Lets fool in love, again: Movie review of Red Wednesday, 15 April, 2009
Posted by ~uh~™ in Bollywood.Tags: adult, Aftab, Celina Jaitley, Himesh, movie, Red, Review, Thriller, Vikram Bhatt
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Why Red?
Vikram Bhatt’s last hit was 5 years ago, Awara Paagal Deewana. Next 7 films flip-flopped to black hole – Footpath (2003), Inteha (2003), Aetbaar (2004), Elaan (2005), Jurm (2005), Deewane Hue Paagal (2005) and Ankahee (2006).
As per law of average, Red should have been a blockbuster.
Water was in matinee and Red was at night. As I do when am thirsty, I chose Red over Water. After all it is said, ” If you are not Red, you are Dead”.
I tried to follow and enjoy the movie- drama, dialogues, scenes, dresses (or the lack of it) of Ms Jaitly, her legs & undergarments, the wrist-watch, cars, seriousness of the plot, songs of Himesh, murder, Amrita Arora, deceit, sex, eroticism.
Unfortunately, I could not justify the name of the movie and had an ensuing hangover next morning.
The movie was blissfully short, so for a change I will keep the review short.
Story & Cast
The movie starts with a dying Neil Oberoi (Aftab Shivdashani) donating his dog – a pug, his only companion. It was a symbolic representation of the fact that Neil is an emotional man preparing to die. Neil needs a change of heart clinically to survive.
Neil’s friend, a lady doctor is specialist in “heart transplant”, who encourages Neil to live. He luckily gets the heart of an accident victim. He gets a new heart & new life after the successful operation. Recovered Neil is hell bent to know whose heart he is carrying, to thank his family. After much persuasion to the doctor, he is able to find the ata-pata of the heart donor named Anuj. Anuhita (better name than Celina Jaitly anytime) is the skimpily clad grieving (but not crying) widow of Anuj. On a typical hindi film rainy day he sees Celina and starts playing the peeping Tom. His voyeurism gradually turns into lust, which according to Vikram Bhatt is “matured love”.
Neil introduces himself & his heart to Anuhita to transform his first impression into lust impression.
Naturally enough Anuhita, a young radiant widow quickly gets into physical companionship in her house & even back seat of car.
Neil is advantageously bachelor and Anuhita is a widow, so their love story goes red-hot till further mystery gets unveiled. Anuhita discovers that Anuj was killed, conspired by her best friend Riya ( Amrita Arora) & a drug addict common friend Rocky. Anuhita plans to kill Rocky & Riya and Neil helps her execute the plan.
The friskily story moves on with a murder, a suicide attempt, few halfhearted love making scenes & some smooches shot in black & red. The drama unfolds to expose the darker side of the 3 main characters, when the police inspector Sushant Singh investigates the murder.
The movie tries to thrill & seduce with impotent vitality, and then ends predictably as an “I loose -you loose” situation.
Performances
Aftab- a complete inert. He had an excellent opportunity as his character to express different colors. Unfortunately, he sees only red. While appreciating his brawn, I must say he miserable fails to express his lustful emotions. All he does is undress Celina onto her innerwear & smooches repeatedly, before the screen going red (justifying the name of the film, thereby). He not only looks like a man with someone else’s heart, also made me feel like he had the brain of another animal. A complete dud of a businessman’s profile. The dialogue sequences with police officer weakened his character further.
Celina- porn to be wild! What a waste of resource. She should have been in a different film industry where “acting” or “dressing” is unimportant. Her portrayal of grieving widow was poignant when she refuses Riya’s invite to go to discotheque. What a great sacrifice in life. Her dresses were more lucid than her expressions. She tries real hard to make love with Aftab. Her occasional panting with abnormal asthmatic recoil only ridiculed her turmoil & fear. Poor girl- showing her cleavage, inner wears could not save her from disaster. If she comes free for a night post dinner, ice-cream would be a preferred choice. Both are cold, but the latter would satisfy the senses better.
The total love making scenes adds upto circa 27 minutes in the film.
Amrita Arora- she is supposed to do a comeback with a “new & improved” packaging. She enacts a bitchy woman and delivered her dialogues suspended in cigarette smoke. She definitely has the potential to grow as yesteryears Shashikala.
Sushant Singh as Police Inspector – the only believable & real character in the movie. He is smarter than the lot. But more than himself, the credit goes to his two buffoon like assistants, the type last seen as comic relief in 60′s rotten thrillers.
Vikram Bhatt tried to create a broth of erotic crime drama by boiling desire, greed and deceit. But the characters were so unreal, plot was so unconvincing, the format soaked in melancholic tune of Himesh gets slippery and the movie tumbles straight on its face. Showing just skin & blood does not reflect the dark side of human mind, if the plot is feeble.
Himesh-There’s are sufi like songs Afreen & Ameen nosed by Himesh, which pounds in the background while Neil-Anuhita quenched their primal thirst. I would not rather not comment on nasal cacophony.
There’s are sufi like songs Afreen & Ameen sung by Himesh, which pounds in the background while Neil-Anuhita quenched their primal thirst.
Bottomline
“I can kill in love , I can die in love, but I won’t be a fool in love” that’s the last dialogue of Neil in the movie.
We audience can’t be killed by a movie; we can’t kill a movie either, but definitely we can be made a fool. Fool in love.
Do watch this movie on a disc if you are a Vikram Bhatt, Aftab, Celina or Himesh fan.
Cute & Corrupting: Shin Chan is no more Wednesday, 15 April, 2009
Posted by ~uh~™ in Television.Tags: adult, Anime', Cartoon, Children, Humour, Hungama TV, Japanese, Manga, serial, Shin Chan, Television
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Shin Chan- Animated series, Hungama TV
This is one of my old reviews published elsewhere in 2007. The serial on topic is shown no more on TV and I understand it was banned. Read further to know why a children’s serial should be banned.
What is it?
Most, may hear this name for the first time. When we think of Hungama TV or Pogo, obvious name comes to our mind probably is, “Takeshi’s Castle”, where Japanese folks generally make fool of themselves while we laugh at Javed Jaffery’s Hindi elucidation. Takeshi’s castle compared to Shin Chan is like Bay watch to Playboy late night.
Shin Chan is a comic animated series of Japanese origin (named Crayon Shin Chan). The show here is dubbed in Hindi. I have seen the show aired at late night 10:30pm on weekdays, which most likely, is a repeat. The regular timing is in the morning and late enough to be missed by the school going kids. I was surprised to discover that Shin Chan is a universally acclaimed series. Shin Chan fans are called “Bastard Brigade” .
Now the real inexplicable part- The show just looks like a kids show, it’s actually not ? I am unsure this series is meant for kids or their parents? I will try to cover the main characters & the contents; MS intelligentsia may apply their judicious wisdom to decide the suitability for kid’s viewing! BTW the Shin Chan official website says it’s an adult show!
Shin Chan is the name of a 5-year-old Japanese kid, the protagonist of the series. The series is created on Japanese art of animation (Manga); meaning- limbs, faces and expressions are somewhat exaggerated and made weird to portray any specific emotions or situation. White drops of perspiration on the head and rapid radical change in facial complexion, included.
Characters & Content
Sin Chan is a story about the everyday life of Nohara family centered on Shin Chan. Nohara family consists of Sinshan’s dad, mom, his sister and their puppy. The puppy is named Sheroo (in Hindi). Sin Chan goes to a KG school where he has fellow classmates, a class teacher named Yoshinaka madam, the school principal, another teacher called Matsuzaka. The commonly featured friends of Sinchan are Masao and Hitoshi. There are some others as well, but its difficult to remember and pronounce Japanese names.
The official website of Shin Chan (yes, it has one) and Wikipedia says:
“Shin chan is a 5-year-old boy with a devilish charm, carefree attitude and a natural quality of inviting trouble. He can single-handedly turn a pleasant afternoon into a never-ending battle of wits.
One can hardly blame him for being a one-kid disaster squad, as these qualities are adopted by him from his own parents. ……, Shin Chan takes you through a hilarious series of events.”
Apparently, the description above reminds us of Dennis the menace. But it’s greatly different from the innocence of Dennis series. Each episode of Sin Chan deals with a various situation faced by Nohara family- his school & student outings, visit to the local departmental store, an weekend trip to the zoo, visit to a hospital to see someone unwell, mother’s back-pain, drunken spree of dad, buying something for the house, a visit to the library, a day of home alone, training for earthquake protection, etc etc. The show demonstrates how Shin Chan’s bizarre and wicked tricks invariably leads to major embarrassment to all involved and finally makes his disgruntled parents go red with infamy. The size & shape of consequential swelling on Shin Chan’s cranium is directly proportional to the fury of his mother. Acutely enough, his dad gets the same treatment as well. The series indeed is somewhat insane.
Animated innuendo?
The humour in the original Japanese series is rooted on Shin Chan’s inappropriately distorted commonly used phrases, coupled with his uncanny behaviors, thus creating awkward situation for his parents. Though, the Hindi translation fails to capture the same linguistic exclusivity, this setback is attempted to overcome by using really eerie kid voices for Shin Chan & his friends and some apt contextualization in the naming.
Shin Chan is obsessed with some part of female anatomy, especially his teachers’. He is notoriously clever to provoke that sales girl in miniskirt climb atop a table, for his viewing pleasure. He forces his dad to think about a supplement “model” mom in a bikini. He sings “barsaat ke raat mein humse mile tum…” with his drunken dad in an obnoxious tone to wake the entire neighborhood up at mid night. He is infamous in school for triggering professional rivalry between his teachers into lewd catfights. His comments towards his parents, teachers, and even complete strangers are horribly gawky. He leaves his Principal blush in indignity; Doctors succumb to insults, librarian shout like dog, and his parents exhausted & hopeless. No kidding here.
Inference
All of us, who are in the life’s sole & toughest task of bringing up kids, may closely connect with a heartfelt association with Shin Chan, the series. However, I do not have any doubt towards the serial’s enlightening value to parents. It may be shown to a kid for “what not to do”. But then, in today’s context where most kids are smarter than their parents, they may implement few of the tricks learnt from this series. However, like all impish & uncanny, these series do infuse a sense of noxious attraction towards this weird comedy show, and makes us parents grin to the satanic charm of Shin Chan!
Corollary
1. Everything animated may not be for kids.
2. When kids watch something on TV, keep an eye…;-), you may like it too
HOW is how you enjoy the bliss of a Sepia Matinee.
