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One thing I have to say about clash is it brings out this bad, worse and worst in all of us. Whatever good intention you may have towards the rival movie, it simply melts away in the heat of the battle. And if the movie you are rooting for is in slump, then it is war.
The truth is Independence Day clash was thousand time much better than Diwali one. There I have said it. Agreed it was one sided but it was glorious. On one hand we had this bat shit crazy Mohenjo Daro. On other hand we had "I will drive my critics crazy" Rustom. Nothing and I mean nothing can beat Mohenjo Daro. And I mean it in good way. It is rare to be able to watch loony toon characters on such a large scale -inhabiting story world of Amar Chirta Katha, cinematography that made few video games designers weep, golden over tanned hero valiantly fighting a crocodile (I felt bad for the animal) and actress who seemed to have made a pit stop from some costume party. Oh and there were enough head gear designs that could have made the kids in my complex happy during Halloween days.
All that was expected from Rustom was for it to be sober (which it was) and straight (which it was not). I mean how difficult is it for someone to portray Nanvati case on screen. It has all the necessary ingredients for a lovely thriller. But then film-maker had to make it all so convoluted with the jingoism to cash in the popularity of their lead(Akshay is newly crowned prince to throne vacated by Manoj Kumar), drippy Ilena and "I must be in another movie" Esha. But what is so common in both these movies is they both provided large number of unintentional guffaws.
Which I sort of missed on this Diwali. Laughter is one thing that was missing in the two movies clashing. I am not sure why it was decided that frivolity on Diwali day is a pass. And who in Bollywood made this rule. Moving on.
So on one hand we have Karan trying to become new age Gulzar or something. I have no issues that Karan wants growth. And he wants to make mature love stories. I am all for it. And if he decides to steal few idea from here and there. Well lifting is age honor tradition followed by best in Bollywood. But when he decides to steal two third of those ideas from his leading man's old movies, I have a problem. And when said leading man is in desperate need of hit, it becomes trouble. A great deal has been said about how Ranbir is playing the same character. Yeah duh. He is in no solid position to argue with his director.
So it is fitting karma, how critics are pointing out that Karan is unable to handle maturity and complexity of his own movie. And how this glorious but watchable mess is saved by its own cast, by sublime chemistry between the leads and few good cameos. And of course the music. ADHM is a quintessential Bollywood movie. Lower your expectations and it will hit you with unexpected poignancy. Expect too much and it will fall apart. ADHM is near to covering its own cost. Barring some unfortunate happenings, we can safely say "uski naaya paar lagegi".
The one thing about Shivaay is it deserves more love than it is has so far generated. The movie may not have lived up to standards of its own trailer. Which is kind of ok-aish. Ajay the director has made few mistakes. There is too much navel grazing which is understandable because it is a superstar Ajay's vehicle. His is one of the few faces we know in this movie. Not much is and can be expected from Erika and Sayesha who are new. Besides Ajay is 5th pillar of super stardom that currently supports Bollywood. Yes there are few places where the movie could have been improved but Ajay the actor is immpeccable. He has carried the movie quite well. There is some breath taking cinematography and action. So what seems to be the problem. Why is it not getting the love it deserves.
And the answer is with the producers and his fans. Superstars should and will drive their fans crazy. But the craziness attached with this movie is bit too much. There was the #relaxed pose, barely suppressed glee on producer's face when responding to its rival's anti-national problems, non existent promotion (piggy backing on ADHM), KRK war which has gone too far to make me wonder if KRK is indeed the face of promotion, calling out on rivals for getting paid review, conspiracy that Shivaay may have received bad reviews. Every aspect of this movie promotion is seeped in so much negativity that it makes me feel uneasy. So Karan needs some solid smacks. He is way too smug and noted under handed guy. But I don't think he is a problem to Shivaay. Not when he got so badly drubbed in the press.
So yeah some critics panned Shivaay. Big deal. Critics per se hate action movie especially one without a solid story line. Shivaay may have few pro but story is not one of them. Some of the things like prostitution and organ donation make people (including critics) uncomfortable. The critics rightly called out on length of movie which they felt was too long. They simple could not ignore "have my baby issue", not when they have just passed their verdict on Pink's women empowerment effort. Even Sultan tried to make his Aarfa look more feminist. And Salman is bigger star than Ajay. By large margin.
The truth is Bollywood needs Shivaay to be a hit. In a place where there are so few stars and even fewer audience, every bit count. 2016 has been miserable on that front. So many flops and so few hits.
I have these words to say to Ajay- "Bollywood is a family. It is a good will to show support, to show some solidarity to your rivals. Varun whose mentor is director of ADHM, Abhishekh whose wife worked in ADHM and Rishi whose son was the main lead tweeted their wishes to you. Hirani and Rohit Shetty were part of your movie's premiere. It is disheartening to see you isolate yourself and your wife in some sort of "they vs us" mentality and war. For better or worse, you are part of their world. If you accepts this, perhaps it will stop your fans from calling ADHM thousand names and they will spend their time praising Shivaay. All they have been doing so far is giving ADHM all sort of publicity. And you know what they say in movie parlance "Any publicity is good publicity".
