Reviews

6 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
Rockstar (2011)
7/10
ROCKSTAR - Ranbir's entry to the elite league
15 November 2011
A lot of us were really looking forward to watching this movie mainly because of A.R.Rahman's music. The Mozart from Madras had the world taken by storm by providing an album that encompassed music from various genres and feel.

The Question: Did the movie live up to the expectations? My Answer: Kind of....

POSITIVES!

A.R.Rahman's music was already a mass hit...but the background score was stupendous.... Mohit Chauhan's voice was the perfect choice for Jordan (Ranbir Kapoor).... The 'Sher-o-wali Ma' track reminded me of the freshness displayed in the "Iyappa" track from the movie Boys (Tamil). Also, all the songs in the album have been given to perfectly match the on screen situation.Whether it is the freshness in Phir se Ud Chala, Joy in Katiya Karun, Darkness in Aur ho, Desperate Hope in Nadaan Parindey or Anger in Sadda Haq...... A.R.R proves that he is a class above the rest.

Ranbir Kapoor definitely!! The Kapoor kid has issued a stamp of authority with his mature portrayal of Jordan....a character that previously goes through many transitions due to the high's and low's of his life..... from a simpleton musician Janardhan Jhakad (JJ). We see 2 very different Ranbir Kapoors in the movie. Also, he carries simple scenes with natural acting rather than supreme overacting displayed by many of his current competitors. He could have screamed a little less at times...but still...on the whole...a performance worthy of a filmfare award.

Camera-work and Cinematography was great.....Superb locales and unique shots have become a common criteria for films to focus on, in order to cut competition... but the camera-work for songs like Sadda Haq, Nadaan Parindey and Phir se Ud Chala showed that the entire unit was soaking in the nectar of music composed by Rahman. That translated on to the visuals and the viewers were in for a treat. Most importantly, when Jordan performed on stage, the cinema audience felt that they were a part of his concert. To achieve that amount of realistic connection is commendable.

Imtiaz Ali has to be given credit for writing this story and attempting to make a movie like Rockstar. Lets face it...it ain't the run of the mill Bolly masala.....neither does it have a widespread target audience. So if Rockstar manages to recover it's cost and make decent profits, everyone will be pleasantly surprised..... But Imtiaz Ali made this movie for it's true meaning and essence.... kudos for that.

NEGATIVES! (Well i did answer "Kind of...")

Nargis Fakhri did have a new look ..... but honestly the audience gets an overdose of her....her character 'Heer' seems to stall the flow of the movie....Though Heer (in the movie) is responsible for the creation of Jordan the Rockstar, character Heer is mainly responsible for compromising the script and screenplay (mainly in the second half). SECOND HALF RULE! It is an universal but unsaid law...."IF A BAD MOVIE HAS A GOOD SECOND HALF, THINGS MIGHT WORK, BUT IF A POTENTIALLY GREAT MOVIE HAS A POOR SECOND HALF (Even in relative comparison), THAT AFFECTS THE AUDIENCE ADVERSELY! " The First half of Rockstar is mind blowing....and the 2nd half just does not sustain the same amount of steam.....things move back and forth.....the audience lose the flow..... the main attraction in the second half is the video of Nadaan Parindey....Also, the movie ends in a weird manner that can be left to the audience's perception...

Direction, Editing and Screenplay missing a few tricks ...... Ali and gang have attempted a different narrating style and the movie tends to move in both directions. Also, songs are edited in portions....tracks used in different places....this formula works well in the first half , but loses itself in the second....can leave many people in the audience confused and irritated.

OVERALL VERDICT! Rockstar is definitely worth a watch but don't go with too many expectations. It could have been great if the second half had more focus and structure. I am giving Rockstar 4 on 5 (Actually 3....but 1 point for A.R.Rahman's genius contribution) Ranbir Kapoor is here to stay!
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Great Movie!!!
1 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Well ever since Farhan Akhtar(FA) gave us Dil Chahta Hai, he has definitely established himself a supremely talented director.....With the inspiring Lakhsya (where FA successfully got Hrithik Roshan to act decently for the first time)....and the Modern and cogent remake of the Big B's super-hit DON starring SRK.....FA started becoming the most acclaimed youth director....But he pulled a rabbit out of the hat in ROCK ON!!! His measured performance, the boy next door looks and a well toned body transformed Farhan overnight into a new acting sensation.

