Movie Analysis : Ek Villain

Directed by Mohit Suri
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3175038/

Tere hi gunaah laute hai, ek ajnabee ke roop mein tujhe saja dene… 

This movie is another case of me connecting to a emotional romantic genre and inspite of various flaws, I end up loving the movie.  Sometimes, what a movie makes you feel is important, the flaws takes a backstage then.

The story is of a gangster Guru (Siddharth Malhotra) who meets Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor) and in few meetings he falls in love with her because of her innocence and her way of living life. As expected she helps Guru come out of his dark life and start to enjoy life. But, their happy life is destroyed by a serial killer, Rakesh (Riteish Deshmukh) who kills Aisha and many other girls because he loves his wife, Sulochana (Aaamna Sharif) a lot, and he feels by killing other girls he can remove the anger he gets towards her or others who insult him, he is basically a emotional lover psycho (bad version of shahrukh from darr). What happens later, is very much predictable.

Mohit Suri isn’t interested in making the narrative full of suspense, as he begins the movie with Rakesh brutally killing Aisha (though I wonder what was the need to dub Riteish voice in that scene, which in 2nd half we see again in his original voice). There are two main plots of movie, one the romance developing between Aisha and Guru, and other is Guru’s revenge of Aisha’s death. And Mohit uses them both in small intervals in a non-linear format with flashbacks quite efficiently.

Special mention to the editor who cuts the past narrative to present beautifully with ‘female galliyaan alaap’ in background and the contradiction of situations in both timelines, like when Aisha tells Guru ‘how she would like to die’ and we are cut to Guru in present, mourning the death of Aisha. Or when Aisha tells Guru ‘to close his eyes and he will find her near him in form of wind’, we are cut to present where Guru is in church and doing the same trying to feel Aisha around him with a very soft background score to accompany the environment. Both were my fav scenes, also the three times Aisha, Guru and Rakesh’s son draw that smiley on the window of jeep. Infact in all these scenes, that galliyaan alaap bg is the common thing. These small romantic elements is what makes a love story touching.

I liked the way Sulochana’s character is written, had she not been as rude and constantly insulting Rakesh, his psycho act won’t had looked convincing.  Now comes two flaws, one major and one minor. The minor one is to make Guru find Rakesh so easily by means of co-incidence that Rakesh son arrives at church.. also Mohit Suri cheats with us through flashbacks, in linear format Guru actually finds Rakesh just one day after death of Aisha. Even if I ignore this flaw which the non-linear narration does help to do, the major one is Suri doesn’t literally use Guru’s dialogue ‘main tujhe marne nahi dunga, lekin main tujhe roj maarunga.. ek baar nahi, hazaar baar marunga’. What I wanted was Rakesh getting tremendous torture and beaten badly atleast 2 times more, maybe near his work place or once in public. Infact if you notice, Guru is in that coat-shirt costume since Aisha death until Rakesh is murdered, which I think takes 2 days to happen… so it was in a way just 2 day torture to Rakesh.  Easily a opportunity lost by Suri in that regard.

I like the Rakesh-Guru face-off right at interval. Another aspect of movie that irritates is Remo Fernandes, what made Suri sign him and what made him not see how bad accent he’s got. Remo totally spoils that dialogue ‘sher ki asli jagah jungle mein hi hoti hai’. Prashant Narayanan would had been ideal choice for the role or some other good character artist.

The God angle is another common thing in Mohit Suri films but slightly over-done in Ek Villain. I am fine with that lady telling Guru that ‘khuda tumhe saja dega’ but saying ‘ek din tumhara koi apna tumhari aankhon ke saamne marega, aur tum kuch nahi kar sakoge’ was a tad too much. Also, his son whom Guru kills does too much of cliched dialogue ‘bhagwan ke liye mujhe chorh do’.

I ain’t much fond of Milap Zaveri’s dialogues, infact I have hated his work till now in almost every film or even the show ’24’. But for first time, his work is good and many dialogues are worth applauding like that ‘hamdard’ one. Though they edited my fav one from film ‘tere hi gunaah laute hai, ek ajnabee ke roop mein tujhe saja dene’.

Its hard not to adore the love story of Guru-Aisha even though the start of it may look silly. Plus it includes that badly directed scene of mental asylum which has a good Amitabh Bachchan reference which for 2nd time Siddharth gets for himself (actually 1st time, in Hasee toh Phasee it was his character at young age who is shown watching Agneepath). I till now don’t know why Aisha hired Guru to free Chotu when it was so easy to enter and the guards looked that scared.

Not a single song that I dislike, easily best album of year and all of the songs are wonderfully used without halting the narration. Through ‘Banjaara’, Guru starts having a attachment towards Aisha (that shammi kapoor step was edited out, and I was so angry at it) which develops into love with ‘Galliyaan’ which is most romantic song along with ‘Hamdard’ which personally I don’t like much but the visuals are worth it. Then, there’s ‘Zaroorat’, where we see Guru in pain over death of Aisha and it includes Suri’s excellently one shot action scene on ship (just like Raabta in Agent Vinod).  Lastly, ‘Awari’,  which captures the broken Rakesh after being beaten by Guru and seen his wife taken by police.

Siddharth Malhotra comes out of his chocolate boy image, and in this role that has ample scope to perform, he takes it with open hands and simply doesn’t disappoint. He does falter in his dialogues at few places but overall, his acting is excellent.

Shraddha Kapoor is still coming into her own, improved performance after Aashiqui2, feel she is more comfortable in bubbly non-stop talk scenes rather than the emotional ones where her acting comes out more like delivering lines. Yet, I adore her a lot and she has a amazing screen presence, and how cute she looks when she says ‘lakshmi ko mana nahi karte’ or that angry bird imitation ‘puyiiii’. She still has a long way to go to become a great actor, but I am keeping fingers crossed that she will get better.

Its Riteish Deshmukh who steals the show, he is terrific in each and every scene he is part of, be it his innocent looking husband at home, or worker at office, or his evil psycho side while killing girls. The scene where his psycho side is introduced for 1st time openly is very well done by Suri, also the line given too ‘Phikr mat kijiye madam, aaj ke baad aapko shikayat ka mauka nahi milega’ (like Bob of Kahaani would say a particular line before killing).  Also, love the scene where he calls Guru and tells ‘tera talent bhi ajeeb hai, tu gairo ko toh bacha paata hai, lekin apno ko nahi’. And of course how can you not like the final fight scene, and all the dialogues and imitations of Aisha, Riteish does. You only wonder why such a talented actor keeps doing same nonsense comedy movies when he can offer so much more to hindi films.

KRK actually doesn’t irritate (except for his long laugh) and reason for it is the character he plays is such a asshole that you can easily relate KRK playing himself in the movie which he does quite easily.



Overall, Ek Villain works for Siddharth-Shraddha chemistry, Ritesh Deshmukh’s super evil performance and great music. Its still not Mohit Suri’s best direction, but much better than his last two movies.



Note : I haven’t seen the Korean film from which this movie is inspired or copied.. and I don’t really care either. 


Verdict : 3.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Chef

Directed by : Jon Favreau
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/

Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) is a chef at a restaurant but he hardly gets any freedom to cook the best food due to his owner’s regular interference. One critic posts a bad review about his good on internet, Carl asks him to comeby and try his food again but Carl fails to do so due to getting sacked from his job. His ex wife takes him to Miami and convinces him to start food truck across the place serving quality food of his own choice. How Carl gets famous, with help from his son Percy (Emjay Anthony) and a loyal friend Tony (Bobby Cannavale)..


The relation between Carl and Percy is the major USP of the movie, they share some lovely moments. Percy asking for more time with Carl, and to be there in his kitchen of restaurant, great humor by Carl in the way he denies. Love how Percy teaches his dad how to make account on twitter. And then a rofl moment when Carl mistakenly sends reply to that critic thinking it is private message.

How Percy is made to work at Carl’s food truck which he doesn’t enjoy initially but when Carl shows concern and advice, Percy shows how good a helper he is along with his tech savvy posts on twitter regarding truck.

If there’s one relation that isn’t shown in final half n hour then its between Carl and Molly (Scarlett Johannsson), who just disappears ever since Carl sets up his own truck.  I was happy though that they didnt get into Carl trying to get back to his ex-wife drama plot.

