Himmatwala [Trailer]

I haven't seen the old film whose remake this one is. The trailer has complete feel of a 80's movie which means Sajid has re-created quite well. But two questions, one - Will it appeal to watch that kind of masala movie, villians, heavy dialogues in 2013 ?,  and two - When we are trying to move ahead through pathbreaking movies, won't movies like Himmatwala take us one step backwards again ?

Personally, I loved Tamannah the most in the trailer, she looks so beautiful in the 'Ta thaiya' track. Again, I can't compare old song visuals as I haven't seen that either. Ajay's scenes looked similar to Singham, and the tiger scene didn't help at all. Paresh Rawal + Mahesh Manjerekar duo would be great to watch, always liked this cliche jodi in our industry where the assistant (if its right word) to villian keeps saying funny liners.

Sajid dissappointed me in Housefull2, still hopes alive as this might be a good entertainer. The action no doubt will be over the top, quite visible from trailer itself. If you have a liking for entertainment kind of cinema, this one should be in your 'to watch' list.

Also, 1983 dialogue in trailer.. might be few more spoofs scenes in the movie.

Arre 1983 hai yaar, pallu phaado aur baandho... 

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

Broken City [Views]

Directed by : Allen Hughes
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235522/

Did you ever think why I chose you ... because I own you.

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a cop is accused of charges and tried in court but Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe) saves him only to inform him later that he has to lose his uniform. Few years goesby, and Mayor asks Billy who has become a private detective now, to come to New York and spy his wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who Mayor thinks is cheating on him. Billy helps Mayor only to find out later that he had been set up by Mayor, but why exactly is what he needs to find out before the cops reach him.

When script and screenplay are too weak, its tough to engage the audience into the movie. The plot was too predictable, and therefore it was left to performances or any sub-plots that could appeal to me. The sub-plot of Billy and his co-worker in detective cases Katy (Alona Tal) was the one that worked for me, humourous most of the times and very helpful plus caring towards each other.

Billy and his wife plot was the worst written part in the movie, infact I would had preferred it to  be totally chopped off.. and possibly add more scenes between Billy and Mayor. The two scenes they have together, one where Mayor offers him the work with a advance amount that Billy desperately wanted after getting less money from his detective cases work, and the other one where Billy thinks he is winning against Mayor only to find Mayor's plan that outdoes him.. the former scene sets up the tone of the movie (though takes too much time), while the latter scene tries to be dramatic in leading to climax but fails miserably.

I love the montage where Billy and Katy work out the pending money from clients whose cases have been solved. Also, the scene where Russell and Jack (Barry Pepper) are in a debate and try to outsmart each other.

Russell Crowe gets few scenes to shine, but he is let down by a weak script.. love the scene where he welcomes Billy back, he improvises a lot during that entire scene. Wahlberg is good. Katy is superb in supporting role. While Catherine Zeta looks gorgeous in almost a nothing role. Among the rest cast, Barry Pepper and Micheal Beach did decent work.

In the end, Broken City is a below average movie, with hardly anything to boast of.

Shootout At Wadala [Trailer]

Good trailer, though not hard hitting at all as I thought it would be after having seen the pre-trailer reports on twitter. John Abraham would either get lots of praise or lots of criticism.. I have always liked him in roles other than comedy, and he's looking quite much like Manya Surve, except for those loud screams.

Sonu Sood atleast from the trailer appears to be miscast in Dawood Ibrahim role. Manoj Bajpayee for a change, didnt look effective at all.. probably will have supporting role only. Anil Kapoor and Ronit Roy as cops worries me, as the title of film suggest.. there must be a cop vs gangster shootout in the end, so maybe it won't look that cinematic. Dialogues look okay, and the background score reminded of Inception (Specially start). Also, Tusshar Kapoor though impressive in Shootout At Lokhandwala, his only dialogue scene in this trailer looked very dull.

Mika's song didn't go well with trailer either. I liked the starting dialogue of John in the trailer...

Sanjay Gupta's movies have good action, so looking forward to watch this movie, plus John in this role. Though have a feeling it won't live upto expectations.

Mujh mein hi khujlee thi, itihaas badalne ki .... 

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 

The Attacks of 26/11 [Trailer]

The trailer went very good, and looked hard-hitting until the stupid background song started.. and the question Why o Ram Gopal Verma why. Also, so many extreme close ups.. that final Nana Patekar dialogue would have looked so good with mid close up shot.

The film would be good if the story does the talking, and not the routine background/camera that has become a trademark in every RGV film. Its one of awaited movies for me, and I hope RGV doesn't spoil it for me. Nana Patekar and the actor playing Kasab (I think his name is Sanjeev Jaiswal).. two characters I am keen to see.

Agar mere haath kanoon se bandhe nahi hote, toh inho haatho se main unhe cheer deta....