Shahrukh Khan's New Movie Ra.One Review and Wallpapers

Ra.One	OverView
	Producer: Gauri Khan Director: Anubhav Sinha Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Shahana Goswami Music: Vishal-Shekhar Lyrics: Atahar Panchi, Vishal Dadlani and Kumaar Genre: Action Recommended Audience: General Approximate Running Time: 160 Mins Film Released on: 26 October 2011

Despite being a big budget film with some slick special effects Ra-One - directed by Anubhav Sinha (Dus, Cash), does not deliver the creativity or panache that viewers associate with many Western superhero films. It also falls short of the benchmark set by director S.Shankar for sheer, in-your-face, sci-fi fun in Enthiran. Shah Rukh Khan has reportedly invested hundreds of crore in this - his own production, as well as launching a global media campaign and the sale of merchandise. But even though the film has broken new ground in the sophistication of its special effects - it simply lacks heart. Not H.A.R.T. which is some wiz-bang acronym for the source of Ra-One’s power but good old-fashioned Bollywood heart - D.I.L. - that which the best Hindi films have in dollops.

It is quite a fast paced film about a geeky dad Shekhar (Shah Rukh Khan) who tries to win the affection of his son (Armaan Verma) by creating a video game called Ra-One in which the bad-guy potentially wins. What begins as a game spills over into reality as the villain (Arjun Rampal) takes control doing battle with the robotic hero G-One (Shah Rukh Khan) - protector of Shekhar’s family.

When I read that SRK adored James Cameron’s Avatar, I was fearful. Here was a film that took special effects to a new level but in the process lost out in terms of development, characters and ultimately - engagement. Would Ra-One suffer the same fate? It has and it’s unfortunate because Khan is a consummate entertainer but this film turns him into a plastic action figure. Mind you, this may be what he wanted since he has always claimed that he is making Ra-One for his kids. Maybe a Western female of an age is not the ideal audience.

But I love superhero movies. As a child, as an adolescent and as an adult I have been sucked in by this ‘other-worldly’ yet contemporary form of escapist entertainment. If I was an under-11, I might find aspects of Ra-One such as the kiddie-culture and game - interesting but ironically, in some countries the film has been classified as requiring parental guidance. I know that in India - films for a young audience are a new phenomenon so maybe Indian kids will respond to Ra-One as Western kids have responded to Spiderman. I just don’t believe that there is great ‘cross-over’ potential here.

Ra-One comes unstuck post-intermission because it does not ground its characters sufficiently in the first half. Shekhar is goofy and cartoon-like, his wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) is feisty and looks hot, their son is cool - that’s it. Some lame stand-off between father and son but no real tension. We are propelled into the second half with the dramatic entry of G-One who, it turns out, is rather like Rizvan Khan from Johar’s My Name is Khan (minus the charisma). So where can SRK display his wonderful propensity for emoting - in cartoon-man or plastic-man guise? At least in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi there was a human Suri to counteract the parody of Raj. I think I even prefer Mohabbat Man (Om Shanti Om) to the characters in Ra-One at least he was funny.

The humour in Ra-One is rather ‘wannabe’, verging on low-brow. Too many ‘jokes’ about kicking guys in the privates. There’s also a tacky moment at the airport when a customs official is sexually aroused by Khan’s body piercing on various unconventional body-parts. (So this is really a film for kids?) Despite a sleuth of writers responsible for delivering the screenplay and dialogues, the result is unimpressive.

A startling omission from the screenplay is the time of ‘realisation’ when a superhero is coming to terms with his powers and the audience is discovering what they are. G-One is born complete - no uncertainty, no transformation, no angst - he’s just there. His powers like Ra-One’s are - strength (yawn), speed (yawn) and some morphing (from the villain). Back stories enliven superhero narratives with their links to mythology and dark pasts. Barring the Raavan connection to Ra-One’s name and Jeevan (Life) link to G-One there is no context worth mentioning. Such a pity because a good back-story provides the idea and franchise (if it is to eventuate) with its longevity.

The songs were enjoyable enough although the gutsy “Raftarein” (Vishal- Shekhar) could have been made a feature instead of being tacked on during the credits. Khan’s goofy persona in the songs grew a little tiresome and the superhero could have received some spotlight.

With international input at all levels of production - screenplay, editing, photography, music and action co-ordination, Ra-One is still unlikely to ‘cross-over’. Maybe though, a new generation of Indian kids will find pleasure in playing with their action figures.

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Shahrukh khan Film''Ra.One'' Vs Salman Khan Film ''Bodygaurd''.

Both Superstars Salman Khan, and Shahrukh Khan Both are in The Top Ranking Actors, Recently Released Movie Bodyguard Creates History by Collecting Above 100 Crore in its First Week, Now The Question is that will RaOne The Most Awaiting Movie of Shahrukh Khan, and Shahrukh has spend 150 Crore on The Movie, This is not sure that if the budget of movie is huge then movie will be hit, but may be who knows, 

The RaOne will release on 26 October 2011. Still yet one song known as Chamak Challo and Teaser of Movie is released and people's like it so much, Really This is very Special Project of Srk, But in The Front of Salman Khan, No one is being hit. 

