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 

Movie Analysis : Haider

Directed by : Vishal Bharadwaj
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3390572/

Not perfect adaptation of Hamlet, but a worthy Vishal movie nevertheless. 

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


An adaptation of Hamlet, the plot deals with Haider/Hamlet (Shahid Kapoor) returning back to Srinagar after studying at Aligarh. His father Dr Hilal (Narender Jha) had been taken away by Army for keeping militants in his house. When Haider comes to know that his father has been killed, and the murderer is none other than his own uncle Khurram/Claudius (Kay Kay Menon) who was helped in it by his mother Ghazala/Gertrude(Tabu). He immediately seeks revenge, and goes insane in his acts as he witnesses the murderer.


If I compare Haider with Hamlet, then one major difference is, how well Vishal Bharadwaj develops Kashmir and its political angle as the backdrop of the plot. He could easily had started the movie from the point when we see Haider returning to Srinagar in that bus shot, just like in Hamlet happens. But, we get to see how and why Dr Hilal disappears (even though we know who is behind it). He lets the connect happen with the Ghazala-Haider sequences including flashbacks, my fav is when they walk together alone and talk where Haider accuses her to be always thinking from her own point of view and never caring to see other’s views. For me, the mother-son relation was the best part, even that phone call by Haider to her later in the movie..

There are 3 changes however that didn’t go well for me. One is Horatio isn’t there in Haider, instead Arshia/Ophellia (Shraddha Kapoor) is given the role to act both as love and best friend of Haider. Whether it was to do with monotonous feel people would get with the friendship angle of Shahid-Chandan in Kaminey or it was deliberate attempt to keep narrative shorter with one less character, only Vishal would know. The reason I felt he was a key character is, many times in Hamlet you see him talk to Horatio about things he won’t talk to anyone else because he was the only one loyal and friendly to him whereas Ophellia was always more loyal to her father.

Second is Arshia’s  father Parvez Lone/Polonius (Lalit Parimoo) who is again completely changed by Vishal. In Hamlet, he would be extra-caring towards both Arshia and Liyaqat/Laertes (Aamir Bashir), and give various funny moments with his long speeches and non-understanding nature. But in Haider, he is a typical father, who uses his daughter to save Khurram from Haider.

Third is Liyaqat who is totally wasted in Haider. He only has one scene at start just like Hamlet, but in the climax sadly he is again limited to two small scenes, instead of giving a longer screen time where a fight between him and Haider would make him realize that Haider’s revenge is right too just like his revenge against him is.


Now talking about Haider, and keeping the comparison away.. the film still works for me a hell lot, but could had been easily a classic if and only if Vishal did one thing i.e increase the madness of Haider, show more scenes of him acting like insane, he only shows two scenes : one is that terrific monologue of Shahid ‘Hum hai ke hum nahi’, and other when he sings the same song which Khurram was seen singing earlier to Ghazala. He could had shown a sequence with Vishal Dadlani's Aao Na as background that told what Haider is aiming for now, is to act insane and meanwhile find out whether Khurram is in real the murderer or the story told by Roohdaar/Hamlet’s Father (Irrfan Khan) was fake. Even with gravedigger, he gets just two small conversations, ‘kiska janaaza hai?, kisi murde ka hai’, more dialogues like these would had been so wonderful’. There should also had been a scene where Haider before narrating Bismil song told Arshia to notice Khurram throughout and see if his eyes show guilt (yea its from hamlet where Horatio did it for Hamlet, but this would had made the proceedings doubly special). And yea, there was no need to show Liyaqat in a conference getting sad news, could easily had cut direct to Arshia home scene and Liyaqat coming there, as why would you even for a second divert from the Kashmir backdrop. And one last complaint, why did Arshia act normal when Liyaqat returned home, and in next scene she is shown gone mad. She should had been shown mad right at the moment Liyaqat enters, why the delay…

Vishal handles the Oediplus complex probably keeping Indian audience in mind, and for my liking it was perfectly done as you do get the sense in some scenes as to what relation they might be having even though you never see any of that.

The cinematography is brilliant, special mention to the shots before Roohdar makes a entry, and also Irrfan Khan is given a terrific entry scene. Background score is special too, my fav was the Ghazala-Haider one, Aao na theme used at certain places and also the revenge one which is inspired from Moby’s extreme ways (also used in Bourne series).

Also, commendable to see the dialogues having the kashmiri effect including the english they speak..

Music from Vishal Bharadwaj is among the best of this year, the version of 'Aao Na' which they use in film is so haunting. ‘Jhelum' shows the situation of Kashmir in 1995, with plenty of half-widows and missing people. While 'Khul Kabhi' might be not that well placed in narrative, it does help in giving weightage to Haider-Arshia romantic track. But, the song of movie (Aao Na by vishal is my personal fav but not used in film) is easily Bismil, what special choreography. And for me the way Shahid emotes in that song was as good as I saw Richa Chadda do in ‘Taar Bijli’ of Gangs of Wasseypur2. The feeling of pain and revenge at same time were so much visible in his eyes, and since he is a good dancer he made it look one of best choreographed songs of the year.


One may argue about the ending, the message given.. I for one would had preferred to see Khurram die and Haider take revenge but the moment you saw ‘Inteqam se sirf inteqam paida hota hai’ dialogue in 1st half, you very much know its gonna be key part of Haider’s revenge part too. Good thing however was they did make Khurram lose his legs, and thereby plead to Haider to kill him and not let him live this life who already had guilt feeling inside him for killing his own brother Hilal.


Salman1 & 2/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (Sumit Kaul & Rajat Bhagat) was a brilliant idea to add humor, both playing mad fans of Salman Khan. Love their first scene dancing to Maine Pyar Kiya song, did any of Salman fans recognize that dance when Haider trailer was out was a question that came to my mind.


In performances, Shahid Kapur doesn’t disappoint in his portrayal of Haider, the helplessness he feels while finding his missing father, to see how his mother is attracted to Khurram (love that scene where he keeps staring at her when she is singing), his two insane sequences, when he breaks down after a laugh with Arshia at end of Khul Kabhi song, his violent attack at Salman’s or the confusion in his mind when he is about to kill Khurram but voices of both his father and mother’s words keep going inside him together. Easily among his best performances of career, would be good to see Shahid-Vishal work together in near future.

Tabu actually gave the performance of the movie, and finally she got a film which used her talent to full potential. Whether its the first scene where she is worried to see a militant in her house, her unexplained love towards Khurram, or her motherly love towards Haider. Love her expression when Haider says to her in climax scene ‘kyu aap apni jaan de dengi kya’. Why don’t rest film-makers offer her good roles, that is the question…

Kay Kay Menon for a change wasn’t flawless, at some places felt he was hamming a lot. Also, I felt Vishal should had not let him over-try to show how much he cares about Hilal to Haider.

Shraddha Kapoor has the same old problem, she got great looks and looks wonderful in Kashmiri mode but her acting is again upto the point, nothing extra added by her. Arshia was meant to be innocent girl, so she was kind of apt for role (maybe Alia Bhatt was also another worthy actress for it), but she fails to attract you with her acting skills and this has to stop sooner or else I may have to think her of being Sonam Kapoor Part2.


Narender Jha and Lalit Parimoo are very good in their supporting roles, and so is Kulbhushan Kharbanda in his small cameo appearance.  Aamir Bashir was totally wasted.

Irrfan Khan is terrific despite having a extended cameo role at best. His entry scene with that bg is awesome, and so is his humor with Arshia and then the person who he helps go inside his home.



Haider is an intense drama that must be seen, it had in it to be Vishal’s best till date but didnt miss by too much. Easily one of best movies this year for his direction and Shahid-Tabu performances.


Verdict : 4/5  

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