Author

Kanupriya

Aaj Ka Arjun: Sulekha.com

November 19, 2008

This film titled “Aaj Ka Arjun” is showing today’s generation Arjun who is hassled but manages to get everything done at one click of arrow. Till end they don’t show the source where his arrows are targeted and from where he is managing to get everything done. The film ends with Arjun and his whole family targeting the same source and the source is Sulkeha. Quite a catchy way of showing everything happening at a click :-). Read More At Marketing Chit-Chat…

DOSTANA: A Laughter Riot!

November 18, 2008
With this new product launch on my head, weekend was again a working one 🙁 (God, when will it get launched completely!!!) and but obvious choice to unwind for us was MOVIES. Watched two movies over the weekend – Closer on a DVD on Saturday night followed by Dostana on Sunday in theater. So, shall I start with Closer as I watched that first? No, I think let me start with Dostana…well I know not many people have liked the movie (few of my colleagues in fact HATED it) but honestly speaking I liked it! Yeah I can see some frowns raising but I seriously think it’s at least a one-time watch. First half of the movie in fact was hilarious; we just couldn’t stop participating in the laugh riot in theater. The story is of two guys Abhishek and John who say that they are a gay couple in order to stay as tenants in Priyanka’s apartment which otherwise would not have been possible to get as Priyanka has got an aunty who wants her baby (Priyanka) to stay with only babies and not babas :-)…Rest I will not reveal as that’s for you to go and watch in theater :-).


I think this has to be Abhishek’s one of the best attempts at comedy, some of the scenes like that Venice scene or the one with Boman Irani was too funny! Priyanka looked cool and John looked hot. This year definitely is of Priyanka Chopra with not one – two rather 6 releases in last 6 months! First 4 doomed at box office but I’m sure Fashion and Dostana are going to be hits of the year. Now whatever be the fate of her movies but the lady definitely looks glam and absolutely gorgeous these days! Second half of the movie was bit boring and some of the scenes looked dragging but still it was bearable except for that gay kissing scene…Ummm that was bit too much and the rationale behind the scene was not at all justified. Though I do have a major complaint about one of the aspects of the movie – the movie plays with child psychology which influences the most important decisions of central protagonists but at the end they don’t show anything about the issue at all. John and Abhishek manipulate Veer’s (Bobby’s son) innocent mind to influence Bobby’s decision of marrying Priyanka and they actually succeed in their manipulations but at the end they didn’t show anything about that important issue and about that kid at all! Rest of the actors like Kirron Kher, Sushmita Mukherjee are as usual good. Music of the movie is ok and hummable with my favorites being “Jaane Kyun…” and “Maula…”. And I agree to Karan Johar’s statement which says it’s a HAPPY & GAY movie, yeah there is this gay angle to the movie but its shown in a very different way. Over all the movie was enjoyable and I would recommend it to anybody who is willing for a light flick with some insane and real crazy moments.

Other Details of the movie:

  • Duration of the movie: 3 hour +
  • Best to watch it with: Spouse / Partner or Friends. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT watch it with Kids or Parents at all. No kids as they won’t understand it and it has quite some adult talks and no parents as they can’t understand it and it has quite some adult talks 🙂
  • Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Bobby Deol, Kirron Kher, Boman Irani, Sushmita Mukherjee
  • Director: Tarun Mansukhani
  • My Rating: 3/5 (good)

I think I will end with Dostana and will leave Closer for my next post later.

Don’t know why?

November 12, 2008
I was talking to this colleague friend of mine who said “why am I so silent these days? Is it introspection or is it sadness?” And my answer was, “silent? Nahi toh”. He again asked, “you don’t seem to be in your lively mood for past few days and I simply shook my head, “pata nahi yaar.” He smiled and replied “if you are introspecting, it’s ok. Maybe another great idea is going to come out of your mind and if you’re sad then too it’s ok as one cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often, so it’s good to be sad sometimes”. This quote from Erich Fromm was like a soother for me today.

