Kahaani: Movie Review

After 'The Dirty Picture' the buzz around Vidya Balan has grown ten fold. I don't think there was ever a best phase in her career when people are more interested in knowing more about her and her upcoming projects. In the same wave another master stroke performance has been delivered by her in the latest release KAHAANI.


I went with a lot of expectations to see Kahaani as now I consider Vidya as equal to Aamir Khan after the spate of well made and well performed movies that we saw in the last 3 years starting from Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and now Kahaani. I was not disappointed a bit as my expectations were fulfilled and I loved every minute of the movie.


The story is about a pregnant woman's search for her missing husband. In her search she is helped by a newly recruited policeman Rana (Parambrata Chattopadhyay). This thriller comes up trumps in the climax when the real mystery and story unfolds, who is Vidya Bagchi, does Arnab Bagchi exist in real life? Or it is all a story aka Kahaani narrated by Vidya? You have to see the movie to find out the same as revealing anything further will be spoiling the fun of watching such a fast paced thriller.


Kahaani has a very simple story with a lot of twists and turns written by Advaita Kala and Sujoy Ghosh. The screenplay by Sujoy, Suresh Nair and Nikhil Vyas is superb and at no point do you get any time to think or feel bored. The performances are first rate, the director has seen to it that no one in the movie is wasted and therefore even a small part played by the two kids and the actress who plays the role of Agnes is also well written and performed. However the entire movie rests on Vidya Balan who comes up with another award winning performance. I especially loved her in the climax, can't reveal the scene or anything about the climax, so I am just holding onto it.


The music by Vishal-Shekhar is good and goes perfectly with the mood of the movie. Kolkatta has never looked so beautiful and the entire credit goes to Cinematographer Sethu and the editing by Namrata is another high point. The background score is gripping and on a whole I would say this is a 'Must See' movie for everyone. At last Sujoy Ghosh gets back his mojo after back to back flops like Home Delivery and Aladin. Go for it!

Movie Review: Mausam

Last three weeks I have just watched movies that are high on publicity and promotions however zero in content and novelty.

After being cheated by Salman Khan and Imran Khan in their recent releases Bodyguard and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, I mustered courage and went to watch 'Mausam' starring Shahid and Sonam Kapoor. I have always been a huge fan of Pankaj 'Karamchand' Kapoor who happens to be the father of Shahid and also the director of Mausam. After watching the promos, listening to the songs and checking out interviews given by Shahid and Sonam, about how they have poured all their acting talents into this much in long making movie, I was determined to watch it.

The movie starts with a bang and that's that. There is no story, there is no novelty and there is nothing to look forward to. The movie is an endless saga of 'hide and seek' between Shahid and Sonam. The movie is one that checks your patience, I think the last such movie I saw was 'Sawariya'.

Everyone in the audience was squirming in their seats, waiting for the movie to end. It was such a pathetic fare that I didn't know what to do, whether to sit and watch or go off to sleep.

The cinematography is wonderful, music is fantastic, acting by Shahid and Supriya Pathak is good, Sonam is okay (I think I liked her more in I Hate Luv Storys and Aisha - although both were equally pathetic).

Story, dialogue, screenplay and direction by the GREAT Pankaj Kapoor is very BAD. I think he should just stick to his acting and never ever venture out directing movies in future, if he does, I am sure, I would not want to ever watch it.

Overall, the movie will not do that well at the box office and please avoid it completely.

Movie Review: BODYGUARD

The festive season has begun with a bang with the much awaited Salman-Kareena starer, BODYGUARD.


Like every Salman fan even I was waiting for the movie to release and I was damn sure the movie would be worth a watch, as I had already seen the Malayalam version some 5 times and I was totally floored by the story, acting and music in the original.


To tell you frankly, I was tad disappointed. The Hindi version lacks soul. There is no connection between any scenes and the love story falls flat. The movie that was 2 hours 40 mins in Malayalam was reduced to a 2hour movie in Hindi.


The story was altered to showcase the ongoing Salman massy wave. Unnecessary fights, unnecessary characters and situations which were not there in the original was included and in turn the soul of the movie i.e. the story was killed. 


The original story in Malayalam had superstar Dileep playing the title role. He is shown as a weird guy who from his childhood has developed a strange interest and passion to be with the brave and the powerful, taking any amount of risks. He jumps out of college and starts learning to become a brave goonda by becoming a bodyguard for famous anti socials. He accidentally hears about the ultimate don of the city Ashokan (thyagarajan) and finds ways to get to him. 
A lot of confusion is created by the heroine's character played by Nayantara and he ultimately loses the job as a Bodyguard and he is asked to leave the village. To prove him, Jayakrishnan saves Ashokan and his family from a murder attempt and becomes the favorite bodyguard of this man, who has retired from goonda activities and is presently engaged in other business.


