"A Potpourri of Vestiges" #BlogLove

This post is a part of Write Tribe Festival of Words-3 and the prompt for Day 2 is Blog Love. 

Since I am asked to write about a blog I love, the first blog that comes to my mind is A Potpourri of Vestiges.

Image Courtesy: A Potpourri of Vestiges

A potpourri of vestiges is the home to the Avant-Garde, Auteur-Driven, Thought Provoking Cinema, that's how Murtaza likes to define his movie blog. Murtaza follows the best of cinema, that is, from Nosferatu [1922] to Dedh Ishqiya [2014].

As you open this blog, you come across a carousel panel where you find pictures from La Strada, Harakiri, Pyaasa, Citizen Kane or some other classical film by some legendary filmmaker. The reason why I like his blog is because Murtaza is not the regular movie reviewer type but he only chooses the greatest of cinema to review on his blog.

The first time I came across his blog when I was searching about Akira Kurosawa and Google landed me on to his blog. you won't find much of popular cinema on his blog but the critically acclaimed works that has international recognition. Murtaza's Top 100 movies is an authentic list that every movie enthusiast will love. I, being a movie blogger as well, look up to "a potpourri of vestiges" and try to learn anything I can learn about Movie Writing.

About Murtaza [in his own words]

"Murtaza Ali is an independent film critic, sports writer, and blogger based out of Delhi, India. He is the Founder/Editor of the movie blog, A Potpourri of Vestiges. He has been writing movie reviews at IMDB for over five years. He has been associated with F1 India as a content editor. He is also on the panel of reviewers at UltimateReviews, CinemaChronciles, FrontierWeekly, and PaGaLGuY. His education spans science, technology, and management. Cinema is not only his passion but also his greatest obsession. His all-time favorite movie-makers are Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Luis Bunuel, Andrei Tarkovsky, Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Sergio Leonne, Francis Ford Cuppola, Martin Scorsese, and Lars von Trier." 

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

Special 26: Reviews

With great actors like Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Anupam Kher and not Akshay Kumar. I was very sure that Special Chhabis will at least be a good watch. But this film proved be to far better than just good, this film is definitely special. It is not as great as Paan Singh Tomar or Gangs of Wasseypur, but definitely better than many 100 crore club film.

Special Chhabis will not let you leave your seat at any moment. It definitely has the masala of a bollywood film but notably only the masala we like. And it has one of the best climax till date.

This film is based on real life incident about a heist happened in 1987, where a group of conmen raided a jewellery store by posing as CBI officers. The characters are a little bit larger-than-life, which I will consider as a flaw in "Special Chhabis".

I won't talk about the plot much, you gotta see this one yourself. 

Acting is good by the whole cast, and surprisingly Akshay Kumar was somehow one of the best actor in special chhabbis. He may get  a best actor nomination next year. The Scenes were Manoj Bajpai and Akshay Kumar both clashes are actually the best ones according to me.

The Actions are not typical ones but tricky ones, that you will like for sure. Kajal Agarwal, is just useless in the whole film.

Manoj Bajpai, once again stolen the show as Waseem Khan. With every new film, he is establishing as the greatest actor in Indian Cinema.

Neeraj Pandey have raised the bar with his last film "A Wednesday" and special chhabis is definitely lived up to his creator's name.

My Ratings: 7.5/10

-Amrit Rukhaiyaar

Race 2: Reviews

Abbas Mastan is not the duo we look forward to, especially after the disastrous “Players”. But Considering the success of “Race”, you can fall for the trap called “Race 2”.

The film begins with great action scenes, and just when you will anticipate what this movie is all about, you will be punched in the face with a twist, and then more twists, some of the twists were actually great. That is why I am not totally thrashing this film in my review. This film has surely managed to be called a thriller. But the disaster is the result of too much unwanted style and typical use of Bollywood punches.

You may attract to the huge star cast, but beware; I am going to reveal their performances now, Saif is the best though, John is trying hard to be a bad guy, he fails miserably according to me, the ladies, too cute, and acting too dumb, no one can digest them as killers. Anil Kapoor was most irritating of the lot; all his witty jokes were not witty at all, and Amisha Patel, God knows, what is she doing in this film?

Although, there is nothing much wrong with the direction and screenplay, but the plot of the film is directionless, I must remark. Good music is forcefully wasted into a bad film. Had they made a good story, we hardly needed any song.

Race-2 is not a movie you should waste money going to expensive multiplexes, if you are so desperate to watch it, go to a single screen. It is not better than both “Matru ki bijlee ka Mandola” and “Table No. 21” among other 2013 releases.

