Sunday, January 25, 2009

Raaz 2 Movie Review



By Taran Adarsh

Rating: ***1/2

The team behind Raaz - The Mystery Continues have often clarified that it’s not a sequel to RAAZ, one of the most interesting cinematic experiences, besides being the biggest Hit of that year. Yet, you cannot but draw parallels with the first film of the franchise.

Horror as a genre hasn’t been tapped to the optimum in India. We’ve witnessed spooky fares in the past and some of them have succeeded in making you break into a cold sweat (BHOOT stands tall in this list). Last year’s PHOONK and 1920 were scary movies as well.

There’s tremendous curiosity to watch Raaz - The Mystery Continues, but does it scare the living daylights out of you? Fortunately, yes!

The story (Mohit Suri) is absorbing and Mohit treats the subject like a veteran, as if he knows the genre very well. There’re moments that make your heart beat faster, you watch the events with eyes and jaws wide open.

Sure, there’re blemishes as well, but they don’t overpower the plusses or make you change your opinion about the film. While the beginning and the middle of the film is engrossing, it’s the end that could’ve been better thought of.

Wanna get scared? Wanna get goose pimples? Buy the ticket for Raaz - The Mystery Continues pronto. It lives up to the hype and expectations completely.

A brooding artist Prithvi (Emraan Hashmi) experiences mysterious and distressing visions about Nandita (Kangna Ranaut), a woman he has never met, while he paints on canvas. Intrigued by these visions, Prithvi tracks her down and warns her that these are not merely paintings of her, but accidents that are waiting to happen.

At first, Nandita refuses to believe him and dismisses him as an eccentric stalker. However, the striking resemblance between Prithvi’s paintings and the near-death incidents in her life is hard to ignore.

Now, one of Prithvi’s paintings has revealed her as dead. The only way she can change her fate is to unravel this mystery with his help, at the risk of alienating herself from her boyfriend, Yash (Adhyayan Suman). But he refuses to believe in Prithvi’s premonitions. Will Nandita risk her love and her life to unravel this mystery?

Most of us have heard, witnessed or perhaps had a first-hand experience of supernatural. The present-day generation may, perhaps, term it as wild imagination or hallucination, while the believers may have their point of view. Mohit and screenplay writer Shagufta Rafique’s characters in Raaz - The Mystery Continues are believers and non-believers, both.

Mohit smartly builds up the atmosphere. Sample these: Emraan and Kangna’s first encounter at a mall and minutes later, inside an elevator; the New Year bash when Kangna is ‘attacked’ by spirits; Kangna’s experience in her bathtub and also when she looks at the mirror; Kangna almost jumping off a cliff; the highpoint sequence, when angry bulls attack Emraan and Kangna. Incredible sequences all! Mohit has handled the most difficult portions with panache.

However, the entire flashback part, towards the pre-climax, is not as convincing. The ending too could’ve been better in terms of writing, although Mohit has filmed it exceptionally well.

Mohit’s choice of the subject as also the actors is right. This is, without doubt, his finest effort to date. Shagufta’s screenplay is watertight at most times. Like always, the Bhatts come up with a lilting musical score and at least two songs — ‘Soniyo’ (Raju Singh) and ‘Maahi’ (Sharib-Toshi) — are first-rate compositions. Ravi Walia’s cinematography is up to the mark. The effects are impressive.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Chandni Chowk To China movie review



Chandni Chowk To China, the first ever Bollywood Kungfu comedy takes you on a madcap Journey from the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk in Delhi, to Shanghai, the Great Wall and rural China, marrying in its wake hilarious gags, breathtaking action, spectacular locations and heart stirring emotions.
Movie Details
Genre: Comedy / Action
Language: Hindi
Release Status and date: Releasing on Jan 16, 2009
Cast:
Akshay Kumar - Siddhu Sharma Depika Padukone - Ms. TSM/Meow Mithun Chakraborty - Dada Ranvir Shorey - Chopstick Gordon Liu - Hojo

Upcoming Movie Review
Our protagonist Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) is the lowest on the totem pole, cutting vegetables at a roadside food stall in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts- with astrologers, tarot readers and fake fakirs - believing anything except himself, despite his father figure Dada’‘s (Mithun Chakraborty) best efforts. His redeeming moment arrives when two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and takes him to China. Sidhu now dreams of wine, women, and a princely existence in foreign lands. Thanks to the devious translator, a conman by the name Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey), little does he know that he is being taken to the Promised Land to rid the Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu)!


