Da Vinci Code

Movie: Da Vinci Code
Language: English
Date Watched: 20th May 2006
Venue watched: The Cathay
Watched with: Param, Mariya, Zahabia and Zahabia's friend (totally forgot her name)













so here i am writing a review for da vinci code.. i'm actually quite nervous. what with all the controversy and hoha about the movie and the book.

so anyways being very brave and totally frank i shall proceed with the review. whatever i write is my personal view and opinion.

so basically the story line of da vinci code is as follows. one night in paris the museum curator of the louvre is murdered by a self-flagellating albino monk in the employ of a devious bishop Before he expires, the curator leaves an absurd number of clues regarding his big secret. Summoned to the Louvre, harward prof, robert langdon quickly comes under the suspicion of the dogged inspector Fache. But Sophie Neveu, noted police cryptologist and gamine comes to his rescue. soon both of them are on the trail to find the murderer and eventually find themselves uncovering the "biggest cover up in the history of mankind".

before finally writing the review i have to say that i have still not read the da vinci code book. so my perception of the movie will be based on just that.
yup so the starting of the movie is interesting, with the louvre curator being chased by the monk hell bent on killing him. but the movie really gets exciting when langdon is brought to the crime scene and the on goings from there. i found the way neveu conveyed her message to langdon very smart. i found the pace of the story just right, not too fast or slow. i also loved the way the movie fused the past happenings with the present. it was a very engaging method. really allows you to visualise the past. however one thing that i didn't like was that tom hanks did not potray his fear of confined spaces too well. i could not connect with his fear. otherwise the acting of all the principal characters is very good. but Audrey Tautou stood out the most. she was crisp and fresh in her acting. an i love the way she spoke english in a french excent.
the slight humor when langdon and neveu go to sir Teabing chateu is also refreshing.
i love the twists in the movie. they really captivated my attention. there wasn't any part in the movie where i got bored or distracted.
for me the movie was very intertaining. i had a great time watching it. of course watching any movie with close friends already makes the experience even better. but seriously i think da vinci code is a movie that should be watched by all at least once. as for the controversies addressed by the movie, people should watch the movie and make up their own minds. everyone is different and the way they think is also different. so its fair that each person get the chance to arrive at their own conclusions.
i give the movie 5 out of 6 stars.

36 China Town

Movie: 36 China Town
Language: Hindi
Date Watched: 18th May 2006
Venue watched: Jade Cinema
Watched with: Preeti and Lalita














a huge cast and even bigger publicity and a murder mystery..that was what i knew of 36 china town when i went to watch it. i also had gotten mixed reviews about it from friends. but i decided to watch it anways. so yesterday i finally managed to catch the movie after work. (my office is 5min walk from jade cinema!!!!)

the story of 36 china town is that of a murder mystery. sonia chang, the owner of a casino in china town, goa gets murdered. her two year old son had been kidnapped. but he had been found and was returning home. unfortunately she never got to see him. shahid and karrena enter sonia's mansion to return her son but discover her dead body. they get implicated in the murder investigation. however the investigating officer, akshay khanna, soon has to many suspects on hand and no idea of the real killer.

so the credits and roll and upen patel fills the screen. i have to very frankly say this, he is NOT cute. i hate the cleft in his chin and even more his mannerisms. so anyways for some weird reason the print of the movie seemd stretched, making the actors look short and wide. soon the story starts unfolding. i love the way the story moves from the happenings in goa to the events happening in munbai simultaneously. very interesting indeed. however once the story shifts to mumbai, its as though the murder has almost been forgotten about. too many songs and comedy make the viewer forget the main story; who killed sonia? and although the comedy is good, it distracts the story away from the murder. however that is still alright because the comedy is used as a platform to further the story.

shahid overacts in many scenes and karrena lacks expression in many. (they seemed to have switched acting personalities) karrena's dance as usual is ungraceful and weird. shahid is excellent. the surprise dancing package of the movie is upen patel. he dances well and i' sure his style will catch up soon. he should always wear hats as they make him look a little bearable. akshay khanna is lovable along with jonny lever and paresh rawal.

the music of the movie is catchy. but the picturisation of 24x7 looks very confusing. i was left asking what the story line of the song was... upen does a great job with aashiqi main teri (good moves) but the moves for isha are a let down.

over all the is ok. i give it 3 out of 6 stars.

Gangster - A Love Story

Movie: Gangster - A Love Story
Language: Hindi
Date Watched: 13th May 2006
Venue watched: Jade Cinema
Watched with: Bharat and Richa, Rahul and Shilpa







ok so i went to watch gangster with high expectations. i had read like awsome reviews for it on indiafm. and bharat also was supposed to be treating me..(though that never happened) so i had all the reasons to expect a great evening. the big question is did i?? truth be told, i did in fact have a great time.

so over to the movie now.
gangster is a movie about simran (the actoress kangana), a girl living alone in seol, south korea. simran is an alcoholic and alone away from her country. she is befriended by another indian, emraan hashmi (can't remember his character's name). emraan is in love with her but simran does not recipocate the feelings. she has a secrect that is holding her back. her secrect is that she is in fact the girlfriend of a dreaded gangster, dayya (shiny ahuja). dayya is on the run and has left simran in seol to keep her safe. so simran spens her days waiting for dayya elusive phone calls and his eventual return. however she ends up falling for emraan and dayys too returns.. what happens next??

gangster is a complicated movie that tells the story in both present and flashback. the two are woven intricatley and as i found out some people got very confused. as for me i liked the movie. it was different, i loved the twists. and of course the acting of shiny ahuja is outstanding. also the fact that he is attractive was a plus point. (there is actually a dude in SMU who looks like him!!!!!) some things that were off was the fact that simran wore boots in many senses to end up eventually changing into sandles magically. and kangana's voice is damm irritating. she sounds like she has her mouth filled with saliva when she spoke. the perfect way to ruin the romantic settings in the movie was to hear her speak!!
but on another note her dressing is very nice except for the scene where she is running around seol in a sweater....and nothing else. her hair was different from the usual (straight, coloured, highlighted). it was nice black and curly. reminded me of my long hair...so back to the movie, i loved shiny ahuja. he's such an emoter!! wonderful!! and i loved the whole bad guy image of his. emraan hashmi's character was such an ass. i mean i really hated his character in the end. so yea gangster is a nice movie to watch. i give it 4 out of 6 stars..

When a stranger calls..

Movie: When a Stranger Calls
Language: English
Date Watched: 10th May 2006
Venue watched: The Cathy
Watched with: Param














How the both of us went about watching this movie is a a hilarious story on its own. but that shall be for my other blog.

So about the movie now.
The movie is about a highschool student getting a baby- sitting assignment for a family with the most amazing house!!! I toaly feel in love with the house. It was simply breathtaking. Back to the story.. The baby sitter has a very easy job, the kids are asleep and she has free access to the fully loaded fridge. So she settles in for a quiet evening. However suddenly the phone rings. She picks up and no one talks. These phone calls continue and get more and more sinister...

The movie was surprisingly refreshing for its genre. The suspense was kept throughout. And certain scenes took you by total shock.
However the pace at which the events were unfolding was very slow. For the first 1 hour the suspense just kept building. (It looked like a episode of "Lets explore the huge house") There were numerous false shock (typical of suspense movies). Soon we were both begging for something to "happen" in the story. And boy did something happen!!! In the last half hour the story simply jumped to life and caught your full attention. The sequense of events was good and the sounds and light effects added to the ambience of the story.
When the suspense was eventually over (it took a grand total of 15-20min), we were shocked once again at the very end. I personally like that ending. It sure left an impact.
I give the movie 3 stars out of 6.

Perhaps Love

Movie: Perhaps Love
Date watched: Long time ago, rewatched recently
Venue: Theatre
Watched: With Sis
Cast: Takashi Kaneshiro, Zhou Xun, Jacky Cheung

I must agree, with many, that the musical element of Perhaps Love was overplayed.

The first time I saw the trailer on TV, one thing popped into my head - Moulin Rouge. But no, just as the director said, it's not Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge is a musical, but Perhaps Love is not (at least not the kind of musical I know). I would say it displayed the technique of "cut and paste" at its best. (or do they call it montage?)

Although the whole movie was made up of intersecting scenes from the musical within the movie and the movie's reality, it was not a big mess of conflicting moving pictures. The musical scenes and reality scenes complemented each other, and together, they told the story of Sun Na, Lin Jian Dong and Nie Wen in a structured yet beautifully novel manner.

Unlike many love movies that try too hard to evoke emotions in the audience, Perhaps Love adopted a "let me tell you a story" approach, where the audience remains as mere onlookers. Emotions are not conveyed through mushy dialogue and tear-jerking background music. But everything was clearly told by a red eyed Lin Jian Dong repeatedly typing 3 words into his laptop, Nie Wen's back view as he watches himself on screen as the passionate circus master or the little changes in Sun Na's expressive eyes as she listens to Lin Jian Dong's voice recordings.

I like the idea of a narrator in the story, playing an omnipresent phantom in the movie. He begins as a mystical character who collects scenes from people's memory that had been "cut out and thrown away". Then he evolve to seemingly become a character in the musical within the movie, and later a writer who wishes to write Sun Na's memoir. Although he was never always around, his presence could be sensed by strategic appearances in the movie as the chauffeur, or the inquisitive stall tender of a noodle stall. At the end of the movie, he eventually published the memoir and passed a copy to a teary Sun Na, who realises how precious these memories she had tried to forget actually are.

Perhaps the best about this movie, were the multiple twists to the story starting from the second half of the movie. These are, however, not ordinary plot twists that merely change the expected course of the story. It brings out the thought processes of the characters and emotions that they went through. The ending to the musical within the movie was most passionate and meaningful, showing that sacrifice can also be a form of relief. Only after releasing pent up emotions through the circus master's sacrifice could Nie Wen (the director who played the circus master in the musical) finally relax and recover the hunger he always felt after making a movie. He also remembered his forgotten dream of making a simple love movie.

A simple story laden with compound layers of emotions, meticulously and poignantly told.

Fanaa music

Movie: Fanaa
Language: Hindi
Cast: Amir Khan and Kajol
Music Director: Jatin Lalit





I love the music of Fanaa. it is extremely melodious and catchy. there are seven tracks and the album starts off with chand sifarish. a great song sang by shaan and with aalap by kailash kher. it is a wonderful track. i simply love it.

the next song is mere hath mein. its a duet sung by sonu nigam and sunidhi chauhan. now i have to tell you i love sunidhi's voice and i love soft soothing, melodious songs. this song has all these elements. and thats why it is a sure hit with me. the lyrics are also very beautiful. great to listen to when u're in an extremely romentic mood.

the next track is destroyed in love. it is an instrumental piece featuring all the songs of the album. although it has the music of all the tracks, it still is soothing to the ears. its a good relaxing instrumental.

the next track is chanda chamke. it is sung by Mahalaxmi Iyer and Babul Supriyo. its a children's song with my tongue twisters. i'm sure it'll be a hit with the kids and the daring ones who want to try to master tongue twisters. i find the tune of the song very much like the one from yara yara from hun tum. listen to the song and let me know your view on that.

the next track is dekho na. its sung by sonu nigam and sunidhi chauhan. its another soft, melodious track. beautiful lyrics once again. it has a very calming effect. great listen to relax.
the next track is des rangila. its sung by mahalaxmi iyer. it has a peppy tune and is a patrioic song. i personally did not enjoy it so much. but it might catch up when the movie is released.

the next track is fanaa for you. its a remix of chand sifarish by dj aqeel. its a very catchy and lovely remix. a rarity these days. i actually feel like listening to it at home as opposed to only in clubs for other remixes. its a great job by dj aqeel. a toally rocking song..

all in all the music of fanaa is wonderful. its after a long time that a whole album is worth listening. so go and check out the songs.

Dobara

Movie: Dobara
Language: Hindi
Date watched: 29th April 2006
Venue: Home on Central, 4pm
Watched: Alone
Cast: Jakie Shroff, Mahima Chaudhary and Raveena Tandon

i was not expecting much when i sat down to watch the movie. so when the movie started off i was presently surprised.

the story is about jakie shroff and his wife having a happy married life when raveena enters their life. raveena is an old girlfriend of jakie's who was in the mental institution for 14 years. she enters jakie's blissful life with a bomb. they had a child together who was given up fpr adoption. so jakie follows raveena to go met their son. all the while mahima is worried about losing her husband.

the initial 1/2 hour was quick and engaging. however after the the confrontation of raveena and mahima the pace gets very very slow. i was watching the movie on chase play and fast forwarded the 3 songs that came. however i found the tune of "mujhe se kyun roothe ho" very catching. its a soothing song. great for when relaxing after a hard day. the acting of the 3 principal characters was very nice. no overacting. though i'm not a big fan of mahima, i found her watchable in the movie. her outfits like usual had lots of cleavage. raveena's outfits were simple, 1 colour long skirts with matching tops or tank tops with jeans. amongst the 3 Jakie looked the best. his simple attire of jeans, while shirt and blazor was very smart. and he simply carries himself very well.

all in all watching the movie got very tiring towards the end. i give the movie 3.5 stars out of 6.

The Sentinel

Movie: The Sentinel
Language: English
Date watched: 28th April 2006
Venue watched: Orchard Cineleisure
Watched with: Param


the latest movie i watched was the sentinel. it was the first movie after i completed my exams, a full 2 weeks after it. quite a record since i always watch a movie after completing exams. well anyways the movie i wanted to watch was the inside man. so ya missed the show time and ended watching the sentinel.
the movie is about a secrect service agent (michael douglas) who is accused of being a mole in the service and plotting to assassin the president of USA. he is innocent but is guilty of having an affair with the first lady (kim basinger). so he escapes from the secrect agents (kiefer sutherland and eva longoria and few others) sent to arrest him. whilst on the run he tracks down the real terrorists and mole in the secrect service. of course being the hero he succeeds.
the movie itself was not bad at all. i liked the action and fast pace of the movie. i never realised when the movie ended. it seemed like 2 hours just flew by. but the excess use of black in dressing from head to toe got boring after the first 10 mins. i however loved the black dress kin basinger wore in the restaurant where michael douglas come to met her while on the run. she looked very classy.
all in all i enjoyed the movie and i give it 3 stars out of 6.