Manorama - 6 Feet Under

Let me go out on a limb right at the start and say that I loved this movie to bits. To think that it will find universal appeal will be foolish.

Summary
The story is based in a hot, drought-hit sleepy town called Lakhot in Rajasthan.
Satyaveer Singh Randhawa (Abhay Deol in a great understated performance) is a junior engineer who is on suspension; charged with taking bribes.
He lives a mundane life with a nagging wife Nimmi (Gul Panag, underutilized but making her presence felt) and a precocious kid Raju.
His real ambition was to be a famous writer; an ambition that died a slow death with the dismal response to his debut pulp novel Manorama featuring a detective called Raghu.
Into this bored to death life drops a female who calls herself Manorama (Sarika, looking older than in her last outing). She is on the lookout for a detective; and since the town doesn't have one to offer, she feels the next best thing would be a writer who wrote a detective novel.
She provides him an assignment which involves spying on a minister and taking his pictures in a compromised position.
What seems a simple task turns out to be a dangerous one as Sarika turns up dead, mowed down by a truck.
Dedicated to get to the bottom of this, Abhay turns himself into his alter ego of Detective Raghu and starts investigating the case.
Nothing is as it seems, as bodies turn up unexpectedly and a twist comes up every few reels.
Abhay also gets bashed by two goons, who keep on following him.
Involved in all the goings-on are Abhay's brother-in-law Sub Inspector Brij Mohan (Vinay Pathak, with a role cut short seemingly on the editing table), Sarika's roommate Sheetal (Raima Sen, wide eyes with riddles written all over them) and minister P.P. Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda; he of the gravelly voice and perennially pragmatic mindset).
The movie moves around at a very languid pace, using the time for putting in red herrings and peeling off layers upon layers at regular intervals.
The climax comes as a silent explosion, without any histrionics and leaves you with the after-taste of a story well told.

Actors
Abhay Deol is turning into the next door simple guy, who doesn't need to go in for exaggerated mannerisms to embellish his acting in any way. He carries the film on his shoulders and does a great job of it.
Vinay Pathak does a nice job as usual, but we feel shortchanged when he doesn't appear for a long time in the second half.
Gul Panag plays her feisty character well and you can almost feel and dread her caustic comments before they come. Raima Sen does an able job of being the mystery woman.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda hasn't lost any of his charisma and stature, as he shows with this movie. His drastic personality changes make you want to see more of this great performer in Hindi films.

Technique
Debutant director Navdeep Singh shows a unique ability to transport you into the frames of the movie. You often end up licking your parched lips just seeing the frames of the desert unfold before you. The pace is slow but relentless, all the better for making a thinking man's thriller.
He surely hasn't targeted the movie at the mass audience, and it shows in the mature handling of the various threads.
Navdeep shares the writing credits with Devika Bhagat, and the story shows deep influences of Roman Polanski's Chinatown (I must mention here that I did not place the connection for a long time after the movie and was pointed in that direction by a friend of mine. I had seen Chinatown a good 8-10 years ago in my childhood, and had no solid memories of it; not being an avid movie buff at that time. The reference made me see it again, and the huge inspirations used in this story are evident).
Dialogues by Abhinav Kashyap and Manoj Tapadia are flawless, curt and memorable.
Arvind Kannabiran's cinematography is as much responsible for the authentic experience as Navdeep Singh's direction. The desert looks enticing, enigmatic and dangerous, all at the same time. The effective use of light and shadows (multi-hued lights in the fish tank, sunlight coming in through latticed walls) makes subtle comments visually.

Trivia

1. Navdeep Singh comes from the world of advertising and has studied film making at the Art Center College of Design at Pasadena. He has a large number of award winning ads to his name. His ad projects include Maruti Alto, Garnier, Lux, Parlé Hiden-n-Seek and MTV.
2. Abhay Deol has been friends with the director since Navdeep came back to India. They thought they shared the same sense of script and humor. Even though this was the case, Abhay was not considered originally for the lead role in this movie as Navdeep thought he would not be able to carry off the role of a small-town guy. Also, the character was supposed to be older and more mature undergoing a semi-mid-life crisis.
   
3. Navdeep doffs his hat to his inspiration Chinatown in a scene which is misplaced. Abhay Deol is seen watching the famous You're a very nosy fellow kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? scene where director Roman Polaski has a cameo as the goon.
4. The first day of shooting for this film coincided with Gul Panag's birthday, and the crew had a nice bash arranged for her.
5. The cinematographer Arvind Kannabiran has earlier shot My Brother Nikhil, and also worked on quite a few ad projects with Navdeep. Interestingly, the other release of this week: Loins of Punjab Presents also has cinematography by Arvind Kannabiran.
6. Director Navdeep Singh hasn't decided on his next project, but he would like to make a movie on ghosts to show the existence of the supernatural.
7. This was not the first feature film Navdeep wanted to make. There was an earlier script called Chasing Rainbows that he had tried to sell to producers for a few years. It was a more expensive script to produce and the standard response was to bring in a few stars to make it feasible. It revolved around three interconnected characters who realize that sometimes life gives you second chances.
   After Yuva flopped, the minimal interest people had in this script too vanished, as it was thought that multiple, connecting stories don’t work in Hindi films.
8. The entire shoot was carried out in 48 days, which was 3 days over the scheduled 45 days. The delay was mostly due to the unseasonable rain in Rajasthan and freezing cold; which by the way, is why you will see Gul Panag wearing sweaters throughout the movie.
9. The movie was to be originally produced by RedIce films, but they were not available to provide for the minimal budget that Navdeep insisted on. So the script was then taken to Shemaaroo films, who agreed to make it. RedIce films have earlier produced movies like Yahaan, Samay and Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar (MP3).
10. Irfan Khan had agreed to do the project when RedIce were producing. But suddenly the producers decided to cut their budget in half. This is the time when Abhay came over to Navdeep and mentioned that Shemaroo wanted to make a movie with Abhay, but did not have a script or director in mind. He asked if Navdeep would like to do Manorama with them; and things fell in place.
11. ‘Uljhan’, ‘Bhoolbhulaiyan’, ‘Jal bin machhli’ were the titles the producers wanted to use. The script was originally just ‘Manorama’. The problem with that was: everyone thought of it was a women oriented subject and that’s a direct no-money deal in Bombay film circles. It was Abhay who suggested the ‘six feet under’ when he was not even attached to the project.

Verdict
Go with an open opinion and relaxed mind. Let the movie work it's magic over you in it's two and a half hour length. After all, as the popular tag-line of a brewed coffee went: Real pleasure does not come in an instant.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag

What was I thinking when I ventured into the movie theater, taking with me two colleagues (who I knew would skin me alive, boil my remains and pour salt all over me; all on the next day itself, if the movie was anything less than entertaining) and sauntering in with a nonchalant look on my face. My fears were confirmed in the first scene itself, when my partners in crime started looking menacingly at me.

Summary
Since RGV expects you to be well versed with the original Sholay before you step into the hall, he doesn't seem to have considered any build-up necessary for the characters.
So you are saddled with two out of work guys; Heero (Ajay Devgan, with a bad hairstyle and a worse attitude) and Raj (Prashant Raj, not as bad as imagined) who have come over to Mumbai to seek employment.
They end up helping inspector Narsimha (Mohanlal, with a thick accent and a thicker beard) catch a few goons, and in the process get in his good books. After a brief jail stint for them, Mohanlal calls them over to help him get rid of Babban (Amitabh Bachchan in a role more wacky than the one in Boom, and looking and sounding more psychotic than in that outing; if that's possible).
Amitabh is eager to lay his hands on a prime piece of sea-facing land called Kaliganj, with an over the top bunch of characters ranging from an the shrieky Rasika Joshi as Gangu Mummy to Virendra Saxena doing a Naqvi Saab to Ravi Kale's Pradhan.
Since a linear narrative doesn't do much for the film, let me just provide a collage of scenes, which you can paste around in any order to get the same confused effect.

