Swagat hai aapka kaun banega Crorepati dwitya mein!
Aur ye raha 2 crore rupaiye ke liye aapka sawaal…
The above two lines are no strange to Indian audience.. Amitabh Bachchan did it first and then Shahrukh Khan followed but now Anil Kapoor does the same although not on TV but on the larger screen. He plays host of the show: “Who wants to be a millionaire” (English translation of Kaun Banega Crorepati).
No one would have thought that someone will make a full movie on a TV show but British director Danny Boyle found an opportunity to make a brilliant masterpiece keeping the TV show in background. The movie has already won several awards in the selected limited screenings it has had so far.
The movie is basically about a kid from slums of Mumbai managing to get a berth in the show “Who wants to be a millionaire” and the events that follow. The kid was arrested for a probable case of fraud/cheating as no one expected the kid to advance to the final levels. This suspicion prompted the show host to call for an enquiry, where the kid (referred to as Slumdog in the movie) takes the police inspector (played by Irrfan Khan) through his life and how an illiterate kid from slums of Mumbai knew answers to the questions that even literates might find dicey at times.
The movie takes you through life of a slumdog through a series of events. It is basically like walking through the tragedies of life of a slumdog without having that thrown directly at face. The changeovers between the TV show and the life are so subtle that you at times even forget about the show running in background.
In all this drama and action, the movie also conveys a message of “Never give up” in a very profound manner. The quest of finding her girlfriend never ended for the slumdog despite the challanges and problems he faced!
Although the storyline of the movie is not very strong so as to say but the magnificent screenplay and excellent direction makes this movie a brilliant watch. I am yet to find a person who did not like this movie.
No suprises, the movie scores 4.5 on 5 and is highly recommended.
January 11, 2009
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abhitaneja |
2008, Bollywood, Good Ratings, Hollywood, Movie review |
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Oh My Goodness!
Now what the hell is this?
Even after having seen one of these movies, I had no clue that these were two different movies altogether. I saw the name different at two places and neglected that for a possible typo but after having seen the movie and when I could not find any of the songs, I was confused. A basic search on Google revealed something that made me jump out of my chair!!
Jun 27, 2008 – Two new movies were released.
One from Yash Raj Films – Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (TPTM)
and the other one from director Anand Rai – Thodi Life Thoda Magic (TLTM)
Should I call this a case of game theory in practice?
Consider the scenario: Two directors have decided upon the name of their movies as TPTM and TLTM and conflict regarding who came up with the name could not be resolved. Now the next issue in context is obviously the advertisements, promotions and the release date of the movie.
YRF being the bigger banner could get a larger share in the media and the other group did not contest it much (Not a dominant strategy for unknown banner to spend high on advertisements). So the more important factor here comes out to be release date.
Consider the case when Movie 1 comes before Movie 2. The name of these movies is so much similar that the second movie would be lost in the identity of the first one. If the first one is a success, it could draw some public or alternatively could lose market since people might confuse it for the first one, which they have already seen. On the other hand, if the first one is a flop, then there would be hardly any public knowing about the second one and it would pay for the sins of other one. So the payoff matrix if we see comes out to be negative if you move late, positive if you move first and unpredictable if you move along.
As a result, both the players would try to move before the other player but since it is like a game of simultaneous move where all the information is shared between the two players, second player would know as soon as first player tries to release it. This would lead to a further early move from the second player.
Clearly the dominant strategy for both the players comes when they move along, i.e. release the movie together, which is exactly what they did to avoid heavy negative payoffs involved with late release.
How much did it pay for each of the players and what is the effect of others performance on each movie would be known only by the end of this week or may be by the next week but in any case, it is really confusing and misguiding for the moviegoers. Moviegoers will have tough time in deciding which of the magic they want to see – Life or Love is the choice!
July 4, 2008
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abhitaneja |
2008, Bollywood, Movie |
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3 Comments
A good week for watching movies. The second review for movies I watched this week.
