Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Movie Review: Chor Mandli

Starring: Mukul Dev, Sweta Keswani, Razak Khan, Dharam Pal, Vishwajeet Pradhan
Director: Sanjay Khanna
Genre: Comedy

Last week while snow and ice were wrecking havoc on the roadways, causing accidents, I was cooped up at home reading my textbooks. To take a break I watched this totally nonsensical Bollywood comedy Chor Mandli. Surprisingly the movie had few songs and was over in less than two hrs. This is surprising because Hindi movies are usually 2-3 hrs in length and have the standard formula, five songs, one rape scene, 3-4 fight scenes and a climax. I am glad Bollywood directors are finally moving away from the used, reused and abused formula concept. The director has moved away from the standard formula and woven a story around five common and petty thieves.

Set in Mumbai, India, the movie features Honda the car thief, Nandu the mobile thief, Marco the gambler, a struggling actor, Buta Singh, Chindi someone who watches while others steal. Honda gets caught and goes behind the bars where he meets another entirely crazy character who gives him a tip about a safe that contains lots of cash.

Honda tries to enlist his friend's help to get bailed out and steal the cash, instead the twist of events make him stay in jail for 3 years. His friends how meanwhile have come to know of the details of the loot plan and execute the job. The ending is completely different and quite illogical and stupid in my opinion.

The movie is available free on Youtube, watch it if you have lots of time on hand.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Movie Review: Streets of Legend

Movie Name(s): Quattro Noza/ Streets of Legend
Year: 2003
Genre: Action, Drag Racing, Gangster
Director: Joey Curtis
Cast: Brihanna Hernandez, Victor Larios and Robert Beaumont



Well! What can I say about a low budget movie with new faces? It is a good effort but doesn't have the stuff to make it into the big league. It is probably limited a few viewers on Youtube who watch the movie free and a few others who watch the flic by mistake.

Anyway the movie tells the story of illegal drag racing on the streets of East Los Angeles and on the side lines is the romance between the main protagonists of the story Noza and Quattro. Then there is the villain in the form of Noza's former boyfriend who is in prison for drug abuse and tampering with evidence. He storms out of jail when he comes to know that Noza is going out with the new guy on the block and then all hell breaks loose.

The movie ends on a rather sad note and could have been easily changed. The races could have been pictured better which would have made the movie much better. It has an R rating I don't know why? There is absolutely no scene in the movie worth an R rating.

Final Verdict: Don't watch it unless you have absolutely nothing to do. Or you are a great fan of street racing.