Movie Review: London Dreams

LONDON DREAMS

*ing Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Asin.

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi

Director: Vipul A Shah

London Dreams is from the new genre of movies I like to call WTFWTT or

“What The Fcuk Were They Thinking?”

Seriously… there is so much in this movie (if you can call it a movie) that doesn’t work and all I can do is list them for you.

a) Ajay Devgn. He started out as an action star and then did some pretty good work as a dramatic actor (Company, Zakhm), some good romantic films (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam) and even did some comedy which may not have been his forte but which did make money (Golmaal, All The Best). And he is a pretty decent actor too. But there is one thing that he is NOT, and that is a Rock Star. The poor guy is hopelessly miscast as an international rock star.

Mr. Devgn does not look like one and certainly doesn’t move like one. And it’s nothing to do with his age. After all Bon Jovi is around 40, Bono around 50, Paul McCartney is about 6o and Keith Richards’ age is probably about all the 3 put together. So no it’s not that.

Ajay is just not built to be a rockstar. NO. Not even with his name now spelt as Devgn.

b) Salman Khan whose buffoonery was what propelled Wanted into the super hit status can’t expect to do the same in serious movies. Till the time that he’s playing the village idiot he’s ok but the moment he’s expected to perform during dramatic scenes he continues to act like a buffoon and that is certainly a problem. And he seems to have shot for this movie either during or just before his hair transplant and he looks bad. He may have been the ‘Handsomest Man In The World’ and all that jazz, but at 45+ he is beginning to look haggard.

c) The Setting. Why London? Why couldn’t it have been Bombay? Why Wembley when Brabourne stadium would have been just fine. Or better. That way the songs would have worked. The audience rocking to the songs would have been plausible. The whole damn movie would have been more believable. There was absolutely no reason to set it in London and the movie suffers for it. Globalization maybe the catchphrase nowadays but there is no way I am going to believe young London girls rocking, raving and going crazy about an ageing Indian band. Who by the way, sing in Hindi. And whose songs are sometimes Raga based. No fcuking way. Then they go on to rock Paris & Rome too. Seriously???

How do u say “What The Fcuk?” in Italian?

d) Asin. I was one of the few who did not like her in Ghajini. However compared to this movie, Ghajini is like a bloody masterpiece. To be fair you can’t blame her. It’s her character which has been written so badly. She is a bharatnatyam dancer from a conservative British-Tamilian family who secretly wants to dance like a ‘pop star’. After much fake tension with the father who subsequently gets a dramatic lecture from Ajay Devgn about following dreams and all that jazz, what does she do??? She becomes a glorified background dancer in the band.

The only person who benefited from such a career is Britney’s former background dancer and husband, Kevin Federline. Maybe that’s who her character was modeled on.

e) Music. On its own the music by S-E-L is great. But in the movie it doesn’t gel. Not a single song stays with you after the movie.

f) Credibility. Bhatinda may be a small town in rural Punjab but does it mean it is cut off from reality. The ‘biggest Indian band in the world’ self destructs spectacularly while on stage in Wembley and yet the idiots in Bhatinda are so busy dancing at weddings and running around fields that they don’t have a clue. And those losers are their own ‘puttars’ I may add.

g) Logic: Why can’t you love and concentrate on your career at the same time. Does passion and dedication have to be enemies? Mr. Devgn falls in love with Asin but the crazy man that he is, he begins to whip himself with his belt. Maybe he should have just pleasured himself and saved us all the fake heartbreak. Apna Haath Jaggannath anyone?

h) The Climax. Ok ok... i know its not right to speak about climax just after the previous sentence but dont worry, in this movie it is actually an anti climax. The showdown, the repentance, the penance, the forgiveness..... nothing works.... nothing.

And as you all know, with out a good climax, an orgasm if you may, the whole act is useless.

But what do you do when the whole act is a dissapointment and the climax too is a downer.

I could go on but I am exhausted.

And trust me, you will be too once you watch this mockery of a movie.

See you soon.

Luv

Vish

VACATION

Dear All,

I will be on a short vacation from 01-15 November and in the whole mood of relaxing and rejuvenation I will probably not be blogging.

However I have post-dated some postings so that every 2 days you will see some sterling examples of some great ad campaigns.

Some funny, some thought provoking and some just plain naughty.

Its just a my way of saying "Thank You" for all your loyal suupport all these days.

