Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Bodyguard (released in 2011) - Starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor - A watchable movie

After the success of his previous movies such as Wanted, Ready, and Dabangg, Salman Khan is again a superstar of Indian cinema, capable of attracting huge crowds for his movies. So, when a movie of the name of Bodyguard comes, you would expect such a movie to have all the formula in place, such as lots of action, some good music, and some amount of romance and humour thrown in. To add to this, some of his recent movies have either been made by directors from South India, or is a remake of a South Indian film. The same situation is there in Bodyguard, where the movie is the third remake of a Malayam movie made by the same director, Siddique.
So, what is the judgment for the movie ? Well, the music is nothing to talk about, although the influence of South Indian cinema seems to be clearly apparent; even a Punjabi bases song sung by Mika did not really cause any excitement in the hall (as opposed to the whistling in the hall when Salman Khan made his entry). Even critics of the movie do not call the movie as anything to write about, although there is a lot of praise for the action done by Salman Khan (who is the total focus of attention in the movie).

Music CD of movie Bodyguard:

What about the movie ? Well, if you read on, then you will get to know the story of the movie after the first para, so be sure that you don't want to spoil your curiosity for the movie. In the hall, I found that 30 minutes into the movie, everybody became quiet, not because of any great suspense - it seemed that people felt that the movie started dragging on, and I started yawning (one of my best indicators that the movie started getting boring).
The movie has 3 very well directed action scenes (if you want some of the action scenes in Wanted, where the action suddenly seems to either become in slow motion or fast movement, then you know what to expect; in one scene, you can suddenly see even water droplets flying in the air). However, there are huge gaps in the movie where there are no action scenes, and since there are no easy apparently romantic scenes between Salman and Kareena, and the humour is not rib-ticking, it gets boring.
So, you have a big local man called Sartaj Singh (implied that he is a powerful man, but not whether he is the local bahubali or a respected man); he is also the local person to whom people in distress go to. So, a lady goes to Sartaj Singh and wants his help in saving her daughter and other local girls who are being sent to Thailand to be sold in the flesh trade. And when Sartaj Singh goes to a firm for help, they in turn direct the work to agent Lovely Singh (Salman Singh). Lovely is also very faithful to Sartaj since Sartaj had saved Salman's wife when Salman's parents suffered a tragic accident.
Next, Sartaj Singh wants Lovely to be the bodyguard for his daughter Divya (Kareena) who has to go to college, but is in danger because of the rivals of Sartaj. So, Salman goes off to college along with Divya (along with another friend, and 2 more people to help in their setting up of the house near the college). Divya cannot stand the constant presence of a bodyguard and seeks to change stuff such as the constant uniform that Lovely wears, and his being present everywhere. Towards this end, she seeks to entice him by calling him from her cell (the number of which does not get reported), and over a period of time, Lovely, even without meeting the girl, starts falling in love with her (something surprising).
Then the villains attack, which Lovely fends off, after which Divya falls in love with him. This can become unpleasant, since Salman treats her like his employer, and the daughter of a person whom he really respects; and this becomes crazy in the end when Divya is not able to let Lovely go, when the villains attack, and Divya's father is told that Lovely and Divya are planning to run away. However, in the end, Lovely saves Divya from villains, Divya saves Lovely from her father, and Salman goes away. And then, in the last 10 minutes, 8 years in the future, there is a twist.

Bodyguard (released in 2011) - Starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor - A watchable movie

Monday, August 15, 2011

Kaminey (released in 2009) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte

Kaminey was an interesting movie, released in the year 2009. Even the name was somewhat different from the existing names that are used for movies, and the script was even more interesting (and was actually bought from a Kenyan writer for 4000 dollars by Vishal Bhardwaj). When I walked into the movie hall, the movie seemed a bit slow in the beginning, but quickly gathered pace and became a must watch. The movie was directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, starred Shahid Kapoor in a double role, and also starred Priyanka Chopra in a role that she must have appreciated. The music for the movie was also given by Vishal Bhardwaj, and was well appreciated, especially for the hit song, called Dhan Te Nan, sung by Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani. Lyrics for the movie were by Gulzar. The movie was nominated for a number of awards at the Filmfare awards, Apsara awards, and many others.

DVD for Kaminey on Amazon / Flipkart


The movie takes on the life of 2 identical twins, growing up as orphans in the city of Mumbai. The normal depiction of loving twins is very different, here these are 2 boys who cannot stand each other and stay away from each other. They both have some amount of speech problems, Charlie lisps in his speech, while Guddu stutters when under stress. They separated when they were young, because of the time when their father died; Guddu believes that Charlie did not get the money when their father needed it when they were young.
They are now leading separate lives, with Guddu working for an NGO in the area of AIDS, having an affair with Sweety (played by Priyanka); while Charlie works as a bookie at a horse racing arena, working for 3 Bengali brothers. He is a hard-nosed cynic, with money being the main motivator. He is very close the youngest of the 3 brothers, Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal); it is with Charlie and Mikhail that the hit song Dhan Te Nan has been shot in a club. Trouble starts on 2 different fronts - Charlie goes after a jockey because of whom he loses all his money, even after being warned not to go after the jockey. In the same hotel, in a drug deal involving cops, 2 crooked cops kill 3 drug dealers and steal a guitar containing Rs. 10 crore worth of cocaine.
In the bedlam, Charlie steals the van containing the cocaine filled guitar and is over-joyed when he discovers that the guitar contains untold wealth. At around the same time, Sweetie tells Guddu that she is pregnant, something that is a shocker to Guddu, more so when Guddu gets to learn that Sweetie is actually the sister of prominent politician, Sunil Bhope. Bhope has the anti-outsider platform as his political vehicle, and is shocked when hears that his sister is getting married to a migrant from Uttar Pradesh. Bhope gets his men to disrupt the wedding and bring back Guddu and Sweety, but they manage to fight off and escape.
The rest of the movie is a swift series of events, with the guitar and the cocaine being the key ingredient, since everybody wants it. One brother is taken, being mistaken for the other. The whole movie explodes in an orgy of violence in the end, with the action taking place at Bhope's house, and all the people being involved in the fight.

Kaminey (released in 2009) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte