Chennai Express

Red Chillies Production

Director: Rohit Shetty

Cast: Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan

This is one movie from which everyone can learn so much! You can learn that Rohit Shetty has decided never to make any movie which is even slightly meaningful. You can learn that Shah Rukh Khan can still relive his comic timing from his earlier installments of Baadshah and Duplicate. You can also learn that if an actress cannot speak English in proper diction; give her an accent so that no one would notice! :P

Believe it or not, Chennai Express has done so many things right that you should not be amazed at its box office earnings! All MBA students will appreciate the power of distribution as the movie spent nearly 30% of its total cost on reaching approximately 4000 screens in India and abroad. They left people no option but to watch this movie as theatres only played this for more than an entire week! They opened on a Thursday so that they can take advantage of the long weekend! The movie was heavily promoted through various channels to the extent that a Chennai express game was launched on android and java! Not to forget the “Raksha Bandhan” offer of buy-1-ticket-and-get-1-free! And of course harping on huge brand names like Rajnikant and YoYo Honey Singh through the “Lungi Dance” video!

So it doesn’t really matter if the movie wasn’t great, did not have an outstanding story or the acting wasn’t up to the mark! The product reached the end users and was brilliantly marketed to make the movie take where it is now.

Story in a nutshell: Rahul (SRK, who else?) is fed up of his life working as a halwai for his grandfather’s business and wants to go out and explore the world, all that at the age of 40! (really?) Btw, he is unmarried and has no love interests in his life currently! (yes, possible in India!) He has been given the task of spreading his grandfather’s ashes in Rameshwaram but “Naughty @ 40” catches up to him and he plans to take a detour to Goa and spread the ashes there instead. To fool his grandmother, he gets on the Chennai Express, planning to get down at the next station. Enter damsel in distress, Meenamma (Deepika) and he pulls her on the departing train DDLJ style, but also ends up helping the goons who are after her. What follows is unimaginable sequence of events which lead him to a village in Chennai where Deepika Padukone’s father is the Don who wants to marry her off to another Don from another village, obviously against her wish! Add lies, confusion, car-flying action, romantic revelation for both, blood-soaked fight sequence for SRK and Hindi-Filmy Drama Happy-ending for all.

Ashish Tickoo, management trainee in the HR department at RIL and one of the finest theatre artists that I know, sums it up pretty nicely, “Definitely not a movie you are proud to have watched. The stereotypes and caricatures have been utilized quite humorously but it does ache you to see an actor who has done films like Chak De India and My Name is Khan indulge in such shenanigans. All said and done, not one of the better movies, but there have been worse!”

Music of the movie is forgettable. “Lungi Dance” video is devoid of Lungis and if facebook reaction is any measure, people have been infuriated rather than impressed with this move. Quite a few of the dialogues in the movie are in Tamil, without subtitles, as the story is narrated from Rahul’s point of view, which was a great move since most of the people could relate to the character’s situation. (I am sure all of us have been through that!) The movie borders on regionalism/racism but I guess it has been able to pass through. All in all, it’s a movie in which you do not even try to use your brain to look for logic. Just sit back and watch SRK fans forcing themselves to like this movie. 

Rating: Life mei aur kuch bhi kaam nahi ho toh dekh lo!

        ** stars

Check the trailer here!!!

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Dobara

Balaji Motion Pictures

Director: Milan Luthria

Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Akshay Kumar and Imran Khan

Another sequel makes its way into the theatres of India, trying to harp on the success of its predecessor and failing miserably, thereby bringing down with it, the fort that the first one had created. A classic example of “Kiye karaye pe paani ferna!” :P

Ekta Kapoor and Milan Luthria tried to cook a “khichdi” of underworld action mixed with a love triangle, focusing more on the love story aspect. Result of this experiment: The movie does not pass (even with grace marks) in either of the two categories. Its situation is similar to that of a XII standard student who took both Math and Biology and then did not qualify for any of the entrances! :P

