The Big Bull
Directed by : Kookie Gulati

Aadmi unchai ki taraf dekh raha ho toh usse tokna nahi chahiye.

Abhishek Bachchan in a still from 'The Big Bull'

Based on real events involving Harshad Mehta (whose name and all other characters related to him are changed here, I am guessing copywrites issue or plain laziness). 

If you had seen the trailer, then all the problems you could notice in it are present in the entire movie too. There is the obvious comparison you would do with Scam1992, but I personally knew there's no way The Big Bull or any film in future could do what that series did. Its like you read an excellent novel and hope its movie adaptation does 70% justice to it because that's the scope it will have at the best. Unfortunately, The Big Bull falls way short of that mark, one issue is the fact that its trying to include a lot of things, the main problem however is that the unwanted changes or directions it takes, for instance Hemant Shah (Abhishek Bachchan) greed is given a personal reason wanting money so he could stop marriage of the girl he loves Priya Patel Shah (Nikita Dutta). Hemant's brother Viren Shah (Sohum Shah) is also someone who needs help from Hemant, again leading to Hemant needing urgent money. Meera Rao (Ileana D'Cruz) the journalist who goes after Hemant, is easily the most poorly written character of all. Then there's scenes where we see Hemant continously laugh in an evil manner, for no apparant reason. 

Abhishek Bachchan at some places will remind you of his Guru performance, but apart from that he does his very best and is the main reason I managed to keep my interest in the movie. On one hand we had a series where each character was used perfectly, and here we get to see all the characters apart  from Abhishek getting wasted, specially Supriya Pathak and Saurabh Shukla.. In the end, its a one-time watch movie if you haven't seen Scam1992, and if you have then skipping this would do no harm at all. 

My Rating : 4/10 


Dhamaka 
Directed by : Ram Madhvani

Anchor kya hota hai ? Anchor actor hota hai.
Actor ko kya chahiye ? Actor ko audience chahiye. 
Audience ko kya chahiye ? Audience ko drama chahiye 

Kartik Aaryan in a still from 'Dhamaka'

Unofficial remake of Korean movie 'The Terror Live', story is about Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) who one morning gets a call on his radio show from a person who says he would blast the sea link of Mumbai. Once Arjun realizes its not a prank call, he sees a wonderful opportunity in this moment of crisis, something that could get him his TV anchor job back. 

The whole angle of news channels hungry for TRP, news sold as masala rather than facts and how easily viewers fall for these fake news is very well captured atleast initially. Where the movie falls apart is the character of Arjun Pathak, that felt too greyish to my liking and it was a clear struggle for Kartik to play this part at many of the key scenes. Also, the entire terrorist plot didn't really kept me engaged or feel worried for people stuck at sea link, again part of it has to do with how inhuman Arjun Pathak character is. 

I myself hate news people to the core, but watching the film specially in 2nd and 3rd act, almost felt like they were treated like super villains specially the boss of TRTV played by Amruta Subhash. There are some good moments, like when she tells what news anchors are, or the initial montage covering the entire personal life of Arjun Pathak minus that irritating style of singing by Prateek Kuhad. Overall, Dhamaka promised a lot through its trailer but delivered very little. 

My Rating : 5/10