Bhoot
Had to see Bhoot on the first day of its release. I didn't want anyone to spoil my suspense, as they did in the case of "Kaun".
Bhoot certainly has its share of chills and thrills.
Synopsis
Bhoot is a supernatural thriller set in Mumbai City. Vishal (Ajay Devgan, looking dapper), a stock analyst is in search of a flat. He likes a flat on the 12th floor of a building. The catch is, the previous occupant, a young woman, had plunged to her death from this flat's balcony. This does not bother him, and he and his wife Swati (Urmila Matondkar in the best performance of her life) move in. They keep a maid (Seema Biswas; giving a good performance) who had served the earlier tenant.
Ajay doesn't bother to tell Urmila about the flat's history, as he doesn't want to trouble her. When she gets to know about it, she starts getting mentally disturbed. She starts sleepwalking, and the situations that ensue are harrowing, to say the least. A murder is comitted in the apartment, and Inspector Liyaquat Qureshi (Nana Patekar; not in his element) enters the scene.
Ajay enlists the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Rajan (Victor Banerjee; in a wonderfully restrained performance) to help Urmila. When this does not help, Ajay brings in a medium (Rekha; looking as beautiful as ever, coupled with a tremendous screen presence). The landlord's son (Fardeen Khan; hamming his way through the role) and the earlier tenant's mother (Tanuja; in a blink and you will miss her role) come in towards the climax to bring events to a head.
Analysis
Short and trite (1 hour 59 minutes), the movie has more than its share of chilling moments. Some scenes make you nearly bolt out of your chair, or clutch at someone. The no-songs, no-foreign locations format impresses you. Urmila Matondkar deserves applause for her role as the possesed woman. One moment extremely vulnerable, and the next violent, she certainly takes your breath away. Ajay Devgan provides ample support as her harried husband.
Nana Patekar's role could have been done by any novice, as it does not require much. Victor Banerjee seems a natural. Seema Biswas does justice to her role. Tanuja and Fardeen Khan are mostly spectators. The scene stealer in this movie without any doubt is Rekha. We feel that age doesn't seem to have touched her, as we see her moving gracefully through her part.
Barring the supernatural part, the movie is a welcome experiment. The goings-on take your breath away on many occasions. A scene to look out for is when Urmila is practising faces in front of the mirror.
Technique
When one goes for a Ram Gopal Verma directed film (notice that I did not mention produced, as some of his productions have been real duds) , they have a certain standard in mind. These standards are maintained; and the film is technically brilliant. Some RGV fans might be dissapointed, as the expectations from him are sky high. They might argue that if the film was from the Ramsay brothers, they would have praised it endlessly but coming from Ramgopal Verma, it is just above average.
The director of photography; Vishal Sinha uses some innovative angles to scare you.
But, what really enhances the thriller feel and the suspense is the background score by Salim-Sulaiman, and the sound effects by Dwarak Warrier. You are instantly reminded of the background score of What Lies Beneath, that used the absence of sound to scare you. Unlike the score of Raaz, which was irritating and screeching, this one is absolutely haunting.
The story is credited to Sameer Sharma and Lalit Marathe.
Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Definitely not for those weak of heart. For others, who would like to have a spine chilling time at the movies, a definitely watch movie. Moreover, coming at a time when the only other options are either XMen2, Andaaz or Armaan; you should make a run for it.
Important tip for guys: Think of taking along your significant other to this movie with you. Yours can be the shoulder she will cling to when she is scared.
Warning: Do not try this if you are uncertain of your own reactions to the scary moments.
Note: I am sorry if this review seems a little short and superficial. I received lots of mails stating that I should try not to reveal much about the film, as it would spoil the readers' movie experience.
Saturday, May 31, 2003
Monday, May 26, 2003
Andaaz
Saw the movie Andaaz on the first day of its release.
Crazy movie. Gets on my list of the worst ever films made in Bollywood.
Synopsis
This movie is about the friendship between Raj (Akshay Kumar) and Kaajal (Lara Dutta). They are childhood friends, and Raj has a psychological problem with his legs, whereby he thinks he cannot walk without braces that he acquired after a childhood accident. In a scene remniscent of Forrest Gump; breaking braces et all, he starts walking normally. Akshay dreams of becoming a pilot as Lara is fascinated with flying. They grow up to be great friends, and Akshay doesnt seem to find the need to convey his feelings about his love towards Lara to her, as he thinks that she already knows about it.