Enjoy

Luv

Vish

BLUE: Movie Review

HOW THEY 'BLUE' 100 CRORES

BLUE

*ing Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Zayed Khan, Lara Dutta

Music: A R Rehman

Sound Design: Resul Pookutty

Hindi movies usually don’t give much thought to actual character build up or proper characterization.
Instead they try to cover that up by giving the characters some kind of odd traits like a stammer (SRK in Darr) a limp (Sanjay Dutt in Saajan) or mannerism (think Gulshan Grover in all his movies) or some one-liners like Amrish Puri (Mogambo khus hua), Anil Kapoor (Jhakaas) or failing which, they are dressed in some trademark style like stylish shades (almost all of Sanjay Gupta films) or skimpy clothes (almost all of Ram Gopal Verma’s heroines).

Similarly in Blue most of the characters keep talking about things they want to BLOW up while Akshay’s character is the only one who talks in the past tense and says BLEW.

I presumed this to be another crazy trait sketched for his character by the dumb director until I realized that all the while Akshay was actually saying Blue.

And in the dark of the theatre I managed to squeeze out a small grin.
But that, i’m afraid, is the only entertaining bit in this 100 crore movie.

To be fair, there are a few things worth noticing like Lara Dutta looking like.... well lets just say 100 crores, the underwater cinematography by Peter Zuccharini of Pirates of the Caribbean, Lara in stunning swimwear, the very un-hindi background score and did I mention Lara Dutta? But only when she is not speaking though. And not to forget the stunning Bond-ish song Rehnuma.

However the negatives far outweigh the positives.

1) Sanjay Dutt looking haggard with a paunch and two things, which for wont of a better word can only be described as man-boobs.
2) Zayed Khan who has about 25 scenes in the movie which unfortunately is about 24 scenes too many.
3) Zayed Khan who has only 1 expression for every scene and every emotion.
4) The sharks who are so docile they seem almost pet-able.
5) Some truly God-awful dialogues.
6) Kylie wasted in what must certainly rate as AR Rehman’s worst song: Jiggy Wiggy
7) Lara Dutta being asked to speak.
8) The title “Blue” being pronounced in a hundred different ways.

By the way, apart from denoting a colour, the word BLUE can also be used as an adjective to describe a feeling of sadness or melancholy and I have a feeling that if you spend your hard earned money on this movie, that’s exactly how you’ll end up feeling.

But maybe that's not so bad.... after all you could also end up feeling Blew.

Phew.

Till next time

Luv or should i say Loue

Vish

Sex + Religion = Combustion

DO YOU PRAY FOR SEX? I BET YOU DO.
BUT DO YOU PRAY BEFORE SEX?


Newly-wed Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to say a special prayer together before having sex.


In what can only be called a seriously bizarre idea, the London-based Catholic Truth Society, has composed a special “Prayer Before Making Love” which it says is aimed at 'purifying their intentions' so the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.



The Rev Paul Hendricks, who is the Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, says that he thinks the prayer's inclusion is 'brave but good'.

"I suppose it is a bit idealistic but it is recognizing that GOD is at the heart of the sexual relationship between husband and wife," he said.

Well, GOD may be at the heart of the act but it’s another 'G' which is more vital to the whole lovemaking thingy. The G-Spot!

It is still not clear if the prayer has detailed instructions on how to locate it and if located, what to do with/to it.


But jokes apart I seriously resent dragging GOD into all this.

I am, a very religious and spiritual person myself and believe in GOD’s omnipresence and all that but do we really need to pray before going at it.

Seriously. I mean what DO you pray for?

Smoother Action? Longer Duration?? Both ??? None! ?



We’ve all heard of “Ooh God! Ooh God! Ooh God!” being uttered in bed but it’s my guess that it is not the Lord who is being invoked there.

What say you?

Till next time…

Luv

Vish

Diwali Wishes

HAPPY DIWALI 2009

To all my Friends, Family and Dear Readers of this Blog,

Here's wishing all of you a very very happy diwali 2009.

May all your homes overflow with love, happiness and prosperity this festive season and throughout the coming year.

Regular readers will know my wish for you all, as usual, is very simple....

May you dream a thousand dreams,

And may every one of them come true.

With Warmest Holiday Regards

Luv Always

Vish

ANY PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY.

WHAT'S OVER-DRESSED, OVER MADE-UP & OVER THE TOP ? ALL THE TIME!

Seriously, how can you not love this woman, this creature, this creation called Rakhi Sawant.

Her mother (honestly what a family) entered the "Big Boss" house in India and exited just as quickly which ofcourse was reason enough for Rakhi to give a press conference about it.

