There is nothing more worthwhile than social service, I am not sure who said so, but here I am following the adage (is it an adage or what?) on a weekend while I could be potentially doing a million other things than writing the review for this god forbidden blasphemy of cinema of any kind!

OK, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, let us call it OUT for simplicity purposes. OUT, as most of you know is claimed to be a re-visit to the much forgotten X-files of Mumbai underworld. My wife told me that there quite a few reviews which compared it to Satya and Company. I was all excited hearing this and was ready to put all my biases against the shit-piling machine of the idiot box and drilled a small hole into my pocket and booked the tickets for the show, more so because I loved the movie LSD, so I thought may be I should give it a chance! How I wish I was wrong!

Five minutes into the movie I was having this incredible urge to leave the movie hall from the nearest exit possible. May be I would not mind if that means I had to jump off the building or such similar life and limb threatening actions, but some part of me stopped me. I was hoping against all the hopes that the movie would change, I mean I was there for a Gangster movie (which incidentally is my most favorite genre) and what I see is anything but dark. Of course, there was darkness but nothing on the screen whatsoever.

Let me just give you a glimpse of how the movie starts- A police office, Mr Hooda, tries to commit suicide and somehow survives the attempt. So he narrates his story to his higher up on why he tries to commit suicide. And the story is about a Gangster called Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan) and his associate Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi). Now do not ask me why Mr. Hooda’s senior does not have a clue about any of these gangsters, we are talking about a movie by Ekta Kapoor, so anything is possible.

Now that the premise is set, though it is based on a very feeble and unforgivable reasoning, I still was hoping against the hopes, what a loser I am! Now we have seen many movies on Gangster stories, right from the international range Marty boy’s classics where he ruthlessly explores the darkest mindsets of the underworld to our very old desi versions like Nayakudu by Mani Ratnam in telugu or even the numerous versions of almost the same story by bollywood’s very own once-upon-a-time-sane RGV.

All these stories had a numerous factors acting in sync to make the movie a treat to watch time-less classics. But OUT seriously lacks something, you will get to know it from the very beginning. Even an untrained eye would easily spot that Ajay Devgan is really struggling with all his faculties to make the character work, but after all even the great actor has his limitations. Sultan Mirza’s character lacks depth to say the least, it just does not happen, I mean he is Gangster for god’s sake not a middle class middle aged uncle looking for some daily gossip news from his wife before he lays down to sleep.

Emraan Hashmi’s character sounds like a cheap China dummy of an i-phone. I mean we reluctantly have to agree that the director is desperately trying to imitate the Jake La Motta of Raging Bull. But guys, I wanted to puke, I am not joking here. I mean there is a limit for everything, no? Would you opt for Chinese mall for your medicines? Tell me friends! Again, I don’t blame Mr. Hashmi here, there is little he could do in a plot that is so lifeless and blatantly executed.

Randeep Hooda too proved that he has got a lot of potential, but alas he is but the pawn of the story! If I were to given a chance I would ban the person who wrote the dialogue permanently from writing for the movies ( Rajat Arora), incidentally he is the one who wrote the story and screenplay, a desperate attempt which failed miserably I say.

The direction did not help any bit either, with a desperate and a miserably failed attempt to add a mush angle to a gangster where the scenes like Sultan as a child labor donates his one paisa to another beggar when he is already in a miserable situation and the starting scene when Sultan removes railway track to make his pick up truck move are out right ridiculous to say the least.

The cinematography, though did a decent job in showing Bombay of early nineties. And Pritam’s music is as always great (though I am not sure where it is copied from ).

All in all, OUT is pathetic. It does not even deserve this review, but as I said I wanted to warn you all and wanted to save you from an inevitable head ache that you would contract if you watched the movie. It is a classic example of how a cinema should not be made.

This is for the TOI reviewer who compared this movie to Satya and Company- BALLS TO YOU!

And it did turn out to be a movie which met my expectations. Why I said just “met my expectations” because it is not a commercial movie, I did not just sit and enjoy the movie. Rather I found how straight from the director’s heart the movie came from.

Let me just throw some light when I say it is not a commercial movie. Of all the movies that AK has made (I cannot but refer to Ak’s hand in here, the director is obviously from his school of thought and there is Ak’s mark everywhere) Dev D is the most entertaining plainly because people rather the mass audience tend to connect with it almost instantaneously.

The others like Gulaal or The black Friday though brilliant are definitely not made for larger audience, they are made because the director wanted to make the movie notwithstanding the repercussions of how it might fare at the box-office. Paanch, which never got released, too is a good movie. And Udaan is not different.

Mr. Motwani knows what he has as a script and what he wants to do with it. He definitely did not want to dilute the cinema by making it an entertaining version. Now you might ask me, dude! Can’t an entertaining cinema be a good one? Like the “Three idiots”. My answer is that the subject did not have a scope for making it entertaining, or may be so I felt.

What is so special with Udaan then? The answer is simple, it is simple. Yes the narrative is straight if you have the eye; the movie actually grows on you with the time. It tends to be loosing momentum in the ending of the first half, but it picks up well!

And like other movies from the producer, Udaan too has a penchant for the imagery. It is the imagery that actually sets the tone of the movie for you. Like for example when Rohan reaches the home, the director chose to put a barb wire in focus and then focuses on to the face of the youngster. Also there is this scene when the protagonist enters the house for the first time in eight years and there are a few bottles of alcohol greeting him. But we never get to see them because they lie out of focus for the whole scene.

What does Udaan wants to put forth? A simple fact that adolescents need love. There is no use discussing the minute things about the script, for that matter I would not really mind the concept it similar to that of Wake up Sid. But here the kid knows what he wants, he is a mature chap who has a clear vision and is not spoilt by the riches. But the huge difference here is that the director did not want to dilute the whole thing. He does not make it easy for the protagonist. In fact, the protagonist at one stage of movie indeed seems to be getting in terms with his dad; he tries his best to be in terms with reality.

But how Udaan happens remains to be seen and felt. However, I warn you guys. Be true to yourself; do not consider this as an entertainment. It does not amuse you, it only makes you think and feel for the character. And in my view there is nothing much I can ask from a movie.

I always have this difficulty in Mathematics, as I never was able to “feel” the numbers. I mean I never understood how one added to one makes it two, and more so the concept of infinity limits etcetera.

