Unapologetic "Review" of Ra One..

I'm not a film critic or a reviewer, in fact I'm not remotely associated with cinema, except that I love watching movies (and I do watch a lot of them). Technically I have no credentials to write a "review" so let me just say, this is not a review..Just my thoughts on the hard-earned money wasted on a so-called Superhero movie named Ra One.

The only reason I was excited about watching Ra One was that it was nearly 6 months since I moved from India and I was dying to watch a Hindi movie in a theater but as luck would have it, the place I stay have no Cinemas playing Indian movies. So, when I saw the poster of Ra One in the nearby Cinema, I was justifiably ecstatic.

The reviews of Ra One were average to bad, with an occasional good review which didn't seem too convincing, but oh well. We decided on the 3D version over the normal version and armed with popcorn we entered the hall and was pleasantly surprised to find at least 10 other people there.(The entertaining Kung Fu Panda 2 had a total audience of 4 in the same cinema a few months ago, so this was encouraging)

I came out thoroughly disappointed.

Firstly, the disjointed story line shocked me, didn't anybody watch this movie before releasing it? There were so many glitches in the movie that even me, who is quite unobservant (not fit to be a detective as my husband delicately puts it) could point out more than a handful of issues.

The movie began in an unimpressive fashion with a loser computer programer (SRK) who is a south Indian (Pray why?) and speaks a few weird words that is passed off as Tamil. He has a beautiful wife (Kareena Kapoor) who is researching on galis based on men instead of women (as much as I have wondered why all Indian galis are woman centric, the whole idea of basing it on men is equally revolting. How about not using them? Too naive?). He has a brat for a kid who he needs to impress. The kid loves villains and wants a video game where the villain is stronger than the hero. (hmmm..)

Then of course, the father makes a video game where villain is strong. So strong that the villain can get out of the video game and come into the real world (What? Ok ok willful suspension of disbelief and all that, even if I agree this can happen in a movie..what about the rest). The rest of the story just gets worse. I really dont have the patience to write all that down.

The funny thing is the father dies (Which is not funny at all as he was the only likable character in the whole movie in spite of the pathetic characterisation.) and the son and wife grieves, but get over it before you can say oh!

Even worse is the fact that they replace the father with G one just as easily. So I wonder why the neighbours of their house in India were never informed of Shekar's death? So much so that they assume G one is Shekhar? How come no one in his company's branch in India knew that the employee had died? Even worse why had nobody gone to their office after Shekar died why was the poor chinese guy's body lying unattended for days together? Why oh why was there a coffin and ashes shown?

Also somebody tell me why there were so many obscenities thrown around and vulgarity shown for what is supposed to be a kids movie..everything from the mention of condoms by the kid to an appallingly short dress worn by the heroine with the camera focusing uncomfortably on the legs to the robot G one holding onto Kareena's umm...chest? Not to forget the cameo by Priyanka Chopra duly showing abundant cleavage and legs! (Though you must admit that the whole Sanjay Dutt as Khalnayak was hilarious ..Nayak Nahi Khalnayak hoon mein!)

Overall even great sequences, which the train sequence was to be honest is totally wasted as we are not interested in the movie by then, nor invested in the characters.

Arjun Rampal looks amazing but has no real role, he simply isn't menacing enough as the titular Ra One, I actually wondered why the Chinese guy who played Ra One initially didn't play the character through out as he was the most effective Ra One (Kareena being the least effective playing Ra One in a scene or two)

The whole climax was boring boring boring.

SRK is neither good as G one nor as Shekhar, though he does bring a certain sincerity into some corny lines that make it believable, he is at his worst here. (How I wish he'd take up roles like Kabir Khan in Chak De or Mohan Bhargav in Swades). Kareena Kapoor is wasted, completely and utterly, for a girl who is talented, I wonder what she is doing in movies like these.

Basically when I came out of the theater all I wanted to do was erase the bad memories of this supposed superhero movie!

Love aaj Kal

Tu hamesha correct baat boldethi hi jaanemann!!

So says Saif's character to Deepika's character in Love aaj kal...& lets just assume that's being said to me about this part ;)..

