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Category: Reviews

  • ‘Baby’…Not so cute!

    ‘Baby’…Not so cute!

    MUMBAI: If you have an action hero, the best thing to do is let him loose and make an anti-terrorist film like Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. Baby is a film in the same mould. Director Neeraj Pandey’s best so far has been A Wednesday! That established him as a compact storyteller on screen. A Wednesday! had a runtim of 104 minutes. Unfortunately, Baby accounts for that much in just its second half (out of total duration of 156 minutes)!

    Espionage stories had their peak during the US-USSR cold war days; after that writers of such fiction have never found a formidable enough enemy for the US to write books on and, resultantly, there have been few movies on the theme.

    In Indian films, the recent trend has been to make films on the fight against terrorism. But many of these films lack weight as the terrorists have no face and, to add to that, the casting lets the idea down. While our hero is a super star, the villains chosen as the face of terrorism are mere caricatures. The same problem persists with Baby. The strong box office faces, Akshay Kumar and Danny Denzongpa, are with India while those on the other side are junior artistes.

    RAW is known to all. Ergo, those in power form an elite group of few officers, men and women, to work offline from the mainstream agencies and take on the terrorists and terrorist attacks in the offing before they happen. They call the team “Baby”. The star officer is Akshay. Like the trend set by 007 films and followed by most action films made lately, the tone is set with an action sequence: Akshay intervenes in a situation where one of his teammates is betrayed by another one. He can’t save his betrayed teammate nor can he liquidate the betrayer! So much for his elite tag! You know the film is going to falter more often as it progresses.

    Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Shital Bhatia.

    Director: Neeraj Pandey.

    Cast: Akshay Kumar, Danny Denzongpa, Tapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher, Kay Kay Menon, Madhurima Tuli, Rasheed Naz.

    The elite anti-terrorist group’s elite agent, Akshay, embarks on various missions. He knows only to shoot and kill, so much so that because of his wild ways, no sensible colleague wants to work with him.

    Kay Kay Menon is a dreaded terrorist who is serving time behind bars. He wants to be out and that is his condition to his people before he cooperates with them with the information they want from him. He is freed in the same old-fashioned way: the police van which is ferrying him to some place is ambushed. Menon then heads to Saudi Arabia where he is raising funds for further terrorist activities. Accompanying him in a fortress like place is the major Pakistani terror group head, Rasheed Naz (supposed to depict the infamous Pakistani terrorist chief, Hafiz Saeed).

    Akshay, along with Rana Daggubati and Anupam Kher, embark on a mission to eliminate Kay Kay before he gives shape to his plans of terrorism in India. When they kill Kay Kay, they find Rasheed too, but instead of eliminating him, Akshay decides to take him to India as a trophy. This last plan to give him a total makeover and to smuggle him out of Saudi makes for some interesting viewing though it reminds of the film D Day where the agents smuggle Dawood (played by Rishi Kapoor) out of Pakistan.

    The film tries to cram in too much and loses sense of length; the film could have done without the family track of Akshay. Some scenes are stretched to create anxiety among viewers which they don’t. Directorially, the film falls far short of Pandey’s previous films, A Wednesday! and Special 26. Editing is slack. Music and romance find no place and the one song the film has could also have been done away with. Cinematography is very good. Background score is effective in places.

    Akshay dominates the film and it is a role tailormade for him; he does very well. Danny makes his presence felt merely with his expression in the absence of anything substantial to do. Tapsee Pannu is impressive in a brief role. Rana’s can best be described as a cameo appearance. Anupam Kher as a computer wizard does not quite convince. Rasheed makes an impact as the fanatic. Kay Kay is okay in a brief role.

    Baby, coming as it does in the wake of Ek Tha Tiger and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, has nothing new to offer; also it falls short of the director’s earlier films. The film has more verbal footage rather than action which can be a put off for many including single screen audience. The film has a three-day weekend with Monday being Republic Day holiday to make the most of, though the opening response has been below par. All said, its box office prospects are limited.

     

    ‘Dolly Ki Doli’….Doli nahi uthi!

     

    Producers: Malaika Arora Khan, Arbaaz Khan.

    Director: Abhishek Dogra.

    Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Rajkumar Rao, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Manoj Joshi, Archana Puran Singh, Rajendra Kala and cameos by Malaika Arora Khan and Saif Ali Khan.

    Cases of men posing as prospective grooms, marrying and vanishing with the bride’s jewellery and other belongings are a dime a dozen and reported regularly in newspapers. Dolly Ki Doli jumps on the idea and turns it around so that a woman does this vanishing act instead.

    Sonam Kapoor has a ‘family’ which is always on the lookout for a suitor for her. The boys found for her are usually average, not much to look at and not really well-placed in jobs or on the social ladder. Sonam to them would look like a fairy! The ‘family’ consists of Manoj Joshi (posing as her father) with others posing as her brother, mother, grandmother, a family photographer and a pandit who decides on the earliest wedding muhurat.

    The newspaper matrimonial are scanned, a suitable sucker is shortlisted and an approach made. Soon, after gauging up the prospective victim family’s resources, an early wedding date is fixed. The wedding done, it is time for honeymoon but Sonam would always have some reason to stall it: ekadashi vrat or woman’s problem and so on. However, honeymoon or not, she would do the traditional offering of a glass of milk, not only to her ‘husband’ but also to rest in the family. With everybody around rendered unconscious, the house would be wiped clean of all its valuables and the bride and her ‘family’ would vanish into thin air.

    Sonam’s first victim is Rajkumar Rao, the son of a Haryanvi sugarcane planter. Then follows a montage of numerous victims until it is time to bring in Varun Sharma, a lad whose family paid a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to get him a 50, 000 a month job in an IT company! But, to her ire, Sonam is rejected by Varun’s mother, Archana Puran Singh. Sonam’s ego is hurt and she decides to pursue the boy and make him revolt against his mother! The plan works. The wedding takes place, followed by cleaning out of closets. But, somehow, the script fits in a problem for Sonam as somehow her earlier husband, Rajkumar drops in at this wedding.

