Ek Deewana Tha – Teaser

Contrary to popular belief (well, not really that popular considering it was only me) this is NOT the Part 2 or sequel of the Urmila Matondkar – Saif Ali Khan starrer Ek Hasina Thi!

Ek Deewana Tha is actually the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa which had Simbu and Trisha in the lead roles. It was also simultaneously made in Telugu as Ye Maaya Chesave with Naga Chaitanya and Samantha innit. Though both movies became hits, their standout point was A.R. Rahman’s music – songs & tunes are the same in both versions. The Hindi version is directed by the same director – Gautham Menon and has Pratiek Babbar and Brit gal (A Miss Liverpool!) Amy Jackson & is said to have two completely new songs.

Though I’ve never been a fan of Telugu movies of this type, YMC registered a seismic presence around me coz of the incessant chatter about how good it was, how good the music was, how gorgeous Samantha was blah blah blah…couple of my friends were so hooked to the music, they had it as their ringtones as well as caller tunes! This post is dedicated to them…

My Yahoo! Mail’s displayed in Hindi….just like that!

Allovasudden my Yahoo! Mail interface has changed to Hindi!!! Till yesterday it was in plain ol’ English and looking all neat and tidy and now most of the labels and links have turned into Hindi. Even the pop-up messages are in Hindi!

Yahoo had launched the Hindi language option some six months ago. While I fully agree with Yahoo’s globalisation policies and fully support its endeavour to reach out to the bulk of the Hindi populace, what riles me is that I wasn’t even asked whether I would prefer a Hindi interface to the English one! One would at least expect that the final choice of the display language be left in the hands of the user and not decided based on geography or location! For I presume that Yahoo! have detected me as an Indian user and have assumed that I would be wanting the interface in Hindi only! Bah!

Funnily enough, some of the words are phonetically in English even though they are spelt out in Hindi! For example, the popup above has the word ‘delete’ spelt out in Hindi! Other similar occurrences are those of draft, spam, trash, inbox etc. Thankfully, the senders’ names and the message subject itself are still in English. Excuse me as I now go about reading some of the Hindi labels and then change the default display language back to English.

Movie Review: Welcome

Welcome is straight out of the ‘David Dhawan School of Filmmaking’! The kind of movies that require you to leave your brains at home and indulge in mindless escapades on the screen. Dhawan and other makers like Indra Kumar and Satish Kaushik and to an extent Priyadarshan, have almost perfected this genre. Writer Anees Bazmee tasted success with his previous directorial venture ‘No Entry’ and he repeats the mindless nonsense filled gags and happenings in Welcome

Akshay is the nephew of Paresh Rawal who is bound by a kasam to marry Akshay into a Shareef Khaandaan but is unable to find any “clean” family. Unknowingly, Paresh happens to agree to Akshay’s nuptials with the sister of Don Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) without knowing that he’s a goon. Uday’s Co-Don Majnu Bhai (Anil Kapoor) deals with Paresh in the forcible agreement. In the meantime, Akshaye meets Katrina and falls in love with her and decides to marry her. Akshay meets Nana and confirms the engagement. Buoyed by these developments, Paresh and Akshay break off their arrangement with Majnu Bhai and attend the reception where they learn that Katrina is the Sister of Nana Patekar. The Second half is all about the ensuing Melee and how Akshay manages to “convert” Nana and Anil into becoming good guys with the help of his friends and Mallika Sherawat. Feroze Khan pops in as a “Bada Bhai” and adds no value but lotsa fun to the climax. Alls well that Ends Well!!!

Pros:

• Nana Patekar is quite good as the Don
• Anil Kapoor is also good in the role of the smaller of the two dons
• Akshay and Paresh are OK in roles that they can sleepwalk thru
• Comedy is good in some scenes even if it is slapstick at other times
• Climax is mindless fun….but lifted straight outta Kamal Haasan starrer Michael Madana Kama Raju

Cons:

• Music is Pedestrain
• Comedy is Slapstick most often than not
• Feroz Khan’s part is totally waste
• Katrina has no scope at all…
• Ditto Mallika….
• Mallika’s romance with Nana and Anil at the same time should have been given more screen space

In the end, the movie offers more laughters than other similar ones but one has to keep forgetting logic and sanity. Nana Patekar is the scene-stealer at most times and Anil Kapoor also makes his presence felt at times. If it weren’t for these seasoned pros, the movie would have been a total dud! Akshay and Paresh look jaded…what with all the comedy they’ve been doing.
A better Climax would have helped but I guess the director had no choice but to end it the way it did….a la Michael Madana Kama Raju. I’d recommend not going to the theatre to Watch it…rent a cheap VCD instead. (Well, if the ticket is priced at 15 bucks as it was here, then do catch it in the theatre!)

