Prejudices... | Editor's Pen

Hi All,

While writing, I always tend to be  a bit more responsible than what I am in my real life. No, I am not saying that I try to be diplomatic or hypocrite. Its just that, I try not to impose my own vision or thoughts on somebody else. I try to understand other person's POV and more than often I am able to hush the clouds to find the silver line.

We always tend to form prejudices and dismiss the radical changes. Some of those embers turn into ash while few generate a fire. In this edition, we are going to have a couple of Flash Reviews of movies with prejudices and issues associated.

Plus, we are starting a series on criminals and accused who became center of attraction of celluloid.

Love...

Sujoy Ghosh

Reader | Flash Review

Rating: 5/5

Hanna loves story and finds someone who loves to read out stories. He is a kid, Michael. He fells in love with her. He reads out stories to her. She revert with love and care. One day, Hanna gets clerical work. Things get messed up between her and him and she leaves. Some time later, in a Nazi-trial, Michael finds her amongst accused. There he realizes that how much he loves her. She accepts sentence and despite of an opportunity to save, just to protect her honor, he doesn’t. Years later, he reads out more stories to her.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Summer 2007 | Flash Review

Rating: 1/5

Five medical students, after a mixed experience of student politics goes to rural Maharashtra where they find their true calling when they see the plight of farmers. They have a Mukhiya, a zamindar and his son against them. There is a social reformer (based on Nobel Laureate Md. Yunus of Bangladesh) who aspire to take the farmers out of their situation. These students decide to help them and lose a lot in the process…

Written by: Sujoy Ghosh

Dawood | Criminals In Cinema - Part 1 | Under Lens

He is one of the most wanted terrorists with obscene bounties on his head. CIA, FBI, Interpol and Indian Police chasing him like anything without much success. Well, for Bollywood; he is a big Formula.

Company is a movie that has attained a cult status amongst movie lovers. It was appreciated by both critics and masses. In this movie, Ajay Devgan portrayed character Mallik which was heavily based on Dawood. The movie told the story of Dawood and Chota Rajan- friendship and differences. Company Boasts of exceptional performances and superb direction. But the charmer was the way of narration that was very un-Bollywoodish.

The same style was carried in a movie treated a s prequel of Company. Yes... D. D was story of Desu who takes overtakes the Mumbai as a sharp criminal. A newcomer Randeep Hooda played the lead role and did a nice job. However, it flopped badly.

Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai; another movie based on Dawood. OUATIM was based on Dawood and Hajio Mastan; another ruler of Mumbaai. In this movie, Imraan Hashmi came out of his serial-kisser stereotype and played a role that will be remembered for some good time. Interestingly, the cast of this movie boasts of two other Dawoods... Ajay Devgan and Randeep Hooda. Thats what we call... circle of life.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Dabangg Movie Review | Critique

"H*r*mz*d* se yaad aaya, aapke pitaji aajkal kaise hai?" Dabangg is all about Chulbul Pandey and his life laced with a style and attitude thatr has become a signature of Salman. Yes... as the promo suggested... Dabangg is out and out a Salman Khan movie; one you can enjoy only if you are Salman Khan Fan.

From the first fight sequence of Salman's introduction and a signature kick-ass fight with dacoits of Lalganj to the last one-on-one with Cheddi in his Cheddi's own pocket; each fight scene is over the top; however supercool and superbly choreographed. But action is not the highlight of this movie. There is an amazing love story between a suitable boy- Chulbul and a suitable girl-Rajo who will not marry till her father is alive. But romance is definitely not the highlight of this movie... The highlight of this raw movie is the antic or antics se yaad aaya... chulbulapan, of Chulbul Pandey.

Humor is the high of this movie. The antics fire the rawness of humor and the outcome is a superb cinematic experience that can make you yell, scream, shout, whistle and even dance in theatre... Music, except for Peeni Hai and Munni Badnaam ; brings in calmness in otherwise a high voltage movie. Peeni Hai and  Munni Badnaam steps up the voltage and make you shake your legs.

Performances. Salman as Chulbul is  simply awesome. Sonu Sood is a revelation. As a villain, he complements Chulbul. Sonakshi. I have resvations about her caliber as an actress. In some scenes she stands out but overall she is just average. Everyone else... umm I didn't noticed...

