Sameer Chandra

Archive for September, 2008|Monthly archive page

Hindi Movie: Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)

In Uncategorized on September 29, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Divya Dutta, Ila Arun and others…. 


Plot: Story of a BA (Bachelor of Arts) graduate, Mahadev (played by Shreyas Talpade), who dreams to be a novelist someday, but is the letter writer for the entire village of Sajjanpur in the meantime. He gets into the thick and thin of everything, of everyone in the village. The movie is a satire on the everyday life of a village in rural india, the idiosyncrasies, the guile’s, the politics, the love story, the sacrifice….all with some sort of message for social upliftment.
Review: The movie is set on a very low budget, with some good cast members, which had done true justice to each of their roles. The language, from eastern U.P., seems very homely, funny…..though, difficult for my wife to comprehend….but’s that the language of millions of people. 
Verdict: I enjoyed the movie, it wasnt boring, but not something that is a “must-see”. 

Movie: Deception (2008)

In Uncategorized on September 26, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams…

Tagline: “When you’re in this world, no one is who they seem, and everyone is playing the game.”

Plot: An accountant is introduced to a mysterious sex club known as The List by his lawyer friend. But in this new world, he soon becomes the prime suspect in a woman’s disappearance and a multi-million dollar heist (Source, IMBD)

Review: The first few minutes of the movie, seems like an excerpt from a documentary…though, it get’s interesting as soon as Hugh Jackman enters the scene…..and goes on from there. The movie is a suspense-thriller, involving an accountant (played by Ewan McGregor), who’s charmed by a hot-shot lawyers (played by Hugh Jackman), and gets introduced into an exclusive “Sex-Club” called The List…..none of the members know each other, and are not supposed to…they just hook up for a night…needless to say, lots of sex scenes follow…
However, the plot thickens, when the truth comes out, that the hot-shot lawyer is not what he pretends….and a love-interest (played by Michelle Williams) goes missing…..to rescue her, the accountant has to transfer a sum of 20 Million Dollars from a clients account to his…for the lawyer….What follows is interesting chain of events….to a nice ending.

Verdict: Quite an interesting movie…..lots of sexuality in the begining….but comes down to the main point in the latter half. Not bad, not an edge of the seat thrillers as others have claimed…

Movie: Outsourced (2006)

In Uncategorized on September 25, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Cast: Josh Hamilton (as Todd Anderson), Ayesha Dharkar (as Asha), Asif Basra (as Purohit N. Virajnarianan or “Puro”) and plenty more…..

Tagline: After his entire department is outsourced, an American novelty products salesman heads to India to train his replacement. 
Review: The plot of the story is self-explanatory, an american company, due to its shrinking profit margins, decides to outsource their sales and customer service department to India. Their existing manager (Josh Hamilton) is given an option to either go to India and train his replacement and the entire sales team, or lose his non-vested shares, his chances of promotion and eventually his job…..
Josh agrees, and travel to India, and as soon as he lands, in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), he is faced with all the stereotypes that western cultures face. He soon meets his replacement (Asif Basra), and starts to interact with his team, and learns that he has a lot to learn about India, than to teach everyone how to become an american. He’s attracted to an Indian Girl (Ayesha Dharkar) at the call center, and the feeling becomes mutual, though she is engaged to be married. His main goal was to bring the MPI (minutes per incident) to 6.0 from the current 15, which is a hard task…..which he accomplishes with some ingenuity!!
Verdict: It’s a feel good movie. Any glimpses of urban/rural India in a western movie bring a sense of nostalgia, and a feeling of pride, no matter how myopic is the viewers angle on the entire Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) scenario. We really enjoyed the movie, lots of laugh…..

Movie: Leatherheads (2008

In Uncategorized on September 24, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Cast: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski and others….

