Friday, January 30, 2009

Jumanji





Movie Review: “Jumanji” (1995 - English)

Director: Joe Johnston

Writers: Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Thriller

Cast: Robin Williams, Jonathan Hyde, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, Bonnie Hunt, Bebe Neuwirth, David Alan Grier and Others.

“Jumanji” is a name of a Board game which is at the centre of the film so the movie is called by its name “Jumanji”. The movie is based on a picture book story of the same name written by Chris Van Allsberg. Movie will easily rank in top 20 entertaining movie I watched ever in my life so far. It has everything contents of Adventure and Action, bit of Comedy, Fantasy, Thriller, lot of Special Effects. But most of all it will be classified a movie for children. But I enjoy the movie every time I watch it although I am all grown up now.

Movie start with two kids burying the “Jumanji”(a board game) in ancient time. Then movie skips forward when Alan digs out the game outside his father’s shoe factory. And he decides to try his hand with his friend Sarah. And after that as the tagline of the movie says “Roll the dice and unleash the excitement”. That’s what we get, as Sarah rolls the dice thousands of Bats flies out of the game. And if that wasn’t scary enough when Alan rolls the dice, he gets sucked in the game itself. And he has to be there for next twenty six years of his life. Sarah needs treatment for her insanity.

The story again skips forward by twenty six year when two kids Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter come to live in Alan’s home with their aunt. They also found out that the game is calling for them, when they get to the game they also decide to try their hands on the game. And they also discover the fun of the game when Judy rolls the dice Mosquitoes attack them, next roll some crazy monkeys come out of the game, next roll the lion comes out and when they roll again Alan himself comes out of the game. But this time he is all grown up. But real action starts when Alan and kids realized that they are playing the same game which Alan started twenty six earlier. And if they want to undo everything done by the game they had to finish the game. So they need all the four participants including Sarah. They make Sarah to participate in the game once again. After that movie gets even more adventures because as they roll the dice they encounter even more scary things like a Hunter with big gun, wild man eating trees, Animal stampede, big deadly spiders, crocodiles and crazy jungle monsoon.

So story takes you to the end how they manage to overcome every obstacle and manage to finish the game. And eventually able to undo all the disaster created by the game.

After watching the movie the person who should be admired is Director of the movie Joe Johnson. Because in Special effect movies like this it is very easy to overdo the special effect to make it more glamorous. But in the process story might lost which didn’t happen with “Jumanji”. The special effects may be at par with the time when the movie released but we can see movies are coming out with better special effect. In the movies like Jurassic Park, Twister, Godzilla, Narnia. But I really enjoyed the sequence of stampede and the cute hippo lagging behind them. On the whole all the actors did brilliant job. Movie will surely be enlisted in my Must watch movies before you die.

If I have to rate the movie I will give 9 out of 10 for this pure entertainment movie.




Friday, January 16, 2009

Will Oscar come to India?


Will A R Rahman win an Oscar? For the answer we have to wait, watch and hope as no one knows that today. But two things are certain even today, that he is most deserving candidate to win this award and after winning ‘Golden Globe’ he is just inches away from the glory of Oscars. ‘Golden Globe’ is seen as precursor of Oscars. And Rahman has got strong will power of one billion people backing him and hoping for his success.

But thinking of Oscar we should not forget to celebrate this moment also as ‘Golden Globe’ is also one of the top most honor anybody can get in showbiz. So we can not underestimate his achievements and enjoy it irrespective of his winning the Oscar or not. He always mad all of us Indian proud but when he received such internationally acclaimed award we feel even more proud of him. He is musical genius and is a true ‘Mozart of India.’ He is brilliant at what he does and he is doing it consistently for about two decades now. His success lies in his versatility. He had created some unforgettable romantic, soulful composition but at the same time he is able to create many feet tapping numbers too. He has big fan following in India who always waiting for his next creation eagerly. He is the best and busiest music composer in India who always gives original music. The word original should be highlighted in bold letters as it is a big achievement of him when we are considering current Indian composers. Because many of the Indian composers’ inspirations come easily and so naturally that they never realized that they are copying someone else’s creation.

