These movies listed below did not necessarily release anytime recently(or in this month), I happened to watch them during the last calender month and wanted to share my thoughts about them. These movies are not necessarily the best of the movies I watched but rather movies that I admired in one way or another.

The Time Traveler’s Wife

A romantic story of a man who travels to time and how it effects his relationship with his wife. Starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, TTW is both a touching and a thrilling movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat. While like all movies involving time travel there are obvious flaws in the premise of the story but the concept works well as the time traveling becomes simply a part of the story.

What I loved about the movie was how the complexity of the relationship was handled. The narration was also done well consider how easy it is to get over the top while handling time travel subjects.

Kites

You can find my review of Kites here: http://blog.chandrahasa.com/archives/1997

What I loved about the movie was the chemistry between the lead actors. The international feel of the movie also worked well with the script. I loved how they attempted to intertwine a romantic movie with an action film.

Good Bye Lenin!

Good Bye Lenin! is the story of a young man in East Germany in the year 1989, who against the GDR regime. His mother(supporter of GDR) watches him getting arrested and suffers a stroke and falls into a coma. Few months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid any excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat.

A moving story about change and love. Amid the fast changing environment of Germany a young man has to strive to revive the past to keep his mother alive. The journey is filled with touching and tender moments, funny experiences and eventually the revealing truth. Easily one of the best foreign movies I have seen.

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet

A biography of Prophet Muhammad told by muslims across the world and its interpretation over the ages. It tells the story of the seventh century prophet who changed world history in 23 years, and continues to shapes the lives of more than 1.2 billion people. The film takes viewers not only to ancient Middle Eastern sites where Muhammad’s story unfolds, but into the homes, mosques and workplaces of some of America’s estimated seven million Muslim to discover the many ways in which they follow Muhammad’s example.

In the current age of political and religious upheaval its important to go to the roots of any religion to truly understand why and how it was established. Legacy of a Prophet is a wonderfully narrated documentary that talks about the Prophet and the religion of Islam. Its an eye opener about many facts of the ancient religion.

Bowfinger

Bobby Bowfinger finally finds the perfect script to produce and direct into a major motion picture. The problem is that no production house is ready to give him money for it unless he signs the biggest action star, Kit Ramsey for the movie. When he fails to convince the star he decides to still go ahead shooting the film without Kit knowing that he is a part of the film. Getting hold of stolen equipment and a group of dedicated actors (who believe Kit has signed the movie) Bowfinger goes on to the toughest task of his career, make a movie out of a scam!

Easily one of the most hilarious of Steve Martin’s movies, Bowfinger is a laugh riot! Also starring Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Robert Downey Jr. & Christine Baranski, who put in impressive performances, this is one movie that is a must watch.

An action filled romantic thriller starring the brilliant Hrithik Roshan and the sizzling Bárbara Mori was always expected to send the hype racing. The Chemistry between the two actors was talked about in international circles but fell flat for the Bollywood crowd. So what was it that generated so much mixed reviews for this ‘crossover’ movie?

Kites is a perfect example of a crossover movie. Everything about the movie was designed to merge cultures, the lead actors were from India and Mexico, the languages used in the movie was Hindi, English and Spanish… The music had a distinct international touch, hell even the lyrics of the songs were written in Hindi, English and Spanish! But what made this movie a truly crossover film is the writing, as an avid follower of Hollywood and Bollywood cultures, Kites hit me as the almost perfect child of the two. You have the thrill, action and pace of western cinema and you also have the emotional touch, romance and ideology that rule Indian cinema.

There are moments in Kites that make you go ‘wow’ and similarly there are moments where you wonder what the writer was smoking, but thats where the balance was struck. If the director had spent too long tying the loose ends(which was very much possible) it would have increased the length of the film and that was probably in the mind of the editors.

There is amazing depth in the writing that isn’t always clear… Like the reference to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was probably the writers own dedication to the classic. The last scene of the movie is also brilliantly done with reference to the story of the movie. It is this subtlety that makes Kites special.

Kites’ lifeline is the amazing chemistry between its lead actors. There are decisions made in the movie by the leading pair which was not very smart but its the chemistry that puts a cloak of validity to those choices. The lead actors on screen presence is overwhelming at times adding the subtle flavor of romance that makes this movie delicious.

Acting wise Hrithik who plays J is prefect playing his strengths. The character is well bought out and he does a great job giving it the depth it requires to work. Barbara is very balanced in her performance and her inability to speak anything other than Spanish works well. She was basically required to be charming in the ‘princess to be rescued’ sort of way and she fit the part perfectly. The supporting actors are well cast but seemed like the casting was meant to be very obvious.

Kites is truly unique in what it tried to achieve and for that the writers & director must be commended. They could have taken the movie in atypical Bollywood fashion but they dared to bend the rules and that must be truly understood. Kites also tried very hard to retain the bollywood style of film making that the west likes and in that attempt have probably lost out on the Indian audience.

All in all Kites is groundbreaking cinema. Its an honest attempt in the right direction and I would love to see more movies come from India similarly.

The attraction of movies with smart cons is two fold, one the charisma of the con men(and women) and the other the brilliance of the con itself. Sadly Badmaash Company shows only a spark of the attraction and then falls flat.

The trailer of the movie promised a smart movie involving beautiful people who wear disguises to outsmart others and then go about their evenings blowing away their winnings in fancy casinos… In the movie we realize thats only half quarter a part of the story. The audience is then inflicted with cons involving defective pairs of shoes and gloves! Just as we sit and wait for that smart con, we are greeted with a spectacular bank loan con…

Seriously? A Bank loan scam… come on what about the thrill of breaking into an underground vault or the idea of zipping thru the city in cars carrying jewels, flying past ignorant bystanders? But nope, instead lets buy and sell houses, gloves and Shoes that will be so thrilling.

The only thrill Badmaash Company manages to generate is the expectation that at some moment this is going to become and awesome fast pace thriller… Yet the only thing in the movie that gets the pulse racing is a lovely looking Anushka Sharma.

Shahid Kapoor’s stable performance is possibly the biggest positive of the movie, while the lack of scope in the screenplay sees Vir Das & Meiyang Chаng performances to dissolve into the background. Anupam Kher is pretty much wasted with only a couple of scenes in the movie.

The screenplay is what ruins this movie, the writers for some reason choose to be overly conservative. They even resorted to the old mantra of ‘turning a leaf’ and ‘doing the right thing’. The cons which were the heart and soul of a movie of this type are too frivolous… The writers could have gone the full circle by including a insurance scam while at it.

All in all Badmaash Company gives the viewer a feeling of walking into a restaurant and being shown a very different menu than what was advertised outside.

Julie Powell, a self confessed ‘Government drone by day, renegade foodie by night’ decides to take up a unique challenge and catalog her thoughts and progress in her blog. Thus began one of the most beautiful journeys of self realization and discovery.

Based on The Julie/Julia Project, Julie & Julia is a wonderful heart warming movie about two women separated by a generation, yet intertwined in their lives and aspirations. The movie based also on the memoirs of Julia Child entitled My Life in France, reveals the life and times of Julia Child and the inspirations that led to her becoming a world famous cook.

Julie & Julia is engaging and provides an honest retrospect to the effect of blogging in peoples lives. The challenge that spurred Julie Powell on and the drive that Julia Child had towards her passion of cooking is addictive and inspiring. The screenplay is gripping and touching at times and the fact that it is based on real life events only adds to the enigma of these two wonderful people.

Meryl Streep’s performance is awe inspiring and aptly earned her a nomination for the Academy Awards. Amy Adams puts in a good performance handling a character that does a full emotional circle thruout the movie. Performances by Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina as the husbands to the women were on target.

Julie & Julia belongs to a very different genre of movies. It is sweet and heart warming but there is something more. Something you cant just put a finger to. This movie is truly worth the watch.

My Name is Karan Johar and I dont make bad movies.

Maybe its high time Karan Johar went out on National Television and said that.

There is a moment in the movie where Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) is narrating about the moment when he was first told that he suffered from Asperger Syndrome. He casually says:

I didnt know that my entire life could have been summed up in two words “Asperger Syndrome”

That moment is so quick and the narration is so subtly simple that the pain of Rizwan echoed thru the mind. There is another moment in the movie where young Rizwan(immaculately portrayed by Tanay Chheda) looks at his brother crying in the arms of his mother and says “At-least he can cry”.

Its moments like those that are the heart and soul of My Name is Khan.

Most folks I know who watch Bollywood movies always complain about the why Indian filmmakers dont make tight scripted, exciting and convincingly storytelling movies like those Hollywood folk. Well, My Name is Khan is the most honestly inspired version of Forrest Gump I can conceive ever being made in Bollywood.

My Name is Khan is the story of Rizwan Khan, a man born with Asperger Syndrome and his journey across the United States. The story of a man who could fix everything but was clueless when he found his wife with a broken heart. The story of a man who believed above all else that goodness was the paramount trait of all.

The movie has its fair share of loopholes and assumptions but what has to be noted is that almost every film that deals with situations and stories like these (Forrest Gump & Benjamin Button come to mind) are dependent on “unexpected things” happening to their lead characters. To appreciate a movie like this, you must be prepared to take few assumptions with a pinch of salt.

The movie makes its aim very clear, it talks about the post 911 treatment of Muslims and Sikhs in America and repeatedly echoes the message that not every Muslim is a terrorist. There are clear attempts to highlight the teachings of Islam which are truly beautiful, this is necessary at the time when the only association ignorant people make with the religion is that of hate and terrorism.

What doesn’t work for the movie is the length, I think if the movie was cut short by 20 minutes it could have got a much more positive response but its hard to say which part was insignificant in the movie.

About the actors, its hard to be critical of Shah Rukh Khan whose performance in this movie is nothing short of Oscar Worthy. As a matter of fact I believe the only other performance by an actor(in the hindi film industry) that was as brilliant was by Amitabh Bachchan in Black.

Tanay Chheda’s performance as the young Rizwan stands out surrounded by the magic of Shah Rukh. Yuvaan Makaar who plays the role of Sameer also leaves his mark with a consistent and touching performance. Its simply amazing to watch young actors showing spectacular maturity and integrity in thier performances on screen. Kajol’s performance is clearly not one of her finest but there are moments where it seems impossible to comprehend a scene without her playing the role of Mandira.

The music is not Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s finest but is exciting, Sajda and Tere Naina are the popular hits but Noor-E-Kudha is an impressive song too.

Going back to the first line of this review, Karan Johar as a director was once again impressive. I have enjoyed his last few movies (Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna and Kal Ho Na Ho) and MNIK fits in well on the list. I was partially thrilled that he didnt stick to his movies starting only with the alphabet ‘K’.

There is the common Karan Johar touch that inclines the narration to family values and love but the fact that he kept the main idea and didnt drift during the narration shows his masterclass.

My Name is Khan might not fit the bill for everyone as a good/great film but the performances of its stars (most notably Shah Rukh) makes it unignorable. MNIK is a perfect milestone in the direction that Bollywood seems to be heading, Watch it for Shah Rukh, Kajol and Karan Johar.