Harish Film views

This was published in Nxg - The Hindu Director: A.R.Murgadass Tale of redemption is not new to Indian viewers, but Murugadass strikes gold by flavouring the age old tale with the idea showcased marvelously in Memento. Sanjay (Aamir) a business tycoon takes the path of revenge after his lover is brutally murdered. With only the name Ghajni as a clue, how Sanjay, now suffering from short term memory loss avenges the dead of his dearest forms the crux of the movie. Ghajini which begins as a tale of revenge shifts to romantic comedy and finally ends in typical filmy style with Aamir removing the rod with which he was stabbed in his stomach, after killing the antagonist and walking alive. The balance between realism and fantasy is maintained nicely in the action sequences while Ravi Chandran with his measured lighting creates magic. Antony deserves credit for not letting the movie sag one bit. Except some sequences Rahman elevates the movie with his background score and soundtrack. A...

This was published in Nxg - The Hindu Director: Aditya Chopra Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka, Vinay Pathak Every film doesn't' have a great concept. It takes great screenplay and direction to make a flawed concept into a great movie. Rab ne bana di jodi(RNBDJ) does have an interesting concept, but poor screenplay plays spoil sport here. Story wise it is about Surinder(SRK) who wanting to make his wife Taani(Anuskha) be happy again comes in disguise as the fun loving Raj only to make her life more complicated. Whom she chooses (or God chooses) to be her lover forms the rest of the story. Aditya Chopra forgot the most important aspect of commercial film making while writing the script: the audience should not be let to think about the movie while watching it. It is accepted that Taani can't identify her husband in disguise the first time they meet, but even after days of being together with both the characters; her inability to identify the disguise is plain stup...

This was published in Nxg - The Hindu Director: Subash Ghai Cast: Salman, Anil, Katrina, Zayed From the time the title shows the name A.R.Rahman till the end where he makes a small appearance; its Rahman's film all way. He enchants us through out with his brilliant songs and impeccable background score. But sadly the film is only an assemblage of mesmerizing tunes with poorly conceived story backed by very bad screenplay and editing; mainly in the second half. It's accepted that Subash Ghai has tried a musical here but it's so over the top and clichéd with pointless scenes thrown in, making the film sink deep. Though the witty dialogues does make us laugh and forget the atrocities that is being screened; the film doesn't work on the whole. Story wise the film is about an arrogant Devan(Salman) and spoiled brat Shanu(Zayed) scheming to get their deceased father's fortune from their autistic music-genius brother Gyanesh played sincerely by Anil. Apart from ...

Mission accompolished! Published in Nxg - The Hindu Director: Gautham Gautham proves with this film that even with a poor screenplay you can make a lovable film if you are sincere in what you want to convey. Leave the fact that the film doesn't have a flow, leave the fact that emotions are conveyed through words rather than visuals and get ready to be swept off your feet by the examples set by daddy as to how a dad should be. Story-wise the film is basically the recollection of memories of Suriya, exploring various stages of his life, where his dad has helped him move ahead after he learns that his father has passed away. It is accepted that Suriya is only recollecting various incidents in his life, but while narrating, the seamless flow that is required is missing; result the film doesn't show anything more than what was shown in the trailer. It is disheartening to see the most important sequences in the film being handled amateurishly. Example- the k...

This was published in Nxg - The Hindu Director: Jugal Hansraj Roadside Romeo is a rich-rag-happy ending tale of Romeo (a dog) who finds a way to live in the gutter and in the process finds love in the form of Laila and wins her over the obstacle called Charlie anna. With Road side Romeo Yashraj has found a way to make money out of their poor scripts. Remove the dogs and make actors play the roles they voiced; then Roadside Romeo will end being damp squib. One wonders if Yashraj knows anything else than DDLJ, proving yet again Chak de! India was a flash out of the pan.  All said, yet this being an animation film all the clichés and nostalgic moments which we all have gotten bored of doesn't look that bad. Look for the scene that comes after Romeo does a Raj of DDLJ by lending his hand from train; intelligent script writing.  But is there anything original in this script? The director answers that too with the game the dogs play at night to wake the humans- clever agai...

 Go without expectations Director: Venkat Prabhu   Saroja, the second outing of the team of Chennai-28 is undoubtedly a very good attempt in Tamil cinema, but for a movie which promised to offer more than few smiles it falls short.   Half an hour into the movie and three songs up we can clearly judge the director's intentions: to not make a film which will stand the test of time for it near flawless and perfect script like his previous venture, but a film which covers all its flaws with the humor coated with it.   Story-wise the director took the script of 'Judgement night', mixed it with the concept of our very own 'Anjathey' and finally coated it with lots of nostalgia and humor, not to forget the 'home alone' style climax.   The graph of the film starts from negative and gradually attains great heights near the pre-climax, but falls badly after that. But Premji carries the whole movie on his shoulders to make us forget the negatives. Yet the director coul...

Director: Jeeva Jeeva seems to have done the same mistake which his bollywood counterparts are doing: making a sleaze and chic film by compromising the script. The film has an ages old storyline whose treatment which promises to be different at the beginning fails so badly that you wish they had made a typical Tamil film instead. Ravi, a doctor by profession leaves for Russia a fortnight before his wedding to attend a medical conference. By circumstance he is trapped there by the local police on the charges of murdering their commissioner's daughter. The rest of the story revolves around how the protagonist succeeds to clear his name.   Few comparison between typical tamil cinema and Dhaam dhoom; the hero instead of singing a dapankuthu sings a rap for his intro, instead of running around the local streets the hero WALKS in the streets of Russia while the police chases him in motorcycle and car. But don't worry its still is a tamil film, this they prove by making the hero fly i...

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu ,Katrina kaif, Sameera Reddy. On recommendation from a friend I went for this film. What should have been a great entertainer turned out to be nothing more than a typical bollywood film of the 70s. The film opens with Saif meeting with a car accident. Flashback: Saif is the owner of a horse race track. He is SHOWN as an intelligent person & loves adventure [!?!].His younger brother Akshay is a drunkard. There is a so called villain in the film. In one such race, Saif looses his bet because his rival had allegedly bribed Saif's horse rider to slow down. When Saif sees his rider getting money from his rival he plants a bomb on his car. The director being the clever person here, before you think 'why can't he plant the same on the rival's car?' silences you with a punch dialogue! The story takes a turn here as Saif meets with an accident.Cut. Present tense: Till now the film is shown as being narrated by ...