It was one of the movies in my wishlist and a long overdue. I knew it was about the kid born out of wedlock and may be because of the Indian cinema's penchant for tearjerkers kept me away from this story. But after hearing wonderful reviews about this movie, when I came across it in veoh.com, I initiated the download. Man... a wonderful movie I had missed all these years. This is a movie I can't keep my attention off while watching. I was even surprised that there was a malayalam version of this movie called 'Olangal' directed by Balu Mahendra, which has this evergreen hit - Thumbi Vaa. However both the movies had drawn their inspiration from Eric Segal's classic novel - Man, Woman and Child. Ananya informed me that it was made in Telugu as "Illalu Priyaralu" and my wife shared her knowledge that Tamil version of this movie had Sivaji Ganesan & Sujatha in lead.

When I initiated the download of the movie 'Ijaazat' from veoh, I did it for only one name - Gulzar, its director. Later, just before the viewing, I looked for its details in Wikipedia and found that it was based on a bengali novel 'Jatugriha' by Subhodh Ghosh, which was earlier made as movie in Bengali. Also this movie's "Mera Kuch Saaman" had won Asha Bhonsle's second National Award for her and also that 'Ijaazat' was the debut of beautiful Anuradha Patel. I could say that the movie is a poetry - in every frame, every shot. When I started watching it finally, I was just blown away by its sheer poetry. Ijaazat scans the concept of love after the marriage, whether the past can eclipse the future and when I masticated what I saw, I realised the complexity of the movie. Sudha and Mahinder accidentally meet in a railway station on a rainy night and sharing what had happened after they had seperated from their marriage. In a series of flashbacks, their 'marriage' life was discussed on. Gulzar takes us through the journey of Mahinder, Sudha and Maya with the scenes that revolved around these just 3 characters ONLY but still gripping and irresisting to sit through. The movie had best written female characters. Towards the end of the movie only you'll realise what Mahinder was upto and with the sweet cameo by Shashi Kapoor you come to know where Mahinder & Sudha went wrong. The more I talk about the movie, it may turn out to be a spoiler, so let me stop here. 'Ijaazat's even though reverred by the discerning Bollywood audiences, didn't get its due when it was released. Apart from the National Award for Asha Bhonsle, the movie was sidelined in the popular awards for the 'blockbusters'. Anil Kapoor & Madhuri Dixit were honoured the "Best Actors" over Naseeruddin Shah & Rekha, Sonu Walia, the vamp from 'Khoon Bhari Mang' was preferred over poetic Anuradha Patel in the supporting actress category, Anand Milind & Alka Yagnik were thought to be superior with "QSQT" & "Tezaab". That's the pathetic story between every awards these days. - {oshits} reads

It was one of the movies that eluded me for a long time until I stumbled upon it on veoh.com. I wasted no time in initiating the download of the available copy online. This movie was one of the underrated movies that I literally had no idea about what it was all about. But I knew that it was a revenge story by the Urmila and Saif had a negative role in that. Those times Urmila was the muse of all Ram Gopal Varma's productions (ironically her last outing with Ram Gopal Varma's Factory) and Saif was in RGV's camp before he hit a big time with the Yashraj films. This happened to be the debut of Sriram Raghavan, a well known scriptwriter in Bollywood, who later had received much critical acclaim through "Johnny Gaddar". Despite all the credentials, "Ek Hasina Thi" didn't hit the bull's eye. But having seen its dark trailers, knowing that it was the debut of Sriram Raghavan, I wanted to see "Ek Hasina Thi" desperately but I didn't come across not even a single DVD in all the stores I had visited in past few years.

This Yashraj Film's outing of Kabir Khan's semi-documentry turned out to be much more exciting than I anticipated. Actually when the movie opened to rave reviews and box office acclaim, I was not that enthused to see it, until Ananya recommended for this movie. The movie is slapping on the face of the viewers in many places - especially when Katrina is being frisked and the third degree tortures meted out to John Abraham in the detention. Thankfully the movie didn't end up as a docu drama, but it is an emotional story between the three lead protagonists. I didn't feel the slack in the pace at any points, infact the turning point in the interval point was totally unexpected. That made the climax predictable, but Katrina included in the final acts was a surprise. The movie doesn't advocate terrorism even though it may appear the same superficially but dwelves into psyche of the innocent people who were suspected and tortured. The movie had a sheen that was not seen in Indian movies before. The performances by the lead players were competent and I found Katrina Kaif extremenly well in the emotional scenes. Till date I didn't take her seriously but 'New York' had tilted the scale in favour of her. Given a good script and director, she can perform well. John exposes acting talent beneath his sensuality whereas Neil Nitin Mukesh proves that he is a face to watch for with enormous subtlety. A well shot movie and nice music, "Junoon" is my favourite that deserves a discerning viewing for sure. Go for it if you hadn't still. - //End// - {oshits} readers

I was able to see this Revathy directed movie in bits and pieces earlier on TV, but got the chance to see it fully recently only. Media reported that this was a plagarised version of Tom Hank starrer "Philadelphia". I haven't seen that movie, so it doesn't matter to me. A nice and sensitive movie - that sums up everything about this movie. Revathy being an actress herself had managed to extract the best from everyone involved in the casting. It can be rated as the best in Shilpa Shetty's career and the biggest surprise is that Revathy had made the impossible a possible - Salman Khan had ACTED well sans his usual eccentricities!!! But towards the end you can't stop lauding Mita Vashist's menacing perfomance as smooth talking cunning lawyer as well as the stern faced Kitty. Abhishek was a revelation and it is pity that the critics gave his natural performance a miss. Nasser and Kamalinee Mukherjee (her debut) had supported the rest cast well. The seriousness of the issue (HIV +ve) and the society's apathy / myths towards the victims are sensitively handled by Revathy.

Here in the bus, especially during the return journeys, I very often hear that somebody is playing the songs of "Aashiqui", "Saajan" and sometimes "Sadak" from their mobile / mp3 player.... And NO... it is not from the same person.. ha! ha! ha! I am a sucker for these movie songs but quite surprised that I have so many people for my company. While those songs were composed, nobody would have expected that those songs will be played by somebody even after a couple of decades. Recently I read somewhere that the music company Venus claimed that it ha d sold more than 23 lakh units of the just cassettes of "Saajan" making it an all time highest seller in the Bollywood music industry. I remember the magic of "Aashiqui"s music, that cast its spell all over the nation, when I was in 8th std... watching "Chitrahaar" on the wednesday and expecting the songs of "Aashiqui" on air. Most of the times that year I was not disappointed because the movie celebrated Golden jubilee, so almost for an year they played all the songs repeatedly all the week. I would safely say that the prime of the Nadeem - Shravan, with a distinctive sound / style of their own, is almost similiar to what IR was for Tamil songs with the simlarity extending that AR Rahman's rise led to their downfall. When I hear those songs, these days, being played by somebody in the bus, it rekindles a lot of old memories which is soothing.. especially after a tiring day. - {oshits} reads

When 'Niram' was released in 1998, critics tend to wite it off as a "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" rip off. But a decade later, in 2008 'Jaane Tu.." came in Hindi, which was literally a rip off of Niram and this time, critics lauded it because it was an Aamir Khan Production. I just saw "Jaane Tu.." and through out the movie I had a sense of deja-vu with every scene reminding of "Niram", despite the fact that I sat to watch it without any preconceived notions. Funny part is that Genelia D'Souza, the leading lady of "Jaane Tu" made her Bollywood debut in 2003 with a movie called "Tujhe Meri Kasam" which ironically was an official remake of "Niram" but was a box-office dud. After seeing "Jaane Tu.." my heart started longing for "Niram" so much that I might end up buying one more copy of its VCD. I can bet that "Niram" is thousand times better than "Jaane Tu..". I had already wrote about "Niram" elaborately in my old post, so let me not waste time in reviewing it. What in "Jaane tu" & "Niram" worked for me and what not?....

I accidentally catched up the Mira Nair's movie "The Namesake" on the TV (06/06/09) on Star Movies. I have already heard about that movie as it was a celluloid version of Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer award winning novel of the same name. I always had apprehensions that novels can't be translated completely onscreen, so didn't watch the movie for that reason. But what made me sit initially was its arresting visuals, that could get the fancy of anybody who has an eye for colours and frames. In the due course I started getting into the story also. The star cast must also be creditted for making me sit through. This Irrfan Khan - Tabu starrer is really a nice experience to watch.

I was pleasantly surprised to catch up the Rajshri's classic 'Chitchor' on Zee Aflam last night. Watching this sugar sweet flick was a thrilling experience because I was not sure when the channel will be changed as my housemates felt it as outdated. A case of mistaken identity where the prospect groom's friend (Amol Palelkar) was misunderstood for the actual groom, while he falls in love with the simpleton heroine (Zarina Wahab) and how it got solved. As usual Amol Palelkar was completely natural, heroine's kid friend deserves a special mention and I was completely bowled by the small town girl charm of Zarina Wahab, who later got married to actor Aditya Panscholi. Yesterday only I realised that the movie had some classic songs like 'Jab Shaam dhale aana' & 'Aaj se pehle..' other than the very famous 'Gori Tera Gaon bada pyara'. When I return back to India I should get a DVD of this simple story told in a so simple fashion. Surprisingly the remake of this by same Rajshri productions resulted in a debacle called 'Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon' contributed by over the top performances by Hritihk Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, without realising that simplicity was the forte of 'Chitchor'. If possible, catch up 'Chitchor' in DVD. Spicy Gossip: Aditya Panscholi was rumoured to have an affair with Kangana Ranaut and it is no surprise because Kangana Ranaut resembles a lot.. vey much of Zarina. - {oshits} reads

Sometimes back after reading my comments about the rape scenes in Arundathi, Ananya had mailed me that all the rape scenes in Indian movies are like that, why single out Arundathi alone. She was right and in our Indian movies rape is more used as a provocative element to titillate the animal instincts of average Indian movie viewers. In the 80's movies almost all the movies had a hero's sister character who was created just to get raped and commit suicide following that gory incident. Thankfully that trend phased out eventually when the heroines took over the part of seducing the male audiences from the vamps and rapes. But there are very few rape scenes that gave me goosebumps when I even think about them. Those were vital for the story to move on and those scenes disturbed me for weeks. Recently when I read 'Kane and Abel' there was this gang rape scene after which I literally stopped reading that novel until Vaidhees assured me that no more such scene will come in that novel.

Despite knowing that it is a multiplex hit, the Hindi movie 'A Wednesday' caught my attention as soon as Kamal Hassan announced his intentions to remake it in Tamil and Telugu. Quite a poigant tale told in a gripping way, 'A Wednesday' captures the common man's angst against the beaurocratic / red tape involved in government's way of dealing with terrorism. No top stars, no jingoism, yet the director Neeraj Pandey manages to get the audiences a feel of their own angst translated effectively to the big screen. Brilliant performances by the lead players Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, especially the latter playing the role effortessly, the last dialogue Naseer mouths just makes the anger of the public seep through the blood, give a hair raising experience. Neeraj's clever way of masking the community which Nasseer belongs to is a master stroke deserving a critical applause. 'A Wednesday' - movie that shouldn't be missed by the discerning viewers at any cost. Hope Kamal Hassan retains the same feel & essence and the doubts are basically for (i) he had chosen stars with larger-than-life, himself along with Venkatesh [Telugu version], Mohanlal [Tamil], for the regional versions, (ii) the story revolves around the Mumbai bomb blasts and terror attacks, which the Hindi audiences could identify with but for those in South such terror attacks are another news. All the very best for Kamal Hassan & the crew involved in the South versions. - {oshits} reads