Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns [Trailer]

Awesome trailer. Just like the first part, this one seems to have good punches.. Randeep replaced by Irrfan Khan and there is Soha too. Irrfan easily the impressive of all in this 2 min trailer. Finally, Mahie Gill in a good meaningful role after those ridiculous Dabangg's. Even though Jimmy Shergill would have most or entire film on wheelchair due to that final climax scene of 1st part.. he would still remain a key character of movie and I think performance wise he would be close to Irrfan Khan.

Like the tagline 'Love will get Bloody Shameless', and Irrfan's final expression aapki kasam..

Keenly waiting for this movie, Tigmanshu Dhulia back to direction after Ramadhir acting roles in Wasseypur films.. only Sandeep Chowta as music composer looked wierd to me.


Aap chahte ho na ki jung ho.. hogi, ghamasaan hogi.. aapki kasam.

I Me Aur Main [Trailer]

Average trailer. John in comedy role never appeals to me, though he's looking tolerable than usually is the case. Prachi and Chitrangada main reasons to watch movie for me. The screenplay looks predictable with self-realisation of the character towards end, and careless in 1st half.

The other good thing film might have is music, the title song used in trailer sounded good and also 'Najaane kahan se aaya hai' is addictive (chaalbaaz one).

All upto how many enjoyable moments this rom-com would have...


Ishaan 'doodh waale ka bill' ? 
Main kyun dun ? I dont even drink milk. Infact meri toh coffee bhi black hai. 

Ishq Actually [Teaser]

Teaser is decent. The plot is familiar, three way love.. such films work only on how good the romantic feel the film gives. Except for Rajeev Khandelwal, rest cast seems new to me.. even the director.

Like the line 'Ishq is the things you don't say'.. teaser is well cut.

Movie Analysis : AkaashVani

Directed by : Luv Ranjan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2423132/

Woh aaj humse mile anjaano ki tarah, 
hum yun hi raah takke baithe the deewano ki tarah..
har nigaah mein aur dur chale jaate hai,
humse nazar churaate hai beyimaano ki tarah... 

There will be spoilers in this post ahead, read at your own risk. 


Akaash (Kartik Tiwari) and Vani (Nushrat Bharucha) say goodbye to their parents and leave for their destination of graduation course in Delhi. They meet on the 1st day of college, and gradually click with each other. Eventually, both fall in love but the destiny has something else in store for both as Vani's parents are of conservative nature and Vani won't do anything to break their heart.

Ranjan begins the film by quickly showcasing how different set of families both leads have, Akaash father on one hand aint keen to see Akaash off knowing he is a grown up boy, while Vani's father questions his wife why can't Vani just complete her studies at Dehradun only (her homeplace). The lovely montage of both leads journey is covered up a good english background song.

What Ranjan does brilliantly is, that he makes sure that he keeps the fun and romantic part ratio just a way bit above family drama and emotions. That is the reason film works a lot to me, because its way too romantic not to fall in love with.

Most of the first 30-40 mins are spent in the romantic shayaris, masti/madness between Akaash and Vani, whether its on delhi roads, buses, or at Manali. The shift towards Vani family problems brings the movie to that 'vulnerable' position from where either you would love the film or hate it. The post interval 30 mins part is toughest, not because its directed badly but because its hard to see Vani suffer that much just because of her parents mistake. I like how through montage of marriage taking place is mixed with how Ravi (Sunny Singh Nijjar) forces with Vani despite her saying she isn't ready yet, plus the music theme in background, it was very well thought of.

Since a major part of movie goes serious, the scene where Vani remembers her past life, and those days of Manali, the romance with Aakash.. it brings back what the movie always wanted to show, the love between Aakash and Vani. For me, the shayari that Shekhar (Gautam Mehra) recites twice in the film is the story of AkaashVani.

The serious issue the film raises is the stubborn nature of parents, and their opinion that they have full right on their children to make them marry whoever they want forgetting they might end up actually spoiling their children's life. In the movie, the elder sister issue makes it hard to go against them but when Vani tells them what she is going through, the reaction of her parents is 'Goel bhabhi keh rahi thi', means her mother is bothered what the society is saying about her daughter and not about the hell she is living to please them.

For me such parents are sheer stupid, and the children need to have courage to teach them where they are wrong.. it's toughest thing to do though, to say something against parents but when its about your life, it needs to be done.

The story of movie isn't new, and many films in past would have been made.. but what makes this movie standout is the way Ranjan tackles the concept.

Editing was very good, the songs are so beautifully cut and the slowness he keeps at various places, be it romantic or the suffering sequences.. it helps in creating the feel this film has. Cinematography is good, and Ranjan does very well in the dialogue writing too. The background score was very good too, specially the one that is used in the 2nd trailer of the movie. There are portions in the movie which goes totally quiet, one scene I remember where from honeymoon talks suddenly Akaash tells Vani about her talking to parents, and the background goes totally quiet from a musical theme. Also, the theme when he runs off fast to the jeep.

Initially I didn't love the songs much, found them decent, but now after having seen them in the movie, I have to say Akaashvani album by Hitesh Sonik is easily among top10 (will re-do my album recap  blog). There's 2 english songs used in narrative, both not available in the album sadly. While Crazy Lover is sheer madness, and very well choreographed too.. though its the only place where I didnt like Nushrat in those costumes of final stanza. Padh Gaye Ji is total romantic with the feeling of 'we can be ourselves and do anything we like even if it looks silly/naughty to others'. Love the scene where eve teasers looking at Vani and Akaash gives signs of going there to beat them but instead joins them to see Vani like them. Shafqat Amanat Ali's Tera Mera Naam is emotional to the core and very aptly written showing the broken feeling Akaash goes through, and has the kind of visuals one would expect it to have. Bas Main Aur Tu, a feel good slow romantic song fitting the narrative very well, and great hill visuals along with that jugnu sequence. Rumani is very romantic but slightly naughty track, and used just the way I think it should have.

Special mention to the costumes, how much good both Nushrat and Kartik look throughout the movie. Also, Harshdeep Kaur's background vocals during post interval marriage part and the final punjabi song part.

Performances wise, Kartik Tiwari continues his great work.. in PKP he was one of few good things that I loved but here I think he had more scope which was gonna happen with him being main male lead, and he doesn't have a single hiccup scene. The way he flirts with Vani, the anger he has when she leaves him or the care he has during one of the scene when she meets him again. He was quite much purfect in his performance.

Nushrat on the other hand had a tough role, and she so easily pulled off the character. Specially the scenes where she has to show her concern about what will happen when she would tell her parents, or when she tells the news to Akaash, or when she sees her father crying, or when she makes the tough choice, when she suffers day and night, and when Akaash accuses her for everything she did with his life. She looked beautiful, cute, naughty and so romantic, also special reference to her voice that gets very soft at times when talking with Akaash. I love her final dialogue to her father 'kaash main aapko bata paati, ki aapki wajah se mujhe kya jeena padh gaya'. Easily gonna be among my top5 performers of the year.

Gautam Mehra and Sana Sheikh (Sumbul) gave great supporting performances, love the scene where Shekhar tells Akaash that he is himself responsible for his miseries due to his ego. And Sumbul's scene where she shows old memories of Manali.

Sunny Singh Nijjar was very hatable for his character, his acting was spot on. His character could easily be labelled as 'Asshole', or 'Bastard' as Sumbul calls him.

Kiran Kumar did good job as father of Vani, that scene where he breaks down and says why 24 years love becomes nothing to kids was one of my favs. Interestingly, Kartik, Nushrat also have breaking down scenes at various parts of story. Though, I think Kartik didn't look convincing crying but then someone told me once that people never look good while crying.

Also, the actor who played Vani's mother was pretty good. The rest cast did fair work.

The only question in the writing for me was, why parents of Akaash were missing at his marriage.


Overall, AkaashVani works for me big time.. its a romantic movie and covers up a issue that is still prevalent in India atleast. Excellent performances and very well directed/written by Luv Ranjan. You gotta be a asshole stone hearted unromantic person if you don't connect with the love story of Akaash and Vani.


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Les Miserables [Views]

Directed by : Tom Hooper
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/

I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I am living.

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) who is known as prisoner 24601 by the on duty officer Javert (Russell Crowe), is released from the prison on a parole. Valjean goes around a rich place completely tired and hungry, the person owning the place is very helpful and caring, as Valjean is given everything he wants yet Valjean tries to run away stealing things and eventually caught but the place owner lets him go telling cops he didn't steal anything. That incident changes Valjean's life for a good, as he breaks his parole and goes away. After a span of 7 years, he is now a well known Mayor of a place where he helps a suffering Fantine (Anne Hathaway) and takes her daughter Cossette (Amanda Seyfried) under his care and protection. Javert is always on a look out to find Valjean, while Valjean is looking to make sure Cossette leads a good life away from troubles that her mom Fantine faced, and Cossette is in love with Marius (Eddie Redmayne) but their destiny is in hands of what would happen in a rebellion that is about to happen in France where the movie is set.

