Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Jaani Dushman


This movie was released in the year 2002 and includes a big star cast. The genre is Horror/Supernatural but ended up as comedy !! As there are too many stars in the movie, I will refer to them by their real names.

The movie begins with a wedding reception. Guy 1 ( I don't know who he is) is getting married and all his friends are having fun. The next scene is the first night ( the couple just ditch the guests) scene which is in the same hotel where the reception is being held. So Guy 1 lifts the ghoongat of the bride; and before he looks at her again; her face turns into a skull. He is horrified to look at her and the skull-bride kicks him. ROFL. Then the skull slowly transforms into the most funny looking Skeleton. The scene is hilariaous. The monstrous skeleton is made of chalk I think; its so dispropotinate, that it would only make you LOL instead of shiver. Anyway, the skeleton beats up the guy and throws him from the window. Guy 1 survives the fall !! His friends are still partying downstairs and he tells them ' biwi' before dying. The biwi is missing ! What nail-biting suspense !!

Then Manisha Koirala is shown descending into some dingly looking cave. She is the "atma" that killed Guy 1. Then she narrates her story in a flash-back. MK is the college hottie and Sunny Deol is her Boy friend( who is an alumini and businessman now). Deol rescues MK from a rape attempt. Does he take the culprits to the cops ? No , he takes them to the principal instead. The logic being, he does not want to bring a bad name to the college (huh?). Principal is Raj Babbar ( dressed as a Priest/Father). Babbar tells the 2 culprits to ask for forgiveness from MK. She forgives them. But they feel insulted. Deol then leaves to London because of his business and promises to marry MK upon returning.

Then MK begins to hear some strange voice and gets drawn to a tree. The tree is inhibited by a snake which is an ichadari nag ( IN). Turns out this IN and MK were lovers many births ago. Both were snakes ( eeks). Disturbed by their ugly dancing; Amrish Puri ( a sage) curses them. The curse was too long; the gist - she dies and he lives. They will be reunited in the 21st century. End of explanation by IN. When MK hears this she hugs IN (played by Munish Kohli); then she remembers Sunny and is confused.

Then, Akshay Kumar is hosting a party in some isolated place where he invites all his friends. The 2 culprits ( one looks like a fool and the other looks like he is more than 35 yrs old--i think he paid for the college boy role) dupe MK to come earlier by imitating the voices of all others (crux of the revenge logic later on). MK comes early and they rape her. In her fury, she kills herself by plunging her stomach into a protruding log ! Before dying, all her friends show up and she accuses them of plotting with the 2 culprits and insults them. IN shows up out of nowhere and is upset to see MK dying. She then asks IN to kill all those who plotted against her. MK becomes a ghost. Then IN transforms into batman; heheh; no I am kidding but the costume did look like one; except there was no mask. IN has green eyes, can transform into any shape or person, has padded batman dress and has super-natural powers. LOL.

IN performs the kiss-of-death (litrally) and kills one of the culprits. MK tranforms into bride-skeleton and kills the other culprit - Guy 1 from the start of the story. End of flash-back. Then, the next victim is Sharad Kapoor. He gets a lift from a guy who turns out to be IN. Fights follow, Kapoor runs; then IN flies (yes he can fly too) and follows Kapoor. Then Kapoor jumps into the car and drives away. Does IN fly and catch him ? No ! He conjures up a black bike and follows the car. More stunts which are hilarious. I also got a glimpse of the shoes worn by IN - they look like an amphibian's webbed foot (maybe it was some special snake skin). ROFL. IN finally kills him. He then manages to kill the othes too - Arshad Warsi, Aditya Pancholi, Aftab. Then Sunil Shetty is killed in the most interesting way - IN and MK get into his body and kill him from inside. Its insanely funny. ROFL.

Did I mention that Babbar is also a professor in para-psychology (huh, what the hell is that). He gives all the friends a chain to protect them. This chain's locket has all the religious symbols fused into one !

Then Akshay is almost killed and taken to the hospital. A very thin Rambha is his GF. She was so thin that I could not recognize her ! Then comes the turn of Sonu Nigam. Nigam is actually Deol's younger brother. Nigam panics and calls his brother. Big bro shows up from London in no time ! FYI no one bothered to inform Deol that his GF was dead !! IN comes as Deol and stabs Nigam, who is taken to the hospital. The real Deol is taken to the prison where MK reveals herself as a ghost and tells him the story.

