Reviews - Love Aaj Kal and Kaminey

Reviews for the two Hindi movies I watched in the theatre after a really long time. And I was looking forward to Kaminey for a long time!

Love Aaj Kal – A perfect example of how being 'practical' can unnecessarily complicate things. I wouldn't say it was a perfect movie or liked it entirely. The dialogues were one of the best in recent times. But the premise was a realistic one and something that everyone in the age group 20-30 faces, after all we are Mango people (Aam janta :P). Though, I wouldn't call it a tale of not-being-able-to-get-over-someone, that was what happened finally. The main characters were utterly selfish and this is true in today's life. The Punjabi kudi Harleen, actually a Brazilian model was the surprise package of the movie. Saif's Punjabi accent was something he could have improved on. Deepika Padukone was her usual wooden frame - looking good, but no acting skills to speak about. Her dialog on the second day of her wedding to Rahul Khanna- 'I have done a mistake, please let me go see Saif now, I will come back and apologise later' was enough to crack the entire audience. Pritam for once had a track that was not taken off any source. Loved the Twist song and the Rahat Fateh Ali Khan song. Rishi Kapoor didn't have a great role in the movie, but the way the second story was interwoven was really interesting. It was a good watch with interesting dialogues and decent touch of reality.

Kaminey – A movie you'll totally love or totally hate. Initially, I thought I was going to fall in the latter category, but surprisingly no! It was not an extra-ordinary tale, but was a dark (literally and on-screen) tale with each of the characters being selfish (yet again). The new style of story telling will surely will be a tutorial for a few film-makers. Fhahid.... oops Shahid Kapoor had the role of his career in this movie and executed it pretty well, both as Charlie and Guddu. As the Guddu character, he is shown as a simple NGO worker, and is pitted against Priyanka. Priyanka is shown as a talkative Maharashtrian girl, and had a few good lines for herself, though her role was limited on screen. Charlie is the 'F' for 'S' guy, with big dreams and trying to take a shorter shortcut to success. His characterization was near-perfect, both as a dutiful brother (son – as we are later told) and as a ruffian-in-the-making (is that word right?). Amol Gupte (the partial director of Taare Zameen Par) is in a nice 'Raj Thackeray' role. The movie subtly touches upon the 'Jai Maharashtra' issue, in addition to HIV prevention (Fatak songs) and drug peddlary. Though violent, it was not shown on screen graphically. Music as always in any Vishal Bharadwaj movie was top-notch. And in the end credits, the Mohit Chauhan song that plays should have found a place in the movie (in fact some romance shown in those credits could have been placed in between the movie.) The Dhan Te Nan song, the highlight of the movie found its place in the right portions in the movie and was used as energetically as it was sung by Vishal Dhadlani and Sukhwinder Singh. And I wondered why it earned an A certificate in India, and realized it, thanks to the 'intense' kissing scene between Piggy Chops and Shahid Kapoor. That one scene, though shot aesthetically, was enough for the movie to get an R rating. The dialogues were interesting yet again, and the timing sense was excellent. Overall an interesting watch, with a good time-pass element.