Amu- Simple yet very powerful
the central character of the movie is a foreign return girl Kaju played by Konkana sen sharma who left the country when she was 3. Now that she is back in the country she wants to explore her motherland and is more keen to know about the interiors and about the poverty ridden. Among these she was also keen to know about her actual family as she was an adopted child. During her interaction with people she gets to know about the 1984 riots and gets very curious to know about it in details. This coincides with her quest to know about her family as she finds out that her mother had migrated to city before she died and she happened to be living in the region which was most affected by the riots. She falsely assumes some drunkard to be her father as his wife’s initials match with her mother’s. This is the time when she is told everything about her family. The movie enters a flashback mode. She belonged to a Sikh family and her father was killed in the riots. Her mother tried to get some help and in trying to do so, she also loses her baby brother. Her mother shifts with her to a relief camp and there her mother hands her over to her new mother.
It would be inappropriate to say that the movie portrays the sufferings of people well (since those sufferings actually could not be reflected/portrayed at all – The loss and suffering caused is uncomparable). It attempts to reflect on the insane and irrationale behaviour of the Hindu community then. Although at times, it appears to be an attempt to target specifically the Hindu community but a few otherwise instances were sufficient to get the benefit of doubt from me. As far as timing of the movie is concerned, I think it is a bit late and could have been released when the rulings on 1984 riots were announced. Anyways the movie would not be able to cash in huge amounts for being on such a serious and sensitive issue but crititcally, the movie manages to score high for good handling of a sensitive issue, for apt screenplay, an engaing pace and above all its simplicity and effectiveness!
The movie by no means is a commercial movie but for all fans of sensible movies, Amu is yet another treat. All the people sensitive to the social issues are likely to feel touched by the movie.
Going by the rating tradition, Amu manages to score 4 on 5 for its subject, good acting by Konkana Sen Sharma (and others) and a good and engaging pace of the movie.
It is indeed an art to present so much sensitive issues in a manner that will heart everybody’s heart and yet not offend anybody.
February 21, 2008
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2008, Bollywood, Good Ratings, Movie review |
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Jodha Akbar
Good direction, Good Sets, Good Acting, Proper dialogue delivery, Proper casting … is sufficient enough to make a successful period movie.
Akbar is a kind hearted king who doesnt believe in inwanted tortures and uncalled wars. His target is to rule whole of the country but with harmony. He believes in making allies(to work under him) and not fighting them for stake. A fight is last resort to him and he would like to do anything to save any bloodsheds and to save honour of his territory. In fulfilling this quest, he is confronted with a difficult condition to marry a Rajput girl. He agrees to marry and also agrees to allow her to keep her religion. This does not pleases some of his family members who try their best to distance Jodha and Akbar. Falling into one such trap, Akbar sends Jodha back to Amer but as soon as he realises his mistake, he himself moves to Amer to get her back. Jodha made her feel that although he can win wars but he knows little about ruling. He gets the point and did a marketing research on what is percieved wrong among common man and he takes immediate actions to bring about changes. Then there are couple of war scenes, which are very similar to the scenes from Troy.
Hrithik Roshan does a terrific job in the Mughal getup. Deliviering Urdu dialogue is not that easy but he does it with so ease that one could not help but admire. Aishwarya Rai also displayed extremely good acting display. The emotions are pretty similar to what I was expecting for this being a period movie.
What I think lacked in movie was some focus on Jodha and Akbar. At times movie strayed a bit from the theme but those durations are so small that before someone realises it is off the point, it gets back. So, it doesn’t hurt the movie as such.
Overall a tremendous performance on part of actors, a beautiful job on part of script writer and terrific job as far as costume designer is concerned.
Based on the lively performances by the actors, I would rate Jodha Akbar 3.5 on the scale of 5. There is not much more one could expect from a Period movie.
Why to watch?:
Lively performances by actors
Good Direction
Long yet engaging throughout
Good sets
Well written dialogues
Why not to watch?:
Only if period movies is not your taste and you do not admire Hrithik Roshan or Aishwarya Rai
I strongly recommend that you watch this movie.
February 21, 2008
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abhitaneja |
2008, Bollywood, Good Ratings, Movie review |
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I had heard a lot about this movie but never had the chance to watch it and then I thought it was too late to spend any time watching an old movie. But things do change and yesterday was a bit different. While browsing through list of available movies on LAN, I came through the name Jogger’s Park and thought ‘why not?’. And to tell you frankly, I have become a huge fan of this movie now.
I know you must be aware of story but still just for the sake of background in case you missed it, here is the story:
Justice Jyotin Prasad Chatterjee (JC) , one of the most respected judge, retires from the post after serving the nation for 40 years. He has never taken any favours from anybody and has always gave rulings in favour of justice. But now is the difficult thing for him. He, being a judge, never socialised much throughout his life and now being a public figure is afraid of social gatherings. He, who used to be busy all the time with his work, has now nothing at all to do. His family members suggest him to join Jogger’s Park to keep himself fit and busy. Initially he did not like the idea much for the fear of public there but when everybody insists, he agrees to join the Jogger’s Park. There he meets a ‘model cum VJ cum event manager cum hotel manager’- Jenny, who is a big fan of his. The bonding between them gets stronger and stronger and JC feels love for first time in his life (but he has a family!!). The story carries on and a lot of characters are introduced. Then one fine day, Jenny was unwell and JC took him to hospital and Jenny also felt love for JC (Earlier it was mostly regard for him). But JC has a family and there is a big age gap!!. Jenny’s friend told her about Ranjit’s love for her (Ranjit is a famous singer) but she is incapable of deciding anything at the moment due to feelings for JC. Her friend told her not to get carried away with those feelings for JC as that is not love but infatuation. To prove the point, she asks JC to come over to Jenny’s place for a party on the day of JC’s wedding anniversary (which JC did not remember as he was so much involved with Jenny). While he was about to leave, a newpaper editor visits his place and handed over some photographs of him and Jenny that were supposed to be published in next day’s edition but he, being the editor, stopped it from happening for some favour JC had done in past. JC’s daughter gets the photographs and asked him to choose either if the two. JC had no choice but to choose family and they moved to Pune. After 4 years, JC met Jenny at airport and she was married to Ranjit. She was happy.
The movie portrayed that love sees no age barriers, which was portrayed beautifully by running the love story of JC’s granddaughter in parallel. On the other hand was social norms – either it can be about you and your happiness or your responsibilities. Society doesn’t approve of such a behaviour and JC himself gave a ruling against similar case involving his son in family court(A judge never retires in that sense). On the one hand, movie talks about freedom of individual while talking about social norms restricting our actions on the other hand. Director manages to strike a perfect balance between the two, effectively conveying the importance of striking this balance in real life as well. The actors really played the characters well and you can relate to them as common man. Despite of building a plot around high power individuals (which I think was an appropriate act), the characters are representative of the common man and there is no jazz about the high end society.
There is just this one story and a very powerful one. There is no redundant story running parallel, which had become quite a common phenomenon lately. The songs are really good and the background score by Usha Uthup, which I earlier thought was irritating, managed to engage me totally into the movie.
Hats off to the apt screenplay, awesome music, simple yet effective script and good story.
February 9, 2008
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2003, Bollywood, Good Ratings, Movie review |
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First things first.. Unless you know what this movie is all about, you would not be able to know that till last 20-25 minutes of the movie. The movie aspires to be another RDB but fails miserably in doing that.
RDB was about a common man raising his voice against the corrupt system in the country, Halla Bol is about a famous movie star doing exactly the same. Aamir Khan in RDB chose the route of violence, Ajay Devgan suggests Gandhian ways to fight the same.
To be frank, it seems like the director did not have it clear as to what was it that he was trying to focus and convey. On one hand, it had ingredients common with RDB while on the other hand, the first half of the movie focuses on the character of Ajay Devgan (who plays a famous action hero in the movie) and film industry in general. The transition from the film industry to the fight for truth was not abrupt but it was ineffective. Although I would have to agree that some of the scenes reflect that the director wanted to show things from real life but unfortunately, he could not mend up those gaps of artificiality in between.
