Bobby Jasoos

It has been nearly 3 weeks since my last review.  For reasons that aren't the most pleasant and therefore will not be delved into.  But apparently I haven't missed much in Bollywood during my hiatus. Sajid Khan gave ACP Pradyumn and Daya their simplest case and Ritiesh Deshmukh played villain (I'm catching up with that next).

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.

Mahabharat (Animation) (2013) (Hindi)

The trailer starts with the predictable, “Yada Yada hi Dharmasya….” (for translation, visit - http://www.asitis.com/4/7.html).  That and the really bad quality of animation visible on the trailers prepared me for pretty much the worst.  The fact ironically remains that India will be the largest exporter of animation in the world (citation needed) but will not spend money in making a quality animation movie.

Ghanchakkar

Remember that guy from Khosla Ka Ghosla – Munjal? Khurana’s (Boman Irani) sidekick / Secretary.  The guy who does the dirty work for Khurana.  For those who aren’t aware of who played that character (and I am quite certain that most people in India wouldn’t know his name) it is a guy called Rajesh Sharma – one of the finest supporting actors in India currently.  This time around he plays Pandit.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa

It took 14 years for Priyadarshan to probably gather to courage – because that’s what it would have taken a lot of – to remake a movie that he was a Second Unit Director.  To his credit, he is the only one out of the 3 in the movie who managed to make a move into Bollywood. 

 

But needless to say, he doesn’t emulate the magic that Fazil created on screen in 1993 with the national award winning Manichitratazhu (read as Mani Chitr tayu).  A movie that coincidentally has been fodder for remakes galore – Apthamitra in Kannada, Chandramukhi in Tamil and Telugu (dubbed), Rajmohol in Bengali, and of course the topic of this write up in Hindi.

 

The only reason I can think of as to why these movies fell short was the incapability to handle the topic with the seriousness that it required.  Of course the character played by Akshay Kumar – Aditya Srivastava – does have a humourous streak in him and enjoys playing the fool.  But I guess AK did a bit too much in his attempt to tell the audience that his comic timing is still alive.

 

Siddharth Chaturvedi (Shiney Ahuja) & Avni (Vidya Balan) are a newly married couple.  Sidhharth comes from a royal family and is actually the incumbent king of the village.  He has, however just returned from the states where he got married to Avni.  He had been there for his studies.  Upon Avni’s insistence and a little bit of his own desire, he decides to stay in his ancestral palace.

 

However, the resident spirit of the home doesn’t take too kindly to their stay.  A danseuse – Madhulika – who used to perform at the palace many moons ago is in love with Shashidhar (Vineeth) – the royal poet.  The fact doesn’t go too lightly with the Maharajah who in a fit of jealousy, executes the poet. 

 

Madhulika in turn commits suicide but before that puts a curse on the palace – no Maharajah will ever reside in the palace or else I will be the cause of his death.  To date, the curse stands.  And when Siddharth moves in, some funny events start occurring  that point a finger towards his cousin Radha (Ameesha Patel). Siddharth of course doesn’t believe in ghost stories and calls for his friend Aditya Srivastav – a psychiatrist to help.

 

This movie has a Priyadarshan touch to it – loud – REALLY LOUD.  Of course, several unnecessary attempts at comedy are also in order because it comes from his table.  But, to be fair, the movie is a frame to frame copy so there is very little value addition other than the above 2 points.

 

Most of the performances are also ordinary.  Shiney Ahuja in fact looks as constipated as he can possibly get.  I guess his moment of truth passed with Hazaaron Khwaishein – like with most of the people associated with that movie.  Even Vidya Balan is a tad above average but it was early days for her.  The support cast also – ordinary. 

 

It is only the story that makes the movie really worth watching.  I have seen it on a couple of occasions without too much of an effort.  So I guess a 6 on 10 is in order.  However, I encourage you to take a look at the original (unfortunately without subtitles) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdp4xudz958 and make your mind up on which one is better.

 

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adQ3aNpEFXg

Kahaani

Trust Vidya Balan to make the right choice of a potential story line. Every time she exceeds herself in terms of the quality of the character that she plays on screen. A trend that probably started with Paa. Since then she has played a village wife with truck loads of spunk, the sister of a girl who is part of national folklore searching for justice and immortalised arguably the only hero amongst heroines in Indian cinema last year. Each performance has earned her a truck load of accolades. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise when she was chosen to play the role of a pregnant woman who has been abandoned by her husband.

Not much was expected from Sujoy Ghosh after atrocious boo boos like Home Delivery and Aladin. But then there was Jhankaar Beats also as a debut. So I guess somewhere the makers would have seen a spark that was left over and not doused after the Box Offices did everything but physically throw him out. Well Ghosh Dada doesn’t disappoint which is the good news for those who pick Kahaani for the weekend. He creates a story that makes us seasoned movie goers say that it was kind of predictable. But the regular average every day Joe or Jane would say – It kept us guessing.

What I did not like about the movie is the complete lack of credibility that Ghosh has given to the audience. Sujoy Sir – we don’t need to be told every single thing that has happened. Leave it to us to guess or interpret the movie in a way that we would like to. Also, avoid the use of long shots and people travelling on trams smiling to themselves just for the heck of it. Put it there if there is a reason. Else save on film and time. Will make the film tighter and more enjoyable.

Try and focus the spare time that you so get on more attention to detail. Such as ensuring that the female lead doesn’t look like she is 10 months pregnant with triplets. Or explaining to us how a low level cop from the Baangal can speak such good Hindi without any accent whatsoever? Or taking a step back to wonder why you need a body identification when you have a photograph.

I cannot think of anyone else who would have the courage or gumption or guts to play a role that demands so much intensity. Vidya Balan was the perfect choice. But her execution of the role was much below the bar that she has set for herself in the recent past. Or was that probably due to the superb acting from almost the entire cast. Not one of them seems to have been perturbed with the presence of a huge star.

Vishal Shekhar’s music is just about at par. Editing could have done much better. The Big B adds another Kolkata movie to his narration repertoire. He also adds a Bengali song to his CV. All going in to get probably the best movie this year to date (I haven’t seen Paan Singh Tomar yet mind you). 7 on 10. Watch it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FMvJ1i_ixI

The Dirty Picture

I must start this review with an anecdote from a few of days back. I was on my way back from the village (read Bangalore) and was taking the Indian Airlines flight. My song of the day was “Oooh La La”. Just kept humming it through the day. En route to the airport we were having this conversation that The Dirty Picture will be one of the top 5 movies of the year and that Vidya Balan will clearly get 2 nominations for the year – The first movie of the year No One Killed Jessica and The Dirty Picture. In fact, now that I think of it, she could win both awards – Best Supporting Actress for NOKJ and Best Actress for TDP.

Anyways, as I was humming the song and boarding the flight, I was also chatting up with my colleague. We did not say anything about Naseer Bhai – how can we say anything about one of the best actors of our time. We were just intrigued about his role in the movie and how he would essay it. We both agreed that Emraan Hashmi would have, by the end of the movie ticked off from his list another actress – only this time, it would be a genuine actress and not a random aspiring starlet. And the unanimous agreement – actually question was – What the hell is Tusshar (now without the Kapoor) doing in the movie? And as I was saying this out aloud, I entered the flight only to be greeted with a vision that I will not forget for the rest of my life!!! There on Seat1D, and smiling right back at me (surely she heard my comment about Tusshar) was Vidya Balan in all her simplicity. And did she look gorgeous? Hell Yes!!!!

I must say, that most of our discussion was bang on. Vidya Balan gives her 110% as always and generates an aura around Reshma aka Silk that will generate emotions starting from the rank depraved to the completely sympathetic thanks to the pitiful end that we know Silk Smitha had. Some really good dialogues dot the otherwise slapstick ones. But then it is The Dirty Picture. So slapstick was to be expected and I give Milan Luthria full credit for the same. Probably the best movie from the Luthria stable but it would not have been possible without the stunning performances of the cast.

I terms of other aspects, The Dirty Picture was probably below par. Editing was quite below par and the movie was way too long – probably 2.5 hours which turned out to be nearly 3 thanks to the breaks and trailers. While the songs were good, they were quite ill placed especially Ishq Sufiyana which kind of hits you out of the blue about 10 minutes from the end. And Honeymoon Ki Raat was also kind of wasted. I thought the movie could have easily finished in about 2 hours. Kind of moved away from the basic concept so aptly captured by Reshma that the movie business is about 3 things – Entertainment, Entertainment & Entertainment. 7 on 10 and definitely makes it to the top 5 movies of the year for me.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM8m4_DLZtY

Dum Maro Dum

That Abhishek Bachchan will live in the shadow of Yuva for the rest of his life and continue to try and benchmark himself to that level is a foregone conculsion in any of his movies. But to his credit this time around, he does give you some glimpses of the intensity that he showed in his best performance to date. Hope Floats for all your fans of the Jr. B (count me out of that list for the time being). After Game I thought it was all over folks. It was definitely time to get the fat lady in.

What makes his performance look better than what it actually is the sheer presence of John Abraham’s ex who has this innate capability of making anyone look better on screen. If there was a plastic meter for performances on screen then Bipasha Basu would have scored 12 on 10. And then you also wonder what Rohan Sippy was thinking when he cast Aditya Panscholi. Definitely a case of the ex Mr. Zareena Wahab (whats with these exes?) having put in money into the production.

And then there is rest of the cast led by Tollywood hero Rana Daggubatti who manages to hold his own in his Bollywood debut. Pratiek (without the Babbar) is sincere, but as always seems to have tried really hard to make things look as real has he possibly can. The saving grace in the acting department is however the natural, ice cold performance from Govind Namdeo who comes out on tops once again.

Dum Maro Dum revolves around the elusive Michael Barbossa aka Vincent Vega aka Colin Coutinhon aka Tobby Follet who is the savior of the drug mafia in Goa. Whenever the narcotics business in Goa starts to take a beating, Barbossa or one of his avatars comes in to save business which is primarily led by Lorsa Biscuita (Aditya Panscholi). But Barbossa’s days are about to be numbered when the Home Minster Ponda (Bugs Bharagava) calls on ex-cop ACP Vishnu Kamat (Jr. B) to clean up the state. In his previous assignments related to narcotics, ACP Kamat was notorious for maximizing his personal wealth. But he loses it when his family dies in a car crash. Poetic justice because the drivers of the other car were high on drugs. He picks his own team – Rane (Govind Namdeo) and Mercy (Gulshan Devaiya) to help him. His first breakthrough happens when he manages to foil Lawrence Eduardo Gomes aka Lorry (Pratiek) who is forced to become a carrier to pay his fees for a US University. All poor Lorry wanted to do was to be with his girl, Tani (Anaitha Nair) who gets through to the same uni with a 100% scholarship. Lorry’s close friend Joaquim aka DJ Joki (Rana) tries to convince him to come clean and even manages to strike a deal with ACP Kamath but Lorry chickens out and Joki’s only chance to get back @ Biscuita goes abegging. You see Biscuita has stolen Joki’s girl i.e. Zoe (Bipasha Basu) in the same manner as Lorry manages to get himself into jail. All these characters try to solve the big mystery – Who is Barbossa???

Poorly written dialogues are the bane of DMD which could have been a much better movie than it turned out. Lines such as “Moscow ke DJ tyaon tyaon aur pussycats meow meow. Live FTV no censor” and “Barbossa ka pata chahiye. Baaki sab ke liye google hai” and “MC ya BC? Middle Class ya Business Class”. I mean what was Rohan Sippy thinking? He didn’t have Rajanikant to carry these lines off right? Pritam’s music continues to be heavily and now obviously “inspired” and inspid. Rohan Sippy still tries his best to keep the movie racy enough for you not to get bored. Would have expected better coz this one doesn’t come upto the previous mark he set with Bluff Master. The random use of Konkani words fall flat. As a good friend says, “That’s the magic of it all. You aren’t Goan till you are Goin man”. Overall a below average effort. 4 on 10 is my final verdict. Was tempted to give it a point more but nah. Not happening.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2560597273/

Thank You

He should probably thank his stars that he has a reasonable fan following in this country – enough and more morons who will walk into an AK movie just because its an AK movie. But that’s what we do to stars. Glorify them. Make temples for them. But even the extreme madness that this country has for Bollywood will not be able to save AK this time around. His acting talent or screen presence or whatever you want to call it has definitely reached it’s Nadir. AK – you cannot get worse than this. If you look at it positively, anywhere you go to from here will only be better. Or touch base quickly with Mannapuram Gold Loan – I am sure they will extend your contract for another year or so. I am quite certain that Akshay Kumar’s career with a major cinema house has ended successfully. For any future releases, he will have to trust his own funds or maybe depend on some rich relatives. Maybe Thank You was a test run – partially produced by Twinkle Khanna as per credits.

Thank You is a movie made in extreme bad taste. It once again endorses the concept of a cheating husband and in fact goes one step further by glorifying him. But then again, I guess there are enough and more women in this world who do not mind going back to husbands who have cheated on them. So why not capitalize on the movement (in a manner of speaking). The characters of… or should I say characterless – Raj (Bobby Deol), Yogi (Suniel Shetty) and Vikram (Irrfan Khan) run a business of selling yachts. And if one can describe the word “Tharki” (sex maniac), they would be the ideal examples. The epitomes. Raj’s wife Sanjana (Sonam Kapoor) believes in blind faith and obviously the husband takes as much advantage of that as possible. The other two are married to Maya (Celina Jaitley) and Shivani (Rimi Sen). Maya has already caught Yogi cheating on her and is getting back at him by treating him like a slave – which doesn’t seem to matter much to Yogi as such. And Vikram dominates Shivani as if there is no tomorrow. Things are about to get nasty for the promiscuous trio though thanks to the entry of Kishan (Akshay Kumar) who was responsible for Yogi getting caught.

If you liked the senselessness of the likes of No Entry and No Problem which seem to be reflective of Anees Bazmee’s favourite topic – cheating husbands – then Thank You is exactly the kind of movie that you would like to watch. If you are the more sensible kinds who believes in the concept of true cinema then please do not waste your money on this work that doesn’t have any semblance of direction, acting, screenplay, cinematography, editing and any of the other departments that are required to make a movie. The only one that continues to be worse than this is that sob story that spent a decade in a canister called Milenge Milenge. Thank You comes really close to being a case study at any Film Institute about what a movie should not be. I do wonder what people like Irrfan Khan were doing in this movie. And was definitely disappointed at how Sonam Kapoor crash landed from a curve that was showing signs of going North. As of now her stock has gone south. Maybe she should put the A back in her name. It may just about help. The rest of the cast has anyways not been worth mentioning and will not be. The miracle of course was the Rimi Sen did not speak in Bengali in this movie. The 1 additional point in the score for the movie comes for that and the fact that there are a couple of tracks that are definitely going to be doing their rounds in discos across the country. 2 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi226729241/

No One Killed Jessica

No one needs to be told what happened in the Jessica Lall case. Enough and more has been said about the case and written about it and there would be hardly a soul in this country who is not familiar with what happened in the case. Plus with the advent of the net, there are going to be enough and more hits on the likes of Wikipedia to try and understand the gorier details of the case. There will be a little more talk about it over drinks at the local bar or over a cup of coffee. Unfortunately this is exactly what would work against the makers of No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ) and more so for director Raj Kumar Gupta.

The challenge in taking up a controversial topic like the Jessica Lall murder is primarily the extent to which you can actually show the truth on screen. More importantly, if there is an attempt being made to portray as close to reality as possible then how does a director ensure that the freedom of expression at no point of time is superceded by the attempt to be politically correct. NOKJ finds itself caught in exactly this labyrinth and and the end of the day you find a product that is a mish mash of sticking to the disclaimer and trying to get the whole truth and nothing but the truth out. If you walk into NOKJ with the expectation of something similar to a Black Friday, you would be making the same mistake that I did and land up being quite disappointed. Why could the makers not have stuck to the facts of case? Isn’t it contradictory to the very purpose of making the movie in the first place. The least that could have been done is stick the names. If it is OK to call out Jessica Lall and Sabrina Lall then why is not OK to call out Manu Sharma, Venod Sharma or for that matter Sayan Munshi, Bina Ramani and Malini Ramani.

Adding to the above, there is one inconsistency too many for it to be called a decent attempt. Surprising considering that Raj Kumar Gupta has given us a very good movie like Aamir, a little over 2 years back which was made quite well to say the least. I mean, how can you have the same TV programme in one shot that shows 3 different times – 6:24, 9:33 and 10:30 (don’t hold me to the exact times here). And all of this is within a couple of seconds of each other. And not just that. The sequences of June Lall screaming “Where is my baby” or Rani Mukerji saying “Gaand Phat Ke Haath Mein Aa Jaati” are anything but convincing. The over acting defeats the basic essence of a scene which could have been so much more poignant. And then there is shit loads of stuff which were totally unnecessary. What is being conveyed through a scene of a pick pocket taking off with a cameraman’s wallet or some random pedestrians mobile phone? What is the purpose of showing the Victoria memorial or the Kolkata trams? Or for that matter Vidya Balan taking a shower with her spectacles on? And I have pretty much scratched only the tip of the iceberg here.

But not all is bad. Rajesh Sharma’s (Munjal from Khosla Ka Ghosla) performance as the lead inspector in charge of the case and the frustrations that he faces is impressive. And so is the performance from Yogendra Tikku in the role of Sanjit Lall, Jessica’s father. Amit Trivedi’s music is fabulous as always. The titling and the starting line, “”Everybody is a “somebody” in Delhi. Nobody is a Nobody” give the movie a good start. There is also a beautiful shot of the mobile ringing in the middle of the night intermittently lighting up Vidya Balan’s face. Not Vidya Balan’s best performance to date. Last year she started with a bang with Ishqiya. Not to be the same this year unfortunately. I do believe however that she is a fabulous actress. Wonder why she could not come up with the best this time. Rani Mukerji is disappointing with her excessive attempts to play the bitchy news caster, Meera Gaity. Someone please teach her how to smoke on screen. A below par result from a movie that I personally expected a lot from. 5 on 10 at best is my verdict.