DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

It was a though choice - Will Smith’s pout or Imran Khan’s?

Ultimately what tipped the scales was that I was getting to see the newbie’s pout for only 70 bucks. So even if I didn’t it, I could have easily walked out and not felt that my day was gone, as the show was one of those illegallyhoured - 8.00 Am ones.

And guess what - I liked it. Not just the pout, but the whole movie. The cast was fresh, each character well-etched out and played equally convincing. Although it did look as though Aamir mamu has sat bhateeja down and rehearsed each dialogue/scene/cut/frame/shot/flick of the eye a million times.

Continue reading ‘Pehle Ka Naata‘

*Not for the faint hearted.

Anything and everything you look here is wrong. Catastrophe, I say. Okay maybe they got the wind factor but that’s about it. As a complete Superman buff I am appalled. But then one glance at ex hero no. 1 cum once-upon-a-time politician’s past-present fashion taste (if one may call it so), the above disaster isn’t all that surprising.

And for Ms. Katkar, anything said is less. Well that’s cause there isn’t much to say about her Bollywood career at least. Her stint in the industry was much like blink-n-u-miss kinds but role playing seemed to be her forte – She started off with playing desi ape man’s very much desi Jane and signed off with as the Jhuma Chuma aunty.

BTW I am most offended by the ‘side hip thrusting’ movement in scene 1.01 and ‘I am a bird’ bit in scene 3.16 and the ‘hop-n-squat’ movement in scene 2.36 and, uff dunk it me too grumpy to write further.

[Ps – On a similar note, check out apna Southie version of Thriller. Scary shitts no doubt.]

I’m not usually inclined to writing movie reviews, given I tried it on one of my other blogs and failed miserably to write anything interesting. But I just had to put my thoughts down on this just to remember the funny idea if not the movie.

Seen The Forbidden Kingdom as yet? Or have Iron Man, Khuda ke Liye and Race overwhelmed the once raging appetite for Kung-fu flicks. Speaking of which, where have all the Kung-fu lovers gone? Times were when Star Movies ran a series called Friday Fury telecasting the grand works of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Now that’s been reduced to a once-in-a-couple-of-years Chan release or (horror of horrors) dubbed versions on Filmy.

Cadet Larvell Jones of Police Academy was an expert at imitating all sorts of noises and one of the series had him do a routine of the typical Hollywood-dubbed Chopsuey flick, delivering chop-chops and complete with un-lip-synced psuedo-Eastern wisdom like,

The snake does not bend its neck. The mongoose will still catch it!

(….or something like that)

Continue reading ‘Chopstick Slapstick’

Way back in the 60s Tamil films were dominated by the big three namely Sivaji Ganesan, MGRamachandran (or MGR as he was called ) and Gemini Ganesan (known in the north more as Film actress Rekha’s father ). Each had his own style and also his own fan following. Film related activities being predominant in Kodambakkam ( a Chennai Suburb ), Tamil Film industry came to be referred as Kollywood .

Even today Tamil Nadu is associated with film crazy crowds who make giant cutouts of their favourite filmstars and sometimes even build temples dedicated to these actors ! As a young girl, during the family’s annual trip to meet all the relatives down south (all the way from Delhi ), I used to be fascinated by these giant cutouts so prominently displayed on Beach Road - the Big three smiling down at the population crowding Marina beach.

Continue reading ‘The Big Three - Kollywood (Tamil film Industry) Movies’

Like all fellow Indians (well , the majority of them anyway! ) I am also a fan of Bollywood movies. If one has been a regular watcher of Hindi movies (my reference here is to commercial or mainstram cinema ) over the years, one would be familiar by now, with certain situations and certain traits in characters, which are constantly repeated in most of these movies.

The Chase- Talking of movies of 60s and 70s , one very common scene would be the car chase and the arrival of police at the end of the movie when the hero would have (what the police should have done ! ) chased and caught the culprits ! The car chase would invariably have all the important characters bundled into several vehicles (cars, trucks,motorcycles, jeeps, & sometimes even a tonga ! )and following the hero’s car who in turn would be chasing the villians ! The background music would be one of 100s of violins screeching ! ( not playing !) to give the desired climax effect ! The cops would arrive on the scene just in time to wrap up the movie , with the inspector ordering “ inke haath me hathkadi pehna do “- needless to say ,the actor in the role of the officer would have only this dialogue ,which, he would deliver to the best of his ability (in the hope that some director would notice him and offer him the hero’s role in his next movie !).

Continue reading ‘Bollywood Movies - Ever So Predictable !’