    Why did Sonam take to cheating people? The writer and director think it is time to add a thrilling third angle to the goings-on. There is a dashing kind of cop on her trail now. The cop, Pulkit Samrat, was not at all interested in taking up such a petty case but he changes his mind once he looks at the picture of the girl whose police file is titled ‘Looteri Dulhan’. It seems she is the love of his life who he ditched.

    A decoy is planted for Sonam and her ‘family’. The royal prince of a Rajasthan kingdom of yore pastes posters in the town seeking a bride! The family is lured and meet up with the prince, Saif Ali Khan. The game is over for the ‘family’ as it is confronted by all three, Rajkumar, Varun as well as Pulkit. Some more situations follow before the charade comes to an end.

    Finding an idea is fine but what needs talent is to turn it in to a taut and plausible script that a director just needs to convert on celluloid. But, even with a 98-minute run time, Dolly Ki Doli has no spark anywhere. The comedy is forced and the artistes fail to carry the film on their own, given mediocre direction and little by way of script. The film has one hummable track in Mere naina kafir hogaye.. Comedy falls flat most of the time.

    Dolly Ki Doli is a nonstarter.

  • ‘Alone’: Better left alone

    ‘Alone’: Better left alone

    MUMBAI: Alone has two selling points: First, it is directed by Bhushan Patel (Ragini MMS 2). Second, it stars Bipasha Basu, who exudes enough sex appeal for the audience of the voyeur kind, a mandatory ingredient in a contemporary horror films.

    Inspired by the 2007 Thai film of the same name, the movie is shot in Kerala to make it visually appealing. Bipasha plays a double role. She and her twin sister have promised to always stick by each other. Bipasha has to rush home to Kerala with her husband, Karan Singh Grover, when her mother meets with an accident. Her return takes her into past memories about her dead twin.

    Soon Bipasha starts experiencing a strange phenomenon. She feels the presence of her dead sister. Only she can feel this. She explains her situation to Karan but he thinks this is because she is missing her sister. However, Karan takes Bipasha to a psychiatrist friend who thinks it is beyond science. The couple then indulge in romance and songs.

    Producer: Panorama Films

    Director: Bhushan Patel

    Cast: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover, Zakeer Hussain

    The mandatory Babas claiming to get rid of ghosts and spirits and other such mumbo jumbo included, what the film never does is scare you. This is because it has nothing new to show. All this and much better stuff has preceded Alone. What actually happens is that the supposedly scary scenes only make you laugh.

    Those who made it to the cinema halls after watching the promos will not find in the film what they saw in promos. There are some intimate scenes and a lot of skin on display from both, Bipasha as well Karan but, again, nothing that a seasoned moviegoer has not seen before.

    In an effort to Indianise a borrowed foreign film, the length stretches to 133 minutes, which is a tad too long for a ‘scary’ movie. The film has some good numbers in Katra katra…. and Chaand aasman se lapataa.. but  they do lessen the impact of a scary film.

     Direction is average with no spark. The script can aptly be described as loose. One thing the film needed was some sharp editing. The belief that low light can make a horror film more effective, even if true, does not work here.

     With little scope, the performance by Bipasha is fair while Karan is there just for his body mass.

     Alone is mediocre fare with no drawing power as far as its stars go.

    ‘Crazy Cukkad Family’: That’s not entertainment!

    Crazy Cukkad Family is like a stage play, implausible but zany. It is more like a farce. It is about a family, which does odd things and may remind you of the 2007 film, Buddha Mar Gaya, starring Anupam Kher. The film is about a dysfunctional family of four siblings, all failures. To give a contemporary touch, one of them is gay.

    Producer: Prakash Jha

    Director: Ritesh Menon

    Cast: Swanand Kirkire, Shilpa Shukla, Kushal Punjabi, Siddharth Sharma, Kiran Karmarkar, Ninad Kamat

    Swanand Kirkire, Shilpa Shukla, Kushal Punjabi and Siddharth Sharma gather at their grand family home when their father slips into his third coma. Hoping this once he does not regain conscious, all four are keen to know what is for them in their filthy rich father’s last will. The four have their own traits; they need the money for various reasons. There is no family feeling or love for each other. Before the will can be read, a condition applies: for inheritance, all four have to be married. The siblings devise their individual ways out of this condition.

    While all four are failures in their respective lives, they try to conceal this fact from others. However, they can’t hide their real standing from each other for long as each kin’s secret is out.

    The father has no long term plan to remain in coma or to kick the bucket. He soon regains consciousness only to reveal that in the old filmy style, he has bequeathed all his wealth to the ‘wafaadar’ servant of the house. However, the servant is not selfish and asks his boss to leave his all for the children on the condition that they spend time with him every year!

    Even in this 90 minute farce, the makers needed a narrator who interrupts at regular intervals to explain to the viewer what is happening: either they think the viewer is dumb or they know their inability to let the script and the visuals do their job.  It is a passé theme further marred by bad scripting. Resultantly, the debutant director, Ritesh Menon, is totally at sea. The film boasts of an item number, Sexywala pakoda, in an otherwise mundane music score. Swanand Kirkire emerges the best while Shilpa Shukla is fair. The rest pass muster. Crazy Cukkad Family is a lost cause.

  • ‘Tevar’ collects Rs 21.7 crore in opening weekend

    ‘Tevar’ collects Rs 21.7 crore in opening weekend

    MUMBAI: The solo release of the week, ‘Tevar’ suffered due to its outdated theme as the film is a remake of a 2003 Telugu original, ‘Ukkadu’. The action, the film’s mainstay, is oft repeated over the past few years. The film also lacks in romance as well as chemistry between the lead pair – Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha.

     

    ‘Tevar’ opened to an average response and the collections dropped in the following shows as unfavourable reports emerged. The film has collected a mere Rs 21.7 crore in its opening weekend.

