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*ing : Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Director : Nora Erphon

Tagline : At odds in life... in love on-line.

just wanted to watch good 'ol rom-com and ended up watching this cute fun of a movie made brilliant by its stellar leads, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. set in era when internet had just kind of started and it was soo much fun using email and chat rooms. you dnt know whom u r talking to but you like talking soo much. someone you pass on the street may be love of ur life. the idea itself was soo exciting. and then there is plotting of old vs new in form of these new books stores and the older books stores. ! its a pleasant watch.. exactly wat i wanted to finish off my year.

Rating :
* * * & 1/2

Looper

*ing : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
Director : Rian Johnson

Tagline : Hunted by your future. Haunted by your past

Looper is a sci fi time travel type film starring Joseph Gorden Levitt (heavily made up with lenses to look like younger Bruce Willis), Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. Its abt time travel existing in future and ppl being sending back so that they can be killed. The movie is been much hyped and also successful bt somehow I did not like much. May be there were parts I did not understand or were not much exciting to get my complete attention. Yet, it’s a good movie. u may like it more than I did.
Rating :
* * *

English Vinglish

*ing : Sridevi, Adil Hussain
Director : Gauri Shinde

Tagline :

I have to admit here that I here that I hv never been much fan of sridevi. Perhaps I hv liked her most in Mr. India. Apart from that I cant remember any movie in which I LOVED her. And she makes a comeback after 15 years and how. Wat a dignified gracefully comeback by the lady. No item numbers, no unnecessary trappings, instead choosing such a topical subject with such great sensitivity. Kudos to sridevi for playing this non glamorous role and donning nothing bt simple cotton sarees throughout the movie. Its one of the best film of the year. Go watch, with ur mom specially.
Rating :
* * * & 1/2

The Dark Knight Rises

*ing : Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Director : Christopher Nolan

Tagline : Rise

The dark knight rises
I had to had to watch this movie again. One time view is just not enough for this epic saga which Christopher Nolan created in this Batman Trilogy. After giving a greatest villain, as a Joker, he gives yet another villain to be afraid of, Bane. Such a Hulky figure with even more dangerous motives. Words aren’t enough to describe the movie (and when I say this movie, I mean the entire trilogy here), u have to watch it to experience it. it doesn’t get better
Rating :
* * * *
Trilogy Rating :
* * * * *

Fire in Babylon

*ing :Richie Benaud, Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott and most of WI ex cricketers
Director : Stevan Riley

Tagline :

From 1975 to 1995, west Indies were almost an invincible team. It is also said to be greatest team ever in test and one day ! it had one of the greatest crickets of our time at their dominating best. the main reason was said to be the kind of bowling attack WI possessed. The real beast of the team were the pace attack of Colin Croft, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner. Just the name of these bowlers were enough to traumatize the batsmen then. Bt the documentary is more abt rise of WI cricket after drubbing they got in Australia. The charismatic captain, Clive Lloyd built this army of bowlers and made a team to rule for the decades to come. Watch it if u hv any interest in greatest game on earth cricket , or even in sports in general.
Rating
* * * & 1/2

Sherlock (season 2)

*ing : Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman
Creators : Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat

Tagline : The world's favourite detective has emerged from the fog...this is Sherlock for a new generation.

And since I said, it makes u lust for more, I just cudnt wait to finish the second season too. Again with 3 episodes with one hour 30 mins runtime. And such marvelous episodes these are.. they are like drugs,, u want to watch more n more.. the brilliant mind of Sherlock is shown in a way which u enjoy a good porn movie.. just addictive. ! I hear season 3 is in making.. cant.not.wait.

Rating :
* * * * & 1/2

Sherlock (season 1)

*ing : Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman
Creators : Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat

Tagline : A new sleuth for the 21st Century

I haven’t read much of Sherlock Holmes. I haven’t seen prior serials based on him. I have seen 2 movies made on Sherlock Holmes by Guy Ritchie (both of which I loved ) and was fascinated by the character..
So when I heard abt this very famous series made on Sherlock, I knew I am going to watch it. and boy, how I loved it. like any other series from west, its extremely well made. Great casting, great stories, great music, great production values.
There are just 3 episodes, one hour thirty minute each and once u r done watching em, u ll surely be lusting for more.. ! totally fan of it .. watch it, like now
Rating :
* * * * & 1/2

