Orange- My Take

First things first. This is not a review. This is my take on Orange starring Ram Charan and Genelia and directed by Bhaskar. This moment also warrants me to appreciate Ram Charan who instead of getting overpowered by the stardom brought by his mega success Magadheera and drawn into the vicious circle of fans and stardom took up a different and sensitive love story which will no way boost his mega image and stardom. I should appreciate Bhaskar for taking up a subject which will rarely be taken by a successful director. The best part of the film is absence of dream sequences and item numbers and depending mostly on situational songs that elevate the plot. Let me get into the plot and concept now.




Do you believe in love forever?

Do you think love wades with time?

Is true love possible?



I am sure these are some questions that haunt most of us at some point of time or other. These are very complex questions which sometimes question the existence of relationships and of course the same questions bother Ram, the protagonist in the movie. Result of which he believes in short term love. He believes that love is longterm fades away and if you want to relish true love, it can happen only in short term. His belief is based on his past experiences and the hero has already broken up with 9 girls and meets his 10th girl Janu, played by chirpy Genelia who believes in life time love. Its the usual boy meets girl and Ram who believes in giving unlimited love and surprises make Janu propose to him and ask for the unlimited love for the lifetime and Janu is in for a surprise when Ram says he cant love her for lifetime and can love for short time as he doesn't believe in longterm love. The rest of the story is all about who convinces whom.



The film starts slowly and the first 15 minutes is a let down. While Director tried to establish Ram and Genelia's character,the introduction scenes are Genelia's character is a total let down as she irritates with her giggles to the core. I didn't see anyone in the packed theater to her histrionics while proposing to the three guys. No one understood why she is so desperate and at this point, director missed to establish her character. After she proposes and Ram disposes, she desperately tries to get rid of Ram but couldn't as she is drawn towards him by his charm. She realizes that she has to find her love for life and her transformation from a girl who wants to select love by way of chits to try and find love for life is not really convincing and there is nothing much she has done except realizing from one lecture of Ram that she doesn't know what type of person she wants to love her. She in bits gets convinced with her mother and others that there is no love or true love left in all those so called love stories and Ram is the guy whom she wants to love. But again her condition is life long love. In fact the entire story hits dead end once she realizes that she wants Ram. By then even Ram realizes that separation is not the only solution and he needs to keep loving to understand love. I suppose the director didn't understand how to take the plot forward at this point and Ram keeps asking Janu what she wants and she doesn't answer. According to me,the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes is the problem in the story and if you leave that, the rest is absolutely a pleasure.



The Flashback episode of Ram is done very well with Shahzahn Padamsee as his lover. Though this is targeted to convince us what made Ram change himself, the scenes are truly out of the real life. The possessiveness shown in Shahzahn's eyes truly represents the adolescent love. Ram did well when realizes that he has started loosing his identity and lying for the sake of love and his expressions of disappointment and getting something he didn't want when her parents approve of their love is too good. I am sure during this episode most of the viewers would have seen themselves on the screen.



How many times would you have felt that you are loving the feeling of falling in love than truly falling in love?



How many times would you have lied or done something that you never wanted to do just to keep your lover happy?



How many times would you have been uncomfortable leaving your mobile with your girlfriend without fearing that she could peep in?



How many times would you have not felt happy when you achieved your goal?



Ram's quest for true love where you need not lie, compromise or fear is truly understandable but it should not have been confused with short term or long term love. In my opinion, the director should have focused himself on true love than short term love because the logic of short term love is not really convincing.



Ram Charan did his part extremely well and he is full of love in this film. He is seen in bits and pieces in various shades and various ages and I think he did well. His eyes in some scenes are really amazing and it expresses love he wants to. He did his dances well and none of the dances have any heavy steps that his fans expect him to do. The fights are good and the skydiving scene is done well. For Genelia, its an extension from what she has played in bommarillu but the bubbliness ends once she proposes to Ram. Genelia looks good in bits and pieces and she looks old in few shots. He looks in those shots are negative for this film and even her costumes in those shots didn't elevate her character. Brahmanadam did well as Puppy and avasarala is decent. Praneeth did well and Kishore is OK. Special mention to real life couple manjula( Superstar Krishna's daughter and Mahesh babu's sister) and sanjay who acted as Ram's sister and brother in law. We could see chemistry between them. Nagababu did well.