Hmmm I think it’s one of those phases when nothing seems to be right in life, when optimism looks like a theoretical word, when your rational brain goes for a toss, when despite good things happening to you at work you don’t feel like working, when you find all this race of career, life and money worthless, when even small things upset you a lot, when despite your immense patience level you don’t feel like tolerating certain people and certain circumstances, when hope seems to be a far cry, when everything around you looks just so irritable, when even if you try you can’t find the reason of your sadness…ah my “when” list seems to be a never ending one, so better I should put a stop here. Well, I think it’s just another bad day when certain things have triggered me into my gloomy and contemplative mood and all I want to do is just be silent! Wondering if I’m tired or is it just my one of those cancerian mood swings? Whatever it is, I hope something good happens and this phase ends soon…

Political Advertising: Advaniji on web!

November 11, 2008
Just last week itself, I wrote about Political Advertising in India for 2009 elections and here comes another surprise of the same. Now after celebrities it’s the turn of Politicians looking up to the mighty web world. Joining the league is none other than L.K. Advani whose website http://www.lkadvani.in/ got launched on his 81st birthday on 8th Nov’08. BJP launched this website for their Prime Minister candidate Advani with an objective to reach out to the young and first time voters in India. Read More At Marketing Chit-Chat…

Fashion is interesting

November 9, 2008

Watched Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion last night and in one word I can say that it was CAPTIVATING! Right from start to end I was totally hooked onto the movie. Not that the story was unpredictable or plot was not known…of course it was a Madhur Bhanadarkar’s movie on Fashion world and so I had expected it to be like this but still there was something about the movie which kept me totally engaged. It looked realistic and different.
To start with, I think Kangana was outstanding and Priyanka was awesome! This has to be Priyanka’s best performance till date. The story is of Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) from Chandigarh who comes to Mumbai with a dream of becoming a supermodel. In all the glitter and glamour of fashion world she encounters the ruthless realities of life. The movie revolves around her journey and her struggle to make it big, how she meets and deals with Shonali (Kangana) who is a very successful showstopper and her competitor, her relationship with Janet (Mugdha Godse) who is also a struggling model with very clear priorities but settles for something quite weird in life, Manav (Arzan) who is also a new-comer and shares a strong bond with Meghna and Sarin (Arbaz Khan) who is the owner of Panache the most sought after brand for super models. No further details of the story in the interest of those who want to see the movie J. Each and every actor has delivered such a strong performance but Kittu Gidwani definitely deserves a special mention. She was too good and yeah she looked as ravishing as ever. Madhur Bhandarkar has done a great job in some of the scenes like the wardrobe malfunctioning one and the fiasco after that, Priyanka’s self-realization in front of mirror after she comes back from that shady hotel or Kangana’s reaction in rehab center. Songs were average but some of the background scores were very good. Madhur Bhandarkar has once again proved it that he knows what he is delivering. To me as I said the movie looked real, absolutely real.
Overall, I loved the movie and I would recommend it to everybody who would like to watch something different. Though the theme is serious but it’s not a heavy movie, it has its masala scenes and light moments as well. From my side it’s thumbs up to this yet another powerful presentation by Bhandarkar.

Other Details of the movie:

  • Duration of the movie: 3 hour +
  • Best to watch it with: Spouse / Partner or Friends. It’s a strict NO for kids becoz – 1. It’s a serious stuff, 2. It has some adult sequences as well
  • Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Arbaaz Khan, Arjan Bajwa, Kitu Gidwani, Raj Babbar, Kiran Juneja
  • Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
  • My Rating: 3.5/5

Digg!

Political Advertising

November 9, 2008
In this season of advertising and mass media budget cuts, it definitely rings a bell if you suddenly listen about any campaign having a budget as high as 150 crores! Yeah, such budgets are still there and that too in India for advertising campaigns of just 2-3 months duration. Read More At Marketing Chit-Chat

I’m back

November 6, 2008

I’m back to Bangalore and back to blogging :-). Ah, I was off from blogging for more than two weeks now…well LOADS of work at office, new marketing initiatives and alliances to deal with, coupled with frequent travelling! To add to that maid on unplanned leave for more than ten days now :-(. Life was frenzied and yeah it was one of those periods when you feel – oh hell, work life is so damn demanding in a start-up! But why start-ups, I think these days work life is full of pressure and demands for most of us in this downturn period. Everybody is speaking of lay-offs, pink slips, leave without pay and salary cuts! Everyone is trying hard to put in his or her best to survive the giant known as layoff! In fact wherever you go the common topic of discussion remains the same. I met this interesting elderly gentleman on my flight back to Bangalore last night, he is having his own company in Seattle and he shared some interesting statistics regarding layoffs. Whatever I can remember, I am sharing those here:

  • Massive layoffs in current times leading to increasing unemployment is one of the worst which job market could have ever faced.
  • Jobless rate has reached approx 8% now which is the highest in last 25 years, it was 6.1% in 2003 and 7.8% in 1992.
  • There are lots of companies which are resorting to mindless layoffs in a panic situation. Not every company needs to go for such huge scraping.
  • Wages are once again going to be monopolized now by the employers as there are many job seekers for lesser number of vacancies.
  • These dramatic layoffs will only lead to further worse economy. More credit in the market as people are unable to pay their EMIs, reduced expense which is leading to less sales for most of the consumer oriented companies.

