Category Archives: Movies

AIB Knockout – A Toast to the Roast

Image January 30, 2015 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

AIB’s Knockout Roast!!! What a Roast and what a bold new step in Indian Comedy.

If you have still not seen the AIB’s Knockout Roast of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, then….. I guess, you must be lying. You don’t have to tell me or anyone else, okay. Don’t come out of the closet. It’s okay, like they said in the Roast, “Why are they talking in public, what we talk in parties”. 😛

AIB is a comedy group of Indian comedians, co founded by Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhatt, along with Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya. The event that has generated a lot of interest in them, and their group, is a Comedy Roasting event where AIB, along with Aditi Mittal, Abish Mathews, Raghuram and Rajeev Masand; roasted Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh.

It was special, because it was the first time that a no bounds roasting is done in an Indian comedy group, and that too with Roastee being a celebrity present there.

Roasting is like an insult comedy, where you trash your guest verbally by making fun of him/her in a best satirical way possible and the guest along with his well wishers present there, take all these insults in a good humor. If you want a more desi explanation – it’s more like in ladies sangeet of Indian Marriage where in some special songs, other party of marriage, is trashed in an abusive language.

Karan Johar was the perfect Roast Master and I would like to say, that he was at his best in the show. He was witty, with a perfect timing and, boy! He was sporty. Infact some of the best jokes were told on Karan’s expense. A big thumbs up for you, Karan.

What was interesting in all this was to see our female celebrities, like Deepika, Alia and Sonakshi, not only present there but also taking a lot of roast on themselves, in a very good way. Specially Deepika, seriously, thanks for taking one for the team. Alia baby, baby baby baby…. what were you doing there? Poor you! My bachcha…. beta, stay at home, these type of shows are for adults only.

Roasting was great, it was all in good fun, sometimes too offensive but when you compare it to Roasting comedy shows done internationally, it was not up to par with them. Where they lack was – content, few members trying too hard and off-course poor editing of the show.

Comedy Central’s Roasting shows are always a great fun to watch for. My favorite among them were those of Charlie Sheen and Joan Rivers. What made these shows fun was not the use of offensive language but the satire and witty one liners.

Content is the king. Some members like Tanmay, Khamba and Aditi were fresh in selecting their jokes and creative too. The best out of all the panel was Tanmay, who clearly is abundant in his talent too. Other comedians too were good but they became too much repetitive after some time. Most of the jokes look stale. Raghuram and Rajeev Masand were seriously not a good choice as the member of Roasting panel.

Specially Raghu was still on his Roadies set, and looked like he is trying too hard. He was stiff and abusive unnecessarily. Best rule of roast comedy is to roast someone in a way that as if you are toasting them. You don’t need to shout, as Raghu and Masand did, but infact you have to be satirical; which both lacked.

What did the most damage to the whole show, was its editing. It was like scrap of pieces joined together to make a comedy show. There was no continuity and flow. It was edited so much that it looked like the Roast of roasting panel than of the Roastees. Poor Rajeev Masand was highly edited, I don’t why, but it was like he said hi, and bye in a single shot.

To be honest, the Roastees, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh did a far better roast than the roasting panel. Arjun too, looked like he is trying hard to look cool with the whole idea, but he can’t look cool, not when he is in company of Ranveer Singh.

Ranveer stole the show. He was the best. Let it be his mimicry of Rajeev masand, or his take on Raghu’s abusive private life, he was The Best. Karan scored just next to him. For the rest, you need to up your game.

It was not the best, but it is big step for Indian Comedy indeed. Kudos to the whole AIB team for tackling this Elephant in the Room. 😛

Tuesday Talkies – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
It Takes Courage To Be Preity Zinta(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
#AIBKnockout Goes Viral: A Million Hits In 12 Hours(lighthouseinsights.in)
Does it make me a ‘bad person’ if I liked AIB Knockout? And other such existential questions.(itwofs.com)

Movies

Tuesday Talkies – Baby Movie

Image January 27, 2015 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

First of all, what the hell was that?

Seriously, what was that?

Was it a movie, or a documentary on 10 years of terrorism, along with how I want to kick these terrorists butt. Seriously, it felt like I was reading a newspaper first…. a long newspaper filled with all the terrorists activities…. and then I went to sleep thinking about how should we tackle it – just kill them all. Right??

‘Baby’ is an Indian action thriller movie, which stars Akshay Kumar and Danny Denzongpa in the lead role. Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher and Taapsee Pannu are also in the movie, but with hardly a 10 minute of screen space is just enough to put them in supporting actors category.

