BOTOX OR NOT....???

Actors should age gracefully & naturally, yes! But once in a while the face-lifts & botox are so damn essential! You don't need to play the pretty damsel from college,stick to your age & just be confident about it! Now here's something to learn from Kareena Kapoor who was bang on in the recently released Ki & Ka!As always her stylists have done a great job.If u observe keenly, nowhere the make up artist has tried hiding her dark circles or the wrinkles from the contours of her eyes.In most of the scenes, Kareena is sporting minimal makeup, thanks to her healthy looking skin.No smokey eyes,no eyeliner or kajal! Just a tinge of brown eye shadow on the lids as well on lower lash line, some facial bleach, some mascara and its done!

Now...Once upon a time, way back during 1997 when i was actually besotted with Madhuri Dixit, i was eagerly waiting for Mohabbat where she was cast with Akshaye Khanna, 10 yrs younger to her! Now that didn't deter me at all, in fact the hugely popular song 'Don't break my heart' was actually good, they looked good together, but the day i saw the film,gosh! i cried! the chemistry was so pale,they were terribly bad together & for the first time i felt Madhuri looked so old & so odd! From her makeup to the ill fitting clothes, the unnecessary jewelries, her rear profile....everything about her was so so bad & for some reason she looked so lethargic throughout the film! Given the production house of this film i am sure they couldn't hire the legend Mickey Contractor to work his magic on her skin & tone (which thankfully he did so in Madhuri's very next release Dil to Pagal Hai).

That rainy night scene where she meets Akshaye Khanna for the first time, where, thanks to the 90's, probably when we had less number of water proof make up & accessories, her pancake had all come off with the splashed water & you can't stop cringing while looking at her wrinkles & lines! Now am not blaming her, aging is a natural phenomenon & women's skin loses its firmness more sooner than men! Madhuri at present has aged gracefully but what our actresses had lacked during those times, the present Gen X newbies have got it. A little bit of nip & tuck , some lifts, some cover ups here & there probably doesn't harm after all specially when you are a part of the glamour business !

THE DANISH GIRL - (review)

Now that's an unconditional love story!

It just isn't easy enacting a role like this, there's a scene where Einar Wegener struggling with his inner conflicts & identity, visits a brothel & instead of being aroused by the nude sex worker's moves, starts imitating her gestures,understanding his self-perception. It takes lot of conviction for an actor to portray not just a character but to completely submerge himself into it. The tenderness, the touch, the swift movement of his hands across his face & body, the postures, the shy downward glances & the innocence is more than just perfect! One of the most amazing & delicate love stories i have seen in a long time, one must praise both Eddie Redmayne & Alicia Vikander for the sheer dedication to their craft. And what an extraordinary job by Alicia Vikander (a worthy academy award for this role). Her performance reconstructs an open-minded artist who has an unconditional love for her husband,her muse, which is not easy, no matter what. She forsook the obscure love she had for Hans, to be protected and caressed as a wife, every women rightfully deserve from their husbands.
For that love, she lost almost everything, just for the sake of the man she loved unconditionally, Gerda is class apart!

PUNASCHA (bengali) - review

How i wish it was a Rituparno Ghosh film!

From the drawing room conversation between the two lead players (which covers up the entire first half of the film) with frequent references to Tagore's verses / Shantiniketan, to the subtle use of color & tone in every frame to the detailed use of props & art design, Punascha is a decent ode to film maker Rituparno Ghosh & his keen eye for detailing which was trademark in most of his classic films.
It was good to see Rupa Ganguly in a wonderful role after a long time, with her controlled poise & grace & a powerful screen presence,which of course she always had, she infuses life into the character Mohona as well the author's (played by Soumitra Chatterjee) muse as Deepa, Keya or Mohini . But the film dips & slows down terribly post the author's sudden death until it is salvaged in the last 15 minutes when the deceased author's wife makes an appearance. The sudden appearance & outburst of Mohona's daughter also doesn't make much of an impact because their again you'd had expected a finely written confrontation scene between the mother & daughter, even the conversation between the 'wife' & 'muse' though decent enough, could have been much better & probably that's where you truly miss Rituparno Ghosh who was more than capable of handling women onscreen with his finely structured narrative.

