Have you seen the trailer for the new Disney, the Princess and the Frog? Reviews from the other side of the ocean have been unanimous: Disney Studios have once again create a beautiful princess but this time with a more modern twist. From the director of Aladin and the Little Mermaid, the music is jazzy and makes your feet dancing! I can’t wait to show this movie to my little A. She is a big fan of the Disney movies and her favorite is the Lion King.

Disney Films are most of the time a safe bet to buy as a Christmas present but probably the old ones rather than the latest ones. We have just bought Snow White in Blu-Ray and it was a real pleasure to rediscover it as I must have been very very young when I saw it for the first time. I will probably bring over the film to my parents as the new edition has also a normal DVD included as well.

The Lion King will have the Blu-Ray version in January 2010 so I will be probably one of the first to line up in front of HMV and buy the movie. I have already saved money for this one!

If you don’t have Blu-Ray, you are quite lucky because you don”t have to wait to fill your Disney Collection. I have been waiting for their offer (buy one get one free) but I was disappointed because most of the films on the offers were the ones who had the less success.

Enjoy the trailer:

ML1

Click here to check out coverage of the Maya Fashion show and soft launch of Kavita Ramdya’s “Bollywood Weddings” at Mint Leaf Restaurant in “Miss India Magazine” and “News India Times“.

On the 22nd of November 2009, writer Kavita Ramdya soft launched her book “Bollywood Weddings” at Mint Leaf Restaurant & Bar where top Indian fashion designers Satya Paul and Deepika Gehani from the house of Genesis Colors were joined by Guest of Honour Jacqueline Fernandez, Miss Sri Lanka 2006 and star of the new Bollywood film “Aladin” with Amitabh Bachchan, in staging a fashion show. Festvities included a three-course meal and cocktails, magician, live deejay, and a fashion show entitled “Maya”, displaying Paul and Gehani’s fall/winter 2009 collections.
Left to right: Jacqueline Fernandez (Miss Shri Lanka 2006 and star of Bollywood movie “Aladin”), Sanjay Kapoor (Managing Director of Satya Paul), and Kavita Ramdya (author of “Bollywood Weddings”)

Although the crowd was a diverse one, the theme for the evening was fashion through and through. Chapter 3 of Kavita Ramdya’s book “Bollywood Weddings” examines four disparate bridal outfits worn by Indian-American Hindu brides at their weddings including a white Caroline Herrera gown, a red dress from Macy’s, a custom-made gold outfit based on a lengha seen in a Bollywood film, and a traditional red-and-white South Indian wedding sari. Many of Paul and Gehani’s designs were created as wedding ware either for the bride herself or guests. The colorful nature of Indian bridal clothing took a whole new level of meaning with the designers’ inspiration which came from the concept of “maya”, or the illusory world, as conveyed through the use of colors on the fabric as if refracted through a prism.
Left to right: Kavita Ramdya (author of “Bollywood Weddings”) and Anjali Guptara (Mint Leaf)

Thanks to Mr. Dinesh and Anjali Guptara at Mint Leaf Restaurant & Bar for hosting the event and Sohail Anjum at “Asiana Magazine” for the photography.

For more information about this event, please e-mail contact@bollywood-weddings.com or visit www.bollywood-weddings.com

I had been thinking to add this special category to my blog from long time but somehow i wasn’t finding time. Finally today i am able to write about it all!!!..

It was a Saturday, 5th the sept 2009  i called up the guy and he told me that i can come immediately and he can fix a meeting for me. I was very excited and nervous at the same time. I had never met him before.. how is going to look.. what would he do.. how would i react.. with all this stuff on my mind i somehow reached the place. I was told that he is on his way and would reach in sometime. I tried to control my anxiety and the strange unkown feeling that was creeping inside me. My friend , Ram told me to relax but somehow i was not able to.

