Ra.One (released in 2011) - Starring Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor - Wait for it to come on TV

For a couple of years now, Ra.One has been the most awaited movie in Bollywood. With the additional marketing blitz over the past few weeks, it would seem that you wherever you went, you would see something related to Ra.One; and with the product marketing tie-ups, there were many products that were related to Ra.One. The hype for the movie was incredible, and there is a sense of fear that comes when a movie is such incredibly hyped (which has been proved true for many movies in the past, the last one being Veer). I read a few reviews, asked some friends, and finally decided to take the plunge and buy a ticket (in a small group).
It's somewhat hard for me to describe how I felt, although one of my biggest indicators (looking at my watch often), indicated that the movie was not gripping enough. And, in the last couple of days, I watched some movies that were also some sort of super-hero movies, such as Robot, and Iron Man (1 and 2), it seemed to be clear that Ra.One was missing something. Which is very surprising if you look at the people and effort involved. With the backing of Shahrukh Khan, the movie was directed by Anubhav Sinha, music by Vishal-Shekhar, and with the huge budget of Rs. 175 crore letting the movie hire the best of talent from Holly wood. And yet, here are some of the negatives that really turned me off:
- The level of humour in the movie was incredibly low. What little humour there was dealt with poking fun of a Tamil accent, or of translating abuses into ones that ladies that can use, etc. I was cringing in the hall when I heard the language, and the common usage of words such as condom, main male organ, and so on.
- The film has very little action. For a movie that is styled on a super-hero, the action scenes would not be more than 15-20 minutes (or seems like that long)
- The movie has a feel of being in a video game; especially towards the end where the battle between the main characters does not really impress. Compare with the scene in Robot, and they seem better, and of course, there is no comparison between scenes in movies such as Iron Man.
- The movie displays the main Indian theme especially in the second half, where a song suddenly comes in and disrupts the entire sequence.
- The villain, supposedly endowed with superb powers, never really exhibits such powers other than the ability to deliver a strong blow (such as the one by the fireman in X-men, where energy is controlled and then thrown); further, this is a villain with only one objective, to kill the boy who last defeated him. There is no danger to the human race.
- Music is just about okay.
- Arjun Ramphal again has very little time in the film, with the cartoon character, and other guises taking up most of the appearance of the villain
- Who creates a video game with only 3 levels, and that too with only 1 gun and bullet in the 3rd stage (nobody would get hooked to such a game)

There were a few things I liked:
- Kareena did not have an action role, but otherwise she looked hot in her role
- The new kid (Armaan Khan) playing the role of the son of Shahrukh Khan was good
- Some of the interaction with the neighbor (Satish Shah) was decent
- The final train scene was good, and seemed well suited to the context of the locals in Mumbai

The story of the movie is basically the attempts of the super-hero to save the son of his creator, from another monster. So, Shahrukh works in a senior position in Barron industries, and creates video games. He is shown to be a bumbling guy, good with values and morals, and a good creator of video games. His son does not really idolise, and in fact, many times is embarrassed by the actions of his father. He is however in love with video games, and with villains. So, his father creates a new video game with the most dangerous villain, called Ra.One (the creation process of the video game shown in the movie is fairly nice), but his team soon starts to see weird things. The Artificial Intelligence given to the villain is giving the villain (inside the video game) some strange powers, and this comes out in the open when the young child Prateik (code name Lucifer) defeats Ra.One in the first level, but then abandons the game. At this, Ra.One decides to leave the game to defeat Lucifer in real life, and kills his father while doing this.
The only savior is G.One (played by Shahrukh Khan), the counterpart of Ra.One. Both of them have a brief battle where Ra.One is destroyed into several small parts, and they all flee back to India. After some sentimental scenes (sure to be a turn off for kids), Ra.One is re-created, comes to Mumbai and interrupts during the Chamak Challo sequence. A final fight sequence takes place, the movie ends. Yawn.

