"Aa Dekhen Zara" Movie Review

Aa Dekhen Zara:

Cast:
Neil Nitin Mukesh,
Bipasha Basu,
Rahul Dev,
Bobby Vats

Director: Jehangir Surti

“Can you dance?” asks a Thai crook to Simi (Bipasha Basu) as he provides shelter to Ray (Neil Mukesh) and her from the cops and a killer. She nods and we have a song which has no purpose in the film apart from showing how good the two protagonists are at dance! Of course, there is another side effect. It kills the pace of the movie right when it is at the maximum. To add to this, the film loses on thrill towards the end of the journey. Yet, Aa Dekhen Zara has a very interesting premise for a story.

The film, directed by first-time director Jehangir Surti, starts out well. Out-of-work photographer Ray inherits a camera from his grandfather which predicts the future through photographs. Well, we know it sounds quite silly to have such cameras in the first place, but then, why doubt the power of science. After all, we believed in Matrix, didn’t we? Soon Ray earns enough money to buy his girlfriend expensive wine and a bungalow for himself. But then, he gets noticed too - both by Indian intelligence and a gangster. And now he has three enemies to run away from - the crook, a dishonest intelligence officer and his own impending death. What’s interesting is that the hero, for a change, is terrible at kicking butts. He can’t match up to the villain if it’s a fist fight. Good departure from old days, now we have more human protagonists, who are both grey in character and weak in strength.

The first half sees the story build up with good pace. A stylish editing helps. But the second half slacks because of scripting issues. The cinematography is consistent. Music – both background and playback - is quite a highlight and peps up the mood. Dialogues could have been better if not memorable. Neil Nitin Mukesh yet again comes up with a winning performance. He is especially good with scenes when he does the ‘scared look’. Agreed you don’t get a Johnny Gaddaar everyday in your career, nevertheless, he makes good of this opportunity too. Bipasha looks awesome throughout and does well too. Rahul Dev deserves praise for underplaying his character so well and staying away from typical, exaggerated villains. Sophie Chaudhary, however, is a huge weak link.

Overall, Aa Dekhen Zara is a masala entertainer despite its scientific background. Director Jehangir Surti does well in directing a film which needs to be shot completely backwards because of the photographs which are supposed to reveal the future.

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"8x10 Tasveer" Movie Review

8x10 Tasveer:

Cast:
Akshay Kumar,
Ayesha Takia,
Javed Jaafery,
Sharmila Tagore,
Girish Karnad,
Anant Mahadevan,
Benjamin Gilani

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

Music: Salim-Sulaiman, Bohemia

"8x10 Tasveer" Movie Review:

Indian directors would make something like that. Well, Nagesh Kukunoor just did that! 8X10 Tasveer is what you wished for. But then, that could also be the weak link of the movie.

To start with, this is a story of Jai Puri (Akshay Kumar) who works for wildlife conservation and wants to stay away from his dad’s capitalist business. He is gifted with a psychic ability to look into the past of a person’s life through any photograph of that person. However, there is a catch – doing that endangers his own life. Jai’s father dies of heart attack and he suspects foul play. Hence, he undertakes a journey to find out how his father was killed. To his help he has a photograph, which was taken minutes before his father’s death, and he has a private detective Happi (Javed Jaafery).

Nagesh weaves in chilling suspense into the circumstances with a great screenplay. He is helped by good background music and excellent cinematography. The dialogues are just about human and very day to day, making the film real even during unreal situations. He also uses special effects well in the narration.

There is a problem though. No convincing explanation is given as to why the murderer kills so many people. There is some background shown, but that does not seem ground enough to kill people.

The film completely belongs to Akshay Kumar. He delivers something unseen from him before. When the actor had told in a recent interview that Nagesh didn’t allow him to do what he usually does, we should have got the hint. 8X10 Tasveer is a rare occasion when Akshay underplays his character. And while you think Ayesha Takia would have nothing to do, she delivers a punch too with a solid role. The scene stealer here is, however, Javed Jaafery who perfects his Hyderabadi accent and OCD to clean anything on sight. The rest of the cast fall in well.

