MrCool reviews Guzaarish – Watch It

Review
by MrCool

Guzaarish
Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shernaz patel, Aditya Roy Kapur
Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

I am amazed how Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who was written off as a director during his Saawariya-time bounces back to deliver a very difficult film set in Goa. Guzaarish is a wonderful film, but it is heavily inspired by The Sea Inside directed by Alejandro Amenábar. I saw Amenábar’s film just a few weeks back, so it is quite fresh in memory. Though I didn’t love that film, it had substance that sticks with viewers. Guzaarish works the same way, and it’s slightly disappointing that some scenes are directly lifted from that movie and modified a little for Indian audience. It’s odd though, even after inevitable comparisons, I prefer Guzaarish over The Sea Inside.

Guzaarish is a visual treat, but that’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali every time. It’s a very cliche thing to say these days because almost all films being made in Bollywood have raised their standards to bring beautiful images on screen. Guzaarish goes beyond that, as the director and his crew clearly paid close attention to how each scene is lit up to setting the mood just right. I am mesmerized by Tera Zikhr, and those grand magical sequences with amazing use of colors that reflects mood of each act beautifully.

This is not Sanjay’s best effort, and I am not over his Khamoshi, which was also set in Goa with physical disability as his topic. Khamoshi is still his most grounded work and real with intensely strong characters.

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Jhali To Bhuji Na…ACTION REPLAYY. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan mesmerizes

Wow!

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NAKHRE NAKHRE…ACTION REPLAYY

This movie looks so much fun

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Udi (Guzaarish) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan & Hrithik Roshan rocking this one. Their best yet?

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Full Length songs from ACTION REPLAYY and Golmaal 3 (Action Replayy is going to crush G3..look at the difference)

Action Replay Full Length Song – Jor Ka Jhakta

Golmaal 3 Full Length Song

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ACTION REPLAYY – AKKI – AISHWARYA BACK! Massive Chartbuster Song – Zor Ka Jhatka

This movie has Success written all over it. Akshay and Aishwarya ..this is just brilliant. First Guzaarish trailer, and now this

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ACTION REPLAYY – Shooting in Manali

Aishwarya, Akshay, VipulRead More

ENDHIRAN Music Released. People go Crazy

Just insane. Rajni is loved

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what does Dabaang mean?

like Da-bang? like bang bang? LOL

is this even Hindi or Marathi word or something? Sorry for my ignorance, but if this is not a real word, the title is pretty stupid. Anyway, the stills are nice, thankfully, we don’t … Read More

My Review of RAAVAN. Interesting Watch

Review of Raavan
MrCool

I knew this movie was going to be a special one when the opening act, right before credits rolled on, revealed the base of the entire subject. All within first few minutes. A very clever and unconventional way to start without any character-history attached. I was riveted with Raagini’s (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) first scene on the boat with her Shades covering her eyes, all happy and relaxed, till she sees Beera’s (Abhishek Bachchan) Hell colliding in front of her. It is masterful to not glorify abduction and waste ridiculous amount of time trying to explain the entire process of kidnapping. At this point I really thought Mani will showcase the human nature of clashing egos and personalities. That was short lived after such a glorious start.

The finale is even better. I couldn’t believe it. So what happened between the fantastic start and end is mind-numbing. The first half has absolutely no plot, and it is not at all plot driven, so the basis in which good vs. bad chasing each other with help of Sanjeevani (Govinda) and other smaller characters makes for a boring watch. Truly. For all those agonizing moments Raagini is suffering through in jungle-land, her character development is restricted and confined within herself. There is little confrontation we see between Beera and Raagini after abduction, and the tension is not fully captured.

And I must add something little about the setting. I would think one gets to see wild creatures if you’re going to be in remote jungles. Aside from one insect shot, I didn’t even notice any animals. I also can’t understand where Laal Maati is. All the shots in Kata Kata hardly look tribal to me.

Mani Ratnam creates even bigger problem for Beera, whose so-called 10 headed personalities don’t even surface after “Das Sar Wale” proclamation. It could have been an astounding character-study and a role of a lifetime. So entering into the minds of Raavan, it appears to me as only one-dimensional character. What a waste.

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LA Times Reviews Raavan. Another Great Review!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-capsules-20100618,0,1210817.story

LA Times

Raavan Review

Bollywood superstar Abishek Bachchan has the title role of the romantic adventure epic “Raavan,” but the movie belongs to his exquisite real-life wife Aishwarya Rai. A blue-eyed beauty who resembles Myrna Loy, Rai’s Ragini is the wife of Dev (Chiyaan Vikram), a virile police inspector assigned to bring down the wild-eyed Raavan, a bandit holed up with his men in a jungle fortress. Before Dev can plan his maneuvers, Raavan kidnaps Ragini. It takes a couple of hours to learn whether Beauty can tame Beast.

Director Mani Ratnam and his colleagues give Bollywood fans full value. Ratnam’s pace is steadfastly brisk, and his film is replete with dizzying camerawork, myriad complications, violent mayhem, broad humor, usual musical interludes, a cliffhanging climactic confrontation and a finish that strikes a note of poignancy. There’s even a feminist undercurrent: Ragini, played with poise and fortitude by Rai, draws sympathy while Dev emerges as flawed as Raavan is crazed. “Raavan” is overlong and drawn out by Hollywood standards, but is of typical running time for Bollywood. In any event, its cast and crew are to be congratulated for their unflagging stamina and energy.

Kevin Thomas

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New York Times gives Raavan thumbs Up as well! Nice

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/movies/18raavan.html

By RACHEL SALTZ
Published: June 18, 2010

This film has been designated as a Critics’ Pick.