I know, I am supposed to review a movie and why am I talking here about Mathematics, simply because dreams too are something which never made sense to me. I mean I know I see them but the whole lot of dynamics on how and why I see a particular dream is always beyond imagination, no matter however much the little bit of research done in this field tries to prove otherwise.

Now, imagine someone making a movie on the concept of dreams, imagine the amount of imagination (I know the sentence is tricky) that should go into film making if they are making a movie about dreams! If you cannot, let me tell you it is humongous. For starters try explaining the concept of infinity to a third standard student and show and tell him why any number divided by zero yields infinity.

I have ceased being fans of Sci-fi movies for the only reason that they force us into a corner and leaves us with no choice but to be dumb, I mean more often than not it is not a pleasurable experience especially for someone who boasts about a very good basic knowledge about Physics.

Inception is anything but that. Inception actually gives us a great pleasure of sitting in a corner like a dumb person seeing the whole movie unravel in its grandiose. With each frame you see quizzing the best of your grey cells. But is it just that? Is inception is a great movie just because of the concept chosen? Are there no cinematic values?

Well, wait! Do not drift too further in the concept it self. While every one agrees the concept itself is intriguing, you should just see the movie to see how intriguing the viewing experience is. Thanks to a very intelligent narration which makes the life of the audience for those 148 minutes anything but simple. Inception is like solving those Physics problems from I.E. Irodov (IIT aspirants from my time would know this!). And believe most of us could not solve the question in the first attempt!

So it is little wonder if there are a few girls who walked away calling it a dumb movie and if I tell you that the middle aged aunty sitting beside me dozed off 30 minutes into the movie and the dude ahead of movie gave the dirties look I ever knew when I laughed at a perceived joke! Does that mean I got what the movie is, I do not know, I will definitely have to see it again to bolster my initial thoughts about the movie.

What further strengthens movie apart from the whacky subject and a lucid narrative is the imagery used. Some of the imagery used (mostly graphics) is so vivid that you actually think of all the dreams you have seen so far and you might actually get drifted away from the movie thinking about your dream and suddenly get to the movie wondering what did you miss in those nano seconds.

Well, I have nothing more to write about this gem of a movie, if you chose to read this so far, take my word the movie would be infinite times more interesting! Actually!

Over the last decade nothing new happened in Telugu cinema. I agree there were many good movies, but they boringly and repetitively bore a striking similarity among them, while the action genre got bloodier the love stories were so pinkish that more often than not one wants to puke. I agree there have been some nice movies, but all of them are entertainers. Gone are the good old days of philosophical and insightful telugu cinema. Remember Sagara sangamam, shankarabharanam, vasntha kokila, geetnajali, shiva, antham.

I am not saying that the recent movies are bad, they are good entertainers, but they did not have the soul, they aim at nothing. All had a formula, fights, duets in foreign locations, skin showing item numbers, that’s all, nothing more than that. Vedam changed it all.

Krish (Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi), the director of this movie showed that he is a sensible lad in his previous movie, his philosophical inclinations and insightful scenes that aim at showing the actual purpose of life are laudable. Vedam, is a very intelligent remake of the previous movie Gamyam. The main intent of the movie remains intact, albeit a few additions to the characters and may be a a little bit more of screen presence for a few characters which were not used to the core in the previous movie.

Another great thing that Krish managed to introduce to the telugu audience, especially the ones that are not so used to English cinema is the Quentin Tarantino styled narration. The movie starts with introducing all the important characters of the movie, their dreams, necessities and ambitions, and later all these characters cross each other change each others’ lives and may their outlook towards the life. The best part is how each of these characters look at life is so deftly put forth that some of these characters leave an indelible impression on us.

The screenplay is not so taut, lets face it. Somewhere the scenes chosen for the transition from one character are not so well defined and engrossing that you may end up a bit irritated. However, it is almost a non issue, considering how the director successfully managed to navigate us through his thought processes, his ideology of what he thinks life is, it is a bit preachy, but I did not mind.

Coming to the performances, let me at the very outset give complete praise to Allu Arjun and Anushka Shetty for agreeing to play their respective roles. I mean I strongly feel that these two roles would definitely leave a lasting effect on how telugu movies should be made. Allu Arjun’s introduction scene is really awesome, clearly Cable Raju is analogous to Gali Seenu, albeit this version is a bit more glamorous and has fancy ideas about life and thinks that money is everything for one to survive. Allu Arjun’s performance was mind blowing, especially <spoiler> when he returns the money he stole from the Ramulayya, the poor weaver.<spoiler>.

He could however have performed much better, could some one tell him that rolling his eyes is pretty disgusting to look at and he might be better off

However, Anushka’s character is not well etched, it is a bit too raw and lacked depth. No where is the psychology of a prostitute explored. It looked as if the character, in spite of what it was meant for, was mainly intended to be glamorous. I do not have any problem with being glamorous, but it lacked the depth and did not explore the potential that the role has.

My personal favorite of the whole movie is Manchu Manoj Kumar, I really have to appreciate the director for pulling out such a fantastic performance from him. The role of Vijay is clearly analogous to Abhi in gamyam. With a few tweakings, of course. The opening scene of the second half is so mind blowing that I could not stop from clapping, it was clearly evident that the character was completely felt to the soul by Manoj.

Manoj Bajpai too has done a decent job. What I really loved about the movie, is how the director has used the current affairs in his story. The ugly face of moral policing on youth, harassment on Muslims, terrorism (please note that naxalism was touched upon in Gamyam), body organ trading, child labor, prostitution were all deftly added into the story.

The movie has no separate comedy track, although Brahmanandam is seen for a few minutes. However, the comedy was well managed by Allu Arjun and his companion in the movie.

The music by Keeravani was engrossing and heart touching. However the editing could have been better, but I understand it is a very tough job considering so many stories intertwining.

The greatest part of the movie is how the five main characters and hence their stories culminate into the ending. The ending is good that it balances for all the drawbacks that were being discussed above, I could not help but feel the allusions to the movie Rang De Basanti. But Vedam will definitely be a new celebrating face of the Telugu movie industry. I will rate it at 4*.

We then discussed the spineless nature of our political dramas, rather the nature of politics shown in our movies. Even the most celebrated directors make the cliched mistake of choosing to bash the system for no good reason, like, sorry for my example, Rang De Basanthi. What I mean to say here is that there is no insight into the politics of the land and mostly they are not true to the point.

