Trailer : Singh Saab The Great

That last dialogue 'tad tad tad tad' alone is enough to watch this movie in theatre for me. Though, the action looking expectedly very over the top with Sunny Deol as lead, so all about how well drama is executed. Anil Sharma's films haven't clicked ever since Gadar, maybe this might bring that change. One bad thing is that have to watch Prakash Raj once again in same role he doesn't stop doing.

Duniya buri isliye hai kyunki acche log ek saath milkar apni taakat ka sahi ishtemaal nahi karte. 

Movie Analysis : Mickey Virus

Directed by : Saurabh Varma
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2796318/


Average comedy thriller, watchable for some hillarious moments.

Ek aalsi aadmi ko jab koi mushkil kaam do na, toh koi na koi aasan tareeka dhoondh hi leta hai karne ka.


Delhi Police seeks help of a hacker Mickey (Manish Paul) to solve a hacking case. Mickey who is a lazy person, gives in after a while only to realize that he has got himself into a big problem.

The start to the movie is funny with first 20-30 mins full of good creative dialogues, specially the small finger one. But, after that the film starts to fade off. We see a character trying to fool us, when we know the motive of that character right from the first scene itself. So, its waiting game as to when it will get exposed in the movie, good thing is it happens at interval point. That makes 2nd half worth watching, but its a let-down too with a very weak climax. The first time director tries to make a good comedy-thriller but except one suspense element, everything else is easily predictable.

Songs are pretty much average, Tose Naina gives good romantic feel.

Manish Paul in his debut performance is likeable, he gets the dialect pretty well and I was almost sure his comic timing would be good.

Elli Avram is very average but she looks too hot, specially her entry scene in the yellow saree.

Varun Badola was other great performer in the movie, with the haryanvi accent he gives some of best humourous scenes, sadly his role is limited to a supporting actor. In a scene, he fails to differentiate between Hawker and Hacker. Also, that conversation where he talks with his wife on mobile.

Among rest cast, Puja Gupta shines as the friend of Mickey who is very lively and hyper. Also, Nilesh Pandey does well in a small role.


Mickey Virus starts well, but falls down very quickly especially after 2nd half. Its watchable for some good funny dialogues, the comedy isn't loud, its the drama where the movie fails to impress.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Rush

Directed by : Ron Howard
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/

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



Films based on real life people have been on a rise lately, and I have seen some very good ones, Rush tops the list.

Plot is about the rivalry between Britain's James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (played by Daneil Bruhl), 1970's Formula 1 racers.  The rivalry is limited to the races and attempts to get above each other in championships. In personal life, they don't really treat each other as enemies.

I have never seen a single Forumla 1 race even on T.V, so clearly someone who has no interest in this sport. Still, the film succeeds in creating a large impact, and the reason is the film focusses more on the emotions and drama.

The film begins with that deadly Aug 1, 1976 race when everything went wrong for Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) who describes 'I was chasing him like an asshole'. Director sets up formula one environment, and the relation Niki shares with James during races.. before he cuts abruptly to begin the flashback, telling the story of both racers when they were amateurs and trying to reach the Formula One stage.

The screenplay is impressive, it keeps a balance between the races and the pre-post races events in both racer's life. The championship montage is well done, covering most of the important aspects while leading to the two main races.

There are many sub plots in the movie, like James Hunt who lives a life of playboy suddenly marries Suzy (Olivia Wilde) probably to get his focus on the sport as is seen in the pre-wedding scene where he tells Suzy how he has changed from the old James practising for next race and keen to make a mark in Formula 1. Special mention to the marriage scene which happens right after James out of no where asks Suzy for marriage, probably one of quickest propasal-marriage sequence I have ever seen. The narration is always pacy only time it slows down is when James faces 'no races' phase, and  he shows his frustration and anger on Suzy. A key scene happens here when Niki Lauda after winning a race during a party asks James 'I heard you got married, where is your wife ?'.

On the other hand, Niki Lauda's backstory is setup with him telling his father that he will become a champion racer one day. He uses his talent, first with the owner of Formula 3 to help build speedy cars with the perfect knowledge he possesses. And later joining Ferrari, one funny scene comes here when Niki mimics the person's reaction who says 'it was a good car'.