Finally after waiting for around 1 hour he turned up.. as the basket opened i saw him trying to jump out of it and we all said at the same time , what a cute puppy.. Yes it was my darling aladin a lab puppy who is now 4 months old.. As soon as it got out of the basket it tried to approach all of us sniffing and after some time it got busy playing with all the stuff it could possibly find in the pet shop. The pet shop guy checked and gave us a green signal telling” he is a healthy and playful puppy”.. you can take him. This is how i met my sweetheart aladin. I shall be updating more interesting things about him shortly i am just running out of time as of now. Till then keep browsing..

Eros International’s ‘Aladin’ completely failed on the box office and Vipul Shah’s ‘London Dreams’ is too trying to survive. What could be the possible reasons of the failure of these mega budget films that were expected to spin big money before their release?

It looks fantasy has lost his charm with the response which the flick ‘Aladin’ got. Most of the time it happens that film gets hit or flop with the word-of-mouth advertising, but in case of ‘Aladin’ audiences was not willing to watch the film on the first day only.

What went wrong with ‘London Dreams’ is the popular music which led to slow opening of the film. But the film could not pick up in the coming weekends also. Reason could be hopelessness it created with its opening.

Whatever has happened to these movies, we expect some box office hits in the coming weekends. Also audiences have taken some breather with Ranbir’s ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’. Some good response is expected from ‘Jail’ too.

Former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or current Bollywood sensation Katrina Kaif? It’s a tough call but not so complicated for Jacqueline Fernandez. The Sri Lankan beauty says she admires Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Jacqueline Fernandez, who made her Bollywood debut through Aladin, is not interested in comparisons with Katrina Kaif. The beautiful babe wants to fit into the shoes of Aishwarya and not Katrina Kaif.

Jacqueline said that she grew up admiring Aishwarya as how the actress has handled her career and how Aishwarya has become a prominent name at both international and Indian level.

Even with the failure of Aladin at the box-office, Jacqueline Fernandez is not out of the focus. Jacqueline will be soon seen in Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai with Riteish Deshmukh. The flick is set for it’s release in February 2010.

Det er jo den store kinodagen i dag, billettene går for halvpris. Hvorfor skjer det hvergang jeg er blakk? Vel kan jo ta meg litt råd?..
Så er det store spørsmålet; Hva skal jeg se?
Det er så mange å velge mellom, men jeg er Gerald Butler fan.. da er valget egentlig ikke så vanskelg?!

Hvorfor er jeg Gerald Butler fan? Jo av en helt enkel grunn; Han er skotte.. også er han ikke så værst som skuespiller heller og øyene min digger han.. æ mener dugge.. Får ikke lov til å si digge av ikkeborg. Dugge er et mye kulere ord!

Law Abiding Citizen

er filmen jeg har lyst til å se, er så nyskjerrig på hvordan han klarer å drepe så mange ved å være i fengsel..

Ble ikke den filmen ;(
Men en annen film.. En bollywood film

Den var rocka og morsom men litt lang.. siden jeg satt med bobblejakka bak ryggen.. det ble litt varmt der etterhvert. også var den fyr ved siden av ikkeborg som hostet og harket slik.. også en gjeng ungdommer som ikke helt fant ut hvor de skulle sitte hen. irriterende.. men filmen den var god

Now magic only could help. ‘London Dreams‘ witnessed a weak opening. Since the movie budget is of around 65 crores therefore it is predicted that it will entail losses for the producers. Also it could not do expected overseas business. Same is the case with ‘Aladin’, although it has a budget of 35 crores it might break even.

In the earlier releases ‘All the Best’ is now an average plus in India but it has been rejected overseas. ‘Blue’ has done good collections in the US and the UK. From India it has netted around 40.5 crores in two weeks. As far as ‘Main aurr Mrs Khanna’ is considered it is a complete wash out and is able to collect only 8.5 crores in two weeks. The releases ‘Love Ka Tadka’, ‘Fruit and Nut’ and ‘Bal Ganesh 2′ could return a petty amount. However some expectations are with ‘Bal Ganesh 2′ which has netted 25 crores.

This Friday new releases have been Rajkumar Santoshi’s ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’ and Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Jail’, we wait to see how they sustain on box office.

