The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Views]

Directed by : Niels Arden Oplev (Sweden version)

Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/

Directed by : David Fincher (American version)

Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/

The film is based on some famous novel, thriller based. Its of three parts, and all of them have been made into swedish movies. While American one has only first one done till now, and rest two are expected by 2014. 

I liked both the versions, both have positives and own flaws. But, if I have to choose one, then I would prefer Sweden one, mainly because the girl playing main lead made more impact in the sweden version, and also the writing was more in favour of her in the sweden version, while the american foccussed more on her trauma, and very less on the relation she shares with the journalist. 

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist gets a investigating case from powerful Wanger Family of a girl Harriet who is missing since 40 years, but whose killer is still alive. Mikael who is already seen himself in wrong light by the media for his reporting against one of famous personalities who actually sets Mikael up. To get a good change, Mikael accepts the case and slowly gets totally intrigued into the case but he requires help of Lisabeth, a brilliant computer hacker to solve the case. Both get together, and start solving the case that lays doubts on each and every member of the Wanger Family. 

Sweden Version : Though Michael Nyqvist acted the part of Mikael very well, he looked old to play the character, specially the scenes between him and Lisabeth looked less appealing. I like the way Lisabeth character is written, the personal problems she face and the way she looks at guys not having any trust in them. The whole guardian-Lisabeth sequences were very captivating. And the way Lisabeth comes into the investigation of Harriet, and her help, and the question she asks herself if Michael is a guy she can trust or not. 

Another highlight of this version, is the back-story of Lisabeth done in a min or two scene telling why she has become like this now. What incident made her like this. 

I think in a way the writing made Mikael less effective in the investigation case, though he started it very well, but its Lisabeth who took him to the conclusion. Also, I liked the ending very much, specially the final shot. 

Noomi Rapace was brilliant in her portrayal of Lisabeth character. Though, it took a while to accept her looks, being treated not well mentally that kinda look given to her. She easily brought the vulnerability and uneasyness while talking to guys, plus the way she would help Mikael. 

The Bible numbers and names mystery was very well put, and the way it gets solved. I like the detailing done to this part. 

Also, the conversation the killer has in the final portions of the movie, the dialogues of that part made the killer look more deadly. 

American Version : Lisabeth-guardian sequences are almost similar, with extra footage of expired guardian to give a feel what Lisabeth is about to face. In this version, Mikael is much stronger in his abilities to solve case, though Lisabeth does come into his investigation to help him out but Mikael himself succeeds much more in this version. The Mikael-Lisabeth sex scenes though aren't directed well, as they are (though very few) in the sweden version. 

While the climax is changed here, be it Harriet mystery or the Mikael earlier case which Lisabeth tries to help him out of. The change in Harriet is useless, could had gone with same one. But, Lisabeth is good because it kinda of establishes how she gonna on her own manage out in next parts. 

Daniel Craig, was very good in his performance, while Rooney Mara was let down by the writing, except for few scenes, she couldn't make me love her. The lesbian scene which is edited in sweden version, was very nicely done by director in this version. 

Overall, the reason the film works in both versions is the screenplay, the mystery keeps getting revealed slowly and the Lisabeth character makes is exciting. Which version you would like would most probably depend on which Lisabeth and Mikael you liked. 

Movie Analysis : Rush

Directed  by : Shamin Desai
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2256514/

A struggling guy Sam (Emraan Hashmi) who has a girlfriend Ahana (Sagarika Ghatge) he wants to marry, but needs to get a high salary job. He gets a offer from Lisa (Neha Dhupia) to work for Crime 24 channel as main Editor. Sam takes Ahana with her to foreign place for this new job. He gets a big flat and car, just the kind of lifestyle he would had wanted to have. But, little does he know.. that he has been set up in a trap that he will not find easy to escape.

The story sounds so similar to Blood Money, just replace the job from 'Diamond company' to 'News reporting'. Only difference is, Blood Money didn't waste any time and started right away from the main plot.. while in Rush, the narration goes slowly towards the main aspect of the film, almost takes up full first half.

Dialogues are average.The songs are completely forced into the narrative, especially 'Mumkin nahin'. Whosoever idea it was, seriously has no music sense. Fukra is the only song to some extent that goes in flow with the narrative.

Emraan Hashmi is very good in the scenes where he is shown anchoring his own show for news channel, apart from that there's nothing new or appealing to talk about his performance.

Sagarika Ghatge was impressive in 'Chak De India', but in this film her acting fails terribly. Most of the part it she appeared having no interest in the scenes of the movie.

Aditya Pancholi, who plays the main villian i.e Boss of Crime 24.. couldn't bring that extra to the movie mainly due to the screenplay that never allows him enough screen space to make any impact.

Rahul Singh hams like hell 'You are dead, you are dead'.

Neha Dhupia was the best among all the actors, looked confident, and completely fitted into the character. Plus, she looked so glamarous too.


Overall, Rush had a good concept but extremly poor execution..


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Ajab Ghazab Love

Directed by : Sanjay Gadhvi
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356959/

Rajveer (Jackky Bhagnani), a rich guy,  falls in love at first sight with a rich girl Madhuri (Nidhi Subbaiah) who hates rich people. Rajveer introduces himself as a poor guy, with background of poor family making his whole family to enact all the lies he builds. How long Rajveer would succeed, especially with Madhuri's twin Brothers Karan and Arjun (Arjun Rampal), who hates people lying and cheating...

The film suffers heavily for trying to bring comedy leaving some scenes make no sense. Take for eg, Rajveer telling Arjun, the lie of his father's rich friend, Subbo (Arshad Warsi) having a accident and his father donating kidney khade khade.. how fake that lie looks. Then, the dose of over-dramatic scenes, one where Madhuri feels apologetic to the family of Rajveer, or one where Rajveer realises how good his father has been, or the one where Rajveer's father feels for the poor people. These scenes change the tone of the film, plus average background score doesn't help either.

Dialogue writing is very poor, save for few of the good comedy punches. The dream song looks very odd in terms of picturisation.

'Tu' was my favourite song in the movie, very romantic and well filmed too. Also, 'Sun Soniye' was quite good too.

The 'banana' sequence, first meeting of Madhuri with Rajveer's parents, and Madhuri's brother Arjun going to live at place of Subbo acting as the head of the house were some of the best moments in the film. Also, Arjun Rampal's 'samajh gaye ? Toh phir sar hilaayo'.

Jackky Bhagnani is very good in his performance yet again. Nidhi Subbaiah is average, over-acts at many places. Arjun Rampal entertains in supporting role of twin brothers. Kirron Kher is funny as always, though she went over-the top in the first blind scene she does. Darshan Jariwala is impressive. Amarjeet Singh is decent.


Overall, Ajab Ghazab Love gives you some good laughs, but like many movies in past.. drama and comedy don't gel together properly.


Verdict  : AVERAGE

Taken 2 [Views]

Directed by : Olivier Megaton
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1397280/

If I kill you, your other sons will  come and seek revenge ? 'They will'. And I will kill them too.

There are films that are so much performance oriented, that even if its weak in rest departments, it matters very less as the movie has made a impact on you. Taken2 falls in that category for me, for the performance of Liam Neeson. I loved his performance, mind you that doesn't mean I am saying its a oscar worthy.

I haven't seen the 1st part yet, so I assume the starting 5-10 mins where Murad (Rade Serbedzija) pledges to take revenge of his son, must had been killed in last part. Retired CIA, Bryan (Liam Neeson) asks his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) to come to Istanbul and spend some time with him, which would be a pleasant change for them too. But, he isn't aware that Murad is planning revenge not only against him but his wife and daughter too. Bryan and Lenore gets taken by Murad, but Kim escapes. Bryan insists her to go to embassy and be safe, but she has other plans as she wants to help her father and mom.

The love track between Bryan and Lenore doesn't work to me, again I am taking a guess that in part1 there would be scenes that describe how their relation failed. Maggie Grace over-acts a lot. While Rade Serbedzija never interests me, as normally the villian should be much more powerful but he never appeared to be so. The ending very much justifies that statement.

Liam Neeson is beyond brilliant, the way he uses memory when his eyes are closed to remember places on basis of voices he hears and the time it takes to reach a particular place (Reminded me of a hindi film qatl). And then later, he uses that same memory to relocate to the place where Murad is hiding. He's always one step ahead of his enemies, and the only time he misses is when his wife makes a mistake.

The action sequences are very good, they had the 'bourne series' feel, not just for the action but also the background score. Dialogues are good, especially Liam one's.


Taken2 is likeable only due to Liam Neeson, single handedly he carries the film from the start till the end.

Argo [Views]

Directed by : Ben Affleck
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/

The whole country is watching you ... they just don't know it. 