     

    On the other hand, the Rajkumar Hirani directed ‘PK’ starring Aamir Khan continued its dream run at the box office. Making the most of Christmas holidays and poor oppositions for three weeks, the movie crossed the Rs 300 crore mark. The film has collected Rs 42.1 crore in its third week to take its three week total to Rs 311.7 crore.

     

    ‘Take It Easy’, a film aimed at children, performed poorly at the box office, having collected only Rs 35 lakh in its first week.

     

    ‘Mumbai Can Dance Saala’ had a disastrous first week with collection figures barely crossing Rs 10 lakh mark.

     

    Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Ugly’ has managed to put together Rs 2.3 crore for its second week taking its two week total to Rs 7.8 crore.

     

    ‘Linga’ (dubbed) starring superstar Rajinikanth and Sonakshi Sinha has fared below average. The original Tamil movie has also suffered at the box office and not much was expected from the Hindi dubbed version as the South legend has little following in the Hindi market.

     

    Ajay Devgn’s ‘Action Jackson’ has added another Rs 10 lakh in its fifth week to take its five week tally to Rs 58.9 crore.

     

  • ‘Tevar’….Bad attitude!

    ‘Tevar’….Bad attitude!

    MUMBAI: Boney Kapoor has a fancy for acquiring the rights of south Indian films, usually Telugu, and remking them in Hindi. The logic is that the film has proved itself with at least one part of India and, hence, entails less risk. What is more, this remaking business has worked for Boney in most cases. ‘Tevar’ is a remake of the 2003 Telugu hit, ‘Ukkadu’.

    Early in the film, Arjun Kapoor sings a song, ‘Main tou Superman..’, and then carries that attitude through the film. He does not fly or wear cape but fights like a mean machine. He keeps himself fit by playing kabbadi.

    With his three friends, Arjun, roams around his town, Agra. Unwittingly, he happens to cross paths with the ‘bahubali’ of neighbouring Mathura, Manoj Bajpayee. Manoj’s brother, Rajesh Sharma, is the state Home Minister while his cousin is the local MP, a convenient situation for him and his goons to run riot in the area; he rules over it like a tyrant.

    Manoj sees Sonakshi Sinha at a dance festival and falls heads over heels in love with her. He approaches her taking his own marriage proposal and, on being refused, he becomes more determined and approaches her TV journalist brother. Her brother insults Manoj and pays with his life.

    Producers: Sanjay Kapoor, Sunil Lulla.

    Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma.

    Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee, Subrat Dutta, Rajesh Sharma, Raj Babbar, Deepti Naval.

    The only way out now for Sonakshi is to run away from the town, proceed to Delhi and go ahead with her study trip to the US. But, Manoj spots her at the interstate bus depot and forces her to go with him. That is when Arjun watches the scene and thrashes Manoj only to realise later that he has taken ‘panga’ with a don. He can either leave the town or protect Sonakshi till she gets her visa and leaves the country in few days.

    What follows is hide and seek game between the Arjun-Sonakshi duo and Manoj’s goons. Manoj’s brother, Rajesh, is uncomfortable with his brother’s way of dealing with the issue open to public eyes. He decides to help. He calls the police chief, Raj Babbar, to deploy his entire police force to trace the girl. When Babbar realises that his own son has kidnapped the girl, the chase is now two fold, police as well as goons are after the couple. The director also takes the liberty to create rain during Holi season to add thrill to the chase.

    Things are now becoming monotonous but soon enough, it is time for Arjun to fight Manoj’s men to finally qualify to take on Manoj himself. Of course the hero wins but he has to remain clean so, finally, Manoj has to take a bullet from Subrat Dutta, the family’s goon-in-chief, who wants to inherit Manoj’s title of ‘bahubali’.

    Though the film may feel a bit lengthy at two hours and 39 minutes, director Amit Ravindernath Sharma has done a worthy job in his debut feature film. He has made sure make ‘Tevar’ more colourful than the Telugu original and has added finesse despite it having been shot in the bylanes of small cities. However, what goes against ‘Tevar’ is that it is made from a dated film of 2003 and many similar films have been made since. Also, the ‘bahubali’ business has been overused and not palatable anymore. There has been enough of one man felling 10 goons and ‘Tevar’ goes overboard with it making it repetitive and tedious.

    The film has good dialogue. The music is very good with ‘Superman….’, ‘Radha nachegi…’ and ‘Joganiya…’ providing a variety. Two songs have been filmed beautifully. Arjun is getting slotted in this tapori fighter image which provides little scope for histrionics. Sonakshi fails to charm. Manoj looks spent. Raj Babbar and Deepti Naval are okay. Dutta impresses.

    1. ‘Tevar’ has no prospects at multiplexes catering neither to kids or family. Single screen business will be just average at best.

  • ‘Ugly’…Horribly so!

    ‘Ugly’…Horribly so!

    MUMBAI: Ugly defies slotting. The closest it comes to in genre is 20th Century Hollywood noir thrillers shot in low lights. While the film adopts this pretentious low light option to look intelligent, its content lacks grossly in thrill of any kind. The film is a saga of double-crossing and backstabbing among friends and family members. But the content in the film has nothing to do with the film’s main story: that of kidnap of a 10 year girl.

    Ronit Roy is the top cop married to the girl he loved in college. It was a love triangle, with Ronit, Tejeswini Kolhapure and Rahul Bhatt, now a full time struggler wanting to make it as a star. Rahul seems to have been the lucky one who marries Tejaswini. The couple get one girl child who is usually witness to the violence between Rahul and Tejaswini who are eventually divorced. Ronit, by virtue of being next in line, marries her. But their marriage is cold with Tejaswini having turned an alcoholic.

    Saturday is the day for Rahul to meet his daughter, Kali, and as usual he takes her out. Rahul goes up to meet his casting director friend, Vineet Kumar Singh, leaving Kali in the car when Kali goes missing. She has been kidnapped. Initially, the film is all about finding her but soon turns in to blame game and finally into all the characters wanting to exploit the situation to their own advantage.

