Tag Archives: aishwarya rai
Trailer : Action Replayy
Cast : Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai
Director : Vipul Shah
When the movie was first announced there were reports that its a rehash of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. But the trailer reminds me of Back To The Future(1985). The only thing that generates my curiosity is the kind of time travel device used here. Its slated to release this Diwali and this probably is the next big release after Dabangg. I really don’t now what to expect from the movie.
Enthiran : Music Launch & First Reaction
It will soon be a week since Enthiran had its audio launch in Malaysia with much fanfare, but no one is talking about the music of the movie. I have been waiting for someone to post a review of the songs, but now I am tired of waiting. So here I am, bursting on all seams, to give my first reaction. Yes, its not a music review per se but just my reaction.
Like all Rahman albums, I had been waititng for this one too. And finally its out and its just about ok. The sounds are not new anymore, just a jaded effort from the maestro. The techno sounds, keyboard tunes and the robotic beeps are a little amateurish. The best song for me was Arima Arima sung beautifully by Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam. The song takes you back to Kappaleri Poyaachu song from Indian. It has a war/revolution like feel to it, with marching beats and Sadhna’s soothing voice while Hariharan takes the high notes with flair. The instrumentation is fantastic with the additional voices of Naresh and Benny adding that extra zing. I am sure this song will be the face of the movie promos as humanoids promise to be our future.
Another favourite song from this album is Kadhal Anukkal which has a very light feel to it. Wonderful strumming of the guitar and it starts with a lazy elegance, just like Rubaroo from RDB. Vijay Prakash lends the country feel to the song with the drag in the words and pronunciation to bring about the ‘lazy elegance’ that I was talking about. Sherya Ghoshal has done well too. Vijay manages to pull off the song , but fails to do what Naresh had doen to Rubaroo; partly because the mood here is a lot different from RDB. Anyways, be ready to hear lyrics with words like ‘newton’, ‘electron’, ‘proton’ and everything thats remotely related to science. Its all there and not just limited to robotics!
Talking about robotic beeps, Puthiya Manitha is a lacklustre song. There is a crooning effect in the entire song, probably to bring out the feeling of being surrounded by science and all the enigma that ensues robotics technology. This is the title song and also the first song in the album, and obviously it sings praises of a robot. SPB and Rahman have lent their voices to this rather weak song.
By the way, I have always wondered how Rahman decides which song he should lend his voice to. I mean, in every movie he has sung a song. But what’s the criteria for chosing the song? Is it the difficulty level, or the voice quality that he is looking for, or the right attitude to approach a song? His choices are so different, be it the Dil Se title track or the jazz based JTYJN title track or Beera etc.
Rahman takes to the mike again in Irumbile Oru Idhayam, rapped by Kash ‘n’ Krissy. This is another song that has techno beats all throughout with some inane rappings that sound like Dr.Jones. The rapping is really monotonous and no amount of techno beat saves the song. Of course, Rahman does justice to the song here, but its not all that groovy.
Javed Ali, another regular of Rahman, gets to sing the Kilimanjaro song which has some really strange musical pieces. It starts with African beats but sounds earthy in its feel. Lot of experimentation with the instruments and vocal chords; and of course the lyrics where Kilimanjaro has been rhymed with Mohenjodaro. And for once, Javed Ali brings some expression to a song. I have always felt that he sings a song flatly, without getting into it; as in Jashn-e-bahara in JA. Here, Chinmayee has added a much needed peppy-ness to the song, and that might’ve forced Javed to sing in a relaxed and jovial fashion. Whatever it was, as long as it entertains, I am good. The end result is a fun song; but it doesn’t stay with you for long. Actually, the whacky lyrics will refuse to get out of your head.
Here’s a revisit to theme tune of Patti Rap, that’s how the song Boom Boom Robo Da begins. Another of the techno songs in the album, with Tamil rap and various voices of Yogi, Keerthi etc. By the time you get to this song, you are completley exhausted with all the techno stuff and all the lyrics alluding to deep space, robotics, science and its wonders.
This could be one of the weaker albums of Rahman, I preferred Raavan to this. But no matter what, I will continue listening to it and doing the Chitti Dance until the movie releases on 3rd Sept.
