Badlapur

‪#‎badlapur‬: It is undoubtedly one of the better movies (but DO NOT expect an Ek Haseena Thhi...it is not even in the same league!). Nawaz is good as usual (definitely not his best performance...but then his 'good' is better than most contemporary actors' 'best'!) in the author-backed role. However, the surprise element is Varun Dhawan! The guy can act! Kudos to the kid for even signing up for this one! To be on the same frame as Nawaz (Varun should definitely get a bravely award for dis one, if not anything else ) and not getting overshadowed by his brilliance is a feat in itself. But that said, he doesn't quite manage to get the age factor right...although he has a hint of grey in his beard his should have put in some more work on the walk and the mannerisms in general. And yes HE NEED TO WORK ON HIS DIALOGUE DELIVERY. He has something very comic about it...and his voice has absolutely no depth whatsoever (a frend had pointed out about his Hindi diction...but I am not even getting into that). Loved Radhika Apte (in a particular scene she make you uncomfortable with her uncomfortableness). Yami Gautam hardly has anything to do. Vinay Pathak is strictly ok in what I'd call a cameo.As for the movie in general...it is certainly one of the well-made (mellow) Noirs of recent times. It is dark, sinister and gory but the director never goes overboard (although sumtyms u actually want him to...maybe it is a bit too simple for my twisted mind!). The attention to details is impressive. The use of rain is cool, the right dose of black humour makes it all the more interesting and the (reverse) Batman reference is not lost! But, I somehow missed the element of mystery...at no point does the plot twist blow your mind! Also, I think the film should have ended with Nawaz instead of Huma's moral preaching. And do we REALLY need Varun to dance in every movie? yes, I agree he is good at it, but I am unable to find any logic behind picturising the Jee Karda song they way they have. It just spoils the mood. And of course Varun getting down at Badlapur for absolutely no rhyme of reason is really really kiddish (when it comes to symbolism, Bollywood really do not believe in keeping it subtle! ). 

NH10

‪#‎NH10‬: So after Roman Polanski, it's Quentin Tarantino! The references to Kill Bill are just too difficult to ignore (starting from the general blood and gore to da distinct yellow jacket, fringe and iron rod dat replaces da 'bride's sword), especially in the climax. Although it is far less complex and not half as brilliant as Tarantino's masterpiece, as a standalone film (and as per Bollywood standards), it is a pretty well-made one(Note: it is NOT a remake of Kill Bill). Also, i luvd da fact dat the background songs stay in da background and are not as overpowering as those in Badlapur(great songs though) And of course it will be a turning point for Anushka. She gives her best performance (although she was nvr really known for her acting!) till date. But jokes apart, she is good! So much so, dat in certain frames u can actually ignore her bee-stung lips! N why Deepti Naval? Ah because the role was tailor-made for Supriya Pathak n she wld hav been too predictable taken away the twist (n thus ruined it for da uncle sitting next to me, who declared that since Deepti Naval is a good lady, Anushka is now safe) Its kind of ironical that in their heydays Supriya Pathak kind of followed in Deepti Naval's footsteps and now its the other way round. But just as Supriya got eclipsed by Deepti then, Supriya's shadow looms large on this one. However, wat i didn't understand is why Anushka didn't drag da injured husband to da darker part of da tunnel? She sat him where it was most illuminated (da scene sumhow reminded me of da climax of Ek Haseena Thhi where urmila similarly left a helpless Saif in a similar tunnel/dungeon to get slowly eaten by rats) and it was jst a matter of tym dat da goons wld have spotted him n killed him.

Yamla Pagla Deewana

Director: Samir Karnik
Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kulraj Randhawa, Mukul Dev and Anupam Kher



Yamla Pagla Deewana starts with a montage and a hilarious narrative on the ‘bhichda hua family’ phenomenon of 70s’ Bollywood and the sepia-toned scenes from the blockbusters or yesteryears make way to a modern day family where Paramveer Singh (Sunny Deol) lands in Benaras from Canada in search for his long lost father, Dharam Singh (Dharmendra) and his brother Gajodhar Singh (Bobby Deol); and the first person he meets on the busy streets of the holy town is of course the kid brother! It turns out that the father-son duo has quite a reputation as petty thugs. Nonetheless the big brother promises their mother (Nafisa Ali) that he will unite the family. But, before that he must ensure his brother’s love story a happy ending by tackling the girl's (Kulraj Randhawa) tough brothers (Anupam Kher, Mukul Dev and the rest).

