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.

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. 

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

Movie Analysis : Rush

Directed by : Ron Howard
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/

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



Films based on real life people have been on a rise lately, and I have seen some very good ones, Rush tops the list.

Plot is about the rivalry between Britain's James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (played by Daneil Bruhl), 1970's Formula 1 racers.  The rivalry is limited to the races and attempts to get above each other in championships. In personal life, they don't really treat each other as enemies.

I have never seen a single Forumla 1 race even on T.V, so clearly someone who has no interest in this sport. Still, the film succeeds in creating a large impact, and the reason is the film focusses more on the emotions and drama.

The film begins with that deadly Aug 1, 1976 race when everything went wrong for Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) who describes 'I was chasing him like an asshole'. Director sets up formula one environment, and the relation Niki shares with James during races.. before he cuts abruptly to begin the flashback, telling the story of both racers when they were amateurs and trying to reach the Formula One stage.

The screenplay is impressive, it keeps a balance between the races and the pre-post races events in both racer's life. The championship montage is well done, covering most of the important aspects while leading to the two main races.

There are many sub plots in the movie, like James Hunt who lives a life of playboy suddenly marries Suzy (Olivia Wilde) probably to get his focus on the sport as is seen in the pre-wedding scene where he tells Suzy how he has changed from the old James practising for next race and keen to make a mark in Formula 1. Special mention to the marriage scene which happens right after James out of no where asks Suzy for marriage, probably one of quickest propasal-marriage sequence I have ever seen. The narration is always pacy only time it slows down is when James faces 'no races' phase, and  he shows his frustration and anger on Suzy. A key scene happens here when Niki Lauda after winning a race during a party asks James 'I heard you got married, where is your wife ?'.

On the other hand, Niki Lauda's backstory is setup with him telling his father that he will become a champion racer one day. He uses his talent, first with the owner of Formula 3 to help build speedy cars with the perfect knowledge he possesses. And later joining Ferrari, one funny scene comes here when Niki mimics the person's reaction who says 'it was a good car'.

Niki's relation with Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara) interests me most, as he was more honest towards her. They meet by chance when Niki asks her for a lift, only to find later that she gave lift to one of well known Formula 1 racer. When Marlene complains that he has got no looks and way of driving that resembles a formula 1 racer, Niki replies 'There's no need to drive fast right now, why take risk'. Its a point shown at various places in the film that Niki had lots of talent but he never drove in rash manner as he felt there's a 20% risk of getting killed in such a sport. Special mention to the editing here, how he cuts the scene to championship race.

My fav scene between Niki and Marlene happens right after their marriage, when Niki feels that now he has got something to lose, therefore happiness is his enemy now. To which Marlene very well replies, 'If you feel its your enemy, then you have already lost'.


I was more tilted towards Niki Lauda's story, as he was much more serious towards his goal. In a scene he tells James 'I am a serious guy, I go to work, come back home.. I don't go to parties that are full of assholes'. Plus, party lovers never attract me which James was. Infact, for most of his career as is shown in movie, James comes across as a careless racer who has the talent to win when he gives his best like that final race.. but he's never serious about it unlike Niki.  That is one more reason, why you feel to support Niki in every race, that he should win and not James.

Cinematography is excellent, the way it captures all the racing sequences, especially the cloudy and rainy ones. Love the feel given to Aug 1st race. Hans Zimmer's background score is fantastic, the main theme has a rivalry plus emotional feel to it and very. How his background gives a signal that something bad about to happen in final two races. Also, it doubles the tension because they are the only two times a complete race is shown to us.

Good build-up to the Aug1 race, firstly using a fan asking for Niki's autograph with a date as 'who knows it could be his last', and then Niki's request to cancel the game owing to poor weather getting cancelled since James has more people's support, 'You know Niki, sometimes its good to have people who like you' is what James tells Niki. The accident sequence is disturbing, especially the follow up hospital scenes. Its as tough to watch them as it is for Marlene in the movie. There's a scene where Niki wants to get back to racing, as James who until then was behind Niki is now winning races to jump up the ladderboard. While doctors give vaccum to Niki, he watches James snatching his points making him desperate to return. He tells James in next race 'If you were responsible for what happened to me, then watching you win those races, while I was fighting for my life, you were equally responsible for getting me back into the car'. That's the kind of rivalry they both shared, it was never ugly one. I was actually happy to see Niki come 4th and not 1st in that race after accident, simply because making him come first would had been over-dramatic. If you go by facts, he did came 4th only.

The press scene isn't taken from real life, therefore James getting angry at a journalist question and beating the hell out of him, was only to add 'the care' feeling into James character as we never see both of them share light moments in movie until ofcourse the last dialogue scene.

Final race is presented dramatically, with lots of slow motions, the tension for Marlene to see Niki race in what is much worse weather than it was during accident race. James still feeling guilt for last time, tries to cancel the race but the representatives don't agree. And therefore, when race is about to begin on the field, James turns behind from his car to watch Niki, and both wish each other good luck. Its the only time they do in any of the races shown in entire movie. Perfect moment chosen for it though. Visually, this was the best race, as a viewer you wonder would Niki risk his life at such a race, with Marlene not able to stop him after Niki told her 'if you love me, you won't say anything to me'.


You feel bad for Niki, watching him not win the championship.. but just as he says 'No regrets', you know he would had most likely lost his life had he continued. In the final dialogue scene, we see a happy smiling picture of real James and Niki, where Niki says 'I always liked him'.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl both deliver excellent performances. Personally, I loved Daniel much more, specially with the accent he had while speaking the dialogues and all the mannerisms. Both females playing supporting roles did great job too, and both looked very beautiful, Alexandra Maria was my pick though. Another interesting thing to note is, the make-over for these 4 actors resembled completely with the real life characters.





Rush is the best Hollywood movie I have watched this year. And its gonna be tough to beat this film. From performances to narration to technical aspects, the film is a big winner in all regards.

