Sunday, August 07, 2011

Random review: Zindagi na milegi dobara

My apologies to the bewdas and bewdis for my prolonged absence from the bar. I have been terribly busy serving her majesty the warrior princess 24 hours a day. Today, her papa (whose cricket match got washed out) offered to look after her, while I whisked my mom off to watch Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. And though there is tons of Xena stuff that I will be blogging about, I thought of doing up this review before I get back into the endless loop of milk and diapers. A special shoutout to Yamini for getting me back to the bar!

So here goes, my random thoughts after watching Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara:

  • Is it only me who keeps calling it Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara because that's how the words were arranged in the title song in 'Rock On'?
  • So how come someone thought of casting Hrithik and Katrina together ONLY NOW?! Gosh, what a good-looking pair! So much beauty at once... Aaaahhh! My eyes! My eyes!
  • Hrithik's hair is dreeeeamyyy...
  • I am beginning to really like Katrina as an actress. She had so many preachy lines in the movie, but she managed to pull them off quite well. Katrina, please get your Hindi diction right soon so SSSK can stop making fun of you.
  • Did you know that Mandi Sidhu, the girl who played Rohini, was offered the role of Latika in Slumdog Millionaire? Freida Pinto must be thanking her stars that Mandi turned down the role. (Btw, I did not like Slumdog Millionaire. At all.)
  • Farhan Akhtar seems to be involved in a lot of movies about friends (and their spats) - DCH, Rock On and now ZNMD.
  • I read an interview somewhere that Abhay Deol was the only guy not shirtless in the Tomatina festival because the stylist told him that squashed tomatoes on his hairy chest would not make a pretty sight, and he didn't want to wax his chest. Sheesh.
  • I can't really decide if I find Kalki Koechlin very pretty or horribly ugly. Weird, I know. :|
  • I LOVED the Doordarshan scene. That logo and that depressing music. Goodness.
  • It was really cute to have the three guys sing the Senorita song themselves. Hrithik sounded really good.
  • Deep sea diving, sky diving, bike-riding -- did the actors really do all that themselves or was it body doubles and effects?
  • Hmm... so why on earth did 'Saare jahan se achha' start playing when they were about to jump off the plane?
  • I liked the idea of the three guys fighting with the ghosts from their past, but the Naseeruddin Shah angle seemed a bit too 'off the story', if you know what I mean.
  • Speaking of Naseer, why oh why has he played that same role in so many movies? Pani puri on the house for the bewda/bewdi who can name the maximum number of movies in which Naseer has had an illegitimate child. So far, I have got four.



29 comments:

Bivas said...

YEs...lovely movie...liked it a lot...
Btw...Rock On was about 4 friends :P

Nandini said...

1. Yes, Farhan Akhtar is involved in a lot of movies where the story is about 3 male friends who have Issues ... and "their" women who, most often, are stereotypically bitchy buzzkillers. :P Am I the only one who has noticed what a privileged asshole this guy seems to be?

2. Is it "babysitting" when papa does it?

Arun said...

I liked the movie - it was well-made, the dialogs were crisp, the humor was great, the cinematography too. It slowed down a bit in the later part of the movie, but still engaged.

But I couldn't help notice the difference with the movies from my childhood. The typical angry man Bacchan movie was all about survival - getting a job, getting out of debt, making it up the ladder, etc. Now it seems like Indians have moved up Maslow's hierarchy of needs and are now purely concerned with self-actualization. Well, at least some Indians are so lucky. It gave a somewhat narcissistic tone to the movie. The empty (back roads?) in Spain that these guys drive through adds to that impression. These guys live in a world of their own. It doesn't detract from the movie as entertainment in the least bit, however.

Nor do I mean to detract from Sayesha's review. :) It is a fun movie. Go and see it :)

Aaren said...

"Pani puri on the house for the bewda/bewdi who can name the maximum number of movies in which Naseer has had an illegitimate child. So far, I have got four."
- I got Masoom, Rajneeti, Main Hoon Na, and ZNMD... which ones did you get?

zilch22 said...

hehe nice review, agree with most of it. about saare jahaan se achha - it was a copy of top gun, where the guys walk out to their planes with cool music in the background? it was so funny cos when it started one thought top gun, but then SJSA started playing! :D
my god i said the same thing about naseer - poor fellow, masoom kar ke typecast ho gaya.

Anubhuti said...

Goddd! today only i was wondering if there would be a ZNMD review from you or not! I havn't watched the movie as i find the script too shallow and unrelatable and I thought you too wouldn't like it :P

All the same, good to see you back in action!!
Lots of love to Xena!!

mad hatter said...

oh yeah, i too go 'Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara' ALL the time. that was the only musically standout line in a song that was, for me, hardly memorable.

heh i didnt think of the naseer playing same roles part. what struck me was deepti naval and naseer together (if it can really be said for this movie) after Katha. my mind immediately went on this crazy trip concocting this 'back story' from Sandhya and Rajaram to Rahila and Salman. (or am i losing a link, were they cast opposite each other for anything else?)

Angelsera said...

Overall I thought it was a good watch, they cud ve done the movie w/o Naseer also, it wasnt needed.

I saw an interview of Zoya wher she said the original title was ZMND but Javed Akthar changed it to ZNMD.

I did not like Slumdog millionaire also! Din understand the hype also.

you are right, din realise that Farhan has done a lot of movies on friends..interesting

Waiting on posts abt her majesty, Xena :D

the.orchestra.of.life said...

ahh .. the verdict has arrived :)
and regarding " ... Kalki Koechlin very pretty or horribly ugly" .. would go with the latter :)

Kanan said...

Gold! (Can't believe no one claimed it yet ;))

I've been debating but your review makes me really want to go watch it now.

