Movie Analysis : Captain Philips

Directed by : Paul Greengrass
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535109/

Tom Hanks spectacular performance in an edge of the seat thriller. 

Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 


The director well known for the two Bourne Series films he did (Ultimatum and Supremacy), teams up with Tom Hanks for another edge of the seat thriller.

A true story about 2009 hijacking of U.S container ship Alabama, by a crew of Somali pirates. The officer on duty at the time of hijack is Captain Philips (Tom Hanks) while Muse (Barkhad Abdi) is the leader in the hijackers team.

After quickly establishing Philips personal life with a scene with his wife, and how Muse picks up his team for the job plus the reasons for them going after a hijacking.. we move to the ship sequence where Philips is shown as a careful captain checking all security properly, and the email he reads at night about possible attack from the pirates makes him keep an eye over the radar and the crew ready if something happens. And finally he does see 2 boats approaching him.

Paul establishes the tension perfectly, first using the 'about to happen attack' theme, and then 'the people who are gonna attack' coming closer to the cargo ship minute by minute. Philips tries his level best to stop the boats, a scene where he fake calls in different voice to fool the leaders in the boat was super one. But, Muse right from first frame looked like a man who won't be stopped by any means.

As viewer we know they are eventually gonna make it on the ship, but the struggle they face due to Philips makes it exciting to watch.

The best part comes when Muse and his 3-4 men make their way on Philips ship, and try to make all the crew hostile. But, Philips tries playing games to make Muse and his men struggle and fall in trap.

The post life-boat parts initially slows down the action for a while, before the Navy comes into the action for talks with Muse who kidnapped Philips and demands millions of dollars in return.

In the pre-climax scenes, its hard to tell if Philips is gonna survive, he may get killed by Muse men or even the navy who are keen to target all the hijackers in life-boat.

Special mention to the jerky hand held camera moves, which added to the tension as a viewer.

Tom Hanks delivers an outstanding performance, the way he leads the crew in crisis calmly and almost got it done successully before Muse got him pushed into life-boat as hostage. He still keeps trying to negotiate or warn them, and occasionally look for way to run away. Infact, for first time he looks scared first when he gets into lifeboat as Muse asks him 'Captain you look scared, don't worry we won't harm you'. And later when he writes letter to his family, thinking he won't survive alive. His expressions in that last sequence was terrific, one of powerful and emotional scene to watch.

Barkhad Abdi as Muse does a fantastic work, he repeats one line a lot 'everything is gonna be okay', which eventually showed his scary side he wanted to not come out. And the scene where he demands authority over everyone 'I am the captain now'.


Overall, Captain Philips is a film that keeps you right on the edge of the seat from the moment Philips knows there could be a pirates attack issue. And a award worthy performance from Tom Hanks.

Movie Analysis : Shahid

Directed by : Hansal Mehta
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2181831/

One of best hard-hitting movie this year by Raj Kumar Yadav and Hansal Mehta duo. 


By showing me injustice, he taught me to love justice.
By teaching me what pain and humiliation were all about, he awakened my heart to mercy. 
- Roy Black 

Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 


Based on real life of 'Shahid Azmi', a human rights activist and a successful lawyer, 'Shahid' is much more than being just a biopic.

Shahid (Raj Kumar Yadav) lives in Govandi, eastern part of Mumbai. In 92-93 hindu-muslim riots take place, and Shahid witnesses it with his own eyes on the road. Soon, we see him join a jihaadi camp, but he's never comfortable during training sessions and eventually he runs away from it. But as the destiny is, police arrests him as suspected terrorist. In jail, he makes new friends who encourages him to study further and thereafter he persues law. When he gets released from the jail (6 years), he completes his law degree and joins Maqbool Menon (Tigmanshu Dhulia) firm but he refuses to accept the kind of cases they take. He starts his own independent practice, and helps wrongly accused Muslims people (as terrorists) get justice. He had 17 successful acquittals in span of just 7 years, before he got gunned down in his office by 3 unidentified guys.

