India Studio

Sanjay Leela Bhansali needs to introspect his directorial skills. He thinks he is great but i thinl he seriosly needs introspection....In his movies more and more you find lot of effort on set design, costume ,lighting , choreography etc...that he forgets that the mark of a great director and movie is to bring life to a story....Guzaarish had very weak story to start off with as it was too unidimensional and lacked any insight, it was difficult to understand what was the message of the story and then inspite of the fact that the story was about a patient who is paraplegic and wants to die...at no point barring few (his interactions with his mother...where there were emotions....)emotions struck me as a viewer naturally and thats why i feel it lacked life.....The whole sequence of court scene at home was somehow looking foolish....Some of the characters especially Suhail Seth was looking like a joker especially when he was trying to be serios and cry...God knows why the great director p...

Watching the classics of hollywood is always a treat....This weekend was great as i got to watch two beautiful movies GRAN TORINO by Clint Eastwood & MEMENTO by Christopher Nolan. Both the directors have something in common and something very different. The commonality is the way they pace their movies both directors pace their movie really slowly and do it in a way that it builds on you as you continue to watch the movie. The difference probably lies in the choice of subjects....Clint Eastwood would deal with stories about human relationships whereas Christopher Nolan believes in stories that are intriguing, stories that will confuse and make you watch it again, climax that will leave you with many interpretations....But both are probably living legends and according to me one of the best directors world has ever seen..... Coming to my interpretation of the movies....GranTorino was a simple story of an old man who was lonely, afraid of himself and was just about carrying on till h...

Last weekend was quite eventful as i managed to watch 3 movies.... Inception was truly a delight to watch as the script is so complex that you wonder as you watch it , how did the writer write the script....the movie belongs to Christopher Nolan who is a master when it comes to making intriguing movies...No wonder movies like Dark Knight/Memento has come out of him.....however the movie would not have been complete if the writer/director 'Nolan's' visualisation would not have been captured so well by Wally Pfister and the entire special effects team....Overall inception is just an out and out intriguing movie that you would like to watch again and again and yet feel intrigued....in one word its a masterpiece of creativity and visualisation.... From Inception let me now jump to our indigenous creations....Peepli Live by Amir Khan and Aisha.... About Aisha i found it to be a sweet entertaining short story and pretty well made...The movie according to me was not a very hard mo...

We all know about director Shankar, the man of innovations. Now the director is all set with his big budget extravagance Endhiran (also spelt as Enthiran), which brings back the famous duo of Superstar Rajinikanth and director Shankar after their blockbuster Sivaji, The Boss. The movie will also see Aishwarya Rai paired opposite our superstar. The story of Endhiran as revealed so far: Innovative scientish Dr. Vaseegaran (Rajni), creates a robot (Rajni again) with artificial intelligence. After a point of time, the robot behaves more like a human and falls in love with Aishwarya Rai. Now comes the twist. The villains, who are aware of the power of this robot, acquires it to do evil activities. Knowing the consequences, Vaseegaran sets out on a mission to rescue the robot from evil hands. So will he succeed in his mission?

Udaan is yet another attempt to tell the story of a young boy who is restricted by his parent to do what he wants to do and how he finally breaks free and takes that step into unknown and gives himself a chance....The highlight of the movie is the way the director brings out the small town life feel and the absence of any background score...so its a very realistic depiction and that is very impressive.....Lets talk about the lowlights i felt the movie was too documentrish and story was not well written and also well characterized....i sensed a constant conflict where the writer on one hand wanted to show that the father had a heart but he wanted his children to look at things from his perspective on the other hand it wanted to highlight that the father didn't care about his children at all .... Overall i don't think 'Udaan' will connect well with audiences even to the younger lot (at least going by the spontaneous feedback of fellow young guys in the theatre) simply bco...

Udaan is yet another attempt to tell the story of a young boy who is restricted by his parent to do what he wants to do and how he finally breaks free and takes that step into unknown and gives himself a chance....The highlight of the movie is the way the director brings out the small town life feel and the absence of any background score...so its a very realistic depiction and that is very impressive.....Lets talk about the lowlights i felt the movie was too documentrish and story was not well written and also well characterized....i sensed a constant conflict where the writer on one hand wanted to show that the father had a heart but he wanted his children to look at things from his perspective on the other hand it wanted to highlight that the father didn't care about his children at all .... Overall i don't think 'Udaan' will connect well with audiences even to the younger lot (at least going by the spontaneous feedback of fellow young guys in the theatre) simply bco...