• Ajay Devgan goes on with the famous suicide scene long after our patience has ended and we so wish someone would push him into the well as he doesn't seem too eager to pull the trigger.
• Prashant Raj dies in a scene few millenniums after we had already started wishing for his early death.
• In a gory scene, Amitabh saws off Mohanlal's fingers leaving him with a pitiable 'Look Ma, no Hands' expression throughout the movie.
  The rest of the movie consists of RGV doing the same sawing action on our frayed nerves with a rusty saw which squeaks and shrieks all the way down.
• Amitabh doing a strange Jim Carrey (as Riddler in Batman Forever) inspired dance when he finds his trusted aide Tambhe dying.
  
• Badly shot action scenes in a studio; a few runarounds in an old mill and Amitabh hobbling around in his den (which reminds you of a junk goods shop).
• Deeply thoughtful and philosophical messages sent to and fro with dead bodies which read:
  Remark: Main Gandhi nahi hoon
  Riposte: Hum bhi Gandhi nahi hain!
• A modified Russian roulette with goons who have been bashed by Ajay Devgan and Prashant Raj
  

Did I forget something (blame it on the little rest I have had due to the recurrent nightmares I got after seeing this movie); oh yes, Nisha Kothari strutting her stuff around (we mostly get to see her butt due to RGVs fetishes) and Sushmita Sen with her head covered moving around in loud silences (wish she had covered her face too, to escape the charge of acting in this monstrosity).
Our grief ends with the killing of Amitabh with a cleaver in his back; though I am still unclear on who killed him (understandable due to the dark frames and crazy camera angles). I did not have the heart or the idiocy to wake up anyone to ask them this question, and tiptoed my way out of the auditorium to save my life from vengeful friends with elephantine memories.

Actors
Amitabh Bachchan looks like a cross between a beggar with an army background and a school-kid with a temper problem. This is probably his worst get-up in any movie yet, but somehow, he still manages to infuse a manic reality to his character. The only problem is that the coldblooded, ruthless and menacing Gabbar of Sholay has been replaced with a psychotic, blabbering maniac who mumbles occasionally when he runs out of inane dialogues and blows spittle and air through his lips to make his opponents shudder.
Mohanlal as a grizzly bear with unkempt fur seems to be in the wrong movie for all the wrong reasons. He has nothing much to do but to drink coffee holding a cup in his palms and roll his eyes with fury every once in a while (since he can't use his hands while acting as he usually likes to do).
Ajay Devgan is miscast. We wish we could slap him for attempting slapstick, which is not his forté. He seriously needs to reinvent himself, as his silent brooding look is overdone too.
Prashant Raj is someone who would have been vilified if the movie was worth anything; but in the absence of any stellar performances, his attitude stands out. He is way better than what I had imagined him to be.
Nisha Kothari hasn't grown up, and neither has RGV while featuring her anatomy.
Sushmita Sen doesn't have much of a role to talk of, and Rajpal Yadav is irritating to the core with a screechy voice which goes on like a bad record.

Technique
Ram Gopal Varma totally loses it in this movie. This is probably the worst movie he has made, even surpassing his remake of Shiva to gain the coveted title of worst movie of 2006-07.
He was the guy who broke all formulas; who brought in a breath of fresh air to staid old Hindi cinema. It's with regret that we see the slide into stupidity of our favorite director. This was the proverbial 100th mistake of our Shishupala, which we cannot forgive. We had long ago promised to excuse his sorry movies taking into account the brilliant Satya, Company et al. He has used up all of that credit, and needs to beware of our wrath now.
The dim lighting, tilted camera angles, scant regard for script, unusual framing, all of it has dissolved into another formula which he needs to break out of; before we dare venture into any of his films again.
The cinematography by Amit Roy seems good technically, but leaves the viewer dizzy.
Dialogues by Sajid-Farhad are idiotic and constitute the worst part of the enterprise. The writer Raahil Qazi seems to have had the easiest job, since there seems to be no effort whatsoever in that department.
Background music by Amar Mohile is shrill. The songs, barring the Mehbooba number are plain bad. The picturisation of the Mehbooba number leaves one wondering if RGV thought Mehbooba refers to an anatomical part.