Overall, 8X10 Tasveer is simple, subtle, smart and sleek. Nagesh Kukunoor does well in restricting any kind of melodrama that usually creeps into regular Indian movies. The movie easily shows his capability to handle the genre after handling emotional dramas well in his previous movies. But as pointed out in the very first paragraph, this could very well be the pitfall of the movie. Extremely non-Bollywood treatment may alienate this film from the masses. But people who are exposed to Hollywood at a greater level will lap this as one good suspense thriller.

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Two talented actresses Kajol & Kareena again in forthcoming venture

Karan Johar has done it again. After casting Kajol and Kareena Kapoor for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, way back in 2001, he’s got the two talented actresses Kajol & Kareena again for his forthcoming venture.

The film will be directed by debutante Siddharth Malhotra, the grandson of the late Prem Nath. Siddharth was the creative producer of the hit TV serial Sanjivani and was responsible for conceptualising and shaping it.

Our source revealed, “Kajol and Kareena have been finalised for Karan Johar’s forthcoming film, which will start once the actors are free from their on-going films.”

The film, which is yet untitled is based on the Hollywood film, Stepmom (1998), starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. The shooting of the film will begin as soon as Kajol wraps up the shoot of Karan’s My Name Is Khan, opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

So how did the casting come about? “Karan, who is directing Kajol in My Name Is Khan is very happy with her work. The same holds true for Kareena, who is working opposite Saif Ali Khan in a project directed by Rensil D’Silva,” said the source.

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Bollywood entertainer to go turn

First it was India's "rock stars of cricket", and now a bevy of Bollywood beauties has hit Hamilton.

Late-afternoon shoppers at Westfield Chartwell got a sample of the colour, dance and music of the touring Dreamgirls of Bollywood show when dancer Aditi Bhagwat strutted her stuff in the mall, accompanied by tabla player Pandit Kalinath Mishra.

The show's producer, Rama Khanna, said New Zealand was the 29th country the show had visited, and the two Hamilton performances this week followed a successful stint at Auckland's SkyCity.

Mr Khanna described Dreamgirls of Bollywood as a story-based musical aimed at bringing together the memories and themes of Bollywood's past, present and future, and presenting them to an audience beyond the Indian community.

"We had a fantastic response in Auckland, and we're looking forward to a great performance in Founders Theatre," he said.

Mr Khanna said alongside cricket Indian's national sport Bollywood music, cinema and performance was the most followed entertainment in India, and was growing increasingly popular across the world.

"I think Bollywood has even more passion than cricket. We're spreading the Indian culture, and it's mingling with world culture," he said.

Tickets for the shows tomorrow and Thursday are available from TicketDirect.

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Priyanka was dressed in the family heirloom- a pink sari

"This is Indiraji's saari. She was shorter than me. I have to do some modification in wearing it as I am taller than her," 36-year-old Priyanka said with a giggle when reporters pointed out that she resembled the former prime minister and even dressed like her.

On her wedding in 1996, Priyanka was dressed in the family heirloom- a pink sari worn by her mother and grandmother had donned at their wedding.

Asked what she would do after April 30 when polling concludes in Sonia's constituency Rae Bareli, the mother of two said, "I will take care of my children and will get their home work done".

Priyanka has so far said that she will only campaign in Amethi and Rae Bareli where her brother Rahul and mother Sonia Gandhi are contesting respectively.

Asked whether her joining Rahul at Barabanki public meeting yesterday was any indication of her plans to join full fledged politics, Priyanka said there was no "political thinking" behind it.

"I had not seen my brother for more than 10 day. So when I went to meet him at the airport he asked me to accompany him. There was no political thinking behind it. I did not even deliver any speech there," Priyanka said.

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