Dilwale (Hindi) (2015)

Ever get a feeling that you tried to do something differently but could not change who you stand for and ultimately landed up making a big hash of everything? If the answer is yes, then Rohit Shetty’s Dilwale will give you that sense of déjà vu.  It would have definitely given Shetty that feeling.

Masaan

For the better part of the first half of 2015, a permanent fixture of weekly updates from most sites has been that of Masaan and its success across every available platform in the world.  Needless to say, I was mighty excited to get an opportunity to watch one of the most acclaimed movies in recent times, earlier this week.  Unfortunately, it is probably the hype around the movie that did it in – for me.

Fukrey

Dilip Singh aka Choocha (Varun Sharma) & Vikas Gulati aka Hunny (Pulkit Sharma) are fraands (read friends) for life.  They have grown up together and have failed their senior high school exams for the past 2 years.  They are well on course to flunking again.  Laali (Manjot Singh) is desperate to get a transfer into a college where his childhood love Shalu is studying and is quickly eliminating Laali from her life.

Rangrezz

So what is it that makes a Priyadarshan movie? Let's examine this conundrum as closely as we possible can. Firstly the movie has to be copied - sorry inspired - by a movie that has originated from the South of the Vindhyas. The other directions or geographic territories are meaningless. In this case it is a Tamil movie called Naadodigal (Nomads) or loosely translated as Rangrezz (the 2 zs don't really help).

Gangs of Wasseypur 2

Try and watch the trailer of Gangs of Wasseypur 2 (GoW2) before you actually watch the movie. It will give you a strong flavor of what you have in store of what can be easily termed as the most awaited sequel from the Bollywood stable in the recent and also the not the recent past. The lucky ones probably got to see the trailer at the end of Part 1 itself if your screen didn’t scrimp on saving power for a few minutes. For the not so lucky ones there is you tube.

GoW2 continues from exactly where it left off in GoW – with Sardar Khan’s death. But a few minutes into the movie and you will know that you are in for something that is even more gory and bloody as compared to the precursor. In about 10 minutes, there are 2 funerals and one chopped head – both of which are shown in as much graphic detail as you could probably get out from the censor board.

Sorry about the spoiler but it just left a lasting impression in my head. I can remember very few (if any) movies which are this graphic in nature and grabs hold of you with both hands and shakes you up in such a short span of time. And all of this is inspite of its really slow pace.

The onus of running the Khan family then falls squarely on the shoulders of Faizal Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who has to now try to achieve a fine balance between his fascination for the green drug, his attraction to Mohsina (Huma Qureshi) and his mother’s expectation of revenge.

GoW2 also sees the introduction of 3 new characters. Faizal’s younger brother who speaks with a lisp who is fondly called Perpendicular. At age 14 he is uses Faizal’s fear to the maximum along with his almost fair weather friend called Tangent. And the most important character being Faizal’s step brother – Definite (Zeishan Quadri). The former and the latter are strongly sketched through the movie – especially Definite.

The hallmark of GoW2 will undeniably be the blood and gore that it has shown as blatantly as the censor board could have allowed. But this can at no point take away credit for the clean character sketches of each and every role or the stunning performances from each and every one in the crew. Even if it is a small role like that of Tangent, Shamshad or Guddu, the effort put in is simply superb. Anurag Kashyap could not have come up with the goods once again without these performances. To me, the find from the series would be Richa Chadda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Tigmanshu Dhulia.

Watch out for yet another fabulous score from Sneha Khanwalkar. I personally think she is insane. One cannot make music that is so apt for a movie and of such high quality if you are normal. Not to forget the hilarious and talented performances from Yashpal Sharma. To me, GoW 1 and 2 have been the movie of the year to date. 7.5 on 10 for this one as well.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3PZbL8JGYQ