Review of Mithya

Overall Rating:***
Plot:****
Cast Performance:****
Sound Track:***
Cinematography:****

Expect a comic thriller. Extremely comic in the first half, not the laugh a minute type, but humourous and a sudden tragic thriller in the second half. Quite like many of Shakespere’s plays.

Rk (Ranvir Shorey) is a jugadoo junior artist who lives from day to day. He is working as an extra on a movie which stars Sonam (Neha Dhupia). Not surprisingly, RK likes Sonam from afar. However, his existence is very peripheral and after one really bad day he decides to go to the seaside with his adhaia of whiskey and a glass that comes free with it. He finds himself witnessing a shootout between two rival gangs. He goes to the police and finds the gang of Gawde (Naseeruddin Shah) on his tail. He is abducted and finds that he is the spitting image of Raje, the rival Don. Gawde plans to kill Raje and implant RK in his place, to finish the gang from inside.

After some hilarious training sessions, RK infilterates the Raje gang. A hesitant RK nearly botches it up but suffers a head injury and loses his memory. What follows from here on is a fast paced thriller that will keep you glued to your seats. You wont want to take any C or P breaks. Not too many laughs either here on.

The movie is taut and the scenes are all necessary, no faltu time wasting sequences anywhere. The acting is magnificent all around. Naseeruddin Shah, Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Iravati Bhogle and Harsha Bhogle, Suhasini Mulay, and many others I dont know the names of. The brilliant centrepiece is definately Ranvir Shorey.

Is it possible to make a good movie with actors who appear in peripheral roles in other movies? YES ! Sagar Bellary proved that in Bheja Fry and Rajat Kapoor proves it yet again. I wish I could kiss star studded movie goodbye and embrace small movies forever. I saw Loins of Punjab, The Blue Umbrella, Bheja Fry last year that were unknown small movies that wowed me totally. I missed Mixed Doubles and Raghu Romeo and hope to redress that and get some DVD’s.

The comedy sequences in the movie are just too funny to describe, not slapstick, not in your face funny, but extremely humourous. When the movie takes a serious turn, expect some really heartrending scenes.

Go watch it quick. I cant really predict if the movie will do well at the box office or not.

Mithya

Cast: Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Naseeruddin Shah, Vinay Pathak
Director: Rajat Kapoor

Review Of Jodhaa Akbar

Overall Rating:**
Plot:**
Cast Performance:***
Sound Track:***
Cinematography:****

After making debut with the record-shattering LAGAAN and then crafting a message-oriented flick SWADES, lot has been expected of Ashutosh’s epic drama JODHA-AKBAR. Amidst all the controversies and hooplah surrounding the movie, it has been appealed by the makers of J-A that it should be treated more as a fiction than as page-by-page adaptation of one of the most famous chapter of Indian history books. So letzz take a sneak-peek into the History Books adorned with the creativity of Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar through Jodha-Akbar:

Extravaganza of Brilliance and Glitches: When the events of 16th Century are shown on the silver screen in modern times, then Directorial craftsmanship and technical delicacies are paramount; more so, when you are blending the little-known truth with lotzz of fiction. The movie is not about the bravado of Jilaluddin Akbar; instead, it shows the soft-romantic side of the Mughal Emperor. With each passing reel, it becomes quite evident that the fictional part is taking its toll over the ultimate truth to such an extent that it becomes a farce at the end. The Vamp spinning its web over the Protagonist’s love life comes straight from Ekta Kapoor’s K-series and all the other tricks-n-traits of the supposedly Bad-Men in the business looks inspired from umpteen Bollywood Flicks. What makes this clichéd story-line a bit different from other run-of-the-mill crappers is its execution through intermittent brilliance of the proven-director, eye-soothing Cinematography by Kiran Deohans and stupendous performance by seasoned campaigners Ash and Hrithik in relatively unknown territory. The sheer grandeur-look of the movie is just spectacular; the credit should go to the Art-Director Nitin Desai too. Ashutosh has picturised the scenes in Battlefield with élan, the Sword-Fight sequence in climax standout amongst others. But, as is evident from my title, all the above highs of the movie were dwarfed by the length of the movie. Editor Ballu Saluja is under the hammer for this three and half long costume drama which takes off brilliantly but literally crawls towards the Intermission and after mid-way even “Snail’s pace” fails to epitomize the lingering progress of Ashutosh’s dream Project. This proves the fact: “Slow and Steady not necessarily wins the Race”.

Jodha-Akbar: Two actors that could easily slipped into the shoes of Akbar and Jodha are Hrithik and Aishwarya, thanks to their royal looks. Hrithik Roshan surely possess the poise and panache to get into skin of the character of a “Larger than Life” image of Akbar, but what’s more astonishing is to watch him deliver those heavy Urdu Dialogues with ridiculous ease. Director somehow couldn’t resist himself to showcase well-toned and artistically-chiselled body of Jr. Roshan, whether or not Akbar has that kinda brawny-frame is left for everybody’s speculation. Thank heavens, Ashutosh restrained himself in showing Hrithik’s Dancing prowess – barring Akbar swirling around for few seconds in a song, else it could have been disaster. On the other hand, Aishwarya looks gorgeous and ravishing in those traditional attires. But to the delight of the audience, behind all those heavy costumes and jewelleries, she still gave a gem-of-a performance worth applauding.

The Music for the movie is composed by none other than A.R. Rahman. For a lengthy movie like this, the songs should come as a relief to make the audience totally engrossed in them, but alas- the charismatic touch of the maestro is missing here. Jasn-e-Baharaa by Javel Ali and In Lamhon kii by Sonu Nigam are melodious songs but at the same time it further elongates the movie and as a result delays the proceedings. Same is the case with other songs viz Khwaja and Ajeemo-Shaan Shehansha. While the former is too lengthy to my liking, latter is a treat to watch and credit should go to the Director, Choreographer and the Cinematographer for showcasing this song in a grand way.