To me, Farhan looks like Hrithik in that hat-glasses look in the pic you have up there.

PS. I love Kalki and find her super duper cute.

Obscure Optimist said...

Yay!! Thanks Bhai!! <3
I was waiting for a review post too, but desperately waiting for Xena updates :) !! :D

Great Review.
Kakli is ugly!
Katrina and Hrithik... Sigh!! Gorgeous couple!
I saw the making of the senorita song, and I knew the final product would be great! I loved the song!

Naseer uncle's movie list.. I can only think of Masoom, Main hu na, and ZNMD :P

Porkodi (பொற்கொடி) said...

Hmmmph! The rest of us were just giving you time to serve Xena and not do over acting pressure putting scenes.. But you credit Yamini! waaaaaaaaaaaaa.. :'(

nits said...

hehehe... good movie...

btw.. agree with you... why didnt anybody cast Hritik and Kat together earlier.... they do look good...

and yep... cant decide whether Kalki Koechlin is utterly cute or horrignly ugly... :)

Geomon said...

Thank God U'r back! Yippeeee!

Spot on with Kat-Hrithik pairing. Though the opening scenes of Roshan were strt outta Wall Street, this still is one of his better roles. The last I liked him so much was in Lakshya, also by Farhan :P
Kat looks fab. As an actor, she's not that bad. I mean, with looks like that :))

Farhan does a lotta contemporary lifestyle based movies. But he's also done Luck by Chance, where he did play a lucky 'privileged a**hole' {Nandini, I hate cuss words:P}

Abhay has the best comic timing among Deols, all seventy of them :P

Kalki is cute but not pretty. I liked her in the phone ad more than on screen.
ditto the doordarshan scene.ditto the Senorita. HR should sing more often. And i dint mean the topi wala.

I think the stunts were original. Except for the last bull charge, where there might have been some tinkering.

U wanna know why SJSA played. Coz that's what guys do b4 they do anything really scary. Except for real Airforce pilots, who'd go 'sheesh' at that. :D

I am now a big fan of the Akhtars. All 3 of them. :D

shweta said...

Well I second da "Zindagi milegi na dobara" funda!! Somehow it's gt stuck thr. Liked da review luvd da movie!!

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

I loved the movie and you're right first time Kat looks a bit sensible. Senorita rocks. The cinematography is awesome. Good to hear back from you after a while. come back with the milk an diaper stories soon....

rt said...

same question as Nandini: Is it called babysitting when dad does it?

Kalki-- oh its not ur traditional beauty- sometimes confused but mostly like her..

Okay I have to see the movie to comment anymore on ur review. :)

Divya said...

wish I could go watch the movie too!! ufff...what all we have to sacrifice for children!! ;-)
Regarding movies of Naseer... ZNMD(if you say so),Najayaz, Masoom, Rajneeti, Main Hoon Na.

Obscure Optimist said...

@Porkodi (பொற்கொடி): Come...lets share the credits!! :)

How do we know said...

sigh.. true.. abt the hrithik Katrina pairing!

Bhavya said...

I hear you on the arrangement of the words in the movie title and the song from Rock On. I've got them muddled up a number of times and ended up singing the song with Rock on... zindagi na milegi dobara .

One of my first reactions to the casting was also that Katrina Kaif really should be seen opposite the Hrithik Roshans and Ranbir Kapoors of the industry and not so much opposite the Akshay Kumars and Salman Khans. Good to see her opposite someone who is suitably good looking :)

Anonymous said...

I loved the movie and your review.. :) The humour, the scenic beauty and the diving-riding, everything was great!

Hrithik-Katrina do make a gorgeous looking couple. Sigh!

Sudeep said...

Happy to see a post here as the videos are blocked (I forget to watch from home) and everytime I was here I was like arre yaar video dekhna bhul gaya wapis.
Super happy to see that you are recognizing Katrina's talent. Der aaye durust aaye.

I wanted to write on the movie too on my blog, but didn't till date. I found it like the DCH guys had aged a few years, that DCH hangover of so many years continues.

Kalki swings between beautiful and not beautiful (I won't say ugly though).

Sudeep said...

Naseer's characters in all movies have an illegitimate child. It is just that only a few movies reveal the child(ren). Remember the college-goer hacker in A Wednesday? He was also his kid in that movie though they never explicitly stated that. Remember Nandu from Ishqiya? His kid. In fact there is a kid in every movie he has not starred. :P

Ok ok so I am short of work and bored here. Waise bhi Sayesha ke haathon mein Xena hai so no worries of getting hit by the rolled-up hypothetical newspaper. And Xena ab nayi frnd hai so she takes care of the (ex)bhai as well. muhahahaha!!

Bloomsandbugs said...

@ Sudeep: Lol! You cracked me up dude!
Boredom does this to ppl :)

Arun said...

'twould have been nice if someone on ZNMD had hummed the tune of "anam janam ka saath hai nibhaane ko sau sau baar maine janam liye" :)

Nishu said...

No random thought on Akhtar's fabulous poetry..??

Anees Ahmed Basha said...

FYI, all the stunts were performed by stunt doubles... different stuntmen for different stunts... you'd have seen this if you stayed through the credits..

Naseer's fathered an illegitimate child in: Masoom, Najaayaz, Main Hoon Na, Rajneeti, ZNMD and I think he has a similar role in the upcoming 'That girl in yellow boots' as well....

Of course the shaayari was good.. Javed Akhtar's saved some good lines for his kid....

This movie took DCH to the next level... Remember they were all just finishing college & starting their careers in DCH... here its a few years later when they are all settled in their careers...

I liked the way apart from the physical fears height, water, life etc the movie potrayed the inner weaknesses of the characters...
This movie, like swades is best watched alone....

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