Bollywood Movie VEER Reviews

"Veer" is one of those intended epics that goes wrong. Horribly wrong. Director Anil Sharma had combined history and kitsch with compelling consequences in "Gadar Ek Prem Katha". But In "Veer", the khichdi of fact and fiction runs amok, creating a blend of babble and bloodshed that is more hysterical than historic.

Cast: Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Sohail Khan, Zarine Khan, Neena Gupta

Directed by: Anil Sharma

"Veer" wallows in primitive valour. Father Mithun Chakraborty (the only tolerable performance in the litany of the unbearable) and son Salman Khan often mock-fight, as the burly members of their tribe urge them on like animals in a zestful zoo. Even Neena Gupta who plays Mithun's wife (and has apparently forgotten she was once a good actress) joins in the macho revelry.

There are no smoking guns. Only shining swords slicing across the epic canvas with fashionable bravura.

Costume dramas are very tricky cinematic efforts. How do the makers know if the clothes and props suggesting periodicity are going to work? In this case, they just don't!

The 'research' that seems to have gone into the colossal fiasco is at best scratch level. At worst the detailing suggested by the art director (Sanjay Dhabade) and costumes (Anna Singh) smack of amateurish stage plays where the actors create characters purely through props.

And here the props include the Buckingham Palace where our valorous hero Veer (Salman Khan) and his brother-sidekick (Sohail Khan, behaving as though he was in the sequel to "Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya") teach those 'Gora Log' a few lessons on how to treat us Indians with respect and dignity.

Where would independent India be without such strident architects of freedom? It is doubtful that a man like Veer actually existed in the history of our freedom movement. But does anyone really care?

"Veer" is not really a freedom fighter. He's Salman Khan with long hair and costume jewellery (the diamond ear-tops could be the envy of all his leading ladies) scowling with the same intensity into the panoramic camera as he did earlier in "Wanted".

Clothes definitely maketh this man, although Veer in one of the unintentionally funny sequences of the film reprimands the gora professor in London (teaching the most motley crew of colonists seen in any film) saying, "Clothes do not make the man, the man makes the clothes" - a quote he says he borrowed from George Bernard Shaw.

Where did he learn about Shaw? In school? Do such questions really matter when the intention is to create an optical illusion merging myth and history in a claustrophobic clasp that leaves no breathing space for introspective punctuations?

"Veer" is one sweeping rush of blood, sweat, gore, adrenaline and saliva. It is meant to sweep audiences off its collective feet. But its takeoff point, namely the ideological slant, is so faulty, you wonder what these blood-thirsty warriors are fighting for.

Most of the time the characters' motivations are superimposed by a passionate but pedestrian melodrama.

Director Anil Sharma's inherent sense of drama comes with the blood-soaked territory. While in the father-son sequences he manages to create a scale and range that merge rugged machismo with a junk food version of patriotism, the love story featuring the nomadic warrior and the bereft princess from the enemy tribe is driven into a zero-chemistry zone by the pair.

Forget mutual passion, there's very little drama or romance in the dialogues and the visual props for them to share.

"Veer" gets details of the period and locations in place. But the inner conviction and a genuine passion that made Anil Sharma's "Gadar: Ek Prem Katha" so special are completely absent in this film.

Bollywood Movie Rann Reviews

"Rann" is that rare cinema about the collective conscience which we often like to think has gone out of style. Like Mehboob Khan's "Mother India" and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's "Satyakam", "Rann" shows how tough it is to hold your head high up in dignified righteousness in a world where ethics crumble faster than cookies in wide-open jar left out too long in the sun.

Ironically, there isn't much sunshine in "Rann". The film has been shot in an anaemic light, symbolising a world that's largely losing light.

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Sudeep, Paresh Rawal, Rajat Kapoor, Neetu Chandra, Gul Panag, Suchitra Krishnamurthy

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Cleverly, Ram Gopal Varma situates his morality tale in the cut-throat world of the electronic media where the TRP is god and deadlines the devil. And may the voice of the conscience rest in peace.

Without wasting time Varma introduces us to the plethora of characters who colonise the bowel of a declining channel run by the idealistic Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan). Malik believes there's room still for the straight and narrow path in a business where grabbing attention is the murder of all invention.

The glistening sweat on ratings, challenged eyebrows are captured through tight close-ups of worried faces that the camera - Amit Roy's sharply cruising lenses moving from face-to-face with obstinate restlessness - that give nothing and yet everything away.

As in Varma's "Sarkar", the moral battle lines in the media-run tale of "Rann" are drawn between the idealistic patriarch and his US-returned hyper-ventilating son Jai (Kannada star Sudeep) who is so anxious and ambitious, you know he will eventually cause trouble for his ideologue dad's news-worthiness.

Trouble arrives in the flabby form of a seedy politician Pandey - played by Paresh Rawal and he re-embraces villainy with lip-smacking relish - who plunges into the TRP war on television with no sense of propriety, legalese or the law.

Pandey pompously tells Jai before they both conspire with the help of a rival television tycoon (Mohnish Behl) to trash the idealistic Harshvardhan's reputation.

The plot accommodates more characters that a miniature touristic island in the holiday season. Not one of the characters need any explanation or occupy a superfluous place in the plot.