The film is not about who killed Shahid, we see him dead right from the first shot of the movie. Instead it talks about how Shahid was as a person, and how he learnt from his early life struggles to fight for other people instead of bowing down to the system and the police, he decided to become a part of it by persuing law and becoming a lawyer. There are two key scenes of Kay Kay Menon in this regard, one where he says 'If you want to change the system, be a part of it' and other where Shahid gets released from Jail after many years and he tells him 'waqt lagta hai, par ho jaata hai.. the indian judiciary works'.

Even the torture Shahid goes through isn't dramatized, its done with two scene sequence, one where Shahid is abused and beaten by the cop, and the other having the cop misbehaving with Shahid's elder brother Arif (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub) in Lodhi jail. Next we see Arif in a painful phone conversation with their mother, and we shift to Tihar jail.. Shahid has adapted himself to the surrounding, but he never gives up.

The 1st half very much goes into establishing all the characters around Shahid, there's his elder brother Arif who very much is like his father always helping him financially and taking care of entire family. In one of the riots scene, when Shahid tries to reach back his home and knocks at the door, his mom is so scared that she refuses to open the door. His journey from home to Jihaadi camp to home is very well done with the only used song in the narrative, that scene where he is running away as fast as he could tells us enough what he won't be becoming.

The narration lifts up when the case of Zaheer (ghatkopar blast accused) is taken up by Shahid. We witness the court-room drama, the lawyers getting indulged into arguements cutting each other out, and the judge abiding by the laws. But the difference here is, again the drama isnt over done, its so subtle. During the end of one of Zaheer's hearing, prosecution lawyer More (Vipin Sharma) gets into friendly conversation with Shahid on 'bachpan ke dost, and then checking Shahid's briefcase for something to eat'.

2nd half takes the movie to complete new level, on one hand we have the court-room drama building and other side there is Shahid's romantic life growing with Mariam (Prabhleen Sandhu) whom he met as a client when he worked for Maqbool. Hansal Mehta tackles the romantic part with perfection too, without trying to give it main priority and yet not neglecting it completely. He uses a background romantic theme instead of a song when both share light moments together. In one of my fav hard-hitting scene, Mariam asks Shahid to leave the case of Faheem (one of prime accused in 26/11), and when Shahid asks why didn't she say the same during Zaheer case, she replies back 'tab meri tumse shaadi nahi huyi thi'. And in another great scene, Shahid feeling rejected reading a article written on him in newspaper, he calls Mariam who had long ago left him,  and how she comforts him plus special mention of editing here with the use of all Shahid-Mariam meetings montage kinda of done brilliantly.

Then there's a scene where Shahid's face is blackened because he said something against Shivaji in court, is taken from the director's real life incident during Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar movie (read in a online article).


I could find only one flaw in the movie, Shahid looks the same during 92 riots, and almost same 18 years since when he dies. Clearly, director didn't want a young actor to play teenager role. But, I don't think that affected the movie in any which way, instead it works in favour of movie as we connect with Raj Kumar Yadav as Shahid very well. It helps in creating the feel of a young kid who is trying to cope with the situations life is throwing at him, and how he fights with them instead of running away.

Among the supporting cast, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub shines the most as elder brother of Shahid. Prabhleen Sandhu and Baljinder Kaur (Shahid's mother) are effective. While Vipin Sharma provides some good light moments. Kay Kay Menon and Tigmanshu Dhulia have nice small cameos.

The soul of the movie is Raj Kumar Yadav, a flawless performance, its 3rd movie in a row where I loved his performance completely. Be it the uncomfortable kinda of look on his face when he's thinking of proposing Mariam, or  the anger + hurt feeling he gets when prosecution lawyer brings his past life into question or the smile he has when he finds a witness lying before he gets up to cross-question.

.
Hansal Mehta's  realistic approach to the film, be it the locations, the camera-work, the background score, beparwah track or the editing makes this movie worth a watch plus you get to know Shahid Azmi if you didn't knew him till yet (like I didn't).

