BOLLY REVIEW : Tees Maar Khan (2010)

Tees Maar Khan, Farah Khan's third directorial venture, starts interestingly with a voice-over of Sanjay Dutt and a very innovatively amusing, James Bondish title sequence involving a baby Tees Maar Khan(TMK) learning the trades of con from his mother's womb. This, unfortunately is the singlemost comic sequence in this wannabe comic caper gone completely haywire.

Based on Peter Seller's After the Fox, TMK tells the story of Tabrez Mirza Khan a.k.a. Tees Maar Khan (Akshay Kumar), a self-flattering con artist who takes pleasure in bragging about himself with not-so-funny one liners. He is surrounded by his incompetent assisstants Dollor, Soda and Burger (if these names are meant to be funny then I don't get it) and has a girlfriend(Katrina Kaif) who is dabbling in the Z-grade exploitative cinema to make it big as an actress. Aatish Kapoor (Askhaye Khanna) is a big Indian star actor who is obsessed with the Golden statuette ever since Anil Kapoor has made it to the Oscars. Then, there are the Siamese twins, the Johri Brothers (played by real life twins Rajeev and Raghu) who want to rob the antiquities that the Indian Police is transporting from Mumbai to Delhi in a heavily guarded non-stop train. The brothers seek the help of TMK who apparently is the only mind which can plan the great heist. And what does Mr.TMK do? He concocts a plan to shoot a fake film in a small village though which the train would pass and use the villagers as the cast. And this would provide him with enough men to stop and rob the running train. He also cons Atish Kapoor and convinces him to act in the film by posing as the great Hollywood director Manoj Day Ramalan. So much for the greatest con.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010) : A Review

What does a movie that blends the genres of action, romance, musical, fantasy and comedy remind you of? Definitely Bollywood for me. But, Edgar Wright has managed to put all these elements into a crazy Hollywood movie which is not even remotely Bollywoodish in nature. Based on the graphic novel series by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a fantasy-musical-action-comedy along the lines of Stephen Chow flicks which are mad, energetic but also extremely entertaining.

The movies revolves around Scott Pilgrim(Michael Cera), a bass guitarist for the band named "Sex Bob Ombs". He starts dating a Chinese high school girl Knives(Ellen Wong), but one fine day when he meets Ramona, he falls head-over-heals in love with her. From that moment, he starts ignoring Knives and begins wooing Ramona. But little does he know that to gain Ramona's love he has to fight her seven evil exes.

Chloe (2009): A Review

These days, you would find a plethora of movies that start with an interesting premise and run out of juice midway. Atom Egoyan's Chloe, a remake of a French erotic thriller Nathalie,  is an addition to that list.

In the movie, David(Liam Neeson) and Catherine(Juliane Moore) are a middle aged couple who have found a perfect balance between their professional and personal life. When David fails to turn up for his surprise birthday party, Catherine goes through his messages and starts suspecting him of cheating. His flirting with the waitress the following day, further adds to her suspicion. She decides to keep a tab on him and hires an escort named Chloe(Amanda Seyfried). Chloe has to meet David in a restaurant, start a conversation with him and report back to Catherine on the developments. Chloe updates her with the stories of their meetings that are leading to a sexual relationship. Her stories start arousing Catherine and she finds herself gradually getting attracted to Chloe, leading to some complex situations.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) : A Review

The story of Deathly Hallows Part 1 continues from where it left off from Half Blood Prince. Dark Lord and his associates have taken over the ministry and began tormenting and prosecuting the Muggles in the Wizarding community. After Dumbledore's death, Harry, Hermione and Ron are on their own and have to find the Horcruxes while on the run and destroy them to bring down the Dark Lord.

The Harry Potter series has come down a long way from the heavily toddlerized Philosopher's Stone. The boys have become men and the girls have turned into nice women. I must say that this is the most complete movie in the series. Unlike the others, the movie doesn't take a hurried approach and gives ample time for the story to unfold. This had been possible only due to the division of the story into a 2 part movie. I wish the same approach was taken for some of the other movies in the series. The story though drags a bit where Harry and Hermione continue their search in the absence of Ron, but this attributes to the same dragging sequence in the book. The Part 1 concludes well and doesn't look like an incomplete movie. Kudos to director David Yates and the screenplay writer Steve Kloves for this.

Nine (2009) : A Review

Musicals have never fascinated me. Even classics like "Wizard of Oz" and "Sound of Music" could not grab my attention. But Rob Marshall's musicals have evoked a certain interest in them.

