[Review] Rock On..

Very few movies see ourselves getting pulled into the narrative. Some of them being TZP, RDB, Swades, Chak De, Jaane Tu…Rock On being the latest to join the list.
The writer, Abhishek Kapoor, has given each of these characters detailed attention. Together, they mature smoothly from adolescent “we can conquer the world” enthusiasm to learning to live life the hard way.
It’s youthful yet elegant. It’s contemporary yet identifiable with, by anyone who’s had a tiff with a close one. Yes, the layers of love for rock music and issues related to urban life need to be peeled off. But at the core it’s a very simple story told with compassion and sophistication.
The details of the main conflict are left to your imagination. But, the manner in which you are drawn into the story shows that smart people have been involved in its making. So, I submitted myself, albeit grudgingly, to the fact that their heart was in bringing us the resolution and not the clash. I’d suggest you do the same.
The obvious call of events in Rock on!! worked for me because I found myself getting attached to the characters and their relatively ordinary lives.
Each character in the foursome is representative of the kind of people any group of friends has. The idealist whose self-respect does not resign to compromise (Arjun Rampal), the slightly self-centered one who can’t see when he falters (Farhan Akhtar), the easy-go-lucky-cum-jackass who doesn’t let anything bother him too much (Purab Kohli) and the one who’s more emotionally attached to the ‘group’ sentiment than the rest (Luke Kenny).
The slight shiver in Farhan’s hands when confronted by his past, made me gape in awe of not just the actor but also the director, Abhishek Kapoor.
With male-bonding as the central theme, it’s refreshing to see women with well thought out characters who influence the direction of the story.
Prachi Desai is so cute…A must watch movie for any one. Music is awesome.
I had goose bumps watching the movie. I fell in love with Farhan’s house as well.
Message of the Movie: Live your dream & Friends are forever…
Parental Guidance:
• Violence: A couple fist fights.
• Sexual content: A couple of tiny make-out scenes.
• Concept: Friendship, bonding, forgiving and forgetting. While real little ones might not get it, a child above 10 might be able to grasp the concepts.
• General Look and Feel: It doesn’t have bright color tones. But, the kids might enjoy the songs and the overall feel might be appealing.
Rating: 4.5/5 Watch for sure - preferably in theatre
PS - My writeup may not serve the apt justice rather watching it. Rock On.. I felt watching a live concert as the crowd in my theater howled & swayed to the tunes of Farhan.. Awesome experience watching the movie.

Phoonk...

So, Ram Gopal Varma wanted to scare and make us question our beliefs. Well neither happened.
There’s nothing remotely scary about Phoonk. Unless of course, ogling crows, out-of-focus soft toys and wooden artifacts getting predictably into the limelight give you jitters. Then there’s the heavily made-up Ashwini Kalsekar who has a fetish for charcoaled eyes. Unfortunately, even tilt in her head doesn’t manage to evoke the fear factor. The spooky background music might have succeeded in some kind of horror, had it been used a little less.
The individual scenes too are a collection of random shots cut and pasted together. Had there been even an average amount of flow, maybe the plot and sub-plots thereof would have been coherent enough to touch my belief system.
Being a non-superstitious person, I had completely surrendered myself to a movie about black magic. Without such submission there was no hope of enjoying this one. But, that didn’t work either.
Baby Ahsaas’ act though, is really moving. She has very clearly exhausted herself in exhibiting what her character went through, and done really well too. My heart went out as much to her character as to the child artiste herself. Sudeep & rest of the cast are okay.
It’s truly not the question of whether or not one believes in black magic. It’s how believably it’s put forth. Such an issue should have ideally made me think of how I’d react if something like this happened in my family. But, as audience I’m kept at such a distance from the procedures that it’s almost as if the makers don’t want to get me involved. Employing the standard techniques used for the horror genre neither terrified me nor made me think about the topic at hand.

Parental Guidance:
Violence: Loads of black magic
Sexual content: None
Concept: Very dark
General Look and Feel: Spooky for children, I guess.
Rating (out of 5): 1

PS: On humanitarian grounds, is it really fair to have a 10-11 year old child go through the enactment of such torture? It’s the same question I had when I saw The Sixth Sense.

[Review] Bachna Ae Haseeno..

Ranbir starts off where SRK in DDLJ had left & opposite teen deviyaan Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Minissha Lamba.
Bachna Ae Haseeno has a great cast, great chemistry amongst actors [so sizzling, it could melt butter], great locations [jaw dropping actually] and some great moments. Bachna Ae Haseeno suffers, to a major extent, due to its screenplay running out of steam in the climax of the second hour.

Bachna Ae Haseeno has splendid moments in the first hour. In fact, the three stories, minus the culmination of course, are beautifully told in the first hour itself. There're some attention-grabbing moments in this hour and you genuinely feel exhilarated after having watched those portions.

Now to the second hour -- the guy repents for his misdeeds and years later, goes back to the first two women in his life. That's where the problems surface...

In a nutshell, Bachna Ae Haseeno could've been the ideal youthful entertainer, occupying the position that Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na enjoys amongst the yuppy crowd. But as things stand now, it's a great looking film with nothing outstanding about it. Okay for a single watch, that's about it!

Songs are good & hummable. Khuda Jaane is superbly shot. Naughty Boy is hot. Ahista is good as well.

Ranbir Kapoor is marvellous esp after Sawariya let-down.
Amongst girls, Bipasha Basu stands the tallest [Pity John Abraham who is really gonna have a tough time with her]
Minisha doesn't work at the start, but scores in the emotional scenes, especially in the second hour.
Deepika is a sore point. Her role isn't convincing and that's the reason why this performance doesn't work. The only consolation is, she looks gorgeous & the scene between Ranbir & her at the grocery store is awesome. The climax is finished off in a haste..

Parental Guidance:
* Violence: None
* Sexual content: A couple of item number type songs, and a scene with a bachelor party.
* Concept: The movie is about adult relationships. It's also about accepting mistakes. Not something they cannot or should not understand. Just depends on the interest level of the child - whether such a thing would interest him/her.
* General Look and Feel: Generally a very bright and peppy ambience throughout the movie.

My Rating:
3/5

PS: Suffering from a bout of Monday-Morning-Blues..