Rajneeti

My Rating : 3/5

There was a time when I never missed a Hindi Film, but recently I started missing many movies due to lack of time (Responsibilities!!!). Rajneeti was a movie that I never wanted to miss and so after more than a month of its release, today I watched the movie.
Prakash Jha's Gangaajal was a movie that I liked very much, especially since I could relate to some characters and their language from my short stint in Jamshedpur. Incidently, I watched his next movie 'Apaharan' also at Jamshedpur when I went there after I joined ISRO. Apaharan, in-spite of its starcast, failed to impress.
Rajneeti was an Intelligent script. Though it is based on Mahabharata, it makes you feel that the characters in the movie have something to do with the Gandhi Family. The movie was a gripping one, except for certain scenes which could have been avoided (For eg: Kunti coming to know about Karna and her going to meet him could have been avoided)
Ranbir Kapoor was impressive and Katrina's looks in saree was amazing (It reminds us of sonia, which, of course, might have been incorporated to gain commercial advantage). Manoj Bajpai & Ajay Devgan were wasted but Arjun Rambal scored.
I never thought that these many similarities exist between Mahabharata, Godfather and Indian Politics.

Reservoir Dogs

My Rating : 4/5

Ever since I have watched 'Kante' and came to know that it was a remake of 'Reservoir Dogs', I wanted to watch this movie. Kante was a movie that I liked very much for its style, its music and its theme. It was a part of my Nostalgia about Jamshedpur. Whenever I used to hear the songs of Kante I remember my days at Jamshedpur, where I got used to watching different types of Hindi movies (not only just block busters)
Reservoir dogs was there in my PC for quiet some time but I never could make time available for watching this. Thanks to chicken pox, I had enough time for all this and more. So, I decided to watch this movie.
Quentin Tarantino amazes you with the filming. Starting from the first scene of the movie (the shot inside the car with white upholstery and one guy bleeding of a bullet injury) to the last scene of the movie when all the robbers fire each other and die in their effort to find out the 'Rat' among them is amazing.

Raavan

My Rating : 1/5

Raavan was a movie that was anxiously awaited by the movie lovers in India. A movie by Maniratnam, Vikram playing the hero in tamil version and the villain in the hindi version, needless to say that A R Rahman has given tunes to the songs. The odds were in favour of Raavan but it turned out to be a big disappointment.
Except for the mind-blowing picturisation by Santhosh Sivan, the wonderful sets by Sabu Cyril there was nothing much to enjoy in the film.
Nevertheless, I liked certain philosophical aspects of Raavan. The question that Sita asks Ram "Did you come in search of me or you came to defeat Raavan?", it was something that has to be given a thought.
This time round, even A R couldn't give nice songs. The movie was a total disappointment

My Name Is Khan

My Rating : 3/5

I am not a big fan of Sharukh Khan and I don't like Karan Johar either, but the stand that Sharukh took during the "My Name is Khan" controversy and the fact that he didn't relent to the demands of Bal Thackrey impressed me and I decided to watch MNIK.
The first scene of the movie, when SRK is brisked by security personnel suspecting him to be a terrorist and the dialogue of SRK "My Name is Khan & I am not a Terrorist" was an impressive start.
But as the movie progresses, melodramas, colourful masala songs, family sentiments - all typical Joharian Traits started comming up and the movie at times drifted to the boredom territory.
As a whole the movie is not that bad as usual Karan Johar movies. Luckily for us he has not written the script.

The Hurt Locker

My Rating : 5/5

One of the most riveting movies that I have watched in recent times. There are numerous movies depicting iraqi war, the plight of iraqi people, insurgency & ethnic conflict in Iraq. But this one is an entirely different war movie. It portrays the life of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. The movie does provide a sense of what it must have been like to experience that harrowing conflict.

When SFC William James joins Bravo Company in Iraq, they have a month or so left in their tour of duty. He's a bomb disposal expert and he is replacing Sgt Matt Thompson, a long-standing member of the team who was recently killed disposing of an improvised explosive device.
When James arrives on the scene, Bravo Company has thirty-nine days left on its current deployment. It will be a long thirty-nine days for Sanborn and Eldridge whose styles do not mesh with their new leader. James is a renegade for who the thrill of the dismantlement seems to be the ultimate goal regardless of the safety of his fellow team members, others on the scene or himself. On the other hand, Sanborn is by the books: he knows his place and duty and trusts others in the army to carry out theirs as well as he. And Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague.

Thanks twitter..its b'coz of a tweet from Rajeev Masand that I thought of watching this movie.

Ividam Swargam Aanu

My Rating : 1/5

Roshan Andrews was planning 'Casanova' with mohanlal. Due to some problems, the project didn't take off. So they decided to make use of those dates to make a pure commercial 'formula' movie. The movie was titled "Ividam Swargam aanu"

I think the cast was decided by choosing all possible combination of actors which has worked well wiht lal in earlier movies. Like thilakan, kaviyoor ponnamma & Lal, Sreenivasan & Lal, Jagathy & Lal, Shankar & Lal.
James Albert who has written Classmates & Cycle has written the script. (In fact there is no need of a scriptwriter to make movies like this)
Mohan lal runs a 'hypothetical' farm house where he carries out 'textbook' farming (It seems the scriptwriter has watched too many episodes of krishidarsan). There are windmills(that never rotate) to generate electricity for the farm. There are three heroines (Typically mohanlal). There is jagathy, there is shankar, there is sreenivasan. Apart from these, there is nothing.
A villain (Lallu alex) who tries to grab the farm house of the hero for his real estate interests. The fight of the hero against the villain and finally the hero wins the farm house and a consolation price in the form of one of the heroines. Age old cliche.
The only plus point in this movie is Jagathy's performance.
This movie is turning out to be a hit. But it's not surprising as till date all Vinayan movies were boxoffice grossers. Malayalees should be commended for their wonderful taste of movies.

Paa

My Rating : 3/5

Cheeni Kum, the previous movie from Balki was an impressive one. Now when he comes with his second movie with Amitabh Bachhan playing a 12 yr old boy suffering from progeria (a rare medical condition that accelerates the ageing process), the expectations was high.

Auro(Amitabh Bachchan) is an intelligent and witty 12-year-old boy with an extremely rare genetic defect callled progeria. Mentally he is 12 very normal, but physically he looks five times older. In spite of his condition, Auro is a very happy boy. He lives with his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan) who is a gynecologist. Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan) is young, progressive and a full-of-ideals politician. He is out to prove to the world that 'politics' is not a bad word. He is a man with a mission. Auro is Amol's son however Vidya conceals this from him. When Auro does learn the truth however, he wishes to go to Delhi with his father. Auro tries to get his mother and father back together but Vidya resists, still hurt by the fact that Amol wanted her to have an abortion when they first found out she was pregnant. Amol realizes his mistake though, and proposes to Vidya, as he is still in love with her. He stays by Auro's side when he finds out that Auro is his son. Auro's health begins to deteriorate as he reaches his 13th birthday, his physical defects catching up. However, he is finally able to reunite his mother and father once again as Vidya gives in to her feelings for Amol and her motherly love for Auro. Auro, succumbing to his disease, dies happy, his last words being "Maa" and "Paa."

There are many positivies abt this movie- Amitabh, his make up, music, picturisation etc. Though this movie was not much appreciated by critics, I loved this one.