Age should be respected, or...?

Just watched this deleted scene from Dear Zindagi. I can totally see why it was deleted. In a land where age is an automatic sign for wisdom and a demand draft for respect, this kind of scene with such hard-hitting dialogue will never be tolerated. 

Watch this scene and answer one simple question - Would you side with Alia in this scenario or would you shake your head with a disappointing look and mutter "Aaj kal ke bachche"? 

Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkoxn6Nyijk

The Time That Spends Us

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." - Anais Nin

I have this movie I watch once every month. It's a Hindi movie called "Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani", translation "The craziness of youth" Youth as in the period of youth in life, not a young person. 

Yes, you did read it right, I watch it once every month. I have seen it more times than I can count. Why? No, it's not like one of those "It's a wonderful life" kind of movie that's a ritual for the world to watch. It's a purely commercial movie about a boy and a girl (aren't they all?). The basic premise is extremely simple - he wants to travel the world and do everything in one life, she wants a simple life. Of course, they fall in love, but at different times. 

Spoilers below if you haven't seen the movie but it came out in 2013 so you have had 8 years. 

There are many reasons to watch this movie so many times but one of the important ones is that every time I watch it, I see different things in it. Now spoilers. In the end, the hero decides to stay in India in order to marry the girl. I never agreed with that decision. I even have my favourite shot where I would end the movie if I were the director. No, I don't turn it off there, I still watch it fully every time. But I always think he's wrong. Ambition over marriage? Ha! Until now. Five seconds before starting this post I was thinking about this dialogue that he says to her when he's proposing. 

"Beet_ta waqt hai lekin kharch hum hote hain. Aur isse pehle ki main poora kharch ho jaoun, tere saath thoda waqt bitana chahta hoon."

[Translation: We don't spend the time, the time spends us. And before my balance runs out I want to spend some of that time with you. ]

Suddenly today it made sense to me. Spending time with a loved one can take precedence over travelling, job and even a lifelong dream. I still don't know if I agree with him but at least now I can see his viewpoint. 

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." The movie is always the same, every scene, every shot, every camera angle. That doesn't change. The reason I see different things in it every time is because I change. 

Do you have a loop movie that you watch as many times as possible? I can't be the only crazy person in this world. 

Baaghi 3 Movie Review: Brawn Conquers all

 If you have 8-pack abs and big biceps you can pretty much do anything you want - that's the message that Baaghi 3 gives you. 

Let me do this review quickly checklist style so I don't have to waste any more time on this movie, oops spoiler alert. 

Music - Nothing memorable or enjoyable. I am really irritated when people "recreate" songs, yes, nobody does remix these days, it's all recreated. If the songs are from new movies it's even more irritating. Some people would like the item song by Disha, I didn't like it. I like Disha, she's supercute, but the song was directed awfully. In a film being directed by a choreographer you expect a better dance number. And the lyrics...wait, there were lyrics? 

Action - The stunts by Tiger are truly impressive, there's no denying that. But stunts are a spice in the dish, you can't make a dish with just red chilli and garam masala. I don't know what gave Ahmed Khan the conceit to think he could direct action but I wish he hadn't. 

This is a general grievance I have with Indian filmmakers. When it comes to directing action they have all graduated from the 120fps school of filmmaking. I agree with Peter Mckinnon that everything looks sexier in slow motion but these directors have taken this to the level where it's not cinematic, it's tedious. I love watching fight sequences but these just annoy the hell out of me. Before this Rohit Shetty did the same thing in Golmaal 3 (or was it 4? Who knows? Who cares?) where the hero would hit 10 punches then 10 goons would fall from the sky and take about 65 seconds doing that. Trés irritable! 

Performances: Some of them are good, Riteish Deshmukh, Jackie Shroff a few other characters. Tiger, not so much. He had acted better in Heropanti. In this one, no acting only stunting. But I don't blame him, I blame the director. Shraddha has done ok, but there wasn't much for her to do. Ankita Lokhande, ha, don't make me laugh. 

Dialogue: There are a couple of funny ones in the beginning, but then they go from mundane to pathetic. 

Direction: Very, very weak. Absolutely clichéd from start to finish. In the future if I saw a movie was directed by Ahmed Khan, will it make me want to see it? Big fat no!

I don't know how many people caught it but they stole a couple of scenes straight from "Taken" and one shot from "Wonder Woman". There was a good chance to grab a "I am Spartacus!" scene later in the film but probably Ahmed Khan didn't have that DVD. 

In terms of realism, the movie has stretched suspension of disbelief like chewing gum and taken it past the limits of elasticity. 

Did you notice I didn't talk about the story? That's because you already know the story if you have seen the trailer. If you haven't let me tell you the story now. 

"Action hero goes to Syria to rescue kidnapped brother." Done. 

Full disclaimer: My bias. I have seen Ahmed Khan only on TV in Kapil Sharma's shows. He choreographed Kapil in Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon. Every time he comes on his show he makes fun of Kapil's dance skills. We all know Kapil is not a great dancer but there is such a thing as grace. Ahmed Khan doesn't know it. It irritates me.  

Recommendation: Watch it on the TV screen when it comes to streaming while you have dinner. The 120fps action will fit perfect there. 

Bharat - Made For Stupid Audience - Movie Review

"If you cast popular stars and put some masala scenes, helped by some clever editing, then even if the film has no story it will be a great film." That's the thought behind this film.

I really like Salman Khan, he has a great screen presence. But if he stars in a formula crap I can't say that it's a good film. This is a pathetic execution of a lame idea and you can see that in everything. There are a couple of formula scenes which are ok, but on the whole it's a stupid film made while thinking that the public is stupid.

Salman's acting is very good, but weak in the old avatar. The director, and the actors, have no idea how an old person talks, walks and behaves. It's like they have never observed an old person of the human species.

The make up artists of this film should be expelled out of the industry! The main characters who are supposed to be old are actually made to look like cosplay characters.

I had said after "Tiger Zinda Hai" that I have finally seen Katrina act. Unfortunately, that streak stopped there. Nobody can blame her of "acting" in this film. She's a beautiful girl and directors usually use her for her glamorous presence. In this film even that's not there. Her dialog delivery is her weakest part and they have given her way too many lines in this film.

"The promise of a man to his father." that's the catch line of the synposis. What stupid rot! If he had not promised he would not take care of his family? WTH, man!

It was not so boring that I could not finish it but there were 7 places where it pissed me off and I wanted to turn it off because it offended my sensibilities. Still, I somehow finished it.

I am so glad I didn't go to the cinema for it. Thank god for Amazon Prime Video.

Zero - What an aptly titled movie

They have named it perfectly - Zero!

It gets zero stars from me on a scale of 10.  I tried to watch it properly, couldn't, so skimmed through it slowly hoping to some good scenes that might give me the traction to carry on watching. No such luck. It still seemed way too long and dragging.

The main star cast is also perfectly matched - Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma. None of the three have ever tried to act and they match perfectly in this steaming pile of ....cringe-worthy scenes.

My one serious issue with it is that they have made Kat look ugly and repulsive in most of the scenes - on purpose. They have tried to show her as an alcoholic. Why would you take a beautiful girl and treat her like that? If you wanted acting you should have taken someone else. Katrina's beauty is her one plus point and they have subverted that. I take issue with that.

The scene shown on the poster (with Katrina in the slinky red gown) is not in the movie. Awful! In one or two scenes where she is not shown as a  lush she does look pretty.

It's no secret that I am not a big fan of SRK. But when the movie is good I would watch it and appreciate it despite him being in the lead role. Like KHNH or Dilwale, both entertaining movies.

"Short in stature but big on love, a bachelor meets two very different women who broaden his horizons and help him find purpose in life."

Whoever wrote this description of the movie should get all the creative prizes. He/she has made it sound a 1000% more amazing than it is.

If the Indian audience like this film, I'd say they deserve it and more crap like this that would follow!

Movie Review - Firangi - Excellent Entertainer

"My movie is coming near year - Firangi".

Kapil has been talking about it for so long that you can't even remember how long.

Firangi is his second film. His first one was a pure comedy whereas Firangi, his home production, is more of a romance-drama-social-comedy kind of film.

It's a period film, set in the 1920's, the pre-independence India. It would be hard to believe now that the movie has come out but I have thought about this topic many times before. Here's my angle.

There are some topics, or themes, which have...let's call it consensus after the fact. It's kind of a universal hindsight. In hindsight easy to see that what the correct choice was. Similarly this is something that everybody agrees on after it has happened. Like everybody knows now that Gandhi was a shrewd politician, but not at the time!

Another case in point is Brexit. There's a great majority against it now but not when it happened. There are many thing like that.

This whole thing about Indian independence is like that. Right now after 6 decades of the independence everybody agrees that it was a good thing that we fought for it and got it. There's no doubt about it now. But often I have wondered if I had lived in that age would I have struggled for the independence? Right now it's easy, everybody thinks that they would have been in Bhagat Singh's party if they had lived in that time.

Being honest with myself I question it. Would I have been a freedom fighter. Or would I have chosen the path of the least resistance and found some logical, rational, common-sense argument to convince myself that my first duty lay with taking care of my family? There's enough evidence of that sort of thinking with me. I have worked on my career, my job, taking care of my family. How many revolutions have I taken part in? None. Not even a single march on the parliament. So I have wondered about that many times.