He moves off to train as an IAF pilot (even though all the planes shown are private ones). By the time he comes back, he gets to know that Lara has found her prince charming, Karan Singhania (Aman Verma). After Lara's marriage to Aman, broken hearted Akshay goes over to Europe (he mentions Europe to his brother; but they shot the locales of South Africa).
Here he meets Jiya (Priyanka Chopra), who immediately falls in love with him. He is not so fast to return her affection, but slowly falls in line. When everything seems to be going fine, Lara reenters his life, and now he is in a fix.
Analysis
The first half of the movie breezes along, with some bad songs. Lara looks bad mostly throughout the movie. She reminds one of Sushmita Sen, who looks absolutely gorgeous in Western outfits, and completely pedestrian in Traditional Indian ones. Towards the end of the movie, she looks absoulutely horrible, given the tradition of Hindi film heroines to dress traditionally after they are married. Priyanka Chopra is gorgeous in most of the scenes, but she needs a good director/cinematographer to get the right angles on her face. Akshay Kumar seems to go towards his Khiladi days of a non-actor in the first half of the film. The second half of the film mostly sees him moping.
Seeing the ultra-modernistic ex-Miss Universe / ex-Miss Worlds mouthing dialogues like "Vidhwao kaa shaadi karna aaj bhi bhartiya samaaj me paap maana jaata hai" raises quite a few laughs after seeing them mouth dialogues like "The new Indian woman is second to none..." in various contests.
Johny Lever comes over to try to give some comic relief. The only relief we get is when he actually leaves the scene.
The songs of the movie too come at alarming intervals.
Technique
Director Raj Kanwar, the skipper of the ship flounders amazingly throughout. He should realise that the days of Deewana, Laadla etc. are gone, and he does need actual stories to make a movie.
The story is credited to him, and the screenplay to Robin Bhatt and Shyam Goel. The script is so corny, you feel as if the director was caught in a time warp, and got out at the wrong end.
Cinematography by Ishwar Bidri is good. Jainendra Jain's dialogues need to be heard to be disbeleived. Choreography by Raju Khan and Baba Yadav is no great shakes. Nadeem Shravan's music leaves a lot to be desired except for one-two songs.
Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Are you crazy. Avoid it at all costs. 25 % of the theater was empty after 2 hours. The last movie that I can remember being so bad is probably "Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya" by the same producer Suneel Darshan. Take my advice, avoid it at all costs. If you want to watch Priyanka wearing some skimpy clothes, go get a film magazine, it would be less taxing to your brain, and you would save on the fees for the shrink.
Saw the movie Andaaz on the first day of its release.
Crazy movie. Gets on my list of the worst ever films made in Bollywood.
Synopsis
This movie is about the friendship between Raj (Akshay Kumar) and Kaajal (Lara Dutta). They are childhood friends, and Raj has a psychological problem with his legs, whereby he thinks he cannot walk without braces that he acquired after a childhood accident. In a scene remniscent of Forrest Gump; breaking braces et all, he starts walking normally. Akshay dreams of becoming a pilot as Lara is fascinated with flying. They grow up to be great friends, and Akshay doesnt seem to find the need to convey his feelings about his love towards Lara to her, as he thinks that she already knows about it.
He moves off to train as an IAF pilot (even though all the planes shown are private ones). By the time he comes back, he gets to know that Lara has found her prince charming, Karan Singhania (Aman Verma). After Lara's marriage to Aman, broken hearted Akshay goes over to Europe (he mentions Europe to his brother; but they shot the locales of South Africa).
Here he meets Jiya (Priyanka Chopra), who immediately falls in love with him. He is not so fast to return her affection, but slowly falls in line. When everything seems to be going fine, Lara reenters his life, and now he is in a fix.
Analysis
The first half of the movie breezes along, with some bad songs. Lara looks bad mostly throughout the movie. She reminds one of Sushmita Sen, who looks absolutely gorgeous in Western outfits, and completely pedestrian in Traditional Indian ones. Towards the end of the movie, she looks absoulutely horrible, given the tradition of Hindi film heroines to dress traditionally after they are married. Priyanka Chopra is gorgeous in most of the scenes, but she needs a good director/cinematographer to get the right angles on her face. Akshay Kumar seems to go towards his Khiladi days of a non-actor in the first half of the film. The second half of the film mostly sees him moping.
Seeing the ultra-modernistic ex-Miss Universe / ex-Miss Worlds mouthing dialogues like "Vidhwao kaa shaadi karna aaj bhi bhartiya samaaj me paap maana jaata hai" raises quite a few laughs after seeing them mouth dialogues like "The new Indian woman is second to none..." in various contests.
