Manu_Srinivasan Reviews

Darna Mana Hai (2003)

Good thriller

[27 July 2003]

"Darna Mana Hai" comes as a refreshing change in the genre of thrillers. It shows how a horror flick can thrill without being gross. There is little show of blood and gore and thrills the viewer with twists in the tale. Ram Gopal Varma proves himself again as a producer who dares to try something different in each of his movies. This is the second in this series of thrillers following "Bhoot". He has promised to follow this up with a sequel called "Darna Zaroori Hai"!

The film starts with a set of seven friends on their way to Goa when their car breaks down in a desolate part of a jungle. They take refuge in a shelter and to pass the time, start telling each other scary tales. As each one of them gets scared and returns to their car, they get killed. The friends get entangled in a tale of their own. Who the killer is and how the tale of tales ends makes up the rest of the story. The movie is fast paced and leaves the viewers breathless though the ending could have probably been made a bit differently.

Each of the stories stars a plethora of bollywood heroes and heroines. Raghuvir Yadav, Vivek Oberio, Saif Ali Khan, Sohail Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Nana Patekar are just a few of them. Boman Irani and Raghuvir Yadav excel in their roles. Nana Patekar is his usual emotionless self. Vivek Oberios is a star now, what with his apperance on screen setting off hooting and whistles in the theatre.

This novel idea of narration deserves appreciation. I would give it 7/10 for the novel concept and treatment.

Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003)

I want my money back!

[27 July 2003]

Please save mankind from these feel good movies. Isnt there a law against torture in the name of movie making? I understand that a commercial hindi movie must be taken with a pinch of salt but then isnt asking the viewer to actually swallow a barrel full asking for too much?

The movie starts with Prem (Hrithik Roshan) coming to "SunderNagar" where Kareena Kapoor stays with her parents. This Sundernagar is supposed to be some remote place in India but has a striking resemblance to Switzerland. There are lakes, snow capped mountains and Honda Cars. The Honda Cars are innocently number plated with a UP number plate. You can go water rafting, bungee jumping (From a chopper to boot) and deep sea diving here. The "village" railway station can put any in Europe to shame. God, please make me a villager in this village called Sundernagar. There are no problems whatsoever in this Paradise.

Kareena lives in a palace (which her father refers to as a "chota" ghar) with a computer generated parrot which reels off Hindi movie names. The director challenges the intellect of the viewer with asking us to believe this. There is a misunderstanding with everyone assuming that Hrithik is the owner of the estate. Kareena falls for him (Whoa isnt that a twist in the tale!) and a couple of meaning less songs later, Abhishek Bachchan appears as the real owner. The movie then drags on with sacrifices and a predictable end. Hrithik attempts to be this enthusiastic person with a zeal for life. He ends up overacting. Kareena is her usual loud self. Abhishek, thanks to the role comes out slightly better than the others.

I appeal to the government to bring out a law against making such utter crap.

Freaky Chakra (2003)

Good presentation, bad story line

[16 March 2003]

There has been an increase in movies falling in the genre of indian- English movies that are being made by young Indian directors who want to express their creativity through the medium of films. The making of such films bring a freshness to the indian movie scene. That said, some of them lack a strong storyline and this happens to be failing of this "Freaky Chakra" too. "Freaky Chakra" is the story of a lady (Deepti Naval) and the vicious circle of life that she leads. The story has a novel presentation style done by Ranvir Shorie where he introduces the characters one after another and talks to the audience from time to time. It is funny at times like where we see a character about to swallow bills and Ranvir butts in with " oops Typo :Pills, pills...not bills"! But thats about the only positive thing you can say about the movie. In trying to depict the "chakra", the director shows a few scenes repeatedly which gets to be boring and slows down the narration considerably. SPOILERS !!! Deepti Naval is an ex-doctor who stays alone in her flat after she fails to save her husband. She then gives up the profession of "saving lives" and takes up the job "decorating the dead". The movie shows how repetitive and

lonely her life is, how the entry of a young man brings color to her life and how she returns to her chakra of life. The characters lack depth and credibility. The movie is depressing at times where life is shown as predictable and lacking motive. Though the directors attempt at making a different kind of story is appreciated, he should have made an attempt to weave a stronger storyline

Road (I) (2002)

Off track

[6/10 · 2 October 2002]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Ram Gopal Varma, Vivek Oberio and a novel title : The combination promises a lot but fails to deliver.

The basic plot of a couple hitting the road and their adventures on the way is definitely a refreshing change from the typical hindi movie plot of boy-love-girl. However, the treatment of the plot is disappointing, to say the least.

The sudden breaking into a dream song barely 5 minutes into a movie is amusing. "Raste raste tujhe..." is the first song of the movie and seems to be Antara Malis first too. She dances like one possessed. She hardly looks interested in the hero and is more into trying to look cool. She ends up wearing the most outlandish outfits in this song and seems like she is trying to set right a sprain in her neck.

The viewers are treated to a visual feast when the car gets to Rajasthan, but that is short lived. Manoj Bajpai(as Babu) enters the scene and takes over as the hero of the movie. He is more convincing than either Antara(as Lakshmi) or Vivek (as Arvind). He does a great job of irritating the couple in the car and looks scary when he gets Vivek off the car. But a comic sequence of events and a lost looking truck driver Inderpal (Makarand Deshpande) help in restoring the heroine back to the hero. Babu then nearly crushes the couple after beating up the truck driver and stealing the truck. But, the couple escape and are foolish enough to return to the spot to check if the drivers body is in the truck! What were you thinking Arvind? Yes, you would have found his dead body and then somebody else would have found yours. You left the gun with the maniac, remember?

One would think that a gun-totting mad man who almost killed them is enough to scare a couple back home. But no, they check into a road side hotel and decide to continue in their journey. The viewers are forced to watch another song which does no good to the story, but does relieve Antara of more clothes. Utterly needless song that decimates any tension that might have been built up.

The next encounter with Babu is most unbelievable. He is in their car and well, our couple dont realize it. So, he just pops out of the back seat! How very convenient! Cars dont have locks and a couple who just survived an attempt on their lives dont bother checking the car before they start back on the journey. Well, the director couldnt think of any other way Arvind would have let Babu back in the car. Arvind is again stranded on the deserted road. Only this time, you feel he deserves it!

Arvind contacts the cops and as usual they are more trouble than help. They suspect Arvind of having kidnapped Lakshmi and now the hero is on the run. Another song "Nikalle bhaiyye, sambhalle bhaiyye..." and the hero and Inderpal are after Babu. Meanwhile, Babu manages to stun the well-built watchman of a house and get in. Babus strong character is diluted when he starts falling for the heroine. He loses his callous look and acts like a clown. And more surprisingly, Lakshmi encourages him too! huh?! This guy just kidnapped you, lady! Lakshmi goes on to say that she would've chosen him over the hero if he met her in college! You can see that she was not joking! Babu dreams about the heroine and the last thing you want to see on screen is Manoj Bajpai trying to be romantic!

He fixes breakfast for the heroine the next morning and after killing a couple of more cops, they are on their way again. This is when you realize how incompetent hindi movie cops are. Two cops try to rush in through the same door and Babu casually shoots them both. The director didnt want to waste too much time in trying to make the encounter too realistic. You get the idea that cops were on the job, right?!

Then you think "Hey, where are they headed ?" But dont worry too much about that since Arvind gets a cops bike and races Babu on the desert. There is a very filmi fight between the two and the movie ends depicting the heroine as having less morals than the dreaded killer.

Whatever character Babu had was destroyed when he falls for the heroine, the heroine was never meant to have any character and Vivek was busy trying to get into some frames since Babu stole most of them! That about sums up the movie.

We expect more realism from Ram Gopal Varma than the mindless and unbelievable storyline of Road. When Ram Gopal Varma said that this movie had no message and was a movie he made purely only for entertainment, I hope he had remembered to add "Meaningful" before the word "entertainment".

Minority Report (2002)

The usual whodunit

[28 September 2002]

"Minority Report" is a science fiction story that deals with Premonition. It talks about a scenario in which the world can see crimes that are going to be committed and prevent them from happening.

Tom Cruise plays the chief of the "Pre-Crime" division which deals with tracking and preventing murders before they occur. The division takes the help of a scientifically mutated group of siblings who dream of murders that are going to happen in the future. But, can one be arrested for crimes that he or she has not yet committed? Is there a flaw in the fundamental assumption of "Pre-Crime"? These are some of the questions that "Minority Report" addresses. Tom Cruise himself gets caught in the web pre-crime when he sees himself murdering a man. Is this the truth or does the system have a flaw? The rest of the story deals with how he tries to extricate himself.

Steven Spielberg directs the movie in a commercial mould. He dilutes the storyline from what could have been a strong sci-fi to a whodunit. It has all the elements of a usual thriller : The suspicious looking guy whom the audience suspects from the first frame, the harmless man turning out to be not so harmless, exciting special effects and some futuristic gadgets including eye scanners and back pack jets. The movie could have been a great sci-fi if it did not suddenly become a framed-hero-on-the-run movie. Tom Cruise still looks like the Mission Impossible agent. I would give it not more than a 5/10.

Sholay (1975)

"Gone With The Wind" of India

[30 October 1999]

What "Gone With The Wind" is to HollyWood, Sholay is to Hindi Cinema: The pinnacle of success. This is one of the movies that will be without much doubt be the best Hindi movie of this millenium. This is not because of the money it made. As a matter of fact, some new movies have overtaken the box office collections of Sholay. However, it is the fact that this movie has captured the hearts of millions of Indians. It had all the ingredients that have now become the rules of making a movie in India: Action, romance, songs and tragedy. The movie had Amitabh Bachan as the serious hero along with the

Dharmender playing the comic/action lead. Hema Malini as the Tanga(Horse coach) driver made a mark with the movie. Sanjeev Kumar played the towering role of a man yearning for revenge. But Amjad Khan who played "Gabbar Singh" took the cake. Almost all his dialogues are known to every Indian true to his salt. The songs were huge hits and the song "Yeh Dosti" (This Friendship..) is one of the best songs about friendship. This is one of the movies anyone who wants to know anything about Indian Cinema should watch. And I assure you, you will not be disappointed.