Go Goa Gone

Firstly, let’s get technically correct, shall we? Wikipedia has this to say:

Zombie: fictional undead creatures regularly encountered in horror and fantasy themed works. They are typically depicted as mindless, reanimated corpses with a hunger for human flesh.

Comedy: is a genre of film that is designed to elicit laughter from the audience; often through humorously exaggerated situations, ways of speaking, or action & characters.

Based on the above definition, Go Goa Gone is indeed a Zom-Com spectacle that is not to be missed. It’s a one-of-a-kind mad hatter movie, that can only be made by someone as mad as Saif, one of the few actors, possibly that still doesn’t take himself too seriously.

And that’s the beauty of this film. It doesn’t take itself or the audience too seriously. It makes no pretensions about what the movie is. They’ve promised a Zom-Com and a Zom-Com it is. Nothing more, nothing less. Period. 

So, anyone who gets grossed out by blood, please stay away. Anyone who is looking for meaning in the storyline & the plot, please stay away. Anyone, who lives in denial about youngsters smoking pot, getting laid & drinking themselves silly, please please definitely stay away (you could get really scared with that shit)

But, if you have a funny bone in your body, if you can leave your mind behind for one evening, if you can just let go and jump into the deep without expecting to come out safe at the other end, just for the ride, then this movie is for you. 

The movie is the story of 3 single guys (Hardik Luv Bunny - spoken together sound like a twisted Mills & Boons story) living in Mumbai, living the daily drudgery-getting-through-the-routine life that you live in Mumbai (you can tell I’m a Delhiite). Hardik (Kunal Khemu), pot-head loses his job & Luv (Vir Das), the trying-to-reform-pot-head loses his girlfriend & they latch on to their corporate friend-roommate Bunny (Anand Tiwari) for a free trip to Goa for Bunny’s life-altering presentation to senior management. The promise of a life-altering trip comes true in a different form when they attend an all-night rave party in a remote island, where they wake up to realise all except them (and a girl Puja Gupta) have turned into zombies on this island, due to a strange drug served at the party. What ensues is a hilarious escapade trying to dodge and kill zombies with the help of Boris, the zombie-slayer (Saif), till they finally escape the island.

Granted, that it’s no Delhi Belly. But comparing Delhi Belly and Go Goa Gone is as fair as comparing Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan. Two totally completely different worlds. The only thing Saif & Aamir have in common is their surname (so to that extent, yes, both movies are new-age youth-based random-events, bizarre plot & dialogue-based comedies) and the fact that both Aamir & Saif turned a new leaf in the iconic Dil Chahta Hai (and therefore, yes, both movies heavily inspired from Hollywood & a western-sensibility of humour & story telling). But otherwise, 2 very different movies. Delhi Belly was about the fast-paced forever evolving plot, the humour in the clever language, and the several tangential & random scenes that eventually become the highlight of the movie (see my review http://www.books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.in/2011/08/delhi-belly-2011.html). In that sense, Delhi Belly was quite like Aamir - perfect and complete. 

Go Goa Gone is anything but - it’s neither perfect, nor complete. Or rather it is perfectly non-sensical and completely insane. It’s a series of funny dialogues happening while the protagonists are trying to stay alive amidst the onslaught of these bizarre creatures, while simultaneously enjoying the satisfaction of ‘killing dead people’ (as Boris calls out). And that’s why it’s great fun.

All the actors deliver fine performances and the discovery of the movie is Kunal Khemu who shows some really good comic timing, that matches Vir Das’s poker-face jokes. We can see Saif having a lot of fun in making and acting in this movie as Boris, who kills dead people, and sheds blood every few seconds, Tarantino style.

While the overall characterisation of the 3 lead protagonists was a little weak, with really no background to who they were, and what they are like, and the story-line doesn’t evolve beyond killing & escaping zombies, there are some priceless moments in the movie, that make it watching the whole movie worthwhile - like the scene when Boris gives them a visual signal of 2 incoming zombies & the guys interpret it as dumb cherades, or when Vir Das comes up with the idea of acting like zombies to escape them & succeeds till he notices his ex in the zombies and gives himself away, or even when they discover the solution to immobilise the zombies is nothing but good old cocaine (because 2 drugs never mix well - the zombie drug and cocaine!).

Again, while some of the scenes & dialogues were a little lame (like when they are trying to understand what these creatures are and they take a while to call out zombies and the lame reference to globalisation bringing them into India, or when Vir Das girlfriend dumps him reminiscent of Delhi Belly), there are priceless ones like when Hardik laughs at Luv’s virginity saying “Yeh kya petrol hai jo tu use bacha raha hai” or when Bunny questions Boris’s Russian credentials and he shouts out “Haan Dilli se Hoon Bhen***”

Fundamentally though, the reason why this movie is enjoyable and therefore should be watched is because, at the heart of it, it’s a movie about the ironic absurdity of life, especially our modern urban lives, when life’s biggest party transforms into life’s last party, where our day-to-day routine zombie-like existence comes face to face with it’s inevitable end at the hands of zombies, and where the very drugs that the young use to escape their reality become their most horrific reality. For this, Albert Camus would be proud of Saif for making this movie. 

All that apart though, Go Goa Gone is a brave attempt at building a unique sense of humour (zombie and that too a spoof) in our other-wise too-serious lives, in a country not known for its sense of humour. Walking out of the movie theatre, laughing away, you wonder to yourself... 3 guys, goa, party, drugs, zombies... was this for real? More where that came from Saif. Will be waiting...

