Harry Potter and deathly Hallows

(Warning : Long Post, also contains a lot spoilers. )

By now the entire world and its aunt knows that I am disappointed by the Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows movies (Part 1 & 2). Well disappointed is a mild word.. I HATED the movies. some part of this is due to the fact, that movies are too short to capture the details that are essential to the books. However, my unwillingness to even say tolerate praises for the movie stems from the fact the movie didn't stay true to the characters, it didn't include the important scenes that include the essence of the characters, instead it included dumb romance scenes. Here are a few things that sprang immediately to my mind

Part 1

Saw this quite sometime back, so can't remember all of it.

• When Ron comes back, he tells Harry that Dumbledore gave him the deluminator as he knew he would want to come back. Actually Ron says "He knew I would go away" This highlights that Ron considers himself not as loyal as Harry or Hermoine and is unsure of himself, which why the horcrux affects him more. To this Harry says "He knew you would want to come back" displaying Harry's belief in his friend.
• Right at the start, when Remus believes they were compromised, Harry steps in to say, we have to trust each other (this is covered hastily in a few seconds in the movie) but it is actually an important scene, showing that Harry is growing up and maturing.
• This part was meant to establish the storyline, and faltered in many places, which i felt would be made up for in part 2 but never was.

Part 2

• The biggest whooper, the end fight between Voldemort & Harry happens in front of everyone, which is completely missed
• Fred's death, Neville challenging Voldemort and killing Nagini.
• Hagrid's valiant fight, Grawp's intervention, which helps the fight with the giants (impervious to spells)
• Harry stepping out of invisibility cloak to defend McGonagall, shows his bravery.
• Harry can't here the horcruxes, that's just BS. He sees the hufflepuff emblem on the cup and remembers the diadem from when he hid his(and Snape's) potions book from Snape.
• Dumbledore's explanation about Horcruxes. The movie never mentions that the ring was the resurrection stone.

Both Parts Combined

• The name of the movie is "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows" , for heaven sake, talk about the hallows and Harry's obsession with them. Same as Dumbledore & Grindelwald. How he wants the resurrection stone more than the others as he has lost so many loved ones.
• Harry realizing that he has to give up the obsession and concentrate on Horcruxes. How he lets Voldemort get the Elder wand. It tells us that Harry is now at peace with his destiny and will not be diverted.
• Ginny's character is well etched out, making the reader understand why Harry loves her. The movie skips this
• Dumbledore gets shades of grey, through his friendship with Grindelwald (for the greater good), and his manipulation of Snape, Harry and others.
• Finally, Voldemort's power is shown when he curses everyone into a silence, and how that power has been weakened by Harry's sacrifice, when Ron's voice is heard over the curse.

So many things missed, that the movie leaves me feeling sad. I had hoped to relive one of my favourite books through it, but was left mutely horrified by what was being shown. All the non-book, movie Harry Potter fans, will disagree. But for me, I won't be watching the movie again!

Ready Movie Review

Back after a long time.. and the motivation to tell everyone that the movie sucks!!! though I guess most people already know this.

Frankly speaking I wasn't expecting a story, I was not expecting suspense or emotion or brilliant emotion all I was expecting was some mindless comedy with lots of Salman Khan being himself.

Dabangg and Wanted didn't really have a thought provoking story.. they just Salman as a macho hero with oodles of attitude and both did that so well that i have watched them multiple times. they had dialogues that delivered with a perfectly serious face but were a spoof of yesteryear formula films. Case in point : "Tum jis school mein padhte ho, us school ka principal mujhse tution leta hai" These movies also sold the image Salman has built up for himself, that of a bad boy who has a heart of gold (views I don't endorse)

This is where Ready fails.. the funny scenes don't elicit laughter.. I tried to get myself into a mindless mode by forcefully laughing in expected places, but even that fell flat. The only really funny bits are Salman spoofing Dabangg and the Asin dreaming and drooling about Salman taking of his shirt sorry sherwani. Ready also tries to sell Salman, even naming his character Prem (remember MPK, HAHK, Andaz Apna Apna, and many more). but all this is just in twitter slang #fail. A really good supporting cast of Mahesh Manjrekar and Paresh Rawal is wasted due to the bad script.

I have to mention Zarine Khan.. if she really wants to do item numbers then she really must lose some weight and also her hands gestures are just plain awkward.

Overall I think Salman is the only reason the movie made any money.

My rating : 1 out 5

The moment that I will tell my grandkids about

Very rarely moments happen that define your generation, Even rarer is close 2 billion hearts uniting over single hope and then celebrating the when their wish is granted. For me it has happened for the first time, I wasn't born in 1983 but I was of an age to appreciate, love, enjoy and weep over 2011!

This one is for the Men in blue, who disproved all the naysayers...including me!!!!

Photo courtesy http://yfrog.com/gyfssehj

A tribute to Uncle Pai

Everyone who knows me, must have seen me at least once with my nose in book, lost in the world built by the author. I have been a voracious reader since I was kid and surprisingly never tried to think back to the time I started loving books. Now that I think back, I believe my mom is to blame for it as it all started when she bought me all the classics like 20,000 leagues under the sea, Moby dick, Heidi, Black Beauty, etc and at the same got me subscriptions to Chandamama, Champak and my favorite of them all Tinkle!

I remember checking the letter box everyday immediately after returning from school to check if the latest issue had been delivered. After a couple of years, I turned my attention to Enid Blyton and the Chandamama and Champak subscriptions were discarded but Tinkle continued on. The reason for this had less to do with the magazine itself and more to do with its editorAnant Pai, who was known to all children as Uncle Pai.

I had the pleasure of meeting him once, when he had come to Pune and I look back on it with a smile on my face. He was very kind to a little girl who had been in a tiny accident on route to the meeting and had a few scratches. He also ensured that her grandfather who had a cut on his arm received first aid and was offered refreshment. He did all this while handling some 30-40 kids who had come to attend the mythology quiz he was conducting. Last week I read that he had passed away and I felt sad. Sad that I didn't keep in touch with him as I went from a young reader to an adult, Sad that I didn't let him know, that when I travel in a train, I invariably buy a Tinkle Digest to read even now. I should have also told him, that my fascination of Hindu mythology began with tales heard from my great grandmother and watching Ramayana & Mahabharata on DoorDarshan but a lot of incidents that I can be heard quoting these days are sourced from Amar Chitra Katha. Most of all I felt sad for all Tinkle readers who will never again receive a letter signed "Uncle Pai".

And so based on a suggestion from my friend Suman, I am going to share letters from him, that I have kept for all these years. Rest In Peace Uncle Pai. You will be missed by readers all over!

My first rejection letter.

The second one!

My very first and only acceptance letter

The quiz invite where I met him

He remembered the greeting I gave him at the Quiz

One of the last letters we exchanged

The stickers that were always sent with his letters

Dhobi Ghat - Mumbai Dairies Movie Review

To begin with Dhobi Ghat is an art movie through and through and 50% dialogues are in english. Does the movie really explore Mumbai? Not in my opinion, does it explore defining moments in the lives of its 4 leading characters? Definitely!

She explores the lives of 4 individuals with extremely different economic & social backgrounds, lifestyles and personalities and then shows very nicely how they get involved with each other. She does this using Mumbai as a painter's and a photographer's muse and at times through a tourist & migrant's eyes.

Performance wise everyone does a good job, however, contrary to popular opinion Prateik Babbar is a misfit for the role of a Bihar born Dhobi with a polished accent ( pronouncing Hotel correctly instead of the usual "Ho-Tal") and Aamir Khan over acts in the climax scene of his part.

Overall an interesting watch with very nice cinematography.

My rating : 3/5

7 Khoon Maaf Review

My last post was about the trailer of 7 Khoon Maaf and how I was looking forward to it and it promised a review of TMK.. well the review says don't watch it, and now I will jump to the review of 7KM!

The trailer promises the story of a crazy/insane/psychotic woman who has killed seven husbands. The movie doesn't deliver this. Instead it tries to justify her reasons for killing each of them and that is the reason why I was disappointed by the movie.

I went in expecting to see flashes of madness with zero remorse or guilt or a split personality at the very least. If the reasons were there, at least they should have been petty, albeit some were but then some were enough to contemplate divorce rather than murder. Maybe my expectations were high based on the trailer and the dialogue : "Next time... I'll drink his blood" but for the first time I came out of a Vishal Bharadwaj mmovie feeling let down.

The music is brilliant. All the husbands and the narrator are brilliant in their roles. Priyanka is her usual self. One would expect her to raise her performance in such a meaty role but that is not be.

In general this movie fails more because of the weight of expectations than a flaw in the movie itself.

My rating : 3/5

7 Khoon Maaf - Official Trailer

I went to watch Tees Maar Khan, inspite of all the reviews and warnings (review up next) and saw the trailer of Vishal Bharadwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf! And I am hooked. In addition, Piggy Chops did the bad girl act very well in Aitraaz. So now this is one movie I won't miss. For now I am eagerly waiting for the music release!