Movies, movies

What's a vacation without watching movies? Past five weeks, I caught up on a whole bunch of them, mostly on the plane, a few on the big screen and absolutely nothing on TV/DVD. Among all kinds of blog posts, writing about movies is probably the no-brainer-iest of the lot, and probably the most perfect topic to write about on a jet-lagged Wednesday evening.

Mozhi - I simply loved this movie. True, the end dragged a bit, but barring that, this movie was wholesome entertainment and fun. Everything was so naturally done that I felt like I was a part of the cast too. Swarna Malya could do with losing a bit of weight though. Even Jyothika looked kind of thin beside her (now that's something!)

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - I saw this on the plane (seriously, if hadn't watched it for free on a boring 14 hour flight, some 10,000 feet up in the air, I don't think I would have ever watched the movie). SRK and Rani Mukherjee play the two most annoying and boring people I have ever had the misfortune to meet either in reel or real life. While the story line itself sucked (ditch your marriage if you find someone else who you think *might* be your true soul-mate), the fact that SRK's and Rani's characters had actually found anyone at all to marry them initially had me stumped.

Deepavali - For a movie in which the lead characters are named Billu and Susi (and neither of whom are, like the names would have lead you to expect, dogs), this one could have turned out a whole lot worse. As it was, likeable characters, hummable music (except for the hair-pull-inducing Pogadhe song - music directors insisting on using their own horrible voices for singing songs should be made into a jailable offence) and a casual attitude made this movie just about watchable.

Khosla ka Ghosla - Nothing very remarkable. Nevertheless, it is a cute and tidy movie - can be watched once!

Corporate - Madhur Bhandarkar's movies are nowadays cast into a rather predictable mould. Nevertheless, this movie was still a decent watch in its own right. I thought Bipasha Basu did a rather decent job of portraying a high-flying business women. This is a general question: if a woman is doing well in her professional life, does it automatically imply that she is a little unsound morally in her personal life? At least that's the image that is usually painted by our desi movie-makers - wonder why!

Pachchai Kili Muthu Charam - This movie made for a gripping watch till sometime past the intermission. Then it all came unwound. Lots of dishoom dishoom where the hero (a middle class salesman) vanquishes about a hundred men single-handedly to emerge the victor turned it into a routine, logicless, mindless, time-wasting movie.

Night Time at the Museum - I think the producers got so carried away by the concept that they forgot to write a story. I remember watching trailers for this movie last year. That time I mentally noted that I should watch the final version. Too bad that the hundred minute movie did not have much more to offer than what the five minute trailer did!

Imsai Arasan 23-am Pulikesi - Who would have thought I could actually watch a full length movie featuring the loud Vadivelu? But wonder of wonders, I did and what's more, I enjoyed it! A big pat on the back to the director for also making use of a tale set in the days of yore to refer to some very much relevant current issues!

p.s. I realized just today that last week this time I was still in India. This is a rather obvious conclusion if you know that I left India on Thursday night last week (March 22nd). The reason why the realization took me by surprise is because I feel like I have been here forever. In fact I seem to remember my India trip as a vague series of incidents. Have they started doing memory wiping procedures during immigration :-O?