The plot has lots of suffering, even begins on that note and goes that way for most part. There's fightback, and romantic moments mainly between Cossette and Marius, or Eponine (Samantha Barks) who secretly loves Marius. All this makes for a great viewing, but not to be so as everything is presented in form of songs. A loud opera or musical drama as many would call it. There's hardly a single regular conversation in the movie, so basically you are watching a 2 hr song performance oriented movie.

Such genres just don't appeal to me, for me normal conversations have to be in dialogues and not songs. Even if it was plain background music, I would have connected but the lip synch songs just made it worse. Though that doesn't take away anything from the lyrics of those songs, which very well keeps the narration of movie going but the imapact as a dialogue would had been much bigger to me.

My favourite among 20 some songs was Anne Hathaway's 'I dreamed a dream', Isabelle Allen's 'Castle on a cloud', 'Look Down' performed by lots of actors together, 'A heart full of love' by Samantha, Eddie & Amanda and 'One Day More'.

There's many moments in the movie where I felt for the characters, and the next moment they drop into a song removing my connection quickly. I think normal version of this movie has been released some 10 years ago, would love to see that, most likely I would have more good things to say for that one.

Cinematography is brilliant, special mention to the opening scene where large amount of prisoners are working as slaves to pull off the ship in rainy windy weather. Also, the rain sequence of Samantha, and the rebel where they build a post kind of place through furnitures.

Hugh Jackman delivers the best performance of the movie easily, so does Anna Hatheway as a badly suffered woman in the story, plus how well she sang 'I dreamed a dream' song. Russell Crowe is decent at best. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter provide great humour to the movie, though their 1st sequence has some yuck shots of food. Amanda Seyfried looks sweet, and plays her part very well. And that small kid who does his share of job in the rebel fight. Rest cast does fair job.


In the end, this musical Les Miserables gives some good moments for sure, but as a whole not a movie I would say I liked.

Movie Analysis : Raakh

Directed by : Aditya Bhattacharya
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290820/

Tum aise hi acche lagte ho
hmm...
Kaise the ? yaad bhi nahi hoga na..

There are spoilers ahead in the post, so read at your own risk... 

Amir Hussein (Aamir Khan) holds himself responsible for the rape of his friend come old love Neeta (Supriya Pathak). He seeks revenge but no one is willing to help him, neither the police nor Neeta herself. Inspector P.K (Pankaj Kapur) takes it upto himself to train Amir, and plan murders accordingly. But, P.K himself has his own revenge reasons for helping Amir, and add to it a small factor of guilt.

Watching the movie, I got the feel that its way ahead of the times when it was made. Santosh Sivan's excellent cinematography, he so well showcases how badly Amir's life has turned around leading to complete darkness. Sreekar Prasad's editing is top notch, I like how he intercuts credits with shots of Amir and his family with the haunting background score by Ranjit Barot.

When you have the technical aspects working that well for a film, its left to direction, screenplay and performances to make sure they don't go wasted. And Raakh doesn't dissappoint on that part either. The screenplay is very much linear, but its very fast to reach to the main plot. No time is wasted on Amir-Neeta past relationship, instead we are provided 3-4 slow dialogues by Amir to tell how it was, and then throughout the film flashbacks of their romantic moments (which could also be dream sequences).

Dialogues are mostly emotional. Aditya gives film a very dark feel, the conversations happen at very slow pace just to signify the kind of pain characters are going through. Like the one where Amir goes to police station for 1st time to file a report, and his hesitation to say the word 'rape' and then the name of victim. Or when he goes to Neeta thinking he would talk to her for helping him and police, but he returns back without saying a single word to her. And then, the van scene where Neeta suggests him not to do anything for him, as Amir quietly listens but deep inside he knows he still would do it because he won't be able to live his life without getting his peace of mind back which requires the people who raped her must be killed.

The happy childlike feeling Amir gets when he gets a gun in his hand, and then P.K gives him a good lecture how one bullet ends a person's life within seconds. The look on Amir face when he gets 1st murder done, he just stands there looking at the blood forgetting he needs to run off, and then quickly removes his clothes, crying over the fact that the gun he was loving playing with some time back has just been used by him to end someone's life.

Also, two characters, Sheikh (small child) and Naina (Naina Balsaver) bring some kind of support in the life of Amir, though he never tells them what he is going through, Sheikh is too young to be involved in all this, while Naina herself has her problems she never shared with Amir. Naina-Amir relationship is established through just 3-4 scenes, which is commendable.

P.K - Amir sequences are my favourite from the movie, the first time when Amir shows his anger towards him for not helping him twice in a row, once when rape happened and other time when he asked for help. I love the private conversation both have about each other's life, Amir does share his feelings about Naina with him but when he asks P.K about his marriage, he turns topic and switches light off, something writer didn't want the audience to know about, could well be main reason of P.K's anger against Karmali (Madhukar Toradmal), the raper.

Personally, the scened that I loved the most is when P.K watches Amir combing in mirror wearing a good looking sherwani, a look he never sports before that with P.K or any friends. P.K after looking for a while says to him, 'tum aise hi ache lagte ho, kaise the ?, yaad bhi nahi hoga na', and there Aamir Khan's well known smile appears.

Among performances, Pankaj Kapur was excellent, the way he feels being exploited by Karmali family and his own senior staff person. I loved that person's role too 'you have become very famous now.. kuch karo, nahi toh mujhe kuch karna padega'. In a scene, even Pankaj Kapur is shown like a typical police person would be when Amir is brought to him for charge of attempt to murder. The drunk scene of Pankaj Kapur where he takes out everything (mostly in reference to Neeta rape) he had in him against Karmali was so well executed and enacted by him. Also, the scene where he tries to sleep, gets up to kill boxes with a stick.

The voice of Aamir Khan looks slightly different, as it was among his young days work. Still, to be able to do such film at that age convincingly is applaudable, though I loved his debut Qayamat se Qayamat Tak a lot too but its easy to do a normal romantic movie then a movie like Raakh that demands much more. I like the scene where he looks at his parents concern over him, and decides he should leave home and return only when he is himself again.

Even now I can't figure out Neeta was actually Supriya Pathak, she has two great scenes of her own, one where she tells Amir that he shouldn't had come there and other when she tells him that she has to deal with all this alone.

Jagdeep has a funny cameo performance too, and also the small kid playing Sheikh was very good.


The climax is so well written, on one side they show the victory of Amir who has now got his inner peace back, and at other end they show Neeta getting married.


Raakh is easily one of best films in terms of everything associated with it. Not for the entertainment seeking audience though.


Verdict : MEMORABLE

Shortcut Romeo [Trailer]

The trailer has that insane feel, but will the film also be that mad or not is the point. Neil Nitin Mukesh's 3rd movie in span of few months, though at times his dialogue delivery style reminds me of Sanjeev Kumar (could be one of his favs probably or just I feel that way). I think his acting would get tested most in this movie than David or 3G.

Amisha Patel looks in a better role unlike Race2, might work for her if film is good. Puja Gupta looks sexy. Liked the background song 'aiyaashi, shaitaani..'

Main marte dum tak na.. ameer rehna chahta hoon.

Commando [Trailer]

Action in this trailer looks simply awesome.. if you don't believe then check 2:29 part. Dubbing spoils the trailer, I hope the dialogues look effective with film. Though, Pooja Chopra part didn't look impressive to me. Vidyut (made debut in Force) and Jaideep Ahlawat (Gow fame) would be the ones to watch out for.

Only problem I have is, why they had to keep eyes of villian like that.. always feel we can have normal villians without tampering with physical things (like eyes, hands often done in hindi films).

Kabhi aadmi leke nikalta hai, kabhi kutte leke.. akele nikla kar, mard hone ka ehsaas ho jayega. 

Himmatwala [Trailer]

I haven't seen the old film whose remake this one is. The trailer has complete feel of a 80's movie which means Sajid has re-created quite well. But two questions, one - Will it appeal to watch that kind of masala movie, villians, heavy dialogues in 2013 ?,  and two - When we are trying to move ahead through pathbreaking movies, won't movies like Himmatwala take us one step backwards again ?

