Author: farooq Page 36 of 45

Boss: My Review

On October 16, 2013

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakrabarty, Aditi rao hydari

Director: Anthony D’souza

Runtime: 150 Minutes

Boss surely has a good star-cast to boast off, the storyline isn’t weak for starters and the actors don’t let you down either. But its’ not as rosy as it sounds, too much of sanskar-laden dialogues, the 60’s masala twists with comedy to make it look cool and simply nothing new on the platter to entertain you. Boss, simply put is another level of boredom inducing capsule which you take to remind yourself that you still watch the typical bollywood movie, which tries to make too much sense.

One good thing about Akshay Kumar, who plays Boss in this remake of South hit Pokkiri Raja, is that he doesn’t repeat the mindless movie acting that he has regularly been associated with, but then this is obviously not some great improvement as such. One parkour sequence looks better than the hero-does-it-single-handedly fight stunts scattered around the length.

The long list of actors include Mithun Chakraborty who plays the dad of Boss (Akshay Kumar), Balraj Sahni (his uncle), Shiv Pandit (his brother), Danny denzongpa (Big Boss to our Akki boss), Ronit roy (Playing the bad cop), Aditi Rao hydari (Playing the love interest of Shiv and sister to Ronit roy) and although, you cannot individually find faults with any of them, yet collectively they seem to be a misfit in some order.

Ronit roy, although is one shining star of the movie, doing full justice to the kind of role he was made to portray. He can be real bad, and he leaves no stone unturned in achieving the same. Actors like Johny lever and Sanjay mishra were wasted, where they could have brought in the comic element act just as fillers.

The background music is terrible in visually syncing certain emotional scenes as well as in making the action-packed scenes become interesting. The songs are not only mis-placed but only try to somehow bring up the dancer in Akshay out (No, don’t search for it, you won’t find it).

Anthony D’Souza, as director does makes the actors, who are masters of their craft act, but fails to stitch it up and fails in this big department. And the dialogue and Screenplay team doesn’t help either.

The movie isn’t a comedy, or action or even drama but tries hard to fit in bits of everything. The dialogues are perhaps copied from movies and soap operas of yesteryears and been put in, because the ones coming out from the character’s mouth, surely makes you want an aspirin to ward of the headache from the sanskar-overdose.

It’s better not to indulge in something which has nothing exciting to it and with a length of 2 hours and 30 minutes, takes a lot of effort for you to take interest in what is going on the screen.

I’m going with 1.5/5 for Akshay Kumar starrer Boss. Worth a Miss.

Wapas na mila…

By farooq

On October 16, 2013

In Fiction & Poetry

Beabroo hoke kisi gali se kabhi hum nikle the to kabhi tum bhi…

Rumaalon ko bhigote hue… kabhi tum ruksat hue to kabhi hum bhi..

Jo kisi ko dekhun yun mayoos to badha deta hoon rumaal pada…

Jo maange agar koi kandha…. to badha deta hoon unke jaanib….

Dard ye nahi ki hame kisi ne rumaal nahi diya….

Dard ye bhi nahi ki talash rahe the hum koi kaandha…

Afsos bas iska hai… apna rumaal bhi nahi mila unse…

Jinke lie dard ye paal rakha tha….

Gravity :My Review

By farooq

On October 11, 2013

In Movies & Entertainment

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Runtime: 90 minutes

The best part about Gravity is, it makes you feel the lack of it, takes you in space right from the first Visual. An exceptionally picturised outer-space greets you, all across the simple-yet-effective survival story. Although, a bit around the middle of this short plot, it takes a small fall but jumps back to give a perfect ending.

Sandra bullock (Playing Dr. Ryan) is a first-timer along with the veteran Astronaut George Clooney( Matt Kowalski) for an Explorer mission, but then a missile strike on a Russian sateliite creates a chain reaction of debris destroying most of the satellites in outer space, and Explorer (the satellite they are working on) was no different. With only two of them left, the survival story begins.

Apart from using just two actors, the only other star of the movie is its’ brilliant soundtrack by Stephen Price. The space mini-odyssey wouldn’t have been complete without its’ musical presence along with the visual appeal the movie brings upon.

