Star Screen Awards 2008 --- What a waste ?

Last night I saw the star screen awards on television and since these shows are almost completely scripted , debarring the verbal heated exchanges , I thought why not rate the awards too . I must say it was one of the most boring award shows I've ever seen . First , the jokes of Saajid and Farah were quite dull and didn't quite make me laugh my heart out . And most of the times they were just overdoing it . Saajid has got a hang of himself and he now thinks that he can say anything on stage and get away with it . Most of his acts were the same old ones comprising of the cross dressing and Gay jokes . He during that heated exchange with ashutosh said that he works for the public and nobody other than his public can Shut him up . Well , I am a part of the public and Saajid you better get some new acts or get back to directing . Don't try to act as a big superstar just beacuse you got a hit in a lousy film such as Heyy Babbyy . I would like to remind you that the film succeeded only because of the songs and Akki factor . He made some very boring acts like the one with the Bhikari . Nobody was finding it funny as far as I could make out from the star's expression . And what was that remark on Neeraj Pandey's clothes . He spoke like as if he was a born king . Giving him nice company was his sister who should never ever consider again to host any show even if its theme is "GirlPower" . She also cracked some "Thakele" jokes and made some remarks on Anurag Kashyap which again were not at all funny .

And what was Shreyas Talpade doing there , hanging around like an extra . Lets leave aside the hosting part and talk about the awards . The awards were also some of the most biased and Diplomatic set of awards I've ever seen . Just take a look at this , Asin gets an award and Anushka gets to perform so that she doesn't feel bad . Priyanka gets best actress award and Aishwarya gets most popular actress award so that she doesn't feel bad and Katrina was already performing so she won't feel bad either . They would have given a huge sum to Katrina . The debut actor award goes to Farhan since he is not a cousin of Aamir Khan . Tushar Kapoor gets an award for best comic performance afterall its "STAR" screen awards , else his sister would kill them .Then they gave best actor in a negative role to Akshay Khanna and not Ila Arun for Jodha Akbar , afterall Race was also a big hit and it had to be given at least one award . Best actor in supporting role goes to Arjun Rampal who would have performed for them free of cost , I suppose . Sonu Sood wouldn't have felt bad since he was hosting the Red Carpet show fro television and made some money instead . And icing on the cake was most popular actor award to Akshay Kumar , and believe it or not he was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Singh is Kinng . He never took the award and passed it on to Aamir who I am sure would sell it to a Kabadi Waala . Its good that CC2C released after the awards happened else they wouldn't have probably even invited Akshay .

Seriously guys , what a waste . I wasted my three hours watching it on the television which I would never get back . Neither the awards were interesting nor the performances . Saajid kept on bragging about Recession and loss that Film Industry is facing . Well Saajid , it is beacuse of this diplomacy , hypocrisy and incompetency that the industry is losing . I mean why don't they just give an award to everyone on the Red Carpet itself including the hosts and the television crew too ?

I felt so bad looking at Shekhar Gupta , editor of Indian Express , who is one of the journalists that I hold in highest respect , sitting and wasting his precious time watching such crappy awards . He should rather disassociate himself from such awards .

The only positive was Katrina in that Red Hot dress and Kangana in that white saree .

And for the first time , Award Rating : "-5 stars out of Five" , I'll again say "What a Waste" .

What's Your Rashi --- Teaser Poster review

Ashutosh Gowariker's next project , What's Your Rashee , is under production right now but the poster is out now and usually I don't write about the posters until and unless something strikes me about it . What struck me here was the lack of creativity . The poster is nothing but a sunsign chart with nothing related to film apart from the name of the cast and producers .It looks more like a colourful Dart Board . I expected a little more creativity on Ashutosh's part who has made films like Lagaan , Swades and Jodhaa Akbar . I remember distinctively the way the poster and trailer of Jodha Akbar was launched and this contrasting behaviour shows that may be he is not that excited about this film . I can understand that the film doesn't have a Hrithik,Aamir or SRK but then he could have put a little more effort in it .