Plot: This is period piece, set in early 1920, during infancy of world
of professional football, and baseball was "Sport" of the country.
Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (George Clooney) is a professional football
player on the last legs of his career, if that's what you can call it.
When his team loses financing, and goes out of business, he seeks and
brings a college football star, Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski),
who's also a war veteran and a highly decorated soldier…
However, the war hero has a secret to hide, which Lexie Littleton, a
reported from "The Tribune" is hell-bent on uncovering, while getting
romantically involved with Dodge Connelly.

Review: This is a slapstick comedy of the period era. George Clooney
is brilliant as always (May be not, somehow "Solaris" comes to mind!).
Anyways, he's fun to watch, with his facial expressions and acted
brilliantly all through the movie, as he was in "O Brother Where Art
Thou". Renee is charming, and John is fresh!

Verdict: Good Fun! Worth all the money i spent on it ($1.08 at RedBox)

Hollywood Homicide (2003)

In Uncategorized on September 22, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Cast: Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Isaiah Washington and many more….

Plot: A veteran (played by Harrison Ford) and a Rookie (Josh Hartnett)
are paired together as a LAPD Detectives in this useless movie. The
veteran also has a real-estate business on the side, and is being
investigated by the IA, for "Commingling" of funds…while the rookie
is also a Yoga Instructor on the side….which basically get him the
girls….and he wants to be an actor…..

Review: Useless movie, utterly stupid, Harrison Ford's worst
work….other than that 6 days 7 Nights. Jost Hartnett is lost as
usual….with no convincing emotions at any time…..total time waste.

Hindi Movie: Mission Instanbul (2008)

In Uncategorized on September 22, 2008 at 6:38 pm

Cast: Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Suniel Shetty, Shriya Saran…..

Plot: An Indian journalist (Zayed Khan), going through a messy divorce decides to take up a position with a news station in Istanbul, which has been the mouthpiece of terrorist organization in the recent past. From his first day at work, he’ feel that something is wrong with the organization, after assassination of his colleague (Suniel Shetty). A Turkish commando (Vivek Oberoi), contacts him, and informs him that the news organization is actually part of the terror network…..the race begins to topple the regime of terror…..

Review: Not at all impressed with anything in the movie, other than the songs…..they are catchy!! Both Zayed and Vivek have been wasted on this script… 

Hindi Movie: A Wednesday! (2008)

In Uncategorized on September 19, 2008 at 8:16 pm

Cast: Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajpal Yadav, Jimmy Shergil, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw, Gaurav Kapur

We Watched this movie day before yesterday, on the recommendation of my Mother-in-Law (she has pretty good taste in movies). We usually wait for her reviews on new movies, before we watch them. She recommended this movie, actually she said “Not to miss this one!”. So we did, and though, i’m not as much in awe as she was, i did like the movie. 
Plot: After placing six bomb in different places in Mumbai, including one inside a police station, an “unknown caller” calls the Police Commissioner of Mumbai, and makes a demand to release four known terrorists to him. The whole drama of search and rescue happens, while attempts are made to trace the “unknown caller”, who’s extremely tech savvy….beats a young “over-confident” hacker….in use of mobile sims…and switching them at his will. The plot takes a turn in the last 10 minutes of the movie, and the ending is quite good. 
Review: In my personal opinion, Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah are one of the best actors that the National Academy of Acting has produced, among countless others. Just by mere casting of the two legends together in a movie, compelled me to watch it, and i’m satisfied with their individual roles and performances as Police Commissioner and the “Common Man”. The concept of the movie is nothing new, after years of oppression the common man takes the law in his own hands…..and seeks justice. But, the presentations of the plot in a new setting….is fresh, and it’s good to see that new directors like, Neeraj Pandey is not afraid of taking chances, in experimentation….which i think keeps the movies fresh. Personally, i think Jimmy Shergil was wasted in this movie. He’s a brilliant actor, with a tons of potential, but this role wasnt even scratching the surface of his mettle. 
Recommendation: Good movie, not a must see, but entertaining. 


Hindi Movie: Hijack (2008)

In Uncategorized on September 15, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Starring: Shiny Ahuja, Esha Deol…and so many insignificant others…

We watched this movie over the course of two days….i guess that speaks for itself. 
The Plot: A story of an ex-pilot, who’s been grounded (played by Shiny Ahuja), since he opened the cockpit door to rescue his wife from some hijackers, and eventually loses her and inadvertently gives up the controls of his plane to hijacker (details were not provided on this other than, some sketchy scenes of flashback sequences, and a “court-marshall” type meeting, where he’s dismissed. He eventually becomes a mechanic and serves his days of shame and gloom as a technical maintenance chief of Chandigarh Airport. 
Ironically, his past catches up with him, when his daughter, who’s on a plane to Amritsar, becomes a victim of Hijacking, and the plane lands on the Chandigarh Airport for refueling, on its way to Dubai. When the local authorities, dont heed to his request, he takes matter into his own hands, and boards the plane through cargo hold, and starts to kill, one hijacker at a time…..while the negotiation drama continues…between the terrorist and the Home Ministry. An air hostess (played by Esha Deol), helps him out. He eventually manages to rescue all the passengers (other than the five who are killed, and one who died due to his asthma attack). 
The Review: The music and songs of this movie and good, and melodious. The storyline is weak, and the message, that “Air travel is the safest way to travel” gets lost with all the drama….Esha Deol wasted her talents on this one (not that she has many), but i guess she was running short on her pocket money and was desperate for anything (no hits in the last two years…). Shiny is good actor, but clearly is inflicted by poor judgement, in chosing the roles he usual picks. Other than the Life in A Metro, i havent seen anything worthwhile from him. Though, i’m hopeful that i will soon. 

The Verdict: Dont waste your time. We already did. 

Movie: Pursued (2004)

In Uncategorized on September 15, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Starring: Christian Slater, Gil Bellows, Estella Warren. 

This movie was released in 2004, and obviously wasn’t worth watching when it released, or else i wouldnt have missed it. Anyways, it was selling for cheap ($3) at a local grocery store, so we grabbed it, and watched it yesterday, after two hours of Wii….
The Plot: A story of a headhunter (played by Christian Slater), “who always gets his man (or woman)” and would go to any lengths, even criminal acts to get a recruit, for his clients. He has a $1 Million retainer and never fails to get his man. 
The Review: The movie is borderline absurd. At first there is a headhunter, who would do anything to get a recruit and charge a $1 Million retainer. Secondly, he doesnt understands when to give up, and makes stupid mistakes all over the movie, that any technically inclined person, who’s being pursued, would catch, leave alone the “Genius” he after in the movie (played by Gil Bellows). I’m no geek, but if i were, i would know, not to trust anyone in this situation, leave along meeting with this person over and over again, and not getting any authorities (Police, FBI….) involved. Ridiculous. However, the movie does bring up a point, where you do stop and think that this could be possible one day, to anyone who has a brilliant idea and is looked upto  in the high stakes world of technology and venture capitalism. 
The Verdict: Nah…wont waste my time on it…

Hindi Movie: Rock On!!

In Uncategorized on September 11, 2008 at 2:19 pm

Starring: Farhan Akhtar (Javed Akhtar’s son), Arjun Rampal, Prachi Desai, Nicollete Bird, 

Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny, Shahana Goswami and Koel Purie.

Directed by: Abhishek Kapoor
Plot: Rock On!! Is story of four friends, all musicians to the core, with dreams to make it big, 
put together a band, named “Magic”. When the time comes to take the center stage, everything 
is tested, personal ego’s, friendships and relationships…..things fall apart, and all of them move 
into different directions, their fate takes them. Ten years later, fate brings the four friends together, 
and after some soul searching, settle their differences and strive to make “Magic” a reality once more, 
despite setbacks…..
My Review: Good music, good lyrics (as expected from Mr. Javed Akhtar), and a new singer in Farhan Akhtar. 
On the whole a good movie, not a must see, but an entertainer!!