If one were to go by the posters of Fatso, one would probably imagine that you will be getting into a movie that’s probably a bit slapstick. But then you would look at the star cast which has in the past given us good comedy. The likes of Ranvir Shorey or Purab Kohli for example. Not that you could say the same about Gul Panag who has been going through a patch which can be described as desperate of late. And then there is the aspect of the movie being directed by Rajat Kapoor. The story rritten by Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla. One will not blame you for giving the movie a chance right?
Fatso comes a cropper in each one of these points (except that of Gul Panag). Firstly, it is heavily inspired from the Hollywood flick Down to Earth which features Chris Rock and was released in 2001. So much for the originality that Rajat Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla were to get to the table. So we have Navin (Purab Kohli) who has proposed marriage to Nandini (Gul Panag). In a freak accident that was supposed to claim his close friend Sudeep aka Fatso (Ranvir Shorey), he gets picked up by the minion instead.
He figures this out when the mistake comes to the fore at a government like office which is the transit point before you get complete freedom from life. The bureaucracy upstairs is not able to correct the mistake in time. So Navin now doesn’t have a body because it has been cremated already. In the interim, Navin finds out that his close friend Yash (Neil Bhoopalam) has the hots for Nandini and is going to gun for her now that Navin is – erm – out of the way. After much persuasion, the General Manager upstairs provides him the option of swapping places with Sudeep which Navin takes gleefully.
The one aspect about Fatso that sticks out like a sore thumb is that it adds to the complete and utter capitulation that Gul Panag has seen in her acting. Where is the person we saw in the likes of Dor and Manorama Six Feet Under? I am sure she has been taken away by some ghost. What remains is the palest of all pseudo shadows that you can think of. Purab Kohli is very good in the limited screen time that he gets and the rest of the cast is above average except one Gunjan Bakshi who desperately needs an class in acting.
The music by Sagar Desai cannot keep you glued onto the screen in any manner. The script / dialogues is not very inspiring again. It would suffice to say that whoever was responsible did a below average job. Rajat Kapoor seems to have made this movie in some kind of a hurry because he has not paid any attention to details at all. Just went ahead and closed the movie out before the required deadlines. 4 on 10 is the best I would give Fatso. Watch it at your own risk.
Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otKcvjhj6B4
Showing posts with label Gul Panag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gul Panag. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Monday, 17 January 2011
Turning 30
Sometimes I wonder if it I am losing my sense of humour. Or have I completely lost connect with what people find humourous these days. Because I catch myself not laughing at stuff which the entire theatre seems to be guffawing at. Maybe its old age. I don’t know. I hope to find out soon enough. And when I do, you would be the first to be told about it. Of course, if someone has the answer to it, I would be more than glad to listen. I have one more worry. Its been over 100 reviews now and I find myself being a little more stringent on my ratings than before. Is that the general feeling with everyone or just a figment of my imagination? Do let me know. Comments welcome.
Nevertheless, let’s shift our focus to the life of Naina (Gul Panag). She is 2 weeks from her 30th birthday. An event that has been made out to be supremely larger than life by a vast majority of the public in general. These days, it would seem as important as achieving puberty or getting a driver’s license. Naina is in an extremely fulfilling relationship with her boyfriend Rishabh (Siddharth Makkar). They have been seeing each other for nearly 3 years now. And the time has come to take the relationship to take the final plunge – that of marriage. Add to that the fact that Naina is a successful creative director @ ADZ. Things couldn’t be better for her. And she knows that her boy friend is going to propose to her anytime. Rishabh’s parents are happy. Her mother (Anita Kanwar) is happy. What more could a woman ask for just before she is about to turn the biggest corner in her life.
But, like most stories, things have to fall apart sometime. And that happens when Yamini (Ira Dubey) walks into their life. An innocent meeting between Rishabh and Yamini ends up activating Rishabh’s instincts to be responsible towards his parents and not just himself. Seeing the opportunity to marry rich, he decides to change his mind and now get married to Yamini instead. Very smart boy I say. Obviously Naina is shattered and spends the next few days crying over it. She is given reasonable support by her buddies Rukshana (Jeneva Talwar) and Malini (Tillotama Shome). Add to that the politics in her office where her colleague (Sameer Malhotra) takes all credit for the work that she puts in thanks to an affair he is having with her boss Rathod (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal). Before she knows it, she is also out of a job. But as easily as she goes through the pains, she gets her job back by threatening to escalate to the New York Office. And her boy friend from the past, Jai (Purab Kohli) comes back into her life. If only things were as easy an lucky in everyone’s life.
Alankrita Shrivastava gets added to the list of fast growing first time directors in Bollywood. I am sure her intent was very noble to say the least but she falls quite flat with Turning 30. Long way to go for her to get to any reasonable level of directing it would seem. And was it a figment of my imagination that Gul Panag was a solid actress on her way to being better with each movie? Her last 2 outings i.e. Hello Darling and Turning 30 would seem to indicate otherwise. She just cannot cry OR the quality of her tears is so superb that one cannot see them due to the transparency OR the print used @ PVR Mulund was that of an extremely poor quality. I somehow think it’s the former. Extremely disappointing to say the least. The stand out performance though is from Tillotama Shome (Alice in Monsoon wedding – who Vijay Raaz is trying to court – yes she speaks too J) who plays the role of a lesbian friend extremely well. Especially the point where she comes out of the closet – well executed I say. The only other high point of the movie would be the portrayal of Naina’s desperation to get Rishabh back at all costs. The rest of the movie was imminently forgettable. 4 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Movie-Promos/4VPAFj39/1/Theatrical-Trailer-Turning-30.html
Nevertheless, let’s shift our focus to the life of Naina (Gul Panag). She is 2 weeks from her 30th birthday. An event that has been made out to be supremely larger than life by a vast majority of the public in general. These days, it would seem as important as achieving puberty or getting a driver’s license. Naina is in an extremely fulfilling relationship with her boyfriend Rishabh (Siddharth Makkar). They have been seeing each other for nearly 3 years now. And the time has come to take the relationship to take the final plunge – that of marriage. Add to that the fact that Naina is a successful creative director @ ADZ. Things couldn’t be better for her. And she knows that her boy friend is going to propose to her anytime. Rishabh’s parents are happy. Her mother (Anita Kanwar) is happy. What more could a woman ask for just before she is about to turn the biggest corner in her life.
But, like most stories, things have to fall apart sometime. And that happens when Yamini (Ira Dubey) walks into their life. An innocent meeting between Rishabh and Yamini ends up activating Rishabh’s instincts to be responsible towards his parents and not just himself. Seeing the opportunity to marry rich, he decides to change his mind and now get married to Yamini instead. Very smart boy I say. Obviously Naina is shattered and spends the next few days crying over it. She is given reasonable support by her buddies Rukshana (Jeneva Talwar) and Malini (Tillotama Shome). Add to that the politics in her office where her colleague (Sameer Malhotra) takes all credit for the work that she puts in thanks to an affair he is having with her boss Rathod (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal). Before she knows it, she is also out of a job. But as easily as she goes through the pains, she gets her job back by threatening to escalate to the New York Office. And her boy friend from the past, Jai (Purab Kohli) comes back into her life. If only things were as easy an lucky in everyone’s life.
Alankrita Shrivastava gets added to the list of fast growing first time directors in Bollywood. I am sure her intent was very noble to say the least but she falls quite flat with Turning 30. Long way to go for her to get to any reasonable level of directing it would seem. And was it a figment of my imagination that Gul Panag was a solid actress on her way to being better with each movie? Her last 2 outings i.e. Hello Darling and Turning 30 would seem to indicate otherwise. She just cannot cry OR the quality of her tears is so superb that one cannot see them due to the transparency OR the print used @ PVR Mulund was that of an extremely poor quality. I somehow think it’s the former. Extremely disappointing to say the least. The stand out performance though is from Tillotama Shome (Alice in Monsoon wedding – who Vijay Raaz is trying to court – yes she speaks too J) who plays the role of a lesbian friend extremely well. Especially the point where she comes out of the closet – well executed I say. The only other high point of the movie would be the portrayal of Naina’s desperation to get Rishabh back at all costs. The rest of the movie was imminently forgettable. 4 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Movie-Promos/4VPAFj39/1/Theatrical-Trailer-Turning-30.html
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Hello Darling
You would watch Hello Darling for any of the following reasons
1. You went for the show of Madholal Keep Walking (which I am sure would have been a far superior choice of a movie) but the show got cancelled.
2. Your definition of a good time is watching a slapstick sex comedy where characters are named “One Hung Low” (Chinese customers of course).
3. You get your cheap thrills by looking @ Celina Jaitley’s cleavage and it is sufficient for your fantasies for the next 30 odd days.
4. You are a movie critic and it is an occupational hazard.
5. You strongly believe, “Never Judge a book by its cover” and therefore you thought the posters did not do justice to the high quality of cinema that you expected it to be.
6. You ran out of places to make out and what better a place than a half empty hall.
7. You simply are a sucker for punishment.
Take your pick folks but avoid the movie like the plague.
Mansi Joshi (Gul Panag) is a department head in a local fashion house. Her boyfriend (Anil Mange) is in London waiting for her to say yes to his proposal. Her boss, Harddick Vasu (Javed Jaffrey) is the epitome of sexual harassment. He is married to Purvi (Divya Dutta) who believes that her ever horny husband is actually “Dudh Ka Dhula”. HDV’s secretary is Candy (Celina Jaitley) who is the atypical office blonde who strongly believes that what she wears is not skimpy at all. Candy’s boyfriend (Chunky Pandey) is a run of the mill musician who lives in with her. Rounding off the shebang is Satyavati Chaudhary (Eesha Khoppikar) who has been recently hired for a position in Mansi’s team.
All the women in the office are quite frustrated with HDV’s sexual advances towards them. But thanks to Mansi’s convincing powers, they stay back for as long as womanly possible. Mansi keeps resisting his advances and keeps swearing to herself that she will kill HDV someday. His favourite way of ticking her off is to ask her to make coffee. In a frustrated moment, she inadvertently adds Rat Poison to his coffee. When she realizes her folly, she finds HDV on the floor of his office. Total chaos ensues.
Hello Darling is definitely the outcome of a bet that the producer had with someone that even a lousy movie can make money in India. What surprises me is that there were quite a few people in the hall and more importantly, enough who were actually amused with the cheap slapstick comments. I guess the producer definitely won his bet. What surprises me even more is that quality actresses like Gul Panag and Divya Dutta are actually jobless. What else could explain the fact that they have willingly accepted to waste their talent on a senseless piece of work. Ladies – you must surely have been in some severe financial strain. Celina Jaitley as always can do no better than show as much cleavage as allowed by the censor board. Eesha Khoppikar doesn’t have much of cleavage to show but she tries to make up with as much skin as possible. Chunky Pandey is almost non existant & JJ is at his pathetic best.
Manoj Tiwari, it would seem was the Assistant director for the Subhash Ghai debacle – Kisna the Warrior Poet. Not that it would have made any difference if it was someone else coz the story in itself is crappy to say the least. A sheer waste of 2 hours is what is say. 1 on 10 just for the attempt I guess.
1. You went for the show of Madholal Keep Walking (which I am sure would have been a far superior choice of a movie) but the show got cancelled.
2. Your definition of a good time is watching a slapstick sex comedy where characters are named “One Hung Low” (Chinese customers of course).
3. You get your cheap thrills by looking @ Celina Jaitley’s cleavage and it is sufficient for your fantasies for the next 30 odd days.
4. You are a movie critic and it is an occupational hazard.
5. You strongly believe, “Never Judge a book by its cover” and therefore you thought the posters did not do justice to the high quality of cinema that you expected it to be.
6. You ran out of places to make out and what better a place than a half empty hall.
7. You simply are a sucker for punishment.
Take your pick folks but avoid the movie like the plague.
Mansi Joshi (Gul Panag) is a department head in a local fashion house. Her boyfriend (Anil Mange) is in London waiting for her to say yes to his proposal. Her boss, Harddick Vasu (Javed Jaffrey) is the epitome of sexual harassment. He is married to Purvi (Divya Dutta) who believes that her ever horny husband is actually “Dudh Ka Dhula”. HDV’s secretary is Candy (Celina Jaitley) who is the atypical office blonde who strongly believes that what she wears is not skimpy at all. Candy’s boyfriend (Chunky Pandey) is a run of the mill musician who lives in with her. Rounding off the shebang is Satyavati Chaudhary (Eesha Khoppikar) who has been recently hired for a position in Mansi’s team.
All the women in the office are quite frustrated with HDV’s sexual advances towards them. But thanks to Mansi’s convincing powers, they stay back for as long as womanly possible. Mansi keeps resisting his advances and keeps swearing to herself that she will kill HDV someday. His favourite way of ticking her off is to ask her to make coffee. In a frustrated moment, she inadvertently adds Rat Poison to his coffee. When she realizes her folly, she finds HDV on the floor of his office. Total chaos ensues.
Hello Darling is definitely the outcome of a bet that the producer had with someone that even a lousy movie can make money in India. What surprises me is that there were quite a few people in the hall and more importantly, enough who were actually amused with the cheap slapstick comments. I guess the producer definitely won his bet. What surprises me even more is that quality actresses like Gul Panag and Divya Dutta are actually jobless. What else could explain the fact that they have willingly accepted to waste their talent on a senseless piece of work. Ladies – you must surely have been in some severe financial strain. Celina Jaitley as always can do no better than show as much cleavage as allowed by the censor board. Eesha Khoppikar doesn’t have much of cleavage to show but she tries to make up with as much skin as possible. Chunky Pandey is almost non existant & JJ is at his pathetic best.
Manoj Tiwari, it would seem was the Assistant director for the Subhash Ghai debacle – Kisna the Warrior Poet. Not that it would have made any difference if it was someone else coz the story in itself is crappy to say the least. A sheer waste of 2 hours is what is say. 1 on 10 just for the attempt I guess.
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