Story in a nut shell: Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) is the bad man of Mumbai and recruits Imran Khan's chilhood avtar as his right hand. 10 years later, Imran blooms into a fine young man and as usual, Akshay Kumar hasn’t even aged one day! Meanwhile, all of Akhsay’s partners are pissed at the fact that he is acting like their boss and after a failed assassination attempt, Mahesh Manjrekar goes into hiding. The action is now limited to Akshay and Mahesh’s cat and mouse games. Enter Sonakshi Sinha, the embodiment of the phrase “dumb chic!” Despite repeated warnings from Akshay that he is the don of Mumbai, she goes ahead and “friend zones” him (pretty dumb move, eh?), meanwhile falling in love with Imran, who she thinks is a tailor! (Okay, don’t even get me started on Sonakshi’s character!)  Akshay and Imran are unaware that they are in love with the same woman (*coughs* typical), fight side by side against Mahesh and Mumbai Police and then in a last few scenes fight against each other when they do realize the irony of the situation. Climax of the movie sucks big time and I am not saying anything else, in case you still want to watch this movie. :P

The biggest disappointment is neither the acting nor the story (both of which are really shady) but the dialogues! Yes, you read that right! After receiving so many awards for "Best Dialogues" for Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Rajat Arora seems to be in an intoxicated state (or was the previous time, we would never know!) when jotting down the words. Nikhil Sachan, a promising new name in the field of literature and a recently turned novelist with “Namak Swaadanusar”, says, “One of the most irritating movies that I have seen! None of the characters look like gangsters aur Akshay Kumar dialogues bol nahi raha tha, gaa raha tha! Dialogues toh kisi sadak chhap shayari ki kitaab se utha kar chepe gaye hain! Rajat Arora owes me 170 bucks!!”

Music in the movie is probably the only saving grace for the filmmakers. Tayabali and Yeh tune kya kiya are nice to listen to and even the background score tries to bring the “feel” to the scenes. So all in all, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobara, dobara kya ek baar bhi dekhna mushkil hai…!

Rating: Life mei aur kuch bhi kaam nahi ho toh dekh lo!

        ** stars
Check the trailer here!!!

Novel : Namak Swadanusar 

By: Nikhil Sachan

Etc- Chapter 1

A PU Original

Ek baar ek bachcha tha. Usko cars se khelne ka shauk tha. But whenever he used to cry, wo kisi ko zaroor maarta tha! He was also very fond of playing chess. Uski habit thi ki har baar jab wo check deta tha, who chai ka ek sip zaroor leta tha!

Who is this unusual personality?

Scroll Down for Answer:

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Answer: Rohit Shetty!

Explanation:

Let us look at the facts:

* He likes to play with cars! -> Not 1 movie goes by when cars are not flying in the air! :P

* He used to cry -> cry = Ro

* maarta tha -> maar = Hit

* chess mei check deta tha -> check = Shey

* chai peeta tha -> chai = Tea = ty

Ro + Hit / Shey + ty = Rohit Shetty!

And now you can go bang your head on the wall..! :P

Basant’s Believe It or Not!

* You know you are left with little money when you read the menu card from right to left!

* The less your parents know about your job, the prouder they are of you!

* 3 stages of B-school life:

                a) Induction

                b) Abey Kya Bhasad hai yeh?!

                c) Convocation

Sesma Ke PJ

Agar ek Bengali banda “The Hobbit” dekhne gaya, aur galat theatre mei ghus gaya, toh who thodi der movie dekh ke kya bolega?

Scroll down for answer:

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Answer: Ee Hobbit Na!!

The Conjuring

Director: JamesWan
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, etc

After a flood of spoof movies based on paranormal activity, finally Hollywood makes a comeback in the horror genre and what a comeback it has been!

You know how in a horror movie, there is a troubled soul which needs to be put to rest by discovering its past and setting it free? But what if the soul is more of a demonic presence who is sheer evil by nature does not want to be put to rest! In the words of Joker,"It wants to watch the world burn!" Well that’s the central plot of the story.

The movie has the usual elements of any run-of-the-mill horror in terms of: an evil spirit, a happy family, a small girl who is the first one to see and talk to the ghosts, a dog who dies mysteriously, an devil possessed doll called Annabelle, a couple of ghost busters who have nothing else to do, some non-believers who fortunately don’t get killed and a happy ending for everyone! Or is it? That is what you have to see and find out on your own! :P

What is HOT: The Conjuring is able to conjure a lot of spooky and nerve-chilling moments throughout the movie. The scenes have been nicely shot to give you the feel of being present in the haunted house! The shrill screams of the ghost and the girls in the house are enough for you to get goose bumps.