The movie starts with Ashafaq Khan, an aspiring actor, trying to get break into film industry. He happened to have good references but still no one seems to be interested in signing him. Then he happens to meet a director who was looking for a person in specific and on listening to a fake story by Ashafaq, agrees to sign Ashafaq as hero for his movie. (A very simplistic and very stupid portrayal). Ashafaq changes his name to Sameer and Sameer becomes egotist. He even rejected his Guru’s request to perform for a protest presentation. Everybody leaves him and he is alone in his life, yet focused on his career. (Again too simplistic a portrayal). Then he encounters murder of a young lady he knew from some Acting competition he chaired long back. Everybody refrained from making any comment, even after being eye-witness to the incident, so as to stay away from controversies. Some silly comments and comparisons are being made to celebrities suffering for getting into such controversies (e.g. Aamir Khan’s involvement in Narmada case). The convicts are sons of Member of Legislative assembly and a Liquor Barron (The idea is highly influential people) and obviously threats are being made to Sameer and his family. He fights!! They lose the case but he doesn’t stop. He still fights and decides to perform a protest presentation – “Halla Bol”. Obviously the influential people decide to prevent that but he doesn’t stop. The impact is that he finds himself fighting against death in a hospital. It is then that Junta feels awaken. They come in full heartedly in support of Sameer Khan and there is a nation wide protest. Courts decide to re-open the case and a verdict is passed stating every member who made false statements along with convicts guilty. Junta wins and movie ends!!
As far as my personal opinion goes, an under-prepared script and poorly managed direction is what this movie indicates! The concept might have been a decent concept(although that would make it just another RDB) but unless presented properly, it is worth nothing.
Overall, Halla Bol is a disappointment!
Halla Bol get 1.5 stars out of 5
Why you still might consider watching the movie:
- An average performance by Ajay Devgan
- Vidya Balan is charming as always (although very short appearances)
- Good acting by
You have enough reasons not to watch it:
- Frankly if you read goods above, I don’t need to write any bads as such.
- Wasted actors
- Under-prepared script
- Poor Direction
- Too many fundaes being put into one movie
- A complete “Disaster”
January 14, 2008
Posted by
abhitaneja |
2008, Bollywood, Poor Ratings |
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2 Comments
For those who could not understand what No smoking is all about, here is the mystery resolved for you.
I assume you have already gone through the previous review. Continuing from there on..
This film has nothing to do with quitting smoking. But everything to do with quitting any addiction in life. Smoking being one of the worst, yet popular addiction is difficult to kick, because of the availability of cigarettes was just chosen by him. This film is about habits, that has gotten in to us, in the subconscious, which makes us feel we need it. The inner struggle , whether for good or bad.
the dream K is having is of Siberia represents oppression, a communist rule, where there is no individual liberty. He strongly believes in his autonomy and is suddenly made to give up that liberty. His dream state just signifies that.
Typically anybody who is being forced to quit an addiction goes through phases like this. All these are just mental phases, which are jelled so well with reality that you always keep on guessing “what is going on?”.
* The Baba is a Doctor. The Baba who lives in that complex underground world does not exist. He does not use any of those punishing techniques and instead does a psychological treatment of K. After all smoking is more a psychological addiction
* The dialogues about Antaratma etc. show the subconscious state of K – The effect of forced transformation. The person who firmly believed in his autnomy(and hence highly resistant to change) is amde to undergo a significant change(almost from one extreme to other). Baba is just trying to tame the subconscious of the subject(Mr.K).
*Remember a lot of unusual things happening to Mr. K, including the Police instance where he takes Police to Baba’s hideout and make Police talk to Baba- Beautiful description of disturbed mental state of the subject. All of those acts show the abnormal state of mind Mr. K is going through. You might have noticed people acting abnormally when not provided with cigarettes..ever thought what he is going through.
*There are no actual loss of ears, eyes, family, what ever. Those are fears of losing loved ones harming them, causing harm to oneself, by smoking, there are no accident, but its what he is going through. His brother has lungs problem, he lost his wife(she is not dead but she left him)- all of this is attributed to his cigarette smoking habit and that is what the different punishment indicates to.
* the dialog I reached here through bathtub, him though Almari, signifies the subconscious of other people going through the same, similar phase * the other K inside the that dirty room, trying to reach the original K, is none other than his subconscious trying to reach him, and make him smoke, the dirt signifies many things, the smoking dirt, the suffering he is going through * remember the announcement “those who have paid full fees can go for the bath”. It means the course is complete, where the subconscious is cleaned up * finally he, the subconscious, is being burnt , and finally K is relieved and treated.
