Film Review : Azaan

The promos were terrible, and you know how bad his direction was in his debut film 'Aap ka Suroor - the movie'. Yet, just that stubborness to watch new releases, made me see this one hell of a boring, and just boring film, that had only one background piece to attract me in whole film.. which also wasn't original, heard before in films.

The story is of a Doctor (Sajid Hassan) who wants to destruct India, first by planting bomb in peace conference at Germany, then the Ebola virus which if spread could completely destroy India. One man stands in his way, Azaan Khan (Sachin Joshi), a army officer now secretly working for Sam (Alyy Khan) and Pandey (Ravi Kissen). But how he deals with the job, when he is told about his brother whom he has been searching since long, is a terrorist.

There is nothing new in the story, the virus part isn't tried before in our films in major way, like Contagion. But, Azaan mostly keeps Ebola virus as a backdrop only. Prashant Chaddha shows no improvement in his direction skills, possibly gets worser than his debut. The screenplay is nice, but when your lead actor has got single expression in entire film, it's hard to like such a film.

Doctor's 1st appearance in the film, Azaan going to check what his friend is going to get n then coming back into the car, and the sand painting 1st scene of Afreen were among the few good moments of this dull film.

The songs are forced into the narration, though Salim-Suleiman have given nice music in the film. Editing is okay. Cinematography is nice. Some of the action sequences are well done, though one scene is straightaway lifted from Bourne Series.

The love angle of Candice was completely off track, in a already non-appealing film.

Performances wise,

Sachin Joshi will need to improve a hell lot, else his career wont last too long.

Candice Boucher reminds of Celina Jaitley when she was new in acting. No expressions, just beauty.

Ravi Kissen is totally over the top. Alyy Khan is his usual. Sajid Hassan impresses in 1-2 scenes. Sarita Chowdhary is fine. Sachin Khedekar, Dalip Tahil and Aarya Babbar get no scope in small appearances.



Overall, Azaan has nothing to make you like this film.


Verdict : Avoidable

Film Review : Mujhse Fraandship Karoge

First of all, its not a hindi version of the famous hollywood film 'The Social Network', if at all there were any people with such misconception.

Vishal (Saqib Saleem) goes to his college friend Rahul's (Nishant Dahiya) concert, and happens to fall in love at first sight with a girl Malvika (Tara D'Souza). Malvika is room-partner of Priety (Saba Azad), who dislikes boys a lot, and is working on a project with Vishal together for their college. Now, Priety has a liking for Rahul, while Vishal has a liking for Malvika. They can't express it in real face to face, so what they do is.. log in from their room-partner's account, and Priety becomes Malvika, Vishal becomes Rahul. They start communicating with each other. But how long would it last, what would Rahul and Malvika do when they know, and what will happen when Priety and Vishal would know, they were talking to each other through means of Facebook.

Some director's use the 1st scene of the film to explain, what kind of film is in store for them instead of starting directly with opening credits. Same is the case here, as we see 2 guys having fun with one of their college mate online on facebook. You are hereby told, the film would be funny and very youthful. And thats how it is for the entire time span.

Usually in films where you are cheating over a person, you expect a kind of slowness to come into the film before it ends happily, that doesn't really happen here. There is no emotional drama, people are shown as understandable and smart to understand what is right and wrong. This as a result takes the climax to an extra high for me. Notice the reaction of Vishal when Priety speaks to her on stage in climax.

Nupur Ashtana is very good as debut director. Editing is superb, the way they have put up the facebook profile shots was really good, also the camera angles used in them. Screenplay is impressive, hard to find any dull moment. Also, how well the cut away shots are kept, about college mates speaking on Priety at various stages of film with every person remaining in one tone, the last one always makes you laugh 'I think she wanna get laid.. slaaaaaap'. This is what I disliked in Soundtrack, and here it's so effectively used into the screenplay.. clear eg of how a particular idea can be executed into ur screenplay properly.

All the songs were well used, one may argue about har saans song to some extent but I feel it was a good way to conclude the just ended scene. Also, every song is very good audio wise, good work from Raghu Dixit, the composer.

The best moments of the film ----
• The opening facebook share sequence by Vishal and his friend.
• All the fight sequences between Vishal and Priety.
• The scene between Vishal and Malvika at the disco place.
• Rahul and Malvika meeting for 1st time.
• When Vishal and Priety for 1st time check each other's facebook accounts(they must have earlier too, but in the film you see it only once, that is in this scene)
• The finale sequence.

Performances wise,

Saqib Saleem is excellent as a debut. At times he did reminded me of 'Rajjo' of pyar ka punchnaama to be precise. But, he was too good, confident, has got a good screen presence and as mentioned earlier amazing in that stage sequence.

Saba Azad, had done Dil Kabaddi before this, I can't recall her role in that film.. must be small one. In this film, she is very cute, beautiful as well as sexy. I just fell in love with her, every time she came in a scene. And along with her looks, she acts very well too. Would love to see her do well in her future career.

Nishant Dahiya doesn't really get much scope in his role in the film. The only 2 scenes that he has hiw own were the first meeting with Malvika and the scolding scene with Vishal. His future films would give a better picture of his acting skills.

Tara D'Souza was nice, after Mere Brother ki Dulhan, I would say she does much better in this film..

Meeta Vasisht was good in small cameo. Though, she made me wonder how can a teacher look so hot. Maybe, I was unlucky not to have such teachers in my college life.

Prabal Punjabi reminds of Vir Das so much. He was nice though.


Overall, Mujhse Fraandship Karoge would appeal specially to the youth audience, it has that connectivity, with lots of fun and entertainment, and a good love story.


Verdict : Very Good

Film Review : Pyaar Ke Side Effects

Another of those long pending films. Thanks to youtube, some of its clips were so good.. that the film eventually became a must watch for me. And it was totally worth it.

Sid (Rahul Bose) who is a DJ, is asked to work at a marriage, which is of Trisha (Mallika Sherawat) who is about to run away from her marriage. Sid and Trisha meet again later, date each other and fall in love. But the problem comes when Trisha wants to get married with Sid, who is reluctant going into the married life, with his own reasons and doubts. The opposition of Trisha's father addds to his and Trisha's problems.

The story is pretty much old, but the way its presented and the screenplay written.. you never complain. There are numerous places where Sid talks to himself, but the director shows it as a talk to us the audience, which appears funny always, and all of those times.. its his thoughts on the other person, disagreements whether its with Trisha or her friend who he calls Dracula.

Editing is good. There is a very good romantic feel in the film, thanks to the chemistry of Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat. Quite a unsual pair, but it worked.

The songs are well placed, feeling blue being the best of all with Sid adding the laughing dose in a emotional song through those breakups ke side effects.

The best moments of the film ----
• The opening sequence, Sid watching Ind-Pak match, and Trisha proposing.
• The scene in office, Sid and Trisha, war time.
• The conversation between Sid and Trisha on their unofficial 1st date.
• Nanoo, Kapil and Sid together in a pub.
• Sid tackling Trisha's dad, in car or home or golf.
• The coffee sequence.


Performances wise,

Rahul Bose has a superb comic timing. He is almost flawless. Specially, his eye expressions during all of his fights with Trisha.

Mallika Sherawat, is actually good in her comedy. In emotional scenes, she does look a bit awkward.. otherwise she was pretty much perfectly matching Rahul Bose.

Ranvir Shorey and Aamir Bashir give in a very good supporting performance. Suchitra Pillai is fine, though one wonders at her sudden change in heart during the climax. Sharat Saxena is good as always.


Overall, Pyaar Ke Side Effects is a very humurous film, and romantic at same time. Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat are the main show stealers of the film.


Verdict : Very Good 

Film Review : Love Breakups Zindagi

There was a sense of freshness in its promos, though when one of the three male leads is Zayed Khan.. you have to lower your expectations. The film turned out to be pretty good and fun, infact it was personally much more than that to me.

Jai (Zayed Khan) and Naina (Dia Mirza) have a partner which is pretty much incompatible with them. They both happen to meet at a common friend's wedding place. During the journey, Govind (Cyrus Sahukar) who has had 2 marriages before, happens to meet Sheela (Tisca Chopra) and fall in love. What happens thereafter, isn't tough to predict ...

Despite the predictability factor, what keeps you happy is the regular humourous scenes kept in the screenplay, even in the 2nd half when the story goes on a emotional side.. you keep getting those laughable moments.

The first time director Sahil Sangha handled some scenes beautifully, for instance the start of film though it reminded me of a south film but it was good. Specially the complete marriage place part, was very well directed. He does falter though in 2nd half including climax, but more blame should go towards the editing as well as the screenplay.

Unless you are able to connect to the characters, which I did... the movie would start looking boring from interval onwards which gives a deja vu of I hate luv Storys. Some scenes also appear stupid, especially the 'Jab we Met' theory revisit that takes place, when Naina's friend talks to 3(or four) of her bfs.

Every song is well used, though the much talked about Rab Rakha wasn't quite my fav in the film. I preferred the other 3 songs much more, special reference to love love love.. which I feel was romantic, and ofcourse Benny Dayal sang it very well.

