Category: Reviews

Fan….For Shah Rukh fans

Fan is not a usual Shah Rukh Khan film in that it has no romance. While the banner, Yash Raj Films, is more known for their its for great musical scores, Fan has no scope for songs in its story.

The film is about a superstar, Gaurav Khanna, played by Shah Rukh, and his devoted fan, also played by Shah Rukh.

The fan is much younger and that look has been generated with the help of special effects. The fan’s life revolves around Shah Rukh and nature has been on his side in that his face bears similarity to that of the star. He is popular in his area as Junior (Shah Rukh), acts and behaves like the star and also imitates Shah Rukh in the local programmes to win prizes. There is not an inch left on the walls of his room which does not have pictures of various sizes and hues of his favourite star.

The fan’s one ambition is to meet Shah Rukh in person. And, he manages to win a prize of 20k at his area’s festival where he performs. He is the only son and his parents let him indulge in his hero worship. They even help as aides during his performance.

Having won the money, the fan is now ready to visit Mumbai and his star. The fan wants to follow in the footsteps of Shah Rukh and does whatever he has heard the star do on his first trip to Mumbai, that is to travel without ticket and stay in the same hotel and same room where Shah Rukh stayed. His parents also pack in a box of famous halwa for Shah Rukh.

Having reached Mumbai and checked into the same hotel room where his idol stayed, he is now ready to visit the star. Once there, he realizes that he is only one of the thousands thronging the bungalow of the star. His attempts to sneak in with the media inside the bungalow fail. The fan has not given up yet. He watches an interview of some new hero who has had a problem with Shah Rukh and got slapped in return. The fan barges into his vanity and forces him to tender an apology to Shah Rukh on record.

And the apology by the new star makes it to the media. But, in an unexplained way, the exploits of the fan are also recorded and somehow land up on Shah Rukh’s table. Worried that this may harm his image, Shah Rukh gets the fan arrested requesting the police to not put it on record, keep him for a couple of days and then dispatch him off back to Delhi. When they meet, the fan wants Shah Rukh to apologise to him for getting him beaten so badly by the cops which, the star refuses to do.

The fan has now turned vengeful. He won’t let the star get away without apologising. He now stalks Shah Rukh who is on a show tour of UK to be followed by a dance appearance at a big shot wedding. The fan is one step ahead and does things that would ruin the hero and succeeds so much so that Shah Rukh gets arrested in UK and gets accused of molestation at the wedding tamasha.

The police have no proof against the fan and it is now left to Shah Rukh to find the fan and put an end to his mischief which is costing him dearly. He tracks down the fan to his home in Delhi when, again, it is the time for the annual festival and for the fan to do his Shah Rukh act. Some gunshots, a chase and a hand to hand follow. Shah Rukh’s problem ends but not the way he wanted and not sure the viewers would want either.

Fan is a dry film which does not quite manage to take a grip. With just Shah Rukh on the screen in either of his versions, and not much of a supporting cast, it provides no relief of any kind. The fight between two Shah Rukh is not convincing and looks lopsided with the fan looking like a kid being beaten up mercilessly by the star. The climax is not justified. The film needed some more trimming. There are some variations in the look of the Shah Rukh the fan.

Performance wise, while the star Shah Rukh is his usual self, Shah Rukh the fan is excellent. Sayani Gupta, Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin are good in support.

Fan has had a fair beginning, cashing in on a general holiday (Ram Navami) opening, and has appeal mainly for die hard Shah Rukh Khan fans.

Producer: Aditya Chopra.

Director: Maneesh Sharma.

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Amin, Yogendra Tiku,

Sayani Gupta.

April 15, 2016
Fan….For Shah Rukh fans

Fan is not a usual Shah Rukh Khan film in that it has no romance. While the banner, Yash Raj Films, is more known for their its for great musical scores, Fan has no scope for songs in its story.

The film is about a superstar, Gaurav Khanna, played by Shah Rukh, and his devoted fan, also played by Shah Rukh.

The fan is much younger and that look has been generated with the help of special effects. The fan’s life revolves around Shah Rukh and nature has been on his side in that his face bears similarity to that of the star. He is popular in his area as Junior (Shah Rukh), acts and behaves like the star and also imitates Shah Rukh in the local programmes to win prizes. There is not an inch left on the walls of his room which does not have pictures of various sizes and hues of his favourite star.

The fan’s one ambition is to meet Shah Rukh in person. And, he manages to win a prize of 20k at his area’s festival where he performs. He is the only son and his parents let him indulge in his hero worship. They even help as aides during his performance.

Having won the money, the fan is now ready to visit Mumbai and his star. The fan wants to follow in the footsteps of Shah Rukh and does whatever he has heard the star do on his first trip to Mumbai, that is to travel without ticket and stay in the same hotel and same room where Shah Rukh stayed. His parents also pack in a box of famous halwa for Shah Rukh.

Having reached Mumbai and checked into the same hotel room where his idol stayed, he is now ready to visit the star. Once there, he realizes that he is only one of the thousands thronging the bungalow of the star. His attempts to sneak in with the media inside the bungalow fail. The fan has not given up yet. He watches an interview of some new hero who has had a problem with Shah Rukh and got slapped in return. The fan barges into his vanity and forces him to tender an apology to Shah Rukh on record.

And the apology by the new star makes it to the media. But, in an unexplained way, the exploits of the fan are also recorded and somehow land up on Shah Rukh’s table. Worried that this may harm his image, Shah Rukh gets the fan arrested requesting the police to not put it on record, keep him for a couple of days and then dispatch him off back to Delhi. When they meet, the fan wants Shah Rukh to apologise to him for getting him beaten so badly by the cops which, the star refuses to do.

The fan has now turned vengeful. He won’t let the star get away without apologising. He now stalks Shah Rukh who is on a show tour of UK to be followed by a dance appearance at a big shot wedding. The fan is one step ahead and does things that would ruin the hero and succeeds so much so that Shah Rukh gets arrested in UK and gets accused of molestation at the wedding tamasha.

The police have no proof against the fan and it is now left to Shah Rukh to find the fan and put an end to his mischief which is costing him dearly. He tracks down the fan to his home in Delhi when, again, it is the time for the annual festival and for the fan to do his Shah Rukh act. Some gunshots, a chase and a hand to hand follow. Shah Rukh’s problem ends but not the way he wanted and not sure the viewers would want either.

Fan is a dry film which does not quite manage to take a grip. With just Shah Rukh on the screen in either of his versions, and not much of a supporting cast, it provides no relief of any kind. The fight between two Shah Rukh is not convincing and looks lopsided with the fan looking like a kid being beaten up mercilessly by the star. The climax is not justified. The film needed some more trimming. There are some variations in the look of the Shah Rukh the fan.

Performance wise, while the star Shah Rukh is his usual self, Shah Rukh the fan is excellent. Sayani Gupta, Yogendra Tiku and Deepika Amin are good in support.

Fan has had a fair beginning, cashing in on a general holiday (Ram Navami) opening, and has appeal mainly for die hard Shah Rukh Khan fans.

Producer: Aditya Chopra.

Director: Maneesh Sharma.

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Amin, Yogendra Tiku,

Sayani Gupta.

April 15, 2016
Love Games….Viewers wont play!

In Indian cinema, films with sex based themes have been made for a long time now but were initially branded as C grade. Initially, they made their inroads into Hindi cinema as dubbed films with Malayalam films having explicit sex themes dubbed in Hindi. And since their main audience was in the small towns in the interiors, interpolation of footage from porn films was a much used practice. Such films found their target audience mainly during night shows.

But with the interior theatres mostly demolished and the multiplex culture having taken over, sex oriented films are made in the guise of high society comedies or life behind the scenes. Some finesse and glamour quotient is added and Bhatt camp has a knack for making such themes.

Films have grown from swapping car keys or room keys to swapping wives. ‘Love Games’ has a similar theme. Except that the protagonists are not spouses.

Patralekha is young and recently widowed. But she is a nymphomaniac and needs sex regularly. This she finds in her bedmate Gaurav Arora, the son of a wealthy tycoon with a shaky life. Things appear fine but Patralekha is arrogant and lusty. So for her, Gaurav is useful only to fulfill her sexual urge. However, the two decide to seek some adventure.

They decide to play a game which they call Love Games. The idea is to target married couples with the aim of scoring with both of them: Patralekha with the husband and Gaurav with the wife. Whoever scores first will be the winner while the loser will source the supply of drugs for a week.

In the process of playing this game, Gaurav finds love in Tara Alish Berry, a doctor married to criminal lawyer HitenTejwani. The feelings are mutual between the two as Gaurav is a lonely introvert soul while Tara suffers from an abusive husband. Gaurav does not need to play love games now. This is something Patralekha is not ready to accept. But she is not giving up yet and decides to plan one last love game involving all four of them.

Expectedly, the film has enough lovemaking scenes. However, the story does not deliver a surprise though that would be expected from the filmmakers. The direction has nothing to write home about. Editing needed to be slicker. Dialogue is mundane. Cinematography is good. Musically, a couple of songs sound good. As for acting, all the four main actors seem enthusiastic but the only one who manages to do perform well is Tara.

Love Games lacks face value and poor opening response. Bad reports will only add to its box office prospects.

Producers: Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt.

Director: Vikram Bhatt.

Cast: Gaurav Arora, Patralekha, Tara Alish Berry, HitenTejwani.

Club Dancer…Poor fare.

Club Dancer, the film, involves the name from a name from the renowned film industry family, the Mukherji clan. However, the film looks like an exercise to launch the female lead Nisha Mavani since right from the title to the extensive footage, everything is focused on her. As far as the story goes, the film offers nothing that has not been seen before in films like Satte Pe Satta (1982), Jhutha Sach (1984) et al.

Nisha is a night club dancer in Mumbai whose parents Shakti Kapoor and Zarina Wahab live in Punjab. Not wanting to shock her parents by telling them what she does, she has lied to them that she is happily married and working. But her lie lands her in trouble as Kapoor has a heart attack and plans to arrive in Mumbai for further treatment.

Not wanting her neighbours to talk, she borrows her boss’ bungalow to present it to her parents as her own house. There is a bit of another film here – B R Chopra’s Ittefaq (1969) – as dangerous contract killer Rajbeer Singh walks into her house after killing the local chief minister with the police chasing him. He forces her to provide him shelter at gunpoint. She has no alternative as Singh is a gangster with a violent temper.

When Singh seeks shelter for a period till things cool down, she makes a deal with him: he would act as her husband while her parents are around. That done, the film’s pace slows and it meanders till interval when Singh is seen being shot by the ACP, something Nisha does not know.
NIsha is now a worried woman – with Kapoor’s bypass surgery on the anvil and his ‘son in law’ absent. However, she need not have worried at all since the scriptwriters can always visit the archives, borrow some characters from the past. So, another Singh lookalike emerges from nowhere. While the earlier one sported a beard and an uncouth long hair, this one has none of that and is rather suave.
Nisha fallsin love with the new Singh but he is indifferent. He goes back to Goa where he came from: but most such films have a happy ending.

Borrowing from ideas from films of the 1980s is fine but slaughter their value instead of improving upon them is sacrilege. Scripting is unimaginative. Direction is purely amateurish. Dialogues are pedestrian and the musical score is out of sync. Nisha’s acting is copybook and tutored, Singh has presence but no acting and, what is worse, he tries to be a Sunjay Dutt clone. Zarina is okay but casting Kapoor is a joke.

The others overact in an effort to be noticed.

Club Dancer has been released at limited screens but offers no hope.

Producer: Shubir Mukerji.
Director: B Prasad.
Cast: Nisha Mavani, Rajbeer Singh, Shakti Kapoor, Zarina Wahab.

April 8, 2016
Love Games….Viewers wont play!

In Indian cinema, films with sex based themes have been made for a long time now but were initially branded as C grade. Initially, they made their inroads into Hindi cinema as dubbed films with Malayalam films having explicit sex themes dubbed in Hindi. And since their main audience was in the small towns in the interiors, interpolation of footage from porn films was a much used practice. Such films found their target audience mainly during night shows.

But with the interior theatres mostly demolished and the multiplex culture having taken over, sex oriented films are made in the guise of high society comedies or life behind the scenes. Some finesse and glamour quotient is added and Bhatt camp has a knack for making such themes.

Films have grown from swapping car keys or room keys to swapping wives. ‘Love Games’ has a similar theme. Except that the protagonists are not spouses.

Patralekha is young and recently widowed. But she is a nymphomaniac and needs sex regularly. This she finds in her bedmate Gaurav Arora, the son of a wealthy tycoon with a shaky life. Things appear fine but Patralekha is arrogant and lusty. So for her, Gaurav is useful only to fulfill her sexual urge. However, the two decide to seek some adventure.

They decide to play a game which they call Love Games. The idea is to target married couples with the aim of scoring with both of them: Patralekha with the husband and Gaurav with the wife. Whoever scores first will be the winner while the loser will source the supply of drugs for a week.

In the process of playing this game, Gaurav finds love in Tara Alish Berry, a doctor married to criminal lawyer HitenTejwani. The feelings are mutual between the two as Gaurav is a lonely introvert soul while Tara suffers from an abusive husband. Gaurav does not need to play love games now. This is something Patralekha is not ready to accept. But she is not giving up yet and decides to plan one last love game involving all four of them.

Expectedly, the film has enough lovemaking scenes. However, the story does not deliver a surprise though that would be expected from the filmmakers. The direction has nothing to write home about. Editing needed to be slicker. Dialogue is mundane. Cinematography is good. Musically, a couple of songs sound good. As for acting, all the four main actors seem enthusiastic but the only one who manages to do perform well is Tara.

Love Games lacks face value and poor opening response. Bad reports will only add to its box office prospects.

Producers: Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt.

Director: Vikram Bhatt.

Cast: Gaurav Arora, Patralekha, Tara Alish Berry, HitenTejwani.

Club Dancer…Poor fare.

Club Dancer, the film, involves the name from a name from the renowned film industry family, the Mukherji clan. However, the film looks like an exercise to launch the female lead Nisha Mavani since right from the title to the extensive footage, everything is focused on her. As far as the story goes, the film offers nothing that has not been seen before in films like Satte Pe Satta (1982), Jhutha Sach (1984) et al.

Nisha is a night club dancer in Mumbai whose parents Shakti Kapoor and Zarina Wahab live in Punjab. Not wanting to shock her parents by telling them what she does, she has lied to them that she is happily married and working. But her lie lands her in trouble as Kapoor has a heart attack and plans to arrive in Mumbai for further treatment.

Not wanting her neighbours to talk, she borrows her boss’ bungalow to present it to her parents as her own house. There is a bit of another film here – B R Chopra’s Ittefaq (1969) – as dangerous contract killer Rajbeer Singh walks into her house after killing the local chief minister with the police chasing him. He forces her to provide him shelter at gunpoint. She has no alternative as Singh is a gangster with a violent temper.

When Singh seeks shelter for a period till things cool down, she makes a deal with him: he would act as her husband while her parents are around. That done, the film’s pace slows and it meanders till interval when Singh is seen being shot by the ACP, something Nisha does not know.
NIsha is now a worried woman – with Kapoor’s bypass surgery on the anvil and his ‘son in law’ absent. However, she need not have worried at all since the scriptwriters can always visit the archives, borrow some characters from the past. So, another Singh lookalike emerges from nowhere. While the earlier one sported a beard and an uncouth long hair, this one has none of that and is rather suave.
Nisha fallsin love with the new Singh but he is indifferent. He goes back to Goa where he came from: but most such films have a happy ending.

Borrowing from ideas from films of the 1980s is fine but slaughter their value instead of improving upon them is sacrilege. Scripting is unimaginative. Direction is purely amateurish. Dialogues are pedestrian and the musical score is out of sync. Nisha’s acting is copybook and tutored, Singh has presence but no acting and, what is worse, he tries to be a Sunjay Dutt clone. Zarina is okay but casting Kapoor is a joke.

The others overact in an effort to be noticed.

Club Dancer has been released at limited screens but offers no hope.

Producer: Shubir Mukerji.
Director: B Prasad.
Cast: Nisha Mavani, Rajbeer Singh, Shakti Kapoor, Zarina Wahab.

April 8, 2016
Ki &Ka…..And not much else!

MUMBAI: R Balki is known for bringing films way out of the ordinary formula framework. The good thing about him is his sincerity and dedication because of which he gets popular artistes to work in his films. This is a must for a maker’s film to be noticed, however good his theme may be. This time, Balki decides to trade roles between a man and a woman, both well educated. While the girl is well-placed professionally and has further ambitions, the boy hails from a huge realty developer family and shuns his family business.

Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor are on a flight from Chandigarh to Delhi, sharing the same row with the middle seat being vacant. As soon as the flight takes off, Arjun gets emotional and starts crying. He remembers how his late mother used to clutch his hands tightly while flying because she was scared of flying and today happens to be her birthday. Kareena is told the cause. Both start getting familiar.

Arjun is a topper in IIM as all film heroes are; before the IIM era, they used to stand ‘First Class First’. He is the only son of the biggest builder in Delhi. However, instead of following his father and inheriting his construction empire, he wants to emulate his mother whom he describes as an artist. His mother ran the household, cooked and that was her art.

Kareena, on the other hand, is an executive on the corporate ladder always aiming at the next rung. Her mother, SwaroopSampat, a widow, is a social worker with an open mind.

Arjun and Kareena are drawn to each other and realize they are in love. They decide to marry. Arjun’s father is not in favour of the marriage, while Swaroop blesses the couple. A deal is made. While Kareena will continue with pursuing her career, Arjun will manage the household, cooking and looking after both, Kareena and Swaroop.

This has turned out to be a life changer for all the three concerned. Arjun keeps the house, cooks, cleans, shops and generally does everything a housewife does including attending kitty parties with other housewives. Of course, he is the life of these kitty parties.

Kareena earns a promotion and as a result, media attention. She is all over the print and electronic media. Here, she is led to talk about her husband, Arjun, and what he does. Media attention turns to Arjun, as a man who runs the household. Overnight, he is a celebrity, on talk shows, on cookery shows, just about everywhere. His TRP rates much above that of Kareena.

Jealousy replaces love. Kareena feels deceived and assumes that despite being the scion of a billionaire builder, he wants to live off her! Her tirade looks rather forced and unconvincing. Her venting her anger sans logic, looks silly. But, then, the couple’s love has survived by saying sorry multiple times. It is not going to be different on this occasion. Predictably, Arjun’s big-shot father too realizes the value of having a family.

Meanwhile, Jaya Bachchan has watched Arjun talking on TV and is mighty impressed. She calls him over for dinner with Amitabh Bachchan present. What was this sequence about? It is inconclusive despite both debating Arjun’s way of life.

Balki may have tried a new story but the content ispredictable. The story lacks twists and turns and efforts are made to make it a light entertainer towards which end it works in parts. Direction is fair to say that it skips melodrama for most part, and sticks to linear treatment. The film finds no slots for music.

Although just 126 minute in length,the film surely needs some trimming. The cinematography is pleasant. The Arjun and Kareena match does not quite jell despite their age difference having been made clear in thenarration. Arjun is okay while Kareena looks good with no major scenes to steal. Swaroop provides an excellent foil to the two.

Ki &Ka is a slow opener and carries a very limited appeal for a section of the audience and the compulsive moviegoer types.

Producers: Sunil Lulla, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, R K Damani, R Balki.
Director: R Balki.

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, SwaroopSampat, Rajit Kapoor and cameos by Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan.

April 1, 2016
Ki &Ka…..And not much else!

MUMBAI: R Balki is known for bringing films way out of the ordinary formula framework. The good thing about him is his sincerity and dedication because of which he gets popular artistes to work in his films. This is a must for a maker’s film to be noticed, however good his theme may be. This time, Balki decides to trade roles between a man and a woman, both well educated. While the girl is well-placed professionally and has further ambitions, the boy hails from a huge realty developer family and shuns his family business.

Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor are on a flight from Chandigarh to Delhi, sharing the same row with the middle seat being vacant. As soon as the flight takes off, Arjun gets emotional and starts crying. He remembers how his late mother used to clutch his hands tightly while flying because she was scared of flying and today happens to be her birthday. Kareena is told the cause. Both start getting familiar.

Arjun is a topper in IIM as all film heroes are; before the IIM era, they used to stand ‘First Class First’. He is the only son of the biggest builder in Delhi. However, instead of following his father and inheriting his construction empire, he wants to emulate his mother whom he describes as an artist. His mother ran the household, cooked and that was her art.

Kareena, on the other hand, is an executive on the corporate ladder always aiming at the next rung. Her mother, SwaroopSampat, a widow, is a social worker with an open mind.

Arjun and Kareena are drawn to each other and realize they are in love. They decide to marry. Arjun’s father is not in favour of the marriage, while Swaroop blesses the couple. A deal is made. While Kareena will continue with pursuing her career, Arjun will manage the household, cooking and looking after both, Kareena and Swaroop.

This has turned out to be a life changer for all the three concerned. Arjun keeps the house, cooks, cleans, shops and generally does everything a housewife does including attending kitty parties with other housewives. Of course, he is the life of these kitty parties.

Kareena earns a promotion and as a result, media attention. She is all over the print and electronic media. Here, she is led to talk about her husband, Arjun, and what he does. Media attention turns to Arjun, as a man who runs the household. Overnight, he is a celebrity, on talk shows, on cookery shows, just about everywhere. His TRP rates much above that of Kareena.

Jealousy replaces love. Kareena feels deceived and assumes that despite being the scion of a billionaire builder, he wants to live off her! Her tirade looks rather forced and unconvincing. Her venting her anger sans logic, looks silly. But, then, the couple’s love has survived by saying sorry multiple times. It is not going to be different on this occasion. Predictably, Arjun’s big-shot father too realizes the value of having a family.

Meanwhile, Jaya Bachchan has watched Arjun talking on TV and is mighty impressed. She calls him over for dinner with Amitabh Bachchan present. What was this sequence about? It is inconclusive despite both debating Arjun’s way of life.

Balki may have tried a new story but the content ispredictable. The story lacks twists and turns and efforts are made to make it a light entertainer towards which end it works in parts. Direction is fair to say that it skips melodrama for most part, and sticks to linear treatment. The film finds no slots for music.

Although just 126 minute in length,the film surely needs some trimming. The cinematography is pleasant. The Arjun and Kareena match does not quite jell despite their age difference having been made clear in thenarration. Arjun is okay while Kareena looks good with no major scenes to steal. Swaroop provides an excellent foil to the two.

Ki &Ka is a slow opener and carries a very limited appeal for a section of the audience and the compulsive moviegoer types.

Producers: Sunil Lulla, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, R K Damani, R Balki.
Director: R Balki.

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, SwaroopSampat, Rajit Kapoor and cameos by Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan.

April 1, 2016
Rocky Handsome: John’s Action Show Reel

MUMBAI: Self-aggrandizement is what John Abraham’s Rocky Handsome is all about. From the title to all that John attempts on screen reads like a screen test video of an aspiring action hero. But, then, he is the producer of this film. The story of this remake of the South Korean film,The Man From Nowhere, has a cause that has been tried and tested since the birth of the revenge formula;. And sadly, it has also been done to death over many decades. That the hero is well capable of and trained in combat is a concept that has been worn down to shreds. American vigilante films, Sylvester Stallone films and numerous others have left no novelty value in the theme. Closer home, we have had many films like Vipul Shah’s Commando: A One Man Army (2013) in which actor Vidyut Jamwal in the lead as an ex-army man taking on a local mafia somewhere in North India is so similar.

John Abraham is the man from nowhere who has landed up in Goa where he runs a pawnshop. Goa being a combination of backpacking tourists and drugs, a pawnshop is a lucrative business to run, because it is not long before these tourists go broke and feed their needs by pawning their ware.

A victim of the drug mafia is John’s neighbor, a woman who is always high, and pays scant attention to her daughter, Baby Divya. Here, the script and direction start their blundering ways. As if Goa was a one lane township, the whole of Goa, her school and neighbors shun this girl. Why? Because she is a drug addict’s daughter and indulges in small time thefts to cater to her needs. However, she gets along well with John who, despite not showing any outwardly emotions towards her, is fond of her.

John keeps visiting his past in flashbacks, after all, that is his purpose to propel this film. It seems he was once in love with Shruti Haasan. They honeymoon in Seychelles and, not surprisingly, she comes back pregnant, much to the delight of the duo. John enters a hospital to collect reports when an out of control truck rams into the car in which Shruti waits for him. The killers are, of course, the criminal mafia. But, why? John has had nothing to do with them so far. Are they inviting him to annihilate them?

John arrives in Goa but shows no indication that he is seeking revenge in this revenge saga. He carries on with his pawnshop with a deadpan expression which is rather convenient for him since his repertoire of expressions is very limited. Doing an expressionless Robert Mitchum helps in such cases.

Finally, after wasting half an hour, the villains get bored of John’s lethargy and come visiting him. They kidnap both, Divya and her mother. This is an invitation for John to become the mean killing machine that he has been trained as, trained to kill like Stallone was in First Blood! He is an ex CIA or whatever, you are never sure, because the makers are not sure either!

John the producer and the scriptwriter of this film if it has one, and the director Nishikant Kamath, borrow a scene or a sequence from all the action films ever made so far. In the process, they get grossly mixed up and mess up the final product.

John, what you are doing in this film is long passé! It can’t be sold with such a poor script and poorer direction! What is even worse is that the director, Kamath, uses this venture to launch his acting career as the villain in chief! Towards this end, he casts all musclemen around him, but looks like a pygmy himself. Now, what kind of villain would he make? John wants to re-launch his career, while Kamat wants to hike a ride.

All in all, what accounts for Rocky Handsome is poor script, poor to the hilt direction and casting. And what was the reason to make all villains into wannabe comedians, lunatics? Watched too much of Superhero film villains? This is the saddest film about everything in wrong hands. The cast is full of unknown Marathi stage TV actors. They act like zombies.

With just about every aspect of the film being poor, mindless, the film closes an avenue that was open to John, that of turning producer now that the acting film assignments are not forthcoming anymore.

Rocky Handsome has scant appeal for family and the high end multiplex audience. Today being a public holiday,it may benefit a bit at B rung plexes and single screens but is poor viewing on the whole.

Producer: John Abraham, Sunir Khetarpal.
Director: Nishikant Kamat.
Cast: John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Nishikant Kamat, Sharad Kelkar, Nathalia Kaur, Baby Diya Chalwad.

March 25, 2016
Rocky Handsome: John’s Action Show Reel

MUMBAI: Self-aggrandizement is what John Abraham’s Rocky Handsome is all about. From the title to all that John attempts on screen reads like a screen test video of an aspiring action hero. But, then, he is the producer of this film. The story of this remake of the South Korean film,The Man From Nowhere, has a cause that has been tried and tested since the birth of the revenge formula;. And sadly, it has also been done to death over many decades. That the hero is well capable of and trained in combat is a concept that has been worn down to shreds. American vigilante films, Sylvester Stallone films and numerous others have left no novelty value in the theme. Closer home, we have had many films like Vipul Shah’s Commando: A One Man Army (2013) in which actor Vidyut Jamwal in the lead as an ex-army man taking on a local mafia somewhere in North India is so similar.

John Abraham is the man from nowhere who has landed up in Goa where he runs a pawnshop. Goa being a combination of backpacking tourists and drugs, a pawnshop is a lucrative business to run, because it is not long before these tourists go broke and feed their needs by pawning their ware.

A victim of the drug mafia is John’s neighbor, a woman who is always high, and pays scant attention to her daughter, Baby Divya. Here, the script and direction start their blundering ways. As if Goa was a one lane township, the whole of Goa, her school and neighbors shun this girl. Why? Because she is a drug addict’s daughter and indulges in small time thefts to cater to her needs. However, she gets along well with John who, despite not showing any outwardly emotions towards her, is fond of her.

John keeps visiting his past in flashbacks, after all, that is his purpose to propel this film. It seems he was once in love with Shruti Haasan. They honeymoon in Seychelles and, not surprisingly, she comes back pregnant, much to the delight of the duo. John enters a hospital to collect reports when an out of control truck rams into the car in which Shruti waits for him. The killers are, of course, the criminal mafia. But, why? John has had nothing to do with them so far. Are they inviting him to annihilate them?

John arrives in Goa but shows no indication that he is seeking revenge in this revenge saga. He carries on with his pawnshop with a deadpan expression which is rather convenient for him since his repertoire of expressions is very limited. Doing an expressionless Robert Mitchum helps in such cases.

Finally, after wasting half an hour, the villains get bored of John’s lethargy and come visiting him. They kidnap both, Divya and her mother. This is an invitation for John to become the mean killing machine that he has been trained as, trained to kill like Stallone was in First Blood! He is an ex CIA or whatever, you are never sure, because the makers are not sure either!

John the producer and the scriptwriter of this film if it has one, and the director Nishikant Kamath, borrow a scene or a sequence from all the action films ever made so far. In the process, they get grossly mixed up and mess up the final product.

John, what you are doing in this film is long passé! It can’t be sold with such a poor script and poorer direction! What is even worse is that the director, Kamath, uses this venture to launch his acting career as the villain in chief! Towards this end, he casts all musclemen around him, but looks like a pygmy himself. Now, what kind of villain would he make? John wants to re-launch his career, while Kamat wants to hike a ride.

All in all, what accounts for Rocky Handsome is poor script, poor to the hilt direction and casting. And what was the reason to make all villains into wannabe comedians, lunatics? Watched too much of Superhero film villains? This is the saddest film about everything in wrong hands. The cast is full of unknown Marathi stage TV actors. They act like zombies.

With just about every aspect of the film being poor, mindless, the film closes an avenue that was open to John, that of turning producer now that the acting film assignments are not forthcoming anymore.

Rocky Handsome has scant appeal for family and the high end multiplex audience. Today being a public holiday,it may benefit a bit at B rung plexes and single screens but is poor viewing on the whole.

Producer: John Abraham, Sunir Khetarpal.
Director: Nishikant Kamat.
Cast: John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Nishikant Kamat, Sharad Kelkar, Nathalia Kaur, Baby Diya Chalwad.

March 25, 2016
Kapoor & Sons full of good performances, but will World T20 mar its box office?

MUMBAI: Kapoor& Sons is a family drama. One can slot it as a contemporary family drama extending to three generations. The title of the film does not quite convey the theme as it unfolds on the screen. It is about a dysfunctional family where just about everybody is at crossroads and has a reason to grudge the other, except the fun-loving patriarch, Rishi Kapoor.

Rishi Kapoor, an ex-army man, has settled in the picturesque hill station of Coonoor in the South with his elder son, Rajat Kapoor, and daughter in law, Ratna Pathak. On the verge of his 90th birthday, Rishi Kapoor wishes that his two grandsons, Fawad Khan and Sidharth Malhotra join him. While, Fawad is a successful writer based in London, Sidharth tends a bar in New Jersey while also aspiring to be a writer. This also sort of establishes that the two brothers are poles apart.

Fawad is Mr Proper and organized, Sidharth is a drifter who can’t stick to one task. He lives an uncharted life. Both plan to land in India at about the same time and head to Coonoor. Rishi Kapoor has this habit of faking his death. But, when the brothers reach, Rishi Kapoor is actually admitted into a hospital having suffered a heart attack. He is heavily made-up to look 90, and that takes some time accepting for a viewer.

As you go along, you see the difference in the way the brothers are treated, especially by Ratna and Rajat; Fawad gets most of the attention and priority in everything. Sidharth catches up with an old friend and, through him, meets Alia Bhatt. Alia is an orphan having lost both her parents in a plane crash. She is in Coonoor to deal with her family property. Fawad visits her property and meets Alia. Out on a dinner date with Fawad, Alia ends up kissing him. However, she spends most of her time with Sidharth and finds his company more comforting.

Sidharth and Alia exchange notes and he tells her about how the manuscript of his book resembled Fawad’s bestseller. He is not ready to believe this was a coincidence. The gap widens between brothers when Alia confesses to kissing Fawad.

In this family, the brothers are not the only ones at war. Rajat and Ratna are always at loggerheads too. Rajat’s business is in doldrums and he has added to the problems by getting involved with another woman. Everything comes together to spoil the 90th birthday celebrations of the patriarch. Kapoor may be 90 but his interest in women is intact and his pinup girl is Mandakini under a waterfall in film Ram Teri Ganga Maili. He relishes sweets, which he is barred from, porn films and an occasional puff of pot.

When the skeletons start coming out of the closet, it creates rifts between brothers, mother and ends up costing the life of one.