Veer Zaara (released in 2004) - A cross-border romance starring Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji

Veer Zaara is a movie from the Yash Chopra production house, produced by Aditya Chopra, and directed by Yash Chopra. The movie was released in 2004, and was set in a cross border situation between India and Pakistan, where the inherent hostility between the 2 nations provides a great situation to set a story of hostility and romance. The movie showcases the full power of love, where people are willing to take a 22 year delay for their loved ones. The movie was promoted with all the power that Yash Raj Films could use, and turned out to be a huge hit, in India, in Pakistan, and in the overseas market.
The movie also had the distinction where the music was by using tunes from the deceased famous Music Director, Madan Mohan, where unreleased tunes of the famous music director were used, with his son Sanjeev Kohli, leading this effort. The female lead of the songs was Lata Mangeshkar, adding to the poignancy of the overall effort, since she has sung for many movies in the past where Madan Mohan was the Music director. The movie received a large number of awards in the Filmfare awards, IIFA awards, Stardust Awards, Star Screen awards, Zee Cine Awards, and many others. It was almost like a clean sweep of the awards, with these covering Best Film, Actor, Actress, Best Director, etc.


The movie is about the romance between Veer Pratap Singh (Shahrukh Khan) and Zaara Haayat Khan (Preity Zinta), where Veer is a Squadron Leader with the Indian air force, and Zaara is a young Pakistani girl from a prominent family. She is already engaged to Raza (Manoj Bajpai). Zaara comes to Punjab in India for fulfilling the last wishes of her governess, who wanted her ashes to be scattered in the river Sutlej near the holy city of Kiratpur. However, when Zaara comes over, she is left in a precarious position due to a bus accident, and Veer saves her with his helicopter. He takes her one day to his village where she meets his parents, Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini, in a small appearance. They are impressed with Zaara, but the couple separate when it is clear that they need to go on their own ways.
Zaara is now confused, since she has come to love Veer, but must marry Raza for the sake of pride and honour; Veer comes when told to by Zaara's maid, but when he comes to their home, her mother implores him to go away for the sake of their family. However, when he is going, Raza takes revenge by getting him arrested as a spy. And that is where things go totally wrong, since Veer is sent to jail, and Zaara believes that Veer had died in a bus accident.
22 years later, a young firebrand lawyer called Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukerji) is fighting for the rights of women in Pakistan, and also gets allotted the case of prisoner number 786, Veer, who has been convicted of being an Indian spy called Rajesh Rathod. Veer has not spoken to anyone, which makes the case all the more difficult.
What happens next ? How does she find out the truth, and do the lovers meet again after 22 years ?

List of songs from the movie: 1. Tere Liye 2. Main Yahan Hoon 3. Aisa Des Hain Mera 4. Yeh Hum Aa gaye hain kahan 5. Do Pal 6. Kyun Hawa 7. Hum To Bhai Jaise 8. Aaye Tere Dar Pe 9. Lodi 10. Tum Paas Aa Rahein Ho 11. Jaane Kyon

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006) - starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan in this story of relationships

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna released in the year 2006. Produced by Dharma Productions and directed by Karan Chopra, it marked a serious u-turn in the director’s career as he stayed away from candy floss and tackled a subject as taboo as extramarital affair within the commercial cinema framework. It starred the leading stars of Bolywood, like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan and Kirron Kher in pivotal roles.

The film begins with Dev Saran (Shahrukh Khan) a successful football player who is on the verge of signing a major deal with a club. He accidentally bumps into Maya (Rani Mukherjee)- a to be married bride suffering from pre marriage jitters. Dev counsels Rhea and the two connect instantly. They part ways and Maya goes on to marry her childhood friend Rishi Talwar (Abhishek Bachchan). Unbeknownst to Maya, Dev meets with an accident on his way out of the marriage reception that ends his career. Dev is married to Rhea (Preity Zinta) a successful career woman who works with a fashion magazine. After Dev’s accident it falls upon Rhea to support the family.