    Producers: DAR Motion Pictures, Phantom Films.

    Director: Anurag Kashyap.

    Cast: Ronit Roy, Rahul Bhatt, Vineet Kumar, Singh, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Surveen Chawla, Siddhanth Kapoor, Girish Kulkarni.

    Since nobody trusts anyone else they all suspect each other of the kidnap and don’t bother to check other possibilities. Ronit, being a cop, uses his office to tail and record the conversations of others including his wife, Tejaswini. He as well as his staff are completely devoted to this task. Rohit and Vineet are put behind bars and tortured in Ronit’s backroom. He has a motive since the court has restricted his visits to Kali to once a week only.

    A missing ad is put in the newspapers and Tejaswinis’ crook brother, Siddhanth Kapoor, decides to take advantage. He calls up his sister demanding 50 lakh ransom to return the girl and Tejaswini asks her father, the only moneybag around, for 65 lakh, keeping her share in the ransom! Tejaswini gives her 15 lakh to her friend, Surveen Chawla, who happens to be Rahul’s current girlfriend. Surveen, an ex-item girl is married to a filmmaker who is useless in bed. 

    Surveen thinks she can use the 15 lakh left with her and she absconds with Rahul and Vineet. The latter is killed by Rahul in a frenzy, and Tejaswini decides to shoot Ronit even as Kali’s rotting body is lying dumped in a public place, the stink of which nobody smells until police does!

    Script, direction as well as other aspects are negative in this senseless film. The characters don’t fit in our kind of films or mind-set. The film has been designed to be gloomy and drab with planned exposure of Mumbai’s poverty ridden locations and garbage so much so even the ACP Ronit’s office is in some dilapidated housing board tenement.

    Ugly is a pretentious, bad film.

  • ‘PK’…Mildly bubbly!

    ‘PK’…Mildly bubbly!

    MUMBAI: The expectations from PK would, naturally, be as high as director Raju Hirani’s three earlier classic hits, the Munnabhai two and 3 Idiots have built. The basic theme remains the same: that of delivering a full-fledged sermon. If 3 Idiots was on education, PK serves to be a satire on the exploitation perpetuated in the name of religion by self-styled god men. This is not a mean thing to achieve for a believer, which most of us in India are. We can’t reject our God hence Hirani seeks outside help.

     

    Aamir Khan is an alien who has been sent by his people to do a research on earthlings when they realised people similar to them exist on earth. Aamir’s folks on his planet do not believe in covering their naturally given body by outer layers like clothes and, hence, he lands in the far flung desert of Rajasthan totally nude. The only thing on his body is a pendant tied around his neck which is his remote to contact his spaceship when he is ready to return to his home planet.

     

    As Aamir lands he sees an earthling near railway tracks who also gives him his first experience with the ways of earth people. This stranger tugs at his pendant and makes a run for it getting on to the running goods train. Aamir proceeds to the nearest town where he steals clothes from intimate lovers making it out in parked cars; money comes along in wallets of the stolen clothes and when it falls short there is always a blind beggar around to steal from.

     

    In the town, Aamir comes across Sanjay Dutt, a helpful soul. Aamir has no language because on his planet people communicate mind to mind. He tries to grab hands of every woman he sees. Sanjay thinks Aamir is in a need of a woman and takes him to a whorehouse where he holds her hands for a few hours and transfers her vocabulary to himself. 

     

    Sanjay tells him that to find his remote; Aamir will have to go to Delhi where costly stolen goods are sold. However, not knowing where to start looking for his remote, he is told that only God can help him find his lost property. Aamir sets out in search of God but soon realises that different people hold different beliefs. He alternates between mandir, masjid and church in an attempt to find the real God. While his attempts create funny situations, it also conveys the hypocrisy as well as the contradictions of various faiths.

     

    When a god man or a politician has to be exposed, a TV reporter in the story has become sort of mandatory. Here Anushka Sharma is the one. Her assignment is to ‘report’ a story on a suicidal puppy! That is when she spots Aamir doing his antics and always on the run as he keeps offending people of some religion or the other. She thinks there is a huge story here to which her boss, Boman Irani, does not agree. Anushka devotes her working hours and more to be with Aamir.

     

    The search for his remote leads Aamir to a God man, Saurabh Shukla. Saurabh has bought the remote from the man who stole it and is passing it off as bead that fell from Lord Shiva’s Damroo. He declares to his devotees that God wills him to build a massive temple for this bead. This is his way to extract funds from his devotees. Anushka has an axe to grind with the Swami. Her parents are blind followers of Saurabh and she holds him responsible for breaking her romance with a Pakistani boy, Sushant Singh Rajput, while they are studying in Belgium.

     

    She joins Aamir in exposing Saurabh. While Aamir only wants to prove that Saurabh’s communication with God is reaching ‘wrong number’, Anushka knows Aamir will unwittingly expose Saurabh to be a fraud. In a series of TV reports, Anushka manages to unmask all god men of all religions leading to a finale where Aamir and Saurabh come face to face on a TV debate. Anushka gets her love back, Aamir gets his remote and Saurabh loses everything.

     

    PK does not quite bear the Raju Hirani stamp; while the script holds well through the first half and is fairly entertaining, its loses steam as the film proceeds into second half. While becoming a sermon on frauds operating as god men, the subject is dealt with at length and with better effect in OMG: Oh My God, which came out not very long ago. The end is rather tame until it brings Aamir back for the concluding scene. Raju Hirani is in his element but the script holds him back to some extent. Also, the film does not have a full-fledged romantic track. The film has a fairly good musical score with couple of hummable songs in Dil darbadar…. and Chaar kadam…, the others being thematic. The film needed some trimming for sure.

