Varun's Word

Directed by: Rupert Wyatt | Written by: Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa | Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton |

“American pop-corn” pellets. Not to be consumed too seriously. Mild dosage recommended.
Usually when animals escape from their captive cage, they really don’t have a plan. They just run around, cause havoc, maybe take a leak, fool around until they get caught again! However Caesar, the accidental pet of Dr. Will (James Franco), aggregates an army of apes and leads them to their ultimate goal. So can the genetically modified Chimpanzee and his army achieve freedom? Watch it the Hollywood way!

This movie gives a casual sneak peek of what’s bound to happen in the future of genetic engineering. In the words of Caroline (Frieda Pinto) “Somethings aren’t meant to be changed”. Should we call this a commercial venture by Frieda? All she does is appear on-screen beside James Franco. Maybe this was more important for her as she wanted to make her counterparts in B-wood feel jealous. Now coming back to what she says in the movie “Somethings aren’t meant to be changed.”, she means ‘Nature’ should not be intervened. Genetic Engineering creates a parallel ‘Nature’ and has pros and cons just like any other branch of science.

Tom Felton repeats the role of a bully in a non-HP franchise too! Boy, you need some counseling! The crowd-pullers here are James Franco and his super-smart pet Caesar. The writers have an interesting plot, however a running time of just 105 minutes on screen too seems dragging! Maybe because they did not want to rush to climax.

The makers of this movie are counting on Oscar-winning visual effects house WETA Digital–employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for “Avatar“, they have rendered photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors in this movie. This makes this movie even more watchable, a breath of fresh-air from the usual computer generated graphics.

Get ready to hear some lame conversations like ” (Franco yells) Caesar ! ….(then Pinto yells) Caesar…. (then Franco’s dad yells) Caesar? …. “. This would have been more interesting if the ape could talk back. Caesar stands for the pride of apes and he executes in style!

— Varun Mannava Gowtham

This Animation movie from Walt Disney Feature Animation was made at a budget of $ 45 Million (1994). However its gross revenues till date stand at $ 783 Million. This evergreen story continues to win hearts around the globe, the revenue figures stand as a proof to this. The film being re-released in 3D can very well be your latest excuse to revisit the theatres and root for Simba as he fights-back to reclaim his succession as the Lion King.

Rafiki holds the baby Simba over the edge of the Pride Rock, as Hans Zimmer’s music runs in the background, and a few rays of sunlight tear through the clouds in the sky. The jungle gets to see their king. This is the best moment in the movie.

“Whatever the light touches is our kingdom” King Mufasa explains to his son Simba. Its the first time that Simba gets to see his kingdom. “And one day you shall rule it!” It gives you the same feeling when your dad sat with you for the first time and advised you about managing money or taught you how to drive a car! This movie thrives on such emotions that one can relate to in their personal life. That is what makes it a time-less classic!

Simba’s uncle Scar is definitely hurt about not being able to rule the Pride rock, however he is no hurry. An epitome of evil, he schemes his way through to the throne. When the cub Simba cries out standing next to King Mufasa’s carcass “Please help, somebody, anybody?”, it is sure to shake you up and test your EQ no matter what your age is. Luck favours Simba when he runs away from his plotting uncle. Scar then takes over the Pride rock claiming that both Mufasa and Simba were dead.

Simba makes new friends and he tries to forget his past, but his responsibility comes calling in the form of Nala, his childhood friend. Simba and Nala spend time together bringing back good old memories of Pride rock. Rafiki, the philosophical baboon, too catches the scent of Simba and comes searching for him. He makes Simba realise that King Mufasa never died and that he is alive within Simba. Does Simba get the courage to go back to the Pride Rock and face his family?

As Rafiki says to Simba, “one can either run away from one’s past or learn from it”. Must-see for your kids, an un-adulterated animation movie that has the potential to make them stronger emotionally. And yes, it entertains the adult audiences equally well!

Varun Mannava Gowtham

They say, a lamp glows very brightly just on the brink of running out of oil. Spain, which may be on the brink of a sovereign default, glows brightly in this movie. Spain emotes along with the lead characters, helping them out in “Discovering new depths in life”, “pushing boundaries to the sky”, “shaking a leg in style, salsa-ing”, “Painting the world red using tomatoes” and finally “making pact with life if successful in cheating death”.

