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Unlike the West, Indian Cinema hasn’t got many movies made on the subject of War. The filmmakers lead by financial motives, somehow did not find the genre commercially viable or capable of resulting in profitable figures. But out of the handful movies attempted by some serious directors in this genre, we still have a worth watching Gem to recall with an apt title “Haqeeqat” (The Reality). Thoughtfully directed by the legendary Chetan Anand and melodiously equipped by the musical maestro Madan Mohan, the black & white Classic still remains “The Best Project” on the subject of War and its consequences in Hindi Cinema till date.
Based on the Indo-China war, it’s a realistic take on the War Front where thousands of people are shot like lifeless targets. Where along with soldiers from both the sides, the undisclosed victims of a war are the innocent civilians living on the borders in their small villages. Directed from the prospective of a nation which has never attacked any neighboring country, the movie is unarguably full of text book material on film-making. Shot on the original and beautiful location of Laddakh and superbly acted by every single person in the star-cast, “Haqeeqat” is a strong & worthy representative of Indian Cinema all over the world. With immortal songs like “Main Yeh Soch Kar”, “Hoke Majboor Mujhe” and “Kar Chale Hum Fida Jan-o-Tan Sathiyo” it becomes a mandatory watch for every Hindi Cinema lover around the globe and you simply cannot afford to miss it.
Directed By Chetan Anand
Starring : Balraj Sahni, Dharmendra, Vijay Anand, Sanjay Khan, Priya Rajwansh, Sudhir, Mac Mohan, Bhupinder & more
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Haqeeqat, Chetan Anand, Balraj Sahni, Best Ever Hindi Songs, Best Ever Patriotic Songs, Chetan Anand, Haqeeqat, Hoke Majboor Mujhe, Kaifi Azmi, Madan Mohan, Main Yeh Soch Kar, Manna Dey, Mohd.Rafi, Rafi Saab, Sudhir, Talat Mehmood, Vijay Anand, War Movies, Must See Movies List by Bobby Sing, Movies To See Before You Die at Bobbytalkscinema.com
Ashutosh Gowariker’s movie on romance and marriage revolves around a NRI boy who has come to India in order to get married within a week. To meet his urgent requirement he decides to see 12 different girls representing each Zodiac sign in the few days he has got. Harman Baweja plays the role of a desperate NRI boy and Priyanka Chopra convincingly plays all the 12 girls by herself.
Whereas the movie is said to be based on a novel by Madhu Rye, the theme also has huge similarities with a late eighties T.V. Serial made by Ketan Mehta in 1989 with the title “Mr. Yogi”. In that highly popular serial too there is a NRI person played by Late Mohan Gokhale, who wants to get married to an Indian girl. For this he shortlists 12 different girls and then meets a new lady in each fresh episode of the 13 week serial. It also had the veteran actor Om Puri playing the Sutradhar (narrator) of the story in a comic style.
Interestingly the serial was also based on a Gujrati play where in the lead character was called Mr. Yogesh Ishwarlal Patel aka Y. I. Patel or Mr. Yogi. And in “What’s Your Raashee” too, Harman Baweja has the same name as Mr. Yogesh.
May be both the movie and the serial are based on the same novel or story, but it’s not mentioned anywhere in details about the same.
As contributed by our avid reader, Mr. Jayesh Adhyaru. (In his response to this post)
Both “Mr. Yogi” and “What’s Your Raashee” is based on the same novel by eminent Gujarati writer Mr. Madhu Rye named 'Kimble Ravenswood'.The Gujarati novel was translated into English to prepare a complete script for the movie.
In the late eighties, Mr. Ketan Mehta wanted to use the name of the lead character 'Y. I Patel' as 'Why I Patel', so he changed it from 'Yogesh Shankarlal Patel' (which was in original novel) to 'Yogesh Ishwarlal Patel' in Mr. Yogi.
The original novel also has a character of Yogesh's American girlfriend named 'Peggy' which is not in the movie WYR. Incidentally, you can read the writer's name as 'Dr. Madhusudan Thakar' on the book 'What's Your Raashee' read by Harman Baweja in the movie. "Madhusudan Thakar" is the original name of Madhu Rye, but he has not written any book on astrology and is not an astrologer either.
(Thanks Jayesh for your valuable contribution)
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What's Your Raashee (2009) & Mr. Yogi (1989), Inspired Movies, Inspired Cinema, Bollywood Plagiarism, Plagiarism in Hindi Cinema, Copied Movies, Movies Inspired From, Movie is Inspired By, Borrowed Concepts, Inspired Plots, Bollywood & Hollywood, Reviews by Bobby Sing, Bollywood Gets Inspired, Cinema Gets Inspired, Bollywood & World Cinema, Inspiration from World Cinema, Bollywood Movie Inspirations, LAte Mohan Gokhale, Om Puri, Doordarshan T.V. Serial of 1989.
Looking at the project as a whole, I had my doubts on whether Ashutosh will be able to create the same magic with Harman Baweja, as he previously did with Hrithik Roshan in the role of an unimaginable Akbar. With a shaky subject in hand and mediocre songs on air, I was not sure of another polished product from the director with a big stature in the Industry. And all my doubts proved right as “What’s Your Rashee” came out to be just a below average movie with an unbearable long length, not so impressive content and many unwanted ordinary songs.
Said to be based on the novel by Madhu Rye, the story (which is quite predictable) moves around a young NRI boy who is here in India to marry a girl within a week. To make a good choice he decides to meet a girl from each sun sign and then take a decision. Unfortunately, the interesting idea, fails completely in its uninspiring screen adaptation. Other than the twelve different girls brilliantly portrayed by Priyanka Chopra, there is no particular scene in the movie to rave about. In fact if you see the movie, ignoring the truth that it has been directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, then you will just take it as a debut project of any budding director and nothing more.
The biggest disappointment in the movie is its extra long length and completely uninspiring music. The length is fine when we are watching a movie like “Lagaan” or “Jodha Akbar”, but you cannot make every project close to four hours of duration just for the sake of it. Ashutosh could have easily edited out most of the songs in the movie as they are not anywhere a part of the progressing storyline. The run of the mill soundtrack stands nowhere, if compared to the scores of Gowariker’s earlier projects. Yes, he had the great A. R. Rahman on his side in all those musical masterpieces, but there were also good hummable songs in his “Baazi” too, which proves that he indeed has a good choice of melodies. Surprisingly in “What’s Your Rashee” out of more than 12 songs, we don’t even have one particular track to stay in our mind except the obvious title number.
Apart from its length and music, the monotonous act of seeing girls again and again becomes quite boring and annoying after a while. There is a very silly explanation given about the similar faces of all 12 girls in the start which puts you off straight away. The completely avoidable and poorly written detective angle in the script fails to make an impact. It also does not reach any conclusion since Ashutosh simply forgets about this added sub-plot towards the end and moves on. There is no proper justification given about how & why Harman makes his choice in the climax as everything just gets sorted our very easily and quickly.
In few words, it’s a Priyanka Chopra movie all the way, where she acts, dances and emotes in 12 different ways in a fantastic manner. Unarguably, it’s one of the best performances of her career till date. On the other hand, I really feel sad for Harman Baweja, who is a true hard worker, but still hasn’t got the lady luck smiling at him. When it came to Harman’s turn, even the man with a midas touch, lost his golden stroke and failed. May be it’s all destiny that whatever the boy does, he always gets compared to Hrithik Roshan, because of their naturally similar looks.
All other character artists in the movie have simply performed their allotted roles as a duty towards the director. Cinematography serves the purpose well and visual graphics are nice to see on the screen. Especially the graphical presentation of all the sun signs at the start reminded me of the famous James Bond opening credits, known for their brilliant graphics and girls.
A few decades back we had a T.V. Serial called “Mr.Yogi”, where also a young NRI selects few girls to meet before his planned marriage. In each episode he used to meet a new girl from a different family and background. And I still remember, that I enjoyed the T.V. serial many times more than the current “What’s Your Rashee”. In all, a big disappointment from the director who’s all last 3 movies, are there in my “Movies To See Before You Die” list.
Rating : 1.5 / 5
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Rani Mukherjee tries hard to win over the viewers with her manly act in “Dil Bole Hadippa” released in September 2009. In the movie based on Cricket, she plays the role of a young sporty girl, who is too good in hitting sixes but is not allowed to play for her town as she cannot be a part of an all boys team. So to realize her dream, she decides to dress up as a “Young Sikh Boy” and successfully gets an entry into the Boys Cricket team.
The plot is very close to the one in “She’s the Man” released in 2006. Here also when the Girls Soccer Team gets cancelled, the leading lady of the movie disguises herself as a boy, gets an entry into the Boys Soccer team and helps them to win a big important game towards the end.
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