Train to nowhere 1/5
Pratim D. Gupta
Raksha Mistry and Hasnain Hyderabadwala have done it again. The Train, that premiered at IIFA’s Cineworld Castleford, is a frame-by-frame copy-paste of Derailed. Arey kuch to original hona mangta. From office colleagues to reception girl, every single character; from dialysis machines to briefcases, every single prop; from trains arriving at stations to trains leaving stations, every single shot composition; every damn frame has been copied so unabashedly that you feel like it’s a licensed remake.
But alas, that it is not! How can anybody in their right senses agree to Geeta Basra becoming Jennifer Aniston? Worse still, Aseem Merchant plays Vincent Cassel’s character. And then everything is set in cheapie Pattaya where there are more gol gol train lines than go- go bars. There the Thai cabbies speak in Hindi and cricket betting happens between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh!
It’s sad really that the big IIFA premiere had to be The Train. The prints of Khoya Khoya Chand were not ready and so Sudhir Mishra’s Guru Dutt tale starring Shiney Ahuja and Soha Ali Khan missed the bus. The Train joining Lagaan, Yuva and Parineeta as the IIFA world premiere movie is criminal, to put it politely.
Worried that this review is approaching its last station without a mention of Emraan Hashmi? Well that’s because he is not bad in the film. Hang on, he isn’t even close to Clive Owen but he underplays enough in a movie where everyone is flared nostrils and clinched fists to make him look the part. His kissing helps, of course. The serial kisser is in ruthless form here locking lips with Geeta at least thrice (only talking about the right shots, not the discarded ones) and smooching newcomer Sayali Bhagat like it’s her last film. Poor Sayali, who is otherwise good as the wronged wife, looks totally out of place during the kissing capers.
The only original bogey in this Train is the music by Mithoon. Woh ajnabee and Zindagi ne zindagi ko are great, but just get the CD yaar, don’t dare waste money on the film.
If only Raksha Mistry and Hasnain Hyderabadwala had followed their tagline — ‘some lines should never be crossed’ — the IIFA picnic would have been a better place to be in.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Movie Review: Chain Kulii Ki Main Kulii
A stroke of magic 3/5
Pratim D. Gupta
Team India has lost its first two matches in the five-match ODI series at home against Pakistan, and is dreading a humiliating series loss. The coach (an Indian!), is out on a drive when his car’s windscreen is smashed by a powerful stroke from the bat of a street kid. The 13-year-old orphan, who has never been near a real cricket field and tries the abdominal guard on as a helmet, is promptly inducted into the team for the third match and goes on to butcher the big broad pacemen in green. He scores 170 not out and helps India win!
Chain Kulii Ki Main Kulii is a fairytale that works. So let’s chak de the real men in blue for now. CK2MK does not need parallels with the game to stand tall. Because even though it may come across as a cricket movie, it’s much more than that. It is a small little gem about self-discovery, about companionship, about growing up. And most importantly, it is a children’s film for everyone.
Karan (Zain Khan) is just another hapless kid in Hitler’s (Rajesh Khera) orphanage. With a torn and tattered T-shirt held together by a safety pin, he dreams of playing cricket but Raghav Bhai (Raj Bhansali), the mastaan in the group, has other ideas. So all Karan can do is listen to the story of Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells over and over again before going into dream cricket mode.
And then he discovers the magic bat — with a KD83 inscribed near the handle — which can smash any delivery out of the park. The next thing he knows, he is padding up with Team India captain Varun (Rahul Bose) and smashing Pakistan’s pace battery around.
Varun, of course, has his hands full with problems beyond the pitch. His father (Nasser Abdullah) left his mother and him when he was just 16. And while his mother and his fiancee (Meera Vasudevan) are ready to accept his return, Varun’s wounds are still fresh. Time for Karan to spin some magic and help his opening partner.