Having said that, I will move over to another thought of mine. One thing which stuck to me badly when I watched the movies like Omkara, Maqbool, etc is that why cant we take inspiration from our own epics? Don’t our great directors like Vishal and Prakash see the potency of the darkness and emotions explored in our very own epics?

OK, I am supposed to write the review for Rajneeti. If you are wondering what I am blabbing about and are more inclined towards the twitter version of the review, the verdict is Rajneeti is the modern Indian version of Mahabharat, it may not be as deep and well etched as the epic, but it does a wonderful job in mapping the gist of the epic to India today.

I am not too sure if this is much of a spoiler and how much the viewing experience may change because of the revelation, because I am not aware of the fact that the movie was based on Mahabharat, but I did get to know it with in first fifteen minutes.

Having said that, it is completely evident that there was a considerable amount of work behind the story and screen play. Each and every scene seemed to have been carefully carved and has an intent. However, you tend to feel the inertia at the beginning of the movie, but it is nothing but the initial phase where you would be dragged on to track, and once you are on the track you would be ready for a feast, a heavy one.

The greatest part of the movie is that there is no stereotyping of characters, there are no heroes. Rajneeti is just an attempt to show how the very involvement in the politics would bring out that animal instincts in you. How the involvement in politics would kill all your emotions and make one a cold heart. There are many aspects of human nature which were touched upon subtly, when I say subtly I mean to say that there is no dramatization. Say for example, the inability to accept the inevitable failure, the dark compulsion to avenge, the comfort with which one tend to use people around him, the guilt conscious of a past deed, and plethora of other dilemmas, all were there and they all are so well captured that you would be basking in all these emotions.

Another thing which is unusual here and what I was trying to convey at the beginning of the review is that there are no good or bad people here, just the emotions, desire for the power which becomes an unstoppable force which stops at nothing.

However, if I am to pick a few negatives from the movie, it is improper usage of characters, especially Arjun Rampal, Ajay Devgan and Katrina Kaif, their presence seemed a bit forced and their roles were a bit too shallow. Also, Manoj Bajpai clearly over acted, he could have been colder if he were to have scowled less often and he did not really fit into his costumes.

And you know what, it is a fresh break from the quintessential pinkish tinge that Bollywood loves to get into. It is not too dark to consume, neither it is a breeze. The biggest drawback for the the movie may be that it is pretty heavy and it is in no way designed to entertain us. If you are going there for some light moments that you were longing for in your stressful life, then Rajneeti is not for you. Rajneeti is profound, in the sense that it is a very good mapping of Mahabharat and I should give it to the director that he could show so much in just 19 reels. I also could not avert the allusions to God Father.

All in all, I am completely swept away by the brilliance of the movie. And in spite of all the negatives that I mentioned I still have this urge to rate the movie a 5*.

There are times when your heart feels different. You get to know when you are extremely low or you are extremely high, for me to get to that state, especially to be happy, I need to have a damn good reason. Believe me guys, just 15 minutes into the movie, I was ecstatic and how?

To be very frank, I thought 3-idiots would be a flop or may be at the very best would be an average flick, I quite did not like how Aamir rolled his eyes and acted, it all seemed a bit too much to bear when I saw the commercials and I hardly had any hopes when I booked my tickets and now here I am struggling to  find words to describe my feelings even after some 12 hours after watching the movie.

Now what makes the movie so great? The answer is simple, you could relate to it! I mean when you see the characters on the screen you instantly know what is the director saying; the director plays the musician, knowing exactly what notes to play so that they resonate deep with in your heart. The witty dialog, amazingly tight screenplay, the camera angles chosen, the music everything syncs so amazingly well that for sometime I could not believe my self!

First things first, the movie is not five point someone, it is just loosely based on it, at the most some 10%, I actually did not know this, which is why I was in for a pleasant surprise. Not because that I did not like the book or something, I was expecting something to be happening and it did not and voila! I was impressed instantly and how?

I will tell you why? To be very frank you will not see anything new for most part of the movie. Apart from the criticism on the Indian education system there is no other point to be made, in fact that is the only point to be made. Obviously, we will see students committing suicides and all such stuff, you know it is nothing new, but here is where screenplay and direction come into picture. In a normal Hindi movie, this would have been over done or mishandled, but in here you get to feel with characters, yes you do, you do not cry or something, you just feel for them, along with them;  now this is what I call brlliancy in execution.

You would also see a relation to the previous movie of Hirani, there is a mapping to jaadi ki zhappi, there are a few scenes involving hospitals and brain dead patients etc. but you would not simply mind! I do not why, but you would not mind it, all the similarities would be lost in some witty dialog. But then I say the dialogs or at least the jokes are not new either, but the way they were executed top class, flawless!

The next section that fared brilliantly is the characters and characterization. It is difficult for for a forty five year old to play a twenty something old college goer. This is one of my biggest apprehensions before going to movie, but ten minutes into the movie I felt like giving standing ovation to Amir. Man this man is awesome and how? Amir Khan kills you with his looks, a few days ago I was reading about the sense of wonder that we lose as we grow up, when you see Amir you feel that you are seeing Amir Khan twenty years ago, he just looks so like college going lad, period.

Take for example, there is a scene where Boman drags Amir from his office to a lecture room, the expressions that Amir put forth are really heart warming, it is so like a student who is being reprimanded but did not understand what his wrong was. Similar expressions were extracted from Arman Joshi when Boman informs him about his rustication.

Another worry I had was Kareena. This young lady would not leave a stone unturned to over act and I was really worried about bearing her screen presence. But the director did an excellent job here again, I would not explain any further.

Music was par excellence. The tunes were average in isolation but worked brilliantly for me in sync with the picture. Especially the song zoobie zoobie; this song which is supposed to be outcome of an ecstatic mood would leave you as ecstatic, the visuals would not let you think anything but ecstasy and then there is another song after a character commits suicide, the tune, the lyrics they all fit so amazingly well into the situation, full marks to the director again!

What else do you want guys? Amazing screenplay, great dialogs, music that is an integral part of the movie, awesome characterization and an ecstatic feeling as walk out of the movie hall, I could not have asked for more! I rate the movie a *****.

3 idiots would undoubtedly be among the best pictures made in this decade, I say this without an iota of doubt. And Amir, take a bow. Hirani take three bows!

Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Runtime: Enough to make you sick
Rating: *

I am always an ardent fan of Zodiac signs. No matter what they forecast, I mean more often than not the Taurus forecast tells me that there is romance in cards when I am single and that I shine well in my career when I hit the rock bottom in my appraisal. But still there is some innate force in me that asks me to believe in them. And I did read the characteristics; I beg your attention dear reader, characteristics of almost all the Sun/Moon signs and compared them with the people I know.

So when I came to know that there is whole movie coming up on this, I was more than excited. I shall not think even once to emphatically declare that the excitement ended there, well, almost.

The last thing that should be done while making a movie is to take your audience for granted. Mr. Gowariker did just that. I had to say this as I am assuming that he understands that a movie needs a good script and the one he is attempting a very crisp editing! No, I am not talking about the 12 Priyanka Chopras in the film. The director was smart enough to tell us that the bloke who is head hunting for his life partner, did realize that the girls he has been meeting are looking identical to each other. My problem is with something more basic.

My problem is that when you are making a movie about women of different zodiac signs, you are EXPECTED to churn out a movie that emulates those characteristics. A Taurus woman should be like a bull, having security in mind or such blah! But what Mr. Gowariker churned out is little less than bull’s excretion.

I mean, you have a movie where a guy is trying to understand a girl by her sun sign and meeting her too, and you screw up the whole thing by replacing the dialogue with a song? What kind of a dumb decision is that? Yeah, may be I would have consented if the songs sounded good and had a nice lyrical value. I could not comprehend what on earth could have encouraged Mr Gowariker to choose such songs. Period.

My problem did not end there; I was determined to make sense out of the movie. To wait till I see signs’ characteristics being presented, but my wait was for eternity. Because, the characteristics of most of the 12 characters of Priyanka were more due to circumstances than due to Sun signs. A 15 year old girl was forced to marriage by quoting a wrong age, due to poverty; has this got anything to do with a sun sign? A young lady is interested in fashion, has it got anything to do with sun sign? How I wish Ashutosh reads this review!

If there is any thing that is worth while that is acting. Priyanka did a fabulous job, she carried the whole movie on her shoulders, if it were not for her I would have puked in the theatre. Harman was OK, there isn’t much scope for him, and he is not given any material to work on. One more good concept got lost in compulsive obsession for idiocracy in bollywood cinema. Don’t watch this movie, not even on a DVD, read a good book on Sun Signs rather!

Movie: Kaminey
Cast: Shahid Kapoor (double role), Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte etc.
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Run Time: 130 minutes
My rating: ***

Do I really have to compare Kaminey with Omkara? I mean, can anything ever be a comparison to that million dollar starting lines (bewkoof aur ch…..) of Omkara? May be I should accept it as a typical Vishal start to have a few punch packed lines in the beginning. But! Ah! The quintessential critical self!

Kaminey starts with an introduction, a stylish one at that, of Charlie about himself which is a brief about his character, his views on life, his speech disabilities, his ambitions. It then culminates into a one liner, a typical Vishal Bhardwaj one liner.

Kaminey, unlike the name, is a mixture of some extra ordinary works of geniuses, with the cinematography and music departments turning out to be the best. Take for example the Charlie’s introduction scene where he inadvertently follows a flying currency note. And while he does that, everything else on the screen goes dark with light just on Charlie and the currency note that he follows. The scene speaks volumes about the characterization, it out right tells you about the character Charlie; how he forgets the whole world in the matters of money. And just as you are about to recover from the awe inspiring scene, some excellent music score and even better screenplay of a chase scene elevates you into even higher horizons.

I was really eager to see how Vishal executed the movie because the plot got leaked much before. And believe me this did have a subsiding effect on me. May be I should have opted out of choosing to read the plot published in Times of India. But nevertheless, the overall feel was good.

At 130 minutes, Kaminey should not be seen as a movie. It should be seen as an assortment of extremely well made scenes which knit together so well that they complete the movie. Rain is used extensively throughout the movie which made a huge difference to overall feel. There is this scene where Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal) comes in his car to meet Charlie. There is a deal that was to be made. Mikhail sings the song from Spider Man dancing in the rain only to be followed by Charlie! The rain, the music, the lighting all were so spectacularly done that the scene still haunts me. And then there is a scene in the climax where Charlie changed by circumstances decides to put off the diamonds back into the hands of the bad guys, and the moment he does that he was shot. This scene too is excellently done, there are a dozen such scenes which enhance the viewer experience, which elevate the mood of the movie into new spaces(I am refraining to discuss some characters here for fear of spoiling, will update the same soon!).

Then there are characterisations, some deep, some shallow and some just right. Vishal chose to add a regional touch to his characters this time. He explored the fraternity of Bengalis, where they would do anything for the sake of brotherhood. Vishal then roped in Amol Gupte to show the intricacies of Marathi-manoos. Priyanka did an excellent job as the sister (Sweety) of a young and ambitious politician. Sweety’s character is one of the best and demands applause. The desperation to set herself free and harmless guile with which she traps the people around her are all well captured by Priyanka Chopra.

I do not want to spoil fun by speaking much about Guddu and Charlie, go and watch to know more. However, I strongly felt that Tashi’s (Tenzing Nima) character was under utilized. And so was Mikhail’s. From the trailers I was expecting so much from these two characters, which for me were not up to the mark.

It is Vishal’s trademark to deal with human emotions. And Kaminey is no exception. As I have said Sweety’s love for Guddu was just awesome. There is selfishness, desperation, possessiveness, white lies, desire, innocence, anger, helplessness all packed into this love story. The chemistry between Guddu and Sweety is sweet. And then comes Charlie. Especially in the particular scene where Guddu meets Charlie, what a scene it was. The helplessness of Charlie when Guddu walks away daring Charlie to shoot him gave me Goosebumps. Full marks for Shahid Kapoor for adeptly transitioning from the guy-next-door type Guddu to the punter and dashing type Charlie. He was effortless when he shifted from a stammering character to the lisp.

Another commendable part of the movie is the subtle humour it effortlessly engineers into itself. There is no separate comedy track in Kaminey. There are no comedians used, it is just those typical Vishal one-liners that imbibe humour into the movie. The speech disabilities of Charlie, Guddu and Sweety, no matter how much the director disclaimed in his movie promotions, did create humour. When Charlie says “life faale kutti cheez hain” or when Guddu and Sweety stammer in their cute conversations, you can’t help but smile.

The music, as I reviewed earlier is just awesome. Charlie’s theme took all the chase sequences to a new horizon. They just take you off! However, Kaminey track was not used completely and Pehli Baar was sent to the end.

I always maintain that if there is one actor in Bollywood who can make it to Hollywood it is Hrithik and now if there is one director who could make it to Hollywood it is Vishal Bhardwaj. Kaminey is by no standards less than any of those Hollywood flicks.

In spite of all this, Kaminey didn’t satisfy me. It left me with thirst for more. One reason may be the pace and length of the movie. Another may be the Bollywoodish climax which played spoilsport for the movie. Vishal seemed to put deliberate efforts to not to make it darker. The script has the potential and the story belongs to the director, he played with the concept, created new dimensions to the characters, did a great screen play but somewhere forgot to “dil nichodna” because if he wanted the movie’s true dark side would have been aptly portrayed, which did not happen in this Kaminey. At the end of it all I felt Kaminey was not Kamina enough.

Movie: Love aaj kal

Director: Imtiaaz Ali

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Dumbika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor

Rating: 2.5 *

Bakwaas. K, with whom P and me were watching the movie, scowled.

K is the most practical of us three and is a logical  guy. It was quintessential for him to get frustrated but, what worried me was he was angry too! Cursing why he chose to come to the movie. He quickly spat a few colourful abuses and excused himself out of the gent’s room.

Relax mate. I tried to sooth him. Mainly because the movie was OK, to be frank I liked it very much. It is not that bad as you are projecting it to be. I protested.

Shut up A, this is utter non sense. He resisted! Ha! Time pass movie hain! It was P’s time to give his 5 cents.

I donno, I liked the movie. May be because, there were questions at the very beginning. I did not like how ye dooriyan  was wasted. But as soon as the questions were being answered I was in. I do not have any complain K, now stop being so critical about the movie. Just enjoy it dude! I said in the cheeriest of my voices.

Ha time pass movie hain! P interrepted again!

Enjoy? Time pass? What is the concept here? The guy and the girl are too practical and decide to part ways as life pulls them off, trying to be practical and all. And when they are successfully off, an  old man tries to make them realize what love is! My foot! This is utter garbage; I’d seen hell lot of movies like this till now, why cant we just get something fresh and out of the box man? said K grabbing some pop corn and coke and marching into the theatre. He did not seem to have enjoyed the first half at all.

You never were in love, were you?

No, SO?

May be you are not able to relate yourself to  the movie.

Stop being so stupid A. If romantic movies are meant for people only in love then most of them would never be successful commercially. Or I never would have liked the movies DDLJ or for that matter JTYJN . Now stop being so idiotic.

But the movie is so cool, nice humour, Saif is sounding so funny man! Good dialouge delivery, nice cheeky lines. All laughs; what else you want? More over Rishi uncle is awesome isn’t he?

Ha yaar! time pass movie hain!

Are you nuts A? Dont you realize the movie is so similar to Jaane Tu ya Jaane na? It is stale, there is nothing new here! I dont need to pay so much to watch this nincompoopery! And look at Deepika! What does she think? She looks as if she was surprised by the camera when she was doing her daily routine, we have so many talented artists why do we just go mad behind all these stars man! And that other tall and lean girl, I donno her name, she is so clumsy. Why do these directors take us audiences for granted, damn it!

NO! It is not similar to Jaane tu….. I protested meekly as we settled in the theatre. The second half of the movie started.

And all it took was some 10 minutes for me to realize that it is indeed similar to Jaane tu ya jaane na. I kept mum as I too started believing more and more that there is no plot at all and it is just an old wine in new bottle. The more the movie progressed the less I wanted to convince K, I somehow got the feeling that he must be right.

The movie did not seem to strike the correct note with ferocious K and I did not intend to start any conversation with him. There is no use to discussing the movie with P he is bad at judging and is very sensitive. So I called my friend S who watched the movie already.

Note: Spoilers ahead!

Me: hello how are you doing?

S: Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! How was the movieeeeeeeee?

yeah the mov……

I liked the first haalf sooooo much man!

ha the first ha………

but the second half was sooo bakwaas, it was so unecessarily dramatic man!

actually the second half wa…….

you know what? I wished the movie ended after that dinner party when Meera tells Jay that her boyfriend proposed her for marriage.

but that would be pretty short movie na! I managed to complete the sentence this time.

yaaaa! but what was shown was soo unreal man! no girl would break her marriage for her ex boy friend who is not even sure whether or not he loves her. But Deepika so gorgeous, no?

yeah yeah! but she wa…..

And didn’t I tell you? All the songs would fit in fine and jolly good they did! Except for that stupid main kya hoon by KK, that song was stupidly made. I felt Dooriyan was wasted and Choor Bazaari was not that well picturized. Aaj din Chadeya was too good though! no? Ahun! was put at the end though, not that it could fit else where!

Yeah! I agree! But you know what? The transition from past story track to present story track was improper. May be Ismail would have used some different colour scheme. Reverse chronological narration of present story just added to the trouble and some one forgot to edit the whole thing properly! Add it up with dismal performances by Deepika and the other lead lady, the movie did not have live up to the expectations.

Yeah man! I am better off watching Jab we met again. More so, Kareena would have been a better option than Deepika, what say?

Yeah! Even I thought so. But we can definitely watch once, can’t we?

Yeah, if we are prepared for the boring second half. I would rate it at 3/5 you?

I would rate it at 2.5/5, can’t be more than that! How about dinner today evening?

Oh! I am so sorry A, I am busy. Why K and P are busy is it?

Hey! I just remembered, even I am busy. I will have to write a review for my blog!

Note: All the characters in the review are fictious and I dont care even if they resemble someone

There is something about Vishal Bharadwaj that you cannot miss, you just cannot afford to miss him as an entertainer. To be frank I am still head over heels for his movie Omkara, which for me is one of the best movies Bollywood ever produced. What enriches the Vishal experience is that he composes his own tunes, so his songs are so carefully done that they penetrate you in ruthless way and make their home deep down in your heart.

So there is little wonder that I am having very high expectations for the Vishals latest flick Kaminey. Though it has been more than a week since the music got released I am waiting for the songs to sink in and believe me I am not at all disappointed.

The much publicised dhan te nan is an awesome number. The song starts with a saxophone rendering and then a few single strokes of guitar is all that was needed to take off and the rest of the journey takes to you to new highs. As you might have observed, it is real tough to sit still when the song plays around, you inadvertently start shaking your head and tapping your feet when Sukhwinder Singh andVishal Dadlani sing this song with utmost passion. So much passion that you would not like to listen to other songs for a while. There is so much force in the vocal strength of these two that you just get washed away as they compete with each other to show the passion that the number churns.

The good news is that there are three tracks in that album that are of same tune including the original one- the remix version and the theme music too are of the same tune. However, I did not find the remix version as exciting as the original version, some where the madness and the passion got subsided in the attempt. The theme music though was enthralling.

That brings us to the next track pehli baar, a ballad by Mohit Chauhan. To be frank, I am falling short of words to aptly describe this number. The composition, lyrically and musically, is flawless and is as well executed by Mohit Chauhan, when he elevates his pitch to render the composition it resonates in your heart, you feel the pain and the wonderful words used by Gulzar would only elevate the feeling. However, I somehow feel the song is similar to Ooooo Saathi re… of Omkara. Nevertheless, a treat to ears!

You would then quickly traverse to the next track Raat ke dhai baje a dance number. It is one of those songs for which you would like to bite your lips, shake your hip with your fists punching the air. The song’s lyrics would quickly change into pehli baar after the first stanza. To be frank the original version is not that great and might as well bore you if you get an over dose. I suppose this would be in the lines of beedi jalai re though this one is not as tangy (?) if I may call it so!

The next track is Fatak performed again with passion and zeal by Sukhwinder and Kahilesh, however this song is kind of a fusion with fatak all over the song. It sounds more like an motivational song, I felt like walking briskly when I heard that song. I am not too sure how to judge this; I am not able to declare this as bad, may be this is what you call ‘not bad’.

As I have said earlier, what makes Vishal’s work special for me is that the songs are inherent part of the movie. They are not fillers but are the pillars for the movie, they define the movie, they complete the movie. One such pillar, I feel, for Kaminey is the song Kaminey. It is sung by Vishal himself, believe me he made it look so awfully simple for a swear word to sound extra-ordinarily poetic and melodious, the song has some very deep meaning trying to bring out the philosophical meaning of the life of the protagonist. I guess it should be at a very critical point of the plot.

All in all, Kaminey is definitely better than to be called as a good album. It is complete with wonderful compositions by Gulzar and the songs are executed with omnipresent passion. However, apart from the three tracks dhan te nan, pehli baar and kameene, the other tracks are forgettable and do not have a lasting effect. But that is decent, isn’t it? Three excellent tracks from a single album. Which is why I rate the Kameeny album at 3.5/5.

           However, let me discuss a few scenes that really shook me. There is a scene near a pan shop where bhaati (Dobriyal) answers all the questions of a student leader with just looks and nods. The scene itself speaks volumes about arrogance, the arrogance of power. There is one more scene where Dobriyal finds Menon in a compromising poition with Ayesha; Dobriyal did it all with just a stare. The stare has got unfathomable depth, its like you have caught your belief cheating on you and you were just standing there and staring back at it. Also, in the scene where Chaudhary was shot, the way he gazes back at his killer mesmerizes you. It was these kind of scenes, an assortment, that made Gulaal.

        Another aspect of movie that I liked is that I was unable to judge who was good and who was bad. There were no heroes or villians in this. There are just ideologies which have been personified and their priorities and what they did (or did not do) to achieve them is what the movie is all about.

           All Iin all Gulaal is a true classic; I have not seen any movie which covered so much of human nature in just 2.5 hours and that too with an amazing ease. And I am sure that this is one of those kinds of movies whose viewing experience betters with number of times you watch it. I am going to watch it again (there are a few characters whom I could not understand as I dismissed them during the early stages of movie)! Anurag Kashyap, take a bow! you truly are a genius!
 
            My advice to those who want watch this movie is that watch the movie with utmost concentration, and don’t miss this classic; believe me it’s worth it.

 What makes a movie good? Actors? Music? Big names associated? I cannot answer the question straight; but if there is one thing that would make a movie special, if there is one factor that would make each rupee you spent on a movie count, it would be the movie’s ability to relate its narration to the viewer.

Back in my school I learnt something about response to stimuli; I never paid much attention to it then. But now after at least 20 odd years of learning it, I understand what exactly it is, especially if the stimulus in the question is love.

It is really very interesting to see what all responses the stimuli love invokes in a man. And if it is beautifully packaged as a movie with a gripping screenplay, rich characterization and a story that is an evolved version of an evergreen love classic, we cant help but like the movie instantly. And this is why Dev D would be what it would be.

First things first, Dev D is not for everyone. If you are person who found your perfect love in very first love, you might end up thinking what the fuck? On the other hand if you are a person who never were in love you will be laughing out crazy on a person’s weakness towards love. Lastly if you are person failed in love, you would watch each inch of the reel with an engrossing anguish that would relate yourself to the characters. There is some un escaping truth that emulates from the movie, visible only to a few. This makes Dev D an entertainment only for a certain group of people.

Having said that, Anurag Kashyap has brilliantly customized the three principal characters of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novel Devdas: Dev, Paro and Chanda. The trio are much more stronger than the actual characters of the novel and could be easily related to today’s youth. The way Anurag has portrayed adolescent love between Dev and Paro where the two become too desperate to have sex is so realistic but a big shift from the love that was actually portrayed in the novel (but who cares? ).

The very foundation of the movie, however, is Dev’s character. I had seen the old Telugu version of Dev Das and the new SRK version too. My initial reaction to both of them was that Dev was a loser. I mean who would destroy himself for a lover girl who dumped him for whatever reasons. ‘Stupidity’ was my first thought.

But, Dev D changed my perception of Dev Das. The character, in fact, shouts at you and makes a bold statement about the attitude of Dev. There is something disturbing about him that gets on to your nerves. An extremely egoistic introvert’s inability to deal with a personal failure and how he responds to this stimulus by denying his helplessness and countering it by punishing himself  with vodka, drugs and cigarettes- this to summarize is Dev D and believe me Abhay Deol has done a great justice to the character.

One of the things I could not miss observing is the way Anurag knitted the recent sociological mishaps like the BMW run-over case and MMS scandals into the story. The other appreciable thing about the movie is the way it ends, unlike the old Devs this Dev doesn’t leave you in blues. However, you don’t fail to observe the inability of the director to take off from the wonderful foundation he lays in the first half of the movie. The second half seemed to be a good experiement where the movie shifts its genre to a musical drama, something which not everyone likes!

Mahi Gill did an excellent job of portraying the raw feelings of a young woman, whose idea of love is still confusing for me. Kalki is a discovery and I might say is the next best thing to Abhay; extremely dramatic though. Coming to the music, it would be a redundant statement if I say Emosanal Atyaachaar is great, everyone knows that. But I would like to share that the crowd had gone mad during the song. Among other 17 songs I guess there are a few which did catch my attention and a few of them were pictured in a weird way and I liked it too.

All in all Dev D is an excellent extrapolation of yesteryear’s love classic to the today’s scenario. It plucks a string that is burrowed deep down under but dampens it before it could resonate into an uncontrollable emotion. So let’s leave it there. My rating for the movie is 3.5/5.

P.S: Avoid watching it with your parents. It is not a family movie.

I am a person who believe in theory of diminishing utility. The more something is available for the public consumption, the lesser is its value. I believe it is the unavailability of AR Rahman that made him a legend of our time. So when I first came to know about ARR’s association with Delhi 6 project I was a bit apprehensive, there was too much of ARR for me, more than ever, during 2008.
Of course, its my sheer gut that ARR can never be “average” made me wait before I could review the music for Delhi 6. Its typical of ARR music to settle ‘late’ in you.

Well, much to your knowledge, the Masakali sits on your tongue instantly. There is a naughty touch to the tune and Mohit Chauhan did a great a job to bring that naughtiness to the song. The best part of the song is that it makes you smile, it churns out that happiness out of the soul. I was inadvertantly smiling and banging my head as I hear Mohit Chauhan performing the tounge twisting composition. Masakali is for sure a song that would haunt you for next few months. Fresh and very AR Rahman.

The next track Arziyan reminded me of khwaza mere kjwaaza. As expected from these genres, the metallic voice Khailash Kher and melodious Javed Ali competing voices will take you into trance. The song takes some time for settling on you, but once it does so, it creates its own space. Prasoon Joshi did a good job with lyrics.

The next track Dilli-6 seriously sounded like Paatshaala types. The beats are simple and good and there was a good fusion with some rapping mixed with metal and alternate rock. Blaaze, Benny Dayal, Vivinenne, Tanvi and Claire really did a good job. The song is very young and I guess its a definite disco mix. I guess this song will be played as in bits and pieces all over the movie especially “yeh Delhi hain meri yaar”. The transition from one genre to another was performed effortlessly and the song would be a definite chart buster.

You would then come to what I think is the best song of the album. Rehna Tu starts with a a very groovy beat and in no time Rahman intrudes and the next six minutes he would take you to an altogether a different world. Your heart just flows along with the song as Rahman plays with swaras, the song ends with a flute performance, the flute was played at a very base level then picks up very high notes with Rahman humming in the back ground ocassionally, this is what made the song special to me, this is definitely scores better than Masakali. Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics were just perfect for the romantic wonder.

Hey Kalaa Bandar again is in lines with Dilli-6 a good dance number, the beats are groovy though the song is not fresh it makes your feet tap.

Dil Gira Dafatan sounds more like poetry sung slowly with some guitar and really takes a very long time to settle in you. Each and every note of the song touches your heart, the guitar work is so awesome that it altogether takes you to another world. I am expecting this song to be the Tu bin bataye type used by Om Prakash. This song definitely has a special aura that flawlessly mesmerizes you to feel the romance. There is this one part of the song where the notes go pretty high, this part was performed very well by Ash King and the ocassional humming by Chinmayee added nice flavor to the song.

Ghenda Phool is a pleasant surprise for me. For the first few seconds it sounds like a folk song that was there in Saathiya but within no time ARR’s genius steps in with an awesome western fusion. The song is fun to listen and you thoroughly enjoy the song. A typical close-your-eyes-bite-your-lips-and-tap-your-feet type song. Will be remembered for quite some time.

Bhor Bhaye is a Ghulam Ali composition, so not many comments from me and neither are any for Aarti.

Overall, Delhi-6 is a pleasant surprise for me. ARR did not disappoint me if not bettered his own scores that he earned in his recent releases. Prasoon Joshi did justice to wonderful compositon. I rate the music at 4 out of 5.

My picks: Masakali, Rehna tu, Ghenda Phool, Dil Gira Dafatan

I settled in the seat, the one which I reserved. There is something peculiar about travelling in trains. It instantly gives you the sneak peek into the much talked about the rising affluence of Indian middle class. Now there is a catch with this, by rising affluence I mean there is richness in everything, I mean what is once accessible only to rich and powerful is now available to masses. So rising affluence means there are more people everywhere.

The A/C compartment in which I was travelling is no exception. There are people everywhere; I mean there are more people without reservation in the compartment than there are people with reservation. Chaos was the word!

A few minutes into the journey, things settled down. Now is the time for please-look-at-me-I have-a-mobile clad people to show off their pseudo affluence to others, so there are a few dudes who pulled out  a mobile and the whole atmosphere was filled out with a tweeting sound everywhere. There was one such person beside me.

Now, this guy is a real dude. He pulled out a laptop and much to his expectations the girl opposite dropped her jaw and bit the back of her palm. His eyes twinkled as the lappie made the standard windows login sound. After all the hush-hush about the machine settled, the media player beamed out a few noises, it’s a movie; a new one too.

                I was in no mood to watch a movie. Primarily there were questions about personal choices; I was not too happy to watch a movie and secondarily there were question of conscience- the movie seemed pirated. But I peeked into the screen and believe me my friends, I engulfed by the movie for next hundred twenty minutes.

                When I started watching, I saw a few kids playing cricket on the edge of a runway and police chasing them; an awesome score of music from behind. It went on O saya…. The song was great to say the least; it instilled in you the spirit of freedom.

                A few minutes into the movie, I realized that a teenage guy was being interrogated by policemen. Apparently, he was suspected of a fraud in a show and earned around 10 million rupees. As the police interrogate Jamal Malik looking at the video of the show so far, we see the movie through the eyes of Jamal. How he answered each of the question from his life experiences to become a millionaire.