Whatever formula Javed Akthar and Shabana Azmi used , their kids have turned out just fine....Zoya Akhtar (ZA) has entered the Bollywood scenario with her first movie 'Luck By Chance' en cashing on the sudden craze everyone has on her brother. Well Hats off to ZA and FA....they have managed to present a wonderful movie that so beautifully depicts the entire spectrum of Hindi Cinema....Every angle, whether it is the Struggling unsuccessful actress (Konkona Sen), the sudden sensation in acting ( Farhan Akhtar), the current Superstar (hrithik), yesteryear's Great producer (rishi Kapoor), the Diva from the 70's (Dimple Kapadia), the cynosure of everyone's eyes, junior Diva (Isha Shravani), the over ambitious, supposedly modern director (Sanjay Kapoor) and even the proud showy producer's wife (Juhi Chawla)...i could just go on....but the underlying fact is that all these angles have been depicted with perfection....highly realistic but not as depressing as a Madhur Bhandarkar reality take like Fashion!!!

The story is something like this.....Sona ( Konkona Sen) is given promises of big movie projects by Chaudry (ally Khan) and she decides to do small roles till then...however Chaudry doesn't keep up his end of the deal.....Sona feels utterly dejected as she has given everything yet has struggled to get a breakthrough.

Vikram Jai Singh (Farhan Akhtar) is another aspiring actor who lives in the same building as Sona with his other actor friends....One in the movie industry and one in theatre...the 3 friends have lots of issues amongst themselves that have not been addressed!!! Vikram and Sona start to like each other and Sona manages to reach his photos to Chaudry.....

While all this happening on one end, parallely Romy Rolly (Rishi Kapoor) the legendary Bollywood producer is making his comeback with a big movie project directed by Ranjit Rolly (Sanjay Kapoor) ....a director heavily inspired by Blatant Commercial and mindless cinema....The movie's hero is Zafar Khan (hrithik Roshan) who is actually a Romy rolly find!!! The Heroine is the 70's diva Nenna Wallia's (Dimple Kapadia) daughter Nikki Wallia (Isha Shravani).....While Minty Rolly (Juhi Chawla) and Romy Rolly are busy with movie....Zafar decides to opt out for his own reasons......things look bad for Romy, thats when Vikram's photos reach him and suddenly a hero is cast in this big movie.

The remaining story of the movie is the rift between Sona and Vikram, the relationship between Vikram and Nikki,the press and photo shoots and the fact that Vikram has to manage his stardom and stay level headed!!!.....

The movie moves at a decent pace throughout and is boosted by some great screen play and performances.....Farhan has proved himself to be one of the best actors bollywood has seen in the recent times....Konkona is gr8 as always.....Sanjay Kapoor impresses everybody....Its nice to see Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia on screen together once again...They have played their roles to perfection!!...Isha Shravani is cute and adorable as Nikki Wallia and has done justice to her role.All the cameos and special appearances have been perfectly sketched out and casted....Aamir Khan,Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Khanna, Vivek Oberoi and even SRK 'king khan' have added a lot of spice and substance to Zoya Akhtar's Recipe for Luck by chance..

The Background Score is pretty decent.....Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have given a decent mix of songs as well....most of them are good to hear but don't have a gr8 recall value.....Sapnon se Bhare Nainaan and Pyaar ki dastaan are the 2 best tracks in this album...The intro song 'Yeh Zindagi' is brilliant in pieces but has some ordinary percussion arrangements.....the picturization however is wonderful....Its like a Bollywood version of Kuselan's "Cinema Cinema"....

