Ugly (2014) (Hindi)

It takes a lot of courage to portray the darkest sides of human behavior.  People are capable of much worse than we could imagine – given the right circumstances.  Most of us are aware of that but live in denial.  To the film maker who doesn’t believe in the beaten path, this aspect of homo sapiens sapiens is nothing short of a delectable treat.

pk

A school friend of mine, Paul Simon, preempted my review with his two bits, “Saw PK now.  Alright movie. No harm skipping. Too much of satyameva jayate style message”.  To Paul and the rest of you reading this I say, “I could not have summarized it better”. I have the same feeling for most movies from Rajkumar Hirani.  This was no different.

Happy Ending

Saif Ali Khan is getting a tad predictable these days.  Over the past 4 years, he is trying to carve a niche for himself as the leading hero for Romantic Comedies. Not unfortunately but not excitingly either it doesn’t seem to be putting forth anything different for audiences.

Penguins of Madagascar

When you have Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) as the lead characters in a movie, you can be assured that there will be no shortage of excitement.  The cute looking but aggressive Penguins from the Madagascar series finally get an entire movie to themselves. Long awaited and well deserved indeed.

Bhopal : A Prayer For Rain

For the people in Bhopal, the abbreviation MIC stands for emotions ranging from horror to despair to rage.  With an organization called Union Carbide it would go onto a reaction that would be justifiable in any court of law.  But when it comes to a certain Warren Anderson (Martin Sheen), I can quite confidently say that they would not want him to Rest in Peace. Anderson passed away on 29^th September 2014.

Sulemani Keeda

The normal world would probably watch this one just out of curiosity.  A name like Sulemani Keeda will of course attract enough eyeballs.  Those who cannot control their curiosity would be subject to some reasonable fare.  Sulemani Keeda in one word is “quirky”.  Not path breaking cinema in any form but quirky.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

The outstanding part about Exodus : Gods and Kings is the courage that Ridley Scott has shown with telling the story without any qualms about rubbing people the wrong way.  The Old Testament (from whatever little I know) shows God in a very dark form.  One who didn’t hesitate before wreaking havoc amongst the Egyptians.

Action Jackson (2014) (Hindi)

There is a point in time towards the end of Action Jackson (we shall call it AJ here on forth) where Khushi (Sonakshi Sinha) apologises to Jay (Ajay Devgn) for a misunderstanding and tells him that she misses Vishy (Ajay Devgn). The movie instantly cuts to “Chichhora Piya”.

It was at this time that a section of the audience at the preview show broke into a loud laugh.  The pent up frustration over nearly 2 hours had exploded.  The rest of the 30 minutes was a breeze in comparison to the excruciating pain that Prabhu Deva and his writers (Shiraz Ahmed & A C Mughil) had put us through.

It took 2 hours for the audience to actually realize that the intent was to make a comedy and not an action movie.  We were all idiots to have expected something different.  We had expected India’s Michael Jackson to deliver an all-out quality action flick.  How could we have done that?

We had experienced Ramaiyya Vastavaiya and R… Rajkumar last year right? So we were the guilty party here. So the secret to sustain Action Jackson and most of all a certain Musa (Kunaal Roy Kapur) is to just laugh at everything that comes up on screen.

It is of course funny to see Sev Puris being carried by Musa on a bike in a manner that the Puris fly towards the biker that’s following.  Not surprising at all that the biker is from Gemini Circus and manages to land each one of them right into his mouth.  He of course asks for water after all of it.

It is of course hilarious to watch Ajay Devgn dance (or should we say attempt to dance).  It is of course comic to see goons dressed in shoddy red suits getting thrashed and of course quartered.  The quartering is thanks to the Samurai sword that is hugely successful in making a clean cut across AJ’s suit but of course doesn’t nick him one bit in the process.

If that doesn’t make you laugh your guts off (and mind you I am being extremely sarcastic – lest someone takes me seriously) then the point where Marina (Manasvi Mamgai) has just skewered Musa (Thank God for that!!! – makes you love Marina).  She leans over into his ear and says, “Where is AJ.  I miss him.  It has been months”!!!!

There are of course shady dialogues like “Singham se Chingam bana diya”.  But the piece de resistance has to be when AJ and Don Xavier (Anand Raj) come face to face in profile with Pink Floyd’s cover as a precursor.  Exceptional Prabudeva sir!!! Sensational indeed!!! What creativity!!!

The saving grace for AJ are a couple of shots during the action sequences (something that used to be Prabhudeva’s forte but apparently it has deserted him).  There is of course Himes Bhai’s music that is foot tapping and hummable as always.  Will be played at discos for a while.  2 on 10 only for these 2 points.

Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YubQzbzGHps