3 Idiots - Message Loud and Clear (3/5)

Although Chetan Bhagat is credited for the inspiration from his bestseller "Five Point Someone", "3 Idiots" is a far cry from the original novel and can never be compared. So the notion of "Not up to the book" never fits in here.

The movie start's, breath's, eats, sleep's and end's with Ammir Khan. Although he forms the backbone of the movie, he is very well supported by a formidable team of artists such as characters played by R.Madhavan, Sharman Joshi ,Bomman Irani and the guy who played Chatur Ramalingam.

The movie is not an exceptional one. Not even close. 15 minutes into the movie, you might get a feeling that this could be a substitute to "Munnabhai" franchise from the same Writer-Director. Within another 10 odd minutes, they throw the message of the movie right at your face and you are in to receive it within every 15 minutes from here onwards till end. If you missed it first? Don't worry. Missed it second time? Relax. Missed it third time? Patience friend. You're going to get it eventually. 3 Idiots cant be more loud with their message getting shouted at every possible character at every possible moment. If they'd been subtle about it, the movie would've been on a totally different level. The film takes a backseat when it comes to pace in the second half shuttling between flashbacks and seems more like a time travel shuttling between locations. One of the most thrilling scenes of the movie is one of its most ridiculous one. Imagine a baby is being sucked out with a vacuum cleaner on to a ping pong table. The down to earth chracters suddenly turns out to be super humans.For god's sake somebody tell'em, they're mere engineers. The character played by Bomman Irani very much resembles the characters from "Munnabhai" franchise. The interview scene of Sharman Joshi in the climax was a complete disappointment from the writers as you would know the reason if you'd attended atleast an interview in your life. Even character names like Virus, Millimeter etc in the film resembles the previous work of Rajkumar Hirani. The movie progresses through set pieces that after few jokes, they use poignant grief fillers which makes your emotion seem to be remote contolled.

The movie at first may seem quite predictable at few scenes, but the writers have worked smart that every time you arrive at one of those cliche scenes, you are in for a new twist or surprise.Good acting from the lead characters and especially from Aamir Khan is one of the USP's of the film. He has proved himself as a perfectionist yet again. Watch him out in the scene in which Bomman Irani drags him into a class room to make him give lecture to the whole class. The body language of Aamir in that scene is so perfect that you will be convinced that his character is only 20 something year old college goer. Its these small nuances of his acting that elevates the experience of this movie. Its these gems that makes you not to take your eyes of when he's on screen.

As you can already figure out from my review that it has got a mix of both the worlds, there's no doubt that it can suck you into the drama from the word go. 3 Idiots is soo very well packed with the "feel good" factor which is very well complememnted by the likeability of Aamir Khans character as the iceing on the cake. In the end, 3 Idiots is unquestionabally a good watch and wooes its audience with all confidence, drama and gags. As for every Aamir Khan movie, my expectations were high and it fell a bit short. The film has its heart and soul at right place. But the brains working on a totally diffrent level.

Avatar - An year to remember in the history of Cinema (4/5)

If 2009 was to be remembered in the history of cinema, It would inscribe the name "AVATAR" in bold - The next generation of cinema has kicked off.

What is that makes AVATAR the movie of the decade? Is it the story? Is it the cutting edge technology that's gone into it? Is it because it's a James Cameron movie? To answer that, I will have to remind you of those days when your father took you to watch "Jurrasik Park" or "Terminator" and the feeling that went through your head before watching the movie, while watching the movie and after watching the movie. Yes, my friend. Those nostalgic feelings are back and thats exactly my point is. It's the whole experience of transporting the viewer to a totally new world of fiction in a very convincing way that makes movies like these a celebration in itself. Of course it is from the legendary father of sci-fi films James Cameron. If it was not by him, not many can pull a movie of this magnitude.

This movie is one of the most expensive movies ever made and this comes as no surprise though. When he made "Terminator 2" and "Titanic", it was the most expensive films back then. He is so much used to that when he says I want to make a movie about some aliens living on the surface of sun and i need $5000 million, People believe him. How many film directors can shoulder such massive responsibility? He awaited almost a decade for the technology to catch up and then he pushed the technology by another 10 years with his hard work so that he can make his strokes broad enough to create a whole new world on celluloid. He called it "Pandora". That my friend, is an extraordinary way of film making.

