Showing posts with label Asrani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asrani. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2009

De Dana Dan - Movie Review

Read more! Cast :: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia, Sameera Reddy, Johny Lever, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav.

"De Dana Dan" is the most bizarre film from the maharaja of laughathons, Priyadarshan. Not even in your wildest dream you'd think that Priyadarshan would place almost an entirefilm in a hotel and have its entire cast.

But Priyadarshan needs to be credited for pulling it off. There are times when you laugh hysterically at the most outlandish jokes and situations. There are times when a raised eyebrow or a wide-open jaw makes you break into a guffaw.

Be cautioned. "De Dana Dan" is a loud film, with each and every character screaming on top of his/her voice, with the characters shouting, running, even floating and swimming in the end.

But what do you expect in a Priyadarshan film that has a title like "De Dana Dan"? The promos never promised path-breaking or thought-provoking cinema that would give birth to debates and discussions. So why look for logic in this one?

"De Dana Dan" makes no qualms of narrating a story you haven't heard before. Here, the story is non-existent and it's left on Priyadarshan to mix-n-match those two dozencharacters and keep the momentum alive for the next 2.45 hours.

"De Dana Dan" promises laughter and entertainment and sticks to its promise. This one's not for the hard-nosed types, but for those who worship escapist cinema. Who want to chuckle, giggle and chortle at those mindless jokes. In short, "De Dana Dan" is a pure dhamaal entertainer!

Nitin (Akshay Kumar) is a butler, cook, driver, watchman, gardener to a wealthy female industrialist (Archana Puran Singh) in Singapore. Like any young man, Nitin too dreams of a better life. He desperately wants to become rich and marry the love of his life, Anjali (Katrina Kaif), who supports him financially.

Ram (Sunil Shetty), Nitin's best friend, also came to Singapore with the dream of striking it rich, but ended up a courier delivery man. He falls for Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), but her high society parents will never approve of marriage, not unless Ram has lots and lots of money.

In the midst of all this is Harbans (Paresh Rawal), a shrewd businessman, who's looking for ways to multiply his income and avoid his debtors. He decides the best way would be to marry his son (Chunky Pandey) off to a girl whose parents can give him a large dowry. He is introduced to Manpreet's parents at a function and is impressed by their social status. He introduces himself as a well-established businessman, impresses them and they decide to get Manpreet and Harbans' son married.

With several factors working against them, Nitin and Ram soon reach a dead end in their relationships. When both receive ultimatums from their girlfriends, they realize that only a life of vice can help them out of their misery. They come up with an audacious plan to kidnap someone important and demand a ransom.

The kidnapping goes awry and both hide at a local hotel while waiting for the ransom money. But misfortune is never far and the kidnapping spirals out of control.

Meanwhile, Manpreet's wedding reception is being held at the same hotel that Nitin and Ram are hiding in. Soon, they are joined by a motley set ofcharacters including a Chinese Don (Asrani), a hired assassin (Johny Lever), a ACB police inspector (Sharat Saxena), a club dancer (Neha Dhupia), an ambassador (Vikram Gokhale), a young frustrated double crossing wife (Aditi Govitrikar), a letch (Shakti Kapoor), a drunken waiter (Rajpal Yadav) and a dead body nobody wants to check into the hotel.

"De Dana Dan" is atypical Priyadarshan film that has the unmistakable stamp all over it. But, at the same time, "De Dana Dan" is erratic and uneven - energetic at times, lethargic at places. Also, the culmination to the film is very similar to the director's earlier works, with the entire cast running helter-skelter.

On the flip side, you miss Akshay's presence in the second hour. He disappears (gets locked in a cupboard) for at least 20 minutes and the focus, hence, shifts to the othercharacters. His fans will miss his presence, for sure. Besides, the film tends to get very lengthy towards the second half and overtly verbose too.

Director Priyadarshan is synonymous with comedies and the ace storyteller promises laughter in abundance. Handling so many characters, plus making a film on mistaken identities could be very tough, but the director gets it right. Pritam's music is alright, while the RDB track, 'Paisa', is the pick of the lot. Salim-Sulaiman's background score is energetic. K. Ahambaram's cinematography is alright.

The review would be incomplete if one ignored the dialogue writer's (Jay Master) contribution to the film. The lines are laced with wit and soaked in humour and bring the house down on several occasions.

"De Dana Dan" has so many characters that it gets difficult to pinpoint or single out any one actor. Akshay is at his best in a Priyadarshan film and "De Dana Dan" proves it. Sunil is natural to the core. Paresh is incredible; he pitches in a superb act. Katrina and Sameera don't have much to do. Amongst the plethora of actors, Johny Lever, Neha Dhupia, Manoj Joshi, Asrani, Vikram Gokhale and Archana Puransingh deserve special mention.

On the whole, "De Dana Dan" is targeted at the masses and it delivers laughter in abundance. Leave your brains behind to enjoy this madcap entertainer!

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Movie Review

Read more! Cast :: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Upen Patel, Darshan Jariwala, Asrani, Salman Khan, Govind Namdeo, Smita Jaykar, Navneet Nishan, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Zakir Hussain, Jagdeep.

The story begins with the showcase of "innocence tipping balance to foolishness" of Prem (Ranbir Kapoor). That's just the start of many Charlie Chapline comical moments. Prem and his gang of good-for-nothing friends open up the Happy Club; read their hangout place where they try to solve their love problems or simply pass time. It’s when one of Prem’s friend needs to rescue his damsel in distress that his chance meeting of Jenny(Katrina Kaif) happens.

What till now was expected to be a romantic comedy turns into a slightly emotional film. However, there are some splendid moments when literally your human brain doesn’t know how to react. That’s where we bow to director Rajkumar Santoshi. For one, there’s a scene where Jenny stammers because she is upset. When Ranbir tries to console her he stammers too because he suffers from the same problem. Oh but Katrina doesn’t know this. So what does she do? One tight slap! ‘For making a mockery of my sad situation’- as she puts it. You simply don’t know how to react. You feel sorry for Ranbir, sorry for the hurt Katrina…but then why does the snigger sneak up on you then? Because the situation IS funny. You’ll know it when you go watch it. Oh yes, you can empty your wallet for this one!

However, don’t forget the mindless adjective used to describe this movie. Because simply it beats everyone whatever happened between Jenny and Prem on the bridge. It so obviously gives the impression that Jenny accepts Prem’s proposal?! Even so, when Prem goes to Goa to rescue Jenny from her forced marriage to Tony, Jenny spring out ‘Rahul’s name out of the blue. Err…excuse me? Who’s this new fella? Yes…so while we’re thinking that Prem’s world comes crashing down because Jenny apparently is in love with Rahul(Upen Patel), her school friend who’s returned from Canada.

But Prem had promised himself that he’d love Jenny with ‘no complaint, no demand.’ So the boy sticks with her and helps her get married to Rahul. However, the interaction between Prem and Rahul gets a bit drab.

This part of the film has been beautifully used for the subtle sarcasm of our country’s failings. Right from Rahul’s politician father Pitamber (Govind Namdeo) who doesn’t want his son to marry a Christian girls ’cause he’ll lose out on all the Hindu votes, to the part where a mail train can easily be stopped over a bridge for the convenience of lover-girl, and yes, the slice of media which behaves like ‘hungry wolves’ for juicy stories!

Jenny eventually realizes that she can never be happy with Rahul and that her true love is Prem. And at the end Prem’s grammatically incorrect English prayer to Jesus God is answered and his photo gets permanently stuck on Jenny’s heart!

Advertisements have been strategically hidden in the screenplay with even Ranbir speaking his youngistaan dialougue- ‘Chaaho Toh Kuch Bhi Hai Asaan’.