                I laughed my heart out looking at how Jamal, as a kid, gets the autograph of Amitabh; the experience which helped him answers the very first question. The gripping screenplay completely engrossed me here as I enjoyed the childhood of Jamal and his elder brother Salim. The movie then changed the gear from subtle humor to thought provoking and sensitive mood as Jamal explained how communal riots took his mother’s life to teach him that lord Rama carries a bow and arrow in his right arm, the answer to the next question. Also, at this juncture Jamal sowed the seeds for his future love, he introduced Latika here.

                The train stopped, I looked out of the window for a moment only to see scores of beggars, most of them children, flocking the windows of the train. They were begging alms showing much younger people in their arms. I could instantly relate to Jamal’s narration of how he knew the answer to the question about the author of a song “darshan do ghanshaym“. The movie gave intricate details about how a begging racket works.

                The sympathies and disgust that the communal riots instilled in me slowly metamorphosed to anger as Jamal told the inspector how he had to lose Latika and almost his eyes to know the answer for the next question. 

Just as I thought the movie got serious, Jamal and Salim grew up and Jamal took me through how he tasted the dollars as he and his brother Salim cheated foreigners as fake guides at the Taj Mahal. And Jamal answers the question on American Dollar to become a millionaire.

                I looked around, there was a young couple talking to each other with just eyes. I looked around only to see humans paired up with their loved ones; they are talking, smiling, conversing, worrying but all of them had one thing in common- love. Its love; love in its purest form devoid of all materialistic desire.

This is what you feel when teenage Jamal, along with his elder brother Salim, returns to Mumbai just in search of Latika. Here Jamal is exposed to another evil of the Indian society-flesh trade. Jamal comes to know that young Latika was forced into prostitution. Your blood boils.

                My anger amplified when someone from the corner of the seat made an angry gesture to reduce the volume, he had a logic in his demand. But it was not the time for logic, the movie engrosses you so much that instigates revenge in you.

                Your anger subsides when Salim pulls out a colt 45 revolver and kills the racketeer. Salim would later be befriended by a local don and becomes a small don himself. Jamal loses Latika again, this time to his own brother. He then leads the life of an assistant at a call center.

                The remaining movie thrives upon how Jamal gets on to the show just to make sure that Latika sees and comes to him. To know how this happens, you will have to see the movie.

Dev Patil, Tanay Chheda, Ayush Khedkar- the three characters who played Jamal at various stages were simply great. The director got the best out of them, I liked the kid Jamal (Ayush) the most; innocent, sweet and very expressi
ve. The screen play was so gripping that your mood changes along with the movie for each scene, you feel what Jamal feels as he narrates his story. The music, though I could not figure out much, sounded great during a few songs like O saya and Ringa…Ringa.

Overall, Slumdog millionaire is the first great thing to happen to me this new year, I am really happy that I watched this movie and it is beyond any doubt that it is one of the best movies I’d ever seen. It is a must watch for everyone.

The expectations that are set by the immaculate marketing campaign, the trade mark of Aamir would just rise when you look at the titles, which look like sneak peek into the human brain. The next ten minutes were spent in comparing the movie to the Telugu version. In fact I was a bit disappointed to realize that to an extent it was a screen to screen copy of the Telugu version. However, the director quickly pulls you in by some nerve tickling humor and from then, no looking back as the movie goes ahead with each scene promising that there is more to come.

Anyone who says that Ghajni is a standard revenge type movie where hero chases the villain to death, they surely have missed a lot of the movie. The movie has all the aspects that a good entertainer should have. It starts with humor that Kalpana(Asin) churns in while Sanjay (Aamir) falls for her is really good. Kalpana is a smart, innocent, talkative, independent, ambitious and socially responsible girl who is good enough to attract the Harvard graduate business man Sanjay.

The plot unfolds showing how Sanjay who was once a smart young business man who balances his life to heed to his innocent girl friend now becomes a brute force killing machine. Sanjay as the short term memory loss patient hardly has any dialogues. His eyes spoke everything; in fact the best part of the movie is to feel along with Sanjay the pain of losing a loved one and how that pain becomes uncontrollable and turns into revenge, all this happens as you look into eyes of Aamir and you cheer each time Sanjay kills one each from the villain’s gang.

The performances were all fabulous, the screen play was awesome, the fights were well designed, and last but not the least AR Rahman’s music was great to say the least. One thing that came to me as a pleasant surprise was that the climax was different from the Telugu version. All in all Ghajni has come out well, the emotions of person who lost his love- the theme of the movie- came out sound and healthy. For all this, Ghajni is a definite paisa vasool and so a must watch.

The first half was spent in spasmodic slumber. While the ‘not so real’ emotions are grinded upon you in completely unreal sets which are a pain to see, it is just the occasional funny one liners that wake you up as the theatre explodes into an occasional burst of laughter. In fact things get so boring that people did not laugh at what I think as the best line of the whole movie-mera naam hain Raj, naam tho suna hoga? While audience start doubting their intelligence when the questions like why can’t Suri be as fluid as Raj pop up, I felt like a sheep for being taken granted so much that I was made to believe that Tanee could not make out the difference between Raj and Suri.

Most of you know that the screenplay sucked and the storyline was as boring as Russian romantic novels where nothing happens till page number 380 where the hero decides to commit suicide. So I will not talk about it, what irritated me the most is the spineless nature of both the characters Raj and Suri. Both are idiotic enough to dance to the tunes of an emotionally tortured woman whose ideal world is far from reality. Though there is logic behind the concept that Suri wanted to know if Tanee loves the extrovert Raj or introvert Suri, the concept makes sense only if both are different. The whole movie for sometime seemed like an extension of kabhi alvida na kehna, the story was lack logic, the screenplay sucked is an understatement, art direction was no better and the movie was so long that I contemplated walking out.

Coming to the performances, Sharukh was fabulous; his talent was for sure wasted here. I am not sure how much more did he charge for wearing those please-look-at-me-and-puke-instantly clothes. Neon yellow t shirt, blue track suit and red shoes! Anushka was awesome, each and every inch of reel of hers in the movie has come out with the correct emotion, and I seriously feel that she has got a great career ahead. Vinay as usual is good. Overall if you are a smart person and hate emotional manipulations you can instantly avoid this movie. However, if you are a mushy person or an introvert who feel extra uncomfortable talking your feelings to girls, then maybe you can give it a try.