I hate to say this, but it has happened again.. missed writing on time and so here are my views on all the films I saw in few lines. There are films which deserve a complete review, and I certainly will do so whenever I re-watch those movies.
There will be spoilers in every movie post, so be careful.. read at your own risk only!
Baby :
Akshay likes doing 1-2 surprise movies where not just his performance but the film can be praised too and Baby falls in that category. Based on covert Counter Intelligence Unit, Ajay (Akshay Kumar) is part of an elite team whose job is to stop the terrorists who are a threat to India. Entire 1st half is consumed in setting all the characters with one un-necessary sub-plot of Ajay and his wife (Madhurima Tuli). The director Neeraj Pandey has this weird habit of spoiling movies with un-necessary romantic drama, remember Special Chabees, how the brilliant Manoj-Akshay tussle impact was affected with Akshay’s love for Kajal. Same happens here, ‘Main pyar nahi karti’ melodramatic song and to make the matters worse, Ajay’s wife says dialogues like ‘bas marna mat’ again and again in movie. Phew! Keeping her aside, there’s not much to complain in this movie. 2nd half is edge of seat thriller, and does remind you of Argo a lot. Ofcourse they changed a lot to that, with a patriotic touch to it which to be frank I didn’t like. I would had liked the inspector go after the team and fail with the flight take off in time, a valid argument here would be that it would had been ditto Argo climax. Anupam Kher’s cameo is brilliant. Special mention however to Tapsee Pannu who totally surprises you in a very unexpected action sequence. Kay Kay Menon is kinda of wasted, Danny Denzongpa scenes with Murli Sharma were hilarious, specially when Akshay slaps Murli and later Murli is scared at his sight. Baby is worth a watch, if you liked Special Chabees then most likely you will like or love Baby too.
Verdict : 3.5/5
Rahasya :
Surprisngly good movie as the trailer looked average to me, plus I am more keen to watch Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Nyoda’ which is also on Aarushi murder case. Actually, Rahasya is loosely based on that incident, it does show a young girl murdered with her father accused and the police doing very loose job making CBI enter i.e Sunil (Kay Kay Menon). But the amount of fiction added is larger, plus the real culprit and its reasons comes as a surprise too. Kay Kay Menon is ofcourse the scene stealer, and good to see him in such a big role after quite a while. Climax is a let-down but still definitely a film that can be seen once. And yea, there are no songs in the entire movie, if I remember correctly.
Verdict : 3/5
Hawaizaada :
One of the most boring movies I have seen this year. It looked like Ayushmann Khurana was trying hard to imitate Ranbir as the lover boy, instead the scenes became utterly hilarious specially that scene ‘isse shaadi kar le’. Pallavi Sharda is much better in her performance after the debacle of Besharam. But its Mithun Chakraborty who gives some good fun moments. The plot of 1st plane built by an Indian had in it to be atleast a very good movie if not classic. But the first time director Vibhu Virender Puri needs to learn a lot about film-making and specially building a screenplay that doesn’t put audience to sleep. Even the music was a big let down, only ‘Maazaa my Lord’ was a decent track. Hawaizaada is pretty much avoidable movie, only Ayushmann fanatics will disagree.
Verdict : 1/5
Khamoshiyan :
The start of this movie till the end of ‘Kya khoya’ track made me think this could be a good horror movie, but not so as the movie from that point on derails down heavily. Sapna Pabbi irritates with her poor acting, she does look pretty hot though. The usual cliches of horror begins, and you know where they will be taking story. Gurmeet Choudhary actually suited the negative role a lot, unfortunately he got very less screen time. I have liked Ali Fazal in past films, like Fukrey and Bobby Jasoos but in this movie he fails to impress. The best thing about the movie, which isn’t new with a Bhatt camp horror movie, is the music, almost all songs are pleasant to listen to, and actually give you a good breather from the not so interesting plot. The wait for a good hindi horror movie continues.
Verdict : 1.5/5
Shamitabh :
A very good performance oriented movie, where Dhanush matches the scale of Amitabh Bachchan so well. Watch out how Daanish (Dhanush) shows his passion for movies in the track ‘Ishq e fillum’. R.Balki gets the humor spot on, as long as you accept the scientific solution shown for Daanish getting a voice in form of Amitabh (Amitabh Bachchan). The jealousy Amitabh goes through, for being rejected as hero once due to his looks, and now its his voice being a reason for Daanish success is to watch for. The part where Daanish and Amitabh separate their ways due to the disagreement to each other’s way of working, and then try to work their way alone could had been avoided. I mean why show so much of both trying to make a unsuccessful movie and then let Akshara (Akshara Hassan) teach them why both are failing, and why their ego is not letting them say sorry to each other. Just like happens in Band Baaja Baaraat. They work best in team, and fail miserably when do on their own. The climax you can say is too emotional, I don’t think its bad though. But yea, I wasn’t happy with the way R.Balki reached to that part. All the songs that looked very average, are fun to listen with the movie. Amitabh’s performance is very good, specially good to see him in drunk role after quite a while. Akshara Hassan looks cute, and acts fine but her hairstyle was kinda of irritating to see, wonder how she manages it. Shamitabh ain’t as good as R.Balki’s last movie Paa, but with the kind of irritating trailers it had, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a good movie in the end.
Verdict : 3/5
Roy :
Okay, this one beats Hawaizaada too in boredom. Yes the trailer wasn’t good but still Ranbir Kapoor movie, you don’t expect this. Why the hell did he sign this movie, I didn’t mind Besharam at all. Only other movie of Ranbir I hated to see him do was Anjaana Anjaani. Director Vikramjit Singh was hell bent on confusing the narrative, making it hard to know what is real and what is reel as he shows one story of Kabir, film director (Arjun Rampal) and Ayesha, documentary director (Jacqueline Fernandez). Other one of Roy, a theif in Kabir’s film (Ranbir Kapoor) and a look alike of Ayesha who falls in love with Roy in the Kabir’s film (not in real). So, the question is, all this confusion was necessary? A huge No! Forget Roy, even the movie Kabir makes was looking utterly crap, with a weirdly done action scene. The songs are good though, not talking of the over-rated ‘Tu hai ke nahi’, hate that track. But the other ones are pretty good! Arjun Rampal was pretty good in his performance, if the script and screenplay were good, it would had got noticed much more. Jacqueline looked uncomfortable to me, in a role that was harder for her to do. Lets just hope this is the last time we saw Ranbir in such a bad movie.
Verdict : 0.5/5
Dum Laga Ke Haisha :
Give us this Ayushmann Khuranna (Prem) more often, how good it was to see him in a character that speaks shuddh hindi. Also, the entire movie shooting happened in Haridwar. The other limelight of the movie was actress Bhumi Pednekar (Sandhya) who is so impressive in her debut, and how often do you see an actress gain weight for her 1st role as lead. And then there is the brilliant supporting cast of Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa and others. Love the scene when Sandhya-Prem keep changing the songs on cassette. How cool it was to see the opening credits with Kumar Sanu song as Prem plays a fanboy of Sanu, and Prem working at his cassette shop, rewinding us back to the 90s era when there was no cds or cd players. Also, the music by Anu Malik was a huge plus, specially Moh Moh ke dhaage. And the climax gets a huge lift by the inspiring voice of Kailash Kher with Nooran Sisters chorus in the title track during that lifting your wife competition and running. I liked how they changed the track into the male version of Moh Moh ke dhaage once the race got over, that feeling of joy and love was wonderfully done. Yash Raj movies are definitely on a high these days, attempting projects you least expect coming out from them, lets just hope the pattern continues.
Verdict : 4/5
NH10 :
I had seen director Navdeep Singh’s last movie Manorama Six Feet Under, which I found way too slow despite being engaging. So, was worried if NH10 would go the same way, but its not the case, except for a very long opening credits which was good to watch too as Navdeep starts to build the atmosphere. Thats the beauty of this film, Navdeep is so good at creating that fear atmosphere even before the road journey of Meera (Anushka Sharma) and Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam) begins, the mood is already set. One must applaud the sound design for it, the background score and also the fact that Navdeep never changes the track of story after that well done night scene of Meera where she just escapes death. By now you know that Meera is going with Arjun on a trip with her mind-set not good, as seen by that swimming scene or the comment passed by a office colleague. Mostly I expected from the trailer that the bad incident happens due to Satbir (Darshan Kumaar) at NH10 road after Gurgaon, but it turns out to my surprise that it was Arjun’s ego that took them into trouble and there was no turning back then. The movie serves purpose of a great road journey horror movie where you are scared for the characters who have landed at a place where they will get no help, can they survive or not is the question that is in the mind. The scene where Satbir kills his own sister along with her boyfriend is the point where you feel sorry for Meera, for what is to come. Its hard to imagine how they even made Deepti Naval scare you when she comes to know about who Meera is. Love the final scene, beautifully done with ‘Maati ka palang’ track, and the extra moments Meera takes to kill Satbir, lighting a cigg and waiting to see him struggle to survive. Anushka’s performance (finally) was worth applauding, be that scene or the one where she says ‘Fuck you’ to the bad guys or the way she struggles on the night of her birthday. That birthday angle was a very good way to set the Interval too. Also, notice how at one stage, Satbir’s sister comes to Meera for help, but Meera stays away thinking she is a stranger so I shouldn’t step in any kind of trouble by helping. And later Meera becomes the one who seeks help from others but she doesn’t get any, not even from Police. Also later on, she refuses to take help from bunch of guys in a Jeep who looks wise didnt appear good guys, but turns out they were actually willing to help and weren’t bad, irony! Special mention to the Shilpa Rao version of ‘Le chal mujhe’ song, one of my favs. And nice of them to not include the popular ‘chhil gaye naina’ track in end credits, a mistake the makers of Badlapur did. NH10 continues the good run our Hindi Movies are having so early in 2015, not a film to be missed.
Verdict : 4/5
Hunterrr :
A movie on a sex addict, Mandar (Gulshan Devaiah) would had been terrific if and only if director didn’t go with a narration style that shifts from Present to 15 yrs back to present to 6 months back to 3 months further back to present to 10 yrs back and so much more. How the hell did the makers not realize that this kind of viewing would be a burden for the audience. Just when you concentrated and were about to love a portion of movie, they do a back jump to earlier life of Mandar. A linear narration would had worked lot more for the movie, with 1-2 past jumps at most. Gulshan Devaiah is a actor whose performances I have liked in past, and here too he is spot on in the kind of troubles he gets into at times specially when he goes after married lady, Jyotsna (Sai Tamhankar). Radhia Apte (Trupti) once again is very likable in a longer role after that cameo in Badlapur. Without a doubt, Mandar-Trupti jodi works the most for me, love the scene where Mandar is dreaming how she would react when he would tell her ‘Main vasu hoon’. The climax is well constructed too, however I felt that ex bf angle of Trupti was unwanted. The humor and dialogues are wonderful, like the scene where Mandar tells 'always go for the 2nd best' among group of girls during his teenage times. Nice to listen Altaf Raja voice again, even though composition was pretty average. I liked the Gunmaster G9 kinda of feel given to title track, which is sung by Bappi Lahiri too. One thing is sure if I have to re-watch the movie, I would edit and remove all the past jumps, make the narration simple, should be a good watch then.
Verdict : 3/5
Dharam Sankat Mein :
There are films where you ask yourself ‘Should I watch it or skip it’, and when you decide to watch, it turns out to be so good. Thats how it was for me with ‘Dharam Sankat Mein’, glad I went ahead to see it. The movie does remind you of Oh My God and to a lesser extent PK too. We again have Paresh Rawal (Dharam Pal) who aint religious and his family is very religious, and he finds all the babas dhongi, a particular Neel Anand Baba (Naseeruddin Shah) is whom his son worships because the girl who his son loves has her father following Neel Baba too. But this is just a sub-plot that aint much interesting, the main plot is the identity of Dharam Pal, i.e a Hindu, and suddenly he comes to know that he is a Muslim, which shakes up his life. He has a Muslim neighbor Mehmood (Annu Kapoor) whom he hated uptill now, but it is he who starts to help Dharam and ease out his tension, find his real father. There’s one excellent sequence where on one side Mehmood is helping Dharam all the things a Muslim guy should know about, including the language, namaaz etc, because the owner of place where his father is hospitalized asks Dharam that he can meet his father only when he turns into a complete Muslim person. So one one hand he learns from Mehmood to become a complete Muslim, and on other hand Dharam’s son brings a pujari home to make Dharam learn everything a hindu religious guy should know about. This creates plenty of laughable moments. Also, the scene where Mehmood takes Dharam to a friend’s gathering for a event to test how Dharam talks and behaves like a proper Muslim person. Paresh Rawal is outstanding once again, and brilliant supporting act by Annu Kapoor, the duo scenes together are a delight to watch. Naseeruddin hams as he has to in this role of baba, also has a very over the top entry scene, almost reminded me of Msg - the messenger. The last 10-15 mins is the weakest part of the movie, didn’t like the way they reveal Neel Anand Baba real identity, to be frank I wasn’t even interested in it, should had gone for a different ending. Leaving that asides, Dharam Sankat Mein is a pretty good watch.
Verdict : 3/5
Margarita with a Straw :
Laila (Kalki Koechlin) suffers from cerebral palsy and has got a supportive family specially her mother played by Revathy. She lives in Delhi and has a crush on one of the band singers for whom she writes lyrics for. Love the scenes where she shows how much she loves him, and then how broken she feels to know he doesn’t love her. Also, one of her interesting conversation with her male friend who suffers same problem telling her that she shouldn’t be trying to be close with normal people. The new and very different angle comes when Laila goes to USA for higher studies and meets Khanum (Sayani Gupta) who is blind. How Laila goes on her sexual discoveries, and feels in doubt thinking whether she loves Khanum or is she bi-sexual. There’s a brilliant scene where Khanum is heart-broken to know what Laila had done without telling her. Its in scenes like this where you admire this film, because it never tries to show sympathy for disabled person or trying to show how sweet/good they are. Instead we see Laila as like any other human, full of feelings, desires, wrong actions and betrayals too. I liked the bonding scenes of Laila and Khanum a lot, both Kalki and Sayani performed very well. Revathy was brilliant, love the scene when Laila thinks she has fooled her mother and doesn’t go inside college, while Revathy is hiding behind to see where she is going, and also her reaction when Laila tells her that she is in love with a boy. Its easily one of best performances from Kalki, love the scene where she tries to tell her mother 'main bisexual hoon’ and that last scene, her date with herself!
Verdict : 3.5/5
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