A review of Shreya Ghoshal and Atif Aslam in concert, Houston, TX, March 13, 2010

Performers

First of all, Shreya was outstanding. That girl has a voice - and she did not shy away from any of the difficult songs (Aami je tomar (Bhool Bhulaiya), Pal Pal har pal (Lage Raho Munna Bhai), Kaise mujhe tum mil gaye (Ghajini) etc.) Her voice was like a well-tuned instrument - never faltering on a single note. Very much like Asha Bhosle (who I also had the pleasure of seeing live a few years earlier).

Atif was the exact opposite. Not only could he not sing - he has a showmanship factor that far outweighs any real singing talent. We all have that one friend or acquaintance who is convinced that he is God's gift to the music world - only he hasn't been told the ugly truth yet. Atif continued to under-perform, never got in tune for even a minute – and when it came to the difficult notes in his songs – turned the mike over to the audience!

Atif is clearly a novice singer with little or no control over his voice. It just speaks wonders for recording-studio technology that he sounds absolutely flawless in his recordings.

To combine Shreya and Atif in the same concert was like having Tiger Woods tee off with Ray Romano in a golf major. One is a world class golfer - the other a brilliant comedian - though clearly out of his league in a competitive golf tournament. The analogy isn't exact since Ray – the misfit golfer - is at least brilliant at something.

So much for the performers.

Organizers (Indo-American Association)

The organizers of the show left a LOT to be desired. They obviously did not go through any rehearsals. Have you ever had that one friend or acquaintance who believes her jokes are hilarious - and delivers them with full confidence - only to discover that nobody laughed?

The concert host (Niharika) is clearly one of these self-proclaimed comedians.

She never learnt that good humor is 10% content and 90% delivery. If the punch line lacks delivery, not even the best content can rescue it.

Imagine 3 hours of this kind of poorly timed humor - delivered in the form of one sher after another by the concert host. It made one wish they had purchased some eggs prior to the show.

Some other factors that were overlooked by the organizers included:

• the bright flashing overhead lights which hit everyone in the eye. This may sound like nitpicking - but every 30 seconds or so - it sent everyone ducking for cover. If you have never experienced being bombarded with 20000 Kilo Wattage - delivered dead straight into your eyes - while sitting in a DARK auditorium - well this was your chance to gain this invaluable experience. It reeks of lack of any rehearsal on the part of the show organizers. And it shows their level of disinterest that they did not catch on or fix the problem mid-show.
• in spite of various security measures - there ended up being a whole bunch of gate-crashers - who proudly stood on the steps and bragged about how they got in without tickets.

Summary

The organizers did everything in their power to make it as inconvenient and unmemorable as possible - but they failed. Shreya was a true superstar and saved the organizers inspite of themselves. And they should never have combined a classy singer with someone who needs to take singing lessons.

Karthik Calling Karthik

First off, if you're going to watch Karthik calling Karthik (KCK for the rest of the review), DO NOT read any of the reviews out there. If they give away any part of the movie, it will effectively ruin the movie for you.
So - I am going to keep this review as basic and non-story-lined as I can.

Story Line

KCK is a suspense thriller (or if you prefer, a psychological thriller) - with a romantic angle thrown in. Karthik (Farhan Akhtar) is an overly meek and timid person - who gets pushed around by everyone. One fine day - he starts getting periodic phone calls - from someone who pretends to be Karthik - i.e. himself. That is all I can say about the main story-line - if I say anything else, I may give away more than necessary.

Acting

Both Farhan and Deepika were outstanding in their respective roles. Equally importantly - the supporting cast (those parts that the director usually doesn't pay much attention to) - are also very good (most of them are fairly well respected TV/bollywood actors).

Script
The touches of humor are brilliant - and in Farhan's inimitable style - are delivered in a understated, tongue-in-cheek manner. If you've liked Farhan in any of his 'Oye its Friday' (popular tv talk show) episodes, you have a good idea of his sense of humor. Just as a personal aside, I thought he was by far the most creative and hilarious of all the people who tried similar shows (Karan Johan, Farah Khan and others included...)


