In the Mood for Reviews

The title is a lift off from the movie “In the Mood for Love”, which I’ll try to review in this post. Since you’re already bored of reading about Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Farah Khan, I’ll give my take on the much talked about “Om Shanti Om” and “Saawariya” at the very end of this post.

In the Mood for Love: This is the first Wong Kar-Wai movie that I’ve seen; so, I won’t be drawing conclusions about him just yet.

Plot: Two neighbors who realize that their spouses are cheating on them and purport never to do that. Yet, their secret meetings give the viewer another impression. Here’s the link to the trailer.

What did I like in the movie?

• Maggie Cheung: She’s so pretty and her lovely dresses in this movie accentuate her beautiful face and eyes.

Cinematography: Christopher Doyle Pin Bing Lee have raised this movie to another scale because of their state of the art camera moves. I simply loved the shots of the cramped alleys when Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow casually brush against each other.

Direction: One of the most amazing things about this movie are the “rehearsals” where the lead actors “act” like something really has happened. Of course, they’re only “practicing” to prepare themselves for the inevitable. Wong Kar Wai tricked me the first couple of times- both the lead actors take turns in flirting with each other; Mrs. Chan confronts Mr. Chan (only the back of his head is shown to give the impression that Mrs. Chan is speaking to her husband) regarding his mistress; and the final rehearsal where they prepare to part ways.

WKW has used these rehearsals as a tool to explore deeper emotions that are only tangentially visible on the surface. It depicts the people of Hong Kong in the ’60s, who were quite shy and conservative and very different from their Western counterparts. If this were a Hollywood movie, then there would have been loud emotions and lots of loud scenes, crying to seek your attention.

Most of the frames in this scene are silent, with lots of camera movement that capture the transition in the lives of the lead actors painlessly.

Music: The Waltz score that plays in the background is melancholic and one of the best movie scores of all times.

What I didn’t like?

My biggest complain is that the screen goes blank way too often. WKW has over-used this particular style. It gets quite annoying after some time.

The hypocrisy of the lead characters is something that didn’t appeal to me. They say that they never want to cheat on their partners and that all that they seek is companionship. Then why exactly do they have such secret rendezvous? Going for dinner is hardly a bad thing to do. Two adults don’t need to have sex to cheat on their partners.

The movie was way too slow. Yes, I agree that every scene was cinematic beauty, but even then, I found myself looking at the watch quite often. The scenes are a tad repetitive.

Rating: 8/10

****

Om Shanti Om: Farah Khan and Shah Rukh Khan’s new, over hyped venture.

Plot: Young junior artist, Om Prakash Makhija, idolizes hazaaron dilon ki mallika, Shanti. He doesn’t win her over in that birth, but vouches to get her next time. A rebirth, lots of dhishoom dishoom and ’70s bashing with some good songs thrown in. Here’s the trailer.

First off, I need to admit that I never wanted to watch this movie. In fact, I saw the trailer of this movie only two days before its release date. Anyway, it’s much better than the self proclaimed badshah of Bollywood Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Saawariya.

Likes?

Deepika Padukone: Aankhon mein tere, ajab si ajab si addayein hain She looks smashing and I disagree with media reports that claim that she doesn’t live up to the “Dreamy Girl” image in the movie. She has all the ingredients to make it in this Bollywood industry- good height, figure, features, acting and amazing dancing capabilities. It was a treat watching her in the songs Ajab Si Ajab Si and Dhoom Tana.

Rishi Kapoor Opening Song: This was an interesting idea! I love this song and it was quite befitting. Though it would have been better if SRK hadn’t visualized himself as Rishi Kapoor

References to the ’70s: The dressing of the lead actors SRK, Deepika and Sreyas Talpade was top notch. Even the dialogues weren’t bad.

…can’t think of anything else that I liked.

Dislikes?

The plotline: SRK has already worked in Karan Arjun that had a reincarnation theme. Then, why this movie? (Besides that fact that his best friend is the director and his wife, Gauri Khan, is the producer? Okay. That’s a very good reason). There is nothing new as far as the story goes…the treatment is a little different. That’s all. The second half of the movie was quite shoddily made. The parts that dealt with Arjun Rampal and Deepika’s ‘ghost’ should have been given better treatment. Well…this is a Bollywood movie. We shouldn’t expect too much.

That stupid crystal ball with SRK and Deepika in their evening clothes! Can’t get cheesier.

SRK: He looks too old. I hope he retires in the next couple of years. No, his six packs failed to impress me. It might be a very big achievement for him, of course. He looked boring in the song Dard-E-Disco. I see guys with better physique in my college every single day!

Kirron Kher: Can’t stand this woman. She over-acts. Yes, her character’s like that; still, she should have done a better job. I have never been a fan of her acting skills.

Direction: Totally sucks! Main Hoon Na wasn’t a masterpiece either. People who want to leave their brains behind will enjoy this kind of loose direction. Farah’s accomplishments in this movie include- cheap, sadistic jokes at the expense of Manoj Kumar; making SRK over-act for the umpteenth time and a poorly shot Filmfare Awards scene that ended with SRK remembering his drunker dialogue from his previous birth. How tasteless can someone get? The song Deewangi Deewangi that has 31 stars is all right. Nothing great.

Stupid Dialogues: 1. “Ramesh babu, aap kya jaane ek chutki sindoor ki keemat?…k suhaagan ke sar ka taj hota hai ek chutki sindoor..”

2. “Picture abhi baaki hain mere dost”

3. “Saari duniya usko tumse milaane ki koshish karti hain”

…and other cheesy dialogues.

Rating: 5.5/10

******

Saawariya: Boy sees a lonely girl on a bridge and falls in love with her. Can anyone go wrong with such a story line? Now you know. In SLB’s words:

“It’s the most difficult film I’ve made so far.

Sure! It must have been difficult to get Omung Kumar to contruct blue, loud, explicit sets that obstruct natural light in every possible way. No trees…birds or normal people like you and me. Only prostitutes and a dreamer, Ranbir Kapoor. People who liked this movie seriously need to stop watching illogical Bollywood movies. That’s all that I can say.

Plotline: Based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story. You know it anyway. I don’t feel like typing it here.

Likes?

Ranbir Kapoor: He looks really cute and has acted very well.

Dislikes?

1. Direction: SLB is the most over-rated director of all times. He’s worse than David Dhawan, in my opinion. There was nothing good about his direction. I am completely blank.

2. Sets: I felt claustrophobic looking at those blue sets. Yes, it’s a dream like state. Everything is possible in a dream. SLB surpasses MF Hussain in this madness.

3. Songs: Why exactly do people break into a song every five minutes? The first 20 mins has three songs…I was literally counting.

4. Characters: Very ill conceived. Why does Sonam Kapoor need to wait on that bridge? Didn’t Salman Khan know where she stays? Zora Sehgal was boring too. So was Rani.

5. Sonam Kapoor’s laughter: She laughs like a mad woman whenever she gets a chance to do so.

6. Too long…I fast forwarded the entire movie and took two days to complete it. That’s something!

7. Music: Most of the songs are forgettable, except for the towel dropping song. Was it necessary for Ranbir Kapoor to go nude there? It didn’t add anything to the overall scene.

8. References to Raj Kapoor didn’t work for me. Sorry!

Rating: 1/10 (Only because Ranbir was good; else I would have given it a 0).

********