Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else

October 26, 2011

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Dalip Tahil, Satish Shah

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Superhero film Ra.One kicks off on an unusual note, as geeky tech-wiz dad Shekhar Subramaniam, played by Shah Rukh Khan, tries to become his young son’s hero by creating the greatest video-game villain of all time. Named Ra.One in a not-so-subtle reference to The Ramayan‘s Lanka king, this super-villain almost immediately shows signs of breaking out of his virtual world to wreak havoc and destruction in the real one. Yet even as danger is lurking around the corner, Ra.One’s creator Shekhar is distractedly working the dance floor with his wife.

To me, this moment sums up the entire experience of watching this ambitious but flawed superhero film — every time we’re drawn into the simplistic but intriguing story of how Ra.One can only be vanquished by the game’s superhero G.One (also played by Shah Rukh), director Anubhav Sinha feels the desperate need to inject a dance number or a comical sequence or a melodramatic interlude into the narrative. It’s distracting from the superhero theme and more importantly, it makes the film clunky.

Once again, it’s Shah Rukh Khan’s sheer presence and energy, coupled with the narrative’s don’t-stop-to-think pace that makes Ra.One watchable despite its flaws. This is an event movie, a spectacle, not really a film. It’s 2 hours 35 minutes of special effects, action sequences and superficial romantic and emotional entanglements. You can see the ambition and imagination that the makers have poured into this movie, and while it thankfully doesn’t succumb to the kind of lazy film-making we’ve seen recently in Rascals, Bodyguard, Ready or the Golmaal films, Ra.One clearly suffers from a case of cramming in too much. Frankly, in all this, the superhero theme itself gets a bit lost — G.One’s committment is towards protecting his family from Ra.One, not saving the world from evil. In the process, he’s less of a superhero than Superman, Batman, Spiderman or even Krrish; G.One is more of a personal bodyguard with special powers.

Yet adhering to the unwritten superhero rule, G.One too is born out of tragedy, when his creator Shekhar is killed by Ra.One. Strangely, despite the heavy funeral song, we’re barely convinced that wife and kid are grieving for Shekhar; so smoothly does G.One take his place in their lives. In their greed to make Ra.One an entertainment extravaganza, the writers inject innuendoes that come off as crass — like the thesis the so-called feminist wife is doing on Indian swear words, or the scene in which a gay airport security guard is turned on by G.One’s body piercings. The special appearances by Rajnikanth in a spoof of his own Robot, or a stylish early sequence featuring Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra only end up playing to the gallery. You’re also left wondering why there’s such an unhealthy obsession with the crotch, with so many scenes of grabbing, clutching, whacking or kicking it.

Ra.One heavily references films like Total Recall, The Matrix, Iron Man, X-Men and Terminator-2, yet there is a certain thrill attached to the action sequences. A car chase through London’s streets is rivaled by a local-train sequence in India where G.One leaps from one bogie to another. There’s also the mind-boggling sight of the beautiful Gothic structure of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus crumbling as the train ploughs right through it. These portions make up for the long-drawn climatic battle between Ra.One and G.One fought in a rather tacky virtual world.

The only real standout performance is by Shah Rukh Khan. His Aiyyo-speaking Shekhar Subramaniam is caricaturish but charming, while as G.One, he gives even his robotic video-game character a charismatic edge. Kareena Kapoor, as Shekhar’s wife, provides the glamorous oomph factor as she shimmies to that fantastic number Chamak Challo, while Arjun Rampal makes a menacing Ra.One. However, too much screen time is wasted on the long-haired Armaan Verma who plays Shekhar’s son, while Shahana Goswami playing a video game developer, inexplicably vanishes from the screen midway through the story.

What’s missing from Ra.One is a sure-footed director’s touch. Anubhav Sinha fails to bring all the elements together, and while this superhero film has plenty sound and fury, it’s sorely lacking slickness. I’m going with two and a half out of five for Ra.One. Like the spaghetti and curds concoction that Shah Rukh digs into in an early scene, Ra.One is clearly an acquired taste.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 26, 2011

Cast: Esha Deol, Arjan Bajwa, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Farooque Shaikh, Deepti Naval

Director: Hema Malini

Tell Me O Kkhuda directed by Hema Malini feels so outdated, you’re hardly surprised it’s a rehash of an earlier film she’d directed, Dil Aashna Hai, all the way back in 1992. The premise of both films is exactly the same – an adopted girl sets off on a quest to find her birth parents. The director’s own daughter Esha Deol plays the protagonist of this new film, whose determined but frankly harebrained mission takes her to the doorsteps of three different men, one of whom might well be her father.

Predictable and formatted, the film has an episodic feel to it, and works strictly on an unintentionally comical level. Vinod Khanna is a Rajasthan royal at whose estate Esha competes in a camel race to ingratiate herself to her possible daddy. Rishi Kapoor is a Turkey-based hotelier who manipulates her into curing his cuckoo wife. And Dhamendra is a Goa gangster whose rival kidnaps her to get even with the don.

The film fails to connect at an emotional level, because the story’s treated more like a series of adventures for the young girl, than the emotional roller-coaster ride it needed to be. The dialogues are archaic, the tone is melodramatic, and the performances consistently embarrassing.

The main culprit here is the sloppy script. The writers interrupt the basic storyline with such repeated distractions as a romantic track between Esha and Arjan Bajwa, a long-drawn sermon against female foeticide, and even some badly timed humor from Johnny Lever. The film’s conflict is resolved conveniently, and Esha’s character is reunited with her biological parents in a cheesy scene that winks at the real-life parallels it obviously draws.

Intended as a starring vehicle for Esha Deol, this 80s-style melodrama might have benefited from smarter writing and slicker direction. I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five for Hema Malini’s Tell Me O Kkhuda. Plodding on for what seems like eternity, this is an earnest but exhausting film.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 26, 2011

Cast: Himesh Reshammiya, Purbi Joshi, Sonal Sehgal, Rajesh Khattar

Director: Swapna Waghmare Joshi

The irony of Himesh Reshammiya’s new film Damadamm doesn’t lie in the fact that two attractive women are in love with him here, but that he plays a marketing maverick at a film distribution company, credited with turning one movie after another into box-office hits.

The story of this film, although much of it is set at his workplace, has little to do with that improbable job role. At its core, this film has a surprisingly sincere premise – a man is confused about his feelings for his ex-girlfriend, a nagging over-possessive shrew, when he sees her in a new light after dumping her for a kind co-worker.

Alas, the script paints the ex as such a caricature in the film’s early scenes that his sudden rose-tinted view of her later strikes a false note. Also the trigger that leads him to discover her good side – a well-meaning real-estate agent bearing shocking news – comes off as too contrived and convenient.

But there’s an inherent sensitivity and grace in the manner this relationship unfolds in their common workplace…the pain of going through a break-up with someone you have to see at work every day, watching an ex move on to another partner in front of your eyes, accepting that your relationship is over and being happy for the person you once loved. These scenes are treated delicately, and performed competently particularly by the female protagonists, played by Purbi Joshi and Sonal Sehgal.

If the film still doesn’t hold, it’s because it’s underlined by an uneasy comic tone that’s working at cross purposes here. In one tasteless comic sequence, our hero rubs his ex-girlfriend’s face in the fact that he has a new lover now. It also doesn’t help that Himesh Reshammiya offers an affected performance as the conflicted lover. He has an awkward body language, and his character is written so wishy-washy that it’s hard to muster up much sympathy for his situation. Himesh Reshammiya’s music remains his stronger skill.