The chemistry between the hero and the heroine is developed from the first scene itself where the hero is in awe of the heroine because of her simplicity and her kind nature and in turn the heroine is very impressed with his innocence and protective nature towards her. 


Even when she starts playing the prank on the hero posing as his girlfriend over the phone, her intention is to get his attention diverted so that she can spend more time with her friends and have fun in college, as she and her friends are tired of him and his bufoonary.


A lot of funny scenes and situations are shown over the screen when Dileep who is irritated with his self proclaimed girlfriend (who calls him everyday) starts suspecting every girl in the college and goes in search of her. Ultimately he falls in love with the voice of the girl and he is ready to do anything for her once his duties towards the heroines family is over.


She falls in love with the hero when she slowly, over a time, understands how much he worships her and how much she means to him while they talk over the phone. She tries to talk bad about the heroine's character to check his devotion towards her and that is when she is amazed to see that he is even ready to split up with her as he cannot hear anything bad about the heroine.


Even when the mystery unfolds in the end, it comes as a jolt to the audience about the girl who the hero marries thinking it to be the heroine.


In the Hindi version, the story has altered a lot from the first scene to the last, there are no moments created to make the viewers understand how Kareena's character got to love the Bodyguard. If they would have stuck to the original screenplay the movie would have been equally enjoyable in Hindi too.


After seeing the original, the Hindi version is something one wont be able to digest. It seems as if the movie was made in a hurry to release it on Eid to cash in on the 5 day weekend.


Salman has done a fantastic job and Kareena gets a half baked role, I still dont agree with her when she says that this is one of her best roles, even better than Jab We Met. 


Rest of the cast does a decent job and the music is a BLOCKBUSTER, especially Teri Meri Prem Kahani, which is my favorite track but the songs are shot as music videos and then inserted wherever they wanted to insert, in short there was no connection between the scenes and the songs.


Overall the movie will be a huge hit over the Box Office (the movie has made 20 crores on its opening day itself) because of the current Salman Khan wave but this is not a great love story that the makers and the actors were claiming to be.

Movie Review: Not A Love Story

After a long time I felt like watching a RGV movie and the movie happened to be 'Not A Love Story' inspired by the now famous Neeraj Grover murder case. The promos and the controversy surrounding the movie was not only a major motivation, however the fact that I had been keeping track of this case since 2008 was also another reason for me to watch this movie.

Gone are the days where lovers jilted in love or lovers who got cheated in love resorted to alcohol a la Devdas style. It was an unusual case where two lovers did a heinous act that the entire nation woke up to one morning.

'Not A Love Story' is a total RGV movie from the word go. Like in his previous movies like Satya, Kaun, Ek Haseena Thi or even Bhoot, where the first half of the movie is slightly slow and then the movie moves faster in the second half,  he uses the same technique here. In the first half he tries to establish the characters and the premise and therefore the movie tends to drag, however in the second half the entire movie moves faster and holds you to your seat till the end.

RGV has tried to give an interpretation of what might have happened in that flat, among the three characters on that fateful day. Performance-wise this will show to the world how good an actress Mahie Gill is. She has lived the role and the performance just grows on you from the point the movie starts till the end. Deepak Dobriyal is first rate, no other actor would have suited the role of Robin, the way he has. Amit Gehi in a brief role is very powerful and so is Nasir Hussain who plays the role of a cop.

I won't say that this is one of the best movies of RGV but yes after all those experiments gone wrong movies like RGV Ki Aag, Phoonk, Agyaat, Contract etc, Not A Love Story comes as a fresh breath.

Technically there are many flaws as the camera is shaky in almost every scene and sometimes it is out of focus. Background score by Sandeep Chowta is amazing, he had shown his musical brilliance earlier too in movies with RGV like Satya and Kaun.

All in all an above average movie and at the box office it might find average success considering the fact that the movie was made at a shoe-string budget.

Review : Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara the title says it all. One of the best guy movies directed by a woman Zoya Akhtar. A beautiful piece of cinema which I got to experience this weekend. ZNMD is the story of three young men played by Abhay, Hrithik and Farhaan who take a holiday that changes their lives forever. Kabir [Abhay Deol] is engaged to Natasha [Kalki]. Kabir decides to go on an extended bachelor party, before he gets married. A 3-week road trip with Imraan [Farhan Akhtar] and Arjun [Hrithik Roshan], his two best friends since school. The only problem is Arjun is too tied up with work. After much emotional blackmail and cajoling, the boys set off on a journey they were meant to take four years ago. A fantasy holiday they had planned to take after college, which never happened. A road trip where each one gets to do the ultimate sport of his choice and the other two just have to do it with him. Whether they want to or not!

