Filmiholic has a great article with Sonali Bose, the director of Amu. The film premiered on Friday here in NYC. The film was originally released back in January 2005, but is just releasing now in the states. I missed the premiere on Friday cos I was so toasted, but I think I'll check it out tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to seeing Konkona Sen Sharma again on the big screen again.

mmmmmyeah. So unless you're really bored or really need to waste some time in a dark room avoid Provoked and Life In a Metro at all costs. They were both pretty painful.

Metro tried too hard to be too many things and failed at doing much of anything. Although I did enjoy Konkona Sen Sharma's part. Provoked had a lot of potential with such a great cast, but a really, really bad script. Really bad.

I'd rather watch this Irish deer eat some grass than sit through either of those movies again.

Also, sitting through previews for Jhoom Barabar Jhoom twice in a row was too much. Why do the people at Yash Raj films feel so compelled to dress up a 65 year old man like a pimp??? GAH!

..mmmkay, maybe not but his new flick Night At The Museum is being dubbed in all three languages for Indian audiences. It has been reported that the script has been "tweaked" for local sensibilities. Hrm, I dunno - this movie looks like a stinker no matter what language its in. After Zoolander (one of my fav movies) I got sort of tired of the Stiller/Wilson combo.

Kabir Khan's Kabul Express is currently showing at the ImaginAsian theatre for a short time so I thought I'd try to catch it since I'm on a mini vacation.

The song-less film (gasp!) is shot like a documentary. John Abraham's character looked sort of confused throughout the movie - he's basically just eye candy (can't really complain about that). Arshad Warsi is entertaining as usual. The American journalist played by Linda Arsenio was a poor choice. She doesn't seem to be a very good actress & I've never seen her in any movies before - very stiff delivery.

The movie's rather fast, and can be a little confusing at times. First, they're kidnapped by a member of the Taliban, but then he's not really the Taliban? He was really part of the Pakistani army? Wait? Oh, he then turned into the Taliban? Oh Ok? And how on earth does John Abraham keep his hair looking so nice throughout the whole flick? The female journalist even has pink eyeshadow on after days of being stuck in a car in the middle of nowhere. Priorities, I guess.

Kabul Express was a nice try for a directorial debut. It's also only 120 minutes or so which makes it bearable. I appreciated that Kabir doesn't really "take sides" and presents different angles of responsbility for the situation in Aghanistan.


PS: Am I having a senior moment? When I saw previews for this film in the theatres in Oct/Nov the previews suggested they actually encountered Osama Bin Laden himself. Was this scrapped or was I just trippin'?

I just obtained this the other night. It's not so impressive the first listen especially not that annoying "Come On Come On" track. I will give it a listen a few  more times. Although I am glad to see that Richa Sharma is on the soundtrack. She has a song on the soundtrack. I love her voice, it's very unique.

I was pretty much expecting a really awful movie, but was pleasantly surprised.
The opening dance sequence for the horrendously awful song Dhoom Again was the best of all the movie. Hritik is a really good dancer and I was happy to see that choreographer Shiamak has laid off the pop-n-lock.  Maybe my expectations were really low, so that's why I was entertained? It also helped that the theatre was full of people who were very animated & jeering  at the screen in all the right spots.

In NYC, you can check out Dhoom 2 at the ImaginAsianTheatre.

I saw Umrao Jaan last night & it really stunk. The first have before the intermussion was basically naptime. It consisted of close ups of Aish's face & frames of Abhishek brooding & looking moody. There was no chemistry at all even though they really tried by overacting.

 It picked up afterwards & became slightly more engaging... but still pretty crappy. J.P Dutta wanted to elaborate on Ameeran/Umrao's inner story, but really it ended being more about Khanum Sahib's inner "struggle". What is the point of remaking a movie that was actually pretty good to begin with? 

 

I went & saw Jaan-E-Mann last night. I was pleasantly surprised. It was very theatrical, some very good dance scenes. I like seeing films that are here in NYC, esp since a lot of the shots they use are so touristy. Why do Bollywood films always shoot at south street seaport ? South street seaport sucks. I don't know any NY'ers who go there for fun. It's a tourist trap. Anway, even tho I don't like Salman Khan so much, it was enjoyable.

I was surprised that Don wasn't so horrible. I mean, it was totally cheesy, but overall it was good. I'm glad that they messed w/the plot so it wasn't a cookie cutter of the original. The choreography in Yeh Mera Dil really stunk though as well as the song remake. Oh well.