Rakhtcharitra movie review | Critique | Fresh

Alright, picture this. Abhimanyu Singh, who plays the bad guy Bukka, is busy bashing up a poor guy's kneecaps with the butt of a rifle. A woman walks by, presumably some relative of his. She stops and asks Abhimanyu solemnly, "Satyanarayan ki puja hai. Chalega kya?" To which, our bad guy replies, even more solemnly, "Nahin." You see, at this point, even the bit players such as that woman were bored to death, wondering what is going on in this movie. Rakhtcharitra, that is.

The man behind this movie is Ram Gopal Varma who gave us our gangster-genre redefinition in Satya and Company. Well, in Sarkar too, to an extent. Of late though, his signature style - realism has been substituted by bizarre camera angles, loud, jarring background scores and characters that are so completely over-the-top that you have to crane your neck in order to see who's outdoing whom in the bad acting department. The very same RGV who took us through a splendid cinematic journey with terrific films such as Shiva, Rangeela, Kaun, Jungle. And it is indeed heart-breaking to see the man churn out one bad movie after another. 

If you want to get to the story in this movie, I am sorry to say that I didn't find one. It is nothing but an endless montage of gruesome killings that are done so tastelessly that they make the Ramsay horror films look subtle by comparison. Ok, might be I'm exaggerating. But really, there IS NO story, so to speak. The clash between two political aides and their attempts to wipe off each other is what this film is about. When the netas end up in hell, their kids take it over and continue the fight. THAT IS IT. One murder after another and then another and your patience takes a flight.

Movies in this genre are particularly driven by a conscience. Be it The Godfather or Goodfellas, Satya or Company, there always is a conscience....some sort of motivation for the characters. In short, there is a soul in these films. But, in Rakhtcharitra, there is none. All you get are stereotypes -  jealous politicians,. backstabs, blood thirsty relatives, angry-looking mob men and what have you. There is nothing in this movie that you haven't seen already, nothing that you can't predict with your eyes closed...absolutely nothing.

I know, I am being unfair in judging this movie with the others in the crime/gangster genre. But RGV's new outing begs to be compared. There was a time when realism was considered to be the forte of few directors such as Ratnam and Varma. Particularly, in Satya, the camera became a character when it captured the muddy lives of the gangsters in such a captivating manner. No slo-mo shots, no overused background score. In Rakhtcharitra, however, we aren't spared the agony of watching EVERY character mumble, turn around very slowly, walk about very slowly...even if it isn't a slo-mo shot. Too restrained, shall we say. And to compliment those, RGV uses his actors in a completely over-the-top manner. They look at you with large eyes and you begin to worry that they might pop out. Vivek Oberoi has a set of 2 expressions and he uses them adequately. He scowls, looks angry and you start your tsk-tsk wondering where this lad's acting talents ran away. Abhimanyu Singh is wasted in the role of a lecherous, masochistic gangster and it is a pity to see him get a caricaturish role to play after his excellent portrayal as Rananjay Singh 'Ransa' in Gulaal. And then, there is Shatrughan Sinha, who plays a Marathi actor-turned-politician. But, will anyone please explain to me why on earth does he have a Southern accent? He  has precisely two dialogues in this movie. Either say "brother" or "topic is over". Sigh. So much for being a senior and respected actor.

Varma commits another unforgivable sin. Whilst in Satya and Company, he held on to the subtle, underlined message that crime doesn't pay, he does the opposite here. He glorifies three things - crime, atrocities committed against women and bad cinema. Women are raped, hit like anything and you cringe in your seat when people clap at those scenes. People are slashed, diced and chopped and you turn your face in disgust only to see the audience cheering. If this is not glorification of violence, I honestly don't know what is.

The only hint of the Varma, whom we have come to love and adore, is seen in the film's climactic fight when a character runs after Abhimanyu Singh's character in order to put an end to his life. The only scene that gives you a vague sense of excitement. 

There is a sequel which will be released on 19th November 2010. I have nothing much to expect. It is only in one man's hand to make up for the mistakes that he has committed. And that is Varma himself. Like all hopeful souls, we must wait and we must pray. But, something tells me that this wait is going to be pretty long. Maybe, the cynic in me has taken over. For I have seen Rakhtcharitra and all I have to say is -- "Oh, the horror, the horror !" 

