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.

Nautanki Saala

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Pooja Salvi, Evelyn Sharma, Gaelyn Mendonca

Director: Rohan Sippy

It seems that this movie was intended to depict much more depth than it has managed to convey. Rohan, the director is experimental and kudos to him for that. He has tried to present a ‘neither very generic nor very different’ storyline with a different concept i.e. by using the element of theatre aka ‘nautanki’. Genre of the movie is comedy and this comedy is different from others as it is not primarily dialogue based but situation and expression based. Also somewhere, the director has tried to use the theatre ‘nautanki’ as the metaphor for the mother of all ‘nautankis’ i.e. life itself! The movie constantly shifts between these two parallels. Backdrop of the former is modern day ‘Ramayana’ (most esteemed Hindu epic) and that of the latter is the protagonist trying to heal a suicidal ‘stranger turned dependent turned friend’ by finding his former love and giving him work so that he attaches some worth to himself. The essence of the story is basically situational misunderstanding. In spite of all his noble intentions and sacrifices, the protagonist is misunderstood by his partner, love and also friend! Reason for the same are age old human errors of - mixing task and emotion, undertaking an activity without giving a thought to its obvious result, trespassing territories etc.

Ayushmann, and Kunaal have acted well. Evelyn has some screen presence. The power of modern day theatre could have been presented in a more powerful and enhanced format. Also, the heroines could have been better. Some comedy scenes are really funny and some are original as well. Last but not the least, herein again you miss the element of complete showmanship. Are there no successors of Mr. Subhash Ghai and Late Mr. Yash Chopra?

Commando – A One Man Army

Cast: Vidyut Jamwal, Pooja Chopra, Jaideep Ahlawat

Director: Dilip Ghosh

In general, how do you define ‘good’ Bollywood action? Over the top, comical, prefixed and/or suffixed by  the superstar’s dialogues. Have you ever come across one as a ‘pure form of art’? Well, Vidyut Jamwal has entered the Bollywood arena to provide you the same. He proved his mettle in his hindi debut movie ‘Force’ (as villain) and has done it again in his first hindi movie as the hero. He is well trained, in absolute control of his body, amazingly nimble and light footed. At last we have an Indian, trained in Indian martial art form ‘Kalaripayattu’, who can hold his own against the international action heroes!

The movie as such is average. Apart from the hero, only the villain, Jaideep Ahlawat is impactful, or rather ‘original’. You do miss the element of showmanship. If given a big production house and international backdrop, Vidyut looks promising enough to deliver a cool blockbuster. He is rightly aged and thus does not look jaded like most of our so called ‘100 crore club’ heroes.

It’s a known fact that, to learn and excel in higher form of martial art, one needs to be highly disciplined and in absolute control of his mind, because while practicing the same, mind also works in tandem with the body i.e. very fast, observing all minute details and making strategies (both offence and defense) in quick succession. So, while practicing their art, the martial arts practitioners look either calm or very focused, unlike most of our heroes who use myriad facial expressions before punching, kicking etc. Thankfully, Vidyut refrains from using such unnecessary facial expressions, which many may wrongly consider as lack of ‘hero type’ attitude.

Chashme Baddoor

Cast: Ali Zafar, Divyendu Sharma, Siddharth Narayan, Tapasee Pannu, Rishi Kapoor, Lillete Dubey, Anupam Kher, Bharti Achrekar, Ayaz Khan

Director: David Dhawan

This movie is a simple ‘boy meets girl – detects certain chemistry – they become a pair – get separated for a little while – they get back’ love story. Herein, backdrop happens to be Goa and causes of separation as well as union happen to be two immature friends of the boy. There is nothing more or less to the movie.

Divyendu’s dialogues created better punches in his debut film ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’. Siddharth is a seasoned actor and his spunk does invoke some cetees among the audience. If Ali Zafar is aiming the slot of the leading man in Bollywood, then he needs to tune up his acting as well as screen presence. Tapasee has a fresh presence. It is also refreshing to see a heroine with her ‘natural’ looks, i.e. the look sans cosmetic surgery, sculpting etc. Rishi and Lillete are veterans and they deliver as expected. So does Anupam, but his same style of acting and reactive acting do appear little mundane now.

Contrary to what the name suggests and what they claim in the movie promotion, this movie is not the remake of Deepti Naval and Farooq Shaikh starrer ‘Chashme Buddoor’ (1981).

ABCD – Any Body Can Dance

Cast: Prabhu Deva, Ganesh Acharya, Kay Kay Menon, Salman Yusuff Khan, Dharmesh Yelande, Lauren Gottlieb, Punit Pathak

Director: Remo D’Souza

This movie is an absolute delight for modern dance enthusiasts. Hip hop, Locking & Popping, B-boying, Ballet, Contemporary etc. all are there in finest of display by finest of Indian dancers. To top it all, the protagonist of the movie is Prabhu Deva, the God of Dance in India. To weave the aforesaid dances into a tale, Remo has used a logical storyline, perhaps using struggling instances of real life established/aspiring dancers. But the direction and acting in general is very mediocre.

A chase sequence in the beginning of the film needs special mention. It is kind of a fusion of chase and dance acrobatics. You need to see it to believe it. Most of the dancers present in the movie are popular Indian Reality TV Show dancers. And they have all performed as per expectation i.e. brilliantly. Salman, Dharmesh and Punit have been given special camera focus and they totally deserve it. Lauren from American Reality TV has very good screen presence. She is a terrific looker and dancer. Actingwise, Kay Kay is the only real actor in the movie. But he being a non dancer, very less screen time has been allotted to him.

Special 26

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai, Anupam Kher, Kajal Aggarwal, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Pros in this movie: New storyline, Neeraj Pandey style execution, nostalgic trip of late 1980s.

Cons in this movie: Unnecessary presence of heroine and songs, habitual expectation of the audience from a regular superstar.

This movie is true event based and the director has treated the subject with proper r&d and precise execution. In fact you may get nostalgic while watching ten rupee notes printed in black ink, ‘gaddi’ style offices, ‘aangan' centric homes, Air India airplanes and sparsely decorated airport lounges.

The movie is about false CBI raids by conmen imposing as CBI officers who are expert in seizing both apparent and hidden assets (money, jewelry etc.). Everyone has acted well in the film. But Manoj Bajpai needs special mention for his remarkable performance. His entry is rather late, but his histrionics are unbeatable. Like Aamir Khan, every time he performs a pivotal character, he manages to bring something new on the table. Akshay has pretty well underplayed his character. But the kind of superstar he is, you constantly miss what you always expect him to deliver i.e. glitzy romance and action!

In such an intense and interesting movie, you feel impatient when more than the required movie time (read plenty) is allotted to display the personal simple lives of the conmen. That part is neither interesting nor different. Also you fail to understand the purpose of the same. Con activities are both sinful and illegal. So, why the director has tried to generate public sympathy for the aforesaid conmen by displaying their emotional and family side?