The best moments of the film ----
• The conversations between Jai and Govind.
• The conversation on the 'Hot' topic between the three friends.
• Govind and Sheela's meetings.
• Govind meeting Sheela's dad.


Performances wise,

Zayed Khan is good. At places, he goes over the top.. but much above that what one expects from him these days.

Dia Mirza was looking so gorgeous. Plus, she always looks innocent, and acts well too.

Cyrus Sahukar was really good. I haven't liked him much in his previous films, but in this film his humour works a lot.

Tisca Chopra, impresses. She has probably only 2 long scenes in the film, and she comes across as a very good actress in them.

Satyadeep Mishra and Auritra Ghosh are nice in their supportive roles.

Umang Jain is good, leaving apart that over the top jab we met scene.

Pallavi Sharda is fine.Vaibhav Talwar looked completely suited to his role.

Good to see Farida Jalal back in a film, should do more films.. she was lovely as always.

Among the cameos, Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi were the best.. awesome actors they are, one scene they get each, and yet they shine in them like how. Shahrukh Khan looks very old in his sequence, as he plays himself.


Overall, Love Breakups Zindagi is a nice film, with some humour, emotions, and little talk on relationship handling.. nothing preachy.


Verdict : Nice

Film Review : Soundtrack

Rajeev Khandelwal, two films, Aamir and Shaitan, which may not have set boxoffice on fire, but both films were very much appreciated.. and most importantly, his performances were loved a lot in both the films, especially by me. Hence, the expectation level increases, and the fact that the story is kind of motivating about a deaf person getting glory. But for a change, the film dissappointed, his performance was still quite good, though some problems were visible in the character sketch and portrayal of DJ Raunak.

DJ Raunak(Rajeev Khandelwal) comes to Mumbai, with a dream like any other guy comes here. His dream is to make it big in the music industry, he has the talent and knowledge of the music. His father was also involved in it. But Raunak, gets too much involved in the bad side of the city.. and before he could notice it, he loses his hearing ability. How he struggles, and fights back to glory is the film all about.

The first problem the film has, is the documentary feel given to the film with those numerous artists talking about Ranuak, what he was, what he became, where he is now etc etc. It certainly was over-done and at a point became irritating too, some shots specially were bad enough to be left out.

The other problem is the slow pace. Too many silent scenes, and also the alter ego of Raunak in form of Joker, those scenes were not helping the screenplay in any way. One conversation was enough between them, after that just his presence would have said a lot what role he plays.

All this resulted in.. not having the feeling of sympathy for Raunak, its just there and about, but never really comes well as it should had. Also, a part of it is to do with character sketch of Raunak, one wonders if it was really required to show him drinking again after knowing his one ear is gone, when the reason for his 2nd ear to go too was gonna be something else other than the alcohol.

Editing wasn't good. Camera-work was good, some nice stylish shots taken especially the one with Raunak smoking a cigg and having beer at same time. Direction by first timer Neerav Ghosh was inconsistent, good in patches, he didn't tackle the journey till the hearing problem occurs efficiently.

The best moments of the film ---
• The opening sequence of the film, the way Raunak watches and listens to various sounds all around starting from the crossing of two trains over the bridge.
• The bonding between Charlie and Raunak, was very good.
• The Gauri-Raunak chemistry, she lended a life into the movie.
• The firecracker scene involving Raunak.
• Fakira and Manzil song picturisation.
• Raunak in a song performance place, for first time learns how to feel the music through touch of hands.

The songs were well used in the film, especially Fakira and Manzil my most favs. Also, what the f! was stylish, while Ruk jaana nahi served its right purpose.

Performances wise,

Rajeev Khandelwal is quite good yet again, specially in the post interval part, in the 1st part at places he did appear a bit awkward.

Soha Ali Khan delivers a very good performance, though her dialogue delivery which is kept specially for this character was a not that pleasing to listen in the beginning. But she does lift the film up with her performance in the 2nd half.

Mrinalini Sharma hardly has much to do in the film. She was pretty much average.

Manu Rishi was good in a small cameo of doctor's role. Mohan Kapoor impresses a lot as a friend who cares for Raunak, and at same time doesn't like his bad activities.


Overall, Soundtrack has a weak 1st half, but the 2nd half gives some kind of relief. But not the kind of film you expected from a Rajeev Khandelwal starrer...


Verdict : Average

Film Review : Rascals

I kind of liked David Dhawan's last two films Do Knot Disturb(which wasn't really liked by majority of audience) and Partner(which was a hit). With Rascals, he has again taken a step completely backwards.

Its hard to think, that you should criticise the film for its cheapness or not. Because when the title itself is 'Rascals' and going by the promos, they always promoted the film or made the film on that lines.But, I still couldn't accept all the cheap acts that happens in the film, especially involving Kangana Ranaut.

Surely, Ajay  Devgan and Sanjay Dutt give in very good performances together. At places, which its bound to happen in such a film, they go over the top and loud. Kangana Ranaut, I doubt anyone would like in this role, playing a role of dumb girl, who is willingly doing anything the two rascals would ask her to. I won't even describe that in detail here.

Lisa Haydon is also limited to skin show in the small part she has in this film. Hiten Paintal gets no scope even in a supporting character. Arjun Rampal fails mainly because he is given some of the worst possible witty lines to enact in the film. While Satish Kaushik, the reliable man most often in comedy films, also dissappoints in a scene that is completely over the top.

The title track and shake it saiiyyan are the only tracks worth liking in the film, which comes at right places. Rest songs are more or less forced.


Overall, Rascals is a good watch for you, if you like the 'cheap oriented films'. Else, most likely you are gonna get irritated with the comedy, the gags that work very less. Only thing you would say is, can comedy be created only by keeping a dumb character ?

Verdict : Poor 

Har ek 'Film Viewer' zaroori hota hai ...

If I go about classfying the film viewers we have, especially in India. Then it would most probably be

• Intellectual
These viewers, watch films intensely and passionately. They like to note every point in a movie and then discuss with fellow friends. For them it doesn't matter whether its a serious film like Black Friday, or a dark humour like Yeh Saali Zindagi, or a slapstick like Hey Baby. Every film holds its own importance, is the mantra.

• Critical
These viewers, are more of inclined to see what they didn't like in the film, and more often they would compare the hindi films with hollywood, how much copied it is etc. Actually, in a way they too form the 'intellectual' viewers group, but with a wee bit of difference that they focus more on a certain aspect during a film, while watching it or while analysing it later. A large section of this group belongs to 'reviewers or critics' who write for various sites, or newspapers or work as film journalist on tv channels.

• Time-pass
They just want entertainment. It doesn't matter if the comedy is slapstick, if the drama is going over the top, or if there is a item song coming at anywhere in the film. Just entertain them, no social messages and no preaching/lecturing. These are more or less, the aam janta, the family audiences who watch films every sunday or most often labelled as 'popcorn' audience.

• Genre Basis
If you classify time-pass viewers further, then you would get these viewers who watch films based on genres i.e Romantic/Thriller/Action/Drama/Family/Emotional/Art/Path-Breaking/Animation etc etc. They incline themselves to either one particular genre or maybe two/three, and would not watch rest genre films, especially in theatre. You would often see a clash between a romantic viewer opinion with a thriller viewer opinion.

• Fans/Haters
These viewers watch the film based on their liking/disliking towards a celebrity. The former is very clear, a fan is bound to go and see their favourite celeb films. While the latter is surprising but it does happen, the haters go to see the movie so that they can come and then rip apart the film on online forums, social sites or their friends, and if nothing then blog it.


The clashes does make it ugly often, whether its between intellectual and critical or critical with fans/haters, or any other. But, all these viewers together institute the collections of a film boxofficewise, and also in terms of cinema watchers these all provide varied opinions on almost every film. Just think of it, can you even name a single film that was loved by 100% audience, even Sholay/DDLJ are disliked by a section of people.

Every person will have a particular take on a film, it may be baised, it may be personal, it may be critical, or it maybe thoughtful but at the end of the day .. they all are just presenting and sharing their views. Just imagine, if you remove 'Critical' section.. wont the fans/haters or intellectual or other section miss them. Because they are very much used to their views. Like or dislike, they will always read/listen the views.. so what if they disagree or abuse them in the end.

If you ask me, I kind of dislike every viewer that doesn't see film properly, or analyse atleast 75% of it, if not fully. The time-pass and fans/haters section irritate me the most. While if you know me, then you would know my opinion about critics, but at the end of the day.. they are bound by their duties, their life, their earning.. though I sometimes do believe that Film Reviewing should be limited to sharing views at best, and not a job based, where audience decide to watch a film or not by your views. Yes, good writing skills does make you applicable for Review Writing jobs, but you can even use those skills for debating on endless topics about films or celebs, rather than writing how a newly released film is. Aneways, this is a never ending topic.

Even there are many cases, when two intellectuals or two critics would differ with each other. So, clashes dont just happen among different section of viewers, but also with the same section of viewers too.

In the end point is that the film viewing has been and will always be divided among these groups, and hence we are always going to see opinion on a film divided, only difference would be, the magntitude!

----
Yash.