Archive for September, 2008

Welcome to Sajjanpur Review— You Will Get Bored in Sajjanpur

September 21, 2008 at 11:13 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged , ,

Honestly, I don’t quite know what to write; the film, pre and post release has absolutely no buzz. I can’t beleive I went to a Shyam Benegal film and that too a film which is his attempt at making a breezy entertainer. I should have known there is no way he can do it, but i went because I like Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Roa and have a soft corner for movies with a rural backdrop. Although the title states we are welcome to Sajjanpur, the audience are bound to get bored in Sajjanpur with nothing exciting or entertaining hapenning.

There is no plot. Ok, that is fine if the sequences are interesting, but even that is not the case. Shot in typical TV seriel style, the film has no aim and even the intermission shot is the weakest I have ever seen. Even for films with no story or terrible stories, the least a director can do is to have an eventfull Intermission-shot. The film’s main character is Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) who is the only literate guy in town; BA pass, but not married. He puts up shop just opposite the Post-Office to write letters/postcards/money orders for the village folk. Thats about it. The film just moves from character to character and from episode to episode. The only thread that is consistant is Mahadev’s love for Kamala (Amrita Roa) who is already married so there is no real love story going on also. Apparently, Mahadev last saw Kamala 16 years back when he kissed her cheeck when they were little kids. Oh! please now. Kamala’s husband left her for Mumbai 4 years back and now Mahadev is writing her letters for him and hoping that he abondons her so that he can marry her. what a loser.

Kindly don’t be fooled by other reviews comparing this film to the classic Malgudi Days. Yes, there are different characters–a compounder in love with a widow who eventually are hanged, a snake charmer, a superstitious aunt wanting to marry her daughter to a dog as an anti-manglik measure, a hijada wanting to run for elections etc. But none of the characters or their stories are weaved well and they just keep coming and going. At the end Mahadev sells his farms and sends money secretly to Kamala’s husband so that Kamala can go to Mumbai. Mahadev marries another girl at the end and publishes his book with all the stories of his villagers. By the time the film ends, we are shown the publishing house in awe of the stories written by Mahadev about this village folk, but chances are that you will not be in awe. The lack of connection between the characters, their stories, and the absense of a basic story line or plot kill this film.

Shyam Benegal uses this film’s characters to blog about SEZs, bankrupt moral status of our politicians, illiteracy in the face of rising oppulance, the interest rates that are more condusive to buy cars and not tractors thereby affecting agriculture, and every possible affair of the public. All that is fine, but all these messages do make a film interesting. The only redeeming feature of this enterprise is Shreyas Talpade’s spirited performance. The film is boring and whats more if you are not an expert in Hindi or a North Indian then dont even think of wasting money on waiting and renting its DVD because you will find it impossible or difficult to understand the dialect. If you are a Shyam Benegal fan then nobody can save you.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down!

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A Wednesday Review— Laptop-Powered Counter Terrorism

September 20, 2008 at 5:59 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged , , ,

[*This film gets a Thumbs Up! If you are planning to watch this film I advice you to leave this page as reading further will take out the punch from the movie.]

Todays headlines is about a counter-terror operation in Delhi between terrorists and Delhi Polic. True, the biggest terror attack happend in American in 2001, but more than Ameriacns it is Indians who are perhaps dealing with terror on a daily basis. As someone from Hyderabad, I know what the city has gone through because of the attacks that have changed the psyche of the laid-back-easy-going Hyderabadi. First it was the Masjid, then Lumbini Park, and Gokul Chart in Hyderabad alone in a span of less than four months. Since then, life has changed on a daily basis in every walk of life–check-posts before parking, entering a movie theater, hotels, banks, and of course the constant threat that anything can happen any time because we all know the police can do little. This is just a case in point, I am sure the same can be applied to all the places in India where terror attacks seem to have become common place for the common man.