Johny Lever comes over to try to give some comic relief. The only relief we get is when he actually leaves the scene.
The songs of the movie too come at alarming intervals.
Technique
Director Raj Kanwar, the skipper of the ship flounders amazingly throughout. He should realise that the days of Deewana, Laadla etc. are gone, and he does need actual stories to make a movie.
The story is credited to him, and the screenplay to Robin Bhatt and Shyam Goel. The script is so corny, you feel as if the director was caught in a time warp, and got out at the wrong end.
Cinematography by Ishwar Bidri is good. Jainendra Jain's dialogues need to be heard to be disbeleived. Choreography by Raju Khan and Baba Yadav is no great shakes. Nadeem Shravan's music leaves a lot to be desired except for one-two songs.
Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Are you crazy. Avoid it at all costs. 25 % of the theater was empty after 2 hours. The last movie that I can remember being so bad is probably "Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya" by the same producer Suneel Darshan. Take my advice, avoid it at all costs. If you want to watch Priyanka wearing some skimpy clothes, go get a film magazine, it would be less taxing to your brain, and you would save on the fees for the shrink.
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Armaan
Saw the movie Armaan on the first day of its release.
Well... consider it not to be too disappointing, but not too great either.
Debutant director Honey Irani disappoints, as the expectations from her were sky high.
The movie is set in a hospital that looks like a guest house in some hillstation like Simla. Seems like they went through a lot of efforts to make the jargon sound right. Got a Pune doctor on the sets full time to get the right medical terms in place.
Synopsis
This is the story of Padmabhushan Dr. Siddharth Sinha (Amitabh Bachchan in a stellar performance) and his adopted son Dr. Akash Sinha (Anil Kapoor looking as young as ever), a neuro-surgeon. The senior doctor Sinha runs a hospital, and has a dream of making it state of the art (The promos mentioned a lot about his wanting to have a big hospital that serves the rich and the poor equally. This philanthropic angle is not seen in the movie). They are approaching many financial institutions and the health ministry to make this a reality. Enter Dr. Neha Mathur (Gracy Singh, alternately looking good and bad throughout the movie), a skilled anesthetist, who proves her worth to the hospital as soon as she comes in. Anil and Gracy waste no time falling in love and get over with the basics pretty soon. Amitabh gets to know of his son's love, and gives his approval.
In this made for each other love story, comes in Soniya Kapoor (Preity Zinta with a horrible hair cut that does injustice to her great looks.), a rich spoilt girl, who falls in love with Anil.
Seems like her rich dad Gulshan Kapoor (Randhir Kapoor in the worst performance of his life); who is supposed to be one of the top ten rich people of the world, has fulfilled all desires of his darling daughter. Same old explanation of "Mere paas use dene ke liye time ke sivaa sab kuchch tha"(I could give her everything except my time).
At this point of time, Amitabh conveniently kicks the bucket in a very well shot scene. This brings the burden of refurbishing the hospital on Anil, who soon discovers that his foster father had sacrificed his love to bring him up.
Now, this calls for a sacrifice on Anil's part. The opportunity soon arises when he gets to know that Randhir had given a proposition to Amitabh for marrying off Anil to Preity, which would ensure the fulfillment of Amitabh's life long dream of running a state of the art hospital.
Anil agrees to marry Preity, and disposes off Gracy in a short and sweet scene. After the marriage, Preity gets to know of the affair that existed between Gracy and Anil, and starts getting suspicious. Anil blows off his handle a number of times due to this, and the situation gets out of hand when Preity does not let Gracy contact Anil; resulting in the death of Gracy's mother.
Out to get revenge for Anil's ditching her, Preity gets into an accident, and Anil and Gracy need to carry off an operation to save her.
This entitles a matrix style shot of Anil and Amitabh (Neo and Morpheus) debating the ethics of the operation.
The ending is an "All's well that ends well" kind.
Analysis
The movie has some well shot scenes, notable among them being:
1) The one where Amitabh discovers that Anil and Gracy are in love.
2) Amitabh's deathbed scene.
As always, Amitabh has come up with an amazing heart-moving performance. Ever the dedicated actor, Anil has given him good support. Gracy Singh is okay. Preity Zinta seems to grate on the nerves with her hairstyle and another performance that tries to show her bubbly side. The movie going public will soon get tired of her similar roles. She should utilise her immense talent in a better way with roles which do not require her to do the same act she has done right from her debut film Dil Se to Kya Kehnaa to The Hero.
