Movie Analysis : Murder3

Directed by : Vishesh Bhatt
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2429640/

Sab kuch bahut jaldi jaanna chahti ho tum ... 

Bhatt camp once again talk a lot about what great film they have made, once again they boast a lot on twitter, but the truth is they have once more made a average film that's unintentionally funny too.

Vikram (Randeep Hooda) gets a video message of Roshni (Aditi Rao Hydari) that she is leaving him. Vikram gets broken, loosing himself into drinks and eventually meeting Nisha (Sara Loren), dating her. The truth behind Roshni leaving is something Vikram ain't aware of.

1st half is the point of view of Vikram-Nisha, while 2nd half goes towards Vikram-Roshni. There are way too many loose ends in the movie. How does Vikram, a struggling photographer gets such a big bungalow to live in Mumbai ? Why Nisha is so keen to take risk and help a drunk Vikram at late night ? Was it necessary to have the real owners of bungalow as firangi, for their side story of what secrets the house had ? Why would the tone of Roshni be funny when she talks with Nisha ?

Vishesh Bhatt as a director doesn't showcase any worthy skills at all, unlike Mohit Suri who atleast created some great shocking sequences in Murder2.

The only part in the film that I enjoyed was post interval 30 mins where Roshni in her attempt to find truth about  Vikram, gets herself in a big problem and needs someone's help to escape it. Being a remake of 'The Hidden Face', why Roshni disappears was known to me right from beginning.. one disadvantage of knowing the plot. The mirror has a key role, yet there are times when Vikram and Nisha look at mirror un-necessarily, whats the point of looking there during lovemaking.

Music is total dissappointing, not a single song that I enjoyed watching with film.

Adity Rao Hydari shines during 2nd half, in a otherwise okish performance.. didn't like her costumes, something I am used to with actresses in Bhatt films. Sara Loren didn't knew how to act, yet in 2nd half she was tolerable, looks wise she was very pretty. Randeep Hooda wasn't in form either, plus his hairstyle was a big turnoff.  The guy playing inspector role was overacting to the core, plus his investigation looked so silly.. more to blame the poor writing.

The climax does surprise (though it ends all of a sudden), and the film also lives upto the tagline 'this valentine love will be murdered', but the film never manages to engage or feel for the characters. I wasnt happy with the way they show Vikram's character too. I would have preferred Vikram of 2nd half used in 1st instead.. it may had increased suspense.


Overall, Murder3 fails miserably for me. I would like to watch 'The Hidden Face' sometime this year to know if that movie was even good enough to be remade in Hindi.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Midnights Children

Directed by : Deepa Mehta
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714866/

My first Deepa Mehta film this was, and not a good experience at all. I haven't read the novel from which this film is inspired of. Maybe I would have atleast connected to the story more that way, but I doubt I would had liked the film even then.

The film is about children who were born at midnight of 14th august, i.e the moment when India got independence. And one of those children is Saleem Sinai who narrates the story from 20 odd years back with his grandfather marriage days.

There's lot of suffering the main characters go through in the movie, mainly Amina (Shahana Goswami) and her son, Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha). That is actually the only dramatic thing that keeps me interested in the movie till end, just to know if they would ever get happiness.

There are many wierd sequences, like Rajat Kapoor (father of Amina) coming to see Ghani's (Anupam Kher) daughter for a checkup where Ghani never allows him to look at her, instead a pardah thing is used to cover up everything except for the check up place. Rajat eventually becomes family doctor and then marries Ghani's daughter. There are many such scenes that are very unusual like the one where Rahul Bose (Zulfikar) walks out of Rajat's house telling his colleague, this is the lady I would get married to. Unintentional comical would be best way to describe all these scenes.

The place where I thought I am about to like the movie was when the lover of nurse tells 'Rich should be poor, and poor rich.. only then the balance will be right', and therefore the nurse replaces kids of Amina and a beggar. Saleem gets a life of rich boy, while Shiva (Siddharth) has to live a terrible life despite being the real son of Amina. The scenes that co-relate both in childhood, specially the one where beggar comes to sing at their house and get money first time, and then after few years when he comes second time around and gets no money.

Ronit Roy (Ahmed Sinai) probably plays loose version of Udaan here, though he starts out as a decent person but the way he tackles his son makes me wonder why show such side, and no good one specially because his character never appears bad until the failure sequence.

But where the movie loses any chance to involve me, is the special quality Saleem has to hear noises of all midnight children born on 1947, 14th aug night. That is however taken away by his father with operation, though it then results in new quality of smelling those children by Saleem. All this might have appealed while reading novel, but watching on screen looked very silly, unreal and not worth cinematic pleasure either. I just wanted these scenes to end, and the next portion of story to unfold.

All the events that happen, like the death of Saleem's parents, or the way he suffers with Shiva becoming a hero, happens way too suddenly. Also, what was writer or director trying to say that even if poor live life of rich, they will always  be poor, and rich living life of poor will eventually triumph. Though, there is another twist to this theory at the right end of the film.

Also, the Indira Gandhi sub plot looked so out of context, and didn't like the way it ended either.
Amina's 1st love for Nadir (Zaib Shaikh) is taken away due to a jealous sister. Nadir returns back later to fulfill that love which Amina never got from Ahmed. The scenes where Saleem (Darsheel Safary) follows her mother, accusing her of meeting other person, or when he watches her feeling herself with Nadir around, looked very stupid.

Shabana Azmi, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey have small special apperances, nothing worth appreciating.