Its been a while since I saw the movie and now I think is the right time to write on it...
Lotta people loved the movie..(thats OBVIOUS..looking at the BO collections) .. Lotta people dint like the movie too (he he..strange how there are all kinds of people!) . I dont set store by the box office cos..well Kambakht Ishq is huge and it was a critical disaster..even reading the story gave me the creeps..leave alone see it! I do go by reviews though..LAK had some mind blowing reviews..some okay ones..I was totally confused on seeing the mind-blowing reviews actually, I dint quite get what they intended to say..Then, I saw the movie..n did I LOVE it or what!!

Lemme go into the fan-girly mode and go on and on about the movie...
It was a beautiful movie with so many layers, subtle sub-texts, some mind blowing scenes, great conversations, some amazing emotions, some great acting and some great lookers!! *wew..I said all that in one go!!*
High points *****
* The 2 parallel tracks..both culminating into similar ends
* Awesome Saif's changing emotions in various scenes...
The scene where Rishi Kapoor asks about Meera to Jai after the casual break-up n the way Saif's expression go from..all's
well to OMG whats happening to looking down right upset..
The shaadi scene where Deepika speaks to Saif and he finally goes..u always force me to do thinks I dint want to like going
shopping n stuff..Why dint u just tell me u wanted to get married then may be we could be married now?
The way older saif waits under the Balcony for a glimpse of Harleen ..the tea sequence..his happiness ..
The way he goes through a gamut of emotions from high to low in the course of a song
The way he realises its Meera when he is mugged
* Certain Deepika gems
Her Earth stopping smile
Her way of poking him
Her earnestness, practical yet sentimental nature.
That one scene where she checks herself out in the mirror..
The scene where she realises, talks to him on the phone and stops herself for his good...
Her drinking that black tea without sugar....
Oh the way she waits for him not knowing whether he'd return (well thats for the character Meera)
Tu hamesha hi correct baath bol dethi hai jaaneman!!

It had such a breezy feel to it.. Its the same old story, where the young hep hero (n heroine) are not believers in true love and forever together until they fall in love..n how!!!

There could be detractors mainly cos
* its old wine in a new bottle (but I saw what a rocking bottle and subtle variations in the wine and ..isnt old wine the best?)
* Married heroine ditched her husband (this may be a little too much for conventional thinking folks..but What the hell is she supposed to do, she made a mistake, she loves someone else..!)
* Slow pace..blah blah (I dint realise..so I cant say)

So why am I explaining on the negative points cos I just loved the movie and want to defend it whether right or wrong :))

To me this is how Love aaj kal is...just like Love aaj kal (the movie) ..

How I became a FAN ;)

Everything that happens in life deserves to be blogged. I for one, am always on the look out for topics to write. Well, thats not true, its more like, I always end up thinking about each event, issue or non-issue as a subject. Not very unlike the script-writers go about looking for stories.. (He..he..it is cool to compare myself to the script-writers. Of all the people related to the movie making business, I admire the SWs the most.) How on earth do they come up with such brilliant (ok, sometimes really mediocre) stuff. May be not just SWs, some times the dialogues,sometimes the lyrics it all impresses me. I am quite a fan of 'em...
I have been a "fan" of a lotta stuff in my life:)) My life is a big fan book..I'd never heard of the word (oh yeah, I had heard of ceiling fans;) until I was in the fifth standard. Or maybe, that's when the meaning of the word made any sense to me. It was when Bollywood actress Divya Bharathi died in a tragic manner, that I felt immense sadness. I hadn't seen her movies earlier, but when they showed her pics after she died and some interviews, I started raving on and on about how beautiful she was and how young she was to have met with such a fate. That's when my cousin told his sister, look's like she is a big fan of DB. I, who was playing around them stopped and wondered..was I a fan of hers? Not sure..she had my name though, so I did like her,,but a fan? maybe not.. none the less , I dint dispute it and made up my mind to be a big fan of somebody/something in the future. That I did fulfill that wow of mine in different ways , in different phases of life . But thats another story :) Some other time....!

Told u its random stuff

Well..I have written quite a few posts for this blog, but there's one slight problem..nah, not of the technical nature.. I just wrote them in my mind and now I can't seem to remember where I left them in the dump yard of my brain..!
Lemme just make a list of things I want to write about,,
Movies :), stars, books, music, friends, cricket, life, roads, traffic (uughh..the last 2 I'll keep for my serious blog..this is meant to be my FUN BLOG). Cheers!

No Reason to think

This is my random ramblings blog, where I can write whatever I feel like! No serious stuff (that's for the other blog!) So , here again any topic that I feel strongly about but is no reason to think will find a place here. Read on..!