Jodha Jalal - Love and Beliefs

The storyline selected for launch on Valentine day was good. Whether its true or not is immaterial but the budding of romance after marriage between Jodha and Akbar was handled nicely. But everything else was unnecessary and ridiculous.

All action sequence deserves below average rating. Panipat and all fights had bad cinematogrpahy and made one laugh.We get inspired by hollywood so much but i wonder why he missed movies like 300 and troy. They have nerve chilling fight sequences. Fight of Jalal(Hrithik) and elephant was laughable and did not show any strength on raja. The fight towards end between Hrithik and his brother-in-law has left too much room for improvement.

Without friends being aroung, it would have been tough to spend 3.2 hrs in cinema hall. Jodha's father takes marriage proposal to akbar (jalal) as some political settlement....humne awaaz lagaui...photo ho toh dikhayo...chatting kar sakte hain kya :)

The scenes between Jodha and Akbar do leave a good impression. Jodha cooks vegeterian food for her husband. She is humiliated in front of entire rajshaba when she is asked to taste the food to ensure its not poisoned. I was wondering what will happen next and then came the punch line by script writer - Akbar saying that he will eat from same vessel that was used by Jodha.


Sword fight between Hrithik and Aish were able to capture the emotion nicely. The importance of scene was to showcase culminating love between two. This came out nicely. If one tries to see the sword fight critically they will find that Aish was not able to make nice moves.

Songs did not make one stick to the seat. Infact I feel many songs could have made background chores allowing the movie to move forward. Jodha's brothers character was important in the story and could have been made to look more strong.

Overall the movie is not recommended looking at the complete package. Remove the fights and songs and watch scenes between lover boy and lover girl!! I wish the theme of movie could have been twisted to inter-religion marriage and giving message Love Rulz!!

Ta Ra Rum Pum - TaTa Run Pan

After watching the movie the title doesn't hold any ground. What tune "ta ra rum pum" sends out which is in sync with the movie. Editor seems to have made no homework. All good will happen by itself. A Tire crew member will become Car racer simply, hero and heroine falls in love simply, car racer becomes star in one day simply, marriage against parents will happen simply, one race turns the whole life towards doom simply, manager decides to support hero simply and in 2 days life again makes a turn. No ground work was done to make storyline convincing. I don't think the whole movie was to give messages like "bongs are hot" - ya ya (I know they are)save money for future.

By now you should have taken the point home, that movie is not that great. Its not gripping. You are not anxious to know what the director wants to show next because you know what will happen next. Nascar racing could have been made gripping. Instead of showing 3-4 races of 5 min each, single race could have been shown with more drama.

I liked the different style approach couple takes when director showed the family became poor. The way couple keeps their children happy, tells them rosy stories is also good style. Apart of these scenes none other scene is worth remembering.

GuruBhai - A Documentary

I saw Gurubhai yesterday. Luckily my habit of not reading reviews or stories earlier about the movie helped me not to makeup any mindset. I was surprised to see it was a documentary movie based entirely on Dhirubhai, the great. Looking at the trailer where Aish dances made me feel she represented some place in South India. I guess the dance was pictured somewhere in Pondichery and fall might be Jog falls in Karnataka. Google also says that this waterfall might be 'Athirapally, near Kochi'. I haven't seen any of these beautiful places :-( so cannot confirm the true location . But really
I never imagined Aish to portray a Gujju girl.

Talking about the movie; Mani Ratnam has pictured the movie nicely. Aish again looked good in first half when she had somewhat bubbly role. She didn't justify the character when character grows in age and needs to showcase more mature emotions and support. Abhishek has done roles in past where he portrays his rise in corporate world and suits them. Madhavan and Vidya balan though, not given strong characters, made their presence felt in the movie. Overall, all artist did justice but the movie is not full entertainer. Someone who is not interested in corporate world or cannot relate to story, will feel lost.

Luckily, I had read Business Maharajas by Gita Piramal back in India. So I was kind of aware of Ambani's story, running a business in license raj, wading import and export duties. Its doesn't need great intelligence to know that this movie is on Dhirubhai Ambani even if the director denies it. On searching more I realised that there is a biography on Ambani titled The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani by Hamish McDonald. This book is banned in India - thanks to Ambani families influence.


Now let me make an attempt to find similarities in Movie and life of Dhirubhai. Dhirubhai was from small Gujrati community and started his career by going to Aden and working for Shell. In our movie Gurubhai goes to Turkey and starts as some oil can distributor. Both characters, real one and reel one, learned basics of business by quoting prices on rice, spices. Dhirubhai and Gurubhai set their dreams on Polyester. In eighties when India had license raj both had to find their ways to do business. Goenka of Indian express was mainstream paper trying to publish all wrong doings of Reliance. Goenka and Dhirubhai had known each personally as Mithun and Gurubhai knew each other. But as Mithun has portrayed the character of truthful editor, Goenka was same at that time.


To end the blogging, I never felt in the movie a desire to leave the theatre. It was nicely paced and I enjoyed 2.5hrs in the theatre.

Lovely dialogue sequence which made me smile at unexpected second half.
Gurubhai ( Talking to sharat on his reporting against Guru) - What do you think you are doing
Reporter - I think I am cooking, you can eat too. I cook good :-) hahahhehihiehuu..totally unexpected reply.