O Re Paakhi…O Re Paakhi resonates in my ears and as I sit down to write the review of Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand, all that flashes into my eyes is the wet paint of the film sets, the halogen flood lights, the larger than life posters, and the filled theatre screenings of 1950’s -1960’s Bollywood, build perfectly to the last inch. Khoya Khoya Chand is sincere, honest and almost perfect in technique but unfortunately what starts off as story telling ends up being a history lesson. It is so much like a long lecture which started as being interesting and colorful, until the colors became repetitive and started blinding my eye. Of course, I’d stand up and applaud the technicians of the movie again and again throughout this review for making it almost feel like being seated in a Time Machine and getting deported to an era of the pot-bellied Producer getting bullied by the Superstars, the sleazy divas, the “favourable” Superstar, the struggling writer, the non-compliant industry-outsider director, the run of the mill dialogues and screenplay and the mom accompanied struggling wannabe. All of this and much more is taken care of perfectly and this is no small feat. What OSO (the other tribute to Bollywood movie, yeah the more commercial one) tried to attempt, Khoya Khoya Chand has achieved all of that and much more and it effortlessly makes us believe in Sudhir Mishra’s vision of the Black and White era of Indian Cinema. [Continue Reading…]
by Sujoy on August 16, 2008
in Bolly
Neons,Red neons, Yellow Milestones, Pune Railway Station,Lancers, maroon Maruti 800, Bombay-Pune Highway,more Neons and UV Lights in da Club, no Bling Bling, only CASH and Bam Bam. Phew!! What a ride!!Johnny Gaddar is ..wait for it…the Best Hindi movie of its genre. Should I say that again or was I loud enough to make my point clear? ADLABS presents, …Sriram Raghavan’s…and then Boom. The title credits are absolutely a thing to watch and watch out for. Awesome is the Word..or is it Legendary. Ok, I should come out of the Barney-shell and just tell you more about the movie and why I loved it. [Continue Reading…]
This is not one of those posts which should be considered to be written by yet another fanboy. Rather this is a devotee writing about his Goddess. Madhuri or Madz as she would like her to be called (I guess), mother of two, aged 40, but still sizzles in her truest form. And I do not care if all those critics fail to recognize it. Probably they should get their lenses checked, or perhaps change their retinas. But that is one thing and we are here to talk about Aaja Nachle,the movie by ace cinematographer Anil Mehta. We have seen Mr. Mehta’s works as a cinematographer in many Yashraj flicks and he has captured some of the most breathtaking scenes on the Indian 70 mm. Be it the utterly urban Manhattan of Kal Ho Na Ho, or the rustic rural Bhuj as Lagaan’s Champaner, or the picturesque Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Mr. Mehta’s artwork needs no introduction. Having said that, Aaja Nach Le ,is also spell bounding as far as the visuals are considered. But here lies the problem. It is too unreal. Of course, what else can we expect from a story by Aditya Chopra which just too fits the Yashraj run-of-the-mill mould.So you say, that well, movies are meant to be unreal, portraying a make-believe world so to say. But then, why did it take off on the real note?The problem is that we have to assume so many things that you lose count. I started doing it just for Madhuri(but of course), but I ended up getting tired. So I said to myself, well, screw it, let’s just enjoy this as a mindless dance joyride, and I started to enjoy it more after that. [Continue Reading…]