George Clooney, fills the movie with his charm and makes the moments enjoyable and helps steer Sandra Bullocks’ life ship in the movie whenever required. Meanwhile giving the story a boost up whenever it tried to seep into the boring-o-sphere. Sandra Bullock appears good in patches and its’ the last 20 minutes, which brings out the best in her.

Everything works well for the movie, directed by Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaben director Alfonso Cuarón, who directs Gravity, which is sure to be rated as one of the best made space survival story. The special effects are good and the soundtrack even better, there’s hardly anything which you can find fault with. Except, the small duration where the slow and lonely space makes its’ presence felt, but the short duration of the movie is there for your rescue.

The short, beautiful and calm movie with your 3D glasses on is a treat ignoring some of the slow moving scenes around the middle. But the climax with a good ending makes up for that. Don’t miss this.

I’m going with a 3.5/5 for Gravity, which makes you love outer-space.

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Meeting my iCon…

By farooq

On October 8, 2013

In Others

It was 8’o clock and almost an hour was left before I was to meet my Icon. I have never been this “punctual” before, but then there hasn’t been any other time when something like this had ever seen the light of the day. It was my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the impatience as well as the anxiety was a result of it.

When each minute, was attempting hard to make itself seem like hours and even in the midst of all the shor-sharaba, I could still hear the clock ticking, I knew it was a long wait.

With a little idhar-udhar roaming around and tweeting myself through the one hour passage, I was at my anxious best to meet Ms. Kiran Majumdar Shaw. Yes, my icon.

Kiran Majumdar Shaw

She arrived in the lobby and I pushed myself to start off the Big day of being with my Icon. Well, there she was. As I adjusted my tie and went towards her, I heard my name being called aloud by someone. And the voice became louder and louder.

And suddenly..

I opened my eyes to find my roomie letting me know the time; it was Not Kiran Majumdar waiting, but the professor who would be starting off with the classes any minute.

Sigh!! It happened again.

Every day, I just have this crazy dream of ending up waiting in one lobby or the other to start my big day with one of the 11 icons of iConnect, Sometimes its’ Kiran Majumdar and sometimes Mohandas Pai, for which we’ve all been bidding, but every other day it just stops before I actually end up meeting them. Why can’t those dreams extend themselves a little? ahh ??

Anyways, its’ almost the end of the bidding round to get to meet my icon by bidding along with 100’s of others vying for the same thing. I just wish even I get to meet Kiran Majumdar Shaw.

Ohh, you wondering as to how even you can be a part of it? Well, fiqr-not, XIME in association with the Joy-of-Giving week brings to you this unique and exciting opportunity to spend a day with your icon by bidding along with others. And the bidding amount is again for a noble cause of charity.

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship brings about an opportunity for the young bloods in a first of its kind event called ICONnect in Bengaluru that gives students and young professionals a golden opportunity to ‘shadow’ a leader of their choice. XIME has always emphasized giving back to society and this is a great way to do so. XIME also has a very active Social club called Xseed, which has been organizing events from time to time to help the neglected strata of society.

What is in it for you?

Well, a double bonanza in the form of not just contributing to the cause of society as well as get to interact with your favorite business leader. Students and young professionals would have a phenomenal once in a lifetime experience. Students and young professionals will bid in a one-week window starting from October 2nd and the highest bidders among the students and young professionals will get to spend one day with the leader of their choice. The bid money will be channelized to a charity of the leader’s choice. Events in line with ICONnect have been conducted by the IIMs and ISB at the national level. Our event will focus on leaders and bidders in Bengaluru. This also presents an opportunity to the business leaders to fulfill their CSR initiatives in a manner, which involves others from the society into the process, adding true value to the Joy of “giving”

Dreaming is of course great, but when you have an opportunity like this to go ahead and convert your dream into reality, then why sit back ?? Start bidding NOW!! The bidding lasts till 9th October 2013. For bidding, just go to www.ebay.com/iconnect and for further information on the same, you can go to the website www.ximeiconnect.org

Start Bidding to Shadow the leader for a day. So, BID. WIN. EXPERIENCE.