If you watch movie with noticing details of it rather carefully, you will not like “Race-2” at all. But may be some scenes are likeable, I am not sure with that either. Race-2 is the film, which everyone will talk different of, I wonder how many of them will praise it. You can go for it, if you are looking for a good day out with friends.

My Ratings: 2/5

-Amritt R

Why Shawshank Redemption is one of the best story ever told.

“There must be a con like me in every prison in America. I am the guy who can get it for you, cigarettes, a bag of reefer, if that’s your thing… …bottle of brandy to celebrate your kid’s high school graduation, damn near anything within reason, yes sir ! I am a regular Sears and Roebuck.”

-Morgan Freeman in his ever gentle enigmatic voice…

The film starts with a man, angry enough to shot his wife and her lover, then a scene at his trial at some court, he was sent to a prison for being guilty of killing his wife and her lover for two back to back life imprisonments and then the rest… the rest was called THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.

Tim Robbins? I never knew him before Shaw shank, nor I have seen his another film after that either But I believe, nobody could have been as good as him as Andy Dufresne, and honestly speaking after I saw The Shaw shank Redemption in 2008, after 14 years of its release and it’s been 5 years and I can’t agree more to say that it is the “BEST STORY” ever told in history.

On the other hand, Ah yes, there is always another hand, a counterpart. Every great thing has at least two ingredients that make it a great substance. The Shaw shank Redemption had Morgan Freeman to fill that gap. The Chemistry between these two men was wiser than any other men pair ever made.

There are several emotions of human nature depicted in this film, but the one that made its mark was HOPE. I have never been hopeless in life after “The Shaw shank Redemption”. “TSR” is a story of friendship, decency and believing in hope. There were many beautiful events in this film that collectively made it become the best film ever made.

Remember the scene, when Red while watching a 1950s classic in the prison’s theater waits for Rita Hayworth to shake her hairs and when she does that, Morgan Freeman creates a magical expression on his face, which showed the helplessness of a common poor man desiring a Hollywood actress almost impossibly.

And when Andy tells Red where Red must go, after being free from prison, and he tells only once and when Red reaches the certain place to find some cash and a letter from Andy. Andy wrote in that letter: “You remember the name of the town, don’t you?” and Red speaks to himself: “Zihuatanejo.” I loved that scene, it actually meant that “if you don’t remember the name of the city, you actually didn't care to listen."

Here is what he wrote in that letter:

“Andy Dufresne: Dear Red. If you're reading this, you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you?

Red: Zihuatanejo.

Andy Dufresne: I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. your friend. Andy.”

Shaw shank Redemption is story of the bonding of 2 men around 2 decades and the wisdom surrounding them. With the film moved its course, you will start feeling the wiser air.

Hats off to Stephen King and Frank Darabont.

Amritt

Kick Ass: Hit girl steals the show.

Listening to the original soundtrack of “for a few dollars more” and it is giving me immense passion to write, wow every chord every string used in this particular track gives a jolt of ecstasy in my blood streams. By the way, this track has been re-used in Nicolas Cage starring Kick-Ass and is used as theme music for the Hit Girl. Oh god, this track and this character hit girl have become my latest love, I could watch her fight all day while listening to this track in the background, I think I am running out of words here to explain how beautiful this track is and how beautifully it has been put to use for the Hit Girl in Kick Ass.

Here is the video to the tremendous scene with the tremendous sound track:

So what do you think, isn’t she enigmatic? At first this little girl reminded me of Alice, the “Resident Evil” Alice. But then I realized, she is way too quick and flexible than Alice was and of course she is stunningly beautiful, she is also one of the lead characters in Martin Scorcese’s Hugo. Some Actors lands in Hollywood to play the lead character only, she reminds me of Superstars Natalie Portman and Leonardo Dicaprio, remember them as kids, in films like “Leon the professional” and “What’s eating Gilbert Grape” and “This boy’s life” respectively.

She is truly going be Hollywood’s next sweetheart in the years to come; she is definitely someone to look out for. She will hit it very soon.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

Agent Vinod: Movie review

Okay, the first thing you will think of this movie is… “Have I seen this film before? Yes, my friend, you have, but not once or twice, you must have seen a dozen films like this before, Saif Ali Khan in and as Agent Vinod is a RAW agent trying to act like some of the later James Bonds. The shoot of the film is done in multiple locations; some of them were Afghanistan, Russia, Morocco, Somalia and India. Like any other Indian film, the female lead, Kareena Kapoor, playing the role of Iram Parveen Bilal is on the same sides with the protagonist himself. 

