Monday, October 16, 2006

ROTFL


What happens when a much touted and promising bollywood director starts gloating to the extent of becoming vainglorious? What happens when a bunch of jokers are put together into the main cast of what is supposedly a serious bollywood venture? What happens when people try to work out a sequel to a movie that was made almost a decade back with the only motive being to cash in on the original version? And the one and the only answer to all these questions is SHIVA. I am quite sure that a director of Ram Gopal Verma's calliber must have had certain novel designs in his mind when he conceived of a sequel to his original Shiva. But whatever the intentions might have been, the film is ludicrous and that is saying the least. A laugh riot ( though its not intended to be one) from the beginning to the very end. An out-of-this-world- honest sub inspector blessed with extraterrestrial physical prowess is the pivot around whom the entire laugh riot revolves. The guy tries his best at looking i-mean-business type damn serious but i am really sure that he must have dropped laughing onto the ground after each take. Nisha Kothari is there again doing what she is best at - providing the unnecessary spice girl element. Alas! she even fails in that attempt what with our RGV getting her to don glasses playing a journo who seems to have just come out of some mental asylum. But the cherry on the cake is provided by the villainous character named Baapu. He doesn't even need any special efforts to make you laugh ( again i must warn you that this is supposed to be a goddamn serious movie and the shades/abundance of laughter are totally interpretation dependent). One look at his rusticity and you are certain to be amused throughout the movie. RGV has grossly overdone things in his attempt to paint a gory picture of the underworld. Like in one scene where the mafioso kills a man in broad daylight by driving a nail through his head using a hammer(Guffaws!!). Guess this doesn't even happen in Colombia, leave aside India. Then without any forewarning or a need, there is the typical bollywood ishtyle dancing around the trees with the actress in her itsy bitsy best. And the dialogue delivery is simply GODgiri. Voice modulation is something i believe that the entire crew wasn't aware of. So anything that Baapu or Sandhya (Nisha) speak, hits the ear like fingernails scraping on a blackboard. The sync (or the lack of it) leaves so much to be desired. It creates so much confusion you aren't sure if you must sympathise with the hero or join Baapu in his merry making or infact, the vice versa. Right from the beginning the hero keeps winning on all the fronts and that too hands down. So i kept guessing that the next scene would give a blow to the character's aspirations. Strangely enough, that "next scene" never materialised. Result is that it turned out to be a total feel good/feel best movie. For me, this has to be the funniest i have seen this year from the bollywood stable. I don't think i need to watch Lagey raho.. after this divine experience. Btw, my tummy still hurts from the experience. Will need a good night's sleep to overcome the mental trauma and just praying that i don't get a hangover.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

yippieeeeeeeeeeeee !!!!!
what do i have here ? the chance to be the first commenter on any post of yours :)
ok enough of playing the kiddo.
have you watched the first and the original version starring nagarjun and amala. that was good enough movie. something that i can pay to watch. You have suddenly become so sarcastic in this post. guess this is not some transition period from being funny to being sarcastic. plsssssssss update your blog on a more regular basis. for poor souls like me who thrive on the kind of humour you produce

~ruchika

Anonymous said...

man!!!!!!!! ye know vot? ye gotta b gutsy to downsize sumone like ramu. gr8 courage shown in stickin to ya stand ;)
neways the post did have ma rotfl

~vardaan

sushobhan said...

all i can say that i shudder to think about the sequel of SHOLAY.......... may be RGV trying too hard to earn nomination for oscar........

sushobhan said...

anyway as usual ur humour is justy spell binding..............

Dee Spake Trash Anyway... said...

lol... is that shredding to bits or wat... but rgv or whoever, bad movie is a bad movie is a...
so thank u so much for that warning... will stay 100 miles away, unless ofcourse ennui means that i want a good laugh and decide that i need to be ROTFL like u... cheers!!!

devein said...

u better,never watch any bollywood movie... if u have to criticise,why hv u forgotten the johars,and chosen the master(yes am a fan of RGV)...Though,still i hv'nt got the chance to watch Shiva,but i ll...I agree he might not have presented the ground realities,then why do u read fiction then...Anyways,with the power of word,u can mock anything...

arunabh said...