The low-caste Beera rules the forest in “Raavan,” Mani Ratnam’s richly atmospheric adaptation of the Indian epic “The Ramayana.” Though the film takes place in the present, Mr. Ratnam’s forest remains an appropriately primeval place for mythic doings, full of fog and mists and rain and Beera’s mud-painted followers (shades of “Apocalypse Now”).

Raavan (Ravana in Sanskrit), as every Indian knows, is the demon in “The Ramayana” who kidnaps Sita, the wife of Rama: king, deity and model husband (as Sita is the model wife). Early on in Mr. Ratnam’s film the question is asked: Is Beera (a gleefully hammy Abhishek Bachchan) Robin Hood or Raavan? He’s both — and more a hero in this telling, set on his turf, than is the Rama character, a cop called Dev (Vikram), who matches Beera in brutality and cunning, but not in heart.

“Raavan” has Bollywood glamour aplenty, with the lovely if occasionally dramatically challenged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mr. Bachchan’s wife, playing the Sita stand-in. The real star, though, is Mr. Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images. (One, of Ms. Bachchan’s falling body landing gracefully on a tree branch, is so good he uses it three times.)

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Variety reviews Raavan. Another great review

variety.com

Raavan review

By ROBERT KOEHLER

A cop and self-styled Robin Hood face off in a wild and brawny contest in Mani Ratnam’s bullets-and-dance spectacle “Raavan.” Consistently one of India’s most versatile and exciting directors, Ratnam angles for one of his bigger commercial vehicles by mixing knockout action sequences, primal dramatic elements and superstar Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who stays ravishing even as she’s sent through the physical wringer opposite husband and co-star Abhishek Bachchan. Stellar cast and good word of mouth look to draw strong B.O. worldwide.

The delirious pre-credits sequence resembles not the start of an action drama-musical so much as a fever dream, climaxing with crook and working-class hero Beera (Bachchan) orchestrating the daring kidnapping of Ragini (Rai Bachchan), wife of Dev (mono-monikered Vikram), the top cop in a northern Indian town. Boiling mad and out for blood, Dev rounds up the local militia to hunt down Beera, tracking him through a dense forest.

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Hollywood Reporter Reviews – Raavan. Nice Watch!

hollywoodreporter.com

Raavan — Film Review
By Ray Bennett, June 17, 2010 07:00 ET
Bottom Line: Pan-Indian saga with epic sweep, intense emotion and gorgeous images.
LONDON — Filled with rich colors and lively action, Mani Ratnam’s classically themed epic “Raavan” brings together the mythology of Indian culture and the flair and fun of Bollywood with tremendous flourish.

Cinematographers Manikandan and Santosh Sivan with production designer Samir Chanda and editor A. Sreekar Prasad serve Ratnam superbly with images, settings and vitality that take one’s breath away.

Success is inevitable throughout India and with expat audiences. Such is the flare of the filmmaking that international audiences also can be expected to respond positively.

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re-visiting JP DUTTA’s UMRAO JAAN

Highly, Highly underrated film. Awesome performances…and far more touching than the original. This movie has soul.

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RAAVAN – Dialogue Trailer!! Awesome stuff

This movie looks SMASHING! Aishwarya and Abhi are so gonna rock this year! The intensity in both of them here is outstanding!

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Some Awesome Scenes of Aishwarya in Raavan with making of the music

Lookin nice! http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=143618

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here they come!! Aishwarya and Akshay in Vipul Shah’s ACTION REPLAYY!!

LOOKING AWESOME! Watch out for this one. Looks like a sure shot winner.

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KITES GO DOWN. Doesn’t even make 1m mark in US – Official figures

Official figures for the first weekend are out LMAO. Poor hrithik. His twitter bubble is still not helping him.

Source: Boxofficemojo Domestic Total as of May. 23, 2010: $958,673

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RAAVAN AND ACTION REPLAYY

Mark it. Both will be HUGE! Both will make money

I’m tellin ya. trust me on this.

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KITES has been REJECTED! quit justifying it

If people really want to justify Kites, at least do it with some validated argument. To say this was not-genre-friendly is insane to say the least. By that standard, every flop movie of a major star must be ground breaking … Read More

KITES Crashes Overseas (North America) on 208 screens

Shockingly Low opening!

Source: Boxofficemojo

barely makes 1m (by the time Sunday is over)

Average: 4,976 (VERY LOW!)

Domestic Total as of May. 23, 2010: $952,000 (Estimate)

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Not looking good for Kites. This is a set back for Hrithik Roshan

All the best to Guzaarish.

He’s a good actor, but his script sense is lousy to core. Please no more of Kites again, and to hear the stuff he was saying about the movie shocks me even more. What the … Read More

Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se – Ae Ajnabi

I love the way this song is shot. The camera work focuses on Manisha Koirala alone in the beginning but the connection she feels through the radio for her obsessed lover through this masterpiece of a song is outstandingly haunting … Read More

Ranjha Ranjha – High Quality (RAAVAN)

For those unaware, Rahman has recentely said that Ranjha Ranjha song is going to be different version in the movie. Apparently the movie version has Ila Arun and Richa Sharma singing the song.

A. R. Rahman: “‘Ranjha Ranjha’ is an idea that I had done earlier but gave it a skip. It’s poetry of Baba Bulleshah. Though the song that you hear in the album (sung by Rekha Bhardwaj, Javed Ali and Anuradha Sriram) doesn’t feature in the movie, we have created another version of the song that is sung by Ila Arun and Richa Sharma which would be featured in the film. This version has been shot beautifully and works better for the film.”

Ranjha Ranjha – RAAVAN (HQ)

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2…6201/index.html

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