Friday, February 26, 2010

Shraddha Kapoor -Daughter of Shakti Kapoor


Just because she happen's daughter of Shakti Kapoor and the niece of Padmini Kolhapure, the role did not land on her lap on a silver platter.Shraddha got break on her own merit. Not many are aware of the fact that she had actually gone to audition for the role. It helped her that Ambika Hinduja who is the producer of Teen Patti had seen her pictures on Face Book.
Shraddha Kapoor was born in Mumbai to Shakti Kapoor and Shivangi (Padmini Kolhapure's elder sister).
She makes her debut with Teen Patti starring Amitabh Bachhan and others.

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Toh Baat Pakki: Bollywood Movie Review

Movie Rating: 2 stars (2/5)

Release Year: 2010

Cast: Sharman Joshi, Uvika Chaudhary, Tabu,Uvika Chaudhary,Vatsal Sheth,Ayub Khan

Director: Kedar Shinde

Music Director: Pritam Chakraborty


This family sitcom about finding a suitable boy seems like a blast from the past when the Sooraj Barjatya films used to invite numerous footfalls into theatres. Toh Baat Pakki, directed by Kedar Shinde, comes a little late in the day. The director adopts a simple, uncluttered approach to tell the story but stuffs it up with unnecessary melodrama at many places, the second half particularly.

So we have Tabu playing an overprotective overbearing elder sister to Uvika Chaudhary. The happily married Rajeshwari (Tabu) wants the most suitable boy as the groom for Nisha (Uvika). He should be a Saxena, should have a bright future, preferably a secure job, should not demand dowry and should have all the qualities to be a caring husband. Engineering student Rahul (Sharman Joshi) seems to fit the bill so Rajeshwari tries to hook him up with Nisha. All is well and love sprouts between Rahul and Nisha and even marriage is fixed.

But then walks in Yuvraj (Vatsal Seth) a junior manager in Godrej with a car of his own. Moreover, he?s a Saxena too. For Rajeshwari he?s doubtlessly a better option than Rahul.

So, a change of plan. Out goes Rahul and in comes Yuvraj as the prospective groom. But in this game of musical chairs, Rajeshwari turns a blind eye to the feelings of Nisha and Rahul who are by now madly in love with each other.

What follows is a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge kind of drama where Rahul steps in to help in the wedding preparations and makes all the right moves to break off the wedding between Yuvraj and Nisha.

At its core ?Toh Baat Pakki? suffers from a mediocre script that?s neither funny enough to tickle your spine nor emotional enough to tug at your heart. Even the wedding jamboree and many songs fail to inject oomph into the flaccid screenplay. Yes, the repartee between Tabu and Sharman in the first half does keep you hooked, but that?s just about it for a film that?s two hours long.

Tabu rises above the script with a convincing performance and Sharman Joshi pitches in a fine act. Ayub Khan, as Tabu?s husband, and Uvika, as her sis, stay mostly on the sidelines. Vatsal Seth plays his part well.

All in all, is a humdrum family drama with a very predictable end.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

My name is Khan: Bollywood Movie Review

Rating: 3 stars (3/5)

Release Year: 2010

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Katie Keane, Jimmy Shergil, Zarina Wahab, Benny Nieves, Kenton Duty

Producer: Gauri Khan, Hiroo Johar

Director: Karan Johar

Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani



You know when you go to watch a Karan Johar film, you go in there expecting lots of color, song and dance, beautiful cinematography and people, all coated nicely with that extra helping of sugary-sweet emotion. It?s overdone, and milked to kingdom come, but it?s classic Karan Johar, and you can?t take him seriously. He has defined a new genre of candy-floss cinema, which I can tolerate maybe, but never quite applaud.

All that said, lately Johar has been trying to move towards ?serious? cinema ? "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" being a mixture of Joharesque-joie-de-vivre and a semblance of a ?realistic? story. ?My name is Khan? walks the same path moving Johar that much closer to the ?serious? cinema category.

The story of MNIK is one of hope and tolerance, and it?s main character is Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), an autistic (specifically Asperger?s Syndrome) man, full of goodness. Brought up by his loving, tolerant mother (Zarina Wahab), Rizwan moves to the United States to live with his brother (Jimmy Shergill). There Muslim Rizwan meets Hindu Mandira (Kajol) and hopes for a happy life with her. However when 9/11 happens, their tenuous relationship is threatened . . .

MNIK is quite well-written, so much so that even when you know that Johar is squeezing in every tear-jerking trick in the book, you cannot stop your eyes from welling up. A big reason for that is Rizwan Khan, a well-drawn character, who because of his autistic condition, has the ability to NOT read between the lines. A straightforward, guileless person, Rizwan possesses the ultimate gift; he speaks the truth, come what may. Shahrukh, who is naturally given to twitches and that hyper-buzz of excessive energy, channels it very effectively to portray Rizwan.