Oh yeah, Dhoni is still working his magic. This clash seem to have given it a boost or something.
The truth is Independence Day clash was thousand time much better than Diwali one. There I have said it. Agreed it was one sided but it was glorious. On one hand we had this bat shit crazy Mohenjo Daro. On other hand we had "I will drive my critics crazy" Rustom. Nothing and I mean nothing can beat Mohenjo Daro. And I mean it in good way. It is rare to be able to watch loony toon characters on such a large scale -inhabiting story world of Amar Chirta Katha, cinematography that made few video games designers weep, golden over tanned hero valiantly fighting a crocodile (I felt bad for the animal) and actress who seemed to have made a pit stop from some costume party. Oh and there were enough head gear designs that could have made the kids in my complex happy during Halloween days.
All that was expected from Rustom was for it to be sober (which it was) and straight (which it was not). I mean how difficult is it for someone to portray Nanvati case on screen. It has all the necessary ingredients for a lovely thriller. But then film-maker had to make it all so convoluted with the jingoism to cash in the popularity of their lead(Akshay is newly crowned prince to throne vacated by Manoj Kumar), drippy Ilena and "I must be in another movie" Esha. But what is so common in both these movies is they both provided large number of unintentional guffaws.
Which I sort of missed on this Diwali. Laughter is one thing that was missing in the two movies clashing. I am not sure why it was decided that frivolity on Diwali day is a pass. And who in Bollywood made this rule. Moving on.
So on one hand we have Karan trying to become new age Gulzar or something. I have no issues that Karan wants growth. And he wants to make mature love stories. I am all for it. And if he decides to steal few idea from here and there. Well lifting is age honor tradition followed by best in Bollywood. But when he decides to steal two third of those ideas from his leading man's old movies, I have a problem. And when said leading man is in desperate need of hit, it becomes trouble. A great deal has been said about how Ranbir is playing the same character. Yeah duh. He is in no solid position to argue with his director.
So it is fitting karma, how critics are pointing out that Karan is unable to handle maturity and complexity of his own movie. And how this glorious but watchable mess is saved by its own cast, by sublime chemistry between the leads and few good cameos. And of course the music. ADHM is a quintessential Bollywood movie. Lower your expectations and it will hit you with unexpected poignancy. Expect too much and it will fall apart. ADHM is near to covering its own cost. Barring some unfortunate happenings, we can safely say "uski naaya paar lagegi".
The one thing about Shivaay is it deserves more love than it is has so far generated. The movie may not have lived up to standards of its own trailer. Which is kind of ok-aish. Ajay the director has made few mistakes. There is too much navel grazing which is understandable because it is a superstar Ajay's vehicle. His is one of the few faces we know in this movie. Not much is and can be expected from Erika and Sayesha who are new. Besides Ajay is 5th pillar of super stardom that currently supports Bollywood. Yes there are few places where the movie could have been improved but Ajay the actor is immpeccable. He has carried the movie quite well. There is some breath taking cinematography and action. So what seems to be the problem. Why is it not getting the love it deserves.
And the answer is with the producers and his fans. Superstars should and will drive their fans crazy. But the craziness attached with this movie is bit too much. There was the #relaxed pose, barely suppressed glee on producer's face when responding to its rival's anti-national problems, non existent promotion (piggy backing on ADHM), KRK war which has gone too far to make me wonder if KRK is indeed the face of promotion, calling out on rivals for getting paid review, conspiracy that Shivaay may have received bad reviews. Every aspect of this movie promotion is seeped in so much negativity that it makes me feel uneasy. So Karan needs some solid smacks. He is way too smug and noted under handed guy. But I don't think he is a problem to Shivaay. Not when he got so badly drubbed in the press.
So yeah some critics panned Shivaay. Big deal. Critics per se hate action movie especially one without a solid story line. Shivaay may have few pro but story is not one of them. Some of the things like prostitution and organ donation make people (including critics) uncomfortable. The critics rightly called out on length of movie which they felt was too long. They simple could not ignore "have my baby issue", not when they have just passed their verdict on Pink's women empowerment effort. Even Sultan tried to make his Aarfa look more feminist. And Salman is bigger star than Ajay. By large margin.
The truth is Bollywood needs Shivaay to be a hit. In a place where there are so few stars and even fewer audience, every bit count. 2016 has been miserable on that front. So many flops and so few hits.
I have these words to say to Ajay- "Bollywood is a family. It is a good will to show support, to show some solidarity to your rivals. Varun whose mentor is director of ADHM, Abhishekh whose wife worked in ADHM and Rishi whose son was the main lead tweeted their wishes to you. Hirani and Rohit Shetty were part of your movie's premiere. It is disheartening to see you isolate yourself and your wife in some sort of "they vs us" mentality and war. For better or worse, you are part of their world. If you accepts this, perhaps it will stop your fans from calling ADHM thousand names and they will spend their time praising Shivaay. All they have been doing so far is giving ADHM all sort of publicity. And you know what they say in movie parlance "Any publicity is good publicity".
Oh yeah, Dhoni is still working his magic. This clash seem to have given it a boost or something.
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