India Masala

Don 2: Don’t expect too much

It’s been a while since Bollywood dished out a slick, fast-paced action film. Wait, who am I kidding? Bollywood doesn’t do fast-paced action films any more, we just turn to Hollywood to get our share of those. So kudos to Farhan Akhtar that he thought of attempting it — not once but twice.

While the first was a remake of the 70s hit “Don”, the sequel is an entirely new story, and doesn’t have too many connections with the previous film, except for some of the characters who make a comeback.

We are introduced to Don (Shah Rukh Khan), five years after he escaped from the clutches of police — with longer hair and the entire Asian drug trade at his command. When he decides to move his trade to Europe, drug lords there decide that Don is better off dead. To escape from their clutches, and hoping to stay safe in prison, Don surrenders to Interpol officer Roma (Priyanka Chopra), who till 5 years ago, was part of his gang. How she makes that switch, we are never told.

Inexplicably, the minute he gets inside prison, Don makes a plan to escape. If all he wanted to do was escape immediately, why surrender in the first place? And that’s the first of the plot holes. Unfortunately, Akhtar makes no attempt to plug any of these holes — they only grow larger as the film progresses.

Don escapes with Vardhan (Boman Irani) and plans for a daring heist in Berlin with Roma hot on his trail.

Akhtar channels his inner Steven Soderbergh and a lot of the plot sounds similar to “Ocean’s Eleven”. However, what’s missing from this action film is some pace. If an action film begins to drag and you lose interest in the plot halfway, you know something’s wrong. By the time the climax rolls around and shows no sign of ending, you are squirming in your seat. In the last ten minutes, I had no idea why the characters were doing what they were doing.

There are plot holes the size of craters. The Interpol is shown to be as clueless as the audience, which I refuse to believe. On the plus side, the film is packaged very well and there are some sequences which make sure you are on the edge of your seat, especially the car chase sequence through the streets of Berlin.

Ra.One: This ain’t the one

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of months, it’s unlikely you’ve missed the “Ra.One” juggernaut. This superhero film has been everywhere, peering out at you from hoardings, blaring on the television, on your can of soda and pretty much in your face. It’s been non-stop marketing, persistent selling of a product you’ve been told that you have to watch.

That is how “Ra.One” the movie comes across as well. This is less of a movie and more of a product that is tailor-made to audiences looking for a Diwali movie. So everything, including the product placements, the songs, the dialogues and the story are all positioned to touch the right chords.

Unfortunately, movie-making involves a lot more than just good product placements and marketing. It needs heart, and in spite of the sci-fi theme and hi-tech technology, “Ra.One” doesn’t have heart.

Shah Rukh Khan plays Shekhar Subramaniam, a mild-mannered video game developer who hopes to build a better relationship with his son Pratik, who thinks his dad isn’t “cool enough”. When he develops a complicated video game with an “unbeatable” villain named Ra One, Subramaniam gains his son’s respect. What he doesn’t know is that Ra One has suddenly come alive, and can function as an evil villain out of virtual reality. How and why this happens, we are never told.

He sets out to get G One, or the good one, even as G One protects Shekhar’s wife and Pratik against Ra One. I won’t give any more away, but the plot line is simple enough. There are songs inserted at appropriate intervals, there are poignant moments that come after those songs, and there are also stereotypes aplenty. For example, Shekhar eats curd even with spaghetti, because he is south Indian. He also says “ayyo” a lot. But we’ll let that pass, because Indian movies more often than not stereotype their characters.

The weak link in this movie is the direction by Anubhav Sinha, your attention will waver a lot — the pace isn’t fast enough for a super-hero action flick and there are some inane dialogues that will make you laugh. Sinha tries to pack in every single element into the film, with the end result being it looks haphazard.

