Kapoor and Sons (since 1921) - Film review

Not very often, does a film comes, which has this great attention to detail. The last such movie I watched was Khosla ka Ghosla, which came like years ago.

Kapoor and Sons, on face of it is a very simple family drama. Parents, two sons, an old grandfather, a dog and a servant. All living in beautiful Coonoor. I can vouch for Coonoor to be beautiful as its my favourite holiday destination. 

Each character has been given space and time to develop. Even Kishor, who is some random servant for Tia, played by Alia Bhat. It is amazing how this movie does not interpret life as happiness and sadness divided by an interval, which most movies do.

This movie carries it all together in the moment. There is always happiness with an undercurrent of tension. Between parents, between brothers. I think thats a very real portrayal. 

The director, Shakun Batra, has done a splendid job. Hats off. And a movie that sensible coming from Karan Johar stable, is another very happy surprise. That shows Karan Johar will still support substance, even if the movie does not make 200 crores. This is a movie which a lot of people can relate to very easily, just due to the simplicity of story-telling and due to how sometimes in life, one weekend is great and another is not so great. Or some times, the Saturday morning is crappy but things sort of sort themselves out towards Sunday.

From an acting perspective, Alia Bhat is impressive. Very real acting. So is Fawad Khan. I would like to see more of his work. Rajat Kapoor was his good self. Ratna Pathak-Shah, is out of the world. I mean what else can be said, she looks every bit in each of the scenes. I think we need to make more such movies where we can have her play great roles. Siddharth Malhotra, although had a simpler role, comparatively, plays it well. Last but not the least, Rishi Kapoor, as a 90 year grandfather was fantastic. He had a powerful stage with this role and he made the most of it. His character is this all knowing grandfather, who does not want to force the decisions, but guide folks together in this very subtle way. I think he did full justice to his role.

The music was good. Not too many songs, but were outstanding. I loved Buddhu sa Mann, Bolna and even Kar gayi chul. Badshaah, Amaan Malik, Armann Malik did a splendid job overall. Great compositions. Fast and slow, melodious. Again, very refreshing.

The screenplay, written by Ayesha Dhillon and Shakun Batra was very tight. Each scene was very thought through and had a life of its own. The way, the scene starts and the way it develops over time is fantastic and very complicated pieces come together as part of this development of the scene.

I haven't watched something as complex, put together that simply before. I think its a great team effort with great acting, story/screenplay, music and direction.

Imminently watchable. Multiple times.

Great movie.

The Blind Side - the movie

Was watching this again yesterday. Ita about a white family adopting a black boy and the boy becoming a great player in American football.

Now I am not a big believer in America or it's football. Nor am I much interested in blank-white tension. We have enough issues of our own, but the movie is fantastic. I think it was very mature in it's own way. The overall portrayal of a mother-son relationship, and in American social conditions.

The other thing I loved was the occupation of the "dad". I think owning 85 taco Bella and fast-food chana is amazing. And it's steady money, and a lot of it too :).

The confidence and security the entire family in that movie show comes out very naturally to the actors. This is amazing quality of actors, being into their character. Unlike a Shah-rukh Khan who is always himself no matter what the movie :).

So all in all, I liked what I saw in the movie.

3 Idiots - movie review

Everyone told me its a fantastic movie so I thought lets see it. Lets at least try. So got my pack of 5 movies for 60 rupees - one of the movie was of course 3 idiots :-)

Third big movie from Rajkumar Hirani and really speaking, its 3rd if you try and rank the three movies he made with both Munna Bhais.

Why does Munna bhai score over 3 idiots - Originality. And no, I am not getting into the "loosely based on book" debate - not at all. What I mean is there are some issues in the world which will all evoke a very strong emotional response from people and almost everyone will have a similar opinion, like education system of India, terrorism, child labour, poverty, bureaucracy, Indian constitution, x-tra marital affair etc etc. A lot of people do mostly say the same things on these topics without providing a solution.

3 idiots is no different, it re-emphasises the fact that change is must however, after stating this universal truth (like The Sun rises in the East - with "S" of Sun and "E" of East in capital), does not get into providing solutions, its almost like in a project - the solution has been defined in the "Not in Scope" section.

Acting and all is good, Aamir is a master and Sharman and Madhavan have been ok. Strangely, Kareena Kapoor has proved that she can still look sensible, I was impressed - she was not completely repulsive.

At some points, movie is OTT and some sections seem to have been added for no reason - or at times, to prove a minor point, a lot of story has been told, characters added.

The movie could have been made with a lot less characters only focusing on the main ones more so as to make their presence felt rather than 3 people travelling from Delhi to Shimla to Laddakh in a bright red Volvo XC90.

Cinematography is good - nice landscape shots of Shimla and Laddakh. Music is so-so.

Overall, surely a watchable movie - after watching this movie, people will start thinking about what they are doing as job against what they have studied. All the IIT, IIM grads will start thinking of themselves as confused lot :-).

Well, not to worry anyone, nothing is wrong with anyone. All is well!!!