Movie Analysis : Happy New Year

Directed by : Farah Khan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2461132/


Farah Khan-Shahrukh jodi fails this time, still watchable for Deepika and supporting cast. 

Read at your own risk, there maybe spoilers ahead.. (as if it matters )


The opening scene of a dance competition, a wide camera shot of event with some great visuals that attract you and then move to the flashback, introduction scene of Shahrukh who spoofs his own hit dialogues and now you come to the understanding that Happy New Year here onwards should be seen without any kind of expectations of Main Hoon Naa or Om Shanti Om (atleast its first half was entertaining) from Farah.

The movie is about losers named Charlie (Shahrukh Khan), Nandu (Abhishek Bachchan), Tammy (Boman Irani), Rohan (Vivaan Shah), Jag (Sonu Sood) who plan to take revenge of the betrayal Charlie’s father (Anupam Kher) face by Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff). Their plan is to execute the biggest diamond heist ever in world for which they have to enter a World Dance Championship and thereby need Mohini (Deepika Padukone), a bar dancer to help them reach main stage at the most so that they can steal the diamonds and run away without giving a damn about dance competition.

The story is in no-way exciting, and then the time Farah takes to move to the heist sequences doesn’t help either.

All the 5 losers are given a special intro-sequence and surprisingly only Nandu one worked for me to certain extent.

Its hard to understand why do our film-makers believe in slow-motioning a shirtless guy (mostly salman, in this film’s  case shahrukh) or in case of actresses when they wear bikini or some similar kind of shots. Makes me think that either the director is a big time perv or is of opinion that majority of indians are like that.

Then there’s a irritating cameo of Sajid Khan whose scene made me actually think if that is how he in real directs his own films.

Logically (avoid reading this paragraph if hny = watch without logic for you), there’s certain things that will come to mind, main one is how come Charan Grover never notice the duplicate of his son Vicky Grover i.e Nandu roaming around in dance competition. Then, why does Charlie need Mohini to train them in dance or even forget that why did they even need to practice if during audition round he was going to get selected with that blackmail video and Rohan was there to hack votes for next round. They actually never needed to give any importance to dance. Another imp blunder was, why didnt they steal the diamonds by entering to the place directly where Jag goes to change oxygen and water pipes. Oh wait, one more is there.. in entire movie we are shown how bad the 5 losers dance and yet Farah being a choreographer didn’t want his losers to go away from dance competition losing. Forget 3rd position or runner-up, she makes them win the competition…Sigh.


But But But… Farah’s touch is visible in quite a few scenes, like the Damini spoof or Mohini’s hilarious 6 minute (or was it 7) speech lifted from Chak de or the reaction of Mohini when Charlie speaks a long english dialogue about her beauty with a great sense of humor or when Nandu has to remove his clothes to reach out a point on top of a wall, or when Tammy sarcastically answers Charlie ‘I am the king of the world’ when Charlie asks him if he remembers a dialogue of Titanic,  and of course the main heist at the end which was easily the best moment of movie.


Vishal Shekhar’s music for a change didn’t work here, with film they were definitely good to ears but none is gonna stay in memory for too long. Farah tries way too hard to make ‘Indiawaale' look very patriotic but it turns out to be pretty mediocre. While 'Manva Laage' is a Shreya song that would easily put me to sleep with a deja vu of her umpteen old songs. ‘Lovely’ also doesn’t work  except for its tunes. The song that I loved was ‘Satakli’ specially the line ‘raadhe raadhe bolo jai kanhaiyaa laal ki’ and Sukhwinder Singh’s voice, he should be asked to sing one song for Shahrukh in every film.

The background score was decent, except for that unwanted theme used where Charlie fights Korean guy.


In performances.. Shahrukh disappoints, except for some moments like ‘horny’, ‘english lines to Mohini’, he over-acted a lot specially scenes where he had to show his anger. Not to forget that irritating ‘kismet kutti cheez hai’ line which I lost count of how many times he repeats. I think he has reached a age where atleast to me he won’t appeal anymore in these masala movies. Either he has to do total romantic film (like JTHJ) or hatke movies (like CDI) or negative roles (like Don2).

