Kiddy film for adults

ice age 2

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Cast: (Voices) Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah
7.5/10

While the ground beneath their feet is literally cracking apart as global warming melts the ice valley, the three friends do not just stick together, they also find new friends along the way. Manny, the mammoth, is worried that he may be the last of his species. Diego, the tiger, dreams of the good old days ? which was just the day, or week, before when mammoths were mammoths and possums were possums, as Sid the sloth the most hilarious of the three quips to remind Diego. One holds one’s breath as sharks pop out from beneath the deep waters, and hungry black vultures swoop down from the skies ominously singing, ‘Food, glorious food’. But there is Sid to help release the held breath as he delightfully picks up the lines of the song as they march towards what’s a symbolic Noah’s Ark, which will take them to safety.

While all the characters are delightful to watch, especially the squirrel and his chase of the acorn, the slow blossoming of romance between Manny and Ellie, the mammoth who believes she is a possum, and not to forget her two little possum brothers, the star of the herd is easily Sid, as he likes to believe, too.

The danger lurking at every corner is a screaming message for those who choose to ignore global warming and the impending doom, when there won’t really be any ark waiting to ferry the world to safety. So, a special appeal to kids ? please take the adults along. There’s a message for them in this sequel by Carlos Saldanha.

Deepali Singh

Neither sweet nor sour

pyare mohan

Director: Indra Kumar
Cast: Viveik Anand Oberoi, Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, Amrita Rao
3.5/10

If mainstream Bollywood cinema’s chief trend after Black becomes the love affairs of the differently abled, then no one has a problem. Perhaps, this is the way it would reach the masses sooner. We would finally stop labelling the differently abled “handicapped”. But slapstick hardly seems the way.

Two friends, one blind, the other deaf, in search of love. They find damsels, rescue them, prove their love, get married. It starts wittily enough; then disgustingly degenerates into humourless slapstick.

But this guy Indra Kumar seriously has got calibre. Who could have thought that it was possible to make Boman Irani ham or to make Viveik Anand Oberoi look wooden? It was a good thing that in this movie, Fardeen Khan is blind, he did not have to see his own acting.

Both Esha Deol and Amrita Rao fare well as eye candy, that was all their role demanded of them. Music by Salim-Suleiman is average except I love you my angel, which is already a hit. All around me lovers made love, couples quarrelled, people whose sole purpose of existence is yelling in movie halls, yelled. You see, Indra Kumar, love may be both deaf and blind, but your audience is not.

Sunayani Ganguly