This is gonna be a short review. This was another cliche'd sequel. It was much worse than the first one. Yes, the princess now wants to get married. Genovia has a tradition of arranged marriages for the royal family, but our princess becomes a runaway bride in the end.. only she does not run away, yet declares that she wants to find true love. Can anyone turn down such a beautiful princess? So rules are broken and the American Idol sings with a Genovia backdrop!

The princess reaches out to the poor kids and shares her VISION for Genovia, which makes the other contenders to the throne walk away from it! Thus princess turns queen! and limo driver turns caretaker of the ex-queen! Simply story which kids might enjoy.. was not too much fun for me... Sunday, February 20, 2005 at 3:16 PM

Swades

I saw this movie with really high expectations from Gowariker thanks partly, to the number of Filmfare nominations and I was not let down!!

What's New?

Science has been blended into a Bollywood movie in the most magnificent way I've ever seen! As an Engineer myself, it was refreshing to see a Bollywood movie explain Science to the masses in a brilliant way! Way to GOwarikar! There was a new face, Gayathri Joshi. Frankly, I was not too pleased with her looks or performance. When I think Gowarikar and I think village belle, the face that flashes in front of my eyes is of course that of Gauri in Lagaan! Albeit, this girl is modern and educated, there are many faces I could fathom, that could have added a greater Jamba boost to this role.

Noticeable:

Shahrukh has done a great job, which seems amplified after the cliche'd role and his signature performance in Veer Zaara, which left me wondering whether this guy had a future in my TV screen, but he does! SRK or this film will probably not have the impact that Aamir and Lagaan did, but this movie was a good follow-up by the director. The king Khan has done total justice to his role. AR Rahman has once again delivered when it comes to a Gowarikar movie. Except for the "Baaba Kich Kich taa" repeat in a song and the background music, the other songs were really well executed. "Yeh Taara Woh Taara" was particularly good and reminds us a little bit of "Mitwaa" from Lagaan. The dussera song was also good and reminds you of "Raadha kyon na Jale". Thank god, there was nothing in parallel to "O paalan hare".. looks like the director has taken feedback from Lagaan!

I am not getting conclusive about a pattern in here, but Gowarikar in his first two movies has exploited the thrill value very well. The thrill that the audience gets out of the electric meter is great, but no where near when Kachara gets his wickets or Bhuvan hits the winning shot! That's the problem any director has to face by delivering a marvel in his first attempt! But this one has met expectations really well!

Verdict:

This movie is superb! Definately worth seeing once! Having lived in a village for 4 days, I can tell that the sequences are so natural! The characters like the "Bijili paati", Kaaveri Amma, the weaver turned farmer, Dadaji, the cook who has done some good comedy, etc. are likely to stay in your mind several days after you have watched the movie. This is the beauty of Gowarikar's movies that attach so much significance to the so-called "lesser important" characters! How can you forget Kachara, Ismail or Guran from Lagaan? The movie is a little drawn out and a little bit on the preaching side, but you've gotta watch it for ARR, SRK and Ashutosh if not anyone else! Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 11:10 AM

Wonderful Wonderful movie!! Its a classic from Jack Nicholson!

What's New?

I have never seen a tale of a retired man told so beautifully! It is in my mind, one of the best movies I have seen in recent past. I would have liked to see this movie at a later stage in my life to have appreciated it much more.. but atleast, now I know what I have in store ;-)

Noticeable:

Absolutely perfect performance from Jack once again! He is one of the best stars in Hollywood. This movie would have been perfect.. except for two scenes: the one scene where Jack kisses the woman who understands him very well, in an RV and the other is the Kathy Bates hot-tub scene, which was really needless.

Verdict:

It is a must watch movie.. atleast once in a lifetime! Visu's movies and other Indian movies which show the retirement sorrow, must really learn from this movie! It also tells us, how we can really make a difference to someone before heading back to where we belong! This movie really sent a chill down my spine and I was really really touched by the ending! Awesome! Awesome!!! Monday, February 14, 2005 at 1:28 PM

Page 3

This is yet another tell-it-as-it-is Madhur Bhandarkar film. I am not sure why he has this obsession to show Child moles***ion and g*y concepts to the Indian filmy audience, but I find some of those scenes really disgusting!

What's new?

It is a nice piece put together by Bhandarkar, where he shows the story of an entertainment reporter played by leading lady in the famous film, Mr & Mrs Iyer. What makes this movie different is, that it also covers the stories of people that this reporter interacts with or is friends with, such as her roomies, her colleagues, film stars, models, rich people and others featured in the Entertainment Page#3 in her newspaper.

Noticeable:

It is another good performance from Mrs Iyer. She is likely to be noticed for this role. She does selective roles but shines in them. She is noticeably de-glamorized and less beautiful in this film. But then, entertainment reporters are not supposed to outshine the people they cover, right?


Verdict:

Madhur has come up with another good movie, that brings social issues to the limelight very nicely. However, this movie loses focus and one is not sure what the director is trying to convey.

Is he trying to show us the glitz and glamor of the rich people? or is he trying to show us the life of an entertainment reporter and contrasting that with the life of the REAL crime reporter?

Is he trying to tell us how the government and rich folks rule the press? or is he trying to illustrate the issues with child abuse and g*y folk. The other concepts brought forth include the unwritten rule that young women have to sleep with directors or co-stars, if they wish to enter Bollywood.

In addition, he talks about how flight assistants get sick and tired of their jobs after a while and resort to extreme measures by marrying much elder people, etc. He also talks about unhappy women and spoilt kids in rich families.

This was all okay for me.. but might be too complex for an average movie-goer, who just wants to relieve some stress from day to day work! at 1:23 PM

This is a modern day Cinderella story from Disney. It is a feel good movie.

What's new?
Nothing much.

Noticeable:
Good performance from the two lead stars. Good story and the way it has been tailored for modern audience. The makeover scene is amazing and I'd watch it several times over for this one scene! The guy playing limo driver has also done a good job.

Verdict:
Adults might find this boring.. but kids, especially young girls would find it fun! at 1:05 PM

Paycheck

This is roughly a film along the lines of "Minority Report" by Steven Speilberg. This John Woo movie is also based on seeing the future and planning for it, etc. So, for those who do not want to or like to use their memory in watching movies, this may not be the one for you.

Ben Affleck stars in this movie in the lead role and he is an Engineer who performs his tasks to perfection and is offered a highly confidential project, in which he would have to give up 3 years of his life in exchange for a huge "paycheck". The catch is, his memory after completion of the project will be erased for all the 3 years he has been on this project. Affleck agrees and completes the project but is fooled. The rest of the movie deals with why he gave up the huge sum of money and some clues he gave himself to get something bigger.

What's new?

The movie, unlike Minority Report has clues that solve a jigsaw puzzle for someone who does not remember the past, but can somehow predict the future and has things with him from his past, which help him get out of sticky situations in his present. If you are already confused, stop reading and go watch the movie! ;-)

Noticeable:

Some good clues and concepts.

Verdict:
This will be a nice movie for someone who likes to read mystery book. It falls short of the Minority Report. Overall I rate this movie above average for its concept.. but just about average for execution. at 1:02 PM

Anand

What an outstanding movie!! I have heard all the prior generation people rave about this movie, so, I decided to check this movie out myself. I only have faint memories of having watched parts of this movie from my mom's lap when she and dad were watching this in the theater. The other reason why I decided to check this out was a Super-bowl half-time debate on whether Amitabh was better than Rajesh Khanna. I could not participate in this debate for two reasons: first, I was eagerly awaiting another "wardrobe malfunction" for one of the cheerleaders and secondly, I only had memories of one Rajesh Khanna movie, Haathi Mere Saathi. I remember having enjoyed it very much as a child. But that alone was not enough to quantify anything. The more recent performances of AB were fresh in my mind, but after having seen this movie, I decided that Rajesh had a class of his own. His chirpy performance in this movie is really unparallelled! What an amazing performance! Amitabh, being more junior, has not equalled Rajesh, but has done his share very well. Thus, even after watching this movie, the debate will continue.

What's New?

What can possibly be new in an old movie? Guess what? there is plenty for the younger generation to take away! There is no education in the movies these days, whatsoever, except perhaps bedroom or bar sequences. The inadequacies in the field of medicine are so nicely brought forward by this movie, which is certainly over 30 years old! Now, I can understand why Munnabhai MBBS was such a hit. It had so beautifully adapted from this movie to match the present generation. Kudos to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sanjay Dutt (& Kamal Hassan too) for carrying this forward.

Noticeable:

"BaaabuMushaai", the nick name for Amitabh, as heard from Rajesh throughout the movie, will ring in your ears even hours after you have seen the six letters "The End" on the screen. There really is no end to such people! Some sequences were simply amazing. Those that stood apart in my mind were the last scene, with a tape that had a significant pause in between; the moun-vrath guru, who so symbolically said that there is so much more than the decaying body to Anand's soul; then of course the Munirbhai sequences and the eventual backfiring of this strategy and so many more! The songs were so gentle and heart warming! The comic timing of Rajesh Khanna was simply amazing!

Verdict

Present day filmmakers really need to rework their brains and start thinking much much better! There is much more to Hindi cinema than just skin-show and catchy item number songs. This is a MUST-WATCH movie! I did not think so when others told me, but having experienced it myself, I believe them! I am gonna check out the other MUST-WATCH movies prescribed by the previous generation. Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 12:00 PM

Check this out! Bollywood2000.com - TOP 10 ALL TIME DIALOGUES OF HINDI MOVIES at 11:41 AM