Boom

Going to the movies is a wholesome experience for me. I look forward to the movie as soon I have my tickets booked. I have certain expectations from the movie and I switch off the outside world along with my cellphone as I settle in to watch the movie. This is how I settled down yesterday evening to watch this movie called Boom. The movie promised to have the elusive right mix of oomph and a real story coupled with good actors and behind it all a director who has been threatening to deliver for a long time. The spin-doctors had given good publicity to the movie by making sure that its every round to the censors was well publicised along with the usual comments on whatever happened to freedom of expression and self-censorship.

The two hours of the movie passed in a whirl and it was difficult for me to conclude on what was worse- the movie or the audience. I for once pitied the censor board who has to see such junk like this in its raw form and then be criticised for censoring parts of the movie. I also came out of the movie with significant additions to my knowledge bank- I got to know, for example, that a bag of cement costs around 100 rupees or so and can be delivered the next day morning if it ordered around 7pm. How I know is because the person next to me was a cement dealer and obviously likes to conduct his business on the phone in a cinema hall when he is not whistling or nudging his partner everytime he saw a bikini on the screen. In addition, if I missed a double meaning dialogue in the movie then I only had to concentrate on the animated conversation behind me to hear it again amid a thousand giggles. With such wholesome entertainment all around me who wants to see the movie.

Not that there was anything in the movie to watch. It's amazing how easily you can go wrong even if you put a bunch of talented actors on screen and some models who can also talk and a woman named Bo Derek thrown in for some more oomph. So much of oomph in that movie that I almost oomphed my way out of the hall! They were traces in the movie that reminded me of Pulp Fiction or even Sex and the City, which are both amazing productions in their own right and if only he had copied them we would have got everything we wanted. But no sir, we are too much into the East meets West syndrome these days. East meets West and takes a dive into the Pacific Ocean never to show itself again. Atleast not in the form of Boom! If this is what fusion of cultures is about I am all for pure breeds. I cannot imagine that I paid money to see a movie like this. I won't see it even if someone offered me money for this. The movie is like an orchestra in action and everything is being played out of tune and what is worse is that you can recognise what they are trying to play and that is driving you even more crazy.

As for the crowd, what can I say, it deserved the movie as much as the movie deserved the crowd. Every show of skin and every raunchy dialogue were greeted with such cheers that you would assume that these women had landed in their laps! All this while cellphones were buzzing in the hall and everybody was talking to everybody else telling them they were sitting in a hall watching a movie- and what's up?

Please go and see this movie and maybe it will help you appreciate how bad movie making can get. Its always nice to see the worst so we can better appreciate the good.

As for the director and producer - BOOM BOOM!!

Boom was a great concept with a great soundtrack. The publicity was great and of course what a great title. The title track with Ila Arun/Talvin Singh saved some of the film.

It seemed that most of the film was shot in daylight, which already compromises the dramatic quality of the film. The director used master shots with wide lenses, which again compromises drama and character build up. It seemed that the script was so loose that nothing seemed to stick. There were no character arcs and the movie came to an abrupt end. Even if violence and flesh are the idea, there are ways to make it tantalizing and provide for tension. Moreover Kaizad's characters were not believable because he spent little time on each with very limited staging. If a character spends all his time in one room, or doing just one thing, we cannot be too interested in him. What we call 'Emotional Dynamics'.

The motivation was missing, why were the Dons after the models, when they didnt have the Diamonds? The limited locations and bright sunlight really dampened the quality of the film. The only dramatic light was with the Shroff character. The film had tremendous potential and a great concept in the making but I guess they were in hurry to get the film made.

I think Kaizad is a passionate filmmaker who has the guts to break new ground, but in doing that, it is not wise to try and break all the basic rules of story telling.

I had earlier seen Bombay boys by Kaizad Gustad, hence this prompted me to rent out the video for Boom. The name itself is pretty unusual for a bollywood movie and the cast is the best that bollywood has to offer. Jackie as "Medium" again shows Jackie's potential as a versatile actor and Javed Jaffery as "Boom Shankar" is his usual eccentric self. No wonder Kaizad decided to name the movie over his character, Javed Jaffery lends the comical edge to the otherwise dark-sided movie. 3 gangsters bade, chote and medium rule the fashion industry helped by boom shankar. In a world where everyone is being terrorised by the 3 brothers 3 models are forced to work for them. Taking advantage of their beauty and charms, supplemented by their utter distrust of each other and aided by Boom shanker - these 3 models fool everyone including Boom shankar himself. Madhu Sapre along with the Kaif lend the bitchish touch the models character, showing why beauty is skindeep. As expected this movie was treated like a shocker by the indian cinema houses, because by any bollywood standard this movie is ground breaking. For the simple reason that it does not follow the nuances of a commercial bollywood film and follows on Quinton Tarantino's path i vote this movie as a must see for every hindi film critic.

Gustad is a lucky director in that he got to do a big film after the mediocre Bombay Boys. For Boom he got the likes of Bachan, Shroff, Zeenat Amaan et al and had the deep pockets to shoot at Burj Al Arab and pretty much wherever he wanted in India and Dubai. He also had the names of Bo Derek and Padma Lakshmi (Salman Rushdie's model girlfriend) to play up in the marketing campaign... and what did he do with all this! He sank it all.

He has three cuties in the cast who are raring to bare it all, and did quite often; he got tremendous performances from the lower league actors, Gulshan Grover and specially Javed Jaffrey; there's the ever sellable cocktail of sex, drugs and money; and despite everything there ARE quite a few laughs in the film. So what went wrong?

The story. Or rather the lack of it. It seems Gustad was shooting on random notes rather than a script. The result is a series of shots - some beautiful, sexy and very funny, others irrelevant or incomprehensible, or both - put together in a jumpy fashion, and served up with a lot of glitter to make it look like a feature film. Sound levels are particularly bad, and some of the dialogue is lost either in strange accents the actors are putting on, or in the sound quality. Seems like the flick was only intended to be watched, not heard.

I watched the movie against many an advice, but I'd like to recommend it to all those who are interested in movies. Just to guage how so much can be squandered to produce so little, if for no other reason.

This movie was absolutely repulsive. I don't know why stalwarts Amitabh and Zeenat chose to act in such a movie. The direction is completely pathetic. All the actors are just rambling on whatever is in the "script" and are making no sense whatsoever. They are mumbling jibber-jabbish, for a lack of anything better to do, that contain random multi-syllable English words in an effort to sound Western. Random scenes of sex and violence are dropped in, and continuous use of vulgar language (like every sentence has f... in it) is used hoping to attract people to the theaters. Money has been wasted on the most ridiculous things, such as using 400 carats of real diamonds, paying for accommodations in the world's most expensive hotel, and a special appearance by Bo Derek. What is she doing in this movie? She is in it for not more than five seconds. Oh, I think someone forgot the story. The "plot" has so many loopholes that it isn't supposed to make sense. You're just supposed to watch the sex and enjoy listening to the f-word. Whoever made this movie is a perverted psychopath. He is trying his movie to look Hollywood, and as a result, looks like a complete idiot.