Udaan is yet another attempt to tell the story of a young boy who is restricted by his parent to do what he wants to do and how he finally breaks free and takes that step into unknown and gives himself a chance....The highlight of the movie is the way the director brings out the small town life feel and the absence of any background score...so its a very realistic depiction and that is very impressive.....Lets talk about the lowlights i felt the movie was too documentrish and story was not well written and also well characterized....i sensed a constant conflict where the writer on one hand wanted to show that the father had a heart but he wanted his children to look at things from his perspective on the other hand it wanted to highlight that the father didn't care about his children at all .... Overall i don't think 'Udaan' will connect well with audiences even to the younger lot (at least going by the spontaneous feedback of fellow young guys in the theatre) simply bco...

Marathi movies are making a big turnaround with some fabulous content coming out of the industry....'Gabricha Paus'(Damned Rain) is one such movie....Its a story about a farmer family in 'Vidharbha' caught in the vicious circle of 'Loan' & 'Rain'....Even in the past i have seen movies by the great 'Satyajit Ray' about the poor India (Pather Panchali) but a significant difference between that brand of cinema and this brand is the fact that somewhere 'Satyajit Ray's' brand of poor india was apologetic of that fact and that reflected in the 'Sad/Negative' tone/feel of his cinema....This is where 'Gabricha Paus' scores ....It is not a unidimensional apologetic translation of thoughts into story....Its a story about a family who knows that they are in the vicious circle and how they try to deal with it, the story has its moments of sadness but like in life it also had funny moments, romance in it...Thats where 'sati...

Cinema does not have a language barrier, u understand when u see movies like 'Harishchandrachi Factory'...Although the movie is in Marathi (unfortunately the CD did not have subtitles...just a suggestion...Regional movie CD's should always be released with subtitles it will only improve sales) it never worked as a barrier....The movie is uniquely made as it recreates in totality the time when dadasaheb phalke lived...u will never ever feel like that its a contemporary movie...i feel that is the high point of the movie...the performances too are immaculate both Nandu Madhav & Vibhawari Deshpande have given a lifetime performance...The director/writer establishes the whole story in such a way that at it looks like a fairytale journey by dadasaheb phalke...Its ironic that such a good movie hasn't been seen across the country due to lack of promotion...But for me its a movie worth keeping in my collections....a brilliant job by the entire crew and UTV... 'Invictus...

Finally i was able to watch the most successfull movie of the year till i.e. Rajneeti..The movie is good but nor great...Unlike other PJ's movies it comes with too many commercial cliches especially the whole 'Step Son Ajay Devgan' angle...In the 2nd half the movie transforms from an intense poitical drama to an action oriented revenge film...I think Prakash Jha could have made the movie more powerful by sticking the storyline strictly to Political Drama....One thing i noticed in the movie which i find unbelievable is the professionalism that was shown in the way meetings are conducted/data being analysed/Conference Room always has an AV running on the screen in the background....I wonder how far in UP/Bihar political parties are run professionally....Katrina Kaif got overpublicity compared to the role that she had in the movie...She hardly had any role...I do not why the entire crew was going gaga about 'Katrina's' eforts in the movie...when there wasn't an...

Given the fact that all movies are now on TV within few weeks of release gives us a sense that producers are looking for multiple revenue streams big time...(in fact i have heard some of them plays a role in releasing the pirated CD's as well..when they know it will not do well....)....Looking at the quality of movies being made now a days , big time fall in footfalls in Multiplexes due to much faster spread of 'Word of mouth'unlike a couple of years back (thanks to social networking)...it gives me an indication that somewhere the business model of 'Movies' are not working smoothly, which is forcing producers to release it on TV much sooner than required so that they can at least cash in on the idiot box which at least gives them greater assurance of 'Eyeballs' (as typically people do give all those movie a watch which they haven't seen in theatre's...bcoz for them its free of cost..)...While its good for the producers that they have TV to save them ...

While the Hindi 'Raavan' is getting very bad reviews, the Tamil version is getting better reviews especially the role essayed by Vikram as Veera is being compared to his best till date in movies like 'Sethu' & 'Pithamagan'....A question (i always thought of) that sparked in my mind is that did 'Mani Sir' actually compromised on his casting because he thought commercially taking Abhisek (who is definitely a poorer actor than Vikram) would provide his movie greater mileage in NEW (North/East/West)....Why is it that even great filmmakers like Maniratnam go for names than characters....Abhisek is a good actor but definitely not in the league where he can shed off all his image and just melt into a negative character like 'Raavan'....Actors in Bollywood are more names than real talent than actors in South and why only South even for that matter East (bengal)....Somehow actors in South & East do not bring their image to the roles and are able t...

Fair&Lovely 'Saaf Gorapan', Kellogs Cornflakes enhancing memory, Parle G making ur kid genius, Dettol households having less diseases aren't this really tall claims and creative magnification of a benefit that can only be substantiated in labs. Coming to think of it any business is complete when there is quid pro quo i.e. both parties are benefited from it but in many of these examples only the brands have been benefited specially brands like F&L which have got much much more what it has given... Is it more true for developing countries like India as here consumers are more susceptible to dreams than in the developed world Is branding a concept of capitalism and actually a farce....because some people wanted to make more money than others???

I am more and more realizing that in India the meaning of 'word' marketing is still very much limited to 'Advertising & Product Development'....Specially in categories like Durables/Paints/Automotive etc where it should mean much more .... Couple of months back i saw an interesting advertising of 'TVS Scooty with balancing wheels' for women who do not know how to drive? I liked the idea as my wife wants a scooty but can't drive.....So i went to the nearest TVS dealer in Panvel....When i enquired initially the salesmen said he had no idea and he referred me to another colleaugue...the other one said that particular model is not yet in...Please check after few days....Thinking may be Panvel is not priority dealer i went to a dealer in Vashi...he said that this is not a new model but an additional fitting and the fitting is not yet in....Please check after a couple of weeks....I checked after a week...The fitting was available....I said can i bring my wife ...

Sometimes flights are great specially Jet Airways...I think they have a great collection of movies...Yesterday managed to see two movies in the flight and got inspired by both, very different styles but extremely powerful pieces of creativity. 'Shob Choritro Kalponik' is directed by Rituporno...The movie deals with the relationship of a poet husband and his wife and how she explores their relationship post the sudden death of her husband...The story is taken forward beautfully through poems recited in the background....What i loved is the fact that how the director brings out the fact that how in daily lives we evaluate our relationships functionally based on rational aspects of life but its only after a person is gone we explore the emotional bond we had with them....Its very simple and may be said many times before but the way rituporno makes you experience this is brilliant...I don't know how the movie has fared commercially but i think as a piece of 'creative work...

Finally i managed to see both MNIK & KURBAAN which i somehow never got to watch at the multiplexes when they released....Let me start with KURBAAN Directed by Rensil and story by Karan....KURBAAN is an extremely stylish movie with a unique style of execution used where minimum background score is used..production values are awesome with decent music....but what it really lacked is good direction ....the actors were wasted and characterisations were poor....the movie lacked a soul terribly and hence not believable......vivek oberoi as usual was very bad (his sudden use of american accent was really funny).....Diya Mirza hardly had few scenese which too she couldn't manage well.... Coming to MNIK now, MNIK is definitely a movie made with lot of soul and great ambition...Shahrukh was outstanding throughout the movie, so did Zareena Wahab in her short role (dnt know why such talented actors get out of the industry so early)....The movie was excellent in the first half sticking to i...

Saw Hurt Locker & Precious a couple of weeks back....Am amazed why did Hurt Locker win so many Oscars as the movie is more of a documentary w/o much of a story but a good depiction of life of American Soldier fighting in Iraq...But definitely when u compare it with movies like Titanic/Gandhi/Ray/The Reader etc....Hurt locker by no means is an Oscar material...in fact Precious is a story with some brilliant performances and a touching story...Is it that Oscars are completely led by PR than actual content now a days as over the years we can see movies winning Oscars are content wise no comparison to movies which have won Oscars in the past....

LSD...love sex aur dhoka...while the name is intriguing and people, media expected it to be full of love, sex aur dhoka....or may i say full of sex....its actually does have some slang and a few scenes but they are not forced at all... the movie takes you through three seperate stories with links to each other and storytelling that starts from the end and ends with the start....so it s a rewind instead of forward...most interestingly each story has an end which surprises you especially the first one and the characters you ignore come to the fore in the next one....and therefore isn't predictable....inspite of being shot thru handycam the movie grips you with its pace....performances are natural...it makes you laugh and then suddenly calms(scares) u with its twists...it has its emotions w/o any dramatisation ....its shown exactly as it may happen in anybodies life....overall a good entertaining intelligent creative piece of work....highly recommended.....

Farhan Akhtar movies are always looked forward to as he is experimental yet sleek. KCK also did justice to the perception that farhan enjoys. While the reviews are not very good but i felt that it was quite a good attempt by Farhan although nothing in comparison to his earlier movies. If movies are about script, screenplay, editing, pace, production qualities and performances. It did justice in all departments than one i.e. Script. It could have been better had the movie would have been liitle more speedy as it comes out to be rather dark and slow and probably a viewer with a commercial bent of mind will not like it or recommend it but for people like me who likes experimentation would love it. I believe farhan's experimentation with scripts, execution is commendable and provided the standards he has set for himself this was not the best product but definitely still much better than the crap that comes out in general. Overall i guess may nt be a commercial success but will still ap...

Saw 'Up In The Air', with this have seen 3 of the many OScar nominations till date hv gt a long list to complete...Hvn't been able to see MNIK yet as the movie released late in Navi Mumbai and tkts were nt available whn i wtd them...same in Pune...Its a short sweet story of a guy who believed in being lonely and non committed and works in a company which deals with employee seperation...he is always in the air travelling places on work and giving speeches to people on why committments in life r nt good....however his beliefs are tested one day and thats when he understands the importance of family values....being an Indian and having seen many movies (some of them good) on family values...i found it to be a good watch but not really an oscar material....may be the movie may nt get many Oscars bt the fact tht it has been nominated for 6 oscars is wondering me...The only reason could be for the US/European audience (and also the jury) this is a novel idea and hence very good ...

Wanted to watch so many movies but couldn't catch up on any Striker/Road To Sangam/MNIK...But hectic travelling is not allowing me...So i decided to switch back to my best friend i.e. my DVD and saw a movie which is nominated for Oscars this year i.e. District 9.... U know every time i watch a movie i evaluate it frm the perspective how well it transports you to the world the movie is set it...Some movies do it extremely well and thats why u r engrossed...Sm movies go a step further that it lingers in ur mind even after u watch it...District 9 is one such movie...With a completely alien script about alien...Its a very difficult job to engross people but the way the movie has been made...the idea...the execution style and very uncanny realistic performances is what makes the movie quite a watch...nothing great in production values in terms of scale but the movie is a piece of creative imagination....i just loved it...In fact its more like a documentary than a movie but i guess this ...

When the Auto Companies across the World specially in Europe & USA are still trying to come to terms after the recession....a breath of good news came to them in the form of 'Few Brakes Problem In One of the Toyota Models'....Watch out BBC/CNN its being presented as one of headline news...The American & European policy makers/politicians are taking keen interest in the braking effect and showing extreme concern about the safety of their citizens who are driving Toyota....While by logic its completely fine...But what i sense that the matter has been blown over the head not only due to the problems that very few of Toyota models has come across but also because of a huge Internation Pressure that the european and american government has brought on table to highlight the issue and take some advantage by taking some shine of the proud Jap Car maker...Look at the way it has hurt Toyota they are talking abt calling back more than 2 million cars but what they must be worried a...

Well well i was so keen to watch Ishquiya that inspite of my daughter nt being too well i took a chance and went to see it on friday night 11pm show:) I must say i wasn't disappointed as its a delightful movie in terms of perforamnce, characterisation, setting and dialogues....the director, art director has done a marvellous job of bringing alive the real small town MP/UP and the script writer/dialogues writer in adding more reality by punching in some very interesting dialogues in colloqual langauge...on top of all these three main characters nasiruddin shah (the real badshah of acting in bollywood), arshad warsi and vidya balan have given some power packed performance...i am sure arshad & vidya will always be proud of this piece of work from them...however i feel where the movie disappointed me was its poor and ordinarily written script which could not compliment every thing else going right for the movie...so overall as u reach the climax u r left with a feeling..i wish the ...