Deepika Padukone is so lovable in the movie, despite again having a weird diction. It was great to see her shine so well in comical scenes one after another  with such comfort, even her mannerisms were perfect. And good that her emotional scenes were very few. She looks simply Wow in that Indiawaale outfit, even the Chammiya one.

Abhishek looked like to be so much enjoying this role, which was quite impressing even though it was just a supporting role. While Sonu Sood except for the overdose of body exposure, did well in both serious and comical situations. And loved Boman Irani’s child at heart yet a matured guy character, plus his dialogue delivery. Infact all three of them were real jaan of movie after Deepika.

Feel bad for Vivaan Shah, after 7 Khoon Maaf I never expected him to be doing a Farah Khan movie and he hardly has anything in the movie to speak of. Wonder how Naseeruddin Shah would had felt about his choice of film.

Jackie Shroff is good in villain role, though his character isn’t given much screen time unfortunately.

Among Special appearances, it was surprising to see Dino Morea from the days when he used to try his hand at lead roles unsuccessfully and now doing a anchor role at a dance competition. But not as surprising as it was to see Anurag Kashyap play a gay character, I mean what on earth made him accept the role, for a person who is either associated with hard-hitting movies or sarcastic humor at best. This was definitely quite un-expected for me.

And it was first of a kind to see a special appearance credited as ‘Emotional Apperance’ for Anupam Kher, whatever that meant.


Happy New Year is tolerable unlike Chennai Express, whether you like Shahrukh or not (I didnt) you most likely will like performances of Deepika and the supporting cast. There will be some entertaining moments and the final heist scene to enjoy.

And if you are interested, then there’s a lovely Abram shot in the final end credit sequence.


Verdict : 2.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Annabelle

Directed by : John R Leonetti
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322940/

Avoidable horror movie, no where near to the magic of Conjuring. 

Read at your own risk, there may be spoilers ahead.. 


John Gordon (Ward Horton) and his wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) house is invaded by members of a satanic cult on one night, who attack them. Both survive the attack as the cults get killed but after that incident, a doll that John had brought as gift for his pregnant wife, starts to show supernatural behavior.

Unlike Conjuring or even Insidious, what lacks in Annabelle is a good plot. The scares aren’t bad to be honest, though they are very few sadly. Most of the times what director does is show situations where we see close up of doll or any other suspicious object and we expect something will happen, but nothing happens.

There should had been lot more activities related to doll, which isn’t the case. Also, the plot no where resembles the real story of Annabelle incident. I am assuming (correct me if I am wrong), that the ending showing a lady buying doll for a birthday gift for her girl is the actual story which means there has to be a Annabelle Part2 that shows it, and of course Warrens didn’t get doll locked in this film which is another clue that there has to be another part to the film.

The fire scene is brilliantly edited with a bg that builds the nervousness, also the scary scene where a girl comes running towards the door and the elevator one is the scariest of all. Unfortunately, the climax was a big let-down, just when you thought that okay the movie till now didn’t have that wow factor but we may get it at the end, but not so. Perfect ending would had been, either the scene where Mia mistakenly kills her daughter thinking it to be a doll, or she killing herself to save her daughter. Instead there’s a happy ending that for me totally sucks.

Even performance wise, there’s nothing to talk about. All actors do a decent enough job but not worth to remember.


Annabelle as a horror movie gives few jump scare moments, but still its very much avoidable movie. I would suggest wait for 2nd part if its in making, I got a feeling that would be much better and I hope James Wan directs it.



Verdict : 2/5 

Movie Analysis : Bang Bang

Directed by : Siddharth Anand
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2905838/

A bad remake of already average Hollywood movie ‘Knight and Day’. 

Read at your own risk, there may be spoilers ahead … 


When you remake a movie that itself was at best one time watch, you expect the film-maker to work a lot on script and do major changes. Siddharth Anand and his team didn’t believe in it, not only do they keep plenty of stuff same, the changes they make only makes the original Hollywood movie ‘Knight and Day’ look far superior to it.


Right in the first scene, Siddharth spoils the entire movie where he lets you know clearly that Viren
(Jimmy Shergill) who is dying has a brother Jai (Hrithik Roshan) who would revenge his death. Instead of keeping Jai’s character full of suspense, we are given the typical stereotype revenge story. Not to forget, Jimmy Shergill is given the smallest possible screen time, sadly for the viewers who are thereafter left to find moments to enjoy which are far and few.

Even Hrithik Roshan’s comic timing looks out of touch, what works is his stunt sequences and his first meeting sequence with Harleen (Katrina Kaif).

Watching Katrina Kaif after a long time, and you wonder what happened to her improving hindi diction, her dialogue delivery looked completely unbearable. Also, unlike Diaz in Knight n Day, Katrina’s comic timing is awful. Its only her looks that is likable in the movie at best.

The action is also so disappointing, nothing like jaw dropping at all.. not even one stunt scene.

The rest cast is totally wasted, as most of screen time is given to Hrithik and Katrina only. They get a extended romantic plot which only weakens the already going no-where movie.

Songs are certainly good break from the movie, giving some pleasant moments, specially Meherbaan which is my fav.


Bang Bang is a movie that is best avoided unless you are a die hard Hrithik or Katrina fan. Else like me you are gonna feel you wasted time watching this movie which gives very few entertaining moments.


Verdict : 1.5/5 

Missed Reviews : August-September

Again, my views on seen films last two months in short…


Hindi : 


Entertainment : 

This year I think I am ending up watching lot of movies that deserve 1 or less than 1 star rating. The trailer itself was bad, but still went to see if there’s a surprise in store, and indeed it was, it turned out to be a total nightmare and headache. In Jacqueline words from kick, this was a totally unjhelable movie. Right from 1st scene where you see Akshay in total fatty make up, a sight you would prefer not to see. Then, over the top comedy lines, with terrible irritating Krishna (same one from Bol Bacchan) speaking idiotic written dialogues that have filmy names and actors. One scene that I remember I laughed at, was when Akshay goes to meet Mithun at his place and Mithun is saving electricity by having candle light meeting with his future son-in-law, also the sofa end broken at one side, one of rarest funny scene in movie. Also, Johnny Lever provides some good moments in movie with his still present great comic timing. Tamannah it appears has decided to do only nonsense movies in her career, that gives no scope to showcase her acting.  Sonu Sood and Prakash Raj 1st scene is hilarious, after that their plot is terribly predictable. Akshay does nothing new, you have seen him do same comedy in numerous movies, in between he choses good films like Special Chabees, Holiday and then he returns to undo the good work with films like Entertainment.
Verdict : 1/5 


Singham Returns : 

In the first scene, when you see Singham trying to advice a young boy in what direction he should be using his anger, the tone of the dialogue tells the film might attempt to preach which it does in few other portions too, and then you see the iconic dialogues of 1st film in franchise like ‘aata maajhi satkeli’ and ‘aali re aali’ etc used by Ajay Devgan all of a sudden making you feel like seems Singham just realized he forgot to use his famous lines. One good aspect in this film is, that Kareena-Ajay love angle is given very less importance and unlike last movie, there’s very less comedy based on them. But the bad aspect is, the villain played by Zakir Hussain and Amol Apte aren’t even half as effective as Prakash Raj alone was in last movie. Yet, you enjoy watching Singham beat the wrong guys and let Police win over corrupt minister and hypocrite baba. If only the script was better, and Rohit preferred to film it like new movie, and not trying to use heroics of last one, this movie had in it to work. A okish one time watch…
Verdict : 2/5


Mardaani : 

Rani in another bold avatar since No One Killed Jessica, this time playing a senior inspector at Crime Branch trying to find a missing girl and solving clues to reach the mastermind behind the child trafficking racquet. As expected Rani gives a solid performance, watch her helplessness when in front of her eyes she watches her husband face turned black with shoes necklace over him, or the next preceding scene where Rani challenges Tahir Raj Bhasin (the mastermind) over phone with tears rolling her eyes after she ends call being still in a state of shock over her husband’s treatment. But for me the real stars of the movie were Pradeep Sarkar and Tahir Raj Bhasin. Sarkar’s direction is top notch, can you fucking believe that the film has just one song that actually comes at the final scene of the movie. And he never indulges into any sub-plots, like the relationship of missing girl Pyaari with Rani and her daughter, just given 1-2 scenes. Even Rani’s relationship with her hubby isn’t given importance. From the promos, Tahir looked pretty amateurish to me, but I was wrong. He has acted brilliantly, infact at times I was enjoying his performance more than Rani. He gets his mannerisms, and dialect perfect. Also, his way of calling Rani ‘Maam’ was cool. The screenplay keeps it Tahir vs Rani, chess piece like scenario, one move followed by opponent’s move. Anil George (from Miss Lovely film) plays a good supporting role of Vakeel. The background music from Julius Packiam was once again terrific, he started with Dhoom3, decent in Gunday, then Kick and now Mardaani, easily becoming a reliable person in background music department. If there’s something that bothered me in film was, two scenes, one where Rani tries to be over-smart as a cop while dealing with a person at CP, and other was the key fight scene between Rani and Tahir which should had been shooted skillfully without dialogues like ‘lokpal bill’ and all. Leaving these aside, the movie works pretty much, but you are more than likely to remember Tahir’s performance when you come out of theatre (not talking of Rani fanatics).
Verdict : 3.5/5 


Raja Natwarlal : 

This is a good con movie made in our hindi industry, but it had great potential to be remembered for many years if and only if the writers plus director wanted the focus on main plot more than the un-necessary romantic songs that keep popping up as if asking viewers ‘bahut thrill ho gaya, thora rest ho jaaye’. Emraan Hashmi in such awara type roles isn’t new, and hence he looks at ease portraying it. Paresh Rawal is fantastic in his part playing the eldest con artist, love the training scenes in Dharamshala. Kay Kay Menon is shown menacing which he does look, but still he gets conned too easily to my liking in the end. Humaima Malick has got looks, acting wise I would give another film a go before saying anything, she gets limited scope in this movie. Even the songs except for ‘Tere hoke rahenge’ and Mika’s, aint catchy enough. The ending reminds of ‘The Prestige’ which didn’t really bother me, as it looks good but you don’t really feel the impact because the director ends up going the routine mixing everything in a thriller that would had been best kept as a thriller movie only. Yet its worth a watch once for the performances and all the con sequences.
Verdict : 3/5 


Mary Kom : 

As it appeared from trailer, Mary Kom couldn’t turn out to be another great biopic film like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Priyanka Chopra unlike many others, looks like Mary Kom to me in appearance and quite expectedly gives a great performance but its the screenplay and writing that disappoints. Firstly, we get to see the rise of Mary Kom in boxing happen all too quickly with a montage as if the struggle had to be limited to get that first chance of training only with coach (Sunil Thapa playing it). I was very much okay to see how a woman once a great champion quit it to get her family going and now wants to get back to it feeling a void in life, and the whole training she has to get her body in shape. These were some of best parts of movie, along with that scene in bus where a small girl and her father couldn’t recognize Mary Kom. And then in the climax, they mess it up terribly with forced drama. Why would a husband tell his wife that their daughter has fallen ill again one night before his wife goes for a very important boxing match in her life. Even if I accept it, then why would he tell her after deciding to keep the reason for her child’s illness a secret, suddenly moments before match he calls her to tell it just as to help the match get added drama, totally disliked it to a extent I felt like Mary should lose this match. Two other things that don’t gel with me, one is the relation of Mary with her father, how he all of sudden starts cheering his daughter after all the time having hatred towards boxing sport, the sudden change of heart was unconvincing. Then, there’s a scene where Mary shaves her head off because she feels this will help her control her anger, again completely un-necessary. Even the music except for dil yeh ziddi (which is again nothing special) and the training song in 2nd half, is very ordinary. Darshan Kumar is quite effective in his supporting role. Mary Kom certainly deserved a better movie.
Verdict : 2.5/5 


Creature : 

A different kind of horror movie, where the ghost for a change isn’t a aatma or badly make-uped person… but a creature that has human structure although looks like a raakshas and runs like tiger. So much effort in all the creative effort goes into vfx effects and making sure the creature should look scary, that they forget the movie required a story too. What we get is another same old cliched story of a lady living in a far away hilly place where a hotel placed right across jungle starts to get famous for all the attacks the guests living in it face with the creature. The acting of most of these supporting cast is so terrible that you simply plead that they die especially Bikramjeet Kanwarpal who plays the forest officer always seen chewing paan while speaking a dialogue. The romantic track between Bipasha and Imran Abbas never interests you, with Imran’s acting skills hardly visible. Even Bipasha gets very little chance to shine in this dull movie. The scare elements are far and few, with no suspense at all except for the reason why creature is attacking that hotel guests which really ain’t something we all are too keen to know either. The only part of movie that thrills to some extent is the final 20-25 mins when the creature makes it hard for Bipasha and all people helping her to find a way to kill it. If only our film-makers first write a good horror script and then think about all other aspects to enhance it, but if you follow the pattern oppositely then its gonna be a film that would not appeal at all.
Verdict : 1.5/5 


Finding Fanny

Quite unusual movie, yet funny in various parts and a story where Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah) gets back a letter he had posted to Fanny 46 years ago where he had proposed her. Ferdie is heart-broken to learn that the life he lived till now in regret was a waste as Fanny never read his proposal. So, Ferdie and his friends set on a journey to find Fanny and a lots more about each other. Naseeruddin and Pankaj Kapur are the real stars of this movie in almost every frame they are in. Now take this, Pankaj Kapur plays a very vulgar character and yet you can’t help but love his act, or the way he addresses Dimple in the movie. Naseer makes Ferdie look so child-like and innocent guy who you feel sorry for and thereby you want him to find Fanny. Deepika and Arjun were not so convincing in their performances. Deepika irritates a lot in those voiceovers which she speaks as if a teacher told her to stand up in class and start reading lesson from 1st line without stopping. Dimple Kapadia at places hammed, still was pretty likable specially the scene where Pankaj paints her portrait and you feel sorry for her when you look at that painting. Also, I felt there wasn’t a need to give endings to every character, a happy ending to be precise. There was a clear case of ending the movie on a open end where you were left to guess who would had gone in with what life in future.  I do feel there was a case of more insane situations in the screenplay. Love the scene where Naseer breaks into a song, or when he makes Arjun stop the car to give a speech or when Deepika tells Arjun next time their love-making would be even ‘better’ which Arjun finds offensive. And yea the best of all, the cat getting killed accidently. Still Finding Fanny is a attempt at something different, instead of routine comedy movies that hardly makes you laugh. This one will give many moments to laugh at.  And also Anil Mehta’s camera captures some stunning visuals of Goa that may not have been seen before. Its not a great movie, but if you got a appetite for watching hatke hindi movies, this one is definitely for you.
Verdict : 3/5


Khoobsurat : 

Watching a Sonam Kapoor movie is always a headache due to her non-existing acting skills. But Khoobsurat doesn’t really bore you and she actually fits the character a lot even though at some places her acting falls flat. I haven’t seen Rekha version of Khoobsurat, so no idea of similarities and changes. The story is totally predictable, but what is likable is the interactions of Mili (Sonam Kapoor) with the royal family where she goes to live as physiotherapist  and finds everyone living a boring strict life.  Her opening scenes are definitely ones that should had been edited out. Fawad Khan can definitely act, love the scene where he goes to talk to his dad probably after years and the conversation sounds so formal, and his reply to Mili’s mom in the climax. Also, the dialogues both Mili and Vikram (Fawad Khan) speak to each other in their heart makes for a lovely watch. Kirron Kher playing mom of Mili is hilarious despite being a dejavu of her past punjabi mom roles. Fawad-Aditi plot looks weak, and ends in abrupt manner. Even Cyrus Sahukar looks miscast. Also, too much of melodrama is forced with 2 emotional numbers in 2nd half.  Preet na Koyi is the best song of album, and very well used. The weird way to come over the breakup shown for Mili looks very silly to me. Khoobsurat is a watchable movie, one of few films where Sonam won’t annoy you for atleast 75% of the movie which in itself is a hell lot, plus performances of Fawad, Kirron, Ratna Pathak and rest make it a decent watch.
Verdict : 2.5/5 


Daawat e Ishq : 

When a film is on dowry, and you see a girl trying to cheat guys to get money through 498 act of law and fulfill her dreams.. you aren’t quite pleased with it though we are given enough scenes before to show how broken she feels to see guys not marrying her due to less dowry. Yet Habib Faisal makes the 1st half enjoyable, especially the entire sequence when Anupam and Parineeti reach Lucknow followed by the hotel and interview scene. Anupam Kher does has shades of his character of Special Chabees here, in the way he is scared and brave at same time to help his daughter. But the 2nd half falls flat, partially due to Aditya Roy Kapur whose act as Lucknow nawab doesn’t come up convincing even though his mannerisms are upto mark, his acting isn’t.  Also, a predictable climax, and average songs except the title doesn’t help the proceedings. Parineeti is once again very good in her performance, but its high time we see her in something different than these very modern and muhfat girl characters. Daawat E Ishq is at most one time watch, different way of showing dowry concept but not good execution, and lots of foodie scenes that may make you hungry.
Verdict : 2/5 



Hollywood :


Into the Storm : 

Visually the movie was a jaw dropping experience, for all the tornado and big big tornado sequences. But where the movie lacked was the screenplay and story. Too many cliches of son-father issues, boy trying to impress girl, and father trying to save his boy are used. What bothered me most though was the narration style, using cameras that are shooting the film all the way, on one hand a college guy fond of shooting with camera in hand all the time, another is shooting for the college project, two jerks are trying to shoot and get famous for youtube and then there’s storm trackers who are trying to go as closer to the tornado as possible just to get that one camera shot even at risk of their lives. It eventually became like Chronicle kind of movie. Also, in one tiring scene, we see guy and girl whose character’s have hardly been invested in, sharing each other’s final thoughts on their lives as they are drowning and feel will die before anyone could save them. Its like a movie where gorgeous visuals (with good special effects) are saddened with all possible cliches, and non-interesting drama with no proper character build up done at all. And even the performances of most actors, except for Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies (even their’s was nothing to boast about), was pretty ordinary.
Verdict : 2/5 


The Hundred Foot Journey : 

Another of good foodie movies to have come out this year. Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) comes along with his family to Europe, where a accident makes them stay somewhere in France which in result makes his father Om Puri believe that this was destined to happen and they were bound to stay here and open a restaurant. But they end up opening restaurant right opposite to Madame Mallori (Helen Mirren) famous cuisine restaurant. The tussle between Madame and Om Puri is lovely to watch, also the various Indianised stuffs he does, from the look of restaurant to the music played or the way he brings first customers was hilarious. How with time the relation between Madame and Om Puri becomes sweet from sour, and they share better bonding. On other hand, Hassan is helped by Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), who herself works at Madame Mallori restaurant. Marguerite gifts Hassan various books and good adviceable knowledge about various food he ain’t aware of. What I didn’t like was the jealousy she starts to have when Madame hires Hassan to work for her so as he could get better training and become a famous chef. The jealousy looked out of context and only forced drama. What I did like was the conflict Hassan faces to choose between his profession and family/love, which was pretty well carried out without any cliches. Was slightly mifled with Indian censors to cut out the make-out scene totally from movie. AR Rahman’s background score was nice, nothing special though. Overall, the film has a good vibe for major portions and the performances by everyone is very good. Om Puri specially makes you laugh a lot during early half of movie. Also, you will see lots of dishes being made, so the usual say ‘film may make you hungry’ suits this film too.
Verdict : 3/5 


The Maze Runner : 

Another movie on the lines of Hunger Games and Divergent, difference here is that the boys who are sent in a compound they call as ‘Glade’ have their memory erased and now need to find answers while surviving. The story gets told through the point of view of a new arriver Thomas (Dylan O Brien), and suddenly things change at Glade as Thomas turns out to be lot more curious to find a way out than rest who have tried since last 3 years. New twists and stuff is known with every new move made by Thomas. All the maze sequences are stunning, and I just felt there should had been few more of it instead of maybe emotional conversations of Thomas with fellow people at Glade. The end of movie leaves you with lots of questions especially if you haven’t read the books like me. Also, the end isn’t properly executed either, while the answers to questions one can expect to find in the next two movies of franchise. Performances of entire cast is very convincing, and some very chilling moments when the Glade people are made to fight with grievers behind the mazes at night specially the first encounter of Thomas with it. The Maze Runner is pretty entertaining if you keep the expectations of lots of maze scenes to a slight minimum. I am certainly keen to see next parts, and probably read the books before it.
Verdict : 3/5 

Missed Reviews : July

Phew, another month when I didn’t write any reviews.. so once again, posting few lines on all the films I saw..


Bobby Jasoos :
What you want from a suspense film is that the reason why you were glued towards the story should be a valid and surprising one which you didn’t think of. Unfortunately, Bobby Jasoos gives a climax that may surprise us but only make us say why did we show interest in the movie if we were to get this. Two things to love about movie was, Vidya Balan who finally gave a performance to adore, her various disguises done with ease, love that dialogue ‘kasrat kiya kar, itne mein hi haanf raha hai’. And hyderbadi lingo used throughout movie was other aspect to love, finally I have another language after Gujrati (ref. Ram Leela) to love a lot. Bobby Jasoos as it looked from trailer to me, turns out to be average detective movie. Lets keep fingers crossed for remaining 2, Jagga Jasoos and Detective Byomkesh Bakshi (high hopes from this one).
Verdict : 2.5/5


Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya :
If you are making a modern tribute to DDLJ, then does it mean that the goodbye scene will be changed to a love-making one. Not for me..  Some film-makers are too obsessed with classics. Either they will re-make it with changes here or there. Or they will make a film that is either a spoof or a tribute to the original. Yet its the lead pair performance and excellent dialogue writing that makes this a very pleasant entertainer. Varun especially shines in a role that offers him to woo a girl, be naughty and then become the mad lover with good comic timing. I love Samjhawan (Arijit version). Alia didn’t disappoint either in her acting. Ashutosh plays a different kind of dad pretty well (not total angry strict like Amrish Puri). Climax is weakly directed, as you wonder where the hell Siddharth Shukla vanish, and a un-wanted Srk imitation to end the already tribute film for him. In Supporting cast, I loved Sahil Vaid, who got some great punchlines and kept humor going in tense situations. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya is a good entertainer, but by no means a worthy tribute to DDLJ.
Verdict : 3/5


Hate Story 2 :
I always have said this, when your revenge story deals with death of one of lead pair, then their romantic plot must be strong enough so that you are there with the lead seeking revenge. Thats not the case here. The weak link is Jay Bhanushali, and also the writing that involves their romantic scenes. Only worthy scene is the ‘Aaj phir tumpe pyar aaya hai’ which is my fav track from movie. Editing is terrible and at times hurts your eyes with the way past and present are interlinked again and again. Pink Lips is forced into narrative and is funnily picturised. The film fails on the erotic level too. Sushant Singh (not Rajput) is the one who delivers best performance in movie, though I wonder how such a fierce person suddenly becomes so afraid of Surveen in the final portions, thanks to poor writing. Surveen does have a good debut, nothing special though. Hate Story won’t work if you are looking for revenge drama, nor for erotic lovers.
Verdict : 2/5


Amit Sahni Ki List :
The problem I usually find in rom-com movies is that they start off very well, and then in attempt to build drama, end up as just another movie that had some great fun moments. This film falls in that category too, unfortunately. Good thing is Vir Das after his last few films, gives a good comical performance, which I expect from him in every movie his features in. 1st half specially gives him ample scope to make you laugh. In 2nd half, there’s too much of seriousness and a new plot you don’t really feel like getting invested into. The best scene comes when that plot ends with a funnily done break up scene through presentation (reminded me of Vir Das scene of Namaste London).  Music is terrible, only decent song ‘what the F’ comes in end credits. Amit Sahni ki List is watchable, though chances are it will disappoint you in the end.
Verdict : 2.5/5


Kick :
Had huge expectations from movie, and thought this won’t totally be a movie that’s gonna use Salman stardom but will make the story rule. Unfortunately, the writers felt differently. They wrote dialogues that has ‘Kick’ word used throughout the movie. And the 1st half that has some un-wanted comedy. The police station scene (Sanjay Mishra comic timing is always spot on) and the role-reversal where Salman interviews Saurabh Shukla were best. The moment Devil character is introduced, it gives the movie a much wanted kick (oops). Almost all action sequences are bad, wonder why didnt they hire a good action director.. Editing is loose, though I love how through fast cuts he shows the badly directed 3 robberies of Devil with a excellent background theme (signature tune for Devil was my fav thing from movie), and make it look cool. Also, the cycle chase scene is nicely cut, the only action sequence I would say I did like including that train stunt (even though its over the top). What I didn’t like was the way social drama is added into the narration, came more like forceful and that scene where the parents of suffering kid fall from building was plain silly. Salman shines in both characters he plays, but is once again let down by a weak script. Nawazuddin is brilliant, love the laugh and Tok he does (which is brilliantly imitated by Salman in climax), how well he ups his level in his probably 1st all out commercial movie. Randeep Hooda I would say is a better likable cop instead of Abhishek Bachchan from Dhoom series since the roles are similar. Love his drunk scene (I just loved similar act in Jannat 2 too), ‘Main isiliye nahi peeta, chadti hi nahi hai’. Jacqueline does well in 1st half, but hardly gets any screen time in 2nd half, her mad dance in ‘Jhumme ki raat’ song was jaw dropping, had there been some more tough steps it would had bettered Katrina’s Ishq dance. Music by Himesh Reshammiya for a change was good, my picks were Tu hi Tu (female version) and Yaar Na Miley (love the final male part), though Nargis yet again fails to dance well, would like her to stick with acting and not item numbers. Rajat Arora as a dialogue writer gives some good punchlines, but I was expecting much more. Kick as a entertainer provides a lot to enjoy, but if you apply logic you probably won’t like anything in movie. Kick is definitely better than Jai Ho, Bodyguard or Dabangg2.
Verdict : 3/5 

Trailer : Haider

Vishal Bharadwaj movies always have a special corner for me, just like Anurag Kashyap or Imtiaz Ali movies have. Though, his last film ‘Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola’ wasn’t upto the level mainly for wrong casting of leads. Going by the trailer of ‘Haider’, it looks like he’s got everything right this time perfectly, and might well give another 7 Khoon Maaf or Kaminey kind of movies which I madly loved.

Lots of stunning visuals from Kashmir, plus we see Shahid transform through various looks as he seeks revenge of his father. Based on Shakespeare Hamlet (yet to read), keen to see how much Shahid gets his act right, specially the one where he gets totally insane, like the shot at 2:00 where he is imitating shooting himself or the dialogue scene ‘hello mike testing, 123, awaaz aa rahi hai aap logo ko.. hello hello o o o’. Watch his expressions in 1:48 shot, killer.

Needless to say, the best part of trailer (there are hell lot to be frank) is Haider i.e Shahid telling Shraddha about his intentions, ‘To be or Not to be’ (quote from Hamlet) ..

For a change, Shraddha is looking so different and maybe the level of her acting will be high too or atleast I am assuming at the moment.

The cast is amazing, with trustable actors like Tabu, Kay Kay Menon and Irrfan Khan (in a special appearance as ghost). I hope Tabu-Shahid romantic mother-son plot is restrained..

Not to forget, music will be by Vishal Bharadwaj and there are 10 songs with lyrics by Gulzar. The rock song used in the trailer totally sets the mood for Haider’s journey to revenge.
Ek phoonk se miya, sab udh gaya dhuan, woh jo saans ki ek phaans thi, woh nikal gayi jo kharaash thi. 

Still don’t know what part those actors in 1:04 shot are playing. But looks like it will be mad and insane…

Its been just a month when I said Ek Villain is best trailer of 2014, and now Haider has overtaken it, there’s nothing to not like in this trailer, absolutely nothing.


Dil ki agar sunu, toh hai
Dimaag ki, toh hai nahi
Jaan lun, ki jaan dun
Main rahoon, ki main nahi. 

Trailer : Gone Girl

This is the 2nd trailer of the movie to come out few days back, and its increased the curiosity to watch the movie even more. I will be reading the book on which this movie is based, and since the final act i.e the ending is different in movie, it would make a great view specially after knowing through twitter feeds that the ending in the book was a big let down.

Ben Affleck may be receiving a lot of flak in recent few months for his upcoming Batman movie, but I doubt people would like to miss this movie where he looks to be perfectly suited to the role. Its hard to tell whether he is behind his wife gone missing or there’s a lot more to it.  And I like the way Rosamund delivers her dialogues,  a mysterious touch is felt in it.

I have liked David Fincher’s last two movies, and he is a director worth having expectations from.



Nick, man of my dreams
This man of mine, may kill me.. 
This man may kill me …
This many may truly ….
Kill me.