Dhoom 3 (20 Dec 2013)

Cast: Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Jackie Shroff, Tabrett Bethell, Andrew Bicknell, Siddharth Nigam

Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya

As expected, the movie is replete with amazing bike stunts on out of the world bikes. To the point that , you feel like they belong to the genre of the machines in ‘Transformers’, as they can beautifully and seamlessly just transform into anything, to assist the protagonist in escaping from the cops. James Bond series will now look up to this flick for inspiration! Transformations are so bizarre, that one even more bizarre spectator from the audience loudly wondered that, in a particular scene, why didn’t the makers opt for the bike to convert into a helicopter (for better impact) instead of a speedboat! With my limited automobile engineering knowledge of that of a layman, I thought that this not even theoretically possible, as both these vehicles use absolutely different kinds of fuel. But you never know, what they will show in the next sequel.

Katrina has very limited screen time, even less than that of the bikes! But the lady did manage to bring in the oomph factor befitting a Dhoom sequel. She looks very fit and dances with amazing elan and poise. One wonders, why there was no marketing gimmick centered around her wearing and dance steps, as you find the case with a lot of dud movies, who manage to get a good opening just on the basis of the addition of a last minute impactful song. The makers must have been super confidant of their brand and offering, to restrain from any such marketing.

Abhishek and Uday have performed as per expectation. In fact, Uday should be applauded for bringing in much required light moments in the film. His style statement in the film is ‘bandanas’ (head gear). Abhishek looks relatively fitter.

Some stardust seems to have touched all yesteryear stars. Somehow all of them seem to be giving better performance than what they delivered during their prime years. And Jackie is no exception. He looks intense, broody and desolate as per his character’s requirement. Surprise package of the movie is the child artist Siddharth Nigam. He actually justifies being the younger Aamir Khan. Even the glint in his eyes matches that of Aamir!

Trust Aamir Khan to get into the teeth of the character, so much that, his performance gives the much required depth to the movie, which was absent in the earlier prequels. However, in the first half you do miss the tall, stylish and empowering presence of a Hrithik Roshan or a John Abraham. And you definitely do miss the genius dancing of a Hrithik. But in the second half, Aamir’s well researched performance leaves no room for any such thoughts. He manages to look cute, sad, excited and driven, all in a single scene!

To sum it up, the movie is definitely worth watching, as it is one of its kind. Major brainstorming has been done in visualizing and execution of the stunts. None of them look corny or boring. Costumes, sets and temporary tattoos are detailed as well. In fact, they are very good. You can call it pure showmanship. But one does wonder, why there was no change of costume shown in the repeated shows of the circus, as it befits the movie of such budget and stature. Music is average. Only one or two songs catch your attention. The director has done a good job. Slightly better job than this and he can join the group of esteemed filmmakers of the country. 

The Lunchbox (20 Sep 2013)

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nimrat Kaur, Denzil Smith, Nakul Vaid, Yashvi Puneet Nagar, Lillete Dubey, Bharati Achrekar

Director: Ritesh Batra

From which point of view, do you review this movie?

A) From the point of view of a team of leading and influential producers and co-producers who apparently joined hands to create an Indian movie straight for the Oscars!, Or, B) From the point of view of a team of very talented crew (director and actors) who created a simple but touching movie based on a simple mistake!

A) Over the years, Bollywood has churned out one after the other blockbusters. Quite a few of them have been sensible enough to be viewed and judged by the international audience (not just NRIs). But for one reason or the other, they never made to the Oscars. Either, the makers fell short of marketing, or the script somewhere fell into the category of ‘inspired’ and not original, or the movie did not match with the sensibilities of jury, especially how they perceive the Indian society and what they expect from an Indian movie! Till date only three Indian movies – Mother India, Lagaan and  Salaam Bombay have been nominated for the Oscars!

‘The Lunchbox’ has been wisely created nullifying all the aforesaid shortcomings. It is based on Indian middle class with no sense and/or need of daily grooming, cinematography totally focuses on dusty and cluttered habitats, Indian camaraderie, emotions and ethics have been highlighted. Also, there is no song and dance in the movie. Last but not the least, Mumbai ‘dabbawallas’ play an important part in the movie. This service is well recognized internationally, all thanks to their meeting with Prince Charles and a Harvard University team. The former met them during one of his Indian visits and the latter did a research on their impeccable service, so as to incorporate it as a case study in their study material.

Just to let you know, seventeen producers and co-producers are attached with this movie!

B) Ritesh Batra has created a beautiful movie wherein, throughout the camera is focused on only three main characters and a voice! It is no mean feat to achieve. You can also call this movie a ‘Song of the Unsung Heroes’, the heroes being – hands on housewives who spend major part of their day doing the household chores and also battle with their loneliness, hordes of 9 to 5 job holders who keep up with the same mundane routine years upon years without any complain and any expectation or longing of change, and gallons of home cooked fresh food which keeps the nation going and plays an important part in keeping family and friends together.

Irrfan Khan is simply superb. No words can explain his amazing range of acting and timing. The movie requires him to transform from a lonely and aloof person who barely converses and never smiles to a hopeful and semi attached person who randomly smiles and takes mild interest in other people’s lives. And you can see this gradual transformation frame by frame and not for a single moment you feel bored of seeing him and his myriad expressions. Nawazuddin Siddiqui has come across well as an eager and happy-to-please employee who speaks more than he actually works. His exuberant acting has very well complimented the detached one of Irrfan Khan. Nimrat Kaur is a revelation. You cannot believe that she is the same girl who appears in the Cadbury Dairy Milk – Silk commercial.

It is an interesting observation, that how a simple wrong delivery of a Lunch Box can spark joy and hope in the lives of the sender as well as the recipient. At the end of the day, we all just seek to be ‘wanted’, even if it is for the food we make or the appreciation that we show towards a well made food by happily cleaning off the plate.

Random relationships are differently judged by different people belonging to different cultures and state of advancement. Maybe for this reason, this movie has an abrupt ending. Or, you can say that the ending is left on the viewer’s imagination. Perhaps, this is to keep peace with both the home as well as the international audience.

It needs to be mentioned that, as per recent news, for the 86th Academy Awards i.e. Oscar entry for 2014, a Gujarati Film ‘The Good Road’ has been submitted by India, making it the first film in the language.

Shuddh Desi Romance (6 Sep 2013)

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra, Vaani Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor

Director: Maneesh Sharma

Boy is on his way for arranged marriage with Girl1. En route he gets highly attracted to one of his rented ‘baraati’ Girl2. He leaves Girl1 at the marriage altar and runs away. He bumps again with Girl2. There is  instant chemistry and live-in relationship (at Girl2’s home) between Boy and Girl2. Love marriage to take place between them. Girl2 leaves him at the altar and runs away. Boy now bumps with Girl1 on his way to a marriage where he is one of the rented ‘baraati’ and she is one of the relatives. Soon after this meeting, they enter into a happy relationship. They are sure to get married and set the tracks right. In another marriage, where Boy is a rented ‘baraati’ and Girl1 accompanies him as his partner, they both bump into Girl2. Here, Girl2 is one of the relatives in the wedding. There is instant hot chemistry between Boy and Girl2. Assessing the situation, Girl1 disappears from the venue without any heartbreak. Again, Boy and Girl2 decide to marry. This time, both of them run away from the wedding only to bump again in their wedding fineries at the door of Girl2. They decide to continue with the live-in mode of the relationship.

Is strength of character absolutely missing in the current youth? Surely, it’s not possible. So, is this movie just a funny comedy? But, how can you take it as a mindless comedy of indecisiveness, when it is unabashedly and ruthlessly targeting the age old and universal institution of marriage? Agreed, that the blissful and perfect marriage is a myth and every marriage has its share of ups and downs, ranging from being mild to simply unbearable. But a society sans marriage will be outright savage.

However, the movie does ably show the incumbent fear of marriage within the current youth. Deep down they are lonely and seek a loyal and forever loving partner. But the current life style  and absence of active role of parents and/or guardians in their life, makes them ever paranoid to enter into a marriage. The fear of failure of marriage stops them from entering into one! Resultantly, they enter into relationships one after the other, only to become more fearful with each failed relationship.

If you leave aside the concept of this movie, you have to admit that both the direction and acting are pretty good. The actors have played their part with as much conviction and innocence as they could conjure in playing such complex characters. At any point of time, you don’t feel sad or hateful towards any of them! And in such a storyline, this is commendable. After Shah Rukh, Sushant seems to be the one who would make the giant successful leap from small screen to the big screen. Parineeti is a natural actor, very much like Kajol but a lot less boisterous. Given that this is her debut movie, Vani appears surprisingly effortless and confidant. In fact the screen chemistry that she shares with Sushant is more natural and believable. Rishi Kapoor has acted as per expectation. It is amusing to see him don the hat of a Rajasthani baniya running a wedding business. Cinematography is also good. The city of Jaipur and nearby locations have been covered well.

Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara (15 Aug 2013)

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Imraan Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar, Pitobash Tripathy, Sonali Bendre, Abhimanyu Singh, Sophie Choudry, Kurush Deboo

Director: Milan Luthria

As evident by its name, the movie is a sequel to ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’ that was released in 2010.

The prequel established the onset of  the great upcoming underworld don Shoaib Khan’s (Emraan Hashmi) reign by making him the undisputed leader once he assassinated his mentor and senior Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgn). It was made pretty clear then and there that unlike his mentor, the new don was in no mood to follow any code of principle or sharing. The sequel starts with Shoaib (Akshay Kumar) being shown as the ruthless, mirthless, powerful don, who is well settled in the middle east and controls his Indian and other overseas operations with his loyal aid Javed (Sarfaraz Khan). Also, he unabashedly indulges in womanizing activities.

Honestly speaking, while watching such Dawood influenced movies (Company, D-Day, Shootout At Wadala, OUATIM, OUATIMD), you don’t find any exclusive difference amongst them. In one or the other manner, they end up showing you the making and toughening of the anti social, his power and action, his softer side with a particular love interest, some hard core cop action and last but not the least, the culture, lingo and lifestyle of the 80’s and early 90’s.

What has actually stood out in this movie is the presence of Akshay Kumar. Actually, there are two heroes in the film – Akshay and his Dialogues. He mouths them unabashedly throughout the movie and almost all of them throw the required punch. He has also very well adopted the lean, mean and suave physicality and attitude of a great don. In fact you can say, it’s very Italian. Also, he has very well played the role of an emotionless womanizer and a love torn angry young man. It is a fresh change to see him do method acting. Otherwise, normally you associate him with punjabi fashion wear and loud movies with long legged lasses.

Sonakhshi’s character demanded someone who is beautiful, innocent, conscious and also forthcoming and robust. Needless to say, that she has suited the role very well. Also, she has looked beautiful and acted well. Imraan has this natural look and body language of someone who is very simple and honest. So, in spite of his cool presence, you do think that an Emraan Hashmi or a Ranveer Singh would have fitted the bill better. Mahesh Manjrekar has derived his own style of acting and his performance can be well speculated in advance. Sonali Bendre is a revelation in her very small but intense role. Sophie Choudry has managed to look glamorous without looking voluptuous or over the top. Sarfaraz Khan and Pitobash Tripathy have also acted well.