Overall Zoya Akhtar has proved that she is as talented as Farhan if not better when it comes to film making and has given us a refreshing and realistic foray into the Glamorous world of Bollywood. The Ending is different but extremely practical and realistic.....On the whole,Luck By Chance is a polished and well made movie....Definitely worth a watch!!!!
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Sarkar Raj (2008)
9/10
A Must Watch
1 November 2011
The Cast consists of all the Bachchans (except for Jaya Bacchan whom RGV couldn't fit in with an appropriate mafia role) After the agony and widespread damage caused by Ram Gopal Varrma's AAG, people wanted to see whether RGV and the Big B can resurrect themselves. Plus this movie was a sequel to 2005's Sarkar which was RGV's tribute to 'The Godfather'

To make sequels in Bollywood has always been a very tricky issue as the comparisons are too critical in nature with the first part.Lage Raho Munnabhai was probably the first Big Hindi movie which became a major success when compared to its prequel...

If any of you guys thought that Sarkar Raj was based on another one of the Godfather series, well then you are grossly mistaken! Writers Prashant Pandey and Ram Gopal Varma have come up with a fresh,new and brilliant plot to assure the audience of 125 entertaining minutes....

I don't believe in blogging movie spoilers, so i'll be as vague as possible....cause this movie is a must see!!

The movie mainly revolves around three characters ( The Bachchan Arena) Subash Nagre (Big B), Shankar Nagre (Abishek) and Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai)...Subash has full faith in his son Shankar though he finds it difficult to deal with the fact that its Shankar who is the actual 'Sarkar'...Shankar wants what is best for Maharashtra and Anita Rajan steps in from London as a CEO of Sheperd group...her aim is to make India's largest power plant. Anita realizes Maharashtra as a potential site.Even though Subhas is against the proposition, Shankar strongly believes it is for the state's betterment and he decides to support Anita and her project no matter what stands in their way...

When so many crores of rupees are at stake, the plant project becomes a battleground for dirty politics, deceit and corruption.I do not wish to disclose any more facts of the movie !!u should see it.....The villains are convincing and the supporting cast has small roles with clearly defined characters....The 3 Bachchans have given subtle yet strong performances and it is difficult to see who is the real Sarkar amongst them....

The Dialogues of the movie are powerful and crisp and act as the real Forte of the movie...The background score is impressive though the 'Govinda Govinda' chantings do tend to get annoyingly over used!!

RGV gets full marks for his direction...the editing is perfect as well.....even though there are no song and dance sequences the movie doesn't bore you one bit...

The movie is self explanatory and one need not have seen Sarkar to follow Sarkar Raj...thats another plus point...

The action scenes are spectacular and more importantly 'Very Realistic'!!! RGV clearly demonstrates that the Bullet penetrates both- the Hero and the Villain.

The first half is kinda slow but RGV constructs a proper platform to carry the movie further with ease...the second half is totally gripping and moves at a fairly quick pace...No matter what happens don't miss the 2nd half...especially the part where the suspense of the entire plot will be revealed by Subhas Nagre....thats an amazing scene that will take all by surprise!!

Overall, a brilliant movie which i totally enjoyed !!!

VERDICT: Sarkar Raj - will extinguish the agony caused by RGV's AAG!!! A must see!!!

FOR MORE REVIEWS ON MOVIES AND MUSIC ALBUMS PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG http://themusicandmoviezone.blogspot.com/
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Ra.One (2011)
6/10
RA.ONE : MOVIE REVIEW (No Spoilers)
1 November 2011
In a nutshell...Ra.One .... Definitely a mixed bag .... but thats not what people want to read....so here goes.... Positives: Great VFX and Sound effects The Train Action scene is brilliantly taken..... (though slightly inspired) ARJUN RAMPAL IS ONE MENACING VILLAIN! Great to see SuperStar Rajinikanth's cameo on screen... SRK and team have taken great effort in giving us a film that matches up to international standards with respect to the technical department Negatives: Poor music ....ordinary background score.....Chammak Chalo is the only tolerable piece! The Direction and Screenplay is not tight ..... movie is already inspired by many sources...tends to lose focus.... SRK as a South Indian might not even convince rest of India...forget about Tamil Nadu! Rajini's cameo....boon and a bane...Rajini fans will be depressed to see the Superstar portrayed in such a manner..the graphics for the entire movie was brilliant...why screw up this potentially epic scene...i don't know if there was any offense intended...the idea was good...but execution...pathetic... Movie is weak in the humor dept...and target audience is not as broad as expected. OVERALL VERDICT: Ra.One promised a lot....delivered in a few areas...failed in certain....Kudos to the entire team for the hard effort...worth watching once in a theatre... Ra.One is like a tasty Dosa served with poor chutney and sambhar..... Satisfaction...Almost! PS: DON-2 Trailer is awesome....i am sure that is gonna make for Ra.ONE's mistakes...though i detect a serious Prison Break Influence! :)
4 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7aum Arivu (2011)
7/10
Decent effort...could have been better!
1 November 2011
7am Arivu had been hyped to a great extent and that became it's biggest hurdle to success...

Still a decent effort! Pros: Great effort by Surya!Very convincing as a Bodhidharman. Shruti Hassan (minus the mispronunciations) makes a good debut with a meaty role. Interesting storyline. Great cinematography. Jonny Ngyugen is a fantastic villain.

Cons: The movie's flow is interrupted by unnecessary obnoxious songs. Harris's BGMs are a huge letdown. Repetitive stunt sequences bore the audience at times. Certain scenes involving pathetic graphics could have been avoided.

Overall Verdict: I still liked 7Am arivu.... But it is not a mass entertainer catering to all the sections of movie audience... A decent effort...Worth a watch!

FOR MORE REVIEWS ON MOVIES AND MUSIC ALBUMS PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG http://themusicandmoviezone.blogspot.com/
6 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Velayudham (2011)
8/10
Velayudham: Vijay's redemption after Gilli
1 November 2011
After such a long time, Ilayathalapathy Vijay gives me a reason to write a movie review..... After Gilli , Velayudham was the only movie that registered similar IMDb ratings of 7.2...

I enjoyed the movie.... and wish to highlight the pros and cons.. THUMBS UP:

Interesting start.....Hero introduction very different from previous movies.... First half has a great narration style... Throughout the movie, there are some good twists...hence the audience remain guessing and interest is sustained to a great extent... Comedy quotient is high..beats it's Diwali competitors by light years.... Hansika scores high points with her expressions and lip sync, while Genelia looks ravishing! Both the heroines form a combo visual treat for the masses. SANTHANAM...that should say it all Vijay has given a good performance....he has excelled in the sentimental scenes with his sister played by Saranya... As usual , dance and action scenes are done easily by him... HIS USUAL OVERACTING AND ON SCREEN GIMMICKS have reduced by a ton... Unlike many of his earlier movies....the story is good....very Shankarish feel...appeals to the masses...deals with corruption and terrorism...

THUMBS DOWN: Background score is good....songs are OK..but as usual...the timing of these songs seem abrupt and disturb the flow of what would be a proper fast paced movie..... commercial elements do compromise the quality of cinema in our industry. Every Hero needs a worthy Nemesis....that is seriously missing here.... Unnecessary usage of ordinary graphics in certain scenes and song sequences....seems to be the trend... Negative points for Director Raja's blatant visual xerox of Assassins Creed (without even mentioning the reference in the credits) Some scenes that portray crimes against women go past a limit...could have avoided those instances... Negative points for Vijay's sudden attempt in the end to showcase his '6pack' abs (more like a 4pack)....not necessary..it is evident that he has worked on his fitness but this 'Ab' Craze among all heroes in Bollywood and Kollywood is 'ABS'olutely Irritating....

OVERALL VERDICT:

A good entertainer...money's worth for the entire family.... miles ahead of Vijay's usual movies... Velayudham gets the mix right for a Diwali release.... Definitely worth a watch..

FOR MORE REVIEWS ON MOVIES AND MUSIC ALBUMS PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG http://themusicandmoviezone.blogspot.com/
5 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed