Review: Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani / Jail
LAUGHTERGLOW
The unlikely team of Raj Kumar Santoshi and Ranbir Kapoor serves up a comedy that casts a spell (well, at least for a while). Plus, the latest Madhur Bhandarkar exposé.
NOV 8, 2009 – I THINK I STARTED WARMING UP TO Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani the moment an imperious statue of Lord Wellington came to life and commanded an onlooker, “Wipe the crow shit off my back.” It’s an odd, odd mix of moods that Santoshi is going for here – slapstick and farce in the service of a romantic melodrama whose happy ending is enabled by (are you ready for this?) the Lamb of God, and had I simply read the script, I’d have shaken my head and labelled it a desperate attempt to summon up the screwball spirit of the director’s earlier Andaz Apna Apna. (Full confession here: I think that film is a tad overrated. It has several great stretches, but not nearly enough to warrant the kind of googly-eyed adoration it’s accorded today. Then again, maybe I just caught it in a bad mood and need to watch it again.)
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is filled with scenes such as the one where a gang bursts into a run and suddenly screeches to a halt to ponder upon an absurdist-existentialist question: “Ruko, ruko! Hum bhaag kyon rahen hain?” (Why, indeed, are they running?) In another scene, Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) can’t stop shaking – he seems to have come down with a case of the epileptic shivers – in anticipation of a dance with Jenny (Katrina Kaif), the girl of his dreams. (According to him, he’s merely warming up the body). These are the kind of loopy, past-expiry-date gags that would appear dead on paper and you’d think they would wilt on screen – but they don’t, thanks to Santoshi’s zippy staging and his leading man’s buoyant charm. These bits remind you of Amitabh Bachchan under the stewardship of Manmohan Desai. In fact, several of Prem’s pidgin-English lines seem to have been written with that specific Bachchan in mind, the gangly clown who popped out of an Easter egg and spouted streams of concatenated gibberish. (It’s surely no coincidence, here, that the heroine is named Jenny.)
The script, too, is modelled on Desai, the merest pretence of a clothesline-plot –based on a love triangle, with a listless Upen Patel as the third wheel – on which to hang sketch after humourous sketch. But mercifully, Santoshi – fully shaking off the ghosts of the middling Family and the flatulent Halla Bol – doesn’t so much wink at those conventions (like so many Hindi films today) as channel their controlled anarchy into a film made along those lines. Yes, Jenny is an orphan. Yes, Prem confesses to suffering from one of those only-in-the-movie conditions, “Oopar se jaundice, neeche se malaria.” Yes, there’s even a quasi-drag scene, with Ranbir trying on his girlfriend’s top (yet again, after Wake Up Sid). But Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani isn’t a lazy attempt to tickle us by throwing together a bunch of nudges to a long-ago, lowbrow Bollywood. It’s a comedy made in all earnestness, and that’s the big difference.
The first half is especially delightful. It has the occasional flat patch that runs out of steam and there’s a surprisingly crude utterance (for this sort of film) from Jenny’s prospective father-in-law – but mostly, it spills over with the sort of visual pop which is quite the last thing you expect from Santoshi. (The sequence where Prem emulates a Superman-to-Clark Kent transformation during his first day at his first job is a joy to behold.) There’s so much puckishness in the air, even Katrina seems to have inhaled some of the fairy-dust – the marble-model actually springs to life, coming across as some sort of spry comedienne (or at least a game-enough imitation).
But the second-half syndrome strikes, and she transforms back into sculpture. We groan at the intermission when the love triangle is set up. (The pain is all the greater when we hear the name of the man Jenny thinks she’s in love with: Rahul. How many more love triangles are we going to be subjected to, especially the kind where the hero’s opponent in the love stakes is played by someone who’s clearly not going to get the heroine?) At first, we appear to be watching a mildly inoffensive rerun of Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (with Ranbir reprising his puppy-eyed silent-lover from Saawariya, though without the near-manic masochism) – but by the time a diamond necklace worms its way into the picture, in order to make the heroine doubt her decisions, we’ve had enough. (Such a development might have been easier to swallow had this simply been a spoof. It wouldn’t have actually been a bad plot point – merely a deliberate attempt at a bad plot point.)
