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Farrah Naseem: Well, I think one main thing about watching a film is to be able to lose
yourself in the story and start caring about the characters.
In the case of BOOM, I really couldn't care less who dies and who lives... In fact, I would
have been a lot more thrilled if the 3-way shoot-out involved the 3 bimbos
rather than the 3 dons. Or even better, it should be a 9-way shoot-out
between AB, Jackie, Gulshan Grover, Zeenat Aman, Seema Biswas, Madhu Sapre,
Padma Laxmi, Katrina Kaif + Kaizad Gustad (in a special appearance as
himself of course).
That would have doused my anger a bit at having been
subjected to a movie of this calibre by my naive, but ultimate AB fan
friend.
I actually really admire Mr Bachchan. I believe he can make even
the most unpalatable movie into watchable fare by his sheer charisma and
brilliant acting, but he has completely lost his material in this movie.
Mr B, pls do not ever sign anything of this sort ever again!!! I was
horrified to see you lounging in a pool spraying yourself with
god-knows-what in the company of semi-naked women.....
Shankar/Hong Kong: totally agree with your review. What I am shocked about is, how can a person of the stature of Amitabh Bacchan ever agree to do such a cheap, filthy role.
Come on, Amitji, you're India's icon - you cannot figure in soft porn movie (or is it hard porn?)
Vinod Marar: I had a choice to go either for Calcutta Mail or BOOM , and
considering the pre-release hype, settled for BOOM, only to have
my sunday all ****ed up.
The fact that all english dialogues were dubbed in hindi only
added to my plight.
Only person whom I found interesting was Javed Jaffry with his
comic sense and some punchy dialogues. Kathrina Kaif looked fresh.
Rest everything was like the comic stories that Amitabh is shown
reading in the film.
May GOD help Kaizad make a film with something known as "story"
next time round, and like Jackie says in the film may Mumbai have
better climate so that models get to wear more.
Karthik: "It does not, of course, occur to the masterminds that a better time to do
that would be before she is actually due to board whatever flight it is -- that would be too sensible, na?"
Prem, since when did you start writing like a teenage girl? Honestly, adding 'na' sounds too girlie.
Prem: Sorry; must be the surfeit of girls in that film? I guess I can always plead temporary
insanity brought on by too much movie-watching.
Manoj Shroff: "This being a very high profile event, the organizers of course have no
security whatsoever or they could have simply shut the gates; and
announced that if all the diamonds were not returned, everyone would be
subjected to a search on the way out the door."
dude, why will the organisers save the smugglers diamonds. ????
anyways - if u had some other point and i am the one who got it wrong. pls
tell me.or else send me a mail ...sayin i gotcha.
anyways.. keep up the good work..read ur articles sometimes.. pretty decent
Prem: Dude, it ain't about organizers saving "smuggler's diamonds".
Think of it like this. You are organizing a public event. Something happens -- say a prime piece of jewellery
is stolen, from a guest or a model or whoever. Or say a briefcase with lots of cash busts open, and people grab the bills floating around.
What do you as an organizer do first up? The minute there is a fracas, you shut everything down,
recover whatever it is. It is only THEN that you go into the provenance of whatever it is, and take
any action necessary -- as in, for instance, if the model can't account for those diamonds, you call
the cops and hand the whole lot -- diamonds, model, the works, over.
But you for sure, when something happens, there is a fracas, you the organizer dont sit back and say, ah
shit, must be some dubai smugglers' stuff, never mind, let it go.
Sandeep: i confess i went for the chicks in general and miss. kaif in
particular. but i dint go to watch a soft porn movie which
believed that a naked boob could creat a boom. i spent 50 rs
on the ticket and when i came out with the worst headache i
was caught by the traffic police and the bug had to be bribed 50 rs.
for me boom was a double bust.
Charles: Boom sucked as you said. But Katrina Kaif looks damn hot in this
Adeel Amini/England: Oh my God. Are the critics out there TOTALLY bereft of any intelligence???
And of all people: you, Prem.