The film stars the disastrous couple of 2008 , Priyanka-Harman , and I just hope their Rashi's are in perfect positions while the film releases . The poster does lack creativity but I hope the film doesn't . Ashutosh please make sure that at least the teaser trailer is good . I remember very well the buzz that Jodha Akbar's poster created on the web and I hope you take these small things a little seriously else any rashee won't be able to save the film ...And by any chance if you read this post then I'd like to tell you that Lagaan should have won the Oscar ..screw the Academy , the film is a masterpiece in itself . I loved all your films even the 3.5 hrs long Jodha Akbar . The West can never understand films like Omkara and Lagaan which are purely Indian ..

Image courtesy : MovieTalkies.com

Jodhaa Akbar --- Movie Review

One of the biggest and mostly "awaited" movie of the year Jodha Akbar finally got released amidst some controversy . The movie is no doubt amongst the longest movie I've ever seen . The length though does not deteriorate its quality and the script demands for it . My review would also be as long as I can talk about it . The movie is one of its kind , I say so because it manages to hold people's attention for a really long time . It loses grip several times but very soon manages to gain back audience's attention . This is the reason why I felt like watching a very long but interesting TV serial of seven, Half Hour episodes , at a strech . The reason I say so because it has been dealt like that . In every Half hour slot you have 2-3 interesting scenes , 1 song and some lose scenes that can be thought of as commercial breaks .

The movie no doubt would be shown on Television in a Seven Part series some day or other . The Best thing is that Ashutosh has managed an almost Impossible task that is of keeping people awake throughout the four hours because of his capability to excite audience every now and then . The movie entirely focuses on the love story of Jodha and Akbar which again is a brave thing to do because making a period film with war element and extravagant budget and still keeping it a love story with very less violence is a very difficult task . People expect very grand war scenes in such movies with a lot of violence but such people will be disappointed . It has very less graphically violent scenes . The war sequences shown in movie disappointed me very much . Though they hired a big crew it still lacked the finesse in terms of fighting techniques . If the movie is sent for Oscars then it will show the weakness of our films in technical manner .

The movie is full of cultural practices of both Hindus and Muslims and is a crash course for the people of India and abroad on Indian Culture . There should be such movie in every 4-5 years that should remind us of our cultures else we will stop being proud of it and forget it . The movie focuses on the backlash that Akbar had to face when he decided to get married to a Hindu Rajput princess and how he manages to overcome all the opposite forces and in the process becomes a great king who respects all religions and views them in equality . The movie has managed very well to show a historical chapter in a quite interesting manner . The cast of the movie is fantastic with every character being given justice .

Talking of Acting , Hrithik Roshan has proved it once again that he not only looks and dances well but also knows how to act . His portrayal of a great King Akbar is almost perfect . A new thing I got to see was Hrithik getting angry on screen . He has never done a role of an angry person in past . Mission Kashmir had a Revenge emotion but not an emotion of pure Anger. And and actor should be able to show this emotion also and he has done it in really great manner . He has really worked hard for the movie and brought everything possible he could to his character . The thing that I didn't like was that a lot of male cast was shown with a "Gillete Clean" shave in that era when people without facial hair were considered as women . There are several such small technical glitches in the movie but the larger things that matter like Script , Screenplay and Direction were all with minimum faults .

Aishwarya was born to play historic roles and roles with period element in it . She looks very beautiful as a rajput princess and her role has the same importance as that of Hrithik's . She was horrible in her last movie with Hrithik in Dhoom 2 where only Hrithik held the show . But in this movie Aishwarya has acted at par with Hrithik . She has the charisma of a Princess . Sonu Sud has a small part but he has left a mark in that also . All of the supporting cast has also acted acted quite well . The Music is also good and has suited the movie quite well .

The Cinematography and Art Direction is top notch . The costumes and choreography is also very ethnic and authentic . Talking of the script , it is very well researched and written with utmost care . The script has clearly just focussed on the love affair between Jodhaa and Akbar and has at no point lost its track . The Editing of this movie would have been a very tough task and Ballu Saluja has done a good job .

Overall the movie is a one of its kind and its grandeur can be felt by only seeing it once . This flick is definately worth watching once . Nothing to be afraid of the length of the movie . The Direction is great and Ashutosh has managed to pull off one more good movie to his name . Nothing about it will make it a classic but its definately worth a watch . The first Indian historic film that you will experience on Dolby Sound systems and excellent Projection Systems of Today's Multiplex . Go for it .

Movie Rating : Four Stars out of Five for fantastic screen presence of Hrithik and Ash

Jodhaa Akbar --- Music Review

The Music of Jodha Akbar is out now after a very long wait and I am little disappointed . I am myself one of the biggest fans of A. R. Rehman and everyone knows his musical genius and henceforth expects a lot from his album . Due to these expectations I was disappointed a bit because I couldn't find anything new in this album from him . He has mixed his past music and put a little new things into it . Since he is such a Master of Music the songs are bound to sound well and work among the listeners . What I didn't like that nothing was new and it was as though he listened back his two earlier period albums Lagaan & Zubeida and put in a little bit more to get Jodha Akbar . The album sounds new just due to the plain fact that the lyrics are new and different with a lot of Urdu inputs .

The music is made so that it would look good during the movie but may not work without it . The music should have been pure Indian Classical since its a movie on Indian History but I think he is so influenced by the western music and symphonies that they fall into every album of his . Just by using Indian instruments like Tabla and Flute doesn't make the music Indian . The songs are good but sound just like his past work .

Well talking of the album the first song is Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah by Mohd. Aslam and Bonny Chakravarti . This song has been made to introduce the great king Akbar and goes well about it . The song sounds good and Akbar himself would have got happy if he would have listened to this one . Here also it sounds like some western symphony of Beethoven being played with Indian instruments . Well if we don't go technical then it is a good song and perfect for movie's fast paced war sequences . This one would sound even better in a multiplex where the sound systems are really top class.

Second song is "In Lahmon Ke Daaman " by Sonu Nigam and Madhushree. This one is a little soft and melodious than the first one and has the vocals by two brilliant singers . Though the lyrics are completely in Urdu so they would have had a little problem but still sing it perfectly . After the first stanza there is a classical vocal piece which sounds a bit south-Indian classical . This one is regulation stuff from Rehman . Not impressive yet good .

The third song is the Romantic pick - Jashn-e-Bahara which is also so-so . It sounds really melodious in starting with amazing singing by Javed Ali but then it looses track somewhere in between . The Urdu lyrics sound good but would not make any sense to general Indian Audience . I know working on such a project is like walking on dual edged sword , if you make it really authentic then it doesn't work and if you don't then people say that it should have been more authentic . Overall the song is slow paced and just like "Aye Hairate"of Guru . The success of song now depends on the on-screen chemistry between Hrithik-Ash . There is also one Instrumental version of the song with distinctive use of Flute .

After this comes the qawalli by Rehman himself "Khwaja mere Khwaja" which is also very authentic . Though Rehman sings it quite well but I think it would have sounded even better if someone like Rahat Ali Khan would have sung it . Rehman always sings one song in his Album and probably this one would be quite close to his heart . But it does not have the element to work like Haaji Ali of Fiza had or for that matter in Himesh's qawalli in Ahista-Ahista . This one is more of a prayer as compared to other two .

The last song is " Mann Mohna " and is the only Hindi track on the Album and also has a sound that of a Bhajan . It has a distinct use of pure Hindi like any other Bhajan has . The Vocals are by Bela Shende sound really good . The song is like a bhajan of Meerabai with a few western inputs in between .

Overall the Album is good but not great as expected . The Lyrics are very pure whether they are Urdu or Hindi but the music by Rehman is not pure to that extent . Hence it is not a very good combination . The Director could have settled for some easier and understandable lyrics so that the songs work among the audience . Or even better he should not have included songs at all because these songs might hinder to the movie's success and might make the movie more lengthy and slow paced . He needs to cut the length of movie as far as possible or else it will fail on the Box-office . The culture of today won't be able to digest a long slow movie with such music. Rehman has not given his best into this one and is quite a disappointment .

Rehman has given great music to period films like Lagaan and Zubeida but he fails to an extent in this one . Both Movies had a British era element and this one doesn't . Overall only two songs Azeem-O-Shah and Jashn-e-bahaara are good and rest is very regular and mediocre stuff .