* the cut finger is none other than the fact that, he is missing the smoke in his had, the fingers which are cut are the ones which we use to smoke, so when he finally quit smoking, he is missing those, the only way he can get out of it is to get himself company and relief, which is why he has to enroll another person for the program.
Now what do you think about the movie!! Do you like it now or not?? Isn’t it The Matrix of Bollywood?
January 5, 2008
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2007, Bollywood |
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Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space
Ever seen a movie which you feel is not a great movie but when you exit the theatre you certainly feel good about it. Aaja Nachle is one of those.
The movie marks comeback of arguably one of the best actress in Bollywood, Madhuri Dixit. She makes a comeback after 5 years and undoubtedly the movie will benefit from the fact that she is still a crowd puller. Not even Shahrukh Khan or Salman Khan or Aamir Khan have so much of fan falling, forget about actresses.
The movie is about a girl, Diya (obviously Madhuri), who runs away with a US photographer after falling in love with him in just a couple of days only to realize later that the person did not love her truly. By that time she was already pregnant. They divorced and Diya started training people in dance(in US) to make living. Her Guru was dying and she flew back to India to see him but before she reached he had already passed away. Now she comes to know that local people are going to demolish Ajanta Theatre (an Open Air Theatre) to build a shopping mall at that place. [Ajanta Theatre is the place where she learned dance and hence carries emotional importance to her]
She comes to rescue that and took up a challenge with local MP. Either she performs with local people within 60 days (i.e. get people support within 60 days) or the Ajanta becomes history. She stages a show to get people to the place and there asks for their support. Everyone ridiculed and left. Local ex-MP even goes to the extent of trying to destroy it the very next day. Diya shows the politician a political motive in saving the heritage and gets his support. With a few people in her team, she starts getting support of local public as they get enthusiast to participate in the drama- Laila Majnu. She takes screening tests of all the interested people and builds her team. The team works with dedication towards making the event a success till the time the constructor who had the contracts for building the mall played trick by bribing ex-MP (who was playing an important part in the play). The contractor also manages to do some negative publicity of Diya through his wife (who was a good childhood friend of Diya). The wife’s conscience scolds her after she does the act and she decides to join the play as well. D-day comes. They do the play and do it well. In the meantime Laila and Majnu had already got into real life love as well. The event is a success and Ajanta remains. Diya returns to US and movie ends.
Nothing in movie as such but the play towards the end of the movie is good. Songs are good and obviously Madhuri rocks. The Laila Majnu play is a musical play and engages viewer well (atleast engaged me very well). It runs for about 20 minutes and includes 3 of the songs in the movie but never looked like dragging or something and in fact, director manages to make movie run faster during those 20 minutes. The movie drags during the mid part of the movie and viewer almost loses interest (if any) at all but with no choice sits through. The director tried to explain each and everything no matter how trivial it is and that sometimes looked irritating.
Overall as I said, the movie has no content to boast of but still manages to give a happy ending feeling to the viewer and viewer comes out of theatre happy and smiling.
Overall I rate Aaja Nachle 1.5 on scale of 5
Brownie points include:
Madhuri Dixit!!
Good songs and Beautiful dance sequences (Again Madhuri!!)
Laila Majnu play is good but not worth 150 bucks at all
Brownie turned black for:
Slow pace and drags
Unnecessarily complicating the relationship dynamics (Many relationships did not make any impact on movie in general)
Under-cooked story and Under-utilized actors
Recommendation: Watch it only for Madhuri (She rocks!). No point looking for story etc.
December 17, 2007
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2007, Average Ratings, Bollywood, Movie review |
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Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space
Dhan dhana dhan GOAL
If I have to speak it in a line, it is a remake of Chak de India!, released this year. Chak de India was based on a hockey player who created a World Cup winning team out of a losing team after being accused of match-fixing and _________. Goal is about a football player who made a losing team win the league championship, after himself having skipped the final game in 1985 due to threats.
The concept is good but another movie of the same kind in a year!! Definitely not a good idea and the second mover had to lose for sure.