     

    Aamir has to carry this film singularly on his shoulders and, being an alien, with limited expressions. However, he manages to put in a great performance conveying the innocence he is supposed to. Anushka Sharma is good. The others have bit roles with Sushant exuding great charm, Boman being his usual self and Sanjay having nothing much to do. Saurabh’s character is not properly etched.

     

    PK has been released on a massive scale with enhanced admission rates and Christmas holidays to follow soon, which would aid it to a great extent to overcome its comparison with Hirani’s earlier films.

     

    Producers: Vinod Chopra, Raju Hirani.

    Director: Raju Hirani.

    Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla. 

  • ‘Badlapur Boys’…Breathless!

    ‘Badlapur Boys’…Breathless!

    MUMBAI: Like most Indian sports films, Badlapur Boys is more about underdogs taking the top spot. From Lagaan (the poster design resembles that of Lagaan) and Iqbal to Hawa Hawaai and many others in between, such themes are common now. The basic plot remains the same, only the sport in the question changes. Here, it is Kabaddi.

    Badlapur and neighbouring 42 villages were renowned for cultivating Basmati rice but the failing rains over the years has rendered the area barren and poor. The villagers want the government to build a canal to bring water to these villages. A number of representations to the local District Collector fail to bear any results; their file is stuck in the system and has not reached the CM of the state.

    During one of the representations to the DC, one of the villagers threatens to self-immolate if the DC does not move their file. On the 16th day he does so, leaving his young son and wife behind. The case has been closed declaring the man mad. The son, who loved playing Kabaddi, grows up to be NIshan. He now works as a farm labourer in the next village. Caught playing Kabaddi while the goats he was tending to destroyed some crop in a field, he is made to swear he will never play the sport again.

     

     

       
     

    Producers: Karrm Movies.

    Director: Shailesh Verma.

    Cast: Nishan, Saranya Mohan, Annu Kapoor, Kishori Shahane, Puja Gupta.

    NIshan grows up watching other kids playing Kabaddi from the side-lines. But, the problem is, their Badlapur team is a perpetual loser. They never win, so much so that they decide to play the next match with a team which is much worse than them to restore some prestige to their name in the village where everybody makes fun of them.

    During the village fair, an ex-national Kabaddi team member and the present coach of the Railways’ team, Annu Kapoor, is the chief guest. He seems to have seen a spark in the village team and offers to coach it. The team is na?ve and learns about 75th UP state Kabaddi championships in Allahabad. From total losers, they aspire to participate there and save their reputation once and for all. From then on, things work in their favour, especially that of Nishan. Once forbidden to play the sport, he is relieved of his promise when one of the members abstains.

    The tournament is between 32 teams from UP but, again, one team has met with an accident and can’t make it. Conveniently, Annu Kapoor wields a considerable amount of influence to change the basic rules and get the lads from Badlapur to fill in as the 32nd team! They need a name and he names them Badlapur Boys.

    The rest is like what we have been seeing since ages in films. The hero takes a beating initially only to bounce back later: Badlapur Boys go on winning bout after bout. In between, there has been some scheming and backstabbing. The hero, Nishan is hurt on purpose to disable him and to stop him from playing more matches. Playing any more could prove fatal for him but he is determined to play, win and meet the CM (who is the chief guest) face to face and tell him what his father did and why.

    The Badlapur Boys win the finals, the sacrifice of Nishan is rewarded a few years later with a canal for the village farmers.

    Kabaddi has started getting some attention recently with league tournaments with big shot team owners backing them. But the attention has not been enough to draw people to spend on watching the games. Also, the one watched at league level on TV is real pro compared to rather tame games played in the movie.

    ‘Main Aur Mr Right’…Wrong movie!

    Main Aur Mr Right is a kind of contemporary film where a group of young friends, all well placed in their lives, meet on regular basis and have a blast. Except one of them, Shenaz Treasurywala, all are taken: one couple is married, one is engaged and the one is together but not committed yet.

     

     

    Producers: Pooja Gujral, Aseem Raees.

    Director: Adeeb Rais.

    Cast: Shenaz Treasurywala, Barun Sobti.

     

    Shenaz Treasurywala runs a casting agency and looking at the kind of ‘talent’ she screens regularly, it would be surprising if her agency makes any money. Her friends always bug her with suggestions to find a man and settle down in life. However, Shenaz is too choosy, she is Ms Perfect and won’t plan to marry unless she meets her Mr Right.

    Shenaz’s opinion about herself is rather high and no man impresses her. But her friends just won’t let her be. And, just to stop them bothering her every day, she announces one day that she has finally found her Mr Right and she will present him to the gang soon. Being a talent manager, she is flooded with pictures and portfolios and remembers one of them of a good-looking lad, Barun Sobti. He aspires to be an actor in league with Salman Khan who is his idol and whose name he swears by.

    Things are not as easy as Shenaz imagined. Barun is a typical rough shod Punjabi who does everything that is gross. He lacks in style and class that Shenaz and her friends relate to. But, she takes it as a challenge to mould and polish Barun so that she could present him to her friends. Of course, he would have come from abroad to return soon. She offers a hefty sum for role playing to the struggler who, like most strugglers, is broke most of the time.

    Barun has perfected everything Shenaz wished and she is ready to take him to her friends. The presentation of ‘Mr Right’ finally happens; all are duly impressed. He blends with the group well and becomes a part of it. The bonhomie continues but Barun soon realises that the bonhomie is fake, all the friends are keeping their true feelings from each other and usually lying to keep the friendship going. His honest na?ve self begins pointing out the follies of every one of them. Till, one fine evening, while the friends are having a nice time at a restaurant, the bubble bursts; Barun is recognised by one of his struggler friends who is a waiter in the same restaurant. This was just when all the friends were confessing to their wrongdoings.

    The friendships are shattered, so are the pairs. As an outcome of this breaking of the clique, Shenaz finds her Mr Right within the group itself. That lasts for a few months until she starts missing Barun. The contemporary film then ends on a traditional note as the idea of Mr Right is dumped and Barun and Shenaz are the real item instead of role playing.

