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.

Lalbaug Parel

Not too many movies have been made on a topic that should have actually been very near and dear to a certain segment of Mumbaikars. In fact, you could count the number of movies on one hand. Rather surprising considering that the subject is something that many a person from this city owes their current existence to.

One that would not have seen the light of the day had a certain Dr. Datta Samant succeeded in getting what he wanted for the textile mill workers around 30 years back. A time when most mills in the city started shutting shop in favour of getting into the real estate business.

One such mill forms the backdrop of Lalbaug Parel. Khaitan Mills is owned by the namesake and run by his son-in-law, Mahendra (Sameer Dharmadhikari) who can put most slime balls to shame. While the logic behind the closure could not be questioned, methods and the treatment meted out to most of the mill workers was far from being in line with Human Rights to say the least.

One such family is the Dhuri family where the father (Shashank Shende) is your atypical mill worker who works in the day and has a peg or 2 in the night. A bulk of the work at home, in fact all of it, is done by the wife (Seema Biswas). 4 grown up children @ home – Anand (Ankush Choudhary), Mohan (Vineet Kumar), Naru (Karan Patel) and Manju (Veena Jamkar) are also struggling.

The story tracks the lives of each of the characters as the mill workers go on strike. Manju’s relationship with the local shop owner’s son; Anand’s struggle to write a play in the loud circumstances of the Laxmi Chawl; Naru’s rise from being a local thug to a contract killer for the underworld; Mohan’s relationship with Mrs. Sawardekar (Kashmera Shah).

In the attempt to show truth behind Mumbai’s most unfair story, Mahesh Manjrekar has given us a very depressing story. In addition, I firmly believe he has gone over the top in many sequences. There are also unnecessary aspects to the movie like Kashmera Shah’s wardrobe which seems most out of place.

The use of Bollywood actors over probably more talented Maharashtrian actors is also a gap that I saw. Add to this the excess number of characters. Nearly 15 of them. Just too many to do justice to each one. Very few directors could have

While the story is sensitive and touches upon a topic that I would like to see more of, I personally felt it was a tad overdone. With the right cuts and fine tuning on the unnecessary aspect, we could have had a winner on our hands. Instead we have a movie that is watchable. Good. Not great. 7 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TrJU9SJ6hM

Force

This is the 2nd movie involving Nishikant Kamat that I have seen this year. The first one was 404 as an actor where he was quite solid. But Nishikant Kamat the director has probably not translated his acting talent or for that matter his directorial talent - from his the Marathi Cinema repertoire (I hear Deool is really good and will be watching it soon) into Force. The direction is sincere no doubt but I would rate it as average at best. Not impactful in any manner. Plus the lack of emphasis on consistency just keeps getting to me. Do Indian directors really believe that the population is naïve enough not to catch up with some of them – maybe they are true but I guess that’s what differentiates the great ones from the good ones. So if Nishikant Kamat wants to be a great director the I guess he has to start paying attention to the finer details.

Now I agree that one can probably do only this much with a chatterbox who speaks through her teeth and thrives on saying, “ACP Sir” all the time so much that you forget that the ACP is actually called Yashwardhan (John Abraham). After a point of time Maya (Genelia D’Souza) starts sounding like the chalk scratching the black board which makes the kids cringe and clamp their ears shut. Not that the hunk of meat is far superior. But at least he isn’t a put on. I have always believed that John Abraham is one of the most sincere actors in Indian cinema. That he will stick to commercial cinema that may require him to take his shirt off (he gets paid for it unlike Sallu Bhai who does it gratis) is not a surprise. And then there is the supporting cast of a constipated Raj Babbar, a mature looking Mohnish Bahl, a less irritating Sandhya Mridul, A young Shashank Shende, a crass and unpolished Kamlesh Sawant and an insignificant Anaitha Nair (please please start finding more meaty roles – I would love to see you on screen more often. I think you have looks and talent. Why waste it )

A typical formula movie of a lead good looking inspector, a young upstart who will get killed, An older mature officer in the team and a crass hot blooded honest cop to complete the quartet. Sincerely made for certain. Could have been better. Has generated enough interest in me to look for the Tamil DVD. But not a bad way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and its playing on TV. Not required to watch on the big screen at all. It’s a little weird but I just noticed that this was a remake of a Tamil movie by a Marathi director in Hindi – anyone knows if other such combinations exist? Never Mind my “google swamy” avatar speaking. 5 on 10 to Force

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MpB95_ArXA