Trivia

1. Earlier the movie was titled Ram Gopal Varma Ke Aag. Someone with basic knowledge of Hindi must have pointed out the error to RGV and it was changed immediately.
2. The working title for the movie was Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay, but was later changed to Aag. This is the first time in the Hindi movie industry that a director's name has been included in the movie title; so much for modesty.
3. Katrina Kaif was originally shortlisted to play the role later played by Sushmita. RGV made some changes to the script (??? rather make that: He lost his script scribbled on a paper napkin) and zeroed in on Sushmita for the role.
4. Abhishek was originally penciled in to play the role of Veeru, and RGV find Mohit Ahlawat was to play Jai. Abhishek stepped out citing date problems and Mohit had a fight with the director, making him search some more guinea pigs.
5. Himesh Reshammiya was supposed to sing the Mehbooba song in this movie, but he had other thoughts. He used the song in his own movie, Aap Ka Suroor and left RGV high and dry. Asha Bhonsle was to do the song too, but the final version of the film credits Sunidhi Chauhan.
6. Bappi Lahiri too had recorded two songs for the film, which were not retained.
7. Amitabh had tried hard to convince Ramesh Sippy (the maker of the original Sholay) to allow him to play Gabbar Singh in the original. Ramesh did not agree, but Amitabh got to fulfill his wish in this movie.
8. For a long time, Dharmendra wanted to remake Sholay with Bobby Deol and Abhishek Bachchan playing the roles immortalized by their fathers in the original.
   
9. Prashant Raj was the first runner-up in the Grasim Mr India 2004 contest.
10. The movie has two actors from the original Sholay, Amitabh Bachchan as Babban, and Sachin (who had played Ahmed, to Hangal's Imaam Saheb) as his brother (a character not present in the original).
11. Manoj Bajpai and Suniel Shetty were offered the role of Tambhe (Samba in the original) later played by Sushant Singh.

Verdict
Strictly avoid under pain of torturous death. I am still hiding from my friends and running around in disguise (Amitabh has given me a few ideas in that department with this movie).
Will post my next review if I manage to save myself from my ex-friends/sworn enemies.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

How do I start with this one... I had apprehensions about this movie right from the start when the promos started appearing. A single joke repeated time and again in all the promos didn't sound too promising; and all my fears were realized when I was forced to watch this movie.

Summary
The movie starts with a bizarrely dressed Amitabh Bachchan singing the title song at a London railway station. His clothes remind you of ragpickers and his antics of vendors in Bombay trains.
Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan with a bad dressing sense and an even worse hairdo) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta overdoing her prim-n-propah act from a dozen such movies) meet and get off on the wrong foot.
An overcrowded café and two hours to kill makes them compromise and they start off on a talkathon about their respective fiancés.
Abhishek has met Anaida Raza (Lara Dutta, looking her best since Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost) at the Ritz at Paris, when he ran out of money to pay for his accommodation.
Preity met Steve (Bobby Deol with a moth-eaten wig and mottled skin) when he saved her from a falling Superman at a place supposed to be Madam Tussaud's (though the tacky interiors make you think of Patna museum -- if such a thing exists).
The stories go on till intermission point, by which time you are beyond caring for either one of them.
By the time the story introduces a much expected twist, you are beyond caring and are longing for this caper to finish quickly without doing any further damage to your sense of humor or your partner's health (who might have dragged you to see this movie).

Actors
The normally dependable Preity Zinta has become so monotonous that her antics don't bring a single smile to your face. You can predict not just her dialogues, but also her facial expressions while mouthing them.
Abhishek Bachchan needs to do some rethink pronto about his movie choices and get rid of that stubble that he has grown to hide his double chin. He manages to raise a few laughs, but has a been there, done that, got the t-shirt, I am a cool dude air about him which gets your goat after four movies of him doing the same (Guru, Dhoom 2, Bluffmaster, Bunty Aur Babli).
Bobby Deol is a breath of fresh air in the second half and provides some material to get a few guffaws in the second half of the movie. I have always maintained that Bobby has comic talent which has never been appreciated and I still stand by it. His styling is hideous, as previously mentioned.
Lara Dutta is the surprise package of this film in terms of entertainment potential. Be it her French accent or her tapori take. She looks gorgeous in most of the scenes and lifts them above the level they deserve.

