Jurm is a pretty inept copy of the Ashley Judd/Tommy Lee Jones starrer Double Jeopardy, which was a pretty mediocre movie in the first place. However, the one nod to originality is that they have switched the gender of the main protagonist around. In the original, Judd played the wife accused of murdering her husband. Here you’ve got Bobby Deol playing a husband charged with knocking off his wife (Lara Dutta). Milind Soman, the model turned actor, plays Deol’s best friend-cum-lawyer and Gul Panag, the ex-girlfriend whom he ditches for Dutta.
This mystery thriller has no mystery and no thrills because one can guess pretty much from the beginning where the movie is going to go. So there’s no real reason to watch this film. The biggest mystery about the whole thing is what’s behind the formerly luscious Lara Dutta (about whom I’m not completely objective as readers of my reviews will know) looking so pudgy all of a sudden.—Khusro Mumtaz
OR
Karam chronicles the attempts of a mob hitman (John Abraham) trying to get out of the business after he starts suffering from a guilty conscience when a hit goes awry. He wants to take his night-club singer wife (Priyanka Chopra) and leave town. But his boss won’t let him leave — at least not until he completes one final contract.
For its first 30 minutes or so, Karam is a stylish looking film that comes across as being quite slickly made. From there it goes completely downhill. Director Sanjay F. Gupta (not to be confused with Sanjay Gupta, director of Kaante and Musafir) is obviously influenced by Quentin Tarantino in not only his subject matter but his treatment of it. Many of the supporting characters belong in a Tarantino-esque universe and there’s a whole animated sequence a la the one in Kill Bill. There’s also a sword fight at the end. Problem is Gupta doesn’t have much of a story to hang his stylistic tricks on and while Tarantino has a method to his madness Gupta doesn’t. For instance, Kill Bill’s animated sequence was a result of the fact that it depicted a story set in Japan where anime (Japanese animation) is huge and an integral part of popular culture. So it made sense. Karam’s animated sequence doesn’t — though it’s reasonably well done.
Gupta’s only been taken in by the surface gloss of Tarantino’s movies and that’s what he apes but forgets the substance along the way. The plot has some major holes and the fight scenes just go on endlessly and start getting more and more ridiculous as the movie goes along. The movie’s brevity (it’s only two hours long) thus comes as a relief. Skip it.—K.M.
OR
The Ring 2, the sequel to The Ring, is a major disappointment. Doubly so because it is directed by Hideo Nakata, the man who brought us the original Japanese movies — Ringu and Ringu 2 — that provided the basis for Hollywood’s adaptations .
I had loved The Ring as it was the creepiest horror movie I had seen in some time. It had eerie imagery and a sustained feeling of dread with a genuine sense of mystery to the whole affair. The presence of Naomi Watts didn’t hurt either. So I was quite looking forward to the sequel. But Ring 2 has such inconsistencies in its plot and so many scenes make no sense at all that I was just left shaking my head.
The movie does have some genuine scary moments and scenes which make you jump but I like my movies — even if they are science-fiction or horror flicks — to maintain an internal logical consistency. Once a movie sets up certain rules it needs to stick by them. But in The Ring 2 it seems the rules are being made up on the fly. For instance, there seems to be no reason why, at one point in the movie, Samara (the evil entity which is going around killing people) suddenly needs to physically escape the confines of a well when she’s demonstrated earlier that she can pretty much show up wherever and whenever she wants to. Naomi Watts tries to do what she can with the material she’s given but even she can only do so much. The cameo by Sissy Spacek may also bring a chuckle to horror movie aficionados but it really doesn’t help the movie overall. So while The Ring 2 is not a complete waste of time I can’t really recommend it either.—K.M.
SINGLE
Garbage is back with their coolest song in ages and their first single in three long years! Titled Why Do You Love Me?, this track makes full use of electric guitars and singer Shirley Manson is simply on fire. She attacks the powerful chorus Why do you love me?/It’s driving me crazy with a ferocity and passion that is almost tangible.
Manson has always made Alanis Morrissette seem girl next door and if it weren’t for the constant break-up and make-up lifestyle of Garbage, the fiery vocalist would likely have reached even greater fame. However, the strength of the band has always been in the chemistry between its members. While recording Why Do You Love Me?, drummer-guitarist Butch Vig quit and everything was stalled until fortunately he returned four months later.
Full of slick tempo changes, infectious hooks, a pumping opening bass line and Manson at her sultriest, Why Do You Love Me? is Garbage at its finest and was well worth the wait. The lyrics are as well-written as ever, with Manson declaring I’m no barbie doll/I’m not your baby girl/I’ve done ugly things and I have made mistakes/And I am not as pretty as those girls in magazines/I am rotten to my core if they’re to be believed/So what if I’m no baby bird hanging upon your every word?
This smart, ace track whets the appetite for Garbage’s upcoming new album Bleed Like Me.—T. U. Dawood
SINGLE
Mariah Carey has never quite recovered from making her 2001 flop film Glitter. Ever since then, her music seems to lack that special spark. Her Charmbracelet CD released in 2002 lacked charm (and melody), but now the Diva is back with a new album The Emancipation of Mimi. Mimi is her nickname and the album is meant to represent her attempt to free herself from all her baggage and negative karma. And, after all, nicknames seemed to have helped Jennifer Lopez’s (“J.Lo,” “Jenny From the Block,” etc.) career, right?
Although this CD has better beats than Charmbracelet, it is often at the expense of the melody, and far from the comeback album Carey and her record label desperately need and desire, Emancipation is unlikely to free the singer from her current rut. On weaker tracks like the sugarly I Wish You Knew, not only are the lyrics too sappy but there are consistencies in Carey’s voice which indicates the artist who was hospitalized for exhaustion in 2001 may not yet be in top form.
However, the disc does have its moments. The Neptunes add some sophisticated club vibe to her ballads and there are some interesting tunes with some solid soaring R&B ballads like Stay the Night and We Belong Together.
Despite some definitely flaws on the album, there is a lot of potential as well and one can only hope the Diva is back on track and well on her way to regaining her magic.—T. U. D
DRAMA
Aik Kahani is a one-hour series with each episode focusing on a different story and deals with bold themes that people can relate to in their daily lives. The plays focus on the different marital problems that couples tend to face. They have been directed by Mehreen Jabbar and Yasir Nawaz and others. On HUM TV every Thursday at 8.30pm.— Shanaz Ramzi
FILM
‘Max Ernst-My Vagabondage, My restlessness’, is a film produced on the 100th anniversary of Max Ernst’s birth and is intended to provide what an exhibition cannot offer: access to the artist himself and authentic information about situations, people, places and landscapes that influenced his work. Max Ernst himself explains the various phases of his revolutionary work. The film will be shown at the Goethe Institut on May 6 at 5pm.
FESTIVAL
The May Queen Karraja Festival, which is an annual event at the Gymkhana, is taking place on May 7 in the evening.
FILM
Karam chronicles the attempts of a mob hitman (John Abraham) trying to get out of the business after he starts suffering from a guilty conscience when a hit goes awry. He wants to take his night-club singer wife (Priyanka Chopra) and leave town. But his boss won’t let him leave — at least not until he completes one final contract.
The Ring 2, the sequel to The Ring, is a major disappointment. Doubly so because it is directed by Hideo Nakata, the man who brought us the original Japanese movies — Ringu and Ringu 2 — that provided the basis for Hollywood’s adaptations .
Garbage is back with their coolest song in ages and their first single in three long years! Titled Why Do You Love Me?, this track makes full use of electric guitars and singer Shirley Manson is simply on fire. She attacks the powerful chorus Why do you love me?/It’s driving me crazy with a ferocity and passion that is almost tangible.
Mariah Carey has never quite recovered from making her 2001 flop film Glitter. Ever since then, her music seems to lack that special spark. Her Charmbracelet CD released in 2002 lacked charm (and melody), but now the Diva is back with a new album The Emancipation of Mimi. Mimi is her nickname and the album is meant to represent her attempt to free herself from all her baggage and negative karma. And, after all, nicknames seemed to have helped Jennifer Lopez’s (“J.Lo,” “Jenny From the Block,” etc.) career, right?
Aik Kahani is a one-hour series with each episode focusing on a different story and deals with bold themes that people can relate to in their daily lives. The plays focus on the different marital problems that couples tend to face. They have been directed by Mehreen Jabbar and Yasir Nawaz and others. On HUM TV every Thursday at 8.30pm.— Shanaz Ramzi
