SoggyCornflakes - Bollywood

For the first time ever, I watched a Bollywood movie within a week of it’s release, so I thought I would try my hand at a movie review as well. So here goes…

Name: Kismat Konnection (Destined Connection)

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla, Vishal Malhotra, with a special appearance by Boman Irani.

What can I say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? By the way, this review is going to have spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it and you don’t want to know plot points, then you might want to give this review a miss.

The movie: Yes, it was a bit cliched at points, but isn’t that the fun thing about a cute, light movie like KK? That you can predict what’s going to happen and then smile to yourself when you find out that you’re right? The nicest thing about this movie is that it made sense…I’m sick of Bollywood movies where events happen without any explanation. Some might say that Raj’s reasons for not telling Priya the truth from the beginning were a bit dodgy, and I guess I can see their point. Honesty is the best policy…but how can you have a climatic ending if there isn’t a conflict? I mean, the stupid fiance removed himself from the picture…there had to be a problem for them to sort out by themselves.

Predictable Flash: As soon as Priya met Boman Irani’s character and took him to Raj’s meeting, you should have known who he was.

The Actors: Shahid was excellent, in my not-so-humble opinion. His character could be serious and then playful in the blink of an eye. Thoroughly likable, especially since we all have those days where everything goes wrong, and his despair and frustration at his bad-luck life was obvious.

Vidya was really good too. I don’t think she looked much older than Shahid, although her character was too similar to her Lage Raho Munnabhai character…or was it just me who thought that?

Juhi was very cute as the fortune-teller, with the right combination of melodrama and comedy.

Vishal was…well, the sidekick? Shahid and him have a good friendship chemistry.

Mouth-dropping drooling scene: Shahid in the shower

The Music: You already know my opinion on it.

Best song: ‘Soniye Ve’ (the picturisation of the song was great…especially the scene where Shahid looks at Vidya and sings “Kehna sawa jho baat zabaan se, aankhon se meri parlein” [The things I can't say with my tongue, read them from my eyes] and he looks at her so intensely…swoon. Although those lines sound better in Hindi). I liked ‘Is this Love’ as well, and obviously, the addition of Shahid just makes the song ten times better.

Funniest Scene: I don’t know if I had too much sugar or something, but when Raj and Hitin go to Priya’s demonstration, I was laughing hysterically when they really got into the “Batra and Gill, Down Down!” chant. Nope, wasn’t too much sugar, I still find that scene hilarious.

I think that’s enough from me for tonight. You don’t have to agree with my review but comments are always appreciated.

Now imagine him saying that in a thick Austrian accent.

Even though Shah Rukh Khan’s and Juhi Chawla’s team, the ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’ flopped out of the first IPL tournament after a promising start, Shah Rukh promises that they’ll be back next season, and he’s impressed with his team’s performance, even though they couldn’t make it past the first round.

Shah Rukh and Juhi also had a little ceremony of their own where they presented their players with gold-plated helmets for their contribution. Oh my word, if that’s what they get for losing, I can’t imagine what they’d get for winning. I think there’s lots of advantages to being in a celebrity-owned team, especially Shah Rukh’s, who’s starting to sound like the Oprah of the Bollywood world, you know, just without the counseling and talk-show.

And in other Shah Rukh news, Kajol has finally signed on for My Name is Khan, which means that that jodi is back. Yay! Now I’m off to study…enjoy the rest of your day!

Does that make you desperate in Bollywood or does it make you a smart actress, because small things will always lead to bigger ones?

Diya Mirza insists that every role she takes does not have to be unique or big, because she wants to work with different people and actors. She’ll appear again in Krazzy 4, as a reporter, an avatar that she had attempted before in Shootout at Lokhandwala.

“I don’t care about length of the role or if I have done a role of reporter before or not. I found this role very interesting, in fact I would say that my role is the most prominent and if I wouldn’t be there in the film, the film would have been incomplete”.

Um, though the again, she seems to be insinuating that she’s the greatest actress in Bollywood or something. So the four crazy guys and Juhi Chawla are there as foils for her character? Wait, I though this movie was called Krazzy 4, not 1 Krazzy Reporter.

That’s a bit harsh, but that’s what I do when people don’t support me. But if I can’t hurt them, then I bear a grudge my whole life. So I’m polite to their faces but pull my tongue behind them. That’s bad girl to you, right there!

Anyways, the story is that Shah Rukh Khan used his considerable muscle (hypothetically I mean, not those steroid-filled lumps) to make sure that he acted in his new movie with old pal Juhi Chawla and not Amisha Patel.

Billoo Barber, Shah Rukh’s next movie also stars Irrfan Khan as Billoo and Amisha was meant to be his wife. Not happening though. The movie is directed by Priyadarshan and is meant to be a modernised story of lord Krishna.

Amisha did have a small role in Priyadarshan’s previous film Bhool Bhulaiya which she complained about, insisting that she wasn’t given enough screen time and enough space on promotional posters.

Other reports suggest that it was Amisha who opted out of the role because it was too insignificant for her. Either way, she’s really in no position to question a role in a SRK movie.

So another wannabe bites the dust.

