Golmaal - Not Again!

Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai, is an apt way to start this review. Story golmaal hai, script golmaal hai, actors bahut saare hain, magar roles golmaal hain.

This is what they call a potboiler. But Manmohan Desai was the Boss when it came to potboilers. Just watch Amar Akbar Anthony to see how you can knit together an unbelievable story line and still entertain for 3 hours.

This has too many actors, for one. So their screen time is divided into minuscule bits, not giving anybody a chance, really...Neil Nitin Mukesh gets the really raw deal. They try, though, and there are a few sparks. The music is horrible. Johny Lever's Hyderabadi airline safety announcement was a highlight for me.

The slapstick didn't work for me, particularly in the first half, which is way too long. One of the many questions I had in the second half was- if the ghost had the power to wring a confession out of the culprit, why did you need the rigmarole of an elaborate plan to do it any other way? Well, I don't expect an answer, because there isn't any logic..only (Rohit Shetty) magic!

Drishyam-Film Review

Third time lucky too. Good films are raining, it seems, at least in the halls which I frequent. This was screened at the Indore campus, and I am happy I made it there.

A brilliantly paced thriller with ordinary people being enmeshed in a whodunit with a twist. Actually more than a whodunit, it's Hitchcockian- about whether the perpetrator will be caught..and done with rare elan for an Indian movie. The last time I saw anything like it was maybe Johnny Gaddar starring Neil Nitin Mukesh and directed by Sriram Raghavan, a self-confessed James Hadley Chase aficianado.

This one is gripping throughout, and Nishikant Kamat is the director. Apparently a remake of a Malayalam film, I am sure the original must have been very good too. The setting of this one is Goa, and like in the recent Finding Fanny, the feeling it gives you is that you are a part of the local Goan lifestyle. The overhead shots of the landscape are lovely, and from the first frame to the last, you are eager to see what happens next. A rare quality in any film. Though I thought the last 7-8 minutes could have been eliminated, this may be a bow to Hindi film audiences-a part of which like such stuff. But that is a small flaw in an otherwise excellent film, which also makes you ponder about power, bringing up kids and many other things, including family values-and the value you put on your family. Everyone is perfectly cast- especially Gaitonde, and Shriya Saran and the two kids in the family of Ajay Devgan.

Bol Bachchan- Enjoyable Nonsense

I think Rohit Shetty is a better director of comedies than Sajid Khan. Going by the evidence of Bol Bachchan versus Housefull 1 and 2. This borrows some ideas from Golmaal, the classic comedy made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee who for me was one of our finest.

This is not a classic, but it worked for me. The acting and direction, the timing etc. was very good. It would have been even better had the chases and fights not been there, or had been replaced by a subtler twist. But then, Mukherjee or (Basu) Chatterjee are tough acts to follow. The effort is commendable, and the Delhi audience (Nehru Place) seemed to enjoy it.

Ajay Devgan, Asin, Abhishek, all acted well. Archana Puran Singh plays a role Dina Pathak played in Gol Maal, of a hired pretend-mother. The dialogues of the original, and the funny attempts at speaking English by Ajay are really well done. Asrani has a good role too. There is a literal cliffhanger at the end. Music is Ok, not great.