@ruchika
no i haven't . is it any better than this ? ;) arre naah am nt being sarcastic. ok chalo am being sarcastic but thn its nt my fault. the movie did this to me. now i cudn't have cried on my blog as to how i had been fooled. so had to stoop to this to vent my spleen :d

@vardaan
tht am courageous is well known n documented ;)
tht u liked it is NEWS

@sushobhan
thanks dada! hope sholay part2 is more sensible.
ps:abey yaar appa ko samjha .. senti ho rha hai :d

@deepti
knowing you as much as i do, i can wager a bet tht u will watch the movie. damn sure bout it. n then dismiss it as rgv made trash neway :d n thn invoke God's blessings for me once u r done with the rotfl routine :p

arunabh said...

@devein
oye appa tere liye separate reply. first you go n watch this movie. am nt saying rgv isn't a good director. all i am saying is that this one is totally substandard compared to the general "rgv movies". n why take the generalisation so far as to bollywood infact why ne generalisation at all? n the fact tht i chose rgv was mainly cos i also generally like his kind of movies. thts why no johars n barjatayas. accha chal , pehle tu movie dekh thn we will discuss online :) keep visiting :)

Anonymous said...

Its simply amazing how you have torn down the movie. Having watched the entire "laugh riot" myself, i will agree whole heartedly with everything that you have said. But you can call it ram gopal verma's rare off day :d

exclusively_me said...

ok arunabh...i'm laughing out loud... i haven't watched this movie (thank gooness for that)
btw what's GOD giri..?

Yashika Totlani Khanna said...

Is this post for real?? Man, Im still gaping at the crudeness of it all! So Arunabh Sinha has done it again... stripped the day-lights outta something that was flying high on preconcieved notions. Good work buddy... you just saved me from wasting 3 hours on that gibberish! Brilliantly written... you even sound like a professional movie-reviewer (following in the footsteps of Rashmi Bansal/Rajeev Masand, huh?... On second thoughts, bad joke, the 2nd part!). Anyway, keep the good work coming... god bless the narrow pipeline ;).

P.S. Do watch 'lage raho'... a personal recommendation!

arunabh said...

@sidd
God! you dunno how glad i am to find someone who believes what i said is true. n thts the point - it can only come from experience :p

@exclusively_me
Thanks a ton.
ok i presume that u have watched lagey raho (i haven't :( )
so just like Gandhigiri
there is Godgiri - God like :)

@yashika
Well how many times do i need to thank you for all that (even for the bad joke:d) ? neways thanx, thanx n still counting....
advice heeded. filed for quick future reference :)

Anonymous said...

Every one over here has so said so much there is hardly anything left for me to say. Still i will echo what deepti has said and that is shredding to bits. and also yashika has been right in pointing out that you write like a critic. Ways to go Mr Arunabh Sinha. Keep blogging

Anonymous said...

nice post man !! thanks a ton for the warning.

~vijay

SaiK said...

oh so was this supposed to be a sequel to sholay .... u gather good no of comments ... i envy u :P

SaiK said...

i didnt read the entire blog .... u had already vented ou the frustration before .... am feeling nice to be back in to the blogging world !!

arunabh said...

@prachi
oh then what shud i say ??
thanx a lot lady !!
keep visiting
@vijay
my pleasure. keep visiting :)
@sai
our envy is becoming so mutual ;)
n naa re .. this isn't a sequel to sholay. sholay's sequel is still to come. keep visiting :)

Anonymous said...

nice way to tear a movie, dissect it, bisect it, leave it maimed n crippled. i just looooved this movie review :)
ram gopal verma will surely commit suicide if he reads this :p

~misha

JITIN said...

well arunabh ur damn right abt the shit that is served on a platter in RGV movies now a dayz... so thats why i don't watch these type of movies at all... though i did liked his earlier movies... but i can't bear movies like "shiva" at all... u call it a laugh riot but i would rather term it as a an absolutely stressed movie experience... one which is not only a pure wastage of time but also grossly unrealistic!!!
hope u agree with me...
& keep up ur humorous touch that u so smartly impart to all ur posts... it forms the "heart & soul" of ur article!!!

arunabh said...

firstly lemme thank you for the undeserving praise that you heaped upon my blog !!
yeah even i am not totally against rgv.. i also found some of his movies really worth a watch. but then shiva is just too crappy n hence my reaction :d