This road-trip through the arteries and veins of Spain, has its highs and lows, thrills and chills, ice-breaker and hot-geyser moments. Now we all know what Zoya Akhtar is made of. Although the idea of road-trip and casting 3 leading men may compel you to compare the movie with Dil Chahta hai, she has taken enough care not to remind you of the classic. If DCH celebrates friendship and male-bonding, ZNMD celebrates life in which friendship is also a part. Javed Akhtar’s poetic lines at the end of the movie gives the gist of the vision of Zoya.

The cast too comes in support for the director’s vision of “Celebrate your present life.” Abhay Deol as Kabir Deewan, stands as a pillar through-out the movie, very clear about his characterization and his portrayal. So is Kalki Koechlin as Natasha, the ease with which she embraces the role of a suspecting fiancé just amazes you. Farhan Akhtar as the poetic Imran shines in the role of a son in search of his real father.

Only misfits in the entire casting being Hrithik Roshan who plays Arjun and Katrina Kaif who plays Laila. Laila has the potential and depth to advise on life, however Katrina doesn’t enact it so. When Katrina delivers powerful lines on how to lead life, with her typical model-like expression, it just doesn’t sink into the audiences. Hrithik Roshan (Arjun) is well-off when he portrays the workaholic character initially. But the moment he turns thinking about life, he looks and acts funny. This is more evident when he realises how to lead life from a character that is portrayed shallowly by Katrina. But since Hrithik and Katrina are crowd pullers, you need to digest these two characters. Trust me, this movie has the capacity to absorb them and still shine.”Bag-Mati” pulled off a better performance, I must say. (Bag-Mati is a 12,000 EUR worth ‘hand-bag’ that catches the attention of everyone in the group.)

Shankar Ehsaan Loy manage to come up with the best songs of the season whenever they team up with the Akhtars, ZNMD is no less! The demographics in B-town are fast changing, where movies with no songs or movies with ‘dirty lyrics item-songs’ in the end fit the bill. In such times, songs that are soothing and songs that gel with the script are hard to compose and even harder to deliver. Special mention needs to go for the cinematographer Carlos Catalan, for having portrayed Spain so beautifully and also the adventure tasks that are taken up by the lead characters during the course of their vacation.

A feel good movie that speaks about life in a new language!

“My Friend, Mumbai and I are childhood friends, we grew up together, got wet in the rain together. Today’s generation walks on the path that I created, they re-make my songs!” says Vijju (AB Sr.) to Mac (Makrand Deshpande) in a pub. Vijju says this to re-assert his position as the good old don of mumbai. If you listen properly, there is an inner voice of AB Sr. that is re-asserting his position as the “Baadshah of Bollywood”. Puri, who revolutionized the telugu film industry with his movie Pokiri (released in 2006, later re-made as Wanted in hindi) is back with a bang. The attitude which is evident in the title is carried on through-out the movie.

When Morgan Freeman played GOD in ‘Bruce Almighty’, no one asked for the logic behind it. The élan with which he portrayed the character made it believable. There is a striking similarity when AB sr. plays the role of a gangster, Vijju, who hates it when someone calls him “Bbuddah”. There is no message that AB sr. is giving in this movie, it is not a perfect puzzle, yet it is entertaining to the core. Hema Malini plays the gharwali, while Raveen Tandon plays the baaharwali.

When I say it’s not a perfect puzzle, I mean that the director has thought out the role of AB Sr. fully, however he has run into some trouble patching the remaining characters. May be this was done on purpose, so that you like the main character even more! The USP of Puri (Mr. Slick) is that he does not drag his movies one frame more. Its just another day in office for Prakash Raj, who plays the villain, as the role is no different from what he had portrayed in Pokiri, but should be enjoyable for hindi audiences. Sonu Sood gets a meaty presence.

When you look at an asset, you could be more sure of its worth. Lepakshi Ellawadi, the designer of AB Sr. has made sure that he looks worthy every penny. The uber-cool sun-glasses, the twin wrist watches that he flashes, the bright scarves to hide his age-wrinkles under the chin, everything gels !

Vishal Shekhar have etched out fine songs, “Haal-e-dil” gives the depth and opens up the platform for the veteran’s acting potential. “Go Meera Go Meera” is catchy, the timing of the song is just right. Special mention needs to go to the editors of Puri’s films. They got to be on their heels to catch up to the director’s vision. Shekhar, here has done a commendable job in portraying the parallel screenplays.

“Saara Zamaana, AB sr. ka deewana!” You walk out singing this anthem in your mind, as the end credits roll. And what an honour to have been entertained by the Baadshah himself.

How hard do you party? How high can you go? What’s your peak? When will you stop?

What will happen if the Devil invites himself into your private party? You cannot stop until the Devil himself wishes to stop. The Devil won’t stop until he has taken care of some of HIS business.

What could possibly be the consequences of Devil’s unexpected visits? How fast and how far can you run to save yourself from the consequences?

Bollywood’s “wildness benchmark” rises to a new high with Shaitan and the credit goes to the debut director Bejoy Nambiar. Bejoy has also co-written the screenplay along with Megha Ramaswamy. One could presume that his clarity of purpose and innovation in this movie could have been inspired from his mentor Mani Ratnam. (Bejoy worked as assistant director for the movie “Guru”.)

The Devil (Shaitan) plays the lead role in this movie, INCARNATING through KC (Gulshan Devaiya), DASH (Shiv Pandit), AMY (Kalki Koechlin), TANYA (Kirti Kulhari), ZUBIN (Neil Bhooplam). KC and DASH being HIS favorite protégés.

Kalki Koechlin excels in her role as a mentally instable teenager, who is haunted by the thoughts of separation from her mother. The dark-horse of the movie however is Rajeev Khandelwal who plays the honest and hard-hitting cop. The action scenes involving him are shot very realistically. Gulshan Devaiya has great timing and performs with ease. Nikhil Chinappa gets a decent screen presence.

However one does get a feeling that the writers could have suffered from cerebral fatigue towards the second half where they completely forget about victims of the hit and run case and the story progresses towards pest-control of the corrupt police force.

“Josh” and the title track “Bali- the sound of shaitan” kick-starts the movie and launches it in the right orbit! Tarrentino’s “Pulp-Fiction” like song sequence khoya khoya chaand remake is a bliss to the ears and the eyes too!

WILD! Uber-cool ! REALISTIC! HEAD-SPINNING! is the popular opinion on this flick. If one takes a rational stand, its all about five ambition-less young lads who lost control while having extra-fun. Even from this rational stand-point the movie is highly watchable for a variety of reasons, the freshness it induces, the entertainment it generates.

Have fun watching this but don’t try this at home or school or anywhere!

Undi the condi of my heart! No, I am not abusing anyone here, though I am entitled to, after watching this ridiculous movie. The self-proclaimed coolness of this movie is the biggest spoiler. So coming back to “Undi the condi”, it’s supposed to be the short-cut for ‘understand the condition’ which was supposed to sound cool! There is a song written on it too!

Always Kabhi Kabhi (AKK) is as confused as the title itself. Gives no message to the country’s teens and lacks direction. Agreed, what else can one expect from a teen movie? Hollywood teen movies like “Superbad” are definitely random, and deal with sensitive issues but at the same time they are entertaining as hell. That’s because their screenplay was intact. Randomness does not mean that you lose grip of the script.

AKK deals with teen pregnancy issue, it just pops-up and fades-off without proper depth or treatment. It deals with parental pressure on kids, which has become so repetitive in such movies, again no proper treatment. Student suicide, come-on give me a break, it’s too sensitive for this kinda movie. A high school student complaining to the teacher about his chemistry lab partner’s weekend intercourse trips? What was Roshan Abbas (the dirctor) thinking? Its a chemistry lab for gods’ sake, not a bar where you bitch about your girl going out with another guy!

The only saving grace of the movie are the casting and creatives departments. So if you remember correctly, what attracted you to buy the ticket at the box office? The “fresh-face promise” and the creative posters! Ali Fazal as Sameer Khanna, Giselli Monteiro as Aishwarya Dhawan, Zoa Morani as Nandini and Satyajeet Dubey as Tariq Naqvi are the prime cast. Lilette Dubey does justice to her role as the Arts teacher. Giselli Monteiro as the Juliette, is a great find, however her dubbing sucks! She looks more beautiful when she does not talk. Teenage girls still shriek their heart out upon sighting SRK for the item number in the end!

So what are producers looking for in bollywood movies these days? There is a full-blown “Fanta” commercial right in the middle of the movie, the cast is enacting it as part of the movie. So even before the movie releases, the producers want to recover their money, no matter how awkward the scene involving the brand goes. I kept questioning myself on why did i choose to watch this movie? Maybe two years down the line, we will start having commercial breaks on the large screen too? Creative endorsement at the cost of audiences’ entertainment looks like the future for smart production. Thanks Gauri Khan (Producer) for showing us the way. You shall be remembered for pestering audiences even on the big screen.

Good to miss the flick even on television! Trust me, you dont wanna spoil your high school memories! Let me get another aspirin while you guys can think what the title could possibly mean, Always Kabhi Kabhi!

