Weekend Hungama

This weekend was a marathon weekend of three movies. Three movies coupled with shopping and dining out makes Janani a tired girl! :-)

The first one (for which I had to resort to blackmail and other related stuff to convince my friends to accompany me) was Madagascar. I am a sucker for these animated movies and I loved this one too. The storyline is about a bunch of animals from New York Zoo who land up in Madagascar inardvently. The bunch of penguins with their motto of "Cute and cuddly" are the show stealers. They are wickedly comic and pity weren't shown more through the movie. King Julian of Madagascar(a kind of monkey or marmoset I figure) with his very Indian voice and very catchy song was also a treat to watch. Though this movie can't ever join the ranks of Finding Nemo or Shrek, it is definitely worth a watch and I bet you'll come out of the theatre singing "I like to move it move it" :-)

The second and the best movie of the three was Iqbal. It is the story of a deaf and dumb veillage boy's dream to play cricket for India and the movie is just about that. The best part of the movie is the characterization. All the characters are etched out very realistically without any cliches. Iqbal's enthusiasm and cheer is the mainstay of the movie. Iqbal's sister who supports her brother through everything has done a good job. The other smaller characters like Iqbal's father and mother are also potrayed well and stick in our mind long after the movie. Naseeruddin Shah has done excellently well what comes naturally to him. He is very convincing as both the village drunk and the dedicated coach. The background track is soothing and the song aashaein is very hummable and pleasant. Overall a refreshing movie which reinforces the idea that Nagesh Kukunoor's movie is definitely worth a watch.

We ended our orgy with Salaam Namaste. After reading the reviews and watching the trailers, I was convinced that it was going to be bad and utterly bad at that. It was a no-brainer all right, but to my surprise it turned out to be a a little entertaining too. But I think it is high time Zinta stops screeching on screen in an attempt to be cute. Saif is portrayed as a metrosexual and that was a pleasant surprise that Bollywood has chosen to shed the macho hero image and chose to show Saif as a chef who is obsessively clean. The concept of the both living in is supposed to be radical, but it's actually pathetic considering they decide that based on one day of partying together. And it is bad enough that movies are copied from Hollywood hits, but this movie actually borrows entire scenes from FRIENDS! But the movie seemed to move at a good pace and Australia has been pictured most beautifully. And hell even I will move in with a guy if I can live in a house like that - near the sea, with an open air patio and the huge French windows and all.

We trudged home after convincing the folks at Prasads that we really aren't coming back for another movie! :-)