Personally, I loved Tamannah the most in the trailer, she looks so beautiful in the 'Ta thaiya' track. Again, I can't compare old song visuals as I haven't seen that either. Ajay's scenes looked similar to Singham, and the tiger scene didn't help at all. Paresh Rawal + Mahesh Manjerekar duo would be great to watch, always liked this cliche jodi in our industry where the assistant (if its right word) to villian keeps saying funny liners.

Sajid dissappointed me in Housefull2, still hopes alive as this might be a good entertainer. The action no doubt will be over the top, quite visible from trailer itself. If you have a liking for entertainment kind of cinema, this one should be in your 'to watch' list.

Also, 1983 dialogue in trailer.. might be few more spoofs scenes in the movie.

Arre 1983 hai yaar, pallu phaado aur baandho... 

Movie Analysis : Race2

Directed by : Abbas Mastaan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375789/

Badla jitna puraana hota hai, utna hi khatarnaak hota hai ... 

I had very much liked Race, plus the trailer was very appealing to me (except for that poor car vfx shot). But, Race2 turned out to be very dissappointing.

Ranveer (Saif Ali Khan) helps Armaan (John Abrahim) get hold of 5 casinos. But Ranveer has more future plans to help Armaan get more money, only question is why Ranveer wants to help Armaan who is no one for him. There lies the rest plot.

Just like Race, this sequel is also full of twists and turns.. but except for two I could predict the rest of them easily perhaps they could had surprised a bit at places knowing we have seen same twists in previous part of film. The interval twist for me was the best of all, specially the way its directed which makes it hard to believe what exactly is happening. Also, the pre-climax Deepika scene though I think most people would have got this one right.

There's kind of belief in some film-makers that sequels means you need to introduce characters as stylishly as you can because they are now involved in a franchise. That's one reason why the 1st part of franchise is always the best (munnabhai could be one exception). Everyone from Saif, John, Anil, Deepika, Jacqueline get a typical hindi movie entry scene, with Anil becoming the narrator (I think he was narrator in Race too). This could had been forgiven if the rivalry between John-Saif was kept interesting much like Saif-Akshay was. But, that is not to be, there are small shades of such scenes but in total its just Saif who controls the entire movie.

Most dialogues are rubbish, the best punchlines you have already heard in the trailer. The climax is stupid, and so badly let down specially after having seen that great car race scene in earlier part. And yes, there's a dialogue in climax that confirms Race3 is on.

They didn't even improve on their mistakes, the songs are again forced into the narrative. Though, Allah Duhaayi Hai was good to see only because I love the song, the choreography is plain bad. That Saif and John slow running shot looked laughable. And what's with that strange look Jacqueline got in the song ? She looked very sexy in 'Latt Lag Gayee', thankfully.

Saif Ali Khan gives a good performance but won't say he was in top form. John is restricted due to badly written role, still he gets few scenes to shine through. Deepika should had refused the film, felt she was over-exposing which is exceptable for Amisha Patel who played a dumb assistant not as convincingly as Sameera Reddy did. Anil Kapoor jokes gave laugh here and there only. I liked Jacqueline, wish her character was given more scope.

The Aditya Pancholi angle was completely not required, but probably they wanted to get shirtless John scenes in with that fight.


Overall, Race2 is a big let-down for me thanks to writing team. If you didn't like Race then most likely Race2 would be a big yawn.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Inkaar

Directed by : Sudhir Mishra
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094854/

Tum aur mere jaise log jo zindagi se pyar ke alaava aur bhi bahut kuch chahte hain, kya hamare beech kuch mumkin hai. 

The post will be full of spoilers, read at your own risk.

Maya Luthra (Chitrangada Singh) files a case against her boss Rahul Verma (Arjun Rampal) for sexual harrassment. They both work for a ad agency, with Rahul the creative CEO of the company.  A committee is set up by the agency with Mrs Kamdar (Deepti Naval) appointed to hear both sides of the stories.

Sudhir Mishra tries to confuse you with the narration kept non-linear, using small flashbacks to long flashbacks. The settings very much reminds of 'The Social Network', with major people of agency along with Maya, Rahul and Mrs Kamdar talking about the case set up inside the room of a agency, at a large table. Rahul and Maya tell their stories privately to the committee, and the committee gives their inputs to Mrs Kamdar too. And a point comes when Kamdar suggests both Maya and Rahul to be present at same time. My question is, why not do this straightaway from the 1st scene. Instead Sudhir uses cliches, stretches the screenplay with lots of unwanted extreme close up shots of Chitrangada or the committee sitting there (for reasons only he knows) and repeated shake of head by both Maya/Rahul showing their broken trust with dialogues 'aisa kaha usne'.

The 3 black and white sequences between Rahul and his father, which are kept to give some details about the path chosen by Rahul.. didn't quite serve its purpose as I think it was intentioned.

Even if all these flaws are kept aside, the main turning point of movie is when Rahul admits his love towards Maya. It comes at a stage when you are looking to see who was culprit. Sudhir's motive of movie is told easily through the dialogue of Chitrangada in that same scene 'Tum aur mere jaise log jo zindagi se pyar ke alaava aur bhi bahut kuch chahte hain, kya hamare beech kuch mumkin hai'. Problem lies in the fact that Rahul until that point never tries to show his love, yes few flashbacks were kept in that way but most of the time its Maya who is shown to be fully in love with Rahul. So, Rahul's confession doesn't bring any good reaction from my side.. it appears more of comical the way that scene comes up.

The Saharanpur frame with Maya's same dialogue was a good choice of ending the film. Sudhir establishes the agency workup very well, the way people are at these places, the work and the kind of closeness that happens between people, and the greedy nature to step up ladders, referring to the scene where Maya thanks a particular boss at award cermony and a guy in audience says 'masterstroke'.

Except for those extreme close up scenes, the editing was good, specially liked the way they put up the opening sequence leading to the frame sexual harassement 'directed by sudhir mishra', that was one of my favourite part of movie. Also, the scene where Rahul points out 'yeh wala part toh inhone kaat hi diya apni kahani se'.

I love the use of 'Zindagi ka karobaar' song, specially with the starting sequence. Rest songs are mostly used in background, while 'Kuch bhi ho sakta hai' gets spoiled with that frame of all staff people walking in a line, don't know why Mishra tried to film them this way. Also, there's continuity error in that scene as Mohan Kapoor suddenly is clean shaved, when a minute ago he wasn't during the conversation with Maya.

Arjun Rampal gave a fabulous performance, the way he narrates his part of the story to Mrs Kamdar, how he grooms Maya from nobody to a successful person, the care he shows when he says to Maya 'accept mat karo offer', and the anger he has when Maya doesn't tell about a particular thing to him. I think the role was purfectly made for him.

Chitrangada always has been a very good actress for me (some of filmfare people would disagree), though this time I felt at places she was over-doing her part, specially the portion where she tells her story to Kamdar, looked less convincing to me. She was pretty good though in all the flashback sequences. My fav being the one where she goes to Rahul's room in hotel or the one where she suggests what Maa should say for a particular ad.

Deepti Naval is efficient. Vipin Sharma brings laughs during investigation, with his funny interruptions.  The rest supporting cast did fair job.


In the end, Inkaar is neither a sexual harrassement based movie, nor a love story which it was intended to be. It ends up somewhere in between both, but you get to see the ad agency workplace a lot through this movie. Arjun Rampal's performance for me was the highlight of the movie.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Broken City [Views]

Directed by : Allen Hughes
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235522/

Did you ever think why I chose you ... because I own you.

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a cop is accused of charges and tried in court but Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe) saves him only to inform him later that he has to lose his uniform. Few years goesby, and Mayor asks Billy who has become a private detective now, to come to New York and spy his wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who Mayor thinks is cheating on him. Billy helps Mayor only to find out later that he had been set up by Mayor, but why exactly is what he needs to find out before the cops reach him.

When script and screenplay are too weak, its tough to engage the audience into the movie. The plot was too predictable, and therefore it was left to performances or any sub-plots that could appeal to me. The sub-plot of Billy and his co-worker in detective cases Katy (Alona Tal) was the one that worked for me, humourous most of the times and very helpful plus caring towards each other.

Billy and his wife plot was the worst written part in the movie, infact I would had preferred it to  be totally chopped off.. and possibly add more scenes between Billy and Mayor. The two scenes they have together, one where Mayor offers him the work with a advance amount that Billy desperately wanted after getting less money from his detective cases work, and the other one where Billy thinks he is winning against Mayor only to find Mayor's plan that outdoes him.. the former scene sets up the tone of the movie (though takes too much time), while the latter scene tries to be dramatic in leading to climax but fails miserably.