Movie Analysis : Captain Philips

Directed by : Paul Greengrass
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535109/

Tom Hanks spectacular performance in an edge of the seat thriller. 

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


The director well known for the two Bourne Series films he did (Ultimatum and Supremacy), teams up with Tom Hanks for another edge of the seat thriller.

A true story about 2009 hijacking of U.S container ship Alabama, by a crew of Somali pirates. The officer on duty at the time of hijack is Captain Philips (Tom Hanks) while Muse (Barkhad Abdi) is the leader in the hijackers team.

After quickly establishing Philips personal life with a scene with his wife, and how Muse picks up his team for the job plus the reasons for them going after a hijacking.. we move to the ship sequence where Philips is shown as a careful captain checking all security properly, and the email he reads at night about possible attack from the pirates makes him keep an eye over the radar and the crew ready if something happens. And finally he does see 2 boats approaching him.

Paul establishes the tension perfectly, first using the 'about to happen attack' theme, and then 'the people who are gonna attack' coming closer to the cargo ship minute by minute. Philips tries his level best to stop the boats, a scene where he fake calls in different voice to fool the leaders in the boat was super one. But, Muse right from first frame looked like a man who won't be stopped by any means.

As viewer we know they are eventually gonna make it on the ship, but the struggle they face due to Philips makes it exciting to watch.

The best part comes when Muse and his 3-4 men make their way on Philips ship, and try to make all the crew hostile. But, Philips tries playing games to make Muse and his men struggle and fall in trap.

The post life-boat parts initially slows down the action for a while, before the Navy comes into the action for talks with Muse who kidnapped Philips and demands millions of dollars in return.

In the pre-climax scenes, its hard to tell if Philips is gonna survive, he may get killed by Muse men or even the navy who are keen to target all the hijackers in life-boat.

Special mention to the jerky hand held camera moves, which added to the tension as a viewer.

Tom Hanks delivers an outstanding performance, the way he leads the crew in crisis calmly and almost got it done successully before Muse got him pushed into life-boat as hostage. He still keeps trying to negotiate or warn them, and occasionally look for way to run away. Infact, for first time he looks scared first when he gets into lifeboat as Muse asks him 'Captain you look scared, don't worry we won't harm you'. And later when he writes letter to his family, thinking he won't survive alive. His expressions in that last sequence was terrific, one of powerful and emotional scene to watch.

Barkhad Abdi as Muse does a fantastic work, he repeats one line a lot 'everything is gonna be okay', which eventually showed his scary side he wanted to not come out. And the scene where he demands authority over everyone 'I am the captain now'.


Overall, Captain Philips is a film that keeps you right on the edge of the seat from the moment Philips knows there could be a pirates attack issue. And a award worthy performance from Tom Hanks.

Movie Analysis : Shahid

Directed by : Hansal Mehta
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2181831/

One of best hard-hitting movie this year by Raj Kumar Yadav and Hansal Mehta duo. 


By showing me injustice, he taught me to love justice.
By teaching me what pain and humiliation were all about, he awakened my heart to mercy. 
- Roy Black 

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


Based on real life of 'Shahid Azmi', a human rights activist and a successful lawyer, 'Shahid' is much more than being just a biopic.

Shahid (Raj Kumar Yadav) lives in Govandi, eastern part of Mumbai. In 92-93 hindu-muslim riots take place, and Shahid witnesses it with his own eyes on the road. Soon, we see him join a jihaadi camp, but he's never comfortable during training sessions and eventually he runs away from it. But as the destiny is, police arrests him as suspected terrorist. In jail, he makes new friends who encourages him to study further and thereafter he persues law. When he gets released from the jail (6 years), he completes his law degree and joins Maqbool Menon (Tigmanshu Dhulia) firm but he refuses to accept the kind of cases they take. He starts his own independent practice, and helps wrongly accused Muslims people (as terrorists) get justice. He had 17 successful acquittals in span of just 7 years, before he got gunned down in his office by 3 unidentified guys.

The film is not about who killed Shahid, we see him dead right from the first shot of the movie. Instead it talks about how Shahid was as a person, and how he learnt from his early life struggles to fight for other people instead of bowing down to the system and the police, he decided to become a part of it by persuing law and becoming a lawyer. There are two key scenes of Kay Kay Menon in this regard, one where he says 'If you want to change the system, be a part of it' and other where Shahid gets released from Jail after many years and he tells him 'waqt lagta hai, par ho jaata hai.. the indian judiciary works'.

Even the torture Shahid goes through isn't dramatized, its done with two scene sequence, one where Shahid is abused and beaten by the cop, and the other having the cop misbehaving with Shahid's elder brother Arif (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub) in Lodhi jail. Next we see Arif in a painful phone conversation with their mother, and we shift to Tihar jail.. Shahid has adapted himself to the surrounding, but he never gives up.

The 1st half very much goes into establishing all the characters around Shahid, there's his elder brother Arif who very much is like his father always helping him financially and taking care of entire family. In one of the riots scene, when Shahid tries to reach back his home and knocks at the door, his mom is so scared that she refuses to open the door. His journey from home to Jihaadi camp to home is very well done with the only used song in the narrative, that scene where he is running away as fast as he could tells us enough what he won't be becoming.

The narration lifts up when the case of Zaheer (ghatkopar blast accused) is taken up by Shahid. We witness the court-room drama, the lawyers getting indulged into arguements cutting each other out, and the judge abiding by the laws. But the difference here is, again the drama isnt over done, its so subtle. During the end of one of Zaheer's hearing, prosecution lawyer More (Vipin Sharma) gets into friendly conversation with Shahid on 'bachpan ke dost, and then checking Shahid's briefcase for something to eat'.

