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Director            Aanand Rai Cast                  Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Shergill, Deepak Dobriyal, Swara Bhaskar, Eijaz Khan, Ravi Kishen, Rajendra Gupta Year                 2011 Genre               RomCom The trailers of Tanu Weds Manu have been around for so long now that people already know the story for sure.   There is a slim chance that you would have missed them in the halls.   And if you are a movie addict like this writer, then you would have probably been tearing your hair apart by now, wondering when the movie would be releasing finally.   It finally did yesterday.   Phew. Director Aanand Rai (I wonder why people are so hell bent on numerology) uses a star cast which doesn’t ...

Director            James L Brooks Cast                  Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, Katherine Hahn, Mark Linn-Baker, Lenny Venito, Molly Price, Ron McLarty, Shelly Conn Year                 2010 Genre               RomCom The trailer says - How Do You Know….. when you are in love? How Do You Know….. when you are in trouble? My question to ace director James L Brooks is “How Do You Know….. WHEN YOU HAVE MADE A REALLY DRAB ROMANTIC COMEDY THAT ALMOST PUTS YOU OFF TO SLEEP”?   Surely you should know that Mr.Brooks.   Considering that you are an academy award winning and nominated director who has given us the likes of “As Good as it gets” and “Broadcast News” both of which were high...

Director            Kelly Asbury Cast                  James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Jim Cummings, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Ozzy Osbourne, Hulk Hogan, Julie Walters, Patrick Stewart, Richard Wilson Year                 2011 Genre               Animation I am an amateur critic and would probably not understand the finer nuances of animation.   But in my not so expert opinion, I think Disney has given us a lovely movie yet again.   This time with director Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2; Spirit : Stallion of the Cimaron) they give us an adaptation of a The Bard’s classic and make no bones about it when they start the movie by saying “The story you are about to see has been told – ...

Director            Vishal Bharadwaj Cast                  Priyanka Chopra, Niel Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Vivaan Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Usha Uthup, Ruskin Bond Year                 2011 Genre               Drama We have all grown up with Ruskin Bond and his writing in a variety of genres.   But who would have thought that we would actually land up watching one of his more intense but yet casually written short stories make it to the big screen.   Trust Vishal Bharadwaj to take up four pages of scribbled lines and chase one of the best Indian authors of our time to convert it into a 150 minute screenplay.   And not just that, he has also...

Director            Nikhil Advani Cast                  Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Tinu Anand, Jeneva Talwar, Armaan Kirmani, Soni Razdan, Devansh Daswani Year                 2011 Genre               Drama In marketing parlance, hype is defined as “an ingenious or questionable claim, method, etc., used in advertising, promotion, or publicity to intensify the effect” or simple put exaggerated publicity; hoopla.   And why are we discussing the concept of hype? Isnt this supposed to be a blog that reviews movies and not give a lecture in marketing and choicest terms.   You would be right on both counts.   But how in the blazes am I supposed to explain a character called Askha...

Director            Charles Fergusson Cast                  Matt Damon Year                 2010 Genre               Documentary I have never reviewed a documentary before.   I know there is always a first time for everything but I am a wee bit circumspect about how to go about doing this.   There is no cast you can credit for acting or bringing the concept to life in a manner that blows your pants off.   It’s actually representation of fact right? And therefore even more difficult to leave the audience with a feeling of actually having watched a movie.   The capability of using factors such as editing should be even more in case of a documentary than a feature film is what I would assume.   Do l...