King of Bollywood

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Chamku (action)
Cast: Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra
Direction: Kabir Kaushik Chamku (action)

OKAY, so Hindi films find a new hero this time. He's the naxalite who first kills the corrupt state agents and then ends up killing for the state. Now that's quite a bold step for Bobby Deol who decides to don a different role as Chamku, the favourite lieutenant of a Pushkin-reading Danny Denzongpa who talks of class conflict and revolution from his secret adda in the dense jungles.

The film begins on a promising note with some imaginative frames capturing the action as Bobby goes about his business with deadpan glee. But midway, you realise the Naxalbari was just a convenient ploy to package the same old formula of an action hero who is out to avenge the death of his father. Chamku was actually a happy village boy who saw his father being shot by the local thakur and could never rest happy ever after. Not even when he finds the chiffon-clad school madam (Priyanka Chopra) who sings Yippie-Yippie, whenever she sees him. Strangely, she never knows what her brooding beau actually does, even though he keeps disappearing for covert missions for his new boss (Irrfan Khan).

The problem with Chamku is its disjointed script and its relentless flashbacks which mar a film that could have tread new ground. Although, we do laud the attempts of the Deol Inc to turn to serious cinema.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Wall Paper : Phoonk

Wall Paper : Phoonk

Movie Review : Phoonk

Phoonk (horror)
Cast: Sudeep, Amruta Khanvikar, Ahsaas Channa
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma

FIRST of all, it's hard to believe a post modern filmmaker like Ram Gopal Varma could actually make a film that ends up upholding mumbo-jumbo. The rationalist engineer (Sudeep) ends up chasing shamans and witch doctors to save his possessed daughter (Ahsaas Channa), even as the doctors fail to cure her of her demons with their psychological fundas.

The film ends up as a warning to all you scientific non-believers out there who scoff at black magic, voodoo and the mysterious lemoo (lemon). The next time you see bones in your backyard or a crow staring down at you from the overhead tree, don't take it lightly....Oh, really!

But he doesn't only get the premise wrong. The film fails to create a single scare, even though the camera does slide into strange places, focusing on all the stuffed toys and the ugly artefacts in the house and the soundtrack gets dizzy with ominous sounds.

Technically speaking, there's only one `jump' moment, when Sudeep moves but his mirror image doesn't move. The rest of the chills are ekdum thanda , as the story traces the attempts of a young couple to cure their daughter of the mysterious ailment that seems to have stricken her. From a happy-go-lucky kid, she's now a girl who grunts in a man's voice and flies up to the ceiling, a la Exorcist .

All said and done, Bhoot was the bigger scare than Phoonk.