Mysorean

A multi-starrer of sorts. Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta and Esha Deol. If I hadn’t seen the poster with my customary extra-attention I would have thought the director was David Dhawan. It is Anees Bazmee. Of Pyaar tho hona hi tha and Dewangee fame.

It’s not a melodrama as the previous Bollywood multi-starrer movies have been but a comedy throughout. There was one stretch of 20 minutes in the second half where I laughed my head off. To the extent that my stomach developed cramps and tears filled my eyes. My friends were too busy laughing to notice me laughing like crazy.

There is nothing very dirty about this movie as the posters wrongly project. You can sit and watch this movie alongwith family. There is a telugu movie which I guess was the inspiration for this movie. “Pellam ooru vellithe”. People feel free to correct me. I remember somebody telling me the story of that film and it sounded similar to this one.

Anil Kapoor is first grade. An actor who hasn’t ever got his due. Salman Khan is comfortable with comedy and it shows as it had in his previous “Maine Pyar Kyun kiya”. Bipasha Basu has to look sexy and who better than her to do it?! ;) Fardeen Khan, I don’t think this lad can act at all. He looks so stiff. Lara Dutta does well. Esha Deol, she should go back to making candles! Apart from “Yuva” & “Dhoom” where I actually noticed her, in every other movie of hers I actually forgot who played her character.

This is a movie that can be watched. With the family. Have a hearty laugh for 2 and a 1/2 hours. And go back home with a smile on your face.

A much-awaited tamil movie. Released on the scale of movies like “Chandramukhi” and “Anniyan”. Starring Surya of “Kaakha… Kaakha” & “Pitamagan” fame and Asin of “Amma Naana Oka Tamil Ammayi” & “M Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi” fame. Well, Asin is extremely famous even otherwise! ;) As my dear friend Arjuna will tell you! The director is A. R. Murugadoss who has gained Godly status after movies like “Dhina” and “Ramana”. So, the movie had an unimaginable opening!

After lot of coaxing by my friends, I decided to venture into this. I like Surya and the personality that he projects on screen. He does it to perfection. And so he did in Ghajini too. Just that his costume designer, hair dresser and choreographer need to be sacked with immediate effect! There were some places where he was supposed to behave like a person with a short memory but he in turn he behaves like a robot!

Asin was charming and beautiful as usual. Nothing new there. She carried off an author-backed role with aplomb. The movie was enjoyable only when she was on screen. Sadly, they kill her half way and the other half is a torture to sit through. Even Surya cannot hold your attention. The director, or should I say “God” instead, has messed up badly.

The story though sounds very interesting is actually very boring. The music, barring two songs, is average. The background music was loud and noisy. The cinematography is worth a mention. The editing could have been better.

The casting director should be asked only one question, “Why did he pick Nayanthaara for this role?” See, with Rajni in a movie nobody is looking at who the heroine is [unless of course she is Ramya Krishna or Soundarya!]. So the logic that she has a superhit in her bag doesn’t hold any water! She would have lost a few kgs after all that running and running she has done in the movie. Hopefully, she looks decent in her next movie.

The movie is running on some amazing word-of-mouth publicity. Yeah, I was also a victim of the same strategy. I can safely tell you that if you don’t watch this movie, there’s nothing you would have missed. Go get yourself the DVD of “Kaakha… Kaakha”, get under the blanket with a hot cup of coffee [with rain outside it'll be romantic!], and if you are lucky a companion, and watch it instead. This is the solution if you are a Surya fan. Otherwise, there’s nothing which can make you sit through the entire 3 hours.

Nagesh Kukunoor who is the director of movies like Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling, Rockford & Teen Deewarein has come up with “Iqbal”. Subhash Ghai who went public with his “Mukta Arts” has realised that if he alone continues directing movies under this banner then he will earn brickbats from investors! ;) So, he has wisely roped in Nagesh to push up the Share value.

The commercial angle apart, the movie is based on the story of a deaf and dumb young boy realising his dreams. A straight from the heart movie with Nagesh’s sophisticated sense of humour evident throughout. Naseeruddin Shah shows why he is considered as one of the living legends of Indian cinema.

Shreyas Talpade plays his role to perfection. The girl who plays his sister’s character actually steals the show. She holds her own in frames with Naseeruddin Shah. Kapil Dev makes a guest appearance. The father and mother of the boy are familiar actors who do a good job.

One satirical scene is where the boy practices cricket with buffaloes standing in for fielders. And they name them as Gavaskar, Kapil, etc. The scene is hillarious.

Nagesh Kukunoor shows that he can raise the level of his cinema with every movie he makes. Teen Deewarein was possibly the best I have seen yet though. But he shows a lot of promise. I am not going to miss any of his movies. A director of rare calibre.

Don’t miss Iqbal! I know the review is late. But then, you can still get a VCD/ DVD and watch it. It’s worth it.

Ram Gopal Varma’s factory comes up with their next product. They have named it “My wife’s murder”. A husband kills his nagging wife by mistake and tries to conceal it from the Police. How he goes about escaping from the Police forms the crux of the movie.

RGV has trained his protégés well. Commendably well in fact. They match his values of film-making to perfection. But they do maintain their own style. Jijy Philip does make a mark with this movie.

Anil Kapoor lets the world know that he still exists with a knock-out performance in the husband’s role. And takes the role towards a father’s responsibility with grace.  This performance must win him a critics’ award if Aamir Khan’s Mangal Pandey can be overlooked for a brief while. If he were clean-shaven maybe we could have concentrated on his facial expressions more. Being a RGV factory movie, that’s a crime. Clean-shaven faces don’t exist in their world!

Nandana Sen, who had played Rani Mukherjee’s sister in “Black” comes up with an ace here. She plays the role of a cosmopolitan girl who lives in with a guy. She is the assistant of Anil Kapoor at office because of which Anil constantly has to face his wife’s nagging! Later, she gets involved in saving Anil Kapoor from the Police. This girl can act very well. She expresses herself subtly but makes a definite impact. An excellent addition to the RGV camp. Can we have more of her please?

Bomman Irani, well, his first scene does generate laughter because people are still in the hangover of  j.asthana from Munnabhai M.B.B.S which was a landmark character in Hindi cinema. But after that he makes his serious intent quite evident. He is an actor of the highest caliber. He belongs to the Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri cadre. He can handle any role with ease and does it with aplomb here too.

Sen’s live-in boyfriend does a good job. So does Bomman’s assistant.

Background music, cinematography, lighting, editing, screenplay, story & costumes are in typical RGV mould. Slick and to the point. There’s no overdo at any point. A technically accomplished movie. And this time combined with a powerful storyline, Jijy Philip takes RGV company with him to a higher level. Hope they make many more such good movies that are good to watch. A 2 hour on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie. Watch it you won’t regret it!  

After hits like the Oscar-nominated ‘Lagaan’ and trend-setting ‘Dil Chahta Hai”, Aamir Khan comes up with his next venture “Mangal Pandey – The Rising”. Having made his fans wait for four long years, expectations were sky high. Rather they were so high; I don’t think people could even convert their expectation into words. Aamir Khan was expected to deliver a “Lagaan” everytime he starred in a movie.

“Mangal Pandey – The Rising” was touted to be India’s answer to Braveheart, Gladiator, etc. Surely, Aamir is bigger than Mel Gibson & Russel Crowe put together in India, but MP doesn’t get anywhere near Braveheart or Gladiator. MP is a good movie by average Bollywood standards, but nowhere near what it was hyped up to be. It has been shot with the thought in the mind that we are making an epic. We need to match everything that an epic should have. Such reverse workings never help. Success has no shortcuts.

The story and script are the two things that fail to live upto the hype. Lets keep the ‘inaccuracies’ aside. (Like someone said, “History is a fable of the successful”. So, having inaccuracies in history is like accusing politicians of lying!) Adding characters by the dozen in the name of cinematic liberty doesn’t add any value to the main theme of patriotism. This is the “Love” syndrome that our moviemakers are afflicted with. Remember “The Legend of Bhagat Singh”? Bhagat Singh’s love interest was created. Of course, for those markets in Bihar and UP that bring in the revenue! Don’t you understand the marketing side of movie-making?! Rani Mukherjee becomes a kothewaali, lover, wife and a freedom fighter. That’s some characterization! Amisha Patel is a meek wife-married-in-childhood, widow-staring-at-death, lady-who-feels-she-doesn’t-deserve-to-live, girl-who-loves-to-play-holi and does anyone remember what happens to her in the end?! Here we lose the character itself!

The theme of the movie was supposed to be Mangal Pandey’s story of how one man ignited the War of Indian Independence. Dramatization dilutes the theme. The story and the script-writers have drawn the line a bit too far is my opinion. I was expecting a hair-raising experience of watching MP if not another “Lagaan”. But that happened only in the last ten minutes.

Somehow most of the scenes lost their significance in the chaos. The scene where MP walks beyond the rifles, to the canon and says “Fire!” was a scene with such great potential. Aamir portrayed everything to perfection. The background music was thrilling. But the scene didn’t leave me with that wow feeling! Instead the immediate next scene was a comical face of the General!

Screenplay by the much-respected Farookh Dhondhy is another letdown. Once Aamir mouths the dialogue, “Aapne sirf hamari wafaaari dekhi, ab hamari krodh dekhiye. Aapki company ki dhajjiyan udadenge”, you know the next scene? “Intermission”! It’s like taking you to the climax and leaving you when you got high!

I am sorry. But that was not expected of such a talented team. Everybody knows the story of MP, so the trick was in building up excitement in the already known story. The idea was right. The execution is all messed up! When the “Holi” song came, I was completely out of tune with the theme of the movie. I love India, I love Aamir, I wanted to love MP. These things completely let me down.

Mangal Pandey as a character in a hindi cinema would do well as the initial module in a movie on the War of Indian Independence. Or even better would be the same movie, edited properly, in a length of 2 hrs would make a crisp and slick movie. It still wouldn’t be an epic. The story is by itself weak to be an epic. To make an epic you need a story that holds the audience till the end of the story. Or else you need to be a story-teller with legendary qualities.

Sadly, Ketan Mehta is neither a good story-teller nor does he have an efficient story on hand. He has a great idea with him, but the idea is a good thought. Period. It was not worthy of being made into a ‘period’ film of epic proportions. And making a ballad out of it would probably have given it a different genre and hence maybe much more respect. KM is found hanging between making a ballad, a movie and an epic. He’s clearly confused! Having an idea in your mind for 20 long years, you just want to put everything you thought of onto the screen. This is what happens!

The same uncertainty is found in the music maestro A R Rahman’s score. Since ballad was the initial briefing we had a few songs. Then, we shifted to making a movie. So, the songs needed to be ‘commercial’. Mess-up in other words! Songs appear at every unexpected place! We are making an epic movie that’s going to have an International release under a famous banner! We shall make money with the background score too. A R Rahman is probably the best composer in the world at this point of time. His background score proves this point. According to grapevine, we should be having a release of the background score separately. Get ready to grab your copies!

Aamir Khan has now gone beyond the best performers of any generation. In a movie full of distractions, he is the only one to hold your attention! Rightly justifying the frenzied shouting that accompanied his name during the title credits! Apart from Aamir, the only other name that was cheered during the title credits was A R Rahman! Who says the music was bad?! Aamir is in a league of his own. There’s no point in trying to compare him with others because they share a surname with him! And there’s no point wasting ink on this Living Legend. He’s perfect!

Toby Stephens does a good job. His Hindi was unbearable. Everything else was just fine. Half of my time of watching MP was spent in collating the pieces my neighbour and I understood of Toby’s dialogue. There were many instances when my neighbour and I looked at each other for a moment and then realized he had actually spoken in English and there was no necessity for us to collaborate and understand that one. We had already missed the dialogue anyway!

I read in many other reviews that Rani Mukherjee did a good job! Good for her! And may I also take this opportunity to appreciate the reviewer’s patience and observation skills! I didn’t notice her performance much. I can now tell you the length and breadth of her cleavage to 95% accuracy levels. Oh I am so perverted! Yeah go on!

Tthe totally-out-of-place-song “Rasiya” having two girls fondling each other, the dialogues that the kothewaalis exchange with MP, the ‘purdah’ uthana scene during Rani’s introduction, the unnecessary kiss in the irrelevant love story of Amisha & Toby, led one of my friends to remark, “Abey yeh to Mangal Pandey nahi, Mangal Pondy* hai”!

[*Pondy is a slang word used to name a genre of movies that have sexually explicit material]

Jokes apart, the movie was good. Could have been better! But I will not watch it again.

Tomorrow: Sense of mission

Shankar, the director of films such as – “Kadhalan”, “Gentleman”, “Indian”, “Jeans”, “Mudhalvan” and “Boys” now comes up with “Anniyan”. Too much hype, huge budget, mind-blowing music, using the best special effects in Indian film industry, conveying significant social messages and vivek’s presence (off-late) are all key ingredients of any Shankar’s film. “Anniyan” is no different. But honestly, the movie could have done with better music! Shankar misses AR Rahman badly in this project. And it shows clearly.

Stars or no stars, Shankar knows what the audience wants. He gives it to them in a package that even certain hindi films cannot give. Once you come out of a Shankar movie, you will never have the feeling you have watched a tamil regional language movie. He always connects the movie to a significant social message with which you identify and that raises the standard in which you view the movie. Invariably that also raises the standards with which you review the movie. And Shankar has always come on tops here too. He raises the bar each time he makes a movie. And he satisfies it with his next venture.

“Anniyan” conveys the message of “Do your duty sincerely. Let the change in the country begin with you. Don’t put up with nonsense. Raise your voice and make it matter. We can make this country as good as a Singapore or a Japan if we (The Citizens) decide to do it” through three characters Ambi, Remo and Anniyan. Ambi is the one who follows the rules by the letter and spirit. But he cannot make others pay for the mistakes the make by not following the rules. Remo is a pop-singer/ ramp walker (confusing actually!) who does whatever’s necessary to win the love of his beloved. Anniyan is the one who makes every wrong-doer pay for his mistakes. These are the three alter egos of a small time lawyer by name “Ramanujam”. He is called Rules Ramanujam for easier identification. Yes! You got it right! This is another movie on Multiple Personality Disorder!

Vikram suffers from MPD and he goes about following rules, winning the love of his neighbour and making people pay for their mistakes in three different characters. Vikram defines each character carefully. He creates a clear distinction among them in terms of their voice, hairstyle, body language and style. Vikram has done so well in this movie that he can use this movie as a marketing tool for himself to other producers/ directors. Not that he needs it, but just goes to show that Vikram has completely shown the various range of acting styles he can handle with ease. He doesn’t look out of place at all. In order to stop myself from using superlatives for his performance I would like to pick up one Prakash Raj’s dialogue from the movie where he mistakes Vikram’s MPD as a case f good acting and says, “I have seen Sivaji, I have seen Gemini, Kamal and even Rajni. Even I am a good actor myself. But you have outdone all of them. You are simply great!” This is a tribute to Vikram’s performance inside the movie itself!

Vivek keeps the audience in splits whenever he’s on screen. It’s only natural that the tamil heroes (self acclaimed dalapathis and superstars) of today feel insecure sharing the frame with him. He can alone assure repeat value to a movie. “Run” is an excellent case in point. Sada is passable. Nassir comes in late as the psychiatrist and still manages to create an impact as only this veteran can do.

Music is good. Could have been better. AR Rahman is missed sorely in this department. The situations for the songs are just so wonderful that AR Rahman would have made one huge difference to the movie. If the movie ends up being a hit and not a super hit then I would attribute this to the absence of the Music Maestro from this team. The synergy is missing.

Cinematography by Mr. Ravi Verman and Mr. Manivannan is outstanding. The anniyan scenes are shot very well. Choreography was consistently horrible. None of the songs impressed in their execution & presentation. Painting a whole village, bridge, few cars, buses and Lorries were all a wasteful expenditure in my opinion. There are other better ways to create a positive visual impact. Extravagancies are never substitutes for good ideas. Shankar should learn from Mani Ratnam on how to extract the best visual effects from a situation.

Overall, a good movie. Have heard comments like it’s a rehash of all Shankar’s earlier movies. But then, he has a style. He follows it and to top it he makes it a point to show the style. Some people are rubbed the wrong way by this. Also, there is a certain section of people who just don’t get the crux of the movie come out making such comments. The intention of Shankar is there, but it’s not practical enough. All of us need to have an Anniyan growing inside us. If we keep ourselves blind to all the wrongs that are going on round us then, we will continue to live in a flawed world. Is it not our dream to see a perfect world? Is it such an alien idea? I don’t think so. Let me know what you think.

Amitabh Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan & Amitabh Bachchan. How many movies does this 64-year old sign in a year? He must have lost count. If I attend all working days of my office, I might sign 20 times in the register. And I get paid only once mind you for all that daily effort! And here is an old man, who signs more than I do and gets paid in crores (in all likelihood!) for each such sign! Is he worth all this? Why so much fuss about this old man? Why does it look like the directors of today aren’t having enough of this man? To top it all, we have scriptwriters still writing stories with this man in mind. BLACK. Isn’t this a case of “too much” as a chennaite would put it? Konjam over aa therilaiye? Swalpa jaasti ne ee mudukanige praamukhyate kodtidaare ansallva? Endukuandi prati movie lo ethanni sign chestaru? The bottomline: Is this old man worth all this?

I believe Amitabh Bachchan is worth all this and in fact much more. He is running the best phase of his career. Well, that best phase has been running since the 1970’s! Except for a few glitches here and there, he is really been around for a long time. Rajesh Khanna ended his super streak when the Amitabh began, Anil kapoor came and went, the Khan trilogy rose and they rule in patches now, papa’s son Hrithik flattered to deceive, Amitabh rules over all of them. Even collectively.

“Is Sunil Gavaskar (SG) better or Sachin Tendulkar (ST)?”, “Is Illayaraja better or A R Rahman” are oft-heard topics for informal debates. Have you ever heard a debate on “Is Amitabh Bachchan better or Shah Rukh Kan or Aamir Khan or whoever?” In all likelihood you will never hear it in your lifetime. Reasons being: SG and ST were not contemporaries and hence the debate always continues since you cannot equate them on that platform. Same thing holds good for AR Rahman and Illayaraja. But Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, etc. have all been contemporaries of Amitabh Bachchan. And in Aamir Khan’s case, his debut was as a child star in “Yaadon ki baraat” which was released in the same year as Amitabh’s “Zanjeer” – 1973. So, essentially there’s no comparison between these actors. Let’s move on, before I get stuck on this wasteful comparison exercise.

This article started as a review of the movie “Viruddh”. But see where it is going?! I think this is natural. I don’t think it’s a digression at all. If you see “Viruddh” you will understand what I am saying. Amitabh makes you laugh, giggle, jump, cry, sit back, tense, thoughtful and agree with whatever he does on that 70mm white spread. You flinch when he gets hurt. You cry for him when he is pained. You feel sorry for him when he is teased. You feel more helpless than him, when he can’t stand up to people teasing him. You feel his anguish when the police just brush his case away like a pile of dirt. But Amitabh’s greatness lies not only in helping you feel the pain, but he shares his happiness with you with equal intensity. You burst out laughing for those jokes he cracks with his wife Sharmila Tagore. You appreciate his sensibility in handling the situation where his son comes back with a foreign bahu! You stand up to his greatness of comic timing in the scene where they drink wine. But there’s one scene which only Amitabh could have done and not anyone else. Anyone. He watches through the door of the operation theatre with his son dying. The expression that he shows was enough to help the audience understand the result of the operation. There was no necessity to show his son closing his eyes. That’s Amitabh for you. At 64, he seems to get a better understanding of your pulse than your doctor!

You have heard Amitabh speak English in BLACK. He speaks English in “Viruddh” too. And let me tell you, not once during the entire movie did I even think that this could be the same man who was in BLACK. Here he is a typical Marathi speaking retired old man. In BLACK he was the sophisticated, refined, magician who could make the impossible possible. And as only he can do it, he has clearly shown how he differentiates between characters (among so many signatures!). Getting under the skin of a character means what? To understand the question watch Amitabh perform.

Mahesh Manjrekar proves he can come up with classics at will. “Astitva” showcased Tabu, and here he tells a story as a tribute to the Great Amitabh. The story of triumph of the truth over deceit, grit and will over political pressure and corruption. If Mahesh Manjrekar can keep away from fare like “Padmashri Laloo Prasad Yadav”, he would be doing all of us such a big favour! He would rank right up there among the best directors of today if he made such movies!

Sachin Khedkear and Sanjay Dutt find themselves in because they are a part of Mahesh Manjrekar’s team. Sanjay Dutt also has a fight (Or should I call it simple violent?) scene to go with his image I guess! It was not necessary. The movie dealt with having common sense and a no-complaints attitude. And that scene was a spurt in the proceedings!

Sharmila Tagore was good as the mom. She is not as plastic as she was in her younger days. John Abraham is good as the son-cum-narrator. Using the son as the lens to view the movie was again a fantastic move of direction. It helped to show the unique mesh of relationships in new light. And can you believe this? There is a wedding that happens in the movie with only the parents of the bridegroom, the bride and the bridegroom, two pujaris (priests) and three Gods! The Johars and Chopras should learn from this to give a storyline more importance than shooting marriage videos.

“Viruddh” is an under-rated movie going by the other reviews I have read. Similarities to “Saaransh” and other such storylines seem to be there. But you will not repent having watched this movie. And as I said before, you can watch it for one man – Amitabh Bachchan.

‘Aitey’ director Chandrashekhar makes his second movie. Not having seen ‘Aitey’ I will not be able to give a comparison.

The plot revolves around the leading lady Charmy who has lost a day in her life and is unable to recall the happenings on that day. The repurcussions of which she seems to be facing daily. How does she discover what’s going on in her life? Who helps her out of it?

Well-written & well-picturised the movie tries to belong to the RGV genre. The first half could have been trimmed to make it a taut film. A song at the wrong time just before the climax is what makes me call it an attempt at the RGV genre. The cinematography is particularly good. Music by Keeravani is good. “Left o Right o..” and “Evarayna chusuntara…’ are two songs which show Keeravani’s brilliance. Using self-acclaimed pop star Smitha’s voice in “evarayna..” turns out to be a good choice.

Charmy leaves an indellible impression! She is outstanding! Comaprisons to Sridevi and Revathi only go to show the brilliance of this actress. A class act throughout. I haven’t seen her before. So, I also thought she was fresh and away from the navel-exposing, pouting for attention kind of today’s heroines!

Jagapathi Babu has this knack of excelling in supporting roles! Remember ‘Anthahpuram’? Again here, as a Real juice sipping, thinking, but suspended cop who wants to marry Charmy, he puts across a very convincing performance. I am yet to see him in his ‘Gayam’ days! That was vintage Jagapathi Babu!

Among others, you are forced to call Sashank as the hero. He does well. His role doesn’t require him to be very expressive. Yet you empathise with him as you watch the movie. There’s very little of him though. The script is totally inclined towards Charmy’s character.

Gunnam Gangaraju having produced the film gets himself into the film as a comedian. Looked like he didn’t want to pay Sunil a hefty amount for it! Everytime he spoke I got this impression he was trying to imitate Sunil. But blame it on my rare viewing of telugu movies and unlimited admiration for the comic timing of Sunil!

Pavan Malhotra is wasted. Charmy’s friend who gets pregnant through the ‘missionary’ position and is so matter-of-fact about it actually makes an impression!

The social messages conveyed through the movie are commendable. Very aptly timed. Don’t believe in anybody blindly and Drugs is a bad habit!

Glad I watched this movie in telugu after a long time.

Movies

Parineeta
(Director: Pradeep Sarkar, Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Written by: Pradeep Sarkar and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Music Director: Shantanu Moitra, Cinematographer: N. Nataraja Subramanian, Creative producers: Vir Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani)

My Rating: 7.5/10

The producers of Munnabhai M.B.B.S & a first time director in the form of ad-director Pradeep Sarkar ( Former associate director – Mission Kashmir) adapt an original classic novel by SaratChandra Chattopadhyaya to bring to us a 70mm movie “Parineeta”.

The story is of a Lolita (debutante but familiar face – Vidya Balan), orphaned early in her life staying with her mama. She is a childhood friend & neighbour of the son-of-a-filthy rich-father and ek lauta waaris of crores of jaaydad: Sekhar (Saif Ali Khan). Sekhar is a musician by choice but businessman by (his father’s) force.