    Direction is average. The film tries to tell too many stories in one go. Bappi Lahiri has scored some hummable music. Cinematography is fair. Editing is lacking. Performances are generally passable except that of Barun Sobti who is impressive.

    Main Aur Mr Right shows no prospects at the box office.

  • ‘Action Jackson’…Twin torture

    ‘Action Jackson’…Twin torture

    MUMBAI: The trend of action has crossed the satiation point and has reached the point of immediate return. Time to stop these super human action scenes, where just one blow can cause a guy to fall or make a speeding car do summersaults. This film is one more addition to a single screen theme made for multiplexes where, only Salman Khan has been able to carry them through.

    Ajay Devgn is a Superman in his both roles, that of Vishi and AJ, though he does not wear a cape with his underwear outside. While Ajay in India is a small time crook partnered by his sidekick, Kunaal Roy Kapoor. Sonakshi Sinha is an unlucky girl whose luck changes when she opens a mall dressing room door and happens to watch Devgn in his birthday suit. After that, things stop going wrong with her. She thinks her luck has changed after watching Devgn’s lower body sans pants or underclothes. The makers’ idea of comedy is that, all her four female friends also want to watch Devgn to change their luck. The humour is totally lost on the viewer.

    For most of the first half, the Devgn in India monopolises the screen, generally romancing Sonakshi and doing nothing important. He is supposed to be a mandavli king in Mumbai, the guy who is an unofficial arbitrator of disputes who is available at a price. You are shown him hitting someor continuity of events.

     

     

    Producers: Gordhan Tanwani, Sunil Lulla.

    Director: Prabhu Dheva.

    Cast: Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Yami Gautam, Manasni Mamgai, Kunaal Roy Kapoor.

     

    As if one Devgn was not trying your nerves with his personal video games where he destroys innumerable uniformed red suit guys armed with guns and Ninja-to, the Ninja swords, the other can do even better. He is the trouble-shooter cum shooter for an Indian don operating from Bangkok. The don here is a caricature, probably drawn by a cartoonist, inspired by the villains from Farz (1967) or Dr No (1962) or Shaan (1980).

    The villain is sinister, his sister, Manasvi Mamgai, is even more so. She displays a bust line any man would be attracted to which the Bangkok Ajay Devgn is not for whom she has developed the hots. Because this lad is committed to the love of his life, Yami Gautam. Manasvi wants Devgn at all costs and orders to kill Yami who is already pregnant though not married to Devgn yet. But, Yami has this strength to survive all assaults which could prove fatal for any normal being.

    As if the first part was not bad enough, the two Devgns meet to share the burden of the second half. And, if the film was not going anywhere so far, now it does; it goes haywire! You don’t know which Devgn is which and you are also convinced, nor does the director!

    This film has no script nor a definite track. The direction by Prabhu Dheva is pits, most amateur. Actually, the film is grossly directionless; there is no continuity from a sequence to another one. Even choreography, which is Prabhu’s forte, is pathetic. As for performances, Devgn is poor, Sonakshi is rank bad, Yami tries to match her and the villain is comic. The only good portrayal comes from Manasvi, playing a maniacal lover. Kunaal Roy  Kapoor is a liability.

    The film is poor on all counts including music, continuity, editing, photography and dialogue.

    Action Jackson is the worst film of the year and may even win the worst film of the decade status!

    ‘Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain’…Miniaturised version?

    Producers: Sumanto Roy, Ravi Walia.

    Director: Ravi Kumar.

    Cast: Rajpal Yadav, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Martin Sheen, Mischa Barton, Kal Penn, Fagun Ivy Thakrar, Manoj Joshi, Joy Sengupta, Martin Brambach, David Brooks.

     

    December 2014 marks 30 years since the world’s worst disaster, The Bhopal Gas Leak tragedy took place. The incident is reported to have killed over 3500 people, blinded many, led to deformed new-borns and has survivors who live with handicaps and all suffered because of the lethal MIC (Methyl Isocyanate) gas leak from the pesticide maker giant Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal.

    To make it a human interest story and avoid documentary approach, the film involves a settlement of poor labourers who have built their jhoogi jhopdis around the Carbide plant because most of them work for the company. The film keeps in centre the protagonist, Raghuvir Yadav, and his family to make it a story instead of a documentary.

    Yadav gets his first entry into the Carbide plant as a sweeper and soon graduates to look after the safety division. Now, he controls the release of MIC, its temperatures and controls he knows nothing about. This responsibility is thanks to the death of his neighbour who died because of a cyanide leak on his body.

    Meanwhile, the manager at the plant is worried about the plant closing down due to a famine which has left the Carbide product unsold and gathering at the factory following failure of crops.

    There are a couple of guys who are aware of the risk factor of the Carbide unit; one of them is the company’s Safety Officer while the other is the publisher of the local rag, a two page newspaper, Motwani, played by Kal Penn.

    It is the day Yadav is getting his 17 year old sister married in his basti next to the plant and the negligence and cutting corners leads to the lethal MIC gas leak where thousands die.

    The film has excellent performances by Yadav, Tanishta and, of course, Martin Sheen, who plays Warren Anderson, the CEO of the plant at that time.

    Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain is just about 29 years too late to touch today’s generation. Also, gas tragedy is trivialised with limited footage at the end.

    ‘Sulemani Keeda’….Of the makers!

    Producers: Various.

    Director: Amit V Masurkar.

    Cast: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tiwari, Aditi Vasudev, Karan Mirchandani, Krishna Singh Bisht, Rukshana Tabassum, Razzak Khan

     

     

    Sulemani Keeda, I suppose, is a Mumbai slang for someone with adventurous instincts which, more often than not, are sure to backfire on him. As you go through this 90 minute film, you realize that almost half a dozen producers who invested their bit in the film, can claim to have the same Sulemani Keeda. The film has been in the tins for over two years and was also screened at the MAMI a couple of years back.

    It is the story of two friends, Naveen Kasturia and Mayank Tewari, who are aspiring film writers and are struggling to get a foothold in the film industry. Most of the time, they don’t even get an entry into an actor’s or producers’ office who, otherwise, are a household name. They live on rent together and as they can’t always pay rent on time, they are exploited piecemeal by the landlord’s son, Krishna Singh Bisht. And, he too writes couplets and aspires to be part of this duo.

    The pair gets to showcase their talent only among a bunch of friends and after one such occasion, Mayank is attracted to a girl, Aditi Vasudev, who is scheduled to leave for the US for further studies. However, Mayank and Aditi embark on a Mumbai Darshan mission over next few days and, as it happens in all film stories, it creates a divide between Mayank and Naveen. Mayank is totally distracted from his aim in life as he realises he has fallen in love with Aditi.

    Aditi is ready to take off when Naveen urges Mayank to go stop her if he really loves her. But, as it invariably happens in all the films, Aditi is determined to go ahead with her plans. No last minute getting off plane scene here.

    The friends have parted ways, Mayank takes off to Ladakh to pen his script while Naveen blends with the mainstream and becomes successful in film writing.

    Sulemani Keeda falls in no definite genre and, hence, ambles around most of the time. The film’s treatment reminds one of 1970s NFDC films, slow moving and not going anywhere. There are some wise words of advice for aspirants through the duo by Mahesh Bhatt and Anil Sharma. Direction is fair. Naveen and Mayank put in a good performances. Aditi passes off a permanent pout for acting.

    Despite 1970s touch, this is described as ‘Contemporary film making’ for want of definite genre slot. Not that a money-spending cine-goer cares.

  • ‘Ungli’…Fingered!

    ‘Ungli’…Fingered!

    MUMBAI: While the Indians may love a Robin Hood kind (he robbed for charity), vigilante films, which have been made by the dozens in Hollywood, they are not very popular genre in India because, this is a nation supressed by some or the other rulers and have got used to the idea. So what if their own people like Municipal head or RTO boss or traffic cop and others supress you and put a price on just about everything you need to survive, we take it in our stride. Why bother to fight for your right when you can buy it in anything between Rs 100 to a lakh and be done with it?

    It is a common scene that in a city like Mumbai, traffic police don’t stop you from doing wrong, they stand round the corner to let you do that and cash in on your crime! It is the same when one is unfortunate enough to need the help of the ‘service’ of one of the government agencies.

    Randeep Hooda, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam and Kangana Ranaut are friends who are let down by the society and people in high places. Their gym instructor and brother of Kangana, Arunoday Singh, is lying in a coma with little chance of recovery; he is in this condition because he was hit brutally by a fixer’s, Mahesh Manjrekar, son who handles bribe collection and distribution of the Mumbai police force. There is only one witness, senior citizen Arunoday who is trying to defend himself from Manjrekar’s son.

    Producers: Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar.
    Director: Renzil D’Silva.
    Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Wmraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Neha Dhupia, Randeep Hooda, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoolam.

    The senior citizen is threatened not to identify the culprit in the court and, as a result, the culprit is set free. The foursome lose faith in the system and decide to mete out justice on their own. They turn vigilantes. They decide to take on the corrupt and punish them on the spot when and where found guilty of corruption. The electronic media, always at the end of the butt of joke in movies, make these vigilante gang famous from their very first exploit. Also, the way they give names lacking imagination like Coal Gate (inspired by Watergate!), Bollywood (inspired by Hollywood), they name the gang as Ungli Gang because that is the sign they left behind after their first episode of instant justice.

    While every department takes its turn at being punished by the Ungli gang, the police is hot on its trail. The people in high places are uncomfortable with this gang fearing their turn someday and want its illegal activities to end and to put them in prison. So the corrupt police force selects the most honest cop, Sanjay Dutt, to capture the gang who in turn enrols the rebellious junior, Emraan Hashmi, to do the job. Emraan is a rebellious cop and generally anti-establishment.

    Emraan Hashmi joins the Ungli gang to liquidate it. Instead, he sees the gang’s point of view and becomes a part of it. As it progresses, the film strays.
    The script is quite hackneyed and direction patchy. There is no eye for details in things like designations and stars worn are three for all ranks and there are many such glitches. Musically, Dance Basanti… and Pakeezah have appeal for youth. Dialogue is good at places. The film looks dated having taken its time in making.

    Ungli has had a poor opening and has little chance of showing much improvement over the weekend.

                                                      

                                            ‘Zed Plus’…Nothing plus about it

    Zed Plus is supposed to be a satire on the security system of the Indian police protection branch locally and the National Security Guard nationally. Zed Plus is supposed to be a security cover provided to a VIP. Since the perception of who is a VIP and deserving of such a security is determined on threat perception, it is the cause for this film promoted as a satire. One day, a local puncture mender with his workshop on the highway, Adil Hussain, earns this Zed security. This is all about him.

    This is a famous dargah town in Rajasthan which goes back 500 years. The originator of the Dargah had a family of 12 children which has now flourished into 400+ heirs but only one man runs the dargah and pockets all the takings. The others rebel and it is decided that all the heirs will get a chance to perform the rituals at the dargah one by one, each getting a turn every 15 months!

    The film is all about this small town with a dargah as its claim to fame. While the film peers in to the lives of the townfolk, it returns to its main theme only much later.

    Kulbhushan Kharbanda is the prime minister of India surviving on day to day basis with his blackmailing coalition partners. Just about every coalition partner is blackmailing him with threats of withdrawal of support everyday unless their demands are met.

    When the PM, Kharbanda, is all at sea, some unidentified caller advises him to visit this famous Peepali Pir dargah in Rajasthan which would solve his problems. Of among the 400+ guys to take their turn to be the Khadim of the dargah, it happens to be the turn of Adil to conduct the rituals of the dargah on the day the PM is slated to visit.

