Adman R.Balki's directorial debut "Cheeni Kum" is ,as the name suggests, less on sugar-coated entertainment and high on satire, unlike mainstream Bollywood cinema, and for a change, treats the audience maturely, which is a welcome change , by not spoon feeding every detail about the characters, their relations, and their emotions . Cheeni Kum tells us a story about Budhha( Amitabh Bachhan) , a perfectionist chef of Spice 6, an authentic Indian restaurant in London. Budhha takes pride in his eye for details, and in his work, and also claims his restaurant to be the best and the most authentic Indian restaurant, unlike other fake ones, which serve Indian food, directly copied from Indian recipe books.

Budhha lives with his old mother(Zohra Sehgal), has a deep affection for his 8 year old neighbour whom he calls Sexy, and his life sums up between his restaurant and his home. The main plot starts when Budhha is challenged by a customer, who sends back Hyderabadi Zaffrani Pulao back to the kitchen, complaining it to be "sweeter" than it should be. Buddha offended by the act, goes up to the table , and says that his recipe is authentic , and rudely tells the customer to ask their parents back home in India about the recipe of Zaffrani Pulao. The customer here, is Neena(Tabu), who is very much offended, and to prove her point, sends back a plate of Zaffrani Pulao, the next day. Buddha discovers that the fault was of his chef, and to apologise to his customer, asks her out for dinner.

But Buddha is so much surrounded by his own ego and self-righteousness, that he fails to say " I am sorry". What begins as a bittersweet acquaintance between Buddhadev and Neena soon transforms into mutual attraction and love blooms . Meanwhile, Budhha's mom keeps nagging to him about joining the gym. The irony in 'Cheeni Kum' is that the romance and the love angle between the main characters is often met with the contrasting story line of the tragic leukemia patient Sexy who keeps asking Budhha to bring A-rated DVDs. Budhha and and Neena finally decide to get married , but circumstances forces Neena to get back to India.

This leaves Budhha with no choice , but to ask Neena's father's (Paresh Rawal) permission for them to get married. The catch here is, Neena's diabetic father is 6 years younger to Budhha, and the eternal struggle between the two and how they come to terms, is what forms the second half of the movie.

R.Balki's treatment with the entire narration of the plot is absolutely fresh, almost something unseen in Hindi cinema. The satire, specially with the Sardar chemist, " Chacha ko Chatree Chahiye" was well thought of which left the entire audience roaring with laughter. Of course, not to forget, the dentally challenged waiter with his wonderful rendition of " Hyderabadi Zaffrani Pulao", and also his categorisation of chatree as" dotted,ribbed, strawberry, banana..et al". The movie is filled with likeable moments like the ones when Tabu discovers that Budhha is a vegetarian and calls him "Ghaas Poos", and in return Budhha calls her "Tangdee Kabab". But well, some scenes could have been done away with , like the Tree Chase scene, and well, the subsequent scenes that followed, where Bachhan tries to pursue Tabu to "do it". I mean, c'mon, who are we kidding? Mr.Bachhan , you are a wonderful actor, but you are no Kevin Spacey, or Al Pacino. Please act your age, and remain a respectable role , and please do not show us shades of Sexy Sam. It almost disgusts me sometimes. Paresh Rawal as the Gandhian diabetic is just ok. We have seen much better performances from him, so this is just passable. Tabu as Neena is nothing brilliant nor ordinary. The role seemed to easy for her in fact. The only character that made a deep impact on me , was Zohra Sehgal's .

It was such a wonderful protrayal, especially in the scene when Neena reveals that she wants to get married to Budhha. The smile on her face, and the way she says," Do din Gym gaya to usse tu mila hai."( He just went to the gym for two days, and he got you. )And of course the scene at Qutub Minar, when she starts singing a Bhangra number filled with claps and merry making. Simply brilliant. Swini Khara, however as Sexy comes across to me as the extra smart, Sayanee Ladkee who has riped before age. I just do not like such kids, who know their meta physics before revising their rhymes. Illayaraja's comeback score of the movie is very easy on ears, but that is it. The title track "Cheeni Kum hai..Cheeni Kum hai.." keeps lingering every now and then, and you start thinking, whether your ears are echoing or is it that the filmmakers did actually put it in the soundtrack.