Seema Biswas was another actor whose character got my attention, as a nurse she did what she felt she should do to make her lover happy but realizing too late what wrong she did. She decides to become care-taker of Saleem to remove some of her sins, but she knows until she confesses nothing could be right. And when she do confess, it only worsens Saleem's life. The final scene between Saleem and her was very well directed.

Siddharth is also wasted in a role that offers very less from actor of his calibre. Rajat Kapoor gets few scenes to shine, Anupam Kher is decent. Shahana Goswami gets a good role, and she does pretty good. Satya Bhabha was okish to me, didn't quite like his acting.

Anita Majumdar as the jealous sister of Amina was good, though her character reminded me of 80's womans. Suresh Menon as Pakistan General, a serious role.. miscasting to the core. People in theatre laughed out whenever the frame had his face, once again unintentional comedy.

One good thing about the movie was Cinematography, there were many great visual scenes.. one of them being when Saleem cuts his cake and everyone lights firecrackers for its Independence day.


Overall, Midnights Children didn't appeal to me at all.


Verdict : POOR

Movie Analysis : David

Directed by : Bejoy Nambiar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358412/

Kabhi kabhi kuch galat hi sahi hota hai.. 
Galat waqt ke hisaab se sahi lag sakta hai,
lekin galat kabhi sahi nahi ho sakta. 

The post may contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

David No.1 : Neil Nitin Mukesh : He's a gangster who works for Ghani (Akarsh Khurana) in London (1975). A certain change of events makes David vulnerable questioning his own loyalty. Should he go against Ghani who is very much like father for him ?

David No.2 : Vinay Virmani : He's a musician who is looking to get a big break in Mumbai (1999). He belongs to a christian family with his father very much devoted to his God and thereby giving others help in whatever way he feels like. But, a political lady puts false charges of 'Religious change' on him. Will David fight for justice for what happened against his father ?

David No.3 : Chiyaan Vikram : He's a fisherman who works near beach in Goa (2010). Always in drunk state with no interest in girls after being dumped by his girlfriend, and he has a habit of punching women too. His best friend is getting married, but irony is that he has fallen in love with that girl too. Will he do to his friend what his girlfriend once did with him ?


Bejoy very much like Shaitan.. builds the narrative in super stylish mode. Such films attracts me a lot as I feel to show some story in a stylish way is best use of cinema, specially if the story has a message attached to it.

'Ghum Huye' establishes the situations of 3 David's who have to make a decision that could change their life as well as people surrounded by them very much. The slow motion enhances that feeling of 'what should I do, Should I do this'.

The best story out of all 3 was David No.1 i.e Neil Nitin Mukesh. Its constructed in black and white mode. How David is suddenly made to think of a truth about Ghani he wasn't aware of, and how unsure he is if to trust people who are telling him something against Ghani or trust Ghani who has since childhood being like a caring father to him. And then there is his love played by Monica Dogra who is taken away from him by Ghani due to some circumstances, that only increases the already generated hate inside David.

Three Kills my most favourite theme is used in this story, showing some great ways of killing people by David, and then there is another use of this theme where David says 'thora khoon aur baaki hai', super scene. For me that was the best one in entire movie. Also, Yun Hi Re, very romantic song has some lovely moments between Neil and Monica.

Sarika does cameo in Mast Kalandar song, Rekha sang it so well. But, the scene that caught my attention during this song was the ring fight where a very strong person is beating a very weak looking person, and then it changes with the weak looking beating the very strong person. Superbly thought scene, the reference if you could spot here.

Neil-Monica could had 1-2 extra scenes together before the change of events, though their romantic story still worked for me but the impact would had grown much more that way.

Mumbai story was the weakest of the three, mainly for the lead performer Vinay Virmani who wasn't bad but got very much overshadowed by the other two David's performances. Then, the narration of this story was not interesting enough, with Lara Dutta sub plot forcefully inserted. There are some good moments, like private talks of David and his sister Suzy (Sheetal Menon), or Malati  Tai (Rohini Hattangadi) attacking David's father for false charges, or the person who tells David about marketing of religions comparing it to undergarments.

That person who appears from nowhere giving advice to David to be a kaatne wala kutta, not bhaunke wala was too much of spoon feeding. For me, that scene is one of fewest where I found direction wrong, the moment Malati Tai tells David why she did it, there was no point for David to continue the same raag 'mujhe jawaab chahiye', he was meant to say something else or probably warn her of what he could do just to make the climax scene more scary for her when she sees him present at the place where she is giving speech to people.

Bandhay was very well filmed, one of my another favourite tracks from the movie. Super fast edits, going with flow of beats. Rab Di another of super slow motion songs, that I can say was little bit overdone. I like how that leader looks (his standing style) at David fighting them off. Very good song too by Kartik.

I liked Goa story, but again the narration dissappointed me. The scenes between David and  Roma (Isha Sherwani) should had more madness, like when she for 1st time communicates with him asking him to drop her back home. Or when David takes her to tell her about his past and asking if she loves him too. Rest sequences are either Peter (Nishan Nanaiah) - Roma or dream scenes of David with Roma. David-Tabu friendship bond or David and his father (his spirit) bonding are best parts in this story. Maria Pitache was overly stylized to me. Tera Mere Pyaar Ki was very well choreographed, making use of Isha's dancing abilities.

Bejoy interlinks each story together in the end very well. Shaitan was more about how one single moment could bring that bad side inside of you. While David tells about how you could avoid choosing wrong path which may appear right at that time, but in longer run it was always a wrong path. Also, it tells a lot about forgiveness, self righteousness and choosing heart over mind. Every David is on that turn of their life where they could very easily take the wrong path..