The movie begins with a small history about U.S, and Iran.. and the developments taking place in those countries. Its a quick 5 minute voiceover (pretty much like Piyush Mishra opening credits description in GOW1). And the 1st shot that comes after that, is a very large amount of people gathered outside the U.S Embassy in the Iran, to protest against a leader named 'Shah' being taken in the embassy, and not killed yet. There was hatred among the people for Shah, and they broke into the embassy leaving the people present inside the embassy in total panic. Just 6 americans inside the embassy managed to escape, rest all were taken hostage. The 6 americans were kept hidden by a canadian ambassador, which was known only by a US CIA spy agency.

CIA's exfil, Tony (Ben Affleck) expert puts forward a plan of acting like a film production person, he would make a fake canadian movie that requires a certain location in Iran to be visited, and the 6 americans would be the crew of the movie, who would flew back with Tony. The problem for Tony is, not only he has less time to promote a fake movie that looks real, his own CIA people aren't pleased with the movie idea, and may anytime change the plan.

The film is based on a true story, its a history based film.. yet its full of humurous moments thanks to the part where Tony goes to meet the Hollywood people, Lester (Alan Arkin) and John (John Goodman) to help him in the fake movie idea. Both Lester and John were amazing to the extent that in what was a very serious movie, their scenes would almost always bring a laugh or two. Lester's 'Argo fuck yourself' was hillarious. And the dialogues written were funny too, 'This is the best bad idea we have Sir, by far'.

All the 6 actors playing the american characters, portrayed the dread and scared look pretty well. Kathy (Kerry Bishe), acts like a professional movie crew member, by taking the photos of the Iran market location where Tony takes all of them, only to get into unexpected kind of trouble. Cora (Clea Duvall) polite query to Tony 'Can we rehearse once again' when Tony is feeling 'all lost', and Tony telling her 'You did quite well, Cora.. have some rest now'.

Joe (Scoot Mcnairy) has two scenes of his own, one where he expresses how he has made Kathy suffer in all this revolution, but the main one where he surprises not just Tony but the audience is at the airport.

Ben Affleck brings a calmness to the character of Tony, even when there appears to be some problems in his married life which ain't given any importance understandably as per demand of the subject. The dejection on the face of Ben when he feels all preparations went waste, the surprised look when he sees the confidence in Joe to help everyone, the happy look to see Cora trying and practising so hard, and the slightest of smile he gives during one of the key scene in the movie. The reason why its easy to connect to his character is, that he keeps it simple.. never tries to be over-smart, always shows the fear that is always there in him at every checkpoints of airport, or while he is in Iran.

The airport climax sequence is without a doubt nerve wrecking, you won't be able to move out of your seat, and you wont either be able to make a guess as to whether Tony would succeed or fail, as both have equal probabilities. Special mention to the fast editing done in that sequence, that builds the tension much more.

Also, I liked the fact that the rehearsals sequence are shown very less, as the fear of the 6 americans and how much vulnerable they would be, was required to be exploited.

Excellent direction, writing and screenplay (though its very much linear), there are some cliches done in the narrative but all that just adds to the drama of the movie. Special mention to the light background score at the final shot of the movie, love when films end that way.. it increases the liking.


Argo is among the best Hollywood movies that have come out this year, probably I loved it as much as I loved The Dark Knight Rises. I have a feeling, Argo is gonna get nominations in Oscar awards. Yup.

Movie Analysis : Student of the Year

Directed by : Karan Johar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2172071/

It takes courage to make a film with 3 newcomers as leads. Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan's son), Siddharth Malhotra (a model) and Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt's daughter). Its not these three who lets the film down, but its the script and the narration thats full of faults.

The narration style follows Barfi way, a person in hospital and the people present there narrating the story to us, with the exception that it doesn't go into flashback within flashback mode. The story then begins about Rohan (Varun Dhawan) and Shanaya (Alia Bhatt), who study at St.Teresa High School in Dehradun. Then, enters, Abhimanyu (Siddharth Malhotra) which instantly brings a fight between him and Rohan. Over the time they become good friends, while Abhimanyu starts to fall in love with Shanaya. The dean of the school, Yogendra (Rishi Kapoor) starts the routine annual competition of the school 'Student of the Year', and everyone including the 3 main leads would go to any extent to win the trophy.

To introduce the lead characters with a highly extended and total glam way was something that didn't please me. In K3G, Kareena Kapoor had such entry too but it worked because it was short and sexy. But, in this case.. it looks over-done.

Having a gay character, that is played by Rishi Kapoor.. and a dialogue between Rohan and Abhimanyu 'kiss toh nahi karega?', 'Nahi, gale bhi nahi lagunga'.. was kinda of un-necessary especially when you have got a certain kind of image as a person in the eyes of lots of people.

