GULAAL : WEAK ENDING RUINS STRONG BUILD-UP !

Technorati tag : Review Gulaal

Kashyap’s latest is a dark film, not just in it’s content, but also visually. Dark or poorly-lit rooms, house dark, vengeful characters. The main story focuses on student politics in Rajasthan, where law student Dilip Kumar Singh (Chaudhary) has newly arrived. Naïve Dilip finds rooms let by Rananjay Singh, known as Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh), the son of the erstwhile Raja. Dilip, cowardly and weak, is soon embroiled in student politics, courtesy Ransa and other rival gangs.

Gulaal introduces us to politics via Dilip, but this is really the story of people hungry for power and the affluence that it brings. Duki Bana (Menon), a zamindar, who finds himself bereft of any real power in the face of Governmental rulers, wants money to build the state of Rajputana. Kiran (Mohan) and her brother (Aditya Srivastav), as children of a kept mistress, want their father’s name. There is a third faction of louts also contesting the student General Secretary post, however they do not become prominent to the story. Other characters, all interesting, are those who sway one way or another.

The first half of the film is strong and well-controlled, and Kashyap uses the time to give us a tight, political drama. You have a weak common-man, Dilip, friends with Ransa, who’s kind of wild and reckless. Dukki Bana, who’s married, has a mistress on the side, and is open to other amorous advances, is using Ransa to win over student politics in Rajpur, and thus supporting him over rival factions. Deepak Dobriyal stunningly plays Dukki’s right-hand man. Then there is Kiran, who will go to any lengths to win the elections and become the student General Secretary. And there is her brother, cold, calculating, trigger-happy Karan who master-minds Kiran’s every political move.

There are also minor characters like Dukki’s wife (Jyoti dogra), a dutiful woman, who gets a little feisty when she hears of Madhuri (Mahie Gill) Duki’s mujra-performing mistress. Model Jesse Randhawa plays Anuja, a teacher who is stripped of her clothes and her dignity, but must continue to puff-up impotent clouds of cigarette smoke, in the absence of any hope of action against the perpetrators. I found her role inconsequential to the story – it didn’t do anything and didn’t exert any influence on any character. The female characters in the film are all of them powerless, and truly depicted given the context. Even Kiran’s character, while conniving and determined, is only so at another’s bidding.

Then there is also Dukey Bana’s mentally retarded brother Prithvi Bana (Piyush Mishra), who is given to singing and composing couplets. Kashyap uses him to narrate the story in balladic form, and reflect on the corruption of it all.

This film doesn’t have any one protagonist. The main characters are all negative, except maybe Dilip, who’s weak, and doesn’t have the strength to overcome the odds. So it’s kind of hard to actually root for any one. Still, the film with it’s interesting characters, and brilliant acting, is trundling along nicely, until it hits intermission. Then, it’s downhill, because Kashyap fails to keep up his promise. The story flags and I found the end really disappointing. Where he should have upped the ante, and provided a sizeable twist to the story, he goes along with a jaded, and un-interesting premise.

Kashyap tries hard to give us a gritty, ethnically-flavored drama, and comes close to carrying it off, but ouch! – that ending. I cannot see this film succeeding commercially at all, for who really has the time to read between the lines, these days ? Still, this film is highly recommended; just don’t go in there expecting too much.

If you liked this film, you might also like :

- Haasil
- Hazaron khwaishen aisi
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DASVIDANIYA is a bitter-sweet situational comedy about a man Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak). One among the millions of people in the pool of Mumbai’s ever increasing population, Amar’s existence is easily forgettable. His innocence and his obsession for making his daily ‘TO-DO LIST’ every morning is what motivates him to look forward to the next day.

Apart from Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor and Neha Dhupia other stars in the movie include Saurabh Shukla, Gaurav Gera, Suchitra Pillai, Sarita Joshi, Suresh Menon, Purvi Joshi, Ranvir Shourey and host of others.

Dialogue and story is by Arshad Sayed, Art Direction by Rakesh Morchale and Arun Verma is the Director of Photography. Music has been given by Kailash Kher.

The movie pairs together Shahid Kapur and Vidya Balan for the first time. In the supporting roles are Juhi Chawla, Om Puri and Vishal Malhotra. Kismat Konnection is produced by Ramesh Taurani and directed by Aziz Mirza . The film has music by Pritam.

An out-of-luck architect and an out-of-love social activist find themselves connected in a strange way by kismat in director Aziz Mirza’s film ‘Kismat Konnection’.

The love story which centres around Raj Malhotra (Shahid), a street smart charming guy but despite his best efforts success eludes him. Raj’s luck changes when he meets an enigmatic fortune-teller Juhi who assures him that he is about to get lucky with a new chance.

Deviating from his signature pair of Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, Aziz Mirza has roped in current bollywood heartthrob Shahid Kapur and Vidya Balan. The director hopes that Vidya and Shahid will make it to the list of successful Bollywood reel-couple.

Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee is all set make his debut in Bollywood opposite actress Amrita Rao in a sports movie Victory. The movie will be the story of a cricketer and will also star other cricketers like Allan Border, Mike Hussey and Jason Gillespie. The movie will be produced by Vivek Aggarwal and calling the shots will be debutant director Ajit Pal.

This is not the first time that the Aussie cricketer will feature in the Indian entertainment industry. A year back he featured in a music video and sung a duet with Asha Bhonsle. Lee is very excited about his role in the movie and says he is not likely to have any problems with acting as he will be playing the role of a cricketer.

Harman Baweja is also expected to feature in the movie along with Anupan Kher and Gulshan Grover. The movie is expected to boost movie trade between India and Australia as Bollywood movies are quite popular in the land down under.

In a classic, comedy of errors, Golmaal Returns traces the misadventures of Gopal (Ajay Devgan) and his wife Ekta (Kareena Kapoor). The couple lives with Gopal’s sister Esha (Amrita Arora) and Ekta’s mute brother Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor).

The soundtrack comprises of four songs, two English versions of songs and remixes of all the songs. The plain old Bollywood mantra for soundtracks. Create a few songs and then remix them. This way you double up the number of tracks and ease some pain off from DJs. Tha Kar Ke sung by Neeraj Shridhar aims to get in the queue of catchy numbers.

The story is set in today’s day and age. Billu (Irrfan Khan) plays a village barber. His business is running low because he has not been able to upgrade himself according to the changing trends. One fine day, a film unit visits his village to shoot a movie. It stars a superstar (SRK), who was once Billo’s school friend. All at once, Billu’s status in the village changes, and he becomes highly respected. Everyone wants him to meet the superstar. But Billu is unsure, as he feels he cannot compare to the superstar’s status. Besides, he fears that the star may not recognize him. He makes many attempts to meet the star but fails. After all these hardships, he gives up. But people think that he lied about the relationship with the star and start insulting him. His family and children also gets upset.

In the end, for an invited school function, the star reveals his past. He tells the audience that in his school days he had a friend who always stood by him in his hardships. He tells how much the friend helped him by providing food when he was hungry, provided clothes when he did not have any. He tells that the friend gave him the money to join acting by selling his ancestral ear ring and that friend happens to be Billu.

At that time the people recognize about Billo and the movie happily ends.

The movie stars Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Sunil Shetty, Shabbir Ahluwalia and Shreya Saran in main roles. Abhishek Bachchan makes a special appearance.

‘Mission Istanbul’ is directed by Apoorva Lakhia . The film has story by Suresh Nair and is produced jointly by Sunil Shetty, Shabbir Boxwala, Shobhaa Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor.

Vikas Sagar is a young and gifted journalist. Lucks favors him in the form of Owais Husain, head of a controversial Istanbul based news channel, who promises him a lump some salary and other benefits. This offer comes at a time when Vikas is undergoing a painful time having divorced his wife Anjali.

Tempted by the lucrative offer, he lands the job. Later, he learns the truth and voices his plans to quit his job. However, he is warned by a Turkish commando, Rizwan Khan (Vivek Oberoi), that others who have quit from the channel have mercilessly been killed for knowing its secrets. Who wins this battle? Will Vikas fall prey like many others or is the pen mightier than the sword?

The need for a Turkish/Middle-Eastern influence in the instrumentation and percussion of MI is utterly understandable, but why did Apoorva Lakhia require four different music directors to churn out the soundtrack? With the exception of Mika Singh, who tuned the ode-to-the-bartender “Ganpat” on Lakhia’s last venture, “Shootout at Lokhandwala”, the 3 other MDs don’t really bring much uniqueness to the pitch.

The film earlier known as Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo and also Made in China,is written by Sridhar Raghavan who also wrote Khakee (2004) and Bluffmaster (2005).Chandni Chowk to China is said to be semi- autobiographical film portraying actor Akshay Kumar’s life. He himself agreed that about 50% of the film is based on his life. The story is about a chef who is mistaken to be a martial arts expert. There is also a special appearance by Jackie Chan who plays a martial arts expert who is hired by the chef to teach him how to fight.

An action-comedy about a simple cook from Chandni Chowk (Akshay Kumar) mistaken for the reincarnation of an ancient Chinese warrior by the villagers of an oppressed Chinese village.

From the hustle-bustle of Chandni Chowk to the hutongs of Beijing, the electric energy of Shanghai and sheer breathtaking Chinese landscapes, Chandni Chowk To China chronicles the lunatic adventures of a hapless simpleton cook from Delhi. As he goes to seek his destiny, he finds himself thrown into a crazy world of megalomaniac villains, femme fatales, crazy inventors, Chinese mysticism and outlandish kung-fu assassins!

