Movie Analysis : Brothers

Directed by : Karan Malhotra
Imdb link ->  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3802576/

Karan Malhotra destroys another great original movie!

Karan Malhotra’s 2nd movie after Agneepath, and yet another remake, this time a Hollywood movie ‘Warrior’.  When I saw Agneepath, I felt dissappointed, because the vision Karan had was stupid, way too melodramatic and the feel of angst almost removed from the main character. Same happens here, infact in Brothers, there’s a big change in the writing of Monty (Siddharth Malhotra) character, which is played by Tom Hardy in the original. Here, we see Monty not hate his dad (Jackie Shroff), and just has his anger against David (Akshay Kumar) which is also not exploited. Even Monty-David confrontation scene before their final fight isn’t kept. What we instead see is a addition of their mother’s role played by Shefali Shah, and the entire David-Jenny (Jacequeline Fernandes) love story. This clearly shows how haywire Karan Malhotra went, in an attempt to make it melodramatic and highly manipulating emotions through the background theme or the ‘Gaaye Jaa’ song.

Even if you keep aside Warrior for a moment, which I did while watching it 2nd time. Brothers still won’t appeal much and end up more like a routine action drama movie with some decent performances. And that itself is a huge failure yet again for Malhotra. The idea of bringing David in R2F (Right to Fight) as per Karan needs to be done by parallel cutting to the item song of Kareena ‘Mary’. A song that only voyeuristic people would enjoy.

Its just the performances, the anthem song montage showing the practice drills David & Monty go through and the R2F matches that you enjoy in the end. But since Malhotra directs the movie so badly, it just takes away that feeling of ‘Oh no I dont want Monty to lose, and I don’t want David to lose either’ when that final match arrives. Because you just don’t feel anything for Monty’s character especially. Yes writing is to blame, but I would also say Siddharth Malhotra gave a very weak performance too. He could still had made the character work making the film likeable.

Akshay’s performance is easily the best of the lot, why doesn’t this guy keep away from nonsensical comedies and do more of Baby, and these roles. Hard to understand!

You like Jackie Shroff, despite his loud acting. Shefali Shah is brilliant but sadly in a role which shouldn’t had been part of movie even.

Ashutosh Rana role is cut to just some abuse lines (which censors did not mute for some strange reasons), where did the motivating lines go when David fights in every R2F match?

Brothers works for some good fight sequences, and Akshay’s performance. But the soul of the movie is taken away in writing and Karan Malhotra falters 2nd time in a row destroying the essence of the original movie. Its high time that he stops making remakes of great movies.


Verdict : 2/5 

Reviews - July

Some lines on all the new movies I saw last month..



Minions :

The movie starts with a very funny sequence showing minions are in search of a new villain whom they would serve for, but irony is that whenever they find them, they themselves do something unintentionally stupid to lose/kill them.  The celebrations these minions have when they find a new villain, or the trauma they go through when they can’t find any is also hilarious. Three Minions, Kevin, Bob and Stuart go on a journey to New York where they finally find their new master they would serve for, the super villain Scarlet (voiceover by Sandra Bullock) and this is where the film becomes very inconsistent. The scenes involving Minions are very lovable, but same isn’t the case regarding the Scarlet plot that comes out very ordinary. The movie is still pretty entertaining, and has a repeat value thanks to the super cute minions whose way to emote makes you love them a lot. But, had they worked better on the villain part, this would had been a great movie.

Verdict : 2.5/5


Bajrangi Bhaijaan :

I was highly skeptical from the promos, that Kabir Khan might had compromised and made a routine masala movie to please Sallu bhai fans. ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, Kabir’s last with Salman was a pretty good movie that I had liked. But after watching Bajrangi Bhaijaan, I can say Kabir once again made Salman look great, and do something different than his usual action + comedy. Some or rather most of the credit should also go to the writer Vijayendra Prasad, who is father of SS Rajamouli (Bahubali director). Think of it, there’s only one typical Salman action sequence in the entire movie, which is only place where Kabir tried to please sallu fans more, with a heavy slow motion drama.

1st half mostly belongs to Munni(Harshaali Malhotra), her cute expression and way of saying ‘yes’. Kabir Khan also gets Pavan (Salman Khan) - Rasika (Kareena Kapoor) romantic sub-plot done quickly and quite convincingly too. The ‘5 rs’ exchange scene in bus was quite funny, and also when every time Pavan sees a monkey and stops to acknowledge it. If there’s something that bores you in 1st half then its the un-necessary ‘kuk ru ku’ song.

2nd half belongs to Chand (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a Pakistani reporter inspired from a real life reporter. Nawazuddin gets the nuances so perfect, and his way of calling Pavan ‘begum’ was hilarious when he has to get into a burqa while avoiding Pakistani police. Also, when he tells him ‘ki tum toh bol doge, hamara naam pavan hai, hum bajrangbali ke bhakt hai, delhi se aaye hai, taaron ke neeche se aaye hai’, and when he has to pretend against a fake father-in-law. Nawaz gives plenty of enjoyable moments not just with laughs, but with sentiments like when he tries to help Pavan making his story get to some news channel, but all of them deny and his dialogue ‘nafrat aasani se bik jaati hai, mohabbat nahi’. And then the video he creates showing his love for Pavan and Munni, making it go viral on internet.

What doesn’t work however is the climax (not the end scene, the one before that) which is very manipulative. But the end scene is superb, something that could easily make your eyes moist or even make you cry (not the cynics).

In a way you could connect character of Pavan to Salman’s real life.. how he likes to speak truth and gets himself in trouble. Salman gives a very pleasing performance in this movie, the emotional bond he has with Munni and the friendship with a Pakistani reporter. Even his slow motion entry song is well placed and is likeable. Just like his last movie with Kabir, here also his shirtless scenes comes in a blink and miss 3 second scene, which is actually a police interrogation one, so its not forced.

Some comparisons can be drawn with a very good old movie of Rishi Kapoor’s Henna, in which Rishi is helped by a Pakistani girl to reach back to his own country.

One small rant though, they should had cheated properly while showing cricket matches. The movie starts with a cricket match when Shahida/Munni isnt born yet. And then at Pavan’s place, we see Munni watching the same old match live again. Uff!

Nevertheless, Salman-Kabir duo once again gives us a very good movie to enjoy.

Verdict : 3.5/5


Bahubali

When I saw the trailer, I was like what the hell is wrong with people, why they going ga ga over it. Even thought of not watching the movie, but then with all the praise, gave it a go and boy what a big regret it would had been if i had skipped this movie. Now I am addicted to it, seen it numerous times.  Its a visual treat, with spectacular story-telling and a background score that adds emotional layer to the screenplay.

Except for the love-track of Shiva/Bahubali (Prabhas) - Avantika (Tamannah) and the item song Manohari, there’s not a single moment in movie where I lost interest.  And yes, unintentional comedy when Shiva dances after lifting and placing the shivling near waterfall.

I just love the scene when Shiva promises Avantika that he would go and bring Dev Sena (Anushka Shetty) back. And the scene that follows it. Director SS Rajamouli knows how to make a scene  dramatic perfectly (and not over-dramatic), something I associate with Nolan a lot.

Its first time I have seen Rana do a negative role (he’s done only supporting positive roles in hindi movies), and how well it suited him, the first scene of his just confirms that he would nail this role. Infact Prabhas at places faltered when it came to the flashback sequence of Katappa (Satyaraj)

VFX work done is brilliant, makes most of the film looks very real. Be it the opening title of ‘Bahubali’ or the amazing war sequence at the end that keeps you to the edge of your seat.  Also some eye pleasing visuals whether computer generated or by the cinematographer, you feel like being there.

And ofcourse the question, why Katappa killed Bahubali, the answer coming in the 2nd part early next year. Cant wait for it.

Bahubali is easily one of most entertaining masala movies I have seen at such a large scale, that makes sense most of the time and even works in the most cliched moments like the one where Dev Sena continously says ‘mera beta aayaga’ reminding of Karan Arjun. Would had given it a full 5 if the love story and item song weren’t part of movie.

Verdict : 4/5 


Drishyam 

The director Nishikant Kamat strikes back after a very average last movie ‘Force’. You need to be very patient though, as the starting 20-25 mins are used up to build the scenes which would hold a major importance in the main plot that comes in 2nd half. Music could had been better though, specially when its Vishal Bharadwaj as the composer, only carbon copy was likeable but then Kamat uses just two of them in narration.

We get the idea of how a 4th class fail Vijay (Ajay Devgan) who is now a cable operator, has a deep passion of watching movies and learn a lot from it, as seen in a scene where he helps two people get justice.

2nd half is absolutely gripping, the tussle between Tabu and Ajay, both trying to outdo each other at being smart, one through building lies perfectly and the other trying to find the truth in any possible way. And then the two main twists, first one is predictable, but the other one not so. Tabu is terrific as always, but its Ajay who steals the show for me. Kamlesh Sawant is brilliant as a bad cop.

Over-use of 4th class fail dialogues should had been avoided.

Drishyam keeps you to the edge of your seat for major part of 2nd half, with a plot that has no loopholes.

Verdict : 3.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Guddu Rangeela

Directed by Subhash Kapoor
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4684028/

Subhash Kapoor’s weakest movie, writing falters with too many sub-plots.

A movie on Khap Panchayat that also shows the tragic Manoj and Babli real life honor killing incident, and with last films like ‘Phas Gaye Re Obama’ and ‘Jolly LLB’, you expect another winner from Subhash Kapoor. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen!

Two cousin brothers Guddu (Amit Sadh) and Rangeela (Arshad Warsi)  are orchestra singers as well as informants for the local gangs. Guddu wants to become a gangster but Rangeela doesn’t want a dangerous life. In one of the gang act they get caught and the inspector is willing to let them go free if they give him 10 lakhs. An opportunity comes to them,  their friend Ashfaq (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) offers them to kidnap a girl named Baby (Aditi Rao Hydari). But Guddu and Rangeela are un-aware of the motives Ashfaq and Baby have, and how Billu (Ronit Roy) is linked with all of them forms the main part of rest of the story.


Guddu Rangeela tries to do too many things, its a comedy between two characters Guddu-Rangeela ala Ishqiya style with Baby getting involved too later, also it tries to give a social message regarding the dreadful honor killings, and there is a revenge of dead wife/dead sister with culprit being Billu. The movie takes these 3 sub-plots altogether and ends up serving nothing at all.

Remember the terror we felt in NH10 when a brother killed his own sister and sister’s lover. But here, when the Manoj-Babli real life based honor killing scene comes, you feel nothing at all. Subhash actually trims that part a lot, showing a flashback of Rangeela falling in love, getting married, quick encounter with Billu, the escape and then a silly twist to it at the end of movie.

In one of best scenes of movie that is entry scene of Billu, he successfully convinces one of the villagers to kill her daughter who has fallen in love with a different caste guy. Sadly, such powerful scenes are hard to find in rest of the movie. There are two good references in movie, one to a Sholay iconic dialogue and the other on Subhash own movie 'Phas gaye re obama'.

Its the writing that lets Guddu Rangeela down which was the highlight of Subhash Kapoor’s last two movies.

Music is forgettable with only ‘Maata ka Email’ that pleases the ears, infact the song sets the mood up as it comes at opening credits. ‘Sooiyan’ is terribly placed song in narrative, that forcefully tries to build Guddu and Baby romantic angle.


Among the performances, Arshad Warsi gives a good performance but surprisingly the writing doesn’t offer him enough great moments, only one I can think of is when he tells I am hungry and will prefer eating first before dying.

Amit Sadh was my favorite in Kai Po Che, but here he never appeals at all.

Ronit Roy despite being brilliant as Khap Panchayat evil leader in that Haryanvi dialect, gives the deja-vu feel yet again of his performances in Boss, Udaan etc.

Aditi Rao Hydari is decent in her supporting role. Special mention to that inspector who has a very good antakshari sequence, I wish he had more screen-time.

After a impressive performance in D-Day, Sree Swara Dubey is wasted in this movie, including a unintentional funny scene where she out of no-where gives a speech on gang rape, female child death on birth etc.


Guddu Rangeela ends up as Subhash’s weakest movie. It doesn’t work as a comedy movie and isn’t able to give any social message in right way either.


Verdict : 2/5 

Mid-Year Report : 2015

Half the year gone, and how awesome it has been for our Hindi Movies till now. As many as 9 great movies and 4 likable ones. Its Hollywood that hasn’t really given larger dose of good movies which is surprising, maybe they will in rest half of the year.

Bombay Velvet and Hamari Adhuri Kahani have been the major disappointments, and to a certain extent Avengers : Age of Ultron too.


Here’s what I loved most, and what I didn’t…

TOP 3 - HINDI FILMS

1. Badlapur

Brilliant dark thriller by Sriram Raghavan (who disappointed last time with Agent Vinod). Its unpredictable, brutal and insane at times. Nawazuddin is impressive as always, but Varun Dhawan surprises in a new avatar. Some good old movie references used by Sriram in narrative, and very good work by Pooja Ladha Surti in editing department with the unusual but effective fast cuts.


2. NH10

Navdeep Singh so beautifully creates that fear atmosphere right from opening credits. When the road journey begins, you as a audience are more scared for the girl. Infact, the movie serves as a very good horror road journey genre, special applause to the sound design and background score for that. Finally a performance from Anushka Sharma that I loved.


3. Piku

A lovely sweet movie on Father-Daughter relationship that entertains as well as makes you emotional as you think about the question that How much you love your parents even at a age when their habits makes you mad! Special mention to Juhi Chaturvedi for very good dialogue writing. Deepika, Amitabh and Irfan are fantastic in their performances, which aint a surprise. With Piku, Shoojit Sircar completes hat-trick of quality movies.


Other Movies that I loved : Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Tanu Weds Manu Returns.

WORST 3 - HINDI FILMS

1. Roy 

One hell of a boredom this movie was. Director Vikramjit Singh un-necessarily tries to confuse you with the screenplay making it more dull. Arjun Rampal’s performance is likable to some extent. But Roy is second Ranbir Kapoor movie after Anjaana Anjaani that I would not like to remember at all.


2. Hawaizaada 

Ayushmann Khurana tries so hard to imitate Ranbir in this movie, instead of been himself specially that irritating ‘isse shaadi karle’ scene. The plot of 1st plane built by an Indian could easily had been lovable and patriotic too if only it was executed properly. But the boring screenplay that focusses more on love angle doesn’t allow that. Only Mithun gives you some good moments.


3. Alone 

A typical horror movie by our film-makers that has 1 erotic song, plenty of cliche scares that makes you laugh and twists that questions the plot. Bipasha looks super hot, but I am tired of watching her in horror movies now. Karan  Singh Grover chose wrong movie to make a debut with. Only the piano tune used in the movie is likable. 

Other Movies that didn’t work for me : Gabbar Is Back, Khamoshiyan and Tevar. 

TOP 3 : HINDI ALBUMS 

1.  Badlapur

This album is gonna be hard to beat, even for Rahman. Sachin-Jigar’s best work till date with not a single song that doesn’t appeal. My favs were 'Jee Karda’ by Divya Kumar for the angst and revenge feel it carries, ‘Jeena Jeena’ for the beginning vocals of Atif with very less use of instruments and ‘Judaai’ by Rekha Bharadwaj and Arijit Singh for a very lovely emotional song with lyrics that compliment it without overdoing it.  Also love the beats used in ‘Badla Badla’ and Priya’s rendition of ‘Sone Ka Paani’. 

2. Bombay Velvet 

15 Tracks in the album, last Amit Trivedi album that went over 10 songs was Dev.D which I still love madly. With Bombay Velvet, he once again delivers a great soundtrack based on Jazz (something I aint much familiar with). My personal fav is ‘Behroopia’ sung by Mohit Chauhan and Neeti Mohan, that is more of a regular romantic number but with a Trivedi flavor. Love Shefali Alvares ‘Shut Up’ for the way she sings those funny written lyrics. Neeti Mohan is outstanding in ‘Dhadaam Dhadaam’ which was one of best moment in film. Special mention to how she sings ‘Ka Kha Gha’ with anger in last minute of song. Oh how much did I miss Suman Sridhar, as always impresses in re-done track ‘Fifi’. Among the themes, the Bombay Velvet theme was my favorite, I specially love the slow build up part.


3. Detective Byomkesh Bakshy 

Various composers come together to give a album that has some heavy rock metal songs too, something I had never heard before. ‘Chase in Chinatown’ is my most favorite even though it was hard to understand lyrics initially. Saba Azad in ‘Calcutta Kiss’ is also wonderful creating that jazz feel with full effect, and a track that is very catchy. Sneha Khanwalkar’s composition ‘Bach ke Bakshy’ is superb though I wish there was a separate female version for it. Suryakant Sawhney rendition of ‘Jaanam’ is lovely and it slightly reminds me of old track ‘dilbar mere’ from old movie Satte pe Satta.


Other Albums that I quite loved : NH10, Hamari Adhuri Kahani and Dum Laga Ke Haisha.

TOP 3 : HOLLYWOOD FILMS

1. Inside Out 

A very creative take showing how the emotions Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust works inside our brain. Its not the usual animation movie that tries to please the kids, but it caters to the adult audience much more, a very thoughtful movie with good amount of emotional moments. Sadness was my favorite character, loved her walking style and cute way of talking. Love the dining table scene when Joy and Sadness aren’t around, creating a hilarious situation. And liked the message of ‘you can’t be happy 24/7, and its good to show out your sad feelings at times to feel better’. Inside Out is my favorite animation film I have seen till date.


