'Milenge Milenge' is regressive

Independent Media

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
Director: Satish Kaushik

To be fair, 'Milenge Milenge' delivers exactly what you expect from it. Five years in the making and ultimately assembled out of incomplete footage, this Satish Kaushik-directed romantic drama is regressive, senseless, and packed with plot-holes the size of craters.

Priya (played by Kareena Kapoor) thinks she's met the man of her dreams when she runs into the too-good-to-be-true Immy (played by Shahid Kapoor) at a college youth festival in Bangkok. Turns out the fellow's been fooling her all along. When she breaks up with him, he realizes he's fallen for her, and begs her for another chance.

In a premise plagiarized shamelessly from the John Cusack-Kate Beckinsale starrer Serendipity, Priya leaves it to destiny to decide if they're meant to be together. She asks Immy to scribble his number on a currency note, which she uses to buy a numerology book from a nearby newsstand. On the inside cover of the book she jots down her own number and tells him she'll send it to a second-hand bookstore the following day. If the 50 rupee note with his number reaches her, or the book with her number finds its way to him, that'll be a sign from fate that they're meant to be together. If not, they'll have no way to contact each other again.

As far-fetched the concept of Serendipity may have been, it was convincing because the characters met and separated the same day; they didn't know each other's friends or their last names even. In Milenge Milenge, director Satish Kaushik gives the leads that whole Bangkok back-story before they are separated. And then expects us to believe that they can't track each other down when they have interacted over days, met each other's friends, and even know that they live in the same city!

The problem with this film is that it's lacking in basic logic, and that its characters are complete stereotypes. Add to that the fact that Kaushik's treatment is extremely outdated even for a film that wasmeant to be released five years ago.



Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor are perky enough, but Milenge Milenge doesn't exactly call upon them to deliver performances of any kind. You might be willing to overlook Kareena's varying hairstyles in every other scene, but what's unforgivable is the film's predictable narrative.

I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for director Satish Kaushik's Milenge Milenge. If you're thinking of checking it out for Shahid and Kareena's chemistry after Jab We Met, I might have a word of advice for you - Don't!

Rating: 1.5 / 5

Veerappan: Beera of Ravan movie: robin hood for the poor

	These photos throw light on the kind of life Veerapan leads in his forest hideout...»

Has anybody wondered why one of India's most wanted criminals, with an official murder tally of 120 people, managed to remain invisible for more than four decades? Why is it that a force dedicated especially to capture him (STF), has been unable to drag him out from his natural habitat, the sandalwood forest, in 10 years?
First of all, the nation and especially the task force, needs to understand that Veerappan is not a myth. Of course, he remained virtually a mythical figure until a Nakkeeran reporter, Sivasubramaniam, brought him to limelight in the early 1990s. Ironically, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police did not even have the latest photograph of Veerappan until Nakkeeran broke the story. A lot has happened since then, but the bandit remains elusive to the police but visible to the local tribes who have nourished his ‘Robin Hood’ image.
Veerappan's roots
Nothing much is recorded or written about the brigand's early childhood or family background. All that is known is that he was born into a poor and backward Tamil-speaking Padayachi family. The village was Gopinatham in the Kollegal taluk of Karnataka, bordering Tamil Nadu. Since Gopinatham is set in the mountainous forest region, Veerappan was a natural in the jungles that would become his habitat for the rest of his life.
Early hits
It is not known how he took to the life of crime. Locals say that he was inspired by Malayur Mammattiyan, a notorious bandit of the 1950s and 60s, who hailed from Salem, close to Veerappan's native village. Veerappan's first recorded murder was that of Paramasivam, brother of Karuppan who killed Malayur Mammattiyan in an inter-gang war. However, Veerappan came into prominence only after he killed Tamil Nadu forest officer Chidambaram in July 1987. Apparently, Chidambaram was killed because he was an honest forest officer who sought to end sandalwood smuggling.
It seems logical that Veerappan took to sandalwood smuggling and poaching much earlier, probably in the late 1970s, as he was arrested sometime in 1986 by the Karnataka police and lodged in Mysore jail. This is the only time Veerappan has ever been in custody.
A seasoned criminal
Veerappan's crime graph shows that initially he targetted only forest officials who came in the way. They included Karnataka Deputy Conservator of Forests P Srinivas who believed that he could reform the brigand. Veerappan lured him into the forest on the offer of surrender and shot him dead. He left his severed head on a rock to serve as a warning to others. Some local sources say that Srinivas got too close to Veerappan and was also involved with his sister.
The hunt
Following the brutal murder of Srinivas, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments constituted the Special Task Forces in May 1990. From then on, it has been a long battle between the Veerappan gang and the police in which more than 100 persons have been killed by the bandit, at least half of them police personnel.

Veerappan was on the run from 1991 to 96, when the Tamil Nadu STF was headed by Additional Director General of Police Walter Dawaram, known to be a ruthless cop. It was also the period when several innocent tribals were tortured, detained illegally or under TADA or shot dead in fake encounters on charges of supplying ration and extending such other help to Veerappan.
That was when Veerappan turned to quarry owners on both sides of the border for help. The quarry owners had no choice but to cough up "protection money". Apparently, they also supplied explosives with which Veerappan ambushed Tamil Nadu police patrols.
Dawaram claims that during that period, the STF reduced Veerappan gang's strength from 150 to eight. Many find it hard to believe that Veerappan was moving about with such a large entourage and yet was invisible to the police. But the fact remains that Veerappan felt the heat thanks to sustained STF operations and frequent encounters...
Abduction business

Veerappan turned to hostage-taking in December 1994.The first victim was a deputy superintendent of police in Coimbatore district, Chidambaranathan. Veerappan seized him during a visit to his farmhouse in Sirumugai. The compelling reason for this was not just to press for amnesty, which of course Veerappan did, but to get urgent medical aid for his brother Arjunan, who was wounded in an encounter.

Arjunan was allowed to come out, given treatment and detained after the hostage crisis ended with a police raid. Arjunan and two other gang members were reportedly bumped off while being transported to Mysore. The police version is they committed suicide by consuming cyanide.

Veerappan took hostages on two more occasions in 1997 to press for general amnesty, but eventually released them unconditionally and unharmed. The DMK, which was in power from 1996 to 2001, was known for being sympathetic to him but obviously could not give into his demand for amnesty.

Veerappan's pinnacle

It was Dr Rajkumar's abduction in July 2000 which got him national attention. For the first time, it became known that Veerappan had included in his gang members of two dreaded Tamil extremist outfits, the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army and the Tamil National Retrieval Troops, both modeled on the LTTE.

The nexus came to police notice when Veerappan and members of these two gangs launched a joint attack on a police station near Sathyamangalam in December 1998.

But they kept it a closely guarded secret. The nexus came to light when Rajkumar was abducted. Of course Veerappan had to release Rajkumar eventually when it became apparent that the two Governments would resume combing operations. Two major demands put forward by Veerappan concerned the release of five TNLA and TNRT extremists in Tamil Nadu jails and 51 TADA detenus in Mysore jail. The extremists are still in jail. But the TADA detenus have since been released by the Mysore sessions court.

Will he get caught?

Now Veerappan has struck again. Can he ever be caught? The chances are slim. He operates in a 6,000 sq km jungle. His survival instinct is strong. He has been known to be ruthless with his own community if anyone was known to help the police. At the same time, he has been generous with money to those who help him. As a result, he has acquired a Robin Hood image which the police find hard to fight.

While the police have all the latest gadgets, including AK-47 assault rifles and night vision binoculors, Veerappan still carries old hunting rifles. Though in his mid-50s, Veerappan is still physically active. He is constantly on the move, sometimes walking 40 kms a day. The jungle is so thick in some places that the visibility will be hardly 30 ft during daytime. He always pitches camp, for lunch or dinner, at a place which gives him a commanding height.

And finally, his information network has proved to be far more faster and reliable than the police's. He has struck twice in the same place, abducting Nagappa just a little over two years after seizing Rajkumar. And choosing the day when Rajkumar is on a visit to his farm house near Kollegal, the first since his abduction from there, and all police force is concentrated on the actor.

As always with Veerappan, it is a question of chance

Ravan : Movie review

Raavan is not a story, it is a world. Beera Munda - Undisputed, Unlawful, Untamed Dev Pratap Sharma - The Punisher; the Law, the Righteous Ragini - Conscience, Beauty; Music Dev falls in with Ragini, a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. They get married and he takes up his new post in Lal Maati, a small town in northern India. A town where the world of law is not the police but Beera, a tribal who has, over the years, shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the have-nots of the area. Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case - Beera. In one stroke Dev manage to rip open Beera's world, and set in motion a change of event which will claim lives, changes fortune. Beera, injured but enraged hits back starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle. The jungle which is dense, confusing, scary. And in this journey they must confront their own truth. A journey which will test their beliefs, convictions and emotions. Emotions which are as scary and confusing as the forest. The forest becomes the battleground. The battle between good and evil, between Dev and Beera, between Ram and Raavan. But when the lines dividing good and evil are blurring fast whose side will you take. When hate turns to love and the good starts looking evil. Which side will you battle for? Love is the battle that nobody wins but everyone must fight. Even this Raavan.

Raajneeti: Moview review

Raajneeti
(Political Drama)

Friday, June 04, 2010

Cast: Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah and Katrina Kaif Music: Pritam Chakraborty, Aadesh Shrivastav, Shantanu Moitra, Wayne Sharp Director: Prakash Jha Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Raajneeti, writer-director Prakash Jha’s sprawling portrait of a political family, is a mixed bag. The film has moments of ferocious power and just as many flaws.

The narrative has a propulsive movement in the first half but becomes dramatically inert in the second. Jha, who has fought elections in Bihar himself, creates a real sense of the machinations and sordid deals that fuel politics but then hobbles it with outlandish twists and some decidedly ‘filmy’ moments – like a ridiculous love-making scene that is triggered because the characters get wet in the rain.

Apparently getting soaked in Bollywood still equals sex. And, as almost all the female characters in this film find out, having sex even one time, still equals babies.

The performances are strong—especially Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Nana Patekar—but the characters are largely one-note.

There has been much hype about Katrina Kaif learning lengthy Hindi dialogue for the film. She’s clearly worked hard but her luminous looks rather than acting are still her trump card.
Raajneeti is a film with ambition and scale but it works in fits and spurts. Jha’s political epic is too busy and bumpy and never quite fulfils the potential inherent in the story.

Raajneeti sources as much from The Godfather as it does from the Mahabharata. So we have sets of cousins whose rivalry spills into the open as soon as the head of the family suffers a stroke.

The film begins with a back-story of Sooraj Kumar, the Karna-like figure played by Ajay Devgn. Abandoned at birth, Sooraj is adopted by a Dalit family.

In quick succession, so many characters are introduced that Jha uses a voice-over to explain who is connected to whom and what the political affiliations are. It takes a good 15 minutes to take in the details and place the characters but the story-telling is engaging and soon you’re caught up with this Machiavellian family in which the plotting begins even as the father is still being treated by doctors. As the stakes get higher, the moves get bloodier.

Eventually, Samar Pratap, the Michael Corleone figure played by Ranbir Kapoor, the young brother who is working on a PhD on Victorian poetry, gets sucked into the murderous struggle for power.
Until here, Jha and his co-writer Anjum Rajabali tell the story with assurance and flair. But then the momentum dips and the intrigues become less and less interesting. Critically, Samar’s conversion to a ruthless murderer isn’t convincing. One minute he’s the student and the next, he, like everyone else is trigger-happy with bombs and guns.

Jha even borrows The Godfather’s famous severed horse-head scene.

Only here, a politician wakes up to find his male lover’s throat slit. Sadly, the gut-wrenching twist, when Kunti reveals to Karna that he is her son and therefore warring with his own brothers, is not done very effectively.

For the true power and emotion of that moment, watch Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug, in which the Mahabharata is transported to a business milieu. Shashi Kapoor who plays the Karna figure crumples slowly as he becomes aware of his own tragedy.

In its second hour, Raajneeti lets go of logic. We know that politics is an amoral, brutal cesspool but even so, leading politicians themselves murdering their rivals on a street in broad daylight is a bit of a stretch.

In a climactic shoot-out, we even have a perverted version of the Gita sermon in which the Krishna figure, played by Nana Patekar, insists on cold-blooded murder. Come on, finish them, he says.

Of course there is no one to root for in this gallery of rogues but more troublesome is the specious morality of the film. After a few feeble apologies, Samar Pratap finds a semblance of redemption.

Eventually then, Raajneeti is as exhausting as it is compelling.

Read more at: http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Review.aspx?id=518&ShowID=550&cp

Kites: Hindi movie review

Kites Preview
A love story that crosses borders and linguistic barriers, Kites is a tale of romance between an Indian guy and a Mexican beauty. Starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori in lead roles, the movie is directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Rakesh Roshan . The film has Hrithik playing a man named J, who once used to be a clever, street smart, charming guy, but is now a wanted man. To add to his woes he's left to die in the scorching heat of the Mexican desert. Only one desire keeps him alive, to find the woman he loves. That woman is Natasha (Barbara Mori). She is engaged to another man, but that makes no difference to J. If loving her brings down loads of troubles on him, J would happily bear it all. What is the fate of this love story where the lovers don't even speak each other's languages? While she talks in Spanish, he speaks Hindi with a smattering of English. Kangana Ranaut completes the love triangle by adding another angle to the Hrithik-Barbara love story. The film has some breath-taking dances from Hrithik, Barbara and Kangana. The choreography in these songs is by Flexy Stu, a renowned American choreographer. For one song shot in Mumbai, Farah Khan did the choreography.

Country : India
Movie color: Color
Language: Hindi
Genre: Romance / Action / Thriller
Release Date: May 21 2010
Banner: Film Kraft