half a dozen movie releases of this weekend

this weekend saw nearly 6 movies being released, and to be frank, i am interested in just a couple of them. lets start with aparna sen's movie 'the japanese wife'. the movie is based on a book written by kunal basu, which did not sell that many copies. the book was slow, melancholic but romantic; the romance builds on as we continue reading it and see the characters unfold. when i heard of the book, i never thought anybody would make a movie on it.

but somewhere it must've touched aparna sen that she decided to turn the book into a movie. rahul bose and aparna sen were really good in 'antaheen' and even her previous directorial venture 'mr and mrs iyer'. having seen previous movies of this duo, i am waiting to watch this movie. here's what rajeev masand had to say about the movie

It's the charming love story of Snehamoy, a mild-mannered schoolteacher in the Sunderbans (played by Rahul Bose), and Miyage, a chatty girl in a faraway Japanese village (played by Chigasu Takuku), who start out as pen-pals, fall in love, then get married and stay committed for 17 years without ever meeting face-to-face. Their romance unfolds through a series of letters and occasional phone calls.

rajeev masand is all praise for the director aparna sen. sample this

Aparna Sen's assured touches come through in scenes like the lively kite competition between Snehamoy and the villagers, which escalates into something of an Indo-Jap tussle. Or the scene in which Snehamoy accompanies Sandhya to the market where the ease between them reminds you of a long-married couple.

you can read the entire review here

even anupama chopra's review speaks well of the movie

This isn’t a love story with grand sweep and passion. It’s a minimalist rendering of a chaste, almost surreal love. But Sen makes us believe in it because she tells the story with great empathy and affection.

the other movie that i am really interested in watching is 'date night'. tina fey is a fine actress and her comic timing is superb. so, i am hoping this movie will make me laugh and enjoy. even masand promises the same in his review

In the end it's up to the two leads, who strike up a comfortable chemistry, to make the most of this tired premise. And to be fair, they succeed to some extent. Entirely convincing as a pair of Regular Joes who're just as surprised as we are to find themselves at the centre of this mess, Carell and Fey turn Date Night into an easy enough evening out at the movies.

this weekend also saw two war-related movies, one of them being the oscar winner 'the hurt locker' and the other being matt damon starrer 'green zone'. THL has already been in the news for winning a handful of oscars and it does not require any kind of recco to be watched, so please go ahead and do so.

we all know of the legends of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and bush's rhetoric on it. 'green zone' deals with this, where-in matt damon is on a mission to iraq to find WMD's. masand calls this an average war drama in his review

Relying on his trademark hyperkinetic camerawork to shoot the film's breathless chases and non-stop combat scenes, Greengrass lends a sense of visceral immediacy to the action that makes Green Zone more engaging than your average war drama.

having spoken about bengali cinema and hollywood movies, let me finally bring up the bollywood releases of the weekend. two movies released, both duds in my opinion. nevertheless, 'prince' has taken a good opening thanks to the skimpily clad women and fantastic action sequences by alan-amin. masand calls it marvellously moronic and this is why

The actors struggle to pull off cool, but given those CGI-enhanced action scenes, the ill-fitting leather costumes, and the puerile dialogue, cool is impossible to achieve. Even the obvious inspiration from Mission Impossible, Matrix and the Bourne movies doesn't seem to help director Kookie Gulati in constructing a half-convincing tale.

even anupama chopra echoes the same thoughts about the movie in her review

It's hard to say what's most ridiculous - the plot which has everyone chasing a coin which has the chip or the amount of posturing these actors are indulging in.

we all saw jadoo come down to our planet in a spaceship, and it wasn't that good looking to be paired opposite to hrithik roshan. but jacqueline fernandez in 'jaane kahan se ayi hai' is just the kinda material that we need from outer space, charming and graceful. so, when transcends to earth and into ritesh's  mundane life, he is more than trilled to escprt her like a tour guide. but this tour isn't all that fun, as said by our reviewers. anupama chopra says

The laughs deflate at an alarming rate. Instead we are made to suffer feeble match-making efforts, the clichéd journey from friendship to love, the usual misunderstandings and even a last minute chase to Tara’s spaceship so that the soul-mates, Tara and Rakesh are united.

you may read her review here

masand too is not so thrilled about this alien drama. the movie has special appearances by akshay kumar and farah khan, in a bid to spice it up. but even that works only upto a point. masand points out the flaws in his review

There's so much mushy dialogue that even the guys who write those Hallmark cards would feel uncontrollably sick; and just the basic plotting of the romantic track is too corny and juvenile to inspire any real sympathy for the characters involved. It doesn't help that Ritesh and Jacqueline lack the spark to keep you hooked to their romance.