And it’s up to you who you think is the beauty and who’s the beast. I’m talking about Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, who have not appeared on-screen together in almost 3 decades.

Though there’s no official conformation to it, they two oldies may appear in Sujoy Ghosh’s Aladdin, also starring Ritesh Deshmukh and Juhi Chawla.

Obviously Ritesh will be Aladdin and Big B might be the genie. Rekha…well, since there’s no evil step-mother in Aladdin, we’ll assume that she’s going to be Aladdin’s mom.

While I don’t think that Bollywood can do ripped-off stories properly yet (they tend to ruin the magic of fairy tales and destroy the originality of English movies) but we’ll see how this goes.

If Rekha plays the princess, I’m starting a petition!

Not ‘wanted’ in a criminal sense, just wanted in a superstar turned Item Boy sense. Shah Rukh Khan will be seen sooner than we thought he would. Does anyone even know what his next movie is supposed to be? Oh well, we’ll be seeing him soon in Rakesh Roshan’s Krazzy 4 in an item song number.

Hrithik Roshan, though not acting in the movie will also dance to the same song, though only for promo’s. Shah Rukh’s song will actually appear in the movie.

The movie sounds cute however, being about 4 escapees from a mental hospital who go out to see the world for a day and in the end are left wondering who is really insane. A deep message? Maybe.

Big names in the movie include Arshad Warsi, Juhi Chawla, Diya Mirza and Rajpal Yadav. Oh yay, and I found the video for you guys. I think SRK might be making too big a deal out of this…song sucks and Shah Rukh looks like an idiot with his little ponytail. Very few guys can pull that look off and a 42-year-old father of two shouldn’t try it.

A recent Q & A with Rahul Bose asked questions about his new film, whether there were any sequels planned for some films and how he feels about his co-stars.

Q.: Please tell us about your character in the film “Shaurya”.
A.: In this film, I portray an army lawyer who gets irritated all he time, as he does not have many cases.

The lawyer gets a case at last, which is quite complicated, and realizes that he might eventually lose his life if he continues to work on the case. The story will move on as the lawyer, played by me, goes ahead with the case and fights it.

Q.: According to you, what’s the meaning of “Shaurya”?
A.: I think “Shaurya” means whatever you do, do it with complete confidence and dedication.

Q.: Minisha Lamba stars opposite you in the film, so can you talk about your chemistry on screen with her?
A.: I mix well with all my co-stars.

Even if I hate someone, my acting and perfect sense of chemistry does not let others notice this. I think building proper chemistry in front of the camera is quite easy, as they all are made or created.

All that we show and do at the set are just forced and made. You also follow the same route as you are supposed to work as a part of a team.

Just a little aside…what happened to being humble? He sounds like Shah Rukh Khan!

Q.: But still, there are some pairs whose chemistry creates magic on screen, isn’t it?
A.: It’s very rare. I don’t think you should have to be friends to get that chemistry on screen. Take for example, I and Perizad are very good friends, but that chemistry doesn’t show up on screen.

On the contrary, there are Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla as well as Dilip Kumar and Vaijayanti Mala who never liked each other, but their onscreen chemistry was mind boggling.

People say, I look better with Mallika on screen, but in reality, we are absolutely different from each other.

Q.: Is it true that the sequel of “Pyar Ke Side Effects” will be made soon?
A.: No.

Q.: Who is your inspiration behind your work for social causes?
A.: I don’t know. I know only one thing that whenever I see something illegal happening, I get really angry. The racism that came to show up recently due to an incident in Mumbai has really made me ashamed as a citizen of this city.

There’s no feeling of differentiation amongst us, but when few people raised their voice, we felt afraid. Here we can easily understand that there’s no unity amongst us.

Sorry fans who really wanted the sequel, and believed my old post about it but I really did think it was going to happen. Though sequels, as a general rule, suck, so maybe we should just leave the fantasy beautifully played out in our minds?

If you read the headline “Hema Malini pledges to donate her eyes” what would you be thinking? Mini-auction selling her eyes for charity? Sounds more interesting than the actual stories.

She’s the new brand ambassador of Vision 2020 - The right to Sight India. The whole point of it is fund raising for the blind and just raising awareness about blindness. While that’s very noble, I still think it would have been cooler if she had donated her eyeballs. Yes, I’m gross, I know.

Hema joins the ranks of famous celebrity Vision 2020 ambassadors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Juhi Chawla and Suniel Shetty. She’ll be doing lots of celebrity fund raising thingies. Very noble, self-sacrificing and sweet. Why does this news make me want to sleep on my keyboard though?

Have you heard of Pearl Verma? Nope? I thought not. The student-turned-reluctant actress has decided that being a clever clogs was more important than having a bit role in a film with Shah Rukh Khan. As sport-themed movies are becoming more acceptable in Bollywood, Shah Rukh is starring in Chak De India (Chuck it away India? Someone help!), a movie centered around an all-girls hockey team.

Pearl rejected a role in the film to write her grade 12 exams and became a top achiever with a 94% average. WOW! And the girl is kind of pretty too, looks a bit like Juhi Chawla. It’s quite rare to find a girl who’s pretty and clever…gotcha! You thought I would go on about how pretty and clever I am, but I won’t! I’m humble!