Technique
Shaad Ali Sehgal has proved that Saathiya was just an aberration (as it was originally a Mani Ratnam script) and his real creativity / story telling skills are way bad.
I had thought Bunty Aur Babli was an amateurish attempt, but this one makes it look like a masterpiece. He takes the credit for writing and directing this movie, which is something he should have tried to hide, as it is nothing to brag about.
Faisal Habib takes the blame for the screenplay and dialogue. The screenplay would do justice to a five year old on a crack-induced high; and the dialogues show equal depth.
oShankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is mediocre, and the title track gets repeated throughout the movie to get maximum mileage; flogging the dead donkey. Lyrics by Gulzar go heavy on the Punjabi vocabulary.

Trivia

1. Daler Mehendi was very upset with Yashraj films for getting the title song recorded in his voice, and then replacing his vocals with Shankar Mahadevan's. He was reportedly not paid for the song, and has sued them for rupees 1 crore.
2. John Abraham was initially offered the role played by Bobby Deol, but he opted out of it as he was reportedly not given a script narration and was not convinced with the theme of the story. This left Aditya Chopra furious and he has decided not to work with John in the future.
3. Vidya Balan was offered a role in this movie (probably the one done by Lara Dutta) but she could not accommodate the dates.
4. There were quite a few rumors floated by Yashraj films that Abhishek was to play dad to twins named Hrithik and Roshan in this movie; but they turned out to be just rumors.
5. Players like Frank Lampard and John Terry along with other members of the Chelsea team were to make an appearance in the film. They were supposed to present Abhishek Bachchan with a jersey of the team with his character's name (Rikki) on it. But all this turned out to be just hype from the Yashraj camp and nothing of this sort materialized.
6. The movie was originally planned to be shot at Delhi station, but they probably decided to shoot abroad to attract more eyeballs.

Verdict
Yashraj films seems to have started a new concept of a film-making school, where they teach boot-lickers and friends of theirs, the art of making films and con the paying public to pay for exorbitant tickets, which they must be considering their course fees.
It would be better if they started The Art of the Con schools, since their cons with the paying public are way better than the cons they show in their movies.

Ta Ra Rum Pum

Went over to see this movie due to some obligations. Had zero expectations from it, and it lived up to them.

Summary
Rajveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan looking a little haggard and not as fit as usual) is a pit-crew worker in a racing team. Harry (Jaaved Jaaferi, reliable as ever) is a team manager for a racing team; Speeding Saddles, and he discovers Saif's driving skills on a taxi ride across the city.
Saif also gets to meet a music student, Radhika (Rani Mukerji, with a stupid hairdo), during the same ride; and falls for her instantly.
Saif becomes a race car driver for Speeding Saddles; and goes on to win a number of races, in the process shortening his name to a chic RV. On this journey, he also gets married to Rani and spares some time to sire two kids, Priya/Princess (Angelina Idnani, normal) and Ranveer /Champ (Ali Haji, trying too hard to be cute).
This fairy tale story is interrupted as the result of a racing accident (Days of Thunder anyone?) which keeps Saif away from the racetrack for an year. His comeback is not the stuff of legends, and his picture perfect world shatters when he realizes his credit line doesn't last as long as his race track.
How the family survives this downturn, and comes up all trumps forms the rest of the story.


Actors
Saif Ali Khan for a change, does not look the normally fit and energetic guy that he usually does. He probably realized the stupidity of the script and got disinterested in the movie. He tries to make up for it in the second half, but is not very impressive, sleepwalking through the entire movie.
Rani looks horrible for the first half of the movie, and is unable to carry off the short-skirt look made popular by Preity Zinta in Salaam Namastey. In the second half, she has to wear a no-makeup look, which doesn't suit her as much either. As regards to her histrionics, she is dependable as usual, though her shrieky avatar pre-marriage is irritating.
The kids do a fine enough job, but never register as endearing.
Jaaved Jaaferi is great in a small role and leaves you in splits as always.
The primary antagonist Rusty is so comically characterized that he ends up without a single dialogue and a sneer which reminds you of Shashikala in movies from the '80s.