2. Spy 

Hillarious movie, some great dialogues, performances by Melissa (I just lover her comic timing, her best performance I have seen), Jason Statham (he gives laugh out loud moments despite being a cameo doing stupidest things possible), Rose Bryne (looks hot), Miranda Hart (in that 50 cents scene was superb) and Nargis in a comical brilliant action sequence. Good comedy is created through over the top action scenes, specially that WTF moment when Melissa single handedly fights everyone in the final part of movie. Would love if Spy becomes a franchise, a silly way to look at the way agents handle the profession unlike Bond or Bourne series.


3. It Follows

A very good psychological horror movie that doesn’t use the typical cliches to scare you and has a odd premise which makes this movie a great watch. Also the retro old era kinda of music as background works perfectly with the movie setting. Director David uses the main concept and keeps the scare moments waiting. Just need bit of patience for first 15 mins, and then its a very engaging movie that scares you with the thought of when will that thing arrive and David never gives a hint of how to control it that leads to the desperation moment of teenagers thinking of a weird plan to get rid of curse. Also the open ending was nice to see.. Good performance from the lead Maika Monroe.


Other Movies that I loved : Kingsman The Secret Service and Paddington

Movie Analysis : Inside Out

Directed by Pete Doctor & Ronnie Del Carmen
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/

My most loved animation movie till date, full of fun and emotional moments too. 

Young Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) who is 11 years old has to make a fresh start to a new school, new friends and new home as her Dad (Kyle Maclachlan) gets new job in San Francisco. Riley misses old friends, her old home at Minnesota. Her emotions named Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader) controls her, just like it does to any of us.   These emotions live at Headquarters , the control center inside Riley’s mind that tells what next action Riley will have. Joy tries her level best to keep Riley 24 hrs happy including her dreams. But, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger get their way in as Riley struggles to manage at a new place.

The idea of showing all the emotions working together, one trying to interfere with other and causing problems is very creative and they have executed it brilliantly including the looks of all these emotions!

My personal favorite was ‘Sadness’, she always looked like someone no other emotion was fond of (ain’t surprising) and yet how significant she proves to be in life of Riley. And yea, some fun moments too including when she needs to rest and get over the sadness before she can walk again with Joy. I loved most is what they portray with her character in the final parts of movie, that its okay to be sad and show it, instead of trying to be happy all the time.

Most hilarious moment comes when Joy and Sadness are not at Headquarters, and its upto Anger, Disgust and Fear to manage happy thoughts in Riley’s mind which is Joy’s work. And how badly they struggle. The inside brain of Riley parents while having dinner was super fun. Also, watch how all the emotions of bus driver (in end credits) are Anger. Also, the continuous run of chewing gum commercial that tests the temper of Anger.

The choice of voice-overs were so apt, not a single character sounded boring or unreal. Also, the extent to which they expand the entire idea of looking at emotions inside Riley is applaudable. We see islands named after ‘Friendship’, ‘Goofball’, ‘Hockey’ (as Riley loves it)’, ‘Family’ etc. The islands get stronger when Riley has a happy memory related to them, but they can crash too if something negative happens with Riley.  Then there’s the train of thoughts, a dreamland, bing bong (a imaginary friend), and guess what a team actually writes a script for Riley’s dreams and there is a imaginary boyfriend whose only line is ‘I can die for you Riley’.

Inside Out isn’t just full of fun moments, but it also has some lovely emotional side to it too.  Like when Joy realizes the importance Sadness has in Riley’s life. Or when Anger is about to take control from Joy when Riley’s mother’s polite talk with Riley surprises Anger. And the best one when Riley cries and admits to her parents about her current behavior. Also, they carry out the ‘can’t feel any emotion’ scene so well.


What’s good is that Inside Out isn’t just looking to please kids, but this one will get thumbs up from the adults too. Its my most loved animation movie of all the ones I have seen (yet to watch the ones people call classics in this genre). Its a movie that I can watch again and again!

Do watch the end credits for some inside the brain emotions of other characters other than Riley. Also, watch short ‘Lava’ video that is played before start of movie. The song gets repetitive but the visuals make up for it, humorous as well as touchy. 

Verdict : 4.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Insidious Chapter 3

Directed by Leigh Whannell
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3195644/

Least liked chapter of Insidious series, good performances by Lin Shaye and Stefanie Scott

Insidious is one of my favorite franchise (might be surprising for horror fanatics). I loved first two movies, because of the storytelling. Specially the 1st one where the concept of ‘The Further’ comes into notice 1st time. The unnecessary jump scares were very less, though they did that in 2nd movie which was sad, still it was worth a watch for me as there were plenty of nice twists and scare moments.

The 3rd Chapter goes to the events that happened before 1st movie i.e before the hauntings in Lambert family. I would had preferred them to continue from the end of 2nd movie where Elise (Lin Shaye) sees a demon that terrifies her. Instead we have a altogether new story about a teenager girl Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) who tries to connect with her dead mother but ends up calling a dangerous supernatural entity known as ‘a demon who can’t breathe with a mask’. Quinn and her father have to opt for physic help from Elise who herself is recovering from tremors she faces every time she goes into ‘The Further’.


Whannell doesn’t really attempt building story, he directly starts with a scene between Elise and Quinn, as Quinn wants her help to connect with her dead mother. What follows thereafter is, the usual scares like door bang, footprints, neighbor giving hint about demon indirectly etc. There are some good horror moments for sure, atleast for those like me who gets scared easily. One scene where Quinn is lying on floor while the demon shuts doors and switches lights off is scary though they end that scene very tamely, but my fav jump scare moment was when Quinn and her father follow the footprints and look down the road from the window, I almost jumped out of my seat.

What turned me off was the relationship between Quinn and her father, aren’t we tired of watching a family member experiencing supernatural power around while the other member ignores it and not believing it, something ‘The Conjuring’ didn’t do and even 1st two parts of Insidious. Also, there is that lack of emotional connect as Quinn’s father is represented poorly with no significant scene.

I like how they introduce characters of Tucker and Specs, who form a team with Elise eventually as you would know from last 2 parts. Also the climax again has a surprise twist, making you leave theatre thinking where the 4th chapter will lead to.

Another aspect I felt was a let down, was when Elise goes into ‘The Further’, they didn’t make it scary enough, like have lots more of demons and not just that lady who is after Elise. Felt it was less spooky then it should had been.

In the end apart from the good scary moments, it was Lin Shaye’s performance that was likable who gets larger role in this part. Also, Stefanie Scott does well despite a script that is not so pleasing.


Insidious Chapter 3 is the least liked movie in this franchise for me, but if you haven’t liked the 1st two, then who knows this one might work for you, not for me though.


Verdict : 2/5 

Spy and Any Body Can Dance 2 - Reviews

Couldn’t get time to write full fledged reviews,  so posting my views on both the films in few lines only.

Spy

Hillarious movie, some great dialogues, performances by Melissa (I just love her comic timing, her best performance I have seen), Jason Statham (he gives laugh out loud moments despite being a cameo, doing stupidest things possible), Rose Bryne (looks hot), Miranda Hart (in that 50 cents scene was superb) and Nargis in a comical brilliant action sequence. Even good comedy is created through over the top action scenes, specially that WTF moment when Melissa single handedly fights everyone in the final part of movie. The person who Aldo was very good too specially that dialect.

Easily one of my favorite movies of this year. Hope this becomes a franchise, won’t mind watching a silly look at the way agents handle this profession unlike Bond/Bourne series.

Verdict : 4/5 



Any Body Can Dance 2 

Much much better than 1st part with right choice of cast who can dance well and act too. Dance pieces are brilliant, Prabhu Deva’s “should I tell him or show him’ as he showcases those dance moves that leaves everyone in the song including us in audience awestruck, only you wish that the song played was also of the same quality. Bezubaan dance is wonderful as it comes at a keypoint, sadly the middle part that includes water scenes lessened the impact. In Las Vegas, the semis Ganpati act is to watch out for, can’t find a fault in it. Also, the comical Charlie Chaplin dance act. The Final act infact on ‘Vande Mataram’ was a bit disappointing as the level was set too high by then, and also the over-dramatic setting doesn’t help.

Remo tries to insert too much of sympathy early on with those overdose of ‘Cheater cheater’, could had focussed just on main characters I felt. Like that scene where Suresh (Varun Dhawan) connects to his mother while being in pain over the accusation of copying choreography. And what the hell was that dialogue ‘your mother died with her ghunghroos on’. Also, the un-wanted love triangle created with Lauren was so silly which includes 2 of her songs, one that introduces her  and other a dreamy sequence, both should had been cut out. And why did Raghav let his friend make the team suffer in the final act, instead of making sure his dream to be part of Final stays and he takes position in that final formation in such a way that it doesn’t make his cough problem to occur, really Silly just to add drama!

