Tamasha ** 1/2

Dir:Imtiaz Ali
Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Javed Sheikh,
Sushma Seth, Piyush Mishra, VivekMushran

Writer/director Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met, Rockstar) wastes almost the entire first half of Tamasha on an implausible meet-cute in which our hero Ved (Ranbir Kapoor) and heroine Tara (DeepikaPadukone) meet in picturesque Corsica and spend an idyllic week together without revealing their true identities to each other while spinning tall tales for their own amusement. I didn’t buy a minute of all this and was simultaneously bored and irritated as these events unfolded (the only relief provided in the first hour was the nicely choreographed "Mattargashti" number). The boredom and irritation were compounded by Ali’s indulgent "artistic" flourishes (the non-linear depiction of events, for one) which are intriguing exercises in storytelling (a meta commentary on a tale of a storyteller?) but which detract from the tale itself.

Cut to four years later and Tara has tracked Ved down. But he is not quite the free-spirited minstrel of her memories and her imagination. He is more a man living a life of quiet desperation, working a nine-to-five job which is killing his soul. This is where the movie kicks in to high gear and Imtiaz Ali gets to where he wants to get to. This is territory which isn’t terribly original (how many movies and books have there been about following your dreams and travelling off the beaten path?) but at least it is something we can relate to and a subject which still has power over us. The acting from both Ranbir and Deepika (she keeps getting better and better) is terrific in the second half and adds layers and nuances which may or may not have been there in the script. The last hour of the movie may not be perfect but it certainly salvages the movie to such an extent that it helps us get over the torturous first part. In fact, you just might be better off watching the movie from the point where Ved and Tara meet after four years.

Note: It’s nice to see some Indian movies also running their titles in Urdu (apart from English and Hindi) but at least get the spellings right.

Cut to chase: A disastrous first half is salvaged by a vastly superior second.

Some Kind Of Beautiful **

Dir:Tom Vaughan
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Malcolm McDowell, Ben McKenzie, Marlee Matlin

By most objective criteria Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba are attractive people. But physical attributes will only take you so far where movies are concerned. By and large you still need (at least) a good script to work with. And this is where Some Kind Of Beautiful falls short – way short. Even if you buy the basic set up - a commitment averse English professor (Brosnan) at Cambridge University withan abundant choice of beautiful undergraduates gets more than he bargained for when his latest conquest, Kate (Alba) springs a surprise on him the same day he meets a beautiful (and perhaps more suitable) stranger (Hayek) -  the rest of what follows is so unrealistic, so devoid of rational human behaviour and emotions that it is extremely difficult to care for any of the characters or what happens to them.The humour only works sporadically (if at all) - one scene involves Hayek riffing off the famous Meg Ryan restaurant scene from When Harry Met Sally and it makes you chuckle and cringe in equal measure - and there is no real chemistry between any of the leads. There is a reasonable amount of Hayeks’s and Alba’s charms on display here but that isn’t enough reason to watch this movie.

Cut to chase: The stars are beautiful, the movie isn’t.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz