Wake Up Sid - How I fell in Love with Ranbir Kapoor and this Film!

Yes thats Ranbir floating in my head lol!

(Warning this review contains: SQUEALS, SQUEAKS, YAAY'S)

I have been quite lazy and busy with homework these days and have put off my reviews instead making funny lists and mini reviews. But I'm back with a fully fledged review of gushing and fawning over this film which i really like! I missed out on the opportunity to see this film at the local cinema which was silly of me, because who doesn't wanna watch Ranbir onscreen, I swore my allegiance to the Ranbir-brigade by going out to see his first blue film Saawariya and torturing my mum through that!

But I digress as usual, so we meet Sid(Ranbir Kapoor) a rich and lazy boy at college spending his days in fun with his two friends Rishi(Namit Das) and Laxmi(Shikha Talsania). But being a lazy guy he doesn't study for tests, barely attends classes, and is a directionless guy unlike his somewhat focused friends. What I loved about this film, is how identifiable the situations are, who hasn't been stumped during a final exam, and partying with friends. At the leaving ball he meets Aisha(Konkona Sensharma)

I want a nicely decorated place like Aisha's!
Aisha is a new arrival to the city of Mumbai - which they all refer to Bombay, which explains the quick apology at the beginning, I can imagine Kjo grovelling at Bal Thakeray's feet for an apology! She's new to the city, and Sid helps her out finding a place, while he avoids work at his dad's(Anupam Kher - great performace) shower company. Another gush moment, I really liked how Sid and his dad's relationship was explored and how distant they were unless his dad had to pay for Sid's partying! It was completely moving and touching, Anupam surprised me with a really heartfelt role! But Sid being the wastrel he is, ditches work to help paint at Aisha's new pad which allows for the song "Life Is Crazy" which is one of those montages you've seen a million times but it was cute and i ended going "YAAY PAINTING!" like an absolute nutter! Yaay Painting with Ranbir!

Then Sid fails his exams, and instead of understanding it was his own fault he blames his friends and his hapless Maa(Supriya Pathak - so sweet!) insulting her, and receiving the wrath from his dad! This scene was very well done, and Ranbir can really be quite intense in his shouting matches lol! He packs his bags and heads over to Aisha's pad, where he flourishes under her care and shock! horroR! He wakes up! Sorry i had to be a useless reviewer and use the title of the film to reiterate my point LOL!

The second half is the great part of the film where we see Sid finally accepting his responsibilities and slowly falling in love with Aisha his waker-upper! The wonderful part of the post-intermission stuff is that Sid blooms under the help of all the women in his life, like making an egg from the neighbour Kashmira Shah, and getting help in his career from Aisha at the magazine she works at! Where i might say the hot boss is again played by Rahul Khanna, bechaara he is always playing the hot boss who gets ditched but alas we get to look at him naa?! What i was trying to say is that its a refreshing message to see Sid not needing a male role model to look upto because he's got Aisha who helped with his waking up(I'm sorry, brain is squeal mode and chai with lots of sugar mode!!) and Aisha equally falls for Sid slowly and thats what i liked love was gradual instead of a Meet-Cute and then a mishap here and there and we're all in love! One of the cutest scenes in the film
The gradual love is signalled with one of my favorite songs of the year, Iktara which i sing all day long! A couple of reunions and piecing together of relationships, Sid is a new responsible thoughtful guy with a job as an photography intern!

SQUEAL SQUEAK YAAAY = I really liked this film, it definitely goes in the Heartfelt Masala state in the Masala Pradesh. Perhaps I loved it so much because it spoke to me, as the situations in the film of being a lazy lafunga is basically my life story! That you actually have to seek your own destiny and jobs, that its not gonna land in your lap like the Masala films i watch too much! The fact that we saw a character growing up from boy to man and like the hilarious headline in some New York mag "Woman teaches Man-Child to grow up!"

And its supremely refreshing to see a man apologizing to the women in his life, and doing chores and taking ownership for his life instead of being a lazy lafunga! And the lafunga in question is the prince of dil right now, RANBIRR!!! He was wonderful here, capturing the arrogance of the spoilt boy to the man realising what life is all about, it was a very good performance and cuttteee! Konkona is excellent in anything and whenever she's in a mainstream movie she just gives it some class!

The performances were all wonderful and it was a great effort from the debut director Ayan Mukherjee who gave it nice touch of realism. Sure some situations like the end hug was a bit silly but i alas got the soundbyte for the ages with Ranbir's utterance of "III LOWWVE UUU AAIISHAA!" and maybe it seemed to quick for Sid to land a photo in the next issue, as a somewhat-journalist I can say that does and doesn't happen at mags. But that's just nitpicking, I loved it and it was one of the most satisfying films I saw this year. Most importantly films all over are supposed to evoke a reaction and emotion and perhaps speak to you, and thats what this film did for me. I'm still a bit of a Lazy Lafungi but I really enjoyed this film with its post-modern film techniques of the montages and the real situations!

Must say the music to this film is wonderful and I really liked the music interludes of the "Just the Two of Us" or the song when he's taking his pictures, thankfully i can live a happy life because I found them on the net, they really should have added them to the soundtrack!

All in all Wake Up Sid was one of my definite favourites of this year, a refereshingly real film of Waking up! (I had to!)

Now I need to nosh on some breakfast too!

