Change Your Image
gauravthemystery
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
404: Error Not Found (2011)
A must watch for those looking for something new.
404 is one of those kind of movies whose fate is decided by the Indian Box Office - dominated by mutiplex and masala movies - much before its release. Though its box office collections were not good, 404 has impressed critics and that small sectional of Hindi movie audience who would like to experiment with something new.
404, is a psychological thriller (name given nowadays to a film which combines the elements of mystery and psychology) which although is not a new genre, but has remained largely untouched in Hindi film industry, due to lack of success. The director Prawal Raman is bold enough that even after his repeated failures (Darna Zaroori Hai, Darna Mana Hai, Gayab) has remained loyal to this genre, and this time with an unknown starcast has produced something worth watching.
The plot has many twists and turns, which keeps the audience involved till the very end. The climax is the USP of the movie and produces the same "Shock" about which Robert McKee speaks in Spike Jonze directed "Adaptation". Nishikant Kamat as Professor Anirudh has once again impressed after his solid job in Mumbai Meri Jaan. Although I found the acting of the others weak, the crew can be excused as they are not much experienced. The only thing which was a letdown was Satish Kaushik. He was highly underutilized. Even Imaad Shah could have done more.
But as Robert McKee says, if you can shock your audience, and they say 'wow' in the end, nothing else matters.
Coming to my main point, its a pity that our industry rejects these sort of movies and such movies beg for screen space in mutiplexes, where only money speaks. Crap movies such as Ready has become a blockbuster whereas such cleverly made movie don't even get sufficient takers.
Anyways, for those who constantly criticize Hindi Film Industry for using the same old clichéd storyline and not coming up with anything new, this movie can be a good watch.
Kites (2010)
Utter Garbage
Well, I saw Kites on day 1 and was completely disappointed. The most anticipated movie of the year, which took at least 2.5 years turned out to be simply "GARBAGE". The movie was postponed as it was feared that it would not be able to face competitions from 3 Idiots and My Name Is Khan and as it turns out papa Roshan did the right thing.
Dhoom 2 bas bad too but it was Hrithik who carried it all the way, but Kites is worse.. err worst. Starting from story, screenplay and acting everything was poor. Anurag Basu who previously directed Gangster and Life in a Metro gave his worst this time.
Kangana was completely out of place, Hrithik was disappointing, there is no sign of Kabir Bedi after the intermission, there are action scenes in a romantic song and phew... the flaws are too many to be mentioned. The response of the audience was so bad that as soon as the exit door was opened people started leaving their seats abusing the film badly.. No one even bothered to watch the last scene and the end credits! Even a child sitting right in front of me started crying as he too realized, he was fooled by Roshans. :P
Just publicizing your film as a Hollywood material doesn;t make it one. Trying to mimic Sergio Leone and Garry Marshall resulted in the film itself being a mimic or rather spoof. Hindi film directors should know their limits and try to keep the movie within that otherwise it will result in a complete mess like Kites.
Well, on a serious note, I suggest you all to give this movie a skip and spread the words too. Finally, WHY ON EARTH WAS THE MOVIE NAMED KITES... Phew.. its all your call now.
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)
A movie at least 20 years ahead of its time
As I was scrolling through IMDb 250, I saw "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" at #4. My initial thought "Huh, 1966 movie, not worth watching. Runtime(179 min) also convinced my mind against watching this. But another half of my mind said, "Dude, you can't afford miss an IMDb #4 movie. So, I saw the movie and till date I have watched it at least 25 times. Hats off to Sergio Leone for making such a great and legendary movie and that too in 1966 with limited resources. None of the "Spagetti Westerns" are close such brilliance, not even the other 2 in this series. Leone has extracted out a stupendous performance from "Eli Wallach". Clint Eastwood was good as usual. Shooting locations are brilliant and the supportive background score is very catchy. The movie is a bit slow in the beginning, but once it catches pace, it deeply involves the audience. Some people have argued that #4 is too high for this movie, but its not 'some' who make the IMDb list, its the majority. Speaking of Leone, I believe that he was at least 15-20 years ahead of time. He has served as inspirations for such genre in all parts of the world, be it 'Sholay' in India, 'El Desaro' in Spain, and many more. I would like to go with a 9 out of 10 for this movie and its a flick which you just can't afford to miss this
3 Idiots (2009)
Clearly the best Hindi movie of 2009.. must watch
I watched '3 idiots' on the Christmas Day. Being an Aamir Khan fan the expectations were huge. The movie is excellent, absolutely fun filled and hilarious but deviates from its main idea of Education system after the intermission.
The depiction of education system of India is completely true where each and every prof. is interested only in the fact that you have mugged up his lessons on not. Being an IITian myself I can assure you of this. Aamir Khan is awesome, Sharman and Madhavan are also good as usual. Boman Irani rocks again with his stand out performance. Kareena Kapoor is OK considering her not so important role. The stand out scene of this movie is clearly Omi's 'Balatkaar' speech.
But considering Raju Hirani previous works, this movie can't be called his best. Its like Hirani hit a double hundred in his 1st one(Munnabhai MBBS), a 50-60 in his 2nd and a 90* in this.Considering all these, I would go with an 7 out of a 10 and thumbs up for this movie. You can surely spend two hundred bucks, it is worth it.
District 9 (2009)
A different kind of Sci-thriller
District 9, this sci-fi film is completely different from any other sci-fi movie. Jackson gets the whole credit for such excellent shooting locations. The film starts like a typical documentary but soon involves its viewers deeply into the movie. Shartlo Copley was awesome with his character in a dilemma. The depiction of aliens race being tortured and forced to live in slums in amazing. No compromise has been done to CGI and graphics even after depiction of slums and poor plight of aliens.
Overall the film is an absolute masterpiece, clearly the best of 2009 along with 'Inglorious Basterds' so I go on with an 8 out of 10 for this movie.