Pictured Moving

Watched Johnny Gaddaar finally. It is a slick flick modeled on the 70s bollywood thriller genre made famous by the likes of Vijay Anand. Neil Nitin Mukesh has done both is grandfather the legendary singer Mukesh and father ‘the would have been legendary’ Nitin Mukesh proud. He has the looks to make his presence felt on screen. Enough said about Neil - the plot in the film is the regular deal/heist plot, but what is good is that Sriram Raghavan the director manages to hold your interest till the very end with slick editing and the customary twist at the end. The supporting cast of Dharam Paaji, Vinay Pathak, Rimi Sen, Zakir Hussain and Rasika Joshi also do justice to their roles.

It is a must watch if you want to relive the thriller days of the 70s.

My Take: Yeah! ■■■■■ 

Watched ‘Mithya’ the quintessential low budget good actors Rajat Kapoor latest venture. Firstly I think Rajat needs to be complimented for not stereotyping his cast in movie after movie that he tends to use them. What comes out of Mithya (essentially means Illusion or Bhram) is a tale of a struggling actor (Ranvir Sheorey - impressive everytime I see him) and his being drafted in the role of a real time Don and his journey through that role. The rest of the cast is impressive as well with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, Harsh Chayya and Neha Dhupia putting in realistic performances. Though I heard some people didn’t like the ending but then this is not one of your regular films either which have the predictable ending.

Hats off to the team of Mithya and I would recommend to definitely watch this movie.

My Take: Yeah! ■■■■■

If you want to see an editing masterpiece this is one of them. The true display of non linear narration is in movies like these. Amores Perros or Love’s a Bitch is a Spanish flick with English subtitles. Directed by the acclaimed Alejandro González Iñárritu of Babel fame this movie keeps you to your seat till the end. Excellent performances from the entire cast. A must watch and if you are a movie connosiuer you should have this in your DVD collection.

My Take - Wow! ■■■■■

Let me first admit that I’m not a fan of fiction or fantasy books, especially the latter and I always feel that tto he Harry Potter series is a media beast that is thrust on is. It is like if I have not read or seen Harry Potter then I’m this ‘atheist’ of this world. So I succumb to this and end up to watch ‘The Order of the Phoenix’.

I ate popcorn, snoozed a little, saw a little, was bored a lot and walked out of the theatre feeling what on earth do these Potter fans see in this movie or book (I can’t comment on the book as you know why by now). Maybe I’ll watch the next one in Hindi, probably then I’ll enjoy the movie.

Less said the better - I’m just waiting for some doofus to tell me whether Harry Potter will live or die in part 7 and rest in peace.

My Take: Huh! ■■■■■

Kung Fu! Quentin Tarantino style. The second part of the movie, actually it’s just that he went about making Kill Bill and realized late that it had become too long for western audiences – so he clipped it into two. But true to the Tarantino style of story telling this one lives up to his reputation. This part however doesn’t have as much action if you have already seen the first part, but nevertheless there is more story telling and scene setting done here. That’s Quentin Tarantino for you jigsaw style filmmaking, the moviegoers have to put the pieces together.Uma Thurman, David Carridine & Michael Madsen show loads of style in their histrionics. Need to watch both the volumes back to back to enjoy the complete experience.

My Take - Hmmm! ■■■■■

The 1990 movie on the Irish mob in New York, State of Grace is a well crafted thriller judded with stars of the likes of Sean Penn, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman. Good performances by each of these artistes, knowing the kind of actors they are they never disappoint you. My favourite bit is this dialog that Sean Penn says “You believe in the Angels, or the saints. And you believe it, but it hasn’t anything to do with reality.”.

It’s also the movie Sean Penn met his wife Robin Wright (Kelly of Santa Barbara fame) who co-stars with him.

Ofcourse this is not one of the best mob movies you would have seen, expecially not in a category which has Godfather in it.

My Take - Hmmm! ■■■■■

Mind Blowing – That’s how I would describe this movie. The 2nd of the movies that have both the Bachchan’s, father and son. Loosely based on The Godfather and a rehash of the Thackeray family, this is one of the best films from Ram Gopal Varma’s stable. Wow performances from Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon and the others in the cast. The best thing about this movie is there are no songs, to the point effective dialogs and delivery, and to top it all speaking with your eyes performances. A must for ham actors to make them understand that acting is more about shutting their trap than opening it.

Abhishek Bachchan has been able to hold his ground in front of the doyen of Hindi cinema and more importantly his father Amitabh Bachchan. This guy is to be watched – He is the next big superstar in the making. And that could not have been more aptly shown when, he takes over the reins from his father in the movie. Watch out all you Abhishek Bachchan critics you will all eat crow now.

Don’t even dare watch this movie on cable or DVD – you will kill yourself for it later, watch it on the big screen.

My Take - Wow! ■■■■■

What do you get when you put together Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible, True Lies, and The War of the Roses together? Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

Throw in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for some saleability, and you have a winning combination. Well hold on, not so fast, my mistake for taking the movie at face value (Brad’s and Angelina’s). Either the producers thought that people are stupid and are gullible or whatever. I frankly thought this is an unnecessarily over rated movie with no meat at all. Best action sequence when the two are converting the Smith house into smithereens and also my hopes. There was nothing more to add after that.

The only claim to fame (or disrepute) for this movie is it brought Brad close to Angelina and far away from Jennifer. So in case you are going to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith…see someone else!

My Take - Eeeks! ■■■■■