I didn't like the climax scene though, either the way 'Tum david ho, aur david bahut kam milenge' needed to be told differently or it should have been not shown. The way its now in movie, it only gave a preachy feel to me which I wasn't happy with. I like how 1st and 2nd story ends though, specially the way they combine. 2nd story may have been weak but its end was very good.

Another graph the film follows is the relationship of David with their father. In 1st story, David is adopted by Ghani who looks after him very well like a father but now he is questioning that same love. In 2nd story, David hates his father but when he's attacked David doesn't like anyone else hurting him. In 3rd story, David talks with his father's spirit who often gives him right advices.

Editing is very good in 1st half, 2nd half could had been tighter.. still the way he has mixed all three era's is commendable, because narrating 3 stories set in 3 different times requires proper thought of cuts. Cinematography was great, I love the dark feel 1st story was given, and like Shaitan, some very good camera-angles in David was visible too.

Neil Nitin Mukesh was the best performer in the movie, watch the look in his eyes in start of story, a total loyal gangster towards Ghani, and the later part of story, his eyes having a question that he wants Ghani to answer. The small conversation during Ghum Huye song he has with Ghani, another of my very fav scenes. He looked his part as gangster, played the romantic role with ease, and was excellent when it came to the vulnerable part in story.

Chiyaan Vikram was so impressive in a otherwise so so narration. He was so much into the character that at many times it appeared that he must had been drunk in real to bring this character out. I like the funny expressions he makes, when he's with his mother gone to see a girl or when he's adviced by his father that its a act of God or the usual himself he is when with Tabu. I wish his character was further explored, the madness quotient wasn't to the level I wanted his character to be.

Tabu as the good friend of David (Vikram) plays the supporting role very well. All of her advices, specially the one where she refers to her being in jail to David's love towards Roma. Or when she tells him, not to give up on his love.

Monica Dogra gets less scope but good performance nevertheless, her best scenes are ones when she is with David (Neil Nitin Mukesh). Love the way she says 'Haramzaade'.

Isha Sherwani is decent, looks beautiful. Rohini Hattangadi looks pure evil, just by the look of her eyes only. Akarsh Khurana does well too, I liked the way his character is kept, dangerous but mostly silent. Like the scene where he tells David 'Tum mujhse nafrat mat karna.. maine kuch galat toh nahi kiya na'.

Nasser as David's (Vinay Virmani) father is excellent, that scene where he is scared to come out of his room to shave, and then he starts to run blade badly over his face thinking of the incident that happened to him. Very well directed scene, and was hard to see too.

Milind Soman as a silent allah ka banda person, always reciting verses played his part very well despite having no dialogue. Shweta Pandit as David's (Vinay Virmani) sister did fairly good job in her acting debut, she looked quite cute. Nishan Naniah was good in the supporting role. Satish Kaushik was very much wasted.


Overall, David has its weaknesses, but a strong 1st story, the message film carries and the way the stories get linked to each other makes it a  good watch. And not to forget, the super style the film is heavily loaded with. It could had been a very good movie, missed out on few points sadly. But on creativity level, its a film to watch.


Verdict : NICE

Movie Analysis : AkaashVani

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Movie Analysis : Raakh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


Verdict : MEMORABLE

Movie Analysis : Race2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Inkaar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Verdict : NICE 

Movie Analysis : Table No 21

Directed by : Aditya Datt
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2229842/

Game ka rule hai.. if you lie, you die. 

A couple Vivaan (Rajeev Khandelwal) and Siya (Teena Desae) comes on a vacation to Fiji which they in a lucky draw. They get warm welcome by the organisers. The owner Mr. Khan (Paresh Rawal) invites the couple for a 'Truth' game called Table no.21 where they will be asked 8 questions, whose answers have to be Yes or No, and after end of each question, a daring task would be given to do. They would get 21 crores as prize, and the game would be viewed live by 8 million viewers across internet.  But, the catch is.. if they lie, they die and they can't quit the game. As the game goes on, the couple starts getting uncomfortable and realizing there's something more to the intention of the owner then just playing this game.

The film begins mysteriously, taking the normal romance route before the couple gets introduced to the game and Mr.Khan. The narration is slow in terms of how a thriller should be, the editing needed to be quick with fast cuts. Plus, some of the dialogues are very dull and not funny as they are made to look like. The bald look of a girl in movie looks so fake, very laughable.

Climax is very shocking, and is the only sequence of the movie that totally engages you. Though, its a bit too late as you have already passed through entire screenplay by then. Except for Manipulate task, all the given tasks were good ones. Personally, I loved kiss task the most. Aditya Dutt's direction is okay, he does well to keep the romance part to a minimum and come to point of the film quickly but fails in narrating the story perfectly.

'Mann Mera' is very romantically picturised and I love the vocals too. One of good things about the movie, that its not burdened with songs into the narration.

Paresh Rawal is the only one who gives energy into this film, with his random shayaris and not revealing his intentions behind this game.

Rajeev Khandelwal is decent, somehow he didn't impress me as he normally has done in his past films. Teena Desae was fine in her debut.


Overall, Table No.21 turns out to be average movie, just like the game looks interesting to the couple at first and gets uncomfortable with every task, the movie looks good in the start but as it goes on.. the continuous flow goes missing, the numerous flashbacks breaks the flow of questions asked too.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Dabangg2

Directed by : Arbaaz Khan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2112131/

Lots of Expectations from the film as I fall into the category who loved Dabangg a lot. But, Arbaaz Khan fails miserably and this sequel dissappoints.

Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) gets himself transferred to Kanpur. He stays with his wife, Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha), father Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna) and brother Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan). And, this time he has to deal with a new villian, Baccha Ji (Prakash Raj) along with his 2 brothers, Genda (Deepak Dobriyal) and Chunni (Nikitin Dheer)...

