Rann - Movie Review

While the buzz created around the entire "Jana Gana Rann" song in the movie Rann helped people realize that Ram Gopal Varma was making a movie around the Hindi News Media and probably also helped draw people into the theaters during the opening weekend, I now know why the movie didn't have even a decent run at the box office, so much so that even I had forgotten about this movie of his until I was reminded of it in quite a funny way, more on that later.


Now any movie which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh (or is it Ritiesh or Riteish) Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Rajat Kapoor, Sudeep (of the Kannada movie industry fame) naturally has high expectations running on it. Add to this mix is the fact that it is directed by RGV, and the expectations are sky-high. Putting aside all the hype and expectations from this crew, the fact that RGV is making a movie which supposedly exposes the politician-businessman-media nexus and whose tag line reads "when a voice of conscience cannot be heard & when democracy is remote controlled", I expected at least some intelligent fare.


Rann, the movie itself is quite pedestrian. And like most of the reviews read (whose links I have pasted down below), I too have to say that the movie reduces itself to the sensationalistic and jingoistic attitude of the Hindi News media which Rann portrays. All in all, this movie is a total waste of time, energy and effort spent in watching it. 


I am not even bothering to go into the plot details of the movie as it would be another waste of time, effort and the energy expended in it. Watch this movie if and only if you are a really big fan of  Sudeep, the Kannada actor. His performance is quite nice and given the level of mediocrity displayed by the rest of the ensemble cast, his performance would qualify as the 'stand-out performance' in this movie. And Rajat Kapoor seriously needs to re-think his roles. He seems to be playing too many of these suave, smooth, nasty businessman-with-dirty-political-connections kinds of roles. I know for a fact that there is more to his repertoire than just that. And what in God's name was Amitabh Bachchan doing in this movie, I fail to comprehend.


PS: Just for the record, I watched it free on Yahoo India's new Movieplex website.


PPS: If you look carefully at the poster, Amitabh seems to be imploring us not to watch the movie at any cost :-)


Related links


Nikhat Kazmi's review for the Times of India
Rajeev Masand's review for IBNLive.com
Mayank Shekar's review for the Hindustan Times
Anupama Chopra's review for NDTV Movies
Wikipedia link to the movie

7 Aam Arivu - Tamil - Movie Preview

From the time the initial stills of 7-Aam Arivu were released, my interest in the movie was piqued. Suriya dressed up in all red monk robes while sporting six pack abs had to mean that the movie was special. Added to this is the fact that this is an AR Murugadoss (of Ghajini fame) movie. If the Suriya and AR Murugadoss combination puts together anything remotely like Ghajini, then all Suriya and Tamil movie fans are in for an awesome movie.

After having seen the following trailer, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is one movie which is worth standing in queue to watch at a big screen.

Don 2 - Teaser trailer

Now if you enjoyed "Don", then for sure you are going to be licking your lips at the prospect of "Don 2". Given that I absolutely loved Farhan Akthar's retelling of the old classic Don where he went ahead and added a lot of chutzpah with SRK providing the necessary style and panache to the character, I for sure am going to enjoy the second instalment a lot more.

Although the movie releases a little later in the year, for now enjoy the Don 2 Teaser on YouTube -

Watching Movies alone...

Now I have had friends and family look at me like a madman when I tell them that I watched a movie alone, either at home or in the theatre. For whatever reason it is almost like taboo to watch movies alone. I have always had serious reservations about this particular habit of 'community movie watching' that all of us practice, however, I thought that it was more of a personal trait until I came across this piece by Baradwaj Rangan (who else) in The Hindu. He talks about the same topic and it honestly is quite scary how similar him and me think, at least when it comes to watching movies alone. (BR, you could take this as a humble fan's tribute to all your writing, and it gives me great pride to get an opportunity to say that I think the same as you do on a few things :-) )

I don't really remember when it was that I watched a movie alone, but I guess it must have been sometime when I was in my high school back in the early 90s. Both my parents were working, and the standard routine during the Summer breaks in high school was to go to the nearest Video Cassette rental store, pick up a Hollywood Action flick and pop it into the VCR to enjoy the movie. While it has to be said that usually my neighborhood friends joined the movie sessions, I guess there were more than a few days when they had to be absent from these sessions as their mothers were usually at home and had some chores for them to perform. My guess is that somewhere around this time is when I actually started watching movies alone, and to date, I still find it the best way to watch movies. Let me tell you why.

When we watch movies in a group, we are forced to laugh at the comic scenes even if we dont' find them funny to be part of the group's fun. After all we don't like to stick out like a sour puss in the middle of a well natured fun loving group, do we. And most of the time, when people watch movies as a group, they either opt for the Romantic Comedies, Action Flicks or the one movie which doesn't involve any taxing of the brains to understand and enjoy. While I have nothing against such movies (and in fact, enjoy some of them once in a while), I guess I have reached a stage where I enjoy movies that pay a little more attention to the art and the craft of storytelling nowadays.

In any case, this post has pretty much spurred the movie lover in me back to action. Enough of the days of making lame excuses for not having caught up with my movies. Lots of movies (old and new) are waiting out there to be watched and reviewed (in my own amateur, subjective, opinionated way) and it is time that I heed to their cries to be watched and reviewed. Movies, here I come !!!

Related links
Baradwaj Rangan - In the dark, and all alone

Moneyball - Movie Preview

If any of you are fans of sports movies like Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday or the like, then I am sure that you folks are gonna love Moneyball, the latest Brad Pitt flick based on the true story of Billy Beane, manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team in early 2000. 


While I still am yet to watch the movie, having read initial reviews and seen the trailer itself, it looks like one movie that I will enjoy quite a bit. It involves Brad Pitt, sports, and sports statistics. Add to this mix, the fact that it also involves one underdog team defying the odds to become successful, now what more do you require to make a good movie???


Wired.com in this review quotes "Moneyball is the most cerebral sports drama since Any Given Sunday", and given that I loved Any Given Sunday for multiple reasons, it looks like Moneyball is a sure-shot watch for me. Until the movie comes to theaters, lick your lips with the trailer below.


Update: I just read this review of Moneyball in the New Yorker magazine and had to put up the link here. Now if this doesn't pique your interest in watching this movie, I don't know what else will. 


PS: Another bonus in this link is that it contains the review of another movie 50/50  as well.


Related links


Wikipedia link to the movie


Wired.com review of the movie


New Yorker magazine review of the movie


Trailer


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