Besharam Review: You’ll feel sharam to watch this

By farooq

On October 2, 2013

In Movies & Entertainment

Besharam Review:

It’s better not to waste yourself on trying to be any besharam by watching this fiasco. It’s disappointing, to say the least.

Director: Abhinav Kashyap

Cast:Ranbir kapoor, Pallvi sharda, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Javed Jaffery

Runtime: 138 Minutes.

Besharam is terribly besharam in its’ entirety which never starts to make sense right from the start. An essence of late 60-70’s and a lot of Govinda-styled-movies is what runs through the storyline as inspiration and clearly doesn’t work. The ending provides some consolation with a spoofy act involving Rishi-Neetu-Ranbir, but even that cannot compensate in the name of entertaining considering the torture that one has to bear through the 2 hours before this.

Besharam’s Plot:

Our Robinhood, stealing Cars and helping the orphanage kids, where he himself grew up. He then ends up falling in love with an arrogant, class-conscious and always-in-a-bad-mood Girl (Pallavi Sharda). The villain in the story is a Hawala Gangster Bheem Singh (Javed Jaffery), who get involved due to the “Super-swift-thief” Babbly. Although as his antics unfold, you start doubting that title being bestowed on the hero. Besharam’s story develops, as to how this love story grows, albeit in old-fashioned and uninteresting manner.

Ranbir kapoor seems to be in a vacation-of-sorts by not just looking like a total mess but acting to complement his besharam looks. Seriously, showing off your hairy chest time and again, bathing nude and cracking jokes just increases the decibels of annoyance. Leave aside the acting part; he seems to be totally lost as a character itself.

Pallavi is even worse, not just she looks a complete mis-match for Ranbir. There’s not an ounce of Chemistry while she oozes an excessive dose of arrogance as if she’s going to kill the next person she places her eyes on. She does over-act, however. Her character is the most annoying of them all.

Not that the presence of Rishi-Neetu provides any solace, personal life parallels being dragged in to make the audience laugh. Even going down to the unnecessary level of showing Rishi Kapoor trying to get over with “Nature’s call”, where his wife, helps him from outside the door by making him angry to “ease it off” and trust me, it ends up looking gross.

The ultimate problem is with the direction though, where Dabanng director Abhinav Kashyap, thinks he can get away with anything. It may have worked with Salman’s flamboyance but falls flat this time.

The music by Lalit Pandit isn’t much to be written about, except the one song by Shreya Ghosal and Sonu Nigam titled “Tu hai”, which is good.

It’s an extended headache involving some over-the-top display of besharmi that tries very hard to make sense but sadly has nothing in its’ offering to accomplish that.

I’m going with a 1/5 for Abhinav Kashyap’s Besharam. It’s better not to waste yourself on trying to be any besharam by watching this fiasco. It’s disappointing, to say the least.

Elysium: My Review

By farooq

On September 27, 2013

In Movies & Entertainment

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster

Runtime: 105 Minutes

There are movies based on Games and then there are Movies that aspire to be Games. And then there is Elysium, confusing them all. It’s nothing short of a boring game-look-alike-film lacking the kind of emotional connect that the plot wishes to portray through the class-divide, over-population, and future inevitable problems that the world is going to face, while just trying to satiate the sci-fi taste buds in roughly a little more than 100 minutes.

It’s the story of two Worlds, of the rich and of the poor, who can’t buy out their way towards the protected Elysium where the habit has been protected from the disease filled atmosphere of the “Earth”.

Neil Blomkamp, the director of movies like District9 fails to live upto his track record, in building this concept to an actual movie and not just a prelude to a game.

Matt Damon couldn’t just pull it off, except the sci-fi action scenes, he looked out of place in most of the duration of the film, be it the emotionally-induced scenes with Frey, his childhood friend (Played by Alice Braga) or scenes where he has to be the One-force that can change the course of the film. He just doesn’t look the protagonist who will take the plunge to do it all.

With some little drama put in, Elysium may even seem looking like borrowing some ideas from Bollywood!! But if you see it from that angle as well, it still fails to add the glitz required to make it an pot-boiling entertainer as well.

