Kismat Konnection (2008) - Starring Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Juhi Chawla

Shahid Kapoor had the super-hit film with a pairing with Kareena Kapoor, and the movie ? Jab We Met. Unfortunately, his luck ran out then, and in fact Jab We Met was released when the pair was already done, with Kareena waltzing off with Saif Ali Khan, and Shahid looking for somebody on the rebound. During and after the course of this movie, there were a lot of stories about a relationship with Vidya Balan, but soon after this movie released, the talk went away. In fact, the movie had a strong opening and a great first weekend, but then went weak and was classified as a weak movie at the box office. The songs were okay, the chemistry was okay (although there were a number of comments about his boyish look while she looked like his aunty), and then of course, there was withering criticism of Vidya Balan's wardrobe, something that must have riled her a lot (she talked about this criticism for some time after the release of the movie).
The movie also had a role by Juhi Chawla, trying to play a non-glamorous role, and if the movie had been successful, maybe that role might have been more appreciated. However, it was not to be. The movie was released under the banner of Tips Industries, being produced by Ramesh Taurani, and was directed by the well admired director Aziz Mirza (who of course has a very strong Shahrukh Khan connection). The music was by Pritam, with lyrics by Sayeed Quadri & Shabbir Ahmed). The movie had story by Rahila Mirza.

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The story of how a particular person could be the key to another person's luck sounds like the story that a fortune teller might try to tell you, and so it was in this case. It is particular painful for a person who was at the top in college, and was predicted to do very well. Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is an architect, and is still struggling for good work. In addition, he runs into trouble in the form of Priya (Vidya Balan) and they have a tiff (verbal tiff).
Soon after, Raj goes to a gypsy lady Haseena Bano Jaan (played by Juhi Chawla) for help and advice, and she tells him that there is a person whose very presence will bring him luck, and guess what, it will be Priya. If she were there when he was trying to do his business, it will lead to more clients, more business, and success.
Priya is more interested in doing social work, including standing up for the rights of citizens when businesses are trying to push them aside. She wants to prevent the building of a huge commercial project that will push aside a small community center, while for him, the big move is to propose himself as the architect of this huge commercial project. So he lies to her in terms of trying to help her project while putting forward his proposals for the project. And, her presence does seem to help his fortune. He also falls in love with her, but then, things get upturned when she finds out what he is actually trying to do.
However, by this time, he is for the project that she is trying to do, for her cause, and changes his plans to accommodate the community center, but is knocked out of the bidding process, even though she is attracted finally by what he is trying to do. And then help comes from a very unlikely source, such a help that you would start to believe in a concept of God. A movie that can be watched.

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.

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.

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

New York (Hit movie released in 2009) - Starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Irrfan Khan

The 2001 attacks in New York on the World Trade Center was a major event in the history of the United States, a huge terror attack in the heart of the US, and together with the attack on the Pentagon, a shock to the whole world. It led to a severe fightback by the United States on terrorism, which included assistance in the removal of the Taliban from Afghanistan and its support to Al-Qaeda, the moving of a number of suspects to the US base of Guantanamo. Even now, 10 years later, the US is continuing to fight against terror suspects, monitoring to break up terror cell. The attacks also led to a number of laws that enabled the US Government to detain suspects, snoop on them, and so on. It is natural that in this fight, there would also be mistakes made, especially when it came to suspicious behavior on the form of Muslims, and in the surcharged atmosphere, this would have lead to innocents being caught and jailed for periods of time. Some of the laws that prevented such miscarriages of justice would also have been in abeyance with the application of the need for national security.
What would happen when a person was caught up in this search, was innocent, but was jailed and tortured ? Would this create a huge feeling of revenge in such a person, the need to strike out and fight back against this injustice committed ? New York is a gripping movie that explores this concept, which takes an innocent Muslim studying in New York at the time of the attack, and who was arrested and tortured, and then looks after some years to see what the impact of all these incidents were.

New York is a movie that was pretty successful, being declared a hit. The movie was a hit with critics as well, being seen as a taut movie that portrayed the emotions of a person caught up in something that he was not involved in, and how that incident changed him such that it drove him to a disastrous future.
New York also got approval to shoot in many situations at site, inspite of the portrayal of the movie about a person falsely implicated by the FBI, and who got traumatized by this experience, ultimately becoming a terrorist who came close to taking revenge, stopped by his own family and friends in the end.
Omar, Maya and Sam are friends in New York University in 1999, enjoying life and having a good time. Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) starts falls in love with Maya (Katrina Kaif), but withdraws from both of them when he realizes that Maya is actually in love with Sam. And then the events of 2001 happen, where Sam is detained by the FBI and kept in jail for 9 months, and tortured as well.
All this is revealed in flashback, since the year is 2008, and Omar has been arrested by the FBI for having guns in the trunk of his taxi, and he realizes that he is forced to work with the FBI to keep a check on Sam (who is now married to Maya, and has a son). Sam is now suspected of being a terrorist, planning a strike. Omar does not initially believe this, but the situation turns out that he starts believing this. And then a quest starts to stop Sam before he can carry out the plan.

