Review : Chance Pe Dance

Director Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance begins with an imaginative title sequence, which tells us all that we need to know about the life of the Bollywood struggler.

Sameer, played by Shahid Kapoor, lives in a one room apartment
that is way too large to fit into any struggler’s budget but the rest of it rings true – he practices his expressions, does his pull-ups, has bread toasted under an iron with the last scraps of butter and then heads out to conquer the world with his unfailing optimism and charm.

This is the best part of the film. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from here.

Chance Pe Dance tries to combine a dance movie with a Bollywood-cinderella story and comes up empty-handed.

Samir is supposed to embody the hundreds of wide-eyed newcomers who land in Mumbai everyday with stardust in their eyes. He auditions relentlessly even while holding down a day-job as a courier boy. His meals most consist of vada pao and he ends up living out of his car because he can’t pay the rent.

But these scenes of struggle don’t touch you because Shahid is in star mode from the first frame. His hair is nicely messy; his biceps have just the right definition and his T-Shirts are Ed Hardy, even though a character in the film explains that they are all knock-offs.

Despite the daily rejections, Samir shows no vulnerability or rawness.

A hotshot director promises him the lead role and then backs out. Shahid’s eyes fully register the hurt and pain of having your hopes dashed. But even this scene doesn’t tug at your heart strings.

As soon as the director, played by Monish Behl, shakes Samir’s hand and says: yeh handshake koi contract se kam nahi hai, you know that the handshake means nothing.

Of course, Samir’s eventual stardom is a given. He will walk on the red carpet blinded by flash bulbs. And since Chance Pe Dance isn’t trying for Luck by Chance-style grittiness, no Faustian bargains are made for fame.

But Ghosh doesn’t even make Samir’s stardom feel hard-earned. You are not emotionally invested in either his struggle or his success.

The dance sequences in the film are lively but they are undermined by Adnan Sami’s absolutely uninspired music. This is a dance film without one memorable dance track.

But the biggest let-down is the script. It meanders and stumbles along bewilderingly.

At one point, Samir becomes a dance teacher in a school and over a few scenes, leads the kids to victory in a dance competition.

Just when he’s about hit big-time, his father’s shop is razed and he has to leave town. This crisis is also resolved in two scenes. What’s the point of all of this? I couldn’t tell you.

Through all these troubles, Tina, a choreographer played by Genelia D’Souza, holds Samir’s hand. She is perky to the point of being painful.

In fact, it seems like both Genelia and Shahid are squeezing in as many expressions as they can into each scene to compensate for the lack of a coherent script.

Review : Pyaar Impossible

At one point in Pyaar Impossible, Alisha, a hottie played by Priyanka Chopra asks major geek Abhay, played by Uday Chopra, "Tumhe lagta hai ki log ek doosre ko sirf khoobsurti ki wajah se chahte hain?" That's really shallow.

She could have been talking about the film. Pyaar Impossible is one of those superbly shallow films that manages to offend you on every level - as a viewer, as a woman, as a mother. This Notting Hill-style rom-com is singularly charmless and absolutely impossible.

Pyaar Impossible is a vehicle for Uday Chopra who has also written and produced the film. Uday has cast himself as a lovable geek who recognises his limitations.

In one scene he even says, "Main koi prince charming toh nahin hun." Which is why the college queen Alisha is barely aware of his existence. He saves her life but she doesn't know what he looks like.

They meet seven years later in Singapore. She is now a divorced working mother - a fact she repeats again and again. And her six-year-old daughter Tanya is the most demonic child seen on screen since Damien terrorised us in The Omen.

Somehow, Abhay ends up as Tanya's nanny. In one of the script's many absurd moments, Alisha leaves her daughter with a male nanny whom she has never met.

Before you know it, Tanya is trying to set up her nanny with her mom. She has a sleep over at a friends house so mom and nanny can bond. The next day she even asks Abhay, "Give me the goss."

If this was my daughter, I would donate her to charity. Together Tanya and nanny also foil the rival, Varun, played by Dino Morea, who incidentally has also stolen's Abhay's revolutionary new software program.

If the plot description sounds convoluted, imagine what the film is like.

Director Jugal Hansraj stretches out this limp tale over two and a half hours. The film's message is just as garbled as the plot.

In one scene, Abhay demonstrates to Alisha that ugly people can't find love. So, he makes her unattractive and takes her to several bars. And she is so shocked to find that the boys aren't interested in her ugly avtaar that she starts to weep.

For most of the film though, Priyanka looks like a million bucks - it seems like Jugal and Uday have spent more time on her styling than the script. But for reasons unknown, she acts like a hyper teenager.

Uday plays the nerd with absolute sincerity but it's hard to summon up any affection for him. And Dino seems to have decided that expression is a waste of time. His face just stays blank.

Pyaar Impossible is depressingly dim-witted.

Review : Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year is a sweet but slight film, which should be watched for its good intentions, its inherent decency and for Ranbir Kapoor's performance, which firmly establishes him as the best actor of his generation.

Ranbir plays Harpreet Singh Bedi, a B Com graduate with 35 per cent marks who becomes a salesman in a computer company.

His idealistic vision of the working world shatters quickly. Within a few days of working, a client asks for a kick-back. Harpreet is aghast and files a complaint. But his honesty only brings him a demotion and humiliation.

Determined to do it his way, Harpreet forms his own company within the company. Other disgruntled employees also find their way to Rocket Sales - a place where even the chaiwallah is an equal partner because he brings talent to the table.

Harpreet and his band of rebels show us that eventually honesty and hard work is a sound business decision.

This is a tough story to tell and sell. Director Shimit Amin and writer Jaideep Sahani, who earlier collaborated on the excellent Chak De, are working here without any of the highs and lows of that film.

The drama here is more restrained. The obstacles seem more ordinary. The characters are wholly believable.

Starting with the titles, Shimit and Jaideep create wonderful little details - so Harpreet's grandfather, played nicely by Prem Chopra, rattles off a check list before Harpreet goes for a job interview, which includes the question: motion clear hua.

A street side tea stall becomes the conference room of the fledgling company and even the telephone on Harpreet's desk has just the right amount of grime.

But the trouble with Rocket Singh is that it never engages you fully. The first half is especially slow but even in the second, the film doesn't grab you by the gut.

There are long stretches in which the restrained story-telling becomes indulgent and topples over into sheer boredom. And there are several moments at which you wonder if this is more information about salesmen and their difficult lives than you ever needed.

The supporting characters in the film are interesting - I especially liked Giri, the babe-obsessed computer whiz, played by D Santosh and Koena, the fashionable but ambitious and smart receptionist played by Gauhar Khan. But none of them are as sharply etched or as memorable as the women in Chak De.

Finally then, it is up to Ranbir to carry Rocket Singh over its limitations and he rises to the challenge exceedingly well.

Watch his eyes in the scene in which he first discovers that honesty doesn't pay in this company or his body language in the scene, in which his grandfather has to come to jail to get him. He is outstanding.

Rocket Singh never becomes more than the sum of its parts but still I recommend that you make time for it. Just be prepared to be patient.

Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat

Book Review: Two States by Chetan Bhagat
Published October 11, 2009 Books ,
Tags: Chetan Bhagat, Love story, Marriage, Two States

Chetan Bhagat magnanimously dedicates this book to his in-laws. He admits that book is inspired by his own experiences and yet he requests the book be treated as fiction. Its hard to considering every second couple in this country undergoes similar experiences. Not to mention, every Boolywood movie harps on same theme.

The book is all about an IIMA couple’s struggle to marry. Krish is north Indian Punjabi boy Krish in love with Tamilian Brahmin girl Ananya. (Chetan Bhagat too is Punjabi and his wife is a South Indian.) The only catch is, Krish and Ananya don’t want to elope or be estranged to their families, therefore, they choose to convince their parents for the marriage.

two_states

Both Ananya and Krish take turns to win over each other’s families and then they try to make both the families like each other. After all in India, you don’t marry the guy (or girl for that matter), you have to marry the family. In fact, Krish does get 4 gold rings made to propose girl’s entire family! :-/ Sounds cheesy? Well, irrespective of my shortened plot summary, you must concede it is a mammoth project to accomplish anywhere, in real life.

Of course, it goes without saying that even though both Krish and Ananya are exceptions to their North Indian and South Indian clan; this book is perfect opportunity to dwell into age-old ‘North India versus South India divide’.
Krish maybe Punjabi boy, but he is blissfully unaware how in his community greedily and offensively ‘boy’s’ side can come on the ‘girl’s’ side during a Punjabi wedding. Similarly, Ananya, the Tamilian girl is completely unlike other Tamil girls: For one she is not as dark as southern girls ( a fact she will be reminded over and over again by Krish’s Punjabi clan) and unlike her staunch family, she both drinks and eats meat. (May be we should thank IIM for breaking the latter stereotype ;) )

Though the premise is most realistic, it draws your attention to cultural differences in diverse India. Some of them are as simple as boisterous, loud Punjabi music versus quiet, mellifluous Tamilian Carnatic music. However, the difference in sensibilities is predictable. I familiarized myself once again with all the clichés.

In fact, after reading the blurb and title Two States; I was aware that plot progression will be predictable. So what if the book questions the racism India practices against its own countryman? It questions why we are scared to marry outside our clan. Lovers themselves have the dilemma that if it is worth it to marry with making so many members of the families unhappy. Is it worth it?

But then since we have been asking these questions for a long time with little progress, I personally read the book with complete detachment in one-go. I had a fair idea what was to come, so there weren’t many heartstrings moved or surprises for that matter.

I don’t need to comment on Chetan Bhagat’s language, for we all know he has never claimed to be literary. Sometimes lines are cheesy and you may have heard them before. For example, My father never smiled through his wedding. How could he, he was marrying your mother? Or

However, long ago, I had read this post about 5 elements of Chetan Bhagat’s wrting: young, modern characters (it helps if they are from IIT or IIM); conversation with F word, Blooywood-ish plots complete with proposals on knee; a love story and a twist at end. All these elements are there in this book, only you know the twist for this book.

Every Indian who watches Bollywood knows the twist in this story. Yet you must read this book once, if only to know what lovers from different communities go through at the hands of their families. How love is at mercy of societal, familial norms. And how a man eternally finds himself torn between his girlfriends/wife and mother. No prizes to guess the last one. Oh yes, I forgot there is also a hurried, steamy account of a college affair; you could find bit of Five Point Someone reminisces there.

Review all said and done, I sometimes wonder why couples from different communities give into their feelings for each other when they know they won’t go against the grain of their families and that their families will never ever accept their partner. It is an unnecessary heartache and heartaches do leave scars, even if time heals them. I am glad at least Krish and Ananya, Chetan Bhagat book’s protagonists, tried even if results weren’t always desirable.