For long stretches, the director seems to forget that he set out to create a comedy. We’ve now entered the realm of turgid romantic melodrama, the kind with a sentimental song where the heroine’s billowing dress is artfully arranged amidst a landscape that’s prettier than she is. Even the comic inventions begin to flag in energy. A caricatured don-figure pops out of thin air (rather, out of Andaz Apna Apna), and Santoshi can’t figure out what to do with him. There’s a setup involving identical disguises that promises much mayhem, but the payoff is rushed and disappointingly limp.
And yet, I walked away with happy thoughts. In a multiplex-fuelled cinema era where we’re presented with the Euro-decadence of Dev.D and the Tarantino/Ritchie stylistics of Kaminey and the Hollywood rom-com aesthetics of Love Aaj Kal and Wake Up Sid, it’s a relief to find a film (and a filmmaker) whose DNA is wholly desi. Santoshi has always had a good ear for old-school dialogue, and when Prem stammers, his indulgent mother assures him that he doesn’t. (“Thoda ruk ruk ke baat karta hai, bas.”) That’s the kind of line that separates the genuine article from a wannabe. The tradition of a regretfully forgotten cinema is what’s invoked in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, whose heroine craves not fries but moong dal ke pakodey with pudiney ki chutney. The parts of the film that work make you feel you’re coming home.
IN THE MEMORABLE FILMS ABOUT LIVES whittled away in prison (Mathilukal, Mahanadhi), you come away with a profound sense of loss that’s accompanied by an equally profound sense of redemption. These films prey on our own worst fears of a life spent in the company of them – the fearsome unknowns on the other side of the tracks – and they subsequently turn these fears around by showing how close to us those people really are. Madhur Bhandarkar, in Jail, picks Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh, completely unconvincing) as our representative, a decent man who’s jailed on a drugs case, and the film charts his life in prison as he struggles to prove his innocence. This canvas allows the director to paint with his usual bold strokes, where he doesn’t so much tell a story as titillate us with reams of research about the seamier aspects of his subject.
Is this filmmaking? I don’t know. If a film is just about characters moved through a “topical” storyline and captured on film, I suppose Jail could be considered cinema. But shouldn’t a multiple-National Award winner also be concerned about craft? Shouldn’t there be more subtlety in the telling, instead of a judge sentencing Parag to “PC,” and a lawyer appearing an instant later to educate the audience that PC stands for “police custody?” Shouldn’t there be some restraint, a faraway shot of the nude outline of Parag (when he’s strip-searched upon entering prison) instead of a close-up of his crotch blocked out with pixels? Did we really need to follow the stream of urine as Parag relieves himself while in solitary confinement?
I suppose we should be thankful that we’re spared the kinds of sights you typically expect from this director – lunch plates crawling with maggots, or Parag being sodomised in the showers. (But since Bhandarkar can’t lay off sensationalism altogether, a secondary character is allowed to be fellated.) Jail isn’t terrible by Bhandarkar’s standards. He’s eased up on the moralising – there are only cursory glances at the corruptness of the system, and there are (thankfully) no if-then corollaries as in Page 3 or Fashion. But the setups are still juvenile, and it’s only on occasion that you catch a glint of grace, as when an inmate (Manoj Bajpai) advises Parag, “Dost banao. Waqt kaatne mein aasani hogi.” It’s the simplest of statements, but with a dark undertow of lyricism. He says that prison life will become easier by making friends, which is just another way of saying that, within those four walls, there’s little difference between us and them.
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Wow..Did you really find all these charming things in APKGK…did we see the same movie?
The tone of the movie is set during the opening sequence when the poor extra’s sari is pulled out as part of the comic sequence and the “joke” that followed.
