“Dil to Bachcha hai Ji” is Madhur Bhandarkar’s first foray in commercial cinema. Madhur who before has handled only serious “real” subjects (best known for films like Fashion, Corporate, Page 3) tries his hand in something different and attempts a light comedy for the first time.
The movie has its soul ...in fact it has all the ingredients required to make a movie work be it comedy, emotions, love, sex, music, beautiful locations, good looking actors but somehow it still fails to grip the audience.
Its a story of 3 guys in different phases of life and their brush with love. Each story has an independent track and individually each one is good. Ajay is going through marriage turmoil and finds solace in the vivacious Shahzahn. Omi is the ideal Marathi mulga unlikely to impress any girl yet falls for modern Shraddha Das playing a Radio VJ. Emran, the ever flirt playboy (As he calls himself ATM – “Any Time Mohabbat”) has a different girl every night and then falls for Shruti, the social cause girl. While the first two have a decent storyline, Emran’s story has many loopholes but we can pardon the makers for that (for which Hindi movies doesn’t has gaps?)
In terms of acting, it’s once again Ajay Devgn who steals the show with his somewhat matured professional shy in love look. This actor is on a roll with so many hits last year. Omi Vaidya (last seen as the delicious Chatur Ramalingam and his hall of fame “balatkar” speech in 3 Idiots) also does his job struggling with his Hindi as well as his love. Well for Emran Hashmi (how many times have we seen him in something similar ...seems like he has got typecast as the evergreen playboy..at least he doesn’t get to smooch anyone in this movie).
The 4 girls (Shahzahn Padamsee, Shraddha Das, Shruti Hasan and Tisca Chopra) are very beautiful and natural in their roles especially Shahzahn playing a teenage girl just starting her internship. Its a pity the beautiful and talented Shruti gets the least screen space with just a song to her credit.
Talking of songs, the movie has a lovely soundtrack with the 2 top songs hummable especially “Abhi kuchh Dinon se” which also continues as the background score.
Seems like everything is good so far...where does the movie fails? Well you will be surprised if I say direction considering its Madhur Bhandarkar’s department and he is quite good in it. But may be this being a different domain, he struggles. The direction and editing doesn’t have that sharpness required to ensure the jokes keep coming at the right moments. There are times when the movie is dragging. The duration seems really long. The movie could have been shorter, may be better edited and some more wits puffed in.
So as I started, the movie is a light comedy and has many moments that will tickle you. Its far better than some of the boisterous and loud movies served to us as comedies these days (no prizes for guessing which ones I am referring to ... you had many in 2010 including the one released late last year).
Showing posts with label 3 idiots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3 idiots. Show all posts
Friday, January 28, 2011
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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