Thursday, May 31, 2007

Cheeni Kum - Especially post-interval!

"You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?"
- It’s a wonderful life

No, am not going to talk about the plot or the actors (I think enough justice has been done to them in various blogs and critique review) Herez a recount the top-of-mind thoughts about the movie 12 hours after I watched it.

- Tabu looked ravishing. If I weren’t married and if I had had alternate preferences, I’d’ve made her pic my bathroom beauty! (the only other time she looked so wonderful was in a tamil pic ‘Kaadhal Desam’)

- Loved the gumption of Tabu when she says she is going ahead with her marriage plans and couldn’t wait for her dad to die. (Aravindswamy in ‘Bombay’?) Or the nicknames they had for each other (‘En Arumai Pattikaade’, anyone?) Or the lighthearted repartees (a la Mani Ratnam – ‘Agni Nakshatram’, ‘Anjali’, ‘Roja’, ‘Bombay’?) Not that am complaining. Similar genre I think.
- Amitabh was cool. His ponytail and single-rich-man demeanor was brilliantly executed. (Straight out of an Italian Count/Greek shipping magnate/Mediterranean Prince M & B!) The only other man who could pull this off (debatably) is Kamal Hassan (yes, kill me non-tams!).

- Ilayaraja rocks (coming from an A R Rahman fan, it’s a lot!) I’d forgotten how his music was the most hummable(MS word refuses to accept this word) and romantic pieces ever. Pure melody. Velvet smooth. Reminds me of a waiting-to-be-loved, warm mellow feeling after a few drinks on a nice breezy evening. :)

- The cinematography was fantastic. Light. Airy. Real at the same time. Yet, a place I wanted to be in, not currently in my grasp. Brilliant! P C Shriram is brilliant.

- Zora Sehgal was a riot. Nutty nag. (here’s a secret, my grandmom-in-law is a WWF fan too!)

- Paresh Rawal should’ve been a Hyderabadi or a Tam Brahm. The characterization would’ve been perfect then (arguably). He seemed a little over-the-top, especially the drama at the end.

- The kid was wasted. Precocious. Too smart for her age. Too sad. Unnecessary melodrama. Her lines, atleast in the first half were great, then they began to jar.

- The second half seemed like a private joke.. a mockery of commercial cinema with laughable long speeches (a la the Angry ‘Young’ Man!), silly references (Iron pillar at Qutub anyone?) and suddenly dampening Tabu’s joie-de-vivre(notice her dumbness when Amitabh comes to put ‘sindoor’ on her maang..silly!)

Overall, a wonderful movie. After a long time (after tamil movie ‘Mozhi’) I laughed so much in the theatre and enjoyed the repartees to the hilt. Restored my faith in Indian cinema after a disastrous ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’ last Friday! A must-watch.

"I love that you get cold when it's seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're lookin' at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely. And it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
- When Harry Met Sally

9 comments:

  1. hey... you're friends with 2 of my friends looks like - chaitali and trilok so i wandered by your blog. i realy like the pursuit of happiness piece. it's a thought that's come to me too... the desire for more no matter how rich or poor u are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i think you came on my blog.. and gave me a piece of ur mind...
    I had wish to know.. who just came and gave me wisdom of life...

    I wish i could copy-paste the robin williams quote in goodwill hunting... about tearing up people's lives...

    either telll me and explain..or just leave me hanging

    ReplyDelete
  3. so that makes it 2 ticks for the movie and have 5 crosses for the movie.........hmmmm.........

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey my last post is also on cheeni kum and it was written a day before yours... beat you!!!!

    anyways its written in a very differnt manner...

    and i just luv the last quote of harry met sally... how is it related to the rest of the blog

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awww.. I love that last scene from Harry met Sally! Makes me all teary-eyed!

    So you recommend this movie.. here, my uncle's been going on and on about how disastrous A.B looks in the ponytail, and so refuses to even consider watchig the film! Looks like I'll be alone on this one!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree! Real fun movie to watch till the last 20 min or so! But then I guess any other end would have been just as over the top..

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved Mozhi as well.. Not to mention crush on Hero till i realized he was younger than Me :( .. and that seems to happen a lot these days.. Yours and treeisgone reviews make me want to watch movie... the question is how does one sell chick-flicks to the worse half ?

    ReplyDelete
  8. # d.h.roark - Yup, Chaits it is! Thanks.

    # teens to toons - decided not to save you! Check your comments box.

    # Zee - watch it! Watch it! Watch it! Watch it! Watch it!

    # Cool - Harry doesn't care Sally has some personality flaws too. Or physical defects. Just wants to marry her. Similarly Tabu doesn't care about AB's age.

    # Ruchi - Yup, his ponytail is a shocker! But c'mon, the movie is directed by an ad guy. Thank god he chose Tabu and not a skimpy bikini babe! Whatz a pony tail?!

    # Nutty - yeah, reminded me of 'Hyderabad Blues' - twas' brilliant except for the last 20 mins, even 'Guru'.

    # kuttythoughts - umm, blackmail? :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I liked Cheeni Kam too. Not spectacular, but refreshing and cute. And it is surprisingly romantic. One is surprised to see how well AB plays his part (barring few hamming scenes and the overdone last bit). Different is nice!

    ReplyDelete