John Abraham only saving grace in a below average movie : Shootout at Wadala

Directed by : Sanjay  Gupta
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2301155/

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

Overdose of item songs, and a loose screenplay makes it a average movie despite some good performances. I didn't get the point of watching a dying Manya Surve (John Abraham) telling the story in flashback, along with the inspector ACP Afaaque (Anil Kapoor) telling his own story, quite comical it was.

Also, there is very less of Manya Surve when he changes from Manohar.. I expected there would be scenes where he would showcase how dangerous he is, but except for the bank robberies there aint much shown in that respect. Even the way they show the death of Zubair (Manoj Bajpayee), not sure about how it was in real.. but Manya wasn't brave enough to kill him openly ?

There were 2 ways that this movie would had been better.. one was keeping extra 15 minutes of Manohar story, maybe the transformation to Manya could had been shown in detail. Other way was, showing the Manya Surve's dominance over Bombay like he was someone every gangster as well as police had to be afraid of. For instance, the scene where Manya openly takes revenge from that police inspector, such scenes were far and few unfortunately.

The heavy dialoguebaazi doesn't help either, one should know how to use a particular aspect, and not overusing it. At times I felt like the characters are more keen on delivering out of the way dialogues rather than think about the current situation, specially the ones Anil Kapoor has in the movie. Also, what was about the all the characters putting goggles on, removing it, putting back again and again and again..

Except for Laila, rest 2 item songs were forced into the narrative. Sunny Leone did pretty well in that item song department, thankfully we were saved from her acting, with just a 2 min dialogue scene she has.

The final encounter scene was very well directed... though it was a dejavu of Gangster for the fact that Kangana does pretty much the same thing in that movie too. I didn't knew until this movie that Manya was the 1st gangster to be shot dead through a encounter.

Performance wise, John Abraham makes the most out of a role that had the potential to be his best till now, but not to be in the end. Sonu Sood also does pretty well in supporting role. Manoj Bajpayee is limited to 1-2 dialogues, 'baadshah ki gali mein aakar uska pata nahi poocha karte' being the best of lot. Rest actors are passable.


Overall, Shootout at Wadala is a total let down, some good action scenes and dialoguebaazi.. but it gets all too boring after a while.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Good romantic feel, but average execution and writing in 2nd half lets movie down : Aashiqui2

Directed by : Mohit Suri
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203308/

Suno... Kya ? ... Kuch nahi... Yunhi. 

Another movie added to the long list which may had been great one but writing and direction couldn't let it reach there.

The start of the movie has a surprise element, as to whether we are gonna see a flashback story or its a linear narration. Rahul (Aditya Roy Kapur) is addicted to alcohol and has fallen from a successful singer to a singer who sings for small functions or albums. But the arrival of Arohi (Shraddha Kapoor) in his life, gives him a purpose of living. He feels Arohi is a much better singer than him, and wants to make her a big star, which he does succeed to do.  But, he has to deal with his failure along with the success of Arohi at the same time. The dilemna of choosing Arohi with her success or with his own failure, makes him vulnerable and out of control.

1st half establishes Rahul-Arohi chemistry very well. The sequence where Arohi has a misunderstanding about Rahul, was not required and could had been done away with.

2nd half is where the film slips, becase the repetitiveness creeps in with Rahul showing his frustration and trying to remove his habit of drinking. Even the end I feel was slightly over-done, there was easily another way for Rahul to move out and keep Arohi happy. It looked like a forced sad ending.

The side actors, like the one who comes at Rahul's concerts to spoil it  by throwing beer bottles, or the journalist who waits and waits before trying to interview Rahul and ask him questions that would make him go angry. All this spoils the rhythm of the movie. Even the interval sequence where two guys conversation is overheard by Rahul, is directed in a over the top manner. Also the irrtating parts like when Rahul keeps shouting 'sab khatam ho gaya, sab khatam ho gaya', his friend producer dialogue earlier in film comes to mind when he says to rahul 'tum ek baar very good bolte toh bhi samajh jaata, itni baar very very very bolne ki zaroorat nahi'.

Music is the major plus point of the movie, except for the Tulsi Kumar song and the kay kay one, every song is worth listening in the movie. Tum hi ho and Sun raha being my favs. Though I was surprised not to see Milne hai mujhse aayi track, so easily would had been my choice of track at climax with a different end. But not to be by Suri.

My most fav scenes :
• When Rahul meets Arohi for 1st time...
• Sun Raha both versions..
• Tum hi ho (solo) last para, and duet's beginning.
• Rahul asking Arohi to come out of door for him, and its opposite later in 2nd half.
• Rahul telling Arohi that he loves her, and greatly directed by Suri as there's a distance between them through the door just to make it appear that he is near her yet so far.
• Rahul telling Arohi to not avoid media interviews due to personal reasons, and the autograph scene.
• Rahul leaving the award cermony with the interval coming and background words 'tum hi ho... '
• Arohi watches Rahul steal money from her purse, and tries to hide away.. not to let Rahul feel bad.
• Arohi telling producer friend that she would leave everything and if required get drunk with Rahul in hope he would end drinking one day.. the mad love. Also, the parallel cuts showing Rahul's reactions was good too.
• The most fav one, when Rahul leaves Arohi telling he is changing his routine.. and the final time 'suno.. kya.. kuch nahi.. yunhi'. Wish the scene and song leading next to this scene was different though.


Shraddha Kapoor looks very innocent throughout the movie, and somewhat fails to give that something extra layer to her character for instance the scene where she gets angry at Rahul 'pyar majaak nahi hota'.

Aditya Roy Kapur without a doubt, had his best role till now after playing so many supporting roles. He does justice to the character, the drunk one or the romantic one or the one who is not sure what he wants, and the one who has accepted that he can't change. I love the way he performs 'Sun raha hai' track, camera-work is great too in that song.

Arohi's parents role was very well placed, but Rahul's father dialogues looked very fake or over the top 'baap hoon tera, sab pata chal jaata hai, when son is in love' Really ?

Shaad Randhawa was poor, it looks like he plays same roles in every movie, I kept thinking whether he has come out straight from Awarapan sets.

As a whole, the film does fail for me. But the romantic angle, and the chemistry between Rahul-Arohi, plus the desperation Rahul's character goes through were some of the  best parts of the film.


Verdict : AVERAGE