Jacqueline Fernandez is feeling nervous with butterflies flying in her stomach as last Friday released her debut film ‘Aladin’. It’s a big opportunity for her as she has got a chance in a movie by Sujoy Ghosh where she has acted along with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh.

Jacqueline belongs to Sri Lanka where she is known to be ‘Jack of all trade and master of all’. Her life started in Bahrain and she went to Australia for higher studies. She has done TV anchoring, TV reporting, modeling etc but never forgot her dream of becoming an actress. She has won Miss Sri Lanka crown and represented her country at the Miss Universe contest in 2006. Then she came to India.

She is a fan of Shahid Kapoor and would love to work with him. Earlier she has done a commercial with him. Let us hope the best from her movie ‘Aladin’.

Star Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez.

Director : Sujoy Ghosh

Language : Hindi

Genre : Fantasy / Children

Banner : Eros Entertainment

Released : Oct 30 2009

Directed and produced by Sujoy Ghosh, the movie ‘Aladin’ is for those who could tolerate song at every half an hour. The songs pop up with every event, even with the climax and thus mess up the movie for the audiences. But the question is who the viewers are because the movie fails to attract kids as well the adults.

Riteish Deshmukh as Aladin is an orphan who lives in the fantasy town called Khwaish. He is constantly trying to rub different lamps so that the genie could appear, but loses. And one day he falls in love with Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandez) but could not tell her. His life changes when Jasmine gifts him a lamp from which genie named Genius (Amitabh Bachchan) appears. Genius offers Aladin three wishes which Aladin wastes by trying to win the love of Jasmine. And in the meantime he is manipulated by Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt). Genius helps Aladin in thwarting plan of the ringmaster.

Amitabh and Sanjay fail to make the viewers laugh but Riteish as Aladin was perfectly suited. In all movie goes beyond being a fantasy tale.

O genie of the magic lamp, but sorry success is not in your hands.

Two new Hindi movies open in the Chicago area on Friday, November 6: one serious and one silly.

The serious movie is Jail, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh in a drama about the cruel treatment of inmates in Indian prisons. Jail is only opening at the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington. It has a runtime of 2 hrs. 35 min.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is the silly movie, about a boy named Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) whose efforts to please everyone go awry. It costars Katrina Kaif and has a runtime of 2 hrs. 35 min.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani will play at the South Barrington 30, AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville and Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles.

Carrying over for a second week is London Dreams, which earned $207,964 in its first week in U.S. theaters. London Dreams continues to show at the Cantera 30, South Barrington 30 and Golf Glen 5.

Last week’s other new release, Aladin, gets a second week at the South Barrington 30.

Wake Up Sid ends its five-week run in U.S. theaters this week with $717,977 in total earnings, while Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna earned $196,203 in three weeks.

Other Indian movies playing in the Chicago area this weekend include Telugu films Ek Niranjan and Village Lo Vinayakudu and the Kannada movie Raaj — The Showman at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles.

The story of Aladin is legendary and the characters of Genie and Jasmine known worldwide. This is why it requires courage for a film maker to set the film in contemporary times and come up with his own take on their relationship. Film maker Sujoy Ghosh does exactly that as he gets his imagination go wild and spins a tale that ends up relating the past, present and future of these characters

And while Eros International’s Aladin has already worked its charm with the younger audiences, what stands apart for the film is the VFX and special effects that have been receiving rave responses from critics and audiences alike. Most of the film is shot against a green wall which makes Aladin quite heavy on VFX and special effects.

Created by EyeQube Studios, the visuals belong to never-seen-before kinds, with a whole new imaginary world of ‘Khwaish’ being created that gives a beautiful visual appeal to the film. Looking at some of the funnier moments, kids were left in splits when a donkey’s head replaces that of Riteish’s, his guitar turns into a frog and he is thrown in air either after being turned into a balloon or due to electrocution.

The second half of the film is also replete with stunning effects when action and thrills take centre stage and the best of VFX is unveiled. With its superior VFX and impressive visual effects, looks like ‘Aladin’ has set new benchmarks in Bollywood!

The two movies which clashed the box office this week were ‘London Dreams’ directed by Vipul Shah and Eros International’s ‘Aladin’.

Despite having good reviews, Salman Khan starring ‘London Dreams’ opened with occupancy of approximately 35 per cent only, whereas Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Aladin’ too recorded a poor start with only 15 – 20 per cent occupancy across multiplexes in the morning shows.

Later on in the afternoon and evening shows ‘London Dreams’ picked up pushing the occupancy in multiplexes to around 55 per cent. The single screens showed drastic improvement in box office collections for these recent films.

Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn and Asin are part of ‘London Dreams’ whereas ‘Aladin’ stars Amitabh Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh. Both the movies have a heavy production cost. We see how much they recover in the coming weeks.

Advice for one and all,If you are a big disney fan and especially a Aladin fan,don’t think twice before skipping the movie which is a very poor adaptation of the fairy tale character Aladin.

With so many things to offer including the Big B himself as genie,a magic carpet,a lamp,a beautiful girl Jasmine and Sanjay Dutt as the bad guy,the movie fails to add any sort of magic in the box office.

The director of the film Sujoy Ghosh loses massively in an attempt to recreate the magical story. But hey,lets not blame one man only for the failure. It is teamwork in bollywood whether its a hit or flop.The starcast deserves some of the credit too,the performance by the cast which includes the legendary Amitabh Bacchhan and Sanjay Dutt was not even near good. Infact they add weight to the already sinking ship.

Why so hellbent on disapproving of the movie? Well,to start with, the make up itself will make you want to look somewhere else and if you’re brave enough to look at it anyway,you will have your eyes blinded with the shimmery and sequenced costumes the genie wears as if it were from the disco era.

Sanjay Dutt on the other hand had signed the movie as a favour to Big B with no intentions to actually act in it.He gives a icky performance which will make you wonder,you could be a better bad guy than him ! Ritesh and Jacqueline have neither the chemistry nor the physics thanks to the poor expressions.

Talking about the story,the film sees the charcter of Aldin,playe dby Ritesh who is an orphan and the butt of jokes since childhood.Often made fun of,he starts to hate his name and gets tired of explaining to everyone that there is no such thing as a magic lamp and he for one does not have it.
Things soon change when Jasmine played by Jacqueline gifts him a lamp which turns out to be a real one and we all know how the story goes after that,the poor good boy gets his three wishes which turn into a series of misadventures. But all turns out fine in the end like all fairytales.

All said and done the film is well missed.

The 40’s is the new 20’s and for that matter 50’s too. We know Sanjay Dutt definitely agrees. Sanju Baba is working out hard to defy all signs of ageing and transforming into a young man,not that we’re complaining of his age.The man has style no matter what his age is.

The actor has been putting all the efforts for his new movie with a much younger actress Kangana Renaut titled Knock Out.The diet will make him look compatible with the actress considering their age difference,all thanks to the special diet known as “Ketosis diet” which is a high fat,low carbohydrate diet.Sanjay Dutt started this diet in the month of June.

The diet required him to intake lots of fats and no carbohydrates at all. In hardly any time Sanjay started to lose weight and look younger without giving up any of his favourite food.
The movie directed by Mani Shankar potrays Sanjay as an assassin who’s after the victim with his sniper rifle and a gorgeous new look,we hope ! It is hoped that the movie will overshadow the failure of Aladin which on the first day itself,bombed at the Box Office.

As for Kangna,it is no surprise that she fell for the assassin in the movie as she always does.In her earlier movie,it was Shiney Ahuja in Gangster.
The two actors became professionally fond of each another while shooting for No Problem,a comedy flick in Cape Town . When Mani Shankar was searching for a bright, intense young actress to play a television journalist it was Dutt who recommended Kangna.

Bollywood finally put forth a film with excellent computer graphic effects. Whether this is a byproduct of the influx of technology of our times, or because of excellent artists, the effects certainly had an impact on the film.

