Akki da Tashan all the way: 2.5/5

Mumbai traffic can do this to you! Losing the first 5-10 mins of the movie...esp. the credits and the ads...

So I got into the theater missing out on the seetis of the first look of Kareena and Saif(no seeti for him obviously). Trying to understand what Jimmy(Saif) n Pooja(Kareena) are doing roaming around South Mumbai. Nicely captured although only for the first few reels. Then comes Anil Kapoor as bhaiyaaji(my childhood favorite) with a half Welcome half Betaaj Baadshah look along with 2 sambas (Manoj Pahwa and Apple Singh). Turns out Jimmy is supposed to teach Bhaiyaaji English in 3 months and he ends up fallng for Pooja who works for Bhaiyaaji.

Its another gang story...the evils along with Saif n kareena who are all grey shades.
A Race/Welcome hangover follows...alongwith nice comic bits n pieces with Bhaiiyaji doing a Deewar -Amitabh mandir scene in half English half bhojpuri... clearly one of the highlights of the film.

Soon its complete into Race with dupes and money swindles and Bhaiyaaji needs help to search for Pooja and the lost crores. Enters Bacchcan Pande (Akshay) with a bang..Literally...as Ravan and storms the scene. Next, its back to old days as Main Khilaadi to Anari and Kismet is enacted in a new setting altogether. Although only in bits n pieces here...but the camaraderie is there to enjoy.

Soon Bachan pande dominates the proceedings...His Kanpur ada... the kantaap, the bhaiyaa style is really enjoyable...so much that I didnt miss Kareena or Saif's presence. The proceedings are fast paced...moving from Mumbai to UP to Rajasthan through virgin Greece. Its an incredible India advertisement in the backdrop with the storyline steadying down from the twists to the mundane.

Comic elemnets are plenty: Saif's attempted rape of Kareena, Akshay's sharmaana or his daaru peene ka tashan, Akshay taking love tips from Guru Saif or his terrible matrix style handling of the police.

So, is there nothing to criticize about tashan?
Plenty:

The story: Slapstick comedies are not supposed to have one.
The flashback...the biggest downer...I felt I was watching a bhojpuri movie!
The climax: Too long and action too boring
The songs: Picturisation lft a lot to be desired.
The choreography: Cud surely have been better done. Dil Haara is a complete dissapointment there.

and to a certain extent Saif n Kareena. It is clearly Akki and Anil Kapoor all the way. Newcomer director has done well in bits n pieces.

This could go on to be a very good movie to watch on TV over the years, with some comedy scenes clearly worth watching. However, there is nothing than you take back home from this movie.

Took me more than the usual time to think of the stars...with a lot of comparision from previous posts to consider.

Atlee Rating: **1/2

Remakes and plagiarism the world over

Its my privelige to have a guest column on my blog. The author of this blog...
a very dear friend of mine since I started bunking my classes and someone who has hated my choice of movies (or SRK movies all this while).
Le me introduce you to my buddy


Sunny Panpalia


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Before I go on writing abt what's on my mind, I would like to let yall know that I am an avid movie fan. I love watching movies, especially those in other languages - Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Thai, Chinese, etc - and obviously in addition to those American and Hindi Movies. What I have observed is that all of these do have their inspirations/adaptations from which they base their movie. the Hollywood movies have their books , as a matter of fact almost all good Hollywood movies are adaptations from books - try me think of some English movies u really liked -



Godfather

Shawshank Redemption,
Silence of the lambs,
Exorcist, the latest 21

and the list goes on and on. Also a lot of Hollywood movies especially the horror are inspired from Asian movies. The Japanese adapt some of their movies from Manga which basically are Japanese cartoons with adult themes. The Hindi movies take their inspiration from Hollywood movies. basically I hate it when people tell me that Hindi movies are all copied from Hollywood blockbusters, all I have to tell them is look at ur movies, they are copied (if I could use that work) from bestsellers. so what is difference ?


The difference my friend is in Royalty, the amount of money you have to pay to the authors is you have to use their book and adapt them into a movie. But they can afford it , with budgets of over hundreds of millions of dollars, they can afford to come forth and say look I have adapted from a movie and since I have such a lot of money at my disposal I can make a great movie with great locations, spend on publicity, etc and have my movie win the Oscars. that brings us to the Hindi cinema. we adapt movies from the west,but we do not have the budget to pay royalties. hence what we do is to twist the movie just slightly and call them an inspiration. that brings us to "Shaurya" ...the movie made from "Few Good Men" in which by the way Jack Nicholson rocked ... and many such other movies who the Hindi movie critics would say have been shamelessly copied from Hollywood flicks. to come extent I do agree , they have been copied from Hollywood ... but I have a different outlook to this


Firstly, why do Hindi movie directors put in their own sidetrack and spoil the movie. plain and simple if you adapt a movie from Hollywood stick to the plot and story line, that would at least make the movie interesting. take the example of Zinda, sanjay copied reel to reel from the Korean movie "old boy" the same story line , same characters, almost the same sets , same dumplings :) , the only thing he had to change was the ending and a little bit of the plot and that was because the Indian audiences are not ready for the plot that was actually "Old Boy".


And secondly, I don't see anything wrong in adapting a movie/novel/manga and putting it out for the audiences. reason - plain and simple, how many of us have seen a movie like Old Boy, or read a Godfather had it not been made into a movie. It just gives these classics a wider audience to view such great works. That said I also want to add that shamelessly copying such a creation and then calling it your own is sinful, I mean at least have the guts to say u have copied or "adapted" .. don't use words like inspired ... sarkar was nor "inspired" from godfather , it was godfather and thankfully RGV had the sense to have Amitabh play Don Corleone and Abhisekh Michael ... perfect star cast .. so was K.K. playing Sonny ... if this involves royalty issues then that's something that I wouldn't know or want to comment about.



Coming back to why this post was written in the first place "Shaurya" ...A good plot from Few Good Men .. spoiled because of bad acting, extremely poorly written dialogues, senseless sub plots and the snail like speed the movie moves baring the last 10 minutes .... the movie would have been much better if it were made on same lines as its original movie , it would have had a better impact . Alas neither or Hindi film makers not the Hollywood ones who remake greats like ring, shutter, eye, grudge and thousand other Asian movies would ever realize to not alter classics. Do remake them put please do not alter them, it ruins it for everybody , those who have watched/read the original and those who missed out on the original but after seeing the poor remake decide not to see the original.

Filmy Blogs

For all Filmy buffs

Just came across a couple of blogs written by filmwalas.
http://passionforcinema.com
Big B: http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/
Amir Khan: http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

Here u can find Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra and Onir sharing their creativity with internet browsers. Alsp, if you havent read Amir Khan or Big B's blogs...then you surely are missing something.

Sudhir Mishra has analyzed his own masterpiece Hazaaro Khwaisehn Aisi. A terrific read.
http://passionforcinema.com/hazaaron-khwaishen-aisi-and-after/

Cheque De India

It had to happen...

Indian Hockey has always been a distant step brother of cricket. Atleast, frm the time Ive followed sports in India. Ive always enjoyed watching hockey...

The first impressions were the hindi chapter on Dhyan Chand...how he scored 4 goals in 4 mins or something. Then in school, there was a hockey team...though I never came close to selection.

The team I vividly remember...Dhanraj Pillay was a character then...in his prime, Mukesh and Gavin Ferrera ( i think so...Ashley pls confirm) and a few sardars always a mandatory requirement for any defence ..pargat Singh the veteran. And then I happened to come across Adrain D'souza- India team goalkeeper, my good friend Ashley's brother, who 1st made it to U-19 and then to the senior team. Quite a proud moment for all of us...to knw someone who has made it so big. Later, I ended up knowing him better having invited him to campus for a celebrity event.

And I so very well remember that game...India vs Pakistan played in Malaysia I think...India were trailing 2-4. There was tension in the air...Suddenly there was a flare up...hockey sticks goin in the air...4 paki players rounding up an Indian. Almost fisticutts. And there should Gagan Ajit Singh...that glare..that look..."one step and u'll pay for it". Running from behind came Jugraj Singh...one of the most flamboyant players for India. To support Gagan being hit...it was as if Indo-Pak revisited. Dhanraj came in and calmed the youngsters and egged them to play...


And in the space of 5-10 mins India pumped in 5 goals...won the match 7-4!




I felt it was a redefining moment of Indian hockey...it cud have invigored the nation to take up the plight of the national sport. But the next game..the 3-4 playoffs for bronze...the entire nation watched with excitement...we lost 2-3 to Pak...lost the chance to push hockey to the next level.

And since then, hockey has barely survived to attract eye balls. One moment up! onemoment down...losing the Olympic entry was a shocker...to ppl...but how many even knew it was the Olympic play-offs going on!

And today, Aaj Tak manages a ripper...catches IHF secretary taking a bribe for setting up a tournament, picking players for the Indian team and waht not! I had read abt the controversy surrounding Viren Rasquina's untimely exit, the teary eyed Dhanraj Pillay and the untimely accident of Jugraj. Things seem to be going crazy for Indian Hockey...

From Chak De India to cheque De India!

My All Time Favorite Series

This song is special...for a lot of reasons.
The music is so refreshing...the drum beats, the guitar too western, the melody typical soothing Jatin-Lalit. The movie was a big FLOP, but the song lasted...lasted years...but not many knew about it...till DJ Suketu turned it into the new romantic mantra.
See the music video....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VVOs_ATjikQ
One of my all-time favorite tracks.

U me and Match

Not in a mood to write a full length review. Coz, I just read Nikhat Kazmi's review in TOI and felt i would have written, very much the same.
Just a few thoughts...
Although the movie hovers around the Hollywood concepts used in Notebook and A Beautiful Mind (in certain scenes for sure), there is an Indianness in the relationship between Ajay and Kajol. Decent support staff (Sumeet Raghvan, Divya Dutta, Sachin Khedekar) keep the movie moving. It reminds you of RGV esp. in the top view and bottom up camera angles.The music is dissapointing except the title track. Ajay Devgan's effort to break the audience emotionally and Kajol's superlative performance help the movie break even from the false start of the 1st half.

Turned out to be more than a few thoughts.

I'll leave with my rating : ***

Well, its not been a great day for me on the cricket field.
Scored a duck and bowled terribly. Yet, we managed to win the league game.
So, criticisms are invited ;)

A dream come true