8 NO. OF CONSTITUENCIES NO. OF VOTERS 9

The Woods
Reviews
Tagore revisited
Shauli Chakraborty
Film: Bidehir Khonje
Rabindranath
Director: Sanghamitra
Chowdhury
Cast: Abhishek Chatterjee,
Arpita Mukherjee, Angshuman
Rating: Average
This year being Rabindranath
Tagore’s 150th birth
anniversary, a lot of people
have decided to commemorate
the occasion in different ways.
Filmmaker Sanghamitra
Chowdhury too has, in her
own way, paid tribute to
Tagore through this film.
Sanghamitra explores
Tagore’s grief after suffering
various personal losses. He
saw the deaths of Notun
Bouthan Kadambari Debi, his
wife Mrinalini Debi, his daughter
Madhurilata and son
Samindranath. Tagore is said to
have attempted planchets in
order to reach out to the
souls of the departed.
It is a film within a
film. Jeet (Abhishek) is a filmmaker
who is planning a documentary
on Tagore. He loves
Bolpur and makes it a point to
visit Santiniketan whenever he
can. Jeet’s brother has a gang
of friends who think this is the
perfect opportunity for a
weekend getaway and convince
Jeet to let them accompany
him to Bolpur. Like most
youngsters these people know
very little about Tagore and are
on a constant lookout for
opportunities to dope and
booze and show very little
respect for all things Rabindrik.
How Jeet deals with this bunch
and manages to shoot his film
is for you to find out!
The music is heartwarming
and soulful. In fact, it is the
music which keeps much of
the film afloat. There is a tribal
dance sequence that has been
shot in Bolpur and is pure
delight to watch.
As far as performances
are concerned Abhishek
Chakraborty alone is
worth a
Spiritual crises
Supreeta Singh
Film: Haunted
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Mahaakshay, Tia Bajpai, Achint Kaur, Arif
Zakaria, Mohan Kapoor, Sanjay Sharma
Rating: Poor
Aghost film is the perfect opportunity for couples
to cosy up in a darkened hall. At the first show of
Vikram Bhatt’s Haunted, the number of boyfriends
and girlfriends that turned up could give fair competition
to any public park. But giggling school girls with
their teenage lovers seemed to enjoy the antics of the
ghost the most. At every shriek, crash and boom, they
burst into peals of laughter and settled back into the
arms of their boyfriends. Unfortunately, Bhatt himself
would not be so amused if he heard the comments
that they made. Even without the 3D option, the film
is scary for all the wrong reasons.
To be fair, the plot has a twist to it. Haunted by the
screams of a young woman, our hero, Rehan
(Mahaakshay), goes back 80 years in the past to save
the girl from the clutches of an evil professor who
tries to rape her, when alive. In his bid to change the
destiny of the girl and free her from her sorry state,
Rehan must put his own life at risk. Unlike other
romantic ghost tales, the story has an unusual end as
well. But like most Bollywood films centering on the
watch. None of the other
actors manage to make an
impression. From body language
to fake accents — nothing
seems to work for this
motley crowd, most of whom
are first timers. They seriously
need to attend grooming
classes before attempting
another celluloid appearance.
The film deals mostly with
Tagore’s dealings with the
supernatural and the kind of
impact those episodes had on
his life. It is more of a docufeature
than a full fledged documentary.
However, editing is
poor and a number of scenes
could have been easily done
away with.
This is not a great film – as
the filmmaker has acknowledged
herself. But this is
definitely a positive beginning.
We hope such films encourage
other filmmakers, old and new,
to make more documentaries
on Tagore and other greats
as well!
supernatural, the film turns a turkey.
After giving a stylish and slick film like Raaz that
employed scare tactics to its right effects and boasted
of hotties like Bipasha Basu and Malini Sharma,
Vikram Bhatt has steadily deteriorated in his casting
choice. Mahaakshay looks like a kid and consistently
carries just one expression throughout the film —
whether he is sad, happy, angry or romantic, his facial
muscles seem to go on a strike. Tia Bajpai as the victimised
girl Meera, should have worked on her
appearance. Her plight too fails to arouse pity.
Mahaakshay does not look mature enough to shoulder
the responsibility of saving a girl and Tia does not
look worth saving!
This is largely due to the character of the villainous
professor, Iyer (Arif Zakaria) — a lecherous man with
an enormous sexual appetite. Just imagine, he traps
Tia’s soul when she commits suicide and rapes her for
80-long years! It is torturous to watch a spirit
undressing another spirit and deflowering her again
and again!
Moreover, the otherwise serene, chiseled and artistic
face of Zakaria was hardly suitable for portraying a
beastly character.
The background score is jarring and loud. Even the
songs are average and do not leave any haunting
impression. Bhatt has also unnecessarily dragged the
plot. Check the film out only if you have no other
place for PDA!
p8 Weekender May 07, 2011
Celebrating girlpower!