I love the montage where Billy and Katy work out the pending money from clients whose cases have been solved. Also, the scene where Russell and Jack (Barry Pepper) are in a debate and try to outsmart each other.

Russell Crowe gets few scenes to shine, but he is let down by a weak script.. love the scene where he welcomes Billy back, he improvises a lot during that entire scene. Wahlberg is good. Katy is superb in supporting role. While Catherine Zeta looks gorgeous in almost a nothing role. Among the rest cast, Barry Pepper and Micheal Beach did decent work.

In the end, Broken City is a below average movie, with hardly anything to boast of.

Shootout At Wadala [Trailer]

Good trailer, though not hard hitting at all as I thought it would be after having seen the pre-trailer reports on twitter. John Abraham would either get lots of praise or lots of criticism.. I have always liked him in roles other than comedy, and he's looking quite much like Manya Surve, except for those loud screams.

Sonu Sood atleast from the trailer appears to be miscast in Dawood Ibrahim role. Manoj Bajpayee for a change, didnt look effective at all.. probably will have supporting role only. Anil Kapoor and Ronit Roy as cops worries me, as the title of film suggest.. there must be a cop vs gangster shootout in the end, so maybe it won't look that cinematic. Dialogues look okay, and the background score reminded of Inception (Specially start). Also, Tusshar Kapoor though impressive in Shootout At Lokhandwala, his only dialogue scene in this trailer looked very dull.

Mika's song didn't go well with trailer either. I liked the starting dialogue of John in the trailer...

Sanjay Gupta's movies have good action, so looking forward to watch this movie, plus John in this role. Though have a feeling it won't live upto expectations.

Mujh mein hi khujlee thi, itihaas badalne ki .... 

Movie Analysis : Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

Directed by : Vishal Bharadwaj
Imdb link-> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106537/

Tu rokega nahi, toh main chalayunga kaise, 
Tu chalayega nahi, toh main rokunga kaise..

Nice entertaining political drama movie made by Vishal Bharadwaj, though I couldn't love it as much as I did 7 Khoon Maaf or Kaminey. The reason for that being unaware of what some dialogues meant, as political films aint my genre. Some dialogues went over my head but I knew they were aimed at something, probably a dig at real person or situation in some part of India.

Set in Haryanvi background, the film revolves around 3 characters Matru (Imran Khan), Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) and Mandola (Pankaj Kapur). A village that is ruled by Mandola with his police, and he wants to build factories malls taking up lands of villagers, giving them compensations in return..

As always Vishal Bharadwaj keeps the setting very dark and develops some unusual situations to bring humour. Like the gulaabi bhains that Mandola sees when he tries to skip drinking, Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Azmi) tellins her son Baadal (Aarya Babbar) why he is getting married to Bijli, Mandola watching people drink in party with noise of alochol bottles opening and being poured into glasses increasing his agony, Bijlee shouting 'Baaaaadal tum kahan ho' and flying around house like a aeroplane, Baadal's mission 'Mao' with khatre ka signal 'Mao Mao',  Mandola trying to control his hands when a large bunch of bottles are kept at the stairs of his house, and when Mandola offers left bottle to Matru saying, 'tu left wali le, tu toh mao se'. (Please tell me what this actually meant)

The writing and direction is very good. Dialogues are too good. Climax may have been executed slightly different, felt Vishal tried to make everything back to fine too easily. Also, Matru-Bijlee part wasn't convincing enough.

Where the film fails is the characters of Matru and Bijlee, especially Matru who is weakly presented by Imran Khan. He got just one great moment to shine through in the movie, where he and Bijli make up a story behind the doors fooling around. And the imitation of African dance he does in one shot. Imran's haryanvi accent wasn't smooth either, while his acting was decent but when you have Pankaj Kapur with you, just decent aint enough.

Anushka Sharma continues to over-act, didn't like her in JTHJ and the same goes here. She seems to have some love towards joyous and super fun characters, but its become monotonous to me. Even in the best scene, where she is drunk.. she just fails to make me like her. I just end up loving the writing instead in that scene. I so wish, there was some other actress in the role, would have increased my liking towards the movie. Special Mention to her costumes in 'Oye boy charlie' song, loved it.

Pankaj Kapur is the soul of the movie, he carries off the morcha against himself and then discovers his real side to himself and us that he has two people residing in himself, one before drinking, other after. One of rare occasions, when a drunk person does the right things, which he does as Mandola in the movie. I love the scene where he visualizes the dreams he has with Chaudhari Devi. His drunk scenes in some parts are tough to decipher specially because its total haryanvi he speaks. How much scared he looks when he meets gulaabi bhains in that climax scene, and that kid like face he makes when Bijli enters his room giving him bottle of alcohol to continue his drinking which he won't stop. But the most funny scene of the film is the bike ride 'tu chala main piyunga, tu rokega nahi toh main chalayunga kaise.. nahi tu chalayega nahi toh main piyunga kaise', followed by well sequence 'tu gaali de rahi haii, bheincho, bheincho..'. Somehow that 'well' scene to me resembled Om Puri drunk sequence talking to dead Satish shah in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.

Shabana Azmi looks so develish in both sequences with her son Baadal, one explaining why he getting married, other telling him who spoiled their Mao mission. Also, her flirtations with Mandola during the political land agenda meetings with cops and villagers around table, to keep Mandola's focus away.

Aarya Babbar was surprise package of movie, very much liked his performance. The actors playing cops were good too, though didn't like the way their first scene is written.

Music by Vishal Bharadwaj is good and complements the narration very well, my most favourite being 'Chori' and 'Chaar Dina ka'. Both chori chori and Lootne wale songs are filmed like a theatre based acts. I usually don't like slow romantic songs of Vishal Bharadwaj, but Khamakha was quite nice. Sukhwinder's rendition in the title track is amazing, love its choreography, and the 'chatak chatak dil chatak chatak' part. Oye boy charlie clicks to me in the final stanza only..


Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola won't be among my favourite Vishal Bharadwaj movies, but its still a decent watch, and Pankaj Kapur only makes it special with every scene in the movie. This actor carries the movie on his shoulders along with Shabana and Aarya as good support.


Verdict : NICE 

The Attacks of 26/11 [Trailer]

The trailer went very good, and looked hard-hitting until the stupid background song started.. and the question Why o Ram Gopal Verma why. Also, so many extreme close ups.. that final Nana Patekar dialogue would have looked so good with mid close up shot.

The film would be good if the story does the talking, and not the routine background/camera that has become a trademark in every RGV film. Its one of awaited movies for me, and I hope RGV doesn't spoil it for me. Nana Patekar and the actor playing Kasab (I think his name is Sanjeev Jaiswal).. two characters I am keen to see.

Agar mere haath kanoon se bandhe nahi hote, toh inho haatho se main unhe cheer deta.... 

Most Awaited Films of 2013

Here's a look at my top awaited movies this year ..

P.S : The release dates are subject to change. 

Inkaar (January 18)
directed by Sudhir Mishra, starring Arjun Rampal and Chitrangada Singh

Based on sexual harassment, though that instantly reminds of Aitraaz but here its most likely the plot would focus much more on the issue. Trailer and 1st look have been good, plus Sudhir films in the past have clicked for me so have pretty high expectations.


AkaashVani (January 25)
directed by Luv Ranjan, starring Kartik Tiwari, Nushrat Bharucha

His previous film 'Pyar ka Punchnama' worked only for the three male friends bonding part to me, this time the responsibility is much more on Nushrat and Kartik alone. The trailers have been crazy, mad, romantic and very emotional. Their chemistry looking really good, and I have a feeling this film would click to me. Music also is quite good, Tera mera naam, Crazy lover and Rumaani to name a few. Only the ending worries me, whether Luv Ranjan tackles it properly and not hurries it up as most likely it may be a happy end going by the tagline 'Love gets a second chance'.


Race2 (January 25)
directed by Abbas-Mastaan, starring Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Amisha Patel 

This film in my list may surprise a few but I liked Race very much, so keenly waiting to see this new part in the series. Allah Duhaayi Hai (new version) is awesome, but the rest songs dissappoint. Saif-John rivalry in the movie (will it be as good as Saif-Akshay one) and Deepika in a possible grey role would be something to watch for.


David (Febuary 1)
directed by Bejoy Nambiar, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Chiyaan Vikram, Vinay Virmani, Isha Shervani, Monica Dogra, Tabu

The plot excites me, One name, three people and different era's. If the screenplay is good enough, this movie should be real good. Plus, I love stylish movies and Bejoy impressed me a lot in Shaitan with the way he filmed mad sequences. The theme is kickass, and the music is again creative plus worth listening to non stop. I am specially looking to see Chiyaan-Isha-Tabu part the most. And also one of my crush, Monica Dogra.. how good she looks even in that single shot of the trailer and I madly loved the trailer...


