Recap 2014 : Worst Films

Many big movies failed to live upto the expectations last year, for instance Gunday, Shaadi ke Side Effects, Gulaab Gang, Bobby Jasoos, Singham Returns, Mary Kom, Daawat e Ishq, Bang Bang, Happy New Year, Kill Dil and Happy Ending. Phew, that is seriously a big list of disappointments!

But there have been even terrible movies (out of ones that I saw) that made my top5 list. Here’s a look at them :


1. The Xpose

There’s a shot in the song ‘Dard dilo ke’ where Himesh has got goggles on and walking with a dead straight face along with the actress,  that you just won’t stop laughing at the lack of chemistry and acting plus you get a feeling that maybe Himesh is blind. The movie is full of such instances, brainless sequences where a murdered girl is shown falling off a building thrice for no fucking reason and then her flashback murder scene is hilarious too. Leave aside two scenes, Himesh yet again confirms the inevitable thought that he can’t act.  The director couldn’t even get the court-room scene right, a case gets solved on 1st hearing itself. Its a pity to see Irrfan Khan in a small appearance. Both actresses have nothing to offer in their performances either. To make it worse, Himesh the composer fails too with songs like ‘Ice-cream khayungi, kashmir jaayungi'. And guess what, sequel of this film coming this year.. These film-makers and actors fall under category who never learn from their mistakes. Himesh will continue to spoil his good music career once he had due to this acting keeda he wants to not put a end to.



2. Ragini MMS 2

Sunny Leone plays role of actress for a director named Rocks who wants to make a movie on Ragini scandal that happened in 1st part. In a scene when Leone goes for character research, Rocks says ‘Yeh porno se rituporno kab ban gayi’. Leone goes to meet a mental Ragini in asylum who is said to be possessed, but our actress is very brave. Sandhya Mridul talks in a accent only she and director knows why! Divya Dutta chips in with decent cameo, but a strange character that takes dangerous and unusual cases, and then goes to help Leone on her own at midnight knowing it may even cost her life. Sunny Leone’s porn status is getting exploited a lot in all her films, first Jism2, then a double meaning item number and now this movie where writer puts dreamy sex sequences, lesbian scene and some erotic scenes too. As an actress, she once again shows she can’t act, except for one scene where she has to fakely seduce a guy which would had been a routine scene for her. The movie is terrible in every regards, be it direction, writing, dialogues. Only plus point of movie is the song ‘Baby Doll’.


3. Entertainment

You get to see Akshay in a fatty makeup avatar in 1st scene, and you realize what type of movie you are heading into. Then there’s the over the top Krishna who continues his hamming from Bol Bachchan to this movie. Tamannah stars yet again in a nonsense movie with insignificant role. One standout scene is when Akshay meets Mithun first time who plays a total kanjoos father having a candlelight meeting to save electricity. Johnny Lever is other respite in this film who still hasn’t lost his comic touch. Sonu Sood and Prakash Raj have a hilarious entry scene but what follows after is a very predictable and boring comedy. When the most liked character in the movie is a dog, then its easily understandable how bad the movie is. Akshay has been doing good films every now and then, but he needs to stop going for these over the top and meaningless comedies.


4. Kaanchi

When I saw Yuvvraaj, I thought Subhash Ghai is coming back, maybe next movie he will be completely in the zone. But Kaanchi tells it was just a illusion, as Ghai tries too hard to bring his old hit movie formulas to work in today’s modern cinema and all of it falls flat completely. The debut actress Mishti almost screams in most of her dialogues, and dependable actor Kartik is given just 15-20 mins role. Then there’s a song ‘Kambhal ke neeche’ that tries to ruin old hit Ghai songs, and tells a lot about the mind-set Ghai is in while filming now a days. Music is very average! Rishi Kapoor also chooses a wrong role for a change after been so good in past 2-3 years specially. Only Mithun is likable in the movie in a negative shade.


5. Jai Ho

If you thought that Arbaaz Khan messed up Dabangg franchise with his poor direction, then watch this movie that says Sohail Khan is even worse at direction level. Salman’s action skills and punchlines is used as USP but that has worked in many films in past, here Sohail tries to provide a message ‘help someone and ask him/her to help another three’, and this message is banged on our head till the end of the movie. There is one of worst directed army sequence ever too in the film. Genelia takes a weird 3 scene role that only she would know why she did it, and so is the case with Tabu who we don’t want to see in such stupid films, she has one great scene in movie though along with Danny Denzongpa. Daisy-Salman love angle doesn’t work too. The movie has a long list of supporting actors, among whom only Mounish Behl leaves a impression. Songs by Sajid-Wajid are the usual forgettable ones except for ‘apna kaam banta’ which works with movie atleast. In the end, its just one of those irritating movies where you wait for the torture to end.

Recap 2014 : Hollywood Top10

Leaving aside John Wick, I rated all films in my top10 list as 4 or above 4, which tells that how brilliant 2014 was for Hollywood movies.

There were plenty of disappointments too in form of ‘The Monuments Men’, ‘Noah’, ‘Transcendence’, ‘The Amazing Spiderman2’, ‘Lucy’, ‘Into the Storm’ and ‘Annabelle’. And yea most of Oscar nominated movies are so fucking average, like ‘Imitation Game’ or  ‘The Theory of Everything’ or ‘American Sniper’. ‘Boyhood' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' also didn’t appeal much.

The year belonged to 3 outstanding movies for me, they were like bad addiction as I kept re-watching them day after day - ‘Interstellar’, ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Nightcrawler’. Interestingly, all these 3 movies were hardly considered for Oscar awards or even nominees. Oh well, as if that changes anything about my love for these movies!


Here’s my list of Top 10 Hollywood movies of 2014 :


                                                                                                                       1. Interstellar

I was highly skeptical that its gonna be 1st Nolan movie I am gonna dislike as I am not fond of space oriented movies at all, even Gravity didn’t click for me. But the 100% love record for Nolan movies stayed intact as I was simply blown away by this masterpiece. Though it did took few viewings before I could completely feel how much I am in awe of it, thanks to the abundance of physics used in the movie. More detailed write up on that when I write the review. The main reason however why this movie worked so much for me was the emotional bonding between father-daughter, i.e Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and Murph (Mackenzie Foy/Jessica Chastain/Ellen Burstyn). There were outstanding visuals of various planets, satellites etc and there also was the ever reliable Hans Zimmer background score. At 1-2 places, it was too loud to my liking making it hard to listen the dialogue, but then why would you complain if the music piece is worth listening. There are two brilliant scenes that I can re-watch uncountable times, one is the ‘Coward’ sequence where  Nolan like his many old movies builds drama and thrill using 4-5 parallel running scenes together, and oh boy how well it works always! The other one is of course docking scene that almost every person loves, when Brand (Anne Hathaway) asks Cooper ‘what are you doing, cooper?’ and Cooper replies ‘Docking’, it was and still is a goosebump moment in the movie for me. To be frank, I don’t really see a single flaw in this movie. Its duration is no way long and the final act is very convincing for me too, including the final meet up scene between old Murph and Cooper which I am actually glad that it was short one and not a melodramatic. Special mention to the scene when Cooper watches 23 years span of messages from his family, pretty emotional one to watch.
Nobody believed me, but I knew you would come back. 
How?
Because my dad promised me. 


              2. Gone Girl

Was more than satisfied how David Fincher utilized every main aspect of Gillian Flynn book ‘Gone Girl’. Amy’s (Rosamund Pike) early life, equation with parents, the love she had for Nick (Ben Affleck) and how it all changes. How she plans her own missing mystery and the soundtrack by Trent Reznor-Atticus Ross creates that atmosphere brilliantly. Rosamund Pike performance was so much good, while reading the book I was very scared of the fact that how would the life of a guy be if he ever meets or marries a girl like Amy. And Rosamund was able to give that same vibe with her performance, she was anyday my pick for best actress in oscar awards. Ben Affleck was also well suited to play Nick role, that smile he gives to press or the interview scene where he plays the smart Nick very well. Only complaint in movie was, Nick and his father equation that was pretty important one in book, was totally ignored in the movie. But, good thing was that it didn’t affect the movie at all. Also, I liked performance of Neil Patrick Harris (Desi Collings) who played the psycho lover role in a very subtle manner, like the scene where the plan of Amy to use Desi to her own advantage backfires on her, and as audience you wonder how badly Desi is gonna suffer now. The climax was talking point for many, I personally liked the way it is, Amy’s character definitely was more greyish but sending her to prison or killing her would had been partial for me. Instead letting both suffer together like in the book was perfect! My fav scene was when Amy’s true intentions are revealed through her own long voice-over sequence.
What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?


                                                                                                                      3. Nightcrawler

I had enjoyed Jake Gyllenhaal in Prisoners too, but here he made me love his performance so much that I ended up checking his filmography and watch his other films too. And some more oscar cribbing, he didn’t get a oscar nomination for best actor, haha idiots! Whats so lovable about Jake’s character Louis Bloom is the creepy look and behavior he brings out, in the way he speaks his dialogues, sometimes he intentionally says it slowly to make the other fear him like the scene where he is warning his assistant/intern Rick (Riz Ahmed). Also enjoyable is the plenty of dark humor, love the dining scene between Louis and Nina (Rene Russo), with that ‘a friend is a gift you give to yourself’ dialogue. Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed are both very good in their supporting roles. Screenplay is tight and pacy, and director Dan Gilroy presents the movie from the point of view of Louis, he keeps the proceedings engaging and hard to predict plus he presents the ugly side of news presentation very nicely.  Special mention to the salary negotiation scene, and my personal fav when Louis gives a creepy laugh while watching a comedy show on T.V alone.
What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?


  4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

A fantastic sci-fi drama from Matt Reeves, that is a sequel to the already amazing ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. The CGI is commendable as for major portion of the movie it looks like you are watching real characters talking to each other. And so are the performances of Andy Serkis as Caesar, Toby Kebbell as Koba, Terry Notary as Rocket and Karin Konoval as Maurice. The first scene between Caesar and Maurice is so adorable as they discuss humans, how much Caesar still misses them and the state of Apes at present. The scene when Rocket realizes how wrong he was about his father and apologies to Caesar is bound to bring lump to your throat. Whats special about the movie is how it starts as Better Apes vs Bad Humans into Bad Apes vs Good Humans, just showing that Apes can be evil too like Humans. Good performance from Jason Clarke as Malcolm but I badly missed James Franco, nice that they atleast kept a nostalgic scene for Caesar when circumstances make him go to his old house. The background score is amazing, and so is the finale with all the action. One can expect a large scale war in 3rd part, looking at the way this movie ends as Caesar says ‘The war has already begun’
Ape not kill Apes.
You are no Ape.


                                                                                                                       5. Birdman

A satire on Hollywood big budget movies through the eyes of Riggan (Michael Keaton) whose alter ego keeps wanting him return back to playing the roles of superheroes like Batman and Birdman he did in 1992. But, its 2014-15 and he wants to make his name in a meaningful broadway play, or to put it in right words he wants to feel relevant again. Riggan also has got family issues to handle, ex-wife and a daughter Sam (Emma Stones) who is a spoilt brat trying to come out of drug addiction. And if this wasn’t enough, Riggan gets Mike (Edward Norton) playing the key role in play. Edward plays himself in the movie, a star who likes to interfere and get his saying into the script, a tough person to work with. There are only 16 visible cuts in movie, infact the director Inarritu shoots the movie in a long single continous take for major part. Love the conversation Riggan has with critic at bar like place, and also the first meeting with Mike as how Mike tries to show his dominance and how Riggan reacts when in 1st preview he improvises his lines. What is real, and what is fiction is a question that will occur at many parts of movie. Michael Keaton delivers a great performance. Emma Stones and Edward Norton are effective in their supporting roles, specially Emma’s long dialogue scene with Riggan where she de-motivates him and tells every truth about his intentions with broadway play attempt. Also,  Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts are wonderful in their cameos. Special mention to the jazz drum score that plays throughout the movie, and we get to see its visual only once in narrative.
How did we end up here? This place is horrible. Smells like balls. We don’t belong here. 


                 6. Whiplash

A talented young drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) wants to become successful in the field, he gets under the eyes of a instructor Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) at  music academy who enrolls him in his band whom he trains for upcoming events. When Andrew attends 1st class of Fletcher, it is then he learns what kind of teacher he is, and so do we the audience. I personally hate teachers who try to push you beyond your limits using abuse which Fletcher does. But if you see it from his point of view, he does achieve his goal at the end, getting what he wanted from Andrew. The question however is that, was this the right way to get the desired result? I would say no! The entire classes of Fletcher that Andrew attends were as painful and uncomfortable to watch as a viewer for me, as they were to attend for Andrew in the plot. There are only 2 moments where Fletcher shows his emotional side, one when one of the drummer passes away, and other when Andrew meets Fletcher again after a long time. The finale is of course terrific, the surprise Fletcher gives Andrew trying to spoil his career, and the response Andrew comes up with, literally saying Fuck You Fletcher, I won’t give up so easily. And I am happy that the musical piece was long.  J.K Simmons deservedly got Oscar for his performance. Also, Miles Teller was brilliant in playing the role of drummer.
Were you rushing or were you dragging ? 


                                                                                           7. The Hunger Games : Mockingjay Part 1

District 12 is destroyed, and Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is under much more emotional turmoil with the guilt of not having saved Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) as she prepares to help District 13 President Coin (Julainne Moore) defeat President Snow (Donald Sutherland) by becoming Mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion for districts of Panem. I still can’t understand why critics and most people discarded this movie saying its pointless and leads to nothing, Really? For me this was as good as 2nd Hunger Games was. And if you have read the book, there’s no changes done till the end except for ofcourse Plutarch scenes adjustment since Philip Seymour Hoffman is no more. I found this movie very depressing which is actually going to be the case for last part too but then there will be lot more joyous action in that one which this part couldn’t have. The motive of this part was to break Katiniss to the fullest, which happens in that last frame you see of her while watching Peeta struggle in a tied up hospital bed. ‘Hanging tree’ song is brilliantly used in narrative, and it also is one of my very favorite song. Also very nice of them to use Rue Whistle tune into a scene. Jennifer Lawerence performance was once again very enjoyable. I was disappointed to see Effie (Elizabeth Banks) have very less screen-time. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was again good in supporting role, though he also had very small part to play. Keenly waiting for last part, I hope the ‘Real or Unreal’ conversations of Katinss-Peeta aren’t edited out!
Miss Everdeen, it is the things we love most that destroy us. 


                 8. Godzilla

Almost everyone had problem with the fact that Godzilla had very little screen time, and here I wondered why the fuck they wanted that! That very reason is why I loved this movie a lot because it keeps the eagerness of watching him alive, and when he does comes with that big roar, you feel goosebumps. It was very clever of the director to even avoid showing Godzilla fight with Muto’s in early part of movie, so that there is no feeling of repetivity when he fights them again in climax. There were two weak links in the movie, one that terribly done tsunami scene which looked fake in every possible way and other was lack of emotional connect with Ford (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Elle (Elizabeth Olsen). Dr Ishiro (Ken Watanabe) provides good drama to the plot with his enthusiastic feelings towards Godzilla, almost as much wanting to see Godzilla as us. The background score was terrific. My favorite scene was the slow build-up to Godzilla's 1st visual scene with all the parallel cuts.
The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way around. Let them fight!


                                                                                                     9. Captain America : Winter Soldier

Even without watching 1st part (seen it now though) this film had clicked for me despite the fact that Captain America along with Thor was my least liked superhero. I love when a superhero struggles big time, which is what happens here with Steve (Chris Evans) who is surprised to know the toughest enemy he is about to fight is none other than his best buddy Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Then there is Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) who looks as vulnerable as he never looked before. A compelling drama with political events happening around and S.H.I.E.L.D in danger of wrong hands. The action is top notch and worth every minute, specially Steve-Bucky face-offs. The usual Marvel humor is there in entire movie, but there is much more to the plot than just that. Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is very good in her flirty and witty liners, and her action scenes too, would love to see more details about her past history, how she became a avenger etc. Falcon (Anthony Mackie) gets decent scenes to shine, a character that would be seen in Ultron too. Robert Redford is good in his evil act. Also, the end-credits scenes for a change aren’t just gimmick but makes you anticipate the next part even more.
For as long as I can remember I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I am not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could just throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. Its just not the same. 


           10. John Wick

The basic premise of the movie is quite funny, an ex hit-man John Wick (Keanu Reeves) comes out of retirement only because some gangsters kill the dog which was last precious gift from his dead wife. The action is pure entertainment, quick and full of vengeance written all over it along with some witty liners. Keanu Reeves brings on a brilliant stylish action performance, making you enjoy the movie a hell lot even though plot is predictable. Love the scene where a person informs the father of the gangster who killed the dog that it was John Wick’s dog and the tension the father has on his face hearing name of John.
People keep asking if I am back and I haven’t really had an answer, but yeah, I am thinking I am back. 



Movies that were very good but missed my list : 

Chef
Begin Again
The Judge
Guardians of Galaxy

Recap 2014 : Best Films

2014 would best be remembered for some good women oriented films as well as performances. But if you compare the year with the last two or even 2011, then its been a very low year for hindi films with not much of spectacular movies coming out. Not talking of 100/200 cr clubs, those craps are aneways meant for fanatics and people associated with them.

Despite that, I still ended up watching around 52 movies, out of which Queen and Haider stood out by miles.


Here is my list of Top 10 Hindi Movies of 2014 -


                                                                                                              1. Queen

One of those light hearted movies that made me feel good every time I watched, no wonder I rated it 5 out of 5, first such movie since Rockstar for me. What worked was Vikas Bahl’s excellent direction and narration style, very well mixing Rani (Kangana Ranaut) past and present life. Also, the humor touch in dialogues and editing was top notch. But, without a doubt, Kangana’s performance made this movie special, her career best since Gangster and Fashion. You could see that typical innocent Delhi girl in her, and then the transformation she goes through when she goes to her honeymoon alone was something to watch. Her drunk dialogue scene and various misinterpretations of situations were hilarious. Also, nice emotional touch to her romantic story with Rajkumar Rao. All actors enacting roomies of Rani in Amsterdam, along with Lisa Haydon when in Paris did very well in supporting roles. Amit Trivedi’s music once again adds much more to the film with each and every song specially Kinaare at right end, though my personal fav was re-worked version of ‘Hungama ho gaya’. Special mention to the end credits ‘kutta’ scene!
yeh log boat khareedne gaye hai ki rent karne…..mera sense of humour bahut accha hai, aapko dheere dheere pata chalega.


                        2. Haider

Based on Shakespeare book ‘Hamlet’, Vishal Bharadwaj almost nails this adaptation if and only if he had kept more of the insane madness of Hamlet i.e Haider (Shahid Kapur). Whats outstanding about the film is how beautifully Kashmir and its political angle is used as the backdrop for the story. Its not Haider-Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor) romantic angle that you remember after end of movie, but its Haider-Ghazala (Tabu), for their mother-son relationship. Shahid’s ‘hum hai ke hum nahi’ monologue is easily the standout scene of movie and 2014. Cinematography is very good, love the entry scene of Irrfan Khan with the Aao na bg. Dialogues have kashmiri influence making it as real as it can be. Vishal’s music is as always very well used in narrative, specially the deeply haunting 'So Jao'.  My only complain was why Dadlani version of Aao Naa not used in movie. To my liking, Vishal underplays Oediplus complex between Haider-Ghazala. Shahid and Tabu specially are scene stealers. Kay Kay hammed in some portions, while Shraddha looked beautiful in kashmiri outfits but her acting is still below par. Special mention to Haider’s expressions in entire Bismil song, his eyes portrays all the hurt, anger and revenge feelings, when its promo was out I knew Shahid will be my fav actor of year.
dil ki agar sunu toh hai, dimaag ki toh hai nahi.. jaan lun ke jaan dun, main rahun ke main nahi.

                                                                                              
                                                                                             3. Two States

Chetan Bhagat’s novel gets screen adaptation by a new director, but the gamble of Arjun-Alia pairing paid off. I was slightly skeptical of them if they would be able to bring the romance-joy-pain Krish and Ananya did in the book, but they both didn’t disappoint at all. Amrita Singh however was the main limelight in the movie in almost all her scenes, playing role of a Punjabi mother who is over expressive and caring towards her son. Director was able to quickly move to the lovers trying to convince each other’s families part and yet get most out to Krish-Ananya college love life. Krish scenes with Ananya’s father were hilarious. Ronit Roy was very good in a lighter version of Udaan’s strict father role, wonder why they kept his role so short almost looked more like a extended cameo. I love the bg that plays in his scenes with Krish throughout the movie. S-E-L music was a let down though, except for Locha e ulfat and Chandaaniya, rest songs failed to impress me. Two States for me is Chetan’s second best film adaptation of his novel, after Kai Po Che.
baat communities ki nahi hai, baat yeh hai ki hum kis tarah ke insaan ke saath apni zindagi bitaana chahte hai.


                         4. Mardaani

Pradeep Sarkar strikes back (after two duds ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’ and ‘Lafangey Parindey’) and how! A intriguing thriller based on child sex trafficking that keeps you to the edge of the seat in a cat and mouse battle between Shivani (Rani Mukherjee) and Karan (Tahir Raj Bhasin). Tahir comes across as a very interesting new find by yashraj, so much at ease in his negative act. Aggressive cop role as expected suited Rani to the core, wish her final action scene with Tahir was well executed though. Screenplay is very tight, no songs at all. Special mention to the scene where Shivani reacts to the insult of her husband in public and challenges Tahir on phone that she will find him. Also, Julius Packiam continues his good work in bg score. It may sound weird but I enjoyed Tahir’s performance much more than Rani, which just proves how brilliant he was.
aaj mujhe yeh toh pata nahi ki tera naam kya hai, tu kahaan se baat kar raha hai par 30 din mein pakrungi tujhe.. yaad rakhna, 30 din. 


                                                                                                               5. PK

Can a Raju Hirani-Aamir Khan movie really fail to deliver? Answer is a big NO.  1st half was so hilarious that I had tears rolling out of my eyes, specially when PK (Aamir Khan) tells his initial days of struggle learning how to live on this planet. The different ways people say ‘accha’ was one of my most fav scenes, and so was the stuff he takes while going to church first time and the gandhi pics scene. 2nd half reminds of OMG, but still holds it own. But PK-Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) love story was completely forced, could easily had kept PK love hidden from audience too just like Jaggu and bring a bigger surprise at the end. Also, Jaggu-Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput) separation looked pretty silly. And Anushka’s hairstyle was a big turn-off. Despite all this, Hirani once again provides a quality entertainer unlike the crap masala films that keep coming out of our industry. Aamir can just do anything, be it look cool and stylish in his last movie Dhoom3 and now speak bhojpuri and yet be so lovable, just enjoy watching his films. Also, good to hear Shaan voice after a long time in ‘Chaar kadam'. Special mention to PK theme and Sonu Nigam’s brilliantly sung track ‘Bhagwan hai kahaan re tu’ with very good visuals.
karte kya ho? Astranaaut hoon. Woh jo moon pe jaate hai? Ek baar gaya hoon moon pe, bahut hi Lul place hai. 


                          6. Ek Villain

Yes its copied or inspired from some korean movie, but the hindi version works and that’s what matters in the end! You see Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor) die in 1st scene of movie, and you also know who did it so its more of how Guru (Siddharth Malhotra) takes revenge from a psycho lover (Ritiesh Deshmukh). Their first face-off scene is magical, if only Mohit Suri had lived upto the words Guru said in that scene ‘main tujhe marne nahi dunga lekin main tujhe roj maarunga, ek baar nahi, hazaar baar maarunga'. The non-linear narration of romantic story between Guru-Aisha is well executed, with the excellent music and background score. Shraddha Kapoor does irritate with  her non-stop blabbering, though not as much as Remo Fernandes does with his funny dialogue delivery, clear case of poor casting. Siddharth delivers another praiseworthy performance getting away from the chocolate boy roles, he does falter in dialogue delivery at places though. Milap Zaveri dialogues for a change were appealing and good. It was Riteish Deshmukh however who stole the show and quite rightly. It was a delight to see him do a non-comic role with so much conviction (last time it was Rann), and his dialogue ‘phikr mat kijiye madam, aaj ke baad aapko shikayat ka mauka nahi milega’ would not be forgotten at all. Wish we see more of this Riteish in future.. Apart from him, the emotional connect Guru-Aisha story provides was a major reason for my love for this movie.
tere hi gunaah laute hai, ek ajnabee ke roop mein tujhe saja dene. 


                                                                                                        7. Dedh Ishqiya

Abhishek Chaubhey returned with the next installment of Ishqiya, Khalujaan-Babban (Naseeruddin-Arshad) once again leave us in laughter scene after scene. Specially the scene where they stand all night with gun in hand or the initial Joker-Batman dialogue. But the sad part of film is the female characters, Begum Para (Madhuri Dixit) and Munniya (Huma Quereshi), who are very weakly written and end up not providing anything to the film as Vidya did in 1st part. Still there are plenty of hilarious sequences, one where Jaan Mohammad (Vijay Raaz) forces Noor Mohammad Italvi (Manoj Pahwa) to write shayari for him which he would later read out in a shayari -e-mehfil to win heart of Begum Para. That mehfil song which Naseeruddin lip syncs was very well sung by Raju Singh. And how Noor takes revenge in another awesome finale sequence. Only one song of Rahat ‘dil ka mizaaj ishqiya’ works, rest were just passable.  Special mention to Mushtaq’s evil laugh, might get as famous with time as Samba became for that one dialogue in Sholay movie.
aapko pehle kahin dekha hai ?
yaad aaye toh itliya zaroor kijiyega, hum bhi dhoondh rahe hai kabse apne aap ko.


                            8. Ugly

Anurag Kashyap can never disappoint me, Ugly adds to the list of his great movies though unlike many others I won’t call this as his best or my favorite movies from his filmography. The best thing about the movie is the twists and dark side of every character that surprises you to an extent that like the characters you also forget the simple answer to the missing girl case. Girish Kulkarni as inspector is brilliant in a 10 min long police station sequence. The entire ensemble cast of Rahul Bhat, Vineet Singh, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Surveen Chawla and Siddhant Kapoor were splendid in their performances. Love the sarcastic take on item number through ’tu mujhe nichod de’ song, specially the way Girish describes it in a scene to Ronit. There is a heavy dose of hindi abuses in the movie, main reference to Vineet jail scene with Rahul Bhat, which was at times hard to watch. Yet the film serves its purpose, a thriller that keeps you guessing. Special mention to the use of ‘One day’ track in the narrative and the love-making scene of Siddhant with the money he gets.
Sir actor log aisa karte hai, ghar pe ek naam aur parde ke liye doosra naam
Kyoon, amitabh bachchan ka kya hai naam ghar pe? 


                                                                                                       9. Ankhon Dekhi

A philosophical take on life as a 50 yr old man played by Sanjay Mishra decides he would only believe in things that he either watches or listens himself. One of very under-utilised actors in our industry and to see him in a lead role brings joy to the eyes. Watch how he handles the love affair of his daughter, or manages the conflict he has with his brother (Rajat Kapoor). All the humor situations that happen when he goes to zoo to see if lion does roar in real or when he tries to see if a naked wire gives current or when he finds his regular job not doable due to his new rules. Wish they had kept some more of his life sequences before he goes to vacation with his wife for that very well done climax scene. Seema Pahwa,Rajat Kapoor and Manu Rishi were as always very efficient in their performances.
main har uss baat ko maanne se inkaar kar dunga, jisse maine khud dekha ya suna na ho. 


                10. Hasee Toh Phasee 

Not a typical rom-com with backing of Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Karan Johar as producers, the movie has many light hearted moments to cherish specially when Parineeti acts insane. Siddharth in a chocolate boy role fits in and so does the supporting cast. Love the scene where he tries to bring his father-in-law to terrace. Nice to see Adah Sharma (1920 fame) get a good role and she looked smashing hot in ‘shake it like shammi’ track. The problem however lied in Parineeti flashback role which looked silly and also why would she again run away from his father when everything is sorted. Also the climax was a let down, as the typical dharma production tag was visible all over it. Still pretty much enjoyable movie. Special mention to the wonderfully done daya (C.I.D) spoof scene.
tum oxygen ho aur main double hydrogen.. hamari chemistry ekdum paani ki tarah hai.



Movies that missed my list but worth a mention : 

Highway
Finding Fanny
Kick

Movie Analysis : PK

Directed by : Raju Hirani
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2338151/


Splendid 1st half, reminds of OMG in 2nd.. still a great Aamir-Hirani entertainer. 

Read at your own risk, might contain some spoilers… 


We always get plenty of entertaining movies (thanx to our mass audience) releasing every year. But, Hirani movies are often in the category of quality entertainers, ones which we enjoy and in very few scenes we could say - ‘kuch bhi’. Same happens in PK, infact 1st half is so hilarious that I can’t remember last movie which made me laugh so much.

The plot of PK deals with a alien PK (Aamir Khan) who lands on Earth, near Jaipur, Rajasthan, and his remote control which he would use to give signal back to his planet to take him back home, gets stolen by one of random guy. Now, PK has to survive on earth without any knowledge of how people live here, how they earn, whom they worship and many more stuffs.

Moments like dancing cars, Gandhi pics collection, fashion understanding (specially where he corrects the fashion of a barber), and different managers of religions… All these makes for a 1st half where you won’t stop laughing. Special mention to three wonderful scenes, one where PK has a conversation with a guy outside temple, other where he describes to Jaggu how a word on Earth has different meanings like ‘Accha’ in the manner they speak it, and lastly when he lands inside a church with a pooja ki thaali with reactions of ‘anarth about to happen’ along with loud bg.

Hirani has always kept a social message or so in his movies with a well thought of tag for it. It was ‘Jadoo ki jhappi’ in Munnabhai MBBS, ‘Gandhigiri’ in Lage Raho Munnabhai, ‘Aal Izz Well’ in 3 Idiots and now in PK he comes up with ‘Wrong Number’.

2nd half goes into the direction of OMG (comparison is inevitable). Hirani makes use of ‘Wrong Number’ to show how some managers of religion misuse belief of people in God to their own advantage. How we people prefer to use our money in worshipping instead of donating to a poor person and many other aspects of religion in our country is wonderfully put up by Hirani. In Oh My God too, we saw it but I would say OMG tried to show more of managers together against Paresh Rawal scenario, whereas in PK we see it as one to one battle where slowly people understand what PK is trying to say holds true.

In the last scene from flashback of PK in 1st half, I knew where the story would go now, and sadly that did make me feel ‘Oh no, we have already seen that’. Still, Hirani makes the 2nd half watchable though  it has many flaws with it. Wish he had a different storyline though..

One of major drawbacks for me was PK-Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) romantic plot, he suddenly has a love feeling for her which was not required, he could still had played a very good friend who finds out she is heart-broken by Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput) and then try to re-unite them. Another flaw was the church scene, I agree that Jaggu had the wrong number in her mind that made her think the letter was by Sarfaraz and not care to call him even. But why would Sarfaraz not try to call either, that was plain stupid. They should had kept the separation of Jaggu-Sarfaraz in some other convincing manner.

Also, the scene where Jaggu calls Pakistan Embassy and all the reaction shots of people there looked so fake, maybe because Hirani never invested in the Sarfaraz story separately. And Hirani actually tried to do a Karan Johar KKHH moment where everyone from Jaggu to PK to Boman to Jaggu’s friend and others in the news debate place cries over the romantic story of Jaggu-Sarfaraz.

Liked the use of songs like ‘Tum toh thehre pardesi’ and ‘Aasmaan pe hai khuda’, they are so apt to the situations, the former is comical while latter very touchy.

I love ‘Love is a waste of time’ song, but it was forced into narrative trying to add to the unwanted romantic track. Sonu’s other song ‘Bhagwaan hai kahan re tu’ was very emotional one, and brilliantly sung, the visuals were one of main reasons why the song made a great impact on me. While 'Tharki Chokro' is good to watch dance moves of Aamir in alien style. Ankit Tiwari’s ‘Dar ba dar’ was a turn off for me, even though only one line of the song is used, still it felt like suddenly I landed into a Bhatt movie from Hirani, should had done away with a bg only. And lastly, it was very nice to hear Shaan’s voice after a long time in a pretty good track ‘Chaar kadam’.

Special mention to the PK theme, love the choreography of it where PK teaches Jaggu how to charge her battery or be happy when feeling low.

In performances, Aamir Khan makes me love him even in a Bhojpuri role so much, and I thought I would finally dislike him for a change in a movie.. but not to be. His looks at times do look odd, but his acting is always on the spot. Love the way he runs in alien manner, kudos to whosoever suggested it. And his comical timing is too good.

Anushka Sharma once again irritates, Bombay Velvet would be the last time when I would expect her to give a performance to be liked. The problem here once again is same, she overacts.

Saurabh Shukla, who plays Tapasvi Maharaj is brilliant, love the scene where he is introduced to us. I could so much connect to that, though Hirani overdid it slightly.

Sanjay Dutt is lovable in his small cameo as the Rajasthani guy, first friend of PK on earth.

Boman Irani is effective as always. While Sushant Singh Rajput in a 10 min role gets one worthy moment where he questions Jaggu that how uneasy she suddenly felt when he told her he was from Pakistan.

And there is a special appearance from a actor (you probably already know it) in the last scene of movie.



PK is a enjoyable entertainer despite some problems in 2nd half, it dares to talk a lot about our blind belief in God and how people like Tapasvi manipulate ordinary people to their advantage. Aamir-Hirani combo gives  many special moments specially in 1st half that may stay for long in our memories for good.


Verdict : 3.5/5 

Movie Analysis : NightCrawler

Directed by : Dan Gilroy
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/


Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional in this must watch movie, if you  like creepy-unusual character oriented movies. 

Read at your own risk, spoilers ahead… 

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is desperate to find work and when he lands himself into crime journalism, he forgets the ethics and starts working his way up the ladder. He is helped in it by Nina (Rene Russo), a T.V news veteran who accepts all the videos he brings up to her.


There’s a certain creepiness in Louis Bloom character, kudos to the way Jake shed weight and made this possible. You can easily notice it in his long eyes whenever someone said something that wasn’t as per what he wanted to hear, specially in night car scenes.

Plenty of dark humor, how Louis tries to find his way in into any profession he could, his amazing learning things quickly talent which you see as the movie goes on. At almost no point we see Louis show emotion to any human being, even the conversation he has with Nina in mexican restaurant is more of a wanting someone to have sex with plus making use of his work that had made Nina’s recognition increase at news channel with rise of their ratings. Only time we see Louis care about someone, is when he is watering his plants at his home.

Notice how Louis is ironing his clothes while watching a comedy show on tv, and suddenly he gives a creepy laugh looking at other side as if there was some other person present there to share that moment with him. The ending dialogue of Louis during the long conversation with Nina at restaurant was hilarious too. Also, when Nina doesn’t agree to pay better amount to Louis, how he stamps his authority over her with Nina stand-still listening to all he is saying, was one of best scenes of movie.

The way Louis interviews Rick (Riz Ahmed) makes you think he must had applied for some job in past where the interviewer presented himself the way he is doing now. The salary negotiation scene in latter half of film is superb. There is a certain creepy tone even in the way Louis talks or the dialogues he has, but the one that I loved, and he made sure of emphasizing it more while saying to Rick ‘What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?’.

There are many more moments where you feel scared of meeting a person like Louis in real, like the scene where he brakes fail a fellow competitor and then shoots his video, love the way director pans face of Louis looking at him. Another is the end scene, where Louis wants to get rid of Rick and traps him into death and once again shoots his video instead of helping him survive. Even in one of the crime scene house, he didn’t care to help a old man who was still breathing. Or in a scene when asked if there was a baby in the room, Louis sounds disappointed not to find one.

Only flaw I found in the film was, Louis got away too easily in the end. How about he finds a harder way to get out of police and detective after him for breaking laws.

The screenplay is tight and pacy, most of the time we see the movie through point of view of Louis, getting to know how it would be to do the wrong thing and yet enjoy it. The director keeps the proceedings engaging and not easy to predict, you never know what might come up next. Also, he presents the ugly side of news presentation, like in the scene where Nina proves her point right saying people should see blood shed reporting at breakfast so that they can talk about it later on and it would that way stay longer with them.

He even builds sexual environment between Louis and Nina wonderfully. Infact the last video we see Louis show her, it felt like Nina was getting seduced watching a video which may make her channel and tv show so popular. And I liked the idea of not showing anything physically to viewers between them, keeping us to guess.

Dialogues were very well written, ‘A Friend is a gift you give to yourself’ always cracks me up.

Jake Gyllenhaal delivers excellent performance. He makes you hate his character and yet enjoy the weird activities he does. I would be surprised if I don’t see him make a oscar nomination next year. Yes, his character was kinda of one dimensional, we never see his past life or family or any sensitive part of his life. But I felt that was well done, otherwise it would had made resemblance with De Niro from Taxi Driver. It was good that Louis was always un-caring in entire movie.

Rene Russo does her supporting role very well too. She does actually look beautiful enough to make Louis say to her ‘I like older women’.


If you are into creepy and unusual character movies, then you gotta watch Jake Gyllenhaal in this movie, more than likely you will enjoy it a lot.


Verdict : 4/5 

Movie Analysis : Happy Ending

Directed by : Raj-D.K
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3017412/


Fun of a cliched rom-com format and narrating story itself as same rom-com with happy end. Not possible to like such narration of story… 

Read at your own risk, spoilers ahead… 


When you saw the trailer, and the starting dialogue then you expected a movie that would ideally show what real ‘Happy Ending’ stories have in reality unlike the movies (fantasy ones). But, unfortunately and very surprisingly, a film that tries to make fun of typical rom-com we see ends up in the end to be one of the same league itself.

Yudi (Saif Ali Khan) realizes that his 1st written book about 5 and half years ago, didn’t end to be successful as he had thought. Now, he is desperate to get work and he gets a offer to write a movie script for fading star Armaan (Govinda) who asks him to copy best dialogues and scenes from Hollywood movies he gives to him. But, Yudi can no longer get the inspiration to write somehow. His new rival as well friend Ileana D’Cruz (whose latest romantic novel gets lots of praise) becomes the turning point of his life. But, Yudi has many things to deal with, one is his commitment issues, other is his ex gf Kalki Koechin who isn’t ready to leave him at all.


We have seen Saif in uncountable movies now doing this role where he is confused, comical, searching for answers, not ready to accept love etc. Despite that, Saif has got amazing comic timing that you still like him doing all of this once again.

But Raj and DK fail to deliver as director duo this time, they were amazing in Shor in the City and Go Goa Gone (my personal fav), for keeping the humor tone simple and yet very funny. I couldn’t understand why they decided to make fun of rom-com movies and its plot initially, and then do narration of movie in similar manner leading to same cliched end. How about if they ended the movie when Ileana says ‘I don’t love you’ and follow with a funny line by Saif about how different reality is indeed.

Another unusual aspect of film was the alter ego of Yudi, i.e Yogi played by Saif himself. At places he was indeed funny, but mostly he came more of a irritating personality to me. Could had worked a lot more on his character and dialogues.

What works the most is Ranvir Shorey (playing friend of Yudi) and Yudi bonding, and Kalki’s funny performance, love the scene where she tells Yudi about a app she has installed in his phone or when she gives Yudi heart-attack about her being pregnant.

Among Cameos, Kareena was good.. but Preity who got a longer role did really well as the matured ex gf of Yudi. The advices she gave to him, without making them look too much preaching was good to see.

Ileana didn’t really play her role well, she is like saif in terms of her way of looking at love but you never really see that kind of attitude when she is with saif. She does look lovely, and has two very good scenes, one when she puts music on while they drive to a certain place, was surprised to hear loveria from raju ban gaya gentleman, and bharo maang literally made me laugh loud. And other when they stay in hotel, and she makes him sleep in opposite direction, liked the conversations they have at that time and where it leads to. Ileana character would had appealed more, had we told a lot more about her..

Govinda is great in two initial scenes where Yudi meets him at his place for discussion on script. Apart from that, I didn’t really enjoy his performance despite being a comic role.. strange but true.


Even the music was disappointing, not a single song that I found worth listening again.


The best moment of the film is when Govinda tells Yudi ‘tu kitna bhi hatke likh le, logo ne baith kar hi dekhna hai… 300 rs mein unko jeena mat seekha, entertain kar.'



Happy Ending is at best one time watch, atleast its not slapstick and bad humor. But if you go to watch movie based on Raj-DK past films, then you gonna be highly disappointed like me.


Verdict : 2.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Kill Dil

Directed by : Shaad Ali
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3380264/


Poor cliche gangster story, avoidable movie. Shaad disappoints. 

Read at your own risk, spoilers ahead… 


It was a movie I had great expectations from, the day its cast was announced with Shaad as director, S-E-L & Gulzar teaming up (same as Jhoom Barabar Jhoom), and a fantastic 1st trailer, followed by 1st song promo of title which was peppy and addictive.. but after that all went downside with poor promos and the real picture got revealed, not everything that appears good initially is actually good.


Two gangsters, Dev (Ranveer Singh) and Tutu (Ali Zafar) work for Bhaiyya Ji (Govinda) who raised them in their childhood and gave them guns to play with instead of reading books. They now kill or scare anyone Bhaiyya Ji wants them to. Enters Disha (Parineeti Chopra) into the story, Dev falls in love and now he has to choose between his love or the life he has been living till now.


This is such a cliche story. Why do we have to see a gangster film where the gangster has to be forced to stop doing the bad work he is in which he loves a lot.  Funny thing is Disha is shown as a person who works on criminal history people and make them live good life instead. In the entire movie she is never seen helping anyone, what we see instead is her rich spoilt girl life, her swimming scenes or going for parties. And still if we agree that Disha does actually do the ‘samaaj seva’, then why the hell she decides to give up on Dev when Bhaiyya Ji tells her who Dev was once i.e a killer, and who Dev is now i.e. a improved guy. If she improves criminals, then here was a person who did it by himself for her and yet we see Disha abandon him and do all the un-necessary emotional drama. Why was the need for Dev to record a video and tell her the truth, does Shaad Ali wanted to say that how dumb this girl was ? I just hated Parineeti Chopra in this movie, for a change sadly.


The other sad part of this movie was the screenplay. Shaad Ali it looks like forgot how to form a narration, we see characters all of sudden killing, then joking, then the terrific ka ka ka kill dil bg used unnecessarily in worst possible manner. Infact, they end Bhaiyya Ji character also so lamely. Also, we never see any police activity in the movie, its like these gangsters never ever get to face them.. they are too smart or stupid writing, eh? And what was that scene where Dev tries to show his good side to Disha by asking small kids to eat food with them.


There are some good dialogues in the movie, one of it that standsout is BhaiyyaJi telling a person who has got gun on his head ‘Goli maarni hai toh maar-de, yun ghoor ke mera time waste mat kar’.

Best part of movie was, Tutu’s friendship towards Dev, firstly when he shows concern towards Dev asking him to remember who he is and who Disha is plus that they work for Bhaiyya Ji. Then the scene where Dev tells him that he thought Tutu would understand him atleast. Or when Tutu tells how he will manage Bhaiyya Ji on his own now.  Ali Zafar did a fairly good job, of course could had been much better if the script had been well written.

Ranveer Singh is full of energy, and very lovable once again..  The entire scene where he meets Disha for first time, talks while she rides bullet or his touching the hot sizzler food with hands directly. And the funniest scene of course, when he asks Tutu, what is meaning of Lol. Wish Shaad didn’t overdo it with Rofl though..

Govinda in a villain role, is something you don’t really expect from him but right from trailer it looked he had perfectly nailed it. Unfortunately though, he gets very few scenes to shine, once again for bad writing. Two scenes to watch out would be, one where he forces his orders onto Dev, and other when he plays a great chess move with Dev’s life. He does gets most of the best lines in movie though.


S-E-L music is decent. The title song stands out, but not used the way it should had been in movie. Love the way they film the 'Daiyya Maiyya' song. ‘Sajde' is totally misplaced fantasy song in the narrative, would had made for a better end credit song instead. If I remember right, they didnt use 'Baawra' ? It was 2nd best song of movie for me.



Kill Dil ends up as my first Shaad Ali movie that I disliked. There’s no emotional connect, a cliche gangster story and narrative that looks like arranged together with bits and pieces without much meaning or style quotient. Its only the performances of all 3 male leads that keeps you hold on to the end in a movie that you can easily avoid watching.



Verdict : 2/5