What is NOT: The story has a lot of loose ends which have not been tied up. Some of scenes (like the one with Annabelle in the armchair) have no significant relevance with the story and have not been explained even till the end. The only possible explanation that I can come up with for leaving the audience with so many doubts in their mind is “The Conjuring 2”!

Parul Agarwal, management trainee in the customer service division at Bharti Airtel Limited, also someone who hardly misses a movie nowadays says, "It has been a while since I have been treated to a good horror flick! If only they had given more footage to Annabelle (the demon possessed doll) and also explained what happened to all the other ghosts, I could get some closure!"

It has been time since we got treated to a good horror movie and The Conjuring is able to somewhat fill that void in our lives! If you are planning to enjoy this movie in a theatre near you, watch out for that mischievous group of college kids who will do nothing but laugh every time someone in their group freaks out and ruin the movie viewing pleasure for you! *feeling old* :P

Rating: Ek baar toh dekhna banta hai!

            *** stars

Click here for the Trailer!! 

Coming Soon on this blog : SRK + Rohit Shetty Combo: "Chennai Express" and Ekta Kapoor's "Once upon a time in Mumbai, Dobara!"

Wolverine (2013)

Director: James Mangold
Genre: Action/ Fantasy/ Adventure (Marvel Comics)
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Sveltana Khodchenkova, etc

The X-men character that everyone loves! The movie, not so much!

Wolverine comes as the 6^th movie in the X-men series for Marvel, following X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and X-Men: First Class (2011). However, this movie picks off from where “The Last Stand” left off; Wolverine killing his eternal love, Jean Grey, and then taking refuge in the hills as a hermit, vowing to never indulge in heroic activities henceforth.

So, what does it take to bring the old wolverine back? If you are thinking a damsel in distress, old friend in need, pride, honor, duty, etc… Well, you are mistaken. The answer is a poisoned arrow used by hunters to kill a bear! Yup, if there is one thing that Logan can’t stand, it is cruelty to animals! :P

The plot of this movie is based on an event from WWII when Logan helps save the life of a Japanese soldier, who now wants to meet him as his dying wish. Meanwhile, Logan is fed up with his eternal life (really?) and wants to unite with Jean. The dying old man has Logan contemplating the offer to trade Logan’s eternal life with the satisfaction of a normal death. Trading eternal life for death and getting the losing party interested, hmmm… for those who mention negotiation skills as their strength in an interview, think again!! :D

Rest of the story, in a nutshell: Logan loses his regeneration power thanks to a hot but evil mutant called Viper, helps damsel in distress, falls in love with her, puts his life on the line, gets himself a mutant Japanese girl as a sidekick on the way, battles a giant robot made of Adamantium, etc. Why “etc” you ask? Well do you want to see the movie or not? :P

Kunal Verma, an MBA marketing student from Jaypee Business School, a movie buff and a huge Marvel fan says, “Movie had a lot of pointless action and the characters, esp the villians, needed more depth and purpose in life… As such, Koi todu villain nahi tha but the Adamantium suit was f*#king cool!!”

So what is the best part of the movie? Well, it comes after the end of main credits! The secret scene after the credits, a norm with all marvel movies, is the one that will have you sitting at the edge of your seat, your hair stand at the back of your neck and again restore your faith in god! TRUST ME, this is the scene that makes the movie worthwhile! It paves the way for the next movie from the X-men franchise, “X-men: Days of the Future Past”! The sentinels are here!!! \m/

For those who are kicking themselves for not waiting in the theatre for the end credits scene, well you can thank me later :P

Wolverine end credits scene!!!

Rating: Ek baar toh dekh he sakte ho!

            **1/2 stars 

Click here for the Trailer!!

Ad: Tata Docomo

Telecom is one sector which is known to produce some of the best marketing and communication plans across all industries. Whether it be the “ZooZoos” of Vodafone, “What an Idea Sirjee!” for Idea, Stand-up comedy of Ranbir Kapoor for Tata Docomo or the legendary “Har ek Friend Zaroori Hota hai” of Airtel; each is well known and recalled by all. Where Airtel moved on to “Jo tera hai wo mera hai”, Idea to “Honey Bunny” and Vodafone to “Zumi Zumi”, Tata Docomo decided to enter into a different strategy for selling their products. I am talking about the, “When doing this, think of us because leading xyz companies use our network, do you?” ads.

I believe that these ads are inclined at increasing the B2C (Business to Consumer) customer base of the company by leveraging on their B2B (Business to Business) clients. So instead of using the usual formula of getting a brand ambassador as the trust factor for the product, the company thought of making better use of what they already have: the known brand names that people associate with!

Divya Sreenivas, a trainee at Tata Administrative Services currently with the Teleservices department concurs with this and says, “These ads help in generating top of mind recall by building associations with things that people look upon as favorable like pizzas or trustworthy as banks… Since people don’t connect emotionally with a network, you remind them of the things they

like or trust!”

If we look at the typical ad in this campaign, it has got many things right: the all too familiar Docomo soundtrack, regular looking common people for better association, a trust factor in the form of the known brand names and to-the-point message communication. Yet I feel that somewhere this campaign does not hit the bull’s eye. These ads are not in the usual foray of the telecom ads, the ones which either makes you hum the tunes or bring a smile to your face as you get impressed by what you just saw. Also, personally as a customer, I don’t really get affected if Pizza Hut or India TV uses Docomo or not (unless I am a huge fan of India TV!) and this is the reason why Telecom ads seldom sell their products and often sell the brand association; something which is not very connectable in this case. In the words of Barney Stintson, “It does not contain the right amount of Awesome!” :P

I do not know whether these ads have actually worked for the company or not but I feel that this B2B to B2C brand association may not be that effective and that they need to come up with something better and bigger if they want to stay afloat in this market where change is the only constant. I remember Tata Docomo took the industry by storm when it entered and was the only thing people talked about in those days! Hope to see a much improved campaign from them!

A few Ads from the current campaign:

Home Delivery TVC

Pizza Delivery TVC

News TVC 

Next Ad under scrutiny: The “Har attack ka jawaab Zatak!” ad campaign from Zatak.

Food: FYI

FYI- Fun, Food, Friends                

Are you a Maggi lover? Do you reminiscence the night canteen trips with your gang during your college days when Maggi used to be your staple diet? And what about the times when you would experiment with maggi and then declare yourself as an established cook? Well FYI is definitely a place you would wanna visit.

Before you rack your brain thinking what kind of a name is FYI, let me help you with that. “For Your Information”, this is a new fast food chain that specializes in a menu consisting of a potpourri of dishes made from Maggi. Despite the fact that “Maggi” has become synonymous with noodles, FYI uses actual Nestle “Maggi” for their preparations. From different flavored maggi, to crispy noodles, noodle balls, noodle rolls, noodle kebabs and so on.  You get the drift. ;)

What is the X-Factor you ask? Well, just like the name for the restaurant, all the dishes in the menu are the usual abbreviations that we use while chatting viz. WTF, LOL, TTYL, BRB, HMMM, OMG, etc. Wait wait, do not start making up your own full forms for these dishes. They use the colloquial meanings of these abbreviations as the dish description. So a WTF would read like, “Crispy Crunchy deliciousness What the F*#K is it?” or a LOL would read, “ You will be Laughing Out Loud to be offered cheese, butter veggies, chillies, garlic, etc at this rate!!”

I tried the TTYL there. The description said, “I will Talk To You Later, it has red chilies and schezwan in it!” and it had two small red chilly symbols besides it calling out, “Indulge at your own risk!” That was enough motivation for me to try this dish. As it turns out, it lived up to its expectations and was pretty Hot! Plus they served a copious amount of it, enough for a snack for two regular-sized people, unless you are a pro at devouring Maggi! The rates are a little high to reasonable range. I spent Rs 99 for a combo order of the dish with a 300 ml beverage.

What I liked about the place apart from the funky and eye-catching names of the dishes and the use of maggi (duh), was that they included tax in the prices that were displayed. So a dish priced at Rs 70 will be a Rs 70 dish and not a Rs 75 or 77 dish with xyz taxes that makes you jiggling and rummaging through your wallet in desperate search for change.

So I would suggest all maggi fans to try it out, see what all can be done with maggi and then impress your partner by trying it out at home and claiming it as your own creativity! :P

Check out their website for more information: www.fyifoods.com

FYI Menu:

Next in the Food Menu : Crispy Chicken Pops from Mcdonals and Spicy Baked Chicken from Dominos