Reviews

I learnt so much about Brazilian cuisine. I even took notes. It was an eye opening experience into their food culture. It was fascinating to see their local ingredients and learn about indigenous cultures and their cuisine.

The show is very entertaining. The dishes looked delicious. The main judges were knowledgeable. The contestants are, of course, extremely talented. It was nice to see their camaraderie.

I have two points of criticism. One would be the fairness of the finale- how one chef creating 5 dishes can compete with 5 chefs, each making only one. Two, I thought that they could have guest judges who were more relevant to the show. At least during the finale, if not throughout the season.

I love watching Ricky Gervais, especially his appearances on chat shows. He's hilarious. But I seriously nodded off while watching this because it just dragged on and on with hardly any humor at all. It was like a monologue of him explaining himself. You expect laugh out loud humor from stand up comedians, but this was just like you thinking, "Yeah, that was mildly witty, yeah" from time to time, all the time keeping a straight face. I get that the humor is dark, but for me, it just wasn't funny.

I cannot believe this movie has a 6+ rating on IMDb. It definitely lives up to its name. It could have also been named "God Awful". The lead characters are people I never wish to see again. I'm not talking about their actual looks- but the characters they portray and the way they portray them are really ugly. Like you want to look away ugly.

The script, the story, the acting- it was unbearable. I walked away in disgust. I'm all for free expression, but I just don't get why people make movies like this and I often wonder if they don't have at least one person around them who'll give them an honest opinion.

Big waste of time, this one.

This is one of those movies you desperately want to fall in love with but you're disappointed they didn't give you enough to do that. It's kinda cute, not very funny, definitely predictable and well, sometimes boring.

I question one of the casting choices too. I love Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, but I thought actors changed the nuances and inflection of their voices to tailor it to a particular character. It was unsettling for me throughout the movie, because it felt like Sheldon Cooper was hiding somewhere nearby, lending his voice to the purple puppet on the screen. But maybe that's just me.

To sum up, I think they could have done a lot better with the script.

Fanaa- This truly is a good movie- not just in the entertaining sense. There are a few bloopers, of course, but they may be easily overlooked, an easy enough thing for sensible and regular watchers of Indian cinema.

True, Aamir and Kajol have performed brilliantly, the cinematography is excellent and the music heavenly. The background scores are worth more than a mention.

But the movie goes deeper and makes one think about the power of love and our utter helplessness before it... how it shapes one's life and choices. The importance of choice is given the limelight in this movie- the choices that are so unique and personal to each of us, given the same situation. It also asks, importantly, how much can love forgive?

Put yourself in the place of these characters as you watch the movie and see how much is asked of you at each step, what strength is required to make the choices they make.

This movie, in some ways, is a lesson in love. It puts to shame our cautiousness, rigid moral standards, emotional walls etc in love. You cannot walk into love with tiny steps, wearing a steel armor and praying not to get hurt. There is no such thing as going too fast or too slow, or all these clichés we've come up with to explain relationships :)

To love, you truly HAVE to be free. At heart.