There are quite a few typical tools in narration. Film-makers accept them, utilise them and move on. But the creators of X-Men movies are a different bunch and the brightest one among these had thought that adopting a “flash-back” within a movie was a redundant narration concept. Thus was born “Prequel”, a new trend in the X-Men franchise. Director Matthew Vaughn could very well be called as the “Screen-Apprentice” to Christopher Nolan. Nolan created a niche for the Batman franchise with his movies “Batman Begins” and “Dark knight”.

Intense is the word for this movie. What carves such depth into Magneto’s (Michael Fassbender) character? Pain, Anger and Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). Yes you guessed it right, Sebastian Shaw is the torch-bearer of the Mutants movement against Man-kind. Sebastian also has the most special mutation with which he can absorb/ engulf energy and re-transmit it. He envisions the war of worlds so that Mankind perishes leaving the earth to Mutants. In his ambition to identify and train the mutants, Sebastian ends up torturing Magneto so much that he creates his own destroyer. Magneto’s pursuit of Sebastian keeps the movie running. But hang-on, not all the Mutants are anti-mankind. Professor Charles (James McAvoy), a telepath, is a strong believer in peace with humans even when he is facing missiles from human war-ships. Kudos to the screenwriters – Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn for making these three characters so strong and radiating on screen.

Magneto, the clear winner in the race of characters, makes you impatient and fills you with childish enthusiasm, even hours after watching the movie, if you see something made of iron you would stretch your palm in its direction and act as if you want to pull it towards yourself (you would also give out a low painful cry). Such is the intensity that the character leaves in your mind.

Says Professor X to Magneto while they are casually playing chess “Listen to me very carefully my friend, Killing will not bring you peace”. Magneto replies back with a stony expression and still eyes “Peace was never an option!” Divided by ideologies, but united by mutation. Sadly, mutation becomes the cause for their ultimate separation and that’s why we saw them as arch rivals in earlier movies like X-Men, X2, X-Men the final stand.

Watch out for the Hugh Jackman cameo when Professor X and Magneto set out to recruit mutants for the CIA (the crowd just goes all up, even though he doesn’t have those famous side-locks and his claws are normal). Every minute spent in the theater is worth the money!

High on EQ (Emotional and Entertainment Quotient) but low on plot. Get ready for this summer’s roller coaster ride. “Your Highness, watch-out for the Dragon Warrior. He is huge, dangerous, FAT and CUDDLING.” as told by the Wolves army general to Lord Shen (Gary Oldman) the peacock that plays villain.

So when the creators of such a successful venture sit down to write a sequel, where do they begin? Are there any incomplete tales from the original that could be explained in the sequel? How do we strike a balance between the characters in the Original vs. the Sequel ? How not to repeat the gist of the original but keep it as entertaining? Well, Kung Fu Panda 2 does have the answers to all the above questions.

Po (Jack Black) the Dragon Warrior emerges victorious and establishes himself as an iconic figure in the first movie, however his father is a goose and not a Panda. This gives ample scope to build up on the Panda’s roots in the sequel. Where did he come from, who were his parents, why did he get separated? Finally when the script arrives at a point where the Panda realizes that the villain was the cause for his painful separation, well well, you have a “Amithabh Bhachan – Pran” like dishum dishum climax. Did I mention that the plot was weak? Well, if not weak, one could call it redundant !

Now what makes this movie extremely watchable ? Inner Peace. Stealth Mode. Death of Kung Fu. Recovery of Kung Fu. Radish Basket. Kung-fu Panda sized dumpling. Leagues of Justice. Highly decorated and savvy villain who rehearses his dialogues. Acceptance. Daddy Issues. And the list goes on !

Po’s discovery of Inner Peace in this sequel reminds you of his initial journey as the dragon warrior. What starts off as a big joke, becomes intense and world-saving towards the end. One can’t avoid goose bumps, when Po does the Inner Peace stunt correctly. Watch out for the hilarious conversations revolving around Inner Peace between Po and Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).

Animation, being the strong point of this venture, amazes us with the attention to detail. Po’s pupil coloration and contraction, Peacock’s feathers, different textures in the goat’s horns, hats-off to you guys! Custom-made (Chinese-kung-fui) back-ground score by Hans Zimmer and John Powell makes the production team all geeky! Jack Black’s timing and sense of humor is not kid’s stuff. People who don’t have a taste for animated movies or those who thought animated movies are just for kids please be prepared to re-think about your stand.

Master Oogway does the Dreamworkz pictures’ fishing stunt! See that’s how you strike a balance between characters in the Original vs. the Sequel. Keep your eyes and more importantly your ears open if you don’t wanna miss the FUN!

–Varun Mannava.