Kabir, Imraan and Arjun meet up in Barcelona and set off on an adventure that not only make them iron out their differences, but also face their fears, alter their perception, unravel their fabric, force them to break out of the box and teach them to seize the day. This holiday changes their lives forever.

Unlike her debut movie Luck By Chance, Zoya does something visually and thematically diverse this time around. In ZNMD, Zoya chooses an attention-grabbing story and garnishes it well with moments that may seem straight out of a person's memoirs. The first half has several wonderful moments and the strain between the Imraan and Arjun is well presented, the post-interval portions right till the well-thought-of culmination keeps your attention arrested. While there are few moments which are very slow in the movie however when you see the overall effect and the entire movie you would like to pass them off.

The Spanish plain is captured very well by the cinematographer Carlos Catalan especially the Tomatino festival and the Bull sequences are breath taking. Dialogues by Farhaan Aktar are wonderful which is mixed with couplets penned by Javed Akhtar. The music is wonderful although they are not mass numbers but they do mix well with the theme of the movie.

Actingwise Katrina Kaif and Farhaan Akhtar are a treat as they are evolving better with each movie. Hrithik, Abhay and Kalki are superb as always. Naseerudin Shah and Deepti Naval in a brief role have done a very good job. On the whole ZNMD is a must see for every person to understand how life is more meaningful and colorful and how every moment and every minute is worth living because you don't know if you can ever live those moments again.

Movie Review: Delhi Belly & Muder 2

Last week and this week were really exciting weeks for a movie buff like me. Loads of entertaining movies to pick from and I picked Aamir Khan Production's Delhi Belly and Vishesh Film's Murder 2 the second in the Murder series.

DELHI BELLY:

As expected from an Aamir Khan Production, Delhi Belly didn't disappoint me at all. It is a madcap comedy surrounding the three protagonists of the movie played by Imran Khan, Kunaal Roy Kapoor and Vir Das with a Poorna Jaganathan and Shenaz Treasurywala thrown in for titilation and fun.

Delhi Belly tells the story of Tashi [Imran Khan], Arup [Vir Das] and Nitin [Kunal Roy Kapur] - flat mates, buddies and partners in crime. Tashi is to get married in a month to the glamorous Sonia [Shenaz Treasury]. Arun has been dumped by his girlfriend and also has an annoying boss [whose idea of creativity is sketching a smiling banana in percentagewise smile]. And Nitin is about to discover that eating delicious Tandoori Chicken off a street vendor is going to give him the worst case of Delhi Belly he's ever known!

Three regular blokes lead a regular life, except when they get on the hit list of a deadly crime syndicate [Vijay Raaz].

Director Abhinay Deo and writer Akshat Varma may have been inspired by the adult comedies of Hollywood, but Delhi Belly is an Indian film at heart. The characters are very Indian and the humor, equally desi. As a matter of fact, there are situations and dialogue that the desis would take to instantly - it's inherently Indian.

Aimed squarely at the youth brigade, Delhi Belly makes an undisguised, earnest attempt to woo this segment of moviegoers. What really works is its screenplay that packs one twist after another. You are as clueless as the on-screen characters about what's in store next. Also, the humor is very on the face and sardonic. It's not one of those humor-laden films that we've been subjected often. Here, the makers don't underline a joke, you need to be intelligent enough to comprehend it. This film speaks a language that the youth would connect with instantly and it will go down in the history of Bollywood as a cult film in its genre.

As far as acting goes everybody has performed well. There are sequences which made me hold onto my stomach and laugh especially I would like to point out the sequence when Vijay Raaz dumps the content of the bottle (shit instead of the supposed smuggled diamonds) that has been delivered to him by Vir Das on a velvet cloth or when the ceiling of the flat where Imran Khan and friends stay comes down on Vijay Raaz and his men etc... Towards the end of the movie it is revealed that there is also a likelihood of a sequel to be made titled 'Disco Fighter' which might star Aamir Khan alongwith the original cast of Delhi Belly. Music of the movie is the highlight and so are the dialogues. As a cinema fan I thoroughly enjoyed the 96 mins of nonstop or rather uninterrupted entertainment dished out by Aamir Khan and his team. I highly recommend this movie for every 'ADULT' viewer.

MURDER 2:

MURDER 2 is the second in the much appreciated 2004 moive MURDER produced by Vishesh Films and directed by Anurag Basu starring Emran Hashmi and Mallika Sherawat. It is not a sequel to the previous blockbuster however it is a new story with nothing common to the earlier movie. Directed by Mohit Suri who had earlier made RAAZ 2 which was another movie in the RAAZ series tells the story of Arjun [Emraan Hashmi] who is an ex-cop who earns his bread doing the odd jobs for gangsters and flesh traders. Arjun meets Sameer, a Goan flesh-peddler, who has been suffering a huge loss as his hookers have been disappearing mysteriously. He assigns Arjun the responsibility of tracing the missing girls. Priya [Jacqueline Fernandez], a model, loves Arjun. However, he is hesitant to commit to this relationship.

Arjun realizes that the missing hookers are connected by one cell phone number. He decides that in order to catch the lion one must feed him the lamb. He devises a plan that involves sending a girl to the particular customer.

Reshma [Sulagna Panigrahi], a college student, takes to prostitution to support her family. She becomes the innocent prey and is sent to the antagonist Dheeraj's [Prashant Narayan] house. The unexpected happens. In the meantime, Arjun and Dheeraj cross paths. Arjun gets into a tiff with Dheeraj and they both land up at the police station. Dheeraj admits to a crime so heinous that even the police are stunned by his outrageous behavior.

Now it's all up to Arjun. He has just one night to find proof against Dheeraj and also trace Reshma.

Director Mohit Suri and writer Shagufta Rafique come to the point at the very start, when a gruesome murder takes place. Thereafter, we are introduced to the varied characters in the plot and what makes it all the more interesting is that all characters are either grey or black. Also, the identity of the serial killer is never concealed, but the motive is, which one realizes much later. It comes as a jolt. 

The story is good, the music is average and the performances are outstanding. Emraan Hashmi and Prashant Narayanan gets their role of a lifetime while Sulagna Panigrahi is fantastic in a very important role. Jacqueline Fernandez gets very less to perform however she is much better compared to her earlier movies 'Aladin' and 'Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai'. 

On the whole this weekend for me was total paisa vasool with these two movies although I would also be watching Salman Khan's home production 'Chillar Party' in the coming days.

Review: Double Dhamaal

After the last two disappointing weeks for Bollywood, here comes the 'Baap' of Comedy i.e. Double Dhamal which is a sequel to the hillarious Dhamal directed by Indra Kumar. Indra Kumar always had a knack for comedy, even if you watch his earlier hits like Dil, Beta, Raja, Ishq, & Masti although the movies were emotional stories or say family socials or romance the comedy track were always superb. With Dhamal and now Double Dhamal Indra Kumar has gone one more notch up on the comedy ladder.

Double Dhamal starts from where the prequel ended. The four good-for-nothing friends from DHAMAAL - Roy [Ritesh Deshmukh], Adi [Arshad Warsi], Manav [Jaaved Jaaferi] and Boman [Aashish Chaudhry]  are back again! They are still as stupid and useless as before. Hard work is a strict no and the only work they have ever done in their lives is to lie down on their backside and dream about a good life where they have everything without doing anything!

And then suddenly they spot their enemy the corrupt Insp. Kabir Nayak [Sanjay Dutt]. But he's no longer a cop and instead of chasing crooks, he's chasing money  driving a Merc, has a posh office and a lavish villa. The four mad caps are green with envy and decide that come what may, by hook or by crook, they will share Kabir's good fortune. And so they blackmail Kabir into making them his business partners.

What they don't know is that soon their dreams are going to turn into nightmares because Kabir has his own hidden agenda, only shared by his sultry girlfriend Kamini [Mallika Sherawat] and sister Kiya [Kangna Ranaut]. And so starts a game of one-upmanship, with both sides having tricks up their sleeves and where sundry characters like Batabhai [Satish Kaushik] and King of Casino, Bonzola, turn up to make their life miserable.

Actingwise everyone has given a career best performance. Ritesh is as hillarious as ever and so is Arshad, Ashish Choudhary and Javed Jaffery. Sanjay Dutt being the target in the movie doesnt have any comic lines or punches but the situations and the characters around him make the scenes more hillarious and he has done a fantastic job as always. Mallika Sherawat is a revelation in a comic role which she has attempted for the first time and so is Kangana. Satish Kaushik is one more brilliant actor who brings the house down with his mere presence.

Songs are nothing to write about apart from 'Jalebi Bai' which is an average fare. Tushar Hiranandani should be applauded for his screenplay and Farhad Sajid for the dialogues. One the whole Double Dhamal is a total entertainer and people should leave their brains at home to watch this comic caper. The movie should do fantastic business at the Box Office and this might also give way to another sequel in the Dhamal series.