Movie Analysis : Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela

Directed by : Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2215477/


A weak SLB film, only saving grace are the great visuals and electrifying chemistry between lead pair.

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



Writing on his movies has been toughest for me, I can never do justice because its about understanding the artistic poetry he inserts in his movies, be it Saawariya or Guzaarish, and Ram Leela isn't any different, only difference being that here he uses all colors to make it look much more colorful unlike his last two films where black and blue were the main colors throughout the movie.

The plot is loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, and the reason I say loosely is the way both the characters Ram and Leela behave with each other, don't even dare to compare it with the iconic Romeo and Juliet, only similarity is that they both love (or so we are told) each other madly and destiny take them to death.

Based at a place in Gujarat, one side is occupied by Senera's and other by Rajaade (I hope I got name right). What follows is the violence between the two families, death for death and much more. The love (or lust) between Ram and Leela meanwhile blossoms knowing their families wont accept it.

SLB uses the first sequence of the movie, to tell the viewers he can show violence very well too (ala Anurag Kashyap's GOW), there's a very well done child chase scene that leads upto the entry scene of Ram (Ranveer Singh). Ranveer is given a grand entry, and he lights up 'Tattad Tattad' with his energetic dance moves even if the women behave tad over the top at his physical body attraction.

Infact, choreography of all the songs has to be applauded, even if you don't love/like film, the visuals of songs are likely to make you fall in love. Whether its 'Tattad Tattad', or 'Lahu Muh Lag Gaya', or 'Nagada Sang Dhol', these three songs SLB fills up the frame with wide shots making them look so colorful plus the Gujrati backdrop. 'Ang Laga De' is pure romance and yet very sensuous, while 'Yeh laal ishq' looked like loose version of 'Tadap tadap'.

There's a scene where Ram's brother (played by Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh) gets killed accidently by Leela's brother (played by Sharad Kelkar), and the madness reminded me of Bhope bhau tope bhau sequence of Kaminey. One of my personal fav scene in this movie.

Now the main point that decides how much you like the movie or hate the movie is the love story of Ram-Leela. If you go with Romeo-Juliet classic pure love in mind (even with slight hint given in trailer what's coming), then most likely you will feel cheated and angry at the film. But if you keep aside Romeo-Juliet, and see it as two characters grown up in a background that knows only killing, a place that's known for guns or blue films, then you can understand why Ram and Leela are so sensuous and full of lust in their initial meetings, why even Leela looks desperate to be with Ram.

Inspite of looking at the two characters differently, what bothered me was the love development never really happens, all of sudden we see them run away and then get seperated. In between, a feeling of love went missing, that is one major reason, the emotional feeling in final scene when they die gets affected. Also, using Ram-Leela last day rally so well, and then hurrying the climax was so stupid to watch. Had they shown Ram face trouble reaching Leela house or Leela trying to find Ram and in the event they realise they got no other option but to kill each other, then the impact still could had come.

The 2nd half especially takes the film down, instead of focussing on the love story, SLB diverts the narration towards family fights between both sides. Infact, I felt their running away happened way too early, and then upto the point when Leela takes over her mother's position, that entire phase made the film weak. There's a Priyanka Chopra's item song in between, badly timed and only poorly choreographed song in movie.

The entire conversation between Ram and Leela, when Leela agrees to end 500 years old rivarly on some conditions was one of well executed emotional scene.

Dialogue writing is very raunchy, and unlike any of SLB movies. 'Shabaash upar waale' dialogue I wont forget, I wanted more of these moments.

Both Deepika and Ranveer share electrifying chemistry, they just make their weakly written characters so lovable. I loved Ranveer much more actually, as much subtle and restrained he made his performance in Lootera, here he gets over the top and looked so much suited to the role. Only complaint was the irritating 'don che' dialogue.

I knew before hand, that Supriya Pathak won't dissappoint me, powerful supporting performance with the negative shade, that scene where she replies to Leela's future husband 'Shooting, killing'. Richa Chadda shines too, though one has seen her in similar dialect in GOW already. Gulshan Deviah gets only two worthy scenes, one where he takes Leela back, and other when he declares the end of Ram-Leela will happen by him.


Ram Leela has SLB visuals at many places, but its the narration and how the love story of Ram-Leela is tackled that lets the film down. Not bad film, but one expected much more. There are films that grows on you with every watch, its the opposite for this movie.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Insidious Chapter 2

Directed by : James Wan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226417/

Brilliantly connects with 1st part, though short on scare level.

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



Renai (Rose Byrne) soon realises that things still move on their own at house, that the spirit hasn't left her home yet. Its Josh who has got possessed by the black dressed bride as seen in the final scene of 1st chapter. With Elise (Lin Shaye) gone, its Carl (Steve Coulter) who was one of her favourites, comes to help Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) who notices a woman in the house at night. The struggle is to bring Josh back from The Further where his body is trapped, before its too late.

The screenplay is amazing, it begins with younger Josh being examined by Elise (Lindsay Seim). We were told what was done to Josh in his childhood during 1st chapter, but now we are given glimpse of it with a complete flashback scene that shows Josh is getting close to being possessed right when he was a small kid, but Elise stopped it by making him forget his astral projection ability and all memories related to black dressed bride spirit.

The story keeps moving backward and forward, as this chapter deals with details about who the black dressed bride is, what is her motive and how can she be removed from Josh body.

Since this movie connects with first part, its more of a suspense thriller with lesser scary scenes. Carl's dice scenes are pretty scary, specially when he asks 'You are not Elise, are you?', and he gets reply 'No'. And his encounter with Josh, where Josh asks him to use his dice and know what Josh is hiding in his hand behind. The 15 dead bodies room, used twice in narrative, and both times it gives a eerie feeling.

The scenes that connect Josh in real to Josh in The Further was super to watch, and ofcourse that scene from 1st chapter where someone knocks their door at midnight, and it turns to be Josh from The Further. Only thing I didn't understand here was, how did Josh go into further when in 1st chapter at that time, he wasn't possessed. And I won't agree to the point that Josh was possessed since he was child. Though, I agree in The Further, the time is not constant and you can travel to anywhere. Same thing for the scene where Josh (older) is visible in his childhood photo, how is it possible for him to be present when he wasnt possessed. I am surely missing out on some point.

Another point I didn't get was, the girl that came out of cupboard when Dalton got haunted in his dream, she screamed for help and to be rescued from pain. Was she one of those 15 dead girls, or she has any link to the new case shown at the end of movie.

The back-story of black dressed bride, and her pysche nature is very well shown. Though, I felt she could had been avoided being shown to Renai or Lorraine, just giving signals was enough. That slap scene to Renai especially turned me off, looked more like forced horror, with the loud background. It gets clear why she is after Josh since childhood.

Love the scene where Josh (real) talks to Josh (the further), about the shadows, as Josh screams for help. When Josh returns back, the look on Renai face resembles to the audience (those who are engaged like me), to find out if this time Josh returned back without getting possessed by spirit or not. The zoom in shot into his eye is probably done to help see if there's any clue to his skin looking old or weak. My guess is that he made it back properly this time around, unless director is giving a surprise when 3rd chapter releases. The final scene where Elise says 'Oh my God', it could either be the lipstick faced demon or return of black dressed bride in her original form, the background however hinted towards the former.


The scary moments are mostly when the spirit isnt shown, and yet its doing its way of making the family feel not at ease.

Patrick Wilson gives a very good performance, I like how his face is shown getting weaker and weaker, as the spirit inside Josh body needs to kill people if it has to keep Josh body possession on for long. Lin Shaye is great again, and it was good that she was given a way to come into the narrative after being shown dead in 1st chapter. Lindsay Seim as young Elise looked very pretty.

Specs and Tucker again had some funny scenes, the code word one, or when Tucker falls down over Specs. And the 'I am gonna fight u spirit' scene of Tucker.


If I have to compare both chapters, and pick one then I would go with 1st one. Insidious 2 works more as a thriller with decent enough scares, but the way it connects dots with 1st chapter is commendable apart from those 2-3 listed scenes which I hope someone explains me.

The film is very likeable as long as you aren't expecting a very scary movie. Having said that, you will still feel scared if you are weak hearted. Like me.

Movie Analysis : Insidious

Directed by : James Wan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/

Concept of Astral Projection makes this horror movie very much enjoyable. 