Technique
Director Siddharth Anand showed some promise in his earlier movie Salaam Namastey, even though that too was inspired from Nine Months. For this movie, he lets the money do the talking. The lavishly mounted race track scenes almost scream out saying... hey, now that you have this to take home, why bother with a script.
The screenplay by Habib Faisal is inspired in parts by Days of Thunder, Cinderella Man and Life is Beautiful.
With such varied influences, it sometimes ends up with ridiculous scenes not having any relation to the main theme of the movie.
Surprisingly, the music by Vishal Shekhar is plain bad and the songs come as obstacles in this movie already crawling at a snail's pace.
This screenplay of convenience also ends up painting the car races as death duels where the racer's main aim is to create as many pile-ups as necessary to leave his competitors behind; and if he ends up killing a few of them, so much the better.


Trivia

1. Ali Haji, the child actor has earlier worked in Family (with Amitabh Bachchan) and Fanaa besides ad campaigns for Dabur Chyawanprash, Lifebuoy and Tata Tea.
   His forthcoming films include Drona (Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra) and Partner (Salman Khan, Govinda, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif).
2. The other child actor Angelina Idnani has been a part of Phir Hera Pheri and Benares, and quite a few ads like Nutrela, Everest Masala, Haldiram, Montex pens and Mahindra Club Holidays.
3. Cinematographer Binod Pradhan, a veteran of films like Mission Kashmir, Devdas and Rang De Basanti, and also Ta Ra Rum Pum has a cameo in this movie in a group scene with Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji.
4. Shekhar Kapoor had planned a movie named Tara Rum Pum Pum a long time ago with Preity Zinta (before her debut in Dil Se). But the movie got stalled like a number of other Shekhar Kapoor movies .
5. During the shoot of the film in the US, Saif stayed away from the unit, on his own in a studio-style apartment/hotel, and this caused a lot of gossip regarding how he shared cold vibes with Rani.
6. Director Siddharth Anand, all of 26 years; assisted Kunal Kohli during the making of Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Hum Tum. He also was a part of the team that wrote Hum Tum (which was inspired by When Harry Met Sally).
   Before joining the Yash Raj banner; he had also assisted Rahul Rawail in the comedy Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi starring Kajol.
7. Siddharth had written this movie keeping Saif in mind. Rani was finalized only after the script was written in totality.
8. The hotel that Saif had checked in to, was in the middle of nowhere, opposite a cemetery without any windows. Saif used to smoke a lot and so, he got them to make him a window. Now they call that room the 'presidential suite' as it's the only one with a window there.
9. Rani and Siddharth know each other from their school days when they studied in the same school and traveled by the same school bus.

Opinion
Mostly a bummer, unless you are interested in watching a few race tracks or are die-hard fans of Saif/Rani. Also, if you are moved to tears at the slightest provocation and love watching emotionally manipulative movies, you could go for it. Would still recommend re-viewing Cinderella Man to achieve that end.

Bheja Fry

Let me admit at the start that even though this is a low budget movie, I had high expectations from it as it is directed by a former assistant of Rajat Kapoor (whose films I like), and most of my expectations were fulfilled.


Summary
Inspired in a large part from a French movie, (Le Dîner de cons), the movie is about Ranjeet Thadani (Rajat Kapoor suave as ever) who owns a music company, 'Soundman Industries' and is married to Sheetal Thadani (Sarika, looking a little tired, but great as ever).
Rajat and his group of friends have a very unique stress-busting technique: each of them brings over a fool for their Friday meet-ups; called "Talent Dinners" and then parades them around having fun at their expense. They consider it innocuous fun (and I for one agreed and even got a few ideas. :) Hey, I am not mean. The fools don't realize they are being made fun of, and they actually consider it recognition of their talent).
Sarika disagrees and has quite a few arguments with Rajat regarding this.
Rajat is given the reference of Bharat Bhushan (the extremely versatile Vinay Pathak) by a friend who knows Rajat is desperately in search of an idiot for the talent dinner.
Vinay is an income tax official and extremely fond of singing. He considers himself God's humble gift to mankind and intends to share his gift of song at the slightest encouragement (and quite a few times without that encouragement too).
He tries hard to please Rajat, but being the goof he is; ends up complicating matters. Sarika leaves Rajat and Vinay tries to help in his own way to hilarious results.
Ranvir Sheorey plays Asif Merchant, Vinay's colleague, and Milind Soman is Anant Ghoshal, a music director and former friend of Rajat. They contribute to the proceedings in their own goofy ways along with Bhairavi Goswami as Suman Rao, Rajat's girlfriend and a wannabe singer.

Actors
The movie revolves around two people, Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak, and both do great jobs. Vinay is laugh-out-loud funny, and Rajat acts as the perfect foil, never once trying to upstage him. Vinay's accent and dialogs when he imitates a Bhojpuri producer are fabulous.
When Ranvir Sheorey comes in the picture, you expect the film to go into hyper-laughter mode, but it stops short of going that extra mile due to a surprisingly average performance by the usually excellent Ranvir.
Milind Soman only gets to giggle at everything and does an OK job.
Sarika's role is mostly playing the cribbing wife, but she has great screen presence which makes it wonderful to have her in the movie.

Technique
The script by Sagar Ballary and Arpita Chatterjee is a winner and is replete with laugh-out-loud situations. Sagar does a good job at direction and targets it at the right audience with the right emotions.
The editing by Suresh Pai does seem a little choppy in places, but that's nit-picking this nice movie.
The movie does have it's share of problems due to it's low budget, but none that cannot be overlooked.

Trivia

1. This movie is inspired in many parts by the French movie Le Dîner de cons (roughly translated - The Idiots' Dinner). The original movie has Vinay's character obsessed with building replicas of architectural works with matchsticks (maquette).
   
2. The director Sagar Ballary has assisted Rajat Kapoor in his films Raghu Romeo and Mixed Doubles.
3. His co-writer, Arpita Chatterjee is a journalist with the Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day.
4. The producer Sunil Doshi had also produced Rajat Kapoor's earlier movie Mixed Doubles, which is when he asked Sagar Ballary if he had any ideas for a movie. Sagar pitched this idea and Doshi immediately agreed to produce it.
5. The budget for this movie was Rs. 55 lakhs (Rs. 5.5 million), which is a paltry sum by Hindi movie standards. The reason it could be kept so low is that most of the actors waived off their fees for shooting it.
6. The original choice for the character of Rajat's wife was Yana Gupta, but things didn't work out with her, and then the director got to know that Sarika was planning a comeback in films (she was shooting for Parzania at that time). He went over to meet Sarika and she immediately agreed.
7. When the producer agreed to do the film, the title was 'Ding Dong Baby Sing a Song'. He didn't like the title and asked for another one, and Sagar kept delaying it. Finally, the producer; Sunil, called up Sagar as he was going to register the title. In a rush, Sagar called up his co-scriptwriter Arpita, and she said, 'Sagar don't bheja fry me right now”. She took a double-take after that and suggested Bheja Fry as the title, which Sagar hated. But when everyone was asked about it, they loved it as it was in sync with the theme of the movie, and so it stayed.

Opinion
A must watch. If you liked Jhankaar Beats, this is the movie for you.

Shaka Laka Boom Boom

Went over to see Shaka Laka Boom Boom, and must say this is probably the first Suneel Darshan movie I didn't hate as much as his Raja Hindustani not that that is much of a compliment.