Shahid works because it never over-dramatizes nor does it try to preach you.. yet it gives a clear message of 'If you got the courage, you can fight anything that comes your way'. It never tries to say that every accused is innocent, but there are times when police does mistakenly put wrong people into jail, and the minority suffers as a result. It showcases Shahid's life who was no less than a heroic, sadly shot down at young age.


Verdict : EXCELLENT

Movie Analysis : Escape Plan

Directed by : Mikael Hafstrom
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211956/

Sylvester's magic in a thriller that could had been much better. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) works for a authority dealing with structural security. He gets himself set into prisons, and finds ways of getting out just to help those prisons know where they lack. A new case comes to them, where Breslin slightly hesistant accepts it only to find it later that he's been set up in a prison far away from his place with almost no outside help possible. Now, Breslin has to use all his life experience to get out of the most difficult unknown prison he has ever seen, with all the new friends he makes inside there which includes Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Now, something to admit, I haven't seen a single Sylvester or Arnold film until now. So, a very new territory for me when I saw this film.

The whole film is put onto the shoulders of Sylvester, firstly how good he is at his work when he does it with all the help, and then how he manages way out of the hell of prison he gets trapped into. And he pretty much does it very well.

Arnold on the other hand, gives him help in the prison, which he initially rejects, but slowly they become helpful friends to each other. He has a scene that kind of slow motions and gave a feeling it tried to give some homage to his old movies, which ultimately I didn't know about at all.

The rest of cast does faily decent work, though the one playing Pakistani prisoner at times gets on your nerves, and a touch melodramatic.

The dialogues are humurous at times, but no powerful punch lines.

Though I loved Jim Caviezel (playing Hobbes), I still wish he had more mean scenes. At times I felt director made him look evil and bad, but not extract from those looks and poses he was giving to actually do something too. For instance, when he makes it difficult for Rottmayer to breathe, or when he tries to break down Breslin so that he slows down or gives up on his chances to escape. There had to be much more of this. There was one super funny scene when Breslin asks Rottmayer and one pakistani prisoner to say cheese looking at the camera which Hobbes is having a look at, specially the expression Arnold make in that.

I love how they keep the location of prison suspense to us the viewers just like Breslin. The movie gets narrated entirely through his point of view, when he looks around the new prison and ways to escape, the camera slowly widens and then shows us how the entire prison looks. And where the prison is shown to us when  Breslin escaped the locked room, only to find out that its a blood ship midway sea near to who knows which part of country.

Only problem I found in Breslin's plot was his past, which made him start doing this job. Maybe most people wont agree, but I felt a small flashback could had been better. Or possibly kept the past story out of the script.


Overall, Escape Plan works as a thriller due to Arnold and specially Sylvester's  performance. The writing in the part when Breslin gets trapped could had been better to give something extra to the movie. As of now, it turns out to be good enough film to be watched, but nothing exceptional. Its all about how much you love Sylvester Stallone finding successful ways to escape out, either through PlanA, or the backup PlanB he always has.

Movie Analysis : Boss

Directed by : Anthony D'Souza
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2571140/

Tries too hard to impress, once again Akshay stardom prefferred over script. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


After making me love him in his great negative avatar 'Once upon a time in Mumbaai2', Akshay Kumar is back to the kinda of films I am completely bored of watching him be part of.

Two brothers, elder (Akshay Kumar) leaves house due to misunderstanding with father (Mithun Chakraborty) and grows up to  become a well known 'gunda' (positive one in case of this film), a corrupt police officer i.e main villian (Ronit Roy), corrupt politician (Govind Namdev), love story of younger brother (Shiv Pandit) with sister (Aditi Rao Hydari) of corrupt police officer. Add all these elements, and you get the story seen many times before.

A predictable screenplay that uses flashbacks of father-son (elder one) at places, probably giving way to allow Akshay Kumar make entry much earlier, though narration still used up 15-20 mins for his 1st scene.

No story, no screenplay, next comes entertainment since its a masala movie. Yes, there are scenes that entertains you, like the one where Akshay makes a entry and fights the gundaas with music in background as it turns his mood on. Or the dargah sequence, and my personal fav when he accuses his younger brother with 'tum newcomers ko kuch yaad nahi rehta, isliye main pehle se tyaari karke aaya tha'.

But then there are many senseless, no logic (sorry just because you make masala film, you can't show any nonsense) like the plant that grows with sweat, really ? Then, the love relationship between Shiv and Aditi starts with a bikini scene, and within 5 mins they are romancing each other in dreamy song 'har kisi ko nahi milta', that was so quick. Another moment in latter 2nd half when Mithun realises his mistake and from 3 mins ago saying stuff against his son, now he says 'mujhe mere bete ke paas le chalo', what a melodrama. Then, asking Ronit Roy to keep mouthing 'maut ko aise hi badnaam kar rakha hai, takleef toh zindagi deti hai' in almost every of his initial 4-5 scenes. Also, the scene where he is made to say 'gaadh dete hai' 3-4 times.

Simply Terrible direction, even Blue had those well shot under-water sequences, Boss has nothing to speak in favour of the director. Poor Writing as well as Dialogues. Background Score is decent, love the main tune that plays for Akshay Kumar.

The action scenes would had been something to love in the movie, but alas dissappointment in that department too, blame goes on the editor/director. Why do they (infact most Indian movies) use abundance of slow motions in fight scenes, fight has to be quick to make a impact, if you are gonna slow the punches and kicks, the whole point of action is simply thrown away. The last man to man fight between Akshay and Ronit just due to this reason, goes completely useless and boring to me.

Songs are inserted into the narration for the sake of it. though I have to admit, they were a sigh of relief because I like most of the songs especially 'Hum na tode' and 'Party all Night'.

Among performances, Ronit Roy shines in a evil role, had he got better dialogues, and a better director, his performance would had been lovable.

Akshay Kumar is familiar to this comedy-action-drama territory, and he pretty much does well without doing anything exceptional.

Shiv Pandit is decent in a supporting role. Only Aditi Rao Hydari would be able to tell what she saw in her character that she did this film, my guess is she did it knowing Akshay plays the lead.

Danny Denzongpa in one scene reminded of Agneepath with the dialogue 'apna usool kehta hai', maybe writer did it intentionally.

Mithun hams.  While the rest cast is simply wasted, specially the likes of Sanjay Mishra and Govind Ramdev. While Shakti Kapoor makes joke of himself for that nonsense special apperance scene.

The director even forces Sonakshi get a dialogue scene post 'Party all night' song, which again appears bizarre.

Amitabh Bachchan does voiceover to introduce characters at the start, its become a trend these days, to include famous actors in small portion of movie, like Shahrukh did to Rajnikanth in his 2 craps, Ra one and Chennai Express. The directors get the notion that they have made a bad film, so lets do everything to get maximum profit out of the celeb fans. Aneways, Boss has just 3-5 mins narration done by Amitabh for his fans.

The father-son angle in the movie gets my attention only during the flashback scenes, where the actor playing the young Boss does very good job (I think he does Life Ok mahadev, not sure).


Overall, Boss very much falls on the lines of Khiladi 786 which I had thought when the 1st teaser had come. As always, Akshay Kumar gives some laughs here and there, Ronit shows his grey shades (not to the extent of Udaan), but without a good screenplay and direction its almost impossible to make someone even like the movie.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Prisoners

Directed by : Denis Villeneuve
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392214/

Hugh Jackman's dominated movie about the issue of father's deeds against doubted kidnapper.

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 

Keller Dover's (Hugh Jackman) daughter as well as her friend goes missing. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets the case in his hands, having a record of not losing any in past, but this time he's gonna find it real tough. When one suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) gets arrested, Keller believes he is the one to kidnap the children, but Alex comes across as a mentally challenged teenager. Keller believes he is faking it, and therefore when Alex gets released from custody, Keller takes it to himself to find the girls. Is Alex really the kidnapper, or Keller is falling in some deep trap ?

