Rang de basanti....under de lens...too late....but still....

First of all...if v r goin to compare this movie n value it based on its peer-movies....v better not....reasons....there's no point in comparin anythin with somethin supremely inferior in quality to show how good it is....its better to hold it up againts some quality stuffs n then c if it does belong to the same class....

the director deserves applause for giving us an entertainin movie, which v can definitely watch with our minds in the right place than leavin it behind in the closet...at no point in the movie do v actaully get bored....

casting - grt work done here....roles are assigned aptly to actors selected from many languages....n character of each person is etched carefully....minute details about the characters can be seen taken care in detail in many scenes....the most impressive being sidhaarth's....notice his reactions n expressions during every small casual conversation, in all the scenes wher he's not the lead....perfectly potrayed is his role of a rich, no-nonsense guy who actually is very sentimental on the inside....
say for ex: his reaction in the scene where all the guys r making fun of madhavan n soha....
his behaviour in the runnin race which comes during one of the songs wher he jus casually continues walkin not being bothered about anyone or anythin....

the usage of songs in the movie is very good....the situations where the songs r placed r perfect....esp the song roobaroo.... n the songs jus being used in the background n not the actual audio-video-song pattern is a definite relief....

ARR's music suits the movie very well....songs are in a wide variety of genres ranging from melody to rap to kahwali to soft rock....all of them are very refreshing n come wit a feel-good factor...my pick is khoon chala....beautiful, dilicate melody...superb singin n violins....this is the song which kept lingerin in my mind for almos a week after the movie watchin n stil keeps me singin the lines "zameen se lipatkar...."
the background score for the movie is good, except for a few small blunders(like playin a techno-kinda beat for a scene on the independance struggle)....but predominantly the BGM is very supportive to the visual...the use of elec guitar wit distortion at some scenes have a great impact n enhances the impact of the visual....

the performance by every actor is good....the movie can never be called an aamir-movie...its got equal,important inputs from all the lead characters...even secondary characters lik cyrus, amir's mom, sid's dad, the long hair guy's(imran i think) family, etc have exhibited precise good actin...

the movie sucessfully manages to question and arouse some re-thinking on some social n political issues like the mig-mania and religion based fundamentalist groups like vhp, muslim league,...
well....give it a pat on the back for all this...

Wat the movie aims to do is to provide solutions to problems like the above...basically counter-corruption moves....here it fails badly and converges again to the same old solution of killing as the only answer...this is a non-relistic filmi impractical solution....n how many movies have v seen aleady which have all said the same...indian,anniyan,samurai,ramana....jus to name a few....n the way soha says "MAAR DALO" n our boys go out n execute the order with ease....bravery huh???give us a break!!!

One more scene(its a very small one though)which i think is completely out of sync with the movie is the scene towards the end where the firang lady comes in search of the missing aamir,to his house n finds that his mom is completely unaware tat her son is missing(mom jus thinks tat the son is out with his friends even though he hasn returned for 2 days)....at the end of this scene the sacred thread around mom's finger snaps n she gets worried about her son... n it follows tat amir is indeed in deep trouble....now...wat the movie shows throughout is that some old systems and beliefs have to be re-thought and changed...its true that some old religious beliefs r scientifically correct...but many of them are superstitious and things like these do not support the idea of revamping n changing some old systems....n this scene(or incident)is one such one which totally opposes the thinking-pattern of the movie...

if the movie could have come up with a better conclusion then i would have given it a bow in praise....but now it gets a hit on the head for screwing up wat could have been a completely mind blowing movie....

Rating:****

last reason why u have to watch the movie(in case if it did not arouse any intrst in u n there r no other of ur fav movies runnin):THERE'S NO HIMMESH!!!SO THERE R NO HIGH-DECIBEL NASAL MOANINGS!!!

Tatwa 2006- report and review

Tatwa 2006- a report and a review

Part-I

Tatwa- the two day play fest culminated today at the Jnana Jyothi auditorium. The event for which Harish, Abhijith and troupe had been toiling so hard(and for which the placement office computers contributed so much of their precious computing power) has been a success.

The word ‘tatwa’ in Sanskrit means summary or gist or the essence of something. Even though this word has no relevance in the context of a play fest, the word is short and catchy, hence acceptable as the name of a play fest.

The concept of a play fest is definitely a new idea for UVCE. The organizers deserve the credit for taking the initiative and organizing the event when support and acceptance may not have come very easily from the college. The organizers managed to get good sponsors- Radio Mirchi, The Hindu etc., a superb venue- the Jnana Jyothi auditorium and sufficient number of participating teams.

The event started of yesterday (April 8^th) at around 11 clock. The chief guest for the inauguration was Chandrashekhar Tejaswi, a local theatre personality. The event began with a one minute video showcasing the pioneers of drama. While the video showed photos of Girish Karnad, Arjun Sajnani etc it never mentioned T P Kailasam, much to my disappointment. However the idea of screening a video was good.

The inauguration formalities were the usual. Something worth mentioning here is that the chief guest in his speech expressed his irritation about the two bags which were strewn on the stage and also about people walking around the stage. Which is bad, I agree unanimously. But engineering college fests always have an atmosphere of informality about them.

The jury consisted of 3 members whose names I don’t remember. The first team to start was the team from BHS(whatever it stands for). After making the audience wait for a long time, the team started of.

The following teams participated in the event.

Day one:

1) BHS performing ‘Kaakana Kote’

2) 24 Rajput rifles

3) the man upstairs

4) UVCE performing ‘bandwaalavilladha badai’

Day two

5) UVCE performing ‘…’(missed this one)

6) Hittina Hanju

7) ___ cut ( don’t remember the name)

8) Brahmi from KSIT

9) Pishachi ___ Pishachi

10) BMS

11) ‘Cheque please’ from NLS

Having just been introduced to watching theatre, I am not sufficiently qualified to comment about the nuances of acting, theatre production etc. But some teams and some individuals always stand out and leave an impression. Here are my comments about every team…

1) Kaakana Kote

Superb presentation. Lot of hard work is visible here. Perfect timing. The stage was

Never left empty. Transition from scene to scene was always done with music and
diversions of dance etc. while the stage was prepared for the next scene.

Actors who stood out were those playing the protagonist’s side kick, Moni, Molii and the
Heggade. The actor playing the protagonist did an average job in my opinion.

2) 24 Rajput rifle

An original script. Definitely not worth the hype(as claimed as the winner of the VTU
fest).

3) The man upstairs

Or the woman upstairs? Was very dull and mediocre.

4) UVCE ..’bandvaalavilladha badaayi’

Written by T P Kailasam. Superb acting by the person playing the male lead. The play
was hilarious. The actors brilliantly covered a contingency situation when the seat they
were sitting on collapsed and integrated that into the scene seamlessly.

5) UVCE’s second team

Missed watching this unfortunately.

6) Hittina Hanju

Watched from the middle. Initially everything just flew over the head…the play
proved too difficult to understand. However as it progressed, I understood things a little.
The female protagonist was brilliant. However the male protagonist, being a
professional theatre person, didn’t live up to the expectations.

7) __ cut

Never understood why the team chose such a script.

8) Brahmi from KSIT

Superb special effects with the lighting and the sound. ‘ranganna’ was brilliant. The
story in my opinion was not all that great.

9) Pishachi__Pishachi

Didn’t watch the whole play. Just saw the start which seemed okay dokey.

10) BMS

The story was original and simple. Would have been mediocre and negligible had it
not been for the performance of the female lead who was brilliant. She showed the
most believable realistic expressions and body language.

11) Cheque please from NLS

Superb script. Probably the best script in the lot. Good dialogues coupled with good
performance by one and all left all of us laughing.

End of Part-I
To be contd.

Review 1 :Happy(telugu)

HAPPY: ***

Tagline :2 and half hours entertainment
Can U go with family: Yup , no vulgarity ,no blood shed
Review
Happy comes as fresh breather to tollywood ..which off late has been bombarded by 'formula'type movies ..i.e 2 fights ,3senti scenes ,1 melody song,1 mass song and a romantic backdrop ..saying that it does have its share of 'the same old thing scenes'too ..
Director karunakaran (works like Tholi prema, Vaasu,Balu etc)this time comes up with a urban story ..aimed mostly towards the youth(though general audience can also watch).

Compared to the recent Youth movies ..the story of "Happy ' is slightly different ...Karunakaran has played with the his main characters pretty well..Bunny(Allu arjun) is happy go lucky orphan ..who works as a pizza delivery guy in daytime (goes for mba classes in the evening..GAWD only knows where that happens)..Madhmathi (Genelia) is a daughter of Local Politician who is hell bent on casteism ..coz that fuels his political ambitions.she pursues MBBS studies much to the disliking of her father who intends use her as a bait for his political career ..Bunny and madhumathi meet under strange situations and due to unforseen circumstances get married ..the rest of the story is how this couple which never had any love for eachother ..find soulmates in each other ...

Performance ..this happens to be Allu arjuns's best performance yet ..he carries the story on his shoulders with great enthu and maturity ..be it the Comedy scenes (where his natural personality helps),Fights or the last senti scene ..he has shown good capabiltiy ..Special mention must be made about his dancing capabiltites ..performing much to the liking of 'mass' as well as 'class' .Genelia's performance may find her new admirers among the 'class' audience .this probably is the first role where she had some scope of performing and she has fared pretty well.
Manoj bajpai proves why he is one of the better character artists in the country..his role of DCP Aravind has been well characterized ..and Manoj just seems to be the rite choice ..the rest of the cast ha s performed to the expection tho the guy who palys ACP ratnam shows great energy on screen

Technically ..the movie is a camera work reviwers delight ..Cinematography by rajshekhar is first rate ..this film shud mark the return of karunakaran ..he has shown good creativity ..be it the hyderabadi song (which has been picturized all over HYD)be it the scene where madhu asks Bunny for lift and Bunny's reaction to it or the fights between Bunny and madhu ..they entertain the audience across all Classes ..Editing by Antony is slick and trendy ..the sets for songs are also creative ..Choreagraphy is also good .

The USP of happy is its music by yuvan shankar raja ..the hyderabadi song and egire mabulona song are to heard all over ..

Over all.."happy'' fits the bill of going to a movie in the weekend with your family ..coz u dont haave to think too much neither shed any tears ..pakka entertainment

can I watch the movie twice : you can ...if u are totally jobless (atleast for thesongs and alluarjun's acting )