And as always she was wonderfully entertaining.

For those of you not in India, Big Boss is the Indian equivalent of Celebrity Big Brother, the show which has been running in numerous countries for many years now.

By the way since it is legally licensed from the original company, why change the name to Big Boss? After all Brother isn’t an alien term to Indians. Even to the rural ones…

Didn’t Salman and his brother Sohail (who incidentally looks like someone God began to make, got bored and gave up half way) make the god-awful movie called (what else) Hello Brother! some years back?

Anyway during the press conference Rakhi was the master of irony when she said (with a perfectly straight face) "Meri maa ko publicity ke liye use kiya un logon ne," lashing out at the inmates of TV show, who voted her mother, Jaya Sawant, out of the show on Friday night.

“Woh battameez log hain,” she said, before adding “Why should I react against them and increase their TRPs?” quite oblivious (or NOT) to the fact that she was doing just that.

And it’s not just her mother, Rakhi feels even ‘fiancé’ Elesh Parujanwala (whose name strangely, sounds like a fish that the Bongs love) used her.

And this coming from the woman who conducted a swyambar, looking for a groom on national television.

“Definitely, usne mujhe use kiya hai. He came here just for publicity” says Rakhi who apparently seems to think that she holds the sole license for hogging publicity.

She now says they don’t belong together.

“Uska Western culture hai, mera Indian culture, match nahi karta,” she says expecting us to believe she never knew that he was from Canada when she chose him, adding helpfully that she is “thankful to Jejus ki maine uska true colours dekhliya”.

And it can't be a coincidence that Colours is also the name of the TV channel which hosts her shows.

Finally, if all that wasn’t enough she delivers one final coup de grace, which even after the above mentioned gems, stands out for its sheer audacity and cheek.

“Main zyada nahi bolungi, warna log kahenge, ‘Rakhi is a motor mouth’”

So tell me, how can you NOT love such a character.

May ‘Jejus’ give her many, many more years of entertaining ahead.

Till Next Time….

Luv

Vish

ENGLISH DOWN THE DRAIN.

WHO'S ENGLISH IS IT ANYWAY?

Inspite of English being the lingua franca of the world and all that*, I really wonder if what is being used is still the English that we actually knew of. Or has it changed so much that it is a different language completely.

I am not talking about words juke Bungalow, Juggernaut, Cliché, etc which have been adopted from different languages and are now an integral part of English.

And I am not even going to dig into the whole text-ing syndrome where gibberish like ‘gr8’ & ‘brb’ & ‘lol’ have full fledged meanings.

By the way, there is now even a sub culture of that gibberish with words like ‘twitterahea’ which apparently (quite obviously, duh!) means a case of someone over using Twitter.
Or for that matter do you know what Social Notworking is?
(Spending too much time on Facebook and not working enough).
Or Brickberry?
(An old obsolete mobile)

or the best of them all..... Gr7.
(It is something that is pretty good but not gr8).

Anyway what I am talking about is the way so many people (and companies) seem to twist English to suit their own needs.

I was driving back home last night after catching a screening of a movie and at one of the traffic signals I saw a huge billboard for a middle eastern electronic company called Geepas. Their tag line read: Focusing the Future. And all I could think of was how in the process of all that focusing they had completely forgotten to focus on the Article.

And right next to it was another one for a brand of ice creams called JOY whose own tagline was: Oh what a way to Joy.

Frankly, I know your brand of ice creams (and those who have tasted it will know its more ice-less cream) is called Joy but would your message have been lost if you had used the word Enjoy in that sentence? Seriously???

Maybe apart from the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, 8 years of president Bush has also contributed to the desecration of Grammar. Maybe it wasn’t just the Iraqis & Afghans who got massacred.

Afterall wasn’t it Bush who famously pondered on the education system and said (very seriously indeed) "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” and thats
not surprising because Bush was also the one to say "One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."

Now I am not some fuddy-duddy English high-priest obsessed with grammar etc but frankly can we do away with prepositions and articles just like that? In colloquial speak, a few digressions can be excused but when it comes to branding and corporate speak, are they really OK? Is that the message we really want to give out?

Will we grow up in a world where our children will lol when we use proper grammer?

*By the way, isn’t it pretty sweet irony that while it is accepted that English is the lingua franca of the world, it needs a Latin phrase to actually say as much.

I leave you with 13 of the best of Bush-ism’s.

brb till next time….. ….

Luv

Vish


1. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

2. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."

3. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."

4. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''

5. "And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq."— on meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno.

6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."

7. "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."

8. "We'll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America will be the pacemakers."

9. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."

10. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

11. "There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.' "

12. "They misunderestimated me."

And the best (and probably the most accurate) of all…

13. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."—Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

Rape of Justice???

ITS A DOG'S WORLD... REALLY????



I have been debating with myself for a long time ever since I saw this piece of news in the Bombay edition of Mid Day. I have tried (i really have) but I haven’t quite been sure about how to go about it....

Is it a triumph for PETA and animal rights?
Is it a mockery of justice and for that matter is there justice to be served at all, esp when there are lakhs and lakhs of cases pending in the Indian judicial system
Is it just some sick voyeuristic pastime by the tabloids?
Did the dog complain?

What do I say, even the tone of the reporting seems to be strange (considering for all the horror that it is infact a DOG we are talking about) with terms like ‘forensic evidence’ and ‘non consensual sex’ and even some gay angle (dont ask) added to the whole sordid drama.



BUT before that i must make it very clear that i am all for animal rights and am indeed very fond of dogs... infact my best friend, at one time had 11 dogs in his house (2 labs and 9 of those viciously snippy miniature dashchunds or sausage dogs are they are commonly called).


Anyway my only complaint in all this is that animal rights and PETA & SPCA aside, HUMAN rights is what must remain paramount. Esp considering that in the time of recession and with millions of people going hungry, the Pet Accessory & Grooming industry is an estimated 5 billion one. That is in the US alone.


Maybe, just maybe, our priorities need to be rechecked. Humanity is all great and all that jazz but i am pretty sure that in GOD's great scheme of things, dogs wearing coats and designer boots was not a priority.


Anyway here’s what happened (allegedly).


A taxi driver named Mahesh Kamat was found in the compound of a housing society in an inebriated state and with his trousers unzipped and when the police arrived he was being beaten by a group of people from the society who claimed that he had raped a bitch (I am just being technically correct here and not in any way insulting the victim).

Then next day he, however, kept repeating that he did not recollect what happened that night.


"I have not done anything. I don't remember anything because I was not in my senses," said Kamath. Neither did he remember being beaten by residents of the building (maybe they did not beat him enough).



However, in a statement to the police the previous night, Mahesh had allegedly admitted saying, "Haan, maine kiya hai" which sounds perfectly plausible as the drunk would have probably not known what was being asked of him least of all known that he was being accused of copulating with a bitch.

According to the police he is said to have replied (with the now famous words) 'Hogaya, hogaya' (happened, happened) when asked why he raped the bitch. Now the police (who I had no idea had so much time and resources on their hands) have sent the clothes he wore that night to the forensic laboratory and are waiting for his medical reports

The victim's testimony is usually crucial in such cases, but there is naturally no chance of recording the dog's statement (and please note that I say this with utmost seriousness).


Meanwhile the stray dog raped by Kamath is supposed to be traumatised. According to Sangeeta M Revdekar, the second eyewitness in the case, "The dog has been listless since the incident took place and is neither eating food nor sitting outside our house like she usually does."

The dog that Kamath raped.

Hundreds of camera bulbs flashing on her face must have her dazed is my guess but what do I know.

Now what worries me is this.

In the first case in India in which a crime against an animal is being treated on par with a crime against humans and the prosecution is going to tenuous lengths to prove the rape of a dog.

They are collecting semen, going to laboratories to prove force (injury marks on the private parts of the animal and animal hair in the nails of the accused; marks on private parts), used in patently non-consensual sex.

"We have heard of man raping a minor girl but this is just horrible” said a police official and with that one sentence, almost managed to make light of a little girl’s rape.

Animal activists, law experts and champions of gay rights have ofcourse reacted with their arm chair opinions:

Raj Panjwani, environment and animal law expert from Delhi: "This is unbelievable. It is great that the woman has registered an FIR. You never know if the Act will be amended to include rape of a dog but its great."

I am not quite sure what he’s finding so great, the actual rape of the bitch or the fact that some one reported it.

Anuradha Sawhney, head of PETA India: "He [the accused] needs to be taken to a psychiatrist. People who commit such a crime are mentally ill. They should be severely punished.”
She obviously doesn’t understand that “mentally-ill” and “severely-punished” don’t usually go together. Psychiatric Treatment doesn’t seem to be an option to her.

And the best (and most confusing) of all quotes came from a certain Mr. Vikram who was curiously described in the paper as Doctor Gay Activist and I havent quite figured out if he is a Doctor in addition to being a Gay Activist or that he has a doctorate in activism. Anyway this is what he said:

"It's simply wrong because of the issue of consent. Animals can't give consent to what people do to them. Children can't give consent for being minors. An adult man who is raped by another man is being forced against his consent. So, this is not like two adult gay men who have sex with each with their consent?"

And once again, in one single sentence, he has somehow managed to psychologically equate bestiality and gay sex. Maybe he is an activist AGAINST gay rights.

Quite frankly with so many real, human cases pending in the courts all over india, is this bit of judicial activism really necessary?

I love animals, but i somehow love humans more...

What say you?

Luv

Vish

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER AND ALL THAT JAZZ

I FIXED IT. DIDN'T I? DID I?

Hi All,

No verbose pontification today.

A friend sent me some examples of human ingenuity in a series called "There I Fixed It" and i thought i'd share a few choice ones with you.

Enjoy

Luv

Vish

THAT's why are two taps.

Now THIS is what i call an environmentally friendly car.



Are those torches re-chargeable?

This one is actually good.

Not All Junk Food is BAD

"You did say downsize didn't you?"



"Labels" is Everything

Yeh Hai Crazy-Land Meri Jaan

WHAT'S IN A NAME? EVERYTHING!

After three back to back movie reviews I hate to do a movie based blog again but such are the compulsions of politics that Bollywood somehow gets into the picture.

Hours after the first screenings of “Wake Up Sid”, Raj Thackrey and his goons took to vandalism to protest the use of Bombay instead of Mumbai in the film.

However this is not a political post and I am not even going to get into the political pros and cons of this argument. That is presuming there are any pros in this lunatic’s hijacking of issues that just don’t matter to the common man.

Anyway the issue is more cultural.

The Glittering South Bombay

Yes the city used to be named Mumbai, the British then bastardized it to Bombay before Raj’s equally crazy uncle re-claimed the ‘Maharastrian honour’ by having getting it changed back to Mumbai.

But that’s not the point.

Bombay/Mumbai is a glaring example of contradictions.

Where wealth and poverty exist in both extremes and where the billion dollar houses overlook Asia’s largest slum Dharavi. (BTW when we say Asia’s biggest, doesn’t it also mean the world’s biggest? After all do other continents have slums? Wait a minute… I almost forgot the only other place that makes India look like a 1st world country. Africa.)

So in actuality the capital of Maharashtra is both Mumbai as well as Bombay.

The marble and teak mansions on the glittering Marine Drive are in Bombay.
The poor slumdogs living in Dharavi are in Mumbai.
The ones who struggle to eat out of the garbage dumps are in Mumbai while the others who (ironically) also struggle to eat to remain size zero are in Bombay.
The Taj, Oberois & CRV’s are Bombay. The jhoparpattis & rickshaws are Mumbai.
The gleaming flyovers are Bombay. The make shift shacks under the flyovers are Mumbai.
Your pedigreed Chihuahuas are in Bombay. The rabid mongrels in Mumbai.

Dharavi in Mumbai

The Sid of the movie who drives a CRV, lives in a stand alone bunglow, listens to iPods and plays on his PSP while flashing his plastic in store after store does not live in Mumbai.

The poor soul probably doesn’t even know what Mumbai really is. So when he shows Bengali Aisha around town he obviously is doing so about Bombay. The Bombay he knows.


After all his idea of a simple, ‘poor’ birthday is celebrating it with an impromptu ‘cake’ made of Bread and Jam.
For the Slumdogs that would be a bloody feast.

So why should he even mention Mumbai.

He doesn’t live there. No one he knows lives there. Not even his servant.
For the love of God, Chottu is better (and more in-vogue) dressed than most college students in Bareilly and Patna leave alone in Dharavi.

Maybe what the Thackrey clan really ought to concentrate on, is getting the Mumbai-kars on par with the Bombay-ites.

But then again, if they did do that, who would vote for the Marathi Adams Family.
And maybe, just maybe, they DO know that.

And btw when asked in the movie, Aisha Banerjee mentions that she just moved from Calcutta. Note: Calcutta not Kolkatta.

But I don’t hear of any protests and vandalism in the City of Joy. Somehow the Bongs don’t seem to have this hangup? (just don’t mention this to Lady Thackrey of Kolkatta…. The Sublimely Crazy Ms. Mamata )

I wonder why. Any thoughts?

And what about the electronically gifted citizens of Bangaluru?

