Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Bajrangi Bhaijaan - Movie Review

Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Bajrangi Bhaijaan - Movie Review: It has been a long time that I wrote any movie reviews. However, this week's release   Bajrangi Bhaijaan   has dragged me out of m...

Bajrangi Bhaijaan - Movie Review

It has been a long time that I wrote any movie reviews. However, this week's release Bajrangi Bhaijaan has dragged me out of my hibernation to write a review.

First things first, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is not an usual Salman Khan movie. No cable hanging fights, no stripping, no popular one-liners, no Munni type item songs and no villains that we always associate his movies with. I think after Tere Naam this is one movie where Salman has actually experimented with a subject and he comes out a winner, winning not only his loyal fan's hearts but also the so called nasty reviewers.

The film starts off with a Pakistani village household cheering for Pakistan while watching its nail biting crucial cricket match with India on television. Inspired by the ace Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, a to be mother from the household names her daughter as Shahida (Harshaali Malhotra). The girl despite being beautiful and expressive does not speak a word, which worries her parents day after day. On the advice of an elderly person in the family, Shahida's mother decides to take Shahida to a wish-fulfilling holy dargah in Delhi, India. On their way back to Pakistan, their train halts due to a technical failure. That's when the innocent and animal loving Shahida sees a helpless lamb fallen in a pit. She gets down from the train and just when she rescues the lamb, the train starts moving, thus leaving her behind in an unknown country all alone. She quickly boards the next immediate train and reaches Delhi. It is here when she meets the extremely God fearing and a devout Hanuman bhakt Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi aka Bajrangi (Salman Khan). With the intention of helping the little girl who cannot talk, Bajrangi takes her home, only to be ridiculed by his family members. The only person who stands by him is his to-be-wife Rasika (Kareena Kapoor). Pavan and Rasika try their level best to 'decode' the identity of the child by dropping names of almost all the Indian states, but in vain. Havoc strikes their family household when they discover that Munni (aka Shahida) not only eats meat, but is also a Muslim and above all… a Pakistani! That's when Pavan decides to brave all the odds (visa issues, passport problems etc). Despite all the odds, when Bajrangi manages to cross the Indo-Pak border, but gets caught by the Pakistan police, who label him off as an Indian spy. That's when Bajrangi encounters a freelance news reporter Chaand Nawab (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who shoots the whole Pavan-Munni 'adventures' on his handycam, hoping this will be his big ticket to name and fame as a journalist. However, as he discovers their Pavan's good intentions, he too joins the duo in their journey and helps them out. Does Chaand Nawab manage to 'encash' on the Pavan-Munni story in order to be taken seriously as a journalist, does Pavan succeed in uniting Munni with her parents, does the ever-truthful Pavan manage to prove his innocence of him not being a spy before the Pakistani police and how does the simpleton Bajrangi gets transformed into Bajrangi Bhaijaan is what forms the rest of the story. 

Actingwise this is Salman Khan’s best performance till date. Newcomer Harshali Malhotra is a revelation. With no dialogues to mouth, she does a wonderful job with expressions. Kareena Kapoor in a cameo is okay. Nawazuddin Siddique as always is endearing.

Kabir Khan after his previous movies viz. Kabul Express, New York and Ek Tha Tiger again proves his metal. The story by V. Vijayendra Prasad and dialogues by Kausar Munir are perfect and the movie is set to motion right at the beginning with no space for boredom setting in. The visuals of POK is wonderfully captured. The music is average.

Overall it’s worth every penny you spend. Go for it!

My Verdict: *****

International Women's Day - Men's Take

On the advent of ‪‎International Women‬'s Day I along with my friends Chaya Goswami and Pranay Parekh went asking few men if they knew what International ‪Women's Day‬ was all about... watch to find out  quite hilarious...

Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Big Eyes - Amy Adams & Christoph Waltz Rock!

Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Big Eyes - Amy Adams & Christoph Waltz Rock!: The awards season are here and so are my reviews of the latest movies that are receiving some wonderful accolades at these functions. So...

Big Eyes - Amy Adams & Christoph Waltz Rock!

The awards season are here and so are my reviews of the latest movies that are receiving some wonderful accolades at these functions. So today I am going to start the series with Tim Burton produced and directed real life story of Margaret Keane - Big Eyes. The movie stars Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz who have been winning one award after the other.

The story tells the turbulent relationship between Walter Keane (Waltz) and Margaret Keane (Adams). Margaret is a good artist who paints children with big eyes. Her work go majorly unnoticed in the early 1950's and soon she falls in love and marries Walter Keane a fellow artist who promises to give her and her daughter Jane (Delaney Raye) security and protection from her ex-husband.

Walter soon starts showcasing her and his creations at every gallery and influential people unless a tiff in a bar makes him a national figure and mistakes Margaret's paintings to be his. Soon people start noticing his work (originally made by his wife) and he becomes a national celebrity and the big eyes kids paintings become a sensation. Using his marketing savvy, he sells the prints cheaply in hardware stores and gas stations across the United States while Margaret is relegated to the background.

Slowly the tensions between the couple heighten when an intoxicated and infuriated Walter tries to set fire Margaret and Jane who escape to Hawaii. Margaret lodges a complaint against Walter claiming the ownership of the paintings ending up in an ugly court fight.

Performances by Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz is outstanding. Both the actors fit the role to the 'T' and bring to life the celebrity couple onscreen. The story, screenplay and dialogues are quite gripping. The period setup looks authentic. Tim Burton has done justice to the subject and comes up triumphant.

On the whole its a wonderful movie and therefore every accolade coming its way is well deserved.

My Verdict: ****
Poor - *, Average - **, Good - ***, Very Good - ****, Excellent - *****

Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Penguins of Madagascar: Cuteness Personified!

Shy-way: Love it or Leave it: Penguins of Madagascar: Cuteness Personified!: This week I got to watch Penguins of Madagascar which is a spin-off of the Madagascar film series, and takes place right after the eve...

Penguins of Madagascar: Cuteness Personified!

This week I got to watch Penguins of Madagascar which is a spin-off of the Madagascar film series, and takes place right after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Produced by Dreamworks and directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith, this is a cute movie and will definitely entertain the kids this holiday season.
In Antarctica, three young penguins, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), and Rico (Conrad Vernon), rescue an egg from hungry leopard seals and set themselves adrift on an iceberg. From the egg hatches Private (Christopher Knights) and the four become a team. A decade later, directly after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, the Penguins depart from the circus and celebrate Private's birthday by breaking into Fort Knox so that Private can buy Cheesy Dibbles, a discontinued product, from their break room vending machine. However, Private begins to feel unimportant to the team. While Skipper is the leader and strategist, Kowalski is the brains, and Rico the arsenal specialist, Private is continually referred to as just being a cute face and doesn't have any remarkable skills.

The Penguins are suddenly kidnapped in the vending machine and flown to a submarine base in Venice. There, the Penguins meet Dave (John Malkovich), a villainous octopus who disguises himself under the human alias of Dr. Octavius Brine. Dave used to be adored in the Central Park Zoo, until the penguins arrived and unknowingly stole his shine. The octopus was then shipped to other zoos but his fame was stolen each time by a penguin shine. Embittered, Dave now wants revenge on the penguins. Does Dave succeed in his plan to take revenge on the penguins or does the four friend foil his plans is something that needs to be seen on the screen.

The movie starts slowly but thirty minutes through the story it gathers speed and soon you are engrossed in the adventures of the four friends on the mission to save the entire penguin population in the world. Direction by Darnell and Smith is wonderful and the screenplay is quite crisp and engrossing. The movie on the whole will appeal to the children and the message given in the movie about not judging others based on their appearance will definetly strike a chord with the audience.

Overall a nice movie for the holidays!

My Verdict: ****
Poor - *, Average - **, Good - ***, Very Good - ****, Excellent - *****