Baby Review

** This is a repost of my review on Bollyspice.com **

 

Picture this. An elite team who target, intercept then either eliminate or bring to justice terrorists and criminals. Whilst on an operation to save one of their own, information is obtained (read smacked black and blue out of) from a criminal of a major attack. Travelling from country to country, now begins the chase to take out the masterminds behind it. Sound familiar. Well it should. You’ve seen it more than a million times, with one of the latest being Akshay Kumar’s Holiday. However, coming from the National Award winning Neeraj Pandey, you would think Baby would blow your mind. Yet the mind is not blown enough.

 

Right from the actors to the action, Baby was never meant to have the usual tone for a CIA-in-combat-fighting-against-terrorism storyline. It was more gritty, more swift, more dark. This isn’t about the patriot that screams his passion filled anthem at the top of his lungs. The unit of Baby are crazy, persistent and willing to go ahead with anything for their nation. All this even with the knowledge their government has plausible deniability up their sleeve for the rare occasion they get caught.

 

At the helm of the team, we have our martial arts master of screen Akshay Kumar. As Ajay, a paramilitary recruited under Feroze Khan played by Danny Denzongpa and his man at the forefront for the important covert ops, Akshay delivers and gets the most exposure. His collaborations with Anupam Kher the few comical scenes in the film but he sticks to his characterisation throughout. He himself strolls his way into our giggle bone and does his magic, wig and all. Rana Daggubati gets about 3 lines to say, is built like a tank and is aptly referred to as Hulk. At the same, you don’t really get a chance to see the actor enough to think he’s dopey also. Another character with not enough footage is Taapsee Pannu. In a short role, the lovely lass packed quite a punch, literally. Hopefully we will see more of her. Off the field, we have Danny Denzongpa who is forever reliable to be suave and oh so cool. Murali Sharma gives you the giggles everytime you see him on screen and Karan Wahi doing the backend hacking/paper trail/call interception is just okay. K.K. Menon is reliable for instilling fear without the extra bad guy buffoonery and does his bit while Rasheed Naz exhibits a cunning sinister character aplomb.

So what brings down this almost brilliant story? Well, a few things. For one, the blatant obviousness of the screenplay. Yes, having a cryptic script isn’t good but for a suspense action film, its kinda vital and the action can only do so much. What you end up with is somewhat a bedtime story. The climax is about the only time you are on the edge of your seat and it wasn’t the most exhilarating setup either. Then there is the lack of connection to the characters. Whether is Rana, Tapsee or Madhurima Tuli who plays Akshay’s wife Anjali, the loose ends and lack of depth couldn’t be covered.

 

Now we all know its the movie business, and while you can swallow the political smothered all over the place, you don’t really know what writer Neeraj was intending.

 

Baby is not path breaking, nor is it a commercially spellbinding film. The heroism is evident and yet, the music is lacking in feel. So is it’s lackluster affair, in Bold and Capital.

 

Rating: 1/5 

Action Jackson Review

**This is repost of my review on Bollyspice.com**

 

Whichever way you look at Action Jackson, the puns, the slapstick and the lack of plates for everyone to eat on in beginning is all synonymous with a particular kind comedy action masala. The little touches of style maybe what Prabhudheva is famous for and the leading ladies Sonakshi Sinha and Yami Gautham might add eye candy, but there is nothing new nor entertaining for this Ajay Devgn starrer. Besides Ajay of course.

 

In most cases, you would start with a story. Two guys, AJ and Vishy (Ajay Devgn) both look alike, no relation. One is a small time yet high powered thug. The other doing a runner from his Mafia Boss. Its all comedy and action with a dash of semi-nudity and lots of mini skirt/ghagra thumkaas till the duo join hands for… wait for it… more comedy and action. But would you call it comedy if it was unintentionally humourous like Kunaal Roy Kapoor foodie performance? I guess it’s not meant to be taken seriously. Why else would the Mafia Boss (Anantharaj) have orange suit wearing goonies to do his yes sir and still expected to be ruthless and menacing.