Randhir Kapoor seems out of his element in this movie. He hams outrageously. Seeing such a great actor play a foolish role really upsets me.
Overall, the movie fails to impress with its long winded script, which gets thoroughly predictable in the second half.
Technique
The director Honey Irani has a reputation of writing storylines of stellar hits or at least well appreciated ones like Aaina, Lamhe, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Kya Kehna, DDLJ (For which she was not credited). This naturally generates high expectations from her directorial debut. Besides this, she has been assisted with the screenplay by none other than the great Javed Akhtar, her ex-husband.
Are the expectations fulfilled? Not exactly.
Editor Shirish Kunder needs to be blamed for a lot of the flak this movie might receive. The film could have reduced its flab by at least 20 minutes.
Choreography by Saroj Khan, Farah Khan and Geeta Kapur is nothing to write home about.
The music director trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are not consistent in delivering good music. Two of the songs of the film are hummable, but none have a lasting value.
One notable piece is the musical duel between Amitabh and Anil, though it is stretched too long to be appreciated.
Dialogues from Javed Akhtar are pretty good, but none of them will probably be remembered beyond a month.
Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
That would depend on whether you are a great Amitabh Bachchan/Anil Kapoor fan or not. If you are one, this movie has some really great scenes in store for you.
Apart from that, if you want to see a movie which refrains from being overly melodramatic, and has its share of well shot scenes, this movie is for you.
For the rest, its a "watch if you dont have anything else to do" movie.
Special Mention
I would like to thank my friend Mr. Harish Ranganathan for his immense support. These reviews would not have been possible without his help.
I got more than 80 hits on the site within a short span of 4 days. All the credit goes to him to make this possible.
Saw the movie Armaan on the first day of its release.
Well... consider it not to be too disappointing, but not too great either.
Debutant director Honey Irani disappoints, as the expectations from her were sky high.
The movie is set in a hospital that looks like a guest house in some hillstation like Simla. Seems like they went through a lot of efforts to make the jargon sound right. Got a Pune doctor on the sets full time to get the right medical terms in place.
Synopsis
This is the story of Padmabhushan Dr. Siddharth Sinha (Amitabh Bachchan in a stellar performance) and his adopted son Dr. Akash Sinha (Anil Kapoor looking as young as ever), a neuro-surgeon. The senior doctor Sinha runs a hospital, and has a dream of making it state of the art (The promos mentioned a lot about his wanting to have a big hospital that serves the rich and the poor equally. This philanthropic angle is not seen in the movie). They are approaching many financial institutions and the health ministry to make this a reality. Enter Dr. Neha Mathur (Gracy Singh, alternately looking good and bad throughout the movie), a skilled anesthetist, who proves her worth to the hospital as soon as she comes in. Anil and Gracy waste no time falling in love and get over with the basics pretty soon. Amitabh gets to know of his son's love, and gives his approval.
In this made for each other love story, comes in Soniya Kapoor (Preity Zinta with a horrible hair cut that does injustice to her great looks.), a rich spoilt girl, who falls in love with Anil.
Seems like her rich dad Gulshan Kapoor (Randhir Kapoor in the worst performance of his life); who is supposed to be one of the top ten rich people of the world, has fulfilled all desires of his darling daughter. Same old explanation of "Mere paas use dene ke liye time ke sivaa sab kuchch tha"(I could give her everything except my time).
At this point of time, Amitabh conveniently kicks the bucket in a very well shot scene. This brings the burden of refurbishing the hospital on Anil, who soon discovers that his foster father had sacrificed his love to bring him up.
Now, this calls for a sacrifice on Anil's part. The opportunity soon arises when he gets to know that Randhir had given a proposition to Amitabh for marrying off Anil to Preity, which would ensure the fulfillment of Amitabh's life long dream of running a state of the art hospital.
Anil agrees to marry Preity, and disposes off Gracy in a short and sweet scene. After the marriage, Preity gets to know of the affair that existed between Gracy and Anil, and starts getting suspicious. Anil blows off his handle a number of times due to this, and the situation gets out of hand when Preity does not let Gracy contact Anil; resulting in the death of Gracy's mother.
Out to get revenge for Anil's ditching her, Preity gets into an accident, and Anil and Gracy need to carry off an operation to save her.
This entitles a matrix style shot of Anil and Amitabh (Neo and Morpheus) debating the ethics of the operation.
The ending is an "All's well that ends well" kind.
Analysis
The movie has some well shot scenes, notable among them being:
1) The one where Amitabh discovers that Anil and Gracy are in love.