Rajkumar Santoshi should just sit at home now. Cannot be trusted after this tripe
One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen(not fully since i walked out of the hall midway) this year; neither becomes a tasteful comedy nor a romance. While the characters indulge in so much of slapstick and sentiments, no one cares as they are simply made of cardboard. And the desi-ness is pseudo. When a thick Brit-accented Jenny (courtesy Kat) utters her liking for “moong dal ke pakodey with pudiney ki chutney”,there’s definitely some digestion problem!
I thought had some surprisingly strong tamil comedy influences including of course cameos by regulars like delhi ganesan and politician’s secretary. The movie seemed very unlike what I expected in a “Hindi comedy” and so I was actually quite happy at the end of it. Not surprisingly I was reminded very strongly of the madness of ullathai alli tha! (Not MMKR yet!)
Ran
vivek mohan: Yup, Ullathai All Thaa — but the greater resemblance to Tamil comedies is that the first half is essentially a compilation of what would pass for a “comedy track” in Tamil films (i.e. the ones that punctuate the main story, with Vivek and Vadivelu and so on). That has vanished from Hindi multiplex cinema, and it was a relief to see it back again.
BTW, did you know Santoshi’s AD (or something like that) is K Subhash, the Tamil director? I saw his name on the credits.
Subhash made 2 interesting (not good) movies rite? sabhash and tht arjun film – i remember the beggar becoming entrepreneur scene vividly
Nothing on IB? And why has the Music Review/Articles just dried up?
@Harish – That movie was Vanavil.
Seriously APKGK was quite a badly made movie in my opinion..A loosely defined ‘happy club’ which reminded me more of the hero’s sidekicks in old tam and hindi movies, a caricature of the kaif’s family and esp of ranbir kapoor’s movie..I guess there were very few moments that actually had me laughing such as the climax though it was cliched. But, yes like Vivek Mohan has pointed, was quite surprised by the strong tamil influences..with Mohan Ram, Delhi Ganesan, I think even Ranbir Kapoor’s father, Ooty sets and all in the movie
I meant ranbir kapoor’s father…typed out movie by mistake
hey i wanna see this movie is it good or bad?
Baddy, I completely agree…Andaz Apna Apna was totally overrated!!
K Subhaash – Remembered Chatriyan which was quite the classy cop thriller! Just vanished into oblivion since then…
“This canvas allows the director to paint with his usual bold strokes, where he doesn’t so much tell a story as titillate us with reams of research about the seamier aspects of his subject.”
Could not have agreed more.. th movie had many ’subplots’ and ’stories’ such as that of Ghalib and the Bengali Naxalite that went absolutely nowhere..
BR.. Just an observation vis-a-vis Bhandarkar always re-peddling the same old plot in various diverse settings.
My friends,those who did not read the books,but who saw the Potter movies complain to me as to what the fuss was all about.They feel every movie ‘feels’ like the other with Potter eventually keeping the evil forces at bay.
Can’t it be the same with Bhandarkar who ostensibly supplements the props and the settings,while the basic yarn or plot remains the same,owing for seemingly similar films.Isn’t the essence of all the Potter films the same-The triumph of good over evil?
Let me tell you what makes the wizard films work for me-It is rather the magical world coming alive along with the delicious sub plots,when executed with finesse, than the business like vapidness that afflicts the movies as it progresses to a predictable finale.
So while we are lenient towards the Potter franchise what with our book reading experiences making up for the obvious deficiencies in the films,why don’t we do the same and concentrate on the other attributes of Bhandarkar’s films?
Atleast I feel that the basis for judgement shouldn’t be the plot,it should be the treatment accorded to it.Afterall how many originals do we get in the multiplicity of films that get released?
Hi,
For those who don’t know, Santoshi is half-tamil (I guess his mum is tamil). There has been some tamil influence in some of his earlier movies too (Khakee with Jaya Prada speaking some tamil and Prakash Raj as villian etc).
