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PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 6:23 pm 
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Heres my review!!


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 1:59 pm 
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Who trust M Ali Ikram?:

Reviewed by: M. Ali Ikram
Reviewer's Rating: 5.5 out of 10
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Cumulative Rating: 7.93 out of 10
Rated by: 71 unique users

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Left to their own devices, commercial cinema and realistic cinema can each result in an enjoyable experience for viewers. But they are polar opposites in terms of film-making styles; like oil and water, two items that don´t mix well. And yet Sridevi´s first foray into production , Shakti: The Power (spelt Shakthi during the title credits) is a confused product trying haphazardly to mesh the two style together. And as expected, it often does not work.

Nandini (Karisma Kapoor) is a young Canadian Indian, whose parents have passed away. (When, where and why, we are not supposed to care.) She lives with her two uncles, who take care of her departed dad´s restaurant business. They have been pressuring her to get married. So she ultimately relents and weds buddy Shekhar (Sanjay Kapoor), after an impromptu proposal over ice cream. Years pass by, Nandini and Shekhar have a little boy (Jai Gidwani), and life could not be better. But it could be worse. Especially when you are watching a film and you expect something to kick-start the plot.

Nandini and the audience are made aware that Shekhar is not the orphan he has always claimed to be. Upon watching televised news of problems in India, Shekhar is forced to confront his demons and admit that he has an ailing mother and other family members half way around the world. He ran away from them years ago because his relatives are party to an unending intra-family blood battle; a war that has seeped into their very being. He takes Nandini and their son, Raja, to India, to be with his mother. But since it´s a movie, he tells nothing about his family or his past life to his wife until a few days after their arrival. Not even during the twenty plus hour flight to their destination.

Nandini is nearly traumatized on the voyage to her husband´s home town, as she has never been to India before. The attempts on Shekhar´s life along the way, don´t help matters much. Issues compound as we are introduced to Shekhar´s lunatic father, Narsimha (Nana Patekar), a man whose violent nature, regressive thoughts and low intelligent quotient are a dangerous mix. Not only is Narsimha ashamed by his son´s "girlish" acts - in escaping to foreign lands instead of fighting for his people at home - but he continuously disapproves of his new daughter-in-law´s "shameless" attire.

Family battles repeatedly ensue, as grand-dad dearest tries to impart some battle knowledge to the preschool Raja, and exposes the youngster to weapons and bloodshed galore. Nandini yearns for home and Canada, but each request she makes to leave is thwarted by the desperate appeals for a few days more by Raja´s mother (Deepti Naval).

Nothing increases Nandini´s resolve as much as the murder of her young husband at the hands of his father´s enemies. Our young NRI mother can bear no more and wants to leave the country with her young child. But Narsimha is not as receptive to the idea. He is willing to do anything to prevent the "madam" from foreign shores from taking away the only remaining male heir to his "empire". And he proves it to Nandini too.

Director Krishna Vamsi, who also wrote the story, certainly came up with an interesting tale. And yet his execution and delivery does not have as much conviction. (Sure, the film is a superhit in Vamsi´s original regional language adaptations, but that does not make it faultless.)

The basic message of a mother being willing to go to any lengths to protect and save her child was better conveyed in 2001´s "Chandni Bar". Shakti has plenty of its own meritous scenes, those that make you want to applaud the film-makers. Scenes of realism, where the violent and illiterate village folk communicate in the crudest and most vulgar language possible. Where a marriage proposal doesn´t have to be in the most romantic and elaborately set-up sequence in the universe. Where dehydration and exhaustion can take their tolls on the lead character´s body.

Unfortunately, it´s just not enough, and the positive attributes are more than eliminated by the ridiculous commercialism Vamsi throws in after or during a dramatic sequence. I see very little need for all the flashiness. Why open the proceedings by lingering on shots of the heroine sleeping seductively on her opulent bed? Why show a man walking away from inside a car that was just bombed to pieces, only to have him subsequently hunted down again a few minutes later? Why show song, dance, mischief and merry-making with belles galore immediately after a scene of a grotesque murder? Why show a corny and pointless comedy sequence inside a police station, at the same time a woman is being brutally punched and kicked outside the same building? Why end the movie without delivering true justice for the protagonist? These are all elements of commercial film-making, but they are juvenile and inappropriate for a movie that takes itself this seriously. And expects us to do the same.

There are numerous characters and talented artistes in the flick. And Vamsi doesn´t know how to do justice to them all. Patekar, Karisma and Naval are all incomparably excellent, and deserve each minute of their allotted screen time. But you have to wonder why Sanjay Kapoor needed the same. He still lacks true acting prowess, and I cannot help but conclude that his inclusion in the movie was forced due to familial affiliations. Shahrukh Khan´s character, though periodically fun to watch, is another needless commercial compromise in an otherwise serious movie.

The songs? They do not even make sense in it all. If you own the soundtrack, you will realize that most of the tunes did not make it on screen. The ones that do appear, they jar with the mood and proceedings. There´s excitement adrift watching Aishwarya Rai´s boogey to Anu Malik´s audibly horrible "Ishq Kamina" in isolation. But it is horrible timing in the context of the immediately preceding and following scenes in this movie.

S. Sriram´s cinematography is passable. And Allan Amin does an umpteenth retread of the Matrix action sequences, this time focusing on the infamous backward bending moves. Over and over and over again.

I think I have finally disproven the adage that "the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts". In the case of Shakti, I would have liked the movie a lot more if it was missing some of its scenes, and others were reshot in a simpler manner. If only the production team of this "Not Without My Daughter" adaptation realized that excess is not always better. If you can tolerate tense drama combined with stupid comedy at the exact same time, you still may like it. If not, wait for someone else to remake this movie ten years from now. And pray that it is better next time.



http://planetbollywood.com/Film/Shakti:ThePower/

****now we R left to get SCREEN INDIA's review! :baaa: ???


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2002 3:49 pm 
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Another "stricly OK"!!Review:

Another "LET DOWN"?

((((Shakti -The Power is a letdown. Nana Patekar delivers a good performance as Narsimha. Karisma Kapoor in a spirted role does her best. But this is not her best work. Sanjay Kapoor flows smoothly and easy in his cameo. Shah Rukh Khan’s guest appearance is stretched like his death scene. He goes overboard but is funny at times. The much talked about song with Aishwarya Rai Ishq kameena is ill placed and neither of the others make an impact. Deepti Naval as Sanjay’s mother is good but surprisingly she wears only kanjeevaram’s in the hot and humid desert. The dialect of Deepti and Nana too isn’t clearly rajasthani but more from a northern region like Bihar or MP.

The depiction of women, the abuses, the blood gore and violence has been taken up many notches but for what effect? It simply makes the film repulsive. Even when the gaalis are dubbed or simply deleted it wont take a blind man to read between lines. There is no purpose to this.

If you are a fan of the above- it’s your kind of movie.)))))))


by B4U!

Shakti -The Power

Misused Power

Director: Vamsi
Producer: Sridevi Kapoor
Music: Ismail Darbar, Anu Maliik
Cast: Nana Patekar, Karisma Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Deepti Naval
Rating: **

By Kavita Awasthi

Sridevi makes her debut in production with Shakti -The Power, a woman oriented subject. Good so far. The film though has tried to capture the ruggedness and savageness of Bandit Queen and violence of Satya. Instead of being a heartening story of a mother’s struggle to get her three year old son you have endless violence and violation of women at every given opportunity.

In Canada Nandini (Karisma Kapoor) gets married to her friend Shekhar (Sanjay Kapoor) to her uncles (Tiku Talsania and Jaspal Bhatti) delight. Then just like any other hindi film we have a song and wham a baby too. Then while driving one day a screen on a flyover airs news about a brawl in a village in Rajasthan and says Narshima and his wife are hurt. This is really over the top. Why would any international channel be interested in news about a village in Rajasthan?? Narshima (Nana Patekar) turns out to be Shekhar's father.

Shekhar leaves with Nandini and Raja, arrives in a plane, then travels by train in a platform so crowded you might think Shah Rukh Khan had arrived. Then zooms off in a bus when he could happily have got a private car. Well that’s for cinematic liberties. The rival gang leader Beecha (Vijay Raaz) attacks Shekhar but Narsimha’s men rescue him. Narsimha is the local don who rules over 40 villages and 40,000 men. He feels if one does kill his enemies there is no other way of survival. Shekhar of course opposes him and leaves him for Canada eight years ago. Now back, Shekhar finds him self in the same atmosphere. Narsimha embraces his three-year-old grandson Raja (Jai Sidhwani) but keeps taunting Nandini by calling her madam. She is shocked by the culture and attitudes of people in the haveli and she dislikes the fact that Narsimha spends time with Raja.

