Dabboo Ratnani’s Calendar For 2011

 

 

stills from ‘rocket singh’

Working on the look of Rocket Singh[Ranbir Kapoor with Jaideep Sahni]

 

Wake Up Sid, Smell The Coffee!

So, what’s wrong with Sid? And why is he still asleep? Isn’t there anyone to tell him that morning has long gone and its almost afternoon. Being a night person does not really mean that people get up at dusk!

Ranbir Kapoor as Sid is the right choice. Youthful, exhuberant, curious, romantic, the guy next door etc. But where the screenplay has really gone wrong is in the first half.

A protagonist who insults his mother for no fault of hers, who has no respect for his dad’s hardwork can never win the sympathy of the audience. Sid manages to do that in the second half of the movie, but it was too late. It was a foregone conclusion that the script would take such a turn.

What’s baffling is the fact that we have a guy in his 20’s, who belongs to business family and does not aspire to get into business; let alone his dad’s business. What’s worse, he meets a girl who wants to go on a walk with him and he doesn’t get the idea of sleeping around with her. No kidding, he does not know about the birds and bees. His dad is a tycoon and we don’t see girls throwing themselves on him, not even in parties. What kind of retard screenwriting is this?

The director, Ayan Mukherjee,  knows where he wants to go but does not know how to get there. He uses a dozen of cliches and a bunch of cut-paste jobs from movies like Dil Chahta Hai etc, to fill the void in his movie.

One of the cliches being Rahul Khanna, who has been stereotyping himself and last seen in Love Aaj Kal in the same kinda scenes. And the other cliche being Konkona Sen Sharma as Aisha, what’s wrong with her? Isn’t she tired of playing ‘new girl in the city’. Pick any movie and you get that from her, Laga Chunri Mei Daag, Life In A Metro, Luck By Chance etc. She does well in the movie, giving her piece of mind to Sid and helping him in overcoming his oversleep-disorder. Only if his parents had done that… oh! then then we would not have the movie at all.

The director is unable to handle even the two friends that he created, Laxmi and Rishi. Somehow he kept forgetting both of them. And the moment he recalled them he canned a shot  and forget about them again, almost like memory-lag.

The one thing that Ayan has been able to do well was the ‘coming-of-age’ bit. The romance between Sid and Aisha was handled well, he explored the relationship and helped it blossom. Sid not only wakes up but also finds himself all grown up and mature, albeit a little late. The friendship turning into respect and then love was beautiful, the saving grace of the movie. I sincerely hope that he makes a better movie next time around and does not get carried away by the success of this one.

Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak as parents were awesome in the movie. Supriya especially was superb as the trying-to-speak-english mom. She emoted so much even without any dialogues, that was touching. Ranbir was awesome, this guy will go places. He acting is improving, it can be seen in the emotional scenes. He did better in this movie than waht he had done in Bachna Ae Haseeno.

Finally, the movie will do well because we have loads of Sids around us who will identify with the movie. Unfortunately, these Sids will go back home after the night show, oversleep the next morning and will continue to be dazed and confused.

 

Kaun Banega Mera Pati

Every young woman dreams of a perfect marriage. There is a right time in your life to get married, to become a wife and mother. I am a cultured Indian woman with good values and I have reached a stage where I need a companion with whom I can share my love, joy, sorrow and success with. For me that time has arrived. However I want to solemnize my marriage in the presence of all my fans who have been supportive throughout — Rakhi Sawant

No, this post is not on Rakhi Sawant. In fact, I wanted to write this from quite sometime but her new reality show Rakhi Ka Swayamvar pushed me into writing it without further delay. I was just twiddling my thumb and wondering about all those actresses who are still single and what’s going on in their mind/heart. While we see that the guys entering the industry are mostly committed/married, the girls are still out there looking/thinking/choosing etc.

When Aamir Khan, SRK, Sunil Shetty etc entered the industry, they were married already. Then guys like Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan etc also tied the know. In fact, right now except Salman from yester-years and Ranbir Kapoor from current generation are the only eligible bachelors. But just see this list of actresses and their ages mentioned [social faux pas, we can mention their weight but not their age] and you may wonder too, what are they waiting for!

Manisha Koirala – 38 yrs – Having made her debut in Saudagar, she had a great start to her career. But somewhere down the line she lost her way. She was briefly seen in Company, Lajja etc; but her last best work was a decade ago in Dil Se. She dated quite a few guys, but recently it has been reported that she is engaged to Christpin Conroy, the Australian ambassador to Nepal.

Nandana Sen – 41 yrs – D/o Amartya Sen – She made a late debut in movie industry and no one knows where he career is going. Firstly, I was shocked to know that she is in her early 40’s; I thought she was in mid 30’s. So, there you have it; 40+ and still single.

Tabu – 38 yrs – Her career had a late start, thanks to Prem getting delayed by 5 years. This child-artist who had acted alongside Dev Anand had to wait really long for her film debut. She finally made her mark with movies like Chandni Bar, Maqbool, Chini Kum etc. Yes, the chini is still kum in her life.

Urmila Matondkar – 35 yrs – Another child artist, first seen in Shashi Kapoor’s Kalyug and then in Masoom; she had a great time in the industry. With movies like Rangeela, Judaai, Kaun, Indian etc she had a nice run in BO; sh also earned critical acclaim for Pinjar and Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara. But off-late looks like her career is ending the same way it started, spate of flops.

Lisa Ray – 37 yrs – She never belonged here, although she did rise to fame with Afreen video and movies like Kasoor, Bollywood Hollywood and Water. Wonder who her supermodel hubby is gonna be!

Preity Zinta – 34 yrs – She is one brave woman, coming from army background and not back-tarcking on her statements in court, she has lived the life she has wanted to. She was really good in whatever she did, even IPL. She is in a long relationship with  Ness Wadia and she has never hidden that, hats off to her. But, we all are waiting for the official ceremony.

Nagma – 34 yrs – She tried her luck in Hindi movies, when it did not work out well she went down-South and created waves with Kadhalan, Love Birds etc. But she too lost her way, joined Art Of Living; she is still somewhere learning to live, living to learn.

Sushmita Sen – 33 yrs – One of the most out-spoken actresses and she started the trend of not hiding anything and being open to the world, whether it was the relationships she had with married men or the adoption of a girl-child whom she named Rene, meaning ressurrection. Wish she finds a nice guy and ressurrects her life.

Shilpa Shetty – 33 yrs – I have already written about here, click here. All I can say is that, its not over till the official ceremony is performed.

Rani Mukherjee – 31 yrs – She was a winner all the way, starting with KKHH. She did some fabulous work in Black, Saathiya etc, but now she is struggling with her last few movies not doing well. She also had to come clean on Adi Chopra when people/media suspected that she secretly married him. Hope she finds someone the way her cousin Kajol did, and settle down.

The list is quite long and it will get boring if I start listing out everybody. But I do think that there is a right time for everybody when they have to make a call. Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Meenakshi Shehsadri etc have done it in the past; retire gracefully or at least retreat and take some time off for themselves and concentrate on personal life. By the way, I am not getting judgemental or overly concerned about it. It was just a thought, so please do take it the right way.

Ths post was first published on PFC