A R Rahman already won many national and international awards in his flourishing career. If you want to find out nearly unending list you can visit A R Rahman’s official website. And this list is going to be longer and longer in coming years. But ‘Golden Globe’ award is in many ways special for him and for Indian music as this will put both of them on the top of International music radar. Both of them get the recognition internationally what they deserve from long time. And if he wins Oscar it will be icing on the cake. Actually before this award I used to think why we wait for any international awards or Oscar for that matter. We have our own 1 billion people and awards of our own. Why do we care about Oscar so much? But I must admit watching A R Rahman winning the Golden Globe and accepting the award thrill me never the less. And it is the biggest talking point for not only news channels but for general public. And what was more thrilling and exciting was A R Rahman’s speech after winning the award. He didn’t forgot to thank one billion people of India because he knew how much it meant for Indians.

A R Rahman is in a true sense ambassador of India and Indian culture. He is down to earth, and humble although little bit of arrogance from his side would have been neglected by everyone as he on top of the world. So let’s cross our fingers and hope for the Oscar but he is already a winner in our hearts.

P.S. : Whenever I think of A R Rahman first thing comes to mind is the song ‘Vande Mataram’ sung and composed by A R Rahman. Whenever I listen to this song I always gets goose bump and I am sure all the Indian feel the same.



Sunday, January 11, 2009

Must Watch Movies Before you die - 2



21. Munnabhai MBBS (2003) - Hindi

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Writers: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Sunil Dutt, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Gracy Singh, Boman Irani, Rohini Hattangadi, Jimmy Shergill

One of very best movies made in Indian cinema which made you feel good.

22. Masoom (1983) – Hindi

Director: Shekhar Kapur

Writer: Sampooran Singh, Gulzar

Genre: Drama, Family, Musical

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Jugal Hansraj, Urmila Matondkar, Saeed Jaffrey, Supriya Pathak, Satish Kaushik and others

The movie dealt with infidelity and its consequences. A soulful movie is with equally soulful songs. This was directorial debut of famous director Shekhar Kapur.

23. Forest Gump (1994) – English

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writers: Winston Groom (novel), Eric Roth (screenplay)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Cast: Tom Hanks, Robik Wright Penn, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, and others

As the tagline of movie says it is the story of a lifetime of Forrest Gump who might not a be a intelligent man but quite remarkable person and big time achiever.

24. A Few Good Men (1992) – English

Director: Rob Reiner

Writers: Aaron Sorkin

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, and others

Movie with some brilliant acting performances. Movie tells the story of a battle between army men but not on a battle field but in court room. A battle which is not for land but for honor.

25. Vazir (1994) – Marathi

Director: Ujwal Thengdi

Genre: Drama,

Cast: Ashwini Bhave, Vikram Gokhale, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Ashok Saraf,

Political drama, Ashok saraf with his best performance, May be climax could have been better but over all movie is top class.

26. Socha Na Tha (2005) – Hindi

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Writer: Imtiaz Ali

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Cast: Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia, Ayesha Jhulka, Apoorva Jha, Rati Agnihotri, Sandhya Mridul, Suresh Oberoi and others

Movie is like fresh breeze of air, good light hearted romantic film. No unnecessary drama or glamour involved.


27. A Wednesday (2008) – Hindi

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Writers: Neeraj Pandey
Genre:
Drama, Thriller

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergil, Dipal Shaw, Aamir Bashir

The solution provided in film against terrorism and terrorist may not be right but film one many hearts as it portrays agony of victims of terrorism.

28. Black Friday (2007) - Hindi

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Writers: Anurag Kashyap, Hussain Zaidi (book)

Genre: Crime, Drama

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Pavan Malhotra, Adutya Srivastava, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kishore Kadam, Gajraj Rao, Zakir Hussain, Imtiaz ali, and others

The story of the Mumbai bomb blasts, it is one of the most shocking, black and intense movie made.

29. Shwas (2004) – Marathi

Director: Sandeep Sawant

Genre: Drama, Family

Cast: Arun Nalawade, Ashwin Chitale, Sandeep Kulkarni, Amruta Subhash, Ashwini Giri, Ganesh Manjarekar.

It tells us to always keep positive attitude towards life.

30. Tare Jamin Par (2007) – Hindi

Director: Aamir Khan

Writer: Amole Gupte

Genre: Drama, Family, Children

Cast: Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan, Tisca Chopra, Sachet Engineer, Vipin Sharma, Tanmay Chheda.

As the tagline of the movie says every child is special. And Darsheel Safary comes up with exceptional performance. It is also debut od Aamir Khan as Director.


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