Mod

*ing : Ayesha Takia, Ranvijay Singh
Director : Nagesh Kukunoor

Tagline : when love happens... life takes a turn

Nagesh Kukunoor is such a smart man and used to make such kool n different movies once upon a time. Infact his film, Hyderabad blues, in mid 90s was the first true blue indie movie which took the industry by storm. And then we had this surge of films like Bombay boys, split wide open, Snip, etc etc. even in commercial sphere, he made some kool ones like Iqbal and Dor but since then he has totally lost it. Mod is one of the weakest film and really saddens to know that its made by nagesh. The acting is soo amateurish , the plot is ridiculous to the point of being annoying and irritating and climax is plain dumb. Dnt watch it..
Rating :
* & ½

Ted

*ing : Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis , Seth MacFarlane
Director : Seth MacFarlane

Tagline :

I had heard a lot about movie Ted and how it’s soo different and how its the funniest movie etc etc but I always had my reservations. Even when the promos were kind of fun, I just cudnt get myself much excited abt the movie. It was mainly cause of the lead actor Mark Wahleburg whom I do not like at all. He is one actor who easily puts me off any film he is in. perhaps liked him only in the departed. And even in ted, he is the main problem for me.. think he is totally miscast opposite super hot mila kunis. The film is funny in parts bt looses its steam towards the end. Watch if u really want to

Rating :
* * & ½

Premium Rush

*ing : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon
Director : David Koepp

Tagline : Ride like Hell


Premium rush
A film starring Joseph Gordon Levitt is always exciting cause he chooses such different scripts. Premium rush is about bicycle messengers in New York city which delivers urgent couriers in different parts of city battling the crazy traffic. I had never heard that such thing at all exists. One of them the main hero who goes by principal of no gears no breaks. One day he gets a courier in which there are certain wrong ppl interested and this becomes matter of his life n death. The film is fast and doesn’t allow u to relax. And there are some crazy cycling stunts shot among various part of town which is amazing to watch at. Joseph still shines as an actor but the film doesn’t have too much meat in it. yet, its worth a watch .
Rating :
* * *

Talaash

*ing : Aamir Khan, Rani Mukharjee, Kareena Kapoor
Director : Reema Kagti

Tagline : The search lies within

I am not a huge fan of aamir khan. Bt I think he makes smart choices as far as his movies are concerned. As an actor and as a producer too. Having said that, I have not liked movies which hv become blockbusters. In recent times, I did not like ghajani, 3 idiots (liked it when I saw, bt now when I think of it, I find it silly and annoying) , dhobhi ghat. Loved his taare zameen par, rang de basanti, dil chahta hai, lagaan !
Promos of talaash were really exciting and gripping. It made people wait for it in spite of aamir being in it. there was a delay of almost an year before the film released and it was rumored that the climax is quite similar to another thriller, kahaani. ! I felt that the promos, although exciting, gave always little too much about the film and it wudnt be difficult to guess the suspense. Bt the twist was extremely unpredictable, although unsatisfactory. !
film has a dark mood throughout and cinematography is quite noir like. First half is just too gripping and doesn’t let u lose the attention even for a minute. Its just in second half the film slows down and there is no control over the narrative. The much guarded twist is actually quite cheesy and just ruins the otherwise fine movie . aamir does excellent job as an actor and totally looks like a man broken n weigh down by pain. Rani doesn’t hv much scenes bt shines in whatever presence she has. Kareena has some gaudy clothes n corny lines yet she acts well and puts her heart n soul in the character. Its not a great cinema, bt surely worth a dekko.
Rating :
* * *

Snatch.

*ing : Jason Statham, Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro
Director : Guy Ritchie

Tagline : Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones

Always been a huge fan of guy Ritchie n his films. lock stock n two smoking barrels being among my most favorites ones. His recent Sherlock Holmes series hv pushed envelope like no other films. snatch, just his second film is on lines of Lock Stock which has twisted plot with some really quirky characters and darkest of humor. Its almost the same cast as the lock stock with addition to superstar brad pitt who displays a fair bit of timing in comedy. Difficult to explain the plot.. all I can say, watch it and u shall have fun.
Rating :
* * * *