This film is directed by Neeraj Pandey, of ‘A Wednesday‘, and ‘Special 26‘, fame. Those movies were among my favorites and they were critically acclaimed and very well written movies. They were in fact so close to reality, as any Indian movie can. They were conceptualized in such a way that you never loose the grip of reality and still you are flowing in that imaginary world of movie.

‘Baby’, if judged from the standards of action thriller movies that Bollywood produce, is by far a better choice; but when you put it in comparison to Neeraj Pandey’s earlier two movies, it was just not up to the standard.

Let’s first dig into the story of Baby, before I start trashing it, again.

Baby, as the name suggest, surprisingly, has nothing to do with a baby, not of any age, any size any color or species. Not even any chick/girl is referred as baby, in this movie.

Baby is the name of mission that our Hero and his team is working on. It’s a covert mission of tracking the activities of terror groups and then terminating them for good. They uncover a plan of terrorists to do serial blasts in India and the chasing game begins with Akshay Kumar traveling through the world to different locations to terminate every radical involved in the plan; and eventually to fail the bomb blast plan.

Although this is a very hard-hitting film, made as an effort to display reality as possible, but there were many illogical sequences in the film which make you cringe with disappointment. The scene where a terrorist Bilaal (I hope I remember his name right, role is performed by Kay Kay Menon), escapes from police security in a car chase sequence. You just wonder where are these roads in Mumbai, without any traffic or living soul present. Leave Mumbai, and show any highway in India, which is that deserted. Or, just think of it, if police is moving a terrorist from one place to another would they be so foolish as to not laid out a road plan before covered with security personnel in every corner. Leave all the logic to Bollywood.

Another interesting scene, is that of Taapsee Pannu, where she mercilessly beat up our dear Sushant Singh, in a hotel room. Poor Sushant, your talent is wasted here. You are meant to deliver a power packed performance, not merely take blows. Coming to think of it, it actually felt good, that first time in an Indian action movie, hero was not the savior of heroine, she helped herself.

On a different note, this movie can be a lot better, in fact the best work of Neeraj, and Akshay, if one person would have done his job right – the Editor.

Editing is the main problem area of this movie. As in the scene described above of Taapsee, you are just waiting and waiting for them to reach their destination.

Worst editing is done in the climax scenes. You just wonder, if it’s going to move forward, or you can take a nap and come back to watch the hero cross airport corridor.

What was the most beautiful thing about this movie was – Chacha Maulana something….

Oh! he is so beautiful, chubby fellow, with eyelids the size of titanic, and eyes having fireballs in them. In one scene one servant is washing his feet softly, in another scene, chacha is kicking Akshay’s butt. Infact n this whole movie, our old chachu jaan is the only person, who has literally hurt Akshay hard.

You the man – Chachu Jaan.

Tuesday Talkies – Disney’s Khoobsurat(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
Frolic Friday – Sachin Tendulkar Knows You, Maria Sharapova(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
Akshay Kumar’s ‘Baby’ team ‘shocked’ over ban in Pakistan(pakistantoday.com.pk)
‘Baby’ tweet review: This Akshay Kumar movie is gripping(ibnlive.in.com)

Movies

Tuesday Talkies – The One I Love

Image January 6, 2015 jcisnowjs 1 Comment

Those filmmakers who say that there is a dearth of good and original stories, should watch the Movie, ‘The One I Love‘. On second thought, they shouldn’t; else they will copy this one too and make it into a joke.

“The One I Love”, directed by Charlie McDowell and starred by Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, and Ted Danson, is a drama movie with comedy in its background. It is a short budget film, with only three actors (Yes, only three), and a vacation compound consisting of two houses and a pool.

Spoilers Alert – There is no way to talk about this movie and not divulge its story, and believe me if you want to enjoy this movie, you should not have any slightest idea of what this movie is all about prior to watching it. So, if you are interested in watching this movie, do not read further, as it may change your watching experience.

“The One I love”, starts with two couples, Ethan and Sophie, continuing their therapist session to help their dull marriage. They feel that there is no more a spark in their married life and it just seems without any excitement. Their therapist acknowledge that there is no more any harmony between both of them, so he advised them to go on a small vacation to a secluded estate.

They started enjoying each others company the moment they stepped into their cottage and having fun. Till, their dry season ends and they had sex in guest cottage. Problem unfolds when Ethan declares that he didn’t even stepped in guest cottage last night. Who the hell did Sophie sleep with?