Santhosi used Illayaraja for Lajaa rite …
and I have a distinct feeling that the lyricist of “Milke yun lagaa”(from Jail) has used Eric Cartman’s philosophy of writing lyrics.. I cannot understand why a song that says “Milke yun lagaa.. tumse o khuda” is picturised on Mugdha Godse and Neil Nitin Mukesh.. Nudge Nudge.. Wink Wink
Padawan: IB, next week.
Srikanth: I don’t think people diss Bhandarkar because of the sameness of his films. It’s the bad way in which it’s done — with all the cheap moralising and easy targets. He take all these complex eco-systems (the Page 3 culture) and so on, and strips away everything that’s complex (and interesting), leaving behind a laughably simplistic (and sensationalistic) movie. All black and white, no grey.
The comparison to the HP franchise doesn’t hold because the movies don’t really work without reading the book (i.e. they turn out very generic if you can’t fill in the gaps from the books).
Harish S Ram: Yup, for the BG score and one song…
“Thoda ruk ruk ke baat karta hai, bas”, now i have to see this.
I haven’t seen the movie but in my head this almost sounds like a dialogue from the glory days of Subash Ghai, rooted in India , unapologetically desi.
I’m with Srinivas here. I’m wondering if we saw the same movie too. Your descriptions of the film’s delightful moments sound more charming than what I saw a few hours ago!
On reflection, I found parts of the movie amusing. But it was like having to babysit an excitable kid whose antics got more grating and less adorable as time wore on. I just wanted the loud sound effects and manically re-enacted gags to stop.
How many times does Jenny run into Prem’s arms?
I’m stoked you mentioned “Thoda ruk ruk ke baat karta hai, bas.” Her line deliveries were much more natural than the lead characters. Ofcourse she’s played this role a million times. Its a milder form of the Reena Pathak effect, where the stock character will easily pull off filmi lines – in stark contrast to the young leads.
I wonder if people have a problem with Bhandarkar because there’s little redemption in his movies – worlds are shown in their dirtiest avatars and there isn’t necessarily a character with heart who overcomes these worlds.
In this review Baradwaj you say “Shouldn’t there be some restraint..” and “Do we really need to see…” about certain scenes. I can’t help feeling that we would have accepted these things from a foreign film, accepted them as shots of gritty unflinching realism perhaps?; we *certainly* wouldn’t have said “there needed to be more restraint”.
If what you’re saying is that there are BETTER ways for Bhandarkar to get his points across, sure, probably. (There’re probably better ways to be suggested to almost everyone). His craft isn’t up there yet? Ok, valid point too. There is a sameness in approach? Yes there is. But somehow I get the feeling that with Bhandarkar it’s deeper than just his film-making limitations: people feel some sort of resentment at showing the sorts of things he shows and the ways he chooses to show them.
I wonder if its basically “Yes we all know India is like this, why do you have to show it like this? Give us something positive to take back.” — essentially this feeling cloaked up in all sorts of articulate ways.
You seem to have got me wrong.The HP mention was to place emphasis on the fact that stories with alike plots can still be made engrossing through the treatment accorde,just like how a Pizza is made palatable by the toppings you put on it.
My problem is when people summarily reject a film saying that the plot of this resembled so and so plot of that.What rankles me is when this becomes the sole basis for trashing it.Instead a holistic gleaning would be appreciable.
PS:When are music reviews coming?Hope we get one for Paa(Ilayraja).
This GHAZAB KAHANI was a whole lot uneven. At one minute, it sparkles and the next, the magic pops off. But at the end of the day, it ended up a better experience that most of the romantic flicks these days.
But again to those who watch the movie- Does the movie not look like a comic version of the Vijay starrer SHAHJAHAN (tamil). Atleast the first half plot does, before they extend and stretch the second half way too much for anyones good.
Calling it uneven is doing “uneven” justice. I and my friend counted – there were 9 extremely funny scenes, and a lot of tripe.
But in some way, those 9 scenes were enough for us. Within 30 mins of the movie, we almost left (but then we had paid 225 bucks) so we decided to grind it out. And we left the hall laughing and all the way back to our flat – we kept reliving the 9 scenes over and over again.
The first half was simply delightfull, but the melodramatic part and the final mad sequence again resembling andaz apna apna got a bit overboard and way to silly.
I don’t remember any one of the recent past or i can even go to the extent of saying in the last decade who had such likable screen presence as Ranbir Kapoor.He was a pure delight in those slapstick sequences. He is able to pull of those emotional sequences effortlessly as well. More importantly he is capable of carrying off an entire movie in his shoulders with pretty ease. With Shmit amins rocket singh next he looks to be going great guns. BR whats your take on RK ??
I also find it strange why AAA became a cult classic,almost to the level of Chupke Chupke. Shashi Kapoor had a brief run of hilarious comedies,each of them were better than AAA,but they have been forgotten. Incidentally,one of them, “Pyar Kiye Ja” was the remake of a Tamil movie.
If wearing Katrina
s top, the stammering, the mother trying to stop Ranbhir’s father and other stupid gigs are funny, I am speechless. I guess, we have really come down in stupidity to accept such a bakwaas farce film. What is bewildering is everyone praising this Ranbhir kid. I thought he was good in Wake Up Sid, but here, he just irritated me and overacted. The film jumps from being a romantic to comdey to nonsense in alfesh and so does the characters and their behaviours. But the, thisis bollywood, no one has been able to figure out what works and what does not.
Hi loved your review of this.Pretty much bang on with what I felt.There are so many references and nods. Jenny from AAA, the guy she’s supposed to be getting married to is Zubisko methinks, the talking statue is from Mard, the English speaking moments totally Amitabh and Manmohan Desai. The pink top scene rememebred of Rajendranath in some movie, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota hai maybe? My fav moment was the crazy dance which I thought was a Shammi Kapoor tribute, maybe wrong.
And yes, Santoshi is half Tamil, speaks, reads, writes it fluently. Does lots of his writing parked in Chennai. So lots of Tamil influences on his work .. he is pretty much an encyclopedia on Tamil film and books etc. And K Subaash is his Associate Director, bounce board, the works
Cheers
Sorry for the typo above. Reminded not Remembered
Cheers
I’m slowly, slowly getting accustomed to Ranbir Kapoor and there are some moments in this movie where his Next Big Thing status actually made sense to me, which hasn’t always been the case. He’s definitely made better decisions than the Last Big Thing aka Hrithik Roshan, so good for him.
The movie itself came off as a bit too desperate for me. There was a “Laugh, Goddamn You!” feel about most of it that made me less inclined to laugh and left me feeling vaguely guilty about it as though I was the ill-mannered child who wouldn’t laugh at some uncle’s poor joke even though he’d gone to the effort of pinching my cheek and given me the full benefit of his fake grin.
Conversely the few moments that did strike me as funny (almost all of which came in the first half – the Upen Patel bits had some potential but seriously, “Upen Patel” is an indication that it’s not going to work) made me sad that they were in such a meh movie.
wasn’t the dance more of an elvis presley inspiration? – well shammi did follow elvis to a great extent
Good to see a main-stream, much-read reviewer finally spell it out – Bhandarkar doesn’t make cinema, and doesn’t even know how to. In my long held opinion, he merely pukes out what he thinks is the sensational part of an acceptably sensational eco-system, without any cinematic form, subtlety or irony.
And as someone else also pointed out at PFC, his film titles are like the dumbest ever – clearly showing how plain, unthinking his films would be. Imagine ‘Sholay’ being called ‘Ramgarh’, DDLJ ‘Pyaar’, and Chupke Chupke simply ‘Comedy’.
Dipika: “Its a milder form of the Reena Pathak effect…” You mean Reema Lagoo? Or Ratna Pathak?
