Ek Villain (27 Jun 2014)

Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Remo Fernandes, Shaad Randhawa, Aamna Sharif, Kamal Rashid Khan, Prachi Desai

Director: Mohit Suri

As per the promos, the movie is supposed to be a suspense thriller. And the suspense is that there is no suspense! In fact, the movie ends in the interval and you witness a whole new style of filmmaking in the second half, which unravels the art of elongating a film without any remaining plot! Till the last climax, the movie buff in you will expect the appearance of some unexpected twist, something that will justify your sitting through the film’s second half. But the unraveling of the (nonexistent) mystery i.e. the disclosure of the identity of the assassin will only fill you up with the desire of banging your head to the nearest wall.

Guru (Sidharth Malhotra) is the angry, young man who works for a Goa based politician cum goon (Remo Fernandes). Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor) is the perennial miss goody-two-shoes who maintains a wish diary filled with the wishes pertaining to experiencing small pleasures and helping people. She makes the agenda of ‘saving Guru’s life’ from the pathos of darkness as her latest wish. She changes Guru. They fall in love, marry and come to Mumbai for a new life. Unfortunately, she gets killed by a serial killer. This devastates Guru. The merciless, angry man in him returns. His only agenda is to find the assassin and avenge the death of his beloved wife. His search leads him to Rakesh (Riteish Deshmukh), a telephone repair guy, who is tired of being shouted upon by his lady boss and his wife (Aamna Sharif) for being good-for-nothing. Though he remains quiet and submissive in front of them and the world in general, he vents out his ire by killing other women. The cat and mouse game starts between Guru and Rakesh, till one of them is thrown into the arms of death.

Apparently, the centre plot of the movie is inspired by the Korean movie ‘I Saw The Devil’. And, as it has happened may times before, in the attempt to Indianize the screenplay, by infusing song, emotions and drama, the essence of the suspense thriller is lost. It appears that Mohit Suri, the director started with something in mind and ended with something else. The cop (Shaad Randhawa) in the movie looks very intense and interested in the happenings. But on the whole, he serves no purpose! Instances of location change between Goa and Mumbai are not explanatory. You are required to guess them on your own. To justify the existence of the movie’s second half, the makers have tried to highlight the concept of ‘karmic circle’ i.e. ‘you reap what you saw’. And they have shown two such instances with each of the leading male protagonists. But it all gets lost in the mayhem.

Interestingly, the art of crafts (especially paper cutting) has been beautifully displayed in the movie. The heroine is shown to be a practitioner of the same and her wish diary as well as her cozy Mumbai nest look beautiful. Art Director has worked well on this. Music is average. However, the number ‘Galiyaan …’ is good.

Mohit Suri’s direction is kind of better than his earlier work. But somewhere he got confused with the storyline. Or, some serious meddling was done with his work. As expected, Sidharth looks very handsome. Surprisingly, he looks more comfortable in the action genre than his previous two flicks which projected him as the romantic hero. With this movie, Riteish has got the best role of his life, and he has done a good job. But with some more honed skills, he could have done wonders. Shraddha has a small role and she has done justice to it. Aamna Sharif is OK. Item number is done by Prachi Desai. By the time, it appears, you are so much in the hurry for the movie to end, that it comes across as highly unnecessary.

Humshakals (20 Jun 2014)

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta, Tamannah Bhatia, Satish Shah, Chunky Pandey, Akash Khurana, Darshan Jariwala

Director: Sajid Khan

A multi cast comedy with the three male protagonists in triple roles each and all of them being successful in their respective genres and media, gives you the natural expectation of a fun filled and light headed movie time. Instead, you watch the movie with exasperation as you witness the ‘fun’ element slipping out of most of the funny lines and comic expressions and you have a thumping headache calculating what all went wrong with the movie.

In order to obtain temporary rights to run billionaire Ashok’s (Saif Ali Khan) business empire, he and his friend (Riteish Deshmukh) are wrongfully sent to a mental asylum by his General Manager who also happens to be his Uncle (Ram Kapoor) aka ‘Mamaji’. The mental facility already holds all of their duplicates i.e. ‘humshakals’. They are child-like  Ashok (Saif), Kumar (Riteish) and third stage OCD (hygiene freak) patient Johnny (Ram). Attractive lady doctor Shivani (Esha Gupta) discovers that the former Ashok-Kumar duo are not mental and in her bid to release them, out of mistake, releases the latter duo, who are spotted by Ashok’s girlfriend Shanaya (Tamannah Bhatia) and taken to his home. Ashok’s sister like secretary Nikita (Bipasha Basu) is incidentally Kumar’s girlfriend and apparently stays in her boss’ home to manage all his affairs. The home also houses Ashok’s father who is in coma.

To add to this confusion, the original Ashok and Kumar also flee from the mental asylum and reach home, only to perform Sajid Khan’s mandatory multi cast night time dance in the deserted house! The original duo are caught and carried back by the asylum warden (Satish Shah). In the mental asylum, an attendant (Darshan Jariwala) introduces them to Johnny. Now ‘Mamaji’ is equipped with duplicates of original Ashok-Kumar in the house and original Ashok-Kumar are equipped with ‘Mamaji’s duplicate Johnny in the mental asylum. Both the original parties plan to use their valuable possessions in the shortly upcoming board meeting of Ashok’s company, so as to obtain the entire control of his business. The remaining movie caters to the implementation of their respective plans and an expected mayhem climax. Don’t even bother to understand the third role of each of the protagonists.

To start with, the movie has one of the weakest opening scenes. Also, herein Saif who is almost always impeccably dressed (a Tom Ford loyalist), sports an ill fitting and unappealing blazer! His house’s entrance is super rich, interiors are rich and the kitchen is poor (small in size and with metallic workareas)! There is absolutely no chemistry between Riteish and Bipasha, though Bipasha seem to be trying hard to establish some. Last but not the least, the scenes lack continuity and impact.

Only two well crafted long scenes bring about the Sajid Khan school of comedy. The one wherein the original dup try to escape from the mental asylum, and the other wherein all the three protagonists woo their own female versions. The movie is filled with smart pun intended one-liners. Though the deliverance of most of them fall flat in the face, none of them are cheap or repulsive.

For some reason, Riteish appears taller and broader than Saif in the movie! He has built good muscle and looks wiser than his early appearances. Also, this is his comfort genre, and he makes the best of it. With enough movie experience, now he is a pro at playing a seductress. In fact apart from his eyebrows, if dressed wisely in female gear, nothing will give away that he is a man! Saif has dared to experiment with a new genre, but he has miles to go before he can make hay out of it. However, he has worked hard to deliver. Ram is the surprise package. He is the only one who has maintained clear distinction amidst all his three roles. Also, in spite of his tall and bulky frame, when required, he does manage to look cute! All the three heroines basically fill the glam quotient. They somehow don’t appear in tandem with each other. However, it’s noteworthy that, you can see a hinting resemblance of Sophia Lauren in Bipasha and Angelina Jolie in Esha. Tamannah is very confidant. Satish Shah and Darshan Jariwala have small roles and Chunky Pandey has an even smaller one. They do make the required impact.

As usual, Sajid Khan has released his movie sans any competition. With no other A-lister new movie around to snatch the audience, and with the three protagonists aimed to attract all kinds of watchers – Saif for classes, Riteish for masses and Ram for TV watchers, the movie is bound to have a strong opening. But the audience is still waiting for Sajid to repeat his ‘Heyy Babyy’ magic.

Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty (6 Jun 2014)

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Zakir Hussain, Govinda, Freddy Daruwala, Sumeet Raghavan

Director: A. R. Murugadoss

This movie is the second Bollywood release of the southern maverick director Murgadoss, and it’s better executed and more apt for the Bollywood audience than his first mega hit flick ‘Ghajini’ (Aamir Khan). But as expected, the southern director could not stay away from the curvaceous heroine and unnecessary songs. Amidst a serious and thrilling storyline, except for the first song, all the rest seem highly disturbing.

Virat Bakshi is a special agent from DIA (Defence Intelligence Agency), who works undercover as an Indian Army personnel. During one of his holidays to his hometown Mumbai, he chances upon a notorious terrorist plan, and uses his entire holiday to unearth and disable the same. Throughout the operation he is well aided by a Mumbai police official who is also his close friend. Amidst all this, the director finds enough frames to accommodate a love angle between Virat and Saiba!

The movie is a remake of Tamil flick ‘Thuppakki’. But if you are unaware and unexposed to the original, then it’s definitely a new and interesting plot to watch. It deals with the terrorist unit called ‘Sleeper Cells’. And this concept is well described and depicted in the movie. As expected of Murgadoss, the movie is filled with blood and gore. But subtly it also stresses on the need to risk small collateral damage in a covert operation that is undertaken to save hundreds of lives. Meaning to stay that, if a security official is taken for granted to give his life for the country, then why can’t a civilian’s life be put to risk to save many others?

In its own way, the movie is also an ode to all the security organizations of the country i.e. the Indian Police, the Indian Intelligence and the Indian Army. They work under all kinds of taxing situations to keep the country safe. Their scope of work and action is kind of undefined as the anti social forces constantly change and update their terror techniques! Since they are expected to be 100% fit by both body and mind, any work mishap that results into weakening or amputation of their body, sadly pushes them towards an early retirement. But their training is such that, in time of need and short notice, they can still make good use of their skills and prove worthy enough for a security cause!

Beneath their rough & tough and ready-to-kill exterior, each of them is actually a simple family man who is regularly required to stay away from his near and dear ones for long months. This fact is beautifully depicted in the last scene of the movie.

Akshay Kumar (Virat) looks very fit and as always is very good with the stunts. However, when the camera is at close angles, he does appear a little aged. Sonakshi Sinha (Saiba) has performed as per expected of the role of the hero’s arm candy. In the initial scenes, the lady is required to be athletic and its worth mentioning that she throws a neat and powerful punch in the boxing ring! This is unseen of any Indian actress till now. Maybe Priyanka Chopra as Mary Kom will add to this soon. Freddy Daruwala in his debut as the new Bollywood villain needs to work a lot more on his expressions. He looks very fit though. Sumeet Raghavan as constantly aiding the operation police man could have had a more powerful appearance. Govinda has a small guest appearance. Herein, he has donned tasteful fashion wear and he looks endearing in his performance. Seeing him, you do wish to see him as one of the main protagonists in a movie soon.

All in all, it’s an impactful movie, with a balance of north and south style sensibilities. But it’s definitely not for the under aged.