Kambakkht Ishq (released in 2009) - starring Akshay Kumar, and Kareena Kapoor - A loud movie that I did not really like

The movie was an above average release for 2009. In addition, it was also the first movie in Hindi Cinemas, that features cameo roles from such international stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and Holly Valance. The movie is shot abroad, and is also set in Los Angeles. With a hot set of lead stars, international celebrities, and expected good music, the movie was hotly awaited. The collections for the first weekend were good enough to declare the movie a hit. However, when the movie was finally released, it was a disappointment and was savaged by many critics. The movie was a loud movie, I did not find the humour in good taste, and the songs were just about okay. The only thing that seemed fine was the cameo role of Sylvester Stallone. The rest, including the supposed hot role of Denise Richards seemed to leave me cold; and of course when you are showing a movie with a stuntman, you expect a lot more action scenes, and those were almost totally missing.

The movie is based on a strange battle of the sexes, that can be very sexist and not make a lot of sense. Akshay and Kareena meet at the marriage of his brother and her friend, and clash with each other, and even later when they meet by accident in Italy. He is a famous stuntman, and she is a medical student who models to earn money for her medical school tuition. Things come to a head when he lands up on her surgical table, the final step in her evaluation. And since this is a Hindi movie, by mistake she leaves a small watch inside him, with the watch loudly making a sound of "Om Mangalam" every hour; when she finds out, she is horrified, since this could mean that she will have a malpractice case on her and can say goodbye to her hopes of becoming a doctor. As a result, she has to find him, and operate on him before he can find out what the exact problem is; and for this, even if she has to sexually attract him, she will do so.
The rest of the story is of the attempt, and in between, he starts to love her. She takes longer to accept this, and the end is happy. In the meantime the story of the love, divorce case, and love again of the other couple in the story, Aftab Shivdesani, and Amrita Arora keeps on happening.

De Dana Dan (released in 2009) - A comedy starring Akshaya Kumar and Suniel Shetty

De Dana Dan was a comedy movie that was released in 2009. The movie was directed by the famous director, Priyadarshan (who had directed many other hit movies such as Hera Pheri, Hungama, Garam Masala, and many others). The movie starred the combination that last was seen in the 2006 Hera Pheri, namely Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal. In addition, the movie also starred as the female leads, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy, and also starred Neha Dhupia, Chunky Pandey, Archana Puran Singh. The movie aims to be a comedy, with some amount of seriousness, the comedy being in the interactions between the characters, set in an overall situation where the main leads are in a poor financial condition and as a result, are unable to be with their loved ones. The music for the film was somewhat catchy with some of the numbers such as "Rishte Naate" and "Paisa Paisa" being remembered.
The movie was an above average earner, with the movie making a decent amount at the box office, both in India and abroad, thus increasing the reputation of Priyadarshan.

The movie is primarily about 2 poor male Indians in Singapore. Nitin (Akshay Kumar) and Ram (Suniel Shetty) are in a poor financial condition, and love 2 girls, Anjali (Katrina Kaif) and Manpreet (Sameera Reddy). Both of them are rich girls and whose parents are not agreeable to the idea of their daughters marrying poorly. Nitin works as the all-in-one servant to Archana Puran Singh who owns supermarket stores and who favors her dog Mulchand Ji, and there is a running tiff between Akshay and Mulchand Ji. Akshay's father owned a large debt to Archana Puran Singh and Akshaya is trying to pay off the debt by working like this, although he acknowledges that the debt will not be repaid so easily.
Ram in turn came to Singapore as an actor in Chinese films, but now works for a courier company. The movie runs through a mad-cap situation where the marriage of Manpreet is originally planned to the sun of Paresh Rawal (Chunky Pandey). Both Nitin and Ram decide to earn money by kidnapping Mulchand Ji, but the plot changes when the dog runs away, and then it is assumed that Nitin has been kidnapped. Paresh Rawal is a swindler who looks to this marriage as a way for his son to get a large sum of money. Neha Dhupia is a high class call girl, Shakti Kapoor is a person who has affairs behind his wife's back, and then there is an assassin also involved. The highlight of the movie is a madcap scene in the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore where the movie finally comes to a happy ending.