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 

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.

Breakaway (Speedy Singhs) Review

**This is a repost of the review on Bollyspice**

After seeing umpteen films about cricket from Lagaan to Iqbal to Victory, Speedy Singhs is the first Canadian-Hindi film we see about ice hockey. But this isn’t your average sports based first with a dash of patriotism and individual storylines of triumph. Its a story about Rajveer Singh [Vinay Virmani] who is stuck between the expectations of following the family business and devotion enforced by his father [Anupam Kher of course] and his dream of greatness in ice hockey. But you can’t play ice hockey without a team so while papa doesn’t know, he forms his team, the Speedy Singhs, and tries to fulfil this desire.

Yes, its Akshay Kumar’s Hari Om Productions first international production jointly produced by Canadian based producer-actor-writer-singer-director Paul Gross. Yes, its directed by Robert Liebermen of “D3: the Mighty Ducks” fame. So the talent is definitely there for a comical drama/feel good entertainer. But somewhere along the lines, the makers of Speedy Singhs/Breakaway lost track. Instead, the film simply rehashes of certain aspects several films therefore losing any originality it possessed. Even the character of the stern father is something Anupam Kher played before and that too, to a T in Bend It Like Beckham. It does have a few giggle worthy point but amongst some of the more crass comical scenes and the downright rude ones, you tend to lose sight of them.

Performance-wise too, the film is quite mediocre with lead male Vinay Virmani who also co-wrote the film with Noel Baker, Jeffrey Schrechter and Matt Simonns, doing a decent job but with still a long way to go. Camilla Belle is just about ok but it wasn’t the most detailed character in the film. Rob Lowe’s character lost his chance to play in the major leagues because of his temper but more than anything, he is quite somber and bored. Russell Peters doesn’t really do anything different from his own stage shows but he does induce a few giggles or two. The boys of the team simply do not have much depth to stand out. A shame since with better writing, they could have made things more interesting. Unfortunately, good comeback lines don’t count.

Perhaps one of the few highlights would be the cinematography by Steve Danyluk and the soundtrack for the film by the Colombia Records India head and music composer, Sandeep Chowta, who has been missing from the forefront since Mukhbir. Yet it isn’t enough to bring the fireworks. The song ‘Shera Di Kaum’ which features Drake, Ludacris and RDB [Akshay Kumar makes a cameo also] is quite catchy but is better heard than seen. ‘Sansar’ and ‘Ne Aaja Ve’ are just about ok. Editing by Susan Shipton cannot be blames since the content itself is lacklustre.

All in all, the light moments are just not enough for Speedy Singhs to score a goal.

Our Rating:

Of course we have our dash of love with Camilla Belle playing the love interest Melissa, sister to coach Dan Winters, played by Rob Lowe that agrees to train the Speedy Singhs to victory. And maybe for a little fun, a dash of comedy supplied by Russell Peters who plays Sonu, the annoying cousin out to make Raj’s life as uncomfortable as possible. However, where the film has reminisces of Bend It Like Beckham and the more recent Patiala House, it is certainly not in the same league as either of these films.

I Wanna Dance With You..

There are just some songs that make you want to get up and dance.. these are a few of mine... As always will keep updating as I go..





There are some songs that dont need to be fast paced but get your foot tapping anyway. Khushbu from Naattupura Paatu






Prabhas has always been ridiculed for his dancing skills but I dont complain .. :)
Kajal and Prabhas from Darling



I don't know what it is but I've always thought Anushka was super good-looking and talented. And with Prabhas (for Billa), double treat!!



I would kill to be able to move like NTR Jnr. So cool! With Mamta in her debut Telugu film, Yamadonga.



Now I know her outfits can be scary at times but this girl Mumaith Khan can move. She openly admits to always say yes for Prabhas because they have superb chemistry and he's so nice. (Yogi)

I think I should have called my Prabhas collection. But its just he has some really good numbers in his filmography. This is the one that started the Mumaith- Prabhas craze.. (Chatrapathi)

Yes its a freemake but the are soo cool together Salman Khan, Govinda and Katrina Kaif in Partner

Song Rocks but choreography could have been better but still... :)

John, Arshad and Bipasha in Goal

Salman Khan and Malaika Arora Khan.. Hot hot hot... Phew!

Maybe its the surprise in the middle .. Akki, Ritiesh, Vidya ..and SRK!  (Hey Baby)