Masala Pradesh's Filmi Animals Pound

The masala pradesh has a booming business of taking in filmi bachhas, but now I turn my attentions to the animals that populate Bollywood. I just had my Canadian film class last night and the film the teacher showed was a Masala Doggie movie, where the black lab could easily rival Brownie Moti in terms of crying and Olivier-esque acting, which made me think of the animals that need to be taken in at the Masala Pradesh Zoo. If you need to adopt more animals then go over to Todd's Brilliant Animalympics, with many animals that I haven't seen before but obviously I need to! I don't think I'll put these animals in cages as you never know when Amitabh might beckon Sheroo with a "Allah Rakha!" or a Jackie Shroff needing avenging by Moti. So here are some the animals that reside at the Filmi Animals pound!Tuffy - Hum Aapke Hai Kaun

The most egregious doggie that resides at the pound, Tuffy was the popular and annoying dog in HAHK that was a wonder dog that reunited the warring lovers, barked the house down when accidents happened and generally was a helpful little thing. There's also something spiritual about Tuffy as he's able to receive messages from Krishna as seen in HAHK,

We interviewed Tuffy about his spirituality and he said, "Yes somehow as a wonder dog I was able to talk to Lord Krishna, he gave me the powers to save the day" What a wonder dog indeed

Badal -Mard
Yes that's Badal the horse carrying his master Mard in the swimming pool! What can I say about Badal that hasn't been said before, he's just a romantic at heart. Badal is a loving horse that when his master looks the other way, he trots off to flirt with the statue of General Curzon's horse.

We asked Badal about his love, "Well, what can I say, she had kaali kaali aankhen, and kaali kaali gaal, after that I was smitten with Ms.Curzon"
Badal loves to help out like other valiant animals of this pound, he frequently neighs to alert people of danger, and he has a rivalry with Moti the dog as the doggie had upstaged him in many scenes. Badal has never recovered from this showmanship and often spouts stories of the times Moti told him to restrain his antics on screen!

Moti - Mard

We now come to the most thespian of filmi animals Moti, when the Pradesh adopted Moti he asked us this one request: to find his long lost brother Brownie Moti who starred in the seminal doggie vigilante masala Teri Meherbaniyan. We checked on imdb and located his badhe bhai! Moti unlike his brother is a funster in his films, like a comic sidekick Moti was able to evoke laughter on the set all the time, especially in his raucous peeing on Bob Christo scene.

Moti told us about this, "Mr Christo was apprehensive about me, he felt I might steal the scene, which I did, but after a few takes of that scene we got on like a house on fire, we are still friends to this day!"

Moti ever the courageous type of dog, agreed to many deadly stunts in the movie such as the sinking sand, Moti told us many times that Amitabh always needed rescuing and had a resentment for Moti who was always able to do Akshay Kumar-style stunts. Moti and his brother are great friends after so many years of separation.

Sheroo the Wonder Bird - Dharam Veer

Yes I have personally sponsored this great bird in the Pradesh so that he can continue his fighting and baby-carrying skills! Sheroo like Moti had a long lost brother Allah Rakha, who was snatched from the nest by the dastardly Manmohan Desai, separating the two loving brothers. Sheroo was one of the best birds to ever grace the Bollywood screen along with his brother.

Sheroo showed great prowess into performing such stunts in the film, most importantly the baby carrying scene, he told us this, "Mr Desai was worried for me, and employed my cousin Veeru for the scene, he was injured several times. So I stepped in, and did the scene in one take, the baby grew up to my godson!"
Sheroo remained great friends with Pran who pratically played his sidekick in the film, and Sheroo was a scene-stealer in many parts of the film where Dharam couldn't do justice to the material. Sheroo lives happily at the pound continually practicising his swooping and acting skills, he will soon be doing his stunt comeback film in the future!

Allah Rakha - Coolie

(Wonderful picture sent by my Filmi Secret Santa!) Like his older brother, Allah Rakha has a passion for daredevilry and stunts. AR was always mistaken for his brother whom he was separated from, so Manmohan Desai employed him. So he took this role in Coolie in the hopes that badha bhai might recognize him from the palatial nest Manmohan gifted him after DharamVeer. AR was the cleverer of the brothers as he insisted on doing a stunt that showed off his doctor skills by scratching out the infected eye of a villain. AR shared some cold vibes with star Amitabh who was upset that AR got a hair-raising stunt opposite a helicopter!

AR was also there that fateful day when AB got his intestines kicked in, he recounts, "Yes I was there that shocking day, I was unable to move the desk that he got rammed into as I just had beak surgery from the exacting stunt with the helicopter, it was a terrible day, whatever animosity I felt for him was gone, and flew to his hospital window everyday"

AR is living in peace at the pound, he gets visits from his loyal friends and a special visit every year from star Amitabh!

Brownie Moti - Teri Meherbaniyan
After reading Todd's hilarious review of this film, I went down to my local aunty dvdwallah to find it, she gave me a shocked look, but I knew that a vigilante dog film was all i needed in life! Brownie Moti was the long lost older brother of Moti, we fulfilled Moti request to look for his brother and found him. From this film alone, Brownie Moti is an actor par excellence, he went above the script and made it sublime. Hell hath no fury of a dog scorned, sure he was run over as a filmi puppy but he sure loved his master Jackie Shroff! Brownie Moti was on par with the emoting of SRK, the anger of Amitabh, and the sublimeness of Olivier.
The private Brownie Moti sat with me and recounted, "This was a difficult film to make, as it took me to a place as an actor I never knew I had. The material was wonderful, a canine actor's dream role. I connected with the audience and I'm sure they loved it, its one of my personal favorite films as its a typical masala vigilante storry, but I was able to rise above it and pull out my personal best"
Brownie Moti, though not as popular as his brother Moti, is attempting a comeback on the lines of a Mera Naam Moti magnum opus of his life!

I hope you enjoyed this post as it featured some of the brightest filmi animal stars and all my personal faves! My madness continues soon with a Bollywood version of Paradise Lost with Pran as the Shaitaan, do let me know if I've missed out any of your fave animals!