The narration begins with a happy fun atmosphere before the two girls go out of house and are found missing. At places, the pace is slow but I didn't mind it as I was kept interested in knowing whether Alex is really having no information about the girls or he is lying.

The best scene has to be when the tables are turned, and Keller is doing what probably the kidnapper might had been doing to the girls. He gets Alex kidnapped at his own old house, and tortures him in various ways, which as a viewer was hard for me to see even, or Keller's friends in the movie who initially do help Keller before realising that Keller has gone a very wrong path.

But if you think about the story from Keller's point of view, then his reasons to doubt Alex are very strong, firstly the whisper Alex does when he gets released from jail, and then the thing he does with dog at night. Infact, I still couldn't understand why he didn't tell Keller much earlier about the small secret he knew which he reveals much later at  end. Unless, a mentally challenged person can hide secrets for long, still felt it was kinda of strange point in the screenplay.

Another point that I didn't get was who was the person who entered Keller's house and ran out of window. Also, I would say to see the real kidnapper and the motive behind.. made me slightly dissappointed, maybe I was thinking something completely out of box will come. That character was shown just 2-3 times in whole movie until then, so it was tackled well in that regards atleast. Mellisa Rao did act pretty well, to not make any doubt come over her in those few scenes.

Hugh Jackman made Keller character look tremendous especially when the worried father transforms into a deadly 'tell me or you suffer' mode. All scenes where he tortures Alex, and when he avoids Detective Loki before yelling out his anger at him in car were fantastic.

Jake Gyllenhaal gave good performance as Detective, the humorous scenes at office where he asks for extra days to interrogate Alex which he doesn't get, and later he shows his anger at him. His silent way of noticing everything, and reaching the clues. The snake scene was highly scary for me, for well known reasons.

The supporting cast did fairly well too.  Keller's wife could had been given more scenes, felt she was sidelined using her health as issue after girls got kidnapped.

The ending was great too, you wonder for a moment if Loki would go and save Keller, but I guess he would definately do that, its whether in those few seconds Keller survives and doesn't die. The reason for such ending must had been to ask audience to fill it in the way they thought about the deeds done by Keller to Alex, the ones who felt Keller's actions were bad inspite of the motive behind it would say Loki would let Keller die, and the other ones who felt Keller was at heart a caring father wanting his girl back would want Loki to save Keller.


Overall, Prisoners may not be a pacy thriller, yet its a powerful film that works for the main lead performances, and specially the narration of the story where an important character suddenly transforms and just shocks you at times with his actions. In the end, its you who decide which way the film should end, and the question is asked 'Without proper evidence, is it right to treat someone as guilty?'

Movie Analysis : About Time

Directed by : Richard Curtis
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2194499/

A sweet rom-com on time travel. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers. 


This is first movie I have seen from Richard Cutris, who has done two other movies in past. Only thing I knew while going for movie was that the plot is about time travel, where the main lead actor tries to correct his past life events. Its something that fascinates me a lot. Even in hindi movies, Action Replayy or Talaash (that one imaginable scene of Aamir if you remember), its been tried.

Intially, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) tries to use the power to change small events, and when his dad (Bill Nighy) asks him to use it for something special, his reply comes, I want a girlfriend. To be fair, how much you like the film would depend on how you well you feel Tim uses the power of time travel. Also, if you don't find the way time is travelled as ridiculous.

The first conversation between Tim and his dad is hillarious, then the new year eve girl whom he kisses 2nd time around using time travel. My most fav scene though is when Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), a blackout scene where they talk without getting sight of each other, in real time the conversation goes beyond 2 hrs. Logically I did wonder, what exactly they could had talked in such darkness for so long. Aneways, in reel time, the scene works very well.

Rachel McAdams was simply wonderful, it was like I was having same feelings Tim had when he first heard her voice, and then  saw her. The romantic moment when Tim has sex with her, another hillarious scene included in it, which is already viewable in the trailer.

Lydia Wilson playing role of Kit Kat, sister of Tim is adorable for the wierdo things she does, be it the wild jump on Mary when she comes to meet Tim's family, or the initial introduction scene of hers. She gets two great scenes, one time travel with Tim when he tries to fix her sister's life, and then the hospital scene.

Tom Hollandar is good in supporting role, his first scene with Tim is funny, and so is the one where he refers to his play as Titanic, and then the teddy present later in the movie.

There's one scene where Mary is confused what she should wear for a event, she asks Tim's suggestions, and she keeps declining them one by one only to irritate him hell lot. That was a super funny scene, and it reminded me of Love Aaj Kal, funny how a english film scene could remind of hindi movie.


The defining moment in film was when Tim re-meets the girl on whom he first tried time travel in vain. This time that girl shows interest in him to a extent that he is outside the door of her house inviting him to come in, but Tim feels that Mary's love has gotten over him so much that he won't do anything wrong even if he could use time travel to his benefit.

Tim-Mary relation is surely one of the reasons why the movie works, while the other is Tim and his dad's relationship. The most emotional one when Tim meets his dad one final time through time travel, as he knows that he won't be able to meet him anymore in future. Almost no background music during that scene. Special mention to the scene where Tim follows his dad's secret to happiness in 2 ways.

The songs used as background at numerous places was very apt, especially the one which covers the day to day routines of Tim and Mary in a montage very well.

One may say that the time travel concept could had been used further more, but that would had required a seperate extra plot. The love story is complicated well enough with Tim's first love (or attraction) and then Kit-kat and his dad's health.

And I liked that they didn't show Tim telling Mary about the secret of time travel.

The 1st half was very humurous, the 2nd half was more dramatic and gets slow too at times.

I would say 'About Time' is a pretty sweet rom-com, it may not be out of the way special or to be remembered kind of movie, but whenever you see it you will feel the time was well spent. Atleast my time wasn't wasted while watching it. Plus, the Tim and Mary part was very romantic for me.  And yea, I got a new crush in Rachel McAdams. Need to watch 'The Notebook' sooner now.

Movie Analysis : War Chhod Na Yaar

Directed by : Faraz Haider
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3129282/

Not a good 'First War Comedy' film. 

Read at your own risk, the post is full of spoilers.


Labelled as 'First War Comedy' movie of India, the first time director Faraz Haider has good intentions over a war between India and Pakistan shown in a light humurous manner. But, the script and screenplay dissappoint.

Right from the first scene, where the shot is edited mysteriously making you feel the film might start on a serious way sequence, and then cut to the real action that actually happens. On border, Sharman Joshi (Indian side) and Javed Jaaferi (Pakistan side) have a friendship like nature towards each other, but they do behave like enemies when a war is declared. There's a scene where Sharman intentionally makes sure no one in their camp gets killed, and similarly there's no one in Pakistan camp who has thoughts of killing anyone in real sense. There are some funny food references as well as antakshari scenes.

But where the film lacks, is the scenes that doesn't involve Sharman-Javed pair. One plot is of Sharman-Soha love, which is badly cliched and boring to the core, to worsen it, this plot has 2-3 songs attached to it.. that sums it up. Other plot is of Dalip Tahil who plays a triple role, but the way its presented, its more of a irritating character. The intention here was to show how wars are made by these political people of both countries, and other countries who make use of the opportunity, but the execution fails.

Another sub-plot is of  3 Afghani guys who keep getting fooled, which very much worked for me as Mukul Dev shines in that small role.

The final 20 minutes of the movie expectedly tries to go patriotic, and to certain extent preachy. Also, during the movie, there's scenes of young teenagers discussing political developments between India and Pakistan, and war issues among themselves, and facebook friends.. which was another weakly directed part, also acted badly.

What you take away from the film is the performances of Sharman Joshi and Javed Jaaferi. Specially Javed who hasn't got the right lengthy roles in the past.

 Sanjay Mishra gets 1-2 good scenes to shine, the spoof on Sunny Deols dialogue from Border was super funny. Manoj Pahwa is wasted.


Overall, War Chhod Na Yaar despite its noble intentions, couldn't end up as India's first well made War Comedy movie.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE