Guru vs. Dhoom 2

(Mani Ratnam vs. the dude who directed Dhoom 2)

Guru: This just proves what a difference a good director can make. You have to be super talented to get Rai to act like that. She looks really beautiful and does full justice to her role. Abhishek is brilliant too. In fact every actor does an awesome job. There’s this blink and you’ll miss it scene with Madavan at his wife’s funeral where he absolutely just breaks your heart. Rai is brilliant in two scenes - one on the train just after she’s been betrayed by her lover (ugh I hate that word) and the other on the road when she realises why Guru really married her. Abhishek is obviously backed by a brilliant script but he is outstanding. And stop saying he can’t act. The boy can act. I’ve been in love with Rehman’s music since the album came out a couple of months ago and Rajeev Menon’s cinematography complements it beautifully. I couldn’t help being reminded of ‘chinna chinna aasai’ from Roja while watching ‘Barso re’. Go watch the movie if you haven’t already. This is no 'Kannathil Mutthamittal' but it still has the Ratnam stamp on it.

Dhoom 2: This one wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. I thought Dhoom 1 sucked and the only reason I went to watch this one was cause my friend who had just had a baby some 4 weeks earlier had not seen daylight in well 4 weeks and she really needed to get out of the house and so I was forced to go. (I also wanted to see Abhishek Bachchan and no one had warned me about his new ugly look. Did he pick out his own clothes or something?) And yes I have married friends now …. who have children! I feel ancient. So anyway Dhoom 2 with its cool (at least for Hindi movies) stunts and tricks was quite entertaining. If only Aishwarya Rai’s character was mute, I would’ve enjoyed the movie so much more. I mean she looks pretty good (except for that one annoying gun shooting scene where no one shoots anyone where they forgot to blend in her makeup and she looked like a ghost) but they insist on giving her dialogues and I still have nightmares where I hear that annoying giggle … and the “Like why? Sunehri likes.” Anyway did anyone else think they were gonna steal the dinosaur skeleton from the museum in that last big robbery scene? I have to say I was really disappointed when Hatrick announces that he is gonna steal the coin. The coin? I mean after the whole white powder statue thingy with the reflecting diamond (?) I totally expected more. And don’t get me started on the sidekick with his Baywatch family dreams. WTF was that about?