Breathtaking rendering - beat that Hollywood

So you thought Hollywood had the best CGI ever. So wrong. This CGI flick put together by PanTural (never heard of that name) will give the Hollywood visual effects companies a run for their money and some real huge complex. As for car buffs like me, it gives millions of goosebumps. The rendering has rendered me speechless (pun intended). There is so much happening onscreen in every second and even if the cars are stationary, they look like they are doing 100 miles per hour. Boy oh boy, do they look a billion dollars! It took this wizard 110 days to complete this project and it's totally worth it.

The soundtrack was the only part which disappointed a bit. Not that the soundtrack is weak, but the fact that it was lifted from some of popular movies like Transformers, Terminator 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean. That steals away a bit of originality from the package. Excellent soundtrack choices by the way.

The plot is pretty Hollywood-esque with bits borrowed from Spiderman 3 and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The cars are impressive whether they are motionless or blasting past at neck-breaking speeds. The line-up includes a white version of KITT Attack mode from the Knight Rider TV movie and the Shelby Mustang GT 500 looks all brawny in the attire. The Chevrolet Camaro joins the pack, kicking up the muscle car quotient a notch. The rest of the team is pretty ordinary with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and an outdated VAZ 07. But those two look dashing despite their age. Surprise package - a full blown Apache gunship monitors the proceedings from above.

The fury unleashed by these machines on the track make us forget for a long while that these are just cars. I know that I shouldn't be saying "just cars". That's a derogatory term.

They transform into beasts on wheels towards the middle of the video. The Camaro and the Cherokee breaks away from the shackles to get some rubber to burn on that track. The rest of the crew join in the show-off which concludes in an explosive finale of crash and burn.

One of the best CGI mini fests that I have ever seen, this one even packs an added punch with the making of the video pre-end credits. One must hand it to this guy wherever he is. This is brilliant. Beat that Hollywood.

Movie of the month - Archives - October - Blue

What if Michael Bay made a Bollywood Movie? It'll look a lot like Blue. All of Rs.80 crores as budget to splurge on bike chases, underwater action sequences, explosions, shoot outs, classy production values, breath-taking locations, hot stars, stunts, effects, camera crew and writers brought down from Hollywood and racy trailers which promise a full blown slick actioner. Scored by A.R Rahman and sound designed by Resul Pookutty, Blue also features Kylie Minogue's performance. The promotional budget of Rs. 20 crore is enough to produce a multi-starrer in Bollywood. I'm betting my Diwali on Blue.

Spada Codatrona Promotional Video

Codatronca - This is not Gotham City from Director Kobayashi on Vimeo.

The Batmobile wannabe car's promotional video is a CGI fest with truckloads of inspiration from the Speed Racer movie. The Tronca has Corvette underpinnings and that is not that so unpleasant a news. So will we see one in the Batman sequel? No. Batman drives Lambos.

Bollywood Diwali Specials - Blue

Genre: Action Thriler

Director: Anthony D'Souza

Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan, Lara Dutta, Katrina Kaif, Rahul Dev

Music Director: A. R. Rahman

One line summary – An underwater treasure hunt with action sequences borrowed from Deep Blue Sea, Torque, Bad Boys 2, and a lot of Hollywood flicks.

Release Date: October 16

Bollywood Diwali Specials - All The Best: Fun Begins

Genre: Action-Comedy

Director: Rohit Shetty

Star Cast: Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Mugdha Godse

Music Director: Pritam

One line summary – Another fun filled carnival like Golmaal Returns with action and comedy.

Release Date: October 16

Diwali movie review - Wake Up Sid

Wake Up Sid for the Hindi movie audience is a combination of elements borrowed from Lakshya, Waqt and Dil Chahta Hei. It’s Lakshya without the war, Waqt without deaths or lectures and Dil Chahta Hei without three love affairs. But the absence of these doesn’t turn the tide against it. This is a youthful movie which has the nostalgic flair of Rock On. You might not have been wannabe rock star in your younger days, but at some point of time you were a lazy, wayward, irresponsible person with no clear plan about the future.

Whether or not your dad has a shower manufacturing company which feeds your appetite for pizzas, parties, branded wear and luxury SUVs, you were not worried about the future. That’s what makes Wake up Sid universally appealing. Debutant director Ayan Mukerji’s craft is definitely into character development. The characters are absolute delights to watch. Be it the buddies who hang out with Sid or his parents who are in different tracks to correct their son. Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma live up to their lead actors tags. Sid’s transformation from rich spoilt brat to poor loser and poor loser to upcoming winner is believable and Ranbir scores high on that regard. Konkona Sen on the other hand has a more grounded character to play which she does with all her charm. Anupam Kher did give a shade of Amitabh Bachchan’s character from Waqt, but his character chose to go by a more realistic route to guide his son. Supriya Pathak’s mother-act was a one which many mothers would find themselves associating with. For the first time ever, a non-actor like Kashmira Shah was cast in a role which suits her and she didn’t make us cringe this time. Rahul Khanna’s cameo was so well blended into the storyline that he almost gives the impression of a significant character.

The tracks though they are not Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s best, are pretty good with Iktara being my personal favourite. It’s the co-existence of contrasting characters which makes Wake Up Sid thoroughly watchable. It may not make you laugh till you cry or make you cry till you run out of tears. Neither will it prompt you to hold your lover’s hand while you are watching it. It’s actually a simple movie with a relevant message. But the message is so skillfully merged with the romantic premise and the nostalgic factor that you will never classify it as a preachy movie. That’s exactly why Wake Up Sid is a must watch.

Diwali movie reviews – Do Knot Disturb

I did not deserve this. I’m not a bad person. Why God, why? I just wanted to give every Diwali movie a fighting chance and ended up losing 2 hours and 25 minutes of my life forever. David Dhawan-Govinda team used to be so good at slapstick comedy and now they have redefined that genre into a piece of film making with screaming, squealing, incomprehensible dialogues. All that the viewer could make out from the speakers was noise and lots of it.

Govinda was at his comic worst in Do Knot Disturb and Riteish Deshmukh had no clue as to what’s going on. He tried to make something out of this mess and in the process made it messier. Sohail Khan dropped in once in a while with the cry boobie-punk act which was probably the only palatable performance. Rajpal Yadav is wasted with another overacting part.

Coming to the ladies, Sushmita Sen should join a gym and fix an appointment with a beautician or a plastic surgeon. She looked downright disastrous in this outing and I seriously doubt whether the costume designer had some serious ill-will towards the once-dazzling actress. As for Lara, she was the only saving grace with her looks – killer as always. But the comic timing that she is known for was nowhere in sight.

The movie wound up with another silly climax to be added to the long list of silly climaxes in comedy movie history. All right, point noted that it’s a comedy movie and it should be silly. But shouldn’t there be some kind of a sense of satisfaction before the curtain falls, that it was a fun-filled two and a half hours? It did not happen in this case.

I should have listened to what the poster on the theatre door said – Do (K)not Disturb.