Iron Man 3

“I'm Tony Stark. I build neat stuff. I got a great girl. And occasionally save the world”

“You can take screwdriver or any toys, but it's something no one will ever take from me.I am Iron Man”

Two lines from the movie, spoken by the inimitable Robert Downey Jr, kind of sum up what has turned out to be one of the fun-nest super-hero movies in recent times. If you enjoyed Avengers, Iron Man 3 will rock you once again.

So, how did Iron Man become the coolest super-hero of our times, for a generation that has grown up worshipping Batman, imitating Spiderman, and applauding Superman. Even the Hulk had a greater fan following. When did Iron Man trump these guys? This is what you’re wondering, as you walk out of the theatre, at the end of the movie.

Firstly, I think it’s the casting and the characterization of Iron Man, which is the biggest coup. For a relatively unknown super-hero to the masses, the canvas was wide open for Kevin Feige (producer) & Jon Favreau (director for Iron Man 1 & 2) to build nuances into a character that make him human and super-human at the same time. And then Robert Downey Jr playing the role in a way that only he can, just transforms Iron Man into someone who we can’t believe we didn’t know too well only 5 years ago (That’s right, Iron Man 1 came in 2008!)

Then (and perhaps more significantly) the one thing that is unique to Iron Man (and not so for the other super heroes) is the fact, that there is no secret identity. Can you believe that! A super-hero that everyone knows is Tony Stark, the big tycoon! That’s the most unnerving (for any super hero fan)and yet the most powerful aspect of Iron Man. He is as ‘dabaang’ as it gets. No hiding behind a regular-guy personality of Peter Parker, or Bruce Wayne or Clarke Kent or Bruce Banner. In fact, it is this very fact, that we know the regular-guy behind Iron Man, that makes him a super-hero. Strange and yet powerful.

In fact, the reason why Iron Man 3 is brilliant is because it blows this aspect of Iron Man into its ultimate and complete form. It’s Tony Stark’s story all the way - his insecurities and fear of losing his one true love, Pepper (“I have to protect the one thing I can’t live without, and that’s you”), his sleepless nights & periodic nervous breakdown, his story of the past that has created the villains for today, even his challenge to the evil terrorist The Mandarin (“I'm not afraid of you. No politics here. Just good old fashion revenge”) that becomes the raison de’ etre for the start of all the action in the movie - it’s all Tony Stark.

And yet, it is done in an Iron Man way, where the ‘man’ takes all of it on the front foot, without any soppiness (unlike the one you see in, say, a Spiderman movie). Yup, Iron Man may be a man (and therefore have his vulnerabilities) but he’s not going to sit and cry about it to millions of his fans (he’s made of iron from inside too). Like he says to the boy “Dads leave, no need to be a pussy about it”. 

It’s Tony Stark’s story in the movie, and it begins with a flashback, where Tony Stark remembers pissing off some scientists decades ago, laying the base for them coming back to get even with him today. Parallel sequence of events happening in current times with a terrorist (called the Mandarin, I’m sure the Chinese are not happy) is threatening to blow up American cities and the President. One such terrorist attacks mortally injures his friend and chief security officer, which leads to Tony Stark issuing a public threat to the Mandarin, actually giving his address on National Television. The Mandarin gets to his address before the fans do, and destroys his abode completely, nearly killing Tony and Pepper. Tony escapes & with long distance help from Jarvis (his A.I. assistant), he puts pieces of evidence together from similar terrorist attacks of the past, uncovering the secret behind the Mandarin and his humans-that-explode technology. Without his house, equipment or even his Iron Man suits, Tony Stark still manages to get to the source of the evil, expose the villain & saves the president, america, and the day (in the night).

The action sequences (especially when seen in 3D) are fantastic and full paisa-vasool. Tony’s house being destroyed, the exploding people going red n orange before going off, saving the White House staff thrown off from Air Force One, and ofcourse the final climax, where there is not one, but multiple Iron Men fighting on remote control. 

And the many new characters in the movie, spark off new interest and twists that add a lot of flavor to the irrepressible Downey - be it Guy Pearce as the menacing Aldrich Killian, Ben Kingsley as the terrorizing Mandarin, the abandoned-but-smart kid that gives Tony his second lease of life, Jon Favreau (Iron Man ex-director) as his chief security officer Happy Hogan, and Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen (OK, she was quite forgettable, actually)

Throughout the movie, we see and hear Tony Stark as being not just Iron Man, but a whole lot more. It’s one super hero movie, where they keep reminding us that the hero is bigger than the super hero. In fact, there are many sequences where we see Iron Man & Tony Stark in the same frame, but separate from each other - be it when Tony is in bed with Pepper, or be in the final action sequence where many Iron Man suits fight independently of Tony. Further, we see while anyone can become Iron Man, by wearing the suit (Colonel Rhodes wears the suit, the bad guy wears the suit, the president wears the suit and even pepper wears the iron man suit!), there is only one Tony Stark, the hero, the super-hero

Shane Black (first time director of Iron Man series) totally rocks this film and creates a fast paced complete blockbuster entertainer.  And yes, we loved the references to the Avengers throughout the movie (“Nothing’s been the same since New York”). Thank You Mr Black. This is how super hero movies were meant to be.