After the melodrama that was Apne, it is refreshing to see the Deol are sharing screen space in a comedy film and make the most out of it. It can be regarded as a tribute to the Deols as well. If the black and white photographs of the stunning Dharmendra of 60s makes your heart skip a beat, the songs of Barsaat and Kareeb playing in the background during the climax reminds one of the curly-haired, cute Bobby Deol in his initial days, and Sunny dancing with a tube-well on his shoulder makes you remember the famous scene from Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. The scene where Bobby re-enacts the famous ‘suicide scene’ from Sholay and is quickly silenced by a straight-faced Sunny who snaps: Woh din gaye jab larkiya ise maan jaati thhi, takes you off guard and then makes you burst into laughter.

All the Deols compliment each other with their comic timing and Anupam Kher is as brilliant as Anupam Kher but it is Mukul Dev who is the surprise package in the movie. His acting looks effortless- this kid has surely come a long way since his Ekse Badkar Ek days! Kulraj (Kareena Kareena) Randhawa has little to do than look pretty- most of the first half she sashays through crowded the streets of Benaras in hotpants (which reminds you of Sonali Bendre’s Nirma act) and post interval she enacts a bit of Kajol of DDLJ, a bit of Kareena of Jab We Met and a bit of what not- but all through she looks pretty indeed!

What begins as a spoof on the masala films of the 70s, turns into a modern version of the classic love story of Mirza-Sahibaan, but YPD is certainly not a Kameenay or Dev.D. The movie is an out-and-out masala movie, replete with unbridled goofiness, Punjabi stereotypes, one-liner PJs, raunchy item numbers and unpretentiously over-the-top fight sequences. The cinematography is good, the songs apart from one are atrocious, a better script and a better direction might have made a far better movie out of YPD but on the whole it is a movie for the aam-junta and a must-watch if you want a hearty laugh sans any brainwork or if you are a Deols fan or if you are a Rajinikanth fan-lookout for the scenes where Sunny holds up whole balcony with his one hand, or where he fights 50/60 people alone with his hands stuck in his pocket, or where he shouts and breaks all the window panes-what Rajini can…Sunny can too!

Lamhaa...‘The untold story of Kashmir’

Lamhaa depicts many issues that plagues Kashmir but doesn’t delve into any. It just gives a cursory glance. The subplots rush you through a village of half-widows waiting for their husbands, who were taken by the police a decade ago; army officials selling their souls to the enemies of the country and violating human rights; kids losing their innocence and lending voice to the anti-india jihad; the plight of the meagerly paid soldiers as they defend the country risking their lives; politicians churning political and financial profit from the whole scenario, girls being pushed to prostitution, religious leaders working in tandem with ISI and brainwashing the locals; and so on and so forth. If the anti-India sentiment of the people in the valley comes as a rude shock, the young leaders attempting for a better future for Kashmir fills one with hope.
However, what goes real wrong with the movie is the main plot. It turns out a bit too flimsy and Bollywood has seen far better variations of it.

Indian intelligence gets information that a big terror attack on Kashmir is being planned by the militants and Vikram(Sanjay Dutt) is sent on an undercover mission to thwart it. The self proclaimed ‘Messiah’ Dutt reaches the Valley and on the very day becomes the witness of a suicide attack on one of the most influential separatist leaders Haji (Anupam Kher) who is apparently fighting for an ‘Azaad Kashmir’ for decades. Haji is saved but another leader gets killed. Vikram then meets one of Haji’s protégé the firebrand Aziza (Bipasha Basu) along with her woman brigade helps her mentor in his mission. On the other hand there is Aatif (Kunal Kapoor), another protégé of Haji and now a reformed militant, who want to replace bullets with ballots. As the story progress Aziza gets disillusioned with the radical ideals of Haji and joins Aatif. Vikram with the help of Aziza and Atif tries to gather information about the ‘big plan’ and eventually foils it.

All through the film the audience is told that ‘something big is going to happen’ and that thing happens to be a mere bombing at a rally and that too involving just three kids as human bombs who never even get a chance to get into the crowd. The sequence where Bipasha is attacked by the women workers of Anupam Kher’s political party is undoubtedly one of the best scenes and is bound to remind one of the famous scene from Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena. Bipasha tries hard to do a Monica Bellucci but her outburst is hardly as convincing. And the scene where Sanjay Dutt finds the body of a dead kid stuffed with time bomb on a operating table is a replica of a scene from this year’s multiple oscar winning movie ‘The Hurt Locker’ by Kathryn Bigelow.

As for the acting, Anupam Kher is brilliant. Sanjay Dutt looks exactly the same as he does in all his films; the same swagger, the same sunglasses, and probably the same keffiyeh (else he might have bought those in dozens). As for his acting, it is no Vaastav or even Mission Kashmir. Bipasha fits the character like a glove and delivers her best performance till date. Kunal Kapoor looks and talks like a true Kashmiri but fails miserably when it comes to acting out emotions. He delivers some very emotional speeches sans any emotion. He looks more plastic in the political rallies and speeches than Katrina did in Rajneeti. (It is high time he figures out what to do with his hands while delivering a dialogue. Try the oldest trick. Put them in your pocket). Mahesh Manjrekar is wasted. Shernaz Patel does a good job in her bit role. And the rest don’t have much of acting to do.

All the song are brilliant in their own right but would better be done away with as they act as speed breakers and serves little or no purpose otherwise. Shot on location, DoP James Fowlds’ camera captures the breathtaking beauty of the Valley on celluloid. But although the shaky camera works well for certain scenes of conflict and gives them a realistic touch, the same technique is used all through irrespective of the demand of the scenes making it look stiff and artificial at times. The script by Raghav Dhar and Rahul Dholakia disappoints. It is disjointed in places, a bit too rushed on others- giving the audience a hard time to comprehend. Also, many characters are not established properly. We never get to know why Sanjay Dutt’s character is handpicked for this mission and as he keeps mentioning that he is back in the valley after more than a decade, one tends to expect his relation with Kashmir would be provided at some stage. But that never happens. Mahesh Manjrekar as Peer Baba is abrupt and doesn’t explain why he changed sides and how he knows Dutt. And last but not the least, why Sanjay Dutt’s character assigns himself as the personal bodyguard to Bipasha.

But the biggest let down is Rahul Dholakia himself. The Perzania director tries to blend realistic cinema with Bollywood and fails miserably. Lamhaa is supposed to tell you the ‘The untold story of Kashmir’ but maybe the director has just opened his eyes to the Kashmir issue a bit too late and that too with the notion that he has actually discovered something new. But, even though the issues are all too well known, maybe if the director would have stuck to the docu-drama format it could have been made into one of the better films on Kashmir.

Shukno Lanka

Shukno Lanka is the story of a very uncommon common man, the middle-aged Chinu Nandy, a junior artist at Tollywood. He lives his life on a day-to-day basis and in bits and pieces, just like his brief appearances in movies. Each day is a battle to him, a battle to get some role or the other as a junior artist, a battle to earn two to three hundred rupees, and a battle to survive. He is devoid of any dreams or aspirations. He is queerly content in his mundane life. He neither believes nor waits for miracles.

But, miracles do happen and it happens to the most unsuspected ones. One fine day, internationally acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Joy Sundar Sen offers Chinu to play the lead in his next project.

Shukno Lanka is also a story of Joy Sundar Sen-a man ensconced in his own world- a world of art and cinema. His dedication towards his art has slowly distanced him from his wife and it is his admiration for art that later draws him to the young Australian actress Isabella whom he meets in Berlin. He finds a compatriot and not a companion in her. Together they start a film based on Ritwik Ghatak’s short story Parashpathor (The Philosopher’s Stone). It is a story of a man who thinks he has found a magic formulae to bring the dead back to life. Joy Shundor offers junior artist Chinu Nandy the lead role.

This offer itself is a magic formula to Chinu…a formula that is bound to change his life. But, the simpleton Chinu is scared to dream big. The plot traces how sheer determination and life force help Chinu live the miracle and not become a victim of a miracle like many other.

Even Joy Shundar gets a Paraspathor in real life. As Chinu confronts Joy on the last day of the shoot, for the first time the audience see Joy being overwhelmed with emotions; maybe Chinu did manage to imbue life in the emotionally dead Joy Sundar Sen and make him more humane.

Mithun Chakraborty as Chinu Nandy, Sabyasachi Chakraborty as Joy Sundar Sen, Debashree Roy as Jhilik, Emma Garnett Brown as Isabella, Angana Bose as Bela, each actor gives a stellar of a performance and the same holds true for director Ajay Pandey. But undoubtedly it is Mithun who steals the show.

Better known these days for his over-the-top performances in below average commercial films, he proves that he still has what it takes to be a national award winning actor. He is brilliant in each frame and never once does he come across as Mithun Chakraborty, the superstar…he is Chinu Nandy a mere ‘extra’ in the ‘cinema para’.

Although, Chinu is the pivotal character of Shukno Lanka, it is in Joy Sundar that the director proves his mastery over character creation. Joy Sundar stands on the brink of becoming a negative character but the director holds his strings tight; never allowing him to trip over. One can hardly expect a man so engrossed in his art to get involved in the trivialities of day-to-day life. He is always preoccupied with his creations and hardly spends time with his wife. But, the director never lets him become a cold, inhuman beast. Instead he keeps him as a man of restrained emotions who understands her wife’s emotional needs and cares for her but has outgrown the romantic frills. Sabyasachi Chakraborty does a splendid job in portraying this character.

The movie is well scripted as well and never gets pretentious. If Joy Sundar is the ‘global bong’, Chinu is the personification of the kurta pajama and jhola clad ‘paati bangali’; Chinu’s wife-is like every other typical Bengali middle class housewife whose life revolves mostly around TV serials…and also her husband; Jhilik-Joy Sundar’s is the high society housewife who has in her life every luxury but love; Isabella, the Australian actress-turned-producer who comes to India from Germany to produce the film, with her admiration and restrained emotions for Joy Sundar; all the characters walk, talk, think, just as they should have in real life.

The movie that traces the journey of a junior artist, gives due importance to its own and hence from the tram conductor to the cha wala to the unemployed carom playing hoodlums, each character leave a mark on the screen.

According to Joy Sundar Sen, “To be international, you have to be intensely local” and the acclaim and adulation the movie is receiving far and wide is due to this very approach of its director Gaurav Pandey. The quintessential Kolkata comes alive in Mullikghaat, Red Road, Victoria, Esplanade, Howrah Bridge, Tram journeys, Horse cart rides, narrow bylanes, and some stock characters of the city.

We get a glimpse of today’s ‘cinema para’ replete with south Indian dance directors, dancers in hideous costumes, melodramatic dialogues, lecherous, middle-aged, self-obsessed ‘hero’s and their side-kicks, movies with names like ‘Ma morle Mashi’r ki hobe’, directors working at the mercy of the ‘hero’, politics and backstabbing, producers backing out on directors at the last minute, and so on and so forth.

The songs are good and each apt for the occasion. Lyrics like ‘Abchha raater chokh chhuye ghum’ are strewn in lilting melody and matched with some melt-in-the-mouth singing.

However, one thing that could have been taken a better care of is the lighting. Although it is supposed to be a night-long journey through the streets of Kolkata and end with Chinu showing his wife the poster of Parashpathor flashing him as the hero, one can’t fail to notice that all through the carriage ride the light stays almost the same…it is a night with a rather abrupt dawn!

And last but not the least the embedded advertisements especially that of a news channel could and should have been avoided.

Jodi Ekdin: A review

Ian Wyndham lives with his girlfriend Samantha Andrews. A busy businessman, Ian has little time for Samantha who is a musician. The first part of the story shows a day in their life that ends in a heated altercation between the two. Tired of being taken for granted, Samantha finally snaps and decides to end the relationship. She walks out of the restaurant and hails a cab. The cab meets with an accident and Samantha dies. A grief-stricken Ian returns home alone and the sweet memories lull him to sleep. The morning dawns and as always he wakes up to the voice of Samantha! Terrified, he slowly realises that it was all but a nightmare. However, as the day unfolds Ian comes across similar set of events and slowly it all starts to make sense. He has been given a second chance to alter the course of his life, to correct his mistakes. He tries to make it up to Samantha and at the end he swaps his girlfriend's fate with his own and dies saving her. Well that was Gil Junger's If only. Now replace the businessman Ian with the ad guy Neil (Indraneil) and Samantha with Nikita (Priyanka), and you have the story of Riingo's latest movie Jodi Ekdin (and of course as the credits roll you find no mention of the original movie!). However, Riingo does introduce a new character (which has its predecessors in multitudinous films varying from It's a Wonderful Life to Bruce Almighty) in the story – the roadside magician (Shaheb). He tries to talk sense to Neil and tells him how most people give up when things fall apart but a winner holds on to the pieces and starts rebuilding. All is well until the magician breaks into an over-pitched and out-of-context recitation of Tagore's "Amar e chetonar rongey" (which so far meant "the world is as you perceive it to be"), almost scaring you off the seat! Jodi Ekdin was pitched as the first Bengali movie to be dealing with live-in relationships. But the story is about the average urban couple – about one of them getting too busy with his/her professional life and eventually taking the other for granted. Indraneil is good as Neil and has potential to become one of the better actors of the industry. Rii as Nikita's friend does justice to her bit. Shaheb acts and overacts. And Priyanka tries her best to act (but fails most of the time). This is the second venture of National Award-winning duo Chandril and Anindyo as lyricists. But the songs of Jodi Ekdin have neither the melt-in-the-mouth feel of Antaheen nor the signature Chandrabindoo wit/sarcasm/humour. Instead, you have very ordinary Tollywoodish songs. Music is average. The choreography is brilliantly bad and reminds you of Bollywood of the '90s (especially the romantic songs of the expressionless action heroes - Suneil Shetty/Ajay Devgun/Sunny Deol). Most of the song/dance sequences are redundant and hamper the flow of the story. Embedded advertising is taken to a new (and scary) level and you have Deepika Padukone popping up recommending Fiama Di'Wills in the middle of the movie. One of the most serious allegations against Bengali filmmakers has been that they seldom experiment with camera angles. But one surely can't blame this movie of dull camera work. Riingo certainly knows how to move the camera and you have nice pan-zoom-stills and Dutch angles although the indiscriminate and random use of these at times makes the whole experience tremble on the brink of monotony. However, the shots are well-framed especially the outdoor ones, and the DI and the 5.1 digital mixing lends a sleek look. A tight editing might have managed to save the movie to some degree. And the question that is bound to haunt the audience is that how can Nikita escape such an accident without a single scratch while Neil, sitting just next to her, gets fatally wounded!

Double Deal: How Far Would You Go

"Where “fair is foul and foul is fair”… Double Deal, a psycho thriller, is a brilliant adaptation of “Killing Time” by Richard Stockwell and grips the audience’s attention from the very first scene.An intricate maze of motives, plots and sub-plots, the play boasts of powerful performances, by Mahesh Manjrekar and Sandhya Mridul, and a script taut with suspense. The play ushers the audiences into a rainy, turbulent night, with Rhea being escorted to an empty house by a stranger, Jeet. She is laden with shopping bags and is visibly distressed. In the course of their conversation we come to know that Jeet had helped her with her shopping bills as her wallet was flicked. This accidental encounter slowly breeds a friendly relation between the two, which soon takes a detour to a sinister world of deceit and betrayal; where nothing is what it seems. “A perfect stranger is perfect to talk to, since he wouldn’t judge you” and in the first scene we have Jeet and Rhea confess their darkest secrets to each other. It seems that these two distressed souls were predestined to meet.As soon as we reach the second act, what previously appeared to be a pleasant accident, turns out to be a meticulously planned one. Jeet had arranged for this chance encounter to avenge Satbir’s betrayal to him. Satbir is Rhea’s Husband and an old accomplice of Jeet. In his plan to kill Satbir, Jeet ropes in Rhea, who is a victim of her husband’s torture and wants to get rid of him as well. Rhea calls Satbir to Jeet’s place and we realise that none of the characters are sincerely devoted to the master plan and device plans of their own. Both want the other person to be held guilty of the homicide. Jeet’s pregnant remark,” What I tell you is the truth, what I don’t tell you is also the truth” finds an echo in almost all the scenes and as the play proceeds, newer secrets are revealed at regular intervals. Stories are told and untold and retold as both the characters oscillate between being the victimiser and the victimised. Dattani, a director par excellence, portrays the story of deceit, betrayal and greed with immense ease and intricacy. Returning to stage after 14 long years Mahesh Manjrekar yet again proves his mettle as an actor with his impeccable sense of timing, while Sandhya Mridul is inimitable as the sly and seductive Rhea.