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Review - Hello: Trying to tell a story when there isn't one.
A wogma guest review by Aditya KuberHello
![[Poster for Hello]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2669/4116448051_264c913512_m.jpg)
Books being converted to movies are always a risky thing to do. Not always does it work out. Even in the case of something as epic as ‘The Godfather’, there is a split on which is better – the book or the movie. I belong to the side that votes for the book. And in the case of ‘Hello’, I feel the makers should not have attempted to bring it to the big screen at all.
It is not so much about the fact that the plot is wafer thin or that the makers have chosen to ignore basic characterization in favor of dramatization. In any case, the backdrop of a call centre is incidental to the story and how it unfolds. Therefore the focus on this aspect seems unnecessary. Since this was always an adaptation of the book, the filmmakers could well have rewritten the backdrop to make it more believable on screen.
The story is a simple one of six call-centre employees working on the same shift and how their lives seem to be intertwined. And then there’s the night when things go awry. The physical setting of the call center (from the outside) looks genuine enough, but inside, it looks nothing short of a resort. Having seen a few call centres, I find it hard to believe that there are only six people working in a ‘bay’ at a time when headquarters (i.e. the US) is looking to cut costs. The very basic one would have expected from an IIM graduate writer when doing the screenplay is to pay more attention to such detail and make better use of the space.
The story begins by appealing to the frontbenchers and Salman Khan doing an item number (rather tackily picturised with plastic water bottles, graphics that don’t belong anywhere and a song that has no meaning). Hereafter he retires to the lounge of his helicopter charter service since he is stuck for over two hours on account of his chopper being repaired. And this is where Katrina Kaif finds him and the story begins.
Shyam/Agent Sam (Sharman Joshi), Varun/Vroom (Sohail Khan), Radhika (Amrita Arora), Eesha (Eesha Koppikar), Priyanka (Gul Panag) and Military Uncle/VP Chauhan (Sharat Saxena) are colleagues and have been it would seem for almost four years. That none of them have a good enough accent when answering calls is a matter for their employer to worry about, not us! But this group is stuck at work on a stormy night when most systems are down and their lives are unraveling. Their evil (and conniving, yet stupid) boss Mr Bakshi (Dalip Tahil) is the common object of hate in the group.
All the actors try their very best to look and be the part of call centre employees. One could argue that director Atul Agnihotri did not want to have a typical teenybopper look to the movie since they all do get identified as a bunch in the age-group of 20-25. Why I think Agnihotri didn’t want to typecast is because none of them look like they fit this age group. Especially Gul Panag and Sohail Khan.
As the night progresses, so does the childish nature of the entire narrative. While most of the sequences in the book itself were hard to digest, the movie makes it even worse. (There are typical references to gays and how Mr Bakshi is ok with it since this is an American company).
Of the cast, Sharman Joshi shines through the cast as the confused team leader who has recently broken up with Priyanka. Eesha Koppikar hams her way through what could have been a better written role while Amrita Arora spends most of the time looking like a dolled up bahu dissatisfied with life. Sharat Saxena is honest to his role, but he doesn’t have much to do and once again, the characterization leaves much to be desired.
Gul Panag in her role as Priyanka is bound to catch everyone’s eye. For she has spent a lot of time showing off her newfound cleavage. It is shocking to see how badly suited she is to the role. She tries to dress up like a 25-year-old, but just can’t pull it off. In the bargain, all she manages is to look like a tramp (and she seriously needs help with make-up to align two mismatched eyebrows!).
When the author of the book himself is doing the screenplay and dialogues, it is expected that he won’t stray too far from the original work. Unfortunately, when the book itself has been written like a screenplay, it is tough to adapt it further to the big screen.
One of the biggest negatives of the movie is the intentional name calling towards ‘goras’. As a one-off, this could have fit into the movie. But repeated insistences like “the mental ability of a 35-year-old American is as much as a 10-year-old Indian” and “Gore to fattu hote hai” aren’t exactly in the best taste.
The entire movie is based on a ‘call from God’ that takes up about 5 minutes at best. Whatever they hear on the call is promptly put into action by the group with ridiculous ease.
Nonetheless, the movie does have its moments when Sohail Khan and Sharman Joshi are on screen and but for their comic timing, the movie would have been nothing short of torturous. With them, it’s up a notch at just unbearable!
