3 Reasons To Watch And 3 Reasons To Skip The Movie - Love Hostel on ZEE5 😊

 

3 reasons to watch it:

- It's crisp with good editing. You are thoroughly engaged and contemplate what will happen next.

The duration of the movie is just 1 hour 40 minutes.

- Good acting by all the lead characters i.e. Vikrant Massey, Sanya Malhotra and Bobby Deol, the former two play the lovebirds who elope and marry via intercaste registry and the latter plays the hired killer in search of them to perform honour killing.

However, Bobby Deol is more effective with his get-up and body language. The moment he speaks, his familiar glint in the eyes and mild smile takes over and clashes with his role of a cold blooded assassin.

- For such a movie, shifting the backdrop from Uttar Pradesh to not much cinematically explored Haryana seems a fresh change. The dialect, dressing and dialogues are interesting to observe.

This is is the second film of Shanker Raman, the director. Incidentally, his debut movie Gurgaon was also Haryana based.

3 reasons to skip it:

- Mindless bloodshed of one and all and unnecessary collateral damage.

- Glimpse of many things but pursual of none.

The movie depicts - lawlessness in a Haryana based town along with it's corrupt and locally powerful lady MLA and police officers, primitive culture of condemning and honour killing of couples of different castes or same sex, trapping and arresting of a simpleton with false charges of being a terrorist, forcing a youth to do unlawful activity, a government run and police protected safe home for married couples fearing honour killing and a self proclaimed vigilante doing cold blooded honor killing, both at will and upon hiring.

But the movie doesn't probe deep into any of the aforementioned topics. In the movie, things just happen in succession without explaining any why and how behind them.

- Vanilla ending. All that built up yields to nothing!

4 New Hindi Web Series On 4 Different OTT Platforms 🙂

The year 2022 has kick-started with 4 new Hindi web series - Kaun Banegi Shikharwati, Ranjish Hi Sahi, Human and Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein on ZEE5, Voot, Disney+ Hotstar and Netflix respectively.

All of them are overall nice and starkly different in content. So, if you are a Hindi web series enthusiast, then you have much to binge watch and enjoy!

Here is some factual information and my take on these web series -

1. Kaun Banegi Shikharwati (7 Jan 2022)

Channel: ZEE5

Genre: Drama Comedy

No. of Episodes: 10

Average Duration: 30 minutes

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta Bhupathi, Soha Ali Khan, Kritika Kamra, Anya Singh, Raghubir Yadav, Cyrus Sahukar 

Plot: "When an elderly maharaja (played gamely by Shah) is targeted for tax evasion, he concocts a harebrained scheme with the assistance of his right hand man (Yadav) to reunite his four estranged daughters."

Review: It's one of those series that is beautiful and pleasant in all the frames. Throughout the series the aforementioned four sisters compete against each other in games supposedly designed around 'navras' (nine basic emotions) which mostly appear uninteresting and poorly scripted.

The movie has two acting stalwarts - Naseeruddin Shah and Raghubir Yadav, out of which the latter has definitely scored above the former!

Amongst the sisters, Soha Ali Khan has performed the best.

2. Ranjish Hi Sahi (13 Jan 2022)

Channel: Voot

Genre: Drama

No. of Episodes: 8

Average Duration: 40 minutes

Cast: Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amala Paul, Amrita Puri, Zarina Wahab

Plot: "A maverick film director gets drawn into an extra-marital affair with a superstar changing his life; his marriage with his first love spirals as he's torn between two worlds. Set in 70s Bollywood.

It is reportedly based on the controversial love affair of Parveen Babi and Mahesh Bhatt (who is the creator here)."

Review: Would you discuss the quality of a crop if the method of cultivation is faulty in the first place?

Similarly, is it right on the aforementioned creator's part to portray a mixed character (read mostly grey) of a yesteryear popular heroine but project himself holier than thou, clearly not exposing even the basic widely known truths about his life, like his second marriage?

And that too when the concerned heroine is no more alive to defend herself or give her side of the story!

All one can say is that, though the series has good casting, art direction and vintage feel, it lacks an authentic story.

3. Human (14 Jan 2022)

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Genre: Thriller

No. of Episodes: 10

Average Duration: 45 minutes

Cast: Shefali Shah, Kirti Kulhari, Ram Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Indraneil Sengupta, Vishal Jethwa, Aditya Srivastava

Plot: "Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari play doctors in this medical thriller which looks at the messy, scary world of drug trials. After a pharmaceutical company tries to “fast-track the development of a new drug despite lethal side effects”, Dr Saira Sabharwal (Kulhari) finds herself at odds with the woman she has idolised, Dr Gauri Nath (Shah)."