I’m going with a generous two out of five for director Swapna Waghmare Joshi’s Damadamm. What could’ve been a sweet, simple love story turns into a confused film that never justifies its spirited title.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 14, 2011

Cast: Saqib Saleem, Saba Azad, Nishant Dahiya, Tara D’souza, Mita Vasisht

Director: Nupur Asthana

Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge is a terrible title for a film that’s not so bad. Set on a swanky campus (although we never once see students in class or poring over books), this rom-com is funny, and corny even, but thankfully never makes the mistake of turning sappy or sentimental. Director Nupur Asthana shrewdly taps into the youth’s obsession with online interaction, and creates a premise around the freedom and anonymity that the Internet offers.

Vishal has the hots for Malvika, but he doesn’t have the confidence to tell her. He goes online, pretends to be his cool musician buddy Rahul on Facebook, and strikes up a friendship with Malvika. Preity, who thinks Rahul is cute, hides behind the identity of her friend Malvika on Facebook, and responds to Vishal’s overtures, thinking she’s befriended Rahul. As it turns out, in the real world, Vishal and Preity can’t stand the sight of each other.

The plot isn’t particularly original or inventive, but the film moves briskly, and has a consistent tone. It’s centered on a bunch of silly twentysomething-year-olds, and the good thing is they behave and talk like silly twentysomething-year-olds. At one point, Vishal asks Preity if she has a boyfriend, to which she replies in the negative. “Lesbian?” he enquires mischievously.

The film works because it gets what it’s like to be young and carefree, and because the director doesn’t manipulate us with unnecessary emotional BS. Characters recover from heartbreak and betrayal without too much of a fuss, and even a Gossip Girl-style MMS scandal blows over pretty quickly.

There’s a cheesy subplot in which our leads must interview and photograph married couples who reminisce about the early days of their romance; mercifully these portions are brief. The film has a peppy score by Raghu Dixit, but most of the songs feel interchangeable because the situations are repetitive. Of the cast, Saqib Saleem grabs your attention with his feisty performance as the quick-witted Vishal, and Saba Azad has a likeable presence as Preity. They carry the film’s smart lines without any hiccups.

I’m going with three out of five for director Nupur Asthana’s Mujhse Fraaandhship Karoge. Like the demographic it represents, the film makes for good company, and isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. An enjoyable one-time watch.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 14, 2011

Cast: Ayesha Takia, Ranvijay Singha, Raghuveer Yadav, Tanvi Azmi, Anant Mahadevan

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

In an idyllic hill station tucked away somewhere in the Nilgiris, lives a spirited young girl who repairs time-pieces for a living. She sends her father out in the street because he won’t give up drinking, but wakes him up from his roadside sleeping place with a hot cuppa each morning. This Little Ms Perfect is Aranya (played by Ayesha Takia), the heroine of director Nagesh Kukunoor’s Mod, an inconsistent but well-intentioned love story that unfortunately doesn’t work.

Aranya is pursued rather endearingly by shy suitor Andy (played by Ranvijay Singha), who reveals he’s been crushing on her since they were in school. But shortly after she loses her heart to him, Aranya discovers Andy may not be who he claims.

Kukunoor infuses the film with charming characters, like a Kishore Kumar-obsessed musician, and an obesity-battling gift-shop owner. There are some quaint ideas too: Aranya refuses to own a mobile phone because it gives you brain cancer, she says. Andy wants to give her the world’s best kiss, but doesn’t quite know how to when she puckers her lips. Despite these little moments, and the presence of at least two solid actors in Raghuveer Yadav and Tanvi Azmi, Mod is a test of your patience because the screenplay is a complete drag.

The film unfolds lazily well after the twist has been revealed; and the central conceit isn’t even true to its own logic. There are plot holes the size of craters here. Ayesha Takia has a calming presence, but Ranvijay Singha, despite his earnest efforts, simply doesn’t have the chops to carry off such a complex part.

I’m going with two out of five for Nagesh Kukunoor’s Mod. Let down by sloppy writing, this is one hard slog.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)