Noor (Hindi) (2017)

A mic was thrust upon my face by a couple of rank rookies – much like Noor, in the movie – who were obviously asked to survey people who had watched the first day first show of Noor.  It was a first for me and I was caught off guard and all I could muster is, “Theek Thha”.  Eh? Your 15 seconds of fame and all you could do was say “Theek Thha”???

Jal (Hindi) (2014)

A good friend called up very excitedly about 10 days back raving about JAL.  The trailers were also cut to perfection and I was indeed intrigued about figuring out what this movie is all about.  It had Purab Kohli, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Kirti Kulhari – all of whom I believe are wonderful actors.  The support cast was also up there.

Shaadi Ke Side Effects

Many moons from now, there will be a question asked in any number of quizzes across the country. What is the significance of the dialogue, "congratulations - its a baby girl" in Indian cinema. The answer is that it is my good friend Sudhendra Sharma's first dialogue on the silver screen. To make things better, it is a credited performance. Notice Doctor in the Delivery Room in the end credits.

10 ml Love

When you look up 10ml Love on the net, it shows you a year of release as 2010.  But to my knowledge, the movie wasn’t actually released till as late as December 2012.  I remember having missed it in one of my 7 movie weekends (where I have a weak track record) and actually looking for it quite hard.

Rock On!

Rock On! was an absolute hit when it released. Personally, I was quite surprised at the huge success that it had at the BO. I wasn’t too impressed when I saw it for the first time. I thought it was good alright. But I didn’t quite get what the entire hullabaloo was about. But then as the days have gone by and as you see the re-runs on TV and start looking at the story again and again I guess it kind of grows on you.

I really cannot put my finger on one thing that makes Rock On! a good movie to watch. Would it be the story which has a genuine aspect of making things work against all odds? Possible. Magik is a rock band that has 4 people – Aditya Shroff aka Adi (Farhan Akhtar) – lead singer, Joseph Mascarenhas aka Joe (Arjun Rampal) – guitar, Rob Nancy (Luke Kenny) – keyboards and Kedar Zaveri aka Killer Drummer aka KD (Purab Kohli) – Drums.

They are quite a rage with the crowds and win the annual Rock Band Hunt. En route to cutting their first album, the hang ups that come with the producers and the record labels get them quite worked up. And when Joe decides that enough is enough, it comes down to a fist fight with the Music Video Director and eventually Adi. Of course the band breaks up.

A few years later now and each one of them are on different ways. Some – like Adi are successful but unhappy Investment Bankers. Others – like Joe are unsuccessful but unhappy out of work guitarists. A chance meeting occurs between KD and Sakshi (Prachi Desai – Adi’s wife – at the jewelry store that KD helps his dad with. One thing leads to another and the band slowly but surely gets back together.

Another success factor of the movie could have been the sincere effort put in by the entire cast. Sincere and really good too. Actually, I cannot think of a single person – even the small role that the likes of Suraj Jagan played – who did not come up with the goods in terms of what the role demanded. I thought the band – together – was very good. But the find of the movie had to be Shahana Goswami in her first major role.

However, what I believe has kept Rock On! in the minds of everyone since then has to be the music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy which was as rock as it could have been – at least in this country. They even experimented with a hard rock number in “Zehreelay” which was sung very well by Suraj Jagan. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the most popular number. And much as I am not a huge fan of Javed Akhtar – I think he was fantastic this time around.

Much as I hate to correct myself on my initial assessment of the movie – Rock On! is one of the better ones to come out of Bollywood in the past decade. It could actually make it to the top 10 of the decade quite easily. Different. Brave. Well treated by Abhishek Kapoor. All the ingredients that go into making a good solid musical. Watch it if you can. It keeps playing quite often on TV these days. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzdDjnqfW4

Fatso

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

I Am Afia Megha Abhimanyu Omar

I Am Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu, Omar. Not the name of one movie. Not the names of the lead characters either. But 4 different stories. Each dealing with a topic that is extremely sensitive and has been portrayed quite boldly on screen. 4 short stories with a minor extent of intertwining through the appearance of one stray character somewhere in the story who is the lead character in the other. I Am is directed by Onir, who seems to have finally got his sense of direction in place. He seemed to have lost interest in film making with Bas Ek Pal and I was dead certain that he has lost his ability to direct with Sorry Bhai!!! It would seem that our man, who coincidentally was born in Bhutan, seems to have found his groove. Now, I haven’t seen My Brother… Nikhil yet and therefore am ill equipped to comment on whether he had it in the first place. But with I Am, Onir seems to have pushed back his detractors just that little bit. In a little under 100 minutes he has been ably supported with screenplay by Urmi Juvekar of “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” fame and Merle Kroeger.


The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.

Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.

Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.

Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.

The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.

In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWQZFFGdBA

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