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.

Revolver Rani (25 Apr 2014)

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Vir Das, Piyush Mishra, Zakir Hussain, Kumud Mishra, Pankaj Saraswat

Director: Sai Kabir

Watching the movie ‘Revolver Rani’ will generate two distinct sentiments in you. First – Sheer applause for Kangana Ranaut for daring to take up such a role and successfully managing to look ugly, agile, psychotic, as well as a fashion enthusiast, in all the frames. Second – Though Sai Kabir has done an ok enough directorial job, you do miss the chiseled rustic take of a maverick like Anurag Kashyap.

Given the backdrop of Chambal, Madhya Pradesh, the movie starts with a political tussle between a local politician and ‘Alka’ aka Kangana, both of whom aspire to become MLA and as per the thumb rule of the land, feel free to display and use muscle power and firearms as and when they feel like. Characterization of ‘Alka’ is rather unclear. Most you can make out is that, she is a bold dacoit type woman who had her first tete-a-tete with a firearm at the age of seven! She is brought up and mentored by her maternal uncle ‘Balli’, who ably guides her with a shrewd mindset and loves the idea of winning the election more than he loves his niece! He has absolute no patience for anyone or anything that may come in its way, including his niece’s love life or motherhood.

It goes without saying, that Kangana Ranaut has acted differently and excellently, very much like a la Vidya Balan in ‘Dirty Picture’. She is confidant, uninhibited and never tries to step outside the character to justify the insecurities of a leading heroine. Piyush Mishra (Balli), as ever has done an excellent job. In fact, he is the only one in the film who displays depth of character. Vir Das has done an ok job of the role of a toy-boy turned love interest of the protagonist, who ever smilingly dances to her wishes for his personal ambition and monetary interest. This is his first attempt without funny lines. Zakir Hussain and others have done well too. Story narration and editing leave a lot to be desired. Even the background score could have been much better. However, the opening score by Usha Uthup is nice and well sets the mood of the film.

Inspite of good storyline, star cast and performance, this movie watching experience seems incomplete, primarily because the genre of the film is unclear. The movie starts as a South style action flick with oodles of attitude and panache and you really look forward to see the treatment given to such a subject by a leading Bollywood actress. But then out of nowhere, the feisty protagonist turns soft and confused and you are left thinking with a sinking heart that the ‘stylish victory’ at the end that you were so sure of will definitely not happen and you will be required to make peace with one of the stereotyped Bollywood film endings!

Queen (7 Mar 2014)

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon, Mish Boyko, Jeffrey Ho, Joseph Guitobh, Canadea Lopez Marco

Director: Vikas Bahl

This movie is aptly titled and it’s release is perfectly timed on the eve of Women’s Day, as it ably shows the inner strength and conviction of a very mediocre woman, who uses the stab of severe rejection, not to bleed into the state of utter depression filled with society imposed guilt, but to expand her horizon, and in the process learns a great deal about different lifestyles & cultures, makes myriad friends, proves her self worth and tastes the state of utter freedom (both by body and mind)!

Though this journey of hers is hesitantly supported by her loving parents and kid brother, the carefree attitude and occasional mischievous ‘been there, done that’ glances thrown by her grandmother are something to watch out for. In a society like ours, usually an elderly woman expectantly appears so dedicated towards her spouse and family, that it seems impossible that her delicate heart ever nursed a feeling for any other man. But life has never been this simple for them. Due to unavoidable circumstances, shyness, fear, or even betterment, many of them did nurse a feeling for someone in the past, but ended up marrying someone else altogether! And since amongst themselves they do understand this, breakup of an impending marriage, is not that much of a hoo-haa for them, as much as they expectantly portray it to be. They do know that it is unacceptable but not unthinkable. And when it happens to their own blood, they do have the wisdom and conviction to make their granddaughters see the matter in a sensible light and pave their way.

Rani (literally meaning ‘queen’), the protagonist is a girl-next-door, who is wooed over by a family friend’s son, Vijay (Rajkummar Rao) into marriage. On the eve of the marriage, he breaks it up on the pretext of lifestyle and attitude difference that has widened between them due to his London based job and stay! After spending a night in extreme shock and tears, Rani decides to regain the control of her life by starting with going alone on her honeymoon trip (Paris and Amsterdam)! And in this trip, out of her comfort zone, she discovers a whole new different world, wherein all her past taboos seem right, and quite a few right notions seem wrong. She learns - to trust and enjoy the company of good strangers, to fight for herself, the taste of independence and success, and mostly the difference between so called right actions and right intent.

Kangana Ranaut has done a fantastic acting job. Her approach towards the role is very fresh and natural. With her history of living-on-the-edge glam roles, this one comes as a pleasant surprise. Her Indianisation started with ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and she has come full circle with ‘Queen’. Rajkummar Rao has expectantly done a brilliant job. Lisa Haydon is another surprise package in the film. Her natural uninhibited form with French accent is again something to watch out for. Mish Boyko, Jeffrey Ho, Joseph Guitobh, Canadea Lopez Marco who have played Kangana’s roommates/associates in Amsterdam have also essayed their roles with great naturalness and ease. The child artist who plays Kangana’s sibling appears convincing as a possessive kid brother. Rest of the cast has also performed well.