Jodie Foster playing Jessica Delacourt looks stylishly cunning in a powerful role of Defence secretary, and yet falters on with the role treatment in the later part of the movie, same as the movie which promises to build up initially only to be marred down by the plot, which basically runs on a very thin ice.

It’s highly avoidable, and even though the sci-fi sequences and the Elysium planet set looks just superb, it is just a waste of your time and money.

I’m going with 1.5 out of 5 for Neil Blomkamps’ Elysium.

Grand Masti: My Review

By farooq

On September 13, 2013

In Movies & Entertainment

Director: Indra Kumar

Cast: Ritesh Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi , Aftab Shivdasani ,Sonali Kulkarni ,Manjari Fadnis ,Karishma Tanna ,Kainaat Arora ,Maryam Zakaria ,Bruna Abdullah, Suresh Menon

Runtime: 143 Minutes

It’s gross, filled with stupefied age-old jokes with vulgarity peeking from every corner, mindless-song sequences to make you believe that its’ still bollywood, a fantasy-like storyline with a similar masti-like conscience-hitting scene pulled in, Girls; actually hot-looking girls with clothes as short as their acting prowess but of course justifying their presence with a little help from the doctors’. But at the end of it all, the one thing that holds it all together is the same mindlessness with which the movie is made. Its adult and it is indeed fun. Might not be India’s American pie but a wannabe attempt to make it possible, by borrowing one from American pie: Reunion.

Married couples with a sex-deprived life for work, family or kids and the frustration brewing out of it, only to be maneuvered in a no-holds barred College re-union to live life without any of the marriage-barriers. The three leads stroll out to attend the re-union of their castle-like College with aspirations of reliving their Adult-Alphabet like fascination, where A, B, C & D don’t mean Apple, Balls or Cats. (Yea, you can figure that out).

What happens next, how their aspirations of “Grand Masti” unravel and how stupid things can get, is what the movie is all about.

Ritiesh is the only one, who actually acts in the movie, while Aftaab comes up with weird expressions while coming up with his crazy ideas. Vivek forces himself upon the story, where clearly he could have done great by not being too overboard. Girls, well there are too many. While, Karishma Tanna, Sonalee Kulkarni, and Manjari Fadnis, play the wives of the three leads. And the other three (Maryam Zakaria playing Rose,Kainaat Arora playing Mary and Bruna Abdullah playing Marlo) also add up to make matters interesting.

Jokes revolve around names, used and re-used adult lingos and excessive exposure to feed the testosterone starved audience, but still works in parts to make you laugh sometimes at the mere stupidity or the adult jokes which pulls themselves from your circles to the big screen. In many of the scenes it actually makes no sense at all, making you wonder on the logic. But finding logic is not what this film boasts of, and anything like logic or making sense is strictly absent.

Imagine letting a thief steal from your house to not disturb your plans of having sex with your wife, and even suggesting him to take away your kid so as to reduce any trouble. Well, scenes like these are baffling enough to surprise you.

With strictly for adults and in no way being compromising on not being vulgar it works for the target audience for which it is made. Its’ a mindless stress buster entertainment package and a different genre altogether and definitely targeted towards it, watch it with a group of friends to laugh it off.

And yes, only for adults. A 2/5 from me for this Adult comedy by Indra Kumar.

With an eye on 2014: Expectations

By farooq

On September 13, 2013

In Politics & Social Issues

The wait for 2014 General elections is now ON.

The battle lines are now clear. BJP couldn’t have got any better day than Friday, the 13^th, to announce its poster boy, Narendra Modi as the PM candidate. Yes, even symbolically, it goes to show what their candidate stands for. They said, it’s the general mood of the country, some sort of “wave” which is engulfing the length and breadth of our country to accept the Vibrant Gujarat CM as the next Prime Minister of a Democratic, Secular, Republic India, a country, whose fabric is intrinsically carved and filled, with the diversified elements from extremes spanning all across its geographical identity.