Madras Cafe (23 Aug 2013)

Cast: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, Rashi Khanna, Siddhartha Basu, Ajay Rathnam, Prakash Belawadi

Director: Shoojit Sircar

Ever since the onset of hindi cinema, the onus of being the movie backdrop exclusively lies with north and west India. Recent times has witnessed diversification to east India (Devdas, Yuva, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, Lootera) as well. Now South India seems to have caught the fancy of Bollywood filmmakers. Be it autobiography (The Dirty Picture), comedy (Chennai Express) or issue awareness (Madras Cafe), the backdrop and supporting cast is intermittently South Indian!

Madras Cafe primarily deals with LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) during the mid 1980s, followed by the assassination of our late Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi at the onset of 1990s. However, the movie does not claim to be a celluloid presentation of the same. Throughout the movie, the rebel group is referred to as LTF.

The movie is kind of well made. Scenes are beautifully derived out of approximately thirty years old photographs of evacuation and massacre that took place in the Sri Lankan regions that were infested with the rebel groups – both Tamil and Sri Lankan. This able derivation does remind you of the international movie Frida (Salma Hayak, Alfred Molina). Therein too scenes are beautifully derived out of paintings done by Frida Khalo.

Most of the cine goers of today were either not born or were very young during the mid 1980s. And thus, the movie does create the required awareness. The producer-director duo, John Abraham and Shoojit Sircar did a fantastic job with their debut film ‘Vicky Donor’ and they continue to create the same magic with ‘Madras Café’, in spite of the two movies being as contrasting as chalk and cheese. Shoojit has intelligently played upon the strengths of John and the result is good. Also, hats off to the makers for refraining from showing unnecessary gore, death and item numbers. Please note that, the Sri Lankan Civil War killed an estimated 80,000-100,000 people between 1982 and 2009.

However, the problem lies in the style of movie narration. Most of the hindi speaking audience is not well informed about the ongoings of the southern region, nor do they understand an iota of any of the southern languages, or the local culture that prevails there. Madras Cafe deals with a complex subject as it entails – the Indian PM and his Cabinet, Indian Military and Intelligence, Rebel Forces in Sri Lanka – both the Tamil and the Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan Army, Media and Armament Suppliers from abroad. And then, there are possibilities of leaks in all the organizations. Each leading character is prone to have a personal motive along with the political motive. Now, such a complex tale requires a lot of precision and clarity in its method of story telling. In the absence of which, you are very likely to get confused, unless you are an avid reader and movie enthusiast of international political thrillers. The aforementioned confusion very much prevails in the first half of ‘Madras Cafe’.

During the climax of the movie, you make an interesting observation. The climax deals with the assassination of the ex Indian PM by a human bomb (South Indian lady). Normally, during such scenes, you pray till the last second, to call off the fast approaching calamity as you simply don’t want it to happen. Till the last second, you pray for the hero to come and save the day for everyone. But, here, you actually want to see it all happen! You want the black day in the history of Indian politics to be re-created right in front of your eyes, as you were very young and confused when this event actually took place!

Actingwise, all are OK. Within his range, John is wisely experimenting with his roles, and he is doing a good job out of it. It is a pleasant surprise to see the popular Indian television producer-director and quiz show host, Siddhartha Basu perform well. Ajay Rathnam as ‘Prabhakaran’ looks effective. Special accolades for Prakash Belawadi for playing the drunken and shrewd south Indian official in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. His facial structure resembles that of the legendary musician A.R. Rahman. Nargis Fakhri plays the role of a hard core British journalist. Her naturally accentuated English has suited the role perfectly. Also, she has well adopted the cold demeanor required for such a role.

Chennai Express (9 Aug 2013)

Cast: Shah Rukh khan, Deepika Padukone, Sathyaraj, Nikitin Dheer

Director: Rohit Shetty
 

How can you enjoy a movie - which has most of its dialogues narrated in a south Indian language and that too without any subtitles? How can you enjoy a movie where the hero’s dialogue delivery is pure hamming? How can you enjoy a movie which has hordes of extra artists without serving any purpose? How can you enjoy a movie where there is no romantic chemistry between the leading pair, but only pure camaraderie? Last but not the least, how can you enjoy a movie where Shah Rukh is not the super uber charming metro guy but a very unconvincing common man?
 

The director-actor duo – Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn created box office wonders when they worked together (Golmaal, Golmaal Returns, Golmaal 3, Singham). But without each other, they seem to be falling flat. Ajay delivered a dud with ‘Himmatwala’ and Rohit Shetty has done the same with ‘Chennai Express’. You don’t expect all movies to be logical and perfect, but each kind of movie is supposed to have its pure flavour which at least makes it entertaining and spellbinding enough to make you sit through it. This one neither fits into the Rohit Shetty’s ‘wham bam’ mould, nor does it manages to showcase the superstardom and intensity of Shah Rukh Khan!
 

Deepika, however is a revelation in the movie. Watching her dress and adapt the south Indian traditional attire and body language is a pleasant surprise. Otherwise, you normally watch her doing bold roles in ultra modern dressing (Race 2, Love Aaj Kal, Cocktail). She looks and acts good throughout the movie. In fact, there is a consistency in her character which is otherwise absent with other characters in the movie. She deserves special accolade for a scene wherein she speaks out in a very weird manner in her dream and ends up kicking Shah Rukh out of the bed. Therein her acting is very natural, fresh and funny, without any iota of inhibition. Nikitin Dheer has a mountain like body presence.

All said and done, ‘Chennai Express’ actually manages to have the biggest opening of all times i.e. Rs. 33.12 Crore collection on the very first day itself and goes on to enter the 100 Crore Club within 3 days of its theatrical release! This is due to ferocious promotion activities taken up by Shah Rukh and team prior to the movie release or a clean field during Eid season when the movie has no other rival movie  to compete against for an entire week, is pretty hard to guess. Sometimes, the box office results can be really shocking. And of late, this is happening very often!

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (12 Jul 2013)

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Pawan Malhotra, Divya Dutta, Rebecca Breeds, Meesha Shafi, Yograj Singh, K.K. Raina, Prakash Raj, Art Malik

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

A very well made movie by an ace director and a wonderful actor featuring the life of an ace Indian runner and Olympian Milkha Singh, ‘The Flying Sikh’. Rakeysh has managed to show the athlete’s childhood, upbringing, stints with love, struggle, training, losses and victories (both in sports and conquering the dark corner in the heart) beautifully without making it cumbersome and boring. The movie constantly shuffles between past, further past and present, but due to smart editing and direction, the final impact is not confusing but good. In fact, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ is one of the best edited Indian film in spite of its duration of 3 hours and 9 minutes!

Any movie that covers the partition era is bound to have scenes entailing – mass massacre, bloodshed, loss of loved ones, children turning orphan, fear and trauma amongst civilians, violation of women etc. And for this very reason, many of us like to distance ourselves from such movies as it is very disturbing to watch such depictions again and again. All brownie points should be awarded to the makers of the movie to show it all, but in bits and pieces and with such adaptations that as an audience you tend to get the right message without cringing in your seat!

Dark corners created in our hearts during childhood are the most difficult ones to bear and cure and they haunt us throughout our lives effecting our participation and success in one or the other way. Curing such a devious dark corner is the focal point of this movie and it has been executed very effectively.

Hats off to Farhan Akhtar for pulling off such a difficult role i.e. a role that demanded the physicality of an ace athlete and expressions of a rustic north westerner who is not well educated, has seen the trauma and pain of partition of India and Pakistan and still has managed to transform himself into a gold medalist in spite of various barriers thrown in his way. It is difficult to imagine that Farhan is the same man who started his film career by directing the quintessential metro guy flick ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. It goes without saying that this lad has grown miles and bounds as an actor as well as a person.

Actingwise, apart from Farhan, Divya Dutta and Pawan Malhotra have done very good job. Divya has simply stood out as the selfless motherly sister who simply adores her kid brother ‘Milkha’ and silently bears the struggles and exploitations of life suffered by the women of that era who had to bear the losses of partition as well as boisterous (read domestic violence) nature of their husbands. Pawan has also stood out as the loving and inspiring army officer who had a great hand in the making of ‘Milkha’. He is very natural in emoting the expressions of judgement, pain, pride, kindness, victory etc.

Ghanchakkar (28 Jun 2013)

Cast: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajesh Sharma, Namit Das

Director: Rajkumar Gupta

It is a common practice amongst the filmmakers to add an unnecessary but high impact item song in an upcoming dud movie and market that entire movie around that song, so that at least the movie receives a decent opening and considerably recovers the making cost within the first week of its release. But, to do this whole marketing drama around a ‘character in the movie’ is unheard of. ‘Ghanchakkar’ breaks all conventional norms by doing so, and sadly only therein lies the innovative effort of this movie! The entire movie hype is created around Vidya’s character i.e. of that of a boisterous and voluptuous Punjabi woman who is highly into so called (read weird) fashion wear and who cannot cook well. But this character is of no pivotal consequence to the movie. It neither defines the pace nor serves the climax of the movie! In fact the movie’s climax and ending make no sense at all.

In recent history, both Vidya and Emraan are known to give sure shot hits and their last venture together ‘The Dirty Picture’ received both commercial and critical acclaim. Announcement of their next venture with an experimental and hit director like Rajkumar Gupta (‘Aamir’ and ‘No One Killed Jessica’) created a lot of expectation as both the actors are known to do wonders with a little offbeat commercial movies. But it seems that even during their golden phase, actors cannot create a hit out of a half hearted script and direction. In spite of Vidya’s trademark acting, you do feel that a Huma Qureshi or a Parineeti Chopra would have done a better justice to the role. Reasons – a) because Vidya’s Punjabi accent doesn’t appear effortless or consistent, and b) her recent marriage to the movie’s producer (Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures) and over exposure due to her impeccable Sabyasachi clad presence in award shows and Cannes Film Festival, kind of weighs heavily over her make believe character in the movie. Rajesh Sharma’s acting and characterization are both consistent throughout the movie. Namit has acted well but characterization is not so clear.

Raanjhanaa (Jun 2013)

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Dhanush, Abhay Deol, Swara Bhaskar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, Shilpi Marwaha

Director: Anand L. Rai

You are all set to watch a ramp walk. The model walks in well dressed in ethnic, colorful  and vibrant finery well laced with gota, embroidery, sequins and the likes. Upon reaching the front of the stage she turns around to commence her exit. But the back of the apparel is a combination of leather black and whites in different geometrical shapes, very Gen-X like, simply strewn together within the outline of the apparel. You are left in an utter confused state because how much ever you try, you cannot derive to any logical or creative or even any experimental link between the front and the back of the apparel. Neither can you find clear logical link between the elements of the back of the apparel themselves! You really enjoy the model’s entry on the stage, make up a mindset which makes her exit somewhat predictable and somewhat mysterious, and you are all set to enjoy her exit. But the whole experience simply leaves you fumbling to understand what the designer actually intended. This is Raanjhanaa. Rustic, well scripted and soothingly paced first half, but absolutely differently scripted and cumbersome second half.

It seems that the director intended to recreate the magic of the classic 1942 – A Love Story in modern day setting i.e. pure, innocent love amidst the backdrop of political turmoil. Instead he created pure innocent love and political turmoil. Reasons – a) because he could not handle both the sensibilities together, and b) Sonam is not Manisha, who when well directed, can throw in myriad expressions together to depict the internal turmoil of the character.

First half of the movie is fresh in its approach and keeps you entertained. Sonam looks beautiful in every frame. But she direly needs to get out of her ‘Saawariya’ mindset. Yesteryears’ actresses mould does not work for the modern day complex characters. Her acting ranges from being good to confused to ordinary. Abhay has a magnetic screen presence. You expect him to do a lot more than he is given the chance to do in the movie. But the surprise package is Dhanush. You would never expect this lanky man from south to act and emote so well in every scene that he has been given to act. Best thing about him is that he neither tries to steal away other actor’s scenes nor he tries to display the star in him over the character that he is playing. Swara Bhaskar and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, his two friends in the movie have also acted very well. Except for the voice, you simply cannot realize that Swara is the same lady who played Kangana’s robust elder sister in ‘Tanu Weds Manu’. Kumud and Shilpi have also done justice to their roles. Some of the dialogues mouthed by Dhanush and his friends do make the required impact. They have their own vernacular charm. Music is composed by the legendary A. R. Rahman, so it is undoubtedly good.

Fukrey (Jun 2013)

Cast: Pulkit Samrat, Navjot Singh, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Richa Chadda, Priya Anand, Vishakha Singh, Pankaj Tripathy

Director: Mrigdeep Singh Lamba

‘Fukrey’ is Delhi slang for people with boastful mouth but falling short in action when required. It can also mean idle and/or street smart people who waste time doing nothing. ‘Vella’ and ‘Lukha’ are another nearby slangs used for such people (courtesy: Mumbaikars).

The movie is a well made comedy with apt name and casting and is pleasant to watch. Direction and acting are also good. It deals with the money requirement of idle duds (read ultra weak students) to gain shortcut into college by buying question paper(s). Their sole motivation for college admission is proximity to girl(s)). To facilitate this, they go to the extreme length of borrowing money from a local mistress of vices and in the process suffer heavily.

In the movie, the kind of euphoria the protagonists attach to the simple act of getting admission or entry into college is something new and worth watching. As mentioned earlier, all characters fit the bill and have performed well. But the icing on the cake is the debutant  Varun Sharma who has played the role of gawky, child like and puberty-excited ‘Chucha’ to the T. His acting is fresh, original and consistent. With him on the screen, you are well assured of some laughter. This is a great achievement for a debutant. Pulkit seems to be acting ‘the hero’ of the movie, wherein in reality no such character exists. Only if that misconception was erased from his performance, the bar of the movie would have raised a few notches higher. Nevertheless his performance is very controlled as compared to his first and preceding movie ‘Bittoo Boss’. Ali has done justice to his melancholic and introvert character and has refrained from using unnecessary nuances in his acting. Richa’s ease of use of expletives is something new on Indian screen. Hats off to her to mumble such dialogues with such natural ease. But unlike other characters, somewhere her character is not well defined. It ranges from being a local (read street) mistress to that of an anti social boss! Navjot is good in poker faced comedy.

It is surprising to witness such well woven comedy from Mrigdeep whose last directorial venture was ‘Teen Thay Bhai’ which was a depressing comedy in spite of the presence of good actors (Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade) in the movie! 

Bombay Talkies (2013)

Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saqib Saleem, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Ranvir Shorey, Naman Jain, Vineet Kumar Singh, Sudhir Pandey

Director: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap

The movie is a collection of four short films, respectively directed by relatively young but established directors. Karan Johar is the most experienced of the lot. The movie is an attempt to commemorate completion of 100 years of Indian Cinema and it has been wisely named ‘Bombay Talkies’ as the sensibility throughout the movie is that of a Mumbaikar aka Bombayite. The ratio of class vs. mass responsible in ringing the theatres/talkies cash boxes in the aforesaid 100 years is 1:3. Similarly, in the movie, the ratio of short films intended for class vs. mass is also 1:3. All the four short films are sans any caption. They just start with the display of their director’s name.

Noteworthy things about each of the director’s short film are as follows –

Karan’s story takes a fresh call on gay culture. It’s the first Indian depiction, wherein a gay character is shown in his natural being without making him comical or distinctively feminine or unnaturally physical. Hats off to Karan for taking this first forward step. Also, this must be the boldest movie of Randeep Hooda’s career.

Dibakar’s story is totally a one man show i.e. Nawazuddin from first frame to the last. He is simply amazing as an actor. Don’t miss the facial twitching that he emotes to convey nervousness.

Zoya has managed to extract very good acting as well as dancing from child actor Naman Jain. The storyline is also very new i.e. of a male child aspiring to become an item girl upon growing up!

Anurag has tried to depict the God like status that some Bollywood superstars enjoy in the heart and families of so many Indians, especially amongst the non-urban population. He has also highlighted how fans like to brag about simple chance meetings with their idols.

In short the directors have tried to establish certain facts via their stories, that is, all said and done, the movies do form an integral part of an average Indian’s life – our fantasies are associated with them, we aspire from them, we connect through them, there is a filmy song for each and every mood that we undergo, and last but not the least our movies do play an important part in creating the much required social awareness on various taboo topics and with time the filmmakers are actually experimenting with an assorted platter of new and revolutionary subjects.

In this movie, all the directors and actors have done a good job. Critics quotient of the movie is fine but the entertainment quotient could have been better.