Will RaOne Break The Rewritten History Records of Bodyguard Or Not, fact is that both movies Releases on Events, while as Bodyguard released on EID, RaOne will release on Diwali.

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Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (Movie Review)

	Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
	Producer: Aditya Chopra Director: Ali Abbas Zafar Starring: Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar, John Abraham Music: Sohail Sen Lyrics: Irshad Kamil Genre: Romantic Recommended Audience: General Film Released on: 09 September 2011

Somewhere in the vast spaces of mainstream Hindi cinema, the North Indian shaadi with its band baaja and, yes, baarati, seems to have made a permanent place in our cinema. Mere Brother Ki Dulhan(MBKD) is the third film in the last 8 months after the delightful Band Baaja Baarati and the surprising Tanu Weds Manu to weave a rom-com around the sights sounds scents stress chaos and satire of a big fat Hindu wedding.

Must say, the other two films got it right dead-on. MBKD flounders in its frisky fusion of a love triangle and plea for an arranged marriage. Debutant director Ali Abbas Zafar knows the subtexts in his script well enough to conceal the rather glaring discrepancies in the storytelling.The narration quite frequently relies on jump cuts, retro music and other external ploys to make the goings-on appear more involving than they really are. The recurrent use of R D Burman’s Piya Tu Ab To Aaja has no relevance after a point. It just becomes a tiresome inclusion.The three main characters, played by three watchable stars one of them from across the border, manage to take the plot’s improbabilities into the province of the palatable. But the situational humour doesn’t quite have the delightfully disarming naturalness of Band Baaja Baraat.But the characters exude a contagious warmth, more in their individual capacity than in combinations. For a film about love warmth togetherness and family bonding during the time of a wedding, the interative warmth between characters is strangely missing. Besides one memorable sequence towards the beginning in front of the Taj Mahal(a recurring cultural and sociological symbol in the film) when they share cold chai, there is little to suggest any serious bonding between Katrina Kaif and Imran Khan…or for that matter, between the two brothers played by Ali Zafar and Imran Khan.Zafar who delighted in the satirical mode of Tere Bin Laden, returns with yet another performance that knows how over-the-top to go without toppling over. Yup, Zafar gets it pitch-perfect all the way. The same cannot be said of the film which occasionally slips into becoming a stretch.What really redeems the film’s blind spots is Katrina Kaif who brings a very spcial transparency and dazzle to her role of a wild child who wants to have all the fun that she can before she settles into a comfortably arranged marriage with the rakish NRI Ali Zafar.Fun, as it turns out, leading to falling in love with her brother-in-law-to-be. The turn of events may surprise the characters. We remain largely detached from the synthesis of celebration and drama.“What will I tell everyone?

 That I fell in love with my Bhabhi?” the embarrassed and horrified brother-in-law tells his untamable Babhi-to-be.That’s Imran Khan, playing the sweet-tempered benign do-gooder once again. Khan stays in his comfort zone while Katrina comes out of it to give herself and the audience the time of her life.There is nothing seriously amiss in MBKD. It gets right the camerawork (Sudeep Chatterjee), music (Sohail Sen) and the outdoor locations in and around Delhi. What it misses out on is that element of unpredictability during the time of a wedding that Band Baaja Baarat and Tanu Weds Manu managed to capture probably because the couple at the helm was supported by any number of splendid supporting stars. Here the supporting actors are serviceable. Parikshat Sahnni and Kanwaljeet as the couple’s fathers try to be coic and filmy. They just looke jaded.By the time the Brother walks away with the Dulhan we really have nothing we would like to say to them, except, what took them so long?

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Bodyguard -Movie Review

After watching Ready, I had started to lose my faith and trust in Salman Khan films, mainly because most of them have a similar look and feel of this uber-cool dude who always does everything right – right from thetakraar to the pyar ka ikraar to the dushmanon pe waar – in almost all films (save for a terrific Dabangg) that have been South remakes or rip-offs. And when the trailer of Bodyguard (a remake of the Malayalam film of the same name) came along, I had already started to assume there’s going to be a set way the movie’s going to be shot, edited and executed – and I wasn’t liking the kind of imagery I had formed in my head at all.

The only difference that this movie was making apart from all the other Sallu masala entertainers was that they chose a more prominent female lead this time over (Kareena Kapoor), and this wasn’t helping change my mindset in any way, but despite all of this I had decided to watch the movie, if only to check out how much more redundant the Hindi film industry would become, with such movies churning out with immense regularity. And this is exactly where a film like Bodyguard stands out to be pretty different from the rest of the ilk.

Set in Jaisinghpur and Pune, the movie traces the life of a punctual, efficient bodyguard Lovely Singh (Salman Khan), who’s as mechanical and dumb as some robots could be. He is assigned to protect Divya (Kareena Kapoor), the daughter of businessman-politician Sartaj Rana (Raj Babbar), the latter of whose debt Lovely can’t seem to repay. At first, the bodyguard’s over-protective nature irks Divya to no end, and this is when she starts a series of pranks that end up changing her life – and with her, the life of the madly-in-love Lovely Singh.

Yes, Bodyguard is laced with the typical hotchpotch blend of action, romance, emotion, comedy and the likes. Yes, Bodyguard seems to rest on Salman Khan’s star power. Yes, there are a couple of speed-breakers in the form of abrupt songs thrown into the mix. Yes, yes, yes. But there’s one main ingredient in the whole of this film that makes it different from all of the recent logic-defying south remakes and masala films (Bbuddah, Singham, Ready), and that’s the overpowering romantic on-screen chemistry between Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

Realistic, beautifully portrayed and well-etched, this movie ends up being a sensitive love story, with all other ingredients acting like subplots that only make this movie more marketable to a more universal audience. The one thing that hasn’t changed all the way from its Malayalam original to it’s Tamil remake, all the way to this Hindi version is the director – Siddique, and the one good thing about this director is that he’s managed to heavily tweak it to suit the Bollywood audiences.

The screenplay has also been smoothed out for a better narration, though the only disappointment was the fact that when you throw Salman in the mix, you almost alwayshave to show him as the macho superhero, and this is also where the story has changed to fit in Salman’s characterization to make him a true 70’s-80’s Hindi movie protagonist, who will dance, sing, love, fight and the likes – unlike the Malayalam and Tamil originals which showed slightly more realistic male protagonists. But there’s a drastic difference between his performance here compared to the barrage of his films that have ruled the box-office recently. The screenplay also seems to have been tweaked for the better of the end product, and this shows. Dialogues are far subtler for a masala film and the execution makes for a good amount of difference.

And it’s not just the story and screenplay here – the movie has also been technically handled like it’s not a conventional South remake with loud and jumpy editing and annoying camerawork and nothing to speak about the cinematography – in fact, it’s quite opposite to the conventional. Sejal Shah’s cinematography captures each frame deliciously giving the movie a classy feel, backed by strong camerawork that doesn’t move irritatingly, except for in those hardcore action sequences, which also have a certain difference to them. Amazing use of beautifully shallow depth of field, and terrific color-grading with soft, warm colors makes all the difference to each frame. Editing by Sanjay Sankla is consistent, not loud, and makes the pace smooth.

Music by Himesh Reshammiya is passable (save for a mind-blowingly composed and shot Teri Meri) but what brings it up are the music videos! Pritam’s I Love You takes the cake in both the music and the visual portions.

Coming to the Performances, this movie, like all other Salman movies, is a Salman film all the way, but the difference is in his performance. In all other masala films that he’s done of late starting with Wanted, he’s played the bad-boy-with-a-good-heart, but here he holds a more restrained look throughout, and this is why all the people who view the film will appreciate his performance, which is what holds the film from the first frame till the last. This is the first of Sallu’s recent in which the woman plays an equal and important role in the film.

Kareena essays the role with aplomb. Her chirpy attitude, getting annoyed, falling in love and breaking down, all look pretty realistic, and add to that she looks extremely gorgeous, and that tends to be an icing on the cake! Hazel is commendable and has potential. Raj Babbar handles his role efficiently. Mahesh Manjrekar doesn’t do anything new, and I might have just been disappointed with him this time around. Aditya Panscholi proves yet again that he’s the menacing villain he can be, and post Dum Maaro Dum, he manages to make an impact in this cameo yet again. Others like Rajat Rawail (Tsunami? Really?), Asrani and Vidya Sinha are added fillers and don’t have much to do.

Now that I’ve stated some of the extremely positive parts of the film, I’d also like to state the more negative ones:-

• Instead of focusing on the love story, most of the first half is shown to be an ego trip on Sallu’s brawn and his action, his promotional song (even though well-shot, was it even necessary?) and some really insipid humor and subplots in the first half, which makes most of the pre-intermission reels stale and redundant.

• The pre-climax and climax portions look pretty hurried, and the turn that takes Hazel’s character toward a new angle looks pretty convincing at first, but the last scene makes you feel: Hey, that was far too convenient. Despite the drawback, the twist does end up working to a certain extent.

• Karisma Kapoor doing the ADR (dubbing) for Kareena’s phone prank-conversations with Salman – highly illogical for starters. If the love story and the rest of the sequences handled between Kareena Kapoor are subtle, why give this an over-the-top angle?

• The train scene between Hazel and Salman Khan! DDLJ overdrive, folks?

Overall, this movie brings back the romantic in Salman Khan that we’ve seen over the tenure of his acting career with brilliant films like Saajan, Maine Pyaar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, and despite the fact that it does have a whole lot of randomness thrown in the middle, it works largely because of Salman Khan’s towering, yet restrained performance, Kareena Kapoor’s powerhouse presence and the firebrand chemistry between the two, making for a very sensitively woven romance drama amidst all the action and humor.

The twist at the end does take you by surprise, also making for a well-narrated screenplay, but originality rules, and so does Dabangg, which, though having absolute masala in it’s brashness, isn’t a remake or a rip-off by any means! Still, if you can watch Transformers and have fun, or Singham for that matter, this is going to be big bang for your buck! A fun summer-festival blockbuster!

Bodyguard-Salman Khan Kareena kapoor

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