Without using too many clichés, like what our beloved politicians read out from their speeches, prepared by professional teams specializing in churning out many of them to appease the masses. The requirement is of course due to the buoyancy that speeches bring, figurative promises, enthusiastic approaches and the charismatic appeals that the politicians try to imbibe in the hordes of listeners, gathered around to see their neta. It’s altogether a different story as to how sometimes crowd in rallies; protests, etc come in full support. To be brutally honest, what materialistic gain one can get by participating in one, is what determines the strength of the bheed.

To come back to the point, which I was trying to make, rather than confuse the limited readers by essaying my journey into political practices being followed by our “leaders”, is regarding my expectations on the 2014 general elections. It would be naïve to say that my expectations are in sync with the mood of the country, because there is not any one mood that our country can put up. No matter how clear cut the choice is, there will be certainty, there will be confusion and there will always be an uncertainty as to what is certain and what is uncertain. Confused ?

Well, that is what the political system; a multi-party political system actually ends up being. Ideological modifications coupled with failed promises, results in either giving rise to something new or an alignment with an existential opposition. One small deviation from the ideology, if not controlled can give rise to an increased consensus of similar-breeding-yet-different-ideas. When these ideas collaborate, the end result may turn out to be completely different from what the original deviation actually stood out for. Finally, two opposing forces, which were previously within the purview of one, now stand battling one-on-one.

Picture the above hypothesis with our political system. The grand old parties’ continued hunger for power, gave rise to these deviations which resulted in what we now see as totally opposing forces standing before it. Some of them show stark resemblance to what it originally stood for once.

It would be illogical to assign these deviations only to the Grand Old party, as the forces which we now see, the opposing forces, were active even then. But, never before they could be termed as the general mood of a region, city, let alone be called as the mood of the nation.

What has changed?

One’s inability adds onto the strength of another. Mistakes, blunders, complacency, carelessness, hunger for power, have all contributed to what changed things. Keeping hands clean when job of doing the dirty job of politics was too difficult for them. Corruption proved to be the termite, which has been biting the chairs of power, for them to realize it when it has broken down already.

“Choosing the lesser evil” is what had made them sit on a makeshift chair for a while, but have they learnt anything from the downfall? From being the supreme to being made to keep up their place, have they learnt anything?

Tough for me to answer, as examples show otherwise, Scams are mere words that are part of everyday vocabulary of every newspaper!!!

Coming onto the opposing forces, or a “force to reckon with”, as is being positioned. While talking about the Grand Old party, the ideals that they stood for, how deviations happened and how the continued mockery of our system with repeated blows of scams, has stamped their current status was mentioned elaborately.

But what these opposing forces stand on?

Do they stand on undoing the ill-effects of what has been done on the system for a long time? Keeping a check on corrupt practices? Making development their sole agenda and seeking to transform the economic well being of the nation?

Is your answer yes? And is it based on the Ideals that these parties stand on or the promises they are making?

What matter to people now? The promises or the Ideals it stands for?

Talking of ideals, formations, and the track record, where do they actually stand when it comes to stitching the social fabric of the nation. Forgetting what the Idea of India stands for, is like betraying the motherland which we are part of.

What I am hopeful of 2014 is that it will give me the clear answer to my question to what India stands for. Will it sacrifice the social fabric that it has build through participation of its’ diversified culture to bring upon itself a dominant rule of One section of society to rule over the others? Will I be calling my country secular just for namesake or there is hope left still?

I don’t like to end on a question, but an answer won’t be possible as yet.

Shudh desi Romance: My Review

By farooq

On September 6, 2013

In Movies & Entertainment

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra, Vaani Kapoor, Rishi kapoor

Director: Maneesh Sharma

Runtime: 141 minutes

Desi fun with modern relationship issues in the midst of the chaotic, traditional and desi India is what Shudh desi Romance serves you by garnishing itself with wit, lots of kisses (Yes, lots of them), innocent acting, charming dialogues and amazing screenplay. A refreshing Rom-com, with a desi touch.

Divulging anything would be spoiling the fun of the whole saga, which has been told in a very refreshing manner with the young audience as the target.

Set in jaipur and parts of Rajasthan, focusing on the premise of Traditional Indian marriages and culture, this romance explores many relationship aspects with its colorful attempt of presenting something modern on the platform traditional customs.