This review is by guest reviewer Aditya Kuber. Aditya is a movie fan who lives in Pune. When not watching movies, he loves photography, sports and books. He can often be spotted in a bookstore if not a movie theatre. Whenever he has the time, he also writes for a living. Aditya Kuber also blogs at http://scribbler.in/.
Parental Guidance:
- Violence: Not much; just some chair smashing and shoving.
- Nudity and Sexual content: Lots of cleavage and a pretty detailed sex scene.
- Concept: Six co-workers trapped at work on a stormy night get a call from God to set their life straight.
Hello - Movie Details
- Official Sites: Website
- Producer: Paul Parmar, Funky Buddha Media
- Director: Atul Agnihotri
- Lead Cast: Salman Khan
![[Has twitter account]](/site_media/images/icons/twitter_small.png)
, Gul Panag, Eesha Koppikhar, Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi, Sharat Saxena - Supporting Cast: Suresh Menon, Dalip Tahil
- Story: Chetan Bhagat
- Screenplay: Chetan Bhagat
- Cinematography: Sanjay F Gupta
- Editor: Umesh Gupta
- Choreography: Bosco, Caesar
- Music Director: Sajid, Wajid
- Lyrics: Jalees Sherwani
- Running time: 115 minutes
- Reviewer: Aditya Kuber
- Categories: Hindi Movies
- Genres: Comedy
Hello - Trailer
Hello - All reviews summary
Comments (29)
I was planning to go and watch the movie only for Gul Panag, but I am in total surprise now and in a state for not watching the movie. I am complete agree to the movies being converted to books. Godfather is the best example, the other is Gone with the Wind.
It's good idea and in bollywood lots of great movie can be convert in book and in few year we will see this trend.
http://www.oxyshopping.com
I watched the movie first day first show.I found the movie pretty good. It had its flaws also but which movie doesn't have. If compared to the book, we will always find flaws. So we should leave that. Its a good movie . I liked the chemistry of Sharman and Sohail specially. They were fantastic. I am telling by my personnel experience that I could see everyone laughing continuously during the movie as the movie had many funny moments. Ya Salmaan looked a little old. But he is still a rockstar. Anyway movie is good.
Heyy meetu... this time I am not gonna read ur review and I am watchin the movie in next 2 hours...in a small town of USA (so no piracy this time as it is released in a theatre near me and thats my only connection to swades currently - 2 hrs of pure play hindi masala -- and coz of this i could b biased :) )
The reason I m not reading ur review -- wil watch the movie and compare it with I thought and wot u have written :) will b fun... wil let u know about the results for sure........
what shit are ull talking..i think HELLO was a great a movie and everyone should go watch it..sharman was too good ,i think u should watch it too well.
I want to now this how to u get the top rang on google search ingine and how to feed ur site url in google please tale me
@Moksh: Yes... don't go if you want to save money!
@Pankaj: Hope you like it... do share what you feel.
@Arjit: Yes, every movie has its flaws, but my complaint is against poor adaptation.
And....Here I am...watched Hello and as informed earlier - in a small town called Doylestown in rural USA.. I had been to this cinema house earlier (called Regal Barn Plaza) but this time surprisingly there were NO indians (or pakistanis or bangladesis) for this movie. When we entered the house, we were just 3 of us in the entire hall !!!! later a family of 5 and 2 more people joined.. so in the entire screen, we were 10 people -- watchin 'hello' - 1st day 3rd show.
So about wot I felt --
The credits were done amazingly well (and in terms of style were almost as good as the 'catch me if you can' credits.
Didnt knew that I had to see a sleep-walking , eye-bags-prone,alcoholic looking Salman Khan :)
Never mind the next-door-looking Katrina & not sure who did the dubbing for her (imaging someone dubbing for her also for the narration part)
It was done well in parts and the things I liked are :
Amazing one-liners by Sohail Khan (this is the best performance from him as he had always been a non-performer)
- The mini-devil of Sharman..Hillarious...done very neatly
- Sohail and Sharman's chemistry... especially the scene after they are caught tapping the phone..Sharman starts by arguing 'aap....' then Sohail signalling him to go down.. Sharman going to 'tum' - sohail signalling again & Sharman going to 'tu' - nicely done
And the "what were they thinking" things --
-- A call-centre resembling a 5-star hotel lobby
-- What did they all make of the sermon from GOD , coz after that they go on doing all sort's of wrong things -- tricking their boss, spreading rumours about a virus.. Is this how they interpreted GOD's advice of gaining self-confidence
Some pieces were good but they were 'pieces' -- there's no integration between the story-line any there are just flashes of things happenings...