Nine is Marshall's second musical after Chicago. It tells the story of the star director Guido Contini (Daniel Day Lewis) who after giving a spate of flops, is struggling with the script of his come-back venture Italia. Luisa (Marion Cortillard) is Guido's wife who is an ex-starlet, now retired and supporting her husband. Though she has sacrificed her career for him, she often feels neglected by Guido. Carla (Penelope Cruz) is Guido's mistress who is madly in love with him and can not stay away from him. Stephanie (Kate Hudson) is a fashion journalist fascinated with the work of Guido. Lili (Judi Dench) is the costume designer for his movie. She is a friend who Guido confides in. There is Guido's late mother(Sophia Loren) whose always comforts him in moments of despair. Sara (Fergie), the prostitute from his childhood, who danced to him for money, and gave him the first ever lessons on sex. And finally his muse Claudia (Nicole Kidman) who has been his inspiration for most of his movies. Guido has to find the script for his movie while struggling to manage the relationship with his wife and the mistress while also seeking help from these women.

Nine is similar to Chicago in terms of the treatment, but is more personal in nature. You sympathize with the protagonist and relate to his problems. And the credit should definitely go to Daniel Day Lewis who has time and again proved that he is one of the greatest actors alive. His portrayal of a director who has to find a balance in his professional and personal life is brilliant. Marion Cortillard portrays her character with a lot of depth. Penelope Cruz once again proves that she is as versatile as they come. Nicole Kidman brings the aura of a diva to the character. And all the women look gorgeous in the songs. The actors should be lauded for their vocals and dancing skills as much for their acting. Special mention should go to the cinematographer who makes each and every frame look picture perfect with brilliant use of lighting. And finally the director who envisioned such a beautiful looking musical.


PS: I know its a musical based on the Broadway show which in turn was based on 8 1/2. But I am glad that I haven't watched the originals and hence safe from the comparison syndrome.

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Rated

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) : A Review

Director Spike Jonze, who in collaboration with Charlie Kauffman gave us gems like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, comes up with another beautiful, coming-of-age fantasy "Where the Wild Things Are".

It is the story of Max, disobedient but a lonely eight year old boy. He often wears a wolf costume and pretends to be an animal. One day his divorced mother brings her boyfriend to dinner. Max insists on showing her the castle that he has built and when she ignores him, he wears his wolf costume and throws a fit. When she tries to stop him, he bites her and runs away from home. He reaches a remote wild place where he encounters several monster like creatures. He convinces them that he is a great king who can solve all their problems. Carol, one of the monsters, is an impulsive and destructive monster, very much like Max. KW is a female monster who often leaves the group to meet a secret friend which irks Carol very much. Max and Carol form a friendship owing to the similarity of their nature.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) : A Review

Based on the popular video game, Prince of Persia hit theatres this weekend worldwide. The pre-release buzz was very poor and so we managed to get the tickets easily on the opening week. The trailers for the movie were not too exciting and that set the expectations to an extreme low.

The story goes like this. The King of Persia gets impressed by the fearlessness of a slum orphan Dastaan(Jake Gyllenhal) and adopts him as a son. Tus, the eldest son of the King, on the advice of his Uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) raids the holy city of Alamut. With the help of Dastaan, they succeed in seizing the city. Meanwhile somebody conspires against Dastaan and he becomes the victim of a conspiracy that charges him with the assassination of the King. He flees the kingdom along with the Alamut princess Tamina and tries to bring forth the real culprits behind the conspiracy, while also trying to save the world from destruction.

BOLLY REVIEW: Mission Istanbul (2008)

I had the great fortune of discovering this movie called "Mission Istaanbul" starring Zayed Khan and Vivek Oberai. It falls in the category of "Its so bad that its fun". I would put it in my hall of fame movies along with "Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani" (# 1 in my list), "Qahar", et al.

Zayed Khan is Vikas Sagar, an IIT graduate with a computers degree and working for Aaj Tak as a journalist. He has absolutely no work experience in computers but is supposedly a computers expert (the expertise in which field? Not mentioned). He is infamous for his face-to-face interviews with the terrorists who put on a mask while recording a murder video but forget about it during the interviews. Vikas decides to move on to "Al Johara", a news channel in Istaanbul, for better opportunities of terrorist interviews. "Al Zohara" boss is a crooked looking, suspicion raising individual who is doing some confidential activities on the highly secured 13th floor of his office building. "Al Zohara" has a hall of martyrs room with portraits of all the journos who died mysteriously during the terrorist interviews. Sunil Shetty is the latest victim of Al Zohara. Vivek Oberoi plays "Rizwan Khan", a mysterious local, who keeps warning Vikas of the dangers at Al Zohara. He is supposedly a cool guy who can do loads of action with both hands and guns. Rizwan is capable of single handedly gaining access to the 13th floor but needs a computer expert to hack into some system. That is where Vikas comes into picture. The rest of the story is how these two guys unveil the mystery behind the 13th floor.

The movie is extremely entertaining due to its unintentional humor. Watch it to believe.

Highly Recommended for the same reasons as "Plan 9 from Outer Space".

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