I Hate Luv Storys : by Punit Malhotra

Expression Less Dim-Wit , Sonam Kapoor  

meets

Single Expression eye-brow raising Clown , Imran Khan

I Hate Karan

I Hate Sonam

I Hate Imran

I Hate Everything About 

IHLS

Period.

Rating : Holy Cow! , Are you serious!?

Little Miss Sunshine : by Jonathan & Valerie

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 comedy film starring lesser known ensemble of actors , with the screenplay as original it can be.

This film is basically a road movie , talking about the adventures of a family who are on their way to a children beauty pageant by the same name as the film.

The events during this journey in a Volkswagen Minibus , the family vehicle, makes the backdrop.

The characters in the family are superbly etched out and the actors play their part to the T.

Family Members :

1. The over-worked mother.
2. Her gay brother.
3. Her husband , a motivation guru.
4. Her mute son , who has vowed to not to speak until he becomes a Test Pilot.
5. The foul-mouthed , grandfather who is a WW-II veteran.
6. and the 7 year old , Olive , who has the confidence to win at the pageant.

It is a hilarious ride with the family encountering setbacks on the way , which crack the audience up big time.

Hysterical Moments:

1. The Family stops at a Cafe for dessert
2. The Volkswagen breaking down.
3. Police Officer interrogation
4. Hospital antics!
5. Side splitting beauty pageant climax

Indeed , the movie brings a smile to your face , with a sense of belongingness with the pedigree. 

No wonder , it won the Oscar for original screenplay and the best supporting actor for Alkin playing the grandfather.

Watch it for the madness of the Hoover Clan!

Rating : 3.5/5.0

Raajneeti : by Prakash Jha

 

Prakash Jha has been one of the finest exponents of hard-hitting cinema dealing with the fundamentalist issues surrounding us.

He has given us , Gangajal to Mrityudand to Aparahan , true eye-opener flicks.

This time he as compromised a little in going commercial yet the building blocks remain intact.

Rajneeti is a complete rehash of Godfather meets Mahabharata yet a political thriller never seen before.

 Why Rajneeti should not be missed ?

• Ranbir and Katrina doing off-beat non-popcorn stuff.

• In Rajneeti, Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) plays a role inspired by Lord Krishna who guides Ranbir Kapoor who plays a role derived from the legendary character of Arjuna, Veerendra (Manoj Bajpai) plays the evil Duryodhana and Ajay Devgan is Karna. All characters are well fleshed out and what makes Rajneeti interesting is the fact that all characters have grey shades.

• The screenplay in the first half is gripping to say the least & keeps the audience hooked.

•  Performances ar exemplary , Nana Patekar and Manoj Bajpai are stupendous , Ranbir  and Arjun are the surprise packags.

• Ajay Devgan expresses with the intensity he is known for and Katrina does play her part well. 

Negatives?

• Length of the movie is tad long and becomes very predictable in the second half.

• Music is just ok.

• Kansa - Kunti track has no heart , and becomes comical!

On the whole , Prakash Jha has given us a compelling film in recent time.

Go for it!!

Rating : 4.0/5.0

Raavan : by Mani Ratnam

Raavan brings back the quintessential Aishwarya , Abhishek , Mani Ratnam trio with a permanent AR Rahman stamp.....

Mani Ratnam has been one of the sought after director's of Indian Cinema , and has the up most respect as filmmaker through his visionary films like Roja , Bombay , Yuva to name a few...

Raavan seemed to be in flavour of Ratnam's style of complex human relationships with a backdrop of struggle , hardship , emotions and bonding.

This film has taken its elements from Indian Mythological Epic Ramayana with the Good vs Evil theme as the morality behind it.

Abhishek plays the title role , Beera  who is the most revered yet feared local hero in the village. 

His mission is to avenge the death of his sister , and he does that by kidnapping Ragini played by Aishwarya.

Ragini is wife of police inspector , Dev who had led an encounter to capture Beera in midst of his sister's wedding and eventually tortured her to death.

So the premises of the film is mainly how Dev rescues Ragini and the triumph of the Good over Evil.

There are many references to the Ramayana including the characters Hanuman played by Govinda who helps Dev reach his goal , or the indirect innuendo to Surpnakaha , Ravan's sister.

The film has nothing going for it at all in the initial half of the reel , the story is such a drag , that the cine goer will find himself in a spot whether to see through it or not ?!?

The performances of the character artists like Ravi Kishen and Govinda are far better than the main protagonists , Abhishek is neither spine-chilling nor eccentric.

Aishwarya has nothing much to do , but to screech and look good , Vikram does his part well.

AR Rahman's music fails for the first time to lift the film and is mediocre as compared to his benchmark.

Pluses :

Direction of Photography is par excellence , the natural beauty of the forest is captured magnificently.

Minues : 

Far too many .. 

Avoid it if you can , watch it strictly for the respect of a gr8 film-maker , who has goofed up!

Rating : 1.5 / 5.0

Kites : by Anurag Basu

 

Kites was pitted as the first bollywood cross-over film made for as per the sensibilities of the West.

Hrthik Roshan and Barbara Mori make one of the hottest screen pairs on Bollywood.

The plot was wafer thin ,with the story moving along like a tuk-tuk in the 1st half.

There is nothing much happening in the initial reels except Hrithik showing his dancing skills

which didn't make me go Oooh lala ...

 The latter half ,where the protagonist are on the run , had lot of masala action and stunts.

The film is too predictable and the climax will raise eyebrows.

Noteworthy is the director's sincere effort to keep the milieu in sync with the film's mood.

Anurag Basu has given us exceptional films like Gangster & Life in a Metro , Kites reaffirms that.

Hrithik enacts well and looks like a Greek God! , Barbara is gorgeous and compliments Hrithik.

Music is soulful from Rajesh Roshan in particular KK's rendition of Dil Kyun Yeh Mera.

So, What's the verdict ??

Gr8 Experiment , Wish it was without flaws!

Rating : 2.5/5.0

Karthik Calling Karthik : by Vijay Lalwani

 

Karthik Calling Karthik made me jump to a conclusion of an interesting plot.

Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone seemed to be an interesting pairing.

Fresh director and Foot-Tapping music from Shankar's den seemed interesting too.

Alas! Disappointingly Dis interesting ..

The film was cropper in terms of content and failed miserably in keeping the audience on tenterhooks.

Acting was above average from Farhan , I found him better in Rock On!

Deepika needs an acting course ,quick!

Script was a rehash of "Beautiful Mind" meets "I Know What You Did Last Summer" 

Soundtrack was the best part of the movie - "Uff Teri Ada" was rhythm divine!

Watch it for being different yet predictable!

Rating : 3.0/5.0