Ratings: * (1 out of 5)

Written By: Gyandeep Pattnayak

Guzaarish | Music Review | Fresh

Sujoy and Ali are so punctual with their articles and edition, that I always appear late. But I can’t help it, I need the music to grow on me and to make my task tougher, the film industry is introducing new Music directors with each upcoming movie. After Satyajit Ray and Vishal Bhardwaj, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is making his debut as the music director of his own film Guzaarish. In words of Sanjay, "I've done the music of the film as I felt the way I understood the characters of the film, I would not be able to make a music director understand all that. I wonder how he was able to make the actors understand all that. Anyways, not deviating from the topic, let me tell you, Sanjay Leela Bansali's music has melody, but it lacks variations. The lyrics are penned by Vibhu Singh and A M Turoz, who have done a good job.

• Guzaarish : The title and opening track of the album begins amidst the sound of rain, a lovely piano, and a violin. KK has put so much feeling into every note doing justice with the mood and lyrics. Music though purely relies on the violin, but nevertheless its a slow melody to be loved by those romantic at heart.

• Sau gram zindagi : As the name suggests, the track has a philosophical undertone. Kunal Ganjawala has give his best, and orchestral music is soothing, but suddenly it has a very hard rock infused section with lyrics sung in English. Maybe in the context of the film you will think: "oh, now I see", but listening to it out of context it is hard to see the continuity.

• Tera Zikr : It’s an average fare rendered by Shail Hada and Rakesh Pandit. So, did I like it... I am not sure.

• Saiba : My personal favorite in the album. First song in the album which has a female voice chipping in, which has longing in every note. Vibhavari Joshi gets a platform for herself through this film. The guitar and Portuguese settings add to the lyrics full of romance and poetry but doesn't leave the basic 'sur' of album.

• Jaane kiske khwaab : The 5th slow track in a row, with a piano based arrangement, looks like a situational track.

• Udi : The only fast song in the album having a carnival feel to it Sunidhi Chahuan as always done a wonderful job, but yet songs fails to make you tap your feet.

• Keh na Sakun : Back to slow – mo. You would like to skip this song since it has nothing novel to offer.

• Chaand ki katori : Harshdeep Kaur, has delivered every time when summoned to do the job, is impressive once again. She gets into the 'raga' mode for 'Chaand Ki Katori'.

• Dhundli Dhundli : Continues the trend of album, the only good thing about this song is Shankar Mahadevan.

The songs seem apt to situation in the movie but as an album the listener has had enough. Throughout the album it seems that Sanjay had one idea in mind and he was not able to come out of that. The songs have gray shade (slow and depressing) He should be thankful to lyricist and singers for saving the album.

Verdict : Please get yourself a music composer, Mr. Bhansali. (2/5)

Written by Neha Jain

Editorial | Introducing Candy Krishnan

Hi,

Folks I am, Ali here, to take care of editing for a few editions while Sujoy is up to some studies.

UPDATE: Folks I am pleased to introduce to you our new author, Chandrakanth K. Krishnan aka Candy Krishnan.

Here’s a more on who Candid Krishnan is: Candy considers himself a hippie who is stuck in the extravagance of 70’s and is a serious movie freak who does everything except smoking grass while watching The Godfather; an act he considers to be blasphemous. There was a point when he wanted to make movies but was thrown out of studios because people believed that his ideas were too realistic to be realized. Overburdened with the frustration, he started doing something everyone wants to do but few dare to do. No! He didn’t started making porn. In fact, he started doing nothing… wandering in search of cinema in common man’s life. We consider ourselves lucky to have him as a columnist in our column… Candid Krishnan.

We hope you’ll love his views about dumb movies that we, the viewers have been subjected to in the past through his column ‘CANDID KRISHNAN’. It pretty much sums up what he thinks of all these movies and their makers :-). Enjoy!

Love,

Ali Naqvi.

