Ishqiya has all the trademarks of a “Vishal Bhardwaj” movie, yet it’s a big disappointment. Vishal Bhardwaj has built his own genre. Just like his last few movies Kaminey and Omkara, this one too is very raw. Shot in the rural backdrops of Gorakhpur, a Eastern UP town famous for gang wars and mafia, the movie captures the lingo and feel accurately. Like all his previous movies, this one too starts with a bang, moves at a swift pace and builds the tempo and expectations quite high. But where it fails is the end. It ends with a whimper. The entire pace fizzles out in the ending. It appears as if after shooting the movie for 1.5 hrs, the director suddenly forgets the core plot and decides to end it abruptly. It loses the sheen to such an extent that you really feel sorry for a good product turn bad.
The biggest plus going for the movie is the performance of its 3 central characters (Naseer, Arshad and Vidya Balan). There has never been a doubt of Naseer’s performance. He looks apt in both the con part as well as the aged person falling in love with the tantalizing Vidya. Vidya too carries out her role with ease. Though the storyline for her character definitely needed improvement. Through out the movie, she has been shown as some mysterious woman with dark secrets which in the end just doesn’t match up. The best one-liners and witty remarks have been kept in Arshad’s accounts. They are clever, sharp and keep the audience hoping for more. Even some of the other characters like Naseer’s Brother-in-law and the kiddo Nandu engages you.
The dialogues are raw and crude and sometimes border on the edge but that’s something that you now expect out of Vishal’s movie.
The music has been good and has been on the charts for quite some time especially “Ibn e batuta” and “dil to bachcha hai ji”. Apart from the movie songs, the old songs have also been woven very well with the chemistry between the characters.
While the movie has the darkness of Omkara and wittiness of Kaminey, it lacks the punch and edginees that most of Vishal’s movies are famous of. The movie can still be a one-time watch with low expectations.
By the way, I believe this movie might have broken the “longest kissing scene” in Bollywood. It definitely seems longer than the one in ‘Raja Hindustani’ between Aamir and Karishma.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
3 idiots and the FPS controversy
When you watch a movie late, you face two problems. There is so much already written about the movie that you end up watching the movie with a certain bias and expectations. Secondly there are already so many reviews that it doesn’t make sense to add another one.
So instead of cluttering your minds / web areana with one more review, I thought its better I blog on the peripheral item surrounding this movie - The so called controversy on due credits not being given to Chetan Bhagat.
Since last 1 year, we have been hearing that Five Point Someone is getting adapted into the movie “3 idiots”. So does it really make any difference, if the credit line is at the end or the beginning? Doesn’t everyone already know about it? Still there is a big argument going on with both sides giving media the much needed fodder. The tussle now is down to mathematics (to be precise “%”). The “3 idiots” team says its 3-5% based on the story while the author says its 50-70% based. I really never understood how such %ages work in a qualitative angle. But if it really pleases the statisticians, let me also put a figure. The movie is 33.23456% adapted from the novel (now don’t ask me how I got his number… just pressed some random keys at the top of my laptop). For the rest, let me put the facts straight. The plot is definitely adapted from the novel. It has almost all the characters which were there in FPS. The 3 central characters, dean, his daughter, etc are all there. The movie also has most of the incidents whether its Kareena’s brother committing suicide or Aamir stealing the exam papers. But the movie adds some of its own details which except for the characters of “cm-mm” and “Chatur” (played very well by a newcomer “Omni”) doesn’t appeal.
One good thing about the book was it doesn’t make fun of the professors and projects the characters like any other average students in an institute. In fact the book focuses on the education system and its flaws - how the students today are evaluated and ranked (the relative grading system). All this was written on a lighter note and hence the book becomes a fast and entertaining read. This is where I feel the movie fails. Unfortunately, the movie like a typical bollywood flick converts the hero into a super-hero (who is capable of achieving almost anything), adds dramatic unnecessary events like having a baby delivered on a TT table… well to be honest, I neither found that scene humorous nor emotional. It turns the dean into a comical character and the core issue of “education” system gets lost somewhere post interval.
Nevertheless, 3 idiots is a good movie … one of the better ones we saw in 2009 but certainly not the best. Also it’s the not the best from Raju Hirani-Vinod Chopra duo. Give me the Munnabhai series any day.
Enjoy the movie. Don’t take my “critical” blog very seriously as I watched the movie after hearing some really rave reviews. The movie has been running houseful for 2 consecutive weeks (not a small feat to achieve these days). So it’s certainly worth a watch.
As far as the scripting issue goes, I won’t be surprised if this is another of those “scripted” controversies to keep the sales registers ticking. It works perfectly for both sides. As Chetan hints in his blog “Go watch the movie and then read the novel. Then decide”.
So instead of cluttering your minds / web areana with one more review, I thought its better I blog on the peripheral item surrounding this movie - The so called controversy on due credits not being given to Chetan Bhagat.
Since last 1 year, we have been hearing that Five Point Someone is getting adapted into the movie “3 idiots”. So does it really make any difference, if the credit line is at the end or the beginning? Doesn’t everyone already know about it? Still there is a big argument going on with both sides giving media the much needed fodder. The tussle now is down to mathematics (to be precise “%”). The “3 idiots” team says its 3-5% based on the story while the author says its 50-70% based. I really never understood how such %ages work in a qualitative angle. But if it really pleases the statisticians, let me also put a figure. The movie is 33.23456% adapted from the novel (now don’t ask me how I got his number… just pressed some random keys at the top of my laptop). For the rest, let me put the facts straight. The plot is definitely adapted from the novel. It has almost all the characters which were there in FPS. The 3 central characters, dean, his daughter, etc are all there. The movie also has most of the incidents whether its Kareena’s brother committing suicide or Aamir stealing the exam papers. But the movie adds some of its own details which except for the characters of “cm-mm” and “Chatur” (played very well by a newcomer “Omni”) doesn’t appeal.
One good thing about the book was it doesn’t make fun of the professors and projects the characters like any other average students in an institute. In fact the book focuses on the education system and its flaws - how the students today are evaluated and ranked (the relative grading system). All this was written on a lighter note and hence the book becomes a fast and entertaining read. This is where I feel the movie fails. Unfortunately, the movie like a typical bollywood flick converts the hero into a super-hero (who is capable of achieving almost anything), adds dramatic unnecessary events like having a baby delivered on a TT table… well to be honest, I neither found that scene humorous nor emotional. It turns the dean into a comical character and the core issue of “education” system gets lost somewhere post interval.
Nevertheless, 3 idiots is a good movie … one of the better ones we saw in 2009 but certainly not the best. Also it’s the not the best from Raju Hirani-Vinod Chopra duo. Give me the Munnabhai series any day.
Enjoy the movie. Don’t take my “critical” blog very seriously as I watched the movie after hearing some really rave reviews. The movie has been running houseful for 2 consecutive weeks (not a small feat to achieve these days). So it’s certainly worth a watch.
As far as the scripting issue goes, I won’t be surprised if this is another of those “scripted” controversies to keep the sales registers ticking. It works perfectly for both sides. As Chetan hints in his blog “Go watch the movie and then read the novel. Then decide”.
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