The opening credits are brilliantly done, the background score fits in with the cuts as the recap of old Dabangg takes place. Just sets the mood right.

But the problem lies in the fact that in this sequel, Chulbul hardly faces any hurdles. He has no personal issues with Makkhi now, and also no differences with his father. His love life is set, so all he has to deal with is just the terror caused by the new villians of a new place. But, Arbaaz wants to be baised with Salman therefore Prakash Raj or his brothers get no meaningful or impactful scenes. Prakash Raj himself has only 1.5 scenes where he outdoes Salman Khan, which tells a lot that the movie was written just to please salman lovers, not caring about rest audience.

Only way this sequel would had worked was, if the rivalry between Chulbul and Baccha was kept in a way that it shifts from one person's tactics to others.. but that aint the case here. As a result, the film is limited to watching Salman Khan's heroics, his naughtyness with Rajjo, his corrupt nature while dealing with gangsters, masti with his dad through mobile or his entertainment at various dance bars or parties. And his one-liners, the style is almost similar with the goggle. Its Salman Khan that holds the film and keeps you interested, otherwise the screenplay is totally non-appealing.

The songs also break in for the sake, specially 'Saanson' track. Kareena was totally dull in her dance moves of 'Fevicol', the song is catchy audio wise though it lacks that madness which Munni had. The choreography also is weak, salman does lift up the song with his mad dance but still nothing worth remembering. Infact, I loved the choreography of Pandeyji Seeti much more, only problem was Sonakshi made to dance with Malaika which looked too odd, and to add to it her costumes were appearing very odd.

I usually don't talk about actor's looks, but have to admit Salman Khan looked very dashing in shirts. Talking of shirts, this movie isn't spared from a shirtless scene. But, with the over-dose of slow motions in that scene.. it only made people like me yawn at the scene.

Even the action is so much outdone, I usuallly accept the unrealistic action but not so for this movie. Such action is accepted only if the actor is labelled as Super Hero. The climax sequence so much reminded of Ghajini climax, though the anger is visibly less on Salman's face than Aamir's.. but the background score and direction made it look very alike, even the camera angles were similar.

Sonakshi Sinha was usual. Arbaaz Khan was decent. Mahie Gill yet again wasted. Prakash Raj, probably 1st hindi movie where he got such bad role, he still got 2 scenes to shine through, one in car, and other in press. Deepak Dobriyal was part of probably the best scene of the movie, the interval one, 'Personality ke hisaab se thora jyada nahi bol raha yeh'... one of best written lines. Pankaj Tripathy is completely wasted in a nothing role, should had got much more with the kind of talent he showcased in Gow series.

In the end I would say that the people who used to shout that without Abhinav also, Dabangg would had been a big hit - Sure it would had been, but then it would had been just like Dabangg2, useless movie with only single actor's performance to praise about.

Dabangg2 would be loved by the hard-core salman lovers, but for neutrals like me.. this movie would be a dissappointment nothing else. Wish the writing and direction went in sync with Salman's performance..


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Khiladi 786

Directed by : Ashish R. Mohan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2166214/

When I saw its theatrical trailer, and saw 'Story by Himesh Reshammiya', the expression on my face was What the Fuck. And when I saw the movie, the same reaction by the audience (who was watching credits carefully, most don't do that) when the story credit came.

'Khiladi' brand is something Akshay has carried out very well in the past, and he could well be proud of that. But, not so with this film. The story is not new, its almost like a lighter version of Namaste London, difference being the actress takes less time to understand here. The screenplay is weak, depending on the gags that are hardly any, with most of the dialogues trying to force you to laugh (something that has become common in most of Akshay comedy movies).

The entire history of Akshay's family with Chinese,  British, African ladies was so not funny. And, the actor playing boyfriend of Asin getting himself in trouble everytime he is about to get released from jail.. was again over-done. So, was the logic behind Akshay's quick action. Infact, I would say the action by Akshay in Tashan was much more fun to watch than in this one, even Rowdy was great. Also, Akshay should take care that 'I am back' dialogue isnt attached to almost every new film of his. Its twice now that he says this in the movie.

The music is good by Himesh, though nowhere close to those musical albums he used to bring out some years ago. Balma, Lonely and title track being the best songs..  I couldn't understand the point behind playing background 'khiladi bhaiyya, khiladi bhaiyya' again and again. Some directors have no sense of how to use background score.

Akshay Kumar is fine in his performance, but seen too much of him in these roles. After a rocking Rowdy Rathore performance, this kind of film wasn't what I wanted from him.

Asin has yet to do a single great role ever since Ghajini, and this film doesn't help that track record. Another baseless role she accepts. Quality matters, not the big stars with whom you do films. Specially for actresses who get sidelined in films mostly with roles that are male oriented.

Himesh Reshammiya over-acts, but still not as un-bearable as I thought he could be. Possibly, the reason that he is just a supporting actor in movie helped.

Mithun Chakraborty is fine. Johnny Lever doesn't get any scene to make a mark. While Sanjay Mishra here and there gets his comic timing perfect. Raj Babbar and Mukesh Rishi are passable.


Overall, Khiladi 786 is below average movie, with few laughs at the most.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Talaash

Directed by : Reema Kagti
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787988/

Note : This post is full of spoilers. Read at your own risk. 

In suspense films, what matters the most is 'at what stage you can guess the climax right', and then 'the climax was worth the distance screenplay travels?' In Talaash, the problem lies with the climax.. upto that its a greatly written, very well enacted movie but once the suspense is out.. the immediate reaction is 'How the hell is this the main plot, and how can we be watching movie about this'.

The subject is on a revenge from a ghost, and if you promote it as a ghost film you are already giving away the suspense part. So, have to say if they were going to keep the main part based on a ghost, they hardly could had formed screenplay in any other way. What could had been done, was re-write the part and make it more of case solving rather than ghost revenge..

Now, try the other way which I used while watching movie 2nd time around. I know the suspense, so the anxiety level isn't there, now its about how well director covered up the scenes that hinted towards the climax. And she did very well there, apart from 2 scenes that offer the hint but then they had to be there. Talaash if seen from the point of view of Rosy (Kareena Kapoor character) would make a very good watch, the drama created between the various characters, be it Surjan (Aamir Khan) and Roshni (Rani Mukherjee) relationship that has suffered since their child's death, or Surjan and his haunting memories of child's death, or  Surjan-Rosy meetings that always lead to a new clue to the accidents, or Temur (Nawazuddin Siddique) trying to get rich through the opportunity in front of him.

The more I see the film, the more I get involved into the drama narrated by Reema with excellent background score/music by Ram Sampath. The mystery part actually becomes a sub-plot (when watching 2nd time around).

Just as one reviewer wrote 'Psychological drama', I would say the same.. thats what this film is. There are few flaws if you think about logic like why did Rosy wait for 3 years to take revenge.

I loved the background theme that runs when Surjan is playing with the torch thing recalling his child's death incident. Also, the one where flashback of full incident is shown, and very well merged with present. Infact Editing is top class, specially the idea of using fadein and fadeout for characters.

The accident scenes somehow created double impact to me, either it was just for me or the sound mixing was done in a way to create that effect, specially the climax one.

The songs are perfectly used, 'Muskaanein' my personal fav sets up the mood with creative visuals highlighting the red light areas and prostitutes at late nights in Mumbai. Also, the lyrics of the song tells the theme of the film, plus Suman Sridhar's voice gives it that special feel. 'Hona Hai Kya' was also perfectly filmed with the run away of Temur. 'Jee Le Zara' special part remains the one where Surjan and Roshni dream of hugging each other as they would be when Karan was alive.

Aamir Khan excels as a cop once again, though this performance aint as effective as Sarfarosh mainly for the different characters, and the fact that Surjan is most of the time fighting with the guilt he has built inside him for the death of his child. The scene where he recalls the entire incident and tries to change it differently was very emotional, my favourite from the film.

Rani Mukherjee is very good, though she is more of playing a supporting role in the movie. Loved the scene where she tells psychiatrist about Surjan or her fight with Surjan.

Kareena Kapoor gives a fantastic performance, an outside helper to Surjan in the movie, offering links to the case and later revealing why she kept doing all that. The place which she calls 'yeh meri jagah hai, yahan koi nahi aata'.. loved both the scenes that happen there, specially the 1st one which is the longest dialogue sequence in the movie. Its one of those roles where Kareena doesn't overact which I find her doing in numerous films. For me, she outshines both Aamir and Rani in the movie.

Nawaazuddin Siddiqui continues the great successful year he has had. I thought in a big starcast movie, he may not be able to have his own scenes to impress.. but that't not the case. Note his expressions during 'Hona hai kya' song or when he tries to tell Urmila his plan.

Raj Kumar Yadav was saddened with a unintentional comical role unfortunately. Shernaz Patel's get up was kind of wierd, but she does well as always. Among rest supporting actors, Aditi Vasudev gave very good performance.


In the end, Talaash works for me as a drama, for the emotions it carries through the characters of the film. As a suspense film which it actually is labelled as.. its pretty average. Also, the 'Aamir Khan' tag would make many people not love (even if they like) the film purely for the ghost angle thrown into the story.


Verdict : VERY GOOD

Movie Analysis : Rush

Directed  by : Shamin Desai
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2256514/

A struggling guy Sam (Emraan Hashmi) who has a girlfriend Ahana (Sagarika Ghatge) he wants to marry, but needs to get a high salary job. He gets a offer from Lisa (Neha Dhupia) to work for Crime 24 channel as main Editor. Sam takes Ahana with her to foreign place for this new job. He gets a big flat and car, just the kind of lifestyle he would had wanted to have. But, little does he know.. that he has been set up in a trap that he will not find easy to escape.

The story sounds so similar to Blood Money, just replace the job from 'Diamond company' to 'News reporting'. Only difference is, Blood Money didn't waste any time and started right away from the main plot.. while in Rush, the narration goes slowly towards the main aspect of the film, almost takes up full first half.

Dialogues are average.The songs are completely forced into the narrative, especially 'Mumkin nahin'. Whosoever idea it was, seriously has no music sense. Fukra is the only song to some extent that goes in flow with the narrative.

Emraan Hashmi is very good in the scenes where he is shown anchoring his own show for news channel, apart from that there's nothing new or appealing to talk about his performance.

Sagarika Ghatge was impressive in 'Chak De India', but in this film her acting fails terribly. Most of the part it she appeared having no interest in the scenes of the movie.

Aditya Pancholi, who plays the main villian i.e Boss of Crime 24.. couldn't bring that extra to the movie mainly due to the screenplay that never allows him enough screen space to make any impact.

Rahul Singh hams like hell 'You are dead, you are dead'.

Neha Dhupia was the best among all the actors, looked confident, and completely fitted into the character. Plus, she looked so glamarous too.


Overall, Rush had a good concept but extremly poor execution..


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Ajab Ghazab Love

Directed by : Sanjay Gadhvi
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356959/

Rajveer (Jackky Bhagnani), a rich guy,  falls in love at first sight with a rich girl Madhuri (Nidhi Subbaiah) who hates rich people. Rajveer introduces himself as a poor guy, with background of poor family making his whole family to enact all the lies he builds. How long Rajveer would succeed, especially with Madhuri's twin Brothers Karan and Arjun (Arjun Rampal), who hates people lying and cheating...

The film suffers heavily for trying to bring comedy leaving some scenes make no sense. Take for eg, Rajveer telling Arjun, the lie of his father's rich friend, Subbo (Arshad Warsi) having a accident and his father donating kidney khade khade.. how fake that lie looks. Then, the dose of over-dramatic scenes, one where Madhuri feels apologetic to the family of Rajveer, or one where Rajveer realises how good his father has been, or the one where Rajveer's father feels for the poor people. These scenes change the tone of the film, plus average background score doesn't help either.

Dialogue writing is very poor, save for few of the good comedy punches. The dream song looks very odd in terms of picturisation.

'Tu' was my favourite song in the movie, very romantic and well filmed too. Also, 'Sun Soniye' was quite good too.

The 'banana' sequence, first meeting of Madhuri with Rajveer's parents, and Madhuri's brother Arjun going to live at place of Subbo acting as the head of the house were some of the best moments in the film. Also, Arjun Rampal's 'samajh gaye ? Toh phir sar hilaayo'.

Jackky Bhagnani is very good in his performance yet again. Nidhi Subbaiah is average, over-acts at many places. Arjun Rampal entertains in supporting role of twin brothers. Kirron Kher is funny as always, though she went over-the top in the first blind scene she does. Darshan Jariwala is impressive. Amarjeet Singh is decent.


Overall, Ajab Ghazab Love gives you some good laughs, but like many movies in past.. drama and comedy don't gel together properly.


Verdict  : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Student of the Year

Directed by : Karan Johar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2172071/

It takes courage to make a film with 3 newcomers as leads. Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan's son), Siddharth Malhotra (a model) and Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt's daughter). Its not these three who lets the film down, but its the script and the narration thats full of faults.

The narration style follows Barfi way, a person in hospital and the people present there narrating the story to us, with the exception that it doesn't go into flashback within flashback mode. The story then begins about Rohan (Varun Dhawan) and Shanaya (Alia Bhatt), who study at St.Teresa High School in Dehradun. Then, enters, Abhimanyu (Siddharth Malhotra) which instantly brings a fight between him and Rohan. Over the time they become good friends, while Abhimanyu starts to fall in love with Shanaya. The dean of the school, Yogendra (Rishi Kapoor) starts the routine annual competition of the school 'Student of the Year', and everyone including the 3 main leads would go to any extent to win the trophy.

To introduce the lead characters with a highly extended and total glam way was something that didn't please me. In K3G, Kareena Kapoor had such entry too but it worked because it was short and sexy. But, in this case.. it looks over-done.

Having a gay character, that is played by Rishi Kapoor.. and a dialogue between Rohan and Abhimanyu 'kiss toh nahi karega?', 'Nahi, gale bhi nahi lagunga'.. was kinda of un-necessary especially when you have got a certain kind of image as a person in the eyes of lots of people.

The treasure hunt was completely not required among the chosen categories for the competition, while Cycling was poorly directed. Or maybe Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander magic came into my eyes. The pre-climax as well as the climax scenes are so poorly handled by Karan, least expected from him. Also, what was it to show off the leads coming out of water, and posing around.. be it Varun or Siddharth or Alia... almost made me think if I have come to watch a photoshoot. While, the football match had so much similarity with 'Chak de India', remember two strong players not passing the ball.

The wedding sequence where no dialogue is kept and a plain background runs for around 2-3 mins was the one where Karan Johar touch was visible in full flow.

'Velle' was the best song in the album, and it was well picturised too. Good to see 'Kajol' in a 5-10 second cameo during 'Disco Deewane' song. How she lights up the screen even in those few seconds is unbelievable. 'Ishq wala Love' was romantically filmed, even though I don't like the lyrics but the romantic feel in the song is very much there. While 'Ratta Maar' 1st part was aptly used, what was the connection while using it 2nd time around ? 'Radha' was nice, but the mixing of 'Dafli wale' brought more life into the song visually, specially Rishi Kapoor's harkats throughout.

I liked Siddharth Malhotra the most among the 3 newcomers. He looked confident. While Varun at places reminded me of Sohail Khan, but his character certainly was more stronger therefore he did have lots of good moments to shine through, specially when he fights with his father or when he shows his will to win the competition.

Alia Bhatt was kinda of doing a extended cameo, she had less screen time. Though she looked way too cute, her acting looks shaky to say for now.

Rishi Kapoor was superb in a character that I already mentioned I would had liked not to be there in movie. Ronit Roy was good. Sana Saeed (small anjali of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), didn't have the kind of debut she would have wanted I believe, more of a small supporting role. She was fine in her part.

Ram Kapoor was his usual, I guess Udaan was his last best role. Gautami Kapoor never gets a dialogue, probably editor went harsh over her scenes.

Kayoze Irani was decent, he highly over-acted in the scene against the dean.. though the director's at fault here. Manasi Racch was among best in the supporting characters, specially when the urge to win competition enters into her mind.

Manjot Singh was good. Farida Jalal was lovely as always. Boman Irani in a special apperance was funny.


Overall, Student of the Year ends up being too much glam and unrealistic to connect with. It entertains in parts, but the film ends up among the least enjoyed Karan Johar films for me.


Verdict : AVERAGE 

Movie Analysis : Delhi Safari

Directed by : Nikhil Advani
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172587/

A male leopard 'Sultan' (Sunil Shetty, voiceover) dies at a jungle because the humans are cutting the trees with bulldozer and removing any animals residing there so as to use the area for construction purpose. His son, small cub 'Yuvi' (Swini Khara, voiceover) doesn't want to leave the place as her mom 'Begum' (Urmila Matondkar, voiceover) wants her to, so as to save her from being killed by humans. The monkey, Bajrangi (Govinda, voiceover) wants to go on full war with his small sena over the humans, but Bagga, bear (Boman Irani, voiceover) stops him, and says the matter should be handled peacefully by talking to the humans. Therefore, they kidnap Alex, parrot (Akshay Khanna, voiceover) as he only could speak the human language. The journey from Mumbai to Delhi begins, to reach the parliament and put forward the problems of animals. But, on the course of the journey.. a lot of further events happens, mainly due to the rivalry Bajrangi and Alex share with each other.

The animation work looks good, still not upto the level of Hollywood but improvement is visible. Plus, the story was much more interesting, only if the Dialogues were better. The screenplay is kept simple, with the length of the movie being just 90 mins.

Bajrangi and Alex characters work the most for me, both are given very nice looks.. and the tom-jerry kind of treatment they both share for major part of the movie brings in some good sequences. Govinda and Akshay Khanna have done very good job on the voiceover. Also, liked Yuvi, the cub which looks so cute, and perfectly voice-overed by small Swini Khara (sexy of cheeni kam fame). Boman Irani did nice work on Bagga too.

The songs were big road-blocks in the narration. Unless and ofcourse it was meant to be a musical animation film, I would had accepted it, but here the songs are way too many. The song which Sultan sings to manaofy Begum and the one when they meet Gujarati couple on the way to Delhi were the rightly used songs.

The bees sequence was one of the best in the movie.The intro sequence of Alex was funny, for the way it dances on the song playing on tv. And the way leopards hug each other, was nice.

The climax was good, could had got preachy but avoids it.


Overall, Delhi Safari is a decent animation movie. Has its flaws, still it provides good entertainment for most part of the movie.


Verdict : NICE 

Movie Analysis : Cocktail

Directed by : Homi Adajania
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2168910/

This is Homi Adajania's second film after 'Being Cyrus'. I haven't seen that one yet, but heard lots of applause for it which in turn meant rise of expectations from Cocktail specially with a good trailer and some very nice music. But, Cocktail doesn't live upto to it.

Veronica (Deepika Padukone) lives a carefree life in London and is a party girl. Meera (Diana Penty) has been betrayed by her husband Kunal (Randeep Hooda), and has no where to go when Veronica meets her and they eventually become roomies come friends. Gautam (Saif Ali Khan), a flirt after almost every girl becomes a guy Veronica falls for initially as a timepass but she later realizes she loves him. But, Gautam falls in love with Meera when they are on a picnic with Veronica and Gautam's mother. Meera is a simple girl who won't like betraying her best friend. It gets complicated for all the three..

The 1st half was very entertaining full of funny moments, but the 2nd half gets very melo-dramatic. Infact the final 20-30 mins were more of a torture to watch with a climax that didn't make any impact on me because I had already lost the connect with the story. The writing by Imtiaz Ali tries to avoid the cliches we see in love-triangle, as there's a scene where Gautam tells Veronica and Meera that we won't play hide and seek, and tells the truth. Still, post that scene the film falls down terribly, blame it Imtiaz who could had given something more into that part, or Saif who never looked in control playing the character, or Diana who's character tries to be too much of 'balidaan' and all.

Veronica's heartbroken sequence in the pub was one of the best scene in the movie. Also humour wise the film had lots of good scenes, like the one where Gautam dances on Sheila n other item songs with the lingerie on and her mother makes a entry. The dialogues were refreshing.

Pritam's music was very good. 'Daaru Desi' showing the love between the three friends, very well picturised. 'Tumhi Ho Bandhu' bringing the happy Meera out. And, 'main sharabi' showing the decline of Veronica. Also, 'Luttna' and 'Jugni' showing the bad phase of all the three friends.

Saif Ali Khan has done this kinda of roles in plenty, still here he looked out of touch. Maybe, the fact that Saif-Deepika did a similar based movie 'Love Aaj Kal' gave the feel of 'not fresh' to me. Some other actor could had brought more life into the Gautam character, especially the one that's split between Veronica and Meera.

Diana Penty gave a very good debut. Though, her character Meera is one that I won't like to see in real.. totally hate such girls who have a habit of crying all the time, total turn-off they are. Thats the reason, 'Tumhi ho bandhu' song clicked a lot to me, as Meera finally had some good happy faces to show. Her dubbing was well done too.

Deepika Padukone easily was the best among all in her performance. She makes Veronica look totally carefree, and a total party freak. How she slowly falls over Gautam, her hatred emerges for Meera, and then the drunk sequence along with the pub one. Or the pre-climax where she notices Gautam closely. Deepika would had got even more applause by everyone if the 2nd Half was much much better than it was in the end.

Randeep Hooda was more of a waste, in a nothing role.

Dimple Kapadia's short cameo was very entertaining, she's always a delight to watch, lovely screen presence as always. Boman Irani was decent in a supporting role.


Overall, Cocktail turns out to be a average film, despite a very good 1st half, Deepika's performance, good music, and some great moments at various places of the film. The second half just couldn't make me like the movie as a whole.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Chittagong

Directed by : Bedabrata Pain
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1785333/

Another of those history based movies that I enjoyed watching. Though, this movie reminded me of 'Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey' specially the portion where they attack the British places.

The movie is narrated through the point of view of 'Jhunku', one of the leaders in the movement against the Britishers. How he in his early childhood felt the ways to fight against Britishers weren't right, plus he acted as a traitor helping Britishers as he was learning English from the family of one of the British officers.Its matter of time when he realizes Britishers have to be fought against, and he joins army of Masterda played by Manoj Bajpai.

The screenplay is tight, and also good editing. Cinematography is excellent.

How good Manoj Bajpai's performance is, can easily be stated by the fact that in a starcast of many actors that impresses, he still manages to leave a big mark. Soft-spoken, polite and always ready to give advices like a teacher would.. Manoj appears deeply into his character making Masterda very appealing.

Also, Delzad Hiwale who plays younger Jhunku delivers a superb performance. I somehow didn't like the older Jhanku, probably one of the reason why I didn't like the climax that much. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raj Kumar Yadav, Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Jaideep Ahlawat were efficient in their supporting roles. The conversation of Nirmal Sen (Nawazuddin) with Pritilata (Vega Tamotia) where he conveys his love for her in a hesistant way.. pretty much reminds of the famous scene in GOW, though the execution here is much different. Also, Vega Tamotia looks very cute in her just 2nd film. She does very well in that police sequence she has in the 2nd half.

I have always slept during History lectures in school, so any film that's well made on a history topic appeals to me very much.


Overall, Chittagong is a very good history based film backed with great performances.


Verdict : VERY GOOD

Movie Analysis : Aiyyaa

Directed by Sachin Kundalkar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2255934/

A marathi girl Meenakshi (Rani Mukherji) falls in love with a Tamil guy Surya (Prithivraj) who is a painter by profession. Meenakshi's engagement is fixed to another guy Madhav (Subhodh Bhave) by her family which in itself has all the qualities of madness. But Meenakshi doesn't know how to convey her feelings to Surya, but she can't resist him as he smells just too good.

There's a character Maina (Anita Date) who speaks in a total childish way with wierd fashionable dresses and dance moves. At start I liked her, but as more of her scenes started to come.. the uneasy feeling crept in. Plus, 'What to Do' song filmed on her dissappointed me, as that was the song I loved the most in the album. Couldn't they find a way to picturise it on Rani..

Meenakshi following Surya everytime, through the smell also is over-done big time. Same applies to the family, who keeps doing things that appear too mad. Only the dream sequences was something that I didn't mind being consistently done throughout movie. Maybe, the director wanted to tell the story about characters that are mad in their own ways, but as a viewer it just doesn't help me in clicking. Even the ending looks ordinary.

For sure, the comedy is present in most of the sequences.. but in totality, the film fails to make a mark. Meenakshi buying drugs, meeting the crazy Maina for 1st time, meeting Surya's mother, and conversation with Madhav during 1st meeting were some of the best scenes in the movie.

Background score is good. Editing is poor, too many long sequences and many un-wanted scenes.

Rani Mukherjee looks so confident, those dance moves she has done in numerous item songs in this film, plus the way she imitates 'Madhuri' in opening credits or 'Rekha' in sava dollar song. Its only her performance that kept me interested in a total dull 2nd half.

Prithviraj has minimal dialogues, but he looks quite effective. Not sure yet though, if he could be successful in Hindi films.

Nirmiti Sawant, mother of Meenakshi was excellent among the rest supporting cast. Also, Ameya Wagh was quite good.


Overall, Aiyyaa has some very good moments and Rani's great performance but the film ends up as a big dissappointment.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Bhoot Returns

Directed by : Ram Gopal Verma
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406636/

Tarun (J.D. Chakravarthy) and Namrata (Manisha Koirala) shift to a new house along with their children. Namrata's sister, Pooja (Madhu Shalini) pays a surprise visit to stay with them for few days. But, they aren't aware about the spirit that exists in the house which would haunt and cause lots of problems to them.

The film is full of same old cliches related to horror genre as well as Rgv cinema. The noise created by the opening of door, dream horror sequence, loud background score, the irritating voice of spirit 'bhooooooo' and ofcourse the wierd camera angles of Rgv. The sound mixing was bad too, making every noise loud isn't the way to bring horror, it just turns you off and irritates you, for eg the telephone ring noise is intentionally kept so loud. Clearly, the idea of Rgv was to keep the action of spirit for the final 20 minutes, but holding together for rest 70 mins was the key part. You just can't show one day dialogue scene followed by 1 night invisible spirit scene, and then continue this loop for 3-4 times in a row. It got too monotonous for my liking, plus very predictable.

And, when that time comes where all three Tarun, Namrata and Pooja are scared at night, why does Pooja even sleep in a seperate room. As is the case, the unintentional comedy happens at many places, like when they all are searching for spirit in different directions of house, and when they see each other its followed by a loud laugh, which then gets shortened by the 'bhooooo' noise.

Why Manisha Koirala kept shouting so much, specially at such a little daughter of hers ? Too loud acting, a performance I didn't expect from her. J.D Chakravarthy makes a comeback of sorts, and is pretty good.

Madhu Shalini is decent. Alayana Sharma who plays the daughter Nimmi of Namrata, was very effective.

Some of the best scenes were, Nimmi telling everyone about the imaginary friend (ghost), Shabbo with whom she could interact, and the first major attack by Shabbo along with the pre-climax scene.


Overall, Bhoot Returns is a very loud, non-scary and typical rgv film. Even though its 90 mins in length, the film appears to be too long. And after watching this film, one may just wonder why Bhoot3 is gonna be made.


Verdict : INTOLERABLE