The movie, of course, is not about that. Far from it, the movie is a fantastic political thriller. The protagonist, Ewan McGregor, agrees to ghost-write an autobiography of the ex-PM of UK. Adam Lang, the ex-PM played by Pierce Brosnan, is in the process of getting his autobiography published. But his manuscript needs some work to be done, to make it presentable and interesting.

Adam Lang did have a ghost-writer, Mike McAra, but he was found dead, one fine morning. Lang has led an interesting life and his political career has been marked by some very unusual decisions taken during office. And that’s what needs to be captured before people lose interest in him; and so the novel has to be out within 4 weeks. Its more of a financial gain that we are talking about. What gives McGreggor an edge is the fact that he is not politically active, so he can unravel a few facts about Lang whoch could interest the readers. Step-in, McGreggor, who agrees to ghost-write it in 4 weeks for an amount of 10 million dollars, not knowing that his predecessor was actually killed.

McGreggor reaches the secluded whereabouts of Langs residence, somewhere on east coast on USA, and is shown around by his beautiful secretary Amelia with whom Lang shares a special camaraderie of over 8 years. So, Ewan begins the homework by interviewing Lang and asking him about his passion and how he landed into politics. It was a well known fact that Lang was a Cambridge student and much intersted in dramatics. Then, how did politics happen to him!

These questions are too uncomfortable for Lang, as he does not want to discuss that. All he wants his ghost-writer to capture is Lang – the politician, and not Lang – the dramatist. Anyways, McGreggor’s curiosity gets the better of him. He starts snooping around the house and even tries to take the manuscript out of the tightly secured room so he can write in leisure.

But his efforts all go in vain. And as McGreggor finishes reading the manuscript, he realises that there is way too much work to be done in 4 weeks. And Lang’s mood swings and his strained relationship with his wife was not helping McGreggor. He was not sure why Lang and his wife, Ruth, could not get along with each other, but he was too scared to ask Lang.

He slowly gets to know Mrs.Lang, who makes him feel really comfortable. She is more of a reluctant speaker and less of an outgoing person. But what strikes McGreggor about her, is the insecurities that she faces. It almost seems like they are a normal couple where the wife complains about the hubby’s beautiful secretary always being by his side. And she isn’t getting much attention or the love and affection that she deserves.

Things start moving quickly as McGreggor moves into the room where his predecessor was put-up. And here he finds some very incriminating photographs and artifacts that paint a totally different picture of Lang. It becomes more important than ever, to disclose Lang’s past even as he is accused of siding with America on the handover of suspected terrorists to USA; while he was in office. The pressure from the human rights activists mount over Lang as they want him to be tried in the court for war crimes. Lang decides to fly across the Pacific to douse the fire.

This gives McGreggor the right opportunity to do some investigation/research. But he is caught in a spot of bother as he goes about his detection work and the timelines press on. Its a movie that keeps you on the edge of the seat as he takes the SUV to interview some of the people mentioned in Lang’s manuscript. He endangers his own life knowing very well that if and when the book is out, he would get no credit for it. Maybe a small footnote or a mention somewhere, but not the credit of co-writing it.

Any movie on politics is fraught with danger of getting too boring or too involved in people rather than events. But this movie is evenly balanced as it discusses people and events together. It takes us through Lang’s life without getting stuck on details or over-emphasizing on minor issues. The writers have done a wonderful job to keep the screenplay tight and the dialogues crisp. The movie does slow down a bit, in the middle portion, but soon picks up pace again.

The director of the movie, Roman Polanski, has handled the movie with very firm grip. He does not let it slip even for a moment. The emotional moments and the sobbing is not overdone, and the suspense is maintained throughout. We are always with the ghost-writer and never lose track of the purpose of the movie. Its to the director’s credit that he has extracted excellent performances from everyone.

Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGreggor are mature actors, nevertheless, they need to be told what is to be done. And that, they do very well. Brosnan’s outrage as well his romanticsim is very natural. Lang’s affection for his secretary and ignorance of his wife, comes across a fine character sketch of the man that Brosnan portrays. So, is Ewan’s fear of the unknown and his sense of urgency. We feel it for every moment, how his life is in danger.

The book does get published finally, but at what cost is to be seen. And wait to see how McGreggor is rewarded for his work. He leads an existence of no consequence, and the movie shows what happens when people try to unveil what’s behind the curtains. A ghost writer lives in anonymity, forever.

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

He has not only written as Christopher, but has also been able to dive deep into the psyche of a child and come up with unthinkable thoughts. How kids form mind maps so as not to forget people and places and how kids have limited amount of understanding (call it ‘data processing’) and when there is an overflow of information it gets nauseating (call it ‘system hang’). These are some of the things that is very well explained.

You can relate to the child instantly, as he starts writing down a book about how his
neighbour’s dog, Wellington, was found dead. Christopher loved the dog and he takes it upon himself to find out who killed it. Not for a single second does he think that the dog could have died accidently. And that’s because his thinking faculties provides the reasoning that it had to be a murder.

Haddon’s child-like approach towards many everyday things, like policemen, overcrowded places, people being too nice all of a sudden, are exceptional. Christopher’s fascination towards science and maths is very well justified by his knowledge of the subject and that he sits for A-level exams. So, nothing in the book is mentioned for the heck of it. Every mean has its end, and its not like the end justifies the means.

As we go along with Christopehr’s adventure of finding the killer of the dog, we soon realise that the dog is just a tool to take us through the various facets of Christopehr’s lonely childhood. It no longer remains about the dog, but his inner helpless self that worries the readers. When Christopher gets chatting with Mrs.Alexander or when he walks around the gardens of Mrs.Shear, we realise his innocence. But his innocence is not his undoing, its his inquisitiveness that keeps you interested.

Christopher’s running away from home, for a minute took me back to ‘Catcher In The Rye’. But it does not follow that path, thankfully. Unlike CITR, where the protagonist was lost and was out there searching for something he could identify with, Christopher’s struggle is more of a child who wants to be happy, but not without his grades and his parents.

The book is an extraordinary in more ways than one. It tells how and why kids are afraid to approach strangers or how they could consider their own parents to be a threat to their existence. It touches upon topics of life and death, marriage and separation, studies and playfulness; and despite all this the book doesn’t get childish for a single moment.

It had been really long since I read a book, so I did think that it would take me more than couple of sittings to finish the book. But clearly, I was wrong. I read the entire book in a single sitting of 3 hours. Its a book that’s not to be missed. And please don’t read it as a children’s fiction, read it with some seriousness because there is a lot of learning for parents in it too. As I earlier said, its about a child, written like a child but its not childish!

