Wake Up Sid

Well to start off with, this flick will take you on a trip down memory lane. It, for sure will make you recall those years when partying hard was the only agenda on your to-do list, recall those times when staying awake at nights, chatting with friends, bunking college and sneaking into movie halls were more exciting than lectures. It will make you mesmerize those years when you were completely clueless about the carrier you wanted to pursue once you'r out of college. That indecisive phase when you were hesitant to take that first big step in life which can never be erased from your memory.

WAKE UP SID, directed by debutante Ayan Mukerji, is like revisiting those years that lay at some easily accessible corner of your mind, after you moved on in life.

Practically speaking, WAKE UP SID is a scoop out of my very own life and may be all of us. It's not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can't help but draw parallels with your life or with someone you know. But what really makes it most believable is Ranbir Kapoor, who's mastered the craft so early in his innings in bollywood. Well, we can't complain given he runs on ever-so-graceful Rishi Kapoor's blood, can we?

WAKE UP SID mirrors those years with flourish. This one's a simple story that strikes THE chord the moment you step into the movie theater with the movie name and trailers in the back of your mind.

WAKE UP SID tells the story of Siddharth aka Sid [Ranbir Kapoor], a laid back, lazy, unmotivated slacker from Mumbai whose life undergoes a series of changes after finishing his final year college exams. Sid's world is refrained from responsibilities by a long distance. Its moreover about a boy-in-limbo's metamorphosis into a man-in-charge who's leisurely paced, as if unapologetically echoing Sid's laidback temperament, an affable yet clueless college lad who snaps at his folks, doodles on his accounts text book to party hard at Ruby Tuesday, gaming arcades, shopping malls and discotheques with his two best friends – a plump Betty-types (an instantly likeable Shikha Talsania) and a bearded sensitive Joe (Namit Das, half-amusing), driving a sleek Honda CRV, with an exceptionally trendy wardrobe of cartoon-themed tees (Joker, Dastardly, Beavis & Butthead, Ghostbusters, Tom & Jerry, Snoopy to name a few), cute 'n' colourful boxers and a room-filled with all sorts of fanboy toys, gadgets and gizmos. Well now I see why I was able to relate myself to this movie!!

Yes, as mentioned, Sid thrives around his two best friends, Rishi and Laxmi, very rarely communicates with his mother and takes his father and all his hard-earned wealth for granted. Despite all these traits, Sid is an honest boy who along with being sweet, funny is a good friend.
You got to see the scenes where he meets his dad [Anupam Kher] when he receives his first pay cheque and gifts it to him, the one where he slips into his ladylove's kurta as an expression of intimacy or the one where he and Rishi laughs the laters break-up out. I mean its gotta be only Ranbir who cud have done these in present day.

Aisha Bannerjee [Konkona Sen Sharma], an aspiring writer from Kolkata, whose path crosses with Sid's on her first day in Mumbai. Ambitious, well-read and driven, Aisha has come to Mumbai to realize her dreams as a writer. Despite their contrasting personalities, Sid becomes Aisha's first Bombay-friend in the city. Well these words might have created some political stir in BOMBAY ... aughh... MUMBAI. But I personally found it quite refreshing to address something that actually is!!

As Aisha sets up her life in Mumbai, with the help of Sid and his gang, Sid allows for time to fly by over long drives, parties that stretch well into dawn, and endless hours doing absolutely nothing. But a series of circumstances and events compel him to take stock of his life and take a hard look at himself.

Let's not compare WAKE UP SID with the likes of DIL CHAHTA HAI or LAKSHYA. Ayan Mukerji narrates a story that you can relate to yourself or an acquaintance instantly and treats it with utmost care. A few moments linger in your memory and evoke bitter-sweet memories.

The first hour, right till the halftime, sweeps you off your feet. You get drawn into Sid's world instantaneously; you react to everything he does. Actually personally I felt SID actually is an amalgamation of all three characters of Dil Chata Hai. The laid back, carefree attitude of AKASH, the flamboyant, smart with a hip hair-do kinda SAMEER and the mature and TRUE-LOVE caring guy SID of DCH. One who hates the monotonous life styles, who think - how people don't get bored doing the same work in office day in day out, one who doesn't think even once before doing things and the one who falls in love with a mature and kinda over aged women.

Wake Up Sid is as much about Aisha as it is about Sid. As the level-headed beauty looking to soar in the field of writing and nursing a crush on her debonair boss (Rahul Khanna in a spiffy cameo), Konkona treads familiar territory. There are occasions when she evokes a strong sense of déjà vu but the actress still finds ways to make her Aisha unique with a mix of patience, warmth, effortless sensuality and wide-eyed romanticism. The unlikely duo share a sublime, comfortable chemistry, which flowers from plausibly awkward to an endearing bonhomie to something truly special in a span of two and a half hours.

The post-interval portions slackens, courtesy the writing. The Rahul Khanna track, for instance, looks half-baked. Ayan got this one quite wrong. I didn't get what was the need of this number if it was not for the taking for Aisha. Could have been cooked better to add to the emotional track of the story which already was doing great. Also, the story stagnates after a point and hence, the pacing gets very slow. It's only towards the finale that explodes. Ideally, the film could've done with some trimming in this hour.