My Rating: 3/5

Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi – A Classic Sitcom

During my last visit home, I’d rummaged through my Video Cassette collection (Yeah! I do happen to have quite a few video cassettes…most of them which are family heirlooms) and had found an un-labelled one. Alas, I didn’t have the VCR in proper running condition (how would it be, after the step-motherly treatment it received after the arrival of the new fangled and much snazzier Panasonic VCD player!) and the cassette’s contents remained a mystery. Until today, that is! A cousin somehow got it to run on another player and it contained two episodes of the erstwhile-aired sitcom – Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi.

Yeh Jo Hai Zidagi was a very popular sitcom that was aired on Doordarshan in the 80′s. The serial was about the fun-filled life of a married couple – Ranjit and Renu – played by Shafi Inamdar and Swaroop Sampat. Renu’s brother Raja – Rakesh Bedi – and Satish Shah were the other prominent characters in the serial. Satish Shah would play a different character every episode. I do not remember much (heck! I was four!) but am told that it aired every Friday night(?) and was immensely popular. Maybe second in popularity only to Chitrahaar or Rangoli! I’d seen the recorded shows on the cassette a few years later and they’re fresh in my memory (I’ve got a good one). One was about a sofa-cum-bed and another was a double-episode about a South Indian Arranged Marriage. The latter was rib-ticklingly funny and I’m chuckling even as I’m typing it out

I hope that the Cassette may be converted into a VCD/DVD so that its mirth can be preserved longer. Of course, all the episodes ara available in VCD and DVD format over at Shemaroo’s online shopping website. I’ll grab the 4-DVD pack containing the entire season one while it is still available. Its worth every paisa of the 499 bucks that its priced at.

P.S: The title song of the serial is sung by Kishore Kumar and that too is an absolute gem. *searching for its MP3*

Stories Review: Dus Kahaniyaan

Wondering why it ain’t titled movie review? Coz Dus Kahaniyaan is not exactly a movie! Going to see a movie like Dus Kahaniyaan takes some thinking…and seeing it on the first day itself requires some serious guts! Coz its as clear as the sky that the movie will have ten different stories that take place independent of each other and which are tied up by a similar thread. There may be a culminating climax where all come together or there might be some common sutradhaar along all the stories! There have been similar movies in the past – Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai, Salaam-E-Ishq, Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye – that toed the ‘separate stories intertwined into one’ concept.

Surprisingly, Dus Kahaniyaan is NOT like that.It IS a movie about ten stories but they pan out separately from each other. There is not a single connection among the stories and neither is there a common sutradhaar behind-the-scenes. In fact, it is like watching 10 Episodes of the Zee serial – Rishtey – back-2-back

Coming back to the movie, let me put down a brief encapsulation of the stories and my thoughts about each:

• Matrimony – Arbaaz Khan & Mandira Bedi – 2/5 – Nice surprise in the end.
• High on the Highway – Jimmy Shergill & Hot-looking Mausumeh – 0/5 – Dud in all departments!
• Sex on the Beach – Dino Morea & Tareena Patel – 1/5 – Lotsa skin-show & an eerie but predictable ending.
• Pooranmashi – Amrita Singh & Minissha Lamba – 4/5 – Quite a touching story.
• Strangers in the Night – Mahesh Manjrekar & Neha Dhupia – 2/5 – Slack pace but a touchy ending.
• Love Dale – Aftaab, Neha Uberoi & Anupam Kher – 2/5 – Interesting premise but once again, the ending spoils the show.
• Rice Plate – Shabana Azmi & Naseeruddin Shah – 3/5 – Message oriented story but Azmi overacts & Naseer is too little. Impact is nice.
• Zahir – Manoj Bajpai & Dia Mirza – 4/5 – Compelling story & an unexpected ending – Drew applause.
• Gubbare – Nana Patekar & Anita – 4/5 – Heart-warming story, kinda predictable (atleast I correctly predicted). Nana is A-One.
• Rise and Fall – Sanjay Dutt & Sunil Shetty – 1/5 -All style no substance. Background music and picturisation is slick

To conclude, Dus Kahaniyaan is an OK movie with an interesting premise and a capable handling. An advantage is that the placing of the stories is such that the weakest ones are sandwiched between the good ones, so the viewer forgets the bad parts as a new one unfolds. There are almost no songs bar a few background ones and the main title song plays out at the end credits. Some of the stories are wayy too predictable whilst a few are quite good. One or two duds are there as well. I’d rather not say don’t see the movie at all but wait for the VCD release or the TV telecast.

Overall Rating: 2/5