All in all, R.Balki's "Cheeni Kum" is praise-worthy for its overall entertainment value, its wonderful writing, and its narration. I will wind up with 3 out of 5.Check it out at a theatre near you. If not, wait for the DVD to be out soon.

Still struggling to get over the hangover of my last torturous tryst with the Big Screen, I was expecting a better date with the Friendly Neigbourhood guy in the Blue and Red Speedo. I have actually grown on an overdose of Stan Lee's creation right from the days of the Amazing Fantasy to the many renditions of the imaginative world of the Spiderman by different authors. It had been a thumb rule in the world of Hollywood Cinema that a comic book movie would always land up being like a Joel Schumacher's cheap treat of the Dark Knight. All that changed when Spidey swinged to the tunes of Sam Raimi .

The first Spidey movie had the innocence of a nerdy high-school teenager who wants to be cool, just discovering the comfort of getting rid of his carbon frames and also defying gravity at the same time. Clubbed with first love in an upside-down fantasy kiss in the middle of a dark Manhattan Street still wet with the rain, and of course serious ass-kicking action scenes against the very green and very evil Goblin. Spidey one was my favourite Superhero Movie.

Not until Spidey 2 came out. Spidey now was dealing the real evils of reality of making both ends meet, juggling his time to save the world along with delivering pizza , and also getting enough sleep to wake up and prepare for the next lecture's assignments. Simultaneously, our hero had to deal with his love, Mary Jane slipping away , as she demanded more attention. Oh, I forgot to mention, Alfred Molina's wonderful portrayal of Spidey's nemesis Dr.Octavius. Spiderman 2 had it all, in exactly perfect doses making it a brilliant recipe, in fact a real treat. When Spidey-3's teasers got released on the internet last fall,you know what kind of excitement it generated in the minds of people like me, a whole generation of people like me who swear on the Marvels of Marvel and DC. And then to add to the franchise, the wallpapers and the online streaming of trailers revealing that this time around , its gonna be not one, not two, but three separate baddies fighting against our Spidey. It was getting really heated. So heated up, that when I could not get the tickets to the Saturday's shows , I cursed everyone around. Not to mention, I went ahead and read the spoilers at wikipedia.com. But still, my spirits were all high and my eyes grounded on the screen as I entered the auditorium. Somehow, as I entered the hall, I could sense , this movie will not live up to the extremely high expectations that I had almost framed in our mind.I don't know how, but I did sense it.

The Plot:Opening scene-an unusually happy and content Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is reveling in how well things are going for him -- his relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) is rock solid, he's at the top of his class at the university and he's about to go from freelance status to staff photographer at The Daily Bugle.Simply put, picture perfect . But evil begins to reassert itself on several fronts.As Peter and Mary Jane gaze at the stars from their spider-web hammock overlooking the city, a modest "War of the Worlds"-like meteor crashes nearby and emits a gooey black silk that slithers and slides of its own accord.A hard-outside/soft-inside criminal ,Flint Marco(Thomas Haden Church), who turns out to have been responsible for the murder of Peter's beloved Uncle Ben, escapes from prison and, through a process that defies comprehension but is undeniably eye-catching, turns into a shape-changer named Sandman who can blow through the caverns of Manhattan or become a giant hulk with fearsome pummeling power.

And then there is Harry Osborn (James Franco), who, still blaming Spider-Man for the death of his father, decides to emulate the great green one by engineering a new designer Goblin outfit and flying board and taking to the skies to avenge his old man.Peter acquires yet another adversary in the person of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), an aggressive street photographer who vies with Peter to capture the revelatory shot that will reveal Spider-Man for who he really is, a coup that will land the winner a full-time job from editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) at the Daily Bugle. The rivalry turns into outright war when Eddie morphs into one more Marvel supervillain, the fanged Venom, whose skills eerily match those of Spidey.Early going is enlivened by a couple high-wire action sequences, a Goblin attack and especially a vertigo-inducing scene in which an out-of-control construction crane demolishes part of a nearby skyscraper, sending platinum blonde Gwen (Bryce Dallas Howard), a classmate of Peter's, heading toward the pavement, only to be saved at the last second by guess who.But the dramatic temperature is brought way down by Mary Jane, who's become a real drag. Fired, in a poor scene, from her Broadway play, she pathetically begs for attention, becomes petulant when Spidey plants a public kiss on Gwen after saving her, then seeks solace from Harry. What happens in the climax is everybody's guess: Mary Jane gets kidnapped (yet again) by the baddies, and Spidey manages to kick their asses with the help of an old (accomplice) foe. Nothing inspirational.Oh did I forget to mention, Aunt May speaking about volumes about how Ben Parker proposed to her.Yeah, I paid my ticket to see that.

The problem:The problem with most third movies in a film franchise -- be it Star Wars or The Godfather, Batman or Superman, Indiana Jones or The Matrix -- is that the primary reason for their existence is greed. It's not that the filmmakers aren't trying to make a good film. It's just that, unless you're dealing with source material rich enough to warrant three separate pictures (like The Lord of the Rings), all the best ideas have already been spent on the previous two installments.The only reason to go back, then, is to wring a few more bucks out of a proven success. This is why most part threes are, with precious few exceptions, so disappointing. Spiderman 3 is in fact not one of those exceptions. It repeats all the tried and tested character insights scripting done previously in Spidey 2, to an excessive extent that it becomes painful enough to bear the pain of Aunt May and ageing Mary Jane. No wonder, Peter wanted to break up with her.

Even longer than its predecessors, 3 piles on the series's usual comedy scenes and action sequences while adding some black slime from outer space and a few new actors (Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace) to the more familiar faces (Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris). And a pile is what it feels like, especially when two superheroes ultimately join forces to defeat three supervillains. Given how bogus the movie is whenever it departs from formula, it's not surprising that the funniest bit (in which Peter Parker becomes a disco smoothie) is stolen from Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor or that the best special effects, involving a gigantic Sandman, dimly echo King Kong. Director Sam Raimi tries to pump some life into this dutiful enterprise but seems more than a little bored himself, especially when he's getting mushy about Spider-Man's moral decline and regeneration. It feels like the end of Sam Raimi’s big-screen comic-book adaptations. (Ready or not, the studio is talking about a fourth.) Aesthetically and conceptually wrung out, fizzled rather than fizzy, this latest installment in the spider-bites-boy adventure story shoots high, swings low and every so often hits the sweet spot, but mostly just plods and plods along, as if its heart were pumping tired radioactive blood.Maybe it’s middle age.

In fictional terms Spider-Man a k a Peter Parker a k a Tobey Maguire looks like he’s pushing 23, but there’s something about the guy that shrieks midlife crisis. Peter is still hitting the books and still snapping photographs for The Daily Bugle, run by the flattop blowhard J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons, in clover, as usual). It’s a living, kind of, enough for an enviably situated dump in Manhattan with artfully peeling walls and a fabulous picture window through which Peter regularly bounds into the air in full superhero drag. (The neighbors in this part of town evidently always keep the blinds drawn.) It’s a calling, sort of, though it’s also started to feel a bit like punching the clock.
The programmatic screenplay credited to Mr. Raimi, his brother Ivan Raimi (a third Raimi brother, Ted, plays a tiny role in the picture) and Alvin Sargent certainly feels more like work than play. The only selling point in “Spider-Man 3” is that Spider-Man or Peter or some combination of the two discovers his so-called dark side when an inky extraterrestrial glob (a symbiote in Marvel-speak) spreads its gooey tentacles over his body, turning his suit and soul black. Though there’s something dubious about the idea that black still conveys evil in our culture, pop or otherwise (tell it to Batman and Barack Obama, for starters), the idea of messing with Spider-Man’s squeaky-clean profile, smearing it with dirt, a touch of naughtiness, seems too good to resist. I would have loved to see a bit more of Spidey-the Dark Man, or shall we call him Peter Darker. May be , he could end up killing Gwen or Mary Jane perhaps, rather than playing the piano or grooving to the Jazz.

