When Sohan Seth [Dalip Tahil], a shrewd businessman, convinces many beleaguered farmers to sell their land for his commercial interests, it shatters the harmony of the village and Dayal’s family is jeopardized. Aman and Jigar are pitted against each other. The ground at their feet, is it motherland or simply property?

Surprisingly, KISAAN catches your attention from the word ‘Go’. The sequence at the panchayat[Sohail Khan's intro] only enhances your interest in the film, but the film actually takes off when Arbaaz starts drifting away.

At the same time, KISAAN has its share of loose ends. Times have changed and the writers could’ve updated the content to suit the current times. Also, Arbaaz’s change of heart towards the end looks like a complete compromise, from the writing point of view.

Puneet Sira has handled many a dramatic scene well. This is his finest work thus far. Daboo Malik’s music is of a mixed variety. A couple of tunes are nice – ‘Humko Kehna Hai’ and ‘Neechhe Saari Duniya Hain’. However, the visuals in the remix version of ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ look out of sync. The makers should’ve maintained thedesi look. Neelabh Kaul’s cinematography is nice. Action scenes [Mahendra Verma] are rustic, which gel well with the mood of the film.

Jackie is in form after a long, long time. Arbaaz doesn’t make much of an impact, but Sohail does. In fact, Sohail is only getting better with every film. Dia enacts her part well, while Nauheed is alright. Dalip Tahil is as usual. Sharat Saxena and Vishwajeet Pradhan don’t get much scope. Romeo is passable.

On the whole, KISAAN springs a pleasant surprise. At the box-office, the film is targeted at the Hindi belt and the single screens specifically. Also, this one deserves to be tax-exempted!

Chalo, let’s get drunk with one more heady potion of Pyar, Imtiaz ishtyle, you tell yourself before sauntering in for his latest, Love Aaj Kal.

And no, you aren’t disappointed at all. Because, this time, the effervescence and adrenalin rush of impetuous love, resonant in the romance of Geet and Aditya in Jab We Met, has been replaced by a more serious and realistic take on modern love. The film literally holds up a mirror to the commitment phobia of the young, successful professionals who keep changing their status from `committed’ to `single’ on the sundry social networking sites. Much to the chagrin of their dads and mums who fail to understand this emotional dilettantism and keep badgering them with love-of-a-lifetime cliches.

The secret of director Imtiaz Ali’s film making lies basically in three primordial areas. Instead of relying heavily on a three-hour long script, he chooses to concentrate on his dialogues: crisp, concise and completely in sync with aaj ka lingo. All of Saif’s babblings about love sans marriage and Deepika’s discourses on career and cumbersome commitment are straight out of real-life ramblings in pubs, discotheques and coffee shops.

]]> http://movies.vandeindia.com/movie-review-love-aaj-kal.html/feed 0 http://movies.vandeindia.com/movie-review-sankat-city.html http://movies.vandeindia.com/movie-review-sankat-city.html#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:31:17 +0000 admin http://movies.vandeindia.com/?p=662 Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Rimi Sen, Anupam Kher, Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, Chunky Pandey, Sri Vallabh Vyas, Dilip Prabhavalkar , Hemant Pandey, Veerendra Saxena

Director: Pankaj Advani

`Sankat City’ is Mumbai, maximum city filtered and distilled via its minimum people. In one of the sharpest scenes from Pankaj Advani’s zippy, kooky comedy, a tattered king of the landfills points to mountains of rubbish heaps —that one is Goregaon, and that is Versova. And then a tractor runs over a money-filled tote, spilling thousand rupee notes into the noxious air – the smell of money mixes with the smell of garbage. That is Mumbai’s smell, and spirit, and the director nails it.

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