Special Chabbis (Febuary 8) 
directed by Neeraj Pandey, starring Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpaayee, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Kajal Aggarwal

A Wednesday was one of my favourite movies in 2008, and after a gap of 4.5 years finally Neeraj Pandey's next movie comes up. Though this time from the trailer it appears to be less serious and more comical unless the ending surprises again. The only shot that I didn't like in the trailer was the routine Akshay dancing with the actress. It would be great to see Manoj trying to catch Akshay who most of the times would be one step ahead. Asli power dil mein hoti hai..


Kai Po Che (Febuary 22)
directed by Abhishek Kapoor, starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh, Raj Kumar Yadav, Amrita Puri

Another director whose last film came way back in 2008 (i.e Rock On), Abhishek Kapoor with his new offering based on '3 Mistakes of Life' novel by Chetan Bhagat. The question is, will it go '3Idiots' way or 'Hello' ? When I read the novel, it always gave the feel of like I am reading story of a film specially the thrilling end. I hope the end isn't altered way too much. The choice of Raj Kumar Yadav in  Govind role is perfect, while Sushant Singh Rajput impressed a hell lot in the trailer who plays Ishan (the one who turns bad after chain of events). Amit Trivedi's music and background score could also give the screenplay an added edge.


The Attacks of 26/11 (March 1)
directed by Ram Gopal Verma, starring Nana Patekar, Sanjeev Jaiswal

It was good promotional strategy to release the first 7 minutes of the film instead of teaser/trailer as first look of the movie, and that boat sequence was very well done. The film based on 26/11 incident if well executed by Rgv is likely to bring him lots of praise, but it can be vice-versa too. I think he does well when it comes to hard-hitting movies, for instance Rann was a very good take on the state of media. How he captures the sad incident, and what kind of treatment he gives to Kasab character... will he show little or too much of emotions in his favour ? I hope not. Nana Patekar performance would also be something to look for. Going by Amitabh bachchan's tweets the film is very good (but then he is good friend of Rgv, so can't trust fully).


Jolly LLB (March 15) 
directed by Subhash Kapoor, starring Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Amrita Rao, Saurabh Shukla

Phas Gaye re Obama fame director's next movie, the trailer was superb with Arshad Warsi comic timing on the spot. With good starcast, and a director who gave very good last movie.. the expectations are high. The movie is about a struggling lawyer trying to become successful. Like his previous movie, this one also appears to be mix of drama and humour at same time. Plus, courtroom based movies always interests me a lot.


3G (March 15)
directed  by Sheershak & Shantanu, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonal Chauhan

A supernatural thriller by first time directors, with Sonal Chauhan making a comeback into main lead role since Jannat. The trailer gives resemblances to Karthik calling Karthik (if the dual role goes that way) and 13B (if the spirit revenge is similar). This could be Neil Nitin Mukesh film to impress critics, ever since Johnny Gaddar he has got less powerful roles though I have liked his performances consistently. By looks of trailer, he may have done very good work in this movie. Music is by Mithoon, another reason the film becomes important.. even his song in trailer is addictive.


Ek Thi Daayan (April 18)
directed by Kannan Iyer, starring Emraan Hashmi, Konkana Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin, Huma Qureshi

Its trailer was interesting, very dark feel though I didn't love it that much as many did. But, its story about a successful musician who gets hallucinations about a daayan haunting him, the one who killed his parents when he was a child and he thinks its the same daayan who is back to destroy him.. This plot appealed to me. I won't be surprised if Konkana or Huma turns out to be that Daayan, most likely it wont be Kalki unless the writers went a step ahead having all 3 as daayans (you never know). Would be great to see Konkana back into a film after quite a gap. Huma within a year has become one of my favourites, and in that single shot of trailer her expressions look is too good. Vishal Bharadwaj has written dialogues and done music, with Gulzar as lyricist so that raises the expectations bar.


Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (May 31) 
directed by Ayan Mukerji, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapur, Kalki Koechlin

After doing different roles one after another, Ranbir will finally be seen in a regular commercial hindi movie. But with Ayan Mukerji director (wake up sid fame), I expect it to still be different from other films. Ranbir-Deepika were last seen in Bachna ae Haseeno, so after a long gap they coming together.. most likely this film would generate lots of curiosity once the 1st look and trailer comes out. Kalki and Aditya play the supporting roles. Pritam as music composer has to be very good, I feel these movies require great music. Can't wait to listen the title track, how well they re-make it.


Ghanchakkar (June 21)
directed by Rajkumar Gupta, starring Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan

The talented Rajkumar Gupta who made No one killed Jessica is now back with a comedy thriller. Emraan plays a con-man good at safe cracking, with Vidya playing his wife. He's set on one last final heist that would give lots of money, but has some plans unknown to the people  involved with him that would lead to chaos and confusions. I liked their pair in 'The Dirty Picture' even if I didn't like that movie. Plus Vidya worked with Gupta previously, and he very well portrayed the suffering her character went through. Loved both his previous movies, so keenly awaiting this film.


Lootera (July 5)
directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, starring Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha

His 2nd film after the much praised 'Udaan'. Ranveer plays a character who is fond of the style of Dev Anand. The film is set in 50's backdrop, with Ranveer and Sonakshi falling in love under strange circumstances. Its going to be first film for Ranveer Singh outside the Yashraj banner. It was expected to release last year, hope there are no further delays now.


Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (July 12) 
directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, starring Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor

The theme of the film is 'Zindagi se bhaago nahi, zindagi ke saath bhaago', based on the legendary athelete Milkha Singh. Its first teaser was pretty good, with Shankar Ehsan Loy doing well in the background and the song 'zinda hai toh'. Though, I still feel AR Rahman would had given more into this kind of movie (SEL may prove me wrong when film comes out). Looking forward to watch Farhan in what could be a very important film to him as a actor (yet to have a solo hit). Sonam expectedly would be weak link in the movie..


Once upon a time in Mumbaai 2 (August 8) 
directed by Milan Luthria, starring Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Imran Khan, Sonali Bendre

The story moves forward from the 1st part, so its on Shoaib and how he expands his power on Mumbai after killing Sultan. Its set in 80's showing the rise of the evil prince to turn the king of the Underworld. Akshay Kumar replaces Emraan as Shoaib in this part, and I think he would perfectly suit the character (not taking anything away from Emraan who was brilliant in the 1st part). Sonakshi Sinha would be right choice only if her character has same shades as that one of Mumtaz because she can look the innocent girl who can be fooled easily. Imran Khan could possibily be playing one of key person working for Shoaib, as I don't see him into a main role. The movie surely be stylish and with some great punchlines, and its next to my birthday so hope its good one.


Phata Poster Nikla Hero (August 23)
directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, starring Shahid Kapur, Ileana DCruz

I liked his last comedy 'Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani', though it was nowhere close to his classic Andaz Apna Apna (can't even make a film as good as that again). This one too is on same lines, comedy with lots of masala, typical hindi commercial movie. Shahid Kapur ever since Kaminey has been completely off-track, plus his movies aren't doing great at boxoffice either so its important that this film clicks for him. Ileana DCruz after a superb performance in Barfi as supporting actress, would get the main lead role for first time in Hindi industry, interesting to see if she lives upto the standard she has built with her 1st film or she fades like Asin.


Bullet Raja (September 6) 
directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, starring Saif Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Irrfan Khan, Sonakshi Sinha

He got plenty of praise for Paan Singh Tomar, I liked his work in Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster too. His new film is based on crime in Uttar Pradesh with touch of humour, with the first look of both leading actors looking quite good, this film could well surprise at boxoffice.


Besharam (October 2)
directed by Abhinav Kashyap, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Pallavi Sharda, Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor

After Dabangg, Abhinav's next film is a crime-drama about a con-man from Delhi i.e Ranbir who tries to escape the law with two Haryanvi cops, Rishi and Neetu, after him. Neetu would be more aggressive out of the couple in this movie, should be fun watching them both in this new avatar. Also, another new role that Ranbir gonna try with this movie, the first look is pretty good and the tagline 'Na Sammaan ka moh, na apmaan ka bhay'. Pallavi Sharda gets the lead role who was one of the supporting actress in Dia Mirza's home production Love BreakUps Zindagi.


Krrish3 (November)
directed by Rakesh Roshan, starring Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Vivek Oberoi, Kangana Ranaut

The father-son duo returns this Diwali, the much talked about 3rd part in the superhero series after Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. The story would continue forward which means there should be dual role of Hrithik, plus the villian shoes taken up by Vivek Oberoi who offlate had been doing nonsense films, if this role is well written and he enacts it rightly then could be the film after 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' that would give him lots of applause. For me, Krrish was decent film with 1st half full of forced humour, so this time around hoping they have more of action and special effects.


