Well Done Abba

5 reasons why you should see Well Done Abba

1. One of Boman Irani's best performances. Minisha Lamba's as well but the reason to watch is Boman.
2. The satire. It never goes over the top and always has a sting.
3. Shyam Benegal. Period.
4. The setting is a village near Hyderabad. Frankly, at a time when filmmakers presume only 3 cultures exist in India - Punjabi, NRI and Punjabi+NRI, it is no less than a breath of fresh air. Come on, show me that I live in a country so diverse.
5. The characters artists.

5 reasons not to see Well Done Abba

1. It is low on production costs and that is visible. May not be worth the high ticket prices of multiplexes. Wait for the DVD.
2. Though the subject has been off the screens for a long time, we all know that corruption is one of our dubious distinctions.
3. Crazy lyrics and banal music. What was the need to include them at all?
4. None.
5. None.

Changeling

5 reasons to watch Changeling

1. It is a Clint Eastwood directed film.
2. Stars Angelina Jolie in an Oscar nominated performance.
3. It is has all basics of film making right.
4. It is based on a true story. It reaffirms ones faith in standing by and fighting for what is right.
5. Production design is of the highest quality. The 1920s-30s are fabulously recreated.

5 reasons to not watch Changeling

1. Unlike other top films by Clint Eastwood, the primary emotion of the protaganist is the loss of her son. In his masterpieces, Clint Eastwood usually tackles characters who are faced by multiple and complex emotional or social challenges.
2. The supporting characters are not explored much. We don't get to see more of the interactions between Jolie and her fake son.
3. Some things left open ended - we don't learn what happens of the doctor at the psycharitic facility.
4. None.
5. None.

Love, Sex Aur Dhoka

5 reasons to watch LSD

1. It is a very brave experiment. A total non-compromising comittment of the creators to their idea. Hats off!
2. Very well executed. The film stays true to its format and style all through.
3. It is the third film from the director who gave us 'Khosla ka Ghosla' and 'Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye'. Dibakar Banarjee is a filmaker to look up to amongst the young directors.
4. It is gripping and fast. Gets you hooked in an instant.
5. The themes tackled in the 3 stories are very contemporary and relevant. It succeeds in capturing the hypocrisy and corruption of the times.

5 reasons to not watch LSD

1. The focus is completely on the form and style, leaving the stories rather weak. In fact all 3 are very ordinary stories. If the content had been as good as the form, I would have been writing about a masterpiece.
2. The way LSD is, it is an impersonal look at the characters. You never get closer to their emotions. Some may percieve this to be a plus but some may not.
3. None.
4. None.
5. None.

Karthik Calling Karthik

5 reasons why you should see Karthik Calling Karthik

1. We see a much improved Farhan Akhtar compared to his last two films.
2. It is an attempt to do something different. It is different actually.
3. Deepika Padukone looks stunning in every frame.
4. The Farhan-Deepika love story part is entertaining, till the time it gets serious.
5. I like the song 'Uff teri ada'.

5 reasons why you should not see Karthik Calling Karthik

1. It has a very slow pace.
2. It is being publicized as a romance/love story whereas it is actually a thriller. Wrong branding.
3. Not much time is given to develop Deepika's character.
4. If you think seriously, you can figure out disconnects in the story. e.g. Farhan cannot stop himself from telling Deepika about the phone calls but never bothers to tell her about his brother.
5. Music and cinematography - don't add any new dimensions to the story.

My Name is Khan

5 reasons why you should see My Name is Khan (MNIK)

1. MNIK is a important film in the journey of deconstruction of SRK into an actor.
2. His bashers whould hate to read this but the truth is Karan Johar is one of the best we have. He is in total control of every frame of each his films. MNIK is no exception. Sadly, his deconstruction has not started yet.
3. We get to see actors like Vinay Pathak and Arif Zakaria play roles with hardly 5 minutes of screen time. The importance given to characters roles is amazing. Also amazing is the fact that actor are valuing the meat of the role rather than duration. Good start!
4. Ravi K Chandran's cinematography. He shows us things differently every time he is behind the lens. The ariel shot where SRK is walking through the maze of electricity towers and wires in the Arizona desert is a work of a master. We don't have directors to challenge Chandran enough.
5. Strong messages.

5 reasons why you should not see My Name is Khan (MNIK)

1. It assumes Hindi is the second language of USA - everybody speaks and understands it, including the 'Mr. President'.
2. Either they should not have shown George W Bush in the original or they should not have faked Obama. And what a fake, he looked a basket ball player more. An intelligent option would have been to always show Obama's back, never show his face. That would have been true to history completely.
3. If there is a place in their country that the US administration cannot reach to provide relief, trust me, a bunch of enthusiasts just cannot reach there with plastic covered cartons on their backs (Ref: The flooded Georgia town rescue scene).
4. The truth is that even our PM cannot meet the 'Mr. President' just because he wants to, leave alone one of us immigrating into that country.
5. A film with such strong and relevant message should be rooted in reality to be relevant over time. At the end, MINK is still masala messaging.

3 Idiots

I saw '3 Idiots' on the day of its release and enjoyed it immensely. But with the time gone by, and the Chetan Bhagat controversy, I am convinced that the movie is fake and without a soul. It defies the very idea that it supposedly preaches - "Do not pursue success, pursue skill and success will follow."

5 reasons why '3 Idiots' is a fake

1. If the producers and the director (Rajkumar Hirani) had really pursued skill, if they had faith in their story and capabilties, they would not have cast 30-40 year olds as college students. The reason for casting Aamir in the lead role is to pursue success. The role belonged to the fresh blood in Bollywood (Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, etc) or even new faces. So much for preaching the 'pursue skill' sermon.
2. Unlike the makers' previous work, the Munnabhai series, here its impractical preaching - the settings, the situation and the conclusions. The spirit of innovation, which the movies claims to promote, never had such dumb potrayal. The implicit conclusion of the movie is that innovation is impossible in this country.
3. Vir Sanghvi provided a different perspective to the Chetan Bhagat controversy in his article in Hindustan Times last Sunday (click here to read the article). He argues how the who thing is actually about being graceful. I tend to agree. The characters in the film are graceful, the makers apparently are not.
4. 99% percent of people around are neither a genius like Funsuk Wangdoo nor naturally skilled in photography or anything else. '3 Idiots' sort of misleads that 99% believe that it is the system that is preventing them from growing. What I know for sure is that it is not as simple as that.
5. The whole '3 Idiots' crew is out proclaiming that they have created an eye-opener of sorts. Well, innovation is not something you can learn and I guess it is a gift but humility is surely a quality that can be learned.