Jaya Biswas
Film: Luv Ka The End
Director: Bumpy
Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Taaha Shah, Shenaz
Treasuryvala, Pushtiie Shakti, Jannat Zubair
Rahmani and Ali Zafar
Rating: Good
Luv Ka The End is all about one crazy night as
three girls discover love, life, friendship and
more... Now, that's not something which Yash Raj
Films hasn’t tried before. It was attempted earlier
in Pyaar Impossible and more. With the new
Y-Films coming into picture where the focus is on
making films of, for and by the young, one can
expect the production house to go full throttle
keeping youth in mind.
The story of Luv Ka The End also runs somewhat
on the lines of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na or Wake Up
Sid! in the beginning, with the plot revolving
around a gang of girls just out of college, but soon
takes a twirl and an interesting one at that.
The film focuses on Rhea (Shraddha Kapoor),
who is the quintessential girl next door. She is
lovable, cute, lively, vivacious and always dressed
in funky clothes that she puts together for herself.
Her dream is to watch her favourite rockstar,
Freddie Kapoor. Rhea is madly in love with Luv
Nanda (Tahaa Shah), the richest and the most
popular boy in college. Luv, who so far has been
easily befriending almost every hot chick in college,
and has even ‘made out’ in the library with a
Sohini Dey
Film: Fast And Furious 5
Director: Justin Lin
Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson,
Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster
Rating: Average
Fast And Furious 5, the fifth film
in the series is a no holds
barred action entertainment, full
of every masala from hot girls,
hotter cars, goofy humour, elaborate
chase sequences and ricochetting
bullets to camaraderie
and family bonding, all in the
right proportion. The lack of an
engrossing plot has been compensated
by spectacular visuals of
car chases and crashes in this
Justin Lin directed film which
sees a re-union of all the stars
from previous films in the same
series. After Dominic Toretto (Vin
Diesel) is rescued from police
custody by his sister Mia (Jordana
Brewster) and her ex-FBI agent
lover Brian O’Connor (Paul
Walker), they decide to plunder
the corrupt businessman Hernan
Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida)
whose path they have crossed. To
pull off a $100 million heist, they
round up a team of sleek and stylish
criminals who, in between
chalking out the plan and
rehearsing it keep the quotient of
entertainment high by prattling
enthusiastically. Obstacles to the
task are two. For one, Reyes has
locked his wealth up in a safe in
the police station and secondly,
DSS special agent Luke Hobbs
(Dwayne Johnson), who is equivalent
to an entire police force, is
after Dom and his gang.
The stunts performed are
entertaining no doubt, with some
heart-in-your-mouth moments,
but seem too convenient to be
plausible. Take for instance the
final chase scene where Dom’s
and Brian’s cars drag the humongous
safe along crowded roads
manoeuvring the safe itself to
smash enemy cars into
smithereens. But you know it’s an
action film and you know how it
will end, so after a point of time
you stop worrying about the
treacher Miss Naaz, now eyes Rhea for a reason.
He wants to be the highest scorer at ‘Billionnaire
Boys Club’, an online portal that ranks them in the
order of their ‘female conquests’. It is Luv’s personal
mission to take Rhea's virginity.
On the eve of her 18th birthday, Luv and Rhea
plan to take their relationship to the 'next level'.
Accidentally, Rhea finds out that Luv is not as nice
as she thought he was. Rhea decides not to cry
but to give it back, in style — to get even and bring
Luv Nanda down — and all in the span of one
night with the help of her two friends. While
most rom-com musicals start with a mushy number,
this one is different as it aims to put love to
an end.
The song, Tonight by Suman Sridhar is a slow,
dreamy number about a young girl in love. Suman
has really crooned the song well, effectively capturing
the mood. This is followed by the title track
of the film Luv Ka The End, sung by Aditi Singh
Sharma, which is definitely the second best in the
album.
Another interesting fact is debutant director
Bumpy's Hitchcockian screen presence. In almost
all of his films, Hitchcock made an appearance
much like Bollywood’s showman, Subash Ghai.
Last but not the least, popstar Ali Zafar’s special
appearance as Freddie Kapoor adds cherry on the
cake. Performancewise, Shraddha Kapoor and
Taaha do justice to their roles. However, Pushtiie
as Shraddha’s friend is the real show stealer.
Overall, Luv Ka The End is hip and zappy; a fun
film worth a watch.
In which brawn is brain
truth value of whatever’s shown
on the giant silver screen.
Somehow you don’t even mind
the predictability of it all and lie
back and enjoy.
Everybody plays their parts
well. Malleability is not a trait
Diesel’s face is famous for, but in
a film that requires him to display
only three emotions at the most,
and a lot of his rippling muscles,
he is perfect. The same holds for
Dwayne Johnson. But the physical
and behavioural similarities
between the two in the form of a
chiseled body, shiny bald pate
and steely determination make
the chaser and the chased two
sides of the same coin.
Apart from the unexplained bit
about Vince’s betrayal and return,
there are a couple of questions
the film raises — Is the huskiness
of a mafia lord like corrupt businessman’s
voice an acquired trait
or a pre-requisite for the role? Is
the impending birth of a child in
the family the only incident that
can swerve criminals by choice
off the path of crime?