Direction
The direction is such that it manages to hold the audience in suspense throughout the movie. In addition, there are a couple of scenes where one actually gets scared. I believe this is Vijay Lalwani's first movie - and I cannot wait for his future works.

Music
This - for me - was a pleasant bonus along with a great movie. I did not go in expecting great music - or any music really (after all, it is meant to be a suspense thriller). However, I was pleasantly surprised by both 'Hey Ya' and 'Uf Teri Ada'. While 'Hey Ya' is the heavily advertised song (and is admittedly a catchy tune), 'Uf Teri Ada' has - in my books - achieved the status of 'Bebo Mein Bebo' or 'Tum Mile'.
In fact, when 'Bebo Mein Bebo' came out, I heard it over and over again. I find myself doing the same with 'Uf Teri Ada'. Nothing wrong with a foot tapping catchy beat every now and then...

Summary
If you liked 'A Wednesday' (not that KCK has anything to do with terrorism) or 'Samay' (a detective thriller) - you will like KCK. In yet another break from regular bollywood movies, it is only 2 hours and change in length. Oh - I almost forgot to mention - for the 50% of the audience with the Y chromosome - Deepika looks stunning - and may be worth the price of the ticket itself. All in all - a captivating movie - with a decent romantic angle, decent music - and extremely good story.

My name is Khan (MNIK for the rest of this review).

I don't know where to start. There are several problems with this movie.

Karan Johar has tried to weave too many themes into this movie. Autism, 9/11, Islam, World Peace, Romance, Parenthood - and a Hurricane thrown in just for good measure.

The two biggest themes in this movie - Autism and 9/11 - were also the ones with the biggest problems.

Autism

Shah Rukh has always been what I consider a 'poor in demanding roles' actor. Roles that require attention to detail - where one needs to get 'into character' as opposed to simply copying a character - are not his forte. Devdas (2002) was a prime example of why Shah Rukh needed to work on his acting skills.

It is eight years later - and he could still use some acting lessons. His attempt to play an autistic character was a mish-mash of material stolen from Rainman, Forrest Gump and 'I am Sam'. Except - he wasn't nearly as convincing as any of these characters. Even the flop hindi copy of 'I am Sam' (called Main Aisa hi Hoon) - had Ajay Devgan doing a better job than Shah Rukh in 'My Name is Khan'.

I left the theater convinced that the only realistic display of autism was in the segment of audience cheering in parts of this movie.

9/11 and the treatment of Muslims in the U.S. in its aftermath

Granted - there is a message here - and that there was reason for Muslims in America to fear for their safety. Granted also that there were unreasonable attacks on 'turbaned' as well as other stereotyped individuals in the wake of 9/11 as portrayed in the movie. However - once again - the problem was in the 'messenger' - and not the message.

It was poorly conveyed. Here though, Shah-Rukh is not alone in shouldering the blame. The director could have done a far better job - as several other post 9/11 movies have. In fact, the somewhat less successful New York (starring John Abraham) - was far more realistic and hard-hitting in this regard.

Script
In a recent Bollywood award show, Shri. Javed Akhtar was awarded a lifetime achievement award for some of his exceptional writing for over 40 years. His acceptance speech contained an admonition to Bollywood movie makers - "A movie without a good script - is just not a good movie".

It may contain advanced special effects, great music and a great cast - however - without a script - it is like a ship without a compass. It will float aimlessly - and will lose the audience. MNIK lost me from the very beginning and I was lost throughout. There is not a memorable line in the movie - except a few well known platitudes - which lacked good delivery.

Music
This is perhaps the only area where I would give MNIK a couple of points. 'Sajda' and 'Tere Naina' are catchy and memorable tunes - and perhaps worth downloading (legally of course).

In Summary...
As if there weren't enough problems with this movie, the whole Hurricane Katrina angle only made things worse. A simple 5 minutes may have been tolerable - but 30 minutes into the soaked heartland of Georgia - as you watch the entire cast wading in knee-deep water - you are left wondering if you wouldn't actually be better off in the midst of Katrina than being stuck in this movie theater.

My name is Anuj - and I am not (in the least) impressed.