Varun Dhawan’s performance is very good, these are the roles he owns completely. Shraddha can definitely dance well too just like her singing, sadly her acting is still very dodgy, can’t help to repeat what I always say, its her dialogue delivery that always lets down her performance. In supporting cast, Raghav and his friend were very good, specially their intro dance sequences. Also, you can trust Lauren when it comes to dancing, she is one of the best! And in acting too she did fairly well. Prabhu Deva surprisingly, emoted way better than the 1st part, but then maybe because he wasn’t the central character this time.

Any Body Can Dance 2 isn’t a great movie, but its a very good step forward in the franchise (expecting more to come) after the 1st one, if Remo could just keep the cliches aside, and let it be fully dance based!

Verdict : 3/5 

Movie Analysis : Hamari Adhuri Kahani

Directed by : Mohit Suri
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3483612/

Forgettable Mohit Suri movie, Emraan’s performance and music only saving grace. 

I had loved ‘Ek Villain’, and started to think that Mohit Suri is coming close to that magic he created in ‘Awarapan’, but with ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ he takes a step back and gives one of his most forgettable movies.

Vasudha’s (Vidya Balan) husband  Hari (Rajkumar Rao) goes missing after 1 year of marriage. She stays with her son, and keeps waiting for 5 years. She is a florist by profession, and meets Aarav (Emraan Hashmi) who is a famous business tycoon owning over 100 plus hotels. Aarav falls in love with Vasudha, and she does too after hesitating initially thinking about her husband and all the traditions and norms she lived with. But when Hari returns back, it creates a dilemma for Vasudha. A triangular love story, where Emraan plays the positive hero deeply in love, Vidya a wife that has lived a tortured life (shown only through 2-3 flashbacks, thankfully) and Rajkumar who considers his wife as his property rather than loving her.

Mohit Suri continues the similar narration pattern like he did in ‘Ek Villain’, as he reveals the end right at the beginning of movie so that the entire movie works only in a flashback through a diary.  There are those typical Suri elements visible here - God angle, a romantic repeated catchline/moment (Aarav asking Vasudha for a photo always) and the way lovers meet at the end.

Its the script and terribly heavy dialogues written by Shagufta Rafique that never allows you to connect with the story. At interval, you get a uneasy feeling that tells how badly the movie fails to engage you. Suri tries way hard to manipulate, make you sympathize with Vasudha, feel bad for Aarav when Hari returns. It all appears so made up, nothing comes out natural. Even the love story of Aarav-Vasudha is very unconvincing.

The flashback story of Aarav’s mom is hilarious and so is the Shimla sequence, whoever the lady was who played the role totally hammed. And then there was that police inspector who tries to help Aarav in a sequence by saying a line starting with ‘Kaaynaat’ something, but by then I had already lost interest in how the kahani will remain adhuri!

Cinematography by Vishnu Rao is good,  that gives some eye-catching visuals. Raju Singh’s background score is lovable as always.

Music from Mithoon, Ami Mishra and Jeet Ganguly is fantastic. Almost all songs you could hear non-stop, and will stay with you for years. And they are indeed used very well in the narrative, specially ‘Humnava' my most fav track. Title track gives one of movie’s most emotional moment but spoiled at the end with a cliched visual.

In performances, its Emraan Hashmi who shines the most, he looks wonderfully good and emotes brilliantly through his eyes. I almost felt bad coming out of theatre thinking he would have another bad film to his name despite his own performance being so good.

Vidya Balan only gets one powerful scene, where she bursts out at Hari, coming out of her crying and remaining silent avatar. Her character is so badly written that even she couldn’t pull off a performance to admire. Sad that Vidya Balan has gone missing ever since Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani happened.

RajKumar Rao has lesser role, but his character of a husband treating wife badly has been done many times before, and thereby never interested me. Being a fan of his acting, he still didnt disappoint specially the scene where he is in utter shock and fear when he sees how much Vasudha has changed and transformed from what she used to be once.


Hamari Adhuri Kahani had great music, three very good lead actors and yet it fails to make any mark at all. Except for some good romantic moments, its a movie that should be skipped.


Verdict : 2/5 

Movie Analysis : Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Directed by : Anand L Rai
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140465/


Kangana’s terrific double role performance, 2nd half falters in writing but still very entertaining movie. 

Anand L Rai has been a director whose movies haven’t clicked for me. They (Tanu Weds Manu, Ranjhanaa) had pretty interesting premise, but all faltered in 2nd half. Unfortunately, Tanu Weds Manu Returns follows the same path but good thing is this movie still holds you together till the end, leaving aside the cliched climax.

Four years after their marriage, Tanu (Kangana Ranaut) and Manu (R. Madhavan) have grown apart from each other due to their regular fights and the missing love. Tanu returns back to her hometown Kanpur and starts living her old wild flirty life meeting ex boyfriends. While Manu accidentally catches glimpse of Tanu’s look-alike, Kusum in his hometown Delhi, who is a young college going athlete. Manu is attracted towards Kusum and eventually falls in love with her. Tanu wants to get Manu back in her life, but Manu wants to marry Kusum, and there’s Raja Awasthi (Jimmy Shergill) linked to these 3 characters too.

If you have seen the first part of this movie, then you would know that Tanu-Manu never really looked like a couple whose marriage would last long. The writer doesn’t waste time in showing their fights, starting movie directly with a psychiatrist scene where both crib about their boring and un-successful marriage. What starts off as a hilarious scene, ends in a bizarre way with Manu getting locked up in the mental asylum. A small indication of how Tanu Weds Manu Returns too will have many doses of stupid illogical moments.

Till the 1st half, the movie is very enjoyable. Tanu’s flirty avatar laden with hidden feelings for Manu, and gutsy Kusum’s non stop haryanvi dialogues makes for a entertainment ride.

There was a great chance for the writer to play around with Manu’s feelings for Kusum, their age gap,  and the desire of Tanu to get him back. Instead we see a kidnapping sequence, where the person kidnapped goes missing in the movie until the end credits begin, really? Also, there’s a scene of Kusum’s brother (Rajesh Sharma) giving a lecture on women empowerment, what was the need of even showing Kusum’s village.

Do watch the end credits scenes of various characters, quite funny and maybe a hint too at 3rd movie of franchise.

Despite the problems with 2nd half in terms of writing, whats applaudable is the fact that it still entertains you fully and special mention goes to the dialogue writer Himanshu Sharma who has written some amazing one-liners.

Music by Tanishk-Vayu is top class, every song is aptly used into the narrative. Watch out the emotions of Tanu in ‘Move On’ when she madly dances in an unknown baraat on road, and walks away with teary eyes. Or ‘Ghani Baawri’, dancing in front of Manu at his 2nd marriage, pouring out her feelings. Whereas ‘Banno’ and ‘Old School Girl’ shows the vibrant as well as romantic side of Kusum.

Anand Rai uses few old classic songs into the movie very well, specially ’Sun Saahiba Sun' opening credits one that gives you a fantasy movie feel which is quickly removed with the 4 years after scene. Also, ‘Ja ja bewafaa’ where Tanu walks all alone at night after knowing how much desperate Manu is to get married again. Thats the scene where you could see her completely broken and how miserable she feels.

Special mention to the scene where Manu’s father is explaining him the pros of living with wife, finding ways to manage it, while Manu’s mother in background is blabbering her anger against Tanu.

In the performances, its Kangana all the way. She owns the movie to such a extent that you could even end up enjoying the movie with all its flaws like a typical Salman movie. Love the scene where Kusum frankly asks Manu if he is following her or her friend, and the beating she gives after the answer was hilarious. Also, the wonderful reply she gives to Tanu at her village place. I felt Kangana’s dialogue delivery was not upto the mark throughout the movie in 1st part, but in Tanu Weds Manu Returns, there’s never that problem. It may not be as memorable as Queen, but definitely among her top performances in career.

Madhavan is way too restrained in the movie once again, not his fault though, felt his character gets very less chances to outperform Kangana.

Jimmy Shergill gets some of best one liners in the movie “yahan ek baari ghodi pe chadhna naseeb nahi hua, yeh saale toh ghodi pe hi ghoom rahe hai tabse’,  ‘Inhe original, duplicate.. sab inko hi chahiye’, and also that ambuja cement dialogue.  Also liked how they fitted him into a situation that is like a complete life circle for him, making the scenes involving him humorous.

Deepak Dobriyal is over the top but still hilarious and gives you plenty of laughs. If there’s a 3rd movie in franchise, then I would like his setting with Komal happen.

Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub is humurous inspite of a very small role. However, didn’t like that part where he tries to split relationship of Tanu and Manu. The scene where he refers to himself as ‘kandha’ when Raja asks, was very funny.