Special applause needs to be given to the director, Vikas Bahl to present well and in perfect harmony, two very different sensibilities, one that of a middle class conservative Indian, and the other of an international traveler. He has also well captured the dilemma of the protagonist while making the consistent cross over between these two sensibilities. When using foreign locales and 100% foreign actors with the protagonist actor as Indian, very few movies are able to portray the true essence of the script. Hats off to the director, that this is one such movie.

Gunday (14 Feb 2014)

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Irrfan Khan

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar

To start with, this movie is quite a chameleon. It’s promos and promotions (TV appearances etc.) give you the impression of high quality bromance between the protagonists and their fun filled wooing of a diva. Whereas, it’s opening scenes are well crafted derivations of aftermath of 1971 Indo Pak War, which separated the modern day Bangladesh from India, thereby creating a partition between West Bengal and East Bengal. But in actuality, the film turns out to be a tribute to the angry young man, Robin Hood like films of Amitabh Bachchan which also had high dosage of intense camaraderie between the heroes, thundering dialogues and high dollops of performances by coquettish damsels. You feel like you have been transported to the film era of the 70’s.

It’s quite evident, that immense hard work has been input by cast and crew, in terms of - r&d, apparels, appearances, set designing, performances etc. In fact the opening scenes, especially the performances by child artists are very good. They actually raise your expectations from the movie to a different level. Even the facial and body language similarity between the two protagonists and their childhood appearances have been matched to the T.

The entire leading cast – Ranveer, Arjun and Priyanka are in their best body forms i.e. very toned, agile and very Hollywood like. In fact, the cabaret performance by Priyanka can give many a similar Hollywood movie performances, quite a run for their money! Lookswise, even in her avatar as a Bengali coquettish lass, she scores well in both traditional Bengali dressing and full-of-tease acting. Such impersonation is not easy. Otherwise too, she has acted well. However, you do feel that her role is longer and meatier than what is actually required on the lines of the movie. Ranveer and Arjun are bursting with both energy and muscles. Their on-screen camaraderie as ‘Bala-Bikram’ remind you of ‘Jai-Veeru’ (Amitabh and Dharmendra)! They also look good in whatever they wear and have acted well. A special mention needs to be made of the fact that the dress designing is not completely on the lines of the 70’s. It’s kind of fusion of the 70’s with the modern day sensibility. As expected, Saurabh Shukla and Irrfan Khan have acted well too.

The movie holds well till interval. And, then it loosens it’s grip, both in terms of objective and enactment. Some scenes are really long and unnecessary.

Showing pure and innocent love in the backdrop of extreme and realistic violence and turbulence is no mean feat. Directors like - Vidhu Vinod Chopra (‘1942 A Love Story’) and Mani Ratnam (‘Roja’, ‘Bombay’) have achieved this with great elan. Sadly, ‘Gunday’ attempts this, but falls short of similar final delivery.

Jai Ho (24 Jan 2014)

Cast: Salman Khan, Tabu, Daisy Shah, Naman Jain, Mohnish Behl, Danny Denzongpa, Ashmit Patel, Yash Tonk, Bruna Abdullah, Nadira Babbar, Mahesh Thakur, Resham Tipnis, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sana Khan, Mukul Dev, Santosh Shukla

Director: Sohail Khan

An ex army official (not exactly your common man), who in the past had been removed from the Indian Army for ignoring his superior’s command and undertaking an extra step to save civilians from the terrorists, not to mention, risking his own life a great deal in the process, lives his present by assisting the civilians in myriad ways possible and saving them from all possible modes of harassment. Ask him for any sort of assistance (even taking a kid to the loo) and he is there. Trouble anyone in any manner (even pushing off a street urchin), and he is there. Thank him for his help, and he asks you to help three other people instead, and tell them each to do the same! This is the protagonist of the movie ‘Jai Ho’ i.e. your very own Salman Khan, aka the ‘bhai’ of the masses.

‘Jai Ho’ is the official remake of Telugu film ‘Stalin’ (2006) and it intends to give social service message and impart noble teaching. The philanthropist in Salman Khan completely takes over his character, and when he emotes, the following seem real and genuine - the restlessness and pain towards suffering of others, frustration of not being able to change the system, anger and hatred towards the bad guys, ruthless bashing of the villains etc.

Apart from this, any of his other scenes, or even the rest of the movie has no depth, meaning or connectivity! It seems that the presence of the superstar was taken a wee bit too much for granted and as such no real effort was put towards the making of a good movie! Even the fitness of the superstar (supposed to be his primary appeal) was not deemed necessary for all the scenes. Barring a few last minute scenes, Salman Khan appears overweight (read prominent double chin) and tired (read puffy eyes) in most of the movie. Still he manages to look better than the rest of the cast!

