Off for 3 weeks from 7th December to India; hope the mess this site is in is cleared up by the time ...
Off for 3 weeks from 7th December to India; hope the mess this site is in is cleared up by the time I get back & that the number of cheats & churners will have decreased. Season's greetings to you all. xx
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Baaz was mainly billed as "Baaz - A Bird In Danger" which I thought was rather a bizarre title as they're supposedly referring to the female lead as a "bird". Oh dear...
~*~ CAST/CREW ~*~
Classed as a drama/thriller, Baaz was produced and directed by Tinu Verma (who also did the action for the film) and starred Karisma Kapoor, Sunil Shetty, Dino Morea, Jackie Shroff and Preeti Jhangiani. It's classified as 15 and runs for 2 hours 50 minutes. The story is by Shyam Goel and it was released in February 2003.
~*~ PLOT TEASER ~*~
Neha Chopra (Kapoor) is a talented interior designer and starts work on a project in scenic place called Nainital for Mayor Jai Singh Dabral (Shroff) to restore his majestic home. Her neighbour, Raj Singh, becomes smitten by her very quickly and once she meets him (Morea) they go on a date and he ends up saving her life. She's so grateful to him that she falls in love with him (this all happens in the space of about 10 minutes
and a song, of course). She starts to receive phone calls saying that her life is in danger and she must steer clear of Raj. The phone calls are initially from Inspector Preeti Rastogi (Jhangiani) and then Assistant Commissioner of Police Harshvardhan (Shetty).
There's a serial killer on the loose who's been abducting beautiful young women and the police suspect Raj but have no evidence to pin the crimes on him. At first she doesn't believe the police but certain events lead her to have her own suspicions of him and she is torn between her love for him and her need for survival. To add to this, her boss is acting very strangely indeed and keeps asking her out and then making daft and arrogant comments such as "I don't like being questioned!" and "I don't accept 'no' as an answer!"
~*~ ACTING ~*~
Karisma Kapoor is a very talented actress (although I'm not one of her fans) who has a lot of respect in Bollywood. She did a fairly good job in this film as the heroine but I felt she could have done more. I've never felt she was very beautiful in other films I've seen her in but she looked quite stunning in many scenes throughout this film, they really showed her good side(s)! Maybe she got her huge bushy eyebrows plucked just for this film?! Meowwww!
Dino Morea was cute and charming and very easy to watch, but he's not a great actor, he has some way to go before people rave about his performances.
Sunil Shetty was brilliant - I do like his acting normally and he stood out in this film. In some scenes he actually made me laugh out loud, he put so much zest into his character - you have to watch him to see what I mean.
Jackie Shroff was funny (which I doubt he was supposed to be) in his role as older eccentric man obsessed with younger woman. I think he either went over the top in the character or was specifically asked to do so.
Preeti Jhangiani proves yet again that she is only worthy of supporting actress roles, she was adequate in her role but that's about all. She's supposed to be in love her Sunil Shetty's character but it makes no sense as he never shows her any emotion but that of a colleague.
~*~ WHERE TO GET IT ~*~
You can rent Baaz on DVD from screenselect.co.uk or buy it from amazon.co.uk from £8.98 (new or used) or buy it from musichouseltd.co.uk for £10.99
The film is supposed to be a thriller but there's a lot of confusing bits in there, such as too much time dedicated to the romance between Neha and Raj, way too many songs (I won't even go into detail about the numerous ill-placed songs in the film) and too many dream sequences which confuse the viewer somewhat. There's also a girl in a coma, the sister of one of the victims, and she's shown to have tears running down her face in one scene, which is rather bizarre as I wasn't aware coma patients could cry plus she has her eyes open the whole time that she's on screen?
The directorial team spend so much effort making you suspect all the male characters that by the time you find out who the actual killer is and his motives you almost don't care. The climax of the film is so drawn out that you almost want to turn off rather than wait for the end of the film. The background music which is supposed to be thrilling is more annoying than anything else.
The cinematography by Raju Kay Gee is worth a mention as some lovely scenery is used during the film.
All in all I'd rate Baaz 6 out of 10.
Thanks for reading :)
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Our story revolves around a person, who is a good human being for his education and ... more
culture, but his genetics, has transformed him into a human 'Baaz'. This human 'Baaz' resides in the scenic hill station town of Nainital. Neha Chopra, an interior deco...