Ae Dil, Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahaan……

Mumbai Meri Jaan – The MOST brilliant movie of the year. It is a must watch for every mumbaikar.

UTV, Nishikant Kamat along with Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Madhavan, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan give us a very poignant tale of the aftermath of the Mumbai Bomb Blasts and its effect on 5 people.

Irrfan Khan – a coffee vendor who moves from place to place on his cycle. He looks at the rich with a cynical eye, yet goes into the shopping mall with his family to check out the latest perfumes on display.

He is looked donw by every one in the society, physically forced out of the mall by security in front of his family. He sees the panic of the people post the blasts & uses it to get back at society in general. It gives him a sense of power & superiority. He brings himself back to his senses as soon as he realizes the adverse consequences of his wrong doings.

Wonderfully acted, as is expected. He has put on a great southie accent & completely looks the part. Do notice the bright yellow shirt he wears when he goes to the mall.

Kay Kay Menon – an umemployed youth, who is anti-Muslim & the blasts result in aggravating his bigotry, almost making him paranoid.

His is a very interesting track where he expresses his extreme hatred towards the muslims.

Notice that when he goes into a Muslim colony in search of someone & listens to someone playing a Mohd. Rafi song, he exclaims, “Yeh log Kishore Kumar kabhi nahi sunenge !” & how he hates Zidane as he is Muslim.

Soha Ali Khan – A news journalist, who loses her fiancé in the blasts & realizes first hand how news channels make a tamasha out of everything. The scene where she breaks down on seeing the dead body of her fiancé is the best crying scene I ve seen since Aamir in RDB. Soha impresses a lot as an actress.

Another notable scene is when her boss comes to her place to offer condolences along with a “request” to do a half hour piece on her story & gives her a bound script. They walk away & their feet are shown moving over Soha’s reflection in the plush, shiny tiles of her floor. It’s a metaphorical display of how the boss cares little for her loss & more for TRPs.

Madhavan – Simply WONDERFUL. I loved his track, specially because he has acted so well. A office goer, patriotic Indian, Environmentalist – who travels by train to do his bit in reducing traffic & pollution, does not encourage usage of plastic bags, stays in India despite several offers of work abroad.

He survives the blasts due to a friend convincing him to travel in the second class that fateful day.

Notice his reaction when he sees that a friend of his has lost his right hand in the blasts. It is an expression of pity, fear, sadness, something unspeakable – all rolled into one. It churns your stomach & wrenches your heart.

Also, his expression / acting in the last scene of the movie – PRICELESS.

Paresh Rawal – Everyone else is brilliant in the movie – but all should bow down to Mr. Rawal. He towers over the rest with his simple, amiable portrayal of a police officer due to retire in a week.

He has seen everything there is to see in his police life & has served his 35 years silently. But there is anguish within him, which he is compelled to express once his fellow officer questions the whole purpose of his life.

His monologues to Menon regarding Hindu – Muslim sparring & the one when he retires are master pieces, delivered naturally. You do not feel that he is acting. He is Inspector Patil. The way he cheers up Inspector Kadam with his “order” to pee or with his “diabetes” joke & his justification for taking a bribe - are a treat to watch.

He has the best dialogues

“Kadam, Moot !!!”

“Paisa lena – galat baat, Baar ko bandh nahi karna – galat baat. Par paisa leke, bar bandh karna – who bhi to galat baat”

“Agar Bomb Blast ke baad, sab ko daaru nahi peene denge, to Mumbai mein ‘SPIRIT’ kahaan se aayega ?”

Also, when a citizen asks him why the terrorists haven’t been caught, he puts him in his jeep & then says “ Sahi aadmi to pakadna chahiye na, ke kisiko bhi andar daal de . . . Naagrik !!!”

Its simply brilliant !!!

His is by far , the most brilliant performance – which is saying a lot when the others include Menon, Irrfan & Madhavan.

A special word for the actor who played Inspector Kadam. He matches Rawal in some scenes & is brilliant as the guy who is honest, but yet to come to terms with the corruption in the force, a person who feels helpless as the police can’t do anything.

Yes, the Mumbai blasts affected us all. And we may relate to one of the above characters for sure. So, go watch it.

The film has one of the most brilliant climax scenes that I ve seen. The look on Menon’s & Madhavan’s face during the climax speaks a thousand words. And the film ends with Rafi singing . . “zara hatke, zara bachke . . .yeh hai bambai meri jaan……..”

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Bachna Ae Haseeno …

I was not going to write on BAH, but A friend told me to … so here goes..

My review – 2 stars – 2.5 at max.

BAH is a simple film. Ranbir has 2 affairs – is commitment phobic, runs away form both. Finds love later in life, who doesn’t want to marry him. Then he realizes how hurt Girl 1 & Girl 2 would ve been & goes back, finds them & apologises. Nice Premise. Almost a Nice movie all through

Anyways,

Girl 1 – Mahi – a dreamy eyed Miniisha Lamba, who has seen DDLJ 17 times & hopes to find her Raj on her Eurail trip. She does find Ranbir & then follows a track straight out of DDLJ – not surprising, coz Aditya Chopra has written this movie.

They kiss, sing a song & depart at airport, where Mahi comes to know that Ranbir is not in “love” with her & was just doing, as we call it, TIME PASS.

What is not believable is the fact that Mahi holds on to this 1 DAY for the next 10 years of her life & pretty much screws up her marriage because of this. STUPID, I say.

Girl 2 – Radhika – a sexxxxy Bipasha. Hers & Ranbirs story is the best written track of all. The innocence of the first love track gives way to string sexual undertones here. Radhika & Raj are living in together. Raj gets a transfer to Australia and is happily planning to go there when he realizes that Radhika wants to get married. Here, he just appears as a cad when he abandons her on their wedding day. He even says “Escaping was the easier thing to do as compared to breaking her heart”.

Maybe one relates to it. Their track has quite a few dialogue exchanges & moments that I completely identify as natural / non filmy & probably relate to as well.

1. When Ranbir says tht this relationship is for “hamesha, par hamesha waala hamesha nahi, 6 mahine waala hamesha”. That’s how most relaionships are these days. Nothing is permanent. And you better realize that in order to avoid all sadness that accompanies the break up !!

2. Ranbir cribbing that no logical conversation/argument with a femal is complete without her crying & after that there remains no logic to the argument. It usually goes in the girl’s favour. I COMPLETELY AGREE, having been a party to such happening many a time.

3. Bipasha is ready to give up her career just so that she can be with Ranbir in Australia – such a wide spread phenomenon, something that I completely disagree with. But, I ve got many arguments against me, so wont express my point of view here.

4. Bipasha lashing out at Ranbir for not marrying her, saying that “I was the progressive one, the one you lived in with, not the one you can take to your parents. That is the reason you did not marry me”. Ranbir disagreed, but I feel, that this might be his very reason for not marrying her. I do not subscribe to sch a view, but I know that this is how general guy mentality is.

Girl 3 – Deepika – My favourite character. She has her priorities fixed, knows what she wants out of life & gets it. I loved her. BUT BUT BUT – such a fast turn around. She just lets go of her whole belief system for Ranbir. Disappointing.

Basically, this film is a showreel for Ranbir & he definitely excels – be it the 18 year old, high on testosterone college pass out or the 24 yr old cool guy or the 30 year ld who finally finds love & realizes his mistakes of earlier.

Hiten Paintal does a fantastic job as his best friend & has the best lines of the movie

- their discussion regarding going to Aqua vs. WaterBAr

- Bachelor Party – Vaasna ka Ashleel Pradarshan….” (my favourite)

All in all, it’s a very breezy, fun first half – spoilt completely but the seemingly long & definitely dragging second half. I personally believe that the movie could ve ended at the first half – and I would ve loved it !!!

Somethings I noticed, liked & must point out

1. Ranbir’s reaction after the first innocent kiss. He is scared, surprised, shocked, happy, comfused. He cant believe he got kissed. Till that time he had just seen it in movies & definitely imagined himself doing it. But this was the real thing. In 5 seconds, his face expressed all this. It was perfect/natural. How do I know – Go figure !!! Also, his kiss with Bipasha was decidedly non-innocent & had SEX written all over it. Nice. It signified the change in the character.

2. The galss breaking & toilet flushing sound whenever something goes wrong in his life – it’s too funny

3. Deepika says to Ranbir – “what we have is special. Don’t spoil it by giving names”

4. Deepika says to Ranbir towards the end of the movie – “im a GIRL. Im allowed to change my decisions without any explanation whatsoever, and the guy has to keep track of my decisions.” I completely agree madam !!!

5. Bipasha saying to Ranbir, “No matter how ‘progressive’ you think I am, & I might be, the wedding day is the most important in a girl’s life”. Yeah, I actually felt bad when Bips was all dressed in ‘shaadi ka joda’ & Ranbir jus abandoned her.

To end it, I had said in an earlier post, Yashraj finances the lifestyles of all its characters – case in point - Ranbir can take a 6 month break & roam in India & Italy to seek forgiveness.

Why don’t we all live the YashRaj movie life … ??

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Random Stuff : Did you know that a Rs. 5 gems packet has 14 gems in it. And more often than not, the pink gems outnumber all other colours. Go, check

Song on my lips : Tinka Tinka – from Karam. Alisha Chinai Rocks !!!

Book I Read: Keep off the grass. Move over Chetan Bhagat. Here comes Karan Bajaj.

Referral : Go visit – http://confessionsandconversations.blogspot.com