Rocket Singh - Salesman of the year

The movie did not get very good reviews, but I decided to watch it none-the-less.
Interestingly, I found it more interesting than 3 idiots! *
I liked the overall theme, and loved Ranbir Kapoor in the film. And oh, the choice of songs at parties - 'Mai ek disco, tu ek disco, duniya hai ek disco... Disco '82!!!' Dill khush ho gaya ;) Ofcourse, the second half gets way too preachy and simply ruins the movie... But if you can ignore the stupidity of the second half, you might just like the movie.

[Spoiler ahead]
Ranbir Kapoor is a delight to watch, and the character seems genuine. The grey shades look good on him :) I did not like the sudden preachiness of the movie towards the end, and I so wish Shimit Amin could have thought of a better conclusion than projecting Mr. Puri as a villain, and Ranbir as a morally-pure hero.

*Not that 3 idiots was not good (its a wonderful mirch masala movie), but many of the jokes seemed cliched, and the attitude seemed a little weird - you cannot just walk into an interview, throw your weight around, and expect to get recruited! And you cannot ask your love interest to deliver your sisters child!! Anyway...

Julie & Julia

This movie is based on TWO true stories :)
It covers some highlights of married working womens' lives - cooking, writing, husbands and having a GOAL :D (ok, I really hope no working married woman reads this blog).
So the Julie-part of the movie is a little lame story-wise, but the julia part is a delight to watch. How did a 40yr old Julia Child go on to write the famous "Mastering the Art of French cooking", and then went on to host "The french chef", a very popular and first-of-its-kind cooking show on American television? I admit I never heard of her, her book or her show earlier, but it was nice to watch.
Its the small things in the movie that make you laugh - like "Whenever you eat a fantastic dish and wonder WHAT made it so tasty, you should know it is BUTTER" :) (Pav Bhaaji was the first thing that came to Jatins mind), or when Juia tells her Cooking teacher that "All my friends at the embassy, including my dear friend the Ambassador, would be extremely surprised if I do not give my cooking test", though she does not know the Ambassador :)

[Spoiler ahead]
I liked the undying optimism of Julie and Julia - both never stop believing that they can publish their own book. Way to go girls! :)

Network (1976)

This movie was engrossing from the start. An old news reporter plans to commit a suicide on national tv in front of millions of viewers, because he was fired and had nothing going for himself other than the job! I was hoping it was not another hero hiralal! :) Far from it actually - it was more like a Madhur Bhandarkar film in many ways* - it had a STRONG female lead and mocked the commercialization of news.

Faye Dunaway won the best actress academy award for this one, and I think she completely deserved it. Peter Finch won the Best Actor award, and was the first one to receive a posthumous award for an acting category, and he so deserved it too. I think any film in which the lead actors bag an academy award is completely worth a watch! (ok, the only other example I can think of is As good as it gets).

No spoilers for this movie, because I liked it as a whole :)

* Qsn to all those Madhur Bhandarkar haters - how come you liked Network huh?

Groundhog Day

This is an old one, but I managed to watch it only recently.
Its a hilarious movie - mushy and cute, but am guessing mush-hating guys could like it too.
What I dont understand is - how come this movie doesnt have a Bollywood copy? It has ample scope for mirch masala.
If like me, you have missed this one all these years, please go ahead and check it out.

[Spoiler ahead]
I loved the scene where Bill Murray tells Andie Mc'Dowell that he is 'A god', not 'THE god', and goes on to explain it.

Yeh mera India

It's an Indianized version of Crash. There are so many stories running in parallel (similar to Mumbai meri jaan), but somehow the movie seemed complete, with no questions left unanswered. Some characters seemed exaggerated - like those of Perizaad Zorabian or Milind Gunaji or Rajat Kapoor; but on the other hand character's of Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas and Sarika seemed so real.
I don't know what message the movie tried to convey, but I liked the fact that everything ended on a happy note.

[Spoiler alert]
The court scene involving Anupam Kher was really moving. Sometimes you wish the judicial system works more subjectively than objectively..
I also liked Seema Biswas's character - practical, yet infectiously optimistic. :)

Up

The name is short and sweet and so is the movie. It's a gzip of a normal persons life - a person who appears to be simple, laid back, but who is adventurous at heart. Yeah, there are MANY implementation related questions I have about his adventure, but well, who cares how he does it when it looks like so much fun!
Like all Pixar movies, the movie makes you laugh, cry and happy.

[Spoiler alert]
I loved Kevin (the bird) and Doug (the talking doggie). Just looking at those 2 characters made me smile :)

District 9

Definitely a unique alien-theme film. Most of the 'alien' movies portray them as all-powerful, scheming beings. But this one is different. The aliens of District 9 are more 'human' in that sense. The movie touches upon various themes like apartheid (infact the name District 9 is inspired by District 6) and xenophobia.
Interesting film, but extremely gory!
[Spoiler ahead]
What I liked most was how 'human' Christopher was - he loved his kid, loved his friend, hated the humans for conducting medical experiments on his fellow-prawns, but at the same time felt sympathetic towards Wikus :)
I bet he came back for Wikus after 3 years..