@$ Veera, loved by his tribe, speaking some difficult tamil dialect (i suspect i'd hv perfectly understood the dialect spoken in hindi, would hv been most likely bhojpuri) - just as Ramayan's Raavan he has his 'sister' factor to abduct the modern day Sita. Vikram did a pretty good job, but i felt he overreacted in certain parts.

Prithviraj as the good cop Dev, managed to keep a smiley face throughout difficult situations, which at times seems a lil cynical, and we wonder if he is acting as a villain within. On another note, he looks damn good, as handsome as Ram is said to be. The downside is poor chap had very little role to play, and in that little role, he had minimal emotions displayed.

Aishwarya as the pretty Ragini, keeps one look throughout the film, a certain pouty face of hers that we see in the promos. As the ramayan Sita, Aishwarya does not live to expectations... wish there was more character given to her.

When i first saw the trailors, the visuals and stills seemed so perfectly put i was almost certain that MR would be able to justify them in the film... But sadly while watching the movie, those 'picture perfect' scenes seemed forced into the screenplay, or rather, the screenplay was created to wrap around the 'stills'?

The cinematography and the background music were awesome, perhaps the best things about the film. Scenes between Veera & Ragini are like choreographed in such a way that they seem ridiculous. The first half was very draggy, 2nd half was more worth it. However the audience wont feel any kind of sympathy when the Dev-Ragini couple finally reunites, neither would they, because till the end it was only about capturing Veera. And why in the world did the team of army have to shoot Veera continuously? To kill all his 10 heads? How come it was so easy for Ragini to go back and find Veera, when the police were not able to do it all along?