It was a good insightful discussion but well it was scary, really scary. Nobody knows exactly when this situation will improve…everybody is just predicting and praying!

Britney 2.0!

November 6, 2008
Posted this on Marketing Chit-Chat almost two weeks back…
Celebrities using web 2.0 platforms is no new phenomenon now…we have seen lots of examples of Bollywood as well as Hollywood ones. From having their own websites, to blogging, to official presence on networking sites like Facebook and Orkut, celebs are doing it all to reach their audience and establish a direct connect with them. And as if these were not enough, now they are having their fan following on twitter as well. Yeah, celebs are actually on twitter now! And following this trend is none other than Britney Spears who has re-launched her website as well as an official page on twitter. Read full story at Marketing Chit-Chat

Hello: Movie Review

October 21, 2008
Last weekend was a working weekend and hence quite tiresome. Sunday evening we thought of unwinding by watching any movie and since not much choice was available, we decided to go for “HELLO”. I had read the novel “One Night At Call Center” by Chetan Bhagat and so there was definitely this curiosity to watch the cinematic avtaar of the book despite all the bad reviews and critical comments about the movie all across the media.

Well to start with, I think critics have been too critical of this movie unnecessarily; it’s not that bad and I found it to be an average watchable, at least better than some of the real disasters which I watched recently like “Bachna Ae Haseeno” or “Ugly Aur Pagli”. Let me tell you one very important thing about this movie – in case you are like me who just can’t stand the sight of Salman Khan even for few minutes and have avoided this movie as all promos of the movie were full of “Bang Bang” song and other garish dance movements of Mr. Khan then I have a happy news for you…this movie is hardly having Salman anywhere. Salman and Katrina play the role of preface part of the book i.e., Salman the part of Chetan Bhagat and Katrina the part of that mysterious girl whom Chetan meets in a train, only difference being that instead of train the whole plot is shifted to a helipad waiting area. The story is of 6 call center employees – their professional struggles in life, their personal relationships, their frustration and that one call from God which changes their life forever. Yes, a call from God! Won’t write the story in detail in the interest of those who want to watch this movie but overall it’s an exact adaption of the book. In fact while I was reading that book, then only I had found the story to be bit bollywoodish. Overall the movie was not that terrible but yes, the movie definitely went weak in two important areas – 1. Star Cast, 2. Climax. Not that one needs big names to make a movie hit but the very fact that all actors had given a very mediocre performance including Gul makes the overall impact quite weak. Infact I like Gul a lot and after watching movies like Dor and Manorama six feet under, one definitely expects a lot more from an actor of Gul’s caliber. And as far as climax is concerned, I think the movie really went wrong in that. I was definitely prepared for an unrealistic presence of God as I had read the book but somehow the way it was shown was not that impressive. I think they showed it too fast without much emotion or depth! It fails to cast that impact of some life-changing moment. Music of the film was not of my taste though I think the songs are doing good in the market. On the whole I would say it’s a one-time watchable movie if you are not looking for some very quality stuff or some movie with depth.

Though I must say one thing, I don’t agree with all the media bashing of Chetan Bhagat, infact I really appreciated the effort of Chetan Bhagat after watching this movie. I think he has done his job well atleast as far as the dialogue part is concerned. Also considering this was his first effort in Bollywood, I think he did an ok job. At least the man is having the guts to try out different things and the effort is not as awful as it is being criticized in media esp. when this year we have enough examples of duds coming out from some of the biggest names of the industry. From my side it’s a thumbs up for Chetan Bhagat’s effort and an average rating of 2.5 in 5 for the movie with a hope that Chetan will come out with a better book (I had loved Five Point Someone, hope he writes something as interesting as that again) and maybe a better movie next time.