Sunday, December 22, 2013

Movie Analysis : Dhoom3

Directed by : Vijay Krishna Acharya
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833673/


Aamir's top notch performance makes this best dhoom film. 




Read this post at your own risk.. its full of spoilers.


If you have been a regular reader of my blog, then you must be knowing how much I have hated masala movies this year. This post therefore will come as a surprise, because Dhoom3 though essentially a action movie very much falls in same category, yet I have loved it madly. Finally an all-out commercial movie that didn't dissappoint me. The reason mainly, is the Dhoom franchise that has always made me mad. Dhoom machale of Dhoom was the reason I became a music lover (before that I hardly use to listen songs all day), John's performance as a cool theif, was followed by Hrithik in Dhoom2. The very idea of a cool theif who will make it hard for cops to tackle amazed me (ofcourse I am always anti towards cops).

The only worry with Dhoom3 was the failed director Vijay whose last outing Tashan was a serious headache for me. But, thank goodness, he looks in super form. Yes, there's one scene where he looked in Tashan hangover, the intro scene of Jai (Abhishek Bacchan) and Ali (Uday Chopra) with the total over-the-top stunt sequence in auto-rickshaw and bike. Infact, if I ever think of editing the movie for personal use, I will definately cut this sequence, and bring them into the story with the scene where they head over to Chicago. I don't think their characters require filmy entry in every new dhoom series.

Now coming to the best part of the movie, which is breathtaking stunt sequences, and a brilliant 2nd half. The last two series lacked in one thing only, and that was a weaker 2nd half which meant we had to wait for the climax to see that last stunt. But in Dhoom3, there's a very good drama built over Shahir and Samar (twins, both played by Aamir Khan). This meant, there was no side plots of Jai-Ali unlike last two parts, they have no romantic interests (apart from Ali's regular dreamy scenes). The fact that its an all out Aamir Khan based story makes the impact large. For the first time in Dhoom series, we have a theif whose background is told to us, the theif is still cool and stylish with the manner he steals but the reason here lies the revenge of his father's Iqbal Khan (Jackie Shroff) death.

Aamir's entry scene is spectacular, if I tend to write a blog post on Best Entry scenes in future this scene is gonna be part of it for sure. The camera-angles, way its cut, the background theme and the lines 'bandhey hai hum', everything perfect. The 1st chase sequence gave me goosebumps, it had many stunts, something I felt 2nd chase sequence lacked a bit. Specially the bike roll beneath truck, kick to cop and the standing on bike while crossing cars. The final chase was super, loved the theme that plays when Shahir-Jai fight over bike. All the twists in each three of these chases made them look even better.

The idea of twins in a magic trick (taken from Nolan's 'The Prestige'), and bike that transforms into various shapes when required (taken from Nolan's 'Batman series') was applauable, for a change how inspiration can be used to own benifit is showcased here without lifting complete hollywood movie.

Only flaws apart from the intro scene of Jai-Ali, were the exessive use of slow motions, especially when chicago cops are lined up to shoot at Shahir/Samar, it made them look very stupid, plus the magic of that particular stunt got reduced. I would had preferred to see cops failing while trying, and not failing without trying (they didn't knew guns are used to shot). Editing was actually very weak, film could easily had been tighter with 10-15 mins cut.. or maybe have additional Shahir heist.

Also, I felt Shahir-Samar should not have died. When they escape away from Jai-Ali, they could had ended it there with a next scene showing where they both are, and what happened to Aaliya (Katrina Kaif). The dialogue 'isko nahi pakad sakte' would had fitted too. But yes, it would had denied the great emotional use of 'Bandhey hai hum uske, humpe kiska zor' in the current climax.

Music of Pritam is as good as Dhoom. Dhoom2 had only 2 good songs (title and crazy kiya re). Aditi's title rendition appeals more with video though unlike previous title versions that I loved listening without video. Love that stunt scene of Shahir-Samar during 2nd stanza in the song. My favs though are Kamli and Tu hi Junoon. Kamli is outstandingly picturised on Katrina, with her unbelievable dance moves and stunts, just like Shahir says 'koshish toh bahut ki', I couldn't take eyes off her during those 5 mins. It can well be termed as a strip dance number. Sunidhi has sung it very well, if you notice the change in her voice modulation during song. Tu hi Junoon is extremely romantic, love the cuteness Aamir brings into the song picturisation, Katrina looks hot in red dress specially. Malang is magical for the use of various props filling up the frame, love the Samar part in it which isn't there in audio version. Only 'Tap dance' didn't gel well with me.. must had been tough to practice it, I doubt even Hrithik would had made me love it.. feel tap dance should had been part of the choreography and not base whole dance on foot tap.

Background themes is another plus point of the movie, something I missed in Dhoom2. Here, we have the regular tune re-worked in great way, and there are some additional themes, all of them are fantastic. And happy to see 'Overtrue' theme presented in audio album.. one of best themes I have ever heard.

Dialogues are very well written, many punchlines work, my fav is 'jo duniya ko namumkin lage, wahi mauka hota hai.. kartab dikhaane ka'.

Aamir ensured that the year ended with a bang, another praiseworthy performance added to his list. As Shahir, his angry expressions in entry scene, the revenge look when he says 'main ghar aa gaya baba', his way of telling 'fuck you (tumhari aisi ki taisi)' to Jai during the entire conversation sequence (love the bg that plays when he throws coin in air). As Samar, he was too lovable right from the moment he says 'bandhey hai hum kiske', or when he talks about his secrets, when he tells Jai 'chor toh sab hote hai, chori karne ko milna chahiye kuch'. The two argument conversations between Shahir and Samar, especially the 2nd one was example of class acting, anger vs emotions.. that was infact my 2nd most fav scene after the entry scene .. very emotional (Tu mastermind, aur main khatra). We get to see him play a autism character, to do 2 different characters in same movie, and not faltering at any moment is commendable.

Abhishek at places (as I wrote during trailer blogpost) was repeating his dialogues from previous dhoom films.. still in comparison to Dhoom2, he looked and acted much better.

Uday Chopra was funnier, thanx to the fact that he has less screen time. There are two long sequences where he does irritate, which tells that its better off to have small dialogue scenes of his along with dreamy thoughts.. asking more than that from him won't work.

Katrina Kaif has small role, but in her dance moves, in all 4 songs she features in.. she is terrific. In acting, she falters during 1 scene badly.. when she asks Samar for date. Other than that, she is pretty fine. She has good chemistry with Aamir, but I would prefer to see her having larger role next time she acts with Aamir.

Jackie Shroff is excellent in his cameo role. Very good to see him do good meaningful roles, first in Aurangzeb and now Dhoom3.

Tabrett Bethell, australian actress who plays Victoria, hardly gets any scope to perform. Might had been better to let her lead cops in few scenes. To add to it, she was made to enact those dreamy Ali sequences, specially that kamasutra sequence.



Dhoom3 exceeds above all the expectations, Aamir's excellent acting, background themes, chase sequences, music and Katrina's dance moves. Flaws are there, but they don't come in the way of loving the movie.


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Movie Analysis : Club 60

Directed by : Sanjay Tripathi
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2361148/

Raghuveer Yadav steals the show, good performance from Farooque Sheikh too. 


The concept of the film is 'how do you see the glass - half full or half empty'.

Dr. Tariq Sheikh (Farooque Sheikh) and Saira Sheikh (Sarika) are doctors by profession, and have moved in Mumbai. One day they get news of their son's death who lives abroad, and it completely shakes them off. Saira is much more stronger to move on but Tariq isn't. In his 60's, Tariq starts to live in his son's memories, having no relation with the world. Saira is worried about his mental state, and therefore takes psychiatrist help. Tariq's life changes when he meets one of his flatmate  Manubhai (Raghuveer Yadav), who despite being above 60 lives life like a 20 something guy.

The film's pace is very slow in the beginning, its Manubhai character's entry that lifts the movie from a total emo mode to fun mode. The way Manubhai dresses up, flirts with half aged or same aged girls, jokes around, drinks and basically does everything that he feels is good to enjoy life. At times, his character irritates, like Tariq feels. But slowly, you understand Manubhai's style of living is anytime better than what Tariq has made himself gone into.

Love the scene where Manubhai comes over Tariq's place to celebrate his dead son's birthday. Also, the scene where Saira asks psychiatrist that did she love her son less than his father as she has overcome the sadness but her husband hasn't. That was a very well written scene.

Its only at right end, we get to know the story of Manubhai, which for me is narrated weakly. Jay (Satish Shah) story is also nicely used, without trying to over-show the differences between father-son due to rich family he got married to. Sinha (Vineet Kumar) and D.S Dhillon (Sharat Saxena) have good roles too, specially Dhillon who in one funny scene gets stuck in a hotel with the girl he comes with running away with his clothes too. Ali (Tinu Anand) story deals with son gone abroad and having no time for him. Though, his farting was touch irritating in the movie.

The ending is very emotional, maybe real but its hard to see a character like that whom you had loved throughout.

I didn't knew this would be Farooque Sheikh's last movie, his performance was very good as a lonely father who had forgotten that he has a life to live.

Sarika does very well in her part of Tariq's wife. But its Raghuveer Yadav who takes away the limelight with his great performance, he's a live wire throughout the movie, full of energy and helping, naughty friend who loves flirting.



Club 60 is a well made light hearted movie that shows various relationships past 60 age, and how maturely they tackle it.


Verdict : VERY GOOD

Monday, December 9, 2013

Movie Analysis : R.Rajkumar

Directed by : Prabhu Deva
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369154/

Yeh film sehat ke liye bahut haani-karak hain. 



Labelled as Prabhu Deva's first non-south remake movie, the movie fails to make any mark on me.

The plot of a hero Romeo Rajkumar (Shahid Kapur) working for a gunda Shivraj (Sonu Sood) who controls major portion of the village, falls in love with Chanda (Sonakshi) who is bateeji of Manik Parmar (Ashish Vidyarthi). Manik is a rival to Shivraj, and Romeo helps Shivraj demolish his status over the village. What happens post that, is any intelligent movie goer guess.

No solid story is further saddenned with poor dialogues, there is a scene when Shivraj tells how he will have honeymoon with Chanda, and few mins later Chanda tells how she will have honeymoon with Romeo. There are some more of such disgusting scenes present in the name of masala movie. Then, there is overdose of maar dhaar action, watching Romeo beat 50 guys alone once is acceptable, but 2-3 times in movie was trying to do way too much, specially when the hero isn't known for action sequences.

Few punchlines work, though Romeo wierdly says the main line 'silent hoja, warna main violent ho jayunga'. Shivraj has his main line 'hum sehat ke liye bahut haanikarak hain'. There's one hong kong sequence which is shot typically south manner, Prabhu Deva's touch.

Leave aside 2-3 scenes that entertains, and the songs 'Gandi Baat', 'Saree ke Fall sa', and 'Mat Maari', there is nothing that makes you appreciate what you are watching. Choreography of Gandi Baat is awesome, specially the steps which Prabhu and Shahid do together. Same goes for Saree ke fall sa, that has typical mavaali mad steps along with that background violin person making appearance.

Performances wise, only Sonu Sood to some extent does well. Shahid never looks like enacting Romeo, the character was not made for him, all the time it appears like he is trying hard to say the dialogues like Romeo should do. Sonakshi came straight out of Rowdy Rathore sets and continued her role, someone needs to tell her to give up her stubborn attitude of doing only masala movies (she is heroine in next Prabhu deva film too), she is going no where like this.


R.Rajkumar is complete waste of time if you aren't a Shahid die hard fan. Another masala movie this year goes into my disliked list.


Verdict : POOR

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Movie Analysis : Frozen

Directed by : Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/

Elsa, Anna and Olaf make this animated movie enjoyable. 




Animation movies for me can't be just about story, the characters should look innovative and adorable. Elsa (Idina Menzel), Anna (Kristen Bell) and Olaf (Josh Gad) are the ones that made me enjoy the movie.

The plot revolves around Elsa's childhood powers of converting anything that she touches into ice. She and her parents feel that her powers are only going to get dangerous with time, therefore they advice her to stay away from meeting anyone including her sister Anna. Time passby, and Elsa's powers comes into notice of everyone including Anna at a occasion. Anna realises why Elsa kept running away from her. But Elsa has dissappeared before making the town's summer into terrible winter full of snow which is only getting deeper. Anna has to find Elsa, bring her back and also the summer back in the town.

Narration follows singing style ala Les Miserables, and I didn't had good memories of that, reason being the genre doesn't attract me. But, good thing here was that there were equal amount of dialogue sequences, its not a total song narrated movie.

Anna was the pick of the characters, her hyper mood, the way she walks to a store, or the feeling of love. Elsa looks so beautiful when she runs away, and creates things on the way including a palace for herself.  Olaf in his small little role gives lots of laughs.

It was only the male/side characters that didn't impress me much, as well as the villain that didn't really look natural when the twist comes. The climax was very good one, liked how they created drama over whose love will make a character recover.


Frozen is a good enough animated movie, though it doesn't enter my favourite section.

Movie Analysis : Bullet Raja

Directed by : Tigmanshu Dhulia
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2551378/

Tigmanshu fails for a change, below average movie. 



Raja Mishra (Saif Ali Khan) and Rudra (Jimmy Sheirgill) gets involved into gangster world which they try to run away from but can't.  They start working for politician Ram Babu (Raj Babbar), and get famous as Raja-Rudra. But the world they have created for themselves, is full of danger and betrayal for power.

Easily Tigmanshu's weakest movie I have seen till now. The songs already had developed a bad vibe in me towards the movie. What works against him this time is lack of proper story or a good enough screenplay. Imagine a movie that has a title song with opening credits and is followed by a forgettable item song (both audio and visuals wise). Raja-Rudra are presented in Sholay's Jai-Veeru avatar, but its such a quick tribute that I felt not as bad as when Jai died in Sholay. Having said that Saif-Jimmy sequences were easily best moments of movie.

Other good thing was the dialogue writing, many dialogues had a fresh feel, sadly same cant be said about movie.

Songs come into narration as if a particular scene was created just to make them fit in, specially Tamanche pe disco and Savera.

There is definately good dose of style, but it fails to distract from all the weaknesses of the movie. Sonakshi is almost in a supporting cameo role, wonder if she did the movie only to be part of Tigmanshu cinema or pairing with Saif as her role has nothing to offer.

Saif Ali Khan hams at places specially when he isnt with Jimmy. Jimmy Shergill was easily the best performer, how well he gets his expressions, notice the small nuances he brings into his character.

Gulshan Grover and Raj Babbar are decent in their supporting roles.


Bullet Raja has very little to love about, only Saif-Jimmy friendship and climax works.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Monday, December 2, 2013

Movie Analysis : Last Vegas

Directed by : Jon Turteltaub
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1204975/

Good entertainer with funny adult moments in plenty. 


Billy (Michael Douglas) who is way past 60 finally decides to marry his girlfriend who is almost half his age. He calls his childhood friends, Paddy (Robert De Niro),  Archie (Morgan Freeman),  and Sam (Kevan Kline). They decide for a bachelor party, and revisit their old days together having fun at a much older age. Also, the friendship between Paddy and Billy gets attention that has not been on track since death of Paddy's wife.

I quite enjoyed the movie, lots of good adult dialogues, scenes and humurous moments between all 4 friends when they meet. After 50 some years tag was hilarious. Diana (Mary Steenburgen) character was well inserted into narrative, if only Billy didn't overdo the sacrifice part.

Except for Michael Douglas, all get equal share of fun scenes. The bed rotate, jumping from ground floor window, judging girls in bikini (the guy part in end spoiled it though), the death joke over phone, and entire Diana part was lovely.


Not as entertaining as The Heat was, still Last Vegas was worth a watch.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Movie Analysis : Singh Saab The Great

Directed by : Anil Sharma
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2437954/

Very much forgettable Sunny Deol movie. 



Singh Saab (Sunny Deol) formerly known as Saranjeet Singh who was a collector once, now deals with corruption and removing wrong people across various places. He isn't interested in taking revenge from Bhoodev Singh (Prakash Raj), because his friend turned police officer advices him to bring a change in society and not go after revenge. But, destiny brings Singh Saab against Bhoodev, its about how he would control his anger against the loss of his wife Minni (Urvashi Rautela).

When I came out of theatre, or even after death of Minni.. I kept wondering why did they presented their romantic part as a girl all the time trying to seduce her guy, specially when both are married. I was very dissappointed with how they tackled the romantic part.

Anil Sharma failed to create a drama out of Singh Saab's personal life tragedy, only two scenes I could say were well directed, one the entire wedding to hospital sequence, and other where Singh Saab reacts to Bhoodev's tactics in similar manner.

The songs have punjabi flavour, my personal fav is the title track, Sonu Nigam has sung it very well. The alcohol song is good too.

With a Sunny Deol movie, you expect not over the top action, but extremely over the top action, there's a scene where he removes bushes from the trees, in another scene he rotates a car with his hand in anger. Also, we see him delivering some heavy punchlines, though sad part was that most of them didn't come out natural.

There was Amrita Rao playing journalist, who at places kept jumping into a U.P dialect, wonder why such inconsistency.  Urvashi Rautela looks very glamarous, can't judge her acting as her written character hardly impressed me, only that last hospital scene was worth it.

Also, there was way too much repitition of the words written in the last letter by Minni.

Prakash Raj continues the same villaneious acts with comedy touch, they are likeable but not lovable now due to the monotous feel. The entire supporting cast is almost wasted with nothing worth remembering acts.


Singh Saab The Great has some good moments from Sunny Deol, but weak direction and poor romantic story makes this a very much forgettable movie.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Gori Tere Pyaar Mein

Directed by : Punit Malhotra
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2275794/

Rom-com that aint romantic nor does it entertain.


There's a tamil guy, Sriram (Imran Khan) who takes time to realize that he can't let Dia (Kareena Kapoor) slip away whom he loves. Somewhat similar to I Hate Luv Storys, that part. Vasudha (Shraddha Kapoor) helps him realize that he still loves Dia, or perhaps only loved her. Problem though for us the viewers is, we never see that love towards her except maybe Dil Duffer track. Only thing we see is the differences he and Dia have towards each other.

The whole 1st half goes in Sriram-Vasudha marriage track, while the flashbacks is used to establish how Sriram-Dia met and why they split up. I loved the 1st sequence where Sriram prefers non-veg over veg and Dia forces him to adopt crab. Or when Dia lectures him to be part of system or not complain. Some good funny moments are created also with Sriram and his dad not on same level of communication.

But, 2nd half where Sriram goes to a village to get Dia back, takes the film to a very low. There's over the top dialogues, acting, songs and to certain extent silly drama created. Not to forget, we are never properly invested into the love of the pair, plus I felt showing the differences first and how they met with love developing later, didn't help either.

Chingam Chabake and Tooh are very well choregraphed, though the former song is poorly forced into the narrative. Dil Duffer is the best track, and has some well shot romantic scenes.

Performances wise, Kareena Kapoor is good, though in the socialist and village parts she came out more as a character trying to preach. Imran Khan was actually likeable, he does over-act in some parts but still not a bad performance at all.

Vineet Singh is decent in small cameo. Anupam Kher is good. Shraddha Kapoor looks very glamarous, and enacts her supporting part very well. Esha Gupta looks sizzling in the item song.


Gori Tere Pyaar Mein has nothing new to offer, a rom-com that works in bits and pieces. It aint romantic enough, nor does it entertain fully.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Movie Analysis : Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela

Directed by : Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2215477/


A weak SLB film, only saving grace are the great visuals and electrifying chemistry between lead pair.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



Writing on his movies has been toughest for me, I can never do justice because its about understanding the artistic poetry he inserts in his movies, be it Saawariya or Guzaarish, and Ram Leela isn't any different, only difference being that here he uses all colors to make it look much more colorful unlike his last two films where black and blue were the main colors throughout the movie.

The plot is loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, and the reason I say loosely is the way both the characters Ram and Leela behave with each other, don't even dare to compare it with the iconic Romeo and Juliet, only similarity is that they both love (or so we are told) each other madly and destiny take them to death.

Based at a place in Gujarat, one side is occupied by Senera's and other by Rajaade (I hope I got name right). What follows is the violence between the two families, death for death and much more. The love (or lust) between Ram and Leela meanwhile blossoms knowing their families wont accept it.

SLB uses the first sequence of the movie, to tell the viewers he can show violence very well too (ala Anurag Kashyap's GOW), there's a very well done child chase scene that leads upto the entry scene of Ram (Ranveer Singh). Ranveer is given a grand entry, and he lights up 'Tattad Tattad' with his energetic dance moves even if the women behave tad over the top at his physical body attraction.

Infact, choreography of all the songs has to be applauded, even if you don't love/like film, the visuals of songs are likely to make you fall in love. Whether its 'Tattad Tattad', or 'Lahu Muh Lag Gaya', or 'Nagada Sang Dhol', these three songs SLB fills up the frame with wide shots making them look so colorful plus the Gujrati backdrop. 'Ang Laga De' is pure romance and yet very sensuous, while 'Yeh laal ishq' looked like loose version of 'Tadap tadap'.

There's a scene where Ram's brother (played by Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh) gets killed accidently by Leela's brother (played by Sharad Kelkar), and the madness reminded me of Bhope bhau tope bhau sequence of Kaminey. One of my personal fav scene in this movie.

Now the main point that decides how much you like the movie or hate the movie is the love story of Ram-Leela. If you go with Romeo-Juliet classic pure love in mind (even with slight hint given in trailer what's coming), then most likely you will feel cheated and angry at the film. But if you keep aside Romeo-Juliet, and see it as two characters grown up in a background that knows only killing, a place that's known for guns or blue films, then you can understand why Ram and Leela are so sensuous and full of lust in their initial meetings, why even Leela looks desperate to be with Ram.

Inspite of looking at the two characters differently, what bothered me was the love development never really happens, all of sudden we see them run away and then get seperated. In between, a feeling of love went missing, that is one major reason, the emotional feeling in final scene when they die gets affected. Also, using Ram-Leela last day rally so well, and then hurrying the climax was so stupid to watch. Had they shown Ram face trouble reaching Leela house or Leela trying to find Ram and in the event they realise they got no other option but to kill each other, then the impact still could had come.

The 2nd half especially takes the film down, instead of focussing on the love story, SLB diverts the narration towards family fights between both sides. Infact, I felt their running away happened way too early, and then upto the point when Leela takes over her mother's position, that entire phase made the film weak. There's a Priyanka Chopra's item song in between, badly timed and only poorly choreographed song in movie.

The entire conversation between Ram and Leela, when Leela agrees to end 500 years old rivarly on some conditions was one of well executed emotional scene.

Dialogue writing is very raunchy, and unlike any of SLB movies. 'Shabaash upar waale' dialogue I wont forget, I wanted more of these moments.

Both Deepika and Ranveer share electrifying chemistry, they just make their weakly written characters so lovable. I loved Ranveer much more actually, as much subtle and restrained he made his performance in Lootera, here he gets over the top and looked so much suited to the role. Only complaint was the irritating 'don che' dialogue.

I knew before hand, that Supriya Pathak won't dissappoint me, powerful supporting performance with the negative shade, that scene where she replies to Leela's future husband 'Shooting, killing'. Richa Chadda shines too, though one has seen her in similar dialect in GOW already. Gulshan Deviah gets only two worthy scenes, one where he takes Leela back, and other when he declares the end of Ram-Leela will happen by him.