Beecha is captured and beheaded because he dared to attack Shekar. Nandini now is too scared and wants to leave. She urges Shekhar and even gets into an argument with Narsimha where in Shekhar takes his father’s side. The next day Shekhar gets brutally murdered and now Nandini wants to leave but Narsimha wants Raja to stay. With no other option she tries to escapes with her son. During her third attempt she meets the only man who hasn’t heard of Narsimha (Shah Rukh Khan). He helps her in lieu of money more precisely dollars. In the end, Narsimha realises his folly and lets her go.

Shakti -The Power is a letdown. Nana Patekar delivers a good performance as Narsimha. Karisma Kapoor in a spirted role does her best. But this is not her best work. Sanjay Kapoor flows smoothly and easy in his cameo. Shah Rukh Khan’s guest appearance is stretched like his death scene. He goes overboard but is funny at times. The much talked about song with Aishwarya Rai Ishq kameena is ill placed and neither of the others make an impact. Deepti Naval as Sanjay’s mother is good but surprisingly she wears only kanjeevaram’s in the hot and humid desert. The dialect of Deepti and Nana too isn’t clearly rajasthani but more from a northern region like Bihar or MP.

The depiction of women, the abuses, the blood gore and violence has been taken up many notches but for what effect? It simply makes the film repulsive. Even when the gaalis are dubbed or simply deleted it wont take a blind man to read between lines. There is no purpose to this.

If you are a fan of the above- it’s your kind of movie.

Poor : *
Strictly OK : * *


**** I would like to invite! VIEWERS..PERSONAL COMMENTS on this thread plss!!

rana ji, Nath, goodbadmas..plss, take a SHOT!? :cool: :oo:




Edited By arsh on 1032796458


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 6:37 pm 
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Shakti-The Power
To hell and back

**** Me loved the TITLE of THIS CRITIC! a HELL KOOL!




Shakti is technically brilliant but violence, violence and more violence seems to be director Krishna Vamsi’s byword. Weapons of every conceivable kind are used by all and sundry and at one point, a grass shreader is employed to cut a man’s head off.

The language too is extremely abusive and derogatory to women throughout. In a bid to woo the Hindi-belt, the director has filled the Rajasthani sandscape with bhojpuri spouting characters. And by making Shah Rukh her champion, Nandini is reduced to being a memsaab caught between the crossfire of two extreme cultures.

Karisma Kapoor comes up with a powerhouse performance and breathes dignity in this weak role. Sanjay Kapoor too rises heads and shoulders above his poorly sketched role. Nana Patekar oozes menace while Deepti Naval, on a comeback trail, is brilliant as his long-suffering wife. Shah Rukh gleefully mouths Bhojpuri and his inspired performance is clearly the brightest spot in this otherwise barbaric film.

One expected a more sensitive subject from a woman producer.

Devesh Sharma




http://www.screenindia.com/20020927/frev.html



:baaa: :bangbang:


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 29, 2002 1:41 am 
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arsh wrote:
One expected a more sensitive subject from a woman producer.

What a stupid statement. As if women always would gravitate towards less violent subjects. A woman directed "American Psycho."


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 29, 2002 2:13 am 
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DragunR2 wrote:
arsh wrote:
One expected a more sensitive subject from a woman producer.

What a stupid statement. As if women always would gravitate towards less violent subjects. A woman directed "American Psycho."

Dragun goes to show, that Desi folks dont like such Hard Hitting Films made by Members of the opposite sex. I agree with you the above statement refolects their stupidity :) PERIOD.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2002 3:57 pm 
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jag wrote:
rana wrote:
A must see, today or tomorrow.

Rana

Cool. Do let us know of your impressions

Finally I got to see it in the AMC theatre. This is what I call a movie. Excessive violence that I was affraid was not on the screen. On the 9th day of the movie, there were aprox 60 viewers, and as per theatre that is average even for Hollywood movies.

The Screen was huge. The print was excellent.
Audio, I am not too sure about. It definitely was stereo (may be front 3 channels with directionality), had good base, but no surround.
Credits showed DD and DTS logos. The SHATHI ad showed it as DIGITAL SOUND. The theatre had it as presented in SRD. Actually, all the movies that this theatre was showing were presented either in SDDS or SRD (No DD or dts).

I think SDDS means Sony surround which is better than DD, but if the film print has it. SRD, I an not too sure about. Is it DIGITAL??

Rana

P.S.
I am really appalled that on DEVDAS which was famed for its sets and the amount of money spent on them had un-watchable (nothing visible) prints and ordinary movies, comparatively low budget, have excellent screening. SHAKTHI, too has a few scenes with shadow and Sun in the same scene and the picture detail in the shady area was excellent.

DEVDAS prints remind of that famous story where every body hailed KING's new clothes that were not supposed to be visible to fools. Until a child shouted, hey, the King is naked.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2002 4:26 pm 
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rana wrote:
The Screen was huge. The print was excellent.
Audio, I am not too sure about. It definitely was stereo (may be front 3 channels with directionality), had good base, but no surround.
Credits showed DD and DTS logos. The SHATHI ad showed it as DIGITAL SOUND. The theatre had it as presented in SRD. Actually, all the movies that this theatre was showing were presented either in SDDS or SRD (No DD or dts).

I think SDDS means Sony surround which is better than DD, but if the film print has it. SRD, I an not too sure about. Is it DIGITAL??

Dolby SR-D is actually another term for Dolby Digital. I believe the end credits of "Braveheart" have the SRD logo, with "Dolby Digital" in small letters. Dolby SR is the optical track.

SDDS is Sony's own digital sound system which is capable of up to 7.1 (Left, Left-Center, Center, Right-Center, Right, two surround channels, subwoofer), but it is probably the least reliable compared to DD or DTS. Indian films do not use SDDS.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2002 8:01 pm 
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I saw Shakti The Power last weekend at AMC and I liked it. What stood out the most were the performances(Nana, Karisma & Deepti) & dialogues. Though the ending of the film was complete b.s. :ffs:

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2002 1:34 pm 
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I liked the movie. But one minor flaw that I noticed:
Sanjay Kapoor leaves home and lives in English speaking country. Living in English speaking country (8 yrs), he forgets his village dialet and starts speaking pure Hindi even with his own folks.

Rana


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2002 9:31 pm 
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS POST!!!!!

I just saw Shakthi on a pirated VCD that a friend brought back from Bangladesh, and I'm glad that I didn't watch it in the cinema. I wasn't impressed by the film at all. It was overly violent - don't get me wrong, I have no problem with it as long as it's justified, but I didn't think there was any real 'Shakti' in the movie (apart from Deepti Naval confronting Nana Patekar). The only Shakti Karisma displayed was in her voice !! And did Nana Patekar hit any blokes.......or did he just beat the women up?

It did have a decent storyline, but overall, I got the feeling that some of the violence was just put in to shock more than because it was relevant. And as for the ending - it was the biggest pile of turd I've seen in a long long time.


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2002 9:42 pm 
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bhaskar wrote:
And as for the ending - it was the biggest pile of turd I've seen in a long long time.

I know what you mean. :sus: Infact if the ending was handled in a better way, I would have liked this film alot more.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2002 9:23 pm 
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DragunR2 wrote:
rana wrote:
The Screen was huge. The print was excellent.
Audio, I am not too sure about. It definitely was stereo (may be front 3 channels with directionality), had good base, but no surround.
Credits showed DD and DTS logos. The SHATHI ad showed it as DIGITAL SOUND. The theatre had it as presented in SRD. Actually, all the movies that this theatre was showing were presented either in SDDS or SRD (No DD or dts).

I think SDDS means Sony surround which is better than DD, but if the film print has it. SRD, I an not too sure about. Is it DIGITAL??

Dolby SR-D is actually another term for Dolby Digital. I believe the end credits of "Braveheart" have the SRD logo, with "Dolby Digital" in small letters. Dolby SR is the optical track.

SDDS is Sony's own digital sound system which is capable of up to 7.1 (Left, Left-Center, Center, Right-Center, Right, two surround channels, subwoofer), but it is probably the least reliable compared to DD or DTS. Indian films do not use SDDS.

SR-D

The theatre manager said, SR-D comes off the film and is not Dolby Digital. May be he is wrong??

AMC official reply states it as:

"SRD is a dolby digital product, Spectral Recording Digital".

Any confirmation??

Rana


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2002 11:01 pm 
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These! damn IDIOTS dont know any thing :angry: :baaa: :stupid: :bangbang:


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 12:06 am 
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rana wrote:
SR-D

The theatre manager said, SR-D comes off the film and is not Dolby Digital. May be he is wrong??

AMC official reply states it as:

"SRD is a dolby digital product, Spectral Recording Digital".

Any confirmation??

Rana

Dolby Digital is encoded on the film between the sprockets. SDDS is encoded on the edges of the film, I believe. For DTS, a timecode is printed on the film and CD-ROMs play the soundtrack in sync with the timecode.


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