Kick (25 Jul 2014)

Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mithun Chakraborty, Archana Puran Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Mishra, Kavin Dave, Sumona Chakravarti

Director: Sajid Nadiadwala   Writer: Sajid Nadiadwala   Music: Himesh Reshammiya

Running Time: 146 minutes

Three good things about this movie –

a)     Salman Khan has shown effort and has incorporated method acting (though not throughout), instead of just banking upon his inimitable charm and loyal fan following. May be the fate and reviews of his last flick ‘Jai Ho’ have a lot to do with this.

b)    Salman Khan’s dress designers have input considerable effort and the result is apparent. With time, Salman has established his impeccable look, which is woven around imported jeans and jackets. And though they must cost a fortune, unlike in this flick, they kind of look the same in most of his flicks. As per the film credits, perhaps Ashley Rebello and Alvira Khan are to be applauded for the same. Only if they can spare the superstar with the ‘kurta’ on jeans combination. It makes him look aged!

c)     Though Nawazuddin Siddiqui enters pretty late in the movie, he steals the show with his portrayal of a whacko usurper. Displaying such confidence and not letting any slip-off in the character in front of Salman Khan is no mean feat. This is Nawazuddin’s first commercial biggie and he has done full justice to it.

Three not so good things about this movie –

a)     It’s apparent that both the lead actors – Salman and Jacqueline have put in considerable effort in their acting as well as their chemistry. But the ‘X’ factor in their chemistry is simply missing. In fact the only time, you can find the lady holding absolutely on to her own is while performing the small, titillating and extremely well choreographed and picturized dance number in the song ‘Jumme Ki Raat’.

b)    The movie plot starts with deep etched sorrow albeit etched in designer wear and picturesque foreign locale, then shifts to Punjabi style dysfunctional family humor, then dangles between ‘Krrish’ style robbery by vigilante and ‘Dhoom’ style cop and thief chase! All these flavors of film making are touched with good enough production design, art direction and casting. But none is pursued to it’s extremity. All these sub-plots, get you ready for the upcoming pulsating act, only to push you to an altogether different act!

c)     For sure, this movie is Salman’s debut as a method actor, or maybe he has simply followed the lead actor of the original Telugu 2009 release of the same name. But, his new style of acting is now and then penetrated by his old one, which bores unmistakable holes in the portrayal of such a complex character, as played by him in ‘Kick’.

Three technical mistakes in the movie –

a)     The protagonist’s wall is adorned with the degrees of a civil engineer, but he is always shown working and experimenting with chemicals!

b)    A ‘youtube’ bash up-and-preach video sequence of the protagonist is shown using the same camera angles and close ups as that of the film. How can a secret mobile video recording have different angles and close-ups?

c)     Prior to any kind of surgery, generally all traces of chemicals are removed from the patient’s body. But post the little girl’s surgery, while she gesticulates with her palm and beckons the protagonist, you can see clear traces of nail polish on her little finger.

Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandez) is a Poland based psychologist who is getting over her separation from her lover, Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan). Due to family pressure for marriage, she meets a visiting Indian cop Himanshu Tyagi (Randeep Hooda). Pursue of ‘Devil’, a masterminded vigilante has brought Himanshu to Poland. This vigilante is sought by the Indian Police for his theft of few hundred crores of rupees in India. Both of them are unaware of the fact that Devi Lal and Devil are same.

Prior to becoming Devil, Devi Lal Singh was an extremely intelligent, muscular and do-gooder forty years old lad, who lead a happy-go-lucky life. He could pursue only those things in life, which gave him a ‘Kick’. Normal mundane routine (read – a regular job) bored him and he could never hold onto them. While performing a do-gooder act, a chance meeting with Shaina made him hooked to the lady. This initial one sided love gradually turned into a mutual one. During marriage planning stage, Shaina and her father (Saurabh Shukla) became dubious about Devi Lal’s capacity to earn and support a married life and hinted about him becoming a ‘ghar jamai’. This irked and hurted Devi Lal and it resulted into - his separation with his lady love, and his solemn oath to himself to thereupon devote his life in earning big money.

The movie then gradually unfolds few robberies with cat and mouse sequences between the Devil and the cops and the human reason behind Devi Lal’s becoming the Devil. One such grand robbery entwines the black money of a corrupt politician and his maniac nephew (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Thereupon, they also get seriously involved with the cops till this chase is brought to an end.

The movie’s script is more or less point-to-point copy of the Telugu movie ‘Kick’ (2009). As a producer, in the past, Sajid Nadiadwala has given good hits with Salman Khan. His directorial debut in ‘Kick’ is an ok job. Screenplay could have been meatier and more seamless. Songs are good and a couple of them (Hangover) have been voiced by Salman Khan, who has made his debut as a singer with this film. Apart from the heroine, the casting is apt. As the leading lady, an Anushka Sharma would have better suited the role.

Jacqueline looks good and dresses with dignity. She has made good effort. But still has miles to go. Randeep Hooda has managed to hold his own in front of Salman Khan. A conscious but easy camaraderie can be seen between them. Rest of the star cast is pretty seasoned and they have delivered as expected. An item number by svelte Nargis Fakhri is good as well.

Though the movie unceremoniously shifts from one gear to another, it still has a rampant energy and star power of Salman Khan. It’s grand ‘Eid’ release with a well targeted ‘Jumme Ki Raat’ song will definitely give handsome box office returns. Last but not the least, don’t miss the impromptu ‘Saat samundar paar’ dance performance by Salman Khan towards the end. It’s totally ‘paisa vasool’.

Bobby Jasoos (4 Jul 2014)

Cast: Vidya Balan, Ali Fazal, Rajendra Gupta, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi, Benaf Dadachanji, Zarina Wahab, Arjan Bajwa, Kiran Kumar, Prasad Barve, Akash Dahiya, Tejas Mahajan

Director: Samar Shaikh   Writer: Sanyukta Chawla   Music: Shantanu Moitra

Running Time: 122 minutes

It seems that this film has been made with two primary objectives. Firstly, to encash a small budget meaningful cinema using the gem of an actor, Vidya Balan, thereby replicating the success of ‘Kahani’. Secondly, to showcase an under-represented Hyderabadi community in Bollywood cinema. May be the Hyderabad ties of the producers have something to do with this.

‘Kahani’ was a blockbuster because stalwart Vidya’s acting was well supported by strong script and direction. ‘Bobby Jasoos’ has Vidya in her full form. But the scripting needs a lot of fine tuning and the direction is average. In ‘Kahani’, Sujoy Ghosh presented Kolkata, ‘the city of joy’ like never before. In comparison, Samar Shaikh’s presentation of old Hyderabad is plain vanilla. In spite of the casting of all acclaimed actors as character artists, the required energy and richness in the scenes is missing.

The backdrop of the movie is the over populated Mughalpura region of old Hyderabad. Bilkis (Vidya Balan), the eldest daughter of the conservative Ahmed family is a self taught and self proclaimed detective aka ‘jasoos’. She has no formal training in this area. But she avidly watches the hindi detective serials and calls herself ‘Bobby Jasoos’. She gets mundane detective jobs and roams fearless in all nooks and corners of Mughalpura at all times.  In fact, she is the only one who takes her profession and her professional skills seriously till she is contacted by an elderly Anees Khan (Kiran Kumar). He maintains a rich but secretive personality and asks her to find three people, one after the other. For each endeavor, he pays her handsomely (a bit too much by her standards). But, as for the clues, he can only provide the name, age and birth mark of missing persons and not any photo. Bobby along with her working allies – Shetty (Prasad Barve), Munna (Akash Dahiya), Suhail (Tejas Mahajan), works on the assignments in her trademark ‘naïve but full-of-drama’ style. She gets success. But somewhere she gets suspicious of the whole operation and decides to unravel the root of the matter. Also, somewhere alongside she discovers mutual liking and love with Tasawur (Ali Fazal), a popular tv presenter who also lives in Mughalpura and assists her in her endeavors.

As expected, Vidya is flawless in her scenes. In her bid as the detective, she dons a wide range of makeovers – hobbling fakir, funny toothed palmist, fatso tv producer etc. She does a terrific job with each one of them. But most of these avatars simply zoom off the screen, without taking the required time and leaving the desired impact. Ali Fazal looks younger to her. But he acts well and matches her performance in the scenes where they are together. Arjan Bajwa (Lala) plays a goon and inspite of soorma and stubble, he looks like a hunk in all his scenes. His acting is nonchalant. As such, not many lines are given to him to deliver. Kiran Kumar has a substantial role and he could have made it impactful. Surprisingly, he did not. Instead, Supriya Pathak (Zebo, Bilkis’ mother) and Tanvi Azmi (Kausar, Bilkis’ khaala) have simple roles, but they leave impact! Rajendra Gupta (Bilkis’ father) and Benaf Dadachanji (Noor, Bilkis’ sister) are good as well. Rest are OK. Cinematography is good. Music is average. However, the number ‘Arziyaan de raha dil’ is good.

All in all, it’s a sweet and clean movie with Vidya occupying more than 90% of the screen time.