You cannot fathom how Aisha on the strength of a job interview shifts into a new flat which is quickly transformed into a designer suite. The chanderi-fabric drapes alone must have cost 750 bucks per piece. It's all very visually attractive though. Considering Sid's dreamy imagination and penchant for photography, cinematographer Anil Mehta and production designer Amrita Mahal Nakai whip a tasteful theme of exuberance and youth in every single picture-perfect frame of this man-boy's world.

Ayan Mukerji delivers in a solid punch in most parts of the film. The emotional moments especially gets you all moist-eyed. The humour too is well integrated in the sequences. Even the confrontation between the father and son is just superb. Konkona's birthday sequence is amongst the finest sequences of the film. I mean, it must be Ranbeer who cud have done any possible justice to this scene. A matchstick, few breads with jam toppings replacing a pre-ordered cake was just amazing and touchy. I cud see few watering eyes besides me at this point. Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy] is ever so melodious. "O re manwa" track deserves a mention here. Anil Mehta's cinematography is top notch. Niranjan Iyengar's dialogues are just spot on.

There's no denying that Ranbir Kapoor is a supremely talented actor, but in WAKE UP SID, he proves that he's amongst the best in the business today. No one could've portrayed Sid as effectively as Ranbir has enacted, that's for sure. This is an award-worthy performance.

Konkona is natural to the core and the best part is, she's so effortless. Here's another winning performance from this incredible performer. Anupam Kher is wonderful. Rahul Khanna doesn't get any scope as he deserves. He is good otherwise, I'd say.

On the whole, WAKE UP SID is a well-made film that should strike a chord with the youth mainly. A metro-centric film, the film should attract its target audience and should also prove to be the first choice of the elite/urban audience. Thumbs Up!

Ratings : 3.5/5

Quick Gun Murugan

I thought it would be a fun film. Stupid stupid thought! The tale of the original Indian cowboy, inspired by the quintessential 'Bawliwud Ishtylish' hero, Quick Gun Murugun is light years away from being anything funny.

Actually Quick Gun Murugun is like a plate of grossly overcooked pasta. It is not the usual fare and could have been tasty if cooked right. But instead ends up being a bowl of unpalatable sludge. And we can only blame the filmmakers for that. A spoof is a spoof – no logic, no storyline just a short while of mindless fun. Try turning that into a film, stretch it for 90 tedious minutes and this is what you'll end up with – sludge!

The story begins with QG Murugun dying. It is right about then that you'll realise how the makers are trying too hard to be extraordinarily 'cool' – something which in the nineties would have been referred to as extremely 'Yo!'. Chitragupta for example is a Gujarati man named C Gupta. And 'yamlok' is called the Ministry of Death. Things that would have been funny... in Class II.

Come interval, and you'll still be waiting to laugh. Really laugh. Some names here and some actions there might be funny. For example, a song sequence with Murugan (Dr Rajendrakumar) and his Locket Lover (Anu Menon aka Lola Kutty) dancing around trees is cute. It incorporates all the '60s Bollywood clichés right from flowers touching each other to depict an intimate (read kissing) scene to the quintessential park bench romance. However, most of the first half is too violent (for no apparent reason) to be fun.

Second half brings in the other character you might be waiting for – Mango Dolly. Rambha as the blonde-haired, bar dancer cum gangster's keep cum Miss India aspirant cum a lot of other things is good. But it's tough for even her to help sustain a film that stretches beyond measure. Her romance with Quick Gun is the only highlight of this half of the film. The extremely corny scenes and dialogues between them is good fun.

To give it to the actors, they have really lived up to their exaggerated characters. Dr Rajendraprasad is brilliant as Quick Gun Murugun. He doesn't laugh. He can't look at semi clad women. He winces when he sees Mango Dolly dance. Good! Raju Sundaram's portrayal of Rowdy MBA is also worth a mention. The two women Anu Menon (aka Lola Kutty of Channel V) as Locket Lover and Rambha as Mango Dolly live up to their characters as well.

With rich, vibrant colours and well executed special effects, the film has a very comic strip effect. The background score only adds to the effects. Every character has their unique musical track which plays when they enter or exit a scene. The same goes for similar situations. The songs however are nothing worth mentioning. And we could have lived without them.

Quick Gun Murugun thus, is a great character. He could have been the Indian Don Quixote. It's a pity, he ends up being an immense bore.

Verdict: What you've already seen of Quick Gun in trailers, is all that's worth seeing. Don't even bother watching the film. It will only spoil the character already created by Shah Rukh Khan in OSO years back. v

The Final Destination

Does the “The” added before the title, in lieu of a number four, mean that this series is dead now? FINAL DESTINATION had the efficient idea of cutting out the middle man from slasher films, just offing its teenybopper cast members through awful, gory accidents, and skipping the whole killer thing, but the films have gotten progressively lazy.

The first attempted to tell a compelling story, the second one used the art of misdirection for maximum shock value, but the third one poorly telegraphed every death scene, and, with this fourth and latest installment, we’ve reached the point of self-parody. Yes, the instantly forgettable cast of vanilla zeroes will escape some catastrophe in the first ten minutes of the film, then spend all of their time between each character’s death scene trying to figure out the order in which everyone will die.

THE FINAL DESTINATION manages to completely sever itself from the tale of Flight 180 (despite some in-jokes), but it hardly matters, as it forges no new ground. Nick O’Bannon (Bobby Campo) attends a stock car race with his immensely unlikeable best friends, where he witnesses their tragic deaths in a premonition involving a crumbling stadium, condescending NASCAR fan cliches, and Krista Allen putting tampons in kids’ ears. It’s the sorriest opening for an installment in this series by far–poorly staged, and executed with some of the worst CG I’ve seen in a recent feature film.

Nick (temporarily) saves his buddies’ lives, and the lives of a few of those unfortunate enough to be sitting beside him, by flipping out and leaving the race early, only to watch everyone die, one by one, in ridiculous ways. That’s not a spoiler; that’s the same basic plot to all four of these films. The only thing that marks the progression of this series is that the writing gets worse with each new one. By this point, all of the dialogue feels like a burden that the movie itself doesn’t want to bear.

I’m not even sure if I would still label this franchise as horror. THE FINAL DESTINATION is missing anything resembling suspense, surprise, or a sense of dread. Every death is inevitable, about half of them are played for laughs, and even Tony Todd isn’t around anymore to give it some horror street cred. Worst of all, the gore effects, pretty much the only reason you’d even go see a fourth FINAL DESTINATION movie, are uninspired and inhibited with faker-than-fake computer generated blood splatter. Director David R. Ellis made the first sequel entertaining, punctuating a thin story with out-of-nowhere gore gags, but he seems completely unmotivated here to do anything except make a buck on an established horror brand name.

I might have been more forgiving of its overall creative bankruptcy, if THE FINAL DESTINATION’’s use of 3-D was cool, but it isn’t. The images are layered, but oddly flat (like looking into a Viewmaster) most of the time, and the death scenes simply don’t make satisfying use of the three-dimensional gimmick. From a technical standpoint, objects that are black tend to go all shimmery and weird, and a surprising amount of the shot choices are not conducive to three-dimensionality. It’s a waste of 3-D, providing a weak excuse to kill your time watching a movie this bland.

THE FINAL DESTINATION is the most tired installment in a tired series. Despite some infrequent patches of dark humor, there’s still the overwhelming stink of a franchise that nobody cares about beyond the box office gross. We’ve gotten to the point where this one remakes the first one, replacing an airplane crash with a NASCAR wreck, without even pretending to find a new or interesting way to tell its story. Instead, creativity is replaced with a pair of Real-D glasses and a handful of “comin’atcha!” CG fireballs.

Kaminey

The demarcation between BLACK & WHITE is best described when they are kept beside each other, isn"t it? This movie does exactly that, contrast of lifestyles of two brothers, one a stutter & other doing a S/F lisp. But the clear message that comes out tells that the exact point which divides them is neither black nor white rather a fusion of both.

The all time best movie of our western counterpart, PULP FICTION, clearly is pixelated by this desi journey to the dark dungeons of crime world.

Here"s the new incarnation of Hindi Cinema. On every frame, you"ll feel there"s something interestingly new. But you"ve got to carefully watch every sequence and don"t be too late for the show or else you"ll not understand what"s actually going on. Merely, when every filmmaker in Indian Film Fraternity does attempt on making Hollywood-fangled flick, Vishal Bharadwaj sets accomplishes with this task.

Vishal Bharadwaj strikes straight into the list of top-charting world cinema filmmakers, far-famed for setting trends with their unique style.

Vishal Bharadwaj redefines cinema with "Kaminey". It"s hard to say, everyone may like this flick. But, my kind advice is: watch this film, if you like, it"s fine or else make sure you like it. This is how a film should be made.

You"re sure to get awestruck after watching Shahid Kapoor"s performance. Wow! How did it happen all of a sudden transition with this guy, who never opted for violent themes? And now, there"s no stopping for Shahid Kapoor has he shores on the line of leading actors of Khans and Kumars. Heart breaks does teach good lessons and this one was right up there. Thanks to Kareena !! [;-)]

On the pars, Priyanka Chopra shoots out a trenchant show. She outperforms her previous show in "Fashion". Though I love Kangna there but thats a different story. She"s sure to gain the best awards for the season. Amol Gupta (Taare Zameen Par fame) kick-starts with a fantastic journey as an actor and he"s awesome on performance, especially during his culmination point. Watch the scene where he kills Charlie"s friend. My 2nd best sequence of the flick. First was the scene where Charlie finds the Guitar.

Finally, I cant forget to mention my favourite part, yeah you got it right, cinematography. The hand held cameras used here gives the exact feel of fight and chase sequences. The contrast through out the 2+ hrs of magic is awesome. The angles used to shoot cars and rain in the movie is totally jaw dropping. Surely the photography and background score keeps you right at the edge of your seat virtually dragging right into the screens.

Kaminey, all in all was AWEFOME, FEXY mind blowing.