Luv Shuv tey chicken khurana*

*ing : Kunaal Kapoor, Huma Quereshi, Rahul Bagga
Director : Maneesh Sharma


Many a times just a promo of the films makes u want to see it. same happened with this one. I am no big fan of kunaal kapoor n wudnt hv been keen if the promo wasn’t such delicious. Also, it had music by amit trivedi n the soundtrack was truly fun n quirky. The film celebrates Punjab and it’s a state which I love. The music, the people, the language, the lifestyle I am attracted to all of em. Film is about a lost recipe of a popular dish named “chicken Khurana” and wat all happens in quest of it. Kunal Kapoor plays a London returned desperately looking for money to get rid off gangster but gets sucked in his family from which he ran away 10 years ago. There are some really funny and endearing characters like his old time girlfriend, his aunty, his grandfather and best of all is tittu mama. It is not a great film bt a good time pass.
Rating :
* * *

Jab tak hai Jaan

*ing : Shahrukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma
Director : Yash Chopra

Tagline : A Yash Chopra Romance

I said I will watch the film again and I did. I hv the same feeling like had first time. Wish the story was better and the film cud hv been a classic. Srk was great. (shud not hv kissed Katrina or anyone). Music was a heartbreakingly bad. The end credits were just too good.

Rating :
* * *

Page one : Inside New York Times office

*ing : David Carr, Sarah Ellison and Larry Ingrassia
Director : Andrew Rossi

Tagline : This year, the biggest story is their own.

Newspaper industry all across the globe is losing its revenue and slowly business. With invent of internet and facebook n twitter, majority of educated people are constantly in touch with news n are updated with happenings around the globe. Not many people hv time or inclination to read yesterday’s news these days. The younger generation increasingly are immune to news and papers. Even their education have become digital with computers and Ipads and Mobiles so it looks cumbersome to read a newspaper every morning. The iconic newspaper of world The New York Times is facing similar crisis as their revenue and readership is drying rapidly and it’s a tough race to survival. The major source of revenue for any newspaper is the advertisement and now soo many avenues for advertising product, its becoming increasingly difficult to shell out money for newspapers. The documentary talks abt the heritage of this iconic newspaper also its employees and the insecurity they face in daily life. It is a well made documentary with all real people talking abt their job and its first time any camera had such unprecedented access to the office of the newspaper. Watch it if u still love the good ol newspaper. I do.

Rating :
* * *

Roja

*ing : Arvind Swami, Madhu, Pankaj Kapoor
Director : Mani Ratnam

Tagline :


Mani Ratman is one of the greatest director in India and each film of his is a statement in a way irrespective of its box office performance. I haven’t seen his earlier films and have seen films only which either he directed in Hindi or were dubbed n released in Hindi. Like Bombay, dil se, yuva, guru, n ravan. !
Roja is another acclaimed film based on militancy and terrorism in Kashmir. However the film was made in early 90s when the terrorism was just coming in the valley unlike now where the situation is more volatile n vulnerable and dangerous. And that is the reason it doesn’t explore the depth of the situation of normal people or of people falling in the trap of terrorism or the situation they go thru in their daily life. Having said that, the film has a poignant love story at its heart where the wife of kidnapped intelligence officer, played by madhu, takes system on to get her husband released. the husband, arvind swami, is a patriotic at heart and is able to transform the heart of the kidnappers by his sheer love for country. It was the first film where A R Rahman gave music and changed the music industry forever.
Definitely not best of Ratnam but certainly good one.
Rating :
* * * & ½

Jab tak hai Jaan

*ing : Shahrukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma
Director : Yash Chopra