Aladin, released on 30 October 2009, stars Ritesh Deshmukh as Aladin, Jacqueline Fernandez (aka Miss Universe 2006–from Sri Lanka) as Jasmine, Amitabh Bachchan as Genius (the Genie), and Sanjay Dutt as the “Ringmaster.” One of the better qualities of this film is that it doesn’t follow the story of Aladin and the magic lamp, made so famous by Disney. Instead, Aladin is a contemporary story, taking place in fictional Khwaish, a city that takes the Asiatic looks of the country from which the original story supposedly originates, Turkestan. However, the film’s storyline is limited in some aspects. First of all, parts of it seem geared too much towards children; the incessant bullying of Aladin, from childhood to college days, seems improbable, and only gains laughs from kids. Also too confusing is the “rules” regarding the lamp, who can control its powers, etc. Despite being partially a kid’s film, there are parts of the film that might frighten small children; the movie combines the all to familiar troubles of hopeless love with a very slight tinge of black magic, the type suggested in Bollywood’s small genre of “horror/scary” films.

The computer graphics in the movie make these instances of magic seem very realistic, if not believable. The colors used are stunning, and they serve as excellent metaphors. The graphics are probably the most entertaining part of the film; although the story is original, it is as times too predictable, and doesn’t investigate enough modern issues to be considered a fully contemporary film. Besides the fact that there are cars, and Aladin is attending college, the film could very well be set two centuries back.

Despite the weaknesses of the story, the casting, for the most part, was well done. The most excellent role was doubtlessly held by Amitabh, who played the Genie. He fit the role perfectly, it was age appropriate, he was humourous and creative, and he looked the part. Sanjay Dutt, likewise, played an excellent villain. He was nearly unrecognisable beneath his mustache, top hat, and dyed hair. The “ringmaster” was another innovation of the director (Sujoy Ghosh)/screenwriters. The ringmaster led a vengeful circus; but to say any more would spoil the film! Aladin was Jacqueline Fernandez’s debut as an actress, but it is impossible to evaluate her acting skills. She hardly contributed to the film; this isn’t her fault, but the fault of the screenplay. Jasmine simply served as eye candy, for both Aladin, and the audience.

No matter the beauty of the film (or the actress), Aladin was not stunning enough to merit above a below average rating. The predictability and mediocrity of the film are not enough to make the movie completely boring, but ruin its chances of becoming a hit.

Tak dhina dhin….Aladin!
We give this film:

2/5

–BeatandBoom DJs
www.beatandboom.com

p.s. Have you seen the film? What did you think?

Cast – Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jaqueline Fernandez, Sanjay Dutt

Direction – Sujoy Ghosh

Somehow, fantasies that belong to Tim Burton genre (Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish) have always appealed to me. I enjoy films that are set in fantasy locations and have real people in it as they have a different kind of excitement to it and have a huge scope of imagination. And having spent most of my childhood with Aladin, playing video games of Aladin, solving jigsaw puzzles, watching his cartoon series, etc., made me very much interested in watching the film. I always have loved Aladin.

Set in the contemporary period, the film has characters borrowed from the original story. Our lead character, who is named Aladin by his family members, is teased by school and college mates and is made to rub lamps like the Aladin in the original story does to call the Djinn. Meanwhile we have the Ringmaster, played by Sanjay Dutt, who is trying to hunt the magic lamp by which he can make Djinn his slave and ask him to fulfil his three wishes. Predictably, the lamp falls into the hands of Aladin, gifted to him by Jasmine (Jaqueline Fernandez) on his birthday. Jasmine obviously is the love interest of Aladin, as in the original story.

Aladin is quite predictable, but mostly fantasy films are predictable. They will all have a hero, a love interest, magical powers and a villain. The execution of the story, and how well it grips the audience and makes them feel interested, is more important. And the execution of Aladin is very good. It took time to build up as it has a slow and slightly boring first half, but once Genius (Djinn) entered in the film, the momentum picked up the film really gripped me.

