HELLO

Have you read the book yet ??

Chetan Bhagat-the NRI storyteller of three smash hit novels has been read aloud so far by the youth.
The books have oozed out with the youth dreams, their problems and yet the solution is a very simple yet stylish ways. That’ why probably Chetan Bhagat sells (though I have not yet read his last endeavour)


Hello is based on yet such a novel by Chetan called “One night @ call centre” which is his second attempt towards the youth.




Plot: Whoa! I am not telling you the story here! J The plot however (of the book and consequently of the movie) revolves around the six friends working in a call centre. The characters (Shyam-aka agent Sam-aka the useless err the good for nothing Romeo, Vroom, Isha, Radhika, Military Uncle and Priyanka –Shyam’s lady love) are shown with their problems that unfold slowly by the night the story is woven around. The characters are shown neck deep in distress until they receive a mysterious cal from God. Their lives take a U turn then on as the story threads towards the end, making them better individuals and yes successful by the end.




Direction/Narration: Though the plot selected was very well sought and cooked already, the director had handful of opportunities garnishing it which he handled miserably! There is not an ounce of imagination induced and the direction is very very ordinary. Infact, some of the integral portions of the book that justify the plot ahead of it were easily cut off from the movie throwing the narration awry and haywire! This to a certain extent has left the audience who have not read the book yet a little confused as they fail to ascertain the relevance of various scenes!



The cast selection is seemingly good though Gul Panag (playing Priyanka) was looking too old to play the naughty and a nymph like beauty that is set as the character of Priyanka in the book. Zero marks to her.



In comparison to the direction, the cast has done a good job. After all you can’t blame poor direction on the cast performance. Can you??



Very average is the right word to describe the music of the movie though the title song is a bit peppy.



Hello could have done really well had Chetan selected a better director for his book. The character played by Katharina (of the story teller) and Salman Khan (playing Chetan Bhagat) were neat. A better movie and a beter revision to the book was expected however!

ut of the three books written by Chetan Bhagat, One night @ the call center was the first one read by me. I found it quite a good book for any one who is not fond of reading heavy english literature.
The story was pretty good, it had a good pace and above all the language used in the book was for a common man. It was so simple and lucid that you can read almost half of the book in a single sitting without stressing your mind even a bit. In that sense also it was a good book. And then there was lot of masala to keep you gripped to the story. Overall it was a good book and I recommended everyone who asked for a review of the book to give it a try atleast once.

It was some two years back. Almost two years after the book hit the markets and became quite popular among the readers, this friday came the movie ’Hello’ based on the novel. As I had liked the book, I thought of giving the movie a try. I was mainly curious to see how does one feel watching a movie when you know the story beforehand. In fact I had gone with lots of expectations. Though my tempo was definitely a bit down by the low ratings given to the movie by almost all the critics. But as I don’t believe much on the words of those so called movie critics, I went with an open mind and quite a good amount of expectations.

As the movie was an adaptation of the same novel, no part of the story threw any surprises to me as far as the story was concerned. There were a couple of funny parts in the movie which I found were new in the movie and might have been added by the director. Rest was the same as present in the book. At the end, I felt that the movie was a sincere effort by the director Atul Agnihotry. The novel mainly deals with the turbulent life of its characters. Though the director has tried to show the turbulence in the lives of the characters to some extent, he is not able to depict it as deftly as is there in the book. But I believe the turbulence in the lives of so many characters cannot be made into a movie better than this. I also felt that some of the actors could have acted better to put in some more peppiness and vigor into their characters. Sharman Joshi was especially good. Overall I would rate this movie 3 out of 5.

And my passing comment would be that a novel of this type cannot and should not be made into a movie, as movies are made to show as much dramatics as possible and are enjoyable only when they are quick and fast. On the contrary, novels are good only when they are slow and as much detailed as possible. These two mutually opposite characteristics of movies and novels do not make them a good adaptation of each other.