Varma's concern for the characters is genuine but non-judgemental. Each characters even the relatively-shadowy women, emerges as casualty of an over-competitive society where morality goes out of the nearest window.

The narrative is taut, restless and biting in its depiction of corruption in supposedly responsible places.

While much of film's inner fire burns outwards from the pithy and peppery writing (Rohit Banawlikar), the essential core of idealism is preserved in the understated relationship between the idealistic young rookie Purab Shastri and his mentor Harshvardhan. Wish this bonding was built on.

As restless as his camera, Varma gives no space to the complicated labyrinth of relationships to grow. We are left to gauge the depths and dimensions that underline the furious flow of empathy and antipathy between various characters by reading between the lines.

The first two-thirds of the narrative creates a gripping patchwork of television, drama and politics and how the three worlds often come together to destroy the basic fibre of human morality.

It's the last quarter of the narrative where Harshvardhan, after realising he has been taken for a ride by his own son's over-ambitiousness, that packs in the maximum punch.

Cleverly borrowing the premise for its climax from Mehboob Khan's "Mother India", "Rann" moves aggressively but confidently into its passionate finale where the patriarchal television tycoon must expose some harsh home-truths to cleanse his own conscience.

"Rann" takes us into a world where right and wrong are more financial than moral issues, where the people who make news conveniently forget that the source is often the nadir of the conscience.

"Rann" is a razor-sharp bitter and biting look at the real world of rapidly-moving moral issues.

Varma extracts superlative performances from the entire cast. From Riteish's heartbreaking idealism to Neetu Chandra's part as Jai Malik's secret love interest.

As expected Bachchan as the conscience of the plot, presides over the speedened proceedings with a thoughtful and gentle performance. His climactic speech makes all of us sit up and think about the quality of work we do in order to keep up with the competition.

Luckily, Bachchan's consistently excellent output is never dependant on the 'competition' around him. Ironically, his character is forced to stoop in order to conquer the TRPs.

Varma, who has been lately guilty of making fairly compromised films, rises above the morass of mediocrity with a meteoric force, letting other filmmakers know what he is capable of achieving if he sets his heart to it.

"Rann" defines the role of the electronic media in today's context with remarkable virility and dramatic force. This is Varma's best work since "Company".

Pyaar Impossible Movie Reviews

Pyaar Impossible, is the second production venture of Uday Chopra (first was Yeh Dillagi in 1994). Directed by Jugal Hansraj under the Yashraj Banner, the movie is written by Uday Chopra himself and has Priyanka Chopra as his female lead. Anupam Kher and Dino Morea have supporting roles . The promos looked good and the music has done well too. But does the film entertain?

Pyaar Impossible is about a geek, a patent part of every college, Abhay (Uday Chopra) who-not-so-surprisingly falls head-over-heels in love with the hottest girl of the college Alisha (Priyanka Chopra). And going with the universal truth, the stunning Alisha never notices our hero Abhay. He never gets a chance to confess his feelings, since she moves back to India midway of her semester.

Then we zoom in the days and there we are seven year forward; Nothing much has changed, Abhay is still a bespectacled geek and still madly in love with Alisha. Now he owns a unique program that can hold and run all the operating systems in the world but to his misfortune his program gets stolen. He for the first time sets out to fight for his right and in this journey stumbles upon Alisha, now a divorce with a child. Does he win back his fortune? What about the Beauty and the beast, well actually just a geek. Is Pyaar possible?

Pyaar Impossible Review

While not close to as bad as last year’s first release “Chandni Chowk To China’, Pyaar Impossible is a disappointment nonetheless. Loaded with glamour, the film actually had the potential to be much better, if only the love track was more refreshing and the story had some twists to avoid getting too predictable.

Agreed, the story is simple but it neither has the charm of a romantic tale nor the breeze of a comedy and hence boredom begins to creep in 20 to 25 minutes into the first half. Its not just the story that is at fault here, but the execution, which is absolutely amateurish. Barring a couple of scenes that manage to evoke some kind of emotion, the film is extremely sluggish and highly predictable. Its the pace, that requires you to watch Pyaar Impossible with a lot of patience.. it unnecessarily drags along.

Also let’s have a reality check here, since when did software companies of high grade get this easy with the dress code? Priyanka is always in minis, baring most of it for any and every occasion - a treat for the guys in the audience though. Also we have six year old Tanya who can understand her nanny’s (Uday) love for her mom and helps him hook up with her by having sleep overs at a friends place. Absurd ain’t it?

Music by Salim-Sulaiman is peppy and hummable but simply adds to the runtime.

Coming to the performances, Priyanka Chopra tops the rest. She looks stunning in every frame of the film, very natural and confident in her act. Perhaps one of the only reasons to watch this flick. Uday Chopra passes off as a geek, he does well in a few scenes.

Dino Morea as the program thief alias a business man is bad with nothing more than one and a half expressions. Anupam Kher has very little to do and is okay in his act. Advika Yadav (Priyanka’s daughter) is excellent.

Overall, Pyaar Impossible is a formula flick high on prediction. Watch it for the gorgeous Priyanka Chopra, but only on DVD, a fast-forward option is a must while watching this flick.