At first you think of it as, Ethan is still under Marijuana effect from last night, or, maybe it was just Sophie’s dream. Comes another twist, Ethan went to guest house where he met Sophie, who is just not the same Sophie, he left in his cottage. Is he dreaming? Or, is he under the influence of some drugs? Or, is there some ghostly presence?

Story unfolds and Ethan and Sophie realize that as a matter of fact there are two Ethan and two Sophie, one set of them lives in guest cottage and others are they. This point forward lets use real Ethan/Sophie and Fake Ethan/Sophie to distinguish between our actors and their doppelgangers.

As they step into their guest cottage, they see their fake spouse in his or her best behavior. Like when Ethan goes inside guest house he saw fake Sophie cooking him, his favorite breakfast of egg and bacon. She actually looked perfect homemaker wife like 50’s. Always ready to please his husband.

Whenever Sophie step into guest house, she met fake Ethan who do pushups, paints and also talk about emotions and feelings with her. She falls in love with this perfect husband, who seems to understand him more than her real husband.

At this point you will feel the underlying idea of this whole story. We are always looking for perfection in our loved ones. We are always looking for more. So more that we sometimes start loving a totally different person from the one we started to love. In this search for a perfect spouse, what we are losing is the real person behind that mask of perfection.

We want to have fake Ethan and fake Sophie in our lives but we forget that these fake ones are only fooling us into believing in something which is not real. Life is dull with a person, with whom you can not fight because you have no differences. Instead we always seek out the one, who is just like us. We are not ready to change ourselves yet we seek out the one who will change himself as per our needs.

Enough about this philosophy, lets return back to our movie. Now, this movie could have gone to somewhere else with this philosophical point, but instead it goes sci-fi way. I guess, director wanted to explain more of why this strange doppelganger things came into effect rather than focus on human psychology.

End is good, but whole second half looks too much compacted and forced. There is a great story lost in an science fiction novel fixation. Although you will enjoy the logic too along with the irony in it.

It’s a must watch if you are interested in something new and weird. Go Enjoy!!!

25 TV Dramas to Binge-Watch Right Now(stylecaster.com)
Excellent TV and Movies to Stream This Weekend(morningafter.gawker.com)
I have a Curious George Problem(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
I Don’t Like Childish Girls(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)

Movies

Tuesday Talkies – PK – Is it a Waste of Time?

Image December 23, 2014 jcisnowjs 1 Comment

Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Boman Irani; you mix all these ingredients in a recipe and its dish is going to be a sure shot hit. PK is that hit movie.

But, are you just expecting it to be a hit? Or, you were expecting fireworks from it?

Don’t know about you, but I was expecting Fireworks and I was let down a bit. Why? I will soon delve into that, but lets first go through the basics of this movie – PK.

PK is Indian Film Directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra along with Siddharth Roy Kapur and Hirani himself. This movie stars Aamir Khan in the lead role of PK; while Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani and Saurabh Shukla plays important part in this movie. Sanjay Dutt has also done a crucial cameo in this movie, but is completely wasted in this movie.

PK, played by Aamir Khan, is an alien who got stranded on Earth when someone stole his remote control device; his only way to call back his spaceship. PK then embarks on a hilarious journey of finding his remote. He goes to Police and every common man he can encounter, to get clues for finding remote, but only answer that he got was, “Only God can help you find it”.

Thus he decides to first find God and then he will take God’s help to find remote. Now,the big question is, Where is God? He went from Temples to Churches, from Mosques to Gurudwara, but to no avail. Until one day he accidentally bumps into a Baba’s aashram where he saw his remote projected as Shiva’s Manka/bead from Himalayas. Comes Anushka, who then plan a plot to help PK get his remote back from Baba, and in doing so they expose Baba and his claim of talking with God.

What works for the movie?

This movie is a full on entertainer. It will make you laugh, cry, question and will evoke so many emotions inside you. Hirani has chosen an apt way to use an alien to see our world from the perspective of an outsider. It gives an objectifying view of the whole spiritual corruption that is happening around us.

Aamir Khan is always flawless. He can be a student, or a magician or he could be an alien. whatever role you will give him; he will be that character to the hilt. Anushka and Sushant are the also in their best form. Anushka has looked confident in front of Aamir. Movie on a whole is good and watchable.

What does not work for the Movie?

One of the drawbacks of this movie is that it is following in the footsteps of ‘3 Idiots‘, and Munnabhai genre. It’s just not upto that standard. Reasons are many –

To start with, first half of the movie is tight and edited well. It is right on point in showing an objective picture of our religious differences and dogma attached to them. Comes second half and film loses its objectivity to an illogical emotional drama.

This movie sets a pace where at the end you are waiting for that big climax; where our protagonist PK will silent the Godman and his followers, once and for all, by his quick wit and logic. But alas, that climax was never there. Instead there was all this ‘Rona-Dhona’, India-Pakistan, Love Story, Baap Beti emotional drama and all.

That last scene could have made a lot of difference. It could have taken this film to a height where Hirani’s other films are, atleast. They could have written down an extraordinary debate where Godman could have shown to acknowledge his defeat.

Most absurd is the love story shown between Anushka and Sushant. Who in his right mind break up like that? You are left at the altar and you will not even ask why?? Infact, they were kind of shown living in together and the very next day they just left the country without even seeing each other. If I would have to leave a country, it would take me a week just to pack my stuff.

Some Hindu religious organizations/groups are protesting against this movie as it show Hinduism in bad light. To be fair, it does show each religion that way; but their main villain/protagonist being a Hindu Godman (only), does raises eyebrow. Hirani and Aamir for once could have taken a bold step and shown representative of every religious leader in the final debate. But again, the end is not at all what I would expect from this combo.

One more fact that is not highlighted about the movie is, that the character of PK was loosely based on ‘Abraham Kovoor‘, who was responsible for running a campaign against so called Frauds and Godman. His most popular target was ‘Sathya Sai Baba‘. Thus if you translate it into a film, you can relate to the Saurabh Shukla character more.

My suggestion to those who are protesting against this movie – Do not protest on social platform. You are only promoting this movie by doing so. Remember when it comes to films, every publicity is a good publicity.

Suggestion to viewers – Go watch the movie but do not expect sparks flying the way they it happened in ‘ 3 Idiots‘.

PS. I still couldn’t understand why Anushka Sharma have gone through duck lips for this movie. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Rajkumar Hirani: ‘Sanjay Dutt makes everyone happy’(digitalspy.co.uk)
Aamir Khan Hints of ‘PK’ Sequel; Will Ranbir Kapoor Play Lead alongside Mr.Perfectionist?(ibtimes.co.in)
Tuesday Talkies – Oculus(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
Frolic Friday : What to do when you have nothing to do?(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)

Movies

Tuesday Talkies – Oculus

Image December 16, 2014 jcisnowjs 3 Comments

“Journey is better than Destination”, this quote is apt for movie, Oculus.

Oculus is a critically acclaimed horror movie, directed by Mike Flanagan, who has also developed a short film before, based on the same concept.

Mike Flanagan directed a short film called “Oculus – chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan”, which became the underlying theme of this terrifying and brilliant horror film – Oculus.

Oculus stars Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites in the adult roles of siblings Kaylie and Tim respectively while Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan play as 12 and 10 year old Kaylie and Tim.

Kaylie is convinced that it was something supernatural in the antique mirror that their family had, which resulted in murder of her Father Alan, and Mother Marie, some 11 years back. While her brother, Tim, who has just recently came out of a psychiatric hospital, denies every involvement of supernatural in his parents death. Kaylie decides to take revenge of their parents death and devise a plan to kill the evil. Tim, reluctantly agrees to help her.

They go back to their old house along with the evil Mirror and try to shoot the footage of evil mirror in action. They also devise a plan to automate destruction of the Mirror, in case anything bad happens to them.

Tim who was initially not in favor of Kaylie superstitious belief, gave up, when he also start seeing tricks played by the mirror. Soon, both of their lives get intertwined with their past; their younger selves. Everything seems untrue, yet so true. They start living in past, seeing their father changing into something evil, and their mother losing her mind and ultimately everything.

This is the highest point of horror that this movie has provided. Oculus just messes with your mind. It was mirror who is playing all the tricks but it is the concept laid out by Mike Flanagan, which takes the drama to a new height. With past and present intertwined, you will feel like part of an unsolved puzzle, which is getting mysterious with every scene. You want to scream for the kids; you want to help young Kaylie; you want Tim to kill that evil mirror; you want to do so much with this movie.

And there is the big THUD!!!

Movie does nothing. It has the most plain climax that any horror movie can have. I was just disturbed by the way this marvelous movie get treated in the end. Oculus deserved a much better end. Sigh!!!

At the end it just looks like that director wanted to make prequels and sequels of this movie; that’s why he has left so many questions unanswered in this movie, as if they want to leave their audience hanging in middle. But, to say honestly, this doesn’t look like a good idea.

Oculus is now an unfinished business for me. I hope they try to do justice to Kaylie and her family; and would give a proper end to monstrous mirror in the sequel.