 

Chalo, maaf kiya. The back up isn’t that great either. Vijay Kumar Arora’s cinematography could only make up for so much of the shortcomings of A.C.Mughil’s story. The screenplays gapping holes seemed to have missed the eyes of Prabhudheva, Shiraz Ahmed and Mughil. With misfortune at hand, you can’t really blame Bunty Nagi for his editing but you do wish he had used his scissors more on the 145minute feature. Not really worth mentioning the music since Himesh Reshammiya  is hell bent on slapping his music to your ears or making you pick your own as to where you heard the original from.

 

So Ajay isn’t backed by the legendary story telling he has won awards for. Even Bajirao Singham had more snap the second time than Aj and Vishy put together. Sonakshi my darling, too much masala isn’t good for anyone. But keep up the workout. Yami needs a new manager if this was supposed to be a stepping stone for her into the big leagues. Manavsi Mamgai looks like a million bucks but you don’t need me to tell you that. Anantharaj hasn’t been seen in Hindi cinema for a while but somehow the actor who has had his fair share of stardom in the South doesn’t bring the pizzazz with him this time.

 

Normally turning off your thinking cap and going with the flow would work when you have films like Action Jackson. In fact it has most aspects from Prabhudheva’s previous films including a leading lady, Sonakshi. Yet, the ace choreographer and director has fallen short this time. No Action, No Jackson. Only an urge for extraction. From the theatre halls. ASAP.

 

Rating: 0.5/5

Happy Ending Review

**This is repost of my review on Bollyspice.com**

 

The duo that brought Shor In The City and Go Goa Gone have shifted gear with their latest offering of Happy Ending, starring Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz, Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey. But don’t worry, Raj and DK have their message clear. You can’t make a difficult film for the aam janta (common people). How that would amount to an amalgamation Richard Curtis filmography is a different question altogether. Yet its not all bad.

 

Yes we see Saif Ali Khan for the umpteenth time as a playboy charmer man-child Yudi Jaitley, profession this time a writer. And yes, we have some very beautiful women including leading ladies Ileana D’Cruz and Kalki Koechlin falling for him. There’s also the easy drunk-married-yet-regretting-it friend Monty played by Ranvir Shorey. Lets add Priety Zinta in a special appearance and NOT a song, and our beloved Govinda to add some more flavour. Other than that, simply take the blueprint from any Hugh Grant film of the 90s and Voila.. Happy Ending.

 

Credit must be given though. Making fun of itself while being ironic about the fact that its copying does work for the film in parts. Defeating the critics ridicule as the writers know and acknowledge the spoofing has been done before but the film does flow through smoothly. At some stage, you may start trying to pick out the spoof as it isn’t slap-your-face-spoof.

 

Performances too will have you questioning yourself. Saif plays for us 2-4 minutes worth of Yogi and his wackiness, and this is not including Paahi, Tussi such a pussycat. However if the spoofism extends to roles, then what better way work Saif in and a dual role without the usual twin/cousin/magic explanation Ranvir Shorey is perfect as the married-but-regrets-it Montu, Yudi’s best friend and perfect example of his worst fear. Kalki Koechlin has slotted herself as the counterpoint but not used enough which is a shame. On the other hand, Ileana D’Cruz brings out a conventional and flirtatious modern woman on screen. It was nice seeing Preity Zinta on screen and I hope she comes back more often. No major histrionics required from her as the voice of reason though. Govinda has some great lines about the aam janta as Single Screen Superstar Armaan looking for a smash hit film.

 

Now its understandable the director duo were trying to implement the “Love is not a four letter word” concept. At the end of the day, it is very true that practicality has taken over our existence with everyone running after something. So the theme fits into the little bit of reality you will find in Happy Ending. Maybe you could add in the music by Sachin Jigar. But at the end of that  same day, you aren’t going to remember much more than the spoofed scenes, ‘G Phaad Ke’ hook reference and Yogi.

 

Maybe the cinematography will entice you enough to finally make the trip to the U.S. of A. Maybe you fall for ‘Mileya’. As you walk out of the halls, whichever way you fell, Happy Ending wasn’t matched up to what Paaji advised nor was it a comedy about romantic comedies. But you laugh, on occasion because you were warned.

 

Rating: 2/5

Mardaani Review

Bollywood goes through it trends and the current is having the leading lady as the main protagonist. Love her, hate her, it’s the classic they cannot be ignored. Some cases are of the next door neighbour like English Vinglish, and some have the woman that lost everything seeking revenge like Kahaani. Mardaani follows this protagonist trend but is the story we would skip over after reading the title from the newspaper. The one that makes our blood boil but we redirect our frustrations to social media venting or domesticity.

Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukherji) is a senior inspector in the crime branch unit in Mumbai. She is a street smart cop that follows her duty and is no shrinking flower. She knows her law and she knows what’s right. But everyone has a nightmare they hope and pray don’t come true. For Shivani, when a child name Pyaari (Priyanka Sharma) from her local shelter goes missing, she makes it her responsibility to find her.  Yet even she will not be able to foresee how far she will have to go to get her back.

Now let’s begin the dissection. Regardless of what you have seen Rani do in the past, I suggest you forget all of that before you walk in. She is unlike other policewoman depicted on screen in Bollywood. However, Rani needs to work on her action and surprisingly how she delivers the hard hitting dialogues. On the opposite end, Tahir Bhasin who plays Walt sinks his teeth right in and makes you despise his cockiness. The age factor is brought out in dialogue but also adds the edge as Rani is taunted by her “Under 19 team ka 12th batsman”. The flipside of course, is how she drags out the ego in him during their interactions.

Even though there is nothing wrong with Jisshu Sengupta or Priyanka Sharma’s performance, literally everyone in the supporting cast is forgotten in the battle between Rani and Tahir. This may enhance the cat-and-mouse play between them but when the film starts to falter, even they can’t save it.  It’s disappointing when the film starts off slow, peeks your interest, only to let it slide again. Screenplay could have been tauter to maintain the consistency while Sanjib Datta’s editing needed to keep verbosity in check. Cinematography by Artur Zurawski slips between cinematic sheen and real life grit.

However, credit will be given where due. Gopi Puthran’s writing definitely needs a mention since the story and facts behind it are nerve rackingly honest. Pradeep Sarkar may have been battered blue with his first film for predictability and wafer thin story line but with Mardaani he engages emotion to a level. Despite having patchy work in the second half and almost all momentum lost in the climax, the fact that the audience literally clapped as the closing credit rolled up means they were invested in the film enough to be shocked by its truths and coaxed by the slight liberties taken by its makers.

Mardaani is not an untold story but perhaps one of the few that dragged to light statistics no one wants to know. If anything can be taken away from this film, it would be the awareness of a startling and horrific truth.

Rating: 2/5

Khoobsurat Review

 Sonam Kapoor playing the lead role in the Khoobsurat remake made enough of a splash in the water well of b-town for people to notice. And now that the film is out, I guess it’s now up to the audience to make or break the film at the box office. The slight changes in Khoobsurat are there to give this classic tale new life and its setting is in a different era to boot. When it comes to remakes, the industry has seen its fair share. The question that follows is to whether it was worth buying a movie ticket to watch it or not.

For the likes of the modern generation, Sonam Kapoor looks the part and attempts to throw in the YOLO (that’s you live only once for the uninformed) attitude they can relate to. Fawad Khan fits in the character of Vikram Singh Rathore to the T and is quite dashing at that. But the one thing that most people will see as the sour grape in the fruit salad is there is no chemistry between these two nor is there any empathy for Sonam Kapoor from the audience. The audience is left completely stuck between a rock and a hard place because of this awkwardness. We have seen our fair share of wacky ideas being implemented in a field on screen but this particular one doesn’t work on the basis you don’t feel for Sonam in her endeavours to bring happiness to the royal family.

Ratna Pathak Shah as the queen and Aamir Hussain as the king play their roles sufficiently. Aditi Rao Hydari isn’t required to do much. Kiron Kher plays the Punjabi mother once again with her quintessential charm. But none of these established actors could save the gaping holes in the story. Yes the Disney backed film announces this to be a candy floss cinema that doesn’t require you to think but even the fun-factor of this genre is lacking severely. Adding in the music doesn’t strike a chord, barring the peppy Engine Ki Seeti. There is only so much costume design and cinematography can do to lighten the on screen mood.