The film had some very smart moments. The introduction of Amitabh Bachcan was very good; the scene where Ritesh Deshmukh was celebrating his birthday alone in his room was very touching. But one scene that stood out was when Aladin and Jasmine meet for the first time and Aladin dancing on ‘Chura Ke Dil Mera’ says the vulgar step is a demand of the song and hence he has to do. Even more funny was in the same scene where he says, ”Woh Dekho Qasin”, cut to restaurant scene where he narrates it to Ratna Pathak Shah on how foolish he was to invite trouble himself. ‘Qasin’ is the leader of the group who teases Aladin because of his name.

The film is by no means perfect. As I said it is slightly slow and boring till the point Genius enters the film, which shouldn’t have been the case with a fantasy film like Aladin.  It should have gripped right from the start as most of us are already aware on who Aladin is!!! Also I found it slightly hard to understand that if ‘Genius’ had magical powers in him and uses these to fulfill the three wishes, why did he have to expend so much effort in saving Aladin, the kid, to fulfill the first wish of Aladin’s mother. He could have saved Aladin by magic too.

The songs of the film weren’t too good IMO. None of the songs were catchy in my opinion. They were all ‘one-time-listen’ songs.

Ritesh Deshmukh as Aladin did suit the role very much. He played the honest, lovable guy very well. Even his comic timing was pretty good in the film. Jaqueline Fernandez I thought could have been better. Sanjay Dutt like in most of his recent films seemed to be sleep walking the role in the first half and looked disinterested. But as the momentum of the film picked up in the second half, he too started to look in good form and interested. Overall, he performed his villainous role very well.

Amitabh Bahchan was the best of all of them with his super cool attitude. He yet again proved himself with his brilliant acting abilities. It’s really heartening to see a person who doesn’t have anything to prove, still so interested in film acting. He deserved applause for his performance in the film and really was the backbone of the film. He seriously is the best actor of this country.

The graphics used in the film are very very good. I was really surprised to see an Indian film with such good graphics and that too with Ritesh Deshmukh as a lead actor. But it’s equally sad to see the response the film has got. The film is having a hard time in earning even 1 crore. That’s very sad and demotivating for the director and the producer.

One thing I missed in the film was ‘The Magic Carpet’. I would have liked it if Sujoy Ghosh would have used a bit of more imagination and added that magic carpet too in the film. Aladin looks incomplete without the magic carpet.

Overall the film is good watch. A better first half could have made it better. Still the second half and the performance by Amitabh Bachcan in the film makes up for it.

7.5/10. Recommended to all fantasy lovers.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan has revealed that he is threatened for visiting temple and a dargah through text messages by an unnamed person. The man has also warned that his latest film ‘Aladin’ would be unsuccessful if he keeps on visiting both dargah and the temple.

He had visited the Haji Ali dargah on Thursday morning and then went to Siddhivinayak temple. In his blog too he has mentioned that it is his regular routine. Bachchan is unaffected by the warning. He wrote on his blog, “I am going to do it again, and shall continue to do it. And I want to see how you are going to stop me. If you have the courage and guts, come and get me.”

He also wrote, “If the film has merit, no force on earth will be able to stop its worth. If the film is weak and does not have merit, no force on earth shall be able to make it a success. At the cost of every film of mine failing, I am not going to change my routine.”

This post takes a lead from my last write-up. However, should have taken a while to write, had it not been for a “different” kind of discussion with one of the popular film-makers.

It was Friday late afternoon and, it so happened that one of the creative film-makers with quite a hitlist in his kitty (in varied capacities), posted a comment on one such public forum about the latest release - Aladin.

The one-word title of his post was quite amusing, intriguing and self-explanatory. Strange, we film-makers think we’ve already exhausted smaller titles for our films. Before his post, I had read and watched quite some reviews of the film (Aladin). It had already given me shockers and I was finding it hard to believe if Sujoy had once again underperformed with his much-hyped and much-awaited film. Yet, I wanted to watch it myself before actually believing in those reviews till I read his post.

The title of the post, very strangely, was ALADIN’T. Man, it was just Friday afternoon. The film had just released in theaters. The dear friend had probably watched it on the eve of the release itself and waited for the film to release to post his stuff publicly.

The reviews and everything had already given feelers that Aladin was not a film to look forward to. That the film had blundered and faltered on several junctures. That neither Bachchan could create the magic, nor did poor Riteish. Sanjay’s character was portrayed by many as a spoof. That the film, in all probability, would fail. We all knew from our direct experiences or through friends that the film may not perform well at box office.

But, I found the title ALADIN’T a bit too harsh for a film that was merely one show old. That it was being unkind to write off the film which was yet to be through with its first matinee show for the public in theaters. And that it was unfair to take this message to few thousands of followers on a forum that communicates faster than the speed of light.

My contention was critics are alright to write about any film on the very first, second or any nth day in its life. Good or bad. Whatever! If we feel happy or go on to thank them for writing good about films, they have all the rights to write if and why a film would not work. For that matter, they have always existed in their space and are the most respected of the species, other than Censor Board. At times, equally hated. But, you love it or hate it; they have a job and, mostly, are doing their job quite well. They have done more good to good films than bad to bad films. Good films with a good word-of-mouth are boosted like nothing else. A bad film is anyway destined to die early. A bad word-of-mouth only accelerates its death.

Taking a leaf from my last post and comments thereon, a good film will work against odds. It may falter for external factors. But, what is intrinsically designed to work, works. Similarly, a weak film will fail. Sometimes, positive external factors may help prolong its death, to the relief of people behind it. These days, however, most of the external factors generally go on to kill and hammer as many nails in its coffin as possible to make sure it is buried well. Forever.

We have so many of news channels – who are obsessed with sadism and would make animations, dramatized versions and cooked-up stories to sensationalize a non-story like a cat getting caught up on a terrace for hours. Any day, there are channels promoting exclusive stories like the road to heaven, commissioner’s dog going missing, a cat caught on a terrace, a man walking on water and so on. The same channels will dig as many scoops related to a film and its cast/crew to get the eyeballs. But, the moment it is believed to have failed, they’ll do their last bit to kill it. If the channel hasn’t earned a pie from the media budget of the film. It is like the treatment meted out with Indian Cricket team. One good match, they are heroes. Past one bad show, they are termed ‘paper tigers’ and glam-gods good for nothing. What they actually thrive on is the short public memory in a country of billion.

The news spreads like a wildfire in this age of Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, Blogs, SMSes and so much of social networking. The medium communicates at the speed of thought. And when somebody with thousands of following across such social media communicates negatively about a film so early, he may not be held wrong or unethical in any way. He is not at all wrong.

But, my plea was when we have found something good in a film to endorse it or spread a positive word-of-mouth, let’s go ahead any day. But, if we must speak out against a poor film, let’s at least take a little time. Let’s keep ourselves silent for a little while. Let the film be at least one weekend-old before we actually voice an opinion against it. Alright that the film is going to die. But, give it a breather if, when we cannot and should not speak “good” about it.

Should we kill a weak film – mind it, which is not slapstick and vulgar – just because it is limping? Should we say “death” because it is finding it difficult to survive?

I think, I am not going to watch this in a theater anymore. Is it because I got so much of gyan about this film so fast? Or, was I destined to not watch this anyway?

After wrapping up whatever work i had to do, i found myself at Necklace road at 9 in the morning on a Saturday with the whole day ahead of me and my pre-booked ticket for “This is it” being for the 3:30 show. Since i felt too lazy to go back to Kukkatpally and come back to necklace road again (and brave Hyderabad traffic twice more) i decided to go to Prasads IMAX and catch whatever was playing until my friend would turn up at 3 for the movie.