Ram Leela has SLB visuals at many places, but its the narration and how the love story of Ram-Leela is tackled that lets the film down. Not bad film, but one expected much more. There are films that grows on you with every watch, its the opposite for this movie.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Insidious Chapter 2

Directed by : James Wan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226417/

Brilliantly connects with 1st part, though short on scare level.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



Renai (Rose Byrne) soon realises that things still move on their own at house, that the spirit hasn't left her home yet. Its Josh who has got possessed by the black dressed bride as seen in the final scene of 1st chapter. With Elise (Lin Shaye) gone, its Carl (Steve Coulter) who was one of her favourites, comes to help Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) who notices a woman in the house at night. The struggle is to bring Josh back from The Further where his body is trapped, before its too late.

The screenplay is amazing, it begins with younger Josh being examined by Elise (Lindsay Seim). We were told what was done to Josh in his childhood during 1st chapter, but now we are given glimpse of it with a complete flashback scene that shows Josh is getting close to being possessed right when he was a small kid, but Elise stopped it by making him forget his astral projection ability and all memories related to black dressed bride spirit.

The story keeps moving backward and forward, as this chapter deals with details about who the black dressed bride is, what is her motive and how can she be removed from Josh body.

Since this movie connects with first part, its more of a suspense thriller with lesser scary scenes. Carl's dice scenes are pretty scary, specially when he asks 'You are not Elise, are you?', and he gets reply 'No'. And his encounter with Josh, where Josh asks him to use his dice and know what Josh is hiding in his hand behind. The 15 dead bodies room, used twice in narrative, and both times it gives a eerie feeling.

The scenes that connect Josh in real to Josh in The Further was super to watch, and ofcourse that scene from 1st chapter where someone knocks their door at midnight, and it turns to be Josh from The Further. Only thing I didn't understand here was, how did Josh go into further when in 1st chapter at that time, he wasn't possessed. And I won't agree to the point that Josh was possessed since he was child. Though, I agree in The Further, the time is not constant and you can travel to anywhere. Same thing for the scene where Josh (older) is visible in his childhood photo, how is it possible for him to be present when he wasnt possessed. I am surely missing out on some point.

Another point I didn't get was, the girl that came out of cupboard when Dalton got haunted in his dream, she screamed for help and to be rescued from pain. Was she one of those 15 dead girls, or she has any link to the new case shown at the end of movie.

The back-story of black dressed bride, and her pysche nature is very well shown. Though, I felt she could had been avoided being shown to Renai or Lorraine, just giving signals was enough. That slap scene to Renai especially turned me off, looked more like forced horror, with the loud background. It gets clear why she is after Josh since childhood.

Love the scene where Josh (real) talks to Josh (the further), about the shadows, as Josh screams for help. When Josh returns back, the look on Renai face resembles to the audience (those who are engaged like me), to find out if this time Josh returned back without getting possessed by spirit or not. The zoom in shot into his eye is probably done to help see if there's any clue to his skin looking old or weak. My guess is that he made it back properly this time around, unless director is giving a surprise when 3rd chapter releases. The final scene where Elise says 'Oh my God', it could either be the lipstick faced demon or return of black dressed bride in her original form, the background however hinted towards the former.


The scary moments are mostly when the spirit isnt shown, and yet its doing its way of making the family feel not at ease.

Patrick Wilson gives a very good performance, I like how his face is shown getting weaker and weaker, as the spirit inside Josh body needs to kill people if it has to keep Josh body possession on for long. Lin Shaye is great again, and it was good that she was given a way to come into the narrative after being shown dead in 1st chapter. Lindsay Seim as young Elise looked very pretty.

Specs and Tucker again had some funny scenes, the code word one, or when Tucker falls down over Specs. And the 'I am gonna fight u spirit' scene of Tucker.


If I have to compare both chapters, and pick one then I would go with 1st one. Insidious 2 works more as a thriller with decent enough scares, but the way it connects dots with 1st chapter is commendable apart from those 2-3 listed scenes which I hope someone explains me.

The film is very likeable as long as you aren't expecting a very scary movie. Having said that, you will still feel scared if you are weak hearted. Like me.

Movie Analysis : Insidious

Directed by : James Wan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/

Concept of Astral Projection makes this horror movie very much enjoyable. 


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



Dalton (Ty Simpkins) has a unique quality of astral projections while sleeping. But, unknowingly he has used it to draw attention of a dead soul, who now wants to possess his body. His father Josh Lambert  (Patrick Wilson) has to do everything possible to bring his son back from a world known as 'The Further' into the real world.

Firstly, the background score is thrilling and has a scary feel, when the title comes written at start as well as at the end. Opening credits are used to show the elements that will be mostly used to scare in the plot, and it has a darkish tone. Without wasting much time, we are quickly taken to the 1st attempt of the spirit trying to spread fear across the Lambert family, especially Dalton.

The husband not believing in wife Renai (Rose Byrne) experiencing haunted place, is nothing new but the twist here is that the husband is unaware of his old memories about the same condition he went through in his childhood. A twist that is revealed much later when Josh's mother calls Elise (Lin Shaye) to help in bringing Dalton back.

The past of Josh, specially the photos is very well linked to the condition of Dalton. There are many scary moments, Dalton going into a room that opens itself for him and eventually falling off the ladder, the younger son Foster (Andrew Astor) feeling terribly scared of his brother Dalton, someone knocking at door midnight while their youngest son cries as Renai sees a spirit for 1st time (who knocks at door is revealed in 2nd part), Renai watches a kid singing and then the kid coming out of a cupboard, Elise asking Specs (Leigh Whannell) to draw sketch of the spirit that she sees over Dalton, Elise tries to contact Dalton in his world and Specs writes it quickly 'Help, Help' part was very well done to enhance the helplessness of Dalton trapped in The Further.


The whole sequence where Josh goes into 'The Further' to get his son back, surrounded by various dead souls who have their own different motives. The super twist when Josh returns back with Dalton was total shocker. A very unusual non-happy ending which also confirmed what story next part would have.

For me, the lipstick face demon wasn't as scary as the woman dressed as black bride who haunted Josh in his childhood. His encounter with her while trying to return back from The Further was one of my fav scene, along with the end scene.

Among the performances, Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye shine the most.  Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson pair had some funny moments, and they always kept me thinking which one of them would die.


Insidious lives upto its given name that means 'proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects'. The whole concept of astral projection excited me, plus the scare moments are plenty and not much of cliches, you can feel the fear family faces especially Renai. Certainly one of very good horror movies.

Teaser : Gunday





Very good teaser. Keeps you wanting for more. Interesting thing to note, they cut the teaser keeping the title of film in mind, introducing both Gunde and not showing Priyanka at all. Though her fans may not like it, I certainly liked the idea. Voiceover of Irrfan Khan made me wonder if he is acting also in the movie or not, didnt see his name in starcast.

I am more keen to see Ranveer Singh in the movie, much prefferred actor among both. Though, director's Mere Brother Ki Dulhan didn't gel that well with me, this film is a different territory, might turn out to be his better work.

Waiting for the main trailer and music of Sohail Sen now..

Friday, November 15, 2013

Movie Analysis : The Birds

Directed by : Alfred Hitchcock
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/

Very Gripping tale of Birds against Humans. 


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers.



I think after Nolan, its Hitchcock films that I want to cover up watching as soon as I can, his cinema is so inspiring to watch.

The Birds is another of his classic movies that I watched recently again.  Right from the first frame that has birds squawking and cawing, their voice gradually increasing and becoming violent as the credits end, Hitchcock creates the atmosphere leading to thoughts of how birds gonna come into limelight.

One of key element is the long no-dialogue scenes where tension is created, watch the scene where Melanie (Tippi Herden) takes boat to reach Mitch (Rod Taylor) place and give him a surprise bringing the love birds he wanted to buy for his sister. That scene has that feel of something bad gonna happen, and it happens when she returns back, with first attack by bird on her head.

Then, the evergreen classic scene when Melanie waits outside school playground, while birds one by one gather at her backside, using children's singing and developing the scene was masterstroke. Infact in entire movie, there is no background music, which actually makes the effect of birds even double as we sense its somewhere there when the movie begins, and with time its actions increases to a extent of total scare in humans.

Special mention to two scenes used as a metaphor or symbolism, one when Melanie goes outside diner to help people only ending up getting locked inside a phonebooth and not able to come out watching birds attacking outside. Other scene is, Mitch with his family and Melanie stuck in his own house, not able to move out knowing the next attack of birds may happen anytime. Both these scenes show the shift of nature, from birds in cage, now its human in cage with birds causing fear in them.

There are two mysterious characters, Annie (Suzanne Pleshette) who is Mitch's ex-gf, and Lydia (Jessica Tandy), Mitch's mother. The way Annie delivers her dialogues, and how Hitchcock cuts at her extreme close up when Melanie leaves after having first conversation with her.. it brings a certain doubt on her behind attacks. While Lydia has a possessive nature with her son, not wanting to let him go away from her, reason for Annie-Mitch split up and now Melanie feels not at ease meeting her. Although after watching film, its clear both of them had no hand in the birds attack, but the director does use these characters to his advantage pretty well.

Now the answer to, who was behind the birds attack.. was tough to find out for me. I would go with Hitchcock's saying that it was a film telling what you would do when suddenly something against the nature happens, the terror it creates, and how you try to come out of it. Why it happens, is of least importance. This film just tries to show the dominance of birds over humans, which happens rarely in real life.

Mitch-Melanie relation starts off on a fight, and with time they become typical lovers, but how the graph of Melanie-Lydia changes was to watch, specially their last scene while in car.

The diner conversation was very fun-loving, with the hillarious 'end of the world' quotes.

Some bloopers are there, one key one was the blood that looked terribly fake but then its a 60 era movie so probably budget or non-availability could be issue. Then, that scene where children run away from playground, why did they run when the birds didn't attack yet, remember a scene coming later when Mitch-Melanie walk quietly not letting birds do anything. In pre-climax bird attack on Melanie, it was stupid of her to open door and get into without being careful when she knows the birds are willing to enter by any means. Though I can agree to the point here that in fear state of mind, the brain works less for many people.

Among performances, everyone did pretty well, though Tippi has more screen time, her character takes time before you feel sympathy towards her, Jessica and Rod scored much more in their acting.  It was more of a Hitchcock direction dominated movie.


Talking about climax, the original written scene was that Mitch along with her sister, mother and Melanie drive away from home, and in the way they see people lying dead everywhere with birds attack, as they watch birds all over the Golden Gate. They somehow pass through it, but as they accelerate, the birds attack the car from top and behind, though in the end birds stop and they are able to go away. This original climax I feel goes in favour of human characters too much. What Hitchcock kept in movie, was Mitch and everyone slowly getting into car, driving off with birds carefully watching and slowly their wings clawing harder giving a view that they are gonna go after them in a moment or two. So, the fade up gives the feeling that the birds attack didn't stop or wont stop, and Mitch will have to face it again. This climax works much more as it gave weightage to the key character of 'birds', with their terror remains unsolved. Budget problem in my view helped this film get the best possible ending.


The Birds is rightly termed as one of many Hitchcock's classic movies. Watch it if you havent till now, you are more likely to get scared watching it. Very gripping tale of Birds against Humans.

Movie Analysis : Thor : The Dark World

Directed by : Alan Taylor
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981115/

One of the super-heroes that doesn't excite me at all. Average movie. 



I took the risk of going for this movie without watching previous part, and I think it didn't affect me. Though, I had difficulty in understanding the nine rounds (dont remember if it was 9 or 7) portion.

The film however didn't work for me, main reason is I never found Thor as a superhero to look forward to, same goes for Captain America whose films I haven't seen until now. It was infact Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) who made me enjoy the film much more, sadly they had the shortest role in the movie. I specially loved Darcy's cute way of creating humour, and her dialect  'Were those the car keys'.  While Loki impresses for his deceptive ways, and his last scene.

Chris Hemsworth performance didn't appeal to me, which pretty much sums up why the film was average for me. Though, I did like the finale between Thor and the counterpart.


I would still like to see the 1st part, and other Avenger characters movies.. maybe my views change on this movie. At the moment I can say Thor is very much one time watch.

Movie Analysis : Krrish3

Directed by : Rakesh Roshan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029231/

Good Superhero movie, but with lots of flaws. Not bad as it looked from trailers. 


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



No, its not bad as I thought it would be from the trailers. But its not great either. In between you can say.

The story is thin, superhero Krrish/Krishna (Hrithik Roshan) saves city from terrors while he keeps losing his jobs.  His dad, Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) is seen working on a experiment, and making antidote of a virus spreading fast across city. While somewhere in the world, Kaal (Vivek Oberoi) is planning to end the humanity through his virus, and various mutants he creates with his DNA, one of them being Kaya (Kangana Ranaut) who can change avatars like girgit.

Unlike the last movie in franchise, where the major portion of 1st half went in creating comedy across fake ghost, and the romance between Krishna-Priya (Priyanka Chopra). In Krrish3, its the screenplay that surprises you as there is a urgency visible in putting the action in front of us. Only hiccups come in form of songs and the un-neccessary love angle of Kaya-Krishna.

I liked the opening credits, using Amitabh Bachchan's voiceover to narrate how the superhero Krrish was born, showing all past clips from Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish.

The stunts were good, I specially loved aereoplane one, and ofcourse the finale. VFX was good, I loved Kaya and that long tongue one. Rest maanwars hardly had any great personality to like them. That tree sequence though looked very fake to me. Still, kudos for all the effort, small problems are always going to be there with less budget.

Rakesh Roshan as a director does incredibly well to bring his vision on the screen, though the preaching of 'there is a krrish in everyone of us' was highly irritating. He could had done away with this spoon-feeding. Dialogue writing ranges from good to bad to average. Also, the reaction shots of public, be it the post aeroplane scene when they congratulate krrish, or when krrish saves a small kid, or when Kaya saves a kid, it looked exaggerated.

Songs were very average, Rajesh Roshan dissapointed. 'Raghupati Raghav Rajaram' works only for the reason that we get to see Hrithik's great dance moves. 'God allah aur Bhagwan' should had been avoided, and same for 'dil tu hi bata'. Though, I loved Kangana in that black dress during Dil tu hi bata song. If we want to compete with Hollywood (if at all we want to), then songs have to be removed or kept at minimal.. even 3 songs in film are too many.

Special mention to two background themes that caught my attention, one was when Kaal's backstory as child is shown. Other one is when Rohit sacrifices his life for Krishna, and that same theme comes when Krishna beats Kaal terribly to death before the surprise dialogue.

Hrithik Roshan delivers great performance, that head shivering is one thing I want him to stop, he does it too much, same was the case in Agneepath. If I was to chose one, then I would say 'Rohit Mehra', as a dad he was comical, father like and full of emotions. I love the scene where he emotes a father feeling helpless trying to save his son, and then the sacrifice he makes. Actually, I felt bad that this character now may not be there in next part of Krrish franchise.

Priyanka Chopra is okay in most parts, only place she gets some scope is when Kaya changes avatar and becomes Priya. Priyanka gets a negative shade to enact, and she does very well in that.

Kangana Ranaut is superb in her negative turns positive role. She looked glamarous and evil.

Vivek Oberoi does pretty well, though his character lacked that special villain punchline. Like in last part, Naseeruddin would say 'Breaking news'. Infact similar tribute is visible once in film, when Kaal says 'toh dekhte hai kya india ke bhagwan bacha paate hai unhe hamare virus se'. Also, if you carefully notice then Kaal's other fingers were moving too which Vivek shouldn't have allowed to happen. Though this is visible only if you focus too much on that like I did. And why does he need to laugh un-necessarily, we know he plays villain role, some cliches should be done away with.

My main problem though with him was, he didn't get a chance to spread terror, though I loved the 'The Dark Knight Rises' tribute with Kaal beating Krrish almost to death. What I wanted after that was Kaal to make the city full of fear with his actions, and not a dialogue sequence. Reason I say this is, Kaal is shown as one with full of powers to us, so after beating Krrish, spreading terror in city would had made his character look very tough to defeat, and therefore make Krrish more lovable when he does the impossible.


Also, I feel that the mask Krishna wears doesn't make his identity look different. For a person it should be easy to identify that both Krishna and Krrish are same, which makes me wonder if they could had worked harder on the mask during Krrish movie.


Krrish3 may not be that Superhero movie from India that can be put together with famous Hollywood ones, but we are getting there. Its a good movie, that can be actually loved by those who aren't aware of Hollywood superhero movies. I am happy that Krrish3 wasn't a waste of time, especially since it took so long for it to make. Hopefully, Krrish4 would not have any flaws.


Verdict : NICE 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Trailer : Dedh Ishqiya





7 stages of love explained by Khalu with a soothing background, and Babban's comedy touch to it. Loved the trailer

I didn't love Ishqiya, and even unlike others loved only 2 songs. Still, the film had some great moments to remember, specially Arshad-Naseeruddin chemistry, dialogues and the dark humour.

This sequel has all of that visible in its trailer, plus added attraction is Madhuri Dixit. And it looks that writer didn't want Khalu and Babban to love same woman, so there's Huma Quereshi too. I forgot name of that character (at 1:40) who loves to play hide and seek with Khalu-Babban.

Exact story is hard to decipher from the trailer, which is good for me. Probably one of best cut trailers this year, might feature in my top 5.

Another reason that the trailer got my attention was, the 7 stages of love last time I read was in 'Dil Se', one of my most fav film so it directly reminded me of it.


Dilkashin (Attraction)
Unns (Infactuation)
Mohabbat (Love)
Aqeedat (Reverence)
Ibaadat (Worship)
Junoon (Obsession)
Maut (Death) 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Journey of Actors : Shahrukh Khan

Last Updated on : 2nd Nov, 2013



My most loved movies : 
Dil Se > Veer Zaara > Chak de India  > Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge > Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Disliked movies : 
Chennai Express, Don, Ra.One, Om Shanti Om, Billu

Yet to watch : 
Hey Ram, Paheli, Ashoka the Great, Swades, Devdas, Yes Boss, Chalte Chalte and few more.

Fav songs : 
Zara sa jhoom lun (DDLJ), Ae ajnabee (Dil se), Zara tasveer se tu (Pardes), Jaane kyun (Veer Zaara), Jiya re (Jab Tak Hai Jaan), Humko humhi se chura lo (Mohabbatein)

Best scene : 
Church scene (DDLJ), Madan-Ajay laugh (Baazigar), Arjun truth (Pardes), Rain Sequence (KKHH), 1-2-3 smile eeee (KHNH), Veer Zaara seperation (Veer Zaara), Meghna leaves Amar (Dil Se), Afshaq Miya ke (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham), Samar wants to re-marry Meera (Jab Tak Hai Jaan)

Fav Jodi : 
Kajol in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham


Shahrukh is a special actor for me mainly for the reason that he started the movie keeda hidden inside me, else who knows today I may not be watching movies at all. He's like that childhood hero everyone has. Ofcourse with time people mature, so I too see all his bad aspects now without ignoring them. He lacks consistency of doing great characters unlike other top actors like Aamir or Manoj or Ranbir these days,  but he knows how to make you fall in love with his character time and again, last time he did it for me was in Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

He has done 60 movies till now, out of which I love his performances in 19 of those movies while I haven't seen 15 of his films yet, might not actually watch most of them as I know they aren't good.  The ratio of films that I love is much more than the ones I hate or dislike.

I don't remember whether I saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge first or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and which one I loved more. Even now, I find it hard to choose one out of them, somehow both are special for me.

He has played obsessed lover, nice lover, angry lover, romantic lover and sadistic lover. Easily one of best romantic heroes ever, a genre he has made his own.  I love 'Dil Se' most, and his performance was one of the main reason for it, Amar madly in love with Meghna following her everywhere. There's a style he brings in his performances, special mention to the way he delivers his dialogues in 'Don2'.

With Yashji he gave me two films that I love a lot, 'Veer Zaara' and 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan'. As Veer, he played the fallen in love but ready to sacrifice for sake of his love brilliantly. Though he over-acted in some parts of Jab Tak Hai Jaan, I couldn't help myself loving Samar for loving Meera and daring to go against God too.

He's sweet in his earlier movies like 'Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa', 'Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman' and 'Chamatkar', though I couldn't love him much in them. As a villian, he showed great potential in 'Baazigar' and 'Darr', how he improvises in most of the scenes in Darr is something to see. Anjaam is another of my fav performance in negative role, which many people don't talk of.

In the fantasy romantic genre like 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' that I love a lot, many girls dream of Raj in real life which I doubt they will get, keep trying though. Then, there's 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', that famous dialogue 'hum ek baar jeete hai, ek baar marte hai', and my fav one 'pyar dosti hai'. 'Dil Toh Pagal Hai' is probably one of least liked movies for me in this category, but there were many worth watching scenes in the movie and the songs too, the way Shahrukh breaks into the 'mujhko huyi na khabar' song. 'Mohabbatein' worked only for the chemistry he had with Amitabh Bachchan, the war between love and hatred. I actually miss this pair a lot, they were great in 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham' too, and some nice moments in Kank also, that scene 'beta hass liya karo thora, mar nahi jayoge'. His performance in 'Kal Ho Na Ho' was fantastic, though interestingly its one of his film that I have seen the least for no particular reasons.

'Kabhi Alvida na Kehna', 'Chak de India' and 'My name is Khan' are three of his best off-beat movies. Kank was one of my favs for it explored the theme of love after marriage, a strong subject which most of Indians couldn't accept. The way he played frustrated kinda of a loser character, who finds almost everything irritating since the accident he has, made people hate his character, which was a win for his performance. The other time such hatred comes towards his character was in 'Hum Tumhare Hai Sanam', though that film I don't like much.

 'Chak De India' was and probably will remain best birthday gift ever of my life. A shahrukh film that every non-srk lover appreciated too, was a great sight for me then. Plus, some good memories attached with it. My name is Khan unfortunately reminds me of bad memories, and same for Rab ne Bana di Jodi, still loved how he did the autistic character, and that innocence he shows in  'mandira main waapis kab aayun'.

Its the masala movies where I have found problem with him, be it Om Shanti Om where he completely irritates in 2nd half or the worst film of his life 'Chennai Express' where he over-acted in almost 90% of the movie to which our idiot audience gave thumbs up with the 200 cr record.  Then, there's Billu and Ra.One where I very much disliked him.

I hope he doesn't take any more re-makes like Don, but would love to see him take Don franchise to as far as possible. Also, a darr kinda of negative shade role has been pending since so long. Another thing I would like is to see him do a mature love story now, where he plays his age, and please not a masala movie.

I guess he still has more movies left in his career that will be madly loved by me, hopefully the list in this post will get updated in future. Swades and Devdas are my next to watch films in coming months.

He may not be a perfect actor, but he has that special screen presence whenever you watch him on big screen, you like to just love his character more often than not. If he does more films with the talented directors out of the usual camp he has got, then I am sure the good off-beat films list would increase too. Yes, he does over-acts at times, but he is still very much a lovable actor for me whenever he does good work.


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Trailer : Dhoom3




Circus wala sirf aankhon ko nahi, maut ko dhokha dete hai.... Roz. 

Andddd the trailer arrives. Super follow up to the teaser. Brilliantly cut with bgs, action, punchlines and look into all the characters.

Trailer starts with a pleasant surprise, Jackie Shroff, I didn't knew he was part of the movie. The way Aamir describes his profession resembles how Michael Caine described the three parts of magic trick in 'The Prestige'. But the similarity ends right there. I could see 3 background themes used in trailer, one is when Aamir puts that hat on for 1st time during start of trailer, then the famous tune of dhoom franchise coming after Aamir's dialogue 'main ghar aa gaya baba', and lastly the signature tune of Aamir in the movie used in teaser also, coming right at the last. All three works for me. Also, 'Dhoom with me' words used at 1:10 might be the title song this time, in Dhoom2 it was 'Dhoom again'.