The canvas is beautiful and the cinematographers Rajasekhar and Kiran pictured beautiful Sydney very well. The music from Harris Jayaraj is good but the background score is just decent. In Love stories, the BGM plays a very vital role but in this movie, its just subtle. On the whole Bhaskar did a decent attempt to try a difficult subject and we would need more directors who could try and attempt such complex subjects.

Guzaarish- Love for Life Vs No Life

The much awaited Guzaarish by Sanjay Leela Bhansali is released today and the film lovers were looking forward for the magic by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the chemistry between Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. Does the movie live up to the expectations? Is Mr. Bhansali able to weave his magic wand this time? Let’s see.

First things first- If you are looking for a movie to have fun this weekend, If you are looking for rib tickling comedy or romance please don’t venture out into the theatre. You will for sure not like it. If you are a lover of cinema and want to see good cinema devoid of all formula, welcome to the world of Ethan Masceranhas built by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. At least the best thing about this movie is that they don’t try to create comic moments at the cost of a differently abled person.

This is the story of Ethan Masceranhas India’s No.1 Magician who is injured and turned quadriplegic turned to an RJ now running a program called Radio Zindagi and helping others live. The story is about his petition for euthanasia- mercy killing unable to bear his pain. The story line is as simple as the two lines I wrote above but if you ask is that all, I would say NO. That’s where the work of master story teller comes into place.  I would like to deviate from revealing the spoilers about what the story is and how it progresses.

The story in one line is LIFE Vs NO LIFE. Hrithik Roshan is amazing wonderful as the protagonist Ethan Masceranhas who is Quadriplegic for 14 years. He smiles, He lives, He emotes, He expresses his pain and he takes the movies over his shoulders which are paralyzed. All his emotions are limited to his face and you would not see any impact on his body below the neck and that’s fantastic for an actor like hrithik.

Aishwarya Rai Bachhan as Sophie for once after long time lived in the role. Sophie is the caretaker cum nurse of Ethan who is serving him devotedly ignoring her life, her marital life and everything. She rubs his nose, brushes him, feeds him and in way has more rights over his life than himself.

Ethan takes help of his friend Devyani, played by Shernaz Patel to fight his case for Euthanasia and she fights for her friend irrespective of her wish. Suhel Seth Played Dr. Nayak who loves Ethan and doesn’t like his decision of euthanasia. We have Aditya Roy Kapoor, a brilliant actor playing Omar Siddhiqui a man who comes to learn magic from Ethan. Not to forget Monikangana Dutta who sparkles in a small role as Ethan’s Ex Girlfriend and the first person to support his decision.

The narration is not regressive. You will feel love for life in the protagonist. You will start living and loving life from his eyes and wonder why he wants to die. The only negative point as I see is lack of clarity as to why exactly Ethan wants to die and the director didn’t explain it well.

 The Photography is world class and every frame in the villa where you see most of the movie running is like a painting and Sanjay Leela Bhansali lived up to his expectations as a director of grandeur from his devdas days. The narration picks up when Ethan steps out of his house to fight his case. The drive between his house and court is beautifully picturized where he sees world again after 12 years. You will feel the waves touching you, the kids playing waving at you and the breeze flowing thru your hair. When the tears flow down the corners of Ethan’s eyes you are forced to feel his pain. When the court is set up in his house and his mother nafisa talks about her willingness of helping his son, it touches not just our hearts but the cocky public prosecutor’s too. The next scene where the helpless quadriplegic fights with rain drops and loses the battle convinces us of his helplessness and don’t blame if you too wish that his wish of euthanasia is granted. The helplessness in his eyes when Sophia’s husband come and beats her up and the anger when he knows that his case is dismissed proves us yet again that hrithik is definitely one of the finest actors of the generation.

Aishwarya on her side plays a helpless nurse who doesn’t like Ethan’s wish of euthanasia but couldn’t deny his right for the most part of the film. You can feel her overpossesiveness, her love and care in every act of hers. She has proven as a brilliant dancer yet again in the pub song and the ease with which she plays air guitar is watchable.

Music by Sanjay Leela Bhansali doesn’t really add magic to the movie. Aditya Roy Kapoor adds few funny moments thru his demeanor and few dialogues Ethan has with the father brings forgotten smile back on the lips, though for a while.   

All the actors played their characters wonderfully and they ensure that you come out with a heavy heart when you come out of theatre after watching the movie. On the whole this is the Hrithik movie where the wonderful actor has done absolute justice to the sensitive character and makes us feel the pain of Ethan Masceranhas.