Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles! Sorry Captain Haddock, I had to borrow your oft-repeated phrase used in exasperation, or was it a mild way of using an expletive!
Watching Ashutosh Gowariker's WHAT'S YOUR RAASHEE evokes an exclamation of this sort. You expect much more from the director who gave us that mammoth hit LAGAAN and followed it up with SWADES and JODHA AKBAR. WHAT'S YOUR RAASHEE, is nowhere near these three films in terms of content or execution. A simple, logical shift would have been in getting 12 different girls with different Sun Signs to enact what Gowariker is trying to characterize on screen. But what you get is 12 Priyanka Chopras donning the garb from Aries to Pisces. Nothing wrong with that. But 12 sun signs will have their 12 different and distinct characteristic traits apart from the physical attributes and Priyanka tries her best but ends up repeating herself. She begins well with the first two Sun Signs. However, I wonder which girl, apart from the Scorpio girl, who I believe was decently portrayed, will ever associate with any of the Raashee's depicted by Gowariker.
CHECK OUT: Ashutosh Gowariker is a genius
Run for cover, Gowariker!
The ones for whom this film will do a world of good though, is Priyanka Chopra and Harman Baweja. Priyanka gets to don 12 different characters to display her acting skills. As for Harman, this lad has finally shaken off his Hrithik ka bhoot and is actually looking good and has put up a decent performance. Their chemistry here is very different from their LOVE 2050 disaster.
Based on the Gujarati novel 'Kimball Ravenswood' by Madhu Rye, WHAT'S YOUR RAASHEE? is Ashutosh Gowariker's first romantic comedy. Yogesh Patel (Harman Baweja) is happily pursuing his studies and working in the Big Apple. A phone call about his dad's state of health has him rushing back to India. His brother, it appears, had taken huge loans. The only way out is to get Yogesh married. They stumble on this idea when the pundit who is called to predict whether Yogesh's brother will face a jail term ends up studying Yogesh's kundli. He states that if Yogesh gets married by the 20th of the month, there will be a flood of wealth in the household. Right enough, when he is delivering his prediction, Yogesh's mother gets a call from her father in Gujarat that he is 'willing' his entire property to his darling grandson, Yogesh. From here starts Yogesh's dilemma. To cut the long story short, he agrees after much persuasion, but on the condition that he gets to meet one girl from every Sun Sign
The premise is silly, the plot frivolous and the execution lacks direction. It appears as though Gowariker has let go of the reins and is not aware of what is happening. The movie breaks the three-hour barrier. Each Sun Sign lasts for over 12 minutes and is most often punctuated with a song. And in every 'meeting' Yogesh is always helping the girl, either to be a model, marry the one of her choice, or pursue her studies. One even follows him and another tries to seduce him in the first meeting! And these are all shudh Gujarati belles.
There are also too many sub-plots; the pundit who turns jaasoos, the sidekicks of the don and the Kampala to Khandala plot.
The music is a huge draw but is overused, the start is terrific; giving one a Broadway feel but then comes the downer...
It's easy to predict the fate of this flick at the Box Office!
Director : Anurag Singh Music : Pritam Chakraborty and Joshilay (Guest Composer)
Lyrics : Jaideep Sahni Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Poonam Dhillon, Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil, Rakhi Sawant, Sherlyn Chopra and Vrajesh Hirjee
I don't know why, but I get this feeling that this movie has been cleverly crafted and executed to herald Rani Mukherjee's second coming. Producer Aditya Chopra along with director Anurag Singh has made sure this is a Rani fare all the way and she gets most of the screen time. After all, it has been a long time Rani has been seen on screen. And to be fair to the actor, she has done a brilliant job. Showing the fire of old and a spark that still glows, Rani lights up the screen every time she comes on. Be it in the get-up as a male cricketer or as the village belle. She has enough and more scenes and dialogues to steam ahead in the numbers game. Others beware, the GHULAM girl is back with a bang.
There's no dum in the story. It's a remix of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Chak De, both Yash Raj films. There are also enough references to the other hits from their banner, as is customary in all their films.
Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee) is a cricketer who can hit six sixes in an over. Gary Sobers, Ravi Shastri and Yuvraj Singh be damned. She works in a local theatre group but dreams of donning the India colours. Her argument is simple; if Indira Gandhi could run the nation, Kiran Bedi tame prisoners in Tihar jail and Sunita Williams land on the moon, why cannot she play cricket for the Indian team. Good question!
So to make her dream come true she turns into Veer Pratap Singh, complete with a moustache and a beard to enter the selection trials for a local club. Here she runs into (Rohan) Shahid Kapur, who has specially come down from England to help his dad's team, which has been consistently losing, get the winning edge. Dad and Mom are not on talking terms. Seems like she wanted to settle in England and he in India. So son spends most time in England
Rohan selects Veer Pratap Singh blissfully unaware that he is a girl, falls in love with Veera, thinking she is Veer's sister, realizes his folly during the all-important match, asks her to sit out, and then, when they are nine wickets down and on the verge of losing the match to a Pakistan team, requests her to pad up. No prizes for guessing which team wins
Wanted: A tighter script. Wanted: Better editing. Wanted: A smooth flow of scenes. What you get instead is a 'leave-your-brains-behind' fare replete with frenzied plots, typical of Bollywood films of an era gone by, which cared two hoots about script or screenplay.
But Salman Khan fans need not fear, WANTED is all about the Khan. Here he is on a killing spree. One after the other, bad guys get bumped off, either to a bullet or to his fist. Last week BAABARR, did the killing, this week it is Radhe (Salman Khan) who works for moneybhai (meaning, he kills for money). And he kills with passionate glee!
There's also Gani bhai, Golden and Datta Pawle who do the killing. They are hardcore underworld characters who feed the cops and bleed the city. A bad cop is thrown in for good measure in the form of Inspector Talpade (Mahesh Manjrekar). Talpade decides which girl he wants to size up and does so in public! Of course there is also Ayesha Takia. Poor girl, she doesn't know if she is coming or going. I mean there are no links to her scenes and no meaning to her dialogues either. From a call centre where she works, she is either going to meet Radhe or to her aerobic classes. She has a kid brother who takes the 8pm local (empty). It is not clear whether he is going home or coming home!
There are songs, which bamboozle you just like the bullets and it is only in the last 10 minutes that there is some semblance of sense. One performance that will ease the pain is that of Prakash Raj who plays the international Don Gani Bhai. This guy is superb. Manjrekar, too, as the bad cop, steals the show.
As for the story, you are still trying to figure that one out even after the movie is over.
Only 3 question to director Vishal Pandya.
1) Is there no quality control check on the reels before the film is released? After all, one has to look into the finest details before the prints are released in the cinemas. Now this could be a fault of reels mixing up, or plain ignorance on the part of the director.
Let me explain:
Before the interval, when Anjali goes to meet Sanjay as they are about to run away from her husband to England, she is shown driving furiously in her car in the dead of night as she refuses to sign her house papers. She is shown coming out of a restaurant with Sanjay is in hot pursuit. She gets to a phone booth on the highway and screams "He has killed my husband." After the interval, it is business as usual between Anjali, her husband Rajeev and Sanjay, who lives with them as a paying guest. Confusing.
This same scene, where Anjali comes running out, this time from Leisure Club, is shown at the start. The next shot is of her and her husband in her home. Confusing.
I get a feeling; the director was trying to show the film in flashback and has fumbled with the point of contact. This is a grave error.
2) Why can't the couple get rid of Sanjay who is proving to be a pest by returning the deposit (rent of one-and-a-half years)?
3) And finally, why does not Anjali tell the police officer of the pesky paying guest in her house whose intentions have reached murderous proportions? Their car is involved in causing serious damage to public property and they shell out 8000 Pounds as fine!
This is very sad, because, though the film is a little slow in the first hour, as it is establishing the characters, it is a neat thriller, where the three main actors Aashish Chowdhry (Sanjay), Nausheen Ali Sardar (Anjali) and Akshay Kapoor (Rajeev) are involved in a game of Love, Lies and Betrayal. And though you guess the main villain in the beginning, the end is chilling.
