KARZZ : Misplaced blame.
Where ever you will read about the latest re-make movie Karzz, they all will be echoing the same voice in the same baritone, echoing Himesh bashing. “Himesh does not know how to act, why does he act, why can’t he dress well ……”, so on.
However are we not missing a point here?
Whenever any movie does well, irrespective of the actors it has, it is said that the director has done a commendable job and if a movie does poorly, the blame again goes to the director. So why on earth is everyone bashing the actor Himesh for the poor movie Karzz is. Why is no one talking about Satish Kaushik. Why this misplaced blame ??
No doubt, Himesh does not have any acting talent. However that is not the real low point for Karzz. I think it is a much more badly made movie that a badly acted movie. Satish Kaushik has attempted to do a humongous task of remaking Subash Ghai’s Karz and it is not an easy task to do. We know what happened to Ram Gopal Verma, when he tried to do the same with Sholay, that too when Ramu has a great track record as a director. Satish on the contrary has a handicap that he does not have any good movie to his name. 9 out of the 10 movies made by him were Flops, with the exception of “Teray Naam” which was a hit, but I am not sure can be categorized as a good movie.
So what actually is wrong with Karzz. First of all, Satish Kaushik is not sure whether we wants to treat the movie differently than the original one or wants to make a scene by scene copy. He starts with making a different movie, and remains like that for two thirds of the time and that is the biggest problem of Karzz. One cannot avoid making comparison with the original, however even if one does not do that, Karzz is a below average movie. There seems to be no flow between scenes. The dialogs are clichéd and come from the era of 80s. And like many 80s movie there seems to be no effort done in making a good script. There is no effort to build characters and you can hardly relate to any of them. Himesh as Ravi Verma seems to be so comfortable with his reincarnated self, you never see any emotions which depict his anxiety. His female lead Shweta Kumar is also so cool about it. She remains so expression less, when she gets to know about the reincarnation. Raj Babbar playing the character of Pinchoo Kapu and Danny playing the character of Pran from the original are reduced to nothing but comic caricatures. The only saving grace of all the actors is Urmilla, who has given a nice performance and carried her character with a lot of grace.
Somewhere in the middle of the second half, Satish kaushik seems to realize that he could no longer handle the “different” treatment of the movie and starts the scene by scene copy of the original. And this actually comes as a big relief since one starts relating and remembering the original classic where Rishi kapoor had done a great job of delivering those powerful dialogues in the climax. Satish Kaushik however loses the track of his own script and fails to make a link between the “different” part and the “copied” part of the movie. For example, in the final climax scene between Himesh and Urmilla (after the Ek Hasina Thi song), Urmilla’s dialogs are the same as in the original but they are not coherent with the flow of re-make, where she already knows the reincarnation story.
And in between all this bad acting and bad direction, comes the ear piercing nasal renditions. Himesh is a very good music director. However we has been butchering his music by singing and now he is further butchering it by acting in them.
One thing is clear, Satisk Kaushik cannot make a good movie. He has no control on the flow of the movie. He does not understand the need of a good and a meaningful script and has no idea of what it means to build characters.
All in all, Karzz is a very "rich" poor movie, since the production quality is world class and the locales are exotic but in terms of contents, it has literally nothing.
Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
MOVIE REVIEW : Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap
REVIEW OF "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" : ( * * * 1/2*)
This one got published in FilmFare Aug Issue, as the 2nd best entry !
I am really not able to figure out what do the Rajeev Masands and the Nikhit Kazmis expect out of movies.
After listening/reading to their reviews about "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", i decided not to watch it. However next weekend, not really knowing what to do, i decided to make the plunge and watch "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", and to my sheer disbelief, i could not help appreciating the movie.
As a summary, "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is very smooth, refreshing movie. The humor is subtle and not in your face kind of humor we are exposed to these days. Very nice characterization of most of the people, including that of Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and also Akshay Khanna. A very breezy script and no where close to being melodramatic even when some drama is introduced in the movie towards the 2nd half, showing the emotive sides of the father-son relationship.
The biggest treat from "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is Genelia D'Souza. She bring a lot of energy and positive feel to the movie. Her happy go lucky picturization of the character really leaves you with a warm heart. She looks so natural and her character of friend-girl friend of Akshay looks very real.
At the end, a nice movie, which keep you engrossed most of the time, make you smile and makes you feel happy and warm. Kudos to Priyadarshan for returning to the kind of cinemas we were used to attaching him to and reminds you of his 1992 movie Muskurahat (Revthi and Amrish Puri).
What more do our critics expect from movies. I agree, it is not a mind blowing flick which deserves 5 stars ..... but at the same time, it is not a dead movie as these critics would want you to believe. It is nice, clean movie, which one should watch to have some good time.
Ameet Mattoo.
NEW DELHI
This one got published in FilmFare Aug Issue, as the 2nd best entry !
I am really not able to figure out what do the Rajeev Masands and the Nikhit Kazmis expect out of movies.
After listening/reading to their reviews about "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", i decided not to watch it. However next weekend, not really knowing what to do, i decided to make the plunge and watch "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", and to my sheer disbelief, i could not help appreciating the movie.
As a summary, "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is very smooth, refreshing movie. The humor is subtle and not in your face kind of humor we are exposed to these days. Very nice characterization of most of the people, including that of Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and also Akshay Khanna. A very breezy script and no where close to being melodramatic even when some drama is introduced in the movie towards the 2nd half, showing the emotive sides of the father-son relationship.
The biggest treat from "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is Genelia D'Souza. She bring a lot of energy and positive feel to the movie. Her happy go lucky picturization of the character really leaves you with a warm heart. She looks so natural and her character of friend-girl friend of Akshay looks very real.
At the end, a nice movie, which keep you engrossed most of the time, make you smile and makes you feel happy and warm. Kudos to Priyadarshan for returning to the kind of cinemas we were used to attaching him to and reminds you of his 1992 movie Muskurahat (Revthi and Amrish Puri).
What more do our critics expect from movies. I agree, it is not a mind blowing flick which deserves 5 stars ..... but at the same time, it is not a dead movie as these critics would want you to believe. It is nice, clean movie, which one should watch to have some good time.
Ameet Mattoo.
NEW DELHI
MOVIE REVIEW : ROCK ON
ROCK ON ..... ROCKS !
This one also got published in FilmFare (Oct Issue), as the 2nd best entry !
What makes ROCK-ON stand out is not just the original story line chosen by Abhishek Kapoor, but also the sensitivity with which Abhishek has handled the movie and the efforts that have been put in to build the characters. Closeness to reality, no melodrama, real situations and real relations, leaves the audience touched and feeling for the theme of the movie "Live Your Dreams" !
Farhan has done a mind blowing job in his debut as an Actor. Arjun Rampal, who earned rave reviews for his role in Om-Shanti-Om, has done a much better job as the sensitive lead guitarist. His subtle portrayal of a listening-husband of a nagging wife is truly remarkable. Purab and Luke have also essayed their roles very well. Prachi has a very fine debut playing the sweet wife of Farhan and has done justice to her role. Shabana Goswami after her performance in Naseerudin Shah's Yoon Hota tau kya hota, also leaves her mark playing the happy young designer girl aswell as a sad nagging fish-selling wife.
For a very small role as Farhan's girlfriend, Nicholette Bird has also done a good job.
The music of the movie is mind blowing, with Shankar Ehsaan and Loy giving us the first ROCK music from a bollywood film. Even Farhan, with his not too pleasing voice, does justice to the music. Surely the music of this film will be played in college concerts for many years to come. (Especially the "Saanp" song). After Dil Chahata Hai, knowing that these Lyrics come from Javeh Sahab, don't surprise us any more as he seems to have well understood what kind of lyrics such kind of music needs.
The scenes of the Rock Concerts are shot so well that they look like a real concert. The scene where Arjun joins the band in the last song and Farhan introduces him as the lead guitarist, leaves you with goose bumps. There are many such scenes in the movie which are subtle and leave you touched. For instance the scene when Prachi invites Purab and Luke to Farhan's birthday party, the uneasiness of Farhan is so well handled. Right after that Farhan is shown washing his hands in the wash basin, and his hand is shown trembling. It is a very small shot but tells Farhan'ss emotions so beautifully.
On a whole, Rock-On is a move which will act as a benchmark for all those new directors, who want to experiment with off-beat topics and how to treat them sensitively and with honesty.
Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi
This one also got published in FilmFare (Oct Issue), as the 2nd best entry !
What makes ROCK-ON stand out is not just the original story line chosen by Abhishek Kapoor, but also the sensitivity with which Abhishek has handled the movie and the efforts that have been put in to build the characters. Closeness to reality, no melodrama, real situations and real relations, leaves the audience touched and feeling for the theme of the movie "Live Your Dreams" !
Farhan has done a mind blowing job in his debut as an Actor. Arjun Rampal, who earned rave reviews for his role in Om-Shanti-Om, has done a much better job as the sensitive lead guitarist. His subtle portrayal of a listening-husband of a nagging wife is truly remarkable. Purab and Luke have also essayed their roles very well. Prachi has a very fine debut playing the sweet wife of Farhan and has done justice to her role. Shabana Goswami after her performance in Naseerudin Shah's Yoon Hota tau kya hota, also leaves her mark playing the happy young designer girl aswell as a sad nagging fish-selling wife.
For a very small role as Farhan's girlfriend, Nicholette Bird has also done a good job.
The music of the movie is mind blowing, with Shankar Ehsaan and Loy giving us the first ROCK music from a bollywood film. Even Farhan, with his not too pleasing voice, does justice to the music. Surely the music of this film will be played in college concerts for many years to come. (Especially the "Saanp" song). After Dil Chahata Hai, knowing that these Lyrics come from Javeh Sahab, don't surprise us any more as he seems to have well understood what kind of lyrics such kind of music needs.
The scenes of the Rock Concerts are shot so well that they look like a real concert. The scene where Arjun joins the band in the last song and Farhan introduces him as the lead guitarist, leaves you with goose bumps. There are many such scenes in the movie which are subtle and leave you touched. For instance the scene when Prachi invites Purab and Luke to Farhan's birthday party, the uneasiness of Farhan is so well handled. Right after that Farhan is shown washing his hands in the wash basin, and his hand is shown trembling. It is a very small shot but tells Farhan'ss emotions so beautifully.
On a whole, Rock-On is a move which will act as a benchmark for all those new directors, who want to experiment with off-beat topics and how to treat them sensitively and with honesty.
Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi
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