Shootout At Wadala (2013)

Cast: John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Tusshar Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai. Sonu Sood, Ronit Roy, Mahesh Manjrekar, Soni Razdan

Director: Sanjay Gupta

Being a sequence of ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’, the movie expectantly caters to the tug-o-war between the police and Mumbai underworld and the elements of the underworld themselves. However, the prequel caters to the time period when Dawood was an already established underworld power figure, whereas the sequel depicts the era before the emergence of Dawood aka Dilawar as the power figure. It caters to the time period, when the Mumbai police actually started bending the rulebook (read encounters). It seems that not many facts or incidents are recorded of that time period, or maybe there was less drama in the lifestyle of a single person/gang, so the storyline comprises of the activities of different gangs and the whole movie is a flashback as a story exchange between the protagonist/criminal Manya Surve (John Abraham) and the ACP (Anil Kapoor) on their way to the hospital after the criminal had been mercilessly trapped and encountered but still could live enough to tell his tale.

One interesting study you find is the contrast in the lifestyle of different ganglords. This is meaning to say that, they enjoyed almost the same kind of money, power and clout, but chose to live differently as per their lineage and/or preference. Mastans inspite of their age old clout preferred to stay and dress in their old ways, while the Haskars used to dress fashionably and drive swank cars. Common factor amongst them was respect for their religion and flashy gold accessories.

Actingwise, all have done good job. But Manoj Bajpai, in his small role still stands out. So does Sonu Sood in his passive acting. John has given it all for this role – be it body building, appearing ferocious, being uninhibited with the heroine as well as the item girl, depicting silent emotional pain etc. Coming from John, being uninhibited is a big step, as usually he appears very cautious around his heroines. Anil Kapoor appears as an honest and driven cop, but due to his age and/or physique you find it rather unconvincing that in a dual he can overpower someone like John or even someone less muscular than John. Out of other two cops, you feel as doubtful for Mahesh Manjrekar but not Ronit Roy. Kangana has beautifully dressed as ladies of that era. In fact in the second half of the movie, she resembles a lot of Rekha and carries the diva look with aplomb. She has managed to act natural and this should be applauded. Like Sachin of yesteryears, Tusshar simply cannot look anything other than a ‘decent and nice young boy’. Thus in spite of his hard work, considering him for a gangster role (Munir) seems rather questionable. Soni Razdan and Akbar Khan in their comeback roles appear just ok. It’s refreshing to see Jackie Shroff in a powerful and short guest appearance. Looking at Anil and him in the same frame, for a second you are instantly reminded of ‘Parinda’.

There are three absolutely unnecessary item songs. Each of them must have costed the producers a bomb. So, maybe they have their purpose and a section of the audience may go to the theatres to justify that purpose.

Nautanki Saala

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Pooja Salvi, Evelyn Sharma, Gaelyn Mendonca

Director: Rohan Sippy

It seems that this movie was intended to depict much more depth than it has managed to convey. Rohan, the director is experimental and kudos to him for that. He has tried to present a ‘neither very generic nor very different’ storyline with a different concept i.e. by using the element of theatre aka ‘nautanki’. Genre of the movie is comedy and this comedy is different from others as it is not primarily dialogue based but situation and expression based. Also somewhere, the director has tried to use the theatre ‘nautanki’ as the metaphor for the mother of all ‘nautankis’ i.e. life itself! The movie constantly shifts between these two parallels. Backdrop of the former is modern day ‘Ramayana’ (most esteemed Hindu epic) and that of the latter is the protagonist trying to heal a suicidal ‘stranger turned dependent turned friend’ by finding his former love and giving him work so that he attaches some worth to himself. The essence of the story is basically situational misunderstanding. In spite of all his noble intentions and sacrifices, the protagonist is misunderstood by his partner, love and also friend! Reason for the same are age old human errors of - mixing task and emotion, undertaking an activity without giving a thought to its obvious result, trespassing territories etc.

Ayushmann, and Kunaal have acted well. Evelyn has some screen presence. The power of modern day theatre could have been presented in a more powerful and enhanced format. Also, the heroines could have been better. Some comedy scenes are really funny and some are original as well. Last but not the least, herein again you miss the element of complete showmanship. Are there no successors of Mr. Subhash Ghai and Late Mr. Yash Chopra?

Commando – A One Man Army

Cast: Vidyut Jamwal, Pooja Chopra, Jaideep Ahlawat

Director: Dilip Ghosh

In general, how do you define ‘good’ Bollywood action? Over the top, comical, prefixed and/or suffixed by  the superstar’s dialogues. Have you ever come across one as a ‘pure form of art’? Well, Vidyut Jamwal has entered the Bollywood arena to provide you the same. He proved his mettle in his hindi debut movie ‘Force’ (as villain) and has done it again in his first hindi movie as the hero. He is well trained, in absolute control of his body, amazingly nimble and light footed. At last we have an Indian, trained in Indian martial art form ‘Kalaripayattu’, who can hold his own against the international action heroes!

The movie as such is average. Apart from the hero, only the villain, Jaideep Ahlawat is impactful, or rather ‘original’. You do miss the element of showmanship. If given a big production house and international backdrop, Vidyut looks promising enough to deliver a cool blockbuster. He is rightly aged and thus does not look jaded like most of our so called ‘100 crore club’ heroes.

It’s a known fact that, to learn and excel in higher form of martial art, one needs to be highly disciplined and in absolute control of his mind, because while practicing the same, mind also works in tandem with the body i.e. very fast, observing all minute details and making strategies (both offence and defense) in quick succession. So, while practicing their art, the martial arts practitioners look either calm or very focused, unlike most of our heroes who use myriad facial expressions before punching, kicking etc. Thankfully, Vidyut refrains from using such unnecessary facial expressions, which many may wrongly consider as lack of ‘hero type’ attitude.

Chashme Baddoor

Cast: Ali Zafar, Divyendu Sharma, Siddharth Narayan, Tapasee Pannu, Rishi Kapoor, Lillete Dubey, Anupam Kher, Bharti Achrekar, Ayaz Khan

Director: David Dhawan

This movie is a simple ‘boy meets girl – detects certain chemistry – they become a pair – get separated for a little while – they get back’ love story. Herein, backdrop happens to be Goa and causes of separation as well as union happen to be two immature friends of the boy. There is nothing more or less to the movie.

Divyendu’s dialogues created better punches in his debut film ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’. Siddharth is a seasoned actor and his spunk does invoke some cetees among the audience. If Ali Zafar is aiming the slot of the leading man in Bollywood, then he needs to tune up his acting as well as screen presence. Tapasee has a fresh presence. It is also refreshing to see a heroine with her ‘natural’ looks, i.e. the look sans cosmetic surgery, sculpting etc. Rishi and Lillete are veterans and they deliver as expected. So does Anupam, but his same style of acting and reactive acting do appear little mundane now.

Contrary to what the name suggests and what they claim in the movie promotion, this movie is not the remake of Deepti Naval and Farooq Shaikh starrer ‘Chashme Buddoor’ (1981).

ABCD – Any Body Can Dance

Cast: Prabhu Deva, Ganesh Acharya, Kay Kay Menon, Salman Yusuff Khan, Dharmesh Yelande, Lauren Gottlieb, Punit Pathak

Director: Remo D’Souza

This movie is an absolute delight for modern dance enthusiasts. Hip hop, Locking & Popping, B-boying, Ballet, Contemporary etc. all are there in finest of display by finest of Indian dancers. To top it all, the protagonist of the movie is Prabhu Deva, the God of Dance in India. To weave the aforesaid dances into a tale, Remo has used a logical storyline, perhaps using struggling instances of real life established/aspiring dancers. But the direction and acting in general is very mediocre.

A chase sequence in the beginning of the film needs special mention. It is kind of a fusion of chase and dance acrobatics. You need to see it to believe it. Most of the dancers present in the movie are popular Indian Reality TV Show dancers. And they have all performed as per expectation i.e. brilliantly. Salman, Dharmesh and Punit have been given special camera focus and they totally deserve it. Lauren from American Reality TV has very good screen presence. She is a terrific looker and dancer. Actingwise, Kay Kay is the only real actor in the movie. But he being a non dancer, very less screen time has been allotted to him.

Special 26

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai, Anupam Kher, Kajal Aggarwal, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Pros in this movie: New storyline, Neeraj Pandey style execution, nostalgic trip of late 1980s.

Cons in this movie: Unnecessary presence of heroine and songs, habitual expectation of the audience from a regular superstar.

This movie is true event based and the director has treated the subject with proper r&d and precise execution. In fact you may get nostalgic while watching ten rupee notes printed in black ink, ‘gaddi’ style offices, ‘aangan' centric homes, Air India airplanes and sparsely decorated airport lounges.

The movie is about false CBI raids by conmen imposing as CBI officers who are expert in seizing both apparent and hidden assets (money, jewelry etc.). Everyone has acted well in the film. But Manoj Bajpai needs special mention for his remarkable performance. His entry is rather late, but his histrionics are unbeatable. Like Aamir Khan, every time he performs a pivotal character, he manages to bring something new on the table. Akshay has pretty well underplayed his character. But the kind of superstar he is, you constantly miss what you always expect him to deliver i.e. glitzy romance and action!

In such an intense and interesting movie, you feel impatient when more than the required movie time (read plenty) is allotted to display the personal simple lives of the conmen. That part is neither interesting nor different. Also you fail to understand the purpose of the same. Con activities are both sinful and illegal. So, why the director has tried to generate public sympathy for the aforesaid conmen by displaying their emotional and family side?

David

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vikram, Vinay Virmani, Isha Sharvani, Lara Dutta, Milind Soman, Tabu, Monica Dogra, Rohini Hattangadi, Nassar, Nishan Nanaiah

Director: Bejoy Nambiar

Three altogether different stories from three different time periods spurned into one with the common thread being the protagonist named 'David' in all the three aforesaid stories. To justify this common thread, all these three Davids happen to directly or indirectly touch each other's lives (for once) giving it a significant turn! As such the movie has no clear message. At most one can say that therein the name David denotes sacrifices in different forms i.e. of life, career, love and even urge to assassin for revenge!

Individually, all the three stories have been shot good enough, clearly having the time stamp of the period that they depict. The movie belongs to a different genre altogether. The director needs to be applauded to make the brave attempt of trying such a genre in India. But a lot needs to be improvised as well. Watching this movie, many may feel simply confused.

Neil, Vikram, Vinay have all done pretty good job. Isha simply lights up the screen with her presence. Milind, Monica and Tabu are intense and effective in their small roles.

Race 2

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor, Ameesha Patel

Director: Abbas – Mustan

Dishy looking star cast without any soul to their on screen characters. This whole movie can be summed up in one simple line!

And now the elaboration – In this movie, each and every character is the epitome of fitness & fashion and each and every frame seems to be straight out of Dabboo Ratnani’s calendar! The director duo have attempted the Hollywood style canvas and storyline, but have been unable to create the magic and energy of their past hits like Baazigar, Soldier, Race etc. Essence of the movie is supposed to be betrayal which is enticing to watch in thrillers. However, it becomes senseless when you watch betrayal upon betrayal throughout the movie. Because of this even some good enactments lose their valor as the audience half believe in their authenticity and eventually their sentiments turn out to be correct!

