'Drona' - a superhero yet vulnerable and human Film Review - Rating ***
ENT15Entertainment/Cinema'Drona' - a superhero yet vulnerable and human Film Review - Rating ***By Subhash K. JhaFilm: "Drona"; Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Kay Kay Menon, Jaya Bachchan; Director: Goldie Behl; Rating: ***Goldie Behl dares to dream. He's back after a seven-year hiatus to let us know that "Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai" was not where his 'khwab' dream ended. As a matter of fact, the dream begins now. "Drona" is a feeling not quite overpowering but purposely underplayed and designed to bring the till-now-barred-in-Bollywood "Lord Of The Rings" genre to our table.On the storyboard "Drona" must have sounded outrageously ambitious. It's a film that starts in the US, moves to the deserts of Rajasthan and makes an exit run into a never-never land where blue petals shower down on the screen creating an area of enchantment and incandescence without letting the spectacle dominate the characters.As far as super-heroes go, the one that Abhishek plays in "Drona" is somewhat unique. Seething, scowling, wounded and wanting, Abhishek plays a knight in a shining armour, a romantic at heart and a warrior only by force. He glides across the screen doing some of the most gently persuasive old-world stunts conceived on this side "Lord Of The Rings". The action often involves the leading lady Priyanka, who is quite good.Behl with persuasive support from cinematographer Samir Arya builds a visual mindscape manifested in moving pictures that suggest a deep bond between the imagination and our traditional cultural representations of abstract art, from desert-based monuments to esoteric weapons that swirl across the breeze and kill only the evil.First 10 minutes into this voyage to the realm of our Chandmama-Chandrakanta genre of fantasy literature, and we're hooked. From the point when Priyanka, styled like our first full-blown Lara Croft and dressed and made up to kill in more ways than 'won' enters the frame, the film takes off with an emphatic élan that just stops short of self-congratulation.Equally arresting is the sequence where our desi dude, superhero Drona, meets the arch-villain Riz, played by Kay Kay Menon, for the first time. The chaos that breaks out and the ensuing chase across the narrow cobbled streets of an unknown foreign country Prague are handled with a delightful eye for comic book bravura.All through the telling of this tall and stately tale, Behl displays a restrain that goes a long way in giving the product the feel of a fantasy well-conceived, but never over-drawn.The technique carries the characters fearlessly and fluently. Besides Samir Arya's cinematography, which lends the colours of the imagination a hue of the home-grown, the art direction and the sound design suggest paces of a grace long-forgotten in our cinema where now, rapid fire storytelling is almost always equated with an entertaining cinema.The dramatic conflict converges on Abhishek and Kay Kay Menon. The one silent, calm from outside and torn and troubled from within. The other ultra-flamboyant and theatrical, doing what can be called a reincarnation of Mogambo from "Mr India" and an indigenous version of Jack Nicholson's Joker from "Batman".The theatrics that underscore the narrative's calm surface don't always work. Kay Kay's character goes way over-the-top into an atmosphere of irredeemable grotesquerie. Fine actor that he is, Kay Kay gives the flamboyant villainy his best shot.Abhishek displays a wounded pride and a lacerated soul through his eyes. He is also immensely adept at handling the action scenes and goes many steps ahead from his earlier films to under-perform the scenes with heart-warming sincerity.Priyanka's styling and body language suggest a smouldering restless sensuality.By the time we approach the climax, "Drona" has established its claim at taking a confident stab at a genre never done before. What it fails to do is to take that genre into the highest realm of creativity where the characters would have instinctively become children rather than casualties of the mythology and fantasy that Behl embraces with ample affection, but not enough of that quality of connectivity with the audience that superheroes have always achieved with the audience.At the end you feel an empathy for the sword-wielding Drona who can't fly through the air.And that's what makes this superhero so vulnerable and human.Watch "Drona" for Abhishek's reined-in performance as a reluctant hero, and his crackling hissing, but ambivalent chemistry with Priyanka. And for the use of special-effects not to overpower but nourish the plot that strides across two continents and cultures with confident steps. --Indo-Asian News Serviceskj/ar/vt810 Words02101627
2008-10-02 07:00:00Woman faces charge after dishwashing dispute AP
AP - Police say a 20-year-old woman faces an aggravated assault charge after she bit her boyfriend, broke a picture frame across his face and swung at him with a sword during an argument about him not...
2008-09-15 23:25:05Rare Winston Churchill painting found in attic
London, Sept 12 ANI: A rare painting by Winston Churchill has been discovered in an attic after 30 years.Painted before the Second World War in the 1930s, the picture is of Windlesham Moor, a house in Surrey which was later let to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip after their marriage in 1947.It is said that Churchill visited Windlesham Moor after an article about its gardens appeared in Country Life magazine in 1934.The work of art features the estate's Brown Lakes, arched stone bridge and the main house.The painting's provenance was established after the auctioneers spent 10 months tracking its origin.It was originally handed over to Lord Taylor, who served Sir Winston during the war as director of home intelligence in the Ministry of Information. He then passed it on to his secretary as a gift, who in turn gave it to her unconcerned son. He wrapped it in a bin liner and stored it in the loft of his Oxfordshire home.After remaining there for 30 long years, the painting was taken by a college lecturer to saleroom. Because it was unsigned no value could initially be put on it.But, as it did not bear nay name, it was not identified."Untitled and unsigned, and at first glance, arguably unremarkable, it offered up few signs of the interest it now attracts," Telegraph quoted John Dickins, of John Dickins Auctioneers in Middle Claydon, Bucks, as saying.He added: "The painting reaches the public domain for the first time, having remained virtually unseen for much of its life and, for the past 20 to 30 years, un-loved and lying in an attic.""The piece is consistent with Churchill's style and use of colour in other works by him between the two wars."There is a small boat in the picture and Churchill had a thing of putting boats in other work with water."He further said that the frame of the painting was identical to one seen, still in its original packing, in Sir Winston's old studio at his home Chartwell, Kent.The painting will go under the hammer on Sept 20. ANI
2008-09-12 08:00:00How To Select The Best Digital Photo Frame
Best Syndication News If you get enjoyment from looking at photographs then the latest digital photo frames are ideal for displaying all of your best your images in all their glory. The quality of the...
2008-09-03 21:36:20Analog Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema's Ultrahigh-Res Camera
<!--pageType= magazinewideslug= ff_redcamerasection= entertainmentsubsection= hollywoodheadline= Analog Film Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema's Ultrahigh-R...
2008-08-25 05:00:00Tech Test Drive: D-Link DSM-210
I&aposve been eager to test D-Link&aposs DSM-210 Internet photo frame since the company unveiled it earlier this year. It seemed like the perfect solution to a problem I&aposve had: how to...
2008-08-21 19:20:10Gallery: Daguerre to Be Different!
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/08/gallery_daguerreotype/johnson_untitled_t.jpg'>: Image: George H. Johnson, 1853/Courtesy Oakland Museum of California<p&am...
2008-08-19 05:00:49Tech Test Drive: D-Link DSM-210
I&aposve been eager to test D-Link&aposs DSM-210 Internet photo frame since the company unveiled it earlier this year. It seemed like the perfect solution to a problem I&aposve had: how to...
2008-08-18 10:52:28Top 10 Wired.com Reader City Photos, Decided by You
<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/08/gallery_top_10_cities/1_t.jpg'>: <p>This week's <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/...
2008-08-14 05:00:00Inside a workshop of despair
A wooden picture frame hangs on a wall inside the Kumartuli Mritsilpa Sanskriti Samity office. The photographs inside are covered with a film of dust, lending the images a degree of anonymity. Peering...
2008-08-11 19:54:29
Explore the Worldviewer.com Network Sites
Stories - childreniworld.com | Human skeleton - humaniworld.com | Trade - chambersiworld.com | The sea - picturesiworld.com | Honda - decalsiworld.com | World heritage sites - monumentsiworld.com | Nature photographer - photographersiworld.com | Violin - orchestrasiworld.com | Sting tickets - concertsiworld.com | Charity ball - charityiworld.com | Family - childcustodyiworld.com | - collectioniworld.com | - awardsiworld.com | - dairyiworld.com | Soccer - womensownweb.com | Wrecks - craneiworld.com | Work demands - familiesiworld.com | Tattoos tattoo tatoo tatto tattoed tattoes body skin art pie - piercingiworld.com | Xtra large - womenncosmetics.com | Art roadshow - artistsiworld.com