2) Amitabh's deathbed scene.
As always, Amitabh has come up with an amazing heart-moving performance. Ever the dedicated actor, Anil has given him good support. Gracy Singh is okay. Preity Zinta seems to grate on the nerves with her hairstyle and another performance that tries to show her bubbly side. The movie going public will soon get tired of her similar roles. She should utilise her immense talent in a better way with roles which do not require her to do the same act she has done right from her debut film Dil Se to Kya Kehnaa to The Hero.
Randhir Kapoor seems out of his element in this movie. He hams outrageously. Seeing such a great actor play a foolish role really upsets me.
Overall, the movie fails to impress with its long winded script, which gets thoroughly predictable in the second half.
Technique
The director Honey Irani has a reputation of writing storylines of stellar hits or at least well appreciated ones like Aaina, Lamhe, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Kya Kehna, DDLJ (For which she was not credited). This naturally generates high expectations from her directorial debut. Besides this, she has been assisted with the screenplay by none other than the great Javed Akhtar, her ex-husband.
Are the expectations fulfilled? Not exactly.
Editor Shirish Kunder needs to be blamed for a lot of the flak this movie might receive. The film could have reduced its flab by at least 20 minutes.
Choreography by Saroj Khan, Farah Khan and Geeta Kapur is nothing to write home about.
The music director trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are not consistent in delivering good music. Two of the songs of the film are hummable, but none have a lasting value.
One notable piece is the musical duel between Amitabh and Anil, though it is stretched too long to be appreciated.
Dialogues from Javed Akhtar are pretty good, but none of them will probably be remembered beyond a month.
Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
That would depend on whether you are a great Amitabh Bachchan/Anil Kapoor fan or not. If you are one, this movie has some really great scenes in store for you.
Apart from that, if you want to see a movie which refrains from being overly melodramatic, and has its share of well shot scenes, this movie is for you.
For the rest, its a "watch if you dont have anything else to do" movie.
Special Mention
I would like to thank my friend Mr. Harish Ranganathan for his immense support. These reviews would not have been possible without his help.
I got more than 80 hits on the site within a short span of 4 days. All the credit goes to him to make this possible.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Ishq Vishk
Saw this movie day before yesterday.
Nice movie, though a little crass in some places.
Debutant director Ken Ghosh seems to have a big hangover from his music video days.
The college sets seem out of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Not that I am complaining.
Just waiting for the day when I would actually get to see a realistic college in a movie. Either the college sets are too drab, or too good to be true. Then there are movies where we dont get to see anything of the college besides their gardens and steps.
Well, coming back to Ishq Vishk... The movie has a gloss finish to it, with all the protagonists living in designer homes, straight out of an Interior Design mag, with a huge dose of Neon.
Everyone leads comfy lives, and the only tensions they have in life are about matters related to the heart. Not that I am complaining about that either. If I need to see real life, I dont need to go to the movies.
Cutting to the chase...
Synopsis:
This is the story of Rajiv Mathur/Archie (Shahid Kapur), Payal/Betty (Amrita Rao) and Alisha/Veronica (Shenaz Treasurywala).
A normal Archie, Betty and Veronica triangle, Archie realises the value of true love when he loses it.
Archie and Betty have been friends since childhood, and Betty has always been in love with Archie. Betty is a plain Jane, and is never Archie's 'type' of girl according to him. He always yearns for a girl who would make the others boys in college consider him a stud.
An incident in their life changes their relationship, when Archie tries to get Betty out with him for a group night out, when he wants to lose his virginity. He woos her, and fakes his feelings of love for her. When she gets to know his true feelings, she gets repulsed by him.
Archie later acts like a total ass when she tries to reconcile with him with the total support of the group.
He feels snubbed, and challenges the group that he will get the best girl of the college to be his girlfriend.
Enter Veronica; the undisputed heartthrob of the college as soon as she joins it. Not just Archie, but all the studs in the college can't keep their eyes off her.
Archie seeks the help of a college pseudo stud (Yash Tonk in a great role) to win the attention of Veronica. He succeeds in his ploy, but realises that he loves Betty after he sees his bosom buddy(Vishal Malhotra) with her.
Analysis:
The movie is realistic in the sense that it does not go into overly dramatic situations to explain Archie's change of heart. One can plainly identify a situation where a guy falls in love with an ex-object of his affections after seeing her with another person.
Not enough reason is given for him not liking Veronica. Sundry matter like her wearing short clothes is shown for an excuse.