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



Dalton (Ty Simpkins) has a unique quality of astral projections while sleeping. But, unknowingly he has used it to draw attention of a dead soul, who now wants to possess his body. His father Josh Lambert  (Patrick Wilson) has to do everything possible to bring his son back from a world known as 'The Further' into the real world.

Firstly, the background score is thrilling and has a scary feel, when the title comes written at start as well as at the end. Opening credits are used to show the elements that will be mostly used to scare in the plot, and it has a darkish tone. Without wasting much time, we are quickly taken to the 1st attempt of the spirit trying to spread fear across the Lambert family, especially Dalton.

The husband not believing in wife Renai (Rose Byrne) experiencing haunted place, is nothing new but the twist here is that the husband is unaware of his old memories about the same condition he went through in his childhood. A twist that is revealed much later when Josh's mother calls Elise (Lin Shaye) to help in bringing Dalton back.

The past of Josh, specially the photos is very well linked to the condition of Dalton. There are many scary moments, Dalton going into a room that opens itself for him and eventually falling off the ladder, the younger son Foster (Andrew Astor) feeling terribly scared of his brother Dalton, someone knocking at door midnight while their youngest son cries as Renai sees a spirit for 1st time (who knocks at door is revealed in 2nd part), Renai watches a kid singing and then the kid coming out of a cupboard, Elise asking Specs (Leigh Whannell) to draw sketch of the spirit that she sees over Dalton, Elise tries to contact Dalton in his world and Specs writes it quickly 'Help, Help' part was very well done to enhance the helplessness of Dalton trapped in The Further.


The whole sequence where Josh goes into 'The Further' to get his son back, surrounded by various dead souls who have their own different motives. The super twist when Josh returns back with Dalton was total shocker. A very unusual non-happy ending which also confirmed what story next part would have.

For me, the lipstick face demon wasn't as scary as the woman dressed as black bride who haunted Josh in his childhood. His encounter with her while trying to return back from The Further was one of my fav scene, along with the end scene.

Among the performances, Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye shine the most.  Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson pair had some funny moments, and they always kept me thinking which one of them would die.


Insidious lives upto its given name that means 'proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects'. The whole concept of astral projection excited me, plus the scare moments are plenty and not much of cliches, you can feel the fear family faces especially Renai. Certainly one of very good horror movies.

Teaser : Gunday

Very good teaser. Keeps you wanting for more. Interesting thing to note, they cut the teaser keeping the title of film in mind, introducing both Gunde and not showing Priyanka at all. Though her fans may not like it, I certainly liked the idea. Voiceover of Irrfan Khan made me wonder if he is acting also in the movie or not, didnt see his name in starcast.

I am more keen to see Ranveer Singh in the movie, much prefferred actor among both. Though, director's Mere Brother Ki Dulhan didn't gel that well with me, this film is a different territory, might turn out to be his better work.

Waiting for the main trailer and music of Sohail Sen now..

Movie Analysis : The Birds

Directed by : Alfred Hitchcock
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/

Very Gripping tale of Birds against Humans. 

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



I think after Nolan, its Hitchcock films that I want to cover up watching as soon as I can, his cinema is so inspiring to watch.

The Birds is another of his classic movies that I watched recently again.  Right from the first frame that has birds squawking and cawing, their voice gradually increasing and becoming violent as the credits end, Hitchcock creates the atmosphere leading to thoughts of how birds gonna come into limelight.

One of key element is the long no-dialogue scenes where tension is created, watch the scene where Melanie (Tippi Herden) takes boat to reach Mitch (Rod Taylor) place and give him a surprise bringing the love birds he wanted to buy for his sister. That scene has that feel of something bad gonna happen, and it happens when she returns back, with first attack by bird on her head.

Then, the evergreen classic scene when Melanie waits outside school playground, while birds one by one gather at her backside, using children's singing and developing the scene was masterstroke. Infact in entire movie, there is no background music, which actually makes the effect of birds even double as we sense its somewhere there when the movie begins, and with time its actions increases to a extent of total scare in humans.

Special mention to two scenes used as a metaphor or symbolism, one when Melanie goes outside diner to help people only ending up getting locked inside a phonebooth and not able to come out watching birds attacking outside. Other scene is, Mitch with his family and Melanie stuck in his own house, not able to move out knowing the next attack of birds may happen anytime. Both these scenes show the shift of nature, from birds in cage, now its human in cage with birds causing fear in them.