Sushant Singh Rajput plays the innocent looking flirt named Raghu who is confused as to his desire in a relationship. Two beautiful ladies, Parineeti Chopra as Gayatri and Vaani kappoor as Tara, makes matters worse. Sushant brings to the character the charm and innocence of a confused romantic desi lad with the same panache as he did the character of a determined and energetic hero in Kai po che. His chemistry with both the lead actresses is what makes it look all so easy on screen.

Parineeti chopra displays the same flamboyance and bubbliness, with added desi attitude in her character. While debutante Vaani is easy on the screen, looking beautiful and vivacious, and at the same time making a mark in a role which gives her scope of showing various facets of her acting. Putting them in one frame, she wins the battle with Parineeti with her matured performance. Romantic scenes with both the pairs appear natural and enticing.

Rishi kapoor binds the three characters through his Rajasthani tau avatar, displaying his panache and the character’s simplicity with perfect comic timings.

Director Maneesh Sharma has a very refreshed storytelling pattern which was evident in Band bajaa baraat, and here he goes a notch higher in making this rom-com an amazing watch. The smooth flow of scenes with role reversals and dialogues helping it, lets you remain hooked onto anticipation of what else is going to come your way.

Music syncs with the mood of the movie, gulaabi not just has been picturized brilliantly but the cinematography is at its best in displaying the pink city’s beauty figuratively. Kudos to Sachin-Jigar for the songs as well as the instruments which are a very important part of the movie.

Although the storyline is a little weak but with the method of storytelling makes up for the little glitches. Towards the climax, some scenes appear to be a little tiring but then with the message of the movie summarizing it all up beautifully; it’s a treat for the audience.

A rom-com with a difference, resonating the youth’s mindset, it’s like a digital graphic figure on a colourful rock painting which is highly recommended for some sweet and enjoyable weekend spend.

I’m gong with 4/5 for Maneesh Sharma’s Shudh desi Romance.

Bragging random things about me!!

By farooq

On September 4, 2013

In Random Philosophy

A Friday raid on the theatres to catch the new release, adjusting the schedule in-and-around to fill in the much needed 2-3 hours of movie experience and a bit of travelling around. Coming back with thoughts and analysis, to review it all up. Believe me, writing for yourself and doing that for others are two different things. Spinning my thoughts while returning on the characteristics and situations, blacks and whites, goods and the bads, of what I happen to see or in my case subjected to.

Then there is the much needed weekend break, some home cooked food and the homely affair at my sister’s. Chitter chattering my way through it and then returning back in one of those City buses to the hostel.

The weekly grind begins spreading itself through classes from morning till late evening, all scattered across to increase the lethargic attitude that has become part of hostel life. Add to it all sorts of meetings, assignments, presentations and the week passes. Not to forget the crankiness of various group conflicts, baffling rules and regulations and my laziness that I continuously have to beat in order to strive forth. It all ends with the continued wait for the weekend.

Of course the weeks’ process is filled with simple joys of an evening stroll, late night addas, constant vellagiri on topics that are irrelevantly important, fights and bitching with never ending complaining, and the likes.

And then again the routine of Movie-watching, travelling and much-awaited weekend comes back to rescue this poor soul. But then, look how I am complaining? Someone, who has actually looked forward to being a Movie Critic.

In the midst of all of it, the constant push to write something of value always fails. Reviews, writing for any Indiblogger/Blogadda contests aside, there isn’t any writing as such. The only benefit that these contests provide is to put myself in front of the laptop and belt out a few words here and there. Apart from it, there isn’t actually any notable bullshit coming out of the blog.

Wow!! So much for bragging about being a blogger, huh ??

But then, there is the constant struggle to always look for a trade off. The half written MS-Word drafts are testimony to the fact that the trying part of writing is always up there in the list of to-do things.

Trade off’s you ask, right now the clock is almost trying to rush itself towards the morning while I am yet to call it a night. Yet, on a day when nothing productive actually happened on the surface of earth for a soul like me, I sit to complete this page to call it a post for myself.

A little bragging, uselessly tiring the readers to go through it and little comfort to have ended the day with something of value.

Until next time, when the mind lets me and when the spirit of writing blesses me to write about myself. Adios!!