Therefore, Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick who instigates dreams of a delicious future and forgets to reveal the perils, which await him. Along the way, he meets Sakhi , Ms. Tele Shoppers Media (Ms. TSM) who has embarked on a journey to pay homage to the land of her birth and her dead father and twin. Initially, Sidhu through a series of lucky coincidences manages to sidestep being beaten by Hojo’‘s men but finally Hojo catches up with him and exposes him as the country buffoon that he really is. Sidhu has the fire of revenge in his belly and finds the one man who will make him a Kungfu expert and set the village free. Armed with his Sifu (master), faith in himself and the love of the fair Sakhi, Sidhu sets forth to conquer all!

When Jaya fell in love with Amitabh

When Jaya fell in love with Amitabh

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Jaya Bachchan vaguely remembers the first sight of her hubby Amitabh, ‘coz when designer combo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla ask her on their TV chat show, that if she fell in love at first sight with Amitabh, she replied with a “Maybe”!

She recounts her first meeting with hubby Amit and says,  “I first saw Amitji in an institute. I saw him, I liked him and I told my friends that you know he has got a personality. And they said what…he looks like a stick!”

“He was very thin and his face was full of his eyes. I remember I fought with my friends and said he is different.”

She also reveals the circumstances in which they got married, “We all, a group of friends, had decided that if ‘Zanjeer’ did well, we’ll all go for a holiday to London. And it did well. But Amitji’s parents objected and said that you can’t go for a holiday with a girl without being married to her.”

“Of course, he had told his parents that this is the girl that he wanted to marry. So, he said what’s the big deal, we’ll get married. We just decided. I was shooting in Calcutta and he called me and said that this is what happened. I said it’s okay with me. But you will have to ask my parents. He said okay I’ll call them and call you back. He spoke to my parents and my parents were like ‘ahem hmm mm ok’.”

She also feels that there is a difference being a daughter and a daughter-in-law,  I don’t know why but you feel you don’t need to respect your parents. You take your parents for granted. With your in-laws, you can’t do that and later on things change. Today, I feel more of a Bachchan than a Bhaduri (her maiden name),” she says.

Katrina Kaif meets minor accidents

Submitted by Bollywood Gossip on Tuesday, 6 January 2009


Bollywood Gossip : Accidents seem to have become a way of life for Katrina Kaif. Katrina badly injured her face while shooting for Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahaani at Madh Island recently.

A unit hand said, “It was an emotional scene. It so happened that Ranbir Kapoor was supposed to slap her in the scene. He missed the mark and ended up hurting Katrina. Santoshi asked her to take a day off to rest. But Katrina was back at work the next day.” After that, Katrina met with accident yet again and this time it was on the sets of De Dhana Dhan. A source close to the actress says, “Katrina was to shoot an underwater sequence for the film. But while doing that she badly injured her leg. It began bleeding profusely.”

When Katrina returned to shoot the next day the wound had not healed and began bleeding profusely once again. However, She managed to complete the shoot. We hope, she has an accident-free year ahead.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Katrina Kaif: A girl doesn’t look for six-packs in a man

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Katrina Kaif is dating the man who started the trend of six-packs in Bollywood industry - Salman Khan. She praises all actors today who are following his footsteps and have build great bodies. But she feels that when a woman falls in love its not the packs that she looks for but for kindness and charm.

She says, ‘’If I want to be politically correct I can say all our heroes have good bodies today. Everyone looks good because all of them work hard on their bodies. One of the first was Salman. And it is always tough to maintain a good body for so long. Akshay also has one of the finest lean and tough bodies. Aamir has developed a great physique. This is remarkable because it’s tougher to build such a body and maintain it after a certain age. But, frankly, what a girl looks for in a man are not his six-packs, his looks, or his age difference – it’s just his kindness and his charm that win women over.”

What do you think folks? Looks are not important in love?


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