I really don’t care if this movie is based on Indira Gandhi and generated controversy for all the wrong reasons, I shall remember this movie for the stellar performances of Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and the beautiful music.

Sanjeev Kumar is so restrained and yet so much expressive, it made my heart ache for the character’s pain and longing. Suchitra Sen is beautiful and poised, and even with the tinge of the Bengali accent in her Hindi, gives a believable performance as a woman torn by her desire, ambition and personal demons. I especially applaud how the character is been scripted in a “real” way, where the female protagonist is not portrayed as a stereotypical ruthless or vindictive woman just because she has ambitions of politics power and success. The movie does not also pass value judgement on her character and the decision she made to leave her family to pursue her other interests – and that highly impressed me.

As with all Gulzar’s movies, I love the way it ends.

One of the best movies I have seen this year!

Sajid Khan spent the first half of his career parodying movies and movie stars – I expected that a film directed by him would overcome the flaws that he would pick up on and rip apart during his hey days on the TV. But like all talk and no walk, Heyy Babyy is extremely a shoddy cinematic venture where none of its stars in the movie can save it when the plot is so weak. The movie at times reaches a point of predictable ridiculousness, that you are not laughing with it, but at it.

Avoid this movie at all costs if you are easily angered by stupidity on the silver screen.

Why you should watch this movie:

1. The three children give a great performance.
2. Gulzar’s beautiful songs
3. Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah.

Why you might not like this movie:

1. Patriarchal bullshit that is justified and fed through masala movies – man has an affair, illegitimate child and then his family reconciles with him and his child at the end, like a fairytale ending.

Even the brilliant ensemble of the top stars in the industry, and an attempt at drama, comedy and horror with the song-dance routine thrown in for the masses, Farah Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ fails to entertain.

My friend who had watched the movie before me had told me that you don’t need to apply your brains to watch this movie and her feedback proved to be true in a horrifying way. Sure there were moments when the whole cinema hall was laughing at the spoofs but there’s no flow in the plot and certain parts were overloaded with aggravating and overtly sentimental dialouges and pointless tear-shedding, it almost felt like we were watching something stuck between a soap opera and a comic reality tv show.

Arjun Rampal is the gem in this shoddy work – looks his part and acts really well. Shahrukh does his usual stuff while Deepika looks ravishing but has a long way to go before she can emote.

The songs are beautifully reminiscent of the bygone 70s and 80s and the costumes are quite eye-catching. But that’s all there is to this movie.

Fantastic movie! Very gripping and a sad drama, with its many twists in the plot.

I know a lot of people have found it violent and I was warned about it before I watched the movie, but it makes the movie quite realistic without glorifying or excusing violence.

All the actors have given a very credible performance, and I was quite surprised to learn that most of them non-professionals after I looked up the movie in google.

I highly recommend this movie, but don’t watch it you are squeamish about a whole lot of blood-spilling and gun firing!

Elephant was on my “must-watch” movies list for a long, long time. I saw the stills of the movie in a film stills community and then read up on the Columbine shootings in-depth.

After having watched this movie, I am not sure how to exactly put my feelings in words. It is one of the movies that intrigues you for all the wrong reasons, and you don’t know what to make of it at the end.

I love the cinematography and the narrative style, but am unsure about the plot and the characters overall. In Elective English classes, we used to read about these one-dimensional characters – and that’s what all the characters in the movie seemed to be like..

Ah, well, I shall go rambling at this rate..shall get back to this soon after given the movie another go.

A delightful cinematic and a musical treat!

Flexible morality. And I like the idea.

There is no black and white, it’s just grey. Similarly, this movie is an interesting satire – not too over the top and not too preachy either. Everyone from the corporations to the activists to the politicians have their own agenda, their own justifications. It’s important in society that everyone’s voice is heard.

A consensus cannot be reached with differences and diversity to start from.

Even though this was made in 1999 and primarily reflects the advertising in the West, the hyper sexualized and sexist nature of ads still continue and have pervaded the global market because of globalization and media tie ups. Most of these ads are making their way into the Indian market (as if we didn’t have our own brand of sexist and gender insensitive advertisements, now there’s international competition!)

One guy asked me why was it demeaning to use women to sell a car? I simply asked him how many ads feature scantily dressed women on top of/beside the car or surrounding men who drive expensive/fast cars and how many actually depict women as driving a car?(My point being: Why not use her to sell the car as the focus, as a whole, a person or a consumer instead of dissecting her into body parts or sexually objectifying her?) Silence ensued; obviously he couldn’t think of an example. There have been such ads, but as an aberration which is why they have faded from public memory too.

The documentary deals with a lot of issues: of brainwashing, of consent, of conditioning and finally, of the issue of choice that the consumer supposedly has – the latter being the biggest myth that the media and the advertisers have succeeded in forcing down our throats.

Please watch this. It might give you something to think about.

An online version is also available here.

While the plot left much to be desired, I still had a good time watching the movie. I think I am more easygoing with animated movies but it’s just hard to find faults with cute animal characters who also talk!