Mushtaq_Ahmd Reviews

Kurbaan (2009)

One of the good movies from Bollywood

[7/10 · 25 November 2009]

I generally have no expectations from films that preach. Most of the films on terrorism do exactly that. More so, bollywood movies try to preach quite often, terrorism or not.

So I successfully gave-New York, Fanaa a miss without regrets.

But somehow I watched Kurbaan and it turned out to be a non-preachy good piece of art. Its a decent suspense thriller which will make the first-time-viewer think. It quickly moves from some romantic-love-story to conspiracy-theory without a preachy or sympathetic moral of the story - "its only-innocent-poor that are lured into terrorist activities." It sticks to the story and portrays the confusion of an individual who is torn between religion and his unborn child. Also a lesson for girls who fall prey very easily to romantic one-liners from guys who are very sacrificial for the girl they love. Beware of them and watch this worth-a-watch thriller.

U Me Aur Hum (2008)

Nice Movie, must see once

[7/10 · 18 April 2008]

Saw this movie yesterday with high expectations. It almost came true. An impressive debut by Ajay Devgan as a director. He lets his work speak for him unlike the others.

The movie starts with too many dialogs and no action for the first ten minutes or so. Then the action begins. Almost the entire first half entertains you nicely with few great jokes/one-liners to remember. Kanchanjanga Godbole, 'General ki naak' and the likes :) Then the serious part begins which gets one hooked too. Kajol has short term memory loss problems and it almost results in their dreams together getting shattered. This serious part goes hand in hand with some good one-liners which make you laugh. Pushpa :) Overall a different movie from Bollywood stable which usually has only romantic love stories working at the BO.

Ajay proves himself as an intelligent person. Kajol's acting abilities are already known to all. She is as usual, good.

Sumit Raghavan is impressive, Divya is good.

I give it 7 out of 10.

Ordinary People (1980)

One of the best ordinary movies I have seen

[8/10 · 12 December 2006]

I happened to see this movie just by chance. Not a very much Hollywood person. I liked Robert Redford in another movie as an actor and just wanted to see how good a director he is. This movie is brilliant. It engrosses. Very few movies unexpectedly better your expectations. Ordinary People is one of them. I watched it without expecting much and ended up seeing it completely in one go. Very ordinary movie, brilliantly made, great acting performances, simple yet great script. Its touching. Had watched it years ago but it left a lasting impression. Robert Redford is a better director than an actor. Robert, hats off to your simply great ordinary movie which appealed to human intellect and emotion at the same time.

Page 3 (2005)

A must see, a good movie after long time

[8/10 · 22 February 2005]

I did not like Chandni Bar from the same director.

I did not watch his other movies. They came and went.

But Page-3 is nicely made. Seems real. Like Satya from RGV did.

The mental sickness of the so called high society is the summary of the movie. In the midst of all the sickness, its difficult to lead a normal life which the protagonist, Konkana Sen, does. Serious movie, not to be watched with children or expecting wives. Page-3 of newspapers is the usual place for reporting the activities going on in the parties of the rich and elite who indulge in much more filth then what is reported. How this Page-3 is also a business prospect is shown in the movie. Event management firms get paid to arrange parties and make a rich but not famous people famous overnight by clicking photographs with the celebrities invited to the party.

The western culture has crept into the high society of Mumabi quite deeply. The movie shows it boldly, no holds barred.

Madhur Bhandarkar starts a new journey from here.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)

Not good.

[3/10 · 11 May 2003]

This movie was not a good one.

Like many SRK movies this has just survived on hype.

The title song is absolutely melodious. However the movie was lacking entertainment quotient. Shallow emotions on display. Its made by a SRK fan for SRK fans. There is too much of love in the air, seems like every collegian or high-school student needs to be in love with someone. Its not right to project or promote such wrong things.

But what matters is how the movie did on the box office, and this movie faired well. Another SRK movie, Karan Arjun, which was one of the worst movies ever from Bollywood but it is one of the biggest grosser ever.

KJO needs to do something original and better without SRK.

Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001)

WOW - thats it!

[8/10 · 29 March 2003]

The movie apart from having a good story, good performances and good direction also has reflected upon reality.

I was not expecting much from this movie. But that turned out to be the best part.

Pakistan was a part India before 1947. It was created on the basis of religion and hatred. That hatred has not settled down still (and probably never will). It was at its peak immediately after the Britishers left.

How do the Pakistan politicians exploit the religion and hatred against India to their own advantage is shown in the movie for real. Even educated and open-minded Pakistanis have accepted and appreciated this. Apart from the "reality" point of view, this movie has some visually great scenes like the one where Tara escapes to India from Pakistan in a goods-train. Nice work by the team as a whole.

The story starts with how there was hatred and killings on both the sides during partition. And how the girl Sakeena (Ameesha Patel) is separated from her family in the chaos of so many people moving from either sides to the other. She being left alone in the "opposite" side results in the people trying to molest her. Tara (Sunny Deol) stops people from doing that to a girl separated from her family. He has to bear the brunt of opposing his own people for someone whose people have killed and tortured women of his (sunny's) own. But he sticks to his.

Love blooms between this uneducated poor truck driver and the educated rich girl and they get married and have a son. After years of Sakeena living in the ignorance that her parents are dead, she sees a picture in a local daily newspaper that shows her father to have become a prominent political figure in Pakistan. She has a desire to go meet her parent and Tara has no objection to it. But once she reaches her parents, they use her to earn political mileage by projecting her as a brave girl who fought against India's tortures for years and finally returned to her homeland.

She is shocked to know that she is not allowed to return to her husband and son. Even Tara Singh, the husband, is denied visa to Pakistan.

The movie then shows how a insignificant truck driver Tara has to fight the powerful bureaucracy/political figures to get his wife back to his home. His trauma and bravery are very nicely shown.

The well-known loud verbal-exchanges between Sunny Deol-Amrish Puri in this movie are too good to miss.

A must see for all those who don't have a clue as to what happened during the partition era.

I give it 8 out of 10.

Satya (1998)

Arguably the best Indian movie ever

[19 January 2003]

After being a fan of English movies for some time, there are not many Hindi movies that one would REALLY appreciate. And if one does, this movie would be the first one. It would be almost impossible for Varma to come out with a movie as good as this once again. This movie is fundoo (aka EXCELLENT) from acting, direction, music point of view. Hats off to Varma. Keep up being different.

Vertigo (1958)

Bad

[3 November 2002]

This was my first Alfred Hitchcock movie. And not a good experience. Whirlpool of terror???? I have to redefine my definition of whirlpool and/or terror. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I had a hard time completing this movie. I am shocked to see this movie in the same list of top 250 where movies like Godfather. See it to believe me.