Review: It's a well made series portraying in detail the various elements involved in a drug trial scam, both in terms of institutions and people alongwith their respective role, answerability, greed, state of awareness and helplessness.

Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari are the lead protagonists and the mentor-protégé doctor duo of the series. Both have been styled well and have put forward quite good performances.

However, Shefali Shah seems to have overdone it a bit, both in terms of wardrobe and acting, fulfilling more of her desire of becoming a sensuous Bollywood heroine rather than sticking to her character in the series.

Others artists have also performed well.

Further better performance is expected from Ram Kapoor.

4. Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein (14 Jan 2022)

Channel: Netflix

Genre: Thriller

No. of Episodes: 8

Average Duration: 40 minutes

Cast: Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Anchal Singh, Anant Joshi, Saurabh Shukla, Arunoday Singh, Brijendra Kala

Plot: "Relentlessly pursued by a powerful politician’s daughter who will do anything to make him hers, a man slips down a dark, risky path to reclaim his life."

Review: It's a thriller with beautiful frames and few comic moments, best of which are brought by Anant Joshi who plays the protagonist Tahir Raj Bhasin's best friend.

The series is both innocent and gruesome in it's approach and at times the scenes appear unnecessarily lengthy.

My Suggestions From Current OTT Releases 🙂

Good content seems to be showering on all OTT channels.

Upon browsing, you are prone to find something or the other, worthwhile to occupy your creative mind.

Personally in the last few days, I have binge watched and liked the following series and movies on assorted OTT channels - (sharing only one from each channel)

- Netflix: Squid Game (9 episodes)

An extremely engaging and mind churning Korean series about a set of lethal games (which appear physical but are actually mental) played by a big group of people who are desolate with life due to extreme financial fiasco, for an insane amount of prize money, which will only be given to the final winner. Rest all will die beforehand!

- Prime Video: Sardar Udham

It's about an unsung hero who was a close aid and follower of Bhagat Singh. The movie feels slow paced in the beginning, but soon enough you gel with it's tempo.

Watch the movie to see a different visual treatment of Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Vicky Kaushal.

- Disney+ Hotstar: Dil Bekaraar (10 episodes)

Set in the backdrop of late 1980s, it's a cool amalgamation of sweet family drama and exposure of a the then national issue.

If you are born in the 60s or 70s, watch it for the sheer nostalgia of a forgotten and relatively sweet & simple lifestyle.

It's lovely to see Raj Babbar, Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure together in one frame after ages. Chandrachur Singh plays a small role but surprises you with a total look makeover.

- Sony Liv: Tabbar (8 episodes)

An extremely well made and engaging series with excellent screenplay and acting. Storyline is a simple case of drugs misplacement. But the treatment of the story is fantastic and full of surprises.

Pawan Malhotra and Supriya Pathak are a treat to watch as an aged middle class God fearing Punjabi couple.

- ZEE5: Bob Biswas

It's a horizontal sequel to Kahaani (2021) wherein the director's cap has passed on from Sujoy Ghosh to his debutant daughter Diya Annapurna Ghosh and Bob Biswas' character playing has passed on from Saswata Chatterjee to Abhishek Bachchan.

Watch the movie tosee an evolved and much better performing Abhishek Bachchan.

- MX Player: Matsya Kaand (11 episodes)

It's a revenge drama wherein a series of con games are pulled off by Ravi Dubey and his small team, using more of disguise and minute planning rather than muscle. He follows the guidance of stoic Piyush Mishra, who has developed an altogether new and impressive style of dialogue delivery.

Ravi Kishan and Rajesh Sharma bring their own zing.

Antim: The Final Truth (26 Nov 2021)

Genre: Crime Action

Language: Hindi

Duration: 140 minutes

Director: Mahesh Manjrekar

Cast: Salman Khan, Aayush Sharma, Sachin Khedekar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mahima Makwana, Sayaji Shinde, Upendra Limaye, Jisshu Sengupta, Nikitin Dheer, Rohit Haldikar

Music: Ravi Basrur, Hitesh Modak

Editing: Bunty Nagi, Sarvesh Parab

3 Interesting Observations:

Let's start with my 3 observations after watching the movie -

... Sachin Khedekar is totally invested in the movie. He holds on to his character from start till end with elan and conviction.

