Rann

Rann
EXPECTATIONS From the man who gave us a quintessential musical in the form of Rangeela a decade and a half back, it is surprising to see that none of his recent releases (with an exception of Darling) have attempted to tell a musical tale in a conventional mainstream setup. This is why theme/situational track is all that one expects from the music of Rann which comes from the house of Ram Gopal Varma. An array of composers - Dharmaraj Bhatt, Sandeep Patil, Jayesh Gandhi, Bapi-Tutul, Sanjeev Kohli, Imran-Vikram and Amar Mohile come together to get the soundtrack of Rann in place. MUSIC It is interesting to hear the way ‘Sikkon Ki Bhook’ begins with anchors reading out news headlines. Soon after, the song begins in its conventional sense with the sound of ‘Rann Hai’ being heard prominently in the background. Vardan Singh, Aditi Paul and Shadab Fardi come together for this Vayu written song which also has the theme of ‘Vande Mataram’ making an appearance after a while. Though the song may well have been titled ‘Vande Mataram’, it appears that ‘Sikkon Ki Bhook’ is the chosen one for this Dharmaraj Bhatt and Sandeep Patil composed track to avoid any controversy. ‘Remote Ko Baahar Phek’ begins on exactly the same manner as ‘Sikkon Ki Bhook’ with screaming headlines catching your attention. It’s time for a rhythmic outing soon after with Jayesh Gandhi composing and singing the track in a manner similar to what one had heard in ‘Jagdi Jagdi Jaa’ from Ramu’s own Shiva. It takes time to warm up to this spoofy track which is laced with wit, courtesy it’s lyrics by Sarim Momin that make a scathing remark on the way news is projected and at times created. Abhishek Nailwal as well as Rajpal Yadav join Jayesh in this song which may make a brief appearance in the narrative of Rann. Bapi-Tutul’s ‘Kaanch Ke Jaise’ is a better track to make an appearance as it takes a pensive route and narrates the tale of shattered principles of the central protagonist played by Amitabh Bachchan. Sukhwinder Singh is quite impressive in the way he pitches his voice for this yet another track written by Sarim Momin. Moving at a slow pace, this track should help the viewer glued on to screen with visuals aiding in bringing alive a crucial turn in the film’s narrative. Sanjeev Kohli composes and sings another title song which has it’s thump reserved for the key words - ‘Rann Hai’. Yet again, it’s Sarim Momin’s lyrics that make a good impression in bringing to life the pathos of media being akin to a battlefield. As predicted earlier, Rann is made of mostly background tracks that should appear in bits and pieces and a song like ‘Rann Hai’ pretty much validates that. It’s the sound of Doordarshan anthem which marks a beginning to ‘Gali Gali Mein’ (which also appears in a ‘remix version’ designed for a club outing) that soon changes dimension and turns into a Western outing. Written by Sandip Singh, one gets a hint of cuss words that are beeped out in this yet another scathing comment about the current affairs of our country, corruption, politics and media ethics. Sung by Jojo and Earl D’souza who go full throated for this Imran-Vikram created composition, this one should bring on the smiles in theatres, courtesy its colourful lyrics. Bapi-Tutul have another song to their credit in the form of ‘Besharam’ which, just like most of the album, has an anthem feel to it and is sung by Abhishek Nailwal. This Prashant Pandey written track challenges the presence of ugly elements in the society and how they have reached the point of no turn with no hopes of any redemption whatsoever. Surprisingly, there is an ‘instrumental’ version of the song that follows next. Lastly comes Kunal Ganjawala sung ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ which carries on the elements as prevalent in all the songs preceding it and yet another gets into a challenging mode. Composed by Amar Mohile and written by Sarim Momin, this could well be one of the more commercially viable songs in the album and could go some distance if aided by a music video. OVERALL As expected, Ram Gopal Varma doesn’t create a music album which would lead to beelines in front of music stores. However, he gets the kind of soundtrack that should solve its purpose of facilitating the story telling of Rann. OUR PICK(S) Mera Bharat Mahan, Gali Gali Mein
Source: www.bollywoodhungama.com

Striker
EXPECTATIONS Hardly any. These are what one’s expectations are from the music of Striker. If the film’s title is hardly encouraging enough to check out what the music has to offer (Striker is about a carom player living in slums and surrounded by criminals), the cast, people behind the film as well as an abrupt release announcement preceded by an audio release are hardly enticing enough. Moreover, even with six composers (Shailendra Barve, Amit Trivedi, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Swanand Kirkire, Vishal Bhardwaj, Blaaze) contributing a song or two, you do feel apprehensive if Striker would indeed be an ensemble affair worth making a beeline for. MUSIC Reluctantly one plays on Striker and Sonu Nigam brings on the longest track in the album, ‘Cham Cham’, which lasts more than seven minutes. Composed by Shailendra Barve (who was the guest composer in Taare Zameen Par with a beautifully composed ‘Mera Jahan’ to his credit), ‘Cham Cham’ written by Jeetendra Joshi is yet another soothing piece with a ‘qawalli’ base to it. However, instead of following a tried and tested genre, ‘Cham Cham’ makes a good effort (and also succeeds) in being slower in pace and also maintaining a good blend of rhythm and melody that starts settling in after one has given it a patient hearing 3-4 times. Amit Trivedi (of Dev D fame) comes up with ‘Bombay Bombay’ which appears to be a jam session that has been impromptu converted into a full fledged number for a film. Prashant Ingole’s lyrics don’t quite bring in much novelty in the proceedings, especially the part where Siddharth (the lead actor in the film and also the singer here) starts ‘talking’ about the essence of ‘Bombay’. Also, the number eventually appears to be a wannabe track with not much grip in it to make you play it on in a repeat mode. At best a track that may appear briefly in the background. ‘Haq Se’ is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja who is a known name down south with close to 75 films to his credit. His number here does take it’s own time to settle in and though it is not really the kind that would result in the sales soaring for Striker, it has a hook to it which catches your attention. One wonders though if he could have roped in some other singer than himself since he does sound awkward, especially in the ‘mukhda’ person. This Nitin Raikwar written track is yet another theme track and is about motivating an individual to for his dreams. Swanand Kirkire gets into a ’sufi’ mode and plays the triple role of a composer, lyricist and singer for ‘Maula’. A well paced number with an interesting beginning via means of various instruments coming together that remind one of R.D. Burman’s sense of orchestra, ‘Maula’ has a soothing feel to it and after ‘Cham Cham’ turns out to be another track that turns out to be a decent hear. The best of the lot though comes in the form of ‘Yun Hua’ which has Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar pairing up once again. 30 seconds into the song and you know that it has a distinct stamp of this musical ‘jodis’ that is fast earning a loyal audience for itself. A soft song which remains Indian in appeal throughout with a touch of Western classical shade to it, ‘Yun Hua’ is sung beautifully by Vishal who makes one sit up and wonder all over again that why doesn’t he get behind the mike more often? After singing the title track of Kaminey, he impresses once again. After ‘Cham Cham’, composer-lyricist team of Shailendra Barve and Jeetendra Joshi return with ‘Pia Saanvara’ which is the first (and the only) song to arrive with a female voice. A soft song which has an uncanny resemblance to the title track of Chalte Chalte in it’s beginning portion, ‘Pia Saanvara’ comes on it’s own the moment Sunidhi Chauhan takes over. A slow moving number with a semi-classical base to it, ‘Pia Saanvara’ is about a woman pining for her love to come close to her all over again. The album ends on a euphoric note with Blaaze’s ‘Aim Lagaa’ which has a Remo Fernandes feel to it and picks up the steam from the word ‘Go’. Rest assured, this number should find an appearance all through the background score of Striker, especially at the crucial junctures. A rap track that doesn’t require much attention from a viewer and listener from the lyrics perspective, it has good enough beats that go well with the theme track that Striker would have been expecting. A good ending to the album. OVERALL As stated earlier, it’s zero buzz around the film coupled with largely unknown names and coming together of an unconventional score that would go against Striker from the sales perspective. Nothing wrong with being unconventional but then if an album has to make an impression commercially, it requires an adequate backing as well; something which is completely missing in case of Striker. OUR PICK(S) ‘Aim Lagaa’, ‘Yun Hua’, ‘Cham Cham’ [Play Songs]
Source: www.bollywoodhungama.com


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Superman Returns

Superman Returns
Last summer, director Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the BATMAN legend with a character-driven thrill-ride chock full of surprises and endless invention, but the same can’t be said of Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS, which feels like a retread for much of its lethargic and bloated running-time. I can’t say this was a major disappointment since my expectations […]

Last summer, director Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the BATMAN legend with a character-driven thrill-ride chock full of surprises and endless invention, but the same can’t be said of Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN RETURNS, which feels like a retread for much of its lethargic and bloated running-time. I can’t say this was a major disappointment since my expectations going in were modest at best, but this thing was sooo shockingly mundane; nothing in this movie stirs up much excitement or comes close to matching the awe and wonder Richard Donner’s film fashioned so exhuberantly.

With few exceptions, the casting is disastrous: Bosworth takes the plucky Lois Lane and imbues her with the sum energy derived from digesting a handful of sleeping pills; Spacey’s Luthor, while more faithful to the source material than previous screen versions, isn’t half as memorable as Gene Hackman’s playful take on the character, and Frank Langella is sooo lackluster a Perry White I’m not even sure he was awake when his scenes were shot. As for Routh, he improved as the film progressed, but he still looks more like Superboy (or, more precisely, RUSHMORE’s Max Fischer) than the Man of Steel. (His adolescent looks and awkward first attempts to mimic Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent are painful to watch)

The missteps in casting could have been glossed over if the film delivered some truly jaw-dropping scenes of Super-derring-do, but there’s little suspense or excitement to the action set-pieces that seem regurgitated from previous films, and the special-effects — the one area it was reasonable to expect improvement in leaps and bounds — are competent but unambitious and not that big an upgrade from what Donner achieved in 1978. In fact, director Bryan Singer, who did such a fine job with the first two X-MEN films, seems so intent on capturing the style of the Donner classic that he leaves little of his own imprint on SUPERMAN RETURNS. SUPERMAN RETURNS most reminds me of Tim Burton’s “re-imagining” of PLANET OF THE APES; each had heaps of money lavished on them, but both are completely lifeless. And since when did Clark Kent wear glasses as a young boy??

Ultimately, this new SUPERMAN may appeal more to those who didn’t grow up with the Christopher Reeve movies, but at 2 1/2 hours, it may be too slow to become the smash Warner was hoping for; it certainly won’t rule the box-office for 13 consecutive weeks as the 1978 original did. In the end, it’s ironic the filmmakers chose to feature the song “Heart and Soul” when SUPERMAN RETURNS had neither.

Source: www.bestfilms.info

X-Men - The Last Stand
I am an advid fan of both the x-men comic books and the movies. I have been a fan of Marvel Comics for over twenty years. I feel that the characters depths were reached in the first two movies but were not carried on to the third, yet they seemed to add many more to […]

I am an advid fan of both the x-men comic books and the movies. I have been a fan of Marvel Comics for over twenty years. I feel that the characters depths were reached in the first two movies but were not carried on to the third, yet they seemed to add many more to the mix, and the special features were a travisty. These things lead to my actual review being closer to 2.5 stars.

I feel that the addition of new characters enhanced the movie and hindered it at the same time. Beast, played by Kelsey Grammar was very well done, to the point of him saying “Oh my stars and garters.” The Kitty Pryde character seemed one dimensional with no depth at all. She is shown to be a bit intelligent in the class room discussing Plato’s view of ethics, but then used as a third wheel of a love triangle dissolves the hope of any furhter depth. Colossus’s use of the “fastball special”, at the beginning the movie, was awesome to the point of ingenious, but that is where his character loses his appeal. He has next to no lines and begins to blend into the background in many scenes.

The plot is based very losely on the story arc “The Dark Pheonix Saga” and when I say losely, I truly mean losely. The comic story involved a much greater deal of internal conflict within Jean, in which Jean solves by comitting suicide. In this movie, her death only comes by the hand, or claws of, yup you guessed it, Wolverine. The depths of emotional conflict in Jean is never brought to the screen, except for her saying thank you to Wolverine at the end of her life. I felt no pythos or pain, that her life needed to be forfeited. I was unimpressed and unmoved by the representation of the pheonix/Jean saga.

Extras/Special features? These were all things picked up off of the floor of the editing room and pasted, any way they could, back into the movie.
3 Alternate endings that have no rationale behind them or connection to the movie. The world of Marvel, this section is a cheap way for Marvel to exploit the viewer into purchasing some of the lesser quality superhero movies. They show the trailers for Daredevil, Electra and FF. Ther is no in depth look into the world of Marvel Comics at all. For those who really want to be cheated out of their hard earned cash, buy the colectors edition of the DVD, it has different packaging and a comic that stars San Lee. Yeah!!!

The whole presentation from the coverr of the actual DVD to the Special Features seem as thrown together as the actual Movie. I as a viewer feel a bit let down by the conclusion of the trilogy. Marvel, does not seem to shy away from the open handed, gimmie your money approach to commerece, just look at the Civil War Strory in stores now, so I would have to say wait a few months and you will probally see a new release of the DVD that does not seem so thrown together.

Source: www.bestfilms.info

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