(500) days of Summer !!

“This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story” - so says the narrator at the start of the movie. 90 mins later when the movie ends its hard to make up your mind your take on those lines. As ‘500 days of summer’ is one of those romantic movies which has everything going for itself to be a just another date movie or a feel good romcom, and yet has its subtle variations that makes it stand out from the other ones in its same genre.

So we have our hero Tom Hansen ( Gordon-Levitt) who falls in love with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) at the very first sight. So we have Tom who believes that true love surely exists and is damn sure that summer is his soul mate the moment he sees her. Summer on the other hand is someone who really doubt if something called love exists and who isn’t attached to anything and is never for any serious relationship. So he likes her instantly in a very serious intense way, she likes him eventually in a casual way!! She warns him it’s nothing serious and just a casual relationship and doesn’t want to give them any tags of boyfriend – girlfriend. So they have a good time together, everything looks nice and merry until one day when she calls it quits. She moves on, he is stuck and vows to win her back .So do he or does he not?? Well it’s better to be watched rather read!!

What makes this movie mainly work is its brilliant screenplay. The narrative is completely non linear. Its moves back and forth constantly and makes it an engaging watch. It starts off with the two happily sitting on the favorite spot in the city and enjoying an evening, immediately cuts back to stage to the day when she calls it quits, then it goes back further back to the day he meets her the first time, then its jumps ahead where he is trying to win her back and so on. So as much as it predictable the non linearity in the narrative keeps us guessing what really has happened. It is beautifully done. Then the lead pair are very simple looking normal people. The characterization and the casting of the leads is nothing fancy which makes the story very relatable. More importantly it never gets melodramatic or cheesy at any point, the one mistake most romantic movies make at some point of time in its running time. Here its deftly handled with neat humor sprinkled all over. The dialogues are funny, smart and well written.

The director Marc Webb makes an interesting debut, who has shot several music videos in the past. So we see the influence. This one has some really good soundtrack (Sweet disposition was awesome) running along through the movie and several references to many music bands. He also employs a few split screen sequences to effectively bring out the several differences and a few similarities between his lead characters. There is a scene where Tom enquires what really is the relationship that he shares with summer, intending he wants to make the relationship official, where summer retorts back saying she doesn’t really care what the relationship is and all it matters is if she is happy and doesn’t want to give it any name. Then we see a touch of disappointment in Toms face as their car moves into a road tunnel which goes darker as they progress which implicitly implies the state of their relationship too as tom sees it i.e. no light at the end of the tunnel. Then we have the song sequence right after the two make love for the first time and we see Tom dancing and singing with predominantly blue seen everywhere resembling the blue eyes of Summer. Such little things are beautifully done in this movie.

This one may not make the cut as your favorite romantic movie ( like as is said in the beginning still unsure if you could call this one), but definitely its one of best movies that I watched this year or should I be saying one of the best of movies of this Summer :)

Quickbite - Ajab Prem Ki ghazab Kahani!!!

APKGK is a decent entertainer. Its a mad fun movie, filled with silly gags and loads of slapstick sequence. 15 years after Andaz apna apna the famous cult comedy Rajkumar santhoshi returns to comedy. This one is no where in the league of that classic but nevertheless turns out to be a decent watch. So the script has a lovable carefree hero with a doting mother and a complaining father, a ravishing heroine who has a namesake lover who gets ditched at the very end.. and a hell a lot off characters who form the so many subplots of the movie. The very first sequence of the movie makes us realize that this is one movie that should never be taken seriously and thankfully the script remain faithful to that for the entire part of the movie. It does reminds us of andaz apna apna, KAbhie haa kabhie naa in bits and pieces and probably that was intentional. Watch it if you love mad crazy comedies.

But one reason why you should definitely watch this movie is Ranbir Kapoor. The whole movie completely belongs to Ranbir Kapoor. I don't remember any one of the recent past or i can even go to the extent of saying in the last decade who has such likable screen presence. He is simply terrific. You give him a 10 mins sequence ( the dance party sequence) of pure slapstick and boy o boy how well does he perform. He equally scores in heavy emotional scenes be it the one where he breaks down in front his friends or the scene where he promises his mother to make her proud. Without a doubt he is the next biggest thing in Bollywood. After wake up sid and now with AJKPK he has once again proved that he could effortlessly carry of an entire movie on his shoulders. With Shmit Amins ( Chak de fame) Rocket singh being his next, he can only be moving forward. Way to go Ranbir !!