The movie always has two main points along which it continues till end, one is Carl’s professional life where he wants to be a famous chef who can creatively put his inputs into food without being ruled over, and other is Carl’s relation with his son who wasn’t getting enough time to spend with his dad.


And Jon as a director does exceedingly well in covering both these parts, with well placed humor and keeping emotional moments to a minimum.

The final end to movie though was slightly abrupt to me, felt like it ended just too suddenly.


Very good performances by Jon Favreau and Emjay Anthony. Wanted more of Scarlett, while Robert Downey Jr appears in a one scene special appearance.


Overall, Chef was a delightful film to watch for Carl-Percy father-son relationship, good humorous witty dialogues and all the varieties of food we see cooked in film. Good thing for me, I went to see movie after having taken lunch, else its a movie that will make you so much hungry.


Verdict : 3/5

Movie Analysis : Humshakals

Directed by : Sajid Khan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3036740/

In case any Sajid Khan fan (if any) gets upset with this post where I am mostly gonna write a lot about what I hated in the movie (and that’s a hell lot), let me remind that his first two movies Hey Baby and specially Housefull were liked by me.


Humshakals begins with this note :
A wise man once told me.. Err… Err.. Err.. Sorry guys, I forgot what he told me - Sajid Khan

My guess is that he told Sajid, how to not make bad films and Sajid being Sajid didn’t pay attention.


The plot of movie revolves around Ashok (Saif Ali Khan) and Kumar (Riteish Deshmukh). Ashok is a rich guy, with a ill father who is in coma. Thereby, his mama Kans (Ram Kapoor) wants to grab the opportunity to snatch Ashok’s property, and the only way suggested for it by  Kans friend, who is also a doctor (played by Nawab Shah) is to prove Ashok is mental. Ashok along with Kumar fall into trap, reach mental asylum where there humshakals are also present in different ward of asylum. How these 4 encounter each other, and how Sajid Khan brings the 3rd humshakal into the narrative, trying to bring out comedy (or headache) is what the rest story is about. And yea there are 3 actresses in movie who are dumb almost all the time, Tamannah leading them.



Some interesting points :

• The opening scene begins with Ashok’s comedy acts on stage. Yes he is rich, but can’t he have a weird hobby. Thankfully, every person listening to his jokes stands up and gets out of place in disgust. Oh wait, on a new day, when almost all people are gone, there is a loud clap by someone, the camera pans and its our very own Tamannah, who as I told leads the dumbest girl category, she loves the dumb jokes of Ashok, and thereby we have a jodi dumb meets dumb..  Eg of one of Ashok’s comedy lines (among many torturous ones) - You are so witty (V.T), and You are Churchgate.

• Since Ram Kapoor plays a villain, there has to be big scary laugh and its done twice by him almost tearing your ear-drums.

• If you seen that ever-famous Ashok Kumar scene from ‘Clerk’, there’s something similar attempted by Sajid in one scene that is worth calling guilty pleasure.. Ashok and Kumar’s humshakals enters the big mansion of original ones, and there they play with the hospital machines lying to aid his father lying in coma, like a video game and his father keeps getting up and down as the number changes in machine.

• Sajid cleverly uses a joke on his own film ‘Himmatwala’, hoping atleast that will give laugh to people who don’t laugh in rest of movie. Not bad.

• Saif should forget trying to attempt mimicry ever in his life, how terrible he is when he tries Pran, infact he couldn’t even imitate Sajid either. In that department, Riteish was superb, his Dilip Kumar one was fantastic.

• There’s a background of ‘Cocaine ke paranthe’ and ‘Vodka ke paranthe’ when the characters mistakenly make them…

• Two gays shown as such despos, didn’t knew that they behave like that.

• A character listens shut up as ‘Shirt up’.

• Humshakal of Kans is termed dangerous patient in asylum, and therefore kept at a distant and safe place. But when Ashok and Kumar make him angry accidentally, he breaks the glass. My que was ‘how the hell was this safe secured place and why didn’t he ran away before doing the same act’.

• And this humshakal of Kans, his anger can be stopped only in one way. Give him a lollypop. Phew, what a thought Sajid and the special team of writers.

• Sajid’s obsession in a night dress song doesn’t end, another version of Papa jag jayega, this time its called ‘Barbaad raat’.

• The office staff of Ashok aren’t less dumb, when a character hits the fire alarm in front of them… they act like blind and still run away thinking its real.

• And of course the girl getups by the trio where they try to woo the humshakals. At that point, you can only wonder what made these 3 actors sign this film.

• There’s Satish Shah who hams all the time, being admirer of Hitler and some other guys who I don’t remember. When was the last time he was made to act this loudly. Feel sad for him.

• In the climax, we see one by one characters sitting on a chair that acts like unstoppable. My que was ‘if chair is unstoppable, atleast try to get off it instead of acting like statues’. Silly humor at its best.

• When did Esha Gupta fall in love with the humshakal of Ashok, nobody knows when the film ends.


Himesh Reshammiya music is terrible, even Caller Tune isn’t worth listening for me.

Only performance that doesn’t totally irritate and not give you headache, is of Riteish Deshmukh. Its a familiar genre for him, and thereby even in a crap script he finds few scenes worth applauding, like his dog act, his mimicry and one of his conversation with Bipasha.

Tamannah looks hot, but she would better off doing a role that suits her, unless she is dumb in real life too. Bipasha is hardly seen in movie, and she would be happy after watching how bad movie is.  Esha Gupta is wasted too.


Overall, Humshakals will not only irritate you, bore you, give you headache .. it will also make you believe that  there’s no chance of expecting a decent entertainer by Sajid Khan in future. One of the film’s song ‘Hum pagal nahi hai bhaiyya.. hamara dimaag kharab hai’ aptly describes the mental state of Sajid Khan, and who knows that line could had been his inspiration to make this entire movie.


Verdict : 0.5/5 

Trailer : Kick

When I read the story of original Telugu movie, it immediately gave me a kick that this film could/would be the Salman movie to look out for. And the trailer for now has kept that feeling alive.


Its funny that some people call this movie as Salman’s superhero movie, anything to bash him. When I saw the 1st poster of mask, I immediately understood its gonna be worn by him when he plays the character ‘Devil’ and not for some superhero powers.

Aap Devil ke peeche, Devil aapke peeche.. Too much Fun. Salman’s first dialogue in the trailer introducing his character, one without french beard and other with it where he is ‘Devil’. Some good stunt scenes with cycle specially that train one (yes its over the top but lovely to watch for me).

The low point of trailer comes when Jacqueline-Salman love plot is revealed. I personally adore Jacqueline, near to having crush I would say, but the overdose of ‘Kick’ word in dialogues reminded me of Imran Khan’s Luck. Remember how much irritating it was when they kept using Luck in every dialogue of 1st half. I hope this aint case in the film.

Also, how much have they retained the original story, and how much changed it.. would be thing to see. I haven’t seen the original one, but to be frank I would like not too many changes in the plot.

Jacqueline’s dance moves in trailer are impressive, specially the one in red outfit.

The other worrying factor for me is music, as its by Mr Himesh Reshammiya whose songs have stopped clicking with me since he started to act.  Could this be the film where his music finally appeals ? Hope so.

Paida toh main bhi shareef hua tha, par sharafat se apni kabhi nahi bana. Nawazuddin in a negative role is another aspect I am keen to watch, one of actors that has been on the rise in last 2 years with his performances. Love that moment where he shares screen with Salman at 1:44. I hope there will be lot more scenes between them in movie, would be a delight.

The main highlight once again is the dialogue writing by Rajat Arora, I personally loved all his dialogues in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobara’ (even though I didn’t put him in my top5 of best performances of year blog, he was close to it).  How about ending with that ‘Eid aa rahi hai, aur woh apni eidi lene zaroor aayega’ dialogue.. Simply Fantastic.


Fingers Crossed, could be the next masala movie after Dhoom3 that I could madly love, and its been a long gap since I loved a Salman movie completely (Dabangg was last).


Mere baare mein itna mat sochna, dil mein aata hoon…. samajh mein nahi.

Movie Analysis : How to Train Your Dragon 2

Directed by : Dean Deblois
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646971/

Not seen the 1st part.. but very much understood most of the film. The plot revolves around Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who would be the next chief of the Berk Island, as told to him by his father Stoick (Gerarld Butler). But Hiccup prefers adventures with his dragon Toothless, to discover new worlds. And he ends up reaching a secret  ice cave which is home to hundreds of new wild dragons, and a mysterious Dragon Rider, Valka  (Cate Blanchett). They both must now stand up and keep the island peaceful, as the threat of Drago (Djimon Hounsou) looms large on them who wants to capture and  control all the dragons.

Unlike the animation movies I have seen before, this one is comical but more dramatic and emotional. Frozen probably was the last one that was more or less on same lines on the emotion level.

Some excellent visuals, be it the initial dragon race or the journey of Hiccup-Toothless in the skies, or the new world of dragons Hiccup discovers, or the fight against Drago.

Love the scene between Stoick and Valka, and the past story narrated by Valka. Hiccup and his girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera) give some cute moments, and also special mention to Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) who is blindly attracted to a guy they meet on the ice cave, and her comments make you laugh a lot.


How to train your dragon 2 is a good watch if you like animation movies and not prefer a total comical movie.  The key part that you love, is the relation Valka and Toothless shares with Hiccup.


Verdict : 3/5 

Movie Analysis : The World Before Her

Directed by : Nisha Pahuja
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2258685/

A documentary movie that deals with two woman showcasing two different India’s to us.  One, Ruhi Singh, is a contestant at a beauty pageant trying to win Miss India 2011 contest. While other, Prachi Trivedi, works at Durga Vahini camp, training girls of 15-23 age, a Hindu nationalist group exclusively for women.  They both share their views about Indian culture, the place they are at, their dreams, their beliefs and the life they have lived.

Before the beauty pageant contest, all 20 contestants go through a 30 day beauty boot camp. Here, we get to see how in their attempt to achieve fame, many small town girls come and are willing to do whatever they are asked for, like the botox cosmetic surgery where the woman almost forces for changes in her look of face against the will of girl, then the skin whitening treatments, and in one of event the girls are covered from head to  middle so that only their legs are visible to get judged.  One of the girl says, that she doesn’t like all this, and at times she thinks about Indian culture but then she doesn’t have a choice if she has to get fame. The owner of the pageant herself calls the camp as factory, the girls are looked as objects (like the bikini round).  Now the girls who pass and win, see the bright light with becoming successful models and even a chance to enter Bollywood. But the cost at which they do so, is that right ? That is the question raised.

In the camp of Durga Vahini, you feel even more saddened when you see young girls being brainwashed against western culture and the will to make the country fully Hindu with hatred for Muslims and Christians. When one of the young girl part of camp is interviewed, she says with pride that she doesn’t have Muslim friends and is happy about it. You can clearly see the influence of the camp on her mind.  One is willing to kill other people if a need arises.

Prachi Trivedi looks very vulnerable at many places, and it appears the life she lived under her father who with a smile admits how he punished her in 5th standard (if i remember it right) with a iron rod on her foot, probably the anger she has hidden in herself comes out at the camp while training girls.  She has a strong belief that her principles are right, and also she doesn’t go against her father because of only one reason that he at her birth allowed her to live and not kill her.

She herself isn’t willing to get married or produce children, but at one event of camp its told girls should get married at a very young age (i think they said 18), and the other alternative for kitchen work given at camp is gun rifle training. When asked about isn’t it more like being terrorist, Prachi says we don’t make bombs or keep AK47 or even ever used sulphuric acid, how can we be terrorists then.  At the camp they are taught to become strong and protect themselves, and in a event a lady tells them that women will always be weak, such contradicting statements.

There are some disturbing pics shown of girls getting beaten by Hindu Nationalists when seen with a guy or at a bar.

There’s one hard hitting moment when Pooja Chopra’s mother shares her birth story when her father wanted a boy, and how nervous she felt when she found its a girl. Her mother was told, either send Pooja to orphanage, or kill her, and she almost breaks down telling this. And how happy and proud she felt when Pooja won the contest.

Also, the supportive parents of Ruhi who like watching their girl in front page of bombay times and then glued to tv screens to see her win, the disappoint on their face when she doesn’t.


The way Prachi looks at the ongoing telecast of Miss India 2011 on her tv, it made me think in two ways, one was she felt in another life she would had been participant in that contest too, and another was she was watching it with total anger thinking how badly these girls are destroying indian culture getting influenced with western, just as her father states at that time.  Another way of looking at it is… why are Prachi and her father watching the contest if they so much hate it.


The best thing about this documentary is, it never takes sides and always has a non-judgmental tone. We can make our choices, which one do we support and to be frank there’s more of negative in both stories. Infact the way narration is done, there are places where you can draw parallels to both world’s. Only positives I see are, in beauty contest, the girls have a chance to get famous and get fame, plus successful life. While at Durga vahini camp, girls learn self protection, and could live a life without feeling scared of any person.


Though, the women of India aren’t limited to these two world’s shown in the movie, and I feel most would be happy not to be part of any of these.

Nonetheless, a very well made documentary, which showcased two India’s, I aint much aware of.  Very deeply moving, shakes you at many moments and thought provoking when you come out of theatre.


Verdict : 4/5 

Movie Analysis : Filmistaan

Directed by : Nitin Kakkar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2417560/

A wanna-be actor Sunny (Sharib Hashmi), works as an A.D and dreams of becoming the next big star. He goes to Rajasthan with an american crew to work on a documentary. One day an Islamic terrorist group mistakenly kidnaps Sunny instead of the american crew, and brings him to Pakistan. They keep him as hostage until they could locate the american crew. Sunny is put at a house which belongs to a Pakistani Aftaab (Inaamul Haq), who is in business of hindi films piracy and always brings  plenty of cds while returning back from border, that he shows his villagers to watch. Sunny and Aftaab instantly share a bond with the common interest of cinema, but will this bond be strong enough to cope with the terrorist who is always guarding Sunny from escaping.


In the 1st half, we see Sunny speaking plenty of bollywood dialogues, mimicry, he’s like a chalta phirta cinema radio who can use a filmi dialogue in even a serious situation, like the ‘mard ko kabhi dard nahi hota’ or he trying to teach kids how actors would shoot a gun differently using the gun of terrorist.  Sunny is very over the top, so you could easily understand why he fails to make any of the auditions, and in one very good scene he himself tells Aftaab about how he thinks about his acting skills. But, its his friendly and always trying to be happy avatar that impresses you.

One of the most funniest scene of movie comes when Sunny directs the recording of his kidnapping himself and goes for plenty of re-takes as he believes no matter what you are filming, the quality should never be compromised, hilarious sequence it is.

Then there’s Aftaab, who the moment he comes to know that Sunny is into cinema, he tries to interact with him and they share a long conversation about films, how cinema connects two people irrespective of the countries they belong to.

Love the scene where Sunny badly wants to see Maine Pyar Kiya requesting the terrorist leader Mahmood (Kumud Mishra) to let him come outside and watch along with villages, who ignores him as a result Sunny starts mouthing all the dialogues inside his room.  And then the problem in sound of pirated cd resulting in Sunny giving voice over the Salman’s dialogues.


The final 20-25 mins was the weak link of movie, as the film heads towards a similar cliched political climax, there was a scope of innovative writing there. Also, except for Udaari (only to some extent), the songs are not worth remembering when you leave the theatre.


Performances wise, Sharib Hashmi is exceptional in his comic timing, its a role tailor-made for him. After doing good work as supporting role in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, its a good follow up for him to play a lead and get noticed much more. There are few emotional scenes in movie where he doesn’t falter either, which makes me interested to see how he would do in future films where he doesn’t play a comic character.

Inaamul Haq also was fantastic in playing the Pakistani character who loves Indian movies. He played more of a cinema lover who isn’t over the top or way too filmi in his interactions. Loved the bonding he had with Sharib in the movie. No wonder the final clippings we see is a recap of that.

Its hard to identify Kumud Mishra in the get up (Khatana of Rockstar), not a likable character by any imagination, and what I liked was the ‘no change of heart’ at all as the story develops which usually happens in our movies.


Overall, Filmistaan is worth a watch for the two great performances, excellent humor in 1st half and the bonding of two cinema lovers from India and Pakistan. If it didn’t falter in the climax, it would had been a terrific movie.


Verdict : 3.5/5