IN goes to the hospital to the kill the two remaining people. Suddenly Nigam and Akshay jump from the bed; find a cool bike parked conviniently and ride away. IN chases them in his bike instead of just flying (what a moron). He beats up Akshay. Then Nigam runs and gets into a speed-boat which is kept just for him. IN then walks on water and chases him, ROFL. Suddenly Akshay comes in a jet-ski out of nowhere ! More fights under-water; Akshay just refuses to die. In the meantime, Deol kicks the prison door in typical filmy style and runs out to resuce his brother ( how does he know the location).

The climax finally ( we are ready to kill ourselves if this continued for more than 5 mts); more fights. Akshay runs to Babbar and hams before dying. Babbar chants something and conjures up some 'shakti' which gets into Deol. Deol has super-shakti now. He saves his brother. IN is split into two. Does he die ? We never understood !Then IN and MK go away into their dreamland. Phew. The End.
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How did so many people agree to act in this horror movie ? The director's son is IN ofcourse. The songs are hilarious; acting , special -effects are extremely funny. It has been a while since I saw such a useless movie. There are matrix inspired stunts and also terminator style stunts. Make-up is hedieous.

Should you watch it ? Yes Yes Yes ... but with friends !
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Jaani Dushman - Ek Anokhi Kahani (2002)

Producer : RajKumar Kohli

Director : Raj Kumar Kohli
Cast : Sunny Deol, Suniel Shetty, Manisha Koirala, Aftab Shivdasani, Arshad Warsi, Aditya Panscholi, Sharad Kapoor, Rajat Bedi, Sonu Nigam, Munish Kohli, Amrish Puri, Rambha, Shahbaaz Khan, Raju Mavani, Akshay Kumar
Guest Appearance : Raj Babbar
Music Director : Anand Raj Anand, Anand Miland
Lyricist : Sameer, Dev Kohli
Cinematographer : Thomas Xavier, Damodar Naidu
Dialogue Writter : K. K. Singh
Art Director : Pawan Verma
Action Director : Tinu Verma
Choreographer : Bosco Ceaser, Ganesh Acharya

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Reviews of recent movies ....



Here is my review for some of the Bollywood movies that I saw; they are in no particular order.

Rang De Basanti - What can I say ? Its a brilliant movie. I loved everything about it. It has surely made it in my list of all time favourite movies. The end was sad and left me sobbing for hours. I will surely get a dvd copy to watch re-runs.

Bluffmaster - AB looks great. Songs are good. Cast is good. Story is bearable. I thought the end could have been taken better. Still, its a decent movie. Some scenes are actually funny. Ritish D has come a long way; he has done a great job too.

Zinda - Its a different story compared to the usual run-of-the mill Bollywood movies. It is inspired by a foreign movie. Sanjay Dutt has acted very well. The movie is taken well too; but it is not for the weak hearted - many scenes are very grouse to watch. It is hard to accept Lara Dutta as a taxi driver. John looks good. The justification in the end is hard to digest but I would still say its a good watch. Thankfully Celina Jaitely is shown only for 5 minutes. The story line is about a man who gets abducted and kept in a cell for 14 years; he is suddenly released and left to figure out the motive and the identity of his abductor. An interesting watch.

Iqbal - The story is about a deaf and dumb boy who loves to play cricket. Will he make it in the cricket world ? The story, direction and acting are superb. The cast is excellent. Its a must watch.

Deewana Huye Pagal - Here is a typical Bollywood style movie. It is inspired by ' There's something about Mary' with some typical Bollywood masala. I thought it would be extremely stupid but I was mistaken. The movie is quite watchable and some parts are very funny. Akshay Kumar has done a great job. The heroine is very average. The part played by Sunil Shetty is also funny ( his role). You can surely watch the movie. Have the remote ready to ff songs.

Shikar - They start out with a good idea; but end up mixing too many issues in the end. It leaves you confused. But still you can watch it (if you want to), its not a torture. There is nothing new and most of the scenes are predictable. Acting is average; Ajay Devgan looks weird and so do most of the cast.

Ek Ajnabee - There is no heroine in this; no item songs. Its a simple story - Big B is a bodyguard ( though he looks too old for this role). His job is to protect a little girl, who is very cute, unlike the usual annoying kids seen on screen. Her acting is very natural. Movie is quite decent to watch. Arjun Rampal looks great. He does a hip-hop number too; is this a growing trend ? The song is good though. There are not too many surprises in this. You can surely watch it. The guest appearance in the end is nice. There is a rap number in the end by Sanjay Dutt which is awful.

Jawani Deewani - I could NOT watch more than 5 minutes. Illogical. Only skin-show.