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.