Kitnay Aadmi Thay: Book Review

The only thing as good as watching films is reading about them.

I let loose the movie buff in me when I registered to review Kitnay Aadmi Thay on Blogadda. The 'completely useless Bollywood trivia' as the tagline says, is written by Diptakirti Chaudhury who is a salesman when he is not watching, talking or writing about films.

The book starts with a chapter focused on the opening credits right from the 70s and 80s era to the current trends. Only a keen viewing and deep research can result into a wonderful chapter like this. Rest of the book unfolds like a movie plot with chapters like '10 movies to have not been made', '11 Legendary confrontations' etc. Apart from being a list the chapters also contain some known and unknown trivia. You tend to smirk when there's a mention of your favourite film/scene in a list. I couldn't stop either when the 'football with sharbat-e-jannat glasses' scene from Andaz Apna Apna appeared in 'Beyond the boundary - 10 sports'.

There are some lists surprise you at the very end. The 'Baap of all lists' talks about all the filmy fathers and gives a one line mention to the baap of them all in the end, 'rishtey mein to hum tumhare baap hote hain...'. Even a non Amitabh Bachchan fan can feel the aura of the man and the power he has over the film-goers. Or Comissioner De Mello popping up in 'Christian Brothers'.

The 'Killer Kaun' quiz excites you and you curse yourself for not getting the answers right.

The humour stays intact and sometimes will have you in splits. Of course I do not agree with all the lists and would like to have my own additions but then the author agrees that "the book is incomplete... I can assure you its more fun this way". I had fun picking out some errors though like Sanjana and Kareena Kapoor are not cousins but aunt and neice (can give myself a little pat on the back).

But like a true blue Hindi picture 'all's well that ends well' and the book ends on a fantastic note (you have to read it to know what I am talking about).

The End I Samaapt I Khatm

Book: Kitnay Aadmi Thay
Author: Diptakirti Choudhury
Publisher: Westland
Price: Rs 275
Pages: 301

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

The (not so) Amazing Spiderman

It was tough to recreate what Toby Mcguire created with Spiderman 1, 2 and 3. Still, just one successful film old Andrew Garfield took on the challenge. Expectations were built; The Amazing Spiderman in 3d, a Spiderman movie with a difference and then there was Irrfan Khan too who has recently become Hollywood's latest discovery in Bollywood and every Indian's new fav actor... especially after the super duper successful Paan Singh Tomar. Our Indian hearts were pounding with excitement to see an Indian actor as a full fledged main villain in a big budget, mainstream Hollywood flick (I am out of breath at this point).

But like all the over blown bubbles, this too burst. All the banter about 3d was just an eyewash. There were a total of 5 scenes with 3d effect and those too were computer generated scenes. Irrfan Khan had all of 3 scenes and his character was unceremoniously dropped in the middle of the film. So much for the big Hollywood dream.

The story is bad and the patchy editing makes it worse. Every time there's a hope of something big happening it's ruthlessly shattered by the bad direction and unnecessary romantic scenes. Sure, they got rid of emotionally vulnerable Mary Jane Watson and replaced her with smart Gwen. I Blinked twice and a romance between the two was already brewing...no wasting time there. The story is so linear that it gets boring after a point. Looser Parker gets power, shows off a bit, wins the girl, clumsily fights the baddie and defeats him without much effort.

If the producers are planning a sequel I'd hope they come out with something extraordinary to make us forget this disaster. And those who haven't seen it yet please save yourself for The Dark Knight Rises.