2nd half takes the movie to complete new level, on one hand we have the court-room drama building and other side there is Shahid's romantic life growing with Mariam (Prabhleen Sandhu) whom he met as a client when he worked for Maqbool. Hansal Mehta tackles the romantic part with perfection too, without trying to give it main priority and yet not neglecting it completely. He uses a background romantic theme instead of a song when both share light moments together. In one of my fav hard-hitting scene, Mariam asks Shahid to leave the case of Faheem (one of prime accused in 26/11), and when Shahid asks why didn't she say the same during Zaheer case, she replies back 'tab meri tumse shaadi nahi huyi thi'. And in another great scene, Shahid feeling rejected reading a article written on him in newspaper, he calls Mariam who had long ago left him,  and how she comforts him plus special mention of editing here with the use of all Shahid-Mariam meetings montage kinda of done brilliantly.

Then there's a scene where Shahid's face is blackened because he said something against Shivaji in court, is taken from the director's real life incident during Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar movie (read in a online article).


I could find only one flaw in the movie, Shahid looks the same during 92 riots, and almost same 18 years since when he dies. Clearly, director didn't want a young actor to play teenager role. But, I don't think that affected the movie in any which way, instead it works in favour of movie as we connect with Raj Kumar Yadav as Shahid very well. It helps in creating the feel of a young kid who is trying to cope with the situations life is throwing at him, and how he fights with them instead of running away.

Among the supporting cast, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub shines the most as elder brother of Shahid. Prabhleen Sandhu and Baljinder Kaur (Shahid's mother) are effective. While Vipin Sharma provides some good light moments. Kay Kay Menon and Tigmanshu Dhulia have nice small cameos.

The soul of the movie is Raj Kumar Yadav, a flawless performance, its 3rd movie in a row where I loved his performance completely. Be it the uncomfortable kinda of look on his face when he's thinking of proposing Mariam, or  the anger + hurt feeling he gets when prosecution lawyer brings his past life into question or the smile he has when he finds a witness lying before he gets up to cross-question.

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Hansal Mehta's  realistic approach to the film, be it the locations, the camera-work, the background score, beparwah track or the editing makes this movie worth a watch plus you get to know Shahid Azmi if you didn't knew him till yet (like I didn't).

Shahid works because it never over-dramatizes nor does it try to preach you.. yet it gives a clear message of 'If you got the courage, you can fight anything that comes your way'. It never tries to say that every accused is innocent, but there are times when police does mistakenly put wrong people into jail, and the minority suffers as a result. It showcases Shahid's life who was no less than a heroic, sadly shot down at young age.


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Movie Analysis : Escape Plan

Directed by : Mikael Hafstrom
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211956/

Sylvester's magic in a thriller that could had been much better. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) works for a authority dealing with structural security. He gets himself set into prisons, and finds ways of getting out just to help those prisons know where they lack. A new case comes to them, where Breslin slightly hesistant accepts it only to find it later that he's been set up in a prison far away from his place with almost no outside help possible. Now, Breslin has to use all his life experience to get out of the most difficult unknown prison he has ever seen, with all the new friends he makes inside there which includes Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Now, something to admit, I haven't seen a single Sylvester or Arnold film until now. So, a very new territory for me when I saw this film.

The whole film is put onto the shoulders of Sylvester, firstly how good he is at his work when he does it with all the help, and then how he manages way out of the hell of prison he gets trapped into. And he pretty much does it very well.

Arnold on the other hand, gives him help in the prison, which he initially rejects, but slowly they become helpful friends to each other. He has a scene that kind of slow motions and gave a feeling it tried to give some homage to his old movies, which ultimately I didn't know about at all.

The rest of cast does faily decent work, though the one playing Pakistani prisoner at times gets on your nerves, and a touch melodramatic.

The dialogues are humurous at times, but no powerful punch lines.

Though I loved Jim Caviezel (playing Hobbes), I still wish he had more mean scenes. At times I felt director made him look evil and bad, but not extract from those looks and poses he was giving to actually do something too. For instance, when he makes it difficult for Rottmayer to breathe, or when he tries to break down Breslin so that he slows down or gives up on his chances to escape. There had to be much more of this. There was one super funny scene when Breslin asks Rottmayer and one pakistani prisoner to say cheese looking at the camera which Hobbes is having a look at, specially the expression Arnold make in that.

I love how they keep the location of prison suspense to us the viewers just like Breslin. The movie gets narrated entirely through his point of view, when he looks around the new prison and ways to escape, the camera slowly widens and then shows us how the entire prison looks. And where the prison is shown to us when  Breslin escaped the locked room, only to find out that its a blood ship midway sea near to who knows which part of country.

Only problem I found in Breslin's plot was his past, which made him start doing this job. Maybe most people wont agree, but I felt a small flashback could had been better. Or possibly kept the past story out of the script.


Overall, Escape Plan works as a thriller due to Arnold and specially Sylvester's  performance. The writing in the part when Breslin gets trapped could had been better to give something extra to the movie. As of now, it turns out to be good enough film to be watched, but nothing exceptional. Its all about how much you love Sylvester Stallone finding successful ways to escape out, either through PlanA, or the backup PlanB he always has.

Movie Analysis : Boss

Directed by : Anthony D'Souza
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2571140/

Tries too hard to impress, once again Akshay stardom prefferred over script. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


After making me love him in his great negative avatar 'Once upon a time in Mumbaai2', Akshay Kumar is back to the kinda of films I am completely bored of watching him be part of.

Two brothers, elder (Akshay Kumar) leaves house due to misunderstanding with father (Mithun Chakraborty) and grows up to  become a well known 'gunda' (positive one in case of this film), a corrupt police officer i.e main villian (Ronit Roy), corrupt politician (Govind Namdev), love story of younger brother (Shiv Pandit) with sister (Aditi Rao Hydari) of corrupt police officer. Add all these elements, and you get the story seen many times before.

A predictable screenplay that uses flashbacks of father-son (elder one) at places, probably giving way to allow Akshay Kumar make entry much earlier, though narration still used up 15-20 mins for his 1st scene.

No story, no screenplay, next comes entertainment since its a masala movie. Yes, there are scenes that entertains you, like the one where Akshay makes a entry and fights the gundaas with music in background as it turns his mood on. Or the dargah sequence, and my personal fav when he accuses his younger brother with 'tum newcomers ko kuch yaad nahi rehta, isliye main pehle se tyaari karke aaya tha'.

But then there are many senseless, no logic (sorry just because you make masala film, you can't show any nonsense) like the plant that grows with sweat, really ? Then, the love relationship between Shiv and Aditi starts with a bikini scene, and within 5 mins they are romancing each other in dreamy song 'har kisi ko nahi milta', that was so quick. Another moment in latter 2nd half when Mithun realises his mistake and from 3 mins ago saying stuff against his son, now he says 'mujhe mere bete ke paas le chalo', what a melodrama. Then, asking Ronit Roy to keep mouthing 'maut ko aise hi badnaam kar rakha hai, takleef toh zindagi deti hai' in almost every of his initial 4-5 scenes. Also, the scene where he is made to say 'gaadh dete hai' 3-4 times.

Simply Terrible direction, even Blue had those well shot under-water sequences, Boss has nothing to speak in favour of the director. Poor Writing as well as Dialogues. Background Score is decent, love the main tune that plays for Akshay Kumar.

The action scenes would had been something to love in the movie, but alas dissappointment in that department too, blame goes on the editor/director. Why do they (infact most Indian movies) use abundance of slow motions in fight scenes, fight has to be quick to make a impact, if you are gonna slow the punches and kicks, the whole point of action is simply thrown away. The last man to man fight between Akshay and Ronit just due to this reason, goes completely useless and boring to me.

Songs are inserted into the narration for the sake of it. though I have to admit, they were a sigh of relief because I like most of the songs especially 'Hum na tode' and 'Party all Night'.

Among performances, Ronit Roy shines in a evil role, had he got better dialogues, and a better director, his performance would had been lovable.

Akshay Kumar is familiar to this comedy-action-drama territory, and he pretty much does well without doing anything exceptional.

Shiv Pandit is decent in a supporting role. Only Aditi Rao Hydari would be able to tell what she saw in her character that she did this film, my guess is she did it knowing Akshay plays the lead.

Danny Denzongpa in one scene reminded of Agneepath with the dialogue 'apna usool kehta hai', maybe writer did it intentionally.

Mithun hams.  While the rest cast is simply wasted, specially the likes of Sanjay Mishra and Govind Ramdev. While Shakti Kapoor makes joke of himself for that nonsense special apperance scene.

The director even forces Sonakshi get a dialogue scene post 'Party all night' song, which again appears bizarre.

Amitabh Bachchan does voiceover to introduce characters at the start, its become a trend these days, to include famous actors in small portion of movie, like Shahrukh did to Rajnikanth in his 2 craps, Ra one and Chennai Express. The directors get the notion that they have made a bad film, so lets do everything to get maximum profit out of the celeb fans. Aneways, Boss has just 3-5 mins narration done by Amitabh for his fans.

The father-son angle in the movie gets my attention only during the flashback scenes, where the actor playing the young Boss does very good job (I think he does Life Ok mahadev, not sure).


Overall, Boss very much falls on the lines of Khiladi 786 which I had thought when the 1st teaser had come. As always, Akshay Kumar gives some laughs here and there, Ronit shows his grey shades (not to the extent of Udaan), but without a good screenplay and direction its almost impossible to make someone even like the movie.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Prisoners

Directed by : Denis Villeneuve
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392214/

Hugh Jackman's dominated movie about the issue of father's deeds against doubted kidnapper.

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 

Keller Dover's (Hugh Jackman) daughter as well as her friend goes missing. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets the case in his hands, having a record of not losing any in past, but this time he's gonna find it real tough. When one suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) gets arrested, Keller believes he is the one to kidnap the children, but Alex comes across as a mentally challenged teenager. Keller believes he is faking it, and therefore when Alex gets released from custody, Keller takes it to himself to find the girls. Is Alex really the kidnapper, or Keller is falling in some deep trap ?

The narration begins with a happy fun atmosphere before the two girls go out of house and are found missing. At places, the pace is slow but I didn't mind it as I was kept interested in knowing whether Alex is really having no information about the girls or he is lying.

The best scene has to be when the tables are turned, and Keller is doing what probably the kidnapper might had been doing to the girls. He gets Alex kidnapped at his own old house, and tortures him in various ways, which as a viewer was hard for me to see even, or Keller's friends in the movie who initially do help Keller before realising that Keller has gone a very wrong path.

But if you think about the story from Keller's point of view, then his reasons to doubt Alex are very strong, firstly the whisper Alex does when he gets released from jail, and then the thing he does with dog at night. Infact, I still couldn't understand why he didn't tell Keller much earlier about the small secret he knew which he reveals much later at  end. Unless, a mentally challenged person can hide secrets for long, still felt it was kinda of strange point in the screenplay.

Another point that I didn't get was who was the person who entered Keller's house and ran out of window. Also, I would say to see the real kidnapper and the motive behind.. made me slightly dissappointed, maybe I was thinking something completely out of box will come. That character was shown just 2-3 times in whole movie until then, so it was tackled well in that regards atleast. Mellisa Rao did act pretty well, to not make any doubt come over her in those few scenes.

Hugh Jackman made Keller character look tremendous especially when the worried father transforms into a deadly 'tell me or you suffer' mode. All scenes where he tortures Alex, and when he avoids Detective Loki before yelling out his anger at him in car were fantastic.

Jake Gyllenhaal gave good performance as Detective, the humorous scenes at office where he asks for extra days to interrogate Alex which he doesn't get, and later he shows his anger at him. His silent way of noticing everything, and reaching the clues. The snake scene was highly scary for me, for well known reasons.

The supporting cast did fairly well too.  Keller's wife could had been given more scenes, felt she was sidelined using her health as issue after girls got kidnapped.