Everytime an attack happens and people die, there is this glorifying Chakde India type statement in the paper something to the effect of: normal life anaffected by terror attacks, or city spirit refuses to die down in spite of attacks and so on. If really city life is normal after the attacks then why have all the security checks? But the question still remains: so what can be done? can the police do something? are they or are they not able to? can the Home Ministry crack down heavily? of course they can, but why arent’ they doing it and if they are why does the common man know what is being done? History is witness to the power of the common man. It is the common man’s frustration that ushered in revolutions, movements that transformed systems. In today’s governance and leadership landscape the most common term going around for showing a way for change is civil society, which consists of citizens voluntarilty coming forward to bring the change they desire. This is exactly what A Wednesday is about. More than a film about terrorism, terrorists, and the police, it is about how a common man uses the system’s helplessness to show what the common is capable of doing when frustration is at its peak.

The film begins as Prakash Rathord (Anupam Kher), Commissoner of Police is retiring and siting in front of the sea in Mumbai is remincing an X-file; a case that is not registered and nobody knows about, but it happened and remained as a highlight in their careers. One fine day, Prakash Rathord gets a call from an unkown number threating the police to release four terrorists or again see Mumbai blow up in the evening. The anonymous caller sits on top of a construction building in broad daylight after vegetable shopping with all the latest gadgets—Toshiba Qosmio laptop, cell phones with multiple SIM cards etc etc…all the latest hi-tech tools used in to today’s terror and counter terror strategies. He has the police in a spin the entire day. The Commissioner pulls him his finest team, informants, a cool young Pepsi genderation hacker who is a college drop-out by choice. After failing to catch the caller till the end, finally the police bring the four terrorists on to a bench in the middle of a new airport runway as instructed. And then….he blows up the terrorists! yes, this annonymous caller is the Common Man and he has taken it on to himself to use the terror and police’s systems to eliminate those behind the recent attacks. Throughout this process, he even gives a big break to a news reporter from UTV-News reporter (his daughter, i think). The highlight of the film is Naseerudin Shah’s speech where he explains his emphathy for the common man. In it’s third week, the film has its audience cheering and applauding during the speech and at the end of the film.

The film is gripping and well directed without any slow and unnecessary scenes. The story is simple without any twists and three fourths of the film or more moves on a routine cop-terrorist movie line till the terrorists are blown up. Once we know that Naseruddin Shah is not a terrorist, but a common man….the film goes to dizzing heights. In spite of not having anything special so far in the film save for a gripping pace, the film wins because what Naseruddin Shah says is exactly what every single person sitting in the audience feels—the helplessness, frustration, and an unrealisticly heroic desire to go bash up the terrorists. The director, through Naseruddin Shah’s character, effectively emphasizes with the common man, the audience. True, perhaps what the common man does in this film does is not practically possible, but thats what fantasy is and for us the common man is the hero in this film. In the end, Commissoner Rathod goes to his hide-out and shakes his hand and here the roles are reversed—the commissoner becomes the audience because at this point the audience wants to shake hands with this anonymous caller whose name is not revealed to us in the film.

The film works and works effectively because it is topical. Given its lack of commerical packages, probably the film would not have worked as effectively had it not been releaed in the midst of a nation coping with terror. A simple man who buys vegetables for his house, travels by trains, goes to office, takes up a heroic task using technology and the police’s inability in the face of such threats to his own advantage. The performances are first rate. Anupam and Naseeruddin excell and the rest of the cast also deliver effectively. (Jimmy Shergill tries too hard to look tough though)

True, had Shankar made this film it would have been packaged different with loads of commerical elements (remember Hindustani, Gentleman etc?), but the concept is the same—the common man takes it up on himself to clean the system. Yes, even  A Wednesday could have been made more exciting with some twists and some sub-plots, but regardless the empathy we experience is too overwhelming. The film must be watched. It sends out a clear signal—the common man did this not to show it as an example for others to follow suit, but to put to shame the State and their efforts at counter-terrorism. It is high time our State exercised its authority over anti-social and anti-state elements and move beyond silly statements and get to work. If they are already doing work, then let the common man know about it and involve the masses in this fight.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Up! Cheers to debutant Neeraj Pandey for the story, script, and direction.

