Tale of Two Thriller

Last week I saw two movies. Two thrillers to be precise. There was hardly anything common between the 2. The movies I'm talking about are Teesri Manzil (*ing Shammi Kapoor & Asha Parekh) and Johnny Gaddar. Teesri Manzil was a Murder Mystery, with a very good story line and gripping suspense.

What can I say about the songs...mindblowing stuff. It was after a long time I was watching a movie on CD and didn't fast forward the songs. It was a treat to listen to these songs (Originals for a change not some cheap remix)...just look at the line up of songs : Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera, Deewana Mujhsa Nahin, O Haseena, O Mere Sona, Tumne Mujhe Dekha...and cherry on the top is the "dance" of Shammi Kapoor, you never feel for a moment that any of it is choreographed (I don't think it really can be choreographed anyway).

Now if you look at Johnny Gaddar, Its not a Mystery/Suspense movie 'coz we know from the very beginning whats going on and who's the bad guy. But still the way this movie progresses, there is not a single dull moment. There are no songs, but in terms of music it has one of the finest soundtrack come out in recent times. Music has that "retro" touch in it which is very refreshing. Another movie with a so called "retro" soundtrack is Om Shanti Om, but I'll touch that in some other post.

Moving back to our Johnny Gaddar....after his first movie, Ek Hasina Thi, Sriram Raghavan proves again that to make a gripping thriller, Story should be first and foremost priority. He has reinstated my faith in Bollywood movies (which was shaken badly after Aag)...and interestingly he is RVGs find. I think the time has come for the Master to learn something from his student.

Ind-Aus Series...Clash of the Champion (Sledgers)

Standing up to the Aussies is the "in thing" now-a-days...Sreesanth is doing it...so is our Bhajji...even Robin Uthhapa is doing it. But apart from these cursing contests going on in the field, there is not much of a contest between the two sides.

Australia punished our bowlers for their erratic display in the first match and the same thing happened in the 2nd match as well. We had them pinned down in the first 10 overs but couldn't make use of that.

The only point worth mentioning, from India's point of view, is the so called aggression. But is this aggression really helping us? Our team wants to match up with the Aussies in the sledging dept. but they conveniently ignore the fact that Aussies might be champion sledgers but whatever they say, they back it up on the field.

Glen McGrath is a master of this art, every time Ashes series is about start, he'll come up with his prediction of the score and every time says it'll be 5-0 and last time they actually achieved it.
When he predicts a five nil washout, I'm sure he actually believes every single word of it. But when a bowler like Harbajan Singh is bad mouthing 6'2" Matthew Hayden, it hardly looks convincing.

Like the rest of the world I also don't like Australian team, but we can not simply deny the fact that they are THE champions and have been on the top of their game for almost 10 years now.
If our "Young Guns" want to be like the Aussies take the good things from them...their passion for the game...their commitment level...their professional approach. Sledging like the Aussies is not going to take us anywhere (who can forget the WC'03 final or even the WC'07 match against B'desh).

Still 4 mtaches to go in the series, and I'm waiting for a turnaround like Eden garden to happen...kya karien...Aakhir Dil hai Hindustani.

RVG's AAG...I got burnt.

Its been more than a month since the movie was release..many of you must be thinking why am I writing about the after all this time. Well to be frank after watching the movie I was speechless...didn't knew what to say. the hangover was still there.

Till now I can not understand how RVG managed to make such a mockery of one the greatest movies of Indian cinema. If you look at his track record, he has made some absolutely Shiva, Raat, Drohi, Rangeela, Kaun, Bhoot. And who can forget he the same director which created a new genre all together with his underworld movies like Satya and Company or even Sarkar.

But interestingly for every Kaun there was a Mast...for every Satya there was a Naach (I know most of you might not have heard of this movie) and for every Sarkar there was a Nishabd or a Darling. And don't get me started on the movies he produced.

Now coming back to Aag, if you try to look and analyze what went wrong, most people will say that since its a remake of SHOLAY the junta didn't accept it, but I beg to differ. The movie was plain simplre high quality crap. Even Don was remade, I didn't like it much as I'm a die hard fan of old AB movie, but still if you look at that movie without considering the old Don, the movie was not at all bad.

I'm sure that Mr. RVG will learn from his mistake and never take the audience for granted...Taking the biggest Bollywood Movie and casting the biggest superstar doesn't make a good movie...it ultimately comes down to how well you can present the story to everyone.

Every director wants his movie to be remembered for eternity...I think RVG managed to do just that...I'll never be able to forget this movie...ever.