Varun's Word

Hum cheez hain badey kaam ki.. Yaaram!

The movie starts with a funny disclaimer in Hindi saying ‘this movie does not promote witch craft nor does it promote the comparison / portrayal of women as Daayan (Witch)’.  The packed theater bursts off into laughter. Then the same disclaimer comes again in English. Crowd bursts into laughter again. That’s the laughter before this intensely thrilling and scary movie begins. This laughter slowly fades off for the next 120 minutes. Ek Thi Daayan does best what Horror movies are supposed to do. It scares the shit out of you!

Humey kam pe rakh lo Kabhi.. Yaaram!

The plot revolves around Bobo the baffler (Emraan Hashmi) and his childhood in the first half of the movie. It narrates how Bobo, who is a magician by profession, goes through hallucinations that his step-mom Diana (Konkana sen) is a witch. He keeps referring to his book on magic and witch-craft to prove his points but no one really understands, including his Father or his Psychiatrist. 20 years later it starts coming back all again during his magic shows. His girlfriend Tamara (Huma Qureshi) also comes to know about this. Will Bobo be able to prove his point to his loved ones or will he succumb to his hallucinations is what the second half is all about

Suraj se pehle jagayenge .. Aur akhbaar ke saari surkhiyaan hum gungunayenge..!

The writers Vishal Bhardwaj and Mukul Sharma have done their homework well. You see in movies like these, script is the first star. Rest all stars are secondary. The logic is intact and it never goes out of control. The director Kannan Iyer makes sure the ship sails through thin ice successfully. Although the ending could have been more energetic and powerful, no one is complaining. Having seen a new horror-genre in ages, the bollywood audience is more than happy to acknowledge the efforts.

pesh karenge garam chai pe… koi khabar aayi  na pasand toh end badal denge.. !

Konkana Sen Sharma sizzles as the dark witch, potentially capturing the audiences under her spell of natural portrayal for such a difficult character. Special effects do come to her rescue at times. Huma Qureshi is the hefty glamor doll and pulls off a neat performance. She is quite over weight on screen. Kalki Koechlin does what she does best. Fitting into a role as if tailor made for her.

This is the first time I was eagerly waiting for a movie where Emraan Hashmi is the lead character. Trust me, anybody could have portrayed this role but the fact that Emraan bagged it means that its going to do him good. Or maybe like he says in the movie he is good because “he does not make noise while sleeping, he does not fart and he is a tiger in bed”. Nothing much to complain about his performance. He has done a clean role.

Vishal Bhardwaj’s music has always been catchy. However his song Yaaram combined with Gulzar’s simple yet magical lyrics, I must say, is definitely addictive. The song is also shot spectacularly in the movie.

Go watch a new genre in the theaters and then go home and sleep. Don’t try this at home!

— Varun Mannava Gowtham

It’s a boon and a bane to be a successful director in Tollywood. Its like opening a school. Every big star in Tollywood wants to join this school, be part of the shooting, give the audience test and come out with 90% marks. Each time the same questions are asked in the exam, and each time the answers written are the same. Just that the Lead actors are different. The character artists and comedians are the same. Its a pity that the audiences want such movies only.

Type 1 : The Sreenu Vaitla Template

a. Much of the first half of the movie is dominated by “Boy falling in love” scenes. There cant be a love failure or a sad ending to a love story at all! Right from Venky till Ready.. from Ravi Teja to Mahesh Babu, everyone follows the same rule.

b. One of the protagonists’ parents is alive. But either the protagonist himself does not know this or the parent does not know if he / she is alive. Or maybe the parents think that their son is not alive. Ha!

c. The protagonist HAS to wear the police uniform at least once and only once in the entire movie. Happened in Venky, Dhee, Dookudu, Badshah (only exception being King  and I haven’t watched Namo Venkatesa)

d. At a specific time, there needs to be an item song. (immediately after the interval?). Ok this can be discounted because the entire movie industry is so specific about item songs.

e. At a specific time there needs to be a wedding scene and confusion in that wedding. e.g. boy does not know if he will end up marrying the bride or not. e.g. Ready, Dhee, Badhsah

f. There needs to be one duet in Switzerland, with firangs wearing desi costumes and doing desi moves. e.g. Dookudu & Badshah.

g. Of late, Thaman has also found a template of songs that would fit in these movies.

You would have watched Dookudu and Pokiri. Close your eyes and imagine Jr. NTR in the place of Mahesh Babu and voila, you have the Badshah movie. Do you still need a review for Badshah? I wonder if Sreenu Vaitla can ever make a murder mystery movie or a horror movie ?

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

On May 1, 2011 social media reported the death of Osama Bin Laden. What followed was a week full of breaking news coverage on Regional, National and International news channels. People were glued to the updates on Facebook and the stories of how CIA operatives cracked the location of 9/11 mastermind. It was a remarkable story.

Now it’s not every year that you get to hear someone like Osama being hunted down. In this generation there was only one Osama and God willing there won’t be any Osama in the coming years. That’s why this movie becomes so important to watch. We may all remember the news articles but the cinematic thrill was missing in it. “Zero Dark Thirty” is that cinematic response to the modern era’s greatest revenge story.

“How do account for the risk of not doing something. Like, letting a person like Osama slip through your fingers?” This is the best dialogue by far. There are other remarkable scenarios where the protagonist puts a fight with her boss for not letting her pursue Bin Laden.

“Maya” is this CIA agent who plays a key role in hunting down OBL (fictional as the real CIA gave clean chit saying it was not a single agent who traced down OBL). She plays a role of this possessed / adamant kid who won’t sleep or play till she has seen the end of the rainbow. And she does find Osama at the end of this rainbow and its not a unicorn story that she had built up. And she’s got a lot of Performance appraisal techniques and pressure techniques to apply on your manager.

Katherine Bigelow comes back with a flair after “Hurt Locker”. She is Hollywood’s in-house expert in dealing with ‘Terrorism’ movies as her ex husband was the Hollywood’s expert in ‘Computer graphics’ movies. Now that’s called good influence and carving a niche for yourself.

Its released late in India, but its better late than never. Too late and the Oscars would get over and there would be no buyers in the Indian circuit for the movie.

–Varun Gowtham Mannava.

In the short film universe there is very little time to execute what you want to convey. You need to execute this in a slick fashion without any unnecessary diversions. Short Films may  be taken too lightly at present since they seem very easy to film. However one should also acknowledge the fact that most of the short films are shot by amateurs and first timers and there is very minimum role for professionals. Its not easy to shoot a short film that clicks.

Given the above scenario, Machi Escape knows its thrills & shrills and this one clicks too.

It is beautifully woven initially as a boy meets girl story in a fast paced ‘share-auto’ – software culture. How a casual conversation with your co-passenger cum stranger can land you in trouble is very well demonstrated here.

The highlight of this short film is the way the actors highlight the letters ‘EAT’ derived from the girls mobile number, however the camera focuses on the letters again to highlight altogether a different word. This adds as a strong point for director Vivek Suriyamoorthy’s narrative skills.

The music director Krishnan Ganesan’s adaption of ‘Kill Bill’ tune as the ringtone shows good taste. Also the background score towards the climax and credits stands out.

Arun Balaji and Usha have done their roles pretty well, both of them comfortable with their expressions.

–Varun Mannava Gowtham