This gangster rom-com works for me : Jayantabhai ki Luv Story

Directed by : Vinnil Markan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2622130/

After having seen his last romantic comedy 'KLPD', I went to watch the movie expecting another film on same lines. Maybe, that is one of the reasons why I liked Jayantabhai ki Luv Story.

Jayantabhai (Vivek Oberoi) is a street-thug, a small time gangster who works for Altafbhai (Zakir Hussain). Then, enters Simran (Neha Sharma), his new neighbour who is in look-out for new job after her last company got involved into scams resulting in company shutoff. The usual hatred interaction in start turns into friendship and eventually both fall in love.

The conversations Jayantabhai and Simran have when they meet, the hesistancy Simran has to live when she comes to know his profession. The 'anda bhurji' scene, Jayanta getting new umbrella for Simran, zaalim spray and numerous other sequences between them are highly entertaining and fun to watch.

If their pair strengthens the film, then the sub-plot of Jayantabhai's gangster world weakens it. The fight between two rival gangsters, and one of them having a habit of using filmi names while talking.. spoils the rhthym that the love story has set up. The best thing though is that the screen time given to this sub plot is much less, which is quite right given the title of the movie.

Also, the father-daughter cliche of 'that guy is a gangster' is restricted by the director, though I wonder if it could had been completely done away with instead. The climax intends to surprise, but the pace goes too slow. That interview scene made me think if those company people without verifying allow random guys to sit inside, specially knowing its a guy going inside instead of a girl.

The songs are good, my fav being 'aa bhi jaa mere meherbaan' by Atif.

Vivek Oberoi gets his act right this time around, by combining the gangster and lover duo together very well, his chemistry with Neha Sharma was superb. Neha Sharma always amazes me with her looks, beautiful and cute at same time.. and her acting is good too. The supporting cast is okish.

Leaving aside all the cliches and flaws, Jayantabhai ki Luv Story at heart is a entertaining rom-com movie, with some great fun moments.


Verdict : NICE 

They dance well, but can't act : Any Body Can Dance

Directed by : Remo D'Souza
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2321163/

Predictable plot, but could still had been a good movie only if the performances of the actors was good. Kay Kay Menon and Prabhu Deva were wrong choices to play the main leads. Though Kay Kay Menon has just one flashback dance sequence that too few seconds one, his tone was very over the top. Prabhu Deva had his dance moves working, that scene where he dances to get money back. But his dialogue delivery and expressions never invoke any feelings towards his character.

Actors like Hrithik Roshan or Shahid Kapur are a must in such movies, or atleast one of them with rest cast having actors who could act much better. You can't make a film just on dance, acting is a must. Its like making a film on sports, having actors who play sports well but no acting skills.

Vishnu (Prabhu Deva) is thrown out of Swish Dance Academy which he had set with his business partner Jehangir (Kay Kay Menon). Vishnu plans to return back, until at Ganesh Utsav, he watches bunch of guys having kind of dance moves that if worked on could bring a lot of fame and glory. Vishnu decides to train them freely, and make a team that could win competition in Swish Dance Academy. But, there are cliches like a guy's father against him dancing, two guy's having fight against each other for a girl, and one guy is after drugs.

The team that Vishnu has for dance competition, acts pretty fine.. specially Chandu played by Punit Pathak. Pankaj Tripathi does well in a small comic cameo. Ganesh Acharya was good, though most of the time the attention went to his overweight size, that moment when he takes chair to sit.

The songs are very average, Bezubaan and final dance song are likeable to certain extent. The twist in the finale was very good one, and also the choreography of final song was fantastic. Something I would say wasn't spectacular type in rest movie.


Any Body Can Dance, has very few good moments, and expectedly they are all dance sequences. Good casting could well had made the film appear much better.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Crap B-Grade movie : Zila Ghaziabad

Directed by : Anand Kumar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2171454/

This film can easily be labelled as a b-grade movie that has well known stars acting in it. The first sequence is of a gangster, Fauji (Arshad Warsi) returning back to Ghaziabad.. in ultra slow motion, giving us insight to the torture the rest film is gonna give. The side kicks to Fauji shoot gunshots in the air, and they do that a lot in entire movie making me wonder if they are so rich to waste that many bullets uselessly. There's one scene where Fauji shoots a rifle and says 'bahut din ho gaye saala goli ki awaaz hi nahi suni thi'.

There's Satbir (Vivek Oberoi) who is a master by profession, wants to improve the village instead of going to Delhi and have a good job with all his qualifications. Expectedly, he gets tangled into the world of crime of Fauji. The laugh out loud moment comes when its his turn to use ultra slow motion, and roar like a lion, fight like a superman and declare to us that he is no longer a master, but a gangster who is after Fauji.

Now, to stop these two, there is Preetam Singh (Sanjay Dutt) who is presented as more of a gangster like personality, quite apt. Might well had put the title of movie as 'Three Gangsters'. Preetam like other two isnt let down, his entry is also with a super slow motion, and since he is bigger star, he gets a heavy dialogue too to allow his fans blow seetis in the hall (which some did in the theatre I saw the film in). And then, he carries forward the superman action scenes Vivek did. He is transferred to Ghaziabad to control the terror, and he uses chess to narrate how he would slowly remove both out of Ghaziabad.

All these 3 heroes are given dance numbers too, Arshad looks funny in his dance song, while Vivek very much looks okay. Sanjay is made to imitate Salman's hud hud dabangg, ironically the singer is Sukhwinder too. There are 2 item songs in the movie, one has Geeta Basra and other Shreya Saran, both choreographed in a very vulgar way, but then the film is for masses, they would like it. Actors can do anything when they are in need for money, easy example.

Terrible screenplay, heavy dialogues that makes you yawn, and action that gives headache. Only Paresh Rawal and Ravi Kissan acted well, or to put it properly their characters had very less crap dialogues with no action sequences. Also, the actor who manipulates Fauji against Satbir, he was quite good. Divya Dutta once more in a small cameo, though not effective this time around. Vivek is good at places. Sanjay overacts, like that madhuri dialogue, one of few good moments in film. Arshad Warsi could had been evil, the director made a total mess. The actresses are only there for giving respite from heavy dialoguebaazi, action and have some romantic moments for the characters.

The climax just doesn't matter, who dies, who doesn't. There's no concern, no feeling towards any character. Only person I felt bad dying was Paresh Rawal. In the end, one is more interested for the film to end, and leave the theatre quickly.

Films like these make me think if I should seriously start omitting films that from the trailer itself gives a 99% negative vibe. Why waste time on such films..

If you are a blind fan of Vivek or Sanjay, go watch the film, blow whistles and make yourself look like a joker. Zila Ghaziabad is a total nonsense movie, with nothing to praise about.


Verdict : INTOLERABLE

P.S - Saw this comment at a website, some more laughing medicine - 'May this movie cross 200 cr, Vivek is back with a bang and how!'

Good movie, but Neeraj tries to be too commercial : Special Chabbis

Directed by : Neeraj Pandey
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2377938/

The post contains spoilers, read at your own risk. 

Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday was hardhitting, entertaining and very real without songs or dance numbers. With Special Chabbis, he tries to go commercial keeping his intent to keep the settings and tone real.. and that's where he goes wrong.

The plot is based on fake CBI raids that took place in 1980's in various parts of India. Neeraj tries to cheat a lot with the characters, why would a character in a movie behave like a stranger to another character when they are talking one to one with no one around to look at them ? The answer is simple, the audience i.e us are looking so they are made to act differently. There's one character in the movie that changes, and due to it the climax turns..

Then, there is the love angle of Akshay and Kajal which very much feels like forced one, only weakens the movie. Something like Shaitan (Rajeev love life) was required here, minimal dialogues, no backstory, 1 small scene every now and then and keeping the main focus on the cbi raids plot.

Also, the climax was too normal, a chance to make it dramatic missed. There was scope of making Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) seal all stations and airports, and follow Ajju (Akshay Kumar) upto the airport and make Ajju struggle though eventually manage going off. Maybe, its Hollywood Argo in my mind saying this, but Wasim Khan accepting he was made fool, doing nothing and ending the scene there, didn't go well to me.

Every song slows the narrative. Though, Mujh mein tu is a very good song. Also, Dhar Pakad that comes at the end credits. Background score is good, leaving apart the loud moments here and there.

Editing is too bad, what is the point of showing in excess the cbi people walking, going to car, the journey of car. The first raid built-up was delayed way too much.

What works for me in the movie are the performances, Akshay Kumar is effective in a role that is far away from his regular comedy movies. Manoj Bajpayee was slightly off-track, just a wee-bit.. maybe the standards he sets for himself made me feel that way, nevertheless his scene with Akshay was a delight to watch and special reference to that Rishwat lena shuru kar dun dialogue.

Anupam Kher easily was the star of the movie, vulnerable, surprising, fearful, faltering (wrong house they went to raid) and leading the team from the front.. he was doing almost everything so well in that character. Not to forget, the father of so many kids as he says Tv kahan hota tha uss time..

The supporting cast did a good job, Divya Dutta though was restricted to one dialogue throughout, which changes over course of time with twists. Jimmy Shergill was good but then its the question of would you accept the fact that director cheated with you on this character, I can't.


Special Chabbis is by no means a bad movie, it works but the reason why I feel dissappointed is that a director who made 'A Wednesday', could end up spoiling a movie due to commercial aspects. Still, watch it.. chances are you may like it much more than me.


VERDICT : NICE

Good action sequences, but weak script : A Good Day To Die Hard [Views]

Directed by : John Moore
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606378/

John : You got a plan ? 
Jack : Not really. I kinda thought we would just wing it, you know. Running in, guns blazing! Make it up as we go. 

