Main Aurr Mrs Khanna – A Movie that’s as confusing as it can be

A tale of marital discord with the lead actors being the ever popular Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Shot in impressive locations abroad & with nearly half the movie based in an airport and added to this is an array of well known names doing cameos. All this automatically makes Main Aurr Mrs Khanna (referred to as MAMK from hereon) a great Diwali release, one that can be an ideal outing with family or friends right? No my friends this one is again an embarrassment to the filmography of Salman Khan.
The plot ( if I can call it one ) is all about Samir Khanna ( Salman ) and Raina ( Kareena ) whose marriage is facing rough weather as Samir’s career seems to have hit a crisis. And making things difficult for them all the more is Samir who announces one day that they would follow his friend’s (Dino Morea) advice and shift to Singapore from Australia. Raina gets to know at the airport that Samir doesn’t want her to accompany him and instead wants her to go to Delhi.
But Raina prefers to stay back in Melbourne and takes up a job at the airport. There she comes across Akash (Sohail Khan) who works at the airport café and falls for her almost instantly. Her work permit is about to expire and Raina has to unwillingly apply to get married to Akash so that she can continue to remain in Australia. Just when Akash starts thinking of proposing to Raina enters Samir who returns after getting himself well placed in Singapore. He is now eager to take her back with him. What happens next is not so difficult to guess.
Prem Soni the writer and director, has got it thoroughly wrong. You wonder at times whether it’s an attempt to have a serious take on marital discord or a light hearted entertainer. There are so many situations which make you laugh (in agony) and cringe by looking at the situations conjured up by Prem Soni. Throughout the film there appears to be zero chemistry between Salman and Kareena and in fact Salman hardly has adequate presence in the film. In the scenes that he is present, Salman looks as interested as the furniture in the airport café. Kareena is strictly average over here. Sohail does what is expected.
Yash Tonk, Mehek Chahal, Nauheed Cyrusi, Bappi Da (yes of course Bappi Lahiri indeed) all have supporting characters (nothing special though) but are counted as cameos . Music by Sajid- Wajid is pretty average with the best track (Don’t Say Alvida) coming in pretty early into the movie. The Preity Zinta cameo including the song is a big let down. All said and done it looks like quite a few people have been either taken for a ride or have done the film without even caring to bother about the story (or the lack of it). After a string of flops Salman had bounced back with Wanted, but MAMK certainly derails him a bit.
It’s a pity that Prem Soni couldn’t come up with something much more impressive than this. With a star cast like this and with an enterprising banner supporting his venture its surprising how he let go of a wonderful opportunity. And it’s also a surprise as to how UTV had even wanted to support such a venture. A potential Diwali dhamaka that’s ended up as nothing but wet crackers. Inspite of the running time being well within 2 hours if you are still shifting uncomfortably in your seat or keep looking at your watch you know how boring the movie could be. MAMK gives you enough scope for it.

Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/main-aurr-mrs-khanna-%e2%80%93-a-movie-that%e2%80%99s-as-confusing-as-it-can-be/

How risky is film making in India today?

At the very outset I would like to make a couple of things very clear – this is not a critique on any particular kind of movie or personality and I’m not a film maker, at least not yet. So what exactly is on my mind & what am I trying to say? Well for starters what I need to impress upon is that cinema at the end of day in spite of being an art form, still has a business consideration to look into and that is a fact that cannot be denied by anybody. Just for the sake of discussion let us forget about movies being good or bad and just look at movies on the whole. So be it a commercial movie, small middle of the road movie, a completely “offbeat” movie – let us for sometime put them all in the same bandwidth & needless to say this is irrespective of the language & the genres.
The only exception to what I’ll be writing here would be the rare movies made by people who absolutely do not care for how the audience would react to the movie. In fact they are not bothered about the audience at all since they are after all making the movie only for themselves. So if you consider Bollywood movies released in 2009 so far the success rate has been below 10 % - in the 1st Qr alone there were 3 successful movies out of a total 31 (read it here- http://passionforcinema.com/kudos-to-raaz-2-slumdog-crorepati-dev-d/) and in April the releases so far have all been complete failures.
The situation is not too different when it comes to regional cinema. Whether its Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam or Kannada the number of successful movies in the year so far would be extremely low. And believe it or not if the success ratio currently is so poor, one needs to understand that this is only considering the movies that at least managed a release. So how would the situation be if one considers the movies lying in the cans for ages?Obviously its not going to look better. It’s another story that the ongoing strike in Bollywood has seen the release of some long pending movies like Pal Pal Dil Ke Ssaath and Ek Se Bure Do (no I’m not mentioning anything about these movies here ).
What I’m trying to put across to everyone is that in today’s recession period, film making can be one of the most risky business initiatives. To understand this a little better let us first look at the different schools of thought about how to make a successful movie-
1.Have big stars; you have a winner on your hands- While I will definitely agree that stars bring a lot of early attention to the project and help in a lot of ways, then again I don’t think stars alone can pull of a movie just like that. The most recent example of this can probably be 8* 10 Tasveer and CC2C.2.The story and the story alone is important- Yeah sure the story and the screenplay is important. But then can somebody tell me why a Barah Anna, Luck By Chance or a Gulaal haven’t really succeeded the way they should have ?3.A top notch director/production banner will do the trick- Sure its nice to have a big production house backing your movie and a well known director helming your movie- but does it spell sure shot success? I don’t think so. What would you then say to Dhoondte Reh Jaoge (UTV), Ek- The Power of One ( Sangeeth Sivan- K Sera Sera ) or a Delhi-6 ( Raykesh Omprakash Mehra- UTV) ?
So what now comes across clearly is that there is no specific formula to ensure the success of a movie. Considering all this have the number of movies being released or going on the floors reduced? Have the number of people moving to Mumbai, Chennai,Hyderabad –( the 3 main locations of film making in India ) wanting to act, direct ,write or do anything else connected with movies reduced? Have the number of people wanting to shift from some other industry to the film industry reduced? The answer is a big no to all these questions. But then one needs to understand that in the current recession period what is becoming difficult are the following-
1.Get a production house to back your movie if you are still to make your mark2.Getting corporate tie-ups/ in film advertisement to help in giving some monetary support.3.Getting the right break in the industry if you are a new comerand the list goes on
All this said & done am I trying to say that film making is to be avoided? That one should not make movies till the recession period is over? Certainly not, but what I’m only saying that one needs to exercise a lot more caution when it comes to making a movie now. Be it in all respects-choice of cast & crew, choice of subject, deciding the budget etc all become quite important. There can be nothing more passionate than making movies and also writing about it like I’m doing here. Hence it’s all the more imperative that we realize the risks associated with film making and try to overcome them rather than ignore them.
On a parting note I wish to point out that I’m looking forward to the release of Frozen, a movie made with a lot of passion and with a lot of risk by everyone associated with it. After around 2 years of struggle, the movie is finally all set to release on May 8th 2009 (confirmed by Shivajee Chandrabhushan- the director & producer) and I just wish that movies like these definitely attain success and ensure that the passion and the risk behind such a venture pays off.
Note- I have only written this to point out the current situation as far as Indian cinema is concerned from my standpoint. I would definitely appreciate a wholehearted constructive discussion on the same and look forward to those in the industry sharing their thoughts on the same over here.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/how-risky-is-film-making-in-india-today/