Rohan: Why foreign film? Even in Mahanadhi, there’s a shot of a man pissing through the prison bars. But it was there for a reason. What purpose is served by the similar shot in Jail? It’s certainly not what you say: “Yes we all know India is like this, why do you have to show it like this? Give us something positive to take back.” It’s the horribly sensationalistic nature of his filmmaking.
KPV balaji: I think RK’s grown into a good “commercial/mainstream film” actor. He can do all things a “hero” needs to do. I guess we’ll see with Rajneeti if he can also do the other kind of acting. (I’m not saying one is better than the other; just wondering if he can carry off depth.) More importantly, he’s chosen his films well — to showcase his strengths, as opposed to Imran Khan, who had a great beginning and then tried too soon to diversify into macho, gruff-man roles.
Rahul: That was Kaadhalikka Neramillai.
Amrita: The best way to watch young actors is to ignore all the media-created “Next Big Thing” hype and just see them perform. This hype is harmful to both actors and audience — because we start expecting sky-high levels of “acting” and when even they deliver competent performances, we say, “What was the fuss all about?”
Reg. “the Upen Patel bits had some potential…” Really? I thought that entire subplot could have been dumped
It was unendurable, especially after the invention and energy of the first half. I wish, for instance, they’d done more with the running gag of Prem slapping the bald guy 
Varun: LOL at “Imagine ‘Sholay’ being called ‘Ramgarh’, DDLJ ‘Pyaar’, and Chupke Chupke simply ‘Comedy’.”
IMHO Bhandarkar gets dissed partly because people have wised up to his particular cookie cutter technique, and they feel they are getting duped on account of the same formula being used over and over again. I haven’t seen any movie of his after Page 3 but I liked it and Chandni Bar,though I had my reservations.
How does Jail stack up if we consider it a movie of a first time director?
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani: Movie Review – Right from the ing sequence, Santoshi makes it loud and clear that the flavour of his comedy is slapstick with a comic-strip feel to the storytelling. To an extent he is also successful in making you laugh through the buffoonery of his acters. The real funny sequences a cameo by Salman Khan and when Ranbir gets into Katrinas top. But when the director attempts to make sense through a nearly derived storyline, the film falls flat.
“It’s certainly not what you say: “Yes we all know India is like this, why do you have to show it like this? Give us something positive to take back.” It’s the horribly sensationalistic nature of his filmmaking.”
Baradwaj, contrast this for a moment against a quote by Bhandarkar (from his wikipedia page): “My movies are not exposes, maybe they just hold up a mirror to society. My movies are not judgmental; I just show what happens in our society, sometimes there could be a solution and sometimes there may be none. Life goes on.”
To me what you’re saying is if he shows the *worst* sides of a world (prisons, beggary, whatever) – let’s even agree that his depictions are without the requisite artistry – then he’s automatically being ’sensationalistic’. Why can’t his vision be (and I’m speculating here obviously) that he’s trying to kick-start people who watch his movies into reality, into seeing – and understanding – how things really are?
A parallel *might* be drawn with some aspects of the movie Slumdog Millionaire – which overall was total tosh of course, sadly lapped up by the western world – but you have to agree that what it HAS DONE is bring the concept of the beggar-mafia into public consciousness; people in our cities and towns who unthinkingly gave to beggars now think twice, because they remember what they saw in the movie.
after watcng i thnk apkjk is better than jail
I enjoyed APKGK as an unpretentious, old-fashioned romantic comedy which mostly worked for me. Parts were loud and ham handed, but it was a movie we enjoyed watching. RK has trememndous potential-let’s see what he does next!
How cool would be a movie with Imran Khan playing hero and Tushar Kapoor playing villain.
Wow…this whole Santoshi-Tamil connection is a revelation. Remember how publicly besotted he was with Meenakshi Seshadri? Of course she went ahead and married an NRI
I love gleaning tid-bits like this from these forums. But then, I’m the kind that goes back to read the opening and end credits after watching a DVD. Get the feeling a whole lot of you, including Baradwaj, do the same.