There are two mysterious characters, Annie (Suzanne Pleshette) who is Mitch's ex-gf, and Lydia (Jessica Tandy), Mitch's mother. The way Annie delivers her dialogues, and how Hitchcock cuts at her extreme close up when Melanie leaves after having first conversation with her.. it brings a certain doubt on her behind attacks. While Lydia has a possessive nature with her son, not wanting to let him go away from her, reason for Annie-Mitch split up and now Melanie feels not at ease meeting her. Although after watching film, its clear both of them had no hand in the birds attack, but the director does use these characters to his advantage pretty well.

Now the answer to, who was behind the birds attack.. was tough to find out for me. I would go with Hitchcock's saying that it was a film telling what you would do when suddenly something against the nature happens, the terror it creates, and how you try to come out of it. Why it happens, is of least importance. This film just tries to show the dominance of birds over humans, which happens rarely in real life.

Mitch-Melanie relation starts off on a fight, and with time they become typical lovers, but how the graph of Melanie-Lydia changes was to watch, specially their last scene while in car.

The diner conversation was very fun-loving, with the hillarious 'end of the world' quotes.

Some bloopers are there, one key one was the blood that looked terribly fake but then its a 60 era movie so probably budget or non-availability could be issue. Then, that scene where children run away from playground, why did they run when the birds didn't attack yet, remember a scene coming later when Mitch-Melanie walk quietly not letting birds do anything. In pre-climax bird attack on Melanie, it was stupid of her to open door and get into without being careful when she knows the birds are willing to enter by any means. Though I can agree to the point here that in fear state of mind, the brain works less for many people.

Among performances, everyone did pretty well, though Tippi has more screen time, her character takes time before you feel sympathy towards her, Jessica and Rod scored much more in their acting.  It was more of a Hitchcock direction dominated movie.


Talking about climax, the original written scene was that Mitch along with her sister, mother and Melanie drive away from home, and in the way they see people lying dead everywhere with birds attack, as they watch birds all over the Golden Gate. They somehow pass through it, but as they accelerate, the birds attack the car from top and behind, though in the end birds stop and they are able to go away. This original climax I feel goes in favour of human characters too much. What Hitchcock kept in movie, was Mitch and everyone slowly getting into car, driving off with birds carefully watching and slowly their wings clawing harder giving a view that they are gonna go after them in a moment or two. So, the fade up gives the feeling that the birds attack didn't stop or wont stop, and Mitch will have to face it again. This climax works much more as it gave weightage to the key character of 'birds', with their terror remains unsolved. Budget problem in my view helped this film get the best possible ending.


The Birds is rightly termed as one of many Hitchcock's classic movies. Watch it if you havent till now, you are more likely to get scared watching it. Very gripping tale of Birds against Humans.

Movie Analysis : Thor : The Dark World

Directed by : Alan Taylor
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981115/

One of the super-heroes that doesn't excite me at all. Average movie. 

I took the risk of going for this movie without watching previous part, and I think it didn't affect me. Though, I had difficulty in understanding the nine rounds (dont remember if it was 9 or 7) portion.

The film however didn't work for me, main reason is I never found Thor as a superhero to look forward to, same goes for Captain America whose films I haven't seen until now. It was infact Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) who made me enjoy the film much more, sadly they had the shortest role in the movie. I specially loved Darcy's cute way of creating humour, and her dialect  'Were those the car keys'.  While Loki impresses for his deceptive ways, and his last scene.

Chris Hemsworth performance didn't appeal to me, which pretty much sums up why the film was average for me. Though, I did like the finale between Thor and the counterpart.


I would still like to see the 1st part, and other Avenger characters movies.. maybe my views change on this movie. At the moment I can say Thor is very much one time watch.

Movie Analysis : Krrish3

Directed by : Rakesh Roshan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029231/

Good Superhero movie, but with lots of flaws. Not bad as it looked from trailers. 

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



No, its not bad as I thought it would be from the trailers. But its not great either. In between you can say.