All of the above mentioned factors come into play when you look at the film as it is. This is without considering the cult classic original directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and lead by the golden Rekha. So while the Disney banner can be all grand, the couple can be younger generation and we replace a middle class family with royalty, you cannot avoid the main problem with watching a film like Khoobsurat staring Sonam Kapoor and Fawad Khan. You don’t fall for the misfit as much as do for the cute looking prince in a sherwani or suit.

Sonam may be a Disney princess with Khoobsurat but you definitely don’t feel like you watched a classic with this film.

Rating 1/5

Shoreline

As I glare out the window

I take moment to catch a cold

Breathing ice through my lips

Wearing and withering a soul

Fictitious creatures crawl inside

Sheltered in dewdrop of tears 

Not a sound to be seen in light

Just a swish of piercing spears

Stumbling out from the wreckage

All that is left and whatever remains

No blankets to embrace for us

Only the darkness within stains

Coastlines are now closed in the view

A tremble from what began before

So much yet so little to explore

Worthless mention of this yore

Pilla to Pellam - My Wedding

I don't know why I didn't plaster this all over my page. Maybe fear, maybe laziness or maybe because I couldn't find the right words. In any case, I am letting you in on the next page of my life story. The writing has become less but I don't think I would be complete, without it being here. Granted its only a few photos, but I hope you get the feeling of warmth, love, family and tradition as I do. Even though I strike a pose every now and then. 

I guess the best thing about these photos is that no matter what happened leading up to the day and what was to happen after, you wont see them in the photos. In fact, I contemplated that I did make a mistake with not having a video until I looked at us in these photos. I remember starting the day off by having to race to the shops for the toe rings (metti) because everyone forgot. I remember my bridesmaid (Pombala Thozhi) saying the groom to be was freaking out and it was cute. Yet, none of it shows. 

He isn't perfect. He gets cranky. He says "what's your point" a lot. His sense of music is that of a purist. He is forever correcting me. But he loves me. For me. For what I do. For how I am. The faces, the pouting, the silence, the yapping, the crazy, the fun. All of it. Just me.

So... He is my life, my love, my husband. And this is our wedding day.

Jai Ho Review

*** This is repost from Bollyspice.com review *** 

Take any day in your life that you wish you had a helping hand. A day you may have forgotten your wallet, when you needed to pay for your bus ticket. A day your car broke down, when you had to go to an interview. What if a stranger gave you that helping hand? No questions asked and in return, didn’t ask for money or a favour. Just that you help another when the chance came to you. Would you? Jai Ho shows us how a common man that left his army life, takes on the fight to help humanity, and for a bit of masala, bashes a few bad guys along the way.

Based on the concept from Pay It Forward (2000), A. R. Murugadoss’ designed the power packed story for his film Stalin (2006). Being the remake season that it was (or is) the film’s bumper success made it to the ever watchful eyes of Sohail Khan but for one reason or another the film got delayed until now.

Now in the past, we have had some questions about Salman Khan’s movie choices and stories, but reassurance comes in the form of Sohail Khan helming the megaphone and Dilip Shukla adapting the story for Hindi cinema. Yes, the film has some funny caricatures in the form of the nephew Kabir (Naman Jain), Rinky’s mother (Resham Tipnis) or Rinky herself (Daisy Shah) with her random Gujarati dialogue. But the story is simple and with a message worth thinking about. One man, whether he is a common man or an ex- army officer, can make a change. Of course when that man is Jai Agnihotri (Salman Khan), who stands up and fights with the ferocity of a lion if he needs to, you can expect a few bloody faces. Even if that bloody face belonged to the minister’s (Danny Denzongpa) son-in-law to be.

Salman Khan has always done action filled roles but of late, he has been accused of not having a character as such and taking over the camera. Yet Jai Ho will show a restrained Salman without the slapstick comedy emotion. The fire that would be apparent in a fighter is believable, but that’s not to say the actor doesn’t smile or have fun. Even though Daisy has no role to speak of besides the leading lady, she shows promise that at least she is a good dancer. Tabu plays Salman’s sister and as an actress that we have seen don various roles, she fits the part and plays it well making sure she is mature in performance even though it is not clear that she is mature in age to Salman.

Nadira Babbar as Salman Khan’s mother makes a funny entrance and continues to add comical value with a practicality that we as individuals will hear ourselves say sometimes. However, as much as the protagonist characters show some sort of ‘character’ and have a few meaningful lines, the same cannot be said for the antagonists. Danny Denzongpa is serious in face yet lacks in word. Whether his character is supposed to be a verbose villain or not, he doesn’t leave the required impact a political villain would give. In fact his daughter played by Sana Khan, showed more promised of cunningness that a female antagonist would have but also falls apart due to lack of screen time.

The individuals that make cameos like Tulip Joshi, Mahesh Manjrekar and Nauheed Cyrusi play their part in the miniscule amount of time they get given but Genelia Deshmukh’s cameo as the handicapped student Suman leaves the biggest impact and not just on Salman.

Yet while the performances collaborately work together toward pulling the film toward box office success, there are certain technical aspects that pull it back. The editing, done by Harsh Tiwari, worked when looking at the crispness of the action scenes and the slow motion ‘ultra-violence’ that any action film goer would enjoy, but it is too long for the story line that is in front of the audience. The music by Sajid-Wajid and Amal Malik leave as big an impact as a needle in a haystack: You might find them by chance likeable but literally forget them once the song is done. As big as “Dhinka Chika” from Ready was, it’s composer Devi Sri Prasad returns with simply an introduction song for the leading lady. However he too falls down the same forgettable path. However kudos is to be mentioned for the stunts and cinematography as both of them excel in their respective fields whether it be smashing buildings apart or designing a complex for us.

The biggest factor that this writer walked away with when watching Jai Ho was the fact that it does something that hasn’t been seen in Hindi cinema in quite some time… providing a message. There is no doubt that the action would have been enjoyed by some people, the comedy by others and investors are out there to make money. But the idea that a favour is repaid by instructing others to help as it was shown in Pay it Forward and now in Jai Ho is something that will utilize the world’s biggest asset: the People.

So to the Bollywood film lover who wants to see a Salman Khan film, you will enjoy this as you will see him in a ‘slightly’ different role but just as much action to keep your eyes popping. But don’t be surprised if that message lingers in your mind.

Holiday Review

*** This is repost from the Bollyspice.com review***

Sometimes it’s a curse when you watch various language films. Especially when the remake season churns out yet another one. You rely so heavily on the writers and the actors to give you something to enjoy and walk away with. Walking into Holiday was like that for this writer, but alas, she didn’t walk away with much. In fact, after watching A.R. Murugadoss take Ghajini from Tamil to Hindi, I was more scared. Scared to expect anything like Ghajini’s history. Well, history did not repeat itself and the magic of re-creation has failed.

The story is pretty simple. Military man Virat played by Akshay comes home for holidays but stumbles into a terrorist game plan. On the side we have Saiba played by Sonakshi Sinha for the funnies and some glamour. But it doesn’t take a long time for people to see where the connecting dots are. So we step into the “how they did it”.

Making a frame by frame replica of film may seem like the easy way out. But it wouldn’t be fair on Cinematographer Nataraja Subramaniam. The similarity isn’t as bad when it came to the songs. Why didn’t they choose to change it? Possibly for the same reason there is little to no change in the script. After all, everyone wants their movie to be a grand success. So maybe the director, who is also the writer for both the original film and this remake, is looking at something flawless. The truth is however different. And the falling flat in your face-ness continues with Pritam. Barring ‘Aaj Dil Shayrana’ and ‘Ashq Na Ho’ for Arijit Singh and ‘Tu Hi To Hai’ for Benny, you have heard them all before. The format is the same.