The ending was great too, you wonder for a moment if Loki would go and save Keller, but I guess he would definately do that, its whether in those few seconds Keller survives and doesn't die. The reason for such ending must had been to ask audience to fill it in the way they thought about the deeds done by Keller to Alex, the ones who felt Keller's actions were bad inspite of the motive behind it would say Loki would let Keller die, and the other ones who felt Keller was at heart a caring father wanting his girl back would want Loki to save Keller.


Overall, Prisoners may not be a pacy thriller, yet its a powerful film that works for the main lead performances, and specially the narration of the story where an important character suddenly transforms and just shocks you at times with his actions. In the end, its you who decide which way the film should end, and the question is asked 'Without proper evidence, is it right to treat someone as guilty?'

Movie Analysis : About Time

Directed by : Richard Curtis
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2194499/

A sweet rom-com on time travel. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


This is first movie I have seen from Richard Cutris, who has done two other movies in past. Only thing I knew while going for movie was that the plot is about time travel, where the main lead actor tries to correct his past life events. Its something that fascinates me a lot. Even in hindi movies, Action Replayy or Talaash (that one imaginable scene of Aamir if you remember), its been tried.

Intially, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) tries to use the power to change small events, and when his dad (Bill Nighy) asks him to use it for something special, his reply comes, I want a girlfriend. To be fair, how much you like the film would depend on how you well you feel Tim uses the power of time travel. Also, if you don't find the way time is travelled as ridiculous.

The first conversation between Tim and his dad is hillarious, then the new year eve girl whom he kisses 2nd time around using time travel. My most fav scene though is when Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), a blackout scene where they talk without getting sight of each other, in real time the conversation goes beyond 2 hrs. Logically I did wonder, what exactly they could had talked in such darkness for so long. Aneways, in reel time, the scene works very well.

Rachel McAdams was simply wonderful, it was like I was having same feelings Tim had when he first heard her voice, and then  saw her. The romantic moment when Tim has sex with her, another hillarious scene included in it, which is already viewable in the trailer.

Lydia Wilson playing role of Kit Kat, sister of Tim is adorable for the wierdo things she does, be it the wild jump on Mary when she comes to meet Tim's family, or the initial introduction scene of hers. She gets two great scenes, one time travel with Tim when he tries to fix her sister's life, and then the hospital scene.

Tom Hollandar is good in supporting role, his first scene with Tim is funny, and so is the one where he refers to his play as Titanic, and then the teddy present later in the movie.

There's one scene where Mary is confused what she should wear for a event, she asks Tim's suggestions, and she keeps declining them one by one only to irritate him hell lot. That was a super funny scene, and it reminded me of Love Aaj Kal, funny how a english film scene could remind of hindi movie.


The defining moment in film was when Tim re-meets the girl on whom he first tried time travel in vain. This time that girl shows interest in him to a extent that he is outside the door of her house inviting him to come in, but Tim feels that Mary's love has gotten over him so much that he won't do anything wrong even if he could use time travel to his benefit.

Tim-Mary relation is surely one of the reasons why the movie works, while the other is Tim and his dad's relationship. The most emotional one when Tim meets his dad one final time through time travel, as he knows that he won't be able to meet him anymore in future. Almost no background music during that scene. Special mention to the scene where Tim follows his dad's secret to happiness in 2 ways.

The songs used as background at numerous places was very apt, especially the one which covers the day to day routines of Tim and Mary in a montage very well.

One may say that the time travel concept could had been used further more, but that would had required a seperate extra plot. The love story is complicated well enough with Tim's first love (or attraction) and then Kit-kat and his dad's health.

And I liked that they didn't show Tim telling Mary about the secret of time travel.

The 1st half was very humurous, the 2nd half was more dramatic and gets slow too at times.

I would say 'About Time' is a pretty sweet rom-com, it may not be out of the way special or to be remembered kind of movie, but whenever you see it you will feel the time was well spent. Atleast my time wasn't wasted while watching it. Plus, the Tim and Mary part was very romantic for me.  And yea, I got a new crush in Rachel McAdams. Need to watch 'The Notebook' sooner now.

Movie Analysis : War Chhod Na Yaar

Directed by : Faraz Haider
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3129282/

Not a good 'First War Comedy' film. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.


Labelled as 'First War Comedy' movie of India, the first time director Faraz Haider has good intentions over a war between India and Pakistan shown in a light humurous manner. But, the script and screenplay dissappoint.

Right from the first scene, where the shot is edited mysteriously making you feel the film might start on a serious way sequence, and then cut to the real action that actually happens. On border, Sharman Joshi (Indian side) and Javed Jaaferi (Pakistan side) have a friendship like nature towards each other, but they do behave like enemies when a war is declared. There's a scene where Sharman intentionally makes sure no one in their camp gets killed, and similarly there's no one in Pakistan camp who has thoughts of killing anyone in real sense. There are some funny food references as well as antakshari scenes.

But where the film lacks, is the scenes that doesn't involve Sharman-Javed pair. One plot is of Sharman-Soha love, which is badly cliched and boring to the core, to worsen it, this plot has 2-3 songs attached to it.. that sums it up. Other plot is of Dalip Tahil who plays a triple role, but the way its presented, its more of a irritating character. The intention here was to show how wars are made by these political people of both countries, and other countries who make use of the opportunity, but the execution fails.

Another sub-plot is of  3 Afghani guys who keep getting fooled, which very much worked for me as Mukul Dev shines in that small role.

The final 20 minutes of the movie expectedly tries to go patriotic, and to certain extent preachy. Also, during the movie, there's scenes of young teenagers discussing political developments between India and Pakistan, and war issues among themselves, and facebook friends.. which was another weakly directed part, also acted badly.

What you take away from the film is the performances of Sharman Joshi and Javed Jaaferi. Specially Javed who hasn't got the right lengthy roles in the past.

 Sanjay Mishra gets 1-2 good scenes to shine, the spoof on Sunny Deols dialogue from Border was super funny. Manoj Pahwa is wasted.