Lolita and Sekhar realise their love for each other when Girish (Sanjay Dutt), a businessman relative of Lolita, enters from London into the small and cosy ecosystem that Lolita and Sekhar had created for themselves. Girish saves Lolita’s mama from certain financial problems created by Sekhar’s wealthy father. Thus, Lolita feels indebted to Girish, and her mama decides to get them both married to display gratitude.

In the meantime, Sekhar’s father gets a businessman Tathya’s daughter (Dia ‘plastic’ Mirza) as a would-be-bride for Sekhar. Does Sekhar agree to the match? How does the story end? Watch the movie to find out.

Vidya Balan comes across as a seasoned performer. She’s at ease in front of the camera. She conveys expression through her eyes. A trademark of a very high calibre of actors. The first scene where she is introduced with the camera focussing only on her eyes through the window slit does justice to this talent of hers. Her body language is pleasant. She can effortlessly demarcate the light scenes from the heavy ones with her smile. I am still trying to recover from that charming smile! ;-)

Saif Ali Khan, thankfully and rightfully cast in a serious role, makes full use of the opportunity. He comes up with a royal performance. Showing affluence comes naturally to him. The scene where he plays piano imagining Lolita making love to Girish and ends in an orgasmic shudder of the glass of water breaking, is a class apart from the movie itself! I would say, paisa vasool for that scene alone! Hats off to Saif Ali Khan for pulling it off without overdoing it! I shall talk about the conception of that scene when we get there!

Sanjay Dutt plays his age. A well-groomed businessman who does a L N Mittal kind of acquisition of steel plants. Looks good in his suits and dresses. Has lost a bit of his sturdy physique, but suits the role to the tee. He displays maturity in the character. He does well. His introduction scene where he is mistaken for an electrician by Lolita is excellent.

Saif’s parents have an important role to play in the movie and they do it very well. Especially Saif’s father does very well to add that business-like touch to the role while bordering on the villanous. Dia Mirza has a few more scenes than Raima Sen. Dia looks beautiful but plastic. Raima Sen does well as the chirpy energetic girl-next-door. And Saif’s friend and music arranger does a good cameo. The scene where he requests the beggar for a 25 paise loan is pulled off well though it’s cliched!

Cinematographer N. Nataraja Subramanian does a professional job of capturing the Kolkata of the 1960′s perfectly recreated by the trio of Keshto Mondal, Tanushree Sarkar and Pradeep Sarkar (himself!). References to Elvis Presley, Saridon, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk of the 1960′s seem to make the movie very authentic. There is a yellowish tinge throughout the movie to give it a vintage touch. Editing could have been better.

Music was the highlight of the movie for me. Shantanu Moitra comes across as a melodious composer! The song “Piyu Bole” is just too romantic. Though the introduction (during the titles) song is a bit jarring on the ears, overall the quality of music belongs to the best we have heard this year so far. Background music adds to the feel of the movie. But there are a few scenes which have been given a very sudden jump in the volume levels which makes the audience jerk all of a sudden. Few of my friends, who had come along with me who didn’t quite understand hindi fully, were woken up by these sounds! ;-)

Vidhu Vinod Chopra has left no stone unturned in making this movie the best he could. Amitabh Bachchan’s voice at the beginning of the movie and the end adds a certain class to the overall happenings. The painting through which the movie starts is another attempt at giving a ‘classy’ feel to the movie.

Overall, a classy movie. Not to be missed by the lovers of sensitive cinema. I have taken away 2.5 points because I felt the ending was a bit too dramatic. No complaints though. And there are a few sequences where the actors went overboard!

Vidhu vinod Chopra a celebrated movie maker himself has developed a team which churns out excellent movies. Till today we had heard of only two schools of film-making that were dominating Bollywood. The Yasho Chopra and the Ram Gopal Varma schools. Please mark the arrival of the third, in chronology alone not on quality, The Vidhu Vinod Chopra School. They are ready to follow ‘Parineeta’ up with a string of movies ‘Munnabhai meets the Mahatma’ (Munnabhai MBBS – II) and ‘Yagna’ with the same starcast. And in ‘Yagna’ you will see Amitabh Bachchan in flesh and blood not only hear him! Get ready, fasten your seat belts for a journey with the Vidhu Vinod Chopra School!