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Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited****
*ing: Abhay Deol, Minissha Lamba, Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani, Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen, Amisha Patel, Karan Khanna, Sandhya Mridul, Vikram Chatwal, Ranvir Shorey and Dia Mirza

Directed by Reema Kagti

 
Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited is one of the most entertaining and hilarious films to release this year.
To tell a story of 6 married couples, 12 individuals and give every character substantial space in the film and doing all this just under 2 hours is no easy feat but director Reema Kagti does it brilliantly. Bravo!
Every couple is different. There is Abhay Deol and Minissha Lamba, both of whom are like an exact replica of each other. They talk, think, speak and often, look alike. It's uncanny, really.
 
Shabana Azmi and Boman Irani have had a painful past and together, they heal each other's wounds. Amisha Patel is married to Karan Khanna. She talks and talks and talks. And she has a sweet, almost a diabetic quality to her that makes her annoying to the max. Her husband, Karan is a classic case of a weak man, who will not stand up for what he wants. Sandhya Mridul and Vikram Chatwal, who seem to be the happiest couple around have quite a few secrets. Dia Mirza is married to Ranvir Shorey. This was an arranged marriage and Dia isn't happy. And finally, the most realistic and adorable couple in the film is that of Kay Kay Menon and Raima Sen, college sweethearts who got married and are on their honeymoon. All 6 couples go to Goa in a bus and so the 'honeymoon' begins.
 
It's a very interesting film to say the least. Almost all the couples are very close to life. Even if one doesn't know such people, these are stories that one has heard of before.

The film moves in different time frames, giving one a glimpse in the past of all the characters and how they got together, their story. It's done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner. The narrator often makes fun of the character in a subtle manner. The narration is in the form of a radio broadcast, like when one is listening to an RJ right before a song. It gives the film a very surreal yet light mood.

One interesting aspect is the ratio of reality thrown in. Raima Sen trying to manipulate her husband into moving out of his house, leaving his parents and buying a new house is one example. Boman Irani's daughter hating Shabana Azmi because she doesn't like the idea of her father being married to another woman is another instance.
 

The brilliance, however, is that the director has held a progressive approach to such matters. She doesn't leave it to the audience to decide but makes a statement through her screenplay.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited doesn't try to strike a debate between arranged versus love marriage nor does it take a swipe at any of the two. All it does is show that be it love or arrange, things can go wrong. Often, the happiest couples are the one who are the most in trouble.


Most actors in this film are not big names but almost all of them deliver exceptional performances.
Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi are, as always, in top form. They pull off the old couple part very well and manage to generate chemistry, too. Raima Sen hasn't had many decent films to her credit. But here, Raima Sen shines as the wife who slowly breaks away from the shackles of a traditional housewife and learns how to be, just herself. Playing her counterpart, Kay Kay Menon proves, like always, that he is one of Bollywood's most underrated actors. From the sadistic warden in Deewar to the ungrateful, deceptive son in Sarkar, Kay Kay really has come far. Amisha Patel, who has the ability to make one want to not want to watch a film primarily because of her sheer presence, manages to hold her ground. And then there is the beautiful Sandhya Mridul, who has proven her acting prowess on Indian television with soaps like Koshish. She is magnificent as the outspoken Indian girl.

Every actor brings a level of charm and uniqueness to this ensemble movie that is truly one of the funniest films to come out of Bollywood after the small budget, Khosla Ka Ghosla.

Many directors have tried telling stories of too many characters but they have often failed despite big budgets, huge sets and an even bigger star cast. Salaam-e-Ishq is the most recent example. Darna Zaroori Hai, Darna Mana Hai, Hum Saath Saath Hain are some other examples. Reema Kagti excels as a director because she keeps the story simple, funny and close to home.

Small budget films in India are slowly making a place for themselves amongst the big banners. Now it is films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Jhankar Beats, White Noise and now, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited who are giving big films like Nishabd a run for its money. Such films have given Indian cinema a lot more substance and style than many mediocre films with well-known names.

In a nutshell, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Limited, without being preachy, takes a tongue-in-cheek look at marriages, their survival, what it takes and how two individuals often compromise and eventually end up at a middle ground. This is one fun flick, it definitely deserves two thumbs up!

--Maheen Sabeeh
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME

 
Stranger than Fiction*****
*ing: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman
Directed by Marc Forster
 
Take a tragic geek (with bouts of obsessive compulsive disorder), a shiny magical wristwatch (that has a life of its own) and a successful author (who takes great gratification in bumping off her main characters) and what do you get? A film that is a cut above typical 'family fluff comedies' in terms of a bizarrely comic plot and excellent actors to boot.

In the film, Ferrell plays a low-key, meticulous IRS agent (Harold Crick) whose life is full of numbers and calculations, disturbingly clean starch white sheets (with everything in its right place) and a compulsive need to brush his teeth a certain number of times. Yes, he's one of 'those' (contently) isolated, highly intelligent individuals who spend their lives functioning like well-oiled machines in demanding, number-crunching jobs - where personal desires, emotional fulfillment and a sense of adventure are completely alien.
 
 
The character played by Ferrell is a tragic yet quirkily comic one, just like that of Melvin's played by Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets. But Crick is slightly special. For one, he isn't shrouded by a cloud heavy with caustic thought; neither is he a character who says things that are (unintentionally) hurtful (like Melvin's). Crick has a poker-faced innocence that is coupled with a (conscious) conviction that his (mechanical) life is fine just the way it is.

And then one morning, Harold hears a woman's voice which says: "Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death" as he goes about his day. "What? What? Hey! HELLOOO! What? Why? Why MY death? HELLO? Excuse me? WHEN?" Hollers a maniacally paranoid (now un-poker-faced) Harold at the sky above. The scene is uproarious and sets the tone for what is to follow. Who is this woman with the heavily accented voice? How and why does she keep narrating Harold's life? If she's just a narrator for the movie, how can Harold hear her? But he does. Loud and clear. Where Harold goes, the voice follows, what Harold does, the voice simply describes and relates.
And up until now (and till somewhere in the middle of the movie) both Harold and the viewer are shoved into the same boat of bafflement (albeit Harold remains slightly more 'up the wall' given it's his life the woman is narrating!).

The movie deals with a bigger 'issue', which is mainly the isolation that one feels in this robotic-high-tech-gadgetry 'new world' (of the highly overrated 21st century) that we live in today. And unlike those 'I was a geek before I realized my dreams, hoo-haa look Ma' flicks, Stranger than Fiction is digestible due to its fantasy ("this may sound like gibberish to you, but I think I'm in a tragedy") elements and humorous ("yes, I'm relieved to know that I am not a golem") expose of each character.

For those of you who may have enjoyed films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lucia, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Magnolia, Stranger than Fiction is the modern, class-A fantasy/comedy of the year.

--Sonya Rehman
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME