Bajatey Raho

When you have Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak in a movie, you can be reasonably sure that the acting department has been taken care of.  You would be right this time around as well.  This duo has been entertaining us for over a decade and with Bajatey Raho they continue their good work.  To make things better we have some other great actors as well who make the journey even more easy.

Shootout at Wadala

Manohar Arjun Surve (John Abraham) scored 78% in his graduation exams in 1970.  At that point in time, it would have been stunning and would have put him at the top of his class.  But the Mumbai police had slightly different plans for the body builder from Dadar thanks to his involvement in a murder that his brother committed.

Kya Super Kool Hain Hum

Before you go to watch this movie, have a look at the video of the attempt that the lead stars have made towards promoting the movie in this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=dJ6Ge5ITCUA&NR=1

Let me assure you that it is nowhere remotely close to whatever these guys claim and that too in the most unconvincing manner. The closest thing to the truth is in one of the dialogues of the movie itself, “Hum log marne nahin waale hain. Kyonki yeh ordinary movie hai” (We aren’t going to die because this is an ordinary movie). By calling it ordinary they were indeed glorifying themselves just a little notch.

If you are one to get your kicks from really cheap slapstick humour – something on the lines of American Pie – then Kya Super Kool Hain Hum is a brilliant movie for you. It is an all out sex comedy with not one line exists where you could use the phrase, “No pun intended”. Lets sample a few of them.

“Aaj mere shareer ka sirf ek hissa kaala hai…… meri aankhen” (Only one part of my body is black as on date… my eyes)
“Mera Naam Bhagyashree Rajshree Mitali Joshi hai. Mere friends mujhe BJ kehke bulaate hain. Arre… yeh sunke aap ka muh kyon khul gaya” (My name is Bhagyashree Rajshree Mitali Joshi. My friends call me BJ. Why have you opened your mouth on hearing this? – apologies for the crude literal translation)

Many more such corny one liners and if these two have caught your fancy then KSKHH is just the right movie for you on a Sunday afternoon. Not much of a story either. Just 2 losers – one a struggling actor (and he calls himself one) and the other is an up and coming DJ. The former is called Adi (Tusshar) and the latter Sid (Ritiesh). They keep getting themselves in into all sorts of trouble thanks to their loose tongue more

And then there are the two pieces of eye candy. Simran (Neha Sharma) and Anu (Sarah Jane Dias) who do everything from rejecting marriage proposals to pretending to be lesbian and having a wardrobe malfunction in between for good measure. That they are absolutely gorgeous is a huge saving grace to themselves and the movie.

Do not, however, go there expecting any performances of any sort. There is some decent music for certain including the hugely popular “Garden Garden Ho Gaya”. Overall as mentioned earlier – slapstick. Not my kinds. But you may like it. 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq8QjEtrrbQ

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

Golmaal 3

My expectations from G3 were not too high. Especially after the debacle called Action Replayy which I was subjected to last evening. I guess news of Action Replayy had spread like the wildest of fires. And when I was making my bookings for the 9:30 am show of Golmaal 3 this morning, I had a fabulous choice of 3 seats in the entire theatre. Yes my friends, the morning show of Golmaal 3 was sold out. Rohit Shetty will be definitely receiving a huge thank you note from the officials and staff of PVR Mulund. They have finally received a full house to manage!!!


The gang is back. But like the previous time, this is a different story altogether. The cast remains identical with some minor changes in roles and a couple of new introductions. Pritam (Mithun Chakroborthy) stays in Goa with his 3 fully grown brats Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) and Laxman (Kunal Khemu). Pritam used to run an orphanage and these 3 were the left overs (for lack of any other word) in a manner of speaking. They have since then grown up to being hard core nincompoops. They keep borrowing money for their adventurous projects and now owe half the world a lot of money. They are of late backed by Puppy Bhai (Johnny Lever) who is the local goon suffering from short term memory loss. His 2 cronies Daga (Sanjay Mishra) and Teja (Vrajesh Hirjee) are right out of a Bollywood movie from the 60s / 70s (wonder why that trend seems to be in this Diwali).

On the other side are Gopal (Ajay Devgn), Daboo (Kareena Kapoor) and another Laxman (Shreyas Talpade) who stay with their mother Geeta (Ratna Pathak Shah) in another suburb of Goa. They are mirror images of our earlier trio with the exception that their backing is from Vasooli Bhai (Mukesh Tiwari). Both these troikas are at logger heads with each other coz they come up with the same business plan every single time. Be it water scooters or fireworks. Adding to the complication is Puppy Bhai who is also an ace thief and has stolen the Maharani’s necklace and hidden it in a suitcase which belongs to Pritam. And thanks to his short term memory loss, he cannot remember where he has kept it. And if u thought the complication was too much – we also have a love story – not between Gopal and Daboo. That would be too predictable. It is between our lead pair – Pritam & Geeta – a very old love story that is dying to achieve completion. Thanks to the assistance of Daboo it starts seeing some hope.

Golmaal 3 continues with the slapstick humour that G1 and G2 left us with. I personally thought G1 was good and G2 took slapstick to a whole new low. But G3 seems to have taken it back. The first half is very entertaining to say the least. With quite good humour. Keeps u entertained all the way. But the 2nd half is much slower and starts deteriorating in quality of humour but somehow manages to see it through to the end with the least of hiccups. Don’t watch G3 with an expectation of super quality of movie making or quality humour. Watch it if you are a Golmaal fan or a fan of the erstwhile superstar of our time – Govinda. Despite the lack of direction (as always) and acting skils (again as always – with the exception of Arshad Warsi), G3 is a good mishmash of slapstick and decent humour. Some of the one liners include “Jahaan Harsha hai wahaan Bhogle hai, jahan Asha hai wahaan Bhonsale hai” and “Wife Dil hai toh Husband Dhadkan hai, Wife diya hai toh husband Diwali hai, wife zabaan hai to husband gaali hai” and the worst of the lot, “Tu insaan nahin farishta hai – café barista hai”!!!! – Harish Bubna & Amit Tandon you will totally love this movie I guarantee it. For the rest of the lot I cannot give any guarantees but I loved it. 5 on 10 for this one.