... Aayush Sharm is invested in his career. In spite of being a villager, he sports chiseled looks and golden-ish beard and moustache.

He makes full show of - muscular body; all possible emotions like crying, laughing, smirking, threatening and mocking; fight sequences, dance movements and romance.

... Salman Khan is also invested in Aayush's career. He has less screen time than his protégé and no heroine!

Even in the scenes, where the cop in him is reprimanding the criminal in Aayush, he doesn't emanate the vibes of ill-will or hate. It appears as if a guardian is disciplining a young adult.

Plot:

Centred around the plight of poor farmers forced to sell their lands to rich and exploitative zamindars and industrialists, the movie opens with Rahul aka Rahulya's (Aayush Sharma) family being forced to relocate from their village to Poona, once his father Dattaram Patil (Sachin Khedekar), suffers blows and humiliation at the hands of his boss, to whom he had already sold his land and works there as the gatekeeper!

Once in Pune, Rahulya's anger and restlessness puts him on a non returning spree of crime and soon enough he becomes a dreaded and eccentric gangster of Pune and indulges into the heinous acts of land grabbing from poor farmers. Alongside, he also does few Robinhood acts and romances Manda (Mahima Makwana), a girl who runs a tea stall.

Rajveer Singh (Salman Khan) is a know-all, daring and righteous Sikh cop, who decides to clear the crime in the city by turning the gangsters against each other. But when it's Rahulya's turn to get eliminated, he comes and saves him!

Finally everyone gets eliminated. Watch the movie to see how and by whom!

Analysis:

Antim is an Hindi adaptation of the Marathi film Mulshi Pattern, but the latter's treatment is starkly different from the former.

The latter focuses on the plight of farmers and their families upon being forced to leave their land and dignity back in their village to earn a livelihood in the city by doing menial jobs and undignified treatment.

While the former focuses on action scenes, superhero image of Salman Khan and new hero image of Aayush Sharma.

The movie's star cast is good but storyline contradicts itself a couple of times. The chemistry between the lead pair is nil. The direction and music are average. 

Conclusion:

On the whole, it's an average movie filled with bullets, slow motion and cheesy dialogues.

Bunty Aur Babli 2 (19 Nov 2021)

 

Genre: Comedy Romance

Language: Hindi

Duration: 138 minutes

Director: Varun V. Sharma

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Pankaj Tripathi, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Sharvari Wagh

Music: Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa, Ehsaan Noorani

Editing: Aarif Sheikh

Today, after 16 years when I think about the original Bunty Aur Babli (2005), I am fondly reminded of -

a. The natural fun filled chemistry of the leading couple aka Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji.

b. Insanely colorful but interesting dressing of Babli aka Rani Mukerji.

c. Bullish presence of Amitabh Bachchan.

d. Iconic song 'Kajrare kajrare' performed by Aishwarya Rai and overall good and peppy numbers.

However, in the sequel Bunty Aur Babli 2 (2021) -

a. The chemistry between the lead pair Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji is quite bland.

What happened to Karan and Rhea of Hum Aur Tum (2004)?

b. Except for some post interval scenes in Abu Dhabi, Babli aka Rani Mukerji's dressing and makeup is quite garish.

Even her mode of acting is unnecessary loud with nuances of over-acting.

Why did a seasoned actress like Rani resort to such insecure performance?

c. Well, Pankaj Tripathi has performed his usual self and kept his scenes relatively entertaining. 

But can Big B's aura be replaced? Absolutely not.

d. Forget any iconic number, the entire music of the movie is quite forgetful.

An Interesting Observation:

Saif Ali Khan is supposed to look like a desi and rustic small towner in major parts of the film, but ends up looking royal. Also, a tad bit jaded.

While Siddhant Chaturvedi is supposed to look like a city bred educated and suave gentleman, but still looks more of a desi and rustic lad!

Why happened to the Langda Tyagi level of performance, enacted by Saif in Omkara (2006)?

How long will Siddhant take to come out of the mould of a 'desi gully boy'?

In the sequel, only Rani and Pankaj manage to carve clear characters and hold on to them throughout the movie. Saif just delivers his lines with no impact or single characterization.

The leading pair look quite dapper in their expansive designer wears, in the foreign location scenes that appear shortly after the interval.

They also have a plump faced young male child in the film who manages to score few laughter now and then.

Gully Boy (2019) fame Siddhant carries well different prosthetics and debutant Sharvari looks quite confident. 

Both of them are young and presentable with slim and toned bodies, but are unable to create any magic together.

Movie Analysis:

Overall, Bunty Aur Babli 2 is an average movie with no innovation, poor script and much left to be desired direction.

Last but not the least, this movie makes you feel the impossible. It makes you yearn for Abhishek Bachchan! His performance in the prequel was bang on.

Binge Watch Suggestion List on Sony Liv 🙂

Sony Liv is the youngest web channel on the internet. Currently, it's kitty of Hindi web series comprises of 3 originals. All of them are - Indian by origin, constitute of only the first season and quite worthy of binge watching.

They are -

1. Your Honor (18 Jun 2020)

Genre: Crime Drama Thriller

No. of Episodes: 12

Running Time: 35 minutes

Short Review: This web series is about - how an extremely honorable and effective circuit court judge (Jimmy Shergill) in Ludhiana, Punjab is first blinded by the love for his only son and then his ambition and the stake imposed upon his life and career, so as to put in danger, the life and reputation of an innocent teenager, who is just a small time thief.

The story backdrop is a complex web of tussle between two local dons - a  local Punjabi and a migrant bhaiyya aka UPite, who further get entangled with a sharp lady police officer (Mita Vashisht) and a CRPF personnel (Varun Badola).

The web series ends with an absolutely unthinkable climax.

Jimmy Shergill and Varun Badola are expectantly good. Mita Vashisht as the seasoned lady cop is a treat to watch. Whenever she is in the frame, she just steals the scene. Rest of the cast has also performed well.

The pace of the web series is rather uneven and majorly slow.

2. Gullak (27 Jun 2019)

Genre: Comedy Drama Family 

No. of Episodes: 5

Running Time: 24 minutes

Short Review: Centred around the middle class Mishra family comprising of father, mother and their two sons, one barely of voting age and the other in high school, Gullak is a not a story but a collection of anecdotes narrated by the gullak aka the earthen piggy bank of the family!

Inspired from the usual happenings of any town based nuclear middle class family, the anecdotes are simple, funny, engaging and a treat to watch. 

The casting is perfect and everyone has acted quite well. Vaibhav Raj Gupta, who plays the elder son, looks and sounds a lot like Arjun Kapoor.

3. Undekhi (10 Jul 2020)

Genre: Crime Thriller Drama

No. of Episodes: 10

Running Time: 26-40 minutes

Short Review: A well scripted and engrossing web series that travels from poverty ridden tribal lands of Sunderban to pomp, glitz and power oozing wedding of Manali, in the house of the ultra rich industrialist cum don (Harsh Chhaya) of the hill station.

Two tribal women are the common link between the aforementioned places, who happen to face extremely bad deal in both the places, as if their root level vanilla existences simply don't matter!

Harsh Chhaya has marvellously enacted the role of the extremely powerful and revered but perennially drunk and melodramatic Papaji aka patriarch of the family, as well as, the business enterprise.

Surya Sharma has stood out as the stoic, practical and ruthless Rinku ji, the blind follower, relative and true successor of Papaji.

The web series is well paced and unmasks some gruesome out-in-the-open but royally ignored practises of the society.

ZEE5 Movie: Ghoomketu (22 May 2020)

Genre: Comedy Satire Drama
Language: Hindi
Duration: 108 minutes

Writer: Pushpendra Nath Mishra
Producer: Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl
Director: Pushpendra Nath Mishra

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghubir Yadav, Ila Arun, Anurag Kashyap, Swanand Kirkire, Bijendra Kala, Ragini Khanna

Music: Zubin Balaporia
Background Score: Sneha Khanwalkar, Jasleen Royal
Editing: Pushpendra Nath Mishra, Kratika Adhikari
Cinematography: Satya Rai Nagpaul

Introduction:

Shouldered by the fine acting of primarily Nawazuddin Siddiqui and secondarily Raghubir Yadav and Ila Arun, filmed around scenes from different genres of movies, with comic satire woven around stereotypes and deja vu, Dhoomketu is an offbeat engaging watch with well timed guest appearances by multiple Bollywood stars.

