total timepass...

As happens every year, Shah Rukh had a release on Diwali, and as happens every year, I went to watch it too! And as has been happening every year in recent times, I regretted it! But to be frank, I felt a lot more let down this time, it was a Yash Chopra romantic movie with Shah Rukh, Katrina and Anushka; it had beautiful locales like Leh and London; music was by AR Rahman; how could it go wrong? But it did, terribly! I could not see one saving grace in the movie. Actually there was one, which was the ' Challa ' song. Other than that, nothing at all! Where do I start? The story was just terrible! Was it not read before the filming of the movie started? There was no character development, no story development at all. Things were just happening for no real reason! A fish-seller-and-waiter-and-street singer-and-snow plower, all-in-one in London runs into rich girl Katrina Kaif couple of times, starts teaching her to sing and they fall in love. There are enough sequences b...

Barfi! Whats not to like about this movie? Beautiful locations: Darjeeling with its white clouds covering the idyllic green forests all around, the tea gardens filled with simple people going along with their simple lives. Its virtual poetry all around! Barfi: The very lovable, good for nothing but very naughty (and with a heart of gold) resident of this small town. Barfi cannot talk or hear but leads a very interesting and unapologetic life (and Ranbir has done a brilliant job portraying him). Jhilmil: The daughter of a rich gharjamai son-in-law. A girl suffering from autism, who does not find a home at her own home. Barfi and Jhilmil cross paths with each other and what follows is a beautiful story of the bond of friendship and support they form with each other. The whole setting is beautiful and feel good to watch, with some comic sequences added in between, some good songs et al. All this has been well made and would go for 4 stars upto here. But the movie h...

'Ek Tha Tiger' is a typical Salman Khan movie, a mindless masala entertainer with lot of action and pretty locales to keep you entertained throughout. The story is simple: a RAW agent falls in love with a Pakistani ISI Agent while on a mission, and then both of them run away to lead a life away from the enmity of these two countries. The story being so simple and straightforward, the whole movie is just about Salman in a lot of action scenes, and the background being a travel advertisement for Ireland, Cuba, Istanbul and so on. There is pretty much nothing else in the movie. Some songs, not worth remembering either. Salman Khan looks funny though, he doesn't fit the role of an agent. He is so fat and when he tries running around and jumping from here to there, he looks out of place. And he is different from the rest of his recent movies, like Ready, Bodyguard, Dabbang etc too. Its a different but still Salman role that he does. Katrina looks good as usual. As I said, n...

Since I am not an action-hero movie buff, there are not many in-depth views that I have about the Dark Knight Rises. All in all, I can just say that the movie was enjoyable, with a decent script and lot of good special effects to be fully involved. But there were a couple of interesting things I thought of after coming out of the theatre. For one, in the Dark Knight Rises, the focus is on Batman rather than the villain which was very unlike the last movie. When you came out of the movie theatre, you thought about Batman, his troubles, his doubts and his rise rather than Bane. This was in sharp contrast to the Dark Knight where all that was in your head was the Joker and Batman was relegated to a supporting presence. Also, Bane as the villain was too plain, just a strong body and a couple of people he controls. Not too much about him to remember. Another interesting point in the movie was its portrayal about what may happen when the 99% take over from the 1%. I am not supporting ei...

Cocktail, is it part of the new age Indian cinema that we see so often nowadays, a different and more realistic look at what we are rather than the nice image we still have of our society? Frankly, no. It's a bad movie, terrible actually but I would still recommend a watch. Why? Just because it is different and it does start out in a new direction even though it loses its way in between and ends up where it always has been... Anyways, let me first start with the characters. Deepika (Veronica): the first thing about her is that she looks hottt! I mean, really hot! And surprise surprise, I never thought I would say this but I think she acted, quite well in fact. Which is something new for her given her earlier movies. As for her character, its a rocking one. I wudn't go into whether what she does is right or wrong, but its just a well etched character, she is who she is, fun, carefree, independent and always partying. Its something different too, don't remember seeing many...

The issue of 'Reservation' in India has been debated endlessly for years now: in online forums, in social gatherings, in educational institutes.. everywhere. It's pitfalls have been debated, the advantages have been discussed, changes have been advocated to the system and so on. But it has still not been sorted out, it is still a highly inefficient and misused system which is not serving the purpose it was originally introduced for. There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article  which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations. The reason given for such a sys...

Ted, the latest from Mark Wahlberg, is a comedy unlike most of his previous movies which were mostly action-based. To be frank, I am not a fan of animations or other children's movies and don't enjoy them much. So expectedly, I wasn't keen on watching Ted either. I went in with minimal expectations but surprisingly enjoyed the movie! To be honest, a movie about a walking-talking Teddy Bear has to be a children's movie! But Ted was more than that. It started out just like that, where a small boy's wish to have a friend of his own, a talking Teddy Bear brings joy to his life. His 'thunder-buddy' forever is the friend to him he never had, his constant companion and they both share a happy life together. But once in adulthood, the same friendship weighs him down. He is not able to outgrow the carefree days of his childhood and the presence of Ted in his life makes sure this never happens. This is the premise of the movie, when Mark's girlfriend wants hi...