I really really realllly cannot understand why critics keep yammering on
about Boom's "lack of plot, silly caricatures..." etc etc - didn't ANY of
you guess from the film's promos that this was SUPPOSED TO be a spoof? A
tongue-in-cheek yarn? I mean, DUH!
I really am flabbergasted at why this film was reviewed so seriously.
Lighten up, people. Even hollywood has spoofs... remember "Mars Attacks"???
Or the "Airplane!" series?
You indian "critics" need to lighten up. So what if Kaizad Gustad didn't
feel like making something groundbreaking (and if i recall, he never claimed
he was)? Boom is a genuine entertainer. OK, it's not meant to be watched
with families... but why did critics have to pick up on that too??? I didnt
think Mein Prem Ki Diwani Hoon was suitable for a family audience, to be
honest. Nor Qayamat. Yet when reviewing these, critics didn't say a word -
so why single out Boom?? Is it because Amitabh Bachchan stars? Does it
"offend your sensibilities" if he wants to branch out, do a completely wacky
role, have some FUN?
Ok i'll admit, Boom isn't the best of Bollywood. But in terms of comedy, it
ranks up with Jhankaar Beats. As an ultra-avid Bollywood buff in the UK, i
suggest all you critics look at Boom differently. It's not a run-of-the-mill
Bollywood film, it knew its key demographic, so start seeing it from that
perspective.
Its inane, it's wacky, its supremely outrageous... but thats exactly what
makes Boom so much fun.
PS: For crying out loud, stop making such a hubbub about the models. If you
complain about that, why don't you slate films like Ek Choti Si Love Story,
or Oops!, or any of the low-grade pornos that India churns out?? Sigh, such
hypocrisy... but because you're "critics", all is apparently forgiven.
Prem: Um. I seem to recall writing this in the review:
"So what was the 'grand concept' in the mind of scriptwriter-director Kaizad Gustad?
Was it a campy look at the nexus between the glam world and the underworld -- the cream and scum, as it were, of society?
Was it a cat-and-mouse caper, with three supermodels (by popular definition, bimbos) pitting their minds against a bunch of bad guys?"
'Spoof' -- aka caper, whatever. I did consider those options, and to me, it didn't work at that level. Prolly did for you; prolly not for some others.
The point is, pal, that when I do these movie things, I am not giving my word from on high -- merely writing as someone who happened to see a movie and had a couple of thoughts about it, so I share those thoughts and then ask readers what THEY think and how they felt.
Actually, all, since this subject came up, let me clarify. Sometime last year, while browsing through one of the NYC bookshops, I came upon this book called A short Guide to Writing About Film, by Timothy Corrigan.
When Corrigan says short, he means it -- the book, minus index and footnotes and such, is just about 170 pages long; but it's a neat dissertation, firstly, into what goes into the making of a movie and secondly, into the various types of movie reviews/analysis.
But what stayed with me was the preface, where the author talks of why he wrote the book. As I recall it, he tells of how, on one occasion, he asked a young girl who had seen a movie what she thought of it. She came up with one of those instantaneous reactions we all come up with as we walk out of a theatre.
So he told her, okay, write me a short piece about it. And when she tried to do that, she came up with something in the film she had not thought of earlier. So he then passed on that short take to another young person -- and that person came up with another, different, spin on it.
He also, as I recall, made an interesting tangential point. There are many things we do for entertainment. Watch sports, for example. Or go to the opera, or a concert, or a dance performance, whatever. And inevitably, the enjoyment we get out of these events is enhanced by the subsequent discussions with friends and others, the arguments, the Monday morning quarter-backing, if you will.
Movies, though, we tend to not put that much into -- yet, when you are with a group of friends and you start chatting about a film, the discussion can sparkle, it can peg itself on the behavior of the characters but before you know it, it is ranging far afield, into real people and their behavior.
Point he was making -- and the reason I thought of doing this -- is simply this: Talking movies can be huge fun; I figured I'd grab me some of that.
Talking of which, lots more mail where these came from, much of them about Boyz -- see you back here, tomorrow, with your take on movies and more. Adios for now.
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