Movie Review - Burai sang jo khel rachaya, kabhi na choote SRK ka saaya!!

SRK as a Lover boy - Check; SRK as a NASA scientist - Check; SRK as Hocky team coach - Check; SRK even as Asperger patient - Check; But SRK as a super hero!! Clearly NOT his cup of tea... I think its also an example of too much hype can backfire some time by setting up ridiculously high expectations. After watching RA.one, clearly my loyalty as his fan had come under scanner, but he had done too many good works to count and this fan lives on. Out of our group of 14 people, who went to watch this movie, 2 of them enjoyed the most, are the kids who had slept of!

Enough of criticism. Lets give some respect to the efforts. This movie is not that bad after all, but it doesnt meet the hype and expectation it had built. Approximately, two and half hour long movie but I never felt bored or distracted. Your mind will come across various emotions such as anger, pity, humor, frustration but you will be still glued to the seat only because of its pace. Its a classic case study for directorial mishap. Of all the directors, why Anubhav Sinha, I cant understand. I felt like as if I was watching two movies, one, where with all super special effects and story and on the other hand the typical bollywoodisation and double meaning PJs bringing its downfall. If at all story telling could have been better, I think RA.one would have been a completely different movie.

Now lets move onto SRK paragraph. Hats off to him first of all for trying something different and putting so much effort, but he cant do a Rajnikaanth. Its still fresh in memories how Rajni pulled off Robot last year, but SRK cant do that. There is hardly any scope for his acting skills or even his charismatic appearance. It just looks he is trying too hard. I can believe if Rajni stops a moving train but not SRK! So well done for trying but better get back to the roles where SRK is bigger than the characters rather than otherway around.

Strengths:

1. Special effects! Mind blowing. The fight sequences are incredible, especially the final one. You got to see that.

2. Arjun Rampal.. Outstanding; am sure he is the only one who will be benefited from this movie.

3. Chammak challo, and that too Kareena... hmm.. great to watch. Even Dildara song takes you to the good old days where SRK used to charm us.

Weakness:

1. Flawed screenplay, storytelling.

2. SRK can not convince the audience that he is a super hero. Please dont stop a moving train.

3. Too much bollywoodisation. It works with OSO because it was a typcial bollywood movie but not with RA.one

So in short, RA.one is not a must watch movie. Watch it for special effects if you like, but make sure you leave your thinking hat in the house when you go out to watch this movie. If you are an SRK fan, you might still want to watch it as a tribute for trying something new. On a whole its a disappointing experience, as the movies theme says "Burai sang jo khel rachaya, kabhi na choote uska saaya.." May be we have to rephrase it as "... Kabhi na choote SRK ka saaya!". After reviewing this movie from unbiased point of view, I still go out with 5.5/10 for this goofup of 2011, where director had let this film misrerably down. SRK has lot of soul searching to do but it was fun watching RA.one ;-)

My Favorite Commentator

“This was on the cards…” He announces in total grief when Ashley Giles shatters Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps with his left arm spin, and also shattering the Indian chase in Natwest Trophy final at Lords, 2002. We can feel the pain in his voice as he uttered those words. But an hour later, when Yuvraj pulls a ball to the fence, we can actually visualize him jumping like a kid as he says “Wait, are we on to something here?” Thus are powers of his words which remain in the memory tagged with such special matches to make them even more memorable.

Yeah, I am talking about Harsha Bhogle, my favorite commentator, Cricket host. In the era of either biased or boring cricket commentators, he delivers the most polished and diplomatically patriotic comments. Being an IIM grad, he could have been happy doing some over paid job and living a lavishing life. Instead he chooses to follow his first love, cricket. We think, by the time people graduate from institutes like IIM, they will be squeezed to become a nerd but not is the case with Mr.Bhogle. He was also the captain of IIM A cricket team. Not sure how that went on but glad that he decided to pursue his off field cricketing skills rather than on field to entertain people. I think like his fellow Hyderabadi mates, Azhar and Laxman, the artistic touch is by birth to him.

Cricket in itself has undergone many changes over the years. Now, more often than not we are witnessing the commercial and entertainment format of the game compared to good old grueling test matches. Though cricket brings lot of excitement by itself but it’s incomplete without its proper packaging. This is where names like Lalit Modi, Harsha Bhogle raise the bar as per the current market needs. The joy of switching on the TV and Harsha sitting in the studio with his enthusiastic gesture and at least one debatable point is parallel to nothing. His views on Mohammd Yousuf's retirement to IPL franchise’s buying or from Kamran Akmal’s keeping to India’s new ball woes, everything will have something to ponder upon. One of his hilarious tweet I read after Dhoni’s heroics in India’s warm up match “dhoni was batting like it was a video game and he knew the cheat codes! nothing went to a fielder!!”

Once I was switched on the TV to check the score after a match. My brother was next to me. This is the story before the “WWW” days. Our TV had fallen sick and there was no volume. Harsha was holding the mike and saying some thing, we were getting restless to see the result. My brother said, “I am sure we have lost the match, see Harsha’s face has become so dull and small, am sure we have lost very badly”. And he was right! The best thing about Harsha is, along with his age his style, views and comments got better, just like his hair! Who can forget the delightful comment he made about Mahela, “when jayawardene is batting you almost get the feeling he doesn't want to hurt the ball.”

Thanks to the world of twitter, he is more connected with his followers now. Not only listening and watching him on the TV is wonderful but his tweets are something which I follow religiously. Working with other professionals like Boycott, Alan Wilkins, Sunny, Shastri, Tony, Sidhu, Sanjay he made sure he stays on top. With due respect to all of them, some of the names mentioned above have reached their retirement age in terms of their comments as they hardly speak something new but Harsha will remain evergreen. I hope for the IPL’11 he will be back as a commentator than a TV host, as it’s a pleasure to listen to him with the live action. I always say, “The moment Sachin retires, not only me but 50% of cricket lovers might stop watching cricket” But there is one small hope that if Harsha continues to commentate, you may find some people still hooked on television sets.

My first Valentine's day post wedding!

Nikhil Rao and Ravi Kiran accompanied me to watch ‘My Name is Khan’. This is the summary of Valentine’s Day -2010. With due respect to both SRK and my great buddies, that was not the V-day a guy dreams about. But having said that, previous 7-8 V-days have been nothing different, again with an exception of year 2004, where we had a gala time on my bro’s wedding. I can get 10 people to vouch for that! But I never knew, after watching one of the most boring (Still SRK rocked) films ever, there were only 7 days remaining to meet the love of my life.

So here it was, the year 2011, and by the time the V-day of this year arrived... wait for it… I was over 7 months married guy! The celebration started a touch early when I surprised my wife with a live call on radio one 94.3. She was stumped and I was bowled. Carrying on the high of that, 13^th Feb was reserved for shopping in Lifestyle and we did it in style. As the sun shut down on Sunday, 13^th and tube lights took effect in our living rooms, there it was - my wife surprised me with some very romantic hand made greeting cards, a beautiful love letter and few love notes highlighting some of the great moments of our short relationship so far. (which can be unlocked only if I answer few of the relationships quiz questionsJ)

I was totally amused by the kind of efforts put in by my wife without my notice. 14^th was a weekday, and I woke up to a special cup of tea (Usually I don’t have at home on weekdays). As I took bath and came out, I saw a small cup cake with a candle lit on it. The breakfast and few chocolates were surrounding it. I was having the first candle light breakfast ever with my wife. (Ofcource we blew the candle before starting the breakfast)

Oh boy! Now it was my turn again and it’s always difficult for me as bunch of expectations surround. I have to out think my wife who might think that I will out-think to surprise her thinking. Guess what! I achieved it J. With the help of my dearest friend Guru and my wife’s colleague Phani, I had made sure that her V-day gift; a diamond jewel was on her desk before she reached her office. Needless to say, surprises bring happiness and my wife’s facebook status changed to “..Am the happiest today”.

I was not done. We had plans for candle light dinner, so I met my wife near her office but for her surprise … ta da. One of her long lasting wishes of getting my ear pierced had come true on V-day as I decided to surprise her. With Mojito, Colly poly Sizzler and Choco-Brownie accompanying us in the candle light dinner, my first V-day saga came to an end. As I surrendered myself to sleep goddess on that night, another tricky thought crossed my mind – “Oh goodness, next month is her birthday! How do I top this now!!?”