Action sequences alone can't constitute a movie, this statement holds true for this movie. A Good Day to Die Hard is filled with car chase, explosions, massive gun firing but all this works if there is a good plot to support it. A father going to Moscow to help his son who has gone into trouble working for wrong guys, but only later he discovers that his son is working as a CIA for a mission and now he has to help him out.

Bruce Willis has some great one liners  that makes you laugh, specially the first two actions. The car chase action sequence was the best of all, thrilling and it begins with that massive car explosions. Jai Courtney was decent. There was no outright villian who could bring evilness into the plot, another major problem in the movie. Yuliya Snigir looked pretty sexy.

All the slow motion scenes involving Sergei Kolesnikov was irritating, it didn't add any style to the screenplay.

Only for Bruce Willis (to some extent), and action sequences.. one may watch this movie which is pretty short one too. I haven't seen previous 4 parts of this series but I doubt that would had in any way made me like this movie. Weak script and direction lets the film down.

Movie Analysis : Murder3

Directed by : Vishesh Bhatt
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2429640/

Sab kuch bahut jaldi jaanna chahti ho tum ... 

Bhatt camp once again talk a lot about what great film they have made, once again they boast a lot on twitter, but the truth is they have once more made a average film that's unintentionally funny too.

Vikram (Randeep Hooda) gets a video message of Roshni (Aditi Rao Hydari) that she is leaving him. Vikram gets broken, loosing himself into drinks and eventually meeting Nisha (Sara Loren), dating her. The truth behind Roshni leaving is something Vikram ain't aware of.

1st half is the point of view of Vikram-Nisha, while 2nd half goes towards Vikram-Roshni. There are way too many loose ends in the movie. How does Vikram, a struggling photographer gets such a big bungalow to live in Mumbai ? Why Nisha is so keen to take risk and help a drunk Vikram at late night ? Was it necessary to have the real owners of bungalow as firangi, for their side story of what secrets the house had ? Why would the tone of Roshni be funny when she talks with Nisha ?

Vishesh Bhatt as a director doesn't showcase any worthy skills at all, unlike Mohit Suri who atleast created some great shocking sequences in Murder2.

The only part in the film that I enjoyed was post interval 30 mins where Roshni in her attempt to find truth about  Vikram, gets herself in a big problem and needs someone's help to escape it. Being a remake of 'The Hidden Face', why Roshni disappears was known to me right from beginning.. one disadvantage of knowing the plot. The mirror has a key role, yet there are times when Vikram and Nisha look at mirror un-necessarily, whats the point of looking there during lovemaking.

Music is total dissappointing, not a single song that I enjoyed watching with film.

Adity Rao Hydari shines during 2nd half, in a otherwise okish performance.. didn't like her costumes, something I am used to with actresses in Bhatt films. Sara Loren didn't knew how to act, yet in 2nd half she was tolerable, looks wise she was very pretty. Randeep Hooda wasn't in form either, plus his hairstyle was a big turnoff.  The guy playing inspector role was overacting to the core, plus his investigation looked so silly.. more to blame the poor writing.

The climax does surprise (though it ends all of a sudden), and the film also lives upto the tagline 'this valentine love will be murdered', but the film never manages to engage or feel for the characters. I wasnt happy with the way they show Vikram's character too. I would have preferred Vikram of 2nd half used in 1st instead.. it may had increased suspense.


Overall, Murder3 fails miserably for me. I would like to watch 'The Hidden Face' sometime this year to know if that movie was even good enough to be remade in Hindi.


Verdict : BELOW AVERAGE

Chashme Baddoor [Trailer]

Total Mazza trailer. David Dhawan's last movie maaf (rascals). Unless it turns out among films which are good by trailers only, this one looks very good to me. I haven't seen old movie so that should work in my favour. Story is same I guess, Ali Zafar, shy boy patoes the girl Siddharth and Divyendu are after.. Thereafter they both are finding ways to split them.

So many great punches in trailer itself, 'lekin usse pehle paap toh kar lein', 'Siddharth's aa ante entry', 'Divyendu's shayari's specially change the girl one', 'kahavat ek machli ki hai', 'har ek friend kamina hota hai song'. The last shot has resemblance to Aal Izz Well image, might even be intentional.

Siddharth and Divyendu looking in terrific form, with comic timing on spot.. easily steal the trailer. Though, Ali would have equal role in the movie to shine through. I like the characterization, not sure about Tapsee Pannu only. Also, Rishi Kapoor is there too.. so some ranbir related humour could be there, final dialogue shot has Anjaana Anjaani poster.

Looking forward to the movie, not much excited for the music.. songs in trailer look okay types, plus Sajid-Wajid rarely give gems.


Arz kiya hai, ki ..
woh mili mujhse Heer ki tarah
taste mein thi woh Kheer ki tarah
aur dil ke paar huyi woh Teer ki tarah
Sach sach bol kahin tujhe chillar dekar bhaga toh nahi diya usne Fakeer ki tarah..