|
|
|
August 17, 2006
Eight Days a Week
Film
Mission: Impossible 3 offers up only a variation on a familiar theme but it does so competently that only a real curmudgeon would begrudge the movie for delivering on what it promises. Tom Cruise is back as superspy Ethan Hunt on the hunt (!) again for a doomsday weapon while his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) falls into the hands of the bad guys led by Owen Davian (Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman having a thoroughly great time “slumming” in an summer action blockbuster). Assisting Hunt are IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team members played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ving Rhames, Maggie Q and Felicity Russell while his IMF bosses are Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup.
J.J. Abrams the man behind the television series Lost and Alias is at the directorial helm this time (following in the footsteps of Brian De Palma and John Woo) and anyone familiar with the latter series ––– also set in the shady world of international espionage ––– will find a few plot elements and storytelling techniques from it popping up here as well. But Abrams keeps a tight hand on the ship and pulls off the obligatory electrifying stunt scenes in great style. Pleasantly one is also surprised to find a plot which hangs together much more coherently than the first two M:I movies. Overall, good summer action fun.—Khusro Mumtaz
OR
After skewering the party set and the vapid denizens of the newspaper society pages in the admirable Page 3, director Manoj Bhandarkar sets his sights on the corporate world and nexus it forms with stock market financiers and shady politicians in Corporate. The movie details the competition between corporate giants, one led by Dharmesh Marwah (Raj Babbar) and the other by Vinay Sehgal (Rajat Kapur), competing for the same project and willing to go to any lengths to come out ahead. Among the movie’s large number of characters two of the more prominent are Nishi (Bipasha Basu), a top executive with the Sehgal Group, and her boyfriend and Sehgal’s brother-in-law (Kay Kay Menon). Manisha Lambha and Samir Dattani play two newcomers to the business world while Lillette Dubey is a TV media personality reporting on the business community.
This is far from the typical Mollywood masala flick and you’ll need to play close attention to the plot. Some of the characters may come across as stereotypes rather than real people but, unfortunately, the stereotypes do actually exist and as in Page 3, Bhandarkar takes no prisoners. He also uses real-world events (such as the banning of certain world-famous cola drinks from some Indian states due to the presence of pesticides) to hammer home his points. This one does not have quite the impact of Bhandarkar’s last feature but it’s a fine film nevertheless. First-rate acting from all concerned and Bipasha Basu shows that there’s a lot more to her than just playing the vixen.—K.M.
Album
From the dusty lanes of Karachi to the glitz and glam of Los Angeles, TEE-M (Tariq Mirza) is one success story. Reared on heavy rock and pop in the `70s that were ruled by Elvis Presley, Cliff Richards and Bill Haley, budding singer Mirza made the most of a friend’s guitar to compose lilting music besides putting together his first band in Pakistan, The 21st Century, some 30 years ago.
Blessed, too, with a flair for writing lyrics that are hugely inspired by the legendary Beatles, Tee-M has realised his passion for music in a big way. It is, indeed, to the singer’s credit that he has made waves on the US music scene by making it to the Top 100 Unsigned Artists on Music Connections, one of the top radio charts in America.
His latest offering, Earthiotic — songsfromaoneroompalace, is an intriguing experiment to say the least. It opens with ‘And I was Gone’, a tender and uncomplicated vocal that rock fans will find hard to skip for its shimmering guitar appeal. It is followed by an easily forgettable Disappeared and She Lives in a Car which are high on orchestration but low on melody, a sensory overload of sorts.
To give the artist his due, it is refreshing to see TEE-M exploring such impassioned material as Life, New Orleans and Man Without A Country in the album. All three numbers are outstanding in theme and rendition with the last mentioned depicting the plight of Merhan Karimi Nassiri, a man stuck in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 16 years. They are not only fresh, unhackneyed accounts of real life subjects but are recorded in warm, clear sound.
Track number 8 on the CD is Hallucination, a haunting number à la John-Lennon. Packed with trance-like instrumentation it speaks volumes of musician, album co-producer Geoff Tyson’s brilliance.
For someone catering to a largely Western audience, Mirza has risked his harmonic appeal by including a few Urdu numbers such as ‘Aao, Aao, Aao where he emotionally draws on childhood memories of his mother’s cooking, and ‘Yahrah’. Unfortunately, these two widely divergent numbers, not just in terms of langauge but also in composition, fail to make the grade and would do little for the audiences anywhere.—Rishad Mahmood
Single
LeAnn Rimes was a child prodigy with the release of her smash hit Blue when she was just 14 years of age. She quickly became a Country-Pop princess with tracks like How Do I Live, Can’t Fight the Moonlight and I Need You. In 2002, she transformed herself from a sweet schoolgirl into a sexy new image and released a pure pop album titled Twisted Angel, which while flopping in the United States gained her a whole new following of fans in the UK and throughout the rest of the world.
Her latest single is a revamped, pop version of her previous song Some People, which originally appeared on her This Woman disc and which will now appear on her highly anticipated upcoming ninth album Whatever We Wanna.
Superior to the earlier version, this new take showcases Rimes’ maturity as an artist, and highlights her strengthening skills in the pop world. The romantic lyrics celebrate finding true love with the happily married Rimes singing, Some people aren't lucky like us/Some people they just give up/When the hard times fall/The thrill of it all is gone/Leaves you in a cloud of dust/It's sad to think that some won't find it.
Although the theme is similar to Shania Twain’s You’re Still the One and Christina Aguilera’s Ain’t No Other Man, Some People doesn’t have the staying power of the other two tracks. However, it is a fun summer single and Rimes really nails the high note when she belts out the line A little faith will pull us through.
She’s still no Kylie, but at just 23 and having already ruled the country music scene, Rimes is well on her way to conquering the pop world. –
T.U. Dawood
Conference
Alliance Française de Karachi is organising a painting exhibition by Hashim and Azim Aullah Baber in its art gallery on August 18 at 6pm. The exhibition will remain open till August 24, from 11am to 7pm.
Talk
Hamid Saeed Akhtar will speak on Three Dimensions of Khudi today (August 17) at 6pm at Model Town Library Auditorium, Lahore.
OR
Dr Nasir Rana will give a lecture on Bulleh Shah at Cultural Complex, Lahore, on August 22 at 6pm. The talk will be followed by a kalaam concert showcasing performances by Samina Hasan Syed, Shafquat Hussain, Jaffar Hussain, Ayesha Ali and Riaz Ahmad.
Movie Screening
Film Woyzeck will be screened at Goethe-Institut, Karachi, today (August 17) at 6pm.
Seminar
Seminar on Research to Policy interface for Child Health and Nutrition in Pakistan is taking place at Aga Khan University, Karachi today (August 17). This seminar aims to bring together some of the leading research groups in Pakistan, selected healthcare professionals, UN agency representatives, development partners and policy makers to review the situation about the status of child health in Pakistan.
Dawn, The Review, Haroon House,
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Karachi.
Please send in event dates
a week in advance.
E-mail: the-review@dawn.com
|
|
|
|