Candid Krishnan | Saawariya- A Stupid Film

A debutante romances a maiden. With great heritage behind and accumulated expectation; a good performance would not be just enough. Both came to the fore as the next Raj-Nargis pair on board. But what they delivered surpassed all the expectations by leaps and bounds. The simply gave an expression that make you say… O Yuck!!!

Sanjay Leela Bhansali made a great movie. Named it Khamoshi. He made a legendary (?) movie. Named it Black. He mixed the worst of both; set it in a simply awful setup and took two fresh faces with families in Industry and wasted a lot of money. Yeah, you guessed it right. He made a blue film (color; not content)… Saawariya. Looking back at the movie, I come across a few things…

Sanjay definitely hated the best movie he made… Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Though he didn’t forget Sameer. He asked Ranbeer Kapoor, grandson of legendary Raj Kapoor and son of remarkable Rishi Kapoor and still very much adorable Neetu Kapoor; to wear the shirt of Sameer (who loves to be shirtless. I wanted to use top instead of shirt but I assumed that it would be severely censored) labeled as Raj. Well, Ranbeer is no Raj/Rishi/Salman.  Sorry girls, there was nothing that can be appreciated about Ranbeer in this movie; though I guess you might have loved him flashing his rear assets…

Sanjay was definitely adamant messing up this movie. He gave Salman a micro-second role custom-written for Ajay Devgan. Result… Just think Salman in role Ajay played in HDDCS. The expression he gave throughout appeared as if Ash is standing in front of him (post HDDCS). Rugged and misfit. Rani… totally unimpressive in a role that is something closer to Chandramukhi in Devdas… And Sonam… I remember his father’s memorable performances in Ishwar, Who Saat Din and Saheb. I guess genes are misplaced. She got looks and height but acting skills… Missing!! Thank God, she does not have the moustache…

I don’t know what the sub-genre in specific is. But there are movies that are very serious to the core and bad performances and pathetic script make them attain cult status in comedy genre… Spoof?? IMO… spoofs make some sense. Don’t they.

Written By: Candy Krishnan

Before Sunrise | Critique | Unusual Love stories - Part 1

Rating – 5/5 Stars

“Jesse: OK, well this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's, like, two million people on the planet. Now there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? 'Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth's time. You know, so at best we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?
Celine: I don't know. Wait a minute, I'm not sure... I don't... ”

Insightful lines aren’t these. Bet you have this feeling, ”Yes he’s right, I never thought of it this way.” This is also true for the film, you would have never thought a love story could be told just two people talking. In a continuous stretch. In space of just one day.

It is story of Jesse and Celine who meet each other in train and decide to spend time ‘before sunrise’ with each other. All throughout the movie all they do is just talk and walk around city of Vienna. That is it. Whole of the plot. The film has turned up as a classic.

While watching this film with a friend, my friend noticed two guys on the dark street ogling heroine. The friend asked, “Will they follow her.” In any other movie, that would have happened, followed by some action scene in which hero rescues the damsel. But not in ‘Before Sunrise’.  It does not go for any cliché to spice up the film sticks to its simple premise and keeps on exploring it. That’s the beauty of the movie. It remains honest to its promise, never once wavering from its path.

Have you noticed how each thread in general conversation starts with some part of original conversation. This movie captures it. And that is what it is all about.

One more astonishing thing about the film is apart from these two characters, there are hardly any characters with screen presence of say 2 minutes. 6-7 characters appear but they are their just for seconds. Both the leads ( Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy) have such a great chemistry that you know that they mean each word. You know they are in love. Both these performances deserve separate essays on their own. (May be I will write it someday.)

The film ends with both promising to meet after six months. It is left to viewer to decide whether they will meet or not…

PS – In the same series I will cover Love Stories that are unique and unusual. ‘Before Sunrise’ had its sequel as ‘Before Sunset’ which was equally brilliant film. Will also cover it in this series.

Written by – Ali Naqvi.

Matrubhoomi | The Critique

Rating: 5/5

What happens when a female infant is killed? Humanity walks a few miles towards its extinction.  My novelette ‘I Died… Long Before’ was a question about how a girl feels when she realizes that she is supposed to be killed. May be that’s the reason I was so eager to watch this movie and in all humbleness I must accept that my work of literature was as much as a pebble on beach when compared to this magnum opus. 

It is an unconventional movie for sure. It shows why women are important. It shows what can be the height of a person’s (read man) sexual frustration. It shows how much a woman can bear. The movie beautifully escalates the rawness and harshness of storytelling with every scene but never crosses the limit. The poor girl is raped a number of times but commendably, director never asked the actress to expose. In a normal mainstream cinema, there is more skin-show than this intellectual and hard-core realistic movie. There are more than countable metaphors. On a second thought, the entire movie is a brilliant metaphor.

Actors have done justice to their roles. Special mention of veteran Sudhir Pandey, an apt Shushant Singh and a beautiful Tulip Joshi. They did their job with an exceptional brilliance. As a director Manish Jha sets a benchmark for everyone to follow.  It will be a very difficult task for him to match this movie in his upcoming endeavors.

Last note: The name of the girl (lone female character) is Kalki. It’s a great metaphor. Kalki is the name of last avatar of Lord Vishnu to mark the end of mankind (Kalayuga) and begin everything from scratch (Satayuga)… To have an ownership of Kalki (a woman) everyone with malicious intention dies and Kalki gives birth to a daughter… A new beginning.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Stanley Kubrick | Statesmen

Hollywood Studio have been always been too powerful, so much so they would pressurize, directors to change script, change actors and sometimes make the whole film unrecognizably different from what it was initially meant to be.

Stanley Kubrick, is one of the very few directors (or may be the only one) who managed to keep Hollywood studios away from interfering in films scripts. So much so that shooting his last film in 1990 ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ studio people were not shown the movie until it was released. What would have this man done to command such power? Well his earlier works were so iconic that he could make films in his own terms.

Check out some of his works

Full Metal Jacket (Genre: War) – Considered as completely different from all war films made at that time.

Shining (Genre: Horror)- Considered one of the scariest Horror films made. Many of technique devised were

Clockwork Orange (Sci-Fi Crime Drama)- Remembered for its gross depiction of violence. What made it notorious was the fact that

2001: A Space Odyssey (Sci-Fi)- Considered to be THE BEST science fiction film ever made. Not your Michael Bay kind of science fiction. A movie that starts with the time human were apes, and ends with  next stage of human evolution (and in the first viewing hardly makes any sense).

Etc..

His films rarely repeated genres, and each of his film is considered a master piece in its genre. But he was a difficult man to deal with. He mostly had creative differences and thus had many fallouts with his collaborators.

Most of his films were adaptations from books. But his adaptations were according to his whims and sometimes were quite removed from original books. Thus rarely did the authors of originals endorsed the adapted film.

One more distinction his films had that almost all of his films were regarded classic much after their release. May be because he was ahead of his time. He has been inspiration for future generations of directors. His lesser known film ‘The Killing’ was remade as ‘Reservoir Dogs’ as debut film by noted director Quentin Tarantino.

Written by – Ali Naqvi

Carlo Gambino | Criminals In Cinema - Part 3 | Under Lens

He was born in Sicily. He immigrated to US illegally. He started off as a small time Italian goon and rose through the ranks. He became a mafia-chief. He became Godfather. He was Don Carlo Gambino.

Gambino also known as Godfather in the mafia-world was one of the inspiration of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather and the legendary movie based on it. There are more than just a few common things between Vito Corleone and Carlo Gambino. Their life cycle and mannerisms have striking resemblances and many of them cannot be simply ruled out as just coincidences. Gambino was the head of Gambino family and like many other families in US; even they have attracted the movie makers a lot. Mafia has such a charm… 

Gambino like Corleone didn’t endorsed drugs and even frowned on them harshly. This trait in Don Vito (influenced by Don Carlo Gambino) has been shown in many movies; especially the remakes made in India. In The Godfather, the problems came to fore when Don Vito declined the offer to deal with drugs. In Sarkar, Subhash Nagre refuses to do any anti-public business. In Agneepath, Vijay took a stand against drug-smugglers. Same philanthropy was exhibited by Velu in Nayagan and its counterpart in Dharmatma. Crime was okay but anti-people… no way.
 

There has been a few semi-fictional depiction of Carlo Gambino. In telly-film Gotti, he was portrayed by Marc Lawrence and in telly-film Boss of bosses, by Al Ruscio. Both are considered to be close depictions of the character. However, according to Friends Marlon Brando’s Don Vito was near perfect. Maybe this is the reason; there have been only a few attempts to give it a shot…

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Office Space | Flash Review

Rating—2.5/5 Stars

I read a great quote in the about work environment of today and found it to be from a movie called ‘Office Space’. It was well rated in Rotten Tomatoes too. Here’s my take on it:

Movie for me was like two movies. One about a scam to rob the organization, the other about a person breaking free from shackles of stupid office system. I would have loved had it just been the second film. It shows how a person who just refuses to be crushed by the system. There is a scene where hero with his friends went out their anger on an erring printer machine, with baseball bats, kicking and the likes. Just loooove that scene. You have to see that scene, coz I can bet you must have wanted to do it at some time.

But in second half when they plot to cheat the company things start to go downhill and never look up. I still don’t know how it is rated so high. If you find anything enlighten me through comments J

Written by – Ali Naqvi

Heist Special Edition | Genre Special

Heist Movies | Editor’s Pen

Hi All,

Welcome back. Well, last year, same time, same day we came up with our first genre special- Horror Special. I think TRM is quite struck with the letter H. That’s the reason why when we decided to go ahead with this year’s genre special, we zeroed upon another H. Heist Movies!!!

Heist Movies? What’s that? Frankly speaking, I don’t blame you because it is not a very common term. We generalize these movies as Thriller or Mystery but that doesn’t changes the nature of these movies. They have a purpose and they tend to accomplish them. In these movies, the core plot is all about a few people trying to steal something or accomplish a task that is not-so-legal. The twists and turns in the plot make these movies such a kill. Example, Reservoir Dogs and Inception.

Heist movies are inherently racy and the pace of story-telling usually is so breath taking that audience tends to skip major loopholes in the plot. They just go with the flow and when they come out of theatre the expression is a big O. Example, did you noticed that in A Wednesday (not exactly an heist movie but very close to this genre), where did Shah got his only bomb which he planted in the Police Station? Like getting RDX is a joke? We just tend to believe whatever is going on screen. That’s the power of Heist Movies. So… gear up… We are going to take you on a topsy turvy ride.

Love,
Sujoy Ghosh

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels | Snatch | Mega Review

When you sit to watch a heist film, what is it that you exactly expect? ... thrill? action? adventure? …right? but what about comedy?? And that too not just for a few minutes, but from the first frame till the last!
Here we are talking about two of Guy Ritchie’s blockbusters, Lock stock and two smoking barrels, and Snatch. The two movies that brought in a new genre of movies …and that was of Guy Ritchie’s.

Lock stock basically deals with four friends who are trapped in a debt they take from a local smut for a game of gambling, which was fixed & Snatch is based on a search for a diamond, that involves groups of crooks from different geographies, with a backdrop of a boxing promoter under a gangster’s thumb.
If I start discussing the brilliant story of both these movies, I will need the entire edition to cover them up, coz they are an assortment of twists and turns. So, rather than elaborating the plot, I would just highlight the distinguishing factors, which put these two on an entirely different level of cinema.

The feature that attracts me the most is their dark humor, which keeps you happy even on their tragedies! You definitely would have seen a lot many comic flicks but trust me they are a different lot. They might not make you hold your stomach but they make sure that you keep on smiling till the end, and get surprised along with! There is no moment in the movie where you could feel that the comedy is being imposed on you. It just comes on to you naturally.

Another notable feature about them is that you cannot identify the protagonist. It’s an amalgamation of performances. Each one is unique and in turn uniquely contributes to the movie. Like for example the Russian, who cannot be killed, whatsoever! Or be it the Brad Pitt’s and his community’s accent, the so called ‘gypsies’, who pronounced ‘dogs’ as ‘daegs’! All the characters are wonderfully crafted and hold on to their spirit till the last cut.

Also you will witness a collection of coincidences, but none of then comes on with stupidity. They just go on with the flow and never give you a feeling that they are being desperately planted.

So if you have already had enough doze of tense flicks, here comes my advice. Go for these two, you are surely going to enjoy them.

Written by ‘Rishabh Shukla’

Kaante - Reservoir Dogs Mega Review | Critique

Rating: Reservoir Dogs - 4 Stars; Kaante – 3 Stars

The film that launched career of much loved director Quentin Tarantino, 'Reservoir Dogs' is an evergreen cult film. It is a heist movie, but with a difference.

There is no Heist shown in the movie. The movie is set on events after the Heist. Partly, because of budget constraint and partly by design, so that film remains about what happens after the robbery.

Unofficial Hindi remake came in the shape of ‘Kaante’. It was released after multiple delays in release date. (It probably became only delayed film to get such success). Spiced with songs, loads of the choicest curse words and surprise package in the form of Mahesh Manjrekar’s superb debut as an actor, it worked big time for Indian Audience. In fact, it was probably the biggest hit of the year.

Considering the fact that Hindi movies have a longer running time they incorporated Heist and back stories of almost all characters as opposed to Reservoir Dogs. They played to the gallery whenever possible, thus taking out many shocking scenes from the original such as Torture scene of the Kidnapped Police Officer; it had a scene where thugs in kill of an arms supplier of Kashmir, silly if you ask me but it clicked.
 

At time of release of Kaante there were voices of concern from Hollywood about it being copy of Reservoir Dogs, but if you study Kaante closely, it is a loving remake of Reservoir Dogs.

 Moreover, the original parts of Kaante were actually good. Many twists of original were improvised and are not blind copy paste of ‘RD’ (Ok many have been taken of ‘Unusual Suspects’). In fact, detailed back stories each character in Kaante had, was praised by Tarantino himself.

In fact, for many Indian audiences (including me), Kaante was first introduction to Reservoir Dogs and thus to Master Tarantino himself. What else can you ask of a remake?

Written by- ‘Ali Naqvi’.

Frank Abagnale Jr. | Criminals In Cinema - Part 2 | Under Lens

Frank Abagnale Jr. is an iconic name in banking sector for some wrong reasons… Frank Abagnale Jr. was arrested for cheque forgery when he was very young and he later joined the system to track more such criminals. However, his stories of fooling people with disguises are legendary.

Frank Abangnale Jr

Catch Me If You Can is one near authentic movie based on life of Frank Abagnale Jr. The role was played by Leonardo Da Caprio. Though some fictional elements were added in the film to make it more fanciful and melodramatic, the core of the story and basic elements remained the same. However, certain sectors blamed director Steven Spielberg was blamed for glorifying crime and criminal, the man who was the center of attraction i.e. Frank Abagnale Jr. himself appreciated the movie and lend his helping hand as well in the making.

Though there is no movie that is directly based on life of Frank Abagnale Jr. made in India, some movie have scenes and plot pretty much like him.

Bunty Aur Babli was loosely based on another Hollywood Movie Bonnie And Cloydd; there were few scenes inspired from his life. Notably, the escape scene from airplane. Moreover, the B&B duo joins hands with police to track cons was also draws a parallel between life of Frank Abagnale Jr. and Bunty ‘n’ Babli.

Another amazing movie of our time made in India, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye was inspired from real life of a notorious con from Delhi. Interestingly, Director Dibakar Banerjee’s story telling was pretty much influenced by Spielberg’s story telling in CMIYC. Like Frank Abagnale Jr. Lucky is a thief and also an imposter with a troubled childhood.  

On a closing note, Frank Abagnale Jr. became a part of cast of CMIYC by playing the role of the French Officer who formally arrests his reel character played by an amazing Leonardo Da Caprio.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Catch Me If You Can | The Critique | Heist Special

He is not even 19. He is full of confidence. He knows money. He knows how to make it. He knows his work far more than anyone else. He has the charm to attract ladies… And he has FBI running behind him like anything… Do you know what his open challenge to them is? Catch me if you can… Fictionalized account of a criminal Frank Abagnale Jr., whose domain was cheque forgery and made a name out of it and an FBI Agent Carl Hanratty, CMIYC is a fast paced Heist movie made by Steven Spielberg.

There is a FBI Agent Carl Hanratty who is taking his work and cheque frauds seriously. There is a very smart young criminal Frank Abagnale Jr. who can fool even the champions of trade. He has a disturbed and broken childhood and wants some attraction. FBI, Police and Bankers running behind him give him the kick that is very intoxicating. Carl knows that someone is doing cheque forgeries but don’t know him by face. Frank has a close shave with an inquisitive Carl. Though, Carl misses him… he realizes that he got his man and now will find him out wherever he hides… Like every good chase, it ends positively. Carl arrests Frank. But it’s not the fullstop… it’s a comma. Watch the movie to understand what I mean…

Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty and Leonardo Da Caprio as Frank Abagnale Jr. are delight to watch on screen. This is one of those films where chemistry between two men on the opposite sides of the wall is so intriguing that you tend to forget everything else about the movie. One classic scene is when Carl narrowly misses Frank and Franks fools him. That particular scene is simply breathtaking. You will realize the power of direction and storytelling


Performances are awesome and story is the stealer. Direction… Man, I am not qualified enough to review Steven Spielberg’s direction… Period. Watch this movie even if you hate this genre because… it has more than just chase, run, steal and…

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Jewel Thief Movie Review | Critique | Heist Movies

Rating – 3.5 Stars


Oh and I thought we didn’t have classic Heist movies in Indian Cinema. Answer came in the form of Vijay Anand’s ‘Jewel Thief’.  If you have not seen the movie you have missed a major movie.

Plot: Vinay(Dev Anand), a young man suddenly discovers that he has a look alike criminal. Just days after knowing this City is rocked by many thefts of jewels. It doesn’t help that he himself has interest in jewels. Slowly and steadily police start to think that in fact He is the Jewel Thief.

Opening scene in the movie (before Vinay is intoduced) shows a startling heist. It just sucks you in. Moreover people involved in robbery actually appear in Vinay’s life the intrigue become much more intense. As audience and Vinay soon find out that nothing is what it seems; He is surrounded by imposters and betrayals; And it is all leading to plan an huge robbery. Will he be able to clear his name

Ashok Kumar has stellar performance in the movie. A character who has so many shades not many could have played it equally good. Dev Anand’s performance is good and some scenes performance is very powerful like when he has lost his memory (or has he?). Vyjayanthimala as Shalaini is perfect, with her act as Damsel in distress and her superb dance performances.

Trust me you HAVE to watch it. Hugely entertaining and reveting


Written by ‘Ali Naqvi’

Ocean Thus Stole| Cine Talk

When you talk about movies that aim at one big steal with a team- a proper heist film, one name can’t escape your mind. Yes, Ocean’s Series. When you think of the movie, one face can’t escape your mind. Yes, George Clooney as Danny Ocean. Well, about 50 years ago, in 1960, Frank Sinatra donned the role of Danny Ocean in the original Ocean’s 11. 2001 blockbuster was a remake of the original and it followed with almost equally successful sequels Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13.

Ocean’s 11 (both 1960 and 2001 editions) saw Ocean forming a group of 11 professionals and robbing casinos in Las Vegas. In content the remake was very close to the original. Propelled by the success of 2001’s Ocean’s 11 (earnings over $450 million), the makers decide to follow up with sequel Ocean’s 12. Ocean’s 12 saw another heist to escape from clutches of Terry Benedict (a character form prequel). It was not as big hit as its prequel, but still fared very well on box office prompting another sequel Ocean’s 13. It was also a big hit but since the revenues fell short of expectations, in all probabilities, there won’t be another sequel. This trilogy boasts of stars like Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia and Al Pacino. 

Ocean’s 11 (1960) has a cult status in this genre. It is still considered to be one of the perfect torch-bearers of this genre. The story telling in this movie set a bench mark and inspired many movie makers since then. Quentin Tarantino who made Reservoir Dogs was heavily inspired by this movie and shades are easily visible.

What make Ocean’s Series and the original so popular? First, experts join hands to do something that seems to be next to impossible. These experts have issues and they need to sort them as well. Second, the way of presentation is extremely high paced making you so involved that you don’t even care to raise your bum to fart. You simply watch with eyes, ears and brain open. Third, some good performances. Frank Sinatra portrayal of Danny Ocean is simply legendary. Similarly, charming Clooney puts a decent show…  Four… there are innumerous reasons to fall in love with Ocean and his gang… Just watch it.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Johnny Gaddar | The Critique | Heist Special

The deal is of 2.5 Crore and is to be distributed among 5 members of the gang. Each will get 50 Lacs. Enough for everyone but greed knows no bounds… One of them decides to pocket the entire profit into his wallet and elope with wife of a gangmate. Will he be able to do so? What will he lose and what will he gain. The question is the crux of the movie that won hearts of cine-lovers.

Johnny Gaddar is considered to be one of the smartest thriller movies made in last decade standing tall with A Wednesday. The movie boasts of a good star cast spear-headed by veteran Dharmendra and a newcomer Neil Nitin Mukesh who is grandson of iconic singer of yesteryears Mukesh. While Dharmendra was the anchor of the plot Neil was the main lead who plans to steal the money and execute his plan despite of some glitches and errors. However, though the plan succeeds; he fails. Why I am saying that… watch this movie to find out. One promise is that it’s not going to be a cheesy anti-climax.

The movie gives tributes to many Hindi films and the most brilliant writer of this genre- James Hadley Chase. Infact, the movie flows like one of James Hadley Chase’s novel. This movie is dedicated to iconic movie maker- Vijay Anand and the first word of title was taken from movie Johnny Mera Naam. There are also references to another Hindi movie- Parwana. Shades of red are prominently used as a tribute to Sin City and Dharmendra’s singing ‘Mera Gora…’ was a tribute to movie ‘Bandini’.

Performances of Neil and Dharamendra are outstanding while others did justice to their job. Director and writer Sriram Raghavan did a brilliant job. Background score and cinematography were simply gripping. Applause…

Johnny Gaddar is a film Bollywood should be proud of. It is as good as any good quality heist movie made anywhere on this planet. A very tight script and flawless execution. It has a pace that is trademark of this genre.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Aankhein Movie Review | Critique | Hiest Movies Special

Rating-3/5 Stars

Aankhein came out in 2002, with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan towering over the rest of the cast in terms of strature. Others included Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal.

What if you have a HUGE ego and intelligent criminal mind and somebody takes away only thing you ever made? Wrath. One, Vijay Singh Rajput (Mr. Bachchan) plans a heist to rob his former bank, to teach them a lesson. He makes an ingenious move to get three blind men to do the job. He ropes in Neha (Sushmita Sen) to train 3 such men.

3 men picked for the job have interesting characters. Iliyas (Paresh), the clown of the three, was made blind as a boy to beg on the streets. Arjun's, the simpleton, later developes feelings for Neha. Vishwas (Akshay) is the smartest of the three, having an acute sixth sense.

It works as a heist movie as it has an element of looming danger, an interesting premise, comic relief in form of Paresh Rawal. The sequence of their training has been put together really well; The replica of bank that is set up for training; Vishwas who many times nearly finds out presence of Mr Bachchan during the training are shot brilliantly.

Written by 'Ali Naqvi'

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Flash Review

Rating: 4.5/5

Smiler Grogan is a robbery suspect and is running from police. He crashes in an accident and five bikers help him out. Grogan tells them that he has hidden 350 thousand dollars under a mysterious W, somewhere near Mexican border. These 5 bikers initially decide to share the bounty but soon the deal goes off and it becomes a race to grab it. A policeman, who is working on Grogan case; assumes that these 5 fellows may have an idea and hence chases them. Who will win the race??

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

The Bank Job| Flash Review

Rating: 3/5

Terry and his group are all set for a bank robbery attacking one of the safest banks in silence of night. This is supposed to be their one big job together for a life of luxury. To their bad luck, while they talk over radio frequency, they are overheard by someone who informs police. 

So will they be able to do the robbery? Is it just a robbery or there is some hidden agenda as well? The introductory scene suggests that there is a lot more than just a plain bank job…

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh