Bakwaas Prem Ki Kooda Kahani

Ever since I arrived in Toronto I had not seen a single movie in a theatre...until yesterday.

We had been planning to go watch a movie for a long time and 2012 was at the top of the list. Then we had a video chat with my brother and sis-in-law and they were both going gaga over "Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani" and how good a comedy it is. Yearning for a good Bollywood movie made me veto 2012 and we all padded ourselves to go watch APKGK in the Woodside Square Cinema (it plays Hindi & Tamil movies regularly).

I did not read any reviews and blindly trusted Raj Kumar Santoshi's name and my family's comments about it.

Two and a half hours later when we came out, we were pissed and angry. Apart from a few scenes, the entire movie is mediocre at best and very very disappointing. I liked the job scene, the pre-shower scene and a few other scenes here and there. In my opinion, the producers should have spend more money roping in a good story and script writer. There was so much potential for mad comedy, but they just left it unutilised (for instance the kidnapping scene-song). The fighting sequence towards the end was a damp squib (though I liked the part were Kaif kept hitting Kapoor) and kept me thinking about the fighting sequence from the movie Hungama and what a great laugh I had while watching it.

I hear the movie is a success in India and all I can say about it is that it is probably the "good karma" of the people involved in the making of this movie, because it is a badly made movie, with poor story and even worse script. Pritam's music is repetitive. I just liked the song with the sufi touch.

There is probably no other movie industry in the world where an actress who can't act to save her life get to play the lead in mainstream cinema. Katrina Kaif makes me angry - she probably is a nice person, but she can't act, she is bad at her job. Problem is the job description of actresses in India more often than not is just to look pretty and deliver a few lines and dance like JLo/Shakira (they wish). Take Fardeen Khan for example - the only reason he is in the movies is because of his web of filmi family connections. I am not ready to believe that he would have gotten a break if he was a Amandeep Chadda from Chandigarh, struggling in Mumbai. Casting assistants would have asked him to leave his portfolio and wait for their call, which would have never been made.

All I can say about these actors and actresses is that they are lucky. Fardeen Khan is lucky, Ameesha Patel is lucky (She is such a bad actress that she deserves a separate post trashing that thing she tries to pass off as acting), Katrina Kaif is lucky, Zayed Khan is lucky, Sunny & Bobby Deol are lucky (Damini, Ghayal & Ghatak were just channelisation of Sunny's histrionics by a cunning director), Sunil Shetty is lucky (I mean how did he manage to sticky is sorry ass to the tinsel town for so long?). Any more names that come to your mind?

I keep hoping for good cinema to come out of India. Luck by Chance was a pleasant surprise. In some instances I am glad these people had connections.

I digressed - so, in my opinion Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani is not a good movie and do not go to watch it with high hopes. Santoshi ji has lost it.