The Story: The movie is about Southall Football ground, which was to lose its existence if the management fails to pay 3million pounds in 11 months. Players from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh origin play for this club and this club is an identity for them. They now have only one chance to get this amount and that is by winning the league championship. But it is not that simple. They do not have a coach, the team is good for nothing- physically and mentally, the manager died of heart attack. And here steps up our hero- The Captain- Shaan Ali (Arshad Warsi). He approached a veteran player of the club,Tony Singh(Boman Irani), and somehow convinced him to coach the team. One of the player mortgaged his garage to raise funds for the player kits, team bus etc. The coach worked hard on the team and brought them in shape. He also brought in a player from other club- Sunny(John Abraham).
Same as in Chak de, they start with losing first game due to no coordination among team members and then coach inspires them to play for team and forget about personal grievances. The team finally turns into a team, which nobody can beat. But with two matches to go in the championship, Sunny signs up with another club. The team manages to end the second last game in a draw but needs to win the final match to win the league championship. Sunny comes to know the story about his father and his dedication to the Southall club and he joins back Southall in the final match. He played in spite of having line fracture in nose. The opponent team targets his nose but he, being the hero of the movie, doesn’t really bother and inspired by his father’s dedication, he keeps on playing and takes the team to victory.
Southall wins and the stadium and club are saved.
As far as performances are concerned, Arshad Warsi is just fine, John doesn’t look very natural and Boman Irani is unnecessarily loud. Other actors put up an average show in overall. Director did a fine job but Producer needs to be blamed for late timing of movie release. Had this movie released before Chak de India!, it could have been a different story altogether.
Overall the movie scored 2.5 out of 5.
Why to watch?
If you have missed Chak de India!, then the movie is definitely worth watching
Inspiring movie
Why not to watch?
Remake of Chak de India!
Anout average acting performances
A lot of inconsistencies and movie drags at times
Recommendation: Your wish [:)]
December 17, 2007
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2007, Average Ratings, Bollywood, Movie review |
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Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space
NO SMOKING (2007)
Genuinely speaking, I did not expect a Bollywood movie to be of that class. Deeply impressed by the concept and the way abstractness is handled in the movie. HATS OFF!! -
A miracle indeed.
The movie switches on and off dreams so beautifully that sometimes you just can guess it being real or illusion. The movie runs in good pace and the surprise factor is created beautifully as well. The acting department has certain glitches at places but still it manages to score above average in that. The characters had their roles to play and none of the character looked under developed. Although the director failed to show the emotions properly at places (As for example, the scenes with Ram, Shyam, Balram could not depict what the director really wanted to). And more importantly, I failed to understand the purpose of keeping the names as K and J..may be trying to imitate James Bond (I am K..only K) or may be trying to portray the ego (which was clear from the actions and hence did not make any impact).
The Story: Mr. K(John Abraham) is deeply into smoking and feels ashamed even about the idea of leaving it. His wife( also secretary) (Ayesha Takia) decides to leave him and it was then that he decides to quit smoking. He is referred to ‘Baba Bangali’ by his friend and then the real drama begins. Beyond this point the movie runs into illusions and imaginations. Mr. K is put to agree to condition that he will do whatever being asked to do. What happens next: watch it for yourself!!
The movie does preach of downsides of smoking but does that in a style. It talks about the cost one incurs on cigarettes etc.. It talks about the impact it has on friends and families. It talks about the diseases it spreads. It talks about the impact on health and expenses due to that. It talks about it all but in such a style that it never looks like some preaching. Well Done!
Phoonk de!
Ratings:
Overall No Smoking gets 4.5 out of 5
Why to watch? (I hope you dont need a reason after reading the plot above)
- If you want to quit smoking
- Good concept
- Well executed
- Decent acting
Why not to watch?
– If you do not want to quit smoking [:)]
December 17, 2007
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2007, Bollywood, Good Ratings, Movie review |
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RDB was about a common man raising his voice against the corrupt system in the country, Halla Bol is about a famous movie star doing exactly the same. Aamir Khan in RDB chose the route of violence, Ajay Devgan suggests Gandhian ways to fight the same.
