Ek Hazarachi Note (Marathi)

There is a line that is delivered towards the end of this movie by its protagonist that sums up the exasperation of the poor man in this country more than anything else, “Laxmi aali tari aafat pan gheun yeti” (When the goddess of wealth decides to walk in home, she gets her own problems with her).

Dekh Tamasha Dekh

About 2-3 minutes into Feroze Abbas Khan’s second venture into Bollywood your reaction would be, “This doesn’t seem like a movie at all”.  For those unaware, FAK is a much more well known for his exploits in the theatre circuit.  It seems like the baggage from theatre has been carried over to Dekh Tamasha Dekh not just in terms of narration but more obviously in terms of cast.

The Attacks of 26/11

A very interesting way to market a movie and especially one of the magnitude of this one.  I stumbled upon this clip on you tube when I was looking for the trailer of The Attacks 26/11.  It shows the actual 7 minutes at the beginning of the movie.  Not a trailer but the actual 7 minutes.  So here goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmSIJhfmXq0

Lalbaug Parel

Not too many movies have been made on a topic that should have actually been very near and dear to a certain segment of Mumbaikars. In fact, you could count the number of movies on one hand. Rather surprising considering that the subject is something that many a person from this city owes their current existence to.

One that would not have seen the light of the day had a certain Dr. Datta Samant succeeded in getting what he wanted for the textile mill workers around 30 years back. A time when most mills in the city started shutting shop in favour of getting into the real estate business.

One such mill forms the backdrop of Lalbaug Parel. Khaitan Mills is owned by the namesake and run by his son-in-law, Mahendra (Sameer Dharmadhikari) who can put most slime balls to shame. While the logic behind the closure could not be questioned, methods and the treatment meted out to most of the mill workers was far from being in line with Human Rights to say the least.

One such family is the Dhuri family where the father (Shashank Shende) is your atypical mill worker who works in the day and has a peg or 2 in the night. A bulk of the work at home, in fact all of it, is done by the wife (Seema Biswas). 4 grown up children @ home – Anand (Ankush Choudhary), Mohan (Vineet Kumar), Naru (Karan Patel) and Manju (Veena Jamkar) are also struggling.

The story tracks the lives of each of the characters as the mill workers go on strike. Manju’s relationship with the local shop owner’s son; Anand’s struggle to write a play in the loud circumstances of the Laxmi Chawl; Naru’s rise from being a local thug to a contract killer for the underworld; Mohan’s relationship with Mrs. Sawardekar (Kashmera Shah).

In the attempt to show truth behind Mumbai’s most unfair story, Mahesh Manjrekar has given us a very depressing story. In addition, I firmly believe he has gone over the top in many sequences. There are also unnecessary aspects to the movie like Kashmera Shah’s wardrobe which seems most out of place.

The use of Bollywood actors over probably more talented Maharashtrian actors is also a gap that I saw. Add to this the excess number of characters. Nearly 15 of them. Just too many to do justice to each one. Very few directors could have

While the story is sensitive and touches upon a topic that I would like to see more of, I personally felt it was a tad overdone. With the right cuts and fine tuning on the unnecessary aspect, we could have had a winner on our hands. Instead we have a movie that is watchable. Good. Not great. 7 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TrJU9SJ6hM

Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal

On one hand we had The Tabloid (read TOI) calling out Barfi! as a 4.5 on 5 – mind you that’s a very very very high score for any movie. In the same breath, the same tabloid called out this super low budget movie with a bunch of really good actors – a 1 on 5. That’s like the abyss in terms of movie ratings from the tabloid. What it also proves is that the tabloids reviews have to be taken with a pinch of salt – make that a table spoon the way reviews have been written in the past few years.

With a name like Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal (JHTTD) I didn’t have too much of a choice to skip the movie. And I must say that in the first few minutes I wasn’t too disappointed. Set in a place that I have personally visited – Purnea – in North East Bihar, JHTTD is the story of 4 very close friends – as close as brothers. Together they form a gang that is quite dreaded in that part of the world and used by the incumbent Senior Inspector – Hanumant Singh (Murli Sharma) – for running contract killings as the situation may demand.

Yashpal Sharma (Mehkoo) is the eldest in the gang and has actually picked up Atka (Manish Vatsalya), Bitwa (Rahul Kumar) and Chandrabhan (Ravi Kissen) from the streets. He has actually bought them up in his backyard. Chandrabhan is the most respected of the lot because he is the only one with a stable head on his shoulders. The others have a short fuse.

The four have to now run a contract for a big don from Mumbai called Rana (Sharat Saxena). A contract that has been set up by Hanumant. The job is to kill Shrishti (Hazel Croney) – the daughter of a media baron called Pawar (Govind Namdeo). Pawar has been running a series of exposes on Rana and his more than dodgy operation. Despite several threats from Rana, Pawar doesn’t budge from his stand.

I must put in a disclaimer here. My call out I the earlier paragraphs was only to indicate that the movie is not as bad as the reviews claim. It is a standard gangster movie with some good performances from the usual suspects – Yashpal Sharma, Govind Namdeo, Murli Sharma, Sharat Saxena and Ravi Kissen do a damn good job. Director Manish Vatsalya should consider sticking to acting because he is quite good at it.

In sharp contrast, the female cast is really sad. Pooja Welling who is the narrator is one of the most lifeless faces and voices I have seen in recent times. Hazel Croney is the lead actress and has added little or no value to herself or the movie. And the screenplay at times makes you want to strangle the writer. Random lines like, “If you cannot save the innocent, then kill the bastard” or “Kya rakha hai zindagi mein. Laga aag pani mein”. Totally “duh” lines which had no reason to be there. Add to that the 30 minutes which could have been easily chopped.

Overall, if you have nothing better to do, this is not a bad way to spend an afternoon. But don’t expect too much. 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKP9c2Bsoo

Not a Love Story

Ram Gopal Varma could not have picked up a better time for the trailers of his movie to be released and then the eventual movie release. It was bang at the time when the verdict on the Maria Susairaj case was about to be announced. A couple of weeks into the trailer and one of the most absurd verdicts (that’s what I believe – it is totally personal) ever by the Indian judiciary was announced. I guess it has been a little under a month since the verdict and unfortunately for RGV, Anna and the World Champions, for totally different reasons, have hogged the lime light. As of now, everyone in this country is interested only in the Jan Lokpal Bill. And maybe a few would be interested in knowing the build up of the Susairaj case and where it finished.

And why in the blazes would RGV start the movie with a disclaimer that this is a work of fiction. Surely all of us know that the movie is about the Susairaj case and it would only mean that Maria Madam and Jerome Sir refused to co-operate with the RGV Factory in terms on the money that was offered. Maybe they will cash in on it over time at a much higher level – crime is after all a very lucrative profession as has been proved in the past in more developed economies.

That being said, RGV also ends the movie with 4 dramatic statements – please don’t hold me to this because it may not be verbatim but I am quite certain it was something to this extent.
“The Prosecution wanted both of them to be killed
Their lawyers wanted them to kill each other
The two of them wanted to die together
Finally the verdict is still awaited”
RGV Sir – Gross!!!! How much cornier do you want to get?

The movie starts off with great promise and intensity thanks to Deepak Dobriyal who has put up another stellar performance and kind of keeps the movie alive. I was quite intrigued though with the choice of Dobriyal for this role but he comes out on tops. RGV uses his signature camera angles which are a bit off beat and it does make you think that RGV is back. But then one starts feeling a tad giddy in a bit. But for a couple of specific shots which gave the output that was desired, the other angles only made the movie look more like a horror story and not one that was based on a crime of passion. Mahie Gill has never been able to get back to the near perfect performance she gave in Dev D. I guess it will continue to be her nemesis in a manner of speaking. Needs to stop trying too hard to get there. The same syndrome as Jr. B after Yuva. Not much of a support cast with the exception of Zakir Hussain (remember Rashid in Sarakar) who is the only person who comes close to Dobriyal’s performance.

Overall disappointing. I was so hoping that RGV was back. I really like RGV and find it quite sad that he seems to have gone onto a different planet. Either we need to join him there or he needs to get back to Mother Earth. 5 on 10 is what I would give NALS. Watchable but don’t expect too much.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbcn2k-FMI