I had read the book 'One night @ a call centre' about a year ago and was awaiting the release of the film coz I had acutally liked the pulp fiction..However, in the film, it seems like they have tried to take the highlights of the book and recreate those incidents , trying to weave them together.. but the weaving never happens....
The last thought I had while leaving the theatre --- Hope they dont make a film out of Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT & The Three Mistakes of My Life.....
@Pankaj: I think thers a plan of making a movie out of Five Point Someone. And I think The three mistakes of my life has a typically filmy story so you can xpect a movie out of it too.... :)
neways thnx for ur take on the movie.... i m w8ing to see it... just for curiosity ;)
Thanks........
read this one in hindi...
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_6640.html
@Pankaj
Yes, "five point someone" will be directed by RajKumar Hirani. Its gonna be called "Three Idiots". Heres the first image: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/fstills/13910/index.html
Hirani's film stars Aamir Khan along with Sharman Joshi, R. Madhavan and Kareena Kapoor and went on floors recently.
With Hirani and Aamir khan coming together we can expect a polished product. Unlike Hello.
Havent read the novel, so wondering if the films title will work in its favour.
I think that the film was ok till interval. There were some scenes which were very natural and pretty good. After interval, it was all mess. The solution which they use to avoid the dismissal of the jobs of the operators was childish bcoz it was senseless. The overall story is below average. It doesnt have soul. If im asked to rate it, i'd give it 1 and half stars.
I just watched "Hello" and I thought it was a terrible film that should never have been released. It just started off on a bad note for me with Salman Khan, in his usual shirtless avatar, gyrating his hips to some song that proclaimed him to be a "Rockstar". The guy is past his prime and really needs a serious fixer-upper to come back to his "Rockstar" status. To me he was such an eye-sore. And then comes the "lovely" Katrina. In the movie,she was as mechanical as one those wind-up dolls and the dubbing for her dialogue was so obvious. I watched this film for Gul Panag because I think that she can act (Evidence: "Dor"). But in this movie I don't know what disappointed me more - her lack of acting skills or the fact that every outfit she wore made her looked like a tart. :( This film certainly was a Salman Khan family affair and I think the only person that did a half-decent job was Sohail Khan. Sharman Joshi was also good and I thought his was the only character that was believable. For the rest of the no-namers- I don't even want to comment on them.
And what's up with all the generalizations about "goras" and the stereotyping? Those parts really made me cringe. I don't know why this movie was hell-bent on making derisive comments only towards Caucasian people. There are dumb people and smart people in every society.
I hope this movie sinks without a trace.
hi, i have seen dis movie three times and the movie is too god. specialy i like the character of varun(Vroom). Bcoz the character tells us that life is too miserable but we have to laugh in any condition nd i respects his feeling for love. this move wil remember me for ever bcoz my personal expeince also match with vroom.
I was planning to go and watch the movie only for Gul Panag, but I am in total surprise now and in a state for not watching the movie. I am complete agree to the movies being converted to books. Godfather is the best example, the other is Gone with the Wind.
It’s good idea and in bollywood lots of great movie can be convert in book and in few year we will see this trend. " target="_blank">http://www.oxyshopping.com
I watched the movie first day first show.I found the movie pretty good. It had its flaws also but which movie doesn’t have. If compared to the book, we will always find flaws. So we should leave that. Its a good movie . I liked the chemistry of Sharman and Sohail specially. They were fantastic. I am telling by my personnel experience that I could see everyone laughing continuously during the movie as the movie had many funny moments. Ya Salmaan looked a little old. But he is still a rockstar. Anyway movie is good.
Heyy meetu… this time I am not gonna read ur review and I am watchin the movie in next 2 hours…in a small town of USA (so no piracy this time as it is released in a theatre near me and thats my only connection to swades currently - 2 hrs of pure play hindi masala — and coz of this i could b biased :) ) The reason I m not reading ur review — wil watch the movie and compare it with I thought and wot u have written :) will b fun… wil let u know about the results for sure……..
I want to now this how to u get the top rang on google search ingine and how to feed ur site url in google please tale me
@Moksh: Yes… don’t go if you want to save money! @Pankaj: Hope you like it… do share what you feel. @Arjit: Yes, every movie has its flaws, but my complaint is against poor adaptation.
And….Here I am…watched Hello and as informed earlier - in a small town called Doylestown in rural USA.. I had been to this cinema house earlier (called Regal Barn Plaza) but this time surprisingly there were NO indians (or pakistanis or bangladesis) for this movie. When we entered the house, we were just 3 of us in the entire hall !!!! later a family of 5 and 2 more people joined.. so in the entire screen, we were 10 people — watchin ‘hello’ - 1st day 3rd show. So about wot I felt — The credits were done amazingly well (and in terms of style were almost as good as the ‘catch me if you can’ credits. Didnt knew that I had to see a sleep-walking , eye-bags-prone,alcoholic looking Salman Khan :) Never mind the next-door-looking Katrina & not sure who did the dubbing for her (imaging someone dubbing for her also for the narration part) It was done well in parts and the things I liked are : Amazing one-liners by Sohail Khan (this is the best performance from him as he had always been a non-performer) - The mini-devil of Sharman..Hillarious…done very neatly - Sohail and Sharman’s chemistry… especially the scene after they are caught tapping the phone..Sharman starts by arguing ‘aap….’ then Sohail signalling him to go down.. Sharman going to ‘tum’ - sohail signalling again & Sharman going to ‘tu’ - nicely done And the “what were they thinking” things – – A call-centre resembling a 5-star hotel lobby – What did they all make of the sermon from GOD , coz after that they go on doing all sort’s of wrong things — tricking their boss, spreading rumours about a virus.. Is this how they interpreted GOD’s advice of gaining self-confidence Some pieces were good but they were ‘pieces’ — there’s no integration between the story-line any there are just flashes of things happenings… I had read the book ‘One night @ a call centre’ about a year ago and was awaiting the release of the film coz I had acutally liked the pulp fiction..However, in the film, it seems like they have tried to take the highlights of the book and recreate those incidents , trying to weave them together.. but the weaving never happens…. The last thought I had while leaving the theatre — Hope they dont make a film out of Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT & The Three Mistakes of My Life…..
@Pankaj: I think thers a plan of making a movie out of Five Point Someone. And I think The three mistakes of my life has a typically filmy story so you can xpect a movie out of it too…. :) neways thnx for ur take on the movie…. i m w8ing to see it… just for curiosity ;)
Thanks……..
ead this one in hindi… " target="_blank">http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-pos...
@Pankaj Yes, “five point someone” will be directed by RajKumar Hirani. Its gonna be called “Three Idiots”. Heres the first image: " target="_blank">http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/fstills/13... Hirani’s film stars Aamir Khan along with Sharman Joshi, R. Madhavan and Kareena Kapoor and went on floors recently. With Hirani and Aamir khan coming together we can expect a polished product. Unlike Hello. Havent read the novel, so wondering if the films title will work in its favour.
I think that the film was ok till interval. There were some scenes which were very natural and pretty good. After interval, it was all mess. The solution which they use to avoid the dismissal of the jobs of the operators was childish bcoz it was senseless. The overall story is below average. It doesnt have soul. If im asked to rate it, i’d give it 1 and half stars.
I just watched “Hello” and I thought it was a terrible film that should never have been released. It just started off on a bad note for me with Salman Khan, in his usual shirtless avatar, gyrating his hips to some song that proclaimed him to be a “Rockstar”. The guy is past his prime and really needs a serious fixer-upper to come back to his “Rockstar” status. To me he was such an eye-sore. And then comes the “lovely” Katrina. In the movie,she was as mechanical as one those wind-up dolls and the dubbing for her dialogue was so obvious. I watched this film for Gul Panag because I think that she can act (Evidence: “Dor”). But in this movie I don’t know what disappointed me more - her lack of acting skills or the fact that every outfit she wore made her looked like a tart. :( This film certainly was a Salman Khan family affair and I think the only person that did a half-decent job was Sohail Khan. Sharman Joshi was also good and I thought his was the only character that was believable. For the rest of the no-namers- I don’t even want to comment on them. And what’s up with all the generalizations about “goras” and the stereotyping? Those parts really made me cringe. I don’t know why this movie was hell-bent on making derisive comments only towards Caucasian people. There are dumb people and smart people in every society. I hope this movie sinks without a trace.
hi, i have seen dis movie three times and the movie is too god. specialy i like the character of varun(Vroom). Bcoz the character tells us that life is too miserable but we have to laugh in any condition nd i respects his feeling for love. this move wil remember me for ever bcoz my personal expeince also match with vroom.
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