This movie reaffirms the normal mentality of men for having a sexy kitten Sharon Stone for a girl friend, and a naive and cute Meg Ryan for a wife/life partner.
Technique:
The subject has been handled in a very light manner, which suits the target audience of the film, which is the college going crowd. The film has a very glossy feel to it. The cinematography by Amit Roy is a let down inspite of the awe-inspiring locales. Music by Anu Malik is pretty mundane except for the first few bars of every song. The pace of the film crawls at places due to the placing of the songs. The screenplay (Vinod Rangnath) is mostly racy, and situations are funny if not always credible. The dialogues (Kiran Kotrial) are great most of the time. Ahmed Khan's choreography is plainly a copy-paste job from most of his earlier ventures. Omung Kumar's sets deserve a special mention as they give a surrealistic candy-floss look for the movie. Ken Ghosh, the director/driver of this vehicle deftly handles the important scenes of the movie, without being overly melodramatic, though the situations offered ample scope for it.
Verdict:
A good movie. Seems like a breath of fresh air after seeing endless inane movies. Dont expect too much from it, and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Saw this movie day before yesterday.
Nice movie, though a little crass in some places.
Debutant director Ken Ghosh seems to have a big hangover from his music video days.
The college sets seem out of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Not that I am complaining.
Just waiting for the day when I would actually get to see a realistic college in a movie. Either the college sets are too drab, or too good to be true. Then there are movies where we dont get to see anything of the college besides their gardens and steps.
Well, coming back to Ishq Vishk... The movie has a gloss finish to it, with all the protagonists living in designer homes, straight out of an Interior Design mag, with a huge dose of Neon.
Everyone leads comfy lives, and the only tensions they have in life are about matters related to the heart. Not that I am complaining about that either. If I need to see real life, I dont need to go to the movies.
Cutting to the chase...
Synopsis:
This is the story of Rajiv Mathur/Archie (Shahid Kapur), Payal/Betty (Amrita Rao) and Alisha/Veronica (Shenaz Treasurywala).
A normal Archie, Betty and Veronica triangle, Archie realises the value of true love when he loses it.
Archie and Betty have been friends since childhood, and Betty has always been in love with Archie. Betty is a plain Jane, and is never Archie's 'type' of girl according to him. He always yearns for a girl who would make the others boys in college consider him a stud.
An incident in their life changes their relationship, when Archie tries to get Betty out with him for a group night out, when he wants to lose his virginity. He woos her, and fakes his feelings of love for her. When she gets to know his true feelings, she gets repulsed by him.
Archie later acts like a total ass when she tries to reconcile with him with the total support of the group.
He feels snubbed, and challenges the group that he will get the best girl of the college to be his girlfriend.
Enter Veronica; the undisputed heartthrob of the college as soon as she joins it. Not just Archie, but all the studs in the college can't keep their eyes off her.
Archie seeks the help of a college pseudo stud (Yash Tonk in a great role) to win the attention of Veronica. He succeeds in his ploy, but realises that he loves Betty after he sees his bosom buddy(Vishal Malhotra) with her.
Analysis:
The movie is realistic in the sense that it does not go into overly dramatic situations to explain Archie's change of heart. One can plainly identify a situation where a guy falls in love with an ex-object of his affections after seeing her with another person.
Not enough reason is given for him not liking Veronica. Sundry matter like her wearing short clothes is shown for an excuse.
This movie reaffirms the normal mentality of men for having a sexy kitten Sharon Stone for a girl friend, and a naive and cute Meg Ryan for a wife/life partner.
Technique:
The subject has been handled in a very light manner, which suits the target audience of the film, which is the college going crowd. The film has a very glossy feel to it. The cinematography by Amit Roy is a let down inspite of the awe-inspiring locales. Music by Anu Malik is pretty mundane except for the first few bars of every song. The pace of the film crawls at places due to the placing of the songs. The screenplay (Vinod Rangnath) is mostly racy, and situations are funny if not always credible. The dialogues (Kiran Kotrial) are great most of the time. Ahmed Khan's choreography is plainly a copy-paste job from most of his earlier ventures. Omung Kumar's sets deserve a special mention as they give a surrealistic candy-floss look for the movie. Ken Ghosh, the director/driver of this vehicle deftly handles the important scenes of the movie, without being overly melodramatic, though the situations offered ample scope for it.
Verdict:
A good movie. Seems like a breath of fresh air after seeing endless inane movies. Dont expect too much from it, and you will be pleasantly surprised.
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