Entire cast has worked very hard on their looks and build up and in a couple of scenes John and Saif do stand out. But then again those scenes get absorbed in your mind as mere individual scenes and don’t do much to your experience of movie watching as a whole. Keeping with the tradition of the movie’s prequel, Anil Kapoor has been given some corny (read sick) lines and he mouths them with as much of innocence as he is capable of depicting. Youngsters may enjoy this flick just for the looks of it. Audience who are not much into Hollywood movies may also get awed by the display of fascinating (read goofy) technology in the film. But many will feel let down as much was expected from the sequel of high energy flick ‘Race’.

Inkaar

Cast: Arjun Rampal, Chitrangada Singh, Deepti Naval, Kanwaljeet

Director: Sudhir Mishra

Seems that the age old debatable question “Can a boy and a girl be just friends?” will now get precedenced by “Can a boss and his subordinate (read muse) maintain both love and work relationships alongside?”  This movie deals with the complexities of such a relationship with the focus on harassment in the workplace. Again, this so called harassment has been given two perspectives – one of the male boss who considers his eventual stance of non-cooperation, snide and improper remarks as getting back and flirting respectively, and the other of the female subordinate (at high post) who considers the aforesaid comments as insulting and non-cooperation as an attempt to curb her career. She also thinks that somewhere she is being pressurized to compromise with her dignity as well. An interesting observation that has been portrayed very well in this movie is – the same look, nudge and dialogue between the same duo holds poles apart meanings in two different situations, that is when they are in love by admittance and when they are not!

Now the question is – in our kind of society where very few women happen to reach powerful positions in cut throat corporate sectors and wherein ambitious plus woman does not equal to focus, hard work, struggle and sacrifice, but to most it equals to running away from basic womanly duties, indulge in merry making and overall have a selfish existence, what percentage of population will actually understand the pain and frustration of a senior woman executive being harassed by a boss whom she once loved? Very few actually. Hats off to the makers of this movie to still work upon such a project and that too without any item number or even normal song and dance sequence!

Sudhir Mishra has made a fine movie with a new age topic, sans any unnecessary sleaze and showing different perspectives of so called ‘workplace harassment’ starting from its cause and origin to its climax. The whole movie shuffles between past and present of seven year period and at times the chain of events gets little confusing. The end of the movie is also quite bizarre. The director has played with light maybe to denote past and present in the scenes, but in such type of movies where past forms most of the story narrative, continuity in the lighting is advisable. Otherwise, most of the times you feel that the lighting is inadequate. Casting of the supporting characters is superb and so is their costumes, body language, acting etc. Deepti Naval has done full justice to her character of a social worker. Kanwaljeet has a very short and passable role. Coming to the main protagonists, Arjun Rampal is experimenting with different roles and is succeeding as well! He is now a polished actor. Chitrangada Singh is lucky to get such screen space at the onset of her career and has managed good enough. But a lot more expressions could have used by her character.

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

Cast: Pankaj Kapur, Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Shabana Azmi, Arya Babbar

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Promos of this flick look very promising with – reed thin and glowing Hollywood like caricatures of Imran and Anushka, Pankaj Kapoor dipped in full-on rustic flavor, an innovative pink buffalo, and top of it the association of ace director Vishal Bhardwaj who knows and delivers his kind of cinema (read rustic) with meticulous ease.

But the movie seems like a carelessly strewn necklace of different beads – some small, some big, some different, some flashy and some absolutely new. You definitely cannot ignore the necklace, but at the same time you cannot call it beautiful in conservative, designer or experimental category!

No one can question Pankaj’s acting, but many may not make any sense out of his Haryanvi drawl. However couple of his Haryanvi scented dialogues are really hilarious. Imran has not been able to impersonate the Haryanvi dude both in accent and persona. Otherwise this would have been one of the characters he would have been remembered by for a long time. But this new kid on the block definitely possesses most honest and beautiful set of eyes. Anushka’s characterization is rather unclear. Dancing without inhibition may look beautiful, but uninhibition portrayed through dancing does not. Shabana Azmi has done this movie fully laced with botox. But she seems to be the only actress herein who has somewhere displayed the sentiment which Vishal wanted to be portrayed via the film. Special mention needs to be given to Arya Babbar for holding well to his character throughout the film, something which you cannot say for the lead pair.

Some scenes in this movie are really new and well written, but you can only admire them as beads and not as a part of the necklace.

Table No. 21

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Rajeev Khandelwal, Tena Desae, Hanif Hilal, Dhruv Ganesh

Director: Aditya Datt

This movie is a crossover between ‘Zinda’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ but without the star cast (Sanjay, John, Lara) of the former and the director of the latter (Danny Boyle). The makers have tried to convey a social message in the shroud of a thriller but both of them fail to make any impact. Object of the movie becomes clear only towards the end. By that time you happen to loose all interest!

Paresh Rawal is an acting stalwart and he dons his hat good enough. Surprisingly, though Rajeev made great impact in his debut movie (Aamir), he is just average in this one. He needs to work a lot on his timing and camera shyness. Tina on the other hand seems to have worked hard in all the departments, but still lacks the X factor. Maybe she will achieve that in time. There is a sense of continuity in all her scenes and she deserves to be applauded for the same. Dhruv has acted very well. Such movies give you the clear idea that small budget multiplex movies by Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vinay Pathak etc. were hit not just by chance or due to them being in new format, but only and only because of the aforesaid actors.

Social messages may differ in different movies, but it all boils down to the condemnation of exploitation and stripping one of his/her dignity without leaving any route of escape! Rightful and dignified existence is everyone’s birth right and we should be very much instrumental in availing the same for ourselves as well as others. And this implementation should start from home. Any prolonged scenario of injustice is bound to create havoc later and affect multiple lives. So why not curb it in the initial stage itself?