Can Ranbir and Imran be the next Vijay and Ajith or (gasp) Rajini and Kamal!?
Goofy charm vs serious sam!
Watch this space….
but obvious ajab prem ki ghazab kahani
when did hindi films had this dual star system wid their fans duelling for the better of worse? … oh v can say SRK & AK (not the OK of OSO or Akshay kumar ..
lol) but only recently with Gajini n RBDJ did they fight big time rite.
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/71110/Madhur-Bhandarkar-face-trial-in-rape-case.html
Talk about irony.. Looks like our boy Madhur Bhandarkar is going to get a taste of the real jail.
@Vivek: “Can Ranbir and Imran be the next Vijay and Ajith or (gasp) Rajini and Kamal!?”
heh heh, that was funny.
Re Mr Bhandarkar , lets all just agree that the guy is again one of those who inexplicably gets money to make movies.
OMG ppl calm down!! APKGK was a good movie! it had some funny scenes like the dance, the salman, and the shirt scene were very funny. i loved it so did a lot of ppl. it’s diffently a good movie. that’s why it’s the biggest movie of the year. i loved ranbir his gonna be the next srk and katrina was gorgeous her hindi isn’t the best but her acting is getting better. there chemistry was amazing!
Woah, look what I found: http://sitagita.com/entertainment/new-releases/swinging-seventies.html
When was this BR?! Before Indian Express?
Adithya: Before Express, before Eco. Times, even before I returned to India. Can’t you make out from the embarrassing writing, neatly divided into “Plot” and “Rating” and so on? Yempa indha pazhasellaam thondi eduthu ippidi maanatha vaangereenga?
Baradwaj,
Tell me tell me please that not all the reviews on the site were written by you .There are some reviews which actually use the phrase “time pass flick ” (swoooon )!!!
BR: I remember Director K. Rajeshwar commenting in one of your columns, that APKGK is his story. He is also supposed to remake it in Tamil as Dhideer Nagaril Oru Kadhal Gaana (What a title!!).
Do you think any young hero today in Tamil can be as endearing as Ranbir?
Dhideer naga seems to imply slum-like place. Dhanush will do fine. Perhaps might work better.
Btw, dhanush can be quite endearing to a certain tamil population. This snobbishness about ‘nedeaing’ as a south bombay popety is. What makes bollywood lqaughable
I can’t believe you had anything good to say about this movie. On your word, and your word alone, I went to see this….don’t even know what to call it…the absolute WORST movie I’ve seen in years. Astoundingly unoriginal, stale, unfunny, made for people with IQs in the twenties…I’m all for slapstick humor, physical humor, silly humor…but this was just plain torture. TRIPE!!!!
passable movie. like you say has its moments but is inconsistent. Plus too many stererotypes in the parents, side kicks etc, which i dint associate with santoshi.
think santoshi is best when telling a good story like ghayal, khakhee, china gate, pukar (was it his ?).Not good in lovestories (barsaat and now this).
BTW kya look de raha hai is hindisation of enna look vida re!! Santoshi’s tamil touch !!! i suspect some comedy tracks may also have been hindiised.I dint like him wasting Delhi Ganesh for the blink and you will miss me appearance.
usha
Hi,
You mentioned Mahanadhi and Mathilukal .A real gem in this ‘genre’ is Mamooty’s Balu Mahendra directed Yathra .Check it out sometime.
Yaathra came out in 1985 with Ilaairaja’s music .It won Mamooty the Filmfare and State best actor awards as a man wrongly improsoned .
Your reviews are a class. A class on how to review movies. Yes, I loved APKGK and for almost those same reasons you wrote here. Though was searching for a dialog I didn’t find in the review, where Ranbir says, Waah kya dialog mara hai, ek baar phir se maariye..
AMAZIN MOVIE,AWESM JODI,FANTASTIC DYLOGZ N FANTABULOUS MUZIQ…..TRULY A COMPLETE PACKAGE!!!