Blog Posts by Kunal Guha

  • Ekk Deewana Tha review

    By Kunal Guha | Movie Reviews – Fri 17 Feb, 2012 10:21 AM IST

    I hope you don't have lice

    Cast: Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson, Sachin Khedekar

    Directed by Gautham Menon

    Rating: Minus Ek

    Pain and pleasure have the same facial expression. This is why you will share the same face with the lead cast of ‘Ekk Deewana Tha’ through the entire runtime. Love stories that curdle, portray societal and familial tribulations. But here, there is a far graver issue beyond the usual jaat-paat, rich-poor etc: The lead duo can’t act to save Tibet. And as dismissive as it may sound in the first paragraph of this review, it is in fact the iceberg that makes this painful love story crash as we endure the burn.

    The film is about an aspiring filmmaker and unemployed dreamer Sachin (Prateik Babbar) who gets knocked out of his world when he bumps into a celestial Mallu-Catholic girl Jessie (Amy Jackson). Following a bit of cutesy stalking, he proposes. She rejects on account of avoiding inter-caste hassles and for their age difference (she’s a year older). He refuses to give up and takes stalking to

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  • Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu review

    By Kunal Guha | Movie Reviews – Thu 9 Feb, 2012 1:04 PM IST

    Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ram Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah

    Directed by Shakun Batra

    Rating: **

    It is the season of love, heart-shaped balloons and diabetes-inducing greeting cards. So when a movie tries to cash in on this circus of affection, you know what you’re in for. But despite being packaged as a V-day extravaganza, this film doesn’t subscribe to every cliché associated with this auspicious day for getting Main and Tu to become Hum. To describe the core of this film without being a spoiler, we can say that all love is friendship but not the other way around. Confused? Here’s a chart.

    All friendship is not love

    Like every heterosexual love story, this one has a boy and a girl. And since contemporary love stories have to live up to the new world solution (escapist cinema) of ditching the daily drudgery for chikna neighbourhoods, they will be based in Las Vegas. Our boy, Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is a failing architect by profession, closet photographer and full-time domesticated rat,

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  • Bollywood teaches you how to flirt

    By Kunal Guha | Flickipedia – Thu 9 Feb, 2012 10:32 AM IST

    Single on V-day? Worry not. Let our Bollywood heroes teach you just how to floor your lady love. Go for it

    A girl is walking down a lonely street. She is soon being tailed by an eclectic mix of baddies, who could be part-time chaiwallahs but are surely full-time professional extras. Quick cuts of her feet picking up some pace and their boots thumping away purposefully. They finally grab her and she squeals enthusiastically and before you know it, another person who was trailing her path is there to her rescue. Dhishoom! Dhishoom! The baddies are on the floor and the girl is in his arms and the audience is charmed. We can hop over to the Swiss Alps for a song now. This and many others qualify as Bollywood’s fundas for patao-ing the girl of your dreams. So here are a few that we are cherry-picking for you this Valentine ’s Day.

    Domesticated and devoted

    Nothing screams one-woman man more than someone who comes across as a mumma’s boy. Now, you may argue that no self-respecting

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  • Agneepath review

    By Kunal Guha | Movie Reviews – Wed 25 Jan, 2012 4:59 PM IST

    Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra

    Directed by Karan Malhotra

    Rating: **

    A Bollywood remake is like a second child. It cannot avoid being compared to the first and invariably ends up inheriting the inferior traits of the original. This is classically true in the case of ‘Agneepath’ – a box office bummer of the 90s, remembered for the cult clearing of throat between, before and after lines gargled out by the legendary screen gangster, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan (VDC). This one (thankfully) steers clear of clearing of throat but ends up being a puzzled mix of contemporary and Eastman-coloured cinema.

    Our journey into the mid-eighties begins suitably with VDC (Hrithik Roshan) as a toddler with a head full of curls (every child actor of the time looked like a baby Tendulkar). Following the original, his idealist school teacher father ends up being falsely maligned and then mercilessly wasted by a fierce goon Kancha (Sanjay Dutt), who looks like an overweight Voldemort with a nose

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  • Why is Vijay Dinanath Chauhan loved by all?

    By Kunal Guha | Flickipedia – Mon 23 Jan, 2012 5:25 PM IST

    The underdog who bashes up baddies has always been a Bollywood favourite. Here's a tribute

    If there's anything more dependable than formula films, it's the formulaic characters. And Bollywood has many who we've grown to love and accept. Over decades, one variety that has survived the transformation of Hindi cinema is that of the underdog hero. From the rustic boxer who turns against a local goon in 'Ghulam' to the idealist cop who becomes a one-man army against a depraved politician in 'Singham', the underdog has been a millionaire-making idea.

    And now that the ultimate underdog superstar of Bollywood, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan returns in the remake of 'Agneepath', it is surely a good time to pay a tribute to this unexpected hero.

    So here, we try to do a character break-down of this unassuming man with uncommon strength and superhuman virtues, who saves the day each time around, leaving the actress, the audience and the distributers swooning for more.

    These are elements that make a

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