Now we all know this is nowhere near one of the finer movies in Akshay Kumar’s career, but he made use of the skills he has and when the camera shifts from cinematic perfection to security camera footage, you know the person jumping from building to building is the real deal. Kudos to Greg Powell, the stunt director. Sonakshi Sinha starts off with a spunk that quickly fizzles out, making her part redundant and indication for a song. Sumeet Raghavan is pretty much a gags guy until Akshay needs support in making a logical link. But you can bypass these flaws if you look at it as a semi-masala flick. However, the biggest drawback in the cast would have to go to Freddy Daruwala. He has the most crucial role to play and should be oozing with a deadly menace in his silence but I got nada. Zilch. Not even the background score could make you change what you are supposed to feel – shivers down your spine intensity – to what you do feel – Pappu needs to sulk a bit more. Every cinegoer knows the hero’s impact will only look good if his villain has charisma to charmingly scare your socks off.

At the end of the day, the original film with Vijay Chandrasekhar and Kajal Aggarwal had a few advantages that were simple. There was no expectation of logic, the role of a military man was new for the lead actor and the antagonist played by Vidyut Jamwal commanded fear on screen. There is no doubt Akshay Kumar has the skill for the role but I’m sorry Akki, you need to remember your age when its showing. So while comparisons were never the intention, as a hindsight, you wonder if A.R.Murugadoss had done the same when remaking the film in Hindi, Holiday may have seen a different fate.

So where does this all leave the girl in the crowd reading her ticket stub outside the theatre? Holiday – A prepaid planned disaster.

Humshakals Review

*** This review is a repost from Bollyspice.com review ***

There are some movies that can be remade with current trends/technology and made to suit a new generation of viewers. Who knows, they can even be a cult classic in themselves. But to walk into a film with the byline ‘A Film Made By Sajid Khan’ is to forgo that notion and a few rights. The rights to have logic in your dictionary, the right to any real wit or sense of humour and the right to have a threshold on how much crass writing you can bear.

There is no point in making a mention of a story since there is none. In fact, films like Double Dhamaal and Rascals had more of a story than Humshakals does. Sach. Three sets of Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Ram Kapoor, foreign locals, impossible situations, three beautiful ladies with no screen presence at all and a soundtrack to put you to sleep. That is all this film is about. Even the idea of dressing the three main actors as women has been done a trillion times before.

It’s understandable that slapstick comedy has its audience and Bollywood cine-goers take a particular fancy to it. It’s also understandable that some comedy isn’t required to be rocket science. But Sajid, how many times are you going to think the audience is stupid enough to take you seriously as a director? There is literally nothing in this film that you haven’t seen or heard before. Actually there is. The new is the level of stupidity on film. And while I can accept that not all great movies have brand spanking new stories, as a lover of comedy, there is no excuse for long-winded, haphazard writing that leaves the mind numb from sheer torture.

None of the actors could possibly save this horseplay infested film. Saif looks so disinterested, he’s sleep walking. For an actor who has shown wit in his comic roles, this film is a huge step backwards. Yes, Riteish has done questionable comedies before, you can’t say the man hasn’t been the diluted saving grace. Ram Kapoor gives a 5 second interesting performance in a negative shade and then that vanishes once again. Both him and Riteish, and the locales, are about the only decent aspects of the film but that too is only barely.

Tamannaah Bhatia is still fairly new to Hindi cinema but if this is going to be her path to selection, her future will be skeptical. The same goes for Esha Gupta, since wearing skimpy clothing and bikinis doesn’t amount to acting skill. Oh Bipasha Basu, what can be said that hasn’t been said already? Beyond the wish that these lovely ladies think twice before selecting a film like this.

A song that is heard by the heart stays on your playlist for longer than a song stuck in the mind. The negatives continue as Himesh Reshammiya decks out the tunes and literally, you forget them the minute they are heard. A shame since that’s where Himesh used to stay, once upon a time. Rameshwar S. Bhagat doesn’t help the cause as he forgets to cut out a lot of the nonsense writing, making the film an unbearable 2 hours 40 minutes. But its not like he had the best material to work with. Which brings us to the main culprit, our director. A director that started with Housefull and didn’t rest till we saw a Housefull 2: Dirty Dozen, and threw in a Himmatwala in between. Sajid Khan had the wit to take a dig at his own film but forgot to learn from it.

So am I biased? No. Did I have any expectation. No. Will I recommend Humshakals to anyone? Absolutely NOT. Not even to my own humshakal.