Have not yet gathered the courage to watch Veer while i feel it might still be watchable...However did watch Sherlock Holmes...It was really a refreshing movie...which is well made, fast, funny and full of thrill and suspense... Honestly i had an image in my mind that Sherlock Holmes will be a serious charcter...bt here the characterisation of Holmes was witty, funny and complex bt not serious at all...the movies runs so fast and yet keeps u cnstntly thinking....the characters are well etched especially the character of Holmes and Robert Downey Jr. did a brilliant job...overall a very interesting movie to watch out....Do catch if u hvn't seen it yet...

By the previews of Veer the movie looks quite magnanimous in its look and feel. Its claimed that Salman is the writer/actor/producer and i guess partly director of the movie. Either this guy is very talented but doesn't look so or his father is helping him out but wants his son to claim the fame. I am finding it very hard to believe that Salman can write a script...not questioning his talent but his patience:)

these are some movies which may not be promoted very heavily due to low budgets but may be a worth a watch a. Striker - This is the comeback film for south hero 'Sidharth' after Rang De Basanti...Its based on a true life story of a malvani boy in Mumbai living in a society sarrounded by criminals but how he keeps himself away from him in the midst of all these...the movie is set in mumbai in 80's b. Road to Sangam - An interesting movie with actors like Paresh Raval & OmPuri in the lead...The movie is about a muslim mechanic who has got the job of repairing a Ford V8 engine....he doesn't know the significance of the car that it carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi to sangam....caught in the middle of a hindu muslim tension forced by political leaders (Om Puri/Pavan Malhotra) this poor mechanic is caught in the dilemma of whether to stick by his profession or his relgion...he doesn't hv a 3rd choice...

Papa Yash Chopra has lot of money and unfortunately his sons are not half as talented as he is. At least Aditya has got glimpeses of it but son Uday since childhood has been good for nothing....Most of the time he is chilling out, shaping his body in the gym....but sometimes when he really gets bored of the boredom of doing nothing...he tells 'papa' to make a movie for him......Childhood friend 'Jugal Hansraj' also like his friend was sitting at home and requested uday to let him direct the movie...Uday went to 'papa' and said that he wants to make a movie with dost jugal and they have a story too...all they want is money....'Papa' went thru the story and appreciated the brainless story a lot......He knew the story had nothing in it....But instead of disppointing uday he used his Baniya brain and convinced 'Priyanka' to play the role of a hottie in the movie....Since cost of the movie is not very high as actors and directors came free of cost oth...

The recent dish TV communication is pretty interesting. Every time i see it i am unable to comprehend what trigger is it leaving me to buy Dish TV...I understand that the logic the marketing team would give that the insight is that 'TV brings the family together'....Hence dish TV which has got something for everybody in the family.....The question is that had it been Coke or Pepsi where the category has nothing to establish as RTB and hence depends largely on 'Self Expressive Values' as the trigger and therefore brands are based on attitudes and insights with which the youth will connect...However thats the reality of the category bcoz its impulse purchase....But does the same logic works in a category like DTH where the monye spent is much higher than what u wld spend for connecting cable and therefore its important that a category insight is supported well by brand attributes.... Having said that i would also like to put across another POV which is that in a scenario ...

This is probably the first time when i did not enjoy Amir Khan in a movie...Not because he was not good in his role...But because he was to artificial in his acting....Amir who is known for his natural acting...someone who blends with a role....was rolling his eyes up and down right from the start because he had to enact that he was an extraordinary guy....that is definitely not the mark of a world class actor which he is...Anyways keeping aside Amir i believe the movie is extremely entertaining but lacks the class, the insight, high emotional connect, flow which Raju hirani's earlier movies had...especially some of the songs, scenes were too much of a stretch...especially the 'coming out of coma' sequence lacked believability.....the whole movie revolving around this wonder boy who is constantly giving great gyaan is good but not as touching and real as Munna Bhai was...After all in life not everybody knows whats his passion and not everybody succeeds in doing what he real...