Tagline : A Yash Chopra Romance


Jab tak hai jaan was the most awaited movie for me since it was announced. First, it was shahrukh khan’s film. It was to be directed by the legend Yash Chopra. It had Katrina Kaif for the first time with Shahrukh. Also, Anushka Sharma who is emerging as one of the most promising actress. Music was by A R Rahman and Lyrics by Gulzar. It just cudnt hv gotten bigger. The promos were all too exciting. SRK in a romantic role in a film directed by Yash Chopra. All the promos were great but quite ambiguous in nature not giving away anything about the story and everyone kept wondering what the story cud be like. And then the music got released and it was such a heartbreaking one. It was no where close to Rahman’s or Gulzar’s best and the final film of Yash Chopra deserved better music. Even the video songs were rather cold and did not give much excitement abt the prospect of seeing them on the screen. Except perhaps challa.
in normal circumstances I wud hv seen the film first day first show bt I was in a place where I cudnt hv seen the film first day first show so I had to wait few days to watch it. and the verdict of the film is mixed. Coz there are soo many things to hate in movie, yet there are soo many things to like. Katrnia and Anushka are too good. Cinematography is excellent. But the story is soo silly it is almost ridiculous. Wonder why Yash Chopra agreed on such silly story written by his son Aditya Chopra. Having said that, there is certain conviction in the story telling which makes all these believable. Best thing about film is Shahrukh Khan. He towers in the role as the lover boy and looks extremely dashing playing army man flirting with death everyday. He has never looked soo intense. He is clearly the best looking army men we hv ever had on screen. ! having said that, he has a lip kiss in the movie and I strongly thing he shud not hv done it. his stance on no kissing was that made him different from other wanna be stars.
I missed the first 20 mins of the movie and I plan to watch it once again. Hopefully soon in a better theatre with better audience.
Rating :
* * *

Friends (Season 5)

*ing : Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer

Director : David Crane, Marta Kauffman

Tagline : All you need is friends !


Oh, my favorite thing on television, shows, movies or otherwise. Love America anyway and one of the reason is amazing television shows that they have. The kind of television shows that they have had or have, is miles ahead of Indian TV in context of quality and storytelling. Friends is just too kool. 6 frens in a Manhattan going through normal problems of growing up and the kind of fun they have. It is amazingly funny. Its once in a lifetime kind of show.
Rating :
* * * * *

God Bless America

*ing : Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr and Mackenzie Brooke Smith
Director : Bobcat Goldthwait

Tagline : Taking out the trash, one jerk at a time.

To start with , I have to say that I love country America. Like any country, it has issues too. Obsessed with war, youth being addicted to drugs, adults living on anti depression drugs, failing economy etc etc. yet, this has been one of the greatest country in the world. They hv invented pretty much everything around us. Including the laptop I am working or the program on which this text is being typed. And hopefully also the device you are reading on it. Everything we consume, wear has been invented in US (now may be manufactured in china). Pizza, burgers, coke Pepsi, apple, facebook, dell, HP, Jeans, computers, Hollywood, laptops and many technological thing.
Country has amazing amount of liberty to its filmmakers and general public. You can make as brutal film criticizing and accusing government like Fahrenheit 9/11 and yet it ll get mainstream release. You can wear their flag as underwear or panties yet its acceptable. America has been the dream destination for entire world for most of the part of their life.
God bless America talk abt a man who is seeing the system and culture falling and he feels helpless. He is a good American lived life with dignity. He has issues like his wife has left him and now he has lost his job. In alone time he watches TV and that’s where he painfully sees where America is going. Every channel is filled with ridiculous reality TV making celebrities out of ordinary people mostly at the cost of their buffoony or talent. A fad which is fast catching up in India and other part of worlds too..! he wants to kill himself but instead thinks its better to kill people who are spoiling the society. So with an unlikely partner, an underage girl, he goes on killing spree wiping out every rash individual he sees around. Right from ppl using reality TV to ppl not parking their car right or making too much noise in cinema halls. His methods may be incorrect but his frustration leads him to this extent. Film is also mix of Natural Born Killers and Fight Club but surely not as well made as previous two. However you do admit the fact that there is lot of thing wrong with society.
Rating :
* **

Of course I love you till I find someone else ! (Book)

Written By : Durjoy Datta, Maanvi Ahuja

Chetan Bhagat did lot of things for Indian Publishing industry. He created a revolution of sorts with his phenomenal number of sales of book. Numbers ppl had never seen and imagined in Indian publishing history. while he did all by writing in easy day-to-day language with social msg. all his characters are youth facing some issues which are common today. What he also did was to bring array of different writers who exploited the genre. Writing about youth, similar language, novels set in college etc. few (very few) of them were good n rest were plain crap. Of course I love you is a crap novel. 5 years ago such novels cudnt hv reached table of the editor, let alone being published. Since these are low priced hence eliminates piracy (again trend started by chetan bhagat) these sell decent numbers and ppl tag them as best sellers. This book is crap with crap characters and nothing about it. the central character is fucking looser with nothing good abt him yet he scores on most beautiful girls. I dnt even want to write further. Burn the book if u you have it.
Rating :
*