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punkaj
Reviews
Sunday (2008)
It happened one night....
Billed as a suspense-comic thriller, this one's a ho-hum in more ways than one. Rohit Golmaal Shetty just couldn't decide what he wanted out of his otherwise-talented cast, he messes up the recipe and throws the whole kitchen sink at you. The problem: the sink stinks.
Devgan has to act a cool cop: so he licks ice cream all day. Warsi and Irrfan Khan drive around Delhi in a red car, which you are never likely to see in Delhi. Ayesha, who starts well, looks puffed up and lost in the bizarre plot, which is set in Delhi but you'd excused to think that the action was taking place in a one-car town with a population of 40.
The suspense and the thriller elements are duds; some comic scenes however lighten up the proceeds. Shetty cant handle the romance between an ageing Devgan and a fresh but puffy Ayesha; the songs are dull and their filming moron. Makes you wait for the bits when Warsi appears, because he has the funniest lines, and Irrfan who feeds off his cues. These two make a good comic team who try hard to carry off the film to some extent.
Shetty tries to put in too many items in the movie: from chases in a crowded Chandni Chowk to a gang of thugs led by a cartoon-voiced fellow to a Vrajesh Hirjee, a Karate expert speaking in a Malayalee accent without rhyme or reason. What actually happens to Ayesha is so prosaic, its not worth the effort of making a whole film about! The cinematography by Aseem Bajaj is good, especially his filming of famous landmarks in Delhi. The digital fusion of various scenes has been seamlessly carried out. Music is noisy, the background score is shrieky.
Ajay Devgan looks listless trying to be cool, Ayesha Takia opens confidently in a well-crafted sequence of dubbing for an animation flick but loses vapour immediately thereafter. It is left to the highly talented due of Arshad Warsi and Irrfan Khan to provide some relief in the banal proceedings.
There has been no movie last week, there is none next. Yet this movie played to empty seats on a Saturday.
Dus Kahaniyaan (2007)
From the Good to the Mediocre
You can blame Sanjay Gupta for making violent movies, based on the underworld or the bizarre. But one needs to give him credit for doing stuff thats not too run-of-the-mill.
Having gathered a young crew of directors, mostly novice, comprising of Meghna Gulzar (Just Married), Apoorva Lakhia (Shootout at L'wala/Ek Ajnabee), Rohit Roy amongst others, Gupta gives them less than 15 minutes time to showcase his own concepts.
The collection opens with MATRIMONY (4/10). Mandira Bedi is surprisingly good.
Next up is HIGH ON THE HIGHWAY (1/10). Jimmy Shergil gets irritating.
POORANMASHI (3/10) brings Meghna on who gets a good job from Amrita Singh. Lamba is wasted. Nice rural touches.
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (4/10) gets one added star for its narrative style. It is made to deceive. But unbelievable. Manjrekar disappoints as the husband.
The last pre-intermission segment is ZAHIR (4/10) and this one disappoints. Crudely shot by Gupta. Manoj Vajpayee is uninterested & way below-par.
LOVEDALE (4/10) is a slow tale and you can smell the super-natural halfway through the story. Anupam Kher is wasted.
Apoorva Lakhia's SEX ON THE BEACH (1/10 is the worst of the lot. Poor performances. Crudely presented.
RICE PLATE (9/10) by debutante Rohit Roy is a pleasant surprise. Roy infuses immediate charm and is considerably helped by Shabana Azmi's brilliant portrayal of an orthodox religious Southie. Azmi takes just a few frames to warm up but ends up in control. Naseer Shah is understated. (This, in fact, is 'borrowed' from a Jeffrey Archer short story).
GUBBARE (3/10) is passable only because of Patekar. Gulzar's script doesn't really shine. Nana is a natural.
RISE & FALL (5/10) has two stories intertwined (gets very confusing too). Lots of style. I personally found Suniel Shetty a notch above than Dutt. The two teenage taporis are really good.
Overall worth a look. Technical values are pretty good. Some segments have good editing but sound designing is improper for this genre.