UDTA PUNJAB (review)

A good film, yes..but a product which is either filled with too much ludicrous audacity (thanks to Tommy, not the Kutta, ''abbe be****hod wo fuddu wala!'') or being consistently grim & deeply disturbing ! To watch a girl being drugged into sexual capitulation, while her captors assure the policeman/rapist that “she is well trained” & hence will not attack him, to see the extremes to which drug-addled teenage brains falls in their desperation for a fix is chilling yet heart rending beyond description.
If not for the laudable performances by Alia Bhatt & Diljit Dosanjh, trust me, this film would have completely fallen flat, that too with a thud! It's not a bad film & for once the director deserves some credit because it's a well-researched, keenly observed, no-holds-barred account of the extent to which cities (let's not point out only one!) are mired in drugs & drug-related corruption. Shahid's Tommy is very ill written role specially in the first half where all he does is scream to the top of his voice & all you get to hear from him is cock, balls, nuts, holes & fuckers of all kinds. Tommy does get a new lease of life post his pee-ing on his fans incident when he is chased by an enraged crowd & he lands up at a deserted place with Kumari Pinky played remarkably by Alia Bhatt, watch her change her body language completely sinking into the character. The conversations that follows between the two is probably one of the best written scenes in the film while the other being the scene where an injured & delirious Diljit (stabbed on his neck with a drugged needle) is brought home by Kareena, the former's cuteness in the entire conversation on the way will steal your heart. And then suddenly killing a major character leaves you stunned & glum!
Alas i quite didn't enjoy the film. I'd be more than happy if the lead players get numerous awards for their acts, but i don't think i'd dare watch this film again.

THE CONJURING 2 (review)

The demonic veiled nun will haunt me for some days! :O

Scary, terrifying & a fitting follow up to the first one,it succeeds in frightening you with its lingering creepiness but fails to bring anything new to the plot or the proceedings. It's wonderful to see the relationship between Ed and Lorraine. Vera Farmiga as Lorraine is superb.She has such a charming screen presence.Her character is strong, powerful & she manages to pull the viewer through all kind of emotions.Patrick Wilson as Ed is also an apt foil to Lorraine.

Few scenes really make you jump back & shudder with it eerie-ness like when Lorraine decides to check in the painting room and a demonic nun comes out from nowhere from the painting and a scene when Janet watches TV and figures out a person sitting on a chair behind her and the remote control falls by itself.

But i am bit perplexed with the character of the infernal nun, which is so appropriately nightmarish, reminiscent of the veiled "Bride In Black" from 'Insidious'. What was the motto behind the nun's portrait that Ed had drawn and how was it connected to this particular case is never fully explained! Also what's less compelling is the inclusion of the "Crooked Man," a storybook scarecrow monster spreading Babadook-esque chaos about halfway through and is explained as the demon assuming a form that's familiar to the Hodgsons. Nevertheless, its worth a dekko for all the thrill that it provides!

UDTA PUNJAB - So much hullabaloo for this!!

Shahid Kapoor's Tommy Singh could have been so so much better, there's so much slackness in the character, tch tch! As the grimy, abusive rapper he is excellent in swearing though, with almost all his sentences finishing with a be****hod! Throughout the first half his character has been reduced into just a buffon! Yes agreed, he wasn't goofy just for humor, it was the drugs talking. The frequent swanking, excessive flouncing, thrusting on stage, the tangled hair & the constant flashing of the V sign, literally living on a high is all very fine & aptly done by him but too much of it starts getting on your nerves after a point, until he meets Alia Bhatt & thankfully his character takes a dramatic turn(& for good!) From the moment he opens up to Alia till the finale when he goes out in search of her to free her from the goons, we get to see the Shahid we have been waiting for all along the glum first half of the film.
It's such a disappointment that we don't get to see enough of what really goes inside of him though there are flashes of it ,like his conversation with Alia or his self realization for some seconds inside the jail where he is praised by his teenage drug addict fans! This could have been Shahid Kapoor's yet another riveting performance post Kaminey & Haider, but alas! it's not.

HEARTBURN (1986)

All about Love,marriage,babies, infidelities!

I finally got to see this one & even with all the shortcomings i loved it coz it's such a wonderful feeling to see my favorites Meryl Streep & Jack Nicholson coming together in this dryly wrought comedy drama about a writer Rachel marrying a columnist cum womanizer Mark who is unable to change his wandering ways even after marriage. The movie based on Nora Ephron's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, which was inspired by her tempestuous second marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein & his affair with Margaret Jay, unfolds quite hastily with one sequence after the other almost with an Woody Allen approach to it.

Streep as the clinging, smothering spouse is endearing to watch although a bit more of humor to her character would have added more to the charm. Jack Nicholson does what he is best in doing , with his usual smirk, devilish, eyebrow-twitching, grinning charm he is like-able as the philanderer. I liked the scene when Rachel finds out about Mark's affair & confronts, minutes later she packs up, leaves and we hear Carly Simon's song "Coming Around Again" in the background. The lyrics perfectly fits the scenario in sync with Rachel's despair. Her idea of the perfect marriage has been shattered.

FAN (review)

Superstar Aryan Khanna sits stigmatized in a detention cell while a local goon pisses a few inches away & right after a humiliating police interrogation, instantly agrees to pose for a selfie with a female officer, while few scenes later he performs like a monkey for a rich NRI’s daughter’s wedding even after he is spoken curtly by the man who thinks the star is his personal toy he just acquired the rights for. Ah! stuffs that our stars are made of! As Aryan Khanna it was interesting to watch Shahrukh as a non apologetic narcissist, self deprecating himself & being extremely critical about his own stardom in the film, from being insecure about his fading age & the rise of younger actors to playing safely for the gallery over the years, the actor took a huge leap from his romantic hero image.

No, i haven't seen Misery or The king of Comedy, so i m not sure of the references, but 10 mins into the film and you are introduced into the intriguing world of Gaurav Chanana, a lookalike to the superstar Aryan Khanna, whose craziness, love & almost platonic relationship with the star is even celebrated by his doting parents, lovingly indulging him in impersonating his antics on stage. With his lovable child like exuberance, he creates a space for himself in your hearts, but post his meeting with the star & being reprimanded & dejected by the star's rudeness, his hero worship turns into hatred, so much so that he almost turns into a psychopath. The scenes where the star & the fan or rather the master & his puppet comes face to face are brilliantly executed with much credit to Shahrukh's Gaurav emoting entirely with his innocence in the first half while with vengeance in the pre climactic scenes. So far so good with the reality, but post intermission the film falls terribly into the same conventional pattern with some illogical hide & seek game of the star and his doting fan! From selling his cyber cafe to reaching london & dubrovnik all of a sudden in his rage & revenge, to slyly getting inside the star's personal space, Gaurav's sudden transformation from a child like buffon to a smart 'man on a mission' image doesn't quite fit into the narrative,

But even with all its commercial loopholes, the film is watchable mostly because of Shahrukh's returning back to his Darr, Baazigar, Anjaam days with sweetness of Duplicate's Babloo thrown into the character. Wish the script had stayed a little bit more 'realistic' post interval.

MYSTIC PIZZA

It terribly annoys me when a director loses out steam after building such a beautiful premise. In this 1988 released film directed by Donald Petrie, there's a scene where teenager Charles (Adam Storke) on a date, brings his girlfriend Daisy (Julia Roberts) to his father's vacant palatial mansion located near the shore of the ocean with the soothing sound of seagulls, it's almost dusk & there's no electricity coz his father turns of the power when nobody's home ,he takes Daisy inside the living room, she makes herself comfortable while he lights up the candles next to a giant mirror & sets up the fireplace. While they engage in conversation, Daisy suddenly turns around without him noticing & goes upstairs leaving behind all her clothes, shoes & accessories in the hallway & en-route towards his father's bedroom. She calls him from upstairs & Charles unable to locate her in the darkness, holds a candle & goes upstairs collecting each one of her stuffs (shoes, jacket, skirt, undergarments) that she left behind in the hallway. There's a beautiful saxophonic piece that plays in the background. He enters the rooms, notices that she is wearing his father's shirt , 'This is my parent's room, is that my father's shirt that you r wearing?'! he asks. She says ' You think he will miss it?' with a mischievous smile. She comes closer towards the bed while he is sitting at the other end 'Hey junior' says she, & kisses him on the lips. Cut to the next shot - they have already made love & are lying in bed embraced to each other underneath the white satin sheets. There was so much the writer / director could have done with this scene, bringing in the passion play, no! not the love making act, but the seduction part! Bit of playfulness, eagerness, a hesitation evident with teenage first timers, exploring more into each other would have made it a fantastic scene! A little bit more time with some beautifully written lines eventually (romantic per say!) could have sparked the magic in the lovely set up