Vicky Aur Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video (11 Oct 2024)

 

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Duration: 146 minutes

First and foremost, barring the nomenclature of the film, there is nothing adult about it, neither in terms of violence nor in terms of skin show or intimacy, unless you associate the presence of Mallika Sherawat with a testosterone rush!

Mallika, the yesteryear sassy siren appears in the movie rather late but full of confidence and good continuity in wardrobe and acting. She plays the hero's sister!

Another surprise package herein is wannabe siren Shehnaaz Gill, who appears in an item number, performs well but still looks more cute than sassy, even with noteworthy weight loss and toned body.

Shot around Rishikesh, the movie is packed with rustic UP flavor woven around two middle class families, a philanthropist bhaiyaji, a photographer, a couple of cops, a thief, chor bazar and a gang of goons consisting of a lady boss and two duplicates of yesteryear hero Suniel Shetty!

Contrary to what some may have believed, the movie is not just about a simple lost and found case of intimate suhagrat CD of Rajkummar Rao and Tripti Dimri, but a complex mesh of happenings around a stolen CD that finally leads to a longer (read much longer) than required climax filled with social awareness and never ending gyan!!

The chemistry between the lead couple is average. Better chemistry is prevalent between Mallika Sherawat and Vijay Raaj, who plays the senior cop.

Throughout the movie, the lead cast and a bevy of popular character artists try to bring in frequent laughs, some of their punches result in laughter while some fall flat.

The aforementioned seasoned artists are - Vijay Raaz, Rakesh Bedi, Archana Puran Singh, Tiku Talsania, Ashwini Kalsekar, Mukesh Tiwari, Mast Ali, Ishtiyak Khan and Mubeen Saudagar.

The cinematography by Aseem Mishra is good.

Look out for the item number that appears with the credit rolls at the end of the movie. For a change, herein the hero in his brand new avatar with designer beard & hair, gym trainer body and effortless dancing looks meatier than the heroine!

A few minutes before that, the Indian pop singer Daler Mehndi also appears in a song & dance number!

On the whole, the movie is a decent time pass, a good effort by the director, Raaj Shaandilyaa.

Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank (14 Aug 2024)

Genre: Comedy Horror

Duration: 149 minutes

While the prequel Stree (2018) was about the terror of 'Stree' amongst the menfolk of Chanderi, the sequel Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank is about the terror of 'Sarkata' amongst the womenfolk of the same village!

Again the good hearted and simpleton Vicky (Rajkumar Rao) is bestowed with the task to fight the supernatural and terminate the terror, along with his buddies Rudra Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana), Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) and his mysterious sweetheart (Shraddha Kapoor), who finally reveals her identity towards the end of the movie.

Ably carrying forward the legacy of it's prequel, the movie is a heady mix of good comedy with some well placed puns, horror (not really), sharp editing and good acting by all the actors of the lead cast, as well as, the ones who made guest appearances (Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan and Tamannaah Bhatia).

All the scary entities of the Maddock Supernatural Universe are showcased or at least mentioned in the movie along with the reveal about the next one in the pipeline!

The climax is well penned, but it could have been shot better.

Overall, the film is a good watch.

Panchayat 3 (28 May 2024)

While the first two seasons were like a new love which was confused in a new arena, trying to find it's standing and undergoing a plethora of bitter-sweet experiences but overall having sweet fun, in the third season that love has matured, is now deep rooted with a solid sense of belonging and finally awakening to the hard facts of life around!!

Panchayat 3 is all about a flurry of  incidents and accidents that take place at Phulera village before the panchayat elections wherein Pradhan ji aka Brij Bhushan Dubey's (Raghubir Yadav) core opponent inside the village is Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar) and outside is Vidhayak ji aka Chandrakishore Singh (Pankaj Jha), who plot & scheme in multiple ways to soil his name, so that he loses the upcoming election.

This keeps Pradhan and his team fully occupied wherein they resort to a series of rustic style out of the box thinking and succeed in failing all the mal efforts of the aforementioned duo.

Amidst all this, deep sorrow struck and utterly lost Upa-Pradhan aka Prahlad Pandey (Faisal Malik) whose son achieved martyrdom while serving the army (shown in season 2), recovers step by step from alcoholism and depression in a very organic manner, eventually turning into a selfless and stoic being.