.         Scanner

.         Printer

.         Xerox Machine

 2.  I learnt to use 3 High End Software: -

.         Microsoft Word

.         Microsoft Excel

.         Microsoft PowerPoint

 3.  I learnt to use 3 great shot cuts:-

.         Ctrl+C

.         Ctrl+V

.         Ctrl+S

4.      I learnt to say three very important words for professional life:-

.         Yes sir

.         Ok sir

.         I’ll Just Do That sir

 5.  When I really wanted to quit, I learnt to: -

.         Wake Up early

.         Sleep late

.         Continue to Work

 6.  I learnt to: -

.         Face Monday

.         Fight For 5 Days

.         Wait For Friday

 7.  I learnt to give reasons to family frnds and relatives for not making

.         Phone Calls

.         Messages

.         Mails

 8.  I learnt to celebrate these things far away from loved ones:-

.         Birthday

.         New Year

.         Festivals

 9.  In last one year, People say:-

.         You Learnt…

.         You Earned…

.         You Enjoyed…

 10.  But when I compare me with my-past-self…

.         I just Sustained…

.         I just Tolerated…

.         I just Survived… for bucks

 11.  Few more

.         I never Demanded anything

.         I never Dreamed of anything

.         I never Developed anything

 12.  I have survived:-

.         For convenience of my Family…

.         To avoid blame of Society…

.         To get tag of Employment…

 13.  When I already knew that I have got the wrong train.

.         I learnt to Rejoice…

.         To be Happy…

.         To Smile…

I think I learnt to survive…

But this post is not about Mod or its maker, Kukunoor. Its about the changing face of indie cinema, which is independent no more. The economics of movie making has got the better of story telling, the good soul has been traded for a good body and the angst has been replaced by anxiety of seeing the movie do well in BO. Independent film makers are being lured by production houses, thereby killing the very concept of indie cinema.

I am not in favour of classifying movies as ‘movie for classes’ or ‘movie for masses’ or ‘indie cinema’ as such. But since the definitions already exists, I am merely using them. I believe that there is just two types of cinema – good and bad; and there are two types of budget for movie making – big budget and small budget. The purists have more classifications under budget types, as in micro-budget and low budget; but lets not get into that. The point is, a big budget movie is not always bad and a small budget movie is not always good.

Big budget movies rely on a tried and tested formulae, in most cases. Once in a while, we get a Lagaan. But more often than not, its the same run of the mill stuff. Since the makers are already aware of this, they get into the mode of hyper-marketing and big-bang advertising. This is just to take away our attention from the real stuff, so we can all go with the hype and hoopla. The next step for such mega budget movies is to flood the market with few thousand prints of the movie. The purpose of this is to make as many people watch the movie during the first weekend as possible. So, by the time the word gets out to people that the movie is crap, they would all have watched it already. You must have experienced it yourself. The moment you come out of a bad movie and make a few calls to your family and friends to warn them of the movie, the chances are that, they would be trying your number to warn you.

But lets not just abuse big budget movies. Small budget movies are going in the same direction. People like Kukunoor and Sagar Ballary etc, are backed by production houses and so the pressure to deliver a hit is on them too. They are forgetting that small budget movies cannot enjoy the luxury of few thousand prints and plush advertising. Marketing is important, but that needs to be backed by substance. Word of mouth publicity is the only form of good publicity that can draw the crowd. But if the movie lacks in story telling or has a bad story idea or not-good-enough writing or a combination of all these, then the movie is doomed to flop. In 2008, we had a flurry of good movies like Aamir, A Wednesday etc; but that spirit has quietly surrendered. Nishikant Kamath moved on to direct Force, and other makers too have gone their own way.

In the past, small budget movies have made money and indie cinema has done well. But in the name of small budget movies, what we get these days is nonsense. Movies that you can’t watch, songs that you can’t hum and stories that you can’t follow or relate to. A two minute ad concept being stretched into full fledged movie is not a good idea. A movie has to make money, that fact is understood. Else, the director (who in most cases happens to be the writer too), may not find another producer to finance his ideas. But in the process of finding a good financier, some compromises are made and the end result pleases nobody. The maker is not happy as he/she had to make alterations to meet the demands of the production house, the production house is not happy because they could not make money from the movie; and the audience is definitely not happy being a mute spectator to all this. The movie is soon pulled down from the theatres, and is replaced by an old movie (or a recent one) that may have done good business.

So, where does indie cinema go from here? I don’t know and I don’t have the answers, as I am not a movie maker myself, not even aspiring to be one. I am an avid movie watcher and commentator. I watch Ra.One and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, with the same enthusiasm as Mod and Jo Dooba So Paar. And all I keep hoping for is good cinema. Looks like, that is becoming a little too much to ask!

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

Kungfu Panda was one of the few movies that was worthy of a sequel. And the sequel was as good as, if not better than, the original. There was a definite story backed by a good narrative and fine dialogues. Even the comic quotient was very well done, it wasn’t forced into the story.
 
