Thoughts on ISHK VISHK and THE HERO {being movies that I have seen parts of and don't intend to follow up on}

I watch almost anything that Bollywood can toss at me (proof scattered all across my blog's canvas), but the movies that are the most gruelling are the big budget, large studio-backed mainstream "entertainers" that think the world of themselves, and invest countless rupaiyas in marketing and junkets and the like. The Hero (from the team that gave us Gadar, the story of a truck driver/superman proxying anti-Pakistan sentiments to comically unbelievable limits) was perhaps the most expensive (Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) being the reported cost) film since Devdas (surpassing it even?). With all the razzle-dazzle and eye candy, the film opens like any 21st century Sunny Deol starrer would: the character he plays is felicitated at a function in Toronto, Canada and Sunny bhai renders some thanks in angrejii, before transitioning to a plane where he types out a letter on his laptop in English (while reading it in Hindi!). There's the prelude for a flashback (what with that irritating ho.nTo.n pe gitawaa (why people can't say ho.nTho.n is just beyond me!!) infesting the soundtrack). That was it. In one word, cold. Sunny walks about like he just had a lifetime's worth of novocaine shots. The film looks as dull as restroom wallpaper. No enthusiasm to even proceed to explore the idiocies latent in such a production.

Tips chahiye to Taurani ke paas jaao. Ken Ghosh's directorial début Ishq Vishk (targetting, as did inane hits like Style, the "Generation Next" young age group) is a Tips Films release. Hence, the in-joke (head honcho Ramesh Taurani is co-producer). That's about the only bearable aspect of this film that follows Style in most respects. The three leads have more spunk though, but barely. The dialogue writer seems to be recovering from a martian lobotomy, and Anu Malik's jaded music suffers from gutterswipe superficial lyrics and hangovers from Khushi. With all those familar innuendo-laden jokes, I wonder how this film squeaked by with a 'U' certificate. Having caught the end of the film (no big mystery here) and the opening, I must conclude that this member of the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai family does not deserve more of my time. Don't think it will miss me though: something tells me this film's going to do really well at the turnstiles.