« July 2001 | Main | July 2002 »

August 11, 2001

Dil Chahta Hai

This Friday we were again stuck in the stalls at Aurora in Matunga. Those were the only tickets available and that too scrounged from a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend... Wooden seats, a bad crowd of teenagers in the back row cracking inane jokes at the slightest provocation and an opening scene about cirrhosis and liver transplantation that didn't make any medical sense.

But then the film took off...and how! It is peppy, cool, hip, funny and entertaining. And though it is not in the Lagaan league, it is a bloody good film.

The promos over the last couple of weeks were promising anyway. Both Aamir and Saif sported new looks and this was the first film after a long time for Akshaye, who I think, is a good, but terribly underrated actor. I also quite like Preity, who I think is one of the better actresses of the current crop. This cast itself was enough to get me to the theatre.

The film is about three friends who are buddies from college. The first half is a montage of their lives while they are freaking out, having fun with girls, travel and pranks, having just graduated from college without definite aims in sight. The focus during the first half is more on Akshaye than the other two; he is a painter and the only one whose career is set. The second half gets more serious with all the three buddies finally trying to settle down in their lives and trying to find their true loves. The setting is urban rich all through with no regrets or explanations for this milieu. Everybody is rich, enjoying himself/herself and falling in love with each other; as would by and large happen in normal life.

The surprise packet of the film of course is Dimple, acting her age, a middle-aged divorcee who Akshaye falls in love with, an act triggering the split-up of the three buddies, just before the interval. Preity is seen mainly after the interval and is her usual bubbly self, but Sonali Kulkarni disappoints.

The buzzword here is style. Farhan Akhtar manages to do what Rakesh Mehra in Aks was aiming for. His use of colors, furniture, lighting, clothes and music sets the correct mood for each scene, making it instantly believable. The music is contemporary and very exciting. I hadn't really paid attention to it in the promos, but I promptly went and bought the soundtrack CD yesterday and the more I play it the more I like the sound.

The irritating parts? Dimple needs to get her teeth done; they are awful. Suchitra Pillai in the opening scenes is an unpleasant surprise, acting badly. Ayub Khan as Preity's fiancé is very wooden. And the use of the opera in Sydney to awaken Aamir's love just doesn't jell. There should have been a better way to work this out. And lastly, the length...it is just a little too long, as most Hindi films these days tend to be, stretching beyond three hours...a little tighter editing and shortening of the running time would have helped.

Interesting stuff? Saif! He is getting to be better and better and more and more interesting, ever since his small roles in Biwi No 1 and Hum Saath Saath Hain. I still haven't seen Love Ke Liye...but it is next on the list. Akshaye! He is so damn good. Aamir! What can you say about this guy who is probably now THE actor among his contemporaries.

The best part of the film is that it is fun; it made us laugh and feel good. Which is what films are for, aren't they! Give me this over tormented films like Gaddar and over-hyped, sentimental crap like Yaadein any day.

Posted by bhavinj at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2001

Yaadein

At the outset, I must warn you that I am biased. About two months ago, I bought a large number of Mukta Arts shares assuming that if Yaadein became a hit, market sentiment would drive up the price and get me decent returns. As a result, I was desperate to see the film on the first day of its release - but try as I may I could not get tickets; not even scalper's tickets (or black tickets as we call them).

I finally managed to see the film the week after, two days ago; again I could not get tickets the regular way, but eventually managed to get extras at Cine Planet, the new swanky theatre complex at Sion. Despite the film having received bad reviews, people are still queuing up to see the film, possibly I suspect, to see how bad the film really is.

What was Subhash Ghai even thinking of! Pardes and Taal were tolerable, the former because of Shahrukh and the latter because of the music and Anil Kapoor. Both also had crisp editing and lush looks. But Hrithik is no Shahrukh; at least currently, he does not have the ability to rise above the role. Kareena is still very raw. Jackie Shroff, who surprisingly is the pivot around which the movie revolves, just can't act. The editing is clumsy, the rest of the supporting acts are average to worse, the cinematography is at places terrible, the dialogues make no sense, the story is patchy, the music is no great shakes...I could just go on.

And what is the story? Jackie Shroff is a middle-class restauranteur (with a swimming pool) living in England, a father of three daughters, who loses his wife (Rati Agnihotri, probably the only saving grace of the movie) in a shoot-out. They then move to India, because the only thing he wants to do, is to get his daughters married, which he does pretty fast, especially as far as his first two daughters (forgettable faces) are concerned. Hrithik is a foster son of his, who eventually falls in love with Kareena. Due to a crazy set of circumstances, they can't actually get together, but eventually in a silly, contrived ending, they do.

The audience reaction at Cine Planet was interesting. Everyone was just waiting for the next embarrassing moment, wondering how much worse the film would actually get. The cringing feeling was similar to the one I had while watching Toofan and Jadugar wondering whether Amitabh had lost his brains. And the use of brand placement for advertising is a joke. Coke as cokemohabbat.com and Pass-Pass (a mouth-freshener) are blatantly thrust upon the audience. I don't think I'll be having Pass-Pass for some time to come, considering that it will immediately remind me of Yaadein.

Subhash Ghai has gone or record saying that his target market is the foreign market where people pay 7-10$ for a ticket and he does not really care for the guy paying 10 rupees in a small town in Bihar. Which may make economic sense (though I doubt it)...but doesn't the movie still have to be good? Or is it that the desi crowd abroad is so film-starved that it will lap up anything thrust upon it? I wonder...on Friday, the Mukta Arts stock actually went up by 10%, because of market news that the film is a hit abroad, in the UK and US. If the desis abroad think this film is worth seeing, they are welcome to it; and if that helps me make up my current 30% loss in the stock, all the better!

Posted by bhavinj at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)