Monday, November 24, 2008

Yuvvraaj the Musical

Hire the prettiest face in the industry, the best music director and the best lyricist, and shoot in picturesque European locales and grand, opulent sets. Take an Oscar-winning script, beat the shit out of it, and add a shallow direction to it. Insert an extra 'v' in the family name, and you have Yuvvraaj. And yes, I forgot, add some jokers and crappy acting according to taste, and you have the full recipe.

Even though you have the recipe, it is not easy to waste big names like Allah Rakha Rehman and Sampoorna Singh Gulzar on the pretext of creating a musical movie. Music did they create, and quite good one at that, but using it inappropriately at the wrong places, with gaudy and tawdry costumes and portly female side dancers spoilt the fun. Yuvvraaj does not look like a musical at all, only the Manmohini track seemed to fit, and to some extent Zindagi. The others could have been not in the movie at all.

The storyline has no meat at all; I was trying at interval to recap and realised to my utter disbelief that the plot hadn't moved. The second half brought no surprise. Katrina Kaif had nothing to do but look pretty as always, and beau Salman Khan couldn't stop hamming. Anil Kapoor tried to copy Dustin 'Rain Man' Hoffman, but he was not even close. The only good part was Mithun, and the three new faces, who were hot, especially Aimee Maghera. Even Boman Irani sucked.

One mystery I was unable to solve was how does everyone in Prague, London, and Austria speak Hindi? And those who spoke English were vexingly subtitled in Devanagiri. Now who does that and why? And who translates 'sexy' as 'jaaneman'?

Subhash Ghai said in an interview he has more competition than Subhash Ghai (whatever that means); he has competition with Khalnayak and Ram Lakhan. You are partially right Mr Ghai, but you have competition with Kisna and Yaadein. And congratulations, Yuvvraaj wins. Your golden period was the 80's where you gave memorable hits. The 90's have been an advent of your downfall. Except Black & White earlier this year. Now that was a movie that had an interesting plot and did not call for unnecessary display of grandeur. That is why I liked it, and perhaps that is why it did not do well at the box office. But yes, movies like Aitraaz and Iqbal were good. Good that you only produced them. You are getting older and senile, why don't you sit back and sign cheques and hire someone else for the director's chair?

Overall, a huge let down. Watch it at your own risk. You might want to walk out after the Tu Hi Meri Dost Hai track. I'd suggest buy the music CD instead.



14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really i completely agree with you... i started disliking Subhash Ghai movies when i saw "Yaadien" and "Kisna" both were so pathetic...there was nothing worth to watch..but those movies were so hyped and even multi star cast, but pathetic story line lack of good direction....

"Yaadein" dekhte waqt toh mujhe baal nauchne ka maan kiya...aur director ka murder...kya pathetic ..maha sadiyal movie the..yuck and its sucks!

Good that i read your blog on Yuvraaj..now certainly not give a try ... himmath hi nahi padti :P … i dont have that much patience to jhelofy such movies :)

Dimple said...

After the promos of Yuvvraj, I thought of watching it as the music, songs are very nice although only two of them are good.

But then, on Friday itself, I watched a review and public opinion which says "why the hell this movie is released, no story, no dum." The people who were coming out after the movie claimed as super boring.

So, didn't tried watching it. But, now, reading your blog, surely will not go.

Unknown said...

Anonymous:

That always happens with Subhash Ghai. His films are always hyped and they turn out pathetically. I think he makes some money too at the box office with the big star cast, and I guess one section of the Indian population that does not watch too many movies, may even like him.

Anonymous said...

First, a nice template.. definitely better than the earlier one and it's taking less time to load as well. Neat & clean & full utilization of space.
I can see you have added some more things to it. :)

Good that I am not much into movies, would not have watched it either. Except for a select few of his movies, Subhash Ghai doesn't appeal to me.

I didn't like even the picturization of "Tu he to meri dost hai".
Listen to music, that is all I will do.

Unknown said...

Roli:

No, the music is really good. It sort of grows upon you. Apart from Tu Meri Dost Hai and Zindagi, Tu Muskara is very good too. Manmohini has a classical touch and turns out very good. Mastam Mastam is quite a jolly number and I've even started liking Shano Shano, the kind of dance numbers I get averted too.

The movie is not boring per se, but nothing happens as such. It was like listening to the music album with people talking in between tracks.

Unknown said...

Cuckoo:

Thanks. Even I did not like the earlier one since the time I installed it. I actually wanted to write a complete template on my own but couldn't get the time. This one was the closest to my imagination. Am gonna tweak it a bit in the coming days.

And yes, am gonna add a few more widgets to it.

I would have watched it anyway. These days it gets difficult for me not not to watch any movie. Somehow have the temptation of watching all of them :)

Anadi Misra said...

yaar, maine dekhi toh nahi hai...par music accha hai toh atleast uska depiction dekhne ki curiosity mein shayad dekh loon...

Besides, some part of me is craving for an old-school melodrama...That said, I am almost sure I will be horrified if I do see it...the burns caused by Yaadein and to an extent Kisna, are yet to heal :P

Indigo said...

It cannot be that bad. And this does not seem you. You don't show so much of disdain, at least not in any of your earlier posts.

Get over it. The sooner the better.

Unknown said...

Anadi:

Dekh lo dekhna hai to...dekh to sakta hi hai...actually main bhi bas isi chakkar mein saari movies dekh leta hoon ki lets see gaane kaise picturised hue hain, ya story kaisi hai, ya kisi ne acting kaisi ki hai...thoda bahut entertainment to har movie mein hota hai...(apart from some utter crap like Hari Puttar)...

Unknown said...

Indigo:

Well, I think you are right. But I find this is better than condemning and hurting people that matter.

Thanks, I am trying my level best.

Anadi Misra said...

Against my better judgment...I did see it :P....And I agree that this one beats Kisna, hands down! Though whether it does Yaadein, I can't remember...its been 7 years.

And the one person I feel most sorry for is, AR Rahman. The poor chap must have had to bear the torture of watching the whole movie at least a few times to compose its background score....

Then, I feel sorry for Anil Kapoor, who tried to give a earnest performance in a poorly conceived role...
Then comes the poor cinematographer...:)

Katrina seems somewhat young in the movie, how long did it take to make this movie?
Also, trying to pass off Salman as a 26 something (12+14)! (on a similar note, I heard they are making a movie about Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan as struggling rock stars or something...)
Plus the evil relative sub-plot seemed dated...and it seemed so even for Taal...

I guess technically, they could have done a lot better with the screenplay, editing (chop off Zaayed's portion and the movie becomes crisper) and get someone sensible to write the dialogues...(better script something of a given)

Its not even a musical...once again, poor ARR!

Unknown said...

Anadi:

:) So the depiction of music got pity for ARR. He would have had to see it many times, but he did a good job nevertheless.

Well, I guess it was Katrina's coif that made her look different to me. Didn't notice whether she looked younger.

And trying to pass off ageing stars as youthful college grads is typical of Bollywood. Why, SRK always does that.

Re Zaayed, he was there to add to the 'sex appeal' of the movie. My partner in the film said she was crazy about him and that he is a fine actor too (!)

Yes, it was not a musical at all. The music was good, that's it. The title of my review was to mock Subhash Ghai who has been claiming that in almost all his interviews.

Unknown said...

Great music by rahman, superb lyrics by gulzar n real good stuff by singers

Unknown said...

Kanika:

Welcome to my blog. :) Keep coming back. Are you the one from Jabberwock's blog?

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