Niki's relation with Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara) interests me most, as he was more honest towards her. They meet by chance when Niki asks her for a lift, only to find later that she gave lift to one of well known Formula 1 racer. When Marlene complains that he has got no looks and way of driving that resembles a formula 1 racer, Niki replies 'There's no need to drive fast right now, why take risk'. Its a point shown at various places in the film that Niki had lots of talent but he never drove in rash manner as he felt there's a 20% risk of getting killed in such a sport. Special mention to the editing here, how he cuts the scene to championship race.

My fav scene between Niki and Marlene happens right after their marriage, when Niki feels that now he has got something to lose, therefore happiness is his enemy now. To which Marlene very well replies, 'If you feel its your enemy, then you have already lost'.


I was more tilted towards Niki Lauda's story, as he was much more serious towards his goal. In a scene he tells James 'I am a serious guy, I go to work, come back home.. I don't go to parties that are full of assholes'. Plus, party lovers never attract me which James was. Infact, for most of his career as is shown in movie, James comes across as a careless racer who has the talent to win when he gives his best like that final race.. but he's never serious about it unlike Niki.  That is one more reason, why you feel to support Niki in every race, that he should win and not James.

Cinematography is excellent, the way it captures all the racing sequences, especially the cloudy and rainy ones. Love the feel given to Aug 1st race. Hans Zimmer's background score is fantastic, the main theme has a rivalry plus emotional feel to it and very. How his background gives a signal that something bad about to happen in final two races. Also, it doubles the tension because they are the only two times a complete race is shown to us.

Good build-up to the Aug1 race, firstly using a fan asking for Niki's autograph with a date as 'who knows it could be his last', and then Niki's request to cancel the game owing to poor weather getting cancelled since James has more people's support, 'You know Niki, sometimes its good to have people who like you' is what James tells Niki. The accident sequence is disturbing, especially the follow up hospital scenes. Its as tough to watch them as it is for Marlene in the movie. There's a scene where Niki wants to get back to racing, as James who until then was behind Niki is now winning races to jump up the ladderboard. While doctors give vaccum to Niki, he watches James snatching his points making him desperate to return. He tells James in next race 'If you were responsible for what happened to me, then watching you win those races, while I was fighting for my life, you were equally responsible for getting me back into the car'. That's the kind of rivalry they both shared, it was never ugly one. I was actually happy to see Niki come 4th and not 1st in that race after accident, simply because making him come first would had been over-dramatic. If you go by facts, he did came 4th only.

The press scene isn't taken from real life, therefore James getting angry at a journalist question and beating the hell out of him, was only to add 'the care' feeling into James character as we never see both of them share light moments in movie until ofcourse the last dialogue scene.

Final race is presented dramatically, with lots of slow motions, the tension for Marlene to see Niki race in what is much worse weather than it was during accident race. James still feeling guilt for last time, tries to cancel the race but the representatives don't agree. And therefore, when race is about to begin on the field, James turns behind from his car to watch Niki, and both wish each other good luck. Its the only time they do in any of the races shown in entire movie. Perfect moment chosen for it though. Visually, this was the best race, as a viewer you wonder would Niki risk his life at such a race, with Marlene not able to stop him after Niki told her 'if you love me, you won't say anything to me'.


You feel bad for Niki, watching him not win the championship.. but just as he says 'No regrets', you know he would had most likely lost his life had he continued. In the final dialogue scene, we see a happy smiling picture of real James and Niki, where Niki says 'I always liked him'.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl both deliver excellent performances. Personally, I loved Daniel much more, specially with the accent he had while speaking the dialogues and all the mannerisms. Both females playing supporting roles did great job too, and both looked very beautiful, Alexandra Maria was my pick though. Another interesting thing to note is, the make-over for these 4 actors resembled completely with the real life characters.





Rush is the best Hollywood movie I have watched this year. And its gonna be tough to beat this film. From performances to narration to technical aspects, the film is a big winner in all regards.

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