    The PM arrives, the town is cleared of all ugly sights including Adil’s puncture shop and the front platform of his wife’s (Mona Singh) footwear shop. Many are left jobless. The PM’s dargah visit works for as soon as he enters the premises, the PM’s problems are getting solved one after the other. He has only Adil to thank for all the favours of the dargah. He is happy with Adil and asks Adil to spell his problems if any and the PM would solve them for him. Adil says he is threatened by his neighbour, Mukesh Tiwari, only for the PM to understand as the national troublesome neighbour, neighbouring country (Pakistan).

    The PM instantly orders a Zed Plus security for Adil, a victim of Pakistani threats! The rest is left to the media who make him into a national hero like it did a simple village man, Omkar Das, in Pipli Live.

    Adil becomes a celebrity overnight. A local hero, he is chosen by the Rajasthan CM to contest for his party. His degeneration has started, he is taught to accept bribe. He is manipulated by his PM and his Rajasthan CM, both being anti each other.

    Our hero, Adil, is right out of Raj Kapoor’s Shri 420. He decides to return to his normal life. He realizes his follies and greed and confesses to them at an election meeting.

    Zed Plus may be a satire but hardly worth any mirth. The only problem Adil faces due to the security is that he can’t visit his paramour without the security guards following him. The PM’s PA knows a gaff has been made by the PM but he has to stick to the story of threat from the neighbouring country so that the PM is not made to look like a fool. Hence, despite Adil’s requests to withdraw his cover, it stays.

    While the idea was worth exploring, it is stretched too much trying to pack in parallel stories. Direction is fair. Songs have purely thematic appeal. Editing is slack. Adil Hussain performs very well equally supported by Mukesh Tiwari.  Mona Singh is adequate. Sanjay Mishra is good as usual. K K Raina impresses.
    Zed Plus has weak face value leading to its poor opening. It faces bleak prospects.

  • ‘Happy Ending’… Weekend watch

    ‘Happy Ending’… Weekend watch

    MUMBAI: Saif Ali Khan seems to be trying new ideas lately. His Go Goa Gone was a rare zombie movie on Indian screens. With Happy Ending, he tries something contemporary in theme and treatment. In other ways though, The hero is love proof; five affairs and he is still single because he refuses to or is not the kind to fall in love. No permanent commitments from him.  

    There was a time when shooting a film abroad was a novelty and, sort of, made up for a weak script to an extent. That is to say, the visuals helped distract the viewer from the narrative. That fad died out. People soon realised that shooting abroad was generally not relevant to the film. Yet, Happy Ending is based in the US and still things remain the same. All major players are Indian and always the bosses, while the whites are mere extras.

    Saif Ali Khan has written a book, Payback Time, which became a best seller. He is now a celebrity, loaded with cash, driving a convertible sports car and changing girlfriends frequently because he does not believe in love. He is living on his past glory and money. His best seller made him enough money to afford all of the above and his logic is, why work when I can enjoy life? However, he soon comes face to face with the fact of being, a one-book wonder. His money has run out and his car has been towed away for failing to pay instalments. It is over five years since his first and only best seller and cash as well as the glory have faded.

    Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Saif Ali Khan, Sunil Lulla.

    Directors: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK.

    Cast: Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz. Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, in guest roles, Priety Zinta and Kareena Kapoor. 

    Saif’s problem doubles as he has also failed to live up to his commitment to deliver another manuscript to his publisher. To add to his misery his own agent has introduced another writer, Ileana D’Cruz, to the publishers who writes romantic mush which takes her to the top position. She is now a best seller.

    Saif is an ‘I specialist’, which is to say that he is all about “I, Me and Myself”. He does not see beyond his own nose. His encounter with Ileana starts with envy followed by mental games until he realises that she herself knows she is selling pulp to people through her bestsellers. Broke to the core, Saif needs money urgently. He also needs his convertible back besides money for booze and affairs. To add to his troubles, he is stalked by his last girlfriend, Kalki Koechlin. He had broken up with her but she is still in love with him and plans to spend rest of her life with him. This break up is one-sided because Saif has not been able to convey his decision to Kalki.

    This is when his agent convinces him to stoop a little and meet Govinda, a super star of single screens who wants to capture multiplex audience too, for which he needs a script. Saif is assigned to write it and he accepts it because, he is told, “Paise ka koi problem nahi.” The problem is, Saif is not a romedy writer which is what Govinda wants while Ileana specialises just in those! Also, another problem with Saif is that, he has written many manuscripts but never been able to complete any because he has never been able to find a happy ending. 

    Saif has his alter ego to guide him, which is a version of Saif who is potbellied, unkempt and always hogging on some food or other. On his say so, Saif manages to date Ileana over the weekend and they become friends. Next, Saif accompanies her to her book reading and book-signing road trip to another city. Spending the night in the same room, after initial resistance, both agree to have sex on the condition that there would be no binding, no saying ‘I love you’ on either side. 

    Predictably, love happens between them, which neither one of the two is willing to confess. It is time for Ileana to leave for India. Saif is uncomfortable but still refuses to believe he could fall in love. It takes some convincing from his ex, Preity Zinta, and his alter ego, the potbellied Saif, until he agrees to stop her before she boards her flight. His script with a happy ending is now ready for Govinda. 

    Happy Ending is a fun film most of the time despite the pace dropping in the second half; some trimming could make it racy. The film’s mainstay is its visuals and dialogue. The dialogue are witty and peppy and worth a chuckle. Direction is generally good with some patchy moments. Music holds appeal in the film more than it did on audio tracks. Of the cast, Govinda excels as a caricature of a super star. Ranvir Shorey does very well despite a small role. Saif, in both his roles, is underplayed; a wise thing to do after the debacle of Humshakals. Ileana is fair. Kalki is okay.

    Happy Ending caters mainly to high-end multiplex and metro crowd who can get its subtle humour, mostly thought up in English. A slow starter, Happy Ending is an ideal DVD watch.