Plot:

Ghoomketu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a village bumpkin and aspiring writer from Mohna is constantly fired by his father (Raghubir Yadav), who is unanimously addressed as Dadda by Ghoomketu and his father's siblings - a widow sister (Ila Arun) and a bachelor brother (Swanand Kirkire), addressed as Santo Bua and Guddan Chacha respectively, by Ghoomketu.

The absence of Ghoomketu's dead mother has caused Dadda to re-marry in the past, but the motherly figure in Ghoomketu's life is Santo Bua, his bossy and smart aunt.

Guddan Chacha is a political representative from the village, with not much brain but simpleton comic antics and some clout.

Dadda has a tendency to shout non-stop over mundane things. Funnily, all the family members are scared of his shouting, but they never fail to make fun of this trait, in his absence!

Ghoomketu aspires to become a writer and requests the local publication 'Gudgudi' to employ him. Therein, Editor Joshi (Bijendra Kala), instead of employing him, gives him a self written book about the art of writing movie scripts, wherein each chapter is dedicated to a different genre of movies.

Thereafter, Ghoomketu is married off in a samuhik vivah aka group marriage event, a charity initiative wherein the concerned organization bears the expanse and responsibility of marrying off a group of bachelor men and women in random pairs.

During his first night, Ghoomketu finds his ghoonghat (veil) wearing bride (Ragini Khanna) quite fat, unlike she seemed during the marriage ceremony. He doesn't even bother to lift her ghoonghat and rejects her without seeing her face, even for once!

After some contemplation, Ghoomketu solely confides in Santo Bua and runs off to Mumbai to fulfill his dreams, not before stealing around one month worth of basic daily use items and money from his Dadda's shop and locker respectively.

In Mumbai, he somehow manages to rent a makeshift accomodation in a room adjacent to his landlord's flat and gets in touch with a small time producer who asks him to write a script.

Given the basic lifestyle items and money at hand, Ghoomketu gives himself exactly
one month to find his niche in Mumbai.

Back in Mohna, Ghoomketu's sudden disappearance creates a furor in his household and after some village styled comic antics, a missing person's report is lodged in the local police station with the citation of a strong suspicion of him running off to Mumbai.

Guddan Chacha makes use of his political clout and a Mumbai police station receives the aforesaid missing person's case sans any pic but with enough political pressure, which makes it imperative for Inspector Badlani (Anurag Kashyap), a laid back and corrupt police officer, to find Ghoomketu within a month, or else to get posted in a forlorn area sans any extra income.

Though Inspector Badlani happens to be Ghoomketu's landlord, but by Bollywood styled turns of fate, both of them cross each other many times, but never once does the Inspector recognises him.

For his script writing assignment, Ghoomketu pens songs and scenes of different genres, as and when he reads about them in the book gifted by Editor Joshi.

Somehow after one month of his Mumbai arrival, he finishes a bound script, only to get it stolen right in front of his eyes.

He lodges an FIR with Inspector Badlani. Therein, his identity surfaces. By the time, the inspector confirms it, he gets a revelation and leaves the police station, packs his bags and leaves for Mohna.

How will he be received in Mohna? What will be the fate of his marital life? Will his attempt to write for movies find any closure? What will he eventually end up doing?

Watch the movie to get the answers of all these questions.

Analysis:

Along with it's comedy, satire and Ghoomketu's funny action-reactions, the movie highlights the fact that just aspiring to be something in Bollywood is not enough. One has to have enough talent and luck to make it there. Also, that at times even though the movie honchos desire and attempt to give due credit to the concerned artists, but fate doesn't let them.

The movie is funny in parts and well made. But it lacks innovation in depiction of different genres of film making. Also, the line between the actual happenings and the scenes playing in the protagonist's mind while writing, is quite thin.

Cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha and Chitrangada Singh and Nikkhil Advani keep the movie interesting.

There is a cheesy item number by Lauren Gottlieb. There are no adult scenes.

The music and the cinematography of the movie are average.

With 'Motichoor Chaknachoor' in 2019 and Ghoomketu in 2020, Nawazuddin has proved that he can singularly hold the audience even without spitting out choicest of expletives and crudely picturized copulation scenes.

Ila Arun's matriarchal and gutsy performance with mischievous twinkle in her eyes is a treat to watch. Raghubir Yadav has wonderfully displayed an altogether new style of aggressive frustration. Rest of the cast has also performed well. Anurag Kashyap is an excellent director, but acting is not his cup of tea.

Conclusion:

Watch the movie for the web of fun created by Ghoomketu, Santo Bua and Dadda.