Overall, War Chhod Na Yaar despite its noble intentions, couldn't end up as India's first well made War Comedy movie.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Diana

Directed by : Oliver Hirschbiegel
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1758595/


Dissappointing portrayal of Diana's last two years. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.


I thought I was in for a very good film, despite the terrible rating it had got on Imdb or the reviews it had got. But, those ratings were correct, the film is indeed bad one. The blame goes to both the script and the direction.

The film focusses on the last two years of Princess Diana, when she was involved in a relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon. Just like Lincoln, this film ain't a biography of her entire life. But here the director fails to develop a screenplay that engages you or makes you feel for Diana.

Right from the first flashback sequence, the way camera moves already had me against the film. Then, the continuous urge to show something good about Diana (Naomi Watts) in between the developing romantic plot between her and Dr. Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews). All this made me think that maybe director would had been better off showing entire life of Diana, it would had worked for him then.

The Rumi's lines used at the end of film, reminds of hindi movie Rockstar, and how well they were justified there, but in Diana's case, it appears more like trying to give something extra to a person who is no more. Yes, that shot where numerous people gather and put flowers all around was lovely and to certain extent heart-breaking. But, the movie never takes you into the emotional turnmoil Diana was going through.

The entire portion where Diana is willingly trying to get herself into bad news, was most boring part in the film.

The script should had shown some interesting portions about Diana's life in the starting of those 2 years, before she meets Hasnat. Just presenting someone living a lonely life, suddenly gets attracted meeting a doctor who treats his work above any well known person, was not enough to go into the main plot of the movie.

That is one of the reasons, at places it appears like Naomi Watts is acting as Diana, and not living the character.


Overall, Diana turns out to be a forgettable movie for me, very dissappointed to say that. I hope some director will make a better movie that portrays the life of Diana in future.

Movie Analysis : Gravity

Directed by : Alfonso Cuaron
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/


Very good movie, but I couldn't connect to it. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.


Can it happen that you appreciate almost every aspect of movie, still you don't love the film ? It happens here for me. Probably I know the reason, I just couldn't connect to the movie  I have liked some of the sci-fi movies in past, so it can't be about the genre. But yea, a space based movie is another reason.

Now coming to the great points about the movie. Its about how Ryan (Sandra Bullock) tries to survive after getting invovled in a incident during her first shuttle mission. She along with Matt (George Clooney) are the only people who survive death, but not for long as they will soon be attacked again.

Sandra Bullock gives a splendid performance, to see the way she tries to fight the situation on her own, her own past story of her child keeps haunting her at times, and then those occasions when she thinks of giving up. Though, that Matt sequence shown in latter part of the movie somehow looked wierd to me.. or should I say bit un-realistic. Geroge Clooney more or less provides some humour to the movie.

The visuals without a doubt were the 1st thing to applaud about the movie, right from the 1st frame itself when the camera slowly moves back with no sound before astronaut's voices start coming. I could listen a girl in theatre whispering 'Woww' at that visual.

 Also, how earth looks from space visual.. and the sunrise/sunset ones were something to see in 3d Imax. And special mention to the scenes that have no sound or background score.

The film revolves around Ryan and Matt characters only, rest cast have hardly 1-2 minutes role. Whether they make it in the end or not, is what keeps you glued to the screen. The numerous troubles they face, when satellites keep coming towards them, or the shuttle gets destroyed were great to watch.

The same kind of reaction last time I had was with Avatar which also featured story filmed on a space away from earth.


Overall, Gravity is a very good film, but I just couldn't connect to it like I normally do with such films.  So, I can't use the lines 'Wow what a film I just saw' like many did, and no regrets. Its not compulsory to love every film that is regarded as special.

Movie Analysis : Elysium

Directed by : Neill Blomkamp
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/

Excellent idea wasted in a poor script. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.


The film is based in year 2154, when wealthy people live on a man-made space called Elysium where there is no health issues, while poor live on a ruined earth. Max (Matt Damon) dreamed of living in Elysium since childhood, by saving enough money through work. He gets involed in a tragic accident, thereby giving him only 5 days left to live. He can survive only if he reaches Elysium, but without money he won't go there. So, he takes help of Spider (Wagner Moura) who is ready to help him in return of some important information he has to extract for him.

I was excited for the film thinking of the main plot of life at earth vs life at elysium. But the main story turns out something else, which dissappointed me. The technology involved, or the action scenes or the scenes preceding Max at Elysium didn't impress me. Also, the reference made to his childhood time and again (restrained version of 'Man of Steel') didnt help.

I would have liked the film if they had sent Max to Elysium to save life of someone close to him or maybe much more. Here, all he wants is to find a way for his life to not end.

Matt Damon gives decent performance, but not one I would like to remember. Among rest cast, Wagner Moura is good while Jodie Foster who plays the leader at Elysium not allowing any poor people reach her place was very good. Also, Alice Braga who plays friend come love interest of Max was nice.


Overall, Elysium doesn't work for me, they just couldn't develop the main idea into a exciting script. At the most, a one time-watch.

Movie Analysis : Besharam

Directed by : Abhinav Kashyap
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2576450/

After Anjaana Anjaani, 2nd Ranbir movie that enters 'never see again' list. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


Mere seene mein dil nahi, jigar hai.. aur woh kabhi toot-ta nahi hai. 


When I saw Dabangg2, I had said that the film missed Abhinav as Arbaaz was terrible as director. With Besharam, I don't know what I should say. Maybe I should give Abhinav another chance, or maybe it was Salman-Abhinav duo that worked as team, independently both gave very average (or bad) films.

The story is of a orphan guy Babli (Ranbir Kapoor) who is a car thief, he is told to get a good car for Chandel (Javed Jaaferi). He happens to meet Tara (Pallavi Sharda), before he met Chandel. So as expected, Tara has just bought a new mercedes, and thats the car Babli unknowingly steals. Then, starts the journey of getting the car back, with a few realisations occuring in lives of Babli and Tara taking them closer to each other.

The main plotline of the movie is 'There is no right way of doing the wrong thing'. To be frank, that's a good one to write a entire movie on. But that is what doesn't happen in case of Besharam.

There are moments when the jokes clicks, Ranbir being a great actor does provide some lovable scenes. But the screenplay is too predictable, cliched (that monologue scene of Ranbir when he tells  Tara why he steals)  and full of songs. In the narration,  there is a song, followed by 1-2 minutes dialogue scene, followed by another song. This happens twice in the film, if you carefully notice.

Also, Ranbir-Pallavi as a pair didn't work. I won't blame Pallavi for it, it was the character sketch written for her, she got a role that was never going to work.

The story reminds of 80's era, a spoilt girl (to certain extent here) makes fun of guy in front of all officemates, and later falls in love with the guy. It may have worked if there were some super punchlines like Dabangg, but they are very far and few. One that I may recollect right now is 'Mere seene mein dil nahi, jigar hai.. aur woh kabhi toot-ta nahi hai'. Also, what was the need to make Pallavi say 'besharam' time and again.

There are 2 kind of films, one where comedy drama are inserted into a story, and other is where story is inserted into comedy drama situations. Besharam was the 2nd kind.

The kapoor's real life relation is forcefully put into the story, when Ranbir says 'aapka aashirwad hai na mere saath', or when they adopt Ranbir at the end.

Though the songs weren't the kind that I may remember after years, but they weren't plain bad either. I specially love the background music in 'Ban jaa besharam' song, also the floor moves of Ranbir. To watch all Kapoors dance in 'Hand utha ke nacche' was wonderful, even if Rishi Kapoor looks odd while dancing now. My favs ofcourse were 'Love ki Ghanti' and 'Dil ka jo haal hai', the former reminds me of Kishore kumar songs, while the latter the sweet 90's romantic songs. Rest two songs were pretty okay.

Ranbir Kapoor tries hard to make a bad film work with his performance, but that doesn't happen. He is let down by the script. Wonder how he didn't see while signing the movie, that it wont work, or did the script change a lot when the shooting began ?  He came across as a sensible actor who choses right scripts until now. Though it was a lovely change to see him in a larger than life character, unless he makes a habit of doing such films which I hope he wont.

Pallavi Sharda for first time in a lead role, acts well, but she gets the worst role to make any kind of mark. She looked beautiful in those indian dresses, and loved her dance moves.

Javed Jaaferi is very good in a villaineous role, which is sadly restrained.

Rishi Kapoor is made fun of both by Ranbir and Neetu through their dialogues, he is decent... same for Neetu. They both couldn't save the film either. It was good to see all 3 kapoors together in same frame, but would had prefferred a better film for that, not this one.

Amitosh Nagpal in supporting role is pretty good.


Overall, Besharam is a badly directed movie with poor script leaving nothing for the actors to do. Its some good moments, and songs that take you till the end. I thought this maybe finally a masala movie this year that I would love completely, but that wasn't the case. A masala movie needn't have logic or story, but atleast give good entertainment with lovable dialogues and actors with scope to perform.

 After Anjaana Anjaani, 2nd Ranbir movie that enters 'never see again' list.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : The Lunchbox

Directed by : Ritesh Batra
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2350496/

Among best movies to have come this year... 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


Kabhi kabhi galat train bhi sahi jagah pahuncha deti hai ... 

Some films are so good, that you keep thinking about them days after you see them. 'The Lunchbox' falls in that category.

Its a story driven movie, where the three main characters Irrfan Khan (Saajan), Nimrat Kaur (Ila) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Shaikh) have given excellent performances. The story is set in Mumbai, where Saajan is about to retire from his work, and Shaikh who is going to take his place in office is asked to work under Saajan until he retires. One day at lunch, Saajan is surprised to see changes in the lunchbox including the taste and variety of food. Dabbawalla's mistakenly replaced his lunchbox address with Ila's husband. And then starts a series of letters exchanged inside the lunchbox.

The theme to me is very similar to internet or phone based love story, here also two people have conversations without seeing or meeting each other. Ritesh starts the film by establishing the complete journey a Dabbawala in Mumbai go through, from the house to road to train to the delivering place. He uses initial scenes well to establish Saajan and Ila characters before they both start exchanging letters. Saajan's habit of standing outside his house at night, smoking ciggerette and looking at a girl's family, same girl among those kids who daily ask him to give their ball back. On the other hand, Ila lives a life of similar loneliness as her husband shows no love whatsoever towards her. Her time goes by, either doing the household activities, looking after her girl, or the talks with her 'aunty' who stays one floor above her house. The aunty herself has her own small story that is told as the narrative goes further.

There's a pleasant humour initially when Saajan and Ila start talking through letters, then the talks go personal as both share things about their life. How quickly, from complete strangers, they form a close friend bond before actually feeling its much more than that, as Saajan thinks of a life with her in Bhutan, a place Ila finds peaceful. That dialogue 'We forget things, if we have no one to tell them to', was one of my favourite one.

I love how the scene where Saajan goes to meet Ila first time is tackled, specially the coincidences that happen that day with him, the old feeling while going to bathroom, or a young boy calling him 'uncle'. But, he had fallen for her, and he won't resist going to have a look at her from far away without letting Ila know.

Then that scene in train, when he looks at a very old man who is going to same place where Saajan is going too. Cut to next scene where Saajan is shown returning back to his home, in a mode describing he has decided he would not go away from Ila despite the age difference.

Also, the woman and girl sequence shown in earlier part of movie, gives a feeling of maybe this is another Ila who died, when the same scene repeats in latter part of movie. For a second, I thought she is about to commit suicide too.

The two weaknesses in the movie were editing and Ila's mother played by Lilette Dubey. In a film that was going very real, we finally had a character who was taking the narrative into melodrama mode. But, the good thing here was, that she had only 2 scenes. While at many points I liked the way scenes are extended, like when Saajan while working knowing Dabbawala has come, stops and anxiously waits for his Dabba being put on his table.. I like how the time frame is used in that scene making us wait too. But there were places where editing could had been tighter.

There are few loopholes in the writing, how would Ila's husband not know that the dabba has got changed if he has been daily eating it before. The other one I felt was, Ila began telling about her problems with husband to Saajan bit too early. Maybe few more conversations would had given that space for her to share such private matters.

Love the open ending of the movie, though I would had preferred one additional scene which may not have given away whether Ila and Saajan would had met, but just given a % chance what would happen. As of now, it was equally possible that it may or may not happen. But, I very much like the given end to film too.

There's no song in the movie, except for the one that plays when Dabbawallas journey is shown. Even the background score is used to a minimum. The famous old song 'Mera dil bhi itna pagal hai' is wonderfully used into the narrative. Also, the parrallel songs cut from radio at Ila's house to small kids singing in trains as Saajan returns back to his home.

Irrfan Khan is an outstanding actor, and he shows it once again with his performance as Saajan. The way he looks at the Dabba everytime it comes, the awkward moments he has when his colleague looks at him checking dabba while at work, or when Shaikh keeps disturbing him when he is reading letters. When he tells the reference to 'Yeh jo hai zindagi' serial, the emotional connect in his voice. Or when he tries to avoid Shaikh initially, 'go to my table, and no don't come back'. He is one hell of a great actor, and this film does justice to his talent.

Nimrat Kaur surprises with the kind of great performance she gives in. To be able to match actors like Irfan and Nawazzuddin, speaks of how well she acted. And I always love to see actresses do non-glamarous roles.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is spot on, though initially his character is irritating, as audience you feel the same way Saajan feels for him. Nawazuddin actually gets a scene to overshadow Irfan, when he tells him  'main khud seekh lunga, thank you'. From there on, the kind of bond they both share, was similar to the bond audience shares with him. He still does funnier things, cutting vegetables on office files in train, or not feeling too guilty after getting scolding from boss. But he's now become a likeable character. The wedding scene was super funny when cameraperson asks for 'ladki ki taraf wale ek side, ladki wale dusri side'. Also, that scene where Irrfan scares him about a guy he had pushed onto the bus.


Overall, The Lunchbox is one of best films to come this year, its full of emotions, at times humourous and the three main characters make this less than 2 hour movie very enjoyable. There are close up scenes of food shown at many instances, so the movie might make you feel hungry.

 If you are looking for entertainment, then I am not sure if the movie will satisfy you but if you are looking for a good movie, you won't be dissappointed.


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Movie Analysis : Horror Story

Directed by : Ayush Raina
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3177332


Another Horror movie that makes you laugh more than scare.

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.

With 'Ek Thi Daayan' we tried to do slightly better in horror genre, even though the 2nd half of that movie was a let down. But Vikram Bhatt camp (not as a director this time) is back with the usual cliched story, characters and horror elements, that induce comedy most of the time.

Seven friends meet at a pub at night, they watch a news played on T.V about a haunted hotel whose owner just died. Some of them believe in ghosts, some don't. They decide to go for adventure, by going at the hotel and finding the truth behind the murders happening there since quite a time.

The moment they decided on that, I felt like how idiotic some people could be. Or better way to put it would be, how much eager some people are to die, otherwise why would you risk your life at a place where many have died even if you believe there is no ghost. And still if I agree they had a point to prove, then was it necessary to go at night ? Some story writers don't think about basic things at all.

Most of the actors are new, and almost everyone's voice is dubbed which was another irritating thing to manage. There are few chiling moments, specially the one when the 1st one out of them dies making them realise in what hell they have come. Also, the one where they are holding each other hands. Or when they get a car to move out, only to find that its a trap set for them. And the shot where they are standing at the closed door of hotel looking outside, and cursing themselves for entering inside.

The pre-climax scene where the owner ghost suddenly comes to help a character was super funny, that person didn't care to help anyone else until then, but had a soft corner for the last person left.

One good thing about the movie was, it had no songs.. else the film would had been a torture to go through.


The girl that stays alive, and the two guys that die at last.. these 3 characters gave fair performance, while the 1st guy that died overacted.


Overall, Horror Story has few scary moments, rest of the film only makes you laugh. Even if you have a weak heart, the film won't enter into your favourite horror movie club.


Verdict : POOR

Movie Analysis : John Day

Directed by : Ahishor Solomon
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2699840/


Slow boring thriller, even Naseeruddin Shah couldn't save it.

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 

A thriller that took me for surprise with numerous gore sequences. I for one completely hate to see such films, so wasn't a good experience while watching this movie.

The plot is about John (Naseeruddin Shah) who loses his daughter in an accident when she goes away with her boyfriend. Few years later, he is made to help some robberers at his office where he works, that has something to do with Casablanca Estate related files. His wife as a result is attacked and she goes into coma. John is left to find out what is the mystery behind Casablanca Estate, its the place where his daughter died too. So, are the both events linked and what role police officer Gautam (Randeep Hooda) plays in it.

The movie is narrated at a snail's place. There's a love story of Gautam where his girlfriend remains drunk all the time, and ends up getting some of the worst dialogues of the movie.

The pace is so slow that when the suspense is revealed, it doesn't excite or make any mark on me.

Performances wise, Naseeruddin Shah is okay (which sums up the how the film was). Randeep Hooda hams a lot, its become hard to like his performances ever since Jannat2. Though, his entry sequence where he makes a guy eat excess of Chicken Biryani was perhaps the best scene of the movie. Also, the dialogue 'Tu dal khichdi kha, chicken biryani tere bas ki nahi'. 

Shernaz Patel gets only one scene before going into coma. While Vipin Sharma shines in a corrupt police officer role, providing entertaining dialogues time and again in a otherwise dull movie.

Makarand Deshpande does well in a special apperance.


Overall, John Day is a film I wish I had skipped, dull narration and no performance worth spending time on either.


Verdict : POOR