Is this a great movie? Well, if you judge by what a movie aims at, I will say YES. It wanted to entertain you and I guess it did. So, a must watch for a Salman Khan fan...

Salman Khan Fan's Rating: 6/5
TRM Rating:                  2.5/5

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

We Are Family | The Critique

Rating: 3/5



Long ago, I heard Kareena saying that Erin Brockovich is one of her dream roles. With We Are Family, I guess a part of her dream has been realized. But unfortunately, Kareena is no Julia Roberts. She can’t be so even in my wildest dreams. However, rating We Are Family, I would say… 3 off five. Two for movie and one for buying the rights of original...

We are family is basically story of a lady coming into terms with her ex’s current for the sake of her children. Kajol, the Mom is trying to teach a thing or two to Kareena, the Stepmom while Arjun, the Pop looks confused and ragged between two ladies. Set in Australia, this is another tale from Dharma Banner about no-so-Indian Indians. Without revealing the details and goof-ups in the plot, I would like to say a few things about the performances.

We Are Family is basically Kajol’s film. She simply overtook everything from everyone else with her charming performances. She has proven the fact that she is perhaps the last star actress. Maybe this is not her best but she was the saving grace. Kareena was better than Tashan or Kambakhht Ishq but I guess that’s not a reason to celebrate. Arjun was apt and with raised expectations after Raajneeti, I think he should gear up fast. Kids were cool. They put a nice show.


Dialogues are a sheer let down. Too plastic. Music is average. Cinematography and editing are just okay; below Dharma standards. Direction seems to be weak but then I guess since we tempt to compare with the original; so pardonable. Overall, average. However, I think it was absolutely great on part of makers that they bought the rights for the remake… something really positive.

Why To Watch: If you haven’t seen Stepmom, like Kajol act and want to ogle at Kareena.

Why To Avoid: There is nothing too good about it, in parts its boring and not anywhere close to Stepmom in cinematic sense.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Editor's Pen...

Hi...

A lot has happened in last few days... we have switched to .com to .in and that is going to affect us a lot. But, this change came because of our silly negligence. Something that happen when you are careless and stupid to forget to put a reminder. We lost our domain and had to buy a new one...

Well... we need your support. Please keep visiting us and make everyone know that its now www.thereelmag.in By the way... I hope you like the new design...

There is a good news... I have started making a fewq short movies and they will be available on: http://www.youtube.com/closingframes... let me know about your views

Love...

Sujoy Ghosh

Roo-ba-roooo | Team of Encounter | Golden Podium

1.            Is this your first short movie??

Siddharth:  No

Nitin: No, This is not my first short movie.. I have done a few movies before with different teams. But certainly this script was fresh and hence the experience was new to me.

Neha: YES. Actually my 1st act.

2.            How was your experience working in the short movie?

Siddharth:  Awesome. Best utilization of a weekend.

Nitin: The experience was amazing. It’s always good to do things that you are passionate about. Above all I could meet and know a few like minded people

Neha: It was great. Got to learn many things from the team.

3.            Any interesting incident during shooting this short movie?

Siddharth: While recording the statement - ‘Magar... phir bhi.. Majid saab to haath dhokar mere piche padhe hai.’ Everyone in the room would start laughing when I uttered Majid saab. Finally, I had to record the statement with no audience. I will never forget Majid saab, only name uttered in the whole movie and only character missing!

Nitin: There was a dog in the neighborhood who kept barking at us thinking that everything happening was real. Also the ways we were trying to hide the ORANGE part of the toy gun sent us in fits of laughter.

Neha: Actually there were many, but I found most interesting one when Sid was on road and one aunty passed by, I can understand how sid felt but he still got the courage to give a smile (as he had no other option :P) to her and aunty went laughing. Also I remember the Dog Horror :P 

4.            On a scale of 1-10; rate this short movie?

Siddharth:  4

Nitin: I would rate it as 7/10 since there is a lot of scope for improvement…

Neha: I personally feel the script was very nice the ordering of the scene, acting was also not bad so I will rate movie as 7 out of 10. That too just because the camera was not stable. But it was a nice effort.

Experience ‘Encounter’ | Golden Podium

Short Film: Encounter

Location: Mangalore, Karnataka

Encounter is my first short film made with few friends. The product came out to be better than what I expected and the response I got was simply amazing. Here is the story from backend...