Plus there is sweet & clean budding romance between Abhishek Tripathi aka Sachiv ji (Jitendra Kumar) and Pradhan ji's daughter Rinki (Sanvikaa), sans any kind of touching or even proposal. They know about each other's feelings and try to meet & spend time in each other's company, not directly but under various pretexts!

As usual, Raghubir Yadav as Pradhan (actually Pradhan-Pati) is a treat to watch with his signature dialogue delivery and comic body language. Faisal Malik has shown his full acting chops giving Prahlad an altogether new respective identity. Durgesh Kumar has well portrayed his grey shades and kept the series interesting. The rest of the cast has also performed expectantly well.

But mind you, the amusement factor in Panchayat 3 is considerably less than the last two series because as I have mentioned in the beginning, the love is no more new found, it has matured and the practicalities have started pouring in, including violence and body harm!

The series is 8 episodes long with the time duration of 35-51 minutes and is still a fine example of Indian story telling.

Patna Shuklla (29 Mar 2024)

Genre: Socio-Legal Drama

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Language: Hindi

Duration: 125 minutes

Director: Vivek Budakoti, Rajendra Tiwari (Dialect Coach)

Cast: Raveena Tandon, Satish Kaushik, Manav Vij, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Anushka Kaushik, Jatin Goswami

Introduction:

Patna Shuklla is a simple well enacted socio-legal drama. 

It's a non-preachy tale of judicial fight against marksheet scam sans any mega twist & turns or deflation from the original matter, quite well enacted by Raveena Tandon and others.

Plot:

Tanvi Shukla (Raveena Tandon) is a lawyer in the lower court, mostly known for and applauded for her cooking than her profession, till she decides to lock horns with Raghubir Singh (Jatin Goswami), a well connected and powerful election candidate, to get justice for Rinki Kumari (Anushka Kaushik), the daughter of a poor rickshaw driver.

Rinki is a victim of marksheet scam at Patna based Vihar University, where in spite of performing quite well in her final year of college, she is declared as fail in her marksheet!

She is super sure of some error in her papers checking and is hell bent to get her papers re-checked as her poor father can definitely not afford an additional year of college fees and without a proper college degree her future would be bleak.

She needs to start earning as soon as possible. 

Upon taking her case, Tanvi realises that  convincing the university authorities to do the same is next to impossible as the scam racket runs quite high inside the university administration, who retaliate by appointing Neelkanth Mishra (Chandan Roy Sanyal), quite a senior lawyer to fight the aforementioned simple case!

To pressurize Tanvi to drop the case, she and her family are subjected to assorted threats and administrative pressures by Raghubir and the active government.

Her honest and gentleman husband Siddharth Shukla (Manav Vij) who happens to be a government employee is falsely embroiled in a scam and removed from active duty, her house is partially damaged by a bulldozer sans any prior notice and all the dust caused by this destruction aggravates her son's asthma who is required to be hospitalized at the middle of the night!!

As if all this is not enough, Tanvi is required to face a demon from her past, which kind of causes her breakdown and robs her of her desired identity!

But steely determined to bring justice in Rinki's life and well supported & motivated in her endeavour by her husband, she manages to do the impossible, with her hardwork, sacrifice, true belief and last but not the least the fearless and right verdict given by Judge Arun Kumar Jha (Satish Kaushik), who though looks quite a roly-poly desi simpleton but cannot be taken for granted.

Her steadfast fight against the deep rooted corruption garners her the title Patna Shuklla.

Analysis:

Clad in simple & smart handloom sarees with well coordinated three quarter sleeve blouses and minimalistic jewellery, Raveena Tandon throughout looks svelte and has given a subtle but powerful performance well using her kohl-lined eyes and deep stares.

Late Satish Kaushik looks endearing as a tired and soon to be retired judge with comic body language but oodles of experience. His pursuit of balance in everything is hilarious.

Manav Vij looks stoic & supportive and quite well compliments the restless energy of Raveena Tandon.

All the others have also acted well.

Confusion:

With the surname Shukla and location Patna, why is Raveena Tandon sporting shakha and pola bangles like a Bengali bou di along with a Maharashtrian style mangalsutra round her neck throughout the movie?

Is it a debacle of the costume department or she is supposedly representing the pan India women's fight for the right and dressed in accordance?

Also her husband looks pure Punjabi. Well, Manav Vij is an established Punjabi actor, but there should have been some effort taken to make him look and talk like a Bihari babu.

Conclusion:

Patna Shuklla is a relatively low budget straightforward movie sans any significant music numbers, dance, romance, violence or nudity.

The movie is not really entertaining but not even boring. 

Raveena Tandon and Late Satish Kaushik manage to keep you glued to the screen.

Mast Mein Rehne Ka (8 Dec 2023)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Channel: Amazon Prime Video

Language: Hindi

Duration: 127 minutes

Writer: Vijay Maurya, Payal Arora

Director: Vijay Maurya

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Neena Gupta, Abhishek Chauhan, Monika Panwar, Faisal Malik, Rakhi Sawant

Editing: Antara Lahiri

Cinematography: Nagaraj Rathinam

Introduction

Centred around the lives of four individuals, the movie is about the vast desert of loneliness in Mumbai - the city with an otherwise throbbing pulse, where as and when one chances upon a soothing oasis, one should recognise it and hold on to it.

A man is a slave to his circumstances and mostly the life that he leads is never really solid black or white but one or the other shade of grey, depending upon his state of - greed, debt, love, loneliness, frolic and the likes.

In his bid to make his existence wholesome, he misses out on contemplating how his actions would affect others and eventually himself.

But amidst all the humdrum every soul needs to give and receive that unique dash of compassion and sense of belonging to and from at least one person, so as to feel meaningful and keep sane.

And this much required relationship should be organic but not necessarily conventional!

Plot

Madahosh Gupta aka Nanhe (Abhishek Chauhan) is a shy and sincere tailor but new to Mumbai and it's cruel and unpredictable ways.

In spite of working hard, he incurs huge amount of debt and is compelled to perform thefts in the residences occupied by single aged people.

His only solace in life is spending time with Rani aka Rawas (Monika Panwar), the bindas and street smart beggar girl at a traffic signal.

While doing theft at an old widower of 12 years aka V. S. Kamath's (Jackie Shroff) apartment, he happens to hurt him and while doing the same at a recently Canada returned widow of 3 years aka Parkash Kaur Handa's (Neena Gupta) flat, he happens to scuffle and scare her.

Both the senior citizens meet by serendipity and form a much needed friendship so as to mend their sad and lonely hearts.

In their bid to stop an ongoing theft at a stranger's empty apartment, they hesitantly enter the same. The thief runs away but they stay back and gulp down a couple of beers and available beer snack!

Addicted to the mischievous act, they do the same repeatedly at assorted stranger's abode until they come across Nanhe trying to perform theft in one such abode, which eventually results in Nanhe getting unconscious by getting bumped on the head by Mrs. Handa who herself becomes unconsciousness while running away shit scared from the aforesaid apartment.

Both Mr. Kamath and Nanhe (post gaining consciousness) help her in getting admitted to a hospital. Mr. Kamath even foots her vast bill later on, spending almost two-third of his savings!

On the other side, Rawas who had always evaded being a hooker, gives in to the temptation of earning big bucks, so as to assist Nanhe in repaying his debt!

Watch the movie to know how both the  man-woman relationships end, where the sun of life is setting in one while rising in another!!

Analysis

The entire movie focuses on the lower and middle class population of Mumbai, so it mostly showcases dingy & narrow lanes, shanty abodes, congested apartments, public parks and Mumbai centric street food. 

The movie is quite real in it's pulse with interesting production design of different abodes.

The screenplay is commendable and different. The casting is good. The editing is superb. All the actors have performed well. But Jackie Shroff simply stands out. His acting is quite mature and endearing. With all her chatter and naive persona, Neena Gupta is the spark of the movie. Abhishek Chauhan has well depicted a poor soul who is torn apart by Mumbai style cruel treatment. Monika Panwar has well enacted her state of frolic, care a damn attitude and anger of being exploited.

Conclusion

Watching Mast Mein Rehne Ka was a pleasant surprise as it got released sans any buzz or promotion and turned out to be quite engaging & entertaining along with a loud and clear social message i.e. to find your oasis, hold on to it and stay happy, irrespective of the mad mayhem around.

Do watch it.