The story is thin, superhero Krrish/Krishna (Hrithik Roshan) saves city from terrors while he keeps losing his jobs.  His dad, Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) is seen working on a experiment, and making antidote of a virus spreading fast across city. While somewhere in the world, Kaal (Vivek Oberoi) is planning to end the humanity through his virus, and various mutants he creates with his DNA, one of them being Kaya (Kangana Ranaut) who can change avatars like girgit.

Unlike the last movie in franchise, where the major portion of 1st half went in creating comedy across fake ghost, and the romance between Krishna-Priya (Priyanka Chopra). In Krrish3, its the screenplay that surprises you as there is a urgency visible in putting the action in front of us. Only hiccups come in form of songs and the un-neccessary love angle of Kaya-Krishna.

I liked the opening credits, using Amitabh Bachchan's voiceover to narrate how the superhero Krrish was born, showing all past clips from Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish.

The stunts were good, I specially loved aereoplane one, and ofcourse the finale. VFX was good, I loved Kaya and that long tongue one. Rest maanwars hardly had any great personality to like them. That tree sequence though looked very fake to me. Still, kudos for all the effort, small problems are always going to be there with less budget.

Rakesh Roshan as a director does incredibly well to bring his vision on the screen, though the preaching of 'there is a krrish in everyone of us' was highly irritating. He could had done away with this spoon-feeding. Dialogue writing ranges from good to bad to average. Also, the reaction shots of public, be it the post aeroplane scene when they congratulate krrish, or when krrish saves a small kid, or when Kaya saves a kid, it looked exaggerated.

Songs were very average, Rajesh Roshan dissapointed. 'Raghupati Raghav Rajaram' works only for the reason that we get to see Hrithik's great dance moves. 'God allah aur Bhagwan' should had been avoided, and same for 'dil tu hi bata'. Though, I loved Kangana in that black dress during Dil tu hi bata song. If we want to compete with Hollywood (if at all we want to), then songs have to be removed or kept at minimal.. even 3 songs in film are too many.

Special mention to two background themes that caught my attention, one was when Kaal's backstory as child is shown. Other one is when Rohit sacrifices his life for Krishna, and that same theme comes when Krishna beats Kaal terribly to death before the surprise dialogue.

Hrithik Roshan delivers great performance, that head shivering is one thing I want him to stop, he does it too much, same was the case in Agneepath. If I was to chose one, then I would say 'Rohit Mehra', as a dad he was comical, father like and full of emotions. I love the scene where he emotes a father feeling helpless trying to save his son, and then the sacrifice he makes. Actually, I felt bad that this character now may not be there in next part of Krrish franchise.

Priyanka Chopra is okay in most parts, only place she gets some scope is when Kaya changes avatar and becomes Priya. Priyanka gets a negative shade to enact, and she does very well in that.

Kangana Ranaut is superb in her negative turns positive role. She looked glamarous and evil.

Vivek Oberoi does pretty well, though his character lacked that special villain punchline. Like in last part, Naseeruddin would say 'Breaking news'. Infact similar tribute is visible once in film, when Kaal says 'toh dekhte hai kya india ke bhagwan bacha paate hai unhe hamare virus se'. Also, if you carefully notice then Kaal's other fingers were moving too which Vivek shouldn't have allowed to happen. Though this is visible only if you focus too much on that like I did. And why does he need to laugh un-necessarily, we know he plays villain role, some cliches should be done away with.

My main problem though with him was, he didn't get a chance to spread terror, though I loved the 'The Dark Knight Rises' tribute with Kaal beating Krrish almost to death. What I wanted after that was Kaal to make the city full of fear with his actions, and not a dialogue sequence. Reason I say this is, Kaal is shown as one with full of powers to us, so after beating Krrish, spreading terror in city would had made his character look very tough to defeat, and therefore make Krrish more lovable when he does the impossible.


Also, I feel that the mask Krishna wears doesn't make his identity look different. For a person it should be easy to identify that both Krishna and Krrish are same, which makes me wonder if they could had worked harder on the mask during Krrish movie.


Krrish3 may not be that Superhero movie from India that can be put together with famous Hollywood ones, but we are getting there. Its a good movie, that can be actually loved by those who aren't aware of Hollywood superhero movies. I am happy that Krrish3 wasn't a waste of time, especially since it took so long for it to make. Hopefully, Krrish4 would not have any flaws.


Verdict : NICE