We were 5 people who gathered at Bharath Mall (Mangalore). Me, Sid, Nitin, Neha and Gaurav. After the initial briefing we bought a toy-gun. We found a gun that was not fancy and could have passed on for its real cousin. However there was a problem. An orange handle that made it look like a toy. Throughout the shooting, Nitin tried hard to hide it... maybe harder than what Hrithik used to do to hide his sixth finger in his earlier days.

Then we found two locations. One in campus of St. Aloysius college campus and other in Lalbagh. The black and white portion shot in chronological order in the movie was shot in college while the color chronological one was shot in Lalbagh... It is the second one where we had all the fun...

There was a chase scene to be shot on road in the residential area. While we were doing a scene, a domesticated dog saw us and almost went wild. God, he was chained else what could have happened to Sid and Nitin is just imaginable. Moreover, poor Sid had to lie down on street as a dead body. Interestingly, Neha was more concerned about her bag getting dirty than Sid getting an insect bite. Anyways, the shooting ended well. Dubbing was going to be interesting...

In the story there is one character that has a name- Majid. Interestingly, he does not have a screen time. Now when the dubbing for a particular scene was going on, Sid was supposed to say a dialog that had this word- Majid. Every time he said, we started laughing. It was uncontrollable. Finally, I went out and Nitin also came and that portion was dubbed.

Shooting was fun and after hearing some good words... I am hi... Waiting for your response.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Seven Pounds | The Critique

It’s a film that observes a character who is behaving precisely, with no apparent motivation. A good actor brings such a role into focus, as Will Smith does in the enigmatically titled "Seven Pounds." Who is he, what does he want, why is he behaving so oddly? And why is he looking for people who need their own favors? And so on. For much of the first hour he seems to be acting according to a plan that seems perfectly clear, but only to him. The reason it goes unexplained is that he has no need to explain it to himself, and no way to explain it to anyone else.

Will Smith displays a rather impressive range of emotional speeds here. He can be a tough, merciless IRS man. He can bend the rules on some cases. He can have a candlelight dinner with a beautiful woman named Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) and go home afterward. He is angry with people sometimes, but he seems angriest of all at himself. It's quite a performance.

Dawson makes Emily not simply a woman confused, maybe offended, by his behavior, but a woman of instinctive empathy, following his lead when he needs to be treated like an IRS agent or like a perfect gentleman or like a man who needs understanding even if she doesn't know what she's supposed to understand.

I haven't even hinted about the hidden motives in this film. Miraculously for once, even the trailers don't give anything away.  Gabriele Muccino, who also directed Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness” is effective at timing the film's revelations so that they don't come suddenly like a U-turn; they're revealed at the last necessary points in the story.

Written By: Ali Naqvi

When Harry Met Sally | The Critique

 When Harry Met Sally . . ." is a story of two people and about how it takes them 12 years to fall in love. We're with them, or maybe a little ahead of them, every step of the way.

Harry meets Sally for the first time at the University of Chicago, when they team up to share the driving for a trip to New York. We see them only at those intervals when they see each other. They meet, for example, several years later and she's with a new boyfriend. They keep on meeting until they realize that they like one another, and they become friends - even though on their very first cross-country trip, Harry warned Sally that true friendship is impossible between a man and a woman, because the issue of sex always gets in the way.

There are lots of lines to quote when you're telling friends about the movie.  It's only occasionally that the humor is paid for at the expense of credibility - as in a hilarious but unconvincing scene where Sally sits in a crowded restaurant and demonstrates how to fake an orgasm.

Harry is played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan is Sally, and they make a good movie couple because both actors are able to suggest genuine warmth and tenderness. She is an open-faced, bright-eyed blond; he's a gentle, skinny man with a lot of smart one-liners. Crystal is one of the rare actors who can make an apology on the screen, and convince us he means it. Ryan has a difficult assignment - she spends most of the movie convincing Harry, and herself, that there's nothing between them - and she has to let us see that there is something, after all.

This film is probably Rob Reiner’s most conventional, in terms of structure and the way it fulfills our expectations. But what makes it special, apart from the Ephron screenplay, is the chemistry between Harry and Sally.

Written By: Ali Naqvi