Aashish Chowdhry is proving himself to be an actor of immense potential. This guy has it in him to thrill and chill. Nausheen is impressive in her debut.
This flick had the potential of being a 3-star thriller, but for the flashback goof-up.
Director Srinivas Bhashyam has tackled an interesting subject on 'commitment phobia' and 'lust over love', which plagues most of the youth of today. He has handled the subject with sensitivity, bringing to fore the many emotions and driving home a powerful point. Of course, the end is not what was expected; it's clich�d. A 'tadka' towards the conclusion would have made this LOVE KHICHDI, even more delicious.
All the same, he has managed his ensemble cast to perfection and extracted good performances from all of them. Vir (Randeep Hooda) is your typical hot-blooded 26-year-old from Chandigarh who is working as a chef in a five-star hotel in Mumbai. For him, life is all about discos and dating girls. His weapon is his English and his super-confidence in approaching any PYT. It's this journey of his in search of 'sex' that Bhashyam explores.
He has a friend who works with him, Sandhya Iyengar (Sada). Though just friends, for Sandhya, Vir is extra special. And even though she is aware of his escapades, her love for him is real. This love of hers is what changes the 'skirt chasing' Vir towards the end to tame him to domestic bliss.
While Vir thinks he is taking the girls for a ride, there are a few, who beat him to his game. Lost in lust, he is confused as to what he really wants.
Playing the modest Romeo, Randeep Hooda is a joy. From one relationship to another, he dishes out an interesting gamut of emotions. Be it with the girl besotted by him who lives in his building Deepti (Riya Sen); an NRI returned business woman Nafisa Khan (Kalpana Pandit); his landlord's wife Parminder Kaur (Divya Dutta), or Sharmistha Basu (Ritapurna Sengupta). From one woman to another, he displays the pain and pleasure of it all. This guy is one helluva natural and deserves his due.
Among the girls, it's Sada who steals the show. As the one who is silently in love with Vir, and as his constant companion witnessing all his romps, she demonstrates her hopelessness with a touch of boldness, which in turn has the desired effect on Vir.
Most scenes are sure to have an instant connect with the �youngsters' of today and I'm sure they will lap this Khichdi with glee. On the flip side, considering there is a khichdi of releases (six in all), it might be a little difficult
QUICK GUN MURUGUN enthralled us with his lingo and distinct dialect almost a decade ago when he entered our living rooms through MTV. He was a creation of Shashank Ghosh. ''Mind it'' and ''We are like this only'' became popular lines and are used even today. The man has now made it as a hero, thanks to his creator who is also the director of this film.
The movie traces almost 25 years in the life of QUICK GUN MURUGUN who is bumped off by Rice Plate Reddy, the baddie. Rice Plate Reddy is forcefully turning all the pure vegetarian restaurants into non-veg ones and Murugun 'is not liking it' one bit. He polishes off his cronies 'Phatak se', with the subtle use of his guns and nimble hands. The bullets find its target after ricocheting off various objects. Rice Plate Reddy is angry and finishes off Murugun with a bullet to his heart. Yamraj descends to take his soul and all the way to heaven Murugun says, ''I want to go back''. At the registration counter 'Up There', he manages to convince the 'Heavenly Clerk' to send him back. He does come back, 25-years-later, but not in Kerala. Murugun is dropped at Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Rice Plate Reddy has by now set up a chain of McDosas all over the city of Mumbai and is also going international. Murugun's search for him leads to a volley of explosions and countless dead bodies. Yes, Murugun finishes off Rice Plate Reddy. He came from heaven on a mission, you see!
At best, you can enjoy this flick, mainly in English, partly in Malayalam with a little bit of Hindi and a few English sub-titles, for over 15 minutes. Then it gets bothersome. It's like the joke has gone too far. The violence is gory and you don't even see a joke in it. If it was a television film, you would not have 'Mind It'! As a full length feature... well, 'They are like that only...''