The treasure hunt was completely not required among the chosen categories for the competition, while Cycling was poorly directed. Or maybe Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander magic came into my eyes. The pre-climax as well as the climax scenes are so poorly handled by Karan, least expected from him. Also, what was it to show off the leads coming out of water, and posing around.. be it Varun or Siddharth or Alia... almost made me think if I have come to watch a photoshoot. While, the football match had so much similarity with 'Chak de India', remember two strong players not passing the ball.

The wedding sequence where no dialogue is kept and a plain background runs for around 2-3 mins was the one where Karan Johar touch was visible in full flow.

'Velle' was the best song in the album, and it was well picturised too. Good to see 'Kajol' in a 5-10 second cameo during 'Disco Deewane' song. How she lights up the screen even in those few seconds is unbelievable. 'Ishq wala Love' was romantically filmed, even though I don't like the lyrics but the romantic feel in the song is very much there. While 'Ratta Maar' 1st part was aptly used, what was the connection while using it 2nd time around ? 'Radha' was nice, but the mixing of 'Dafli wale' brought more life into the song visually, specially Rishi Kapoor's harkats throughout.

I liked Siddharth Malhotra the most among the 3 newcomers. He looked confident. While Varun at places reminded me of Sohail Khan, but his character certainly was more stronger therefore he did have lots of good moments to shine through, specially when he fights with his father or when he shows his will to win the competition.

Alia Bhatt was kinda of doing a extended cameo, she had less screen time. Though she looked way too cute, her acting looks shaky to say for now.

Rishi Kapoor was superb in a character that I already mentioned I would had liked not to be there in movie. Ronit Roy was good. Sana Saeed (small anjali of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), didn't have the kind of debut she would have wanted I believe, more of a small supporting role. She was fine in her part.

Ram Kapoor was his usual, I guess Udaan was his last best role. Gautami Kapoor never gets a dialogue, probably editor went harsh over her scenes.

Kayoze Irani was decent, he highly over-acted in the scene against the dean.. though the director's at fault here. Manasi Racch was among best in the supporting characters, specially when the urge to win competition enters into her mind.

Manjot Singh was good. Farida Jalal was lovely as always. Boman Irani in a special apperance was funny.


Overall, Student of the Year ends up being too much glam and unrealistic to connect with. It entertains in parts, but the film ends up among the least enjoyed Karan Johar films for me.


Verdict : AVERAGE 

Movie Analysis : Delhi Safari

Directed by : Nikhil Advani
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172587/

A male leopard 'Sultan' (Sunil Shetty, voiceover) dies at a jungle because the humans are cutting the trees with bulldozer and removing any animals residing there so as to use the area for construction purpose. His son, small cub 'Yuvi' (Swini Khara, voiceover) doesn't want to leave the place as her mom 'Begum' (Urmila Matondkar, voiceover) wants her to, so as to save her from being killed by humans. The monkey, Bajrangi (Govinda, voiceover) wants to go on full war with his small sena over the humans, but Bagga, bear (Boman Irani, voiceover) stops him, and says the matter should be handled peacefully by talking to the humans. Therefore, they kidnap Alex, parrot (Akshay Khanna, voiceover) as he only could speak the human language. The journey from Mumbai to Delhi begins, to reach the parliament and put forward the problems of animals. But, on the course of the journey.. a lot of further events happens, mainly due to the rivalry Bajrangi and Alex share with each other.

The animation work looks good, still not upto the level of Hollywood but improvement is visible. Plus, the story was much more interesting, only if the Dialogues were better. The screenplay is kept simple, with the length of the movie being just 90 mins.

Bajrangi and Alex characters work the most for me, both are given very nice looks.. and the tom-jerry kind of treatment they both share for major part of the movie brings in some good sequences. Govinda and Akshay Khanna have done very good job on the voiceover. Also, liked Yuvi, the cub which looks so cute, and perfectly voice-overed by small Swini Khara (sexy of cheeni kam fame). Boman Irani did nice work on Bagga too.

The songs were big road-blocks in the narration. Unless and ofcourse it was meant to be a musical animation film, I would had accepted it, but here the songs are way too many. The song which Sultan sings to manaofy Begum and the one when they meet Gujarati couple on the way to Delhi were the rightly used songs.

The bees sequence was one of the best in the movie.The intro sequence of Alex was funny, for the way it dances on the song playing on tv. And the way leopards hug each other, was nice.

The climax was good, could had got preachy but avoids it.


Overall, Delhi Safari is a decent animation movie. Has its flaws, still it provides good entertainment for most part of the movie.


Verdict : NICE