 Some of you may hit the ‘like’ button for Agent Vinod if you like reading books by Sidney Sheldon but don’t expect any brilliant twist in the movie as Sidney Sheldon delivers in his book. Director Sriram Raghavan tries to give an unexpected ending to the film, but it was too late for any new surprises. Everything in this flick was just too predictable. Even the songs were below average, you can’t praise it for that. On the other hand, the background score in this movie was really interesting; they played random music at any given scene, which was only the thing that clicked right for Agent Vinod. Also this film could have been more stylish, like Don-2 was. Summarizing everything, I would give it a 4 out of 10. Don’t waste your money on this one, instead wait for a DVD copy on the torrent.

 

IMDB Rating:  5.2/10
My rating:           4/10

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

The Superstar called Hrithik Roshan

12 years back, we came across this young man called Hrithik Roshan, Rakesh Roshan launched him twice in KAHO NA PYAAR HAI, I mean in double roles. He acted quite satisfactorily as Rohit and Raj, and as expected, filmfare spoon feed him with awards. Ever since, I have a disbelief on the authentication of that god-damn award show, on the other hand, I wanted him only to win awards, but for FIZA and MISSION KASHMIR and not for his Dad's movie. Fiza and Mission Kashmir came back to back and I had a sudden liking for this Actor, I considered him the best rugged actor of the time. As a fan, I believe that he showed his true metal and fired a sensation as Amaan and Altaaf in FIZA and M ISSION KASHMIR respectively. Then came YAADEIN, and with it came Kareena in his filmography, and thus the two of them, coupled and ruined each other's career as an actor with every new film, this ugly pair came with YAADEIN, KABHI KHUSHI KABHI GHAM, MUJHSE DOSTI KAROGE and the worst of all, MAIN PREM KI DEEWANI HOON, meanwhile, he wasted time with AAP MUJHE ACHCHE LAGNE LAGE and NA TUM JAANO NA HUM the list was too long, and I was starting to lose hope on him, when Rakesh Roshan came to the rescue and wrote, produced & directed KOI MIL GAYA in 2003, an adaptation of Steven Spielberg's Extra Terrestrial, though he made it very beautifully and technically sound, KMG went on the floors to become a block buster and bollywood finally tasted a success with Sci-fi.

This time, I wasn't surprised for Hrithik winning another Filmfare, I believed he lived the role of the mentally challenged Rohit Mehra up to the T. And then, the rest was history. He played an irresponsible character in LAKSHYA who came of age and went to be a part of the Kargil war, though the film wasn't a box-office success, this film was loved by the critics and class, then came DHOOM 2, Hrithik completely out-played Abhishek Bachchan, people loved him there, though I found Dhoom 2 an exaggeration to a thief's limitations, but anyways, it brought Hrithik his 3rd best actor award, shadowing his effort as a superhero in Koi mil Gaya's remake KRISHH. KRISHH was also a block buster as its prequel. In 2008, Ashutosh Gowariker cast Hrithik for a role of Akbar in the very successful, JODHA AKBAR, opposite Aishwarya Rai. Hrithik not only acted well, he lived 'AKBAR', his speech and every mannerism of him made us wonder, if we could see the original Akbar, and the film was a super hit on the box office and by the critics, and thus the filmfare award again came to one of his favorite masters for the fourth time. The father-son duo finally failed after the previous 3 blockbusters, their next venture was KITES, which flopped miserably, I still wonder what exactly that movie wanted to say, it was genre-less, seriously. The next adventure done by Hrithik was GUZAARISH, it was a take away from a Spanish masterpiece MAR ADENTRO, it wasn't mentioned though, I loved the attempt, Hrithik personally shown his horizons as an actor while acting as a quadriplegic Ethan Mascarenhas in GUZAARISH. After all the larger-than-life characters that he plays, Hrithik surprised everyone with ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA, he plays the role of a regular guy who just wanna be rich in life and despite he wasn't the lead in this flick, this film did belong to him in many ways. And now, He did this remake of AGNEEPATH, which certainly attained Cult status all over again, and the best thing is he did not try being the original Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, instead he played it with a different attitude, and one thing is for sure, I can remark him as the new-age "Angry young Man" now, I loved every ounce of the new version-ed AGNEEPATH. and with this, the superstar has reached a certain milestone, no one can criticize him for not acting anymore or being only a dancer.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