Casting is purely whimsical or, you can say that going by the pulse of ‘Jai Ho’, it mostly seems to be an act of good deed by the actor-producer brother duo (Salman and Sohail). They apparently fulfilled their promises made to various individuals and groups, of giving them the opportunity to act or dance in their film! Apart from that, they seem to have pulled in a great chunk of their friends and loyalists to act in the movie. Be prepared to see an army of known as well as long forgotten popular faces (both from Bollywood and TV) to appear one by one in the film. Tabu seems to be the only well thought of case of casting. She well befits the role of a righteous, no nonsense and strong sister. The debutant Daisy Shah has no defining role as such but a couple of dancing songs, and therein she has performed pretty well. The surprise package of the movie is Bruna Abdullah. Till her last scene, you expect her to break into an item number, which never happens!

If you belong to that strata of the common man that is heavily weighed down by the system, who wants to rebel and retaliate badly but cannot dare to do so for the fear of being subjected to further atrocities that would be thrown upon by the corrupt authorities to maintain their power and clout, you will enjoy the movie because with every snarl that Salman will roar and with every punch that he will throw, you will feel a step closer to the sense of closure for all your sufferings. Also, if you are a die hard Salman fan, you will enjoy the movie, as he is present in most of the frames. But if you are a serious movie enthusiast, who looks for logic, technique, newness and performance in a movie, be prepared to experience the severe messing up of your sense of movie watching.

Dedh Ishqiya (10 Jan 2014)

Cast: Madhuri Dixit Nene, Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Huma Qureshi, Vijay Raaz, Manoj Pahwa, Ravi Gossain, Salman Shahid

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Cine goers had very high expectation from this movie for mainly two reasons. Firstly, it was a sequel of ‘Ishqiya’, a milestone in the history of Bollywood movies. Secondly, it had Madhuri Dixit, who looked like a million bucks and danced like a dream in the concerned TV reality shows. So, though her first comeback movie (Aa Ja Nachle) was a dud, this one simply could not go wrong, as this time Mrs. Nene seemed very well prepared with, what is expected from the current Bollywood heroine (read pencil thin figure, designer wardrobe, polished teeth, corrective surgeries/botox injections etc) along with her all time speciality i.e. powerful acting. So, this flick was supposed to be a double whammy.

And thus, you watch the movie with baited breath. But your heart breaks when you eventually realize that one of the core reasons responsible for drawing you to the theatre, is actually the weakest link in the movie! Aka Julius Caesar, Vidya Balan seems more powerful by her absence in the movie because it’s evident that she played the difficult and complex character in ‘Ishqiya’ with great elan and ease unlike her replacement in ‘Dedh Ishqiya’. And her replacement is not just anyone but the ‘Madhuri Dixit’!

As per expectation, Madhuri looks good and dances very well. However, there is only one dance (by Madhuri) in the movie. The other one appears along with the credits at the end. At 45 years, looking that good and fit is definitely praiseworthy. But for some reason, this lass looks much better and appears more exuberant in her TV appearances! Her character in the film is multi faceted and she is also given ample screen time to show her craft. But the required performance simply doesn’t come through. Maybe, such complex characters of woman protagonists were not written earlier, and thus playing them is not actually her forte, and both the cine makers and the audience have expected just too much out of her (which is not her fault), or maybe she will take some time (read a couple of movies) before sinking her teeth into such characters. Whatever the case maybe, this is not favorable for ‘Dedh Ishqiya’.

Otherwise, the movie is well written, inter relationship among the characters is very well nuanced, has the expected rustic feel and background music, good direction and acting. In fact the ‘thumris’ used in the movie are really good. The movie has considerably high dosage of Urdu, a language which many may not be conversant with, but the usage of which is required to perhaps justify the storyline. And so, there are English subtitles to make the movie understandable. To tell the truth, the subtitles prove to be a pure distraction. With experience you develop different mindset for watching different kind of movies. Watching a Hindi movie with subtitles can never be one such mindset.

Acting wise, Naseeruddin Shah can do justice to any character and scene. Special mention needs to be made for a scene, wherein he emotes his ‘falling in love with Maduri Dixit’ with simply his eyes. What a brilliant execution of a simple scene! Arshad Warsi seems the quintessential Babban. He brings the few good funny moments in the film. No one can question his comic timing. Also the rapport between these two actors is very well depicted. Huma Qureshi and Salman Shahid have expectantly made their mark. Others have also acted well. The camaraderie shown between Huma and Madhuri is something new and different. It is that of two women whose presence in each other’s lives is clearly more important and necessary than anyone else’s. Their roles towards each other are that of a delicate idol and a worshipping caretaker. And still they seem to share little more than just loyal friendship!

All in all, it is an exemplary movie that will fail to reach it’s deserving zenith just because of a couple of ill fitting components.

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.