The duo, Dev and Maya meet after four years courtesy the formers son who studies in Maya’s class. Dev has turned into an embittered man courtesy his own unfulfilled dreams and his wife’s ever increasing success that is hard for his male ego to accept. Maya on the other hand feels unfulfilled in her marriage as she has not been able to fall in love with her husband. She loves Rishi as a friend and is indebted to his father Samarjit, a.k.a Sexy Sam (Amitabh Bachchan) for taking care of her. Dev and Maya realize that their situations are similar and decide to help each other repair their breaking marriages. However things do not turn out as intended as their intense chemistry keeps drawing them to each other. Rishi and Rhea are also fighting for their respective marriages but their efforts are insignificant in the face of Maya and Dev's growing love for each other.

Their clandestine affair comes out in the open when they are caught by Samarjit and Dev’s mother Kamaljeet. Sam unable to accept the fact that his beloved daughter-in-law is cheating on his son suffers a fatal heart attack and as he lies on his death bed, he tells her to leave his son Rishi since neither of them are happy in their marriage. Dev and Maya decide to go back to their respective partners but they come clean about their affair. Rishi and Rhea decide to end their respective marriages. But the two star crossed lovers keep this a secret, each living apart from the other as a form of penance. Three years down the line Maya comes to know the truth and tries to reunite with Dev. The climax of the film sees the lovers finally meeting up and confessing their true feelings.

AWARDS WON

Best Supporting Actor-Abhishek Bachchan-Filmfare Awards.

CAST AND CREW

Directed by Karan Johar
Produced by Hiroo Johar
Written by Karan Johar, Shibani Bathija, Niranjan Iyengar
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan, Kirron Kher
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography Anil Mehta
Editing by Sanjay Sankla

Bhootnath - an old Man (ghost) and a young child - starring Amitabh Bachchan (2008)

Bhoothnath the film is an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short story, The Ghost of Canterville. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawala, Aman Siddiqui, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Rajpal Yadav and Shahrukh Khan. Essentially a film meant for kids, it has a strong message on love and respecting one’s elders. At the end of the film you do get to understand what Virgnina from the original story had meant when she had said that the ghost had taught her “what Life is, what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”

The opening sequence of the film sees a family being scared out of a house by a ghostly figure. Soon after Banku, his mother Anjali Sharma (Juhi Chawla) moves in to the same house called the Nath villa. Banku’s father Aditya, an Engineer with a cruise liner has to be away from his family for the greater part of the year. Even though the family is amply warned about the presence of a ghost in the house, they refuse to believe in such hogwash. Barely have they moved in to the new place that Aditya is called back to his ship. Now it is up to Anjali and Banku to make the new place their home.

As a new boy in school Banku has a tough life and back home, it is the ghost who makes his life pretty miserable. Banku however is not afraid of the ghost and even gives him a name, Bhoothnath. Soon this oddball duo strikes up a warm friendship. The ghost is actually none other than the original owner of the Nath Villa, Kailash Nath. He had send his only child to the US to study and he did not come back home to his parents. Father and son have an argument one day while the son (Priyanshu Chatterjee) is visiting and he promises never to return. As Kailash Nath runs after his son, he trips and falls and hurts his head. He dies on the spot and ever since then his spirit has haunted the house, never letting any family settle down and make it their home since he is so embittered.

However Banku, who resembles his grandson, is able to reach out and thaw his cold anger. This is the story that Bhoothnath tells Anjali. Soon after Anjali decide to perform his last rites so that he can move on. Bhoothnath aka Kailash Nath’s son also makes it to the last rite ceremony and father is able to forgive his repentant son. Banku is heartbroken as he realises that he has lost his friend forever but his father reassures him that Bhoothnath will forever look after Banku as his guiding star.


CAST AND CREW

Directed by: Vivek Sharma

Writing credits: Sudhanshu Dube
Screenplay and dialogue: Vivek Sharma

Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Satish Shah, Rajpal Yadav, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Aman Siddiqui, Shahrukh Khan

Produced by
Kenedy Bakshi .... executive producer
Abhay Chopra .... associate producer
B.R. Chopra .... producer
Kapil Chopra .... associate producer
Ravi Chopra .... producer

Original Music by: Vishal Shekhar
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Background score: Saleem Suleiman

Cinematography by Vishnu Rao

Film Editing by Sanjay Verma

Production Design by Muneesh Sappel

Art Direction by Muneesh Sappel