This story is also about a person who is not joining the movement for the struggle for independence. His first and foremost consideration is to find a job. And since the better paying, more available jobs are things that you can do in the British government he tries to find a job in the police. That's the beginning of the story. From there it goes on with showing how he finds a job with the top British officer as an orderly. And how he makes peace with the fact by thinking that the Brits are also not such bad people.

From there on the story goes on to include a king, a corrupt, frivolous type of king, a corrupt British governer and the struggle over the land of a village.

The beginning of the film is a simple family life and romance kind of story. But it soon picks up speed and includes that whole tug of war over the land. Throughout the story the role of our hero - Mange - changes as well. He grows up through the story and becomes a better man.

Speaking of performances, Kapil Sharma has done a great job. I sometimes feel that he suffers from overexposure in TV. We have seen him in so many different characters in his Comedy Circus days and later in his own shows that it might seem that he has exhausted the possibilities. Fortunately, he has a lot of acting talent and carries off a new role very convincingly. It it still a delight to watch him on screen, in the funny scenes and also in the dramatic scenes.

Ishita Dutta is beautiful and believable in her role as Sergi - a village girl that Mange falls in love with. Monica Gill has done justice to her role as a princess. But then pretty much all the actors have done well in the film.

Music is a strong point of this movie. There are about 5 songs in it, all are ok, but 2 of them are really lovely, melodic pieces that take your heart. First one is "Sajna sone jaya" and the sad song, which is my most favourite and my current loop song "Sahiba russ gaiya" sung by Rahet Fateh Ali Khan saab. The lyrics and music are so beautiful that it's nice to hear it in any good voice but the original, of course, is the best. The picturisation of both the songs is also very nicely done.

And that brings to mind the cinematography. I noticed even as I was watching how wonderfully the scenes had been captured. A true visual treat that was worth watching on the big screen. Of course the editing also deserves the credit here.

Finally, the feel of the movie. It is phenomenal! Because the first part of it is about the family life and the start of Mange's love life, it's very identifiable. Having been born in the pre-whatsapp, pre-Facebook era I can vouch for the problems that he faces. In that age it was like a thousand miles from seeing the girl you immediately fell in love with and producing a love story out of thin air. That's what you see here and the situations are directly lifted from Indian village life. They feel believable and realistic but also entertaining at the same time. Kudos to the writers and the director for that.

[Spoiler Alert: Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet. ]
[Spoiler Alert: Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet. ]
[Spoiler Alert: Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet. ]
[Spoiler Alert: Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet. ]
[Spoiler Alert: Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet. ]


Okay, you didn't stop. So, here goes.

My only gripe about the movie is that I wish they hadn't brought Gandhi in towards the climax but then, they had their own reasons.

Another one is a scene where Gandhi asks if they had done any violence in trying to solve their problem, Mange says that they didn't. But in reality they did quite a bit of violence just before that.

In conclusion: It's a worth watching movie, either with family or girlfriend. I will be getting it on the streaming or DVD as soon as it comes out to watch again. And again. 

Movie Review with Spoilers - Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice - Injustice to the viewers

Warning: This review is full of strong language, creative epithets, violent suggestions and sexual references. It also contains detailed spoilers. Read at  your own risk. 

An absolute piece of crap! That's my honest and concise review of this movie. And I do reserve this review result for movies that truly deserve it.

I guess I am angry because this is one of those rare times when the movie trailer managed to fool me. I had no intention of watching this movie, then I watched the trailer and thought it was worth watching. Wrong decision!

Now the question of why, why do I call it a bad, excuse me, terrible movie.

I have said this before in a review, and I say it again here - there is the science of filmmaking and there's the art of filmmaking. The science includes all your cameras and fancy lenses and other technological wonders that are at the disposal of a modern-day director.

The art is that crucial part which helps a director create a movie that puts the audience at the edge of their seat. And they (the directors) don't usually need any special technology to do that.

This movie is full of the former but shows no discernible sign of the latter.
Let's take it piece by piece.

Story
Story is pretty simple as superhero stories sometimes are. Superman is framed for collateral damage during a Lois Lane rescue and people want him answerable.

Characters
Characters are very boring with one or two exceptions. And the director has shown the characters in a bad light. Batman comes across as petty, insecure and evil. Superman comes across as stupid and simple-minded. Also, an idiot.

Acting
Most of the actors have done a good job given the terrible story and characterisation. Except one.

The guy playing Lex Luthor, Jesse Eisenberg, he starts overacting from his first appearance on screen and never stops. If anything made me want to hurl a shoe at the high-resultion IMAX screen, it was this guy. If this was Bollywood I would surmise that this boy was the son of the film's financer. Actually, that kind of thing happens in Hollywood as well, doesn't it?

Jesse Eisenberg plays the evil mastermind so horribly that I am sure if he was playing this part in a college play the director would kick him out after the first rehearsal.

Cinematography
OMG! Does director Zack Snyder know that there are other shots in the book than close up's and ultra close up's? It was driving me nuts how he was going for a close up or super close up for about 90% of the time. This also starts right from the beginning of the film.

Editing
Other than super close-up's the movie uses way too much slo-mo in scenes where it's obviously not required. It slows down the pace and makes you want to tear your hair out.

There is one particular fight scene with Batman fighting multiple goons which made me want to take the cinematographer and editor to the top of a volcano and kick them in! You can actually see the junior artists waiting their turn to attack the big star, Ben Affleck and get beaten by him. They are ALL holding a long barreled gun but none of them fire, they all step up one by one and attack him close range so that he can beat them with his fists.

What's worse, it shows that Ben Affleck is old and out of shape. Not a good thing to do to your superhero character.

Dialogue
The dialogue is way cliched. You might actually think - "Guys, did you ever have an original thought?"
Really boring dialogues in really cliched situations.

Background Music
Just like the dialogue the background music is cliched and in some scenes really intrusive. I was screaming inside - "Can you please just fuck off? I am trying to watch the scene here!"

Predictability
Because the movie is full of all kinds of cliches it's very predictable. If you watch movies regularly you would actually be able to say "Okay, this character will use this line later in the film." "Ah, she's throwing the spear in the water, that means they will need it later when things are going critical."

And when you can predict to that level the movie becomes very boring. Actually, I was yawning all through the second half of the movie.

What also pissed me off was that for a movie called "Batman Vs. Superman" majority of the movie only shows Clark Kent fighting Bruce Wayne with tired, cliched dialogue. There is only one battle between Batman and Superman in the whole film and even that is not real because the villain has captured Superman's mother and he's fighting for that rather than on principle. That battle made me doubt Superman's sanity.

The movie is also way too serious. There is absolutely no comic relief. I can't help but contrast this with Marvel movies like the Avengers where they manage to create nice comic scenes without breaking the tension of the moment.

Redeeming qualities
Yes, thankfully there were some. Well, two. Lois Lane played by Amy Adams and Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot. (Did you notice the alliteration - LL AA WW GG?) Both the characters are the best characters in the movie and both the girls have played them wonderfully well.

Lois Lane comes across as a sensible girl dealing with extraordinary situations with consummate skill and level-headedness.

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman comes across as a powerful, strong woman with remarkable abilities backed up by a remarkable character.

In spite of every bad thing I have said here I do plan to acquire a full HD version of this movie for two reasons when the Blu-Ray comes out.

One, there's a bath tub scene with Amy Adams that's just gorgeous in high-res. No, you don't see any nudity but she is a stunningly beautiful girl and that scene is worth watching for her.

Two, during the climactic battle, when Wonder Woman makes her first  appearance as Wonder Woman in this movie, she materilises on the battlefield blocking an attack by the Cryptonian monster. The best action scene of the whole movie! Gal Gadot looks amazing as Wonder Woman and just as ravishing in her WW armour as she does in the sexy cocktail dresses in the early parts of the film.

BTW, in this whole movie, Wonder Woman is the only superhero worth watching.

That's all folks. Go waste your money on it or not, I leave that up to you.

P.S. I watched Zootropolis right after this movie. Much better story line, better characters, excellent plot twists. A more worthwhile choice!

My short film - Meet The Boss

[Cast and crew of Meet The Boss after the shooting.]

Have I mentioned before that I have been trying to learn how to make films by making short films? I think that's the best way to learn to make films, by making them. And now that I have mentioned it I will be free to tell you about my many adventures in the low-budget filmmaking field any time now.

Right now it's about one particular adventure, my film for the Reed film festival.

So, I have this group where people come together for the same purpose, learning filmmaking. The last time we had a meet it was on 11th March and a member mentioned that Reed.co.uk is hosting a film competition where people can send films up to 3-minutes in length. The theme given by Reed is "The Boss" and with that theme you are free to make any kind of film that you want.

That was all well and good but the deadline was exactly 2 weeks away on 25th March! I like to chase such close deadlines but going from concept to final cut in 14 days? Even for a 3 minute film it's a tall order.

But then Gianni took me aside and told me this little story that had happened to a friend of his. It was brilliant! I liked it from the start. Also, when you don't have a multi-million dollar budget, you always look for good stories that can be told without any special effects or exotic locations. This story was PERFECT for that.

And that's how we ended up making the fastest film we have ever made - 8 days from concept to rough cut!

And here is the output:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvhgtqxKl8

We spent one week in pre-prod while our whole crew was working full time day jobs. No auditions, I knew the actor I wanted. We shot it in one single afternoon (Gianni and I co-directed) and edited that night and next morning. We had our rough cut by noon next day. We could have brought it to final cut the same day but we were shooting for another film from noon. That story some other time...

This is our film and we are proud of it! So feel free to share this film from this post or from YouTube as you like. :)