A slimmer Kajol, who is seen with SRK after many years, glows with effervescent feel-goodness, like she always has. Now Kajol, who may not in truth be the most beauteous of all women, is still a cinematographer?s dream, conveying with that one raised uni-brow all that is required of her, and more. In fact I must applaud the entire cast, from the very in-your-face Navneet Nishan, to Sonya Jehan (playing the brother's wife), to Zarina Wahab to make this film what it is.

But there are problems. While Johar is well-intentioned, he does not quite succeed in maintaining the balance between ?realism? and his brand of fantasy. Thus Rizwan, who we already love, and do, because he is caught just like the rest of his us, in an unforgiving world, is caricature-ishly turned into a super-hero of sorts when he goes into savior mode, rescuing stranded Americans from their flooded town (incident inspired by Katrinagate ?). Not only that, but his family and friends too follow him into the flooded waters pretty easily, but hey, the US Coast Guard, or FEMA cannot/will not get through. A most definite no-no, and very, very hard to believe, this flight of fantasy ruined the delicate balance of the film, and takes the quality down a couple of notches.

Other than that, this film has strong direction and some very beautiful songs. I must also mention that it pays tribute to the classic "Jaane bhi do yaaron" via it's much loved anthem "Hum honge kamyaab" (which is actually based on this song). MNIK packs enough star power to ensure that it does well at the box-office; for a one-time watch, this film will do.

Kid-wise : This flm has some pretty violent scenes involving kids, make this film unsuitable for younger children. Allusions to the sexual act although nothing overt is shown, might bring up questions in curious minds. Also unless your children are well-informed on world issues, racial/religious tensions, some of this film might go right above thier heads.

Ishqiya Movie Review

Critic Rating: 3 stars (3/5)

Release Year: 2010

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan

Producer: Vishal Bharadwaj

Director: Abhishek Chaubhey


The dusty dilapidated roads of UP, the well-lined faces of the people-who-will-do-great-things, the realistic gaana-bajana, and the oh-so-sharply-apt dialogues; now where I have seen this before ? Yes, of course I have stumbled across, or more precisely into a theater screening a Vishal Bharadwaj film. He is actually the producer here, but the film bears his touches nonetheless.

I greatly anticipated Ishqiya, but post-movie I can see why it's losing out on the mass market. I still cannot fathom why Rann of all films is taking it to the cleaners, but some mysteries just are. Moving on with the film at hand though, Ishqiya stars three of my favorite actors - Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan. Shah and Warsi are small-time con artists. They are also uncle-nephew - Shah the greying Khalu-jaan and Warsi the energetic Babban. We meet the duo on the run from another con-man, from whom they have stolen a large amount of money. The man conned is understandably angry, and follows them around, with his gang and his ever-ringing cell-phone in tow.

Short on friends, Khalu-jaan and Babban land up in Gorakhpur, assuming that they will find asylum with a former acquaintance Verma-ji, and be able to lie low in the backwaters of eastern UP. However they discover that Vermaji has left for his heavenly abode, and the welcoming party consists solely of his rather comely widow Krishna (Balan). Krishna takes them in. All should have been well, but romance blooms and the loot goes missing. Love and lucre never did mix.

Ishqiya is that genre of film, where the story unfolds slowly, and we are never quite sure of the motives that drive its characters to perfidy and damnation. Debut director Chaubey does his job well; he weaves a multi-textured tale, which has romance, crime, drama and betrayal. The film is full of detailed flourishes - the kohl in Babban's eyes, the touch of UP-ite vernacular, that realistic small-time-criminal jargon - all building ambience very well.

The three leading actors do very well for themselves; each one impeccable, from the fallible Khalu-jaan, to the soft-hearted thug Babban, to the wily widow Krishna. The setting is great - where else but in the dark, unkempt villages of UP, where hand-made pistols come aplenty, and thugs abound, could one situate a crime drama? The film has a great cast, and melodious music. Still it falters (and oh! what a bummer that is !).

Bharadwaj's previous productions have always been strong on story. Whether it be Omkara or Maqbool, his crime dramas have always sizzled with passion, a passion which springs from strong, simple motivations. In Ishqiya however Bharadwaj, who was one of the story-writers, cobbles together a convoluted climax. Although the film starts off strong, and takes off once we are privy to Krishna's rather ambiguous loyalties, it falters post-interval with some very shaky twists in the storyline.

Moreover Ishqiya's protagonists never quite come into their own. Babban and Khalu-jaan as subtly detailed as they were could have been developed into characters who would have filled every deserted, dark corner of the film with feisty angst. Instead they appear almost diminutive in their passion, never quite rising up to grab our complete attention. Another thing I found lacking was a strong background score, something which probably contributed to the muted emotions in the film.

All-in-all, as good as it was, Ishqiya lacked the oomph, the punch, the energy required to make me give this any more than a 3.75 on the rating scale.

Kid-wise : This is a definite PG-13, with plenty of profanities and the not-so-subtle sexual hints.