Salman Khan easily proves why he is the sweetheart of so many. His cameo is mind blowing and even his dialogues are painfully witty!

Pritam’s scores are good. Tu jaane na takes you into a trance, Aatif Aslam’s another gift to India. Prem ki naiyya would simply refuse to stop ringing in your heads. None of the songs seem out of place and they’ve been shot in some of the best places!

Action sequences are good with smart special effects. But they are neither gritty nor gory. Infact, the combination of Prem n Jen doing action makes you feel like you’re watching a fusion of Superman and Power Puff Girls! Kids are sure to have a blast!!

Ranbir’s many avatar’s are awe-inspiring. He perfectly brings out the rawness of an uneducated person as well as the sophistication of a gentleman. Katrina is an eye-candy in every shot and a goddess in Tu jaane na. The movie has been superbly peppered with antics from the supporting cast too. Thanks to them the faked quirky horniness of Prem’s mother Shalini(Smita Jaykar), Shankar’s (Darshan Jariwala) efforts to straighten out his son, and the laughter infusing frustration of the broke Don Sajin (Zakir Hussain)have been nicely brought out.

Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani will make you laugh if you stop questioning it. Your lover may have many shortcomings but you will still love him because that’s love. That’s what makes it strange. That’s what makes it amazing! Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is a movie with many shortcomings but once you see it you can’t help loving it. That’s what makes it Ajab. That’s what makes it Ghazab!!

Here's what we liked about Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
  • If there is one reason why Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is worth a watch, it has to be the brilliance of Ranbir Kappor. Surrounded by mediocrity and unnecessary madness, Ranbir stands tall in yet another fabulous performance. Undoubtedly, the future ’superstar’ of Bollywood!
  • Some well written scenes (mentioned below) make the movie, a good one time watch.
  • Katrina Kaif adds immense value to the movie, purely by her screen presence and stunning looks. Its hard to take your eyes off her, due to which you manage to sit through those 2 - 3 song and dance numbers in the second half.
  • Supporting characters do well.
  • The chemistry between Katrina and Ranbir was excellent.
Sequences that deserve a mention
  • When Katrina invites Ranbir to be her dance partner and the sequences that follow with her chosen-by-parents groom are hilarious. Slightly over the top, with Ranbir dancing all the way through with weird expressions, but funny nonetheless.
  • When the jobless Ranbir takes up a job in a sweets shop to impress Katrina.
  • Those broken English dialogue scenes were nice, again credit to Ranbir’s fantastic dialogue delivery.
  • When Ranbir’s mother, in an effort to stop his father from entering the bathroom, flirts with her husband.
  • Govind Namdeo’s introductory scene which includes that funny ringtone of his assistant.
  • Last but not the least, when Salman Khan (as himself) makes a dashing special appearance. The girlfriend - yours or mine talk - is sure to bring the house down.
Download MP3 Songs
01 - Main Tera Dhadkan Teri - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
02 - Tu Jaane Na - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
03 - Oh By God - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
04 - Tera Hone Laga Hoon - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
05 - Prem Ki Naiyya - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
06 - Aa Jao Meri Tamanna - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
07 - Follow Me - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
08 - Tu Jaane Na (Reprise) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
09 - Main Tera Dhadkan Teri (Remix) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
10 - Tu Jaane Na (Remix) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
11 - Prem Ki Naiyya (Remix) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
12 - Tera Hone Laga Hoon (Remix) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
13 - Aa Jao Meri Tamanna (Remix) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com
14 - Tu Jaane Na (Unplugged Version) - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani @review-of-movies.blogspot.com


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Thursday, November 5, 2009

De Dana Dan - Music Review

Read more! Cast :: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia, Sameera Reddy, Johny Lever, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav.