The USP of the film is supposed to be special effects (disclaimer here – the show I watched wasn’t in 3D, so I don’t know how that will turn out ) and if you’ve watched “The Matrix” and “X-Men”, you won’t be thrilled with the special effects. Some of them look like they were hurriedly done. Sinha would have done well to reduce the noise level and up the level of VFX. However, there are a couple of sequences, especially the one involving a speeding local train which are well done and are likely to keep you on the edge of your seats.

Shah Rukh Khan’s new look in “Don 2″

It’s been a little more than a year since the last Shah Rukh Khan movie released but this year the star has two big releases — “Ra One” and “Don 2″.

“Ra One”, starring Khan and Kareena Kapoor, is set for a Diwali release while “Don 2″ is releasing on the Christmas weekend.

Given his long absence from the silver screen and the muted response to his new TV show “Zor Ka Jhatka”, Khan will be banking on these two projects to do well.

“Don 2″, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is the sequel to his 2006 remake of “Don”, and stars Khan along with Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani and Lara Dutta.

The film was shot in Berlin and the cast is currently shooting in Malaysia. Here’s a picture of Khan’s look in the film. What do you think? Which avatar of Shah Rukh Khan have you liked the most?

World Cup mania hits Bollywood brigade

Football fever is taking over the world and Bollywood’s glamorous brigade hasn’t been left untouched.

Film stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Imran Khan and Lara Dutta are either headed to or are already in South Africa to catch a glimpse of football heaven.

While Shah Rukh and Dutta watched the semifinals, actor Imran Khan, fresh from promoting his movie “I Hate Luv Storys” will be leaving India soon to watch the finals.

“I am not a huge fan of football but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch the FIFA finals,” Khan told Reuters.

But he is sure to find some familiar faces there. Shah Rukh Khan is currently in South Africa with family and friends as is former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.

“(I) am so excited that will be showing my kids the world cup…hope they remember it like I do seeing it on TV with my mom,” Khan wrote on his Twitter account.

Those not in South Africa catching the live action are content to do it at home. Bipasha Basu and John Abraham are catching all the action from Mumbai, as is the Bachchan family.

My Name is Khan: Gimmicky, average cinema

There is no easy way to say this. In spite of the hype surrounding it and for all the solidarity being expressed and the many, many hours of time and energy being spent  tweeting and talking about it — “My Name is Khan” is a very average, ordinary film that goes as haywire as the debate surrounding it has gone.

Subjects such as racial biases, the aftermath of 9/11 and war on terror are dicey topics to handle in real life, let alone on celluloid, and director Karan Johar falls in the same trap as films like “New York” and his own production “Kurbaan” — he oversimplifies the issue and overstates his message.

The film tells the story of Rizwan Khan, a man afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of autism which allows him to lead a relatively normal life. However, he has problems understanding complex issues and cannot express emotions like love or sorrow as normal people can.

Brought up in a suburb of Mumbai by his mother (Zarina Wahab), Khan moves to the U.S. after her death, to be with his brother (Jimmy Shergill).

There he meets Mandira (Kajol), an effervescent single mother, who takes an instant liking to Khan. They get married and focus on being good parents to her son Sameer.

However, when the country is hit by 9/11 and racial crime in its aftermath, their family too is shattered. Hoping to make amends, Khan sets off in search of the U.S. president, believing that if he meets him, all will be okay in his little world.

Johar is clearly out of his depth here. The film is on a large scale and beautifully shot, but the story doesn’t live up to even half of that. He cannot seem to decide whether he is making a love story, telling the story of a man’s journey or making a statement on the many biases that pervaded the U.S. after 9/11.

Is Bollywood’s unity a farce?

For more than a week now, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has been in the centre of a storm — after his comments supporting the participation of Pakistani players in the Indian Premier League.

In the same time period, we have also seen the half-hearted response that the Shiv Sena’s response evoked from Bollywood. Not a single producers’ body or any industry organisation has spoken out against the fact that the Sena might prevent “My Name is Khan” from being released.

There have been some sporadic voices, mostly on social networking sites like Twitter, or some quotes on television, but hardly any concrete voices.

