review - The Iron Lady

So let’s get this straight: “The Iron Lady” ‘aint your fun, popcorn ‘n candy movie experience!

But yet, the movie ticket price of 35dhs,well spent ….

The Iron Lady of politics, portrayed by the Iron Lady of Hollywood; quite a lethal combination! There are times, especially in the scenes featuring the aged Dame Maggie Thatcher, when you have to pinch yourself to remember, that behind that steely image, is the darling of American cinema, the happy, bubbly & hugely talented Meryl Streep!

The guts & the glory of being Meryl Streep; what courage it must take to portray a living legend, that too, a tough-cookie like Maggie!

A blast from the past, when you remember this remarkable politician, who went on to become the first female Prime Minister of England & the longest serving one at that – wow!

The image of the steely young Margaret, on being proposed to, asserting that she doesn’t want to simply live, playing wife & mother & die washing a tea cup, but to matter and make a difference – wow, goose bump moment & a personal favorite!

What pulls the rug from under your feet as a the viewer, is the fact that the movie is largely about an aged, widowed, vulnerable, sometimes helpless old lady, fighting dementia – a harsh reminder that old age is a leveler!

The movie flits between the poignant present & the glorious past - the young Maggie who meets the love of her life, who with steely determination takes on the male dominated benches of Parliament, rises to become PM, leads England to victory in the Falklands war …. Uncompromising in her duty to the country, but certainly faltering as a wife & mum! Remarkable that “Thatcherism’, as her brand of politics came to be known, is being echoed by current UK PM, David Cameron!

A compelling watch – though at times, you wonder why the director focused more on the old, hallucinating, sometimes senile & grieving parts of Margaret Thatcher’s life; especially when the flashes of her feisty comebacks in Parliament, her makeover (yeah, apparently stodgy Prime Ministers have ‘em too!), her stubborn refusal to give up her pearls, the refreshing romance with her husband … all so uplifting & enjoyable!

The life ‘n times of an extraordinary woman of substance, played with courage, understanding, sensitivity and a sense of humor, by the one and only Meryl Streep! That’s what you call a double whammy! With due apologies to Viola Davis, who was fabulous in the “The Help”, I’ll be rooting for Meryl Streep at Oscar awards this year, for her role as the living legend, Margaret Thatcher!

review - The Descendants

Sistahs, if you worried about how G(e)orge-ous Clooney would weather, post fatherhood, middle age, a thickened waist … allow me to be the harbinger of good tidings! Mr. Clooney is one of life’s miracles – an eternal hottie!
Now that I’ve got that out of my system, there is some bad news too – for all the dads out there! Starting out as the clueless, well intentioned, almost absentee dad, who is constantly baffled by his daughters bindaas attitude & lack of fear of authority, meaning him; to a hands-on, sensitive parent, in Matt King, played by Clooney, director Alexander Payne creates a father, who sets the bar really high, for all papas! Every young girl is gonna walk out of the theatre, wishing GC was her dad!!!
But don’t get me wrong – sure, George Clooney simply astounds in "The Descendants", with the sensitivity & simplicity, with which he plays a broken husband, dealing with a wife in coma & discovering she was cheating on him & having to come to terms with the reality of being a single parent; but the fabulous ensemble cast enhance this Oscar nominated role!
Most impressive is the 17 year old daughter, played with remarkable maturity by Shailene Woodley, as the 17 year old, who is burdened by the secret of her mother’s affair. A personal favorite of mine was her inappropriate boyfriend, who just attaches himself to the family, is beaten up by her grandfather & somewhere along the line, gets accepted! Kudos to the little daughter, with her dark interpretation of her mom in a coma & for making your heart melt, when she breaks down, while saying goodbye to her mom!

The icing on the cake is Hawaii - so divinely beautiful, I am sure, many from the audience, would have gone straight from the theatre to their travel agent & booked themselves one way tickets to this ‘paradise on earth!’
Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” & “About Schmidt” were great films – awesome casting (remember Jack Nicholson & the oh-so-talented, but underrated Paul Giamatti?), great direction, fabulous performances, lump in the throat moments … but I must confess, for my personal taste, a tad dark, gloomy & pessimistic; With “The Descendants”, Payne takes a joyous leap & gives the audience the perfect movie experience & yes, that ‘they lived happily ever after’ ending!

review of 'Players"

Ek movie – “Players” - kitne ‘Breaking News’!!!

*Item girls in India go on strike to protest against invasion of their territory by Bipasha Basu! Mallika Sherawat to join convent, realizing that she is no competition for Ms Basu!
*Mystery solved! Analysts have been trying to figure out the inexplicable disappearance of eye-shadow from the Indian markets; post ‘Players’ we understand that it was all used up by Sonam Kapoor!
*Consistent Player Award goes to Beti A’s ‘Paa’,Abhishek, for managing to survive scores of movies, with the bilkul same to same expression!
*Worst comeback!! Vinod Khanna - wish we could have remained with memories of that stud, whom we drooled over, jab hum jawan the!
If you are a fan of the classic “Italian Job”, then you need to go for this desi -version, armed with a sense of humor!
BUT, despite all that, “Director Duo”, (yep, that’s what they call themselves now!) Abbas-Mustan’s “Players” is a racy, entertaining Bollywood film! So you have a train carrying gold from Russia to Romania, a team of experts put together to steal the gold, a gaddar, or two, badle-ki-aag, a surprising villain, an embarrassing seductive number by Sonam Kapoor (babe, leave the jhatkas & matkas to Bipasha –ben!), fast cars, skimpy outfits in the biting cold of Russia, a neat cameo by Kiran Kher da puttar, Sikander, some cheesy humor (quite enjoyed the Russian mafia menacingly asking ‘sona kahaan hai’ & Omi Vaidya breezily retorting, ‘mujhe kya malum hai, kahin bhi so jaao!’,forgettable music ….
a fairly tasty salad, with loads of ingredients, some “Italian”, but seasoned deftly, with a huge dollop of desi tadka!

review - Don 2

Warning: Die-hard fans of SRK, advisable to skip this review!
Don 2 suffers from the curse of the sequel:ironic, since the original ‘Don’ itself was not the asli stuff, being a remake of Big B-ka-‘Don’!

Yet, the original, un-original SRK, Farhan Akhtar venture worked & how; very cool, contemporary, with unexpected twists & a wicked ending!
Oh yes, if you are hungry, go for “Don 2” armed with some fresh bread; SRK hams so royally, plenty of meat there for a sandwich & more! In the Shahrukh Khan school of acting, to portray a devilishly bad hero, all you need, is a snarl on your face & a strange rasp of the voice, which I suspect, was inspired by the “Agneepath” voice of Big B!
The old ‘Agneepath’ reminds me of the hero of the new & reloaded version, Hrithik Roshan; He is the surprise factor, wearing a mask ostensibly, a la Mission Impossible! Now here’s where you realize that Farhan Akhtar has taken on too many acting & singing assignments, which are taking their toll on his role as a director! So the Hrithik Roshan we see, for a delightful few minutes, is supposed to be the shorter & minus those biceps SRK, but even if you allow for Bollywood madness, how do you explain, that the masked SRK also talks like Hrithik Roshan?!
Aha, the clash of the Ms World v/s Ms Universe – Priyanka & Lara!!! Priyanka is the legit heroine of the film, but looks dull, washed out & sure she is a police officer, but yeh hindi phillum hai, so some unrealistic glamour would have helped!

Mrs. Bhupathi, yaaney-ki- apni- Lara, on the other hand, plays molly & dolly to Don effortlessly – she probably has, as many scenes as Priyanka, but to escape the humiliation of playing second fiddle to Ms World, Ms Universe takes the escape route, by having her act listed as a ‘special appearance’ … hmmmm!!!
Don sets his sights on a bank in Berlin – there is a convoluted plot of blackmail, storming the bank, shades of ‘Die Hard’ & no, Don doesn’t want money, but the plates which print the money …. yeah, not getting into that – if u must know, go see the movie yourself!
Did I mention our friendly, neighborhood hacker – enter Kunal Kapoor of Rang-de-Basanti fame?! Hez cute, has a phoren, pregnant wife (why we had to know that, I dunno?) & is a jack-of-all trades, as only found in hindi films!
Jab we almost hit the climax, Farhan Akhtar succumbs to the stereotype – so out of the blues, Don joins hands with the cops, helps flush out the bad guys (so does that make him good, bad or what???!) & even manages an instant, two minute, Magi noodles like romance, with Priyanka!!! Et tu, Farhan?
Music – totally forgettable & nothing to write home about!
‘Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, naamumkin hai’ – yeah, wish I hadn’t caught him!

review - MI 4

Confession: Tom Cruise in asli zindagi, I don’t like too much. Not that Cruise Bhai & I are bum chums or anything! It’s just what you read & see, like him leaping up & down a sofa, on Oprah, like a lunatic, or all that buzz about his obsession for scientology ...

But Tom Cruise on the big screen, superstar & smoking hot! Yeah, he looks kinda oddly whitewashed & botoxed too, but still has what it takes!
There’s been so much gup-shup about the movie – some not good, about it lacking the typical Mission Impossible edginess, that I went into the theatre with zero expectations, but came out in a Tom Cruise state of mind, dreamy and happy!
I had to watch the original ‘Mission Impossible’, a couple of times, before I could figure out what the hell was going on! MI 4 takes care of slow-witted folks like me, with a simple, crystal clear, no-brainer plot! It’s a happy jugalbandi, of Bond meets MI!
The regular Hollywood drama locales – Budapest & the Kremlin, which have become to these Hollywood, spy action flicks, what Switzerland is for Yash Chopra films! Defusing nuclear warheads & saving the world from annihilation, with his band of merry-men & women, all in a day’s work for apna Ethan Hunt!
Dubai meri jaan, looks spectacular & I almost got up to join my young bros in the theatre, when they gave the first glimpse of the lush, shiny desert, a standing ovation! And then the Burj Khalifa! So majestic & with Tom Cruise scaling its heights & performing breathtaking stunts, Subhan Allah!
Simon Peg, has always gone under the radar as a comic talent, but he is just right as one of the Tom’s Trio!
Paula Patton, khuda jaaney who she is & she is not even the romantic lead, but still looks fit & fabulous! Equally at ease, whether kicking a blonde assassin of the 126th floor of the Burj Khalifa, or attempting to seduce the Indian millionaire!
It’s India which gets a raw deal – the garish, gaudily dressed extras & outlandish sets, look like something out of Bollywood, in the 70’s! Anil Kapoor – could have portrayed a suave Indian playboy & businessman, but messes up his 'if you blink you’ll miss' appearance, by acting like a buffoon – was it the demands of the script, or Mr. Kapoor’s interpretation, don’t know, but certainly not ‘jhakaas!’
Like the taut action was not enough, the closing act will have you grabbing your handkerchiefs & bawling your mushy hearts out – an ‘aakhon hi aankhon mein ishara ho gaya’ moment between Tom Cruise & his wife, from whom he is separated, for the sake of her safety ….
Tom Cruise in MI 4,
Critics called it a bore,
But I say, gimme more!

review of 'dirty picture'

This one’s a mixed bag!

First, ‘Dirty Picture’ is yakeen se, a ‘Nallu Picture’/’Achha Picture’/’Good Picture’!
Socha na tha, that from the ashes of regressive soaps of the saas-bahu kind, Ekta Kapoor would emerge as a ‘hatt-ke’ producer – a pretty impressive line-up of films like ‘Once upon a time in Mumbai’, ‘Love Sex or Dhoka’ & now a movie based on the life of the first lady of suggestive item numbers & more, the inimitable ‘Sillukku’ Smitha!
So taaliyaan for Jumping Jack Jeetu ki beti!
For fellow Palghat Iyer, nammu Vidya Balan, a standing ovation! From Parineeta, you’ve come a long way babe! What a gutsy, uninhibited bold act, proving that she is one of the most versatile actors Bollywood can boast of currently!

Then there’s my all time favorite, Nasserudin Shah – he is a riot, playing those typical fossil like heroes of the 80’s, arrogant, absurd & delusional! Some hilarious scenes like the one where he looks 90+ and skips home with his diploma and has an actress half his age, playing his mother! Plenty of jabs at the foolish & illogical idolizing of over the hill actors!
BUT!!!!! I belong to the generation (phuleez let us not detour into ‘she must be quite old’ lane & stick to the review!) that saw the rise & fall of the one & only ‘Sillukku’ – you first encountered her on the large screen with horror & moralistic outrage, then graduated to grotesque fascination & somewhere down the line, grew quite fond of our feisty fabric queen - Don’t get me wrong – not taking away from Vidya Balan’s performance in any way – but for a diehard South Indian, there is a gap between our crude, earthy, one of a kind “Sillukku’ & ‘Dirty Picture’s’ refined ‘Silk’.
Credit to Vidya Balan that despite all the jhatkas, matkas, thrusts & cleavage, she never looks vulgar – which unfortunately does not allow ‘Silk’ to become ‘Sillukku’! Was it my imagination, or were there a lot of Jeetu-Sreedevi-Tohfa-Mawaali like costumes & picturisation, poses et all! Maybe Ekta wanted to squeeze in a small tribute to daddy dearest?!
Let’s talk about our Rascallas, the Tamizh film heroes – again, much as Nasser has attempted, has not been able to crack the complete package that is a middle aged leading men of the 1980’s! So funny moments definitely, but Mr. Shah’s performance, dare I say it, does verge on a spoof like quality most of the time! You still love him & never forget what a great actor he is – but no denying that there are comical tinges to his role!
Yeah, let me not forget that if it’s a Balaji production, we have to suffer Tusss (how many S’s is that?)ar Kapoor – couldn’t quite figure his look & the wig! Let me just say, a great actor he ‘aint, so thank Gawd for him that he’s got Ekta Kapoor as a sister!
Life & times of Silk Smitha – a story sincerely & well told, but the movie is not a patch on the phenomenon that was Silluku Smita - she left her mark on the fabric of Indian cinema , a trend setter ! After her came Nylex Nalini & ‘Polyester Padmini’!!! (LOL!)
But then, comparisons are odious, so season my comments with a huge dose of salt!
PS: Ooo la la la, Bhappi Da, not bad!Buy yourself one more gold chain!

review of aparna sen's 'iti mrinalini - an unfinished letter'

‘Iti Mrinalini – an unfinished letter’; taking my cue from the title … there is a sense of an unfinished experience, after watching the film! From the director of ’36 Chowringhee Lane’ & ‘Mr. & Mrs. Iyer’& I would like to add ’15, Park Avenue’, except for the fact that I have to confess that I managed to be fascinated by the film, without fully understanding it, this new offering, starring Sen Senior (Aparna herself!) & Sen Junior (the hugely talented Konkona Sen!), disappoints!
A run of the mill, predictable story, sketchily written, of an aging actress, contemplating suicide & slipping into flashback mode, which reveals a career strewn with broken affairs, a pregnancy that has to be hidden from the media & a daughter, whom she can’t take on as a beti & has to make do with being the favorite aunt ….. hmmmmmmm …. Here we go again! Indian cinema seems obsessed with these ghissa-pita, dukh bhari kahanis, of actresses who scale great heights of success, but of course, fail, when they attempt to lead a normal, sukhi zindagi!
Yeah, when Shyam Benegal wove a gripping movie around the same theme, with the fabulous Smita Patil, it worked & how!!!
There are so many actresses around, who have had happy careers, rock solid relationships, kids & gone on to do other stuff, like politics, or cookery shows (what a fall there was, my country men, watching the dhak dhak girl,Madhuri Dixit, wearing a garish chamak chalo sari, playing second fiddle to Sanjeev Kapoor!) or even making candles! Why don’t our directors get inspired?
Konkona Sen looks ravishing as the young actress, in her stunning Bengal cottons,silks & exquisite silver jewellery! (I actually checked the credits keenly, to see if the source of this beautiful silver had been mentioned, but sadly, it’s a raaz ki baat!) & she is a fine, competent actress, simply let down by a lousy script & sketchy direction!
The same can’t be said about mama Aparna – she is a stilted & affected actress & you realize why she had to take to direction, where thankfully she found her calling!
Props for the packaging – good looking, arty-varty dudes with accented English & Hindi, lovely houses, ethnically done up, bright cottons & silks & yep, the jewellery that I lusted after!

But sets, clothes, good looking dudes & dollops of literature don’t a good movie maketh - “Iti Mrinalini” proves my point!