Dhoom3 (December)
directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, starring Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Katrina Kaif

Aamir in a yashraj movie, and playing the villian role in the next part of Dhoom series, was surprising to everyone including Aamir fans. He's choosy about right scripts, so that either means that this movie has something special that attracted him or it means he is desperate for another masala movie, as his last such film was Fanaa. Whatever be the reasons, for a film lover it would be a sight watching him play a villain role after quite a while (or grey role as it would be most likely). Also, Katrina-Aamir pair is something I am keenly waiting for, she lived upto my expectations against Salman as well as Shahrukh, so this is the final hurdle for her. For me, once again Uday Chopra would be the weak link.. he was tolerable in Dhoom, but in Dhoom2 he was bit irritating to me. Vijay Krishna Acharya dissappointed me in Tashan big time, but those video game style action sequences were very nicely directed. This time around he has to weave a better screenplay, and not just some good action sequences to impress about.


Ugly (after May)
directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Rahul Bhatt, Surveen Chawla, Vineet Kumar Singh

Anurag Kashyap movie is always bound to be there in my awaited films list every year. Its a edge of the seat thriller with a emotional angle. In a interview he said that 'the film is about that point in one's life where a character looks back (at his life) and realises that none of his dreams are fulfilled. Then something happens which makes him realise that he and the morality is so fragile'. Though there are no big stars in the movie, Ronit Roy and Tejaswini are actors I have liked in the past. Tejaswini was superb in Paanch (unreleased debut movie of Anurag).



Some of the other movies that I may like this year are : 

• Murder3 (directed by Vishesh Bhatt, starring Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sara Loren)
• Aatma (directed by Suparn Verma, starring Bipasha Basu, Nawazuddin Siddiqui)
• I, Me Aur Main (directed by Kapil Sharma, starring John Abraham, Chitrangada, Prachi)
• Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga (directed  by Anshul Sharma, starring Sanjay Mishra, Zakir Hussain)
• Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, starring Randeep, Jimmy, Irrfan, Mahie, Soha)


• Himmatwala (directed by Sajid Khan, starring Ajay Devgan, Tamannaah Bhatia)
• Chasme Baddoor (directed  by David Dhawan, starring Ali Zafar, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma, Tapsee)
• Nautanki Saala (directed by Rohan Sippy, starring Ayushmann Khurana, Kunal Roy Kapur)
• Aashiqui 2 (directed by Mohit Suri, starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor)
• Zanjeer (directed by Apoorva Lakhia, starring Ram Charan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Prakash Raj)


• Aurangzeb (directed by Atul Sabharwal, starring Arjun Kapoor)
• Boss (directed by Anthony D'Souza, starring Akshay Kumar, Aditi Rao Hydari
• Ramaiya Vastavaiya (directed by Prabhu Deva, starring Girish Taurani, Shruti Hassan)
• Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (directed by Sangeeth Sivan, starring Bobby, Dharmendra, Sunny, Neha S)
• Fukrey (directed by Mrigdeep Singh Lamba, starring Pulkit Samrat, Richa Chadda, Manjot Singh)


• Raanjhnaa (directed by Aanand L Rai, starring Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor)
• D-Day (directed by Nikhil Advani, starring Irrfan, Arjun, Huma, Ronit, Chandan, Shruti, Rishi)
• Kaanchi (directed by Subhash Ghai, starring Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty)
• Satyagraha (directed by Prakash Jha, starring Amitabh, Kareena, Ajay, Manoj, Arjun)
• Ungli (directed by Rensil DSilva, starring Emraan, Randeep, Sanjay, Kangana, Neha D)


• Ram Leela (directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starring Ranveer, Deepika, Richa Chadda)
• Sher Khan (directed by Sohail Khan, starring Salman Khan)
• Rambo Rajkumar (directed by Prabhu Deva, starring Shahid Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha)
• Chennai Express (directed by Rohit Shetty, starring Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone)
• Kick (directed by Sajid Nadiadwala, starring Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha)


• Shoot Out At Wadala (directed by Sanjay Gupta, starring Anil, John, Sanjay Dutt)
• Gunday (directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, starring Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra)
• Shahid (directed by Hansal Mehta, starring Raj Kumar Yadav)

P.K, Happy New Year, Dedh Ishqiya, 2 States, Ghayal Returns, Kill Dil are some films that I am not sure if they would release this year or not, else they are on my list too.


Hollywood : 

The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo, Iron Man3 starring Robert Downey Jr and The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp are the films that I am waiting. Rest films I am gonna explore, as not much knowledge of directors and actors in english films.

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga [2nd Trailer]

Sanjay Mishra and Zakir Hussain looking good in a interesting story based on mehngai. How well rest cast enact their roles, and how drama is mixed with humour would determine the quality of the movie... Some dialogues in trailer didn't make me laugh as they intended to..

Delhi nahi gaye ?
 Gaya hoon.. 
Jail gaye ho ?

Gangster Squad [Views]

Directed by : Ruben Fleischer
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321870/

These cops they trying to steal what's mine.. Los Angeles belongs to me.

The story is set in 1949 when  a gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) who runs the city Los Angeles has plans of expanding his control over the city. A cop John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is handed a secret mission of destroying Cohen's plans and take him out of the city. John forms a squad of varied skillfull people and names it 'Gangster Squad'.

The screenplay of this movie follows the numerous past gangster films with a voiceover of a character narrating the story at various parts of the movie. The way squad struggles and then starts getting the job done is very well done. But, what makes the film not work for me is there's no building up the characters except for John and Jerry (Ryan Gosling). The editing too should had been tighter and probably more use of slow motions and unusual camera angles as the feel of gangster movie fades a lot of times.

Sean Penn doesn't get scope to outperform as the main person the gangster squad is against, except for that 1st violent sequence he has and then the one where he in anger comes out of his room shooting around. He should have had more action scenes where he wins. John's scenes with his wife also appear not too good, leaving the one where she helps him choose right people for the mission.

Ryan Gosling was the best for me, as he's the one who takes time to join the squad realising John doesn't care about death and he prefers to be alive. He examines everything before moving forward. Love the scene where he survives getting killed by a whisker.

There's good humour that the magazine detective guy brings into the squad, specially the scene where he shows his shooting skills. And, his assistant who follows him everywhere, even joins the squad. The final scene between them was very good one.

Its the weak direction and poor characterization that lets the movie down. Still, Gangster Squad has some very good action sequences to watch it for.

Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story [Trailer]

Poor trailer that reminded me a lot of 'Kismet Love Paisa Dilli', this movie too appears to be full of stupid dialogues and humour that makes me yawn. Only Music and Neha Sharma reasons for me to watch this film. Vivek Oberoi is spoiling his career doing these kind of films. Though it maybe early to predict the quality of the movie, at the moment I have no expectations at all.

Jab bhi hero ka sab kuch settle ho jaata hai na, tabhiich saala villian log entry maarta hai.. 

Zila Ghaziabad [Trailer]

One of very badly cut trailers I have seen in recent past. Some scenes are repeated so many times uselessly (with different shots). Plus, the action looks completely over the top specially 2:28 onwards. Only Arshad Warsi I think would be worth watching this film for, he's looking in supreme form as a baddie.

Surrender kar le, zinda rahega
Tabaadla kara lo, zinda rahoge.. 

Ek Thi Daayan [Trailer]

Vishal Bharadwaj and Balaji co-producing together for 1st time, and directed by Kannan Iyer. When I read the plot of the movie that its based on a famous magician played by Emraan Hashmi whose parents were killed by Daayan and the Daayan intends to return back to haunt him, whether its just his hallucinations that needs psychiatric help or it is really the Daayan. This story got me interested straightaway.

The trailer is decent, some very good shots like the one that introduces Emraan with his magic trick, or the description Emraan gives about Daayan through his narration. And the 'chotti' scene, I think it was probably Konkana. Huma Quereshi has just one scene in trailer, and how effective she looks in it alone. Also, great to see Konkana Sen back, one of my fav actress which further increases my curiosity towards this movie. The Kalki horror scene (which I am assuming is a dream sequence) kind of spoiled trailer for me, I don't like such shots. Also, the lines or mantra Daayan recites was just not understandable.

Emraan Hashmi was quite the usual, seen him in such roles many times. Hope this feeling doesn't come while watching the movie.

What interested me the most in the trailer was the dark feel it had, the camera angles taken (specially that 1st shot) and the background score. How good the genre is handled by the director is left to be seen now and how good the script is as mostly horror films have something stupid in it.