Eijaz Khan and Swara Bhaskar are sadly wasted in this movie unlike the 1st part. Love Ejiaz’s dialogue to Manu asking him why did he fall in love again with same looking face like Tanu.


Tanu Weds Manu Returns is a entertaining movie, it falters in writing department at places mainly 2nd half but you can easily leave it aside and enjoy double delight performance of Kangana Ranaut.


Verdict : 3.5/5 

Journey of Actors : Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Last Updated on : 19th May, 2015

My most Loved Movies :
Gangs of Wasseypur > Kahaani > Badlapur > The Lunchbox > Talaash

Disliked Movies :
Aatma, Miss Lovely

Yet to Watch :
Seen all where he had big enough role. Liar’s Dice I guess hasn’t released in India yet?

Fav Songs :
Kaala rey (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Moora (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Emosanal Atyachar (Dev.D)

Best Scene :
Sabka Badla Lega (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Congratulating watchman (Bombay Talkies), Permisan (Gangs of Wasseypur I)

Fav Jodi :
Huma Qureshi in Gangs of Wasseypur and Badlapur.


Nawazuddin Siddiqui has become a famous name in Hindi Film Industry at present, but his journey to fame was full of struggle.

In 1999, his first movie ‘Sarfarosh’ came with Aamir in which he played an extra (a criminal). And then followed a series of movies, ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ (pick-pocketer), ‘Black Friday’ (interrogation scene with kay kay menon), 'Dev D' (remember the 2 singers performing emosanal atyachar song on stage, he was one of them), ‘New York’(excellent two min monologue) and ‘Peepli Live’ (a journalist). In all these movies, he hardly had 3-5 mins screen time.

The transition from blink and miss roles to supporting/lead roles happened for him after 13 years, i.e 2012. 'Paan Singh Tomar' had him in a negative shade (police informer) getting good appreciation and then came ‘Kahaani’ where he held his own as the short tempered IB officer, despite presence of Vidya Balan, and it was his 1st role where he was smartly dressed in suits.

But the movie that changed his career completely was 'Gangs of Wasseypur I & II'. How well he lived upto the standards set by Manoj Bajpayee in 1st part, telling us that he has the capability to carry the film on his own. I can never forget that dialogue ‘baap ka, dada ka, sabka badla lega tera faisal’ or that epic ‘permisan’ scene with Huma Qureshi with whom he shared excellent chemistry on screen.

He got good recognition for ‘Miss Lovely’, based on 1980’s sleazy C grade horror movies and it got screened at various festivals including Cannes and Toronto. Nawazuddin got a chance to work with Aamir again in ‘Talaash’ albeit in a much longer supporting role and he didn’t let us down here either.

Dibakar Banerjee’s short film in ‘Bombay Talkies’ had Nawazuddin reciting famous hindi film dialogues in one of film’s longest wide shot scene, and the story of short is relatable to Nawazuddin’s real life.











His film ‘Lunchbox' might had even won a oscar had our film federation been sensible by sending movie to oscars. Nevertheless, the film had Nawazuddin in a very good supporting role where he outshines Irrfan Khan in some scenes - can you imagine that?





He didn't limit himself to just character roles, by doing a horror flick ‘Aatma’ which didn’t work but was a good experience to see him in a different genre. He also tried commercial cinema with ‘Kick’ where for first time we saw him doing a larger than life role and hamming completely with that evil laugh quite effectively, though I would certainly like him not fall in this commercial trap, and do it only once a while.

His latest offering ‘Badlapur’ has met with unanimous applause for his performance.

Nawazuddin tends to play realistic characters with ease along with dark comic touch and mannerisms he provides. He may not have the good looks, but as he mentioned once in a  interview ‘good looks can make you hero, not actor’.

It would be fun to see him in a cop role chasing Shahrukh in Rahul Dholakia’s upcoming film ‘Raaes’. Also keenly awaiting to see him in ‘Haraamkhor’.






Special Mention : Watch a terrific short film named ‘Bypass’ that was shot in 2003, its a 15 min duration movie with no dialogues and Irrfan is also part of it. Here’s the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCRBY9ss-58

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Movie Analysis : Bombay Velvet

Directed by : Anurag Kashyap
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2979920/


Anurag Kashyap can go wrong too, poor screenplay lets the film down. 

10 years in the making, a Anurag Kashyap movie with Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in main leads, it would increase expectations of anyone who has followed Kashyap cinema closely. However, Bombay Velvet ends up as a major disappointment.

Its early 60’s of Bombay and Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) wants to become a big shot. From earning a living through street fighter along with his friend Chiman (Satyadeep Mishra), they become henchmen for  Kaizad Khambhata (Karan Johar) who is editor of ‘Torrent’ and also a top wheel-dealer. Kaizad has a liking for Johnny and makes him in-charge of his club ‘Bombay Velvet’. Jimmy Mistry (Manish Chaudhury), editor of ‘Glitz’ and former friend of Kaizad, keeps coming in their way. And then there’s Jimmy’s mistress Rosie (Anushka Sharma) who he sends to Johnny and find an important negative that could ruin the entire city. Rosie becomes a Jazz singer at Bombay Velvet but eventually falls in love with Johnny too. Will Johnny succeed in becoming a Big Shot, and what will he do when he finds out the truth about Rosie?

Based on Gyan Prakash's book ‘Mumbai Fables’, there is so much to love in Bombay Velvet. For instance the brilliant production design by Sonal Sawant. The sets created in Sri Lanka gives you the feel of Bombay in 50’s and 60’s shown in the movie. Niharika Khan’s costumes reminds of good old mobster movies like Scorsese’s Goodfellas, he even gets a special mention before opening credits. Amit Trivedi’s soundtrack brings out the Jazz world post independence beautifully, and so does his background score. Also, Hollywood editor Thelma Schoonmaker (known most for her Scorsese edited movies) edits the movie pretty nicely.

But a movie can’t simply work on basis of technical brilliance. Its the screenwriting and Kashyap’s execution that fails the movie. Yes even Kashyap got it wrong. The screenplay is so shaky that it never engages you after the 1st act of establishing the characters is done.  The second act and the climax is disappointing, even the Tommy Guns homage to Scarface in few sequences makes no impact whatsoever. And it frustrates you a hell lot because the visuals are stunning, the atmosphere is well created and there are actors who give very good performances, yet it turns out to be not enough at all.

Johnny-Rosie love story is weakly handled thereby the chosen end to it doesn’t really affect you. Would had been better if they focussed on the crime drama and the political angle more instead. There’s a unwanted twin angle, a character trying to split two friends, climax involving strange funny villain-lead actor interaction, all these cliches in a Kashyap movie pretty much sums up Bombay Velvet.

Amit Trivedi’s music is fantastic, and is used in the narrative very well.  ‘Dhadaam Dhadaam’ stands out for the emotions and intensity Anushka brings out in it plus the drama Kashyap sets in that sequence. ‘Fifi’ different version used is good too. So, is ‘Sylvia’ again for Anushka’s lip syncing. Special mention to ‘Aam Hindustani’ track at opening credits which sets the mood for Jazz beautifully. My personal favorite ‘Bombay Velvet theme’ is used aptly at many places in narrative.

In the performances, Ranbir Kapoor is fantastic as power hungry protagonist,  watch the scene where he watches a movie on screen and later practices those two keywords in mirror ‘Big Shot’. Or when he decides to betray Kaizad without worrying about its aftereffects,  or when he loses someone very dear to him due to his decisions. Wish they worked on his greed angle in detail. Its sad that such a performance goes down wasted due to a bad movie.

Anushka Sharma gets the Jazz singing act perfectly, but its her character sketch that is inconsistent, for instance her first violent scene comes out of no where and you never come to know when and how exactly she fell in love with Johnny. Could had been great if her character was given more motives.

Karan Johar in his first major role as an actor (seen before in films like DDLJ), that too in a negative role does reasonably well, and is surprisingly so restrained. Watch out the scene where he is in conversation with Johnny and Chimman, and has to come out of room to have a loud laugh all alone. There are hints of homosexual behavior in just  a few scenes, one of its dialogue gives a good laugh too.

Raveena Tandon makes a special appearance, surprisingly was expecting a cameo, probably edited out. She looked extremely gorgeous in the jazz singer looks.

Kay Kay Menon is terribly wasted, and gets some of worst possible dialogues along with that unusual last scene.  Only Satyadeep Mishra shines among the rest cast, playing friend of Johnny effectively.


Bombay Velvet works only for its performances and specially the technical aspects but you expect lot more from a Kashyap movie. In the end he is also human, as his most ambitious movie turns out to be very much forgettable.


Verdict : 2.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Piku

Directed by : Shoojit Sircar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3767372/

Lovely and sweet take on Father-Daughter relationship by Shoojit with excellent performances by all 3 leads. 

After giving successful and quality films like Vicky Donor and Madras Cafe, Shoojit Sircar is back with yet another terrific movie Piku.

An architect by profession, Piku’s (Deepika Padukone) day begins and ends with her father’s, Bhaskor (Amitabh Bachchan) highly irritating ideologies. They are Bengalis living in CR Park of Delhi. Rana (Irrfan Khan), is owner of Taxi company, whose taxi Piku always books for office or any other places she needs to go. And all the drivers are scared of her, because of her arrogant nature. Bhaskor decides to go on a road trip basically to his ancestral home in Kolkata, and Rana finds himself tangled into the trip as his drivers don’t turn up on the morning. And so begins the journey from Delhi to Kolkata, with Rana, Piku, Bhaskor, their servant and a special chair.

In the first scene of the movie, Shoojit shows a conversation between Piku and her dad, where she asks him to go inside toilet instead of roaming around house, to which he replies that he knows his system much better, she tries again but to no avail and annoyingly leaves for her office, and its followed by 'directed by' credits. Quite a wonderful way of telling viewers what kind of relationship to expect between Piku and her dad. Piku’s dad has a fixed thinking over various matters and has habit of bringing his constipation topic into the talks. While Piku shows frustration at not having her own life, with a child-like dad who even sends her office receptionist conspitation related message. She has no social life, and her dad doesn’t want her to get married because according to him marriage is meant for girls who have no I.Q.

What is beautiful about this movie is the subtle way Shoojit handles moments that in any other movie would be either very dramatic or over the top. For e.g., the romantic pairing of Piku and Rana comes across as very real despite no scene where they both admit love for each other. Infact, there are times when you think ‘Now they will, its surely going to go that way’, but it doesn’t. Add to it, the climax is so surprisingly good and unique to describe it in best way.

If you got a father who is ageing, who likes to stick to his beliefs and irritates you, would you stay together with him, or leave him because you also demand your own social and personal space? The movie touches this subject, but it never preaches us as we see Piku give her everything for her father whom she loves even though we see her get angry on him many times.

The plot of movie is pretty simple but its the narrative that keeps you hooked with excellent screenplay and dialogue writing by Juhi Chaturvedi. She gives us characters about a typical Indian family who are very relatable and whose conversations leads to many joyous and interesting moments.  Dialogues are witty at times, but always realistic making the conversations delight to watch.

In one of the scenes, Bhaskor gives reference to her daughter as ‘She is financially, emotionally and sexually independent'. And there’s a scene where Bhaskor is singing a Bengali song during road trip, with Rana driving as Bhaskor tells Rana meaning of song since being a non-bengali he (and we viewers) wouldn’t know. He tells its meaning ‘this journey should never end’, and Rana quickly tells him to change song ‘koi aisa gaana gao jiska koi matlab ho’.

Anupam Roy’s music and background score is simple and gels well with Shoojit’s vision. Bezubaan, the best track of movie has the cinematographer Kamaljeet Negi showing us some very good shots of Kolkata. No song is used in totality, as Shoojit uses them in background mainly.

Only low points of the film would be, the bengali accent at places was missing and the 2nd half was slightly on slower side though the screenplay and performances negates that to larger extent.

Performances wise, the trio Deepika, Amitabh and Irrfan are fantastic. Its a dream star-cast, and as expected they didn’t falter even in a single scene. Deepika Padukone gets larger screen time, and its one of her best performance outdoing ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’.  Amitabh Bachchan is so lovable in a role where he plays his own age, and behaves like a child like character who gets sad to know that nothing bad came out in his medical reports. Irrfan Khan may have lesser dialogues, but his body language is enough to impress. His unusual pairing with Deepika works so well specially the silent moments he shares with her, he effortlessly brings a smile on your face.

Moushumi Chatterjee is in top form playing Piku’s maternal aunt role with utmost ease. Good to see her in a hindi movie after a long gap. Jishu Sengupta is effective too in his small role, playing partner of Piku at her work place.


Piku is a lovely sweet movie that you will enjoy. Its entertaining and at times it also makes you emotional. With powerful performances by everyone, its a movie to be watched in theatre. In 10 years time, Piku would be talked along with classics like Golmaal, Angoor, Chupke Chupke etc.


Verdict : 4/5 

Sneak Peek : Piku - Father-Daughter Jodis in Hindi Movies

With Piku releasing tomorrow,  lets have a look at some of best Father-Daughter Jodi’s in our movies since 1990 (seen very less movies before that).



1. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge 

Amrish Puri - Kajol
Amrish played a very strict father to Kajol, who would believe that his daughter would never disagree or hurt his feelings. That was the time when Amrish Puri was most likable actor in father roles (before Amitabh took over). And who can forget that dialogue ‘Jaa simran jaa, jee le apni zindagi’.


2. Maine Pyar Kiya 

Alok Nath - Bhagyashree
Bhagyashree was like that sweet and innocent daughter, with Alok Nath coming to her rescue in a scene where Salman’s family questions her status. Apart from that, another scene that I love is when Alok realizes Salman is perfect guy for his daughter. I know these days Alok Nath is just a person to make fun of for those sanskaar jokes, but for me he remains as one of very good actors our Industry has had, this movie just a small e.g. of it.


3.  Gupt 

Paresh Rawal - Kajol
So here was a father who tried every possible way to protect and hide his daughter’s wrong doings. He even  takes the blame of murders she commits on himself. Kajol’s performance in negative role was widely praised, and Paresh Rawal was quite effective too.


4. Kya Kehna

Anupam Kher - Preity Zinta
Priety played role of a pregnant girl whose lover refuses to marry her. There was the routine drama ‘what will society say’ scene from Anupam when she decides to give birth to the child. Anupam Kher’s love for her daughter was seen in one of best scenes of movie where he gets angry at Priety’s brothers for keeping her chair at dining table, and few minutes later he apologizes to them as they start finding her together. Easily one of those films where father-daughter plot had a bigger part to play.


5. Mohabbatein 

Amitabh Bachchan - Aishwarya Rai
Although they both shared very less screen-time in movie, it was so lovely to watch the duo together. She plays role of a girl who falls in love with a guy from Gurukul that is run by his father. The same ‘You can’t love/marry someone against my wish’ comes into play.  Love the final emotional scene in the flashback where Aishwarya kills herself telling she can never betray his father but she can’t live without him either. Special mention to how beautiful Aishwarya looked in the Indian attire in this movie.



Most of these movies have Father-Daughter relationship as sub-plots, but Piku looks like completely based on it from its excellent promos and could well be the movie to talk about in future if it turns out to be very good.

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Dialogue Promos : Bombay Velvet

With 10 days to go for the release of the film … Three new Dialogue Promos of Bombay Velvet are out ..

1st one has Vivaan Shah dialogue with shots of Ranbir-Anushka fights.



2nd covers the main theme, and Ranbir’s ‘Naaice to meet you’ line. New shot of Karan too.



3rd has a fun conversation between Ranbir and Anushka that is pretty non-interesting, could well do with chopping this one off the film.

Trailer : Hamari Adhuri Kahani

The story is based on real life love triangle between parents of Mahesh Bhatt and his stepmother.

I am slightly disappointed with the trailer, as I didn’t knew Rajkumar Rao would be playing a husband who treats his wife (played by Vidya Balan) badly, and tortures her. Plus, the starting dialogues of Emraan Hashmi are soooooo loud, why?

Leaving that asides, the trailer is still pretty likable. There’s that very good romantic feel in the scenes of Emraan-Vidya, good chemistry they share which was visible even in ‘The Dirty Picture’ as well as ‘Ghanchakkar’.

Also, the emotional side to Vidya’s story, although its slightly manipulative due to that husband character they have put on, but the dialogues are very good ‘yeh raatein mujhe ghere huye hai, kya tum mujhe mera ateeth bula sakte ho’.

And then, there is reliable music of Mithoon and Jeet Ganguly, the title track used in trailer sounds good, will have to wait for its promo though to make a proper opinion.

Important movie for Emraan and Vidya, whose films in last 2 years haven’t been memorable at all.

Hoping director Mohit Suri delivers a great romantic movie this time, something on the lines of ‘Awarapan’, his last three movies did give a hint that he is coming closer to it.


Isse jyada takleef kya hogi mujhe ki maut nahi, zindagi daraati hai tumhe… 
Akelapan nahi, pyar daraata hai tumhe!
Nahi kar sakti pyaar, kuch mehsoos nahi kar sakti.

Movie Analysis : Gabbar is Back

Directed by : Krish
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2424988/

Not a good follow-up to Baby, yet another forgettable Akshay movie. 

We saw Akshay Kumar in ‘Baby’ just 3 months back, and how much did we loved him doing that movie. One look at his filmography and you would notice that his best films are followed with 2-3 bad movies. The pattern continues here, as ‘Gabbar is Back’ fails to make any mark.

Aditya (Akshay Kumar) is a professor at National college where he teaches his students how to fight against corruption. Its a college where police is not allowed inside, yes! Aditya’s mission is much bigger, he is a vigilante in the name of ‘Gabbar’ (the iconic Amjad Khan character from Sholay) who wants to kill the most corrupted government officials just to create his terror amongst them and eliminate corruption from the system. Is Gabbar doing all this just to help the youth, or there are more reasons behind his actions?

Why would you reveal entire action scenes through graphics right at the opening credits? Then you see Shruti Hassan being a lawyer knowing how to deliver a pregnant woman’s kid in a car. There are higher ranked police officers who sit in Police Station and do nothing to find Gabbar, except for constantly making fun of constable Sadhu (Sunil Grover), and there are Samosa/chutney jokes.  Gabbar hangs dead bodies high up in air in public places, but no one ever notices, how come? Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) who plays a industrialist, keeps shouting one dialogue ‘I am the brand’.  And he invites people at his birthday party with his face masks on them knowing Gabbar is looking to find a way to reach to him, wow so smart! Also, his performance was way too loud. I can go on and on with the loopholes.

The only scene worth praise was the hospital one where Gabbar deals with corrupted doctors in best possible manner.

Many cliches like cameo of Kareena Kapoor Khan involving  a flashback sequence which only reduces the impact of ‘Gabbar’ angle or Shruti-Akshay romantic angle that doesn’t work too, infact I am still wondering why was she even in the film. Also, the social message is carried out with a long preaching dialogue sequence. And there’s a very comical building collapse scene too.

Since 'Gabbar is Back’ is a remake of Tamil movie, Ramanaa, we see plenty of south style action which isn’t new to us. The background score is loud, but the reworked 'Sholay Gabbar’ signature tune used at various places is a respite to ears. Rajat Arora once used to give powerful punchlines, his dialogues are again a huge disappointment in this movie, the only one that stays with you is ’naam se villain, kaam se hero’.

Music by Yo Yo Honey Singh, Chirantan Bhatt and Manj Musik is ordinary with only ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ track that sounds okay, while there is a regressive item song ‘kundi na tharkaayo’ which features Chitrangada Singh, a fine actress busy doing these songs these days, what a pity!

Sunil Grover impresses the most among plenty of T.V actors in the movie, might just help him get good supporting roles in future which would be really nice.

Govind Namdev, Nikitin Dheer and Jaideep Ahlawat are wasted in the movie.

Akshay Kumar is always lovely to watch in action oriented plots with perfect dose of humor, his beard look is pretty good too but I wasn’t pleased with his dialogue delivery that looked more filmy than real, and it didn’t help either that some of those  dialogues were Amjad Khan’s famous lines. Yet he lets you survive the film till the end, a statement very common with his movies more often than not.


'Gabbar is Back’ is a movie that has no logic, no romantic plots to emotionally invest in and it entertains in small parts only. Watch if you are a die hard Akshay Kumar fan, else skip it.


Verdict : 1.5/5 

Missed Reviews (Jan-Apr) - Hindi Movies

I hate to say this, but it has happened again.. missed writing on time and so here are my views on all the films I saw in few lines. There are films which deserve a complete review, and I certainly will do so whenever I re-watch those movies.

There will be spoilers in every movie post, so be careful.. read at your own risk only!


Baby :

Akshay likes doing 1-2 surprise movies where not just his performance but the film can be praised too and Baby falls in that category. Based on covert Counter Intelligence Unit, Ajay (Akshay Kumar) is part of an elite team whose job is to stop the terrorists who are a threat to India. Entire 1st half is consumed in setting all the characters with one un-necessary sub-plot of Ajay and his wife (Madhurima Tuli). The director Neeraj Pandey has this weird habit of spoiling movies with un-necessary romantic drama, remember Special Chabees, how the brilliant Manoj-Akshay tussle impact was affected with Akshay’s love for Kajal. Same happens here,  ‘Main pyar nahi karti’ melodramatic song and to make the matters worse, Ajay’s wife says dialogues like ‘bas marna mat’ again and again in movie. Phew! Keeping her aside, there’s not much to complain in this movie. 2nd half is edge of seat thriller, and does remind you of Argo a lot. Ofcourse they changed a lot to that, with a patriotic touch to it which to be frank I didn’t like. I would had liked the inspector go after the team and fail with the flight take off in time, a valid argument here would be that it would had been ditto Argo climax. Anupam Kher’s cameo is brilliant. Special mention however to Tapsee Pannu who totally surprises you in a very unexpected action sequence. Kay Kay Menon is kinda of wasted, Danny Denzongpa scenes with Murli Sharma were hilarious, specially when Akshay slaps Murli and later Murli is scared at his sight. Baby is worth a watch, if you liked Special Chabees then most likely you will like or love Baby too.
Verdict : 3.5/5


Rahasya :

Surprisngly good movie as the trailer looked average to me, plus I am more keen to watch Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Nyoda’ which is also on Aarushi murder case. Actually, Rahasya is loosely based on that incident, it does show a young girl murdered with her father accused and the police doing very loose job making CBI enter i.e Sunil (Kay Kay Menon). But the amount of fiction added is larger, plus the real culprit and its reasons comes as a surprise too. Kay Kay Menon is ofcourse the scene stealer, and good to see him in such a big role after quite a while. Climax is a let-down but still definitely a film that can be seen once. And yea, there are no songs in the entire movie, if I remember correctly.
Verdict : 3/5


Hawaizaada :

One of the most boring movies I have seen this year. It looked like Ayushmann Khurana was trying hard to imitate Ranbir as the lover boy, instead the scenes became utterly hilarious specially that scene ‘isse shaadi kar le’. Pallavi Sharda is much better in her performance after the debacle of Besharam. But its Mithun Chakraborty who gives some good fun moments. The plot of 1st plane built by an Indian had in it to be atleast a very good movie if not classic. But the first time director Vibhu Virender Puri needs to learn a lot about film-making and specially building a screenplay that doesn’t put audience to sleep. Even the music was a big let down, only ‘Maazaa my Lord’ was a decent track. Hawaizaada is pretty much avoidable movie, only Ayushmann fanatics will disagree.
Verdict : 1/5


Khamoshiyan :

The start of this movie till the end of ‘Kya khoya’ track made me think this could be a good horror movie, but not so as the movie from that point on derails down heavily. Sapna Pabbi irritates with her poor acting, she does look pretty hot though. The usual cliches of horror begins, and you know where they will be taking story. Gurmeet Choudhary actually suited the negative role a lot, unfortunately he got very less screen time. I have liked Ali Fazal in past films, like Fukrey and Bobby Jasoos but in this movie he fails to impress. The best thing about the movie, which isn’t new with a Bhatt camp horror movie, is the music, almost all songs are pleasant to listen to, and actually give you a good breather from the not so interesting plot. The wait for a good hindi horror movie continues.
Verdict : 1.5/5


Shamitabh :

A very good performance oriented movie, where Dhanush matches the scale of Amitabh Bachchan so well. Watch out how Daanish (Dhanush) shows his passion for movies in the track ‘Ishq e fillum’. R.Balki gets the humor spot on, as long as you accept the scientific solution shown for Daanish getting a voice in form of Amitabh (Amitabh Bachchan). The jealousy Amitabh goes through, for being rejected as hero once due to his looks, and now its his voice being a reason for Daanish success is to watch for.  The part where Daanish and Amitabh separate their ways due to the disagreement to each other’s way of working, and then try to work their way alone could had been avoided. I mean why show so much of both trying to make a unsuccessful movie and then let Akshara (Akshara Hassan) teach them why both are failing, and why their ego is not letting them say sorry to each other. Just like happens in Band Baaja Baaraat. They work best in team, and fail miserably when do on their own. The climax you can say is too emotional, I don’t think its bad though. But yea, I wasn’t happy with the way R.Balki reached to that part. All the songs that looked very average, are fun to listen with the movie. Amitabh’s performance is very good, specially good to see him in drunk role after quite a while. Akshara Hassan looks cute, and acts fine but her hairstyle was kinda of irritating to see, wonder how she manages it. Shamitabh ain’t as good as R.Balki’s last movie Paa, but with the kind of irritating trailers it had, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a good movie in the end.
Verdict : 3/5


Roy :

