Film Noire : Is it the Next Trend ?

The first teaser promo of Yashraj's Latest flick - Tashan is out now and from the rushes it looks like that the film would be a pure hardcore action flick and would have completely different styling for all the lead stars ( Akshay,Saif,Kareena & Anil) . The teaser has nothing but just an introduction of the star-cast and background score of a typical action flick . The trailer ends with a dialogue by Anil who appears to be the bad guy which goes something like this in crude english : " Firsht Impression ish the lasht impression ".

The Tag-line of the film is " The Ishtyle... The Goodluck... The Pharmoola " which kinda makes me think that this one would be also an attempt to a new genre for Bollywood - Film Noir . The graphics for the title are also like any typical Neo-Noir film .The recent flick which did this was Sriram Raghwan's "Johnny Gaddar" . The movie did quite well and got great reviews .

For Akshay it is back to basics time since this one is not comedy and is his first love Action . For Kareena it is a new arena since she has never done an action flick before . I am sure she would leave her different mark among all the other greats . For Anil this one would be a kinda nostalgia since he himself comes from dharavi where bad guys are regulation and abusing on screen wouldn't be a problem for him . Kareena would have also learnt one or two more (after Jab We Met )from them . Saif would be the Playboy for sure apart from Akshay . Well enough guessing work , I hope the new guy Vijay Krishna Acharya does his job well of Direction and matches Sriram's Vision.

Vijay has earlier written screenplay for both the Dhooms and also written Dialogues for Mani Ratnam's GURU . The Yashraj Banner would certainly not compromise on the Action sequences but of late there Scripts have been quite weak apart from Chak De which was brilliant . Expectations would be running high from Aditya for Vijay .

Bollywood is searching for new scripts and genre and Film Noir genre promises to hold all the attractive ingredients . It has all the Dialogue-Baaji and the Beatiful Girls which are enough to attract the audience not to forget the Action and cheap one liners . The production houses today want to rake in the moolah and they can make any kind of cinema to do it . Looks like the Neo-Noir would be the next insect that would bite the bollywood producers .

Beowulf --- Movie Review

Two weeks after the Two Diwali Mega-Releases , I decided to take a break from Bollywood and preffered Beowulf over two other releases " Dhan Dhanadan Goal " and " Elizabeth - The Golden Age " just because it is a Robert Zemeckis flick and I am a huge fan of back to the future series and also Tom Hanks starrer "Forrest Gump" . Beowulf attempts to what well may be the future of Cinema , the Motion Capture Technique .

The movie is a nice blend of Animation and Realism which portrays very well , a World of Fantasy . The best part about this new technology is the way a scene can be shown through angles which any Camera can't reach . This technology can be and I think should be used in all the Sci-fi and Fantasy flix as it will enhance the viewing experience manifolds .

Well , enough about the technology , the movie starts off with a typical King's party in which there is enough wine and women . And during this party an unexpected guest comes , in the form of Demon and kills many people in a very brutal way . This whole brutality is stopped when the King Hrothgar , played by Anthony Hopkins , confronts the Demon Grendel which is played by Crispon Glover (who played George Mcfly in BTF series) . King Hrothgar closes the Royal Auditorium where the entire celebration takes place and announces an award for the person who would kill Grendel , the demon .

Then comes the Hero Beowulf played by Ray Winstone who has killed many such demons in the past and is not afraid of this one also . He falls for the beautiful Queen of the King , Wealtheow who hates the Old King . The King also makes Beowulf a hero in the town and trusts him blindly . The king promises Beowulf that if he kills the demon he can have the Queen for his life . Beowulf kills the demon as promised but gets a new surprise in the form of Angelina Jolie who plays the mother of Grendel and who is a monster herself . Then starts the whole sequence of Beowulf becoming a king which turns out to be a sort of a sin .

The whole movie is quite slow at pace apart from an exciting climax sequence which kinda makes up for the dullness of the middle portion of the movie . The movie scares you a little bit at times and has a lot of violence in it . Although , the violent scenes being animated don't make your stomach feel bad . The movie is a Visual treat with quite scenic picturesque and also beautiful use of colors . The whole experience is quite different and I can't imagine how incredible it would look in an 3D - IMAX theater .

The acting performances are also good and even though it is animated it still captures very well the emotions of characters . The eyes of queen Wealtheow are very expressive and despite of very less dialogues the expressive eyes make up for the shortage of words . Anthony Hopkins very well portrays the character of a king . The main lead Ray Winstone has performed very well . He spoke like a Hero and the dialogue delivery was up to the mark .

The movie has a never ending type of end and leaves the viewer with a question in mind . The movie has an underlying message in a way which says that there is no need of demons when Human beings are themselves turning into ones .

Overall I wasn't very satisfied with the storyline considering the past track record of Robert Zemeckis yet the whole new experience made for it . I would recommend this movie just to experience a new kind of cinema .
This one is still worth a watch but only in Theaters , not on DVD .

Movie Rating : Two and Half Stars , for the fantastic climax sequence and the whole new style of cinema .

Om Shanti Om --- Movie Review

A typical 70's style drama with the budget and technical skill of today is what best describes Om Shanti Om . Farah's second attempt to the MASALA Picture and a better one than the First . This movie has a better story than Main Hoon Na . SRK is as always fabulous and Deepika is a great prospective find .

The movie starts in the 70's where SRK is a junior artist Om Prakash Makhija who aspires to become someone like Rajesh Kapoor who is a superstar in the movie . He has a mom who also aspired to become actress in her days and she has full confidence that her son would one day become a superstar . Shreyas Talpade is a friend of SRK who also thinks the same . Apart from becoming a star Om also has another dream who is none other than Shanti ( Deepika ) who is a superstar herself . Arjun Rampal is a Big shot producer of that time . SRK saves Deepika from an accident on the sets of her film and thus becomes a friend of her . She is secretly married to Arjun who wants to keep this secret till his next movie gets completed . But Deepika being pregnant insists him of telling the truth to the world . But Arjun fears that his project would get scrapped once everybody knows the truth . Somehow Om learns this truth and when Arjun kills Deepika , he also gets killed in between because he tries to Save her .

The first half is in the 70's but it is not a spoof of it . It makes fun of the characters of that time but in a healthy manner . SRK very well portrays the struggle and aspirations of a Junior artist who dreams to be a Star . Deepika looks like a star and is very beautiful and graceful . She has very less dialogues but still leaves an impression which shows her Mattel . Farah has gone into very tiny details and presented the 70's very well . She has grown as a Director . The first half is very musical and also very funny and on the move .

The second Half starts with SRK as Om Kapoor aka OK who is a superstar and has got everything that he once longed for . He is Phobic to fire and his past life is somewhere at the back of his mind . The best part is that the way SRK makes fun of today's movies also . The guest appearances at the Filmfare awards are very funny by Akshay and Abhishek . The party after SRK receives the award has the song Diwangi which is a real treat for all the viewers . After the song , OK meets Mic who is a big producer of Hollywood who worked in India in the 70'S And is played by Arjun Himself . Om meets him and remembers everything about his past life .

Then starts the whole revenge sequence where SRK plots how to take the revenge of his and shanti's death . He plans to restart the Incomplete film which Arjun was suppose to make along with Shanti . SRK tries to find a girl who is look alike of Shanti and wallah !!! he meets Sandy who looks exactly the same as Shanti but is not a re-incarnation of her . She helps him to take his revenge and at the end somehow with a twist manages to take it . This whole revenge sequence is little slow and doesn't have the fun element that the whole movie had . It also doesn't have the creepy feeling that KARZ had . In all , this part is what the audience will not like that much .

In the Entire movie Shahrukh says that -- " End तक हमारी filmon में सब कुछ ठीक ठाक हो जाता है , Happys Endings " . But looks like this " Happys Endings " is not as happy as it should have been . Still the entire movie has lot of मसालेदार मनोरंजन to offer and will make you smile this Diwali . Though the entire team of this movie has worked really hard and I would like to congratulate them on this but still a little disappointment in the end which kinda spoils the show a little bit . The movie would be loved by previous generations and also to an extent liked by today's generation . The movie is a treat for any person who ever dreamt to become an actor or aspired to get into the industry and there are lots of them in every city of India .

The Music is great by Vishal and Shekhar and the tune by Pyaarelal is just amazing and reminds us of 70's music . "Tumko Paaya " is the best song and maybe Vishal-Shekhar's best work . The music holds the movie very well and keeps it entertaining all throughout .

The problem this movie will face is the Publicity which had been done for it . When you do Publicity at such a large scale people's expectation tend to rise and maybe due to these expectations they may get a little disappointed . Still if you would expect a 70's drama and then watch the movie , then you would be happy .

For the fun filled first half and fabulous performance by SRK and Deepika this movie is still worth a watch and is expected to be a Hit . For good family entertainment this diwali , go and watch it .

Film Rating :::Three and Half Star bcoz I am a Die hard SRK fan and Deepika - " I Love You " !!!.

Khoya Khoya Chand -- Music Review

" Melody meets poetry " is the best line that can describe this album in one line . The magic of Swanand Kirkire and Shantanu Moitra works again after "Parineeta" . The feel of this one is similar to that of Parineeta . The duo got instant fame with Parineeta and now they are back with another similar album after long time .

The album starts with the Title Track "Khoya Khoya Chand " which is an excellent qawwali with voices from Swanand Kirkire and Ajay Jhingran . This one is the best track on album no doubt and after Himesh's "Aawan Ankhiyan -- Aahista Aahista " is the best qawwali I've heard in long time . The vocals in between the qawalli are just perfect and are recited by Lyricist himself so are done with best tone . This track will remind you of the qawwals who performed on stages with full on "Josh" . The track starts off a little slow but later gets into the qawwali mood soon . Both the singers have sung it beautifully and this one is bound to get popular .

The second track is "Yeh Nigahein " by Sonu Nigam and Antara Choudhury which reminds you of the Black and White era of Indian Cinema of Kishore and Geeta Dutt . Both Sonu and Antara have sung this one in typical 50's style . The music on this one is also very melodius and also has a club feeling to it with a little bit of Jazz feeling . This song would sound good even on an Old Radio with no Bass effect and Stereo sound .

The third song " Chale Aon Saiyaan "is by Shreya Ghoshal and is a typical Classical "Mujra" style song with lyrics also having the same feeling . Shreya being a hardcore classical singer pulls it of effortlessly . The music is also very classical with appropriate use of Tabla beats .

Then comes "Khushbu Sa " which is sung by Hamsika Iyer which is a very sensual and romantic in its feel . The music is also very club style and reminds one , of the Rekha's Item number in Parineeta sung by Alisha Chinoy . This one is also sung quite well by Hamsika and she sounds really good . She can sing songs like these in future also .

After this track is "O Re Paakhi " which is a soft romantic sad song which is sung brilliantly by Sonu alone . Sonu is the best and he proves this again and again . He has a great understanding of melody and he sings according to it . A good Sad song after a long time . This one would surely go down as one of the best tracks of this album . With minimal music in this one Shantanu has also given his best music sense into this one .

" Sakhi Piya " by Pranav Biswas and Shreya Ghoshal is also a good slow romantic song with good classical renditions by Pranav . This one is also very Melodious and Classical and it has probably the maximum classical input in the entire album . The song would sound very beautiful if used in Background in the Film . It is a treat for Classical Lovers and is must listen for them .

Then at last is " Thirak Thirak " which is a duet by Sonu and Shreya . This one is a little fast then others and its starting reminds one of the starting of " Honthon Mein Aisi Baat 's " starting . After one and half minutes of musical start the song starts off in a very different tone . The constant sound of Ghungru in the entire song sounds really good . In the entire song one can easily listen to the excellent chemistry between Sonu and Shreya's Singing . At the end of the song there is a line from the title track khoya-khoya which is sung very beautifully by both of them . This one is also one of the best out of this entire album.

The entire album is very Melodious and Lyrically Poetic and is a food for your soul and is a good change from usual Disco Beats of today's music . The album is one of the Best albums of year and is also very Nostalgic . This one for sure will leave you nostalgic and is strictly recommended for all music lovers .

Album Rating : This one gets " three and half stars " and is a must buy for everyone. Melodious and Magical .