But then, having said enough of how Spidey 3 did not meet much of my expectations, people at Sony have the cash bells ringing continuously, without giving a shit about what the critics say.Left dangling for the past three years, arachnophiles everywhere finally have cause to celebrate.
The biggest (with a production budget due north of $250 million) and longest (clocking in at 139 minutes) and quite possibly the capper of a trilogy featuring the current talent lineup, "Spider-Man 3" has done it again.Certain to please the geek squad by remaining ever true to its comic book roots while retaining that satisfying emotional core that has registered with equal numbers of female fans, "Spider-Man 3" has all its demographic bases covered.Having already received its world premiere in Tokyo in a nod to piracy concerns, "Spider-Man 3" premiered in a good portion of the globe ahead of its May 4 North American bow. And the opening weekend collection is a worldwide highest breaking the feat of POTC-Dead Man's Chest.

Factor in those additional Imax screens, and the Columbia Pictures blockbuster should spin a worldwide web that should build substantially on the $1.6 billion already brought in by the first two installments.And so , it doesn't matter if Spidey got a little way too much emotional on this one, and Aunt May was high on her Prozac,neither if Mary Jane desperately needs some face lift, as far as the cash is flowing, Spidey 4 is very much on the cards. Early speculations: Carnage could be the next villain.My Rating: 3 out of 5, just for the extra-cool, hyper special effects worth 250 million $. Money speaks.

Extremely depressed after a long,working week, Friday Evening was the time when I had to go and watch a movie and unfortunately , there were no other tickets available for me other than for Eragon.What can I say?It is movies like Eragon which are made, to make one realise that high budget Hollywood Special Effects can also fall flat on the face. It sets an example of how exactly movies ,should not be made.No matter how much bucks you thrown into, you definitely can end up creating absolute crap if you don't have the craft.

George Lucas' Six Star Wars, Peter Jackson's LOTR Trilogy, and well the four Harry Potter Movies. After being a witness to all these fantasy movies (some masterpieces like the Return of the Jedi and LOTR-Return of the King, and some not so much -the Harry Potter Series), when I am subjected to such a big screen torture for almost two hours , I cannot help but cry. Cry out loud,"those are the two hours of my life gone wasted".If you are still wondering what is there to complain about the movie,well, let us go the other way round by jotting down what I actually liked about the movie. To start with the name of the Dragon "Saphira". Sounds much like Shakira, but more elegant and well, sounds somewhat related to Sapphire. Whats next? Umm, the beautiful outdoor locations and spellbounding aerial shots of Hungary. It did remind of the New Zealand of LOTR.That's it.That is all I liked about the movie.

Everything else in the movie was completely ordinary to pathetic at times. The narrative-slow, the dialogues- could have been written by me in a much better way, I guess.I could have spiced up the movie by giving it a touch of Tenacious D in the script. The actors, do not get me started on that. And I do not care if it is based upon some fantasy bestseller by some Paolini. I demand an explanation for making such talents like Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Irons and Robert Carlyle all gone waste.As far as Rachel Weisz's voice is concerned , it is not very recognisable like Cate Blanchett's(LOTR, remember).

No wonder, when we entered the theatre, the torch guy said, "Sit anywhere Sir, the hall is yours". Me and my friend, chose our seats. From reel 1 to the end, my friend demanded, " Yaar!! c'mon show me a kiss at least". Because there was nothing else that could rescue our Friday evenings. He would frequently comment " Bloody , ek dhang ki bandee nahi hai movie main, itna paisa kaha kharch kiya, aur naa hi ek kiss dikhaya, at least LOTR main Liv Tyler last main ek mast wala kiss to deti hai". What can I say? Some people do have complaints that neither IMDB nor Rotten Tomatoes would register.

Rating: I wish I could give it a negative rating. But because of the Visual Hungary Tourism Brochure, I m gonna give it a 1. But it came to me for 140 bucks. Screw it. Minus 5. Wanna still watch it?

Here is the List of all that I have written about in Magnum Opus.

Aaja Nachle
Om Shanti Om
Jab We Met
Superbad
RGV ki AAG
ScreenFixed 2
Monsoon Wedding
Dil Dosti etc.
Johnny Gaddar
Loins of Punjab Presents
Transformers
Ratatouille
ScreenFixed
Die Hard 4
Fantastic Four :Rise of the Silver Surfer
Cheeni Kum
Life in a Metro
Spiderman 3
Eragon
Little Miss Sunshine
Bheja Fry
NameSake
300
Pick of Destiny
Water
Apocalypto
Dhoom 2
Bhagam Bhaag
Casino Royale
Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Rang De Basanti
King Kong
Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi
Harry Potter :Goblet of Fire
Parineeta

I smiled, I laughed , I cried, I shouted and I enjoyed the bumpy ride of the rickety yellow Volkswagen, as dysfunctional as the Hoovers themselves. Little Miss Sunshine is "the Indie Movie" this year and it is no surprise that it was a front contender at the Oscars , only to lose to Scorsese's the Departed. Right from the starting titles to the end credit rolls, Little Miss Sunshine ( hereafter referred to as LMS) is such a blast and so openhearted and obsessed with winning like its characters, and it does win a lot of hearts in the way to the Redondo Beach.

As Devotchka's background score plays on,we are introduced to Olive who aspires to win the LMS pageant and practices hours in front of the TV imitating the plastic American Beauties, trained under her Heroine Sniffing, Porn Reading,grumpy old Grandpa played by Alan Arkin in his Oscar winning role. Dwayne(Paul Dano), Olive's elder step Brother aspires to become a Pilot and has taken a vow of silence and trains himself rigorously for it. Dwayne's hero is the 19th century German philospher Friedrich Nietzsche.And then there is the father of the family ,Richard, who seeks his big break as the lead spokesman of his own self help program "9 steps to success". Toni Collete plays Sheryl , the mother who is herself very much troubled handling her work, her dysfunctional family, and now her brother Frank, who almost committed suicide. Frank (Steve Carell) is the country's leading Proust Scholar and is terminally depressed over losing his lover.

The opening few minutes reveal how the characters, inspite of belonging to the same family (almost) are so very much scattered and disjointed and how everyone is just living for the sake of it- as most people would say, a true portrayal of today's American Life or as many critics might call it as the attack on the way Americans shape their lives around reaching for the brass ring;to me its a celebration of the same phenomenon. The dinner table scene is one of the many high points in the movie. Dinner here, means chicken and Sprite and for dessert everyone has ice-cream.What gets you laughing and believing in the characters is the way they eat together. When Sheryl brings home a big takeout bucket, Grandpa erupts, "What is this?! Chicken?! Every day it's the chicken! Holy God Almighty! Is it possible, just one time, we could have something for dinner except the goddamn chicken?!"

Still, they're all sitting around the table having dinner; even silent Dwayne sets the table. Though they may be drinking out of fast-food giveaway glasses, they're eyeing each other as a family. When Olive wants to know why Uncle Frank has been so unhappy, her question sets off the kind of electric ripple that floats through families and unifies them even as it shocks or tickles them. Her dad, Richard, panics, but Olive asks, "You fell in love with a boy?" Frank answers, "Very much so." And Olive responds, lightly, adorably, "That's silly." ("There's another word for it," says Grandpa.) The movie is about the power and the glory of the makeshift, from the family's floating, changing patterns of disconnects and sympathies to the menus for its breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Hoovers wouldn't reach their one defining moment of communion if they weren't strivers. In this odyssey, what's more dangerous than the whirlpools of ambition are the shallows of rigid thinking. Every step to Redondo Beach requires a leap or push - everyone needs to get out and shove the spluttering VW before it can move into high gear. Richard achieves salvation in the family's eyes when he imparts his get-ahead drive to Olive's heart's desire, even if it turns them into temporary outlaws getting a narrow escape from a libidinous cop. Frank begins to apply Proustian wisdom by helping, of all people, hard-bodied Dwayne. Without giving anything crucial away, let's just say that by the time this family reaches the Little Miss Sunshine contest, there's no question who's "normal," and it's not Olive's freakily toned little-girl competitors or the wholesome clans cheering them on.

The cast is so perfect that it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles. Arkin's spontaneity gives the impression that he's improvising. Kinnear embodies the hyped-up energy of a gambler sure his next card will beat the house. He and Collette effectively use body language to convey the frustrations of a couple trying to hold it together for the kids. The two have almost no physical contact. A scene where they verbally lash out at each other is particularly well acted. Even in such heady company, Carell, whose success in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" established him as more than just a television face, comes close to making this his movie. His well-honed comic instincts are evident in the way Frank intently follows the family's disjointed conversations with his eyes -- as if watching a tennis match -- and in his quickened pace to get to the pageant registration desk when the Hoovers, delayed by one crisis after another, arrive in Redondo Beach late.

Abigail Breslin , who plays Olive is a revelation--she brings an unstudied, unsaccharine sweetness with her enchanting, chubby , bespectacled smile .She is endearingly attentive and captures the infinite fascination of the genuinely innocent. It could have easily gone wrong in every possible way, but it does not. The perennially underrated Greg Kinnear is astounding as Richard. Even when you fear he'll be the creepy, controlling dad, Kinnear imparts the sadness of a family man who's also aching to be a man of the world and doesn't know how. Kinnear turns the disappointments of a self-help salesman into arias of comic pathos. When he takes command of his clan, it's by owning his own failures and seeing his own ambitions and letdowns in Olive and in Dwayne. Paul Dano as Dwayne gives the crowning performance in the improbably magical saga of the Hoovers, who in the end suck up all the humanity from a room filled mostly with Sun Belt humanoids. Dano , who even after remaining mute for the major part of the movie, speaks volumes with his silence. And when he speaks out loud , everyone listens.

There's no more fitting final destination than California, the land of promise for generations of families seeking to improve their lot. But "Little Miss Sunshine" is really more about getting there. You'll be delighted, if a bit breathless from laughing, to be along for the ride.You won't see a brighter, truer affirmation of the All-American messed-up improvisational family than Little Miss Sunshine. Dazzling Sunshine, not little in any way.

Usually, I do care about the cast of a movie when I go to watch it, and also that there are no signs of even a minute's appearance of Himmesss or his "music". Debutante director Sagar Ballary's Indian Take on the French Comedy "The Dinner Game","Bheja Fry" did not pose any high expectations and star values, but it did have my favourite actors set, Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey and to top it, Tej Bhaisaab (Monsoon Wedding), I mean Rajat Kapoor. I went to look for a good Sunday Morning entertainer and entertain it did, in pure Bhaiya isshtyle.

Vinay Pathak rules in every inch of the reel he occupies and that is the movie's strength as well as the weekness.At almost 2 hours , Bheja Fry tells us the story of a Music Industry Guy ,Ranjit Thadani (Rajat Kapoor)who has a weird hobby of having dumb performers entertain them on Friday Nights. Only this time, he comes across Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak), whom he mistakes to be yet another dumb guy. I am tempted to tell you the plot, but well I'll keep that for you to explore.As the name suggests, Vinay literally fries every inch of your neurons and your cranium and makes you roar you with laughter with his performance. Well, having said that, I must say, that after a while it did seem to me that the entire movie had been overloaded on Vinay Pathak's shoulders. I am not saying that he is not capable of doing that. I am just saying that it looked a bit obvious and not quite natural after a while. Unlike "Khosla Ka Ghosla" where the entire spectrum of performances were explored from Boman, to Ranvir to Anupam Kher to Vinay Pathak and even the so brief Vinod Nagpal in Mr.Sahni's role. Well ,you can say that I am perhaps nitpicking by comparing the two. In a way yes, I am , because I liked Khosla a lot, but Bheja Fry remains to me a movie which I liked or rather laughed at in bits.

Talking about the performances, though Bheja Fry has in the castlist actors like Ranvir Shorey,Milind Soman and Saarika , there is hardly any credibility in their acts. Especially Ranvir who seems like an unpaid actor to me in a role that can be said to be having proximity to the gags he performs on the Great Indian Comedy show. Saarika is wasted and well, Milind Soman can only converse and well talk on the phone.

But the man of the movie (You'll hear this almost 167 times in movie reviews)is Vinay Pathak. From his irritating unpacking of his Scrapbook to the suspicious look on his face when he puts in the number combo on his briefcase, he looks so very natural. Some really memorable moments like when Bharat Bhushan calls Anand as a Bhojpuri Film Producer by the alias of Madan Mohan for a movie " Humar Bhojai Tohar Lugai" and suggests that the movie would star Ravi Kishan jee, Nagma Jee and Rahul Roy jee , just cracked the entire audience. And so was the scene when Miss Suman Rao keeps asking the meaning of a word that Ranjeet has been using to describe her. Also not to forget, when Asif calls up his wife who's in the middle of an adulterous tryst to tell her he knows what she's upto. It's really moments like these that you'll remember even after you've left the cinema, but then you'll remember only the moments, not the movie as a whole. So all said and done, I give Bheja Fry 2.5 out of 5 . Half Baked stuff for me- delicious ,but only at some portions .

I remember Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" vividly. Though I am no resident of Delhi or as they call it "Delhite" , Monsoon Wedding gave me the smell of the tea at the "Tapdee" of Connaught place, the hustle and rickshaws in Purani Dilli, the chuskis and Wedding Bazars of Chandni Chowk and of course the Rain drenched Skies of the Capital. I walk in the theatre and as the reels of "The Namesake" start to roll, I am given a different treat this time around. It is Kolkata or rather , Calcutta of the late 70s. The trams, the ghats, the Maajhis, the processions , the red flags , the chants of "jindabad jindabad" and the gullies. It's all captured and you can smell it. And well, I must say, I am not a Bong, neither do I belong to Kolkata.

Spoiler Warnings: If you haven't seen the movie, the movie details might be revealed. But I can't help mention the story.