This post was first published on PFC
Analyze This, Analyze That : Crystal And de Niro’s Comic Act
I am neither going to Analyze This nor Analyze That. Just pour my thoughts about these two movies that I saw back-to-back on Sunday evening. When AThis ended, I did have a smile on my face and was raring to watch AThat. But at the end of AThat, I was a lot disappointed. In fact, I felt that I should have kept AThat for another day and enjoyed the good humor of AThis; and ended my weekend on a happy note. Anyways, enough of this and that; lets get down to business.
Analyze This: I think most of us are already aware of the movie plot. But here’s a quick recap for the uninitiated. The movie is about a mafia Paul Vitti[Robert de Niro] who gets anxiety/panic attack and one of his henchman suggests that he meet-up with a shrink named Ben Sobel[Billy Crystal]. Ben asks a few insightful questions and brings relief to Vitti. The don is so impressed that he follows Ben all the way to Florida for another session, right in-between Ben’s wedding. His wedding-day is undone and Ben is exasperated by Vitti’s assertiveness. Nevertheless, he treats Vitti and reschedules his wedding. In the meantime he gets photographed by the CIA and they want Ben to report to them about Vitti’s moves. After a lot of fun, confusion and comic moments comes the climax where Vitti is ambushed and Ben takes a bullet shot to save Vitti. Ben lands in hospital and Vitti in jail.
The movie was really a fun watch. The beginning of the movie, where Ben is shown as a psychiatrist who is frustrated by his clients who come to him with their silly problems, sets the tone for the movie. The way Vitti keeps breaking into tears just cracked me up, was fantastic to see de Niro in such a humorous role. His timing was great, he matched upto Billy Crystal, that in itself was an achievement. And Billy was incredible in the movie. Whenever he made some logical conclusions based on the diagnosis and Vitti treats him as a genius, the distraught look on his face was evident. Lisa Kudrow, she was being herself, or as Phoebe of Friends. Not a single expression was new, all used up ones from her sitcom.
And yes, the Hindi remake of this was pathetic. Why do people take a nice movie filled with humor, and turn it into a horror show. The movie was titled Hum Kisise Kam Nahi, what a horrible title. Was it alluding to the ego clashes of the main leads – Aishwarya Rai, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan and Amitabh Bachchan? Or was it to do with the unspoken contest going on – who is making a bigger fool of themselves in this movie? The Ajay Devgan character was totally not required, they could have easily done it without him. They give all such crap roles to Bachchan and expect him to salvage the movie. He and Dutt were the only good thing in the movie. If you do get a chance to watch this movie, please do not; have mercy on yourself.
Analyze That: I am not going into the movie plot just yet. I felt the sequel of the movie was forced on the audience because of the success of AThis. The characters were casual in their approach, they probably had a freehand from the director. There were a few funny lines, but not good enough. The movie starts with Vitti in the jail and Ben in the memorial service of his father. Vitti starts losing his marbles and Ben gets the responsibility of keeping Vitti under his custody. Ben also gets Vitti into regular jobs like car dealership, jewellery store attendant and usher in a restaurant. He finally settles for a job as an advisor in a tv-series. He starts instructing the entire crew, dictating the script and dialogs. But all the time, Vitti is planning a heist. And FBI gets a whiff of this as lots of underworld gangsters start visiting the sets. The movie ends with gang-bang.
The movie was quite a laborious watch, it just trudged along. Billy was under-utilized and lots of sub-plots were silly like Ben’s son becoming Vitti’s chauffeur. The movie had no fixed plot, it just went from one forced humor to another. Harold Ramis, the director of both movies, has done his best. The script/screenplay has let him down. I did enjoy other okie-dokie comedy movies by Ramis, namely Bewitched and Multiplicity. The ease with which Ramis handled de Niro’s character was good. And with Billy Crystal on his side, he could not have gone wrong.
And lastly, I did sense that one of the subplots of Welcome was taken from this movie. The subplot of a gangster making a movie and dictating the cast and crew on the sets was totally inspired.
Billy Crystal has a terrific timing and he picks up the mannerisms of the character so well. I watched this mainly for him, and he was absolutely a treat to watch. I am waiting for Billy Crsyal’s next movie, Analyze That was his last screen appearance.
crazyrals 