Kapoor& Sons breezes through its first half, but the attempt to cram too much into the second half makes it heavy as well as jerky, as attention shifts from one character to another. There is a sort of happy ending as the family comes together once again on Kapoor’s request but it is not all that happy a moment as Kapoor has not only lost a family member, but also his verve and humour.

The film gives the feeling of being stretched. Except for Kapoor’s earlier exploits, there is little to entertain. Besides, music too does not help. The romance is kind of there and not there. ShakunBatra’s direction is generally good as he tries to keep this a real life kind of narration. The dialogue is effective. Shot on lush Coonoor locations, visually the film is pleasing.

Actually, this film is all about performances. While all the actors playing the main characters excel, Fawad gets the best part to play, which adds to his fan following. Rishi Kapoor, being the only one providing light moments, is very good. Sidharth, Alia, Rajat and Ratna too do well.
Kapoor & Sons is a slow starter. Its appeal will be limited to a certain section of audience with single screen patrons ruled out. World T20 is bound to affect its prospects, especially during India Pakistan tie on 19th.

Producers: HirooYashJohar, Karan Johar.

Director: ShakunBatra

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Fawad Khan, Ratna Pathak, Rajat Kapoor.

March 18, 2016
Kapoor & Sons full of good performances, but will World T20 mar its box office?

MUMBAI: Kapoor& Sons is a family drama. One can slot it as a contemporary family drama extending to three generations. The title of the film does not quite convey the theme as it unfolds on the screen. It is about a dysfunctional family where just about everybody is at crossroads and has a reason to grudge the other, except the fun-loving patriarch, Rishi Kapoor.

Rishi Kapoor, an ex-army man, has settled in the picturesque hill station of Coonoor in the South with his elder son, Rajat Kapoor, and daughter in law, Ratna Pathak. On the verge of his 90th birthday, Rishi Kapoor wishes that his two grandsons, Fawad Khan and Sidharth Malhotra join him. While, Fawad is a successful writer based in London, Sidharth tends a bar in New Jersey while also aspiring to be a writer. This also sort of establishes that the two brothers are poles apart.

Fawad is Mr Proper and organized, Sidharth is a drifter who can’t stick to one task. He lives an uncharted life. Both plan to land in India at about the same time and head to Coonoor. Rishi Kapoor has this habit of faking his death. But, when the brothers reach, Rishi Kapoor is actually admitted into a hospital having suffered a heart attack. He is heavily made-up to look 90, and that takes some time accepting for a viewer.

As you go along, you see the difference in the way the brothers are treated, especially by Ratna and Rajat; Fawad gets most of the attention and priority in everything. Sidharth catches up with an old friend and, through him, meets Alia Bhatt. Alia is an orphan having lost both her parents in a plane crash. She is in Coonoor to deal with her family property. Fawad visits her property and meets Alia. Out on a dinner date with Fawad, Alia ends up kissing him. However, she spends most of her time with Sidharth and finds his company more comforting.

Sidharth and Alia exchange notes and he tells her about how the manuscript of his book resembled Fawad’s bestseller. He is not ready to believe this was a coincidence. The gap widens between brothers when Alia confesses to kissing Fawad.

In this family, the brothers are not the only ones at war. Rajat and Ratna are always at loggerheads too. Rajat’s business is in doldrums and he has added to the problems by getting involved with another woman. Everything comes together to spoil the 90th birthday celebrations of the patriarch. Kapoor may be 90 but his interest in women is intact and his pinup girl is Mandakini under a waterfall in film Ram Teri Ganga Maili. He relishes sweets, which he is barred from, porn films and an occasional puff of pot.

When the skeletons start coming out of the closet, it creates rifts between brothers, mother and ends up costing the life of one.

Kapoor& Sons breezes through its first half, but the attempt to cram too much into the second half makes it heavy as well as jerky, as attention shifts from one character to another. There is a sort of happy ending as the family comes together once again on Kapoor’s request but it is not all that happy a moment as Kapoor has not only lost a family member, but also his verve and humour.

The film gives the feeling of being stretched. Except for Kapoor’s earlier exploits, there is little to entertain. Besides, music too does not help. The romance is kind of there and not there. ShakunBatra’s direction is generally good as he tries to keep this a real life kind of narration. The dialogue is effective. Shot on lush Coonoor locations, visually the film is pleasing.

Actually, this film is all about performances. While all the actors playing the main characters excel, Fawad gets the best part to play, which adds to his fan following. Rishi Kapoor, being the only one providing light moments, is very good. Sidharth, Alia, Rajat and Ratna too do well.
Kapoor & Sons is a slow starter. Its appeal will be limited to a certain section of audience with single screen patrons ruled out. World T20 is bound to affect its prospects, especially during India Pakistan tie on 19th.

Producers: HirooYashJohar, Karan Johar.

Director: ShakunBatra

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Fawad Khan, Ratna Pathak, Rajat Kapoor.

March 18, 2016