Motion sensors, virtual cameras ,sound stages, you name it, James used everything that's available to a film maker to pull this opus convincingly and trust me, you will feel for those characters despite knowing they are mere digital drawings. Am sure he might've felt like God, if not at least near to Him, for the only reason the almighty being a better craftsman and James is the closest human being so far.

Watch it in 3D IMAX with your family. This is the 160 odd minutes worth every penny for its shear reason of its experience. It is for films like these, those big silver screens are made. Its films like these remind you how much fun you can have watching a cinema. Its films like these which can bring out the kid in you. Watch it for the hard work, will power, dedication and most of all the love for the craft of the visionary behind those spectacular postcards that make you feel you were there every minute.

Am going with 4 out of 5. James, am taking that 1 point just to make sure that Steven, George and Peter doesn't feel like end of the world. (As if they care about my rating)

2012 - An insanely cinematic entertainment(2/5)

You think you've seen end of the world movies before? Well, this one ends the world, churns it up and rips it apart.

Why am i writing a review for this movie? Am not sure about that but am sure that most of us go watch this movie for its insanely spectacular pleasure and not based on a review. What am i going to write about this movie? Am not sure about that too.

Its a Roland Emmerich film, the king of disaster movies (Independence day, Godzilla, The day after tomorrow, 10,000 BC - his last film in itself being a disaster) its about doomsday, its got "never seen before kind of CGI", Its big budget, Its got hell lot of things blown up on screen. Comon, how many more reason do you need to watch a movie of this scale?

Just like the list of reasons to watch this movie, i could easily come up with a list of reasons to hate this movie. Its cliche to most parts. A few HD camera shots took away the drama element from the CGI. No empathy for the characters. No real way to convey hope (for those who love happy endings). Drama is a bore. There were more than couple of instances at which the protagonist's air plane was airborne while the runway was falling apart. 3 times is a charm if you are giving your graduation supplementary exams. Not cool. But, Who cares?

Its been long since I watched a movie pretentiously and 2012 gave me one helluva ride. You might come out of it criticizing every bit, but if it was not for this pleasure, we could've watched "Life is Beautiful". Ain't it?

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Juvenile; a few jokes apart (1/5)

Yesterday when I decided to watch a movie, I’d four choices. Jail, Ajab Prem ki gazab kahani, Rebound and the Informant. On a normal day, I would’ve chosen between jail and informant. But I was feeling lucky and left out Steven Soderbergh and Madhur Bhandarkar behind, I went ahead with APKGK.

APKGK is an over told fairy tale love story where they belt out a bunch of juvenile humour and sentiment except for a couple of occasions, leaving the audience behind to catch up with them or leave it behind. The director seems to be in a hurry to say so many things at one go, that right from the opening scene, he fails to engage the audience. Ranbir’s opening scene, which is supposed to be funny, is one that you would’ve seen all through Indian cinema from late sixties onwards. Not Funny anymore.

The protagonist is a 9th grade dropout who has no other better job, but running a happy club. He falls in love with an orphan girl, jenny who already has a boy friend and now our protagonist, Mr. Prem have to help them unite. The story revolves around Prem and jenny and their friends and family until the last 30 odd minutes (remember the movie is around 3 hrs of running time) you’ll find new characters getting introduced like the politician (jenny’s boyfriends father) and a not-so-funny gangster who’s after the politician for money i don’t know why?

The script lacks in continuity and empathising for its characters. The story is over told, and drags at most of its part. The songs are shot bad except for one. The second half is frustratingly slow paced which takes you to another frustratingly choreographed fight. As a result of trying too hard with the script, the movie in most parts lacks any integrity.

Being said all this; there are still a handful of things to be looked out for. A selected couple of jokes, a decent performance by Ranbir and Katrina, a few good locations and few scenes which are genuine and worth a watch.

Watch out for that scene in which Prem's mother trying to seduce and distract his dad so that jenny can come out of bathroom without being noticed. But all this will take only 30 minutes out of this movie which is otherwise an agonising bore to watch.

APKGK was a bad idea for me. Am going with 1 out of 5.