There has been some criticism of the fact that Amitabh Bachchan spoke of the “fire in the belly” of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, but one mustn’t forget that when Bachchan and his family were targeted by Sena rival MNS, he didn’t see much support from the film industry either.

What good does a tweet do? Or a soundbite? Isn’t it time Bollywood got together to make sure threats don’t derail their business? We saw enough unity among producers when it came to re-negotiating a deal for more money from multiplexes. Where is that unity now?

Of course, like all non-issues, this one too will die a natural death. The Sena will get eyeballs, Khan will get sympathy (and thus publicity for his upcoming film) and the media will get enough steam for at least a couple more chat shows and prime time debates.

But I do hope Bollywood learns a lesson and will stand up for something the next time this happens.

IFFI 2009: Makrand Deshpande on “Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu”

Filmmaker Makrand Deshpande’s new film “Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu” is about a flower girl in Mumbai whose life changes after a chance meeting with actor Shah Rukh Khan who tells her that she is beautiful.

Khan plays himself in a two-minute cameo in the film, which is a sort of tribute to the Bollywood superstar.

Deshpande spoke to Reuters about “Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu” on the sidelines of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in the tourist haven of Goa.

(Click below to watch video)

(Flip cam video by Tony Tharakan)

Shah Rukh and Aamir: Khan they?

“We have to reach early,” I told a friend. “Or else we will never find a place to sit.”

Sure enough, even though we reached a good 45 minutes before the actual event, the seats in the first row were occupied.

We contented ourselves by sitting in the second row and discussing what was most likely a “historic moment” — at least for us film journalists — actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan on the same podium, speaking in one voice, as “friends”.

Keep in mind that these stars were once taking pot shots at each other almost daily in the media, so this sudden camaraderie was somewhat of a bolt from the blue. No wonder then that pretty much the entire press corps was in attendance, and even before the two Khans entered, their agenda was being dissected.

“They are already in the building… they are discussing what should be said… Aamir was the one who initiated the talks,” were some of the whispers one heard.

Given the anticipation was so great, when the two stars did appear on stage, almost every eye in the room was on them, trying to read between the lines. 

Although the topic at hand was the ongoing tussle between producers and exhibitors, it was obvious the real story was the two Khans together on one podium, and each and every action was up for scrutiny.

How to walk the ramp? Ask Shah Rukh Khan

Ever looked at those picture perfect fashion models walking on the runway and wondered how they do it? Well, actor Shah Rukh Khan has the answer.

“I was told the secret was to suck your cheeks in, pout your lips and look really angry, when you walk the ramp,” Khan told a wildly cheering audience after he walked the ramp for Manish Malhotra at Mumbai’s Lakme Fashion Week.

Looking dapper in a black-and-gold jacket and cheered on by celebrities Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Kajol and Karan Johar, Khan was clearly the show-stopper on Monday night.

Khan’s tongue-in-cheek humour was also in full form, because he thanked Malhotra for being the first fashion designer ever “to design a sling” — referring to the matching gold-and-black sling he wore for the show.

Doctors have advised the 43-year-old actor to keep his arm in a sling for at least six weeks after he underwent shoulder surgery last month.

Of course, Khan wasn’t the only Bollywood attraction at the fashion week.

Earlier on Monday, Akshay Kumar walked the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani and asked wife Twinkle, seated in the front row, to unbutton the fly of his jeans.

Get well soon Shah Rukh Khan

We all knew Shah Rukh Khan had surgery 24 hours ago and yet there he was before us — dressed in T-shirt and jeans, only the sling over his left arm revealing he was in hospital till this morning.

He looked tired, almost as if he would rather sleep it out in bed than face the media. But Khan answered every question with no sign of impatience.

If I were him, I wouldn’t like to talk to anyone, let alone face a hundred television cameras and photographers screaming, “Shah Rukh bhai, ek shot please!”

The actor said he was feeling fine, but admitted there was some pain. Khan would not be able to work for a month or two.

“I plan to spend the time developing some stories and scripts that we are looking at,” he said.