Midsummer movies

SPENDING IT

Okay. So Farah Khan's retro take on Bollywood's cliches, Main Hoo Na has come out with flying colours at the box office.

But that's a film which does not need any recommendation or warning "" whether you silently admit to yourself when no one's around, that the first half an hour was intolerable, and that the comedy track apart the film was insipidly cheesy, you would have seen it anyway.

At least once. But then who cares, whether a reviewer feels that the film is up his street or not?

On the other hand, inspite of the hype behind the Ratnam brand and the classy execution of Yuva, the reports apparently aren't very heartwarming.

Sure Yuva, isn't as solid a film as the hugely underrated Dil Se was but Mani Ratnam's film has some fabulous moments notably the ones involving the most sincere couple on screen "" Abhishek (you need prayers to get you a hit, dude!) and Rani.

Eminently watchable, albeit some unfinished work at the editing table. But if Abhishek's drought at the box office makes you want to pray for him, go and see Run.

Boney Kapoor's film's core values are its cliches and loopholes, and is supposedly based on life in a small town, involving a brainless brother (Mahesh Manjrekar) and a painless lover (Abhishek Bachchan).

While Tigmanshu Dhulia's splendid small town political thriller Haasil did lay the ground work, in the genre, for writers and directors to follow, debutant director Jeeva decided to hit a maiden home run in his own style apeing a successful Tamil flick frame-by-frame.

As a result, two weeks down the line the audience, the distributors, the producer and the stars are on the run. In different directions though.

Summer isn't perhaps the best time to run Hollywood flicks, in India, and amongst the forgettable mush slushed across the multiplex screens are two commendable watches from different ends of the spectrum. The first is Hellboy.

Quite a fabulous premise of a creature from hell, adopted by the American Special Force to combat evil. And the film has its soul intact in a self-deprecating, nonchalant super hero, played with great aplomb by a chain-smoking Ron Perlman, who not only kills monsters but is equally adept at rescuing cats, taking advice from pre-teens and giving into cute pangs of jealousy over his love interest who happens to be a mutant. What Hellboy lacks is a good fleshed out villain.

I mean, we all expect those dumb, machine-clone monsters to at the end of it all, start malfunctioning or succumb to Hellboy's might. What hopefully Hellboy 2 (scheduled to be out in 2006) will have is a credible, wise-cracking equivalent of a Lex Luthor or Darth Vader.

When it comes to a 'smarter adversary, you don't have to count on Stephen King to deliver you that "" he inevitably will. Especially if the adversary has to match up to the splendidly complex character portrayed in Secret Window by Johnny Depp.

Author Mort Rainey (Depp), suffering from writer's block, and undergoing a divorce, is confronted by a Southern accented farmer (John Turturro), who accuses Rainey of plagiarism and wants the author to rewrite and republish the story with the 'original ending'.

Splendidly shot with the right balance of King-ish mystique and desolate eerieness, the film rests on a simple plot, but Depp and Turturro's performance makes it the best flick for this weekend.

But if you'd much rather stay indoors, there are quite a few interesting compilations that EMI has released, to keep the rock lover happy. The Alternative album is something I would recommend rock aficionados to pick up.

The two volumes (CDs Rs 199 each), apart from including a whole host of modern rock bands like Doves, The Beta Band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Hell is for Heroes, is a fabulous introduction to the kind of work that has been happening over the last few years in rock circuits on either sides of the Atlantic "" a good excuse for the fanatic followers of the '70s and '80s brands, to open their minds.

But if you still don't give much for the young rockers of today, the Vintage Rock double CD [CDs Rs 399, tapes Rs 150] is the perfect anthology for 80s rock.

And anthems like Deep Purple's "Soldier of Fortune", Poison's "Every Rose has its Thorn" sit alongside absolute gems like Saigon Kick's "Love is On the Way" and Black Sabbath's "Changes". With a combination of power ballads and innovative riff struck melodies, it's vintage adrenaline at its roaring best.