Bollywood Blog

The expectations from this movie were as high as they could have gotten. The trailers looked decent; the background score and the soundtrack is very snuggish; and not to mention Imran Khan looks like a debutante to look out for. You want to be blown away by this movie; in a cool but subtle way.

The truth is, though, this is probably one of the most bogus movies I’ve ever seen. The only difference is the fact that it’s packaged really well, which makes it kind of even worse. I rented Good Boy Bad Boy knowing what I was in for. I needed to make fun of something and it was money well spent for that matter. This movie cheats you from the day it’s trailers aired on the television. It makes you think it’s worth watching. You go out of your way and waste three hours of your life thinking you’re seeing history.

The story is very simple. Jay and Aditi are best friends. Everyone around them know they’re made for each other, but the two of them think otherwise. When confronted with marriage, they begin on a quest to hooking each other up only to shut others. Jay finds Megna and He begins to change. Aditi is confronted by feelings she never knew she had, and from there it goes on forward..

I went into the cinema expecting a nice/friendly kind of a movie with laughs, friendship and a little drama. Here, the movie takes 180 degree turns into plots. It changes from reality to fantasy as it pleases. There is literally no character development. It starts and goes on and on until it ends. Stories develop; change and end without the viewer feeling any kind of emotion. The only thing that keeps you tuned is the idea of Aditi and Jay and what this movie COULD have POSSIBLY been.

Jay has acted well. Not much can be said for the rest of the cast except that much wasn’t required anyway. Movies like Rang De Basanti, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai that are all based around friendships, groups and college life are like holy shrines in comparison. Kajol and Shahrukh in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai had great chemistry; were very well developed as Anjali and Rahul. Here you have Jay, who is anything but violent, and Aditi, who needs a reason to fight. You take the narrator’s word for this because their introduction situationally is very poor. For five minutes they’re best friends inseparable. For the next five they are disgusted about being together; in the next five they’ve changed. You never see them both together from then onwards; no questions asked. The plot is very localized in a lot of ways. It tries to be one of those movies that get into a comedic fantasy phase slash drama serious phase but all you can do is roll eyes while it is happening. Jay lives to see Aditi smile, yet that kind of close connection between the two is never shown properly on screen. You begin to wonder if you really want for the two of them to be together. You simply don’t care.

I will stop ranting and just say if you’re expecting a lot from this movie, you will be hugely disappointed. The truth is, though, this could have been great. It just messes up too much. It tries to find it’s core somewhere within the story but it’s just all over the place to achieve any kind of appraise.

Good Points: Imran Khan; Music; Megna’s character development.

Bad Points: Direction; Character development; Story.

P.S. Arbaaz and Sohail Khan’s part in this movie was very corny. They both really need to get lives.

Karan Johar started his own blog only a few days ago. I think it’s a great thing He did. Blogs can be therapeutic if written honestly. His thoughts, though, seemed more personal for a blog; talking about his love for the film fraternity (or the lack of it) and also admits to his questionable sexuality and hookups with Bollywood stars (you could have just said Shahrukh there, or are there more?)

Often times you hear these celebrities talk about nothing and you realise just how fickle and ungrateful BUT human they are. The other day I read an editorialesque-type entry from ZQ, a now retired Pakistani Fashion Model, and I was rolling my eyes. The amount of hate, regret she opinionated in that entry (in rather poor english) I kind of wondered where all the happiness is gone? True everybody is sad, and usually the will to write something and share it is only a defense mechanism to be saved, like accepting you’ve reached your lowest point and there’s only coming back up from there; still often times you JUST can’t help but wonder why all the frigging negativity.

The most interesting part of the whole entry was the two line ending, his “official announcement” of his latest venture. Starring Kajol and Shahrukh Khan a movie titled “My Name is Khan” will start shooting soon. After I read that I did a little research and it turns out Kajol did FINALLY accept to work with Karan Johar (given how she’s such a talent hack) so let’s see what this one has in store for the future!

Here is Karan’s official entry.

The website was just updated with the soundtrack listing of Mission Istaanbul. Not anything different here, we’ve seen such scores in the past (Dus, Dhoom, etc) from action movies. The soundtrack is more dance oriented and has a modern/racy touch to it. Some Arabian element has also been diverged into the score. Nothing about the movie though strikes it any different from the already tried-and-tested-and-exhausted formula of wannabe mobsters, throwing in a few almost naked models and a lot of Hollywood cloned action. Let’s hope there is something different about this one. Wishful thinking.

What’s even funnier though, is the fact that Vivek Oberoi plays a Turkish Commander in this movie. Isn’t that funny? Or is it just me?

Anyhow, here is a direct link to the MP3 Soundtrack of Mission Istaanbul.

Satyajit, a John Doe Reviewer, gave this soundtrack a 3/5.