Where debutante director Kituu Salooja scores is in the way she brings the two different storylines together and yet not let the movie lose its spark. It slips effortlessly from the cricket field to the more serious terrain of life effortlessly and see-saws between humour and heartbreak without a hitch. The kids make her job easier with almost all the orphanage boys being complete naturals. But Zain Khan as Karan is the find of the season and a favourite for all Best Debutant awards.
Rahul Bose is so much more at ease in films like these. If he learnt to play the drum for Jhankaar Beats, here he gets the willow to talk. It’s a treat watching Rahul do a Sourav Ganguly and play some glorious drives. In fact, he plays the hook and the pull far better than the Prince of Calcoota. Meera Vasudevan lights up the few frames she appears in. Why doesn’t she do/get more work? The music (Salim-Sulaiman) could have been better, with the title track not inspiring enough, and Sunday sounding like the Baaton Baaton Mein song Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha.
Yes, CK2MK starts off too much like Iqbal and with Kapil Dev making a special appearance, the hangover is apparent. But then just like Iqbal, CK2MK is a winner and Saregama should go the Mukta Searchlight way and push the small movie as big as it can. For the magic lies not in the bat but in the movie.
Pratim D. Gupta
Team India has lost its first two matches in the five-match ODI series at home against Pakistan, and is dreading a humiliating series loss. The coach (an Indian!), is out on a drive when his car’s windscreen is smashed by a powerful stroke from the bat of a street kid. The 13-year-old orphan, who has never been near a real cricket field and tries the abdominal guard on as a helmet, is promptly inducted into the team for the third match and goes on to butcher the big broad pacemen in green. He scores 170 not out and helps India win!
Chain Kulii Ki Main Kulii is a fairytale that works. So let’s chak de the real men in blue for now. CK2MK does not need parallels with the game to stand tall. Because even though it may come across as a cricket movie, it’s much more than that. It is a small little gem about self-discovery, about companionship, about growing up. And most importantly, it is a children’s film for everyone.
Karan (Zain Khan) is just another hapless kid in Hitler’s (Rajesh Khera) orphanage. With a torn and tattered T-shirt held together by a safety pin, he dreams of playing cricket but Raghav Bhai (Raj Bhansali), the mastaan in the group, has other ideas. So all Karan can do is listen to the story of Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells over and over again before going into dream cricket mode.
And then he discovers the magic bat — with a KD83 inscribed near the handle — which can smash any delivery out of the park. The next thing he knows, he is padding up with Team India captain Varun (Rahul Bose) and smashing Pakistan’s pace battery around.
Varun, of course, has his hands full with problems beyond the pitch. His father (Nasser Abdullah) left his mother and him when he was just 16. And while his mother and his fiancee (Meera Vasudevan) are ready to accept his return, Varun’s wounds are still fresh. Time for Karan to spin some magic and help his opening partner.
Where debutante director Kituu Salooja scores is in the way she brings the two different storylines together and yet not let the movie lose its spark. It slips effortlessly from the cricket field to the more serious terrain of life effortlessly and see-saws between humour and heartbreak without a hitch. The kids make her job easier with almost all the orphanage boys being complete naturals. But Zain Khan as Karan is the find of the season and a favourite for all Best Debutant awards.
Rahul Bose is so much more at ease in films like these. If he learnt to play the drum for Jhankaar Beats, here he gets the willow to talk. It’s a treat watching Rahul do a Sourav Ganguly and play some glorious drives. In fact, he plays the hook and the pull far better than the Prince of Calcoota. Meera Vasudevan lights up the few frames she appears in. Why doesn’t she do/get more work? The music (Salim-Sulaiman) could have been better, with the title track not inspiring enough, and Sunday sounding like the Baaton Baaton Mein song Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha.
Yes, CK2MK starts off too much like Iqbal and with Kapil Dev making a special appearance, the hangover is apparent. But then just like Iqbal, CK2MK is a winner and Saregama should go the Mukta Searchlight way and push the small movie as big as it can. For the magic lies not in the bat but in the movie.
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