Pippa (10 Nov 2023)

Genre: War Action Drama

Channel: Amazon Prime Video

Language: Hindi

Duration: 139 minutes

Director: Raja Krishna Menon

Cast: Ishaan Khatter, Mrunal Thakur and Priyanshu Painyuli 

Woven around Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, specifically the Battle of Garibpur in 1971, Pippa is a well depicted tale of immense personal & professional growth of Captain Balram Singh Mehta (Ishaan Khatter) of India's 45 Cavalry regiment and his newly acquired expertise in manoeuvering PT-76, the Russian amphibious war tank, that floats on water like an empty ‘pippa’ (tin) of ghee and was highly instrumental in his winning the aforementioned battle.

India won the war which eventually led to the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh.

Special care has been taken to just touch base with the cruelty bestowed upon the citizens of Bangladesh and Bengali nationalist forces by the Pakistan military and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias called the Razakars who amongst other atrocities violated umpteenth number of girls and women and left them as bad as living dead!!

Something that totally stands out in the movie and surprisingly not much is being buzzed about is Ishaan Khattar's fluid and perfect dance sequence in the song 'Main Parwaana...'.

He dances so effortlessly, with full expressions, without missing a single beat, with crystal clear moves, that his performance seems like a beautiful symphony.

Undoubtedly, today he is one of the best dancers in Indian cinema.

The combo of A. R. Rahman (music director), Arijit Singh (singer) and Ishaan Khattar (dancer) is too good.

Overall, Pippa is a well made movie with good casting, direction, acting, production design, editing and cinematography.

Do watch it. 

The Railway Men (18 Nov 2023)

 

Genre: Historical Drama Tragedy

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 4

Running Time: 51-65 minutes

Writer: Aayush Gupta

Director: Shiv Rawail

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, R. Madhavan, Babil Khan, Divyenndu Sharma, Juhi Chawla

Fact:

Due to leakage of 40 tonnes of lethal methyl- isocyanate from Union Carbide, a US corporation owned pesticide factory in Bhopal on 2 Dec 1984, as per the official data, 3,800 people were instantly killed, most of whom resided in a slum located in the close proximity to the factory. The unofficial data of instant deaths was much higher!!

Till today, the city of Bhopal has not fully recovered from this tragedy.

What led to such a tragic night?

- Low safety standards maintained inside the factory.

- Inapt awareness and training of factory staff.

- The mere presence of such a high risk factory in the populated area and not the vacant outskirts.

Webseries Plot:

The 4 episodes series is primarily about the unsung heroes of Indian Railway whose honest efforts, quick action and sacrifices in ensuring (as much as they could) - the vacation of Bhopal Junction railway station, calling in relief services from all quarters and helping people in exiting Bhopal, helped save a multitude of lives.

The screen credits display the death toll figure to be 15,000!!

Two most heart wrenching scenes from the movie are -

- An infant feeding on his/her mother's breast while she is already dead!

- A soon to be wed full decked up bride coming out of her abode into the street searching for her missing mother, only to find her entire 'baraat' along with the groom lying dead!!

Analysis:

Being the first webseries from the stable of YRF Entertainment, The Railway Men has been made with careful r&d and scripting coupled with apt casting and production design, making it a brilliant series to watch and engage in spite of the tragic massacre it entails.

Kay Kay Menon as the wise, dutiful and extremely concerned station master simply wins your heart with his yet again display of amazing acting prowess.

The actor can emote myriad of emotions sans any dialogue! Also, his continuity throughout the series is awesome.

Babil Khan plays an inexperienced loco pilot with past working experience in the Union Carbide factory with almost perfection. 

His acting is raw, fresh and honest which makes it quite appealing. He is definitely a talent to watch out for.

R. Madhavan plays the GM of the West Central Railway zone. He enters the series quite late but brings in the required clout and star power, which stays till the end.

Divyenndu Sharma plays a robber who eventually ends up as a saviour. His energy and dialect brings in the much required comic relief in the series.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Raghubir Yadav, Juhi Chawla Mehta, Mandira Bedi and Sunny Hinduja are other prominent actors that play assorted small but effective roles in the series and help in making it better and wholesome.

Conclusion:

Do watch The Railway Men for it's a well engineered fact based fiction and overall good cinema.