So, i found myself watching 3 movies on this Saturday, “Up”, “Aladin” and “This is it”. The reviews for all 3 follow:

Starting off with “Up”: The premise of this movie sounded so unlike Pixar’s previous efforts, but then again i realized that Pixar movies never have a single premise from “Toy Story” to “The Incredibles” to “Cars” and “Ratatouille” and “Wall-E”, every movie is different, but every movie is still great and an unique experience. There was a great article on Box Office Prophets which claimed that Pixar are aliens, which is the only explanation for how they can get away with such outlandish themes and still make them work.

“Up” is the story of Carl Frederiksen, who as a young kid was inspired by adventurer Charles Muntz to travel the world with his equally adventurous wife Ellie. But the realities of life got in the way, and Carl was never able to fulfil the promise he made to Ellie that he would take her to Paradise Falls in South America. After Ellie’s death, Carl is forced to vacate his house to make way for a new construction. At this point Carl remembers his promise and ties his house up with Helium balloons and takes off for his long overdue adventure.

His unwilling shipmate is Russell, an overenthusiastic wilderness explorer who wants his “assisting the elderly” badge, and later they are joined by Dug, a talking dog.

Like i said, the above 2 paragraphs do not seem like they would make a good movie, let alone a good children’s movie. But, Pixar has developed a screenplay where you are more than willing to let physical impossibilities slide and just let them tell you a great story.

The Animation is top-notch, at some points in the movie, i felt that it was real and not animated. The voice acting is brilliant, and the story holds the movie together.

Overall, “Up” raises expectations from Pixar again, lets hope “Toy Story 3″ will be even better.

4.5 on 5 for “Up”, go watch it.

Second movie for the da,y “Aladin”: Somewhere beneath the excesses shown on screen, deep within Aladin, there is a good movie waiting to show itself. But the movie got lost in the indulgence and overacting that comes across.

The story deals with Aladin Chatterjee, who is named as such because his Father believes that Aladin’s lamp is real. His parents are killed while searching for the lamp leaving Aladin an orphan. Aladin is continually teased by his friends for his name, and is also forced to rub lamps by them as a form of ragging. He is in love with the exchange student named Jasmine, and on his birthday, when Jasmine is tricked into presenting him with a lamp which he rubs, out comes Genius (Amitabh Bachchan).

The genie helps Aladin get the girl and they live happily ever after. Oh wait, there is a subplot about a fallen genie, The Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt), who wants to become a genie again, and he will do this by capturing the shadow of a comet which only comes by once every million years (Don’t ask.)

The main problem with the movie is that it is a concept stretched too far. It seems good enough for maybe an hours worth of material, but at 2 hours and a bit, it starts dragging. The visual effects are good, and don’t look tacky, which is always a plus.

The actors overact, but seem to be having fun while doing so. Sanjay Dutt in particular seems to know the absurdity of his character and acts accordingly. Riteish is good, Amitabh is ok. The new heroine, Jacqueline is eye candy and nothing more.

Overall, 2.5 out of 5.

At the start of this movie, we are shown interviews with the backup dancers, who are obviously excited to just be on the same stage as Michael Jackson. Then, we are shown the final press conference for the concerts and Jackson says “This is it. It is the final Curtain call”, and the prophetic nature of these words hit you.

“This is it” is a celebration of Jackson as an entertainer. The songs are chosen brilliantly, each one building in tempo from the last. The rehearsals begin with “Wanna be starting something” go through a brilliantly edited “Smooth Criminal”, through “Thriller” and conclude with the crescendo of “Billie Jean” which shows us just why Jackson was highly regarded as a performer. His perfectionism shines through as he insists on specific notes being hit, certain cues and so on.

Throughout the movie, you actually feel like you are in a concert. In fact, a few people in the theatre started clapping after the amazing “Billie Jean” performance.

The movie ends with “Man in the mirror” and a message “Love is forever”.

Whatever we might think of Jackson as person, his talent is never in question. At no point can we make out that this was a frail 50 year old who would be dead soon. The movie is seriously a must watch for both Jackson fans and non-fans, just because this is the last time we get to experience the songs and the performance.

Overall, 4 out of 5. Brilliant performances, excellent choreography and a look behind the scenes at what would have been an amazing concert had i happened.

Until next time,

K.C.G