India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Ekk Deewana Tha: Never-ending nonsense
Sometimes even the worst films can redeem themselves with a moment of lucidity. Just as you are struggling to make sense of Gautham Menon’s “Ekk Deewana Tha“, the heroine — in a fit of emotion — tells the hero “there is nothing here, no chemistry or anything at all. Nothing”. And just like that, she hits the nail on the head.
This almost three-hour romance is the cinematic equivalent of listening to someone scratching their nails on a blackboard. You want to pull your hair out and tell them to stop it already. Unfortunately, Menon seems to be in no mood to listen. Just when you think it’s all over, it goes on for a little bit more.
A remake of Menon’s 2010 Tamil hit “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa“, the film tells the story of Sachin (Prateik) an aspiring film-maker who falls for his upstairs neighbour Jessie (Amy Jackson) at first sight. But Jessie is loath to return his affections, telling Sachin her conservative Christian family in Kerala wouldn’t take kindly to her falling in love with a Hindu boy.
Sachin doesn’t give up, following her all the way to her native village in Kerala, to convince her of his love. When Jessie tells him she is getting married, it seems like all is over for the couple.
Menon attempts to build a fresh, teenybopper romance, with the 80s theme of external circumstances like religion and age standing in the way of star-crossed lovers. While the idea itself isn’t new, the film could have worked with the right casting and script. But as you might have guessed by now, it has neither.
Scenes are disjointed, the film is edited haphazardly and the dialogue unintentionally funny. As for the film’s soundtrack, a couple of songs such as ‘Hosanna’ are easy on the ears but fans would expect much more from the Oscar-winning A.R. Rahman.
Adding to the mediocrity are the film’s leads — Amy Jackson looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights; scared out of her wits and doesn’t know where to look. Even in the most emotional of scenes, you don’t feel for her character. For that matter, you don’t feel for Prateik’s character either. He needs acting classes and needs them badly — Smita Patil‘s genes don’t seem to be kicking in. Someone needs to tell him that spreading arms wide and jumping in the air doesn’t constitute acting.
My Friend Pinto: Tests your patience
Some films have you hooked from word go. Some grow on you, getting your attention as the story moves along. Raaghav Dar’s “My Friend Pinto” falls in the third category. You keep waiting for the movie to hook you, but it never does.
The film is a disjointed effort that never seems to find its peak and is hampered by a weak script that ensures you don’t feel for any of the characters or keep up with any of the chaos that seems to be unfolding on screen.
Prateik stars as the protagonist of the film, Michael Pinto, a simpleton who comes to Mumbai from Goa, hoping to see the world before he goes off to become a priest. He lands up at his childhood friend Sameer’s (Arjun Mathur) place, in the naïve hope that Sameer would welcome him as he would have when they were kids.
Unfortunately, Sameer has grown up, is married, has grown-up problems, and doesn’t welcome the intrusion in his life.
When Sameer and his wife leave him home alone to go for a new year’s party and Pinto gets locked outside the house, he unknowingly embarks on an adventure in Mumbai, meeting a motley group of characters and helping them along as he goes.
Dar tries to bring a fairytale feel to the film, introducing characters you wouldn’t normally find in everyday life. There is a retired Mafia don, an ageing actress, twin brothers who kidnap a child and a dancer who Pinto meets by chance, played by Kalki Koechlin.
There are coincidences galore, and the same set of characters keep running into each other in an otherwise teeming city like Mumbai. It would be easy to suspend your disbelief, if only the characters seemed worth your while.
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The Wall
please dont review with out any logic,this movie is very good,ok i do agreed movie was little slow,but worth watch.amys acting is far far better than katrina or deepika.if pratik need to go for acting classes,first sharukh and salman have to learn atleast 5% about acting.