The brand value of Akshay Kumar, comic-timing of Paresh Rawal and static presence of Sunil Shetty have made a winning combination in the last few years. While Akshay and Sunil once had a reputation as action stars (Mohra), both have sobered down with age to explore different characters. Who can forget the 2000-laugh-riot ‘Hera Pheri’ which was a huge success at the box office? In many ways director Priyadarshan is back with his favourite leading men. Add one of Bollywood’s current flavours of the season, Katrina Kaif, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success.

De Dana Dan may have its share of fine songs, but overall, it’s disappointing as it stands nowhere close to Tum Mile or even APKGK. In fact the one song that has been popularized and seems like one of the few good songs on the album belongs to RDB and thus Pritam’s share of good songs goes further down.

Out of twelve tracks of De Dana Dan, there are six songs as all songs have a remix or a second version except one. Here is the detailed review.

Rishte Naate: In De Dana Dan Pritam puts forward his best song as the very first as you hear Rahat Fateh Ali Khan singing at the start of the album, with vocals by Suzanne Demello. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has got the song a gear up than he generally sings at. For the reason, in the beginning you might feel the song a bit fast but ultimately the song sounds perfectly fine. Worth listening to.

Paisa: The second song of the album is the one you must have heard a lot of times on your television already. RDB’s Paisa, featuring Manak-E and Selina. Main Barish kar doon paise ki, jo tu ho jaaye meri is a song that is surely going to rule the charts for a few weeks. Listen to this one on full volume or even better, in North Indian weddings, on the DJ.

Gale Lag Ja: One of the first things you do with any album now is searching Javed Ali’s name in credits. Here I found him again with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contestant Banjyotsna for the song Gale lag ja. Gale lag ja happens to be the other song that I liked in the album, or at least find worth listening to, if only because of Javed Ali’s voice. Try the song, even though it’s a quite typical love song, you may like it.

Bamulaiza: OK. Here we start moving downwards. This one, called Ba-mulaiza, sounds quite like a song of Anu Malik in the ’90s. The song, though sung by Mika, Style Bhai and Dominique, is probably going to go unnoticed except for being played on FM sometimes, that due to its beats. Nothing much to say on this one.

Hotty Naughty: And here was the SURPRISE. A song written by Neeraj Shridhar, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, almost half the lyrics in English. And copy of the superhit Haryanvi song Hat ja taau. For those who know the song, the unrapped part of Hotty-Naughty can be made by replacing Hat ja taau pachhe ne, naachan de jee bhar ke ne with you wanna feel me touch me hold me now, I’m hotty naughty babe in town. Simple as that, no need to go to Indonesia or Japan for this discovery of Pritamji.

Rishte Naate – Remix: Well, this is new. Before the end of original songs (wow, that word after the last song) there are remixes in. And this remix of Rishte Naate is sung by Kunal! Try hard but this stands Nowhere near the original. Skip.

Bamulaiza – Ragga Mix: Slightly better than the original. Hope runs better.

Gale Lag Ja (Version 2): No major changes from the original version. I guess that’s the best thing about the song. Nothing much again.

Hotty Naughty Remix: Remix of a dance number is another dance number. Easier for DJs. But yeah, the voice behind the microphone changes and this time it’s not Sunidhi but Kalpana Patwari.

OK. Enough of remixes. Jumping to the only song that remains. De Dana Dan, the title song. Well, the title song De Dana Dan is the one that has not been remixed in the album. And from the song all I could collect was that there is hardly scope for a remix. The best part of the song is that it’s Extremely Catchy. The bad part is that it’s use and throw.

Time for summary. Music of De Dana Dan doesn’t really seem to be a serious thing. Other than Rishte Naate and Gale Lag ja, no song of the album can be expected to last long, even if some of them go fine for sometime. Paisa and the title song are OK for short time. Bamulaiza is avoidable and Hotty Naughty is plagiarism again. Not that it makes the song any worse. It’s just OK.

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01-de_dana_dan-rishte_naate@review-of-movies.blogspot.com

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