Real Steel: Plot and Summary

This Hugh Jackman flick is already 3 months old and I believe, you already have screened it somewhere, but if you haven't, I will strongly recommend this movie to my readers. To be honest, I haven't seen Hugh Jackman, in any character other than the wolverine, so it was him, which made me sit and watch this movie, and as the movie kept going further, I started loving it big time. This movie has got style, your love for Ring-fight cinemas will develop like anything, you may consider it a sci-fi but somewhere deep inside, you will know that actually its very touching. Starring Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo, real steel is about three most important characters, Charlie, Max and Atom. In a time, when Ro(bot) Boxing is quite an entertainer, Charlie is a cool under performer in such a sport, and is father to Max. Max believes that Atom, being an old generation Robot, is capable of beating stronger Robots than what it is provided to play against. Its a Coming-of-age story of Charlie (Hugh Jackman) and Atom (the G2 Robot). Charlie once used to be a big name in Boxing is now living life with what so ever he could earn through his Robots. Max one day found Atom in a junkyard of Robot Parts, and brought it home and found that actually this "Atom" is more smarter than most of  the latest version Robots, I would consider this flick as a Coming of Age Sci-fi movie for Kids, Youth and Family Audience. Do watch for some emotional adventure executed brilliantly. Don't miss the initial credits, you will find a name called "Steven Spielberg" and you will be watching with more enthusiasm then. You must watch this one if you are the kind who likes to go for intelligently graphed emotions.

Lets have 'em One on One

I was watching this movie called "Million Dollar Baby" starring Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank, it is one of those rare inspirational flicks you can watch just many a times.

All of a sudden, I came across the idea of doing a One-on-One comparison of Actors from Hollywood and the Hindi film industry.

After many disagreements in my head, I have thought of the following actors, who are similar in their style of acting and the roles they get to play and by simply because of some similar facts.

1. Clint Eastwood vs Feroze Khan, although Eastwood is a much bigger name in his fraternity, but these two actors have kind of a similar body language and attitude, don't forget Feroze Khan was our only cowboy hunk.

2. Morgan Freeman vs Naseeruddin Shah, great actors and legends both of them, but what is common link is their intense role play, they can do comedy to romance to sci-fi and thriller with unbeatable class acting.

3. Hillary Swank vs Priyanka Chopra, fits in every character they play, they are fast, athletic, sweet and can switch between being a girl and being a woman.

4. Bradley Cooper vs Hrithik Roshan, I don't have proper words to explain this one, but their personalities and expressions are almost identical.

5.Jason Statham vs Salman Khan, If there is a cop or any 'over smart' character to be played, there are no better name than Jason or Sallu. They fight, they dance, they romance and they beat the shit out of any goon in the town, and they never panic.

6. Tom Cruise vs Akshay Kumar, if there is a need to remake Mission Impossible in India, there is no second choice than this Khiladi called Akshay Kumar, both of them are real stunt men, need not to say anymore.

7. Tom Hanks vs Aamir Khan, If Tom Hanks is perhaps the finest actor in hollywood, we have Aamir Khan on the counter-part, perfectionist, intense and master of their skills.

8. Drew Barrymore vs Kareena Kapoor, they are beautiful, graceful, great actors and have a long line of predecessors in their families, their families are into cinema for more than 75 years now.

9. Russell Crowe vs Ajay Devgn, blessed with great acting the two of them, dives deep into the character, and delivers something extra ordinary, just take 'a beautiful mind' and 'once upon a time in mumbaai' for an example.




PLEASE do Comment... and tell me your agreement and disagreement on each one of them...


Thanks...


Amritt...!!

A Day With Bollywood

I am with my family in delhi this week... and I am loving the idiot called TV, as it was a saturday today...it kept showing superhit masala bollywood films and great cinemas from Hollywood, in every possible channel, 

When I woke up, I started with KABHI KHUSHI KABHI GHAM, SRK was doing the as usual overacting stuff.

the film was so sweet... I felt like a diabetic in 2 hours.

then it came to an end finally... simultaneously I channel-ed through MAINE PYAR KIYA, PYAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA and MUJHSE SHAADI KAROGI as well, but I lost touch with MSK after a few breaks.

upnext K3G, enters SHIVAJI THE BOSS, I rescued myself from rajnikanth as fast as I can.

just 10 mins after I escaped SHIVAJI, I noticed MPK have finished, and now its one of the most talked about brothers showing up on television in and as KARAN ARJUN, its one of those movies, I lived for, at the time of its release,

now I can only make out one remark for KARAN ARJUN, YucKK... how could I love this movie, its like one of those Mithun chakravorthy movie which contains no sense at all, except for non-sense.

PYAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA is one of my favorite hindi movies, hindi film industry should make movies like this more often, its a sweet, simple college love story with a hint of action and family drama, but has good actings by everyone.

Just when I thought its all over, SRK came back again with DIL TO PAGAL HAI, how could I miss it, its not that bad, so I watched it too.

meanwhile I channel-ed through MEN IN BLACK PART 1 a few times, but my mother just not led me change the channel much so I sticked to the Sweetness of Yashraj Films.

Oh My God...

The Movie GeeK: Join Us..!!

Do you watch movies, well everyone does but have you ever gave a thought that why not watch only good movies,  after all, movies in some way give a shadow of your character, the kind of movie you watch gives away a life-lasting impression on others and makes a class of yours in intellectual society, aint it..?

Here is the link of Joining the Ultimate Discussion of GOOD MOVIES...

Just CLICK HERE and Join the revolution... Discover the Geek in you...

The FACEBOOK movie...

Wait for "The Social Network"..... A movie based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg... now do you know who Mark Zuckerberg is... if not I tell you first, Mark Zuckerberg is the 26 year old man who is primarily responsible for the creation of FACEBOOK... A movie which already have released in USA and will release soon in India, is being rated 9.1 on IMDB [Internet Movie Data Base].


The Social Network was released on October 1, 2010, and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive." Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it was apparent that the film would not portray Zuckerberg in a wholly positive light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".


Waiting for its release in India.... 1st day 1st show I promise....


"Dont miss the tagline...."




"You do not get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies...."

The Un-usuality of my Character...

Well, It started like this... I never ever cried while going to school since my KG classes... I started partying at only 5 or 6 with a friend who lived nearby... I studied in a school where the principal disagreed on taking any tuition fees for my education until class 7th... I chose sections according to my personal needs, the needs had ranges from liberal teachers to proper locality of the class although most of the time I opted for a 'B' section as there were less competitive guys and I myself is the least competitive man I have ever met in my life... I believe only & only in improving my personal best every time I appear in a test...once in my 4th standard I noticed my class teacher did my attendance with a pencil while others were done in ink, I felt sad then...but now I realize thats the difference between the common and the different... but the true fact is that I never been different in a positive sense...

Today I guess I am going to be an Engineer in some years ,but still I am not very loyal to my degree, everyday I aspire to do something heroic, a larger than life stuff... sometimes I wanna join the Indian army, the other day I want to become bollywood superstar or sometimes a more powerful someone... All I want is to follow my heart... I am no brainy... I should be one but I am not...

I am no perfect..... not even closer to that..... but I remain happy... because I am different.... I am not that.....

............... AS USUAL BEING...............

Just not able

Hello Bloggers and my readers... its been a long time since I posted a thing on my blog... God my blog has a dark future... well I promise to come back soon with lots of stuff... so wait and watch...

I will be back soon... have a lot of things to share with my best friends....thats YOU... and moreover I am reading a lot these days... of course the Novel thing... which am a real crazy for... I will narrate some characters tooo... so wait a day or two... I just come back... take care... happy blogging...

Are you Aarami...?

Hey... How are you doing...and doing what...and why...?? Just stay back and Relax.... coz AB baby is coming with a new reality show... Just log on to it on the WEB and see whats your AARAMI Level... Jara dekhe kitne nikamme hain hum. To become a fan on FaceBook:Click the following link........ BINGO: are you aarami...?

Watch official videos HERE

Aamir: Fair enough

At around 6 PM today, I came across a pretty decent idea that the celebrity who does the nicest thing in the week will win a SLIDESHOW on my blog, that will help my blog relate with the Current Affairs too...

Now,

Have you seen how Aamir khan is promoting his upcoming "3 idiots", by directly sneaking into places [faridkot, mughalsarai] where he never been to by changing his look to a more ordinary one. Well, whatever the media relate it with, I would say Aamir is into a very noble cause, he's letting the poor meet him, talk with him, make fun with him without any hesitation called "celebrity presence" which could never have been possible had not Aamir heed his identity, The media would have occupied him for lots of non-sense if things were done the other way.

Again in another case, if Aamir stayed at a hotel in mughalsarai with the name called Akram Shah, it really wasn't unfair at all. The media will never let Aamir do the same if he comes up with his own identity.

Like always, its another instance, when Aamir made a difference.

Happy New Year

Hey... Good Evening....

I wish all my readers and followers a very happy and prosperous new year. Hope I find lots of interesting stories of my life to share with you all.

Once again Happy new year 2010 to all the BLOGGERS...

HAPPY BLOGGING..

Cheers

Amritt Rukhaiyaar