Okay, this one beats Hawaizaada too in boredom. Yes the trailer wasn’t good but still Ranbir Kapoor movie, you don’t expect this. Why the hell did he sign this movie, I didn’t mind Besharam at all. Only other movie of Ranbir I hated to see him do was Anjaana Anjaani. Director Vikramjit Singh was hell bent on confusing the narrative, making it hard to know what is real and what is reel as he shows one story of Kabir, film director (Arjun Rampal) and Ayesha, documentary director (Jacqueline Fernandez). Other one of Roy, a theif in Kabir’s film (Ranbir Kapoor) and a look alike of Ayesha who falls in love with Roy in the Kabir’s film (not in real). So, the question is, all this confusion was necessary? A huge No! Forget Roy, even the movie Kabir makes was looking utterly crap, with a weirdly done action scene. The songs are good though, not talking of the over-rated ‘Tu hai ke nahi’, hate that track. But the other ones are pretty good! Arjun Rampal was pretty good in his performance, if the script and screenplay were good, it would had got noticed much more. Jacqueline looked uncomfortable to me, in a role that was harder for her to do. Lets just hope this is the last time we saw Ranbir in such a bad movie.
Verdict : 0.5/5


Dum Laga Ke Haisha :

Give us this Ayushmann Khuranna (Prem) more often, how good it was to see him in a character that speaks shuddh hindi. Also, the entire movie shooting happened in Haridwar. The other limelight of the movie was actress Bhumi Pednekar (Sandhya) who is so impressive in her debut, and how often do you see an actress gain weight for her 1st role as lead. And then there is the brilliant supporting cast of Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa and others. Love the scene when Sandhya-Prem keep changing the songs on cassette. How cool it was to see the opening credits with Kumar Sanu song as Prem plays a fanboy of Sanu, and Prem working at his cassette shop, rewinding us back to the 90s era when there was no cds or cd players. Also, the music by Anu Malik was a huge plus, specially Moh Moh ke dhaage. And the climax gets a huge lift by the inspiring voice of Kailash Kher with Nooran Sisters chorus in the title track during that lifting your wife competition and running.  I liked how they changed the track into the male version of Moh Moh ke dhaage once the race got over, that feeling of joy and love was wonderfully done. Yash Raj movies are definitely on a high these days, attempting projects you least expect coming out from them, lets just hope the pattern continues.
Verdict : 4/5


NH10 :

I had seen director Navdeep Singh’s last movie Manorama Six Feet Under, which I found way too slow despite being engaging. So, was worried if NH10 would go the same way, but its not the case, except for a very long opening credits which was good to watch too as Navdeep starts to build the atmosphere. Thats the beauty of this film, Navdeep is so good at creating that fear atmosphere even before the road journey of Meera (Anushka Sharma) and Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam) begins, the mood is already set. One must applaud the sound design for it, the background score and also the fact that Navdeep never changes the track of story after that well done night scene of Meera where she just escapes death. By now you know that Meera is going with Arjun on a trip with her mind-set not good, as seen by that swimming scene or the comment passed by a office colleague. Mostly I expected from the trailer that the bad incident happens due to Satbir (Darshan Kumaar) at NH10 road after Gurgaon, but it turns out to my surprise that it was Arjun’s ego that took them into trouble and there was no turning back then. The movie serves purpose of a great road journey horror movie where you are scared for the characters who have landed at a place where they will get no help, can they survive or not is the question that is in the mind. The scene where Satbir kills his own sister along with her boyfriend is the point where you feel sorry for Meera, for what is to come. Its hard to imagine how they even made Deepti Naval scare you when she comes to know about who Meera is. Love the final scene, beautifully done with ‘Maati ka palang’ track, and the extra moments Meera takes to kill Satbir, lighting a cigg and waiting to see him struggle to survive. Anushka’s performance (finally) was worth applauding, be that scene or the one where she says ‘Fuck you’ to the bad guys or the way she struggles on the night of her birthday. That birthday angle was a very good way to set the Interval too. Also, notice how at one stage, Satbir’s sister comes to Meera for help, but Meera stays away thinking she is a stranger so I shouldn’t step in any kind of trouble by helping. And later Meera becomes the one who seeks help from others but she doesn’t get any, not even from Police. Also later on, she refuses to take help from bunch of guys in a Jeep who looks wise didnt appear good guys, but turns out they were actually willing to help and weren’t bad, irony! Special mention to the Shilpa Rao version of ‘Le chal mujhe’ song, one of my favs. And nice of them to not include the popular ‘chhil gaye naina’ track in end credits, a mistake the makers of Badlapur did. NH10 continues the good run our Hindi Movies are having so early in 2015, not a film to be missed.
Verdict : 4/5


Hunterrr :

A movie on a sex addict, Mandar (Gulshan Devaiah) would had been terrific if and only if director didn’t go with a narration style that shifts from Present to 15 yrs back to present to 6 months back to 3 months further back to present to 10 yrs back and so much more. How the hell did the makers not realize that this kind of viewing would be a burden for the audience. Just when you concentrated and were about to love a portion of movie, they do a back jump to earlier life of Mandar. A linear narration would had worked lot more for the movie, with 1-2 past jumps at most. Gulshan Devaiah is a actor whose performances I have liked in past, and here too he is spot on in the kind of troubles he gets into at times specially when he goes after married lady, Jyotsna (Sai Tamhankar). Radhia Apte (Trupti) once again is very likable in a longer role after that cameo in Badlapur. Without a doubt, Mandar-Trupti jodi works the most for me, love the scene where Mandar is dreaming how she would react when he would tell her ‘Main vasu hoon’.  The climax is well constructed too, however I felt that ex bf angle of Trupti was unwanted. The humor and dialogues are wonderful, like the scene where Mandar tells 'always go for the 2nd best' among group of girls during his teenage times. Nice to listen Altaf Raja voice again, even though composition was pretty average. I liked the Gunmaster G9 kinda of feel given to title track, which is sung by Bappi Lahiri too. One thing is sure if I have to re-watch the movie, I would edit and remove all the past jumps, make the narration simple, should be a good watch then.
Verdict : 3/5


Dharam Sankat Mein : 

There are films where you ask yourself ‘Should I watch it or skip it’, and when you decide to watch, it turns out to be so good. Thats how it was for me with ‘Dharam Sankat Mein’, glad I went ahead to see it. The movie does remind you of Oh My God and to a lesser extent PK too. We again have Paresh Rawal (Dharam Pal) who aint religious and his family is very religious, and he finds all the babas dhongi, a particular Neel Anand Baba (Naseeruddin Shah) is whom his son worships because the girl who his son loves has her father following Neel Baba too. But this is just a sub-plot that aint much interesting, the main plot is the identity of Dharam Pal, i.e a Hindu, and suddenly he comes to know that he is a Muslim, which shakes up his life. He has a Muslim neighbor Mehmood (Annu Kapoor) whom he hated uptill now, but it is he who starts to help Dharam and ease out his tension, find his real father. There’s one excellent sequence where on one side Mehmood is helping Dharam all the things a Muslim guy should know about, including the language, namaaz etc, because the owner of place where his father is hospitalized asks Dharam that he can meet his father only when he turns into a complete Muslim person. So one one hand he learns from Mehmood to become a complete Muslim, and on other hand Dharam’s son brings a pujari home to make Dharam learn everything a hindu religious guy should know about. This creates plenty of laughable moments. Also, the scene where Mehmood takes Dharam to a friend’s gathering for a event to test how Dharam talks and behaves like a proper Muslim person. Paresh Rawal is outstanding once again, and brilliant supporting act by Annu Kapoor, the duo scenes together are a delight to watch. Naseeruddin hams as he has to in this role of baba, also has a very over the top entry scene, almost reminded me of Msg - the messenger. The last 10-15 mins is the weakest part of the movie, didn’t like the way they reveal Neel Anand Baba real identity, to be frank I wasn’t even interested in it, should had gone for a different ending. Leaving that asides, Dharam Sankat Mein is a pretty good watch.
Verdict : 3/5


Margarita with a Straw : 

Laila (Kalki Koechlin) suffers from cerebral palsy and has got a supportive family specially her mother played by Revathy. She lives in Delhi and has a crush on one of the band singers for whom she writes lyrics for. Love the scenes where she shows how much she loves him, and then how broken she feels to know he doesn’t love her. Also, one of her interesting  conversation with her male friend who suffers same problem telling her that she shouldn’t be trying to be close with normal people. The new and very different angle comes when Laila goes to USA for higher studies and meets Khanum (Sayani Gupta) who is blind. How Laila goes on her sexual discoveries, and feels in doubt thinking whether she loves Khanum or is she bi-sexual. There’s a brilliant scene where Khanum is heart-broken to know what Laila had done without telling her. Its in scenes like this where you admire this film, because it never tries to show sympathy for disabled person or trying to show how sweet/good they are. Instead we see Laila as like any other human, full of feelings, desires, wrong actions and betrayals too. I liked the bonding scenes of Laila and Khanum a lot, both Kalki and Sayani performed very well. Revathy was brilliant, love the scene when Laila thinks she has fooled her mother and doesn’t go inside college, while Revathy is hiding behind to see where she is going, and also her reaction when Laila tells her that she is in love with a boy. Its easily one of best performances from Kalki, love the scene where she tries to tell her mother 'main bisexual hoon’ and that last scene, her date with herself!
Verdict : 3.5/5 


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