Aamir is easily the scene-stealer in the trailer itself, and I bet it would be with film too if its a well-made movie. Love his entry scene that involves Hat. The first scene where he is running over building vertically I am hoping was a magic, and not real stunt that would look very bad otherwise. The big change one can see is that Aamir brings more of acting magic and not as much of style as both John and Hrithik did. That could be a reason why script has him not just a thief but also a clown. And it probably works both in favour of Aamir and the film, allowing the actor to take the centre-stage.. what more you want. I had loved 'A signature' in dhoom2, and happy they have kept something similar and infact added more to it. We have a Joker signature (not really similar to joker of 'the dark knight') and a hindi note 'bank waalo, tumhari aisi ki taisi'.

The use of 'Bandhey hai hum uske' line right at end was a master-stroke, another surprise. I thought it won't be used.

Somehow in Dhoom2 I felt Abhishek looked dis-interested in his character, as if he wasn't willing to catch the thief. Here, in clean shave he is looking better, and probably much more keen, with possibly toughest thief to catch. But, he is saddened with that same cliched line shown in trailer itself 'chor aur police ki sirf dushmani hoti hai'. Come on, bahut sun liya chor police dialogue from him. (He says similar thing to John before 'salaame' and to Hrithik before 'dil laga na' in Dhoom and Dhoom2 respectively) I hope his character is much better written.

Uday has lesser shots, and no dialogues in trailer, expectedly, I hope screenplay and editing takes care of his role, no over-dose of his comedy please.

Katrina Kaif looks smashing hot, and what exact role she has is a question, is she working for Abhishek to catch Aamir (which I hope she isn't doing) or she is with Aamir only from start. Love that shot where she is dancing and puts her leg onto Aamir's shoulder, while Aamir looks at her without giving any emotion towards her.

Some great punchlines used too. Stunts I hope aren't limited to only bikes. Hope there is good mixture of magic and stunts.

They have shown the climax scene shot in trailer, I would so love if they have a major twist in the end. For a change, let the villian run away. John died in 1st one, Hrithik stopped stealing in 2nd one, here it has to be something different.

Vijay Krishna Acharya gave me terrible headache with Tashan, so that fear will surely be there. If the screenplay is pacy, and connectable drama, this movie won't fail.

At the moment it looks like the year is ending on a bright side with a Aamir Khan performance to look forward to, plus his pairing with Katrina.

Bring on the music first.


Trailer : The Wolf of Wall Street




This looks like a fucking insane movie, especially Leonardo's character. Only thing missing in 2nd trailer was the background theme used in earlier one. Scorsese-Leonardo pair are in probably for a very good movie.


The 1st trailer, if you missed it.. both awesome trailers.


Monday, October 28, 2013

Movie Analysis : Insomnia

Directed by : Chistopher Nolan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/


Very unlike Nolan cinema, but not a weak film. Terrific performance by Al Pacino.


Just as you are about to dismiss something, think about it. Look at it again.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



One of very different movies from the usual Nolan ones, reason being that the character's performance (Al Pacino) dominates much more than the screenplay/story.

Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are two detectives who are brought to Alaska to solve a young girl Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe) death's case. Will has some differences with Hap over the past cases, and while trying to solve Kay case, a mishap leads to Hap's death. Will can't sleep now, with the images of Hap's death in his mind. He has a case to solve, and a death of Hap which he isn't sure if he did it intentionally or was a accident. When the killer of Kay contacts Will telling him he knows how Hap died, Will goes into a dilemmna. Should he support the real killer and keep himself and his reputation safe, or should he tell the truth to everyone and let the justice prevail.


Except for the 1st scene, the blood one, Nolan keeps the narrative linear, which isn't the case in his movies. That is one reason why I am writing this post after seen the film just once. Though he uses flashback shots of few seconds every now and then, be it the Kay's death ones when Will sees her body, or the conscious mind of Will dealing with Hap's death guilt.

The background theme that constantly plays with Pacino ever since the Hap accident, was effective.. gives a emotional feel to his character.

There's a scene where for first time Dormer hallucinates, imagines Hap walking along with other guys. But Nolan, doesn't try to go into this territory further. Similarly, the scene where Dormer feels head moving slowly, while at the station watching people around, we see the 'less sleep' effecting him little bit for first time.There are night scenes, where his conscious doesn't let him sleep, and then the scene where he is driving and almost has a accident. Or when he confuses himself between Ellie (Hilary Swank) and Kay while talking to Walter Finch (Robin Williams)  If I had seen this movie when it released, these two points may not have been of much importance, but since I saw recently and having seen his all other movies, what I felt was Nolan could had gone deeper into hallucination or insomnia creating problems, and given further layers to the movie. But, he doesn't do that.

Nolan is more interested in a simple point 'If you go wrong way, you may make it a habit.. and make it tougher for you to come out of it'. Dormer started it with Dobbs who in his view deserved to be in jail, so looking by his part, he did right even though it was wrong way of doing it. Just like the receptionist tells him 'Its about what you thought was right at the time, Then what you are willing to live with'. There's no clear answer given to whether Dormer actually killed Hap willingly or it was the fog that made his sight not clear. I would like to believe that it was fog, and not his will to do that, even though the situation looks ideal for him to kill Hap.

I like the end, Dormer tries to stop Detective Ellie going the way he went since Dobbs case.

The scenes between Dormer and Walter are very powerful, the first two calls Walter makes to have attention of Dormer. And then, the chase by Dormer which almost takes his own life. The ship sequence where Walter makes Dormer realize how similar situation both of them are into, for killing people they didn't mean to. The truth Walter tells about how he killed Kay, on phone to Dormer, as Dormer astonishingly listens and hangs up the phone feeling this is a murderer who deserves to be in jail just like Dobbs, but he has seen him kill Hap. The station scene between them gets very interesting as Walter tries to do things which Dormer warned him not to do, ofcourse Dormer was trying to make sure Walter doesn't let any innocent (Randy) get accused. But Walter wants Randy to be the one getting involved,  thereby making Dormer very angry and almost ready to kill. Walter was pretty smart all the time, except for that novel that he left by that allowed Dormer to find him. But he knew how to set up Dormer, with all the wild cards and fake story to make Randy look the murderer. In a scene, Dormer argues 'It took you 10 fucking minutes to kill her, you call that an accident?', to which Walter replies 'It took you fraction of a second to kill Hap, does that make any more of an accident?', you wonder how true both are, none can justify they were right in  their killing that happened by mistake.

The final confontration scene between them however was dissappointing, it ended up like a routine finale without any major thrills.

Its good that some of the key changes were done from original script, like Pacino doesn't grab the girl by legs in car instead he threatens her by reckless driving (which was a super scene). Then, the dead dog is alive originally, which he kills later (that would had been much more terrible). And, Pacino flirts a lot, eventually almost raping the Hotel receptionist.. in the original script. All this scenes if were used as it is, then only thing it would had done was you would feel no sympathy at his death in last scene.


Al Pacino gives a brilliant performance, the way he walks and solves case.. gives the feel of how long its been since he slept properly. In the movie, we are told its 6 days, but maybe the insomnia started for him with  Dobbs case as he looks in similar kind of state when in jetplane arriving Alaska. All upto how you wanna interpret the pre-movie part. The idea of chewing gum to stay awake was good one, gave that style into Pacino's dialogue delivery that looks so good on him. Love how he extracts information out of Kay's best friends.

Robin Williams played his psycho character very well, specially the scenes where he leaves Dormer into a dilemma, and the confession scene on phone about how he killed Kay.

Hilary Swank was good, look at how excited she is to work with famous Detective Dormer together. But after Hap's incident, she starts noticing a change in Dormer, and her investigations regrading Hap death leads to serious doubts over Dormer. Love that scene where she tells Dormer 'A good cop can't sleep because something's missing, while a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him'.


Insomnia may not be your first choice when you think of watching a Nolan movie. But, I wont like to call it Nolan's weakest film, its just a film that can't classify as Nolan's classics as it fails to reach upto the standards Nolan films usually have. Watch it as a regular thriller (though slow), it wont dissappoint.

Movie Analysis : Following

Directed by : Christopher Nolan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154506/

Great movie made in low budget, Nolan's fascinating cinema started from here.


You take it away, and you show them what they had.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 


This is Nolan's first directed feature, that started a new 'Nolan cinema' .. which has been unique and full of questions ever since. Each and every movie has tested the brain cells, so is the case with 'Following'.

Clearly made on a low budget, with the camera its shot or the production setup you notice.. all that actually falls in favour of this genre. To add to it, Nolan uses his mind to film it black n white completely, that adds to the mysterious element, almost like a new layer.

The non-linear narrative style he had used right from this movie itself. I would like to call this film more of a pre-Memento film. In Memento, he explores on a larger scale probably a good budget helped.

Following is the tale of a lonely unemployed guy, Bill (Jeremy Theobald) who wants to be a writer. He follows people, strange people.. people he doesn't know. That gives him scope to know many aspects and maybe he would find that character to write on too. On the flip side, its a way for him to connect to the world, as he has no friend (atleast not shown to us in the film). But, his habit turns into a nightmare when the person he follows, Cobb (Alex Haw) entices him into the burglary world which Bill can't resist.

As is the case for most of Nolan films, I decided to watch this one 2nd time before writing on it. I used editing software to reconnect shots in correct order (with odd problems of voiceover dialogues), and watched the movie in chronological order. While that did sort out the entire plot with very few confusions (which wasn't the case when I saw it 1st time with non-linear narration), the point to note would be that the film loses its credibility watching it this way.. unless you have doubts on the plot, you would be better off watching it in the original format only.

There are 3 segments used in the narration, 1st is the conversation between Bill and the police investigator, 2nd is how Bill and Cobb meet and then combine to do some thefts, and 3rd is the new look Bill who gets interested in blonde lady (Lucy Russell), and this segment is further divided into part where Bill is following closely people that enter the pub owned by blonde lady's man. Nolan has used mainly blackouts which I felt were overdone, and gave a jerk feel at times. If I remember correctly in Memento, he continued story without any stoppages, at most places. Here, it was like making the viewer ready to shift to other segment.. maybe as first film he didn't want to make it too tough for the audience.

He very perfectly uses the shot of a man following someone else's belongings with his gloves on. The background theme, my fav one runs with it as the title 'Following' comes written. The other theme comes too at same shot which is shown in detail later, a very light one. At other places the background is kept very silent.

 Also, he uses a shot from 3rd segment, as well as a shot from pre-3rd segment part (i.e just before he starts following blonde lady's man pub) in the start. He gives small hint to where the story would lead, and then Bill himself reveals when his following went wrong.

At first, I felt that Cobb is also a insane follower like Bill, only that his ways are different. But when he takes Bill to his profession of burglary, in the 1st burglary sequence it is revealed that Cobb is way more insane as he believes in hiding things so that the people who come back in that house later realize what they had and never cared for.

One of my fav scene is when Bill crosschecks Cobb making him try to steal from his own home, just to check if Cobb falters anywhere in case he was a fake person. Then, the one where Bill checks blonde lady house, its same one he and Cobb went to steal 3rd time around. But Nolan's non-linear narration meant that we see the burglary scene much later.

The main reason why this narration actually works apart from making the viewer engaged and interested, is that this way Nolan can keep the suspense part till very end. While watching you never get time to think that Cobb is setting up Bill, and blonde lady is setting up Bill too, while blonde lady is being set up by Cobb. Because you just need to focus on next segment while watching, you aren't given enough time to think over. Those who still did it in 1st view and guessed suspense right, kudos to them.

One of those movies where the end doesn't go in favour of the 'good' protaganist. Or in short, good didn't win over evil. Bill never knew that his obsession of following will lead him to such a trap he won't be able to come out of.

The final shot is classic, we see Cobb as individual in the crowd with the mid shot.. a fellow person passes by and Cobb is gone in the crowd.. now we see crowd or maybe a new individual (there was some guy visible just before blackout happens).

Among performances, I specially loved both Jeremy Theobald and Alex Haw. Jeremy played the loner in search of friend/love yet not sure who very well, the expression on his face when Cobb caught him was superb. While Alex Haw looked confident, and never gave a hint of what he really was upto.. and he surprises you once atleast if not twice.

Some things that I noted from film and comments of various people :

• Both Jeremy and Alex have done almost negligible amount of films since Following. Infact one person quoted aptly that Alex Haw remained into his character of Cobb, gone missing in the crowd and hasn't since then seen in any other movie.

• Nolan re-used Cobb name for Leonardo Di Caprio in Inception, interesting thing is that he was also a thief but of mind.

• The batman logo on the door of Bill house when Cobb goes with him for 2nd burglary. Don't know if Nolan had Batman series in his mind then, or it was just a tribute thing.

• There's a mention of old man by Cobb before he kills blonde lady. I assume it was that pub owner, but Nolan may be linking to someone else. I ain't fully sure.

• Jeremy Theobald character name is Bill to Cobb, and Daniel to blonde lady, while credits refer to him as 'the young man'. So, his real name is never disclosed which he probably must had told the police officer.



Overall, Following though Nolan's first movie.. its good enough to be called among his great works. Also, this film tells how good Nolan's command over narrating a story was since the start. He knew how to use certain elements, and how he can cheat or confuse the viewers. With a better budget, and those blackouts thing sorted, he improved those weak parts in further movies. Following works for the way its sustains the mystery part with the performances that compliment the direction very well. Also, the length of movie is just 69 mins, didn't overtry things and kept it simple yet special.

Trailer : Shaadi Ke Side Effects



I was excited for this project ever since I came to know of Farhan-Vidya pair. Both are such talented actors, and to see them together would be great. Also, I loved the director's last movie 'Pyaar ke Side effects' which had awesome humour.

The trailer is funny, with the post marriage torture shown humurously. Hoping the film is as good as the trailer.


Dheere se kaise girte hai  ? 

Trailer : Singh Saab The Great




That last dialogue 'tad tad tad tad' alone is enough to watch this movie in theatre for me. Though, the action looking expectedly very over the top with Sunny Deol as lead, so all about how well drama is executed. Anil Sharma's films haven't clicked ever since Gadar, maybe this might bring that change. One bad thing is that have to watch Prakash Raj once again in same role he doesn't stop doing.

Duniya buri isliye hai kyunki acche log ek saath milkar apni taakat ka sahi ishtemaal nahi karte. 

Friday, October 25, 2013

Movie Analysis : Mickey Virus

Directed by : Saurabh Varma
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2796318/


Average comedy thriller, watchable for some hillarious moments.


Ek aalsi aadmi ko jab koi mushkil kaam do na, toh koi na koi aasan tareeka dhoondh hi leta hai karne ka.


Delhi Police seeks help of a hacker Mickey (Manish Paul) to solve a hacking case. Mickey who is a lazy person, gives in after a while only to realize that he has got himself into a big problem.

The start to the movie is funny with first 20-30 mins full of good creative dialogues, specially the small finger one. But, after that the film starts to fade off. We see a character trying to fool us, when we know the motive of that character right from the first scene itself. So, its waiting game as to when it will get exposed in the movie, good thing is it happens at interval point. That makes 2nd half worth watching, but its a let-down too with a very weak climax. The first time director tries to make a good comedy-thriller but except one suspense element, everything else is easily predictable.

Songs are pretty much average, Tose Naina gives good romantic feel.

Manish Paul in his debut performance is likeable, he gets the dialect pretty well and I was almost sure his comic timing would be good.

Elli Avram is very average but she looks too hot, specially her entry scene in the yellow saree.

Varun Badola was other great performer in the movie, with the haryanvi accent he gives some of best humourous scenes, sadly his role is limited to a supporting actor. In a scene, he fails to differentiate between Hawker and Hacker. Also, that conversation where he talks with his wife on mobile.

Among rest cast, Puja Gupta shines as the friend of Mickey who is very lively and hyper. Also, Nilesh Pandey does well in a small role.


Mickey Virus starts well, but falls down very quickly especially after 2nd half. Its watchable for some good funny dialogues, the comedy isn't loud, its the drama where the movie fails to impress.


Verdict : AVERAGE