Summary
A faithful rip-off of Milos Forman's Amadeus, SLBB is the story of AJ (an aged Bobby Deol), who is a popular singer/composer based in NY. He has had 5 consecutive chart-topping albums, and is working on his next one. Bobby is backed by the owner of a music company (Dalip Tahil, with a pierced right ear) whose wife has the hots for him.
He meets Ruhi (Kangana Ranaut) and falls head over heels in love with her.
Reggie (Upen Patel, probably ashamed of his real name, Raghav) is from the underground music scene, who is supposed to have a large amount of talent (not much, going by the tunes bandied around).
Upen seduces Bobby's PR person Sheena (Celina Jaitley) and then promptly ditches her after getting introduced to the company's top brass.
Bobby is upstaged on a number of occasions by Upen, and realizes that Upen is a much better composer. What proves to be the last straw is that Kangana falls in love with Upen, making an emotional wreck of Bobby.
He decides to get back at Upen and enlists the help of Celina who holds a huge grudge because she has been spurned by Upen.
Thus starts the fight between ruthless power and supposed talent (Yawn!).

Actors
Upen is wooden as always and is unintentionally hilarious when he is supposed to play a sick guy. His comic scenes; on the other hand leave you cold. He is probably the only guy alive who can get acting tips from Steven Seagal.
Kangana Ranaut looks distinctly uncomfortable essaying a role where she doesn't have to play the wronged girl, or cry her heart out throughout the movie. So she makes do with a constantly puzzled frown on her face.
Celina Jaitley provides the eye-candy, as usual coupled with deadpan dialog delivery which amuses us no end.
All these guys end up making Bobby the best actor of the lot, and he does show potential in quite a few scenes. Now if only he did something about those dreadful dreadlocks of his.
Govind Namdeo has a few redundant and repetitive scenes as Bobby's guru.

Technique
Suneel Darshan, for a change goes a little low on the traditions front, but makes it up by turning the dialogs a tad louder. As in all Darshan movies, actors shriek their lines instead of mouthing them; which is the reason why this movie is literally loud, not just in terms of treatment, but in terms of decibels too.
Since the movie is supposed to be about music, the composer takes center screen, taking over from the director. Himesh Reshammiya in usual style comes up with 1-2 hummable tunes, with the rest as fillers (please note that I consider myself musically deaf, so not much credence should be given to my musical judgment.) The English lyrics for the title song have to be heard to be believed.
Choreography by Bosco-Caesar is normal, and if I could have got my eyes off Celina, I might have been able to comment better on that aspect.
Background music by Viju Shah is shrill, and I refuse to believe it was his idea to put in a background score which sounds like a porn movie whenever a racy scene is on the screen.
There are a large number of goofs in the movie, and some are truly astounding.
Bobby's supposed house has a large number of frames shown in the background, which clearly have Upen's photos on them. This is witnessed in a number of scenes (Bobby fantasizing about Upen???).
Also, in two scenes, an hour apart (so the timeline is a good six-months apart), Upen's friend is seen with the same tabloid (with the headline: Dumb and Dumber) in his hands (probably the headline points to this guy himself... slow-reader anyone???).

Trivia

1. Sanaa Panscholi (Aditya Panscholi's daughter) was supposed to debut with this movie. But she was shunted out by Darshan after a few days of shooting as he was not pleased with her output. Interestingly, Kangana was brought in to replace her (Aditya Panscholi is supposed to have an affair with Kangana, and he is the one who brought her into the film world).
2. Isha Koppikar and Mona Chopra (now known as Sherlyn Chopra) were also attached to this project at a point of time. Isha was supposed to act the role of Dalip Tahil's wife, and Mona was to be Kangana's friend.
3. There's a song which was supposed to be shot on Upen Patel for a cost of Rs. 2.5 crores. None of the songs shows such lavishness.
4. Suneel Darshan reportedly had trouble paying his bills in South Africa (where this movie was shot) and there were labor issues due to this.
5. At one point of time Suneel Darshan was trying to promote SLBB as a story of the rivalry between Amitabh and SRK. This presumption of his was shot down by both his lead stars in their interviews.
6. Suneel Darshan has been so impressed with Upen that he has already signed him for two more films, one of which will be a solo-hero project.

Opinion
Can be seen by people who have been able to tolerate Raja Hindustani and Dhadkan. This is certainly a notch above those horror stories. In the absence of any other options this week, it's the only way out for people addicted to watching movies in theaters. For everyone else, avoidable.