The movie, a love story, is directed by Aditya Chopra who is returning to direction after eight years since Mohabbatein. Shahrukh Khan , who has worked in the two previous flicks Aditya Chopra has directed (including Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge ), once again plays the lead role.

The female lead is played by a newcomer named Anushka Sharma .

Soundtrack of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was released on November 6, 2008. The music is composed by Salim-Sulaiman who also composed for other Yash Raj Films such as Aaja Nachle (2007), Chak De India (2007), and Roadside Romeo (2008). The reviews have been mixed as the album does not compare to Aditya Chopra’s earlier movies – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Mohabbatein.

The song “Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte” pays tribute to Bollywood legendary actors Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor. The song is picturised on Shahrukh Khan and has special appearances by Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Priyanka Chopra. Each paragraph of the song contains lyrics that represent titles of songs filmed on the respective actors tributed.

Made under the banner of Yashraj Films , Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is set to hit the theatres on December 12.

DOSTANA : A GAY FILM !

Recall the “Kantaben” episode in “Kal ho na ho”. Now concoct a whole film around it, and Voila ! You have “Dostana”, a film about two men pretending to be gay. And because it would be mightily inconvenient to situate such a story in good old, traditional India (some “patriotic” group or other “guardians” of our culture might take offence), the story is set in Miami. Also throw in a nicely proportioned, peppy lass and you now have a full-on Masala film !

The two men in question are Kunal (Abraham) and Sameer – or Sam (Bachchan). One’s a photographer and the other’s a nurse, and they both are inevitable skirt-chasers. Having their fill of women (women seem to fall all over themselves for these two) but lacking housing, both end up trying to rent rooms in an apartment belonging to single, Sindhi lady Neha Melwani (Chopra). However, Ms Melwani and her aunt (Sushmita Mukherjee) will have no men in the apartment, and Kunal and Sam then pretend to be a gay couple to gain admittance.

The three roomies then proceed to become best buddies, with the two men falling in love with Neha. She of course treats them as friends only, and falls in love with her boss Abhimanyu Singh (Deol). So there’s one girl, and three men who want her – and it takes the entire second half for one to win.

“Dostana” opens with a song, featuring some of the fittest bodies in Bollywood. There’s John Abraham, resplendent in bright yellow swim shorts. There’s Shilpa Shetty, she of the well-toned body and long, long legs. Abhishek is left (a little too) hirsute and clothed, which is how we like him. And there’s a bevy of bikini-clad beach beauties, vying for attention. Bright colors, blue skies, and the sea complete the slick, well-glamorized shot.

This opening sort of sets the tone of the film; it does not lack item numbers, or skimpy clothing, and it‘s about happening, hot young things sorting out their life and loves in a happening, hot, young world. Gay desis abound, and are amazingly, out of the closet. Desi folk are chic, work in non-engineering careers, and dress to kill. If you have it, you must flaunt it. Priyanka romps around in short shorts and bikini tops, and looks good doing it. And John Abraham, in one scene, wears only the bare essentials.

The men are into wine and women, but they also, this being Bollywood and all, possess hearts of gold. While I must give the film credit for even raising the notion of gay partnership as a possible relationship, for the desi public, I am also a little perturbed that when it suits it, the characters in this film seem to ooze what can only be described as homophobia. And while desi male sexuality is all out on display – Kunal and Sam sleep around and indulge in one night-stands (and they can still apparently morph into paragons of morality when confronted with true love), the desi woman, Neha, still remains prim, proper, and pristine (and asexual ?), unwilling to even share an apartment with a man.

This film is directed by Mansukhani, but has Karan Johar’s stamp all over it. It is thoroughly glam-med up, vibrant and slick, with well-choreographed numbers. Adequate direction, a shallow but entertaining script, and reasonable acting make this a mucho-masala film. The first half of the film is a breeze; funny, with lots of little well-timed gags. In the second half the film drags a bit, because of predictability – I knew exactly how it was going to end, and it isn’t that hard to guess. No real twists and turns here, except for the completely unexpected man-on-man kiss !

John and Abhishek, display real chemistry, playing off well against each other , and Priyanka does adequately. Kirron Kher hams it up as Sam’s typically Punjabi Mom, who has a hard time accepting her son’s alternative sexuality. Boman Irani is Neha’s out-and-about gay boss, and Bobby Deol, as the straight man in her life, is the third contender for Neha’s love.

“Dostana” is a decent watch. Yes, you do have to accept that in desi filmdom, there is only one kind of sexuality that is accepted, and it’s straight and male. The others (female, gay, lesbian etc. ) might exist but are never quite willingly acknowledged in the desi spectrum, although we might nod our heads and mumble soothing words, when asked, because we are oh-so-broadminded and believe in true love (wherever it might be found).

If you liked this film, you might also like :
- Kabhi alvida na kehna
- Namastey London