Good movie, but Neeraj tries to be too commercial : Special Chabbis

Directed by : Neeraj Pandey
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2377938/

The post contains spoilers, read at your own risk. 

Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday was hardhitting, entertaining and very real without songs or dance numbers. With Special Chabbis, he tries to go commercial keeping his intent to keep the settings and tone real.. and that's where he goes wrong.

The plot is based on fake CBI raids that took place in 1980's in various parts of India. Neeraj tries to cheat a lot with the characters, why would a character in a movie behave like a stranger to another character when they are talking one to one with no one around to look at them ? The answer is simple, the audience i.e us are looking so they are made to act differently. There's one character in the movie that changes, and due to it the climax turns..

Then, there is the love angle of Akshay and Kajal which very much feels like forced one, only weakens the movie. Something like Shaitan (Rajeev love life) was required here, minimal dialogues, no backstory, 1 small scene every now and then and keeping the main focus on the cbi raids plot.

Also, the climax was too normal, a chance to make it dramatic missed. There was scope of making Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) seal all stations and airports, and follow Ajju (Akshay Kumar) upto the airport and make Ajju struggle though eventually manage going off. Maybe, its Hollywood Argo in my mind saying this, but Wasim Khan accepting he was made fool, doing nothing and ending the scene there, didn't go well to me.

Every song slows the narrative. Though, Mujh mein tu is a very good song. Also, Dhar Pakad that comes at the end credits. Background score is good, leaving apart the loud moments here and there.

Editing is too bad, what is the point of showing in excess the cbi people walking, going to car, the journey of car. The first raid built-up was delayed way too much.

What works for me in the movie are the performances, Akshay Kumar is effective in a role that is far away from his regular comedy movies. Manoj Bajpayee was slightly off-track, just a wee-bit.. maybe the standards he sets for himself made me feel that way, nevertheless his scene with Akshay was a delight to watch and special reference to that Rishwat lena shuru kar dun dialogue.

Anupam Kher easily was the star of the movie, vulnerable, surprising, fearful, faltering (wrong house they went to raid) and leading the team from the front.. he was doing almost everything so well in that character. Not to forget, the father of so many kids as he says Tv kahan hota tha uss time..

The supporting cast did a good job, Divya Dutta though was restricted to one dialogue throughout, which changes over course of time with twists. Jimmy Shergill was good but then its the question of would you accept the fact that director cheated with you on this character, I can't.


Special Chabbis is by no means a bad movie, it works but the reason why I feel dissappointed is that a director who made 'A Wednesday', could end up spoiling a movie due to commercial aspects. Still, watch it.. chances are you may like it much more than me.


VERDICT : NICE

Good action sequences, but weak script : A Good Day To Die Hard [Views]

Directed by : John Moore
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606378/

John : You got a plan ? 
Jack : Not really. I kinda thought we would just wing it, you know. Running in, guns blazing! Make it up as we go. 

Action sequences alone can't constitute a movie, this statement holds true for this movie. A Good Day to Die Hard is filled with car chase, explosions, massive gun firing but all this works if there is a good plot to support it. A father going to Moscow to help his son who has gone into trouble working for wrong guys, but only later he discovers that his son is working as a CIA for a mission and now he has to help him out.

Bruce Willis has some great one liners  that makes you laugh, specially the first two actions. The car chase action sequence was the best of all, thrilling and it begins with that massive car explosions. Jai Courtney was decent. There was no outright villian who could bring evilness into the plot, another major problem in the movie. Yuliya Snigir looked pretty sexy.

All the slow motion scenes involving Sergei Kolesnikov was irritating, it didn't add any style to the screenplay.

Only for Bruce Willis (to some extent), and action sequences.. one may watch this movie which is pretty short one too. I haven't seen previous 4 parts of this series but I doubt that would had in any way made me like this movie. Weak script and direction lets the film down.

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

Chashme Baddoor [Trailer]

Total Mazza trailer. David Dhawan's last movie maaf (rascals). Unless it turns out among films which are good by trailers only, this one looks very good to me. I haven't seen old movie so that should work in my favour. Story is same I guess, Ali Zafar, shy boy patoes the girl Siddharth and Divyendu are after.. Thereafter they both are finding ways to split them.

So many great punches in trailer itself, 'lekin usse pehle paap toh kar lein', 'Siddharth's aa ante entry', 'Divyendu's shayari's specially change the girl one', 'kahavat ek machli ki hai', 'har ek friend kamina hota hai song'. The last shot has resemblance to Aal Izz Well image, might even be intentional.

Siddharth and Divyendu looking in terrific form, with comic timing on spot.. easily steal the trailer. Though, Ali would have equal role in the movie to shine through. I like the characterization, not sure about Tapsee Pannu only. Also, Rishi Kapoor is there too.. so some ranbir related humour could be there, final dialogue shot has Anjaana Anjaani poster.

Looking forward to the movie, not much excited for the music.. songs in trailer look okay types, plus Sajid-Wajid rarely give gems.


Arz kiya hai, ki ..
woh mili mujhse Heer ki tarah
taste mein thi woh Kheer ki tarah
aur dil ke paar huyi woh Teer ki tarah
Sach sach bol kahin tujhe chillar dekar bhaga toh nahi diya usne Fakeer ki tarah.. 

Nautanki Saala [Trailer]

Rohan Sippy's new film starring Ayushmann Khurana and Kunal Roy Kapur with new female actresses. Sippy's last movie Dum Maaro Dum had some good moments while Bluffmaster I liked to certain extent as its humour was good. This one again is a comedy movie with dose of adult jokes it appears from trailer.

Trailer is good, some fun shots and plus its based on theatre actors, Ayushmann (raavan) and Kunal (ram), both have great comic timing specially Ayushmann. Though, both actors in their 2nd movie appear to be playing same characters they did in their respective last movies as Ayushmann is active and masti type person while Kunal is very much laidback. The dialogues looking good too. Also, all 3 songs showcased in trailer sound good too, specially Falak one and 'Dhak dhak karne laga' (looked like Suman as singer).

Vicky Donor worked because it had a good story too apart from all punches in comedy, so that would be major hurdle for this film as by the looks of it, this one is a regular story.. Should definately be a fun film, great or not is left to be seen.

Yeh theatre hai theatre, yahan drama nahi chalega... 

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