Music is by Vishal Bharadwaj and lyrics Gulzar.. so expecting some great stuff in that department too.

One good thing about the trailer though was, it doesn't reveal much, as a result keeps me curious for more.

Pracheen vidhvaano ka kehna tha ki, Daayan ki saari shakti uski chotti mein hi bandh rehti hai ... 

Jolly LLB [Trailer]

Mere toh L lag gaye .. those who understand this line, would most likely have got interested in the trailer very much right from the start like me. Arshad Warsi looks in super form with his comic timing. The court scenes arguements between him and Boman Irani would be fun to watch. Amrita Rao even while saying Karne dungi bhi nahi, baap ka maal hai, looks too sweet. Plus a very good supporting cast of Saurabh Shukla, Manoj Pahwa, Mohan Kapoor.

Except for that hammer shot of Saurabh Shukla at the last (thora jyada ho gaya yeh), loved the trailer very much.

Its directed by Subhash Kapoor whose last film was Phas Gaye re Obama, so expectations increases much more. If Jolly LLB has good drama along with comedy (which appears to be good from trailer), then it could be another great movie by Subhash.

Kayi baar yeh dialogue suna hai, kanoon ke haath lambe hote hain ... Ghanta Lambe Hote Hain.

Recap 2012 : Top 100 Songs

Unlike last time around (Mohit in 2011), no male singer dominated the year. While in females, Sneha Khanwalkar got my attention thanks to those two awesome songs 'Kaala Rey' and 'What to do'. Apart from singing, she had quite a some year as composer too, with plenty of experiments in tunes or singers for Gangs of Wasseypur albums.

Talking of experimentation, Amit Trivedi also did pretty well with 4 albums in the year and each having atleast one song that had Amit trademark written all over it. Aafaton ke Parinde, What to do, Manhattan and Kikli Kalerdi were my picks from them.

Vishal Dadlani also did very well, both as composer and singer. Shanghai and Kahaani had great music, with Aamit Shotti Bolchi, Dua and Khudaaya best picks.

Kay Kay got 2 songs 'Jannatein Kahan' and 'Padd Gaye Ji', both awesomely sung kept the singer I love feeling alive though he has faded over the years.

Sonu Nigam gave me just one song to remember which ironically I saw very few people praise out, 'Jab se mere dil ko uff'.

Special Mention to 12 yr old Durga who sang one of year's famous song 'Chi cha ledar'. Shalmali Kholgade was another great find in female singers, with her song 'Pareshaan' in Ishaqzaade.

And then there was Rabbi who sang 'Challa' brilliantly..

TOP 25 SONGS : 

1. Kaala rey - gangs of wasseypur II

Sneha Khanwalkar's composition and vocals, very darkish feel in the lyrics and also the tone of the entire song. It was this song that made me feel Sneha is female Rahman, specially if you notice the starting and ending of the song.. it is bound to give goosebumps. The lyrics has everything being termed black, just to add to the theme. Love how the vocals pitch change during 'Kaali garmi, suraj kaala, kaala, kaala, kaala'. The song has a haunting effect and it remains stuck into head for very long. No song came even closer to beat Kaala rey, easy winner for song of the year. 

2. Challa - jab tak hai jaan

Rabbi + Gulzar + Rahman. The song had more of Rabbi and Gulzar feel, and it was very strong enough to become no.2 song of year. Challa refers to a mad lover who is in search of love. I like the way its picturised in the movie too, all versions. I haven't liked any of Rabbi's song in past, quite a surprise for myself to be able to love the song to such extent. Rabbi brought that punjabi flavour and yet very romantic feeling in this song very well. 'Challe tu sabda, challe tera koi nahi' and 'Ishq de kaidi ki, na rihaayi hoyi', were best lines from the song.

3. Dua - shanghai 

Nandini, Arijit and Shekhar's vocals in this song. Very emotional lyrics, and slow composition highlights it much more. 'yehi  baar baar sochta hoon tanha main yahaan, mere saath saath chal raha hai yaadon ka dua', my fav lines. Only complaint from this song is why no 2nd antara. In a way, this song refers to broken faith and lost hope.

4. Paani da rang - vicky donor

Whenever I think of my liking towards this song, I will always think of that time when the song came on net and I commented on twitter that its a decent song. If you don't like the song, and haven't seen film then you should watch it, most likely the song will click.. thats how some songs work for some people. Ayushmann Khurana has sung it very well, another punjabi romantic song in Top5. Though its ayushmann song completely, the use of background female vocals at places is well done.. 'Tere utte marda, pyar tenu karda.. milega tujhe na koi aur.. tu bhi aa sabko chorh ke', my fav lines..

5. Aafaton ke parinde - ishaqzaade

Suraj Jagan voice so well suits this genre of song. The song is a take on the kind of lovers used to be earlier, and kind of lovers you get now. Great use of words like Fasaano mein, Halaalo mein, Haraamo mein. Good composition by Amit Trivedi, great song without going for something completely hatke. 'Sitaaron mein, taaranon mein, jo milte the fasaanon mein'. 

6. O Womaniya - gangs of wasseypur

Sneha's great composition, and lovely rendition by Khushboo Bajaj.  Special mention to the alaap 'ho ooh oh oh oh' and the innovative lyrics by Varun Grover. 'Badle rupaiya ke de na chavanniya, haaye, badle rupaiya ke de na chavanniya'.. 

7. Yeh jism - jism 2

Ali azmat's vocals, and Arko Mukherjee composition.. Comparing it with awarapan banjaarapan would always make it hard to love this song.. I wish the song got used in a better made film instead of this one, such is the luck for some great songs. One of those songs that I was hooked for many days right from the first time I heard it, vocals, composition and lyrics all worked together. 'Fanaa kiya mujhe yeh chahne ki aas ne, daraa, daraa, shikast hi hua'

8. Muskaane jhooti hai - talaash

Suman sridhar's voice has something that attracts me, right from the time I heard her first time singing 'Tonight' in Luv ka the end. I would sum up her voice as a soft and sexy combo. Muskaane has a retro feel, and Suman gives it that special feel. Special mention to the alaap 'aa haa, aa haa..', and the background tune that plays before it. Javed Akhtar's lyrics has the whole film in this single line 'Jo rooh pyaasi hai, jismein udaasi hai.. woh hai ghoomti'...

9. Taar bijli - gangs of wasseypur II

Varun Grover's lyrics take away the limelight easily, and Richa Chadda in the movie made it her own the way she portrayed happiness and sadness as the song went on. Good rendition by Sharda Sinha. 'Sookh ke ho gaye hai chhuaare piya, bechaarey piya, sab haarey piya.. kuch khaatey nahi hai humaare piya'... 

10. Aami shotti bolchi - kahaani

I dont know if Kolkata people felt this, but for me I got another great song based on a city, after the likes of 'Bam bam bambayi, Bombay Bombay, da da dilli, yeh delhi hai mere yaar etc etc'. Usha Uthup and Vishal right choice for this high energy track, and special mention to Namrata Rao who made the song looked even better with her cuts in the movie. I love the part where Vishal joins Usha in the song through 'Aami Shotti Bolchi' lyrics. 'Aisa shaher hai jiska double-role hai, chalta rehta hai phir bhi jaata kahin nahi.. udi baba kuch toh serious gondogol hai'.

11. Chi cha ledar - gangs of wasseypur II

One of those songs which may not have any logic, but the lyrics have a certain madness that you can't stay away from. 12 yr old Durga has given voice to the song, and the choice of making her sing the song also contributed to the madness. I like the use of 'Raadhe bhaiyya' words, since Definite is a salman fan and its filmed on him. The song had a great chase sequence in the movie, very much similar to Black Friday. 'Woh humse poochey, whether I like the weather'...

12. What to do - aiyyaa

Amit Trivedi's experiment worked the best in this song for me. Sneha Khanwalkar again the singer, with Amitabh Bhattacharya male singer. Special mention to the various background voices Sneha does while Amitabh sings, specially that 'ae he he, oh ho ho' and that final harkat she does. Even Amitabh gets lots of moments in this song. The use of ;Ijjat Pappad; words was fantastic, and also 'ichak daana' in the end. The song is kinda of adult based, expectedly video was on same lines but I wish it was on any other actors. 'Aayi jawaani kis modh pe, hilti hai vibrate mode pe, dil pada hai mera road pe'..

13. Jannatein kahan - jannat 2 

This would be the only song that I have rated very high just because I listen to it way too often. Kay Kay vocals, the english lyrics in between and the alaap of Zara sa from Jannat makes it a very good song. It does miss the madness Jannat Jahan had, still good enough to make me like it a lot. Its picturisation was a big dissappointment. Tere hi liye tujhse hoon juda, jannatein kahan bin huye fanaa... 

14. Khudaaya - shanghai 

Great composition + Lyrics + Singing. Its a short song but still too good to miss a top position. Shekhar's voice goes with the song very well, and special mention to this song's video, uniquely thought which one can understand only if seen the movie. Lamho ki iss bheed mein, mujhko pal de fursat ke ..

15. Jugni - cocktail

Great composition by Pritam, Arif's original song but the way he has mixed Arif and Harshdeep voices together specially the same lines they sing alternately. The fast part makes the song very dramatic, one of reasons it gets that extra emotional quotient. Plus, love the way its picturised in the movie. Jugni ishq de raste jaave, kidre dhokha hi na khaave, ohnu zara samajh na aave, laave ya na dil nu laave, naale pak mohabbat kare saayo ni...

16. Pareshaan - ishaqzaade

Great start for Shalmali Kholgade as playback singer, she has a good voice and might go long way if her choice of songs is good. I like the part 'main pareshaan, main pareshaan', with rock kinda beats used on it. Also, the harmonium part used as background, special mention to the place where there is small stop after shalmali vocals and this tune follows up. Good composition by Amit Trivedi. Zara zara fitrat badalne laga dil mera, zara zara kismat se ladhne laga dil mera...

17. Kyun - barfi 

Another of those singer's who have different voice that appeals to me. After Jiyein Kyun, he impresses yet again.. this time not a emotional song, but kind of motivational one on life. Sunidhi has small part in the song, always love to hear her in soft songs. Sun khankhanati hai zindagi, le humein bulaati hai zindagi, jo karna hai aaj kar, na isko taal baawre...

18. Keh ke lunga - gangs of wasseypur 

Love the use of words 'keh ke lunga', the way the song is written on these words.. just creates that feeling of revenge so brilliantly. The composition keeps that revenge feel alive, so does the rendition by Amit Trivedi and Sneha Khanwalkar. Jismein bachna ho bach le, jismein bachna ho bach le, bach meri jaan, teri keh ke lunga...

19. Saans - jab tak hai jaan

So much fight it was, to like this song. Eventually, I did liked it but still have problems with the line 'saans mein teri saans mili toh mujhe saans aayi', that doesn't appear Gulzar but unfortunately it is. If I ignore this part of song, I very much love the song. The starting tune that leads to vocals, and ending the song on same tune. Also, the same tune is used as background theme in some parts of the movie.. so that helped in liking the song too. Visually, Yashji filmed this song as romantic as it could had been. I specially love the 1st antara both audio and video wise. I prefer Mohit more in the song, Shreya is decent. Dil kab seedhi raah chala hai, raah mudhe toh mudh jaane do...

20. Teri yaadon - blood money

Quite a gap since Mustafa Zahid sang again (Toh phir aao fame). This was the song that appealed to me the most out of the three songs he sang in this movie. Very good lyrics too, and good drunk picturisation. Tere bina main tanha hoon, waqt se toota lamha hoon..

21. Padd gaye ji - akaashvani

Very romantic song by Hitesh Sonik, sung by Kay Kay and Sunidhi Chauhan. The rise in beats at the first mention of 'tere pyar mein', and once again softly sung by Sunidhi. My fav part though is the haya sharam, its super romantic and has that mad feeling attached to it. If you get to see film, you would know what I mean. The song portrays the fallen in love and gone mad, nothing else visible to me now' feeling very well. Interestingly, this song too I liked only after watching the film. Deewaron par bhi likh diya tera naam, hum toh ji takh rahe khule aam...

22. Bharat mata ki jai - shanghai 

Vishal Dadlani and Kirti Sagathia in this track that gives reference to people who forcefully get their work done, mainly the ones working for politicians or well known people. And yet they believe they are doing something great for India. This one unlike 'Mera bharat mahaan' (Rann) song isn't sarcastic in tone but reflects a lot about a section of people prevailing in India. I like this song mainly for this reason, plus the lyrics. Dhandha yeh agar chanda nahi, donation sahi bolo kya doge ...

23. Velle - student of the year

Loved this song from the movie, was addicted to it for many days, I am sure at dance places/clubs this song would had got played a lot too. The song has flavour of typical lifestyle of a college guy that includes drinks, girls, non-studious, masti with friends etc. And all that was covered in its picturisation too. Its a shekhar song completely for me, Vishal has mainly done the english parts. Yaar hai apne favour mein, ghoome hai phir toh tevar mein..

24. Main sharabi - cocktail 

A song on alcohol, probably among best ones but irony being I no longer drink though that doesn't stop me from humming this song every now and then. Yo Yo Honey's rendition along with Imran Aziz. Lovely beats, another song that makes you dance, and picturised on Deepika in the movie in a very sexy way. Sharaab peene ka yeh faayda niraala hai, aam sa chehra bhi jannat ki hoor hota hai..

25. Ishq shava - jab tak hai jaan 

One of those typical Rahman songs that at 1st try would song decent, but there's something that you want to listen it again and again, and eventually the song grows and becomes one of your favourites. Raghav Mathur has given male vocals, but its Shilpa Rao whose voice I loved more. Aaj ki raatein kiski hai, kal ki raat teri na meri, chaand utha chal toss kare, chehra tera aur chaal meri ..

26 TO 100 SONGS ------ 

26. Dil mera muft ka - agent vinod

27. Aabroo - gangs of wasseypur 2 

28. Kho jaane de - vicky donor 

29. Jabse mere dil ko uff - teri meri kahaani

30. Aromale - ek deewana tha 

31. Tumhi ho bandhu - cocktail 

32. Main kya karun - barfi 

33. Saiyaara - ek tha tiger

34. Second hand jawaani - cocktail

35. Imported kamariya - shanghai 

36. Pungi - agent vinod

37. Moora - gangs of wasseypur 2 

38. Bas main aur tu - akaashvani

39. Chaahat - blood money 

40. Jiya re - jab tak hai jaan 

41. Aashiyaan - barfi 

42. Mar jayian - vicky donor 

43. Rumani - akaashvani

44. Matru ki bijlee ka mandola - matru ki bijlee ka mandola

45. Jee le zara - talaash

46. Jo tere sang - blood money

47. Tujhe sochta hoon - jannat 2 

48. Ik bagal - gangs of wasseypur

49. Gustakh dil - english vinglish 

50. Darta hoon - jism2 

51. Daaru desi - cocktail 

52. Ekla cholo re - kahaani

53. Rab ka shukraana - jannat 2 

54. Oye boy charlie - matru ki bijlee ka mandola

55. Dhadang dhang - rowdy rathore 

56. Sunlo zara - ek deewana tha 

57. Mumkin nahin - rush 

58. Right now now - housefull 2 

59. Dreamum wakeupum - aiyyaa

60. Aa re pritam pyaare - rowdy rathore

61. Fevicol se - dabangg2 

62. Hunter - gangs of wasseypur 

63. Crazy lover - akaashvani 

64. Yeh kasoor - jism2 

65. Kikli kalerdi - luv shuv tey chicken khurana 

66. Mashallah - ek tha tiger

67. I will do the talking tonight - agent vinod 

68. Dil garden garden ho gaya - kyaa super kool hai hum 

69. Voh dekhne mein - london paris new york 

70. Hosanna - ek deewana tha

71. Tera mera naam - akaashvani 

72. Manhattan - english vinglish 

73. Ala barfi - barfi

74. Zindagi se - raaz3 

75. Saawali si raat - barfi 

76. Heer - jab tak hai jaan 

77. Sharminda hoon - ek deewana tha 

78. Khamakha - matru ki bijlee ka mandola

79. Rafta rafta - raaz3 

80. Electric piya - gangs of wasseypur 2 

81. Radha - student of the year 

82. Khawishein - heroine 

83. Tu mohabbat hai - tere naal love ho gaya 

84. Jhalla wallah - ishaqzaade

85. Raabta - agent vinod 

86. Aaja - london paris new york 

87. Luttna - cocktail 

88. Gunaah - blood money 

89. Dost hai - ek deewana tha 

90. Manmauji - gangs of wasseypur 

91. Dagabaaz re - dabangg 2

92. Hona hai kya - talaash

93. Fukraa - talaash

94. Kafirana - joker 

95. Tu - ajab ghazab love

96. Banjaara - ek tha tiger

97. Darmiyaan - jodi breakers

98. Sun soniye - ajab ghazab love

99. Navrai maajhi - english vinglish 

100. Go go govinda - oh my god 

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