"The Namesake" begins with the story of Ashok Ganguly(Irrfan Khan) at Howrah Station(I guess), who on his way to Jam(Shedpur), meets an accident while he was reading a book by Nikolai Gogol. He survives and this incident leaves a deep impact on his mind. Ashok becomes a PhD in New York in fibre optics.He gets married to Ashima(Tabu) in pure Indian arranged marriage isshtyle. Following the wedding, they move to America, and Ashima ,leaving behind the warm, familiar climate of Calcutta, must adjust to life in New York in winter. Lonely, cold and depressed, Ashima nonetheless does her best to make her way in her new home, as she learns to love her new husband. She has her first breakfast with Kellog's and salted peanut's, just how (Mira)Nair treats us with details about Ashima's efforts to adjust with a place far away from home.We get muted emotions portrayed with so much finesse when it comes to the love of the newly wed couple,who show their love in very subtle ways. The Gangulys are blessed with a son, whom they have to hurriedly name Gogol( the accident and "the Overcoat" connection). The Gangulys eventually move to the suburbs and are friends with other Pravasi Bengalis who try to create a home like atmosphere away from home by having the occasional traditional ceremonies and also participate in each other's family events like Naamkarans of the newborn.
Plot 2 begins when Gogol(Kal Penn) grows up to find that he has been named after tragic 19th Century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, a topic on which he is often picked upon. Gogol is rebellious, listens to Pearl Jam, Americanised and is caught in the cultural divide. Ashima is taken aback by some of her children's Westernisms, she's never anything less than polite. Ashok wants to tell his son why he was named Gogol , but is hesitant. Meanwhile, Gogol goes ahead and changes his name to Nikhil. On their trip back home to India, Gogol discovers the city of Calcutta. The ATMS have arrived, but the rickshaw pullers are still there. Somethings haven't changed. Ashima decides upon a family trip to the Taj Mahal at Agra. Gogol is blown away by the beauty of Mughal Architecture and decides to opt for an Architecture Major at Yale. Gogol becomes established as an architect working at the Big Apple, and has a relationship with an American Girl Maxie. Gogol spends more time with his girlfriend and her parents, hardly calls his parents and Ashima silently complains. We get to see more glimpses of the cultural divide, when Gogol instructs Maxie what not to do when they go to visit his parents.On their visit home, Ashok finally tells him the significance of the name "Gogol", of how he survived the accident while he was reading "the Overcoat". He tells how the voice of the other traveller echoed in his ears saying " pack your bags and go abroad..". That is why he chose to move to America. Gogol questions Ashok if he is reminded of that incident everytime he thinks of him.Ashok replies that Gogol reminds him of everything that happened after that, of how everything after that has been " a miracle" for him. You see the tenderness, the strength, the composure and the breakdown in Ashok's moist eyes. Gogol moves ahead to New York, away from his folks.Ashok gets a semester contract to teach at Ohio, where he meets a heart attack and passes away. Ashima is left alone, stranded, and lost. Gogol ,when faced with the tragedy of losing his Baba, regrets,his heart aches and he wishes if he could turn back time and appreciate his father when he was alive.
Plot3: Gogol finally realises his own indentity, shedding off the American skin, and shaving off his head. The family reunites to go back to India to immmerse the ashes of his late father.By this time, Gogol has broken up with Maxie. Ashima tries to hitch up Gogol with another Bengali girl, Moushumi. Gogol and Moushumi get married only to discover that they are two absolutely different individuals who want different things and perhaps different partners in case of Moushumi. Ashima finally decides to move back to India, sell her home in America and persuade learning Indian Classical Music. One of the most moving scenes for me in the movie is when Gogol goes back to his old room and finds the Book gifted to him by his Baba on his graduation day, a book by Gogol with the note written, "Gogol, for the man who gave you his name, from the man who gave you your name". Gogol tells his mother, that inspite of the fact that everyone is leaving ,when he should feel very upset about it, he rather feels liberated and free and finally has understood his Baba's lines "We all come out from under Gogol's Overcoat."

The Performances:

Tabu to me has not enacted but lived Ashima Ganguly and breathes the character following a path of subtle changes as she progresses from a blushing bride to a middle aged widow.With incredible subtlety, Tabu ages Ashima from period to period, carving character without dialogue, playing the scenes as much between the lines as through them. Give her all the awards.
She strikes deep personal chords resonating with the stories of those millions of Pravasi Indians living in a home away from home.Nair's approach to details--a pause,unspoken words speaking volumes,a touch, a caress,details in the crowd makes "Namesake" one of the most riveting, touching and a very personal movie experience.