Till Next Time

Luv

Vish

P.S. By the way, the pure desi Mumbaikar Raj look-i'm-as-crazy-like-my-uncle Thackrey incidentallyt drives around in an AUDI SUV.
Shouldn't he be riding in the very indian NANO?

But Wait. He can't. Coz in that small car, where would he fit his massive EGO, IGNORANCE & FACISM.

Wake Up Sid - Movie Review

IS THIS THE ALARM FOR BOLLYWOOD

WAKE UP SID

* Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen, Supriya Pathak & Anupan Kher

Wake Up Sid is a coming of age movie but even more so for Bollywood.

It is deliberate, unhurried and almost languid in its pacing and for most of the movie there isn’t anything ‘happening’ as such. There is no real story to speak of and infact the whole movie could be shown in a 10 minute clip.

But don’t let the above para put you off the movie… It is not meant to be a critique. The movie is made so well and so assuredly by debutant Ayan Mukherjee (a first cousin of both Rani & Kajol) that its almost like going back to college again.

Siddharth Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) is a spoilt and only child of Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak. In his last year of college he does what most rich kids in his place would do. Watch TV, play games, shop, eat and go clubbing.

After failing to both pass his exams as well as stick around in his father’s bathroom-furnishing office, he gets frustrated and takes it out on his poor doting mother. An un-amused Dad, tells him to apologize and again failing that he is sent packing out of the house. Young and egoistic he goes to stay with Aisha’s (Konkana Sen) who is his friend (in the real term) and then while there he finds both his direction in life as well as his love.

The stars of this movie are many.

Ayan Mukherjee for making a solid and confident movie. It can’t be easy to buck the trend and make a movie which has no dance in the hills or in some club. Infact most of the songs are in the background and thankfully no one lip-sync’s in the movie.

Most of the scenes are beautifully and naturally handled with no over the top drama.

Whether its the birthday scene with the bread, jam & matchstick or the nerdy girl helping Sid with his credit card situation or the fat girl’s elephantine outburst, it is all like life would be.

Supriya Pathak’s character begins off a little odd as she is constantly trying to ‘bond’ with her son over broken English but once her character is established you almost begin to sympathise with her.

Supriya is a very fine actress and in some of the simplest scenes with almost minimal dialogues she conveys so much. When she comes to Aisha’s flat with some money and mangoes your heart goes out to her as a simple mother and again when Sid comes home in between, their exchange is bereft of any of the usual hindi movie dramabaazi. Its just like how a doting mom and son would behave.

After an overdose of Kiron Kher’s over-the-top Punjabi-mother act in so many recent movies, Supriya is like a breath of fresh air. Just wish she would do more movies like this.

Konkana is as expected and very efficient and again without any drama, gives a very nuanced performance. As she begins to fall in love with Sid there is a subtle but clear change in how she looks at him and when he, as usual, playfully winks at her in the beach watch how she inhales just that little bit more. Takes your breath away. Literally.

Quite a lot has been made about Konkana being older than Ranbir and the movie tackles this issue head on and with no excuses. Frankly with the 40+ Aamirs, Salmans & Shah Rukhs routinely romancing the 20+ Kareenas & Deepikas why should the heroines not be given the same liberty. Its about time. I for one wouldn’t mind watching Rekha romancing Akshay. But wait a minute. Hasn’t she already done that?

But the movie belongs to Ranbir Kapoor. In just his third movie, he is so effortlessly charming that you must believe that acting skills are passed on genetically. He makes you believe in the character and as the movie progresses he makes you love him, he gets you exasperated, he irritates you and then charms you.

He is what YOU and many other friends of yours from college were. How can you not love such a Sid.

The songs by Shanker-Ehsaan-Loy are pleasant and very apt for the kind of movie this is but surprisingly it’s guest composer Amit Trivedi’s Iktara which forms the emotional anchor of the movie.

Even as I sit at home writing this review, Sunny Deol’s “Maa Tujhe Saalam” is playing on the TV. Till just a few years ago such crappy movies were the norm and with movies like Wake Up Sid you can only hope that Bollywood is waking up too.

But then again on the same day, the equally crappy Govinda’s “Do Knot Disturb” is also releasing so maybe not.

Watch it and you get to relive your college days again. What more can you ask from the movies.

Enjoy

Vish

* Sid keeps taking pictures of his own feet throughout the movie and its great that when one of his photos is selected for the “Shades of the Sea” section of his magazine, its of Konkana’s feet against the sea. Nice touch.