The story has a Harry Potter like prophecy, where a ‘warrior of black & white’ is supposed to end Shen’s rule. Shen, the peacock, was disbanded by his father for having evil aspirations. But he was not going to give up so easily. He took the path of destruction and anyone who would come in his way would be knocked off. Po, the dragon warrior, was out there protecting the valley from Shen. All was going well, when suddenly the flares and the fire around Po brought back old memories to me.

What was unfolding before my eyes was Zanjeer! I am not sure why this did not strike me while watching the movie first time around. I was a little surprised that both movies had so much in common.

A very long time ago, our beloved inspector Vijay was in the lookout for Teja to end his criminal activities. Teja was a cause of concern for the police and a threat to civillian life. Similarly, Shen’s ambitions were big and his actions went uncontrolled.

Po and Vijay, both, are haunted by a nightmare. A bad dream kept waking them up from sweet sleep to harsh awakening; and they kept fighting it off. Both these souls were searching for inner peace. As master Shifu says very early in the movie, some attain inner peace by meditating while others get it by going through pain in their hearts. They both had to come to terms with their past, the hard way.

Inner peace is something we all look for. Its the stimulus that helps us cope with vagaries of life. Unkept promises, unfulfilled dreams, unachieved targets and many such unresolved issues can take away our peace. So, inspite of the clear sky we are unable to see due to mist in our eyes and cloud-cover on our minds. And then there is a moment when all these things come back to bite us. That’s when we need inner peace the most.

Yes, it was a fiery night. The lights of Diwali and the surrounding fireworks had burnt the pages of Vijay’s childhood and left him an orphan. Similarly, Po was adopted by Zeng, the goose, when a night of fire and fury had left him homeless. Both burned in the same flame and carried the pain of separation.

Po and Vijay grew up to be brave fighters and big hearted protectors. When Po and Vijay were out there, fighting their enemy, both did not know that they also had a personal score to settle. But the audience did. Unbeknownst to them, they walked into the lion’s den and challeneged the king of the jungle. Po was ably helped by Famous Five and Khan was protecting Vijay. But in the moment of truth, it was just them against their adversary.

And in one sudden moment of flash, when they find replies to those unanswered questions and when all those mysteries become clear, they attain inner peace; just like that. Once that happens, they become unstoppable!

How much of Zanjeer did I see in Kungfu Panda-2? Apparently a lot! Not sure if you agree with me, but if someone were to remake Zanjeer sometime in the future, then this would be an ideal blue-print for it. In fact, this qualifies as a good enough remake for me. It neither tarnishes the original visuals of BigB nor makes me cringe; in fact I can happily have both in my movie collection without having to swear under my breath as we do after watching most remakes these days.

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

Watching this movie, and many other movies in the past, have been of such experience. The movie just goes on and on, like the games that I watch. It fails to entertain, its not meant to leave an impact, its not subject based; its just like passing the ball from one foot to another without scoring a goal.

The players are good, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor and the promising Anand Tiwari whom I last saw in Aisha. We have a newcomer Sita Spada and quite a few character actors who have played their part ok, but not good enough. The entire team seems uninspired and the slow story telling does not help at all.

The movie is set in Bihar, but it could have been set anywhere. We have a firang, Sita Spada, who wishes to visit Madhubani in Darbhanga, Bihar. The reason for the visit is to study the paintings from that region, as that is a subject of her research. But that’s such a lame excuse for a tourist visit because Sapna, the firang, does not even seem to know about Kali vanquishing a demon under her feet and she hasn’t seen the painting of Lord Shiva before. These things are supposed to be elementary, especially if you want us to believe that someone comes such a long way to do research!

Keshu, played by Anand Tiwari, is son of a truck driver. Some background info on Keshu now. He is rusticated from college because he helped his friends in an exam. The question paper was tough, but he did not help them copy answers. He did the next best thing, he just eased the tension by spreading laughing gas. Second worst use of NO2 in a movie, first worst being Housefull.

The moment Keshu sees Sapna, you know what’s going to happen; the flow of hormones triples in the body. The movie just drags along like a slow push cart, as you know where the cart is heading for. And that’s when two twists occur within a span of 10 minutes. I will tell you about the twist, as I believe that, the twist may push you  into wathcing the movie; else there is no reason. The push cart now wishes to fly like a jet, but not on wooden wheels please!

Firstly, just when Keshu thinks of proposing to Sapna, her boyfriend arrives. Keshu is heart-broken as he watches them smooch. But even before she gets to spend fun time with her boyfriend and even before Keshu starts sulking, Sapna gets kidnapped. The small scale industry in UP-Bihar kicks in, to grab their space on-screen !

What happens next is anybody’s guess, but how it happens, keeps you engaged. The last half of the movie is much better than the first half. With Vinay and Rajat in the starcast, I was hoping for some good comedy and maybe a revival of the ‘Bheja Fry’ times. But no! Vinay Pathak as a drunk hawaldaar who has not had a single permosion in his job, takes up the kidnapping case to redeem himself. And Rajat Kapoor as the ‘unfortunate’ DSP of the district isn’t very good either.

The dialogues are very pedestrian and the movie is predictable in most parts. The only credible bit was the dialect and the lingo; it was consistent and everyone spoke it well. But the biggest problem is with the story telling. The direction is a slack job! The movie could have been better, if they had avoided the cliches and if the writing had been a little better. But, I guess, jo dooba, so dooba.

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

About two decades ago, I was standing in a queue for movie tickets of a Shahrukh Khan and Divya Bharti starrer. It was their 2nd movie, after the blockbuster Deewana. And I was at Orient theatre in Calcutta, hoping that the tickets don’t sell-out before I get to the window. The movie was Dil Aashna Hai, first directorial venture of Hema Malini. But that did not matter at all, as I was there to see Divya and SRK.

The movie was a multi-starrer with Dimple Kapadia, Amrita Singh, Jeetendra, Mithun and Kabir Bedi. It was supposed to be a suspense drama wherein Divya Bharti, an adopted child who becomes a bar dancer, is out to find her real parents and the reason for abandoning her. SRK loves Divya, inspite of her profession, and wants to help her in this noble cause. This new purpose of life takes her to three doorsteps of rich wealthy couples who have a good standing in society. But will any of the high society couples disclose their past, and not just that, but also accept her as their daughter? That’s where the story meanders and becomes episodic in nature. Needless to say, the movie bombed at the BO. I felt cheated but I still remember the day.

So, after two decades, neither has Hema Malini learnt her lesson nor I. She is still walking around with the same story and to re-tell it once more, in the hope of finding a new audience who might be willing to appreciate it or even watch it. And I still end up becoming an audience for her movie.

As we get into the movie, TMOK, we quickly realize that the movie is a CLV for Esha Deol. You maye have heard of GSLV(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch vehicle) and PSLV (Polar SLV). So, this is a Career Launch Vehicle for her. Most star kids have just a single shot at the launch vehicle, but quite a few privileged ones have multiple shots at it. So, its kind of re-launch, but that would sound demeaning; so lets settle for “launch”.

The point is, she is in every frame of the movie; even when its not required. And she is doing everything, and that too in a good way and not goofing it up! So, she is a successful writer [a la Chetan Bhagat but in female disguise], a good camel racer (she wins the camel race in Rajasthan and dedicates it to the Girl Child), she is mind healer who also doubles up as a psychiatrist because the producer was running out of money since she spent too much on getting Rishi Kapoor and Vinod Khanna on board, and Esha also makes a don from Goa cry like a baby. Yes, she finally made Dharam paji cry on her failure to launch all by herself that she needed the entire family support.

I think they unnecessarily squeezed in Johnny Lever to play a comic side-kick who works in a municipality ward of a hospital that burnt down during the great fire of 1986. Unnecessary because the movie had a lot of unintentional laughs, but I guess no one had a good sense of humour to see that. Arjan Bajwa, a supposedly nice friend who helps Esha in the cause of finding her parents, has to bear with her and cross-dress and live in guest houses and carry a ring around, while Esha prances from one household to another. And if this was not enough, he had another side-kick; so a side-kick to a side-kick. That makes it double the kick for the audience!

Anyways, finally after 2.25 hours of pain and agony and suffering and small bursts of unintentional laughs, the audience is finally relieved when the end credit rolls. Not sure if people waited that long, so let me do a small social service and declare that Salman Khan was there in an item song when credit rolled. But tragically, that screen space was eaten up by Esha too. I warned you earlier, she was in every frame!

On hindsight, I think Hema Malini’s first attempt with DAH was much better than TMOK. I am not mocking now, duh! This has been an expensive mistake and not the best way to learn a small lesson. Hopefully, both of us, Hema and I, will not repeat this; ever again. Hopefully!

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

In the movie, Raunak Kaul is the insect which falls prey to the glamourous life of a successful DJ. Music is his calling as he joins Tango-Charlie nightclub and showcases his talent with remix of a sufi song Fakira which is his own creation. The success is followed by mucilage of drinks and babes and drugs; and he drowns in the pitfall as success goes to his head. And like a pithcer plant, the bad habits pull him in and refuses to release him.

As he goes down the path of drug abuse and trance music, his hearing power keeps reducing and it comes to a point that he turns deaf. The ENT specialist advises him to remain in an isolated environment and no deafening sound should reach the thin walls of his ears. Raunak has something which other insects don’t, that’s will power and self belief. Raunak’s will-power pushes him to lock himself in a room and insulate it with cushion. But the damage is already done.

Anyhow, he pulls himself together and his self belief sets him on a new journey. This phase of his life is about ablution, washing away the sins of his past. As he begins treading on this new path, to interact with the world again, he realises how badly he abused his sense organ. This is almost like the rebirth of the insect who is now aware of the viciousness of the pitcher plant.

The director, Neerav Ghosh, has a big vision of dealing with a different subject, although inspired. There are lots of references to Beethoven, the genius who composed music even after doing deaf. So, you can easily guess where the movie is going and what could be the conclusion. But the screenplay has been cleverly written; it keeps you engaged. It also gives you the feel of watching a documentary or a biography, as DJ Aqeel and Anurag  Kashyap speak about Raunak as being the next best thing to have happened to the music scene. But the movie is let down by some mediocre dialogues; the writing could have been better. Neerav has previously written ‘Mithya’ which wasn’t a bad first-attempt.

For a movie based on sounds and music, it was important that the soundtrack be good.  And Medieval Punditz deliver on this front. From the first scene where Raunak walks into the city, he is accompanied by varied background noises which is actually music to ears. There is sound all around us, and that’s emphasized very well. But the consistency was missing as the DJ act started breaking down soon after Fakira song.

‘What the eff is going on’ song is just a catchy phrase, not backed by a strong vocal or music arrangement. I was reminded of LSD, where the song ‘I can’t hold it any longer’  worked very well because of the attitude in the voice of Sneha Khanwilkar and the energy that she put in the song. The background score was ok, but the last song redeems the movie with ‘Chand  Rahein Ek Manzil’ Ho song.

The movie has a nice cameo by Soha Ali Khan, who is a nice refreshing change. And Mohan Kapoor has done a good job as well. But its Rajeev all the way. The last song, mentioned above, could well be the story of the main lead Rajeev Khandelwal who plays Raunak. He has been very choosy about his movies. He started his career with Aamir and followed it up with Shaitan; and now this. He is trying different things, and I wish him all the luck as I wait for Peter Gaya Kaam Se.

Do watch the movie if you get a chance.

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez

The movie had high production value, great starcast, not-so-bad story idea. But damn! gobi ke parathe had more prominence than Hrithik Roshan. The movie was just for TRP (Tina, Raj & Pooja) and their silly banters. I shall spare you the details because I would rather hope that you watch and suffer as I did.

Anyways, the idea of a identity mismatch, especially due to human design and not technical glitch, is an old one. So, Pooja interacts with Raj, using Tina’s email id while Raj presumes its Tina who is showering him with love, care and concern. Raj falls in love with Tina, without knowing that it’s Pooja who should be receiving his attention. It takes about 2.5 hrs and a Uday Chopra to get the entire confusion sorted out. So, that was Dosti  in 2002 when orkut was not in yet or may have been in nascent stages.

In 2011, Dosti mysteriously becomes Fraaandship! And believe me, there is no Punjabi character in the movie except for rockstar Rahul Sareen. Preity is besotted with Rahul and loves the idea of falling in love with him, after the rock concert that she attends.

On the other side of the fence is Vishal who loved Malvika’s peppy nature and the way she flambouyantly stepped on the stage with Rahul and shook a leg. Since Malvika would never fall for someone like him, Vishal uses Rahul’s FB account to send Malvika a friend request. Malvika, of course, thinks that Rahul is being a little too desperate and does not want to entertain that fraaandship request. But Preity accepts the request, behind her back.

Vishal and Preity get chatty and spend time online. This of course leads to a lot of confusion, especially when they ask each other out on behalf of their friends, makes for a fun watch. And the college cat fights are also entertaining. It shows us how youtube and FB has taken over the college lives and how fast and easy the communication has gotten. Vishal, in his monologue towards the end, says that people become friends at the speed of mbps and break-ups happen at the flash of a logout. So, movies based on college life show everything but attending classes. Students while away their time clinging on to their cellphones and hangout in the cafeteria. Its not a canteen anymore, and there are no teachers!

The only teaching staff that we ever see is Mita Vasisht, who puts the students on a project for preparation of 25th anniversary celebrations. That’s the only backbone to the entire story of the movie. The dialogue and screenplay keeps the movie together. And a running time of just over 90 minutes does help, especially in this ADD generation.

Vishal and Preity share a love-hate-love relationship, as they don’t seem too fond of each other in the college campus. But their assignment is quite interesting and brings them together. In the future, I am sure that quite a few colleges are going to copy this idea for their anniversary celebrations.

Now, how this Fraaandship compares to Dosti is very interesting. While in 2002, TRP behaved like they were in the 1960′s, in 2011 the kids behave like they are in 2011! That’s the biggest difference. The dialogues have been written very well and the direction is spot-on. Nupur has done what Kunal could not do; she has extracted a good performance from the actors. Rahul Sareen was no Hrithik, but he did look and act like a college boy who takes a girl out to a sports-bar! Preity was not trying to out-do Rani Mukherjee, but her vulnerability and frustration were played out well. Malvika was no Kareena, but she was beautiful in her own way. Tara D’souza was good even in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, will have to watch out for her. And Vishal was probably just being himself, funny and spiffy. I am sure all these actors will be seen in a movie soon, of course not in the same movie. But they all do have potential and will be cast by others too.

All in all, a nice watch; a very good timepass. I am impressed with Y-films and what Aditya Chopra is doing with it. His themes don’t change, the characters remain sane and predictable and yet the youthfulness shows through. I liked the way ‘Luv Ka The End’ was made; although it was a copy, it was done well. And now this. Y-Films is definitely able to feel the pulse of the audience and are giving them what they want. Sweet entertainers, youthful yet sensible, romantic yet not a tear-jerker, laughs and smiles yet not a no-brainer, old fashioned and yet in sync with times. Wish Fraaandship was spelt as Friendship, though!

This post was also published on MadAboutMoviez