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1920 Review— Routine Flick with Loads of Horror

September 18, 2008 at 11:23 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged , ,

The best place to watch a horror film is the single screen; all the yelling, anticipatory comments, and, (if you’re in Hyderabad you cannot watch a horror or thriller film without hearing the by-now-part-of-our-suspense-moment-culture) the laka-laka-laka yelling, only add to the horror film experience. To add to this if the film is high on content the experience will be too much to handle (remember Mantra ?). I heard that 1920 has the stuff to freak you out and finally I got to watch it at Senstation Insomnia with my Mrs. in the ultra luxurious soft couple sofa (Rs 35/- per ticket—unbeleivable isn’t it? you can’t find this rate anywhere in India). So with ultra-comfortable seating, a crowd in full-mood to let our their fear with screams….as 1920 rolls on…it is one heck of a scream!

* [SPOILERS AHEAD]

The film is set in 1920; yes, it is made out to be a period film. It looks like the film takes place in some foreign locale—a beautiful castle, green lawns, horse carriages. It is too English-like to beleive the film is taking place in Palampur. Anyways, the story is about a haveli possessed by a spirit that is killing anybody attempting to demolish it. Couple of architects have come, been terrorized and killed. Arjun (Rajneesh Duggal) and Lisa (Adah Sharma) have a love marriage after opposing Arjun’s traditional Hindu family and after Arjun even abondons his faith in Lord Hanuman. Arjun gets the job of redesigning the haveli to build a hotel. They more there, but all is not well from the day 1 as Lisa develops a sixth sense telling here that there is some spirit. But she continues to adjust as the job is important for Arjun.

But soon, things get out of hand with the spirit taking over Lisa completely. Then a miny debate over science versus religion ensues, but soon it is evident that religion and related rituals only can save her. In a flashback it is revealed that many years back the lady of the house Gayatri seduces a betrayer among the Indian freedom fighters only to keep him in the house till her father’s army comes to hang him in the house. As he dies, the guy declares that his soul shall not leave this house until and unless it takes Gayatri with him. It turns out that Gayatri’s death and Lisa’s birth was at the same time and day so now go do the math—Lisa is Gayatri in her next birth and our ghost-man wants to posses her and take her with him on the night of Amavasya. Yes, ultimately, Lisa is saved by Arjun as he takes back to his faith and recites the Hanuman chalisa into her ears by holding her tight (quite a violent climax scene).

Yes, the story and plot is routine—haunted house, flashback with love story, bhataktha hua aatma, etc. There is nothing different or special about the set-up and this is the drawback of the film. However, from the film has loads of horror sequences that can get you to huddle up and yell out in relief. The first half is a little slow with with a few suspense scenes, but from the pre-interval sequence till the end the film has plenty of horror scenes that get you to scream. Some the highlight scenes are:

1. the scene where the possessed-Lisa holds the doctor’s hand in the hospital and talks about his villiany past in a male voice—this scene is a total scream!

2. the climax scene where Lisa escapes and is running around the house and has to be caught to exorcise the spirit.

3. the scene where Arjun first discovers Lisa’s madness when she is missing from bed in the night and finds her eating a dead animal in the house and then runs wildly and falls in front of Gayatri’s painting.

4. the opening sequence where the architect is killed.

5. All the scenes where Lisa is possessed. Particularly, the one where she walks up and talk the pillar of the house in the climax while Arjun is rembering Lord Hanuman.

The lead actors dissapoint. Though their voices are good, their looks are artificial. In fact, Adah does a better job of acting while being possessed than otherwise. In fact, she is fantastic as the possessed one. The film is rated A and contains several situations of horror and peril and is not advisable for kids. If you a fan of the horror genre then don’t miss this one. However, if you are looking for a horror film that will become a classic and a cult film then you will be dissapointed.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: One Thumb Up. In terms of scream-factor, the film is high, but it is the lack of a different treatment, story, or interesting twists that disappoint the film.

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Ashta Chemma Review— Play this Funfilled Game!

September 17, 2008 at 12:03 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

The makers of Ashta Chemma claim that it is the “biggest small movie ever made”; honest about being a small movie and super confident about being the biggest small movie. In fact, this statement carries a lot of weight for it is the success mantra for small budget films with small time actors with great talent. The film has to be Big, with a capital B, on its content—performances, freshness, comedy, and of course story. Looked at it this way, it is more challenging to make a hit small film because it has to score on several points at the level of innovation; big films can still be mundane and still score a hit. In this context, Ashta Chemma, does a great job in living up to it’s makers claim: while it may not be the biggest, it is certainly one of the finest and funfilled small films to have come to Tollywood, at least in recent times.

Lavanya (Colors Swathi) is a hardcore Prince Mahesh Babu fan. She is obsessed about him and goes in to a frenzy when news breaks out about his marriage. Apparently, Mahesh’s marriage becomes a Statewide catastrophe for young women with many reaching the state of insanity (imaginative, but for Mahesh?!). Finally, Lavanya comes to terms with Mahesh Babu’s marriage by deciding that if not Mahesh, she will marry someone with the same name. Thus begins the search for another Mahesh by her aunt (Jhansi) and her neighbor friend Anand (Srinivas Avasarala). Aunt is unsucessful, but Anand finds a cool dude at the F-Lounge Bar whose name is Mahesh (Nani). Anand then moves swiftly by introducing Lavanya and Mahesh, sparks fly and everything goes great untill Lavanya shows her Mahesh tatoo (don’t worry, it’s on her hand) and reveals her obsession for Mahesh Babu and the name Mahesh. Hearing this, her boyfriend-Mahesh gets wild and worried.

In a hilarious flashback, which has to be seen on screen to be enjoyed, it is revealed to us that our Mahesh is actually Ram Babu. Yes Ram Babu–the guy whose parents were village leaders and elders and gods and have now left their legacy to be carried out by Ram Babu. Yes, Ram Babu dispenses justice, equality, love, and wealth and is the village God, but in his private time to de-stress and remind himself of his sanity he dances to Micheal Jackson’s Iam bad..ia m bad…. So Ram Babu keeps coming to hyderabad and lives his alter ego of Mahesh–the cool guy. Anand takes it up on himself to resolve this and makes a surprise visit to Lakavaram, Ram Babu’s village, to flirt with his beloved sister. From this point on the story moves with several twists and turns that never slow the pace down and are full of fun. From the city the entire film moves to the green locales and the village of Lakavaram where the tale unfolds.

Colors Swathi has a limited role and is restricted to only her trademark overlycute-overaction, but it fits well given her crazy characterization of someone crazy about a cine star. The highlight of the film is the performance of Nani and Srinivas Avasarala. Both these actors are first rate and really pour life in to the film with ther comic timing. I really feel like watching this film again for their acting. Nani as the guy constantly in one peril after another and Srinivas as the cool guy in bermudas constantly looking for trouble with that smirk on his face. Both of them are simply superb! Jhansi and others are good. In addition to acting, it is the fun filled sequences and twists that click big-time! If you thought the film is all about Mahesh, then you’re in for a surprise!….the serious aunt who is constantly chiding Lavanya for her mad obsession with Mahesh is herself in love with another star….the Power Star Pawan Kalyan!….this photo of Pawan Kalyan in a still from Jalsa sent the audience in to a frenzy!

If you are wanting to play this film (the posters say “play me”), then simply go for it. After a long time this year, we have a film that everybody can enjoy! The film opened in a limited release with no main theater in RTC X Roads, Hyderabad, but given the postive word of mouth the film is bound to grow in strength.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Up!

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Wall-e Review— A Must Watch!

September 14, 2008 at 7:54 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged , ,

What can I say about Wall-e? it is one of the finest films to have been made and it will be a shame to miss it. Being a fan of Pixar films, I always keep track when they release, but some how i missed Wall-e (released June 27th, 2008). Untill I read about it in TIME magazine, which was arguing that Wall-e is one of the best films ever to be made and that it deserves to be nominated by the Oscars Academy in the motion picture category and not the animated films category. Since then I have been waiting for it to release in Hyderabad and it finally did towards the end of August. Yes, the film is a gem and it is a must watch for it’s brilliant technology, sentiment, emotions, and message for the world.

Wall-e is a robot that stands for Waste, Allocator, Load, Lifter–Earth class. The movie begins several hundered years ahead when humans have left Earth leaving only their junk and toxins behind. A major corporate, BnL, has built spaceships and space-townships where humans are living while robots like Wall-e are cleaning up the Earth. However, even Wall-e’s colleagues have become metallic junk now and it is only Wall-e and his cockroach friend. Wall-e has his own life, home, and has some of his favorite things. It includes a video of humans dancing and a couple holding hands. Seeing this Wall-e realizes his loneliness and longs for company gazing at the skies. Then, on one fine day, a spaceship lands and deploys another robot Eve (Extraterrestial Vegetation Examiner) and our little robot hero has a love-at-first-sight! Eve is searching for something in all the junk even as our hero Wall-e is trying to follow her. Finally they meet and exchange robotic dialouge. Wall-e takes Eve to his bachelor pad and impresses her with all the cool gadgets he found in the junk. And Wall-e shows her what she has been looking for–a small green plant. The moment Eve sees the plant, her system grabs it and locks itself up.

Eve’s spaceship comes to take her back and Wall-e, in true blue bolly/tollywood style, runs-jumps-and clings on to the spaceship and fires away into outerspace. From this point on the film has two threads—a love story with Wall-e trying to hold Eve’s hand and the humans in the spaceship trying to recolonize on Earth. It is a thrilling ride till the end with several bollywood style jhatkas. The climax scene where Wall-e is in mechanical como is highlight. The best part of the film is the message about the unsustainable growth and consumption. The film is full of symbolic messages. For example, the futuristic-outerspace human is so advanced in technology that he/she is obesely fat and has forgotten all human activity include touch. The caption of the space ship is excited to know and learn about farming, the basis of all civilizations–past and present. Today’s generation, including me, has no clue about farming. The closing scenes where the humans come back to recolonize and begin to cultivation amid all the junk along with robots is a classic shot.

The technology is simply superb. The initial scenes, which show Wall-e working leave the audience in awe of Pixar’s technology. You are even more amazed when you realize that you are actually begining to see emotions in the metalic robot wall-e!—thats how powerfull the technology and the story is. Yes, at the end, Wall-e and Eve live happily ever after. This is a must see film for every family and individual. Thank you Pixar for giving such a gem of a film.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Way Up!!!

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Rock On Review— Not Much to Rock About

September 14, 2008 at 6:41 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged ,

So finnally I got to see the latest urban-plex hit Rock On and quite frankly it was no great shakes. At least, it is not like how the first day reviews stated (that it was the next cult classic kinda thing). The accurate reports started coming in from friends that said it was “oka y, nothing great”.The story is simple, the theme is nearly alien, but it is the narration style that makes the movie click even though the pace is slow.

Rock On is about four friends playing a rock band; how they come close to making it big, split, move on, and come together years later. Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), KD (Purab Kohli), and Rob (Luke Kenny) are the closest of pals 10 years back in full-hippie style (long hair, funky hair style, head bands etc) playing rock. The film opens with Aditya as a top executive in a busy corporate life with a bored wife at home wondering whad the heck is wrong with her husband (Aditya seems totally dejected and doesn’t even have the mood to hug his wife while on bed!). What is the reason for this? Then, one fine day, Aditya’s really cute, sweet, and adorable wife Sakshi (Prachi Desai) stumbles upon a video and photos that giver her a peak in to her husband’s past–cool guy, rock star, and a girlfriend. She is so nice that she never asks him about this girl, but when she again stumbles upon KD in a jewellery store she is determined to re-unite the band for Aditya’s birthday. And the story goes on we are shown bits and parts of the rock-on life through the four friends.

So they meet, but only KD and Rob come to meet an unwilling Aditya. So obviously something went wrong between Aditya and Farhan. (Post interval) we are shown that once Magik (their band’s name) gets the contract from Channel V to make an album, Aditya gets most of the attention and focus (just like in the movie). This is pointed out by Joe as one of the core values of the band was that everybody is equal. So in a fit of rage, Joe knocks out the director and Aditya. That is the end of it. The good news is that Joe and Aditya make up and they all come together to perform again. However, there are a few jhatkas. Rob is in the final stages of brain cancer and Joe is a poor man and on the day they are performing after re-uniting he has to leave on a cruise to earn money. It is a happy ending…they all perform and fulfill their dream.

Like I said, the style of narration is what really clicks, else the movie has nothing in it to hold the audience. Till the reason for the break-up of the band is shown we are left wondering and guessing why they break up (i thought this reason could be stronger, but its fine). There is absolutely no comedy and so becoming the next Dil Chahta Hai is ruled out. Everybody gives a first rate performance. Arjun Rampal was born to look like a Rock-Star, Purab Kohli gives a spirited performance and provides humor-relief, and Farhan Akhtar excells in his debut. Prachi Desai is sweet. The music gells well with the film, but the songs by themselves are not hot. The climax song sequence is well done.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Only One Thumb Up! If only the story was stronger, fast-paced, good comedy, and great songs…the movie would have really rocked.

PS–My wife felt that Farhan Akhtar must have surely directed given the prominance he gets in the film. And he must have simply given the director’s title to debutant Abhishek Kapoor. She, by the way, rates the film 4/5.

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Phoonk Review— B Grade Wannabe Horror Flick

September 5, 2008 at 11:41 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

Truth be told, I am sick and tired of Ram Gopal Varma’s (RGV) films. He made some films that are undoubtedly golden classics and he should now leave in style. Even Sarkar Raj couldn’t save him. This is the reason why I didn’t watch this film on the first day, but waited till I heard something good. However, much to RGV’s horror his horror film, for which a contest was conducted (money for watching it alone), was termed a not-so-horror film on the first day itself. But the talk was good. I finnaly saw it; while it has it’s share of thrills, the film is really a B-grade wannabe horror film.

The story is about a religious family whose head of the house is an athiest. Rajiv, the man of the house, is a successfull businessman, but believes that everything he got is because of his work and not because of God. On one party night, he fires his two partners for dishonestly. Much to his headache, one of the partners is a spooky lady who practices black magic. She curses Rajiv’s daughter, Raksha (Ahsaas Channa). Raksha is possessed and the family doesn’t know what to do. Modern science doesn’t seem to help, so finally Rajiv brings in a swami-ji to do the needfull and drive out the black magic. It succeeds and everybody is happy.

The first half is a big drag with no story. The second half is where some action is going on and if this didn’t happen the film would have flopped. The story actually is not scary. Everytime the audience sits-up it is only for the loud-sudden blast of music—cummon now, is this a scary film? and whats with the dolls and stationary animals?—makes no sense at all. The movie will also remind you of Bhooth. Ahsaas Channa as Raksha the possessed child delivers a knock-out performance.

The film is actually inspired and lifted from a Telugu film/tv serial called Tulasidalam, which my wife says was far more thrilling than Phoonk. And that is correct, Phoonk does not thrill you. However, the film has gone well with the audience because there are a few sequences that are spooky—

1. Rajiv walking in the middle of the night and seeing a different reflection of his in the mirror

2. the maid seeing the grandma meditating and accusing her of being the evil spirit and stretching her arm from door to door with a lime in her hand.

Unfortunately, these two sequences are dreams. The film should have been thrilling enough to include such incidents as part of its narrative. There is no adventure in the film. Another problem with the film is that there is no suspense about who is donig the black magic. Madhu (Ashwini Kalsekar), who is one of the partners who is fired, is shown very wierdly from the first frame onwards leaving nothing to your imagination. Perhaps, RGV didn’t want to take chances with the twists as he got the twist of his life when audience drew a blank to his twists in Sarkar Raj.

The film also carries a powerful tagline (“it is supersition till it happens to you”) and a discussion that is part of probably any household—superstition versus science. The film fails to bring out such a differentiation even though RGV touches upon it here and there through dialogue. In the end, after all the fighting between the swamiji and Madhu, Rajiv’s wife (who is beliver in God) tells him that the doctors did the miracle. So what does this mean? Nothing, it is just RGV trying be over-smart as usual. What could have been a cultural phenomenon (like the i-see-dead-people) is wasted. Anyways, RGV made good use of his by-now standard and typical camera movements, loud-sudden music, and is happy that he wouldn’t be kicked out of the industry. He is even planning Phoonk-2 (somebody, pls stop him!)–except the same stuff.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Only One Thumb Up. Nothing special about Phoonk, but for a few sequences. You can safely wait to watch it on DVD/VCD.

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Ankit Pallavi & Friends Review— All Fall Flat On Their Faces!

September 5, 2008 at 10:31 am · Filed under movienomics ·Tagged , ,

The other day while at Crosswords I bumped in to Mr. Hari Yelliti, the foreign returned director of the film Ankit Pallavi & Friends (APF), and got in to a conversation with him. Recollecting him from his writings on idlebrain.com, I too picked up two tickets hoping that it will be worth the effort of sneaking out of office. To my utter horror and shock, from the begining till the end the movie simply falls flat on its face!

The film is about four friends with Ankit and Pallavi as the lead pair. Apparently, Ankit likes/loves Pallavi and is trying to woo her (pathetic) while trying to make it big in the music industry and wasting away time with his gang. Pallavi is in the IT sector and is wexed with Ankit’s rudderless lifestyle. They break up. In the meantime, Ankit makes it big after several failed attempts, his friends find their gal, and after much prolonging Ankit and Pallavi patch up.

The main problem with the film is that nothing in the film gels. The love track is superficial, artificial and just does not have the fizz. True, there have been several films in the past about childhood friends falling in love, but this  universal emotion will work any number of times if it is shown well. Every possible aspect of contemporary youth/liberal culture have been shown, but nothing works—US Visa, forgoing the Visa for friendship, pubs, girls, child labor, orphanage, liberal social values (father re-marrying and a friend marrying a girl even though she is pregnant). In fact, some of these serious sequences evoked laughter among the audience. If the story is half-baked, the performances are raw and to put it simply—Bad and Rotten. The lead actor, Nikhil as Ankit puts up a royally disastrous performance trying to be like young SRK and Pawan Kalyan at the same time. The lead lady is totally useless. Only Vinu Thomas as Sunil brings the laughs and gives a fine show. The music deserves a special mention and is the only saving grace for the film.

A degree failed youngster, in love with his childhood friend, wanting to make it big in music, playing in a band, and being chided for his lack of goals…doesn’t it remind you of SRK starrer and Kudan Shah’s classic Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa? There is no problem if it is inspired by it, but the problem is APF lacks innocense and depth. Why can’t we have a film about youngsters without showing pubs?—the pub scenes are so superficial. The audience are just not convinced about the depth of Ankit’s feelings to music, and Pallavi. In addition to this, the film drags and the acting is so pathetic that it really makes you feel awkward. In fact, some parts are so badly acted that it will remind of those government public service advertisements. What could have a touching and entertaining ride in to the hearts, minds, and lives of youngsters and their struggles is wasted.

True, most of our experiences with foreign returned directors has been positive as they have succeeded in showing different, but not this time around. Lets hope Hari Yelleti can come up with something different and special next time!

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down!

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